JacKeR...

which is what we call our boys when they take something from us. It could be the masking tape or a book or a cup, but most especially, it is the cell phone. And both boys crack up when they do "jack" the (fill in the blank). They giggle and run and look back to see if we are chasing them. So, here is just one occasion that I was able to get on tape. Let me give you the details then you can watch the video and check out the cool pictures.

We have this spare room in our house that is sitting vacant, except to be a guest bedroom, which is fine when we have guests, but the other 90% of the time it sits empty. So, I came up with this great idea to make one of the rooms the boy's bedroom, and the other room their playroom. We even gave the bed that was in that room to my brother Matt so that there would be some use out of it. It was a great bed, just not big enough for Chad, me, Benjamin, Matthew and three cats. (On a side note, the boys are sleeping a lot more in their own beds, or at least they start out in their beds and then come into our bed. But, they are starting out in their beds, even to the point of falling asleep in them, and that is a great accomplishment for the Pope household.) So back to the story. The bed vacated the premises, and the room sat empty. Chad promised we would do the switch-over during his Christmas break and guess what, I held him to it. On the Monday after Christmas, we cleaned the room out. And not just that, we found places for everything, either downstairs, my closet, the DI, or the garbage. Then we began the taping. Chad wanted everything taped so that all we had to do was paint. And it would have been done a lot sooner if Matthew would not have intervened. Just watch the video.

Cute, huh. Then we actually got the paint, and it was Disney's Tiggers Tummy, and with the help of Benjamin. We got a coat on while Matthew was sleeping. But we should have bought more than a gallon, because when it dried, we decided it needed one more coat. So another trip to the store, another nap by Matthew, an hour on the computer for Benjamin, and we had what I would call a very nice room by Thursday night. I am truly impressed with us. (And we didn't wait for Pam and Matt to ride their bikes across the country in 2010 to help us!!!) We moved their beds and the dresser in. We also brought up a rocking chair that my mother used when I was a baby. And that is it. Their clothes are still in their other closet because we haven't figured out what to do with mom's clothes yet, and mom, it is not a crisis. They can stay there until you get back, no worries, I promise.

You can see a toddler bed in this picture. And it is there, but what you don't see is the crib that is right at the end of it crammed between the toddler bed and the dresser. Matthew will stay in the crib. The toddler bed...not so much. So, we will just have both in the room until he is able to stay in the bed all by himself.

Then we tackled the playroom. We got some organizers, and in the end it turned out pretty good as well. Just check out some of the pictures.

I know it doesn't look like much, but we did do a lot of organizing, and boy does it feel good not to just have piles of things everywhere. I like that there is a place for almost everything.