I Should Be Folding Laundry

The First Floor

Do not adjust your computer monitors, I have pictures of my house.  But just the first floor because I'm way too lazy to do more than that.  Way too lazy.

First the kitchen.  This kitchen IS the kitchen of my dreams.  Inside the lower cabinets, the shelves pull out.  I have empty cabinets there are so many cabinets, and cabinets just for paper goods, like paper plates and napkins.  I'm not showing off, I'm just telling you about how glorious and amazing our kitchen is.   The pantry is on the left and passed the refrigerator on the left is the door that leads to the laundry room and a closet and then the garage.  I do not have pictures of my laundry room, the pantry, the closet or the garage because HOW BORING DO YOU WANT THIS POST TO BE?

Oh look!  Another picture of my kitchen.  The island has proven to be the perfect table for folding clothes.  I may have to change my blog title to "I Should Be Dieting" or "I Should Be Cleaning the Toilets" because I've been doing a pretty good job of folding laundry.  (except our washer broke today...I see a laundry back up in the very near future.)  See those bar stools?  The first time my kids sat in those chairs, they spilled something on them.  So the stools fit right in.

Here's the view from the kitchen, into the living room. 

Here's the living room.  I have decorator's block in this room, therefore my walls remain bare.  I do like the way the photo looks on the mantel so my plan is hang photos I have taken up there.  And Shutterfly is having a sale on prints!  Yippee. 

(for the record, I do not say yippee in real life.  or yee haw.)

More living room pictures from the other side.  I love our windows in the living room.  Love. Them.  See the ottoman with the smokin' hot laptop on it?  That's my computer, her name is Roja and that's where I sit to blog n' such.  I'm sitting there right now!

And here's our office, again.  This time with the new light fixture and more stuff on the walls.  I did get some photos I took printed and enlarged and two of them are in this room, I like them.  I think.  This office makes happy, very happy.  We will be making some changes to it in the future.  Oh and to the right is a bathroom and a door to the basement. 

There you have it!  The first floor.  Check back later for the rest...you know, should you need to read something that will make you sleepy.

I'm almost out of excuses

I know what you must be thinking when you come to my blog...

"will she ever show us pictures of her new house?"

"will she ever add mulch to her garden so she can show us pictures?"

"will she ever tell us about the jerk that sold her the trees?"

I finally have answers...yes. yes. and ooooooooooh yeah.  (At least I think I'm going to go into detail about the jerk at the landscape place, I haven't totally decided, yet.)

But not right now.

The mulch was delivered, thanks to my friend and blog reader, Angie, who called me this morning and I had the mulch delivered this afternoon!!!  (thank you, Angie!!) which means we are mulching right now, as we speak.

Well, Brian is, right now I'm blogging and he's dumping the mulch and I'm spreading it when I get done blogging, obviously I have my priorities straight. 

Then tomorrow night I am hosting my Mommies group here and do you know what that means?!?!  I have to clean my house and don't think for a second that I will not be taking tons of pictures after cleaning my house because I do not intend to clean again for a VERY, VERY LONG TIME and I need to capture it, while it lasts.  (which will be about 30 minutes, since I'll wait until the very last minute to clean and everyone will arrive just moments after I have finished cleaning.  Procrastinate much?)  And the pictures will come in handy for when a neighbor drops by and sees the squalor we live in and I can be all like "yeah, but, see these pictures? it USED to be clean."

What does all this mean?  I'm busy!  Can't blog!  But will soon!  With pictures!

And just to hold you over, I'm going to share some pictures for you that I took this weekend, while my sister-in-law and her family were visiting.  The beautiful girl in the shots is my niece and she's very, very cute with a tiny, little girl voice.  oh and there's other shots of crap thrown in, just for good measure.  Enjoy!

And here's one of Ariel, before I leave (if you look closely, you can see where she cut her own bangs way back in June - sadly, she loves the way it turned out.)

Oh dear, I think Brian just flipped me off, I better get to work.

Just like Darth Vader but without the helmet, cool voice and light saber.

We are starting to fall into a routine here at our new home.  Brian returned to work yesterday, after being home for five days after his most recent business trip, two business trips, really.

I am still trying to figure out how to keep the house clean, maintain the steady stream of laundry, try to work and build our business, try to be a Mom and sometimes, make more than macaroni for dinner...I'm also the landscaper who is trying to grow grass ALL DAY LONG OF EVERY SINGLE DAY.

