Lazy Susie: Idling on the sofa day after day after day...

Living room shift

2012-02-17T13:21:00.000-08:00

I had to vacuum under the couch, so I rearranged the furniture. It took me just a few minutes. It is so easy to whip things around on that smooth wood floor. I wanted to try out something different, and I love it. I can now see out all of my windows. I can't get enough of the windows. You wouldn't believe how much sun comes in during the day. I soak it up, sometimes falling asleep in the warmth. Pompey does the same thing downstairs in front of his windows.

The sun sets out of the windows that the couch is facing. It is such a beautiful light; I'm glad that our house faces west and we can really enjoy it.

Every now and then I consider a rug or side tables, but then I stop myself. I really like it this way, changing all the time. I can bring up the coffee table from downstairs if we need one for company. I used the same colors, so everything can be swapped around. I can also move everything aside for a larger dance floor. No one ever dances at our parties though. I wish that would change.

It looks a little empty and drab in the photo, but not in real life. The windows, the light, the art, and the sparkling sequins on the poufs liven it right up.

Strange night

2012-02-14T09:00:00.000-08:00

We dressed up fancy and paid big bucks. See my indigo cauliflower? I had trouble eating it because of the color. It was one part of the worst vegan meal that I've ever had. I was relieved that I had been able to squeeze a granola bar into my tiny party purse.

Mr Jan

2012-02-11T06:57:00.000-08:00

The veggies that I fed Mr January yesterday: daikon, beet, radish, cucumber, kale, apple, carrot, onion, asparagus. Some raw, some juiced, some cooked. The day before that: apple, carrot, kale, butternut squash, broc, beet, turnip, avocado, onion. He glows.

Birthday days three and four

2012-02-09T18:39:00.000-08:00

By the time day three rolled around, we were beat. We spent all day (Saturday) in bed. We watched a documentary on the White family of Boone County, WV. Pretty horrifying. I cheered when CPS took the newborn baby "probably because they found drugs in it". Who calls their newborn daughter "it"?? Late that evening we headed out to a new-to-us venue to enjoy the Bob Marley Birthday Celebration. It was quite barn-like, that venue. I couldn't take the music for long because my ears were still hurting from the night before.

On Sunday, day four, I finally got to meet our visitor. He's in from Reno and he's a house painting, flight training, cake decorating, martial arts instructing, tuxedo wearing, singing, trumpeting dude who used to live with a mountain lion.

And then a short visit to Waffle House where my earrings were admired while we listened to the owner and the manager plan their Sam's Club shopping.

Best four day birthday celebration ever.

Birthday day two

2012-02-05T13:09:00.000-08:00

Day two was my actual birthday and a Friday. Sebastien stayed home from work, making it one of my best birthdays ever. He did the morning school run and brought me flowers (jonquils) and a dorky princess card about birds weaving ribbons and pearls in my hair. MY hair! A princess, I am not.

We went out to lunch at one of my favorite spots and then did some errands. While doing the errands, I found orange towels. I've been looking for them forever! They are a bright orange, not a darker autumn orange. I'm excited.

After lunch we went gallery hopping and saw some great art. This is one of my favorites from the art league show, but you can't really see what's going on in it.

I also really like this sculpture, but can't figure out where I would put it. I have a painting by this artist.

Then we braved the cold and rain to go to the bookshop. I got the last signed copy of Keija's book, The Ruins of Us. Keija works at Calvin and Isabelle's school, and her novel is getting outstanding reviews everywhere. I'm looking forward to it, especially after being disappointed in literature lately.

Chocolate peanut butter ice cream and then a rest before the evening activities. We over-rested and missed the classical concert. Oh, well. You can't do everything, even on your birthday.

We met friends at an Italian restaurant for food and music. Great conversations too. The music maker sang Happy Birthday to me when we arrived.

I was then all pepped up for our next event: Dr Zhivegas at the Blue Note.

We saw some friends, and some of those friends ended up on stage:

This concert was hilarious because of the people in the audience. There were many drunk women on first or second dates whose escorts were very, very happy while we were rather grossed out. There was one group of four women whose dancing could only be described as aerobic. I suspect that they are a group who dance together for exercise and weight loss. We were a little wary of being hurt by them. They also had on very weird 80s-type clothing. One had on a older style jean skirt and purple tights. One had on satin pants and sported a perm. All had on very sensible shoes, like orthopedic ones. I had to employ defensive dancing measures all night long to protect myself; that brought back some memories.

Day two ended well after midnight. We are still waiting for our ears to recover.

Birthday day one

2012-02-04T08:28:00.000-08:00

I decided that my 43rd b-day would be celebrated in grand style, so we planned a three day celebration. My camera came along to chronicle it all.
It started with home-made rootbeer (very good!) at the neighbor's house. It was Pompey's first playdate with the neighbor dog. He failed and had to be sent home. Little Jack ate all my chips and told me that I couldn't have anymore (after he had given me three) because I had had enough.

After dinner we headed over to the Blue Note to see the Bicycle Dreams documentary. It was too cold for me to ride, so my bike was in my garage and not in the VIP bike parking.

The movie was full of crazy people who rode across the country in ten or eleven days. Ouch. I cried in the middle when something bad happened to my favorite cyclist.

After the movie, we hung around for cold pizza and drinks. Some bands were going on next. We listened to the soundchecks and then left when the place started to get crowded with young people who reminded us of our children.

And then we went to the Vault for drinks and vinegar fries. That topped off the night nicely. Seb was planning to play hookey the next day, so we were able to stay out as late as desired.

Pineapple juice and my shirt advertising TriSled, PedNet, and the Pedaler's Jamboree.

January bike ride

2012-01-31T17:36:00.000-08:00

It was in the 60s yesterday, warm enough for an asthmatic to ride. But I missed my opportunity due to chores and mothering. Today was almost as warm, and there was no way I was going to miss another chance. I got out at eleven.
My bike all ready to go. I accidentally left my bike lock at home, so I couldn't go shopping and fill up those baskets. It's a RANS Street crank-forward. The pedals are not right underneath my body like on a regular bike. The design has many advantages.

Rollercoaster hill. It's a bear to ride up, especially at the end of a ride.

The trail goes around a lake. There is a leash-free zone, so we usually see dogs cavorting and swimming.

This is what the trail looks like as it goes through town. It's pretty quiet on weekdays. A lot of people work or go to school during the day, leaving the trails for people of leisure like myself.

There are creeks and bridges and tunnels. Sometimes the tunnels are flooded a bit. I try to wear dark clothes because I don't have fenders to keep the mud off my back.

The worker man was moving some leaves and other things around in the gutter to facilitate water movement.

Where the trail ends downtown is a park with the marathon sculpture. I like it. It's where I usually take a break, have a drink, and eat some food.

The rest of the ride takes me on city streets to home, about three miles or so. No photos because it would have been dangerous. I did get three phone calls today. Not the best time to have a conference with my daughter's academic director, especially with a bus passing by and cotton stuffed in my ears.

Veg and living room

2012-01-29T08:52:00.000-08:00

I bought a juicer, and I've never been happier. For my first juice I kept it modest:
That's twice as much as I put in a smoothie, and it made half as much juice. I felt so great afterwards, like I'd had a blood transfusion. And I actually know what that feels like. Now I do about this much for one drink:

The idea is to get more nutrients in, and it is working! We are flying through the produce here.

I'm still getting the rest of my furniture, slowly. Still working on the living room. One thing that I really like about the living room is that it is so easy to move stuff around.

Freddy had moved the couch to use the telescope to look out the western facing window. We move the poufs to where we need them for our feet, our seats, our stuff. I move the chairs around to catch the sun during the day to warm me up while I do crossword puzzles. It's different to have such transient furniture, but I'm liking it.

Rocketeering

2012-01-18T08:27:00.000-08:00

Another rocketeering episode. Calvin went through his rocket phase long ago. Four years ago, we shot off Calvin's old rocket because Freddy's little toy (Chuck) wanted to be an astronaut.

Well, he still is an astronaut, because he never came back from that trip. Freddy now has rockets, one he bought and one he got for Christmas.

But we had a problem. In our old town, we had our 40 acres, and that is where we usually shot off our rockets (in an open field by the street). For back-up, we had a few acres at the airport and a few acres of farmland. In our current town, we have a house in a hilly, woody area. Not ideal. And it is illegal to shoot them off in a park.

So off we drove to a friend's quarry. I will forever pity my friend for all the quarry dust/muck that she has to clean up.

And up they went, flying high in the sky, and maybe seeing Chuck while they were up there.

New artist and misc.

2012-01-14T13:53:00.000-08:00

Friedensreich Hundertwasser is my new favorite artist. I came across him on art.com. See his stuff here. Green Town is coming to me soon. I think that it will go in the kitchen, so I can gaze at it while making green smoothies. Speaking of smoothies, I'm thinking about switching to juice. I can't take in too much food, so juice might be a better way of increasing the amt of veggies and fruits going in.

Yesterday I shoveled/brushed snow and ice, fell in love with yoga, cooked and edited an essay. Last night I had nightmares about not making it to the post office in time to get the essay in. Very stressful. Making teens do what they are supposed to do is not easy.

Veg/fruit yesterday: cuc, spinich, sprouts, raisin, carrot, apple, onion, and gigantic artichoke. Took all the vitamins. Had a really good day,actually!

Fails and jumble

2012-01-12T18:55:00.000-08:00

I decided that I need to start cooking. I looked at my old food blog the other day and was inspired. Wow! I used to cook a lot. Of course, my children used to eat my cooking, and now most of them don't. I got cooking anyway. I made some usuals. Then I made pumpkin/walnut pancakes, which I haven't made in ages. Then I made BBQ black-eyed peas, which were great. Then I made "nutella" because I love it and can't eat the manufactured kind. Fail. I'm going to try again though. The nuts were overcooked, so they tasted much like burnt popcorn. Then I tried to make gluten-free tortillas and failed again. Twice in one day! They wouldn't hold together at all. The word jumble of the day cheered me up though:
I'm an answer! I didn't fail at taking all the vitamins. All fifty or so. Fruit and veg: apple, spinich, carrot, lettuce, raisin, sprouts. I hope that tomorrow is a better day.

Scholar and hospice and veg

2012-01-11T19:21:00.000-08:00

I am so tired of trying to get the boy to write his essays. And of editing the essays. And of sitting at the computer inputing the info. We are so close to being done though. Tomorrow I do a final read of the last $164,000 essay and then send it in. Then we drop down to some lesser amounts, hopefully using essays that are already done. I hope that this work pays off.

Aside from that, I've been retrained to do volunteer hospice work. I'm looking forward to it. It's my favorite pasttime. I did not like getting up early on Saturday morning and having to actually be somewhere. I prefer my idle, flexible, lounging life.

I'll be keeping track of my veggie and vitamin intake here, so just ignore. Yes, I choked down all the vitamins. It's a really high number, like higher than my age. Hope it helps. Fruits and veggies: apple, pumpkin, sprouts, lettuce. Hmmm...that is an awfully short list. No green smoothie today; must work on that.

Happy anniversary

2012-01-01T12:28:00.000-08:00

Happy anniversary to us. Seb and I made it to 20 years and one day. Nothing can stop us now! We invited everyone to a party, and about 50 people came. It was fun. Nothing broke, although one of the stereo speakers bounced itself off the desk and onto the wood floor.

Someone took a photo of Ben and Erica, the only good photo of the night. All my other photos were of Jim and Kristi, the two who usually grab my camera when no one is looking.

I can't remember who gave me these flowers. I do remember that Melissa and Teri helped me cooked pesto pizzas and that Sue was my second pair of hands in setting out food and pouring drinks. Actually, she was the main pair of hands and was a wonderful help. I sliced off a bit of the top of my thumb during party prep, so when I wasn't meeting and greating I was changing my bandaids.

