6.30.2009

The price

Turns out the price of our home is greater than just the purchase price. We've also had to donate:

-one fifth of a thumb that got drilled off (Dave)
-one sprained finger (Dave's brother)
-one sprained wrist (Dave's brother)
-one bloody gash in the leg from a hand saw (Dave)

Before:

After (taken at 1am in the ER):

10 stitches. Granted it would have been more, but about 2 inches of skin was too far separated to be stitched back together. So the Dr. went ahead and just cut that chunk of skin off.

When I asked Dave if he was ok as we sat in the ER for 3 hours, he said "I'm just mad that I haven't gotten home to eat my dinner yet."

6.25.2009

The 2nd coming

Farrah Faucet and Michael Jackson in the same day? Typical Jackson move to try to steal poor Farrah's thunder.

In other news, there is some horrible smell in my mom's refrigerator that we can not isolate and eliminate. The offending smell surfaced Saturday and at this point, Sara, Carrie, mom, and I have all individually and collectively opened, smelled, discarded and personally interviewed each item in/around/under or on the fridge. It is truly maddening and will be the demise of us all if we don't find it.

Tonight we plan to move the fridge out and see if something or someone has died behind it.

6.15.2009

I have some other pictures, too




Here are my pics from the shower, to prove that people (at least the guest of honor and Carrie and I) attended this event.

A new kind of shower

This post in long overdue. A few months back Sara and I hosted a 40th birthday party for our fabulous eldest sister - Miss Yah Yah.

Since there is nothing Laura loves more than chocolate, we decided the only logical thing to do was shower her with chocolate.

Thus...and new kind of shower was born - The Chocolate Shower! The party was great fun, and here are pictures to prove you wish you were there.

The Invite:



The Table:



The Chocolate:









I would kill for one of Sara's chocolate brownies right now which sadly did not get photographed. People also did not get photographed, although they were there. I was too distracted by the chocolate to take pictures.

6.12.2009

Adios, Winnie.


Poor Scout.

She's been wanting a dog for YEARS. She's always been an animal lover, even when she was tiny. Plastic animals were her toy of choice... which was handy, because they were small and we could easily fit her whole collection in a little box in our tiny apartment. Every time she's asked me for a dog recently, my reply is either, "Not until Crosby is 3" or the newer one, "I'd rather have another baby than get a dog."

When our friends got a dog and were looking for a new home for their guinea pig, it seemed all Scout's dreams were about to come true. I geared up for having an animal in the house (not something I'm remotely a fan of) and for about a week, she was the world's best pet owner. That pig got more baths than it knew what to do with. It was fed constantly. It's cage was cleaned religiously, every few days.

Needless to say, this level of care did not continue. Travis and I began discovering Winnie didn't have any hay, or water. We began wondering if we were being party to pet abuse. We had discussions with Scout about this, and promises were made; charts created. And finally, guess who mostly ended up taking care of the guinea pig.

But the real problem was the allergies... Trav's allergies. They just kept getting worse and worse, the longer Winnie was in our house. Once it warmed up enough, we moved her to the garage... which at least meant we could play Rock Band again without Travis wheezing all night long, but by no means was a solution. So, I began in earnest looking for a new home.

I finally found one through the magic of Craigslist. Is that the greatest of all inventions, or what? I emailed back and forth with Winnie's new owner, figuring out a time we could drop her off. The new owners had a baby pig named Trixie that they thought was lonely, and the lady promised Scout could meet Trixie and be assured that Winnie was going to a great new home.

Fast forward to Tuesday, when was threatening rain. I loaded all of Winnie's supplies into my car and we took her to the address in Yonkers; definitely not the best part of a not super nice town. Trixie's owner wasn't home, and the guy who opened the door looked a lot like a white supremacist: shaved head, ripped jeans, tats all over, many piercings, and huge black combat boots. I made awkward conversation while we lugged all her stuff to their porch, where the kids talked to a black cat. We had heard a dog bark when we knocked, so I smiled and said, "Man, you guys really have a lot of pets! You must love animals!" and he grunted and said, "It's for the wife and kid. The only one I like is the rat."

