My Daughter is a Hoarder

I'm still in the midst of all these room renovations and I'm so sick of it, I'm ready to scream!  I gave Big Sis ample warning of what was coming.  She worked and worked on her room...actually, I should have put those words in quotes.  She "worked" and "worked" on her room and finally declared that it was clean.  She was ready to move out.

On her birthday, I allowed her best friend to come over to play outside.  I continued to work on the bedrooms, so as not to lose momentum.  I didn't make her do any chores or cleaning on her birthday.  That night, however, I peered into her room and realized it was again a tornado site.  I just can't deal with that child and her messiness.  She cannot put anything away.  Ever!  And I'm getting ready to move her into a room with a 4-year old who is inflicted with the same disease.  Can y'all predict the outcome of this?

Last night, Hubby and Son #1 disassembled her bed and moved it into the new room.  We are calling this room The Room since it doesn't actually belong to anyone right now.  Son #2 has his clothes in there but his bed is in #1's room.  Baby Girl has her dresser in there, but she's sleeping in Big Sis' room.  It's a hot mess.  As they were taking down her bed, they discovered the (what's the biggest most dramatic word I can come up with?) colossal mess underneath.  There was trash, junk, and crap.  We found two black church shoes that didn't match one another, making it so that she's had no black church shoes lately.  I nearly fainted.  I told her she was NOT moving into The Room until she took care of this mess.  She whined.  She cried.  She begged for help.  I told her that she created this mess...she was going to have to clean it up.

It's been hours.  It's been days.  The mess is getting smaller, but it's still there.  It's to the point that I cannot even stand to look in the room any longer.  I'm trying to help her by taking a few things over at a time.  Her dresser and bed are now set up in The Room.  By the way, it turns out that The Room is much smaller than it seems.  How are we going to fit all this stuff into it?  

I look at photos on Pinterest and see little girls' rooms that look like this:

Yeah, right.  Where is all their STUFF?  These are not real people.  I've determined that my daughter is a hoarder.  Mostly, it's because she's very sentimental.  If anyone gives her anything, she wants to keep it for eternity.  People know she's sentimental and very appreciative, so they give her all their junk.  She has my cousin's bridesmaid bouquet from a wedding a year and a half ago.  I saw her carrying the dust ridden, dead flowers into The Room and I simply said, "No."  I am not going to have her taking a bunch of worthless stuff over to this nice, new, clean space.  

How do you tell a little girl that she can't keep all the wonderful little trinkets and treasures she's collected over the years?  How do you explain that the metal church that kind of looks like a bank, but serves no purpose is junk?  How do you break it to her that the broken vase her grandma gave her needs to be trashed?  It's hard.  Her dresser and bed are dollhouses with multiple shelves.  Up to this point, those shelves have been full of junk.  I simply cannot allow that to happen again.  I'm going to need to stage an intervention for this lovely little girl who wants to save all the lovely little gems that life has blessed (or cursed) her with over the past nine years.  

Anyone want to help???

Throwback Thursday

I discovered this post on a fun little blog called The Life of Bon.  Unfortunately, I found it a bit too late to participate.  I'm weird this way- if I can't be a part from the beginning, I don't want to play.  This is the reason why I'm not watching Psych like everyone else.  I didn't watch it the first several seasons and I'm worried I'll be lost if I start now.  Hmmm....there's got to be a deeper meaning there, psychology majors!

Anyhow, Bon made a list of TBT (Throwback Thursday) topics to be discussed for the entire summer.  Fun and interesting stories popped into my head immediately for most of these topics.  So, is it wrong to steal her idea, if I totally give her credit for it?  Probably, but I'm feeling quite the rebel today.  

Of course, I want all of you to join along!  You can post about it on your blog, if you want, or you can just share your story in my comment section.  I thought it would be lots of fun to read about everyone else's coming of age time!

Here's her list...so we'll take it one topic at a time:

A memory of learning to drive, your first car or the early driving days.

