Stuff n Fluff

Buddy made it home safe from 2 weeks away at camp. I won't tell you about how I cried when I finally hugged him, or about the touching reunion whereby Bear ran across a field with her long dark hair blowing out behind her to leap into Buddy's arms whereby he picked her up and swung her in a circle and then hugged her. Nor will I tell you about excusing myself into the ladies room whereby I had a good old body shaking sob-fest all by myself in a little stall. I'll only tell you that my Buddy, my boy, my son, my brown eyed brown haired independant snuggle bug who is going into middle school next year held me tight and said, "two weeks was great, but next year I only want to go for one week. It was just too long."

Chick came home from Mexico an entirely changed woman. No longer the same girl-child she'd been when we sent her off on a missions trip. A) Chick didn't want to go, we made her. B) Chick was the youngest by at least 5 years, and probably more like 10 years, on the trip. C) Chick is... Chick. She came back saying how she couldn't wait to go back next year, saying she loved the physical labor involved in building a house, she talked about tar paper and roofing nails and sand in her teeth and houses made of wood pallets and tarp and poverty that she didn't know existed. She came back talking about babies dying from hypothermia, girls younger than her being mommies, boys as young as 7 doing the work of grown men and never once complaining. She came back with fire in her eyes, a wound in her heart, and a desire to match the two together. Ahhh. My girl, my girl, my girl. Thank You Jesus. My girl... our girl.

We had another foster child...baby lillybean. She left us today and we are mightily mightily grieved for the loss of her. We made a commitment to do "short term" care, to provide a transistionary place where a child could adjust and settle and breathe and get medical care and clothing before moving on to a permanent foster home. We thought that this way we'd reduce the number of children who bounce from one bed one night to the DSS office during the day, to a different bed the next night (wash, rinse, repeat, wash, rinse, repeat). But bonding during those 10 days is intense. INTENSE. My Lillybean... oh my Lillybean. Everything about her made me think of food: toasted almond skin, hershey kisses eyes, cherry chapstick lips... and I spent 10 days wanting to eat her up. I spent guilt money at the old n$vy store buying her a new wardrobe and I bathed and kissed and smoothed and rocked her to both our hearts content... and then I let her go. Man... sometimes it sucks.

I have ants. We had them last year too. We got rid of them last year by spraying outside, using ant traps (indoors and out) and by being careful about crumbs and food. This spring, in anticipation, I sprayed and re-trapped all the same places. All was well. Til now. There are freakin' ants everywhere! I keep saying that they are NOT ants, but termites. My hubs disagrees but DID agree to have someone out to inspect and treat. Though I am no flylady, I have taken her lessons to heart and am, for a working mom of three with a dog and 2 cats, a pretty damn decent housekeeper. I might not win any awards, but I'd certainly give some people a run for their money. Having ants? Makes me wonder if I'm not as good as I think I am. I have visions in my mind of the exterminator guy coming out and finding a nest of ants in a pile of dust and rodent droppings under my bed. I see him shaking his head at the crumbs in my daughters room, the empty juice cup in my son's room, and the wet carpet from the dehumidifier I always forget about in Chicks room. Sigh.

I am still watching my cousins baby every day. He has grown from a helpless cuddly 2 month old infant to a hulking sitting eating laughing playing self entertaining nearly 6 month old. He is a fat buddah baby, a total delight and I am blessed to share his day. I was watching another friends 2 children but, because of her son's special needs, she placed them in another facility two weeks ago. I have them again this week while the other provider is on vacation. It was gratifying to see the older boys speech exploding in leaps and bounds and to realize it was a good move, and also to hold the baby and have her snuggle right into me and want to snuggle all day long as if she just couldn't get enough of me. But? Because I also had a foster child this week, I had 3 babies under age 1 plus a toddler, plus my own 3 kids (I'm boooored mom! Can I have a snaaaack? Can I call my frieeeeend? Can we go to a moooovie? I'm boooored mom!) So it's been a little bit hectic. A little. As in, half a bottle of wine at 5:30 pm hectic. As in, putting on my pj's and eating chocolate like a rabid dog hectic. You know... hectic.

