Heat Restored

Heat is a good thing... especially when you don't have it.

We got home extremely late Friday night. I'm sure we checked the thermostat in our routine of getting everyone settled into bed. I'm sure there wasn't anything notable at that point. While it is early in the season, this isn't the first time the heat has been on in our house.

We all get a fairly good night’s sleep. I'm woken by the boy Saturday morning, as usual. I do think to myself that it is a bit chilly, but brush it off because I did just climb out of a comfy, cozy, and warm (electric mattress pad warm) bed. I look at the thermostat, clearly blurry eyed and thought hey I'll just bump it up a couple of degrees. The boy and I then head downstairs to the coldest part of the house. Yeah, it was cold but I figured the heat would kick on and it would warm up. I wasn't really paying attention to notice that the heat never kicked on. We went upstairs to get ready to go to basketball and I take another look at the thermostat. Thermostat was reading 64. Yep, it was cold for a reason!

As we were running out the door to get to Spencer's basketball game I grab the number for the service company who was last out. After a conversation with them, a conversation amongst Carie and I, and then again the service company we set an appointment for Monday morning.

We knew we'd be facing weekend rates if they came out prior to Monday. The earliest they could come out was Saturday evening, which would have been nice to get it going prior to the night hours. But geesh, their weekends rates were practically double their regular rate. Rightly so, I'm sure. We opt to skip the weekend rate and spend that difference on a space heater that we already had been debating about getting. We hoped that we could get by the rest of the weekend without the furnace. Oh, and it was the coldest weekend we've had by far this season. We didn't get the snow that was predicted, but our lows were in the 25-30 range all weekend. With the intense wind we had on Saturday the wind-chill temps had to have been quite low. I'm really thankful that it wasn't colder!

And ya know what, our plan worked. It was really fairly cozy all weekend. The fireplace helped more than we ever thought it did. We just had to keep stoking it to get some really good heat out of it. The kitchen and dining area benefited from us baking dinner and fresh bread. And what the heck, why not make a pie while we are at it.

This morning we got the call from the service guy who was headed out. Yay for the phone call that they said we would get! We must have been towards the beginning of his list to start his day. He cleaned the flame sensor, as they have done in the past. We thought about trying to do that last fall on our own. But after watching him do it this morning there is good reason for us not to do it. With our particular model of furnace it really is more complicated than it need to be. Good to know! All along I'm thinking it has to be something else. We've lived in this house for 9 years and have had no furnace problems until last winter. While cleaning the sensor annually may be a good idea, we seem to need it more frequently. And at the rates they charge to come out and do it, I was really looking for a bigger picture answer. So when he appeared and said that it looked like it might be more than the flame sensor, I wasn't surprised. I was probably a little relieved, actually. That is until we discovered the price tag! $375 later, our furnace appears to be working again. I'm glad we didn't go with the weekend rate! Thankfully he noted that everything else looked to be in great working order.

Heat restored.

The Day Just Got Really Loud

This is a crazy week! It feels like I'm just hitting repeat, but seriously... this is a crazy week. Crazy doesn't equal bad, it just equals crazy.

Last night... First soccer practice of the season for Abby & Ellie. It was good.

Today...

I volunteered up at school this morning... all morning. I didn't really know how long I'd be there, but I didn't really think it would be 1:00 before I left. I was happy to do it but I was also thrilled to return to my desk job. I don't know how teachers make it day in and day out. Kudo's to them! I also got to get to know Ellie's teacher more and I really think she is awesome. The more I get to know her the more pleased I am! She is an excellent match for Ellie. Unfortunately Abby's had a sub today so I didn't get to see her teacher. Abby seems really happy with her class, we just haven't had much opportunity to connect with her teacher.

I get some lunch and I'm finally on my way to work and Carie calls. Roofers are there. We knew that they might come this week, but we didn't really know when. And when they say... "we'll be there this week" I don't think that explicitly means that they will be there this week. At any rate, they showed up after lunch and got started at about 1:30. Spencer generally naps at 2:00. Hmmm… what are the odds of that happening? But, he did! I don't know how long he will sleep, but he is sleeping. Carie called to share with me just how loud it is inside our house. She was all like... can you hear that? Huh, what did you say? LOL

But... that means we'll have a new roof by day's end! YAY!

The noise level will increase again in about 5 minutes when the bus pulls up with the 5 school kids. Oh, and the older kids will have homework to get done before going to their soccer game! Homework can be challenging enough without the added noise! This ought to be interesting!

