Take my privacy

Nugget has funny phrases.

Yes her do!

Here my mam!

And my all time favorite?

Take my privacy!

I think he's heard Strip say, "Give me my privacy," when she goes to the bathroom and just Nugget-ized it. So now, when he's using the bathroom, or wants to be alone, he says, "Take my privacy!"

Anyway, today, Neighbor Chick and I were hanging out with the kiddos after the bus dropped off. All the kids were outside playing except her napping baby. At one point, Nugget walked up on the porch and was going to head into the house. I stopped him.

Me: Oh no, buddy, you can't go in there.

Nugget: I gotta go to tha bathroom.

Me: ok, we'll go home (a whopping 40 yards).

Nugget: No, I gots ta poop. I go in der house.

Me: No, Baby is sleeping, we'll go home, it's ok.

Nugget: No, I ok...

And he runs off. I figure he really just wanted to go inside because Neighbor Chick has all the good food and toys, but keep an eye on him in case he started doing the pee pee dance.

Not two minutes later, Nugget runs two laps around their play set and starts heading for our side of the yard. Toward a tree. A really big tree. And then he disappeared behind said tree.

Oh no he didn't.

I hop up from the porch and sprint to the tree, peek around the corner hoping for the best, and see my child, my baby, my last born, with his pants and McQueen undies around his ankles SQUATTING behind the tree. Like a pro.

The only thing that would have made this better would have been if he had dug a hole first. Clearly he has some things to learn before becoming an expert camper.

Thanks for sparing us the visual, buddy, but if you scroll back up, you'll notice that from that side of the tree, there's nothing between a pooping child and the public but God's green earth and a split rail fence.

Awesome.

Luckily, I caught him before he fertilized the lawn, tossed him over the fence with the instructions to go straight inside and poop IN THE POTTY.

And to think, I imagined my life as the mother of all boys.

Mixing business with pleasure

This picture has nothing to do with this post. But if you do a google image search for the above title, the results are frightening. So instead I give you this. I was cooking dinner tonight and Strip came upstairs to see what I was doing. Zesting a lemon. She asked what we were having, then asked if her "daughter" could eat with us tonight. I told her that was fine, but I only made enough for our fam of 4 and leftovers for me, so she'd have to fix her daughter's dinner. She came up a few minutes later with the above; lemon (zest) pepper chicken! And it looks like Alice fell asleep at the table.

On to the post!

I normally keep this blog about me, Hubs and the kids, but teaching preschool just gives me too many funnies NOT to share. Also, I have a sweet friend who is on hospital bed rest who could use a few laughs, so this one's for you, B!

Our group comes one day a week. But there are 12 of them each day. So 36 different littles a week. Some are potty trained, some are not and some are trying. The first day of school was nuts anyway. One little cutie had on his file "potty trained," so when he told me he needed to go, we scooted to the bathroom.

We'll call him B (not the same B who is chilling in an antepartum wing). B is adorable! And the first day of school? All decked out in his adorable duds. Tucked in little shirt, cutie shorts, a belt, oh he was just too cute! Flash forward to, "Teacher! I have to go pee pee!" We race to the potty and that adorable belt? Not so adorable in the heat of the moment. I get the buckle undone, and me, being the pro kid stripper that I am, grab his undies and shorts at the same time to save us some precious seconds. One problem. Kid's rockin' a onesie. No wonder he stayed so tucked in!

As I'm cursing the adorable clothing line in my head and praying that I don't have someone pee on me the very first day, it hits me; this is exactly the feeling Nugget's teachers must have had his first (50) days of school. Sorry, teachers!

And for the record, no one peed or pooped on me, so I call it a good day.

Today, one of my other adorables, we'll call M, was a little shaky at drop off. He pulled himself together and had an awesome day. Sometime around lunch time, M pulled me aside:

M: Ms. Mommy Chick!

Me: Yes, M?!

M: I not crying any more!!

Me: I know! (hug) I'm so proud of you! What a big boy! Isn't school fun?!

M: Yeah!

Me: And you've had a fun day today?

M: Yes!

Me: And we still have lots of fun things to do, right?!

M: Yes!

Me: and next week, when you come it, I bet you won't cry at all!

M: Well, I'll probably cry a little.

A man with a plan. I like it!

Fun with Math

Back to the sale.

I really enjoyed selling a BUNCH of stuff this fall, don't get me wrong. But, on top of not understanding why some things sell and some don't, I don't understand why some people buy some things used instead of getting exactly what you want new.

