Moving Forward and so proud...

So, things are looking up in the health department. I have my days but they are NOTHING like what they used to be. Every morning I find my arms, hands, fingers less stiff. In fact, I think the only stiffness I have now is in my middle knuckles in my fingers and I am able to make that go away by running warm water on my hands and usually within an hour from waking. Not too bad.

I am worried I might have over did it today, but what a great day it was.

In our effort to move on, I've decided the girls need some bonding time and a space to call their own. Before my mom moved in, the boy had his own room, the oldest and CDQ shared a room and Poufy and SS shared a room. When my mom moved in, I moved the boy in with Poufy and SS because I knew he would be safe in there. Little did I know I should have moved all but CDQ into that room since CDQ had a plan to strangle the oldest in her sleep!

After CDQ moved out I moved SS in with the oldest so that they could bond as the older sisters, but then that left Poufy with her bratty brother. So then I got this brilliant idea that I should just move all the girls in together and set it up all girly with their input. This is a pretty big room, vaulted ceilings, walk in closet, not sure that I am going to let them use the closet though...too much temptation. Anyhow, they've picked a color and we started in earnest researching colors and beds, bedding, etc...

I bought another steam cleaner and we set to work scrubbing up reluctant pee stains on the carpet and filling in all the dry wall damage with spackling. It was interesting to talk about the damage and the things they had done in their RAD rages as we worked. They were a little sad and embarrassed and couldn't believe they actually did those things. They still don't know why. But I tried to focus as much as I could on how well they are doing now and how they will never go back there again and how great their room is going to be and how they are going to keep it all purrteee. Yes, even the boy was helping on this and they will help when we redo his room.

This is about 1/4th of the room, the part you don't see is where their petal cottage is in the middle with toys and their bunk beds are at the end of the room. 

Here are the cute paw prints with some patching. 

This particular room was hand-painted in the Blue's Clues design when we bought this house. I was a little uneasy painting over the little paws and stuff because I felt bad since someone had taken the time to painstakingly paint them across the entire room but it didn't last very long.







Then I started wondering why in the world they would paint so much, the trim is SO dark and so are the two doors they painted purplish pink.

Yep, they even painted the doors. 

The kids were pretty quick workers and had the first coat on in no time. Of course, right now they are all gung ho about it because they've never painted before.

 

Lots of primer...lots of primer. Since I only had two rollers, the oldest and SS helped today. I showed SS how to remove baseboards and the oldest how to tape down painter's plastic.


Tomorrow, I will buy a couple of more rollers and we will officially get this party started. lol!

I'll update our progress and we will see how much the girl's will be willing to help when the tables are turned and we start to work on the boys room.


But until then, I can't leave without documenting this spectacular moment between SS and myself. You see, after they applied the first coat they came outside with everyone else to watch the fireworks and afterwards, I came in to see their great job and saw that the naps were still on and hadn't dried. I had told SS she needed to wash them but before I could explain how Poufy and the boy were bombarding me with questions about where they were going to sleep, etc...

So picture this:

SS: *carrying the nap and it dripping the whole way from the bathroom to her bedroom and then holding it over the painters plastic and turning it so all the water that collected inside the nap could pour out*

Me: SS!! It's leaking everywhere. Don't just stand there with it!

SS: * looks me in the face* "SHIT! "

Me: Um, what did you say?

SS: Nothing, nothing, nothing. *tucking her face close to her chest and giggling and turning red.*

Me: Really? Because it was sure crystal clear to me you said "shit", I mean you looked right at me. *Me giggling while I say it*

SS: *still giggling*

Me: "Hey I got one, if you say that word again I will beat the shit out of you."  *More giggling and then she dashes back to the bathroom with the roller*

Don't worry, it was a joke. May be inappropriate but she is 12 and MY mom probably WOULD have beat me if I ever said anything like that back in the day.  I don't beat/spank/hit my kids, there was no real threat to it at all. They know that and I would NEVER do it if I knew that they didn't know that or would take me seriously. The rest of my kids were rolling on the floor. The reality is they have been cussing since they were toddlers, they've actually been cussing longer than I have! It doesn't excuse it, but I want them to at least control it, you know?

But, really the look on her face when she realized who she *clearly* said it to was like "oh, double shit!" Priceless- wish I would have had the camera then.

I could tell you what happened earlier too. I asked SS if she could bring me something and as she got up from the floor, she farted... which sent the oldest into hysterics--something about a tension fart, I'm not really sure... So later when it was just SS and I in the room, she told me that the oldest had told her the color they had picked for the room was relaxing. I told her if she relaxed anymore she would probably crap her pants. hehehe...

It's one of the perks of being a parent and getting to joke with your kids as they get older. Or even joke with your RAD kids at all. I remember when they perceived everything as picking on them. I am so grateful that has passed. We laugh more now and that is what is important.