Okay, okay!!!

I know, I've been keeping everyone in suspense!! The new home!

Basic info: this house is a 1919 sq ft 3/2 with an additional converted garage with another full bath, a studio in the back and a covered, enclosed sunroom. I realize now that of all the pics I've taken these last couple days that none are actually of the front of the house, so another day perhaps. It has much of the typical issues you would expect of a 50 year old house, which we were both expecting and ready to take care of. This isn't the first time we've done this afterall, though the fact that the house has stood empty for many years has caused some of those issues to be a little worse. No prob, Team Cumby and their trusty project manager/FIL Paul have it under control.

We expect to gut the kitchen, remove wood paneling and replace with sheetrock, hang crown molding, gut remodel the hall bath, install vinyl, double paned windows and paint the entire interior as our first big projects. We call that Phase One, with the idea being that after Phase One is complete we can move in without being in a war zone. Phase Two gets into staining the concrete in the sunroom, wood and sheetrock repair in the converted garage, tiling of that after removing carpet, minor remodel of the full bath in there, and exterior wood replacement of the entire garage (the house has all new, but not the garage). We will paint the entire house at that point because we are not in love with the blue-grey. Phase Three involves that studio which is a mess at best. We will likely knock it down to foundation and use the roof to build an exterior lounge area perfect for when and if a pool gets in (which is the Phase Four hope!) Basically we go as far as our budget will carry us and do more jobs as more money trickles in.

We closed on the house on Wed at 10, got to the new place around noon. Took before pics and then got to work...here is a Flickr album so you can see the progress five days in the house has made. Some might look uninteresting if you don't know what is going on, esp electrical and stuff like that, but just know it is all awesomeness. You may have to hit the plus sign on the right to see all the pics or you can drag the bar at the bottom, they are in order over the course of the last five days.

Seven years of the storm cloud of doom...

Yup, we have finished seven years as a couple, me and Jason. What a couple too, dubbed the storm cloud of doom from the start because of our sarcastic, caustic wit. Ironically, we are a happy, smiley family now and while the sarcasm is still there, it is mostly directed outwards to the world and not each other. I would share the hookup story, but it is a lame one so I'll skip it and tell you how we did spend the day.

Jason went to the work nurse to get some aspirin for some chest pain and as a precaution she made Jason go to the St Luke's clinic a block over to make sure he wasn't having a heart attack. Dylan and I brought him over and it was muy exciting. It actually wasn't, but the place was nice and the people were cool and we got a couple funny shots of Jason pretending to be sick and me and Dylan pretending not to be bored. The plus was that I had my copy of the Kite Runner with me and it is a fantastic book so far. Unfortunately I was reading it in the waiting room and my eyes were a little misty. The doc came to talk to me and I looked up with tears in my eyes -- naive doc seemed to think I was actually concerned about my DH and not just involved in a really good book. I decided not to crush his soul and reveal the truth, that I wasn't really concerned that something was wrong, but Jason and I shared a laugh about it. Because, oh yeah, everything's fine!







Tune in tomorrow for an actual update on the house! Lots of progress being made, lots of pics to share!!

It's hard out there for a pimp

I've been dying to share this story, it is beautiful.

Sunday after going to Dolores' for the Cumberland Summer in the City pool party, we decided we would have a Fat Boy Moment (term trademarked by the Cumberlands, lol) and we went through the drive through of Jack in the Box. Being on new turf, we went to one close to the new house, but soon learned it is worth the effort to just go to the old one. We order our Fat Boy Moment Meals (jumbo size it, homie!) and that much carb and fat takes a bit to cook so we are told to go park up front and wait for our bounty.

We park and I see a young-ish man with this crusty old blonde chick, hanging out outside. I'm bored, so I narrate what I decide is going on between these two. Now he's just dancing on the corner, like some hip hop song is going through his head (hmm...like Three Six Mafia...) and crusty McHerpes is stumbling around with her matted up blonde hair looking like life has ridden her pretty hard in her forty some odd years. I decide they are Pimp and Hooker. Pimp tells Hooker to go in and do something. She isn't gone very long, even if she is total pro, but she comes back with money. Then they start hugging and kissing and I think to myself, now you're just being judgemental. They're just a couple and here you are calling them Pimp and Hooker...until he pushes her away and he has the money in his hand. Oh hell no!! She then sits down with her 40 that's been sitting there the whole time. Classy too!

