I had to go to the dentist today. Ugh. Just walking in that place makes my head hurt, mostly because that’s when I start clenching my teeth.

It’s mostly the sounds that get to me. When I’m working, I don’t like to be in the same room as the dental machine – I’ll pull teeth, but that tartar scraper thing gives me the heebie-jeebies.

The hygienist remarked several times about the death grip I had on the sides of the chair. I personally think the tears silently running down my cheeks should have been her first clue that I was not enjoying my cleaning.

Anyway, it was a fab way to start off the week

Thankfully I have only a small cavity – actually one that I’ve had filled before but not correctly.

So I get to go back in 2 weeks.

The scheduler apologized for not being able to fit me in this week.

Ha!

But friends, it could be soooo much worse.

Have I ever told y’all about the summer before we moved to England?

You have to have medical and dental clearances for the military to let you move overseas.

My lovely dentist refused to sign my clearance…until I had about 52 cavities filled, 2 root canals, and had signed over our life savings to her retirement account.

It was not a fun summer for my poor teeth.

But I learned my lesson – no more mountain dew, coke, or sweet tea (except on very special occasions). That stuff really will rot your teeth out!

Especially if you drink 64 ounces of it daily.

Check it out here and then get back to me.

Have you read it yet?

I relate to this one on so many levels – the soul-sucking activity that is making pack lunch, the coupons that Mike claims he never gets to use, and on and on.

Love it.

ANYWAY, this post isn’t about the back-to-school- crud.

This morning, Mike, I, a school district representative, and Emmett’s early steps coordinator had Emmett’s transitional meeting. This is something kids with special needs have about 6 months before they turn 3 and enter the school system.

And guess what?

You’ll never guess (unless you’re friends with me on facebook) so I’ll just tell you.

The county is going to let Emmett start school in OCTOBER!!!!!!

Can I get a praise Jesus?

Seriously – Mike and I were just talking last night about how I was soooo sick of being the bad guy all day every day with Emmett - I won’t let him keep his hands in his mouth all day, I won’t let him bang his head on the tile, I won’t let him scratch himself into an infection, I change his poopy diapers, I clean his g-tube site, I brush his teeth and so on (Mike does all these things too, but not while he’s at work…that would be difficult).

I know, I am a monster. But it feels like our whole day is just filled with all of these negative interactions and it just weighs. me. down. And I totally didn’t know how I was going to hold out til the end of March, when Emmett turns 3.

So really, this is a total answer to prayer!

He will be going full days 5 days a week - riding the bus to a school about 25 miles away from us. There is a closer school that he could attend, but this one really focuses on mobility, which is one of our top 3 goals for Emmett, because let me tell you, that kid is getting heavy.

And I think that after the first couple of weeks (which he will spend folded over like a taco, pretending he can’t crawl or sit, screaming his head off for hours at a time) he will love it.

And I think that we might actually be able to enjoy some quality time together, since I’ll feel like someone else is responsible for his behavioral issues in addition to me.

Thank you Lord Jesus.

For Reals.

{me on an hourly basis: Emmy for the love will you PLEASE GET THAT HAND OUT OF YOUR MOUTH?!?!}

You know how it goes – you don’t write for a few days, then a few days more, and suddenly you’ve lost the habit.

And of course we’re always busy busy busy here, so it becomes really easy to not write.

And suddenly, I have friends who tell me that its been over a month since I’ve written anything!

Well, that it unacceptable I say!

And now that school has started and we’re on the Man’s schedule (as in “damn the Man”), I should be able to pencil in some blog time, right?

Right – o!

{I think this might be the only picture I have from this summer of all four boys together. Boo!}

The guys installed the granite countertop today.

And I hate it.

What I wanted was an absolute black countertop with a honed finish.

What these countertops look like is a black countertop that has been walked on by 27 kittens with muddy feet.

You see, we didn’t ever see the slab – they didn’t have any absolute black slabs with a honed finish when we chose our granite, but I have seen examples before – they just looked plain black.  So the granite company ordered it.

And because we were in Iowa, we didn’t ever go out to pensacola to check it out – we didn’t even know till monday that the slab had come in.

Big mistake.

Huge.

Why oh why didn’t I go to look at the slab on monday, before they installed it?

Stay tuned for more breaking kitchen news.

PS: what a middle class sob story, right? Poor me,  my brand new stone countertops aren’t what I wanted…boo hoo hoo. Look, in the scheme of things, countertops are not a big deal, obvs. BUT…countertops are REALLY expensive (to us). We’ve saved a good bit of money to do this kitchen renovation thing. I want to love our new kitchen. Or at least not hate it.

Last week we flew up to Iowa to visit Mike’s family. We had a great time, and the trip has me wishing we lived on a farm. Seriously. Northwest Iowa in the summer will do that to you. I’m pretty sure I’d be singing a different tune if we visited in January.

And I’m also thinking that the Gulf oil crisis hitting our beloved beaches has a bit to do with my daydreams. Boo.

Anywho.

When we flew back into Mississippi, Mike and I hopped in the car and headed home. That’s right, JUST Mike and me!

Well, just Mike and me and Kodi and Mousa and my parents’ dogs, Bruiser and Fraggle.

But the point is that there were no kids in the car! My mom and dad have graciously agreed to watch them while our kitchen renovation takes place.

And that’s now, baby! The demolition started Monday, and we’re hoping that everything will be done early next week.

Because construction is messy! And dusty! And today they took our countertops and sink away!

It will be totally worth it in the end – I can’t wait to share the final product with y’all (and see it for myself!).

But don’t y’all think that I’m sitting on the couch watching the Hills finale while my mom slaves away with the kids. I have been working my patootie off!