I wanted to show you pictures of the trees we purchased for James and Jake.  They are called Lollipop Crabapples and I adore them. (side note: I do intend to tell you the story about the "person" who sold the trees to me, I just have to be a in really good mood and have a lot of time.)  They grow so wonderful and dense and in the spring they have beautiful white blossoms and in the winter they have tiny little crabapples that feed the birds.  It's the perfect tree.  In my opinion, of course.  (side note: this is one of the trees from the front yard, there is a second one straight back from this one, in the backyard.  side note #2:  I do intend to give you a full garden tour, but it will have to wait until I buy mulch, have it delivered and actually add it to the flower beds, which could be 2011.)

This morning, while outside watering my tomato plant sitting on my deck, I looked over at one of the trees and I could see from far away that japanese beetles were eating my tree.  I could see the little black, copper and green bastards and the damage they had already done to my precious tree.  I knew that if they were doing this to one tree, they were doing it to the other. 

I felt overly protective of my trees, like they were messing with my children.

It was time to kick some beetle ass.

I went into the garage and grabbed my ammunition, attached it to the hose and doused each tree for waaaaay too long, but I wanted to make sure I got every leaf, every twig wet.  I did this with both trees, I felt like I was doing kung fu with the little bastards, in my mind I was Danny Larusso, (sidenote: did you know Ralph Macchio is forty-seven?) karate chopping them and kicking them in the gut, "hi-ya!" "Take that, you bitchass beetle." I was screaming profanities in my mind.   

Or maybe out loud.  I'm not really sure.  While spraying the tree I was also battling the beetles that were flying towards me, dodging their stealth like flights.  I think they were aiming for my eyes, trying to take me out so I would leave their new lunch room alone. But, within minutes they began to fall to the ground like drops of rain falling from a tree after a rainstorm. 

It was beautiful.

I then started to think about what I must have looked like to my neighbors, attacking my trees like some sort of lunatic tree fighter, some may not have seen me and some may think I'm crazy, and some may understand.

One thing is for sure, if they didn't think I was crazy while fighting the beetles, they certainly thought I was crazy after my kids played outside with bike helmets on.

For hours.

At least for three weeks they thought we were normal.  Longer than the last house we were in.

Who needs the Y when you can have the Wii?

I'm sore.  I'm quite sore and it feels really nice to be sore but it also kinda sucks because well, I'm sore.

My Wii fit age on Thursday was FORTY-NINE.

But yesterday my Wii age was thirty-one.

And someone did guess 49! Tina did and she wins two boxes of Bug Bites!  Way to go, Tina!  To those of you who guessed 74 and such, well, shame on you!  Don't worry, I'm not mad at you.  Hey Tina, send me your address and I'll get those Bug Bites to you.  If one of the boxes is open and half eaten, it wasn't me, blame your mail carrier.

Now onto bigger and better things.  Heroes for Children was created by two Moms who lost their little girls to cancer.  They have turned their unspeakable loss into a great organization that gives financial assistance to families in Texas whose children are battling cancer.

Well, Jenny Scott (co-founder) asked Ruby & Roja to redesign their blog, she was also wanting to rename their blog.  I had the bright idea to open up the brainstorming to the public and  create a contest out of it.  So, whoever comes up with the winning name, that person will win a blog redesign (valued at $90) from Ruby & Roja.

I do hope you head over there and share your ideas, you are all so creative and smart and pretty, I want you to share your talents with them.  You do have time to think about it, but not much, the contest ends July 25th.

Also, if you want to advertise this fun little contest on your blog, with that cute button, here's the code that will make it magically appear.  I really appreciate your support. (<a href="http://heroesforchildren.blogspot.com/2008/07/name-this-blog.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk119/bedesign1/HFCblognamingcontest2.gif" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>)

Let's see, what else is going on?

I have some decorating woes at my new house.  I'm scared to hang anything, I'm scared to make that commitment of putting a nail into the wall.  Therefore, my walls are bare, which is basically why I haven't shared any pictures with you.  I mean, how boring would that be?  Just showing you pictures of rooms with only furniture in it. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

I know, right?  But I'm working on it and soon I'll have pictures for you, I promise.

The award for most miscellaneous post goes to...Me.

You came here and I'm just going to send you away.

Remember when my sister-in-law guest posted here last week?  And it was a heart wrenching, beautiful post about her husband's (my brother) departure to Iraq.  His third time going to Iraq.  Remember that post?  I wonder if you cried as hard as I did when you read it.  I was a hot mess.  A HOT MESS, I tell you!