In conclusion, what some might call being judgemental, I call good instinct. The best was when we pulled away and a cop went by. Pimp practically hit the ground and I laughed in my soul. Then I buried that feeling with fries and it was good. Since I like to always have pics with my blog posts, enjoy watching this pimp get shown what is up...

My kid is 3

And he is amazing.



We had a weekend of celebrating this boy and while I am certain he had a frickin blast, I am uber glad it is over. I just get so worked up over all the details, about making sure people can come, making sure they have a good time, making sure about this and that. And I wasn't super impressed with the Little Gym we did it at, so I was just a bundle of anxiety. I tried to ignore the cake that melted, the fact that they only served water (really, not even like gatorade?!), all the stuff that was glaringly not right to me and focus on the really cool people we have in our lives. There are the families we see all the time and the ones we literally only get to see for birthdays, but I dig them all. My favorite quote of the day came from Rachelle's little lady, Maddi. I asked if she liked the cake and she answered, "Yes, I do. You really should try it" like a perfect lady. I know she's not since her mama has told me the things she has said that were less savory, and that made it twice as cute.





Today we had a pool party over at Jason's Aunt Dolores' as a sort of happy summer and happy birthday party for Dylan and his cousin Annie Rose. More cake, more presents. And then we got to come home, play with presents and finally rest.

This week will probably be the closing on the new house. We were supposed to technically finish before 6/15, but it will be 6/9 tomorrow and I don't know if that gives all parties involved and the title company enough time. We are starting to get super anxious and just want to start ripping bathrooms and paneling out already!! Will update all as soon as we know more!

Pee pee in my potty...

So proud of my kiddo...



I realized when I saw Heather this week that I hadn't let everyone in on this, but since I spent last week with food poisoning from Hades (thank you, Uncle Billy's in Austin) I missed my chance. Dylan is potty trained and wearing underwear everywhere he goes (except to sleep, I'm not crazy). I was so afraid he was going to turn 3 and be peeing himself, but it happened. I get what people say when they say one day it will just click with the kid, but not emphasized enough is the amount of months of extreme effort that finally lead up to that magical point. It's like some singer who explains that they are an overnight celebrity who has been playing gigs for the last fifteen years.

Being at MIL's has been good for the process, he just wandered around naked for weeks and weeks and would go use the toilet himself. Put underwear on him though and he'd pee right on it. And again. And again. Until the one day he suddenly didn't. And then suddenly picking out underwear was interesting even though the million times before he had no desire. What an exhausting process, who the heck wants to have another kid after that?! Maybe that's why a lot of kids are close in age, parents don't get to this point before fertilizing another egg. Or maybe I have no patience at all, which is much more likely accurate. So glad though, go Dylan.

Other than that, looks like it is a go ahead for living on the same street as the in-law's, we just need to set a closing date. All inspections are done, all should be well. I am ready to just get in there, do our renovations and then get the heck on in! If I had to guess, that won't be until August, but who knows. Gotta go now, looks like Jason might be getting Mario Kart of the Wii ready to go. Shan, you'll know when we're ready to take you guys on...

Duuuuude....

Jason sent me a link to a super duper website that lets you see, among other cool things, PSA's from the 70's, 80's and 90's...and I went straight to looking for this one...



I LOVE trashcan lid drugs!! Seriously, did this ad change anyone's mind? I mean, I remember it more vividly than anything from my childhood and yet... That trashcan lid, I just can't get over that. Anyone ever offer you a platter of options like that? I'd sure like to hear about it

Here's the website to blow an entire day of work or school:
http://www.retrojunk.com/

Yay to be Gay!!!... in CA anyway

I just wanted to give a high five to the peeps of California who today righted a wrong by allowing gay marriage in their state. Get it while you can, because it sounds like in November there's a chance it will be up for debate again with a ballot measure. And heaven knows, there is a huge pocket of people who will fight so hard to take this right away. People protecting the sanctity of marriage, many of whom are divorced themselves. I've said it before, homosexuals don't destroy marriage, heterosexuals who divorce at a rate of 50% do. Now, at least in CA, everyone can destroy the oh-so sacred sacrement of marriage together!

