Irritating.

So today, Michael was telling me about how much he didn't like his crab bisque.

It went something like this:

"Mommy...this crab bisque is really difficult. And I don't like to eat it. It's freakin' me out. And I ask for juice and you give me milk. And it makes me really irritated."

OK-THEN.

So we're dying laughing because he's saying this thing all-matter-of-factly...like anyone who is anyone would understand why I would be irritating to my son.

And then THE MOM tells me that he went on the same tirade in the car after they picked her up from the airport.

I'm going to have to have a talk to him about telling people directly when you have a problem with them and not talking about them behind their back first.

We have been having a great time with Brian's mom since she arrived. Today, we made gigantic bubbles (pics to follow...of course) and went to this awesome "teacher toy shop."

Brian's mom gave us a great date night! We did it low-key and like 13 yr olds. It was awesome. We arrived at the mall at 8:50pm. I went to PB to look at curtains. Brian went to BR and in 5 minutes...purchased 2 things. INCREDIBLE to be a boy and shop.

Then we went to The Cheesecake Factory and had dessert! Had a great time watching people (a family of four who did not talk to each other the whole meal and the dad played on his blackberry the whole time...and a "chet" couple). Our waitor was exactly like Steve Carrell in The 40 yr old Virgin.

Back to the Irritating Theme.

Curtain Cost - Piano Room - $1247.
Living Room - $850
Total - $2097

CHOKE. GASP. SPUTTER. RUN TO PIER1 AND BE TOTALLY HAPPY WITH THOSE CURTAINS.

CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS?!??! I THINK IT DESERVES CAPITAL LETTERS.

VERY HIGH on the unintentional comedy list

Check out the list of events for a local county fair:
http://www.cecilcountyfair.org/schedule.aspx

My favorites:

• Masters of the Chainsaw
• Big Tomato Contest
• Youth Dairy Goat Show
• Lawn Tractor and Small Engine Event
• Pig Fitting and Showing
• 4-H Bicycle Safety Exam
• AG showcase pig roast
• Pygmy Goat exhibition show following the 4H small and large pets auction

This is just a few. I know for sure I missed some. I think I am going to read through the list again to laugh.

Hope you enjoy!
P

Talk me off the ledge...or not

Before I get to it...just had to share our version of slip 'n slide:

This was the $5 slip 'n slide at Target. I didn't want to buy the $12 one that came with an inflatable boogie board. Looks like saving $7 and not splurging for the "upgraded" slip 'n slide worked out.

OK. Brace yourself. I have been thinking and thinking and thinking about curtains for...OH...I don't know...2 months. Trying to decide what to do in my piano room.

AND THIS IS THE MADNESS I AM CONSIDERING RIGHT HERE. Tree fabric on the left for curtains. Blue teal-ish velvet on the right for color of the walls and accent color:


It is as my curtain maker lady calls, "something very different. You won't see this anywhere else."

BUT. Is that a GOOD THING? Hmmm...will I want to look at it for a long time?!?! Or is it a phase?

Here is the scale of the tree print and the window it will cover with the lighting in the room. I am going to paint the walls either a neutral beige or the blue that is in the velvet. This is ok because this grayish teal/blue is also the accent color in my living room so it will kind of tie it all together. The black and white of the fabric goes with my black piano:

As you can see, the print scale is not HUGE compared to the space.

Here is the inset window. We are going to mount a box pleated valence...but NOT in the inset of the window. But actually on the walls closest to us so it frames the window. And then have 2 working panels that will pull together and close the whole window, which I need to keep the light off of the piano in the room.

Our plan is to make that whole wall a "focal" wall with the fabric and put a window seat in that inset.
Here is an example of the box pleated valence. Inside the folds, we'll have a plain black fabric to provide some "rest" for the eyes. On either side of the folds, she's going to put a plain black button on the bottom. Also for rest and contrast. So we'll have this valence spanning the width of the window and 1 panel hanging on each side (but within the width of the valence of course)
Honest opinions please. I do realize...it's kind of crazy and modern. SO I need some honest answers....

