Tuesday, August 30, 2005

Eraser

Last week I bought a paper shredder. I've been meaning to do this for quite a while since I'm preparing to sort through all of my old journals and diaries that I have boxed up in the basement. Everyone always says that journaling is a wonderful hobby and that it helps you sort through your thoughts by getting all your emotions out on paper. However, nobody ever tells a fourteen-year-old that while keeping a journal may be therapeutic, you may also want to punch yourself in the face a decade later upon re-reading all of your whiny, suburban, teenange ANGST.

Plus, if I ever decide to run for president I should eliminate all incriminating evidence that may tarnish my squeaky clean image, right? But then that would include deleting this page as well so I guess public office is out for me.

I've been thinking for a while that I would be horrified if years from now either Juli or Ava stumbled upon an old diary of mine and proceeded to use my own words against me. I thought at first that I should burn the darn books but since I don't have a fireplace a shredder will have to do. Hey, it cross cuts! I'm planning on scanning in a few pages for nostalgias sake but omigid the bulk of it is really, really bad. Part of me wishes I could cut my teenage self some more slack but the other part just doesn't want my grandchildren laughing at what a weenie I was.

Sunday, August 28, 2005

Cleaning House (AGAIN) TLC-Style

Jason has decided to let me help him Clean Sweep his basement storage area today.

Wish us luck! We need it.

What the World Needs Now is Love, Sweet Love

Anti-Gay Church Protests at Soldiers’ Funerals: Everyone's favorite bigot, Fred Phelps is at it again, claiming that God is punishing American soldiers for defending a country that harbors gays.

Ann Coulter claims New Yorkers would "immediatley surrender" to terrorists, conveniently forgetting the fact that they actually were attacked and I don't remember anyone lying down and surrendering.

Ok, I actually like this next one a lot. Jon Stewart redeems himself after his softball interview with Rick Santorum. Here's a link to a video from Thursday's show where he talks with Christopher Hitchens.

Wednesday, August 24, 2005

Have I Mentioned How Much I Love Being Married?

August, 1997:

wedding1997.jpg


August, 2005: And we still like each other!


IMG_3496.jpg

IMG_3502.jpg

IMG_3504.jpg

Juliana took these photos. You may notice that Jason finally cut his hair! He has not, however, gotten rid of that darn SPAM t-shirt yet. Maybe in eight more years.


Speaking of Juliana, my baby started kindergarten today!


Tuesday, August 23, 2005

Me and My Little Flower Girl






Juliana and Me


Originally uploaded by Tracey Gessner.


I've started a gallery on Flickr of photos from the wedding last weekend. I only have four pictures up right now but hopefully I will be adding more tonight and tomorrow...



Monday, August 22, 2005

Alan Ball is My Hero

I'm going to post about the wedding and the birthday party. I really am. But this morning I'm still sitting here thinking about the final episode of Six Feet Under that aired last night. This show has been ripping my heart out and stomping on it for the past three weeks and last night it completley wiped me out, it was so good. I don't want to spoil it for anyone who hasn't seen it yet but the words in the promo photo for this season below suddenly made total sense. I felt pretty sad and empty after Buffy went off the air but this show really scraped out my insides. In a good way. Plus, who out there was probing my brain when they created Claire's character?


sfu5.jpg


Friday, August 19, 2005

Two Crazy Kids

Today: Dan and Michelle's wedding

Sunday: Juli's birthday party

Wheee!








Michelle and Dan


Originally uploaded by Tracey Gessner.






Oh, and have I mentioned it is our 8th wedding anniversary on Wednesday? Plus: THE START OF KINDERGARTEN. Life is good.

Monday, August 15, 2005

The Day I Finally Learned to Stop Putting Things On Top of My Car

After stopping at the Bartlett Sports store to get Juliana's soccer gear, I spent about 45 minutes filling my grocery cart at Super Target. (But let's not talk abou the fact that I grabbed the cart with unturnable wheels, forcing me to muster all of my body weight to move around the corners. Why did this start happening only after I had piled a mountain of food in my cart? I don't really know.) The fun part of the story begins when I got to the checkout and realized I did not have my wallet.

After searching my car, I came to the conclusion that I must have left it back at the sports store, so I had the checkout woman hold my $160 basket of groceries for me while I sped back to the previous store. It wasn't until the wallet was still unaccounted for there that I really started to freak out. I then drove home to get my checkbook so I could at least pay Target for all my food (and to also spend some time on the phone cancelling my credit cards.) But when I got there I found a message from the Bartlett police department saying someone had found my wallet on Main St. and turned it in.