I know this isn't popular and I know that some of you have already stopped reading this. But I feel a passion about this issue and the gay and lesbian community because I can see how easy and acceptable it is to treat them like second class citizens and it burns me up, the same way I feel when people persecute others for any reason. If two people love each other and are dedicated to each other, well yay because love is good wherever you can get it. And don't be mistaken, "civil unions" are straight out of the "separate but equal" playbook, and we know how well that initiative went. No one's making your church do them or rewriting your precious religious texts. It's government, plain and simple, and it's meant to cover everyone, not just Christians or any specific religious group despite what some may think. If you don't like it, fabulous. It doesn't affect your marriage if Joe and Jim down the block are taxed the same way you are or if Susie and Sally have a certificate like yours. So mind yours, and let this community mind theirs, now fairly allowed the same rights.

Good job, CA! I won't hold my breath for Texas though...

Jerk of the Month

Now that we have this in the works...



it is time to buy. I've had a trophy made up for Jerk of the Month (not really) and I am awarding it to the sad man who got greedy and turned down our sticker price offer so he could relist for $10K more. You are a sad man and I hope your house sits on the market for quite awhile. Don't think that your house was overpriced just because we were trying to keep it simple and not play around. You suck.

I considered attaching the listing here, but I don't need him getting greedier and suing me. He can keep all his douchebag art and tool-eriffic vases and decorative items and live there forever. Anyways, the story:

Last Saturday we saw this house and really liked it. It was beautiful and would really fit our needs. We put an offer in, despite the fact that the guy lied/omitted on the sellers disclosure about an obvious flaw in the flooring in the living room that it seems he himself remembers causing, despite the fact that the neighborhood is shady to the max and despite the fact that this place faces an actual ghetto mini mart where shady people chill in and out all day. I was happy enough with a wrought iron fence enclosure and security cameras, but frankly I am special. Next day we make our offer and then we drop by the open house to show our parents. Karishma, the realtor, was trolling for new offers, mentioning that there was already an offer on the table. "Yes, that's mine" Jason told her. Tacky. She had met us the day before and everything, but equally tacky Jason told her not to worry about remembering him, that all white guys look alike. Great, Jason, great.

Anyways, magically our realtor gets a call that night while he happens to be with us that there is another offer on the table and how high do we want to go. He said, sounds good, tell him to take it because we aren't going higher. She is flabbergasted. Perhaps there's no real offer? Maybe? She calls again the next day, "Did your clients decide to come up with more money?" Uh, no, already told you it is what it is. Fast forward to this morning to when I finally saw what I knew was happening. House is relisted for $10K more.

Greedy loser and lame realtor, great team. We had heard that this dude thought his house was worth way more and had to be convinced to go for the original price and frankly that's the only reason we didn't bother to haggle. My mom was naive enough to tell me they have to accept your offer if it is sticker, but clearly there is more trickery and deceit to this than I thought. Eff this game, seriously!! Selling our house has made us feel so powerless since we know we have to give, give, give to close and I was hoping the buying part is where we'd finally feel some power. So wrong...

Ball of nerves...

As most of you know by now, the house is for sale. Saturday morning the sign went up and the listing hit the internet. Open house was planned for Sunday and we were feeling good. The house looks awesome, you'd practically never know what we purchased five years ago.





I've been meaning to post pics and reflect on it, but I didn't go by until later Saturday and then we had plans on Sunday so I didn't have pics loaded on my laptop til yesterday afternoon. Went to the house to take the trash out and there was a showing going on. There had been a total of 6 or 7 showings over Monday and Tuesday alone. 6 or 7 peeps came through on Sunday's open house. Went back later when they were gone and put the big, heavy trash out. Was driving back and Jason calls to tell me we have an offer on the house. An offer on the house we had listed like 5 days before. Wowsa. And these guys want to move quickly.

