yakking & before & after

Let me introduce you to our office.  This is the closet in the office.  It is overstuffed, unorganized, under appreciated, & a bad use of space.

This is one view of one side of the room.  I had re purposed a dresser we got at an estate sale 11 years ago.  I first painted it white & put a changing pad on top and it was Isabellla & Jack's changing table before we had a changing table built.  Then  after it's life as a changing table we (and by "we" I mean Donovan) painted it black and it became a craft/gift wrapping area/catch all. But what I was really needing/wanting was a work space/table. 

The other side of the room.  Donovan's desk. 

And here's the after........We (o.k actually Donovan) painted the walls.  Not sure if you can tell that.  The room went from a light blue to a slate grey.  I love the rich tone it now has. 

We sold the old dresser, & found this beauty at Ikea a few weeks ago.  Donovan had drawn up plans to build a desk/storage work table....but when we found this in the scratch/dent section for less than 1/2 of what it would be to have Donovan build it.....It was sold!

Here's another view of the storage underneath the desk.  Love it!

Donovan's  desk got some clean up....and he built a shelf to hang above it.  He also added some indirect lighting I had picked up at a garage sale.  Some Ikea lights still new in box that attach to the underside of the shelf.  Thanks Chelsea! :)

The closet got an overhaul as well.  Cleaned up some on the shelves.  Did some de-crapp-ifying.  And painted the back wall.  The cool design is an idea I saw from another blog, and found a simular looking  stencil at Michael's.  With a 50% off coupon.  Boo-ya!  Also had hubbers build a shelf to have as a cutting table. 

Cutting as in a paper cutter.  See that cool little organizer underneath the shelf?  That holds 12 X 12 paper...a great find at another great garage sale. Thanks Kim!  So I have a place all set up to cut....and the scraps go where you ask?  In that nifty organizer sitting on the shelf.  Again, thanks Kim.  And yes, I keep them.  If I am making a small square gift tag I hate to throw the rest of the paper away.  Don't you?  

So there you have it.  Joy Joy Joy.  I can hardly keep myself from going in there and creating something.  However, it's been impossible this week.  Jack woke us up with throwing up Monday night, not realizing he had thrown up in his sleep Monday night.  He woke up & went to the bathroom to wipe his mouth, "because it tasted funny."  We heard him up, and when Donovan went to check on him saw that his back and neck were covered in vomit.  He never realized he had thrown up.  Poor thing.

 Donovan stripped his top bunk & went out back to the patio to hose off the throw up chunks.  Me?  Let's say I don't do well well with vomit.  I worked on a little nest on our bedroom floor, for Jack to sleep in.  We got all settled about midnight and Jack asks, "mom & dad, Can you keep talking??  I don't want to fall asleep."  What????  Are you kidding???  Welp.  He was worried he would throw up again in his sleep.  :(  About 3 a.m. he started yakking again.....thank Heavens he made IT in the bucket. 

 By morning he tried a little cream O' wheat....and that came up too.  So Tuesday's plans were cancelled.  And home we stayed.  By evening he seemed to do better.  But at the breakfast table this morning he neglected to bring his ice cream bucket to the table...and out came his hot tea.  All. Over. The table.  After it had been down in his tummy.  I might add that this morning started with William coming in saying he had thrown up in the sink.  Thank you dear son, for getting to the sink! 

 My glass 1/2 empty son said, "I bet he didn't really throw up.  He's just faking it to get to stay home like me."  And to be honest, I saw no evidence of yakking in the sink and had my doubts.  But he looked a little green, so on the couch he went.  Plans cancelled.  Called my boss to say I couldn't be on call today.  Which made me sad.  Sad to not get to go in and take care of little babies.  Sad that the boys were sick.  Sad to cancel plans to go into one of my children's classroom today.  Sad to be stuck at home.  Sad & sorry for myself pretty much sums it up.       

So about an hour after Suzy went to school, I had the boys get in the van with their buckets sitting on their laps, to take Isabella to school.  And if I had doubts earlier...there was no doubt in my mind as I started to put the van in reverse.  Here it came.  As we were running late.  I had William borrow Jack's bucket while I went to clean out the 3 separate deposits of puke William had in his bucket.  While sister bear yells, "WE'RE GOING TO BE LATE!!"  Sorry little lady.  I can NOT smell that all the way to school. 

And that's been my day.  I've went through 1/2 of a bottle of bleach, working hard to clean cabinets, knobs, light switches, washing sheets, sweeping & moping floors, and an occasional story on the couch......reading to 2 boys that are improving with each passing hour.  We're going on 9 hours with no yakking.  And for that I am thankful. 



shuckers

So I thought I would have more time to blog once my kids were all in school, turns out while the mice are away the cat likes to play.

And work and earn money.

So, I wanted to recap the what happened around here over the last summer.  So if the "cat" does stay home long enough....I may upload my little blog & print a blog book for my coffee table.  Gracious~I don't want to forget all the highlights of the summer of twenty-eleven. 

So for starters....Open up and say ahhhh.   

Jack had to get an expander fall of 2010, because apparently his mouth is NOT big enough.  This is a hereditary thing so lucky us, two down, two to go. 

It was pretty unhandy esp since the way it is attached to the back teeth, would not allow him to put his teeth together.  There was a gap, as you see modeled in the above picture.  :(  I don't think he thought much of it at first.  He was pretty excited to be starting orthodontics.  But as time went on he became self conscious and looking back as last years school picture shows he was very embarrassed of his smile that didn't close.  :(  When I asked why he closed his lips for his school picture he explained he hates how his teeth don't go together.  It was also hard for him to pronounce words correctly & harder to eat. 

But in February of this last year, the expander came out.  Braces went on the bottom and then later this summer braces on the top.  Yeah, for expander's that did the job & come out!!! 

And we also celebrated another thing with Jack....

He turned 9! on June 15th.  We let him invite 2 friends over and they did this:

A 72 foot slip and slide, good ol' dad made for them.  With water and baby soap to make sure it was nice and slippery.  My cousin scored the construction plastic...so it was FREE to us.  It offered several hours of fun for the afternoon.      

What a blast (for them)

Some of us caught the view from the porch and pool.  :)

After the water and fun....we had one of Jack's favorite lunches.  Hot dogs & hamburgers, Doritos, chips and pop.  Yep.   

After lunch we Donovan made a treasure hunt for them.

The last card invited them to come in for snow cones.  And a giant chocolate chip cookie "birthday cake"

I love this boy.  He makes our life so much fun.  He adds a lot of humor to our family.  While he strong will amazes & confuses me I know just where he got it. 

And then we end each birthday with a naked measurement.  No, not really it was just before bed and I realized that we had not marked his height on our door growth chart....he DOES have shorts on....just not that you can see.  Opps.  So he's at 4' 8" already he has grown since June! He gained another 1/2 inch since then!!!  He's growing so fast. 

Quote of the day:  Although caution it's rated PG-13 for language. 

Suzy loves to say "OH SHUCKERS!" when something doesn't go right.

  She adds the "er" to Shucks. 

 She's tricky like that.

She gets that from me.

 

So last night she starts starts rhyming things with "Shuckers"

Which was o.k.

Until she replaced the "sh" with an "f"

That pretty much was a show stopper at supper last night.  We all stopped and stared at her.  Poor thing.  So innocent, so sweet. 

We were all taken back and just stared at her. 

Until Jack pipes up and say, "No no you don't say that...that's a bad word" In a very authoritative voice.

To which she quickly realized it must have been severe that it stopped the world around the supper table last night.  She instantly got big tears in her eyes. 

Talk about Awkward & Awesome.   But mostly just awkward.