TTT: Season 3, Episode 35

1. I have been looking forward to this week for quite some time: my "home improvement" week. And now, with just half of one day left, I'm ready for it to be over! I set out with lofty expectations of making curtains and pillows, shopping, assembling furniture, re-organizing my sewing area, making something new for our mantle, painting the master bedroom, painting the trim in the half bath and boys' bath, cleaning out the pantry, and cleaning the whole house. I'm happy to say that I was (mostly) successful! The pantry still looks the same and I only got the trim done in one bathroom instead of two. Oh, and I'll be spending tomorrow morning cleaning the house and putting the finishing touches on our master bedroom. But otherwise, I accomplished all I set out to do! (toot, toot!) But I have to admit that I'm completely exhausted. Doing all of these things while still taking care of my babes...so in other words, doing all of these things during nap time or with them "helping"...isn't easy work! They, of course, had a great time helping and loved getting to try out all of the tools, but let's be honest: they don't exactly expedite the process! Anyhow, there's been many a day where I've sat sewing orders for customers and wished I had time to squeeze in a project here or there for my own home. Now I just can't wait to sit peacefully and work on orders instead of all of this manual labor! (Though I do love the results of everything I've worked on.) I might just have to squeeze in a home improvement week more often.

2. My husband tends to get a little nervous whenever I decide to break out the tools. He's prone to say things like "Please don't try moving anything that's too heavy" or "what in the world are you trying to do?" And his favorite: "You're going to do too much and cause yourself to have a flare up." It's true; I've done that before. More than I'd like to admit. But I guess I'm kind of to the point that I really don't care. I'm too bullheaded. If I set my mind out to do something, I'm going to prove to myself that I can. Luckily, it's Thursday night and I managed to get through the week without a flare up, despite lots of moving, lifting, building, drilling, etc. So thank the Lord for that! But I didn't escape completely unscathed. On Monday I took our headboard out to the garage to paint. I propped it against the garage wall and took a good four or so steps away from it. My back was to the headboard as I panned to room looking for my paint when all of a sudden I got nailed in the back with the headboard. I'm really not even sure what happened. Was it not propped up well? Did something under it slip? Had I been a little closer, it probably would have just hit my upper back/shoulders and I could have caught it, but I was so far from it that the sharp, squared corner hit my lower back and left me with a pretty big gash and nice sized bruise. I've got to say, though, thank God that it happened the way it did. Thank God the boys were on the other side of the garage playing with rocks and not standing close by. It has been a bummer to deal with, but it could have definitely been much worse!

3. I won't go in to huge details, but our barely-a-year-old mini-van had to be towed to the car dealership on Monday. After having to be jumped twice on Sunday, I called Monday morning to take it in for service. After fetching a neighbor to help jump it yet again, we discovered that it couldn't even be jump started any more. Luckily, it's still under full warranty with Toyota's road side assistance so they payed to have a tow truck come pick it up. Somehow, after just over a year and a little over 15,000 miles, it already needed a new battery. Not very impressed, Toyota. (though I was very impressed with their customer service) We still love our van, I'm just praying this little hiccup isn't a sign of things to come. Lord willing just a fluke!

We are headed Dallas this weekend! We found out that Mark's parents were going to go down for Labor Day weekend and decided to crash their visit to Brian and Cristi's so we could see everyone too. Plus, Mark is off on Monday and not on call either, so with a three day weekend, we'd be crazy not to go. Though I haven't packed a stitch of clothing yet, we're really looking forward to it!

Rudy has been in rare form lately. A few nights ago, post bath, I sent the older two off to their room to get their pajamas. I headed to Grant's room to get him dressed for bed. A few minutes later, Kolbe (the typical oldest child) came in and said, "Mom. You are not. going. to be. happy." "Why, Kolbe?" I responded. "Rudy just took all the books off the book shelf to make a mountain." Um, he was definitely right. Not happy. (Note: young children do not know how to put books back on the shelf properly, therefore, Mom ends up doing it all. And we have a lot of books.)

My awesome back injury, day one. Hard to tell, but it starts just below my bra buckle and goes down to the top of my pants. To be honest, it looked worse the days following because all the bruising set in. Not one that I'd like to repeat again. Ever.

My new mantle "artwork" that I made. It was a pinterest idea, of course. I need to hunt down who to give credit to since that's the right/polite thing to do in the blog world. But I'm too tired right now. Basically two fence posts cut in to three pieces each and built out like a mini fence. I ended up just spray painting it, sanding it a bit on the edges and then hand painting the lettering.

Grant. Grant. Grant. He's trying to help out Dada's bid for new shoes, apparently. Now that he can walk really, really well, he's in to everything. And is really in to shoes right now. Just like Kolbe was at this age. He is mirroring Kolbe in so many ways! 

Rudy is the hide-and-seek master around here. The kid comes up with the best spots and is a total expert at playing the game. (keeping silent, not moving/giggling) A few days ago he went in his closet with the light out, wrapped himself in an egg crate mattress topper and stood there in hiding for a good ten minutes. I even opened the closet door, looked in there and moved on without him giving himself away. I finally gave up and he revealed himself. In this picture, Mark and I had just finished emptying out some old dressers. He managed to climb in this drawer and have Kolbe close it for him. Most kids would be terrified but he obviously doesn't have a problem with claustrophobia. I was totally freaked out when I found him there. (What if he got stuck!?! What if the dresser toppled over!?! Can he breathe!?!) He's such a fun, clever, brave kiddo!