So many things

It's a long post folks! Pace yourself!

I've made a decision! Our kitchen will be this by the end of the summer:

The yellow paint chip represents my countertop. Something kicked in at paint chip heaven that said, "Um, don't forget the countertop!" It's easier to select according to that. (I did the same in the bathroom with the baby blue countertop.) The walls will be the Deep Clay Red. The woodwork (cabinets, doors, chair rail, bead board, baseboards and window molding) will be the Chocolate Cherry. I will remove the cabinet hardware, give it a good spray in a nice chocolate brown and reinstall them. I'll also take our light down, spray it and reinstall it. The fan may get the same treatment. I'll also get some tile for the backsplash that doesn't exist at all. (No, there isn't a built in backsplash with the countertop, either.) I also plan on re-lining the cabinets and touching up the shelf fronts with some Chocolate Cherry. The table legs, and chairs (other than the seats) will be painted with either Chocolate Brown Spray or Chocolate Cherry paint. I'll also carry the Chocolate Cherry over to the back door, plumbing access panel and with the woodwork around both the outside and kitchen doorways. The Deep Clay Red is a few shades darker than the color that we have in the livingroom (Papaya Smoothie), so it will all carry through with harmony instead of each room rudely changing colors. (Our bedrooms and bathroom are all different, but the common areas that bleed into each other were important to me to be in the same family of color.) By the way, Hubs likes the colors that I chose. I bought the paint yesterday, so I get my rebate from Lowe's. Guess what? There wasn't even a line at the paint counter! HOORAY!

I have purged the microwave cart. I saved only the cookbooks that I will/would use. I was able to have enough space to stow one of my three crockpots underneath. (I was gifted a few and there are occasions that I have used all three.) The Kitchenaid, as heavy and large as our little Tercel, didn't fit under there. That's okay. I forgot to take a picture. Sorry.

I purged the game closet, stood all the games upright on their sides. Okay, it is space saving but might bite me in the butt if we don't hold onto the box as we pull it out.I freed the livingroom of all of the toys that have quietly walked in and decided to live in there. I liberated the livingroom of the many toys a few years ago. K- has her doll house and some other little toys in her bedroom. She has 90% of her toys downstairs in her play area. I've explained that they need to stay in one place or the other, not migrate to the middle of mommy's livingroom and stay there. I've washed the windows, moved the couch to sweep the clumps of cat hair from the little ditch between it and the wall. I swept the cat hair off the couch, crumbs out from underneath the cushions and flipped the cushions while I was there.I deep cleaned the bathroom. I looked up, realized that the fan cover was dusty and on my way to stand on the counter, I realized that the silk ivy (I wouldn't normally go silk, but we have no light and we needed something plant like in our bathroom) was covered in dust. IT WAS GRAY! Ick!!! So, I took the fan cover down, scrubbed it with a brush and as it was drying, I swept the actual fan out. I then took the ivy basket down, washed each leaf by hand, dried over all of the leaves, dusted the basket, washed the top of the medicine cabinet, then put everything back. I did a good Lysol/bleach scrubbing of the floor and wiped the doors all down.

The bedroom purging has been completed. (My lollygagging lopped over to Friday a little, but I figured out why I was a lolly. Mother Nature had a little something to do with it and that's all I'm going to say, 'kay? Too bad it took me two days to figure out why I was so flippin' drained!) I'm awaiting the shelf pegs from IKEA, so Hubs' side of the bookcase isn't complete. I wiped baseboards, washed the windows, pitched & cleared items and even re-purposed the bookcase from our livingroom into a lovely clothes organizer for Hubs. Our bedroom isn't big enough to house a separate dresser for Hubs, so the new closet organizer is just going to have to be okay. The new bookcase is in the corner where our computer used to be. Hey look! There is our new chair! Oh! There's laundry to be put away, too! Feel free to help yourself! :)

The closet. I shuffled things around. I put a lot on the upper shelf, like our winter snuggly blankets for the livingroom. We have our sleeping bags off to the right. We also have our air mattress in there, and it is on the top shelf. (It's like a shrine to LL Bean in there.) Not a perfect closet, but it's way more tidy. Look!

Hubs' new clothes sorter. For years, he has told me to skip folding his clothes and to just toss them into themed baskets. I told him that not only would I not do that, but that his mother would kill me. Instead, I decided that the little bookcase organizer I had would work.

And yes, the top of the bookcase is half his to "decorate." We have the Darth Vader figure holder thingy, the ball with the arms and legs that K- tells me to use caution because "Shhh, Mommy? The arms and legs fall off." Oh, and the winged thing that I bought Hubs for Father's Day. It's what he had on his wish list. See? I am a good wife. I did let him have his Star Wars stuff up. It's far better than that year that he decided to put a Grim Reaper up next to the bed at Halloween.

The bookcase came from here. The tray tables are there now. (Mom? Aren't you impressed?) That bookcase has been the collector of crap, dust and books that needed a better home.

