Mom, you may want to be sitting down when you read this post

My mother might actually pass out from the excitement of this post and the accompanying pictures.

I wish I had taken "before" pictures of the closet but basically all you have to do is picture three racks of clothing (one on each wall....one long, and two short) all crammed with so many clothes that you couldn't put anything else on the racks. Then picture stuff from the floor all the way up to the bottom of the clothes and from the shelf over the clothes all the way up to the ceiling. Picture boxes falling everywhere. Purses crammed under foot stools (yes, for some reason we had a foot stool in the closet) and boxes and unused wooden shelving sticking out in such a way you could barely close the door to get to the clothing bar behind the closet door. In short, picture a really full, really messy and there you have it.


We're not 100% done with the closet yet. Lincoln has two shelves he can use if he wants and there are two shelves that we'll probably moving the bedding to when we clean out the linen closet in the bathroom. Also, the empty top shelf above the drawers is where the Tivo and cable box go as they're fed through the wall to the TV on the other side. Finally, we actually have one empty drawer that I'm not sure what we'll use it for but I'm sure we'll find a use.

Okay Mom.....time to be proud of us!

The stuff from the closet. This is just the stuff from under and over the clothes racks.

Getting the supplies ready:

The old single rack across the closet:

The clothes from the closet:

Installing the new shelves. This process might have broken a lesser marriage. Note to self, don't start these projects late at night after a long day.

The new TWO-tier racks and four shelves. On the right there are four shelves. Two are currently empty (Lincoln's), along with my two, which contain my pajamas, sweatpants, and tank tops. Mom will recognize all those things as the items that lived on top of the dryer because we had no where else to put them. Under the shelves is the mini-fridge. We put that in when we moved into the house thinking we'd stock it with beer and wine for the Master Suite. Instead it ended up being a bottled water and formula fridge. We're finally starting to use it for it's original purpose.

Behind the closet door. There is a shoe rack on the back of the door and behind the door are these drawers containing belts, ties, and shawls, swimsuits and pool towels, and purses/backpacks. Underneath is another shoe rack. Yes, I have both lion slippers and rabbit slippers. I also have sock monkey slippers but those live under my desk in the office.

More behind the door stuff. The shoe rack hangs on the back of the closet door. Above the closet door is Lincoln's hat rack. Above the drawers you can see the additional empty shelves for the bed linens and the top shelf (and wires) for the Tivo/Cable box.

And that's it. Next up is the bathroom linen closet and under the sink cabinets.

Take a deep breath Mom. It's going to be okay. We promise to keep it this way until at least your next visit.

Leopold's first bath

The perfect combination

In the process of cleaning out our bedroom closet I found my diaries ranging from 6th grade through about sophomore year of college. I was never a terribly faithful writer so at times I wrote in it every day and other times there would be weeks and months between entries. 99% of the time it was one boy or another that drove me to write in my diary. If you were to just read through the diaries - and not notice the big gaps in the timeline - you'd think I was a complete flake. Talk about fickle! One entry would be all about my "undying love" for one boy and then the next one would be about how much I hate that boy but love someone else. It was hilarious reading through the diaries last night.

It also amazed me, as I skimmed back over them today, that all the things I loved and hated about the boys that I dated are pretty much what make Lincoln who he is today. He has all the things that I liked from my various crushes and boyfriends and none of the things that I hated. Lincoln is truly the perfect combination and an absolute perfect fit for me. It's amazing how all those trials and tribulations - which at the time seemed like the world was ending - were really just getting me ready for meeting Lincoln.

As the Rascal Flatts song states: "God bless the broken road that led me straight to you."

Lincoln and I may be bunking with the kids tonight

The good news: I got the closet emptied out.

The bad news: The bedroom is a mess.

Angel vs. Demon

In general, Hannah is very well-behaved.

In general, Jake can be quite the little troublemaker.

This usually means that if the two of them get into a fight 90% of the time it is because Jake has done something to Hannah. Is she always innocent? Certainly not. But she does get away with a lot more because overall she's a pretty good kid.

I think she's starting to take serious advantage of it though. "Mr. Claus" had the brilliant idea of giving Jake the new Mario game for the Wii this Christmas. If you're not familiar with the game it allows up to 4 players to play at the same time on the same screen. That means you have to work together to get through the level. You have to adjust your speed, protect your fellow players, and work together to accomplish certain goals. In other words, not an ideal game to have siblings play together. There is a lot more fighting in the house these days.

The conversation below is just a brief recap of what I've been listening to for the last half hour and how I came to the realization that Hannah has a little bit of the devil in her too.

Jake: Hannah popped my bubble and killed me! She did it on purpose!

Hannah: No I didn't. It was an accident.

(a little while later)

Jake: Hannah!

Hannah (innocently): What?

Jake: Mom! Hannah just threw me into a puffer fish and killed me again.

Hannah (even more innocently, if possible): I didn't mean to. It just happened.

Okay, I can see her accidentally popping his bubble - which sometimes is hard to control -but who accidentally throws someone into a puffer fish? She's definitely out to get him, the little troublemaker.

Payback is a bitch

Jake repeats himself.

Over and over and over again.

And if you don't acknowledge what he has said - or asked - he will continue to repeat himself until you cave in and acknowledge him. Oftentimes what he has said doesn't really need to be acknowledged since it doesn't require a reply but he still wants one. Hannah used to do the same thing.

This morning Jake kept saying the same thing over and over and over to Hannah and she was trying her best to ignore him.

Me: Hannah! Answer him already.

(Hannah answers him)

Me: Hannah, I would just like to state for the record that when he does that and it annoys you so much, that you used to do that to Mommy and Daddy all the time.

(Hannah just stares at me.)

Me: Sucks, doesn't it?

Vacation style

Shower and wash hair: check

Blow-dry and style hair: check

Carefully applied make-up: check

Put on clothes other than yoga pants and a big warm sweatshirt: negative.

Hey, you can't win them all, right? Last year during my 2 weeks of holiday break I think I put on "real clothes" twice. The only time this holiday break that I've hit all four of the check points above was for Nate's memorial service. Even on Christmas day I didn't hit them all. More often than not my hair ends up in a wet ponytail and I go without make-up because not only is it a hassle to put on, it's a hassle to get back off again at the end of the day.

My holiday break hasn't been quite as productive as last year when we re-arranged all the rooms of the house, bought and installed new furniture and TVs, and painted the bathroom but I'm finally starting to begin on my projects for this year's holiday break. My two big goals are to clean out and organize our bedroom closet and the linen closet and cabinets in our bathroom. They're all disasters and badly need to be organized. I started on our closet this morning and it's funny to be digging out stuff from when I was pregnant with Jake. Like I said, it's badly in need of an organizing.

Today is also the day that I have to take Leopold to the vet so we've got to venture out into the real world today. Wish me luck.