Work In Progress

dear diary:

there are so many things i've meant to share with you, but i just haven't had a moment to spare.

first of all, my eldest turned 13. i know. you're all, "what?! no!!" but seriously, yeah. he did.

it's crazy, and i'm still processing it myself.

he seems to be going through these adjustments of maturity. much more likely to come give me a hug or wrap his arm around me or rest his chin on my shoulder. because my shoulder is lower than his chin. it's like he's realizing that he's growing up quickly and maybe he'd better get some snuggling in while he still can.

he decided that all he really wanted to do for his birthday was have some buddies over for pizza and to play minecraft all night long. which they did. they started some world and didn't quit playing until they defeated it at 6 a.m.

he is also learning to march in band, and i think he's kind of digging it. he still likes band, but whether it sticks into high school remains to be seen.

henry also finished out the high school swim season with a pretty decent showing at jv sectionals. and at the awards banquet at the end of the season, the coach handed out records books to all of the boys. in it are lists of the top 10 swimmers in each age group for every event ... records going back to 1992 ... and henry's name was listed in the top 10 in every event he swam over the course of the season. ie his name was on the list in about eight different events, including taking the #3 spot for the 50 backstroke in the medley relay.

huge accomplishment.

(my kid, without the cap. he won't wear one.)

academically, henry is also still walking that line between making us very proud and making us pull our hair out. when he's on top of things, he's ON. but when he's off and not feeling like he needs to turn things in, we have trouble. however, his ancient civ/social studies class recently took part in the world savvy project, and henry's team's project was one of five from the two local middle schools to participate in the regional competition, held at macalester college.

the boys did a great job presenting their project about ocean pollution and, specifically, the trash islands in the pacific, during the interview process. then they separated into different groups for a roundtable discussion of world and environmental topics. at the end of the day, henry's group scored high enough to move onto the national online competition in may. pretty awesome.

he's had a good couple of months.

harper has also been a busy girl.

she turned eight. (again, "what?? no way!!" but yes. way.)

she is still 110% her own person, for better or worse. no one pushes my buttons more or makes my heart flutter quite so much. she's spectacular. and infuriating.

for her birthday, she also chose to keep it simple, even though the amount of time she spent deciding on her guest list would suggest otherwise. this girl's heart is so big that she wanted to make sure the girls she invited were all friends and knew each other and would have a great time together. in the end, she chose two neighbor friends and her "very best best friend," cecelia.

they played wii for about three minutes, decorated their own cupcakes, drew a gallery full of art, decorated the rest of the cupcakes because they ran out of things to do, and cecelia drew a mustache on harper. and that was that.

speaking of art, harper has become obsessed with drawing. every day, a new stack of pictures appear. typically, she draws mermaids and dragons. or herself in various stages of growth, as a tiny series of paper dolls that she then cuts out and leaves scattered all over the place. one day, she had a president homework assignment and chose to draw three presidents for extra credit: eisenhower, arthur, and obama. and then she added the capitol and a tree for extra extra credit.

she's been taking a class through community education called "young rembrandts," where she is learning actual techniques and how to "see" what she wants to draw. her skills are fine tuning, and she loves it.

she is also becoming rather musical. i think i'm going to sign her up for piano lessons because she appears to have the ability to pick out, learn, and memorize songs on her little keyboard. imagine what she could do with a full keyboard and knowledge of where the notes are! the other day, she came to me and played a song she had taught herself: the "do re me" song, all the way up to "fa," when she ran out of notes on her piano.

crazy.

speaking of music, her school's class concert was last week, and harper was selected to be in the kazoo band. she thought that was pretty great. and played the kazoo most of the weekend.

currently, harper is fighting a cold and is on day 2 of laying on the couch, snuffling and drinking tea and watching "my little pony."

in other news, the kids just had their first-ever snow day. we got a foot of snow - not normally something that would slow us down, but the timing was bad for plows and school buses.

so while henry shoveled, harper dug out a little igloo, made a pantry, and filled it with sunny d.

and while i was taking photos of that, mario snuck out of the front door to see what this "snow" business was all about.

half a second after this photo was taken, his paw touched the snow, he jumped half a foot straight in the air, and ran back in the house. where he belongs.

later that afternoon, harper wanted to check out her sunny d to see if it was frozen.

it was not. but i told her that as long as she was out there, she might as well get the mail, too.

and that's what we've been up to. or, at least, a very glossed over and abbreviated version. but now i've caught you up. and now i can go back to ignoring you for another couple of months.

xoxo

snowflake round-up

it's been a week. time for more of snowflake's adventures ...

day 17: she decided to hang out in the tree, snuggled with gray kitty, and spend the day looking out the window.

day 18: harper came home from school and decided to draw pictures of reindeer for everyone she knows. that night, snowflake drew some reindeer of her own for harp.

