a moment in history

i made my kids watch the inaguration today. some were more interested than others! isabel (5) had the funniest comments.....

"will he change everything? like, will there be no tv? will we have to keep the windows shut? will he close all the great wolf lodges?" (we're going there this weekend) HA. hopefully he'll change some things. hopefully not the things my 5 year old deems important!

still trying

to get used to my teenager's voice. sometimes it's really cute. sometimes it's really grating. i miss baby talk.

the chair must go. and the kids.

what i really mean is that i must post a new post.

most people who know me, know that i like to camp. i can go without a shower for many days. i'm happy being sweaty and gross, if needed. sometimes, if i'm not going anywhere i just stay in my workout clothes all day. stretchy, comfortable fabric. i put a bandana on my hair and i'm fine with it. this could go on for a few days, actually. sometimes i do go places dressed this way. however, i have a hidden diva underneath. i love to have my hair done, my nails done and get massages. this past week i did two of those things. going to the nail shop is a funny experience. if you go to the "on the cheap" place where a pedicure and manicure together are cheaper than the "spa-like" place's pedicure alone, you are hit with the smell of some serious nail chemicals. these places give decent nail care but they also do fake nails, airbrush and fill ins. today was on the cheap. it's always fun to get your nails done while breathing in toxins and watching infomercials. when i'm feeling luxurious and have extra money to spend, i hit the aveda school. it takes forever to get an appointment there, but it's worth it. you get a spa-like treatment and it smells way better. breathing in essential oils IS probably better for you. they even have candles in the bathroom. when i'm feeling really crazy (like, never) i go to a real spa. they're really quiet and subdued. calm. lots of pillows on the sofa-like thing you sit on to have your feet done. no matter which my feet feel lighter and my hands feel dainty and soft. i forget that i have piles of laundry, kids waiting for dinner, a floor that really needs mopped. i am, for a few minutes, a pampered queen.

happy christmas from my really cute kids

and my really cute chair.

phrase for the day for all my gurlfriends

KEGEL, KEGEL, KEGEL.

treasure box

my foraging days at the thrift store began back in college days when i had little to no money to spare. over the years i have found great clothes, shoes, dishes, a DOWN comforter, and furniture. i love the smell of a thrift store. there is a musty sort of odor. i've never been in one that smells any different. i love the people who work there. they mostly seem to have had a rough existence and i feel a kindred spirit. about 6 years ago i found a fabulous gold 60's chair in great condition. $25. i was so proud of my chair. i told everyone who sat in it how much it cost and where it came from. the color of the chair went really well with my orangish loveseats. a couple of weeks ago, the legs on the chair bit the dust. my husband, who is very handy, could not even repair the chair. sadness. we've moved it up to the boys room, because it SO looks like a dorm/boy/bachelor pad chair now. what to do. no chair. i moved some stuff around and put one of our ikea poang chairs in it's place. it was okay, but not an amazing chair! on saturday i went to do some christmas shopping and decided to stop by the local goodwill. what i love about thrifting is that you go with a certain something in mind and leave with nothing you planned to buy! while walking through the back of the store down the aisles of dishes, i did a quick glance over the furniture and there it was. a beautiful, perfect condition, greenish/blue (my colors now) chair. could i be so fortunate? another chair at the thrift store? i went over to check it out. no dirt. i lifted the cushion. heavy. old. nice square shape. i looked at the tag. custom upholstered at shillitos. now, i'm not from cincinnati, but i do know that shillitos was a local department store that went out of business in the late 70's (according to my husband). this chair sat in someone's house and was never sat in. someone loved this chair and kept it in the living room covered in plastic. and now it was at my goodwill. i sat in it. i picked it up and checked the springs. perfect. i looked at the price. $36. i asked a worker to put a hold tag on it for me. i went to pay and this is where the heavens opened up and angels sang. 50% off all furniture day. $18. i loaded it up and brought it home. i sighed. i kept looking at it in the rearview mirror. my new, cheap, perfect chair. i know, i know. it's just a chair. but sometimes, when things of this nature happen i feel that maybe, just maybe there is someone looking out for me. giving me a little gift in the midst of my chaotic life. a sign. that i am loved. so it may be just a chair gracing my living room but to me it is my sweet treasure found in the midst of other unwanteds waiting to be found.

atlanta friends

When I graduated from college back in 1990, I floundered. I really had no set plan and no job that I was dying to get to. I lingered around East Tennessee not really knowing where else to go. My parents lived there at the time so it seemed to make sense to stay. My younger brother and several friends were still in the area. I got a job waiting tables at a really foofy restaurant and made more friends who made living there a really fun time. The best part about the restaurant was that my friends there were not cut from the same cloth as me. Meaning, they did not all grow up in the christian church like my fellow classmates at Milligan College. One of them was even someone I deemed famous as he played in a popular local band who I spent countless hours dancing the night away to when I should have been studying. We got to be good buddies and I even got to sing with him a couple of times in a local bar. Another friend lived in a fabulous old house and I spent much time with her because her hubby was in the merchant marines and not around a whole lot. There was a mom with 4 kids who worked nights, a chef who sat on a stool after all the work was done with his bud light in one hand and a handgun in the other, my boss (the chef's wife) who was a tiny, little firecracker of a woman who I think never sat down, the various high school workers and my favorite alternate lifestyle friend who had been with his partner for years. I worked there for about 8 months and had a blast. These people were kind of like the hospital people, yet had it a bit more together. I knew this wasn't going to be IT for me. Only a few of the waitstaff there looked at their job as a career. Most of us were just passing through. After a few months of being there, I was wooed to the lovely city of Atlanta. Over my summers traveling with an acapella singing group from my college, I met lots of wonderful people. Some of these people had families. Wives and kids. When I met their wives and kids I fell in love! They were living on the same street, houses and families connected. They ate dinner together, the kids played everyday and it seemed like a utopia to a newly graduated college kid. I found a house to rent, got a job and moved down. These friends of mine took me in and loved me to death. I ate with them, babysat their kids and we lived life together. My parents ended up moving down and several of my college friends as well. For about a year I joined my life with these people and they became my extra family. Life has bittersweet moments, however, and I ended my stay in their lovely community to follow a dream of adventure. I always planned to go back there though and I did a few years later with my husband and eldest son. My second child was born while living back in community with these people and life was bliss. When we decided to move north to be closer to blood family (my parents had since left Atlanta for jobs in Ohio) I was desperately sad. I recognized the need and want for our kids to know their grandparents, but I was heartbroken to leave my second family. I was determined not to break ties with these people with whom I had given my heart. We have lived in Ohio for 11 years and we come to Atlanta for Thanksgiving every year. Our friends come to us for New Years and we even go on a week vacation together in the spring. Somehow over the distance our bonds will not be broken! I never thought you could have this kind of community but it really can work. Now the kids I used to babysit are all either in college or in their upper years of high school. My kids have all befriended these children and it's fun to see them have a relationship that goes beyond the normal friendship kind of relationship. My kids really consider these guys their extended family and that is a wonderful thing to have. While I wish sometimes that there could be more, that we could live on the same street together again. I am content in knowing that they are in my life for good.