Girls' room update

My plan since I found out I was expecting our third child was to put the two older girls in a room together.  My first thought was to put them on two twin beds in the bedroom downstairs.  But...then I got to thinking about it and decided that they are way too young to be so far away.  My husband thinks I'm a crazy paranoid person for thinking that someone could break into their window and steal them without me even knowing about it, but that's my fear!

So the new plan is to have them in bunk beds in the room next to ours.  I totally forgot to take a picture before I painted the room, but it was the same brown color as the living room (you can see a little bit in the hallway in the picture below).  Emilia was vying for a pink painted bedroom, but I just couldn't bring myself to paint a whole room pink.  Especially when she is going to be sharing it with Mira who has yet to pick a favorite color.  If I had to take a guess, I would probably say Mira is going to be partial to blue (she always wants to wear her blue coat instead of her green one, and it's the color she gets right the most often).

So Emilia and I compromised on green walls, but pink lots of places around the room.  Unfortunately, I haven't been able to get the room done as fast as I would have liked (does that ever happen?), so the only pink thing in the room is the quilt I threw over her comforter.  She hasn't complained, so I guess that suffices for now.

Here are the plans in the works:

White bunk beds.  I bought a set from DI (local thrift store) for $40! They have been in the process of being sanded and painted for three weeks now, but they are finally close to completion.  I'll do another post when they're finished.

New curtains.  The ones that are in there are the ones left by the previous owners of our house (below).  It was weird.  They left all of the window coverings, every hanging shelf, some pictures, shower curtains, etc.  Not that I mind that I didn't have to cover that expense right away, but I've never heard of people doing that before.  So anyway...they left the curtains that are in there and they aren't ugly, but they're a light brown and don't match at all.  The curtains they left downstairs were white, which totally matches, but it's a little boring.  I decided I'm going to paint a pattern on them.  More on that later.  The window will probably need blinds or light-blocking backed curtains once Mira moves in there, too.

Paint the dresser (above).  We have all of Steve's bedroom furniture from growing up.  Which is nice, it's just 30 years old and looking dated.  It's not real wood--it's laminate, so I've been hesitant to do it.  But I dislike it enough and have read enough how-to's that I think I'm going to take the plunge and see how it turns out.

Wall hanging.  I found this picture on Pinterest, realized I had beadboard in my bedroom that I wasn't going to keep on the wall, and thought, "Wow! Free, large, wall-hanging."  In the process of making that one.  I'm changing it up, though.  No letters.  I'm experimenting.  Watch out!

Pictures.  I already made a couple of "saying" pictures to be framed. They are pictured below.  I haven't decided which ones to have printed yet.  I'm waiting for the rest of the room to come together, so I can decide exactly where I want to put pictures before I pick the ones to print.

Night stand.  The rest of the room is going to be rather boxy: bunk beds, dresser, wooden kitchen, framed pictures, etc.  So I want to get a little table to go next to their bed that's (sturdy and) round.  I've found a couple on KSL, but I am again waiting until the bed is in to see how high I want the table to be.

Bedding.  I for sure want to do matching throw pillows for both beds (in pink, of course), and perhaps matching blankets for the ends of the beds.  The pink quilt is perfect, but we only have one, which was hand-made by my Gramma, so that's not going to work for a matching look.

Of course, if my budget was more than $100 for the whole project, I probably would do things differently, but my budget is around $100 and I've already spent $60 on bunk beds and paint for the curtains.  I'm a die-hard DIY-er, but I tend to be lazy (or perhaps in too much of a hurry would be more accurate), so we'll see how it all comes together.  Stay tuned!

Cool Kitchen Helper

Emilia always likes helping cook.  She's getting pretty good at filling and dumping a measuring cup all on her own.  The other day we were making something together and for some reason decided it would be better if she were wearing her sunglasses.  She's such a rock star.  Love that kid!