Well. Calder jumped on that and before you knew it, he was talking about how he was dying to see the rat. The kids had already been told they'd get to meet Trixie, so what was the problem with meeting the RAT? The supremacist looked uncomfortable and said, "Uh... the rat is sleeping" while I tried to corral the kids into the car. As we walked down their driveway to where Oz was waiting in the car, I had one kid wailing, "BUT YOU PROMISED!! YOU SAID WE COULD GO IN AND MEET TRIXIE" while the other one was crying, "YOU LIED TO US! YOU SAID WE COULD SEE THEIR GUINEA PIG!" Oh boy. Things were not going my way. Apparently I've done too great a job of teaching my kids to not judge people by what they wear.

It all came to a climax when Calder angrily kicked some rocks which hit the car. I lost it and said, "I'm telling Dad that you did that!" and I snapped at them both to GET IN THE CAR, NOW. Finally, once they were inside I tried to explain that I didn't lie, but that the woman who had promised me that we could meet Trixie wasn't at home and it would have been an unsafe idea for us to go into that man's house. I'm still not sure they really get it, but at least we got out of there in one piece without having to interface with the rat.

So goodbye Winnie. And may I add... Good Luck.

6.10.2009

To give you a taste...

...of how much work we have ahead of us.



Wish us luck.

6.03.2009

Better Know a Reader Series: Television land

I'd like to thank Carrie for that most excellent lead in to my latest inquiry about the minds of our readers. I don't know about you, but it's been a long, sad week for me. All the shows I was watching are now over, and I'm missing my TV friends. So my question to you is this: If you could "live" in a TV show (note that I said TV, not movie... we'll get to movies later), which show would it be and WHICH CHARACTER would you be?

Let's say I had to pick from the TV shows that are current right now. My top two favorites are Gossip Girl and FNL. Well, that's not entirely true... I completely adore 30 Rock but honestly, I wouldn't want to be any of those characters.

So, if I chose GG I'd definitely chose to be Blair Waldorf. She's rich but not freaky rich like some of the characters, she has by far the best clothes, and I love her looks. Dark brown hair, big brown eyes; she's so adorable. If I were her, I'd be a whole lot nicer but I'd probably pick Chuck over Nate too. Does that seem weird?

Now if I were to be a character on FNL, this is much, much harder. The obvious pick would be Lila Garrity, for the main reason that I would get to be the girlfriend of Tim Riggins. But I don't think I could take having Buddy Garrity as my dad... not even to get to kiss Tim. So then I thought that I'd maybe want to be Julie, because she's so cute and has the best parents in the world and I figured next season she'll probably steal Tim away from Lila anyway, because Lila will be off at college and Tim will probably still be in Dillon. But then I remembered that episode where Julie had her hair up, and she had the freakiest ears I've ever seen. Seriously. So I don't think I could be her either. Which puts me back at being Lila, and I've decided that this is okay because for sure Buddy is going to die of a heart attack very soon, and hopefully he has a big life insurance policy of which Lila will be the sole beneficiary, since everyone else in the family ditched him and moved with the mom (who can really blame them?)

But, let's say that you can pick a TV show that is no longer on the air. Well, then that's simple. I'll give you one guess who I'd be:

And if I had to be a character from Dora the Explorer, I'd be Benny the Bull. He's the coolest.

6.01.2009

80210

Sorry for the lack of blog posts. Things have been a bit hectic. We close on our new house tomorrow. (New "old" house as Nana keeps saying. Apparently a home built in 1924 doesn't qualify as a new house.)

This in and of itself is decent news, but the REAL news is that our new zip code is only 1 numeral off 90210.

80210.

Needless to say I'm thrilled.


Do you think the theme music will kick in everytime I pull into the drive way? A girl can only dream...