Today was a very busy day. I got a bee in my bonnet about having clean carpets so I went to A to Z and rented a dry cleaning carpet solution type thing. I decided to do it outside because the Doppler showed the rain was north of us and to avoid filling the house with a chemical smell. For the record, it did not work as well as I would have liked and I think I will do it again with a steam cleaner come next spring/summer when all the rugs can dry outside faster. At least it was relatively cheap for $25 bucks, and it did freshen up all the rugs and remove pet hair.

Anyway. After I rented that I went to Wendy's for fries and a drink and then stopped at A1 furniture to see if they had any area rugs. I wanted to get a new one for Morella's room because the rug she had attracted dirt just too fast. I didn't find anything cheap or that I liked and the salesman there suggested I go to Menards.

I went to Menards and found AWESOME large area rugs for only $35! I got one for Morella's room and a foam mat thing with roads and a city for the basement play area. I get home, take out Morella's rug right away and put the new one in only to discover it was bigger than I thought...but later on made it work. Morella loves the new rug, and it really makes her room a whole lot cozier. Perfect for the cold winter that is coming.

I put Athena down. Went outside and laid out the rugs, applied the powder solution type stuff, worked it in, and then realized there was no way I would make it to the mall for play group. So I called Ann and Emily and said to come over to my place instead. Right after deciding that, I noticed it had started to rain. NUTS!

I went outside and moved some rugs to the garage and covered the others with tarps until the hour processing time was up and I could use the special bristle thing and vacuum it. Ugh. What a process and it was all hurried because I wasn't sure when Athena was really going to wake up or Morella and waiting for people to show up. It worked out because Ann and Emily were here by the time Athena and Morella got up so that I could finish the job outside. I then put the rugs back in the house, chatted a bit, got dinner started for Morella and Noah and then Karen the Mother's Helper came at 5:30 and started on the basement. Eventually we all decided to work on the basement and let the kids test drive it out while we brainstormed and arranged furniture, added homey touches and brought in toys. Those kids were in heaven! They had gone from squabbling toddlers to toddlers playing quietly for long stretches of time.

My only regret right now is that I forgot to take a before picture. There is so much more I want to do down there..like maybe paint the walls, add ...gasp! I could add a mural! Wouldn't it be cool to have like a fairy forest type mural? Oh my god I love this idea. Hilary, Laima? Lowen? My artist friends -- are you interested in finding me the perfect Christmas present?

Finally at 7:30 everyone went to bed and I got some precious computer time. I should be baking an apple pie with the peeled apples in the fridge and crust that I made last week instead of posting. Maybe I will do that after this post since I am now

done.