We're still here

Sorry I haven't been blogging but we have been up to our eyeballs in snot and projects.

We have all been stuck in the house since Sunday.

A cold in July.

What is up with that?

The other reason is; if you don't know already, I LOVE craigslist.

I have been finding A LOT of stuff for really cheap and one of those things was a contractor that was having a sale from his services for 30% off.

He gives free estimates so we thought why not.

I found another contractor too just so we could see how cheap he really was.

He was considerably cheaper with the discount and we really like him. He is a sweet christian man.

So with that said. Starting tomorrow we are going to have workers in our house building a bathroom in our basement.

So I have been frantically picking out tile, flooring, colors, hardware, lighting, and figuring out how I would like the arrangement of the room.

I had already found a toilet, vanity, sink top, faucet and beadboard on craigslist earlier in the month.

Joe the contractor thinks that he should have it done by the middle of next week!

Just in time for my mom, grandmother, and aunt to come and visit.

These are the bathrooms I really like that I am using as my guides.






I hope it all turns out ok.

I guess we will find out next week.

A tale of a dimple

I, like everyone else, has always thought that little kids with dimples were so darn cute, but I never thought that I would get a little dimpled child of my very own. Due to the fact that neither Mr. Genius or I nor any of our siblings have such a cute ensemble.

So right after we moved up here Wild Man nailed Romeo on the cheek with some toy.

Which in turn gave him a nice bruise.

Right after he got this bruise we noticed that it looked like Romeo had a dimple right in the middle of the bruise.

I thought I was seeing things and waited patiently for the bruise to go away and of course when it started going away Romeo fell and hit right at the same spot to incur another bruise.

*Sigh*

So I waited again.

And sure enough that bruise went away and this sweet little guy...



HAS A DIMPLE!!



I am sure that dimples are not man made or in our case Wild Man made, but I will always wonder.

Another Zoo

From talking to all my new sweet neighbors I was told about a free zoo in our area.

I thought we would try it out today because it was another pretty day and because I have a problem with not being able to stay at home for an extended period of time.

I really wasn't expecting much since it is a free zoo, but was pleasantly surprised. It is a small zoo but was very clean.



It wasn't crowded so I could let the boys walk around on their own. Which was nice considering the last time we went to a zoo.



The boys favorite thing was a caboose that they converted with all these animal education stuff inside.

Here are the boys trying to share.



*sigh*


They had the biggest rabbit I have ever seen. It is hard to tell in this picture, but if you stood him on his hind legs he would have been as tall as Romeo.



What do they feed him?! Steroid carrot juice?


There was also a giant bird's nest, that the boys posed for us in.



Then they showed us how they can flap their wings like birds.



Being that we live in the windy city we thought that we should invest in a toy that uses the wind to its advantage.

A kite that cost a whole dollar.

I know, we go all out for our kids.



Wild Man loved the idea of the kite but then realizing that all you do is stand there when it is up in the air... the excitement subsided.



He stood there for about 5 more seconds and then he was done.

With the way that Wild Man is holding his head in this picture, it reminds me of Forrest Gump and his son.

Just thought I would share that.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Can't say we didn't try

You may notice on my blog page that the Google ads have been taken off.

With all the clicks I have been getting (which thank you all very much) there wasn't enough buying activity compaired to clicking activity.

Apparently Google hasn't heard of window shopping.

So Google took the ads off.

Oh well, thanks for trying to help.

Pictures and first incident

First I will start with pictures of the new paint color.

Here are the before pictures.






During...



And the after...



Notice the light above the table is now centered.

Yep, that would be one of the to dos that Mr. Genius did because he loathes painting.



I am really happy about the color. It really warms up the place. The walls in the den before hand were the same color as the ceiling. Ugh, so not welcoming. Now it is starting to feel a little more like home.

Now there is one think that drives me crazy about the den that I didn't notice until after we moved in.

Look at the ceiling and see if you notice.

You see it?

Well probably not cuz it isn't there.

There is not a overhead light in the den!

What in the world was the thinking behind that decision?!

Even though lamps are what you are suppose to do for the correct lighting. I am not a fan of them with two young boys knocking everything over.

So you can add the ceiling light fixture to the "Things I would like to have done to the house but may not due to having the tear up the ceiling to get done" list.

Now on to today's events.

First it started off a great morning. When I got back from walking this morning I got back at 6am and everyone was still asleep!

