12 more hours!

Only 12 more hours left in this year. I really have nothing important to say about the past year, nor do I have any inspiring words about what's to come in 2008. I don't do resolutions. Well, there's always the "I'm gonna lose weight!!1!1!" thing, but I say that every couple weeks anyway, so that doesn't count.

Actually, I do have a resolution for 2008. In 2008, I will hire a babysitter months in advance, so that finally, for ONCE, I can be with other people when the ball drops. I haven't spent a New Years Eve with Craig in 8 years. I haven't been to a New Years party in probably 10 years. I once had a friend over for New Years Eve, but we both fell asleep at 11:00. It's kind of depressing, actually.

But....I do have a yearly tradition for myself at midnight since I'm usally alone. I always say a prayer as the year changes. That way it's the last thing and the first thing I do every year.....talk to God. Sometimes it's just a short prayer that I have to sneak in while someone's on the phone with me. But, I always do it. God always hangs with me on New Years Eve :-)

We're supposed to get a winter storm tonight, so please be careful out there! Watch out for icy roads and crazy drunk drivers!

Ok...gotta go....there's about to be a Wii bowling brawl in my living room that I need to go prevent.

I forgot about this one.

A Christmas morning concert....

A YouTube Christmas.

Get ready for a video extravaganza!

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas. I know I did! Well, up until my sinuses started pounding, and now I'm just a little sick and miserable, but I've already reached my sick-blogging quota this year and won't talk about that.

The kids had so much fun today. They loved all their presents and played for a long time in the land of wrapping paper and bows.

When the mess was cleaned up, we let them unwrap the Wii. At first they didn't care about it much, but then we turned it on and started playing. They loved it! First we showed them the bowling game on Wii sports. Xavier was the first of the kids to try it out. I thought it would be too complicated for a 4 year old. Boy was I wrong! On his very first try, he scored a spare, FIVE strikes in a row, and then another spare. Neither Craig or I had ever done that well. He beat Craig's high score. Craig is competitive and was a little bothered that his 4 year old son beat him at a game he's been practicing for many weeks now.

Right now, the kids are all asleep, but Craig is in the living room, desperately trying to get his high score back. *eyeroll*

Speaking of bowling, Mandy isn't very good, either.

Sunday my friends came over and we opened presents (some were unusual!), shared funny stories (some were embarrassing!) and had a nice time.

Well, that's about it. Tomorrow I hope you all have the most boxtastic Boxing Day ever.

A Christmas spirit blog.

There really is no point to this blog, I guess, except to express some of my Christmas joy.

This year, I finally have the Christmas spirit. Usually at this time, I'm either sick, or poor, or stressed about something. I always stress about gift giving....who to buy for, who not to buy for, what to buy? Is it good enough? Did I spend enough? Or, why can't a get myself to bake a million cookies like most people do? I've always felt guilty about that. Blah. Oh, and the fact that I never remember to get the kids' Christmas pictures "professionally done" in time to send out with the cards. I've finally accepted that I can take pics for free and although they're not as good, they are sufficient in recording memories that I'll cherish when I'm old and they're all grown up. I'm glad I've stopped upsetting myself over the little things. That stuff isn't what Christmas is all about.

My kids are sooo excited. Every morning we get asked "Can we open ONE present today? Pleeeease?" It reminds me of being a kid again. How exciting when a new gift for me appeared under the tree! I remember constantly touching the presents, rearranging them every day. Guess who does that now? Daphne, my mini-me. It's so fun.

Although they're all excited about getting gifts, it amazes me how much they want to give, as well. They keep wrapping things up in toilet paper and garland and putting it under the tree. The other night Mandy was here, and Xavier wrapped up one of his toy cars and gave it to her. I asked him if he was sure he wanted to do that, and he was very serious about giving it to her. Then she left it here and he had a fit. Bad Mandy!

I will be sad when it's all over. You'll probably see my Christmas tree 'n stuff up until the end of January. Deal with it ;-)

Now, for a few random things.

Yesterday I was sitting here and Xavier walked up behind me and asks "Mom, is my blankie handsome?" I turned around and saw this:

For some reason I thought it was hilarious. Put a tie on, and you're immediately handsome.

This is Zoe's favorite way to watch TV, now.

I forgot to share this picture of the twinpeas singing at church before the play.

Little stinker managed to untuck his shirt before coming out on the stage. I guess untucked dress shirts are "in" with the pre-school kids.

