Bathroom, 99%

I haven't posted about the finished product of our bathroom remodel yet because, well, it's not finished. But it's SO CLOSE! We really got a lot done right up front, then got complacent, so it's remained a tad unfinished - Joe needs to add a few more caulk lines around the shower tile, I have tome touch-up on the accent stripe, and another coat of stain to put on the shelves. Since mostly that's not stuff you can see in pictures, I'm giving up and posting pictures as is, 99% done.

The nice, new bathroom floor with fixtures on it! That pedestal sink was about the death of Joe, I was very impressed he didn't punch a hole in anything while he was in the throes of that weekend-long frustration. I say: worth it. He says: never again.
Caught the doorway on the right-hand side of the photo, but oh well. You can see our new toilet, new towel bar (not '70s wood style), new shower curtain (it really matches the tile) and a bit of the painted accent border on the shower.

A very good picture of the accent border! The thought was to make it look like we WANTED that color of tile, not like "oh, man! Who chose THAT color that we're stuck with?" (our REAL sentiments). The new towel bar is actually hooks, where the old medicine cabinet was. We wanted to place the towels higher so they don't soak up all the heat when it's on - previously the towels on the bar hung about 3 inches directly above the heating vent. Warm towels, cold bathroom :(

A (tilted) photo of the open shelves we put in to replace the medicine cabinet we took out. With the pedestal sink we lost quite a bit of storage, but the linen closet across the hall takes care of extras (tp, towels, soaps, etc) and the shelves more than replace the lost counter space and medicine cabinet. The recess is actually painted the same color as the accent stripe, to bring the room together (since ya can't tell in the picture, I guess you'll have to come see for yourself).

Happy Valentine's day to MEEEEEE!

Joe surprised me today with a homemade Valentine's gift - a scrapbooking/crafts table! He made it this morning while juggling two crazy kiddos while I was at work, and it's PERFECT. Don't try to deny it, you want one, too :)

Quick links

The blog where I saw the dollhouse pillowcase is called "Chasing Cheerios." The mom has two girls and is very into Montessori activities as she home-schools her older daughter, so most of her posts are about counting and sorting and that kind of thing, but she has a few FANTASTIC ideas that I (eventually) want to steal. Some are a little advanced for Patrick (he hates the doctor and would probably not touch the doctors kit for a while!) and some are for girls, since that's what she has, but I thought I'd link them up because they're so good, YOU should use them!

Awesome homemade doctors kit

Perfect hairdresser kit for kids

Great pretend makeup set, when you don't want your child to use your real stuff (this I might actually make for Patrick, he is always trying to steal my makeup and use the brushes and open the compacts and everything!)

Dollhouse pillowcase

...just in case you were looking for yet another project you don't have time for :)

Crafty car pillow

Knowing we were going to take a trip last weekend, all last week I got busy working on a pillowcase craft I came up with. I'd seen an adorable pillow case dollhouse for girls, but dreamt up this beauty on my own, and I think it came together really nicely! It's not 100% finished, but it was definitely good enough for my toddler who, sick as he was, was REALLY excited as soon as I showed it to him. At home we've taken the pillow out so it can be flat on the floor - better for playing, but the pillow is nice for car trips to give the road some support, and for something to snuggle with if your kiddo gets tired. Feel free to copy or make variations for your own car-trip pillow! The house holds little people I painted onto popsicle sticks.The garage is also a pocket where he can park his cars. Both the house door and garage door open, I plan to paint little scenes inside. The construction zone is soft felt, I plan to make a couple construction things backed with felt, like a felt board! Perfect! For now, it holds a couple plastic construction cones we got with our matchbox dump trucks. The railroad is made from permanent marker and ironed-on fabric using "wonder-under." The tunnel is my favorite part! Machine stitched on one side (for ease), hand-stitched on the other so the tunnel pops "out" instead of the fabric swaying "in." The back of the pillowcase has two of Joe's back pockets sewn on to hold all the cars to play with; buttons were added so the cars don't fall out in transit.

artsy-fartsy

Here's a little excerpt of Patrick's growing art gallery. He's always a fan of the same few pictures - a truck that goes "beep!" based on the book "Little Blue Truck," a snake eating a frog, and a frog eating ants. He'll settle for other stuff, but these are his favorites. I was drawing the truck for him and got distracted, but he kept right on drawing, and when I got back he'd filled in the frog, who is now eating the trucks with three tongues! I put a picture of the typical frog that I draw, and I thought it was pretty darn awesome how close he got without even having my frog there for reference! I'm looking forward to funny stick figures of our family and friends in the months and years to come :)

busy bodies

Well, it's been busy around this house, to say the lease. Let's keep it simple and put it in bullet form so you don't have to wade through paragraphs of my rambling.

