Hi Friends! Thanks for all of the emails and comments! I'm back, I'm back....if I haven't emailed you back, it's only because:
a.) I've been lazy.
b.) I don't have your direct email address.

Noodle didn't have school last Monday and Tuesday so she had a marathon play date with one of the Sparkplugs which morphed into a sleep-over........so no blogging because I didn't have complete control of the office/playroom.
Then, last Tuesday, I met my old pal Mary at a popular children's book store for an infant/toddler story time. I had Franklin that day, so I thought he'd like it.

Dudes.

I'm not going into detail (like MJ would like me to do....) but let me tell you.....Sarah? The story-time person? Is a ROCK STAR to the toddler set. The place was dangerously packed. And let me just make the story of this horrible day shorter by telling you that:

a.) There was a terrible mob at the end of the performance. Horrible. Toddlers were everywhere. Some of the Moms were chatting and ignoring their toddlers.

b.) One of the toddlers got trampled. That's right. TRAMPLED.

c.) I was the one who trampled said toddler. It was me. I'm seriously trying to block this out of my normally blessedly-short memory.

The toddler was fine (I hope...she got trampled by the lady in back of me, too). We escaped the mayhem only to find my dear friend Mary outside with no coat on: she found her little guy on the street, window shopping for very expensive rugs.
Ha.
No. Really, he just ran out of the place and Mary couldn't get to him because of the mob. It was crazy!! And very cold outside.

But it was stifling hot in the book store, so I grabbed all of our coats and Franklin's diaper bag, put Franklin in his sling on my right hip, and we trudged through the mucky parking lot to the car (after trampling the toddler).......where I stepped in a pothole and twisted my ankle, falling in the black, slushy muck of the parking lot. I fell on my left arm, shielding Franklin's noggin from hitting the pavement, but I had black mud all over me. My blue polar fleece shirt has tar embedded in the left elbow that I can't seem to get out. My coat was full of the mud, as were my pants, and Franklin's adorable fair aisle coat. Claire is too nice to say anything, but I'm sure it's ruined. When I got home and changed my pants, even my undies were full of the mud from the parking lot!

Meanwhile, Noodle keeps saying, "Oooooo. That had to hurt!" over and over again....... which was really bugging me, but Sparkplug eventually told her to stifle it, which was nice. That Sparkplug knows when to be silent, you know?

Anyway, that's my story.

It was nothing serious....but I didn't sleep well on Tuesday night and I realized in the middle of the night that I actually hurt both ankles... but by morning it was okay....I mean, I could still do stuff. So I just went about my business on Wednesday, limping around, scrubbing all of the hardwood floors in the house and cleaning as normal. By Wednesday night? My foot was throbbing and swollen and I was miserable. I totally learned my lesson and stayed off of it for the next 2 days and over the weekend and it's getting sooooo much better.

And Zuddy even took Noodle camping for the weekend, so I had no demands on me for 2 whole days!! It had been planned for a month, but it couldn't have fallen (Heh.) on a better weekend, huh?

Oh! Guess what else? My friend Holly came over on Friday with her her sweet little 2 year old! I should've gotten a picture of her adorable little face. Well, next time I will.....but anyway, I told Holly about the story- time fiasco, and she said she went to that story time once and never went again because of all of the people. Anyway, Holly is cooler than ever, and I'm going start showing up at her house so we can hang together :) Check out the link to Holly, so you can see how I ran into her last year at the grocery store. She has 4 kids, so she's busy, but if I push myself on her, she'll hang with me. Ha haaaaa!

Well, you know what time it is? I do believe it's time for a house tour! This one is in the Merriam Park area of Saint Paul and I want it. NOW. I don't think we will ever move, but if we do? It will be to a house that is within walking distance to a grocery store and other shops. That is my goal. More urban-type living.

Anyway, this one is near the grocery store for people who don't wash their hair often enough. Don't worry, though, I'm not one for succumbing to peer pressure, so I will always be sportin' freshly washed hair. Or, at the very least? Hair that doesn't smell unwashed. Anyhoo.....This is a 3 bedroom, 3 bathroom house with 1,700 square feet. It's $339,900.
And I want it.
Like, NOW.

The living room. Cute. It's 18x15 feet.
This is the other half of the living room, looking into the dining room and sun room. Here's that sunroom. Let's blog here, okay? Okay! The bathroom upstairs. Love it.
The kitchen. I don't love it. I mean, I like the black and white thang they have going on, but having the sink over there with so little counterspace is a no-no. Why didn't they call me for a consult? Huh?