Daphne's First play!

Daphne was in a couple of scenes in our church's Christmas play this year. Here is a short video clip of one of the dress rehearsals.

It'll do for now.

Just a few things about this one.

I am the mean mom who yells at her, sends her to her room, feeds her cheese and crackers, etc. My mom, on the other hand, can do no wrong! (See Adam? I told you!) I guess I need to build more aquariums to make her happy. REAL aquariums. Grandma can only build the fake kind. I'm sure I can top that.

Also...I didn't know Grandma has a friend named Juan who deals fish. Long-lipped fish.

Careers

Daphne has always loved writing her own stories. I probably have saved 500 stories, big and small, that she has written over the years. Some of them are just pages of pictures because she didn't know how to write at the time. Some of her illustraitions are amazing, too. Well, except that drawing of me she did a few posts ago. I don't really look like that ;-) She did draw me today with a fat tummy. That, on the other hand, is pretty accurate. Anyway, I think she may be a writer when she gets older. She's actually working on a book right now, apparently.

Her way. Heh. Definitely a fairytale ;-)

I see that she has been studying various literary terms as well, such as onomatopoeia.

Or, who knows. Maybe she'll just be a pet groomer.

I think that whatever she does, she'll do it fantastically.

Never trust an 8 year old.

Disclaimers: Miers = Meijer, a store that I shop at a lot. Also, Craig was in the van while I was in there. ;-)

Sneaky little brat. I wonder how many Christmas presents she knows about already.

Daphne's miserable life.

I never realized how horrible Daphne's life was until today. Poor girl! I can't believe I didn't see it before. You see, today I went through her backpack. It was stuffed with papers. Her teacher made the whole class clean out their desks, and she brought everything home. I learned a lot about her feelings, and her opinion of her home life. I didn't realize she had it so rough. Let me share some examples with you.

Sigh. She's right. Every day it's the same thing. She walks in the door, I give her orders like a drill sergeant and off to her room she goes for the rest of the night. Am I really being to hard on her? Sheesh.

Well, at least she realized she had an ATATOOD. I feel so bad about the cheese and crackers, too. How could I punish her like that? Poor thing. She didn't get her eggs benedict, Belgian waffles and half-caf latte. I'm a horrible mother. That picture of me? That's exactly what I look like at 7:30 in the morning while I scream at her. Yikes. I need some parenting classes.

Ok, the truth is she DID have an attitude and things were going horribly wrong all morning. She was late, and cheese and crackers was a quick option for breakfast before running out the door.

Her teacher must think I'm horrendous.

Stay tuned for more fun from Daphne's backpack.

Moon

The sky is really pretty this evening.

My favorite sky is just after sunset, when you can still see a little bit of the blue color, and the clouds are big and low, and the moon is round and bright.

Thankful for rest!

Hours and hours of shopping, preparation, and cooking . . . . all for that one delicious meal that takes 15 minutes to eat.

The table has been cleared, and now I'm resting. I need to save up some energy for setting up the Christmas tree! I love Thanksgiving.

Hope you are all having a wonderful day :-)

A confession.

I love winter. I do. I love everything about it.

I love snow. I love snow storms. BIG snow storms. The ones that close down schools. I love trying to drive through a snow storm. I love going 20mph on 275 while billions of big honkin' snow flakes obstruct my view. I love the frantic breaking weather reports every 5 minutes when a storm is coming. I love the terms "Nor'easter" and "Alberta Clipper."

And I love shoveling the snow. Great exercise, and what a feeling of accomplishment when it's done, even though in about 10 minutes you have to start all over ;-) I love the big snow banks that line the driveway when you're all finished. I love when the plow truck comes by, and suddenly your mailbox is up to its neck in snow.

I love the when the snow makes a perfect, spotless blanket over the grass and bushes. I love the way Christmas lights glow under that blanket. I love little birdy feet prints on the snow. I love catching a snowflake, and looking at it's miraculous symmetrical detail. I love seeing random snowmen sprinkled throughout the neighborhood. I love the eerie quietness that occurs while it's snowing. I love ice storms, too. I love when the city turns into glass, especially when the sun shines down on it.

