Today I Won the Five Star General of Mommies Award

And I'd like to give it back in exchange for my sanity.

Do you know what's funny though--if you're a mom, I'll bet this day sounds pretty familiar. I might even venture to say it's pretty normal. Can you relate?

Child A (who has been named as such to protect her identity) woke up nice and early. This caused her worn out old mother to also rise early (but who tried to steal a few extra minutes by turning on a disney movie on her laptop while they both laid in her bed. Which technically might be cheating as a mother, but I like to think of it as creative.)

The morning goes by pretty smoothly. Then comes naptime. The sacred time for mothers everywhere. Child A breaks the sanctity that is naptime and is heard making noises for an unusually long time after being laid down. Mother decides (after just finishing making her sandwich) she might as well get the child up because it is obvious the baby was not actually ready for a nap if she is still awake an hour later (although not crying until the mother finished making her sandwich).

Mother comes into room. Mother shrieks in horror. Baby is covered in poop. I'm sorry to use that term, but really...well that's what it was. Covered in it. On her face. Up and down her legs, arms, and hands. Caked on and dried. (And that is the part where I felt kinda guilty for not checking on her sooner, but then I was overcome by the horror again and the guilt fled.) All over her blankets and multiple stuffed animals (a stuffed bunny was lost in the filming of this scene. May he rest in peace.) Yeah, you get the idea. Baby A holds out diaper as if this is a great gift for entering mother. Mother shrieks again for good measure, holds baby at arms length as it attempts to cuddle her. Mother deposits now sobbing child into tub and hoses child down about twenty times. Then repeats.

Because all bedding is now either a. poopy, or b. packed in some unknown box, mother has to wash everything and postpone nap. Turns out nap never happens. Sandwich is forgotten until later. Child is cranky all afternoon despite mother trying to get her to lay down on her own bed even letting Child A watch chip and dale cartoons (or "tales" as the offending party calls it).

Ends day in Walmart with sobbing child that eventually conks out on aforementioned mother's cushy purse.

These are just the highlights. Today I earned my motherhood purple heart. And that is mostly because this is the second time this week I have been wounded in "baby-taking-off-her-diaper-in the-crib" combat zone.

What have you done today that earned you your mommy stripes? But I must say, even with all of that, I hugged that baby tight when she was clean and cozy in her jammies tonight and felt like the luckiest mommy in town. I would do it all over again tomorrow for that cutie.

Heck at the rate we're going, I probably will. Now excuse me while I go and sanitize up to my elbows.

I Don't Want to Brag

But I will.

Guess where we're going tonight? Guess who somehow had connections and got us free tickets to a prescreening?

Oh. my. heck. 

Yes...I'm one of those people. See ya slytherins!

p.s. We're finally going to get new carpet after deliberating for weeks. Have been painting and cleaning up a storm. Did a photoshoot (or two). It's been a busy week.

I whisked us on a getaway

Just coming on really quick to say that we're back. Which means that we were gone. Where were we? I'll give you a hint.
Okay, that wasn't so much a hint as a straight up telling you, but oh well. I've been planning this for quite a while now, and did it all behind John's back (and kept it secret from most of my friends too because I was so paranoid it would get back to John somehow). I'll tell you the details on surprising him in my next post, but it was pretty hilarious. We left Maddy with John's parents who came out to watch her, but told John they were coming to help paint and see the new house (which they did as well).

We had a great time. Now we're back to real life and thinking about putting in some flooring ourselves. Has anyone done a floating floor with engineered wood or pergo? If you have tips let us know!

Okay that is my oh so brief update. Look for pics and stories to come. Thanks to John's parents and my awesome friend/ex-companion from the mish Jamie for letting us stay with them. Love ya!

Would you say I have a plethora of paint stories?

