Boring Can Be Fun

Oh, hey. Didn't see you there. Because I wasn't here until just now. It's been a minute or two since I've hung out with you here, right? Oh? Five and a half months? I'm just going to awkwardly laugh and pretend that's nothing. Nothing! Sooo, how's your mom 'n' 'em? How are you? Goooood, gooood. Glad to hear it. Oh, me? Let's see, I'm doing pretty well. What's new since last we spoke? Patrick and I have done a good bit of work on our house primarily funded by the sale of his Jeep. We've painted (translation: he's painted), gotten trees cut down and brush cleared, updated light fixtures, and some other small odds and ends. We used some of that Jeep money to buy a replacement car, too. We were highly productive during January and February until... I had another baby in early March. Had I mentioned I was pregnant? Yeah, we flew in to the hospital on two wheels when, as it turns out, I was fully dilated and ready to go, p...

That's what I said as we laid back down to go to sleep at 1:20 in the morning. Sounds super sexy, right? Wrong. Lemme tell ya a story. Tuesday evening I was super tired. I hadn't slept well the previous few nights and, since dinner was done and Patrick said he'd handle the clean up, I went to bed at 8:30. It was glorious. I don't remember Patrick coming to bed. I don't remember anything until suddenly at 1 a.m. a loud banging, scratching noise woke me. Patrick woke up only moments after me. "What is that?!" "I have no idea." We both quickly jumped up and made our way down the hall. Perhaps it was a branch swinging into a window, we both thought. (I guess we had some idea, then.) Approaching the entrance to our daughter's room, the noise got louder. We stopped outside of the hall bathroom next to her room, listening intently. "It's coming from the vents. It's under the house!" The air vents in our new place...

Big news for me. Mildly interesting news for you. Remember when I drew this and declared that I wanted a house ? Isn't is just dreamy? Well, guess what: the Sheffields, we's a-movin'. This time next week will see us in a new abode, one that we *gasp* hope to buy soon! [Insert squealing like a little girl and happy dances to the tune of " Totally Tulip ."] The circumstances of our move and potential purchase are a little unusual and I might eventually explain (or not, you know, whatevs), but for now what you need want probably don't care to know is that we'll be in this house as renters for the time being, but hopefully as owners before too much longer. This house has a lot going for it, and a lot going against it. In the Pros column we have: Location. It's in one of our favorite neighborhoods in town, and not too far from our current place. Good bones. It is in pretty good shape, structurally speaking. NO MORE STAIRS. Ou...

As you are undoubtedly aware (because you voraciously read this blog and diligently memorize every word I type), I recently performed a major clothing purge. I had bags of stuff to take to Goodwill and I lost some old friends (my old, danky tees) to the garbage can. I gained the ability to not jam my clothes together in my closet. I started that project in the name of simplifying and ultimately improving my wardrobe. As a result, I'm now very fabulous and stuff. But you knew that, didn't you? You're so kind. In return for your kindness in thinking what I want you to think about me, I want to issue a warning. It's something I didn't mention when talking about the initial purge of clothes. When you start to clean out your closet, there will be a massive, untold (until now) side effect: The desire to purge will overflow into EVERY AREA OF YOUR LIFE!!!! ...Or, at least, into other closets and storage spaces. Whatevs. You know that I went through my closet a...

You saw my rendition of my dream house last week and thought several things: Wow! She's a true artist! Why is her house wearing a hat? How much time did she spend on that? Gosh, I happen to know how she can get that house she was asking for. My responses are: Yeah, I am. Thanks. Hats make things more fancy. I want my house to feel fancy and pretty. Too much. Do tell! In case you didn't have the pleasure of viewing my masterpiece, here ya go. Fancy house with a fancy hat thingy. The short story is, I want a house so badly I can taste it. We like our apartment, but I'd love to able to have a yard, a porch, a little privacy. Another closet. A kitchen with more than 2 feet of functional counter space. When I look around at people who are my age or younger who purchase or build houses, I genuinely want to know: how in the world do you do it? I fancy myself quite the little savings ninja. We put money aside every month (and are blessed to be able to do s...

Does anyone have a house they want to sell us using the honor system and with no down payment? I'd love the opportunity to take advantage of your kindness. In return, I promise that: our payments will be timely and in full we'll cook you at least 2 meals over the lifetime of our debt owed to you those meals will be somewhere in the taste range of mediocre to fairly good So, a nyone?... Anyone?... Fine, I'll stick to drawing my dream house. It looks a little like this: Okay, maybe not exactly like that. But if you would have sold me that house like I asked, you wouldn't have had to look at this picture, would you? So whose fault is that? Yours. xo