I finally worked on our main bathroom. We moved here more than a year ago. The first thing was to paint my son's bedroom from pink to grey. Second was to do my Chick's room which involved peeling some kind of extra sturdy wall paper off of untreated paneling, sanding the mofo within a teensy inch of it's life, and then painting and using a texturing technique to hide the damaged paneling, and third was to do over the basement bathroom which was a pale bile color complete with 1970's tile and a little bitty shower stall and is now purple with black and white tile (painted! who knew you could paint tile!) and very very cute. Except that I'm a crappy painter and there is STILL purple paint on the ceiling. But anyway.

Finally I attacked the main bathroom. It is very nicely (although not my taste) tiled on the floor and halfway up the wall with large ceramic gray tiles. Occasional decorative tiles are scattered and they depict a small white and gray flower of some kind. The walls were Lilac. The border was white with Lilac and Green Flowerey Crap. The sink? Oh the sink. It matched the tub! It was, ahem, IS, turquoise. Who goes through the process of re-tiling a bathroom in semi attractive at least non offensive gray tiling whilst leaving up the TURQUOISE sink? Well. Whatever. Can you picture it? Grey tile on floor and halfway up the wall, lilac walls, lilac and green flowery crap border, turquoise sink. Bleh. I tore down the wall border only to find that the original owners had wallpapered over the drywall. Ooookay. Then? Then they painted over the wall paper. Then? Then they added a border. Then? Then they painted over the whole shebang again, and added another border. As I picked and scraped my way through the mess I was bewildered, frustrated, and then at a loss. I sanded and sanded and sanded. Finally I bought rolls of very thick wall paper meant to cover damaged walls. Yay me! Plus? It's way cute. It's white with silver words scattered about it, "Bubbles, Peace, Soothe, Soap, Relax, Breathe, Rest, Purity...." and a few other words. I painted the oak light fixture white, added a white metal shelving over the toilet, a pretty candle and nicely rolled pale yellow towels, a new pretty scoll decorated mirror... and now it's sooooo pretty and nice. I tossed in a wicker basket for laundry and I have officially moved out of our master bathroom and into the main bathroom. The turquoise sink doesn't stand out so much against all the coordinating gray silver and white colors and the gray and white striped shower curtain and gray bathmats add just the right un-feminine touch that the bathroom can be safely used by Buddy and his friends without shame. Tho' it was my first experience with wall paper and it's probably not the greatest job in the world (seam? what seam? oh look, an ant on the floor!) it does look quite lovely and I'm very proud of it.

We installed a wall unit air conditioner this year. It's sooooooooooooooo delishus! I LOVE me some air conditioning! Nothing better than frigid air blasting my face while I cuddle under a fleece blanket and watch Judging Amy at 1 in the afternoon. Ahhh bliss! In order to install it though, we had to lose a window. Long story short, we now need to add canister lighting because tho' the room was slightly darkish before, it's now way too dim for your standard floor lamp light. Especially when you don't have any floor space for lamps. Sigh.

And? Well... that's about it. Nothing exciting, just ant and new wallpaper and growing kids. Add in the bottle of wine and a Red Sox game in the background and I would be just like every other mom in my town. Let's not go to that place where I sit alone on the bleachers at every sports game, during every elementary school production, and during all school evening events. Let's not go to the place where I never have the right purse or the right shoes or the right haircolor (what? gray isn't a haircolor?) Let's just get in the brown mini-van and drive around listening to the big hair bands of the '80's and drinking our iced Latte's. Want to go paint shopping with me? I still need ideas on redoing my kitchen for Really Really Really Lamely Cheap.

Hello? Are you there? Sigh.