So I am a ball of nerves. We are playing the counter offer game and I am terrified they will back out. We have the inspection and I am terrified that it will be revealed that there are dead bodies under the home, rendering it unsellable (I didn't put any there and our inspector didn't find any when we moved in, so we should be okay). If you've ever sold a house, I'm sure you get what I mean, you're just so scared that it isn't going to work out for whatever reason. Then I like some houses for purchase. Terrified I won't get the one I want. Nervous that I want to spend more money that we should.

I've asked everyone to keep the fingers and toes crossed that this goes through. If you have kids, that's 20 more digits that should be crossed for us. I'd rather be sitting around here waiting for our new house to be ready than waiting for the old house to go away. But if this goes through, the Cumbys will officially kick major booty...

**updated -- they countered again (who doesn't love THIS game?!) and we accepted. I'm in love with a new house and ready to move on. Now your fingers and toes need to be dedicated to the cause of us having nothing interesting coming up on inspection... please and thanks!

Oh and a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my super stud Jason who is 32 today. For his birthday, I hope he gets a signed contract. It's a gift we will all use =)

New shirts...

Just a quickie post to show you the awful things Jason and I ordered from T-Shirt Hell...I swear we aren't bad people, we just have a dark sense of humor that is supported by businesses like tshirthell.com who we have bought quite a few cute tees from, including Dylan's "Cuter than Baby Jesus" shirt that might have made it onto a family Christmas card a couple years ago. For some reason, I like to buy these shows that I know better than to wear in public, thus making them pj's...where is my "Dick in a box" shirt, come to think about it...but these will totally be worn Memorial Day weekend because it is Andrea time and if there is something my sister likes, it is shizz like this...

In honor of Wii mania, Jason's:


And partly because I love my gays and partly because I was kind of irritated at a post on some other blog about how gays stole the rainbow:


If you have the stomach for it, that site is hilarious. And I have Aunt Diane to thank for introducing me to it, wassup!!

Mmm, yeah, right there feels good...

Right there in my checking account!! That's where I was stimulated economically today. Still think it is STUPID for the government to just throw money at us when there are so many better ways to apply aid in this nation (post-Katrina New Orleans, the forever war, etc), but now that it is there it will be nice as we continue this grand adventure called selling our house.

How is that going? We're finishing up these next couple nights, meeting with the realtor and I know he's already planning an open house Sunday. It's a pimpin house, peeps, come check it out and buy it!! Will be so glad when that is over!!

Also, just want to say Go Hillary! Mind you, I voted for Obama but I am so glad she stayed in the race because that's what democracy is about. The crime isn't that she stayed in so long, the crime is that the Republicans didn't have two good enough candidates to really go head to head with. I've learned so much about Obama because of Hillary and vice versa. I will support whichever of the Dems ends up with the nomination because I think they both have some amazing things to offer this country, but I can tell you I don't know much more about McCain than I did a couple months ago because he's not being pushed to reveal much about himself. I know that pundits will argue that it is a good thing, as the negative stuff hasn't hit him, but I believe for the sake of full disclosure that it is truly a disservice to the voting public.

Nothing else to chat about for now, so I will leave you with that...

Progress

So, it's been a week of hustling and bustling and we are doing really well with the move. Other than a couple of Dylan's toys that we left at the house for him to play with while we work, everything that is supposed to be at MIL's is and almost all that needs to be in storage is too. Today Dylan was supposed to be with my mom, but she ended up taking on a new account at work, the big wigs are in and she had to work all weekend. Somehow though, Dylan was amazingly good today. Jason and Paul got all new fascia up, crown molding in the master and replaced all the doors in the house. Seriously, like six months of work in a day. Holy moly. While they did that, I worked on packing the rest up and moving boxes and odds and ends to the storage unit. We are all the epitome of awesomeness, and I am rewarding myself with carbs tonight.

