Where have we been?

Gee, there haven't been any new posts in over a week. Maybe they went away for Fall Break. Well, no. Evidently, Disney loses some of its fun and mystique when you grow up in Florida, and the kids don't know what they are missing yet, so we haven't made "that" trip yet. Someday.

No, we have been home. I don't have pictures yet, but I will add them soon. Where should I start? How about LAST October? I was pregnant with Mary, and we had decided we weren't going to be moving any time soon, so we talked Jack into switching rooms with the girls. He had the blue room with the big closet, and if we were going to have two and eventually three girls in one bedroom, we needed to rearrange things a little. So Jack agreed (he is good about compromising). What did we promise him though? Well, it SEEMED simple enough. He wanted to still have a blue bedroom with a navy blue ceiling and glow-in-the-dark stars on it. We thought that seemed reasonable. The room was white and needed a new paint job anyway. Oh, and the girls decided they wanted to pick out a new color for their new room too while we were at it. So I took the kids to Lowe's and they picked out paint. Light blue with navy for Jack and pink for the girls (I know, how stereotypical, but I told them they could pick!). This was October of 2007. Well, we finished soccer, started basketball and along came Mary.

In AUGUST of THIS year, my brother painted the girls' room. It looks great. Then he got a job and no longer had time to do Jack's room. So Bryan and I started talking about Fall Break. We came to the conclusion that there was so much going on during break, we should just put in for vacation and see if we can get some projects done.

Here's where I will have pictures :). We got the family room organized (for now - it's like shoveling in a snow storm with four children). Bryan found the computer desk - this in itself was an amazing accomplishment! Bryan started priming the front door and trim. He's fighting the weather on this one and it was a late addition to the list. I decided a couple weeks ago that it needed done and started it and well, Bryan gets to finish it. He got the deck clean. Now, hopefully we will have a warm up so it can get stained too. We're still working on Jack's social studies project - a poster about the election due Tuesday. UGH, but we have the legwork finished. Jack took all his notes and now just has to transfer them and cut and glue the information onto the poster and pick out pictures tomorrow. And the biggie - Jack's room is BLUE! We didn't get the ceiling done, but we both think we can do it next weekend (in between Cub Scouts, basketball, birthday parties, work and family get-togethers!). Where there's a will, there's a way, right? The big part, Bryan got the room started, but I finished the first coat and did the second by myself! I have discovered I like to paint :). (No, I'm not looking for any outside work at the moment!) This is the first painting Bryan and I have done in all the years we've owned our own home! I will be on the lookout for new curtains as the blue we picked doesn't quite match the walls (who knew different shades of blue could clash?). I am looking forward to putting his room back together tomorrow and getting all the pictures in both rooms hung up. Wow, no more paint cans in the hallway! I told Bryan to watch out - he's going to start coming home to different colored walls :)!

So all we did was work away our vacation? Well, not completely. Bryan went to the Purdue game on Saturday. Jack and Grace had their final soccer games Saturday too. Just in time for the freezing weather. Grace scored three goals. Jack scored two, and his team won against an undefeated team. How about that?!? Best of all, they had fun and their teams worked really well together. A coach's dream come true. We went to our friend's graduation party. She finished her Master's degree just in time to have her first baby. And we went to Lafayette to visit Melanie and eat at Arni's, which is always fun and yummy. So I think it was a fun break too. Today, Jack, Grace, Bryan and I (with Mary helping, of course) even play some Wii before bedtime. I think we'll chalk it up as a success :).