the best laid plans...

let me set the story up:

* a freshly poured sidewalk at the new house.

* me, jack and kate at the new house to put our hand prints and a 2007 penny in the cement.

* jack.

* jack, jack, jack.

now, the photo:

guh-ROSS

i always thought the grossest things about being a parent were a) having a child throw up on you and b) getting poop on your hand changing a diaper.

but you know what? there's something grosser. it's kissing your son goodnight and getting a lip full of snot.

seriously.

naps

jack is on his second day without taking a nap in the afternoon.

say it ain't so.

i'm not ready for him to be done with his afternoon nap; i need a break from him every day.

i might have to start writing fake prescriptions for valium.

:/

healthy AND quick

i've recently developed an interest in cooking. it's a (very) mild interest, but those who know me know that's no small thing.

but here's my problem: i want to make healthy meals and i want to have simple recipes since i'm just learning. those two things don't seem to exist together. i've found cook books for quick and easy (5 or 6 ingredients, lots of photos to show what the meal will look like) and i've found recipes for healthy (low sugur, low sodium, low fat). but the healthy books seem to have lots of ingredients (that i'm not familiar with) and lots of steps and they don't have photos.

anyone out there know if there are any beginner cook books for healthy meals?

jumped the shark

anyone know the fashion equivalent of jumping the shark? because i think i might have reached it today.

i bought a miraclesuit.





















you know, the swimsuit that claims to make you look like you're 10 pounds lighter? the one all the moms at the pool wear and think that no one knows all that ruching in the front is hiding a pot belly?

yep. i bought one.

so now i'm married, have two kids, a dog, a minivan, a house in the burbs AND a miracle suit. i'm pretty sure the last of any coolness i might have had is officially gone.

big yellow taxi

well it might as well be.

sigh.

we didn't get to choose the exterior paint colors for our house. if we had, it most certainly wouldn't be yellow with dark green shutters. nothing wrong with the combo, mind you, just not my taste. i would have preferred a tan house with black shutters. or a white house with black shutters.

simple. neutral. tasteful. quiet.

instead, we have a house that waves and yells, "well howdy, y'all!" at everyone who passes by.

nerves

i have an appointment at 3:30pm today to get lasik vision correction. i haven't been nervous since i made the appointment a few weeks ago but now, with only an hour and a half until my appointment, my stomach is in knots and i can't concentrate on anything.

i know it will be fine. the procedure takes about 15 minutes and people get it done ALL the time. but still. i'm nervous :/

brilliant

my kids rarely drink juice but they drink a lot of milk boxes. kate is ok with them but jack thinks it's fun to squeeze the hell out of the box and squirt milk everywhere. we've tried juice box holders and while they stop him from squeezing the box, they don't work in the car because they don't fit anywhere because they're square.

i just found these and i'm almost as excited as the time i danced with chris yang at the 7th grade dance to freddy jackson's song 'you are my lady'.

i laughed out loud

today while waiting to pick kate and jack up from school, i browsed the little 'life' magazine that comes with our friday newspaper. there was an interview with chris rock and one of the questions was about whether or not america is ready for a black president (referring to barack obama). chris rock's reply? 'well the country is ready for a retarded president so why not a black one?'

i love chris rock.

countertops

our countertops were installed in the kitchen and master bathroom today! the kitchen has honed absolute black granite countertops and the bathroom has carrera marble countertops. the wood flooring is going in tomorrow and the appliances will be installed on monday. it's all (finally!) coming together!

more cabinet photos

they've made more progress on our cabinets! they're coming out on monday to template the counters for the granite:

there will be shelves in the island where the square cut-out is:

















there will be drawers in the island where the three blank spaces are and the double ovens will go in the square opening to the right of the doorway:






















there will eventually be molding from the top of the glass cabinets to the ceiling:













































the hood will go where the little metal circle is, the cooktop will go right under that (on top of the cabinet) and the fridge will go in the blank space all the way on the right:

cabinets!

the kitchen and master bathroom cabinets are going in at the new house (kitchen cabs are white, master bathroom cabs are brown):

seven deadly sins

wendy sent me this link to an online quiz about the seven deadly sins. my results are below:

Greed:	Very Low
Gluttony:	Medium
Wrath:	Low
Sloth:	Medium
Envy:	Low
Lust:	Low
Pride:	Low

