Shiny Red Houses

More news...

2012-01-24T19:01:00.000-08:00

We've now been residents of the fine state of Maryland for eighteen days and I am happy to report that it is starting to get easier. One of the first things I had to do was align myself with a new grocery store. I spent the last few years braving the nightmare that is the Market Basket. The Market Basket is like a bad boyfriend. The crowds and weird set-up made me cringe and yet the prices were just so good. I ~~dated~~ visited different grocery stores in the area and they all sucked for one reason or another so I decided to go with the Rockville Giant. Want to know something crazy about the Giant? It is the Stop and Shop! The same logo, layout, and scanning guns! It's more expensive than my dear old Market Basket, but at least I can use the scanning gun and avoid the "fill the cart, empty the cart, refill the cart" madness at check out.

Now, that I have properly bored you with the tale of my grocery shopping I will get to the important news. I have found junk heaven. No, seriously. I thought my old junk stores were good. Ha! I was a fool! I have visited four junk shops within ten minutes of my home and they were all top notch. On Monday I went to a shop called Unique Thrift and found a great desk for Lily. It was originally 39.99, but since Monday is Customer Appreciation Day it was another 25% off! While there I found a beautiful deep red velvet Pottery Barn quilt for a song. I tell you, walking into that shop was like coming home.

Some of you may be wanting an update on ~~that asshole cat~~ Stan. I am happy to report that Stanley made a full recovery after the move. After a few days he emerged from the new basement and began his usual swagger around the house. The bad news is that he decided that 4am is the perfect time to walk around the house and howl. For two weeks I endured his miserable song and then I got smart and banished him nightly to the heated porch where he sulks and contemplates the state of politics and considers whether today's pop music is better or worse than the pop music of the past.

I would be remiss if I did not tell you that our family made a foray into Bob's Discount Furniture. You've probably seen the horrible commercials with Bob in his bright yellow shirt yelling excitedly about the great bargains to be had at Bob's. It was those commercials which kept me out of the store- I didn't want to encourage him. However, the time had come to pay a piper of sorts in the form of the bunkbeds which were promised to Lily once we moved.

"I know we are taking you away from the only home you've ever known and all of your dear friends, but we'll buy you a bed!"

Lily and I did a lot of bed research and naturally the bed she wanted was the super duper crazy expensive bed with stairs and a built in desk and maid service. It became my job to ~~talk her out of it~~ help her explore other options. We found our other option at Bob's. We found an inferior bunkbed, but one which she has been given permission to pimp out with black and hot pink zebra striped bedding, so maybe she did get the last laugh on this one. We also ordered a cheap couch, a cheap chair, and a cheap mattress. All of the furniture we ordered cost less than that one bed that Lily wanted. Once again, Lily's taste exceeds our budget.

All in all, we are doing better. Lily is generally cheerful. Rebecca has not cried at all today- no small feat! We made some new friends today thanks to the power of Facebook. (If you are not on Facebook yet, please go on it. It's fun and I'll friend you.) Everyday is better than the last and I have much to be grateful for. And am.

House updates and other nonsense...

2012-01-15T19:57:00.000-08:00

I have now been a resident of Potomac for about a week. I have not made any new friends, and as such have resorted to excessively chatting up the cashier ladies at shops. I compliment their hair and fashion choices. I make informed commentary about the weather. It's practice for when I meet ~~a live one~~ a neighbor who might like to befriend me.

Luckily, unpacking and working on the house has been a distraction from my ~~abject loneliness~~ ~~friendlessness~~ ~~pathetic wanderings~~ lack of adult social interaction. This week the children and I went to Ikea which it should be noted, is not a place improved by the presence of children. I love the children. I love Ikea. The two together make me grind my teeth and say uncharitable things to the children. "Stop talking! Mommy needs quiet in her head!"

Little wretches.

We were there to get Rebecca a new bed and not just any bed mind you, a four poster canopy bed. It's the sort of bed where Juliet would pine away for Romeo in. Dreamy isn't it?

Today I also worked on the guest room, or as I like to think of it, Amy's room. I find it very amusing that all three cats have decided that Amy's bed is the place to sleep.

Speaking of cats, as some of you know I have another little blog I started a few weeks ago. I like to think of it as a lighthearted blog full of good humor and fun. It's also pretty snarky. Give it a read if you are so inclined and if by some freaky coincidence you happy to live in Potomac please stop by with some coffee cake. It's a little lonely over here.

The Classroom or The Room That Made Me Cry...

2012-01-11T19:35:00.000-08:00

Unpacking has been going pretty well. Basically my philosophy is to get the stuff out of boxes and in the general area where it belongs. For example, all of my clothes are unpacked and in the closet. The closet is however very disorganized. Once all the boxes have been unpacked in a meta way, I will go back and organize things in a micro way.

