Progress

That's right, we are making some headway. Well that's me being optimistic, but really, here is what we have done. Complete with iphone pics.

1. John installed a cat door. This is amazing. He is so handy now, and I LOVE it. I want to get that guy a tool belt. There's nothing hotter than a guy that knows how to hang a towel rod or take apart the vacuum to get it working again.

2. Cleaned a couple of bathrooms. Discovered the awesomeness that is Pandora.com

3. Finished Madeline's room (technically did this yesterday. Still needs a few finishing touches). Will post pics once done. I'm a perfectionist.

4. Put ebay hardware onto the $10 dresser I found at the thrift store. Wanna see? It's so awesome. Try not to be jealous of my (to use the term of my best friend) freak awesome dresser. You can try, but you will fail. Here is a before and after--well at least of one of the drawers. The handles before were wood. Also, the baskets I added not only because they are cute, but because a drawer was missing (hence the price tag), so I took out the mirror imaged drawer on the other side, spray painted the interior and took out the interior drawer rail hardware and put baskets in both sides. Come on, admit that it was ingenius. I know. :) (I'm sorry I'm so cocky about this dresser, but I love it. Bytheway, ebay is a great place to buy cheap hardware).

5. Worked on my cousin Lori's family/baby photos. That baby is so darn cute. He was giving me these killer smiles the entire time. The hard part with this photoshoot is narrowing it down. But I don't mind because I like Lori and the whole family is so photogenic. See example of adorable baby below.

(I'm obsessed with these hat pictures if you can't tell. So. Darn. Cute.)
6. Part of our fence went up a couple days ago. Now they are letting the concrete cure/dry. Well that's what I assume since they haven't been back for a while.

7. Cleaned my floors.

8. Played with Maddy, went to the pool with my great friend Missy yesterday. Went to book club for this book. We watched a movie instead of discussing like we usually do. Very fun.

Be forewarned that you will cry if you watch this one. I practically had sobbing convulsions (quietly so as to not alert fellow book clubbers. Hey, I have a repuation to protect). I didn't read the book and didn't know the ending (hey, this is the first book I didn't read, so I think I'm doing pretty good!) What a tear jerker--but excellent movie and hostessing by friend Gabrielle. p.s. We do have openings for more members if you're interested and are a Tooele-ite. Just fyi.

9. Our carpet is ordered. Of course it will take "about ten days" for it to come in. So I am waiting patiently. If patiently means that I'm not crying, then I'm waiting very patiently.

10. Painted trim in one of the bedrooms (a few days ago as well). And so much more. But I like listing what we've done. It makes me feel like it's okay that my house is still in boxes. I'm waiting for my carpet like I waited for Christmas when I was a kid. Can't wait!

So are you bored? I know, sorry! But this is the day to day. And I like it. Progress.

Are you an addict too...err, I mean, I don't know what you're talking about

This morning I hopped onto CNN where I pretend like I'm looking for real news about the world, but really am always sucked in by stories like these that are no where near real news. Why does Oprah even have links on cnn? Anyway I found it to be an interesting article about how to know if you are a praise junkie. It got me thinking. So I took their quiz to find out. (Which kinda reminded me of those quizzes you take in Seventeen magazine when you're a teenager to know if he really likes your, or if you're the friend that everyone is embarassed to have, but I digress).

So I won't tell you the answer, because that's akin to telling you my actual weight versus what I tell the DMV. But, it did cause me to reflect a little. Is a blog the praise seekers outlet? A way to feel validated and cared for without leaving the comfort of your own home? The home you aggrandize and post pictures of, of course.

Be sure to leave me a comment and tell me what you think...and lavish praise on me about how cool this post really is. Because honestly I don't really care if you do...I don't care one way or the other. But. Be sure to comment. (I think this praise thing is a lot like humility...if you think you have it you don't?)

oh and if you don't get the hint of sarcasm dripping on this post, I have a car I want to sell you. Well actually a mattress, but still.

I Feel a Sob Coming On...

Hey, good news, our baby is officially a toddler. Oh wait, that is TERRIBLE news. My baby is no longer a baby! She is sleeping in a bed of toddler proportions! My little baby is all grown up. I feel a sob coming on.

