The Hubby's Pub Desk Stool

As I mentioned yesterday, slowly I'm getting our new office/playroom together. The main project left is planning my wall space. I'm just waiting for the weather to cooperate so that I can get my spray paint party started! While I'm waiting for things to warm up, I'm attacking some of the smaller jobs that need to be finished. First up was the hubby's stool seat for his pub desk (will discuss his need for a pub desk at a later time). 

First I shall digress...

When I first starting blogging a few years ago I tried to come up with cute and catchy titles that would spark people's interest and entice them into reading more. As I started reading more blogs myself, I realized how that while it's clever, it can sometimes be frusterating. I can't tell you how many times I've searched and searched through someone else's blog looking for a particular post (usually a tutorial) and I can't find it because I can't remember what catchy title it's hiding under! I vowed to try my best to make most of my titles straightforward so that you can hopefully find what you're looking for. Then we get to today's project, MY HUSBAND'S STOOL. Um...the nurse in me just giggles. My hubby's STOOL tee-hee-hee. I thought maybe I could do My Hubby's BLUE stool, but that made me laugh too. I could say "chair" but in reality it's not a chair, it's a stool. Do you see my dilemma? So that is why today's title is long winded, so you don't think you're going to get a whole post about the hubby's GI system!

Back to the hubby's stool...

Here's what it looked like before I got my hands on it...

As much as I wanted to stencil something on the seat (it's flat top was BEGGING for some sort of stencil), I had to restrain myself. For the past 7 years the hubby has been surrounded by pink and princesses. He gets made-up routinely and rarely has anyone to share "manly" things with. I thought that I'd just give him a boring, manish seat. He only has one tiny corner of the whole office, it's the least I could do!

It was a super quick fix. Primer, paint, distressing (my favorite part!!!), black wax and a coat of polycrylic and I was done! It came out perfectly and goes nice with his manly corner of the office/playroom.

Thanks for checking in!

The Office-Playroom-Office/Playroom-Office

We have a room in our house that has been changed about a bizzillion times. When we first moved in it was our office and we put the playroom upstairs. When no one wanted to play upstairs we flip-flopped and put the playroom downstairs and the office upstairs. Then I got pregnant with GG and we needed to use the office upstairs for the bedroom and we turned the downstairs room into our office/playroom. As the girls have gotten older we have less need for a playroom and more need for a family office. It's been a long and clustered process. Our dining room became a temporary storage unit and our garage was so full of crap things we have procured over the years that we couldn't fit either of our cars in it! It's certainly not finished, but it's usable and I have my dining room back and we have space for one car in the garage. I thought I'd give you a sneak peak today and I'll be sharing the room break-down once it's all done.

Here's what it looked like as the playroom:

Here's what it looked like after the hubby and the girls removed all the decals. There were also boxes and bins piled to the top of the window in most of the room. In my excitement to get them out, I forgot to take the picture before I moved them. To put it mildly, it drove me nuts. I actually had the hubs hang curtains over the French Doors so when people came over they wouldn't be blinded by our messiness!

...and here's how it looks today!!!

It still needs:

• lots of shelves over the desks
• curtains or quick cornices or both
• chalkboard/magnetic boards for myself and the girls
• a BIG rug to cover the gross carpet (it's just not in my budget now for brand new carpet)
• some sort of organization for under the desk

I'm loving the paint color and having a couch in the room. The girls can sit and read while the hubs and I are working. All of the furniture was either ours already or purchased secondhand so I've been able to redo on a budget-AWESOME!

Thanks for stoppin' by!

I Just Want to Pee Alone

Like with most people I struggle to find balance. Balance to fit it all in. To be a mom, wife, individual. Balance to get all the daily duties in; work, laundry, meals, cleaning, homework, making sure everyone gets to where they need to be. Balance to fit in the things I enjoy; crafting, blogging, cooking, running, reading. Most days it's near impossible to get it all in. Between shuffling the older girls around and chasing after a crawling baby, I'm lucky to get half of my to-do list done! Yesterday I realized I had been in the same pajamas for TWO DAYS, seriously-two days! (We're moving bathing to the top of the to-do list immediately!) With all the miles that I've been putting in lately I've had to sacrifice some of my favorite activities, mainly the crafty and reading. Thankfully I've found a way to sneak in a little reading...

For Valentine's Day the hubby surprised me with my very own iPad (awesome right?!?!). I love having it and it's certainly great to have when the kids are getting a little restless, nothing is more motivating for my girls than earning some screen time! I recently downloaded my first iBook and I love it! Just look at the title, I Just Want To Pee Alone. What mom wouldn't be drawn to this book!!!

The mastermind behind this project is Jen from People I Want to Punch in the Throat. She went viral a few Christmases ago with her post on Over Achieving Elf on the Shelf Mommies and hasn't stopped making me laugh since. She writes about what's on her mind and isn't afraid to make fun of herself. Her book is a collection of essays from a group of hilarious mommy bloggers who don't take themselves to seriously. The titles alone will make you chuckle. Eat Poop, Laugh. No, I Didn't Forget a Comma is my favorite! I've been reading little bits here and there during nap time, between ballet classes and sitting in carlines. The essays are pretty short so you can get in a few laughs before it's time to schlep everyone  to the next activity. The perfect distraction to break up some of the monotony of your day!

