Resolutions For My House in 2011

I have some goals for 2011. I need to do a little updating to our home. We moved into this house in Sept 2009 from a home that we had custom built. This one was not built by us so it is more difficult than normal to make it feel like our own.

1. Have can lighting intalled in our family room. It is extremely dark in there with only one light from the ceiling fan.
2. At the same time have the electrician change our our ceiling fan. It is a 2 story ceiling so I'm going to have them do it since they will have tall enough ladders.
3. Built-ins or furniture pieces in our Master Bedroom. Somehow a coffee table has been "stored" in our room and my husband puts his laptop on it. We have lots of random boxes still in our room from moving in and we need a place for everything.
4. Have old dining room hutch painted. Decide where I want to use it. Either in the dining room or use the bottom half as game/toy storage in our loft/playroom.
5. New chandelier over our kitchen table.

I've probably forgotten a few things but these are at the top of my mind. I went and looked at ceiling fans yesterday. That is the first piece of the puzzle for the lighting changes.

What do you have planned?

Sickness

Thank goodness it isn't contagious anymore! I almost was going to be lynched by the school and babysitter. I just got back from the doctors office and Caden has Fifths Disease which is a fever followed by a rash. Once the rash is seen he is no longer contagious. Yea!! He can go to school tomorrow! That is very important...Ha Ha!

Harley

Well...our dog didn't make it. He died yesterday...I'm so glad my husband was home. It was his dog before I even met him so he is more attached than I am. Poor dog didn't even get to die in quiet. I didn't know it was happening...my husband was laying with him in our master closet. The boys were screaming for me and I was running back and forth in my bathroom on the tile floors in high heels because we were trying to leave for church. My husband had decided to stay home because Harley wasn't breathing well.  I checked in the closet to say goodbye to my husband and he was crying and saying...he's going now, oh his heart is stopping...oh..he's gone and in the mean time my boys are screaming and trying to open the door. It didn't make it very emotional for me since I had to deal with the kids. I feel bad for my husband and Harley...he was a good dog. He was 11 years old.

Here's a question...is it legal to bury your dog in the backyard?? I have a feeling the HOA wouldn't love it.

New Years Eve

We had a good New Years Eve. This was our 2nd year of having just 3 couples over and including the kids. We do a champagne/sparkling apple juice toast at 8pm and everyone left at about 10:30pm. It is so nice to not worry about babysitters and just have a nice potluck.

We are having a sad situation...our dog has cancer. I've never really been a big pet person. My husband had this dog before we met but I am sad for the dog and for the sadness my husband is feeling. We found out 2 weeks ago and he has quickly gone downhil. I think my husband has decided to have him put down on Monday. This ought to be interesting to see how my boys deal with it. I think I need to start telling them tomorrow about Harley going to Heaven so they can know what is happening. I wonder how much they will understand.

Christmas 2010

We had a great Christmas. We visited my mom's side of the family like every year in KY. My mom is one of 9 kids all married with 24 grandkids and about 8 great grandkids....a huge family and EVERY SINGLE PERSON was there on Christmas Eve...a total of 66 people in my Grandmothers house. It is such an amazing thing to have that large of a family that is so close. :-)

I wish I could see them all more often. Most live in that same small town and most of my mom's brothers and sisters live within view of each other on the farm property. The boys absolutely loved climbing on the tractors. Hopefully we can get there for a visit this next summe when the weather is better for the boys to explore more.

I used to go for 2 weeks every summer to visit my Grandmother and play with all my cousins. I feel very close to everyone even though I've never lived there.

This is what makes me so torn about having a large family. I want that feeling of a huge family...but boy it is a lot of work and it also just isn't the same as the days when they grew up. We live in suburbia...I enjoy traveling and want my kids to do a lot of activities...much harder to do with a large family. Oh well...we will see what God decides. :-)

Thanksgiving

We had such a great time over Thanksgiving. A whole week was spent with family at the beach. It was a lot of work but definitely worth it. I loved that my parents woke up with the boys letting me sleep in everyday! Heaven!