The (terrifying) count down is on...

We have just about two and a half months till we leave for Sweden and I really could scarcely feel less prepared. We've had some housing setbacks (or, more accurately housing nothingnesses... it's not like anything we had was taken away from us, we just haven't gotten anywhere) and some set backs on schools, combined with some upswings to counteract them. Overall I'm feeling optimistic but still mostly overwhelmed. Here are my current random thoughts and updates on the 2017-18 Sabbatical Adventure. (Everything sounds more exciting and fun and DOable when you call it an "adventure", no?)

~ We messaged the International School (ISSR) that had accepted three of the four school children to inquire about Marianne's position on the waitlist (despite the clear note on the original message that no questions would be answered regarding students' positions on the waitlists) and were informed that due to lack of turnover, things did not look promising (despite the note in the original message that due to high turnover at the school, they expected all waitlisted students to obtain spots in their classes), and they hoped we had applied at other schools as well. We had not. I quickly researched the other school that I found most appealing, and submitted online applications for all four school aged kids. Part of the reason I had not originally applied to this school - Rödabergsskolen (Red Mountain School) - was that they are a Swedish school taught in English, which means they begin formal education later, and it did not appear that Peter would be old enough to attend. Also, the very helpful relocation folks at KTH had gotten us an "in" at ISSR that made it much more convenient to apply to. After a couple weeks of waiting, a call to a vice principal at Rödabergsskolen, and a brief email exchange, we received notice today that all four school aged kids have been accepted, and that it will be no problem for them to begin a week or two late when we arrive! Praise God! I was hoping that at least Marianne and Ruth would be accepted, so they could attend one school together while the younger kids attended another. I had scarcely hoped that all four might get in! This is a huge relief to me. It also helps that Rödabergsskolen is very near to KTH, so I'm hopeful that Nathaniel can oversee the morning commute for the kids, leaving Rachel and me to enjoy a quieter morning routine before we venture out to explore the city each day!

~ We've been "advertising" our house for rent primarily through word of mouth so far, but we may be coming to the point where we need to actually advertise it on some sort of site - craigslist or the like. I'd much prefer to have a friend of a friend renting it, since, as Nathaniel's realtor-cousin pointed out when he looked around and helped us talk through how much to ask, we want to move back into a house that's in just as great of shape as we're leaving it. And if you find renters without personal connections, you never know how they might treat your home. If you know of anyone in need of a rental, please let me know and I'd be happy to pass along the listing I put together with photos and info! We had one couple come look at the house last week. I loved them. I wish I could have handed them the keys right then! Sadly (for us) they found a house to buy instead of renting. I'm not exactly hoping that horrible things are discovered in their inspection so they have to come running back to us... but maybe just a little.

~ The housing situation in Sweden is no more resolved than the rental situation here. There's a gorgeous and ideal apartment for rent from a KTH professor, but it costs over twice our current mortgage payment and we are hoping not to spend ALL our travel funds on housing. (And by "we", I mean Nathaniel. He is putting his foot down. I would likely have caved by now and taken it just to have this item checked off the to do list.) KTH put us in touch with a house hunting service, but they are incredibly slow to respond and things are plodding along at a snail's pace. I'm sure it will all work out. Happily, the kids getting in to Rödabergsskolen opened up our options some, as they do not require that we live within the Stockholm Municipality to hold our spots. We don't want to live too far out, but there are other municipalities nearby that may have more options in our preferred price range. Or so I've heard and so I hope. Nevermind. The email with additional information I received since posting this makes it clear that we still need to aim for the Stockholm Municipality. Oh, well. It's just money, right?

~ Each day I get up and think, "What can I actually accomplish today toward making this adventure happen?" I feel like there should be a long list of easy answers, but there is not. I can't really begin packing up rooms because we have to live here for a couple more months, and we have to show this house to potential renters. Also, I have kids here constantly looking over my shoulder which makes it difficult to throw all their stuff away. I was discussing this with a friend at the pool the other day and really realized as I said it that "I can accomplish more in five days without the kids home than I can in a month with them here." So I'm biding my time trying to get other things done while I make mental plans for sorting, packing and planning when the kids go to stay with my parents next month.

