Mom Ramblings #14

1. I'm feeling awfully defeated by my current leg problem and the ability to only run 1.81 miles before I have severe pain. After an MRI, physical therapy and some serious praying there is still no relief and it looks as if I will have to take a long break. THAT MAKES ME CRY. I have goals! I have the Chicago Marathon to run! Needless to say I am bummed.

2. My 4 year old has suddenly turned into a 13 year old girl. Every time I give him some sort of consequence for his behavior, he says he hates me. Great.

3. My mom died 4 years ago this past Sunday. That day was NOT fun.

4. We went to a family reunion on Sunday (yep same day as number 3) and visited the grave sites of some of Tom's relatives. Odd. Being in a cemetery on the anniversary of my mom's death, but not at her cemetery. Odd. I cried. All. Day. Long. But it was fun to meet some of Tom's relatives!

5. Could this post be ANY more depressing?

6. On a lighter happier note, I got to spend Saturday afternoon with a fantastic friend. Leah over at This & That. Love her. She was a sorority sister of mine and a fantastic gal. I've said that before. She's just so great. Love her to pieces. It's so funny because we haven't seen each other since college, but reconnected through blogging and would send messages to each other about missing each other, but we hadn't seen each other in 10 years! Love that.

7. I've decided I love the look of these and must have them:

Frye Calvary W from Zappos for $225. Totally out of my price range. But may have to figure out how to justify them.

8. We have cat pee (and kid vomit and playdoh, and paint, and fur balls, and anything else disgusting that you can think of) all over our carpets. I'm trying to figure out what to do in the front room and the living room. Has anyone used the vinyl planks at HD? I'm not a laminate kind of gal, so I'm trying to figure out a product that will be somewhat easy to install and is fairly inexpensive, but doesn't look cheap....(I should edit that and say, I don't think that laminate is cheap looking, I just don't like the ones I've seen in our price range.... does that make sense without offending anyone? Because I never want to offend someone that likes laminate! Geez.)

9. What makes a kid think that it is okay to pull down his pants and take a dump in the front yard? Even though he is fully potty-trained and has been for a year? Umm...3 year olds.

10. I got a dresser and nightstand at GW. $9.99 each. I'll show them to you tomorrow!

Avoiding bedtime...

And so the saga of God continues....

The other night while tucking the boys into bed, we had our nightly ritual of them asking questions to avoid going to sleep and me answering their questions to get them to go to sleep. That night was a good one.

Jack: Where's God?

Porter: In heaven.

Jack: Does he drive a mocercycle?

Porter: No....there aren't any roads in Heaven.

Jack: What? That's crazy.

Porter: They are tend roads. (As he is swerving his arms around and around like he's driving on a road).

Jack: Soooo....he does drive a mocercycle?

Porter: A tend motorcycle...

Dressers are divine....

Okay, so no one sends me hate mail because I get stuff for cheap....I'm not cool enough for hate mail....

Here's that dresser that I got the other day at an undisclosed location for an undisclosed price - just to keep you all from getting green....

Aren't those handles just divine?! I love them. Ah....I just get giddy looking at them.

I want to keep this one. So bad. I wish I had a place for it. Really, I want it. BAD.....

I can't get over the curves of the drawers. They are to die for.

I heart this dresser. So. It was in pretty bad shape when I got it. The harp for the mirror was broken. So I fixed that. The drawers wouldn't slide and the handles weren't staying on. After fixing the necessary things, I got it all together and started painting.

Okay, back track. I was going to paint it white. Then I thought about that fabulous gray. But, I wanted more of a subtle gray so I mixed. Ahh...don't run away. Don't leave...I know...the dreaded, I don't know what color this is mix....I put in a dash of heirloom white, a little golf tee white and some 99 cent gray sample paint. And this is what I got. Now. I need more. So I will get a color match. If you REALLY LOVE the color, I will let you know the numbers once it is matched. Just let me know. And stop crying about not knowing the exact color, wouldya?! I am going to call it "Barely There Gray". Because honestly, it's a barely there gray color. And I love it. LOVE IT.

Oh, and taking the roller over the curves of the drawers was so fun! It was like a roller coaster. Only I didn't get sick and both my feet were firmly planted on the ground.


Oh, and looked what found its way to the dresser while I was taking pictures.....

 

Mom Ramblings #13

1. Thank you all for the comments regarding Ripley! It's so nice to hear that I'm somewhat normal and it was okay to laugh through the situation and also that many of you felt it was good for my kids to be there!

