Life + Science = Fun

While Scott spent Labor Day with a roller and a bucket of paint, the kids and I spent 5 hours at the NC Museum of Life + Science.

NCMLS is one of the few places that I can spend 5 hours with the kids and never get bored.

Tired? Yes.

Bored? No.

The variety of activities is vast. So much to see and do outside. So much to see and do inside. If all three of us were not getting cranky, we could have stayed at least another two hours!

We started outside on the Dinosaur trail digging for fossils and such...Then we checked out some of the wildlife: black bears, lemurs, wolves and even dragon flies...We caught the wind and flew like a bird in the ornithopter...
And spent quite a bit of time in the Magic Wings butterfly house...
We took a lunch break in the cafe, where a couple of munchkins got a little silly...
But I got to snap pictures of my most favorite pairs of blue and hazel eyes...

Then we headed to the playground where Will did some running around and Eliza Grace worked on her steel drum skills...
Then we headed indoors for all the other exhibits, where I apparently decided I was done taking pictures.

We are all looking forward to heading there again later this fall. And next time we will let Scott come too!

Mom Says the Darndest Things

The other day Will was getting frustrated trying to find the right part to go on a Star Wars Lego ship/speeder/walker thingy.

He stumbled upon the right piece, which was apparently in an obvious location, and then exclaimed, "Jeez Louise, it was right in front of me!"

I laughed because I say "Jeez Louise" all the time. So I started to wonder what other words or phrases I say all the time that my kids have picked up.

With a little trepidation, I asked them.

Apparently, the following are my most commonly spoken phrases:

"Jeez Louise."

"Holy Schneikees!" (not sure of the official spelling of that one)

"Calm down!"

"Oh my goodness."

"Lovely" (said in a low, sarcastic tone)

"Oh my gah."

"Give me a smoochie, lovey"

"Not so loud, please."

"You are pushing it!"

"Yes, my love?"

"I beg your pardon?" (Said with the accompanying stink eye in an effort to have my children rephrase a demand they just made)

"Please Lord Jesus help me____." (fill in the blank. They said I usually say it when I "have had it")

"That's it! No more Wii!"

"Fe Fi Fo Fum, I smell the blood of a William (or an Eliza Grace-ium)" (this is followed by me chasing them until I catch them and tickle them)

"Come into my web, said the spider to the fly." (Also said to lure them into being tickled.)

"For crying out loud!"

"You know what?" (What?) "I love you."

"Please stop saying that word!" (said after one of them has repeated a word referencing a body part or bodily function a dozen times.)

"Tell me one thing that you learned today."

"Look at me in my good eye."

"Am I right or am I right?"

In addition, I apparently have an annoying habit of bursting into song corresponding to a recently spoken word. Example: Eliza Grace tells me she wants to ride horses and I start singing, "Wiiiiilllld horses, couldn't drag me awaaaay." And it drives Eliza Grace crazy that I can rarely tell them the actual name of the song or know all the words. Now that I know it bugs her, you can rest assured I will continue doing it with glee.

Anyhoo, I am not sure what the list above really says about me as a Mom, but I am glad to see they could come up with a few things that were on the positive side!

Rollin', Rollin', Rollin'

Keep them rollers rollin'
Scott is tired of rollin'Who's gonna put up the wainscoting'? Oh my!

(Note in the above that Scott already has the TV back up on the wall. Whew, I was so worried we would not be able to sit in the tub without a television! [Read with dripping sarcasm, please.] )

Could it be, could it be?

Is that primer, tape and paint I see?

Victory in the Jungle

The combat phase of Operation Leave the Jungle is complete.

The vines fought the good fight but in the end our sheer determination and a $25 steamer brought them to their knees.

Let's just take a look at what we accomplished in 9 days, shall we?

Before:
After: Before: After (with some test paint colors reflected in the closet mirror,
we are going with the darker one!):
Before:

After:

The other day Scott asked, "What has gotten into you with all the redecorating projects all the sudden?!"

