Listen to brookekh99s Playlist

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The evolution of paint

Ahhhh, painting.  I get motivated to paint a room, which normally lasts for about 3 hours.  If I'm not done in that time, then the room just doesn't get done.  Ok, not really, but my attention span really isn't that long. :) 

Anyways, let me explain my painting history.  For each of the two houses we have lived in, Stephen and I have been the first owners.  Therefore, the walls in both houses were that lovely off-white/ivory/cream- you pick the term- color.  In our first house, I was terrified of painting.  I couldn't translate the paint color on the little swatch to the wall to save my life.  Or, maybe I was afraid to.  So, our first house was left completely as-is... boring.

When we moved into our current house in 2006, Stephen and I were determined to bring some color to our walls... and that we did!  We started off by painting three rooms- the half-bath downstairs, the breakfast nook, and the dining room.  We did the half-bath a really sunny yellow.  We painted the dining room a pretty dark tan.  I had seen a picture in a magazine with a kitchen painted this apple-green color, and I was all about it.  But, we started slow and only painted half the wall (under the chair rail) that apple-green.  I didn't want to be TOO daring!

This was the breakfast nook about a week after we moved in (we hosted a surprise party for my cousin!).  Lovely, beautiful, bright, engaging walls.  Not.

I'm having to stretch to find old pictures, but in the background, you can see the color we chose and how we only painted it on the bottom half.

So, in 2008, I got a little braver and painted the whole wall (and got some beautiful curtains a la Target).  I think the curtains actually inspired me to paint the whole wall. 

Bright and bold.

I loved it.  Yes, the green is bright, but it looked so good with our black countertops and appliances.  Plus, we tried to coordinate accessories (kitchen rugs, handtowels, decorations) to include the green.  Now, not everyone loved it.  My dad, in particular.  I won't even tell you what he said it looked like. :) 

So, the other day I started getting an itch to change it.  I was getting a little tired of the bright green.  We had lived 4-1/2 years with it, and I was wanting a change.  Stephen's cousin had painted his kitchen this gorgeous shade of blue- kind of a turquoisey blue, but subtle.  I have a beautiful... how do I describe it... piece of clay artwork that my mom got me that was this shade of blue and I was inspired.  We got the name of their paint (Wythe Blue by Benjamin Moore) and I tried to translate it into a Sherwin Williams color online.

This morning, we went by SW after church, and they could actually match the exact color of Stephen's cousin's paint!  woohoo!  So, we got a gallon and I went home and started painting.

And I finished (in 3 hours, no less!)!  I love it... it's a nice, refreshing change, and it's still bright and cheery without being that lime green color.

What do you think?

It's funny to see how far we've come, from not having any walls painted to having all but a few rooms painted in this house.  I'll have to show my Dad the picture and see if he's a fan... if not, maybe the third time will be the charm... in 4-1/2 more years!.

What's Happening?

I feel like I haven't posted in forever (well, before tonight!).  Or maybe there's just been a lot going on lately.  Either way, I thought I'd give a brief update on our lives!

The countdown is on until I go back to work... 12 more days!  (sigh!)  I think once I'm back in the swing of things, I will be okay... but I'm really sad about being away from Taylor all day.  She will be in a really good daycare, though, and maybe I can check in on the webcam while I'm at work.

So, I've been really busy trying to ORGANIZE the house!  I'm talking, organizing really random things.  Labeling things, making donation piles, organizing drawers, closets, all my beads (when I told my mom about the beads, she said, "I really think it's time for you to go back to work now."  Maybe she's right?)

But aren't they pretty?  And I did 3 more boxes like this.  Sad, I know.

I've been finishing up photo albums, baby books, writing out Sydney's valentines for her class, and, of course, the typical household chores (including the endless loads of laundry!).  I can understand how being a stay-at-home mom is truly a full-time job in itself.

We celebrated my niece Madeline's birthday last weekend!  I can't believe she is 8 years old!  Where does the time go?  I remember she was born during my senior year at UGA.  My professor let me leave class early so I could go to the hospital (luckily, she was born in Athens!).  We hung out at their house in Gainesville for a bit before going to a Japanese steakhouse. 

Happy birthday, Madeline!