She slept in her toddler bed for naptime and for bedtime twice and she has not gotten out of her little bed at all. I am proud. And feeling bittersweet about it of course. That's the duty and prime directive of every mother. (And yes, I just used a Star Trek term. We all know that Star Trek has many lessons that apply to motherhood. Just ask Captain Jean Luc Picard.)

Anywho, I think this means I need to have another baby. What do you think? Psyche!, I am not asking you. Nor am I telling you any sort of announcement. Please don't show up at my house with pink and blue balloons. But I am feeling the empty arms of a mother whose baby is growing up way too fast. One day they are sleeping in your arms, the next day they are measuring your molding. Oh where do the years go by?

And the winner is...

Number 8. Which was my dear friend Anne. Congrats Anne, I will be giving you your secret prize when I see you for your wedding. I'm sure you'll have plenty of space and time to haul even more stuff home, right?? :) I would tell you your prize, but I haven't decided what it will be yet. And, whatever it is...it's in my van right now. So when I decide I'll let everyone know. :)

Mostly I'm coming on to blog because I am waiting downstairs for Maddy to emerge from her "room." We are still working on the wainscoting (it really is a challenge when one person has to watch Maddy, and the other has to work on the project), and we wanted to keep working tonight. But since the project is Maddy's room, and the best time to work would technically be when she's asleep...well that wasn't working out so well. So we decided to move up the schedule on putting her in her "big girl bed." Aka her toddler bed. We were going to start putting her in her toddler bed once her room was finished anyway because John has caught her trying to climb out of her crib once or twice (though not successfully). We're nervous that she'll plop herself on her head, so we've been trying to hurry up this project. Anyway, to make this long story even longer, her crib doesn't fit through doors, so instead we set up her toddler bed in the basement (with her special lamp etc.) and put her in. She loved it at first, and couldn't wait to get back into it after her bath, but we know she will probably emerge several times tonight. She has already come out once (I think she was scared), but went back without a fight and I tucked her in with a kiss and a book. So now I have to keep sitting here for at least the rest of the hour until I am satisfied that she is asleep, and then I'll go and help John upstairs with the banging and gluing and everything else. Wish us luck with this toddler bed business!
*actual carpet installer may appear different in real life.


Oh, and we finally put in our order for carpet. We are doing our house in stages since it is kinda pricey to replace all of the flooring in your house at once (ya think??) :) So we are doing the basement, our room, and all of the stairs to begin. We are going to wait on the carpet on the main level and top level (the main level being one of the worst areas---we are trying to do the worst rooms first) but since we eventually just want to pull up the carpet on the main level and do the whole main level (minus our room) in laminate or wood, we are going to wait. So I went to Ikea today (and saw my friend Lindy, hilarious story about that) and bought a rug so we can at least live with that room until we save up some money to replace it. I love the rug. I wasn't sure if it would be too traditional, but it is the perfect color with my couch and chairs. Almost like I planned it that way...but um, it was dumb luck kinda.
Here's what the carpet looks like. Very not my usual style, but it looks pretty darn good!

Also bought some cheap Ikea glasses that I am going to replace all of my other glasses with because 1. they stack, and 2. they are cute, and 3. they are sturdy little fellas. Oh, and did I mention they were $2.99 for a pack of six? I think that's pretty outstanding.
These are the glasses. They are from Ikea's 365 line in case you wanted to try them.

The last time I went I bought just one pack to try them out, and loved them so much I bought two more this trip. You should give Ikea glasses a try if you haven't already.

Okay, I really am droning on. Sorry about that. I just love a trip to Ikea. Also got Maddy some bedding from there instead of my much sighed over Pottery Barn bedding set. I just couldn't justify the expense at this point. But I'm not ruling it out forever. It does have a special place in my heart. I'll just have to save up, or ask for it for my birthday. LoL, that's sad, isn't it? I want my daughter's bedding for my birthday. Maddy could care less about her bedding, and I'm asking for it for my birthday. It's pathetic, you don't have to tell me. :) I'm sure if someone were to psychoanalyze mothers that go overboard on their daughter's rooms, it would turn out that they were creating the dream room that they always wanted when they were little. Or something like that. (Although I had cute rooms growing up...so don't take that the wrong way Mom!)
This is the bedding I bought Maddy. Basically it's a bunch of animals driving around various vegetables and teacups. Very Richard Scary, but sweeter looking. So...I guess that makes it Richard Sweety? I couldn't resist that lame joke. I apologize.