Unfortunately, it wasn't all sunshine and gumdrops. Yesterday I stepped outside to shake out the bedskirt and the door locked behind me. Click. Oh fudge. Dylan was inside watching TV and I was locked out. Jason had told me Dylan let him in the other day when he got locked out (if my life was a book and an English student were reading it, that passage would have been highlighted as FORESHADOWING) so I turned the knob and asked Dylan to open it. He burst into tears and stayed in that house howling until I got back in. I managed to flag down a neighbor to call Jason to come home (had to leave a message, though when I called 5 min later he was on his way home) and let me in and the whole time, while I knew Dylan was safe, I could just hear him crying and crying and it was pretty effen awful. The whole thing was prolly 15-20 and every second was hell. While petty thieves have no problem kicking down my door, I had no idea how to do so myself. In the future, I will bury a key in a corner of the yard or a flowerpot.

The house is looking so amazing that Jason wants to raise the price. Wait until the painter finishes, it will be pure awesomeness. I can't think of anything a buyer would have to do to it, it will be top dog in the neighborhood =)

Catching up with the Cumby's...

So I know you are all on the edge of your seats wondering what's going on and so I won't make you wait another second... we're moving in with Jason's parents next weekend. Not what you expected, right? Me neither, but I think it is great. We are not staying in this house while it sells, so we were planning to get a cheap-o one bedroom apartment and Karen and Paul offered essentially that (at no cost). We'll have our own section of the house that has a living room, a bedroom and a bathroom. They offered another room, but since they are starting some other construction I think they should keep it open for any of their stuff that suddenly needs a new home. It's funny, but in my quest to consume less, I think it is sort of cool to see what the real essentials in our lives are. So many things that I am going to pay to store that day to day don't even matter to me. Do you think that stash of Scrapbook Trends and Cards mags will make me cry at night while it is in storage? What about my George Foreman grill, my coffee maker (have I ever used that?) or my margarita glasses (still in their original packaging)? Don't worry, my scrap stash is so reduced now that I should be good with bringing what I need to make treasures while I am gone. Digi will def be doable as well. Sex will not be though, as my MIL pointed out. Not to say that we shouldn't, she just pointed out that by choosing to have Dylan in the same sleeping quarters that it will cramp our style. To which I say ew, living with your in-laws cramps your style so much more.

That's next weekend, so today I got a storage unit, need to be getting boxes, packing boxes and prepping up. I need to find a painter because mine sucks. There's heavy trash on Thursday, so a lot needs to be dismantled and put out. Lots (and lots!) of little jobs around the house that will need to be done. Dylan will be at my mom's all day tomorrow so we can get a head start. Then there will be a wave of relief as we are done, the for sale sign goes up and we sit and wait. Our realtor is super cool and optimistic, so hopefully this will end sooner rather than later. Then comes the real fun, picking our next home =) In that time as well, we will be doing swimming and gymnastics lessons, starting Mothers' Day out in prep for preschool, celebrating Dylan's birthday at Little Gym, and so many other things. In May, Jason's parents will be out of town one weekend and we will be out two. Hopefully we can not get on their last nerve. Heather, hope you're up for some sleepovers =)

Yeah, so, I am moving in with my parents-ish. What could be cooler than that to brag to the world wide web about?

Randomness pt 2

First things first, I meant to come on here and ask this earlier, but which do you think is meaner - politician's wives having to stand alongside their cheating mate while he does the walk of shame...



or American Idol making the newest castoff sing after they've just found out?



It was just a random thought I had last week while Rami was pouring her eyes out over being kicked off and preparing to torture my ears one last time. I didn't feel badly for her, she's a karaoke brat, but I did think it is still a sort of cruel tradition. Plus, the song gets all phlegmy since they are crying, so it sounds like shizz. Just saying.

Moving along, Jason and I have made the grand decision to sell this house and move on to greener pastures. Wowsa! It was funny, I've been thinking of it for awhile but I thought the economy was too bad and then I didn't think Jason would be on board, but we got to talking last weekend while we were driving home from the river and when we decided to casually house hunt on Saturday we were hooked.

