Back in Business... sort of...

Ok, so I've lost just about everything as far as computer stuff goes. We had to format the hard drive and because the computer was so unstable, we were only able to save the very most important things- like J's pictures, and all of my medical stuff pertaining to classes. Even that was a struggle, and it was actually humorous watching us go from trying to burn to cd, then trying to e-mail files to ourselves, then trying to load it onto an old PDA- but the computer would only give us 5 minutes-tops- at a time before crashing again. Ugh.

And now I'm busying myself today by downloading all of the stuff that we lost- realplayer, all the patches since Windows ME was released. I'm setting my email account up again.

Who knew that restoring a computer would be so similar to a natural disaster- you start back with nothing. But this will soon feel like home again, I'm sure.

All that said, and my whole point was to tell you that one of the things that I lost was my address book. So, if you enjoy hearing from me occasionally, please take a second and email me at mommyleek at cfl dot rr dot com so that I can put you back where you belong.

Thanks!

Radio Silence

My computer has finally gone and given up the ghost. Blue screen of death. I've most likely lost all of my most recent (as in last four or five months) pictures of Jonas as well all of my medical transcription notes and all of my word lists and study guides. Ugh. I'll admit, I'm not the best when it comes to backing my stuff up, despite several instances where I've been regretful. I mean, that's why we have computers, right? To store our information.

Anyway, this blog will likely be pretty quiet over the next who knows how long. A new computer isn't exactly in our budget right now. We might be able to fix it, but I'm not holding my breath. I've left hubby and a bottle of rum to work on it and I'm over at the parents house. Giving him some breathing room, and shielding J's ears from the onslaught of profanity that comes along with things like computer repairs. :)

So, my hand full of faithful readers, have a wonderful weekend, and a wonderful everything. I'll be back when I get back.

More knitting news

I finished off my second pair of socks today and I have to tell you, I'm in love with the short-row heels and toes. They seem so much easier, and feel less bulky. Because I over-bought for my mock crocs I went ahead and used up the left-over yarn from that project to make a pair of little footies. Thanks Amanda for the pattern!

These aren't bad for a second pair of socks, but I still seem to be having trouble with grafting. Good thing these are for me! But seriously, before I go making socks for anyone else I think I'm going to have to practice some more.

I started a new project today which I can't reveal since I intend to send it to someone as a gift eventually. But I'll give you this hint- it's my first project including cables. Yay cables!

And I also received in the mail last night a couple of patterns I won off of ebay which will also turn into gifts, providing I get them done before Christmas. :)

You see, last year my brother and sister-in-law decided that they were going to make hand-made gifts for everyone for Christmas. I was so impressed and inspired by their efforts and the beautiful results, that I've decided that I'm going to try and do the same thing. So, if I don't get busy on it right now, lord knows I'll never get it all done. I'm excited about it, but also heading into it with some trepidation since I know how horrible I am at letting things slide until the last minute.

But I've made good headway so far, I think. I've already picked out patterns for everyone, and I've already started the first, and it's still July. So between my Christmas knitting, and they Mystery Sock KAL that I've joined, I should be in good with to works in progress for quite some time.

I like having an idea of what I'm going to be working on next. It gives me a reason to really buckle down and get to work on whatever is currently on the needles.

Anyway, that's the update. And so, with J off visiting with Abuela for a little while today, I'm going to get back to work on this current secret project.

Close Encounters

Sometimes we don't know how fragile our little existence really is. I mean, we can be so dangerously close to death, and not have any awareness of it at the time. But boy, when it actually is realized, it's a shattering sort of feeling that leaves you trembling.

This morning Jonas and I took our basket and a pair of scissors out to the yard to collect some basil. You see, the basil plants were planted right alongside the tomatoes, and they're really taking over the space and choking the tomatoes. So I figured we'd pretty much chop them back to nothing and make pesto out of it. Pesto is one of those great things that freezes well and is great with lots of different things- chicken, pasta, bread... you get the picture.

So, out we go, and we spend a good twenty minutes or so playing around in the basil. I would trim it and toss it on the ground and Jonas would collect it and stack it all neatly in the basket.

With that done, we set the basket on the porch and went to play in the hose while watering the squash and zucchini.

