The Waiting Is The Hardest Part

I find it extremely hard to believe that my boys are back in school already. I can't decide whether the summer has flown by or if because of chemo gone by at a snail's pace. I feel guilty that the boys haven't really had a "fun" summer and basically been watching me go through chemo week, recovery week(s), decent week and then right back to chemo week. It's a vicious circle.

Logan started first grade and a different school. I like how this school system starts in the middle of the week...I think that helps the kids adjust and then it's the weekend without feeling overwhelmed. If you are wondering why you don't see any pictures of Keegan...well, he just flat out refused 'first day of school pictures'. That's ok though, I plan on getting some next week whether he wants to or not. It's my duty as a mother to get pictures! :)

 School started during chemo week (yikes!) and here I am two days into treatments, bloated with fluids...at least I hope that's what it is ;) My MIL has been an angel, especially this week. We knew it was going to be tough with school and chemo. She has been running around like a champ for me. Getting prescriptions, grocery shopping, doing the dishes, sitting with me in chemo, bringing me lunch during chemo, taking the boys to school, and picking them up etc.....all while working. She is the greatest.

 For some reason, I haven't been telling you the results of my latest 2 cat scans...probably because I've been disappointed in the results. To catch you up to speed...I was to have six months of chemo to try to shrink tumors on my lungs and liver with CT scans after every two treatments. I was really excited to get the results of the first scan....I was expecting the tumors to be smaller...you know, "let's get this cancer!!"...but they weren't. In fact one had even gotten larger. The majority of them are stable. The doctor said this was not bad....well, it is when you daydream about tumors shrinking and/or completely disappearing! The second scan yielded much of the same: stable.

Logan at his desk, how cute! I love this age!

 Well, six months is finally here. This past week was my last week. I should be feeling a little more positive, but really I don't. I might have to stay on chemo.....and basically: I don't wanna!! (Insert whiny voice)

I have my third and final CT scan (for a while) in three weeks and it will determine whether I stay with chemo or not. So I have to wait. For three weeks. I'm sure that it will get here pretty quick and I will be complaining about having to drink the barium....but I am certainly not getting my hopes up.

Last weekend, I planted some succulents in my little homemade planter. Do you remember these? Succulents are about the only thing surviving right now with the drought conditions.

 It won't be long and I will be adding more mums and kale to the flower bed

What I think will happen, although it could change, is that I get the CT scans in hand and go back to NIH in Bethesda. Maybe they will start me on the experimental drug now (that is for my kind of cancer) and forgo the chemo for now (please, please, please). But we will see, right?

The waiting is the hardest part...any Tom Petty fans out there?? :)

I am signing off for now, but I want to thank you all for the emails and comments. I read each one and I know I can't always reply....although I do try...thank you!

Logan's Room: Vintage Camp

If your children are anything like mine, they are 'into' everything. Dinosaurs, cars, Thomas, and a whole host of other toys and characters. So picking a theme isn't always easy. You want it to be fun and functional, with plenty of storage, a place they can call their own without going overboard. If I had to call this current look anything, maybe a loose camp feel?

I've been working in Logan's room trying to get things more organized and editing clothes and toys before school starts next month!! Wow! Where did the summer go???

Logan's room has always been vintage based and when he was super young I had picked out 'Lil' Cowpoke' fabric as an accent. Now that he is older, a little more mature look is in order.
This is a dresser my in laws gave me. I was thinking of painting it, I even feel a little silly showing you, but I didn't do anything to it except polish it! Once it got in here, the light pickled look was great and even seemed to be the same shade as the burlap pennant garland...so it made no changes whatsoever. Shocker.

Two vintage lamps that I picked up (new shades from Lowe's), they add a lot of light and height. I did a collage over the dresser consisting of things I've collected over time, all vintage except for the black frames. I put some of Logan's blocks in the old print block tray, old license plate, a watercolor from the flea market, matted and framed. I made his name banner a while back, it use to hang over the window, but I decided to try it over the collage for some layering. Not traditional kid's art, but I love the mix and there is growing room...I'm sure I'll pick up other things along the way.

We moved Logan into a twin bed (from a race car bed), especially after I found a twin head board and foot board. Literal curbside find. I couldn't believe it. The wood was pretty dried out and washed out and I decided to freshen it up with paint. I kept the linens pretty neutral, i.e. no character bedding. Mostly navy and orange. Vintage camp blanket (you've seen that blanket used in tablescapes :) Navy comforter from Walmart, ticking pillow I made a long time ago, striped pillowcase and euro sham from West Elm.

Here is the before of the spindle bed:

And after three cans of black spray paint:

  I ordered this rug from Overstock and I absolutely love it.

