I break for Fall

I've had four glorious days off of work and I haven't rested a bit. Oh, I take that back - I haven't gotten up before 10 every morning except today (I only slept until 9 today), but in my defense I've stayed up rather late every night to balance out the slothfulness of the morning.

Thursday I kept Tater's kids, but left them with Paul while Abby and I went to town for her yearly well-kid checkup. And I know I'm going to get flack on this from Tater, I'm going to say it anyway - Abby is now 4'9" and doesn't have to ride in a carseat anymore!! Tater says I'm making a big deal out of it, but I think it's pretty monumental considering the child has been restrained in a hard plastic seat of some kind since birth. Now she gets to enjoy the freedom that is a seatbelt alone. I think it's a big deal. (So nyah, Tater.)

After her checkup we went to Wal*Mart and bought paint for Sam's room. I traipsed in there with his brand new Cars pillowcase and held the part of the case with 'Mater on it up to many, many paint samples until I found just the right coordinating brown for ol' Tow Mater. Then I bought a quart of blue that just perfectly matches the blue in his sheets to paint the book case and shelves in his closet. Then I bought black to paint a highway around his room, like a border. I'll be taking that black back, btw. I'll explain later.

By the time we got home Paul had taken down Sam's shelves, but that was it. No moving furniture, no taking posters down, no nothing, so I grumbled and started on my own. Thankfully the man came in and helped. Guess he just needed me to get him started. The kids played while we painted. Abby came in and wanted to paint, so we let her have the closet. Then we let Sam have a go, but he got bored with it. Kady had a few swipes at the wall as well, but letting a 4 year old paint....well, my blood pressure couldn't handle that. We finished things up around 4 because we were supposed to go to Dad's to go through Nana's things.

Long story short - no one else in the family showed up, except for Tater and I. I was not real happy about that. The plan was that all family members were supposed to come over at the designated time and place, go through Nana's things, take anything they wanted as a keepsake, memento and then my stepmom and I were going to have a garage sale on Saturday. But the ad didn't get put in the paper, so we didn't do a garage sale Saturday, but I think we've decided to put it in a consignment auction anyway. Less hassle, methinks. I'm still just a hair miffed at the family's lack of help, though.

We visited with Dad and our stepmom awhile, then we came back here to our completely trashed house. I then immediately called Tater to see if she'd watch the kids. I couldn't stay in this horrible house one more second. I cannot believe how much disaster and mayhem the content's of one little boy's room can cause. Paul and I visited with the Not-So-Lucky Turtle then came home to our disastrous house, but I went to sleep so I blocked it from my vision with my closed eyelids.

Friday morning I slept till 10 again, but got right up and got busy with painting the bookshelves in Sam's room, did a second coat on his walls and waited rather impatiently while they dried. The house was beyond bothering me at that point - I was borderline insane. So what did I do since I had a trashed house and tons of things to do? I called Mom and Tater to see if they wanted to have a weenie roast.

Everyone came over around 5:30, Paul cleaned out the fire ring and built us a not-so-blazing fire and we roasted weenies, torched a few marshmallows and yelled at the kids to "STOP RUNNING IN THE FIRE RING!!" Good times. After everything that was scheduled to be roasted was roasted, we came in the house to warm up and Tater and I started taping off the highway that was supposed to run all the way around Sam's room.

See, I just wanted to paint a black highway with white lines all the way around his room, like a wallpaper border, except it wouldn't be wallpaper, it would be painted with love by his mother. I am not a real genius when it comes to measuring. Case in point: Two years ago we got vertical blinds in the living room. Custom-made vertical blinds in the living room. Paul told me to measure and tell the people what we needed. When we got the blinds here, they were 1/4" too long. Dad had to come over and he and Paul had to cut the custom-made blinds. So see? I'm just not the person you call when you need something measured. After much hilarity at me measuring the stupid walls and Tater playing with the laser level, we began taping with painter's tape. Until we got to the first window and we were about 1/4" off from where we'd started. We hollered for Paul who came in and got us back on track, but when you'd stand across the room and look, the tape was just as wavy as all get out. I wasn't going to paint a wavy highway on my son's walls, so I called him back there, told him the highway project was much like many Oklahoma highway projects and would have to be postponed until further notice. But I offered to buy him a new poster, so he was totally cool with it.

Yesterday morning the kids and I got Sam's room put back together. It turned out SO cute! Then we went to Wal*Mart to get organizational stuff. I have been watching entirely too much HGTV - Mission: Organization mainly. Omg, I'm totally addicted to that show. So we loaded up on totes, baskets, drawered organizers, etc. Last night at 10:30 I finished the girls' room, except for Kady's desk. I could've finished it, but Abby was wanting to go to bed. A friend's of Sam's was over and his momma was gonna be late, so after my kids crashed that kid was still going strong. I gave him the DVD remote, told him where to find the kid videos and headed out here to my office. I worked until 12:30 when his momma got here. I have every intention of completely finishing up my office today. We have a GS fundraiser starting this week, so I really kind of HAVE to.

Also today I have to get the toyroom in order because we're completely doing away with the daycare room in the next few weeks. We'll finish out the final weeks of Diva Daycare in my living room with only a few toys. Kind of sucks for the kids, and yeah, it will be cramped, but I have tons of things to do and only a small amount of time to get them done. Thanksgiving and Sam's birthday are quickly approaching, then the annual Christmas Shindig, then the end of the daycare, Kady's birthday, Christmas, New Year's/anniversary and 3 weeks after Christmas we head to Disney World, not to mention I start school right after the first of the year. I have to start getting toys divided out - quite a few of the toys are on loan from the kids' parents, plus a playpen and a crib. I need to start getting those things divided out and sent back, then start paring down the toys that my kids actually own because when the girls' rooms are separated once more they'll have their own toyboxes in their own rooms. WHOO HOO! I'm also fairly certain that Paul won't want to sleep in a room where one wall is painted pastel yellow, pink and green, so I'm going to paint that wall brick red. And also a tall shelf that is now cubbies for the daycare, but will be transformed into some kind of brick-red-colored clothes-holding structure that will be filled with those cloth-covered baskets that they always use on Mission:Organization when they overhaul someone's house. I tell you, I'm addicted.

Wow. I apologize for the torture you just endured by reading this post. I'll try to make it up to you by posting pictures of Sam's new room. Will that make it up to you, my friends? There's one of me pretending to lick the paint brush. I turned Abby loose with my camera and she was barking out orders for us to pose. And we did it. She's a very convcincing 10 year old. And we were all high on paint fumes.