Aiden's room before. 

2 wallpapered walls. 2 painted walls. Lots of spongebob.

We kept as much sponge bob as we could.

Here is his room now.

Like Zach he was allowed to pick most things himself. 

I left his fan alone but I still may spray paint it.

The walls were painted blue "like the ocean"

The curtains are orange "like spongebob's pineapple house"

I bought him a spongebob poster.

I need to hang up family pictures between the window and closet. I have them framed, just not hung up.

 He also has up some artwork from school and some posters of animals.

For his original artwork he spray painted the background a color that almost matched his wall and then traced fish shapes that I made. He painted the insides of those some fun colors.

While spray painting the canvas it was moved and I accidentally dropped it in the grass. Aiden decided to keep the grass on because it looks like seaweed.

For the closet I lowered one shelf so he could reach it and added a higher shelf for extra blankets and such.

Another before:

And the after:

His room also took a week to complete. 

1 day for wallpaper.

1 day for painting.

1 day for carpet removal.

1 day for clean-up/set up and closet.

The boys have been in their rooms for almost two months and they are both taking very good care of them. Their rooms are the most completed of all the rooms with just little things left to do.

Up next: the family room

the construction zone kitchen

and maybe some help me pictures....this house is full of projects and some still have me just tilting my head in confusion about what to do......

Zach's room

Before I introduce Zach's room I have a little vent first. 

I was trying to sew some stuff for the house and my sewing machine is broke-again. Ugg. I paid over $100 last time to get it fixed and I've only sewn 4 curtains and some ruffles since then. Sigh. I am really thinking about getting a new one.

Okay. Here's a shot of Zach's room from the home inspection. 

Notice all the wallpaper. 

Sigh.

From the doorway. 

Notice the carpet.

To earn some money so he could fix his broken iPod touch Zach removed his own wallpaper. 

I just had to spend a day on the adhesive....

And now here it is......

Zach chose everything for his room. 

The color is a gray/blue.

It took him forever to choose. The other colors are yellow and red because those are the colors of Gryfindor from Harry Potter.

On the right are some small movies posters we sprung for.

Zach chose a whole bunch of pictures to put on the wall. Mostly Beyblades, some family pics, and some of his artwork.

I really wanted to replace Zach's fan but we settled for spray painting the blades red and the brassy parts yellow. I was a little worried how it would turn out but it looks great.

Zach used an old canvas from the Cinci house to make his own artwork.

He painted the canvas gray, spray painted streaks of red, added some pics from the Harry Potter movie. 

And ta-da.

No Harry Potter room would be complete without Hedwig. Harry's pet owl.

A rundown of what we did.

Zach spent 2 weeks removing wallpaper.

I spent 1 day removing the adhesive.

Chris spent 30 minutes scrubbing the walls.

I spent one day painting two coats of paint.

One more day to remove the nasty carpet.

And one last day to hang up things on his wall and work on his closet.

So here's a reminder: 

The old:

The new:

I still want to:

paint the trim white

repaint the doors

add a few more pictures

in a few years the floors will get refinished

A note on Zach's blinds, he is allergic to dust mites so I have to keep fabric in his room to a minimum. These blinds are ones I can vacuum, which seems crazy but anything to help Zach with his allergies.

Do you ever become so ever become so overwhelmed by all the things you want to post that you feel paralyzed to post anything? 

Well that's where I am right now :) 

I have been super, super busy removing wallpaper, painting, pulling up carpet, mowing the yard, cleaning, laundry and of course cooking and doing fun stuff with the boys.

 I promise to post pics of the house, and all that the boys and I have been up to but for now I'm going to start with the most recent stuff and fill in with the goodies from that last few months as I have time.....so here it goes:

We just got back on Friday from a trip to Chicago. 

For Chris it was work, for the boys and I it was a mini vacation. 

It was so much fun and what made it better was the free rental car and free hotel. The boys and I had PB&J everyday for lunch making it even cheaper. 

Yippee for cheap Chicago vacations!

On Monday we headed to the Museum of Science and Industry. We took the boys 2 years ago so I wasn't sure they would want to head back but they were all for it and we spent a good 5 1/2 hours exploring. I love that they love learning so much. 

The museum had a special "Bodies" exhibit but they didn't allow pictures inside the exhibit. The boys sort of breezed through and I kept slowing them down and talking to them about what they were seeing. 

Aiden was most interested in the effects of smoking, they had lungs, a "slice" of a smoker's leg and other body parts stained with tar.

