Too Kid Friendly?

So I consider my house to be pretty kid friendly. It is fairly well baby-proofed, there are lots of toys all around, it has a big circular floor plan for them to run around, the couches are comfy, and we even have a climber with slide in the living room. I like that kids warm pretty quickly here. Yet, it never fails that whenever I babysit within 30 mins of coming the kids ALWAYS poop. Just happened now. This kid had never even been here before and within 10 min she pooped. Now hey, I am cool with changing diapers, it happens. But does it have to happen every time with every kid? I thought that kids generally don't like pooping in new places. Max's girlfriend Claudia and her sisters all have to poop on a visit here. Perhaps I need to de-friendly the place. Or at least maybe get rid of the fish stickers on the guest bathroom door.

Easter

Ears

Mae had another ear infection. SAD!


I would just like to remind everyone that I look that way because I am seven months pregnant.

Away

So up until last week the longest time I had spent away from the kids since Mae was born was about 12 hours and that was when I had the stomach flu last month and was puking in the bathroom. I needed a break and preferably one with Jeff. My adorable and wonderful friend Dandi has been offering to watch my kids for awhile and we finally took her up on it last Thursday. After Max's swim and gymnastics class on Thursday, Dandi came over with her two children Corben and Lillian, (almost the same ages as Max and Mae.) They all spent the night at our house while Jeff and I drove two hours to Branson, MO. Now we had thought about just staying in town, but we decided that it would be less of a getaway if we did. Jeff found us this wonderful resort that had an in suite jacuzzi and fireplace. The t.v. even swiveled from the bed to the Jacuzzi. I could have spent the rest of my life in the walk in shower. I did not want to leave! The night we were there a crazy thunderstorm hit the place, but it was warm enough that we just sat on our private balcony and watched the lightening. It was so wonderful to wake up and not worry about getting the kids. Sad that it was such a short amount of time, but I am glad we got it. I can't imagine we will ever have the opportunity to get away again.

Vacation

So Jeff and I have a hoarding problem. We hoard vacation days. We are always so worried about running out that we often have a bunch to burn before his year resets in May. Usually it is only one or two days, but this year we had six days to burn. Jeff took five of them this past week and just stayed at home to work on projects around the house. We also got away for a day and went to a lovely resort in Branson without the kids. I made an effort to keep the kids out of the house in the mornings so that Jeff could work undisturbed on his projects and then we spent the afternoons together. He worked a lot on the basement.

As many of you may remember out house has a full basement, a rarity for this area of Arkansas, and it was finished at one time. The previous owner who foreclosed on the house was trying to remodel by; adding a laundry room, (which I hate and will take out as soon as my washer and dryer die,)closing off the big bonus room, sorta adding a giant window, and removing all the carpet. But the guy never finished so it has been a slow work in progress for us. Jeff has removed a wall, we had a professional remove the window and Jeff has been moving light fixtures and filling holes. Lots of sanding and patching and just yucky dusty work. So I don't really have any pictures of that since it isn't finished, but heaven help us some day.

The week actually started with the preceding weekend and an impromptu trip to my favorite place, the associate store. We went for plants, which we got, but it turned out they were having a furniture sale. Normally everything there is half off retail price but that day the furniture was half off the half off. So we got a dresser, which we had been shopping around for, for only 50 bucks and enough wood laminate to re floor the playroom, (which currently has weird industrial grade outdoor carpet.)
The dresser Jeff put together on Saturday, and man was it bigger and heavier then we thought it would be; really nice and matches our bedroom much better then the previous one which will now be Spikes.


Monday and Tuesday Jeff worked mostly on the basement, taking some time out to mow the lawn. Wednesday was my day. Jeff replaced the faucet, shower head, and shower curtain rod in my bathroom. I love my house, but there is a distinct disadvantage to buying an older home. Items like the faucets, hinges, handles and towel racks are all old and ugly. Now you would think that would be an easy thing to change, and it is, but it adds up to be a pretty penny.