This strategy has made the house livable in record time which is nice.

I must confess that I did save the worst boxes for last. As of this morning the classroom was full of boxes of books. I love books. The kids love books. Books, books, books! After the seventeen box of books I was ready to burn them all and buy everyone Kindles. Can you imagine? All of those boxes replaced with a single device? Now I know many of you will be all, "Books are teh awesome! You are very, very wrong!"

Whatever. You come unpack the books and you'll change your tune.

I spent about two hours drowning in the books when I decided that I had had enough. This is how I left it.

At around 9pm Lily announced that she simply had to find the sixth book in the series she is reading and she began opening boxes and dumping more books onto the floor. In the very last box she found the book she was looking for. Tomorrow I'll get back in there. I've got to get the room set up for school by Monday or my children will never be educated and my only accomplishments in this life will have been an unusual predilection for frequenting junk stores and an addiction to chocolate, and while I am not ashamed of these things, they are not quite the same as having children who can do math.

Some thoughts on moving...

2012-01-10T19:27:00.000-08:00

It was with many tears and fond farewells that the intrepid residents of Shiny Red Houses made their way south and to their new home. The journey was quite easy for me, as I only had dogs and children to wrangle. David, on the other hand, was responsible for gathering up the cats to his bosom, or at the very least to their cat carriers so that they too could join us on our adventure. Foolishly, we had underestimated the difficulty of collecting three cats bent on not having an adventure. It took 24 hours, many scratches and bites, a net, an air mattress, borrowed underwear, and the brave and only partially conscripted service of Amy and Bethany, but the cats were finally caged, sedated, and transported. The timeline of "Catscapes 2012" can be best enjoyed over at Facebook where David and Amy provided real time updates, including the realization that one of the cats Amy tried to rescue was not in fact our cat.

The movers delivered all of our worldly possessions on Saturday and since then we have been in a frenzy of unpacking. You know by now that I am a woman of action and as such, the house is largely unpacked. This house is very different from my last. For one thing, it's much larger and so the cozy cottage feel that worked so well in my Arlington house would look silly here. I've decided to take a more minimalist approach to my decorating with this house. This may be related to my aversion to unpacking.

There are several things to consider about this house. Firstly, it's a rental. Since we are brand new to the area we decided to rent for a while and get a sense of where we might want to settle down. Because it's a rental I won't be painting anything which I am not ashamed to tell you is a complete effing relief. It doesn't hurt that the house is painted in lovely inoffensive Pottery Barn colors. What is interesting to see is how easily the furniture I used in my last Shiny Red House fits into Grown-Up Lady House.

Remember those pieces from my colorful dining room? Same furniture, completely different look. (All the window treatments in the house belong to the owners.)

The bedroom is hardly different at all.

Happily this house has a family room where the television and wii can go (no photos yet) and a separate living room which I have decided is Mommy's room of sanctuary. I love this living room. I want to marry it and have beautiful living room babies with it.

All of the pieces in this room were in my living room in Arlington, except for the couch which if you remember I trash picked and then put in David's office.

Tomorrow the girls and I are tackling the last room- the classroom. I am so excited to have a dedicated classroom where we can set up our maps and projects without having to take them down every night.

Before I go to bed, I thought I would let you know that the people of Maryland so far seem very nice. I was only warned once that I would go to hell for not accepting Jesus as my personal savior, but it was via a flier tucked under my windshield and as such is probably not the final word on salvation.

Guest post in which Amy considers Christmas...

2011-12-22T19:20:00.001-08:00

"The 12 Days of Christmas", I think, really beautifully illustrates
the escalating panic, uncertainty, and throw-money-at-it
problem-solving of the Christmas shopping season. It begins with a
whimsical, tasteful and thoughtful gift: a pear tree is beautiful
*and* practical, one partridge in it would be pretty, and possibly a
good meal. He probably ordered it online weeks ahead of time, and got
a good deal on it. Then it's like:

"Well, she seemed to like the bird thing, I'll stick with that: turtle
doves! aww, adorable!...um...french hens! sure!... dunno, swans???

"...hmmmm. Maybe the birds are getting old. Yes! FIVE GOLDEN RINGS,
BABY!! ONE FOR EACH FINGER! BLAMMO!

Oh shit, there's a whole nother week??

"Jesus, I dunno, maybe like, a whole crap-ton of birds? No? OK, the
bird thing is definitely tired. I'll just go down to the
mall/marketplace and see if I see anything that looks good...dang,
those milkmaids look good...holy crap, there's still 4 days left!! OK,
you know what? What the fuck ever, it's only money--drummers! dancers!
pipers! lords!"

Pass the grog.

Not the Market Basket!

