So long slumber

I love nighttime. It is the only time of the day that I can relish in silence and do nothing but sleep. Well, every good thing must come to an end.

Last night I had just fallen into my silent slumber when J crawled back into bed (like I knew he was gone) and he said "did you hear that?!" I was in my non-chaotic, blissful slumber so of course I didn't hear anything. As it turns out, J heard the front door open and went downstairs to investigate. There he found our Matthew walking around in the front yard!! Of all things he imagined I don't think that thought entered his mind on the way down the stairs. He walked him back up to bed and tucked him in.

I asked Matthew this morning if he remembered walking around he acted completely oblivious. I also asked him if he had a dream that he was walking around outside and again, no. I told him what had happened and he thought it was cool, of course. Then he said it would be cool if he had been dreaming about walking outside so he could remember what he saw. Mom freaks out, boy is disappointed because he didn't get to truly experience the front yard at midnight.

Some updates

Jacob's room is the first room in the house completely finished- wallpaper removal, paint, curtains, bedding and most of all- boxes unpacked. I would love to have all the rooms completely finished but I can't unpack and decorate until the wood floors are finished.

You can barely see the flowered border at the top of the wall in the before picture. This turned out to be 2 layers of border of which the bottom layer had been painted over. It was another wallpaper nightmare in our new house. Thankfully it is all done! We have our eye on a new, cool ceiling fan that we will put up soon.

The kitchen. It has been a longer renovation than expected but we are seeing light at the end of the tunnel. Here is a picture of my desk area, we put up a corkboard in the backsplash area.

We tiled the backsplash today. I think we may leave the spacers in; kind of a new age polka-dot look. The stone will be darker when we seal it. I'm hoping we may get that done before next weekend.

The Rustic Look

If we were looking for the rustic look on our cabinets we hit the jackpot three days into our cabinet repaint. If you would like to achieve this look for your cabinets follow these steps.
1. Get a crazy idea to repaint all of your cabinets.
2. Read all you can on the internet on how to go about your crazy idea. I'll save you this step- Clean with TSP, lightly sand, prime then paint.
3. Wait for the paint store to have a great sale and buy the paint. We used ProClassic paint on our cabinets (which ended up great after the rustic fiasco) and will use it on our trim work as well.
4. Since the paint store is having a great sale, it will be swamped with people like us with many crazy ideas. Don't wait for the associates that usually help you because it will take forever. Go straight to the guy that looks new, or maybe just hired for the day. Take his advice that the ProClassic doesn't need a primer, even though this sounds 100 degrees of wrong.
5. Clean your cabinets, sand ALL of them lightly and start painting. After two coats of paint you will realize that the stain is dissolving your paint in the exact places you've sanded just the day before. This won't work.
6. Head back to your local paint store with one of your cabinet doors for some advice. The associates that usually help you will be available and apologize profusely for the new guy's bad advice and point you to a primer that you must use.
7. Go back home with renewed motivation and prime all the cabinets and boards with 2 coats. Realize again around 8pm that the yellow stain is coming through all layers of paint and primer.
8. Local paint store is closed so take your cabinet door to the blue hardware store. Buy the correct primer (Zinnser B-I-N) and start again in the morning.
9. After all the layers of incorrect paint and primer your doors will be very sticky. You must spend the entire day sanding in order to start painting on the correct primer. This will take quite some time because even with 60 grit sandpaper and a rotary sander only the edges will sand smooth. You will now have the perfect rustic cabinet doors...if that is what you were looking for.

We eventually got everything sanded and re-primed after a couple of days. We finished painting last night and J stayed up to hang all the doors and install the mircrowave. We are installing the hardware today and then starting on the countertops. Here are a couple of pictures.

Kit Kittredge

Emmy and I went to see the new American Girl movie "Kit Kittredge" last week. She had been counting down the days until the movie opened and that morning she dressed her Kit doll in her movie clothes so she could come along too. So, the three of us had an afternoon at the movies, snacking on popcorn.

Now a review.
Even though this movie is targeted towards girls, I would take my boys to see it as well. It was a good movie about the depression era and the children in the movie solve a mystery together while bringing plenty of humor to the story. But, I couldn't help but think of the financial downturn of our country today while watching the financial ruin of many families during the depression. Beyond that I would recommend this movie to girls and boys who are old enough to follow a mystery storyline.

