D Day!

That's Door Day! Or more like Door Week. The old door came down on Saturday and is being picked up tomorrow by a junk removal service. The new door is up and got its first coat of paint today. Not too much to say about it yet, other than painting a door is a little harder than I expected. Hopefully one more final coat tomorrow will make a huge difference to the streaky door I'm looking at right now and I'll be happy that we got talked into a high-gloss rather than a semi-gloss. Here are pictures of what's been going on:

Goodbye!

So far, I've just painted just the door, not the sidelights. I'll need some opinions as to whether we should paint them black too or leave them white. What do you think?

Love to hate GOOP

I was looking for books to put on my library hold list and NPR had recently done a review of Gwyneth Paltrow's new cookbook, so I added it. I hadn't decided if I hated her or liked her. Whatever it was, it definitely wasn't love.

She's been around forever, but I can't really think of many movies with her in it. The one where Michael Douglas is her husband and tries to have her killed because she's having an affair is always on TNT, so I've probably seen that more than twice. It's mildly entertaining on a dreary day when you're stuck inside. I'm always chuckle when she speaks Spanish (she did live in Spain with a Spanish family, didn't you know?) because she uses the Castilian lisp that most visiting Americans don't attempt. But of course GP would. She also has the British thing going on, so maybe she's just really adaptable.

Having seen lots of interviews and read articles about her, I feel like I know enough to make the following statements . I used to think she was arrogant, but now I just think she's totally out of touch with the real world. Her website is ridiculous, suggesting places to travel and hotels to stay at and restaurants to eat at and recipes to try. If you are a zillionaire, take her advice. My favorite is when she talks about the 10 clothing items to have for the season, each of which cost $500 (or more). These are must-haves for working moms, making it SO simple to get ready quickly in the morning before dashing around with your kids! She also loves to exclaim that she has to work really, really hard for her body. She doesn't get to eat whatever she wants, and she looooooves to eat, you know. And who can't identify with that? But then she goes on to talk about how she works out two hours a day with her personal trainer. And that's when I start getting annoyed, because who does she think we are? Chris Martin's wife? Who has that time and money, besides her and Madonna?

But her cookbook piqued my interest because it's based on food she cooked with her dad, who she writes was the love of her life until his death in 2002. And that loss is one I can identify with. As I read the book's forward, I softened towards her as she talked about her father's cancer. I imagined having a good cry together over a glass of Rioja while we kneaded whole wheat dough. But then she started talking about her best friends the McCartneys and Spielbergs, and how she spent her summers in Nantucket, and vacationed in Hawaii, and had cooking lessons from her friend Jamie Oliver, and how her backyard wood-burning oven was one of the best investments she's ever made. Seriously.

Conclusion: I won't be trying any of GP's recipes. I don't have any spelt flour, or barley flour, or buckwheat flour, or grade B Vermont maple syrup (unless store brand Mrs. Butterworth's, with extra hydrogenated corn syrup would work as a substitute?). And I'm certainly not going to the store (what store?!) to buy tempeh bacon or hemp milk.


PS - I'm kind of disappointed in myself for having written multiple paragraphs about Gwyneth Paltrow. Shows you what a new stay-at-home mom thinks about all day. Consider it to be a book review. I just saved you some time.

Social networking

It was a busy week for the Z family. T had school, A had work events in the evening and I forced myself to get out of the house, for my sake and the sake of the boys because they needed fresh air and it's just not healthy to be stuck inside with your significant other for too long.

I think of myself as pretty personable, but I've never been one to seek out new people for no reason and I don't really enjoy chatting it up with strangers. I'm lucky enough to have two sisters who are my best friends, and most of my other BFFs I've known forever, even back to junior high. These are girls that I may not talk to every day, but they know me well, have been through the best and worst times of my life with me, and I'd do anything for them (you know who you are). Gosh, I think the last great friend I made (and still have!) was about 5 years ago, and when you're in your 30's, I feel like it's pretty lucky to connect with someone so easily, no? But, I have to try because I need some friends!

So during the beginning of the week I was in mental preparation for my coming-out. Wednesday night I went to a neighborhood book club/swap. Since I am great at reading I figured it would be a good way to meet ladies with similar interests and also make off with a couple books. I'm not gonna lie - it was scary to knock on the door of someone I don't know and walk into a room full of girls that all know each other. But it turned out to be fine (even though I felt like a total dork) and I scored a glass of pinot grigio, two books, and an invitation to join their Monday Morning Coffee Club.

Thursday night we had T's Preschool Open House and ice cream social. It was a little awkward, standing around in a teeny classroom with people we didn't know and feeling forced to chat about each other's kids, but a nice couple with 2 girls who live down the street invited us to dinner at their house. Friday I took the boys and met up with four other moms for a playgroup in the afternoon, and later we went to dinner with the school family. It was nice company, good food and wine, great to be out of the house, and by the time the kids were melting down, it was 8pm and we were home with plenty of time to watch four episodes of Entourage on library DVD. Call us crazy!