I have no idea what is going on here, but I'm pretty sure that is Jim's happy face.

The party was a wonderful combo of old friends and new (try coming up with something for a nametag with a new friend!), Mexico folk and Columbia folk. Calvin was the butler and did a good job of answering the door when he wasn't engrossed in a video game. Freddy entertained (I hope) the only other child guest, a neighbor boy his age. The girls were farmed out to babysit for the neighbors. A freshly groomed Pompey was adorable. And the ugly snowman candle did not come back to my house as I feared it would. All in all, a very good day.

Christmas Eve 2011

2011-12-26T19:06:00.000-08:00

Why do I look sad? Seb's hair and beard disappeared on Christmas Eve. I gave him permission to cut. Now we both have short hair. He prefers mine short and I prefer his long. Oh, well. I'm getting used to it.
I'd like to know why I look older with short hair and he looks younger. Not fair. The line-up at hippy church:

Someone doesn't like the paprazzi. And someone else didn't like her bracelet, so Pompey ended up with a new collar. It will look a lot better once he gets a trim.

Dress-up magnetic Einstein is a lot of fun. We'll miss him next yr when he goes off to college with Calvin.

Pompey spent the evening on my lap. I'm always idle on Christmas Eve because I never have any presents to open. Calm, tired Pompey ended up with Buddha on his head, and Buddha never fell because Pompey never moved.

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care. On the left, Lucy's little socklet. On the right, Isabelle's striped, Calvin's dress sock from his military school days, and Freddy's tiny felt. They were all loaded with candy by the morning.

Big guy

2011-12-23T17:31:00.000-08:00

"Hey, folks, thanks for the treat!...
I think that I'm in the mood for a few seeds...

Found some. Thanks! My wife loves my new robust figure!"

Mysteries

2011-12-19T06:21:00.000-08:00

We've had some mysteries to solve in our new house. The first mystery is about the neighbor: Why do we not see him? Ever? Why is he letting his outside world get so rundown? Why does his house look abandoned? Why does he not answer my rings and notes?
The mystery of who has been eating the pumpkin was solved. That pumpkin has been slowly disappearing for the last two weeks. Each morning a little bit more would be nibbled. Now we know that squirrels are dining by day, but I think that something else is dining by night.

Monday is my day to listen to loud music and clean the house. The children do their chores on the weekend (their rooms, their two bathrooms and two other chores), and I do the rest on Monday morning taking frequent dancing breaks. It is also my day to wash sheets and towels, which leads me to the latest mystery: In one week, two parents use two towels...two boys use two towels...and two girls use nineteen towels. I cannot figure out how this can be, even with my extensive parenting experience and strong math abilities.

Moon

2011-12-16T18:53:00.000-08:00

There is a lot of photo taking and movie making going on around here. If you don't think that it's possible that the '69 moon landing was faked, you might reconsider after seeing what a youngest child has been up to.
The project also involves video and a set that was built using newspaper, plaster fabric, and sand. It is quite handy to live right by Micheal's and Hobby Lobby...and to receive frequent 40 and 50% off coupons.

The actors doing a run through in the kitchen during snack time. Practice makes perfect.

I don't remember the part where the moon rover drove through the enormous orange peel, but I was only four mths old when the original aired.

I gush about art

2011-12-15T11:18:00.001-08:00

And now I'm going to gush. I should be putting all the stuff back into my garage and painting, but I can't keep it out.

A friend of mine wanted to get me together with another woman-of-leisure in the 'hood, an older lady who might be a little lonely. We got together today. It was supposed to be at my house, but, due to a miscommunication, it was at the lady's house. And lucky me that it was!

This lovely lady collects art, and it just happens to be the kind I like to look at. She just gave a few of the pieces that were sitting idle in her basement to the local museum for their auction. The museum kept 1/2 of them. That should have been my head's up that this would be a great collection. And it was!

Awesome, wonderful, colorful art, and comments like this: "Oh, that's a Man Ray." "This one is someone pretty well known..." I stop here to point out that I was soaking up the stunning beauty of this piece full of rich blue, while she was getting close to read the signature. "I can't quite read it...Max....Ernst." I think that my jaw dropped. This was in an unassuming house in an unassuming neighborhood.

She and her ex love art. He was connected the local museum (art and archeology, very small) somehow, and they were exposed to a lot of available artwork through that connection. They bought quite a bit. It was a wonderful tour of painting after beautiful painting. A big surprise that made this a wonderful day!

Part time job

2011-12-14T07:52:00.000-08:00

I've spent a lot of time in my living room at my desk working on my part-time job. I knew that I would have to do this, but it's been more work than expected. My job is to get Calvin into college and get him $. Getting him in is no problem--straight As and perfect test scores in everything but English make it easy. It's getting the big bucks that is a chore.

My living room is nice, although it is unfinished. Here is the electrician who looks like Jude the Actor. I couldn't get a good photo of his face; I didn't want to scare him. His job was to lower the light.
Calvin wants to go to a small engineering school. He's gotten into Rose-Hulman and Kettering, but they are only offering $18,000 to $20,000 per year. R-H is $54,000 per year, so it's not really enough. Kettering is a better deal. R-H is his #1 choice, probably because he spent 2+ weeks there last summer. He also got into Missouri Science and Tech and was offered $7,000 per year. Then Valpo offered him $17,000 per year on a bill of $42,000 per yr. Getting better.

(My desk on the left. Blue Man, who just came to live with us. My Star Trek chair. It's a happy corner.)

We were disappointed in the #s, so I started searching. I compared the list of schools that offer big bucks to National Merit Scholars with the list of highly ranked engineering schools. Calvin wants to dual degree in applied math and mechanical engineering (big surprise there!). I found three schools on both lists. He has now applied to Baylor, and they have a really good offer for him: $35,000 on a yearly bill of $50,000. The U of Evansville is offereing him free tuition (per a phone conversation). He is also waiting for responses from Washington U in St Louis and MIT.

He's up for a big scholarship at Washington U, but I doubt that MIT will offer anything. It's $55,000 per year. 20% of eligible candidates get accepted, so he'll be lucky to be one of those. For MIT, he had to do a face-to-face interview with an alum who lives in our town. They spent an hour together. Calvin was lucky enough to get really good questions that show how well-rounded he is when he's not spending 14 hours per day playing video games.

So that's my part-time job, and it is so very close to being done. One more thing for Baylor and I can retire. In the meantime, I'll be calling my Aunt Toni for her tips on getting $ for smart kids. She's a pro at it.

My sad blog

2011-12-13T16:18:00.000-08:00

This blog has become pathetic. Same old photos; same old post since Thanksgiving. I swear that I can see dust on that photo of my mom and me. Some reasons for the decline: Remodeling and moving. The children don't want to have their photos taken by me and don't want to be talked about. Facebook is easier; I'm a quippy kind of gal.

I've decided to change things and let this be more of a daily journal. I'll have to force myself to take more photos. Be prepared for lots of mindless chit-chat.

Thanksgiving 2011

2011-11-26T12:58:00.000-08:00

My mom and I. She's 31 yrs older, but I think that we have the same amount of wrinkles. She's ahead of me on the grey hair though. As are all my siblings.

The lovely Thanksgiving table. We spent the holiday at the home of Dan (bro) and John (bro-in-law). I know he's not exactly in-law yet; hopefully he will be soon. That is Isabelle on the left.

Bro Dan, me, bro Bill. Bill is 46...Dan must be 45...I'm 42. Cathy (49) was at the Iowa-Nebraska football game. Ken (44 tomorrow) was at his house hosting his wife's family, and Rosie (41 with a 1 yr old) was at home in NJ. See those ages? My little mother survived it.

Bill, John, me, mom, Dan. Dan and John's house is in a rural-ish area on a lake. It's a lovely setting and great for family get togethers. Dinner was turkey, gravy, mashed potato, sweet potato, cranberries, brussel sprouts, brocolli casserole, bread, salad, pecan pie, pumpkin pie, apple pie and seven kinds of cookies. There was an awesome brunch the next day.

The doctor got to deal with this part of it. I couldn't look at the bird without thinking of Pompey.

Trip to the river

2011-11-19T15:10:00.000-08:00

One day while out on a bike ride, Seb and I discovered a Sunday afternoon blues jam on the banks of the Missouri River. We took all the children back there on an autumn weekend for a family activity.
Most of them were not too happy about it, even though there were burgers and chips to chow down.

We walked out on a long dirt/rock bar. I love our rivers.

Standing on the end of the bar felt like standing in the middle of the river. I was reminded of the time when Calvin and I canoed the MO River in autumn. The leaves were beautiful. It was an awesome trip.

We visited the McBaine Burr Oak on the way home. It's a biggy. Seems happy too, although stoic. I guess that any 350 yr old tree that has survived repeated river flooding would be stoic.

Seb was going to join in on the blues jam, but forgot his ugly Zenith guitar at home. Maybe next time.

October 17th

2011-10-17T15:31:00.000-07:00

Susan: WHAT DID YOU FORGET?
Child who drives: I don't know.
Susan: AFTER SCHOOL??
Child who drives: I don't know. What?
Susan: IT'S A PERSON!
Child who drives: Who? What?
Susan: YOUR SISTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And on top of that, the youngest has decided and declared that I am stupid. And the dog is on Diarrhea Day Three. Just a fabulous autumn day.

Happy halloween

2011-10-14T19:07:00.000-07:00

It probably isn't a good idea to greet our guests with Freddy's evil-eyed, black 'n white mold-infested pumpkin. When I finally moved him, flying bugs came out the top and creepy crawlies came out the bottom. The plus side is why he is so gross: beautiful summer weather...just right bike riding weather...excellent dog and friend walking weather...perfect sitting/walking/riding outside and making new friends weather.

I love my art

2011-10-13T18:41:00.000-07:00

Sebastien left me home alone (well, with four children and a mini-dog) for a few days, so I visited three galleries, an art show, a photography show, and an artist's studio. I dragged Isabelle along to the shows (she wants to be a photog when she grows up) and my friend Teri along to the studio. I came home with these beauties:
"When I see the elaborate study and ingenuity displayed by women in the pursuit of trifles, I feel no doubt of their capacity for the most herculean undertakings."--Julia Ward Howe.

A dark haired girl with an awesome message for my dark haired girls. Plus, I like the bird. This is now hanging in our family room where the young people congregate. Although, maybe I should hang it on the fridge.

And this is Chopin's A Major Prelude, Opus 28 painted by Kerry Hirth. She sees colors for notes. She explains a bit here.

I first saw one of her paintings when she was profiled in the paper. It hit me like a ton of bricks...or more like a feather pillow. It was a Bach piece. I feel something in my heart area when I look at her paintings of Bach and Chopin. Not so much the others, the Irish music and the hymns. I'm Irish; I should be feeling the Irish music! I love Irish music. But the classical ones are the one that resonate with me. It's like looking at a Kandinsky, which I can do for hours. And did once in Paris for a half hour; one painting at the Pompidou Center.

If anyone else feels anything from these, let me know. I've not found anyone with a reaction like mine yet. I'm kind of curious about how people perceive things.

Old house

2011-10-11T11:36:00.000-07:00

There is some crazy stuff going on at our old house. Despite the carnage, the renters are very happy there. They are taking good care of it and seem to want to stay forever. Works for me.

Bedrooms--the ugly truth

2011-10-10T11:21:00.001-07:00

I was waiting for the rooms to be clean before I showed them, but then I saw the futility of THAT. So, here they are in all their messy glory. First up is Isabelle's room, going from a Dijon mustard color...
To a pretty purple. Aside from the master bedroom, we have two bedrooms upstairs. One for each girl. They have beautiful wood floors covered with clothes and books and magazines. Maybe all the junk will protect the floors from damage. I can dream. Isabelle is still looking for the right desk and curtains for her room.