(by the way: my daughter draws some great reindeer, in case you were wondering.)

day 19: harp had made a little "dressing room" for julie, her american girl doll. she had all the shoes and accessories lined up. (which sounds way fancier than it is; she has three pairs of shoes, and the purse and belt that came with julie. "accessories" might be overstating.) snowflake and gray kitty did a little "trying on" and got caught.

day 20: harp awoke to find snowflake had baked her some special snowflake cookies. she decided they must be "north pole" cookies because they were really crispy and tasted "kind of like a cracker." and then they got sweet. and she ate three for breakfast.

day 21: yesterday, harper's class had a gingerbread house party. the kids all made and decorated their own gingerbread houses. harp's house was ... minimal. however, her yard was landscaped within an inch of its life: gingerbread man making a "snow angel" in the frosting and shaved coconut snow, a marshmallow snowman, two gingerbread men riding on a sled she made out of a candy corn and candy cane-shaped sprinkles, etc.

so this morning, we found snowflake had added some visitors. to my countertop. gonna have to scrub that down tonight when snowflake ... flies away.

continuing with the light & cheery and "christmas spirit." trying. i'm writing again - elsewhere - for an online magazine called "get born." the article i'd planned for the 18th, my day, got scrapped at 1:30 a.m. that morning. i couldn't sleep. the thoughts of sandy hook kept rolling through my brain and heart, and i couldn't stop crying. so i got up and wrote, and this is what happened. it helped a little, but my emotions are still raw. the idea that these beautiful children were taken the way they were ... that the last thing they saw in their lives was evil ... i'm having a hard time shaking that. maybe it's because i am a writer; the only way i can truly convey emotions and feelings is to be able to put myself in the shoes of the person and feel. and right now i feel too much. i look at harper and think: she's seven. last christmas, she was right where those kids were ... first grade, no front teeth, sweet little face, thinking only of christmas and all things wonderful and good. and my heart breaks. for those kids ... for their parents and families ... for that school. and i get so mad that it happened at all.

so to focus on snowflake and getting through the month with my christmas spirit intact for my own kids ... that's what is keeping me going. otherwise, i'm not sure i'd be looking forward to the holiday much at all this year. right now, all i want is peace and time with those i love. hopefully, that will be easy enough.

... and then it was december.

i'm really struggling with the idea that 2012 is nearly over. there are, what, 30 days left?

how?!

the past month has been a blur ... and it seems like i said that every month this year. our days are too full, our weeks are too full, and our months go too quickly. and yet? there's nothing extraneous. nothing that can be given up to ease the pain. chiro three times a week for me and marc ... turns out, i am profoundly out of whack. who know. and marc has alignment issues that are affecting his knees, and there's always the migraine issue. chiro an additional two times per week with henry: he goes on different days, in the evening, after swimming ... it's the only time that works. one shoulder and one side of his pelvis are higher than the other, so the chiro is helping him with that.

and swimming? henry is now swimming for the high school, practicing every day after school until 5:30. that eases up the late nights that we've had while he swam with the club, but now the minutes immediately following school are crazy. harper gets off the bus and we meet her in the driveway, to jump in the car and speed to the school to drop off her brother.

and harper? she goes to learning rx three nights a week for an hour ... but it's likely that will go to four nights a week for 75 minutes. she has no short-term memory, no ability to focus, her reading/tracking skills are terrible, and she is incapable of multi-tasking. we're trying to work through these things to find the solutions before school becomes an even bigger stress and harder problem to solve, but it's three - soon to be five - hours a week that we're gone from 5:45 to 6:45 (soon to be 5:45 to 7. do the math: henry's done swimming at 5:30, harper goes to rx at 5:45 ... we are gone from 3:15 to 7 - soon to be 7:30 p.m. - daily.)

and she has swim lessons every friday at 4 p.m.

there is nowhere to cut anything or ease up an hour or two. henry's homework time? late in the evening, or at rx while harper is in her training. dinner? seriously? family dinner doesn't exist. and when marc is gone (like he's about to do for the next two weeks, and like he did the week before thanksgiving, naturally) there are no other options for the kids. we are all in, all the time.

it's exhausting. and i don't know how moms with more than two kids manage.

