Free at last...free at last...Great God Almighty I am free at last...

So I finished painting and thought I would post some pics...

(Click on the pics to enlarge them)

By the back door:





Where we didn't eat for 2 weeks:








Kitchen:

China cabinet side of kitchen:

Den:

Still painting...

But I have a few questions...

Do any of you have experience with the GigaBall?

It is 51 inches in diameter and is essentially a human hamster ball. It claims to be for indoor or outdoor use and is made of heavy duty plastic.

Just wondering if anyone has actual experience with these....

Also...

Have any of you ever used the "stretch" slip covers for sofas?

Did it keep its shape...did you have to curse a lot while putting it on?

If you own these products or know someone who does, please leave a comment to let me know what you think about them.

This is the job that never ends...

It goes on and on my friends....

Still painting the kitchen...hope to finish in the next 7-10 days. My hands ache and my muscle are sore...but it sure looks good. I took "before pictures" and am taking them as I progress...can't wait to take "after pics."


In the mean time check out these frickin adorable "crocs" I made:

Painting and Pests...

Painting a kitchen and all of the cabinets, cabinet doors and drawers is not #1.

Day 8...or yesterday, I was sitting on the floor, knee deep in cabinet doors, hardware and paint when I noticed blood dripping off my nose. As I am determining that the blood is coming from a tiny cut that I have no idea how I got the boys come banging in to the room arguing.

They have been driving each other, and me, nuts.

I get that having the kitchen turned upside down is stressful...FOR THE ADULTS. The only inconvenience the FlyMonkeys have dealt with would be the abundance of fast food they have been "forced" to eat because the kitchen is not functional. Or the Diet Sprites they have been allowed to drink because I could not get everything together to make juice.

At the beginning they helped empty all of the cabinets...but now I just really need them to stay out of the kitchen. So I let them play...there are a thousand things that they could be doing alone or together...things that would keep them quiet. Problem is that they are knuckleheads who choose, over and over again, to do things that end in conflict.

I decided that if they were going to argue they might as well do it while knocking out some chores. I told them to grab the clippers and get to work on the out-of-control bushes in front of the house.

One day I am going to give them directions and they are just going to go do it...no questions, no "what ifs" or "but I"'s......yesterday was not that day.

So after a 1/2 dozen questions I said:

"JUST GO CLIP OFF ALL OF THE REALLY TALL PIECES GROWING ON THE TOP! MAKE THEM ROUNDISH SQUARISH BUSHISH SHAPED! JUST GIVE THEM A HAIR CUT! CUT THEM LIKE ANIMALS...I DON'T CARE MAKE DISNEY CHARACTERS ALL THE WAY AROUND THE HOUSE...JUST GO DO IT AND BE QUIET..."

They walked very quietly to the door...and then I heard a snicker....

"DO NOT CUT THEM LIKE PENISES!"

Louder snickering....and they were gone.

The Plague

MonkeyBoy missed all last week with Mono (for those of you keeping up...that makes 13 absences before Halloween). I was very happy to take all three of the FlyingMonkeys to school Monday....

I had purchased all of the supplies to finally finish painting my kitchen...I took a little 4 year break....

I began the process of moving everything out of the way. Removing the cabinet doors and all of the hardware...all of the drawers. Scrub EVERYTHING with very hot soapy water to ensure a clean work surface. All told the area that I am working on took three days of prep before I even started painting the primer.

So I was not so happy to discover, Tuesday morning, that Miss-D had two rashes. Her mouth was full of ulcers...it looked horrible and painful. Turns out the little red blister/bumps on her hands and the ulcers in her mouth were the result of Foot/Hand & Mouth Disease...a first for us. The little red rash on her torso was the result of the awesome case of Strep Throat she was sporting.

Antibiotics, steroids, Magic Mouthwash and she was a go for school on Thursday....as was my date with a giant can of primer.

I had finally managed to contort my round little body in such a way that I could paint primer inside an oddly cut corner cabinet when the phone rang.

It was the school...of course. The nurse was calling to let me know that MonkeyBoy looked terrible...spots on the roof of his mouth and a fever. So clad in my funky work clothes with paint in my hair I drove to the school to pick him up.

It occurred to me as we headed home that it was a frickin miracle that Magnuts was still well. In a 1 week period he had been exposed to Mono, Hand/Foot & Mouth, and Strep.

Guess who has a mouth full of painful ulcers this morning....

I just finished using my limited kitchen resources to make oatmeal for MonkeyBoy and Magnuts....

Y'all pray for us.

Better than Nicorette....

So I started working on this dollhouse right after I quit smoking...something to do with my hands....

It took over my kitchen...and I loved building it.

Even staining the 800 little shingles....painting, sanding, re-painting...

And then one day I was done.

The kitchen was clean, the house was finished...

I had so much fun.

8th grade poetry....

Once in a village in Japan
Lived a young woman named Woo-Chan
She felt like a fool
When she fell in the pool
And everyone saw she was a man

Thank you Miss-D...