Mar. 26: Currently

Happy new week.

I am currently:

Listening

…to the relative peace of the house. The kids are in Seattle. The dogs are in separate rooms for now, so they’re not doing that Tasmanian Devil tornado thing all over the place. The Monday landscapers finished the neighborhood early and all their noise is done. I can actually hear birds chirping! The frogs are quiet for now—probably tired after croaking ALL NIGHT LONG OMG I HATE THOSE FROGS SO MUCH.

Eating

…gummy bears. Breakfast of champions.

Drinking

…iced coffee. Makes for a better-balanced breakfast of champions. Yup.

Feeling

…very happy. We had such a nice weekend. The weather was beautiful on Saturday and we spent a lot of time out in it. Early yesterday the kids took off to Seattle with Grandpa & Grandma, so Victor and I had most the day to ourselves. We ran errands, went shopping, had lunch out, watched some Hulu, and thoroughly appreciated a kid-free day.

…eager about coming events. Tonight we’re having dinner with one of my fave sisters-in-law, Sally, who’s visiting from Florida. We’ve got tickets to see Wicked on Thursday night—it’ll be Jack’s first time (my fifth, Vic’s fourth, Katie’s third… we’re fans, obvy). At this time next week, Vic and I will be belatedly celebrating our 15th anniversary in Long Beach, Washington. And a lunch (involving fondue!) with Sherilee next week? Yes, please!

Wanting

…to hang with friends I haven’t seen nearly enough lately. Val, this means you!

Needing

…to do some gardening while the weather’s nice. Will I get outside today? I sure hope so… but reading away the afternoon doesn’t sound terrible either. Pretty sure my laziness will beat my ambition. It usually does.

accomplishing

…some projects that have been on my to-do list for a long time. Last month I bought a rug for our kitchen, and on Friday I finally put it down. This actually turned out to be a pretty time-consuming project, involving moving the other rug out (and cleaning it before storage), thoroughly scrubbing the floors (might as well do all the hardwoods, not just the kitchen, right?), and getting the new rug perfectly situated underneath the table and chairs. Because Lucy loves to chase the broom and mop, I did most of the work while she was at the vet last week. And y’know how one minor task often turns into eleventy more? That’s where I am now: prioritizing the eleventy others. Only a couple of them involve paint. (Can you hear my husband groaning over the mention of “paint”??? He totally is.)

Enjoying

…vicariously, my friends’ spring break vacations. Some are on ships, one is in Texas, several have family visiting… and then there’s me. Staying home. I’m trying not to whine too much, because a big trip is in the works for later this year—I hope I hope I hope. Plus there’s our getaway thing next week.

…way too much TV. I think I actually watch more TV now than I did before we cancelled cable—Hulu makes it so dang easy. GCB is a recent guilty pleasure, and Bent has been amusing. I’m totally obsessed with Smash… happy that Community is back on… 30 Rock is as funny as ever… still waiting to find Suburgatory a waste of time and it’s not happening… Cougar Town is clever, sweet, and underrated… I catch CSI episodes online as often as possible (they’re not on Hulu, just cbs.com)… I can’t believe I’m still watching Alcatraz and Grimm, which are so NOT my usual types of must-see TV… as well as my other old favorites, The Office, Modern Family, The Middle, Parks & Recreation, SVU… See, way, way too much TV.

sharing silly stuff

 

 

 

 

 

I’m off to decide how best to waste my day. Smell ya later—

Jul. 20: Such sophistication

The kids’ bedroom re-do project has, in a way, moved downstairs. I was really hoping to confine it to the upstairs region of our house, but it turns out that was pure silliness of thought.

Right now there are lots of boxes and small furniture items set in the hallway upstairs, waiting for a closet or wall somewhere for permanent placement, and also making the hallway quite treacherous. Shuffling three bedrooms involves a lot of temporary storage. Much of this storage has been found in the master bedroom, another room I was hoping could remain clutter-free during this project. Ha.

Jack’s loft bed was disassembled without incident, but its reassembly (?) in the new room has taken some time. One side of the bed had a slide, and Jack had begun to think that made it babyish so he asked Vic to take it off. No problem. The other side has a ladder, which is now quite necessary if we want injury-free dismounts from the bed. Vic made the mistake of offering to put the ladder on the slide end, and Jack loved that idea because he likes whatever is more difficult for his parents. I think Loveliest Lori’s boys must have taught him that, as I’ve heard her use that same description for them.

The bed was almost completely together again when Victor realized one entire side had to be changed if the ladder was going at the opposite end, and that meant the whole thing needed to be taken apart again. It was past 10:00 the night he discovered this, so we told Jack he’d sleep on his mattress on the floor that night and Vic would finish the bed the next day. But the next day was busy with other parts of the project, and so was the day after that. Finally, yesterday Vic went in to dis- and re-assemble and couldn’t find the Allen wrenches. We have a nice set—it looks like a Swiss army knife—that’s much easier to use than the single wrenches that come with some-assembly-required furniture, so we rarely hang on to those little ones and use our fancy-schmancy ones instead. Without them, Vic was screwed. Not literally. In fact, literally, the bed was NOT screwed—no Allen wrenches meant no dis- and re-assemble.

The minute we go out and buy another set, the other one will turn up. That’s how it works, isn’t it? But it looks like we gotta. If you need an assortment of Allen wrenches, we’ll gladly loan you one of ours.

With Jack’s bed only partly together, we can’t get the armoire out of his room to move to the playroom, nor can we move his dresser or desk out of the playroom into his room. Katie’s dresser and hanging clothes are still in her old closet (in Jack’s new room) so there is much screaming when she goes in and starts rooting around in his room for her things. I am so so so ready for this whole thing to be over.

On the “done” side, the playroom table/desk is set up in the playroom now, and the kids’ computer is connected and working. The closet in that room has been cleaned out and I have a HUGE amount of stuff from there to take to Goodwill today. Although Katie’s room is far from finished, it’s painted and really quite pretty—she keeps saying, “I love it so much I just want to squeeze someone!” (Please don’t be like Lennie please don’t be like Lennie please don’t be like Lennie…)

So how did any of this end up moving downstairs? Some of the most fragile items were put in the living room to keep them out of the way during the transition. The other day I noticed that they were all mostly musical—Katie’s electronic keyboard, recorder and ukulele, and Jack’s snare drum and bongos have all been placed near the piano. Add my flute and Katie’s microphone to the mix, and we’re the freakin’ Partridge Family!

In the interest of all things sophisticated, we’ve decided to call that corner of the living room the conservatory, or my preferred term, “conservatoire.” I know, I know—we’re way classy. Because as owners of a fancy set of Allen wrenches (that cannot be found) AND a conservatoire, well, we must be the envy of just about everyone. You’re jealous, aren’t you?

Mar. 21: Welcome home, Lori

The Lovely Lori and her family were on a Disney cruise this past week. She checked in a few times with updates on Facebook and an uploaded photo here and there, but otherwise we didn’t hear much from her—not surprising because HELLO? She was in the Caribbean! On a Disney ship! With a spa! Which means Lovely Lori time away from kids and John!

Still, I missed her tons and am glad she’s just about home.

I did a Google image search for [“welcome home” + Disney] to find an image for this post but I got all depressed because I found photos of the ship’s banners at ports, Disney characters waving goodbye, etc. and it made me more jealous than I was when The Lovely Lori and her family left last week. So here’s your welcome home image, Lori—imagine me slapping it on here and stomping off and you’ll just about have the sentiment right:

Fine, I’m glad you’re home, for really and for true. I look forward to hearing more details, but everything you posted on Facebook makes it sound like you had a fabulous trip. Many lovies!