The Plot Thickens...

We return now for (hopefully) the conclusion to our soggy story.  It starts with another amazingly blessed chain of events.  Get this.

School was canceled today (that is not part of the blessed events...consequently, and contrary to your praises of patience and goodness, my fuse today was slightly shorter than yesterday.  School might have saved their skins a time or two today.)
This morning I called the water clean up company to see where I was on their list.  The receptionist was a tad snippy.  I understand that she has had a stressful last couple of days but is that any excuse to throw good customer service out in the flood waters? No, it is not.  Being irritated with her snippy attitude I decided to call our local fire department because a friend of mine had mentioned that option in passing last  night..  I am beyond grateful that she mentioned that...read on.
So after getting off the phone with Miss Snippity I called our little local Fire Station.  In less than ten minutes I had a truck in front of my house and three able bodied men setting up an industrial sized pump in my basement.  They were back in an hour to retrieve their pump and wish me a happy day....no charge I might add.  (I heart Firemen.) Did you hear that? No charge! because Firefighters are awesome like that.  After they had left I heard a knock on the door...it was one of the firemen back with a request to follow him.  There was a problem.  (cue tense music...)
I followed him to the side of the house to find the other firemen standing safely back from our electrical box dripping, big time dripping, with water.  They informed me that this was indeed NOT a good thing and "how quickly can you and your daughters leave the house?"  Considering we were all still in our pj's, not as quickly as he would have liked.  We were instructed to touch NOTHING, not even a light switch.  We threw clothes on (luckily I had already put on deodorant and jeans but had to throw the bra in my purse) and herded ourselves out the door and down the road.  I wish I had taken a picture of the commotion we left but I fear they already thought I was being too calm about the whole thing.  Truth is, I can't really comprehend what kind of danger we were in but the fact that we had been indeed using electricity all  morning had my adrenaline pumping pretty healthily by the time I got to my friend's house.  We left behind two fire trucks, a police car and a small gaggle of firemen on the driveway.  Sitting here tonight and recounting the story I have suddenly been flooded (excuse the corny description but that's literally how it happened) with emotion from the last two days.  Yes I have been calm and yes I have not worried.  But tonight I cannot help but be overwhelmed with all the countless "what ifs".  It could have been catastrophic.  I was letting my daughters play in the water for crying out loud!!  The water from the main box outside was a mere inches from the actual circuits and it was dripping down into the basement where our circuit breaker box is, located a mere 3 feet from an oil tank.  I feel incapable of expressing my gratitude.  I am overwhelmed with thankfulness for my friend for mentioning the fire department option, the snippy lady on the phone that irritated me enough to call someone else, the teenage volunteer firefighter with his Dad today (who saw the dripping water from the box as they were pulling away and asked his Dad if that was normal) and whatever angels have been protecting my family for the last 2 days.  I can't seem to properly process these feelings of appreciation - overcome with relief beyond what I could comprehend.  This afternoon when we were allowed to come back home a fire chief stopped by to explain everything to me.  He even showed me pictures and video that he had taken to show me exactly what the problem had been and how they fixed it and assured me that all was well now.  I wish I still had him in my kitchen...I would hug him and kiss his cheeks and tell him "Thank You" for being awake helping people for the last 40 hours.  The poor man was tired. 

I continue to feel extremely watched over.  So thank you whoever you are.  Thank you for the thoughts and the prayers and the love, my gosh the love.  Thank you to the friend that let us come hang out in her own mess of a flood today and fed us lunch, thank you to my other friend that has lent us her shopvac to get the last little bit of remaining water and thank you to the countless people that have called to check up on us today.
I know it doesn't seem like much of an ordeal but I wanted to write about it when I still feel the impact of what a big deal it could've been.

This shows where the water got to and how quickly their pump got it out.  Tonight I just have spots of standing water...it is almost all gone.

This was a lovely sight...hopefully that water was running more into my neighbor's yard and not so much back into our own.

