It's probably not a good sign...

...when your 13 year old starts listing off what he plans to eat after dinner...while he's still eating dinner. Oy.

Things overheard today...

...because I know you've been missing me sharing random Micah sayings... ;)

- Awww, it's not a good day to be a salmon. (said sadly upon looking outside...backstory: yesterday, whilst swinging in the backyard, he randomly exclaimed, "I'm a salmon!" weird, but it made him happy)

- Koaly prefers only to sleep on his side. (said with disapproval to me since I'd put Koaly to sleep on his back...personally, methinks I should get credit for having pulled some blankets over him so he wouldn't be cold)

- I feel insignificant! I feel insignificant! (shouted loudly when his Mario character shrank)

I'm sure there will be more. It's only lunch time, after all, lol.

Thankful Ten on Tuesday

Things I'm thankful for today...

1. Towel bars. It's amazing how much you take these for granted. ;) Having had them off all of last week while we painted our bedroom and bathroom, though, I'm ridiculously thankful to have put up new towel bars over the weekend. It's the little things... ;)

2. Light fixtures. Ditto what I said about towel bars, lol.

3. Nathan. So glad that my lovely husband actually knows how to do all these things (and can reach them, lol).

4. Greg Mullins. So. Greg Mullins is the name of the guy who lived here before us. We fully understand that some of our home issues may have originated prior to him, but we know his name. ;) Therefore, folks, (and I mean this in the nicest way possible) Greg Mullins is Nathan's mortal enemy. Nathan actually stated this (in those words!) at one point during the renovations. Greg, you see, had a very different approach to home repairs from us...taking the more "just make it work regardless of how annoying it is and how mismatched things will be and how not-quite-right it might be and how difficult it will make things down the road" approach. This bothers us, especially Nathan. ;) 

Why does he make my list of things I'm thankful for, then? Well, first, gotta be thankful that it's not me who's Nathan's mortal enemy, right? ;) Also, though I fully agree with Nathan and am appreciative that we're on the same page there, Greg's way reminds me of my dad and makes me smile. :)

5. Space. Very, very thankful to have a garage and a basement where we can shuffle things to during this project. Whew.

6. Guest room. Thrilled, too, that we have a guest room where Nathan and I can bunk while this is happening. :) Our bed is actually on Asher's bedroom floor right now (we didn't want to figure out how to move that mattress down any stairs) and we threatened to just sleep there, but this works better, lol. 

7. Giving up on chrome. Our bathroom has this big tub that would require hiring people and making a huge mess to remove and replace. So. Until we win the lottery, it's probably stuck there. It's ugly, though. And that bothers us. :) In trying to accept that, we decided we'll just go with chrome (not brushed) fixtures in the bathroom to attempt to coordinate, even though that's not really what we'd have picked. Well, trying to find chrome towel bars and drapery rods and light fixtures and such proved too much for us. We simply couldn't do it. Especially couldn't find any light fixtures that we liked that were chrome that fit the space. 

So. We finally just gave up and decided to go with what we'd actually want and just let the tub be ugly (and the sinks and faucets for now, though we can replace those ourselves later). Whew. Finding oil-rubbed/antique bronze finished stuff was incredibly easier and we feel better. :)

8. My new bedroom light fixture. I love it. ;) Will post actual pictures in a bit, but here's what it looks like if you're curious. (Thankfully, we found one locally and had a coupon so paid a good bit less.) Also, Nathan put it on a dimmer switch that even has a motion sensor that Micah thinks is just plain awesome. I need to read the instructions, though, because I'm thinking that having the light turn on in the middle of the night if I get out of bed may be annoying, lol.

9. Our garbage service folks. Um, thank you so much for actually collecting all our garbage this week. We know it was annoying and a good bit more than normal. :)

10. The light at the end of the tunnel. We're down to pretty much just flooring now, folks, and Nathan has that well underway today. :) So. By this weekend, I should be able to move things back into our bedroom and start working on adding the finishing touches (and a few furniture pieces that we've picked out but need to actually acquire)...yay!

Things I'm thinking about today...

1. Our master bedroom/bathroom project. This is the big "thing" going on in my life right now (outside of all the normal homeschooling and karate and swim team and archery and all) and why I haven't been around as much. This is what my bedroom looks like this morning:

Thanks to generous Christmas monies, we're redoing the flooring along with painting and updating fixtures and all. It's a not-insignificant project but will be soooo worth it when we're done. :) I'll be sure to post before and after pictures when we finally finish. (Be warned. This may take awhile. I'm having issues with decisiveness and am having a hard time picking curtains and bedding, lol. Let me know if you have any go-to places for either of these, okay?)

2. Paint. Um, does anyone know how to get interior paint out of fabric? (specifically, out of the fabric of one's down coat?)

3. Height. It's a good thing Nathan's tall. ;) Even with the ladder, I can't reach the edge between the ceiling and the walls.

4. Towels. How many? Seriously. How many bath towels per person do you have in your house? I'm curious and am thinking I may need to donate some of our extras, especially as we're hoping to replace our current ones when we repaint the bathroom. (Mom, don't answer this. You have too many towels, lol. I know that.)

5. Asher's voice. Asher's been sick. Over the weekend, he also lost his voice and is pretty miffed about it. (In all fairness, he's handling it pretty well and way better than Micah handles it when he loses his voice, lol.) He's no longer contagious (according to the doctor) and the fever is gone and all...he just can't talk...which also leads to coughing fits and the inability to get enough breath when exerting himself. So, we're still taking it easy. What I find entertaining about all this, though, is how it's affected Micah. Micah has a great tendency to talk, talk, talk without waiting to listen, right? Asher's loss of voice is forcing Micah to slow down and really listen. Ha. ;)

6. Growth spurt. Heaven help us, I think Noah's growing again. The boy has been eating almost non-stop (when he's not sleeping) all week. Oy.

7. Bathroom light fixtures. Why is it so difficult to find one that we like?! Argh. For the moment, we've given up and are working just on finishing the painting. Eventually, though, I'm going to want light. (We already took the old fixture off.) Wish us luck! (Specifically, though it's not our top choice, we're looking for a fixture for over the mirror that is chrome (not brushed and not bronze, though we like those better) and has at least four lights, more would be better. I'd also prefer for the lights to point down instead of up if possible. If you see something like that, would you let me know? Thanks!)

Okay, need to go paint now... ;)

Karate tournament

Last night, Micah participated in his fourth karate tournament at Karate West. As usual, all was good and Micah took first in his group for forms and second for sparring. Here he is sporting his trophies:

He was pretty excited about it. ;) (Like last year, the trophies are repurposed and awesomely big. Incidentally, the larger trophy doesn't fit with his others on his closet shelf so now holds a place of honor on his desk, lol.)

(Asher is still sick so didn't get to participate this year. :( Here are the posts from our previous tournaments, though: 2011, 2012, 2013.)