And yeah, they have a soccer game at 5:30. We have a big dumpster in the middle of our driveway. Good thing Carie moved the van out of the garage!

Tomorrow... Spencer meets his preschool teacher! YAY! Some friends also offered to watch our kids that evening so we could go out. It was so sweet of them to offer but we had to decline. There is just too much other stuff going on this week... a school week no less.

Thursday... Our first school skate party of the year. We'll be there.

Friday... I don't know.

Saturday... We get to see our first show of the season at The Rose. Then after the show we'll go with our friends back to their house for an afternoon of playing and a bbq. Heaven!

Sunday... All I know is that we are scheduled to teach Sunday School.

Painting Advice

I was back at it again yesterday. I'm determined to finally wrap up this painting project that began 2 years ago! Yeah, the time I had the ladder incident and ended up in the ER. But I needed to face my fears! I needed to get this project off of my mental "to do" list. I’m also really pushing myself to get this inside project done before I get going on our outside projects.

I took a couple of days off a little over a week ago to work on this. However, that Friday ended up being completely consumed with many other tasks that needed attention. Including tasks I hadn't planned on, like my car suddenly breaking down and requiring immediate service. Thankfully it wasn't as bad as we, or the service tech, though it would be. Instead of a transmission we were back up and running (the same day) after some wiring was fixed. We also "saved" a good $1500... that we don't have and certainly didn’t want to spend on the car even if we had it. I then ended up taking the next Monday off in an effort to make some headway, and I did. But I needed more time and I just can't seem to carve out time from our weekends or evenings.

I got so much done yesterday! It is all really coming together and all I have left is a few small – very small – projects/areas. My goal is to get one of them done by the weekend and that will wrap up the kitchen and dining area. Just to be able to say that I'm done with "this space" will feel so dang good. Not to mention, it looks really good too. Finally it looks “finished”.

As I was painting last night I had a little helper. Spencer was at the table eating a snack. He was talking my ear off and thoroughly entertaining me. At the time, I was painting above the cabinets in the kitchen... a good 10' off the floor and just a bit out of reach, even for me. The ladder use is limited given that the counter, stove, and refrigerator are in the way! So, I was standing on the counter.

A few of the many things I heard...
"Momma, that is a bad idea!!!!"
"Momma, that is a really bad idea to stand on the counter!"
"Momma, you are not supposed to stand on the counter!"

Once I had moved and was painting from the floor.
"I bought that roller (paint roller I was using) with Mommy and I was really patient!"
"I pretended to paint my hands and cart while we were shopping."

The Litter Box

I've been asked for pictures of the finished product. I'm certain the curiosity is driven by the color choices! :)

The virtual tour: The view is from the hall outside the "laundry room".
► In its rearranged state; we now have the washer & dryer immediately to the right upon entering the room. Realistically you don't even have to "enter" the room. Open the door and there it is! LOL
► Next to the washer (on the left) we have a cart that contains all of our laundry supplies. We've had this cart for years and continue to love it.
► Then there are bins to help sort and organize things like rags and laundry that is stained and (ought to be) in the process of stain treating/re-washing. These bins are a new addition to our laundry process and I really like them. I don't know how Carie feels about them. :)
► We then have the garbage can. We want a garbage can in here but have yet to come up with the ideal spot. Like we have a lot of choices! Before it was right inside the door, which had its pros & cons.
► In the far right lower corner (next to the plumbing) you'll see the remains of the previous dryer vent. I think this new system is working great so I should probably get rid of those pieces. In reality, I'm sure they'll be there for a long while to come.
► Along the back wall are clothes hampers. These are currently here for a trial period! Before they resided in the (small) closet in our bedroom. But, that system was really working better than anything we had tried before. So if this doesn't work, they will return to our closet and all will be right with the world.
► Along the left wall is the furnace & hot water heater. You'll notice that the door to this room does not and will not open all the way. This is as far as it goes folks. The poor hot water heater has a big ding in it from the door knob.
► Behind the door is a nice little corner for shit to collect.
► We added more lights to the room. There was quite the discussion on what lighting to get. Thankfully Carie went simple and got what I wanted. They aren't fancy, by any stretch of the imagination. But they are decent, they provide really nice light, they were only $5 each, and it is a utility room the size of a litter box!
► The "laundry room" really extends to the hallway. There is a long hallway between the family room and the kids play room with doors to the laundry room and a bathroom. We've got a shelf installed right outside the laundry room that gives us a place to hang up clothes.
► Yeah, the door is green and you may even see some of the blue-ish color. This is an extension of the kids’ playroom which has a few fun bright colors. Don’t worry; our whole house isn’t like this! Comparatively, the rest of the house is pretty boring.





