This weekend, there was a large home project going on (details and pics to come) but we a date, sans kids, last night with A's high school friend and wife. Needless to say, I was way too exhausted to go to church this morning.

BOO!

I thought about saving landscaping for later so that come Halloween, all we'd have to do is enter the neighborhood's spooky house contest and turn out the lights. But, I went outside earlier this week to find A tearing out the rest of the "garden" because he just couldn't take it anymore. So instead of this

we have this

The before pictures actually show a little cheerier than the yard felt. It was too overgrown and tangly, and I saw one snake and way too many spiders for my liking. The little white flowers you see are wild clematis, which smelled amazing but grew like a crazy vine and overtook the entire garden down the length of the house. While the flowers looked pretty when in bloom, the yard (complete with a lawn full of weeds instead of grass) had an abandoned house kinda feel. Every neighborhood has "that house", and we were it, but no more.

Oh, and the tree in the side yard is not actually a tree, it's a huge mulberry bush! It's really pretty and shades the side of the patio, and has lots of spiders that hang down from it at night. (Do you notice my mention of spiders? I have a gift that allows me to walk into any room and immediately direct my eyes towards any eight-legged non-friend. I need to know where my enemies are. I call it my spi-dar.) Almost every day, T asks if we can hold hands and go 'round it while singing together. So we do.

Back in the game

Our new 46" flat screen. This is extremely exciting news, people. This arrived just in time for Fall premiere season. I won't have to just read reviews or recaps. I get to have my coffee with Matt and Ann and my morning cocktails with Hoda and KathieLee.

Granted, it's in the Dining Room right now, so no sprawling comfortably across the couch to watch. And yes, that is in fact an antenna sticking up from the back of the TV because no, we don't have cable. But rabbit ears are not gonna take away from this new luxury. No, not yet they're not.

Play rooms

Right now, we have a makeshift playroom in the room that will actually be the Dining Room.  We're getting the big table that my mom had made for her kitchen shipped to KC from VA, hopefully sometime in the next month.  Until then, the amount of toys we have fit best in that room, which is also out of sight as you enter the front door - thank goodness.

I also wanted to make the boy's bedroom upstairs feel cozy and welcoming, and I think T needs a special place of his own so he can get away from his younger brother when he wants to play with small things that are off-limits to little hands.  Their room is big and used to be the guest room where we stayed when we visited A's mom.  It's painted a pretty gray, which I've decided to keep for now.  It has lots of windows (and can get pretty cold) and enough space for a bed, crib, changing table, bookshelf, glider, and a kid's table with chairs.

One of my first mini-projects was painting an old table A's mom left behind when she moved out.  It was chipped black paint with wobbly legs that I just tightened, then quickly and lightly sanded and spray painted two shades of lime green.  I thought about painting pictures on the top, or using stencils, but I found some cool transfers at the Crayola store to put on instead. 

T has been using it as his Coloring and Cutting Station, not suitable for toddlers according to him, but G doesn't agree, as you can see.

Frog and snails and puppy dog tails...

...and ER trips? Is this part of having two boys? My MIL told me that she was once questioned by CPS at the hospital after multiple ER visits with her three accident-prone children, 2 of whom are boys, in a short span of time. We already had our first ER visit earlier this summer before the move, and I'm hoping I don't need to map out the fastest way to a KC hospital anytime soon. Tonight, though, we came close.

Last week I bought a used jogging stroller to replace one I was *persuaded* to give away before G was born. We didn't have room to store it back in VA, and I guess I didn't use it allllll that much. But I am convinced that this recent $35 splurge will get me out onto the jogging trail right next to T's school everyday.

So after today turned into a beautiful Fall afternoon, T and I took our first jog together up to the park and duck pond. It's pretty hard to run/push a 33 pound kid uphill (but a good workout!) and we were admittedly not going very fast but I guess my stealth was just too much for a wee 3 year old, and T was inspired. After we came home, I went in to make dinner leaving him on the porch to watch A do some yard work. While A walked around the side of the house to get something, T got into the stroller and tried to recreate our ride....DOWN THE FRONT STEPS, of which there are eight.

A said he turned around in just enough time to watch T make his descent. He made it down almost 4 steps before he flew out onto the concrete, onto his face. When A brought him in, the wounds looked a lot worse than they turned out to be (blood'll do that) but he was lucky he didn't break an arm, or worse.