I love the cold. I love walking outside and feeling the inside of my nostrils freeze slightly. I love mittens and scarves and winter coats. I love rosy cheeks and noses. I love coming in from the cold, warming up, and then going back out. I love watching the lakes and rivers gradually freeze up over time. I love icicles hanging from buildings. I love turning the fireplace on when it's cold outside. And lighting candles. I love dark, gray skies and windy days. I love hearing the wind whistling outside my window.

So there you go. No complaints from me about winter coming. This is the time of year when I start to hear all the complaining about the cold weather. Well, winter. I am your friend, and I welcome you.

Random 4 you.

Just another random blog for you.

1. First we'll start with a health update. I'm still coughing. I'm still lacking a normal voice. But....I now know what is happening to me. It's no longer a mysterious plague. It's reflux. Regurgitated food and beverage is backing up into my vocal chord area, aka pharyngolarynx, which is also knows as pharyngolaryngeal reflux, causing pharyngolaryngitis. In other words, in order to be normal again, I have to give things up....like chocolate, caffeine, carbonation, and anything else that actually tastes good. I've decided to call it the Pharyngolaryngeal diet. Oh, and anything else I have to stop eating 4 hours before bed time. I get to stay away from stress, too. Anyway, I'm feeling much better, but I'm still not finished with this. I'm also having a hard time with the no-caffeine bit. If I quit the caffeine, my throbbing head will pop off if I cough.

2. I had a dream about the corded mic last night. So this morning during rehearsal, I took a picture of it. Because that's what weird people do with random objects they have dreams about. They take pictures of them.

In my dream, it caused me grief. But today it looked so lovely in front of that light with all the stage fog.

3. Today's fun kid quote: "I'm gonna wiggle my uvula."

That's talent.

One of the many reasons it's good to keep my camera handy around my house.

So I almost lost an eyeball...

I thought I was ready. I thought I was getting better. I woke up this morning, wasn't coughing much, and thought, "Yay! I'm leaving this prison and going to church and I'm going to see my friends and then go shopping and have a grand day."

Things went fine until the shopping bit. Maybe it was all the perfumes in the air, but my throat started to get really irritated. After we left I miraculously felt better again.

Then I went to a friend's house, where I was fine. Nothing bothering me until my larynx decided it was time to try to create its own big bang with phlegm. Oh yes. A day's worth of coughing finally emerged. I ran to the bathroom where I began to hack a lung. Ah, just like last year. Coughing, with tears running down my face, almost puking! It was fun. But the best part is when I coughed so hard, I thought I broke a blood vessel in my left eyeball. I thought it was going to fly out. Embarrassed, I left the bathroom and promply left for home.

I had to stop and get gas, and a bottle of water. I was afraid of what the gas station attendant would think of my Halloween eye. It was still throbbing. It's still sore right now. Is this really how this is going to end? Last year, injured side muscle. This year, lose an eye? I can't do this again! I'm staying in this house until I'm healed 100%.

And now I shall retire to my bed with my laptop and watch something. Perhaps a funny movie or something. Got any recommendations? 'Cuz I'm gonna be stuck here for awhile. Except for the doctors office on Tuesday, where I will beg and plead for that antibiotic that cured me last year. Hello, $130 bottle of little miracle pills. Come to mama.

Sigh. I know in the scheme of things this is really not bad. I know of others who are having worse issues than I am. And, I promise not to blog about this constantly. I just had to let off some steam. Speaking of steam, time to refill the vaporizer and lay down :-)

I highly recommend Dr. Zoe

I've been laying around a lot today. I seem to cough less when I'm laying in bed. Zoe came in for a snuggle, and told me she'd be my doctor to help me feel better.

So she walked over to my bookshelves to pick out the "feel better" book, which "tells me what to do next." She opens it up and tells me that feel-better book says I need to rest for two minutes. Two whole minutes. Then she goes into my bathroom, gets an emery board, and tries to make me shove it down my throat and say "ahhhhh." I told her we'd pretend, because the last thing my hamburger throat needs is a sandpaper stick down it.

She consults her book again. It tells her that I need to read a book so I can get a "feel-better" sticker. She brings me Hank Hanegraaff's Bible Answer Book. Unfortunately the Bible Answer Man can't tell me why I have the plague again, and what I need to do to get better. But at least I got my feel-better sticker....a small pink smiley face on my hand.

Again, she consults the feel-better book. This time it tells her I need medicine. Two kinds! The first is a sip of Diet Dr.Pepper. Now we're talking. Next, the book tells her I need finger medicine. She grabs a bottle of hand lotion and squirts it on my hands and rubs it in.

