As Promised

Fireplace mantle before
And after, yes I am completely aware that there is a large plastic slide in the middle of the room. I thought about moving it, but that would be a lie about how we really live over here.

I've read some blogs about how to have a great blog. One suggestion was to invest in a really nice camera. Who can afford a really nice camera in the midst of home remodeling????

Meg and slide, together at last.

Adeline modeling new pink clothes.

New jammies.

Happy New Year!

Katie

Things I could Blog About....

• The rat, not mouse, that I saw, coming out of my pantry. I feel violated and now really paranoid. Every time I turn around, I think I'm going to see a rat.



• The smell permeating my house from something that died in the basement. I hope it was said rat.



• The refrigerator saga. I will, never, ever, in a million, trillion, zillion years buy anything from Best Buy AGAIN.



• That I am in a decorating rut. I have tons of ideas but am worried that none of them will turn out and feel that I lack the energy and the commitment.



• Shopping for a couch. I've never bought a large piece of furniture from a furniture store, ever. I am nervous.



• We bought TV for the first time. We officially have cable. When we were first married, we had rabbit ears and got one channel, NBC. We watched Olympics non stop.



• The best thing the kids got for Christmas...Meg got this huge plastic slide. It's currently the only piece of furniture in our living room. The kids love it.



• The worst thing the kids got for Christmas....Meg got this huge slide. The kids fight and cry over it. Why must parents be forced to make rules for new toys?

Katie

P.S. I am committing myself to have something decorated by Friday for the day's post. Maybe if I write it out loud, I'll actually do it.

Dear Bryce,

I hope that you enjoyed your last trip to Home Depot by yourself, because it will be your last.

Is this an insane attempt to control your life by playing the victim? Yes, yes it is.

I would just like to recap what happened the last time you went to Home Depot by yourself.

I stayed home with all three girls. They were all in bed. You, in your naivety, thought all was under control.

Minutes after you left the premises, I was summoned by that all too familiar Adeline-sobbing-hysterically-over-'itcouldbeanything' sound.

I bring her down stairs.

I manage to decipher between the hiccups and tears that she has some how managed to lodge a very small wad of toilet paper way, way up her nose.

Now, Bryce, have you ever had to deal with something like this?

Probably not, because you were at Home Depot.

Now onto the confession...I am not a rookie mother. I know perfectly well that you're not actually supposed to try and get the object out for fear of pushing foreign object even further up small tunnel of a nose, if that were possible in this case.

But those doctors have never met a hysterical Adeline.

And I did try other means. I tried having her blow out the toilet paper. Did you know that Adeline thinks sniffing is the same as blowing? At least that's what she believes at 8pm at night when you're gone to Home Depot.

I laid Adeline down, found some tweezers and I pulled that sucker out of there.

I know that you're probably thinking after just such a circumstance I can handle anything when you're gone to Home Depot, but I would rather not test my limits.

Your adoring wife,

Katie

What They Don't Tell You....

is that...

• those cute blogs about home remodeling, the wife cried three days before the before and after post.



• people working on your house, instead of taking their trash with them, will just leave it in the large pile of debris in front of your house for you to take care of.



• you'll miss a garage and a driveway, terribly.



• anyone and everyone will give their opinion about your house, whether or not they know what they're talking about.



• small town craigslists stink.



• you'll find a discount bread store, but it's not run by a loud and fun black lady that gives your kids free donuts.



• sometimes you really do wish Santa existed, just so you didn't have to actually do any Christmas shopping.



• wallpaper is surprisingly easy to take off, if it's glued to fabric that's been nailed to a wall over the original wall that already has bits of wallpaper and newspaper already on it.



• it will cost you the same to put in new hardwood floor in one room as it does to refinish the hardwood floors in the entire rest of the house.



• only having two TV channels that never come in is lame and will make you want to take the promotional offer for cable that's only $5 more a month.



• being a parent for Christmas is way more fun than being a kid, even though it's a.lot.more.work.



• there's something terribly satisfying about seeing full book shelves in your home again.



• not having a working shower is dumb and feels a lot like camping.



• not having a fridge or an oven in your kitchen feels a lot like camping also.



• not having an oven in your kitchen alleviates your guilt when buying a Pizza Hut pizza, or two.

Katie

Per Request, after request, after request...

The living room
The living room

The stair case show casing blue paint, not gray


Family Room

Dinning room and doors to sun room

Library, view from family room, dining room to the left, bathroom straight ahead

Black and yellow tiled bathroom with leaky shower and cracked pedastal sink
looking in from library to the door that leads to the pantry and laundry room or outside or downstairs or to the scary storage room which I don't have a picture of

Kitchen from dining room

Kitchen and kitchen floor in all it's glory, view of sun room doors

Upstairs

Hallway, with floors redone but ceiling unpainted, cupboards on right

Teeny, tiny bathroom

Elizabeth and Adeline's room. The walls are rough hewn wood that have three different kinds of wall paper and newspaper clippings dating back to 1885. Ceiling has since been painted white.

Meg's room/guest room before

Another before with blue laminate and acoustic cardboard facing something or other on ceiling.

After

On the ceiling is tongue and groove one inch thick boards which have since been painted white.

