The Charmer in fall
I haven't written about house-love in awhile, so this one's dedicated to the one I love: The Charmer.
We have lived here for three months now and maybe we're still in the honeymoon phase, but I'm diggin' this house like crazy. My orange kitchen is so cozy when I'm making dinner and the girls are "cooking" in their kitchen. The library has become "the drawing room" since we put both of the girls' easels in there. The sun porch is the play room with all the toys and it is downright lovely to spend an afternoon in there. The living room just got a little less echo-y with the purchase of two, soft yellow love seats facing each other in front of the fireplace. All of the ducts and the chimney were cleaned this morning, meaning I cranked the heat this afternoon and thoroughly enjoyed standing on the big vent in the kitchen until my toes were a little too toasty.
Our must-do house project for this year is to get a new roof. And that started today. The roofers were here all day, dropping the old roof into a truck-sized dumpster in the driveway. Where they pulled the old roof off, they attached new plywood. Tomorrow will be more of the same, plus the garage. Then they are going to cover it with some sort of hurricane-proof something and leave it until Monday, when they will be back to finish the job. I guess there were 4+ layers of roof in some places. They even discovered that one of the dormers had plywood and several layers of shingles attached over the original cedar shingles (the house was built 95 years ago). And none of this surprises me.
As I said, we also had the vents cleaned this morning. The girls and I went to Baby Circus while that was happening and Dude told me a horror story when I came home. Apparently, the guy asked Dude to come look inside the cold-air return in the library. He shined his flashlight in and there, about 8" in, were some sort of dried droppings. Dude said they weren't wet-fresh, but they also weren't old-old. And they were bigger than that of a mouse. EEEEWWWWW!!! Fortunately, the guy said we don't need to use that return because there are several others on this floor and he closed it after he cleaned it. But this means that we've got to hire someone to go in the crawlspace under our house to a) close any openings that might exist between it and our basement; and b) see if they can see anything living under there.
Despite this possible rodent issue that will be resolved soon, I'm finding our home to be absolutely wonderful as we move into fall. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it's not super drafty and I'm still very, very much charmed.
Fall is my kind of bitch
This cracked me up so much that I'm posting it here. It's a status update and comments from Facebook (names have been replaced by initials to protect the guilty):
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ES: FALL! It's here!
Comments:
RH: It suuuuure is.
ES: I'm in love with this weather. I want to roll around in it.
DW: I want to take it behind the middle school and get it pregnant.
ES: I want to eat it with a spoon. I want to rub it in my hair. I want to carry it around in my pocket. Seriously. It's a freaking perfect day.
ES: Exactly, DW! Me, too!
RH: Jeez - slow down, peeps. I like Fall, but I'm not looking for any kind of long-term relationship. C'mon...she ain't Summer.
ES: Fall has LTR written all over it; I'm never going to take it for granted or grow bored and start looking around at other seasons. This is it. The real thing.
JL: Like you've never looked at spring and thought, "damn, I'd like to rip me off a piece of that." Please.
ES: I do love a little spring after a long, cold winter, now that you mention it. But fall... TLA. BFF 4eva.
CE: I'm with JL. Fall's worth a couple lap dances maybe, but spring's the girl you buy a new car for just hoping you make it to the Champagne Room.
ES: You Oregon people are so desperate for sun after 5 months of rain that spring seems like an answered prayer. I've been there. I get it. Tennessee fall is pretty spectacular, though. It lasts and lasts.
KH: I 2nd that - fall is fantastic in TN.
JL: Yeah, Fall's great until you wake up one morning and discover she's gone and so are all your dvd's and favorite concert t's. You get sucked in every year.
----
Hahahaha! Funny.
Another hodgepodge of schtuff
Rocky Raccoon
Remember him? Some of you do and have asked me what happened to him. Did I get a trapping permit and, ultimately, a coon-skin cap? Did I hire someone to euthanize him using Craigslist? Did I go out there with some chunk pineapple and a spear and handle the situation myself? As fun as any of those stories would be, the answer to all of the above is no. We stopped leaving the kiddie pool filled at night and we never saw him again. But I have a can of pineapple in the cupboard just in case he comes back.
