Isn't It Purty?

I've been home all morning working on the house and "styling" it so I could take some pictures for the MLS. I am trying to convince D that we should put the sign in the yard tonight when all the trick-or-treaters are out roaming the streets. He doesn't want to because he thinks they'll call and we won't be ready.
The top one was the study, this one is of the back yard.
Aren't bedrooms boring?
My artsy bathroom picture.
Trying to be artsy in the living room...
And I had to hide the hole in the island (where the outlet used to be before we tore up the floor) with the chair. Can you tell?
Man! Rooms are so hard to take pictures in.

Multitasking

It has been a shock to learn that my sister of 39 years, who is the queen of multitasking cannot do anything else while talking on the phone. I have personally seen her make a four coarse meal for her family, feed her grandson, bake cookies, answer the door and let the dog out simultaneously, but the other day I was fabric shopping while talking to her and it blew her mind. I do everything while talking on the phone! She admitted to me today, while she was talking to me, that she had been trying to clean while talking on the phone and ended up just carrying the sponge around with her :)
Isn't it strange to learn something about your sibling after so long? Or did I know that and just forgot it? My memory stinks.
My hurdles? I seriously cannot broil anything without burning it. I am distracted too easily. I know there are a ton of things...
So here is a question...what can't you do?

Is There Time?

H and I were researching costumes this afternoon and came across this family costume:
I want to be Mt. Rushmore for Halloween now. And did you see the little Liberty Bell? Can we do it? Should I even try?

Sniff....sniff...she's getting old

Can you believe that she is Eleven today? What a beautiful girl. We have been
battling the "I'm tired of yelling at you, your tired of listening to me" fights lately. Ever have those days that you feel as if your only communication is to yell? Pick? That is us right now. When I look at the picture I ask myself why? Are you crazy? She is beautiful, smart, has a wonderful, giving heart and everyone loves her.

My Cookie Man

Bubba had a project due today. It was a cookie bake-off/contest.
Each 3rd grader brought in a batch of their favorite cookies, decorated their desk with a theme, and entered their cookies in a category to compete in. S and I made my world famous Melting Moments renamed to "Bony Moments" by S ( I didn't even going to go into the weird connotations the name may suggest). He made them in the shape of small dog bones and frosted them. I ponied up and sewed him a dog bone table cloth and apron, he made a chef's hat with dog stamps on it, and I bought two dog dishes to serve the cookies in. Here he is after the contest, posing in our dining room. He took home "Best Small Cookie" awards, but claims that he won every category he entered because his were the favorite cookie, but the teacher had to give some of the awards to the other students. Humility? Maybe they teach that in the fourth grade.

Beuller? Beuller? Anyone?

Yes, I survived Substitute Teaching '08. I came home unscathed. TO tell you the truth it was a little weird. First, the teacher was there (she had to drive the bus for a 5th grade field trip). Second, she did not have a lesson plan prepared until I sat down with her at 8:30 (school begins at 7:55, but her first class did not start until 8:53). Third, and I know that I am jinxing myself but here goes, I don't think I would ever choose to teach the 7th grade. Ever again. Ever. This particular teacher teaches Bible to the ENTIRE 7th grade at one time. Yes, I know that I am a wimp and when you ask how many 7th graders are in the entire school you will roll your eyes, there are 30 7th graders. Big whoop. But can you say disrespectful age?
I also taught two 4th grade Spanish classes, that were very easy considering I don't speak Spanish, a 6th grade Bible class that was a breeze (probably because I know all those kids and can call them by name) and finally a 7th and 8th grade enrichment speech class.
My favorite? Probably the speech class (with some of those same rotten kids) and surprisingly the Spanish classes. The speech class was very interesting because I felt like I contributed to actually teach and make them think about their assignments. I read over the speeches they were working on and gave suggestions and ideas. That was cool. Getting locked out of the classroom during speech class because they closed the door on me? Not so cool.

A Little Less Crabby

Now that I have gotten my early voting and political badgering issues off my chest I wanted to tell you how grateful I am to have such wonderful friends like you. Thank you all so much for my birthday wishes yesterday, Rhonda or Bailey must be next? I'm thinking Bailey was late October...
All the wishes were great and made my day. I also wanted to thank you for the wonderful comments and helpful hints! It makes me feel close to you and happy that I am not going thru any of my stuff alone.
I am off to substitute today. I'm a tiny bit nervous, but have packed some back up at my sister's suggestion. I have a few group games in my bag that I can whip out if need be. Off to teach Spanish! Oi Vey!