-We spent the weekend in Grand Junction, where Elsha and Brian's new baby boy was being blessed. So adorable! He and Eli had matching white knit suits for their blessings, they were really, really, REALLY cute. We drove down Friday night after Joe got off work, so we got in pretty late, but ready to enjoy the weekend.

-The first "enjoyable" part of our weekend ended up being a trip to Urgent Care for Patrick. He'd been coughing at night for weeks, but he could always put himself back to sleep and he never coughed during the day... until Friday. We thought it would surely subside, but as we travelled it only got worse and twice he coughed so hard he gagged and then puked. YUCK. With all the vomiting he got dehydrated, the coughing still didn't stop, and Saturday morning he started wheezing, so off we went to urgent care. They gave him a breathing treatment for relax his bronchial tubes and it turns out he had an ear infection so he's on antibiotics, and once he got a round of meds in him he was totally back to himself! Running around, playing, counting (he counts to seven! I could die of happiness), etc. Now he's on his meds 3x/day for a week, which stinks because the steroids make him hyper, not good for bedtime. Twice he's stayed up until 10 p.m. :(

-Aside from Urgent Care, Grand Junction was awesome! Saturday night the guys watched the kids (5 kids in all) and we girls went shopping. Hooray! The first time I've been shopping for FUN (not groceries) without my kids since, well, since I've had kids!

- Sunday was the blessing in the morning, then the BEST LUNCH I've EVER HAD. Ribeye steaks, cocktail shrimp, steamed artichokes, baked potatoes and salad, and homemade brownie sundaes for dessert! Definitely worth waiting to drive home so we could eat aaaaaaall that food!

-The drive home was unremarkable except that, due to his meds, Patrick didn't got to bed until we got home, about 9:45.

-Monday started Eli's bout of sickness - if he wasn't sleeping he was crying. Actually, WAILING, which is so NOT like Eli. The only times he cries at all is because of extreme hunger or tiredness, or because Patrick just did something to him like smacked him on the head, and even that is rarely wailing. So it was a bit of a tough day, but we just stayed home and tried to unpack and get reorganized from our trip.

-Tuesday was the same with Eli, only worse - MORE crying, and then, like Patrick, he'd cough and gag and throw up! Even infant Tylenol didn't alleviate his troubles, so we made a doctor's appointment asap and they got him in at 3 p.m.

- I got hired at Bed, Bath, and Beyond! Great timing in the big scheme of things, but poor timing considering the immediate circumstances, since Tuesday was my first day. I'll be working one or two evenings a week and Saturdays. I was supposed to go in at 3:30, and the kids were supposed to be watched by a friend until Joe could get home from work, but with Eli needing to get to the doctor, Joe came home SUPER early, about 2:45, to take him so I could get to work. At 3:00, though, right after the boys left, BB&B called to postpone my shift from 3:30 'til 5:00, so I called Joe and he swung back around to pick me up and we ALL went to the doctor.

-Diagnosis: RSV - BUMMER. We renamed it Really Sad Virus, because it's REALLY SAD to have such a happy baby be so sick. We have to go back a couple times in the next few weeks so they can monitor his progress because RSV is basically a common cold for adutls, but in babies it can turn into bronchitis or pneumonia.

-Immediately after the doctor I headed to work, where there was lots of paperwork and training videos. I know I'll have a great time working there, and it'll be even better when I don't have to leave sick kids at home. I came back to find everyone alive and Joe still sane, so if he can handle that I know he can handle ANY day at home!

-Today, there's lots of laundry. I've been puked on more times in the last 5 days than I have in my entire life, including by myself, and when you wear 5 shirts a day instead of 1, laundry piles up pretty quickly.

