Pillow Talk

This past Saturday I went to Dallas with "Quotesy". We went to Ikea, Red Lobster, Joann's, Starbucks, Hobby Lobby, the gas station, and McDonalds. It was wonderful.

The reason for our trip was two-fold. 1. I needed some pillows. Not the sleeping kind. The decorating kind. You see, last spring my MIL and I also took a day trip to Dallas and went to Ikea. MIL was purchasing new furniture for her bedroom and I got to tag along.

While at Ikea I saw some 20" down pillow inserts for $6.99. To those of you unaware, down pillow inserts at a fabric/home decor store run around $18 a piece. And I needed four. Plus, the two fabric/home decor stores in Lawton don't even carry down pillow inserts. Just fiberfill ones.

Suffice it to say I was thrilled. However, I wasn't at a place to purchase them yet. So I've been waiting for these pillows for months now. MONTHS. But thanks to husbands junior high football announcing check I had a little extra cash on hand. And husband was willing to hold down the fort for the day while I got out and about without kids in tow. It was a beautiful day.

Introducing my new pillows:

I found the blue fabric at Joann's in Dallas on clearance for $4.50 a yard. Not only is it the perfect color, but it is an outdoor fabric and therefore able to withstand the abuse from four children. Brilliant.

I am so pleased. You can see the before here. Sad little pillows.

I also snagged a new light fixture for over the dining room table. The first one I had was also from Ikea so really I just got a new cover and not a whole new fixture. It is much more sleek and simple. Love it.

The before:

The after:
The light cover was $13.00! You just can't beat that.

Reason #2: "Quotesy" had never been to Ikea and both mamas needed a day away. Loads of fun was had by all.

Bridget

Bobo is now a weekly contributor to Babione 6. He will be posting every Monday. Don't miss his first post! It's right below this one.

Case of the Missing Cobra

Yes, I know it is Monday and I said I wasn't going to post anything except on Tuesdays and Fridays. That's why Bobo is posting something today. So, please welcome Bobo as a contributor to the Babione6 blog.
Bridget

Case of the Missing Cobra

One day, a boy named Andrew Miles went to the zoo. He went with his best friend, Nicole. They both dreamed of becoming young detectives one day, they just didn't know it was today.
When they got there, they saw a commotion. The zoo keeper, the guide, and the manager were talking to the police. Andrew overheard the zoo keeper tell the police,” What do you mean this isn't police business! It's completely police business! An $1,000 cobra was stolen!”
“What's up with him?” asked Nicole. “It looks like he got shot with an anger dart.”
“ I heard that he has just lost an expensive cobra.” said Andrew. “He's contacted the police about it.”
“Let's go check it out !” Nicole said.
So the the two friends headed toward the scene. When the police saw the the children, they told the children to move back. So the friends stayed back. But they were close enough to hear what they were saying about the robbery. Andrew spotted the reptile room that had no windows. The zoo keeper told his story, “Well, I was doing my duties, then I heard the alarm ring, so I ran to find out what was going on, and I saw the manager run out the door of the reptile room. He was holding his hat.”
“No I didn't!” said the manger. “ I was checking to see the snakes through the window. When I heard the siren I went immediately went to the center of the zoo, because that where you're supposed to go when the siren goes off.”
Suddenly, a gust of wind blew and the hats of the men were nearly blown away. They all held their hats but the manager held his barely. The hat shook. Then there was a hissing sound. “ Oops, forgot to take the kettle off the oven.” the manger said. He headed toward his house that he lived in near the zoo. All the windows and doors were closed.
Andrew suddenly said, “ Wait! Don't you want to hear who the thief was?”
The manager said, “Oh, so you think you know.”
“Yes I do. The thief is.....”

Please leave your guess in the comments. I'll post the answer on Thursday!!

Bobo

You Probably Thought I was Exaggerating.

Since I posted pictures of my entry, living and dining rooms some changes have been made. I was serious, people.

Here's what happened: about a month ago, hubs and I took the two little ones to Wichita Falls while the two big ones were at a birthday party. While there we visited the lovely little store Hancocks and I found the fabric for my living room drapes. They are the perfect colors AND they were on clearance. People: I got upholstery fabric that is usually $19.99 a yard for $2.30 a yard!!! Crazy!