To All You Evil Polictial Phone Solicitors...

I have already freaking voted. I happen to live in a state that has early voting, and my favorite local library, that is less than a mile away from my home, offers two weeks of early voting. So why are you still calling me 6 times a day? Stop calling me.
I find your new tactic of using a residential name and telephone number listing on my caller id particularly frustrating and deceitful. Stop calling me.
Every person that I come in contact with during the coarse of my week has already voted, every friend and co-worker has also already taken advantage of the early voting as well. Heck, one local establishment offers "in car" voting for the elderly and disabled. Even my disabled and elderly friends and parents of friends have all voted. So why are you still calling me and running incessant ads 24/7 as well as sending me at least 3 pieces of political junk mail in my mail each day? Stop bothering me!
Don't you understand that I vote on policy, but when you bother me to the point of stalking me I tend to want to vote for your opposition because I hate you so much?
I promise, when I move, I will never again register to vote as "undecided party." I think there should be a disclaimer below that box stating that you get twice as many calls and pieces of junk mail when you check this box.
I already know I voted for the winner in the Presidential race. Woo hoo!

It'sBeen A Long Time...A Long Lonely Lonely Lonely Time...

I am very sorry it has been so quiet around here. A few words to describe my last few days...quiet, stress, busy, stress, hormones (NOT my own), tired and annoyed.

First let me say that the house stuff is coming along, after a painting debacle that added years and time to my life and project. We are not done, but I think I can see the light. Marital counseling has not been considered or ordered, so that is a plus. Funny fact/info...our Realtor told us to take EVERYTHING down that is a photograph, has a name on it, etc. His advice, which I am taking since I am desperate to sell and don't all together disagree, is that any person, regardless of race should be able to picture them self in your home. I must say that when I look at houses I don't like seeing photographs, but I swear that I have patched every wall and am practically repainting every room because of this advice. That, and my house looks completely bare.

Second, I fear the change is near. H was unbelievably moody and hormonal yesterday. Practically broke down in tears at the book fair yesterday after school. My parents had sent each of the kids $10 to spend and she wanted these "emoters"-a cute little face that clips on to your ipod headphones. (Hannah worked at summer camp all summer and saved up enough for a shuffle). Well Sam had already bought them for her for her birthday on Monday and I was trying to steer her away from them telling her that Nana said a book, not other crap. She had been all leechy and clingy since we hooked up at the fair, so much so that I kept asking her what was wrong...and she lost it. I swear that I can barely survive my own hormones sometimes. What am I gong to do about her now?

More soon. Got to go to work...BTW, I have my first subbing gig on Friday! I am teaching Spanish, Bible and Public Speaking. And I don't speak Spanish...

Maybe I am A Little...Goal Oriented?

I know, more blogging about goals and accomplishments. Why am I such a freak that I measure my day and it's success by how much I did?
Today I weeded (with the help of the kids who did an AWESOME job) all the flower beds, spread 8 bags of bark (mulch to you Southerners), weed-eated everything in the yard, cleaned out all the weeds from around the AC unit and BBQ area, DE-caulked the master bathroom, cleaned the baseboards in our room, closet, and the upstairs hall, changed all the furnace filters, and cleaned a portion of the garage to store my new free Craigslist boxes.
My husband? Worked in the lab from 7 - 11, then got home, ate lunch and worked on a Sudoko, then went to work in the garage. He came in to the bathroom where I was de-caulking really excited at about 3:00 pm. He wanted to show me his progress on the bonus room media center doors. I stopped what I was doing and walked upstairs with him to see ONE, uno, ein, decorative door hanging in front of the tv. He looked at me and said, isn't it cool? (It is frosted/etched glass in a solid wood frame.)
And do you know what I thought? Said? Wanted to say? What the H*E*C*K have you been doing all day in the freaking garage??? He looked at me expectantly and I said I really liked the design, which I did. He sighed and asked what was wrong because I wasn't very excited by his door. What I wanted to say/scream/sob was...can you stop being so freaking perfect about this stupid media center that is in a house we are trying to sell and put some damn doors on those cupboards?
Later, now, I realized that he needed the time to work some ideas out, and he is not a psycho goal oriented person like me. What is my problem? D is right. If the media center is done right and is a great design, it could make our house sell faster.

