1. I do not recommend making-over two rooms simultaneously. As mentioned before we moved Isabelle into her big girl bed which necessitated switching up her room and the office/guest room. This basically involved destroying my upstairs for an extended period as I had to dismantle two rooms entirely and push furniture into the only other available room up there (our bedroom) and the hallway. Picture us climbing over furniture and wending our way around objects in an effort to find our bed at night, and if you had to use the bathroom during the wee hours of the dark it was a real adventure, usually involving a few swear words and stubbed toes. Painting two rooms back to back weekends was a fair amount of work as well, although it went relatively smoothly. And of course, following the family Peterson Law of averages, Isabelle's new bed did not go together in a, shall we say, "simple fashion" with its head and foot boards, so Clay had a few temper flare-ups which added to the festivities. All in all, a little more to handle then I had anticipated, but the end results are two new rooms that do look quite good if I do say so myself.
2. Thank god for the Olympics for they provide some good television to watch. I am so tired of the same old "stuff" and now that football season is over a girl needs more sports because all I have is...
3. Hockey. No, I have not forgotten my lovely Red Wing boys, although they are having one rough season, plagued by more injuries then any team in the NHL and serious injuries mind you. With all the things that have gone wrong for them one would almost think they had some kind of voodoo curse hanging over their heads. Yet somehow they are still lingering near the all important cutoff point to make it into the NHL playoffs going into the Olympic break, and now that they are finally getting healthy, people would be wrong to count them out just yet. Remember, they have the longest running consecutive playoff appearance record of any team in professional sports. And, they have managed to stay alive basically by fielding a team from their Grand Rapids crew and with a rookie in goal. A rookie named Jimmy Howard, who in my opinion has earned the right to be THE goalie from here on out and into the playoffs. Also, watch out for Team Sweden in the Olympics everyone (lots of my Wings are Swedes!!)
4. It is possible for my daughter to never stop talking from the time we leave my garage until the time we pull into the church parking lot of her preschool. This drive typically takes me fifteen minutes, and I swear to you the child does not take more then two breaths the entire time. The other day I felt like I was caught in a giant run-on sentence set on hyper-drive and after I dropped her off I got back in the car and sat still listening to the silence and just laughing to myself. Isabelle's energy level could power small countries. It goes something like this..."Do you see the train on the bridge? I want to ride Thomas again sometime. Oh, no! Thomas is in trouble! We have to rescue him! He fell off the track. Lets push him back on, help me Mommy! PUSH! PUSH! Good, we saved him! Uh oh! Its, Maleficent! (the evil fairy in Sleeping Beauty for those of you not up to date on fairy tales.... Isabelle's favorite evil villain who is a frequent guest in her imaginary play). Drive faster, Mommy. She has a bomb! I am going to call Prince Phillip to take care of it. Phillip! Can you take care of the bomb for us? I don't have time. I have to go to school now. Look Mom, an octagon! There are lots of shapes aren't there? What shape is that sign? Look an oval! Mom, did you see that puppy? Wasn't he cute? Mom, we need to get to school on time because Miss Tracey said it is my job to hand out the sit-upons. I hope we won't be late. Look a square!" You get my point.
5. Cheese Its are the best snack food in the entire universe. Just the original red box, not reduced fat, not any jazzed up flavor, just original Cheese Its. You must always have a box on hand as well as a back up just in case the first one goes empty. It is probably in my family's DNA as my mother also seems to possess a similar desire for the cheese cracker. Get your own box!
6. Never let your husband answer a door to a salesperson. Kirby vacuum cleaners paid us a visit the other day and like an organized mob hit they swooped in on Clay, stuffed a free bottle of Spic n' Span cleaner into his hand and "Boom!" were in the door. Clay wasted the next 45 minutes of his life listening to a long sales pitch from this woman who told him the machine was only 2195, neglecting to mention, of course, that the decimal point in that price did not come after the one. It took forever for him to get rid of her. Rule number one and two to all of you husbands, always say NO and NEVER, EVER let them in the house.
7. Anyone telling me I look nice, whether it is my daughter or some guy old enough to be my grandfather, always boosts me up and makes me feel better. Does that make me fragile in my self-esteem and desperate for an affirmation on my appearance or just normal in that I like a compliment? ( I suppose if you are someone like Heidi Klum you would hear them all the time and it would mean less, right? Or is it the same for all?).
8. I want to be my cat, Mindy for a day and see what it is like to essentially sleep for almost 16 hours, eat, bathe, and get petted.
9. Get off your lazy butt and remove the snow from your car BEFORE driving down the highway. I was behind some schmuck the other day when a rather large sheet of snow dislodged from their hood and proceeded to take flight over their car and land like a two ton boulder on my windshield, temporarily blinding me, and startling the sh-- out of me, before breaking into smaller pieces and falling off of my car in a watery mess, all at 60 or so miles an hour. What if I had flipped out and swerved and caused an accident? As it was it caused Isabelle to scream and yell, "Mommy what was that?!" and I was left to try and calm my freaked out child.
10. No child will ever walk around a puddle when they have the option to splash through it as evidenced by my walk with Isabelle on Friday. Thank goodness for waterproof boots but the jeans were thoroughly soaked.
11. How cool is it that I live somewhere that I can go and watch sled dogs race? I watched the finish of the UP 200 this past Sunday, and while it was not even close to my first time it still is one of the great events to turn out for every winter here in the upper peninsula. A truly unique experience on what turned out to be a gorgeous day on the shores of Superior, reminding me yet again what a beautiful place I live in.
12. I could go on and on, but I will end for now so that I can actually post a blog entry!
