please bear with me. (whining and stories about baby puke ahead)

Hello again, to anyone and everyone who still reads this thing.

Right, so now that this is a private blog, that means that it isn't going to show up on your reader anymore, which means that you're going to have to remember to click into your bookmarks and show up here.

How about we make some kind of an association in your head, so that it will be easier to remember to check the blog?

Maybe every time you vacuum the floor you could check the blog.

No, that's too much.

I don't blog that often.

How about every time you wash your sheets?

No.

Still too often.

I know.

How about every time you clean your baseboards you remember to check the blog?

Perfect.

Now that we have that settled, I have a few aggravating things I need to get off of my chest.

Aggravating thing number one:

Did you know that I dyed my hair bright red and cut bangs? What? You didn't know that? Yeah, that's probably because I didn't tell you, but it's true. I did it.

I've always wanted to try red hair, and my "granola vs. J.Lo" complex got the better of me and so I did something crazy with my hair.

It looks a little something like this.

For real.

Okay, maybe not quite that Kool-aid red, but it's pretty red. I realize that you're not going to believe me until I post a picture of my and my darn hair, but that may not happen. Depending on the day I either love it or hate it. And, I think I'm going to go dark brown here any day now, so...

Next item of aggravation:

These babies puke all day long. Seriously. All day long. And no, it's not just spit-up. It's puke. It's a real problem. And now they crawl and cruise anywhere they want to go, so the puke is taking over the house. Our carpet it in really bad shape. Like, it makes me depressed.

When we moved into our house the carpet was brand new. I'm not a huge fan (or even a little fan) of wall to wall carpeting (more on that later), but at least it was new. Now, a mere 8 months later, and it's disgusting. We steam clean it, and then a few days later it looks like a landmine again. Plus, many times a day I get the lovely surprise of finding puke bombs by stepping my bare foot into goopy pukey carpet. So gross.

But, in our kitchen we have tile and in the hallway we have laminate. That's better, right? Easier to keep clean?

Well, it's easier to keep clean, but I don't know if it's better because in the kitchen and hallways the babies puke and then slip and slide around in it. Or, I get to discover a puke splat as I walk down the hallway and slide and crash from slipping on puke.

*the climax of your pity for me:

True story. Yesterday the babies were crawling down the hallway making a fast sprint to the hall bathroom because they saw that the door was open (Reid and I are deep in the depths of potty training). The babies love the forbidden delights in the bathroom. They love to whack on the scale until the lights blink and then laugh and laugh. And the other day they figured out how to pull up to a stand by pulling on the toilet, cruise over to the side and pull the flush lever. Then the toilet flushes and they laugh and laugh. So anyways, they were on a fast break to the bathroom and so I dashed down the hallway to intercept them. Along the side of the hallway was a metal hanging garment rack thing, just sitting there, because we moved all the bedrooms around (more on that someday) and it was just kind of sitting there. The bottom of the rack has a wire mesh shelf with an edge that's kind of sharp. As I was dashing down the hall, I slipped on a big pile of puke (it's magically imperceptible on the tile/laminate...I don't understand it) and slid right into the rack thing while trying to slow myself down with my hands braking against the wall. The rack sliced a monster gash into my lower shin that streamed blood for a solid half hour despite my best pressure and elevation applications. It was pretty bad. Not bad enough for stitches, but I considered it.

Where does all this whining lead to?

Probably nowhere.

But it does make me daydream about flooring. All I want in this world is glossy whitewashed hardwood floors. Because I LOVE them. I love how they look. So clean and uncluttered.

And, as an extra bonus, I think baby puke would be easier to detect. And that would make my life 100% easier. You have no idea.

Have you heard of Sixx Design or the book Downtown Chic? Well, there's this couple with SEVEN children, living in New York, that finds old run-down properties, buys them, moves the family in and renovates them while living there. Then they sell the property for millions of dollars. Seriously. I love their style, I love that they have a big family and that they still are out there living their dream with kids right alongside them, and I love this house they renovated. This is one of my favorites. My dream house, if you will.

Oh, and notice the white floors.

Pretty awesome, right? Now I just need to convince Erik into the lifestyle of living in shambles while we renovate things into something awesome. That'll be a tough one.

But in the meantime, here are some more pictures of beautiful white floors to get me by. I don't think it will really happen. Not in this house, at least. We've got three more years here at the most, and possibly as little as a year. So, you know, I won't really be here long enough to justify making it my dream house. I can survive splatted landmine carpet. I guess.
Didn't you love it? All the white?

That's my design preference in a nutshell. White, white, and more white. With blasts of color spattered about. That's what my house looks like in my head, as I try to comfort myself when I step in a carpet puddle or bathe the babies again after they've been slip and sliding in their puke.

If you're laughing at that, I just hope you never have to do it. Because after nearly 10 months of daily doubletime puke, I'm not laughing anymore.