So anyway, once I had them sewn and hanging I knew I didn't like them with my old dining room curtains. I love my dining room curtains, but they are cotton quilting fabric that is usually $6.oo a yard and the look of them next to my new curtains was cheap. Maybe it was all in my head, but frankly, I have to live in my head so I wanted to do something about it.

When we went back to WF for the Sesame Street Live show husband graciously let me run into Hancocks again to see if they had any of the fabric left. Well, of course they didn't. Not when its on clearance for pennies.

So I figured my head was just gonna have to be unhappy for awhile.

Then, my SIL* helped me out by moving into a new house on Saturday and having her first baby on the very next Wednesday. While she was in the hospital I left my kids with my mom and went to help my MIL* and FIL* unpack my SIL's house. Because of all the dirty laundry and gazillion other things that needed to be done, MIL and I decided to take the dirty laundry to the laundromat to wash it faster.

*sister-in-law, mother-in-law, father-in-law

This has a point, I promise.

When we pulled up to the laundromat what did we see just a few stores down in the same shopping center? I'm sure you guessed it. Hancocks. And a big beautiful one at that. After getting the clothes into the washing machines we headed that way. And I'm sure you guessed it again, They had my fabric!!! EXCEPT: it wasn't $2.30 a yard. It was marked down to $8.50 a yard. Still a good deal but I needed 7 yards to cover both my dining and kitchen windows. 60 bucks people.

Not chump change in my world. If I spend 60 bucks on unnecessary fabric it means I DON'T spend 60 bucks on necessary things. Nope, I couldn't do it. I did, however, find some fabulous sheer fabric 1/2 off to cover my lampshades with. And my dear, sweet MIL bought it for me. Check it out.
The before:

The after:

The full monty:

Fabulous, right! I'm so pleased. And of course, in true Bridget fashion, when I'm done with these colors, the ribbon and fabric come off and my plain white lampshades are back. Yeehaw!!

So, on with my story. When I got home from my weekend away, I told hubs about finding the fabric. He then told me that while I was gone, he received his check from the school for announcing the junior high football games. And then my perfect, wonderful, handsome, funny, smart, precious husband told me to call his mother, who happened to still be at his sister's house, and ask her to go get my fabric. I couldn't be more in love.

Yesterday morning my MIL delivered my fabric to me and I sure did have those new curtains sewn and hung by the end of the day! And they look wonderful!
The before here

and the after:

Other changes were made as well. I used my handy dandy photo editing software to put pink numbers where changes were made. (Don't forget that you can click on the pitures to enlarge them.)

No. 1: New curtains.

No. 2: new fabric covering the chain for the light fixture.

No. 3: new flowers on the table

No. 4: moved china cabinet

No. 5: rearranged top of china cabinet

No. 6: new paint on walls

No. 7: replaced the decorative paper in my brown frames

I'll talk about no. 6 in a sec. First, my mom had the art teacher at her school draw these pictures of my children for us for Christmas two years ago. I love them. Sometimes I go temporarily insane and put something else in these frames, but luckily it is only temporary.

I'm one of those people that loves symmetry and balance so I love having these pictures on either side of my china cabinet. And putting the cabinet back on this wall makes the dining room feel bigger. I seriously can't remember why I didn't like it this way the first time. Must be more of that temporary insanity.

Honestly, I didn't need to put this picture in here, but oh well. I still love my tile floors.

Now about no. 6. when I originally painted my kitchen blue I told husband that it wasn't quite right and that I planned on tweaking it a bit. I lived with it for quite a few months, but this past Sunday I just got the fire in my belly to paint something. My kitchen is small and can easily be painted in a day so I got to it.

As you can see it is only slightly different. A little lighter and a little greener. (The new paint is the paint around the edges.) Now it's perfect.

And I mixed my own paint. After you amass all the paint that I have you can do that quite easily. I just bought a gallon of white satin paint and mixed in very small amounts of a color I had out in my garage. I love the way it looks after just a few swirls.

And as more proof of my sickness, Sunday was the fifth time I've painted my whole kitchen in the two years we've lived here.