Lucy's room was more of brownish mustard color. You can be sure that she adored it right away.

We liked the cool before windows, but they didn't bring in enough light. The new ones are about 5' by 5'; we were able to change the windows without having to change much on the outside. These are Anderson windows that slide open and automatically lock when slid closed.

I call Lucy's room the Dr Seuss room. She is now using the bed that she used when she was two; she called it her "lady bed". She was absolutely adorable.

That metal thing in the closet (above photo) is a laundry chute to the laundry room. Just an open tube. There was no way that was staying. The closets are wonderful, with all those built-in shelves and baskets. It would be great if someone actually used them.

***When they came home from school, they cleaned their rooms, just a few hours too late.

Outside

2011-10-06T02:43:00.000-07:00

It is so, so difficult to get good photos of a house on a hill, especially a hill with trees growing on it. Blue/grey/tan inside and out:
We only changed a couple of things outside. One is the front doors, which are now glass. We also painted the garage doors and all other outer doors to match the house. They were black before.

I like having this area that is so sheltered from the rain. There is plenty of space to put our flowers or pumpkins or other doo-dads on the stone wall. That stone wall was the temporary holder of every box of books when it was 103 degrees and I was moving them in while trying not to waste the AC.

Seb and I don't think that the shape of the porch roof suits the house. We can't really change it though, because we are not messing with the rocks. Too much trouble. To the right of the porch is another planter. I can plant, but I cannot keep alive. Our planter will stay empty.

Lots of rocks. They came out of the ground and are used all over this neighborhood for houses and landscaping. They are full of fossils. Above the entry are the big windows of the foyer/stairs area. To the left in the lower level is the bathroom with the window that I frosted. Then the garage. Above the bath/garage are closets (one with a hidden switch that turns on an outside outlet), hall bath, master bath, master closet.

On the right upstairs is the living room with the family room below. Everything else is in the back, looking out over the miserable, weedy, rocky, sticky back yard.

Our strip windows (that term makes me giggle at night when it's time to change into jammies), with the new window inbetween, over the garage. I don't like that strip of rocks between the garage doors. It doesn't look bad in the photo, but it does in real life. The gap-toothed look is in for models, but it's not working for me on this house.

While I was outside taking photos, I visited with the oldest resident of the neighborhood. She gave me the name of the original owner. That name matches one on a list of projects by an architect that we suspect designed our house, because he designed similar ones in the area. Off I go to the library of the MO Historical Society to check it out!

Pump

2011-10-05T13:04:00.000-07:00

I can't tell if this little guy is drunk or angry about the pumpkins sacrificed to make beer. Only Freddy knows.

Art in the kitchen

2011-10-04T14:28:00.000-07:00

I love art almost as much as I love the man who buys it for me. At first I couldn't figure out where each piece was supposed to go in our new house. It took a long while, and the house didn't feel like a home that whole long while. When I started figuring it out, it seemed obvious. Seb's painting (of a lady that happens to look like me and who is standing in front of a house like our first one in Canada) is in the living room where there is plenty of light to brighten it up. He painted it on a black t-shirt, so it's not very bright on its own.
All the artwork in the kitchen is original. I'd like to have original (as my artist friends have urged me to do) everywhere, but I can't afford it. The big piece below is a pastel that I found in a junk store. Original, signed, and nicely framed.

Above, over the open shelving, is a nativity done by Seb's mom. It's a lovely piece and is perfect for that high spot. Below are the photographs that a girl wanted in her bathroom's toilet cell. I never go in there, so I would not have been able to enjoy them. I get a lot of time to enjoy them in the kitchen.

What are they? Carnival scenes photographed by a Montreal photographer, bought on Etsy.

The entry and hall

2011-10-03T05:23:00.000-07:00

This is another spot that really needed help. It got a lot of it, from both amateurs and professionals, making for some pretty dramatic before and after photos. This was taken on the steps looking down:
It was pretty dark down there, so we lightened it up and added one haunting painted lady:

There is a little boy in these photos who has grown so much! I can't believe it. I liked the double front doors, but Seb wanted glass. It was absolutely the right choice.

Oh, wider stairs. Oh, light from the door. Oh, view looking down on the street. Oh, photo of Seb flying upside down.

There is a great floor area inside the front door that is made from rocks. I call it my slab. And my slab is wonderful because no one can see any kind of dirt on it. Perfect for right inside the main entrance. That's all we kept, besides all the knotty pine on the walls.

Am I spelunking or am I in my house? Hmm...not sure.

That's a little better. Goodbye, concrete (polished orange concrete); hello, FLOR on every downstairs surface except the bath.

Below is what stepping inside the front door was like. The rock wall was oppressive. If I opened up the right hand door, it blocked the stairs completely. It was very awkward. One has to go up the stairs to get to the main living areas, so this area is important.

The rock wall was replaced with this built-in bench. It holds out of season stuff inside it and school stuff and jackets on top of it. There is an area underneath that is one foot deep for shoes to hide in.

And one last view from the other end:

Open and efficient: that's how I like my house, now decorated for Halloween.

School x 3

2011-10-01T15:50:00.000-07:00

The photo is of Seb's new airplane, which has an engine that we've never used before. An engine that requires a cowl that makes a cute little face. And that has nothing to do with the post, which is about children who don't like to be photographed.

We moved five days before school started. We were supposed to move three months before school started, because I'm very good at planning things. We moved once the house was ready, and five days later Freddy and Lucy started school. Calvin and Isabelle started school activities, like retreats and orientation.

Last spring, I chose Calvin's new school for him. He's the only one who did not get a choice. He knew exactly which classes he wanted to take his senior year. I knew that I wasn't going to monkey around with a public school for him when his last experience with one was SO bad. So very bad. So we enrolled him in a private, secular school.

Then Isabelle saw the brochures from Calvin's new school and decided that she wanted to go there also. She had to take some tests to get admitted (average math; some of the highest language arts that they have seen), but she passed. I was surprised that she wanted to go. She spent all of 1.5 yrs in school and begged to homeschool the whole time.

Those two have been in the school for about six weeks now, and they are both doing great. I like having Calvin in a school with girls, and he seems to like it also. The classwork is easy for him this year, as I suspected it would be. He's running cross country with a bunch of girls, a great hardship, I'm sure. He seems happy and relaxed, more so than last year.

Isabelle is doing great. She's in choir and has to take both French and Latin. I was concerned about her taking them both, but she's doing well. Her Latin teacher looks like her Grammy and brings in treats once a month. She's working very hard, and seems to really enjoy the school. She started ballet and takes about 3 hours a week right now. She really wants to dance on her toes, but, as a beginner at 13, it will take awhile to get up there.

Lucy decided on going to public school after considering all the private options and the boarding school by Kansas City. Her school is big--450 students in her 9th grade class. Her school is only 8th and 9th. High school starts in 10th grade here, at least right now. She hates school. She's taking Spanish, art, and Agriculture Science along with the usual classes. Her school is about 1/2 mile away, which is lovely.

Freddy decided in the summer that he wanted to go to public school. He gets himself there with his two little legs every day. He's doing OK. Some of his math scores aren't so great. He seems to enjoy it. His artistic talent is definitely shining out in class. His teacher was very impressed with what he did on projects. I was happy that there weren't any explosions or decapitated stick men. It's nice to see him using his talent in kinder, gentler ways. I was also happy with how the teacher teaches, and I'm hard to please!

Poor Pompey Doodle Dog

2011-09-29T14:59:00.000-07:00

Moving was the worst thing that ever happened to him. His ten day stay at the pound used to be at the top of that list, but then we moved. When we got Pompey from the shelter, he was a cute little town pup who pissed his owner off one day by cavorting around town on his own. The owner refused to bail him out, so we got a cute, pure bred, five pounder for twenty bucks.
He quickly became a wild, country dog, running all over our 4o acres chasing away any other animal that he saw. And getting into barking fights with the squirrels. He was the king. He used to bark 120 lb dogs off of our property, across the street, and back onto their own land. He spent all day outside and would have spent all night out there too if I had let him.

Now he has to live in the city. He believes that every dog he sees is trespassing on his property. I'm not sure what he thinks about all those houses and people who are now living on "his property." He wants to be best friends with all of them while barking their dogs away.

Now that he lives in town, he raises his leg to tinkle, something I never saw him do in the country. But he's not very good at it. Just about every time his other back leg goes off the ground until he's doing a handstand, while still tinkling. Sometimes he walks forward a bit while in his handstand. Sometimes he almost somersaults. And every time he manges to tinkle on his front paws.

Today he saw a good vet who disagnosed him with mal-formed back knee caps, which explains his dancing and difficulties. Now we have two reasons for the handicapped license plates. He has a lot of difficulty with the wood floors and stairs. He hates the harness and leash. And he's absolutely irate that anyone would consider biking to work at 6 AM. It's a good thing that he's cute and lovable.

Bathroom x 3

2011-09-28T14:36:00.001-07:00

Prepare for a lot of photos. The bathrooms were quite something. First up is the master bath, which included some nice towel and TP rods, strange black outlet covers, lantern lights, and something on the floor that I can't even remember. And it was a different mustard yellow than the other rooms that were painted mustard yellow.
On the right was a double sink, his and hers, and him and her had to stand really far away from each other because the sinks were very close to the side walls. Some ugly tile was tacked onto the side walls. I refuse to use the bathroom at the same time as a man, so I knocked the sinks down to an uno.

On the left was a door to the spacious toilet room. No window. It was a toilet cell. If one wanted to take a shower, one had to enter the toilet room and take a sharp left into the 2' x 3' shower. That is small even for a skinny gal like me. We found the floor under that shower totally rotted out. The after:

I feel like I can breathe now. One sink, one Chagall print, one potty with natural light. (Our potties are Kohlers from Lowe's. Cheap-ish, low water usage, and good at making the #2s disappear.) We used the same cabinets throughout the house. Same hardware too. This house needed that consistency, at least to get over its previous life with multiple personalities.

The medicine cabinets were a splurge. They are the same in all the baths, mirrored inside so that you don't have to close them to look into the mirror to use what you just took out. And good for checking the back of the hairdo. We still have plenty of space in ours for all of the meds that we will need when we get old.

We knocked out the walls and put a nice shower in where the toilet cell had been. The sinks and shower surfaces are cultured (fake) marble. It's working out just fine. To the left of the shower, we put in a cabinet to hold all the TP that I buy on sale.

And I love my floor. It took me forever to find and it's only mid-level vinyl, but it works perfectly. I can't see the hair that my long-haired husband leaves around. I love the variation, and it works with the wood floor right outside the bath and everything inside the bath. Perfect.

Everything is the same in the hall bath, which is used and abused by two teenaged girls. The before:

Who would willingly put a wall in front of a window in a small room? What was he thinking? "I'll make a little nook."

"And I'll put some decorative wood bits up there. And I'll have to light it well because I've blocked out all the natural light." "And just for fun I'll put some weird tiles in here that are made out of some strange man-made material."

We kept the tub. That was it. There is some more decorative trim stuff above the tub, which is very odd in a 70s house. The potty has it's own room.

The colors in this room weren't bad, but it was too extreme. The doors were painted three different colors to go with the vinyl. We cleaned it up, using everything that we used in the master. The girls added lots of make-up and potions and towels all over and charging devices on the floor.

They wanted a curtain instead of a glass shower door, and I was happy to oblige. Much cheaper. Lucy chose light pink towels, which look great with the color scheme.

The downstairs bath was tiny, but not too tiny to throw in an extra, unneeded wall!

To make a little nooky nook for tooth brushing:

It included a shower, with such a small door that even a stick man would have to hold his breath to pass through.

