An American Girl in Canada: Spring Break

Ah, Spring Break. It is here again. I know that for many people this means nothing. Their jobs continue on as normal. They left things like spring break, summer vacation, and Christmas break behind long ago. In the life of a teacher, those times never die. I guess if I was not married to a teacher they wouldn't really matter much to me right now either. I am on maternity leave and both of my kids are not yet school age, so life would just be going on as normal, but Kevin is a teacher, therefore Spring Break has big meaning for me! This year spring break means a chance to spend a little more time with my honey bunny. Man I love that guy. Even just the thought of having him kicking around the house during the day excites me. It is fun just to have his presence in the house. I am sure we will find time for fun too, and I plan to get extra hugs and kisses out of him.

Spring break this year also means HOME RENOS! I have to be honest, this is the one I am the most excited about. Over Christmas break our goal was simply to finish installing the subfloor in the basement and get the carpet laid. We accomplished that and then...stalled. It has been exactly the same since then, except that we have added a train set and hockey net to the family room! Ha! We have a lot we need to finish doing down there. I am excited that some of it may happen during this break, and we will have more useful space down there! There are some other things that need to be done around the house as well, and I am pretty thrilled that they will hopefully be complete at the end of this two weeks. Really, I have just one week with Kevin, as he is jetting off to Vegas with one of our good friends Monday through Thursday of the second week, so I guess we have a busy week coming up next week.

What do I hope we accomplish? Here is what I am hoping for...I don't know if my hopes are on track with Kevin's! I guess we shall see!

Paint the wall in the dining room that got minimal coverage during the move in. Before we moved into the house we painted THE. ENTIRE. UPSTAIRS. It was NOT a small undertaking, and as I was pregnant at the time-even though I lost that baby-I was not able to help. We had many friends and family that helped out and made the job much easier, but Kevin's dad actually did the bulk of it. Man, we owe that guy! Anyway, during the painting, one of the walls in the dining room seemed to just get one coat and it has been driving me crazy ever since. Every night when I eat dinner, I see that wall and I can see the white from beneath peeking through at me. I have wanted to paint over it ever since we moved in. Strike that...I DID PAINT OVER IT! TODAY DURING THE BOYS' NAPTIME! YAHOO!!!! It is done!
Buy, paint and install the baseboard for the rest of the house. We need it in our entryway, in the family room, the guest bedroom, parts of the kitchen, and the main bathroom. Kev and I have already measured, and he has plans to go and buy it and paint it tomorrow. His dad is going to be helping him (add it on to our HUGE tab that we owe him, good thing we just provided him with another adorable grandson...maybe the scales are starting to even out a bit!) They are hoping to have it completely painted and installed by the end of next week. Kevin's dad may have someone that can help us with this, but I'm not really sure.
Buy plywood and build a cover for the sandbox in the backyard. This is Kev's personal project. It hasn't been bothering me at all, but I think it has been bothering him all winter, as he mentioned yesterday that it is something he wants DONE!
Finish painting at least the bottom doors for our kitchen cabinets. This is a job that I believe will fall to me. My BIGGEST goal is to finish the doors that go over the cabinet below the sink. It has our garbage and cleaning supplies in it, and it is the one that I want covered the most. I have to admit, it has been nice having such easy access to the kitchen cabinets, but I'm getting ready to have more of them finished off. I also really want to put in a backsplash, and have been researching them. I think that I found one at home depot that I really like, is super easy to install, and is quite cheap. I think it will really add to the look of the kitchen. We will see how much I actually get accomplished!
Move some of the furniture into the family room. We have some hand me down furniture-couch, loveseat-that we are moving in and bought slipcovers for. I am excited to get them in the room and set up, to make it more functional for us as a family. I also want to move in a big bookshelf that my parents bought us for Christmas the first year we were married. Getting that into the room will allow me to unpack some more of the boxes in the basement and free up more space for us in the unfinished area! I know that Kevin and Rusty think that having a hockey net in the family room is the ideal situation, but I'm going to suggest moving that out into the unfinished part of the basement once it is cleared out a bit. It doesn't really go with the decor I have in mind!
Hang some pictures. We had beautiful family pictures done by my friend Lindsay Dianne of Running Scared photography the month after Rocky was born. I just got many of the printed off and I plan to frame them and hang them on the dining room wall that I painted. It is going to look amazing. I got the prints back today and I can't believe how stunning they are! I love them!

It's a pretty big list, but I think we can accomplish it! It helps that I have it written down. I will leave you with the cuteness that is my boys. Rusty stayed home from school today. They have a rampant stomach flu going through the school and we decided we would like to keep him healthy! Nana and Papa agreed to take him and play with him for the morning, so we had a lazy morning here before I walked him over to their house. I love having them so close to us! It was a great walk! Rusty was so fun, and listened so well. He was showing off his number skills as we walked. Every light pole had a number on it, and he stopped at most of them and read off the numbers to me, told me stories, skipped, ran, and just had a great time. He also had a great time with Nana and Papa, heading to the park, playing hockey and helping Papa plant some of his garden! Ah, Spring is starting to arrive!