High Noon

We picked a paint color for our living room. I wanted something that would go with the same tone we picked in the foyer and family room that was kind of warm and earthy. I taped several paint chip samples on the wall to get Ken’s opinion. Without any prompting or hints from me he picked the same color that I picked. Oh, he’s come such a long way!

We decided on “High Noon.” We already have a brown futon and a red couch in that room and I thought this blue would go well with them. At least I hope it will…

The tree is up!

We put up our Christmas tree yesterday along with some festive decorations around the house. This is a new-ish tradition for us since last year was the first time we put up a tree. I wasn’t sure it would get done. We still have unpacked boxes dispersed throughout the house so I kept putting off bring out MORE boxes to “unpack.” I’m glad Ken made it a priority yesterday since Christmas is less than two weeks away, and the decorations do make things feel more merry and bright.

I am mostly done with Christmas shopping which isn’t saying much because we aren’t big on gifts. We got the kids a few presents each and I bought all but one of them online. I still need to get some stocking stuffers though.

I hung a few pictures up over the weekend and unpacked a few boxes but other than that, didn’t get too much done around the house. Last weekend I went a bit crazy with my late night of painting and paid the price for the rest of the week. I won’t be doing that again. I’m looking forward to the extra time off between Christmas and New Year’s and hope that we’ll be able to get some more painting done during that time. Also, our kitchen and one bathroom have wallpaper that I want to remove so we’ll see how far we can get with that. I hope it comes off pretty easily!

Our family is a circle of love…

This wall art is the first thing we’ve hung up in our new place. It was a gift from a dear friend and the quote on it reads:

“Our family is a circle of love and strength. With every birth and every union, the circle grows. Every joy shared adds more love. Every obstacle faced together makes the circle stronger.”

It’s so perfect. We’ve had our share of obstacles this year but we got through it together and it’s definitely made us stronger.

Also in this pic you can get a sneak peek at my new wall colors. The green is “Organic Garden” and the entry way is “Dylan Velvet” which is sort of a mustard-ish yellow. Both are by Valspar.

Weekend projects

We got a lot done this weekend! We painted the family room. Ken did most of the work there. My primary job was wrangling the children and making sure they stayed away from wet paint (mission accomplished!). Ken also installed a shiny, new toilet. What a stinky, messy job. I’m so glad I did not have to be involved with that one! He also replaced a leaky shower head. It’s nice having a handy guy around!

I like to think of myself of a smart person but sometimes I do dumb things, like start painting a room at 8 pm. I decided to paint the foyer thinking it’s a small area and wouldn’t take too long. Well, of course it took longer than I thought. It’s a small area but has lots of doorway/trim to go around. I was hoping I might get by with one coat of paint but of course not. It looked like crap with only one coat. Needless to say, I was up very late last night!

I guess I’m just really anxious and impatient to put our stamp on our place and make it feel more us, more like home. Initially, I planned to go with bold and bright colors but ended up going with bold, warm, earthy colors. It feels really cozy! I’m really happy with the color choices so far. It’s scary picking paint colors. Even with the paint chips and samples, it’s hard to know if the color is right until you see the walls covered in it. So far, so good!

We’re here!

We had a really nice time celebrating Thanksgiving with Ken’s family. Then we spent the rest of our holiday weekend MOVING! We are in our new place now and it feels so good to be done with the moving part. We still have a lot of unpacking and organizing to do but the “essentials” are done. We also have some home improvements we need to do but it’s all stuff we can do over time.

We have a couple of parties to attend this weekend and we also hope to get some painting done. The first room we’re going to paint is the family room since we spend the most time in there. I’ll try to take before and after pictures. Tomorrow Ken gets to replace a toilet. Fun! Fun!

Have a great weekend!

Barking seal

Today I am thankful for Tylenol.

T has come down with croup. It seems to be a minor case of it – at least that’s what my mama’s intuition tells me. He had a fever last night but Tylenol took care of that real quick. You know he’s sick when he voluntarily goes to bed after dinner and gets under the covers to rest. You know he’s not THAT sick when he gets out of bed 15 minutes later and keeps insisting that candy will make him better. He’s doing much better today and acting like his normal self, except for the horrible sounding cough.

