Wood floors- before and after

 Here are two pictures of our formal living and dining rooms with carpet (I'm taking this from the front door; you see this room when you look to the left as you walk into our house):

The carpet actually doesn't look too bad from far away.  But up close, there were sections that were in pretty bad shape.  For example, about a month after Drew was born, Grant got into my fingernail polish and hid behind the dining room table, having a grand time spreading it all over the floor and curtains (which were eventually removed when we painted this spring, and haven't been replaced yet):

And then of course there was this large cat pee stain against the front wall of our house.  As soon as we moved here three years ago, Amminadab (our neutered cat) started spraying in a number of places around our house.  We didn't notice for a few months, and he eventually became an outdoor cat when we tried a few different things to get him to stop.....and nothing worked.  And we got this carpet professionally cleaned about a year ago....even they couldn't get this stain out!

Here's the room after they tore out the carpet and laid the leveling material down.  I was shocked by all of the dust.   I really wish they had warned us, so I could close doors and cover furniture.  All of our downstairs surfaces needed to be wiped down when they were finished.

And after!  

We chose engineered wood; I haven't taken a close-up picture of the boards, but they're 5-inch planks and it's a dark-colored oak.  We think it looks perfect with our furniture and wall color.  And it's hand-scraped, meaning that it has some texture to it (thus it's supposed to do a better job of hiding scratches and dents that inevitably will occur with small children). 

For a couple of days after it was finished, I was SO careful about the boys walking and playing on it.  But now I'm doing better, and we've dragged most of their toys back in there.  I've never had wood floors before, and I'm just so afraid of damaging it right now!

Grant keeps shutting the computer and telling me. "that's enough," so pictures of the bathrooms will have to wait.......

New floors, etc.

The closer I get to having this baby, the less motivated I am to write on the blog.  I only have probably 8 or 9 weeks left (I turned 30 weeks on Monday), so during the boys' naps I'm always either resting or working on one of my many still-unfinished projects! 

Last week mostly centered around our new floors!  We had wood floors installed in our formal living and dining rooms (where we previously had carpet), and tile installed in our master and guest bathrooms (where we previously had carpet and linoleum).  We think they all look great!  I will hopefully post some before and after pictures at some point this week.

Some other things we did last week:

The boys have recently discovered how fun it is to pull all the cushions off the couch in our formal living room.  They jump and scream and tackle each other on it.  We probably made a horrible decision from the very beginning by allowing them to jump on it (they jump on most of the furniture in our house.....bad Mommy and Daddy!).  But this couch really is a piece of junk.....it still looks okay from far away, but it has cat pee stains on one of the sides and cat scratch marks all over the rest of it (one of the reasons why this cat no longer is allowed inside our house).  Here Drew is screaming and Grant's covering his ears and screaming right back:

On Tuesday (the day before the floors were going to be installed, and I knew we'd be stuck at the house for the rest of the week) the boys and I went to the Children's Museum.  The boys had fun splashing around and playing in the outdoor water area.  Every day last week was so incredibly hot, with almost no clouds in the sky.  I felt like I was melting out there at 10:30am!  We didn't stay too long.....the newest wing of the museum was closed because the A/C was broken, so all of the open sections were really crowded (and most areas of the museum are a little advanced for the boys anyway).

On Wednesday morning (the day the guys were coming to start on our floors), we went to Wal-Mart to buy some materials to make our own play-doh.  I have all of these good intentions of doing fun activities with the boys, but now almost the entire summer is over and I haven't done any of them!  So many days we just end up doing the same old thing, so last week I wanted to try extra hard to try some of those fun things I've been meaning to do for weeks. 

So the boys had fun mixing the ingredients and making the play-doh, but it just didn't harden up the way it was supposed to.  So instead I just took out our regular store-bought stuff and let them play for a while.  They had fun for about 30 minutes, and I don't think it ended in a screaming fight or a huge mess.....so I guess I would consider it a success!

Might as well begin the political indoctrination at an early age!

On Thursday morning, we made a "bubble bath" in the sand/water table in our backyard.  I don't know what I was thinking.....I made bubbles out of our dish soap instead of using their (tear-free) bubble bath.  Drew only got it in his eyes once, and thankfully it didn't seem to bother him much.  They had fun dropping their cars into the bubbles and then trying to find them.  It was a fun way to spend some time that we'd normally be watching cartoons.

Also, on Sunday night we convinced Grant to sleep through the night without a diaper.  He's been potty trained for months, and he never wets the bed during naps.  But for some reason we've continued using diapers at night, not really wanting to deal with changing wet sheets in the middle of the night.  But for three straight nights, he has done great!  Every morning he wakes up dry, and he claims that he wakes up during the night to go potty (he never wakes us up, so I don't know for sure).  We are so proud of him!   Today I told him we could go buy a toy because he's been doing so well sleeping in his underwear, and he said, "yay!  I can't wait to tell Daddy!"  We went to Target and he picked out a "karate chop" Buzz Lightyear (he's on a major Toy Story kick even though he hasn't seen the newest one). 

Hopefully I'll post some before and after pictures of our new floors in the next couple of days....

It's not what you think!!

I signed up to take a meal to some friends tonight who recently had a baby.  The boys and I met my friend Jennifer and her boys at the park in the morning, then I had to go to the grocery store to pick up a few things.  It was a frustrating trip (as most grocery trips are these days), and I realized when we left that I'd forgotten white wine (one of the ingredients for the chicken dish I was planning on making tonight).  I haven't bought wine in at least five years; I enjoy it but we just don't drink it.  So the only time I open a bottle of wine is to make this particular recipe, and I happened to run out the last time I made it.

