Progress In Emily's Bedroom Part 2

Since Flyboy is on hitch in Louisiana right now, I decided to try and tackle the job of putting down the laminate flooring in Emily's bedroom by myself. I've been putting if off for about a week, afraid that I'd get myself into something that was over my head. But her bedroom isn't going to finish itself. And when Flyboy gets back next week, I want to get as much of the house done as we can. So I thought I'd help speed up the process.

Here, I've laid out my barrier and got my boards all sorted. There are 5 different pattern pieces that we have to try to mix up so the same boards aren't always next to each other. We do our best anyway.

I have to start in the closet and ran into my first obstacle. The door jam. I have to make a special cut in one of the boards to fit around that door jam. And I don't have the proper saw to do it. And I'm scared. I called Flyboy twice to get his advice before I tackled it.

I've put down my first row of boards (easy) and now I have to make the special cut. I'm a smart and talented girl. I can do this!

I used my miter saw (yes, it is MINE) to make the two side cuts. But I could only make small cuts because I didn't want them to extend too far. Then I used a hand saw to complete the side cuts. Once I got the sides done, I realized I couldn't use the hand saw to do the last cut because I couldn't turn the saw enough to do it. The length of the board interfered. So I decided to try one of my handy dandy box knives that I have laying around everywhere (remember, I work at a grocery store).

It took a while and I had to cut both sides of the board until I could break the piece out. Kind of like chopping down a tree. Only not. And it made my hand hurt. But.......

IT WORKED!!!!

This is as far as I've gotten. It's harder than it looks. I stopped because I got frustrated trying to get the boards to fit together. I will try again tomorrow. but it's really starting to look good. I absolutely LOVE the flooring I picked out. Don't you? And it looks good with the bright green!

Hunka Hunka

This is Gerard Butler. He's a hunk.

AMEN

Progress in Emily's Bedroom

Our house is still a work in progress. Over a year ago, we started a little project called "replacing our carpet with laminate flooring". And a year later, we have 3 rooms done. Yep, that little project is very time consuming. And we haven't been very gung ho about it. But I am ready for it to be done and get the pallets of flooring material out of my garage. So I decided that the next room to finish would be Emily's. She keeps her room the cleanest so I decide that she earned the honor of being first. They all want their rooms painted so we decided we better paint before we put the new floor down. This is the color that Emily chose. Her favorite color has been green ever since she could talk. Bright, isn't it! But you only live once, so do what you want to do!

Here is Flyboy applying the first coat.

Hard at work while I snap pictures. LOL. Actually, I did all the "cutting" in the corners before he started rolling it. You can see my handi-work on the right. I'm so talented!

I chose a light taupe for the rest of the wall. We are going to put up white trim around the 3 half painted walls. It's going to break it up a bit and look really good! Again, MY idea.

Since the closet doors are off more often than they are on (kids are rough on everything) we decided we better paint the closet too. Here's a good picture of the contrast between the taupe and the white. Told you it was going to look good!

Flyboy applying some finishing touches. The green actually looks really good. It is a bright and cheery green.

Now that the painting is done (except for the white trim that we haven't bought yet), we can get started on the floor. Yeah! I LOVE progress!!

Pizza Night With My Babies

When I planned my menu for the week, I asked each girl to pick 2 things each that they wanted me to cook for dinner. One of Emily's choices was pizza. Normally, I would just buy a Digorno or a Freschetta and call it good. But I decided that it would be more fun to make our own. Family time with my babies and good food? What more could you ask for?

Here are our pizza ingredients. We have a pizza place inside the grocery store that I work at. They make fresh pizza's and also sell packages of fresh pizza dough. So I bought a couple packages of it and split them so we could each make our own pizza. I also didn't go crazy with the toppings. Speaking from experience, simple and easy is better when working with children. Amen.

Rolling out the dough is lots of fun. We tried to make them as round as we could, but that just doesn't happen in reality. Unless you make them every day and know what you're doing. Which, we don't. Besides, homemade stuff isn't supposed to be perfect. It just gives it more character.

Emily working on her masterpiece.

This is my masterpiece. Isn't it bee-you-tee-ful? Hole and all!

After the crust was ready, we poked holes in it with a fork (as Emily is demonstrating) and then spread the pizza sauce.

Then we each put toppings on our pizzas. And snacked on whatever toppings were left over. That's all a part of the fun! They were all a little unique. But they were "ours".

Sarabeth made hers to look like a "real" pizza with a rolled edge. What a perfectionist she is. And I'm not even kidding on that one! Don't ask!

Wa La! The finished product. These are mine and Emily's.

And these are Jessica and Sarabeth's. And they tasted as yummy as they look!

Actual Conversation

I was thumbing through a new magazine today and came across a picture of Jelly Bellies. Sarabeth points to one of the beans and states that it's her favorite flavor. Then she says this:

Oh! Could you imagine if you had mouths on your fingers?

But then it would be gross for people who scratch their butts.

They would be like.....ooh! That tastes like corn.

SMILE!

Guess who got her braces off.

OH. MY. GAWD.

I watched the movie Mr. Brooks last night. If you haven't seen it, it is about a serial killer played by Kevin Costner. It is a pretty good movie. Because of the content, I didn't allow my girls to watch it. I did, however, watch it in my kitchen and they overheard/saw bits and pieces of it. Which led to a discussion about serial killers.

Me: Remember the other day at the mall when I pulled you all aside and quizzed you on what you do if we get separated and you are approached by a stranger?

Girls: Yes

Me: This is partly because of serial killers. They. Are. Real! They aren't made up just for movies.

This led to a discussion about Adam Walsh. I told them his story and then we looked it up on the internet. I wanted them to know that it really was true and people really do kidnap and kill little kids. And big kids. And yes, even adults.

Then we started talking about sex offenders. I looked at the Registered Sex Offender registry online to see if there were any in our subdivision. And lo and behold, there was one. I clicked on HER name, and it brought up her information and her picture. And guess what happened then.

My baby, says, "THAT'S THE CAT LADY THAT LIVES ON THE CORNER!"

Me: WHAT??????? YOU KNOW WHO SHE IS?????

My Baby: Yes! I talk to her all the time!

OHMYOHMYOHMYOHMYOHMY

So, my oldest, wrote down the address and went for a little walk to make sure that it was in fact the same "cat lady" that my baby was referring to and it turns out that my baby knows what she's talking about. CRAP!

So then we had to have a discussion about how NOT to talk to the cat lady anymore. She said she's never been in her house, but that the lady was always asking her questions about where she lived, etc. Now, I am smart enough to know that she probably meant no harm with those questions. I ask kids that all the time when they pass by my house and stop to chat. BUT, the fact that she is a registered sex offender makes me a bit nervous. So, I instructed my kids to walk on the other side of the street and not to talk to her anymore. They can be polite and say hi if she says hi to them, but DO NOT STOP!

Her offense? Lewd conduct with a minor under the age of 16

What would you do????