Because I would've pushed them out the door and changed the locks and hijacked the house. THAT's why!
See, I would've removed that radiator and kept the counters going, my friends. Oh yes I would've. And then I would've either put the fridge where the picture is, or flip-flopped the sink and the range. Or both.
Look at this basement! Isn't that nice? I love the colored concrete floors!
This is one of the bedrooms. It's in the basment along with one of the bathrooms. I'd fix it up real cozy-like for when you come and stay with me. I would. Totally. Only the best for my internets, right? RIGHT.

That's it! What do you think? I think it's stalk-able. I think I may stalk it on the way to the grocery store today.

Whew!

We had quite the weekend over here, people!

First of all, I had a night (Friday) with the Girls. It was fun and Sal and I got into an argument about the Jello twins. Have you heard of them? Orangejello and Lemonjello?

Sal read about them in the book Freakonomics. I told her it was an Urban Myth (or legend....whatever) because Zuddy and I got tricked with that one once. And she said it was true because she read it in a book. Which made me laugh harder. Because, you know, everything you read in a book is totally factual. And then it made Sal more irritated. Sorry Sally Gally. I didn't mean to contradict.

That's when I decided It was in order to post those 7 things to poke a little fun at myself. So I hope Sal reads it. And, of course, when the girls get together, we always talk about religion. Which made me think of my irrational fear of Churches, because that night I vowed to Amy that Noodle and I are going this Sunday (as in the one coming up. Which, if you know me, you'll know this is my little way of putting it off.)

Have you ever seen that commercial where this guy is delegating portions of a project to his office team? And he tells one guy that he's in charge of talking a big game and then not following through? To which the guy replies, "Let's do it!" Yeah. That's me, internets.

Anyway, then we had a wedding on Saturday. My cousin Katie's. Which we skipped. It was one of those wedding a 2pm and the reception is at 5pm thingies. We just went to the reception. And who should be there, but little Franklin!

Here he is with his Daddy, Richard. Richard is soooooo funny that I think I wet my pants thrice while he was being his funny self. Not only that, but my throat hurt from screaming with laughter.

And here is the beautiful and waaaayyyy too intelligent Claire, Franklin's Mommy and my cousin. Claire uses a lot of words I nod at while we're in a conversation and then when I'm alone?

I look them up in the dictionary.

Claire also caught me trying to feed Franklin some wedding cake. She looked at me with an evil eye and said, "Are you feeding him refined sugar?"
No. Because Franklin could tell by the looks of that wedding cake that it had high fructose corn syrup in it. And he wasn't having any of that. He told me he likes a niiice French buttercream. Yeppers.

Then Sunday? I ripped off a little wallpaper and we had to go to a birthday party at Zuddy's sister's house.

Which I tried to get out of. But Zuddy wouldn't let me.

So I planted myself near my Brother in law Dan and his brother Jim and Jim's wife Angie. Because I heart them. You know what Jim did on Saturday? He went to Iowa (I think) and ran a 7 mile race in the woods!!!! Up big slippery hills and through cold wet little creeks.....Kind of reminds me of Penny!

You know what? I want to do that!! I told Zuddy we should do that together. And he didn't say no! He tried one of his old suits on before the wedding reception on Saturday and he looked like Baby Huey in it. And I look like baby Huey in everything. Here's a picture of us at the wedding.

So you never know. Maybe next year we'll run that race. Let's do it! Ha ha. That's me talkin' my big game!!

So that's it!!! That was our weekend! It was fun. I hope you all had a great weekend!!!

Working Fool

That's me, friends, I'm a working fool. I have a few things to get done, but I didn't want to leave you without some eye candy:





Franklin and I? We're a match made in heaven......he is happy as a clam at Target :)

Hey!

What's happenin' friends? Whatchya up to today?

AAAAaaaargh! It's so rainy here. It was nice when I was snuggled up in our attic bedroom listening to the rain on the roof, but now that I'm downstairs in our playroom/office? It's much less cozy and more......I don't know.....wet.

I was hoping to take the Noodle tromping through the woods today, but that's not going to happen, I think. And we never got that cake made yesterday. Noodle was invited over to the Sparkplug residence for a play date.

Oooo! A long time ago, Sparkplug Mom shared a picture of what the tile work would look like in her bathroom! Well, they're almost done and it looks JUST like the picture! Wanna see the picture?

Their sink and mirror isn't the same, but Sparkplug Dad totally recreated the tile work (The photos you see are a display at the tile place.) Isn't it just a great-looking room? Sparkplug Dad totally gutted the bathroom and has done all the work himself. That's one handy dude. And Mom has such great taste. I tell ya, they are the greatest family!

I took Franklin over there to drop the Noodle off and he was oh-so-happy to see all of the Sparkplugs! Then I took him back to our house and fed him some carrots, banana and crackers. He loved it! He was kicking his little leggies and chatting to me.