Me thinks he is getting tired of being conscripted as height-advantaged slave labor to support my schemes. However, the next logical step is to paint the upper portion of the walls, an activity in which he will be heavily involved!

A Public Service Announcement

Married women: I have a public service announcement that I need to share with you.

This is something that has been been weighing on my mind for a few years and I feel it is time for me to voice my feelings on the matter.

You see, along with the spoken vows we all made at the altar during our wedding ceremonies, there were some unspoken vows that were inherently included.

Today I must, for the good of the land, mention one of these unspoken vows. Especially as I and my peers are marching (albeit slowly!) towards the half century mark and our bodies are changing in subtle ways.

Therefore, let it be known that, as wife, it is your sworn duty to ensure that your husband does not leave your home with any undue amounts of nose or ear hair.

It had to be said.

Now I know there some are men who are very careful with their grooming skills, for which I am grateful. However, there are also others who tend to forget these seemingly minor details.

It is your job to make sure they are clipped, plucked or shorn of this unsightly growth.

Because, seriously, if I have to sit in one more four hour meeting listening and speaking to a man with field of nose hairs that NEARLY TOUCH HIS UPPER LIP, I may likely pass out right there on the conference room table.

Not to mention, the gentleman sitting next to me that surely needs a hearing device because there is no way sound can make it past the forest that is exploding from his ear.

Ladies, this is serious. It is our job to ensure our husbands do not resemble 85 year old men at the ripe age of 43. When they are 85, go for it. But until then, hand them a nose/ear hair trimmer and offer to assist.

It is for the good of the land!

Making Progress

At the encouragement of a friend (thanks Mary S!), I bought a steamer and with it we have made lots of progress in a short amount of time.

Ever the bargain shopper - Scott has rubbed off on me after all these years - I did not purchase an actual wallpaper steamer ($50 at Home Depot) but instead bought a little canister clothing steamer for $25 at Big Lots.

The steamer is definitely the way to go and hopefully Scott and I will team up this weekend to kick out the high places.

Slowly but surely it is coming along. I am seeing a tiny, pin-point light at the end of the tunnel so let's hope our backs hang in there long enough to get the job done!

Last week

Today!

Meanwhile, Back in the Jungle...

The indigenous plant life is putting up quite the resistance.
It is clinging to the wall surfaces with kudzu-like strength.
We are bringing in reinforcements by the gallon.We are committed.

And by the time this is all over we may need to be committed!

Viva la jungle revolution and viva la Dif!

Oh, and if there are any local folks who have a wallpaper steamer, would you be willing to lend it to us for a couple of weeks? Pretty, pretty please?

Operation "Leave the Jungle" Underway

Despite some wonderful advice regarding faux and/or texture painting right over the wallpaper, we decided to go for the smooth walls and thus began taking the wallpaper down.

2 hours. This is what we accomplished in 2 hours.

Oh yeah, we are so having fun now.

Welcome to the Jungle

Let me just start by saying that I absolutely love my master bathroom.

It is huge. It has really high ceilings.

It has his and her sinks - his is higher and mine is lower - perfect for the Mutt and Jefferina that we are.
It has a big tub and big shower.It has a TV mounted to one wall - installed by Scott, of course! And most importantly, it has its own little water closet with door. Very important feature. Very. Ah, hem.

However, there is one glaring issue with my bathroom.

As you have undoubtedly noticed, it is covered with miles of black and green jungle-like leaf wallpaper.

Will calls it our rain forest.

Why, oh why, for the love of God, why all this wallpaper?

It is a pain.

It is a pain to put up.

It is a quadruple pain to take down.

Unfortunately, the previous owners of our home embraced wallpaper, especially in the master bathroom. Oh, how they embraced it!

Now, after seven years of bathing and dressing in the jungle, we are doing a little ecologically approved deforestation of our own!

Bring on the Dif and that little rolling, wallpaper scoring thingy. Bring on the dry wall knife thingy to scrape the wallpaper off.