The showers were tiled all around and actually kind of cool, but too old and leaky and small to keep. The floor of the downstairs shower had been retiled at one point:

Ick. This room is tiny. We say that Calvin's tiny room is preparing him for dorm-living, so this tiny bath must be preparing to bathe in a 747. It is so much nicer now. Impossible to get good photos with my camera. No obstructive wall. Nice light. The cabinet matches the others downstairs, in the family room and Calvin's room. The Chagall is a copy painted by the Grandmaman.

I had to do something with the windows because they look right out onto our front porch, which means that visitors could look right in and see STUFF! Curtains weren't right for this room, so I frosted the glass with some spray stuff from Lowe's. It was easy and works great. We went with clear glass for the showers, and it adds space to this room.

Did you notice the windows? See the rod thing at the bottom? That is how I open my windows, which I can do with one hand. Closed above; half open below:

And all the way open. They are so smooth and quick to open and close. I didn't think that I could love a window.

And what about the people?

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

Enough about the house! Actually, I have more to show. BUT I'll chat about the people who live in the house for a change. I know that Aunt Toni wants to know, even if no one else does.

Our move took us 45 minutes away from where we were living, which was right by Seb's little airplane business. He now drives that every day. He uses the drive to talk to his far-flung family, friends and business cohorts. The drive doesn't seem to bother him. Business is good, and I'm sure that his family loves getting calls from him.

Labor day weekend, we left the children in the care of a complete stranger (who came highly recommended) and took off for the RANS Bike Rally in Hays, Kansas. I didn't ride because I was just getting over a sickness and had no energy. I helped provide SAG support that was never needed and chopped veggies instead. I had a great time hanging out with Michele, but really missed being a part of the ride. Seb managed to take third place in the highly dangerous track competition. The winners' circle:
That is our friend Ben on the left. He took 2nd. That's what happens when you aren't hampered by long hair and droopy drawers.

We have spent the rest of our weekend in our new town doing all kinds of fun things: bike rides to the farmers' market, good pastries and good (corn syrup free) sodas and coffee, gallery hopping, dining out, an organ concert, a blues festival, festivals (heritage) and fairs (sustainable living), visits to the state park (a cave!), independent cinema, and even a bonsai show! They were the biggest bonsai that I have ever seen.

We are having great fun, at least I am.

Making stuff

2011-09-18T15:26:00.000-07:00

Freddy and his buddy Christopher. They measured, drilled, filed and riveted to make a sheet-metal Zenith Aircraft Company binder. Freddy has some skills. The future is looking good.

Calvin's room AKA the bunk room

2011-09-16T09:49:00.000-07:00

See the hee-haw bar? We didn't need it. None of us are tossing back the JD on a regular basis, so we didn't need an area devoted to it. Almost every house we looked at had a bar, but none as big as this one. Although there was that one house with the dance floor and the 14 phone lines going in...
This is what the area looked like beforehand. We kept the light fixture over the bar and used it over the desk in the family room. There is a sink there, out of shot, that Calvin wanted to keep in his room. I have no problem saying NO. See the vinyl tile? Three different patterns downstairs. Or maybe four...I don't remember the bathroom.

We added the window and closed the room off from the family room and from the room on the other side. That gave us about 7' x 10.5' for his room. Everything just fits. This room is supposed to prepare him for living in a dorm next year.

FLOR on the floor; his favorite blanket on the bed. And built in everything on one side. Desk, closet, dresser, bookshelf (out of view). With a bookshelf running across the top. I had a great design for that wall, with the bookshelf running across the top for 4 feet, then stepping down a foot for 3 feet, then stepping down a foot for 2 feet, then stepping down a foot for the last foot (and a bit). It was perfect and had a great feel (Ms Claustrophobia was on it!), but there were some vents hidden in the hee-haw roof feature that ruined it. This still works, just not so perfectly. Keeping the built-ins lighter at the head of the bed makes the room feel bigger to the sleeper.

The bookshelf above the desk is very handy and makes it into a nice nook. We put in a nook! After taking out all of the others. He needs paintings. Maybe I'll hang a few while he is at school flunking French.

This room was a very big deal because making it work into a bedroom decided us on the house. If it hadn't worked, we would have had to add on. Calvin agreed to living in a room smaller than our laundry room at the time. With low ceilings. He was even OK with no window.

The new family room

2011-09-12T10:33:00.000-07:00

Our house in Mexico didn't have a family room; it had a tiny, odd-shaped library with a TV in it. It held only one loveseat, plus pillows for floor sitters. It was super cozy. When it was filled up with children on party nights, it turned into a library/TV room/sauna. When there were teen boys involved, the odor element got a little overwhelming. So we are very happy to have a real library/family room now.

Part of the problem with this house is that every room had a different color and decorating style. That doesn't work in a house of this size. The family room was done in Early Hee Haw:
Old barn wood on the walls. Cheap vinyl squares on the floor. Lighting tacked up to the popcorn ceiling with wiring snaking down to an outlet. A big bar. I don't need a roof inside my house!

We closed off the bar area to make Calvin a bedroom. This is the library end of the room. I have everything put away except that last pile on the floor, which is art and Seb's cool stuff. There are outlets in some of the cabinets for the microscope and lava lamp. The desk and cabinet tops are formica to survive drippy projects. Freddy's landscape creation and plaster man are sitting on there, along with a crystal growing project.

Lovely fireplace. I think we'll keep that. You can see that this grey room goes into the orange hallway. Those two colors have never played well together.

We added a ceiling light on each side and smoothed down the ceiling. Actually, we replaced the ceiling after smoothing it down because Rich Billy and his extremely handsome assistant tore it up. New windows, some of which still have the stickers on. The sectional is a floor sample that I got on sale and the bean bag chairs are from Aldi. The coffee table needs a new paint job, but I haven't decided what it will be yet.

The carpet is FLOR, which I am loving. It is in squares that do not stick to the floor (they stick to each other), so I can pull a square up and wash it or replace it easily. It was that or concrete down here, and I much prefer carpet to concrete. Plus, the decorative concrete was out-of-this-world expensive! It was cheaper to get the FLOR. Most people do fancy patterns with their FLOR, but I had to go plain to tone things down. If I had plain walls elsewhere, I could have gone a little crazy on the floor.

I can't decide if that Picasso is staying there. So many decisions! There is a little brick patio outside the family room. We would have had a nice water fountain going here if the contractors hadn't thrown out the pump. It has a short wall on the street side, so Pompey can go out and get some fresh air. He just ends up barking at cats and dogs though, so we don't let him out much. At least he's learned to ignore the squirrels.

All in all, this room is serene and very comfy. It is organized and holds a TON of our useful items nicely and out of the way. Just what we needed.

New master bedroom and closet

2011-09-08T08:43:00.001-07:00

This room wasn't too bad. It is a nice size and hadn't been messed with too much. The minty green was actually refreshing after all of the orange/mustard/brown. I could see Dwight living in the rest of the house, but not the master. The green is actually painted grasscloth. I think that HGTV ran a show on decorative trim right after the grasscloth episode. This was the only room with trim by the ceiling and funky trim on the walls. It looks great in some houses, but not this one.
And the after look. So much better. I love the new window. It is our cleanest window, but I can't figure out why. I love the strip windows too. We actually had the glass replaced with triple-pane lowE. The glass folk think that we are kind of crazy. The strip windows always make me think of the Brady Bunch. I'm sure that they had some in their house somewhere.

We need to replace the bedside tables. I have them picked out, but it's hard to spend money after spending so much money. And the bed is staying on the floor. I like it there. Those little bedside lamps are $18 at Lowes. They turn on with a touch, so no one has to grope for a switch. And they have low, medium and bright light. Perfect for a bedroom where the sleepers have different sleep schedules.

We didn't have any artwork in our last bedroom, in an effort to make it more relaxing and peaceful. But this bedroom is already so relaxing and peaceful (it's not orange and green), so I think that it can handle some art. Seb's Picasso copy and maybe one of Kerry's synesthetics right above the bed.

One of the first things that I did was buy curtains for those doors. Outdoor motion lights are BRIGHT. The orange chair is a lot lighter in person. If you want to pretend to be Cpt. Kirk, just stop on by and sit in the orange chair.

The closet before:

And after. I didn't guss anything up for the photos. You see it as we live it. Wait until you see the teenagers' rooms.

This closet is smaller than our last, so I had to make every bit count. The contractors built it from my design. I talked to a closet company, but they wanted $2000 to do this closet! I wanted wood shelving, not wire. The baskets are from Home Depot. Normally, baskets go on rails, but they work well this way on the shelves. It gives us the option of just going with shelves if we want. There are also no rails to go wonky. My side:

Seb's side is hard to photograph. He has more hanging room than I do. When I designed it, I measured and counted everything. I also took into account how we like to use it, meaning Seb needs a place to dump his stuff.

And in one little spot I have Peter Rabbit holding my baubles. He's a hunter. He came from Coal Street Antiques. I have no idea what he is actually for, but he does his current job well. His right ear holds my enormous engagement ring.

The new kitchen

2011-09-01T13:08:00.000-07:00

I'm gong to be blabbing a lot on this one. At least two people that I know are planning kitchen make-overs and are interested in details. Here is the before kitchen:
These are actually really nice cabinets. Nicer than anything that I have had. Brown wasn't going to work for me though. I need light and bright. If a kitchen isn't white, I want to take a nap in it...or read a book. I need white to wake me up and force me to do what I don't want to do.

A useless broom closet taking up prime kitchen real estate. The previous owner called the area below "the nook". There were a lot of nooks in this house. They are all gone now.

A beautiful view ruined by walls and rocks. Cool intercom system though.

The new kitchen, bright and white, as seen from the dining area. My camera isn't taking great photos since its water soak at the wedding reception. At least it is working.

The old kitchen did not have enough counter/drawer/cabinet space for a family of six. We added the island, which is eight feet long. I had a smaller one in my old house and found that I liked to do everything at it because I don't like things (cabinets) crowding my head while I work. The bookshelves hold cookbooks on the bottom (looking a little dusty right now) and all our kitchen reading material on the other shelves (newspapers, mags, TinTins). I could have fit in three stools (or even four slim models), but would three of my children ever sit there and get along? No. These are adjustable. I wanted orange ones, but had to go with the cheaper black ones. I'm thrifty like that.

The island is all drawers on the other side. Oooh! Look at how neat it looks. Clean lines! The handles look a little smallish on these drawers. I could have gone bigger, but then my legs would have hit up against them. I also knew that I didn't want a sink or stovetop or any other obstruction on my island. That would have given me less counter space to work with. I prefer using drawers instead of cabinets. I can stick more in there, and everything is easy to get to. We paid extra for the hardware that makes the drawer close ALL the way if you get it most of the way there on your own effort. I don't like drawers and cabinets left open. We had that plague at our old house.

The island butts up against that foot-wide wall that is helping hold up the ceiling where the house angles. It is a nice spot for my clock with big old lady numbers. It also hides some of the little items that are currently hanging out there, like the coin jar and the big pickle.

I'm tired of writing about kitchens already...but I shall persevere.

That broom closet is gone, replaced with a dishwasher. The window is wider. The end of the island is in front of the kitchen door, which is all glass now for more light. When I designed the island, I followed the lines of the doorway: The island width is the same as the door and frame. It makes everything feel right. I also measured every single walkway dozens of times. I taped them out on the floor, walked through, pretended to cook, etc. A lot of effort means that all those walkways and areas are just perfect. We can even walk by when the dishwasher is sitting open. Another thing that I did was measure what we had in our current house and figure out what worked and what didn't.

The kitchen is a triangle. The floor space between the stove area and the island area is actually pretty big, but not too big. I like the space. I felt crowded in my old kitchen if anyone was in there with me.