Colors up close!











My handy little helpers!
(I have no idea what Ellie is doing with her leg)

Family Weekend, Damnit

As we headed into the weekend we didn't have any firm plans. We had a lot of options swirling around in our heads, options of things that must be attended to sooner rather than later. Surely this would be the weekend to tend to those things, right? Ha! Instead it turned into a weekend of family fun! Anything to avoid the inevitable!

Saturday morning both Carie and I got to sleep in. We are pretty sure all the kids slept in as well. When Spencer woke up he went into Abby & Ellie’s room instead of coming to us. Abby & Spencer then went downstairs to do some bonding over their kid shows. At some point Carie & her radar ears heard some noise and just as she went to check it all out she was met by Ellie on the stairs. I, the sleeping dead, didn't hear anything for a little while longer. While we've (mostly me) gotten to sleep in on several occasions before, both of us getting to sleep in is a new experience. The kids are growing up!

I then had the brilliant idea that we ought to attempt a movie at the movie theatre. I was actually pretty sure that Spencer would do okay. I was more worried about the girls', Ellie in particular. So we checked out the trailers and talked about options. After everyone was on board to the whole plan we finally figured out that going later in the day, after Spencer's nap was the option that would work best. Unfortunately the phone rang later in the day and Ellie was invited to a friend’s house to play. She was then less than happy with us about requiring her to go to the movies with the family.

So in the meantime I decided that it would be the perfect time to tear apart our laundry/utility room, er box. Seriously, this room is the size of a small litter box and it contains the furnace, water heater, and the washer & dryer. I'm sure Carie was about ready to be done with me and my grand plans, but she went along with it all nicely. Ideally we needed to move the (stacking) washer & dryer to provide access to the furnace that needs some professional attention. For some reason they need more than a 12" clearance to do their job. If we were moving it, we might as well also do x, y AND z. Right? So we got all the moveable stuff cleared out. The girls' and I then began painting. This was probably their first big opportunity to paint walls of the house - with permission - and they had a blast. Long ago we had bought some fun paint from the cheap bin at the hardware store. The bin that contains mixed paint that people had left behind. So we began painting with this really cool orange color. After all, it was just the laundry/utility room and it needed a bit of splash! We painted as much as we could reach before calling it a day. We then got cleaned up and headed to the theatre to see the H0rt0n movie.

Everyone had a blast at the movie! We enjoyed yummy movie theatre popcorn, some pop, and even some candy while taking in the movie. There were, of course, the inevitable scary parts. I thought they were funny, but for a 5yo who is absolutely terrified of shots it wasn't so funny. Then near the end there was a line "eating rainbows and pooping butterflies". Carie was all like "seriously?" I looked over at the kids and then said that maybe they didn't catch it? Not 3 seconds later Spencer inquisitively said "poop butterflies?" Great! After the movie it was well past the dinner hour so we went to that play place for food and fun as promised.

Sunday morning was our usual routine. After lunch Spencer went up for his nap and the girls and I went to finish up the laundry room. We had moved the beast of the washer & dryer into their new location which then opened up the last section for painting. To help balance out the darker orange color, we decided to paint the other wall a yellow. We had a couple of small cans that we had also gotten from the cheapo bin so I mixed those two cans together (as planned) and it made a really cool yellow and complimented the orange very nicely. The girls had a blast painting again. I think they were on cloud 9. I was pleasantly surprised with how well I handled their painting help all weekend. It was a fun activity for all 3 of us!

Later that afternoon we got a call from some friends inviting us to dinner. They had promised their 3y0 that they'd go to that play place for dinner and wanted to know if we could join them. Sure! Unfortunately we were just there the night before and we try not to visit with regularity, but we'd love to meet up with our friends. The kids had a blast and we really enjoyed talking with our friends... for 2 hours!

We then went and checked out a bike I had spotted on CL. We were very surprised to find this bike in superb condition. It was perfect - exactly what I had been looking for over the past many many months. I did feel a little guilty because the family that was selling it should have asked for way more than they did. But now we have an awesome bike and the timing couldn't have been more perfect. We'll get it cleaned up, get some training wheels on it, and somehow wrap it up for Spencer's 3rd birthday. It is amazing how these things work out! We had found a new bike that we had settled on and figured we’d wait to see if it went on sale. Sure enough, that day it went on sale and now we have an even better bike at a better deal. We don’t even have to assemble it!

