This is for Adam

Isn't she a beauty?

My Friday Night

Church is having a dads and kids camp out night tonight on the green in front of the building. Scott brought Emily with the idea that they would try it, and just come home if she didn't get to bed, and go back in the morning to take down the tent. The women had a pizza get together at a house, and I just got home. I called Scott, and Emily is asleep in the tent, and all looks like it is going well.

I have never spent a night a night by myself since we moved into this house, and I think it is truly only the second time I have been in the house by myself since we moved in. (the first time was last mother's day... I kid you not.) Not to mention this is the first time that I have ever spent the night away from Emily.

And I'm not complaining. I like having a night all by myself. There is laundry to do, a dishwasher that needs to be unloaded, but I think I will go start reading the stack of magazines that I haven't even looked at from the past four months.
:) It's a one of a kind Friday night.

Harvest Brown

I had a project planned to start and complete over spring break. I go back to work Monday, and there's no way it will be done then.

I know I have mentioned before what a crappy paint job the previous owners did. The bedrooms aren't so bad, but the worst is the common areas like the upstairs hall, the stairwell, the living room, and the little inlet between the downstairs bath and closet. This was all the same color. Now their color choice I don't mind, it's just that the job was so bad, that you can see all sorts of brush strokes, places where they missed, and then on the white trim where they didn't tape and got the wall paint all goobered on the frames and base boards. It drives me nuts. Not to mention the job around the fire place mantel. Atrocious.

At first I thought that I would do the same color that they did which was more of a carmel latte', but then a friend talked me into doing something different... going to all the trouble, might as well have a new color. I agreed. So I went with "Harvest Brown," which is more a Frappacino brown base. This is very similar to what Scott and I (really what Adam) painted in our bedroom on Floradora. I love love LOVE the color now that we have gotten started, but it is taken for freaking ever! So far we have finished the upstairs hall and laundry area and put the first coat of white trim. I hope to finish the second coat today during Em's nap time. Seriously though, the entire project is going to take us forever. And also Scott had declared me the messiest painter ever. I get paint all over the plastic covering, the paint brush, myself... I changed out of my paint clothes and Scott was amazed that somehow I'd even gotten paint on my stomach under my shirt....? Who knows.

And then there's the problem with the stairwell. We have a two-story tall ceiling that goes from the bottom of the stairs all the way to the top. The guy at Lowe's said to get an extension latter and then put a cinder block under the one side that is on the lower stair to make them level, and then have at it at the top to do the line at the ceiling. That just seems crazy scary to me.
Any other ideas?

Happy Easter!

I hope your Easter is a little warmer than ours. Our low was in the low twenties last night... not normal at at all for this time of year. But a few flannel sheets over the vegetables and berry vines, and all is well.

This is Emily in the car after church. Everybody had their Easter dresses on, but with added long sleeve shirts, jackets, and leggings. Emily's dress wasn't nearly as cute as it would have been if the weather would have been above 80 like last weekend. To compare, I heard the weather man say that our low last night was twenty degrees lower for Easter than the low last December for Christmas.

It was just the three of us this year, which was okay. I asked Scott what he wanted for Easter dinner (thinking he would say something like a ham, turkey, or possibly even grilled steak) but all he said was the chipped beef cheese ball that Mary makes with Ritz crackers. Hmmm. Okay. Easy enough. I made that, but added a glazed ham and a few other things. Entirely too much food, but we have great leftovers.

This morning at church for the second Easter in a row, we watched a short clip from a sermon. The tag line through the entire thing is "But it's only Friday... Sunday's a'comin'. " Anybody else ever seen this? It apparently is famous, and part of a sermon. It took me a month last spring to get it out of my head (it's catchy) and now I've got it stuck in there again after this morning. I want to try to find the entire sermon. I bet it's good.

Happy Easter!

Weekend update

It was beautiful this weekend, and the pollen seems to have let up... some. Here are some of the highlights:

- Went to Kids Day on Friday evening. Ate fair-like food, watched Happy Feet on the lawn once the sun went down. Very fun. Emily got to play with her friends Sara and Noah, and I think she enjoyed dancing around before the movie started even more than the movie.

- Had a great time with friends last night at our our house. Scott grilled chicken and shrimp, and I made roasted red potatoes, green beans, and a salad. To add to that (Scott and my highlight of the evening) was some "Monterey Sourdough Bread." We were skeptical, but seriously, it was the real thing. It tasted soooooooo good! We also had stellar chocolate cake with coffee. WOnderful time with friends.

