Leaping for Your Dreams

*February 10th, 2014; 3AM Mari's POV*

Geno had been gone a little over 24 hours, it felt weird without him home. Not like a normal road trip, there was more on the line this time. I had gone to bed during a heavy wind and snow storm, nearly a blizzard. Five hours later I was woken by Anya screaming in fear and the sound of crashing timber. As I dashed to her room all sorts of fears running through my head. Not a one of them was what actually was wrong though. There was a large branch in my daughter's room, no it was a tree not just a branch.

"Mama!" Anya's frightened voice broke me out of my reverie.

"I'm here angel, are you hurt?" I couldn't see her as I fought through the branches.

A small scared voice answered. "No." She hadn't been like this since Nik died, that worried me.

When I fought my way to her I held her tight. "Come on sweetheart. Let's get you out of here for now." She was shaking as we got her out of the room.

Of course she wasn't ready to go back to sleep, so while I called the insurance company she was on the couch curled around a mug of cocoa. It took what felt like forever to get a real person. "Thank you for your patience, how can I help you?"

I tried to remain calm, to find that goalie center, but I couldn't. "Yes, it's now almost 4 am and we had a large tree fall into our daughter's room." My insides were screaming for me to do something.

My words must have galvanized whomever I was speaking to as the first questions he asked after my policy number and verification were. "Is anyone hurt?" and "As in the Pens Malkin?"

"Shaken but not hurt and yes. We couldn't justify pulling her out of school for two weeks." Anya padded in, put her now empty mug in the sink and padded back to the couch and Jeffery. He was glued to her side and I was glad for it.

"Mrs. Malkin I won't be able to get an adjuster to your accident until Monday. Is there another safe place you can stay until then?" My mind wasn't on where we could stay, it was one the best way to get my daughter back to sleep.

"Um, I can ask a friend if we can stay in her place while she's gone." I saw Anya's head whip towards me with large eyes. I held up a hand to stop her from asking questions right now.

"That's probably a good idea. If you can safely do so, interior pictures taken now would help to get the proper scope." I sighed, first he wants us out now he wants pictures. "I know it sounds odd, but in the long run this will be solved faster."

As I spent nearly an hour on the phone, I missed Anya falling asleep. I didn't miss the frantic knocking on our door. Answering it I found Ed Dickenson and Fluffy on our doorstep. "Is everyone okay? I was walking Fluffy and saw the tree sticking out of the house."

I let them in which made Jeffery raise his head from where he was. "Anya got a big scare but we're physically fine. I just got off the phone with our insurance company in fact."

Ed exhaled in relief, he and Anya were walking buddies. "Oh good. If there is anything we can do let us know. I need to get Fluffy walking, but I had to know if everyone was okay."

I reopened the door and found Mario coming up the drive. "Thanks for checking Ed. I'll let Anya know you stopped by." Ed smiled and left. "Morning, we're fine but there's a huge tree in her room. The insurance company knows and I'm taking Monday off."

Mario came in and relaxed as he saw an unhurt Anya asleep around Jeffery. "Have you told Geno yet? How bad is the damage?" I brought him up and showed him while I took pictures of the now melting branches.

"I haven't yet, been waiting for my heart to stop racing and a chance to." I surveyed the room, it was busted up. "I think we might need help getting some things out of here. If only to salvage what we can." I was done taking pictures for now as I had gotten the entire room.

Mario helped me to get a few things out now but cautioned against the rest until the insurance adjuster had seen it. "Let's get what she needs right now out and let the rest wait. Monday evening is soon enough."

I heard my phone ring which was Mario's cue. "If you need to stay, let us know." He left, closing the front door behind him.

Meanwhile I picked up my phone. "Hello?" I padded back to Anya's room.

"Hello my love, how is everything at home?" Something was off...

"Yesterday felt weird and today started with a crash." I said trying to suss out who else was possibly with him. He was a bit too stiff to have it be someone he knew well. "How's Sochi?"

He laughed, but it sounded a bit forced. "Is Olympics for and in my country. How you think?"

Then his phone was taken by another man. "Do not call again. He plays for Russia now."

