New floor time

I am so happy with my new floooooor. We've been waiting a while to replace the floor in our entry way, because the carpet was scary. Not only was that the dogs prime place to pee and poop toward the end (we always cleaned it, but still, gah), but it was also the section that was soaked when our old water heater went kablooey and flooded the front hallway.

We started by ripping out the old carpet and exposing the wood flooring below.

My husband sweeping the floor. There was sooo much powder-fine dirt underneath the carpet pad (shudder). Now I see why people replace carpet every time they move.

I also discovered lovely carpet tack strips. Be extremely careful if you are removing these, because they are sharp.

Once all the carpet, tack strips, and staples were up, we were ready to lay down the floor. First, we put down some BlueHawk Underlayment. We didn't have to, but we wanted something between our new floor and the wood.

We bought 100 sq ft of Trafficmaster Allure flooring from Home Depot, and it is freaking awesome. It looks like wood, but is actually made of rubber. Waterproof, skidproof, and pretty dang resilient. It was slightly harder to put together than regular hard laminate floor, but still not bad.

We found the easiest thing was to link the pieces into long strips, then click the long strips together.

While we did that, Kaylee practiced hammering with her plastic hammer, golf tees, and a big block of styrofoam.

This was the annoying part. The wood molding actually goes all the way to the subfloor, so I had to use a special saw to make the bottom even with the rest of the molding. Then we had to cut the floor to fit into the small spaces, around the molding, etc.

But it's so worth it, because it's gorgeous!

Candids:

The guys trying to put in the final (omg annoying) piece

Kaylee made a square out of the boxes and was walking inside of them.

Cherishing 4am

Most people out there are probably thinking the title to this post is crazy, but it was something I was thinking about last night at, you guessed it, 4am.

My daughter has never been a great sleeper. I'd go so far as to say that she's never been a good sleeper. Up until her 2nd birthday she was up every 3 hours, and would need me to help her fall back asleep. I have watched many a sunset from the rocker in her room as I nursed her back to sleep for the 5th time in one night. She's now 3 months over 2, and will usually sleep well, until 4am.

Then I hear her door open, and a soft little voice call out, "momma? Come cuddle?" and I do. Now I know, every sleep trainer will say that I need to not go, lay down in bed, and snuggle her close, but I do. Normally all she needs is 2 minutes snuggled in close to me and she's back into a deep sleep. Maybe it's noises from outside, maybe the cat is meowing, maybe she's reached an age where the night terrors that she has always had have turned into nightmares and she just needs a little reassurance that everything is okay.

And last night at 4am, when my sweet baby asked me to "p'etty p'ease change diaper", and then gave me a big kiss and said "night mommy, I love you", I realized that I need to cherish these 4am visits when the house is asleep and my little girl is still young enough to not be shy about asking for help, or accepting comfort.

Maybe it will mean more sleepless nights down the road, but I never want her to feel alone in the dark. I want her to know that she can always call me when she is feeling scared, sad, or lonely, and that I will be there, even at 4am.

A horse with no ears

Meet Chestnut

Chestnut and Katie Whompus meeting

Chestnut is a Fur-Real horse, picked up by my dad for free from one of his friends who was giving her away. She came into our home during Bug's first Christmas, back in 2011. Our dog was not too impressed with this new addition, and the cat hid under the bed for days.

At first, Bug was not too impressed with the horse. So Chestnut got tucked into the corner, because she retails around $300 and if my kid is anything like me, she will soon become infatuated with horses. I know, because I was. Except my "first horse" was made out of two wooden sawhorses connected with a 2 by 4, with a 5G plastic bucket as a saddle and a piece of plywood as a head! I loved that horse...

As she got older, Bug became more interested in Chestnut. She started really liking the horse, with one problem. As you can see, Chestnut has no ears. This was HUGE to Bug, who had just turned 2 years old, and she was incredibly upset that Chestnut was "hurt" "bwoken" and demanded that I made it better.