Take the Seven Deadly Sins Quiz

sloth and gluttony seem to be my big two. guess that's where these extra 20 pounds came from :)

AN OFFER!

we got an offer today and it's a great offer. we are so excited; it figures that jeff would be out of town the weekend we finally get one :) all we have to do now is pass the home inspection and we're good to go.

i guess i should have gotten discouraged and blogged about it weeks ago :)

discouraged

i'm admitting defeat. it has been exactly 7 weeks since we put our house on the market and we haven't had a single official offer (we had an 'unofficial offer' earlier this week but it was a total lowball offer and as we were mulling over counteroffering, the buyer's job transfer didn't come through so it was a moot point).

jeff and i have been bolstering each other up the past few weeks with our mantra: PMA. positive mental attitude. but today is the day i just can't do it any more. we've been getting lots of showings and lots of positive comments about the house, but everyone has issues with the yard (which we knew ahead of time and were prepared for. but still). i'm tired of cleaning and straightening and telling the kids they can't make a mess because people are coming to see the house. it's finally starting to wear on me (or maybe it's just that i'm starting to admit it). jeff and i talked this morning that it will probably come down to us reducing the price drastically so that we can just get rid of it. i never thought we'd have to 'dump' this house. we live in one of the best school districts in the *country* and most people want to move to our neighborhood because of the schools. if we had been trying to sell last summer, we'd be asking $100k more and the house would have been sold in 3 or 4 weeks.

but this isn't last summer and our house isn't selling. i'm just tired. i have to remind myself that we're very (VERY) lucky that we don't have depend on selling this house to buy the new house. i can't imagine the stress that would introduce to the equation. but still. for us, right now, it's hard. and i'm ready for it to be done.

your firsts

i was taking the kids to preschool this morning when 'these dreams' by heart came on the radio. that song was on the first tape i ever owned. i got my first stereo (it even had a turntable!) for christmas back in 1985 and heart was the very first cassette tape i ever owned. i also got my first (and only) album that christmas. my aunt and uncle sent me sting's 'dream of the blue turtles'.

three years later i got my first cd player and the very first cd i owned was (gawd, i'm embarrassed to admit this) vixen's self-titled album.

what about you? what were your first albums/tapes/cds? (and do you dare admit it in public?)

jordie

jordie is jeff's cousin (in a round-a-bout way. we've tried to figure it out a dozen times and each time end up with something like: 'well, your grandmother's son's cousin was my uncle's second wife's aunt'. needless to say, we just call her our cousin)

jordie is almost 25, lives in bethesda and is dating a guy who might be the one (i get to meet him on thursday night). she loves kate and jack and is our go-to babysitter when we want to get out of town overnight. she is kind and funny and vibrant and smart and in so many ways reminds me of me at her age (except for the kind, funny, vibrant and smart part). she is searching for what her life is going to be and excited about the paths and possibilities that are opening up. she's just a neat person. i love her dearly and love hearing about her life because it reminds me of being her age.

jordie didn't have to work today so she came over and we all went to lunch and looked at the new house. i took a few photos while she was playing with the kids (these look so staged, but i swear i didn't set it up. they were all really sitting in jack's room like this, reading a book):

the house, yet again

they started installing some of the cabinetry this week (not the custom stuff, just the standard cabinets in the secondary bathrooms) and also got most of the trim work and molding up. it's looking like a real house and i'm more and more antsy to move in:

the siding is almost finished (we wish we could keep it this color instead of having it painted bright yellow, but we don't have a say in the matter)
















the family dining area (where the kitchen table goes), looking into the kitchen and the dining room and living room beyond that:




















the bonus room/kid's playroom over the garage:















standing in the living room looking towards the dining room and the kitchen beyond that:















standing at the front door (in the foyer) looking into the dining room:

older kids

every mother should have a good friend with older children. wendy has three boys, ages 8, 9, and 11 and they frequently give us toys and games they've outgrown. yesterday they dropped off the best gift yet - a new book that the kids absolutely love.

thanks, davis, reed and max!

limbo

i'm in limbo and it's driving me nuts. the house isn't sold but our new house is nearing completion. i have so many ideas for furniture and paint and artwork for the new house and all i can do is...sit. and wait.

neither of which i am very good at.

so it sit here, in limbo. in a house that no longer feels like my own. waiting to move to the next chapter of my life. just sitting and waiting.

there are worse things in life, i know. but did i mention that i'm not good at waiting?