The best...

My husband is the best!  Last week was an extremely long week.  I could not wait for Doug to get home Friday.  And then he walked in with these....

2 1/2 pound peppermint patties!  LOL  I stuck them right in the freezer and tested them last night....they were delicious and should last me a long time!  

It's the simple things in life....

That explains a lot...

When I'm babysitting, this chair is a God send.  It will put any kid to sleep!  I love it.  With that being said, the last week or so I was sure that the rocking mechanisms were going on it.  Every time I would rock in it, I had very limited motion.  It took a couple days for me to realize that the chair wasn't the problem....

Sometime she will realize how big she is......naw, probably not!  LOL

It's Friday....

...Do you know what that means?????

I get to see my family tomorrow!!!  My sister is coming home from South Carolina for Spring Break and we are having a baby shower for her while she is home.  My twin brother and his wife and two kids are coming up for it as well, which means I get to meet my new niece that I haven't had the pleasure of meeting yet!  Super excited!  We get to go as a family without anything tying us here as well!  The plan is to grout the bathroom tonight, leave early tomorrow morning to head to Grandma and Grandpas and then seal the grout...maybe Saturday night?  Depending on how we feel when we get home, that may or may not happen.  I don't think it will take too long so we should be able to pull that off.  Then Sunday we can put the bathroom back together!  So excited to have two bathrooms again and have my bedroom back, free from tools!  Of course I only get to enjoy this for a few weeks before starting on the next one, but that's ok :)

I can see the light!

 Sunday afternoon, in between church services, we came back and laid our thin-set and set the tiles.  It was a much faster process than the night before...

...Although laying these thin tiles right between the wall and the already set tiles was not exactly easy.  We got them in ok though!

It looks great!  I can't wait to grout everything on Friday night! 

This was our only "problem" area.  Doug was gone to church for the last few tile placements and this tile was being a stinker for me.  I was probably trying to get it too perfect, but it kept popping up just a tiny bit on that one end.  So I wedged a few things in there to hold it in place until the thin-set dried.  Hopefully it holds and I didn't do anything bad...  I'll let you know how that thought process goes! ;)

More on the bathroom....

First off, let me just say that this project takes a lot longer when you are only able to work on it on the weekend!  LOL  

Saturday morning, Doug's brother and sister in law and the kids were up, so we went up to Doug's parents and hung out with them in the morning.  They left in the late afternoon, so we headed home to start cutting.  It was a LONG process of cutting the tiles.  Of course it would have helped if "yours truly" hadn't had the brilliant idea of have the lines the way they were and have everything equal on all sides.  That only made us end up with TINY little tiles all around the edge of the bathroom.  LOL  Oh well!  Doug has commented many times, while being out on the road, that we spent way too much time making sure everything fit perfect.  The hotels he stays at are almost all tiled in the bathrooms and he said they just grout whatever doesn't fit.  I told him that our bathroom should look AMAZING then!  :)  Anyhow, here are some more pictures of our progress...

Finally, everything is cut!

By this time it was about 11pm and Molly said it was time for bed....

 So stayed tuned tomorrow for more bathroom fun! ;)

A house full!

Friday night there was a bridal shower at our church.  I'm never sure of Doug's arrival time, and I wasn't sure who I was going to get to watch my girls so I decided to open up our home for all the other little ones at church.  We ended up with 8 kiddos(only one boy!) and one of the teens was sweet enough to come and help me.  I think we were all, Doug included, prepared for the house to be insane, but all the kids were really good.   They all played together really well and we had a lot of fun with them!

There was some dress-up involved...

The three youngest that we had, haven't really been around dogs, but they took to our two girls very good!  This little guy thought Molly's nose was really fun to play with ;)

It's 11:30am...

...and I'm just now sitting down to write a blog post. :(  

It was a crazy weekend.  I have a lot to blog about, but I need the time to upload pictures and such.  And therein lies the problem...time!  LOL  I have one kid working on going down for a nap, one kid's work to score, and another one to work on.  I have counters full of dirty dishes and the list goes on.  Tonight, when the house is quiet, I'll upload pictures and have things ready for tomorrow.  Until then, you'll just have to bear with me! :)  Love you all!

An answer to prayer...

Piper has found her forever home!  I'm so thankful for all who joined me in prayer in this matter.  We had 2 people interested in her, but I wasn't sure about either one.  I started wondering if I was ever going to find what I considered to be the "perfect" home for her.  I started wondering if that meant she was going to end up staying here....

Wednesday, I took all three dogs to the vets for their lyme vaccinations and such.  Doug's Dad approached me and said that if the person that was coming to see Piper that afternoon didn't take her, he wanted her.  I talked with Mom on it and I just had peace.  She will be spoiled rotten, loved, but still made to obey.  She has been respectful of their cats and loves going to their house.  So as of Wednesday afternoon, Piper has been at Dad and Mom's!  She has been doing great!  I gave her a ball from here and a bone and she has been enjoying playing with Dad.  Things are going smooth and I'm so thankful!  Even better, we still get to see her whenever we want!  I have been keeping my distance so that she can get settled and I don't confuse her by showing up, so we haven't been back since Wednesday.  We will see her on Sunday I'm sure and I can't wait!  Amazing how attached you can get to a dog after only having it for a month and a half!  I'll admit, some tears were shed when I walked out and its been weird around here.  Vacuuming yesterday for example was odd to not have two dogs attached to my cleaner!  LOL  I'm just so thankful that we have a forever home for her and we can all settle down back into the norm :)

More use of the girls' imaginations!

With all of our bathroom mess we decided it was time to invest in a shop vac.  The girls claimed the box.  I'll admit, its something I struggle with... I HATE stuff around, but I'm glad I let them.  I love my kids!  I wish I was better about letting them use their talents. 

My OCD side of me is very bugged that they "built" their house upside down LOL

I love the fire place....

Imaginations at their best...

A few years ago, the girls were big into Calico Critters.  Several family members went in on items to go with their collection.  They have bedroom, bathroom, living room and kitchen set.  They have the house and so many families.  They haven't played with it in a while, but every once in a while they get the urge and it comes out again.  Saturday, while Doug and I were working on the bathroom, the girls got the house all set up and I heard them playing.  

Only they weren't playing with the critters, they replaced them with their rubber band creations that they have made!  I LOVE it!

So cute!

What to do when building projects are going on....

...and you are little, can't help much, but still want to spend time with Daddy?  Hang out in Dad and Mom's bedroom to supervise, while watching a movie on Daddy's phone ;)   

 And I don't know why anyone would need pillows....just get a dane!  LOL

As promised :)

Here we go again!  LOL

It just got real!  So exciting and nerve wrecking all at the same time :)

We got the Ditra all laid good!  Doug decided he kind of liked this as a floor :)

Mixing up the thinset proved very interesting.  We now know what we are doing, but we wasted more than we needed to in the process!  A little water goes a LONG way ;)

Laying the modified thinset for under the Ditra...

Getting ready to lay some tile :)

Looking good!  

It was very much a learning process, but I think we have the hang of it.  

It is kind of fun!

And this is where we stopped.  We wanted to do the main portion of the room first since those are the lines we cared about the most.  The trimming part comes next, but unfortunately we have to let these tiles sit at least 2-3 days before walking on them or they might move.  Since Doug isn't here, we won't get to finish the trimming pieces till next Saturday.  Which then means I won't have my bathroom back for another two weeks!  :(  Oh well, it will all be worth it!

Clean up time :)

It's drying!  I'm just impressed we got straight lines and I still like it!  LOL  I was very fearful we would get it in and I wouldn't like it.  Can't wait for it to be all the way done!

More pictures on this project a week from today!