I trimmed Q’s bangs last night. Now I have bang shock. It always looks too short after a trim. Not far off from this:

That’s me with my big brother.  I had my daughter via c-section and told Ken he should peek over that cloth barrier they put up to see the doctor deliver her but he was like NO WAY!  I had these irrational fears of them switching my baby or something.  There’s no denying it now though.  She looks just like me! And she loves cheese and pizza.  She’s definitely mine.

(There’s a scratch in the picture that I was too lazy to edit out).

Making progress

Sorry. All you’ll probably be hearing about in the next few weeks is moving. Packing and getting ready is consuming my time and my thoughts. I felt bad for not doing any packing on Monday night but I think I needed that time to recover from the weekend! Last night I was able to finish up in the living room. Everything in there is packed and ready to go! We’re only moving a few miles away which is nice. We’re hiring movers to take the furniture and majority of boxes but it’s nice that we can make trips on our own and take the more fragile items like framed art/pictures, musical instruments, and electronic equipment.

Have I told you how excited I am? Soooo excited.

We’re moving the Friday and Saturday after Thanksgiving. It will be a busy holiday but all that extra activity should be good for helping to work off the pumpkin pie!

Sunny days

Today I am thankful for the gorgeous weather we are having.  This weekend promises to be beautiful too!

We move two weeks from tomorrow!  I hope to get lots of organizing and packing done this weekend.

I made one of my favorite soups overnight in the slow cooker using black beans I made the day before along with chicken broth I made last weekend. My slow cooker has been working overtime!

Yesterday I took our coin jar to exchange all of our coins using a Coinstar machine.  I was hoping to have at least $40 so I could get the extra $10 in free Amazon money and was surprised that I had just over $90 in change! Yay! Christmas present money! I signed up for a free trial of Amazon prime so I will also get free two day shipping.

Hope you have a great weekend! I’ll be knee deep in boxes and packing tape but will be sure to make some time to get out enjoy the fresh air and sunshine!

Random Tuesday Thoughts

Anne, the Small Town Mommy has been blogging Random Tuesday Thoughts for some time now and I thought I’d participate.  What?  I can just throw some random things out there and not have to be coherent?  Awesome.

1) First things first.  Today, I am thankful that I went to get my teeth cleaned and checked out and I didn’t have any cavities.  Last time I had one cavity and some repair work that needed to be done which included a titanium post in one of my teeth.  Yes.  I’ve got titanium in there!  Anyways, it was a relief to walk out of there and pay $5.00 instead of several hundred.

2) It has been raining all day. I don’t mind the rain but it just makes me wish I could stay home all day in my pajamas.  Who am I kidding, I want to stay home every day in my pajamas rain-or-shine!

3) I had a nice pretend meal at T’s restaurant this evening.  Hamburgers and french fries cost $1.00 each but a pickle will set you back $5.00. I should start saving up for business school.

4) We move in less than three weeks.  I’m outwardly calm but freaking out a little on the inside.  It will all get done, right?  It will be so worth it.  I am SO excited about the new place.  We’ll have our own real master bathroom again!  Right now, our master bathroom is so tiny that we can’t leave the toilet paper roll attached.  If we do, we have to sit sideways on the toilet or it will bump our legs. A new bathroom with extra legroom.  I can’t wait…

Giving thanks

I saw as someone’s facebook status update that they would post daily about what they are thankful for since this is month of Thanksgiving and all.  I’ve decided to start my blog posts this month with things I am thankful for.  Today’s thankfulness is also sort of a PSA:

I am thankful that hairspray will remove black permanent marker from linoleum.

The permanent marker incident did not involve either of the kids (surprise)!  I used the marker for like TEN SECONDS to label a freezer bag.  I promptly put the cap back on after using it and put it back in the mug that I use to hold pens and pencils.  Somehow ink got on the heel of my foot and I had tracked about a dozen black dots around the kitchen floor.  I do not know how that happened.  The pen was nowhere near my foot and I checked the pen for leaks or drips – none! 

I am in the midst of doing lots of packing (moving in three weeks!) and am paranoid each time I pick up the marker to label a box, and check the soles of my feet each time after I use it.  I guess maybe I too, should only be allowed to use the kids’ washable markers…