Biological imperatives

I will have no idea what this post is about years from now when I see the title, but that's what labels are for...

We've been talking about redoing our attic for MONTHS. We've been in contact with the contractor and an architect. For MONTHS. Once we found we wouldn't need to use the attic as a baby room there was a little relief from the pressure, but not much. The plan had been that we would get the attic done into a guest room and then since they'd be doing the floor in there why not have them put floors in the kids' rooms too? I finally convinced Vader to get rid of the allergen-producing carpet and do it. We assumed they would do it at the end of the project since that's when they'd be doing the new room floor. With each delay (there have been so many) that pushed back the floors in the kids' rooms. Why does it matter? Because we're not putting the crib together and then having to take it apart to get it out of there to do the floors. It doesn't fit through the door, it has to be taken apart. Likewise, we're not getting SkyWalker a heavy new dresser that will just have to be moved. But SkyWalker will need a new dresser since Baby Boy is taking over his changing table nursery. We have the co-sleeper that attaches to our bed and that's where Quattro will sleep at night in the beginning, but if I'm going to get anything done during the day I need to have him sleeping safely in his crib. And, there is a biological need to have your nursery set up before you have your baby!! 

And then it hit me. 

We don't have to wait until the end. We don't need an architect to draw up a plan to put a floor down. Or a permit or anything. We can do it FIRST. I told Vader and he quasi-agreed. He has no biological imperative. I told him to call the contractor. He didn't. He did get floor samples from Home Depot, but that was it. I was on the edge of going crazy that the biggest obstacle in all this is HIM, when fate intervened and the contractor called US to schedule a final look at the plans. He came last night and can definitely do the floors first AND paint in the boys' room. AND he'll rip up the carpets so we don't have to. It won't take long at all and we can have it done in the next couple of weeks (I have approximately 5 weeks left before I start the countdown). He'll do the boys' room first. We'll move all the furniture across the hall to the girls' room. Then when he's done with the boys' room, we'll move everything into there and he'll do the girls' room. The girls' room will take much less time since it's just the floor and not painting. Vader has to pick out the floors and order them and pick up the paint (SkyWalker and I chose a color and we are not letting him argue with us. For some idiotic reason he thinks you paint once every 30 years. So he can pick out a different color in 30 years.). The boys' room has not been painted since we moved in, nearly 10 years ago. 

The contractor will be able to do everything through our garage so we won't have to worry about them messing up our new floors either. Not that I worry. 

So now I have to get Vader to do his part ASAP so we can set up an actual date for this. And hope that once this is all done I still have enough energy to wash baby clothes and get ready to have this baby! 

Crazy. Plans.

I've been going a little crazy.

I have reorganized kitchen cabinets and my fridge and counters and as many things as I can in the kitchen. I bought all new hand and dish towels so they would "match" the green of the wall. Got rid of the big dish drying rack and got one--or six--of those dry mat towel things. In green of course. Bought an iced tea maker and a new food processor (I do use that iced tea maker every couple of days though). I reorganized closets in the bathrooms and got rid of crap we've had for a decade and don't need.

I need to set up a crib and wash baby laundry and I can't yet.

I have all of these PLANS in my head. My soon to explode head. I have finally FINALLY convinced Vader to rip up the carpet in the kids' bedrooms and put down floors. FINALLY. This will most likely be the last step in our attic-renovation plan, a plan that has yet to get off the ground. We're converting our attic to a guest room (and making the currently unaccessible part of the attic into a storage attic). The attic comes off of the girls' room, which is directly across from the boys' room. So, we'll rip up the carpet (we, ha!) and then have the contractor do ALL of the floors, guest room, girls' room, boys' room. In order to do that though we'll need to get all of the furniture out of those rooms. There is no point in setting up a crib if we have to move it out. SkyWalker needs a new dresser before I can move his clothes out of the baby changing dresser he's still using and then put baby clothes in that. So I'm not washing baby clothes now. Although I will have to get all of the boxes out baby clothes out of the attic. Vader is not very concerned. He seems to just see it as guaranteed that things will not be done in time, and so he's not stressing. He also doesn't have a million hormones in his body screaming to get all of our ducks in a row. RIGHT NOW! Luckily we are one step closer. After months (weeks) of phone tag with the contractor we have finally met with him and an architect. We'll get architect plans next week, meet again, get a price, get a loan, get this ball rolling. My protruding belly was pretty clear and the contractor said to the architect that we want to do this ASAP so I think things will move quicker now. (In reality, Quattro is not going into this new room, so if his arrival comes first it will not be the end of the world. But I want things DONE.)

