Slow going?

You could lower a rope... or a tree branch... or find something useful to do.

I could do that. Or I could take the kids to my parents' house for a few hours to let rick keep on keepin' on with the demo work.

We interrupt this home improvement

To bring you a few images from my trip to Sacramento to see Vanessa in the Spelling Bee musical!!! I didn't take too many photos there (and don't worry - none were taken with a flash at all... so I didn't violate the "no flash photography" rule), but the ones I got were pretty great.

If you get a chance to see this musical, I say GO DO IT. It is completely cute and funny and silly and precious all at the same time.

Here is the famous Andrew Keenan-Bolger in action...
The "kids" - all of whom are in their 20s. It's funny cause some people who come see the show really think these are children! Also some people think it's a real spelling bee. Inevitably, they will get asked, "So who won?" LOLOL

Beautiful Nessa as Olive.
HAHAHAHA this pic cracks me up. Look at what Barfee is doing. He is sooo good at playing "bored with this"... or maybe it's "in my own world" And of course, the most unfortunate speller of all...

It's always exciting when pandemonium breaks out at a spelling competition, don't you think?
check out that air! he is soaring!

Oh... and of course what is a play without a little cameo from Jesus? My favorite part about this is that he is totally the Jesus from those candles you can get in the Mexican aisle in the grocery store. hahaahaha
Best, most amazing part... the I Love You Song. Sigh. Vanessa is just absolutely amazing. And I always knew that, but to finally see her on stage and get so completely wrapped up in what was going on in the story and her song and her emotion... I could not stop crying, which is why I only got this quick snap at the end of the song.



Really, it was a completely wonderful, funny show with so much heart and silliness and improv (they get people from the audience to join in the Bee! And no one knows how they will act, so it's a different, funny show every single night!). The characters are wonderful both onstage and offstage... and it was just a fanastic time. The show is still touring nationally, so check it out in a city near you! Right now they are in Houston till April 6th... but then Des Moines April 8-13, then Madison April 18-20, Memphis April 22-27, Cleveland May 6-18, Norfolk May 23-25, and finally Ottawa May 27-June 1. If you get a chance to see it, I promise you will not be disappointed. :)

Next blog post will be other pics from the trip (non-show related), so stay tuned! :)

Let the demolition begin...

We are in the process of ripping up tile and carpet from the entire ground floor of the house... we ended up with a pretty nice tax return, so we decided to use the money to invest in home improvements. The biggest one we have wanted to do for awhile now is changing out our naaaasty carpet and lame tile to wood floors. After doing a ton of research, we decided we really loved both the look and durability of vertical-cut bamboo floor. The bamboo is carbonized, meaning it is steamed in a giant bath which actually heats up the sugars inside the bamboo and carmelizes it... so the color is the same the whole way through - it's not stained at all. So we got ourselves about 1000 square feet of it. Rick just picked it up from Lumber Liquidators today. It has to acclimate to our house for at least a week, which is fine, cause we have TON of demo work to do... we are ripping out all our carpet in our downstairs area and then we have to remove the tile. The entryway was a bit of a challenge because (unfortunately lol) the original installers actually did it RIGHT and used a slipsheet under the tile... making it a nice, strong, nearly indestructable bond with the floor. So Rick will be renting one of those fun tile-ripper-outer machines from Home Depot so that we can get all the kitchen tiles (and the remainder of the thinset from the entryway) out. Once that's all done, I think (hope... lol!) the rest of the work should be pretty straightforward. Rick's a pretty handy guy and knows how to put down a floor very well. Of course he's never done wood before... lol.

So... hopefully we will have the start of wood floors, anyway, by the end of the weekend! I am so stoked. I can't wait to see it all come together. I will update as the process continues!

Better get back downstairs and get to rippin' out the carpet. And the tile. Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!

Happy Easter!

Last year, after Easter, I bought one of those Easter Trees from Cost Plus. I got it on a wicked sale - I think I spent $5 on it. Maybe. And it's perfect for the little ornaments I have had in my possession for years.

Growing up, we had a collection of Easter ornaments that we would hang on a tree of willow branches in our home. I loved all the tiny painted eggs and bunnies and chicks... so, about 10 years ago when I saw the little wooden ornaments on sale one year at Hallmark, I bought all three little sets. And for years they sat in a closet because I would always forget about them. Last year I finally pulled them out but I couldn't find a tree to hang them on that wasn't expensive...so I made my own wire tree that was okay but really kinda lame. I didn't love it, but it got the job done. And the kids had such wonder in their eyes when they looked at all the cute ornaments!

Naturally, I was thrilled to find the cute tree on clearance at Cost Plus. Of course now I had to store this awkward thing for a year. You can imagine how thrilled Rick was about that!

So last week, the kids were being particularly good (for a change), and I brought in the tree. And the little ornaments. I told the kids to decorate the tree any way they wanted and they did... and it is just beautiful and perfect and I love it.



Happy Easter to all of you!

Mel Day

So it's been a month now that Mel has been off on her Virginia adventure. And I am missing her, so I thought I would post a few pics from that last, fun Mel Day that we girls had together.

