Sunday, March 15, 2009

ohhh pretty.

I think I may have to get a couple of these! over a big comfy chair for reading, two on either side of the bed... hmmmm.... I LOVE them.

the paint...

and a little funny story, funny now, but not last night....

last night we were at moms clearing out all the crap (don't get me started on this) and painting and cleaning, getting the house ready to have 4 additional inhabitants.

I went to the paint store and picked out colors to paint me and b's bedroom. Got home and started painting with mom and jo. Decided I hated the colors I picked out (we already painted the living room twice, because the first color I picked out was awful). The room is small, I think only like 10' x10'. I thought it would look good to paint three walls neutral and one wall a bright orangey red color. Wow that sucked.

It was so ugly I couldn't even look at it. Also it has this huge ceiling fan that is brown and gold and huge (getting replaced hopefully today) so how can you take a room seriously. The neutral I chose kind of looked like grey poupon color... especially next to what was supposed to be orangey but looked more like ketchup. It was horrible. So after the stupid red color dried I painted two coats of the neutral over it and decided that the neutral was okay. Once I get artwork up and furniture in, you won't really see that much of it anyway... the room was way to small for two colors.

B came over after work and we were downstairs chillin. I had shut my bedroom door, and the boys were playing upstairs in what will be there room, right next to my bedroom. After a little bit I thought maybe I should check on the boys. They were playing so quiet and nice. I walked up the stairs to see little max,

with a red roller in hand, red paint on his toes. and my kind of ugly neutral walls with red roller marks all at max's height. He had opened the red paint, dumped some on newspaper and the floor, had walked in it and made little max toe prints all over the carpet. He froze dropped the roller and ran into the closet crying and shutting the door. OH he knew what he was doing was sooooo wrong. I could barely get a word out. Mom and B were right behind me, I started trying to get as much of the paint off the carpet and was not even able to look at max. My mom swooped him up and took him to the bath. My mom took over on disciplining while me and B tried to get as much of the paint up as possible. Luckily it came up pretty well, I mean as well as red paint on an off white carpet can come up.

Max got a stern talking and bathing from grandma, got put in his jammies and had to sit on the couch till it was time to go. Seriously I may have beat his little butt, but I think getting the wrath of galinda on you was just what he needed. He knew what he did was bad, he tried to tell us it was an accident... silly boy.

I can't place all the blame on him. I should have had all that crap out of reach. I should have done more than merely shut the door on my disaster paint project. But he knew he was not supposed to touch the paint. He knew what he did was wrong, you could see it all over his guilty, little, painted face.

my house...

I Love our little house. All 916 sq ft. of it. After being here for 3 years we have really learned to use every last bit of it's 1920's frame.

That is why the last week has been so difficult. Really the last 3 months. I had to make a terrible decision, a decision if I am being honest, I didn't ever want to be put in the position to make.

Remember this post. Well my mom came to us with a plan, we don't own our house, and she does not fully own her house. So the plan was for us all to move into her house, and all of us will be saving money to maybe, or hopefully, buy Micheal out. The thing that sucks is mom is in Vancouver. I kind of hate suburbia. I kind of love where we are now. I kind of love my large backyard and the great garden area I put in. I kind of love my tile patio. I kind of love my little sunroom, that is too little to really be that useful. I love that my house is surrounded by 100 yr old Camilla trees, and the huge bleeding heart fuchsia. I love the 10 minute drive to downtown portland. I love that I have 3 parks within 3 minutes. I love living next to a funeral home, very quiet, private neighbors. I love my farmers market down the street on sunday mornings. I love my landlord, who mows our lawn every other week, who helped me put in the patio, and when I called him with the sad news we were leaving, asked "is there anything I can do to make you stay."

I know I will find things to love about my mom's neighborhood. I know I will find parks that we love. I know that kennedy school is still only 15 minutes away. I know we will be saving money. I know I will really enjoy the huge garden in the backyard even if it is not nearly as pretty as mine. I know my boys will love the greenhouse, and the long row of raspberry bushes. I know I will grow to accept the fact that my mom painted her kitchen peach (and secretly hope she too will see how god awful it is).

My mom has pretty much given us free range on the home decorating, (except her god awful peach kitchen). She and I both have had to give up a lot of our self to make this kind of work so far. I am bummed, and scared, and sad, but in that I am hopeful. I remind myself daily, I do not own this house, this is working towards a goal, this is the best thing in the long run. Now if I could just get that head knowledge to my heart I will be all good.

Sunday, March 8, 2009

my own personal planes, trains, and automobiles experience...

Last weekend was my best friend Mels birthday. We had been planning a visit and it seemed at the last minute everything was kind of falling apart. I pushed forward though... sometimes I should just give in, but no, not me, when the universe starts telling me "No"... I turn around and say, "hit me again, I am still moving forward."
Mel lives in Susanville, Ca... 8 hours away from Portland. Originally it was supposed to be a whole family trip, at the last minute B had to work, they had a crazy inventory the week before and he had to re-do it. Sucks... I really wanted to be there for her b-day so we decided I would still go, without B. In the midst of this, we are packing our house, I have another set of samples to get done, 2 meetings this week for spring orders and two dress orders to get done for shops. I am stressed, to put it lightly. But I wanted to go, so go I did.
We did fine getting there. The boys did really well, we had a great visit the first couple of days, we had 4 kids between the two of us, and that is quite a handful, but it was fun.
I originally was going to leave on Monday, but decided to stay till Tuesday. Tuesday we woke up to snow. 8 inches of snow. I didn't know what to do. We decided to wait it out and hope that Wednesday it would be better. It wasn't. But I had to get home.
This was my ride home:
  • Left Susanville with chains on, had mapped out an alternate route that didn't go as high into the mountains but in the end took me 2.5 hours out of my way
  • After a half hour of driving with chains on the wet pavement, I made the executive decision to take them off.
  • Should have left the chains on.
  • Was hit with more snow and icy roads.
  • Was praying and having the kids pray for us to make it off the mountain safely.
  • Slid off the road into a snow bank.
  • Cried
  • Got myself back on the road, after some more tears.
  • 5 hours later had made it out of the snow. YAY...
  • Was so close to my destination, Medford, when I got stopped 20 miles south of Ashland, Because of ice, chains were required on all vehicles.
  • Cried.
  • Finally found a spot to pull over amidst all the semis and other cars trying to get over the pass to put chains on my car.
  • Successfully chained up the car.
  • Stopped to tighten the chains and broke one of the pulleys, had to find a trucker to help me rig it to get me pass the chain check point.
  • Driving with chains on sucks.
  • Made it to Medford, what normally would take me 3 hours took me 9.
  • Had a nice visit with Jeff and Shannon in Medford for the night.
  • Loaded up and headed to get gas for the drive home, and realized somewhere along my horrible roadtrip the day before I had lost my bank card.
  • Had to unload tired, cranky kids and take them into the bank to get some money so we could get home.
  • Made it home.... was so happy.
  • Next morning woke up with a sore throat.
  • Friday night ended up in the E.R. with a severe throat infection, 102 temp after taking advil, and lymph something (my throat was almost swelled shut)...
  • I am done road tripping for the rest of this year.