Crazily yours,

Me

Just Getting Ready

Sorry that there is no real news here. Since the decision was made on Wednesday, we have been thinking and prepping for the move. We need to finish our bonus room project...D needs to make some doors...we need to caulk the master bathroom because it is kind of mildewy...and work the magic eraser until the doors and walls are sparkley. I have been painting (all touch up except the ceiling in the bonus room. The ceiling had basketball marks all over it from that blasted game that David bought the kids a few Christmases ago.) I have been taking the dangley beads down from H's closet and replacing the doors.
I went on Craigslist today and snagged our first set of moving boxes (free).
And I took all the crap out of both the kids closets and threw away two garbage bags of trash, one to the "store" at AWANA, one to goodwill, and put two bins in the attic.
Now for the other closets, painting and attic.

Thank you all for the wonderful kind words and prayers. I am very glad to be closer to everyone, at least by a few hours. We will be closer to my brother in Knoxville even. AND Dayton is a non-stop to my parents again. Wooohooo!

And the winner is....

Ohio. As of January 5, 2009 my husband will be working in Ohio. Depending on when we can sell our house, we will be there too!

Now if I can just convince my husband that I don't want to live on a hobby farm...

Fat Greasy and Happy

I am nursing a food baby, a greasy ring around my lips and horribly bad breath as we speak. Tonight D had a bee in his bonnet and had to have Red Robin for dinner. I prepped and thought about what I was going to have, psyched myself up to eat healthy and get my diet moving since only one pair of pants (capris-thank God it is still 80 here) fits currently. I got to RR, sat down and looked at the menu, which I have memorized and started to make my decision. Apple/goat cheese salad, French onion soup with a side salad, a terriaki banzai burger? No, I freeze when I see this French dippy special with garlic fries and cave. I felt I needed the red meat-don't ask-I can justify my food anyway I see fit. JH will understand-shark bait.
We haven't been out to dinner/lunch in ages (not counting the pretzel and other fast food in Washington DC) and I caved! I sat there and only ate half my sandwich, but consumed all the greasy fries. Now I have a food baby (see the movie Juno) and I am a groaning greasy mess.
And No. We have not decided on Ohio. Yes, I do realize it is closer to MN and IA and WA-yahoo!!! But we heard some good feedback today from D's current boss, so things are moving forward. I will let you know as soon as I do.

No progress

So we spent the day talking about the opportunity in Ohio. Should we go? How ae we going to sell the house here?
We spoke to a friend who is a Realtor. We asked him all the Days on Market/pricing questions.
I THINK we are leaning toward moving, but honestly the feel changes by the second here.
Aaargh!!!

Should I Stay or Should I Go?

Sorry I have been off the radar. D got a job offer yesterday and it is consuming me/us and I wanted to call Lola and tell hr over the phone before she found out on the blog. She claims she is always the last to know. Which isn't entirely true.

D interviewed for a job in August near his brother and Mom in Ohio. He found out yesterday that he got it and they want a decision on Tuesday. They "had to wait until the end of the fiscal year" before telling/offering him the position. The crappy thing is that D also just got a job/one year research faculty where he currently is. So the conundrum is do we stay or do we go? His big argument is that the housing market is crap and we'd have to sell our house for him to start in January...yikes! And I don't have a job/prospects for Ohio so that means that our income would actually decrease. Throw the kids into the mix and we are sweating bullets and tossing and turning.

Waxing Matilda

It has been my goal in blogging to start showing off projects and sharing ideas with everyone. Here is what we did today. Waxing leaves. Waxed leaves are *supposed* to last from year to year and preserve the leave color. I took a cheap candle I bought at Michaels (yes, Susan, we do have Michaels :) and placed it in a disposable pie plate on the stove on low. I don't know what you'd do with a gas stove or a stove with burners, my stove is smooth surface so I didn't have to worry about spilling wax and making a huge mess. FYI: I tried melting the candle in the microwave and it didn't budge...in fact I melted the bowl handle!