Elementary school crush

Throwback birthday

Throwback fourth of July

First job

Moving away from home

Memory of one or both of your parents from childhood

Favorite summer vacation

Childhood friends

First kiss

Memory of a high school teacher or high school class

Back to school memory

All Things Driving:

I don't actually have too many memories of learning to drive.  I took driving in Summer School, since my birthday was in June.  For one month, we had a couple hours of instruction, five days a week.  That sounds crazy now!  Today's kids have to have all these logged hours of driving with a licensed driver.

Soon after I got my license, my mom suffered some health problems.  She was unable to drive for a year.  I became the primary driver for our family, at least when my dad was working.  I chauffeured my brother to his activities, took my mom to the grocery store, and did everything else that needed done.  So my first car was the family station wagon.   It was sweet, yo!

My parents got the opportunity to buy a Toyota Tercel from an elderly lady in our church, but it was stick shift.  They offered it to me, of course, but I turned it down.  I had very little confidence that I'd be able to drive a stick.  My brother got the car, and he wasn't even 16 yet.  Even though I made the decision, I was totally jealous.  Then my boyfriend, Hubby attempted to teach me to drive stick.  It did NOT go well.  I threw my hands up in the air, took my feet off of all pedals and told him to make the car stop.  I stormed away from the car and never got behind the wheel of a stick shift again.  I wonder if I could do it now?  The cool this about this picture is that it was taken in my mom's driveway.  In the background, you can see the house where I currently live.  That's my great aunt standing in the driveway.  Things have changed a bit since then, but that's where I live!  Neat, huh?

The first car that was totally mine was a 1984 Dodge 600.  It was a piece of junk but I loved it!  I named it Stormy because it was the color of a storm cloud and sounded like thunder.  

So, those are my early driving stories.  What do y'all have???

A Little Girl, All Grown Up

This little girl celebrated a birthday yesterday.

It's amazing to me how quickly the last nine years have gone.  I don't believe I've ever told the story of her birth on this blog.

I had two little guys at home when I was ready to have baby #3.  They were ages 3 and 5.  I love this picture I have of the boys standing next to me with their hands on my belly.  Their heads were at the perfect height to rest on their unborn sibling.

After I had Son #2, I never thought I'd have a girl.  I saw myself as a Boy Mom only.  We had a house full of matchbox cars and dump trucks.  I was OK with that.  We didn't find out what we were having during our pregnancies, but I was positive #3 was going to be a boy too.  I knew I'd be done having kids after that third boy.  His name was going to be Harrison with a middle name after my brother.

In my first pregnancy, I was nauseated but never threw up.  With son #2, I threw up once.  The third time, I threw up for 3 months solid.  That should have been my first clue what was coming.

We went in for our scheduled C-Section (the only one of my kids who came as scheduled) on May 16, bright and early.  When we arrived, no one could check us in.  They were having a code in the nursery and we were told to just hang tight.  We sat in a room for the longest time, thankful that it wasn't us who was experiencing a baby in trauma.  I calmly crocheted around a baby blanket while I waited.

Eventually, we were told that they had a second emergency and would have to rush another woman into OR ahead of me.  Again, I was just relieved it wasn't me.  My doctor had arrived by this time, so he, the anesthesiologist, Hubby, and I sat in a room and talked.  I got to know them quite well.  Finally, they decided the other woman could wait and they started moving very quickly to get me through my C-Section.  No one was available to start my IV, so the anesthesiologist did it.  She said she hadn't done one in a long time and asked me to be patient with her.  She had to run it wide open to get a bag of fluids in me before the surgery.  I remember sitting there freezing and shivering.  They had to bring me heated blankets.

The C-Section went very well.  I continued to chat with the anesthesiologist above my head while Hubby practically hung over the sheet, not wanting to miss a thing.  When I said I was nauseated, I was given something that made me instantly feel better.

