Old-y McOldins

I drove by the high school here in Bartlett yesterday and the sign out front read: "Class of 2006 Registration Starts ____". It gave the exact date but I couldn't get past the Class of 2006 part. You see, I graduated in 1996. Ten years ago. I remember a time when I couldn't imagine talking about people I knew and things I did ten years ago simply because that would put me at about age three. Now not only can I reminisce about people I knew a decade ago, I've also probably forgotten many of their names.

When I was seventeen or so, I always felt very old. Well, I felt older than most of the people around me at least. Steph and I used to joke that we were really sixteen going on thirty (and this was totally way before that lame movie starring Jennifer Garner with the similar name.) The difference now (aside from the fact that in hindsight, even though I felt older at the time I really was in fact, a complete baby) is that when we joked about being old, we were doing just that: joking.

I know, I know, twenty-seven is not old. But driving by that high school, for the first time in my life I did not think to myself, "Hey, I'm not really that much removed from them." Because I'm not anymore. I'm actullay a full-fledged, card-carrying ADULT and maybe I'm just silly but I'm finally realizing it. I see high school age kids walking around and instead of saying to myself, "Wow, a few years ago I was totally just like them," I'm thinking, "Does that girl's mother actually buy her shorts that are that short?" Instead of relating and feeling hip I'm shaking my head and looking on reproachfully. I mean, when I was in school people didn't have cell phones or computers or low-rise jeans. Nobody I knew knew had heard of the internet, much less had their own personal weblog. THERE WAS NO REALITY TV, PEOPLE. How I can I possibly relate to the youth of today??? I can't. And I don't want to really. Because I'm a grown-up now. A grown-up who reads Harry Potter and adores Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but a grown-up nonetheless.

P.S. Tonight I'm buying tickets to the Lyle Lovett show at Ravinia this month. Can we say it again all together? OLD!

Escapism

Oh, I Almost Forgot

Poop on you, Karl Rove. Way to insult half of America!

People like me wanted to get the terrorists therapy after 9/11? I don't particularly remember it going down that way. Of course, people's memories are getting shorter and shorter these days so it doesn't take much to rewrite history anymore. I suppose he thinks only there are only conservatives fighting in the war?

A Strong and United Front

We are currently in a standoff with Juliana. She refuses to clean her room. She spent all day in there yesterday messing around and is up there again this morning. I think she really believes she can outlast me and that I will cave in and clean it myself. HA! It's really frustrating though because I would much rather be doing fun outdoor summer stuff but and instead I'm just sitting around policing her and making threats. We even set up a playpen for Ava's naptime in our bedroom so she can't get a break in the afternoon when Ava naps. It's a total crackdown.

Anyway, last night (by my friend Lara's recommendation) I watched my first ever episode of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition". Aside from Ty Pennington being a complete hyperactive spazz I was pretty impressed. I mean, demolishing a house and building an entirely new one in seven days for an eight-year-old girl fighting cancer and her family of eight? Gah! Is that show's goal to make a person cry every five minutes? Kind of makes me feel a bit small and ungrateful watching something like that.

Blargh.

It's hot here. It's put me in a lazy mood where I don't feel like doing anything. I've just been lounging around outside with the girls, doing a bit of gardening, reading Harry Potter, and catching up on my favorite blogs. Being the neat freak that I am, everything is still in order around the house. However, after I take care of cleaning up and running errands in the morning it's all downhill until I'm too tired to cook and Jason and I end up eating chicken nuggets and margaritas for dinner.

Hmmmm. I guess the margarita part isn't anything to complain about.

Yesterday I lost my internet connection on the laptop and it was amusing how the second I was unable to access the Internets that I suddenly felt the need to look up about a hundred and fifty random things. Out of the blue I was all, "Did so-and-so respond to my email?" "What is the weather going to be like this weekend?" "Did they find that missing girl in Aruba yet?" "Where can I send an angry letter regarding the recently approved Corporation for Public Broadcasting cuts?" "Did Michelle upload any new Flickr photos?" "What, pray tell, did Lindsey Lohan wear to the premiere of Herbie:Fully Loaded?"



Ok, I made that last part up. I totally was looking to get the latest news on Tom and Katie. But I did feel incredibly incapacitated in the six hours or so that I could not read Dooce's latest blog post about the children's show Boohbah. (Side note: Whenever I ask Ava if she wants to watch this show she runs laps around the house yelling "BAAAAH-BOOOOOOOO!")

