Home. Friends.

This is the post I almost believed I'd never write.

Sorry I've been getting so far behind on reading blogs.  I have been busy.  Making friends.  Smiling.  Laughing.  Planning.  Happy.

That mommy group I could never meet up with for activities?

I've been meeting.  I've been active.

In the past three weeks I have:

Learned to make and can jalapeno jelly and strawberry jam.  Turns out it's so much easier than I would have guessed.  And fun.

Ordered tutus from one of mommies for the girls for Fynnie's birthday party.  Mad's will be pink, yellow and purple.  Here's a (blurry) picture of Fynnie's that I snagged.

The blue piece in the center above the bow is a flower for her hair.

Taken a belly dancing class.  There was another one this morning, but I couldn't make it.  I'll catch the next one.  It was fun and a good workout.  Made even better by the fact that I had Fynnie strapped to my body during the whole thing.  Madelyn?  She was busy playing with the other kids or running over to try out our moves.  Oh!  And remember that one miserable trip to the breastfeeding support group when Fynnie was a couple weeks old?  Remember the mama who gave me the blow-by-blow of the last 11 weeks of her pregnancy, labor, delivery, recovery and the status of her relationships with the medical staff at the hospital where all this happened? She was there.  She's been my Facebook friend for a few weeks, but I didn't know until she walked in and started talking.  And talking.  She struck me as nervous (I don't think any of us had met before, except for me and the host... who'd been at the canning party).  I think that 11 months ago she must have really been (understandably) traumatized by the circumstances of her daughter's entree.  And I have to say that I kind of like her.

Supported a mom's endeavors to avoid having her son selling discount cards at the grocery store.  I bought four of them and, along with all the discounts, was thrilled to get a 20 minute photo shoot for my girls.

The girls and I met again with the photographer mama and her girls.  At the mall.  For pretzels and lemonade and to get my CD of photos, but we hung out for almost an hour.  We may start getting together to walk in the mornings.

Applied to host a couple of young women from China for about two and a half weeks.  I think we're in.  They arrive on the second.

Tomorrow I'm hosting a canning "party" of my own.  All I did last time was cut up some strawberries and jalapenos and then fill up and label a few jars.  Neither of the women who are coming tomorrow were at the last event, so I'll be the "knowledgeable" person.  Bahaha!  One of the ladies who is coming is the same one we were able to help out a month or so ago.  The other one is just coming because she's interested.

I've still been going to the gym regularly with my pal, Jennifer.  I did miss two weeks because we were fighting off sinusitis.  Yuck.

And aside from all of the fun and frivolity, there have also been trips with the girls to the local farmer's market and the farmer's market from a neighboring town.  Tom and I took Mad to a cooking class the other night (more on that later).  We're getting out more.  And "out" no longer means just the grocery store or the park.
Tom, Madelyn and I painted that orange wall.  It looks great.  Tom's very happy.  Making such a bold statement started off as just following through on one of our "some day" conversations.  But as the girls and I went to choose the paint, it occurred to me:  Making this dramatic change is akin to transforming our house into a home, something that stalled out a couple of months after we moved in.  (It has also led to a discovery:  If one paints a wall, the first thing one does is stand back and appreciate the new color.  The second is to notice that the other side of the wall really needs to be painted, too.   Still no decisions regarding the niche, but we'll get there.  Maybe I'll ask the ladies tomorrow what they think.)

Oh, what's that?  You want to see pictures from the photo shoot?  Did you think I'd pass up a chance to share my sweet girls?  Feel free to check out the rest of the pictures here.

Mad and Other New Frog

Fynnie Fynn getting ready to crawl away

Could she be any cuter?  No, but does anyone else see that look in her eyes?  The one that says, "Hey, I wonder what your shoulder tastes like!  Mama's tastes great and she makes this awesome sound every time I bite her.  Will you make a sound?

Doesn't she look sweet?  Our photographer friend is amazing.  This shot was taken while Mad was doing the most hilarious slo-mo roll around the floor, arms and legs up in the air.  It reminded me of some old SNL episodes with Molly Shannon.

Design Dilemma

I need help.  And yes, I realize there are so many places you could take that.  All the same, I lay myself bare.

Or, I admit that our walls are still mostly bare 28 months after moving in here.

For the past three months or so I've been working my (obviously weak) magic, trying to get Tom in the mood.  To hang stuff.  Because we have plenty of stuff.

Artwork that my mother-in-law got for us.

Scenic photos from vacations past.

Pictures of the kids.

And it turns out we even have frames.  Tons of them.  Or at least one-quarter of a ton based on the four trips down the stairs with my arms full of slipping and sliding framery.

Now that Tom has agreed to join me in my quest to make this house feel more like a home, I have decided that we need to paint one of the walls.

Don't worry, we've got the color mostly under control.  Crazy as this may sound, we have an orange in mind that will go brilliantly with the tan walls and purple cabinets in the kitchen.

No, really.  That's not the part I need help with.