This is the meter box after they fixed it.  They shut off all power, opened things up, drained water and then cut slices in the bottom of the tubing to let water drain as it came  up from the ground.

Moisture much?

This is what I am grateful for today:

*I am grateful that the basement "mildly flooded" four weeks ago because I went out and bought the rest of the shelves we needed to get everything off the floor.
*I am grateful that it flooded a second time three weeks ago because it necessitated a trip to the dump to dispose of all the boxes and garbage that has been piled in the corner from organizing after the first flood.
*I am grateful that first thing this morning I smelled something burning that caused me to discover both the water in the basement and a major fire hazard.
*I am grateful for a father in law that is my "handy man on call"...he is always awake when I need him when I call in that panicked voice.  "What do I do?"
*I am grateful that it is not freezing cold outside and that we still have power even though we had to turn off the heat.
*I am actually grateful that we have not made it to the top of the water clean up co. list yet...with more rain tomorrow, I would rather it be done in one, foul (and I mean foul) swoop.
*I am grateful that nothing has been seriously damaged (not that we know of yet...the washer and dryer is yet to be determined...but who wouldn't like a valid excuse to not do laundry?)
*I am grateful that I don't own this house.

This morning when I found the water there was only 3 inches.  I had called my father in law in hopes that he could tell me how to avoid my house catching fire because of the plethora of things plugged in to a power strip totally submerged in water...one of which was currently running (that poor dehumidifier was totally freaking out.) He assured me that if I just put a toe in the water to test it's shockability, it would probably only be a little jolt.  I quickly excused myself off the phone with him so that I could complete this little "test" before my most capable 911 callers left for school.  So armed with my rubber boots and a broken broom handle I headed downstairs, perched myself atop a plastic bin and leaned precariously over the metal washer and dryer and used my broom handle to unplug the running electrical appliances.  I also had to shut off the heat which was causing the burning smell...apparently it's temperamental about water "all up in it's kitchen". 
I was pleasantly surprised to NOT suffer from any degree of electric shock today.
I then called my property manager, who is on vacation, conveniently enough.  You'd better believe I pressed the "0" for an emergency. He was just here last week telling me that a little piece of plastic under the gutter would fix all my problems and make my wildest dreams come true.
I braved the nonstop rain today and got out long enough to surf in my friend's basement and get milk from Target so my baby will keep growing.

I couldn't help take a bunch of pictures because I just cannot believe the water everywhere.  I think they said that the amount of rain we have gotten in the last 36 hours is more than was expected for the entire year.  It just doesn't rain like this Connecticut.  The raging water through the woods is amazing and beautiful, the swollen ponds and rivers a tad scary and the water on the roads downright disconcerting...it has it's own current.
By the time I returned home, we had 4 more inches of water.

The grand total before bed tonight was 9.5 inches.  It covers the bottom step and our empty 55 gallon drum water barrels are floatin' around like a couple of bloated carcasses.

But the girls had fun playing in it today...I tried to embrace how fun it is for kids to suddenly have an indoor swimming pool, even if the water is a frigid 50 degrees.  I'm so glad they thought that the swimsuits and swim caps were necessary...it made the experience that much more fun.  I let them play until hypothermia set in or someone got hurt.  I think it was a tie.
It has been a lesson and practice of patience today...I haven't lost it once (I thought about it, but didn't give in...I ate a chocolate egg instead.) I have just had to let it go and concede that there really is simply nothing I can do but wait, and watch the water rise (slowly I hope) and cross my fingers that the water clean up company will call me back soon to tell me that I have moved from #35 on their list, to #1.  If not I might just be placing a call to the Fire Department..."What? Oh, no, I am sorry, no emergency.  My daughter must have called by accident...but while you are here, you wanna do something about all this water?  You are a lamb.  Here, have a chocolate egg."

For your dry, viewing pleasure.

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Please take special note that "the silent one" says a distinguishable word.  I love that it sounds just like Jerry Seinfeld's girlfriend's belly button.

