I promised to give an update of all of our drama as of late. As you can see my last post is Sept. 23rd, omg! I will give some short updates on our drama, although I could go on forever about each one.
The last week of September, my beloved Grandma Bernice fell ill. After a week or so in the hospital, we lost her. I spent TONS of time with her growing up and of course will never forget her. I absolutely hate that she's gone. She was my last grandparent, too. It seems weird to be grandparentless. She had moved to a sort-of assisted living cute apartment in Davenport since May and had loved living there. After a resident passes away, you only have two weeks to remove their things since there is a waiting list for the apartments. My aunts packed all of my grandma's things and moved them into our (soon to be old) house. It's weird seeing her stuff everyday and boxes with her writing on it, knowing she's never coming back! It's also strange to see the circle of life because my grandma was born in the house we live in now, her mom passed away due to child birth complications and now her things are stacked up everywhere. Sadness. R.I.P., Grandma!
The week my g-ma originally went into the hospital for the last time, my dog, Thomas, who had bone cancer (mentioned in other blogs) unfortunately passed away. I have never had to put one of my pets down. The vet had given me three signs to look for and to call him asap when it happened. Until then, he had been eating, greeting us at the door and going outside to the bathroom. He had slowed down and the tumor on his head looked TERRIBLE but he was still the same dog. When I came home that Friday, he was not the same dog. He looked so sad and wouldn't get up. So we had to make the decision. We miss him but I'm so glad he's not in pain anymore and addicted to pain meds like Michael Jackson!
Coincidentally, that same week, our groomer had found an awesome home for our dog, Georgia. I could go on and on how great it would have been. Georgia has a tendency to very occasionally snap at the air in her sleep if you walk close to her and she doesn't hear you approach. I am sure it's a herding dog tendency. She came from a very successful breeder and has a strong herding instinct. Not thinking this would be idea for the baby, we decided to consider re-homing her but ONLY to an awesome home. The people were great and we had planned on the Sunday after Thomas passed away (not knowing he was going to). Breaking your child of a dog she received from Santa is NOT EASY. We were both realllly sad and it was weird without Georgia in the house, although nice to be down to three dogs. lol. I felt TERRIBLE for Belle and bribed her with a trip to Wisconsin Dells next summer. :) The end of the story is we really missed Georgia but she seemed happy in her new home with her labrodoodle friend. I kept in contact with her new owners every few days. After about a month, her new owner called me extremely upset. Georgia and their daschund were not getting along and Dixie the Daschund was getting really depressed. She also said Georgia seemed sad. I was so happy to get Georgia back, I drove over there immediately! Georgia was so excited to see us and Belle cried when I pulled up with her in the car. Yay!
I had always said it would be good for Georgia to spend some time in a shelter to know how good she has it. All of my other dogs are rescues and WONDERFUL. Georgia is spoiled and even though she's been through a lot of training, still doesn't appreciate us like the others. I don't think she liked living with a two-year old hyper labrodoodle that outweighed her by thirty pounds and outheighted her by about a foot. LOL. Every since returning, she's been a COMPLETE ANGEL!! Granted, we still do not need four dogs and it was nicer with three. The problem is I love them all! Here's a pic of us trying to get a family pic with the five dogs when we found out Thomas had cancer. Trust me, the pic is terrible and we all, dogs included, normally look much cuter!
At the farm, we are getting an invisible fence and fencing a HUGGGGGGGGGGGGGGE area. We are also going to do an indoor invisible fence and keep them off the carpet/out of the bedrooms. Our current house has ALL wood floor and neat-freak husb is suicidal enough over it. He would not be able to deal with the carpeting having hair on it. Trust me!
The invisible fence people are sooooo nice and the prices are beyond reasonable compared to getting a real fence, including chain link! At some point, I will post a pic of the humongous area we were able to fence for less than we fenced a small to regular-sized part of our old yard. It's gonna rule.