ACK! THE BIRDS!! THE BARRETTES!!
Poor Belly has developed two seriously ridiculous and unfounded fears - crows and hair accessories. I'll start with the hair stuff since it's a shorter story. That girl LOVES brushing her hair and having her hair brushed but don't even think about trying to put a barrette or a ponytail in there. She will react much the same as she does at the doctor when she's getting a shot. Except now that she can use words, if she sees me with a barrette in my hand, she runs screaming, "HURT!" I'd like to state for the record that I've never hurt that child with a barrette.
As for the birds, we have a lot of 'em around here. Belly's still only one and isn't savvy to all the different kinds, but she knows "crows." This is the word that she uses to not only identify big, black birds but also these big, blue-and-black birds that make an incredibly loud cawing sort of noise. And she is terrified of them. I was reminded of this this afternoon when we were at the park. She went from galloping across the grass with a big smile on her face to a sprinting-screaming combination when she passed under a tree and one of those birds called out. I scooped her up and she buried her face in my neck, pulling my hair over her head. One evening a few weeks ago, we had dinner on the back deck and were just wrapping things up. Dude was putting dishes in the sink. I was letting the Bug out of her high chair. Belly was waiting to get out, too. All of a sudden, one of those birds landed on a branch about six feet above Belly's head and cawed. Belly's arms and legs shot straight out; she clenched her eyes shut as tightly as possible; and she S-C-R-E-A-M-E-D. I couldn't get her out of her seat fast enough to properly comfort her, so I picked her up - still strapped in the chair - and carried her a little closer to the house. Picture her booster-seat-style high chair strapped to a big wooden kitchen chair and the whole contraption strapped to that little darling like a turtle shell while I hugged her. I have no clue why she is so afraid of those birds but that fear is very, very real.
Potty Training
The Bug informed me the other day that she had to poop. I took a peek inside the diap and it was, indeed, empty. I quickly ran and snatched up Belly from where she stood coloring at her easel, fumbled to get the gate off the stairs, hoisted both girls into my arms and stumbled upstairs to the bathroom - only to find that Buggy had just finished filling her diaper. Sigh. I took off the diaper, cleaned her up, and perched her on top of the toilet so she could get a sense of how it felt up there on the throne. I heaped praise on her for telling me that she had to go before she did the deed, but reiterated that she then needed to hold it until we got to the toilet. I think we're close. And I think the moral of the story is that I need to get a potty seat for downstairs.
Rut
I'm in a little bit of a cooking rut. Any suggestions that won't destroy my calorie counting ways?
Projecting the wrong image?
So Dude read my blog. I guess he does this from time to time? I had no idea. He told me the post I wrote just before he came back from Boston was especially interesting for two reasons: 1) I bought shoes and didn't tell him (to which I responded, "Then you also know that I only paid $17 for them and you need to take me out so I have a reason to wear them."); and 2) He thought I came off as a little bit of a prima donna (not his words - but I can't recall his exact words) because I mentioned Nanni and the cleaning ladies. This stressed me out a little bit. I want to be sure I'm clear about a couple things: I know that I am very, very lucky to not have to work right now so I can stay home with the girls. I know that I am very, very lucky to have a cleaning lady come every other week for two hours to wash my floors and bathrooms. I know that I am very, very lucky that I get an afternoon reprieve once a week thanks to Nanni's services. I do not take any of this for granted. And I hope that I don't come off as some sort of entitled bitch who complains about my kids being difficult when I live a pampered life. I know I'm lucky. But I don't think spending $1500/year on housecleaning is some sort of wild extravagance when we're not suffering to pay for it. We eat out only once a week. Buffalo Exchange and Target are the two stores from which I buy most of my clothes. I'm not knocking back hundred-dolla bottles of wine and eating white truffles like candy around here, ya know? You DO know, right? [Insert your "yes" here.] Oh good. I'll shut up now.
