A New Room

When we bought our house we noticed a door to the attic, on the outside of the house.  It lead to the attic but there were no stairs to get up there.  It was a strange site.
We later found out that our house’s first owners in 1924 rented out the upstairs, in the trim to the boys hallway are old hinges.  The original owner would shut that door and the renter could come down and use the kitchen or the living room but they could not go into the owners rooms.  By the time we got the house those outside stairs had long since rotted off.  The current porch is falling off but because our house is historic I have to either pull a permit or try to fix the ugly one.  Hoping it falls off so we can get a new, nicer one with steps that are equally spaced.

The original attic room had 2 closets and plenty of space, it runs the entire width of the original house, and that of course was years and years before air conditioning unti was placed up there taking feet away from the length.  Thank you Lord for the inventors of Air Conditioning.  (I am sure Mrs Random will find the origin of the air conditioner, the creator, and any other information you may want, she is after all a home school mom, busy learning about bugs with her boys. Yuck Bugs)  Anyway the air conditioner takes up a large portion of the space.  The air conditioner is older, not working efficiently, and as our air guy said it is on its last leg.  Might as well replace it with a new unit that is smaller and efficient.

Before we added on the back of the house we played around with making the attic more bedrooms, but we went with the back addition, giving us more living space and a big enough room for the 2 girls we had at the time plans were drawn up.  Soon after the construction began we found out I was pregnant and we knew going with bigger space was the best choice.  Well almost 4 years later and we realize that having a 15 yr old share a room with a 7 yr old and a 3 yr old is a little inconvenient so the 3 yr old is still in a crib in our room.  O needs some quiet study time, she likes things neat and tidy with order, {which we find greatly amusing since as a child she was so creative she was a mess, a messy mess!}

When we added the back we made future plans to add a hallway from the girls wall to the original attic space so we would have an excellent storage.  O has been asking for 2 years now for us to make the attic into a bedroom for her.  We are finally at that point.  I will keep you posted with our progress I know you are dying to see what we are doing.

Here are beginning pictures I cannot find any true before pictures for you. One of the first days of their work Keith stepped between the beams and crashed through the celling  }You can see O’s face through the hole.}  I was outside moving the van so they could throw debris out the window and she yelled to me,”mom come quick, dad fell through the ceiling”  By the time I was back in the house he was out of the hole, boy I wish I could have seen that!  He did not want to reenact that for the blog, spoil sport.Another picture because it is just so funny.  The benefit of the hole being in the boys hallway, I have been wanting to tear down their ceiling and put up bead board to look like their bedroom ceilings, I got it, just not in the manner I was expecting.It is a long room, see that giant air conditioner at the end, we found out it is not a heat pump so we have no idea why winters are freezing in our house.  Yeah it is getting replaced with a much smaller one, and scooted to the side she is on, I think it will be behind a wall in her closet but I am not positive.  Check out the door to the outside, right now the air conditioner unit blocks the door.  She wants the door to stay, or a new door there.  Keith is not so sure about that right now.We will be making a storage area behind those wall beams.A door to the storage area, it will be moved because O wants a built in bed.  She has to show her dad her plans still.THis is the access we have right now to the bedroom part of the room, you actually have to crawl over the air conditioner duct work to get to the room.  Once the air conditioner is moved it will be a hall with storage on the right and built in shelves on the left, I can’t wait for the storage!This is the other half of her room, she wants the built in bed to go under and around the window, with two swing lamps on either side of the window.

Every free minute Keith has been up there, O has been up there, and his Dad comes frequently to help and give advice.  We are now at a stand still until the air conditioner is moved.  I was reminded last night that we won’t have air for a few days while they do the rearranging of the unit.  I can hardly wait!  It is hot here and I love our air conditioner.  I am such a baby.

What about you?  Any tips on renovating an attic that you want to share with us?  We’d love any help you can give us. Or even better yet any of my readers want to come help build it?

Go hug your kids they grow up too fast.  We are planning a queen bed for the princess, knowing that one day she will come stay at our house with her family, and sleeping on a twin bed is only fun for a night.

jen

That Did Not Go As Planned

Right before J went to bed last night, {there was no way I could let my 8pm bedtime kid stay up on a school night, before achievement testing, until midnight watching the big game.}  Like I was saying, right before bed I told J that I would wake him at the last-minute of the game, he could watch it for a minute, see M win, and go back to bed.  He squished down on his M pillow, in his M pjs and under his M blanket holding his M pillow pet, with the fierce Wolverine in his bed.  {the kid is a huge M fan…}

I did not actually watch most of the game, I putzed around getting things done, chatted on Facebook with a friend, picked up C from work, and pinned a few things on Pinterest.  Mostly things to my “funny things” board because I love to laugh.

