insomnia and a painting fiasco

So, it's 5:45 a.m. and I've been awake since 2:30.  And not even the "I'm soooo tired" awake, just plain wide awake.  Another fun part of being pregnant.  However, insomnia does give me a lot of time to think up some fabulous inventions.  Such as a nightstand-refrigerator.  Maybe we can call it a nighterator.  I think one of the main reasons I stay awake is because I'm starving and can't sleep with an empty stomach.  But all of the types of food that I crave in the night are of the refrigerated variety.  And when I wake up at 2:30, the last thing I want to do is crawl out of my warm bed and head downstairs to the kitchen.  But if my nightstand had a little refrigerated drawer, then I'd be all set!  The only problem then might be food-stained sheets.  I'm sure Chad would love to wake up in the morning to find his lovely wife with a chocolate-milk mustache, yogurt dripping off my chin, and cheese crumbles on the sheets.  Hopefully he'd still love me.

Another reason for my insomnia tonight (er... I mean this morning), may be due to the terrible bathroom-painting fiasco I had today (actually, yesterday now).  When we bought this house last year, our lovely master bathroom came complete with frogs all over the walls.  Well, Chad and I just aren't the frogs-in-the-bathroom type of people.  So, after a year of painting every other room in the house, we finally made it to our bathroom and decided to paint it a deep cranberry red.  I knew it would take several coats of paint since it was red, but 5 coats of paint later, (and still at least 1 more to go) that's not the least of my problems.  The first thing I noticed was that above the shower, the paint was cracking off in weird, streaked patterns.  This was a surprise since I had made sure to wash down the walls before starting.  I tried just adding more coats of paint, but that didn't help at all.  Next, I noticed that there's invisible caulking around the shower and sink that goes out about a 1/2 inch to an inch into the wall that resists paint, so I can't paint up to the shower or the vanity.  And then last, but definitely not least, where two of the frog paintings are (they're actually those wall-tattoo type things that you rub on), the dry-wall paper completely bubbled up.  That is definitely caused by those stupid frogs because when it first started, it perfectly outlined the "art" (and I'm using that term VERY loosely).  So when poor Chad got home, he didn't get the nice, "look at your new beautiful bathroom" surprise I was hoping for.  Instead he got the, "look at all the work you have to do to fix our bathroom" surprise.  So, to solve our problems, Chad has decided to put in small tiles around the shower area (to cover the cracked streaks), take the caulking off so I can paint and then re-caulk, and then we have no idea what to do with the two bubbled areas.  Possibly have to peel it off and spackle and repaint?  Ugh.  

So, a lesson I learned from all of this is to not buy those rub-on paint things.  They look neat, but trying to paint over them is horrendous!  Not only did a few somehow cause the wall to bubble up, but they also left a shiny outline of where they're hiding (and that's after first sanding them down a little and putting on 5 coats of paint)!  

Well, now that it's after 6, I guess maybe I'll just go and shower and start my day!

a girl after my own heart

Shoes are Millie's new obsession.  If there are any shoes in the house within her reach, they will soon be on her feet.  My favorite is when she wears my high heels around the house.  She's just practicing for a life of aching feet.

I love watching my girls play together!  Here's a sweet clip of them playing Ring Around the Rosie.  I love how Millie laughs every time they fall.  

It's fun to think that before long, there will be 3 of them playing together!  Will it be 3 girls or will there be a little boy in the mix?  Cast your vote on my new poll!  (Yes, I totally stole this idea from Abby, but I thought it was fun!)  We'll hopefully know the gender in 3 weeks from today!

good news!

Ruby's scan results are in and there's good news!  Last we knew, she still had 3 1/2 spots of cancer left. (Although I've never figured out what a 1/2 spot is...)  Well, her scan yesterday showed that all of the spots have gotten smaller and one has calcified (which is a good thing)!  It was so great to hear the joy in Lydia's voice yesterday as she told us the results.  What a relief!