On Fire

A quick shopping tip for you.

When switching brands on diced tomatoes, be sure to thoroughly check the label for anything that might indicate it would be mouth-numbing hot. I usually buy Del-Monte diced tomatoes with green chilies for our quesadillas and salsa. One day at the grocery store I decided to try Red Gold diced tomatoes with green chilies. We moved and I used the new can to make chicken quesadillas a few nights ago. I had already made all the kids' quesadillas when J ate a spoonful of tomatoes. I then watched as he tried to suck air in as fast as possible to extinguish his burning tongue. I was shocked, the other tomatoes weren't spicy at all. He then turns the can around and we read "HOT" on the bottom of the label. Hmm..I really should have checked for that prior to making the quesadillas. Another good laugh in the kitchen.

Update:

We have moved once again making this house #8 in 10 years. This is the first home we have actually got to call our own and we are very busy updating it. We have now purchased 16 gallons of paint. Nine of those gallons are on the walls already so we are over half way! We have painted every day for the last ten days and started our newest project today: painting the kitchen cabinets. We will put in our own countertops this week and then start the tile and wood floors. I can't wait to finally unpack and relax in our new home. I will start posting pictures of this chaotic adventure soon.

Mother's Day

My house is decorated with lovely crafts and pictures from the kids and beautiful flowers from J. This is a portrait of me painted by Matthew. This year I received breakfast in bed except the preparation was done solely by the children without the help of J. After 30 minutes of preparing my feast they delivered the goods. I dined on orange jello and hot chocolate for breakfast. It was absolutely adorable.

Emily made me coupons at school. I am now entitled to a night of movies and popcorn, a massage and free room cleaning. Matthew made a book for Mother's Day at school, complete with his adorable phonetic spelling. According to Matthew I look my best when we go to church, the funniest thing I do is watch them get on the bus in my pajamas, I'm a magician because I find lost things and a nurse because I make him feel better. Who needs to complete a nursing degree? I already have the children fooled!

My favorite entry is about my cooking though. Here it is in Matthew speak.

The best thing my mom cooks is fride rise and this is how she cooks it. She puts rise in a pan and puts chikin and zookeenee and cooks it for two hurs and six menis.

Take years off your life

Want to know how to have a panic attack that will last an entire weekend? Wake-up Friday morning to find this lovely stain across your dining room floor. One sweet princess left her lunch box in her backpack and the apple juice leaked onto the wood floor. However, this was not evident for 2 days when the striking black ghost showed up. If this were our own house I might not have reacted quite as strongly. Oh to the contrary; we currently rent directly from the owner who views this as her mini dream house. I just knew our entire security deposit would be lining her pockets for some time to come. The next week I set out to find a match to the wood and see what repairing the damage entailed.

Want to know how to have a major coronary? Take a circular saw to your wood floors and chisel out 9 boards. Yep, as soon as that blade hit the floor and I saw the sawdust fly I needed the epinephrine. I could feel my entire security deposit fly into the bright white light. Somehow we held it together while J and I chiseled out the boards, measured and cut the new boards and finally glued them all down. As with all home projects, it was not complete without a trip to Lowe's AND Home Depot.

There aren't many pictures quite as disturbing as a circular saw in the dining room of someone else's mini dream house.

At the end of the day we have a dining room floor that is stain-free and our handy work is only barely noticeable. We are ready to floor the new house!

About Birds

While driving to the doctor's office with Matthew we saw a crow and he proceeded to tell me why they are black in color.

"Mom, do you know why crows are so black? Well, it is because of all the seeds they eat...you know, the middle of the seeds? Well, they eat the middle of the seeds and the scarecrows people leave out so then it all turns to black in their stomach. They really have clear feathers so what they eat turns black in their stomach and that makes their feathers look black...but they are really clear. They are colorful when they are babies but then their feathers turn clear. Crows eat the most so that is why they are the blackest bird; because they really have clear feathers."

I just let him talk and he told me this long elaborate story; I didn't have the heart to tell him the crow's feathers are really black and not clear.