The adult bedroom, after

Another after

Before with plum colored walls

Some more dark purple wall images

My pregnant self

Backyard

The storage room without the stolen brick

It was upright at one time. The laundry room. I really like it, except for the fact that the doors open into each other, not the other way around

Another of the kitchen

Where the stove will go

House with large pile of debris that encourages a lot of handy men to stop by and ask for work

Christmas

Built ins in dining room, sewing/craft things

Just Wanted You All....

to be the first to know:

• that we are moved in.....well, all of our boxes are now in one location.


• the camera is fixed.


• I have pictures just waiting to put up on my blog.


• you can buy a super cheap Christmas tree around here.


• Adeline chewed out the flooring guy because he stepped on one of her toys and broke it.


• I cried a lot today, especially after I got a package in the mail from a friend.


• I am borrowing my other friend's Internet to write this, hopefully ours will be up and running by tomorrow.


• Adeline broke three Christmas tree ornaments.


• buying an old house may not be all it's cracked up to be, at least not today. Ask me again tomorrow.


• the girls love the new house.


• have I already mentioned that Elizabeth goes to school all.day.long?


• does anyone know why the word 'internet' needs to be capitalized?

Katie

Parenting Tip #468

Elizabeth and her cousin had been bickering all.morning.long. and all.afternoon.long. Needless to say, with five girls under one roof at grandma's house, it became a bit tiresome.

So, I warned them. If you bicker again, you'll be outside for twenty minutes. Bare in mind that this takes place in Eugene, OR in December and everything is pretty much wet and soggy all of the time.

As you can probably guess, they bickered again. I gave them the low down. It went something like this, with lots of exclamation marks:

"Get your shoes, sweaters, and gloves on. Don't you dare come knocking on that door asking if you can come in. It's not that cold, you'll be fine. I'm setting the timer for 20 minutes and when it goes off, then, and only then, make you come indoors. I will come and get you. Do not leave the premises. I repeat, do not come knocking on the door."

And out they went.

Time was up and they came traipsing indoors, nicer and wetter.

Over time it comes out that they were not wet because they were outside playing, but because they had peed....in grandma's yard. They pulled panties and pants down, but decided that the ground was too soggy for their precious little bums, so they peed standing up.

They got in trouble, a lot of trouble. However, I feel like a successful parent because even though I'm cruel and heartless, at least Elizabeth knows that I mean what I say.

Don't worry, I also explained to her that next time this occurs, she can come in and go to the bathroom, no matter how mean I sound.

Katie

To Tide You Over....

Dear Friends, Followers, and Stalkers:

I would like to take a brief moment to apologize for my sporadic posting. This week we are in the throws of finishing up our house with the anticipation of being moved in by Saturday. I realize I have left many of you in the dark in regards to the efforts on the house. I will mention quickly what has been consuming our time:

Painting our walls blue, meant to be gray.

Taking down some sort of card board facing that had been nailed/stapled to ceilings and floors throughout the house.

Refinishing original hardwood floors which includes pulling up linoleum and other types of flooring from all rooms in the house.

Putting on a new roof. Not done specifically by us, but you get the idea.

Cleaning, cleaning, and cleaning. It is beyond me how a vacant house can be so dirty.

The news that I'm most sorry about....no pictures. As I've mentioned before, our camera has not been working. When I went to turn on the camera to try and troubleshoot the situation, the battery was dead. Where is the battery charger? I have no idea. I hope to uncover it in the next year or so. When I went to buy a new one, I couldn't find a charger, any.where. However, our friends have taken some pictures so hopefully I can get those and get them posted, in the next week or two?

I promise to post on Wednesday with an original potty story.

Stay tuned,

Katie

P.S. I just signed Elizabeth up at her new school....it's all day kindergarten!!!!

Update!!!

Maybe if I put exclamation marks I will fool you all into thinking that this is going to be a great post.

I cut Meg's mullet off. Now she has a cute little bob that kind of looks like Scout for the movie To Kill A Mocking Bird.

I watched the Hallmark Hall of Fame movie last night and I didn't cry.

I totally lied when I said I would be sending the camera down with Bryce to take pictures of the house. My apologies.

A moment of honesty....when we first moved I really wanted to be in a house by Christmas not because I need space, I do, but the primary reason? I have all of these Christmas decorations that I've been accumulating over the year and I don't think I could stomach not putting them up for another year...

I'm becoming a bit rotund. If I say that out loud to myself, maybe I won't get my feelings hurt as much when other people say it to me.

I ran out of diapers....yesterday.

We won't be in our new house by the 4th, more like the 11th. Don't worry, you don't have to tell me how lame that is.

Katie

A Bit Untraditional

I know many of you this week are taking the time to count your blessings and list the countless things that you are thankful for. And I will do that too....later. For now, I'm going to do something a bit unconventional:

Things I am NOT thankful for:

• sunburns


• mosquitoes


• moles: on the skin or in the ground


• luke warm showers


• temper tantrums


• stretch marks


• gum: on the sidewalk, under a desk, or in your hair


• expired coupons


• library late fees


• poor vision: physically or metaphorically


• pens with no ink


• insensitive remarks


• stuffing: the edible kind


• cold toes


• delayed flights


• watching movies or reading books that I didn't know would be horrible before I started them

What are you not thankful for?

Katie

Don't worry, next time I will try and perform my civil duty with a more typical Thanksgiving week post. You know the surprising thing, there weren't as many things that I'm not thankful for as I thought there would be.

In Case You Care...

Bryce is done with training!!!

He's heading to Eugene today...hoorah!

We'll be moving into our new house in approximately 2 weeks. Mark your calendar for Dec. 4th. Bryce will be in Medford working to get the original wood floors back to their former glory after too much laminate and glue.

