The Removal of Red

Since we took out the only bit of color in our front room when we transformed the fireplace, I decided to keep going with the neutral theme and remove all traces of red from my kitchen, too.

Here it is last week:

And here it is now:

Last week (actually like two years ago, because I didn't take a Before picture and this is the only one I could find):

And now:

Turns out it's really cheap and easy to make art out of wood. Who knew? 

And the wall above the stairs went from this:

To this:

And here's my favorite part. This little homemade box with too-tall grass is serving not just one, but TWO purposes.

It's hiding all 45 electrical outlets that someone thought we needed on this wall, and it charges Ben's gadgets when he gets home from work and stashes them there. Multi-functional! I'm like an inventor.

Fireplace February, Part II

About five years ago, Ben and I thought it might be fun to makeover our ugly fireplace. It took six weeks and ended up being more like the opposite of fun, but after it was over I thought it was totally worth it. Ben disagrees. His memory is a little better than mine.

To celebrate the 5-year-reunion of that fireplace makeover, I thought it might be fun to do it again. Ben was totally opposed. But I talked him into it, and this time it only took a few days, spread out over a couple weeks. We didn’t even make it to February.

And look! It's better, right?

We started with floor-to-ceiling red brick, with a nice hole cut out for the mantel. I'm sure it's totally normal. What better way to attach your mantel than cutting into your brick wall?

The Internet told us we could use something called wood luan, and that we could just glue it to the bricks with PL Premium. So we did.

We bought a mantel leg and skirt kit from Home Depot. This was the only expensive part of the project. It cost $139. Maybe we could have built the pieces ourselves, but Ben wasn't 100% on board yet and I couldn't have done it without him. So then I caulked and primed it.

And then paint. I considered stopping here. Maybe I should have, but it’s too late now so don’t tell me if I made a huge mistake. 

Then I painted the bricks white.

And then added some moulding. Again, with glue. Maybe I went a little overboard with the tape. Big deal.

Then I caulked and painted the moulding, and now I love it! And the best part of all is that Ben loves it, too. Well...likes it, at least.

Unpredictable Is His Middle Name

I’m head-over-heels in love with this boy, but sometimes I just wish he were even 1% similar to his siblings. A couple weeks ago he got a double ear infection, only instead of getting a fever or crying about it, he just weaned himself. I was so confused.

Luckily I did a poor job of clipping his fingernails that week, so he ended up with a bunch of tiny red scabs where he had been scratching his right ear. That was my one and only clue to take him to the doctor.

I pumped for about a week before my milk was gone, and today I am throwing away all of my nursing bras. If two months’ worth of formula didn’t cost $59,823,375, I would be singing HALLELUJAH at the top of my lungs. But since it does, I’m just singing in my normal voice. 

The Obligatory Blue-Striped, Paper-Ears Shot

What? Doesn't everybody take this picture of their 9-month-old?

One Month Ago

…I had a 7-month-old baby, still on reflux medicine, who slept swaddled in his bouncy seat in the bathroom. He screamed in his crib; he screamed when his arms weren’t swaddled; and he screamed when I tried weaning him from the medicine.

Tonight I have an 8-month-old baby who sleeps flat on his back, unswaddled, with no medicine.

 HALLELUJAH.

The Bright One

Yesterday we had our first big snowstorm of the year, and Liam and Eliza wanted to play outside. I told them they needed to get their snow clothes on, so Eliza changed from her t-shirt and jeans into this little number:

April Fools!

The truth is: I couldn't care less about politics. But I'm married to a guy who doesn't care for President Obama's policies. So earlier this year, I thought it might be fun to stick an Obama bumper sticker on his car on April Fools day. Then he would drive around without noticing it until he suddenly noticed that HE HAD BEEN DRIVING AROUND WITH AN OBAMA STICKER! And nobody would care except him. But boy would he care. Oh man, it would be so funny.

In March I got online and ordered a free bumper sticker from the Obama campaign. Then I got excited and started waiting. I don't know why I thought it would only take a week or two for a free sticker to ship, but unfortunately, it didn't. So the funny trick never happened.

This week the sticker finally came in the mail, and it was even better than I had planned, because no one expects to be pranked in October. I came home to find Ben standing over an opened envelope, addressed to my code name: Mik Mocnarf, saying, "I think someone's messing with me. I know this is an anagram, but I can't figure out for what. Can you believe someone would send me an Obama sticker?"

Bell's Palsy

I went through a phase where I only smiled with half my face, for some reason. I don’t remember why. I don’t even remember doing it.

But luckily I have the pictures to prove it. Otherwise I might be slightly concerned that all of my recent photos look like I have pirates for children.

Working Overtime

Ben designs giant heating blankets for a living. At least that’s how I understand it. They wrap the blankets around oil tanks and other things that shouldn’t freeze when the weather gets cold.

The other day Ben and Eliza were playing with her Cinderella play dough set. When I walked in, Ben said, “I have no patience for this. Wrapping a 3D object with a 2D object? It’s like my job all over again.”

Good Thing I Got That Bachelor's Degree in Linguistics

Qué es un bosque? I have no idea. Based on the picture, I would guess it’s some sort of rainforest with giant mushrooms.

We’re less than two weeks into first grade, and Liam is already smarter than me.