Let me say this: I know why there are so many foreclosures and I know this from personal and non personal experience. Americans need to frickin live within their own means!! What the heck makes so many people think they are entitled to the most awesome house on the block when they are stretching it as it is? I'm not sad, we're going to likely benefit from little snots buying a house they couldn't afford and hoping the taxes wouldn't catch up, that they'd have that awesome job when the adjustible rate adjusted or from greedy builders who thought they could quickly build and sell ten homes on a block and lost all their money by #8, leaving a shell of a house in its place. I get that there are people not in this position who are losing houses, and trust me when I say I know about predatory mortgage sellers. I worked on the level of predatory check card and credit card sales and that brings me enough shame. But a huge chunk of these people got what their family and friends saw coming. Again, I know this from experience and since you know my house hasn't been repo'd, you can assume I am family or friend. Bleh. But it will likely benefit us, because not only are awesome houses going cheap in places, but the govt is debating giving a $7K credit to those who buy foreclosed homes:
http://econlog.econlib.org/archives/2008/04/be_careful_what.html

I'll keep you all updated on the house selling process as we go. Jason is chatting with his mom, the somewhat retired realtor, tonight and we will call the active one she is referring us to as well as our old pal Shane the mortgage guy who got us set up with this one almost five years ago. We have some work we need to do in the process as well and we need to fight a tax appraisal as well that somehow thinks we're a mansion when we're a little chicken shack. Keep your fingers crossed that this process is easier said than done...

I C U P

So...Heather very strongly asked me to put up a new blog entry and since Dylan looks adorable and we love Meg and her reputation, we shall do just that. For the record, absolutely no hard feelings -- we even paid to be in Meg's gymnastics class so we can make sure to see them (and jump on things) every Tuesday until June 2. She's really rather cute when she isn't in your purse or cutting things you like.

Let's talk about pee.



Specifically, the urine of a child who would love to funnel apple juice into his gut constantly. Jason has been wanting to push this again, we go in waves of me saying "We can't push him, it will backfire" to small victories with Jason pushing back to business as usual. He was pushing it last night and so I wanted to work on it today. Can't do much when we aren't at home, but as soon as we got home the diaper was off. I immediately got pee in a potty. Well hallelujah, maybe I do believe in the power of prayer! But then he pees on the rug. Knows it isn't cool and says "uh oh!" holds the rest and is brought to the bathroom and finishes there. That's a good lesson for him, so I am encouraged. There are no consequences when peeing your diaper, aka super sponge, but the rug isn't cool. It almost got on your Mickey! But then he peed on the cabinet in the bathroom, doing the same thing as before. Listen to the urge, man!

Just as I was typing that I heard him peeing on the rug and various toys. I know he has to get used to listening for the urge, but clearly I need to get all toys, books, and valuable to higher ground. His Little People plane simply didn't deserve that... Maybe this is the right way and we'll keep at it, but we are accepting any tried and true potty advice right now. "They'll do it when they're ready" is NOT an acceptable answer...

Hack job...

I know Heather's already blogged this, but since my kid still needs a haircut I think I'm entitled to blog too. Long story short, Megan cut Dylan's hair. His beautiful long blonde hair and not in the bestest spot like I thought it was.



It's a little high and too far back to do what I was thinking, but we're going to the hair place today to see what we can do. I think his hair is going to have to be either rockstar or emo with layers. I am shocked to find that on the internet there is absolutely nowhere to look for sample boy cuts. Nowhere. I can see woman on donkey porn in twenty different languages but no ideas for a boy who doesn't know how to tell a girl no.

BTW, the hole count in the shirt was seven. He sat there for a hair slashing and seven slashes to the shirt. Edward Scissorhands, indeed. Heather, I hate to tell you, but this story will live on longer than the sippy cup of 2004...

**updated

We went to the haircut place. The lady was pretty clueless and not into chic boy haircuts. Actually she was quite incompetent, but not a lot of places do little boys down in the city. She left one side longer than the other and it required more cutting (which goes from bad to worse). I know no one gets it about his hair, people were always just telling us to cut it or whatever, but I loved how unique and extraordary he was. Now he has to be extraordinary with a very average, normal cut. It was so hard to grow the stuff past his ears that I can't imagine we'll try again. I know it's dramatic of me, but it really is like the saddest thing for me. I imagine this is what it feels like when a kid cuts off a girl's entire ponytail. Not trying to rub it in, I swear, I'm just really sad. Esp when we left and he tried to run his hands through it and he goes "My hair?"