So, I sold Strip's coat from Land's End (3-in-1) for $30, Strip's Land's End boots for $20 and Nugget's boots for $20. I totally forgot to pull Nugget's LE jacket, but let's say I tagged it, it would have been $30 as well. All three items sold, so let's also pretend that I remembered to tag Nugget's jacket AND it sold, too.

That would give me $100 from winter basics.

This week, I logged onto ebates and saw I could get 3% cash back at Land's End. Clicked the link and popped a brand new PINK parka in my bag for Strip, new grey/black parka for Nugget and a pair of purple snow boots for Strip. I found a pair of snow boots for Nugget for $4, so he didn't need any.

Grand total with delivery? $107.

And with 3% cash back, that would be $103.79 (oh plus $4 for Nugget's boots puts me back to $107.79).

So for $7 more, I get the colors my kids like, the sizes that will fit them this year and next, can shop in my pjs and can return them to sears if, for some reason, they don't fit the kids correctly.

Totally worth $7

House Rules

Last weekend, the kids and Hubs were in the basement cleaning. I walked half-way down the stairs to toss them a few more toys, and Hubs met me in the middle. He then started play fighting/tickling me so Nugget would come over to save the day.

The end.

About 15 minutes later, Strip comes upstairs and announces, "We have a new rule for our house; No pushing mommy down the stairs!" That's a great rule! She then hands me a piece of paper that illustrates her new rule:

(Sorry, I can't get the picture to flip. Just tilt your head to the left)

Glad she didn't draw that one at school.

After looking at it for a few seconds, I asked,

Me: Who's who?

Strip: That's Daddy on the lower step, and that's you.

Me: Oh, well, what's this (points to the large circle between "my" legs and torso)?

Strip: That's you!

Me: yeah, but what's that? My belly?

Strip: Yes.

Me: Why is it so big?

Strip: I don't know, Mommy, that's just the way God made you.

Kids always have a way of making you feel good about yourself. Looks like I need to dig that free month at Weight Watchers out of the trash!

This blast from the past, brought to you by Google (and Hubs).

The moment we've all been waiting for! Premiere week! WOO HOO!! We kicked it off right last night with a "Wine and Glee-se" party on the big screen with Hubs, me, Neighbor Chick and Jewish Neighbor Chick (waving hello/Shalom!). Neighbor Hubs came out eventually, but he was kind of sleepy.

It rained today, so Hubs said the big screen was a no-go. Hello?! RainED. Past tense. Not raining now! Put it up!! Hubs won, and we watched Modern Family on our normal screen. While watching Hell's Kitchen, an ad came on for a new movie about owls. I have no idea what it's about or what it's called, but it's been creeping Hubs out.

When it came on tonight, he had a flashback.

"Hey! Do you remember that cartoon when we were little? It was about rabbits? And they were in a field? 1/2 were mean and 1/2 were good? You know what I'm talking about, right?"

Blank stare.

Although at that moment, all I could think was, "Mary D. would TOTALLY know this movie." Do you know what he's talking about?

Anyway, I had no clue what he was talking about, so Hubs throws out the, "Oh, it might have been before your time." That whopping 4 years.

He was totally right.

I unleashed my google power and within 9 seconds, I had the answer. I should really work somewhere that can use my power of google for good. Anyway, I found a Q&A forum that had this:

"Me and my sister have been racking our brains trying to figure out the name of a cartoon movie that came out in the early to mid 80's about these rabbits. The movie was a dramatic cartoon that featured good and bad rabbits. One of the bad rabbits I remember had a scar and there was a good rabbit who was very badly beat up in one scene. Seems like he was trying to get carrots from this patch or something. It was a very good movie although it has been so long ago, I dont remember much of it. If you know what it is, you can also please email me at .......k you so much."

As I read the question aloud, Hubs enthusiastically agreed that this was TOTALLY what he was talking about. Scroll on down, and we have our answer.

Watership Down

Another quick google provided me with the promo video. I can't bring myself to link it, but here are some pictures that pop up with a google image search:

If that doesn't scream, "Happy Saturday Cartoon Day," I don't know what does.

2 minutes into the promo, all I could think was, "How in the world did we get on this topic?!" and just then a random owl swooped down and ate a rabbit. Well there ya go.

Watership Down has now been moved to the top of our Netflix queue. I don't think we are going to incorporate it into Family Movie night, but I am going to watch it. Does anyone else out there know this creepy movie?!

