Rip and Tear

I Hate Wallpaper

As you can see from the title, I'm not feeling the love toward wallpaper. The people that put up the wallpaper in our house did a horrible job. They just slapped it on the wall without prepping it. Ugh! It makes for a nightmare when you try and remove it. I started removing the wallpaper in Adam's room so I can paint when he is gone at my parents house next week. Yesterday I used my steamer to try and remove the paper but I could only get about a pea shaped size at a time. Oh my! And the really strange thing was I was removing the paint under the paper when I tried to pick it off. It's really cheap paint or something, but it's really ruining the wall and going to cause oodles of work for me. So I told Nick to go grab the finish sander. I might as well just sand the walls down and start from scratch. This is when it gets really strange....I've been removing the paper with the sander and not harming the walls AT ALL!! Yay! Go me! So hopefully I'll have the wallpaper removed from Adam's room in the next few days.

Scratch

Earlier this week my back started to itch. I thought I had dry skin so I put more lotion on and started my humidifier. Well the itch continued and started to spread. I was complaining about it most of the week, but I couldn't see any type of rash. Anyways, this morning I had Claire take a look at my back and she said I had lots of little bumps everywhere that were the same color of my skin. Oh joy! So I decided to make an appointment to see the doctor. I got in today and the doctor took a look at it and said that it would continue to spread to the tips of my toes unless I took some antibiotics. So now I'm on some antibiotics and hopefully I can get rid of it soon. I hate being itchy. I almost find it worse than being in pain.

Talking about pain though, Nick and I bought a new bed so hopefully I won't be waking up in pain anymore! We ordered one from Costco online and they delivered and set it up for us. Yay! All I had to do was get rid of my old mattress the day before hand. Wow, I put it on craigslist really cheap and I got 15-20 hits on it. Needless to say it was gone that night. Nick and I had to sleep on the air mattress which was hellish because I was also itching all night long. The new mattress showed up and I was really excited because the boxspring was only like 4 inches tall. I thought it would be great to have a bed I wouldn't have to jump to get into. Well I thought wrong! The boxspring is indeed smaller but the pillowtop mattress is huge! Extremely comfy, but huge!!

We have also been checking craigslist for a desk for Claire. It's been difficult to find one for her because she wants one that looks cheery! Well we were finally successful. We got her one that definitely needs to be refinished but right now I don't care because she can't ruin her desk. In fact today she told me she accidentally drew all over the top and I told her that was just fine! Maybe in a few years I'll refinish it for her and it will look stunning!

Okay, I'm off to play some video games. I would normally say I need to go to bed, but the meds that I'm taking make me very alert! Maybe sometime tonight I'll be able to conk out!

A Tough Day

Well I think the whole family woke up on the wrong side of bed. Sigh! We went to the final swimming lesson today and it went very poorly. There was a substitute instructor and he had just got a tattoo so he would not put his arm in the water. Also he was not good with kids. A few times he was yelling and pulling the kids back to him so they could all stand around and do nothing. It was horrible. Then we went off to McDonalds for a tasty and delicious lunch. Adam has wanted to try his big boy underwear lately so we decided to let him try it after swimming. Sigh! He pooped himself at lunch. So he didn't even get to play and we had to go home early. During his nap he had critical diaper failure. Oh joy, even more to clean. After his nap we decided to be brave and let him try it again. He promptly peed himself. So we are back to diapers. Sigh! In the middle of all this mess we had company show up. It was great to talk to people and catch up, but wow I had a lot to clean up. Don't you just just love it when people show up and the house smells of poop and pee and your kid is running around naked? Sigh! Well, later I hope to post some pictures.

Sadness

Well, Nick and I have finally been affected by the economy. Nick's work sent out a company wide email declaring a wage freeze. Looks like no raise this year. But on the bright side, I don't think anyone at Anvil has been laid off yet. Their main competitor across town just let go all their contractors and some others as well as telling everyone that they were now going to be working 32 hours a week. Ouch!

Swimming Lessons

Swimming lessons have been wonderful. The kids have been going stir crazy spending their days inside. At least this give them something to look forward to every Saturday. Our whole family has a great time. The kids love swimming and we love watching them. They glance over at us periodically throughout the lesson and they get the biggest smile when they see that we are watching them. After the first swim lesson I bought a book thinking that this would be a great time to read some. I got through one paragraph because I was so busy watching them! I looked around to see who else was watching the kids and I saw parents texting others, listening to their mp3's and a lot of absent parents. Maybe I'm one of the dorky parents that really likes to watch my kids have fun, but I don't know.... It just bothered me seeing the lack of interest in their kids. Anyways, we have a great time on Saturdays now. After the swim lessons we go out to lunch and usually go shopping. The kids are usually beat by the time we get home. Swimming takes it all out of them. :)

This was our Thursday activity! School was cancelled and it was time to play in the snow. Didn't I do a great job on the snowman?! The kids wouldn't help, they thought it was chore to make a snowman!! Go figure...