What Would You Do?

So, after mulling over, discussing and praying about a move to Kentucky next summer so that the WMD could switch seminaries and we could be closer to our families, we’ve decided that the best thing for our little family in this economy is to stay put right where we are for the next four years and let the WMD get his Master’s degree here. Really, other than not being closer to family, we’re very, very happy with this decision.

What that means is that painting the kitchen cabinets are back on the table once Little E is not taking up residence inside my belly anymore. Originally, with a new baby on the way and the possibility of putting our house on the market pronto, we installed them as is and figured they were better than what we had when we moved in. They are really great, solid wood cabinets that have served us much better functionally in the last 8 months that we’ve had them than I originally thought considering we only paid $150 for the entire kitchen (we didn’t have room for all of them, so the WMD got a nice little workshop in the shed out of it too), which is a ree-diculous CraigsList score.

However, they are buttugly.

Our home is small and I want white cabinets, which I assume will feel less imposing than the dark brown stain that’s currently on them. I also think white will lend to a more airy “cottagy” feel, which is what we’re going with in our home since, well, it’s technically a cottage. All of this to say, I’ve been researching how to paint kitchen cabinets since a) we don’t have the money to pay someone to do it, b) even if we did have the money, we probably still wouldn’t pay someone to do it (but that’s because we would have gotten all new white cabinets to begin with. And we wouldn’t live in this house. We’d live in this one a few blocks over from us.), c) I figure I’ll have boatloads of time on my hand since I will be staying home with Little E (I assume that’s correct, right, all my mommy friends?(I’m kidding)), and d) I’m a glutton for punishment. I’ve spent the last four summers standing out in the sweltering North Carolina sun painting something and I figure, why should this summer be any different?

So, as I was doing some research, I stumbled across Remodeling Guy’s post about painting cabinets. I figured if anyone knows what it takes to do this sort of project, Remodeling Guy does. He started with Part Iand then pulled the ultimate switcheroo with Part II. Really, I can’t do it justice, so just go over to his blog, read what he did and then come back here to let me know if I should attempt his method in Part II. I’m curious to see what my readers have to say about his Plan B. It appeals to me in a way very similar to the way dill pickles appeal to me right now, so to say the least, I’m leaning strongly in that direction.

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Not Martha

Don’t you just love that title? I think most woman ages 18-78 can identify with it. Not Martha is one of the many (many) blogs that I subscribe to and read on a very regular and hearty basis.

The thing that I like most about this site is the many useful and interesting links that Megan posts quite often. Take today for instance. She posted several links to other sites about food, ranging from bacon cinnamon rolls to Swiss chard. Really, it’s that diverse.

And she doesn’t just post links to other sites. She mixes it up with great how-to articles, recipes, and all sorts of stuff that you will file away for that day (you know, that day) when you plan to get around to it. Which, consequently, will just make you feel guilty when that day never comes, but still, she’s got some fun stuff.

So, go check Not Martha out and spend the next 13 hours linking from site to site .

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Ali Edwards’ Blog

One of the things (Alright, really the only thing- I like to hedge my bets.) I’m asking for as a Christmas gift from my parents (My mom asked me what I wanted a week ago, okay? I’m not stepping out of line here.) is a small digital camera. Now don’t get me wrong. I LOVE my current digital SLR. It takes wonderful photos, particularly artsy ones, and has been very good to me these last two years. I plan to be good to it for many more.

But…that sucker is big and it’s a little embarrassing to pull it out say, when we’re at a restaurant and I just have to have a photo of the marvelousness of the food or the joint we’re at. Or, for a group photo with friends. While all my pals pull out their shiny, lithe, little silver cameras, I pull out my big, black giant. It’s like saying, “That ain’t a camera. THIS is a camera!” a la Crocodile Dundee.

And it’s kind of hard to be discreet when your camera bag is bigger than your purse. Or your husband’s backpack. Okay, not really, but it might as well be the size of the Goodyear blimp as far as the WMD’s concerned. And that’s not a good thing in his book, especially at Shorty’s. Particularly at Shorty’s.

Unless you’re Lindsay, who was able to get away with taking a picture at Shorty’s. In the WMD’s presence. With the WMD in it! The injustice! But that’s because Lindsay has one of those little cameras.

 

Man alive, I need to fatten that boy up! You’d think with the amount of Oreos and brownies that are consumed in our house that he’d weigh 500 pounds by now. But it seems that the Matthew Seering diet is a curious one. Eat all the garbage you want and still lose weight, while your wife gains it for you by simply looking at a cookie, no matter how many miles she runs on the instrument of torture that is her treadmill. Score!