2011-12-21T17:48:00.000-08:00

Longtime readers know that when I need to grocery shop, I usually force myself to endure the very special kind of hell which is known as the Market Basket. It is huge and unwieldy and is a favorite shopping destination among both the slow moving elderly and narcissists who like to park their carriage in the middle of the aisle while they decide which brand of salt to buy.

Today I needed to pick up a few items, but as luck would have it I was nowhere near the Market Basket and so I entered the equally hideous, yet far more expensive Shaws.

At first glance Shaws seems like your average grocery store. The milk is where you would expect it to be. The meats are along the back wall. It's in the frozen food section where things get a little weird.

This one I can understand. I like pies too.

Hmmmm. I guess I like novelties, though I'm not sure that the exclamation point is really called for.

"Potatoes!" Really? An exclamation point for frozen potatoes? Might we be abusing the very notion of the exclamation point?

There is no need for this sort of punctuation for frozen vegetables. This is just false advertising.

I really do not know what to make of this. Yes, it's exciting that you have some frozen kosher offerings, but let's be honest- it's not that exciting.

What the hell is this?

Shouldn't Hispanic be capitalized? Is Hispanic even a real food group? Doesn't this just seem rude somehow? Unless you are actually selling frozen Hispanics, I really think that this sign is misleading.

Is this sort of thing limited to this one Shaws? Does your store sell frozen Hispanics too?

Conversation in which all involved behave exactly as one would predict...

2011-12-06T18:36:00.001-08:00

The Scene: Toyota Sienna Minivan driving down the highway at night

I say to Rebecca, "I was thinking that you should read The Metamorphosis. It's a real cool book about a guy who wakes up to find he's a dung beetle."

Rebecca, "Does he turn back human in the end."

Me, "No..."

Rebecca, "Does he make new friends?"

Me, "No..."

Rebecca, "I think I'll pass."

Lily, "It sounds great! I love beetles!"

Kafka would have approved of the entire conversation I think.

Nutcracker and Gingerbread...

2011-12-05T13:13:00.001-08:00

Well, I very predictably failed in my attempt to blog daily. Maybe it's that I've been busy, or maybe it's because no one gives me chocolate covered cherries every time I manage to post. Either way, mea culpa.

One honest to goodness real life excuse I have is that this weekend was the big Nutcracker weekend for the girls and David. Why yes, my husband did perform in this years Nutcracker extravaganza. He was able to realize a long held dream of playing the role of the mysterious Herr Drosselmeyer. Usually this role is played by a teenage girl and naturally the existing costume simply Would Not Do.

Since there are few things my husband enjoys more than wearing a cape, top hat, and eye patch, he rented a proper Drosselmeyer costume. What more could a humble Jewish boy from New Jersey want in life?

Quite dashing don't you think?

The Nutcracker marks the true beginning of the Christmas in our house and so I purchased some giant gingerbread men for the children which they happily decorated. Decorating the cookies gave us an opportunity to use up some of the left over Halloween candy which seems to never end. Some years it lasts until Easter and I refuse to pack Halloween candy.

A good use of candy I think. You can see that Rebecca's gingerbread girl has suffered a leg trauma. She's still smiling though because she's a professional. No whining about her leg being eaten- now that's what I call class.

In which I post again, possibly about nothing, but maybe gorillas.

2011-12-01T20:00:00.001-08:00

Today a miracle happened. It was the miracle of being caught up on the laundry. There should be a special name for that sort of an event. Laundrymas or maybe laundvictory. Either way it hardly matters because my satisfaction was quickly squelched by the arrival of my husband (yay!) with two suitcases of dirty laundry (boo!).

It was lovely while it lasted.

One of the things I have been doing this week is making a list of things which we must do before we move. December is feeling like one long goodbye being chipped away in small icy stabs. Each farewell, each "last time" is another gouge in my heart.

We've had such a good life here. I'm sure we'll have a good life there. And yet the goodbyes keep coming.

Tomorrow we are doing one of the most important things on that list. We are going to say goodbye to our gorillas. The real treat for me tomorrow is that Amy is coming with us to see the gorillas. She's heard me talk about the gorillas and seen pictures of the gorillas, but she's never become one with the gorillas. Tomorrow is her day with the gorillas. I'm sure it will be magical.

Extremely Abbreviated Update which is actually quite long...

2011-11-30T20:15:00.001-08:00

The problem with disappearing from your blog for a while is that when you come back there's the sense of having to explain the absence and quite honestly, all of that explaining is too boring to even contemplate so I will give you an Extremely Abbreviated Update.

Rented a house in Potomac, MD.
Hosted a farewell Oneg service at our temple.

Wept like mad when the rabbi said nice things about our family.

Threw ourselves a huge farewell bash.

Danced like mad.
Wept like mad in Amy's arms.