Halloween Help

The countdown is on! It's hard to believe I'm already putting together our October calendar and newsletter for school, but I am! As I was going over details, we were planning the class's Halloween party and Teach reminded me that WE had to dress up for Halloween, too.

Grrrrrrreat.

The kids Halloween costumes? Easy peasy. Nugget wants to be Batman, who he is currently obsessed with for, really, no good reason, and Strip wants to be repunzel (for the wig). I even have a costume on order for Zoe that I think is going to be hilarious. But me? Nothing.

Strip's suggestions were Elphaba (Wicked Witch, the green one) or the evil queen from Snow White. I hope she's not typecasting. I figure by Halloween, all of the kids will be settled and use to us/school, so it's probably best NOT to come to school with a green face and fake nose or dressed as a creepy villain.

When I was looking for Zoe's costume online, I figured I'd flip through the adult section and see if anything jumped out at me. When they say "Adult," they aren't kidding. Here's a sampling of things I found:

Queen of Hearts

Cookie Monster

Mad Hatter

Teddy Bear

Police Woman

Yikes. Then while reading descriptions, I came across a crayon costume. Awesome! That's probably comfortable, cute and VERY appropriate for the preschool crowd. Click on the picture and....

Really? How do you make a crayon look inappropriate? I figured since I wasn't having much luck finding something I could wear, I'd see if there were any cute "couples" costumes that we could be. Bacon and eggs? Peanut butter and jelly? Nope:

Outlet and Plug. Forget it! I'll make myself a giant pumpkin outfit and call it a day. When did halloween go from ghosts to strippers?!

Cha Ching!

Well, the results are in, and I did pretty well! I guesstimated that I needed a good $1300 to re-do the counters, and I think I made $755 (check will be here in a couple of weeks, so I'll see if my math is correct!). Not too shabby! I joked with UP about doing an "accent" counter, but figured this will just give us more time to think about if we want to paint/stain the cabinets and pick new colors for the walls before we select our counters.

This was my first time being involved in The Sale. I had NO clue how to price things and really didn't know what people went there to buy. Do they want gymboree sets? A great time to pick up smocked dresses for cheap? Over pay for used play clothes? I had no clue.

Judging from my sales reports, I think I did well pricing things. I had things sell in all my categories and had some higher dollar things go as well as some things that we wondered if they were even worth wasting a hanger.

One important lesson I learned? People are nuts.

While we were tagging and hanging things, I had different piles going; Sell, Goodwill, trash, keep, give to friends. When we got to the end, I was SO close to submitting $3000 and wanted to try to break that number. So, we started scrounging around for something, anything to tag. Ma and I decided to pull out some of the random pairs of socks from the Goodwill bag, and I figured I'll pull the old burp rags too. What the heck! As I was putting things in a bag, Ma asked if I thought this stuff was really going to sell. I told her when I worked in the jewelry store in college, we would have an Anniversary Sale. That time of year, we'd pull out ALL the old, old, old jewelry, put it in zip bags and toss it in a bag labeled $5. You would be shocked to see how nuts people go over things in zip bags priced at $5.

When I pulled my sales sheets, I was shocked, but not shocked to see the following:

BEAUTIFUL Strasburg Children's green velvet dress with red accent stitched collar and full, white satin sash. Matching green purse.

Did not sell.

Ziplock bag with 6 pairs of baby socks? SOLD! Ziplock bag with 7 pairs of baby socks? SOLD!

Ziplock bag with three, old, used cloth diaper/burp rags? SOLD TIMES 2! Yes. 6 old burp rags sold and this gorgeous dress did not.

Now, I know that not all people share my tastes in children's clothing and many people do not choose to dress their little boys in girly clothes, but really people?! Used burp rags?

Note to self, for the spring sale, do not put anything in the goodwill pile. Tag it all and we'll have those new counter tops in no time!

It's Apple week!

Today marked the end of the apple unit for Strip. Until now, everything in kindergarten has revolved around apples, so to celebrate, today was apple day! All the kids were asked to bring in an apple to share with the class, so Strip asked to bring in a Honeycrisp apple. I had wild visions of us hitting the apple orchard this week, but that didn't happen, so I hit the store across the street on my way Tuesday and picked up a sack full of Honeycrisps. Strip took hers in yesterday and proudly announced that her apple looked like a giant compared to the rest of the apples.

Because Nugget and I didn't have school today, we decided to celebrate the end of apple weeks in our own way; I sliced up a honeycrisp for him, we cheers-ed our apple juice glasses and then we headed to the Apple store.

