Blah Blah Blah Blah
Beds made: check. Coffee poured and getting cold like always: check. Kids dressed and fed: check. See, so I have a few moments to spare. Here are some random thoughts going through my head this morning and a few tidbits of info from my busy weekend.
1. We bought our bedroom set and couches!! PRICEY last 2 days I tell ya. Vinny and I are kind of feeling a bit nauseated at the whole thing, haha, but really, we are more excited then anything! We just kept adding pieces to our bedroom set because we figured hey, we might as well splurge and get it all now - it's something we'll most likely have forever. We got a King bed (drool drool drool drool!!!), our pillow-top matress, pretty decorative headboard, footboard, 4 posters (yes, I am now officially the Princess I always knew I was *wink*), long dresser with tri-fold mirror, armoire, TV lingerie chest. This is all in a dark wood, "chestnut" color to be exact. It's already in stock so we have it being delivered in 2 weeks, once the carpets are down.
My couches are very pretty and very practical for my need. I needed something with the back cushions attached because my last couch was DESTROYED by people (I'm not naming names but you know who you are!!!) leaning all over them and crushing them flat. I also needed something with a pattern so you wouldn't see baby spit-up (we have that in abundance over here) and cookie crumbs from my little cookie monster, aka Emmie Pie. It's a multitude of colors (cream background with olive green leaves and flowers in shades of mauve, powder blue and beige) so it will go nicely with anything we put with it. For the price of the two pieces (sofa & loveseat), we couldn't go wrong. So now we just need to find coffee/end tables and if we think we might need another piece, we'll add a solid colored chair to the set-up.
2. Seriously, why does my coffee ALWAYS get cold before I finish it?! On the plus side, I am enjoying this French Vanilla creamer I bought to spice up my mornings (yes, this spices up my life. Is that sad?)
3. Vinny is marching in the St. Paddy's Day parade with the FDNY tomorrow. Firemen on a normal day like to booze it up. Then on a day like this? I told him if he pulls the crap he pulled on me about 6 weeks ago again, (some of you know what I am talking about and it involved a frantic call to his father and my friend Shannon in California calling hospitals for me!!!!!!!!!) I would be placing a call to his Dad in Hawaii (he's on vacation). Don't mess with me buddy.
4. The window in my truck hasn't worked in months. It doesn't go up or down so when I go to the ATM, fast food or to get gas, I have to always open my door and look like a moron. Want to hear something weird though? When we were driving the hospital to see Andrew after he was born and they made me leave him there an extra day for jaundice, it was really foggy out that morning. I told Vinny to open the window so he could see out, forgetting it didn't work. Well it WORKED - just like that! Then after we brought him home, it stopped working again. I just thought that was weird. Anyway my point here is, I need to have this window fixed.
5. I'm having the carpets laid down in the house a week from yesterday. After that, the furniture can go in and then we just wait for the kitchen. Wow - we are almost done!! I am NOT looking forward to cleaning up this place though and packing everything. I think I am going to throw like 50% of the crap away - it's just too much to pack and all of a sudden when it becomes my problem to store it (as opposed to throwing it in my parent's attic/garage/crawl space/you pick...) I suddenly don't need to hold onto it anymore. Funny how that works. I wonder if my parents will find the humor in this situation. The bins and bins of crap they have been asking me to get rid of for 2 years now I suddenly don't need. Hmm.
6. Emily woke up at 5:30am (this NEVER happens!!) 2 days ago asking for "cookies" and "bananas", clear as day. Was she dreaming of these things or hungry or what? I just ignored the little sugar freak and she fell back asleep. Weird though.
7. I FINALLY watched The Passion of the Christ the other night. I have been so scared to see it and it's taken me this long, but I'm glad I finally sat to watch it. I understand a little more about my religion because I didn't retain much in religious education (1 hour, once a week does NOT stick in a child's head - at least it didn't stick in mine). Vinny watched it with me and we both had bad headaches afterwards. You know the stor before you sit to watch it, but it still kind of "shocks" you, I guess you could say. It's just an emotional flick and not an easy viewing.