We put cabinets all around the fridge. I like having all the food in one area. It makes putting away groceries and planning a meal so much easier. The only thing that I would change is to make the cabinets a little wider. I like the fridge door system too. This fridge beeps when someone small (or big) leaves it open. That is really handy. It is a Kitchenaid counter-depth. I didn't want my fridge sticking out. Built-ins are about $7,000; counter-depth is a whole lot cheaper! They don't hold as much as a regular fridge though. It is plenty of space for us and for how we shop and eat.

Only high cabinets. I no longer hit my head! I would prefer no upper cabinets, but had to have some here. The oven and stove-top are Bosch. You can get some good rebates from Bosch if you buy at the right time. Freddy insisted that we get an oven with a chicken nugget setting. We didn't. This one has a pizza setting though; Lucy used it today. It has a pie setting also. I'll have to try that one. The stove is gas, which I am loving. It is a five-burner. I mainly use my big saute pan on the big center burner. It heats the entire pan and not just the middle.

To the left of the stove is a trash pull-out, which holds regular and recyclables. A can under the sink is awkward for me to use. And too small. This one is great. I had to give up cabinet space, but I use the trash cans 65 times a day. On the right of the oven is knives and cutting boards (and cookie tins, etc.). The corner cabinet has strong shelves and holds tons of stuff.

I like the counter area in the corner there. I can put stuff there and it won't be in the way. Right now there is bread for Seb's homemade (not by me) chicken liver pate and stinky cheeses...Lucy's pizza...and the butter dish. The walls are more grey than these photos show. I picked a blue/grey that goes with the wood and the rock. I like it. We also painted all the ceilings the same color. It makes the rooms seem bigger, yet cozy.

The sink with the magic faucet. It turns off and on with a touch to any part of it (except the pull-out spray thingy). It saves water. I also don't have to redo the temp all the time. We stumbled upon it at Lowe's. Silverware drawer, kid vitamin drawer, bread drawer, water bottle drawer, dishwasher. The dishwasher is Bosch also and is super-duper quiet. It's my first, and we are getting along swimmingly. I wanted open shelves on this wall for glasses and the usual plates and bowls. I like it. It isn't at all messy-looking like I had feared. It keeps things light and open. Everything gets used so much (six people here) that nothing has time to get dusty. The contractor used the leftover steel rods from our staircase to support the shelves.

The counter is much better experienced in person. It is Whitney by Cambria, but I like to call it Jim's Hair. It is white with flecks of grey and clear rock. It sparkles in the light. It is very light, which is what I like in a counter. BUT I still can't tell if it is clean just by looking at it, and that annoys me. I clean it anyway to make sure or I get down and look at the light glare to see if there are any bits or spills. I like to know when things are dirty. That counter is now supporting an Original Gooey Butter Cake delivered by the FedEx man. The last time the FedEx man came by, he left an ugly guitar.

A peek of the view that the old kitchen was missing. It now has light and cheer and beauty. It also looks much better in person, so come on by (especially if you want to cook in it).

Big art

2011-08-22T17:29:00.000-07:00

The first piece of art that I bought for the new house is the dining table. This was very clever of me: I took $ from the furniture budget and added it to the art budget and got a one-of-kind art table. Actually, I didn't do that; I'm not a budgeter. What I did was discover Cole through a gallery show in Columbia. He's a metal artist and that table is steel. I couldn't get a good photo of it though. Too much light coming in. The table is very dark, almost black. The messy splotches of yellow and blue paint make it look like the universe. I guess that the orange lines are the UFO contrails. I really, really like it. The only thing that it is missing is a little nook under the tabletop to tuck my dictionary into. I feel at a loss in arguments if I can't whip that baby out.

New staircase and railing

2011-08-20T20:16:00.000-07:00

This is going first simply to sate Tamra's curiosity. Plus, I love it. Here is what we had before:
The stairs were a little on the narrow side, winding around the rock wall that the contractor referred to as "The Monolith". The rock wall was decorative and ended in a planter. Cool idea, but heavy and oppressive. And I can't keep plant beings alive. Next to The Monolith was the lovely orange railing, which was a little wobbly.

We knew that we wanted glass, so that we could actually see the view out of the tallest windows. We weren't sure about the rest of it, though. Then I saw a photo at a home show and was inspired.

Maple, glass, and solid steel rods. It's a beauty. The materials were expensive, and it took FOREVER and two months for Carl to build it. It was worth it...although I probably have no right to say that because I don't make the money around here.

And we got the view. The house previously had a wall between the hall and stairway area and the dining room where the photographer was sitting. I'm still not sure who the photog was...my guess is Isabelle.

I cleaned those windows today, and I can only reach about 2/3 of the way up the first window. I need to go find some basketball players to do the high parts for me.

Getting close...

2011-07-31T09:59:00.000-07:00

Another week, or so, and our new house will be done. The floors are taking up a lot of time, but they are worth it. Here are some before and after photos.

The living room when we bought the house. The walls are covered with textured plaster.

Looking into the dining room and kitchen and down the hall to the bedrooms. We had already torn the walls around the dining area down, which really opened the place up to light and a nice view.

The master bedroom has a new window (which will be over the bed). We got rid of distracting wall trim, minty paint, and shag carpet.

Inside the front door, at the bottom of the stairs. The main living area is upstairs, but you enter the house downstairs. It's on a hill. There are now glass doors for light. We took out the rock wall and widened the steps. The railing should be done soon. It's a doozy.

A house peak

2011-06-23T06:39:00.000-07:00

Still working on the same old, same old. At the new house, things are going slowly, but the smoke smell is gone, the dog smell is gone, and every drop of mustard yellow paint is gone.

New and larger windows are in; glass doors are up. The house now has light everywhere!

Calvin is off at engineering camp for almost three weeks. The girls are going to church camp in July while Calvin is at a camp for disabled folks working as an aide. For a few days Freddy will be our only child. Everyone is registered for school in the fall, but Aug 20 isn't really fall, is it?

An update!

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

Blogging has taken a back seat to everything else these days. In a couple of months, my part-time jobs of house designing and toilet plunging will end, and I'll be able to get back to it. Until then, an update of sorts. Seb and I went to the home show in St Louis in March. It was worth it just to get a photo of a perfect staircase for our house: maple and glass and steel rods. Oh! And the snoring remedy! How could I forget? The remedy is marjoram oil and it works. Sniff it in and leave it on your bedside table all night. It stops almost all of the snoring (that used to wake a house full of drunk college boys) and clears up my sinuses also. Highly recommended! In St Louis Freddy and Seb got in the little dryer and went up the Arch. I stayed firmly on the ground.

Freddy has been extremely creative these past few months. He is working with trick photography. Sometimes his models are cooperative. Sometimes they don't know that they are being photographed.

Sebastien got a part-time job at Home Depot to pay for the new furniture in the new house.

And the alien came to live with us. I first encountered him one day when I went out to my car.

He likes our food, especially nachos. He attended one of our dinner parties and seemed to enjoy that also.

He is still with us reposing on the floor in the basement, simulating an alien who was hurt when his UFO crashed after entering our atmosphere. He has inspired much artwork:

Seb and I went to a Valentine ball at Calvin's school (for all of 1/2 hour), he in his auction tux and moi in my junk store gown. Photography by Isabelle.

Gutted

2011-02-19T18:25:00.000-08:00

I love my gutted house. I love visiting it. I love the sun shining in. I think that tearing down walls will be my new hobby. Maybe my new job will be house-flipper.

The before photos are here.

Above is the master bedroom. There is currently a toilet in one corner, but I don't think that we will leave it there. The minty green grass paper came off the walls, along with the skinny trim. The new window, which goes above the bed, is marked out in masking tape on the wall. It is the same size (two feet high and 50-some inches off the floor) as the windows on the front of the house.

A view down the hall from the bedrooms toward the kitchen/living area is above. Let there be light! Below is a view from upstairs above the front door. Taking out the stone planter made a huge difference. It allowed all the light to come in. The planter started at the end of the orange railing and ended at the stairs. It was big enough for Lucy to sit in like a bathtub.

Goodbye kitchen and dining room walls. I won't miss you.

A couple of photos taken in the kitchen, by the door to the outside. Taped on the floor is the basic outline of my island. To the left of the island is the dining area. The table has to be nice; it's the first thing that one sees when coming up the stairs. There will be a metal and glass railing along the hall there and down the stairs.

Below I'm standing where the table will go, where we will have our nightly family dinners (fights).

A view from the corner of the living room (where Calvin's piano and my desk go) into the dining and kitchen area. The walls have been smoothed of their funky plaster overlay.

Taking out the rock wall/planter made a huge difference downstairs. It is now light and open. The stairs will be a little wider; there will be glass doors for more light; and I need to design some storage next to the stairs. I need to come up with something that uses the space well, but doesn't cut the light or hinder the open feeling. I'm stumped right now. If anyone is good at that kind of thing, speak up! I can send you more photos.

One end of the family room (the other end has the firplace and windows). The wet bar is gone and I'm working on the design for the cabinets and bookshelves. There will be cabinets and bookshelves all around on the left and back walls, with shelf space for all Freddy's current projects. Then there will be a desk area on the right for homeschooling and puzzles and projects. I'm looking forward to getting the projects, the homeschooling and my computer & desk stuff out of kitchen.

We also have three bathrooms gutted of everything except toilets and one tub. Not very pretty. We took out unnecessary walls in all three bathrooms, and all are now much brighter and nicer. The boys' rooms don't photograph well, but they will one day when they get windows.

I don't even eat watermelon

2011-01-28T10:22:00.000-08:00

I will eat a watermelon. I will accidentally eat a seed. Then a watermelon will grow in my stomach, and I will burst open. Finally, my mom will clean up the guts and eat the watermelon. Then she will accidentally eat a seed.

--Freddy's writing work 1/28/11

The alien

2011-01-23T13:13:00.000-08:00

It's really cool when you take a photo and then later on see something that you hadn't noticed was there at the time. This has been happening a lot to us lately, especially when Freddy uses the camera.

Three year old Calvin

2011-01-22T18:05:00.000-08:00

Calvin is now 16 1/2 and sporting an attitude. Here is a letter that he dictated to me when he was 3 years and 3 months old. Lucy was 1 1/2 at the time, and Isabelle was in the oven. The words in parentheses are mine.

I found a seashell in the creek with Papa. Papa and I washed it. I saw a possum in the creek. That was before. He had an elephant eye (a maimed, blind, or hurting eye).

Lucie is a monkey. Papa will put her a rope in the dining room for climbing. And bananas. Lucie likes the banana song best (Beethoven's 5th). I like the church song (Beethoven's 9th).

I had a special library day (story hour). With Humpty Dumpty and he fell and made sounds. The TV was never on at the exercise place! Papa will cut the wires with his knife! (Calvin and Lucie play in a nursery at the YMCA while I do water aerobics. They had a TV on, and it upset him very much.* We had to talk to the ladies who promised to keep it off whenever they are there.)

I do my Reader Rabbit. On the family computer.

Maman got a blood test--two blood tests! There was a lot of blood dripping. Midwife Sharon put it in tubes. We kissed Maman. (Still anemic, but a little better.) I played with Thomas at the train store.

*Sebastien told the children that their brains would shrink a little bit every time they watched TV. With a lot of TV viewing, the brain could shrink to the size of a pea and be sneezed out. Calvin would go running away from the TV at the Y screaming if someone turned it on.

New Year's Eve

2011-01-19T16:51:00.000-08:00

On New Year's Day, we did our New Year's Eve family ritual: We drew our hopes and dreams for the year, and then we burned them in the fireplace to be caught by the angels above. Freddy kept it simple this year:

Just the cash, please. I split the year in two:

The first half sees us settled in our new house in our new town living our fun, exciting new lives. The second half is where I figure out what I want to do now that I'm grown up, what might fill the hole in my life that only I'm aware of, but feel deeply. I have no idea what my job/pursuit/hobby will be. I just hope that we can afford it to be a hobby and not a job.