I love watching him play in the water- the way he laughs and giggles when the spray lands on his face. I love that full-belly laugh when he turns the hose on me without warning. Heck, I just love the kid!

So, thoroughly drenched, we return to the porch, I strip off his soaking wet clothes and shoes, gather him up in my arms, grab the basket of basil and plop it right on his belly and carry the whole bundle inside.

We make a pit stop in the kitchen to drop off the basil, and then we go get changed.

After getting into dry clothes and getting J a drink, I set to work cleaning and de-stemming the basil. Basically this means taking the long stems from the basket, stripping the leaves off into one side of the sink that's full of cold water, and tossing the stems and bruised leaves in the other side.

So I'm merrily leaf stripping and Jonas is playing with his fire truck at my feet when I look over into the stem side of the sink and OH MY FREAKING GOD! WHAT THE HELL IS THAT CRAWLING AROUND IN THERE! A big, mean, angry black widow spider. *EEEEEKKK*

While my brother my tell you otherwise, I'm not really all that squeamish about bugs. It comes with living down here in the great swamp state where if it has less than six legs it's probably not native. But to have something that has venom 15 times more deadly than a rattlesnake's sitting there in my kitchen sink is a little creepy.

And in one instant rush my mind starts replaying the whole morning- how J had his hands in the plants with me, how he collected the basil from the ground, how he carried the basket all around the yard, how I had set it on his bare naked little belly while I carried him inside. The realization that, at any moment in there, he could have been fatally bitten was just overwhelming.

I scooped J up as if that spider could somehow jump from the sink all the way across the kitchen and attack him! I deposited him safely in his bedroom asking him to me a good book to read and then began devising my plan of attack.

Of course there's no bug spray in this house- we used it all killing the wasps before the painter came to do the house.

So donning elbow-length rubber gloves and armed with a bottle of hairspray and a piece of 1x2 that we use to secure the sliding glass doors, I set to work killing our unwanted and very scary intruder.

BTW, black-widows are not very susceptible to death by White Rain-ing. Really it did nothing more than piss her off. But it did bring her to the surface of the pile of stems so that I could deliver the fatal blow with my stick, the whole time cringing and acting very much like a girl.

Once I was sure she was dead, which meant pulverizing her body to an unrecognizable pulp in the drain, I cleaned out the sink completely, took the trash immediately outside just in case she wasn't really dead, and finally, sat down on the floor and caught my breath.

Upon further inspection it appears that the entire exterior of my house is currently crawling with black widows. I will be contacting an exterminator in the morning, but meanwhile, I don't think I'll be sleeping a wink.

I've always hated living in Florida, but now I might actually have some decent leverage with which to convince Wil that moving is a good idea. Are there black widows in Portland, Amanda?

Welcome Emily Katherine

My neice was born this afternoon at 1:15 pm. She's a whopper, weighing in at 9lbs 4.8oz and 21 inches long! That's a seriously big baby! Congratulations, Jessica! We can't wait to meet her in person.

*I've edited this post so that Emily is now right-side-up. Sorry 'bout that. :)*

A day at the park

We took Jonas to a local park today to feed the ducks and otherwise burn off some energy. He befriended a goose which he named "Noo" and followed all around the park. Here are some pictures from our day.

Nervous Pacing

My little sister was set to be induced this morning at 6 am. The baby is only marginally early now, and she's miserably huge. She's also got an unbelievably huge baby, which is why they're inducing early- rather induce than wait until full term and have to do a c-section.

So, while I haven't talked with her this morning, because I know that hospital admission is a bitch, and there are going to be so many people poking and prodding and generally consuming her time, my thoughts are with her this morning, and I'm pacing anxiously waiting for an update.

I love you, little sis, and I hope it all goes smoothly for you. Can't wait to see little Emily's beautiful face.

A long post about nothing in particular

I hesitate to do any sort of posting here because there seems to be very little of anything interesting going on right now.

Jonas is taking a marathon nap, which means that he'll probably be up all night again. I've got to figure out a way to regulate his schedule a little better. Of course, I can't take blame for this particular time. He spent the day with Abuela yesterday, and he's notorious for not napping when he's there. When I went to pick him up yesterday evening he had just fallen asleep- time: 7 pm!