Self Diagnosis #324

Is it possible to be ingesting lead paint without knowing it?
I am pretty sure that I am dumber than I used to be.

ACHOO!

That is a sound of the coming post...a sneeze, a smattering, if you will, of random goings on...and because there has been lots of sneezing too...and snot.  So I thought it was an appropriate title.

Randomness #1: All growing up I used cutting my hair as a way to break through boredom.  If nothing exciting was happening in my life, it was time for a haircut.  Now that I have kids, I can leave my own hair alone and easily persuade one of them to cut theirs.  I actually didn't have to do a lot of convincing.  Abby has been asking for several weeks and so I caved.  One of these days I will finally cough up the cash and take them to a professional.  I really have no business cutting such lucious, thick little girl hair.  Or at the very least buy myself some real hair cutting scissors instead of my sharpy sharp sewing scissors.  I did not intend for it to be so short...but remember that part where I said I haven't learned my lesson yet?

And as cute as her hair is, I do miss her long tresses.  But whatcha gonna do? It'll grow back.  It turned out so short that it is kind of unintentionally stacked in the back even...what I mean is, "it's even stacked in the back", certainly not implying that it is "evenly" stacked in the back.

Asinine detail #2: Last week I gave into Mia's incessant pleading to try on swimming suits.  She saw the sun come out and automatically thought it was time to start prancing around in swim suits.  So I got them out and was so entertained by how entertained she was, that I took pictures.  Then I got sick of taking pictures and got busy throwing away about a dozen suits that are worn, stretched out, ripped, falling apart or otherwise too "un-cute" for this season to pass down. 

Ooh Belly! Then apparently Abby got in on the fun and instead of trying on suits that might fit them this year, the reverted to see how many suits of the past they could try.  It got very tight, and revealing, and silly...when the swim caps came out, that's when things really got crazy.  This last suit was hidden under 9 out of 10 outfits for the next several days, until I was able to successfully confiscate and hide it for Hazel.

Self Promoting Detail #3:
What you are looking at now, besides a dirty crock pot, is this year's Church Chili Cook off winner. Thank you, thank you very much.  I don't normally like to brag but just look at that empty pot.  Several years ago when Clark and I were first married I won the chili cook off in another ward.  At the time I thought they were just trying to make me feel welcome because we were new.  Looks like maybe I know a thing or two about cooking after all.

Maybe I'll get myself a nice shadowbox to display my winnings...I'm sure it has nothing to do with the fact that my dear brother in law was one of the judges.

In conclusion, I have successfully folded the mountain of laundry on my bed and am looking forward to another week of stuff.  Stuff is good, stuff is exciting.  Stuff is sometimes taking a nap in the middle of the day because I can, or actually using my new running shoes this week.  I just might.

I hope all your stuff is good stuff this week.

Groundhog, Shmoundhog.

Apparently, Mr. Groudhog doesn't know what's up in Connecticut.  Lest I jinx our good fortune I won't say it loudly...I think Spring has sprung.  And what do hundreds of wintered-out Connecticutonians do when the temperature gets above 55?  Why, they go to the beach of course!  You'll remember last year's little pre-spring excursion to the beach turned a little chilly on us.  Today, I could not wait for them to get home from school.  I wanted to sit on the sand, feel the sun and be lulled by those waves.  We packed our blanket and our sand toys and went to soak up the sun.  We were totally gypped last summer with the shortest warm season ever.  We are hoping that this year is much better...more time to enjoy the incredible beauty that we live so close to.
Ah.  I love the coast.  I simply adore it so.

I caught Mia just standing in a daze staring at the ocean for a good minute and a half without moving.  It was adorable...way more adorable than every other picture I took of her today with her crack hanging out of her pants.  Also, she looked like Quasimodo because her hood was tucked in.  I fixed that right quick...the shoulder pad look is so out...or is it?

And I love these pictures because Hazel was all jazzed to stand with them and jump but between the counts of "1" and "3" she had completely lost interest.

Then Hazel stood and looked longingly at the ocean...for a few seconds before I sent one of my minions out to fetch her before she charged right in.

