He Passed!!!!

He passed! He passed! Yes! Brendan finally passed Level 2 in swim lessons this time, woohoo! Now it's on to Level 3...after a break...because I'm very tired of taking him every night after work. I need time to catch up at home. And we have some conflicts in the next couple weeks anyway. So, next session (Fall) we'll rejoin and in the meantime, he can practice in our 12ft x 3 ft inflatable pool at home. lol

Swimming Lessons...AGAIN

The next session of swimming lessons has started again already. So once again we are going crazy with these things every night last week and this week. It is so hard to get anything else done on these weeks when we're at work all day and then swimming lessons every night. *sigh* But, the boys have fun, and it's definitely something they need to learn.

Adam is even in swimming lessons this session...in the parent-child class...


Brendan is still working hard to try to pass Level 2...

Brendan is still having a blast at day camp during the day too. I hope we can get some pictures of that soon. There is a family night next Thursday, so I guess I get to take pics then.

Hard to believe his school starts up again in about 4-1/2 weeks! Yikes!

Photos from 4th of July

I'm finally posting a few photos from our 4th of July celebrations. These first few are from when we went to the city's fireworks display at the stadium. It looks empty, but it wasn't. There were tons of people there, we just happened to be at the far end where there weren't as many. And after I took the pictures, more people filled in around us too.

(In true "Brendan" fashion, you'll notice he is flipping off the camera. I didn't notice this until I was uploading just now. This is a pattern with him, ever since he was a baby! He somehow always manages to accidentally be flipping off the camera in SO many photos we have. Sometime I'll have to gather all the photos through the years of him doing this and post a collection- from a few days old until the present time. lol)

The next day we had a BBQ at our house and shot off fireworks:

(My nephew and Adam at the little table)

(Brendan and my other nephew at the picnic table)

(Joe, my boys, my brother-in-law, and my mom's boyfriend getting fireworks ready on our driveway)

(one of the many fireworks we shot off at home).

Well, a no go on both the waterpark again and South Dakota. They ended up not sending Joe. And he had had an exhausting week and didn't want to go anywhere so we didn't go to the waterpark either.

Brendan's summer school is over now, and today he started day camp. He'll attend day camp for the next 5 weeks. Tonight starts the next round of swimming lessons too. So I'm in for another crazy 2 weeks of taking him to that every night after work again. Hopefully he will have a good instructor and learn a lot and pass Level 2 this time!

We found out that a spot is opening up for Adam at the day care center we've been on the waiting list for. So he will start there Aug 20. He will greatly miss his babysitter that has been watching him in her home for a long time. But now that he's 2-1/2 (almost 3 by the time he starts there) we really feel he needs more structure, discipline and learning activities and such. It will be a huge increase in price, unfortunately, so Joe is starting to freak out and go into one of his anal-about-money-moods. *sigh*

I still need to post some pics from 4th of July, I keep forgetting whenever I'm near my digital camera.

Okay, for some reason Blogger is not letting me give this post a title. Very strange. Anyone else had this problem?

Waterpark, South Dakota, etc

Well, we didn't end up going to the waterpark this past weekend afterall. It ended up being kinda chilly and stormy all weekend. So, we will try again this Saturday (tomorrow) instead. His free ticket expired last Saturday, but it is still good for 50% off until August so at least that's something. Tomorrow is supposed to be very humid and in the 90's so it should be perfect waterpark weather. The only problem now is that Joe might have to drive to South Dakota this weekend for work, and if that happens then we might have to cancel the waterpark trip again. We'll see. I was thinking maybe we could go with him to SD, but it is such a quick turn-around (going there one day and coming home the next!) that it really isn't worth it to put the boys through all that driving for less than a day's worth of doing things. So, most likely that won't happen.

We had a good holiday. I'll post again later with pictures from our celebrations :)

Now THAT'S a frog!

Just had to share a pic of Joe with the huge frog they found at his work. Now THAT'S a frog!

