Like all good Mommies who live in tract homes, I dream of taking my not-so-one-of-kind house, and making it our unique, home sweet home.  You know, in unique browns and blues that no one else is using right now.  Or maybe a red plaid with a green & gold accent…nobody is doing that at all.  Maybe I’ll do the girls’ rooms in pink…I’m like the curve-setter of fashionable ideas, is what you are thinking.

Greg asked what I wanted for my birthday, and I said…”I want to decorate the girls’ bathroom.” But alas, the decorating Gods heard me. You know who they are. They are the fates that send the wrong color of couch that you ordered…twice. They are the fates that make sure HALF of your daughter’s new bedroom linens are on backorder. FOREVER. Until you have to buy fabric and ask your mother-in-law to make the curtains for you…um…again. Every time I get pregnant, my mother-in-law has to pull out her sewing machine, because nothing I find IS AT ALL RIGHT, AND WHO THE HELL DESIGNS THIS CRAP?! I cut my coupons, and beg her to come with me to JoAnn Fabrics where all is sweet and perfect with the world. And everything is covered in ribbons, on sale…

So the first paper arrived, from a defective dye lot. My tone on tone yellow stripes were brown. The second two orders were discontinued. Finally, as if it had been in front of me all along, I ordered the perfect Waverly not-quite-gold, not-quite-yellow stripe…exactly HALF as much as I needed. My Dad drove 160 miles to hang…wallpaper? No, to hang out and have a cup of coffee. I couldn’t find the right mirror, so I had to buy one, and ask Greg to paint it. Jenny took me to Bed, Bath and Beyond to find rugs and a new shower curtain, and upon entering the store, I was hit with the flu of ’08, and spent the bulk of that shopping trip in a nasty public restroom while Avery and Sara pulled exactly 500 rugs off their shelves. On a Sunday evening…we were the “popular” customers that day.

The colors aren’t actually this bright, but I love playing with the enhance features in iPhoto

I still need a couple of pictures of the girls at the beach on the wall, but for the most part…I have achieved a perfectly happy bathroom. Where my Dad papered patiently for 6 hours with Sara at his feet a majority of that time asking never-ending questions: “Pa Pa Bill, why you do dat? Why you cut dat? Why you measure dat? Why dat sticky? Why can’t I stop asking so many questions until my tongue actually swells and my lips chap from the asking of THE SO MANY QUESTIONS?” And patiently, and thanks to Dad’s new hearing aids (which are totally awesome, but I’m sure he wanted to rip them out and flush them after 6 hours of Sara) he answered every question. It’s almost like, I don’t know…he’s had practice with a girl SIMILAR to Sara.

Pa Pa Bill, Sara & Kelly (somehow looking as if he’s held two tiny girls so close in age before…and not aged a day!)

I am so happy I could burst. Every night Sara jumps through the door and says, “Wook at all my waw-paper!” And then she says “Pa Pa Bill hung this aw for me.” Yep, the wallpaperer to the stars hung your paper. People wait for months to get on his docket, but he fit you in his schedule especially. And then I took him down to the City Market to thank him and buy him dinner…and the damned place closed early. SCREW YOU Decorating Gods! We went to TGI Friday’s and loved our Ahi Tuna burgers!