That angered me. "Listen he called me and I have something important to tell him. So either give him the phone or stop checking his email." On the other end I heard a gasp.

The phone was quickly given back and I heard a door slam. "Misa, what happen?" There was my Zhenya.

"I'm going to send you some pictures. After you can ask your questions." I took a couple shots inside Anya's room then I took one of Anya and Jeffery. We spoke of how much we missed each other while I did, cause just hearing his voice helped.

I heard when he got the pictures and the loving grumble about dogs on the furniture. "When this happen? Is Annushka alright? What we do now?"

There was my husband. "It happened a couple hours ago. She's fine, just scared at first." I sighed letting some of the tension out. "I already called the insurance company, they will send an adjuster on Monday. I'm going to call the structural engineer later today and hope that the rest of the house is sound." I was combing my fingers through her hair, to calm myself.

There was a big sigh of relief from Zhenya. "Busy so far. You going to stay or go somewhere else?"

I smiled. "We'll stay here if we can, to keep the usual schedule. We'll be sure to say extra prayers at church today." That was something I also loved, he never said a word about the two of us going to church. Occasionally he even went with us.

I shook Anya. "Anya, Papa is on the phone." She groaned a little but didn't wake up. "It's no use, she's fully asleep again."

Geno chuckled. "Is ok Misa. Maybe Skype later?" I agreed and we said our goodbyes.

*February 11, 2014; Monday*

Sunday had been spent answering everyone that yes we were okay. Moka had flat out told me to take care of us first. Now I was cleaning up breakfast when the doorbell rang. "I got it!" Anya said as she skipped to the door. "Mama, I think he is here for you." She said loudly.

"Then open it and let him in Anya." I said as I dried my hand on my way to the door.

"Mrs. Malkin, I'm Andrew Tarrington from Nationwide Insurance. I'm here to see the damage." He held out his hand.

"Thank you for coming sooner than I expected. Anya, go change for school in my room." She skipped off. "Do you want to see pictures or the room first?"

He ended up wanting to see the pictures first giving me a chance to send Anya to Alexa so they could walk to school. "To keep the house warmer we put a block in front of the draft." I said as we headed up. I pulled it away and let him make his way into the room.

45 minutes later I was having a second cup of coffee when he came back down. While we spoke over a cup for him, things became clear. "The repairs will be completely covered by the company, it turns out your nextdoor neighbors are also policyholders with us."

I nodded. "I knew that, Mr. Shield and I have spoken. What about structurally, is it safe to stay here?"

He grinned. "Oh yes, with the notable exception of that room. Only that section has been compromised. I would suggest you empty what you can from that room. If you don't know of a place to get your repairs done we will be happy to suggest someone."

I cut his spiel off. "Our plans and construction were done through Mobius Architecture. I was planning on going in to talk to them after I heard from you."

"That's good. They are one of our preferred contractors." He handed me his business card. "Please give them my card as well as this form so that they can get the proper reimbursement. I would also suggest taking those pictures so they know how bad it truly is." He thanked me for the warm up and went on his way.

I made sure that the block I had devised for the draft was back in place and then called Mobius. "Good Morning Mobius Architecture how may I direct your call?"

"Good morning. I'm Michaela Malkin and I was wondering if Julie Ashton had an opening today. I've had a problem with the house.". Problem, yeah you could say a tree inside was a problem.

I heard some keys clicking and then the secretary came back. " She does actually. What sort of problem are you having, so I can put it in the notes."

I chuckled. "Sunday morning at 3 am we had a large branch invade my daughter's bedroom. Well it was more like the neighbor's fully grown tree. Julie was our architect. Being that I have about 2 weeks until my husband comes home I'd like to get things moving on fixing it.". I sighed and prayed the open appointment was soon.

I was put hold briefly and then Julie was on the line. "You had a tree crash into your little girl's room. Is she OK?"

I sighed, it was nice to hear Julie's voice. "Anya is fine, she was shaken up but otherwise unhurt. I have photos and my insurance company's go ahead to get you guys on the job to fix it." I moved around collecting the things I would need to show her just how bad the damage was.