Oktoberfest!
Remember how I was so adamant just last week about that Laurelwood beer being my favorite? Well, I forgot about the molasses-goodness of Paulaner Oktoberfest. It is dang tasty! Last night, Dude, the girls, me, Bri and her boyfriend all went to the Rheinlander for their Oktoberfest celebration. See - Dude is German. Or rather, he's of German descent but don't tell him that. He's GERMAN as far as he's concerned and most people that know him know that fact. He loves German food, beer, beer-swigging songs, people, the language, The Sound of Music, knows tons of German history, etc. It's hard to believe that he's never actually been to Germany (except when we had a layover one time at the Frankfurt airport for a few hours), but that's our next anticipated big international trip. My whole point is this: Oktoberfest is a big effing deal in our household. Now back to last night...
We feasted on fondue with bier sausage and dark rye bread then we had two kinds of schnitzel (weiner being my personal fav) and Bri and her fella both had German meatballs. And apple strudel. And delicious, delicious beer. I had both Warsteiner and Paulaner Oktoberfest beers, but the Paulaner is consistently the best year after year. I strongly encourage you to seek it out and imbibe. And maybe stop by my house so you have a drinking buddy? I can probably get Dude to sing us some German songs while we knock it back...
Rheinlander had a room that was designated as the Kids' Pavilion for the festivities and they had organic sno-cones (we weren't sure what Oktoberfest tradition these were upholding), face painting and a crazy, crazy balloon guy. He had this running commentary on everything happening around him and his quasi-screechy voice became grating after a very short period of time. BUT he made awesome balloons and the girls were intrigued. He made them both punch-ball balloons. I asked Belly if she liked it and she hugged it VERY tightly and said, "LIKE IT! LIKE IT!" She kept randomly saying "Like it, like it" throughout the rest of the night. It was very cute.
Today was filled with lots of balloon tossing, chasing, squeezing and biting. Belly loves the squeaky sound of her teeth on the balloon. I know this will end badly and I keep warning her, but so far there have been no pops.
The girls are expanding their verbal skills at an incredible rate. It's awesome! We're not quite at complete sentences, but very close. They are using words to express their likes, dislikes, demands and desires. Tonight when I told Buggy that I was about to make dinner, she said, "Mommy. Dinner. Yummy fish." I said I was going to make something different. She said, "No. Yummy fish." So "yummy fish" made its way onto the menu this evening. Who knew that I'd be taking dinner requests from a one-year-old? But so long as it's not crap food, why not?
P.S. Happy birthday, Bri!
You look familiar
Earlier this evening I went on a little walk down to New Seasons (local, awesome grocery store) with Dude and the girls. I don't know if it's because they're so stanking cute or because they're twins - or both - but Belly and the Bug get a ridiculous amount of attention everywhere we go. Really. People stop us to gawk. We're all pretty used to it at this point. Anyway, as we walked past one of our cool neighborhood wine bars with lots of tables out front, a couple with their own toddler in a high chair said hi to the girls. I smiled at the mom and I knew her immediately. Well, not really - I've never met her but I read her blog and I've seen pictures of her. I felt silly. I didn't say anything. We kept walking. But as soon as we turned the corner, I looked at Dude and was all, "OMG! I READ HER BLOG! How weird to just see her like that!" Dude thought I should've said something to her. I don't know. She writes a craft blog - it's not like she writes a personal blog and I know all about her love of SYTYCD or Buffalo Tom or something that I could also profess to loving. Then again, I do know that she loves to shoe shop at Imelda's (who doesn't, really?) and her daughter is named Pearl. But I've never commented on her blog so it seemed like I would REALLY be a "lurker" in the worst sense of the word if I said hi. It was like seeing a celebrity except they don't know that I know they're a celebrity. Does that make sense? What would you have done?
