One room has Apple Orchard Green and Liquid Blue walls with a comforter set that's a perfect match and colorful striped curtains. A funky green chair and stool, cool floor lamp and area rug round out the colorful decor.

The other room's walls are Mystical Purple on the bottom half and a bright yellow on the top half. A soft purple comforter and satiny yellow bed skirt tie in with a funky purple chair and stool and area rug. White wooden blinds cover the windows and add coziness to the room.

Also in the purple room are the white dressers with rattly handles that I used as a child.

But that's not the best part of this bedroom.

The best part of both bedrooms is the lack of stuffed animals on the beds.

Except for the few all-time favorites, the bulk of those stuffed animals remained on the bunk beds in the old bedroom. At least half of each bed was covered with stuffed dogs of all shapes, sizes and colors, stuffed kitties, a turtle, buffalo, moose, duck, frog, shark ... the list goes on.

More than once when changing the sheets on the bunk beds I tossed all the stuffed animals in a huge pile on the floor and told the girls to start whittling them down.

The tears would stream down their faces and I'd hear the stories of how they couldn't part with this one because it came from Grandma. And this one came from their dad and me six Valentine's Days agos. Yet another came from a best friend as a birthday present four years ago ... and the excuses go on.

Before I knew it, 95 percent of the stuffed animals were right back on the bunk beds.

Until last fall.

We sold the bunk beds, so I secretly bagged up every last stuffed animal. Then I hid the bag. At first it was in the laundry room. Then I moved it into the garage.

I just couldn't bear to go all the way and get rid of the stuffed animals all together.

Believe it or not, our daughters didn't even know their beloved stuffed animals had gone missing.

Until last week.

It seems my 3 1/2-year-old niece in Denver has become smitten with Fuzzy, a tiny brown bear that belonged to my sister when she was just a kid. Fuzzy's best friend in the whole world was Chumpy, my yellow bear with a white and blue striped shirt.

Those bears accompanied us on many family vacations, and probably even to college.

"Can you bring Chumpy?" my niece called to ask me one day last week as we talked about my pending visit.

Suddenly my daughters realized they had a lot of missing stuffed animals.

"Where's Raven? Where's Oreo?"

I wondered, where's Chumpy? Could he be in that hidden bag?

Turns out my oldest daughter knew exactly where to find Chumpy. He was in a box in her closet, along with my assortment of Henry and Henrietta dogs I collected as a child.

Yes, I was a stuffed animal-aholic as well. And apparently I deemed my favorite 35- to 40-year-old stuffed animals important enough to be kept inside the house.

I remember painstakingly tucking in each and every stuffed animal with me when I went to bed each night. Every animal had a name. I, too, remembered where each had come from.

And I still have my all-time favorites.

Does this mean I'll break down and bring the bagged up animals back inside?

No way.

But I don't think that bag will move from its corner of the garage any time soon. It just may contain a Fuzzy or a Chumpy.