Sometimes life throws you curve balls (or you throw them yourself) and everything gets turned upside down. Such is our current situation. We have less than 3 weeks before our host student Anna comes from Spain (thats her application photo on the left). We are required to provide her with her own bed, but she doesn't have to have her own bedroom. However, in discussing it, it was agreed that Jay's office would be turned into Annas room temporarily. It made sense to use Jay's office because my office has the wonderful wall of shelves that Jay built for me, and we need to be able to keep using those. So, Jay's office it is.
Jay, being the nice guy he is, allows his office to be a dumping grounds for the kids' stuff. If there is something that needs to be put away and they don't know what to do with it, Jay will say "put it in my office for now" and it will stay there indefinitely. Therefore, his office is quite often a disaster, due to too much stuff in there. He finally started to tackle it last night (after much begging by me, so we can get the room ready for her). I offered to help, but quickly retreated. I could tell he wasn't happy about having to do this, but he DID agree it was the best option and I brought that up to Mr. Grumpy pants last night. I mean, after all, it's not easy for me either.
Its no secret that I love bichons. I mean, I love our dog Ringo too, but bichons are definitely a favorite breed of mine, and my hope is that after the kids are gone, I'd like to adopt other rescue bichons or perhaps foster some. So, over the past year or so, I have been slowly redecorating my
office with bichon/dog related items. I have some ceramic dog dishes with paw prints on them that I use for push pins and paper clips and other small office items (see the picture on the left). I have the too cute dog breed picture frames with each of the dogs pictures in them. I have a bichon calendar and check out the cutie-patootie lightswitch cover. I also have tiles with bichons on them on the wall. I also have other decorative bichon items around the room including stuffed , ceramic or porcelin bichons. I even have a bichon "quillow" that someone sent me. It's a quilt that folds into itself and makes a pillow. Very cute. But, my favorite bichon thing of all that I have in my office 
is 
my bichon valance that my mom sewed for me. I had found this fabric online, so I bought some, not sure what I'd do with it when I came up with the valance idea. My dad helped her get it figured out so the heads would be straight (the fabric was all wonky that way) and I proudly have it up in my office with navy drapes underneat. I love how they look and have gotten many compliments on them (thanks again mom & dad!!). My valance will have to be shared now. Well, it doesn't "have" to be, but to be nice, I am moving Jays ISU valance in and it will share 1/2 the rod with my bichons. I don't like having my bichon heads all smooshed together, but for the sake of my marriage, I'll do it. The other sacrifice I have had to make is my beloved shelves. They are huge and I love them. I have 
given up 1/2 of the shelves for Jay to put his stuff on. It was good in a way that it forced me to go through things I don't really need to have
. But, I also have a lot of the kids' stuff too. I have all the school supplies (notebooks, binders, folders, pens, etc). Plus all computer paper, ink and all office supplies. All 4-H binders, books, and things needed for being the club leader (and for Ashley & Chelsea being 2 of the club officers), including items needed for decorating our club booth each year. I have diet & exercise books and items. I have tons of scrapbooking things too. No I have never done any scrapbooking...yet. That's my dream goal to get to do once our kids are all gone. Oh yea, and I have the digital camera, video camera, tripod, and all the back-up cds. All those fit nicely on the 4 shelves, but as you can see in this picture, I have managed to condense it into 2 shelves...and I don't like it because it looks so messy and cluttered. But, again, for the sake of my marriage, I'm willing to make the sacrifice. So 
that's where we're at today. He's boxing things up (not sure why. He doesn't have to put them in storage...they are just going across the 3' hall to the other office) and sorting through all his stuff to see if there is anything he can part with. He's more of a packrat than I am, so I'm guessing it'll be harder for him to part with things. He's convinced he will never be able to fit everything onto 2 shelves, but I'm sure we can do it. He likes things spread out though, so having them all put up is maybe freaking him out a little bit. I'm going to try to help him again today and I'll be more sympathetic and fight the urge to bop him at times (as I'm sure he does for me many times over LOL)...for the sake of our marriage. 
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