Work, work, work

We are chipping away.  Still have C's room to do, but trying to wait b/c he cried when I put a hard hat in a box.  He liked to play w/this hard hat we keep in the basement w/outside work equips.  He started boo-hooing over it.  So I don't want to pack up much of his stuff, but I might get in there tomorrow and pack up his clothes--he won't care about that at all.  He's been really good, and my girlfriends have been AMAZING!  They have been taking turns watching him in the mornings.  He was with someone last Wed, Fri, and yesterday.  He might be going somewhere tomorrow and Friday.  Thank you, thank you, thank you all you amazing women.  I hope to be able to return the favor some day or at least pay it forward.  It has been a huge blessing.  My mom is here helping me and she's a cleaning demon.  We really can't do a whole lot more until Thursday and Friday, but we keep finding things to work on.

Packing Progress Update

All items off the walls
Spackled, sanded, and repainted the holes in the wall
Packed all large items from the walls like large pictures/art etc.
Started packing small art, pottery, picture frames, and all (I mean all from every room-everything except lamps and a couple other things is staged and ready to go.
All stuff if down off the kitchen cabinets (a favorite display area)
Curtains all down except dining room (it doesn't have blinds so it's staying up until next week, but I do need to take down the second rod in that room)
Sewing cabinet /slash loaner buffet all unpacked and repacked as my own possessions ready for my parents to pick up.
Books all ready to be packed.

To do list for tonight:
Pack all the rest of the prettys
Take down the 2nd curtain rod in the dining room, you know the piggy back kind that lets you put up a second curtain-like a sheer w/a solid panel.
Pack the books
Seal/move around things in the basement.

Yes, this might be ambitious and I might not get it all done, but I'm feeling fired up.  Must be all the Pepsi and M&Ms I've consumed.

Parenting 101

So check out my mad parenting skills:

Yes, this is a 21 month old w/a slushy.  Yes, it is his very own slushy complete w/giant straw.  The good news is he was more interested in the straw than the slushy.  I would say he drank about 1-2 oz of it.  It was a real fruit one, so that's better than horrible for him. 

This is what we did when we had to leave the house for a showing today for 20 minutes.  When we got home he poked a hole through the cup w/the straw.  Luckily we were outside, so the mess wasn't so bad. 

On a positive side: I got everything off the walls (but holes not patched).  I started packing up the pictures and breakables. I also knocked down the birds' nest (the 3rd time) myself, well once myself, but third time in that spot in 10 days.

Birds, moving, and allergies are conspiring against me

Birds:  They keep building underneath our deck (that's raised above our walkout basement).  It has been cleared away twice in 1 week, and built back every time.  If you recall I'm SUPER scared of birds, so I am too much of a weenie to get rid of them myself, so I'm not sure what to do this time.  I need to put something up there to deter them obviously, but I'm not sure what.  I'm also not sure who I'm going to beg to take it down this time. 

Moving:  Do I really need to say anything about this?  We are moving May 1 on our own, so I have 10 days to get everything ready.  I'll be doing it all on my own except for a couple of days that my mom will be helping and when Scott will be coming.  We have some hired help coming to do the heavy lifting, but the packing and cleaning part is all mine.  I just need to get started.  Once I get started I'm sure I'll be a force of nature, but I keep delaying.  Partially b/c we keep having people come look at the house. 

Allergies:  Poor C has been really affected this spring.  It's awful.  He has watery eyes, a runny nose, and is constantly sneezing.  I've been giving him Claritin w/minimal success.  He seems pretty miserable.  This adds to the difficulty of moving.

Nursery makeover

So, as a last ditch effort I'm scrapping all of our family photos that are out in the open in our house.  I have to work some psychological magic on the peeps.  We have made 7-8 different people's top 3 lists, but have yet to receive an offer.  Always a bridesmaid never a bride if you will.  So basically we're willing to try anything.  I need to do something with our picture collage on our wall--not sure what w/o spending money or leaving holes in the wall, but all other photos are gone.  I'm probably getting ready to get rid of a few other things as well. Even though we NEVER receive negative feedback we don't know what else to do. 

Here is what I did with C's room. Here's the before pic (from several months ago-we had photos of c on the wall).

Here's the new look

Don't mind the crooked frames, please.  This was free and I did it in about 30 min.  If I was doing it for someone else I would have been more particular w/scale and drawing. 

Scrapbook letters on scrapbook paper in one frame.

Free hand sports silhouettes on scrapbook paper.  Notice the waggly lines.  Scott helped me.  I evidently have no skills in drawing sports stuff.  I'm not an artist any way, but really terrible w/sporting equipment. 

I think it turned out really cute.  Best of all it was quick and FREE.  I just used paper I already had, and put it in the frames w/the pictures I wanted to take down.  Success I think.

Bucket head

So he woke up Friday from his nap and put this Easter basket on his head. It stayed there for almost an hour.  Not the strangest except we went out.  We went to pick up Scott and gpa to go out to eat w/friends.  So they got a surprise by his "hat" and he still kept it on.  Then we got to the restaurant.  He walked out of the car, to the restaurant, through the restaurant, through to the outside area all w/this basket on his head.  It was hilarious to see other people's reactions.  He finally took it off when he was playing in the outside area.  It was our first time taking him out for dinner in over 2 months b/c it's gotten too miserable.  He was actually really good.  We were there almost 2 hours, and had not tantrums.  He did try to get up eat some other people's food outside.  Near miss.  Because of the outside area he was pretty happy.  The other 2 kiddos did great as well.  We pushed him hard this weekend--meaning he missed a lot of sleep--but he was so good.  This means we will probably have a couple of rough days coming up. 

Did I mention he loves horses now?  We took him to Suson Park to check out the horse, and he loved it.  But of course, not pictures--bad mom.

Easter Weekend Pictures

So here are the highlights from our Easter festivities.  I didn't get photos from everything.  Sometimes I just forget to take pictures. 

Dying the eggs

Hunting eggs at church on Saturday

More hunting

Enjoying the loot.  He actually left this on his finger until we took it off for his lunch.  We let him keep it on his tray.  He would eat a little bit, and then he would lick his ring pop a few times and then start all over.  He loved hunting eggs.  I wasn't sure he'd get it, but he definitely did.  We hunted them at the house on Easter Sunday also. 

Checking out his basket in bed.

Looking for the dyed eggs around the house.  I didn't get any of him hunting any outside later in the day.

I didn't take any photos of the afternoon, but I think C had one of the best days.  He loves being outside and he got to spend the majority of the day outside.  I wish I had taken photos.  Arg!  He kept a hat on, and it was so cute.  He was in a great mood and discovered he loves fresh strawberries.  The one downside:  he got flattened by Kona while "helping" the guys play Bocci ball.  He was pretty upset-we think he got the wind knocked out of him b/c he doesn't have any bumps or bruises from it.