Does This Hair Make Me Look...

How do you decide on a new hair do? I've decided the mullet has been growing untamed for far too long now and it needs to be domesticated. What to do with it is the question of the day.

You know when you find that perfect picture that encompasses everything you want in a hairstyle, take it to your stylist with such excitement and anticipation, and then when it's over and you get home you realize that, for whatever reason, you now look like an 8 year old boy? (No? Maybe it's just me).

I have come to the conclusion that I just can't pull off the long hair anymore. As easy as it is, and as much as I see it being flaunted all around me, I just can't do it without it looking like I am being drowned. My hair just isn't cut out for the long, luxurious life like it was in high school. I am resigned to knowing that a life of shorter hair styles lays ahead. And that's fine, there are some great 'do's out there, I just need to find one that works for me (that is the hard part). It seems I am in for the long haul of trial and error haircuts. If there was only a way to do this without having to live through the dreaded "growing out" period. That's when the mullet comes back and sadly it usually stays longer than it is welcome.

So here I sit, appointment made, webpages searched, hair magazine pages dog eared...but no decision made. The only thing I am sure of is that when I come home, the husband will tell me it's "cute"...in that 12 year old girl kind of way.

Maybe if I wasn't so lazy, I would take on a more adventurous style or something that requires more than 3 minutes with a flat iron. But with the impending arrival this summer, the only thing I hear calling my name is a ponytail, and that is just not going to happen. Maybe I should go the wind blowing on my scalp route and buzz it off to see how it all grows in again? Ok, no that will never happen and not only because I am afraid I have a huge flat spot on the back of my scalp.... although it would be super easy to manage.

Seven days...that's what I have left until decision time. More than likely I will walk in, sit in my stylist's chair, sigh and tell her I have no idea. Then I will walk out feeling one of three ways; 1) like an 8 year old boy, 2) a 12 year old girl who is so excited to be going to the mall without her parents for the first time, or 3) like a 50 year old mom (no offense to 50 year old moms out there!). I'm going to guess option #2 would be the best of the above choices...but still, not quite my goal. I guess we will see a week from now...fingers crossed.

Lost Boys

I think Corey Haim was one of the first posters ever to grace my walls, growing up. I can't even count how many I had, but there were a lot. Sure there were a couple Kirk Cameron ones along with a few other 80's teen hunks, but there were always more Haim posters than anyone else.

Lost Boys was, and is, one of my favourite movies. Classic 80's. I was a Team Haim from the beginning, none of this Corey Feldman stuff for me. Lost Boys, Dream a Little Dream, Lucas, Silver Bullet...such memories.

Am I too old to hang up one of those posters now? Not that I have any left over...

(and yes, this picture is one of the posters I used to hang on my wall).

Thank You For Being a Friend!

As I perused the blog of some friends today a question came to mind. How many people are still friends with their elementary, junior high, high school, and/or university friends? And not just Facebook friends, but real, in-touch, email/call/mail/visit friends.

Does it make a difference how long ago high school was or where you're living now?

Of all your current friends (ones you still regularly keep in touch with, not someone you friended because you remember them from grade 3), how long have you been friends? What do you do to go that extra mile to keep in touch?

Tuesday's Pet Peeve

Today on Good Morning America, they had an interview with a woman, who became a model after losing 70 pounds, leaving her weight at roughly 90 pounds. She had been told that if she lost 70 pounds, she could be a super model. This all while she was on high school, totally healthy and on the cheer leading squad. After years modelling and still being told she wasn't thin enough, she gave up trying and went back to her healthy size 12 self and is now a very successful plus sized model.

OK, Since when is a size 12 plus size?? When a size 0 became the seemingly acceptable size for models? When I was just out of high school, I paid my dues to the retail world for many years. During some of those years, I worked for a store that carried "regular" sizes (2-16) but I also worked some shifts for the "plus" size (14-26) store of the same chain. I'm not sure who started calling a size 12 a plus size, but I would like to meet that person and give them a good, swift kick.

While I was going to University, I was driving home, listening to the radio and heard a commercial for a modelling opportunity for plus sizes, size 10-14. SIZE 10???? What? Seriously people, someone has got to stop with this arbitrary labelling of plus sizes. Why can't we just go with being healthy and not numbers? You might be a size 2, but have 30% body fat - it doesn't automatically mean you are the picture perfect image of health. Just as someone may be a size 12 (gasp!), but be in perfect health.

At one of the malls I worked at, I worked across from a store that catered to young teens, and we would see them dress their mannequins sometimes, as they struggled to get outfits on, or done up. We would often tell them just to put a bigger size on the mannequin and clip it if they needed to, so it looked like it fit properly. We were shocked when they told us that they were using the biggest size they had. If the clothes you sell, don't even fit the mannequins in your store, how do you expect them to fit people??

Perhaps if we stopped obsessing with celebrities and cellulite, young girls could grow up feeling good about themselves no matter what size the label on their pants say.