I did not actually need to watch the game, I listened to Keith yell, slap the floor, moan, and cheer.  I knew by his tone how we were doing.  I knew the officiating was bad both ways, by the comments on Facebook.  I knew.  About 10 minutes left in the game I joined Keith and O.  Everyone else had gone to bed.  At one minute left I went to wake J.  He was so snuggly and warm with pink sleeping cheeks.  He practically ran to the family room, he was excited.  He sat on the couch and grinned at me, took one look at the score and made a yikes face.  We watched the ending minute of the game.  When it was all over he looked at me and shrugged his shoulders as his eyes filled with tears.  Poor kid.  He climbed his 9 yr old self in my lap and was sad for a few minutes.  He and all the Michigan players and fans were shocked, sad, and surprised.  He stayed on my lap for a few more minutes before he gathered himself together and went back to bed.  Waking him did not go as planned, I had hoped for a better outcome, as had millions of fans.  O was too irritated to watch “one shining moment”, I took J back to bed.  He really did have a good attitude, and thankfully was able to go back to sleep.  That would have been really terrible if his team lost, and he could not go back to sleep.

What about you?  Did you let your kids stay up way past bedtime to watch the game?  Did you even care about the game?

Go hug your kids that was a tough loss last night for our house.
jen

GO BLUE

GO BLUE

We are excited about tonight’s game.
Some of us are more excited than others.
Me, I just hope we win or I fear that J might be very sad tomorrow.
Oh and Keith and O might do a little pouting if we don’t win.
O more than her father…

We made a big deal out of Saturday’s game,  we had our friends over to watch the game, they are for the ORANGE, used to be Orangemen but… now they are for a color.  Weird.  Any of my readers know what an Orangemen is?  or What an orange is?  or Why did they drop men from their title?

We had a great time with our friends, we had wings, party food and M cookies  The entire game either MC would grumble or Keith would grumble, so C decided to mimic them, which was fun to listen to.  It was an exciting game, and we are very glad we won!

Our sweet EC and O decorated Michigan cookies.
It you remember the pinterest fail post about those ridiculous melt~a~bead, the project ruined my M cutter, but lucky for us O got one for her birthday so we used her cutter!The bottom right one says Stauskas.J and E and A and R all helped with some of the cookies.This is how they watched most of the game.  J was up and down.The last-minute of the game was tense for J
{Well J and the rest of the world watching.  J was so close to the tv at one point Keith had to call him back so others could see.}My happy boys after the game was over.
{if you will notice Keith’s choice of clothing, he will not wear M clothes during their games…}

So tonight will be a long night, I already promised J I would get him up for the last-minute of the game, and his uncle is going to record it and let J watch it later.  {Thanks uncle K}  Too bad the poor kid cannot watch the whole thing, silly achievement testing starts tomorrow.

What about you?  GO BLUE???

Go hug your kids and cheer for the blue if your team did not make it this far!
jen

Things That Make Me Smile

There are some things in my house, that remind me of my children, and they make me smile.
I am trying to remind myself that one day the traces of childhood will be gone from my house, there will not be play doh balls crusty  on the play table, naked crayons on the desk, and block towers in the sitting room.
Thinking about that makes me sad so I try to appreciate the signs of my children while I can.

Here are a few things in my house right now that make me smile

This little plastic lizard does not seem nearly as real as it did last night when I was shutting off lights and setting the alarm.
I may or may not have jumped and squealed at the sight of it.  Even leaving extra space between the lizard and my feet as I walked past in the dark.

Still stuck indoors, J has moved on to baseball, pitching to be exact, this would be his target, he takes aim at this with the red racquet balls he got for his birthday, only now he is wearing a Tigers Baseball Hat and a Tigers shirt.  Good news is the pollen count is dropping, he will soon move the pitching target outside.

The big game is coming!!!  We are very excited.  Honestly I do enjoy March Madness, I just hope that Michigan goes all the way, it will make for a very happy house!  We are actually having friends come Sat night to watch, he is a S fan…  I am planning some yummy game snacks and a Michigan win!  A school paper celebrating Jesus’ resurrection, which I like, but I smile at the dots on the end of each letter.  My girlie girl is putting dots, next comes hearts over the i.

