The kitchen is DONE!!!

The cabinets are done, except that I really should put another coat of stain on the inside of each door but that'll wait until I'm ready to deal with it. The dinning area is painted and new curtains are up. The whole area looks awesome and like you're in a totally different house.
The boys rooms are both done as well. Kaleb picked red paint for his room so the bottom 3 or so feet are painted red and the top of each wall is brown with a small chair rail type thing separating the colors, it is very cute. He also got new blue curtains in his room and a new dresser. Zac picked blue for his room and after I finished Kaleb's room wanted the blue on top so the top 1/2 of each wall is blue and the bottom 1/2 is the same brown as in Kaleb's room with the same trim/chair rail separating the colors. He got Kaleb's old (2 year old!) chest of drawers, his bed has been moved to the middle of the window wall and as soon as we can afford to get the boys' small flat screen tv's the big desk and 27 inch tv will come out of his room leaving him with much more room to play in his room. Both boys are very happy with how their rooms turned out as am I.
The next project on the list is painting the living room which will probably start some time in May. I'd like to have the living room and both hallways done by the time we have Zac's birthday party on June 12th. Why do I put deadlines on myself???

It's "Zac" not "Zach" or "Zack" or "Zachary"

Two weeks ago when I was looking through Zachary's Thursday take home folder from PreK I noticed he wrote "Zac" and some random letters on the top of one of his assignments. I asked him what it said and he responded "Zac, Z - A - C, that's how you spell my name, I don't want it longer any more." I asked him why and he said he didn't know but he liked "Zac". So I asked if he wanted it spelled "Zach" (which is what I had planned from the day we decided his name would be Zachary) and he said no that he did not want the "h" on his name. I made sure he understood that he still needed to practice his whole name sometimes but that if he wanted to be called Zac and spell it that way it was his choice which made him happy so we told his teacher who was more than willing to accommodate Zac but she forgot one day and wrote Zachary on something and Zac was quick to point it out that she spelled his name wrong. So Zachary is now Zac...just so ya know.

No more 2 year olds...

Kaleb turned 3 yesterday.
He seems like a little boy, not even like a toddler.
Last year at this time he was still in diapers, did not talk and still had lids on his drink cups.
He's now been potty trained for about 10 months, hasn't used a lid on a cup at home since last fall and talks so clearly it's amazing.
He spent 2 days singing Happy Birthday to himself, which was extremely cute.
He let his upset big brother help him open his presents because he is so compassionate he'll make you say "awwww" several times a day.
He even 'gave' gifts to his little friend at his party so he wasn't left out.


I am very happy with where we are developmentally with the boys, they are pretty independent, but still need mommy and daddy several times a day; they love going to school but can't wait to see mommy and daddy each day; they are pretty good problem solvers when they play but still want mommy and daddy to tell them things are going to be okay when one gets upset. I dread that this stage won't last long enough...I keep thinking about where we'll be next year and the next year and the next year; wondering what the boys will be like each year, how they'll change in so many ways. I'm not by any means wishing away the time we're at right now, or hoping the future will come faster - no, definitely not hoping time goes by faster. On one hand I can't wait to see who the boys' will grow up to be but on the other hand I don't want to leave this time behind us.

In just 2 short months Zac will be 5! I cannot believe he will be 5! I keep thinking of kids I've known at that age and it doesn't seem possible that he will be 5!

Flowers

Jerry and I have a date night tonight thanks to the YMCAs Parent's Night Out. I was explaining to the boys that tonight they would be playing with friends, eating pizza and watching movies. Zachary ask if daddy and I were going to work out and I said no, he asked if we were going out and I said yes so he said "daddy needs to get you flowers cause that's how you make it a date."

Our first weeds are poking through the dormant grass and the boys were playing out back and picked me a cup full of "flowers" and insisted on putting them in water.

And the last bit on flowers for now, the trees are starting to bloom! Winter is almost over! I cannot wait for green grass, leafy trees and walking outside and feeling the radiating heat from the sun.

Lowe's must love us...

Since almost the very 1st day of 2010 we have been making purchases at Lowe's several times a week. Sadly not 1 room is completely done and we're already into the 3rd month of the year. I blame weather since I haven't been able to just kick the boys outside so I culd work. I also blame the guy who had no clue about home improvement projects that we bought the house from, every project takes so much longer trying to fix his attempts at the projects.
I am excited that we will finally have color on the walls in our all white and beige house. The kitchen and dining area walls are done being painted and I just bought the paint for the entry way. I enjoy doing projects around the house because it is a most visable sign of accomplishmet at the end of the day. I mean really me surviving the boys and the boys surviving me each day, while an accomplishment, is not a stroke to the ego.