~ We just received the acceptance letters from Rödabergsskolen this morning, and a few hours later the Lands End school uniform catalog arrived in the mail to taunt me. This will be the kids' first (and only) school year to not have uniforms. I'm dreading it a bit. I suppose part of the potential craziness of them getting to wear "whatever they want" will be mitigated by the fact that they can only bring as many clothes as we can fit in their suitcases, so their clothing choices will be seriously limited. There will be a lot of repeating outfits, without so much caring about whether you just wore that three or four days ago. (Does anyone else remember this very real fear from h.s., college and even when I was working in my 20s... "Did I wear this already this week?! What if someone notices?!" These days I can't remember what I wore yesterday and I certainly can't keep track of what anyone else has worn recently. Plus, there's that whole thing about how the most successful, genius sorts have a whole bunch of one outfit and they wear the same thing every day. I can totally get behind that mindset.) For a brief period while Rachel and I were having lunch and I was paging through the Lands End catalog, I considered whether perhaps I'd order the kids a bunch of khakis and polos and declare them to be our family's uniform! Who cares that the school doesn't mandate what you wear? Your mother has simplified your life by taking it upon herself to set that mandate. You're welcome! I think we can all predict how that would go over.

Refreshed!

After a week spent at home without my children (THANK YOU, MOM!!!) I could go all sorts of ways with the word "refreshed". I mean, I AM! It's amazing what sleeping in till 8:30 or 9:00 a few mornings in a row can do for your outlook on life. Not to mention picking up or eating out nearly every meal. I think we've run the dishwasher twice this past week, because it took that long to get full enough to bother. And even then it was mostly that we wanted our favorite coffee mugs cleaned.

That's not the refresh I sat down to share though. After three and a half months, I finally finished up my big living room refresh! I spent the first three kid-free days painting my living room ceiling and walls, then spent a leisurely day or two shopping for the last couple items to complete the room (as well as shopping for school supplies and other less glamorous things). Yesterday, Nathaniel helped me get all the curtain rods, mirrors and artwork hung. And, oh how I love it! Thank you once again to all the friends who pitched in on my birthday gift to make this possible, and who advised me along the way. I thank God for you guys each time I walk into the room and breathe a huge happy sigh.

I wanted to do some before and after shots. I knew I had good before pictures already, but didn't think about the fact that furniture was arranged differently... still, you can get the vibe. First, though, a couple pictures to clarify something with the paint. If you'd asked me what color my walls were before painting, I'd have said, white-ish. Neutral. Light. I also would have said the ceiling was white, and just needed painted because of some patchwork that didn't match the original color. The new paint color IS white ("toque white" by Sherwin Williams, to be specific). I wanted to lighten up the room, brighten it, because it doesn't get a lot of natural light and can feel dark. I was a little worried that going from one white to another wouldn't be a dramatic change, but wow. The old color was NOT white. And the ceiling was the same not-white as the walls! Check out these couple of shots of the painting in progress:

The white in the top and right sides is the new "bright white" ceiling paint. The middle-left is the old ceiling color,
while the bottom is the wall behind the piano.

The bright "cut in" color is the new toque white paint. The center is the unpainted old beige/neutral.

Wow! Such a huge difference! Just getting the ceiling painted made the whole space brighter, and then the walls! I love it so much I could paint the whole house white, except I'm way too lazy to do that.

Now for the old living room pics:

I've had the red slipcovers and the rug since before we moved to this house, and the mantel has been the same since we moved in. The curtains, too - they're a khaki/tan with a thin red stripe that worked great with the slipcovers, but made the room feel a little darker despite letting some light through. Don't even get me started on all the "styling" blogs I've read concerning where curtain rods *ought* to be, and how large art *ought* to be to fill a space, and how large rugs *ought* to be. I've never been one for worrying too much about interior design, but when I started thinking about new things for the space, I realized I'd been doing a lot of things wrong. I figured I might as well aim for doing them right this time. I'm still no interior designer, but at least it's a step closer.

Onward to the new and fresh and, if I do say so myself, lovely new living room (I wish I had a wide angle lens so you could see it all at once better, or that the sun had come out today so lighting were better):

I'm still deciding what to do with the wall over the cabinet, and the wall behind the piano (not shown). 

