An annoucement

I really am into my blog these days... have you noticed? I went months and months and months without typing a dang thing and now I'm posting at least once a week. They might not be the most interesting posts but hey, I get about 20 views a day so I guess someone cares whats going on in our life.

I am proud to announce I have the best husband ever... I think?
No seriously. He is good. I am completely astounded by his abilities. He is SO crafty and precise and amazing. I am so grateful for his craftsmanship because I can't imagine how expensive it would've been to hire someone to do this nasty work for us. He is fab! Of course sometimes I do want to smack him silly and put the wrath of Sam on him- what wife doesn't feel this way? haha!

Dan has been so determined to finish our bedroom. A project that ultimately started because I was sick of looking at Jude's changing table and cluttered mess in his room. We are near the end goal. A little later than we had hoped but we ran in to more obstacles than expected. We found an abundance of glue on the natural hardwood that we're assuming has been in the house since it was built (the exact year, I really have no idea but it's old), so we had to scrape it off. Sanding the floors took longer than expected as well because it was a holy disaster having dust all over everything in our room... By the way, I'm still washing clothes and non-stop dusting. We also wanted to bust out a few walls but came to the realization that under all the walls is... nothing- no wood.  I had high hopes to expose the chimney and paint it a beautiful color white, but again.. between the plaster and rock nothing. It's a SERIOUS disaster. So the walls, closets, everything  we have has to stay. It was a huge bummer but I'm okay with it. We won't live here for the rest of our lives. We had also decided to un-popcorn the popcorn ceiling but that was SO messy and I was really growing impatient.


So here is a little snap of what it looks like right now... (excuse the crappy iphone pictures- I have no clue as to where my camera is).

our bed goes right in the center, with the window as it's center point

Again, horrible pictures- I know- I plan on finding my camera tonight while I am cleaning our attic storage and cleaning the massive amounts of sawdust/dust/everything off of the storage area. 

But yes, white floors. Every single person I've spoken to about painting our floors white has looked at me like I am crazy. You should have seen the looks I got when I was in LBC. 

I think at least three or so people have asked me..

"Have you ever seen pictures of painted floors?"

DUH! 

"Where?"

...pinterest. HAHAA!

The looks I received after that varied from person to person. Obviously all the ladies who I said that to were so excited, I mean it was like they were ready to hop on their phones and type it in. And the men, rolled their eyes. Dan did too. And to be honest, until he did the first coat he really wasn't too sure about it. 

I found these images while pinteresting floors for kitchens- which I still haven't found our ideal flooring--- 

pinterest

pinterest

I have a little bit of work to do on the floors to get these cracks more visible so bare with me. The wall color is way off, too. It's an extremely pale grey. Dan is trimming out our windows and closets (we have five, they're all small) tonight so by Friday, or Saturday everything will be finished.

This is the plan for our stairs. Minus the board and batten walls, which could actually be really cute- but not a project I am up for as of now.

So there's a little preview. If I follow through with my plans of finding my camera I might even post some before and afters for ya.

I'm also excited because we might actually finish our stairs before he goes to Montana snowmobiling. I might not be going on a tropical vacay this winter but I am getting a much needed house-lift... I'll take it!

this sh*t is bananas, b-a-n-a-n-a-s

.. thank you Gwen Stefani for teaching me how to correctly spell bananas.


Since day 1 with Jude we knew he was a picky little eater. In the hospital we couldn't get him to drink from a bottle or a boobie. He quickly got the hang of a bottle and went to town, right when we got home. Nothing is different now. He is a picky little thing. He dislikes almost all the same foods that Gavin does and has a love for certain foods- I wonder when he'll get sick of them.

Like bananas. I buy almost two bundles of bananas a week. A WEEK! Jude eats just about every single one of them. It's his favorite breakfast, snack and side. This morning, as we are heading to preschool- and late might I add, he is screaming in his car seat for bananas. "Naaaanaaaaaaaaa's, maaaaa, nnnnnaaaannnnnaaaaas!" It was far past annoying. He then proceeded to scream as I am opening up the door to get Gavin out for preschool for all of the other late moms to hear. He screamed the entire time I was in the preschool.. (yes, I leave him in the car when it's terribly cold outside, call the cops) and the whole way home. Jude isn't much of a temper tantrum little boy. In fact, he almost never has a tantrum; I would say the only time we see that 'throw yourself down on the floor and kick your heels' side of Jude is if Gavin has taken a toy away from him or I don't give him "nanas". Gavin, on the other hand, could schedule a temper tantrum into his day on the hour, and sometimes does.