Went to Cape Cod for Thanksgiving.

Due to some overzealous turkey preparations dinner was ready at noon.
This led to turkey leftovers for actual dinner. FTW!

Went to the beach and allowed children and dogs to frolic on the sand.

Lily's frolicking may have involved getting very wet and required an impromptu clothes change in the car.

Emptied out much of the basement so that my lovely neighbors could avail themselves of our stuff.

Force myself not to weep like mad when the small kids table is carried away by sweet family down the street.

Junked like mad with Amy.

Did not weep.
Ate nachos.

Miscellaneous housewife nonsense which includes, but is no way limited to:

laundry
cooking
cleaning
watching Law and Order
playing games on my iphone
beating my husband at scrabble
reading detective novels
teaching the children
driving the children all over town

This week I have also been Christmas shopping.

Lily's list is a pantheon of disgusting desires. She wants the zombie cooking toy that makes candy that looks like viscera and is served out of a skull. Additionally, she wants the toy that makes rubber bugs and a scar and wound special effects kit. Today she asked for a t-shirt that says, "I'm with Stupid", but honestly, I must draw the line somewhere.

Rebecca's requests are far more dignified. A book about gnomes and some art supplies are near the top of her list, as well as a gift card to Forever 21. What kind of a kid is Rebecca? When we went to the mall she went to Bath and Body Works and bought lip gloss and socks. Socks. Add a murder mystery novel and a cup of coffee and she is me.

This week I dragged at the Christmas stuff out of the basement to decorate the house. With the move looming in the near distance I didn't really want to go whole hog, but the children wailed at that notion so I decided to let them decorate with the caveat that I could "edit" afterwards. Not a decoration was spared. The downstairs is extremely festive. Seriously festive. Like Christmas exploded festive. I left most of it, because well, why the hell not.

So, I think we are all caught up. I am going to try to blog daily. I appreciate your indulgence and apologize in advance for my inevitable failure.

Twenty houses...

2011-11-06T18:21:00.000-08:00

Well, we've been here in Chevy Chase, MD for about three days. In those days we have been in two states and one district.

Our first day here was full of excitement and thrills! The birth of a new life! Possibilities abounded!

We started by driving through Maryland, up towards Gaithersburg. There we giddily stopped at a house with a "For Rent" sign hanging on the lawn. As we got out of the car a small herd of deer paused from nibbling the grass to look up at us. It was as if the angels of house hunting had chosen that moment to smile down upon us and lift any worry away from our troubled souls. When the realtor arrived however, we were met with an unwelcome shock. The house simply would not do. It had not been updated since 1967. Wood paneling, harvest gold bathrooms, and a tiny kitchen were ice water in the face of our drunken joy. The deer mocked us and the angels looked upon us with pitying disdain.

Dejectedly we drove away. The rest of the day was spent touring Maryland, listening to the whining of children, and the complaints of commuting from my husband. I on the other hand was as delightful as always.

By the time night fell we collapsed back at the hotel and ordered room service, hopeful that the next day would bring us closer to our new home.

Saturday morning we woke up refreshed and ready for new adventures. We drove out to Great Falls, Virginia to see my pals Jenny and Matt and to see some properties in their area. Our visit with our old friends and their lovely children was fantastic. How is it that none of us have aged at all in fifteen years? We are amazing creatures I tell you.

Saturday afternoon brought us through nine houses. One of them was simply amazing. Huge, beautifully decorated, and landscaped with a pool. It was perfect in every way, except that it was about $500 over our maximum budgeted price. We walked around the house feeling like country bumpkins, pathetic hayseeds stunned that a house could possess five bathrooms. The house was really too much for us. Ultimately we walked away from it. It would make us feel inferior- miserable that my junk store finds which looked so cozy in my small house would look like trash in this elegant home.

We saw one other house which I quite loved. It was roomy enough for our family and friends without feeling too fussy for us. On the way home from Virginia I couldn't help but worry about the commute for David. Even on a Saturday afternoon the traffic was heavy, and seemed like another invitation for misery.

Sunday morning dawned with no vim or vigor. We felt exhausted, defeated, and more than a little cranky. The mood of the children ranged from to grumbling surliness to outright hostility. We saw many houses, none of which were quite right. In fact we were about to quit, to drive away and drown our sorrows in room service when we received a call from a craigslist posting and decided to try one last house. As we approached the neighborhood we started to perk up. Hmmmm. This neighborhood is nice! It must be completely out of our price range we thought.

"Don't get your hopes up!" we all warned each other. "It's probably too expensive for us."

People, we walked in and found a really great house. Not perfect in every way, mind you. There were no angels or talking pugs guiding our way, but it is a pretty great house. As David and I wandered the house we heard squeals of laughter coming from the backyard. There we saw the children playing with a neighbor child on the tree swing.