Anyway (and I’ll get to my point eventually) I’ve been reading Ali Edwards blog for awhile now and I really like what she’s been doing recently on it. She’s been taking pictures of the regular, run of the mill stuff that happens throughout her family’s day and then doing a photo journal of it, calling it “A Week in the Life”. The photos aren’t of anything spectacular, just a document of their lives on a particular day, each day of the week.

From a genealogy enthusiasts standpoint (Have I mentioned this about myself? Is that weird for someone who is not even 30 yet?), I think this is a fantastic exercise. What I wouldn’t give for something like this on those Cook and Jones ancestors that tease me in their obscurity and lack of records.

Really, when it comes right down to it, life is really filled out more about the day to day minutiae that consumes us than the few really great things that happen, isn’t it? I don’t mean that in a bad way, just a realistic one. And I think there is beauty in the simple day to day.

And I think you should read Ali’s blog to see the awesome things that she’s captured for her family, as well as all of the other great design ideas she has. That lady’s got talent.

So, getting back to my point, I think this is something that I’d like to do, but I can only realistically do it if I have a smaller camera, one that fits in my purse so I can take it with me to work and the grocery store. Don’t you all want to see photos of paperwork and the confusion that is the Asian market? I thought so.

It’s probably better to do this if you have kids, so we’re having a kid so I can do this!

Just kidding (no pun intended).

But here’s a photo of me holding someone elses kid a few weeks ago:

Good grief, I look like I’m about to drop him. See how he’s desperately trying to free himself from my clutches and go back to his mama in the gray headband? Yeah, that’s promising for our future offspring.

N-E-WAY! Thus begins my formal petition for a shiny, little, lithe camera from my parents for Christmas. Anybody want to sign it?

 

 

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Overcoming Lameness.

So the other day I complained about how lame this blog was becoming. And then I talked about schnau-zas. And the economy. And Disney princesses. That’s how I roll. I’m deep like that. Real deep.

And Bagel and Finch, I have no idea who you are, but God bless ya. Thanks for leaving me a comment on yesterday’s post and telling me that it would be mean to shut this here blog down. God bless ya indeed.

Anyway, I was thinking of ways I could make my posts less lame. Actually, “ways” is too generous a term. I only came up with a way. One. Uno. Un- is that French? I took French in fourth grade. I remember numbers (or not), some colors and the fact that my French teacher, who was actually from France, couldn’t say my name correctly. She had a problem with the “th” sound at the end of it, so instead of ElizabeTH, I was Elisabet. Eeee-leee-sah-bet. Doesn’t that sound much more charming? I think I might start telling people my name is Eeeleesabet just to watch the reaction on their faces. And to charm them.

But that’s not the point of this post. The point of this post was that I was thinking up a way to make my posts more interesting. Lindsay made a comment over on my Facebook that Matthew looks like a regular mountain man in this photo:

Mountain Man or WMD?

He does sort of. Too bad he’s not wearing red flannel. And suspenders. He used to wear suspenders sometimes when we first met. But that’s when he was weird, before the Marine Corps flogged that out of him. I think he should wear them again, with a bow tie. He used to wear those in kindergarten. I should dig that school picture out sometime and show you. Remind me to do that. It’s unbearably cute. And a bit embarrassing. Which is why I should show it to you.

I think mostly, Lindsay was seeing the beard when she made that comment. She first met him when he was still in the Corps (Doesn’t that sound tough and gritty? Like Clint Eastwood. Or the Wendy’s cheeseburger I had last week.) and this type of facial hair would not have been acceptable so he was clean shaven all of the time. Otherwise, he would have been flogged. For his facial hair and the nasty civilian clothes he’s wearing. Did you know that’s what Marines call us, nasty civilians? They do. It’s what Matthew used to call me when we started dating again five years ago. I was his nasty civilian. And now he’s my nasty civilian. I tell him that a lot. It’s straightens him up.

Matthew and I had a conversation about his beard last night in fact. I told him that I didn’t mind him having it, but he has to keep it trimmed up. He was starting to look too much like a nasty civilian. He agreed with me. I think he was afraid that I’d tell him to get rid of it completely, but that would be counter intuitive, wouldn’t it? I mean, if he shaved it off completely, I couldn’t refer to him as Mountain Man on this blog, and then it would still be lame. And that would be sad.

