wrapping up the week

Busy week around here.    

Lonnie was on call all weekend but it wasn't a terrible one.  They are never "good" but as long as he doesn't have to go back in multiple times I count it as a win.  We had one of his friends come over on Saturday afternoon to help us move a few larger items in the house and to bring stuff down from the attic.  I pretty much won't let Lonnie lift a thing but it is hard for him not to help.  Man thing I guess.  

He moved the TV's out of the armoire's we are selling and took a couple of large things up to the attic.  The conversion kit for the cribs, the extra leaves for my dining room table, stuff like that.  We had about 5 large bags of baby items he brought down from the attic.  Some of it is to sell and some I need to find a place for in the new baby room.

Blakely was ready to call the Hogs that day.  We lost but we did play the number 1 team.  

That's right.  I actually have a baby room now!  On Sunday, my friend Jenny had her two friends come pick up the king bedroom set she bought from me.  I did not know this guy that was going to move her stuff but I sent him a message on FB earlier in the week to ask him if was interested in moving some stuff around for me and he said yes.  So he moved her furniture out and then moved the baby furniture from Blakely's room into the baby room.  He also moved a few other items up to the garage for the sale we are going to have as soon as winter gets the hell out.  And then I made them move the treadmill.  What a ginorm pain that was.  I actually felt bad because I knew he was wishing he hadn't said yes! 

Lonnie was able to be here while they were here and seriously so thankful for that.  I can't walk up and down our stairs 20 times so he was able to direct them and do that.  Also, Jenny brought her mom and Sarah came over to help also.  It had been raining all morning so I wasn't sure they were going to show up so I didn't take the bedding of the beds.  (They had to move the downstairs mattress upstairs and then the upstairs mattress to the garage).  Well all the sudden they were here so Sarah helped me undress the beds and wash the sheets.  Then Jenny, Virg and Sarah proceeded to do all the things.  They wouldn't let me get up at all.  They vacuumed once the furniture was moved and told them exactly where I wanted things to go.  And they also brought me cookies.  Totally the best.  

After all that moving we were all exhausted.  Lonnie has gotten into the habit of using me as a pillow on the couch.  Usually he has the couch to himself but since being pregnant I have invaded his space.  So this is the compromise.  I'm okay with it.  :)

It is so nice to have Blakely's room mostly cleaned out.  All that is left in there is the queen bed that she sleeps on but will be moved to the baby room once her furniture comes in.  And her nightstands that I need to paint to match the babies room.  And a few toys on the floor that I wanted out of the living room.  The babies room just needs another crib (more on that later) and the bed moved in.  Ahhh.  It feels so good.  

On Monday I had the carpets cleaned in both of those rooms.  Then Tuesday Jennifer (organizer) came over so we could start on the babies closet organization.  So my super cleaned out nursery was turned into a war zone while we completely emptied out the closet. Their closet is really huge.  Part of it is going to have to be for storage of boxes that are not theirs.  But I am only willing to give up a certain amount of space in there and it has to be up on the top shelf.  So we are working on that.  I spent all day Monday going through Blakely's baby clothes.  I thought I had been good about getting rid of stuff as she outgrew it buuuuuut no.  There were like 5 tubs of newborn to 18 month stuff.  So I went back through it because if I kept it all then baby brother would have no space in the closet.  We organized the cloth diapers, baby blankets, toys, etc.  There is just so much.  We aren't done yet but will be next week.  

Wednesday I went and got my hair cut and highlighted for the first time in 8 months.  I HATE going this long but I just haven't made an appointment.  I was supposed to go when I was about 5 weeks pregnant but had to cancel last minute for a lab appointment in Little Rock.  I am really feeling like chopping it all off but I know I will never do it.  Ha!  My next appointment is when I will be like 36 weeks pregnant.  I told her I don't think I will be able to sit there for 3 hours then.  It was tough this time!

