Before & After

Two more rooms are finished...for now.  I still need to add some decor, like curtains & pictures, but they will have to wait a little while.

The kitchen is the biggest change in the house.  We've only painted three rooms in the house, so the other changes were basically just our furniture and personal things.  We decided to have the cabinets painted white and paint the walls a lighter color to lighten up the room.  I did not want to attempt the cabinets myself b/c I've done it before and they always chip.  Plus, I wanted it to look professional, without brush strokes, which I think it does. 

I liked the kitchen layout as soon as I saw it but it needed some work to make it my taste.  One of the things that we were looking for in a house was an open layout between the kitchen & the living room.  We did not get that in this house, but we really love it the way it is.  It feels perfect for us.  I still want to change the floors one day, but these will do for now.  So...Before....

....and After...

The desk area Before...

....and After...I'm so happy to have those old fashioned mailboxes gone.  I love having this area in the kitchen.  This is my blogging area and I like not being closed in a room while I'm blogging.

The laundry room Before...

And After...I still want to paint the cabinets white above the washer and dryer.  I had to paint the room twice to get the color I wanted on the walls.  I'm terrible at picking paint colors and the first color I picked out was too dark.  I really wanted to just live with it, but I knew I would not be happy.  So, I made myself redo it the next night.  I wanted something light and clean looking, and I think I got that...

The only room I have left to show you is the living room.  That room is the most unfinished in the house.  Seems like a shame to end up with that room being left undone, but that's just how it happened.  It's a pretty big room and we're still deciding & saving for what we really want to do. 

Happy Birthday Granny!

We celebrated Granny's birthday this week.  Miles sang Happy Birthday all by himself...

...and delivered her dessert with a candle...

He didn't give her a chance to make a wish before he quickly blew out the candle for her!  Happy Birthday, Granny!  We love you.

A Day With Dad

Miles went to the dentist this week for the first time.  I checked around in Martin and found a good option.  We don't have a pediatric dentist but I didn't want to drive an hour just for a dentist appointment every six months....especially if Miles was fine with a dentist in Martin.  I mentioned to Darrin a couple weeks ago, in front of Miles, that we needed to get Miles a dentist appointment and he practically started crying at the thought of it.  So, I chose to rethink the pediatric dentist thing.

I made an appointment at Wild Smiles in Jackson & Darrin took him. You can't get any more kid friendly than this...

There are all kinds of games in the waiting area including XBOX and various brain games...

This is where they clean & examine their teeth.  All the tables point towards this tree in the middle.  He got to pick a toothbrush out before and after...

 

There are also TVs in the ceiling & headphones for the kids to wear...

Dr. Matt drew Woody on a blown up glove for Miles to take home...

Darrin said that everyone went overboard to make Miles feel special.  Miles declared that Wild Smiles was the greatest place ever.   

Darrin decided to take the rest of the day off with Miles b/c he has to go out of town soon.  When they got back to Martin, they went to play disc golf...

 

...and they flew a kite for a while...

...but Miles just wanted to get back to disc golf...

I think it was a perfect day for both of them.

Wordless Wednesday

Weekend Wrap Up

Does that title still apply if I'm posting about our weekend on Tuesday?  If you blog, you understand how draining it is to come up with titles to posts, right??  We went to my mom's house for the weekend.  She needed help with a few projects around the house & we were in need of some serious pay back for all the work she's done around our house. 

Saturday morning we worked in the yard.  We tried to get out there early & beat the heat, but it didn't take long to warm up.  Uncle Dave worked with us...

Of course Miles was a huge help...

We did a few projects in the house....took naps...and then went downtown to the Spaghetti Factory for dinner.  We took pictures like the tourists :)

My nephew, Caleb, and his girlfriend, Brianne, were in town from Chattanooga & Alabama, so they came with us...

 

On Sunday we went to the zoo.  I thought it was going to be really hot, but it was very nice.  We spent about 3.5 hours walking around.  These geese followed us around for a while.  Miles did not like them at all.  Poor kid is scared of his own shadow.  Even when Darrin was holding him, he would pick his feet up :)

 

Every time we've been to the zoo, he's been fixated on one animal.  On this trip, he wanted to see the giraffes....then the alligators....and then the playground.  We ended the day on the playground.  He had so much fun.  He was dripping with sweat when we left...

 

We parked my mom's car at Opry Mills.  When we took her back to her car, of course we had to do a little shopping.  Miles has always wanted to ride in the fire truck strollers & Sunday he got his wish.  He was exhausted from the zoo, so it worked out perfectly...

He talked Darrin into the carousal....but of course he was too afraid to ride the normal things b/c they go up and down, so they rode in this, which was completely his speed...  

It was a great, but exhausting weekend.  Sunday night I actually feel asleep at 8:45pm.  And, I am so sore from working in the yard that I can barely walk.  So sad.  I have lots to blog about this week so check back. Have a great week.

Progress

I'm happy to report that Miles has been having lots of good days at school with no "marks or notes".  That's what he asks every day when we pick him up, "Did I have any marks or notes?"  After months of telling him "if you don't like how someone is playing, go play somewhere else"....we finally broke down and talked to the teacher.  He has a new teacher, so it seemed like a good time to try to make some progress. 

We don't want Miles to be a tattle tale and we didn't want to complain about another child, especially when we know that ours has issues too, but it just seemed like he and one other boys were constantly at odds.  It appears that his teacher has really gotten through to him.  I think there were a lot of instances where multiple boys were getting in trouble b/c they couldn't determine who was telling the truth.  His new teacher, Ms. Debra, told Miles that she can just watch the cameras and find out who is telling the truth.  His response was, "you can watch the cameras....I didn't hit him."

We haven't had any major issues since we talked to her.  Maybe he wasn't as much to blame as we thought.  Or, maybe he knows that we are communicating with her regularly b/c many times he's included in our talks.  Whatever the case, I'm so happy that his behavior has improved.  I've noticed that his coping skills are better lately too.  There seem to be less breakdowns....like when his neighbor friends have to go home, or when we tell him it's time to leave places like Chuck E Cheese's or his cousins' house. 

Last week at daycare, they learned about "Our Town".  The teachers frequently ask the kids questions and post their answers for the parents to see.  It's adorable.  Although, Darrin was disappointed that Miles didn't say the driving range...