Zach was most interested in the effects of fat. Looking the longest at the displays of hearts and movie about cholesterol and artery blockage. As well as staring at the "slice" of a healthy body next to one of an obese body.

Needless to say the exhibit definitely made us all think a little bit more about what we do to our bodies and what we put into them.

This giraffe was in the lobby of the museum. The body exhibit was much the same except with humans. Very, very interesting.

This was a shadow wall. The movie reacted to your shadow and you could "catch" the falling sand. Zach is in the background with his arms in a Y and you can see Aiden up next to the screen with his arms out stretched trying to "catch" what was falling from Zach. 

Made me think about their relationship as brothers. 

Aiden always in Zach's shadow. 

Zach always competing to be the biggest, the most, the first.

Aiden trying to catch his brothers overflow.

Sorry this is blurry. The quote totally made me think of Aiden. "The scientist is not a person who gives the right answers; he is one who asks the right questions." Claude Levi-Strauss

The boys and I in the fun mirrors.

I would have loved to have taken more pictures but I loved exploring, learning, and being with my boys more.

Tuesday we headed to the planetarium. It was pretty run down, not much for the boys to do but they did enjoy the show on constellations and it sparked such an interest for Zach that we are considering a telescope for him for Christmas.

The boys outside the planetarium.

The boys in a simulation of take off.

What trip to the planetarium would be complete with out seeing and taking a picture of a fecal collection bag?

Zach "holding up" the earth.

OK. this is a picture of Target.

After telling the boys about a target in Atlanta that we used to go to that had an escalator for people and one for your cart as well they were all about going to one in Chicago.

 Thank goodness for Google as I was able to find a 2 story target. We headed there after the planetarium and I think the boys would have stayed there all day just going up and down if I had let them.

Wednesday we spent the morning shopping. Container store, IKEA (3 stories tall with cart escalators--we were all in heaven :), land's end outlet. 

Because Wednesday was also Zach's birthday we went to Olive Garden for lunch, I so wish I had remembered to take a picture.

Chris left work early so that we could head out to Navy Pier. I got some pics of the boys by the water.

He may still be my baby, but he's growing up. 

Sniff. Sniff.

And Zach. 

My tween. 

With an attitude to match the title.

Boo.

All of us. Waiting for our speedboat ride to watch the fireworks.

Yes, I said speedboat.

And fireworks.

On Zach's 10th birthday.

What a fun way to top off a great day celebrating a wonderful boy.

On the boat. 

Such excitement :)

Chris took a vacation day on Thursday and all four of us headed to Shedd Aquarium.

Funny side note: 

On the highway one day we passed a sign for Brookfield Zoo and I asked the boys if they wanted to go there instead of the planetarium.

Aiden said "no we're not zoo people, we're museum people." :) Ha!

Luckily they are aquarium people.

Front of Shedd.

They had an exhibit about jellyfish. My favorite exhibit of the day.

A spotted stingray. Love the polka dots.

Boys with the big fish.

Photo taken by Zach.

Dolphin show.

Aiden and I sat in the front row. 

He didn't want anyone to block his view.

He asked questions the whole time. The. Whole. Entire. Time. His mind never stops.

Zach and the otter. For some reason Zach really attached himself to the otters this time.

Maybe it had to do with this shirt?

Harry Otter.

It was $25. Too rich for his blood. And mine. So we took a picture instead.

He bought this otter.

$7

Named him Harry.

They are best friends.

Made me think about how hard 10 must be. Still a child. Yet trying so hard to grow up and be independent.

Last night at the pool. Such fun being thrown by dad.

Zach's too old for that kind of silliness. 

Boo.

 Chicago traffic.

Double Boo.

 At Shedd looking toward Navy Pier.

 Chicago Skyline. From the Fireworks boat.

Best thing I bought.

A dog bed/travel pillow.

Well that was our trip. We had so much fun. I'm glad that I went. I was nervous about the traffic and managing the boys in a big city but I put on my big girl panties and just went for it. 

And it was awesome.

As promised

As promised.

Here are a few pictures.

All of these were taken with my phone and most were taken soon after we moved in so you can see all the box fabulousness.

I will get more pics of the house up as rooms are "finished." The office is the closest to being done but I need some help from Chris on some things before it will be complete. ish. (Are rooms ever really done? Isn't that part of the fun of having a house?)

Say Hi to the front of the house.