Of course, it was at Starbucks.

And in case you are wondering, yes. Mel actually asked them to heat her coffee to precisely 165 degrees. And they agreed!!

I love happy Jo :)

But even moreso I love happy Erin (can't you hear her laughing right now??) And the four of us. I love all of us. I think it's time to plan a trip to visit Mel so we can take another one of these photos and have another Mel Day.

Mel Day should be a holiday. Like Groundhog's Day. And really... what is the point of that groundhog again? In fact, I propose we rename Groundhog's Day Mel Day. It only makes sense. All in favor?

berries and... what?

Ahhh, yes. The joy of raspberries.
They fit on the ends of your fingers!
They make *great* projectiles!

Ahhh yes.

Even Better than the Original

Thanks to Carl, who sent me the link to my new favorite comic strip, Garfield Minus Garfield.
It's amazing how much funnier it is without that annoying cat commentary!

Not that I hate Garfield, or cats. Okay maybe a little.

YAY! YAY! YAY!

WAHOO!!! My new business site is LIVE!!! I am so thrilled to FINALLY be able to share it.... it's been *months* in the making! I hope it was worth the wait!! (I think so!!) :)

(click on the image above or go to http://www.speckledbirdart.com/)

Brains and erasers

The other day I was brushing Riley's hair, like I always do. But as I was parting his hair by the little birthmark he has on his head, I noticed that the birthmark was different. Bigger. Like it used to be a little 1/8 inch circle and now it is a 1/8 by 3/8 inch oval-ish shape. So, naturally, I freaked out. A lot. I called the dermatoligist that I saw when Violet had her eczema as a baby... he was so great with her, and I remember I could get appointments pretty quickly. I was of course hoping for a same-day appointment on Wednesday, but he wasn't in that day so I had to settle for Thursday. Of course I needed to stay off the Internet so I wouldn't obsess over the crazy things that it might have been. But I was thanking God I didn't have to wait even another day to see a doctor.

Thursday came and we got right in to see the doctor. He looked at it and told me that, even though it looks kind of different, weird looking moles are often found on the tops of people's heads. Nothing about it alarmed him, but he understood my concern, which was that I had no idea how long it had been there... it was as if it had appeared overnight. He said it was something we could watch and look for any changes, or if I thought Riley could handle it, he could just shave it off right now at the appointment. That way it would be gone and he could get it biopsied for my own peace of mind, and I would feel better. The trick was that I had to be sure to keep Riley very still so that he could remove the mole. That was going to be a challenge, since I had already told Riley this *wasn't* the doctor that had to give him shots like last time.

I had to think fast... because I knew that Riley would panic... and, indeed he did because he saw the things the nurse was bringing out and one of them looked Very Much Like a Needle. I asked the doc if he could give us a few minutes to prepare Riley, and he said that was fine. The nurse offered Riley some Nerds candy... one little snack sized box now, and another for when the procedure was all done. I took a moment to privately ask the doc what the procedure entailed and what kind of pain to expect... he said the only real pain was from the local shot, and that would be about three seconds... then he could shave off the mole in 20 seconds after that. So I prayed for the right words to explain this to Riley without making him freak... cause he was already starting to get teary-eyed from the thought of that Needle Looking Thing.

I sat Riley on my lap and I explained to him that the mole on his head was a little weird looking, and that the doctor wanted to take it off. And the way the doctor does this is by first pinching the mole with the Pincher (needle). And that sometimes hurts a tiny bit, just the way a pinch does. But it's only for the count of three... and we practiced counting to three so he could see that it wouldn't be that bad. After the pinch, the doctor would use his Special Eraser (scalpel) to Erase the mole right off his head. But that part wouldn't hurt cause erasing things doesn't hurt. I told him that the doctor would Erase for the count of twenty and we practiced counting to 20. And then it would be done! Riley was pretty close to being convinced, but he was still worried about the Pinch. So I told him that Target was right by this place and when we were done we could go there and get him something (I was thinking like from the $1 section). He said that he would be so brave that he should get Rayman Raving Rabbids for the Wii.

Um. OK. Whatever. (seriously! I never EVER give in to big ticket items like that! I obviously have extremely poor judgement under duress. Hopefully my kids don't read this someday and decide to take advantage of this fact)

So he was ready and so was I... the doctor came in and Riley asked him if he was sure the Pinch would only be for the count of three and the doc reassured him that, yes, it would be. So I held Riley's hand and the doc and the nurse did their thing. The Pinch was exactly the count of three! Then we started the Count of Twenty as the doc Erased off the mole... and right at Twenty, he was done! Riley was hoping for a band-aid on the top of his head, but he got a blob of antibiotic gel instead. And afterward we headed to Target where we found the game (on sale, thank goodness!) and some children's motrin.

And now it's done... we have been putting neosporin on it daily, but it's really just like a little scab now and you can't even see it under his hair. The doc will call me with results either way in about a week. I am confident that it will be fine :).

So today Riley was talking about the hole in his head and how we can see his brain if we look closely... but of course we would not want to eat his brains because they are covered in wax.

Clearly. Because you know how fattening wax is.