Happy New Year!

It's the end of 2010, and all of a sudden (as in, yesterday), we realized that we were about to miss the chance to throw a Centennial Party for our house.

Our first house was built in 1909 ... but we sold it in 2007.

Our second house was built in 1912 ... but we sold it in 2008.

This house was built in 1910! So this was our shot. I sent out an email, and then started calling people, inviting them to celebrate with us. Even though it's New Year's Eve, I could justify having an early party since it's really just a house party. By 9:30, people had left, and I had changed into a brand-new pair of black maternity yoga pants (thank you, Laura!). I'm sitting in the living room, all the lights off except the trees (which put out a lot of light), and Bob's snoozing on the couch.

The kids are in bed, and I just threw out the remainder of the cake, since Lily decided to sample a chunk of it.

We don't have people over much, but we should. Not only do we enjoy it, but the scramble to get things done around the house is good for us.

Not that we got much done around the house, but we had fun.

I'm dreading taking down the trees. If it were socially acceptable, I'd keep them up all year round. Which would be bad for so many reasons, not the least of which is that these trees are really dry already. They just wouldn't make it...

(That's tree #1 on Christmas morning, while the kids were still sleeping hard, recovering from the late Christmas Eve service.)

"Some are silver, and the others gold"

Old friends are the best.

About a week and a half ago, I got an email out of the blue from my friend Chris. We were really close friends at the end of high school and into college, even though we ended up at colleges far away from each other. I hadn't seen him for something like five or six years.

The subject of the email was "Would you like to have lunch on the 17th?" He lives in DC, so I wasn't sure what he meant. The rest of the email said, "I'm serious. I have a voucher for Southwest that expires soon, and Indianapolis is the cheapest place to fly from BWI. I'd have to leave and come back the same day, but I can get a flight that arrives at 10:45 and leaves at 5:15."

I immediately replied, "Yes! Absolutely."

And then I started planning how to make it work. I really wanted some time to catch up with him without three kids interrupting, so I was able to line up childcare from 9-1, and then Bob watched them from 1-2. This gave me time to drive to the airport, bring him to our town, and take him to lunch. I gave him a really quick tour of our old neighborhood, and then brought him to our house where he got to see Bob and meet the kids. We spent maybe a half hour here before packing up the kids and heading back to the airport.

It was such a treat to see him. You know how some friends, you can just pick up where you left off years ago, and it's as if there was no gap? That's how it was for me. And we had a lot of catching up to do.

His dad died three weeks ago, and I was really sad to not be able to fly down to Florida for the funeral. I really liked his dad.

And it's crazy that I have THREE CHILDREN he'd never met. I think the only disappointing thing was that he didn't get to meet our cats, and he's a cat-lover. Other than that, the day was perfect.

Sometimes I get caught up in the daily tasks, and my life becomes drudgery. I forget to schedule things to look forward to, and that makes for a monotonous life.

Today? Today was like balm for my soul. I love that he thought to propose this plan. I love that we made it work. That it was fun, not too hurried, not awkward. I love friendships that bypass long distances, time apart, and totally different lives and just pick up in the now, with common ground we shared ten-plus years ago and the fun of being together again.

Dear Chris, thank you for coming to visit. And I hope we take a trip to DC sometime soon.

What to do?

My to-do list is so long that I don't know where to start.

Cleaning the kitchen and starting some laundry would be a good beginning, I'm sure.

But the bathrooms need to be cleaned.

I need to take a huge load of stuff to Once Upon a Child.

We're all still recovering from the yard sale on Saturday. I couldn't sleep, so I got up at four, went outside, and started setting up. I worked straight until 4pm. I just barely broke even. My mother-in-law made $200. Was it worth it? Yes, I suppose so, but it was awfully disappointing. I had advertised a bunch of children's clothing, and I really expected young mothers to come. I had NONE. I think I sold maybe five articles of clothing. Woohoo.

Meanwhile, I unpacked 14 boxes of my mother-in-law's books for people to look through, and then we had to pack all of the left-overs up again (maybe 12 boxes? or more?) for Bob to take to a used bookstore up the hill. (No. Let's be honest. Bob packed all those boxes at his mom's house. Hauled them to our house. Schlepped them up the hill to beside our front porch. I unpacked them. Then he packed them, schlepped them down the hill, loaded them into the van, took them to the bookstore, and unloaded them again. I had the easy part of that job...)

After the yard sale, it had been my intention to give all the left-overs to a friend of mine for a yard sale to raise money for the LLS Team in Training, but since what was left over was junk (except for the clothes), I just took it to Goodwill as soon as the sale was over. The immediate closure was very satisfying. I would have gone to Once Upon a Child immediately, too, but there wasn't time. So I have tubs and tubs and tubs of clothes on the dining room window seat, and apparently those tubs are calling to my children, "Come and play with me! Throw me all over the floor! Momma won't care!" Except I will. I promise.

I just finished rearranging the guest bedroom to make room for an antique oak dresser that my mother-in-law doesn't have room for anymore (and that Bob and I love). I like the way the room looks so much that I'm tempted to go ahead and paint the room to make it lighter & brighter ... though, honestly, I really should finish the chair first. Yes. Must finish chair.

And I need to bake muffins for Caroline to take to school tomorrow for snack. And I need to locate and fill out the form for Picture Day tomorrow.

And I need to find babysitters so that I can attend my mother-in-law's two closings this week, plus Bob's fraternity reunion Friday night, plus maybe an evening out for me on Tuesday? Bob's going out of town, which is horrible timing since he'll actually be out of town when his mom moves, but it's been scheduled for months, way before she had any idea she might be thinking of moving.