Been a bit M.I.A. again from my blog. Still painting is my excuse. We finally painted our master bedroom yesterday and it feel SO much better. It was a dark gray, and they had painted the molding in the room an even darker gray. Plus the walls were FILTHY. Truly gross. It was so nice to slap a clean, light color on top...and not have to worry about drips on the carpet. I think I should only paint in the future if I am going to replace the carpet. It made painting considerably easier. That and this little tool:
It's called an edger and if you've never used one, then you are missing out. It edges things without the need to tape (well we taped a few things) but this cuts down on time considerably. Definitely worth the money--trust me on this.

Anyway, I will post pictures of my bathroom and bedroom once everything is looking a bit less crazy around here. But I do have to say to my Mom that I discovered the perfect color for my room, and I think it's the sort of color you always wanted for your's. A perfect elegant mix of blue and green. Not toothpaste color. I'll look up the name for you later. I did it in half strength and it is perfect. Not too dark and not too light. I am in definite love with the color, which is a good thing since I stood in the Home Depot paint department forever agonizing over two shades that looked "exactly the same" according to John. The man doesn't understand undertones I tell ya.

I have high hopes to be able to paint the upstairs guest bathroom today. We'll see if that pans out. It's harder to paint when John isn't working from home and can keep an eye on Madeline. I'm also going to attempt to paint the cabinets upstairs in the bathroom because they are in kinda sad shape and I want to try it out on those cabinets before deciding if I really might consider doing my kitchen cabinets. (I know I'm a little crazy. But I seriously think they would look better). We shall see!
Oh and I seriously recommend getting the paint with primer included. It saves you coats and goes on so nicely. Such a genius product. I love Behr paint--definitely worth the extra couple of dollars to get Behr.

Oh, and lest I forget, Happy Anniversary to my lovely husband. I could dedicate a whole post to my honey saying why these past four years have been the best of my life, but I think my anniversary/birthday plans will have to show you instead. (Our anniversary is today and John's birthday is on Friday). And it's my year to plan, so I'm excited! Love you sweets!

I Might Start Hunting for Eggs

Because our neighbors apparently have chickens. That they apparently let wander around. Which means any eggs on my property I'm pretty sure are fair game....but seriously...my neighbors have chickens. I was having Honduras flashbacks.
And here are some cute pics of Maddy I took last night (yellow dress) and on her real birthday which we haven't celebrated yet (red dress). Thought I'd post them for fun since I was cleaning off my camera to be ready for a photoshoot.




House stuff is still coming along. I painted the master bathroom and have plans to paint many more rooms. We will be replacing the floors after John's family visits, although we're still trying to decide specifics on that. The only thing that really stinks about replacing your floors (besides it being expensive) is that we don't want to unpack anything else because we'd just have to pack it up again and move it. So I still haven't unpacked a ton of stuff, which is annoying to an OCD personality such as mine.

Lastly, had a very fun fourth of july. My sister and her family came up for lunch, and we had a great time. I got a little too involved with ideas from the Martha Stewart website, so I'll have to show you pictures of the table once I can get them from my other camera. We also watched fireworks from our house (we got quite a good view) and Maddy loved them. She kept saying, "POW! Again! Wow!" Very cute. Not scared in the slightest.

Well I guess that's it. I feel like I'm forgetting something big that happened this weekend, but I guess not. All that I know is that this should be a fun week--John's parents are coming into town to help paint, see the new house, etc. all in time for John's birthday and our anniversary. Lots of fun things are on their way. How about you? If not, you can always come over to my house to search for eggs too. :)

Garbage Boxes and Red Doors

So we finally have water, and thanks to the efforts of some wonderful people, we also have a working air conditioner (without having to pay the professionals hundreds of bucks). I think we have had a guardian angel watching over us...that and some family and friends saying a few prayers on our behalf. So thank you times a million. I was a bit of a stress case this past week (er month).