That will be a first since living here.

But it only lasted 2 minutes because Romeo has ultra sensitive ears when it comes to me. I think he heard my sigh of relief from walking into a quiet house and immediately woke up.

It was a nice 2 minutes though.

Then Wild Man didn't wake up for another hour!

A relaxing morning.

It was suppose to rain today and it turned out to be sunny.

So I have heard about this butterfly house that it near us and free (gotta try it out if it free).

It was really nice.

They have beautiful flowers and grounds. There is an 3 story observation deck that you have to climb up a windy staircase. It was neat but made momma a little nervous.

There are also 2 and a half miles of trails though the prairie land reservation. I couldn't get the boys to run the whole 2 and a half miles but I did get them to run some of their energy out.

Here are some pictures of the boys in the butterfly house.

Romeo was more interested in the little waterfall and Wild Man was trying to figure out the names of all the butterflies.





Then after lunch Wild Man asked to play outside again. Who am I to object to getting more energy out?

I didn't tell the boys to put their shoes on because I am 1. lazy and 2. thinking we are only going to be outside for 15 minutes before nap time, what can happen?

Wild Man and Romwo starting fighting over some cars, so being the proactive mom that I am I took the toys inside so that no one can have the cars if they can't share them.

For the 2.3 seconds I was in the house, Wild Man started crying, not screaming, but I could tell that something was wrong. I came back outside to see Wild Man's top of his big toe cut open. Actually a big flap of skin was hanging off.

I honestly don't know what happen. I looked over in the grass that he was playing in to see if there was something sharp.

Nothing.

Poor guy. He was really trying to be brave, but I could tell he was hurting really bad.

So after we cleaned it all up, I send Matt out to get some bandage tape and gauze. (It was bleeding pretty bad).

Wild Man sat in his chair with his foot elevated.


Trying to be smile despite the pain.

Then Romeo was a little jealous of the extra attention Wild Man was getting so he sat his whole body on a pillow rather then his whole foot.



I am pretty positive this was the first of many accidents we are going to be having.

At least this one didn't end in the ER.

Painting tips by me

1. If kids live in your house, live near your house, or just look at your house know that painting a room will take longer then you even think it will. For one room tell yourself that it will take a month to finish so when it happens earlier then that you will feel a since of accomplishment, even if it took a whole week.

2. Get done with all projects that are rolling around in your head so you can postpone starting your project as long as possible. (ie. completely reorganizing your coupons)

3. Be prepared to live in utter chaos.

4. If climbing up and down a latter...wear shoes. Your feet will thank you.

5. If you husband enjoys painting as much as getting an enema, then have a list ready of other projects that can be done around the house. They will all get done due to said husband wanting to do anything possible not paint.

6. Before starting to paint announce to your family that while you are painting there will not be any homecooked meals. Your family will then arise and call you blessed.

7. When sending your husband with your kids to run an errand stick a notepad on each child's forehead of what needs to be picked up or else your husband will get distracted by all the food and will forget why he got out in the first place.

8.Do not count on your kids to take long naps while painting. Either it is the paint smell or a change in the atmosphere, but your kids know exactly when you just got all ready to start to paint and are on top of the latter to start screaming for you.

9. Do not buy this item-


It is a waste of time. It does not get close enough and you will have to redo everything.

10. Do not wear pants that are really baggy and have an elastic waste. Little kids have a 6th sense to know when pants can be pulled down when standing on a latter and a paint brush is in your hand.

11. Use an old blanket to cover the floors, preferably one that is from an old college boyfriend. So when you do get paint on it, your husband actually does a happy dance.

12. Sit back and enjoy your new room then ignore the disaster that is called your home.

Pictures coming soon. In order to enjoy the new paint color I need to actually be able to see the floor to. Off to clean all the toys and junk that has piled up over a week.

The winner by default

From the comments and the emails that I have gotten Tobacco Road is the clear winner.

So I was about to go out and get a gallon to start the painting process.

Then right before I ran out I decided to put a sample of the paint right next to the kitchen cabinets.

I am so glad that I did.

I am telling you the color right next to the cabinets looked like mud.

I took a picture and it is awful. The sun was shining right in but it makes the picture look dark. I will not be quiting my day job to become a photographer.



I actually thought for a second that it might be a good thing to have a mud color on the walls. Because it wouldn't show up the boys dirty hand prints. Then I can to the realization that I wouldn't be happy looking at mud on my walls all day when I am fighting to keep it off my boys.