Thanks for all the love and support through this trying, depressing, I'm-never-doing-this-again, lame, I-barely-survived-Adeline ordeal.

I will also work on figuring out what's wrong with my camera so I can send it down with Bryce to take some pictures so when we move in and have our own computer once again you will experience picture overload bliss and continue to wonder why I still insist on thinking run on sentences are acceptable.

Katie

One other thing, I've been thinking of doing another giveaway once we're all settled, Christmas-ish time, and do a 'Katie in a box' package where I'll put together some things that I really like and send it off to a lucky participant.

A Series of Letters Part II

Dear Hot Shower Every Morning:

You are my salvation.

Dear Meg:

I don't know not to tell you this, but you have a mullet.

Dear Eugene Drivers:

The speed limit is an expectation, not a suggestion. Ten miles below the speed limit is not acceptable.

Dear Contractors in Medford:

You suck.

Dear Elizabeth:

A boy sibling will not be any easier to get along with than a girl sibling, so stop asking for one.

Dear People that I Talked to About My House Being Painted Gray:

Just kidding, it's actually blue. I blame Sherwin-Williams.

Dear Fabric Across the Nation:

I'm coming for you. I have huge plans to utilize you.

To The Lady at the Estate Sale Who Had Great Taste:

Thank you for having not one, but two, Madeliene Brent books. You're my new favorite person, or would be if I had actually known you, and you were still around.

To My Toes:

Why are you always so cold?

Katie

A New Story about an Old House

Two weeks ago I went to Medford to work on the house. I was having a lot of different people coming over to give me estimates about how much things would be to get done: flooring, electrical, re-vamped bathroom, etc.

Normal, no?

When I headed around to the back of the house, one of the windows was broken, a door was left open, one of the window panes on another door was broken, the toilet was running and....our brick was stolen. Not like a pile of bricks, but like bricks from the house.

The house has a 'storage' room at the back of the house that has brick facing. It was originally detached, but over the years with the addition of a hallway and laundry room, it is now part of the house. A whole side of brick was missing, gone.

I called Bryce, then I called the police. Well, actually, I called 911. Where do you find the number for 'just police' anyway?

So, the police officer shows up, nice as can be. He takes notes, looks bewildered, asks some questions, and then asks to see the house, not because he's looking for evidence, but he's down right curious about the house.

I give him the grand tour and we chit-chat about the possibilities, our plans, how much he likes the house and so on.

The police officer's opinion: he really likes the house and it reminds him a lot of the house that his grandparents used to own, he is impressed that it is such good shape and admires that much of the original 'stuff' is still intact, he is jealous of the lot size and can envision some laying hens and an area devoted to blueberry bushes, oh yes, and the brick? Probably just some handy-man/contractor trying to save some money on a job.

This is the worst thing he's seen on his beat of 12 years.

To the officer: thank you for appeasing my fears and loving my new house almost as much as I do. Oh, and thank you for not saying anything to the effect 'this house will be a lot of work'.

Kind regards,

Katie

Heard all too often, across the world....

Things I could live with never hearing again:

• I got a new job, in Oregon, and I have 10 weeks of training, and you'll be living with my parents.


• Your appendix ruptured, like, two days ago.


• How many babies are in there?


• It's good that your baby is crying, it helps her to clear out her lungs.


• I'm breaking up with you.


• Then, I won't be your daughter anymore!


• Mom, can you come wipe my bum?


• Oh, sorry, I was actually asking out your roommate...


• There's something you should know, my dad, he's a polygamist...


• Um, I don't think you should be gaining that much weight.


• It's o.k. if you're sister's the pretty one, you can be the smart one.


• I think that we should have a Lord of the Rings marathon night - crickets chirping in the background.


• Wow, this house is going to be a ton of work. Are you actually planning on living here?


• Anything about marital relations from my grandma, ahem.


• I bought the new Halo game.


• You're right, you do look like garbage, I mean, tired.

Katie

A Story About Life

This may start out sounding like a brag post, but hang in there, it's not.

I have a great memory. Really, it's something I pride myself on. I will not go into the details of how I work on it, let's just say it has something to do with car license plates and being an eye witness in the case of an emergency.

Bryce has a love/hate relationship with my impeccable memory. He loves it when I can remember where he put something months ago, he hates it when I can recount exactly what happened seven years ago during an argument where he came out losing.

I like pencils. The common, #2 wood and graphite with pink eraser pencil. They're my favorite. I have a large, large stash of them, just in case. Just in case of what, I have no idea. I like them best when they're freshly sharpened.

So....in middle school and high school I had a little red, cheap, plastic pencil sharpener. Run-of-the-mill dollar store variety. I remember distinctly having it on my desk during tests, putting it into my back pack, using it for homework, etc. Mind you, very clear, visual memories.

The other day. Well, not really the other day, more like back in the day when my life was normal and I lived in my own house with my husband and children and I had a closet for my clothes. Anyway, ONE day, I was in the bedroom and I found my red pencil sharpener. I have, since having children, moved the red pencil sharpener to a common use area. It had disappeared. I found it among Bryce's things. Horror, of horrors.

I confronted Bryce. He gave me some song and dance about it being his and how he had it in college, blah, blah, blah. He probably did have it in college when he secretly confiscated it from my stuff after we got married.