I made him some eggs (his second favorite breakfast food) and he was almost overjoyed to see the yellow food on his plate. That was until he realized that they were eggs and not "nanas". It's been a long morning and it's only 9:30. I am going to finish my few things here and then head to the store to get those beloved "nanas" that we're having massive temper tantrums over. One month and counting until the terrible twos are scheduled to actually start.

need out

i need to get out of the house. i am using my blog to communicate with everyone........ probably not the best idea.

for those of you who read this (by the way i just typed whore) and didn't realize it.. who+re(ad) haha. opps, delete. here's a little funny for you.

gavin said to me yesterday while we were stamping the abc's into play-doh...

"junk abc's. mom, i'm never going to use these abc's". seriously had me rolling. he struggles with the "l, m, n, o, p" part- says it as one word so we have to point them out and say them individually.

anyways, about an hour after that he looked at me and called me a bastard (his fathers favorite word) so he got a little mouthful of vinegar.

it was a happy friday. enjoy the weekend!

house goals

We are near the end, friends. 

One final floor sand, paint and trim. Oh.... and the stairs. I always forget about the stairs. So I guess we're about half way done then?

I went to LBC to pick out paint and trim colors; very excited about the colors I chose. I got Dan to agree on them, which I never thought would happen. He would prefer a dark color and I, of course, would love something that is just outside of the "white" category. I let Dan chose the living room color and I'm still not exceptionally happy about the outcome. It's a nice color, but about three shades darker than the color I had brought home. It will do. Our living room gets amazing natural sunlight, and with the white trim and light colored decor its beautiful during the day, I'm in love.. but at night I'd like to rip down the walls. It's better than the white with boarder that had up for the first months of moving in. And better than the just plain white walls Dan was happy with (men).

Our house goals for 2014 are:

-(Obviously) to finish the upstairs bedroom. I'm really hoping two more weeks. 

-Finish Jude's room.. which will be easy- just redecorate it, move shelving around, put shelves up. It would basically just take one solid day. Move in the bed. Right now every free hour is dedicated to the bedroom so it will have to be on the back burner. 

-Repaint, putty and move things in Gavin's room. Bring in his new dresser, ect.

-(drum roll please)....... THE KITCHEN. I've been very patient about this kitchen. It won't happen until spring/summer when we can move in with my mom for a week or two. School needs to be out so Gavin won't miss that. Plus, there is no possible way to remodel a kitchen with two little boys running around, needing to be fed.

-Repaint the shutters. They are currently this awful faded maroon color- anything but that will be awesome. It's so easy and so cheap, I can even do it solo as soon as the snow is gone. 

A big house goal for 2015- 

-Basement. Add a bedroom, bathroom and storage area. Something easy to do but very time consuming. Plus, that's where the majority of the toys are so I have no idea where that mess will be relocated. 

-Change all outdoor doors

-All new interior doors as well

-New kitchen appliances

-Windows, all around. So I'm thinking summer 2015 for that. 

If we follow through with these plans there will be NOTHING in our house that is original to when we moved in. We can't really "remodel" and take walls out/move things around because our house is so tiny but a face-lift and new added extras will make our house look a lot better. Plus, something we can do together. I am pretty proud I'm actually taking part in some of the process. I am even getting pretty good at using the sander. 

the fire is lit

This is a real quick entry...
The fire under Dan's ass is lit, my friends. Tonight he has been pulling up the My Little Pony pink carpet that has been a eye sore in our bedroom for the five years we've owned this place. Little did I know that lighting a fire under his ass for Jude's room was going to light a fire for our bedroom. The downer is that some moron put carpet glue??? -if that's a real thing- all over certain spots of the hardwood... so he is currently peeling that with some nasty chemicals.

 All today and yesterday (or my four hours I have of free time-- and I use the term "free time" loosely, because Gavin is right next to me, helping... I mean annoying me) removing rose and green vine style boarder from our bedroom. I've just about destroyed every fingernail that I can use to peel off the boarder and my hands will need a full week to recover from being soaked in fabric softener and water (which by the way, does wonders).