This all started a few weeks ago when I had a hot date with the Genius Bar to solve my, "Your start up disk is full" problem. The problem? I had over 8000 pictures cramping iphotos. While we were working on my computer, we started chatting about the new iphone and discovered I was up for a phone upgrade. I told him I would think about it and went home to clean off my hard drive (which took one more genius bar date and a full WEEK of picture transferring).

I had some birthday money, so toyed with the idea of using it to upgrade myself. Then I got busy. Then I started doing laundry. And more laundry. And more laundry. And then the thought occurred to me. I HATE doing laundry. Why would I buy MORE clothes thus contributing to my most hated household chore?!

I'm gonna upgrade.

After a lunch date at Chick-fil-a, Nugget and I headed over to the Apple store. We had a pep talk in the car about how he was going to act, and I promised we'd do something fun after if he could keep his cool. I then called the store to make sure I they had the phone in stock and verify that I could get in and out quickly because we had a bus to meet. When we walked in, I handed Nugget my (now) old phone so he could play some games while we chatted.

Apple dude (AD): Hi! Can I help you?

Me: Yeah is Matt working today?

AD: No, he's sick.

Me: Oh ok. He helped me a couple of weeks ago so I thought I'd ask for him.

AD: Cool. Anything I can help you with?

Me: Yeah, actually. I need a new case and screen protector for my phone, but I think I'll just get a new phone instead.

AD: Ummm, I, er... ummm.... ok?

Me: Sooo... can I get an Iphone 4 please?

AD: Uh. Yeah! Um, come on over here and we'll get you set up.

I've never seen a man more afraid of an easy sale. I told Nugget to follow us and plopped him on the stool by AD's computer. I told him he could keep playing but that AD would need the phone in a second. AD said not to worry about it, that he could pull up all my info with my driver's license. Cool!

We go through all the motions and then he asks if I've backed up my old phone lately. When I tell him no, he says not to worry, just to update it first before I plug in my new one, then all of my information would transfer to the new phone.

Cue the 60 year-old woman!

Me: Wait, so I can do this when I get home?

AD: Umm yes?

Me: But don't you need my phone?

AD: Um, no?

Me: But I'm upgrading my phone.

AD: Yes and this (points to my orange phone) is your phone.

Me: Yeah, but I'm upgrading to a new one.

AD: Yes.

Me: So don't you need that one (points to orange phone)?

AD: Nooo... that's yours. You paid for that a few years ago. So you get to keep it.

Me: And I get my new one?!

AD: Yes.

Me: Well, Happy Birthday to you, too Nugget! You just got yourself an ipod touch!

I'm sure AD thought I was insane at this point, but I was totally expecting some sim card switching and my old phone would be like a $200 credit toward the new phone. Does that show you how long ago (if ever) it's been since I've upgraded a phone?!

And because Nugget was such a trooper in the Apple store, not only did he get full custody of my old phone, I told him we'd walk down to Nord's for coffee his special treat. He was thrilled and only wanted to ride up, then down, the escalator. Nice! But because I still wanted coffee, we popped into the cafe where I, again, told Nugget to pick a special treat. As he eyeballed the fruit, cookies, crackers and specialty kids drinks, I braced myself and asked what he wanted.

"I wanna cup a whipped cream."

Sold!

And now, I am one apple-step ahead of UP whose life goal is to own everything with an apple logo. And the kids are excited that they get my old phone. So thanks for the great birthday, gift, Papa and Ma!

Let the madness begin!

Operation Clothes into Countertops in FULL swing!

I happily finished getting everything ready for the big sale, sent Hubs to Lowes for some GIANT tubs, filled the back of my car with the past 5 years and headed to work. There, I just happened to be working with a buddy of mine who has also done the sale. We were chatting about it, and I told her to go peek at the insanity on the back of my car. She was asking about how many items I was selling, what I hoped to make, etc, then asked what shift I was volunteering to work the sale.

Today! My drop off appointment is this afternoon, and I work three hours tonight!

Her response was, "Oh, so you're just getting the lower commission?"

Say what?!

Apparently, I can't read, and you get a base commission (still pretty good) for consigning, then you get a higher percentage depending on how many hours you work.

Oh.My.Bathtubs.