Anyway, I took it and put it back where it belonged. And he took it back, so on and so forth. We have the great pencil sharpener discussion yearly.

So how does one resolve such a situation and save a marriage? Bryce will be getting a pencil sharpener for Christmas. It will not be red.

Katie

An Interview

Editor in chief of Wonder Women, Sandra Samson, recently caught up with Katie Bell at her in-laws house to see what she's been up to. Katie certainly is starting to show. However, she is calm and attentive to her children, even when they interrupt us againandagainandagain.

Sandra: What's been the hardest part of this transition?
Katie: It's been hard not be able to have things that are 'me'. Does that make sense? I don't have my best friend- Bryce, my space, my hobbies, my schedule. All of those things combined are what I am. It's certainly been an adjustment.

Sandra: You've received numerous compliments about your previous house and your decorating style, are we to expect the same creativity in your new house?
Katie: Absolutely. This house will be easier and harder. Since I already have a 'style' and the furniture, it should come together pretty effortlessly. The hardest part is if it doesn't look like I have it pictured in my head.

Sandra: Tell the readers something about yourself that they don't already know.
Katie: I hate cleaning toothpaste off the bathroom counter. It triggers my reflux reflex, for sure.

Sandra: You recently came out of the closet about being pregnant, how is that all going?
Katie: Fine.

Sandra: Nothing more on that note?
Katie: I feel fine, I'll stop feeling fine when I get huge and tired, till then, I feel fine.

Sandra: What's your favorite and least favorite part about the new house?
Katie: My favorite part is the layout. I like how all the bedrooms are upstairs and all of the living spaces are down stairs, oh, and the sun room. That's pretty great. My least favorite part (with pained look on her face) the well. When the inspector came out and we were going through the laundry room, my first laundry room by the way, there was a door in the floor. We thought it was just another crawl space. Nope, it's an honest-to-goodness, 1875 well. Fortunately there were no dead cats in it. It's pretty spectacular from a historical point. It has rock around the perimeter, it goes down a good 15 feet and the water's clear. Part of me wants to show it to my kids and then make that the time out spot and scare the begesus out of them. The other part of me, the part of me that hates scary movies, wants to forget it's entire existance.

Sandra: You keep up a strenous blogging schedule, how is that going?
Katie: I love to blog. It's gotten harder as my schedule has changed. I have less time to think about what to write about, and frankly, less to write about. I'm looking forward to posting about the up coming changes though.

Sandra: We really appreciate you taking time to sit down and answer some questions, oh yes, and the home-made bread. I'm sure our readers will love knowing a bit more about you. Is there anything else you'd like to add?
Katie: I'm just flattered I'm considered worth interviewing. Thanks for coming out. You'll brush up those photos from the shoot, right?

16 Great Reasons Why I Don't Feel the Least Bit Guilty About Being Lame this Week:

1. I'm sick.
2. Meg is sick.
3. Adeline is sick.
4. Elizabeth is sick.
5. Bryce is sick. I kind of don't feel too sorry for him, at least he only has himself to take care of.
6. I couldn't find the guts to tell my in-laws that I would rather be watching the season finale of Project Runway than whatever was on TCM.
7. I'm pregnant. I'm at that awful in-between stage where your normal clothes are too small and the maternity clothes are too big.
8. It has rained every.single.day this week.
9. I had a parent/teacher conference about Elizabeth. Apparently she is a genius. I gloated about that for about 2.5 minutes until I came home and said genius was arguing over something trivial with her three year old sister.
10. I need to enstate a no-contact rule between Adeline and the rest of the world, but I'm not sure how to go about doing that.
11. I've read two depressing books about dysfunctional, crazy women and I've lost faith in modern literature. Never mind the fact that these were historical fiction books.
12. I miss Bryce.
13. I miss normalcy - no snide comments please.
14. I miss space.
15. I've devoted a lot of my genius to decorating/planning/remodeling my new house. We close on Monday!
16. I feel bad that I've been lame about blogging, but in all honesty I don't see a change over the next couple of weeks as I work on the new house.

Katie

In the Future

Remember that one time I was supposed to post on Friday and I didn't? Sorry about that. I had no idea what to post, so rather than post and tell you that I had no idea what to post, I just opted not to post.

If I weren't a stay-at-home mom with three beautiful children on the brink of buying a really cool old house that needs my love and attention and a wife to the husband I adore, I would be:

• A truck driver. Never mind the fact that I don't know how to drive a stick despite the fact that three different male individuals have attempted to teach me how. Side note: has anyone seen that show about the truck drivers in Alaska? My first thought when I saw that show, maybe if the drivers are trying to traverse scary terrain on the final frontier with flammable material, they should not be distracted by narrating to a camera.


• A commercial actress. You know, the commercials where they have a really crazy, irrelevant dance scene? That would be me.


• Owner of a really cool quilt store.


• The third in that show American Pickers. I just recently came upon it since entering the world of Dish. These two guys go around to different homes and climb through other people's junk looking for stuff to buy and re-sale. It sounds really lame now that I'm typing it out, but it's not, trust me.


• A book critic. Or the person that writes pages of true but boring information at the beginning of timeless books that no one ever reads, unless you're an insomniac.


• A college professor. I would probably be just an adjunct one since I have no interest what-so-ever in doing research and being published. And based on the adjunct teachers I had in college, I could be great.


• A sleep expert. I would travel across the nation putting people's infants on a sleep schedule and charge by the hour. I don't have a plan yet what I would do with all the money, but all in good time.

