IT BURNS!! IT BURNS!!!

The Following ( PG, or PG 13 if you're really opposed to viewing close-up shots of butts in Pants) video should be viewed with caution- make sure you have some saline solution nearby to clean your eyes with afterwards! There's no antidote for the permanent image burned on your brain though...



all I am going to say here is "WHY GOD, WHY?!?!"

And so it begins.

Well, it's official- The Girl is a Kindergartener and I am feeling a little lonely. ( boo hoo)

First day: Awoke with enthusiam, took traditional "first day of Kindergarten" pictures, drove her to school, sat forlorn in the house for 6 hours, Picked her up from school and went for cookies and Hot Chocolate at Grandma's house.

Second Day: Phone call from Teacher at about 1:3o detailing all the ways my daughter isn't following directions= "Talkin' To" for the girl. Then call from Bus driver telling me she is on the wrong bus and where should they drop her off. Multiple heart attacks imagining all the ways that could have gone wrong, ending in overzealous hugging when finally reunited. Multiple White Russians after 8pm...

Third day: Discovered that the Bus Fiasco was partially The Girl's Fault. She saw a kid from Recess in line for another bus and decided to ride the bus with that girl. My shouldahadaV8 moment: realizing I probably should have told her that there is only ONE bus that will bring you to the correct bus-stop, where mommy will be waiting to give you LOTS OF CANDY!!! LOTS, I SAY!!! I did actually leave the house during the day though- I went to see Harry Potter 6 again. I figured if I'm going to be alone I may as well make it count!

The weekend was short- at least it seemed that way, and we just tried to relax and spend as much time together as possible while also letting Daddy write his Dissertation.

Today was the Girl's first ever "Monday Morning." She bucked up pretty quickly though and was off to school as scheduled. I went and worked out and now plan on doing some cleaning and a Grocery Store trip before meeting the bus again. Of course, I have a long list of projects in my head that have been waiting for "Someday when the Girl is in School" so I hope to be in progress on any number of those by the end of the week. And I also plan to be writing more often, so I hope to "see" you all here again soon! Now please excuse me while I skip around the empty house singing loudly in attempt to make myself accept that MY ONLY CHILD IS IN SCHOOL FOR THE NEXT 12 YEARS! LALALALAALALALALALAALAAAAAA!!!

Things you never thought to wonder

Squirrel Poop is Green- like grass. Ew.

Now on to what I have been up to:
I have been on a bender lately. Spring Cleaning season just happened to coincide with a chunk of time off for me this year so, for the first time in three years I have gotten the clutter in every part of the house under control all at once. I have spent the last couple of weeks de-cluttering and deep cleaning every room in this house. Every room except Hubby's "Study"- I'm no delusional masochist! We also got a new Vacuum a few weeks ago when I realized that the cordless 12 volt stick vac was kicking my big vacuum's butt. It was time to retire that poor thing- 13 years is alot of heavy abuse for one little Eureka. So, armed with my new rockin' Vacuum, I have cleaned and cleaned and I finally feel like I own my possessions instead of my posessions owning me. We ended up donating 7 bags of clothing/shoes/handbags and a truck-bed full of other Household Items to Goodwill. Even our Garage got the spring cleaning treatment- which is when I learned what color Squirrel poop is. Luckily, I did not have any
close encounters with it (unlike Hubby).

Now the real challenge is going to be keeping it this way. eeek!

Eagle-eye

Holy-crap. This video is very cool- it is an eagle's eye view of flying. And I REALLY mean that it's the view as seen FROM THE EAGLE'S BACK. If you've ever wanted to know what a bird sees from up there, have a look.



Very Cool.

Rosemary Triscuits

Me: (to Hubby) These things have too much dang seasoning on them!! If they had just put some actual rosemary in a regular triscuit, they'd be good! Instead, it's like a crap-load of "seasoning powder" with a little bit of triscuit thrown in! These suck!!! URGH!!