speaking of thanksgiving, we had a lovely one.

i learned my lesson from years past: let people do things.

i want to everyone to feel at home and comfortable when they are here, but truth is ... then the holiday is stressful and expensive, and i'm always alone in getting ready (see aforementioned "naturally" comment in regards to marc's travel schedule around the holidays.), which leaves me tired and crabby and unable to enjoy it myself.

so this year i instituted "potluck thanksgiving": i did the turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, and rolls, and marc's mom brought the traditional (and always yummy) corn casserole, assorted breakfast breads, pies, and this year made fresh green beans; and marc's sister made amazing stuffed acorn squash; and our sister-in-law brought a relish tray and snacks. it all worked out, and the crazy was alleviated. and instead of crawling into bed for a four-hour nap, like other years, this year i was able to enjoy the holiday with everyone else ...

we played games, sat around and talked, went to see "wreck-it ralph," and played more games. harper and kayla had a great time together, and all was well.

(by the way: the last time i took a photo like this was in 2006 ...

some things have changed.)

speaking of harper and learning rx ... we had made a deal with her when she began - grudgingly - to train: if she put in the effort and the work, she would get an american girl doll when training was completed. the timeline at the beginning was 12 weeks ... which would have been right around thanksgiving. well, due to us being gone, and the center being closed for various things, and harper's trainer being periodically unavailable, as well as harper's skills not improving on target, the timeline has been pushed out. however, she was heartbroken at the idea of not getting her doll before kayla (and her doll) arrived for the holiday. so harp and i made a deal: if she was good about training and regular school's homework up until thanksgiving, she would get her doll by thanksgiving. but if her attitude deteriorated again, the doll would be the first thing to go until she's done. so in the week leading up to thanksgiving, she asked me daily, "when are we going to get my doll?"

she didn't know i already had it.

and on wednesday, when she got back from running an errand with marc in the morning, she found this sitting on her bed:

a happier girl couldn't be found. now we just cross our fingers that Julie Magic works for the next, oh, eight to twelve weeks.

when it's 2013.

good grief.

where have i been

it's both a statement and a question. because, truly, i'm not sure. october was nutso.

a little of what i know we DID do ...

1. marc and i celebrated 16 years of marriage. we saw "argo" (fan-flippin'-tastic) and had appies at friday's. (meh.)

2. we bought two bookshelves for the basement at world market. because we signed up for their customer perks card thing, we got 25% off ... doing quick math, we realized it would cost just as much to buy these two as it would to build the plans we had devised, minus all the actual work and math involved in building. so, easy decision. well, then the store discovered that they didn't, in fact, have the three in stock that they'd said. they had one. but gave us a raincheck and told us to pick up the other one the next week. that was on october 5th. three weeks of them not receiving the bookshelves in their shipments ensued, and yesterday i finally picked up that second bookshelf. we might have been better off building ... it would have gotten done. whatever. now we have the shelves, and this weekend i can finally unpack the remaining 25 boxes of books in the basement that have been sitting there, giving me the stink eye, for the past 13 months.

3. henry had two more swim meets. he got all of his previously seeded times into A range (ie he did a really good job), and swam a few new events and got A and B times. he is officially the fourth fastest 50 free swimmer on his team and rounds out the A relay teams. he's super proud of himself, as he should be. and later this month he begins swimming for the school system instead of the local club for the winter season, training with the junior and senior guys. he should improve even more over the next few months.

4. we finally made it to the orchard, with one week to spare.

5. steps were taken to make the front room (ie "wii room") functional. i got all of the boxes out (there were still six boxes in there. a year after moving in. it was time.), and we found a nice young family to buy our yellow couch and chair and ottoman, much to harper's sentimental little hoarder heart's dismay. then the room was empty, so we started to populate it with my vision. remember my vision? well, the couch part is now scratched off the list. sadly, that amazing rug went on sale about a week after i decided what to do with the room, and was completely sold out by the time i told marc that evening. wasn't meant to be. so this room is now on the "need to figure out a rug" list with the great room. i found another i love, but it's $5k. not happening. but the room is starting to at least look like a room, so, yay.

just don't turn around.

however, that glorious cabinet from my vision is on a boat from india right now, and marc got a smokin' deal on a tv. so this room WILL BE wii-equipped for thanksgiving. and harper's happy.

6. i was contacted by a home website rep, asking if i would be willing to allow one of my photos of our kitchen/great room space to be used in an article on space trends. i said sure. so that was cool. just wish they would have used the re-shoot photo so the pantry door was closed and the island was wiped down ... and the boxes were out of the wii room. oh well. that's what i get for showing the imperfections on my blog. i guess i need to show cleaned up versions more often ...

