All In A Days Work

Rene was home today...not enough work right now. And so were the girls...freak April ice storm. I've been wanting to purchase a new temple dress for a while now so I took the opportunity of shopping without children and ran out the door. I'm pretty sure Rene heard where I was going but I wasn't doubling back to make sure.

The ice storm didn't make an ideal day for shopping. Twice I had armfuls of clothing to try on when the power cut out in the store and we all had to be escorted out. It wasn't "all" temple stuff. It's not very often I get the opportunity of trying on clothes without a child taking advantage of a half dressed mother to make a breakaway under the door or to try out the amazing acoustics change rooms seem to have or playing hide-and-go-seek in racks of clothing or...I wonder why I never go shopping? Having children has probably been great on the budget in terms of non-essential items. In the end I managed to get a really cute temple worthy skirt/shirt ensemble as well as few other items I'll have to bring out casually over the next few months so I can say "what this? I've had this for ages...have you not seen it before?" when Rene asks if it's something new.

Speaking of Rene...we've elected to use our tax return this year to have laser surgery on his eyes. Usually we take a look at all the projects we want to do around the house and pick a major one to dump our return into but we're taking a break this year. To say Rene seems lost lately would be an understatement. He wanders aimlessly around the house without purpose or direction. However, I have found a way to use this to my advantage. I've found that I can casually make a comment like "wouldn't it be nice if the diningroom chairs didn't fall apart when we sat on them and, oh, I don't know, were painted black?".  Boom, fixed and painted without any comment on or accusation of adding to his honey-do list.

So, as I left to shop I casually mentioned how tired I was of the pink carpet on the stair and wasn't it funny that when we looked at the house that was going to be the first thing to go. When I got home 2 hours later, this is what I found:

They need some work but what an improvement.

LOVE the original wood flooring on the landings.

Good riddance pink carpet.

They creak like crazy now and the girls sound like a herd of elephants coming down the stairs but they look so much better without the carpet despite needing to be refinished. And now Rene has a project to keep him going on those long days off. Win-win situation.