We are submitting an application to rent it. It's a little more than we budgeted for, but the short commute and great house make it worth it. Keep your fingers crossed for us dear internet, because if we have to start looking for houses again I'm pretty sure we'll need family counseling.

On our way...

2011-11-02T19:57:00.000-07:00

My bags are packed. The house sitter is on route. The dogs are unaware.

Tomorrow the girls and I are headed down to DC to begin exploring the area. We need to find a great area to live, a dance studio, a horse farm, a synagogue, a junk store, a place that has great cheeseburgers, and a dog park.

Luckily we already know that DC has some gorillas. The girls and I plan to make the acquaintance of the National Zoo gorillas at our earliest convenience. I wonder if they will be able to tell that the girls and I are gorilla people. Will they know that we have spent hours staring through the glass into the eyes of their nearly human brothers and sisters?

These are the things we need to sort out.

One of the highlights of our trip will be visiting my best friends from college, Jenny and Matt. When we were in college, people didn't have email. Or cell phones. I was still a cat person.

The world is a very different place and yet, there they are- those two crazy kids who fell head over heels for each other, who traveled the world, had three kids and are traveling the world again. I can't wait to see them.

So there you go. That is the extent of the excitement in my life. No dead birds, insects, or rodents. No barf, animal or otherwise, just a civilized trip to visit the birth of our new life.

My psyche, snow, and Target...

2011-11-01T19:38:00.000-07:00

Those of you who are in New England, live on the east coast, or have any sort of exposure to the media are probably aware of our crazy Snowtober storm. Yes, that's right, we were treated to some heavy rain followed by even heavier snow and wind. This lead to the inevitable power outage. It was exciting to lay in bed Saturday night and listen to the branches and trees creaking and breaking. By morning my street looked like a it had been hit by a tornado. Power lines were down and trees were blown across the road. We lost a huge limb out back, but it caused no damage.

We did lose power for about 12 hours. You know what I do when I lose power? I wander around Target for a few hours to stock up on batteries and flashlights and somehow end up with extra Halloween candy and some cute tops which needed a good home. It was the only way to comfort my battered psyche.

The 12 hours without power really stressed me out. I realized that the fatigue of managing the move and the reality of leaving my town (and most especially Amy) have me just barely keeping my head above water. Losing power and having the additional worries of staying warm and keeping the food from spoiling were more than I could manage.

Once the power came back on I felt such relief. It was so nice to return to my regular worries which felt like old, though annoying friends. A power outage on the other hand, is nothing but a thug.

Happily our town did not postpone Halloween and my children were able to collect plenty of candy for me to steal from them when they are not paying attention. Tramping around in the cold seems to have given everyone colds, so today I was back at Target to return the unopened extra bags of Halloween candy and the surplus lanterns so that I could purchase mucinex and tissues.

This my friends, is the thrill of middle age. What adventures will we have next?

The October that wasn't...

2011-10-19T19:42:00.000-07:00

October. Dear sweet October. He used to be my favorite month you know. I pined for him all year long, waiting for his cool smoky breezes to blow through my hair, for his leaves to crunch seductively under my shoes. This year October has been the guy at the high school reunion that you couldn't wait to see again after all those years only to find out he's a twice divorced insurance agent with a comb-over. Where there should be sun, this version of October is rain- whiny, miserable rain.

I blame the rain and overall dreariness on my memory lapse today. This afternoon Lily has dance for three hours and Rebecca has Hebrew school for two, so I had planned on running a bunch of errands. However, it was so rainy out that I decided to stay home and paint gnomes for an upcoming craft fair. I blissfully painted gnomes and fairy mushrooms for two hours before I remembered that Rebecca was supposed to be at Hebrew School and not in her room doing a puzzle.

It's fitting that I chose this pathetic excuse for October to start running again. This time I am actually running outside. In public. In sneakers and everything. I told a friend who loves to run that I had started running and she said, "Isn't it awesome?!"

No. It is actually not awesome at all, but merely a necessary activity which must be done to avoid the inevitable weight creep which has accompanied my late thirties.

Our moving plans are continuing. I stalk craigslist and realtor sites looking for the perfect house. I always try to imagine them in some perfect fictional autumn- an autumn in which October lives up to its potential and arrives on my doorstep with a pumpkin spice latte and the leaf-blown-fall-addition of Country Living.

In fact, so much of this move feels like fiction. Getting the house ready occupied so much of my attention, that once it was spoken for I felt exhausted, as if getting the house under agreement was the finish line, when in fact the race has barely begun. The days go on, slipping away. Amy and I chat nervously about a new life in which we are not constantly in each others orbit. Sigh. We have never needed October more than right now. If you see it, please send it our way.