She sighed in relief. "Oh thank goodness." She looked at her schedule, I could hear her flipping pages. "Can you be here in a half hour? It looks like my 9:30 cancelled, again." She sighed.

"Easily, I took today off to deal with this. Anya and I also had a talk, she wants to move rooms. Not that I blame her. We can talk more about that when I get there though." I moved towards the front foyer and my shoes.

"Oh go ahead and tell me. If we can do it I'll make it happen." She was laughing.

I sighed. "Fine, she wants a balcony on her new room. The largest one other than the Master." She had chosen to move to the other side of the house. Not only would it be more quiet for her but it was also away from the bad memories. She'd had a nightmare last night.

Julie sighed and I heard clicking of keys. "Oh yeah, I remember this. I think we should be able to make that happen. I'll have Gene come in on our meeting so we can get this started maybe even tomorrow."

"Sounds great. I'll be there shortly. Today is dedicated to getting this sorted and getting her moved." By now I had everything ready to go and was nearly ready to walk out the door. I said my goodbyes to Julie and hung up. Things were going to be fine.

20 minutes later I was walking into the building. I gave my name to the secretary and was quickly shown to Julie's office. Gene was there and hugged me. "I'm glad you guys are ok." He said as I smiled and tried not to laugh hysterically.

We quickly got down to brass tacks. I showed them every photograph I had, including the ones I had taken Sunday afternoon of the tree on the house outside. "Structurally it's still sound but we can't live with a hole in the roof. Geno was upset when he found out and of course he can't do anything to help, being in Sochi."

Julie brought up our plans and showed me the modification she had done, adding a short balcony over Anya's new chosen room. "I took a look and adding her balcony will be easy. It will be able to support a little weight, about the same as the other one. Why does she want one?"

I smiled. "She wants to grow things on it once the snow melts. That and I caught her reading by the light that came through the doors. Maybe a bay window would be better, on both rooms." I was thinking of how cold Anya sometimes got.

Julie changed the balconies into bay windows with benches for reading. "Take a look at this, does this work for you?" I looked and liked what I saw.

"I like those. Should be warmer for sure and still let plenty of light in. Maybe pull out the closet too?" Julie smiled and began making notes on how to change them into bay windows."

Gene looked at the changes and nodded. "I'll have to get a better look at the roof to see the extent of the damage. Is there a chance that I could come by and take a better look?"

Turning to him I nodded. "The tree people are coming at noon to hopefully find a way to extract the tree from the roof. I'm going to be pulling out everything from her room after this meeting and seeing what can be salvaged. I already pulled a few things and her mattress out. I forsee at least some new things in her future." He nodded.

"I'll be there. I'm not sure we can have this buttoned up before your guy comes back but you can bet we'll try hard." I let out a sigh of relief. Even if it wasn't all done, having any progress would be better than none.

Julie pulled up the schematics on her workstation and began modifying the two bedrooms. "To be safe put her into the other room just until we can get the first bay window in and the closet out. Let her know it's not permanent but rather so we can make her room awesome." By now Julie had the beginnings of the new window on the plans, man did she work fast. "It'll take me a couple days to get these 100% ready for Gene and the guys to start work. Meanwhile if you can fill out the permit applications and get me the info from your insurance company we can at least get that started."

I did an hour's worth of permit applications and Julie was delighted to see I had the info she needed with me. Then I headed home.

Gene and the Tree Doctors were both on time at noon. I showed them both to the room and listened as they discussed the best way to remove the tree and get the house at least mostly weatherproof. I was gathering up what I could from out of the proposed path while they discussed. Finally Gene sighed. "Well I'll call my guys and when we get this out of here we will at least keep the snow out. I know that Julie will get me those modified plans to me as fast as she can, then we'll get the house fixed as fast as possible for you."

To keep myself from being in the way I called Carole-Lyne and asked if she would come over. That meant the entire Dupuis family was over in short order. Pascal whistled as I opened the door. "Honey are you sure you guys are ok here?" He asked as they came in.

I smiled and sighed. "We're fine. The room is being de-treed soon and I need to be kept busy so I am not in the way." I pulled out the artwork I had salvaged. "I found this in her room and I think it might be what she wants but I also want it to be somewhat of a surprise. They will be adding a bay window to the room she now wants and will be doing the same to the room she was in, not to mention taking the closets out. Is there any way I can get you guys to help me surprise her?"

