Friday, February 20, 2009

I am a FAN-atic

I love Fans! They are FANTASTIC! I always sleep with a ceiling fan on, when I have one. That was a huge adjustment in Germany because we did not have them. We bought some oscillating fans and got by, but we missed our ceiling fans!!

Throughout our army life, we have never known where we are going to live. We have been without fans many times. But since we got to Ft. Stewart in 2003, we have had them. Our rental house in Hinesville had fans and the house we bought in Leesville had fans. So we have been in fan heaven! We sleep with them on, even in winter. The noise it soothing and the cool air circulating helps us to sleep.

When we signed the lease for these quarters on post, I was sad to see NO FANS! When David got home and was surveying the new digs, I said, "We need to get fans for the bedrooms, huh?" And he scoffed and said that he did not want to fool with it. I was sad, but I understood. It seems like a scary operation messing with electrical wires, so I knew with my klutziness it was not something I should try. I decided we would just get used to it.

Well, with our new furry child, we have to sleep with our door closed at night. This way Max is not lonely (he cries at night if he is not in our bed), but Stewart stays out of Max's way. Stew is happy to roam all night, and he loves to sleep with the kiddos. But the air flow is restricted. And we have been hot at night. Plus, the dogs were hot. They were restless all night and did a lot of panting. Max likes to lay his head on your shoulder and pant loudly. I think he wants to make sure that we are aware that he is hot and uncomfortable.

After a sleepless night on Wednesday, David asked me what did I think we could do to have a night without wide awake, pacing, panting dogs. I replied, "We need a fan."

And that was all it took!!! After work on Thursday, we headed to Lowe's and bought A FAN! It is so awesome. It is quiet, but you can still sort of hear it. And it cools us - especially the dogs. I mean, they are wearing fur coats after all. . . We slept GREAT! I love it! This is the best thing David has ever done for me (well, lately, anyway!). I am so impressed with how quickly he put that baby up. Every time I look at it, I get so excited. He is so good to me! Seriously, words cannot accurately express how fired up I am. I am so excited! (see that does not do it justice)


Look at how well the boys are all sleeping. . .
Well, along these lines, the children were with us at Lowe's. The children were looking at fans with us. The children decided they wanted a fan. Jessa found the perfect one. It was pastel colored with pink and lavender and pale yellow. It had butterflies. She wanted it. She needed it. She had to have it. I said it was too "girly" for their bedroom. I felt like they needed something more gender neutral. She promptly convinced Spencer that he also wanted the girly fan. He even used those words, the ones Jessa told him to say: "Mommy, I want that girly one." Besides the frilly look of this fan, it was close to $100. The fan we picked out for our room was only $45. I could not see spending more than twice what we spent on our fan for their room.

My first attempt to get them to change their minds was the pulls. I thought if they picked out a cool pull that they liked, it would make them forget. They each picked out a dolphin, but they were not swayed. We found a fan for $20 that would work. They did not like it. There was whining. There were sad faces. UNTIL, my brilliant husband had an idea that made them change their minds immediately. He told them they could PAINT the blades! I thought this was a great idea because many people never look up and notice the fan. Or if it is on, you cannot see the individual blades anyway. Plus, it was only $20, so if they ruined it, it would not be a huge loss, right?

All the way home from Lowe's, Jessa kept saying, "Daddy, we have got some serious painting to do when we get home." And paint we did!
So here is their finished product. I helped some. Spencer makes requests because he does not have the patience that Jessa has for crafts yet. I also planned to paint one because there are 5 blades, which is not even. Jessa's are the light purple one and the pink, and purple and green one. Spencer's is the dark one. And my 2 are the stars and rainbow.
Everyone was happy, and we are all enjoying our new fans!
A special THANKS to our best handyman, our D!
We are SO lucky to have him.

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