"Christmas" work party

Every year, Steve's work, InsideSales.com does a "Christmas" party in January.  Sometimes the kids are invited, sometimes they're not.  But I always enjoy them.  Of course, the best one was the one where they announced the Christmas bonus was going to be a free trip to Hawaii.  But aside from that, this last year's was the best.  They did a casino party where they had real Vegas-style tables and dealers brought in and we got to play with chips that equaled raffle entries at the end of the night.  There was blackjack, poker, roulette, and craps.  I had SO much fun.  Craps had me wanting to play more--it was so complicated and interesting.  No trips to Vegas or Reno for us, though.  Maybe I'll throw my own not-real-money casino party some day.

One of the things they did was have a giant Jenga game going all night.  The winner would get 500 extra "dollars" to go towards the raffle.  Steve was on the first team, but unfortunately, they lost. :(

I felt very pregnant that night.  Not a big fan of how I did my hair, but oh well.  I don't have to look amazing to have fun.

My Little Pony Spa Day (a.k.a. de-frizzing and re-curling ponies' hair)

Today was a stay-at-home-all-day day.  After yesterday, I didn't want to risk it (I'm kidding...mostly), plus I was still feeling a touch under-the-weather.  So I thought to myself this morning, "What can I do with the girls on the cold, wintery, day to keep us all occupied for a few hours?"  Then I remembered this pin from a while back about fixing frizzy doll hair.  I wondered if it would work the same on My Little Pony Hair.  After a quick google search, I found a page about restoring My Little Ponies.  Perfect.

Emilia has more than a small obsession with them (no--we haven't seen every episode on Netflix 7-8 times--I have no idea what you're talking about), and Mira is picking up on it.  I love how she says "Wywight" for Twilight Sparkle, and can perfectly pronounce "Pinkie Pie!"

Emilia got the idea from her cousins, not long after starting her My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic collection, that it would be great fun to bring her ponies into the tub with her.  Which is fine.  But after the 50th bath and a lot of pulling and rubbing and general messing-with their hair got, it was looking a little sad.  With some of her newer ponies, she wised up and stopped taking them in the tub.  Their hair has stayed a lot nicer.

An example of pony hair that has seen better days (Rainbow Dash):

Since fixing their hair would involve playing in water and playing with ponies, I knew both my girls would not only be up for it, they would LOVE it.  Of course, I didn't call it "fixing the ponys' hair."  I told Emilia we could do a "My Little Pony Spa Day."  (Being a sly mom, I also told her we couldn't do it until we cleaned the house.  I thought she would go for it, but she was my enthusiastic helper for a couple hours! She was SO exited for the ponies to have their spa day--it was wonderful!)

After all the cleaning, this kinda-sick momma needed a short rest, so the girls got to watch an episode of My Little Ponies.  This was totally appropriate, I thought, because there are several episodes where the ponies go to the spa. In Season 1, Episode 20: "Green Isn't Your Color," Rarity and Fluttershy go to the spa several times.  The ponies also go to the spa at the end of Season 1, Episode 9: "Bridle Gossip" when they need to soak in a poison joke remedy.  The season 2 finale, A Canterlot Wedding: Parts 1 & 2, might be good, too.  Emilia seems to think that in order to get ready for a wedding, one must have a spa day.  She might be right.

I haven't watched a few episodes, really.

Finally all of Emilia's (mostly) patient waiting paid off and we were ready for our My Little Pony Spa Day. We set up on the kitchen table, so we had plenty of room:

We bathed them.  This was Mira's favorite part.

We conditioned and combed, straightened, and curled.  Emilia loved every minute of it.  Mira went to nap time about an hour in, which was probably good.  Who knows how much water would have been everywhere had she been around for our entire 3-hour process (Emilia has a LOT of ponies).

Here are Rainbow Dash's and Pinkie Pie's before and afters, and some of the other ponies in all their finished glory.

If you want to check out the tutorial I did for my new public blog, you can go here.  If you have a Pinterest account and pin it for me, I will love you forever!

morning madness

Sometimes I wish I was funny.  I'm really not.  Most of the time when I get laughs it's because I don't realize that I'm totally bonkers and actually say--out loud--the stuff that pops into my head.  But sometimes a story can just be funny in and of itself.  I'm not sure I think so yet, but I'm pretty sure in a few hours or days I'll be able to laugh about what happened.  So here is a little story about how my day started.

I had a terrible morning.

