so...

I woke up this morning to find out that our house had been toilet paperd or tp'd for short. Now I could understand if I had high schoolers in the house, but I do not. So needless to say, I'm NOT happy about it. And this is all after we had someone ring the door bell and run away at 2 in the morning on the 4th of July. All I have to say is parents control your kids. I'm all for a little bit of fun, but this is getting a little out of hand. We haven't even been here a month yet.

Anywho...here's another little Alpha Pal for you to meet. His name is Hayden. He's little too. I think he would be cuter and easier if he was a little bigger. I've paused on the Alpha Pals for a few days and have been trying to piece together a quilt. Let's just say it ain't going so well. Mostly because I have very little time to do things other than change diapers and fill sippy cups. But one day.....

And just to share a little. I found Sara sleeping in her bed next to her doll that she had swaddled. Sucking her thumb of course.

more alphabet pals...

These little frogs were hard to do. Not because of the difficulty but because turning and stuffing the little buggers was tough. The one that has eyes is Dylan, and the others are Eli, Frank, and George. I have to say that they are so cute because they are small, but because they are small, I am probably not going to make anymore. Sara is the stuffer and she abandoned her post on these guys.

But in other, related news, I tried to do some free motion quilting yesterday. Let's just say I'll definately be paying someone else to do this for me...

I know it takes practice. And I'm thoughly convinced a new sewing machine. (That's a hint for my birthday Jason, just in case you missed it. :) And I'm also pleading for a new sewing machine because you see, mine took a dive off the table one day. Jason was playing with the kids throwing pillows and he launched one towards the table and it hit my machine and down it went. Oh, it still works, but there are alot of bent parts and a few missing parts. And I've had it for about 8 years now. I think it's time to upgrade.

And on to other completely unrelated news...

These kids are so darn cute, but so very ornery. You have NO idea... :)

Meet...

Alex, Brad, and Charlie (they're dinosaur triplets). OK, so you may have noticed the blue giraffe over there to the right. It's a little challenge that I'm doing with one of my new friends over at Quilt Taffy. With the move and everything, I hadn't gotten a chance to work on them until now.

I'm going to donate them to the My Stuff Bags Foundation. They donate duffel bags full of toys, blankets, toiletries, etc to facilities that get in children that had to be removed from their homes without notice. Their homes being places that are not appropriate for children if you know what I mean. They children are unable to bring any of their own stuff, so these bags give them something to call their own in the midst of all the confusion. If you are so inclined you can donate to them as well. It can be monetary, time, or new goods. They ship their bags all over the country and could use some money for shipping.

So if you are still with me here, I have a funny story for you. The other day while I was cleaning out our little fish tank, my darling son Logan (3 yo) went into the bathroom and proceeded to empty the toilet paper roll. He shoved some down the toilet, which is to be expected, but he also wet and wadded up into balls the rest of it and flung it onto the walls and mirror. Let me tell you I WAS NOT happy. But looking back, it was funny. But now, I'm really wondering where in the world did he come up with this? Do you think it could be when Jason showed him how to make spit balls? Yeah, that's what I thought too. Way to go Dad!

Have a happy day all!

Redemption

So now that I’ve totally scared you for life with that last post, I’m here to redeem myself. I promise to only show pictures of good things. And I’ll also preface this post by saying that the only thing that I picked out was the bathroom paint color. Judy picked out everything else. She’s really got a knack for that kind of stuff. After I saw the below mess, I called her in tears. I was that distraught. I told her I didn’t care what she picked out, just tell me what to buy and I’ll do it. And that’s just what we did.

This is the window treatment that Judy made fo me. I just love it, especially the green zebra fabric. The walls used to be a dark beige color, but we wanted to add a little fun to the house and I think the green paint does it. And plus I love lots of color! Oh and yeah, I know, nice view of a concrete wall. :)

This is the living room. The walls in here used to be a light beige color and now they are chocolate brown. One of my favorite colors at the moment. The back of the cubbies are a gold color. The same as the hallways and entryway.

There's the gold color. Excuse the ladder and the vacuum. They have both been getting a workout lately.
And now for my favorite room so far. The kids/guest bathroom. This blue/aqua just makes me so happy. And more brown. Judy painted the giraffe spots on the ceiling to go with the jungle shower curtain and accessories. I think it turned out super duper cute. And the kids love it too!

They vanity used to be just plain white, but a layer of brown paint and now they really look so much better. I ordered some drawer pulls in the shape of a giraffe, a elephant, and a rhino.