I still think it all feels homey and comfortable, but a little more elegant, maybe. And definitely more put together. The last shot is our entryway. One thing I hadn't considered till I was taking down pictures and fixtures to paint was that space. There was a huge flat mirror on the wall that was incredibly functional but not at all attractive. I knew as soon as we unscrewed it from the wall that I was not going to put it back up. I found this replacement mirror and love the little bit of extra prettiness it brings to the dull entryway!

I could go on and on about all the other fun things I bought or found in the decor above, but I don't have time right now. Let's just say I adore every throw pillow, vase and wooden rhinoceros in the room. And given my tendency to decorate once and leave it, I foresee these items adorning my home for years and years to come. I can't wait to host people in my new space! Thank you all again!!

Ewwwwww

Our dishwasher has been having issues lately. I mean, it's had issues off and on for ages. It was old when we moved in. It's the stand-alone kind, that you roll over and hook up to the sink, run, then put back under the window when you're done. I'm actually grateful to have that style, because it provides some much needed extra counter space, but it makes me feel very old school. I remember my grandmother having the same sort of dishwasher when I was a kid.

Recently, the dishwasher was not using the soap tablet thing. The soap door would release, but the soap would still be sitting up the compartment, nearly dry. Obviously that doesn't result in the cleanest dishes. I'd taken to trying to catch it between cycles and knock the soap down into the basin myself. Even then, dishes were coming out with little particles all over them. Bleck.

I finally sat down this morning to do a little research. We've had a handful of other problems, so my first search was for how much a new dishwasher costs. Since we don't have $600 to blow, I moved on to fixes for our issues. Turns out the most likely cause was that the holes in the spinning sprayer arms were clogged, keeping water from hitting the soap dish area. I took a quick look and, um, yeah. That was for sure an issue.

Of course, once you start cleaning an appliance, you can't just stop at poking the gunk out of the holes in the sprayer arms...

I just spent over two hours of my life disassembling the dishwasher and wiping, toothbrush scrubbing, scraping, soaking, you name it, those parts. Oh my gosh. It was so disgusting inside the cover of the filter thing. No wonder things weren't clean. I had to hunt down rubber gloves because I could not bring myself to touch it with my hands.

I'm ridiculously proud of myself for doing this (I had to find a special star shaped screwdriver head in Nathaniel's work room, and I did!), and equally ashamed at not having done it much, much sooner. I mean, none of us has gotten sick from poorly cleaned dishes, but wow. Humbling.

As I type, the dishwasher is running an empty cycle with vinegar, in the hopes that it'll clean out any remaining residue I couldn't reach. I'm already concerned that the gunk I poked loose from the top sprayer arm will just wedge back in, because I couldn't figure out how to actually remove the arm to shake the stuff out... whatever happens, it's bound to be a million times better than it was. I can hear from the sound of it how much stronger the spraying is.

I'm downright excited to load up today's dishes and see how it goes!

Mahoney

It struck me tonight that tomorrow is the first day of school, the day when kids in plaid jumpers and navy slacks will take over my newsfeed for 24 hours, and I'm sure to share my own photo-fun, but I know once that happens all the summer stuff I haven't posted will be tossed to the wayside. This calls for a quick catch up!

We had talked about making a trip to Montana this summer, but by mid-June we realized it was never going to happen. We were short on both finances and free time. In lieu of that major roadtrip, Nathaniel and I decided to take a mini-vacation up the road to Mahoney State Park. He'd been years ago, but I'd only ever seen the giant flag and observation tower from the interstate. I got online and reserved a room in the lodge for two nights mid-week, and then basically didn't give it another thought till I started packing the day before.

I booked a lodge room rather than a cabin because it cost a little less, and I liked the idea of eating in the restaurant rather than having to cook. As the time neared, though, I got back on a healthy eating kick and so, after double checking that the room would have a fridge and microwave, I actually packed up food for most of our meals, and sort of wished I'd given us the extra space of a cabin and a better kitchen. Our room was great, though. There was a loft bedroom upstairs with two queen beds, so the kids all slept there. Nathaniel and I had a queen sleeper sofa on the main level.