The 2 Worst "S" Words...

Swimsuit shopping. 2 of the worst words in the English language. Nothing like a 3-way mirror, flourescent lighting and 59 non-fitting swimsuits to dampen the spirit. I had to do it this past Saturday, because of our upcoming day-trip to a nearby waterpark this coming Saturday. Brendan earned a free ticket from school, and it expires this Saturday, so we can't wait any longer. Before kids, I always wore a bikini, but now I need to wear a one-piece (at least for this season until I lose the remaining 20-ish pounds). It is amazing to me that it could possibly be so difficult to find a decent one-piece!!! Would it kill them to have some support, helloooo?! I went to Kohl's & JCPenney, and it took me trying on about 60 different suits before I could find one that my "girls" were not spilling out of or looking squishy or what have you. And I don't have huge ones, what do the rest of the women wear??? The rest of the suit would fit, but the top part was seriously lacking support. I remember seeing online that there were special D-cup suits, and so I looked all around for that, thinking those must have extra support cups or something, but no luck finding those. Now come on, there are LOTS of women with my D-cup size (and bigger), what do they know that I don't? There must be some secret I'm missing! lol After about swimsuit 49 of 60 I began thinking I was going to have to borrow some boob tape from Katherine to get a suit to work for me! lol
After way too long of searching in crowded loud stores (and those who have been around awhile know that I already don't like shopping and can't stand crowds), suit #59 actually fit me well on the top half, but the bottom part of the suit "legs" came down so low and resembled something an old-fashioned grandmotherly figure would have worn in the 50's or something. Not very flattering. But then it finally happened. Suit #60 was one that actually fit me everywhere, and that I wouldn't be too self-conscious wearing in public while I'm still losing the remaining 20-ish pounds. Whew! So here it is, only the one I have is black with brown, not purple. It was the only color combo they had, and at that point I was taking what I could get! When I got home and put it on for Joe to see, he liked it. Then he said, "So what are you going to do with that in a few months when it is too big for you?" I will happily get rid of it and go back to wearing cute bikinis, thank you very much! But for now, it will do for the waterpark this Saturday.

Finally Friday!

This has been another busy week filled with something every night after work. I'm so glad it is finally Friday! Tonight I have something after work too, but it's fun, and doesn't involve taking Brendan all over town or working. Tonight is our monthly Mom's Night Out, woohoo! This month we are meeting at someone's house for food, drinks, ping pong, Wii, chatting, laughing, etc. I'm definitely ready for a little fun time away after these last couple busy weeks. And I've been dying to try playing a Wii! lol

Brendan did not pass Level 2 swimming lessons this time, so he will have to retake it again in July instead of moving up to Level 3. I understand that it is very common for most kids to have to retake it, and there are so many requirements that he needs to pass, so he'll just have to keep working at it and practicing! I did see a big improvement over the last 2 weeks of lessons though, so maybe one more round will be enough to get him to Level 3.

Yesterday was my most recent weigh-in at the WW meeting. I lost another 3.4 lbs this week, for a total of 13 lbs lost in 5 weeks. I'm really happy with that, and can't wait for even more to come off.

Saturday I have to cover for one of my part-timers again, but luckily it is only for 3 hours. Then Sunday we have a picnic to go to. I really need to find time to catch back up with things around the house this weekend too!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Father's Day Fun

(2 posts from me in the same day, can you believe it?! lol)

Father's Day was good. The boys and I gave Joe a new shop vac for his new garage (one you can hang on the wall so that it is off the floor), and one of THESE. I always get him a "fun" gift for Father's Day that he can use to play with the boys. (past years I've gotten radio-controlled airplanes, marshmallow shooters, etc). Since Joe likes fishing, and since I thought the boys would get a real kick out of the "rocket shooting" effect, I thought this would be a fun choice for this year. Joe didn't want to go out anywhere, he just wanted to have steak and ice cream, and us hang out as a family at home. So, that's what we did. We walked through our woods to the creek at the back of our property so they could try out the rocket fishing rod.

