Brownies with a Side of Laughs

Last year around this time last year, I caved in and bought a membership to Costco. For the most part I've been *relatively* good at only buying what we actually need. I'd be lying if I said I hadn't bought a new pair of yoga pants or several books...

I usually end up at Costco about once per week to bring home a collection of items varying between fruits and veggies along with the usual milk and eggs. I caved last week and brought home a box of brownie mix. With our oldest being on a high protein and veggie diet, we've virtually cut out all extra sugars and a bunch of processed foods. Bringing home a box of brownie mix is a huge deal in this house. Just having the kids look at the box is enough to get them a sugar high. Seriously.

Now since the giant box of brownie mix has no home in our pantry, it has been taking up space on our counter. It's been sitting there just asking me to make some. I gave in on Saturday evening. I made a super think batch too. Go big or go home, I suppose. It baked in the oven long enough for several of us to lay and "rest" by the fire burning in the living room. Unfortunately for the kids, they had to go to bed before the brownies were *completely* cool. (Also known as mom and dad not wanting to share.)

After all three kiddos were tucked into their beds, I cut out two brownies to share. As I was leaving the kitchen, I spotted a creeper on the stairs watching and glaring at me. He was promptly sent back to bed with plenty of hugs and brownie-breathed kisses. (HD later tattled on me to his brother the next morning. JP walked up and attempted to give me a mean glare but since he can't seem to keep his glasses pushed up, his glare didn't have the same effect.)

Upon our arrival home Sunday morning from church, the boys headed to the basement to play Legos while the rest of had breakfast. To reward ourselves for doing so, we treated ourselves to a brownie. A three-year old trying to hide a brownie from her brother is probably one of the best things to watch. Ever. As the three of us sat down to start eating, HD came sprinting up the stairs, as if he knew what we were about to do, and he was missing out. I whisper-yelled, "Hide it!" I've never seen her grab a brownie so quickly! She hastily put it on her lap, leaving a trail of crumbs behind while the hubby and I simply used our hands to shield it from his view. He proceeded to ignore us and walk down the hall to the bathroom so we relaxed and began to chow down. When his footsteps were heard in the hall again, the three of us simultaneously covered our treats again and sat with a deer-in-the-headlights look about us. He wandered over to us, standing close enough to very easily see at least one of the three brownies at the table. He stood there yammering on about something for what seemed like an hour but was only a minute before he headed back to the basement, leaving us without having to talk through our brownie filled mouths. Just before we thought we were in the clear, he turned around to ask me a question. He was satisfied with several grunts before returning to the basement and he was none the wiser as to what he missed out on.

I never should have even made those darn things because for the rest of the afternoon, I was being asked when they could have their special treat... We gave in after dinner. I supervised the dinner table while the hubs cut up dessert. In the meantime I sent our squirmy little girl to get her jammies on. She detoured to the bathroom and danced about in her room before actually getting them on. This gave dad ample time to warm up and pass out brownies to JP and I, and devour his own. To urge her along, he called out to her to hurry up before he ate her brownie too and then switched her plate with his empty one as she scurried down the hall to the table. Upon seeing an empty plate, the meanest look over came her face so she was sent back down the hall to shut off the light in the bathroom and the one in her room. She stormed down and took care of her room while dad switched the plates back. She lit up when she came back but was sent back to shut the bathroom light off. This time my plate with a little brownie was switched with hers. We giggled as she came back mad again, and promptly switched them back.

Sometime I feel like my kids, particularly my oldest and youngest, are living DVR's. Immediately after something happens, they either re-enact it, re-tell it, or begin a story with "Remember when..." literally seconds after it happened. This incident was no exception. While our sweet girl began chowing down on her brownie, our oldest began re-telling the story. Just as he finished it up, JP looks up, chocolate all over his face, his white little fingers turned brown, and responds, "So that was yesterday?" He was so enthralled with his brownie, he failed to take in his surrounding and completely missed out on the "joke" but also solid half of the story. Confusion overcame him as he finished the last pieces of his brownie, not understanding why we were all dying of laughter as his listened to the story being re-told yet again.

And that my dear friends, is how we treat ourselves to desserts and a nice little laugh. Brownies are good for the soul!

Upstairs Bathroom: Repainted and Done

It wasn't until Saturday when my hubby and I went to our next door neighbor's estate sale that I realized how fortunate we were to have a few updates done to our house. The kitchen especially! They had been the only owners of the home and lived there into their 90's. With the exception of a bathroom that was made to be handicap accessible, everything appeared to be original furnishings from the 70's. I'll be curious to see what the new neighbors do it. 

Over at our place though, the updates they did were either painting over the wallpaper, wallpapering over the wallpaper, or wallpapering over the wallpaper and then painting it. It's made for a long removal process. One of the rooms that didn't have wallpaper, but did at one point, was the upstairs bathroom. I was so in love with the bathroom we re-did in Missoula, that I wanted to re-create it - in a sense. I'm not entirely sure why I chose this to be my first project though but I'm happy to report it's almost done!

When we first arrived in December, we had this baby blue bathroom with brown cabinets. The floors are a white and blue linoleum but sound sticky when you walk on it. Slightly annoying in my opinion. By the end of the 4 days I was here, I had the walls and ceiling painted. 