But I could refer to him as Jason Bourne, like some of his friends do. Not because he necessarily looks like Matt Damon (Although my mom says that he reminds her of Nick Lachey. Does your mom even know who Nick Lachey is? Mine does.), but because he’s got mad killer skills like Jason Bourne. Seriously. He’s a trained weapon. A weapon of mass destruction. He even refers to himself that way.

Quite often.

Weapon of mass destruction. Maybe I should call him that instead, WMD?

The Pioneer Woman has her Marlboro Man and Stretch Marks has her Attorney General. I need something. What do you think, Mountain Man or WMD?

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Catching Up

Thanks for the reprieve in blogging this week. It seems like that’s the case for many of the personal blogs I read, so it’s good to know that the summer is for slacking off a bit. Oh, and does anybody know what those plants are up there? They are taller than me, maybe about 6 feet tall and just gorgeous. They’re planted in a an empty corner lot in our neighborhood with some sunflowers and cone flowers.

We played host to Matthew’s mom, dad, sister and 1-year old niece earlier this week for a few days. It was so good to see each of them and we were completely delighted by our niece Adison. She will be one next Saturday, but she is already walking all over the place, can mimic words and has stellar object recognition. So different from the tiny baby we saw at Christmas! We had a lot of fun with the family, enjoying some down time, visiting the NC Museum of Natural Science, checking out the Dead Sea Scrolls and getting some euchre in, since we can only play that with Michiganders. Southerners don’t get it.

We also made some new friends this week with four other seminary couples at the home of one of Matthew’s professors. We’re going to be studying the book of Colossians together and we started off by just getting to know one another over dinner and dessert. It is so good to be in a small group with couples who are in a similar spot in life as we are and we’re looking forward to hopefully making some long last friendships. One couple was even military and had gone through a deployment together. It’s very rare that we meet anybody up here with military experience and it was so nice to be able to relate to a wife who waited at home while her husband was at war.

Today was just a day for me to putz around after a hectic last two weeks. I found some great free stuff at the Sharing Shop (a place for seminary families to donate and pick up free items) including a few things I’ve been looking for for a while now: a cast iron skillet in perfect condition and a steamer. I was planning on buying these, so was thrilld to find them for free. I also spent time shopping in the many thrift and gift shops around Wake Forest looking for a birthday present for Mom, who has a birthday this week as well. I found a few things she’ll really like, but I’ll save the surprise for her.

This Thursday we drive to the mountains to celebrate our fourth anniversary. Matthew’s never been to the Blue Ridge Mountains and I absolutley love them, so this will be a treat. The SBC owns a retreat center up near Asheville and we are getting a super low priced room in a brand new lodge since I’m employed by a Baptist organization. We can’t wait to spend a few days outdoors in the mountains. Lots of pictures to come.

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I meant to write sooner, but…

A member of my household has locked the keys in his truck two nights in a row and I was busy helping him get them out. Yes, two. The first night included tacking an hour round trip drive north onto my already 45-minute drive home from work. And $10 worth of gas. The second night included wandering around Wal-mart while waiting for the locksmith. Now there’s a good story. When it became apparent that the keys were in fact inside the truck cab along with the magnetic box that holds the spare key (which wasn’t placed under the truck the day before, the first time the keys were locked in the truck), we went into Wal-mart to see if they would let us use a phone (since neither of us brought our cell phones) to call the police or if they had a tool we could use to get the lock open (Matthew is very skilled in breaking into cars- he’s needed to be! ). When neither of those options panned out, we decided to hoof it the 3-miles back to the house (in the 100F heat), break into the house (since we didn’t have keys), get my set of keys, drive back to the Wal-mart parking lot and open his truck.

As we were rounding the corner to exit the store, I held my hands up in a furtive plea and said, “Here’s to hoping that someone we know walks in right now and can give us a lift!” Well low and behold, as soon as we made it to the doors, one of Matthew’s classmates walked right into us. Not only is he a friend of Matthew’s but get this, he’s also a LOCKSMITH! Get out of here! You’ve got to be kidding me! No way!

Long story short, after going home to get his tools and driving back to the store, he was able to get Matthew’s truck open in less than 10 seconds and after a too-long hiatus at Wal-mart, we finally made it home. I say all of this not to embarass my husband, but to show that yes, God does listen to us, even on the little things, and sometimes He even gives us what we ask for- and more! I did ask for a friend to rescue us, but didn’t expect that it would be a friend who was also a locksmith. I believe that part could have been due to the fact that I didn’t lose my cool and didn’t make Matthew feel bad for doing this two days in a row- I partnered with him in figuring out how to fix the problem, even if that meant a long walk in a heatwave in flip flops. And sometimes, when we do the right thing in trying circumstances, we’re rewarded.

