My crazy day, and house pictures!

Oh my goodness, today was "one of those days." Going from one to two kids really wasn't that much harder for me. Two to three has been quite another story. With two kids there are those times when both kids need you at exactly the same time and that can be stressful of course. But that's not really the norm, usually it's one or the other. With three, that situation where two need you at the same time becomes a lot more common and when all three need you it can make your head spin. Here is an example:

The beginning of the day today is sort of a blur, except for getting Adrienne to school a few minutes late. While she was at school I was working on getting the floor in the house prepped for the hardwood layers who will be coming tonight. Today was early release and I did remember it, but when you're used to a certain amount of time 4 days of the week, that one shortened day can throw your body clock off as far as when it "feels" like it's time to pick her up. I usually set my alarm on my phone for 12:00 p.m. to remind me that in 20 minutes I'll need to pick her up. Since today was early release I changed my alarm to 11:10 to remind me that in 20 minutes I'd need to pick her up, BUT I didn't realize I'd left it on p.m. So of course the alarm never rang to remind me. I was sweeping away in the house and all of a sudden it dawned on me that it felt like it was almost time to pick up Adrienne and then I remembered that the day was shortened - I looked at my clock and it said 11:33. EEP! (Now keeping in mind that at this same time I was: Watching Colette outside, Edward was sleeping inside but I knew he must be awake and screaming by then, and I was just scooping up the pile of debris into the garbage and would be all done with the floor prep. I knew that after picking up Adrienne I would be finishing up on that floor because after that I'd need to nurse Edward, get the kids lunch, Colette down for her nap, and then start in on the long list of other things that always need to be done...now back to the story) So I made a mad dash for the van leaving Colette in the house and hollering over my shoulder that I'd be right back because I had to pick up Adrienne at the bus stop (at the bottom of the driveway). I'm running to the van, but just a little too fast and so I braced myself on the van: my left hand on the driver's side door, and my right hand on the body of the van, and with part of my right hand on the window behind the driver's door - but only my pinky actually touched the window and the window shattered! But I couldn't stop to do anything about it because I was still very late picking up Adrienne, so I got down there to pick her up, explained to the bus driver about not hearing my alarm (not realizing it never even went off) and headed back up the driveway with Adrienne wondering why she was sitting in the front seat and the window was broken. I dash back in the house and scoop up the pile into the garbage, take both the girls inside, grab Edward from Mike and then spent the next couple hours making phone calls about the window. It's going to be $250 and will be fixed tomorrow. Okay, now, the mess! Right about when I'm done making the phone calls my parents are taking off for Seattle to turn in the templates for the granite countertops, and Mike is leaving for work so I'm on my own. But it needs to be cleaned out because it's going in to get fixed first thing in the morning, and it needed to be done right away because there was about 4 hours of sunlight left in the day. Luckily I have a fabulous friend, Sarah, who has bailed me out of way too many sticky situations (and whom I will need to repay once the house is finished!) - she came and picked up Adrienne and Edward and while Colette napped I was able to get the mess cleaned up (mostly - still need to wash the car seat).

A very crazy day indeed, but through it all I stayed pretty calm and actually managed to be thankful! My first thought after breaking the window was "well at least we have a van", when Edward spit up all over my leg while making phone calls and I thought "I love this baby" and something to be very grateful for that Mike pointed out was that none of the kids were in the van when the window broke! The glass was all over the girls' seats and they would have been hurt pretty badly. As it is I cut my pinky, but it's fine.

And I was able to avert another major disaster tonight...I was outside just now with the hardwood layers (there's actually been about 2 hours from when I started this post to now) and Colette came out (that girl is gutsy, it was pitch black out there!) and she was wandering around the house, and wanted to see her room upstairs. I was standing on the main floor as she came down the stairs. She caught her foot on a step and started to fall face first toward the steps below. The railing is up now, but the rungs aren't in yet, and thank goodness for that! I was able to reach through and catch her right before her face would have hit the steps. It would have been really ugly. So we will have to have a talk with the kids about stair safety now that they are going to be a part of daily life soon!

Okay, well I know this has been a rambly post and I would go back through and try to make more sense of it and thin out the phrases I know I abuse ("actually", "at least", "So...", etc.) but it's either that or throw some pictures in here, and I think you would all prefer the pictures :-)

I have a bunch of other posts started in my drafts so I'll have to finish those soon. Oh...while I'm uploading those pictures I remembered something funny from this morning. When we were dropping Adrienne off at school Colette was commenting on the muddy snow in the parking lot. She says "That's icky snow" and I said something like "Yeah"...then she says "Somebody farted on it!" She had me giggling the whole way home.

Okay, on to the pictures:

The van with the missing window

While I was outside taking pictures of the van I took some in the house.
On the way in, check out the steps in the garage!

In the master bedroom - the color and like our pretty sconce? there's a matching on on the other side of the windows, and also the fixture in the bathroom is the same but with 4 of those cuppy things (yes that is the technical term for it).

This is the tub in the master bath. Just to show you the ring left after draining it out (I wiped the bottom or it would be pretty bad) - should give you an idea how disgusting that water was! I still have a sore throat a week later!


So, in this picture...You can see the color so much better than in the previous ones because the tape is off all the windows so it's in the natural light. You can see the railing and how the rungs are not in, as I described above. And you can see the hardwood acclimating in the study.

The girls' room with the radioactive pink. I think it will look a lot better when the wallpaper border is up and furniture and other stuff is in it. Speaking of furniture, I'll put in a picture of their bed I'm getting from someone on Craigslist - will be picking it up Saturday. Also in this picture you can see the roll of vinyl in the other bedroom. I got that from someone on Craigslist also and it was brand new in the roll, originally sold for $400 a few years ago and we got it for $100! It will go in the utility room and the kids' bathroom upstairs.

The bed - it was used as a guest bed for the past couple years, so in very good condition. That's including the mattress and box spring and I get the side table too ($250 for all of it - they were asking $300)

Also, I found a very adorable and perfect decorative item for the girls french bakery themed room. They're knitted desserts. This set is called "afternoon tea". They're sold by a shop in England. Perfect colors too.

I may be getting a full capacity stacked washer and dryer unit for the master closet from yet another person from Craigslist if the person will accept my offer - they're asking $500 and I offered $350.