7. during all of this, the one-year repairs were taking place at the house. a grout & caulk guy ... drywaller ... plumber ... mr fix it ... painters ... and it's still not done. painters missed some stuff, and i still haven't heard when the trim guy is coming to fix something. which means the painters can't return until he shows up. and november looks insane, so working around stuff will be tricky.

i need it to be december soon. or maybe january.

8. marc turned 39 whatever age this might be.

so, naturally, we got him a boba fett model and three boxes of his favorite cookies, which the kids have vowed not to sneak.

oh, and he bought himself a really big gun. so he'd better be happy.

9. harper learned how to crochet.

or, rather, she begged to learn for three days, she threw fits through an entire day of trying to learn the initial chain, then once she figured out how to do that she spent the next day making chains three feet long and leaving them all over the house. learning the first crochet stitch has been less enjoyable, so she hasn't touched it since. she's a joy.

10. and finally, it was halloween.

("creeper" a la henry, "not quite sure what it's supposed to be" a la harper.)

henry said he couldn't wear his trick-or-treating costume to school because of a "no mask" rule. so then he was trying to come up with something he COULD wear. he debated lots of ideas ... all required more time and energy than i possessed, though he had a genius idea that i wish we could have made work at zero hour: glue flip flops all over himself, carry a binder full of barbies, and go as mitt romney. i love this kid. in the end, he ended up with this for school:

i know, right?

but for the actual halloween event, he wanted to be slenderman. a video game something-or-other. i didn't now, either. but it required a black suit, black tie, and white something over the head and face. it took me 10 days and six thrift stores, but i finally found what he needed for under $25.

then he went to a friend's to trick-or-treat, they went to about 10 houses, then went back to the friend's to play video games. 15 minutes, maybe. totally worth all of my time.

harp, on the other hand, was committed from the beginning to being a peacock.

and she rocked it all day long.

there were a bazillion other things in october, but these were the highlights. november is guaranteed to be just as nutty, but at least we get to look forward to marc's family being here for thanksgiving, and having four days to just chill and enjoy. and we're very much looking forward to the "chill" part.

 

 

a little bit of busy

we're entering into a period of about ten days of crazy. so i'm starting it off with my own personal moment of zen: my little girl, in the empty lots behind our house, surrounded by yellow. (i won't mention how UNzen-like that experience was ... trying to get a photo of the two kids together in the flowers, being all happy and loving, except they were being anything but.)

there's a lot going in the next ten days, then i have big plans for more busy around the house for the next couple of months after that. i just sent our one-year-walk-through repair list to the builder (can't believe we've been here for a year already!), and once those things are done, i'm setting forth on projects such as hanging some shelves ... and art ... and shelves with art. and building bookshelves. and hopefully finally getting the front room (wii) room outfitted with furniture instead of miscellaneous moving boxes of random crap that belongs nowhere. i've been very patiently biding my time and making plans, but now is time for action.

duhn duhn duhn.

but first: oooohhhhmmmmm.

here we go again.

6 a.m. alarm = summer is officially over.

nevermind that it's 218 degrees outside with 40,000% humidity, because the kids are once again in school.

i got up this morning and made henry an egg & cheese & bacon burrito (yes, i fried that bacon just for him at 6 a.m. ... hope he doesn't expect that to last.), while he got ready and gathered his things. there were definitely a few more nerves this morning than last year, not sure why. i predict he'll be totally fine by third hour, once he's seen all of his friends and gotten the hang of being in the halls with the masses of puberty again.

i forced him to sit for a first-day-of-school photo ...

and he was gently reminded that i will do that every first day of school until college. and even then, if he stays within a 90 mile radius, i still may show up on his doorstep.

after that, we sat on the steps and chatted for 10 minutes. he was in no rush to go to the corner. we just talked. and it was nice. he's such a good kid.

the bus came, and he left, and i turned around to start the process over again with harper, while marc went back to bed.

instead of a burrito, there were pancakes. (not homemade ... she doesn't like those. they were the mini frozen buttermilk ones from the local market.) and then i made her lunch: chicken and smoked gouda and avocado on a spinach wrap (totally by request) and baby carrots. and there may have been something special put in the lunchbox when she wasn't looking.

and then it was time for a first-day-of-school photo, and she happily complied ...

then she trotted off into the yard to look for bugs and check out the dew on the grass. until the bus showed up 10 minutes early. and no one was at the bus stop. and suddenly all the kids and camera-wielding parents came running.

apparently, no one but the bus driver got the memo.

but by 8:02, they were both gone. an hour later, marc was gone, too.

and i checked the news. and facebook. and read a couple of design blogs. and ate an apple. and comtemplated taking a shower and running to the grocery store. By. My. Self.

i might be sad and lonely later. but by then, they will both be home and be so excited to share all about their first day. and i will get them a snack and listen to their stories.

and then the next nine months will fly by.

time flies

in two weeks, the kids will be sent back to school.