Finally, the doctor announced he saw a head full of black hair.  They saw a face, which they exclaimed to be very beautiful.  Then she popped out.  Hubby announced, "It's a girl!!!"  Saying I was flabbergasted would be an understatement.  There were no words to describe what I was feeling.  "Don't do that to me...that's not funny!" I said.  "Is it really a girl?"  He laughed and confirmed that it was.  I thought he was joking with me.  I then asked the doctor if it was really a girl.  He teased me and confirmed her gender.  I still was not convinced.  I tilted my head up to my new buddy, the anesthesiologist, and asked her if it was really a girl.  She agreed with the others.  We were friends now, so I knew she would lie to me.  I was overwhelmed with emotion.

My brother filmed the moment Hubby told everyone we had a girl.  I still cry every time I see it.  I'm so glad I was able to find it for this post.  My favorite part is when my grandma (in light green), probably my favorite person ever in the world, started jumping up and down.  She wanted a girl so badly!  She passed away a year ago and I'm still so thankful I named this little girl after her.  I miss her.  Watch this video...you'll see how amazing my family is!

Happy Birthday, Big Sis!

Painting and Mowing

I'm taking a break from painting and remodeling to rest my tired, old bones for a bit.  Painting two rooms with a 2-mile run in between is no easy task.  I'm feeling every one of my 37 years.

I actually just finished up the second coat in the girls' room, waiting til it dries to check for missed spots.  I'm very unsure about the color.  Taking a photo of it will not help because it looks a totally color in pictures.  I was aiming for a Tiffany blue, but it's much bolder than I planned.  I should have gone one shade lighter on the paint card.  But when I was making this decision alone, with 3 kids running through the hardware store, the shade lighter looked barely more colored than white.  Even in this photo, the paint looks barely blue.

I wanted pink.  The girls did not.  They don't like pink any more.  It's all about blue now.  I dislike blue, yet I can live with Tiffany blue.  It has just a speck of green to make it interesting.  I am not repainting because I'm tired.  My hands and shoulders are crampy.  We'll have to live with it.  Maybe I'll hang a lot of stuff on the walls to mask the boldness.

A funny thing happened to a friend of mine the other day and I wanted to get an outsider's opinion about the ridiculousness of it all.  He's a hard-working man with a full time job.  He lives in the nice area of town with the manicured lawns and brick homes of the local doctors.  Some of the people up there are very hoity-toity.  They act like they are paying thousands in association fees, which they are not.  Anyhow, my friend was mowing one evening when his neighbor came over.
The guy nicely said, "OK, let's wrap it up...I'm ready to relax for the evening."
My confused friend answered, "What???"
"It's 8:30 at night and I'm ready to relax.  Shut the mower down."
"Ha ha...yeah right," my friend thought he was kidding.
"No, I'm serious.  It's 8:30.  Time to turn that off."

My friend is not shy in any way and nearly got into a fist fight with the man.  My cousin recently purchased a house in the same development, a mere 1/4 mile away.  His neighbor tromped through the yard, not as calmly, and started yelling at my cousin.  He informed my cousin that he's mowing all wrong.  He is not allowed to shoot any grass clippings into the neighbor's yard.  I'm not a landscaper, but I imagine that might be a difficult thing to do.  The man claimed that his entire yard is full of weeds because of how my cousin mows his grass.  He's never had weeds before and now his yard is covered in them.  Let me go ahead and mention that my cousin pays to have his grass treated and has no weeds himself.

I find is unreal that people think they can tell their neighbors when and how to mow their grass.  I've never really had "real" neighbors, since everyone I live by is related.  We have strangers across the street, but they've only caused such problems as barking dogs and a loud argument here and there.  Are most neighbors this picky?

My other cousin, who lives in between these other two men got yelled at by his neighbor for planting the wrong kind of grass when he built his house.  Let me state again that this is not a gated community full of $10 million homes.  It's an mid-upper scale allotment with teachers, policemen, and bankers.

I'd rather live in a less desirable neighborhood and be able to manage my grass however I want.

A Question for YOU, My Friend...

The other day, Baby Girl asked me, "Mom, do you have any friends?"  That question kind of took me by surprise.
"Yes, I have friends!" I answered.
"Who?"
I started listing the people who popped into my mind whom I consider friends.
"Oh.  Who else?"
"Um..." I continued to list more people.
"Who else?"
I had run out of friends by this point.

