The post you have all been anxiously awaiting...

That's right folks- Keegan's room is finally done(for the most part) and the pictures are finally here. Andi didn't feel like posting, she said something about being too tired to move, so the duty has fallen to me. Lucky you. First of all let me start by saying that we couldn't find any before pictures so for those of you that don't know what it looked like I'm gonna describe it a bit for you. It started off as a sun porch. It was nice and when we moved in we thought it would get lots of use. But, it didn't have any heat or ac run to it so basically it got turned into a 15x10 storage room that before we started only had a path from the kitchen door to the exit door and the rest filled with crap. When we decided to build Keegan's room I didn't want him to have an outside exit door in his room so we needed to build a wall. So with the wall built we threw in a closet. A walk in closet. Biggest in the house. Awesome. And we got a mud room. Awesome. Then we had to frame in and lower the ceiling so that we could insulate because it used to be a porch and there was no insulation. After that we had to pull out all the old windows and install a new window, run electric and heat and ac, throw up some drywall, paint, trim, etc. and BOOM! New room. Keegan loves it. So does Sophie because now she has her own room with butterflies on the wall. Pink butterflies. So without further ado, the pictures:

As you see all the colors, keep in mind this is the bedding Keegan will have - once it arrives back from being altered down to a toddler bed size. There will also be a valance made for his curtains so they won't look so plain out of the same material.




This is the wall we built to make the mudroom and closet. If you have any questions leave a comment and I'll try to answer it. Last of all- Enjoy.

Below it the storage bench we built in by the back door.Opposite side of the mud room, where we will just have a storage shelf.





This is the inside of a storage bench that was built by the back door. A handy place for Jacob to take off his muddy boots when he comes in from hunting.



This is the chest that Pappaw made and I'm sure he never imagined it painted this color, but he would love for Keegan to have it.

Andi took the pillow sham to a print shop and had it copied and enlarged, then she mounted them on painted wood panels, and fixed them to the wall with painted roofing nails. There are four panels of those in the room.

Above is the closet, which has 2 rows for clothes and about 8 shelves up the opposite side - in effect practically doubling the closet space we had in the entire house.

Below is a cabinet that Andi's mom used for Andi when she was a baby. Now it's being used for Keegan. Below is Keegan's storage shelf for his toys. Up on the wall, you can see a bit of the fox picture.

Lastly, these are some planes that Pappaw had given to Keegan.

And so it begins...

Keegan's room is officially underway. We have been trying to explain to the kids that soon they will have separate bedrooms but I don't think they understand. For now Keegan is just excited that the room we keep calling "your new room" is full of power tools and hammers: a little boy's dream come true. Sophie can't figure out where HER new room is, because HER room is supposed to be PINK and PURPLE. She keeps looking out for a pink and purple room, but I hate to tell you, it's not gonna happen.

The room is framed and tonight we are going to start on the ceiling and perhaps the duct work. Hopefully this will all go quickly because number one: I hate having unfinished projects and two: I am super excited. Mostly number two, not in the poopy sense.

Other things going on...

We finally went to the new Menard's. Big mistake. I can literally feel Jacob pulsing with excitement over all the new projects that have suddenly popped up for next summer. Lord help us.

Walking: I've been doing it. Ugh. I'm going to join my mom and some others in the half marathon in October. In a rare moment of foresight I actually decided to train for it, since getting up one morning and walking thirteen miles seems a bit unrealistic. I've been doing four miles now, next week five. This has taken up more time than I expected. I'm not what I thought it would be like, but walking over an hour several times a week adds up, not to mention makes my calves sore.

Bible Study: Jacob and I are starting the First Place for Health study that Momma is doing. She's lost over 30 pounds! I don't need to lose that much but some weight loss wouldn't be a bad thing for Jacob or I, so away we go.

Kids: The kids are hilarious. Keegan is talking more and more, surprising us sometimes with what he has to say. Today he told me "I drop it". Indeed you did Keegan, you dropped it. I taught Sophie to say "that's how I roll". I'm just waiting for that to backfire on me. "Sophia Grace! Why did you hit Keegan?" "Cause that's how I roll, Mom." At that point I will probably pee my pants.