So I am sorry, I had to trump the vote and go with Blonde.

So Lyndsey, when you come to visit you will feel right at home.

When I finally get done painting I will put a picture up, but don't expect the final picture for a while... I am tired and the thought of painting this entire room doesn't exactly excite me.


I will leave you tonight with a picture of Romeo praying over his half eaten lunch.

He totally caught me praying with my eyes open.




I can just eat him up.

And if the grandparents call after seeing this picture to catch the first plane up here to pinch those precious cheeks then my plan worked.

*Insert evil laugh here*

Just add it to the list

So among the things that we have discovered that are different around here like how the trash is picked up and the weather to name a couple.

Well there is another one to add to the list.

The sun.

Yep, the sun.

I bet you wondering how the sun can be different.

Well I don't know, but it really does seem to be brighter up here.

I do realize that the last statement made me sound like I have the IQ of a first grader. But it is true.

So why do I care that the sun is different?

Well, when you have a room with about 8 windows in it and you are trying to pick out paint colors.

The sun puts a big wrench in the decision making process.

I noticed that of the 4 colors I put on the wall they would look totally different depending on which wall to put them on.

First I tried Hawthorne yellow, it is one of the most popular colors at Benjamin Moore.

Well at high noon I swear to you it is so bright it is glowing.

I then went to Sherwin Williams and for some reason he just knew I wasn't from around these parts.

I think I gave it away when I opened my mouth.

Anyways, he asked if I noticed that the colors look different in my new house. Then he went on to say that when he has customers that come from the south they all complain that their colors look different here.

He then mentioned that any color that has a red tint to it glows.

Well that explains the neon wall I have in my den.

Then he said that he thinks that the sun is in a different position up here.

WhooHoo I was right!

So I got two more paint samples, and I still don't know what color I like.

Uggh, this is so aggravating.

I need some help.

Unfortunately colors over the computer don't look the same in person.

But I will try anyways.

So in this picture;

Top color: Blond (Thanks Lyndsey for the color)

Middle color: Tobacco Road

Bottom color: Safari



Now this is on the other side of the room.

Notice how the colors look different.

Top color: Hawthorne Yellow (the neon color just doesn't come across on the computer, such a shame)

Middle color: Blond

Bottom color: Tobacco Road

I didn't paint Safari on this wall because it reminds me too much of newborn poop.



Don't they look different on each wall?

They look so dark on the side of the windows.

So that is what I have been doing today, don't be jealous.

Growth spurt?

The past couple of days Romeo has only been happy when he is sitting here...



Cuz that means that he already has or will be getting food.

But when he is not sitting at the table, he is here...



In time out because he is hitting me for not giving him food constantly.

The terrible twos start earlier and earlier.


I have more and more projects to do in this house and I don't know where to start sometimes.

So what do I do?

I get another one or two...

I found these wicker chairs on Craigslist.

Here is Romeo showing them off for us...he just ate.



So I spray painted them and put them on the front porch.



Now I just need to find outdoor fabric and learn to make outdoor cushions.

Real seamstresses may not want to look

The curtains are finally done!

They are certainly not perfect, but they are done.

Well actually they were done on Thursday but I decided that I wanted them to actually touch the floor so the impatient person that I am took the seam out while they were still on the rods.

This process ripped the rod right out of the wall.

Of course it did.

So I waited til we could get the rod back on the wall before I took the pictures.

Now I have mentioned before that I turned 2 curtains into 7.

How? you may ask.

Because I am a master seamstress that's how...

If you believe that, then you may also believe that since living here I have grown a foot and now have the body of a goddess.

So nope, I am still the short squatty person that knows just enough about sewing to be dangerous.

So what I am to do?

I just reminded my mom that there are 2 cute grandsons up here whose cheeks that needs kisses.

Then when she got here I forced fabric in her hands and begged and pleaded until she gave very specific instructions on how to make some resemblance of something cute to go over my windows.

Well it worked and we actually made 3 valences while she was here!

Thanks mom!

Luckily the curtains I had before had A LOT of fabric with them.

So I pretty much butchered them.

I cut them in half and then cut off about 2 feet off the bottom.

Here is what the curtains looked before.




And here is what they look like now.






And here are the panels.



Like I said they are NOT perfect.

One of the panels is shorter then the others.

