Opinions needed

Trying to redecorate when you have no money to spend is a real challenge. So in order to keep my sanity, I have decided to try to makeover my master bedroom and guest room by basically switching bedding. I am hoping to paint the guest room, but the master bedroom will not be repainted because the high ceilings are very difficult and I doubt I should be climbing a ladder in my condition. I think that the wall color looks pretty good with the bedding. What do you think? I also think that the bedding looks pretty good with the bed finish.




So the next question: skirt or no skirt? (bed skirt that is?) I've always thought bed skirts were absolutely essential to having a finished looking bed/room, but because the footboard and side boards, I'm kind of thinking I don't need a bed skirt?




My next dilemma is color of the sheets and curtains. I bought some chocolate colored sheets, but I did not like them with the wall color or bed finish. So I guess I'll just try some other colors. I think the green (in the bedding) is a little too much for the curtains, but will work for sheets. I would love to do pink or coral sheets (from the bedding), but I'm not sure Jerrod would go for that.

On to the guest room. This lovely blanket that Candace crocheted for Tyler, is my inspiration for this room.



I was looking through a magazine in the ob/gyn waiting room and all of these colors were listed as favorites for 2009 from some of my favorite designers on HGTV. Candace, you are so great at color schemes and way ahead of the trend since you did this in 2007. I really love chocolate brown, so I want to do an accent wall with that color. Not sure about the rest of the room. The room is small with one window, but since it is on the back side of the house, it gets a lot of sun light.

I am having a yard sale in the spring, so I'm hoping with the money I make, I will be able to buy a few accessories for both rooms. Lamps, wall decor, etc. I'd like to get both of these rooms mostly finished by the end of March, because then it will be time to do John and Tyler's room, and the new nursery.

Any suggestions are welcome. You will not hurt my feeling if you think my ideas stink.

My little student

Here is John doing an activity from a lesson I made for the online graduate class I'm taking. I can't believe he'll be four in a few weeks.

The birthday boy

Hope you had a great Labor Day weekend. Ours was busy with Tyler's birthday party and time with family. Friday was Tyler's first birthday and we had a wonderful party with friends and family at Kid's Cove. Here are some pictures from the party. As you can see Tyler really enjoyed his cake. Thank you to those who came to share this special day with us. We had a great time!





The past year has flown by, and I can't believe fall is right around the corner. John starts back to preschool this week and Tyler is walking all over the place. Here are some pictures of Tyler from the past year.

Attitude

For some reason, not because I felt like I've had a bad attitude recently, something I remember seeing in my college dorm came to mind today and I felt like posting it.

Attitude

"The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life.
It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do.
It is more important than appearance, giftedness, or skill.
It will make or break a company... a church... a home.
The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day.
We cannot change our past... we cannot change the fact that people will act a certain way.
We cannot change the inevitable.
The only thing we can do is play the one string we have, and that is our attitude...
I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it.
And so it is with you ...
we are in charge of our Attitude." - Chuck Swindoll


Have a great weekend and a blessed Sabbath.

John and Tyler's first baseball game

What a great weekend! Beautiful weather and a baseball game with my boys. It doesn't get much better. Jerrod's best bud from CA was in DC for a lawyer's conference, so we decided to meet him and watch a Nationals game in their brand new stadium. The weather was perfect (sunny and mid 70's). The boys did great on the three hour car ride up and back. No throwing up by John and Tyler slept the entire way there and back. The DVD player wasn't working due to the fact John threw up all over it on the last car trip, but he didn't whine, complain, or cry the whole day (we left @ 8 am and got back @ 10:30 pm).

As you can see from the pictures, we had awesome seats (second row behind the visiting team dugout). It was nice that John got to experience his first MLB game so close to the action. John really liked the fireworks when the Nationals hit a home run and the eagle mascot. I'm so glad he's not scared of things like loud noises and people dressed up in crazy furry costumes like some kids are. Tyler also enjoyed the game, but didn't get an afternoon nap due to the fact he was so interested in all of the sights and sounds at the ballpark. He reached his breaking point during dinner and had to be held, but on the way home, he fell asleep in the car before we even got out of the parking lot.

I'm sure this was the first of many baseball games we'll see as a family. Here are some pictures of our day.

My little biter

WARNING: THE FOLLOWING POST CONTAINS VIOLENT MATERIAL THAT MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR SOME READERS (i.e. - future breast feeding moms)

Don't get me wrong, I am a big advocate of breast feeding, but when your six month old with razor like teeth decides to take a bite, it's not a lot of fun. His biting has gotten so bad that it broke the skin, so needless to say, feeding has been an excruciatingly painful event. It is very hard to heal when it has to be used so frequently. John bit me once and I screamed and he never bit me again. Tyler just looks at me and smiles. I would wince in pain when Jerrod would hug me. After a few days of very painful breast feeding, I decided to call the local lactation consultant, also known as the breast feeding nazi, and see what advice she had. She starts the conversation, "First you must meet his biting need". After 5 or so minutes of telling me how to meet his biting need, I'm thinking "Lady I told you this was my second child, I'm not completely clueless". In the end she was very helpful. She recommended these cooling gel pads that would speed the healing. They worked great. I was feeling much better after using the pads for a couple days. She even talked me into trying these brand new cloth diapers, something I thought I would never even consider doing.

To all those pregnant women who will be breast feeding soon, I pray you don't have a biter.

Here are some recent pics of the boys. Somehow Tyler managed to get his shirt sleeve off and chew on it while bouncing in his jumper.

My Christmas present came a few days late

Today is a red letter day at our house. About a week before Christmas, I told John, "Do you know what mommy wants for Christmas? I want you to poop in the potty." Well today I got what I asked for. After much coaxing, begging, and bribing, John pooped in the potty for the first time. We have been working on potty training for @ 6 months now. He was doing pretty good this summer, but regressed back to square one a few weeks after his little brother arrived. Everyone told me this would happen, but now that he is three and his poops are so disgusting, I am sooooo ready for him to be potty trained. Even though we are not completely there yet, John has shown improvements in the last week, so I am hopefully optimistic that he will be potty trained very soon. For those of you who have potty training in your near future, I wish you good luck. I have the book "Toilet Training in Less than a Day" if anyone wants to borrow it. As you can see it didn't work that well for me, but maybe you'll get some useful information from it.

Happy New Year!