Freecycle Score - Boys Loft Bed!

Jarod has been BEGGING for a bunk bed since April, when we moved in. He tried to talk me into just buying him one pretty much all. the. time. "Common mom, how hard would it be to just pay for one?" (If you know me...really hard. lol)

But I knew there was the perfect bed out there for my boys. One that wouldn't cost me hundreds of dollars or make me give in to consumerism. We kept getting our hopes up and then dashed though, which just drove Jarod nuts.

* I saw an ad in the paper for a yard sale that mentioned a bunk bed. But when we got there is was a DOG bunk bed. (What? Why?) Jarod said he thought he could curl up inside just fine.

* There was an ad in the paper for a bunk bed but when I called it was 2 hours away. Jarod was up for the drive of course but I had to explain how with the gas it wouldn't be saving us any money. He said we could walk.

* There was a free bunk bed on craigslist but when I emailed it was already taken. Jarod asked me why didn't I type faster?

FINALLY, today a loftbed was listed on Freecycle. I wasn't sure what it was exactly but figured it would do. Problem was we had to pick it up....and we have a car. The man was kind enough to take it apart for us and Jason took out our back seat so we could push the pieces all the way from the trunk to the front seats. (I didn't know you could do that but now if I'm ever locked in a trunk I know how to get out! hah) I still didn't think we could fit a whole bunk bed in our trunk but we did! It' a really nice and made of solid wood!

We got it home and Jarod was so excited! He kept saying he must be dreaming and rushed us along as we tried to put it together. Of course we put it together wrong the first time, had to take it apart and redo it but one sliced up arm later (mine, ouch) and a few trips to the hardware store...and it was done! Jarod climbed up there and I haven't seen him since. lol

We put Alex's toddler bed (also from freecycle), chair (gift), and dresser (borrowing) underneath and he is now calling it his "cave".

I asked Jarod if it was worth the wait.

"Well. Maybe. But I could have fit in that dog bed."

Beaches: The only place children actually entertain themselves.

I think we've found something to make Fridays better. (Waking the kids up 2 hours early to drag them to therapies all morning is not their idea of fun.)

So, there are tons of lakes here you know. (The state's nickname, The Land of 10000 Lakes, is no exaggeration.) And since it finally warmed up a bit, in the 70s now...wee, we have been trying to find "our" lake. With so many to choose from we knew there was one out there that would be just perfect for us. We found one 9 minutes away but it was dirty water, the in-laws have one but it's 35 minutes away and down a windy road so Alex and I got car sick, you get the idea. There was always something wrong with each one... until today!

We got home from therapies at 11am and the kids were GRUMPY. (I might have been a little bit too....) So Jason threw us all in the car with a picnic lunch and said we were heading to a beach he had seen recently!

It's only 15 minutes away and...it's PERFECT! We loved it to death and stayed all afternoon! We'll definitely be going there a few times a week from now on.The best thing here is that since there are so many lakes, they are never overcrowded! Most of the time we are the only ones there!

The beach was amazing, so sandy!

And the water was crystal clear!

And the water was not deep for a long time, I loved this as the kids had tons of room to play and I didn't have to worry about them getting in over their heads.

Jarod way out there, and the water is only up to his neck. lol

The sand was perfect for creating! (Jarod never left the water. lol)

I was stretched out on a blanket, reading a novel, while everyone else played; a great book, (best I've read in a while) fresh air, the kids entertained, and the sun shining down on me - bliss.

They had picnic tables!

And a playground!

And trails!

And a freaky bird dock... no seriously....a dock that the birds took over. I don't think it was built just for them...they just commandeered it, and now guard it. And hold secret meetings.

So, I saw all the birds just sitting on the dock, staring out at the lake. Contemplating world domination is my guess. Anyways, I decided to attempt to walk out on the dock to get a photo. It was so insane! As soon as I put one foot on the dock they all slowly turned around and stared at ME! I kept slowly walking down the ramp and they just stared me down.... I got really nervous. (If my sister had been with me she would have died. She is terrified of birds.) I got really close and then half of them started to dive bomb my head but didn't touch me and finally flew away. The others stayed until I got all the way to the end and they left too, except for one. Who stayed the whole time, glaring at me. And omg, the dock was so gross! Piles of bird poop and fish heads! Maybe the one bird stayed there to protect the half eaten fish I saw all over, I think I interrupted their meal. At least they didn't make me their meal. *shudders*

I did get an awesome photo though! The sky here is always so beautiful.(Click to enlarge.)

