The Before...

So I made the decision to redo our upstairs bathroom this spring. When we bought our house it was an abandoned foreclosure that had not been properly winterized.  As a result, the pipes had frozen and burst and the house was pretty dirty.  Fortunately, those were pretty easy fixes.  Before we moved in we did a quick re-paint of the entire house, ceilings and all.  When I did the upstairs bathroom I took the easiest route and painted it the same color as the bathroom in our old house so everything I brought over would match.  Which was all well and good, but I'm ready for a change.

The upstairs bathroom had a ceiling leak after we moved in that we have since repaired, but unfortunately messed up our nicely painted ceiling.  It also appears that the ceiling paint we used was not mildew resistant.  So I'm repainting the ceiling.  The linoleum on the floor is pretty scuffed up and is peeling back next to the bathtub due to some water damage.  So I'm going to replace the floors.  The window in the bathroom suffered some water damage and the stain has worn off.  So I'm painting all the trim in the bathroom white.  The heat duct cover suffered some major rust prior to us moving it.  So I'm painting that as well.  There's no light over the bathroom sink.  So I bought one.

It sounds like a pretty elaborate project, and I'm pretty sure it will be.  It also sounds like it could be pretty expensive, but I'm hoping it won't be.  I'm hoping it will be a pretty easy project, because I'm going to do most of it myself.  This should be pretty interesting!

Here are the before pictures:

Wow.  My bathroom is seriously ugly.  These pictures make it look gross.  I hope the "After" pictures look nice...

Things I Learned This Weekend:

1.  Do not buy the cheapest air mattress at Walmart.  It's ability to hold air is severely compromised when your two year old bounces on it.

2.  Do not ask your dogs to sleep in your sixteen year old's bedroom.

3.  Sixteen year olds don't have patience for dogs at 2:30 in the morning.

4.  When your dogs move on an air mattress, you move on an air mattress.
        4a-Dogs move a lot when they are sleeping on air mattresses.

5.  Don't expect to get any sleep on an air mattress.

6.  Spending 5 hours in the back seat of a car after spending the night not sleeping on an air mattress will leave you feeling car sick.  Very, very car sick.

Super Mom to the Rescue...

So tomorrow Ben starts going to once a week daycare.  I'm really excited for him because I know he's going to have a great time playing with kids his age.  Today I decided to gather up all the items on the list that he needs to bring with him and leave there.  Diapers-check, change of clothes-check, toothbrush-check, sleeping bag and pillow-oh crap.

So I'm not Super Mom, and I completely forgot that he needed a sleeping bag and pillow for nap time.  Damn.  So I grabbed a blanket, threw it in the bag and decided that would be good enough for tomorrow, and I'll find him one this weekend.

And then I got to thinking.  There's no reason he needs a big puffy sleeping bag....and the blanket I'm sending with him is plenty big enough to be doubled up like a sleeping bag......why not make a sleeping bag out of the blanket?

So I did a little research, looked at a few other homemade toddler sleeping bags and decided to go ahead and make my own.

Seriously, easiest thing ever.  Also the cutest thing ever:

It isn't lined, so it's hard to tell that I have it flipped open in this picture, but it's open about a third of the way down.

Ben was napping, so George modeled for me.

Ready to be put away!

I'm the least crafty person that I know, so if I could do this, pretty much anyone can.  But I'll give my basic instructions in case anyone is interested.  I started by folding the blanket in half the long way.  Then I folded it in half again, rolled it up and measured a piece of ribbon long enough to tie it up with a little extra to sew into the bag.  Then I unrolled it, folded it the long way but so the inside was facing out.  I pinned the short side first and pinned the folded in half piece of ribbon about 1/4 of the way down one of the sides so when it was folded in half to be rolled the ribbon would be roughly in the middle.  The ribbon has to be tucked on the inside at this point so when you turn the bag right side out the ribbon will be on the outside to tie.  Then I pinned the long side for about 2/3 of the way.  I didn't have a zipper, and don't think I could have sewed one on there if I wanted to, so I just left that side open.  Once it was pinned, I sewed it on my sewing machine, turned it so the right side was facing out and VOILA! instant sleeping bag.

Ben is going to be thrilled because this is one of his favorite blankets, and I think its perfect since he is supposed to have a nap mat to sleep on anyway, and he won't sweat to death in the summer.

So I take back what I said earlier....I think I am Super Mom.

Too Much Growing

Ben and I have a routine.  We have lunch at 11:30.  At 12:00 we go upstairs to the rocking chair and snuggle together and watch 15 minutes of Paula Deen's homecooking, I put him in his crib, and after a few minutes of muttering to himself, or vrooming cars around his bed, Ben falls asleep for his nap.

Today when we went upstairs we watched one minute of Paula Deen eating a fruitcake and Ben looked at me and said, "Mom, my room."  "You want to go to your room and go to sleep?" I asked.  "Mmmmhmmm."  So I carried him to his bed, put him down and a few minutes later he was fast asleep.  Without any snuggling from me.

Have we reaching this point now?  Has my little buddy started to get too big to snuggle with me before he naps?  That can't be possible.  I'm not ready for that to be possible.