Then I began over-analyzing this conversation, as I tend to do with so many things.  DO I have any friends?  Does anyone consider ME their friend?  Am I not working hard enough at having friends?

I answered myself that I'm just too busy with life to really have friends.  Of course, I consider Hubby my real best friend.  But who is next on the list?  I really like my sister-in-law.  She has two kids and is as busy as I am.  We don't hang out.  We talk, for 5 minute spurts every few days.  We see each other regularly, but I'm usually more excited to see the kids.  I have my running buddy that I see a couple times a week.  She's single and 10 years younger than I am, so we don't hang out other than to run.  I have my lifelong best friend, but being a mom occupies most of her time also.  There's several more here and there, but they all have reasons to not hang out too.

What is a friend?  Is it someone you have to spend time with?  If so, no...I don't have any friends.  Is it someone you can not hear from for a month or two, then pick up right in the middle of a conversation without skipping a beat?  If so, yes...I have dozens of friends.  Is it people you're connected to on Facebook?  (Ha!)  If so, I have 467.  :)

At this point in my life, I think I'm just content to have the second kind of friend.  Those select few people that I can text on occasion or have lunch with once a year.  They're the ones who have been around the longest and the ones who will probably stick around forever.

Then again, maybe I should host a party (something I haven't done in ages) and really have fun with some friends.

Let me leave you with one question-- Do you have any friends?

The Happs

I don't know what part of the country (or world) you live in, but we're about to float away here in the Midwest!  Usually by this time of year, Hubby has parked the mower because the grass is brown and prickly.  Usually, the kids are playing water games in the backyard every day.  Usually, I wonder if I should water the grass to keep it green or if that's a silly waste of water.  Not this year.  Our town is flooding.  Our porch flooded.  We've lost power the past two nights because of thunderstorms.  This unlikely weather has made training for my half marathon very difficult!  I may start taking to wearing a shower cap everywhere I go.

~#~

My house is in a horrid state of disarray due to the recent Room Moving Projects.  I did finish the paint job in Son #1's new room and was going to take my After picture.  Before I turned around, he had already started filling it up!  Plans got put on hold because he left for church camp Monday.  It's a bit over 2 hours away, so I found a friend and made the hike down to the middle of nowhere.  I drove down, unloaded his stuff, and drove back.  He wouldn't even allow me to help him carry it into the dorm.  Last year, I set up his stuff, made his bunk, made his friend's bunk, and hung around for a half hour or so.  This year, he couldn't say goodbye quickly enough!

~#~

My little cousin offered to bring him home from camp Friday night, which makes me very happy.  He's 18 and very trustworthy.  Being the "big brother" he is to #1, he told him he won't bring him home at the end of the week if he doesn't get a date.  Ha!  A date at church camp consists of asking a girl to eat ice cream at the same table as you in a crowded cafeteria.  That's just fine with me.  Last night, my cousin sent me a text saying that #1 apparently has a ride home Friday.  Attached was a photo of him across the table from a very beautiful girl!  I had a hard time getting the grin off my face.

~#~

We had a bit of adventure over the weekend.  On Friday morning, Baby Girl woke up looking like this:

Friday afternoon, she looked like this:

It progressed to this:

She wasn't miserable, wasn't complaining, and didn't have a fever.  When asked if it hurt or itched, she was indecisive.  We assumed it was a bug bit on her eyelid.  I called the doctor and explained the situation.  I said I bought Benedryl, but it says only give to children under 6 with the advice of a doctor.  They looked up her weight and gave me the correct dosage.  I kept her on it every 6 hours (except for nighttime) until Sunday afternoon.  By Monday morning, she was completely normal.  It was a bit worrisome though!

~#~

Today, I'm hoping to muster the motivation to start on the next room in my project, which doesn't explain why I'm on the laptop blogging. I guess I just really felt the need to keep you all in the know.  I want to get all three rooms painted and moved around first, then I can start on making them look cute.  The extra toys, chairs, shoes, books, and shelves in the middle of my bedroom is getting to be a hazard.

