House Update

Everything takes longer and costs more than you think it should.

Also. Ugh, I'm tired.

My Inner Twelve Year Old Controls the Remote

My Thanksgiving break has begun. It won't be much of a break this year considering how much work we are trying to get done on the house in this very short amount of time. I would imagine posting will be light for a few days, but considering we forgot to post as early as day 17 it isn't as though this is a huge failure.

Here is something entirely random. I have always been pretty unlucky when it comes to falling for television shows only to have them canceled early. My So-Called Life being the first and most heartbreaking that comes to mind. Netflix streaming has taken this to a whole new level though. Here is a list of shows I have loved and lost of late. I didn't really mean for that sentence to turn out like that.

Firefly
Better Off Ted
Pushing Daisies
Veronica Mars (I have one season left to watch and I am embarrassingly obsessed)
A couple of random British shows of which I don't remember the names.
Arrested Development

There are more but my brain seems out for coffee. You should watch these if you stream Netflix and like what amounts to pretty geeky television.

Upside Down.

I Can't Find the Picture With the Dead Squirrels in the Walls!

Two kinds of wallpaper and some plywood in the bedroom.
Plywood on the windows!
Some unexpected things we gained.
Our living room has many holes!
Old clothes.
The reason we are re-roofing first.
The barn floor is just ground!

Stuff We Now Own.

House Front.
House from one side. We will be getting rid of the strange middle room. It is truly awful.
Teeny tiny stairs that will be staying tiny but far prettier.
Rosalind's bedroom.
Living room with bad curtains.
Our bedroom. Yes, it has a chimney and a water heater in the middle. We tore down all the walls this afternoon. Many dead things fell on us.
Dirty kitchen, but that stove top is quite impressive and probably brand new.
Dining area.
Kitchen again.
FLY CREEK! We have a creek. Yes. A creek. It's pretty.
We also have a 90 year old barn. It's old and pretty useless and probably a total hazard to our lives. It is our goal to preserve and use as much of this barn wood as we can.
It is held up by giant old tree trunks!
Can you see the old ladder at the back and the haylift at the top? Anybody know if those are worth anything?
Old dairy barn and a yard that needs something powerful to knock it over.
Old shop and tree.
This is the 11 acres we own across the tiny road from us. We also have 4 acres up around the house. This is the view from our front door.
And finally this is our view from our land up toward the house. Tomorrow you can look forward to pictures that show just exactly how nasty this place is, and what exactly we found when we started taking down sheet rock. We OWN it.

Regression

Today was the first day ever in her life that Rosalind has thrown a clinging-throwing herself on the floor-crying meltdown when she got dropped off at daycare. I had just read something that said 18 months to 3 years is the age of separation anxiety, but I hoped we would completely pass that up. I think this was a one time kind of thing since she has gotten used to daddy dropping her off about two hours after I did this morning and he always feeds her before he leaves her. Anyway, that is what I hope because I can only laugh at my brokenhearted daughter so many times as I wave bye bye before I might feel slightly bad.

Stuff To Do Here.

Yesterday Sergio convinced me to accompany he and Rolo on a bike ride. I went, grudgingly. We biked over to the newish bike trail that can take you all the way from Fayetteville to nearly Rogers (so far). We did not bike any further than Target. We also stopped along the way and let Rosalind play at one of the playgrounds. Not too far into the trip I went from grumpy about biking (pretty much my default biking mood) to enjoying it. Then on the way back I actually had to work a little, but it was still fun. You should try it if you come up here. It's not at all hard and you can go all over this area. You ride along Skull Creek and only deal with cars at clearly marked crosswalks. It is biking made just for me.

Footy Jammies!

She slept until 7:30 this morning and then seemed totally thrilled to be awake (evidence above). Pajamas with feet are adorable and amazing.

Poodle Point of View: Snippet

I have a secret place that Blondie and The Bearded One can't find. It is glorious! I don't know exactly what happened in this spot but it smells DIVINE! I just go there and roll, roll, roll in it. I dive and wiggle until I get it juuuust right. In fact, I am in my spot right now! I just know that I am going to pick up all the ladies smelling so good with my fur spiked so nice. Oh man, I can't wait to get home and rub this all in the carpet so the whole house can be a chick magnet!

I'm at the door.

They're letting me in.

I'm flopping on the carpet!

Wait...why is Blondie yelling with the mean face?

Why am I in the bathroom? Maybe if I yowl really loud they'll let me out....nope.

I'll try again. Hey! They came to get me!