Yesterday was ANOTHER snow day.  It was pretty but, like usual, we couldn't leave the house.  Blakely went out to play the minute she got upstairs and saw all the snow.  She played for maybe an hour and then I made breakfast.  This child is having a growth spurt or something because she is eating SO MUCH.  She ate 3 big pancakes, 3 slices of bacon, a banana and half a carton of blueberries.  The rest of the day we just played and cleaned the house a bit.  

Then last night she threw up all night long.  Seriously.  What is up with that?  She did the same thing about 2 weeks ago.  Today she seems a little sickly and her fever is 99.8 but no puking since about 5 this morning.  I had big plans to take her to my aunt's house so I could gather all of our tax stuff up for the accountant.  I don't think that is going to happen.  So I guess we will hang out on the couch and watch movies.  I am not complaining about that but I really need to get some stuff done.  Buuuut I've had about 2 hours of sleep so I am thinking couch sounds pretty good.  

Today is Lonnie's last day of work for a week and we have a lot planned while he is off.  I am ready for him to be home and it isn't even 8:00.  At least we aren't supposed to get more snow.  It is March after all!  Happy weekend!   I am going to scrub puke out of sheets, pillow and peeps.  Wish me luck!  

Whew!

What a week!  

Lonnie has been off so I had our organizer girl come three full days (M, T, W) this week so we could tackle the things that we needed his help with.  He is not off again until mid March and I knew we needed to get these things done because I would like to have the garage sale as soon as possible.

I tried to prepare him for what I wanted to do but I don't think he fully understood.  9-4 each day going through things, cleaning out things and sorting things.  There was not going to be any, "oh I don't want to go through that box" or "oh, I'll go through that one later".  No.  We were doing it.  Right then.  We started in his office which was a freakin' wreck and once that was done we moved to the master closet downstairs.  There were a ton of my keepsake boxes from college and high school that I went through and consolidated.  Then we moved to the garage.  This forced Lonnie to go through a bunch of boxes that he has been putting off going through.  His Dad died almost 10 years ago and he has a lot of his stuff.  He went though all of that and I was so proud of him.  About midway through the second day he was done.  Over it.  But I made him push through just so we could finish.  And we did.  Whew.  He was mad at me but I think he's over it now ;)  And he loves the fact that it is done.  

We got a lot more done than I even imagined.  I wanted to complete his office but we were able to do that plus empty out the closet downstairs (which is where we will store the sorted boxes AND it is the nursery closet...it is really big) and then move to the garage.  I did NOT think we would get to the garage but that is why I hired this girl.  She keeps us on track!  I will post pictures when everything is final.  All areas are still a work in progress until we clean out all other areas and then have the garage sale.  

Also on Tuesday we interviewed a lady who is going to help us with housework a few days a week when the babies come.  An entire post on that later.  But that was just one more thing to add to the list of stuff to do (and prepare for).  Then Blakely had dance and that night and my MIL came over.  

This morning we took B to gymnastics and then came home so I could finish going through a few more things while Lonnie took a nap.  Then he went to an afternoon and evening full of meetings.  I am WORN OUT.  So I am propped up on the couch typing this while B watches F.rozen.  

Tomorrow we have a window guy coming to give us an estimate on new kitchen windows because one of them is broken.  Turns out they aren't tempered glass and they are supposed to be (but weren't required to be when this house was built).  They go to the floor so we are looking at replacing 2 others besides the broken one.  Fun.  Lonnie has to go through the last bit of paperwork in his office (future guest bedroom) or my head may explode.  I am ready to rearrange the furniture and hang stuff on the walls to actually complete a room.  I honestly try really hard not to nag Lonnie ever.  I never make "honey-do" lists for when he is off and I just let him get around to doing certain things in his own time.  But this week I have really been on him.  He knew it was coming but I think he will be glad when this week is over and he can go back to work!  Ha!  