Let’s see…so far I’ve had a visit from the sherriff’s dept (courtesy of our nasty next-door neighbor), finished refinishing 6 pieces of furniture, visited Lowe’s multiple times, painted the tiny room underneath the stairs (that took a lot longer than you would think), moved a little bit of furniture around, and…watched the Hills finale.

Tomorrow will be a full day too: doctor’s appointment, paint the little boys’ room, paint the trim under the stairs, and hang out a little with a friend and her kids tomorrow night.

Oh, and get ready for a garage sale on Saturday! That’s right folks – if you know me in real life and in the mood for some junk beautiful treasures, then come on by on Saturday morning – everything must go (because Mike is demanding politely asking for his garage space back)!

I find it really amazing how much can be accomplished if you know you only have a limited amount of time to get ‘er done.

I also find it really amazing how much I miss the boys.

Really a lot.

But oh, it would be horrible if they were here with the construction – the bigs would be asking the workers a million questions, Riggs would be into everything and covered in drywall dust, and Em, well, he probably wouldn’t even notice. But he would be stuck with a purple room, because I certainly wouldn’t be painting his room if the kids were here.

Thank you so much mom and dad! Y’all are the best!

And also thank you to Mike’s mom and dad for a great vacay last week!

Ok, wow, this is getting looonngg. I was going to share a project but I think I’ll wait til tomorrow next time.

Cheers y’all!

Although I don’t know how that really applies to me, since none of my kids are in school yet.

Anyway.

Another project, yes?

oops, he’s still a work in progress . Can you believe he’s almost 1 year old?

I finally tackled the mantle! Umm, actually I did this a couple of months ago, but whatevs.

Here’s the how-to:

1. Pick a night when you don’t feel like painting furniture outside due to extreme heat/humidity/bugginess
2. Open up the windows in the living room – remember to ventilate!
3. Slap on a coat of no-sand latex primer
4. Sand lightly
5. Add 3 coats of olympic premium no-voc white paint (I can’t remember if we used semi-gloss or satin), sanding after each coat
6. After the last coat, sand more to add a little character
7. Then apply 3 coats of safecoat acrylac, sanding after each coat
8. Wait a few days before setting anything on top of the mantle

Now, what I wish we would have done but didn’t is to really sand the mantle first – I don’t care if the primer says no-sand, I think it always pays to sand, and when we do the kitchen cabinets we will definitely sand first to let the primer adhere more to the wood. That being said, I’m really happy with how it turned out!

Oooh, and notice the big wooden H thing on the mantle – that was my mother’s day present. My guy did really good this year!

Whadya think?

Thanks for the comments on the chalkboard, y’all! I LOVE the way it turned out…sometimes I just sit there and gaze upon our big black wall…sigh.

And I’m back with another project…this one much more subtle, I promise!

It started with a trip to the seashell souvenir store. They sell their imperfect seashells for 88 cents apiece! So Sawyer and I picked out a few to bring home.

Then the bigs and I painted them with acrylics (in beachy colors) and took them outside to spray on a coat of poly

Ok, maybe we picked out more than a few.

After they dried, I brought them back inside and put them up in all the transoms in the house

I don’t know if anyone who comes to our house even notices them…but I notice, and they make me smile. Plus the bigs got a kick out of getting to help with a project – it kept them happily occupied during the witching hours (4-6pm at our house). And that really makes me smile

I’m sorry.

No really, I am.

And I have no good excuse either – we’ve been busy but what else is new.

But I’m back!

And I’m ready to share some projects!

Remember the kitchen?

Well…a while back Mike went out of town, and I got a little bored. I wouldn’t say he was thrilled when he got home, but, because he’s such a fabulous husband, he didn’t make me change it back.

I haven’t let the kids draw on it yet – I’m just loving the blankness that is the clean chalkboard wall. Yes I did it. But I did take into account all the warnings. To avoid the dust, I’m planning on only using chalkboard markers.

When I break down and finally let the kids draw on it, that is.

Not that you would ever want to do a chalkboard wall, but iffin you did, here’s how I did it:

1. first I taped with frog tape (the green gap at the top will be covered by crown moulding…eventually)
2. then I did 3 coats of magnetic primer (from lowes)
3. followed by 2 coats of chalkboard paint (also from lowes)

easy peasy lemon squeezey!

So do you like it or hate it – I’m pretty sure its gotta be one or the other?

Mike’s been working late lately so I’ve been moving some stuff around, as I am wont to do. Currently I’m in the process of moving the big boys back downstairs to the little boys’ old room, the little boys out of the green room to the office, the office to the guest room upstairs, the guest room to the master bedroom, the master bedroom to the playroom upstairs, and the playroom to the green room.

Ok wow, when I type it out like that, its sounds like a lot.

Here’s how I see it – we’ve been living in this house for what 7-8 months or so? It can take a while to figure out the best layout for a house, so in my mind its natural that you’d have to move stuff around.

I’m not sure Mike shares this opinion. In fact, I’m pretty sure he doesn’t.

But I’ve promised that THIS will be the last room moves for a long time. And I mean it.

Ugh, still having problems with the camera/computer thing. Maybe if Mike and I can be in the same place at the same time at some point in the future, we can get the kinks worked out.

Because really, have y’all even seen pictures of the little boys in the green room, the big boys upstairs, the chalkboard wall (oh yes, I went for it), more cabinet doors removed in the kitchen, the new and improved nondining room, the furniture I’ve refinished, and the mantle?

And what about the boys? They just get cuter every day if I do say so myself.

Soon we’ll get all caught up.