Randomized

This week has been unusual, which is actually not that unusual if you live on the eastern side of this country. The amount of school the kids are missing is getting a bit ridiculous, and not just for us moms out there. They are getting a wee bit nutty as well. Sam, who has never ever tried to change a diaper before, decided to try and get Fred ready for bed the other night and accidentally zippered Freddie's penis into his footie pajamas. It was only a flesh wound, and Dr. Dad was home, so no trips to the emergency room for this case. Maggie has a great big bruise on her forehead (just in time for pre-school picture day, YAY!) because Fred has become fond of throwing and hitting and kicking and spitting at just about anyone. The instant you put him in timeout, however, he starts wailing about how he just wants to be nice to someone! Please! Let me be nice to someone! Lucy had a total meltdown because we listened to her favorite song on youtube (from Frozen, just like every other 6 year old girl int he world) and I inadvertently selected a different version of the SAME EXACT SONG. But to her very delicate ears, it wasn't acceptable, and she loudly screamed that she couldn't live in this world anymore. SOB is working at a new job with a new schedule, too. So everything boils down to THIS WEEK WAS CRAY.

We're going to Florida in a few weeks, and I for one am counting the days.

Kids Who Play Hockey Have Parents Who Play Hockey

When I was a kid I was at the ice rink several days a week. My mom worked there, so we went along with her most of the time. I skated each weekend, sometimes at multiple sessions. I met one of my very best friends there when I was 11, and we still keep in touch today. Once I went to college, though, I hung up my skates. Not intentionally, but just because other things got in the way. I don't even think I took skates with me when I moved to Philly. The first time I skated after that was on Sam's third birthday, and it was shaky. Once we moved to Morgantown, I began skating more often with Lucy at her 'hockey' practice and now I'm skating several times a week with Sam's team. Add in the occasional public session with the kids, and I'm feeling pretty good about my skating ability.

My hockey ability? Now that's another story. When I'm at practice with Sam and we have to demonstrate something, I usually hang back. The other coaches on our team (we have SIX) all played or currently play hockey, so I've never been confident enough to step up. I mean, I think I can do most of the maneuvers we do in practice, but do I really want to try them out for the first time in front of a bunch of kids who think I know what I'm doing? Nope. No thanks! Not today.

What to do, then? Luckily, the answer was revealed to me in an email from our local rec center. A women's hockey clinic, for all skill levels, running for eight weeks. I ran out, bought myself a purple practice jersey (of course) and didn't sleep for days, I was so anxious. I got there extra early on my first day (of course) and began suiting up. I had put on all of my equipment the night before just to try it out. I've been dressing Sam for three years, but never myself! It was a little weird moving around in all of those pads, but I managed to get my skates on and get onto the ice without any major pratfalls.

After a few laps, I was feeling good! It was definitely weird skating with all of this stuff on, but I was glad to have it when I did a major belly flop during our scrimmage. We did some skating drills and some stick work, which was what I was the most anxious about. I yap at Sam that he should always volunteer to go first during drills, and since I didn't want to be a hypocrite, I got right in line behind the coach when he started working with pucks. And I lost that damn puck every time I had to make a turn, with all of the other ladies watching. But by then I was having so much fun I didn't care!

The next week I recruited a friend to come, too, so it was even more fun! I skated my butt off, and I felt it later on, but after only a few weeks I'm feeling a lot more comfortable playing hockey. So next week I'm joining the actual league that plays actual games. Crazy, I know, but I think I kind of love it!

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Speaking of hockey games, our team came in second place in our last tournament, and Sam got his very first trophy. He was so, so excited! Go Hornets!

Bathroom Reveal!

A few days, and a lot of dust later, I give you…The Bathroom!

As you can see, we tried to keep the style and age of the house in mind when redecorating this room. Everything looks kind of old, but is actually new! Here are some of the details.

I really like the way this mirror and lights came together. We have similar, original light fixtures in our master bathroom, so I was very happy when we found these. 

The sink is tiny, but so is the room, so it works out. I love the octagonal shape of the old sink, and we wanted to stick with a wall mount. We had to look around for a bit, but we finally found one we liked. Picking out the faucet was also a bit of a challenge, but SOB came home with this one one day and that was one less decision I had to mull over! +1 for the Husband!

And look! A toilet! That isn't a goofy color! White toilets now officially outnumber colorful toilets in our home. (We still have 1 pink and 1 blue one.) You can see that I'm not so great at photo staging since I left some discarded toilet paper rolls and plastic in the trash can. Oh well, this isn't a magazine spread, right?

Here is a bonus shot of the kitchen floor. Do not look at my cluttered counter tops, please. 

Here's what it looked like last December!

Now we just have to tackle the other 3 bathroom renovations, and the basement, and the windows, and the roof. Wish us luck!

New Year's Renovations

It seems like instead of resolutions, we make renovations for new year's. Last year was the big kitchen remodel of '13. Since we never ended up re-doing the floor in there, we finally decided it was time. We had to put down area rugs since the new counters weren't in the exact same places as the old ones, and the only area rugs we had were brown. The kitchen is already a small room, and it only has windows at one end, so putting dark rugs down makes it seem even darker. So sometime next week we will be switching it out for big, bright tiles.

And since we were going to have the tile guy out here already, we decided to go ahead and re-do our first floor powder room. One of the lovely things about this old house of ours is how many pink bathrooms we have…THREE! The master bathroom is pink, the upstairs hall bathroom is pink and our powder room is pink, too. With maroon and brown accents. Observe...

Isn't that special? Here are some closer looks...

True confession time: I love this sink. If we could somehow re-enamel it and re-chrome the fixtures, I would keep it. While those are actual things you can do, they were not very cost effective, and so a new, similarly shaped sink and faucet was purchased. But it isn't as cool.

This is the medicine cabinet. This also doesn't offend me, as it is very true to the style of the house. However, the edges are kind of yucky, especially at the bottom. The back of the mirror is metal, and after years and years it's gotten rusty. We are replacing it with a simple oval mirror with a beveled edge, like this one. Here is a closer look at the lights...

These lights wouldn't bother me so much if the crystals were original. When we moved in there were more missing then not, and we couldn't find a good match, so we ended up replacing them entirely. I have the old ones in a bag because they match another old chandelier we have. Also, they are incredibly dim. The replacements will look something like this. 

And finally, the pièce de résistance, the toilet. 

In all of it's maroon glory! First of all, you can't ever really tell if it's clean. It's maroon, and it's located in a dimly lit room. Secondly, it's incredibly low to the floor. Good for the kids, annoying for the adults. Thirdly, like all of the old toilets in this house, it's got a big water tank and takes forever to refill. Since this is the only toilet on the main floor, it gets a lot of use. The kids aren't patient enough to wait for the tank to refill to flush, so it can often be found with wads of toilet paper floating around in there. It's getting replaced with a standard issue white toilet. Easier to clean (or at least know it's clean), higher and with more efficient water usage. Oh, and that pink, brown, beige and maroon floor tile? OUT! It's getting replaced with black and white hexagon tiles on the floor. The pink and brown wall tile? OUT! Replaced with white subway tile with a black bull nose. Oh, and we'll have to paint the top parts of the walls. Right now they are a light beige, but they will be painted a very light gray, eventually.I'm hopeful that this project won't take too, too long. I mean, the room is only 4 feet wide by 8 feet deep. The demo might be a bit dodgy, but our tile man works quickly, so hopefully I'll have new photos to share next week!