This heat is making me feel a bit wonky. Time to go inside and crank up the a/c. That or dive into the kiddie pool.

Bartlett Sky

WOOO HOOO!

I was looking through my site statistics this morning and it appears that this month, two people found my page by searching for the words "I am a boring person." I thought this was funny so I decided to google it myself, and what do you know-- I showed up as result number ten!

We Have GOT To Be Better Than This

What ever happened to two wrongs don't make a right?

Seriously. Stuff like this makes me ashamed.

I've Created a Monster

I set Michelle up with a Flickr pro account last night and I woke up this morning to find she had uploaded TWENTY TWO pages of photos- many of which were of my girls acting like spazzes during various sleepovers and other babysitting excursions. You can see them here along with many shots of Michelle's gigantic teeth. (Just kidding Aunt Shelly! Love 'em!)

Summer in Full Swing

Summer officially starts tomorrow! Juliana starts her week long soccer "camp" this afternoon, we've got plans for a trip to the zoo, and our Florida trip is now squared away. Today I'm going to go buy some more pots for the herbs we bought at the farmer's market since they are growing out of control and it's high time to separate them. Hopefully during Ava's nap this afternoon I can log some time on my lawn chair re-reading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I decided that since Book Six is coming out in a couple of weeks that I should read Book Five again to refresh my memory on what happened most recently. Also, when my Dad returns from his trip to Canada next week we will get a start on some of the projects around the house.

Over the weekend I got to eat Beef-a-Roo cheddar fries and see the new Batman movie. I'm in a good mood today.

Yes, This Was As Fun As It Looks

Jason snapped this of me at the playground over the weekend.

This Is What Happens When Me Getting Money Doesn't Coincide With Me Breaking Jason's Stuff

New rug! This almost makes up for the way I literally flushed my money down the drain last time.




Also, behold my not-dead garden!




More not-dead stuff:

Thinking

I have not been paying attention to the Michael Jackson trial. Frankly, I think there are more important things that should be dominating the headlines daily. That being said, I turned on the tv today and watched the aftermath of the not-guilty verdict. Although I'm not exactly sure what my feeling are about the whole case, two things crossed my mind while watching:

1) If indeed he is innocent, how entirely awful it must be to go through all of this.

2) I'm starting to wonder though, if "reasonable doubt" can always be raised if you pay enough money for it.

Summah-tiiime...When The Livin's Eeeasy...

I'm the kind of person who gets seriously bored if I don't have a project to work on. And if I don't have something given to me, I make something up. Something that has to be taken care of RIGHT NOW. Since I have essentially declared my home itself my summer project, I have taken it upon myself to construct a list for what I plan to accomplish in the next three months:

1) CLEAN MY GARAGE.

We are getting a second car in August. (It's a PT Cruiser that we are driving back from Florida- YAY!) First of all, our garage will barely fit our little Chevy Prism. Second... well, there is no second. It's just ridiculously crowded in there and needs to be dealt with. Somewhat related to this, I will be enlisting my Dad to put in a small patio area out back so we can move our grill out of the garage and into the back yard. Also, once I get the garage cleaned out I can paint it with that neat-o grey floor paint and make it all purdy.

2)Build a shelf that fits into our tv nook in the living room wall.

I hate the nook with a passion and wish I could knock that wall down, but without going into the boring details, this will be a much more efficient solution to our problem and also be, quite frankly, much less INSANE. (This project involves my dad's help again. He's like me though and can't sit still so don't worry about him having to work too hard.)

3)Re-paint our bedroom.

Remember when I was joking about becoming the kind of person who paints their bedroom taupe? I'm totally going through with it. Only maybe I'll morph into Hildi Santo-Tomas from Trading Spaces and call it "mocha". Or maybe "toffee". And then I'll wear all black with my three-inch heels and talk all breathy and arty while I'm painting the caramel-latte color on the walls. (Kidding!) But seriously though, I've had enough of the lavender in here. And this new color looks really good as far as I can tell from the teeny swatch I took home from the Home Depot. Plus, I have a good track record with my decorating skillz and think I have a pretty good eye. You're talking to someone who got the award for "Most Fashionable Camper" at her summer day camp in the third grade. Why I felt the need to be stylish at the YWCA camp, I'll never know. The girly-girl in me likes decorating and fashion-y stuff.