So...I did what I always do, and whip out my yarn and trusty crochet needle. This was my first bridle, and it wasn't that awesome. Basically, it was way too big, and gave nowhere for Chestnuts poor forelock (aka horsie bangs) to go! The reins were also far too long.

Naturally, that means I had to make a second one! (These pictures were actually taken the same day, we just swapped the shorts for pants when the shorts mysteriously became covered in water.

I was able to figure out how to get the ears to stand up nice and stiffly, as well as making an opening for the forelock to go through (which also serves to help balance out the ears). It's still a big long in the front, so I may go back and remove one of the purple granny squares to tighten that up a bit.

Once Bug figured out that she could make Chestnuts head move by pulling on the reins, she was hooked! Just wait until I actually turn the horse on and it starts making noises!



Direct shot of the head-piece. I'm going to take out one of the purple granny's between the hexagon and the noseband to tighten it up a bit.

Side shot of the headpiece. The nice thing about yarn is that is has just enough give that it keeps it nice and snug without needing any buckles, buttons, or ties.

Farewell, good dog

If it's been a while since I've written, well, we've been a bit preoccupied. I started back at work, we've been doing a lot around the house, and yesterday we had to say goodbye to our Whompus.

Whompus came into my husband's life when he was in his early twenties. He came home from the Marines for a visit and was greeted by his parents' new dog, a young Catahoula named Katie. She belonged to his dad, and they were inseparable until his father passed away in 2003.

Then, the Whompus became my husband's dog, and she loved him so. When we moved in together in 2007 she and I clicked, and we had a lot of fun together. We took hikes around the apartment complex, chased squirrels, and cuddled on the couch as often as we could.

Me and the Whomps, circa 2007

When she turned 10, she started slowing waaay down. She could no longer get on the couch without support, and stairs were incredibly hard. We put her on medications for her joints, special treats, and a special food, which helped a little bit. But she missed her couch, and she missed our walks. At least she had a nice yard to lay in when we bought our house, and could take in the sun.

The last three years have been a struggle for her. She defended us against squirrels, invisible tigers, and joggers. She also lost all controls of her body functions, lost her ability to go up the stairs, and had to be separated from our new baby after snapping at her. It wasn't her fault, and all the training in the world wasn't enough to keep an old hound dog from wanting to chase and eat this small, crawling thing.

She got old in the last six months, and every day we wondered when it would be time. There were many times when we thought "this is it" and the vet would give her medicine that extended her life, but never really made it any better.

Finally, at the age of 14 years and a titch, she has gotten the rest she deserves. She was able to go with her head on her human's lap, and my arms wrapped around her. She's up jogging with her original dad where there is no pain, no harassing cats, and all the table scraps she can eat.

Bye Whompus. You were awesome.

House updates

Apparently upset me likes to clean. Makes sense, I guess. Orderly house, orderly mind and all that jazz. While part of me does see cleaning as a totally futile and therefore pointless effort, I still try to keep things tidy. I remind myself that I must model good behavior for K, and it's my job to give her a safe environment. Sure, she thinks it's awesome to have Little People scattered all over the floor like confetti, but when she steps on one it's game over. 

I present to you...My awesome multi-function bookcase created by my dad and one of his summer tutoring students. This was the student's math project. I gave the idea of how I wanted it to look, a description of the height, length and width, and then R was responsible for measuring out all the pieces and putting it together (my dad cut everything).         I think it ended up totally awesome. The bottom holds all of her smaller toys, Little People, cars, animals, etc. The middle section is perfectly sized for her LP structures, and the top is for books and smaller toys. I then have some "catch all" baskets on top.