*I completely realize of course, that it has indeed been six weeks of winter since the Groundhog made his presumptuous prediction.  I figure New England doesn't really count because it just does what it wants, when it wants anyway.  In any case, we hope that this warmer weather is here to stay.


And here is to the awesome missionaries who came and did the greatest service ever this week.  In less than an hour they had packed the van to the gills, the absolute gills I tell you, with all the soggy stuff from our second basement flooding this month....and one broken trampoline blown into a tree during a recent storm. Boo hoo.  These guys are amazing!  Just about the nicest boys ever.

Health Nut or just plain Nutty?

Listen, I'm not gonna sit here and tell you that I didn't have 5 girl scout cookies for breakfast.  Because I did.  But I also had a bagel with avocado and pure grapefruit juice.  I'm also not going to try and convince anyone that we eat healthy all the time...I've got incriminating evidence all over my blog...waxy donuts, marshmallow fluff, and let's not even count how many times I have professed my love for Chick Fil A and their Honey Roasted BBQ sauce...oops, did I just do it again?  I just see the value of good, healthy eating.  That's all I'm trying to say.
I was telling  my friend the other day that I felt safe with Cheerios.  Whether or not they are actually healthy, I feel like they are.  I trust them.  I love them.  I used to eat plain cheerios as a kid with a 1/2 inch thick layer of sugar on the top...careful to get an even ratio of sugar to cereal in each bite.  I know as well as you do that they write all sorts of special words and phrases all over the box to give us that warm fuzzy feeling, and it works.  I told her that it saves me the headache of reading all other labels if I just buy the equivalent to the "good stuff" in Cheerio language.  Fruit loops=Fruity Cheerios.  Apple Jacks=Apple Cinnamon Cheerios...you catching my drift here?  So I thought it was especially funny when she walked up to me at the church the other night and gifted me with this.

I totally laughed.  And then we totally ate some.
I mean, they're still Cheerios, right? Sweet.  Score. A healthy well balanced breakfast treat, I mean meal.  Come on people, they used real cocoa, real cocoa! Hot dog!  My main question would be, if you are appealing to a person that buys chocolate breakfast anything, do you really think they care if it is made with real cocoa or not?  I read recently that Cheerios was forced to remove the label on their boxes that claimed it lowered cholesterol.  I found that completely unfair, seeing as how 90% of the products out there put anything on the front of their box to beguile the everyday consumer to believe that it is somehow healthier than before....No Trans Fat, Low Sodium, 0% this or that, etc.  It's with the same naivety that we buy anything that says organic on it....I mean, unless I was there to actually witness it's organic "coming to be" it's all a big crapshoot anyway.  If I am not mistaken, Walmart was prosecuted a few years ago for an entire line of products boasting organic that were indeed, not organic.  gasp.
My Mom did a good job of feeding us and teaching us healthy habits without warning us of the evils of sugar or beating us over the head with a bag of apples.  From what I remember, we ate fairly healthy and well rounded...with the exception of the foil wrapped ding dongs in the pantry...but let's face it, ding dongs were probably so much purer way back in the 80's.  High Fructose Corn Syrup (aka the Devil apparently) was probably not even invented.  Yep, let's just go with that theory. 
The reality of it is this.  I want my family to eat as naturally as possible.  I say, as possible meaning as much as I am able to provide this for them without having to make my own cloth and live in a commune with people that also don't believe in deodorant....or even worse, people that make their own deodorant.
I have been receiving a health magazine for the last several months.  One that I look forward to reading though I dread at the same time because I know I will finish it with a resolve to give up something...usually something I don't really want to give up. Unfortunately this doesn't mean that McDonald's is completely out of the picture...because sometimes the convenience of McDonald's is exactly what this little mother needs.  It just means that all I will be thinking about while consuming it is how gross it really is, therefore totally ruining the experience and convenience factor.
We do well.  My kids actually really like fruits and vegetables.  They eat good stuff.  But I also don't think I need to hit them over the head day after day with that proverbial bag of apples I mentioned.  I simply need to teach them that our bodies are special.  They can be fragile but they are strong.  We need to be smart because we only get one.
Speaking of healthy foods and wanting to eat healthy...I bought Nutella for the first time ever last week.  After just a few days it it, they are officially grounded from it.  Pace ourselves I say.  It's delicious creaminess has left many a chocolate mustaches and dirty fingerprints in its wake.  And I don't have to tell you how disconcerting it is to find brown smudges anywhere on anything when you have a child in diapers in the house.  All I'm saying is, you just never know for sure.
In short, our bodies are resilient and strong.  I want to feed my family whole, healthy foods but everything in moderation.  And while I probably will never convert my lawn into an enormous garden, make my own fertilizer or raise my own fryers, we will eat a well balanced diet.  I will teach them healthy habits and ideals about what we put into our bodies.  I will not force my kids to eat collard greens, whatever those are.  I will offer them good things to eat that will help their little bodies and brains to grow grow grow and drink lots and lots of water.  That is my pledge, K?
So go, be healthy but please don't be crazy...Look, I don't want to tell you what to do but also, please don't make your own deodorant...we all gotta die sometime, even if it is at age 97 from the zinc in antiperspirant.

