TOT - furniture!

1. Ikea: over-hyped and confusing or genius furniture company? a little bit of both. We have several Ikea pieces and I would love an Ikea kitchen and an Ikea billy-bookcase haven. But if I had the money I wouldn't be above looking into better places.

2. Your favorite interior-decorator-type person wants to makeover one room in your house. Which room do you choose and why? My living room/dining room. I actually like it, but I could use a change and since it's completely done it probably will never never change.

3. Describe the furniture in your childhood bedroom. Did you like it? Where is that furniture now? Oh, god knows. We did not hold onto furniture and it was mostly mismatched crap anyhow.

4. When you’re done with furniture, what do you do with it? Donate it to Goodwill OR Sell it on Craigslist OR Put it by the curb and hope the trash guys take it? A little of everything. If I know someone who needs it, I'll pass it on. If I think I can get some money I'll Craigslist/yard sale it. And otherwise it can hit the curb - we have so many curb shoppers here that nothing is out there more than 10 minutes anyhow.

5. My Pinterest furniture style could best be described as
funky/eclectic
antique/shabby chic
modern/minimalist
so random and varied it’s undefinable
none of the above - I don't pin furniture. Recipes only.

6. Name the most important furniture/toy in a toddler’s playroom. And why? The cars, because I have two boys and that's all they play with no matter what is there.

7. Your parents (or grandparents or other relative) are giving away all their furniture. Which piece do you really want? My dad has this great chest he uses as a coffee table, and I've already put dibs on it.

8. Your biggest furniture buying or home decorating regret? Not changing the tile in the kitchen. One day I'll rectify that.

9. $1000 gift card! Do you want it to Ethan Allen, ikea, Pottery Barn Kids? Only 1k? Ikea. I could do so much more with it.

10. Bunk beds, loft beds, trundle beds, or canopy beds? Bunk beds.

See, I'm not dead!

You know when you stop doing something that was a regular thing, like working out or running or blogging, how it's amazingly difficult to get back into it? Yeah, that's where I'm at with this blog. I love it and enjoy it and miss it ... But look! Blooming jasmine! And kiddie pools! And ... Oh wait, never mind.

But I'm here now, and here's what had happened in a nutshell in the past few weeks: lots of upheaval at work (better now) and crazy fun weekends that I don't want to end.

Have I mentioned that I love this weather? Slightly chilly in the mornings, hot as heck in the afternoon. Shorts and tank tops and swimwear weather. Summer is going to be boiling at this rate (we're 8 degrees hotter than average this year) but I'm going to enjoy it now and mourn the a/c bill in July when it happens.

So the past few weekends we've done seafood festivals and touch-a-truck events and swimming at my in-laws' pool and date night with the neighbors and haircuts (I have short hair now!) And good times. It's been good times.

Henry had not necessarily been a pleasure - he's working hard on his tantrum skills over things like having to wait for his waffle to heat up in the toaster and getting milk when he wanted water. It seems worse than when Spencer was that age, but I really don't know. Things seem to affect him so much more. Teething is still a bear. Tantrums are a pain. But he's such a little personality that I forget about all of it until it actually happens.

And Spencer. I'd be remiss if I didn't mention how good he has been, generally. Funny and sweet and such a good brother. four is a good age.

This weekend is heavily planned. Hubs and I are going to dinner and Hunger Games (hold me now, I don't do well with crowded movie theaters). Tomorrow night my neighbors are coming over for dinner. Sunday we are having brunch with Hubs' family and my friend Becky is coming into town from Delaware for the day so I get to be a 12-year old girl around town with her. Good times! Hope your weekend is excellent too!

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Wordless wednesday

Front man spencer and his back up band, Henry.

(ps- I totally plan in beginning to post again)

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Library Strikes Back

I took the kids to the library last week, and it was a mess. I was immediately reminded of this post by Emily. I borrow quite a few books from the library, but I am one who orders them online, they tell me when the books are in, I go in and pick them up on my way to getting the kids from daycare. I do not traipse through the library with my hoard (of two) to “browse”. But a few weeks ago I picked up a number of kid books that we then enjoyed, so when I brought them back I thought I would let them pick out a couple books themselves. Henry *loves* books. He wants to hug and kiss each one, and pull everything down from the shelves and peer at the pages … I should have known this would be a problem. I should have known. Hindsight’s a bitch, right?

They got their two books each, and then I took them to the adjoining playground which was another crazy mess – me with a pile of books + purse and two children who didn’t want to LEAVE the playground after 15 minutes of slides. I got through it, and obviously didn’t learn anything because Monday Spencer asked to go to the library. He’s learning to read and we’ve mostly sworn off nighttime tv, so we read a book every night. I was excited that he wanted more books, so I agreed even though I remember how bad last week went. BUT! I went prepared. I said no playground. I brought a bag to put the books in so I wouldn’t be struggling. Still, 30 seconds in Henry was yanking books off the shelf and Spencer was running around picking books that I had no intention of reading him (the history of the Porsche, entirely in Spanish? Nothankyou). We settled on 3 books as quickly as possible for S and got the heck out of Dodge.