They had a deal on faucets at Lowes a few weeks ago and and we picked up a few. They are pretty, but I am a bit sad that the they must be LOW FLOW!
Same for the shower head. I need me some water pressure stat, but if I can just get used to it then it will be a good thing cause out water rates in Bella Vista are insane.
The shower curtain is one of those nice bowed ones which really makes the shower feel larger. It did take a lot more work then we had intended though, Jeff had to drill some holes?!? But it is all good now.
The rod and the head were both associate store purchases that I had been holding on to for some time waiting for Jeff to get the time to install them, (I will soon post as to why I leave the Home Improvement up to Jeff, or as to why I suck at projects. It will have lots of funny/pathetic picture.)

Saturday after our trip, next post, we took a trip to Lowes and Jeff bought me my birthday presents; shelves for my bedroom, and a strip of wood for my kitchen. That is actually what I said I wanted. We have a full walk in closet in the bedroom, but then we also have this weird closet of almost wasted space in the room too.
We really hadn't been using it to its full potential, but then Jeff installed these shelves and now I am good to go.
Now when our washer and dryer give out one day, I want to convert this closet into the laundry closet with a stack able washer and dryer so I can stop hauling laundry up and down the stairs! Now the wood thing sounds weird, but the previous owner was working on the kitchen when he foreclosed and you can tell he did the cabinets himself. The cabinets under the sink have had this nasty open space below that just collected yucky dirt and I could never keep it clean. It just looked bad. So Jeff got the piece to fix it and it just feels good to have it taken care of.

So looking at all the pictures I can tell that it probably doesn't look like much to anyone else, but I feel like I am in a whole new house. It is all these little things that add up and take us one step closer to having the house the way we want it.

Things That Must Go XIV

1. The hand chaser: Mae has this annoying habit of following each bite of any food with her hand. In goes the spoon then the hand. She wants the full sensory experience I guess. But inevitably the hand then gets wiped on my pants. So many times during the day the lap area of my pants has a nice yogurt stain. Good Times.

2. Line worriers: You know those plastic sticks at the grocery store checkout line that are used by patrons to divide the purchases of each person; well recently I have noticed that people are ferocious about getting those in place around me. People seem to be so terrified that the cashier will make a mistake and accidentally ring up my stuff with theirs, and that someone who is not supposed to will pay for the wrong purchases. Cause you know that these mistakes can NEVER be fixed, and no one is allowed to talk in line and prevent the mistake that way! I am not opposed to the sticks, just the fierceness with which they have been slammed down recently.

3. "Thank you for all that you do." This is from Jeff. This phrase is apparently very overused at his work place. It makes him really irritated so much so that all his coworkers tease him about it when someone sends it in an email. I totally get Jeff's point though. I mean it is such a lazy statement. And do they really mean it- no. Cause really it would mean, thank you for the hard work that you do at work and for the time you spend at home viewing pornography or watching NASCAR at home, (hmmm not that I in any way equate the two, just making a point.) So lets be specific in our praise people.

Socks

Yesterday was a bad day. It was just really bad. Bad things happened. It all turned out okay in the end, but you know just one of those days. Early in the morning I was out with the kids and Mae was throwing a fit. On the car ride home she was crying and I was crying. Poor Max was stuck in the car with two crying women. He more then rose to the occasion, knowing Mae's love of socks and shoes he took off his boots and handed her his socks in hopes that it would cheer her up. It didn't do too much for her in her anger, but it sure made me appreciate how special my little guy is and how blessed I am to have him.

Broken

So in the last three months we have had the following big items break. The car, (battery, transmission, front axle, front tires,) the plasma t.v., the PlayStation 3, and now the garage door. Seriously??!? I suppose I should be very grateful that most of these happened in the last month so that we didn't have to deal with the car problems in the snow. Now the warranty on the car covered most of the costs and Jeff actually fixed the t.v. himself, (because my husband is super awesome and is even more so with a soddering gun and when properly motivated.) I suppose I should also be grateful that this all happened durning tax refund/bonus time, but seriously this sucks. And let us not forget that during this time Jeff and I have had the stomach flu twice, and Mae has had two double ear infections. I am super paranoid about what is gonna break next. I just hope it isn't one of the kids.