It was a cute and fun idea, and worked for awhile, but Brendan was too impatient to wait for a fish to bite. Joe ended up catching a little fish, which renewed Brendan's interest temporarily, but then the shooting mechanism wouldn't launch it anymore. But, it could still be cast like you would a regular fishing pole, so it was still usable.

While we were paying attention to the fishing pole, Adam had worked his way a little further down, and had proceeded to scoop up handfuls of wet dirt/sand and rub them into his hair. He had a whole head full of wet goopy stuff, and it was dripping down his face leaving dirty water marks all over his face and shirt.

And he was sitting in the muddy stuff too. Of course I grabbed the camera.

Then we played in the water for awhile and Joe and Brendan got in a splashing fight.

Adam wasn't too thrilled about being in the cold water, but we all had fun.

It was a good family day :)

How was everyone else's Fathers' Day celebrations?

Busy weeks, Catching Up, & Tagged!

Things have been kinda busy lately. After the chaotic first day of summer school, everything has been fine with that. Brendan is enjoying it, and we haven't missed the bus or gotten off at the wrong stop any more! lol

Swimming lessons started up again last Monday. This session meets every night for 8 nights. It's good in that it gets it over with and doesn't drag out week after week. But, it is very annoying having to drive him back into town every night, and getting home kinda late, etc. On top of that, he has Tae Kwon Do on Thursdays, and I've been having to cover for one of my part-time staff on Thursday nights as well, so we are rushing around from one thing to another, and no time to drop him back off at home. So, he ends up coming with me and we don't get home until after 10pm those nights. Then I had to work an activity Sat night. I haven't been able to keep up with all the daily things at home that I normally would do in the evenings, like dishes, laundry, cleaning, etc. Our house is a mess! Ugh! This week we do it all again. But next week it will drop back down to just work all day, summer school and the Tae Kwon Do for Brendan, and extra work on Thursday nights. So at least that will be better.

Oh, and so far on my 4-weeks of WW, I've lost 9.6 lbs :) Would have been more if I hadn't have eaten all those snacks while my mom, sister and I were on our annual scrapbooking weekend in the cabin the weekend before last! But even that week I didn't gain anything, still lost 0.2 lbs that week. lol Thursday is my next weigh-in and I'm hopeful that I'll break the 10 lb mark. At this rate I'll finally be back to what I was before kid #2 by August, but I know things will slow down too, so I'm not gonna get my hopes up too much for it to happen that soon. I'm not aiming to get down to what I was before kid #1, that was too skinny for my height. But I am aiming to get down where I was in between kids, which was right where I should be for my height (5' 8").

I'll write about Father's Day later today when I can upload some pictures to go with it :)

For now, Carolyn has tagged me, so here goes...

These are the rules.... each player starts with 7 random facts about themselves on their Blog. People who are tagged need to blog 7 facts about themselves and post the rules as well. At the end of their blog list 7 people you are tagging. Let them know that they are tagged by leaving them a comment.

Here are 7 random facts about me you may or may not know:

1) I don't know how to ride a bike! I can ride a dirt bike type bike, but if it has any gears, speeds, etc, forget it! I never learned how to work those things. Joe tried to teach me once, but I was about 6 months pregnant at the time...not a good idea. lol I've just never really had an interest in riding bikes.

2) I love to drive barefoot. First thing I do when I get in the car is slip my shoes off to drive. This started in high school when we used to go on float (canoe) trips and camping trips all the time and I'd jump in my truck with my swimsuit on and drive back from the river. It became a habit.