8. I need a shower. If my kids could talk, they'd probably tell you that. :)
9. Target really doesn't have nice home furnishing type of stuff. I returned my mauve colored bath accessories the other night because I thought maybe a light blue would go better? Anyhoot - they had a toilet cover but not the contour rug, or the hand towel in this shade, but not the bath mat. They didn't have any sets to put together. Then I looked at their curtains - not impressed. I was hoping they'd have some nicer stuff but I didn't feel like spending ym money there. I think I'll order from Penney's because my Mom always has great luck with them. I did buy two really large wooden frames for over my bed. I think I am going to do sketches of the kids (probably computerized - like I really have time to sit with my easel and sketch all afternoon!) for each frame.
10. At the risk of sounding ungrateful, because I am really not, I want to know why people give my children totally age-unappropraie toys. What's the deal with this? To protect the guilty, I shall not name names. But very recently, my daughter got 2 sets of mardi gras beads and a large plastic container to store them in. The plastic container just took up space that I didn't need - I am trying to pack up and leave - please don't make more work for me!! But even worse then that, Emily put it on her head as a hat, only it was too big and her head was now surrounded by this plastic bubble. NOT funny. (But the picture kind of is so here it is:http://www.image4u.org/disneydream03/A29sized.jpg ) The beads had to be wrapped twice because they were so long and every couple of minutes, they'd bunch up and start to strangle her. Not something I find enjoyable. So anyway, that's a little vent from me. Enjoy the picture - we hope it brightens your day. :)
"Muse-ical" Musings from ME
WOW! I thought much of IDOL was pretty good last night. I am excited for the results show tonight - I think it could be a tight race! Here are some of my thoughts, in no particular order:
1. Constantine ROCKED! You know I mentioned last time how I feel about him - loved him, now like him... not as good as Bo but then again, is it fair to compare? Either way, he totally rocked last night. PERFECT song for him and that last note really stuck out. Awesome job.... definitely a keeper this week.
2. Anwar. Ok I still like him. I do. His voice is really pleasant and he seems super sweet. But that song. Oh no... that horrible song. I hated it when Tamyra sang it in Season 1 ("a chair is still a chair?" Umm ok, whatever that means), I hated it when I believe someone sang it in Season 3 and I hated it last night. But Anwar is good and I have wanted to like him for a while, so we'll write this off as "bad song choice" and move on.
3. Mikalah. Is The Nanny out on DVD yet because this girl must own the entire series' collection. Wow - is she Fran or what?! Even the way she dresses. I thought she was cute during auditions and it's been slowly turning into AnNoYiNg week by week. Simon was dead on last night- her personality was bigger then her talent in that song. No good. Into my bottom three (and consequently, the one I booted off).
4. Lindsay. She's pretty but that's all she does for me - she's a nice girl to watch perform. I haven't liked her since the beginning - her personality is like a big, wet rag to me. She shows virtually NO emotion and frankly, I'm over her "I could care less if I am on American Idol" attitude. Into my bottom three.
5. Anthony. What were the judges listening to last night? Everyone in my household thought he was fab and the judges ripped him a new one. I have always liked Anthony. He has a great voice and he was told he would never SPEAK.... and he sounds like THAT?! Amazing! Plus, I also love the fact that he didn't even speak English until 9 years old... and he sounds so clear and crisp. I really like him and hope the viewing audience ignored the judges comments last night (well hopefully they ignore Paula every night/week/show because all this woman does is agree with Randy. She is like a robot with no sense of self. It's maddening at times!)
6. Nadia: Wowzers... she's awesome! Is it just me or did Nadia look totally different last night? I think she had some of her hair pulled back and she had a gown on - totally different from her punk look and while I like both styles I have seen on her, this was a nice suprise and totally worked in her favor. I really enjoy watching Nadia every week. Into my top three ( ok we don't vote on top three but I just felt like saying that :) )
7. Bo Bice. I just like to say his full name. Odd choice of song but totally rocked it! Well, maybe "odd" isn't the right word. Different. But totally his style so it worked out wonderfully. I can't say anything bad about him and I am so so so so happy the judges can't/don't either. I wasn't sure Simon would like the song choice but I was happy to hear he did. They are right - Bo is totally a seasoned performer. When does he go out on tour? I want to be in his front row rocking my head up and down & flashing metal....
