The House is Ours!

Well, today was a bit stressful we had an 11AM settlement time that changed to 3PM, then 1PM, and then 2PM! I was really stressed out about the changing times and then we didn't know what our closing costs would be. We were provided with a good faith estimate and then our costs ended up being 1/2 of what we expected!!

We then unloaded the trailer, got dinner, picked up some things from Wal-Mart (like a 6' ladder), and headed back to OUR house for dinner and preparation for my trip to the apartment with the boys. Yes, I have the boys for 2 days . . . okay, sit down please, I don't want youse to hurt yourself. I am nervous because I have a short temper and sometimes the Monkey is able to get that match close to the powder.

Needless to say that our only excitement on the way home was finding a bank to make a deposit. It took longer than I expected, but we found it & hit the road. The boys got a double feature tonight on the trip back to our old apartment. I am excited. a 1.5 hour commute [1 way] will turn into a 5 to 10 minute commute!!! I am looking forward to this happening. I think that Lauren is even more excited about it than I am, she has a house & it will have a fenced in back yard [by Spring] and a deck [later on].

So, we open another chapter in our lives and move forward again with vigor and anticipation for the future.

w.

p.s. I will post new pics on in the usual places when the painting is done.

Mortgage companies are of the devil. That is all.

Oh Boy, Those Boys!

Well, if you haven't talked with Lauren or myself you wouldn't know that they are both stressing about the move to WV. If you know our two Young Princes then you know that they are generally really good kids and that they are pretty amicable most of the time. The last 2 weeks have been driving me crazy and I only see the boys on evenings and weekends.

I have to admit that I don't know how my wife does it. She is amazing!!! I know every will agree with me on that statement, it is a fact. Still, I can only marvel at her ability to manage 3 cranky men at the end of a long day. I am grateful for her patience and finesse.

They did go to bed tonight pretty easily, considering they usually give Lauren h3ll when she is here. I wonder if Mommy goes to 'work' in the evenings if that will help them settle down and go to bed easier? Hmmm . . . well, it's just an idea wifey.

Big changes are coming to our little household, speaking of house pictures can be seen here.

w.

Because this is the best way to avoid (insert activity here)

Right now, I'm avoiding the huge and tedious job of updating the database for a mailing list that's supposed to go out the Monday after we move. I really (REALLY) dislike doing list work. My MMA girls will understand. List work is of the devil.... as is the outfit that I'm wearing right now. It's a little Tiffany combined with a bit of Debbie Gibson. You see, we're doing a yearbook style picture at the office today and everyone was supposed to wear the company t-shirt, a BIG boxy white t-shirt. Not at all flattering. So in an effort to make it look nice, I added a knee length denim pencil skirt, flats and hoop earrings. It didn't work. I need some slouchy socks, keds, bangle bracelets and big bangs - I'll be instantly transformed back to the 80's that I loved so much.

Oh well, I should get back to work.....

Kitchen/Dining Room

These bowls and dish towels from Crate and Barrel make me feel a little better about my direction for the kitchen and dining room, but I'm not sure I'm there yet. There are things that we would like to replace eventually, but eventually could still be years away. The stuff we have now is still functional and in pretty good condition (minus our dining room chairs, which kinda scare me).

Our table is a yard sale purchase made by my parents a few years ago. It's an Ethan Allen piece and is really well built. Zee and I have been talking about sanding the top and painting it black. Our dishes look like this:

I've been thinking about painting at least one of the walls in that area a terra cotta color. (This is why I'm worried I'm going overboard on the orange.) Also, I have a HUGE print of the play "Merchant of Venice" framed that I could hang in the dining room. BUT I'm having a hard time seeing this room pull together - mostly because I'm afraid it's turning too country/tuscan for the rest of the house.

I'm not sure how this one is going to turn out... any thoughts, ideas, suggestions?

The boys' bedroom

Little Man wants a red bedroom. I want the boys to sleep at night. The compromise is going to be 3 khaki walls and one dark brick red. And since we'll have a play room, I want their bedroom to be something more relaxing, that will also grow with them.

I love this print! But it's a numbered print and too much. They do, however, have 4x6 stickers on sale, 2 for $5. I think I might buy 4 and put them in a big frame.

madras plaid bedding that the boys can grow up with:

Zee and I saw this on another blog and totally want to make our own version:

And to make the room a little more "BOY", I love prints like these vintage advertisements:

(prints found on posters.com)

Even though I should be working...

I find myself day dreaming of a few things. All of which surround our new house. My thoughts sound something like this:

"I really liked the bathroom in the model. Could I pull it off? Should I try it? There's no way i'm going to wallpaper. Paint the walls orange. Really? Orange. Is my husband going to kill me? But how would I get that cool wallpaper effect? Is it going to coordinate with my bedroom? I can't afford new bathroom stuff. What about the kitchen? Am I looking at too much vinyl lettering? What do I want to do first......"

My brain is on overload. Mostly, I need a central place to keep my ideas, so as the stars align and we can pick up things here and there, I'll remember where I wanted them to go.

The master bath:

This is a picture of how they've done the model. I love this wallpaper, but think it would be a nightmare. Zee suggested painting the room and adding something like this:

or this...

or this...

The two tone poppies and the big dandelion are my favorites right now.

A short update

Little Man went in last Thursday for a routine tonsillectomy, adnoidectomy (sp?) and a second set of ear tubes. What was supposed to take us 3-5 hours, had us at the hospital for 10 hours. There weren't any serious complications, thank goodness, mostly little things that made the day drag on forever.

Since then it's been a rough ride. I started this post 2 days ago and got sidetracked by a sick little boy. When I started writing things were still pretty bad. The medicine they gave us for pain is strong and tastes NASTY. Screaming temper tantrums from a boy who never complains about medicine nasty. Trying to do that every 4 hours was hard on all of us, especially knowing that the tantrum was making it hurt worse. We tried making jello shots with the meds and that helped for a couple days, but yesterday I hit the end of my rope. We weren't getting more than 3 hours of sleep at a time and we were all losing patience. Last night we tried another medication that helped to calm Little Man down enough to sleep, a much needed rest for all of us. Hopefully this means things are improving and we can keep him "resting" until his appointment next Tuesday.

Bug was not to be outdone during all of this. He's very confused about what's going on and trying to figure out why Little Man won't leave the couch and play with him. He's also working on cutting another tooth, which meant he was running a fever all weekend. We spent a lot of time (all day) Saturday and Sunday on the couch with a boy on each side watching movies and eating popsicles.

This morning it finally feels like we've turned a corner. I'm back at work and the boys seem to be doing better. Lets hope I didn't just jinx it by saying that.