Here are a couple of videos that I bugged Wes into putting up on YouTube recently. My kid can do tricks! Check it out! (okay… so she performs reluctantly, but she CAN do them!)
Here is a video displaying my child’s AMAZING observation skills.
I’m going to be posting a lot of pictures here to get caught up before Elliott’s big birthday on Friday! WOOT!
Elliott has been SUPER sleepy this week. I’m talking two hour naps in the morning, followed up by three or four hour naps in the afternoon, followed by 11-12 hours of bedtime sleepy. I’ve barely been taking her out this week because by the time I’ve got her dressed and fed she’s starting to yawn again. I’m not really complaining though because it’s been sort of a nice vacation for me. I’ve had time to read, play games, and work on our mountain of laundry.
I’m just starting to worry that the next time she wakes up she’ll be a foot taller and talking in complete sentences. Why does she have to grow up so fast anyway?
The first room I started with in my house was the guest room which I have been working on this past year. One of the main reasons behind this choice is that I do not have much experience painting and if I was going to screw up a room, better it be one that I’m not in frequently. Also the room was painted this dark hunter green color, which I like for horse apparel but was much too dark for the small room. I used some twin sheets I bought on clearance as the base for my color choice in the room. They are white with little bright pink flowers and some bright green leaves. A challenge I have in the room is that it is small so fitting the furniture in there is interesting. This is especially true since, thanks to the generosity of my lovely Aunt Martha, I have a trundle bed which lets me have two twin beds to offer guests but the room must also be open to accommodate the second bed when it is pulled out.
Here is what the room looked like on my last walk through before closing May 2009:
guest room
I painted the walls a color called Green Apple. It turned out brighter than I thought and I was a little disappointed with it in the beginning but now that I have more furniture and decorations in there I quite like it. We also found out after putting the primer up that the ceilings were not actually white but white with a faint tint of hunter green. To say I wasn’t pleased would be an understatement. Here are some pictures of the room taken in the early fall midway through my changes. At this point the only main differences are that I (with the help of my then pregnant sister and my brother-in-law Wes) had painted the walls, moved my furniture in, and had gotten new curtains from the Shabby Chic collection at Target.
And now for the finale, at least for now. If you know me, you know that I have lists and plans for everything and June starts the year long transformation of my bedroom. I now have new bedding, which again is from the Shabby Chic collection at Target. I for some reason adore this line, I didn’t know I was that girly! I also have a new chair and cabinet I found on Craigslist. I actually got crafty and fixed up the cabinet all by myself. I’ll show that transformation in a later post as it is not totally done yet. I also hung up some photos and artwork. The fancy big photos were house warming presents from my Purdue Crew. Thank you guys so much, I love it and it was a total surprise! They are from the fabulous Alicia Bock’s Etsy Shop. I got the frames on sale at Micheal’s. Oh and beyond that my Dad and Mom gave me a fine tutorial on how to change electrical outlets without electrocuting yourself on Easter day.
Sometime in the future I would like to do the following:
- Change the lampshade
- Change the fabric on the chair
- maybe paint the chair wood white? I’m conflicted with this as I love the color of wood
- repaint the white part of the cabinet antique white to cover up some of the dings? I like the shabby look of it and am undecided on this.
- rip out carpet, my neighbors assure me that there is the same hardwood in the bedrooms as there is in the rest of the house.
- refinish the hardwood floors
- get white baseboards
- crown molding?
- once my cat Sano passes away I can get a cute rug for the room to add something to the no man’s land in the middle of the room that needs to be kept open for the trundle bed. Sano is a rug pisser, the annoying brat, so this can’t happen while he’s around.
- a fancy closet organizer for my basket weaving supplies that I never use
- replace blinds with something….probably roman shades.
By then I’ll probably want to repaint the walls and start all over! 
The dogs are finally not covered in mud having had their day at the doggy spa and seeing how it was a beautiful spring day last Sunday I decided to do a photo shoot documenting their cuteness. Why? Because I’m one of those pet owners. 95% of the photos I take are of my pets, which I’m sure makes my parents weep joyful. Anyway let the fun begin. First up is Mr. Hobbes who ironically was the easiest to photograph seeing as the words sit and stay mean nothing to him.
What he does have is cute down to an art form. The stinker!
Ok next up is Freya.
Umm ok let’s try that again.
Hello Freya look at me!
Why you little punk. Fine let’s try it on a down.
Just look at me and we will be done!
You brat. Fine I’ll get some cheese. Now say cheese…
I would have liked a little less pathetic begging but I’ll take what I can get.
Jeez we’re done now no need to be grumpy about it! Meanwhile this joker was causing some of the distraction for Freya meowing pick me pick me I’ll pose!
Here’s our video from Easter morning. Elliott’s First Easter!
Here’s a video Wes took of Elliott playing with Popper. You can see that Elliott always wins in the end.
I’m combining three different events in this post. Sorry it doesn’t really make sense all together!
Easter Sunday: Here is Elliott in her adorable dress!