But first! In case you missed it on instagram, just minutes before we were planning to leave, while Nathaniel was gathering fishing gear and I was prepping some pb&js for a quick lunch, I heard a tremendous crashing, sliding sound which turned out to be a huge limb falling from our backyard tree onto the addition.

It was crazy town. We didn't discover the full extent of the damage till the following week, when we noticed the ceiling in our bedroom was cracked. The contractor climbed into the attic then and found that two of the joists that go to the peak of the roof over our bedroom were completely cracked through by the impact of the limb. They have to re-roof one whole side of the addition, replace siding, repair the fence and replace the broken interior woodwork, then patch and repaint our ceiling. Thank God for homeowners' insurance!

Five hours later than expected, after meeting with the insurance's contractor and waiting for some tree limb removal guys to show, we were on the road for our vacation. One more reason I was glad I'd packed food -we suddenly had significantly less expendable income to blow at a restaurant!

Since we arrived late on Wednesday, we had a quick dinner and then headed out to play some mini-golf. Our timing was perfect. We rented our gear just as they were closing the rental shack, so most of the other golfers wrapped up shortly after and we had the course to ourselves. The kids all golfed different holes and went back to re-golf favorites and just generally ran around the joint like a bunch of crazies. They had a blast!

Nathaniel and the older girls spent as much time catching frogs in this little mossy pond as they did golfing. Once we finished the course, they played there while the younger crew ran around the twisting sidewalks and the bumpy golf greens.

The view from our balcony the next morning was lovely and hazy, and the air was cool.

After a breakfast of zucchini bread I'd baked the day prior, we headed out to climb the observation tower, hike a trail, and play at the largest of a couple playgrounds. 

Rachel insisted on walking up every step of the tower herself. My legs were tired; I can't imagine how her little legs managed it.

Looking out over the Platte River.

Ruth can never resist a good climbing tree. Just like her dad.

Peter spent the majority of the time we were at the park working on this hole.

Nathaniel spun the tiny merry-go-round horses faster than they're used to, I'm sure. He actually ejected Rachel off her horse on an earlier go. Oops.

After lunch back at the lodge, we headed to the water park. The weather was cloudy and cool, but that worked in our favor, as the park was not at all crowded. I'd heard stories of it being packed. I'm sure it helped that it was a Thursday. We drove by on Friday afternoon, when the sun was bright and hot, and it was insane, with cars overflowing the parking and lines for everything.

We only stayed a couple hours in the afternoon, then went back to the lodge for naptime. Once rested, we grilled hot dogs and smores at a picnic site before returning to the water park for another hour.

I mostly hung out near Rachel while Nathaniel conquered the wave pool and water slides with the older kids. Peter was just tall enough to go on the slides. There were no lines at all while we were there, so they just went over and over, till the wave pool buzzer would sound, when they'd come running to get in on that action. They had a blast.

Friday morning, Nathaniel took the older four fishing while Rachel and I got the lodge room tidied and packed so we could check out. Once the work was done, we went on a walk around the grounds. Our room is the one with towels drying on the balcony.

When the fishermen returned, we wrapped up our visit with paddle boats, a picnic lunch and ice cream at the marina.

They CAN get along when they try! Neither pushed the other out of the boat or anything!

My boat full of cuties.

When we got home, the first thing we all wanted to see was the backyard, with the tree limb removed. I had Nathaniel ask the tree guys to leave me some good sized logs so I can set up a natural play area in the backyard similar to one at our Children's Zoo and they obliged.

So ended our mini-vacation. It was a good time, despite the tree drama. I really didn't realize what a fun state park we have only about half an hour away! There are several activities we didn't have time to take advantage of - horseback rides, pottery painting, an evening outdoor theater, and more hiking. There are also two other state parks right around the same area that we hope to check out soon, too. It's good to explore your local attractions!

The bunk bed!

Someone anonymously requested that I document the construction and quality of our IKEA bunk bed, so I'm giving it a full post! Even if that person is not you, I'll try to make it informational and entertaining.

The story of the bunk bed began months ago, when I first considered a bunk for Peter's room. I'd always assumed I'd move Rachel upstairs right away, but Peter didn't like that idea at all. I think it's sweet that he wants to keep her with him longer, and since she goes to bed long before my older late-night readers, it simplifies life to leave her with him.