This move has been really unsettling (I know. Shocking.) for my mother-in-law, and for us, too. We'll all be happy when she's settled in to her new place. I think she's going to love it there, but initially, I think just some stability will make her happier.

Goodness. I'd better stop talking about doing things and start actually doing things...

First things first: give Caroline a refill of cranberry apple juice. Then: prioritize the to-do list.

Time's a' Wasting

So I think I'm on something like Day 47 with the chair now. Please don't tell Bob. I really am making progress, and I'm beginning to enjoy it. This is the fun part! Pulling staples out and removing the nasty old upholstery fabric was definitely not much fun. Retrieving someone else's candy wrappers, silver chains, and loose change from the depths of the stuffing was pretty gross.

But putting new fabric on and seeing it fit nicely? That's fun.

The chair's on hold, though, for a couple days.

I'm having a garage sale tomorrow. My mother-in-law is moving and downsizing, and her neighborhood doesn't allow garage sales, so I told her we could sell her excess at our house ... and that gave me a good excuse to round up all OUR excess. And apparently, we have a lot. Like tons of clothing that the girls have outgrown. Like 50 pairs of pajamas. Fifty! Crazy.

So I stayed up late last night, sorting clothes, making price lists, putting price tags on the non-clothing-items. All of our stuff is ready to go. Today, I'll work on my mother-in-law's stuff. About 2/3 of it is on our front porch, and I need to go pick up the rest of it today. (Except for her books, which Bob will get later. I packed two boxes of her boxes the other day, threw out my hip, and started having contractions. I'm only 22 weeks pregnant. It's a little early to go into labor without due cause.)

So, that said, I better get a move on.

I know I've mentioned before how much my grandfather enjoyed making money. Well, apparently, I do, too. I'm excited about this garage sale, in a way that's fairly abnormal, I think. I always wanted to be a cashier but never was, so there's that part of it. There's the organizational part of it, which I enjoy. And there's the profit! Woohoo.

Bob's hoping we make at least $100. I think we'll fly past that number, but we'll see.

Off I go to take a quick shower before the little'uns wake up.

P.S. Anyone want to make a guess at our profit number? And, should I bake and sell cookies? Or leave that to the end and only do it if there's time?

Because I know you're dying to know...

Here's an update on the chair.

This is what it looks like right now. (And what it's looked like for about a week.)

And here's the fabric I chose, pinned and ready to sew the first piece (the inside of the right arm). Of course, the trickiest piece comes first. (Dear Kate, thank you, thank you, thank you, for the tip about PrudentBaby's how-to's. I followed the instructions exactly for piping, and it worked beautifully!)

I got this fabric for $6/yard. Originally $24/yard.

That sound you hear is me, patting myself on the back.

Remembering

Nine years ago today, I was getting ready for my Pastoral Counseling class (I was a junior in college), listening to the radio, when I heard the news of the plane crashing into the World Trade Center. It wasn't too long before I heard them reporting it again. (I was only halfway paying attention, and I didn't realize it was a SECOND plane.)

The enormity of it was lost on me at the time. Thinking it was just one plane, I assumed it was a fluke, an accident.

Once I got to class, one of my classmates asked the rest of us if we'd heard about the terrorist attack. I thought to myself, Geez, this is how rumors get started! Something goes wrong with one plane, and next thing you know, it's a terrorist attack!

Oops.

I spent a good part of the day in front of the TV, and as the day wore on, I couldn't shake my fear that something had happened to Bob. You see, he was living in Brooklyn & working in Manhattan at the time. I emailed him. And waited. And then I called his apartment. And waited. (Phone calls were not getting through. The lines were completely swamped.) Finally, in mid-evening, I got an email saying that he was fine. He'd walked his friend Shira home, and he would call me when he got back to Brooklyn.

I was so grateful. He called, we talked, and when we got off the phone, I finally allowed myself to feel the fear that I'd been trying not to face. What if something had happened to him? It was that day that I thought, "Maybe my sister is right. Am I in love with Bob?"

(She had asked me that, point-blank, in the spring of that year.)

At that point, I'd known Bob for about ten years.

I'd never once thought that marrying Bob could be an option. I had no idea he might have feelings for me.

(As my dad pointed out later, any fool could see I had feelings for Bob.)

Perhaps as a result of Bob's post-traumatic stress, things were said more directly and more quickly than they might otherwise have been. September 11th was a Tuesday, I believe. By Saturday, our cards were on the table, so to speak.

We began dating (long-distance), and were married in July 2002, following a (suspiciously short, apparently!) six-week engagement.

On September 11th each year, I am grateful again that Bob was not near the Twin Towers that morning. I think of my classmate in that Pastoral Counseling class whose father HAD been in the Twin Towers that morning, and who was missing for weeks before they found him in a New Jersey hospital.

I grieve for the families who lost loved ones.

And I wince at the prejudice & hatred aimed at Muslims. Surely we can agree that prejudice & hatred do no one any good?

My life would be improved if...

these three inventions existed:

1. A [safe, of course!] stair-climbing machine for babies. Will would be happy all day, every day.

2. A car-simulator, to help Caroline go down for her nap in the afternoon. At home, she gets tired, but never sleepy. In the car, she's out like a light.

3. Some sort of sprayskirt like kayakers wear. It would attach to the high chair, and fit tight around Will's waist, so that the seat of the high chair would not end up full of smooshed bananas and crushed Cheerios. Yes, the food would end up on the floor, but the floor's easier to clean.

What do you think? Are you with me?