And that's that. I've been taking pictures of the room as it progresses, but I have sworn off my digital camera so you'll have to wait for film to develop. (It was between my camera or my sanity, so the camera had to go.)

Hang on to your hats... this is gonna get lengthy.

I've got so much go catch up on here that I seriously had a list entitled: Blog this stuff. Then Sophie destroyed it. Now I'm just winging it. So we'll start with Monday and work through the week. Like a top twenty countdown. In fact, we'll just do it like that.

20. Monday. Jacob left for school Sunday night. We knew there was a big storm predicted so I had already packed up the kids clothes and such and went to Momma's house. No one wants to be snowed in with two toddlers and no help. At least I don't, anyway. I left derby practice early that night when we heard it start sleet. It didn't take long for the roads to ice over. Boo.

19. Lot's of ice here, kids. No school. Then the snow started.

18. Now my memory gets fuzzy... we lost power somewhere in this time, and phone. The power was out at home longer than at moms. I am really a homebody by nature, and though I had a great time with Mom and was thankful for the light and heat, I was ready to go home. I finally went home on...

17. Wednesday night. Sophie had played in the snow and all was well, and then when she was walking up the stairs she tripped and hurt her foot. She really hurt it. Like wouldn't walk on it, no pressure on it, nothing. She at first would just collapse when you put her down, then eventually she resorted to this pitiful side hobble. When she woke up from her nap and was still hurting I took her to the...

16 Emergency Room. X-Rays showed she hadn't broken anything, and really I was surprised. But, I'm glad I took her anyway. I would've felt bad if I had waited and it was broken. Anyway, back at home...

15 Um... Jacob just told me that it was Thursday night when she went to the er. My bad. My days are a bit mixed up.

14. Home... No water. It seems that the power outages have affected the city water pumps and when the water tower pressure ran out, so did the water. Which apparently is the perfect time for the kids to have a...

13. Poop-a-thon. Seriously. First Keegan threw a basketball into the toilet, that had not been flushed yet, and now there was grossness all over the ball. Then Sophie decided to try to go poopy in the potty, but she had already gone in her diaper, so there was poop on her potty chair, the adult potty and the smaller potty chair that goes on the adult potty. Not to mention her hands, legs and clothes. No water to help clean. Nice.

12. Poison Control. Keegan got into my humidifier and ate some of the Vapo Steam that goes into it. Lot's of milk later he is good to go and I am really ready for Jacob to come home.

11. Friday was Mom's shoulder surgery. She is currently in massive amounts of pain. Please pray for her.

10. Jacob was supposed to be home around 7:30 on Friday. We figured that with time for slow going due to snow. What we didn't count on was the massive car accident that held up traffic on the highway for hours so he didn't get home until 9:30, just in time to tuck the kids in.

9. Jacob has to leave tomorrow. Boo. Sophie really had a hard time with him gone his week. I honestly didn't expect her to care much, but she was really upset that he was gone. The first thing she asked him on the phone Monday night was if he was going to come home now because she missed him. It made both Jacob and I cry.

8. Since she missed him so much she is going to go with me on Thursday night to see him. There is a banquet for the officers and his graduation is Friday and she'll go with me. She was going to stay with a sitter, but now just K-man will. I think she will manage the long car ride, the long ceremony and the dinner. I hope so anyway.

7. Jacob hopefully will start his job in the schools on the 11th. Day shift, here we come. He really thinks he will like it a lot, he is enjoying the training even though there is a LOT of work that goes with it. I think he will be a wonderful DARE officer and am excited to see him start.

6. You'll have to forgive me for the lack of comments on your blogs lately. I've not even begun to catch up, I've just been busy.

5. But not busy with work. With school being out for so long I am seriously not sure how my semester is going to go, I've already missed several meetings with several schools. Add that to a second job I'll start soon and you've got an interesting spring lined up. When I say interesting here you can read busy. Ugh.

1. Notice I skipped a few numbers. I'm totally ok with that.