This is why I love living in a small town. If I had left my purse on top of my car in my old neighborhood in Chicago and driven off, by the time I had gotten home to call the bank I would have had a handful of charges made ranging from Marshall Fields to Rainbow on Lawrence. Someone probably would have tried to open a bank account in my name or apply for a mortgage. But here I got to retrieve my lost property from my friendly neighborhood officer.

People of Bartlett, I'm giving you a big smooshy hug right now for saving me a trip to the DMV.

Friday, August 12, 2005

More Internet House Hunting

I just found a great area for us to look for houses next year: South Elgin, Illinois. It is about 10 minutes or so directly west of us on Bartlett road and if we look there we can find the type of houses I've been salivating over here in Barlett, but in our price range. And I'm not talking just barely in the range, but completely and totally in the range along with a hot tub and a fancy schmancy swing set in the back yard to boot. As it turns out, we are close enough to this town that the kids in this neighborhood already attend the South Elgin middle school and high school. I had no idea. I took the girls on a little jaunt over there on Wednesday afternoon and I about had a heart attack when I saw how beautiful these houses were. I know I'm headed to suburban yuppie-town USA but lets face it: look where I am now. I If I'm going to be a soccer mom from the 'burbs I should at least have an awesome house to show for it, right?

Thursday, August 11, 2005

Cindy Sheehan's Diary Posts from Crawford, Texas

Day 5

Day 4

There are more posts from the first three days but I liked these since it appears that she hasn't let O'Reilly and Drudge shake her down.

Wednesday, August 10, 2005

Help!

I can't stop watching HGTV!

Between this channel and Clean Sweep and Property Ladder on TLC, I can turn on my tv and see surprise kitchen renovations, organizational interventions and real estate "flips" at any time of the day or night. It's just mesmerizing.

Must. Watch. More. Now.

Monday, August 8, 2005

Plan of Action

I've been plugging away on little home projects that need to be done if we end up moving in the spring. Basically, I've scapped my plans for a little patio for the grill out back and for new linoleum in the upstairs bathroom since neither will really matter if we will be leaving. Instead, I'm opting to do little touch-ups here and there that will make our place all the more attractive to potential buyers. Things like repainting the fugly trim a fresh white color and fixing broken light fixtures. I'm still going to paint our bedroom since a neutral color will be more buyer-friendly than the present purple. I will not, however, be repainting the girls bedroom again, seeing that I just re-did it a couple of months ago and can't bring myself to do it all over again. Who knows, maybe another little girl (or two) will move in who just loves turquoise blue?

I've been doing tons of research on homes in our area. Although there are plenty of drool-worthy homes in which I will never live, I've also found a number of really nices houses in our price range that I can completely see us living in. One upgrade I will not waver on though is hardwood floors. I absolutely adore my wood floors and will fight tooth and nail to find a house with hardwood instead of carpet.

For now though, in addition to fixing up some little things we're basically going to concentrate on putting as much money away into savings as possible. We have this problem where if there is extra money in our checking account, we always find ways to spend it. So now all that extra "buffer" money will be transferred into a savings account so it hopefully will not be touched. Basically, what I'm trying to say is that if you are related to me you can expect for Christmas this year to get a big white t-shirt with a photograph of our smiling faces on it. Frugal!

Thursday, August 4, 2005

Awwww

Thanks to Billy for sending me these photos from our last trip up to Milwaukee.


out_in_milwaukee.jpg


milwaukee_bus.jpg

I Have No Brain

This morning I called the dentist to make an appointment for Juliana to have her teeth cleaned. When the girl on the phone gave me an appointment for Friday, August 19th I thought to myself, "Gee, something sounds familiar about that date, but I can't think of exactly what it is right now so it should be totally ok, right?"

Derrrr. That's only the day of Michelle and Dan's wedding. I remembered this the moment I hung up the phone.

So I called back to reschedule and I was given a new date of Monday, August 22nd. "Sure! That will be great!"

Not so fast. That's the day Steph and I are talking Juli, Maddie and Bailee to Build-a-Bear Workshop for Juliana's birthday.

So now I have to call back AGAIN and frankly, it's a little embarassing. WHAT IS WRONG WITH MY BRAIN?