Introducing Cell Snapshots AND Round 1: The House

Introducing: a new series in my blogging.

Yeah, I'm hip and ambitious like that.
I felt it would be a worthy endeavor to artfully arrange the moments and masterpieces caught on my trusty cell phone in the last couple of years and share them with all those who seek enlightenment and charming mementos of life's experiences.
(translation - JC finally made me empty out my phone's photo album onto the computer, leaving me with an entire two year's worth of pictures that I have to go through and either delete or integrate into the picture folders on our desktop...and while I'm going through them, I am giving into my self-indulgent nature and bringing them to the blog. Because I can't help myself. End translation.)

So, in between my regular blogging about life in the present moment, I will be jumping back to glimpses of the last year via my cell phone folder that sits with 'my pictures.'
You are excited.

(It's okay, I'm not even that excited, I am just a slave to the blog....it wants these picture to not go to waste...)


To start off, I grabbed all the pictures pertaining to housework. To the house being a mess, being clean, being broken, being fixed up...
I tend to send pictures to JC when I finally get to something I have been wanting to get to. (or something he has been quietly hoping I would get to.)
I tend to send pictures to my sister or mom when I have completely neglected something and it's so messy it is funny, or when I am decorating (that one time) or needing an opinion on something.
So, anyway, I take pictures of things around here...

"Look, honey...remember how the laundry room floor was so crowded with towels and blankets and clean/dirty clothes that we couldn't walk in? I finally got to it. We can get in there again."

This one has actually occurred a gazillion times. Somehow this got started...whenever I wash our griddle, I scrub I heart U into it and send JC a picture. I am pretty sure I have been doing this ever since we have been married. But...slacking off now because my phone won't send pictures lately. Ah well.

"Look, Mom, we're going to paint our bedroom!...and we're going to take a year to do it..."

Oh but look, there is partway through the project...getting started (remember, this used to be the blue, yellow, and red playroom)

"Look, KatieSister, I have festive fall pillows!" (We love us a good autumn.)

"Look, honey, the cabinet door came off when I touched it."

"Look, honey, I cleaned out 'the craft closet in the playroom' so it can become 'your closet.' Congratulations."

"Also, your son likes to climb."

A closer to being done wall in our bedroom!

James helping Papa move the bed upstairs during the playroom/master bedroom switchback.

"Look how awesomely filthy my kitchen floor was after not sweeping it for a week or so!"
(I never actually got to send this to my sister...this was when I discovered my phone wouldn't send pictures anymore...)
But now you can ALL see it.
I call this Kitchen Floor Trail Mix.
Call it impressive, call it gross...I call it life's reality sometimes.
(I put my foot in the picture for a reference point, so you could tell how big the pile was. When JC saw this picture, he asked if I put my foot in because it was as filthy as the floor. Thanks for that.)

(...my feet happen to get very tan during the summer, thankyouverymuch.)
(...and dirty. It happens when you refuse to wear shoes in your own backyard.)

"Look, honey, I finally put away all your clean clothes. Now the pile no longer reaches to the laundry room ceiling."

"Look honey, you can see our countertop! See that black thing under the counter with the glowing lights? It's called a dishwasher and I am using it."

"Look honey, our bathroom counter is free from any sign of makeup, hair tools, clothes, and old deodorant containers."
(My husband goes through deodorant like nobody's business. I state this as a neutral fact...not necessarily a bad or good thing...but in our five and a half years of marriage, I can honestly say that I have never ceased to be amazed at his ability to go through deodorant. I wear it as often as he does, the container I buy mine in is smaller than his, and though our armpit sizes do vary, the fact that he goes through 5-6 for every 1 I go through intrigues me greatly. And that is all I have to say about either of our armpits and their habits. Probably forever.)
So yes, clean and clear bathroom counter. With ugly tile. Not about that right now.

SO, there you have the first installment of my Cell Snapshots.
Yes, it gets its own name.

I chose this particular category because getting the house clean has been of particular interest lately. It always is, yes, yes, but in less than 48 hours, a dream of mine in the making since potty training began and the era of the smoothies for breakfast (and carried around the house) every day came about will be coming true.
We are getting our carpet and upholstery steam cleaned.
I may or may not cry.
I am so excited.
So, in preparation, I have been trying to get things nice and picked up, out of the way, presentable, and happy so that our guy can clean the carpets and afterwards we can BASK IN THE GLORY.
I may or may not cry.
Did I mention that?

Special thanks to my sister, Laura, for her unwavering dedication in helping me clean much of my downstairs today. Even though we saw a bug.
Okay, two bugs.
(but one was dead.)

Until next time.
(Real blog post to come...sometime. Perhaps this week, perhaps next. There really is no telling. I have a house to clean. And then glory to bask in. GLORY, I SAY!)