Makeover: Floor Edition

"This project was supposed to be about replacing the carpet!" Clearly, from the pictures, it didn't end up that way. When we moved the furniture out of our room/laundry room/back entryway, the cheesy panelling was moldy and rippled. Ruined! We calculated the cost of drywall and insulation (because there wasn't any!) and took a trip to Lowe's.


15 sheets of drywall, 8 rolls of insulation, 9 strips of trim, a box of nails and a tub of spackle later, I would like to take this time to mention that I am the Expert Insulator (and I have the fiberglass grains to prove it!). I have also (almost) mastered the staplegun. I still kinda stink at hammering though. I still say it's because we only have right-handed hammers. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.



This is some of the mess that was scattered about the living room. We ended up laying our mattress down and sleeping on it for a couple of nights. Boy were we ever so glad to have the bed set back up in our room! The kids really liked having something to bounce on and play in. They especially liked the nice cushy bed when they were watching movies or eating goldfish crackers (pieces of which are still embedded in various parts of my body after sleeping on crumb shards).


Finally, last night, the spackling was dry enough to coat with primer and the primer was dry enough to paint. The carpet and linoleum were rolled out and the trim was smacked on. Now about that mess in the living room...
Today it snowed all day. I was intending to take a picture of the finished play ground, but the back door was frozen shut and there was no chance of me getting dressed just to walk to the back yard for one picture. Maybe tomorrow. ;)
Meanwhile, putting in drywall and such is not something for the faint of heart. We are both sore and with colds, smacked fingers, cuts, bruises and gritty eyes. No more projects! At least until the new front door comes in this week...

My First Committee

I must now take a moment to feel completely weirded out by the fact that I'm a grown up and I was asked to be on my first grown-up committee. And it was for one of my favorite places. Yay!
I got an email from the Head Librarian at our library and she asked me if I would like to participate in the 2010-2013 Library Planning Committee. Lunch would be provided...the only catch is that it's a workshoppy sort of session (those are my own words) and that it would be from 1-5? (those were her words) and lunch was at 12. I immediately talked to my HC. Nrrrt! Scratch that. Insert "should have" in there somewhere. In a whirl of being flattered that she would even care what I thought, and elation at being on my first grown-up committee, I emailed her back and told her I'd do it. My HC didn't have to be at work until 4. He could watch the baby and pick Ian up from school and then I could keep them at the library for what little time remained.
Well, ha ha ha and fiddle dee dee. Guess who found out he had court at 1? And guess who, when I was busy sleeping in, woke me up at 9:30 to tell me that he had to go to another court session at 10:00 and he just found out? Well, he really did just find out, the courts don't do nice things around here like give notice. So I was left to work out the details of my afternoon. So I did what anyone would have done in my position. I loaded up a huge bag full of baby toys, snacks and a sippy cup. And I went to the library.
And it was a lot bigger deal than I thought it would be. Librarians from schools and other schools and educators and Friends of the Library and council members and the Regional Director of the Eastern Oklahoma District Library system from Muskogee. The local bank manager, the guy who processed our mortgage. The school superintendent. School board members. Biiiiiig deals. And real reporters from real papers (instead of my freelance library work). It was introduction time. Everyone had a big something to add after their name. Everyone looked at me, the youngest one in the room (by a good amount), who had brought her cute but noisy baby. I gave my name. Then I added a dazzling smile and said "Library Patron." Because by golly, my library card is the most loved and used thing in my wallet, other than the odd tissue. Everyone smiled and nodded. They moved on to the other movers and shakers in the room. And we got down to business. And boy was it a looooong business.
You know those huge drawing sheets, like the ones they used to use on Win, Lose or Draw on TV? The big ones that you draw on with smelly permanent markers and then tear off? Well, after groupthinking and commenting and discussing, the room filled up 5 or 6 of those things. Then we stopped for snacktime and I had to go get Ian from school.

I picked him up and went home to change a poopy diaper. I had forgotten wipes and thought it would be pushing the envelope a little too far to change the mud in front of those still eating spinach dip and carrot sticks. I told Ian we were going back to the library until Mommy was finished with the "boring grownup meeting." He was thrilled. He loves the preschool computer and the big blocks and the bean bags and giant books. He was a perfect gentleman and SueAnn, the head librarian went to get him so he could have snacks too.
You could just about see haloes over their heads and EVERYONE in the room commented about what good kids I have and how I must be a great mother. Wow. Well, we try. And we bribe with soda and sweets. But we're still mystified as to how everyone behaved for so long. Finally it was over and we loaded up and went home.
So wow. I was on my first grownup committee and I really think that I am helping to make a difference in our community. And it feels Good.

*For those interested parties, please note that this is one of the only pictures we have of Erin with her eyes open. Also note the red tint of the photo. I had my finger over the flash (which flashes 3 separate times!), which caused the discoloration, but led to open eyes. Sigh.