Shameless Plug

Kroger (a grocery store here in the South for all you northern folks) is having a design contest for their reusable shopping bags. I designed a bag (as did 9000+ other hopefuls) and I need some votes. Vote for my bag here.

Travel Tips

After completing a 12 hour road trip with three children alone, I have compiled a list of helpful tips.

• State patrol officers now like to drive gas guzzling white Chevy Tahoes or Suburbans. They may also be found having a pow-wow in the median to really try and scare people which then results in highway bumper cars. I bet they are sitting there watching all the whiplash as everyone hits the brakes. "Hey Mike, whiplash in the white sedan; those brakes definitely have the Midas touch." Before long they will issue a neck brace with your citation.
• When highway construction crews don't have enough work they like to drag the orange barrels out and make the highway a one-lane road for miles. I think they are secretly hiding in the woods to see if we remembered our single-file line skills from elementary school.
• Curvy mountain roads and a 9 year old with a book do not mix. The roads were enough to make me queasy and I was the one driving the ship. Poor Jacob was the in the aft of the van where a slight turn of the wheel is magnified like a rocking ship in a thunderstorm at sea. I knew what was happening when he said "Mom, my head hurts really bad" and that was followed shortly by "my stomach doesn't feel so well." Tip- Harry Potter will have to wait until we are on solid ground.
• Illinois makes their road with deep cracks in the right lane and after 45 minutes of driving on the rhythmic road you will really want to take a snooze. Fight this urge with all you've got.
• Swerving around a dead animal while traveling 70mph is quite the thrill ride. If you drive a SUV, I wouldn't recommend it.

I know some thought I was crazy to take a long road trip with the three kids alone but thankfully our career path has given me practice. Road trips started when the oldest was a wee boy and God gave all of our children iron bladders. I thank Him on every road trip when I need to stop only once in 8 hours.

I have entered this post in a blog carnival on About.com; you can receive more information here.

April Fool's

I do not normally pull April Fool's jokes on people but this year was different. This year I schemed for the best way to set up the kids and hubby.
I decided to take a screen capture of the school's website and add my own text "April 1, 2008 School Cancelled." Hubby helped with all the IT geeky stuff and it was an actual webpage. I left it on the laptop (which sits in the kitchen) so the kids would see it around breakfast time. As predicted, Emily was the first to notice the announcement. She immediately said "no, that is just a joke; the school put that on there for April Fool's." I worked on her for awhile to try and convince her but she was standing pretty firm that it was a joke. Matthew came in and saw the screen and running like a wild man, squealing "NO SCHOOL!" I told them a few minutes later that it was a joke but it took even more convincing that I did it and not the school.
The best one of the morning though is the one I pulled on my very loving, won't seek revenge hubby. (Let's hope!) I came in the kitchen before him and placed a rubberband around the kitchen sprayer to hold the handle down. I strategically placed the sprayer to point in the correct direction and then silently waited. Eventually (felt like forever!) he made his way to the sink to wash something. One flip of the handle and cold water was spraying directly at his stomach and his screams were penetrating the house. Just as predicted, he was too stunned to turn on off the water, he just kept getting sprayed while trying to find the source. It was definitely a good laugh. That is until he sought after me to give me a nice big bear hug with very wet clothes.

Looking for luck

Tonight I used up the last of our store-bought fortune cookies for an after-dinner treat. All of them had the standard "apply me to area of your life that would make sense" saying on them except two. Matthew was the lucky one tonight and had two fortunes inside his cookie...Hint #1 that someone was having an off day at the cookie factory. Hint #2: The fortune. What in the world; did they sit around in a 'twiddle your thumbs' meeting on the day these lovely fortunes were put to paper?

I can see it now...the executives called a brainstorming meeting and all the employees tried to think of great, generic catchphrases that would suit the bosses. But every once in awhile someone would slide one in and it would make it through, all the way to the cookie floor. I have decided this was the birthplace of Matthew's fortunes.