3) I tried out for and made an All-Star Dance Team and danced in the half-time show of the Hall of Fame Bowl on New Years day in Florida back in the 90's. There were dancers from all over the US, I really am not sure how or why I made it. Although I could do a mean high kick in a kick line...maybe it was that? The teams playing were Boston College and Tennessee. Don't ask me who won. I can't even remember. lol

4) I hate to run, but I joined the track team in high school because my boyfriend was on it. (silly girl). Turns out I wasn't too bad in field events. I competed in high jump, triple jump and long jump. I broke the school record for girls' high jump at the very first track meet I'd ever been in. LOL Then I broke my own record again. I still had the record when I graduated, but I hear through the grapevine that my record was broken again shortly after I left. No surprise there, I expected that.

5) I love tomatoes, but don't like ketchup. I love oranges, but can't stand orange juice or anything orange-flavored. I like apples and apple desserts, but I don't like apple juice or anything apple flavored.

6) I would rather drink beer with the guys than go shopping with the girls. (nothing against girls, I like hangin' out with girls too, I just don't like shopping and I do like beer. lol Our friends' wives like to go shopping, so I usually end up hangin' with the guys, drinking beer.)

7) One of my favorite things in the world to do is sit around a campfire at night, talking, drinking, and if there is a guy that can play the guitar there, that's even better!

Okay, if anyone wants to be tagged, then you're it!!! Let me know if you participate :)

First Day Chaos

So our adventure this week was Brendan starting summer school. We had quite the day yesterday-we missed the bus because I had it in my mind that the bus came at 6:50, but it was actually 6:45 so we had just missed it (we got there at 6:47). So I had to drive him to the school. It wasn't at his school, it was at another school that is even further away (and in the opposite direction of my work too). We finally got there, but we were too early (because he would have been on the bus for along time while they pick everyone up). So, I had to stay and wait with him for about another 1/2 hour until the teachers were ready for kids to be there. Finally I was able to leave and rushed out to get in my car, only to find that I was blocked in by busses and cars of parents dropping kids off. So I sat waiting to back out for at least another full 5 minutes. Ended up at work an hour-1/2 late. Ugh!

Then, when I went to pick him up at the bus stop after summer school, the bus pulled up, all the kids got off and NO Brendan! As I'm walking up to the bus to ask the bus driver, she calls out to me that Brendan got off at the wrong stop and one of the teachers was driving him to this stop. So, the bus driver had dropped all of the kids off by then and she insisted on waiting with me until Brendan arrived. It took what seemed like forever, but he finally got there.

So far today has gone much smoother, he got on the bus no problem this morning, and he said he knows where to get off the bus now. lol I can see why it was confusing to him though, because during the regular school year the bus picks him up at our house and drops him off at our house, but for summer school there are just a few designated bus stops. So, I guess he just wasn't familiar enough with what his stop looked like yet.

This week cannot fly by fast enough. I can't wait until Friday. I'm off at noon on Friday to leave for the annual cabin scrapbooking weekend with my sister and our mom. Girls' weekend. No hubbies, no kids, just us 3, scrapbooking, food, drinks, and whatever the heck else we feel like. I cannot wait!

Basketball Camp Pic

Just wanted to share a pic I took of Brendan at the basketball camp he attended this week. He had a lot of fun! Now next week it's on to summer school for the month of June.

Leave it to MY son

Brendan has really been enjoying basketball camp this week. I'm so glad, because this is the sort of situation that he normally avoids. Up until now, he's never wanted me to sign him up for any kind of sport type thing like this. He didn't even like gym class, and would get very upset if he couldn't do something just right. Then he would sit out and refuse to participate. But he has come so far this year. By the end of the school year he was having fun in gym class. And I was really surprised when he did want me to sign him up for this 1-week basketball camp.
He has been having so much fun and learning a lot.

