Back to reality

Ugh. Sigh. Complain. Complain. Complain….

My two weeks of "welcome homeness" are over. Booooooooo! Christmas is put away. Laundry has been done. And the house looks like a man lives here again.

The Giant is back to work today and I am home with one sick little girl. I hadn't planned on being so MIA this week, I swear. Do I even have any readers left? I wouldn't blame you if you have deserted me by now. I've not been the best blogger. I had every intention of jumping back on the blogwagon once we returned from vaca last week, but then life just took over. Starting the minute we walked back in the door, our new home to-do list seemed to grow by the minute. It didn't help that we returned with the cold bug which started with the Giant then quickly jumped to Chey Chey. Damn you Mickey Mouse and the gazillion germs you probably carry in your kid infested fur. You got us good. I'm starting to fight a scratchy throat myself, but since we can't afford the Momma to get sick, I'm armed with Zicam, Vitamin C, and a ton of water.

Needless to say, I've had Lysol in one hand and pitiful Peapod in the other. All any little sickly wants is her Momma. Well, that is not completely true. Despite her most pitifulness, her Daddy has had some of the most precious moments with her over the last 48 hours. Who knew that she would get so attached to him so fast? She absolutely adores him even when she's so sick. She loves getting snuggles and attention from both of us like she's never gone a day in her life without it. Despite the brief twinge of instant jealousy that I was not prepared for and am dealing with (just being honest…), it warms my heart to hear her call for him in snotty need or watch her tired eyes light up when he walks in the room. Today even when he was leaving for work and she was heading down for nap time, we told her needed to go bye-bye, she immediately cried and ran to him, wrapping her arms around his leg. Ah! Is this what we've been missing without the Giant home?! Neither of us could help but smile in her instant distress. I may or may not have teared up. I won't say.

(Daddy opening his March Christmas while she stands at parade rest)

Onto other things… I know I have a lot to catch you up on. That is, if you are still out there. If you are, be prepared. I have lots coming. Nights home alone again mean one of two things. Crafts or blogging. There you go. If I'm not here, you'll know what I'm doing. Well that or (hopefully for not much longer) nursing my sickly. Ok there. That's it. No more excuses. One of three things. Promise. The end. I'm back.

We're home but not quite back

No, I didn't hijack my Giant and run away with him forever (like I thought about the minute his plane touched down). We took a little vaca- just us three. And now we're back and readjusting to life back home as a family of three. Life is good, friends. I've never loved vacation more and yet never been so happy to be back in my own home too.

Here's just a hint to life the last week and why this site has been boring for a while.

I have so much that I admittedly need to catch up on. The house is a wreck. The suitcases still aren't unpacked. Laundry is growing by the minute. Christmas is still up (yup…). And my blog is sitting here silent and unloved. 

Can I be honest?

Not to be course, but today none of that really matters because life is seriously good yall. I have a sweet baby yelling "Mom MOM!" to my left and a handsome giant that I can't stand to take my eyes off of to my right. What's a girl to do?! Oh yeah… enjoy every minute of it.

At some point I'll get bored and be ready to update, but for now, I'm just loving my loves. Thanks for understanding! I'll share a few more non-specific pictures just to say thanks. I'll save the best ones for later.

Mmmm… MomMom loves Epcot

Looky who I found!

The Giant is home!!!!

So thankful that a friend took the picture above and sent it to me because my brain was so scattered once he landed that the only picture I remembered to take was the one below…in the parking lot before we loaded up to head home. I'm learning.

I did get a few videos but nothing like I should have. Once I saw the Giant climb down the steps, all forethought of blogging escaped me. That and I was going on 4 hours of sleep… See?

This is the plane coming in. Captain obvi here at your service.

And here we spotted the Giant. The end. HA!

Cheyanne didn't know what to think at first. It was cold and there were a lot of people screaming. Oh and she was not thrilled when the plane came right towards us to turn and unload. It was too close for her comfort. Not for me though! The closer the better at that point. 

