Surge of Energy

I know I haven't posted many updates... that's because I've had a sudden SURGE of energy. I laugh because for the first 6 months of this pregnancy, I was so tired all the time. 9pm would roll around and I'd say, "I'm going to bed, Lee!" He'd kind of laugh at me and do whatever until he was tired. Now I have a ton of energy, and he's teaching 8am classes.... so he's the one exhausted by 9pm and I'm the one staying up doing stuff.

Last Friday was a fun day. My friend, Roberta and I made height charts! They were super easy and it was fun to do it together. (side note, I LOVE doing stuff with her. We have the same need for crafting/making stuff and we mostly always do it together. I have some wonderful friends here!) My board is stained with a really light blue/sea greenish color with silver lettering. And she painted her's gray and had white lettering. She had to leave before it was complete, so I didn't get a picture. And mine will look much better when it's not against these awful yellow walls.

After she left, I put Will down for a nap and I went out in the garage to build some shelves for Amy's room. At one point, I came back in to see what Amy was doing... and she was painting! But not in a bad way- totally 'good' painting! (you never know with my kids!)

She drew out several pictures, got her paints out and was creating away. Such a good girl! I love the middle picture- she drew the nativity. Which, wow-I didn't realize she had been listening all of Christmas! It's hard to tell here, but the yellow is baby Jesus in his manger, the purple is the angel and the people to the right are Mary and Joseph. The top picture is the sun, mountains and grass and I can't remember what the bottom one is (I think it's just scribble paint).

That night, I got to go out to dinner with some new friends... the mom's from Amy's dance class. One lady wants to start a monthly Bunco group (a game I've never played) or a dinner group. So for this first time, we all went to dinner. It was so fun and at a delicious Mexican place! We stayed for over 2 hours! I'm sure our waitress hated us! But I really like these ladies and it was so great to get to know some new people. New friends are always great.

Saturday was deemed 'carpet cleaning day." We were going to do it earlier in the week, but once we realized the "drying" time, we pushed it to Saturday. Let me just say- do it yourself carpet cleaning- what a deal!! I'd never done it before, until the Mississippi house. I remember lamenting to mom about the cost of carpet cleaning (about $100 per room) and she said, "Just rent a thing and do it yourself!" So for $30 (plus the solution, which is around $12- but you don't use it all), we tried it and it made a believer out of Lee and I.

My mom has a magnet that says "I love a man with dishpan hands" (because Dad always does the dishes). I think I'm going to get one that says, "I love a man that cleans my carpets." He really likes doing it- and he's a pro! The dreadful grape juice puke stain came right up..... well every stain came right up!

The kids loved running around in the empty room! That is until Lee chased them out. :)

The only rooms that are carpeted are ours and Will's. We didn't move his furniture out, but we did our's. Lee leaned our mattress against the couch and the kids loved their new play area.

(there's also a video of this)

Amy found a notebook and also decided to write some stories. 

And they enjoyed being the "King and Queen" of their castle.

After all that, I went to the paint store to get some paint for Amy's shelves. A friend gave me the most awesome tip- she goes to the paint store and gets cans of discounted paint. She get's 5 gallon buckets for $35 and 1 gallons for $4. So I headed over to see what I could find. I just needed a whitish color- and I found a quart for only $2! (The same color/size was $12 at Home Depot!) I had wanted to hang the shelves that night as well, but I was too exhausted.

Sunday was church and then we were invited over to the Westmoreland's for dinner. A few other young couples (the Reece's and Snell's) were over too. It was fun to socialize with everyone. Monday morning, it was shelf hanging time!

So, this is the BEFORE of Amy's book area. She had a bookcase in Mississipppi, but it was cheap and falling apart so we sold it before we left. Then when we moved here, I just used the baby changing table. The middle shelf broke off (not being made to support books) and then we just threw the books into this area. It was always a MESS! Plus, it stuck out pretty far from the wall, so it took up a lot of space.

Now..... Voila!

The shelves only stick out 5 inches from the wall, and all the books face outwards. Don't you just love it? I know I do!!

And they were SO easy to make. I didn't even have to call Dad or Adam for help! They are just a 1x4 for the back, a 1x4 for the bottom and a 1x2 for the front, all screwed together. That's it. A little sanding and paint and they were good to go. I made 4 of them, and the total cost of the wood was less than $20. So much cheaper than any other shelf I've seen! I had seen these around, on different sites, but I watched this video from Ana White (a favorite web site of mine) and it really was that easy. (though I don't have a cool Kreg Jig to make pocket holes). I've decided that I LOVE building stuff (I guess it's in my blood- given Dad and Adam's talents), holding a power tool is so much fun! I have several more projects in mind!

I put the 4th shelf in Will's room, but I'm going to have to make him a second one. He has some books of his own, but he mostly gets all the board books. He can be kind of destructive.

I also moved Amy's bed and am going to rearrange a few things, so I'll post those pictures when I'm done. I found/ordered the coolest thing for Amy's stuffed animals, I'm just waiting for it to come in.

So there you have it- the Wade weekend round up!