wow, what a whirlwind!!

So I left off on Tuesday in Louisiana......I spent the last two days just hanging out with Courtney and her gang. Tuesday we went to her parents house and swam, that was very nice. Then Tuesday night Matt had a ball game and Sariah and Cody stayed with me at the house. Did I mention it was HOT down there!! Wed. we did stuff around the house, got laundry done and such. I had to go to Wal-mart and get an extra suitcase because of my great shopping deals!!! Hmmmmm maybe not so great, if I have to pay for an extra suitcase.....although we don't have enough suitcases for the family, we have one set of luggage that Brent got as a graduation gift, and it's going strong and then Amanda came with one suitcase and that was it.....so an extra suitcase will come in handy.

Thursday we packed up and headed out. It was a beautiful day and Courtney and I fought tears all the way to New Orleans.....we were very sad to be leaving each other. It had been an amazing week.

So I got into Milwaukee sometime after 9 or so, to massive storm/tornado warnings, they had shut down most of the east side of WI due to the this storm, but brave Janet came and picked me up anyway!!! Brent had a church function he was in charge of that night (which got canceled, but too late to have him pick me up). At points we drove 35 mph on the freeway, the rain/wind was soooo bad, and Janet is NOT a timid driver!! So we were very grateful to get home, where the storm had tapered off. We got in around midnight, and Janet still had to drive home, 30 mins away.

So Friday morning I spent recovering from my late night and orientating to Mom hood again. Around 12pm on Friday, Courtney calls and asks if she can come visit, of course I say, she's says how about tomorrow? Are you SERIOUS!!!!?????? So yes indeed, Courtney drove up from LA in 17 hrs on Sat. to be at our house at midnight!!

She just couldn't be parted from me......or the kids wanted to visit the farm again, really bad, or......oh yeah....her Mom talked her into driving cross-country with her to OR and they were hitting WI first. (yes it's a little bit out of the way, however there's a child or two with grandkids that lives here, so Courtney's Mom was going to start her westward trek here.) In order to spend anytime with me, Courtney had to leave Sat., so she did. That was June 14th, I believe, she returned home, tonight July 18th....can you imagine packing for a month long car trip across the US with three kids ages, 9, 6, and 2 in under 24 hrs, from the idea to leaving!!!???? Holy COW!! I don't think even I'm that crazy!!!! (on another side note, Courtney has now been all the way across the US both sideways and up and down in two months. In May she drove to FL to go to Disney with her in-laws, then she drove N to WI, then W to OR, and now S back to LA. We won't mention DC, as it doesn't count, she flew there after all and it was such a long time ago, after all......)

So she was here from Sunday to Wed. and then left Thursday morning. While she was here, we went to church, celebrated Lee's b-day at Bay Beach (and no we did NOT shut down the park, as we did last year!!), spent a day at the cabin working and playing and Tuesday night we went shopping for a new set of bedsheets for the king size bed that Brent got for Father's Day. Have you ever read "If you give a Mouse a Muffin"? If not, go read it, then finish this, you see the resemblances real quick.

So most of you have probably noticed the horrible pink and silver walls that surround our room, if not, here's a reminder.....

Before you get all excited I DO NOT have after pictures yet.....I do however have six beautiful and lovely children who are all healthy and alive.....well alive, and beautiful (more on health later)......well some of them are just down right cute!! Shhhhhh......don't tell Lee and Jayden I said that, they hate it......Max however eats it up and tells us that other things are as cute as he is.....honest......

Anyway, my point is..... no, I have not taken after pictures of our gorgeous new room......

So anyway, Tuesday night finds Courtney and I in Kohls,(after dropping off my dead washing machine) at our absolute favorite store, did I mention $3 kaki jean capris, $3 jeans, and $8 jeans for an additional 30% off???? Yeah I know Courtney is the undisputed SHOPPING QUEEN, she's also MY personal shopper and I forbid you trying to lure her away.....