 Jude's room is almost complete. I just need shelves, and I'm real picky about them. Dan was going to build them for me but I think I've found the ones I want and that way he can focus on upstairs. Which is great cause to be honest I thought we would sell the house looking the way we bought it. WHOO HOOO TO 2014!

Olson Family

As I'm sure many of you have heard a great family is suffering after a horrific car accident. Coach Olson as many people know him and his two sweet little boys got into a car accident Friday night coming home from a Minnesota Gopher hockey game. They are all battling many issues and aches and pains and need so much support at this time.

Saturday night Zion Lutheran Church held a prayer service and the church was packed. It was so great to see so many people show support and so quickly. I was humbled to see how many people care for this family and how great it is to live in a small community where everyone comes together to show love and offer prayers and thoughts and everything else.

Right now they are selling t-shirts to support the family. All proceeds from the t-shirts will go to help the Olson family. You can order them through Monica Schreiber and her email (found on facebook) or at Litchfield Floral, starting Friday.

I've known Coach Olson since I was in high school. I took hockey stats for the hockey team he coached and got to know him and his family (it was just Alyssa and Cindy then) so it tugs a little at my heart to see them battle this difficult time. They are members of the same church that we go to so I see those adorable little boys running around everywhere. Or even wheeling around every where- Ty had previously broken his leg so he was already in a cast.

Many people are keeping the Litchfield community updated via facebook. Darcie and Luke Braaten are traveling down almost daily to bring Alyssa to see her family and bringing goodies that many people have dropped off  for the them. Darcie, among others, is updating her facebook daily to keep everyone posted on what's going on.

Keep this family in your prayers and thoughts- you can check out how the family is doing via facebook or their caring bridge website,  here.

Baby it's cold outside

I need school to resume. It's been great sleeping in till 8:30, spending the day in our jammies, not leaving the house- I mean really, it's been great! But I am over it. Today the three of us slept in until 8:15 (thank you Jude) and have done absolutely nothing. We're sipping on coffee, eating pop tarts and lounging in our pj's... wait... that's just me. The boys are now coloring and I've been lucky, zero fights as of now at 10:37 am. We've had about 1000 dance parties, many forts built, played well with the thomas table they got for Christmas, made play doh, I've pushed tractors all over the house... you name it- if you can do it indoors, we've done it.

The only plus to this cold is it keeps us together. No one, to include Dan, wants to go out for any unnecessary outing. We've done a whole lot of nothing. I've only left my house twice since Sunday- once to go eat with my grandma and once to go to the grocery store to get her some more coke and deliver it to her. She's not doing well at all so I want to help her out as much as I can. Today Dan volunteered to go grocery shopping so today will be another day of staying warm and cozy in my toasty house.

It's been great being indoors since Jude has been battling a cold/sinus infection for just about two months. Now getting him to take his medicine has been a chore in itself. The first two trys were a projectile vomit across my teeny tiny kitchen and the third was a blueberry go-gurt thrown into the side of my stove. Now we seem to be getting the hang of taking our medicine in the form of applesauce. Whatever works, right?

Another great thing? I've trashed Jude's room to the point of no return. You want to know why? It lights an extremely hot fire under my husbands ass. His room is TRASHED. Dan cannot handle the clutter of Jude's toys around his room and every time he walks by he grunts. Last night (about three hours after I destroyed it) he was in measuring for the shelves and cubbies and even went as far as to discuss making a headboard/bed frame for that sweet little boy. We are making preparations to move him into the big boy bed, 2 months and counting, and "redecorating" the entire room. All the baby stuff and names all over will be LONG gone. I've ordered the bedding from my favorite store (LON) and now all I need is to take a trip to target for the storage cubbies I've been looking at and I need Dan to build some shelves. Oh, I also need to find a new three drawer dresser... Any one have any they're willing to get rid of? I need one that's in any shape or form. I have some big plans for the dresser and since Jude's room is so tiny (like the theme of our house) I need a smaller one that the gorgeous blue one I got from Little Red Hen.

So that's this family in a nutshell, or a tiny little warm house I guess. I'm going to make some eggs for lunch and crank up my Jason Aldean pandora station. County music seems to go well with the frigid cold.
Stay warm.