More to come later on crafting, inexpensive groceries and a few new websites I’ve been checking out. And if you haven’t done so already, please check out my new blog ManMadeMarket. I’ve posted several profiles of Etsy shops that have items for men (and sometimes women) and it’s turning into a fun way to find handmade gifts and items for the guys in my life!

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Summer’s Here

We’ve had an unusually mild May for NC this year. But with June 1 right a mere few hours away, summer has finally arrived. It’s in the 90s right now. Blah. I told Matthew that summer’s in NC are my winter. I just want to stay inside in the air conditioning for the next four months. I love that there is so much going on around town right now with farmer’s markets, outdoor music concerts and garden growing, but it. is. so. hot. And it’s just going to get worse. And to think, there are some people who actually like this kind of weather.

We’ve seen two movies in the last week. First we saw the new Indiana Jones flick. Let me just make myself clear. I LOVED Indiana Jonesas a kid. I even took archaeology classes my freshman year of college so I could be like him. That was, until I realized that being an archaeologist meant being nothing like Indiana Jones. That’s when I switched to Public History (and then Professional Writing). Cest la vie.

I did like this addition to the IJ movies. Yeah, it was a bit too sci-fi, but I was thrilled that it was filmed to look like the original trilogy and they stayed pretty true to the main characters. I was even impressed that Harrison Ford did a pretty good job. For an old guy. I guess 60 really is the new 40.

We had some free vouchers from the movie theater, so we ended up going to see Prince Caspian with Mark and Jennifer last night. Again, another movie to go along with a favorite of mine. I haven’t read The Chronicles of Narnia for several years, so it was hard to remember how true to the story the movie is, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. I did notice there was a lot more death in this one than the last and I was sadly missing more Aslan screen time though, even if it is true to the story that he is not seen for the most part. Overall, I would recommend it.

I’m working on a new blog right now. It was birthed out of an idea straight from my hubby. He’s always been way more creative than me. You can find out what it is at manmademarket.wordpress.com. I’d be intersted to hear your feedback on this one.

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Sheee’s Commmminnngg….(Cue Jaw’s theme)

To my hood.

That’s right ladies and gentlemen, Hillary Rodham Clinton will be gracing my sweet little town of Wake Forest with her presence this morning. She called me (again) on Thursday night to let me know she’d be in the neighborhood and wanted to see me. I already have plans, so Matthew’s going in my place to snap pictures for this little blog o’mine. Doesn’t he look kind of grim in the photo up there (which was taken about, oh, five blocks from our home. And notice we’re riding our bikes so that we don’t have to worry about whether or not this ridiculous summer gas tax bill is passed?)? I told him to be careful and not to say too much because she might shoot laser beams at him with her eyes and I don’t need a crispy critter for a husband.

 

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Arggghhh…

Pirate, pirate, pirate.

I need to drive more traffic to my blog. Pirates are my magic key.

Oh, and can I just say I love The Office?

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100

Well, this is it, the 100th post. It took me a little under a year to get here. Some people do that many posts in a month. Not me. I like to take my sweet, old time.

I’ve been thinking about how I would mark this blog milestone (You did know this is a blog milestone, right?). It’s popular among bloggers to post 100 things about themselves. I don’t really like that. For multiple reasons. Do I have 100 things to say about myself? Do I have 100 things I want to say about myself that I want the public to know? Does the public even want to read those 100 things in the first place? To all of the above I say a resounding, “No, please and thank you!”

I also considered giving something away to someone who leaves a comment, but, we all know that I like to make promises of giving stuff away and then never really follow through. You don’t hold me accountable people! (Oh, and Lindsay, I didn’t send the card, BUT, I’ll be sending me in less than a week! Will that do?)

So, instead of posting a laundry list of dirty laundry (the little voice inside my head warns me that what is recorded now will come back to haunt me in my presidential future, right Hillary?) or making promises I won’t keep, I’ll just say thanks, y’all for reading. I’ve enjoyed the blogging process so far and plan to keep on doing it. Even though this blog was born out of an idea to track a Yankee’s perspective on Southern life which then morphed into keeping track of home renovations and then to photo logging, I’ve comfortably settled into just writing whatever floats my boat. And people still read. Even more than when I had a “plan.” You like me, you really like me and for that I thank you!

(Oh, and I L-O-V-E olives- any and all, shape, size and color are of no consequence. They’re all good fruit to me and thus the little muses for my photo above. Plus, they’re part of a little side project I have going on, but I won’t talk about that for now.)

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