Big Trouble

Today was another rainy day. Isn't it interesting that things happen on rainy days that wouldn't normally happen? You tend to go through strange boxes and piles of junk. Well, we didn't do any of that, not really, but Ian got the urge to go through old photo books. We went through the family one, since Ian's fell apart because it was too full and the spine seperated from the cover. Then we got to Mine. Not too long ago, my mama gave me a photo album that had a lot of my baby photos in them. And now I'm in BIG TROUBLE because I'm going to share a few of those with the world. Note that I said it had a lot of my baby photos in them. Well, there were a lot of others in there too. Such as this one:

Is my Gramma a hottie or what? She looks exactly the same, except she doesn't have that shirt any more and she doesn't poof her hair up as much. And in case she doesn't like this one, it isn't half as good as the one of her in her robe on the couch, looking like she just got up. Maybe because I didn't put that one up, I won't be in the dog house so much.

This is my Grampa. What a hunk! It looks like he has a ring box in his hand. He is in front of what looks like a Vitamin store, but since I recognize that rug on the wall in the background, this might have been during the 'selling vitamins' phase. Love the stuffed duck, too. Nobody has stuffed ducks anymore.

Also note that I could have put the one up of Grampa in his swim trunks by the pool, but alas, I did not.

This is my mom at Christmastime. Ian laughed really hard and I don't think he believed me when I told him it was Gramma. I think this was taken in 1979, just from looking at the curtains in the background. That and the fact that these were before the pregnancy photos and I was born in August. Logic, my dear Watson. And just to show that I'm not really making fun of her glasses too much.....

This is me on the swingset. I think I was 2. Maybe 3. But boy was I cool. C-O-O-L in my giant shades. Ian really laughed hard at this one. He said I was silly, but I wasn't. I was so so cool.

This is a picture of me. Pay no attention to the hot miserable pregnant woman. Pay attention to the bump because in another week or two, I will be liberated! Again, Mom, in case you are tempted to be shocked and embarrassed at the fact that I posted this, there is another one of you sunbathing showing your bare (and very large) pregnant belly that I could have put up but didn't. :)

See what came from that bump? Arent I cute? No, I'm pouting because someone asked me to do something unfair. And because they told me that my shoes didn't go with my tights. But wait! This was July of 1982. Things were different then. And wow. I don't remember our carpets ever being that color. Just think, it only took 3 kids 5 years to turn that carpet black.

Here we go. This is exactly how cute I was. I'm not pouting and I'm outside in my favorite baby swing. This is where Ian kept saying, "Awwww. It's baby sister." But it's not. It's ME! So everyone who says that the kids both look like Chris should read this blog. Because right now, she looks like me and I will revel in it. I'm not sure whose leg that is, by the way, but there are other shots with my great-grandmother.

*I am also proud to note that my baby girl got her cute little dumpling shape from me as well, for all those people who say her legs look like ham bones. Ha! That's Miss Ham Bone to you, mister! And smile when you say that!

Ah. I might be in trouble for this one. The hair, the glasses, the facial expression. Clearly, my mom was having a great time. It was a tire swing, after all and my brothers were climbing the tree like monkeys. She looks like she was hanging on for dear life. Actually, she looks like she's afraid of falling off. Another thing about the women in our family, they are not afraid to try new hairstyles. One day I will have a very interesting array of photographs for my kids to laugh at too.

But that's okay. If I'm in trouble, I'll just have a little time out. But with that cute face, I won't be there for long. ;)

Yes ma'am.

Today was another part of the Library's
"Catch the Reading Bug" program and the Oklahoma Science Museum came to teach us about real bugs. The college boys who did the presentation did a great job and everyone learned something. But then Something happened and my self-perception will never be the same.

OK, I know there comes a time in every woman's life when this happens. Sometimes it is funny, and sometimes it is just heartrending. Sometimes you are impressed with the manners of today's kids and sometimes you want to ask them what the big idea is. The fact is--and I'm sort of cringing--someone called me ma'am today. It wasn't a little kid. It wasn't an old person (someone my age or older, that is). It was a college kid! I wanted to shake the guy and say, "Hey! I'm only, what, 5, 6, 8 years older than you! What's up with this?" But I was holding the baby and couldn't do that. So I just stared at him, dumbstruck. I could almost feel my eyes rolling around in my head and my tongue lolling out. With that cartoon "aah-oooooga" sound. He noticed my strange expression because he got that deer in headlights look. That "what did I do?" expression. I stammered out that no one had ever called me ma'am before. He tripped all over himself trying to tell me that it was a habit, blah blah. I told him that I understood, I was from the South. He smiled politely (probably afraid I would go into those "when I was a kid in the South" stories) and quickly busied himself doing anything that would hide him under the table.


I was so upset I did two things that are completely against my nature. I petted a giant cockroach and then I ate a meal worm. Well, it was a library program, after all.