2. I love hearing from everyone. Thanks for the encouragement and excitement about the furniture. It makes me happy.

3. Carolyn over at life, love & puppy prints gave me an award. So sweet of her. I'll get to that post later. But, go visit her. She does some favorite things - like talk about celebrity gossip - which I absolutely love to do too!

4. There's no going back now:

I've only just begun....I can't wait to be done with it!

5. I picked this up the other day, I'm not going to tell you how much I paid, cause I'm tired of the hate mail :)

I adore the handles, But I'm concerned because they don't stay on! I'm not sure what I'm going to do about them yet. It's already painted, just deciding on the handles!

6. The boys camped in the backyard this weekend. They stayed out there all night long!

7. Gus didn't camp out, but he enjoyed a nice cold beverage while lounging in the pool...

8. It's hot and humid and steamy and stormy here. I'm not complaining! But, please send out a little prayer for the people in Eagle, WI. A tornado ripped through their town. It's not far from us. Our thoughts are with them.

9. I'm pretty sure Porter's t-ball game is going to be canceled. And I'm pretty sure he's excited that he won't have to go!

Desks are my new fav too

I like desks. I especially like this desk. I named her Tenley. In honor of the beautiful mother of four that bought her.

I found this at GW last week and painted it, listed it and had it sold within a few hours!  It constantly amazes me what people get rid of. Seriously. Look at that desk! Those pulls. Those legs....Yummy.

Okay. It took me 2.2 seconds to decide what to do with her. 2.2. That's fast.

Porpoise Gray. I heart Porpoise Gray.

Ebony stain. I heart ebony stain.

I brushed on the paint. Here's a little hint. To avoid brush strokes do the best you can to do super thin layers. I almost dry brush it on. That way the brush strokes are less noticeable.

This time I sprayed a coat of clear lacquer over the top of the desk. Yes lacquer....not to be confused with liqueur...lacquer makes things look hard, like they are professional...yep. Liqueur makes things look blurry and confusing...and then it gives you a headache in the morning....just sayin'. SO, I just make myself LOOK like a professional....I love it. It looks great.

I love those handles. Each one is different. You can't see it. Don't try and squint. Maybe click on it to make it bigger and you'll be able to tell....

It's dreamy. Each piece is getting harder to get rid of. I'm liking them more and more. Might be time for a little shop...or a little stand at a flea market....or on the side of the road...

And. I'm going to start naming the pieces of furniture I do. I'm losing track. And since I'm fairly certain we are done having children (boo-hoo...) I am going to name them after girls. No boys allowed. (As far as names go. The two men that read this....keep on reading!) One name that keeps popping into my head is Clarabell. Why? No idea. Wait...yes I do. We read a book about a cow with a cold...her name is Clarabell. The book is called...Clarabell Wraps Up. I got it for $4.99 in the bargain section at B&N....odd little book. But I love her name, and as soon as I do a table (cause her name definitely belongs to a table) I will use that name, until then....

This is Tenley....

T-Ball. For big kids.

I was a little nervous about what would happen with Porter at t-ball. If you remember, he doesn't do well in front of others. He gets shy and scared and cries. An ugly cry...And his face gets all mushed up, and his little chin quivers. It's terrible.

Well, we did our best to be excited about it, we talked about it, we got excited, Jack went to t-ball on Monday, and we thought that would show him it's not all that bad.

It was, all that bad.

Here he is with Tom waiting to get his picture taken with the team. Things weren't going well so I had to come in and help out. When we get the pictures back and you see my head peaking out from behind him and the coach, don't be alarmed. He wouldn't let go of my hand...would not let go.

Poor dude. It got better towards the end when he started running...his problem may be that he is drowning in his shirt. Why do they make them so big? Especially when I asked for a small...

If you look closely you can see the sad crying face in the above picture....

Oh, the pain I feel for him is ginormous. It's that fine line as a parent where I want to hold him close and hug him...but then I want to shove him out of the nest and get him to fly....

He says he wants to go back. That's a good sign, right?

That darn cat

I've put off this post for several days for several reasons....Mainly being that I didn't want to offend anyone or have anyone think that I am in anyway insensitive. Is that strange? I put off a post about a cat because I didn't want to hurt anyone's feelings and I wanted everyone to still like me.....but then, I realized, again, that this is MY blog, this is about MY family and I am documenting OUR life and our feelings and things that revolve around OUR lives. See how I make everything about me?

So like it or not here is an attempt at being sensitive about life and death in regards to a cat:

If you know me at all or have known me for any length of time you know several things: I am addicted to chocolate. I live on Diet Coke. I like to run and bike. I am obsessed with furniture and I read the Twilight books in 8 days. All 5 of them (that's right, I read the on-line Edward version that the author posted.)

