Three Things 3/14/11- Making Over a Tween Room

Monday is here again, and I hope you had a pleasant weekend wherever you are! If your weekend included sunscreen, a margarita, and some sand, I dislike you very much right now. 🙂

Before I get into my weekend recap/ three joyful/grateful things, I want to gloat a little. This morning, I did something I am proud of that most won’t care about or even think is a milestone, but I did it.

I conquered the 2-mile mark on Leslie’s torture workout DVD.

What is this you say?

Well, the workout I am currently doing is the equivalent of power walking for two miles, but for the first two weeks, I could only get to 1 mile. And that was with gasping, panting, sweating, and wheezing. All usually fun activities under different circumstances but when working out, sucks. Last week, I made it to 1.5 miles and just this morning I finally made it to 2 Woohoohoo!! I still want to do harm to Leslie and we are not there yet in our relationship but now that I see the light at the end of the tunnel, things are looking up for our friendship.

My three thankful things-

1– revisiting some old friends

Facebook can be a great thing or a not-so-great thing (depending on who you talk to) but I credit it for reconnecting me with some people from my past including high school friends, old co-workers, even family members I never even knew I had.

One of those reconnections was an old co-worker from my days at Kohls. I worked there from 1989 until 2001 and met some great people and some not so great people there (most of those were customers) but made some long-lasting friendships, met one of my best friends there.

So when I reconnected with my friend Keri this year, it was so much fun to get together and revisit some old memories. After getting together two times, we visited the old store we/she worked/works at so I could see some of my former co-workers (she still works there part-time). There were only a handful of co-workers there that I used to work with, but the ones I saw (about seven in all) were as happy to see me as I was to see them. You don’t forget these people. We worked long hours, on our feet, dealing with not so nice people sometimes, trying to work with the management turnover rate (basically a manager lasts about six months to a year there, can you imagine getting a new boss every six months?), and for really little pay.

It makes me wonder why I stayed so long. I KID.

It was so much fun to reconnect and we are all going to meet some weeknight next month for drinks and appetizers at a local restaurant.

And reminisce about the good ole’ days…..or bad ole’ days, depending on who you talk to.

2– an impromptu visit from mom and dad/ re-haul of Annie’s room for her birthday

So as I mentioned in Friday’s post-Little Girl, Little Girl, I decided to re-do her room in celebration of her 11th birthday.

Honestly, she had a cute room before:

Doesn’t it make you want to curl up and take a nap? I loved this room, but she was making subtle hints that it might be just a little too, well, a little girlish for her.

Again, a big heaving sigh.

So I had a plan: I was going to makeover her room for her while she was away this weekend. And I won’t use any decor that I personally would like because that would mean she would not like it. Get used to that mantra, moms of tweens, and don’t take it personally. If you, the mom, like it, then your daughter most likely won’t.

Here is the after picture:

She LOVES this. She actually carried the pink throw around with her the whole evening and just went on and on about her cool new room.

Yay!

One cool decor idea came from, who else, Goodwill! I bought these frames at Goodwill for 99 cents each:

And with a little purple spray paint and some zebra scrapbook paper, turned them into this:

I LOVE THIS!!!! And I don’t even really like zebra print.

After- hello funky zebra handles…

Thanks to Hobby Lobby. I swear they have everything there.

As I mentioned above, we also got an impromptu visit from my parents who live about four hours away. I mentioned to my mom what I had planned for Annie’s room and said how I wished she lived closer as she was so good at doing room makeovers.

So she called back and said that they were coming. That day. Wee! I love this kind of stuff. For as much as I love to plan and be organized, I love impromptu visits. If you just pop into my house on any random day, I can guarantee we will welcome you with open arms. And food.

So they came up, and I got to work side by side with my mom in this room. It was so much fun, really special, and very therapeutic.

Oh, and she made corned beef and potatoes for dinner Saturday night in honor of St. Patrick’s Day. Wee part two!

3- a great TV show

There is this great new show that not too many people here know about. Maybe you have heard of it? It’s called “One Born Every Minute” and they film it at Riverside Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. I think the reason not too many people know about it is that it’s on the Lifetime network. I only watch Lifetime when.

a– I am depressed/on my period/ need mindless madefortvmovie entertainment

or b– well, there is no b.

If you have never seen it, please watch just one episode. It is just so funny and really entertaining. Why is someone else’s pain so much fun to watch? So this weekend, there was nothing on the TV but we have free on-demand with ATT so we watched back episodes of this with my parents and we were all laughing. Or maybe it was the wine/beer. At any rate, if you have time to look, I think you will love it. If you have ever had a baby, watch this. If you haven’t, skip it. Or at least have some wine/beer while watching it.

2 thoughts on “Three Things 3/14/11- Making Over a Tween Room”

tugey2 says:

March 14, 2011 at 11:22 pm

Wow, congrats on SOOO many levels. So glad that you were able to do the makeover with your Mom, just makes it that much more special. absolutely adorable (is that OK to say about a teen's room)? And, the 2 mile thing? Unbelievable!! As for the Lifetime show, I am ready to record it tomorrow night. Can't wait to watch it. I was kind of wishing that I had ATT again because you can record 4 shows at a time. BUT, I just read that they plan to cap the internet speed and make people who go over pay more for it — Whatever that means and I am sure it starts with $$. Also, HUGE hugs to your mom for making you early Corned Beef and Potatoes.! My Irishness by marriage applauds this!

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Kari at A Grace Full Life says:

March 15, 2011 at 12:59 am

Thanks Sue! 🙂

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