I put this picture in here because I was able to take this picture without a flash and using the natural light from my window. I wanted you to get a better idea of the true color of my walls. It's light and icy and wonderful and NOT the color you see in the other pictures!!!

I've actually been making more changes in other rooms but this has gotten very long and I really need to do something else, like vaccuum my floor and brush my teeth.

Bridget

Sniffles and Smiles

I don't feel well. It's not sickness, but allergies and they are bumming me out.

It's the usual stuff. Stuffy nose, itchy-sore throat, watery eyes, sneezes, stuffy ears, sinus pressure. No big deal really, but it's made me think of all the people that suffer from chronic pain. Not feeling well on a day to day basis really does make life hard.

And that makes being in a good mood hard.

I've been stuffy since last Thursday. I had finally found something that actually helped, but when I went to Walgreen's on Friday to get some more I found out that the laws in OK have changed and I can't buy any right now. And I'm not sure if or when I'll be able to get some again.

Oh well.

However, this morning made me smile. The designated morning chores have been changing lately. The kids are growing and can do more so now Popeye empties all the trashcans every morning and then helps Bear sort the laundry. Bear sorts the laundry and feeds/waters the dog. While Bobo empties the dishwasher and loads any dirty dishes in, then after everyone has brushed their teeth and fixed their hair he wipes down the bathroom: mirror, sink, and toilet.

Also, they have to wipe down the dining table and chairs and move the chairs into the living room every morning after breakfast so I can sweep. But all of them do this together.

Anywho...this morning Bear asked if he could wipe down my bathroom like Bobo wipes down theirs. Of course, I said yes. Remember: I'm trying to say 'yes' to my children as much as possible. =) So Bobo showed Bear how to do it in their bathroom and then helped Bear wipe down mine.

Not only do I now not have to wipe down my bathroom every morning, but I just love it when I see my children helping each other. Particularly when they teach each other. I didn't ask Bobo to show Bear what to do. I was planning on showing him myself. But they took it upon themselves to work together. And it blessed my heart.

And my aching head.

Bridget

Aunt Soda and Uncle Pop

That's right, folks! Hubs and I have a nephew!!!

JD (blog name) was born on November 4 and weighed 8 lbs 13 oz and was 19 inches long!

He and mom are doing great. This is our first nephew (we don't yet have a niece) and our children's first first cousin.

We are all so excited about our new family member!

Bridget

Bad Blogger

Hello all! I'm so sorry that I didn't get anything posted today. I have a really good excuse I promise!

But I'm not gonna tell you what it is till Sunday.

So come back in a few days and I'll spill the beans!

AND NO I'M NOT PREGNANT!!!!

Love you all,
Bridget

Our Halloween Weekend

On Saturday we had tickets to see Sesame Street Live. Even though it was more for the little ones we made the big ones go too. They actually enjoyed it.

We had really good seats and there weren't many there.

Took this during intermission. Sesame Street Live has an intermission. For selling balloons and cotton candy. These people are brilliant. Take a 15 minutes break to parade balloons and cotton candy around right in front of all the little children. Getting past all the over-priced, completely unnecessary stuff out in the lobby is one thing. Telling your children no when all the other children around them are getting things is something else entirely. But no worries. Hubs and I stood strong. Plus, we were going to Chuck E. Cheese after.

Hubs didn't want to be left out.

At Chuck E. Cheese. It really is crazy that I have an eleven year old. It used to be just me and him every day. Well, at least till Hubs got home. He was my little guy. Still is.

Of course, Hubs got in on the action too. We let the big guys run around together and we took the little ones around with us. It is really nice to be moving into that stage of life where our children are becoming more and more self sufficient. It makes things fun in a completely different way.

Big guys on their own.

Can you guess how many tokens she spent on this horse? Four the first time, but only because I made her get off because another little girl was waiting for a turn. Then she spent her last two on it. This girl loves horses. Particularly ones that really move.

They didn't wear their costumes till Sunday. Grandma made sure they had Halloween goodie bags full of candy. Once we got home and they saw the bags they were perfectly fine with not trick or treating.

It really is all about the candy.

Bridget