When I got back the kids pulled me into the water and I stayed for an hour and had so much fun! I took each kid out to "the deep deep", and did laps, and threw them in the water, and played "find the best rock with your feet" game, and dove, and laughed, and got water up my nose, and almost took Jarod's dare to jump off the end of the dock...but the birds scared me too much.

A perfect afternoon, and it was free entertainment!

Oh, this occurred to me today as I was snapping photos. I took over 200 photos today. Aren't digital cameras great? Remember when we had to use film? I sure do. When we had Rebecca I wanted to take tons of photos of her but of course the meant buying film AND paying to develop them. It was $5 for a 24 roll of film and $5 to process them, money I never had so I limited myself to at most...once a month. 24 photos a month! And they weren't always good one of course. lol Of course the downside to digital is I never get prints anymore so my photo albums stop in 2003, the year I got our first digital camera. I have them all on disks so I guess when my kids leave home they will get a box of photos on CDs instead of a box of photo albums. And perhaps a digital photo frame. :-)

Freecycle love!

A woman on Freecycle said she had an antique dresser and I was lucky enough to be the one that got to bring it home!

Jason and I got lost took a nice drive in the country on the way but finally found her house and as soon as I saw the dresser I fell in love with it! It's beautiful!

AND....I was able to carry it allllll the way down her driveway without stopping to rest my arms once! Normally when I'm helping to carry an item I take a few steps, stop, take a few steps, stop....but not this time! Thanks P90X! (And it was HEAVY!)

I've got it in our living room right now and plan on filling it with our photo albums that I've been slowly unpacking.

She said it was over 100 years old, you can't tell but it has really old looking keyholes on each drawer - adorable! I'm not sure yet if I will refinish it or leave it as it is, it's could be beautiful both ways. What do you think?

Don't bother us nohow

The rain that is. Anyone who has lived a year in N. Ireland should not be bothered by rainy days.

 Can't go outside? Your lawn chairs are all wet and sad? No worries.

We'll hang out on our lovely couch, which makes the couch so happy and loved and feel a little less ugly.

And we'll make rainy day crafts.

And redo Rebecca's curtains. What's that? No...I'm not obsessed with her curtain situation. Ok, maybe just a little. But the good news is I finally figured out what we are going to do with them. But they won't be done for awhile so you'll have to wait a little longer. So I moved her current curtains over to her closet door way and it looked cute, except that the curtain rod was ugly so then we cut up a bunch of black freecycled fabric and made wee bows to cover it and all was well in curtain world.

And make movies with the boys. FBI movies, with hammers... made out of soft toys. 




Then it was time for swimming lessons! (Yes, I just switched tenses in the middle of this post....it's my blog so I can do what I want. So there.) FREE swimming lessons! Because life in tiny town includes lots of free events. Why? I've thought about it a lot and my conclusion is because they are trying to trick you into forgetting about the horrible winter you just went though "Oh sure there was 10 feet of snow and your cat's ears froze off but now it's summer and look at all the free events!" like a toddler and a piece of candy "Ohh see the yummy candy, now stop your crying."

Anyways, the Lion's Club offers the lessons for the local children at the local hotel pool,which is just a few blocks away so we can walk. Yes we walk in the rain....what do you think you do in Ireland when it rains everyday and you don't have a car. While we were there we walked in the rain all the time and it didn't kill us. Alex wasn't old enough to take the lessons but the really sweet instructors said he could play in the toddler pool why the older kids had their lessons! The frog kinda freaked me out but Alex didn't mind sliding down his slimy tongue. They have lessons every day for 2 weeks!

When we got back Jason was home and it was leave mommy alone play with daddy time.

Then is was mommy isn't cooking supper our once a month eat out time! (I made our E-mealz for the day for lunch instead of dinner today, it was yummy!) And this month it was free because our library gave us free meal coupons in our summer reading packs.  What's that? Your library never gives you free meals? That's probably because you don't have to put up with negative 45 degree weather and insane teenagers whizzing over your head on snowmobiles.

Fun!

Now I think I've got just enough time to sneak in a nap before bedtime mop the floors.