Last night at the dinner table we were asking him about it, and what they did, etc. He was telling us that they have them split up into smaller groups and that one of the girls (from the women's college basketball team) was his leader. He said they were in their group and he was acting like Hammy (the hyper character on the movie Over the Hedge). I'm thinking, oh great, he was probably annoying the heck out of his leader. And then he said, "I raised my hand and said Oh Oh Oh until she called on me and then I said Can you help me find my nuts?" OMG, I died laughing when he said that. I can't believe he said that to her! I wonder what the heck she must have been thinking when he said that! LOL What the heck goes through that little boys' mind is beyond me. He knew it was funny, but he didn't really understand the "adult" part of that line! lol I just hope she has seen the movie and knew what he was talking about! lol I asked him what she said, because I was curious how she reacted to it. He said "she just laughed and said no." Oh my, leave it to MY son to say something like that.

Last Day of Kindergarten!

Well, Kindergarten is officially over. Brendan got home a little while ago from his last day of school. As if we don't already have a thousand papers from this year already, he stepped off the school bus toting a huge 3-ring binder with a whole bunch more, as well as his folder stuffed FULL of various pictures, journal entries and other things he had done throughout the year. They had an end-of-the-year party in their classroom today. He cried for about 10 minutes straight last night when he realized that Joe and I wouldn't be able to come for it. It wasn't really a thing for the parents, of course parents were welcome, but it was mostly just for their classroom. And it was at 11am, while we are both at work. I didn't know Brendan thought we were coming. I felt terrible that he was so upset about it. So I suggested that we have our own celebration tonight at home for him. Nothin' like the promise of cake and ice cream to cheer a boy up! lol He was instantly happy again. So, tonight we will have cake and ice cream, and I got him a Kindergarten graduation card along with a new Superman game for his V-Smile. I bought a separate Weight Watchers Smart Ones piece of cake for me, so that I wouldn't feel guilty eating the "real" cake, but wouldn't be left out either.

Speaking of WW, I've completed my first full week, and weighed in again today. I've lost 2.8 lbs this week. Not too bad!

But, back to Brendan...I don't think I mentioned on here that earlier this month he got Citizen of the Month award at school for the month of May! Now this is a great accomplishment considering the way he started out the year! He had a hard time following the rules, listening and participating in some things. He was quite obviously one of two "trouble makers" in the eyes of his teachers at the start of the year. His teacher repeatedly has said how very smart he is and more advanced than the other students, but we were continually getting notes home about his behavior. His behavior has improved so much! So, for him to be chosen as Citizen of the Month is a great honor. Here was what his teacher wrote (this was read at the flag ceremony where he was awarded a certificate, pin, ribbon and pencil)...

"Brendan has been chosen as May's Citizen of the Month. In our classroom, he is always the one who willingly helps assist students with computer problems. It doesn't matter what he is doing, he stops and goes over to tutor someone on a game or help them figure out a problem. Everyone in the class calls him our computer expert. Brendan also takes his time when doing his work and does his absolute best work at all times. Brendan has grown as a good citizen and now comes to class with a smile and a desire to do his best job! He's a great example to others."

Here he is with his award:

He also received a Reading Circle Award and his Kindergarten completion "award". Throughout the year he worked towards earning a free Big Surf ticket, a free Six Flags ticket, free pizza from Pizza Hut, and free meal at Denny's coupons. He earned all of these things from reading certain number of book and/or certain hours of reading. We read with him and Adam every night before bed, so that helped. So now, we shall make plans to take them to Big Surf and Six Flags this summer to redeem his free tickets :)

It's hard to believe Kindergarten is over, and that now he is considered a First Grader! Ack! And I actually got tears in my eyes when he told me all of the teachers, librarian, office staff, principal, even janitors all came out of the school together while the kids were on the bus and they all stood there waving as the kids left school today. That was really neat! Picturing it got me choked up. (I'm strange that way though...I'm much more likely to cry at neat or touching things than I am sad things. Yes, I'm one of those people who cries while reading cards at Hallmark, but can sit through most funerals without a single tear.)

I am just so proud of Brendan, and had to share! Now it is on to basketball camp, summer school, and day camps galore!

Wordless Wednesday (late today- and almost wordless)

Can they DO that?!!!