Carole-Lyne laughed. "Of course! If my husband is willing to watch 3 of our monsters, we can go see if we can find her dream bedroom. It is time to redo Maeva's too." Duper grimaced. "You know she has been begging for a new room." He sighed and nodded.

"Yes I know she has, but so has Kody so how do we give her something without giving him the same?"

I had an answer for this. "I know how. Make it a tween thing. When they hit 11 they get a room change. It doesn't have to be a big change, even just new sheets and a change in layout might be enough. Anya will get a bigger change due to the mess her room ended up being."

Zoe and Lola came bounding in all happy. Jeffery loved kids so he was following after them, his collar jangling. They had been told to stay either downstairs or out in the back for safety. They were just enjoying being chased by a different dog. Shortly we sat them down and let them watch TV, just to keep them extra safe. This was while Carole-Lyne and I planned where we were going to take the girls. We decided that for quality furniture we needed to go to Pottery Barn but all the little things could be gotten at Ikea or Bed, Bath and Beyond.

It took considerably much more time to de-tree the house than they originally thought. It was wedged in but good. I was more and more happy that I had already spoken to Julie and Gene as I watched them have to take parts of the outside wall out to be able to get the tree finally out of my house.

Gene and his guys then worked up a frame to hold the heavy sheeting they were putting over the damaged area. "It's only until the permit comes through which won't be until Wednesday it looks like. This gives Julie a chance to come see how best to fix this mess and you time to salvage whatever you can."

I sighed, knowing that Anya and Alexa would be home soon. They came here after school so that they could do homework and have some peace. Quiet the Lemieux house was not. "I know, I have friends willing to come help salvage stuff and clean it out. I'm hoping Anya won't mind having friends over tonight to help too. From what I saw her room is trashed."

He nodded. "I'm sure you can salvage more than you might think. The bed for sure will need replacing, the limb fell and broke it when they were taking it out." I nodded, having heard the crash and been apologized to profusely by the tree guys.

The doorbell rang and opening it I found a city inspector. "Mrs. Malkin, I'm here to check on the damage and issue permits." I sighed in relief as I read his City ID badge, Todd Banker.

"I thought we wouldn't get those until Wednesday. That's what they told me." I said leading Todd and Gene to the room.

Todd smiled and chuckled. "The last thing the head inspector wants is for one of the city's most famous residents and his family to have to wait long for permits in this weather." I showed them in and looked around better myself. Yes there was a lot of damage to the furniture, both breakage and water, but her things inside the dresser and anything off of the floor seemed to be in ok shape. As Gene spoke to Todd about the fixing of this problem and the slight remodel we wanted to do, I set about making a plan on how best to empty the room in one night.

Finally with a plan I turned to them in time to hear Todd say with a smile. "Well you have been busy making sure this would be taken care of properly. I can see that you have some cleaning to do but I don't see a problem issuing the permits to get this work underway. Where is your daughter going to stay while this room is being worked on?"

"We have 2 other bedrooms on this floor and one downstairs as well. Probably though she will sleep with me. She's been having nightmares. She doesn't want to move back in here after, which I can't blame her. The other bay window is going in the room she wants now. It's on the quieter side of the house and doesn't have any fully grown trees near it." I couldn't blame her at all.

In short order I have signed permits and Gene assured me that his guys would do the bay window and demolishing the closet in the new room first. I then saw Anya and Alexa skipping up the drive. "Why hello there Miss Anya." Gene said happily. "I saw you had quite a fright the other night, but don't worry your mom and I have it all under control."

Anya grinned. "Thank you Mr. Gene. Mama told me that I could have any room I wanted but I want to move rooms now." She turned to me. "Mama will I have a balcony?"

I sighed. "Well, actually Miss Julie, Mr. Gene and I have decided to make your new window a bay window and not a balcony. It will have a window seat as well so you can read in it. The other room will also get one, making it warmer too." Anya cocked her head as she listened to me and then grinned.

