Did I mention that I have a crazy life?

Yes I do but it is this way because I want to. I love staying busy and doing something rather than sitting on the couch (which is something that happens a lot). I don't want my kids thinking that they have a lazy mom and by me staying home I just gotta teach those kids to be productive. So what am I talking about?
I am having my brother come visit us with his family tomorrow, as soon as I knew they were coming the idea of getting the house ready for visitors popped in my head but it never really happened until a week ago. Actually I have been trying to paint the stupid kitchen stools for over 2 months now... long story short I had to buy a new sander and now they are all painted (kind of, I still need to do one more coat on two of them but they look OK). So for the last week I have been busy getting stuff out of boxes that have been sitting in the study and master bedroom for the last 11 months and they were becoming very annoying. We don't have a whole lot of storage space so my closet was the place were all the plastic containers ended up. I still need to sort some of them but at least I can't see them anymore. I decided that if I can go through one box a week or every other week that would be just fine.
Second issue: guest bathroom, I had it all set up for the kids as a fun bathroom (under the sea theme), but little by little they destroyed the decorations by braking the soap container, then the nice cup to drink water from, and lastly the trash can. It was all made out of porcelain and Victor was trying to put stuff int the trash can when it just exploded and he injured his poor little toe, he was fine. So the next day I decided to get everything off and put in a new shower curtain and from there the inspiration started. I got a couple of cute pictures to put up on the wall, I made a flower arrangement to put on top of the toilet tank, got new soap container and toothbrush holder, a couple of new rugs and all under $20.00 not too bad. The bathroom colors are brown and beige and it looks really good.
Third issue: My guest bedroom, I had this nice brown curtains up and I wanted bedding to go with them, otherwise it would have been more expensive to get a whole new bedroom set. The bedding was from Walmart and it had everything in there, the colors are brown and blue stripes with beige and white. It looks really really good. (I had a yard sale last Saturday so I made enough money to cover all these extra expenses :)
Third issue: Shayna's room, she has a desk attached to her bed but it is not big enough for the gigantic computer monitor so I went and bought a little desk to free up the space so she can paint and do crafts again on her desk, it worked and she loves it now because everyone can enjoy the movies she has been making on the computer, how did she learn to do that? I don't know, but she is pretty smart.
Fourth issue: The carpet, we have been living here for almost a year and the carpet was brand new when we moved it, but having 4 kids... it shows how worn out it is and we had like 100 stains on it already. I went and rented the Rug Doctor carpet cleaner and spent the whole afternoon and part of the night cleaning the entire house. The carpet is drying now and it looks lovely.
Fifth issue: The study, it was in our plans to get that study set up for the computer and have it full of book cases so we could have Dan's book collection on display and also all his medieval decorations on the wall and book cases, well it ended up as a dumping ground for all my stuff, crafts, sewing material, painting brushes, you name it, it was all there. After working really hard on it, it is all clear and it looks so cool (except for the messy computer desk). Dan was very impressed and he wants to go buy more book cases and more books of course :)
Sixth issue: We recently purchased a beautiful entertainment center, we had to get rid of the old IKEA one and we are still happy that we found a good home for it. The plan was to buy one as soon as we got here, but months later we still didn't have one. About a week ago we went to IKEA looking for our dream entertainment center and we could not find something we liked, which was really weird because we usually find everything there. We did find a very cool looking one, but it was white and that is just not our style, so we went home and on the way there we stopped at this overpriced place just for fun and to our amazement we found the perfect EC. It was big, wide and elegant looking. It had all the space Dan was looking for and it had the look I always wanted. The lady gave us a huge discount because we were the only customers of the day and even offered free delivery and they put it together for free. It was awesome.
So you see, it has been very busy around here and I am glad that I am done, for the most part. I still need to clean bathrooms and put laundry away, do dishes, clean the fridge, mow the lawn, put the living room back together, OK give me another week and I'll have it all done :)
Sorry for the long post but I just need to write this all down so I wont forget how crazy I get sometimes with my cleaning and organizing around the house. Just so you know I did play with the kids yesterday in our little pool in the backyard and the day before Dan and I jumped with the kids on the trampoline and today a friend invited us to go swimming in her neighborhood pool, so they have not been ignored this whole time.
LIFE IS CRAZY BUT LIFE IS GOOD. Pics tomorrow.