Cozy house for sale, water feature included.

We moved into our house just over a year ago. I spent the first 9 months here being pretty sick and pregnant, so I've only really been able to enjoy my house since my son was born in February. We saved and planned all year so that we could get our house sided this summer. What a can of worms. These are the reasons why I am going to make a "for sale" sign as soon as I am done writing this.

1. The guys we hired to side our house were clueless. They took twice as long to do the job, had to already replace pieces of siding because they put holes in the wrong places to hang things, they hung our light up-side down (see picture), made a huge mess, and forgot to order our shutters which are still not here. Plus, it was windy last night and now we have siding laying in our driveway.
   
2. Tearing off the siding revealed a huge foundation issue with our house. We had a clue something was up when we realized that two of our basement windows were drywalled over on the inside and sided over on the outside.
   
3. Because the siding guys removed a board which was actually blocking water from rolling into our basement, the first storm we had created a river in our basement. All the drywall had to come down only to reveal cracks wide enough to stick your fingers in. You can guess which one I put in.
   
4. We learned that the electricity going into our house is a fire hazard because it is hooked up wrong. Who knew a bungee cord wasn't meant to hold up power lines? But looking back, I remember the time my dad used bungee cords to tie our luggage to the top of his station wagon. I also remember watching my pants an underwear go flying all over the freeway when my bag let loose.

So I have decided that buying a home is a lot like buying that six year old dog who the previous owners had to get rid of because one of the kids was suddenly allergic. "But he's a really a good dog," they would tell us. Someone was trying to cover things up and we were the fools to take the bait.

There's no place like home.

After a recent trip to the Thousand Islands with my family, I decided that I love being home. Don't get me wrong, I had a wonderful time and I know my kids did too which is the most important. But I think I take being home for granted sometimes. Here is a list:

1. I don't like showering with flip-flops on. When you are at a state park you have two choices: flip-flops or else. The else are planters warts, other peoples hair wrapped around your toes, maybe even AIDS, who knows. But the problem with the flip-flops is they get slippery. When it comes time to wash your feet and you take one out to do so, you're balancing on one slippery flop. If you're not careful, you can kill yourself cleaning your foot. And then when the shower is done, you have to walk back to camp with slippery flops. The whole thing is a mess.
   
2. Sleeping is not an issue, unless you are two. It was a struggle every night to get my two year old asleep. We never have a problem with this at home. But camping was another story. Every night it was a circus of walking her around the park until she fell asleep, putting in a movie to try and make her drowsy, taking her for car rides. This was way too much work when all I did was stay up all night afraid she might wake and I would have to do damage control.
3. I know where all the drug stores are at home. I don't know where they were out there. So on Sunday night when I wasn't feeling well and didn't have the right medicine, I found myself driving all over town past nothing but cows and falling down barns. Not good when you don't feel well. Random cows were useless to me.
   
4. I need a familiar toilet. This has always been an issue for me. And without getting too personal, state park bathrooms can be a little iffy sometimes. I have a hard time going when my choices are a toilet that isn't flushed from the last person, a stall infested with mosquitoes (I don't need a bug bite on my butt!), or a stall where the toilet paper roll rests on the filthy floor! I would rather hold it.
   

I always love visiting The Islands, but when I get home I sleep better, don't get bug bites on my butt while peeing, and I know where to get medicine when I don't feel well. And, I leave the flops at the door.

If everyone jumped, would you?

I don't know the exact saying, but I know it is something about following the crowd into anything- good or bad. Anyways...

I started a Facebook. I would like to tell you that I had some great reason. Like I wanted to get in touch with old friends or that I was doing some social experiment. As I've said in an earlier blog, I have a hard time making my business public. I don't want people from my past tracking me down to compare my life to theirs.

The truth is, I did jump because everyone else did. My sister has one, my husband started one, and countless friends of ours have them. I saw how easy it was to keep in touch and stay up to date on what other people were doing. I liked how easy it was to show friends and family pictures and to let them know what I am up to. So I did it.

But I am setting some rules for myself.

• I will never let myself "friend" people recklessly. I promised myself that I will only "friend" people that I truly know. I won't be one of those people with 400 followers full of people that take me a minute to identify.
  
• I also won't get too personal. I certainly won't be posting comments on spats I might have with my husband or anything like that. No need to air my dirty laundry.
  
• I am not going to let Facebook consume my life. I won't feed my son with one hand and type with the other (like I did last night- oops!). I won't ignore a crying child because I am too busy snooping at other peoples pictures. I won't sit in front of the computer in silence when my family clearly needs me.
  
• I won't post things to my husbands wall when he is sitting across the room from me and I can just tell him what I am thinking.
  

So, here we go again. This computer stuff can become addicting. It's a slippery slope, and I'm sliding down. But I am digging my heals in to try and slow down- and not get too involved.

So what? I jumped.

Lucky Mom.

"I have only known her for two years. But if you took every memory, every moment, if you stretched them end to end- they'd reach forever."
- My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult


My daughter Sophie just celebrated her second birthday a few days ago and I can't remember what life was like without her. All the happiness that she brings to my life makes me wonder what I did to smile before we had her and how on earth these past two years have flown by so quickly.

It's no wonder that we have had a revolving door of people at our house for the past two years. No matter how bad someones day is, they know that one moment with Sophie will make all the bad disappear. She has a way of turning any sadness around into pure joy. She turns a mundane task like folding laundry into a hysterical moment when she puts a pair of my underwear around her neck and calls them a necklace. Or when she finds her bathing suit in her drawer and puts the top on her bottom and bottom on her top and declares that she wants to go swimming like a goldfish in her "bathing soup!"