8. Jessica. Like her a lot but last night (she was first) she didn't do anything memorable for me....
9. Nikko. I voted him out last week but I found myself pushing for him last night. It's almost kind of "cool" (sorry for the lack of intelligable word there but nothing else comes to mind) that he has a chance at going on a little further when last week he was on a plane home. I liked his song - worked for him and the words "oh baby give me one more chance..." were very appro-po! Picthy in areas and defininely not a top contender but not too shabby for a last minute performance. Put him in my bottom three but didn't kick him off.
10. Scott. Ummm I am just not sure if I like him. Smooth voice but doesn't really set stars off in my eyes. Looks a little serial killer-ish to me and I feel bad saying that aloud but I've heard it from others before. I don't get the sunglasses thing on stage either? *scratching head*
11. Vonzell. She loked pretty, if that will get you votes. Ok in my book. Nothing spetacular. She has a very humble, sweet personality though so that makes me like her. I didn't even remember her performance, hence the reason I am only remembering her at #11 on my list. Who the heck is #12 by the way??
12. Really... who is the 12th person? ? ? :::still thinking::: Oh Carrie! I actually had to check the IDOL website for that. I'm not sure why because she is one of my favorites. I didn't think her performance was bad last night either, so why did she fall right out of my head? Anyway, Paula & Randy could have said better things to her but I am glad Simon said something positive. She picked up the pace finally (the last 2 weeks were booooor-ing) and she looked nice too.
So in short, my bottom three are Mikalah, Nikko and Lindsay with Mikalah going home. That seemed to be the popular vote at my house. There were a few Vonzell's thrown in the mix and maybe a Scott or two. Some people had Lindsay being kicked off. I'm really not sure. Guess we'll have to tune in tonight!
Link To My Scrapbook Gallery
Click or Paste this into your browser to see my work:
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Make sure to scroll down a bit. Thanks for looking. :)
Come out all you IDOL fans!
So while I have a few moments to kill (I've already spent all day updating this thing - what's another ten minutes huh?) let's talk about IDOL!!! Who do you like? Who don't you like? Here are some of my opinions on the show...
1. I used to dislike Paula because she was so fake. Now, she is faker then fake but I find I really like her. She is just so cheezy that I don't think she can help herself. I laugh every week when I hear what comes out of her mouth because I don't think she even knows until she hears herself say it. She come sup with the weirdest combination of words. Someone could be God-awful and says something like "you look really cute and... you have fans!" She just tries to make everyone feel good and I think it's actually kind of nice.
2. I'm a rocker chick this season - totally! I actually had a dream of Constantine last night (I am NOT even kidding and don't anyone dare tell my husband!) The thing is, he isn't even cute! If I saw him on the street, I'd probably turn the other way. But it's something about his whole presense- the sexy eye-stare thing, the leather jacket, the way he sings differently.... I will admit I did like him more a few weeks ago because lately, he seems a little stuck-up. And I don't know why because he really doesn't say anything rude to the judges but there is something about him. Maybe it's just the whole rocker thing. Maybe it's because I subconsciously compare him to Bo and Bo is just a better singer. But I DO still like Constantine because he's a New Yorker (so there is a chance I may one day run into him!!!!!!!!!!!!) and he is TALL.... wow! Did you ever notice that? I know Seacrest is a peanut but check out how tall Constantine is this week.
3. BO! I love BO! I take full credit in my house for "discovering" him. I said I liked him during the early auditions when he got like 10 nanoseconds of air time and I thought he had a really cool, 70's rocker kind of thing going on and everyone was like "Who? Bo? What?" Then I heard he was in Hollywood and I was so excited! You kind of lose track of many contestants during the early weeks because they don't show you everyone who made it through. Anyway, Bo Bice... what a cool name huh? He is really great. He is a TOTALLY different rocker-dude then Constantine- maybe that's why I still like both. Bo actually has an amazing voice. If he doesn't win this (I really hope he goes far.. I am so tired of hearing the same old guys who have voices like women and sing ballads every week. Do something DIFFERENT will you!) I think he has a 99% shot of a record deal - I'd be a customer!