I found the bed - IKEA's MYDAL bunk bed frame - and quickly decided it was the bed for us. It's so inexpensive, had excellent reviews online, and I now have access to an IKEA by my parents. I planned to leave it the natural wood color till some later date when I felt a strong pull toward a color/stain. I have't really been in a painting mood. If I were, I'd have made plans to paint the living room this summer, but my creative motivation is low.

Over the past few months, I've pulled up the bunk bed page often, always clicking the "check stock at your local store" button, and taking comfort in the consistent high supply status. Woohoo!

A few weeks ago, a design blogger I follow on Instagram shared an image of her boys' room with the same bunk bed! She had it painted red originally, and was changing the color. Red looked very cool, and my wheels started turning. Then she shared her after photo, in which she'd painted it black, and that looked even cooler! Peter's room is light blue, and suddenly I knew - I wanted the bed to be navy. But I wasn't really sure I had the time to paint it, so I hemmed and hawed. Ask my local friends. They must have gotten so, so sick of my "should I? should I not?" ramblings. Over the 4th of July, Pottery Barn Kids had a sale on my all time favorite quilts. I mean, they had a good sale going all week, but then those specific quilts went on a one day flash sale to an even better price, so I scored my dream bedding for the bed! Then I knew I really, REALLY wanted the bed to be navy (because the bunk bed in the PBK picture with the bedding was navy and it's so cute that way), but I still hemmed and hawed because I wasn't sure I wanted to commit so much of my kid-free time to the bed prep.

Fast forward to a week ago. I was headed to my parents' house on Monday, planning to go to IKEA on Monday evening with my dad, so he could help me load things in their truck, then drive home on Tuesday. On the Friday evening prior, I pulled up the bunk bed page and clicked the "check stock at your local store" button, and... yeah. The store showed OUT OF STOCK. I about lost it. It had a note that they'd be back in stock on WEDNESDAY! Wednesday would do me no good.

I'll make the story short (though my friends heard a lot about that in addition to the great paint debate of 2015). Praise the Lord, they got their new supply in by Tuesday. I checked the site Tuesday morning and it showed 19 beds in stock, so I had a lovely, leisurely morning at IKEA and scored the bunk bed I wanted. Then I popped over to the PBK nearby and picked up the bedding they'd ordered for me, which had arrived just that morning (luck was very much on my side that day) and drove home to Nebraska just in time to help Nathaniel with an event he was hosting at work that night. Quite a day!

Even as late as midnight Tuesday night I was still debating whether to paint the bed. Wednesday morning I woke up and knew I was going to do it. I headed to Home Depot for paint and supplies and set everything up in the basement. Originally I planned to do it in the driveway, but the day was rainy, and the basement worked out perfectly. Instead of painting in the hot sun all day, shooing away bugs, I was in my air conditioned basement and able to watch three movies while I painted.

Here begins my photo log of the bed prep. Anonymous, you're welcome.

As I was driving home, seeing the boxes sticking out of the bed of the truck in my rearview mirror, I kept thinking, "Oh man. That's a lot of wood. And none of it is attached to anything yet. Shoot. This is going to be a lot of work." It really was a lot of pieces, and sort of intimidating. I painted everything but the 28 slats that go under the mattresses. The photo above is all the parts that were getting painted, before...

... and after. It took me from about 11am till 5:30pm, at which point I took a break to shower and go out for a wonderful anniversary dinner with Nathaniel to celebrate 15 YEARS of marriage. While we were out we picked up more paint. One quart was just a little too little. Oh well. I prefer that to buying way too much to start with. We have more than enough mostly full gallons of paint in the basement.

When we got home I spent about another 45 minutes finishing the second coat of color on all of the boards, and then left them to dry overnight.

Thursday morning began with tearing down the current beds. Here's Peter and Rachel's room before:

It's the smallest bedroom, so it's hard to get an angle in which you can see most of it at once. It had Peter's toddler bed, and Rachel's crib, both of which came down, as well as assorted books/toys/chairs that stayed.

Taking down the crib. It wasn't really sentimental for me, but it did feel funny. It's been up, either in our room, or the guest room, or this room for nearly seven years now.