After getting the kids into bed we finished getting the laundry room back in working condition. The washer & dryer had been out of commission long enough and the laundry was most likely piling up. Thankfully, in this process, we were able to clean out the dryer vent and get it all hooked back up properly. It was clear that whoever hooked it up before missed the mark, which would totally explain all the lint that would accumulate in the laundry room!

Now our laundry room is freshly painted, bright, clean, organized, and just a nice place to be... if you have to.

Those other things, we’ll, they’ll have to be tended too soon!

Almost Anything

The clogged toilet began Wednesday, I think. That is when we really noticed it and dug out the plunger. The plunger takes care of anything! Or, it always has in the past. But not now. What the heck is up, we wonder.

Tuesday night (or really, Wednesday morning), at 12:15 AM, we were searching high and low for a very important piece to Spencer's car seat. Long story short, it went missing in the process of cleaning it up... which was one task in a series of many tasks. Carie stuck the chest clip in her back pocket "so it wouldn't go missing". Yeah, we were both quite frustrated.

By Wednesday afternoon Carie had made the brilliant connection between our sudden toilet troubles and the disappearance of the chest clip. Totally makes sense to me! Because seriously, why isn't the plunger working?

Carie called the plumber Thursday morning to see what the options were. We didn't know for certain that the chest clip was stuck in there, but the odds were high. Oh, and we've both plunged the crap out of it so I'm sure it is lodged really dang good. I'm thinking that if the odds are high that we'll need a new toilet I'd prefer to have one ready for the plumber to install while he is there, instead of paying for yet another service call.

Their response... "We can get almost anything out". He sounded very confident that if there was something clogging the toilet, they would find it and remove it. Okay! Turns out, he has a guy that does just that. I don't know, I don't think I'd want to dig around in people's toilets all day long!

So he shows up. He gets his handy dandy tool out and does his thing. Then it is clear to Carie that his tool got stuck. It was also clear to Carie that the guy was momentarily panicked so she decided it was time to stop hovering over him. Somehow he got his tool unstuck and he got the chest clip out as well. Yay!

I'm quite amazed that this is the first time we've had to have someone fish something out of the toilet, quite surprised. I don't think Carie will be using her back pocket as a "safe place" anymore!

How Many Holiday's?

I think we've set a new record for us!

First it is possibly important to note that we aren't big on decorating for Holiday's. We've, of course, expanded our collection of Holiday decorations since the kids have entered our lives. But still, it isn't like we go "all out" or anything.

But this year, and specifically this weekend I found myself at a crossroads. For what seems like the first time for us, we had three different Holiday's worth of decorations in stages of going up and coming down. It just really felt weird!

This might also be the first year that the Christmas lights were on the house for this length of time. They were hung prior to Thanksgiving and finally taken down after Valentine’s Day! For us, that is a record on both ends! It has been so dang cold and the snow has stuck around for so long that it just wasn't possible (or did it seem reasonable) to get up on the roof to remove the lights.

In early February we changed out a few winter type decorations and added some new decorations for Valentine's Day. I had removed our snowman flag in favor of a Valentine's Day flag (even though the snowman flag seemed more appropriate) and we added a few other small but prominent heart decorations. It was enough to satisfy the kids desire to decorate! It could officially be Valentine’s Day in our house. But Ellie still had pleaded with me to remove the wreath. After all Mom, it wasn't Christmas any longer! But the wreath and the rest of the Christmas decorations remained. It was too dang cold!

Saturday afternoon the transition to Easter decorations had begun. I know it seems so early! But Easter is right around the corner. It will be here before we know it.

After I changed the decoration on the front door to our cute Easter Bunny I realized that we then had decorations from Christmas, Valentine's Day, and now Easter displayed for all to see. Thankfully it was easy enough to remove the remaining Valentine's Day decorations. Thanks to Spencer's help, they are now all boxed up and put away. All we had left to contend with was the Christmas decorations. Finally the weather has cooperated and we had a beautiful weekend. Gone (for the weekend!) were freezing temps and snow capped roof tops. Carie braved the chilly roof and the rest of our Christmas decorations are finally packed up until next season. Boy does that feel good!