4. Carrie. She has a great voice and I love that she is a country-type of girl and doesn't feel the need to dress all Britney-ish when she sings. But the past 2 weeks have been kind of boring. I hope she steps it up, like Nadia! She is a cool chick. She just doesn't care - she wears funky stuff and just goes out there and rocks it! I hope she sings fast songs as opposed to slow because I like watching her get realy into it. I'm not a slow-song kid of person on these shows, for the most part.
5. Anwar... wow! I didn't like him at first (and I'll admit part of it was because of that feminine hair) but this past week he was awesome! Totally awesome! He had me singing "What A Wonderful World" all damn week! I loved that he changed it up too. And I've been aching to like him because he really does seem like a great guy - super nice and he teaches music to students - how sweet is that. :) So finally... this week, he did a great job of grabbing another Anwar fan! Goooo Anwar! (now please stay great and don't make me dislike you this week! LOL!)
6. Jessica. The last blonde girl who performed this week. I love her voice! Awesome! However, her outfit this week was "dreadful", to borrow a word from Simon. Holy cow she looked dumpy. I kept saying to Vinny (who kept staring googley-eyed at her boobs) "I bet there are a lot of posts on the Idol board from parents complaining about her outfit" because after all, this is a family show. Don't get me wrong - some cleavage is good and especially if you have the body for it. but she doesn't really have the body and this is not the place to be throwing your breasts in people's faces. Even the jeans and boots were all wrong. So anyway, great voice but needs help from the IDOL stylists from here on in.
Everyone else is ok. Nothing pops to mind that I feel the need to really report on.
In case you don't know how we work it over here, we have an IDOL pool and we all get together on IDOL night's next door. I don't know when this inflation took place but it used to be $1 into the pot every week. Now it's $2 everynight the contestants perform so since there was a guy's night and a girl's night for the past 3 weeks, it's been $4 each week into the pot! Needless to say, I'm like $12 in the hole right now... I wonder if my brother will take a check? HAHA I keep forgetting to pay!
I am in 2nd place (with 4 other people) in the pool... so not too bad! but it really means nothing at this stage of the game because there is still so much time left. I got 3 out of 4 points this week by kicking off the two correct girls (good riddance Janay!!!!) and 1 correct guy (Travis - he looked like a Disney World performer with those dance moves).
Until later this week, fellow IDOL fans!
Musings Of A Madwoman
RANDOM MUSINGS.... WON'T YOU JOIN ME?
Just some things I've been thinking about lately-
1. Why do the baby food companies make their glass jars so that the tops NEVER screw on properly once opened? Everytime I open one, the top never screws on evenly to store in the fridge. This can't just be me can it? Thanks to these lovely malfunctioning tops, Emily took a jar of green beans (the mushy kind - they *were* Andrew's) out of my fridge the other day and before I could yell(or actually, while I was in the midst of yelling) "NO! NO!" bam!- green bean puree all over my fridge shelf and kitchen floor.
2. Why do I smell burning in here?!
3. How come when you peel the plastic off the lid of an organic baby food, the entire label comes off the whole jar! So now I am left with un-labeled jars in the fridge that I thought I'd remember the contents of when in truth, I just spent a good 5 minutes staring into my fridge, completely unaware of what I was actually staring at.
4. Oh damn! I burned my Cheddar Cheese Jalapeno Poppers! While I am on that subject - why did the box say "3 servings"? The poppers are like the size of my pinky. I heated the whole damn box. Is that wrong?
5. Why am I having so many troubles with baby food containers?
6. Since I mentioned Toy Story 2 in my post below, I wanted to bring this to the table: the two kids names in it are Emily and Andy! I smell a scrapbook layout in the works!!!
7. So I think Vince and I decided to get a new toilet bowl in the bathroom of our house. At first we were all "wow... this bowl is clean... let's get a new seat" then I had to take the tank lid off when I was painting and I about gagged. I know we have no control over the tank but still, what if we get sick? I asked Vin if he wanted to stick his head where someone sat their ass 'cause I sure don't.
