School on Monday!

Monday we are back into the school routine. I'm very excited! All this week, I've had books spread out all over, looking them over and jotting down ideas. Wednesday, Jamie came home from work to find me sitting with 2 laptops in front of me trying to get both of the schedules synced up. So, just a huge planning week on my part with new curriculum, new grades, and 4 kids to formally teach this year.

I'm looking forward to the routine though and the kids are too. Chloe, interestingly enough, has Kindergarten anxiety even though she won't be going anywhere, which I never expected. Micah would have been going to Middle school, but his real change will come next year instead of this year as he enters the youth group at church. Of course, we can't forget Abbi in 4th grade and Hannah now in 3rd. My kids are growing up!

So, stay tuned, because I foresee a 'back to school' photo session on Monday:-)

The House is Complete!

Well, the inside of the house was finished a couple of weeks ago. It is so nice for everything to be updated, fresh, and clean. The last room was the laundry area, which is very non-exciting for most to see the "before and after" picture, but still quite exciting for us since it was the last room!

Here is the before:



Jamie added a shelf that is "Buffy size" above the washer/dryer. I've never lived in a house where the shelf was functional to me, because it was always too high. So, it never really served a purpose to actually hold laundry detergent and such. I refurbished a curtain to hide all my junk behind there and it goes with the bathroom colors that is in the same room also.



We also added a couple of coat racks to help with clutter in the winter. The kids' shoes have been housed in this room since we moved already and I added a little personal touch above the shoe shelf. I couldn't resist adding their handprints in a purposeful way and not ones that need to be cleaned off:-)

We still have some garage/outside organization to take care of, but the inside of the house is complete. And I STILL need to get my pictures from Davida's!!!! However, the hard work is done! We have had to learn a lot along the way, but it has also been kind of fun to see the transformation too.

Here are the past blog links for the whole house transformation:

http://buffyblessings.blogspot.com/2010/09/blog-post.html
http://buffyblessings.blogspot.com/2010/09/micahs-room-reveal-and-soccer.html
http://buffyblessings.blogspot.com/2010/09/girls-room-re-do.html
http://buffyblessings.blogspot.com/2010/10/another-room-done.html
http://buffyblessings.blogspot.com/2010/10/micahs-birthday-new-bathroom-and-last.html
http://buffyblessings.blogspot.com/2010/11/blog-post.html
http://buffyblessings.blogspot.com/2011/01/ponderings-after-weekend.html
http://buffyblessings.blogspot.com/2011/06/big-room-reveal.html

Kids are so Funny!

Today I had an appointment and as I got ready, the girls came in the bathroom to watch me fix my hair and make-up (not an unusual event). Last week, I made some fabric roses and put them on barrettes and headbands for the girls to wear. Well, I had on a floral shirt, so I decided to wear one of the hot pink fabric rose barrettes. So, I fixed my hair wavy, pulled my sides back, and clasped it with the rose. The girls started exclaiming how much they liked my hair, and I was taking the compliments and thanking them. Chloe exclaimed, "Mommy, you look just like a teenager" and I said, "well, thank you" (knowing full well that I didn't, but it was sweet) and she said, "Yea, you look just like a teenager in the back, but not so much from the front".

I died laughing! Ok, so I guess if I want to look young, just fix my hair like this and walk backwards into a room?

Our Sweet Little House Guest!

Last week, we got to keep our little 5 month old niece, Leah, for 2 days. We all had a ball! She is so happy and easy to please. The kids loved trying to make her smile and giggle and she was well entertained during her visit. As soon as she'd make a discontent sound, there was a child by her side trying to make her happy again. It was cute, and they all did really good with her and she wasn't complaining about all the attention either! I'm afraid she might become quite spoiled if she hung around for too long. We just love babies!

Friday night the older kids had a lock-in at church, so we just had Chloe and Leah to contend with. We went outside in the cooler evening hours and Leah enjoyed being strolled around by her big cousin. I don't even want to venture to guess how many miles my almost 12 year old stroller has rolled.
It has taken me a bit to blog this week. If it hasn't been one thing, it has been another. I was sick with a stomach virus over the weekend, and it ended with a migraine headache. It was a useless weekend of me laying around in bed feeling miserable. Sunday, I went to do this blog and my SD card in my camera said it needed to be formatted. Well, that is never good!!! Formatting equals erasing everything! I have no idea what happened. So, my heart kind of plummeted to my toes when I realized ALL my vacation photos were also on this SD card. I treasure the pictures I take!

Jamie and I started doing some research and found a program to download to retrieve the pictures from a damaged SD card. $29.95 later, we have our pictures (all 400 of them!!!). Lesson learned....save your darn pictures to the external hard drive as soon as you walk in the door from the vacation no matter how sleepy you are!!! I guess it gives me an excuse to get a camera card with more memory though:-) Scary!

In other blog worthy news, our house painting/flooring is COMPLETE and I continually feel humbled and blessed to be in this home of ours. I love it! It may not be much to most people, but it is a dream come true for us. Love! I'll post pictures of the final room next time. It is just the laundry room, so not exciting, but we tried to make it cute anyways by adding some personal touches.

I've also been a cooking fiend. I'm doing make-ahead freezer meals with a TON of cooking. This should save me some time, money, and dishes in the evenings and when Jamie needs to grab a bite for lunch/dinner for work. Yay! I've gotten the kids involved too, so it has been kind of fun too. My kids are eager to learn cooking skills and I'm eager to teach them so I can have some extra hands around here. I'm anxious to see how this will stretch our budget.

Well, I've Decided...

Next year, we are starting school in July! This year I had the house to take care of, but now we sit and wait for August 1st to roll around to have something to do. My kids love to play outside, but with these heat indexes, that is not an option. So, we are kind of 'stuck' and I feel like we are wasting time! Might as well school during the heat waves and take off when it is nice outside. Too late for this year unless I want some meltdowns to occur though. And I don't mean meltdowns due to the heat;-) I'm looking forward to getting cranked back up myself. They may not agree, although Chloe is super excited about being in Kindergarten!

We are adapting to Jamie's new schedule, and we'll need to figure out what to do once school rolls around. It is nice for him to get comp time and get to go in late . He is better rested and it allows for some extra study time during the week. And, of course, it allows some nice windows of time for appointments, family time, etc. I like having a guaranteed schedule rather than never knowing what is going on.

In less then 2 days we will get to do some baby spoiling. I know her parents are not looking forward to her first night away, but I guarantee that she will be well loved! We are looking forward to it. It is nice to squish a little baby every now and then.

So, school supplies line the aisles at Wal-Mart and it is time to start planning our adventures. I'm not sure who learns the most....them or me.

Nothing exciting

I haven't blogged in a little bit. Really things have been kind of ordinary and unexciting around here, I suppose. There is nothing wrong with normal life and it is far from dull with 4 kids running around and a house project in the midst, but nothing blog worthy going on.

We are in the final stages of the utility room redo. I've painted my last wall and laid my last floor! I'm in the poly stage of the floor, which is mostly easy peasy and just a lot of waiting around for it to dry and cure.

There are a few little details that need to be completed after the floors cure next week, but as of this time next week, everything in this house will be complete. We won't discuss the garage that looks a bit like Sanford and Son. Jamie did take all the old carpet and dried paint cans to the dump though, which helps tremendously! At least I can close the door and pretend that the mess doesn't exist on that job.

So, I guess next week, we'll have our final before and after pictures. Of course, it is just a functional room and nothing exciting, but I'm very excited, because that means our house is completely redone!!!

Our summer is going by quicker than I like, but I'm also ready for a routine again. We will begin another year on August 1st:-)