In addition to this one wall, which is in the living room, we're going to paint a niche in the same room.

How would you paint the niche?

Paint it all, back and sides?

Paint just the back?

Paint the back our fabulous orange, but paint the sides a color lighter than the rest of the walls... to sort of frame it like a window?

Something else that you're willing to share with me?

In case you're not sure what the heck I'm talking about, here's our niche.  It's approximately 4' x 2'.

Do Over

Man this was a rough weekend! We started some major projects, but really haven't finished anything. Tom was feeling pretty discouraged about his drilling abilities, and I kept reminding him that these are learned skills; people get paid to know how to do that stuff. We've never had a big reason to learn, so now we're stretching our brains.

As I worked along on the priming and painting, I was thinking about other things. Maybe that's why I didn't get as much done as I'd hoped. However, it was all worth it because one of the things I pondered (again) was my birthday. So in a relatively happy moment (right after he'd finally gotten about 99% of the paint off the patio), I told Tom that I should really get a do-over for my birthday. I explained that if he didn't do something to make up for last week I'd be forced to buy him a pack of Altoids for his birthday, and that I wouldn't be able to tell anybody about it and feel good about myself... especially his mother. We chose next week on Monday night as his time to create a lovely evening for me. Naturally I'd forgotten that I'll be teaching on Monday nights now, so I had to text him today and ask for a new do over date. We'll see what happens.

Back to work... by Sunday evening, I was feeling less than thrilled with our progress. The one thing I did think was cool is that one of our cupboards was finally done (well, minus the inside of the door, but that'll be a snap). The color is gorgeous. If I have a spare second, I'll snap some pics and put them up here so you can check it all out. That'll probably be after we're done. Back to the cabinet... I had done all the touching up I could see the need for and had Tom double-check me. It was done. I removed the tape from the back... where the refrigerator will be covering. It came off beautifully! I wouldn't say that my heart was pounding; it was more a quiet satisfaction. I pulled the tape from the bottom, which was no big deal because I'd accidentally pulled it loose earlier. Then I removed the tape from the front.

Oh holy hell, it pulled paint off with it!!! Argh!

There are a few theories and at least twice as many remedies that people have showered on us today to explain and resolve this situation. All I know is that was the moment that Tom and I switched places. I declared that I was "going away" and promptly took myself upstairs. Unfortunately I didn't bring my cell phone, which needed to be charged, so I had to go back down, where I declared that I was "not staying. I'm still going away." I got into bed. Tom was there a few minutes later, snuggling me and telling me we'd get it all worked out soon enough.

Yeah, Kim. I think you're right.

Adventures in Homeowner Land

We have so many projects going on around here, from installing curved shower bars (love them!) to anchoring bookcases and getting our washing machine hooked up (it might have been worth the cost of a new one just to have a couple of professionals drag it up the stairs and set everything up). Despite all of these things, I am still thinking of new projects I'd like to do. We've already selected a few walls for painting, and I've added the stairway. It's cool that the house is all tan with white trim instead of just white, but why they chose to paint it all in flat paint is beyond me.

Another potential project is our back patio. It has braces for a patio cover, and we considered using part of the eight grand we're getting back to have one installed. We've decided to cut our credit card debt down by about 2/3 instead. Nance suggested that we get some terra cotta-looking plastic pots, cut holes in the bottom for the braces and then plant over them in the meantime. I like that idea. I was also thinking it would be cool to stain the patio concrete.

Yesterday was semi-productive. We just have to work on our time- and project management skills. I was supposed to sand kitchen cabinets on Friday, but never did manage to locate our sandpaper. We started off slowly yesterday and didn't get truly started in the kitchen until mid-afternoon. So it's no surprise that we only have two and a half cabinets sanded and primed; one of them has its first coat of "Dried Violet," an exceptionally dark bluey-purple. Seven or eight doors and drawers are done on one side, too.

Until we get the cabinets done, we can't really put any kitchen stuff away. Tom pointed out last night that our big house feels just as cluttered and tight as our old tiny apartment.

This morning he let me sleep in, and I love him for it. About an hour ago we started moving our project into the garage because the winds are blowing today. We can't hear anything, but we could see the neighbor's trees moving gently. Still, we didn't want anything to blow onto the paint. Tom lined the garage floor with plastic and headed out back to get the paint and supplies that we'd left on that plastic liner.

Apparently our windows are excellent at keeping outside sounds outside. The better part of a gallon of "Dried Violet" is now worthless. The wind apparently knocked it over and the lid wasn't on tightly. Even more exciting is that there's now a 2x4 space of paint on the patio.

Tom did not see the humor in the situation. He thinks it might be funny later. He went to Home Depot (this place is quickly becoming our home away from home) and found something that will hopefully clean it up and not toxify the ground when we rinse it off.

He's back now, so I'd better get out there and get going on the painting again. Next weekend we're supposed to have rain and the weekend after that we're having our housewarming and Mad's first birthday party here at the house (yes, we are that crazy).