Jokester Jim was having a slow brain day so he just starting thinking of his day thus far. Hmmm...the color purple looks really good on Sally today so let's write "Focus on the color purple this week and you will find good luck" (one of the fortunes) I think Jokester Jim had the hots for Sally so he was going to focus on her for the week and hope to find luck for himself. Then my favorite "Let another car cut in front of you today" I'm thinking Jokester Jim was a little slow on the reaction time during his morning commute and had a few cars cut in front of him. But thankfully he was able to spin that into something positive for himself. Good for Jim.

After those in-depth, thought provoking fortunes I think I will find a purple car today and let it cut in front of me. I am sure to be destined for good luck.

Signs, Signs, Everywhere there's signs

I walked down the hall today to find several signs taped up on the doors. One read "famle meding"; that would be "Family Meeting" to those of you who aren't fluent in kindergarten-phonic spelling. He decided we needed to have a meeting about being mean to each other and if you are mean to each other you won't make friends. Hmm...did someone's class have a visitor from the counselor today?

And then I found the pictured sign on the door to the boys' room. "No girls allowed...only Mom." Because you know, moms aren't girls. I like to think that I'm allowed because I'm too cool to be grouped in with the cootie-carrying girls. Yes, that has to be it; at least that will make me sleep better at night.

Part of me doesn't want him to learn anymore because I think his phonic spelling signs and papers are too cute. One day he wrote "My mom is very very very to nise." But my all time favorite... While writing sentences for homework Matthew showed his work to Dad. I heard hubby laughing and say "go show Mom". He came to me and told me he wrote "when is lunch?" I looked at the paper and it read "wine is lush?" I couldn't control the laughter.

Mismatch

Issuing an APB for a size 13.5 Reebok shoe, blue with silver accents, stretchy laces, as dirty as a 5 year old can possibly make it with red mud hardened in the tread.
Somehow in our huge (HA!) house we have lost Matthew's shoe... OR Matthew has lost his shoe. He retreated to the shower last night with both of them on (I'm assuming) and this morning only one shoe was found at the scene. The other must be a victim of the Silent Reebok Sneak, now known simply as SRS. He's been known to snatch in the past and not only from our family either!
To solve our SRS attack, Matthew hobbled around with one shoe on and one off for several minutes, then the searching came to an end. I was waiting with them for the bus and looked down to find my son with a Reebok on one foot and a brown church shoe on the other foot. "What in the world do you have on your feet, son?!" He smiled and said he couldn't find the other shoe so this was the best solution. I quickly grabbed the other brown shoe so he had two matching feet and off to school he went.
The SRS still hasn't returned the missing shoe.

Collision

Just so you know...
A 5 year old daredevil on a bike running into a stationary 'Mom on a bike' has the same feeling of impact as a SUV running into a stopped VW Beetle.
He smashed his hand up under my seat; I flew forward and hit my legs on the front wheels while also sustaining a cut and hit on my calf and we both have sore necks just a short hour after impact. I think I will keep my eye on the daredevil and steer far, far away on the next bike ride.

The Calf vs. the Horse

Have you ever watched a rodeo? If so, think of the calf roping event; the calf takes off running and here comes this big horse and rider sporting a revolving lasso. Run fast little calf because you are about to get lassoed.

Now, apply this analogy to my oldest son and wearing a coat. It doesn’t matter to him that it is 32 degrees outside and he as on short sleeves (because it will be 70 by the end of the day.) He will do anything possible to get to school without wearing a coat; he is most definitely his father’s son! But alas young lad, you are the calf. You take off running “coat free” and here comes the big horse and rider (Big Mama) and she catches you, ties your feet to your hands and sends you back in for a coat. I’m not sure what will happen when he gets too big to chase, eventually he won’t be a calf anymore and my horse will be too old to run.

Priceless Gifts

Emmy's birthday was a couple of days ago. She picked to go out to eat the evening before due to our church lifestyle this spring and afterwards we came home and had cake while she opened a couple of presents. Matthew realized he didn't get her anything for her birthday so he ran out of the room and came back with a picture of Tinkerbell, just for Emmy. It was so incredibly sweet. I asked him how he knew to spell Tinkerbell (he's just learning to spell phonically) and he said "I just looked at the TINKER in my 'Tinker Toys' and put BELL on the end" :) Gotta love him.