Wait...what is that? No...don't turn the knob on that thing...stop....no water, no water, no water, don't pick me up. Put me down. No, not in the wat...damn.

Just Cute.

Casa Barron

So, we are buying a house. Some of you know this and some don't and we actually haven't closed on the house yet but that is scheduled for next week and I really don't see any reason this transaction won't go through. So, we are buying a house. I say a house but there is an additional 15 acres included and that really is the beautiful part of the property. As a matter of fact, the actual house is less than beautiful right now and is in need of someone with great skill, it's getting me. In any case below you will find a couple pictures of what i envision the home to be some day. These are rough CAD drawings and I have every expectation that these will change.This is an overall diagram of the down stairs rooms.

This is a picture of the stairs I designed. They are alternating step stairs that hopefully will work in this small home.

And Now You Know.

It was flu shot day at school and most of my students were gone throughout the day to help the little kids get their shots. This lead to a make-up day, which often involves time for strange conversations. So you might be interested to know that one of the strangest things a student of mine has eaten is cow poop, and the strangest thing I have ever vomited is Malt-o-Meal...through my nose.

Proud To Be Razorback Fans

Fun With Camera.

Breaking News!

U-Verse has brought back HGTV and Food Network! Well done, AT&T!

Sleeping.

Rolo went to sleep with a dirty face which makes for a dirty pillow. My goal was to assure you her pillow isn't always dirty, but I think I only succeeded in making people worry about why we would let our daughter go to bed with a dirty face. Look at the cute baby! I am a master of distraction.

Things I Almost Posted Today.

We ALMOST filmed Rosalind playing "soccer" in the backyard, but the cameras were dead. The game involves her kicking the ball and then squealing while we all chase it down. Sometimes we kick it and it hits her and that is pretty funny for everyone.

We ALMOST took a picture of dinner, but again, the camera was dead. Braised beef with olives and mushrooms over cheesy polenta. Jealous? I thought so.

We ALMOST recorded Rolo eating the Pumpkin Spice Sundae Bowl from Shake's. Yes, the camera was still dead, but we were also distracted with eating the same thing. From the first taste Rosalind started repeating "I bites, I bites, I bites" without pausing for breath. We sometimes stopped laughing and eating long enough to tell her to say please. She would then continue "I bites, I bites, I bites" while signing "please" and "good".

Now she is in bed and has been since about 5:15. The time change is throwing her (and us, honestly) for a loop. We will be waking her up in about a half hour so she can stay awake until a normal time. That should be a lot of fun.

Things That Are Bothersome.

Rosalind has a bad cough that seems to be messing with her sleep patterns. So she keeps waking up raring to go between 3:30 and 5:00 am. Ugh. And her regular morning nap that takes place around 10 and ends 1 to 2 hours later has been replaced with these frustrating little cat naps that seem to only make her grumpier. Yuck.

Sergio has devoted his whole Saturday to judging a negotiations competition at the law school. I am sure this is a good thing but it is getting in the way of my day.

AT&T U-Verse has dropped the only two channels I ever watch. Food Network and HGTV. If we weren't already probably going to lose this service in December, I would totally call and complain. Loudly and often.

He's Fast

Excerpts from the Urban Dictionary.

These are the ones we like, I guess. Mine is true in physical details if nothing else. Sergio's is just true.

Dawn. The beginning, the early morning, the best is yet to come. A blonde haired blue eyed young lady that is smarter than most of her counterparts. Zodiac sign is usually cancer but may also be capricorn. Extremely funny and well versed in medical knowledge. Sergio A kid that is always smiling for no reason. And T-Baggs bikes.

This Kills Me.

Click on me.

We Like This Kid.

Two Cents

It's November which means that it is time to try and write a post a day for the whole month. Something I have attempted every year we have had this blog and have yet to accomplish. I am motivated this month though because if we don't get another 40 post we won't even match last year. My pie in the sky goal is another sixty posts...or whatever makes us hit 100. I am guesstimating since I didn't actually check before starting this.

Sergio and I early voted today. I feel I am fulfilling my civic duty by telling you all to go and vote tomorrow as well. I also feel like I should point out that I heard a goofy ad this morning that had me riled up all day. It said, "Think Mark Martin." This was followed by the sounds of race cars. Really? It wants me to think of Arkansas Nascar driver Mark Martin instead of the Secretary of State nominee? Lame. Unfortunately for that guy it made me look him up and learn of his platform. Definitely should not have drawn my attention to that. So go vote. And probably you should vote for Pat O'Brien who did not insinuate in his ad that you are ignorant of politics and would vote for name recognition alone.