"That's even better! Could I have a spot in the garden then?" I nodded, confident that she would enjoy it more than she would a container garden on a balcony. "Yay! Come on Lexa, let's go get our stuff done so I can show you which room I will be moving into." They scampered into the house, Alexa looking very fondly at Anya. They had definitely bonded in the time we had been living here.

*February 15th, 2014*

Saturday dawn with nicer weather than the week previous. I drove us over to pick up Carole-Lyne and Maeva. We came into the house and heard Kody arguing with his parents. "But it's not fair! She always gets things first!"

I sighed and came further into the room. "Kody, do you want to see why we're going out to get things?" I pulled out my phone and showed him the photos both with and without the tree in the room. He whistled. "We're not doing this for something little. Maeva and Anya are good friends and it's always more fun to shop with your friends."

Kody sighed heavily. "But she's getting a new room and I want one too!" He was all but throwing a tantrum.

I glanced up and saw Duper throw up his hands. Carole-Lyne just shook her head. "Did your folks tell you that when you were 11 you might get a new room?" He nodded. "Do you think you can wait another year to find the perfect new thing for your room? Maybe even just a new way that it's laid out?" I turned to Maeva. "Have you been promised anything?"

She shrugged. "Just what you just said, maybe a new layout for my room and maybe some new stuff if I really want it and have the allowance for it." I looked at Kody and held a hand up towards his sister.

"See? She hasn't been promised anything. Just think you and your dad might be able to go next year and have her stay home." Kody eyed me warily. I brought out the bigger guns. "Kody, do you really want to be stuck with two girls, your mom and I all day?" Put that way he violently shook his head and backed away.

We were then on our way to Pottery Barn. They had the furniture that was nice enough and sturdy enough to last for years. We had decided that she would be getting white furniture which made the amount we would be looking at lower. I had forgotten to account for one thing though, the tenacity of the staff. "Hi! Welcome to Pottery Barn, how can I help you?" We had been in the door 2 seconds...

I sighed. "No thank you. We're looking for now.". The four of us then made our way to the back of the store where the kids and teens stuff. I had done the smart thing and looked at their website with Anya over the past few days so we knew that we had two choices we favored, the Chelsea Collection and the Stuff Your Stuff Collection.

The girls skipped into the kids furniture section and began oohing over all of the miniaturized beds. Carole-Lyne and I walked at a more sedate pace but were just as intrigued. "It always amazes me to see how they make them so small in the store.". She said as we joined the girls. "OK, what color are we looking for?"

Anya grinned. We had discussed this quite a bit. "Simply White.". She said proudly. We had decided that her room would be white, purple, aqua and gray or silver. We looked at the PB White but it would be hard to match it so I would spend a little more to make it easier. She went wandering further in and then excitedly squealed. "I found one mama!"

I found her and began looking at the details. As I expected they had two sizes, twin and full, and three colors, Tuscany, PB White and Simply White. I looked and saw the sign that they had it in stock. This was good. "Sunshine, go see if you can find the other while I look over this.". She and Maeva scampered off. "Look at all this storage, it doesn't look as good on the website.". Anya didn't have a huge amount of stuff really yet. Most of her stuff from her life with Nik was still in Montreal. Maybe I could convince Nathalie to watch her for a few days so I could grab that stuff. I wanted her baby stuff if nothing else.

Carole-Lyne grinned. "She will and storage will be good. I know that Maeva needs another book shelf and a desk she won't have to share. She's tired of doing her homework on the dining room table.". That told me what she was getting even without her own money. "Pascal and I agree that those things and a layout change is good for now. She has enough money to get her own new bedding."

I chuckled. "Smart. Going to do the same for Kody next year?". She nodded with a grin. I leaned in and whispered at her. "Don't tell anyone but Geno and I have talked about giving her a brother or sister. We're going to start seriously trying after he gets home from Sochi."

Carole-Lyne gasped a little. "This is wonderful. Anya wants a sibling, she tells Maeva how lucky she is all the time.". We moved toward where the girls were frowning. "Would you mind letting her sleep over to give her a better view of what it's like to have siblings?"