Closed minded people suck...

Even if they think they are open-minded. I've never really had a stance on the working mom/ stay at home mom debate. Each has their place and their good points and bad points. I've been both, I've worked out of the home, in the home and currently am strictly a stay at home mom.
I have come to realize that people I used to count as friends who do work outside the home and always said they accepted SAHMs the same as WMs are liars. If someone is appreciative of having the opportunity to SAH they'll either blast them or totally ignore them, how petty and juvenile. These particular WMs think all mom's should want to work and feel a need to work and feel totally underachieving and ashamed if they choose to stay home because 'what happens if they get divorced or their husband loses their job.' Hmm. Well, I have more faith in my marriage than to have a contingent in place in case my marriage fails, that's like saying you don't believe in God except in case it's true that when you die if you don't believe in God you'll be in purgatory or hell so in that event you'll believe. And what if Jerry does lose his job, well, I'm educated and I have a ton of experience so we could both look for a job at the same time. I see no reason to work just to work. I enjoy my kids. BTW, these same WMs will tell you in a heart beat that they would never stay home with their kids even if they did have the opportunity, how sad, how horrible for their children...why the hell did they even have children?!?
I am appreciative of the opportunity to be able to stay at home with my kids and I worked DAMN HARD to be able to get here. At times I worked 4 jobs at once. I've had to put Zachary in night care so I could work nights, then I stayed up with him all day and had to go back to work that night, I was living on less than 4 hours of sleep a day to provide for him and our family. There are no great daycare options around. There are some 'this daycare will do if it has to' daycares around but why the hell do I want to spend $1000 a month to have someone else watch my kids when I can do it myself? I enjoy my children (even when they do stress me out). I see no reason to end up spending more than I make working in gas, lunches out, work clothes, dinner out because I'm too exhausted to cook, and of course the ever rising price of daycare. I was only getting about 30 minutes of free time after work with the kids after dinner and bath was done then with all the errands that had to be run on the weekends we had very few chances to spend time together and make memories.
So to these working moms who think they are better than any stay at home mom could ever be...pbththththth!
I walked a mile in WMs and SAHMs shoes, I've succeeded at both, I've enjoyed both and I've struggled with both. For now SAHM is what I do and I love it. In a couple years I'll be a WM again and I'm sure I'll love it too.
How sad for people to judge those they don't understand, or project a hatred to cover jealousy in either not having the opportunity to SAH or enjoying staying at home when they did have the chance.

Cabinet re-finishing, not quite finished

When we moved into this house on October 31st 2005 the one thing that desperately needed to be done was re-finishing the kitchen cabinets, all 32 cabinets and 10 drawers. They were a grotesque John Deere Green paint with the doors stained a very blond color and the beading around the trim of the doors and drawers 'washed' with the John Deere Green, horrible! (In pictures the blond stain looks much darker than it was in person, but still the green just makes the whole thing horrible!)So now almost 5 years later I decided to just do it. I started by taking down all the doors and drawer fronts. This quickly revealed that I cannot be one of those people who have glass doors or no doors on their cabinets.

Last weekend I spent 2 days, about 12 hours each day, sanding and stripping each and every cabinet. But before I could begin I had to empty each and every cabinet, which revealed we have entirely too much crap in our kitchen. (this is just what was on the table/floor, it does not include all the stuff we had in the living room or laundry room)

Then we needed a dust barrier to minimize the amount of dust spreading to the rest of the house, we didn't want to drill holes in the wall to string up something, we didn't have sheets long enough or wide enough or enough of them to block off the very open kitchen from the rest of the house so our choices came down to going to Lowe's to buy some plastic to tape up or (my idea!) use the left over $1 rolls of Christmas wrapping paper, 4 rolls later and we had complete coverage! (between the dark blue and light blue on the left we left a small opening to walk thru)

Then the sanding began. I burned up 1 palm sander over the weekend, with just 1 cabinet left to sand! (the bottom corner is the last that needed to be done when the sander fried!)Replaced the sander and finished just before the Super Bowl started.

We ventured back to Lowe's (luckily it's about a mile from the house!) and picked out a stain, I began with testing it on a drawer front, it was so light I was not happy. I want a dark stain. So I waited for it to dry and sanded it down and tried another coat, it was better but I was very skeptical that it would be as dark as I was wanting. Today I decided to try some stain on the cabinets and it is gorgeous! (top has 1 coat of the stain)I cannot wait to finish, which will happen this weekend! The cabinets will be done, and the doors and drawer fronts should be completely done or very nearly done by Monday.