Kallie & Sydney's new room!!

I've decided there are a lot of similarities between remodeling and pregnancy:

 *They are both fairly painful.
*They sometimes make you cry.
*They seem to go on forever.
*There actually is a lot going on, and progress being made even if it doesn't look like it.
*Sometimes things don't go exactly how you had planned.
*The last 2 or 3 weeks seem to drag on forever.
*There are moments of joy along the way.
*Sometimes you just don't feel up to taking a shower.
*Sometimes they're both very expensive.
(I'm sure I could keep going...)

 But in the end...

*You (hopefully) feel a lot of joy and satisfaction when you're done and you get to enjoy the fruits of your labors for years and years to come.

 This is how Dan and I feel anyway. This project seemed to take a long time and there were a few...uh, setbacks along the way. There were a few (or many) things that we did the hard way, but now we know better :) The girls are thrilled to have a teenager(ish) room to enjoy and hopefully it will be a great space for them for years (and years and years) to come. 

The room before: molding that was made of some foam/plastic product and popped off the wall w/o even a hammer. A railing on the stairs that wasn't even secured into the floor and could be wobbled back and forth. A ceiling fan w/ sea-shells shaped light fixtures on it. You get the idea...

Dan took out the old railing/banister and built a half wall instead...just a tad bit safer!

New windows, base moldings and trim...

Hmmm...what color should we paint?? Thank goodness for little sample bottles (we went through just a few).

It takes a lot of courage to post a picture like this...but that's the good, the bad, and the UGLY baby!
 I sort of look like I'm suffering from morning sickness but I'm not :)

Filling nail holes, and sanding, and priming, and painting...oh my!

Seeing progress...hooray! And a word to the wise: take off your painter's tape when the paint is still tacky, not a few days later. Ask me how I know that? And if you do things the hard way (like we sometimes do) a blowdryer will help you get blue tape off when it won't come off any other way.
Thank goodness for the internet!

I've said more than once, that I would like to live in a classy little cottage on the beach in North Carolina. But since I know that will never happen, my goal is to make the inside of this house FEEL like you're in a beach cottage (only you're in Eureka instead :).

Remember the pregnancy comparison...sometimes with both, you give up sleep. This picture was proof that I was up until 1am ironing ribbon onto curtains (hemtape is a wonderful thing for those of us who don't sew- again, what did we do before the internet?!).

And the finished product!! The girls moved into their room on Saturday. We hadn't let them go upstairs for months because we wanted it to be a surprise...their reactions were perfect.
I have it on video to enjoy over and over.

At the advice of my mother, we "shopped at home" as much as possible. Almost everything hanging on the walls was stuff we already had. We did buy bedding and the rug and a few odds and ends, but most everything else just looks new thanks to a fresh coat of paint. Kallie said, "Mom, I was getting pretty worried because I kept seeing you paint things white and black, and more black and white. I knew our bedspreads were blue and pink and I just wasn't sure how everything would come together. But surprisingly, it came together really well!!" So funny :)
See...just like pregnancy, it was all totally worth it in the end! 

One project down, about 275 left to go :)

California

Last week, we were lucky enough to tag along with Dan on a Continuing Education trip he was taking in Manhattan Beach, California. It just happened to fall on the same weekend as Kallie and Dan's birthdays so we decided to go celebrate. Kallie was thrilled to spend her 12th birthday in Disneyland! It was such a super fun day, perfect really. Kallie's quote of the day was: "That was the best day of my entire life...and I've lived a pretty long life!"

Waiting in the (short) line for It's a Small World.

So excited!!

We just happened upon Pluto with no line..yay!

Completely worn out, but she didn't want to miss anything. Finally she gave up...

Inside the Mickey Mouse House.

The lucky birthday girl!!

Get these things off...

I was so impressed with all the beautiful flowers (we're not in Eureka are we)!

On a steamboat ride.

A very tired Sydney waiting for the parade to start.

"Who's tired? I'm not tired!"

I think the Disney Parades are amazing! Nothing like the Tangled tower driving down the road.

The next day, the girls and I hung out at the beach while Dan was at his class. The beach was only about 5 minutes away from our hotel. Sydney quote of the day as we were heading home from the beach: "I have sand in places that sand should NOT be!"

LOVE this one!

We were also able to stop at the American Girl store again. We went a couple years ago and it was so much fun that we had to stop there again.

Such an amazingly fun trip! We'll probably tag along with him again soon (it's a 4 series class). The only thing holding us back might be the 9 1/2 hr drive (or 11 hours if the freeway is closed because of an accident). Still totally worth it!