spoken for

So it’s been about a week now that Kayleigh’s figured out how to get out of her crib without killing herself.  She’s gotten really good at it, too.  So good at it that just as I predicted, she’s now bored of playing with all toys in their room and the living room so all she does is try to get into things she knows she’s not supposed to be in, try to escape places I’ve attempted to block her off from, and throw things in the trash can.  She also likes to try to escape the house, so the chain lock is on all the time.  Yesterday, to even get a shower, I set Elijah up on the top bunk with his math book and he was to just be in there and oversee K as she can’t open the bedroom door yet.  Actually, that worked pretty well because she stayed safe and contained, he finished his math pages for the day, and I got a shower (a 3 minute one).  Elijah gets mad, though, because she dumps out alllllll the toys, all the tubs and all the drawers, and there’s just toys covering the floor, and he has to clean them up later.  I’ve also had to start locking the refrigerator again and I’m going to have to do something with those cabinets under the kitchen sink.

Really, all this is fine, the next step of life, but it’s got me exhausted by mid-day each day and behind in my photo editing.  Where before, I’d block off the living room and she’d play in there while I edited on my laptop or maybe I’d edit while she was napping.  But with her new found courage, naps are frowned upon and she is not content whatsoever to play in the living room even one bit, not even on her new-to-her trampoline that my parents brought back from storage in their house (it was Elijah’s).

Also, and this is really the point of my post, she’s eaten very little the last several days.  I think this is simply because she doesn’t want to be in her high chair.  She wants to run.  Running is fine, but you gotta eat, too.  She cries when I put her in there and it’s not long before she’s giving me the “done” sign and/or throwing a fit.  Just a bit ago, I got her in there and she ate a bit of freeze dried fruit.  She wanted a graham cracker but then she was done and she got down.  I hadn’t even had a chance to clean up the tray yet and she was signing that she wanted a cracker and what not.  So I put her back in the high chair and she picked up the graham cracker and then started motioning that she wanted out of the high chair with the cracker.  I said “uh, no, Missy, you’re not carrying food around the house.  Eat it.”  She started to cry and act like she was going to let herself out (which she can’t yet) and I said, “No, eat your cracker, then you can get down.”  She yelled and threw the cracker on the floor where it was immediately grabbed by the dog who’s not supposed to be eating People Food.  I guess it’s a good thing I just put her on Pediasure…

I just bought an extra wide gate for our 50″ doorway between the living room and the rest of the house, it’s supposed to be here today.  Their room is off the living room so if this gate is good, that will be really nice and maybe it will help her see that these two rooms are her play area, she doesn’t need to go running around causing trouble elsewhere, the little stinker.

Guess it’s time to shower, Elijah just shut himself and Kayleigh in their room with his math book…  Hey, works for me.  If he actually gets his work done faster while on his bed than at his school desk… wow.  He went in without complaints about math, too.  Unbelievable!!

In May, I bought a Groupon for a mattress store that’s about 45 miles north of us, $50 to get $225 off.  Not too shabby.  We needed a new mattress pretty bad.  Come to think of it, I think our last one was purchased in 2002.  It held up pretty well, for the most part, the mattress just getting a bit saggy, but the box springs was still perfect.  Time for an update, though.

Steve actually took the day off work for us to finally get up to the store and do this before the Groupon would expire in November.  He worked all weekend though, so that was out, Tuesday it was.

When we moved into this house, we were in the main floor bedroom but while I was pregnant with Elijah, our upstairs needed to be finished asap.  Steve finished up the drywall work the previous owner started and had to continue with the texture that was being put on the slanted walls (half story, enough said).  When that was finally finished, I was probably about 8 months along, and it was time to move the bed and stuff upstairs.  That… was a nightmare.  Our stairs are steep.  Yup.  Steve and whoever was helping, I think my Dad, got the mattress up there but when it was time for the box springs, it was about 6 inches too wide.  So they took the boards off the stairs, yay for gaping holes!  Every single board cracked in half down the middle… long-ways.  They got the box springs up there and then the steps had to be replaced.  Steve picked sturdier boards that were about twice as thick.