"Not at all. I was going to talk to JR about taking a couple days off to go retrieve the things Nik had in storage, it is mostly Anya's baby things but I want her to have them.". I smiled bittersweetly, I missed my brother.

I ruffled Anya's hair which made her frown and whine at me. "Mama, I hate that.". I knew that but I couldn't help it. "They don't have Chelsea in.". That explained the frown. She liked Chelsea better than Stuff Your Stuff but I knew that not needing a nightstand would be awesome.

I looked around for an employee to help us. "Well sunshine, do you want to wait or do you want your new bed now?". She gave me the 'what do you think mom' look and huffed loudly. I just looked at her in the tone of 'oh no you didn't just huff at me', she hung her head. "So the Stuff Your Stuff bed is what we'll go with. Your dresser was also ruined do you want a matching one?". That perked her up. They went running back over to the other display and began discussing where it should go. Unfortunately when I looked at the measurements it was too long. So we went and found the Kendall Dresser, it would fit and give Geno and I enough room to walk through.

When Geno and I discussed how badly her room had been trashed by the tree and the weather, we agreed that we wouldn't spend more than one of his paychecks on her new stuff. That gave me a cap of $7000. I began a running total of what we wanted. The bed was a total of $1649. I wished they still had the classic bed as she wouldn't be able to use 1 side of the bed's storage, but I would deal. Looking at the dressers I made an executive decision. "Let's get this one.". We had also decided she deserved to have a TV in her room so she could watch what she wanted. I even already had it picked out. The dresser would give her clothing storage and a place for it.

I gave in and got her one Stuff Your Stuff Tower. I had planned on getting her shelving at Ikea but I noticed that it would fit a mini fridge. Oh look, ready made reward or maybe late birthday gift. She also found a cute patterned desk chair that was in some of the colors she wanted. Anya got that too.

Maeva found the chair and a half. "Anya look at this!". She went running over. "It's a bed too. Isn't that cool?". I chalked up another $1200 on my mental tally. It would be nice to not have to have her sleep over friends on the floor. Anya turned and batted her eyes at me.

I sighed. "This means we will have to mock up a layout for your room to fit everything. I was going to let you go spend the night with Maeva tonight.". I knew that she would want to do that so she would give me a little more control.

The girls looked at each other and then began whispering hurriedly. "Mama, could Maeva stay with us and help?". I looked at Carole-Lyne asking her silently.

"I know she will go to church so I do not have a problem with it if it is good with you.". We were starting to get to the point that we needed to get this loaded.

"Tell you what, let's get this bought and to the house, then go to lunch and we can go by your house after to grab your things. At lunch we can decide where to go next.". Carole-Lyne nodded, it was a good plan. I flagged down someone and let them know what 5 items we needed. To save time I arranged for them to deliver everything on Tuesday.

We got back to the house and found Gene and his guys putting in the bay window in Anya's new room. We took the chair inside and then I went to see how things were going. "Afternoon." I said as I came close. I did not cross the tape they had up.

Gene came over and smiled. "How was the trip?" I grinned. "That good huh. As you can see we're almost done with the outside. The framers have gotten the start of the roof patch and are working towards changing the french doors into a bay window." It hadn't been a week yet and things were moving along.

"So by the time Tuesday hits she might have a room to move into?" I got a small smile in response and was happy with that. "Would it be ok to go in there tonight and mock up a layout for the room so we know where the furniture is going?"

"Oh yeah, that's fine. We'll have this buttoned up tonight and move inside on Monday to take out the closet and install the window seat. It'll be weather proof when we leave. So being in there tonight would be fine." I breathed a sigh of relief.

He chuckled. "I take it you found everything you wanted and now have to make sure it all fits."

I laughed out loud. "Oh hell no. We have about half of it. The biggest stuff, the bed, a dresser and a chair big enough for two small girls." Carole-Lyne came over with the girls. "We still have at least one bookshelf and a desk to go. Not to mention some ways to keep her room tidy."

Gene nodded. "I can understand. My Misses had the kids closets made in a modular thing so we could change it as they grew. Now she uses them for her hobby room and has it so neat you'd never know." That was an idea. Modular shelving so it could grow as her needs changed.