Well, GUESS WHAT????  She started a blog!  I know!  And I would love it if you visited her and left her comments and showed her your looooove because she would love it and I would love it and her husband would love it and it would be a big, huge love fest.  So, go there, read, look at her fab new design (if I do say so myself) and leave her some love in the comments.  This blog is going to be an amazing distraction and a wonderful outlet for her, blogging is so fabulous and you are all fabulous, it's one big fabulous party.

Oh and I blogged over here.  Check that out, too, k?  And don't just go and read and leave, write a comment for the love of pete.

I know, I'm so needy.

By the way, I ordered Wii Fit and today it gave me my Wii Fit Age, if anyone can correctly guess my age, I will send you two boxes of Bug Bites.  I'm serious.  One guess per person. and I'll tell you my age tomorrow.  Things to keep in mind, my real age is 31 and if anyone guesses 104, I'll be mad, but you won't be too far off. or will you be?

Pictures.

As promised, I am here to post some pictures.

Except I am not posting a ton of pictures of our house tonight, nope, instead, I am posting pictures a ton of pictures I took outside.  I LOVE taking pictures of nature, it makes me feel good, it's good for my soul, I love having the shots show up on my screensaver. Between you and me?  When taking pictures, I think of James and Jake with every shot, I'm not sure why, I just do.

Like I said, it's good for my soul.  (by the way, Carrie was wondering what kind of camera I have, Carrie, I have the Nikon D40X.  It's fantastic.)

It's been awhile since I have taken any fun outdoor pictures, but today the kids and I went for a walk in a park about six minutes from my new house.  My dream is to have some of my favorite photos printed (high quality, not at Walgreens) and professionally framed and then place them on my walls.  That would make me happy.  (anyone know of any photo printing service that's inexpensive?  Anyone?  Anyone?  Beuller?)

So, here are a few of the pictures I took.  And at the end I added a picture of my kitchen that I took tonight, all unpacked and moved in.  You can also see that Servpro is still at our house, YES, you read that right, they are still treating the flood that occurred last Wednesday.  Now all that's left is a smaller fan and a big de-humidifier, which is nothing compared to the two massive industrial fans that were there up until yesterday. Hopefully what's left in there now will be gone by tomorrow.  (with any luck, which  I seem to have none.)

On to the outdoor shots.  It was roughly 187 degrees outside with 100% humidity, which does not bother me, but the kids, well, they did not appreciate the heat, so time was limited, but the subjects were not.

And this one reminds of James and Jake.  I saw this tree and it was very symbolic and beautiful to me.

Here's a shot I took last week of a storm system that was heading in our direction.  I took this on my porch.  This storm barely even produced rain.

And here's my kitchen tonight, can you spot the machinery in the kitchen?

And here is what is supposed to be a dining room that we changed into an office.  I am loving the way this room is turning out.  It's part of Ruby & Roja Headquarters!  Now if I could just stop storing everything on the desk, maybe I could get some work done. This was taken at sunset.

Are you bored to tears, yet?  or do you want more house pictures?

talk to me, man.

I need your help.  Going this long without internet, a husband, a Mom who is in Virginia and having 2 industrial sized fans and an industrial dehumidifier in my kitchen is getting the best of me.  And we don't even have a yard that I can toss the kids into and run back inside and sit myself in my pantry with cheetos while they play.   The kids and I even to see Wall E. today and went out for lunch and dinner, but I'm feeling kinda down.

Here's the thing.  I can read your comments on my blackberry and I am LOVING IT.  I am so grateful to have that little gem sitting next to me, I just wait and wait for the next electronic communication to travel to virtual doorstep.

And if you are wondering how I am posting this, I am sitting in the parking lot at Panera.  NO LIE.  The kids are in the back seat, turning the lights on and off and telling on each other and it's raining outside.  I'm about to stick some suckers in their mouths to buy me a few more minutes, just call me Mother of the Year.

So, this is how you can help me.  Leave me a comment.  Tell me something about you, like, how your summer is going, or what you order from Taco Bell when you go there.  OR, you can tell me if you think I should cut my bangs tomorrow?  I have a hair appointment at 11:30.  Currently, I think I look like a doobie brother with my long bangs, some people agree, others disagree, so should I cut my bangs?

Also, have you tried Bug Bites, yet?  I've introduced them to two people this week and both of them e-mailed me separately saying they loved them...and me.  Cause I introduced them to the beauty of the Bug Bite.

OH!  And did you see Christy and I changed our company name?!?!  We did, we love it.  Check it out.  ALSO - have you seen the new look and the big news over at 5 Minutes for Mom?  I think the new look is FABULOUS, if I do say so myself.

PLEASE HELP ME!  TALK TO ME, MAN!!!!

