Guess What?

Mark is now officially on a tenure-track position at Richard Stockton and we have purchased our first home. The house is so much better than we could have hoped for and we honestly love it. I am sure the honeymoon period will end sometime but for now we enjoy waking up every morning and finding out new reasons to love our 80's house. We wondered if things would change when we owned a home and I have to say they have. Of course these things are always a process, but the house has gone a long way to helping us to feel like we are getting settled back in America. Mark and I aren't decorators but we are dreamers so it is nice to have a space to dream about for awhile. Lucky for us, the house, while not beautiful (yet), it is very liveable and we will be able to live how it is until we can afford to Bergatize it. Melamine Mark has been busy crafting a new closet to fit all of the girls' belongings into, painting the garage (one-coat is all we could muster but one is better than the none-right?), and converting the dining room into an office. We are doing things on the cheap but tasteful (so we like to believe anyway) side so melamine it is. The problem that faces Mark is that I know his knack for solving problems so the sky is the limit for my crazy ideas. Every time he comes home I start out by asking him, "Could you craft me..." He has worked hard and done a wonderful job of using old bits of and pieces of this and that and yes on assembling lots and lots of melamine. I offered to do some hand-crafted wood pieces with my dremel but Mark gave me that skeptical look. So wish us luck and maybe if you are lucky I will share some pictures. For now here is a picture of the tire swing in our neighbors yard that the girls have taken over.

Kindergarten? Really?

I know I normally try to limit my child's comments to the sidebar but I thought this one warranted a main post. I remember one of the biggest rules in my mind in high school was to never wear the same thing two days in a row. Now, while I will and do wear the same thing two, three, seven days in a row... I still carry the habit to my Sunday attire. It is one thing for my children to see me in the same dirty clothes, but when it involves the general public I need to maintain the "don't wear twice in a row" facade. Imagine my surprise when Maya came back from kindergarten with the following story.

Today Lindsey asked me if I was wearing the same thing I wore yesterday. I told her yes and she said EWWW that is gross! I told her it was still clean but she still thought it was gross. I didn't care though because Lindsey is just a (here is the part I like) "Fun-of Maker". She makes fun of everyone all the time.

Fun-of Maker-classic Mayaism. I guess I shouldn't be too surprised by young Lindsey's tendencies to be cruel. These days kindergarteners are what 6 going on 7 years old? Back in the day that meant second grade or something. Too bad I sent my 5 year old - or maybe it is a good thing because she is too young to be hurt by the pettiness and critisism. Then again Maya never was one to doubt herself.
It did occur to me that I am a bit guilty of being a fun-of maker myself. I guess I tend to do it in a more behind the back, back-stabbing sort of way. Is that any better? Anyone else care to fess-up?