Considering the way the school year started, (with very little communication and information and still not knowing what time the bus would arrive until the first day, etc) I guess it is only fitting that it would end this way. The last day of school was supposed to be this Friday. (originally it was Wednesday, but after snow days and such it got pushed back to Friday). So, for the last several months it has been set and on the calendar as Friday being the last day.
Yesterday they sent home the school newsletter, and at the top it says Calendar Update. And goes on to say that the last day of school is THURSDAY and that Thursday will be a HALF day! And they are changing this NOW?! And giving us 3 DAYS notice?! Hello! Working mom here! I had not planned any care for Brendan for Friday or Thursday afternoon because he was supposed to be in SCHOOL! So now, here it is Tuesday and suddenly he only has 1 more full day of school left. Ugh! I'm just wondering how many parents didn't even read the newsletter! Something as important of a change as that should have AT THE VERY LEAST had it's own separate notice on brightly colored paper, not just another item on a newsletter! Geez! Thank goodness I took the time to read it, or Brendan would have been dropped off on Thursday and been alone for hours until I got home from work!

Can they do that?! Just change something like that with only a couple days notice?! Well, I guess they can, since they DID. Crazy. Guess I'll have a "helper" at work Friday. Grrrr.

New Roof, B-day Party and Last Week of School!

Wow, it's Monday again already! My weekend consisted of cooking and cleaning for 6 males. Joe's dad, brother and my dad all came down this weekend to help Joe replace our roof, and I tried to keep the boys out of their way. We are putting a metal roof on (supposed to be more energy-efficient, apparently) and they got most of the way done. My dad ended up staying last night too, and he and Joe both took off work today to finish it up.

Tonight we have my nephew's 7th birthday party. It's at this big indoor family center with huge 2-story tall crawl-through play structures, video games, skee ball, etc. We always have fun there- that's where we had our boys' birthday parties in November also. And being on a Monday night this time, it should be MUCH less crowded! Have I ever mentioned how much I like skee ball? I love it! I could play it all day. So I'm looking forward to playing that tonight :) Usually Brendan is like "Mommmy, are you done? Mommmmy, stop playing skee ball, let's play something else!" lol

This is Brendan's last week of school! After today, only 4 days of Kindergarten left! The other schools around here don't get out until June, but Brendan's school used up their spring break to make up snow days, so they get out earlier. But, I work full-time year-round so really that just means we have to find things for Brendan to do every week for the next 12 weeks! lol He has basketball camp next week, followed by summer school for the month of June, and then outdoorsy-type day camps the rest of the summer. It will be interesting to see how he does with all the new situations and activities. I hope he has tons of fun! I wish I could go to camp instead of work! lol

Officially a WW member

Well I finally did it. I joined Weight Watchers. I don't have a lot to lose, but my youngest is 2-1/2 yrs old now so I can't hardly blame the extra 20 lbs on baby fat anymore. lol I thought I could get it off by myself, without help, because before children I was always thin and I was dumb enough to think that there was no way that *I* could ever become/stay overweight. But 2 years later it's becoming pretty obvious my body just likes being this weight, and I just won't be happy with myself until it is gone. I know me. So, when WW was offered through my work, I went to the open house. And when they said the meetings are during our lunch break and our company would pay HALF, you bet your ass I jumped on that! So, yesterday was the first "official" meeting and weigh-in. Ever notice how the scales at the doctor's office and other places always weigh you heavier than your home scale? Ugh! Why is that? So I'm actually even heavier than I thought! But I'm fairly tall too, so it isn't quite as bad as it sounds. But still.

So, the goal to conquer is 18 lbs. Once I do that, I decide if I want to set another goal to lose more. I'm sure I will go for another 10 lbs after that. Then that should do it! That should be enough to make me comfortable wearing a swimsuit again and put me well into the range of what I should be for my height. So I'm a point-counting fool now ;)

I figure by mentioning all of this on my blog it will help make me more accountable. I'm in one of the photos from our trip a few posts down, if you want to see a "before" pic, but really, I would need to post a nude and/or swimsuit photo for a good "before" comparison photo for the full effect, but yeah...that's NOT happening. I will save your eyes the pain. Now the after photo...maybe. LOL

So, 18 lbs, here they go! Wish me luck!