I didn't like having a nice kitchen anyway.

Today started out like a typical morning, I walked down the stairs and headed towards my coffee maker as quickly as my tired legs could go.  I heard water running and grew concerned and realized rather quickly that I was walking in water, at least an inch of water.  In my brand new kitchen, with the beautiful hardwood floors. 

I saw the water was coming from the back of the refrigerator, I called Brian who is on a business trip in North Carolina and I pulled the refrigerator out.  The water line that connects to the ice maker was no longer attached to the fridge.  In fact, when I pulled the fridge away from the wall, the hose was whipping around like a wild snake, I felt like I was reenacting the scene from Mr. Mom when he fights the hose from the washing machine, the water was spraying all over my kitchen and on my face and my glasses, I was soaking wet, my floors, the cabinets, the walls, everything, was wet.

I didn't even know where or how to begin the clean up, I eventually got out the shop vac and almost filled it up two times from the water in the kitchen alone.  While on the phone with Brian he said "you may want to check out the basement."  No, actually I do not want to check out the basement at all, I wanted to reply, I'll just pretend we don't have a basement, m'kay?

But eventually I went downstairs to find water EVERYWHERE.  The couches and carpet we had downstairs are ruined, crib mattresses and car seats and boxes of clothes are  soaking wet.  In the basement, however, our items weren't just wet, they were muddy and disgusting.

I got the kitchen pretty dry and put out three fans and washed about 80 towels but I could look down at the wood and see it starting to warp, the dark edges of each piece made me want to weep.

We decided two things.  Number one, we need to hire a company to come and dry us out completely.  Number two, call the insurance company.

After awhile, a restoration company came by and worked on the clean up, they took pictures and prepared the paperwork to be sent to our insurance company, the kids and I left the house for the evening because their massive fans and de-humidifiers were just deafening.  I'm pretty annoyed that this happened because it FINANCIALLY sucks.  This move has been so incredibly expensive and we really wanted to get a new, much larger dining room table, along with about 40,000 other things.

But instead, we are paying for people to dry our house out.  Talked about an unplanned expense.

The funny thing is, though, I don't really care that this happened., I mean, it sucks, for sure, but it's tolerable.  We may not be buying a new table anytime soon, but we do have a table, and a roof over our heads and a family to share dinners with.  And although it sucks that we are having to spend thousands of dollars, that we really do not have, on this ridiculous thing that happened, we still have a beautiful home and we are so grateful.

I talked to my friend Christy this afternoon and she said "you know, (with her beautiful Texas accent) I hate to be cliche, but when it rains it pours."  and she's right, I am aware.  I would be lying to you if I said I never once thought "WHY IS THIS HAPPENING TO US?  CAN'T WE CATCH A BREAK?"  Because I did think those thoughts but followed by those thoughts, in all honesty, were thoughts of gratitude and being fully aware of the good that is in my life.

My husband is out of town for two weeks, but he's not in Iraq.  (my brother left today for Iraq and won't be back until March - please keep him and his family in your prayers)
My house flooded, but it's okay, the floors have to be resurfaced and soon this will all be a memory.
My boys, my sons, died inside my belly, but somehow they are so deeply engraved in my heart that I feel them with me.  It's almost like I can feel their hands on my shoulders during these stressful times, hands of support and grace and love, speaking to me telling me everything is going to be okay.

Although silver linings typically drive me crazy, I was pretty proud of myself for allowing myself to listen to those words of encouragement deep inside my heart and my brain.

This experience today, is something that will be added to our catalog of memories that happened in our new house.  Last night, after the kids went to bed, my girlfriends came over and we sat in the living room and laughed and ate nachos and chocolate mousse cake, and yesterday morning I sat and watched my children sleep.

I realize that tomorrow morning I may wake up with a really bad attitude about what happened today, or maybe we'll find out that the floor will have to be totally replaced, but for right now, I'm pretty grateful that all we experienced today was a flood in our kitchen and basement.  Not that big of a deal at all, really.

Gems & Nuggets

Still no internet.  Brian has spent over two and half hours on the phone with our internet provider and well, in the end?  Someone disconnected their call.  First the install was to be on the 10th, then it was moved to two weeks after the tenth and then it was moved to the 14th and then they said they lost our order and now it's supposed to be sometime in 2008.  And as much as I'd love to leave this highly disorganized and unprofessional internet provider for their lack of service and urgency and return to my old true love, we can't, we are under contract.  (long story.)