Once we got to Daddy, she wouldn't go to him but she wanted to keep her eyes on him. If you have never experienced a deployment return, the process goes you wait for their return, you greet them, then you have to go your seperate ways again for a while so they can in-process with blood work, etc. It was at that point that Chey was NOT cool with saying goodbye again to Daddy. She didn't understand why he had to leave us again. Thank God for the yummy muffins someone brought that waited for us inside and helped take her mind off of the confusing separation. God bless that person.

Chey actually took to her Daddy amazingly fast. Both the Giant and I are still a little perplexed at how well she has responded to him. Let me just show you a picture that says it better than I can even explain. 

More on their, I mean our day later.

Window (mis)treatments

Now, I'll start by saying, this is not THIS. I am not gutsy enough yet to do complete stripes so I decided to take baby steps. And I am so glad that I did. 

Knowing that I couldn't really afford fancy drapes for my french doors, I thought, "I can make drapes on my own." So, I bought two white full flat sheets and got started. I washed, dried, and ironed them then they magically became drapes. "Magically" meaning I ironed a hem to hang them because, you know, I haven't figured out the whole sewing thing yet like I said I would about a year ago. 

Two weeks ago, I got the nerve up and decided to go for it. I did what every good DIY'er would do and turned on a movie and got DIY'ing.

I laid out my drapes as flat as I could  (with cardboard underneath the section I would be painting).

I measured and taped the lines with painters tape. I get why this is the most time consuming part for those that paint stripes over the whole sheet. They've got to be s.t.r.a.i.g.h.t.

Then came the fun part. Painting. One foam roller and a bottle and a half of black acrylic paint did the job like a champ. You know, the little $.89 acrylic paint bottles from Michaels? That's it. 

I waited for it to dry (about an hour) and then carefully peeled off those tape lines. Taa daa! Then I did it all again for drape #2 which went by much faster since by then I was a pro.

Now look at my pretty drapes. Pretty suhweet, right? I'm in love with them. 

Love. Love. Love!

.

Closet Cleanup

of maybe I should call this the "Closet clean out."

With a month left of the Giant's deployment, my butt is in high gear of cleaning up around here. While the big projects are much easier to turn my attention to, its the small ones that i'm really making sure get done. For instance, I have now cleaned out and de-cluttered a junk drawer and two closets in the last few weeks. Projects that usually would have been kicked to the sidelines if I had the Giant home, but without him here to have a say, things need to find good homes around here. I'm ridding us of cardboard boxes. I'm tired of looking at them for the last 6 months. Outta here!

I thought I'd show you my easy peasy and much more useful craft closet cleanup.

Hi, my name is Molly and I'm a craftoholic.

Since nap time has become Mommy's project time, I did a craft purge the other day while Peapod slept. I pulled out every craft/project box that I could find hidden throughout the house and put everything in piles. Ribbon goes with ribbon. Paint goes with paint. Craft paper goes with craft paper. Trash in the trash pile. You get it.

With no money in the budget for storage, I took matters in my hands and made my own. Its not beautiful, but it sure is functional.

An old shoe organizer, three same size cardboard boxes and a whole lot of duct tape did the job just fine.

The end result. An organized craft closet.

A fully functional, $0 budget cheap, life simplifying solution to an addiction that had spun out of control. I now know why my husband has forbid me from going to Michael's. For now. But, I'm thrilled with how my little space turned out. For an hour of my time and zero dollars, I'm pretty proud of it.

It won't always stay this organized...

… but that's what closet doors are for. Hide the mess and/or keep the little fingers out of the crafts.

And when your little one is just dying to play with the paints, you have a finger painting day outside in the sunshine.

Or belly painting, whatever floats her boat. And hopefully, you catch a little foot print or hand print in the process to make something fun like this for her "under the water" themed room as a memory. See the footprint and handprint? Baby art.

The unexpected

With a sick little girl on my hands this week, I've found very little time to get things done during the day. There is nothing in the world better than cuddling with my little one, I just wish she felt better while doing it. I'm so far behind in house work. I've never let it get this bad. Too many projects being done at one time. Too much laundry that has gone unfolded. I can't lie- its bad. But, when given the choice of cleaning and blogging or holding my coughing baby, I'll choose her hands down. Thus the house is a wreck and the blog is empty. I'll be better soon once my little one's better too.