I woke up with a sore throat.  I told my husband that I wasn't going to get much done today and fully intended to keep that promise.  Then I realized that my daughter had preschool, and I had a doctor appointment, which both started at the same time.  No biggie, though, Miss E gets bussed to preschool (can I say that bussing is stinking awesome?), so as long as I have Miss M and myself ready when Miss E gets picked up, we can all make it on time.

So now I have a sore throat, and I have to get two girls, plus myself, ready for the day.  You wouldn't think that would be hard, would you?  Except Miss M has decided that changing clothes is the worst thing that a parent could do to their child EVER.  So, twice a day, I have to try to avoid the complete and utter meltdown that usually follows me asking Miss M to put on something other than what she is already wearing.  I manage to get her out of her PJs and into real clothes in less than 20 minutes with minimal screaming only because she asks for fruit snacks and I tell her the only way she is getting them is if she is dressed.

Of course, Miss E also picks today to decide that preschool is SO boring that she can't possibly make herself get ready.  This is only because she is in the middle of a really good My Little Pony play session and doesn't want to quit when I tell her it's time to get ready.  Finally, I tell her that if she misses the bus, I'm taking away her ponies for the rest of the day.  This motivates her to get her shoes and socks on just as the bus is pulling up to our house.

Miss M and I aren't ready to go because I've been fighting with Miss E to get ready for the past 10 minutes, while trying to pack her lunch.  Luckily, I have a new sweater to wear so I didn't have to try on twelve outfits before feeling like I've appropriately covered my pregnant belly, and was therefore able to get my hair and make-up done before the shouting match with Miss E.

As we're leaving, Miss M spots the leftover pizza, part of which was put into Miss E's lunch.  She wants some, so I grab a piece and throw everything in the car.  This means that when we arrive at the doctor's office, Miss M has pizza sauce all over her face, ringing both sides of her coat collar, down her sleeve, in a big spot on the front of her jacket, along the inside of her pant leg, all over her hands, and in her hair.  Even though I'm already 10 minutes late for my appointment, I hurriedly grab a wipe from my purse and try to get the biggest chunks off, if for no other reason than to keep my clothes clean when she insists that I "youee you!" (meaning "Carry you!" or in other words, "Carry me, mom!").

At the appointment, it all goes pretty well, except I find out that I have both a yeast and a bacterial infection, for which, I'll have to take antibiotics for "only 7 days twice a day" which is likely to upset my stomach and give me a "metallic taste" in my mouth and use a topical ointment.  Oh goody.

I have my doctor call in the prescription to Walgreens because I figure I can go to the drive thru and not have to get Miss M out of the car again.  Anyone with a one year old knows how difficult it can be to get them back in if they are done riding in the car, and since it was going to be her nap time soon, that was likely to happen.

I get to Walgreens and the prescription is ready and it's only $15.  That is wonderful, right?  Well, it could have been, and looking back, I should have just paid the money and run.  However, I finally have an ID number for my insurance that was supposed to be effective over a month ago, and I think I have prescription coverage, so I might as well use it.  I give the pharmacy tech the member number and the group number.  She says she can't run it without a BIN and a PCN.  Since my healthcare has such good customer service (they really do--I'm being serious), I decide to pull forward and call them for the info.  Which I do.  I then pull back around to the window and another pharmacy tech comes to the window.  I tell him I have the info and he puts it into the computer.  He then tells me that the BIN doesn't match the PCN, so it won't go through.

Like I said, I should have just paid the $15 and moved on, especially since little M was getting cranky and hot in the back seat.  But I had put this much time into it, I couldn't just go home now.  So I pull forward again and call the health insurance back.  The girl in customer service calls their pharmacy department for me and finds out that for some reason, our pharmacy benefits are billed through a third party company and that company won't give her the billing information, they are insisting that the pharmacy call them to get it.