I also have a friend coming tomorrow to look at our bedroom set that is in the babies room.  Hopefully she is going to buy it because then I will actually have a nursery.   Whoop!

It has been a long week but a crazy productive week.  I have felt pretty good and that helped a lot.  My girl is coming 2 days again next week so we can tackle my crazy areas of the house (craft closet...oy).  Things are moving faster than I thought and we already have a ton of garage sale stuff.  Man I can't wait to get that crap outta here.  It is going to feel so good!   

Medicine cabinet

The other day Lonnie got tired of the craziness in our medicine cabinet and decided to clean it out.  He said I didn't even need to help him.  Wait.  What?  

Obviously I told him to go for it.  I didn't take a before picture but you can just imagine three shelves overflowing with medications and vitamins.  A lot of it was leftover stuff from IVF and then just random bottles of Ty.lenol, etc.  

Anyway, we went through every single item and ended up with quite bit to take to the hospital medical waste.  I had some leftover medicine that I donated to my clinic since they were unopened.  

The point of this post is not about the cleaning out of the cabinet.  The point is that I wanted to show you this picture.  

That is 10 full sharps containers.  TEN.  FULL.  The one on the far right is about halfway full but the other are brimming.  All of these are from trying for baby #2.  When I was working at the hospital while trying to get pregnant with B I would take them occasional and empty them in to the sharps containers there.  But now that I don't work there they have just piled up over the last 2 1/2 years.  These are the needles from one frozen embryo transfer and 3 IVF's.  Geez.  Just call me a pincushion!  

It felt good to get rid of all of that...the medication included.  Part of me wanted to wallow in the fact that I even had to poke myself that many times.  Wah wah wah.  But ya know what?  It was worth it and I knew that it would be.  That is why I kept going.  I am so thankful to be where we are right now.  I am so thankful that we were ABLE to keep going.  Sometimes it still feels surreal.  Like I am going to wake up and all of this was just a dream.  Then I get a swift kick to the bladder as a reminder that THIS IS HAPPENING.  This girl is so happy and so in love with these two tiny miracles.  

Baby girl

Baby boy

The house

There are about eleventy billion things that need to be done in our house to get ready for the twins.  I made a list the other day of all the things that need to be sold, bought, organized and rearranged and it was 12 pages long.  Lordy. 

I want to document here the progress that we make because I am sure not all of the things I want to get done will actually get done.  I know you are dying to hear ALLLLLL about it....

Here is the thing.  We haven't really "finished" our house since we moved in 8 years ago.  Granted this house was move in ready and there weren't any big projects to finish but I mean like finishing decorating each room and stuff like that.  Want to know why?  Infertility.  I can blame a lot of things on it but this is a big one.  I feel like our life has ben on hold for the past 6-7 years.  I didn't want to turn our bar into a big fun adult pool table/ping pong room because I had hopes that it would be a playroom for children.  And then that didn't happen in the time frame that I was expecting so everything just got put on hold.  I didn't want to make one of the bedrooms downstairs into a super nice guest room because I want to make it a nursery!  So basically we did nothing.  We had our master upstairs and then some furniture in a room downstairs and called it a guest room.  Then of course when B came along we made her a nursery.  But other that that we have quite a few rooms that were/are not being used to their full potential.  

So that brings me to now.  We have to make room for 2 babies!  Let me give you a little rundown of the way our house is laid out.  

The upstairs is the main floor, the floor you walk in on and the floor where we spend most of our time.  This is where the master is (as well as the living room, dining room, kitchen, and laundry room).  We always lived in this room until we had B and then we moved down to the guest room beside her room which is where we live now.  

The downstairs has three bedrooms and then a large (bonus?) room that has a nice bar and lots of space.  We have used this as a bar/storage room.  Grrr.  One of the bedrooms is smaller and is my husband's office right now.  It has no windows and tile floors.  We call it the dungeon room.  It is a nice room but the others are more spacious and have windows and doors that look out to the lake.  