So what are some of your favorite reads? What do you try to sneak in during your busy day? Shout 'em out we want to hear!!!

Wanna check out I Just Want to Pee Alone? 

It's available at Amazon.com {HERE} and iTunes {HERE}.

*This is an unpaid blog post. Sadly, Jen from PIWTPITT has no idea who I am. I just wanted to share a great book with you! And yes, I too, just want to pee alone!*

Getting Too Big and Springy Snow

After days and days of a wiggly-giggly tooth that could twist and turn, it finally fell-out! It didn't even need to be pulled, it just finally gave up and fell out of her mouth! I'm going to freeze this picture in my mind. I want to remember her like this for forever! She's growing up way too fast!

In other news...

Indy got a record snow fall (I think we broke a 100 year record) overnight and the girls have a snow day in the end of March! So crazy, but so beautiful and the girls had a great time playing outside and building a snow puppy. It reminds me of our days in Boston where it wasn't unusual to get a huge dumping of snow in April! 

Like everyone else I'm looking forward to warm weather, but I still love me some snow!

Long Run Diaries-Week 14

Because this is the forecast for today...

We decided to squeeze our long run in yesterday when it was sunny and in the mid 40s. Runs are instantly better when you only have to wear one pair of pants!

Week 14

11.75 miles

1:51:58

9:31 pace

Yesterday just confirms that I am a early morning runner! I have my routine down and both myself and my body and happy with it. Because I work Saturday mornings we needed to run in the afternoon. We certainly couldn't have asked for better running weather. It was sunny, hardly any wind and it was in the mid 40s. Despite this awesomeness, my belly was all sorts of awful. I didn't know what or how much to eat before, and Lo's school had their pancake breakfast that morning so I didn't really start off my day with a running-friendly meal! For most of the run my stomach was cramping and felt heavy. I also had to stop and use the restroom along the way-UGH! I am very thankful we only had to run 12 miles!!! Even with all my belly issues I was still able to enjoy the run. There was plenty of conversation and we had a great overall pace. 

Next week is the final LONG long run of 20 miles. Since 19 went well I feel confident that it will be okay. As of now, the weather looks like it will be warm and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it will stay that way. This week's mid-week runs are all 5s which makes me so happy! I can do them on the tready if needed and won't eat up too much of my day!   

As for today, I am SO enjoying my first Sunday morning at home in a long time! They hubby and I had this conversation this morning:

Hubby: You don't know about this. This is a new experience for you.

Me: (confused) What?

Hubby: Sitting at home at 8:45am on a Sunday

Ahhh, yes, noting better than sitting a home on a Sunday morning in your jammies drinking a Diet Coke!

Math & Science Night

A few weeks ago Lo's school hosted a math and science night. It was AWESOME! There were tons of different booths, experiments and displays. There also were quite a few high school students there sharing their love of science. Both girls were in heaven, especially Lo. We were there for over two hours and could have stayed for two more if they would have let us. I love that the girls are so interested in science. They both were not shy about asking lots of questions and spent a lot of time at each booth. They made their mama so proud!!!

The first area they went to was probably my least favorite. Ugh! It was full of crawly things with lots of legs. They loved it so much they went there twice.

This game totally reminded me of David Letterman's "Will It Float?" They got to put a bunch of different things into a bucket of water to see if if would float or sink.

The weather area was pretty neat too. The black box on the table would make tornados and the metal ball and wand would simulate thunder and lightening. It also made Noa's hair stick up which was pretty cool too!

Hands down, the remote control robots were Lo's favorite. They were designed and built by two high school students which is so impressive. Both boys were very engaging with the kids and happy to talk about their robots. I pretty much had to pry the controller out of Lo's hand!

Noa's favorite was the table about oil spills. They had cups of water and oil to show how it feels when you get oil on your skin and how it's harmful to the animals in the ocean. Noa just liked drenching both hands in the oil over and over and over again. Luckily they had a large roll of paper towels! Lo liked this one too and asked LOTS of questions about the oil spill and the animals. She was genuinely worried and wanted to know how something like that could have happened.

MY favorite was the area hosted by a local nursing college (shocker I know). It was AWE-SOME! I could have played there all day!!! They had two simulated patients. They were so cool! It's so amazing at how far technology has come in the past few years. We certainly didn't have anything like that when I was in nursing school. The "patient" had all different lung sounds that the girls could listen to and when his oxygen went too low his lips would turn blue! The eyes also constricted when the girls flashed the light in them. They got to perform CPR and took turns listening to the heartbeat and lung sounds. There are lots of other cool things that the "patient" can do too. He has drug recognition so when students are practicing giving meds he actually knows if they give him the wrong one! Can you tell how much I loved him!

GG was there too and he was the best little baby and stayed happy in his stroller most of the night!

It was such a fun and educational night and we are all looking forward to next year!!!