Please pass the asparagus.

My special girl.

This week we were lucky to have a lovely and delightful house guest and her daughter staying with us for a few days.  Her daughter is four months older than Hazel.  Her daughter not only speaks in complete sentences but can count, knows her alphabet and is fully potty trained.  So we were oogling over how smart she was at the lunch table the other day when she and her mother headed off to the potty.  We continued to oogle at her intelligence while she was in the bathroom when our conversation was interrupted by my intervening in Hazel retrieving herself a snack from the trash can.  "Hazel! We do  not eat garbage."  Then not thirty seconds later she came wandering in with a brown paper sack on her head.  I laugh, knowing full well that she is a smart girl.  She is certainly up to par in all other areas of development...cognitive, gross motor, fine motor, social, etc.  However, her speech is at about an 8 month level.  When she was 8 or 9 months old she would babble the appropriate consonants, mama, dada, baba, lala but she has since stopped.  She makes noise, she babbles, she is progressing along some other verbal milestones with intonation and whatnot, but still is not forming words the way she should.  She had issues with eating when she was born and continues to be picky with "how" she eats things.  I am not overly concerned because as a mother of four children I also know that they all develop at their own rate.  Haley, though capable of telling us what she wanted, did not start really speaking until she was nearly 3.  Abby was pretty average and then we had Mia who was saying "Shamu, cheeseburger" and "fo shizzle" at 18 months.  Hazel knows about 10-12 signs but only uses about 3 or 4 unprompted.
And while it's obvious that as the youngest of four girls, an outgoing Dad and one chatty Mother she doesn't get a lot of speaking opportunities. I have my suspicion that there may be more to her delay.  I'm no expert but I have had my fair share of parenting (at least four times in 9 years), fair share of talking (obvious to anyone who knows me or has ever sat in a room with me for 3 minutes) and working with small children with developmental delays (almost all my time at college....no, I actually worked for the school districts early intervention program, I wasn't referring to my fellow college students.) A few months ago at her 18 month well baby check up he said to bring her in in January if she still had no words.  We did a complete work up with the audiologist and she did wonderfully so no worries there.  I didn't take her back in January.  I decided to be the patient Mom just waiting for her when she is ready.  She has her two year well baby check up in a couple of weeks and I am anxious to hear what her pediatrician thinks.
So in the meantime I will continue to follow her to her chair as she giggles in anticipation of reading, we will cuddle and love and encourage the words, but I can't promise I won't sneak a chuckle next time she sticks her finger clear up her nostril when we ask her where her nose is.  Besides, she managed to purchase a game package on my cell phone for $4.99 this week, how delayed can she be?

Oh, that crinkly nosed smile...I could eat her, every last bit.

