'Twas the Week Before Pre-School....and Mommy's a Mess

School starts next week.
Jackson will begin Pre-K on Monday. I'm happy to say he is over the moon excited to go back! He'll be in school 5 days a week, so I'm sure it will be a bit of an adjustment for all of us, but I think we're all looking forward to our school year routine.
And on Tuesday, sweet sweet Super P will begin school as well.
So if you need me anytime during the next week or so, I'll be in the corner trying hard to not let the kids see me crying. No, really. I am a mess.
It has been a long two and a half plus years. We have been through so much to get to this point. I have held my sweet Super P while we've talked to a neonatologist, a cardiologist, a neurologist, an audiologist, a urologist, and a hematologist. He has been intubated and on a ventilator. He has had a spinal tap. I sat terrified holding him as he received immunoglobulin to treat a problem with his platelets.
I pray for him, over him, with him. I have pleaded with God. I have fallen apart and pulled myself back together for him. I waited almost 18 months to see him walk and two years to hear him talk. All this time, I have been his voice.
And now, for two mornings (7 hours a week), we will be apart. And he will find his voice.
And I will, for the first time, need to trust someone outside our circle to love and protect him.
I knew that this wouldn't be easy.
But I didn't expect it to be this hard.
So forgive me if you're expecting to hear from me this week and you don't. I'm holding my 2 year old close to my heart. I'm crying. And I'm learning how to let go.

House Stuff

I have a confession to make.
We have lived in our house for {just about} a year and a half now, and I haven't finished decorating a single room.  Not one.  We still have boxes we haven't unpacked.  We don't even have real bedding in the master bedroom.
I, Nicole, a lover of all things project and craft related, have not even really started decorating.  The house was move in ready, so there weren't any pressing needs to address.  But I am finally ready to dive in and get some things crossed off the to do list.
First up was an easy project.  Every night that we sat down to dinner for the last year at least one of us would complain about the blinding sun coming in through the door to the deck.  And Brian and I would mumble to each other about curtains or blinds.  But we just never got around to it.  I finally picked up some fairly inexpensive window panels from Ikea {and blackout liners, but I haven't put those up yet}.  And just like that, I can cross something off the to do list!

I actually love the way it looks.  Our tall ceilings look even taller!  But now that the curtains are up in the kitchen, I think I'll have to put some up in the family room to balance the wall.  {Ignore the off centered pictures on the wall.  You were right mom ;)  I should have centered them to start with.} What do you think?

I had originally hoped to have Mamie's room complete by the time she was 6 months old.  Well, she'll be 16 months old next week and it's finally close to being complete.  I finally bought her a chair and a bookshelf that doubles as a bench.

I still need some pillows for the chair and bench, and I hope to make a cushion for the bench as well.  And looking at this picture, I think I'll pick up some baskets for the bench.  Notice Mamie swinging her Jedi Mickey by his light saber.  Star Wars.  Sigh.

The wall behind her crib is just a big blank canvas.

I spray painted a large frame from Ikea ages ago.  I am going to hang that up to frame a wooden cutout of her monogram...eventually.  I'll get to it.  Soon.  Probably.  Here is the frame.

I also need to hang up a few shelves, but adding the furniture made her room feel cozier.  The wall color is Sherwin-Williams Iron Ore.  I love it!

The last project {for now} is the laundry room.  Here is a before picture.

Just a super simple {itty bitty} blank slate.  I took this picture from the entry hallway.  The door to the right is the garage.  I guess that means the laundry room is technically a mudroom, but it's a little too small for that.

I chose a color scheme months ago, but for some reason it has taken me a long time to get started.  The first project was a chandelier makeover.  I picked up a chandelier at Goodwill for $6 and painted it with a few coats of Krylon's Coral Isle spray paint.  

Most of that mess in the background is not mine.  Honest!  I picked up a throw rug (I forgot to take a picture of it) and my mom found some aqua and coral decor.

I have some fun art planned for the room (sequins, etsy love, the raven...Oh My!), but before I can hang up any art, I need to paint.  I chose this color from Glidden.

And because the laundry room really is MY room {5 people in the house, 3 of them are male, you do the math} I decided to go for it and have some fun with the room.  Horizontal stripes.  This was a much better {more exciting} idea BEFORE I started taping off the room.  But the taping is done and I hope to paint over the holiday weekend.

Here is the view of the room from the hallway.

And here is the view from the back corner of the room so you can get a sense of the size of the room.  

I pushed the washer and dryer back into place after I finished taping, and I must say that the room looks better already...

I still don't know if I'm going to go with open shelves or cabinets, but I can't wait to see the room with fresh paint on the walls and the chandelier instead of that awful exposed fluorescent light!

That's what I'm working on, how about you?  Hopefully I'll have a freshly painted room to show off next week!

Friendship

A few weeks ago, after a wonderful dinner with some very sweet friends, my sister and her husband hung around and kept me company while I cleaned the kitchen.  My brother in law is nosy.  He is totally the guy who goes through people's medicine cabinets at a party.  So he decided to flip through (and read) my yearbook from my senior year.  Yes, my yearbooks are that accessible.  No, it is not on purpose.  I was 8 months pregnant when we moved in.  My husband unpacked all the books he could find and I still haven't gotten around to fixing up our bookshelves.  His yearbook WAS accessible...until the night my sister and his youngest sister found it and decided to read it.  It was the night I had Mamie.  As soon as he left the hospital, he put the yearbook up high enough that you need a ladder to get it.
It was funny to see my yearbook through my brother in law's eyes.  He teased us.  We tried to downplay our nerdiness.  And every time he saw a phone number he asked if so-and-so and I kept in touch.  It was just a great trip down memory lane.
In my yearbook, one of my friends wrote a note that has stayed with me all these years.

I don't really remember how we became friends but it must have been a really great day.

It is one of the nicest things a friend has ever said to me or about me.

I don't remember how I became friends with most of my friends.  It's as if each of them magically appeared in my life just when I needed them most.  And looking back, I am certain it must have been a really great day.  I am blessed.