Anyway.  Basically we are rearranging our entire house before the babies come.  Or at least it feels like it.  Here is small(!) list of the big things that we have to do before babies.  

1.  The twin's nursery is going to be the room we live in now downstairs.  So we have to sell the bedroom set that is in there to make room for baby furniture.  Then we have to move back to the master upstairs.

2.  Move all of the furniture in Blakely's room (crib, dresser, chest of drawers, queen bed and glider) to the baby room.  Buy B all new furniture.  She's getting a new white bed and dresser and a room makeover.  No paint (her room is green) but lots of other new stuff.  

3.  Make the office into a guest bedroom.  There is already a queen bed in there so mainly this will be a bunch of organizing books (L is a book hoarder...have I mentioned that?).  We are going to sell the desk and desktop computers that are in there so it is less office-y and more comfortable for guests.  Ya know, since it has no windows :/

4.  The bar/storage room is being turned into a family room/playroom.  I think this space will need its own post.  It is crazy right now but I have big plans for it in the future.  One day it will be just a playroom but for the immediate future I see it as a family room and a playroom.  It is huge so that will work for now.  

So how am I going to get all of this done?  Well the first thing is I am having garage sale.  I have never had one before and I may never again but I feel it is the best way to get rid of all of the junk we have.  (Side note...where does all the crap come from?)  I am in the biggest purging mode right now.  I want to throw away EVERYTHING.  Ugh.  It is driving me crazy.  I think once we purge a bunch of our stuff then we can start to get the rooms to come together.  The problem is that I can't physically do all of these things.  I have a few good hours on my feet a day and the rest of the day is spent sitting down or laying down with some spurts of "getting shit done" in between.  

So I hired someone.  She organizes for people for a living.  I may or may not be in love with her.  She has been here one day for 6 hours and we completely went through the bar and organized it.  I sat the entire time.  She would bring me a box or something and ask what I wanted to do with it and that was it.  She doesn't get tired or distracted.  And she is totally OCD.  I am so thankful I found her!  She is going to help me get everything together for the garage sale and then work the sale with me also.  I feel like once we can get all this excess crap out of here I will be able to breathe and feel better about bringing a ton of baby stuff into the house!  

We plan to have this garage/yard sale in about 8 weeks....so late March.  For right now she set up the bar downstairs as a garage sale and we are pricing things as we go.  So now when we clean out the craft closet, for example, we (she!) can just take things into the bar to the home decor section or the kids section she has set up and toss it in a box with a price.  I think it will make going through the rest of my house much easier.  Then we just have to bring all of it upstairs right before the sale.  Yikes.  My list of things to clean out/organize with her are:
-bar (done)
-craft closet (it is mostly organized just a few months worth of stuff that I didn't put back in place and threw on the floor.  Ha!  lots of purging will happen here)
-the baby's closet (this has a bunch of sports equipment, puzzles, luggage, large baby items, etc in it)
-Blakely's closet (I have done most of this but still some left to do)
-help get Blakely's toy situation under control.  (pregnant mom + 3rd birthday + Christmas has sent the toy sitch into overdrive)
-laundry room (my god the laundry room)
-office (have to have Lonnie around for this)
-garage (have to have Lonnie around for this)
-our closet upstairs (all of our clothes and shoes)
-pantry (not for the garage sale but just for my sanity)

She is going to organize as we clean out too.  So the laundry room will be a completely usable space unlike the 25% that is usable right now.  

Once we sell the bedroom set in the twin's room (have a few people interested already) we can move all of B's baby furniture in there and order her a new set.  Then we we will actually have a space to put baby stuff and I can begin to go through some of the clothes that I saved from when Blakely was a baby, get the swing out of the attic, etc.

