July 8, 2007 | The Year of Living Changerously

With each passing day I’m learning more about our new home, and further despairing of ever finishing unpacking. At a certain point here I’m just going to start throwing little knitted doilies over everything and pretending that it’s part of the decor.

Fiddle-dee-dee! Set your drink over there on that stack of, um, art!

I did spend a couple of hours upstairs in the kids’ rooms unpacking the countless boxes of their stuff, today, and they expressed their thanks by rejoicing over the contents and then making a gigantic mess of all their refound stuff and pelting each other with toys until I told them to stop it before I put the two of them into a couple of boxes. (more…)

July 7, 2007 | It's not a regret, it's an "experience", Ottomatic For the People

We are totally all moved in now.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I am so funny.

Well, we did manage to finish unpacking the kitchen. We ate so much take-out that I started whining about how I was sure I was getting scurvy, or maybe rickets, I couldn’t be sure, and DAMMIT we needed to get back to eating like moderately healthful humans. So we put everything away in a flurry of negotiations (whose wine glasses get to go in the rack? do we keep both crockpots?) and then the kitchen was ready for use at last.

We celebrated this auspicious event with a trip to Kroger to spend what little money we haven’t already spent at Lowe’s, and just to give you an idea of how bad things had gotten, Chickadee got ALL EXCITED about having BANANAS. Yes. (more…)

July 5, 2007 | Friends, Offspring: ecstasy and agony

Hello! I would’ve blogged last night except that I was busy trying to extract my own eyeball and go to sleep. Simultaneously.

In an effort to celebrate the 4th of July in style, we packed up the kids and headed to Joshilyn’s house. Joss had put on her very best southern accent and assured me that they “do it up right ’round here” when she invited us a while back, and who am I to turn down such an invitation?

I had mentioned to Joss (several times) that Chickadee was dying, and I do mean DYING, to meet Maisy. Chickie loves little kids. Well I guess this had been passed along to Miss Maisy, because she greeted Chickadee at the door in her quacky little duck voice with a hearty “Are you the girl who has been wanting to meet me? Here I am!” (more…)

July 3, 2007 | Offspring: ecstasy and agony, The Year of Living Changerously

To my surprise and delight, both children slept through their first night here in the new house without a peep or a problem. We were all awakened this morning by the contractors (which may explain why the neighbors haven’t come over to greet us, because before we moved in there probably wasn’t any pounding happening at 6:30 in the morning on this block) and Monkey came downstairs and hopped into bed with me and Otto.

“Hello!” he greeted us. “I had a good sleep!” As if he’d slept here a million times and hopped up to start the day with us the same way for the last year or seven.

“Good morning my sweet boy,” I answered. We snuggled and I kissed his head and asked him what we should do now.

“Let’s have a wild party!” he answered without hesitation. To demonstrate exactly how wild it would be, he burrowed under the covers and shook his butt in the air. That may be when Otto decided to get up and take a shower. (more…)

July 2, 2007 | The Year of Living Changerously, What do I do all day?

Hey, we’re all moved in now. I know this because the boxes are piled up to the ceiling, I have vowed never to speak to anyone at the moving company ever again, the children have arrived and bounced off the walls and declared their closets secret clubhouses (hey, did you know that in Georgia most people do not have basements? and so there are many many closets, as a pitiful excuse for storage, instead?), and there is no paint or anything having to do with paint sitting around on my floor anymore.

So, yeah, it’s simply lovely, and if you don’t mind getting lost in the Magical Box Labryinth or being woken up at dawn by the contractors, you should totally come on over. (more…)