Calvin had a tough time with his hopes and dreams. So many of his dreams have been realized. He sets goals for himself and then accomplishes them. He was stumped, so Lucy drew him a girlfriend. Seb mistook the girlfriend for a football player and thought that Calvin wanted to try a new sport.

Then Freddy drew Calvin a driver's licence (a hope and dream of all of us really) and Lucy illustrated it. And Calvin remembered that he's going for a 36 on the ACT. If only one of these dreams come true, life will be better for all of us.

Seb wrote the same old thing. Everyone can recite it by heart now: Health, happiness, and success for the whole family.

That is supposed to be a muscular arm to signify health. If that is what we need for health, none of us qualify. Lucy isn't sharing her hopes and dreams this year. Isabelle is hoping and dreaming to get her braces off, to spend Christmas with family, and to see Pompey live another year.

We drew one for my mom: hopes and dreams by proxy. Those are all the things that she can do with her new knee once she fully recovers.

After the festivities, Isabelle and I both had a little something. I'm pretty sure that it is tequila.

It flamed up when it was my turn to hold it.

Christmas 2010

2010-12-30T15:37:00.000-08:00

The dinner that Lucy made, with help from Isabelle: rotisserie chicken, instant mashed potatoes, buns, cream-style corn, green beans. It was delicious. They also made two kinds of cookies.

It snowed on Christmas Eve, and our neck of the woods was gorgeous. I didn't get good photos though. I was still dragging from the flu. I was also weak from opening so many presents. Wait! What am I thinking? I didn't get any presents!

This is Freddy's 4 man tent, which sleeps two comfortably. He spent one night in it.

Calvin's stocking. At least it was clean. He got a new Rubik's cube. And if we mess it all up for him, he can straighten it right up. I think that we might send him off for scientific study.

We had many lovely days. Now everyone (under the age of 16) is bored and the snow has melted.

Been busy

2010-12-24T12:32:00.000-08:00

We finally let Freddy have chewing gum, and he went to town with it.

Then he used all the extra sugar-fueled energy to work on some new comics. He spends a lot of time on these. I like that he is drawing, but I don't like seeing what the stick men are up to. Too much danger and violence for me. And always too many explosions.

And last, but not least, he made a thinking cap. It works very well, powered by a battery or two. We are going to make Calvin wear it next time he takes an SAT.

Science by Freddy

2010-12-01T17:25:00.000-08:00

Freddy has been taking photos through the microscope. It is working out well. Above and below is a lovely corn stalk.

And some crystals that we made out of Epsom salt mixed into water. We mixed it up and let it sit and dry over two days. We poured the mixture on a piece of black paper which allowed us to see the the crystals better as they formed.

We use R.E.A.L. Science Odyssey for Freddy. We love it. (I also use the history curric from that company.) This year we are all studying chemistry. Right now we are going through the groups of the periodic table, doing an experiment with one of the elements from the group, and then making a page in an element book for that group. For the first group, we did an experiment with salt, making an egg float. For the second group, we made the crystals with the Epsom salt, which contains magnesium.

Today we made this slimy stuff from Borax, which contains boron. We mixed 2 teaspoons of Borax into 1/2 cup of water and let it dissolve. Then we mixed 1/4 cup of Elmers glue with 1/4 cup water and a few drops of food coloring. We put the glue mixture into a bag and added 2 tablespoons of the Borax mixture. Then Freddy kneaded it until it thickened up into the new compound, which happened pretty quickly. Not only is it fun to play with, it is cleaner than playdough or clay or saltdough.

I've been homeschooling for about ten years, and I hate teaching science. My children love it, the last child even more than the rest of them. This is the only curriculum that I have enjoyed using. I highly recommend it.

Risky

2010-11-22T17:56:00.000-08:00

It was a quiet day in DC, when all of a sudden...

The battle went on for days. There were many, many casualties.

3D

2010-11-21T17:46:00.000-08:00

Freddy went to the theater and came home with 3D glasses.

My Sebastien substitute

2010-11-19T06:18:00.000-08:00

Why did I get a wool blanket in the mail? Do you remember this day?

The timing is perfect. I have been freezing this week.

New piano

2010-11-18T08:19:00.000-08:00

This is one of the smartest things that we have ever done:
We bought a used digital piano for Calvin. Our first piano came free from a church. It was as old as our 100 yr old house. It was pretty. It had a wonderful sound after we paid $250 to get it fixed. We moved it to our 2nd house and then to this, our 3rd house. Then it broke. The piano tuner was afraid of it. He wanted Calvin to wear protective gear while he played because he feared that the cracked sound board would explode one day. It wasn't that dramatic though.

Piano #2 came from someone's cellar. It was free, but we had to pay the Three Creepy Guys $50 to move it for us. And then we had to pay $250 to get it fixed up. It's ugly. The sound was never good. It's a player piano, but the player part was too complicated and expensive to fix. Whenever I asked the piano teacher if it needed to be tuned, she would say, "No. It needs a lit match." I'd like to take a chainsaw to it one day and get it out of my bedroom. I know that it is bad for my allergies.

So now he has the digital. The sound is wonderful. The volume control is WONDERFUL. Seb's melodies using the electric guitar sounds are something less than wonderful. They are loud though.

Calvin was playing something beautiful that day that I took the photo. He only had the sheet music on his computer, which is why it is set up on the piano. When I asked about the music (truly beautiful), he said that it was a song by one of the bands that he listens to, a song that is mostly instrumental. He said that I wouldn't be familiar with the band because their music wouldn't be played on the radio because it is full of profanity. Really??? That beautiful music and they sing profane songs??? And my boy listens to them???

New house photos

2010-11-16T19:20:00.000-08:00

I didn't want to show photos of our new house until it was done, but so many people have asked that I'm caving. We aren't moving until after the school year ends, which gives us time to get the house worked on. Look with imagination; it's going to be a lot different. And feel free to give me your thoughts.
Above is the living room. The ancient shag is going. The textured walls are going to be smoothed down. The windows are going to be replaced. Most of the big windows are foggy. The house is about 40 yrs old and has a 70s vibe. That's one reason we like it!

A view from the living room down the hallway. On the left is the stone fireplace that is in the living room, then stairs, then the giant stone planter, then a railing. On the right is the dining room and kitchen. The walls on the right are coming down. We are playing a game of Should it Stay or Should it Go with the planter and leaning heavily toward Go.

Over the stairs there is a bank of seven, large windows, many taller than I. The house gets wonderful light late in the afternoon. Down the hallway are two bedrooms on the right with a bathroom and closets on the left. At the end is the master bed and bath and closet.

Minty fresh master bedroom. I love those long, thin windows. It makes me think of the Brady Bunch. Goodbye funny trim on the walls. Goodbye mint green. Hello new windows between the skinny ones. Goodbye shag.

In the dining room looking into the kitchen. The walls are coming down. The tape on the floor is a possible island for the space. Goodby brown. Hello shiny, white cabinets. There will be maple flooring throughout the upper floor. The front door area. Visitors enter onto the lower floor. Goodbye black doors; hello glass ones. I love the stone on the floor.

In the photo above, I was standing with the front doors on my right, looking down the hall toward the family room. If the planter goes, that rock wall on the right goes with it. It's full of fossils. And dust.

There will be two bedrooms down here. There is a small 3/4 bath and a laundry room. And the garage behind me.

Yee-haw! The family room with the very popular, much-in-demand barn wood. The wet bar is going to disappear and Calvin's bunk room will magically appear in its place. It will be small, but he doesn't need much.

The barn wood is going. There is way too much going on in this house with different textures and different elements from nature. We are cutting it back a little bit and making the house a little more cohesive.

Above is the other end of the family room. It has a bank of three large windows with a glass door just like the living room above. Right outside is a little brick patio with a wee water fountain.

And finally, in the upper center of the photo, is the light fixture that I've picked out for the dining area. I am moving into a minimalist, modern phase, which is probably due to my old age.

On Saturday at our house

2010-11-16T12:40:00.000-08:00

Busy, busy, busy:
Freddy created a town and named it Vidalia:

The strip mall has a few vacant stores and one really nice store that sells pipes. I'm not sure if it is pipes for plumbing or pipes for smoking:

Seb helped to make the church as a little more complicated engineering was involved:

The town pool:

Need help? Just call:

Cafe Ole has all you need to satisfy your coffee cravings:

We have a few videos of the town used by the economic development office. The videos include some good aerials:

There was room for expansion. I guess the economic development team did a good job because the White House sprang up today on the edge of town:

Seb's trip to Italy

2010-11-15T12:29:00.000-08:00

Sebastien went to Italy once when he was a teen. He wandered around with his sister and cousin for awhile, also visiting Greece. This was probably when he was 18 or so and spent some time living in gay Paris before starting college in gay Canada.
Many, many years later he won a free trip to Italy on the Price is Right. He went kosher for the trip:

Actually he wasn't on the Price is Right, but he was offered a free trip to Turin. He took it before they could change their minds.

He spent much of his time in an airplance factory and at an airport. Those photos are not very exciting. The weather was bad while he was there, so hazy and cloudy that he couldn't see the mountains around him.

They will eat anything! Not even the baby lobsters are safe!

Airplane beer. Another country, another beer.

Below is Saint Sebastien Street. Every large, foreign city seems to have one.

Below is the night of the cow. Seb ended up drinking a lot instead of eating. It looks like he made a friend too.

He brought home airplane wine (which we were surprised to discover is a bubbly), loads of chocolate (including an advent calendar), and cards from Amsterdam (a perfect addition to my collection).

October

2010-11-13T12:15:00.000-08:00

My cousin Honey stopped by for a visit. She's my dad's cousin, but I can't remember if that makes her my cousin once removed or my second cous. I think that it's once removed. Honey and Bill occasionally drive through our small town, and, when they do, they always call. We have wonderful visits with them. This time they stopped in town on the same weekend that it was Parents' Weekend at Calvin's school. They came over for breakfast on Saturday morning. We always enjoy chatting with Honey, and we learn amazing things from Bill. Last time he taught us a lot about our land and trees. This time he taught us about Native American artifacts and told us stories about diving for sunken treasure. If you have a Dover comic book about sunken treasure ships, then you've seen a drawing of Bill.

Also in October, well before Halloween, old Jack O'Lantern arrived. He took a young, trophy wife, one with a ponytail and teeth. They had a little Jack Jr.

When Jack Jr had grown up a little, they had quads. Then Jack Sr shrivled up and died, leaving his vast fortune to his widow, who still has most of her teeth and all of her hair.

And in October I fed a giraffe, another surprise visitor.

Why I feel fabulous

2010-11-12T06:53:00.000-08:00

I started the blood type diet two weeks ago in my ongoing effort to feel fabulous and be as healthy as possible. I've tried a lot of vitamins and diets, and there are a few things that make me feel better (no gluten helps the sinuses, vit D keeps depression away, catalyn makes me feel good, and green juice gives me some energy), but nothing compares to the blood type diet.

I immediately felt fabulous. I now have a much higher energy level that is sustained all day long. The first couple of days on the diet I was up until midnight, and it was no problem. Normally I have to go to sleep at ten. I don't get tired during the day. I'm doing a lot more now, on the diet, and I still have more energy all day long.

I also feel a difference in my brain. It feels clear and calm and smarter than usual. I feel like I could actually learn calculus now. Many people feel clear-headed on a gluten-free diet, but I never felt the difference.

With the diet, I have lists of foods. Most foods fall into the neutral category, meaning that they are just nutrition. Some foods are to be avoided because they are like poison to the body. And some foods are on the beneficial list, meaning they are like medicine to the bod. I try to eat from the beneficial list as much as possible, and feel better when I do.