Thursday Thirteen: Home Improvement Plans

Thirteen things we're planning to do to our house

1. Finish the garage: hubby has been working hard on building a 2-car (un-attached) garage with workshop. It is almost complete, just some finishing touches left.

2. Replace the roof: this weekend hubby, his dad, his brother and my dad are going to replace our roof with a metal roof.

3. Turn finished part of our basement into a playroom: part of our basement is finished, and we will soon be turning that into a playroom for the boys. Right now it is full of random stuff that we need to go through and clear out. It will be so nice to have 1 room for all the toys, games, etc instead of them being strung all over the living room and boys' bedroom.

4. Get all of the tools and stuff out of basement and into new garage: Now that the garage is almost complete, we will be able to start moving all of hubby's tools, hunting/fishing stuff, etc out into the garage, which will free up a bunch of room in the basement.

5. Build a new laundry room: once all the stuff is out of basement we are building a new laundry room down there- a finished room with a ceiling and walls, even! lol

6. Build a new bedroom for the boys: the other plan for finishing the rest of the basement is to build a new bedroom for the boys. My 6-yr-old has changed his mind 3 times already as to what kind of room he wants...Power Rangers, dinosaurs, and now Transformers. We'll see what he wants once it is time, I'm sure he will change his mind again.

7. Put in new steps or make the ones we have safer: we need to do something different with the steps leading to the basement, since the boys will be going up and down them a lot once their room and playroom are down there. Right now, due to the lack of space, the staircase is this funky spiral staircase with small steps. We either need to rebuild the staircase to be normal steps, or add backs to the existing ones.

8. Buy padding for bottom of the steps: also in regards to the staircase, we will be buying some foam padding for the landing area, just in case, God forbid, the boys ever do fall down the steps.

9. Remodel current laundry area to be entry-way: once we have the new laundry room finished, we will change the area that we are currently using for laundry into an entryway/mud-room like it should be! I have plans for a bench, cubbies, baskets, hooks, etc to make it very functional for all the coats, shoes, backpacks, umbrellas, etc. Can't wait for this!

10. Change boys' current room into workout/scrapping room/office: originally we were building a bedroom in the basement for my 6-yr-old, and we were planning on his current bedroom becoming my 2-yr-old's room. However, now they have been sharing a room for long enough that they want to keep sharing a room, so, they will both be together in the new bedroom, and that frees up the current bedroom for other uses! (until they decide they don't want to share, and then we'll move one of them). So, I hope to turn the current room into a room for working out, scrapping, and move our computer in there too.

11. Change flooring in master bathroom: for whatever reason, the master bathroom is carpeted! A carpeted bathroom is just not ideal. Hubby would like to eventually pull up the carpeting and tile instead. Oh, and he also wants to build a "shitter room" around the toilet too.

12. Change closets around and make into a walk-in closet: we have the most pitiful bedroom closets I've ever seen. They are 2 tiny closets in the bathroom, each is about the size of a small coat closet, and that's all we have for our clothes. Granted, I don't have many clothes, but still- they are ridiculously small. So, we're thinking of knocking out the back of the closets, expanding them into the bedroom to be a walk-in, and having the access to it be from the bedroom side instead of the bathroom side.

13. Long-term plan of big addition: all of the above things are to hold us over until we can eventually do a big-ol' addition on the house. We have it planned out, but we just can't afford it yet. But eventually, the plan is to add on a new living room, main level laundry room, attached garage, and 3 new bedrooms. Then turning the current living room into a dining room.

It will be many years before we can do the big addition though!

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Wordless Wednesday (haven't done one of these in awhile!)