Katie

P.S. If you care, I've been dreaming about paint colors.

Defining Moments

You know those moments in your life that define you as a person, they determine who you will be as an adult, they sum you up as a child?

I had such an experience in 3rd grade. I was calm and quiet back then. We must of had some free time in the classroom because I wasn't sitting at a desk when the incident occurred.

There were four of us sitting at the back of the classroom where the cubbies were. Two boys and two girls. At the time I probably assumed that was just coincidence, but, looking back, I'm positive it was fate.

We were gathered in a circle. We were singing. The song? The Name Game. Why, oh why, did we think that was a good idea? I guess I'll never know.

Anyway, my turn approached, and I selected a boy out of the circle named Tucker. It seemed harmless enough. I was so short-sighted back then.

Then I began to sing:

Tucker, Tucker, Bo Bucker
Banana Fanana Fo &*^@#!%

And that was it. What more can I say, it speaks for itself.

Katie

100th

Today marks my 100th post. In honor of such an occasion, I will post 100 things about myself. Just kidding. How boring would that be? Answer: terribly. I thought about doing a giveaway, of Adeline, yesterday. Today she is sitting quietly on the floor looking through an 'I Spy' book, with her hair in crooked looped pigtails looking like a little Swedish baby. Maybe I'll keep her.

If I were in charge of the world: a list.

• It would be illegal for a mother to take her 8 year old son into the women's bathroom and he would be imprisoned for peeing all over the toilet seat and not flushing.


• Garage sales would be all year long.


• Blizzards at Dairy Queen would always be on sale for buy one get the second one for $.25.


• Bags would fly free on any airline.


• Dinsneyland Park ticket prices would be substantially lower.


• People would be given a heavy fine for saying inappropriate things to pregnant women.


• I would out law meatloaf as human food.


• Baby showers would be given for every baby.


• Kindergarten would be all day across the nation.


• You would get a tax break for authoring a great blog.


• Kids would be awarded for how many books they read, not how many points they scored.


• Oreos would be fat free, but still taste deliciously fatty. We're talking double stuffed here.


• Kool-aid could be purchase for $.10 a packet, just like in the good ol' days before child obesity issues.

What would you do?

Katie

P.S. The inspection went fine. The house is in remarkably good condition despite it's age and run of multiple homeowners. We will proceed as planned, meaning buying the house. Does this sound calm and collected? I hope so, never mind the fact that I've been losing sleep about all the home improvement, home decorating, money that will be spent, and happiness that I'm so looking forward to. Can you put a price tag on space? Yup, and it's substantially less than the asking price.

The Good and the Bad

Good news: I will be doing a post today, obviously.
Bad news: It will be the only for the week.

Good news: Bryce will be in town this weekend.
Bad news: After next week he still has four more weeks of training. Bleh.

Good news: We made an offer on a house.
Bad news: It needs a.ton.of.work.

Good news: We made this really low ball offer for the house and it was accepted.
Bad news: N/A

Good news: Adeline has not wet the bed for like four weeks.
Bad news: Meg will still need to be potty trained.

Good news: This house, was built in 1875.
Bad news: This house, was built in 1875.

Good news: Christmas is three months away.
Bad news: We still have three months till Christmas.

Good news: I have 57 followers.
Bad news: I did have 58. Please do not try to console me by saying insignificant things like: you probably don't want them to be your followers anyway, they're in a better place, it's only because they didn't win a quilt, etc.

Good news: I've read four books in the last five weeks.
Bad news: My children have been sorely neglected, if that's possible with cousins, toys, and grandma always around.

Good news: I had a great time in Idaho.
Bad news: I went horse back riding and don't think my bum will ever forgive me.

Good news: Harry and David have 2,000+ fans on Facebook
Bad news: I'm pretty sure none of that is a direct cause of my efforts.

Good news: I get to start looking at paint colors for the inside of the house.
Bad news: I will be the one doing a lot of painting.

Good news: One of my best friends from college sent me a Facebook message this week and had nothing but flattering exaggerations to say about me.
Bad news: I was lured into a false sense of security about how great I am. What goes up, must come down.

What's your good news?

Katie

Good news: I just did a spellcheck, and I had no misspellings. Go me.

If anyone is interested, I will find the link of the real estate listing for the house. We close the first part of November, assuming everything is not horrible with the inspection.

There's another site that had about nine pictures of it, but I was unable to find it. Remember to have lots of vision, lots and lots, when looking at the pictures.

Country Living

Wouldn't that be neat if this were actually an article that I'm submitting to their magazine? It's not, of course.

I thought my mini vacation was perfect, I ate a lot, slept a lot and found a number of people, i.e. all of L.A. who would qualify for What Not to Wear.

The other night the girls were asking for stories from my childhood, that is farther away than I think it should be. A lot of the retelling came from when our family moved to 'the country'. I put together a little sample of how you know if you live in the country.

You know you live in the country if:

• you call the nearest largely populated area 'town'.


• you 'rent' movies from your neighbors.


• you can get a horse by working for it.


• the only cell phone reception is by a flagpole, in the parking lot, of the high school.


• prayer is said before each school event.


• there are four generations of a family still living there and you call the oldest one grandma and grandpa.


• directions sound something like this: if you take this road, that has the big haystack, and you turn in after the first dairy, but before the second dairy, right where the line of mailboxes are and you see a fence, that's us.


• you go swimming in your neighbor's milk tank. It had water, not milk, by the way.