I don't normally talk about health and diets, but this one has made such an improvement in my life that I had to share. I highly recommend it. Here's a link. And here is another site that looks like it has good lists for the different diets.

I'm an A and I really miss my potatoes. Especially in chip form right now. Everything else I've gotten used to. I missed oranges and bananas at first, but now am happy with my other fruit. Cravings seem to fall away pretty quickly.

The toilet and the tongue

2010-11-11T06:45:00.000-08:00

Sebastien went to Turin, Italy, for a few days. Italy is my other motherland. I have never been there, but I was perfectly happy to stay at home. Why? This is one of the toilets:
And for dinner one night, this is a tongue:

And if the tongue isn't filling enough, this is the head:

Yuck, yuck, yuck. Seb goes on and on about how great the Turkish toilets are...so clean! He must not have any knowledge of female anatomy because no woman would be happy to use one of those over a regular toilet, for #1s, #2s, or for vomiting up the head and tongue of cow.

The big M

2010-11-10T06:26:00.000-08:00

Calvin finally earned a maroon and mustard M for varsity sports. He now has two Ms. He needs to earn some As so that he can spell my name. I am his biggest cheerleader.

He was finally allowed to officially run on the varsity cross country team this year. In the spring he will get to play varsity tennis. He had to spend a year on JV due to a ruling of the sports organization. They don't want students changing schools just to play sports. We didn't get a chance to appeal and insist that the school change had everything to do with academics and nothing to do with sports.

The boy on the left is the leader of all the cadets. The boy on the right is the most improved runner for the second yr in a row. And the teacher on the right is lucky to be alive after Calvin almost hit him.

Trip to Europe: the journey home

2010-11-09T16:35:00.000-08:00

Breakfast in Geneva; the last croissant and pain au chocolat for a long time:
Bicycle art for Randy:

Future Franciscan monk:

I'm not sure what kind of fun there was to choose from. Seb and I have been to Puerto Rico and have seen that little outpost on a fort:

Seb's fun was finding Calvin and Hobbes in a French newspaper:

2nd panel according to google translator: "Therefore cease to run through the house!"

3rd panel according to google translator: "Maternal love is exacerbated by a little disobedience."

I always felt sorry for Calvin's poor mother. I can see why he was an only child.

Above is the airport in Madrid, one of the many places where Calvin had extra attention in the form of special security checks. Maybe the monk was hiding something.

A meal somewhere between Madrid and the States. More Italian.

And that, my friends, is the end of the posts about Calvin and Sebastien's trip to Europe. At the moment, Seb is on a small airplane flying over the ocean headed to Turin, Italy. I would see the shroud (I don't even know if it is there), but he has no interest. He's going to look at airplanes and an airplane factory.

Trip to Europe: Geneve

2010-11-08T16:13:00.000-08:00

From France, Calvin and Seb took the TGV to Geneva. It was cheaper to fly out of Geneva, and Calvin had never been there.

Italian food and French soda above. Watch companies below, right across the river from their hotel. I have one of these watches. I don't wear it though.

Trip to Europe

2010-11-07T15:53:00.000-08:00

Seb's parents have a lovely, big, old house in the south of France.
Along with the big house, the garage and carriage house, and an acre of land right in town, they have a giant tree:

And an armed, menacing ghost:

AnneMarie has a big garden. She looks very happy there:

Calvin and his uncles in the beautiful light of the entryway:

Calvin sat through the entire two hour business meeting. I was proud of him. Or maybe he was too afraid of the ghost to venture away from his papa:

Trip to Europe: climbing the mountain

2010-11-06T15:26:00.000-07:00

Sebastien made Calvin run it. This is the only practice that he got before he started school and cross country:
This was as close to the top as they could go:

The view: Heading back down:

Sascha caught a fairy on the way down:

Refilling the water bottles (I'm happy to report that there was no Maurice's Revenge.):

Anyone getting tired of Calvin's mustard yellow shirt? I am.

Trip to Europe: fun in the sun

2010-11-05T14:58:00.000-07:00

Seb's dad added a nice sundeck to the front porch of the cottage:
A couple of times everyone hiked down to the river to play and swim. I've seen movies of Seb playing in this river when he was tiny and naked. And young.

It looks like fun to me. My children would have loved this when they were little. There are a bunch of the river photos missing. Maybe Seb is hiding the Speedo shots from me? I don't think that he would do that; they amuse me sooo much, and he wouldn't want to ruin my fun.

One day when they were in Vercheny, Seb, Mat and the boys climbed up to a castle:

Cannonballs?

At the top. It's nice to see that they had water everywhere they went. I think that I have Elizabeth to thank for that. This was late August. Calvin started school the day after he got home.

I'm not sure if this is a room in the castle or Calvin's room in our basement:

And is this Isabelle's room? I'm not sure. Kind of looks like it:

Definitely a window in the castle:

Trip to Europe: the family

2010-11-04T07:55:00.000-07:00

The purpose of the trip was to attend the 50th wedding anniversary of Sebastien's parents. They headed southeast of Paris by car. We did it by train when we were there. Either way, it doesn't take long; France is not a big country compared to what we are used to here.
Into the mountains. It is a beautiful area.

Seb's family...the ones who were able to attend:

Back row: Matheiu with Elizabeth by his side; she must have been on a lower step. Eric and Aurelie; Aurelie is Seb's younger and only sis. I've never seen Eric with short hair like that. Seb's oldest bro Michael.

Middle row: Seb and Calvin. Seb's parents, AnneMarie and Chris. His bro Nicholas.

Front row: Aurelie and Eric's children: Eva, Nils, and Sean. Aren't they cute? Sascha.

Above: Calvin in front of the cottage. Below: Seb and his parents at dinner.

The family at dinner. Or lunch. I can't tell. I'd say lunch by the light.

Listening to AnneMarie read from the journal that she wrote when the children were all small and they lived in the cottage for a few mths before their move to Canada. We have a copy of this journal, but it is in French, so I have no idea what it says. I'm sure that she was reading in French. That was good for Calvin.

This is under the cottage where it was nice and cool.

A question

2010-11-03T14:56:00.000-07:00

Where is the mannequin's hand in the post below?

Trip to Europe: Pompidou and street scenes

2010-11-03T07:35:00.000-07:00

My goal is to get all the Europe photos posted before Sebastien comes back from his current trip to Europe.

I like the Pompidou Center because I like modern art. I love modern art. There is a Kandinsky in the PC that I could sit in front of for hours. There are also a bunch of paintings that are similar to paintings that I've seen in my head, but don't have the talent to create. It was surprising to see them there.
I also like the building. The French (despite plenty of criticism and complaining) actually take risks and go out on limbs in their public buildings and spaces. The ceiling of the opera house painted by Chagall (gorgeous in person) is an example. I'm sure that it was crazy at the time. An exhibit inside the PC:

I would have never gone near those rugs with my allergies. Freddy would have loved the birds:

Elizabeth, Mathieu, Sascha and Calvin in front of a cafe:

Time for Calvin's daily bath:

Calvin in front of the MMA bank:

MMA is Calvin's school. We didn't know that they had a bank with branches in France.

Trip to Europe: Eiffel Tower

2010-10-31T12:45:00.000-07:00

Sebastien and the boys walked up to the lower platform of the Eiffel Tower. It was a hike.

Tower maintenance. Somebody had to do it:

Gorgeous views and a good workout for Sebastien, Calvin and Sascha. When Seb and I visited Paris, we didn't climb up the tower (we did climb to the top of the Cathedral at Chartres though). It was too crowded and the young men with machine guns made me a little nervous.

Trip to Europe: accomodations

2010-10-29T10:07:00.000-07:00

Mat, Elizabeth and Sascha checking into a hotel in Paris. This might have been the Pullman. Seb and Calvin's room below:

Sebastien is so good about taking photos while he is on a trip. Next week he'll be taking photos in Italy and next month it will be Brazil. I have no idea who took the photo below:

I don't think that he normally takes bathroom pics, but he took a lot this time. I even have photos of French toilets. We have three bathrooms in our new house that need work, and are constantly looking for ideas.

Another Parisian hotel room. Apparently, Seb's nighttime noise didn't bother Calvin at all.

This hotel was on the outskirts of Paris. There was a community center right there with activities and food. Checking out in the morning:

When they headed south (and east?) to see the family, Calvin's sleeping arrangements changed slightly. He and Sascha spent a night out in the tent, a night that wasn't very restful for Calvin.

Seb's room in his parents' mansion. Yep, it really is a mansion.

A swiss bathroom:

Hotel room in Geneva (with WiFi?):

They were right on the water in Geneva, and crossed over to eat dinner.

Trip to Europe: churches

2010-10-24T04:00:00.000-07:00

I love the churches in France. Above is one that they just stopped into. Below is Notre Dame. I love Notre Dame. They didn't go in. It was terribly crowded. I could spend all day there, crowds or not. Sascha, Matt and Elizabeth:

The last church that they stepped into, later on the trip, was in the town where Seb's parents live. Seb's mother was displaying some of her artwork on one side of the church:

While Seb's brother Nick was displaying on the other side:

Trip to Europe: le Louvre

2010-10-22T04:00:00.000-07:00

Calvin advertised his school at le Louvre, probably the busiest place in Paris. Sascha and Calvin:

Calvin and Mona:

I love the HUGE paintings:

The glass pyramid looks cool at night:

When Seb and I were in Paris, we didn't enter the Louvre. We strolled around the outside, and then went to the Musee d'Orsay instead.

Trip to Europe: transportation

2010-10-20T04:00:00.000-07:00

A train station. Paris has many lovely ones:

Boat ride on the Seine. They did this twice, and Calvin managed to stay awake once:

Supposedly one can rent these using a credit card, but Seb and company couldn't get it to work:

Many of the bridges on the Seine are beautiful:

A rental car, a big field and a willing uncle. Sounds like a perfect time for a novice driver to learn to drive a standard.

When Calvin was two, he was obsessed with trains. His favorite was the TGV, the French high speed train. He loved them. Fourteen years later, he finally got to ride on one. He doesn't like them so much anymore. Video games are much more interesting.

Seb enjoying another beer in another country. This is a popular French beer. Stella Artois is also a popular draft beer in France. Beer in bottles and cans is not as common in France as it is here.

Calvin enjoying water and The Scarlet Letter (school summer reading) on the TGV to Geneva.
A car accident in Geneva with a Jaguar and a Maserati. Calvin insists that he had nothing to do with it.

Trip to Europe: lunches in Paris

2010-10-18T04:00:00.000-07:00

The food in Paris was great, but expensive. Seb will be happy to tell you about the lunch for five that cost him $225. He says that is normal. Did I mention that I got a deck of cards from this trip?

Seb's lentil and smoked salmon salad:

A plate containing ham, pate, cheeses, egg and salad:

Matt's steak with cheese, salad, cheese...I think that's an egg that he's cutting:

Another salad with ham and cheese, maybe Calvin's:

Steak (skinny, pan-fried meat) and fries and mustard sauce:

Seb, Calvin, Sascha and Matt:

Seb's tomato salad with parmasan, fresh mozzarella, basil and pine nuts:

Something with fries. This is Calvin's food, and I can't identify it. It's not eggs, nor strawberries, nor mushrooms: ***It's a croque monsieur. There is bread with meat, usually ham, and then cheese on top. It's broiled to melt and brown the cheese. The croque monsieur and the steak frites (frequently made with horse meat) were the two cheap meals that Seb would buy when he lived in France:

Elizabeth's omelet and fries:

Sascha's. Another meat/cheese/salad plate:

Elizabeth, Seb, Calvin and Sascha. The yellow box on the street is a mailbox:

Sascha's bone marrow that he ordered but didn't eat:

The last photo is a dinner photo. They were staying on the edge of Paris, and it was more casual. There was a large community center. The pool (which had a zip line) is right behind them.

