Fall Festival 2010

We just got the kids home and tucked into bed...all full of sugar.  Yes, we are indeed responsible parents who give their kids candy before bed.  Well, let me change that.  Tim is the responsible parent in charge of giving the kids some of their newly acquired booty before bed.  I had NOTHING to do with that.

Tonight we had the Fall Festival/Trunk or Treat at church.  In the auditorium there were 6 or so gigantic inflatable things...Pirate Ship, Large slide, Obstacle course, 5yr old and under jump house, older kid jump house and a Train...and in the foyer there was face painting and balloon twisting/shaping and perhaps more, but I didn't look out there much.  It was all a lot of fun, but we were intending to get in, get candy, play and get out.  We did alright.

John Paul and Sarah had a trunk outside where they passed out candy.  "Confucius say, "Too cold for satin!"

I Didn't get what Sarah said about her costume except that it was too cold to put it all on.  It was FREEZING!!!!

I will have to be honest.  With all of the house stuff we have been doing, I didn't take any time for costumes this year, so I am very grateful that we have dress up clothes for all of them.  Sure we pulled repeats, but who cares...they got the candy they wanted and I didn't spend a dime on costumes.  I would like to, one day, do a family costume theme...One guy came in the church tonight as a wizard (or whatever) and had 6 kids all in the Harry Potter school uniform.  It was kind of fun seeing the whole group.  I should think about it now and start looking.

 The lines were quite long, but the kids were patient and fairly calm and I was quite pleased with them.

Eden found Abby and they ran around together feeling like such big girls!

 Levi found Jackson and they hung out.  All in all, we had a good time, but it was quickly time to go home to get everyone in bed.  After all, there is school tomorrow, so the fun must come to an end!

New facial treatments...or something like it

I was painting ceilings...and this is how beautiful I looked afterwards. 

Do I look as pooped as I feel?  I'm wondering, though...will all the "flat" paint make my skin look and feel younger and healthier? 

This is -obviously- the girls room.  I absolutely love how it turned out and once the green carpet is gone, I believe it is going to be such a cute room.

Carpet is now scheduled for Wednesday and I feel that we can actually have all the upstairs trim finished by then and perhaps even have the master bathroom painted.  Maybe I will even get to the hallway, but I am fairly positive I am going to paint my bedroom and the kids bathroom AFTER the accessories get unpacked from the POD so I can match the colors.  Not ideal, but I'd much rather match than guess.  I am praying for our Wednesday deadline to be met so I can finally start on the downstairs trim.  You all can pray too, please.  I know we are, in essence, bringing this all on ourselves, but we are tired and the kids are tired and I don't know how much longer I can keep my sanity with all that I have to do in a day.  I just want to be mommy and wife and not general contractor/laborer/mommy/wife any more.  Crazy, right?!?

Did I happen to mention I am painting?

So I am in my...oh...I guess third week of painting trim.  Heaven's to Betsy this is going to kill me yet.  21+ days of staring at "White Dove" paint.  White Dove ceilings.  White Dove baseboards.  White Dove casing.  White Dove crown molding.  White Dove windows.  Blah.  My poor eyes are cross eyed from so much of the same.  Today, even though I am not done "White Dove-ing" I took a break and got me some color!

Elijah's room is the first one to be ready for wall color, so I gladly took a hiatus from painting purgatory to see some "December Eve" on Elijah's walls.  I love it!

 I intended to do both boy rooms in the same color, but tonight Levi informed me that he wants a dark red room, like I used to have.  Hmm.  We will see about that.

I have been concentrating on the upstairs most of the time but dad and Tim have done some work downstairs.

The kitchen is ready to have the granite measured for, and in case you are wondering, there is color on the walls and it is called Vanilla Latte.  How appropriate!   I still haven't touched any of the trim downstairs yet, so once I get the upstairs done and ready for carpet (hopefully by next Monday) I can begin downstairs.  Yay for more White Dove.  Ugh.

Dad has been working many nights here.  This time around we are paying him to be here, otherwise I don't think we would be half as far along as we are.

