Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Our Special Project

I have had a number of days in a row off from work this week. Maya and Elias are off from school as well. We had a special project planned and we finished it yesterday.


Since I moved into this house I have not really liked the 2nd floor room. It is one long room that runs the length of the house with one larger (12' x 12' approx.) open area at one end. The acoustic tile ceilings are slanted and have dozens of water marks. The roof was replaced a few years before I bought the house so there aren't any new water marks at least. The walls are wood paneling (yuck) and the floor is old grungy looking linoleum tiles. I checked under the linoleum and found only wood sub flooring so we are stuck with the linoleum for a while longer. Elias and Maya moved to the upstairs bedroom last winter, leaving Hannah on the main floor with me. Over the summer the kids switched rooms again. Now just the girls are upstairs and Elias and I are on the main floor. Some days the kids all play upstairs but it hasn't been a very homey feeling place. Until yesterday.



Yesterday we painted. Just the large open end of the room that the girls beds are in. For now it is white, but is is so much brighter and cheerful than the ugly brown. We even covered up the icky water stains on the ceiling. I forgot to take before pictures so I'll just give you a little idea about the walls, and ceiling based on the other end of the room (please excuse the mess we still have a lot of organizing to do).



Here is what the girls' room looks like now.



We did have a rather (ahem) large mishap during the painting process. I spilled paint on the only part of the rug that had come uncovered. I should have rolled up the rug and moved it out of the room before we started painting but I thought we were, literally, covered. The mess, you might notice, is just under Maya's bed near the window. I've already wasted too many tears on the mess. It is just a rug, a rug that continually gives away blue wool fluff to anyone wearing black fleece clothing. The fluff fills up the vacuum cleaner every time I vacuum. I can't figure it out. We have had the rug for almost 2 years.

One last thing about the room. There is a blank corner of the room to the bottom right of the pictures. One wall is about 6' long and the other is about 3' long plus a closet door. I'm going to put a desk in there for Maya. If I showed you this area right now in a picture all you would see is blank white walls and an ugly floor. So you'll have to wait a little longer until we get that part done. It does make a good excuse to visit IKEA. (Like I need a good excuse.)

Happy New Year!

Some of what 2008 brought my family:
First birthdays with the family for Elias and Hannah
New vehicle - a mini-van
New pet - Minnie the wonder dog
Little League - Elias
Tennis and track - Maya
Swim lessons - Maya and Elias
Soccer - Maya and Elias
First family camping trip
Fourth Grade - Maya
First Grade - Elias
Growing like a weed - Hannah
Voting for a new President of the US
Family moving closer - Eva and Adam
New niece/cousin - Alice
Good times with family and friends!

Hope you all have a safe and happy 2009!

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Happy Holidays!

What a wonderful gift our mom gave us!


Since New Year's Eve is tomorrow I can still say Happy Holidays. Belated Merry Christmas as well. Our Christmas week was a whirlwind of activity. We started the week on Saturday (Dec. 20th) we decorated the tree and wrapped presents. The next morning we had our own little Christmas at home. Each child got a present from a sibling and one combined gift from me.
Maya got a HSM3 CD and a zippered overnight case (made by me). Hannah got a brown skinned Barbie doll and two outfits and Elias got the Wall-E DVD. I gave the kids and myself a Wii. We spent the rest of the day playing Wii games, Watching Wall-E and the girls played Barbies. It was nice to have a little Christmas at home that wasn't as overwhelming as Christmas with the whole family.
Every night Monday through Thursday I worked and the kids had the whole week off from school. So they spent a lot of time at Grandma and Grandpa's house. The cousins arrived on Tuesday, adding to the excitement of Christmas.
Christmas Eve I arrived at my parents after a day of sleep in time for homemade pizza for dinner. We then moved on to one of my favorite Christmas activities, decorating cookies. I helped frost and all the kids went wild with sprinkles, red hots and chocolate chips. There were a number of very pretty candy canes, boots, stars, bells, trees and gingerbread people this year, and they were sooo yummy. Next presents went under the tree and children went to bed, waiting for Santa to arrive.
I spent the night caring for the children unfortunate enough to be hospitalized over the holiday. The hospital receives many many donations at this time of year. Someone spent all day wrapping gifts for each child staying overnight in the hospital, plus extras for any that arrive later in the night. I got be one of Santa's elves in scrubs, delivering presents to each patient while they were sleeping.
Christmas morning was present time with the family, 24 of us in all crammed into my parents living room, plus two dogs occasionally wandering through the mess. I think everyone got something they wanted. After presents we went to the kitchen to make Korean food for lunch, bulgogi, jap jae, mandu and rice.
I have been off from work since the 26th. We have a special project that we are working on this week. I'll post some pictures tomorrow.

Friday, December 19, 2008

Baby News

My sister Eva had her first child yesterday, Alice Jane. Congrats little sister! You can go congratulate her on her own blog too.

Dancin'

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Who knew we were such good Disco dancers? Even the dog got in on the action.