It is described on the website as being southwest, but I think it looks like camp/vintage. I really love how it picks up all the colors in the map wall

I found this orange metal chandy at a flea market in Bella Vista, Arkansas a couple of years ago. It's got to be from the 70's....Justin put it up for me a while ago. It looks pretty campy doesn't it? :)

The only thing I'm waiting on is this fabric from fabric.com, as soon as it comes in, I'll be making curtain panels. I would  also like to find a small round side table to use as a nightstand, something wooden.

Other than that, I think we are pretty close to to done!

Joining Emily A. Clark

Logan's Map Wall

 It all started with an atlas that I found at a yard sale for a dollar. I've had it for a while thinking that I would use it in some craft or another, but I have been working on Logan's room (read: cleaning, editing, getting ready for when school starts next month, etc.) and one thing lead to another and the atlas came to mind to do a 'feature' wall. In his room there is a small recessed wall that is just over 7 feet, which is perfect to do a project like this.....an obvious beginning and ending which I think is so important in a feature wall. It recesses about two feet and has the door on one side and the closet door on the other:

 The atlas is circa 1984 so I did not have any of that I'm-about-to-tear-up-a-book guilt

 First things first, I painted the door casing white (I still have to do the baseboards)...trying to do that after the maps, or later would have been a pain.  I used regular wallpaper paste (bought at Walmart for around 5 bucks) and a chipboard brush. I started randomly on the edge and started going out from there...

 I kept going with the random look, making sure to mix large states (two page spreads) and small states (one page spread)

 A few tricks that I learned along the way...because this is not a normal 'wallpaper' application.....1) pasting the back of each paper resulted in a smoother finish (vs. pasting the wall). 2) A dry towel works great to smooth out any wrinkles or bubbles. 3) Don't be afraid to get messy. This is a messy project and when I embraced that, it went a lot faster...

 It took me about 4 hours to do, but I had to take a lot of breaks (chemo was last week)...I primed the door to get it ready for chalkboard paint and let everything dry over night.

 By the next day, the map wall was sheer perfection. I couldn't believe how well it adhered...it turned out better than I thought. I painted the door with three coats of chalkboard paint and let that dry....it dries super quick.

 I did make sure some of my favorite states are prominent....Missouri, North Carolina, Colorado, Oregon, Florida....places we've been and lived or want to visit. I think it would be fun to get pins and mark all the towns we want to travel to....but Logan is only six and I could see that getting a little dangerous! :) Maybe when he is a little older!

 I even covered the light switch plate in map, which was really easy to do.

 I seasoned the chalkboard and wrote a fun quote....Logan will definitely love this, he already loves the one in the kitchen.

 I really love how it turned out and most importantly, Logan loves it. Not too bad for a project under six dollars and a little labor. I've been doing some other projects around his room...a new (to us) dresser, a twin spindle bed that was a curb-side find and a new rug....can't wait to show you!

6 Years Ago....

Yes, six years ago today another bouncing baby boy graced our lives, this time we named him Logan. Very different from the first one (as they always are), made me feel like I had no experience at all.

I eventually figured him out...though he still keeps me on my toes.

Big blue eyes and chubby cheeks

I've always loved this shot, you can't see his halo though. ;)

He is full of energy and quite the talker

high-spirited, and energetic with a little bit of spunk thrown in

He is my sidekick and my helper.

He is growing into a great kid

This shot needs a little backstory....We are at our town Christmas parade, waiting for it to start. I've got my camera (with strap) hanging on my shoulder and Logan is just tall enough....snaps a picture of himself. It's hilarious.
This one is going down in history as one of my favorites! :)

Happy Birthday Logan! I'm so proud to be your Mom!

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Barnyard Days 2011

As you probably know, there are fall festivals nearly every weekend at this time of year. So last weekend the family and I (minus one teenager who refused to go) headed off to Neosho, MO. to enjoy Barnyard days at Circle R Ranch. Click HERE to see our last visit.

Now I am not a barnyard gal by nature (I grew up coastal...clam digging and oyster beds :), but something deep down makes me want to enjoy a little rural aestheticism from time to time.

I love all the variety of pumpkins they have displayed, some are really neat like the knucklehead pumpkin (above).

And of course you can't have barnyards without tractors, an impressive display (of course I had to photograph the orange one :) dating from the primitive times to today.

Logan rode the horse, twice actually, and really enjoyed it




He kept seeing all the kids with their faces painted and decided that he wanted to give it a try too. The women painting faces did a really great job and really quick.

He selected a tiger:





Didn't she do a great job? He loved it. The funny thing was, as we continued walking around, people kept looking and commenting on his tiger face....saying "Hey Tiger!" and Logan turns to me and says "Why does everyone keep calling me tiger?" I about died, I don't think he realized how dramatic he looked! Too cute.




It was a great day, eating brisket, petting animals, haunted houses, and shopping....a great festival if you ever get the chance to go.

Feed your inner farmer! :)

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