(no, i will not apologize for not boo hooing about that. they need school. i need school. school is good.)

right now, we are trying to find something productive and interesting to do with our days to get us through. we've hit the apathetic level with our days and outing ideas. now, play dates seem to be the big thing to keep it sane around here. there are a few plans left on the docket, but we'll see how things pan out.

however, as i look ahead to harper starting second grade and henry starting seventh, i can't help but think how quickly the past seven years have gone. most days the kids are content being with each other, hanging out, playing on the computer or talking about the computer. (typically, mine craft is the topic of conversation.) and, really, they've always been happy to be with each other.

but i know that may start to come to an end. the gap in their ages - and, to be fair, their gender - will widen in the coming years.

harp already gets weepy when she thinks of henry going off to college and leaving her, but i don't have the heart to tell her that he will probably pull away from her sooner than that.

they may still come together over computer games or whatnot, but the more likely scenario is that he'll continue to get into his own things, he won't want to hang out with his little sister, his schedule will keep him away from us more, adolescent hormones will kick in and he'll withdraw from us (and she will become an even bigger drama queen; god save us all.), there will be friends and jobs and swimming and girls ...

and harper will always be five years behind.

no, i'm not excited to think of the drama of the coming years. however, i know that on the other end of that, they will both become adults, and suddenly the age gap will disappear. and they will be closer than ever.

knock on wood.

i'm just not in a rush for that "growing up" to happen as quickly as it has already.

gone (went) fishin'

since the heat wave finally broke last week, we have found ourselves outside quite a bit. suddenly the ideas of the park! and bikes!! and walks!!! are good ones.

marc headed to the garage one afternoon, and emerged with all of his fishing gear. he spent the next hour outside, getting it all cleaned up and re-strung. then he said, "we're going to get bait, then we're going fishing."

okay then.

(this was actually a smart idea. my dad and his brothers have gone fishing Up North every year for, like, the last 102 years, and the rule is that once a boy in the family reaches 13, he's allowed to come. the Roush Family Right of Passage Into Manhood or something like that. i don't know. i don't have the right chromosomal make-up to be invited. regardless, henry hits that milestone next year and will get to go ... the boy needs to put in some serious fishing time before then.)

so in the car we went, to buy worms ("ammo for fishing," harper called them. which, truth be told, is pretty accurate.) and then head to our lake.

the sun was just starting to go down, and marc had high hopes for catching something.

he got harper going with her pole ...

then got henry and himself all squared away.

for the first ten minutes or so ... nothing. harper go cranky and antsy and started banging around. the guys told her to knock it off because she was scaring the fish. she argued back that there were no fish. the boys responded with exasperation, "because you're scaring them all!"

it was lots of fun.

then ... henry caught a bluegill.

and then another. and then he snagged a crappie, but couldn't land it.

this gave harper hope (even though she was totally bitter that her brother was catching fish and she wasn't.), so she persevered. and then ... she caught a fish.

and then henry caught one ... then harper ... then henry had another ...

a school must have arrived, because as soon as a kid would put a pole in, the fish bit.

poor marc didn't even get a chance to really fish. no sooner did he cast, then a kid had a fish and needed him. a few times, marc was helping one while i had to help the other. there were too many fish.

a good problem, i guess.

soon, the sun officially set and the mosquitoes came out and that was the end of the fun. in all, about 16 bluegill and one crappie were caught over the course of the hour. a successful outing, and now henry is one step closer to going Guy Fishing next summer. (the other steps involve preparing him mentally and emotionally for things like no running water, no internet, and skinny-dipping in the freezing water ... with his dad and grandpa and great uncles ... to bathe.)

we're still here.

things have been getting in the way of blogging.

truth be told, i'm growing bored with blogging. but i don't really scrap much anymore, so the stories have to go somewhere. so i keep blogging.

just, apparently, not very well.

and right now, the weather is amazing, so i'm getting pulled away from the computer by nice days, bike rides, weed pulling, sitting on the couch by a window that's open and letting in an amazing breeze ...

or by a little girl who asks me to play barbies outside, then she gets sidetracked by chasing butterflies and dragonflies and rolling down the hill ...