8. & 9. Isn't chow mein the darker, fried noodles (Chinese food I mean) and lo mein the soupy whiter noodles? 'Cause I ordered Shrimp Chow Mein for dinner last night and they gave me lo mein & it was a big, sloppy, slimy mess. If we weren't trying to get both kids to bed, I would have went back to the restaurant. So my dinner consisted of greasy noodles that were smashed into bits (the ones you put on soup) with duck sauce. Damn this "no meat on Friday" thing. I think it's old fashioned, out-dated and pretty ridiculous but I'll stop musing #9 right there so I don't get lectured from relatives. :p
10. I wonder how I can get Emily to start pronouncing "clock" WITH the "L" in the word. *teehee*
The Kids
And onto my favorite subject.... the kids! I just did some "un-official" measurements on them yesterday with my scale and yardstick. Emily is 25 pounds, 32" tall. Andrew is 20 pounds, 28" tall. Now... onto the fun stuff!
EMILY
Emily gets smarter overnight I think (oh stop rolling your eyes... you know you brag about your own children like this too!) She has so many words now and she is really easy to talk to! We can actually understand each other (90% of the time at least). She loves to really work on prounouncing her words lately and making sure she gets ALL the sounds out like apple is "Ap-pool", shes ask for "pay-por" (paper) when coloring or writing and last night she loved saying "booK" and really emphasizing that she knew the "K" sound. Her two favorite words to use daily have to be "coo-KEY!" (cookie) and "cayyye" (cake). Help! I've created a sugar monster! LOL! Honestly, listing her words is kind of pointless at this point because there aren't too many she won't say or at least attempt... She always says "peas" (please) and "tank-too" (thank-you) when asking for something. She asks for "milk" or "juice" when she is thirsty, "ish" (fish, as in Goldfish) when she wants a snack. She loves to say "cwacka" (cracker) when asking for oysterettes or graham crackers and she'll pikc up a phone (real, cell, toy, doesn't matter) and jabber away. She loves saying "NO"! She'll wag her finger and tell you "no no no no" a bazillion times but if somethings is a yes, she'll say "ya! ya!" Oh and she even sings! HAHA She loves dancing to the Mama Mia! soundtrack at my Mom's house and now she even says "Mama Mia" when it comes on (with the right song and everything). She'll also try to sing some of the chorus words to "Dancing Queen". She calls me "Ma", her Daddy "Daddy", her brother "B" (we still haven't worked on this one!), my Grandma "Na-neee", my Dad "Pa" and my Mom "Ma" (like me!) We've heard her say the whole sound for "Grandma" before I think because I always call my mother "ma" that she hears me say it so she calls her that too. She can say "Matt" for Uncle Matt, "Nella" for 'Aunt' Daniela and she calles my brother Andrew "Unk" because we call him Unkie. :)
She is great at taking instruction which makes my day a lot easier. She can "please throw this away" (into the trash), "bring this to B" (take a bottle to Andrew and actually stick it in his mouth until I get there), "take one more bite & then you can have ____" (she understands that she must finish her meal before dessert/snacks), "give this to Daddy/Grandma/Papa/etc".
As far as activities go, she still loves Blue, Bear (in the big blue house), Sesame & Barney. She sings and dances with them. Barney has taught her her a TON of dances with hand movements ("Mr. Sun", "The Wheels on the Bus", "If You're Happy & You Know It", hula dancing.....) but I just caught her doing something from Blue's Clue's the other day- she points to her head and taps it when they sit in the thinking chair and "think...think...thiiiinnkkkk..." :) She still loves to dance! She has a bunch that I have mentioned before ("shake your butt", "hula" (this is hysterical!), "tap dance", "take a bow") but her newest addition is... BALLERINA TURN! She puts her hands on her head and spins around and around. Broadway... here we come!!! She also loves to color and play with stickers! She sticks them all over the paper and usually colors on top of them. In fact, we just made her Daddy a Blues Clues sticker project with a new coloring book and some glitter Crayons we picked up at Target this week. :) Oh and she spends daily walking around in one shoe. I have no idea what it's all about but usually, that's her preference. Just one shoe. Odd.
She's definitely a climber - the couches, my bed, all of our toys, Andrew's walker and she has been practicing stairs by herself! She usually climbs up and knows to "turn around" when she needs to get down but recently, she has been so excited to take that last step down without holding on.