Profiting off others

We've considered buying a portable DVD player for approximately three weeks to occupy the kids while riding in the Civic. We've been looking and researching in the stores and online to compare all the brands, features and prices. Thursday I found a DVD player on the clearance aisle marked 50% because it was missing the remote. After thorough research of the materials, that particular DVD player doesn't even come with a remote! I bought it and it works great.

Actual Gas Consumption
I estimated in my last post about how much gas we would save with the Hybrid Civic in a normal month. Here are the true facts for the month of January. I filled my van up one time the entire month (at the beginning) and the gas light illuminated on the 31st. Amazing! The poor van probably feels like a rejected puppy dog right now, banished to the cold driveway and covered in frost each morning while the Hybrid gets the garage and all the love of warm bodies on each drive.
We actually used 36.5 gallons of gas for the entire month for a cost of $105. We trimmed the fuel budget by approximately $190 in one month. Now, becoming the new family car does have its disadvantages. The Hybrid obtained 1500 miles in one month!

So Green We're Glowing

When you mention to some people that you are going to buy a hybrid vehicle it is like they put on an invisible "hybrid haters" persona and find every reason that people shouldn't buy one. Lets recount the comments we've heard.

• It will take you 7 years to recoup the initial higher price by getting just a bit better MPG.
• The battery will only last 70,000 miles and then it will cost $7,000 to replace (followed by a snide "so how's that hybrid sound now?")
• You really won't get any better gas mileage than my family toting Dodge Charger.
• Your wife has a mini-van so keep your Mustang, you don't really need seat belts for everyone. (yea, this was my favorite)
• If you get in a wreck you might as well be dead because the car is so tiny.
• It will take 1 mile to get up to 45 mph.

So, here is a little rebuttal for all the declared and disguised "hybrid haters." It also gave me a little time to improve my brain age score by doing some math.

Prior to 12/31 the van needed gas every 10 days @ 19 gallons per fill up. The Mustang needed gas every 10 days @ 15 gallons per fill up. This equates to 34 gallons of gas every 10 days or 102 gallons of gas per month. $298.86/month

After 12/31 the van has been filled up one time and has been using the same tank of gas for 16 days. The Civic has been filled up once after 2 weeks @ 10.5 gallons. The current usage for both vehicles will be 50 gallons of gas per month. $146.50/ month

So, lets us do some simple math. After the $2100 tax credit the initial higher cost is nill and my gas savings per month was slashed in half. Enjoy your time at the pump.

Springy

While driving around the area we have found one location that is always frequented by people pulled over on the side of the road with empty milk jugs, juice bottles or whatever empty container they can carry. We've always been quite curious as to what these people are doing because the location leaves a lot to be desired; run down houses, a nearly dried up creek bed, trash lying around, etc. We have figured they must be getting water from somewhere but we never had the courage to actually stop and figure it out with all the kids in tow. Last week hubby and I stopped while the kids were at school to scope it out.

As it turns out, there is a natural spring that has been running since anyone can remember and all of these people come to bottle their own water. It must be relatively safe or there would be many sick people in this city! So we looked it up online after talking to the gentleman at the spicket that day and then told the kids about it. Who knew such cool history was all around us?! We emptied a milk jug and told the kids we were going to fill it up with the spring water. We had shown them the article and discussed the history and they were quite excited to see this "natural spring." When we arrived they were less than impressed. Jacob says "In this dumpy place, we are getting water?" Emily commented on the trash and Matthew piped in with one of his brutally honest comments "I am NOT drinking water from a trashy place like this!" Then they walked down the hill and met an older man filling up many jugs and he changed their minds. He told them the spring has run since he was a kid and never slows down (it has been channeled through a pipe and now comes out of a small brick building). He told them it has been tested and it is the cleanest water in Georgia and has NO chemicals in it. The kids instantly changed their minds.

The kids have always liked water but now all we hear at meal time is "I want the best water in Georgia to drink!" I still haven't got past the idea that this "clean" water is surrounded by a dumpy area and pours out of piping that has been in place for at least 50 years. What is growing in that pipe? I haven't even tried the water. I do believe the water has been tested and as the article states it was even bottled at one time but it doesn't help my "ick factor."