J’s tomato terrarium I have no idea how to care for it, but J checks it every day.Anyone at your house fan of Dr Who?

I am not really sure what the little girl doll is doing in the football helmet, but we are such M fans that even the toys like the school!This is possibly the funniest thing I saw today.  On our last shopping trip before the final birthdays, E brought her own money to buy Daddy a gift.  We stuck to the dollar spot for her shopping, and she found a cozy travel pillow for his trip to Europe this summer.  As we were checking out, she was eyeing the candy.  She decided to give her daddy a box of tic tac because “sometimes his breath is stinky when he prays for me at night.”  She was not trying to be funny but I found it hysterical!  Now every night she tells me “Ask Daddy to come pray with me, but tell him first to suck a tic tac before he does.”  It makes me laugh as I go back down stairs to give him his command.

What about you, are the little things of life getting annoying?  Or have you the noticed the funny things around your house?  Look for the things that make you smile!

Go hug your kids, and enjoy your weekend!
jen

I Don’t Know What Just Happened…

I swear to you, last week I was shopping for a kindergarten back pack.  I swear a few days ago I was helping the boy work on his schedule choices for middle school…  I Don’t Know What Just Happened… But today we met with the school guidance counselor about college choices, preparation, and scholarships.  I am baffled.  I swear I was just reading him JAMBERRY for the ten thousandth time, {not even kidding}now I am setting up college tours.
I have got to stop turning around.
I refuse to let time march on.

Today we met with the guidance counselor at our school, we listened to the whirlwind of application steps, scholarship possibilities, the SAT and ACT score requirements.  My head is still spinning, good thing she gave us a folder to store all that information.

He is looking into cinematography/film with a minor in creative writing.  So if you have a suggestion on a great college offering a degree in cinematography, let me know!

We have said for years now they all must go AWAY to college.  He has decided he wants to stay in the state but go AWAY to college {Yahoo!}  Oh sure I will miss him, but going away, living on campus, making your own choices, these things are important.  And fun, and exciting, and independent.  The boy is getting more and more ready.  And most importantly the boy’s momma is getting more and more ready.  {because in the end it really IS all about me!}

Of course I say that he wants to stay in state,and another college just sent him more mail and more scholarship money.  It might be about the money for school, not about the state.  {Yes I am pretty sure it will be}

Shocking to C, and everyone who knows me, I did not cry or sniffle or even tear up during todays appointment.  I was happy and excited for him.  The tiny little guy who had life saving surgery at 2 months is able to go away to college.
He will love it!
I will miss him.
But he will LOVE it!

So if you’ll excuse me I have some colleges to call and question, I am making my list to be sure they know how important my son is!{jk C, or am I?}

Go hug your kids, and stand strong so time will stop marching on!
jen

p.s. Did you go away to college, or stay home?  Or did you skip college and jump right into a job?  I went for 2 years then quit, yup I’m a quitter!  But dear Children you’d better NOT quit!

 

 

Cheese

If you remember my butter and deodorant review from a few weeks ago, there were comments about trying Kerrygold cheese so, per the suggestion of many I tried the Irish Cheese From Kerrygold.I purchased it as Sam’s Club.
Warning: it is expensive, not as in tons of money but when you are going to “give it a try” it is hard to want to spend that much money not knowing if you will like it or not.

Good NewsWe Did!!!
{even the kid who throws up when you put a carrot on his plate}
Well, most of us liked it.
O is not a fan of cheddar so she did not like it, I will try a different flavor for her next time.  It is strong and has more flavor than regular cheap cheese.  But we like strong cheese.It is very tasty on crackers, or alone, or even in grilled cheese.

Next time I go to Sam’s I will give another one of their cheeses a try.  I will go for a softer cheese since that is what O prefers.

While looking at the specialty cheese case at Sam’s one of the sample ladies told me that the Kerrygold stick butter tastes even better than the tub butter.  She said Publix carries it.  So next time I am at Publix and I remember I will give it a try.  They do carry tubs of their butter at Sam’s club and it was only a little more expensive than it was at Target, and you get a significantly more butter.  We had sliced french bread with butter two times this week, we cannot get enough of it. Also Target carries this cheese a much smaller size so it is cheaper if you are willing to give it a try.

So there you have it, another yummy food review.  What about you have you had their cheese?