Tonight he put in more trim and doors...that I have to have to paint.  Will it ever end?  If you all think of it, please pray that we get done and out of mom's  house before Thanksgiving.  We need to get everything cleaned up for company and right now, it looks like a long shot.  Just pray!

Here's some paint. There's some paint. Everywhere there's paint, paint.

So I had this brilliant idea that the trim and doors and such should all be white, and I was right about that, but when it comes to the execution of said brilliance, well, not so much.  I am so entirely sick of white paint that I could scream.  I have painted almost all the ceilings, and that was a breeze, but priming, then painting all the trim 2 times is about all I can take.  I wake up every morning with numb hands, reminding me of the purgatory I must dwell in for yet another day.  When will it end?  I believe I am 1/20 of the way done and I have devoted 3 days myself and even had someone else come in and do some windows.  We have at least 2 more weeks of trim to paint.  BIG sigh.  Many tears.

It wouldn't be so bad during the days, but I still have Micah 5 days a week and Titus 2 days and then 2:30 is my cutoff to go get the kids from school and noonish is lunch and that doesn't leave much time for the daily whitewash.  I am almost tempted to scrap it all...midway through.  For my birthday, since I didn't get anything from anyone, I'd like someone to come in and do that all for me.  Heck, I'd accept that for birthdays and Christmases from here to eternity, if someone was so inclined...wishful thinking?  Yes.  But a girl can wish, can't she?

Since I have been in "White Dove" purgatory, Tim and dad have been doing other things, like tiling the kitchen floor.  Dad is so anxious to get the cabinets in that he'd just as soon tile half the floor, grout where the cabinets won't be and set them...I had to reign that in a tad, but it looks like we will get cabinets started as soon as I paint the upper walls.  The color I chose is called Vanilla Latte.   How apropos!

You can't really see it in the picture but this time the tiles are laid in a brick pattern...so much easier than the usual diamond.  Plus, it's nice for a change.

 Micah thought she was being oh so helpful.

These two kept us all company.  I can't remember if the other kids were upstairs or what, but these two were continually under toe.

Mutt and Jeff...or something like that.  Please pray that this project of paint gets done soon.  Seriously.  We need to get into our own home for the sake of our health, sanity, marriage and parenting!!!

Drywall is here!

It is 6:30 in the morning and I have been up since 4:30ish after having slept 2 hours since the last time I was up.  Hot Toddy to get me to finally sleep-my eye.  I got insomnia.  Too much information?  Sorry, but I have been sick with this sinus infection/head cold or whatever it is and I will do anything to sleep right now.  Even force some nasty elixir down in hopes for some relief.  In the meantime, here's a bit of what's been going on at the house.  

The drywall has been mudded and is almost ready to be painted.  Now for the grueling task of choosing the colors. 

This is looking at Elijah's room from the hallway.  It really came together when that drywall went up.

I know it looks odd, but this is looking into Levi and Titus' room, right next to Elijah's room.

In Levi and Titus' room looking toward the door gives a better idea of the size of their room.

This is one of the "secret" hideouts that the boys have in their "wing." 

It is at the back of Levi and Titus' closet and will be a lot of fun for them to use!

To the right is the entrance to Elijah's room and to the left here is a nook of sorts.  We thought about putting his bed in there, but there is another "secret" hideout off to the left in that nook and he wouldn't have easy access to it with his bed blocking the doorway, so now we aren't sure what's going where.  We will just have to wait and see. 

This is on the far wall in Elijah's room as you walk in.  It is transformed attic space into the third "secret" hideout for the boys.

It connects the boys' rooms together and I can imagine a lot of fun happening there!

Last but not least, and actually, not related at all to the drywall, is my Salvation Army find.  This love seat, though it looks yellow in hue, is actually a nice neutral tan and almost brand new and it's a Flexsteel (which I'm told is nice) and I got it for the lovely price of...$32.  Seriously.  I don't know about you, but I was totally thrilled seeing as how I need to somehow furnish the bowling lane sized bedroom Tim and I will have.  This was perfect.  Now if I can just have as much ease in choosing paint colors as I did in finding this love seat, THAT will be perfect!