-Last but not least (not that it makes ME busy), Joe joined weight watchers! Spurred by Elsha and Brian's success after only a week when he has been trying to lose weight for about 2 years, he figured that joining would be worth it. Who knows, if he has great success, maybe he'll hit the blog and brag about himself :)

So that's why you haven't heard from us in a few days, and why you won't be seeing us for a few more.

I was tagged, and that's serious business

Tagged!
The 5's Tag

10 Years Ago: 16 years old, but I put off getting my learner's permit, so I didn't have my driver's license yet. I was a sophmore in high school and just got my first boyfriend that January. Pretty exciting times!

5 Years Ago: I had just turned 21, a birthday I spent at home with the flu, celebrating with Elsha and her bf James. It was my first year at CSU, so I was taking a lot of mindless general ed classes and a few freshman interior design classes, hoping to get into the program.

5 Months Ago: Still anticipating the arrival of Eli. Not sleeping much. Definitely still working on the house - I wanted to get as much done as possible before he got here, when I knew I'd be getting NO sleep (oh, how wrong I was! thankfully!).

5 Things on my To Do list today:
1. Pack all my clothes, Joe's clothes, and the kids' clothes for the weekend
2. Do the laundry and PUT IT AWAY
3. Do the dishes so we don't come back to anything smelly
4. Take out the trash, same reasons and I need to do the dishes
5. Go to Junction!

5 Snacks I enjoy:
1. Cookies, esp. chocolate chip
2. cereal, especially at night
3. straight-up chocolate
4. hot chocolate
5. did I mention chocolate?

5 Things I would do if I were suddenly a billionaire:
1. Not tell anyone
2. Divvy it up with family and make THEM promise not to tell anyone
3. Pay off the house
4. Pay off all miscellanious debts, including going into debt for, and then paying off, a new car
5. Save, save, save

5 of my Bad Habits:
I'm going to write my bad habits of omission - I feel too exposed writing the bad habits I DO!
1. Not flossing
2. Not reading my scriptures
3. Not cleaning my house often/thoroughly enough
4. Not paying attention (if you have to repeat your name to me 6 times, that's why)
5. Not folding laundry after it's clean and dry

5 Places I have lived:
1. Grand Junction, CO
2. Laie, HI
3. Fort Collins, CO
4. Paris, France
5. Thornton, CO

5 Things people don't know about me:
1. I feel guilty a LOT. I try to use it to make myself a better person, but if someone lays bare something I feel guilty about I just want to curl up and die.
2. I'm not a very good driver (because I don't pay attention!)
3. Although I'm not particularly scared of dying, I am terrified of people I love dying.
4. I like to speak in public; I think I'm pretty good at it.
5. I often fill out these tagged posts and delete them before I post them (I did that a lot when I had myspace), because either their dumb and meaningless ("how tall are you?") or they're too exposing ("what are you most ashamed of?"). This one was a nice middle ground, so there ya have it!

I don't tag anyone, but feel free to fill it and and post it (or delete it, like I often do!)

moments

There are lots of moments every day that I wish with all my heart I could get on camera, but I have to settle for mental pictures 99% of the time, and I can't post mental pics on my blog. Fortunately, every now and again the kids hold still long enough for me to get one. I thought this picture was perfect, all snuggled up together. I set Eli down for a minute to powder my nose (or something like that), and when I came back I believe they were catching up on a little Charlotte's Web, Patrick's new Favorite Movie of All Time. Too precious :)

smiley baby and a long video

Eli has found himself in the mirror and he REALLY enjoys looking at that happy baby looking back at him! He talks to his reflection a lot, which is what I was trying to capture, but he was pretty quiet for the video (of course). The video is actually of his reflection, if you're confused (I was the first time I watched it). Since I had no free hands, Joe was filming, and he got distracted by Patrick so it's kinda long toward the end. Next is a video of what Joe was TRYING to film - it's a little game we call BUMBO! (bumbo!) and you'll see why when you watch it. Patrick was testing out the bottle, a new commodity. Since Eli has taken it a few times he wanted to, too.

Monster Cookie

I may be a cookie monster, but this chocolate chip beast from Jimmie Johns is a MONSTER COOKIE. It's as big as Eli's head! (which is getting pretty darn big, by the way).