Will it be too crazy compared to my living room? You can see the room from my living room, which is way traditional:

What I like about this fabric - the tree pattern echos the forest our house is in, it is modern and graphic and different.

What I worry about - will I like it in 3 yrs? Will it be too busy? Will it look out of place in my uber traditional house? will it work with my baby grand piano?


SO. I need help. Here are the questions I want answered:

1. Is this tree fabric too crazy?
2. If I go with this fabric, should I paint the walls a neutral cream or a neutral grayish/tealish/blue?
3. SHOULD I COME DOWN FROM my modern ledge and just stick to the traditional decorating frame of my house....or should I try to inject the bit of "modern" that I like in my piano room?
4. Is this ugly and I don't know?

I have the weekend to think this over. Please help me!

Thank you,

P

Invasion

"A" and Michael have been "calling on each other" to use the old school words. It is adorable. Now A's older brother "E" is coming round too. I think I'm going to have to leave my door unlocked so the kids and come and go as they please! I am thinking of installing a revolving door....

Michael stayed over at A's house for a dinner of spaghetti and meatballs. Spaghetti and meatballs trumps my pork tenderloin ANY day. Even for me! :)

Then after dinner, we found 3 kids playing in our house. It was awesome. I love America. We could NEVER have done this in Paris. There were no other kids in our building! And while we did have another family friend in our apt block...they were French and beat up on Michael and they didn't understand each other. So I am so happy for my little boy to have friends to play with him who are from a great family. And so close by. And knowledgable about ticks and tick removal. :)

My Michael

Michael has discovered he likes to sing.

It is H-I-L-A-R-I-O-U-S. For a variety of reasons.

1. He has his father's singing genes. Which as you know...
2. He has expressed ZERO interest in singing up until this last week. NONE. All other kids singing ABCs...Michael...mute.
3. So imagine our surprise when he busts out with almost his entire Chick-fil-A Veggie Tales CD by memory.
4. Then apparently U2's Mysterious Ways is also in his repertoire.
5. But this is not to say that he is perfect. Quite the contrary. It is extraordinarily funny to see which words he remembers and what he does when they sing too fast for him.
6. Best part? Michael LOVES it and he thinks he is GOOD at it. THAT is very funny too but I am so excited he loves to do it that I am never going to tell him otherwise. Judge me if you want. I don't care.
7. Car rides are never quiet anymore. Not that they were ever THAT quiet. But now, they are filled with Michael's singing. Which is the best and brings smiles to our faces every time.

I will post a video someday. It is funny enough that we are going to go find our video camera and replace the battery that we couldn't replace while we were in France!

And today...something happened that I remember from my childhood...and it happened to Michael. Your neighbor comes over and asks if you can come over and play.

So as you've read before, Michael's newest friend, "A," came over today and asked if Michael could come over and play. Well, yes.

And I watched him hurry and go and have fun. Brian and I got 15-30 minutes of free time. And then I couldn't hear their voices outside so I started to freak out because we do live near woods and a creek...so i started to worry. But he was with "A" who is 6.5 and her older brother "E" who is 10...so it should be ok? RIGHT? Brian told me to chill out.

Luckily...it was near bedtime anyways so I sent B out to get michael...he was just playing inside at A's house.

Gosh...talk about having to let go and not be so overprotective. Now I see why it was so hard for my parents. I just didn't expect to have to do it so soon!

Charlottesville - July 4th!

On Friday, July 2nd, we threw a weekend's worth of worldly goods into the back of our SUV and drove to Charlottesville, VA to meet this super sweet gal:
She was surrounded by this entourage:

And we had a F-A-H-B-U-L-O-U-S time. Seriously. A weekend just full of laughs and we loved every minute of it!

On the way, we stopped in DC at Fairfax center to have Chipotle with Uncle Bill. Mmmm!! I was trying to see if Michael noticed that Aunt AK was missing so I asked Michael, "Hey...is Uncle Bill missing someone? Who is usually with Uncle Bill who is not here now?"