Next, the book tells her I need a back scratcher. She runs to her bedroom and grabs her purple princess dress-up shoe. Then she scratches my back with it.

Next, she says I get to rest again. But this time, I have to rest my bones and eyes, also for two minutes. Then she abandoned me 'cause she had to go poop.

Although Dr. Zoe didn't cure me of my physical illness, she did make me feel a lot better :-)

Random

I'm still sick. Voice is slowly disappearing. Cough slowing appearing. Visit to the doctor nearing......

My friend just had a baby. Another friend going into the hospital tonight for stuff before a surgery. Can't visit friends in hospitals if I'm sick. Makes me sad :-(

Cough cough.

I'm soooooo bored. I've been sitting here next to my friend, the vaporizer, trying to feel better. Oh....but there is a good side to being sick and sitting around all day. I finally scored a Wii on Amazon today! Merry Christmas to me :-) And Craig, I guess. And the kids too, I suppose.

Time for more soup.

Could it be?

Last year, on November 10th, I went from being perfectly healthy, to suddenly having a weird pressure in my chest, dry cough, and clearing my throat. It happened over a matter of hours and I was quite confused. I wasn't sick, but I suddenly felt like I had bronchitis. As most of you probably remember, this was the start of my Holiday Plague of '06....a very long, expensive, painful, miserable illness that lasted 6 weeks.

It's Monday, November 5th, a year later. I've gone from being perfectly healthy, to suddenly having a weird pressure in my chest, dry cough, and clearing my throat. It happened in a matter of hours.

Help....Pray this is just something else. Anything but what I suffered through last year. *sniffle*

Ridiculous.

Too much . . .

Feel free to stop by the next time you get a sweet tooth.

Once again . . .

...Craig was a chick for Halloween.

I'm beginning to wonder about that man.

Once again, I wore extra makeup and lots of black.

And totally off-topic...my daddy bought us a Christmas present!

I don't watch The People's Court.

Now....let the Christmas season begin! Fa la la!

Costume Cuteness

Last night we took the kids to the Halloween at Greenfield Village. Although it was freezing outside, we had a fun time. It was dark and there were lots of people. I can't believe how many people buy tickets for this thing. It was sold out. They handed out treats at stations and decorated all the old houses with scary things. The treats were eh, but they did get Beanie Babies at the end.

Not really an interesting blog, I know. But the main purpose of this was to show off my cute kids.




Xavier absolutely hates Mickey ears of any kind. He refused to wear the ones that actually came with the costume. That was fine, because they looked dumb anyway. Way too small for Mickey ears. So I figured he could wear one of our sets of ears from our honeymoon. He cried when I put those on him, too. I'm not going to tell you what I had to do to make him smile for that picture.

Daphne is Pocahontas. She made me take the pic in front of the trees and rocks because I guess Pocahontas didn't hang out in subdivisions. She's also having a bad hair day, because that's the only black-haired child's wig I could find.

Farm Animals Privacy

Some thoughts from Daphne. Watch out, Emily Dickinson.


Farm Animals Privacy

Warning - This poem might be digusting, but that's life.
(yes, she wrote this disclaimer, too.)

Eggs come out of chickens butts
But without them doing that you won't have pancakes or waffles
Milk comes out of cows boobs
But if they didn't do that you wouldn't have chocolate milk
Pigs fart in the night
If they didn't do that there would be no oxygen
That's it.


???

A sunset surprise :-)

When I started doing the dishes tonight, the sky was grey. When I was finished with the dishes, suddenly.....this happened.

I took this picture through a dirty window, and you can still see how brilliant the colors were! Amazing. The entire field surrounding our house was glowing orange. It was so beautiful.

The Great Biscuit Debate.

I don't know why I'm blogging about this, or even thinking about biscuits when I'm in the middle of low-carb hell week. I guess I like to torture myself.

Ok. My friend Adam lives in NYC. When Adam comes back to Michigan to visit, he grocery shops. He loves Michigan groceries. We have more of a variety, and it's cheaper.

Every time he comes, he buys Grands biscuits. You know, the dough that comes in a can and you have to bust the cardboard to let the dough out. It's sticky and smells yeasty 'n stuff. Anyway, I'm not saying I hate Grands biscuits, but they're not REAL biscuits. We always have this biscuit debate when he comes. He's coming on the 26th, and its already started.