Here's a gratuitious Franklin shot:

SIGH......isn't he just the cutest? Believe me - those cheekers got LOTS of smoochies yesterday.

So I made that soup. Deelish. Roasted Tomato Basil from The Barefoot Contessa cookbook. Soooooooo good.

I've been in such a cooking mood since the weather has turned, but believe you me, it hasn't been like this in a looooong time. The Noodle is such a picky eater that I end up feeling like a punching bag at meal time. In fact, she made a face at the potatoes the other day and I let her have it.

Here's the deal at our house: You take one bite of everything. Don't like something? Fine. Just find something on your plate that you like and eat it, dammit! I'm not fighting with you and I'm not making you a separate dinner! I got this tactic from my dear friend, MJ. And every other day or so, I serve something I know the Noodle will like. So why is it so hard for her to get this? Still! I get a scrunched up face coupled with a whiney voice! I let her know how rude this is (for the umpteenth time) and told her she'd better not react like this at someone else's house! I'm sure she does, though.

Oh! Speaking of which: Mrs. Jones, you had to have seen Oprah when Jessica Seinfeld went on there and gave Oprah a taste of YOUR SPINACH BROWNIES!!! I hope she BOUGHT that recipe from you!

Okay. Today? We need to make that cake. I have a chocolate cake mix on hand from Target - their Archer Farms brand. It's the best cake mix out there, people. Then, I'm going to make the scratch buttercream from The Barefoot Contessa.

Then? We are cleaning this playroom. I started the other day and then someone called me and invited me to go for a walk with them. And exercise is more important than cleaning, right? Right. Especially for ElChubbo here.

Oh! I will leave you with a picture of the Clematis from my garden!

Oh! And some chinese lanterns!

Question: Does anyone out there know if these dry well?

Have a great day!

Where Do I Start?

Man.

Getting into the groove of back to school is tough this year. I feel like the days just FLY by and before I know it, it's time to go pick up the Noodle from her bus stop. And what have I accomplished?
Nada.

So what's been going on here at Elizabeth Hill?

Well, last Friday my sis-in-law, Myrna, (I don't like the whole in-law thing. From now on, I'll just call her my sister) had a jewelery party and right when it started, her 79 year old Mom (Fran) got sick. Faint, weak.... the whole scary 9 yards for a woman that age. Myrna was pretty cool about the whole thing. She has a gazillion siblings (11 or 12), so her sisters were taking care of Fran and ended up taking her to Urgent Care.
Well, from Urgent Care Fran was taken to the hospital by ambulance.
Then Myrna decided to leave the party.

The jewelery lady gave a couple of pauses and, "oh my's" during the whole goings-on but largely ignored the whole thing. It was kind of weird......I don't know. I guess she already had it all set up, but.......you know, the hostess LEFT!!! HELLO?!?

So, turns out Fran is okay. Though I'll need an update from Myrna to be sure.....But she was in the hospital all weekend and probably went home yesterday (Tuesday). Poor Myrna (and her gazillion siblings, I'm sure) was soooooo tired. I always feel so helpless when stuff like this happens. What can I do for someone in this situation? Pretty much nothing. I just watched the kids.

So anyway, that all happened during the weekend. Then, Monday I had the whole Sparkplug group over. Remember Sparkplug? I talked about her here. Sparkplug Mom (Noel) had a class and Sparkplug Dad (Joel) is a scientist and out of town working in the field, so they all piled on over and we all went to swimming lessons and then I took them home until Mom got home.
These girls are so great. They put on a "birthday party" for the Noodle! They all dressed up in some finery, Noel made cupcakes during the day (as if she doesn't have enough to do. But, hey...she is a Sparkplug, too! This is where the children get it from!), and they even gave the Noodle a great big Build-A-Bear gift card! What the heck? Those girls are sweet as pie, I tell ya. Here they are:

Aren't they the CUTEST? Such nice girls, too. And this is the first time I've gotten to hang with the youngest Sparkplug, who is on the far left in the yellow. Sooooooo cute. I had soooo much fun with them.

So, earlier that day, I picked up some kale at the new Lowe's near us. Ooooo.....I LOVE that place! And the kale was only $2 a pot. I'm making the big ol' pot o' kale from Cottage Living magazine. Here is a photo of the Noodle with the kale from last year:
Oh. I guess I'm kind of late in getting this potted. This was her back to school picture from last year.

Anyway.