Updates for those keeping track...

2011-10-15T16:40:00.001-07:00

When last we met, I shared the big news of our upcoming move to Washington DC. Since that time we got the house ready to sell and found a buyer. Now I could brag about my mad real estate skills, my awesome staging, and my home fragrance plug-in devices, but I wouldn't be being completely honest with you. In truth, the reason my house sold so quickly is because a very dear friend wanted to buy it. It ended up simply being a matter of deciding on a price and a time frame. I think that I can honestly say that all of the people involved feel very blessed with how it's worked out.

Now that the house is spoken for, I can get on with the business of finding a home to rent in the DC area. We are taking a trip to Chevy Chase in a few weeks where David will be working to look at houses. Our goal is to find something along the metro line so that David can take the train into work every day. It seems like Maryland may make the most sense for our needs. The girls and I are hoping for an area which is family friendly, home school friendly, wooded and pretty. If any of my readers have suggestions for great towns, I'd love to hear them.

The children spent the week on the Cape with my folks where they were spoiled and loved. I think that the kids found it very relaxing because they got to forget about the fact that we are moving for awhile. They had mani/pedi's with Nana and watched pirate documentaries with Pepere. They had the time of their lives. David and I had the chance to eat out at grown-up restaurants while they were gone. It was heavenly. We also made a big shopping trip to the shopping outlets in Maine so that David could get some work clothes. David has worked from home for many years now, so many in fact that his "work attire" actually more resembled gym clothes on the good days and pajamas on the bad. Now he gets to be Mr. Fancy Pants, a change which I could not support more heartily.

My list of things to do seems to grow every day and yet I am trying to slow down and enjoy these last months here. It's bittersweet in every way. The excitement of moving. The sadness of leaving. It's all there. I blog in my mind all the time, but am often too tired to get the words here. I'll try to do better. Thanks for sticking with me.

Some news...

2011-10-05T09:36:00.000-07:00

I haven't been blogging much lately.

There have been things happening.

Good things.

Great things.

Things which required waiting.

I suck at the waiting.

I am happy to say that the waiting is finally over and I can share our good news. David has been offered a really exciting job in the Washington DC area. We will be moving in early January.

Moving is always hard and this move will certainly be no exception. We've come to love our small town outside of Boston. The list of things and people we'll miss seems endless and yet, we are thrilled too. A new house, Washington DC zoos, and museums and some old friends are exciting prospects.

I'm going to try to blog more faithfully, but I am busy getting the house ready to sell and homeschooling the kids. I hope you stick with me!

This day...

2011-09-11T17:14:00.000-07:00

It seems self indulgent to talk about where I was and what I was doing. There are no words for that day. It was real and unreal. It was loud and then quiet. On September days like this one, when the sun is warm and the air is cool, I remember being more scared than I had ever been, and feeling more grief than I ever had.

I spent today with Amy, as I often do, and we skirted around the topic a bit, but never settled in. I think we both chose not to rehash it, not relive every moment of the devastation. Instead I spent the day with the best friend a girl could ask for and came home to a family I love. If nothing else, this day can be a reminder to love freely, hugely, and without reservation. There is always room for love.

Some junking with Amy...

2011-09-09T18:51:00.000-07:00

I was all set to tell you a thrilling tale of animal fur removal, utilizing my two prong approach of furminator and vacuum cleaner which is better than my previous method of swearing and duct tape. Instead I will tell you a story called, "Amy and Sara Go Junking".

This afternoon I called Amy and said, "Dude! Let's got to Global Thrift! I'll pick you up in ten minutes!" and she said, "Okay!".

This story is riveting already, isn't it?

When we arrived at the junk store and I immediately went to look at the furniture. There I saw something which even at first glance I knew I must possess. A small red desk. It was only 9.99, so I grabbed it and hauled it up to the register where the manager Mark guarded it with his life. Meanwhile, Amy spotted a great mid-century dining room table and chairs which she had to furiously contemplate purchasing. She was still dithering about it when we were in the fitting rooms and I finally yelled, "Just get it!" because that's what friends are for.

Just look at this cute desk!

Here it is in its new home on the porch.

For now I put the round red table that was next to the chair into the basement. I also added some more fall decorations on the porch.

It was a day of red at the junk store because I also found these totally awesome boots. Know how much these babies run? $130. Know how much I spent? Less than $10!

Finally, I want to give everyone an update on Rebecca's health. The good news is that she has been fever free for about a week. The bad news is that she still has an ugly cough and sore throat. We went to the doctor yesterday and the new diagnosis is walking pneumonia. Rebecca is on antibiotics for it and we are hopeful that she will finally start feeling better soon. Thanks so much for all of the kind words and thoughts the past month. I know that we have all really appreciated them!

Who's a good dog?

