More complete project photos

Mom and I taking a break - Alexa caught us! :)

Alexa reminding us that "it's a secret"

Project - Complete

As far as I am concerned, Ty Pennington can keep his job! By this afternoon, I didn't care what was left to put away or where it went. Luckily, my mom was still here and wanted to see the "finished" project before she left. Here are the before and after shots. To me, the room still looks kind of cluttered but you have to remember that two very different, unique girls are living in this room. I definitely think Emily is going to be very surprised and like it very much. Owen wanted to know when I was going to start working on the boy's room. My response was "no time soon" I also doubt I attempt another project like this with Ryan out of town. My mom and dad were great (you should have seen my mom with that power drill!) but it is not the same as having Ryan here to complain to! :) Tomorrow I promised a trip to the museum and no "room" stuff at all. Owen decided it was a good thing that the seventh day was declared a day of "rest" and he is very much looking forward to it.

Secret project - Day 5

Day 5 was a bust. The furniture was supposed to be here in the window of noon - four. We waited around, took turns taking a shower for fear that they may show up early or call with a little more exact time. About 1:30 someone called to say "they are running a little later than expected." I didn't really know what time they were "expected" so I called back and she said later than 4. So, we waited around a little longer, mom and the kids got in the pool, I worked on a little school, etc. We were really at a stand still until the furniture arrived. Well, at 5 minutes before 4 they came down our road. The driver stopped at our mailbox for the other man to verify the address. We had ordered a lot of furniture so I told them I did not care if they drove in the grass to the front door. Like I said, they pulled in at 3:55 - this is what it looked like at 4:10. I don't know if you can tell it or not but it was a torrential down pour. It was raining so hard and fast I was worried I would have a rooms to go truck in our front yard forever! Finally, the men got the furniture set up and we went back to work.

Secret project - Day 4

Here are pictures of our day four project. I had to call in all the reinforcements to help get the painting finished. :) As you can tell, I do not believe in child-labor laws. We actually finished moving everything out this morning (because I had to put everything into Owen's room and I didn't want them tripping and killing themselves during the night). Now, we are all ready and just waiting on the furniture.

Secret project - Day 3

This is the progress from day 3 (Monday).

I know it looks as though I have gone crazy, maybe I have, I'm not really sure. The front and back walls are green, Emily's side is blue and purple and Alexa's side will be pink (of course!) Tomorrow, we have to finish Alexa's side and roll Emily's side. It looks much better in person than the pictures show.

Secret project - Day 2

This was the progress I had made by the second day (Sunday).

Secret project - Day 1

These are all "before" shots - this is day one (Saturday).

I am finally ready to reveal my last and final project before climbing the school-planning mountain. We had always told Emily that if having her own room was so important, that she may move into her own room when she was fifteen. The room she was going to move into was at first my sister's room when she lived with us for a while, then it was the tv/playstation room and then earlier this year we transformed it into our school room. We are not - at the kitchen table homeschoolers - I mean sometimes we do but it works better for our family to have a "school" space. So, recently Emily decided she liked the school room as it was and would like to stay in the room with Alexa but would like new furniture, with separate beds. The girls have always had my childhood bedroom set. It is a full canopy bed and one has the dresser and one has the chest. So, last weekend Ryan and I (and Alexa, Owen & Ian) went to one million furniture stores (according to Owen) and we finally picked out a new bedroom suit for the girls. Two beds, two nightstand tables, one dresser and one chest. Of course then, it needed new coordinating comforters and fresh paint. This is what Emily wanted for her birthday and even though her birthday is not for another month, we (me) decided it would be fun to surprise her while she was gone on a missions trip. About two containers and three trips to Wal-Mart later, I have decided that this may not have been the brightest idea I have ever had. It is hard deciding what her "treasures" are and what to leave out vs store in the attic. It is hard moving all of the old furniture, luckily my dad came and helped me get that all put away (thanks, dad). My mom came up today to go paint shopping with me and to help me get everything put away and painted (thanks, mom) to be ready for the new furniture being delivered on Wednesday. I promise - this is my LAST project before school starts!