Plans. Plans. Plans.

I've also been going a little crazy trying to get us to eat healthier, which is quite honestly, exhausting. I wish I could go back in time to when SkyWalker was little and expose him to more then... but I *did* give him vegetables and he did eat them and then he went bad. But, I suppose I could have cut out HFCS and sugar  before he ever got a taste of them. Alas. I have managed to change the things we eat on a regular basis. Our jelly and syrup don't have HFCS anymore. I made my own blueberry syrup the other day. I can't cut ALL sugar out of our diets but I can try to cut it DOWN. I've also been getting some local farm fresh milk. It's not organic, but sometimes the organic at the grocery store is not any better than the non-organic. Short of milking my own damn cow, getting milk from a local farm is the next best thing. It's grass-fed, they don't automatically pump the cows with antibiotics, there's no hormones, etc. I get it from a local foods store, in a glass bottle no less so there's no BPA either. Of course it's more expensive. It's $3 a half-gallon for the 2% reduced fat option. I would have preferred the whole milk, but that only comes in a quart and I'm just not spending that much money. Yet. I've been trying to cut down how much milk we go through because I can't get 6 gallons of this stuff. This week I got 2 half-gallons of the farm fresh and 3 gallons of the regular grocery store milk. I'm definitely not drinking glass after glass of milk like I used to, which makes me sad, but I gotta do whatta I gotta do. Good thing I got that iced tea maker.

Space

Not as in the "final frontier".

When we bought this house over 8 years ago it was SO BIG. I always knew we would have kids so I intentionally didn't do anything in the upstairs rooms, but the rest of the house was still just BIG.

It has gotten smaller.

That's natural when you add three more people (and two dogs). The living room is full of toys. The kitchen is full of toys. The office is full of toys. The part of the office not full of toys is full of guitars and musical equipment. My sewing/puzzle table now houses SkyWalker's computer (the desktop. His laptop is upstairs)  and various other stuff.

I had no space.

I've done pretty good over the last year of creating a mental space for myself. I run 3-4 times a week and I make sure I do child-free whether it's on the road or the treadmill. I read a lot more and book blog and write my examiner articles. I have my monthly girls' nights and make sure that there is a spot in my brain that thinks only about ME and not about the rest of the world.

But I needed a physical space too. When I mentioned this to Vader he was caught up in what I would do with this space. Not that I had to justify it, but for him it was "I want to do puzzles so I need a table" and for me it is "If I have a table I can do puzzles, scrapbooking, whatever." There was NO spot for me. None. There was no room in the office, no room in the kitchen (and I don't consider the kitchen my space. I'm not that interested in cooking.). Finally I looked to our bedroom... that we share with the dogs. We have a large dresser in there but we couldn't move it because of the TV. We just HAVE to have that TV in there. /sarcasm I came up with an idea to move the dresser upstairs into the Princess's closet, take her smaller dresser for Vader's stuff and then have more room in our bedroom. Luckily we didn't have to actually do that. We just slid the dresser down a bit, moved the dogs down a bit, and then opened up a corner. My own corner. I took the craft/homework table from the kitchen--the one that NOBODY does any crafts or homework on and is primarily a climbing tool for Chewie and moved that into the corner. I moved a smaller toddler table into the kitchen so they can still sit and do their playdoh. As of yet I haven't been able to sit down at my table, but it's nice knowing that I have a place to sit.

My space

The kids' space. One of many.

Renovating

In addition to renovating my psyche I am also renovating my house. Not so much renovating as sprucing up. We've gotten the floors done and I had the wallpaper removal guy come today to give us a couple of estimates. One for just removing the wallpaper, one for that AND painting. In theory Vader could paint... it will just take a year. Or two. I think we should just spend the damn money and get it all done now. We'll see how much it winds up being. I said I could wait until October because he can give us a better price then. It's not like we're painting because we're selling the place. I want it to be done before I'm pregnant again and before it snows because the dogs will have to be outside a lot. I should hear from him in a couple of days.