~#~

OH- one more short story....the friend who rode down to camp with me asked to use my bathroom before we left.  Yikes!  I can't remember the last time my house looked this bad and she's not someone who comes over often.  I just gritted my teeth and told her to go on upstairs.  Afterward, I nearly threw up when I realized the mess and nastiness she saw.  Oh well...she's got 3 kids, so hopefully she still loves me!

Happy 4th!

To all my American friends, have a fabulous holiday!

Renovations in Process

I'm spending the day cleaning out Baby Girl's room in preparation for Son #1 to move in. I can't imagine why he doesn't want to keep the Bessie Pease Gutmann wallpaper that was originally hung for his nursery!  Here are some before/during shots:

I have a couple "helpers" who are actually much more of a hindrance!

The girls suddenly want to play with every toy and everything I'm packing up!  No, they haven't touched the baby bed and dolls for over a year, but today, they're all about baby dolls!  All the good toys are camping out in the hallway and in my room until they have a new home.  That little door on the right side of the room is an attic storage space.  It's packed to the insulation with stuff for a yard sale!  I hope I can actually get to having one this year!  Anyone with little kids would be highly in luck!

Can't wait to get this project done!  I'm on a roll right now!

Weekend Randomness

I mentioned a few posts back about my photo booth crashing.  My highly technical brother determined that one damaged cable was all we would have to replace to hopefully fix the problem.  I called Best Buy and Radio Shack, but neither carried the cable.  He found it online so I ordered it right away.  After more than a week, it was getting extremely close to my next event.  I tried calling the company I ordered from but they were closed for the day.  Our mail arrives early so I watched and waited.  No package.  I called the company back again and was told that the cable was on back order!  I had to work very hard to control my temper.  My job was the next day and I had a broken photo booth and a cable on back order.  I told the customer service representative that I should have been notified!  She said they emailed me.  I went back and checked all my emails.  No notification of back order.  Then I opened up the invoice they emailed me.  In very small font at the bottom of the email, it said that the item had been back ordered.  I didn't even read the email, I just viewed the attached invoice.  Don't you think a back order status deserves its own email?

Anyway, I called Hubby in a mild panic.  I asked him if he knew of any local computer stores I could call.  He said he was delivering to a big computer store in a bit and he would ask them.  So I provided him with the part number and crossed my fingers.  They actually had 2 in stock!  It was only $20 and it fixed the problem!  I exhaled for the first time in two weeks!  The booth is back up running and I've had several successful jobs since then!  Whew!

~*~
Another update:  we finally purchased airfare to New York City!  AirTran ran another special, this time for $49 each way!  The bad news, the dates of the special were past Hubby's vacation week.  They pick vacation for the following year in July, so we were forced to purchase the tickets blindly in hopes that he'll be able to secure the week we booked!  Yeah, that's just a bit nerve wracking!   

Last time we went to New York, I left my printed map and itinerary on the desk at home.  We more or less wandered the streets of Manhattan, looking for the best sights.  This time, I'm going all OCD on this trip!  I found a lovely site called Tripomatic.com that feeds my planning obsession.  You can choose all the things you want to do, organize them into days, and it maps them for you.  It even tells you how long it takes to walk from one activity to the next!  I LOVE that!  

Just in the middle of writing this post, I took a break and booked my hotel!  I was having a hard time deciding what to do, as we have another couple with us.  I didn't want to book something too shabby or they'd think I was an animal.  On the other hand, I didn't want to choose something too expensive, which is nearly impossible.  Hubby suggested checking out Groupon.  I did and found a deal!  We're booking  3 1/2 star hotel for the same price as the 1 star hotel I was leaning toward!  Ha!  Hopefully all that will work out!  I plan on calling the hotel in a day or so to confirm our booking so there's no problems when we arrive.