Hubby: ( giving me that "you is ca-ray-zay" look) You seem really worked up about this. (Mental Subtext: Please don't hurt me I didn't make the triscuits)

Me: I'm not really worked up, I'm just annoyed!!

Hubby: Well, you sound really worked up about it...

Me: I always sound "really worked up" about things that I'm only annoyed about- you should know that by now (mental subtext: now that we're in our 12 year of marriage and 14th year of kissing each other)!

Hubby: .... ( Imagined mental subtext: "Okay, I'm walking away now because you are scary")



I am scary-sounding sometimes about things I'm really only annoyed about. I have been told this since approximately 6th grade when a surprisingly astute fellow-sixth-grader told me I often sounded angry when I said things, so maybe I should watch that. I don't know when I sound overly-angry. I only know I'm doing it when Hubby gives me that Look. Oh well, for the record, I DO try!

Tiny Art Director

I just ran across this website "Tiny Art Director" http://tinyartdirector.blogspot.com/

If you have ever spent any time with a child at all, and especially one who is four years old or younger, you will understand. Apparently this a site run by an artist who posts his daughter's "Commissions" and her reaction to them. By the time I got to the Poo-poo airplane, I was laughing out loud. And yes, I should be in bed by now, but that has nothing to do with it!

Here is a video for a song called "It's Amazing" by Jem. At first I watched it because her name is Jem- Helloooo! GEM?? I wanted to see if she was a worthy Namesake, and ended up inspired. My Favorite Lyric is " ...nothing can compare to deserving your Dream."

It's Shake and Bake... and I helped!!

The weather here has been more warm than cold lately and this has prompted me to want to let girl go bump around in the yard more- only problem is that we have a not-so-private or attractive chain-link fence around our yard, and it's just off a busy street with some foot-traffic. Also, I realized that once the girl gets out there she has only a couple of choices of things to do- play with a ball or, um, pick up sticks?? So- inspired to give her something to wrap her imagination around- Hubby and I decided to build a playhouse for her this past weekend. We got the Frame together Sunday, and she already spent three hours playing outside with the neighbor kids yesterday. I also used the opportunity to learn how to wield a circular saw. (And no, I didn't hurt anyone doing it!) Girl and I primed the frame and wall-boards yesterday, breaking in her overalls with some respectable splotches of Primer, and Hubby stayed out after dark to put the walls on. It is progressing nicely, and I am pretty excited to get it done. I would guess that it won't really get done until this coming sunday, but we are sticking with it- that's the one thing Hubby and I love- a good building project. So hopefully I will have finished pictures to post by next week. In the meantime, here is a pic of where we were as of Sunday evening!

My Snuggie and me, we can climb up a tree!

I love my Snuggie!! It was actually a Valentine's present from the Hubby, but I was so happy to get one! My four-year-old daughter immediately exclaimed "...and you'll have the freedom to use your arms!!" I think she might watch a bit too much television...

Try try again

Yesterday was the Hubby's birthday. He is so old! (I can say that because I'm actually two years older) so I tried to actually make a birthday cake from scratch. Technically it was a bunch of little cakes- strawberry shortcakes to be exact. I have always claimed to love baking (more than cooking) and yet never really bother with it anymore. More than anything lately, I find myself reading websites with great cooking and baking and creative ideas but not ever getting around to actually doing any of it. I always blame my weird and unpredictable work schedule for this lack of action, but the truth is, I think, that I have just plain gotten lazy. I remember spending whole days in my teenage years in my room hot-gluing fabric to those little green plastic berry-baskets from the supermarket. I made scrapbook style photo albums (of course that was before you could just store digital images on your computer, and before someone decided that "Scrapbooking" was a hobby to be marketed) which I still have and look through from time to time.

I did pretty good with the shortcakes, despite putting an extra egg-white into the dough ( a real-life reminder to read any new recipe thoroughly before beginning). They weren't very puffy, but they tasted fine, especially once I heaped the strawberries and real whipped cream on them, but I am still going to try again today.

