What We Have Been Doing On Our Winter Vacation.

This is the kitchen floor of our new (extremely old and dirty) house, in case you are baffled by what you are looking at. This is where the clean line meets the dirty. It took soapy bleach water, a heavy duty broom and a mop to get this unattractive floor slightly less unsightly. I got blisters from scrubbing that floor so much. And it still looks dirty. Anyway, we are moving in tomorrow. We have accomplished a lot, but still have sooo much to do. I have decided that rather than updating constantly I will most likely post a short series when the house is at least through these preliminary renovations. Stay tuned. Rest easy knowing that we have water, electric, and heat which we only have because we or someone we know replaced it all. Fun times are being had here. You should join us. Carry a box.

Saying Cheese

This Could Cause Progress On the House to Stop, I Think.

We got a PS3 for Christmas (for Netflix and Hulu Plus streaming in the country). Sergio is currently playing in an online game while on the phone with our friend Sam. They are playing on the same team. Sergio has died four or five times in the 6 minutes he has been playing. He has cursed A LOT! This whole situation is just too funny/sad for words. I'm off to bed. Alone.

Smarty Pants

My mom gets really uncomfortable when rewarded, awarded, bragged about, etc. So she's probably going to hate this. I attended my mother's college graduation last week. My mom graduated Summa Cum Laude on Thursday night, after going to school part-time and working full-time for six years. Just thinking about all that makes me tired. She's very impressive. Congratulations! We're very proud of you.

And because that probably made her turn all red, here are some pictures to distract everyone.

Lazy Bullets!

• We all have a cold. I feel slightly more human today than yesterday, but not much.
  

• Every time I sneeze Rosalind says, "Bess you, Dawn." Of course, she also says exactly that when Sergio sneezes.

• The purse seems to be officially gone.

• I should have posted about the house a bunch of times by now, but I haven't. It has 99% of a new roof and has had since Thanksgiving break. It no longer has that random middle room, stairs, walls in the hallways or bedrooms, or ceilings in the kitchen and Rolo's room.
  

• Everything on our tree has been moved out of Rosalind's reach. Turns out she never got over the novelty of ornaments or candy canes.

• It has fallen to us to show this rental house to potential new renters. Does anyone else not care about housework while sick? I turned some girls away yesterday because I hadn't bothered to do the dishes. And I don't even feel bad about it.

• Freaks and Geeks was one of the other shows that we watched on Netflix but that only had a couple of seasons. I knew there were more!
  

• When Rosalind wakes up now she asks for Oso and Manny. I feel as though this might be a sign of parental laziness or something. On the other hand, if she insists on being up at five then I'm totally going to melt her brain with Special Agent Oso while I pretend to be awake on the couch. If any parents of little ones read this then here is a gift for you. "Hot Dog, Hot Dog, Hot Diggity Dog! It's a Brand New Day, Whatcha Waitin' For?" Get THAT out of your head. You can't.
  

Christmas Tree Decoratin'

We finally took down Rosalind's mobile and repurposed it. Six new ornaments!
Self-explanatory. Well, I guess. I took it from this angle because I was too lazy to move off the couch.
Rosalind seemed to get a kick out of decorating. She totally ate a year old candy cane she found in the box of ornaments. She was well into it before I realized what was happening and took the plastic off.

Typical Me.

So Rosalind wasn't feeling well last night, but before I realized that I took her Christmas shopping with me. As we were leaving Kohl's she decided to pitch a fit and I decided to put the Kohl's bag and my purse down outside of the car door while I picked her up and spoke sternly. I put her in the car, and I put the Kohl's bag in the car. This morning I realized that the purse must have remained.

Shockingly, when my coworkers offered to watch my classes so I could get to Kohl's quickly this morning, it was not to be found. Nobody has turned it in to any stores either. So right now I am without most of my keys including the Focus, the house, my classroom, and the new house. I am also without my wallet which contains one (now canceled) credit card, and one (now canceled) debit card as well as my Oregon driver's license which I have sitting next to my Social Security card. I would hate to inconvenience anyone who might want to steal my identity so I just provide it all in one go. It is my phone, though, that I will miss the most. While I have most of the pictures I take with my phone on the computer, I don't have them all. Sad.

But, hey, it's the Christmas season. Maybe somebody is hunting me down as we speak. This is like the weakest premise of a Christmas movie ever.

If this fictional person goes by the address on my license then my stuff is going to end up in Oregon, Dallas, up the road, and at this address we will be leaving in a couple of weeks before making it's way to me. Nothing is ever simple.

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.

Happy Halloween!

We had some fits and starts with Rolo's costume this year. When we gave up on the puppy and went with the fairy we had some leftover face paint. And so we played with it.
She was not impressed with the pumpkin membrane. She was quite enamored of the knives, though. And the finished pumpkins. "Hi, Punkuns!" Bye bye, Punkuns!"




Sergio and I also attended a costume party. I was a pirate. He was Handy Manny. We think our friend Sam won best costume as assassinated Lincoln. A skinny tall man in a suit with a fake beard and tall hat works out remarkably well.

Fall-bulous

First up: Homecoming Week. I had a goofy exchange with some of my students where I was adamant that a person could grow cows instead of raise them. A few days later two of my students presented me with the following shirt. Awesome. Then I dressed up like a zombie and did the thriller dance twice in front of hundreds of middle and high schoolers. Luckily I was not alone.

Next up: Pumpkin Patch. We went with our friends and their little boy to a local pumpkin patch. Like a real pumpkin patch where you wander around a field of pumpkins and cut off what you like. Rosalind fell immediately in love with a tiny pumpkin and carried it with her everywhere. For example, in the car, to daycare, in the house, etc.



And last up: Camping. We usually have a yearly date of camping with Sergio's parents in Bull Shoals. We skipped it last year because of overscheduling and cranky baby. This year we made it and got to enjoy some good food and campfires before learning of the burn ban and having to cut it a day short. Still a great time.

Oh! We also just got back from Georgia where I celebrated my ten year class reunion. At first it was awkward, but the addition of some unexpected GA moonshine livened things up a lot. And so now we've tried that. Sorry, no pics because it never even occurred to me. We all still look exactly as young, thin, and pretty as we did in high school. Yup.