So, not wanting to drive all the way back across town just to come back and pick him up later, not wanting to leave him overnight due to my own insecurity, and not wanting to just sit around and wait for him to wake up, and knowing that waking him up would be a bad thing (he doesn't wake up well, to put it mildly), I decided to go find something to do nearby. I ended up at Barnes and Noble.

Thinking I might get myself a drink at their little cafe, I realized that I'd left my debit card in the shorts I'd been wearing earlier in the day. So, I just browsed the books and magazines instead. I mean, isn't that why you go to a book store anyway? Apparently not.

I've always known that this town has very little in the way of entertainment for the teenage crowd, but who knew that B&N would become their mecca? The place was crowded, noisy, full of pubescent, angst-ridden punk wanna-bes. I know, ten years ago I probably belonged to that group, so I should probably just shut my pie-hole.

The knitting books were less than inspiring. I only found one that had anything in it that I found remotely cute or that I would ever consider actually making, and with the price tag that books come with I couldn't see myself shelling out that much for just a few patterns, even if I did have my debit card with me.

In the magazine section I scoped out a couple of the knitting magazines which were equally as uninspiring, and a few writers mags that didn't seem to catch my interest either.

In the far corner, over between the poetry section and the local books there were a couple of rows of folding chairs set up. A few folks were sitting there having a rather loud and obnoxiously self-lauding (is that a word?) conversation. I suppose I had just missed some sort of book signing with some unknown author. The stragglers that were there were talking about writing, about the books they had in the works, etc. It made me realize that I have somewhat of a dislike for authors. Hmmm... maybe I should rephrase that. You see, when Laura and I went and saw Rusdie and JCO speak, it was an incredible time. Captivating conversation, a good audience, a stunning forum, and everyone there seemed truly interested in the authors that were there to speak.

This little book signing thing that I wandered into seemed more like a pissing match between a couple of unknowns that were hell-bent on deciding who was the better writer. Ugh.

Disgusted, I called it a night and headed out to my car.

Sitting there behind the wheel in my well-worn seat, staring up at the flickering street lights and the grids of powerlines stretching out from the intersection, in the silence, in the dark, I began to realize that this may be the only place where I truly fit in.

Go Baby!

I must preface this by saying that my camcorder is broken and so this was recorded with my dinosaur of a digital camera. No sound, bad picture, but look at him go! He's really getting the hang of this. :)

How it went

Devi is a delightfully easy baby. Nothing like my munchkin at all. It was kind of eerie because she was so content to just sit and watch whatever was going on, or roll around on the floor and reach for toys that it was almost like not having another child in the house at all. It's a good thing that I didn't know kids could be that easy before Jonas was born or I might have loathed the unfairness of parenthood.

Of course, I love my "difficult" child. Only now I believe them when the grandparents tell me "He's a handful! Wil was never like THAT!" Babies really CAN be easy-going, I suppose.

For the most part, I didn't find it any more difficult to care for two kids. The biggest problem we encountered was a bit of Jonas jealousy at not being the baby of the house, and not understanding that the baby couldn't do all the things that he could. He'd hand her a toy, or try and show her how something worked, and then he'd get frustrated because she wouldn't repeat it. Oh, and he wasn't pleased at having to give up his "big boy chair" in the livingroom. You see, after a very long time of watching him sit either on the floor, or on the end of his inflatable Sponge Bob bed to play or read or watch tv, it just recently dawned on me that we had his old baby seat out in the shed and it's the convertable variety that can be used as a toddler sized rocking chair. So, just weeks after having a chair of his own, he had to watch as little Devi took over his prized posession. Oh, the horror! But he only tried to sit on her once.

We also learned that Jonas doesn't understand the concept of "whisper" or "quietly". As Devi was comfortably napping in his bedroom J would peek around the corner at her, point and yell at the top of his lungs "MA-MA! NI-NI!" and then proceed with the snoring noises, which of course, elicited a startle response from the sleeping Devi who was then no longer sleeping.