Now where was I........oh yeah, in the bedding department of Kohls. Now try to imagine matching a new bedset to that room.......I know it boggles the mind...... So Courtney all of sudden says and I quote, (cause here's where the trouble began.....) "well Carrie, do you have to stay with that color scheme? Can't we just paint the walls?" You notice that subtle word "just" in there.....yeah, she's a sneaky one alright.

So then the fun began, well what color did I like, what did Brent like.....what appealed to me, what was a price I was willing to pay, cause man if price was no object I'd have come home with the $500 vera wong set!!! I was absolutely devastated.....Kohls FAILED me....I had to slink down to Yonkers on the sly, so Kohls didn't know I was cheating on him.

There we fell into so many good deals and so, so many options that I had to narrow it down to three and then choose based on weight, as I like a heavier comforter......now are you ready for the kill? Close your eyes if you don't like gore...(disclaimer, it's been a month and the prices may vary, but they're close to the actual)..We got the complete KING size, down alternative, comforter, two shams, and the bed skirt for $35, originally over $100, then clearanced to $80 and then additionally something percent off.....yeah, that's Courtney's whole deal, but it was truly an awesome kill. Then we got 400 count sheets for $30 AND a fuzzy, wuzzy blanket for $60. Yes, you read that right, my blanket was more than my sheets or comforter set!! The other sets were similar in pricing and discounting, I just can't remember the exact numbers....so much for the gorey kill....

Then we headed out to Home Depot. It is now after 8pm and HD closes at 9pm.....yeah no pressure. I've also been taking heavy medications, like about three of them to stay on my feet for a couple of days at this point, as I've come down with a horrendous head cold virus...... So now we've been shopping for several hours and the meds are wearing off. I let Courtney do most of the work, I'm ashamed to say....she had me pick the colors, using a really cool scanning machine and from there she tracked down tools, buckets of paint and anything else we needed. I did buy three bottles of water and give her one, which she daintily drank from while I chugged both in a matter of minutes....

We left HD triumphant, oh, and by the way, we decided we should SURPRISE Brent with a new room make-over, kind of a "while you were out", in half the time!!!

So we headed over to a Culver's where Courtney was rewarded for her hard work on my behalf with her all time favorite custard flavor, Turtle!! They don't have much custard or ice cream in LA, it's more snow cones/snow balls. Which by the way are DELICIOUS and if you can think of a flavor they have it and then some!!

So we got home around 12am, hmmm that seems to be a theme with us..... I told Brent we had been successful and he was going to love it all! He grunted and went back to sleep.....poor man, what I put him through....

So bright and early (well, it was bright, maybe not so early, due to the late night) we waded into the room. We told the older kids to mind the younger kids......ha...ha....ha.....and headed in....

Of course Brent kept calling that day......because the bed was supposed to be delivered, which it was, and no we hadn't set it up yet, we were working on something else, thank you very much....

I almost gave it away at least once if not twice that day..... At the end of the day, the older kids had fended for the little kids quite well, Mom had made dinner AND taken the older kids into youth group AND we did indeed surprise Brent with a brand new bedroom!!!

I have to take a moment and tell Courtney publically, well as public as this blog is, how much we appreciate our gorgeous, soothing room, with our luxurious sheets. Truly, without you girl, it wouldn't have happened. We'd still be sleeping in pink cotton candy, wrapped in silver tissue. Thank you very much.

On a side note, Max mourned the loss of the pink room....and insists that he wants a pink room of his own.....

It took me several weeks to catch up from being gone one week, WHY does it work that way, oh yeah and having a surprise visitor complete with a room makeover in there.

In the meantime while Courtney was visiting we plunged into a very odd virus that is being passed around multiple times. We are headed to the doctor Monday to see what she has to say. I have previously talked to two doctors already and they felt there wasn't much to worry about, but after four weeks of this, I'd like to know what's going on!!!

There has of course been myriad other things going on in between all that and as always my Mom's blog is the best source of those things......see the side bar for her link!!