Saying a special I-love-you to Hubs for getting me an Iphone, during my break, I quickly started searching for shifts. Friend was totally right. You had to volunteer xhours and different times during the sale (some presale, some during) in order to get the full commission. I jotted down shifts I thought I could physically go to (that whole work and 2 kids thing totally gets in the way), and called Hubs to explain the situation and get his travel schedule this week.

Awesome! Hubs was cool to hang with the kids ALL DAY and would be able to get home early this week so I could do another shift during the sale! I happily clicked on, "Sign up for a shift," only to see,

"We're sorry! This option is not available as the sale is already in progress!"

Crapper!!

Let's take a minute to assess (did I get it right, P?) the situation. The commission difference we are talking about here is about 10%. I'm not a numbers gal, but 10% of $100? Silly me! I'll know better next time! 10% of $3000? Whoa buddy.

I race home to deliver lunch to the kids and Hubs then hop back in the car (after making my 3rd cup of coffee), and head on over to beg and plead for more shifts. And if that didn't work, I fully intended to stomp my foot and say, "Fine! But you can't have any of my stuff!" Luckily, they were desperate for help when I showed up and I was able to add shifts and get my full commission. Woo hoo! Kitchen is still on!

One of the "perks" of putting in extra hours is you get to shop before everyone else. I had a couple of captain random things I'd spied during check in that I wanted to snag, so I decided to hit the sale a few hours before my shift. I had kind of planned on finding my stuff and loudly exclaiming, "WOW! THIS IS IN GREAT SHAPE! AND OH MY! DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH THIS RETAILS FOR?! WHAT A DEAL! TOO BAD IT'S NOT IN MY KID'S SIZE!" but figured that might be cheating (but don't think that I didn't move some of my stuff around to get it in better spots for grabbing).

The three things on my captain random list were gone, but I had a credit, so HAD to get something. As I walked around looking for something for the kids, I saw a fisher-price portable record player and audibly squealed. It was just like the one I use every Christmas to listen to records while we decorate the tree! Mine was in the basement during the flood, so I don't know that it's going to work this year. I grabbed it and proceeded to walk around with it for an hour. I was SO excited! Hubs called and I squealed about my deal. Voice of reason asks, "Well does it work?" Of course it works! You plug it in and it works.... "YEah, but what about the needle? You can't really replace that."

Crud.

I went to the check out line and noticed an outlet, so figured, what the heck. I'll prove Hubs wrong. As I flipped it over to unroll the cord, I noticed another sticker, not the consignment sticker. Upon closer examination, I realize it says, "Goodwill $3.50." The sticker on the front? "Big Sale $10." Wow. Gutsy! I plug it in, and what do you know! It works! HA! They had even left a 45 in there, so double deal! I picked up the blue needle arm and moved it over the record. Nothing. I pushed it down on to the record and nothing. Damaged arm, damaged needle. Damaged heart. And I totally turned it in. How can someone buy something at Goodwill for $3.50, try to sell it for $10 knowing it doesn't work!? I'd like to think the best of people, but I was sad. Now how am I going to listen to Cabbage Patch Christmas?

I spent the rest of the night people watching and listening. I found one duo who I followed around because they were so entertaining. They spent 45 minutes YELLING AT clothing. Don't get me wrong, I picked up a few things, like say a Jumping Beans shirt, then looked at the tag where it was priced $6 and thought (to myself), "Hmm, this is really faded, and you can walk into Kohls on any given day and buy these brand new for $6!" Then just put it back an moved on. These ladies, "OH MY GAWD! $3 for THAT shirt?! That's Wal-Mart brand, lady! And no discount?! You've got to be kidding me!" Who knew people could get so angry at a poly-cotton blend. I did almost have a throw down because one chick yanked something out of the boy's section and screamed, "UM HELLO?! IF YOUR CHILD EVER SHOWED UP AT MY HOUSE IN SOMETHING LIKE THIS, I WOULD MAKE HIM CHANGE IMMEDIATELY!" and I soooo figured she was going to be holding one of Nugget's reindeer sweaters. She was holding a vest and again, why the anger at clothing? Don't like it? Put it back. I did peek in their bags to see what they were going nuts (in a good way) over, and it looked like everything that I'd bagged for Goodwill, which just goes to show you, everyone has different tastes, and that's ok.

I'm refreshing my sales page as I type (not posted yet), but as of the pre-sale, I have 54 items sold! Boo yow! Hubs and I took an optimistic trip to Lowe's yesterday and it's taking all that I have not to measure the counters (again) and place my order!