We took a couple of pictures, but for the most part it was difficult to get the two kids near each other. Jonas viewed her as a somewhat foreign object and would only get within about an arm's length of her. And then, of course, it's nearly impossible to get two kids to look in the same direction at the same time. But here's the best of them.

This is only a test...

In about half an hour my friend will be dropping her 6 month old daughter off to spend the day with us. I'm looking forward to the challenge.

Wil and I have talked about having more children- in the future, of course- and this will be a perfect test of both our parenting skills and J's tolerance levels. So, the floors are clean in preparation for our low to the ground visitor, and we've dug out some of J's older toys that are more baby appropriate. Figures that I'd take on baby watching duty just days after shipping off all his really "baby" toys to my little sister. Oh well, I'm sure we've got plenty here to entertain her.

So, I'm sure that much picture taking with ensue as Jonas discovers what it's like to NOT be the only child. I'm hoping that his daycare days will have prepared him somewhat, but at the same time, it's going to be a whole lot different when Mama's the one who's time is being monopolized.

Wish me luck!

Tag! I'm it!

Katrina tagged me with this meme, and I figured, what the heck.

A) Four jobs I have had in my life:
1. veterinary receptionist
2. customer service
3. burger flipper
4. daycare worker

B) Four movies you would watch over and over:
1. Airplane!
2. Wizard of Oz
3. A Perfect World
4. Welcome to Weebleville! (Go ahead Laura, sing it with me!)

C) Four places you have lived besides where you live now:
1. Memphis, Tn
2. Wendell, Nc
3. an apartment on the other side of town
4. a house a couple of miles from here

D) Four TV shows you love to watch: *Don't watch much tv*
1. Emeril Live
2. Good Eats
3. Judging Amy
4.

E) Four places you have been on vacation:
1. Portland, Or
2. Disney
3. Oxford, Pa
4. the Keys

F) Four websites I visit daily:
1. Poetic Acceptance
2. Laura Rae
3. Bulldog Knits
4.Scribblings

G) Four of my favorite foods:
1. coffee (hey! it's a food!)
2. sushi
3. just about anything potato
4. asparagus (yeah, I know, I'm a freak)

H Four places I would rather be right now:
1. somewhere cooler!
2. my favorite coffeehouse
3. at the zoo with Jonas- if it would ever stop raining!
4. taking a late-night drive to nowhere with a good friend

I) Four friends I think will respond:
1. I won't tag anyone specifically, but feel free to join in if you want.
2.
3.
4.

Happy late 4th!

My dad's friend, Jim, takes really great pictures. He did our wedding photography, too. On top of that he's a really cool guy. :) So today I found these in my inbox. Thought I'd share them. Thanks Mr. Jim!





Here he is with his Daddy Dave. He loves sitting in Daddy Dave's lap! On his head he's wearing Mr. Jim's Nasa headset. Mr. Jim had just come from launching the shuttle. Neat, huh?




And here is putting on his glittery patriotic hat. He's just now getting to the point where he'll tolerate anything on his head for any amount of time. The hat lasted about 5 seconds. :)

Are you calling me anal?

Find your own pose!

Those eyes!

Hanging out with Jonas this morning I snapped a couple of pictures of him. They're not the most incredible pictures in the world or anything, but I couldn't help but be stunned by how gorgeous his eyes look in these.







Oh yeah, and then there's the goofball cat! Yes, this picture is right side up. She loves sleeping in the little nook created by the shelf on his dresser. And yes, she has pretty eyes, too.

Banned: Chronicles of the Parent Cult

Last night I submitted a request to become a member of a certain yahoo group for Brevard Mothers. I was sent an email letting me know that all members must be approved by the moderator, which I fully understand. So, this morning I received my "questionairre" which requested rather specific information from me, including my phone number, legal name, child's name, age, where I worked, etc all with the explanation that "we can't be too careful where children are concerned.

Now, I totally agree that when children are concerned, you can't be too careful, but at the same time, here's someone I don't even know, nor do I even know that they are a legit organization, asking me to give out some pretty specific information on blind faith. They also had many "restrictions" on their members, according to the email I received. Members are "required" to attend at least X number of functions per month, must be available for certain things, etc.

I'm all about participation, but I don't like being told what I have to do and when. What if I don't WANT to take my kid to the beach this weekend? He doesn't like the beach. Etc.