Then Bubba and H collected leaves and started dipping them in the wax. I was a little leery at first, but the kids handled it well and never got burned. Bubba even dipped fingers at one point (without touching the pan). We dipped the leaves then laid them out on waxed paper (good side up) to dry. Drying didn't take long...maybe less than 2 minutes.



The leaves are real pretty. I used them in my dining room table arrangement with some pumpkins from Michaels I bought on clearance last year, and super cute mini pumpkins/bats/crows/corn cobs I bought at Moon's craft store in Rochester before they closed. I think I paid 10 cents for a pack of these mini things. Super cute.




Here is the close up.

No pictures please.

Sorry, no pictures. Because I am A. too lazy to go and get my camera and take one and 2. I couldn't find any on the Target.com site. Yesterday I ran to Target to get something for preschool and an item for Bubba to put in his classroom's Silent Auction basket. The theme of the basket is "Scrapbooking." I know that Target isn't where one would usually go to get scrapbooking things, but I was in a "I only want to go to one store" mood.
In the dollar section of the store I found VERY cute packs of sports themed papers, including volleyball-which I NEVER find, chipboard letters and shapes for said pages and some SUPER cute mini albums. The mini albums our store carried were (a dollar-duh) and the kind where they have a cute cover, a few pages, then a little ribbon to tie the thing together.
My sister is the queen of the mini album for my kids. Every time they come to visit she would make them a mini album about their trip to look at on the way home in the plane and to show all their friends. (My kids always cry on the way home). Bubba still has his from years ago and they are still looked at almost weekly. They are a little tattered, but that is okay.
So I bought a few mini's for myself to stash when I need something for my mom or for a cute little gift.

Only two more years...

My sweet, calm, wonderful husband is having a birthday today. Last night we celebrated by grilling fillet mignon and asparagus topped off with a pumpkin spice cake with cream cheese frosting (see picture) from Martha. Today he took these fabulous chocolate cookies from Gugelhopf (a local German bakery) to work. Currently I am baking him his other cookie favorite, snickerdoodles. He requested tacos for dinner and I'm throwing in the snickerdoodles for good measure.
Geez! Are we all about the baked goods?

I also got him this mug (which he will L*O*V*E). The states change color to all blue when the mug gets hot. He and his boss will be fighting over it at work I am sure.

It was a...good...time

It was a fine time. We learned lots of lessons...had more than a few disappointments, but are excited to go back now.

Here is a pic of Bubba on his first ride on the Metro. We dropped H at the bus and had to run home for something, so never actually followed the bus. The bus went straight into the city and we went straight to the Metro station next to the hotel. We rode the Metro in thinking we didn't want to park, etc.

We arrived about 45 min to an hour after the bus, right when the kids were entering the Archives, which was perfect. We met right up.


Here is a really dark pic of H looking over the DOIndependance. I was really into the Archives and couldn't help think of National Treasure the entire time!


After the Archives we went walking with the group H was in (not very exciting or a good use of time, but we learned a lesson.) We went into the Senate Building and ate lunch, looked around for Senators (not really my thing since there was so many other things to do) and got a Representative from NC to give us Gallery tickets (by suggestion of a security guard in the subway to the Capital-almost every person in the Mall that worked there was overly nice and helpful.) We had to meet the group at a certain time for our Capital tour and did that. It was good, beautiful, but was very short. After the tour we went with our special Gallery passes and looked at that, the Rep's were supposed to be meeting about the bail out package, but were on break. So we went to the Library of Congress and hung out 'til we were supposed to meet up again.


Then we took H to meet back up with the group at Union Station for dinner. Where we passed her back to the Chaperone for the 3 hour trolley tour that we did not have tickets for. We then met up the teachers and parents and there was a mutiny by the parents about waiting 3 hours for the kids. We all wanted to go back to the hotel and wait and sleep. We worked that out and were headed to the Metro, when one of H's friends parents said she was going to stay because she didn't want to drive back alone. We (I) offered to drive back with her rather than go on the Metro, adding about an hour to our trip.




We went back and slept.