So with the addition of water and cool air to our house, all of the sudden I am deeply in love with it. Don't get me wrong, it still needs a TON of work and we just found out that the carpets cannot stay (four words....dogs are disgusting creatures--or I simply would blame it on their less than stellar owners who apparently allowed them to occasionally pee on the floor), but I digress--I love this house. There is so much to love, and the fixing up stuff makes us appreciate it all that much more.

Ah ah ah says Martha. Don't use my name in vain. Or even associate it with your garbage boxes (you'll see what I mean in a second).

Anyway, people have been clamoring for pictures, but I have wanted to wait until things look amazingly martha stewartess. But then I realized that that kind of thinking is dumb. How will you appreciate the martha stewartyness of the house if you have not seen the absolute disaster it is currently? Yeah...that's how much I love you guys. I'm showing you my unpacked house in all its not glory. But only a few rooms. And to give myself some self esteem, I'm also showing you the door that I painted gloriously red (as I have always wanted to do) because we had to replace the hardware and I wanted to paint it eventually. So we just did them at the same time. I love it so much I want to marry it. yeah...that much. I hope you like the before's and afters of the door, and look forward to the afters of the whole house someday soon.

And lastly as a sort of p.s. we had to buy another baby monitor because our original one broke and this house is kinda big so we wouldn't have been able to hear maddy. So it has been a while since we have had a monitor and listening to the things she does before she falls asleep is hilarious. So far we have heard her tell herself a story about Cinderella that goes something like this: "A'rella (indistiguishable baby chatter) Rella go (more chatter) Rella do'd it (more cute chatter." And then we heard her humming to herself. So cute. I wonder what goes on in the mind of a two year old sometimes.

Wish we could bibbidy bobbedy boo our house!

Okay...ready for the long-winded/many-photo'ed tour? Here goes.

I'm only giving you a peak through the blinds of my kitchen. But it is my mostest favorite room in the house. Compared to my townhouse kitchen, this one is the Taj Majal of hugeness. That's right...two people can fit...at the same time.
So as to disillusion you right away about the glamour of my new house, there are still "garbage boxes" everywhere. You know...the boxes that you emptied only to fill with garbage. We are so classy.
Assorted junk on our couch. But can you spy the fireplace? Oh and one of my D.I. find chairs. Lovely.
I'm just so proud of this. John has been quite the handy guy, and he installed these lovely towel holders. He even picked them out, and I love them. This is actually the smallest and least dangerous of the handy things he has had to figure out this past week, but it's the most glamorous looking.We have stairs that go up and stairs that go down. I know you're thrilled.

We still have millions of boxes to unpack. But what beat them all out? Setting up the pool. We do own a toddler still you know. Pools in the summer are a must.These are in the front.

So is this pretty rose.
I also spotted them. They didn't come with the house, so I think I'll keep them.
Out of focus, but cute.
Slam dunk with her new bath toy. Aunt Kelly gave us the idea for this toy.

Okay, here are a bunch of before pics of the door. I'm a little too obsessed.

Here's a good idea of what the front looked like. Ho hum.
WOW you say. PIZZAZ you say. I agree I say.
I was nervous that it would be the right shade of red. But I love it.
Close up of the hardware that John put on. I think it looks nifty.So again, the front of the house with the old door.
And the front of the house with the new door. That concludes our tour for tonight. Please feel free to lavish praise on my door and daring use of garbage boxes as decor. And yes, you may copy me. Garbage boxes are very cheap and will fill in that space that you just don't know what to do with. You're welcome. :)

Just coming on quickly to thank everyone that came and helped. It was a stressful and LONG day (didn't finish unpacking the truck the last time until 10:30), and the city didn't turn on our water despite our having paid etc. So we had to stay at a hotel that first night and are now staying with my sister in salt lake at night while trying to unpack during the day (with bathroom/slurpee breaks brought to you by the local Maverick). Also, the air conditioner decided to not work since that first day. So, it has not been what I would call an ideal move, but I'm sure we'll be able to laugh about it some day.

Hope everyone is having a luckier weekend than the Savages and we'll see you around.