We did it (or started it anyway)

Ten years ago, I fell in love with this house.  We looked at it, came back for an open house on Martin Luther King day, and decided to make an offer.  The listing agent wanted a letter from our bank stating we were pre-approved, and because it was MLK day, and the bank was closed, we had to wait a day.  Meanwhile, someone else put an offer in.  We were devastated.  Absolutely and completely bummed out.  We put in a back-up contract, and continued our search, but I kept hoping that somehow this would be our house.  The layout and  space were everything I ever wanted.  Luckily for us, the contract on it fell through, and we lucked into owning our dream home.  One thing about it though, we knew it was a bit of a fixer-upper.  We have been tackling projects one at a time, sometimes having to put the things we wanted to do on the back burner while we fixed things that had to be fixed, but living our best lives here, and continuing to put things on the lengthy list.  

The day we first looked at this house, I remember telling Jim we would be needing to do a whole lot of painting.  The main bathroom was an ungodly shade of purple, and the master bedroom was some sort of hideous blue mess.   The basement was camo!  The kids bedrooms were all wacky splatter paint, mustard yellow, and the list went on and on.  We have done a lot.  I have happily covered a multitude of someone else’s taste.  Last year, we painted the living room, tackling the nightmare of the vaulted ceilings.  It wasn’t fun.  I severely hurt my shoulder in the process, and my desire to do our bedroom, even though I despised the paint job in there, was severely deflated.  Until a few weeks ago when Jim and I were discussing Christmas.  I told Jim all I wanted was a master bedroom re-do.   He was happy to indulge, I think he hated the blue as much as I did.  

I had some ideas, but I will freely admit that sometimes my decorating skills are limited.  I love color. Bright, bold but still somewhat neutral colors.  I sometimes just go with my ideas knowing that if I hate it, I can always repaint it later.  The problem with this project was that it is big, and the vaulted ceilings require a lot of work, so I don’t want to repaint for a very long time.  Maybe never.   I needed advice.  I enlisted the one person on this earth who isn’t afraid to tell me my ideas are bad, and I will actually listen.  (Sorry Jim).  Grace and I went shopping.  I had some ideas what I wanted.  She thought my ideas might be a little too dark.  She pulled some apps up on her phone.  I followed her lighter gray advice.  I ventured a little out of her comfort zone In the yellow department, but I love sunshine and wanted something that felt sunny. Grace drug me to the re-store where I found a chair I liked, and painted it yellow.  I wanted a new ceiling fan (I hate brass).  Grace talked me into spray painting the one we had black.  It cost me $1.99, and I absolutely love how it looks!  She is literally filled with good ideas.  

Madison and Andrew’s heat went out.  Madison came over with the girls today.  She cooked lunch and dinner.  She made cookies.  She cleaned the kitchen.  I am sorry about their furnace but I  am thankful for her help!   Mallory loves painting.  She got all excited and jumped right in to help me.  Cameron agreed to doing the ladder parts and did an amazing job on the high window that I wanted painted yellow.  He had to clean it and prime it.  He spent a long time 15 feet in the air, and I sincerely appreciated it.   Preston dropped the ceiling fan for me, and re-installed it when I got it painted.  Their help was amazing.  Harper and Saige helped around the house, took care of the animals, and helped with Evie.  Jim and Andrew went fishing.   They caught a lot of trout.  Today was amazing!  

I am still working on painting our bedside tables.  I got new bedding but have t washed it yet.  I have a little more sorting to do on our dressers, and I need to touch up the master bathroom which we also painted today,   Overall, the hard stuff is done and I absolutely love how it turned out!  I’m so thankful for my family.   

One funny story - about once an hour we would have a little knock on the door.  Evelyn would ask for an update.  She would walk in, put her hands on her hip and say “I still see blue- you aren’t done!”   Thanks kid - we appreciate your updates.  