I do want to share this little unexpected find in my day since I can now laugh about it. I took advantage of a sunny afternoon nap time a few days ago and actually made use of myself. After cleaning the house and getting a couple craft projects finished that I've been staring at for the last two months, I still had time to tackle the broken tree that fell into my back yard from a freak storm back in November a little while ago. 

While cutting it up, I reached down to pick up branches and caught something in the corner of my eye.

Do you see it? 

GROSS!!!

Of all days for my backyard neighbors to be outside.  I might be referred to as the crazy neighbor with *&%$!* tourets now after being surprised by this guy. Oops. I hate snakes. Whether they are plastic or grossly real- they freak. me. out. I'm that girl that will walk on the other side of the room at the aquarium to avoid the snake exhibit that's in 10 inches thick glass. ::shiver:: Thank God that plastic fella didn't have a body attached or I might never venture outside again. I'm not scared of much but this little jerk got me. For a girl who grew up on a farm, I'm pretty weak with the slithers.

He might have kept me out of the backyard the rest of the afternoon, but I've had so much inside to do, I kept busy until my heart could slow down. I'll fill you in on all that later. Lots of projects. Lots of cute stuff making its way into the house. 

Want a quick sneak peak of one in particular? I found this idea and made my own version. 

Or something like that…. I hope. But, who knows?!

Cheyanne's room re-do

With a sick Peapod on my hands, I didn't get much time to take pictures today. I thought about letting the blog slide tonight, but with the Giant away and me hoping he gets a chance to read this sometime, I can't disappoint him if he does. 

My day consisted of saying goodbye to my parents this morning and quickly getting to base for a last minute sick visit with the pediatrician. I spent the rest of my long day tending to Cheyanne's sensitive needs. For the second time in a month, my sweetheart has caught a bug, this time a cold. Freakin' a! I kept her healthy for 12 months and now all of sudden, despite still nursing and "unintenionally" keeping our bubble walls still up, she's found a germ.

I decided that since I don't have much news to report from our day besides that I finally had a good conversation with the Husband and he is doing well, I thought I'd do a little home update. I've gotten lots of requests for pictures on the new digs and its changes, so I think I'll start with the most cheerful room, the princess' room.

What's the theme? I'm still not sure how to describe that one. It all started with a girly under the water theme and that evolved into classy under the water which then became the girly paisley/stripe subtle under the water beautifully colored baby to big girl transitional room. What a mouth full. Should I have just gone with a safari theme? Kidding kidding. I LOVE her room! Its still not done but its closer than any other room right now and I think its beautiful. 

It went from this….

to this….

to this…!!!

You like her alphabet wall? Its very DIY made by yours truly. With a pack of stencils, pretty paper, Mod Podge, and 26 mini canvases- her alphabet wall was complete. Right now, its my favorite part of the room. That and the stripes. However, the stripes and I have a very serious love/hate relationship after days of do and redo. 

So, here's the list of things left to do so you can get the big picture (via bullet list):

• First things first, chair railing. Its going up when the Giant gets home. It will be beautiful once its up!!
• On the wall above the toy chest (which will soon be pushed over by a dresser/changing table), I'm still looking for some really stand out artwork or a fantastic shelf set. She has so many little pretties that I want to put on display that I am thinking the shelf set might be a better choice. 
• And, above her bed I'm working on a large monogram of her name in pink and glitter. 
• White (or pink) sheer drapes
• To top it all off, we'll have paisleys. I haven't decided exactly where these gems will be going, but my original thought was to stencil paisleys in coordinating colors around the top border since we have no crown molding.

Ok, that's the list of Princess to-dos in her heiness' room. I'm open for comments and suggestions. Let's have it ladies (and gents)! Thoughts on the shelf idea?

Sweet Giant, I know you're flying so I'm sending up extra prayers tonight. We love you. Hoping that tomorrow will be a better day for us girls so I'll have photos to share.