So we go from this...



to this...



Ignore that little extra bit on the side, I swear the lady did a worse job than Megan, but I got that cleaned up...

Needing a weekend from my weekend...

As many I am sure are as well...it seems like some weekends are just go, go and Easter weekend was no exception. Not that we do a thing to acknowledge the Christian reason for the season (good ol JC) or the pagan roots (a Saxon fertility celebration in honor of the Goddess Eastre whose sacred animal was a hare, you know we weren't looking for babies). No, our respects were paid to the figures Reese's, Hershey's and Brach's.

Saturday we did a little takeout BBQ and easter egg hiding out back with Karen and Paul. I really loved all the things she "hid" for him all over - eggs filled with everything from puzzles, alpha magnets and treats, cars, juice boxes, fruit, rubber duckies, chalk, bubbles, stickers and on and on. Really adorable, here are a couple pics:







He didn't hunt for long, he finally sat with the puzzle and chalk and made his grandma go find the eggs in the yard with more pieces. Very adorable, very fun. The next day was where the go, go, go was. We got up and did our little Easter thing with Dylan's basket. He had already seen the little Thomas toys and had wrangled them away, but I did put them back in the basket for a pic...that basket happens to be the one I grew up with. My mom seemed surprised, but I tend to be both nostalgic and cheap so it works well



Then it was off to the Hix's for the Cumberland brunch...really it was just Grandma Cumberland and the families of two of her daughters plus us, and we were glad they let us join them for a bit. The kids especially loved the playdohing, Danica and Dylan have quite a future in Playdoh Tea Parties





And then finally it was on to my mom's and Jim's... we decided not to really celebrate with the big dinner and such, so we went over, did a basket and then hit the park and Chuy's Mexican. About the park, let me say this. Our intention was to go to Memorial Park (gigantic park for those non-Houstonians, has a gigantic track, tennis clubs, volleyball courts, multiple playgrounds, pool, so on). It turns out though that over Easter weekend, the park becomes a living area a la Grapes of Wrath. If I had to take a guess, this would be mostly apartment dwellers or those with small homes, so they take the extended family here and set up picnic tents, sleeping tents, bbq pits and pinatas. They were everywhere, I could hardly see the actual playground through the swarms. Jason and I vetoed that and found a quieter park where, while pretty busy, was mostly peaceful. I say mostly because there was a huge family party there. Since we didn't go into the actual playground they didn't bother us except for this:



Yup, the idiots not only bought chicks for one day's pleasure, but they bought ones dyed different colors. Animal abuse at its best. Anyways, here are a couple pics from hanging with Mom and Jim, hope you had a nice day and that you can catch some zzz's...















and finally, the shot where Dylan too has had enough and can't lift his head from Daddy's shoulder...

Go 'way, lead paint!

Dylan has recently mastered the use of the popular phrases "Go 'way" and "stop," and frankly he's kind of becoming an a-hole. Thanks Dylan, but if I wanted to be rejected that often, I'd set up a match.com account with an un-Photoshopped picture. Monday he tells me to go away because he wants to play with his trains in his room in peace. Clearly, my aura doesn't jive with that of Thomas and Percy. I go to the living room and do my own thang (aka Paradise Hotel 2 TiVo'd from the ever classy Fox Reality channel and fruit dip) and after awhile I no longer hear the sounds of him playing (which would be trains hitting the floor, hitting the wall, him squealing because he can't find 9...) I walk in and he is face down on the floor not moving.

Is he dead? Did he eat a stop sign? Did the lead paint from the trains finally seep into his brain? I shake him and he whines -- he has simply fallen asleep on the floor among his friends. Could've been a sweet moment if this wasn't in my head:

My day in hell and other interesting bits

You know, I really try to give Dylan all kinds of fun experiences. Sometimes that ends in massive amounts of joy and laughter like his trip to the Children's Museum with Kolby earlier this week and sometimes it ends in thoughts of suicide like our trip with the Turners to the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. I thought I was being clever going during the week when the chaos would be minimal and the trip would be gumdrops and happiness. Wrong.