It's going into storage for now, along with the toddler bed and two crib-sized mattresses. You never know what the future might hold.

Once those were down and tucked away in the basement, I pulled out the IKEA instructions and the required tools, and brought in the first few boards. Let me point out here that I'd seen the day prior in the instruction booklet that IKEA calls this bed assembly a two person job. I understood that going in, and knew I might run into problems or find it more challenging since I was attempting to do it alone (Nathaniel was at work). I was willing, if it really came to it, to stop until he got home. Or I told myself I was willing to do that... but really, I just wanted to get it done. I was in the zone.

10:45am - I began assembly of the first side of the bunk bed. It's mostly allen wrench work, with a flat head screwdriver to hold some little pieces in place while you line up the bolts. (Clearly this is going to be very technical. Bear with me.)

11:25 - the first side of the bed was done. A couple of the connections felt shaky, or at least not totally solid, and I hoped they would tighten up as it came together.

11:55 - after a ten minute facebook break (lots of 20th reunion fb chatting going on!), I assembled the second side, and it came together much more quickly since I already knew which boards went where and how best to align the second tall board. Instead of 50 minutes, it took 20.

Next up, I had to connect the two long bottom braces to the side pieces. This was the part of the instructions that specifically showed two people working simultaneously, and I'll be honest, that would have been really helpful. Instead, you can see in the photo below, I made stacks of whatever toys were nearby and used them to prop up the ends of the long boards while I attached the other ends to the sides of the bed. It was tricky because you have to leave the bolts loose at this stage, so the whole bed is sort of wobbly and tippy and I kept thinking I was sure to crack some important bit when it would make weird creaky noises.

12:25 - I injured myself for the first (and thankfully only) time. I was trying to push two pieces more tightly together, and tried to bang the board with my hand, but hit a bolt that was sticking out instead of the board. There was a little blood and it's still tender three days later. Stupid bolt.

12:30 - bottom braces are attached, loosely, as directed.

12:45 - top braces are attached. This was much easier than the bottom ones, but a second person still would have been helpful. And it was all still not tightened down which made it wobbly and creaky. I hated this phase.

1:25 - slats are all attached. These go on with white plastic "nails" that you have to hammer in, but you can't hammer them directly. You have to hold a little block of wood (provided) on top and hammer on that. It sounds pretty straightforward, but this was actually the time I most wanted a second person to lend a hand. The first one to be attached on top and bottom was incredibly challenging because the bed was slightly wider than the boards were long, so you had to sort of squeeze the two top braces together (and then the two bottom braces) while nailing in that first board. I wish I had a photo of me trying to do that alone. I stood on a step ladder on one foot, with the other leg hooked over one of the top braces, pulling it toward me while I held the other brace with my elbow, and the slat and block of wood in place with one hand and hammered with the other... it was pretty epic. And super safe. Trust me.

Once the first ones on top and bottom were in, the rest were pretty easy. You can see - on bottom especially - that there were a couple of fairly warped slats. If I were a more patient person I would have called and asked for replacements, but you can't notice them through the mattress and I'm hoping they'll flatten out over time.

1:50 - back and side rails around the top attached, and all those loose bolts tightened down. This step made me so happy, because it was all finally sturdy and less creaky. Note: the bolts would each get very tight and difficult to turn, and then suddenly I'd push past whatever was causing that tightness and they'd screw in and tighten up very easily and neatly.

All but this bolt. This bolt hated me. I could not, for the life of me, turn it past this point. For fear of breaking it or stripping it, I left it like this and made Nathaniel fix it when he got home. He had a rough time of it - and explained to me about the blue thread lock on the bolts and how that caused them to get so tight, but once I'd get beyond it they'd go in easily; aha! - but he was able to get it in with an allen wrench drill bit thing. Again, very technical.

At this point, I took half an hour to eat a late lunch and catch up on my reunion fb-chatting before jumping back into the fray.

2:40 - first time I put a board on upside down and had to unscrew it and do it again. It was very easy to take apart and fix. Phew.

3:00 - DONE! (except for that one tough bolt). At the end it has you go back and tighten ALL the bolts, and the couple of looser connections that I noted way back at the beginning really DID tighten up and end up nice and firm.