You will also know that I am deathly allergic to cats. And, I think they are a little sneaky and well, creepy. There I said it. I'm sorry to all you cat-lovers. I'm a dog person. Don't go away mad. Just go away...NO, only kidding! (I think my Dad used to jokingly say that to us, pretty sure he was quoting a song, what song is that?) Don't go away...keep reading....you'll want to...

So, don't like cats. BUT, Tom's parents were going on a trip for a month. They have a cat that needed to be watched. I figured we could do it. I mean really, they've done so much for us...what can a little kitty-cat do?

About three days into Ripley's stay, we started liking her. I started liking her. She would come and visit. She would want to be pet...she actually enjoyed the boys...and the dogs left her alone. See, I told you all you'd want to keep reading....Now. For those of you that don't do well with cat heaven, stop reading.

Ripley is 18. Ripley has glaucoma. Ripley is deaf in one ear (What?). Ripley has dementia. Seriously. Dementia. I mean really - how many people/animals in my life will have dementia? I'm dementia-ed out. So, Ripley started urinating all over our house. A LOT. Then on Thursday morning I went downstairs and found Ripley on the counter and in our front room/office/craft room a big puddle of cat pee.

So I called the Vet and took her in. They found a heart murmur. She's lost another 1/2 pound. Her glaucoma is worse. . . It could be a thyroid problem, diabetes, urinary tract infection....probably not behavioral because she knows our house and our family...So I called Tom's parents and asked them what they wanted me to do...and they asked me to put her down.

So, here's where a little bit of sense of humor helps. Because seriously if you can't laugh at life, then all I would do is cry....ALL.THE.TIME. There's a fine line between humor and being sensitive to death....I'm sure at some point I will cross that fine line....but, like many, I use humor to deal with tough situations.

NOW. Some of you might not agree with putting an animal down, and I totally understand that. I'm sure most of you would agree that at 18 years old a cat has seen a lot, as much as she could with one working eye, and that it was time....(too soon for humor?)

We went back to the Vet, we being the three boys and I (Tom's out of town!), and they took us to this private room, brought Ripley in and we said our goodbyes. (Some of you may not agree with the boys being there too and that's okay.) Then we put her on this little table and while Gus and Jack played together, Porter and I pet Ripley and they gave her medicine. Porter was so absolutely fantastic. Talking to her, and petting her, and she was so relaxed and so calm. Then I leaned on the table and it made a really loud noise and I totally ruined the moment....so me.

After the Vet said there wasn't a heartbeat anymore, the boys immediately asked if we could go and get water shooty things now. Go figure.

And then we went on with our day. I hate that. I hate that when something happens to someone the world doesn't stop and time doesn't stand still to mourn that person's loss. Everyone else just keeps going. And time keeps going. And people live their lives.

It was actually a very surreal experience. The boys had lots of questions, and I did my best to explain what happened. Because my Mom died, it was a lot easier to explain to them where Ripley was going and what Heaven is to us.

We've decided that we can't shield our boys from the natural things that happen in life. (The natural things. I still don't let them watch the News!) So we do our best to encourage questions and try and explain what happens. We talk a lot about my Mom and we spent the entire day talking on and off about Ripley.

So, I like Ripley. I cried saying goodbye to Ripley. That darn cat.

And life just keeps going on...

Tiny t-ball

Jack had his first t-ball practice on Monday night.

Things were a little.....crazy.....

And nothing was really accomplished, but Jack sure looks cute in a t-shirt and hat....

Dressers are my new fav.

Dressers have quickly become my new favorite thing to paint.

How can you not love this?

I love this dresser. Here's the $9.99 version:

I repainted it, replaced the hardware, distressed some of the edges, and put vinyl numbers on it. Vinyl because it can be removed if you want to.

IN LOVE.

And I've given up on spray paint in this humid weather. Done with it. D-O-N-E. Done. Need a spray gun. Now.

Late night thinking turns out great...

The other night I was thinking about the contact paper chalkboard....Yep, they have it. I couldn't find it anywhere. But, a few months ago I bought this, thinking I would use it sometime.

Then, I had this stuff...you know, contact paper....

So, I put the two together. Two coats. Done.

And then I found this gorgeous picture and proceeded to spray paint right over it....

And this is the end result:

Right on the kitchen wall. The boys came up with a list of things they want to do this summer and we're checking them off as we go. So fun!

I had some left over chalk board, and still have some that I'm deciding what to do with....but so far, I've done these:

I'm in love. So easy. So cheap. So using what I had around the house. LOVE IT.