I also will start carving out time in my day to spend "in my Workroom." I seem to have developed this unneccessary "rule" that I should only create things that have a use. It's not a terrible rule, but I think its keeping me from just going in there and puttering around- and that is keeping me from the process that makes for the best discoveries. So, onward and upward- to the workroom, that is!

Love Is...

When Children Ages 4-8 were asked What Love Is

Courtesy of Spirit Daily

'When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn't bend over and paint her toenails anymore. So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got arthritis too. That's love.'

Rebecca - age 8

'When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different.
You just know that your name is safe in their mouth.'
Billy - age 4

'Love is when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on shaving cologne and they go out and smell each other.'

Karl - age 5

'Love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your French fries without making them give you any of theirs.'

Chrissy - age 6

'Love is what makes you smile when you're tired.'

Terri - age 4

'Love is when my mommy makes coffee for my daddy and she takes a sip before giving it to him, to make sure the taste is OK.'

Danny - age 7

'Love is when you kiss all the time. Then when you get tired of kissing, you still want to be together and you talk more. My Mommy and Daddy are like that. They look gross when they kiss'

Emily - age 8

'Love is what's in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen.'

Bobby - age 7 (Wow!)

'If you want to learn to love better, you should start with a friend who you hate,'

Nikka - age 6
(we need a few million more Nikka's on this planet)

'Love is when you tell a guy you like his shirt, then he wears it everyday.'

Noelle - age 7

'Love is like a little old woman and a little old man who are still friends even after they know each other so well.'

Tommy - age 6

'During my piano recital, I was on a stage and I was scared. I looked at all the people watching me and saw my daddy waving and smiling.

He was the only one doing that. I wasn't scared anymore.'

Cindy - age 8

'My mommy loves me more than anybody
You don't see anyone else kissing me to sleep at night.'

Clare - age 6

'Love is when Mommy gives Daddy the best piece of chicken.'

Elaine-age 5

'Love is when Mommy sees Daddy smelly and sweaty and still says he is handsomer than Robert Redford.'

Chris - age 7

'Love is when your puppy licks your face even after you left him alone all day..'

Mary Ann - age 4

'I know my older sister loves me because she gives me all her old clothes and has to go out and buy new ones.'

Lauren - age 4

'When you love somebody, your eyelashes go up and down and little stars come out of you.' (what an image)

Karen - age 7

'You really shouldn't say 'I love you' unless you mean it But if you mean it, you should say it a lot.. People forget.'

Jessica - age 8


And the final one:

The winner was a four year old child whose next door neighbor was an elderly gentleman who had recently lost his wife.

Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy went into the old gentleman's yard, climbed onto his lap, and just sat there.

When his Mother asked what he had said to the neighbor, the little boy said, 'Nothing, I just helped him cry'

Happy Valentines Day to everyone! I hope you spend it telling those you love how much they mean to you.

Amanda

Why I gave up on "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius"

I stopped reading it on purpose- and it may be the only book I've ever started reading which I consciously chose not to finish I didn't think it was engaging at all, and as a result the title made me angry whenever I picked it up- like "HA HA! SUCKER!" I wanted it to at least be sarcastic or funny or, oh... I don't know... ACTUALLY GOOD??

If I had easy access to a helicopter, I'd fly to Chicago this weekend

I have alot of friends there whom I haven't seen in ages, yet I live only hours away.

If I were a superhero, I would certainly wear tights

My Superhero name would be Supermom. I would be able to make things happen just by thinking about them. I could get the dishes and laundry done just by seeing the clean dishes in the cabinets and the clean laundry folded in the drawers in my mind. I could make a gourmet meal just by seeing the food on the plate. The only catch would be that I would have to wear a special mind-wave blocking hat at all times, removing it only when I wanted to use my powers- this hat would prevent all the worrying I do from coming true by the power of thought.

