Story Boards - Big Kid Room Makeovers

I'm slowly making progress on cleaning out the spare bedroom so we can move Chris into his own room.  Monday, I spent a good 8 hours purging and donating.  At the end of the day, I had 7 bags of clothing and baby items for the Military Order of the Purple Heart. 

How easy is it that I just had to schedule the pick up on-line, place the bags on my front porch and they picked it up?!

There is still a little left to do - mainly disassembling the desk and then steam cleaning the carpets.  I took Thursday and Friday off so my plan is to have him moved in by the weekend!

In the meantime, I've been having a lot of fun putting together decorating ideas for the kids' new rooms.   Surprisingly, Chris was an easy one.  For the last year, he has LOVED anything fireman or fire trucks.  I found a Pottery Barn Kids room on Pinterest that I fell in love with and knew he'd like it to.

OK.  So, I still have my pre-kid Pottery Barn taste with a post-kid Target budget.  A girl can dream.

Or, in my case?  Figure out how to get the same look at an affordable price. 

Here's my storyboard for Chris' room.  It does show the PB Kids items and in some cases, I may still buy them. 

The background color is the existing color in the room now.  I think I'll probably paint a chocolate brown accent wall behind the headboard of the bed.

Their cribs will convert to full-size beds and they are an expresso finish. 

I'm not an artist by any means but I think I might be able to re-create the fire truck canvas.  It's $180 on PB Kids but doing it myself will cut the cost by 75%.  Plus, he'll have a "Mommy original". 

My mom is giving me a dresser they no longer need and ironically, it's about the same style as the picture.  I just need to sand it and paint it red.

The plan for Kendall's room hasn't been as easy.  She doesn't have a "passion" like Chris does.  I've shown her pictures of rooms from the Pottery Barn catalogs and she seems so disinterested.   When she refers to her new room, she calls it a princess room so I think anything girlie will be fine with her. 

She'll be staying in their existing room.  The wall color is almost the color of a Granny Smith apple.  I really hate painting so I'm going to try to make it work by adding in pink.

I've had a really hard time finding a quilt that 1) has pink and green and 2) has chocolate brown in it.  I needed a way to pull in the color of the converted crib frame (expresso finish). So, I think I'll have to bite the bullet and buy the PB Kids quilt for this one. 

The window panels will be pink/white gingham.   The canopy is $70 at PB Kids but thanks to Pinterest, I'm pretty sure I can make one for half that.  An embroidery hoop, some tuile, ribbon and beads should do the trick. 

I really love the Woodland Plaques but I think the 2 with the green background are too sage.  I think I can re-create the butterfly and owl with scrap paper, Mod Podge and some wood.  Pinterest has inspired me. 


With the additional money that hubby will be making with the "new" job, I'll gradually buy the pieces I can't make.

What do you think?

New Additions

Most of you know that I lost my sweet Kisa just before Christmas. 

A few weeks ago, we needed something to do for an outing so we took the kids to PetSmart.  A local rescue organization was there for Cat Adoption Day.  I did OK looking at the cats and even talked to one of the volunteers for a little while.  At that time, I wasn't ready.

There were 2 kittens that caught my eye that day and I've been stalking their website to see if they ever got adopted.  Finally, last night I sent an email to inquire.  I was hitting the send button before I even realized what I was doing. 

I took today off to start cleaning out the spare room (Kisa's room) so we can move Chris over within the upcoming months.

My plans got changed a little bit.  Because I picked up these sweet guys!

They are brothers and 16 weeks old.  I can't stop smiling. 

The kids don't know yet.  It all happened so fast.  I dropped the kids off this morning and then I got the email asking if I wanted to come see the kittens.

If you can think of any cute names, I'm taking suggestions! 

Upside Down

Thanks to everyone for your kind words, support and suggestions after my last post.

The kids & I were watching Ice Age: Continental Drift and it occured to me.  Have you seen the movie?

Remember the scenes where the mom and Peaches hang upside down from the tree to sleep?

That's pretty much how my life has felt.  Everything is all topsy turvy and upside down.  There have been more developments since my last post.

My husband quit his job. 

I mentioned he was worried about the company doing layoffs and he felt fairly confident that something would happen by April.  They aren't writing any new contracts and the current ones all expire in April.  So, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out next steps.

He has had his resume posted since last summer but the job market is still slow (sucks ass)  and he hasn't gotten a lot of calls.  About 2 weeks ago, he told me he got a call from a recruiter who was looking to fill a 6-month contract.  It requires travel and there's no guarantee there will be a full-time position at the end of the 6 months.

He decided to take it.

I still have MAJOR reservations about the whole thing because it's just out of my comfort zone.  I'm not a risk taker.  I like order and certainty and security.

He'll be travelling to St. Louis and Albuquerque every other week (home one week, travelling one week, home one week, etc).

I'm not crazy about that part of it but it's manageable.  He would fly out on Monday mornings and fly home on Friday evenings.  I'll have to adjust our morning routine so I can start doing drop offs but other than that, the evening routine was mostly me anyway.

I AM worried about how the kids will react.  I don't think Kendall will care much but I can see Christopher acting out. 

There is a silver lining.  He'll be making significantly more money for that 6 months.  It should equate to an additional $2,000 per month so we'll be able to rebuild our savings account (which is still suffering from the cost of IVF). 

Ah,  infertility.   The gift that keeps on giving. 

I am really trying to release my anxiety and worry and trust HIM but it's hard.  I'm a worrier.  It's just how I'm programmed.

And, I'm a novice when it comes to rewriting program code. 

I keep telling myself that I just have to believe that everything will be OK.  It will all work out. 

Right?!

Trying To Find Faith

I've never been a religious person.  Growing up, we didn't attend church and we never really discussed religion as a family.  I had friends who attended church regularly and I would go with them occassionally but I always felt "out of place" because it wasn't something I completely understood.  It's overwhelming to attend a Catholic service when you don't know when to stand, kneel, say "And, also with you", shake hands, etc.  I always felt embarrassed that my family never practiced religion or attended church.

I've always believed in God.  I pray and I ask forgiveness.  But, as an adult, I still don't attend church.  I just don't know where to start.  And, I hate that my kids are growing up not knowing a faith and the goodness of God.  It's something I hope to remedy in 2013.

In the meantime, I need some help from you guys.  The past 6 weeks have been some of the most stressful in my life and I'm having a hard time trying to see the "good".

My mother and sister both moved away, my husband's job is at risk again, my office just laid off 5 people (with the threat of more coming), I've had 2 major car repairs and my cat died.  Just to name the big ones. 

I like to think of myself as a strong person.  I can usually handle things fairly gracefully, pick myself up and keep moving. 

But, today?  Today, I feel like I have the weight of the world on my chest.  This morning was the 2nd major car repair on my car.  An unexpected $750 expense and money we don't have.

My husband and I make a decent living but the financial responsibilities that come with twins has taken its toll.  I would not trade my life with twins for anything and we're making due but there's not much left at the end of the month.

I'm just having a really hard time understanding why everything has to happen at once.  I feel like I can't take any more.  I am stressed out.  My mom always said that God doesn't give you more than you can handle.  Over the last 3 years, I've handled A LOT and quite frankly, more than some people handle in a lifetime. 

I know everyone has their burdens and what I'm experiencing is nothing compared to those families in Newtown, CT or anyone else in the world, really.  I know there are people who have it much worse than I do right now.

So, help me get some perspective.  What helps you during difficult times?