his room

Since we have moved back to my hometown the kids have all been sharing a huge room down in the basement. Well seeing that we’ve chosen to stay put for at least a year, we decided it was time for #1 to get his own room. A contractor was hired to convert the basement’s one car garage in to a bedroom. They started working Monday and we’ve worked our booty’s off this weekend making it all come together. I can’t believe it but it’s now complete! (Well I would say 95% complete … I still want to add curtains on big window/door unit and some other things.)

While we were working we kept him completely out of the room until the moment of the big reveal. He was so THRILLED. I was jumping up and down I was so excited!!!! The girls were going NUTS and my man couldn’t stop grinning. THANKS to EVERYBODY who helped make all this come together. It’s my boy’s dream come true. He is so happy and we are too! Well … except the girls. When they laid down for bed tonight and few tears were shed. They miss big brother in their room already. Next week, we rearrange the room for the girls!

BEFORE: I am taking this pic standing in the garage opening. Normally there is gobs of toys everywhere.

My dad is so amazing. He showed up today and said, “What can I do?” He’s so handy. He hung around and did a TON! Mom saved me. She came and took care of the kids tonight so that we could finish it all up. Jonathan even showed up for the reveal! (Those are his legs in the background)

AFTER:

Those are Lego guys on the edges of the windows. (My man has AMAZING ideas. He’s so awesome and so creative!)

He loves it!

more of our home

Someone recently asked me if I would post more photos of our new place … so, here is the rest of our house.

the boy's room

My little man is a Star Wars junkie. We are trying to tastefully create a more futuristic look in his room, but we still have a ways to go. I was going to post pics when I felt it was more complete, but for you Jenn, I will post them now. Who knows when I will feel like it’s “complete”. It’s very rare I feel like any project I start is 100% complete. (hee hee)

my favorite place

The kitchen is my most favorite room in our new house. I love having the double windows above my sink. I love having a bar for the kids to sit at while I cook. I love the color on the walls. I love my antique sink. I love the black counter tops. I love my red bread box. I love the dresser that the previous owner left for us to use as an island. We still need to hang a few things but while it was clean this morning, I thought I would get a quick pic.

swap anyone?

Here’s my proposal: I will come clean your house top to bottom and scrub all the little cracks squeaky clean with a toothbrush if you will come and organize mine.

Organization: I love it- the results, I just HATE doing it.

girls room

It’s almost finished. We still need to hang things on the walls and get the lamp on the dresser, but while it was actually completely picked up, I figured now was the time to get a picture. #2’s number one request for her room was to have a pink “roof”. Both kid room’s ceilings got painted. My neck paid for it the next day, but I am pleased with the results. The previous owners painted the hard wood floors. I love the way it looks. Maybe tomorrow I can post a pic of the boy’s room.

Oh, two HUGE bright spots in my day. My dad and mom and in town on business. They will be here soon to spend the night. Also, the previous owner and her kids came over and stayed for a while. It’s crazy how good of friends we are becoming. Our kids played like they had known each other all their life.

Okay, now it’s time to get back to work.

I am moving … for real

I am so happy to announce that our family will be moving south to chase after my husband’s dream. It has been something we have been desiring for over a year and it seems surreal that it is actually happening. It is crazy how perfectly things seem to be falling into place. It is comforting to know we have family and a few friends already living in our new town. I am so in love with our new little house. It fits us perfectly. I am going to terribly miss my family and friends we have here … but they haven’t seen the last of me yet. I will be back to visit, maybe more often than they would like!

Father God, your hand is on me and I know that you are so real. You have shown yourself time and time again and have spoken truth to my heart which has brought me so much peace. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to serve you. I absolutely adore you and I surrender all that I have and all that I am to your cause.

mess = happiness

My kids seem to be the happiest when they are making a HUGE BIG mess. We’ve started schooling again today after a LONG break and while #1 and I are working, the girls are re-arranging their room. I peeked around the corner to see the damage and whoa, it’s insane. But they have been so content and happy. Oh well, just hope we can all remain in a decent mood when it comes time to clean up, no whining and me not getting grumpy!

tour of homes

Okay my kitchen never stays clean for very long. Plus my washer and dyer are located in the kicthen as well. Right now I have little table in there so the kids can do crafts and not mess up the carpet in the den.This is #1’s room. It is only clean b/c I did an over haul in there about a week ago.

This is #2’s perspective of her room.

stench of death … part 2

Both girls cried out last night. As I headed down the hall to check on them I got slapped in the face with the stench of death. No amount of foam was going to stop it from growing. So the first thing this morning I get out the phone book to search for someone who can save us. First guy I get, he is a trapper. He quotes me $250 … uh no. Second guy is a regular exterminator. He says he’ll come and get it for $150. Nah. So the third guy I get is with Dynamic Exterminators. He says $150. Then he decides he is going to give me the … looked them up the yellow pages and called them even though they did not have an ad like all the others … discount. $135 was his lowest offer. I will pay that. He was true to his word and he arrived in less than an hour. He armed himself with just coveralls, a baseball cap, a flash light and one black garbage bag. I was thinking … Don’t you have a mask or something? I know how bad it is up here. I’d hate to smell it from down there. (Well of course I don’t that’s why we hired someone else to smell it for us, I just thought a pro would have some sort of mask). He heads for the crawl space door and I can see the dread on his face as he peeks in. It takes him awhile to maneuver around all the pipes under the house. Finally from the kitchen we can hear him bellow us. We can hear him trying to grab the thing. We can even hear his disgusted sighs. Once he is out he identifies the body as a possum. #1 jumps around and says … “I knew it! I said it was a possum.” My bet was a raccoon. I am shocked #1 did not ask to see it. Probably because the smell was still oozing from the black plastic bag. The man also added that the possum was covered in camel crickets. Any one who goes underneath our house always likes to mention that it’s a camel cricket breeding ground under there. It’s kinda icky when you stop to think what is under your feet every day as you walk, sit and lay around your house. I can handle a lot of bugs, but camel crickets are psycho. They jump so stinkin high and in a direction you have no idea where they are going to land. Yikes. So anyway, I was happy to pay the “Dynamic Exterminator”, give him a glass of water and see him off. I opened the doors and some windows and finally around lunch our house smelt like home again.