Murray Madness for Adelaide

Well, we're staying with my parents for a bit, so tonight when my brother took the bigger kids to the pool (my neice is here, too), Adelaide and I headed off for a classic Murray evening of Taco John's for dinner and chillin' at the MSU campus. I wanted to give Lil Laila a chance to run free for a bit...and of course I just happened to have my camera. So here are a few choice tidbits from my daughter's introduction to Murray State.

Wal-Mart starts 'aggressive' discounting plan - Consumer News - MSNBC.com

Wal-Mart starts 'aggressive' discounting plan - Consumer News - MSNBC.com

I am no fan of Wal-Mart, and that's not a secret I hold close to the vest. Most people know my feelings about the giant retailer, which are primarily based on customer-experience and quality-assurance issues. But when I saw this, it struck me. Growing up in a small, fairly affluent small city and attending schools where many of the most successful and educated parents sent their kids, I never really knew anyone who had to choose between feeding their family and paying their electric bill, or between a tank of gas and buying school supplies for their kids. Or at least I never knew they struggled like that.

Thanks to the internet, now I do. And I know they love their kids and want to give them things and make them proud as much as I do my children. And it breaks my heart to see them struggle when they're such good people, people who volunteer and help others but who can't afford to fill up their table at dinner.

So reading this, I thought of that. I don't like Wal-Mart, and I don't think it's a good company with a healthy work environment. But because Wal-Mart exists, because of their new strategy, school shopping will cost a little less for the people who desperately need it most. Maybe it means they'll eat better for a few nights, or that they can drive to the park or the library rather than staying at home to conserve gas.

For me, I still wouldn't go to Wal-Mart. I would choose Target, or an office store, because I just don't like going. But pennies on pencils and paper do make a difference to some people. A big difference. And in moments like this, well...I'm glad there's a Wal-Mart.

Mama's Got A Brand New Bath!

The Master Bath...ahhhhh, it's finally finished. Okay, we still need to get the paint out and clean the tub a bit more, but now it's real, and not just our imagination. The ugly wallpaper, the nappy shower curtain, the huge frameless mirrors, the builder light fixtures...all gone! We just wish we'd done it earler so we could enjoy it, too. But we think we have a GREAT buyer-ready master bath...what do you think?

House on the Move -- Remember the bathroom?

Remember this bathroom? Well...okay, we got a LOT done on it, but we never got it completely finished out. We did get farther than this photo shows, of course, and it was a working bath, but it wasn't completely finished out, until...

now! Our realtor loves what we've done, and a couple of other people we've shown it to have raved, as well. We decided a neutral tone would work better than the blue we originally chose. We installed a new light fixture (I mean, BEN installed a new light fixture!) as well as some awesome ceiling lights over the shower. We've put a lot of work into this room, but we did it on a decently small budget. We hope potential buyers like it, too!

House on the Move -- Wallpaper...NEVER AGAIN!

I really, really, REALLY hate wallpaper.

Especially this wallpaper. We wanted to remove it ever since we moved in. When we'd have visitors, I was downright embarrassed by it. But really, who has the time to mess with that?

Well, now we have to. And it was a HUGE pain. Now we've painted it (the dropcloth is still on the floor) and while it's not a WOW effect, it's a lot better than that awful wallpaper!

House on the Move -- Redoing Adelaide's Room

So, we spent weeks slaving over these painted stripes...and they were gone in one day.



Here it is now. It's a shame in some ways, because everyone who saw it loved it. But we have lots of photos, and honestly, I'd rather sell the house than impress people with our paint job. But I do have this idea that when Adelaide gets home, she's going to walk into her room, look around, and say "OH, NO!" -- her favorite phrase right now.

House on the Move -- Redoing Will's Room

Well, it's time to sell the house, which means tough choices. At least that's what Donna and Shannon Freeman tell us every night on HGTV. So Will's room that we made so HIS...well, it's all undone.

Remember Will's uber-customized little boy haven?
Well...here it is now! We neutralized the walls and took out his rockin' loft bed and put in the old Ethan Allen twin bed. His computer is stored, waiting for his new wonder world in our new house. He's remarkably okay with it so far...in theory, at least, since he hasn't actually seen it in person yet! Yes, it's messy right now -- we're still decluttering. And we're going to fix that shade. But what a difference, eh?

Buy Me! (alternate title: "We're Moving!")

I guess the important facts of the matter should be listed first (or at least that's what they teach you in journalism school): We're moving. And not just a little.

We're headed to Memphis, Tennessee -- Ben has accepted a position there with Sherwin-Williams as an Environmental, Health, and Safety Manager. We're so, so pleased with this situation -- we really like the area, and he really wanted this job. Fortunately, they wanted him, too.