Go hug your kids, they need your love
jen

P.S. I am getting to spend a lot more “quality” time with each child, our dishwasher is broken, the sprayer won’t shoot out water, the top sprayer quit awhile ago, but not the bottom one won’t shoot out water either.  So it is back to hand washing.  Not terrible but we usually run the dishwasher two times a day, so we have lots of dishes.  This equals lots of quality time as one person washes and another dries and one more puts them away.  Keith is trying to figure out how to fix it.  I am sure he can do it.  {At least I hope so!}

A Working Vacation

A few of my readers and most of my friends know that I flew up for almost a week to help Keith’s grandma.  She took a spill in February.  She fell on her steps trying to put a d~icer on them.  After a quick trip to the ER they said her finger was dislocated, her ankle sprained, and a hairline fracture on her arm.  A few days later, she fainted in her bedroom.  Thankfully Uncle N and Aunt P were home.  {Their apartment is in her basement}  They were able to come up and call for an ambulance.  A stomach ulcer was the problem.  A few days in the  hospital, then they sent her to a rehab center for 6 weeks where she had therapy on her arm, finger and ankle while waiting for her ulcer to heal.  The second fall was a blessing for her broken body.  I was able to fly up after the 6 weeks to help her get settled back at home.  Little A flew up with me.

Here are a few pictures of my working vacation

Keith took us to the airport at O’Dark Thirty or actually 5:30.  It was dark and chilly.  Waiting for our plane to arrive.I gave her a lollypop for the take off/landings and she looked at me while we were taking off. “tanks momma for the lolly pop it is yummy, you are the best ever”  No kidding, I burst out laughing.  She flies like a dream.  Never a fuss or peep, no complaining, or whining, unlike many adults I have flown on a plane with, happily coloring or watching my iPad.  We had a lovely flight!  We landed to flurries and it flurried all the way to Grandma’s house, not sticking but FREEZING COLD.  While at Great Grandma’s we did a lot of this…
Please know I had cute red socks for this outfit but she wanted the “Please tan I wear the stripe~y socks? Please”
Because Great Grandma did a lot of this…
{she would want you to know this whole area is much more tidy now that she has use of both her arms.  And her friend came over to tidy the bookshelf after I left.}I rolled Great Grandma’s hair.  It was my first time rolling hair she said I did a great job.Little A played hide the eggs.  She was so excited to play it with Aunt P.We woke up Monday Morning to S N O WWe got to brush off the car.  Little A thought it was great fun!“momma the snow is told”
{While brushing off the snow some landed on her neck poor baby girl!}The sling back shoes were not very warm for the snow play.We tried rolling the snow for a snow man.
When she saw the snow the first thing she did was ask to build a snow man, we tried.We made a snow man.We played hide the eggs with Great Grandma.Every time little A hid the eggs for me to find she would put 2 of them under the stool under Great Grandma’s walker.
{good news she is now using a cane, and soon will not be using anything to walk!}Our last night in Mi.

By the time we left Great Grandma had her arm cast off and was able to do so much more.
{I talked to her tonight, she is becoming quite resourceful with pockets, even managing to make cold cereal for her breakfast with out spilling it as she carried it out of the kitchen.}
We really had a lovely time.
We watched a Tigers game, we watched her church service on her computer, we had family visits with cousins, and Aunt, I did tease our Uncle because when we went up this summer he was in rehab from his motorcycle accident, and this time he caught the flu, so he stayed away from us.  I told him my feelings were going to be hurt soon.  Poor guy missed out on story time!
We laughed, we talked, played in the snow, ran errands, cooked, cleaned up and organized her medical stuff for therapy.   Little A colored almost every page of her coloring book.  It was just too cold to go out and play, there is no chick~fil~a anywhere up there to play in their play place, so we colored a lot, read books and played hide and find, hide the egg, and with the few toys I brought along.  Little A loved the attention and trying to help out.
We loved our visit and really would have stayed longer if we could have.On our way back home to see Daddy, and the kids.  She was so excited to get home to her daddy!  Little A did have a huge sob session after talking to O.  She was crying because “I miss my sisser O” and I had to hang up on O to comfort Little A.  Poor girl loves her family so much, I don’t even know what she is going to do when C leaves for college in a year and a half…  {I don’t know what I am going to do either, but I do know that I will be earning a lot of frequent flyer miles}

While we were gone we missed a few days of spring break, when we got home we were disappointed to learn a cold snap had moved in and we had to run the heat in the house it was just too cold.  Miserable way to spend Spring Break.

What about you, make any trips to family recently?  Or experience a cold spring break?

Go hug your kids and tell someone you love them today.
jen