Keeping My Marbles

One of the few childhood toys I've held onto is my marble collection. When I was little, I was always happy getting a new bag of marbles. We would play on the school playground though I don't think anyone ever really knew the actual rules. I just remember digging small pits or drawing circles in the dirt and then something to do with keeping the marble if you hit it. I think a lot of cheating went on. Anyway, I liked the colors and wanted to keep them out instead of buried in a box in the basement.

For a long time I've had them out in this basket but you can't really see them and one was always falling out and rolling away. We are past the point where I worry about the kids putting them in their mouths but the dog was another story.

I finally went out this week and bought this big mason jar. At first I just wanted some sort of small trifle bowl but I realized I would have the same problem with marbles falling out of it. Looking at it now, I realize I should have gone with the smaller size but maybe its now a good excuse to buy myself some new ones so I can fill it to the top.

The Impossible Renovation

How do you gut and renovate a bathroom when its the only bathroom in your house. Do you see the problem we have? We can't rip apart a bathroom down to the studs without moving out. Our house is from the 1920's and I guess back then they considered themselves lucky to just have one indoor bathroom. We are considerably more spoiled nowadays but we've managed to make it work for us. So far. At least until Grace becomes a teenage girl. Did I also mention the room is smaller than most peoples walk-in closets? Which we also don't have in this house.

This house saw a big renovation sometime in the 60's or 70's and we've had to undo a lot of stuff. We actually gave this room a cosmetic upgrade back when Grace was a baby. When we moved in, the bathroom and kitchen were the worst rooms in the house. I wish I had pictures. The bathroom then had dark blood red textured Formica going halfway up the walls. The rest of the wall had rough textured green and yellow striped wallpaper. I actually saw this exact wallpaper on a rerun of the Brady Bruch when they were repapering the parents bedroom. It was even too much for the Bradys and they went with something else. One day I couldn't take it anymore and I started ripping it off the walls and we repainted and papered. The walls were in rough shape because of the Formica being glued onto them so we papered the bottom half and painted the top. This isn't bathroom wallpaper at all but I was inexplicably attracted to the hot air balloons. Afterwards I put my Titanic poster up and the theme of the bathroom became early 20th century transportation. See how the wallpaper is peeling? Its worse near the shower. I want subway tile now.

We also have this huge mirror with no storage behind. I like the mirror but I want to frame it out or something. Maybe get a real medicine cabinet and move the mirror someplace else.

I wish I had a picture of the lights that were in here before. They were the worst thing in the room/house. I can't even find a picture of them online. They were antique brass and glass hanging globes. The electrical box was above the mirror like it is now and 2 heavy chains came out from that. They went to two hooks hanging from the ceiling on either side of the mirror. Then they hung down on each side of the mirror with the globe lights hanging from the ends. The glass globes were made from a bumpy yellow glass and I was constantly banging them but they would never break. This silver fixture was a vast improvement at the time but I want something different now.

Even our toothpaste cups need replacing. And see that bad tile job on the sink? The blood red Formica extended to the top of the sink. Its still there-I just covered it with my first tiling attempt. I didn't use the proper equipment to do it and some of the tiles are sort of jagged and sharp. I can do better now.

The shower is a showpiece too. For some reason, there is a different colored upside down tub as the top of it. I'm too ashamed to show you the actual tub where the silicone caulking turns black no matter what I do. I want a tiled shower. A tiled floor too. We put down peel and stick tiles over the red linoleum floor that was there and they are awful.

I saved the best for last. Whoever redid this bathroom in the 70's didn't add real heat. I guess the Formica budget went over so they had to lose heat. A simple baseboard would have been so easy and reliable to have. They figured these heat lamps overhead were enough. They are not.

When we gutted our kitchen we were without it for over 6 months. We can't do that with a bathroom for obvious reasons. Maybe we could rent an RV and park it in the driveway for 6 months?

Christmas Morn

Christmas snuck up on us again. I was actually ahead of the game in everything but wrapping. Declan was bouncing off the walls on Christmas Eve but I got him to stand still long enough to get him to hang his stocking. We really need some sort of mantle because hanging them off the table is sort of ridiculous. Grace let me take her picture too as long as I promised "not to splash it around the Internet". It looked a

lot like Declans picture only with Grace in it.

We put out milk and cookies for Santa. We were lucky to have these for him. I had major Christmas cookie failure this year. This was the only batch out of the three to survive. I honestly think I forgot to add flour to my gingerbread cookie mix. I remember thinking it looked awful runny when I out it into the refrigerator to chill. Not sure what my problem was.

The tree after Santa came. I used 15 different setting on my camera to get a good tree picture and this was the best I could do. I don't know why my camera has a special fireworks setting but not a Christmas tree one? Something to think about Nikon.

In the morning, there was no way I could get them to pose under the tree so I just made them hold back for one minute so I could get some sort of picture. They woke up around 5am but we made them stay in bed until 6am.

Carly was very confused about why we were all up so early and being so loud. She got a new toy and some bones. Owen the cat got presents too but we had to bring them upstairs to him. He was happy with them. He might be 14 years old but he can still chase catnip toys around like a kitten.

Grace was very methodical about her pile. She moving away from toys except for stuffed animals. She got things like clothes, perfume and locker organizers. Its scaring me.

Declan had another Lego Christmas but he also got this weather forecasting system. He loves to watch the weather from the set at work. The green weather wall freaks him out. He actually asked if he could be a weather watcher for our meteorologists now that he has this. I asked one of them and she said fine but he would have to get up at 4am to figure out the bus stop forecast. Declan had no problem with this but I did.

Even Tim got something he wanted. We have a hard time buying presents for each other because I don't understand his computer world and he doesn't understand my girl world. Gift certificates seem to be the way to go for us but I did get him/us an electric blanket which he will love once we get it out of the box. He's always cold.

Christmas Lights

I'm someone who secretly hates the Christmas tree. I think I like the idea of the tree more than dealing with the actual tree itself. We finally got ours up this weekend. It is about a foot smaller than any other tree we have had. The tree lot only seemed to have short trees that day.

We have used the same ornaments for years and I bought most of them at the dollar store when I was in college. Last year, I seem to have hit up the after Christmas ornament sale because this year, I had boxes of new ones that I don't remember really buying. They're nice and glittery though.

Our memorial ornament for Peter the cat. He was about 5 or 6 weeks old in this picture and weighed maybe a pound. I don't know how we kept him alive but he grew into a 16 pound monster that we miss very much.

The new glitter ornaments I made this year with floor wax and Martha glitter. All the evil glitter is contained inside so no mess to deal with.

Preschool ornaments from Grace and Declan. Where did these tiny children go?

Of course the dog has an ornament too. We gave this one to Tim last year. He and the dog sure do love one another.

Sick Boy Freaking Me Out

I had to work today and Declan was healthy when I left and sick when I came home. He was laid out on the couch and boiling hot to the touch. He asked to use my laptop and I let him after he washed his hands very well. He immediately went to PhotoBooth and started taking freaky pictures.

"Alien"

"Fathead"

"Twins"

He does know how to freak his mother out. I made him stop after these.