But my excitement over our impending move back to the mid-south is tempered by one thing...my FEAR about selling our house. Our first home, the place we brought Adelaide home to, the house with the first walls I ever painted, the first remodel we ever did...but okay, the truth is this isn't about sentimentality. It's about money. We want to buy a bigger house in Memphis, and the home prices there are buyer-friendly. But the more we can put down, the better. And there's a time frame here. They want us there asap, basically. And we want to skedaddle, ourselves, but there's this small matter of the 200K+ home we've got to sell.

I love our house...it has so many great features. But now I just see all the things that need to be done, the little chores we put off as we raised the children and lived life, that are coming due rather abruptly. We're upping the ante in the kitchen, spending a couple thousand dollars in there to make the home really sparkle. The rest of it...it's little stuff, like paint, and paint, and a little bit of paint. No, really. We're doing a lot of painting, praying Stanley Steemer can work their carpet-lovin' magic on our floors, and figuring out what to do about the landscaping.

Our realtor here is 1 in a million. She's a personal friend, and she just spent the entire day over here with us helping us clean, declutter, and stage. She's having a home inspector come tomorrow morning to give us a pre-sale inspection...and I'm praying he doesn't find anything too dramatically wrong. (Dear God, please let our AC unit be up to snuff...)

And that's why I'm awake, really. I'm stressing. BIG TIME. I just want this all to be over. I thought buying a home was stressful, but needing to sell -- quickly -- and for a profit? Now THAT's scary.

Bottom line: We're moving to Memphis, and we want to go.

By the way...do you think I'll need to change my blog name when we move?

Happy Father's Day (late post)

Ben's buddy at work went to MSU, as well. His comment when he saw part of our Father's Day celebration for Ben?

"I'm glad Alyson's putting her AOII skills to good use nowadays."

Thanks, Heath...but the kids helped too!

Will Follies

Ah, Will. I talk so much about Adelaide's mischief on here, sometimes I think Will's incredible little mind doesn't get its rightful due. There's so much to say (and he says it a lot. All the time. Constantly. Talking.) but today, he really left us speechless.

We went to Target this evening to get a few items for the house, and Will was talking to us about a shirt he wanted. I was helping him try it on, and he pulled it on over the shirt he was wearing. After we got it on, I fluffed his hair back up and smiled. "Your hair is looking really nice, Will," I told him.

Ben laughed. "He needs a haircut!" he protested. Will smiled big at his daddy, looking proud.

"I do need a haircut," Will said. Without pausing, he continued. "I trimmed it up because it was in my eyes."

Ben and I paused, aghast. "What did you say?" I asked, thinking maybe I misunderstood.

"I cut my hair today," he said, his huge eyes brutally earnest.

"What?" I said, trying not to go apoplectic in the aisle at Target. "You did WHAT?"

He shrugged and looked back down at his book he brought with him. "I used safety scissors," he said, as if that would settle the matter.

"WHY ON EARTH WOULD YOU DO THAT?" I asked, unbelieving, but also trying not to laugh.

"You told me not to come out of my room until it was clean," he said, still calm and assuming his unassailable logic would win the day. "My hair was in my eyes. I didn't want to come out since my room was still messy, so I just cut it myself with safety scissors."

I looked at Ben, very frustrated, but really more desperate than anything, because I really wanted to roll on the floor laughing, but I knew if I gave in to that impulse, he'd decide independently altering his personal appearance with ostensibly "kid-safe" tools would amuse me. That's a dangerous chance to take.

Ben stepped in. "Will, we don't cut our own hair."

He really wanted to laugh, too. What a trooper my hubby is. I think after some further discussion, it sank in.

I hope so. I certainly don't want to be managing homemade tattoos anytime soon.

Just in case you think freelance writing is all glitz and glamour...

The lovely and accomplished satirist Elizabeth Hanes penned this little gem tonight after getting fed up with the Craigslist postings for freelance writers. (Want some examples of this? Check out the Craigslist Curmudgeon.) Anyway, it is simply beyond hilarious. Maybe this is funnier to me because I see this sort of thing all the time, but I hope some of you will see the hilarity in Elizabeth's wit, as well.

Check out "If all CL Job Postings were for Freelance Writers" by Elizabeth Hanes.

Amazing Alphabet!

I found this amazing alphabet tonight, and I just had to post it. Whether you have kids or not, this is really just so cool. It's called "Bembo's Zoo." Basically, you start out at a screen of pulsating alphabet letters. Click one -- for our example, K. The word "KOALA" appears all across the screen. It then morphs into differently shaped and sized letters (below).

The letters then begin to move around, morphing still, until they come to a stop. It may not look like anything right away, but look at the whole picture, and you'll see...

A koala bear, formed only from letters in the word koala! Go check out Bembo's Zoo alphabet and try them all out -- it is really a wonderful show!

Our day trip: Aquarium of the Americas, NOLA

Yes, despite the sorry state of our house and the number of home improvement projects begging to be completed, we decided life was too short to worry about the dishes and headed to New Orleans today. We thought about the zoo, but rain threatened, so we headed over to the Aquarium of the Americas.