We are definitely praising and thanking God for this awesome news!  Of course it's easy to praise God when there's good news like this.  But what is truly amazing to me is how Trent and Lydia have been able to glorify God through this entire trial, even when receiving the devastating news that their 6 month old baby had cancer, and when she had to have a grapefruit sized tumor removed from her tiny body.  While sitting with Lydia a few times when Ruby was getting chemo, it was obvious that she was sad for her baby and what she had to go through.  But you could also tell that she had a hope that is rare to find in these situations.  They have truly been an amazing example to me of trusting fully in God to do what's best for our lives.  I can only pray that if I was ever to go through something this terrible that I would be able to show the same faith that they have.

crazy cousins

Adeline and Emilia have been super excited this week because they've gotten to spend a lot of time with their cousins. Clara and Ruby came over Tuesday afternoon while their mom had an appointment. The four girls had a lot of fun together.

snacking on apples

crazy book worms

The big girls put on a show, and of course Millie had to join in.

Then last night Clara got to stay over night after Cubbies! This is their second sleep-over and needless to say they were super pumped about it. Addie's been talking about it all week. And they were so excited after Cubbies last night that they were running around in circles and Addie fell and got a fat lip.

Already for bed! Or are they? The big girls didn't fall asleep until after 11:00! I was hoping that would mean they would sleep in, but they were up at 7:45 and ready to start the day!

Cheerios and Rice Krispies for breakfast! Yumm...

The reason for Clara staying over night last night is because little sister Ruby is getting scans today to see what's going on with her cancer. So please remember to pray for Ruby today and for Lydia. We know that God is powerful enough to remove all of those nasty cancer cells. We've seen the amazing things He's done already! We also have comfort in knowing that no matter what the results, God is in complete control and has had this all in His plans from the beginning. But we're still praying that His will is for her cancer to be wiped out completely!

just random stuff

Last week we had some gorgeous weather and it actually hit 71 degrees one day here in Des Moines! It was so great to get out and enjoy the outdoors without bundling up! In fact, my kids were the only ones on the street that had long-sleeves on. I felt like the over-protective mom, but they're also the littlest kids on the street and we've had enough runny noses around here lately that I didn't want to risk it. The girls had a blast doing some sidewalk chalk drawings. Sorry about Addie's hair in her face - she was too busy to let me fix her ponytail.

Millie's quite the little artist.

On Sunday the girls wore their matching skirts to church. I realize they don't match perfectly because Millie's wearing off-white and Addie's wearing white, but it was the best I could do.

Millie's eye looks funny in the picture below because I tried to reduce the red-eye and instead, I think I gave her a black-eye.

The girls sitting in the laundry basket enjoying their favorite after-nap snack - APPLES!

Well, I'm not sure what happened to our beautiful weather. It's foggy and chilly and rainy out today. A perfect morning for the library - so that's what we did! Now we're eagerly awaiting the arrival of cousins Clara and Ruby. They're coming over for a playdate while their mommy has an appointment. Adeline is sooo excited! I'm glad she loves her cousins so much!

cajun shrimp boil

We hosted a big cajun shrimp boil and Mardi Gras party at our house this past Friday night for the young families class at our church. It was a lot of fun and a lot of food! We boiled almost a dozen pounds of shrimp (with 15 chicken breasts for the non-shrimp eaters), 90 mini corn cobs, 24 p0unds of small red potatoes and 8 rings of sausage and had 6 loaves of french bread. Thanks to Mom and Dad Brooks for sending all the fun decorations and the Zattaran's and to my parents for the tables and huge pots, and to everyone else who contributed pots and space heaters! Here are some pictures for my non-facebook friends:

We divided the house into 4 areas. The Orleans Street crew was in the living room.

The French Quarter kids were in the dining room.

Here's the crazy Canal Street folks.

And of course, we had to hide the rowdy Bourbon Street gang in the basement.

Julie and Andy were crowned the king and queen of our Mardi Gras party since it was their

10-year anniversary and they decided to celebrate it with us!

My brother Trent showing off all the bling he won during Mardi Gras trivia. I still think he was just louder than everyone else.

The girls congregating in the cold basement.

Here I am posing with all the pots I just washed. There were more, but I had already put them away due to lack of drying space. Amazingly enough, we were able to get the house back to normal in just 1 1/2 hours! Thanks to Chad's hard work. It was so nice to wake up on Saturday morning with no work to do! Well, we had fun and hope all our friends did too!