While I cleaned the gravel and dirt from the scrapes on his nose (which took the brunt of the fall), forehead and out of his mouth, A asked him "What were you thinking?" He didn't answer - I think he was too traumatized - but I thought to myself how fun the idea of going down steps in a stroller must have sounded to a 3 year old. Like, seriously, totally fun! He just HAD to try it. And I don't blame him. But I realize how lucky we are that nothing worse happened, and it makes me nervous about what else will look fun to him and to G in the future. Especially when they put their minds together...

PLEASE, no more rainy days

If I have to play "Cooking Guy" one more time, I might just go ahead and eat the stuffed felt Ikea food so that I'll never have to play again. And is it weird that I'm kind of offended that T keeps calling me "Sir" at our restaurant, despite my attempts to explain that I'm a "M'am"? Or should I just get over it?

At the front

We're working on lots of stuff at the front part of the house, literally. We recently put up a new mailbox, which you might not think is a big deal but if you'd seen the old mailbox, you'd be very excited for us. I didn't take a before picture. I'm not YoungHouseLove, people. But here's the new one.

It may be a weeeeee bit unlevel, but so are the holes already drilled into the house to mount it. I guess the old mailbox wasn't level either, but I never noticed because I was so distracted by the rust and the fist-sized spiders that jumped out at me every time I psyched myself up to get the mail. We decided we can live with it for now. It was that or drill another hole into the house, and I felt like that could have been risky.

We also just ordered a new front door which should be here in a couple weeks. I never really thought about what goes into ordering a front door or its installation, but there are actually a lot of details to ponder. Things like wood vs. fiberglass, hinges and kick plates, and windows and side windows, and stuff. I guess installing a door on an older house is a bit tricky because measurements are different nowadays, too. Or something. So, you gotta know your stuff. And that's why we have a contractor helping A install it. Because there's not a lot of wiggle room when it comes to installing a front door. And you really can't go without one for too long.

Here's what we have now, which is old and beat up, not to mention hard to lock and unlock.

We ordered something similar, with windows across the top and down the side, and it'll be primed for us to paint - the fun part! I found a bunch of colors I like on Pinterest, like

but I keep coming back to the idea of plain, old black. Or "classic black", as I tell A. Considering the color of the house - brick painted beige - there aren't too many colors that would look okay

What do you think? Well, no matter what we pick, any door that doesn't look like this will drastically improve the front of the house.

So much to do. So. much. time.

I'm officially a stay-at-home mom. Which is what I've wanted for the past few years. So, now that I got my wish, what do I do?

Yes, I know it's only been three weeks and that my house is still in shambles from the move so we don't really feel settled (at least I don't), but still, I feel like I need to be doing something! I mean, I know I'm doing important work here, raising two boys, teaching them manners and empathy, and colors and the alphabet, and the lyrics to Avril Lavine songs, and why it's not nice to stick your finger up someone else's nostril. There's also a ton to be done to the house but it's not stuff that can be done in a day or by myself, for the most part. And although my husband clearly feels that I should be picking up after T and G constantly, I'm more of a why-clean-it-up-now-when-they'll-just-mess-it-all-up-again-in-two-minutes kinda gal. But it's a weird feeling not to have a life outside of the house, not to have responsibilities other than handing out sippy cups and making sure G doesn't make it over the booby trap of boxes and upside-down chairs I've constructed in front of the stairs (which he usually does. How?!) Don't get me wrong, hanging with the boys is seriously great, but I feel...antsy. And feeling antsy just makes me feel guilty that I'm not enjoying the time with T and G, which is why I quit my job and moved to KC in the first place.

DOES THE GUILT EVER STOP?!?!

Confession: I applied to two jobs last night. A was out at an event so, as usual, I trolled the internet because we still don't have a TV. (Don't get me started. I am so behind on pop culture, you wouldn't even recognize me. When I'm in line at Price Chopper reading the headlines of US Weekly, I might as well be reading Chinese.) I happened upon two job postings that I thought looked kinda fun and I figured they'd get me out of the house and into contact with someone other than the checkout girl at Price Chopper who recognizes me now. And, a second income would mean I could buy all the US Weeklys I wanted without having to hear about "the garbage I spend my money on". So, in a moment of pure boredom (I wish I could say it was drunken, but we can barely afford enough alcohol to induce a proper buzz. But that's another posting) I applied. I think if I got a call for an interview, though, I'd freak out and say "sorry, no longer interested" because that's not what I want. Right?

Make new friends (but keep the old)

T started Preschool on Tuesday! It's a class of 12 adorable girls and boys and T was so ready to make a few KC friends. A big plus for me is that the school is just a 2 minute walk from our house, IF you move along at a normal adult clip. If you're walking at the pace T would if we let him, it takes about 12-15 minutes depending on how many trucks, ants, pine cones, etc., we see on the way.