- Church Easter egg hunt was this afternoon. We almost didn't make it because EMily had a napping mishap today and only slept for twenty minutes, but luckily for her and her sweet tooth, we made it. She was so excited about all that candy.

And: Here is my question, speaking of napping mishaps... is it awful to scream at a kid who rides his little miniature scooter-like thing around the neighborhood? It runs on this loud motor that drives us crazy, and wakes Em up during nap time. I can understand the fun he has, but seriously, he was on it going around the neighborhood when we returned from church at noon, and was still on it at three when we left for the egg hunt. Twenty minutes was all she napped. Is it wrong to ask if he could give it a rest? I thought surely he MUST run out of gas sometime, but he must store a refill in his garage because he seriously didn't stop the entire three hours. Where's Bessie's potato gun when you need it?

Spring

Here are a few reasons why I know spring is here:

First off, it was 88 on Sunday. Quite warm and humid. Not too bad though. I love that in SC we have an actual spring and fall. That is probably my favorite thing about living here. I love to have all the windows and screen doors open so that breezes come in.

Then there is the pink blossom tree beside our house. It butts up to our bedroom window on the second floor, and I love the blossoms. They aren't those almond tree-like blossoms that make you sneeze though, so that is good. It's a beautiful tree, and they grow wild in the woods around our house as well.

And of course the yellow pollen. I have never in my life seen pollen that is actually a visible coating on vehicles. I washed the car Saturday, and the water that went down the driveway was literally yellow, and it stained the driveway yellow, just like yellow side walk chalk.

Finally... the deer. I went to the gym this morning (which in itself is a reason why I know it is spring... bathing suit time is getting close and I hit the gym) and I passed a "herd" of deer. Yes, I have learned they herd. I counted eight of them, though there were probably more. They came across the street right in front of me just around the corner from our house. It was great.

Now the bad thing about spring... the rabbits are in my garden eating my broccoli plants. Any suggestions about that one?

Reason 1001 why Scott is cool

If I have never mentioned the issue of ugly wallpaper in excessive amounts all over our house... ask and I will tell. But I think I have mentioned it to almost everybody.

So, in December one night while Scott was putting Emily to sleep, I was using the downstairs half bath. I hate the wallpaper in there, and was thinking I should just go ahead and pull it off. So when Scott walked downstairs and turned the corner, there I stood. Halfway out the door. Hands full of sheets of wallpaper. Grinning that "I'm so in trouble" grin. He merely says, "What did you do" with a stunned look.

It came off so easily. I am going to take care of it. Don't worry, I know you don't have time to mess with it. It's the smallest room in the house, how hard can it be?

Very, Very, Very, hard.

The paper was stuck with adhesive directly to the drywall with no sealant to protect the wall. So after I spent hours and hours of sanding to get the adhesive off, I painted and it went through the particle board, and bubbled. I was frustrated and very upset.

And this is where Scott is wonderful. He took over in there, and for the past few weeks has been sanding, and re-sealing, adding joint compound, sanding more, priming, and finally painting. The walls look like brand new. Beautiful. He puts in a new light fixture, toilet paper roll holder, towel holder, and all he has left to do is prime the base boards and paint them white. He tapes (very meticulously, Adam knows this about him) and primes all afternoon. I leave right after dinner for craft night at church and when I get home I expect that he probably would have gone ahead and painted the baseboards after Emily went to bed.

Oh no.

I walk in the house and he just points to the bathroom. I walk in and there is finger marks and brush marks in white, all over the beautiful green walls. He had taken off the door to get the door frame (meticulous, remember?) and Emily had gone in while he was doing the dinner dishes, which I left for him, and and painted the wall white.

Did he get mad? No. He was just worried that the scrubbing on Em's hands to get the paint off was going to hurt. He seriously had the patience of a saint. I wish I was cool like that.

Happy Birthday to Emily!

Last Wednesday (3/7) was Emily's birthday. She is already two! We had some of her friends over today for a birthday party. They topped their own pizzas, hit the pinata, and of course had cake and ice cream all decorated with Dora the Explorer of course!

She is just getting so big so fast! This was a favorite shot, actually taken this morning before church. I love that her tongue is out. I am chasing her when I took this. Too cute!

Happy Birthday to Emily!

Dailey Elementary Class Action Lawsuit?

Has anyone heard about a class action lawsuit against my old school site Dailey Elementary? My dad said I received a letter about some lawsuit and Dailey but thought it may have hit the news. If anyone of you may have heard anything can you post some information?