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In desperation to make my child eat vegetables, I purchased some Gerber diced carrots. I figured it was worth a try. Here is how my child rewarded my efforts.
Step one, suspiciously inspect the food:
Step two, immediately regret putting in mouth. Glare at unsympathetic mother who is laughing uncontrollably:
Step three, attempt to spit out carrots while making wild distress noises:
I think I’m going to try hiding them in some spaghetti sauce next time… It’s worth it even if she doesn’t eat it, just to see her make that face.
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Yesterday, I heard banging noises and Elliott screeching and found her up on her knees, banging on the sliding glass door.
She really hates to be separated from her doggie.
Let me out!
I know that I’m due to actually write a post but I saw this and had to put it up.
The parental units will be arriving at mi casa on Thursday and I have yet to clean. Well I did a round of dishes and thought about cleaning but that is about it. You see I was quite busy looking at horse pictures online for 4 hours and then reading a book followed by some light dozing all day. CLEARLY I had no time to clean! I was beginning to feel a little panic stricken about it so I of course got back on the internet to read some blogs because that will totally help me clean. Hey my house may still be (literally) covered in mud (thanks to my two filthy mud covered dogs) but look I found this totally awesome video to watch. Maybe I can distract the parents with this and they won’t notice the dog footprint tracks on the floor?
p.s. They did it all with glow sticks, how awesome is that!?!
Elliott has learned to crawl! She has been aching to move on her own and was very frustrated because every time she tried to crawl she usually ended up going backwards. That all changed last Wednesday (St. Patty’s Day) when she finally finally inchwormed her way forwards. Since that day she has seriously picked up the pace and is now throwing herself with glee towards every object that we’d prefer she didn’t put in her mouth. I used to think toys were invented to entertain children, but now I understand that they were actually created to distract children from destroying your home. I can see that it’s going to be an exciting next few months while I watch my child shove disgusting objects found on the ground/floor into her mouth. Thank God we have that vacuum cleaner!! So far she’s only managed to go after dog toys, shoes, socks, and the occasional piece of grass or fuzz.
Elliott’s main motivator to move at all is Popper’s nasty beat up squeaky fish. She loves to go after the toy and taunt Popper mercilessly with it. In fact, that is pretty much what she does all day long. Our poor dog.
Here’s how the game goes. Popper gets out the fish hoping that Wes or I will throw it for her to fetch. Elliott spots the fish and grabs it, dashing Popper’s hopes of playtime.
Then the taunts begin. “What did you want this? This fish I’m waving in your face? You wanted to play with this?”
Of course, Elliott snatches it away again as soon as Popper tries to gently take it from her. Then she giggles and shrieks with joy while Popper sadly looks to me for help. It is sometimes too painful to watch.
Eventually, Elliott starts chewing on the fish. This is the final injury for Popper. Poor thing.
Popper keeps waiting for her chance though. She is a sucker for punishment I guess.
So as I mentioned at the beginning of this year I was not happy with how things were progressing in my life. Mainly I had managed to get myself into a tidy sum of debt and thanks to Obama and the fact I bought a house in 09 I have an opportunity to get a large portion of it off my shoulders, hence Operation Debt Free to be completed in 2010 which will result in the follow-up campaign Save Yo Money. The reason I was so upset is: one I’ve been ignoring how bad it was because I wasn’t at a place where I could make much progress fixing it and it was a bit of a shock to actual look at the reality of it; and two I was going to have to give up the horse fund I’ve been protecting all these years. If you had talked to me in November or December you would have been hearing how 2010 is the year of the Horse. Once again I find myself putting aside my heart’s dream since I was 6 years old to make the responsible choice. I’ve prayed and thought long and hard about it and I know it is the right choice and in the long run will leave me in a better place, but it was a bitter pill to swallow. Why am I talking about this now is because stage one has been a success. The horse fund was plundered and the car has been officially paid off. Actually I thought I paid it off last week but something didn’t work and the transaction fell through, but the second attempt was a success and I no longer have monthly car payments to worry about. As soon as I get my Special K form in the mail, the second stage of this plight can be undertaken. I may actually have some fun doing my taxes this year! 
Now on to Project Bikini 2010. I have been exercising this week with my co-worker Jerry who is crazy and evil and I decided as of today is trying to break me. Today we worked on shoulders. Oi la vay. Sob, he mocked my piddly 8 lbs weights (after I felt rather proud of myself for not grabbing the 3 or 5 lbs too!) as he rolled over with his 25 lbs and 40 lbs monstrosities. To say we are at different spectrums of fitness levels would be an understatement. Let’s face it, I was out of breath just WALKING to the gym. I totally get bonus points though, as when I got home the weather was so beautiful that even after feeling sore and tired I took Freya on a long 30 minute walk. Something else that may be a shock for all is that I have been soda free for weeks. I gave up all soda for Lent and have held true. I actually am planning on avoiding it even after Easter. This does answer the question that has plagued many upon meeting me, and that is nope it wasn’t the caffeine I’m this hyper naturally thank you very much. :p