We also need to replace our curtains in both the kitchen and living room. I'm really not a fan of curtains and the way my dogs and children play with them let's just say my curtains are not long for this world... I'm *thinking* about getting blinds instead. I know what you're thinking. But I'm thinking VERTICAL blinds. Faux wood vertical blinds. Just for the windows that face the front yard. The sliding glass door will have to be curtains because I'm not having floor length blinds. I guess I don't really need to replace anything until after the painting is done but I'm itching to do it now.

Particularly since today was the day I have been waiting for for a long long time. No, that's not messed up, read it again slowly.

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Our new couches came today. Sofa and loveseat. I loves them I do! Aren't they pretty in their leatherness?

This is how they are now:

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Yes, we had to cover up the lovely leatherness. But I splurged (in a big way) and got suede covers that have TWO parts. The main cover and then a separate slip cover for the cushions. Why? For little boys (and eventually girls) who pee on the couch. (See the one trying to figure out how she can do some damage?) Now I can just take the cushion cover off and wash that instead of taking the whole thing off. Sweet!

(A horde of teenagers just came in here and tried to get me to eat bugs. No, I'm not at home. That would be *really* weird.)

In just 3 long weeks we can put the ottoman back in the living room and it will look like a real living room again! Once the floors "cure" or harden we can put the little rugs and such back on it.

Anyway, the couches came at the *same* time as the wallpaper removal guy. That was fun. My MIL was over so she helped with that. Despite saying that they couldn't move my old couch because of insurance reasons, they moved my old couch to the office for me (all I needed was a pretty smile.... and some money). So Vader didn't have to do anything. Which was great since it was a surprise to him. He obviously knew we were getting them but when they called for delivery he wasn't home and SkyWalker thought it would be great to surprise him. And it was! So now we have a couch in the office/playroom.

The bugs are back and strangely I am hungry. But I am going to the vending machine.

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A hodgepodge of numerous things

The hideous wallpaper in the kitchen (if you look closely you can see the blue counters):

Before & After:

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Even without being painted the walls look so much better without that wallpaper!! I am nowhere near being done in the kitchen though. My goal is to finish that and then have someone else do the rest:

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Who puts wallpaper in the shower? Who DOES that kind of thing??

I had to laugh at how many people suggested yellow for our kitchen... When Vader first laughed at light green he said "Well, it's not as bad as yellow." It's going to be fun in my house when we have to make a decision.

We had lunch at the park again. We're enjoying it so much. SkyWalker doesn't really talk to anyone, but he laughs at the other kids and he's not running away from them. He felt comfortable enough to pull his pants down and pee in front of everyone. Twice. The second time his little train buddy stood right next to him and was fascinated with his progress. They looked like they were standing at urinals... in the middle of the grassy park. Good times. We're getting used to going to the park every week. I don't know what we'll do in the winter... I guess go to the library. ;-)

Speaking of which... I try not to talk too much about work because that's not who I am anymore but this just is so overwhelmingly ridiculous... instead of hiring another children's librarian to help do programs and improve services to the town, the board has decided to pay a "guard" to deal with the teenagers who hang out here after school. I'm assuming that's what his responsibilities are but I'm not sure since there still has been NO memo notifying us of who this person is and why he's here. That's another post. Anyway, the town taxpayers are paying this man (a hall monitor from the school) to sit outside the building and sun himself for a few hours. Is that not a colossal waste of money?? A librarian would be working! I am so glad I am not a taxpayer in this town. This in addition to the unnecessary 9-5 hours on Saturdays in the summer... at a time when taxes are going up and up, gas is going up, everything is going up, to be wasting taxpayer money is just so wrong.

We have another playdate at our house tomorrow. I didn't even attempt to clean today since I know it will all be a mess again. I'll do the guest bathroom tonight or tomorrow morning and try to get the kitchen organized, but with two little tornadoes throwing toys around the living room there was no point in doing anything today!