Friday was a bust. We got screwed in traffic...met up with the group late and H was back in the gallery (decision made by her chaperone) so we spent forever trying to find her and get her back with us. We then, with no clue, walked about 2 miles to get to the Bureau of Engraving to show the kids the money being printed, not realizing that the free tickets were gone by 9 am. Hoofed it all the way to the White House lawn (about another 2 miles), to find it closed because of a VIP, then to the FBI building (about a mile) to find they don't give tours anymore (our guide book was from 1997!). D was so angry by this point that we were all surly and crabby and only had 15 minutes to tour the Portrait Gallery before we were to leave for our Monument tour.

We toured the Monument, which was awesome and highly recommended. Then sat and waited for 30 minutes to tell the teacher we had Hannah and were permanently splitting from the group. By the time we walked back up to the Mall to the National Gallery it was closing in 20 minutes and we ran through. We toured the outside sculpture gardens talking about how the day was a bust and how D thought we were doing one thing and all we ended up doing was walking. D and I (mostly me) decided that we really stink at communicating and need to really plan our vacations so everyone's expectations are met. We found a bunch of things we wanted to see after everything had closed and the one museum D wanted to go to was still under construction and wouldn't be open until late November.

We rode the Metro up to Bethesda where our van was. We ate dinner at a Chinese restaurant in Bethesda and drove to Havre d Grace where P & E live. They lived much farther than we ever expected and we didn't get there until after 10 and we were all so tired we were practically in tears.

On Saturday we ate B & Lunch with P & E and walked around HDG. It is on the N side of the Chesapeke and very cute. We then jumped int he van at 2:30 and drove S to IKEA. When we got off the exit we got lost and had a big meltdown. D was PO'd, I was PO'd and the kids were crazy tired and fighting. We recovered and made it inside. We found a couch that we both liked and were walking thru the store at a very fast pace. I didn't pick up anything I wanted thinking that we were getting the couch. At the end of our fast walk thru the store we stood at the couch trying to decide if we really wanted it/could afford it. I was hungry so I suggested we go upstairs and eat meatballs to conserve time (we were supposed to check in at the B & B at 4 and were obviously super late). By the time I was done, D said since we weren't standing there anymore he didn't want it. I was PO'd and we left after spending a whopping 1.5 hours at the IKEA.

We drove like crazy people to David's surprise B & B and it was way further than expected (as usual) and we didn't get there until after 9:00. We were met by the proprietor and taken inside to find that the 2 bedroom/living room suite was: door less, our kids were at the top of a common staircase in the house and we had no way to lock our room or theirs, it was super musty and there was dog poop and pee in our rooms because their dogs had come up and left us a present.

We sat there really mad deciding that we had made another bad choice, as was the theme of the trip, and decided that we were less than 100 miles from home and we would leave and go home. We arrive home at 11:45 and went to bed.

I didn't have a horrible time, but I am realizing that D and I are not communicating and need to start talking about things!

More pictures later...

Oooo...she's in tru-bull....

We are leaving for Washington DC tomorrow morning, if I haven't already mentioned that a BILLION times. Today, my darling daughter was going to spend her entire Science period discussing the do's and don'ts of the trip with her primary chaperone the 6th grade Science teacher.
My daughter gets in the car and I ask her for the itinerary. She says she has it (before I pull away from the curb) and tells me she give it to me later. We get home. I ask for the itinerary three times and she does not respond. I FINALLY go upstairs and start rifling thru her bag and she fesses up that she has lost it. I start yelling...weeping and gnashing of teeth...I help her look...no itinerary. I tell her calmly that I don't even know when and where to meet the bus to drop her off in 12 hours...I have no idea what I can and can't bring into the buildings (I am assuming that the Capital building has some no-no's...firearms...hand sanitizer...etc just like an airplane?) and I have no idea even what buildings we will be touring at what time. I am freaking out!
So I call the school. No answer. I call a friend. No answer. I look the teacher up in the phone book. No number. I am a little scary at this point. I tell my daughter that I am a control freak and don't want to look like an idiot and would appreciate having all the information that the other parents are receiving.
Finally my friend calls back and tells me she is at the school picking up her daughter and will go on a hunt for me. Multiple teachers, hunting thru school...she finds a fellow 6th grade parent with a copy that she can xerox. She calls back telling me that she has the 4 page packet of information (yes, 4 pages, the night before we leave...come on people!) and that she will be wonderful and drop it off for me.
When she arrived I told her she saved my daughter's behind. Figuratively and literally.