It will likely take about a month for us to actually get all the wallpaper down, sand the wall behind it, apply and sand the skim coat (that we will have to do because of all this flippin' wallpaper) before we can even think about painting.

Regardless of all the work ahead of us, I am so happy that we are finally ready to score, spray, scrape and sand our way out of the jungle for good!

Me and Ken

I am tooling down the road after dropping the kids off at school when I heard my car do that little "ding!" to tell me something was amiss.

I looked down at my dashboard and saw the little symbol for window washer fluid was lit up telling me it was empty.

This is a big deal for me.

I am forever cleaning my front and back windows. Since I had a little time, I decided to run to Advance Auto up the street and buy some washer fluid.

While I was still at the store, I popped the hood, flipped up the yellow cap on the right side of the engine and poured the fluid in. It took the whole gallon.

Once done, I noticed that the new battery that had been installed by Advance Auto two weeks prior already had corrosion on one of the terminals. So I left my hood open and went back inside to ask someone to take a look.

Thankfully, Ken, the man who had installed the battery in the first place was there. Noting the corrosion, he went to get his cleaning supplies and battery grease and would be right back.

It was about this time that I looked back at my engine and noticed that there were a couple of yellow capped receptacles in there. Upon closer inspection, I realized that one of the yellow caps on the left side of the engine had a little symbol for window washer fluid. It even said "washer fluid."

Oh crap.

If that yellow cap on the left went to the window washer, what in the heck did the one that I filled up to the tippity-top with washer fluid go to??

It had a symbol on it with some wavy lines but Lord if I knew what that meant!

When Ken returned I was a bit frantic.

"Um, Ken," I said. "I think I have just made a huge mistake! I just poured that entire bottle of washer fluid into this thing and I just now see that it was the wrong thing! Oh, no, oh, no, Scott is NOT gonna like this. Oh, my, what did I do? What does this one go to? Do you know? Oh crap!"

Ken was cool as a cucumber.

"Well, now, that there is not your washer fluid tank but is actually your radiator overflow tank. Did you pour the whole thing in there?"

"Yes, I did! The whole thing! Holy crap, what have I done? The radiator?! Oh crap. Oh crap!"

I was imagining Scott's reaction when I told him I needed a new radiator in a 3 year old van. I was starting to panic.

Ken was calm and sublime.

"Now, now, ma'am. You have not started the car yet, have you? No? Great. So you are ok. Really, it's ok. Let me just see here. So here's what we are going to do. We are gonna go back inside and you'll buy a hand siphon and we'll pump all that out of your overflow tank and then add a little water to neutralize whatever is left in there and then you will be just fine. No harm done, I promise. This will be our little secret and your husband will never know."

Little did Ken know that I am famous for telling on myself, especially to Scott, and I do not hesitate to share my most embarrassing moments with just about anyone (um, hello - this blog!)

But God bless Ken. I was so impressed with his calm and reassuring demeanor.

Then he told me he grew up in Illinois on a 5,000 acre farm with 7,500 head of cattle.

I knew then that I was truly in the best of hands.

Friends, there is no one better in the world to have with you in this kind of situation than someone who grew up on a farm. Farmers can fix anything.

Seriously. All they need is duct tape and bailing wire.

And in this case, a hand siphon.

Add to his upbringing on a cattle farm, Ken is a Vietnam veteran who spent the 10 subsequent years as an Air Force rough terrain recon trainer (we had a lot of time to chat while we were slowly siphoning the fluid by hand.)

No wonder he was so calm. My little mistake was like a flea on the hind end of a donkey compared to what this man had done, seen and accomplished in his life.

Together, Ken and I siphoned almost all the fluid out of the overflow tank (into the now empty washer fluid bottle). And I, of course, bought another gallon of washer fluid and poured it into the correct tank.

Then Ken went on to tend to the battery.

"See this here?" he said. "Your battery cables are all corroded too so let's clean those off and I will seal and grease everything up for you."