So, fortunately, I have friendly friends who will help a sister out, my friend Sarah from Milk & Honey is guest posting today.  Sarah is a friend of mine in real life, if I had to describe her in one word, I would use the word hilarious.  She's a comic with great timing, she says things like "I like my fair share of gangster rap" and I laugh and laugh and laugh and then I see that she's serious, which makes her even funnier.  And?  She so cute and looks like Sarah McLachlan.  Here's her guest post for today.  Show her the love and make her feel welcome, k?

Last week, my husband and I closed on the sale our house. After three months on the market, we accepted a good offer so that we could move on to the next chapter of our lives. Minor detail: we did this without knowing what that next chapter is. We're staying with his parents until we figure that out. We're in good company, because also staying with the in-laws is my husband's brother and his lovely wife and family, while they wait to see where their next chapter leads.

It's been fun living in close quarters with these eight other people of varying ages; four of them are under six, and two of them are in their sixties. I've never had this much constant interaction with small children before, and it's made me realize a couple things: peanut butter is a food group in and of itself, and also, kids listen, really listen to what you say. They take it in, dissect it to make sense of it, and share their interpretation with others. They live by your words, no matter how ridiculous they may be.

Naturally this scares the shit out of me, since I'm ten-ish weeks away from having my own small, impressionable person. I've been thinking about the words my mom used when I was a kid, and their effectiveness. Hoo boy, were they effective. And, little did I know then, hilarious. I'm looking forward to busting out some of these gems as soon as I get an opportunity. Until then, I share them with you, eager reader, to use as you see fit. 

"You'd better leave him alone, one day he's going to be bigger than you!" This should be said when a younger, yet taller, sibling habitually makes an older child's life hell. Usually a dual-purpose statement to both warn the young'n and give hope to the older child, who, for the record, probably won't ever be bigger, but will become freakishly strong as he hits young adulthood. Seriously. Did I ever show you my broken finger.

"Don't make me shout like a fishwife!" A front-porch favorite for calling the kids in for dinner. "Josh! Sarah! Dinner! Come on home, don't make me shout like a fishwife!" What makes this most effective is the unexpected element of embarrassment. Oh, they'll come running alright, just so the shouting will stop. Straight from the source of all things mom, this one is most often attributed to grandmas.

"Your room looks like a whore's nightmare." Another grandma-ism. Something about the word whore coming from a sweet grandmother's snarled lips makes the chore of bedroom cleaning more satisfying. And dirty. And maybe a little horrifying.

"Pretty is, as pretty does." Just as effectual as saying pretty girls don't burp or fart. Or pustie. Because that's the only time moms use this one, really. It's a thinly-veiled threat disguised as a lesson.

"What goes over the dog's back comes under his belly." This is most often used when a daughter's (or son's) best friend steals her boyfriend (or girlfriend). Moms love this one because it's a non-violent expression of impending, unavoidable revenge… "Oh sure, she got away with it this time, but that hussy'll get hers, just you wait."

"Don't ever put anything in writing that you don't want to come back to you." One of the best lessons a mom can share. Especially when a daughter (or son) might be considering writing a nasty letter to above mentioned former best friend. Face to face confrontation, or confession, is always ideal, except in cases where legal documentation may be necessary. Ahem.

Knowing what to say, and when to say it, carries so much more pressure than I ever considered. I'm not just talking about the easy stuff, like knowing that 'yibidies' means boobs, 'putsie' means fart, 'tinkle' means pee and a 'ding-dong' is a… uh… ding-dong. How do you console with the right words? Encourage? Threaten and scare the snot out of? (Only when necessary, of course.) Maybe embarrass on occasion? What's your favorite nugget of mom-ism (or dad-ism) gold?

 

Sneak Peeks

Well, hi again!  It's me, live from Panera!  Remember yesterday when I said I would have internet by the 10th at the new house?  Well, they lied - it's two weeks AFTER that, that I'll have internet.  Yes, yes!  I am serious!  Did you hear me screaming the "f" word?  I can assure you, I was.  Not having internet is not good for a business based on having the internet, not good at all.

So, while I sitting here FREEZING TO DEATH AT PANERA trying to catch up on work, I thought I would show you a picture of my kitchen, the day before moving in and also a picture of the staircase, which is just reason 412 that I love our house.

I will love it a lot more when I have internet.  And grass. No, seriously, I will. 

Okay, fine, I'll include a picture of our landscape foreman, his name is Abel.  Abel is awesome.

I gotta go.  Why is it so cold in here?!?!  So people like me don't sit here for hours using up their wi-fi?  It's working, it's really working.  Talk soon.  maybe.