• there is all day kindergarten because there's not enough time, money, or people to have the buses leave and come back again half way through the day.


• you're related to someone. Seriously, you can move to a town and not know a soul and within minutes, you've realized you're related.


• there's a row of churches.


• they have a 'parade' on Homecoming through the 'town'.


• one of the bars has the best hamburgers, ever.


• some stores are only open certain hours on certain days, or whatever they feel like doing.


• people know what corn topping, mud bogging, canal swimming, and speeding are.


• someone is driving really slowly, it's a farmer checking out the fields or an illegal.


• your sister and you just move there and you decide to go on a bike ride, and realize your destination is farther than you thought, but you keep going, and on the way home, your sister gets a flat tire and you're still miles from your home, on a deserted road. Oh yes, and you forgot to tell your mom.


• there are rodents shot with a BB gun hanging on fence posts.


• your dog may or may not tree a raccoon up the electric pole in your front yard.


• a block party encompasses a five mile radius.


• most people learn how to drive a tractor and walk all in the same week.


• people leave their car running with the keys in it while they run into the convenience store.


• trucks are called rigs.


• you think one of the best things is to slide down a huge row of manure that's been wrapped in plastic.

Till next week,

Katie

Once Again...

I am going to do a thankful post. I've been on the verge of tears every.single.day this week and I am hoping that this will be a good remedy.

I am thankful for:

• a husband that pays the bills, literally. I didn't realize what a pain in the bum that was.


• that Meg still likes to hold my hand, even though she can walk just fine without me.


• bedtime. I assume that I don't need to explain that one.


• chocolate. Will I be twenty pounds heavier when most of you see me again? Yes, yes I will be. Do I care, not a lick.


• cable/dish/directTV. We've personally never purchased any of these, and after a couple of weeks of having one of them, we will ne-ve-r purchase them. I am a self-aware person and I know what makes me a bad mom: reading a good book, HGTV, and going grocery shopping with three kids.


• the nation wide phenomena of garage selling. I take comfort in knowing that wherever I go, other people will have junk that they are trying to sell for more than it's worth.


• that Adeline is still Adeline and that she can throw an Adeline fit, regardless of her circumstances. If you can't be good at something, at least be consistent.


• for Elizabeth's ability to be happy wherever she is and that I never have to worry about her making friends, even if it is at three different schools in one year.

Katie

Life news: I had no luck on Friday when I went house hunting and was, honestly, very disappointed. I was naively optimistic.

Blog news: Today's post will be it for the week. I am heading back down to Medford on Wednesday to look for houses again and then I'll be in California visiting my lover on Friday.

If I post next week - I have a lot going on, please don't judge or count me as fickle - it'll be only once and it will be Wednesday.

About your blogs: if I don't comment over the next couple of months, be understanding. My in-law's computer, for whatever reason, won't allow me to access some of the blogs.

Liz, thanks for participating in the cooking show tittle challenge. My vote is for Servin' up Sunshine.

Upon Reflection

A couple of insignificant things that I have an opinion about:

• Music artists as T.V. actors: I personally feel that some perfectly qualified and talented T.V. actor is jobless because a perfectly good music artist who is unqualified and talentless is given the job instead. To all producers out there: just because they are famous, doesn't mean they'll help your ratings.


• Rachel Barry: I know that's not her real name, but I have no idea what it is. She's one of the main characters on Glee. I love Glee and I'm so glad that it's back on. However, her bangs look awful.


• I think I could start a cooking show. Am I the greatest cook, no. But in all reality, no one but me, the cook, actually tries the food. I am fairly good at talking to an unresponsive/non-existent audience. Case in point, ordering food from the drive-thru at a fast food chain. You can't argue that's not similar. I am also capable of trying to be funny but no one is laughing - another similarity. You're welcome to leave suggestions of possible titles for my cooking show. I also work for Harry and David. Guilty by association sorta speak.


• Little Cesar's: having fake red, orange, and red flowers - the same color scheme as your pizza boxes - in hanging baskets outside your 'restaurant' does not make anyone more inclined to buy pizza from you.


• Jennifer Aniston: she'll never be an award-winning actress, so stop trying to help her become one buy casting her in mediocre movies with unknown male leads.

In blog news, I won't be posting for the next couple of Fridays. I have a couple of things going on like......house hunting! (and other things like flying down to visit Bryce)

Cheers,

Katie

A Series of Letters

Dear Mickey Mouse Clubhouse,

I don't find your hot dog song the least bit annoying.

Dear In-Laws,

When you get home from your week long vacation, you will notice a pile of clean dishes on your counter. I do know how to put dishes away, I just have no idea where those ones go. I thought it would be easier for you to put them away then for you to try and find them after I've put them away.

Dear Rain,

I need you to go away for a while. All you make me want to do is lie in bed and read. Which would be fine, three kids ago.

Dear Architectural Salvage Yard in Eugene,

I know it's been years, but I haven't forgotten about you. I plan to visit as soon as I can. Never mind that I don't have a house yet to decorate.

Dear fabulous real estate agent in Medford whom I haven't met yet, but whom I hope exists,

Please find me the house of my dreams quickly.

Dear Meg's zipper pajamas,

Your job is stay on Meg so she doesn't wake up in the morning naked. Your job is not to amuse Meg at night time by letting her take you off so she doesn't go to sleep.