4)Do something about the floors in our upstairs bathrooms.

The only thing I can't stand about our lovely ceramic tile on the first floor is that it reminds me about HOW MUCH I can't stand the hideous vinyl floor in the other bathrooms upstairs. It's WHITE and completley impossible to keep clean. Especially in the girls bathroom. I don't really want to spend the money to install ceramic up there so I've been tossing around the idea of putting down some peel and stick tiles (at least in the kid's bath.) I know, I know, it's totally cheap right? I think if I did this though that it would satisfy me enough to where I could stop complaining about it all the time and not completely break the bank as well.

So you see, I have a lot on my to-do list. And I didn't even talk about putting up handrails on the stairs, doing some touch-up paint work on the walls and continuing to build up my garden. (After four years here I think I've finally figured out how to NOT make things die!)

I also want to have more dinner parties. And barbeques. And have more people over for cocktails. Basically, I want to entertain. (And apparently I don't want to get that much sleep.)

Embracing One's Shortcomings and Making With The Joke-y

"Someday you will appreciate the grammar and verbal skills you learned here." (Laughter and applause.) "And if any of you wonder how far a mastery of the English language can take you, just look what it did for me." (Laughter and applause.)

-G.W.B. speaking at the commencement ceremony at Calvin College last month.

Lately I just try to tune that guy out but THAT, my friends, was a good one. (I know I'm late to the punch but I just heard the sound byte today. Like I said- I'm usually quick with the mute button.) Also good: The "dissassemble" means "not to tell the truth" line from last week.

I laugh to keep from crying.

*Sigh*

The Post Where I Am A Good Granddaughter

Today the girls and I stopped by the sales office for the condo my grandparents will be moving into and we snapped some pictures of the model they had constructed. (Grandma and Grandpa: You can click here to see a gallery of the photos I took!)

So unless you are planning on moving into the Clare Oaks Retirement Community in Bartlett, this entry is probably pretty uninteresting for you. My apologies!

Home Sweet Home

After being reminded by some of you of the fact that buying a super-cheap house in Rockford would require me to actually LIVE in Rockford, I have begun to let go of the idea of my awesome fantasy home happening any time soon. Let me be the first to say: THANK YOU FOR HELPING TO CRUSH MY DREAMS . Just kidding! Sort of. I know that I don't want to live in Rockford- and now that my grandparents will be moving into the area I don't want to leave Bartlett either. It's just sometimes I can't stop thinking about how neat it would be to live in a place that is not physically attached to another family's home. A place that has some character to it. And more bedrooms. And an awesome sun room and a pool.

ANYWAY, since I can't have that, I have decided to dedicate myself to making the home I DO have as beautiful as possible. I think I've done a pretty good job already at bringing our own personal style to a place that quite frankly had none when we moved in. But there still are a few things that I'd like to do around the house to spruce it up a bit- especially since we won't be going anywhere anytime soon. (Juli and Ava can look forward to some bunk beds when Ava outgrows that crib!) Summer is always a good time for house projects too. And having a retired Dad who is good with the tools and looking for stuff busy himself with is a nice perk.

Fate Mocks Me

Well I just put myself in a total funk. On a whim we decided to look up house prices in the Bartlett area (in hopes of possibly upgrading our current living situation), and after discovering that unless we are willing to drop down nearly 300 grand (at least) we'd better forget about it, I decided just to see what the homes were selling for in Rockford.

BIG MISTAKE.

Basically I could have my absolute dream house for around forty thousand dollars less than what we could feasibly sell our townhouse for. THAT'S FORTY THOUSAND DOLLARS CHEAPER. And did I mention the words dream house??? I'm talking a huge two-story home in a neighborhood I love with three to four bedrooms, three bathrooms, a finished basement, beautiful hardwood floors, a deck AND a swimming pool. But.....it's in Rockford. No Doubleclick offices in Rockford.

CURSES!

Hummmmmmmmmm

Well, here we are in the midst of the first week of beautiful summer weather and here I am once again THE ONLY PERSON in my neighborhood outside enjoying it- sitting in my front yard listening to the drone of everyone's air conditioners on. It's not that hot people! I never understand why people ruin awesome weather like this with air conditioning. And I love me some good air conditioning on a hot summer day, don't get me wrong.

Also, completely unrelated: In light of yesterday's big news story, would everyone else who is dying for the Deep Throat of our generation to emerge please stand up and say "AYE!"