So I sent a reply stating such things and that while I wasn't opposed to giving such information to someone once I knew WHO I was giving it to, and that there are enough scams on the internet that I had a right to be a concerned parent.

The response I got back was one which indicated that I was a whacko paranoid type of person and that they had never once been questioned by ANY of their members regarding their gathering of personal information.

This was quickly followed by a second and third email informing me that I had been banned from their group and that this decision was final.

Too funny. I guess I questioned the wrong authority. :)

I'd follow in Erin's footsteps and post the exact messages, but I deleted them before I had a chance to fume.

Oh well, it was worth a good laugh. Guess I'll have to take Jonas to another county to play now.

Need... more...coffee...

We woke this morning to the sound of two pit bulls attempting to maul a kitten outside our bedroom window. Nice.

I'm not a doggie racist- as a matter of fact, I find pits to be some of the friendliest dogs in the world and have been bitten by more chihuahuas, but no responsible owner should--or would--leave their two pits in any place where there was potential for escape. Any other person who came across them running loose would have likely shot them.

Of course, the commotion woke Jonas, who was terrified by the noise and the fact that Mocha was all wound up and pacing and barking and whining. So, Wil went out to rescue the kitten and chase the dogs off, and in doing so, left the front door open. Mocha followed him, and then there was one frightened kitten, two pit bulls and a chow mix scuffling in the yard. Super.

The pits turned out to be more bark than bite, and were actually very playful with both Wil and Mocha, and the kitten was no worse for the wear. A little scared, but not injured in any way. One of the pits got a nasty scratch to the nose, but that's what he gets for being a pain in the ass.

Wil chased Mocha back into the house, chased the two strays down the road, and we all settled back into bed just as the sun started to lighten the sky a little. Time? 5:24 am. Ugh. Jonas was wide awake and ready to play. I couldn't say the same for myself.

We layed in bed and watch cartoons for as long as he'd tolerate it- about 45 minutes, and then there was no denying the fact that I was going to have to get up.

And so, at not quite 10 am, I have done four loads of laundry, washed a sink full of dishes by hand because I'm too lazy to empty the dishwasher (it's the one chore in the house that I absolutely hate- not sure why) I've swept and mopped the tile, vacuumed the carpets, fixed us all breakfast, and now it's time to run to the bank and take out a small fortune.

The painter came yesterday and got a good portion of the work done. He's got about two hours worth of work left for today, I estimate, and then he'll be done with the painting. He's also going to be doing the stucco work, and although I know he's giving me a much more than fair price for it, I had a hard time swallowing the numbers. In my next life I'm going rent. I know that in the end you're pretty much throwing your money away when you rent, but hell, I feel like I'm doing that now!

The stucco is going to be much more involved than we thought. At the very least we're going to have to rip it down to the studs and may even have to rip those out, too. He says we're fortunate that it's not leaking water into our livingroom. I guess he's right. I mean, it could be worse.

So, I've got to go get the money to pay him for the paint job, and the money for the supplies to do the stucco. I'll pay the remaining amount once the job is done. He's turned out to be a decent guy, despite my original hesitation. I'll even forgive him for squishing my squash plants, although it nearly broke my heart. Figures that the first year that I actually keep anything alive and someone else comes along and kills it.

And yes, today was the day that I was supposed to be going to the mom's club meeting with Dr. T's wife and son, but J's got some sort of stomach thing going on, which means I can't be too far away from a bath-tub and a change of clothes at any time, not to mention that I'd hate to infect other kids if he IS contagious. Maybe next month... I was really hoping to find him a couple of playmates- not to mention I could use a few myself.

It's pathetic that I sit here and pray that someone has updated their blog, just so I can feel like I've got some sort of contact with the outside world. :)

Ok, off to do diaper duty and run to the bank. Y'all have a good day. I'll try and get a couple of pictures of the two-tone house today. It's really horrible looking right now, and the new color is going on a little more "reddish" than I wanted it to be, but it's not horrible, and I think once we get the blue trim out of the equation, it'll look great.

Counting Sheep

The scence: Late last night, sometime just before midnight.