Dear Bryce,

I miss you a lot. More than I'm going to say right now so that I don't embarrass you in front of my friends. I miss you helping me find my shoes when I've misplaced them.

Dear Eugene School District,

2 1/2 hours of kindergarten is lousy, please make appropriate adjustments.

Dear house in A-town,

I miss you as only a girl can miss her first house.

Dear Hobby Lobby,

Please carefully consider my request for you to move to Medford. I will make it worth your while.

Dear Friends in A-town,

Thank you for being friends worth missing, because I do, a lot.

Dear garage sale,

Thank you for having a vintage, filthy, I'm-not-even-sure-if-it-works type writer that I could buy for $5.

Kind regards,

Katie

The Big News

Harry and David are being featured on Oprah today because they're helping the ladies at Centerville Pie Co. dreams come true.

Anyway, as part of my job, I got to do some mock posts to put on the Oprah, the Harry and David, and the Centerville Pie Co. Facebook pages. It's Oprah, no matter how you feel about her, you can't deny she's an icon.

If you're interested, not that I'm getting paid for this, you can head over to http://www.facebook.com/harryanddavid as of now to enter to be one of the people that wins one of their pies. They're giving away a pie every hour for seven days. When you do enter, the stuff that you see is most of what I put together.

Thanks for looking. I'm assuming you all are going to, even though I know it's not true.

Katie

The 411

This is an update post for those of you who care about the nitty gritty of my life right now, and an you-can-skip-this-post for those of you who don't care. I'll, for one, never know the difference.

The girls and I are currently staying in Eugene with Bryce's parents. We were unable to find a rental down in Medford for whatever reason. We'll chalk it up to divine intervention. Bryce is down in California training for eight weeks for his new position as an IRS agent. All of our 'stuff' is in a storage unit. I plan on going down to Medford once a week for however long it takes to find a house. We're hopeful because the housing market down there has been hit pretty hard and the fall/winter months are a good time to buy.

We will close on our house in Colorado the 24th of this month. The first people to look at our house made an offer on it. Definitely a blessing.

The drive over was fine, thank goodness.

The kids are adjusting fine, well Elizabeth and Meg are. Adeline has been acting out a lot and I hope that Bryce's good-bye was meaningful to her because he may not see her again. That kid....

One last thing, I got a job with Harry and David. They're located in Medford and sell fruit, gift baskets, gourmet popcorn, etc. It's temporary, just till December. Want to know what I do? I put together their posts for Facebook and Twitter. It's really fun. Isn't it interesting that a job like this five years ago didn't even exist? I got the job because one of the guys in their marketing department reads my blog and he feels 'I have a talent for writing'. If you check back later, I'll be doing another post about my job.

I apologize if this post isn't the most riveting. I'm really tired. Taking care of three kids, by yourself, in someone else's house, in a town that you're not familiar with, where the kindergartners only have school for 2 1/2 hours (what!?), is exhausting.

One last piece of business: have you read The Hunger Games? It's really good. Just make sure that when you start it you're on a deserted island all by yourself where you don't have any obligations besides your own survival.

Katie

Reason #5,682

The subject that I am about to broach may polarize my readers. However, I am ready to take that risk. I feel like a wise veteran after approximately 7.5 months of blogging. I feel that you will be sympathetic and forgiving if this does not go as planned.

Put the toilet seat down.

I could name countless reasons: it's un-sanitary, un-safe, expensive if anything of size is 'accidentally' flushed down the dark abyss, dirty, and un-American.

I could use the same argument for putting the toilet seat down as the great philosophers of our world have used for the existence of God. Can you prove that God does not exist? Can you prove that it is better to keep the toilet seat up?

I think not.

Reason #5,682 to put the toilet seat down: your one year old may or may not be so impressed with the novelty of little paper cups in the bathroom at her grandma's house that she will be able to devise her own ways of getting water with which the cup was intended and head straight for the toilet with, you guessed it, the toilet seat up. Your one year old will of course have you right there in the bathroom with her and as you turn away for a time that is less than a split second, she has dunked cup, hand, and arm into a toilet bowl full of water that is slightly tinted yellow.

You will say "Si-ck!" as you mop up the mess. To which your three year old will ask if your one year old is sick. And you, never allowing to let a parenting moment slip by, will reply by saying, yes, yes, she is sick, so don't you ever drink water out of the toilet either.

Hoping you have a better way of building up your children's immune systems, and if you have a similar experience, not that I'm wishing that on anyone, feel free to join the conversation with a comment,

Katie

To My Devotees:

To all of my faithful followers and closet readers,

I regret to inform you that at this time in my life I have made a difficult and tearful decision. I will be taking a leave of absence for the period of approximately two weeks.

When I am crying everyday over who knows what, acting like a crazy person, trying to pack and purge and find a rental, and dealing with the emotional repercussions of knowing that Bryce will be off training in beautiful California for an extended period of time leaving me home.alone in a new area with three precariously obedient children (and hopefully a large sum of money for the local quilt store so I don't get bored), I lack the motivation, capacity, and/or ability to come up with clever post ideas.

And now for a plea: come back in two weeks, or for honesty's sake let's say 3 weeks. I will be back, and I hope that all of you will too.

Katie

Feel free to leave a comment stating your undying devotion and how terribly I will be missed......

Bryce got a job with the IRS in Medford, OR. We're moving next Wednesday, packing up next Tuesday between 6:30 and 7:30pm so if you live in the area....