Fast forward… I knew knew knew that when we needed to replace the box springs… it would have to be demolished.  Of course, in the past, I envisioned hurtling it out the window, but that is apparently frowned upon in this establishment.  So we went in the store in mind to get JUST a mattress, no box springs.  Steve, the ever frugal, surprised me by saying that even though our box springs was in good condition, we should go ahead and get the new one.  This, of course, after finding out that they apparently make split queen box springs… so it’s two pieces, halved down the length.  Unfortunately, we had to go to their warehouse to get them, the manager said they don’t sell often, so he never keeps them in stock.  But it wasn’t too bad, I was just glad we could do it all in one day.  He was concerned, though, in having to buy another box springs at some point before needing yet our next mattress, and he was probably right.

But when we had to get this stuff in the house. Oy.  Of course, the old stuff had to come out first.  Steve just kept saying, “I don’t know how we’re going to do this…”   I said we should take a saw to it.  :)  But circular saws in the bedroom are also frowned upon in this establishment.  He ended up having me hold it up on its end while he hammered away at it with a hammer.  Very interesting.  But the short supports went first followed by other boards.  Pretty soon we could fold it in half with the wood inside and cart it out of there.  A pity, but what you gonna do?

The split box springs got up there easily, Steve didn’t need my help, I had children and a dog to attend to, anyway.  Poor Elijah, we had to have him keep Kayleigh and the dog shut in their bedroom downstairs for us to do all of this.  He can keep Kayleigh out of trouble but we had to prop open the back door and, given the chance, both Kayleigh and the dog would take off in a split second if they saw a way out.

But the mattress was another story.  It kept getting stuck and Steve was getting maaaad.  At one point it’s just hanging there, stuck between the ceiling and the stairs and he’s like well crap I don’t know what to do.  Ummm can’t leave it like that!  Eventually with enough maneuvering and lots of prayer, it started popping up the stairs one by one.  Then we had to get it over the short wall and the stupid elliptical that never gets used… anyone want an elliptical??

But then… an assembled bed, a mattress pad protector thing (part of the warranty), clean sheets and pillow cases… ahhhh I am much to excited to sleep here in a few minutes!

The best part?  We got $1400 worth of bed for $600  plus the $50 the Groupon cost me.  The mattress and box springs should have been $1100 but we bought a model that got a tiny scuff on it – it’s lyke omg reallllllly – because it’s not a big deal at all, I wouldn’t have noticed it if the manager hadn’t pointed it out.  I think they tried to deliver it to someone, got the scuff, and had to send those people a new one!  Supposedly those are the rules.  But then they waived $300 for “upgrading” to a split box springs and we added a store warranty for like $60 and taxes were around $70 or so, minus $225.  Yeah it works out to about $600 somehow and it’s a better mattress than we had before, should be much better for my back and hips, I’m under orders of the massage therapist to get something better.  Really was more than I wanted to spend but if it lasts as long as our last mattress (which really could have gone on further, if needed), then we’re talking, what, $70 a year for comfort?  :)

So that took a long time to tell a short story.  Really, it’s some of the beginnings of getting this house under control again.  I have lots of measurements to take, I need to organize some space.  We weren’t doing too bad in the way of organization, but then we added a 4th person and things started snowballing out of control.  I have a few ideas, hope I can do them for cheap and make this effective.  Got lots to do…

It all started last Christmas when my brother-in-law asked me to make him a crochet beard.  I did but didn’t get to really see him in it, since they’re living across the country right now then he went to Afghanistan shortly after that.  But a couple weeks ago, my friend asked me to make him one so I made my first one attached to the hat.  It’s so hilarious.  These things crack me up.  And then I go and post that photo on Facebook and now I have to make 5 more…  O_o

Got 3 orders and now Steve has decided he wants one (when before he thought it was stupid haha) and my father-in-law wants a looooong one.  Gonna have to figure that one out.  Steve wants dreads of his.  Nice.

Keepin’ me busy!

Elijah’s been asking for one, too, but I haven’t made him one yet because I’ll have to modify the pattern to fit him and, let’s face it, I’ve got enough to do right now!