~*~
We had an absolutely perfect weekend!  Rain was forecast continually, so I was prepared to be bummed out.  We had our church picnic Sunday after church.  We got just a couple sprinkles and pleasantly cool weather the rest of the day.  Our July 4th picnic is usually sweltering and uncomfortable.  Afterward, my brother's family came over for pizza and fun.  Son #2 made us brownies.  He's becoming quite the baker.  I spent some time with my niece and nephew, whom I can't get enough of.  Saturday was filled with being lazy in the morning (my ultimate favorite), a birthday party in the afternoon, and a bit of shopping in the evening.

~*~

The shopping was for bedding for Big Sis.  I've been trying to get my life caught up enough to change around their rooms.  At bedtime prayer, Baby Girl says, "We hope we get to change our rooms..."  I think everyone is tired of me talking about it and ready for some action.  The boys will be split up and the girls will share the big room.  Son #1's room will be first.  But since Big Sis learned all 191 of those verses, I wanted to do something special for her.  I've been secretly looking for bedding for a while, unable to find anything I can afford.  If I'm going to redecorate 3 bedrooms, I surely can't spend $125 to $250 on a bedspread!  This is the "look" I'm going for (thanks to Pinterest), obviously adapted for a big girl room:

I managed to find bedding very similar at TJ Maxx and she said she loved it more than anything.  $39.  Score!  I also found her a darling little mirror that she couldn't live without at Hobby Lobby.  70% off!  Double score!  I can't wait to actually get started on these rooms.  I also want to incorporate a little bit of this look, without so many bright colors:

~*~

I'm planning on painting #1's room a light gray with a more industrial look.  I would love to frame architectural photography in black frames.  I'm thinking about taking my good camera to New York with me....good idea or bad?

~*~
What's randomly happening in your life right now???

Dinner Experiment - Day 3

I don't normally cook on Friday nights, so this was the last night of new dinner experiments for our family.  I decided on Fettuccine Alfredo.  Hubby neither likes fat pasta nor Alfredo sauce...so he thinks.  In a restaurant, he always orders angel hair.  When I make pasta, I always use thin spaghetti.  So, I already had one strike against me.

Hubby has only had Alfredo sauce once and didn't like it.  At all.  I made it from a friend's recipe, which had a cream cheese base.  It was way too thick and I didn't care for it either.  I actually thought I didn't like Alfredo sauce for quite some time.  When I went to a family style rehearsal dinner, I tried a bit of everything.  Turns out, the fettuccine was amazing!  Since then, I've had it here and there and have always liked it.  We just had one bad experience.  The difference is, I'm willing to try it again while Hubby holds a grudge.

I knew it was a thinner sauce I liked, not the thick, cream cheese sauce.  So I decided upon a standard Parmesan, Romano, butter sauce.  It also called for a cup of heavy cream.  I thought I could use whole milk instead, since I had it.  Hmmm....probably a bad decision.  The sauce didn't thicken.  I ended up making a roux on the side with flour and butter and adding it to the sauce.  That actually made it perfect.  Also, instead of buying a block of Romano and a block of Parmesan, I bought a bag of Kraft shredded Italian blend.  It had Parmesan, Romano, asiago, mozzarella, and provolone, I think.  I was worried about using all those extra cheeses, but I actually liked it.  I used a bit less than a cup.

My verdict:  Delicious and very easy!  Hubby's verdict:  OK.  The Kids:  Thumbs Down.  Then again, most meals are thumbs down for them.  I'll make it once in a while, but it's too fattening to make regularly...especially if I use cream like the recipe states!

Fettuccine Alfredo
1 lb. fettuccine
2/3 C butter
1 C heavy cream
dash garlic salt
1/2 C grated Romano
1/3 C grated Parmesan
salt & pepper, to taste

Cook pasta; drain.
In a large saucepan, melt butter into cream over low heat.  Add salt, pepper, and garlic.  Stir in cheese over medium heat until melted.
Add pasta to sauce.  Serve immediately.

Next time, I might try it with chicken.  The kids would really hate that!

Also, I noticed in the comments of the recipe, most people said there was too much pasta and not enough sauce.  So I ended up using about 3/4 of the box of pasta and it was just about right.  I even had some leftover for lunch the next day.  I served it with garlic bread.