So, a couple days ago, Sydney complained about her ears hurting her. I asked her if they hurt bad enough to have to go to the doctor, and she said yes. I began quizzing her on other body parts to see if they hurt, too (just to see if she was really serious). Apparently, her knees, head, elbows, and belly hurt as well. But when she told me her eyebrows hurt, I questioned if it was worth taking her in or not. Good thing I did- the poor girl has strep throat!  (It's so nice that she can tell me when things hurt!)

Oh, and on a side note, they went ahead and did Taylor's weight check (remember she had only gained 2 ounces in 2 weeks?).  Though she had just had a 3-oz. bottle, she gained 8 ounces in a week!  So, thank goodness for that.

After the doctor, me, Sydney, and Taylor ventured to the grocery store for the first time with just the three of us, and waited out the 20 minutes for her antibiotics. Sydney had one meltdown, but we survived. So, Sydney stayed home from daycare two days in a row.

And when does all this happen? When else? When Stephen is out of town. :)  I'm becoming a champ at this now!

So, the girls and I had a fun couple of nights to ourselves:

Peanut butter and jelly picnic dinner.

Just before heading to the doctor!

Doing some crafts.

Playing with the new toys from Aunt Kendall.  This is the Dora puppet set.  She also got a Boots doll, a Dora blanket, and some books.  Sydney is in heaven.  She could play with this thing for hours!

She must be thinking, "Word."  Taylor chillin'. 

So, then today we wake up to a beautiful snowfall... only for it to be completely gone by 2:00!  Is it just me, or is anyone else ready for it to be spring time?  I'm over this snow and cold weather!

But it sure is pretty... 

We have a busy next few weekends... I'm so excited because I'll get to see my three best friends all in the same place next week!! (one lives in Atlanta, one lives in North Carolina, and one lives in California!)  From Valentine's Day parties to Bunco to a bachelorette party to a wedding shower and 2 baby showers to an engagement party... I'm exhausted thinking about it...

So is Taylor!

But, it will all be wonderful and I'm hoping these next 12 days go by really slowly. 

 

More later!

Sydney speaks Spanish!

Here's a video of Sydney counting in Spanish... I love it when she gets to 8, 9, and 10. ;) 

Creepy McCreepster

For all you moms out there... have you ever noticed that there is a fine line between strangers being really sweet to your children and strangers being really creepy?

For example... my mom and I were at the Mall of Georgia yesterday.  Many of you probably know that the pre-lunch hours on a weekday at a mall are often the exercise times for senior citizens.  So, we're at the mall, Sydney is being her funny, full-of-personality self, trotting all around the halls of the mall.  People are making comments left and right- "She's so cute!", "What a doll!"-...things like that are fine. 

But, this bothered me.  And this man was probably just trying to be nice.  He came up to Sydney, marveled about her for a minute, and then asked her if she liked chocolate.  Of course, she said, "Yes!".  He gave her a hershey's kiss.  So, as Sydney is tearing into it, I'm trying to take it from her without offending the man- "Sydney, let's wait until after lunch to eat this!"  But, of course, Sydney starts throwing a fit because she wants the piece of candy. 

Now, this man was probably upper-70s, and he was probably just trying to be sweet.  I'm sure he meant no harm.  And Sydney is a little too young to learn the "we don't accept things from strangers" talk (although maybe I should get on that!).  But, him offering her this single piece of chocolate (it's not like he pulled it out of a bag of other hershey's kisses) was a little creepy to me.  Of course, we diverted her attention and I threw the treat away.

Then, we're at O'Charley's for lunch.  This guy who is a cook/waiter/something came over to our table, oohs and aahs over Taylor, and grabs her hand to hold it for a few seconds.  He was really sweet about it, but as he's leaving, I'm reaching for her wipes to clean off her hand.  You just don't know where that hand has been!  (yuck). 

As we're getting ready to leave, another senior citizen came up to our table and asked if we would bring the two girls by their table so he and his wife could see them.  So, we obliged.  This wasn't really creepy- I think it probably brought this nice, elderly couple (they had to be in their 80s) some joy. 

I guess it was just a strange day with lots of comments and strange interactions.  I don't mean to sound ungrateful that people think my daughters are cute (I happen to think so, too!), but it's hard to know what intentions people have.  I blame our society these days... probably when these people were younger, it was no big deal to offer a child a piece of candy.  Now, we have to inspect everything before our children ingest anything!  Ahhh, to live in a carefree world... but we don't, so keep your chocolate away from my children, people! ;)

Here are pics of Sydney and Taylor before our big mall adventure!

Sydney dancing to... who else?  Dora!