Dancing and Doughnuts: They can make or break a religion

Culturally, we're pretty boring. I'm scottish-irish and Hubs is, well, southern? So read: caucasian and boring. Although as a family, we've had traditions (Friday night's pizza, Dad's family reunion is a pig pickin' (yup, you read that right!), mom's family meets up at the beach, Krispy Kreme HDN's on Saturday morning), culturally, we just kind of follow the same old, same old.

After my parents were married, they lived in Alabama (where UP was born) and were very good friends with a couple we called, Grandmas and Uncle Spiro. Uncle Spiro, if you haven't figured by now, is Greek. Very Greek. I can remember sitting at their dining room table and hearing stories about "getting a line out" when making calls from the island, or how, because of greek naming traditions, both sons would have been named "Nick," but thank goodness number 2 was a girl. I loved it!

Flash forward to now, my dear friend, and co-teacher this year is also greek. Very greek. And our town's greek festival was this weekend. And 3 of their four greek children were going to be greek dancing in traditional greek outfits! Time to get our greek on!!

I knew Strip had a birthday party Friday night, but figured Hubs, Nugget and I could scoop her up and head over to Greek Fest for some late night Friday Family Fun. We ended up meeting the birthday girl and family for an early dinner, and birthday mom told me one of the party guests was sick. So, since she already paid for that kid, why not just let Nugget come! We argued back and forth, and ultimately let Nugget go to the all-girls party and Hubs and I had an hour and a half impromptu date (First stop, the library to return an overdue book, then we walked to a little bistro to have a glass of wine al fresco. Half-way through the glass, Hubs points out "some guy taking our picture." I turn to see some guy in a suit, CLEARLY snapping pictures of us. Hubs and I look at each other, and as he walks by, Hubs says, "Oh! That's the mayor." Oh! That makes sense! The mayor is taking our picture on a Friday night. We are awesome. We also, obviously, don't have a whole lot going on in our town!).

We walk back to the party place to collect our kiddos and there they are... in full face paint. And off we go to the Greek Festival to meet our buddies. So now, we not only stick out because of our scottish-irish-southern selves, we are also toting half-unicorn face Strip, and full-face batman Nugget! But regardless of our sore-thumb status, we had a BLAST! There was live music and the kids danced their pants off, and I even hopped in the circle to learn some traditional Greek dancing (It's so easy! Just 1,2,3 4,5,6, 7,8,9,10 then 11,12, and start over again). The kiddos quickly decided they were hungry, so I asked my buddy for something kid-friendly and Greek, and she returned, triumphantly with a basket of loukoumades which are kind of like little doughnut holes and smell like heaven.

At 9:45 we had to DRAG the kids to the car. As we walked by the Greek Orthodox church (which also looks like a golden castle), Strip proclaimed that she loved it here and wished she were Greek. So there you have it. Dancing and doughnuts. Where were you on that one John Wesley?

Operation Clothes into Countertops

Although I've been glued to the computer, it's not been because of blogging.

I've finally bitten the bullet and am selling EVERYTHING from the kids' past (well, not everything). Our town has a HUGE consignment sale twice a year, and I've finally decided to get on board. Forget ebay, who care about crazy Craigslisters, I'm scannin' it all away for the Town's Kid's Consignment sale.

I first heard about the sale the spring after we moved here, but just didn't have my act together. However, after reorganizing the flooded basement and looking at the MASSIVE amounts of cute kids' clothes I had just sitting in garbage bags, I decided enough was enough. I signed up for the sale and baby-stepped into it, meaning I pulled everything sellable from the basement and transplanted it into the guest room, which wouldn't be a problem except this week, we have guests! Sorry, PaPa and Ma!

Luckily, the kids have been bunking, so we've been able to make it work, but the guest room was looking a bit like an episode of hoarders, minus the fecal matter and stray animals. So, Ma and I have devoted a night and a day to tagging and hanging everything Nugget and Strip wore from birth through now (with the exception of our favorite outfits and preemie stuff).

Was it hard to part with their little things? Sure! But you know what made it easier? A bottle of wine and a flier from Lowe's with counter top samples. Our adorable kitchen came equipped with the original 1989 WHITE tile countertops which have been driving me crazy for almost two years now. It's great that you can set hot things right of of the oven on them, but the grout always looks dirty no matter how much bleach and elbow grease I use. So. I figured while the consignment sale probably wouldn't make me enough to build my own sewing room on to the side of our bedroom, it would probably give me a good cash dent into some flat surface countertops and a coat or three of paint.

Bring it!