So because I have no idea how to fix it the right way... I just stuck a chair in front of it.



That's just how I roll.

Next project, paint the den.

You can see from the second to last picture that I am testing paint colors and so far it isn't going very good.

My walls may end up consisting of two foot samples of every color all the room until I have some type of intervention.

Just to be clear... an intervention would be welcome.

Scare Tactic

As soon as people find out that we are from the south one of the first things out of their mouths is; "Have you gotten a snowblower yet?"

Well considering I have never even seen one before and they aren't selling them in stores right now and being the cheap skate that I am, I did the only thing I knew to do.

I searched for one on craigslist.

And found one!

Also being that Mr. Genius and I have never laid eyes on this snowblower contraption we had to call in for back up.

I emailed our neighbors the link and asked him what he thought about the machine.

His response was weird and too cheap.

But then he sent us pictures of what their house looked like last winter.

The title of the email was scare tactic.

Umm... it worked.












Do you realize that the last picture is the mailbox and that the snow at this point in taller then Wild Man?!

So my children can quite literally be buried in the snow.

Another thing to add to my of master list of What To Worry About.

We may be spending December thru March in the south with family.

Reason #37 why I love having boys.

They will get the mail for you when it is raining.

There must be a pig flying somewhere.

As I was cleaning the kitchen from lunch I realized it was quiet in the house.

I turned around and saw this...




They were actually sitting that close together and not fighting!

Is it my birthday?

Warm blooded

On Monday right after mom and dad (aka JJ and Pop) left I took the boys to a free splash park. Gotta love free stuff around here, they are few and far between.

Anyways we are still truly southern at heart... and blood. My boys did NOT enjoy the splash park mostly because the water was FREEZING. At least in our minds it was. It didn't seem to bother the other 30 kids that were there.

This is the closest Wild Man got into the splash park and it took a lot of convincing to even get him this far.



He would only get his feet wet. Then he ran around screaming" IT'S COLD! IT'S COLD, MAKE IT HOT MOMMA, MAKE IT HOT!"

Romeo freaked out when the wind make one little drop touch his arm.



Both boys were content to stay in the playground area and just watch to make sure the wind didn't cause anymore stray water drops to get near them.

Thank goodness it was free.

Fun times with JJ and Pop

Sorry about the blogging break but this weekend my parents came up, JJ and Pop. And I wanted to take full advantage of my time with them.

Get this, my parents actually drove up here this time! A whole 9.5 hour drive!

Not looking forward to that drive with the boys.

Of course grandparents can't come empty handed.

I do believe that is in the grandparent handbook.

So they brought up a slip n slide for the boys and Wild Man a bike with training wheels (My baby is getting so big).

Here is Wild Man with his ready stance to run down the slip n slide.



Apparently they didn't bring enough toys so we headed to Walmart to get some more.



Just kidding we were actually getting a coffee maker cuz dad can't function without coffee in the morning.

So now when all you people come to visit me you can have some coffee to get your day started here, thanks to dad.

On the 4th of July, the weather was awful. It was rainy all day. So we went to eat at Portillo's to get a taste of the Chicago hot dog. They are really good.



Then mom and I of course had to check out the flea market that is here.

Which it is great, by the way. I got 600 count bedsheets for $10! Can't beat that. I am pretty sure I will be there every month.

Mom found her a new pair of shoes. They will help her earn some extra money is this recession we are going through.



Here is dad's reaction when I told him of mom's new job opportunity.



On Sunday we tried another church this sunday. With the boys getting up at the crack of dawn we were ready incredibly early.

So Romeo decided to change up his outfit.



Doesn't he look so cute in heels.

Mr. Genius didn't like this at all, but I reminded him that one day we can use this picture to our advantage.

I have been taking so many pictures of the boys lately. That as soon as the boys see the camera they immediately stop what they are doing and say CHEESE. really loud. It is cute, but not helpful when you are trying to take a picture of them doing something.



Another place we went to is called Graham's. They make chocolate in the store and it smells like heaven. They also make homemade ice cream.





While mom was here I got her help on making my curtains in the den/kitchen area. We made my 2 curtains that were in the den from the TN house into 7 curtains. Phew, that is a lot of fabric. I am finishing up the panels. I will post a picture when I get them done.

We had a great time with JJ and Pop.

Wild man informed me later on today that right now he is a Wild Man but later on he wants to be a Pop.

We love you JJ and Pop and we miss you.