I had Franklin yesterday.
He hates me.
He's all smiles once Mom gets back to pick him up, though. We did have a little break through moment of singing and play, which is HUGE. But he pretty much cried the rest of the time.
But look at that FACE!!! He looks just like Mommy. Maybe a little bit like Dad, too. His dad (Richard) is a freakin' riot. Really, he should be a stand-up comic.

Last night we had the "Second Grade Dinner" at the Noodle's school. I TOTALLY didn't want to go. I thought I had a hair appointment, but when the shop was closed and locked up tight when we arrived, I realized the appointment is TONIGHT. GOAH!!!! I do stuff like this all of the time!
So, basically, I had no excuse not to go. AND I was so confident I wouldn't be going, that I didn't bother to make anything (it was a potluck). So we rushed home, stopped at the market to purchase a couple of ingredients for the casserole I was planning on making, and by the time I got home, I decided that I didn't have the time to make that casserole. So I went out into the garden, picked some grape tomatoes, and made a yummy Tomato and Cucumber Salad with Red Onion and Cilantro.

Oh, and of course we had a great time. The parents in the Noodle's school are awesome. I've made some great friends there.....Sandy and John, Kris, Noel and Joel, Linda, and Bill and Stephanie. And the weird thing is, I've met them all by coincidence or there's been some connection in a "7 degrees of Kevin Bacon" sort of way. Seriously. And then our kids end up in the same school. St. Paul is really just a small town.

Like, Noel? The Sparkplug Mom? I met her at gymnastics when our girls were three or four. I found out that she teaches at the school I went to as a child (well...kind of. It was torn down and re-built in the same spot). Not only that.....she and her husband come from a town a couple of hours north of here and went to high school with my dear friend Hilary's husband. And they were both teaching at my old neighborhood school!!!! AND Hilary and Paul bought my Zuddy's childhood home.

Is that confusing enough for you?

So that's what I've been doing. No kitchen work, no special projects....my ceiling in the dining and living rooms still isn't finished. The end panels of the kitchen cupboards still aren't painted, the hutch hasn't been touched and I have piles of laundry downstairs.

Wish me luck.

My New Crush......

We couldn't wait until Thursday to see each other this week. I thought it was going to be a fun little tryst with my new guy, but I think he's mad at me!

What do you think? Does he look mad?




Ha haaaaaa! Look! It's my new crush, baby Franklin!!

Remember when I said my cousin moved into my neighborhood? This is her little man and I get to baby sit him! Aren't I lucky? He's 9 months old and boy, was he angry that we couldn't go to the park and swing today! We had some heavy rain, so even going for a walk was out of the question. We had so much fun at the park last week, and I forgot to bring the camera, so I couldn't capture a "happy shot"...so here's what you get instead. Poor guy.

I'm SO Excited!

No. I didn't get this beautiful new dual fuel convection range. But wouldn't that be great???

I'm excited because the first coat of paint is ON!!

I'm loving the color of the gray I chose. It's got some green and brown tones in it and it's very nice. And I just love gray.

But there is a problem: I couldn't get such a dark color in a semi-gloss. Because there's so much pigment in the color I had to get a high gloss and I really didn't want a high gloss. So help me, all of you people who know about this stuff - what do I do? Do I "knock down" the finish with a little steel wool? Should I put a coat of lower gloss poly over it? Discuss......

Our talented friend Kim mentioned poly earlier on in this project because I wanted to do a glaze over the creamy color and the poly would keep the glazing intact. I was thinking I'd go that route since I'm really hard on my kitchen, but now I want to be lazy and cut corners. It's my way. It's what I do. I'm lazy, remember?

Plus, I have a block club meeting at my house on Wednesday night and I'm really striving to have things back in the cupboards (without the doors on) by then.

I was going to cancel it, but ......we've had some "events" in the neighborhood the past week and I need to have the meeting.

See, we live in the "hood".

It's usually pretty quiet here and our neighborhood is considered "the next big thing", but it's been 11 years and it's still hasn't become "the next big thing". In fact, we've had a couple of shootings in the last week. Gang related. There's a big meeting with the Police Commander and the Mayor at our library on Monday (incidentally, the Mayor lives in our neighborhood.). So I really think I need to have this meeting. It's already scheduled, anyway.

We were at a family party on Saturday to meet my cousin's (who currently lives in Tennessee) new baby. Boy is he a cutie pie. 3 months old and absolutely gorgeous. And I forgot to take a picture. Anyway, my aunt told me that my cousin's family is moving back to the midwest and they looked at a house in my neighborhood, "but everything's so expensive here!" To which Zuddy says, "Well, have them check on it again - I'll bet the price just went down." Ha ha. So we had to tell them about the recent "events".

In other news, the Noodle has lost the second of her top two teeth!! How exciting!

I hope everyone's having a great weekend!