25 Random Things I found

Okay, Brooke and Grace are out of town and I have LOTS of much more important things to be doing right now, but the boys are in the tub (don't worry, I can see them) and I felt I had to write. Since Brooke and Grace left Monday night, I've been trying to work from the home...yeah, right...and finish up important tax stuff that's due by Friday! A major winter storm hit and we basically had to camp out near our fireplace before surrendering and finally heading to my parents to stay last night with my brother, his wife, and their four kids, my sister, her husband and their three kids, my mom and dad, her sister and her son. Needless to say, we didn't get a lot of sleep last night or the night before when the power went out. So, I was trying to get the house at least kind of cleaned up and do some laundry when I found this cup of random stuff that I can only suppose is filled with things that Brooke has pulled from pockets before throwing the dirty items in the washing machine. Here are some random things I found:
1. a paintbrush
2. a bouncy ball
3. an unused pencil
4. a pen
5. a caribiner
6. two felt things that are either for shoulder pads or something else round
7. a "six simple steps to transforming your home" card
8. a superman cape
9. a stormtrooper
10. a half-used tube of body lotion
11. a spider-man watch
12. several hair bands
13. a hotwheels car
14. some chapstick
15. a pair of earplugs
16. a suction cup
17. a ring
18. a piece of a puzzle
19. a rock
20. a chucky cheese token
21. a malted milk ball
22. some beads
23. a light saber
24. 64 cents

Okay, stand by for a video

Another blog game

OK. my sister, Megan, tagged me in another blog game...but that's OK b/c I don't have anything else to blog about today:)

So, in keeping with rules of the game, I'm supposed to post the 6th picture from my 6th picture folder:

That is Luke, my 4 year old, with his kitty, Cookie, in his blankie...that cat puts up with a lot but the kids are generally pretty good with him. They love animals!

I'm going to be honest here...that was not accurate b/c that was my 5th folder...I don't have a 6th folder b/c i just moved the old pictures off my computer...so, here is the 6th picture out of the 6th folder in my "fall 08" section..the only section with 6 folders...are you confused yet? This picture is of the 5 of us at the wedding of one of my old "young life girls", Claire. Taken by our GOOD friend, Emily Bacon. We almost used it for our Christmas card this year (even though it's not my fav of me-I look half naked cause Luke's covering my dress and I'm glowing white-especially next to Anteneh and my husband who had just arrived back in the US from a Caribbean island-do I sound incredibly vain or what?) A few things about this picture: the dress I had on was $6 on clearance in 1998. I bought it for a sorority dance-haha...am I frugal to still have it and actually WEAR it to a wedding 10 years later or what? Either that or crazy b/c it was full spandex-HAHA! Actually, I don't think it looked that bad. I crack myself up. Anyway, this was a really special wedding. Claire was one of my closest girls when we were doing ministry with high school girls...Daryn baptized her when he baptized me in 2002. It was a beautiful wedding and so special to see her getting married! She had the coolest thing at her reception...it was a candy bar...at your spot was a little bag to go up and get candy from a table that had HUGE class jars filled with her fav candies while everyone waited for the bride and groom to arrive...it was so cool. the kids ate way too much. And to further mess up this game, I'm not tagging people b/c I don't even know if I know 6 more bloggers who haven't done it-haha. Sorry, Megan!

Holiday Project

So, is it bad that I didn't make a new year's resolution? Honestly-who keeps them?
But I did make a commitment to completing a project over Christmas break...and here it is: Our family room makeover...
BEFORE:Notice the gold brass fireplace doors, the old 80's wood trim and built in bookcases, the books jammed into the shelves and the overall drab feel of the room... brightened up only slightly by the Christmas decorations
And here is AFTER:
We ripped all the old wallpaper off the walls (you can't really see that anyway), primed and painted all the walls, the trim and bookcases, painted the fireplace doors (who knew a $5 can of high heat spray paint could make such a dramatic difference!), placed baskets on the shelves instead of all the books, and put a flat screen TV on the left bookcase (Daryn only asked for gift cards for Christmas to save up for a TV!)...and one of my favorite parts of the room now is my "W" mirror...aren't I creative? :) We also did an accent color behind the bookcases called "brown horse"...the walls are a lighter beige shade. Daryn cleaned out the ancient fireplace ashes, spray painted the old log holder black, and I got some $35 fireplace tools for $11 at Lowe's b/c they were mismarked! We love this room...it's been so fun using it. Most nights Daryn builds a fire and we sit with our feet up and watch TV after the kids are in bed. One night after Grace took a shower I found her in her robe curled up with a book in front of the hearth...I LOVE having a wood burning fireplace...so homey! And can I tell you...it feels so good to have it done!