Her room is finally starting to come together! The gray paint was perfect, as it makes whatever color is touching it pop right out. We're going with a purple theme now and I love it. These were decals I purchased from Amazon and I couldn't be happier. K even helped to put them on! She was so proud of herself :)

My random side project. We used to have all of our dvd's and games on a bookcase, however K thinks it's super fun to throw them all on the floor and/or open all of the cases. No fun for mom. All of this had been sitting in a giant pile for about the last month, and it was driving me crazy. Today I hung the shelves, put up the dvd's, and re-arranged some stuff. Just mentally remove the bag of chips, line level, and bottle of cleaner (vinegar/water)

On to the toy room! K already has wayyy too many stuffed animals, so this is now their home until I can get something better. In here defense, some of these were mine (like that brown camel on the floor, we bought that in Kuwait over 20 years ago!) and I'm pretty sure a few are dog toys that she stole before the dog saw them.

She loves to paint at her new art center. Since this picture I've also added some clothesline to the wall so that we can hang up her masterpieces. Coloring books and art supplies sit in little plastic cups ($1 at Michael's!) and paper is in the white storage drawer below. So far so good with keeping everything fairly contained.

Her new wall of awesomeness. The clothes is all of my favorite NB outfits of hers that I just can't let go of because I'm an emotional packrat. We've had the cubby system set up for a few months now and it has worked wonders. She can easily see, get, and put back all of her toys, and she actually does pretty well with it. The pink bin on the bottom right is the catch-all bin for this room.
Today we added all of the Pooh stickers and she had so much fun helping. I was thrilled because they were on clearance for $2 instead of the regular price of $20!!

A calmer version of me

Okay, so here's the deal. I wrote a post, and then decided against posting it. Now that the craziness has been transferred to a post that will never be published, I can write a more logical one.

I am tired. I am upset. I am so done with picking up the pieces all the damn time. And I'm not doing it anymore. I'm not.

All week my husband has felt like crap because he isn't controlling his diabetes at all and it's wearing him out. I have lost all sympathy for him because he doesn't even try to control it, so as far as I'm concerned, it's his own fault.

But this means he is sleeping ALL THE TIME and that leaves me to pick up the pieces with the kid and the animals and the house and every other thing that needs to be done. I just cannot do it anymore.

As I do, I am making a list. Because everything is better and easier to deal with when in list form, right?

1) Make a list - check!
2) Hang up shelves for Dvds. They are currently stacked on our fireplace top, which is in my direct line of view every time I'm downstairs and they are slowly driving me nuts.
3) Do a serious weeding of K's toys and books. Chica has too much stuff, and some of it HAS to go away because I spend too much time picking it up (She does try to help me, but she's 2)
4) Do a serious weeding of all of my stuff. I too have too much stuff and it's slowly suffocating me
5) Take 10 minutes a day to work-out. Even if it's doing jumping jacks, or pushups, or crunches, do something. I feel better when I do something, I just forget that when I don't.

Making the deck prettier and safer

A short little product recommendation post. Behr did not give me any free products or pay me in any way for this (because I still haven't figured out how to tap into the "give me free stuff that I need and I'll blog about it" market.

Our beautiful 2 story deck was one of the things that I loved the most about our house, but it's starting to see some wear and tear. The poor steps are exposed to the elements all the time, and it's starting to show. Last year I stained and sealed the heck out of them, and by the time this spring rolled around they were cracking and dry once again. Especially with Bug wanting to walk up and down (and up and down, and up and down) them, we had to do something.

May we bring to the stage, Behr DeckOver, in Silver Gray

I love this stuff! It is decently priced (about $35 a gallon) and we were able to do 2 coats of the stairs with just one can. It was a bit tricky getting it on because it's so thick, but wow is it some awesome stuff. I finally found the best way to put it on was to use an edger tool for painting and spread it over the step, then use a short bristled paint brush to get into all of the cracks.

Ta-da! It looks great with our Trex deck and is super smooth for the feet. We are planning on doing the railings of the entire deck with it as well, eventually.

 It does definitely look like you have a painted/plastic surface though, so if you want the wood grain to show through, this is not the product for you.