So it's been a while...

Almost 5 years have gone by since writing a post. That's quite the sabbatical, lol! Kids do suck all the time and energy out of you so that's my excuse and I'm sticking with it. I have thought about writing a book for years now of the random things that happened within real life and in my head but have never quite gotten up off my lazy ass to do it. Now that I have a little more time to clear my brain it seems like it would be a good time to start writing again. The challenge is to write for 5-10 minutes daily for as many days in a row as possible.  2020 here we come!

A few little finishing touches...

 This week totally got away from me so here are a few random things we managed to get done last weekend and this week... 

The playhouse is finally complete! Hubby hung the flower boxes the other night and trimmed out the windows, I am in love with the way the cedar shake turned out. Adorable! At some point I need to hit up the craft store for some fake flowers to go in the window boxes... 

Little lady's room now has a working light fixture. A few months ago when we were at Lowes, she had seen a chandelier that had pink crystals hanging off of it, as much as she loved it hubby and I did not love the price.

Fast forward to last week, hubby brought home a free white chandelier that needed just a little TLC so after a quick trip to the craft store for some pink beads and shiny glass hearts, instant girlie light fixture!

We also managed to finally get around to hanging the mirror on her wall. After a few minor modifications to remove the stand the mirror was attached to it fit perfectly on her wall. It takes up a lot less space now, much easier for when she plays dress up.

We bundled the kiddos up last weekend and trekked over to the beach for the kite festival. Little man was way more interested in shoveling sand in his mouth!

 

I tried to get the kids to take some nice pictures in some shirts that I had monogrammed for them. 178 pictures later, I did manage to get a few shots with them both looking at the camera but these two particular ones are my favorites...

 

Little lady just loves to snuggle her baby brother.

But then an instant later, little man is trying to make the great escape and little lady is shooting death rays from her eyes! LOL!

Halloween Recap and a Laundry Room Preview...

It has been a busy week around here, it's only Thursday but already I am wiped out! Little man has a few teeth coming in so his sleep has not been as peaceful as we might hope and  little lady has been bouncing off the walls around here waiting for the big day...HALLOWEEN!

This week at dance class the kids were allowed to wear their costumes which was really cute. Both of little lady's witch costumes were very long so she opted for her fanciest princess dress to make it easier to dance it. It was a wise choice but I did feel a little bad about the amount of glitter it left behind. Oops!

 At little lady's insistence we carved a pumpkin for every one in our family, thank goodness there is only 4 of us because it was a real work out cleaning and carving all of them.

Little man's spooky pumpkin.

 

Little lady requested a traditional jack o lantern, with the addition of some hearts to girly it up.

Not the greatest picture of mine, but I think my BOO ghost came out pretty well. Especially since by the time I got around to  carving mine I felt like I had arthritis in my hands from using the tiny carving saw.

 

Daddy got out easy because little lady decided his needed to be the princess pumpkin this year, lucky him ~ no carving involved!
 

 We took the kids trick or treating in a preschool playmates neighborhood which was fun. There was 4 little girls so little lady had a great time. Little man rode along in his stroller, he was glad when it was over. Hubby also took little lady out to a few houses on our street so we now have a year's supply of candy, so please let me know where I can mail your share!

 

Progress has been continuing on the laundry room so much to hubby's dismay I am going to post a few pictures. He would prefer that I wait until it is complete but I am just THAT excited about it. I spend a LOT of time in laundry room so any improvement is a big deal.

Just to refresh every ones memory this was the laundry before. Yikes!

 

Here is the awesome coat/shoe/key shelf area hubby put together. The flooring in the shoe tray is a cork flooring which is great for wet shoes and drippy jackets. Also on the far right is a little seat for the kids to be able to use to sit and put there shoes on. He also moved move my drying rack to make way for a hanging rod above my dryer. Makes life much easier!

 As with all projects we start in this house it tends to spillover into additional projects. While finishing the doorway to the laundry room a built in cabinet one of the previous owners had installed had to be temporarily removed. 

Turns out I prefer the look of the space with out the cabinet. So now that cabinet is making friends with our bathroom vanity in the living room and more painting of panelling is definitely going to have to happen.

Little man was excited about the temporary relocation of the cats food and water. He will eat just about anything this days! Yummy!

He also jumped rope with the air hoses.

 

The new doorway to the laundry room. So nice to have an actual doorway to install that baby gate now that little man has a new found infatuation with the cat food.  

 

Tomorrow I will be waiting patiently for the gas man to come and turn our tank on so we can have some heat in the downstairs of our house. Oddly but luckily the upstairs of our house in electric heat. Having never had to deal with gas heat before I had no idea that it would take them 2 full weeks to get around to coming out to turn it on. Needless to say the cold weather crept up on us and it is getting downright chilly downstairs. 

Little lady told me today mama kitty was cold so she needed a blanket. If the furry cat is cold then it really is getting cool in here.

 

Hopefully the gas company means it when the say my appointment is  "sometime" around 12:45 tomorrow. In the mean time I will be camping out in the guest room upstairs with the heat!

 



I just had to throw this picture in because I thought it was cute. This morning for whatever reason little lady decided immediately upon waking up that she wanted to go join little man in his bed. He was thrilled for the company!
:)

 

Getting Spooky...

