Reno and Moving In....

When Kaya woke up this morning (a bit early this Monday morning), I asked her "where is Papa going, do you remember?" She said "Hmmmm..... where's that place... I can't remember?" I said "Reno". She said "Oh yeah, I like Reno". She says all of this with a very serious look on her face. When she talks like this (which is most of the time), it CRACKS me up! Last night, she had both Mark and I hiding our laughter (almost peeing our pants laughter) at the dinner table after something so matter of fact that she said.. of course, I cannot remember it now! That kid cracks me up with her personality... I love it!! A good way to start a Monday, if I do say so myself!

While hubby is in the Biggest Little City in the World (aka Reno, lol), I am going to use the time to get some 'fun' things done around the house and make plans for more projects. He will be back Thursday afternoon (just in time for the fly fishing meeting at church..... his once a month meeting that makes him gitty like a little girl, lol). While I feel very lucky that Mark does not travel very much, I do admit that it is nice to have a little me time after the kids go to bed. Distance makes the heart grow fonder, as they say, lol. I believe this is true... as it works for us! Lately, both he and I have taken each other for granted more than we would like (hmm, I think him working TWO jobs still, the holidays and 3 week trip with IL's.....all might have a *little* to do with that, LOL). I think these few days apart is just what the doctor ordered to help with that!! I already miss the guy.... funny how that happens, lol.

You ask... 'Moving In'... what is that about? Well, I have decided that since Mark has a new job (with the same company) and it is highly unlikely we will move anytime soon (should not have typed that, lol) that we can finally MOVE in to our beautiful home and get it looking like I have always wanted MY house to look like!!! Good timing as it is the New Year and time for 'resolutions'... aka time to plan things you *want* to improve or whatever. I tend to not buy into the whole resolution thing too much, as I often get too overwhelmed when I plan too much stuff that I need to improve, lol. Not that I do not have a lot to improve, I just like to keep it simple, lol. Anyway, as far as me personally.. my biggest resolution is to start drawing again!! I took a drawing class way back when (2002) and LOVED it! I have always loved to doodle and such but thought I had NO talent. Well, I discovered with some training, I have a little talent, lol. I have all the supplies still... including a huge draw board with pad, all types of graphite pencils, colored pencils and my old drawings. In that class, I did not explore too many mediums... as it was drawing 101, so that is something I would like to do. I would LOVE, LOVE to paint... but I want to ease into drawing again and go from there. The expense in drawing materials is pretty minimal.. where there is more in painting, so I want to make sure I will do it! I need to do some research for classes. Hopefully, I can find something low cost... maybe there is a local program or something pretty cheap at Motlow CC.

Now for the house... something that I am going to work on and not let hinder me from starting and completing projects. I tend to get stuck because I get interrupted with kids, hubby, whatever... thus annoying me b/c I REALLY like to start and finish something all at once... otherwise I tend to not get back to it for awhile... this keeps me from starting projects a lot. So, I am focusing on just dealing with that..... to go ahead and start the project... set a plan in action... and DO it. Who cares if it takes me 1 month to make one curtain, lol?! At least I will have a curtain to show for my efforts! So here are some projects on my radar.. this will serve as motivation to ME (not set order.. depending on the way I want to go... I see most of this happening this year... not like there is really that much on the list):

1. PAINTING the inside of the house
~master bedroom: We have the paint thanks to hubby's desire to buy $5 opps paint randomly.. color is good and I did NOT have to put ANY thought into the color, win win if you ask me. This might be the project this weekend or next.
~kids bathroom and master bathroom: re-paint kids bath since I hate the color I choose when I was preggo, lol. I have the color I want to match, so this will be an easy paint match. Master bath just needs kitchen & bath quality paint (who cares on the color... might be white for all I care).
~Kaya's room: add lighter purple strips all around, paint silver stars on ceiling and add crown modeling (Mark)
~remaining downstairs living area: this would be where I have struggled since living here! I WILL have my red, that I know. I have had so many great opinions about what to do... know it is just time to do IT! I want to stick with TWO colors.. so red and something. Both Mark and I agree on getting it done soon, as we both HATE looking at the walls as they are so plain! Likely, we will tackle this after we get our tax refund.. that gives me a little time to go to paint stores and get test cans of colors... if I am painting red on two story vaulted ceilings... it better be right!
~bonus room: Mark really wants to get this done... me, I could care less, lol. Yes, I would like it done, but lowest on my list. When we paint though, I see doing some fun bright colors and some chalkboard paint... who knows.

2. ORGANIZATION: well, that just speaks for itself! This is ongoing, of course.. but I have some good ideas about various rooms. I have already gotten the master closet looking AWESOME with the hanging clothes organized in my little OCD way and Kaya's art/craft/games stuff put together in once location that is easy for her to access and put away in appropriate labeled containers (she is good about putting things away as long as she knows where it belongs). The action plan here is to JUST DO IT in a logically way and steal ideas from everywhere!

3. re-stain dining room table and chairs: I might get started on this in the next month or so, as it is a great Spring project before it gets too warm. I am planning to do the table for sure.. as that will not be that difficult (at least there are not the spindles like on a chair). I have a chair that is broken to test on. Mark wants me to sand the varnish, etc off some of it and get stain colors to see how it will look. Yes, good idea. He thinks it might not turn out what I have in mind. We will see. This would be a LOT cheaper and better than buying a new table and chairs (which I don't even want to do... nothing wrong with what we have.. just hate the color).

4. make curtains: I need to either have my mom send me the sewing machine that she has and never uses, borrow one or something... but then I am going to make curtains for Kaya's room, backing for Connor's curtain and the master bedroom. I *might* do something for the living room but that is not really in the plan now. This is something I plan to tackle VERY soon as we need them before summer!

5 craft/decorating projects: make bow holder for Kaya, get cricut and go NUTS, paint existing pic frames for photo wall in living room.... whatever else strikes my fancy throughout the year!

6. start making Christmas crafts/presents soon after July to get a head start with completion by Christmas

Other projects on the radar (not this year likely though... but still on our radar):
~wood floors throughout all of downstairs minus bathrooms
~kitchen remodel: new counter top, tile back splash, tile/wood floors TBD
~master bathroom remodel: tile floors, jetty tub

Mark's projects (these are the things I can think of, lol. Keep in mind.. this is ongoing and I will be happy if 2-3 of these things happen this year. Our neighbor's father has a 600+ workshop at his house with ALL the wood working tools Mark could dream of, and he is going to let Mark use his space along with share his knowledge. Mark will of course need some tools (bummer for him, lol) along the way, but he has more than the essentials to complete most of these projects.
~make a number of floating shelves for kids rooms and living room
~make dresser for Kaya's room (then will be able to put dresser in her room into Connor's)
~make bookshelf for Connor
~make cabinets for storage in bonus room (not sure if they will be built in's or not)
~make curio cabinet/hutch for dining room (hey, a girl can dream.... this is something he has always mentioned about making someday)
~make built in cabinets for garage