Trip to Europe: getting there

2010-10-16T09:38:00.000-07:00

Sebastien and Calvin went to Europe for a week in late August. Calvin had to drive to St. Louis. I'm surprised that they made it.

They flew to Chicago and had dinner. Calvin is easily surprised.

They flew all night and landed in the motherland early in the morning. My Irish motherland, that is. It was cheaper to fly through Dublin, and Seb had never been there.

Seb, not Calvin, drank some Guiness at 8 AM, and then they boarded their flight to Paris. I got Aer Lingus playing cards from this leg of the trip.

I know that they were happy to leave the Irish food behind and head to France for croissants and pain au chocolat for breakfast. In this Irish breakfast, I'd take the brown bread and orange juice, but leave behind the sausage, bacon, black & white pudding, tomato and hashbrown. Seb stuck with the beer.

Trip to Chicagoland: war memorial

2010-10-14T04:00:00.000-07:00

One of my jobs as my mom's #1 home health aide was to take her to physical therapy. While she worked out and then iced her knee, Freddy and I entertained ourselves with strolls.

Across the street from her therapy building is a war memorial, devoted to the wars of the 20th century. We went from WWI (above) to WWII (below)...

to Vietnam and all conflicts inbetween and afterwards. It was rather disturbing, but that is war. The works of art were interesting. I'll remember to go back one day after we've studied the 20th century. Two people also suggested that we check out the 1/2 mile stations of the cross shrine in the area. It's on our list for next time.

Freddy wanted to do three things on our trip: ride a train, feed the pigeons in Chicago, and visit the Field Museum (natural history). I took him to a parking lot a mile from my mom's house and we fed the gulls. Everything else stays on the list for next time.

Trip to Chicagoland: family fun

2010-10-13T04:00:00.000-07:00

I found something exciting at the bus station:

Rosie, Natalie, and Abby arrived for a short visit. We visited with them for a couple of days and then left Rosie in charge until someone older and wiser could make it in. I don't think that Rosie will mind if I call our aunt older and wiser. The house sure is quieter and cleaner with Aunt Marie in the home health aide job.

Above: Jessica and Isabelle looking after Natalie, who loves to pull hair. Below: Abby looks like a mini Jessica.

My favorite brother surrounded by brown-haired, mostly brown-eyed girls:

Abby bears a strong resemblence to Krista here:

Trip to Chicagoland: gifts

2010-10-12T04:00:00.000-07:00

Near the end of our two week stay with my mom, I lost my bed to new, more exciting company, so Freddy and I decamped to a bed & breakfast. Freddy was actually camping on the floor of the laundry room, complete with sleeping bags, a lantern, and a tarp over top supplied by my current favorite brother. We had to take down the tarp to do any laundry, but it sure made sleeping on the floor of a tiny, windowless utitily room more exciting.

Our new host and hostess gave Freddy a box of chips, which he set up for sale when he got home. He's trying to save up for a new fishing rod.

The B&B was wonderful! We had the whole upper floor. Freddy had a two-room suite on one end with glow-in-the-dark stars and a chair swing. I had a room at the other end with a balcony and a big, puffy, white bed that I wanted to bring home with me.

It is also a house of curiosities, full of interesting and unusual and beautiful things. The owners are getting ready to sell and downsize, so Freddy put dibs on a few things for the eventual garage sale. One thing he got to come home with:

It is a card box from Poland, and it elicited these questions on the 6.5 hour drive home:

Is it hand-carved or machine-carved?

How old is it?

Why is there a sticker on the bottom?

Why is there space for two decks of cards?

Can I have some of your cards?

What is a really fast way of seeing if the deck is complete?

What are some games that you can play with two decks?

Who invented cards?

Why were they invented?

Did the person who invented them invent some games too?

Why are so many cards bicycle cards?

And one command: You should look it up.

I can't give out the name of the B&B because it isn't a real B&B. It's the home of some wonderful, long-time friends, who once offered us a room if we ever needed one. We had a wonderful long visit with them. I spent a lot of time at their house when I was young, doing fun things like shoving their eldest daughter in a doll stroller. They have influenced my life more than they'll ever know, and their house of curiosities felt just like home to both of us.

Trip to Chicagoland: entertainment

2010-10-11T04:00:00.000-07:00

Isabelle, Freddy, and I spent two weeks in Chicagoland helping my mom after her knee-replacement surgery. I got to do lots of fun stuff like laundry and dishes and crossword puzzles. The children, especially Freddy, needed a little more entertainment. The library was great. We took out dozens and dozens of books and a few movies. But you can't read all day, so the children buried each other:

See Freddy's face in the plastic window? And built something to decorate a little for Halloween:

And flew a kite. Freddy and his cousin Michael had a huge field to play in. There wasn't a tree in sight except for these two right next to the house. They got the kite stuck in both trees.

Ken became my official favorite brother the day that he took both children for ten hours, finishing off the day at a very cold car crash derby:

I was thinking that it was their first crash derby, but then I remembered Calvin's driving. We also spent some time taking walks. I don't know how Freddy got a halo; I think it should be mine.

The apple and the cross

2010-10-10T04:00:00.000-07:00

I saw him reach for an apple and an orange, delighted that modeling good eating habits for our children had finally paid off. Then he made a mummy with them.

Then I saw him making a cross, and my heart soared. A big, solid symbol of his Christian faith!

And then he made a ghoul with it.

This child is aging me faster than all of the others combined.

October

2010-10-09T04:00:00.000-07:00

Especially this time of year. And I know that I'm not the only one.

Thank you

2010-10-08T15:13:00.000-07:00

To Becki and Eric and Hannah and Katie and Pat and Sara and Jason and Tommy and Courtney. It was our first, and we loved it. It fed us for five days. What a perfect gift!

For Teresa

2010-10-06T08:37:00.000-07:00

Pittsburgh wedding: art museum

2010-10-02T06:34:00.000-07:00

Seb and I spent our final day in Pittsburgh at the art museum. We spent three hours there and had a fabulous time. There was a lot of modern art, which is what I prefer. We split up for awhile, and then I found Seb in the sculpture room:

All of the pieces in this room reminded me of Freddy. When we clean his bedroom, we pull masses of tangled trash out of his toy bins. They look just like this:

I could see right away that this painter and I used the same blue painting tape from Ace Hardware:

My sisters and I:

Skinny, metal Walking Man on left and not-so-skinny, flesh and blood walking man on right. Metal Man is worth far more than Fleshy Man, although he's not as cuddly:

My favorite piece in the whole museum:

These are casts of famous exteriors and interiors. Casting was popular for a time, but fell out of favor. I'm not even sure now if that is what it is called. It was freaky to be in a huge room with what appeared to be the remnants from various civilizations of our world. It felt like the earth had been destroyed and we were standing in an alien museum. I didn't like it.

We had a wonderful time that last day. I love looking at art.

Freddy

2010-09-27T06:20:00.000-07:00

Give a boy plenty of time to be bored, and he'll make a house:

make a friend:

make a submarine:

climb something:

find something:

and make my heart stop beating until he is safe on the ground again:

Airshow weekend

2010-09-25T06:03:00.000-07:00

I did this post once already, complete with many links. However, it never showed up. I'm doing it again, less linky and less entertaining.

The last weekend in August there was an airshow in town. The highlight was the A 10. These are some of the lowlights of the weekend.

Dinner with a senator:

My girls say that I smile too big. Maybe they are right. We also saw a UFO:

Seb had his photo taken with an airshow performer, because he can't let an airshow go by without having his photo taken with at least one lady that he isn't married to:

My friend Jonathon and I at another dinner that weekend. I didn't recognize him in a suit. I don't think that the suit makes it out of the closet very often. This dinner was a roast, a roast of the senator in the top photo. Roasts are odd; I don't think that I like them.

The dinner was in Calvin's school. Seb was suffering badly from jet lag that night. He had been home from France for three days, and it was hitting him hard.

I don't know what Seb and John were discussing. I discussed grammar and dress codes with John. He and I disagreed about what cocktail attire requires for men. The online guides agree with me: John should have been wearing a tie. I guess that he didn't want to take any chances; the next time I saw him he was dressed in a tux.

Staying fit

2010-09-24T05:37:00.000-07:00

We put the TV remote on top of the rock wall,...

donuts at the end of this fallen log,...

all the batteries on top of this steep cliff,...

candy on the other side of this crevice,...

and the Wii controllers on the other side of the creek.

That is how we keep Freddy slim and healthy.

Freddy's best birthday present

2010-09-14T06:31:00.000-07:00

I thought that my sister loved me, but then she sent Freddy a dissection kit for his birthday. I guess that she hates me. Everything is getting dissected, except the crayfish. That one went right to the specimen jar. Freddy is collecting the good parts in alcohol-filled jars to join his collection of snake parts and skink tails.

Over the weekend there was something on the counter that I was sure was a mushroom. I haven't bought any mushrooms lately, so I figured that it was one from outside. After sitting there all day, I discovered that it was a pig snout and foot. I am so grossed out by this whole situation. I want to run away.

(In the photo they are dissecting in the garage because I won't let them do it in the house and it was raining outside. Isabelle frequently helps.)

A 10

2010-09-13T08:00:00.000-07:00

The airplane:

Calvin in the cockpit:

Susan and Susan flanking the real pilot:

I was next in line after Calvin to sit in the cockpit, and didn't get to. I was terribly disappointed. Getting a photo with the pilot did not make up for it. Speaking of the pilot...can you see that his face is a little swollen on his left side? That is because he was punched while in a bar here in our little town, punched right in the face without any provocation or warning. Kind of makes me want to move away. I was in that same bar on the weekend, waiting for my sweet potato fries, and I wasn't punched. I was, however, offered free drinks, repeatedly.

I bought something

2010-09-12T06:17:00.000-07:00

Trip to Europe: what Calvin did

2010-09-11T05:49:00.000-07:00

What Calvin did all over Ireland, France and Switzerland:

(In the above photo, he's in the mustard yellow shirt in the center.)

Labor Day 2010

2010-09-07T06:24:00.000-07:00

In spite of their singular courage, wonderful coolness, extraordinary fortitude, they were now breathless, motionless, almost helpless; their muscles were tightened to their utmost tension; their eyes stared out of their sockets; their faces were petrified with horror...

They could utter no word, they could breathe no prayer. They gave themselves up for lost--in the agony of terror that partially interrupted the ordinary functions of their brains, this was absolutely all that they could do!

We started homeschooling yesterday.

--quotes from All Around the Moon by Jules Verne.

Wednesday

2010-09-02T06:30:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, one of us ate lunch with a cosmonaut, and one of us won $23,600 playing Wheel of Fortune. We lead exciting lives, and some days we do so without ever leaving our little, rural town.

The new job

2010-08-31T17:42:00.000-07:00

Neither Sue's gig cleaning teeth nor my gig at the airplane factory were providing sufficient job satisfaction. We just didn't have enough power and excitement. So, we got a little training, and we can now arrest you, confiscate your airplanes and cars, and frisk you if you are tall, dark and handsome. We are having quite a bit of trouble finding anyone worth frisking, but we will persevere.

An intro

2010-08-30T11:23:00.000-07:00

Before I tell you all about my exciting weekend, I'd like to introduce my new partner in crime. Her name is Susan and she's 41. I'm not kidding. If you start to confuse the two of us, just remember: I'm the tall one.

Trip to Europe: Madrid airport

2010-08-25T11:23:00.000-07:00

Calvin in Madrid after a special (just for Calvin) security search. I have no idea why that was necessary. He hardly looks sinister to me. Maybe he didn't brush his teeth. That's a good possibility since I wasn't around. More photos will go up when I finally get to see them. All I know so far is: Seb drank beer in Ireland, and they swam in the Drome in France.