Let me show you an example:

The one on the left is a real biscuit. The one on the right is a Grands biscuit. There's no question that the one on the left is better. BETTER!

Imagine it covered in creamy sausage gravy. Mmmm.

Again, I'll eat a Grands "biscuit" if I have to, but who would prefer it to real southern buttermilk biscuits?

Gimme some sugar.

This is day two of my two weeks of eating low carb. I always end up doing this as a kick-start to weight loss, or if I feel myself craving sweets and carbs way too much.

Well I'm doing ok. Or so I thought. Sugar withdrawal sucks, and I've been handling it well (ie, I haven't felt the urge to rip anyone's head off). But it's even worse when you're kids suddenly hate each other after dinner. I'm not sure what their deal is right now, but I think they need an early bed time tonight. Or maybe I just need ice cream.

At the dinner table, pt. 2

Zoe: Urrggghhh....this skeeto is trying to bite me.

Me:  It's not a mosquito. It's a fruit fly.

Zoe:  No it's not. It's a skeeeeeto.

Me:  No, it's a fruit fly.

Zoe:  It's a skeeto!

Me:  It's a fruit fly! Why would I lie to you?

Zoe: You're lying. *evil smirk*

Me: *dirty look*


5 minutes later.....


Zoe: Urrrghhh......this fruit loop skeeto is trying to bite me again!

This is why I don't sleep with the TV on.

I never sleep with the TV on. I enjoy total darkness and quiet, except for maybe a fan running in the background or something. But last night I fell asleep while watching late night TV.

Not much later, I woke up to the strangest music, if that's what you want to call it. It was nightmarish. It was this music, a guy singing, and another voice that sounded what Satan must sound like. I had taken cold medicine a few hours before, so not only was I half asleep, I was high as well. I didn't understand what was going on, except that I thought the devil was trying to send me some sort of message. I sat up and looked at the TV, and all I could make out was a skeleton on the screen. Ok, freaky music, Satanic messages, skeletons....I must be having a cold-induced nightmare.

This morning I remembered what had happened, sort of, and thought for sure it was dream. I was probably hearing the TV, and somehow turned it into a scary dream in my head somehow.

Well, I always record Conan OBrien at night on the DVR, because I enjoy watching him, but usually fall asleep before it's over. So today when I remembered my pretty weird experience last night, I turned last night's episode of Conan on, to see if there really was some fright-tastic segment on last night, or to see if was all in my stuffed-up floaty head.

Apparently it wasn't in my head. See the video below. At least watch the first half.

What the crap is that? I'm sorry if you're a fan of this band, but seriously. What. Is. That?

NYC pictures!

A slideshow!

No time for blogging right now....perhaps tonight if I get a chance! We had much fun :-)

edit....this slideshow is crappy...I'll redo it and post it later.

A lunch bag time capsule.

I've spent all morning in the basement looking through old boxes. I originally went down there to find a book, but every time I venture down there to look for "something" I end up down there for hours, just going through the memories.

In a box I found an old lunch bag.

It had stuff inside of it. Thankfully it was not an old lunch. It was actually a collection of things from my past that I had thrown in there a long time ago. So let's take a look, shall we?

I believe these were purchased during our first trip to Disney. I was three years old. My parents bought the whole Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs set for me. Sadly, this is all that's left. Thanks for stickin' around, guys.

This was my name that went on the back of my cheerleading sweater every year, and some randomly save pictures of my cute self. I had spirit, yes I did.

This was probably one of the happiest Red Wing moments of my life, well, exept when I met Steve Yzerman. I was a Wing Nut, fo' real. During a pre-game warm up, Rick Zombo flipped this puck up into the crowd, and I caught it with my bare hand! We were in the nosebleeds, so you know it had to be going pretty fast. Yes, it hurt.

Oh, Jon. You were so beautiful in your kooky vests and polka-dot shirt.

These are medals from various Solo & Ensmeble festivals I performed at. I played the saxophone. I used to have about a million more, but I don't know where they ran off to.

Stardate 23949349 . . . . Christie was a NextGen Trekkie in a baaaad way. She even went to a convention. OH THE HORROR! Why are Ryker's clothes all ripped? Hmmm . . .

Various drum corps patches from various years of corps. These used to be on various drum corps jackets, but now they're in various lunch bags in my basement I guess.

