Since Brendan was on spring vacation this week, I took advantage of the time off from work to paint the dining room (which I had started work on back in February.) Here are a few pictures of the progress.
Before - with the gingham wallpaper...
Wallpaper removed and the chair rail is installed...
After the rail is finished and painting is complete. These pictures really don't do it much justice. That red is a nice dark burgundy.
As many of you already know, my poor hubby was in his second accident in less than a year about 2 1/2 weeks ago. A woman in a large truck took a left turn right in front of him (thanks to an SUV in the left lane of oncoming traffic giving her a space to go) but unfortunately J didn't see her and she didn't see him, so despite his attempt to swerve, he ended up smashing right into her side. Here's a few pictures of the destruction:
Unfortunately, the car was totaled, but since then he has gotten a brand new car thanks to the check from the woman's insurance company. It's a new Audi A4 (he didn't care much for the new BMWs) but the exterior color is almost the exact same as the wrecked beemer. And it doesn't stop there! The interior is almost identical too - black leather with wood-grain trim on the dash. LOL He loved his car so much, he wanted to replicate it with the new one. Too funny! I'll post pictures of the new one shortly...
Yup - I was a single mom yet again last week, thanks to J going down to sunny Florida for a week of training. But it ended up being a good week. And B behaved most of the time or at least whenever mommy started growling at him when he was up to no good. So the next time your child gets unruly, making really freaky animal sounds is guaranteed to get their attention!
But J came back home right in time for me to take off the following evening for a fun-filled girls night with the FunnyGals KAT and SJ along with another one of my and SJ's childhood classmates K. The night started with a nice dinner at J-Tim's - yummy buffalo wings and nachos and calamari that was spiked with fried jalapeno pepper rings... not sure about those, but the calamari was good! Following dinner we determined that it was far too early to arrive at the night's hot spot, so we invaded the boy's poker game going on at KAT's house for a few rounds of Dance, Dance Revolution. KAT was by far the best dancer among the 4 of us, but watching each other hop around like crazy (while getting booed - the nerve of that game!) was just hilarious! But then we got a real dance lesson - KAT very patiently taught the rest of us a few country line dancing moves in preparation for fun to be had at the Caddy Ranch which was our next stop. I can honestly say I felt fairly comfortable with the steps by the time we left her house, but by the time the song came on at the Ranch, I only remembered half of what I had learned! Maybe I should blame the rum and coke I had when we first arrived. Or the free shot of Jameson... Anyway, once we were out there and dancing, the steps came back to me and by the time the song was over, I was wishing it hadn't ended! I had finally gotten a handle on all the moves! And of course the night wouldn't be complete without some crazy stuff going on - like some guy trying to pick me up! All I can say is thank god we left when we did - right at the start of a slow song with that guy walking back in my direction! And honestly, who goes to a country line dancing club wearing sneakers anyway?!?!?
So we're now into March...in like a lion and out like a lamb, right? I sure hope so. Lots of stuff has been going on with us lately - I'll have to elaborate more about that in another post. As for my friend with her twin boys - they are both fighting like champs right now. Both of them have been transferred to another hospital which is connected to a children's hospital with surgeons, specialists, etc. So they are both receiving top-notch care right now, which they need desperately! The bigger one had issues with his small intestine that required the removal of at least 80% of it. So they have some challenges ahead of them in the feeding area and making sure that he can digest food. They would like to put him on a transplant list at some point, but they can't do that until he is at least 2 years old. The smaller one is fighting right along and will soon be undergoing surgery to connect his esophagus to his stomach. So there will be a bit of a battle for him to fight soon too. All in all, the parents have remained very optimistic and are leaning heavily on their faith to get them through all this. Last weekend I dropped off some food and her baby shower gifts since I won't be able to attend her shower in person. And next week will be the last week of her 6-week maternity leave, so she'll be returning to work the week after that. That will make visiting the babies very tough I'm sure.
On to home improvements... The dining room wall has been patched and sanded and is ready for painting, but last weekend we re-painted the ceiling in the kitchen and the dining room and going up the stairs. And since the idiots who built our house didn't bother priming the sheetrock on the ceiling prior to spraying the ceiling, we had to use this nasty oil-based paint to seal the existing junk to the ceiling. I forgot how bad oil-based paint stinks! But now we have a nice flat white ceiling that looks really nice and we can move ahead with the wall painting. Actually we won't be doing the walls right away. My plan there is to install a chair rail that will run the length of the wall and turn to follow the wall up the stairs. And there are several funky angles there so we'll definitely need my dad's help to cut the chair rail correctly. Once we know where on the wall the chair rail will be fastened, we'll start painting. Above the chair rail will be a nice dark red and below will be an almond/cream color. Should look nice once it's all done.
In other news - my mom was in the hospital last week for shortness of breath. Thankfully she was only there for a week, but they had to drain quite a bit of fluid from around her lungs so that she could breath easier. The doctors seem to think that a virus could have caused her system to weaken which would explain the fluid levels since her heart is weak enough as it is. She's home now and the oxygen machine is back so hopefully she will get stronger in the next few weeks.
The good news is my friend's preemie twins celebrated their 2 week birthdays this past Saturday. The bad news is that they still have a long way to go. I am starting to lose track of all the surgeries, procedures and issues that they have been dealing with lately (nevermind which one has had which surgery and such) but I can sum it up by saying when one appears to be doing good, the other starts to go downhill and vice versa. So far they have had to deal with bleeding the brain, surgery to disconnect a windpipe and connect the esophagus to the stomach, heart murmurs, a hole (maybe 2) in the small intestine (possibly caused by the medication for the heart murmur) and now possibly a staph infection. Those last 3 are in reference to Isaac's condition from yesterday after talking to my friend. We originally had dinner plans with them for Sunday evening, but we ended up cancelling due to impending surgery for Isaac to see why things started going downhill yesterday afternoon. But it turned out that they didn't put him through surgery after all. Poor thing is getting pumped with 6 different antiobiotics to try to clear that infection. Despite all that, they are trying to stay positive but I can tell they are getting worn down and they just sound exhausted. I just wish things would level out so they didn't have to ride this crazy roller coaster everyday.
In other news, I have started doing some work in the house over the past few days. I spent this past weekend removing the wallpaper from the dining room as well as the wall that followed up the stairs. Boy what a mess that was. Thank goodness I rented a steamer, otherwise that stuff was never going to come off. Next I need to do some prep work, but before I start painting the wall, I'll be painting the ceiling in the kitchen and the dining room. So I've got lots of work ahead. Stay tuned!
Here are some "before" shots of the walls. Notice the lovely "pizza hut tablecloth" wallpaper! Also notice my trusty little sidekick observing from the dining room table.
And the "after" shots...Going...
...Going...
...GONE!
This past Saturday I received a very startling phone call from a close friend and co-worker. This is the co-worker who is pregnant with twins. Well I should say was pregnant with twins, as the reason behind her phone call was to let me know that she is now a Mom! But right now she needs support and many, many prayers, because her two little boys (Isaac and Christopher) were born at 25 weeks. Isaac weighed in at 2lbs, 1 oz and Christopher weighed in at 1lb, 10oz. I visited them at the hospital on Sunday and couldn't believe how tiny they were! They made my own 4.5lb preemie look like a giant! Only a few days old but they are already having to fight a battle for each day. Christopher has already had surgery and Isaac (the bigger of the two) had been doing well, but ended up having bleeding in his brain yesterday.
Both my co-worker and her husband are very active in their faith and several of their friends have put together a prayer blog for them: Campbell Babies' Prayer Blog
These 2 little boys need all the prayers they can get!!