I've been trying to decide what color to paint to the cabinets because this tanish-brown just wasn't working for me. I was going to with white, but since the counters were already white, I wasn't sold. I did however have left over paint from the dining room and figured, why not? We were going to go to the coast this weekend to watch the crab races in Tillamook, but decided we'd stay home and work on a few projects since it was supposed to rain all day over there. (When is it not raining though...?)

 

 I feel like I spent the entire day in this bathroom, but I'm so glad I did! I love how it turned out! Remember how I said there was an estate sale going on next door? While I'm elbows deep in paint, our doorbell rings a few times and some people walk in as I'm on my way to the door. They quickly turned around in a panic when they saw the kids, exclaiming, "This is the wrong house!" I'm sure it doesn't help that I was getting a StitchFix delivered at the same time... 

In order to paint the linen closet, I carefully removed the towels and sheets and placed them in nice piles in the freshly cleaned bathtub. By the end of the day I had a tub of towels to refold. There is a kid in there. Somewhere. This time around it might have been JP. I suspected a child might do this at some point. I figured that was where JP ran off to after dinner but I paid no attention to him as I put the handles back on the doors and drawers until my towels started vibrating and giggling. 

We're going to replace the flooring at a later date, and I'm going to have to repaint the already painted counter tile, but for now I'm done with this little project. I really like how the cabinets turned out. They fit in perfectly with the shower curtain and towels that were already in there.

I might start to tackle our master bathroom soon now that this one is done. It's covered in wallpaper though so it'll be quite the project... So much wallpaper in this home! 

My Anxiety Kicked In Again.

It's nearly been a month since I've been back to my blog. At the beginning of the year, I said I really wanted to get back to blogging regularly, and I still really do! Every time I think about sitting down to write for a few minutes about some significant happenings, I get overwhelmed with what to write about, and instead jump on to Shutterfly to work on my yearbook. I've been making one every year for the past several years, and while everyone enjoys looking through them, it really bogs me down in January and February. I finally hunkered down last week and put the final touches on it - I'm eagerly awaiting it's arrival next week!

In the meantime I've been keeping busy with home projects - mainly painting. My dad gave me a seven day notice of his and my mom's arrival. It was just enough time to complete the "paint the ceiling" project that started when we moved in. While I was at it, I painted in the kitchen ceiling too. It was white, but needed a lot of love from all the cooking that had been done over the years. The last painting project I finished up before their arrival was picking a paint color and painting the dining room/transition-into-the-kitchen wall.

Picking paint colors has been a huge stressor for me. I sent myself into a little downward spiral when it came to picking colors for the living room. It was terrible. This time around I tried really hard not to over think the color, though I did spend a good chunk of time thinking about what color to make it. All of my walls were a shade of grey - brown. I love color, but went neutral and love how everything has turned out so far, but I knew I want to add a bit of personality to the mix. Keeping with the rustic feel of our home that we are trying to achieve, I was going to go with a mossy green, but somehow found myself going with more of a teal. The color I chose was called "Grey Green Teal" which on the swatched looked more green. When they mixed the paint, it looked green, when I poured it into the painting pan, it was green. However, when I started painting, it was blue. And Perry wonders why I get so much anxiety over colors...

Fast forward to yesterday - we swung by Home Depot to pick out some paint for the basement, and a few other things. After asking for my hubby's opinion on the final colors and his response being "I don't care," I was sent into a bit of an anxiety attack. My heart started racing and I started feeling sick. His response was just the "stick that broke the camel's back" after having to re-think my stairwell project and wrangling the boys in the process.

I haven't felt this way since last fall with my neighbor fiasco. I can handle feeling sick and having sweaty palms, but I absolutely hate when my heart feels like it's racing. It's a very uncomfortable feeling. The most frustrating about it all is not having my husband understand. I can't just stop feeling the way I feel, and I can't just calm down. I over think things all the time - I can't help it!

I haven't slept through the night since before I moved. While at mom's house, I chalked it up to having a child sleeping in bed with me. After the big move, I figured it was because I was just too hot at night, which might be part of it, but when I keep the room really cold... I've started taking melatonin before bed, which has helped a little, but I still toss and turn every night. Is it my anxiety? I'm not sure. I just want to sleep! I've expressed to my hubby numerous times about how I feel lazy and don't accomplish much throughout the day because I'm just so tired. 

Right now I'm feeling a little overwhelmed with all the projects going on at home. I started taking down wallpaper in my stairwell so I could get that painted before our guests arrive this week, but that was put on the back burner when I saw my hubby peeling wallpaper in the basement so he could put up trim around the windows. I know he was trying to make it easier for me when it came time to paint the basement, but that ended up with me striping a good half of the basement of wallpaper. Just as I was cleaning up the mess, he started tearing down wallpaper in the bathroom for the same reason, to make it easier for me when it came time to paint it. Now I have too many open projects and I want to do them all at once. 

One of these days I'll get up a few pictures of all the updates we've done around here. But not today. I'm going to try to complete a few of these projects in hopes of feeling less overwhelmed...One thing at time.