Beds

We have been planning to redo B's room this summer. He's been in a 'loft' bed - with a dresser on one end and a bookcase on the other and a desk underneath. We bought the loft beds the summer before we bought the house - and then left them in storage until we moved in here. Didn't see any reason to set them up in the condo only to move them a couple months later so once we were sure we were moving, we just brought the beds out to our Tracy storage unit and left them there. They were perfect for the kids when they were 9 & 7 - and they loved them. But they're now 16 1/2 and 14 and the loft has lost it's charm. H. converted to a 'captain's bed' from IKEA last summer - but he's too big for that, apparently. The sides of the wood frame 'give' just enough so the slats that support the mattress fall out every night. It's a PITA.

So J. and I spent yesterday shopping for beds and today, two full size mattresses, box springs and bed frames were delivered from Sleep Train. J. spent yesterday taking down the loft bed and taking apart H's bed in preparation for delivery. That led to cleaning and culling and sorting clothes, etc. The rooms look 'nice' and far more grownup. While we were in their rooms perusing the 'change', I said 'this will be so much fun when they are gone - we can have an exercise room, a yoga room, a music room, etc.'. Not that I'm ready for them to go - but all that space will be 'fun' to fill up someday. We will probably just leave them as is - like my mom did - so they'll always have a room to come home to.

We also got an estimate for a 'massive' cleaning - including windows inside and out AND screens off and washed. Can't WAIT. They come on Monday, the 23rd, and will be here the entire day. After that, we will have the same company come every other week - which will be completely heavenly. This company came highly recommended - and it turns out, we know the owner from church. The name didn't really 'ring a bell' with me - but when he was at our front door, it was one of the greeters at church every Sunday. Very, very nice man and his pricing was incredibly reasonable. We are so excited about having a 'cleaning service' - it's a splurge but do-able and it will let us spend our time on culling and organizing and other stuff vs. chasing after cleaning one room at a time. They will come every other week and will do things on rotation. But the entire kit and caboodle will be cleaned from top to bottom so we start off 'done'. It will feel great to have that done - and the windows have been on my list for a long time - I can't wait for that to be done. They'll look terrific!, I'm sure.

B. is now referencing that he wants to go to a 4 year university - so I'm panicking about where we'll find the $$ for that. I thought we were agreed he would go to a Community College for a year or two - a huge savings. But he wants to get the heck out of dodge as soon as possible, it seems. I hope we can figure this out. I'm so worried about how we'll pay for it and hate having him go into debt to go. And then I remind myself that going into debt is exactly what I did - student loans got me through. And if he needs to work and/or borrow to help with expenses, that's what he'll do. If he wants it badly enough, he'll be motivated to work hard for it. I was - and so was J. And we will hopefully be able to help him far more than my mom helped me. And even more than J's parents helped him - which was quite a bit, considering their financial situation. It will all work out, I know - and we have two more years for all of us to keep saving and build up as much as we can towards his tuition and dorm fees, etc. A lot can happen in two years. YIKES! Two years from now, we will in all likelihood be shopping for his dorm room! Tempest fuget....

That's it for now. Have packing to do and lists for J. and the kids to keep the culling and straightening up moving forward in my absence. They will enjoy 3 days of a 'mom-free' zone....body noises will abound, I'm sure. It'll be a guys world!