I was curious to see what my KC parent peers would be like. I imagined blonde, pink-cheeked, and corn-fed. I figured that if the girl behind the counter of QuikTrip (a midwest equivalent of 7-11, my east coast friends) was as welcoming as she was when I dropped in for a CokeZero, these parents would be thrilled to have me! Well, most are very nice, quite a few are brunettes, and some actually seem a bit standoffish. (Or is that just my imagination?) So don't you worry, I still haven't found my new Best *midwestern* Friend. Though, maybe I'll bond with someone when I volunteer at the Fall Festival.

Anyways, T seems to love school, which I'm so excited about, and the teachers have given good reports about him so far. Except that he needs to work on "taking turns". I pretended to be a little surprised, but oh, yes, I know this about him. The concept of sharing has been a major hurdle. He just doesn't get it (which I'm pretty sure is age-appropriate?) and we usually have at least one major meldown every few days that involves him ripping a toy away from little G and screaming "why is he not SHARING?". Or sometimes he'll ask to "have one turn" with something I have, like, say, a sharp carving knife, and when I say no, the same tantrum ensues with "why don't grownups know how to SHARE?!?!" Nope, he just doesn't get it. So I'm gonna hope that the teacher with the PhD in child psychology does her magic on my otherwise sweet, sweet boy.

The walls come tumbling down

Today I came home from the grocery store to find A, hammer in hand, knocking down the wall in the entry hall. I knew it would happen sometime soon, but it's still a little startling to see a wall in your house disappear in the time it takes to get to Price Chopper* for milk and back. And, A has since told me to expect at least one wall down at any given time while we live here. Yay.

*Isn't Price Chopper a silly name? It seems so...unprofessional, or something. I am really missing my Giant - that's a really strong name for a grocery store -and I think Safeway sounds very reassuring to the consumer. And Harris Teeter sounds extremely qualified to sell me food. I just can't pull into the parking lot of Price Chopper without wondering about the marketing team that okayed its name. Oh, and they just got a Trader Joe's here and people can't decide if they like it or not because it sells strange things, like Greek yogurt.

But, it's all pretty necessary. Since the house is so old, it wasn't built with insulation. The walls are plaster and lath which have meant pretty steep heating and air conditioning bills because the heat escapes in the winter and so does the AC in summer. To prep for our living here, A came in to town a month or so before we moved and knocked down walls in what will one day be our living room to insulate and put up drywall. New windows were installed in that room and in the rest of the downstairs front rooms at the beginning of the summer, too. All that PLUS the new central air conditioning which was just installed on the first floor have meant that even on the hottest of KC days (105 degrees, 100% humidity, anyone?), we've been nice and cool inside. But that's just a start because there are a lot of windows upstairs...

We did discover, however, that this house was not built in the 20's as we thought, but more likely about 10 or 15 years before that. A pulled out some shreds of an old newspaper that was dated July 4, 1912 and on it we could make out real estate ads for houses with 7 bedrooms for $4,880. We thought that was pretty cool, especially considering that's less money than the installation of the central air on just our first floor!

KCMO or Bust!

We'd talked about it, thought about it, (fought about it?), tried to imagine it a bazillion times during the past couple of years. Could we really make the move? Leave everything we'd known together as a couple and move to A's hometown, 1,500 miles away, live in the house he spent his teenage years in, and be near his family instead of mine? Yikes.

Well, the decision has been made. In fact, it's done. We're here. It's been two weeks. We're a couple blocks away from a real Main Street, and an Oak Street, and a Walnut Street - very quaint and small-town sounding to me. They kinda look like what I imagined when I read To Kill a Mockingbird. Or Peyton Place, actually.

I never actually thought I could pick up and leave. Leave my sisters and my beautiful nephews, or my family and my dearest friends, or my job. (Well, yes, I did imagine leaving my job.) And if you'd asked if I'd EVER thought I'd live in the Midwest one day, I'd have scoffed, pointed my finger toward a map of the U.S., waved it in big circle to cover the area I guessed to be the Midwest, and said "Here? Yeah, right." Oh, how times have changed. And I'm pretty confident that I can find Missouri on a map now.

After shoving our entire townhouse into two Pods, and then discovering we still had enough stuff to fill a third, we made the very lonnnnnnnnnng drive through a lot of states that began with the letter "I". The boys did as well as they could:

...and here we are, in a really neat, old house with lots of space for them to toddle around in, with lots of home projects to do. Here I am, out of my comfort zone, not earning a second income, but without my usual anxiety over losing time with my children while I work. Here we are, living on what seems to be a quiet and safe street for T and G to learn to ride a bike on one day soon, shaded by pretty trees, sitting on an awesome front porch that I plan to spend a lot of time on with my husband, sometimes with a cocktail in hand.

We finally made the move, committed to a year. 351 more days (or more) of Midwestern adventure...