 Her new swim suit...she loves it so.  She kept twirling and playing with the skirt when I put it on her.

 Sometimes she does funny things like stands like this while she is waiting for something.  She is just cute like that. (And sometimes no matter what I do, I cannot rotate a picture.)

We all remember this one, no?

Despite the fact that she accidentally pooped in the potty last week and has the whole "hold your crotch and bounce while looking longingly at me" thing down, I don't think she knows what you are supposed to do when sitting there.  Besides, I don't believe in truly potty training a child until they come up to me, rub my arm gently and say "Mother, if you don't mind, I do believe I am ready to put away the diapers and start using the restroom like a civilized person.  Thank you for all those times you lovingly cleaned my bottom but your services are no longer needed." That's when you know they are ready.   Besides, as her mother, I am totally entitled to post pictures like this on my blog.

My other favorite thing that Hazel does is this.  You know how babies do their whole "I don't know" shoulder shrug and head shaking? Instead of her intonation going up, go ahead, shrug your shoulders and say "I don't know" in an upward pitch--she says it in a downward pitch...as if to say "I don't know, what are you asking me for" while putting her chin down and to the side while casting just her eyeballs up.  It's hilarious.

I should have waited to do a post entirely dedicated to her since her birthday is right around the corner...but I think I will say only nice things about her in that one.

I think I would like to be famous for something.  Just one thing.  And just for a very short amount of time.  I think that would be nice.
What would you be famous for?

REWARD

I am offering 10 big ones to anyone that can come over to my house and pull out the drawer under the oven.  It is currently holding prisoner the following: every baking pan I own, pizza stone, cupcake/muffin tins (all three sizes) and all others.
The jelly-roll pans are the culprits.
It has been stuck for one week now.  Do you know how well things bake in glass casserole dishes? No? Because they don't.  Bake well, that is.
I have a bruise ring around my arm (right about at the place that I can reach my arm to) where I spent 45 minutes last night trying to get it open...again.
I may even add something baked to that $10.

Know this, that when you come over to dislodge the drawer....kicking it does not help...neither do mild expletives murmured under one's breath. 

Title-less post.

Here are some things about my life today that make me laugh.
1. I ran into that one store that I don't really like that much to buy something that was actually cute and super cheap.  It was appropriate that my almost two year old had a chocolate donut hole in one hand and a regular glazed in the other.  Double fistin' it is the only way to go.
2.  I ran a lot of errands this morning.  Since it was snowing most of the morning I was wearing my rubber boots over my jeans and by the time I got home the front of my calves hurt from the boots rubbing my leg stubble.
3. I bought myself some new running shoes today.  It is time-I have had my last pair for almost 7 years...that's a lot of not working out.  But I am sitting here and my knees and legs are sore...from just trying on running shoes? All that bouncing and walking with pep up and down the shoes isles with different shoes was maybe just too much for me.  Take it slow.
4. I had a moment of parenting brilliance last night.  It was such a successful idea that I wanted to make myself a little laminated award to hang above my desk.  But instead I just patted myself on the back with a back scratcher.  Really.  Pathetic? I like to think, not. Then I scratched some.  I love that thing.
5. I have been going to bed waaay too late so I am not letting myself take a nap today (which I sometimes get to do while Mia is at school and Hazel is napping.) So instead I am sitting at my computer and writing inane blog posts.
6. I just spilled water down my chin and shirt while taking a drink.
7. I bought a bra from the little girls' section today.  So. Awesome.
8. The birds in our neighborhood love us the best because every time I get kids in and out of the car I throw whatever food remnants remain in the car, out into the yard.
9. Sometimes I play my daughter's DS while she is at school but I have to wipe it down first because it feels like little grimy kid hands.  Remember, since my angelic kids are helping out around the house more I get bored sometimes, and since I am not allowed to take a nap (OR read my book because I will fall asleep) I play her video game.
10. And now I am going to have a kit kat and sit back for a bit.  Bowzer and me, we got a score to settle.

