*Squee!*

We have walls!

We have walls!

We have walls!

*doing a happy dance…*

House update

Want to find out what a Poop Pipe is? Go read the latest at my house blog.

Friday fragments

TGIF!

Yeah, I know we only just got back from vacation and we only had three days of school this week, but still… I’m ready for the weekend.

Random thoughts floating around my brain, none of which would make for a blog post on its own:

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Can I just tell you how much I hate Gwen Stefani’s new baby’s name? Loathe, detest, despise, revile, and abhor. Big stabby hate.

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We’ve had lots o’ stuff going on at the new house this and I’m so excited that I can’t believe I haven’t actually wet my pants yet. I think the building crew might be tired of seeing me on an almost-hourly basis, but I warned them before we broke ground…

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Graceful is working on her family tree. (Or, as she puts it, “family obstacle course”.) She’s been stymied by my side of the family, which has had divorces at every generation, and she almost doesn’t even know how to diagram the fact that her grandma was married to one man (my father) and had two children (me + my sister) and then later on married my stepfather and had two more children (my brothers). I’ve assured her that, if it will help simplify her family tree a bit, I won’t divorce Pete. He seems to appreciate the sentiment.

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Both Lori and Fear and Parenting in Las Vegas bestowed some bloggy love on me earlier this week. Thank you ladies! Since I passed this one along just last month, I’m going to hold onto it for a little while before I share it with y’all.

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Sarah tagged me for the 6 UNspectacular things meme last week. I’m trying to think of six quirks about me I haven’t shared here already. I think I’ve been pretty honest with everyone about my weirdnesses, in the hopes that someone will let me know that I’m not alone in being strange and that it’s actually quite normal.

I just asked Pete to name some weird/quirky things about me and, after he paused, he asked, “Is this a trap?” Poor guy.

Here’s Pete’s list of my quirks, with some input from me:

1. I gag every time I brush my teeth, as in, as if I’m going to vomit. Every. Single. Time. For years, no, decades.
2. According to Pete, I never smell bad. Never. I personally beg to differ. He thinks I don’t, but I always think I do. Therefore, I tend to be obsessive about hygiene.
3. I refuse to wear a bathing suit in public (or private). I also don’t wear shorts, except during the hottest summer months and only when I go for my walks.  [Updated to add:  This one requires a bit more explainin' .  I don't like bathing suits, whether I'm a skinny mini or a chunky monkey.  It doesn't matter what my size is.  I'm just weird that way, I know.]
4. I hate those fibrous strings on bananas. I felt one on my tongue the other day and almost vomited right there on the kitchen floor, which would have really slowed us down in our morning routine.
5. The only way I can focus, really focus, on work phone calls is to play card games on my computer. And, yes, I’m really paying attention.
6. I hate writing and sending postcards. Don’t ask me why, but I do. I send them because it’s a nice thing to do and because people are kind enough to send us postcards from their vacations. Therefore, as soon as our girls learned to write legibly, I handed all postcard communications over to them. I address and stamp them and then the girls add their own thoughts. Once the girls grow up and stop going on vacations with us, I guess no one will ever get a postcard from us again.

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On the way to school yesterday, the girls were talking about dogs, one of their favorite subjects and which seems to involve a lot of “Awwwww” and sighing and other indications of love and affection. Graceful was pondering the outcome of mating a Bichon Frise + Maltese + Samoyed. I looked at Pete and said, “Three way?” But then, Graceful explained the elaborate cascading process that would involve the joining of three breeds into one super fluffy breed, at which point I realized that I could postpone the Big Sex Talk for another time, as well as not have to explain that sex really only involves two creatures at a time.

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I enrolled Elegant in gymnastics for this fall. I’m thinking that’s a natural fit for her talents, don’t you? That said, I have no Olympic aspirations for my child and would NEVER try to pass her off as a sixteen year old when she’s only 14 years and 200-ish days. (And I’m so freaking glad the IOC has finally gotten their heads out of their asses and decided to investigate the Chinese gymnast situation.)