Weekend Plans

There seems to be so much to do, but when to do it is the magical question!

Saturday is still currently up in the air. We could...
- Work on taxes
- Work on our pile of CL stuff
- Make a visit to the fish store, as promised
- Clean the fish tank, preferably prior to above trip
- Do laundry - somehow this exploded this week
- Go to open swim time
- Paint
- Go to Lincoln as requested by Mom, a full day away
- Finish cleaning out her parents storage shed in Lincoln

I know so many fun options! But some are requiring attention sooner than later.

The first two items pretty much fall squarely on my shoulders and also fall into that sooner than later category. Carie will be of great help on #2, especially when it comes to being available for people to come get the stuff. But at this point in the juncture, everything is waiting on me to get the items listed. As far as taxes go, I must complete them soon. We need that return!

The fish store is inevitable. Ellie's fish took a turn for the worse the other day and she is heart broken. We aren't sure why Rosa Beauty kicked the bucket, but she hasn't been looking so great for quite a while now. It was probably just her time!

Painting, what can I say? This is the never ending project. It isn't like we have made any progress since the time I fell off the ladder, nearly 2 years ago. But it is high time to wrap this up! My goal is to be done before Spencer's b-day. Thankfully Carie thinks this is a great goal as well.

Laundry, it just never ends. Somehow though, this week it got a little crazy. Poor Carie has been doing laundry all week long, it seems. No, I know she has! Unfortunately, you can't tell. Unfortunately, all the bedding could use a washing as well.

Swimming, it is just cheap and fun for everyone. Why not!

And last but not least, we could go to Lincoln for a visit. I'm torn. If I didn't have all this other stuff looming over me, I'd say yes. But I'm certain that all this stuff isn't going to be magically resolved on Saturday either. I guess if we do go to Lincoln we could finish moving the items left by Carie's folks.

Sunday is a busy day, no way around it at this point. The girls' (likely just Ellie) will sing in Church. If it wasn't a sing day we'd consider skipping, but that isn't the case. Ellie really knows the song and sings it amazingly well. We'll then squeeze lunch in, somehow, and then Carie will take the girls and potentially a friend to the Rose to use our season tickets. I am just discovering that it is a 2 hour show this time around (many are 1) so it will be tight to make it back to Church for choir rehearsal at 4:50. We'll regroup for dinner and hopefully then we can all veg out!

The kids have been out of school and have another day off on Monday, but back to routine on Tuesday.

Purging

We've been purging and I'll be damn if we still have more to purge.

What surprises me is how much crap we hold onto. Especially since we aren't "pack rats" and aren't one's to get all wrapped up into sentimental value. With a lot of things we really don't know how long we've had them. I'm not very good at looking at an item and saying "Gosh, we've had that since "whenever"". I don't remember dates and things like that. That sorta stuff doesn't take up residence in my little brain.

But when something has a printed date on it, there is no denying just how long it has been taking up residence in the refrigerator. It is amazing, way freakin' amazing, how many outdated items we discovered. Too bad I just trashed it all and hauled it to the big ol garbage can.

See, part of preparing for our little weekend away I thought it would be a good idea to clean out the fridge. And like all things with me, it starts out small and ends up being this big massive project. Simply washing off this or that turns into fully dismantling the fridge and doing a thorough cleaning. Yeah, that is a "trait" that undeniably drives Carie nuts! :)

I mean, we have our little routines and whatnot. There may be things in there that we kinda know about, meaning that we know that maybe we should check the expiration date before serving such items to our children. We don't really need to discuss it amongst ourselves. You just know that maybe you haven't used that jar of Mayo in a long time and maybe you ought to check to see if it is still good. With someone else coming into our home how exactly would they know that maybe they shouldn't serve the cranberry Jell-O salad thing that is leftover from Christmas Eve? (Note to self: Remember to take that out of the garage fridge and dispose of it!)

Anyways, while cleaning and purging the fridge I discovered a number of outdated items. Like how in the heck is it possible that this jar of whatever has been in OUR REFRIGERATOR since well before 2005? With an expiration date of sometime in 2005 I’d imagine that it had a significant shelf life prior to that. We are talking condiments here people!

Prime example: Carie found a box of Velveeta cheese in our fridge that expired in 2005. What the hell! I argued that there is no way it could have expired in 2005 since we just bought it and made dip out of it a few months ago during football season. Yeah, football season in 2007. I described my memories to Carie, in full color, and she finally was like "oh yeah, I remember". Seriously, it was impossible. Except, the printing on the package doesn't lie. This is still a mystery to me!