2011-09-08T18:48:00.000-07:00

I was all set to write a post called, "I believe the decomp is my future" set to the tune of Whitney Houston's hit "Greatest Love of All", but then events transpired which made that title Null and Void.

It all started when I saw our cat Stanley peering underneath the piano in a very determined way. There are only two things which will get Stan moving: mice and barking dogs. Since the dogs are too big to hide underneath the piano, I strongly suspected a rodent. I pulled the piano away from the wall to reveal a very cute and plump mouse.

"Go get him, Stan!", I yelled. Stan looked at me confusedly. The mouse, clearly a student of Sun Tsu, took advantage of the distraction to scurry along the wall. I tried to grab him with a dish cloth, but he eluded my grasp and I lost him. This was the moment when I assumed that Stanley would later find him, kill him, and then leave him to rot and smell up the basement.

I started planning my blog post, humming the awful Whitney Houston song, and contemplating how many babies that mouse was likely to give birth to before Stan killed her.

Later this evening after performing many tedious adult tasks, I agreed to play Go Fish with Lily. Puglsey took his spot next to me, but Sophie was missing. It is not like her to miss the opportunity to sit on a deck of cards and wreck competitive havoc. I sent Lily downstairs to make sure that she wasn't on the porch eating her own feces.

That's when I heard Lily shout, "Sophie caught the mouse!"

And indeed Sophie did. The mouse looked well gummed, though not actually eaten. Sophie was praised extravagantly for her deed and will be given extra treats as a reward.

On the subject of the tedious adult tasks which I have been faithfully performing every day instead of killing zombies, watching crime shows, and reading detective novels, I must say that on the one hand, it's nice to stay on top of things and not allow the squalor to snowball into mayhem. On the other hand, it's so freaking boring. Scooping cat poop every day, breaking down the recycling, vacuuming, laundry, and so on. My god. I don't know how I can stand it.

If you are really lucky tomorrow I'll tell you all about my new pet hair elimination strategy, "No Hair Left Behind". I know, the thrills, they do not cease.

Blammo!

2011-09-06T19:27:00.000-07:00

This weekend sailed by in a blur of end-of-summer fun. We saw my folks on the cape, visited with my pal Julian and his family, and then headed up to Maine to spend a few days with the always lovely Amy and her family. We beached and junked and ate and did our nails. The dogs ran in fields and got fleas, but it did not matter because everyone was on the awesome train and it stopped for nothing.

We returned home yesterday and as soon as we stepped in the door I started a full on unpacking and house cleaning blitz. Know why? Because it's September, people! September is the month which holds open the door to my one true love, October. Today I got our school books organized, worked on containing Rebecca's art supplies, and most importantly I decorated for fall.

I started by plugging in my pumpkin scented outlet thingies. Once I was grooving on that awesome fall smell I started hauling my fake gourds from the basement. It was when I started filling this cool garden box with moss that the crazy fall action really took off.

Look at that squirrel! Isn't he cute? I do not know why he is holding a pinecone.

Now I just need to get some pumpkins for my porch, some dried up leaves for the steps, and a pumpkin spice latte.

Blammo people! It's Fall!

The new chair finds a home...

2011-08-30T20:21:00.000-07:00

Remember that awesome chair I trash picked a few days ago? I decided to do something radical with it.

I put it on the porch. I know. Hold yourself.

The funny thing about the porch is that before this summer we rarely used it. In spite of being heated, it tends to be cold in the winter and hot in the summer. This summer however, has been uncharacteristically cool and the porch has been the place to be this summer. We tend to all fight over the one comfy chair in the corner of the windows. Lily in particular will disappear for hours on that chair, reading and playing with the dogs.

The other chairs are wicker, which are very pretty, but not super comfortable for a few hours of reading.

We've been talking about experimenting with putting a space heater on the porch this winter so that we can continue our porch love affair. This got me thinking about seating on the porch and I immediately conjured up an image of cozy reading in the new chair. Since Fall is right around the corner I decided to go ahead and bring the wicker chairs to the basement and bring the new chair front and center.

I decided to stack my newly trash picked vintage cooler, as well as some of my tin baskets for visual interest.

When Fall really begins I'll put out some mums, plaid blankets, and pumpkins. Are you thinking about fall? If you are, you'll love this piece about decorative gourd season.

Death, Electricity, Shopping...

2011-08-29T18:03:00.000-07:00

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Actually, for me it was the best of times, for Lily it was the most unconcerned of times and for Rebecca it was the saddest of times. What single event could elicit such different reactions? It was the death of our last hermit crab whose name was (I think), Nemo. Nemo was part of a hermit crab dyad which David purchased for the children out of guilt about three years ago. He'd been working and traveling for months and he decided that pleasing the children with hideous pets was better than having me on speaking terms with him.