I'm lying in bed with J-man, trying to get him to finally wind down and go to sleep. Wil is already out cold, snoring heavily on the other side of the bed. Jonas is begging to turn on the tv. Ok, I usually don't give in to his EVERY whim (just most of them) but it's the weekend, it's already super late, and well, I wouldn't mind having the tv on either. So I turn it on, and start flipping channels.

As many of you can guess, there's not much in the way of kid friendly tv late at night. Finally, we settled on the Eukanuba dog show. *Yawn* They're doing the toy breeds *double yawn* and Jonas watched intently as the judge feels up all these little sorry excuses for dogs. --No offense to any of you out there who are partial to or actually own toy dogs, they're just to fragile and prissy to survive in my rough and tumble home-- Each time they set a new dog up on the little podium for inspection Jonas points and enthusiastically yells "Puh-pay!" and then, as they're doing their little strut around the ring, he reverts back to onomatopoeia boy and starts chanting "woof! woof! woof!" while the crowd cheers.

So we get through the chihuahua's the Brussels', the pomeranian, and so many other little midget dogs in this same fashion, but the final dog of the group was the winner in my book. Out struts this toy poodle, all fluff-balled out, looking absolutely ridiculous, pom-poms around the ankles, ping-pong balls on it's butt, head all poofed out and looking so much like the reject of the dog world. Why do breeders/handlers/judges think that a bad haircut should be the breed standard? Poor dog.

Jonas watches silently and intently as they man-handle the poodle, and as they set him/her down to walk the ring he jumps straight up in the middle of the bed, points excitedly, and with as much drama as his sleepy little voice can muster, he yells "BAA!! BAA!!"

After several minutes of belly laughing I was finally able to hug him, kiss his perfect little cheek and tell him "Yes, my smart boy, that was a sheep." I didn't think that it was worth the argument at midnight. :)

One Croc, two crocs...

I did it! I finished my second croc this afternoon.

Not bad for a first pair of socks, but I've realized one very important thing: I need to work on my gauge! The sock on the left in this picture is significantly smaller than the one on the right. While it wasn't so much smaller that it didn't fit over my big old foot, it was a tight squeeze. I'm hoping that wearing it will stretch it some.

I also think that if I had used a stretchier yarn it wouldn't be such a big deal. This stuff is gorgeous, and it feels nice on my foot- much nicer than a wool would feel in this hot weather, but it certainly lacks elasticity.

So, it's official, I've got the sock bug. As soon as I finished this one, I immediately began searching for the next pattern to try. I've got a little more than one ball of the tangelo yarn left, which should be enough to make a pair of ankle socks. And of course, I have the gorgeous yarn that Amanda sent me just waiting for me to play with. Hmmm... what to do next?

And for the first time in quite a long time, I have no current projects on the needles, except for a blanket I started a long time ago that I've decided to scratch. I just don't like the way it's turning out. Probably because I started it before I learned the difference between good yarn and crap. It's definitely crap. Hmmm... any suggestions on what to do with two skeins of crappy yarn? I suppose it'll make fine cat toys.

Borrowed from Mike's

You Are From Neptune

You are dreamy and mystical, with a natural psychic ability. You love music, poetry, dance, and (most of all) the open sea. Your soul is filled with possibilities, and your heart overflows with compassion. You can be in a room full of friendly people and feel all alone. If you don't get carried away with one idea, your spiritual nature will see you through anything.

What Planet Are You From?

I don't know why I'm doing these silly things all of a sudden. I usually don't go anywhere near them! :) All in good fun, right?

Quiz

The Librarian You scored 73 erudition!

Congratulations! You're well above average when it comes to your knowledge of English grammar, history, and literature. You may have missed a few questions, but if you keep your studies up and stay away from genre fiction, we'll have you ready for Stanford in no time! Who knows, we just might be reading your columns in Talk of the Town a few years from now.

My test tracked 1 variable How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 35% on erudition

Link: The Are You Truly Erudite? Test written by okellelala on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

Pictures, because...

I don't have anything else to share with y'all. Unless you'd like to hear about how my new air conditioner doesn't work properly, and the a/c company is dragging their feet on doing anything about it, or how the painter guy hasn't been back with any paint yet and I'm starting to wonder if I've been conned. Naah, you'd rather see pictures of a cute kid, wouldn't you?

