Happy Birthday, Rachel!

Today is the birthday of one of my favorite people in the world, Cousin Rae. She is one of the reasons I started ranting here – because she understands my lunacy when it comes to decorating our homes, among other things!

I think we are as close as 1st cousins can be even though we are not the closest in age, grew up the closest together, or look like anything close to each other ;-) But Rachel is the one that understands me and shares a similar view of our family. She’s my favorite go-to dance partner, the first person I consult on the placement of sparkly things in my house, the first shoulder I cry on (or *CAP* *CAP* *CAP* *CAP* *CAP* with) and the only one I ever considered to be my Maid of Honor.

I looooove you Rae!

Zero to 60 in one month flat

Our lives have certainly become a flurry of activity lately! It seems not so long ago (like a month) that we were spending a lot of time sitting on our hands just waiting for our lives to begin. The Child was out of school for summer, I wasn’t working, our house wasn’t ready… except for daily trips to the barn, our lives were a whole lot of nothing but waiting.

Really?? That seems really hard to remember already!

The Child’s softball (and The Man helping coach the team) takes up a lot of our weekday bandwidth. I rush out of work every day to catch the end of practice and we all go home together. Two days a week are game days so weeknights are generally consumed by softball and the less homework and family time she has. But it’s a VERY short season and will be over in a couple of weeks.

Next week The Cousin (Rachel) will be here a night or two and The Man is off to Chicago for 5 days. The Child and I will have to learn to survive without him because we really depend on him… A LOT. (Eek!) Then the week after I may be going off for a Girl’s Weekend which will likely leave my liver screaming for mercy and in desperate need of sleep!

You probably remember that I get a little wound up by and obsessed with politics …  The Man shares my lunacy – especially a deep loathing for Glenn Beck and an extreme fondness of Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert. When they announced their Rally to Restore Sanity/March to Keep Fear Alive we couldn’t resist – we have in our hot little hands tickets to Washington DC the last weekend in October.

          

 Oh yeah… and I am working on the house in my “free time”.  Annnnnd we are waiting for word on a possible dog on its way to the rescue we are working with.

Once that’s “over” we can settle in to a nice mellow ….. uh …. holiday season which will mark the launch of wedding plans in earnest. Then it’ll be summer, honeymoon, and back to school again.

*Sigh*

To think I just desperately wanted to be doing stuff again. HA!

Hopefully a short-lived addition to our Christmas Eve traditions

In the Czech Republic, single women go out on Christmas Eve day and toss shoes. With their backs to the door, they throw one of their shoes over their shoulder. If the shoe lands with the heel facing the door, she’ll find herself single for another year. If the shoe lands with the toe facing the door, it means she should start making wedding plans.

Rae – you game?  Do we do MY front door or the real front door?

Everyone, please keep dear Rae Rae in your prayers today

Today is Black Friday and please wish her safety and sanity on this day, the busiest of the retail year.  We love her way too much to lose her to a deal seeking, holiday spirit forgetting, Christmas shopping lunatic.

xoxo

Hold me accountable: My BIG weekend To-Do list

Tonight 

• get some laundry done
• sloth
• gluttony

Tomorrow

• Home Depot:  spray paint (for dresser, door hardware), stool for vanity?, side table?, stain for cabinets
• Fabric store:  fabric for vanity stool and a “throw” for my bed (a place for Kenai to sleep instead of in the middle, near my pillows – brat cat), vinyl to recover my table

Paint duties:  finish vanity, dresser, picture frame and baseboards

Rearrange room (finish??)

     Rachel’s Birthday Bonanza!  Woo hoo – party down!

Sunday

• sleep in
• WAK Shack party with Suzanne

 

Now… That will be one satisfying weekend if I can get all that done!  Hold me accountable!

Someone may be doing a progress inspection next week!  Yay for me!

Yard Sale Madness

We did well – money-wise and divesting ourselves of crap-wise

Rae, not ALL blue tile is ugly

**DROOL**

Possibly you should be thankful?!

Loads to unload!

See! TONS of stuff!  Holy moly how did it all fit in my house?? 

Bye bye “stuff”! Don’t let the door hit you in the ass on your way out!

Oh my!  I am sooo excited!  Rae Rae and I are gonna have ourselves a little down-home, old skool style sidewalk sale on Sunday!  I tell ya, it’s gonna be a collection of used Ikea and Target things the likes of which have never been assembled all in one place!

It’s going to be such a hodge-podge of everything I have kept for “just in case” and “if I need it someday” and “this was SUCH a good deal”.  Even as I sit here, my mind boggles.  I alone have clothes, a HUGE Pottery Barn area rug, 2 huge Billy bookcases, a VCR and tons of movies, organizing things that just don’t work for the spaces I have, a portable washing machine (yes… the washing machine – if I can find my ode I shall post it), lighting, and an insane amount of computer bits and bobs including my poor ThinkPad with the janky video card. 

Haley has a ton of stuffed animals, even more clothes, a Game Boy and a number of Disney Princess outfits.  I made her a deal a’la Clean House:  I will match the proceeds of the sale of all her mayhem and foolishness up to the first $50, and every penny will be invested in her bedroom.  It’ll be interesting to see just how much she wants her room to be a temple to Cinnamoroll  

Rae is going to add to the mix the contents of her storage space, artwork, clothes and whatnot.

I’ll let you in on a little secret…. come about noon it’ll be a free sale!  Space is what I want – money is just gravy.  (But any money I make will go to my Vegas fund for Rae’s birthday!)

Guest incompetence – I mean “dilemma”

So, my dear sweet Boo Boo, Rae, is tackling her bathroom this fine day.  The paint is peeling and quite janktastic, so there is a lot of sanding and breathing of toxic particulates involved.

She’s doing the ugly patch, sand, prime nonsense today – but is still undecided on color.  She’s blessed with loverly blue tiles and even more quaint barely baby blue paint.  She needs suggestions on color.  She’ll repaint the vanity white, as is the trim and door color.  The adjacent room is beige.

Please put your suggestions – and verbal harrassment – in the comments!

I suggested light light gray or something similar to the livingroom, with a higher sheen.  Then again, orange might look lovely.

The Un-Beige-ing of Rae

Rachel… I am so very, very proud. 

Hmmm… methinks this bedroom color looks a tad familiar