Eating is the same. Three meals, a bunch of snacks, a bunch of drinks. I don't think anything new has really been added to our menu. She still has pancakes or French Toast with jelly and syrup for breakfast, milk or Orange Juice and a side of fruit. Sometimes, she has yogurt, sometimes eggs, sometimes cold cereal like Apple Jacks or Apple Cinnamon Cheerios. She has turned away from cereal bars. Too boring for her tastes I guess! Lunch is either grilled cheese, chicken nuggets, little hotdogs, a Lunchable with ham or turkey meat.... fruit on the side, a veggie, maybe some crackers, maybe some cheese.... Dinner can be what we are eating (but we usually eat too late), pastina with butter (only like once a week now because it's SO messy), chicken, Italian (she likes raviolis and my meatballs), soup, breakfast for dinner (last night was scrambled egg night!) She gets dessert everynight because her meal isn't complete without it! As long as she eats good all day and has veggies and proteins, I am fine with cookies and cake after meals. Her usual snacks are Goldfish (both plain and Burstin' BBQ), graham crackers, fruit snacks, an M&M here and there (when she sees me eating them).... She drinks juice all day (half water or else her diapers get bad!) and milk (plain or chocolate). As a treat, I might give her lemonade next door when it's made. She's still never had soda and probably won't, since I don't drink it. She feeds herself EVERY meal.... it's messy but she has gotten awesome at keeping everything on her utensil.
Emmie's sleep schedule has been later for the past few weeks but it works out perfectly for us because it goes along with her brother's (and allows her to join me for IDOL nights! HA!) Usually, we stay up together & watch our shows - either Idol next door or kid's movies if they are on, and she goes to bed between 9 & 9:30. That means a 9am wake-up call which is Heaven to me! (sooooo NOT a morning person here!) It's also a lot of fun because we get to spend some time with Emily doing "non-baby-ish" things. Like the other night, Toy Story 2 was on and since she stays up later now, she sat on the couch with Vinny and I and the three of us watched a movie together (while "B" was peacefully snoozing in his crib). She takes a 2-3 hour nap around 1pm daily.
ANDREW
Hands-down Andrew is the happiest kid I know. I have never in my life seen a baby smile and laugh out loud this much (and everyone who sees him has to agree). He has the biggest grin and charms us with it all day, every day. :)
He is a biiiig baby! Not too much in a fat sense (although he does have some impressive rolls), but he is just tall and thick. Him and Emily share diapers and a clothing size, so that tells you something! He wears 12 months but really could stand a few 18 month items (Emily's size). He is so strong that he started rolling months ago and just the other night, I got pictures of him standing near the couch! Sure, he was wobbly but all around, he is a lot stronger then your average 5 month old. He would be crawling if it weren't for these belly rolls dragging him down! LOL!
I think he's teething b/c he spiked a fever 2 weeks ago and bites EVERYTHING in his site. I just started using teething rings (I freeze them because let's face it - it works better, in my opinion) and he LOVES them! He stares for endless minutes just eyeballing it and then slowly drawing said ring to his mouth. Really, he isn't into toys. I guess because he still can't play with them unles it's a floor toy but the fact that Emily steals them all from him might have something to do with it! His daily activities are swinging in his swing (which he will only stand in 15 minute increments), laughing, biting rags, blankies and teething rings, watching shows with his sister, laughing, smiling, laughing some more! He also gets lots of belly time on the floor because he really wants to move and doesn't have too much rolling room in his crib. We are so excited for him to finally get his own room and big boy crib. :)
Andrew loves his food! I just recently started a 3-meal a day schedule which is easy because it follows Emily's. When she is eating in her high chair, he goes up on the table in his Papason and gets his meals at the same time. We started the Stage 2 mixes so his recent additions have been Banana/Blueberry, Pear/Wild Berry and Butternut Squash/Corn. He seems ok with everthing but apples (belly ache). Sometimes, I'll make a bowl of oatmeal and stir a fruit in to change it up but not often because he has cereal in his bottles. I ran out of oatmeal the other day (when you use it in every bottle, you tend to go through boxes per week!) so I used Mixed and after only 2 bottles, he stopped going to the bathroom. He just can't stand rice - it binds him terribly. I believe he's tried everything out there in Stage 1 - green beans, squash, sw. potato, peas, carrots (these are kind of iffy with him too), pears, apples, bananas, peaches and then a few Stage 2 things like blueberry, corn, drawing blanks here......