We expected Will to enjoy it, but Adelaide's might have been the most enthusiastic visitor of all of us. I guess we should have expected it -- Adelaide + water + animals = Luuuuuuuv. Or something like that. She's a naturalist, to be sure, and she was thrilled at the visit. It also alleviated some mommy guilt on my part -- Go Diego Go was mentioned more than once today, and Adelaide even recognized the macaws and remembered their sound!

After the aquarium, we headed to Cafe du Monde...well, okay, not the original. Will was BEAT after traipsing around the exhibits, and while Ben and I were all for walking over to the French Market, neither of us desired to haul a tired 6-year-old on our backs. So we went to the one in Metairie, and WOW was it GOOD. I mean, INCREDIBLE. Will got a hot chocolate, Ben and I shared an iced cafe au lait, and Adelaide chowed down with the rest of us on some steaming hot beignets. We were left with full bellies and powdered sugar blizzards on our clothes...a good deal.

Summer Splash...fun time at Jambalaya Park

Only in Louisiana do you take your children to a beautiful public park named after a spicy sausage dish. But, ah well, it is a fun place. We used to live in Gonzales, which is just about 20 minutes from BR, and I had taken Will here a couple of times before Adelaide came along. I was *really* relieved (and rather surprised) I didn't forget how to get here. But Jambalya Park is a really family-friendly little public area in Gonzales. It's quite attractive, really, with large fountains, attractive landscaping, and even a playground and a pool seperate from the Splash Park. (I wonder if it being adjacent to the Gonzales City Police Department has anything to do with it's good condition?)

Adelaide, of course, stormed into the playground, fearless and unaware she was smaller than many other revelers. She didn't care. I was happy she stayed still long enough to get her earplugs in. (That is a whole other blog posting...while her ear infections have been significantly reduced thanks to the surgery, she now thinks that anything and everything can go into her ear. I've recently had to stop her from putting cheerios, cashews, and even a paperclip in there.) They had a blast, though. And the most beautiful think is that because it's a splash park, the water is contained enough I can safely shoot photos, and I could also wear normal clothes.

The bottom photo of the group is the best shot I had of the entire playground -- or "spray-ground," as Will corrects me -- area, but it is cute. It was a bit crowded, but not too bad. And they got to splish-splash until their eyes were bleary and their bodies were nap-ready, which is great for me.

The Lipstick Incident

"Honey, where's Adelaide?"

That phrase is always a harbinger of trouble in our home. Whenever we lose track of our daughter, whom we have affectionately dubbed "The Tornado," we all become a bit panicked. That, and we start a bath.

So today, as I called out to Ben asking to Adelaide's whereabouts, I was nervous. But he wasn't.

"She's in her room playing," he called back out to me. He and Will were engaged in a competitive game of "Worms" on the Xbox 360, but I didn't doubt his parental GPS. Okay, I figured, she's in her room. I listened to the monitor for a moment, expecting to hear happy baby noises, but I heard none. Still, I didn't panic.

Clearly, it's time to send the mommy radar in for a tune-up.

I went about my business conquering the Himalayan situation in the laundry room while Ben and Will engaged themselves in electronic male bonding, not worrying about the baby's whereabouts until I heard Ben's voice fill the house.

"ADELAIDE!!!" he cried, his voice a virtual mixed message, shouting confusion, horror, and some small degree of amusement. I ran into the next room to see my daughter covered in a sticky red mess. While most mothers would have called 911 immediately, the look on her face said it all. She looked positively proud of herself, her grin lighting up her now crimson-stained face.

I sniffed the air. Lipstick. Expensive lipstick, too, I thought. But that was secondary to the church dress she was still wearing and getting her adventures in makeup off her body. (That's why her torso is so clean -- the church dress took the brunt of the trunk decorating damage.)

So yes, we ran a bath. And I washed the adorable dress in hot water...though I haven't yet checked the results. Most of it came off, but for those parents who have read The Cat in The Hat Comes Back a few times, let me tell you -- the bathtub had a pink ring around it when little miss messy was done.

And while Ben handled the live mess, I took my "Holy Cow" cleaner that cleans ANYTHING and headed, with a full roll of paper towels, to the scene of the crime. I was right -- it was my Clinique lipstick. At least she has good taste.

Oh, and kudos to Ben, who in the midst of undressing her, running the bath, and of course determining it was a non-toxic substance she'd gotten all Tammy Faye Bakker with, he paused for a moment to think about the historical implications. He was always a little disappointed I didn't get better photos of Will's Jackson Pollack interior paint treatment, so he reminded me we should really get a couple of shots of her while she was doused with her luscious look.

And aren't you all relieved he did?

What we did today

Well, it was a rainy day here, and the kids were cramped up inside. So who becomes their playset? Daddy, of course! And don't think it's just the little boys playing rough here. Adelaide is in on it all, too. She gets in there and tumbles along with the best of them.

Hopefully tomorrow will be a sunnier day though...I think Daddy will be sore after this interlude.

okay, okay...last photo upload today...seriously!