8/19/11 Back To School Fool

OK, why did I think things might slow down a little when we got back from vacation?!...FOOL!  And BTW, anyone who thinks that vacations with the families are totally relaxing for a Mom has a maid, a personal shopper, a nanny, a personal assistant, and most importantly, a wife.

After the vacation unpack, the back-to-school rush hit us head on.  Both boys had major projects/tests due the week after we returned; translation = me with a red pen (I'm the official 'English' proofreader in the house)...DS1 for a summer college class and DS2 for summer work for an AP HS English class.  In our vacation mail was a notice from DS2's high school stating that they are finally going to change their policy of not weighing AP class grades until Junior and Senior years (and will now start Freshman year...like every other HS in America)...fine print...starting with the class graduating the year after my son (now a Sophomore...and yes, you have to start in AP classes your first two years to get into them your Junior year)...lovely...thanks.

We also had our follow-up appointment for all DS1's medical testing done this summer (from his surgery last fall, yes, I'm protecting his privacy with little detail) to get the results and being the health advocate anal Mom that I am, I spent many days online looking at all the possibilities and getting together my list of questions (this has seriously been keeping me awake all summer).  Let me just sum all this up with we got the best news possible...it was all very unexpected as the odds were very slim that it would turn out this way, so we were surprised and thrilled.  Although he's not got a guarantee of the future, and there's one re-test to do, and another probable minor surgery in his future, we follow up with the Doc in six months and the prognosis looks good at this point.  There's nothing worse than watching your child go through medical issues, is there?

Somewhere in here I eeked out a few minutes for some home projects (yeah, I should be writing a DIY blog, sorry).  I finally found a crystal chandelier for DD's old room reno. (for over the corner end table...I'm making this my 'girly-frou-frou' room to escape to when all the male testosterone in my house gets to be too much, so anything shiny or decorative goes) and made my first Craigslist purchase...here was the pic on Craigslist ($25)...


*Note to self:  Ask for close-up pics and don't assume that you'll "easily be able to paint all the brass that shows white".

Here is what I was left to deal with before painting (the only metal in the room is brushed nickel and I decided white would work best)...it took me a full day to untwist all those little brass wires that went through each flower and held the clear arm covers in place and then I had to undo the center pieces as well. 


Finally I was able to spray paint it all white...DH nicely replaced all the brass electric wiring (that also showed along side every arm) with new white cords and a new white chain to hang it and then it was time for reassembly...NO WAY was I going to rewire all those arm covers, so out came my glue gun and easy-peasy, back together...I restrung all the hanging crystals with some new silver wire (so about $50 in new supplies), and it's about done..it was missing a few crystals, and I broke one undoing everything, so I've ordered some on eBay and I just need to add four around the center top.





I have also been contemplating the fact that my kids have been saying that the 'new' headboard looked too much like the old crib ends...so I added six small wood embellishments to the tops.  Here's half the headboard top now...not sure if it helped LOL, but more frou-frou! 


Oh, and somewhere in here I lost my small vacation gain...plus some...145.5 this morning...it's a new low by 1 lb. (must be all the recent stress LOL).

Then DS1 announced that he would be going back to school a week early and wanted to paint his Frat house room...and that the Frat was paying for him to build a new loft for his bed (OK, I'll admit the one that was in there looked like someone made it out of matchsticks and it must have originally been built for another room as it blocked off a big corner in a tiny room).  So off we went to buy school supplies, food, toiletries, paint, paint supplies, and a new mattress...have I mentioned that the Frat decided to spray the whole house down over the summer while no one was there for the frickin' bedbugs?!...yes, even though they've only seen them in two rooms, and he's never seen them in his, I've been boiling everything he owns each time he comes home...all BUGS FREAK ME OUT...biting bugs...OMG!...I'd seriously be moving out of our house...yes, I've been checking his room here and everyone's mattresses like the almost-OCD Mom that I am.  I know what you're thinking...all you Boob's that were planning to come visit us in our hotel room...and don't worry Boob's roomie-Donna, I promise not to bring any with me...and we can all only hope that the hotel is as almost-OCD with cleaning as me...personally...I'll be checking my mattress (I'd recommend that you do NOT watch the TV program we saw this week...'Bed Bug Apocalypse')!
 

After we sent DS1 off for the weekend to tear out the old loft, paint, and get measurements, I designed a new loft for his tiny room and made a plan and supply list.  We spent a day here cutting boards and pre-drilling holes for the ladder and then off he and DH went to PSU to install it together.  Here he is installing it in the new 'Penn State Blue' room.

So DS1 is now settled at school and DS2 and I are working on all his back-to-school things for the last two weeks of his Summer...he's got his 'tuba test' with the Band teacher next week (after some debate, he decided to sign up for band again even though the guitar is his new love), so the house sounds like a German pub right now.


My youngest sister called yesterday crying as her youngest was on the bus for his first full day of first grade...Me?...I'm looking forward to Labor Day and then...BACK TO SCHOOL!