Making Their Lists

Tis' the season for brainwashing commercials. No, not those horrible political ads but the hundreds of toy commercials planting their little seeds in our childrens' brains. Every single day I hear screeches from the living room, "Mooooomm look! I want this for Christmas!" Glow in the dark race car tracks, monster trucks, you color it nail polish, make your own lip gloss.... toys, games and junk galore!

Let's be honest. I only half pay attention to the commercials I am supposed to be drawing my attention to. So it was much to my surprise when Mr Blue Eyes gave me the run down of new games he really, really wanted for Christmas while we were driving to school yesterday. Apparently he swears he has shown me the commercials before and he was a bit frustrated that I didn't quite know what he was talking about. ok, it's possible...

I asked him to tell me all about them. And I was mortified! Who comes up with these games for kids? What ever happened to clean, wholesome games like Candy Land, Monopoly, Risk? Be prepared to be SHOCKED!

Game number 1 on his list this year:

Pop the Pig

Basically, everyone takes turns to roll the die to see how many chomps the pig will take. You shove these little hamburgers into his mouth and push down the pig's head to chomp the burger. With every pump, the pig's stomach will get bigger, bigger, and bigger. Until finally, his growing stomach forces his belt to burst open. 

I. Just, Don't. Get. It. 

What is so exciting about that? Hungry Hippos didn't exactly require brain power to win, but you had to have mad finger skills to get that hippo chomping.

Game number 2 on his list this year:

Doggie Doo

The Doggie Doo website's tag line is "The original Dog that goes Do."

The game description says: Compete with your friends to see who's the best dog walker with the Doggie Doo Game. Take turns feeding and walking this goofy pup. Squeeze his leash to hear his gassy sounds get louder and louder until he plops down a Doggie Doo. Clean up his mess three times to become the best dog walker and win the game.

Ummmm, really??? This is a cool new game? And some guy is making millions off of this idea?? Seriously, if you really want to clean up doggie doo, Mr Blue Eyes, I know where you can find some! Invite your friends over. We will make it a poop party. I'll even one-up ya with a game of picking up some horse manure.

Now before all of our family and friends start thinking my son is crazy, I will have you know that he has standards. He is not at all interested in the Gooey Louie game. Just to be clear.

Gooey Louie

Product description for this genius game says: "Pick" a winner with Gooey Louie. Put your finger up his nose and try to pick a winner. Watch out. . . if you pick the wrong gooey Louie's eyes will pop, he'll flip his lid and his brain will fly out! Gooey Louie provides hours of outrageous fun for everyone. 

Oh. My. Stars.

I guess I am relieved that Mr Blue Eyes only wants to feed pigs and clean up doggie doo.

***he will NOT be getting any of these games for Christmas***

Santa will bring something more wholesome. Like a Star Wars Lightsaber he can whack his sister with.

Add It To The List!

Since we "had" to refinish the hardwood floors, we ended up asking the Floor Guy to rip out the old hardwoods in the hall bathroom while he was here. I have always hated the idea of dirty tub water sitting on those wood floors. This comes in second only to carpet in bathrooms!

But as I have mentioned before, this tiny kitchen remodel has begun to evolve into a whole main living area remodel.

Paint Cabinets

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Install new desk area and remodel island

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Need to refinish floors now

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Guess we better tear out the old baseboards and install new ones while we are at it.

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Might as well tear out old wood floors in bathroom while we are at it.

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Gotta pull the toilet to do that? Guess we better buy a new toilet then.

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Can't install the new toilet without re-tiling the floor? Shoot, better pick out some floor tile then.



Here we go! Full reno ahead!
Floor guy ripped those floors out in no time flat and added the transition piece we needed.

I picked a light and a dark tile. We decided that the darker one really looked nice against the Jacobean floors. 

Handy man installed the hardy board one night after work for me. I really, really wanted to learn how to tile. In another year, we plan to completely remodel our master bathroom and I want to be able to do the tile work myself.

I started opening the box of tiles and freaked out when I saw the amount of variation in the tile pattern. Ohhh no! Enter control-freak-OCD.

So I did what any normal, non male, person in my position would do...

I pre laid out the entire bathroom in my Brown Eyed Girl's room. 

While I envisioned tiling the entire bathroom myself, the truth was I also got a call from my hay delivery guy and he surprised me with a load of 200 bales of hay on the same day we needed to tile. We had already lived a week without a second toilet. We just needed to wrap this project up.

I got Handy Man started on the bathroom and gave him strict instructions for placement so that nothing would get messed up. I left him to tile the floor while I stacked bale after bale outside.

Since we couldn't grout the tile until the next day, I was at least able to get my hands a little dirty.

My goodness, we need to change that tub tile next!

Add it to the list!!

After we tiled the bathroom, Handy Man moved right into installing the new island.

He also added a little custom trim to the sides to dress the island up a little. 

We were tired of our old area rug in the living room section of the great room, so we decided to just carpet over the existing hardwoods in the living room area. 

I loved how warm and cozy the installed carpet made the room feel and look. (Note: Add re-tile fireplace to the To-Do list.)

Mr Blue Eyes couldn't wait to drive his matchbox cars all over the new carpet. 

Three years in this house and I was finally able to shop for curtains! (not photoed, but I added curtain rings to extend the curtains to touch the floor fyi)

Handy Man installed new, taller baseboards! I painted them and trimmed out the wall color.

It is all finally coming together!

Last on our list: granite and painting the kitchen island! 

All. Most. Finished!!!