Bit of Sunshine

I did it.

I hired my friend to paint the cloud room. Let's see if I can find a good before picture:

taken in 2009

Sky blue walls with cloud borders, cloud garbage can and even a cloud comforter. I live in a cloudy place and I was getting a little clouded-out. Plus, the room just seemed so dark at night.

Last year, I handed my mom four itty-bitty-sized scraps of paper and said, "Mom, could you make a quilt out of those colors?"  Of course she could and of course she did. The quilt is Amazing. Seriously, it is just like one you'd find on Pottery Barn. It is so girly, yet not baby-ish. It is feminine and chic and I just love it. So, with my friend's decorating expertise, we studied the quilt and chose some paint colors. I told her I wanted stripes (like she's done in her house).

I can't even describe how happy this room makes me. It is the one room in my entire house that I have chosen the coloring and it actually looks awesome. I walk by there and get a little rush. Every time.

Who needs Vitamin D in Seattle? Not I...

I know I still have more changes to make (rug, bed skirts, hire my mom to make a second quilt, paint the other furniture in the room) but I have the major part done and my motivation is set in motion. I am excited to get going on it all. Know that in my excitement, I am not a rusher. I may live with this room the way it is for another year. I like to take my time and plan out the way I want things to look, plus I don't have a lot of extra time.

Things We All Think, But Never Actually Say

So, which ones are your fav?

I think #5, 7, 8, 12, 13, 17, 19 21 are mine.

Bottoms Up

I've had a great couple of days of Thanksgiving. Starting with pre-Thanksgiving with a sister visit and then all the delicious food and my husband being home for a few days. . . ahhhh. Weeks just don't get much better. It did rain four four days, day/night while my sister was here and that isn't the best thing to remember, but we did get to go through the forest and on a rainy run and window shopping.

Not me, but my sis working it, walking it :-)

Our window shopping was funny b/c we actually did window shop. I often get a babysitter during the day when my kids are at school. I hire a home-schooled girl to come over, but this week (go figure) she was busy with relatives. So, we headed to the store and one of us stayed out in the van (raining the entire time) while the other went inside. With texting and store windows and gestures, we both scored bigtime on some boots and cute shoes.

So, today I had tickets to "A Christmas Carol" for my family. I must be getting old, b/c I literally teared up during the show! Can you believe this? The production was similar to what a high school might produce. I was impressed with the set and the stage effects. The main actor (Scrooge) was really good. The part that made me emotional was at the end when the story becomes happy. The company had been able to use a few persons with disabilities (member of the Cratchit family and a townsperson) and it was so touching to see the gigantic smile go across the face of the young man in the wheelchair. Prior to this, we (the audience) had only seen him gaze, unfocused with his mouth open. But, he knew when he was being cheered on at the end. What a great story. That Charles Dickense, he's a gem of a writer :-). My six-year old daughter, who got quite concerned about all of the "monsters" (ghosts of past, past, present, etc) had this to say about Scrooge:  "When Mr. Scrooge got his lesson, he even looked nicer."

To be a kid again . .

I got quite a chuckle at my kids before the show, thus the title of this post. These pictures aren't very good, because they are taken with my cell phone, but you have to focus on the feet sticking up in the air -- cracks me up every time I look at it. I remember being confused by those chairs when I was little and also being concerned that I would be squashed between the bottom of the seat and the back of the seat.

Mom, did you know?

This is a borrowed "funny" but has cracked me up every time I think of it. My friend is drop-dead gorgeous. She is from Albania and literally jaw-dropping beautiful. Anyway, I guess that doesn't really matter in the context of this story, but if you can somehow picture this woman (Albanians are caucasion ethnicity) telling the story, you will imagine her expressions and accent.

Miss Albania (I will refer to her as that) married a man, born in America but of Chinese descent. Both of his parents are Chinese. OK, with that background here we go.

This couple has three children, 10, 7, and 4. The seven-year old home from school the other day and animatedly exclaimed to her mother, "Mom, did you know I am half Chinese?!!"

Hilarious - I love living in such a diverse locality where kids see themselves as no different than another.

Foamy Milk

I am sure I shouldn't be admitting this over the world wide web, but since it actually did make me chuckle this evening, I'll share.

We use our food storage. Ok? There, I will admit it. We cycle through our food storage, even if that means when I run out of milk, I make powdered milk. Of course, I can't bring myself to drink the milk, but the kids haven't complained yet. The secret is to make it the night before so it is cold in the fridge. Don't forget that.

My husband LOVES to cycle through food storage and doesn't even hesitate to make powdered milk. My way of cycling through the storage is to use it in baked goods. Anyway, tonight I made 1 qrt of powdered milk so I can make pancakes in the morning. See, I am not even making my kids eat it with cereal. 
While I was "whisking" it and then pouring it into my empty milk carton, I saw a bunch of foamy residue at the bottom of the bowl. This is what made me laugh because my husband told me, just a few weeks ago when we ran out of milk (I don't know where I was - this wouldn't have happened on my clock, not the running out of milk, but the having our kids consume freshly made powdered milk on cereal). He mixed up a batch of powdered milk and poured it on the kids cereal. My 8 yo just got a bowl full of foam. This cracks me up to think about it. Being a parent is kind of fun sometimes. We do these little things that aren't classified as torture by the world's standards but by a well-brought-up kid's standards, I think this could be torture.

Anyway, have a good week and be glad you aren't at my house drinking foamy milk.