Taupe This.

So we've had our house for sale all summer and no one has bought it. Our realtor came over the other day and gave us some suggestions for home improvements. She walked through the entire house and basically said "Paint this Taupe!" in every room. Since I am not working while the kids are in school, my new job title is the Queen of Improvements, Specifically Taupe Ones.

Please gaze upon my only son. He lost a tooth. I now call him Leroy.The room in which he is standing is our home office. Please notice the lovely blue walls. I like to call this color "Portrait Studio Blue." Definitely not Taupe.

Here are the girls, who wanted their portraits made too.
My job #1 was to rid the office of its portrait studio. Three coats of taupe and white later, it looks like this:I have a giant entertainment center in my office that weighs about 1000 pounds, and we have been trying to get rid of it for a while. Since it is too heavy to move, I just painted taupe all around it so there is still a big blue spot behind it. Surprise, future buyers!

Now my next job will be to rid the office bathroom of its 80's wallpaper. I put Leroy to work on that.I just need to tell you that I'd rather pull out my toenails with pliers than remove wallpaper, but it needs to be done. We're also going to put in a new mirror and light fixture.

The next room on the list to be Tauped: Katie's room! (sob) This sucker took FOREVER to paint. Not happy about that.(Photos stolen from my real estate listing online. But yes, it is always that clean. Because I force the kids to clean their rooms EVERY FIVE MINUTES.)

Meanwhile we are possibly going to get a new kitchen floor. (And no, we won't be doing that ourselves.) My kitchen is totally retro-70's, but not in a good way. It's a little....brown. Although we did get rid of the mauve-and-cream heart wallpaper that used to be in here, so there's that. (Did I mention that I clean this kitchen until it looks just like this before I leave the house in the morning? EVERY DAY? I don't really shower any more, but my house is looks fantastic.)

The cabinets are going to have to stay, even though they are old and worn, because I do not have the mental or financial faculties to deal with them. I plan to douse them with Old English Scratch Cover (again) and I've considered spray-painting the hardware, but dang that seems like such a pain.

So there's your Home Improvement Update. I'll post some more 'After' photos hopefully soon.

First Day of School

Tommy's Birthday

My little guy is turning seven next week, and we went ahead and had his party the other night. I always give the kids a choice when it comes to parties; if they want to invite lots of people, we have a party at the house, but if they want to go "out" to another location (Chuck E. Cheese or bowling or whatever), then just the family goes out plus one friend. It's easier on the budget and on the sanity that way, and even our home parties so far have been pretty small; we just invite the neighborhood kids who are over at our house day and night anyway, so it's not that big of a difference.

Anyway, it happened this time that I had a stack of free tickets to the baseball game plus one birthday boy who is nuts about baseball, so this birthday was a breeze for me. Greg took him to the store and bought him his first "real" baseball bat and some batting gloves. He has been swinging it all around the house ever since.I made him a baseball cake. The glove part of the cake needed help, but it was very tasty.


Then it was off to the Frisco Rough Riders game. One of these kids kept her glove in the air the entire time hoping for a foul ball.

Except when she was chewing on her jewelry.
The best part of the evening was when they announced all the birthdays and Tommy got to see his name up in lights. He was thrilled. We were squinting at the sign across the field, but after a few minutes we figured out there was one right behind our heads:

Although I thought the scribbly smiley face was a bit unprofessional.

How Old Am I.

I found out the other day that one of the cute little 3rd grade boys that I used to teach in Sunday School years ago has just graduated from the Naval Academy. And then I put in my false teeth and picked up my walker and stormed off.

For the last school year, my friend Julie and I got together every morning at six to work out. We went from walking to running and when it got too cold we bought a Jillian Michaels DVD. We started on Level 1 and worked our way up to Level 3, and not the 'easy' version of level 3, we did the advanced level. Then we got her second DVD that was an hour-long workout and proceeded to kick its butt as well. We laughed in the face of Jillian Michaels. We taunted her. And we were magnificent.

At the end of May, Julie and I looked at one another and said, "We are all kinds of awesome. We do not need any more exercise. We want to sleep in for the summer, and we will not find it pleasurable to try to exercise later in the day because we do not wish to put our combined total of seven children into one house while we do so. Therefore we will take the summer off."

And we did.

Then the other day we decided to resume our workouts. "If only there were a more advanced level to this video," we laughed, "that would be the appropriate workout for us because we are so wonderful. But just for old times' sake let us start with Level 1, just so we can laugh merrily at how easy it is."

I'm sure you can guess how this story ended. When I was finally able to lift my arms and legs again, I put in my false teeth and picked up my walker and stormed off.

Updates and then some

A few things I wanted to update you on:

1. The offer on the house fell through. It seems that the people really wanted the house but with one snag; they didn't actually have any money. Just a minor detail. They came back to see it on Monday, though, so I don't know what that means.

2. Mystery cantaloupe is quite delicious. We're saving the seeds until next year, and perhaps we will spread them in other people's front flower beds like Johnny Cantaloupeseed.

3. Greg's job situation is still officially in the Unknown category for the long term. For now, he is working on several contract jobs that have come together quite nicely and just in time. We are still trying to sell the house and still anticipating a move as soon as the house sells. This is where it gets complicated.

4. School starts in a week and a half and my baby will be in kindergarten.

5. School starts in a week and a half and my baby will be in kindergarten and that means I will have no children to parent between the hours of 8 and 3.

6. I'll be treating this (probably short) season as "comp time". What activities do you recommend after I catch up on nine years' worth of missed sleep?

Summer Is

the smell of freshly cut grass and bug spray,
wearing your bathing suit until bedtime,
sun-bleached tresses and browned shoulders.

Dinner at My House: Shirts Optional, Ketchup Mandatory

So my husband left town today for a 10 day business trip. Ten days. I know some people wouldn't publish such information on the internet for fear of stalkers/thieves but truthfully if one of you does decide to stalk me (unlikely considering most of you are my relatives) and show up at my house, I will grab my purse and ask you to watch my kids for a while so I could run a few errands alone, kthxbye.
On an unrelated note, this is what has happened in my front flower bed. Planted by a rogue squirrel or perhaps a stray seed mixed in the compost mulch. It is bizarre. It is a mystery. It is a cantaloupe.
Speaking of mystery plants, I discovered a patch of these in the back yard after a rainy week. I've lived in this house for five years and they've never bloomed before, and now they have appeared to tell me goodbye. [sob]

We've gotten yet another ridiculously low offer on our house, but I have a feeling this one is going to stick (possibly) after we negotiate a bit, which means I have to 1) start packing and 2) have conversations with my friends that include the response, "Wait, so you're really moving?" and 3) have a few 'Girls Night In' parties (see also: husband out of town) that include dessert and/or packing up boxes and/or hopefully more laughing than crying.

The third one is definitely in order for this weekend. I can't let all these fruits and flowers go to waste.