Saying thanks

Well, it is official. The craft room really does have carpet and it is the same color as the carpet in the rest of the house. I am still not finished and I have a list of needed containers a mile long. Small ones for crafty projects. Earlier this week someone did something very special for Alexa and I was telling her she needed to send a "Thank you" note. So, this morning we got out paper, pencil and a thank you card (yes, I really do own some). She dictated to me what she wanted to say and I wrote it down on the blank paper for her to copy into the card. I was sitting at the table with her as she wrote. When she was about half way down the card she realized that dictating was MUCH easier than writing so she started trying to alter some of the things she had previously said - making it much shorter. I told her how important is was to properly thank someone for the kindness they had shown. She replied, "well, after every birthday you tell me I have to write thank you notes and you always forget and never make me - why can't we just do that?" Ouch, she's right. Every year we BUY the themed thank you notes only never to send them. To add further insult to injury, this afternoon I found the thank you notes from Ian's birthday (LAST SEPTEMBER). The worst part of it was we had written his - only never mailed. Disgusted, I threw them away. I doubt his friends much less family even remember what they gave him nearly a year ago. They would think I was crazy! I did make an announcement that "Thank you" notes were getting moved a little higher on the list. I know the giver is not looking for a proper "thanks" but don't we all like a little " I appreciate all your effort" notice every once in a while?! So, if you have ever done something wonderful, given us a wonderful gift, and never received a thanks, I humbly apologize and sincerely say "THANKS!"

Busy as usual

Twice now I have sat down to blog only to find myself in a negative mood. I named my blog "A Day at the Office" not "Eve's place to whine, complain, gripe, etc." So, in an effort to be more upbeat, I am only going to list my blessings rather than my grievances. Here have been my accomplishments: pretty much my whole house (except the attic) is clutter free. I have one project and the overpowering craft room left and I am free. I have developed a pretty good system of how (hopefully) we will be able to keep it up. Most rooms have been good for a few weeks and we haven't been doing too bad. However, once school starts its a whole other ball game. Speaking of school, I officially have (or have ordered) all of my materials, curriculum, etc through Christmas. I spent hours last night pouring over a zillion lists and hopefully I got what everybody needed. So, tonight the last thing on my list for today was a new blog entry. When I read people's blogs I get so disappointed when they hadn't written anything for a while; sort of like "I cannot believe they did not have anything to share with me." When the truth of the matter is a day can turn into a week which turns into a month which turns into a year! So, house clean and clutter free, school books ordered, new blog entry - check, check, check - now I can go to bed with a clear conscious and sleep like a baby leaving all of tomorrow for tomorrow. Yeah right, I guess I'm already dreaming! :)

Superwoman

Okay, I know it is hard for some of you to believe, but I do really want to be superwoman! I want a spotless house; a wonderfully well-educated, well-groomed, well-fed, thankful family; useful hobbies, beautiful scrapbooks, etc, etc, etc. I can hear what some of you are saying it is either "Yeah, I want those things too" or "You're standards are too high." I know that most of you want those things too. However, I bet you don't get in a foul "don't talk to me because things aren't going my way" mood whenever the "I am" gets overpowered by the "I want to be." Okay, my latest breakdown happened yesterday. I decided a week ago (actually a week and a day) that our house was entirely too cluttered. I do not like clutter; I cannot think, work, process in clutter. Anyway, so I decided to go from room to room decluttering. I gave myself one week. Does anyone see the problem in my dilemma? I SCOURED my bathroom (I mean I cleaned out the drawers, cabinets, everything) I washed everything! Ryan asked were we planning on having supper on the bathroom floor (that was after he realized I used his toothbrush to scrub up a stain - in my defense, I thought it was an old one.) Then, I went on to my closet, then my bedroom (I mean junk drawers, under the bed, EVERYTHING). That was four days, three bags of trash and two and a half yard sale bins later. Next, I moved on to the office. Now the office had never been completely clean since the get-go. So, I decided to rearrange, then I decided it really could use some paint but I couldn't decide what color to paint until I bought curtains and since I couldn't find any pre-made ones, I found fabric I liked "how long could it take to whip up three valances!?" So, last night I began to have a melt down because I still have the TV room, the schoolroom and the craft room(which is the WORST one of all AND the one that has the sewing machine I need to whip up those previously mentioned valances). I still have the kids rooms too but I did theirs on my last tirade so theirs won't be bad. However, last night my meltdown occurred once I realized that it is was going to be July 1st and I had not done ANY school planning. School will start in 7 weeks and I have done nothing! So, I begin to rant and rave that this school year is going to be a complete bust. I might as well throw in the towel and cut my losses now rather than later! I began brewing around 3:00pm yesterday(about the time I discovered Food Lion was out of the majority of the things on my list) and by 10:30 last night Ryan was so tired of my stomping around he began to follow me around with the WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM! attitude. Once I rattled off my list; that I wanted to cook nutritious meals all three meals everyday, that my newly scrubbed bathroom was already in need of another cleaning, that our children were going to have to wander aimlessly through their curriculum this whole school year, I have gone one week without excerising, no one makes decent pre-made curtains, Food Lion was out of the soup I needed for that nutritional meal I cooked no one wanted to eat, etc, etc; He laughed. I mean, a he- couldn't- keep -it -in- any-longer belly laugh. HOW RUDE! Eventually, I had to laugh too, I mean after all, I do have SEVEN weeks! :)