Look at what I found last night as I was watering. It is a monarch caterpillar on the milkweed! Hooray! It is our third year with milkweed, it truly is doing the best this year than it ever has and we are so excited!

In other news, we did have to resort to the Bag a Bug for the beetles. I've made beetle juice and Hubs is going to start spraying that. I've left it out in the sun to cook like sun tea. I'm sure that it will smell just grand! (Before you ask, the slinky prevents squirrels from climbing the hook. But, a squirrel can jump 5 feet high, so the slinky doesn't matter so much most of the time.)

Beetle Juice (as in, to rid your plants organically of beetles)
Red pepper seeds
Cut onion
Minced garlic

Place in a gallon jug. Fill jug to the top with water and allow to brew. Place in sprayer and spray affected plants.

During all this, I even managed to make a run to the grocery for some provisions. We took a fruit tray to one 4th of July party (blueberries, strawberries, cherries, pears, apples and grapes). We were going to be there in the early part of the party where they are on appetizers. Later, we went to my parents house for my family reunion. I left the food prior to the first party, though as we were going to be late to my family reunion. Hubs' family thing was about 50 minutes away and we just party hopped. My parents were the recipients of my coleslaw (the Ramen noodle cole slaw) and some chips and salsa. Look! I didn't have to heat the stove! :)

Sadly, I forgot my camera on July 4th, so we'll just have to go with the pictures that others are kind enough to share. Ugh! At Hubs' family party, Iguana Bob was there and did a critter program for everyone. With him, he brought an African Hedgehog, a blue tongued Skink from Australia, an Alligator, a Tarantula, a house rabbit, and a Boa. K- did get to pet both the alligator and the boa. I have pictures with my phone, but I don't have a way to pull them off.

The second party, my dad's family reunion, was the latter half so most of the elders had gone. (Sad.) Nonetheless, we were there to hang out with my aunt and uncles. The boys (my dad and his brothers) set fireworks off for over an hour. The neighbor did his in between, so it was a nice show. Dad bought the big fireworks, so they were city like, just country like in locale. K- didn't want me to put mosquito repellent on her face, so she was bit above the eyebrow and near her mouth, where a dimple would be. She also has one under her arm where I missed putting repellent. Since she was so itchy before bed, I did give her a dose of Benadryl.

Smiles in my weekend:
- K's firsts. My aunt sent her a bag with a pack of Pop Tarts. (K- called them toaster strudel.) I was talking with her and asked if it had been her first. "Yes, Mommy. You wouldn't let me have them before." What can I say, we're sugar free for breakfast, folks!
- She also used a sparkler for the very first time. She was very worried and initially didn't want to do it at all. We explained that it was okay, as we were with her and keeping her safe. After that, she thought that they were great!
- Swinging on the swings at the park today.
- Hubs getting on the swings and swinging with K-.
- Hubs taking K- and me for homemade ice cream. Yum!
- Getting all of the grass stains out of K-'s brand new dress she wore for the 4th of July. Hubs' mom bought it for her and it is really cute. Either the Shout, Spray and Wash with Resolve, Spray and Wash Dual or Spray and Wash Bright and White with our regular laundry detergent added (after having soaked for 10 hours) worked. Whew!
- We accidentally hit the motherload of samples at Sam's today! Incidentally, the cinnamon rolls were my favorite.
- Sam's took the carton of Huggies back so that we could trade them in for Pampers. Seems that baby Leland's skin is so sensitive that Pampers is all he can go with.
- IKEA has called three different times with three different folks keeping us up to date with the locating, mailing and approximate arrival of the shelf pins that are missing. They get an A+++ for follow-up. Absolutely unheard of for a major company. Hooray for them!
- Having Mommy School with K- out in the driveway. We were drawing on Mike's driveway with sidewalk chalk. We were sitting toward the end of his driveway so that we could be in the shade. We did Mommy School for about an hour and K- didn't even realize the length of time that had passed.
- We went on our annual July 4th sale trip to the thrift store. Hey! They have an extra 20% off, so why not? I was on a mission for uniform pieces for K- to start school in. I was able to score 3 LL Bean uniform shirts (2 long sleeve, 1 short), 1 LL Bean turtleneck, a Talbot's long sleeved uniform shirt, a TKS (JCPenney) uniform short sleeved shirt, another school legal turtleneck, 2 pairs khaki pants, 1 pair black pants, a brand new Reese's Cup sweatshirt for myself, 2 pottery bowls that match my current dishes, 1 handcrafted pottery bowl for 25 cents!, a wall phone (a project that Hubs has taken on), and a couple pieces of street clothes for K-, all for the bargain price of $19.50. Hoorah!
- I made a consignment appointment with Children's Orchard for Thursday. Perhaps I can fetch some more uniform pieces in trade.

I hope that all of you were able to enjoy your holiday weekend. Have a great week!