As far as sleeping goes, he will take 2-3 small naps (or sometimes one really bad nap (i.e. 45 minutes) and then a long 2-3 hour one) which are always un-predicatble throughout the day. Bedtime is pretty routine with him; bed between 8 and 9pm, wake around 8am. I must say above all else, I am blessed with great sleepers.
Almost there... (house-wise)
So it's been over a month since the last update (so much for that 30-day internal clock I mentioned last time) but as you will soon see, we have been SUPER busy with the house! Here is what is going on at *** **th Street (you lurkers thought I would actually post my real address - AS IF!)
When we said the house "is in move-in condition", we meant it - but decided to get all new anyway. That's part of the fun of buying a home anyway right? A lot of projects started small like, "let's paint this room" but led to other things.... and now we are up to our eyeballs in renovations!
*****(Warning: some of these next bits of information are only for the super-bored. They are really trivial).*****
LIVING ROOM/DINING ROOM
First we decided we'd paint everything but the living room and dining room that are white. Then we thought "white? How boring" so we actually painted them first. The living room and hallways are Harvest Brown - a really pretty taupe color. The dining room is Egyptian Nile - a super-gorgeous, leaf-green color. Everything is getting thick white floor moldings and crown moldings up top, so that will really add a nice touch. We had our dining room floors polished and a high-gloss added (we had wood floors under the carpet the we ripped up in beautiful condition) along with a small area when you walk in our front door. The floor company called it my "foyer" which I find laughable but hey, if you want to say I have a foyer in my house (seems so Fresh Prince to me), then by all means!!! Our original plan was to do all-wood throughout our first floor but after much thinking, we decided that it is too cold and dangerous with two babies/toddlers. So we opted for just the wood in the dining room and we orderd Berba carpeting for the living room and hallway. That is called Wild Flower and it's a patterned mix of taupe, evergreen and cranberry - very pretty and it should hide dirt and Cheerios well. That is key. :)
We are getting new couches (I am thinking a maroon-ish plaid... Vinny is thinking dark leather), new units for the TV and perhaps a bookcase.... a new TV I believe (either in there or the bedroom...). You know what would work best? A plasma screen to hang on the wall and get out of the way. We are having so much difficulty finding a unit to house our TV that is 26" deep. They are all 21 1/4" deep. What, why? Does my TV have extra wires or something? Why is mine such an oddball!?!?! So back to the plasma- if anyone is feeling really generous, by all means.... Or maybe if like 200 people want to go in on a joint gift, there's an idea for you to consider.... ;)
KITCHEN
This is by far, the most exciting room to me! We were originally going to "get new hardware" to brighten up our clean, albeit old, cabinets. But after trying to figure out how we could cut out my wall stove (1- it didn't work and 2- it was the size of my apartment's easy-bake-oven and I deserve I normal-sized stove for pete's sake!) we realize I would have virtualy no counter space left.... so.... we ordered a brand-spanking new kitchen! I am drooling as I type this! LOL! We got maple wood in a "mocha" finish - it's kind of distressed looking in the creases and gives the cabinets a more dimensional look). I got the large cabinet thingamajig to house my fridge, cabinets all along the window area (she didn't have any there), more drawers, a caddy-corner sink oh and get this... a DISHWASHER! Yes... this excites me because I have never had one and wasn't supposed to have one in this house either. I must have died and gone to Good Wife heaven! Vinny argued with my Dad about ripping down the soffets (my Dad so nope... big job...leave them alone and Vinny said the opposite) but in the end, I told Vinny to do what he wanted.. so the soffets came off! (and a whole bunch of wiring sparked and was left hanging down from the attic but hey, that's trivial!) Now, our cabinets will go all the way to the ceiling with big, pretty crown moldings up top. Oooooh exciting! ;)
We decided against having a kitchen table because it's a small area and since the dining room is right there, we will eat in there (besides, I am not going to lug two booster seats back and forth when I need to feed the kids so we'd naturally be in the dining room to begin with). So instead, we got a counter with barstools on one of the kitchen walls. This works out great because there was room for cabinets under the counter AND we did a whole set above the counter too! Plus, I got my caddy-corner cabinet with decorative glass door and we know how important that was to me. ;) Now I spend some of my days thinking about what I want to display in there.....