Alright, moving on. So FINALLY FINALLY FINALLY, my in-laws' house was almost done and the harvest was getting underway. Kurt had been working working working on that house every night for months. Their house is unreal amounts of amazing. Everything is unbelievably awesome and top of the line from the trim and closets to the garage floors and new tv's. I'd love to live there but would hate paying for it :) so we'll be sticking to the 1960's ranch FOREVER. :)
So, like I said, it was nearing completion at the end of October when Kurt's beloved Grandpa Fred passed away! I am NOT KIDDING. Yes, I know deaths come in 3's. My boss says my dog counts as #2 so I am hoping this is the last. The farm was Fred's (Kurt's mom's dad). He was around every single day when Kurt and his brother were growing up and everything just kind of revolved around him. He was diagnosed with congestive heart failure earlier this year, same as my grandma, and his heart just got too tired. Needless to say, November 5th was not a happy day. It's definitely weird without him around! He passed away the Thursday before they were supposed to move into the new house (Fred had his own suite), so he never even got to see it. Sadness! R.I.P., Fred!
But, as of Sunday, Kurt's parents are completely moved into their new house! They began staying there last Thursday night (the 12th). I started painting on Friday night while Kurt and his brother began the horrendous task of wallpaper and border scraping. I love my mother-in-law and she sure does love her borders and wallpapers. She likes to glue it on (with super glue it seems). Kurt's brother worked all night on the master bedroom and Kurt worked for hours and hours over the weekend to get the bathroom wallpaper scraped off. What a nightmare!
The good news is that I was able to finish Belle's room on Friday night and the baby's room Saturday!! They look sooooo great!!!!!!!!!!!! Sooooo cute! I am SOOOOOOOOOO GLAD I painted those two rooms first. Our room is such a pain in the ___, I have to keep going into the kids' rooms to get inspired and not shoot myself!
Here are their rooms:
Although on my baby blog, I had posted some bedding I bought Belle, I ended up finding some I liked mucho better on Land of Nod!
The pictures are terrible lighting but it's a really bright grassy green:
Here's the baby's bedding for anyone who hasn't seen it 100 times (also from Land of Nod):
Again, HORRIBLE lighting in the pic below. In reality, it's a bright, buttery yellow just like in the Land of Nod pic:
NOW for our God-foresaken room! Some may remember the Pottery Barn collection I just "had to have." I decided this was now our "summer bedding" due to the fact I found some bedding I couldn't live without at Bed, Bath & Beyond! :) The husband was quite skeptical of this plan. I told him "LOTS" of people have summer vs. winter bedding. lol.
I PLANNED to paint the room three walls of copper and one wall of dark chocolate. When I went to buy the paint, however, I fell into 'the trap.' The "WOW RED WOULD BE REALLY COOL" TRAP! If you have EVER painted with red, you know this trap. It's similar to avoiding a marsh full of alligators. Only, begin to welcome death, not try to jump on alligators and swing from vines to avoid being eaten, a la Pitfall.
What a ___ing nightmare. What a ______ ____ing nightmare. Red is sooo hard to paint with, people. DO NOT DO IT. If I ever insist in doing this again, I will hire a professional. It's too stressful. Due to the border my mother-in-law had in the bedroom, Sunday I primed the entire room and did 2 coats of the red. It looked HORRIBLE after coat #1, then pretty good after coat #2. It still needs a 3rd coat, however. Last night I painted the one chocolate accent wall. MUCH EASIER TO DEAL WITH!!!!!!!!!! I loved it. Tonight, I am going to do the third coat of red and finish the closet. TOMORROW the ceiling. I agree you're supposed to paint the ceiling first. I decided to go on a limb and do it backward which is good because I hit the ceiling lightly a couple times with the red!
YES, I HAVE SPENT MORE DAYS ON THIS ROOM THAN BOTH KIDS' ROOMS COMBINED. KILL ME! It sucks because now that it's the weekdays, we have to have Belle home at a decent hour and I don't get out there until like 6pm. Ay!
P.S. I think it's super weird to say "kids" instead of "kid."
ANYWAY, here is a horrible pic of the red/brown room so far. Bad, bad lighting, yet again:
So, I am loving it but it has been a humongous pain! Would I go back in time and just do the copper instead of the red? GOD, YES! But ask me again when I'm all done with it :)
SO! Hopefully tomorrow we can get the hallway and living room painted. That will allow for the carpets to be cleaned on Thursday and us to move in on Friday, Saturday and Sunday! YIPPEEEEE!
Also this weekend I'll be working on painting the bathroom and kitchen, then the entryway at some point, then seriously celebrating the end of my painting era. The only thing left would be Kurt's bathroom, wihch is covered in wallpaper. That bathroom deserves its own post, though! HAHA!
Mucho love!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ann :)