All of this just reminded me of one of my favorite "who is that?" moments from when I lived in LA. I was at a bar with friends and there was a guy across the room that I swore I went to high school with - except I couldn't solidly place him in any memories of parties or football games or study hall or ANYTHING. It was really bugging me. I was thiiiiiiiiiiiiis close to going over and asking him if he grew up in Wisconsin when it hit me like a punch in the face. Yes - I did go to high school with him, sort of. No - he was not from Wisconsin. In fact, he was from Minnesota but moved to Beverly Hills in high school. Good lord. I'm an idiot. How could I not instantly recognize Brandon Walsh as Brandon Walsh??? Er, Jason Priestly. You know what I mean.
Whelp, we've damn near done it
Dude comes home tomorrow and the girls and I are still going strong. We've kept very busy and the time has gone quickly.
Monday morning, we went to Swap 'n Play where we played with our girlfriends. That afternoon was pretty nondescript - chilled at home, received a giant bag of Asian pears from our generous neighbors, ran around up at the field by the middle school, ate blackberries out of the bramble; then dinner, shower, bed.
Tuesday morning we went to Uwajimaya. Oh Asian Grocery Store of My Dreams, if only you weren't out in the suburbs and I could come visit you without my hyper children trying to grab everything off your shelves and hanging precariously from the edge of the oyster tank. Sigh. That would be such a happy day. As it was, we spent an hour or so there with the girls going apeshit almost the whole time. I still managed to fill my basket with all sorts of delicious treats, though, and we had a most excellent Japanese-Chinese-Korean feast for dinner with Bri and Sissy. Tuesday was also Nanni day. I slipped out for a little shopping time and, my darlings, I'm happy to report that I bought The Most Un-Mom Shoes Ever. Behold:
And, and, and - they were only $17. Score and score! Now I need Dude to take me out so I can wear them with something little and black because, well, I don't think I'll be wearing those bad boys on any play dates with the girls, ya know?
This morning we were out the door early because it was the first day of Baby Circus. It was even better than I thought it would be. We did crazy-fun warmups and then played on the trapeze. It was W-O-N-D-E-R-F-U-L and I'm going to sign us up for the next six week session after this one so that we can continue the fun for the rest of the year. Not only did the girls go nuts for the trapeze, but I got to play on it, too! At one point, I sat on it like a swing and had both girls in my lap while someone pushed us. Now I think I want to join the circus when I grow up.
When we got home from Baby Circus, there were two great things waiting for us: 1) the cleaning ladies were just wrapping up their thang (always great to come home to THAT); and 2) there was a gorgeous bouquet of dahlias by the mailbox from my LOVELY friend, Shanna, just 'cause she rocks like that. Then the girls took an extended nap; I caught up with Glee on Hulu; ate bao for lunch. Around 3p, my friend Pamela and her 2-year-old daughter came over to play with the girls while I went to a doctor's appointment (I've really got some great friends, huh?). Blah, blah. Nothing to tell about that really. When I got home and was walking up the front steps, I saw everyone standing just inside the door. Poor little Belly was sobbing in Pamela's arms. That sweet baby had been crying inconsolably for five minutes just because she missed her mama. She threw her arms around me, buried her face in my neck and stayed that way for quite some time. I think she reached her limit on parents leaving and not being exactly sure when they're coming back. All night she was super clingy - wouldn't even let me go in the bathroom without her to get the toothbrushes at bedtime.
After showers were had and jammies were on, after milk was guzzled and teeth were brushed tonight - we all laid down on the girls' bed. Belly snuggled as close as she could, wrapping her arms around my neck and squishing her face against the side of my face. The Bug was lying next to me on her back, but scooched over so she was pressing her side against mine. She turned her face toward me and as she was about to drift off to sleep, she whispered, "Mommy. Baby Circus. Buh-bye. Tank Ooo!"