So back into the store we went (I had just caused a minor scene in the checkout line with the boys a few minutes before), and we went straight to the wine aisle.  I found what I needed and tried to look casual as I took it up to the checkout line.  It was so weird, but I felt like I needed to explain to the checkout lady why I was buying it!  And I know they weren't, but it felt like everyone in the store was noticing me and judging me.  Here I am, this woman who is very obviously pregnant and very obviously annoyed by the horrible behavior of her kids, who leaves the store then comes back a few minutes later to buy alcohol!  But while I was trying to casually explain that "I know this looks suspicious but I need this for a recipe," I felt even more stupid!  

What's worse, it took forever to check out because the receipt printer kept eating the paper, so the lady had to work on the machine for a minute.  When I finally got my receipt, I turned to see the manager (who was helping out with bagging) handing me my bottle of wine wrapped in a brown paper bag!!  Now I really felt like a wine-o.  Again, I said something silly to him about this looking very suspicious, which probably made me seem even more suspicious! 

At least it wasn't scotch or whiskey or vodka, and I'm sure those people didn't even give it a second thought.  And I'm not one of those people to be embarrassed by buying tampons or things like that.  So it surprised me how ashamed I was; I guess I just was afraid of being seen as an irresponsible mom who is putting her unborn baby in danger because she can't handle the stress of raising the two kids she already has! 

Sunday pictures

We had a fun weekend.....I went to a super fun baby shower on Saturday morning for my friend Jennifer, then I got a much-needed haircut and did some other errands in the afternoon.  Dean watched the boys a lot that day by himself, which is always a nice break for me! 


Yesterday after their naps, the boys swam in the pool for a while.  They won't go in the pool without Buzz and Woody or their little rocket diving sticks.  Whatever Grant does (sticking his head in the water, doing a belly flop), Drew of course does the same.  He tries to be a carbon copy of his big brother in every way.

Dean took a belly picture (I'm 28 weeks today).  And by the way, this is a non-maternity shirt from Express that I bought about a year ago.  I have two others, and they still fit perfectly (even though I haven't been able to wear any other regular clothes in weeks).  It wouldn't surprise me if they fit until I deliver the baby.....they still seem to have a lot of space to expand.  Crazy! 

Mommy and her sweet boys.....I almost didn't post this because my face is looking really chubby!  This happened with Drew too (I can't remember if it did with Grant or not).  As of my appointment last Friday, I've gained 25 pounds.  My doctor says this is a little high but nothing to worry about.  I guess I'm on track to gain 40 pounds again this time.  Oh well!

Drew was being super silly later last night.  He stuffed Kitty and Brownie into his school bus, then ran and pushed them around the house.  He and Grant do this all the time; Grant usually pushes his dump truck and Drew pushes his school bus.  Now they've started crashing into each other a lot.  Drew has suddenly become a fast runner and he keeps up with Grant a lot better than he did a few months ago.

Checking to make sure Kitty is okay.  "Tee?  Tee?"  He is becoming so silly and fun to watch!

Grant has said some funny things today.....but I will have to share later because I am needed by my little guys!

Eye-opening for a mommy to hear....

One of my favorite Christian speakers is Nancy Leigh DeMoss....she comes on at 9:30am here in Houston every weekday.  I only get a chance to listen once or twice a week, but it seems like she's always talking about something that I want to learn about (or need to hear).  Yesterday I tuned in while the boys and I were driving up into town.

They were re-playing a speech given by a woman named Rachel Barkey in spring 2009 at her church in Vancouver.  Rachel had been fighting breast cancer for the previous five years (since she was 32), and had recently been told that her cancer had become terminal and she only had a few months to live.  She was diagnosed when her son was two and her daughter was 7 months old.  So at this point (a year ago, shortly before her death), her son was 7 and her daughter was 5.  The point of her message was to explain her faith in God and her perspective as a Christian nearing the end of her life.....wanting desperately to live longer but coming to realize that God's plan is perfect (even when we don't understand it).

Yesterday they only played the first part of her speech, and today they played more (I wasn't able to hear it but will listen to the podcast later).  But wow.....it was such an eye-opener for me.  I completely take my health for granted, never really appreciating that I have (as far as I know) years and years ahead of me to spend with my husband and kids.  She was describing how at that point, she could only spend a few hours out of her bed every day.  And her daughter would lift her arms and ask her to pick her up, but she was unable to do it because the cancer had spread into her back.  It made her so sad not being able to do simple things like this, and just knowing that her days with them were numbered.

It was a much-needed reminder to me....so many days I feel so bored or frustrated with my boys and I just want the hours to pass as quickly as possible.  I certainly don't usually just stop and thank God for this time I have with them, or appreciate the fact that I have countless hours to spend with them (and Dean) in the future. 

Literally one or two minutes after the show ended, Grant told me from the backseat that he had to go pee-pee.  My first reaction was to be frustrated.....we had just left the house 20 minutes earlier, and we were not in a part of town that would be easy to find a place to stop.  But then it hit me: wait!  What did I just hear on the radio five minutes ago?   This is not a big deal at all!   And it was on my mind throughout the day.....not to say that I didn't get frustrated, but I was more aware of the gifts I have been given. 

Click here to go to Rachel Barkey's website.  Or you can also go to the Revive Our Hearts website to listen to her speech (July 22 and 23....not sure if it will be continued next week since I didn't hear it today).  I don't mean to be a downer, but for me this was an incredible reminder of God's sovereignty and how blessed I am.