Right now Fia (a nickname she gave herself) is sleeping in her bed with her cow print gardening gloves on. She always has to take a "treasure" to bed with her. She makes me laugh when she says things with such conviction- "This lunch is scrumptious," or "I am comfy toesy!" And it is especially funny when she calls after her daddy, "Come here, honey!" because that's what I call him.


She is such a clever girl. And I am sure all moms say that about their kids, but Sophie is not all the other kids. She is mine. And she makes it easier to breath, to smile, to sleep at night and to wake up again in the morning. She fills my eyes with tears of joy and my heart with love and happiness. Anyone who is lucky enough to know her is a better person because of her.

Even though I was sicker than ever while pregnant with her, the joy she has brought to my life made me do it all over again to have her brother John. And because together they are so wonderful, I might even be crazy enough to do it again someday.

Dear Ashley Furniture Salesman...

This is a list of reasons that I won't be buying my new furniture from you.

1. You circled us like a vulture looking for prey when we walked in. When you attacked, you bombarded us with flyers that we didn't care about and you didn't understand.
   
2. After telling us that you wern't into high pressure selling, you tried to high pressure sell us. You passed us a used business card (a sticker of your name placed over a failed salesperson's name) with a list of your hours on the back and basically followed us around the store commenting about everything we looked at.
   
3. You had the nerve to complain about having to work a lot. I think you should count your blessings that you have a job during these tough times. And you never know who you are talking to- I lost my job due to the recession.
   
4. You were trying to use a metaphor about bottled water that confused even you. By the time you got to the end of it, we were all so confused that I almost went to the grocery store next door to buy water instead of furniture.
   
5. You used the "f-word" twice. I may be known to swear from time to time, but you don't know me. In case you didn't notice, you are at work selling couches to moms, not at a bar drinking beers with friends.

In closing, I would like to thank you anyways. Your store does have the furniture we intend on buying. And we now have your schedule so we will be there tomorrow, on your day off, to buy it from one of your coworkers. I hope your boss has more stickers to put over your name on the business cards for the guy he hires to replace you someday.

WTF, Texters?

I understand that times have changed over the last few years with all the new technology that is out there now. But I don't think that is an excuse for ignoring what should be common courtesies. After a walk through the mall today, I decided to come up with a list of times when texting is inappropriate.

1. When you're at work. This is not ok. Especially if you are in customer service. I walked down a row of stands in the mall, and almost every single person at the different registers was texting. It didn't matter if there were customers, they never even looked up from their phones.
   
2. When you're checking out at a store. What's fair is fair. If it's not ok for the cashier to do it, it's not ok for the customer either.
   
3. When you're at the park/zoo/anywhere else with your kids. Nothing says I'm bored quite like a parent texting as they are pushing their kids on the swing. You owe it to your kids to at least act interested.
   
4. When you're at dinner. Or any other meal. The time that used to be spent talking about your day with the family is now interrupted by the annoying buzzing of a phone on vibrate. Then we wonder why families are falling apart- they can't even stand to talk at the dinner table.
   
5. While you're driving. If I even have to explain this one, you have problems. Have some consideration for others on the road who want to get home to their loved ones in one piece.
   
6. While you're having a conversation with someone. There is nothing more annoying than being interrupted by text messaging when you're trying to talk. It is so insulting when you are looking someone in the eye to have a conversation with them and they can't stop checking their phone for the latest text message.
   

What it comes down to is having common courtesies for the people around you. Stop and think for one second- am I being rude right now? If you are, put the phone away. WTF, Texters?

Family Circus

So we decided to take the kids and go out to dinner today. This is a crap shoot. With two kids under two, you never know what will happen. But we were up for the challenge.

I watched as a mom and dad with two sons under three came into the restaurant. They were doomed from the start. Mom couldn't get one of the flailing boys into his high chair. They ordered juice, but by the time it got there I watched Dad tell the waitress that they had to leave. Mom already stormed through the place with the screaming kid on her hip and was a distant memory. That dinner was over before it began.

In the booth behind us that I was facing, I watched another family of four try to eat. A boy, about two, stood the whole time and raced his toy car up and down the seat, hitting the strangers head who sat behind him every few minutes. Mom and Dad ate in silence, hurriedly shoveling food into their mouths. You could tell that they knew they were dealing with a ticking time bomb and had to finish dinner before it went off.

Across the way, there was another family. This time it was two obviously new parents with maybe a 10 month old daughter. I saw the fear in their eyes that I distinctly remember having the first few times we took Sophie to a public place. What if she melts down? What then? The parents were desperate to entertain her, so they gave her the plastic bag that once held her Teddy Grams to play with. Hey, I'm not judging- she was supervised and being quiet. Whatever it takes. The baby quickly showed them when she clumsily knocked her juice cup onto the floor, splashing a waitress passing by. "Eat Faster!," the parents eyes read.

But John had the best seat in the house. The people in the booth behind us that he was facing win the award. A boy, about seven, and his parents came in. Once settled in the boy informed them that he didn't like his shirt. So, mom told him to take it off. He did. He walked, bare from the waist up to the bathroom, and no one skipped a beat. What ever happened to "No shirt, No shoes, No service?" He did put on a hoodie eventually, but not the way you would think. He had his arms in it, but that was it. The rest wrapped around his back like a shawl. The parents carried on like he wasn't even there, eating and talking more relaxed than anyone else around us.

Upon our arrival to Kosta's I could tell that Sophie was going to be a little testy. She woke up early from her nap and she is definitely the type who needs her sleep. And, it always seems that it is time for little John to have a bottle when we are about to eat. What were we thinking? I got Johns bottle ready and started to feed him while he was still in his carrier. Meanwhile, John distracted Sophie with some coloring as we waited for our food. When it arrived I found myself giving John his bottle with one hand, eating my souvlaki with the other, and still trying to help coax Sophie into eating her dinner.

We had it easy.