I love Ken. He helped me avert an auto-catastrophe caused by my own stupidity. And he cleaned and greased the battery too.

"Ken, you are a real life saver. What do I owe you for all your work here?"

"Not a thing, ma'am. Just come back and see me, ok?"

You can count on that, Ken.

A Daddy, A Daughter and A Dance

Eliza Grace and Scott are staring their 3rd (and final official) year in the Y Princess program.

One of the highlight events for the 3rd year girls is the Daddy-Daughter Dance.

I just sent them off to meet the rest of their tribe, where they will take a limo to the dinner and dance.

Y'all, she just looks adorable. And Scott looks pretty sharp too!

Eliza Grace (left) with next door neighbor and
tribe-mate, Jadon, ready to go

Losing Our Marbles

Cloudy summer Saturdays require action, which is why this afternoon the kids and I headed to the Marbles Kids Museum in Raleigh.

The kids spent a little over 3 hours fighting fires, driving buses, fishing, cooking, farming, building, playing hockey, pirating, surfing and more.

Closer to the Sea

Last Sunday evening, Eliza Grace's bedroom looked like this:As of today, coral reefs have sprouted and are teeming with life...

sea turtles are surfing the WCC (West Cary current)...

and the dolphin are leaping and playing.
Only a few details left - painting the lamp shade to match and finding coordinating bedspread - and we will call this one done!

What Are We Thinking?

It's not unexpected that, since Will now has the ultimate pirate-themed bedroom, Eliza Grace would ask for a new room theme of her own.

We reminded her that a mere four years ago she chose the paint, curtains and other accoutrement that now dons her bedroom as well as a complete four-poster bedroom suite to boot.

Pffftt. None of that meant much as, "please oh please, I really want to redo my room into something special!"

Her first proposal was, and I am not kidding, a mural of Golgotha, complete with three crosses on the hill. The heart-felt sentiment is absolutely precious. The reality is a bit much. How do you tell your child that the site of Jesus' death is not the very best choice for bedroom decor?

Thankfully she decided on an alternative theme in the end: under the sea. This we can handle. I think.

From the top of the door and window casings up will be sky blue with a few clouds and, if I get adventurous, a few sea birds in the air. From the top of the casings down will be the blue sea teeming with life. And the ceiling will be covered in glow-in-the-dark stars, moons and other heavenly bodies.

So once again we are spending the weekend painting, rearranging, cleaning up spilled paint, painting, rearranging, cleaning up spilled paint...you get the picture.

After all this redecorating for the kids is done, I am going to claim my turn and finally take down the miles of green and black leaf wall paper in my bathroom left over from the previous owner. (I know, Gwen, it is about time!)

I'm thinking about a cottage inspired look, with bead board, a chair rail and a pretty Cape Cod color on the walls.

But first, I have to get back to the sea!

Sneak peek: the blue sea color

We started with the glow-in-the-dark ceiling first.
I have to admit that this looks really cool in the dark,
which I will try to capture next time

The Kiss

It was a long week. A frustrating week. The kind of week where I waffled between self-loathing and self-pity. Why me? Why not me?

I was tired.

I was tired of myself.

I went to bed.

It was 3:30 in the morning when you called me to your room.

"Mommy, that stupid cough woke me up and I have to go potty."

"Don't say stupid, honey," I said. "Come on and let's go to the bathroom and take your cough medicine."

We finished in the bathroom and inevitably you asked, "Mommy, will you sleep with me for just a little bit."

I sighed. I really wanted my own bed. My own pillow. But I scooted in beside you, thanking God for the wisdom to buy you a double bed. We settled in and I said, a little gruffly, "Please go back to sleep."

I started to drift off but suddenly I could sense you looking at me. I looked at you beneath my eye lashes and saw you were leaning on your hand watching me.

You started to move closer to me and I was just about to scold you for keeping me awake when you leaned all the way over and gave me the softest kiss on my cheek. "I love you Mommy," you said quietly and then you laid down and closed your eyes.

Then I slept the sleep of the loved and the content.