I am thrilled to get started on this huge project and I am so happy that she said she would help me.  To me it seems like a ton to do but she says it will move quickly now that we've gotten started. She's not overwhelmed like I am!  I didn't really start doing a thing for Blakely's nursery until about 28 weeks but I needed to start sooner because we have a lot more to do and because I could end up on bed rest or something too.  Not to even mention if the babies come early (please stay in there!).  I don't have the energy to do all of it and Lonnie works too much.  It would take us a year!  And yes, I will probably pay her as much if not more than I will make in the garage sale but I don't care a bit!  Totally worth it.  

Oh, you want to see pictures?  Okay....  I will take some before and afters for sure.  We organized the bar but since it is the storage place for all the garage sale items it is still pretty hectic.  I want to wait to post before/during/afters of that until the playroom/family room is set up.

Eeeek!  I know you are all as excited as me!  

House Work!

Ok so we have a ton to do to get our house ready for baby girl.  


First a little explanation of my house.  You walk in to the top story of my house.  This is the main level that we live on (kitchen, living room, laundry room, etc).  Also, our master bedroom is upstairs.  Downstairs there are three other bedrooms.  One of them is another master suite which is the guest room right now...lake view, door opens onto deck, large closet, etc.  The other room also has lake views and is quite big....also has a door that opens to the deck.  This room is my husband's office right now.  More on that in a minute.  The third bedroom (which we call the red room) is on the other side (non lake side) of the house and is smaller with no windows.  We have two queen size beds in there right now so we can sleep a ton of people at my house.  


Ok so baby girls room is going to be where my husband's office is right now...the second spacious bedroom downstairs.  We are moving his office to the little room with no windows.  His office right now is a complete mess.  I mean it was organized when we moved in almost five years ago but it has just gone downhill ever since.  The closets have bookcases that are full of books and now the books are piling up on the floor.  He used to work out of the office about two evenings a week but now he doesn't actually work in there as much.  I really want to create a place for him to go and unwind...chill out...relax.  We have decided that instead of having a couch in his office we would leave one of the queen size beds in there that way we can still sleep a lot of people (like when his family comes to stay).  Here are a few pics of his office now (baby girls future nursery)......It is almost embarrassing to show these...but I want to remember!

when you first walk in....

 There are books stacked behind the couch as well...

 There are shelves between these doors that are also full of books...I told y'all...he hoards books!

So, as you can see, lots of stuff to move out and get organized!  The only thing we have done in this room so far is organize all the stuff on the floor.  Everything is ready to be moved into his new office once that room is ready....

Now on to the red room (his future office).  This room is WAY more organized than the other one.  The closet was full of stuff but we cleaned it out in about an hour.  

We have completely cleaned out this closet.  I am getting bookshelves built into this closet from floor to ceiling.  HOPEFULLY this will house all the books!  The guy is supposed to come install them in about 2 weeks.  Then I will have them painted and then we will be ready to move everything in!  I have already purchased a new quilt and shams for the bed that is going to stay in there and a huge rug.  The colors I am doing are like browns, golds, and maybe a little blue.  I can't wait to get all the stuff in this room.  Once this is done then we can paint baby girls room!  There is lots to do but I am sort of in a holding pattern until I get the shelves.  

The other issue is this.  Our bedroom right now is upstairs.  The nursery is downstairs.  We said when we moved in that we would move our bedroom to the downstairs master suite when we had a baby.  We just feel like it is too far from her.  I know that she will be in our room in the beginning but who knows?  So that is another thing that we have to do.  Switch the master suites.  I am not stressing at all about this because if we don't do it before she gets here that is ok.  It will be easy to do if we decide that is what we want.  


So, as you can see, lots of work to be done!  I can't wait to be able to share pictures of the office when it is finished....and then Baby W's room!!!  I can't lie...it feels really good to clean stuff out and get organized.  I'm not sure if I am "nesting" yet, but all I can think about is what needs to be organized next...craft closet, kitchen drawers, nightstands, pantry, etc......


Hope everyone has had a great weekend...It is blazing hot here...100 every day :(