Lust

I am currently lusting after this Reclaimed-Wood bed from Sundance Catalog. It showed up on one or two of my favorite design blogs a week or so ago, and I love it like I have loved no other bed before. We don't have anything near a bedroom set, and that means no headboard whatsoever- just our mattress on a bed-frame. I don't know why, but not having at least a headboard has always made our bedroom look more makeshift to me than anything else in our hodgepodge of a home.

Our house is furnished with 99% hand-me-down furniture, and a few select home-made items thanks to the Hubby's woodworking capabilities. The only furniture in our house that we have actually picked out and purchased is the two couches in our living room. Everything else, besides four bookshelves, and my worktable-top is "inherited" which means that my mother in law decided sometime in the past thirteen years that she didn't want or need it anymore, so it showed up in our house. The hand-me-downs are really not bad- they are usually good enough quality, though they are usually a couple of decades old at least, and they show it aesthetically... not to mention that they usually don't quite fit our needs exactly, so they are only about 50%-70% useful for their assignments in our house.


Added to that is the fact that we rent an old house which was obviously owned by deranged do-it-yourselfers with little need for closets, so we end up having to find jury-rigged solutions for issues such as no coat closet (that's the easiest solution- though hanging the coats on hooks by the back door means that I need to Febreeze my coats after any cooking involving breakfast meats or onions) or no Linen storage anywhere, or no closet at all in the largest bedroom in the house. And the fact that we rent means that we don't want to really fix these problems for the owners and contribute to someone else's bottom-line instead of our own..


One day soon I'll get to grow up all the way and buy a house and make it perfect for us, but in the meantime, I think I have some re-purposing to do...

A little diversion

Here's a little list of questions I felt like answering after seeing it on a blog- feel free to respond in the comments with your own list of answers to these questions!!

1. 3 living things you treasure

My Parents and Sisters
My Hubby
My Daughter

2. 3 non-living things that you treasure

Painting my dad put me in 'cause it was my (11th?)birthday.
Ceramic Christmas tree that was Jason's Grandmom's
Box my dad made and painted for me.

3. favorite time of the year and why

Fall- I love the crisp weather, the changing colors, the leaves on the ground, wearing jeans and sweaters but not a coat.

4. favorite things to wear

JEANS, Sweaters, my Fluffy White cotton-terry robe, my awesome Clarks slippers

5. are you a perfume wearer ? If yes, which one? / top 3 favorite smells

Summer: Demeter Honeysuckle
Winter: Calvin Klein Contradiction

6. favorite animal

Don't really have a favorite animal

7. top three events in your life(so far)

Marrying my Hubby (12 years ago! wow!)

Birth of my Daughter

Don't have a third one that rates as high as the other two yet...

8. top three favorite small pleasures

Long, Hot Showers
A good book that I can't put down
Shrimp

9. top 3 favorite places in the world( you have visited or would like to visit)

I would like to visit too many places to list- I want to see the whole world!!

10. top 3 favorite sounds

Birds Chirping

The soft quiet of a snowy/snowing night

Water sounds

11. top 3 favorite things to eat

Hubby's Homemade "Awesome Bread" with olive oil and herbs dip
a really good Caesar salad
Cheesecake

12. 3 favorite favorites right now! (from etsy or elsewhere)

cloche hats
cuddly sweaters
big cozy afghans (can you tell it's winter??)

13. 3 small ways someone has made your day lately

The Wig supervisor on Happy Days saying he was hoping to get to work with me again.
Jason cleaned the Kitchen last night.
Sam cuddled with me this morning.

14. 3 small habits/quirks you have that make you specifically you!

I am contrary- I don't like to be predictable/ I am not interested in mainstream.
I am sassy- you know I'm comfortable around you when I start ribbing/sassing you.
I am unfailingly optimistic- I will always spin a situation to the positive.