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.