In Which The Power Goes Out

Today our friend Anna was over at the house with the ever-adorable baby J when the power went out. What does a power outage mean over at our house? Well, since it was Connor's quiet time and his apnea monitor (which we use to monitor his breathing while he's napping to make sure he's not having a seizure) doesn't work without power, it meant communal nap time! So Jer and baby J snoozed in the wheelchair, Connor sacked out on the floor, and Anna and I hung out in the bedroom, where we spent our time looking at kitchen and bath magazines and talking about the remodeling instead of napping. Anna is just as enthusiastic about this house stuff as I am, which means she'll be my partner in crime concerning things like, oh choosing paint colors.

See, I know from experience that Jer really has very little interest in decorating in general. If I drag him to a store and we look at a couple hundred paint samples, he's going to lose interest pretty quickly. Also he's partially color blind, which sort of limits his ability to help, as most earth tone shades look pretty much the same to him. So far he's suggested we paint the entire interior of the house royal purple. He's also suggested we paint the whole thing a monotone shade of gray, and then we can just "imagine whatever wall color we want." I have a sneaking suspicion he's not giving this question the serious thought that it deserves.

And there's no use asking Connor about paint colors. Connor's favorite color is bright, dayglo yellow, and so if it were up to him the whole interior of the house would look like I colored it in with a highlighter. I like not having to squint to see my walls, thank you very much.

Anyway, what I've discovered the best thing to do for stuff like this is to go and look at the couple hundred paint samples with someone who's actually interested in interior decorating, and narrow it down to four or five choices that I would be happy with. Then I bring those choices home to Jeremy, who can pick out the one he thinks is the best. This way we're both happy-- he gets to not look at a couple of hundred paint choices but gets to have input and isn't stuck with something he really doesn't care for, and I get to spend a few blissful hours out researching and shopping and end up with something I like too! Everybody wins.

Except maybe the cats. No one asks their opinion about anything.

Despite not having input into the wall color, which as they can only see color in very limited shades they probably don't care about anyway, I'd be willing to bet they're going to have a good time at the new place. There are a whole lot of windows for them to look out of and observe the healthy squirrel and bird population, and lots more space for them to tear around in at two in the morning. Though they're going to have to learn about the fireplace and fire in general, which is sort of a new concept for them. Hopefully they'll learn quickly, as panicked flaming cats would probably wreck total havoc on our furniture. I'm not worried about Cricket, but Loki doesn't really walk around; he throws himself enthusiastically in random directions. We'll see how things work out.

Connor should also be happy; since we'll actually own this house we'll be able to hang up his therapy swing, which has been languishing in storage awaiting the day that we're able to drill large holes in the ceiling of our happy abode. Jeremy and I can't wait to test it out. I mean Connor, of course. Connor can't wait to test it out.

Um, anyway the little guy's room should be quite a bit bigger, which means that we'll have room for a proper therapy area instead of the tiny little corner we have now. This is pretty exciting; since most of the house will have hard floors it becomes especially important for us to have an area in which he can practice sitting on his own and moving around safely without worrying about the consequences if he falls. I bet he'll be excited about having a new place to play!

Even if it's not dayglo yellow.

~Jess