mmmm.

why can't I eat plate?!

Things from boxes (pack ratius)

This weekend we emptied out our storage unit. Soon I will post the before pictures of our living room and then the now pictures. I told a friend we had unloaded and she came to see it today. She said I had "grossly unexaggerated" how much stuff there was. And then she laughed.

The view from the front porch is almost completely obscured by empty boxes (yes!) and large amorphus clumps of bubble wrap. We are unpacking boxes from over 3 years ago, when we were in Vancouver and N was barely crawling his funny, side-winder crab crawl. Some of the boxes are unopened from our move to Dallas.

The boxes are like time capsules. I uncovered a sketch book that S gave me for Christmas one year. Amidst the meager drawings and colors are a couple diary-like entries. The first is of a trip to Salt Spring Island. It was a beautiful trip and there are moments of that trip that come back and hit me as if they were yesterday. Another entry also hits me like a brick, and it brings sadness with it. I jotted it down after Betsy died.

The air in the house is hot tonight
stiff, so it is hard to breathe.
And the house is full
of busy-ness with my mother &
my baby & it is hard to grieve.
But grieve I do
in the silent pauses between the busy-ness,
the moments of calm.
It overwhelms me at stoplights
between conversations & chores
in the shower as I rinse
And at dusk
as I stare out at the unmoving leaves on the trees.
They are silent and stiff too. Watching me?
Grieving like me?

-June 6, 2003

Dum-ta da da dum! The lowdown on the TOUR

This is the house we bought in December of 2003. It was a one-owner 1950s house that saw the growth of 4 children in its 2 bedrooms and one bath. I picture "Peaches" in the tiny kitchen hollering for those kids to play out back - underneath the shade of the growing sycamore trees.

Flashforward to 2006.



This is our house with a newly built front porch, front door, a foyer, a living room, a laundry room, an upstairs space (office? guest room? someday master suite?) and bathroom. We have redone the walls, the floors, the ceilings, the lights, the doors... what else is there to redo? And most of it, we did "green." And so at the end of all that, we wanted to show it off - all that cool green stuff we did - and applied to be on the "Cool House Tour." And so last weekend, we stood on our feet for 6 hours (along with a very supportive friend) and answered questions about our house. They asked about our solar panels, the magnetic paint, the carpet in the kitchen, the beloved backsplash and even about the gaps in the flooring upstairs. I never knew that I knew so little about my house. I mean, I was there along the way during the design and construction of everything, but there was so many little details that never stayed in my brain that these kind, interested people were waiting to ask me. Overall, it was fun. People were very polite and interested. It was a nice way to celebrate the completion of our project.

We also made the news. Watch the video if you can. See us "preach the gospel of green" (you can be sure that never came out of OUR mouths...) check out my feet and misspelled name!


Here are some more pics from the big tour day. Enjoy these because our house will NEVER be this clean or this organized looking again.


This is the BEAUTIFUL and totally cool arrangement that my mom made out of the meager supply of flowers in town on graduation weekend.




This is a shot of the backsplash that S came up with one day from scrap (!) from his NY project. I know it is hard to see. I'll find another close-up someday.

Here are some highlights from Easter. Yes. I know. It's May already. Easter seemed like such a simpler time...


Peek-A-Boo


N's first horse ride. We are proud that he did it. He has been too shy to climb aboard the big fire trucks when given the opportunity.