Makin' it great, y'all! I worked at Pizza Hut for about 8 years. I was an "expert" dough maker at one point. Be jealous.

I found many other things I'm dying to blog about, but that will have to be another day. I have lots to do today, because tomorrow morning we leave for a very short, anniversary trip to NYC. I'm not sure I'll be bringing my laptop, but you can follow me on Twitter to see what I'm up to while I'm there, or just check the widget on the left side of this blog.

This is Craig's first time in the city and I can't wait to play tour guide. Make sure you watch the Today Show on Wednesday morning. We won't be wearing weird hats or T-shirts, but maybe you'll catch a glimpse of us while Al Roker is telling you about the weather in your neck of the woods.

Later!

Michigan may be shuttin' down . . .

But at least we have cute kids who sing!

Last Sunday, Zoe, Xavier, Daphne, and our friend Brenden sang the B-I-B-L-E song at church. The series we were doing was called iBook, and it was about the Bible. So they asked the kids to lead the congregation in a chorus of the Bible song. It was cute, but unfortunately my camera was only set to record 10 seconds at a time, so I only got random parts of the song on video. MySpace also messed up my video quality, too. But I think you can still appreciate the cuteness :-)


The kids sing at church - The B-I-B-L-E

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The travel mug that does not travel

One of my weird shopping obsessions is travel coffee mugs. It could be because I love coffee, but I'm not sure why it's all about the travel mug. I always walk by the travel mug section of the store and see if any are on sale. I never end up buying one. But anyway . . .

A few months ago at the local Meijer store, I happened to notice a new mug on the block. It was a Starbucks travel mug of the Christmas variety. A very strange thing to see at a Meijer, and in July. Knowing that Meijer doesn't sell Starbucks travel mugs, I was curious. So I picked it up and looked inside. There was the remains of what looked like dried brown coffee all around the inside. So I put the lid back on and set it back on the shelf. I guess someone lost it and an employee put it there on the shelf, thinking it was for sale.

Well, as I said....this was months ago. I can't believe not one employee has realized that it doesn't belong there . . . that it's not for sale! Have they not looked inside it? It's hilarious.

So a few days ago, it was still there. I took a picture of it, just for you.

One of these days, I think I'm going to try to buy it. I wonder how much they'll actually charge me.

Finished!

We're finally done :-) We still have some trim work to do, and we're still deciding if we should paint the plug covers. One day I'd like to have all black appliances. Also you must ignore the country blue roman shade in the kitchen. I ordered new blinds today to replace them.

Sorry...no before pictures. I'd have to dig through some old pictures to find some. That could take a lonnng time :-)

Ta da!

Don't mind Craig. He's obviously hard at work and couldn't be bothered to move.

I could have waited til morning, when there was more light in the room. But I'm afraid by the time that happens, my three little toy-tornadoes will have already come through and distributed toys everywhere.

This concludes the paint blog series. I hope you've enjoyed it. Tune in tomorrow for the story of the mysterious coffee mug . . .

Day four, five, six, seventeen, twenty five . . .

This is never going to end. Burned OUT.




I haven't updated because I'm just too stinking tired. But, Craig had to run off for a few so I'm taking a break. We're done priming the kitchen, and one half has one coat of paint. I'm thinking it will need a gazillion more, because red has got to be the worst color to paint with. The blue was easy. Red is very difficult.

My house is a mess, but here's a pic of all colors together.

I really wanted to have the red done by tonight, but I'm not sure that's happening. I have to leave at 4:30 to sing at church.

So, maybe tomorrow I'll have the final pics :-)

Day THREE

I haven't had a chance to post about blue day. We were only able to do one coat because we had a family party to attend, so today we will do the 2nd coat of blue in the living room, and hopefully start priming the kitchen for red.

Pictures:

I had the best paint crew ever :-)

Day TWO

The kitchen and dining room ceilings are done, and we're almost done with the living room's first coat. Craig will be leaving me in a few hours and I'll be alone to finish up. Here's what it looks like so far:






Craig, the happy painter.

Xavier does not like being trapped in his bedroom and hallway for 1/2 the day.

Tomorrow we start painting the walls red and blue. Mandy said she'd come over and help me, and that makes me happy :-) If anyone else is inclined to help, I won't turn you away!

If you're wondering what's up with my color choices, here is a sample of the color scheme:

Can't wait until this is over!