See all the green in the front gardens? it's 75% weeds. Sigh. Most of it is pulled/thinned out but I still have 3 huge gardens in the back to work on and some side gardens.

The previous owner was a major gardener-and a great one- but the house has been vacant for almost a year so right now the gardens need lots of help. Unfortunately for those beautiful gardens I am not a gardener. My mom helped while she was here at the end of May but there is SOOOOO much to do out there.

Sorry gardens.

So, so sorry I'm your new caretaker.

So very, very sorry.

OK. Enough of that.

Master bedroom. It is no longer a mess but one window still needs blinds (not sure why one window had blinds and one did not....).

The wallpaper border is down but I still need to paint.

The light/fan need to be replaced-you can't have the fan on and light off so for now we just unscrew the light bulbs at night. Sigh.

The closet also needs a complete revamp but I'm waiting until I'm ready to paint so I can paint the closet too.

Carpet is also going to go-it is very stained-but lucky us there are nice hardwood floors underneath. yay.

Boys playroom.

My dad built shelves while they were here for Memorial Day (I'll show those after I get them painted).

I want to paint, but I'm still not sure what color.

Have some things to hang on the walls.

I'm not even close to being done but at least everything is put away now.

No more boxes. Except for Aiden's giant box fort. So glad we have a playroom for that :)

This is the office.

See that wallpaper--floor to ceiling--took me approximately 16 hours over 4 days to get all of that off the walls. sigh.

It is now painted and everything is put away. yippee.

Still need a new light but I'm waiting on that one. For now Chris just rigged the chandy so that people don't run into it.

Sigh. The kitchen. Let's start with the positives, shall we?

Ummm.....

Crickets chirping.....

It's open.

Ummmm.....

Big changes going on in here soon. I hope.

I would love to gut the kitchen and start over but it doesn't look like that will happen unless we live here for 5+ years so for now we plan on painting the cabinets, Chris is going to try to build new doors for them and I am scrounging around for organizers to make the inefficient cabinets work a little better for us.

For now that is enough but I will keep dreaming of the day I can take a very big hammer to these cabinets.

It will be fun.

Family room.

Some stuff has been moved around.

Chris built some shelves for me (pic below).

Sconces have been changed.

We bought a white slip cover from www.uglysofa.com for the couch because of the 3x3 hole Aiden cut in the cushion.

Still need to decide on paint color.

We are thinking of sanding and staining the beams but lately I've been wondering about painting them white.....

The room needs new window coverings and I'd like an area rug for the space.

I know what I want to hang on the walls but I need Chris to build some picture ledges for me first.

Here are the shelves Chris built for me (I know you only see one but there is a matching one on the other side.)

Didn't he do a fabulous job! This was his first furniture build and it wasn't an easy one but he did a great job. Now he keeps asking what his next build is :)

I am using these shelves for my scrapbooks and they are already full so I'm going to need to think of something soon :)

Oh, and I'm going to paint the shelves white. I think. I should probably decide on a wall color first....

One of the finished rooms of the basement.

This will be the "sensory room" when I am done.

All of the boxes are unpacked but I have all of my organization bins all over the floor so that I could figure out what I needed and what could be sold.

Because of all the work to be done in the main part of the house I'm not really working on this room right now but it will definitely be done by Winter.

18 years

Just popping in. Yes, I know I still need to upload pictures....

Today 18 years ago my husband, who wasn't my husband then, showed up on my doorstep to tell me that his family was moving to Mississippi, we spent the next 3 days together as often as possible. Wrote and called all summer long...back when long distance wasn't free.... He returned to Illinois in the fall to continue college. And now here we are 7 moves, 2 kids, 3 dogs, and 18 years later.

Wow.

18 years. Strange since when I look in the mirror I still feel 16...even though I don't look 16. And my husband will always be 19 in my eyes.

Seriously. 18 years.

Happy Anniversary honey.

here

I'm here. In Erie. Boxes almost all unpacked. Now I'm on to removing wallpaper. Lots and lots of wallpaper. Pictures to follow in the next couple days.

Rain, Rain go away

Our home inspection on the new (3rd) house went well! Yay!

Now if the rain would stop so the chimney guy can fix our chimney cap then all would be good. Our buyers can't close until that is fixed (they have an FHA loan) so if everyone could pray, cross their fingers and toes, hope....whatever you believe in....that the rain would stop so we can close in Erie on the 13th I'd really appreciate that :)

Thanks!