Updated to add: Wow, that was incredibly lame. The IOC looked at the mounting evidence for, what?, 17 minutes, shook their heads, and said, “She’s obviously 16.” People, the child practically still has her baby teeth. I think she could do a cartwheel and split right in front of the IOC, tell them she’s actually only 11, and they still wouldn’t believe her.

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We’re four episodes away from finishing Season 1 of “Heroes.” We’ll get through them by the end of the weekend and I’ve asked Pete to buy the next season a.s.a.p.

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I can’t wait for Season 4 of “The Office” to come out next month, along with Season Whatever of “House.”

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And now I think I’ve inflicted enough random crap on you for the time being. What are your weekend plans and other thoughts floating around your very own brain?

Re-entry

Today’s list of essential chores:

• Go for a long walk this morning (DONE — 45 minutes)
• Suitcases unpacked and put away (DONE, sorta — the suitcases are empty, but not in storage yet)
• Laundry (in progress — three loads down, two more to go)
• Fold all of the aforementioned laundry (So. Not. Done.)
• Sort through ten days of mail (DONE)
• Re-stock the fridge by way of a trip to Whole Foods (DONE — and we’re a whole lot poorer for it)
• Put everyone in Jenworld on a high-fiber diet to combat, um, vacation issues (DONE — with clogged plumbing to prove it)
• Plan meals that are highly nutritious, to make up for all that fun food we ate last week. (DONE — we’re having baked potatoes and steamed veggies for dinner tonight)

(I really wasn’t kidding about that high-fiber diet.)

• Take the girls to the school to meet their new teachers and drop off their supplies (DONE)
• Go over to the new house to check on progress (DONE)
• Do a little happy dance over the progress on the aforementioned house (DONE — well, it was a mental happy dance)
• Get caught up on reading y’all’s blogs (in progress — this may take a while)

And, just for kicks, here’s a photo of the Divine Miss El today when we were visiting the construction site. She didn’t like the noise of the power tools, so she decided to chill out in the car:

School starts tomorrow!

A solid foundation

We now have a foundation at the new house!

House update

The big crane came today and we now have a basement!

Red dirt alert

We broke ground on the new Jenworld today! More photos tomorrow and possibly every day until I drive you all crazy with my house obsession.

Picky

New post at the house blog!

By the way

… I put an update at the house blog.

Stuff

Good grief, you would not believe how quiet Jenworld is without children running through the place. Even though the girls are normally in school between the hours of 8:30 and 3:00 and I’m alone here, things feel just TOO QUIET around here this week. I guess it’s just me missing them.

On the way to drop the girls off at my sister’s house, Pete commented on how much he would miss the girls and I agreed. Not three minutes later, I was telling the girls to stop poking each other and to stay on their respective sides of the car. Don’t look at each other, don’t let any body part touch the other girl, don’t even breath on each other. Pete and I then decided that maybe we wouldn’t miss them THAT much.

But, as it turns out, we do. One would think that since Pete and I were married for seven years before Graceful came along that we would remember what a child-free house is like. Apparently we do not.

We miss the girls, but we also recognize that they need to have experiences away from us on occasion and that this is just a prelude of their teenage years. Plus, it’s good for us to prepare for the eventual empty nest.

In the meantime, we’re having fun with the new house and I posted an update on the house blog today.

Yes, we survived our trip to the Mother Ship on Sunday. We picked out the kitchen cabinets, the bathroom cabinets, and several light fixtures. I was worried that Pete would be overwhelmed by everything — that store is huge and there are so many things to look at — but he got through it and had fun playing with the fancy kitchen faucets.

And I ask you, why are kitchen faucets so damn expensive? Really, it’s not a complicated set up, yet they cost a serious amount of money.

I did find the coolest, most fun lights for the girls’ toy room. I’m thinking of using these shades in assorted colors on pendants. Maybe three or four? They aren’t so bright in real life and the lighting is soft — sort of like fade pastels. For the rug, I’m going to mix some of these with some of these. And Pete and I talking about putting this chair in there, as long as we can rig it in such a way that it doesn’t become a wild ride. (In real life, it’s a nicer blue — almost a cobalt.) If we do all this, our girls are NEVER going to want to come out of there.

And now I’m off. I am working this week, believe it or not, and have to go to a meeting now.