In preparation for Baby Circus
This weekend has totally kicked ass. I mean, really. It was a WEEKEND. A real one. On the heels of last weekend's real weekend. Perplexed by my obvious statements? You shouldn't be. Dude works on Sundays, so Saturdays are the only weekend day I usually get. It's also the only day that Dude can get his honey-do things done, which means that it's almost always only a partial weekend day for me because it's still just me and the girls hanging out for part of the day.
WELL. This weekend has not followed that usual pattern. Friday night sucked because Dude went to see Bill McKibbon speak and I had to do the whole bedtime routine by myself. And we got in a stupid argument (that was quickly resolved, but still). My hopes for a good weekend were just not that high. But then Saturday was so fancy-free that it more than made up for Friday night's craptitude. And Saturday night, our neighbors brought dinner over to our house after the girls went to sleep and we had an adult hang-out on the deck, kicking back a few bottles of wine and getting to be fast friends with them. It was the perfect ending to a glorious day!
Dude only worked about four or five hours today, which felt like a day off to me since an hour-plus of that time was nap time. And then he went for a walk with the girls while I just...chilled by myself. I kept pinching myself to make sure I wasn't dreaming. When they got back, we all walked down to the Muddy Boot Festival to see this ultra-cool band, Weinland. They are SO good. You really should check them out. There weren't a lot of people there and we sat on some hay bales in front of the stage, leaving plenty of room for the girls to dance. Buggy stayed pretty close to me (as she usually does in big social settings) but still rocked out. She especially liked the drums. Belly, on the other hand, was ON FIRE (not literally, but you know what I mean). She ran all over, hugged other kids, danced like a maniac - by herself - directly in front of the stage. See exhibit A...
And then she pulled off the grandest trick she has ever even attempted. Right there...in front of a hundred or so people...to the complete shock and amazement of her parents and sister...Belly did an effing headstand. I. Am. So. Not. Kidding. The kid put her head down on the cement and did a perfect head-and-hands tripod, without wavering. She did not get her legs perfectly straight up in the air but she was DOING A HEADSTAND at 22 months old. I really, really, really wish I had a photo of this unbelievable feat, but I was paralyzed with my mouth agape. Other people were pointing and cheering her - Dude and I were flat-out stunned. Then she righted herself and kept on dancing. To the best of my knowledge, she's never seen anyone do a headstand and I think she's only seen a somersault once before (a few months ago I did one in the family room and the girls looked at me like, "Stop it. You're embarrassing us."). I have no clue what inspired today's display, but I can almost guarantee there's more to come. Starting Wednesday, the girls are taking a six-week class called "Baby Circus" with a local dance-acrobatic company. Whatever reservations I may have had about shelling out the dough for such a silly class are gone. My money is now on Belly being the star.
To top it all off, it's NFL Kickoff Weekend. Have I not mentioned my undying love of the NFL? And that I'm a huuuuuuuuuuuge Green Bay Packers fan? And that I still get a knot in my throat when I think about my Brett being a Viking? It's going to be a ka-razy season, friends. I will try not to post about football too much because that's not really the point of this blog, but know that I will be screaming at the television - for better or worse - a lot over the next four months.
The only downfall of this weekend is that Dude just left for Boston. It reminds me of the days when he was a tour manager and I'd feel so deflated when he left town. That's how I feel right now - a little sad, a little lonely already - except that he'll be back in just a few days instead of a few weeks or months. Thank GOD those days are over.
I'm off to watch the last quarter of the Packers-Bears game that I paused earlier. GO PACK GO!
So this is the weekend
I'm just popping in here for a minute to say: It is 2:15pm on Saturday and I have accomplished nothing today. I made and ate some scones. I walked with my family. I played around on the internets. I've done nothing. AND there is nothing pressing for me to do today. I can not remember a day in recent history that felt like today.
I. Am. So. Happy.
That's it. I'm going back to relishing my lacksidasical day now. Bye.
Yowsers - a week since my last post!
I have sat down to write something about 4 times in the last week, but there simply has never been enough time to complete a post. I just deleted all of my half-starts. Arg.