Well I guess that's it. Someday this house will be unpacked and painted and decorated. I can't wait for that day to come, because then I am going to invite everyone and their mother over for a party, because I am missing my Tooele friends. Even though I'm only a few blocks away, I realize now how much I counted on going to Church to see people. So I miss all of you Overlake 3rd ward people. As soon as the new carpet is in and we are unpacked, you are all invited. Goodnight!

p.s. We've been so busy that we had to hire a subcontractor. She's not too good, but the price is right.
p.p.s. She did this by herself, without any prompting, which makes her the cutest baby in the world. Also, it shows that we have probably been neglecting her. But we'll stick with that first one.

Warning, truly truly Random Post (Plus Giveaway) Because I'm Cool times 300

Somebody told me that this is my 300th post (my husband). I think that would mean (if I was famous) that I would have a giveaway of some sort to make you all realize how even more awesome I am. Which honestly, sounds pretty great. So let's do a giveaway. If you know me and are reading this and want to win one of my "rejected treasures" (aka things that are incredibly awesome but didn't get bought at the consignment shop) leave me a comment telling me why I should write 300 more posts in the future. :) The prize will be a surprise, but I can guarantee it will be retro chic. You can leave a comment even if I don't know you. In fact, that would make me feel even more famous and fabulous and willing to write 300 more posts. Lurkers (if there are any of you out there), delurk!

Maybe you have been downtrodden at my lack of posting. I understand. I am downtrodden as well. Mostly because 1. I want my house to be unpacked, 2. I want my new flooring to be in (can I tell you how many estimates this house has had? One more tomorrow. Hopefully the last and the cheapest one). 3. I want a homemade blueberry muffin. I made some the other day with fresh and frozen blueberries, and I have to say that the fresh ones really did blow the frozen variety out of the water (I didn't have enough to do the whole recipe in fresh). It was kinda cool to see the difference. The fresh berries practically melted into the dough as gooey sweet/sour patches of deliciousness. Oh, and there was a struesel topping. I know. My heart just stopped too. So good.

Actually, I lied, I'm not downtrodden at all. Today is a good day. Maddy and I are hanging out, and when your house is a mess and there's nothing you can do about it (because again of the floors) it's kinda liberating. I'm pretty much supposed to have a messy house. I could get used to this.

But don't think I haven't been up to nothing. Pictures to come--fabulous glossy white wainscoting molding is going up in Madeline's room (which was painted strawberry yogurt pink--I know, pink is so cliche, but I couldn't help myself), bathroom is painted as was the vanity (as were many other rooms really), we finally hauled away some (just some) of the junk they left behind from the backyard--there's more in the garage. (Maybe my giveaway should have been that! lol, I wouldn't do that do you....), and lots of other stuff. We really have been busy folks. I guess that's what happens to everyone during the summer.

And to end this random post, two more random events that I'm happy about: my best friend of college days is getting married in about two weeks, and my best friend of mission days just had her little baby girl (their first) and I am SO happy for them! James, if you're reading this, I hope you're getting some sleep and can't wait to see pictures! (No seriously...when do I get a picture??). Okay, this random post has to end. Don't forget to enter my little giveaway. Like I said, retro chic. Almost as cool as homeless chic. :) I will choose the winner by this Saturday. So enter before then. Oh and to inspire you, here are a few images of some of my treasures in the past. And don't be shy to enter, even if you don't live close!




p.s. Small clarification--these pics are just of things I have found in the past--these are not the things that are potentially up for grabs (these have all sold, except for maybe the popcorn bowls, I can't remember if those have). These are just to whet your appetite for the surprise prize. It's like getting one of those grab bags at the dollar store. You never know what you're gonna get!

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. :)