Hustle and Bustle

This weekend was wildly productive for our little family on Haddington. I had a lot of overhanging, nagging projects and tasks needing to get done, so I decided to really try and tackle a lot of them this weekend. I would say that I had several successes! I even managed to squeeze in some fun with a dinner at Olive Garden on Friday night with Candace, Alicia, Allison, and Megan and a Christmas Party at Chris & Megan's. We also went to church, ate at Greek's on 116th which tasted just like the Greek's at Ball State, and watched the Colts win their 13th game! :-)

Missions Accomplished...

1. Replace master bathroom faucet & cabinet handles- this has been bothering me since we moved in. It was an ugly faucet with wooden handles. It didn't match anything. Finally its ugly looks matched its functionality because it kept clogging, getting water-spotty, and it malfunctioned enough to make Luke agree with getting a new one. We headed over to Home Depot, picked out a nice "bronze finish" faucet and some matching cabinet handles. After several hours of installation, Luke realized the faucet we purchased was faulty (the cold water had a leak), so he disconnected it all, returned it, got another one, and within an hour it was up and running with no problems. It looks great!

2. Get a new bath mat for our bathroom and trim the door so that said bath mat will fit without getting folded over on itself every time the door opens and closes. When Luke so handily installed the tile in our master bathroom last spring, it caused the gap between the bottom of the door and the floor to get smaller, and absolutely NO bath mat could fit under it. As soon as you opened or closed the door, the bath mat would fold over on itself and cause all kinds of frustration in our house. It was cumbersome and annoying! So, I found a mat that had some kind of gripper so it would stay flat on the floor, and Luke took the door off and trimmed off some of the bottom to make it fit. FINALLY!

3. Get taller trash can. Sounds dumb...and it is. Our kitchen trash can was like a foot tall. That holds about 1 hour's worth of kitchen trash. I found a nice, slim can that is double the height and even has one of those foot pedals that raises the lid without touching it. Our last one didn't even have a lid. Big upgrade, and it has already relieved so much tension in our house. Who knew that $17 would completely change our moods!

4. Pick up other odds and ends to make life easier. I got this nifty sink organizer that fits on the inside of our cabinet under our sink, and it holds the grody scrub brush and dish soap. No more clutter on the sink or stinky scrubber! I also got an over the cabinet towel bar for our kitchen so that we can stop throwing kitchen towels on our counters. I got a lamp for my dresser so that I can put my make up on over my dresser and not over the sink (which will keep our sink from getting gunky and gross). I finally found a solution for my tangled mess of necklaces! ICE CUBE TRAYS! I am using ice cube trays to separate my necklaces, and the ice cube trays are concealed in a nice basket on my dresser. I am very happy with all of these solutions, and it makes a remarkable difference in our home.

5. Wrap Christmas gifts. Every gift I have purchased is wrapped under the tree! I only have a couple more gifts to buy, and then I am done done done! Yay for having some money again (who am I kidding? I have a baby on the way! No more money for the rest of my life!).

6. Finish Christmas cards. I decided to hand make all of our cards this year. This sounded like a great idea when I started this last weekend, but it became pretty tiresome by the end. I finally finished them and am ready to address and mail them this week.

7. Start and finish gifts for my teaching colleagues. We do gifts for those of us who teach in my hallway. I never know what to do, but baked items and sweets are always a good idea. I made some sugar cookies and some other goodies and put them together tonight. The gifts are ready to be delivered tomorrow. One less thing to worry about in this last week before break!

8. Pick up Wii Fit Plus. I just heard about this today, and I had to run out and get it. It was only $20, and it has so many more fun, new games on it! Luke and I rolled laughing doing some of them (rhythm parade is HILARIOUS!). I am excited to play these new games and enjoy my Wii Fit as if it was brand new! Gotta love the Wii! I am hoping to get Wii Sports Resort, too, to complete the Wii upgrades!

I think that is it....though it feels like we did so much more! I can't wait to finish this last week of school and celebrate Christmas with Luke's family next weekend. The Holidays can be stressful and crazy, but it is all a whole bunch of fun and I wouldn't have it any other way!