I imagine most parents struggle with the bittersweet moments of their youngest child growing up.  It feels a bit more bitter and lot less sweet when your youngest child is also likely to be your only child.  I love my son tremendously, and appreciate him more than words can say, and am so happy that he's growing up so well.  But I'm also not ready for it.  Oh if I could just rock him on my lap forever....

If all the lights in her son's house were out, she opened his bedroom window, crawled across the floor, and looked up over the side of his bed.  If that great big man was really asleep she picked him up and rocked him back and forth, back and forth, back and forth.  And while she rocked him she sang:

I'll love you forever,

I'll like you for always,

As long as I'm living

my baby you'll be.

-Love You Forever by Robert Munsch

Can't he just be little for a little while longer?

A Thank You Note

Do you write notes to your server on your credit card receipts or bills when you go out to eat?  I don't.  But I think I should start.  Especially when I have great service.  It sounds kinda corny, I know, but I can't tell you how that can change someone's night to know they are doing a good job.  Especially when you're in the service industry.

Last night I was having a pretty decent evening.  My tables were easy, they all seemed happy and I wasn't busy so I was able to give them my full attention.  I like nights like that.  They're not especially profitable, but sometimes you just need a night like that to recharge.  Unfortunately, about halfway through my shift I had a very large table, with a relatively large bill, leave me a very small tip.  (Less than 10%, which I think most people would agree is not acceptable.)  I was pretty irritated.  And when that happens I always wonder if I somehow had been doing my job poorly.  Maybe I didn't refill drinks fast enough?  Maybe I checked on them too many times?  For me, a poor tip makes me both irritated and reflective.

So after grumbling and muttering and wondering if I had done something wrong, I let the matter drop.  It's NEVER worth worrying about for more than a few minutes, though it's not exactly easy to put out of mind.  Then later that night I had a small table come in.  I treated them the same as I treat all my other tables, and when I went back to grab their receipt after they left, they had written "Thank you.  Great Job!" at the bottom of the slip.

It's nice to see a little note like that when you've been questioning your performance.  I may not have the best job ever, but it's nice to know I do a pretty good job at it.

I suppose I'm writing this to remind myself, and anyone else out there, that little words of encouragement do matter, to everyone, in every profession.  So if someone is doing a great job at something, don't be afraid to let them know.  You never know, it might be just what they needed to hear.

Movie Date!!!

Do you remember me raving about The Hunger Games series?  I raved, because it was awesome.  And now The Hunger Games movie is out and I'm SUPER excited to go see it.  (Envision me bouncing in my chair right now, because that's what I'm doing.)

I think I would be really excited to see this movie regardless of who I was going to see it with, BUT, I'm lucky enough to be going to see this one with my friend Rachel and that just has me doubly excited.  Shortly after graduating high school we confessed to each other a mutual Harry Potter obsession.  Since then we have read the remaining books (sort of) together (I read way too fast for anyone to actually keep pace with me) and seen all the remaining movies together.  When the final Harry Potter movie came out I know I was equally as excited and crushed that we'd made it to the end.  It was nice to have an implied movie date with a good friend and the end of that was very, very sad.

Until we discussed how AMAZING The Hunger Games was.  A new movie date was born.  (Seriously, I'm bouncing in my desk chair, I'm so excited!)  I hope the movie is good.  I know it won't be as good as the book.  That's a given.  But even if it is the WORST movie of 2012, I'm still going to be so excited to see the next one because it means an automatic movie date with my friend.

Plus she brings the gummy bears.

Oh my god, this is going to be great!!!!

Some Updating...

Is it REALLY March?  Seriously?  I'm pretty sure this is late May weather....and really nice late May weather at that.  What on earth is it doing here in MARCH???

Yesterday my pant less child was playing outside without shoes on while I cooked dinner on the grill.  IN MARCH!!!!  Amazing!!!

Aside from this absolutely beautiful weather streak, things in my life have been pretty uneventful since the good old name change.  I've been spring cleaning, a little, doing yard work, a little, and reading on my kindle, a lot.  I've also been working a lot lately, which has been fun, and a bit tiring.  (I have NEVER seen anything like St. Patty's day at the bar.  Holy cow!  Wall to wall people and I was literally SHOVING people out of the way to get drinks to my table.)

Since I have now signed up for one lunch shift a week a work, I've decided to put Ben in a daycare.  He starts next week and I'm very excited to get him over there.  It will just be one day a week, and the lady that is running it has a son his age, so there will be an automatic playmate for him.  I'm very excited that he's going to be able to play with someone else his age and I think he is going to be sooooo excited once he gets there!

Since this blog seems to be headed in a rambling update direction, I might as well note that I've been doing a lot of reading lately and have been enjoying some really great books.  I finished Gettysburg and was pleasantly surprised.  It took me a long time to get through, since it was a little dry, but it was overall pretty good, and I'm looking forward to reading the next books in the series.  After Gettysburg I scored a deal on Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk for my kindle.  It was AMAZING.  It's been a long time since I've read anything gritty and rough like that and I LOVED it.  After that I read a few murder mysteries by Julie Spencer-Fleming that were pretty decent, and now the copy of Out of Oz by Gregory Maguire I reserved through the online library is available and I'm diving into that.  Is there anything better than sitting in the sun and reading?  I really don't think so.