Michael thought.

And said, "GRANDPA! Grandpa is usually with Uncle Bill."

Not quite. But probably correct...I think Grandpa is usually around when we see Uncle Bill!

We arrived late Friday night in Charlottesville, had a good chat, and went to bed to prepare for our Saturday!

Woke up, checked out the Charlottesville City Market downtown (they are big about eat fresh/eat local), and strolled a bit through their little downtown area. SO cute! Had lunch at Revolutionary Soup and then headed out to see Monticello.

Michael and Charlie played all in Jefferson's gardens, which were gorgeous!

Then, we took the family tour of Monticello, which was great! Highly recommend that! Monticello is incredible because the architecture was just so beautiful! Inside and out. And it was neat to see his inventions incorporated into his home. And also a whole wall full of Indian headresses and tomahawks. SWEET.

Michael slept through the whole thing but woke up in time to do this for our family picture: NICE SON. All the chairs and trucks were setting up for the citizen naturalization ceremony they do on the 4th of July.

Brian wanted to strike a pose on the lawn. Again, CLASSY: At least you can say he looks strong!

And because I just like this picture:
Afterwards, we had barbeque with some biting flies eating us alive and went home for an early evening! Then Amy and I ran off to watch Eclipse and left all the kids with the boys! I can't say we regretted it but we were absolutely thankful that they let us do that!

Sunday, we went to their, as Andy calls it, "Rock Band Church." And it certainly was! Michael went to the class they have for children during church and I sat there thinking, "Now tell me why Catholics don't do this?!??!! This is great!" We can pay attention in church and Michael is happy too!

After church, we drove out to Blue Mountain Brewery where we enjoyed some beers, bar food, and gorgeous mountain views!

Went home and almost the whole house went down for a 3-4 hour nap. Sweet. MY kind of vacation!

All this in preparation for seeing the fireworks after 9pm!! Here's our little blanket spread. Can you see who just came back from Europe and doesn't really have lawn chairs?? We got some pizzas, had some watermelon, and had a fantastic picnic!! It was so fun to let the boys run around and so American to get to watch fireworks on July 4th. It was Michael's first time! And there was this older girl who was about 9 years old who basically distracted the boys from antagonizing each other and in turn babysat our kids!! It was fantastic!

Michael LOVED the fireworks and Charlie kept coming back to tell us that, "The fireworks look like they are coming right down on you but they don't!" And then Michael came and got me and said, "Do you want to come sit with me and this nice girl?" Well, of course! And then I started to get nostalgic because one day, he'll actually ask me this and the girl will be his girlfriend.

Here's a fireworks picture. Because I want to:
And I leave you with this picture, which is my favorite of the weekend. My favorites are rarely ever anyone else's favorite. But I love it because it is so American Summer to me:We left Monday morning and were so thankful for a great weekend with wonderful friends who helped make this 4th of July such a great one!

Love,
P

Eclipse

Sooo....I'm a big fan of the Twilight series. Had a great time with Amy this weekend as we saw the poorly acted Eclipse! It was a fantastic time and such a guilty pleasure. It's like the book you read under the covers with a flashlight because you don't want anyone to know that you read it.

I know it's not the pinacle of literature or not some kind of romantic vampire smut...but it's a captivating story! It's romantic, fast paced, and incredible that someone conjured up this whole world. So maybe you're not a Twilight fan...but maybe you are a Narnia fan...or a Harry Potter fan...it's the same kind of deal. A book written for young adults about a fantasy world. So there's no need to hate on the Twilight fans!

Anyways, I ran upon this blog...and this woman makes her case, "confession," for loving Twilight. And except for her adoration of Robert Pattinson...it kind of sums up what I think about the whole ordeal too! Thought the other Twilight readers I had would enjoy it so here it is:
http://cotedetexas.blogspot.com/2010/06/confession.html

P.S. Post about our awesome weekend in Charlottesville next once I go through the pictures! Best 4th of July ever!