(click on the pic and you can actually watch her roll down said hill:)

and then i get sidetracked by how pretty she is ...

then i get sidetracked by boys who trudge across the empty lots to shoot at things ...

and the biggest guy tries to give the not-quite-as-big guy pointers on how to aim, how to stand up straight, and how to please stand up straight, and how to just stand up straight already ...

and then i start thinking about how the biggest guy's only real regret in life is that he didn't go into the military like he wanted to oh so desperately, and that he never got the chance to see if he could have made it as a sniper ...

and then i get sidetracked thinking about how neat our kids are, and thank god that mchotness didn't enlist because then we never would have met and fallen in love and made out and created those kids ...

and then i got sidetracked by mother's day, and the plan to go to the arboretum that was waylaid by a line of cars about a quarter of a mile long, waiting to turn into the arboretum; cars full of families and mothers who, apparently, had exactly the same idea. so we ended up at lake minnetonka, watching sailboats and ding dong people who had no clue how to fly kites. and then i look through the four pictures i took that day and get sidetracked by how giant my eldest is and the fact that he still has, according to his doctor, about a foot more to grow ...

(no, he is not standing on something. no, i am not sitting on something. he's that much taller than i am. shut up.)

and then when i finally do sit down to type something, i get sidetracked by my assistant, who chooses to sit right in front of the keyboard. it's really hard to type with your wrists resting on a cat, and i'm sure it isn't ergonomic. but you do what you have to do.

so i will try harder from now on.

so, that happened.

there has been a general air of funk-ness around here for the past week or so, and writing anything seems completely uninteresting and depressing.

a couple of weeks ago, a stager contacted our realtor, wanting very much to break into her market and offering to stage our house free of charge, no strings attached, and put a property manager into the home to keep it lit and clean and care for the lawn, etc. our realtor checked all the language in the contract, added and subtracted a few things to make it no-risk for us, and we agreed to let the stager in. we took it off the market for a few days while she added art and furniture and tchotchkes all over the house, then new photos were taken and the house went back up for sale.

that weekend we have a zillion showings.

on sunday, we got two offers and notice that a third was potentially coming.

one of the offers was amazing - perfect - and we accepted. the purchase agreement was signed on monday, and on wednesday the buyers had their inspection

which was done by a structural engineer.

on a house built in 1965.

needless to say, he convinced the buyers that the house was not up to code (duh ... how many times has code changed in 47 years?!) and would likely disintegrate into a fatal hole of horribleness. so the buyers walked.

and when the third party heard the buyers walked because of the inspection, they too hauled ass away from being interested.

sooo ... back to square one. after a year on the market, we still have nothing to show for it.

and we're so done. everyone who looks at the house loves it. feedback is great. there is no one smoking gun reason from any of the showings as to why this house isn't selling.

so i now hate this house beyond all logic and reason, and am kinda praying that god strikes it with lightning and it burns to the ground.

no, i'm not being hyperbolic.

on top of that, while marc was gone for work, the little cat ate two new areas of carpet. no matter what we did to stop him and distract him, he just moved on to a new area. brand new house, brand new carpet, now full of chewed up, shredded spots because little cat was an idiot. the stress of not selling the old house and  of the new house being destroyed by a seven-pound piece of crap cat were too much for me. i packed up little cat and took him back to the pet store from whence he came and walked away. it killed harper for about a day and a half, which killed me (and was even worse because, like everything else in life, i was left to deal with it alone), but she got over it and my carpet will no longer be at the mercy of little cat teeth. granted, it looks like shit in about five different places, but oh well. it's just money, right?

so all of that, plus some other things, led to a really, really bad week last week. we're still stressed out about the house, but have decided that we'll give it until july - hard stop, and then we go the rental route. maybe we'll specifically look for someone who wants to run a meth lab out of the bathroom and cross our fingers that they burn it down for us.

i'll get back to fun stories and pretty pictures soon. i'm working on a list of resources for the new house and will write that up here pretty soon. an amazing about of emails have made their way to me, asking where we got this light or found that sink or what our countertops are, so i feel the need to address that. and maybe i'll even clean the house and post new pix of the place with actual furniture in place.

at least in the rooms that have furniture.

we're still missing quite a few things. because the other house hasn't sold yet. but i already told you about that. so, okay.