Volunteer

OK, can you tell we were a little excited for this movie?  I read all three books some time ago long before the dream of a movie was alive.  I decided to get all crazy and make epic shirts for us this year using a really cool technique, freezer paper.  There were a few hiccups along the way.  1st, I noticed that I could not cut out the symbol as a negative image for this process.  Major bummer.  I wasn't in the mood to purchase all the goodies I would need to rig up a screen print for it so I went old school and used iron on transfer paper and then painted it gold.  2nd hiccup was that it did not occur to me in my tired mental state one of the main characters was spelled wrong until 3 coats of fabric paint had been applied and the damage was done and Nate asked who petta was.  Seriously!  I also decided that cutting out such small letters for the quotes on the back of the shirts would take forever and my fingers would probably remain in a permanent cramped state so I went for free hand.  K, my handwriting stinks because my brain doesn't want to slow down to the pace of my handwriting so I scribble mostly.  I took my time and tried my best to replicate the font and it actually turned out super cute.  The back of mine didn't have the same quote and Emma and her friend because, well, I'm an old married woman and that would be just creepy.  Mine talked about being as radiant as the sun.  I even made Jared a shirt because he wanted to have his first midnight premiere experience.  He was doubting the wiseness of this decision and didn't want his picture taken, but I think it is awesome and there were buckets of guys at the premiere.  I kept trying to tell him of the chick meeting possibilities at such an event and when we finally got there and saw that I wasn't lying to him, he relaxed and had fun.  One of my yw from when I was in the program made shirts with us and went too and her sister is hiding in the back.  We had so much fun, but my old body isn't what it used to be and I had a jam packed day that started at 5:20am and I got home from the movie at 3am.  Yowza!

Love

Emma got to go to DC with her Dad for a business trip.  She had a blast walking around and seeing some museums and monuments and visiting 2 of my dream places to visit.  Two of our favorite family shows is this place and also the shop of one of the judges on a "war" show. They love me so much that they got me cupcakes from both places.  They even got to see some filming for one of the shows happening while they were in there.  Emma was ever so careful with the cupcakes and got them home to me in one piece.  She got to do a fresh taste test between the 2 companies and I had to do a not so fresh taste test between the 2.  We each picked a different company as our favorite.  Everyone has their own taste.  I also got to live out my super nerdy dream of eating delicious cupcakes while watching a judging show and giving my own critiques.  It was a heavenly day for sure.

Shuffling

I decided to get crazy and rearrange practically the entire house over spring break.  My oldest was in a room by herself on the main level while the rest of the family was upstairs.  This went fine for a year and then I decided that I didn't like her by herself and I was noticing a slow separation from her towards the family.  She also had switched to doing school online and was using her laptop in bed.  I was not having that either.  Completely unproductive and a bit to hobbitesc.  She was given a choice between moving back into her old room upstairs or having her little sister move in with her downstairs.  Much to my complete surprise she was unwilling to give up her room so little sis was moving in.  There was only one stipulation on her part, no toys could come with her.  Fair enough.  

 With Jordyn downstairs with Emma there was now an available room for school.  Jared has decided that he would rather do school on line as well, so I needed a distraction free room conducive to study.  Jordyn's room now became the cyber room.  (above pic)  There are two desks in there, a book shelf and a chair.  The real bonus for me in this room is that I finally had a place to store all my gift wrapping supplies.  It is so neat and organized and it makes me smile.  Love it.  I also want to get an outdoor couch for the balcony off of this room to expand the study space.  

 The girls room (above pic)  They are both really proud of this room and think it is magazine worthy.  They are so cute.  The girls went bunk bed shopping together and picked out this beast.  We measured and worried and wondered how this thing was going to work, but it was the best option so we crossed our fingers and bought it.  The staircase going up has drawers and the other end is an armoire. These 2 features eliminated the need for a second dresser in the room.  Jordyn of course thinks she died and went to heaven getting to share a room with her big sis AND get a top bunk.  

 Because Emma didn't want any toys to come into the room with her it was necessary to create a playroom.  It was also time for the boys to try out living in the same room again and Jared had the same stipulation, absolutely no toys in the room.  So we got the boys a very similar bunked and I also tried to lessen the blow of having to share a room with something cool painted on their wall.  I took them paint shopping and we made a plan.  They both loved the idea of me painting a flag that took up an entire wall, so I set about trying to figure out the math so that I would have the proportions right.  It also gave me an opportunity to freshen up the paint in the whole room.  The boys think it is awesome, and so do I.  I still need to put the stars on and I hadn't decided how I was going to go about it yet.  The boys really wanted some glow in the dark stars, so when MJ was in DC with Dad, she brought some home for them.  

 The playroom (above pic).  We got rid of a bunch of the kids things and then shoved what was left into Jared's old room.  It is working out so great.  All the toys must stay in there, so now my loft is clean and I don't want to hit or throw something every time I have to walk through it to get to my bedroom.  I also went label maker crazy in there.  Oh how I love me a label maker.  Ethan had already made some labels out of duct tape for his old dresser so I was able to use 2 of them because I loved them so much.  

Finally, the loft.  I was finally able to get the ugly treadmill out of our bedroom and out where it can be used by Emma too.  Emma is in track and has been wanting to jump on the treadmill whenever she wants, and now she can.  The other kids can still play video games or watch tv and there is no junk around them.    It was a massive undertaking but the results were worth the backache and grumpiness.  I still want to repaint the playroom and cyber room and the kids rooms still need some detail work and then......the work is never done. :0)