Taylor's sooo excited about her first trip to the mall!

Resolutions

Ok, I must admit... I'm a horrible resolution-er.  I will make a resolution and be gung-ho for a few weeks... MAYBE a couple months if I'm lucky... and then I'm off to bigger and better things.  So, this year I decided to try something different.  Let's face it, Rome wasn't built in a day, right?  It's about creating habits, not suddenly changing your lifestyle to reach a goal.

So, I am coming up with one/two big resolutions a month.  That way, I'm hoping they will build habits that will stick around for the year... and years to come!

On top of that, I am creating monthly "to do" lists of everything that must be completed by the end of that month. 

Let's check out how well I've done so far...

January 2011- The main resolution was to actually stick to our budget.  We have had a budget in Quicken for years, and we even update it pretty frequently.  We also even look at it pretty often to see how we do... but we never REALLY try to stick to it. 

Ok, so how did we do?  Well, pretty good!!!  The only areas we were over on were medical expenses (bills left over from the hospital), and we were about $30 over on groceries and $20 over on rental house expenses.  But everything else, we were WAY under!  So, a good start to our keeping-to-the-budget habit...

As for my to-do list, I had about 15 things on there I wanted to get done.  I got all but ONE thing done...  (and yes, I was cramming in some things late last night ;)  The one thing I didn't do was to fill out this "Big Sister" book in terms of Sydney looking at the birth of her little sis.  It's a cute book- it's kind of like filling in a baby book, but so much more detail.  For example, Sydney's supposed to actually draw a picture in the book and I'm supposed to have all these pictures to put in the book for various things... yeah, that will have to be moved to February's list.

Ok, so onto February!  I have made my to-do list, which this month is more like a "things to do before I have to go back to work" list.  Our two main resolutions are to pray each night before dinner (something we should be doing anyways, but we're very sporadic about it) and be on time everywhere we go.  Now, I realize that's a biggie... but it is SO HARD!!! to get anywhere on time with two girls!  I had it down to a T with Sydney and myself... but throwing in one other person makes it so hard.  And being late (or waiting on people who are late!) is my biggest pet peeve, so I really hate that I am that person. :)

And, I'm hoping I can get some good "on-time" vibes coming my way, because I will soon be going back to work.  At 7:00.  In the morning.  And that would mean me getting dressed, getting Sydney and Taylor dressed, taking them to daycare, and then getting to work.  On time.  At 7:00.  Yep, AM.  Hmmm.  Luckily this is only when Stephen is out of town, but still... it should be interesting, to say the least.

So, I'll evaluate in another month... we'll see how it goes!  One month down, 11 to go!  We'll see where these resolutions take us...

Two Months!

Happy 2 months to Taylor!!!

We went to her well check-up today... it was only 2 weeks after her one-month check-up, but I wanted to get back on track with being more on time.  Here are the stats:

Weight: 13 pounds, 8 ounces (95%)
Height: 23-1/4" (75-90%)
Head circumference: 40 cm (75-90%)

Now, the bad news is that she only gained 2 ounces in the last 2 weeks.  If you read about her laryngomalacia, it's important that the babies with this condition continue to gain weight- otherwise, they are struggling to breathe so much that they are burning extra calories and not gaining weight. 

I'm hoping that she weighed more at her last appointment because she had just downed a 5-ounce bottle of milk... this time, it had been over an hour since she ate.  Regardless, I have to take her back next week to do a weight check. 

The doctor told me that even though she weighs a lot, it's important not to take that lightly (no pun intended!) and make sure she is still gaining at an appropriate speed.  And, her reflux is pretty bad, so I was told to put rice cereal in her bottles to help keep it down.  My poor girls... both had different stomach and reflux issues... yuck!  Luckily, Sydney has outgrown hers... here's hoping Taylor will do the same!

She got all of her shots, and cried for about a minute afterwards.  Then, I fed her a bottle and she has been out since... going on 3-1/2 hours!

Yay!!  I'm 2 months old!



Taylor's accomplishments in her second month:

     *smiling
     *seeing her second snowfall
     *sleeping about 6 hours a time at night... sometimes 4, sometimes 7!
     *cooing
     *being awake a lot more during the day
     *going on her first walk outside in her stroller
     *going to the church nursery for the first time
     *moving into 3-6 month clothes!

This next month should bring new adventures of experimenting with rice cereal, going back to the ENT, and beginning daycare!  Let's hope it all goes well!