Its the most wonderful tiii-i-ime of the year

That's right. I'm saying it! Autumn is by far the best time of year- not the cold winter months like the song would lead you to believe.

Nope.

The best time of year starts when footballs are flying through the air, when green is no longer the it color and is instead replaced by rich shades of maroon and orange and even brown, and when pumpkin is cooked into pretty much everything feasibly edible. Yep, that's when you know it is the most wonderful time of year.

Despite the fact that we still have boxes everywhere and new paint still going up on the walls, fall is starting to make its appearance in our house. That's probably mostly because I stumbled upon a wedding decoration box full of autumn beauties- our wedding just so happened to take place in my favorite season. (Speaking of which tomorrow is OUR THREE YEAR ANNIVERSARY!!!)! Not too many are up so far, but a few pretties are up.

There is one lovely in particular that I feel like bragging about. I am so proud of it and it took me all of fifteen minutes to make. I've seen similar wreaths on my addiction and by Kate but since I'm cheap and determined to use what I've already got in my twenty craft boxes sitting in the closet, I made it my own for under $3. And, I love it!

How'd I do it? I'll show you.

Step 1: Why spend mucho $$ on a wreath when you can buy plumbing pipe for $0.96? COST: $0.96

2. Cut burlap in long strip and begin wrapping around wreath folding one edge down to show depth. COST $0 since I already had it.

3. Continue wrapping until completely covered. Dab hot glue on ends.

 4. Decorate as desired with small pumpkin/gourd pack and leaves from found wedding decor box. COST: $1 from Dollar Tree.

5. Hang lovingly and stare at it frequently. COST: PRICELESS!

Seriously, under $3. Love it?! I do!!!

Buried alive

Hi, remember me? I'm finally starting to break through what was somewhere around 357 boxes and the 249 loads of laundry that have been staring me in the face.

All clothes boxes have been unpacked- only one pile remains unwashed. I'll get to it... eventually. In the mean time, we're loving our new hometown and new digs. With no pictures hung or framed, no remnants of our faces anywhere in la casa, I have no pictures worthy of entering the blog world quite yet. Trust me, I'm working on it. With clothing boxes done, we move on to the decor boxes. That's when the fun begins, right? Or so I believed as I perused Pinterest for ideas.Anyone ever heard of an addiction problem to Pinterest? Maybe not these days but I definitely had a pinterest problem pre-moving pre-buying a house pre-broke bank account. Follow me! Can't I just win the lottery and higher someone to decorate for me? Or even better, can't I have some super awesome interior decorating, Charleston loving friends who would want to take over this whole area for me? Hint Hint Sarah Ireland- I got your email just haven't gotten a chance to respond yet.

We took a day off from house things last week and explored the Charleston Aquarium with Chey. Her first aquarium trip- and it was a success. So much of a success that we ended up getting year passes so we can go anytime we want! Yay for Mommy and daughter dates when Daddy gets deployed. Here a few cute pics from our aquarium adventure.

 Notice the crock behind her head.

Next time, maybe we'll get pictures to prove that Momma was along for the ride too. Yeah, that would be fun.

He's Coming Home!!!

My Airman is coming home! Tomorrow! And I just found out 2 hours ago! Ahhhh! He's not really coming "home home" but he's coming close enough to home to go be with him for a few days while he's on leave. So what am I doing right now, besides taking a moment to let you all know? I'm running around like a freakin' mad woman packing our bags to go. We've got a 4 hour ride ahead of us tomorrow morning to be at the airport by 1:30pm when his flight lands. Yeah, this is a rush pack!! I figure its been too long since we've seen each other to really care what I'm wearing, right?! As cute as I'd like to look for him, I'm going on last minute notice, so whatev. Throw it all in a bag and go. That's exactly what I'm doing. I feel like my mind is running a million miles a minute. The twenty lists in my head are all getting jumbled, but I DON'T CARE CAUSE MY HUSBAND IS COMING HOME!!!!

See you all next week when I get back!