The day after

For Christmas this year, I asked Jim for a bedroom makeover.  When we bought this house 10 years ago, one of the first things I said was “omg the master bedroom is the ugliest color I’ve ever seen….we must fix that!”   Yea, we have lived here almost 10 years and it is still the same hideous shade of electric blue.  I’ll post before and after photos when I am ready to start painting.  For today, I wanted to utilize the closet shelving Preston built.  I had a whole day off.  The weather was crap, so no real chance of me wanting to go anywhere.   I started in early.  I organized all of my crafting supplies, completely cleaned and organized the closet, and purged some old clothes.  I recognize that I am a hoarder when it comes to craft supplies, but I don’t want to seek help, because I finally reached peak levels of glitter possession , and I don’t want to risk losing it all now.  Besides, I managed to organize it all into nice bags that are all labeled and fit into some bins I had.  

Our room is a catch all.  Don’t know where something goes?  Just dump in in our room.   I wanted that fixed.  It meant digging through a whole lotta stuff that I had put in there meaning well, and either forgot, or have not gotten around to doing anything with.  Some of the stuff, I am 10000% sure someone broke in and left here.  A whole bag of raffia?   I sure have no idea where that came from.  I do remember that I had a stack of photos I need to buy frames for, including this one!  

Today, I learned that in addition to being a craft supply hoarder, I may also have attention deficit.  I got a lot done, but I also got side tracked about 50,000 times.  I did not get finished in there.  Unfortunately, I have to return to work tomorrow.  I’ll make time in the next couple of days to finish. It’s closer!   I have a lot of projects planned in there, and am motivated by the idea that I want to get it done when I have time off from the bus (because the bus dissects my day pretty severely).  Also, I am somewhat limited these days on how long I can sit on the floor without feeling like I will need to call an ambulance.  I do my best organizing when sitting on the floor!   

I gave up for the day, and spent a little time coloring with Saige and her new markers,  Quincy had to work. Preston and Cameron went to the bar where she works to watch some bowl games. That left Jim and I home with these two. They decided today was gingerbread house building day.  Only problem was apparently, the kit I got had been dropped and some of the pieces were broken.  We failed once again, it’s an annual tradition.  They still had fun, and they still ate it when they were done messing around! Life needs more days like this one.  Unfortunately, reality calls.  

Christmas 2023

We had a great Christmas, with all our kids here at our house.  We did miss Lauren, who understandably, spent the day with her family.  I was happy to have everyone else here for a day of eating, presents, and hanging out.  

Carlos was a jerk and had to spend the day locked away from the other dogs. He doesn’t play nicely with poor Cash!  Other than that, we all had a good time.  

Colin did utilize his grinch costume and swiped one of Evie’s gifts.  

She was scared and hid behind a gift!   He didn’t  continue it once he realized she was afraid, and when he showed her it was him, she did think it was funny.  

We were very blessed this year.  

This evening, we traveled to Steve and Heidi’s house for Jim’s family Christmas.  It was a nice evening, and we had fun playing the gift stealing game.  

For whatever reason, I failed to take any group photos.  I guess it doesn’t matter that much, but I usually refuse to let anyone open a gift until they get a photo.  I’m getting soft in my old age!  

And now, because I do like traditions, I must quote the great and powerful Larry with once again reminding everyone that indeed, “nothing is over like Christmas!”   This was a good one.  I’m sure we will do it all again in a few weeks.  

Christmas Eve on Sesame Street

When Christmas is on Monday, and advent ends on the Sunday, you attend mass twice in the same day.  Also, when advent ends, you have to spend a few moments decorating the church.   We attended the 4th Sunday of advent mass, helped with the decorating, and went right back this evening for Christmas Eve mass.  The kids were a little perplexed by why one mass didn’t fulfill both obligations.   No amount of explanations would really matter, but I tried.  

My favorite part of Christmas is Christmas Eve mass, followed by having a quiet evening with the kids finishing up all the things, and having a nice dinner and movie night.  My favorite Christmas movie is Christmas Eve on Sesame Street.  The kids have zero idea what that is.  They think I’m insane.  I own it!  Merry Christmas Eve from our little corner of the planet.