So I drive back around to the window and tell them they have to call to get the billing information.
The kind tech tells me, "No.  That isn't right.  I've never had to do that before.  Your insurance should just give you the info if you call them."
"I have them on the phone right now," I tell him, "and she is saying you have to call them."
"You're paying for insurance, they should let you have it," he says.  Well thank you for that gem of wisdom.
The customer service lady who I still have on the phone says that the third party billing company won't give me the info either.  Great.
I'm so frustrated at this point, I tell the pharmacy tech, "Look, I've been to this window four times now.  This isn't great customer service.  Can you just call them?"
He says, "Fine, give me the number.  If you come in, I can call right away, or if you want to come back, I can probably do it in a half an hour."
So I either have to get my tired, cranky one-year-old out of the car and then back in again, or I have to come back in a 1/2 hour?  Not great choices, really, but I decided to grab some fruit from the grocery store that we need and come back.

Off I head to the grocery across the street where I get Miss M out of the car.  She says she wants water, so as soon as we get in the store, I ask where the water fountain is.  All the way at the back of the store, the clerk tells me.  So off we trudge to the back, where Miss M sticks her face in the water for 5 minutes only to soak the front of her coat and not get much down her throat.  At this point I decide that it's not worth it to drive back over to Walgreens, I'll just call my doctor's office and have them call the prescription into the pharmacy at the grocery store.  Why I didn't think of that earlier, I'll never know.  But of course, the card with the insurance info and the doctor's phone number is sitting on the passenger seat of my car.  Pulling Miss M away from the fountain to head back out to the car, she throws a screaming fit which ends in her literally kicking her feet and pounding her fists face down on the filthy linoleum floor.

Physically dragging her out to the car, I remember we have an empty water bottle in the back seat.  I saw it there earlier while I was trying to entertain her in line at the pharmacy drive up.  She calms down a little when I tell her we'll get her some water in a bottle when we come back in.

I grab the water bottle and the cards from the front seat, and try to dial the office number while holding little M's hand walking back into the store.  The number on the card is no longer in service.  Are you kidding me?  The appointment reminder card that I got today has an invalid number on it?  Lovely, just lovely.  So I google the doctor's name on my phone and get another number for the clinic, which I dial.  A nice nurse answers and I tell her I need to have my prescription called into another pharmacy.  She asks me my name just in time for my service to cut out, since I'm now half-way to the back of the store to fill up a water bottle.

I fill up the water bottle, and take out my phone to call the doctor's office back.  It is then that I realize that Miss E will be dropped off by the bus in about four minutes because this quick doctor visit has turned into a 2-hour ordeal.  Grabbing Miss M, who is screaming again because I won't give her the water bottle, I hurry as fast as my aching hips will let me, out to the car, where Miss M only lets me put her back in because I promise to give her the water bottle.

I make a quick exit of the parking lot, making M spill water all over herself, and drive the 5 minute drive home to find the bus waiting in front of my driveway. Trying to show my embarrassment at being late, I thank the bus driver and the three of us head inside.

Miss M is so tired by this point that pretty much anything is making her cry, and I'm pregnant and it's 1:45 in the afternoon and I haven't eaten anything since breakfast.  We are a happy lot.

I finally get Miss M changed into a dry shirt and into bed for her nap, turn on Tangled for Miss E, then eat some lunch, and sit down to decompress and write this post.

Goofy Girl

Mira loves being goofy. Especially if you'll laugh at her for doing it. Her funniest moments are at the breakfast/lunch/dinner table--probably because she's in a good mood from eating.

part of it

I've had a couple of requests to see pictures of our house.  I don't have a comprehensive photo tour ready, but since I finally took photos off my camera, I have a few.

Here is the view from our side yard, taken earlier this year:

Here is the girls drawing on the retaining wall  in our back yard:

Here is our dining room and kitchen before we painted.  Unfortunately, I forgot to take the picture before Wilda removed the lovely grapevine wallpaper border that ran along the top of the wall you are looking at:

(I took this picture standing by the double doors in the picture above):

Here is a view of our kitchen standing at the top of the stairs. The living room is on the right.

Here is the dining room being prepped for painting (from the kitchen):

Here is our living room, standing at the top of the steps (near the kitchen):

Here is looking down the steps:

And this is looking at the living room from the end of the hallway:

Don't worry, we now have furniture in our living room, but I haven't taken the time, while it's clean, to take any pictures of it, so you'll have to wait on those.

Happy New Years everyone!