Scott

My Celebrity Look-alikes

In the spirit of playing along with Justin, I to, have added my profile to MyHeritage. Of course, all my suspicions have now been erased - Fabio eat your heart out! There's a new poster boy for the love novel on the horizon . . .

http://www.myheritage.com

Anybody else ever had strep throat?

Emily came home from church last Sunday saying she was tired and was ready for night night. We knew something was up, and sure enough she had a 103 fever.

I stayed home with her Monday, went to the doc, and yes she was positive for strep. She has never had that before, and neither had I. But just one more day home with some good antibiotics, and she was ready to go back to childcare on Wednesday, and I got to go back to work.

And then Wednesday night, in the stretch of one hour, I went from feeling fine, to feeling like I was dying. Of course Wednesday is the one evening class Scott takes this semester. Poor Emily. I got "sick" in the kitchen (TMI--sorry) and it was the first time I think I have ever witnessed Emily actually show fear of anything. She freaked.

Well, Thursday I got some antibiotics, was out Friday too, and still on Sunday I feel like I am nowhere near recovery. The poor kids in my classroom must think I have abandoned them. And it's not like I am going to be working at 100% when I see them tomorrow.

Anybody had strep before, or have any advice? I am on erythromycin (allergic to penicillin) and I think I should call the doc tomorrow to tell her nothing is getting better. And if you have your tonsils taken out, are you immune to strep? Thank goodness Scott seems to be skirting by this one. But his tonsils are out.

I can honestly say that with the exception of being on bed rest when I was pregnant with Emily, this is the most miserable I have ever been with a sickness. Blah!

Completed the First Hurdle

As of today I am an official doctoral candidate! Over the Christmas break I was working on my qualifying exam which was basically a paper discussing my theoretical journey past, present, and future. I had my interview with my doctoral committee who read my paper along with another paper I turned in. The interview went better than I thought and I left feeling very confident. They have been please with my work and notified me right away they wanted me to continue my studies in the program.

So what's ahead? I have a little more than a years worth of coursework left if I can get all my classes, which realistically, doesn't always happen. The next hurdle are my comprehensive exams. Luckily I have a while before I need to think about those.

Scott

I'm only 26 and I drive a mini-van

We bought a Kia Sodona late Thursday evening. We weren't really planning on getting one so soon, but just like when we bought the Honda, we felt like we were getting a good deal. I couldn't believe they agreed to buy the Honda at the price we needed them too. Then the payments for the Kia are almost exactly the same as the Honda.

The big selling point for a mini-van is that we have four groups of guests flying in to visit this summer, which was going to mean four different van rentals to fit everybody in a vehicle. That adds up. And if people are flying in, the least we can do is have transportation that fits everybody. The Honda and Toyata models were SOOO expensive, so we bought this. It had almost everything on it but a DVD player, which i'm okay with. I really like the dual power sliding doors. That's awesome. And the windows on the slider doors go down like normal windows, not like other vans that do that strange pop out thing.

So yes, I'm 26 and I drive a mini-van, but it's okay. I was bummed seeing my honda go not only because it is a GREAT car (I LOVED THAT CAR) but also because I know that a car won't be as practical for our livestyle for a long time. I may not get to drive a car for awhile. Oh well.

Hip Hop: Beyond Beats and & Rhymes

Tonight there is and interesting independent film on public television called Hip Hop: Beyond Beats and & Rhymes. The film takes a critical look at the masculinity, sexism, violence, homophobia, etc. that runs rampant through rap and hip hop lyrics and video. I think this film will offer up an interesting conversation. The film is on at 10 pm eastern time so I'm not sure when it runs on west coast time.

Scott

President's Day, Sodoku, and potty training

...yeah, not a whole lot going on here.

First of all, I bet I am the only one who has to work on President's Day. Oh well. Kids don't have school, but we have a professional development day. Not a big deal since we get to listen to Peter Johnston talk about his book, CHoice Words. Once again I am amazed at the great people who my school district get to come talk to us. (Brian Cambourne came to speak to the district in 5/2005) I loved this guy's book (about the language that we use with children, and how it impacts them) and we read it for staff development. Scott read it for one of his courses. It's great.

Second thing is my lack of reading. Fun or professional. I blame this solely on sodoku. I love playing those puzzles, and I found this great site www.counttonine.com where I can print out as many as I want at whatever degree of difficulty that I want. I sit half hazardly watching T.V. and working on the sodoku puzzles. Yes, I know I should be reading but these have me captivated. At least I hear they could prevent Alzheimer's.


