March 28, 2012

• tonight i blow dried ben’s hair after his bath …. ’cause he asked me too. and i’m a sucker for those type of things. i comb it all out first and then turn on the blow dryer (after just typing that, all of the sudden it sounds weird – most people call them hair dryers, don’t they? well, we obviously call it the blow dryer. just think hair dryer & you’ll know what we’re talking about) where were we …. turning it on. i turn it on and brush his hair over and over again. regan & molly came in after for their turns. tonight i held chad & the hair dryer in the same hand … or hand & arm.

  i also pulled sailor’s tooth out. we did a happy dance afterwards. the last tooth that came out was pulled by the dentist. this was far less painful.

  i’ve sat here twisting a bit of my hair around my finger till now its truly in a knot. i have great plans of big hair for easter : ) for the girls anyway!

  i also googled ‘how to heal an ear infection – w/o drugs’.

  i’m wishing i would have taken rex up on his offer to make me a delicious dessert.

  the arm of the chair i sit in every night when i feed chad is just big enough to balance my lap top, or a glass mason jar of cold water, or a steaming bowl full of tortellini & broccoli. 

  i want to post about our new school room, but i can’t decide which picture to start with. which will obviously be a mute point when you read this because you’ll have already seen the picture. but for now its just a white screen.

  little chad is making all sorts of little noises in his sleep right now.

  - – -

  i seriously can not even believe that our old shed is now our school.

  i really wish i had a true ‘before’ picture. when the old wooden door would not open all the way ’cause there was that much stuff blocking it, where transmission fluid was spilled & puddled on the ground. how there were shelves & shelves of totes. the lawnmower, old stroller & rototiller all piled in a heap. the rakes & shovels fallen over. the broken windows and the mice droppings …. 

  it was our shed. rex could spend a saturday out there & it’d look like some neat nick old mans shed again – everything perfectly in its place, clean swept floor & a door that could open & shut.

  but give it time & kids who had discovered the place where their mom & dad hid unwanted old toys and it would soon fall back into the ‘shove the door open, step on and over things’ old shed.

  he tells me he suggested once turning it into a class room for the kids & i had some unfounded excuse how that wasn’t necessary.

  i believe him. and now can’t for the life of me think why i didn’t agree to the idea sooner??

  but i came home one day a couple months back and was all ‘hey we have a shed we could turn into a school room just like so&so did. we should do it!’

  he’s very good at not saying i told you so ; )

  he was also very good at reorganizing his garage/shop to make room for what was in the shed to not be in the shed anymore.

  he’s also very good at making trips to the dump! we got rid a tons of junk.

  so my pictures start after the shed had been cleaned out & emptied. it sat that way for quite awhile ’cause there were some loose ends to tie up before we actually committed to really doing the project. then it sat with sheets & sheets of sheet rock that were given to us.

  
  it looked something like this – uneven cement floor, no ceiling, stud walls, sprinkler box, empty window … you get the idea : )

  
  now it looks like this : )

  its the closest i have of a before & after shot facing the same direction.

  
  so here’s how it happened, in pictures.

  
  school for the boys the past 3 weeks was shop class –

  

  

  

  

  

  
  he had help hanging the sheet rock on the ceiling, everything else he did himself –

  

  

  

  

  

  
  after the taping was done we spent a night having fun decorating ….

  

  

  

  

  
  happy cows come from ….

  

  
  molly’s self taught version of her own name –

  

  
  we’ve learned states & capitals and studied US geography this year – this is ben’s free hand of the united states, with alaska & hawaii.  he can draw it better than i can.

  
  later he used puzzle pieces to add some states –

  

  
  they didn’t want to leave chad out –

  
  the next morning –

  
  his first go at texturing -

  

  
  and then it was time for primer & paint!

  

  
  this picture is an illusion …. i don’t paint -

  
  i seriously don’t : )

  

  

  

  

  
  i take it back on he did everything else …. we did have the home depot guys come & lay the carpet. i was with the boys at violin lessons when they came. so we kinda jump ahead in this picture. he’d hung the door, set the windows, laid the fake tile, put in the base board & put the blinds up. it smelled like new carpet & that night we just went out and sat in the middle amazed at how we loved the color of the walls and it was actually done : )

  
  and then we spent a rainy spring day here –

  
  regan came on the 2nd trip –

  
  we were waiting for rex to go get the car -

  
  we pulled a couple of 2am nights building desks & deciding where to hang alphabet charts –

  
  once the construction of the room was done, we put cardboard on the window of the door so the kids couldn’t see the furnishing & decorating. we had an official open house & here they are seeing it for the first time. they walked in with their eyes closed : ) benny was in my arms – the chicken pox were here & he was the first hit.

  

  
  the book case had some fun new surprises in it …. battleship is jack’s favorite –

  
  until dolly starts kindergarten, she & reggy have their own little table for ‘school’ –

  

  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  

  

  - – -

  i honestly can’t believe its ours. it still seems unreal to walk the 30 feet out our back door & into this room. i’m so crazy excited for the potential it holds – not because we want or expect geniuses …. we want them to love the Lord their God with all their minds & this room has been designed to help that happen
  
  thanks babe ~

  • 2:54 am
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