Ok.


Here he is, rocking his Pooh Bear to sleep at naptime yesterday. He can be so absolutely lovable sometimes. :)


And he can also be all boy! Here's my little Batman rescuing Clifford before bed. Ignore the ghetto blinds in the window. My stupid cat decided to nibble on them.


Being sweet again. He (finally) loves his Teletubby, which he calls "Tie-tie".


And here he is riding the Dada horsie. (The helmet was his own idea!)

I just realized that by sharing pictures you guys get to see just how terrible of a housekeeper I am. You try keeping stuff neat when you've only got 1000 square feet of living space, 500 cubic feet of toys and an extremely active two year old!

Also, if you guys remember, a little while back I gave in and entered J's picture in the Cutest Baby of Brevard contest. Voting starts today. Now I just found out that each vote is 25 cents, and I'm a little miffed about that. I don't like contests that require money in order to participate, but the proceeds go towards education programs for the local schools, so I guess that's not so bad. Anyway, if you guys feel like dropping a quarter or two and voting for the J-man, please feel free to do so. I'll provide the link to the website just as soon as it's available.

Blah

Letely I've had this overwhelming case of the blahs. When that happens there's nothing to do except get yourself embroiled in enough stuff to make your head spin. So that's exactly what I've done.

I've got huge ambitions for re-doing our bedroom. You see, we've got this massive and ugly bedroom furniture that was graciously given to us several years ago by a friend. When Wil and I first started dating we had between us a tv a full size mattress and a screw-together end table. It's amazing all the stuff you can collect in seven years, isn't it?
So this massive furniture, in our not so massive bedroom, leads to a very cluttered and hard to navigate bedroom. Let me give you an idea of just what I'm talking about- the headboard to our bed is 9 feet long! It's one of those shiny mirrored things with a four-drawer dresser attached to either side. Then there's the vanity- roughly six feet long consisting of a sitting area with mirror and three drawers below, and a tall cabinet on the other side. And along with that is a armoir that's not quite as huge and obnoxious. All that in a bedroom that's about 12 X 13!

So, my idea is to trash the headboard completely. Because we need the drawer space, I'm going to try and detach the dresser sections without totally ruining them , and then screw them together to form one (much smaller) surface.

The vanity, which can't even be used anyway, because there's no room to pull out the stool and sit, is going as well. If possible I'm going to salvage the tall and slender cabinet from it as well, since Wil uses it for all of his colognes and manly stuff. And the smaller armoir is staying simply because it's the only functional piece that we have. It holds all of our shorts, t-shirts, and also makes a great place for the tv to sit.

I think that simply by getting rid of the obnoxious headboard and the even more obnoxious and unusable vanity I'll create quite a bit of extra space in the room.

Ok, so enough of the bedroom. On to other bigger and better things.

Today my painter man came and pressure washed the house and will return this afternoon to apply a conditioner. Tomorrow we'll have fresh paint- providing the weather cooperates.

Here's the before picture...


The stucco at the top there that is cracked and buckled will be replaced as well. Yay! After three or more years of it driving me nuts, I'm finally going to have that fixed.

And you see that tiny little screened porch over there? That's getting expanded as well. (Once we figure out the finances for it) We'll also be adding extra electrical outlets both in J's room and onto the porch. I've got great plans for it, considering the fact that our house is so small, it'll be nice to have the extra space that the new porch will allow. And the cats will enjoy the sunbathing space. :)

Ok, so there are a million and one other projects that I'd like to be doing, as well, but these things come first, and then we'll see where we stand. I'd like to give the whole interior a face-lift via fresh paint, and I'd love a new and much smaller computer desk to free up more space here in the livingroom.

By the end of the year it'll almost be like a new home. Almost...

And so, with all that said, it's now time for me to get out of here, and get my butt into gear on some school work.

Have a happy 4th, y'all.

Oh yeah, and I haven't officially heard any news, but considering Jim and Laura haven't been prowling the net the last few days and there are no updates to her blog, I am assuming that little Dylan has finally made his appearance into the world. So congratulations to you three, and know that you're being thought of from afar!