For the floor... well... that was ripped up too! Seriously, besides my fairly new fridge, my entire kitchen was gutted. We picked out a pretty terracotta-colored, mosaic stone looking one-piece floor. I did sticky tiles in the apartment and they were suce a PITA. I still have the sticky glue crap coming up through the cracks once in a while....
Oh and as for some new appliances; I wanted a gas stove since I have one in the basement, but to run the pipes up, they'd have to cut through my new cabinets. So I am going with electric and I am actually kind of excited to get one of those easy to clean flat tops... they look fake don't they? I think I'll feel like I'm playing house. And we need a new microwave because we got the until that hangs over our stove.
BEDROOMS
Andrew's room is white (3 walls) with a blue accent wall. I thought the white looked nice and clean and then he has two wooden ceiling beams which added a boy-ish touch. His bedding set is called "All-Stars" and it's three shades of blue with different sporting equiptment and red stars on the set. He will have this border running along to tops of his walls. Because the bedding is so blue, I thought the white was appropriate. It's coming out really nice! The best part is the lamp I found for him in Lowes - it's a glass AIRPLANE that hangs from the ceiling! It's awesome and reminds me of my Grandpa Lou and all of the planes he used to make for me and my brothers that we hung from our ceiling when we were small. He has a wooden floor which we were going to polish & shine but since going with carpet in the living room, we got him a carpet as well.
Emily's room is so girly and fun! I bought the border at Babies R Us (it's called Blossoms) and it is a deep pink, with light pink and olive green accents. I think it's really different since it's not so pastel-y (I'm kind of over the predictable baby pastels). The bottom halves of her walls are Iced Cranberry (deep pink) and the top halves are Lyrical Pink (light pink). The border is going to run in the center of her walls. Since I am not going to buy a new crib set when I plan to have her in a bed in the next few months, I am just going to dye her dust ruffle a dark pink. If it works - great. If not, I'll buy a plain one. I also got her the curtains from the Blossoms set and I found the cutest message board at Target that is the exact plaid pink theme! I am going to hang it up and stick pictures in it for her. :) She already has a cream carpet that's in OK condition so we are going to shampoo that for her.
Our bedroom also has a cream carpet so that too will get cleaned up. We did our walls a very pale yellow since we are ordering cherry furniture (King bed... here I come!!!!) I also want to get a maroon~gold kind of bedding.... I think that would look nice. After furniture and our new big TV, there won't be much room to walk in our bedroom but that's ok. At this point, I think I'd give me left arm for a bed bigger then what I sleep in now (we sleep in a FULL... needless to say, I am actually excited when Vinny works night shifts because I get the whole tiny thing to myself). :)
BATHROOM
Ok how exciting can a bathroom be right? I'll mention it briefly. We painted it "Storm Watch" ( a fresh-looking, deep gray) and sponge-painted a shimmery pearl on the panels walls. We have a black and dark gray tiled floor and a shiny white shower insert (OMG these things are awesome!). The cabinets are white with black lines in the grooves with a long black counter top so basically, our bathroom is black, white and dark gray. For some color, I bought my rugs the other day and they are a dusty mauve. Vinny wasn't too happy but I like them.... oh and I told him I'm going to do a floral display with that color flower too, since we have so much counter space. Vinny thinks if he lives in an area that is remotely feminine he will "turn gay". What a jackass.
BASEMENT
My dad and Vinny ripped out the entire thing (besides the kitchen). After seeing what our neighbors did (my Dad makes friends with EVERYONE and got us invited in one night!), they are going that route so let's just say, there is a LOT of construction going on down there....
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So I think that takes care of what is going on with our house. Lots of projects daily.... Hopefully, it will be done soon (we plan to be in there May 1) and then I can share some cool before and after picture!