This post is designed to remind me to wait another three years before bringing them back to the library, especially if I plan on doing it by myself.

By the way, how are there so many terribly written children’s books? Who reads some of this crap? Who publishes some of this crap?

Friday list

• The guy down the street stole our lawnmower last month. We didn’t quite realize it for a while because he “borrowed it”. He came to the door and gave this whole long story about how he was new to the neighborhood and the HOA was on his case to mow his lawn (which was a little weedy, but not really that bad) and he didn’t have a lawnmower and none of the other neighbors were very friendly. So we let him borrow it, and while I kept thinking about it and wondering why he hadn’t brought it back yet (or mowed his weeds), we didn’t head over to get it. So last week my neighbor was over having a beer with me and I commented about it and it turns out that he has “borrowed” several lawnmowers in the neighborhood and looted a couple garages and everyone’s stuff has ended up at a pawn shop down the street. We haven’t really figured out how to deal with this yet. The mower isn’t at the pawm shop (it has been a month, it probably sold already). We spent a week finding out the guy’s full name, and now I assume that we’ll be filing a police report but I have the distinct feeling that we won’t be seeing our mower or our $200 for it anytime soon.

• I am running a 5k this weekend, and I am doing it by myself. It’s a very big event and I don’t want to go on my own, but it doesn’t appear anyone else I know is going and my running partners backed out on me. I’ve paid my money to get in, and I don’t want it to go to waste so I’m pretty sure I’m doing it but I’m not looking forward to attending on my own.

• I have a trial in Ft Lauderdale at the end of the month too, so I’ll be on my own for a week down there too. It will be nice to go to Ft Lauderdale and spend some time down there (Beach? Pool?), but I’m going to miss my family. And the reason that I’m going down there is not all sunshine and daffodils (I’m attending a trial that I’m not looking forward to attending). I will hope to get some reading done while I’m down there. That’s the first week of the Spring Reading Thing.

• The meds that I got on are totally helping. I haven’t been yelling at the kids quite as much, I haven’t been panicky about work hardly at all, and I’m not totally freaking out about the 5k or the Ft Lauderdale trip, so I think that they’re definitely working. I feel … caffeinated. I don’t sit as much, I don’t feel like sitting as much (although this does not bode well for my reading), and when I do sit (like at work), my knee is always bouncing like I’ve drank too much coffee. But I don’t shake otherwise, and I don’t seem to have any other effects, so I’ll take it. Maybe after it’s been in my system for a bit I’ll even out that way too.

• I’m not really a soup person. I like soup, but it’s just not a meal for me – it’s a starter. One of my favorite soups is Olive Garden’s chicken and gnocchi, and this week I tried to make it without even consulting a recipe for ideas … and I think I succeeded! I sautéed some onion in butter, and once they were soft I added flour and cooked that for a few minutes, and then added milk to make a gravy. Then once it thickened up I added seasonings, most of a bag of frozen veggies and some rotisserie chicken I had stored in the freezer, half a carton of chicken broth and a package of gnocchi that I got at Aldi last week on a whim. This is what it looked like: frankly, it was fantastic. It worked out nicely for dinner because I wasn’t very hungry and Hubby loves soup, so I had a small bowl and he had three. I brought the leftovers for lunch on Thursday.

• Other people take their kids to Sesame Street Live, or Princesses on Ice … nope, we’re taking the kids to Phineas and Ferb Live! I’m excited … possibly more excited than Henry but not more excited than Spencer. I haven’t told him yet (it’s next Thursday) because I will not hear the end of it. Ever. (PS – Spencer did go to Curious George Live two years ago and the TMBG kids concert, but this will be Henry’s first non-baseball event)

• I kept track of how many times I checked Facebook, Googlereader, personal email and Pinterest on my phone while at work the other day ... it wasn't pretty. Shhh.

February books

I've been terrible about reading this month. I don't know what it is, but I can't seem to sit still long enough to read. Here's what I've got:

Girls in White Dresses - Jennifer Close ... it was okay.

The Snowman - Jo Nesbo ... I tried to read this last year and couldn't get into it, but after seeing another blogger rave about it I tried again and loved it. I think I would have enjoyed it even more if I had read the series from the beginning, but since none of the others have been translated into English I guess I'm outta luck.

Into Thin Air - Jon Krakauer ** ... I liked it okay. Bunch of crazy people. (non-fiction)

A Room With a View - EM Forster ** ... Hated it. Have I mentioned I hate classics?

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Jonathan Safran Foer ** ... More than halfway through, and I'm not sure how I feel about it still. I'll try to let you know next month.

And that's all she wrote. Or at least, all she read.

(**book club books)