Oh, and another thing that feels REALLY good....we threw out our old Christmas tree!!!!!!! It was leaning 30 degrees all season and actually fell over TWICE...I can't wait to get a REAL tree next year. Are you proud of me, Tracey?! It felt SO GOOD.

What a wonderful life

Today at lunch while taking a break from taking down Christmas decorations and cleaning the house...

Daryn: "Man, I will be happy when all of our projects are done."
Brooke: "Honey, they will never be done...that's our life"
Anteneh: "Daddy, but it's a great life, isn't it?"

Christmas Eve

How many families do you know still do this? Thanks, Uncle Scott. I love how all the little cousins are in their new jammies and if you listen you can hear the girls' sweet voices.

There's nothing like a handmade ornament with your kid's picture on it.

I am convinced: The best Christmas decoration displays are set out by the little ones who are more excited about Christmas than anyone...

The best pets are not the most expensive purebred pets, but the ones that are strays and fall into your life unexpectantly or because as you walk by their kennel at the Humane Society they stare at you asking you to take them home...
>
The best Christmas lights are not the ones that you pay hundreds of dollars to have prfessionally put up or the big blow up moving displays, but the ones that your 5 year old is allowed to help you string up...

and I'm convinced the best Christmas trees are not the ones that have only one style of ornament on them and have theme colors and designs, but the ones that are covered in only handmade preschool ornaments, tacky gold 1970's elf ornaments that were handed down from your grandma, and fun spiderman ornaments your kids pick out...

Merry Christmas...from the house that may have a leaning Christmas tree, pet hair all over the floors, dirty cereal dishes in the sink, messy kids' rooms, kids still in their jammies...but smells like Christmas cookies, sounds like Christmas music, and is filled with happy kids.

Let's Be Honest-the blog is the last thing on my mind

I have to be honest. Updating my blog is the last thing on my mind! Our household seems to be in slight disarray lately. A week ago Daryn and I decided to finally paint the family room and move all our living room stuff into there and use THAT room as our main gathering room. It has sat basically empty for a year because we didn't have the furniture to put in there...anyway, the wallpaper scraping took longer than we had expected and the weekend job quickly turned into a week long job.

Little did we know our poor sweet daughter would be sent home from school Tuesday morning for vomiting. And not just any vomiting. The poor child threw up in the auditorium in front of her whole class and 2 other 1st grade classes who were coming in for Christmas musical practice. When I got there to pick her up, I almost busted into tears for her as they told me she'd spilled her breakfast while all the little boys yelled, "ew, gross!!!". Poor thing. (And now I advertise it on the blog for everyone to read).

Then, 14 hours later Luke started. I'm sure you don't all want a play by play of my family's vomiting so I'll move on. I will end the vomiting stories by saying we ended up in the Emergency Room with Luke for 3 hours last night after he woke up from a nap with shooting pains in his abdomen and a swollen 'right lower quadrant'...basically they thought his appendix was getting ready to burst when I called the after hours clinic and they asked us to rush him into the ER. I ended up at a hospital that was out of our network and had to reload him into the car and drive to a different hospital. (Actually the one Daryn's brother works at in the ER but he wasn't working-the nurses had a great time teasing Luke for being related to Uncle Derek, though!). Lo and behold....the swelling and pain were gone by the time we reached the doctor and they wrote it off as gas due to vomiting. GREAT. Better safe then sorry, I guess, right? One nice thing about spending 3 hours in the ER and getting your sick child to bed at 11pm is that we got an anti-vomiting med prescribed and the entire family can use it if it spreads to us!

So, today Grace went back to school and while it took a little coaxing to convince her that the entire class was not going to make fun of her (I desperately broke out a new cute top from her favorite overpriced girl clothing store, "justice", to give her a little confidence boost and acted like we'd got it for her special for her Christmas program today), she went to school looking confident and ready for her Christmas program!

So, I'm going to try to finish painting our family room...I don't want to...the job is now turning into a 2 week job...I have to finish it-the inards of the room are spread all over the house, mixed with palates of blankets and pillows in front of the TV the sick kids have used...I also have to wash the 7 loads of laundry I've ignored (not including the 3 loads I've done b/c they were pukey), finish Christmas shopping, wrapping, and disinfect our house so Anteneh and his busy parents (us) don't get the pukey stuff.

If you've been reading by blog for a year or so you'll remember me saying that we were convinced we'd be in the ER with Anteneh soon with the way he takes risks and is so impulsive...well, isn't it ironic that both Luke and Grace have been to the St. Mary's ER and Anteneh never has? Haha-Go figure. (Grace was there when she was 18 months)

All I want for Christmas is for my family room to be done being painted and for nobody else in this house to start throwing up!!! Oh, and for the cat to stop knocking over the Christmas tree :)