Anyways... So while we didn't have to pack up the kids, all their stuff, and the kitchen sink to go on our little adult vacation, we did find ourselves preparing things around the house for someone else to come into our home to care for our kids. And man, that was a lot of work!

The great thing about it is that we do get to reap the benefits of that work. Heck, clearly our refrigerator won't need another purge like that for 3 years!

Daily Event

I can't put my finger on it, but it feels like everyday there is something. Not everything is a "crisis" necessarily. But lately it feels like there is always something.

Today's event happened to be the deck stairs falling apart, as they were being walked on. Thankfully no one was hurt!

Yeah, imagine hearing that over the phone. Carie wasn't able to really explain what happened, I just needed to see it in person. I was already on my way home as we were getting ready to leave town for the evening, the very late evening.

Yep, sure enough, the deck stairs had fallen apart.

Now, it isn’t like this deck is old, in dire need of attention, and falling apart. That was our old deck! This deck, the new deck, it isn't that old and apparently it is falling apart.

And yes, we were moments away from loading up the van and leaving town for the evening - “were” being the operative word here. We now needed to do something about the stairs so the dogs could do their thing - outside rather than inside.

We fixed it, or at least enough to make it passable for the dogs and maybe a kid or two. Actually, looking at it you wouldn’t know that anything happened. We'll be talking to our neighbor "Billt" (what Spencer calls him) to see if we can get his advice and hopefully a hand. He's a really nice guy and clearly knows how to build things - hence "Billt" instead of simply Bill. I want to make sure the stairs are properly repaired so they are safe to use. You know, like they were. Or so we thought.

Dinner was now definitely take-out on our way out of town instead of our planned home cooked meal. Excuses, excuses, I know we’ve always got them. But the deck was recovered, everyone was fed, and we made it to our destination on-time (for us).

The Playroom Project

It seems that it wouldn't be a "break" if it didn't involve a project! I had 10 days off work, certainly there would be a project... lest not forget the 4 Christmas celebrations, no preschool, and Carie was working - which meant another 20 little fingers in addition to our 30. :)

We were feeling so great about our Christmas "readiness", maybe even a little cocky one might say. We felt ready in all areas except, as usual, our Holiday Greetings and that didn't seem to be coming together as we had hoped. So, as you can see, we didn't force the issue and finally a month later our holiday greeting was completed.

But in the mean time we (or maybe I just should say "I") decided to tackle a fairly decent sized project... the play room. It was a mess, in more ways than one, and I dreaded the thought of adding to that mess in the coming days.

So, it is the Friday afternoon (late afternoon - after all, it was a "work" day) before Christmas and I gut the play room. All toys and shelving, anything and everything that was attached and unattached were piled into the previously clean and organized family room. Oh... and in approximately 40 hours we begin our marathon Christmas season with a full day of celebrations. Yes, we could have easily just shut the playroom door and went on with our lives. But, moving on...

I then prepped for painting. It was then that I was informed on what color I should paint the playroom! Unfortunately the girls' idea on paint colors didn't match to what we already had. I was just going for a face lift, they had grander ideas. Oh, and I was going to use my nifty newish paint sprayer that I had not a CLUE how to use. Brilliant, right? (Yes, you accurately read the sarcasm)

By nights end I had the entire playroom painted and all we had left to do was cleanup. The paint sprayer worked really pretty decent! Yeah, I should wait to toot my own horn until it is all done!

Then the boy woke up and puked... massive amounts. The girls mastered this; the boy though is not normally a puker. Well, you can see where this is going. After everyone and everything got cleaned up from the boy’s stomach exploding everywhere, I rocked the boy while Carie graciously cleaned up my paint mess. But in the end the painting was done, the boy was fine, and the girls slept through it all!

Saturday we spent a fair amount of the day recovering, sorting through toys, cautiously eliminating some items, cleaning, organizing, and returning others to the improved space. Their chalkboards were finally hung on the wall and we created an "art gallery" that will display the many projects that flow through our house.

At the end of the day it all turned out great and it has stayed that way since then. All I could wish for would be a bit more space, oh and somehow magically have the rest of the house follow suit. Carie is working on her magic wand techniques!

A glimpse of the finished product... (The area is kinda an odd shape, essentially an "L" shape. The long hallway is pictured. The room, or base of the L, is off to the left of the space in the first picture.)