I couldn't resist getting the mattresses and bedding on it right away, so I could see the final picture! As you might expect, it's not the easiest bed to make, even if you ignore the part where I had to turn off the ceiling fan for fear of decapitating myself when I was on the ladder. (I think Peter's short enough that this won't be an issue for him; Nathaniel points out that I could have put the ladder on the other side and made it a non-issue, but I have my reasons for setting it up this way so I opted not to change it).

3:45 - beds made and beautiful!

I am thrilled with how it turned out, and so glad I went ahead and spent the day painting it before assembling. I will not lie, it makes the room look tiny, compared to the bitty beds we had in there before. I thought going from two small beds to one large might actually leave it feeling roomier, but no. And I don't love that you now see the foot of the bunk bed when you look through the door, but it's the only wall it fits on without blocking a window. I wouldn't be opposed to blocking the decorative window (the one papered over because it looks onto the back of the wall of the addition), but Nathaniel fears that could result in broken glass if Peter was goofing around on  his bed, so we opted to stick with the one open space large enough for the bed. None of these are complaints about the bed itself, though. It seems great! I was on both bunks while making them, and they feel very sturdy.

Here are a couple photos of the room in it's new arrangement:

The toy tool bench is tucked over near the closet now, and I'm trying to decide whether to move it out of the room entirely, but I don't know where else to put it... other than little questions like that, the room was done on Thursday night after I started the whole project Wednesday morning. Not bad! Total assembly time was only 3.5 hours, and it could have been less with a second builder.

One other note: when you look at the bunk bed info page, it suggests a couple of foam mattresses that fall within the recommended safety guidelines of 5" tall or less. I went to IKEA planning to get one of those options. However, when I got there, I discovered the thinner one ($89 each) was basically a glorified egg crate mattress, with the very bumpy top. I couldn't bring myself to do that. The slightly thicker one would have been relatively comfortable, but was $149 each. Then, I saw the display model of the bunk bed, and they had these spring mattresses on it. The specs say they're over 7" high, which would be against the safety guideline, but they were on sale for $71 each (!) and were so much more comfortable than the foam mattresses. They looked safe enough to me on the floor model, so I purchased them instead. When I assembled the beds, they actually fit just under the little notch in the wood that shows where the mattress shouldn't pass, so hooray! I'm so glad I changed my plan and got these. Time will tell whether they hold up, but for that price I'm not too worried.

So far, I love the bed! I can't wait for Peter and Rachel to get home and see it and try it out! Hopefully Peter doesn't develop a fear of heights (or a fear of ceiling fan blades...)

Derby bound

I interrupt this wedding-palooza to flash some quick photos of today's fun times!

Meg used her birthday money to buy new legos and ROLLER SKATES! They arrived today.

Peter didn't want to be left out, so he pulled out the old over-the-shoe skates. I considered his outfit choice questionable before the red skates. With them, he's pretty much spider man.

Meg can move around pretty well in the skates (not coasting yet, but walking and pushing herself along) and she's learning how to use the brakes quickly. That's key!

Peter wasn't exactly skating like a pro, but he moved quickly, and then started jumping into the air and landing his jumps. Of course he did. Crazy dare devil that he is. Maybe I'll get him a skateboard and a helmet for his 4th birthday and just accept my fate. He will tempt fate, whatever his activity.

They spent most of their time like this. Let's be honest. We talked about the importance of falling onto their bottoms, as the most well-cushioned body part.

All the falling down concerned Rachel. She ran from kid to kid, "helping" them up.

"Slow and steady. I'm making progress," was Meg's description of the morning.

The day was gorgeous. Warm and sunny, but crisp with autumn. We never got around to planning and planting our front flower bed this summer, so late in the season Sherri brought us a bag of zinnia seeds she had on hand. Nathaniel scattered them around the bed, and a few weeks later - kapow!

The whole bed along the left side of the house is what your attention should be drawn to.

They are filled with butterflies! I can see at least two right away in this photo, but I think there was a third somewhere. It's like Where's Waldo, for your home entertainment.

Because every photo series is cuter with a baby in it. Especially one still wearing her jammies at noon.