Post Edit: I not so suddenly just realized how lazy I sound...refer to previous post, I just organized my entire basement, see? And since I was doing one area a month, I have like, three weeks off until the next project.  Yep, I feel fully justified now.
Also, another funny thing happened tonight.  The girls, less than pleased with their dinner options tonight finished quickly and ran away leaving me with the dishes...which is totally fine because sometimes I need the post dinner de-compression time before starting the bedtime marathon.  I sent them upstairs with explicit orders to be showered by the time I got up there.  They did so amazingly fast but they know that if they interrupt me finishing up dishes they will be asked to help with something so they avoid me until I appear upstairs with further instructions.  I capitalized on this tonight however...while they colored upstairs and assumed I was finishing dishes (which took me all of a minute and a half tonight, bless the man who invented paper plates....or woman, I bet it was a woman that invented them) I was sitting on the kitchen floor with a Land of Nod catalog and Ben & Jerry's brownie cheesecake ice cream decompressing in style.

So totally gag me with a spoon

The 80's night is over.  I just wiped off every last bit of blue eyeshadow, though my bangs are still so crusty they are giving me a headache.
Having been born just a few years too late to really enjoy the 80's fully as a teenager, tonight I was in neon, lacey, mullet heaven.  I loved loved loved people's outfits and found myself amazed at my lack of creativity once I was there and saw everyone else.  When I pulled into the parking lot I wasn't quite sure I was in the right place until I saw the  man with little white shorts, tall sports socks and a sweatband.  Walking into the room was like coming home.  Like being back in my youth, except without the awkwardness...oh wait, scratch that.  Still awkward in social situations.  I just don't care as much.
My favorite accessory by far was my Florida/Mickey Mouse fanny pack (and the leg warmers, but that's a given.)  I mean, why in the world don't (normal) people use those anymore? So convenient.  So useful.  So awesome.  My only question is, is one supposed to remove the fanny pack while sitting down or driving? Or do you simply slide it up further onto your waist for easy accessability? These are the questions I was plagued with most of the evening...that, and how can I get my hands on some high top, converse, high heels and fingerless lace gloves?

This picture doesn't do justice to the blue of the eyeshadow, the height of my bangs or the crimp in my hair, but it was totally there.

The entire experience just wouldn't have been complete without a burn on my forehead from attempting to peanut roll curl my bangs.  Bangs just don't curl like they used to.
On my way home I simply HAD to stop at a grocery store.  The deliciousness of my Sunday dinner depended on it.  Normally I don't like to draw attention to myself, and oddly enough, I didn't really.  Granted it was somewhat late and I was very quick.  I can't decide if people would be more confused by my appearance or why in the world I was in such a hurry to buy one, very large bottle of lemon juice at 10pm on a Saturday.  Probably more by the latter.  After all, while running errands earlier today, I saw a teenage girl with the very exact same hair...minus the bangs.
True story.

PS Is it wrong to be so totally in love with plastic storage shelving?  Because I am.  I should have done a before picture (because as you all know, before and after pictures make me exquisitely happy) but once I got started I just couldn't stop long enough to run upstairs for the camera.   With a move in the next 6  months I have vowed to take one area of the house each month and get it what I like to call "move ready".  It is a painstaking process and will indeed take me all of the 6 months.  The basement happened to be an appropriate place to start.  I finally parted with the soggy cardboard boxes, all my AP art portfolio pieces from high school, Clark's Naval academy uniforms (the non-cool ones) and one decapitated barbie (I know, that's what I said.)  But the end result makes me feel a tad happier.  And since it is now the most organized (and clean--I vacuumed the floor! I know! Vacuuming a concrete floor is awesome...totally dust and cobweb free!) place in the house...I may wander down there more often.  Who knows, maybe I'll be more motivated to catch up on laundry too (the facilities of which happen to be down there you see.)  Maybe I'll even re-hang the hammock and take a nap this week.

This little organization project has been brought to you by last week's flooded basement.

The End.