We went to Mom's for Labor Day weekend - always an adventure! We tried and tried to get out the door on Friday, but it didn't happen until 6:30pm which also happened to be dinner time. And so it was with a heavy heart that I introduced the girls to the saturated-fat-filled world of fast food. We stopped at Burgerville for dinner which was about the best option we had. The girls had a "fish and chips" that was really parmesan-crusted (and deep fried, of course) sole and some sweet potato fries. They loved every second of it. Then they promptly fell asleep as we drove the three hours through the Gorge and high desert to Mom's...in the dark (slightly nerve wracking). Visions of kid's meal toys and chicken nuggets probably danced in their heads.
Mom's was fun. Dan, Bri and Bri's boyfriend all came out for the weekend, too. We ate copious amounts because Mom only knows how to "cook for an army" - bbq ribs, smoked gouda macaroni and cheese, 3 kinds of cobbler, homemade ice cream, fried green tomatoes with gravy, pizza, apple pie, venison stew, etc., etc. Holy shit. It was all so good and so, so, so much.
Belly and the Bug had their first experience feeding chickens. And petting chickens. And nearly getting attacked by chickens wanting MORE BREAD BAAAAWWWWK!!! We've had lengthy discussions about chickens every day since we came home. And deer. Deer wander freely through Mom's town and we saw does and fawns every day. If a girl wanted to see deer and there weren't any in the yard at that precise moment, we'd walk around and always find them in somebody's yard within a two block radius. PLUS there's a creek near Mom's house. The girls had a big ol' time splashing around in it with sticks.
The one thing that wasn't all I had hoped it would be was the climb up Black Butte, just outside of town. We've done this hike before both the hard way - up the front, over the rocks - and the easy way - up the back, along the road. We of course opted for the easy way because we thought the girls would like the adventure. Well, two things didn't really go as planned with that. The first was that the road was steeper than we remembered from back in the day when we were kidless and fancy-free. And the second was that the girls just wanted to be carried aaaalllll the way up and aaaalllll the way down. Nope. No walking for those princesses. AND when we got to the top, it was extremely windy. This meant that the girls just fussed until it was time to go back down. My back still hurts from this misadventure.
Game playing is a must for my family and we played two games that were just AWESOME (courtesy of Dan). The first is called Quiddler. Google it. It's like a cross between Scrabble and Gin. I cannot imagine a better card game. The second is called Revolution! It's filled with back-stabbing fun for the whole family!
We got home Monday afternoon and I immediately started planning for a little soiree I was hosting Tuesday night. A friend of mine is going to Richmond, VA for a couple months and so I planned a "ladies night" at my house as a send-off for her. I had no clue what I was going to make for dinner but I knew I wanted it to be special. I started thinking Asian because it's easy to make and easy to impress people with it, but then one friend said she wanted to bring Brie and bread and another said she wanted to bring a caprese salad using tomatoes and basil from her garden. So...I switched gears and here was my final menu:
- Zucchini ribbons with truffle oil and shaved parmesan
- Cauliflower soup with Asian pears and creme fraiche
- Pizza with figs, prosciutto, goat cheese and a balsamic reduction
- Pizza with mascarpone, sauteed shiitake and chanterelle mushrooms with fresh thyme, caramelized onions
- Chocolate flourless cake (which I couldn't unstick from the pan, so ended up being kind of brownies)
- Plum-creme fraiche sorbet
So, it's Thursday. Dude is flying to Boston on a red eye Sunday night and not returning until next Thursday afternoon. As luck would have it, his parents are arriving that night around 9pm for four and a half days. This is precisely the time that I should be getting my period, too. I want to get back into the blogging saddle and post every day or every other day, but please bear with me over the next almost two weeks. I might be crazy. I might be a ranting machine. I might be surprisingly calm. It's a total crapshoot.
Why I pay Sallie Mae
While some say that us college-educated stay-at-home moms aren't fully utilizing our skill sets, I beg to differ. I mean, how else can one explain THIS that I just spent 10 minutes mastering??
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