What a Difference a Weekend Makes

A long weekend, Home Depot's paint sale, available parents, and a dear friend who had Wyatt over for a playdate made for a very productive weekend! There's something about paint that makes a house feel clean and fresh and ours. No more white paint. No more icky, yucky, old outlets and light switches. Just a wonderful, new atmosphere.

This is what you see when you walk in our front door. The hallway, dining room, and most of the living room are Cliveden Sandstone. And two walls are La Fonda Sombrero - the perfect terra cotta orange!

Our family room is Summer Field, a color I seriously debated. But now I'm so glad we went with it. It brightens the room but it's still warm enough. And the new carpet it ordered...yay!

We made a good team this weekend. Randy rolled paint, my dad cut in around the ceiling, and I cut in around the baseboards and windows. Why the mask you ask?

To protect this little peanut that's been hanging out on the refrigerator...and growing in my belly for the last 12 weeks. :-) We're excited to meet him or her in early December!

Finally...

I'm back. And not nearly so desperate. I tell you, I don't think we've been that crazy or chaotic in the four years of our marriage. We moved, twice sort of, I got super sick, then Randy got super sick, then Wyatt got super sick (which we nipped in the bud with his first antibiotic). At the same time as we were moving, Randy and his dad put in an awesome fountain at a local dentist' office. So the days off that Randy took to settle in disappeared with earning money for new carpet and all the other things we need to buy. Plus a few other major things that we'll talk about later on.

So for my first post back I'm picking...well, probably not the most important thing of the last month, but one about which I'm VERY excited. We pulled up ugly blue carpet in the living room, hallway, and dining room, revealing really nice wood floors underneath. However, we had no furniture for the living room, so our whole house echoed. I could hear every little move Randy made down the hall in the kitchen every morning. Errrr. Plus, our house felt very blank and unsettled with a large empty room in the middle of it.

Today Wyatt and I took a trip down to Carl's, a discount furniture store one of Randy's co-workers owns downtown. I had never been in, but garage sales have been turning up nothing the last couple weeks. I walked in and saw my couch! Marked down $100, but still more than I had envisioned paying. Just so happens they had a large rug they were selling for $100, which would usually retail for about $300. The two were perfect together, and I think I got a steal of a deal on exactly what I wanted in the living room. They were delivered 30 minutes later, and my living room no longer echoes!

I still need to find something funky for a coffee table - as in, not a traditional coffee table - and a chair, but I can take my time to finish it all. This is just MUCH better!

dear,

vacation, my name is dana. can we please meet? my husband and i will be driving a ford focus with a kansas tag. he'll look desperately tired and i'll look, well, desperate. we don't need much of your time. a weekend will do. please respond soon.

Birthday Fun

My boy is ONE year old! April 26, 2009 he entered our world, changed our lives, and brought more smiles in the last year than I can imagine! I cannot believe how many fun changes happen in one year. It absolutely blows my mind.

Look at the difference! He's a little man already!

We had a mini party with the grandparents. Once we move in to our new house (Friday we close and Saturday we move in!!), we'll have a bigger party with a very big cake. He is such a boy and he dug right into his "1" cake. He didn't actually eat much but in five minutes the cake was destroyed.

Chaotic Calm

We're out of our house.

With the help of some wonderful family and friends, all of our things were loaded onto to two trailers in three hours on Saturday. They now reside in undisclosed locations waiting to be delivered to our next house a week from this next Saturday.

In the meantime, the three of us have taken over my parents house. There are random leftover boxes in the storeroom. Wyatt is sleeping in the walk - in closet in our basement bedroom. And the rest of that basement bedroom is chaos. Until tomorrow morning. Tomorrow morning I'm organizing.

Today my mom had a total knee replacement. My three-year-old nephew was concerned Grandma was getting her knee cut off. She sort of did I guess. The surgery went like the textbooks say my dad said. And my dad, my sweet dad, had all of his favorite co-workers lined up to take the very best care of my mom. Love that guy.

She'll be in the hospital till Thursday. I'm thankful she has two pain pumps. She needed them tonight, and she has the highest pain tolerance of anyone I know.

We'll try to have the house in order when she comes home. Until then....

My Big Boy

This week Wyatt completely emptied the tupperware cupboard. For the past couple of months he has pulled out the basket with the water bottles and some other small plastic. Or he would pull a lid out of the lid basket. Yesterday the whole lid basket came out and then everything else did too. :-) This is "his" cupboard so I don't mind...but today that cupboard got packed.

He also got his haircut today. Mommy was very nervous about this. Wyatt has never been known to sit still for long. But he did a wonderful job.

There were some tears...some big crocodile tears (as you can see in the picture), but we made it with a few cheerios and a toy or two. Don't worry, his hair is still out of control...it's just a bit shorter.

The Two-part Move

In my last post I mentioned that my parent's basement was starting to look like it might be home for awhile, but I didn't say that it actually will be home...for a couple weeks at least. They have graciously opened it up to us because we have about 10 days between the time we have to hand over the keys to our honeymoon house and the time we close on our new house. If they let us, we might stay long enough to clean and redo floors in the house - the great majority of the house has light blue carpet, which really isn't that bad but has created complete decorator's block in my head. It. must. go.

The really amazing thing about God's timing is that my mom is planning to have a total knee replacement a few days before we move in. That means I get to be right there to help her during the hardest 10 days of her recovery. The 10 days before the busyness of moving starts up again. Isn't God perfect in all He does?!?!

It's a gorgeous day outside, but the office look like it's been hit by a tornado. I have to get to work.