Long, But Not So Depressing....

So, It's been a few days and I thought I'd let you all know that I am fine.  Really, I am.  I indulged in my cocoa later that night, snuggled down and slept my sorrows away.  Tony treated me the next day with more cocoa from  Dunkin' Donuts, which if you've never had, you are truly missing out.  I swear it's something in the temperature of the water in which they make their cocoa that makes it impossible to match at home.  I suspect it's that they have their water piped directly from Hell, because anything that good must be sinful.

Anyways...

What have I been up to?

Well, A mountain of laundry has yet again been conquered.  And I must say, this laundry detergent that I found on Pinterest and finally got around to making is the best detergent I have ever used.  I even gave some to my friend (she's got 7 kids, it's a wonder her laundry ever gets caught up) and my Mom to try.  Seriously, it even gets our blood and bicycle grease the first time around.  I know this, well, because I have boys.  Enough said.


I have gotten all of the stuff to make these fabulous Valentines for the boy's classrooms, also found on Pinterest, via Danelle...

  Yes, it's a bit pricey, but so worth it.  And hey, this is Oldest's last year for Valentines, so I decided to live a little.

Speaking of Valentine's Day...I bought Tony a little something for Valentine's day, that ended up costing me more than a few pennies.  Don't ya just hate when your creative genius clashes with your budget? Yeah, me too.  Anyway, I thought I'd give him a heads up of what I'll be expecting in return.

We're going away for the night.

It will also be the weekend of our 6 month anniversary (no, I'm not that dorky, but I'm using it as the excuse to spend the money) and we haven't even gone to dinner sans children since our honeymoon.  So, it's totally legit, right?

The boys's bedroom is finally coming together.  I have decided to skip the molding and trim for now, as the room is not to code and will add no resale value to the house.  Besides, we have so many other things we could spend $400 on right now.  Here's a look at Youngest's side....

As you can see... he loves his superheros.  As you can also see, I am the type who doesn't insist on my photos being picture perfect either.  Seriously, the bed is made and there's next to nothing on the floor.  That my friends is as good as it will ever get around here.... the shelves are more or less hopeless.  He says there's a system there... Yeah, I got nothing.

This is a look at Oldest's side....

He's big into the sports... motocross, Nascar, basketball, etc.  The hoop is an old one that we had on the garage.  He has a stuffed angry bird that he shoots 3 pointers with.  Whatever, he's quiet and not fighting with his brother.  He could be slam dunking actual birds down there and I would care less.  he loves his photos on the wall and he has a stained glass window that catches the light in the morning.  It also gives him the sense of additional privacy since it's above his bed. Just to the left of his bed is his TV with all his gaming stuff.

 The room is about 400 square feet, divided down the center by book shelves that span almost to the ceiling.  The common area at the bottom of the stairs has a flat screen with the Wii...

....and will sport an awesome couch as soon as I get to the fabric store to get the necessary materials to upholster it.

I must say, it's quite the budget friendly Boy Cave, and so far, all the kids love it.

The sun room is coming together slowly.  We are hoping to have the floors done before we go away. We settled on a Spice strand bamboo, based primarily on durability and price.  I also love the Eco friendly aspects of bamboo as well.  My mudroom area is coming along quite well, and should be wrapped up (minus the floors) tomorrow.  I'm hoping to post pictures by the weekend.

So, after some big deep breaths, I have sucked it up, carried on.  Funny though, after my last post I started to notice little signs out side.  My Josie roses already have buds all over the branches.  Daffodils are already blooming around town.  And my Rhoda already has buds...

Spring is on it's way....