ANd finally, Emily has decided that maybe it would be a good idea to potty in the toilet. This has been a very slow process, but one that i would call almost natural. She kind of goes through phases when she will tell us when she wants to go sit on the potty, and she immediately goes. Fabulous. But other times, she is too wrapped up in what she is doing to be bothered. I try not to push. She isn't even two, but hey, maybe she will get it sometime soon. More than any other reason, I just don't want to spend the money on diapers. I truly look forward to that.

Could snow late Saturday night (yeah right over eager weather man on the local news!) I shall let you know!

Anna Nicole Smith is dead?

That is weird. Anybody know any other details? Doesn't she have a little baby?

Our first snow!

We spent the morning glued to the window and watched the sleet and freezing rain (the weather man says there's a difference) turn into big beautiful snow flakes. The snow was coming down in very thick amounts, and I thought for awhile that we were really going to have a go at getting some inches on the ground. We played in it, and then I heard the school bus... huh? I was shocked. I thought for sure we would be having a cancelation (snow isn't too frequent, and people don't know how to drive) but i had to go in and hurry off to work. While I was getting ready for the delayed school day, the snow turned to rain, and eventually melted most of the snow. Oh well. Emily has now seen her first snow, and she didn't have to leave her own backyard!

Ramblings

So first of all, we have this major freezing rain storm that is to come through and drop some snow up a little higher from us, and drop freezing rain and sleet all over the roads where we live. Every school district in the entire state has a 2-hour delay already place. A couple of weeks ago a much smaller storm came through, and every school district in the entire state had a delay... except ours, which wasn't called until after 6am the next morning. Now I am all about not calling a delay until you KNOW it is needed, however, on this day we had a scheduled early release at 11:40. So the kids came to school at 10, and literally stayed for an hour and a half. During this time we had to feed them lunch, for a 25 minute period. What a waste.

Now tomorrow we don't have an early release or anything, so a delay would be fine... except for the fact that the weather men are calling for the sleet to be a 100% chance, and that it won't stop until the temp rises after 2pm. We get out at 2:40. It just doesn't make sense to wait for the inevitable. And basically I am just complaining because I would like to go to bed and not wake up to an alarm clock.

And the other thing I am doing: I have taken my flute out of the garage, polished it up, and have started practicing. I have this idea that it may be good to volunteer to play at church during the offertory. There is another gal who wants somebody to play with, and it has always bugged me that I played so long, and then just stopped. And I wasn't really that bad either. My flute needs the pads changed, and a hinge replaced, but I think that after that happens that it will be as good as new. I can't wait to get it in and out of the shop. ANyhow, that is what I am up to.

J.C. Penny "Pacesetter"

So Saturday we went out shopping at the mall. We were in J.C. Penny and meandered over the the children's department because of a huge sale they were having. We really didn't go to shop for Emily, but as we were looking through the sale items a worker approaches.

"Would you like to save 10% more today?"

We all have been in this situation before. Of course I don't want a credit card for J.C. Penny or any other place for that matter. Scott and I are glad to be free of credit card balances for the moment, and have no intention of putting anything on a card. I tell her no, and she says to me, "Oh, now everybody wants to save money."

I told her that the money I would save wouldn't be enough to cover the divorce that would occur if I opened a credit card. She didn't get the joke, and kept going, and as Scott and Emily approach she tells me that we could talk "him" into it.

Oh my gosh, I was really bugged. For the final time (at least what I thought was final) I told her we didn't want a credit card, no thank you.

Once we had picked out a couple of things we walked over the counter. Three sales associates were behind the counter, including the debt diva. She jumps over to the cash register to check us out and proceeds to tell me one more time about the money we could save by opening a credit card. I said no, and I wasn't so cheerful as before. Now I was really annoyed. Her name tag said, "Carol" and below that it said "pacesetter."

Am I wrong to think that this woman is evil? I think that America has a serious problem with debt. I am glad that my husband and I have sat down and discussed our financial responsibilities, and they they don't include credit cards for shopping trips to Pennies. Who is this woman to question me, Scott, and our decision. What if he wouldn't have been there? Does she try to persuade every customer to take out a card? Ugh. She really bugs me. ANd what is this "pacesetter" garbage? Do they have quotas to make sure employees sell the credit card? Ugh. Does anybody else think that is as wrong as I do?

Happy Birthday Scott!

Yes, you are loved. For the way you wear cargo shorts even in the middle of winter, for your necessity to use only .5mm bic needle point pens, for the way you grab the sale ads from the Sunday paper before reading anything else..you are loved.

Happy Birthday