First of all, let's talk about the millions of field trippers. Every school district in the city appears to reserve their one field trip for this event which frankly is a waste. The exhibit for kids involves watching a cow be miked, an astroturf covered slanted surface intended to be a "hill" for kids to "roll down" (aka get astro burn on their elbows and then land either into a crowd of boot covered feet or at the above mentioned cow milking), lines of smelly animals that aren't intended to be touched and then finally the sales area of Chevy pickups and John Deere tractors. Maybe next year they could actually go somewhere where they could learn something other than the sticker price of a tractor? So as you walk, you are bombarded by these endless lines of children in the same color shirt. They are all over the place, covering the surface of the Reliant Arena like ants on an ant hill that just had the shizz kicked out of it. Wanted them all to just go away, though I was run up and hugged by one who turned out to be MIL's neighbor. I liked that.

So far I've pointed out that the place sucked and that the kids sucked but one kid in particular mega sucked -- Dylan. He wasn't in the mood to be told what to do and where to go, he wasn't in the mood to hang out in crowds and he wasn't in the mood to pretend to like the rodeo. So he cried a lot outloud and I cried a lot inside. He pet two cows and was tickled by that, enjoyed sitting on every foot massager in the place, loved sitting on all the tractors, and wanted the person dressed as a cow to adopt him and take him home and every second in between was pure hell. Here are some pics, but to top the experience off, the lighting sucks so bad in there that every pic sucks too.









Someone please email me a link to this post next year when I consider going to the rodeo again, k?

Vote or die, drink Diet Coke and die...

If you're in Texas or Ohio (or even a little bitty state with primaries today!) please make sure to go vote! Jason and I hit the early voting a couple weeks ago to avoid the lines (and forgetting/making excuses). It's funny watching all the media coverage all this time and it was like a storm when they (Clinton/Obama) finally had their eyes on Texas. Suddenly the mail was full of stuff (Obama mailed to me, Clinton mailed to my mom), the phones were ringing (Obama's wife called my mom on a recording) and the radio channels were full of youngins talking about how Obama understands our generation wants change, Clinton chatting about her past in Texas of doing door-to-door and even enlisting Ugly Betty's America Ferrara to tell the latino voters that Clinton's always supported their peeps, etc. And like it was never here, it will be back to commericals about car dealers and Bikini Beach dance parties tomorrow. I don't care who you vote for, but please get out and do it!!

I mentioned a couple posts ago about my journey to be both healthier and stop killing the environment so much. My major effort is starting with...Diet Coke. As I was having my last sips, I thought about what a strange drink it is, a chemical concoction really. Carbonated water, caramel coloring, aspertame, phosphoric acid, potassium benzoate...the ingredient list makes me think the first time I sprout a tumor, I should just go ahead and direct my attention at the Coca Cola Corporation... and as I drank it and felt that fizz burning down my throat (which I really like, it peps me up, but it's kinda creepy too) I wondered how that drink ever came to be. Anyways, my last one was around 6 pm Sunday and while I was really sleepy all day yesterday, today I got hit with the headache that fellow addicts like Amy Winehouse can relate to. I popped some caffeine pills (will taper that off soonly) so I could get something done today. Feeling better now, hurray. Getting rid of Diet Coke is dual purpose too because we create sooooo many plastic bottles with that habit. While we do recycle, that hardly lets us off scot free. The plan is to get water delivered so that we aren't trading one bad habit for another (soda bottles for water bottles), but the 24 month commitment at Sparklettes was realer than I was ready for.

And now a picture to brighten your day...here's Dylan at Will's charity walk for mitochondrial research blowing on a pinwheel. The walk was downtown in a historical park where they moved a bunch of historical houses like Sam Houston's, etc. Really neat area, Jason and I used to hang out and ride bikes down there when we lived down the street (okay, like once). Anyways, Dylan's officially being mistaken for a girl, but we like his hair and don't want to cut it. Not that it stops anyone from giving their two cents (can't wait til we start making real mistakes, then we'll really hear it!) but maybe I could dye it black and use more product and he could just look like Pete Wentz...anyway, enjoy my androgynous cutie...