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Color, or lack therof

The husband told me last night to start thinking about colors for the kitchen. We're no where near ready for that but it takes us him a long time to make decisions. I did a little dance inside and started thinking. At bedtime I asked if he wanted to do all one color or to try to separate the dining area of the kitchen from the cooking area. I think that's why there was different wallpaper. He said no, to do it all one color. I mentioned light green. His response? "Are you kidding me? You're joking right? That's ridiculous." He did eventually apologize for his immediate reaction, but his idea of "colors" are white, off-white and beige.

When we moved into the house the only room we painted was our bedroom. White. Before the Princess was born he painted her room. White.

There is one room in the house with color. The living room has some type of rose color that some see as more purplish and some WRONG people see as pink. Anyway, the reason I do not want to have it repainted is because it is the ONLY color in the house and I'm afraid I will wind up with a white living room. I am hoping that Vader's laziness and not wanting to have that repainted will be stronger than his mental institution desires.

I am determined to take control. I am in the house more than he is. I am definitely in the kitchen more since I do all the goddamn cooking. I will have color in my life. So, dear readers. I have light blue counters and wood cabinets. What color would you paint my kitchen?

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Little of this, little of that

The Princess had her ultrasound last Tuesday. It was a good thing I took the night off from work. Our appt was at 3:30 but we weren't seen until after 4. We didn't get home until after 5:30! The surgeon was amazed by how well she's doing. She's still on amoxicillin for another 6 weeks *groan* but then she's off. Her next ultrasound is in March and hopefully he will tell us that she will never need amoxicillin again!

We had our first big snowstorm. She did not go outside at all but watched from the window. SkyWalker and I decided to hang up our Christmas lights during the snow on Thursday. Then we went out and played yesterday. I pulled him in the sled and nearly broke my back. We're supposed to be getting a lot more tomorrow. I'm hoping the library will be smart and not even open and I can spend the day at home watching Vader pull SkyWalker on the sled as I sip hot chocolate and read a book (yes I'm dreaming).

My sister was supposed to close on her house yesterday. I'm assuming she did... she won't move in until after Christmas because they're going to do some work. My brother and sister-in-law did the same thing. We started moving in the day we closed. Were we stupid? We sure as hell don't have the time to fix things now. We did redo our bedroom--put in wood floors and painted--but that was it. Granted we were paying rent and needed to get out of an apartment. But still... I LOVE my house. Everyone knows how much I love my house. But there's so much to do. I hate wallpaper. There's wallpaper in the living room going up the stairs, all over the kitchen, and in the bathroom. We'd need to rip that all off and paint. I hate the tiles in our bathroom and would love to have bigger tiles that would be easier to clean. And while I'm dreaming... I would love to convert our garage into a new living room, make our living room a playroom, and build a new garage that would really be a 2 car instead of a 1 1/2 like it is now. And maybe convert the attic into another room because I don't know what we'll do if we have 3 kids the same gender. I suppose we could convert our office downstairs into another room. But we don't have the time or the skills to do anything ourselves and we don't have the money to pay people. Or help from anyone else. Maybe someday we'll have more money and can actually do what we'd like. I'm tempted to tell SkyWalker to rip the wallpaper off so we'd be forced to replace it....

I went to the Christmas Tree Shop to get an apple peeler that one of my friends has. I turned right around and walked out of the store. What was I thinking going to to the CHRISTMAS Tree Shop in DECEMBER? I'll have to wait until the holidays are over. I really wanted that damn apple peeler though. I think SkyWalker can use it himself and it would make things easier. He likes his apples peeled and sliced and this does both. I also want to get to JoAnn's and buy a Christmas village. The little ones--5 inches--are cheap. And they have a library building this year. Maybe after soccer on Friday.

I'm not drinking enough water. It's so hard in the winter. I had another headache the other morning that was turning into a migraine and I'm pretty sure it's from not having enough water and having too much caffeine (even decaf tea has caffeine). I think my "supply" is also going down, partly from the Princess eating SO MUCH food, but also from not having enough water. I'm going to have to force myself to drink water everyday. And then a cup of hot chocolate to warm up.

Pumping break is over.... back to "work."

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