Little lady is super excited about Halloween this year. I guess she is now old enough that she remembers and looks forward to trick or treating. What's not to love about the yummy treats?! As a special treat I decided to take her to the aquarium for a special night time kids trick or treat. She dressed as a sparkly witch.

 

Even the fish were in costume.

She was not thrilled about the piranha trying to chomp her head off.

This was after we took the spooky way out. She really wanted to take the spookier trail until she realized what spooky really was, they had people dressed in dark hoods jumping out. I think it unnerved her a little but she toughed it out!

 She is really looking forward to the big day, we will be carving our pumpkins tomorrow.

:)

 

On another note,

 Hubby and I have come to the realization that remodeling an older house is really quite the undertaking. Even simple things like changing out light fixtures and hanging simple ceiling fans can be challenging. I am excited to say that we have however started making a dent in some of the to do list inside the house. Aside from the obvious master bathroom project that is on going,  at a standstill, can we say bathroom vanity still sitting in the living room, we have gotten several new light fixtures hung and the laundry room/ mudroom is almost complete.

Hopefully by the end of next weekend I will be able to show it off , Hubby is really working hard on it and I am loving it already.

Happy Monday!

 

 

 

 

Double the fun...

I am now beginning to truly understand the joys of having two children. Just as little man is beginning to get over his cold little lady decides she is going to get sick too. So now in addition to  mr. wiping constant snot,  we have had ms. fever and sore throat. Whoohoo!  

 

If they weren't so cute I would run and hide from the cloud of germs that surrounds them.

Little lady is super excited about Halloween this year so we have been busy crafting lots of decorations while we have been home recovering.

Little man however said he was not so in to crafting. 

 Let me out of here he said.

  I'm doing hard time for spitting up on my good outfit.

Now she has me dressed in this prison jumpsuit!

Uh oh, busted with sister's hairbrush. I wonder how much time this will add to my sentence?!

 

 Solitary confinement! Oh no!

 :)

 Hopefully they will recover quickly this momma is getting a little stir crazy.

 

 

Shoo bird don't poop on me!

This morning the cats alerted me to a chirping coming from the fireplace. A bird had flown down the chimney and was thrashing around inside. It would chirp for a while then quiet down, the cats lost interest and I sort of forgot about it for awhile. Whatever the thing is inside the fireplace was closed hubby had assured me over the phone.

 

Apparently it wasn't closed because a little while later the bird came shooting out from the fireplace and flew into the sun room.   Unfortunately for the bird it picked the window furthest from the door to continually try to magically fly threw.  

 



There was several frantic minutes of me running around the house trying to figure out some way to get the bird out while corraling the two kids and two cats. While also fighting the urge to run screaming from the house. I like watching the birds outside eating from the feeder but flying loose in the house is a HUGE no!

 At one point there may have been a large rake involved but I finally managed to get the screen popped out of the window next to him and then I "gently" ushered him out of the window with the broom. 

Our avian visitor was the most excitement we've had around here the last few days. Little man has had a little cold so we have been lying low.

 

Other than a quick trip to the pediatrician for the little guy's weepy eye and snotty nose we have been fairly housebound.

 

 

:)

It was like I was 16 all over again...

After living in NC for over a year now, I finally broke down and went to the DMV for a new license.  The real driving force was that I needed to register to vote here otherwise I probably would have put it off even longer.

  

On my first attempt, I scheduled an appointment only to realize that I actually had the kids social security cards in my wallet not my own. Apparently having a US passport is not as legal as a crappy paper SS card. So I had to head home therefore missing my appointed time. ARGH!

 

 

 

When I returned twenty minutes later, I was told it would be a 45 minute wait. Yay.

 Finally my turn arrived. I passed the vision test and sign test no problem, then came the written exam. I have not had to take the written test since I was 16. Hubby had warned me it was tougher than you would think so I had skimmed the book the night before...  

 

 D'oh!

Sad but true, I failed the stupid test!

Fortunately, my wonderful babysitters were available today as well so after studying up last night I returned to the dreaded DMV this morning to retake the test.

 

Thank goodness, this time I passed! Woot Woot! Now I just hope my picture makes me look young again when it arrives in the mail in a few weeks. Wishful thinking on my part i'm sure.

:)

The money shot, a comedy of errors...

I finally got around to doing little man's 7 month photo shoot today. A few days late but as we say at our house and especially true today, you get what you get...

The grump face.

Not going to look at the camera, nope not going to happen.



Ok, I'll give you one big grin but, oops, did you see how I crumpled the towel. Heehee!

 

Oh, you wanted me to stay on the towel?

 

Look here comes kitty, she'll sit on the towel for you.



But mommy, I can crawl now! I'm trying to show off my skills!

 

Yummy, towel! A little extra fiber for the diet, oh yeah!



So, maybe kitty won't sit on the towel either but it sure is entertaining!

The standoff.

Uh oh, somehow the curtains fell down. I don't think I like that too much.

Time for a toy break.

 

Big sister says "Look at me, LOOK at me, LOOK AT ME!!!!

 

I don't think I have ever noticed this before, it's blowing cool air on my face. Floor vent I think I love you.

Big sister made the coolest mask.

 

Wow, sparkly pom poms!

 

Better luck next month mommy!