When he presented the crabs, the children were enthralled. For about ten minutes. I told David that these crabs were not going to be my responsibility because at the time we had four cats and two dogs and I was not to be held responsible for keeping one more animal alive in my house. For the first few years they lived in David's office, but in the last year they made their way into the house, though why this happened is a mystery.

It is benign neglect for which we have to thank for the crabs living as long as they did. We'd feed them, put some water in their tank, but generally they were ignored. Yesterday I realized that it had been a while since I'd heard Nemo plotting his escape so I took a closer look at him. He seemed unresponsive. I tapped him a bit and his claw came off.

My heart lifted! One less animal to maintain! Call me cold hearted, a mammal elitist- I will own these labels. The only thing I won't own are any more hermit crabs.

In other news, our cape trip has been postponed because my folks are still without power on the cape. They are fine otherwise and grateful that they are without power while the weather is warm and the grill is available. Still, I can't help but think that perhaps Santa should leave them a generator under the tree this year at Christmas.

Finally, I caught Lily in that rarest of moods. She wanted to go clothes shopping. Generally she's not much of a shopper, but today after sorting through her fall clothes from last year and realizing that she had outgrown nearly everything she was ready. We had most of our success at The Children's Place where I purchased six shirts and six pairs of pants for $104.00. That's only slightly pricer than the junk store!

Hope everyone is recovering from the hurricane and squeezing some fun out of the last days of August.

Notes from the hurricane...

2011-08-28T18:46:00.000-07:00

Today Hurricane Irene arrived, though by the time she got here she was a Tropical Storm. As you know, we were prepared with batteries, ice cream and Doritos and luckily only the ice cream and Doritos were needed. I suffered a minor injury when some cheesy Dorito powder went into my paper cut, but when one considers the dire hurricane predictions, I feel grateful to have come out with only the stinging pan of artificial cheese on bare flesh.

The hurricane gave me the chance to get a few things done which had been nagging at me. One such thing was finalizing and ordering the assorted curricula for the education of my children. I finally decided to go with History Odyssey which I think will be both interesting and a whole lot of fun. I also sent off my Letter of Intent and Educational Plan so that the Education Police will not come and drag my children into school for standardized testing.

Now that those plans are in place we can attempt to enjoy our final week of summer. Poor Rebecca continues to suffer from her Mystery Illness. The only thing that any of the tests showed was low Vitamin D. The theory seems to be that because her Vitamin D is low her body is having a hard time fighting off whatever virus she has. The hope is that by upping her Vitamin D will help her body fight off this stupid virus.

This week the girls and I will visit my folks on the cape. Rebecca can rest with Nana and Aunt Lois while Lily and I go hang with my old pal Julian and his family. Some fried clams, a change of scenery and some sand in our shoes- summer is not ending without a fight!

I am an English boot wearer!

2011-08-26T20:40:00.000-07:00

I am too tired for a proper post so I will share this. In the midst of my hurricane preparations I took a few minutes to stop at Global Thrift for a look see. There I found a wonderful pair of brand new boots from Marks and Spenser which is a British store. It has the original price tag which is written in pounds! Pounds I tell you! This will inspire me to swear in the English fashion when I wear them instead of the more traditional American fashion. I will not tell anyone which boots I am wearing, but when they hear me say "sodding!" "bloody!" etc, they will know and envy my clever English boots.

In hurricane news, the Dorito's have been purchased, the phone is charging and we are as ready as we will get. At the risk of being an obvious git (Ha! Tricked you! I am not wearing my boots right now, but they are nearby.) please stay safe!

Stroke or Earthquake? hard to say...

2011-08-25T19:42:00.000-07:00

Nothing happened today that was very interesting at all but I will try to find something to tell you about anyway. I did some laundry. I scooped the cat box. I reorganized my office.

The biggest focus of the day has been preparing the hurricane box.

I have five bottles of water, five flashlights, many scented candles, a filled propane tank for the grill if we lose power, and enough batteries to run the house for weeks.

Tomorrow I am going to the grocery store to see if there is any food left. Hopefully there will be some Doritos and chocolate chip cookies left because I would hate to be in an emergency situation without the essentials.

I have also taken an informal poll regarding yesterdays earthquake. It seems that anyone over the age of sixty who experiences an earthquake firstly assumes that they are having a stroke. When questioned about it my dad said that he thought he was having a stroke but did not bring it to the attention of Nana, because it is his preferred way of dealing with mysterious medical conditions. Luckily, it turned out to be an earthquake so it is a system which is working out pretty well for him.

That's all I have for you tonight. My cold is making my face itchy and my nose stuffy and my head hurty, and so I will go to bed and look forward to a another day of exciting disaster preparedness tomorrow.