Carole-Lyne also grabbed onto that idea. "That would be a good thing I think for Maeva too. Maybe that is something we can find at Ikea. But first, lunch." We said our goodbyes and left.

Lunch was at one of the girls favorite spots, Eat 'N Park. Not the healthiest but it wasn't a normal thing. While we ate we decided that Ikea would definitely our next stop and then maybe a couple more places, completely forgetting to go to their house until after everything. Once we were at Ikea the girls were a bit lost. Fortunately Carole-Lyne knew where we should start. "Come, we both need desks. We should start with those." She took over and lead us to where the desks were located.

There were tons of configurations. I was amazed. The first thing we decided was that the girls would get matching desks and shelves, meaning that they would have to agree. They started whispering as they walked through the area. Quickly they went towards the white desks. They negotiated as to what they wanted as they went through the different options. They gravitated towards the Alex system and then looking at the options, decided that they both wanted drawers. It took them quite a while to find the right drawers that they agreed would work best. I then threw a wrench in the works. "Anya, you wanted something on top of the desk to help keep you organized. Is that still something you want?"

That started the argument. Maeva didn't want something on her desk but Anya still did. I felt like a heel for reminding her. Carole-Lyne finally had enough. "Arrêtez! (Stop!) You two need to agree. I happen to agree that having a place for your supplies is a good idea. It would give you more drawer space for storing things. Find one that works for both of you. Now."

They put their heads together and found the Alex add on hutch and the Linnmon storage with an Alex table top. I decided that they would have semi-matching chairs and made a mental note to go get another one for Maeva. Once the needed pieces were loaded into our cart we moved on to the book shelves. Again white was the going theme. This discussion was faster as they went through everything and quickly found the Borgsjö shelving units. They went with open shelves for both of them.
Now it was time for additional things that would give Anya the flexibility to have her room personalized and yet organized. I knew she needed a step stool to reach the sink and mirror in her bathroom and possibly something to have her personal supplies on so she could sit and cleanse her face and such. I found the step stool easily and Anya agreed. We then went into the kitchen area to find the right cart for her. Again it didn't take long and we found a turquoise one she loved and it was on wheels! I grabbed another one for Maeva against Carole-Lyne's arguments. "Hey, look at it this way. If she has one it's less clutter in the shared kids bathroom." She couldn't argue with that.

Finding the right shelving system for the closets took us hours. We debated which one first for aesthetics and then for flexibility. Finally we were shown the Algot system of drawers and rods. That was what we had been looking for! I took notes so that I could create, with Anya's help, the perfect system for her. She didn't seem to need more than a place to hang her clothes with everything else we had gotten so far.

We checked out and put things into the car, then it was on to what would be our final stop; Bed, Bath and Beyond. There we found all the little things that made a tween to teen room. Everything from Wall Pops dry erase decals to a rolling laundry bin. Both girls found bedding they loved which was good. Carole-Lyne smiled a bit as Maeva carefully counted her money. "Arrêtez-aimée, la grand-mère ne voudrait pas que vous achetez ce. Nous avons dit que pour faire Kody sentir mieux. Vous trouvez quelque chose que vous aimez acheter avec ça. (Stop sweetheart, Grandma wouldn't want you to buy this. We said that to make Kody feel better. You find something else you love to buy with that.)".

Maeva's eyes teared up. "You lied to Kody? I don't have to buy this myself?". She was happy and confused.

"When have your papa and I ever made you buy your own bedding? Yes you are getting some special things because you are growing up and need a different space to do so. Kody is jealous and we knew he would be so we said that if you wanted something you had to buy it. That tempers his jealousy. Go find what decoration you want and can afford.". Maeva clutched onto Anya's hand and they were off running toward where the Wall Pops were.

I smiled and shook my head. "She really thought, well why wouldn't she you don't normally lie to them."

She sighed heavily. "Sometimes it is easier than telling them the truth. Kody will be angry that she has so many things up until the point that he sees her putting them together. She will of course have help but she will do most of it. That will show him that he will have to do the same when it is his turn.". I patted her shoulder. I knew having more than 1 kid wasn't easy.

"How about we come over and babysit while you do that. It will keep the little ones out of your hair and give Anya a taste of having a little sister.". She grinned at me.

