HGTV

Helen and her friend, fabulous interior designer Jay Alexander, visited last week. After their visit I had a new house! Furniture magically switched places and somehow it all ended up looking better than it did to start. Jay also gave me some good ideas for future projects, and some ideas I'm still warming up to, like painting my kitchen red! The only person sad about the changes is Tucker who keeps asking "will the rooms NEVER go back to how they were?" My son does not like change, so I've simply stopped trying to convince him that these changes are good.

Sunroom:



Living Room:





Dining Room:




My office... oh, wait, a gigantic four person tent appeared in the middle of the room--I don't think Jay recommended that!

The good, the bad

Sometimes the little things really make me smile. Let me rant and rave about a few different very little things.

The good:
1) The Flip-It tub stopper. I know, am I really blogging about this? But I hate those little plastic plugs that you use for the bathtub when you live in an old house whose bathtub stopper has gone the way of all things. This little stopper you wedge into the drain once and then just flip it open or closed to let the water in or out. And it's nice and shiny, not plastic and moldy. Oh, and it works!


2) A bent hinge. Seriously. All it takes to keep our door from being unable to close unless latched is a slightly bent pin in the hinge. The slight bend in the pin gives the hinge just enough resistance not to move of its own accord in our totally un-level house.

3) Non-slip rug spray. Whoever has heard of bath rugs that don't have non-slip coating on their back? It's ridiculous. This is what you need to make all your problems right.


And one rant to counteract all this positivity:
*Poly vi sol: Why in the world do you dye a vitamin drop for infants brown? Don't you know that infants spit up all the time, especially when you put non-milk items in their mouth? Not only is this drop brown, but it also stains. Good thinking, product development folks....

Things that make you go huh

Our friends arrived at the recycling center this week to find a new sign.

We no longer accept the following items:
Glass
Plastic
Metal
Cardboard
Paper

The center wasn't actually closed. The equipment was all in place. The only problem: what was left to recycle?

Things I'm doing in the New Year

No, not injection drugs: allergy shots. I never suspected I would say this, but it's true: I love allergy shots. I'm currently on shot 19 of a course of 26 (not counting 3 years of monthly maintenance doses).

If you've been around me in the past five years, you probably were sneezed on and I apologize. I was so allergic to dust that I could barely get through the day, especially during pregnancy and nursing when I tried not to be continually doped up on antihistamines. But even the newer antihistamines could only take the edge off the problem and reduce my Kleenex usage from three boxes a week to two (I actually never measured this, but it was an absurd amount). I had horrible allergy attacks without fail every Sunday morning when I put on my church clothes, and then at church because of the carpeting and fabric-covered pews. I felt bad taking communion directly from the cup because the person next to me would think I was getting sick when really I had just been sneezing all service because of the dust. One time I had an allergy attack so bad I had to leave work.

Austin has commented that he would never go to a doctor's appointment with two kids in tow. It's a bit bizarre, but my allergy shots have become an activity for us, much like going to the park or gym or library. On Tuesdays when we go, Tucker uses the chalk and plays with the trains. On Thursdays we have a picnic there after Bible Study. If they aren't busy and I get my shot really fast (and only need to wait there for the 20 minutes to make sure I'm not having a bad reaction), Tucker complains because he wants to play longer.

The shots start at 1:1000 concentration, then go to 1:100, 1:10, 1:1 and finally, 1:0.5. Most people only begin to notice a difference after two or three months of shots, once the concentration builds up enough that their immune system starts reacting to it. I had a systemic reaction on my very first shot (a systemic reaction happens in about 1 out of 1000 allergy shot patients, and almost always on a high-concentration dose), which shocked both my doctor and the nurse. After that rocky start, I have to take two types of medicine on days when I get shots just to tolerate them. But the good news is that I started noticing a difference immediately in my quality of life.

Today, a minor miracle occurred: I cleaned the attic with no antihistamines in my system and sneezed twice. It's a whole new world.

The kids playing soccer and football

Tucker decided to play soccer with Molly today (later it turned into football). He made a "ball" out of legos and positioned it at her foot so she could kick it over and then he would yell "goal!" or "touchdown!" depending on what game they were playing. He was distracted when the camera came out so you only get the gist of it in this video.

It's bowl time in college football!

Two jokes for you, courtesy of Austin...

Q: What's the same between Virginia Tech and marijuana?
A: They both get smoked in bowls.

Q: What's the difference between UVa and Cheerios?
A: Eventually Cheerios will find a way into a bowl.

Marine Corps Ball

Last weekend Tucker visited his grandparents while Austin and I got a night out in DC by ourselves to go to the Marine Corps Ball with my college friends. What a treat for all of us!

Tucker barely noticed we were gone with Henny, Pa Pa and a new dump truck to play with. We did notice that Tucker was gone on our end though!

The funniest thing about the ball was the number of guttural noises shouted out in the middle of the ceremony. Apparently, it is totally appropriate, at all times, to say "ooh-raa" if you're a Marine. I don't do this justice, because the way they say "ooh-raa" comes out somewhat like a growl... Austin felt totally inadequate in his ability to make random guttural noises that night.

I don't like forwards, but this pic takes the cake...

This is courtesy of a forward from Diana Coleman. I hope one day to take a pic of Tucker and Ben sleeping like this!!

Concealed pistol purse

I had never heard of a concealed pistol purse until Thursday night when one of the speakers at an event I was attending finished her talk by saying "I have to run... am going to a gun meeting!" Then she said as she was walking to the door: "Have you ever seen a concealed pistol purse?"

Keep in mind this was a Christian volunteer event, not that that has anything to do with guns or no guns. But it was an unexpected twist, in any case. We all kind of looked at each other (and I thought of Emily Grant, of course). Anyway, she showed us the secret compartment where the pistol hides. I don't know for sure if one was in there, but I definitely imagined a pearl handled pistol.

Tucker's New Tricks

Jo Jo and Aunt Jackie are thoroughly impressed by all of Tucker's new tricks.

*He now likes to stand on the chair Henny gave him, turn on the CD player, and play one of the CD's Caroline gave him when he was a baby. All by himself.
*He feeds himself with a spoon reliably with not much mess (well, sometimes...).
*When my mom sang the song "Pop goes the weasel," Tucker would run and get the toy that he has that sings that song and bring it to her.
*He knows how to make clucking noises with his tongue, and imitates snoring when prompted.

His understanding of words really surprises me. We were out for a walk yesterday and said "puddle" and immediately he looked around for where he could splash in the water. We tried this a couple times--it was definitely comprehension, not coincidence. He doesn't say much, so I think I underestimate how much he understands. When Aunt Jackie said "Go give JoJo a hug" yesterday, he immediately ran across the room and gave JoJo a hug. When Jo Jo told him to get "One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish" so they could read together, he went to the coffee table and got the right book from about 5 different books.

His grandmother is convinced he is a smart little boy. And she really liked that he gives hugs on command now!

Calvin's take on snowmen

Okay, just a little Calvin and Hobbes snowman fun. Thanks for the forward, Austin's work!