I painted the kitchen and the rest I only slightly helped because I was trying to keep the kids occupied and not in the way. And for a 21 month old, a 3 year old, and a 5 year old, that’s sayin’ somethin’. Judy enlisted the help of a couple of her friends (THANK YOU April and Sandy!) It’s turning out so beautiful that I can’t wait to get it all done. But it’s going to slow to a snail’s pace now that Judy and Ted are gone. The only time I can paint is when Austin is asleep and by that time of night, I’m pooped. But a little caffeine never hurt no one. Right?

But seriously, I have to send a very large thank you out to everyone that has helped in some form or fashion with this move. Judy and Ted for innumerable things, my Mom for driving from Arkansas to Arizona with me and the kids and getting me a new tire (Do you know how scary it can be almost getting hit by a semi while pulled over on the interstate with a flat tire waiting for AAA? Let me tell you, that just RUINED my day.) and getting my truck detailed among other things, and all my friends for just being there and listening to me constantly ramble about the house and stuff. I really appreciate all you guys have done for me. I am definitely indebted to you. Thanks for the love.

I’ll post more pictures as we get stuff done, but the goal is to have this whole experience buried DEEP within my psyche by layers of paint and disinfectant.

Not for the faiint of heart...

So…I haven’t posted in quite a while. Well, that’s because we’ve been moving to California as some of you may already know. It’s been a crazy month give or take a week or two. We stayed for 2-3 weeks at my MIL’s house in Arkansas, stayed a few days at my Mom’s house (THANK YOU Mom!) and then drove on to our house in California. Which brings me to the title of this post. Not for the faint of heart. Prepare yourself for not only visual disgust, but I'll be high up on my soapbox. So if you have a weak stomach or just don't want to hear me rant you probably better continue your web surfing at this point. What you are about to see may turn your stomach. It did mine. This is what I walked into when I got to the house. (mind you, remember how excited I was a few weeks back at getting to our house…)

I warned you...

I don't know if you can tell in the little pictures posted here but, that's urine stains on my carpet and closet track. And the rust, well, that's from urine sitting in the track for so long. I told you it was disgusting. Yes, they had dogs. And if those were my dogs, HAD would definately be the term because I would have gotten rid of them long ago. But luckily my dogs are quite a bit better behaved than that.

This picture is of the absolutely fabulous (NOT!) paint job they did in the guest bathroom. Now WHO uses spray paint in the house? Good thing it was the only room they painted.

Oh and this beauty is the garage door leading into the house.

More of the garage...

Now this is the patch job they did by the sliding glass door that leads to the backyard. But I bet you already figured that out. I know, master of the obvious here.

Believe it or not, but this is the back of the refrigerator. It's amazing that it worked at all. And by the way, this house is only four years old.

More urine stains. They were pretty much throughout the house. And a small glimpse of my ruined Pottery Barn SILK curtains. Uh...they say dry clean only clearly on the tag...I was pretty upset about them because I just KNEW Jason was NOT going to let me spend that kind of money on drapes again. We are going to cut them off, add some material and trim and try to salvage something out of them. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Broken glass in the oven. Nice.

OK, this is just proof that they never cleaned.

The microwave...

I don't know if you can tell from the picture, but there is a clear line on the tile from where we cleaned it and where we hadn't got to yet. It took me 3 days to clean it. After every 4 tiles I had to change the water because it was like chocolate milk. And I am SO not kidding.

And that is only a small part of the story. For the last few weeks I have been cleaning/scrubbing/vomiting (almost)/disinfecting/replacing/painting and so on. It was SO NASTY!!!! I was so completely appalled at how someone could have complete and utter disrespect for someone else’s property. I hate to call someone out, but our renter’s were completely disgusting. I refrained from the pictures of the toilet that hadn’t been cleaned probably since they rented our house in the first place 2 years ago. I can’t begin to tell you how disturbed I have been the last couple of weeks. I’ve been praying to God to release it from my system, but I’m not there yet. It’s getting better, but I’m still so troubled by the whole thing.

BUT…there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Judy and Ted came from Arkansas to drop off some of their stuff (they’re moving here too) and help us fix up the place. They were AMAZING! Things are coming along so beautifully now that I hate to go into the rooms we haven’t done yet. But in an effort to keep this post manageable, I’m going to save that topic for another post. With pictures. Let’s just say that I love the way the house is turning out even more than before. So for now…goodnight. Oh, and HUGE GIANT THANK YOU to Judy and Ted.

I really wanted to leave you with good thoughts, but I got nothin'...