Home Sweet New Home

It's official. We are buying a house. After nearly 3 months of waiting, we got the official word on Friday. We had a chance to go back and check it out Friday afternoon and I guess I forgot how much TLC this house is going to need. I am feeling overwhelmed right now with the amount of work in store for us. I am going to have to learn the valuable lesson that is "prioritizing"!

Here is project #1. Since the previous owners have already moved out most of their stuff, we got a good glimpse of the carpeting. And all I can say is "Eww!". We had originally hoped we could get a few more years out of it but it is obvious that it will need to be replaced ASAP. At least on the main level where I will spend the most time looking at it. So, I have spent the last few days frantically learning everything I can about carpeting. And holy sheet, I had no idea how expensive carpeting is. Yikes. I want some opinions from anyone who has good decorating skills! I am really loving the brown carpeting that has taupe-y, grayish undertones. Not a rich chocolate color but a bit lighter. Does that make sense? I have espresso colored furniture and a cream colored couch. What do you think? Or, do I stick with the light beige carpeting??

Project #2 is painting. Every single room in the house needs to be repainted. And most rooms have wallpaper that needs to be removed. Ugh.

From there I'll move on to updating light fixtures and hardware as the money comes available. Which will be in about 20 years when we finish paying off the carpeting and the deck that has to go in next spring.

In the meantime, here are the "Before" pictures. Please excuse the hot mess known as Andrea in some of the pictures. I can't be bothered to dress up on most days.

Never Forget

I've been meaning to update this for awhile now but haven't been much inspired to do so. Life has just been chugging along with not much excitement. Well, except for the trip to the State Fair. That was awesome and eventually I will get some photo's up and maybe write about it. I was going to do that as this week's post but I feel compelled to write about something much, much more sad.

Thomas lost two friends who were fighting in Afghanistan this week. It's been extremely hard on him. They weren't close friends but he had gone through school with one of them and has a lot of great memories of their time together at EOD (Bomb Tech) school.

Their names were Floyd Holley and Dan Fedder.

I think that it is just too easy to see the headlines and the numbers of casualties in the news and not really think twice about the impact of a serviceman's death. I know I'm guilty of it at times.

These guys left behind wives, children, mothers, fathers, and friends. Floyd's wife was 7 months pregnant with their first child. I believe he also had children from a previous relationship. He was the guardian of his 14 year old brother. Dan had a wife and two kids as well. Dan was on his 7th tour since the war began in 2003.

Imagine what that would feel like. To have someone show up at your front door and tell you that your husband has been killed and you will never see him again. I can't. And I can't stop thinking about these women and what they must be going through and wishing there was something I could do.

And I can't stop thinking about our friend John who is their platoon commander and is now feeling like he has some responsibility in their deaths. I pray that he will be OK and find some peace.

Because, really, that's all you can do. Pray. If you believe in the power of prayer, or a higher power.....or whatever you believe in. Maybe just sending out good vibes into the universe. At least it's something right?

So, let us not forget that while we may have marked the "end" of the war in Iraq yesterday there is still a war going on in Afghanistan. And people are there fighting every day. People that are close to Thomas and I. With families left behind, waiting anxiously for their safe return. Praying every day that they, too, don't hear that knock on the door. I know what that feels like and I don't wish it on anybody.

Mommy FAIL

I am going to share a story with you and ask that you bite your tongue and hold all judgement. If this helps to deter others from using the same parenting technique than I won't consider myself a complete failure.

The story begins last Thursday morning. We (as in Declan and I) are in the kitchen and I am taking orders from the boy for his morning meal. An idea pops into my head and since I tend to do most things without thinking them through (blame my ADD, it's my curse) I go ahead and blurt out the following;

"Hey Declan, if you give mommy all of your nuks today we can leave them for the nuk fairy and she'll bring you a (cue music here) ............NEW BIKE!"

I had to go for the big ticket reward. I suppose somewhere in my subconscious I figured naaawww he'll never go for it. Boy, was I wrong. Very, very wrong. Declan says "A new bike? A red one? With a bell?" YES I say. A red one with a bell!

And Declan proceeds to collect every last nuk he has hidden around the house. The fact that it was so easy should have been my first clue because when it comes to 3 year old, nothing is ever easy.

So, I then have to explain to him that the nuk fairy only comes at night and that he will have to wait until morning to get his new bike. Because shit. Where am I going to find a red bike with a bell THAT DAY!? Its not like I gave myself time to find one on Craigs list. Cue temper tantrum #1.

So, we get through the day with minimal crying. This was also the day I was scheduled for "THE SHOT", which, went fine by the way and I am doing much, much better. So, Thomas meets me at the doctors to drive me home from my "procedure" and we have to somehow find a red bike with a bell before we get home so that we can play "nuk fairy" that night. But Thomas decides he wants to be there to see the look on Declan's face when he discovers his new red bike (with a bell) so we decide that the nuk fairy shall arrive early and Declan will get his bike after dinner. So, we drive all over the south metro pricing out bikes. None of which happen to be red. We setttle on an orange one (with an orange bell) that was far too much money for anything that belongs to a 3 year old but I've left us with no options so what do you do?

It really should have occurred to us that it might have been a better idea to wait a night and tell the boy that he needed to prove he could spend a whole night without his nuk before presenting him with his new toy. Because it could have saved us a lot of trouble, and not to mention...money. Parenting FAIL.

So, to make this long story a little bit shorter I'll just go ahead and admit it. Declan has a new bike and his nuks.

It was a long, long , loooooonnnngggg night for the Folgers that Thursday night. And at 4:30 in the morning, with my child clearly in CODE RED distress and me having averaged about 4 hrs of sleep a night for the past month (did I mention a teething infant?) I relented and gave him his nuk. I mean, a momma can only hear the following so many times before her heart shatters in a million tiny little pieces and just GIVES IN.

"Mommy, please mommy I want my nuk. I don't want my new bike anymore. You can give it to the nuk fairy. I just want my nuk mommy. Please"

So, the moral of the story is this....actually there are several here.

1) Try and get that nuk away from your child before they turn 2 or you are in for the fight of your life.

2) Don't promise that big ticket item without really thinking it through. I should have stuck with matchbox cars.

3) Children will promise anything to get their way. Don't believe them. They will, in fact, expect that bike to be returned to them the next morning only promising to give it up yet again when bedtime and therefore, nuk time arrive. Lather, rinse, repeat.

4) Don't give in. Ever. And I am the last person to ever give out that sort of advice.

5) And last but not least. Don't ever brag to your mother-in-law how you've finally managed to win the nuk war until you have, in fact, won the nuk war.

Good luck.