By the time we finally got done with our expedition it was nearly time for dinner. We called Duper and told him we were ordering in and he could decide where. That made him laugh. "I thought maybe, the pizzas are already on the way. So, was it a success?". That made us all tiredly laugh. "Oh good, I can't wait to see what you got."

All of us carried something into the Dupuis household when we got there. Kody immediately began to frown. "You can't afford all of that!". Pascal sighed.

I stepped up and was the bad guy. "Who says she bought it all? Maybe I got some of it for her for being so much fun today.". Carole-Lyne whispered her thanks as I took this on. "Which is what happened."

Maeva and Anya took two trips each to get her things to her room and then asked to borrow a tape measure. When asked they said it was so they could measure everything in her room so they could plan how things were going to move. I just laughed. Pascal helped them measure everything from her bed to her toy box and the room itself. I knew what we would be doing tonight for sure.

Sure enough once we got home the girls wanted to start laying out Anya's room. I grabbed the pad of paper from my purse and the rolls of painter's tape and paper I got and we went upstairs. We first made templates for how big everything was and then began moving them around the room. It soon became clear that the only way everything would fit and be useful was if the bed and chair and a half took up one wall and fit everything else around them.

In the end I had two happy girls and two well thought out room plans. Yes we did Maeva's after finding out the room that they were in for the night was the same size. I even was kind enough to let them use the paper and tape for templates for her room too?

*Sunday February 16, 2015*

After going to Divine Liturgy we were on our way back to the Dupuis Household to drop Maeva off. This morning the girls had been discussing paint color for Anya's room. Maeva was leaning more for a purple room and Anya more of an aqua one. We found a compromise with mostly aqua walls except for purple and gray stripes on one. It pulled the room together and yet still let Anya have her chosen colors. Kallie was going to love it of that I had no doubt.

After dropping Maeva off we went to Home Depot to find the right colors. I limited her to one brand of paint for her colors which ended up being very smart of me. There were tons of samples! Anya found the right base color easily, but it ended up being darker than I thought it would be. It was called The Real Teal by Behr. I was surprised that she wanted to go that dark but I rolled with it. She then found a white that approximated the color of her furniture, Moonlight White. Ok that make the base color look a bit darker. She put that back and began looking for a purple in the right color range. In the end Mystical Purple won out.

Anya took a step back and looked at her color palette. "I need a gray Mama. Something to brighten the walls.". We began mixing and matching the gray tones they had. That's how we found Silver Charm was the perfect complement for those strongly saturated hues she wanted. I did some quick math and figured out how much paint we would need. Forget a pro job, we would do this! Teal for the base color, Purple for the accent and the Silver for the trim. With her white furniture it would be a good tween space.

We started on the base color on the two walls that were not having changes made to them. We then painted her sink area with the same base color. It looked even better on the walls than on the chip and it was only one coat so far! We ate dinner while letting the paint get to the point where we could put the second coat on. That's also when I asked her which wall she wanted her accent wall to be. "Across from the window seat so I can see it as the sun moves.". That was that.

Talking to Geno when he called I updated him. "Sounds like our Annushka is growing up. Need sibling before she get greedy."

I hadn't told him that I had been feeling off especially in the mornings and was glad I had gotten low for paint and had the windows and door open. We had started with the closed but I got nauseous so we opened everything. "I am sure that she will love having a sibling. It might be even sooner than she thinks too."

"Eh? Why you say that?". I heard the tone change.

I sighed and got comfy. "Coffee has tasted bad for the last week but the tea I've been drinking has been great. The paint made me not feel good as did the greasy pizza. I haven't thrown up yet but I think it's a matter of time."

Zhenya's voice brightened. "That is good! I bring Mama and Papa back, we treat you extra special.". I chuckled. He sounded so happy.

"I don't even know if I am pregnant or not yet. Am hoping I am but until you come home I'm not even going to take a test. I don't want to have to wait to tell you.". Never mind there was a test in the bathroom right now. We talked about how I should go get one and find out now against leaving Anya home alone at this time of night. I won and didn't leave bed. When he got home was soon enough for me.