I've Never:

I was going to do a project post, I even have a picture of it. However, my computer isn't reading my photo device. Does anyone know anything about that?

So instead, I'm going to do a "I've Never" post. I'm going to list several things that I have never done. In response, you're going to list one thing you've never done. It has to be something fun. For instance, I wouldn't say 'I've never smoked a cigarette' because those of you who know me know that I'm too straight arrow to even be around second-hand smoke.

I've never:

• kissed anyone but Bryce.



• had a boy.



• liked raisins in Raisin Bran, they're too chewy, and while I'm trying to eat the raisins, my flakes are getting soggy.



• broken a bone.



• been in FFA, Future Farmers of America, but I did get a scholarship in high school towards college from them.



• taken a finance class. Bryce, and almost everyone else that I'm related to, is an accountant.



• been able to drive a stick shift.



• thought spanking kids is a good idea, although I've given one to both Elizabeth and Adeline. They seem fine for now, but who's to say they won't need therapy in the future...



• texted.



• been wrong. That's not true, obviously. But it's fun to think it's true.

What about you?

Katie

Things that I don't do, even though I know I should:

• Floss. I know, I know, but I'm not buying into the fact that a minuscule size string perfectly placed can prevent cavities.



• Exercise. I feel like I just had this conversation, but I ran for a total of six weeks. That's not a record in any kind of category.



• Keep a journal, I can't even justify my blog, nor can you, knowing what we know about said blog.



• Weed my garden. After five months in, the novelty has worn off. If you can say weeding is novel.



• Tell people that we're moving. I know I should make some huge announcement, still....



• Take my kids to the library. I have a large fine, and seriously, I'll probably just skip town without paying it.



• Wash my fabric before I use it for a quilt.



• Clip coupons, just typing that makes me nauseous about all the work that I foresee.



• Give my kids vitamins. Some days I can barely get them fed all of the food groups in no particular order.



• Go through family pictures. I had my friend Becca take some family pictures and I'm still traumatized at how awful it went, independent of Becca - she was fabulous, that I can't summon the courage to open the file again.

Katie

The Great Debate

I have debated and debated about whether or not I should post this. I know that some of you already know about it, which is fine, I try not to have any secrets. And if any of you would have asked, I would have told you my thoughts, straight up.

I'm just going to go for it:

I don't miss Elizabeth when she goes to school.

I know that I should and that she's gone for a really.long.time for someone so small.

But people, I don't.

We've had five.whole.years together. No preschool, no daycare, nothing.

The time has come for her to go to school and for the other two innocents to have some attention.

Go ahead, judge away.

Something else? It really bothers me when people don't turn on their blinkers when they're in the left hand turn lane. I know that it's 'implied' with it being a turn lane and all, but still....

And why I'm in a confessional state, I'm really sorry I didn't post on Friday. I just couldn't get it together.

Katie

Sorry to Say...

that I've been avoiding doing a post today.

Not that I don't adore and appreciate all of you and not that I don't think you deserve a fab post, I just don't think today is that day.

It could be one of the following reasons:

I was oh.so.sick yesterday.

Elizabeth was oh.so.sick on Monday.

I am worried that someone else will be oh.so.sick in the not too distant future.

My tomato plants, all eight of them, have produced a total of 2 ripe tomatoes.

We ran out of cereal two days ago.

I have cookie sheets full of stale bread waiting to become croutons. I don't eat bread bums.

My nose hurt for two days after the 'incident', however, I don't think that it's broken.

Katie

What I Learned This Week

• Throw up is the grossest when you are the one cleaning it up than at any other time.



• That it's a miracle that Adeline hasn't broken her other arm.



• Two kids at home that take naps is way easier than three kids.



• Moms are the best, especially when they visit and do all of the stuff that you get so.tired.of.doing: changing poopy diapers, taking the kids to the park, doing baths, cleaning dishes, wiping kids off after dinner, etc.



• When you are getting your three year old ready for bed with you leaning over and holding pajama shorts and she decides to jump in instead of stepping in and she rams your nose with her head at full speed and then you start crying and gushing blood like nobodies business and are trying to think of some obscenities that would be wildly appropriate for this situation and realize you don't really know any because you were raised better than that and then your daughter starts crying because you've scared the dickens out of her with so much blood and your head and nose hurt for four hours after the incident and there is a slightly perceptible black eye, you about want to call it quits.



• Five year olds need more sleep than they would have you believe.



• You can buy a chandelier with real crystals at an estate sale for $5 and then go to an antique store to see said chandelier going for $175 and feel prett-y good about yourself.



• The A-Team is actually a really, really funny movie, although your husband will be quoting antiquated lines from the original series for days.



• People who read this blog know about as much about plumbing as I do, which if you haven't caught on, is noth.ing.



• You take it personally when someone stops following your blog.



• Your husband quoting a line from one of your posts, i.e. ....not swayed by feminine tears....., is not nearly as funny as when you write it.



• A good book can be the best solution to a lot of problems.

I'm secretly hoping I don't have as much to learn this week,

Katie

Not Really a Project Post

This isn't really a project post.

I haven't done any 'projects' this week.

However, don't you worry, I have a whole stack of stuff to work on.

Some of it will be spray painted, *gasp* and some of it is just waiting to find a home.

This is a flake out post, even I know that. But I really am curious if any of you are working on projects. I'm actually screening to see if any of you qualify to work on some of my pile of stuff.....

In the meantime, I'm off to some garage sales.

Katie