MIA

Yes....I have been Missing In Action from the blog world.....but we are still alive and kicking!

We have been busy with school.....but we have also been busy with a spur of the moment home makeover!

Now before you freak out and think we went on a shopping spree....we didn't!  We just went on a cleaning/rearranging spree. 

We have lived in our home for just over 3 years and in the past homes we have always enjoyed hanging out/playing and spending time as a family in our den.  However in this home for various reasons we have not had that same atmosphere in our den.....so I got a bee in my bonnet and decided it was high time for a change.....so this is what happened....

As much as I wish it wasn't a factor I think the main factor contributing to us not hanging out together in the den was that we didn't have a functioning TV in our den.  Our house came wired with a complicated and expensive sound/cable system....and we never could afford to get someone to come out and get it working/wired.  So we just put our TV, which was small and above our fireplace,up and hooked up a DVD and thought we would use it to watch movies, but we rarely did....the seating didn't work well for where the TV was....
So we had our big den TV in our Master Bedroom and it REALLY overwhelmed the room and Randy and I would just use that to watch TV or we would let the kids use it to watch TV or play video games......well this worked okay except we weren't together much and my bedroom became an extended den and didn't feel very private or like much of a sanctuary.....Then when THE BOY would have friends over we didn't want his friends in our bedroom playing video games and so when my parents got rid of an old TV we took it and hooked up his game system and just didn't hook up the cable so he could play games and watch movies but didn't have cable in his bedroom so I convinced myself this was okay.....except again....he started to be MIA too.....
AND THEN the GIRL decided it "wasn't fair" that THE BOY got to have movies in his room when he had a friend over so she needed it too.....So we had an old TV in the attic and pulled it out and now she had one too!  I never liked the idea...but I had just slowly let my convictions errode.....that is a whole other blog!

Then....yesterday.....I was like "Why is everyone off in different corners of the house and "entertaining" themselves?"  and I began to wake up....and so me and my hubby had a little chat and we were finally both on the same page and we enacted our plan....

The idea......
We would get rid of the piano we inherited......we would move the monster TV from our bedroom to the Den, we would forget about trying to use the expensive sound system and pay $40 to have a new cable outlet installed on the wall that previously held the piano.....and then we would move the small TV to our bedroom...move the TV's out of the kids rooms....and put one in the upstairs loft but not hook up cable wo when they had friends over they could all use that one and it is still more open to the rest of the house.  Guess what not only does it look so much better.....my kids are all downstairs playing Wii together and it is so cute!  I also have my bedroom back!  Yippee!  Randy, who was reluctant to say the least, asked me last night with a grin on his face why it had taken me 3 years to come up with this!

Now all this TV moving inspired us....and we ended up getting our old bed out and setting it up in THE BOYS room and it looks so much more teenager then his old bunk bed....and he loves it.  Then we moved the Baby into a twin bed we inherited from Randy's sister...THANK YOU....and so now she has a lot more floor space to play!

This all led to a bunch of rearranging, cleaning, dusting.....and my den looks so much more inviting and homey and I am really enjoying it!

I also have a bunch of ideas....a rug for under the recliner.....a lamp for the boys room......a lamp for the twinkie boys room......paint for The Baby's room and Twinkie boys room.....hang curtains in Twinkie Boy and the Baby's room....Paint and recover Sophie's vanity stool.....paint the extra dresser in Twinkie Girls room to match the Baby's furniture so she will have a dresser (she currently uses rubber made crates for her dresser)......recover the kitchen stools.....repair kitchen chair that has broken slates.....get one more kitchen chair so we will have one for everyone that matches......
That is the problem with redecorating it gives me all these ideas and desires and THINGS I want!  Which nothing is WRONG with....except I can't do them right now.....so I am trying to focus on all we did do....not all I can't do.....and trying to enjoy the fresh changes and how much better it is looking!

So that is what we have been up to and boy oh boy am I enjoying it!