And that's today's rant. Thank you.

Lock Up The Kids

You may want to be seated for this one.

It's finally happened.

Mark has ventured out on his own. Yes he is leaving the comfort of this blog for the unknown, uncensored, often to offend, world of blogging on his own.

It's up, it's running, it's Mark.

Check it out here.

Choose Your Own Adventure

As the news was on in the background last night, they were doing a story on gene testing for Alzheimer's and whether or not people would want to know their risk.

The average American has a 15% chance that they will develop Alzheimer's by age 85, but there are those people who are at a higher risk, especially if someone in your family has suffered from the disease. There is a gene called APOE, and if you carry this gene, your odds increase that you to will develop Alzheimer's. 1 in 4 people carry one APOE gene, making them 3 times as likely to develop the disease; those who carry two copies of the gene are 10 times as likely.

Most of the people who went through the testing did not have a negative reaction to their results. A few of those tested had a family member who was suffering, or who had suffered, with the disease. If it's in your family, you probably figure you have a greater risk of developing it yourself, but would you want to know just how much greater the odds were? What would you do if you found out you were 10 times as likely to suffer from it? Would you begin a journal (a la The Notebook) to remind yourself and to let others know the past? Would you change the way you lived?

What if they could tell you your odds of other diseases (cancer, tumours, brain disease, MS, etc.,) would you find out? If breast cancer was in your family, ladies would you take preemptive strikes to lessen your chances (like Christina Applegate)?

Or would you choose not to know and live out your life as it comes?

Mark once said that it would be dumb to not find out the gender of a child since the technology is there, likening it to finding out if a tumour was cancerous or not. You would never not use the technology available to save your health....so would you try to see into the future, even if the outcome wasn't a guarantee? Alzheimer's is in my family...it's not fun, but I don't know if I would want to know my risk level. I guess a part of me assumes there is a good chance I could journey down the road with it, but I think I just want to leave it as an assumption.

What about you?

I'm a Loser Baby...

So, is it true that if you put something in writing for the whole world to see, you have to follow through with that thing?

Let's see if it is true.

Starting tomorrow it's good eating habits and regular exercise. None of this mainly good eating habits and sporadic (of late) exercise.

I'd love to drop 10 pounds by mid-July, and another 10 by September. Is 20 pounds in 4 months doable? I mean I'm not on the Biggest Loser campus or anything, but I think it can be done without depriving myself of an occasional ice cream or extra serving of pasta (it is whole wheat noodles!)...I guess time will tell.

I'm also trying to rope Mark into this, we will see if he fights or comes along for the ride.

Luckily I think all of the treats are out of the house (except for a handful of chocolate chips which may meet their demise tonight). Now if I can just stay away from the chips and goodies at the BBQ tomorrow....I think I can I think I can I think I can.

Getting to the gym will be the hardest with mark's work schedule and no child drop off at my gym, but we'll make it work.

Here's to letting the world in on my plans, perhaps wioth a few prods and inquiries every week or so, it will make me stick with it and actually get it done. You'd think just the hint of shopping for a new wardrobe would have given me all the motivation in the world, wouldn't you??

So here's to Me (and Mark)!!

A Moment Long Overdue

Today I walked into a 7-11 (or sev as we like to call it here) for the first time in I don't know how many years. As I walked inside, the aroma of Slurpee hit me like a wall. Oh Slurpee, how I have missed you. It's been probably a year since Slurpee and I last saw each other....too long in my books. There were many trips to the local sev during junior high and high school, it's like going to church, you just have to go.

I can remember my first Slurpee...mmmm orange. It's a good memory.

As I went to fill up my 22 oz Slurpee cup I was happy to see all of the usual suspects for me to fill my cup with, all but one (had it been there, the amount of perfection would have been intangible). I started with a little 7Up, then some lime Crush and topped off with orange Crush. If Grape could have been there...wow, it would have been quite a moment.

So in honour of my Slurpee, I thought I would share with the world a few Slurpee stats.

• Canadians purchase an average of 30 million drinks per year (that's almost as many as the population of Canada!)
• Winnipeg was named Slurpee capitol of the world for the 9th time in a row in 2008 (we rule!), even though we are a very, very chilly city (Slurpees in the middle of January, you betcha!)
• Stores in Winnipeg sell, on average 8330 drinks a month, the rest of Canada - a paltry 5990 per month
• The Pina Colada flavour is not kosher
• The term Slurpee was coined in 1967 by Bob Stanford
• Slurpee is in my spellcheck because apparently it needs to be capitalized!

Thanks Wikipedia for all of your knowledge. We love you Slurpee!!!

For the Love of...

With all that's going on with the economy, I have one more to add to Jeff's timely list. Thanks to celebrities, head shrinkers will never need to worry about job security... well, thanks to celebrities who have kids.

Pick a Number, Any Number

What's the square root of 900=?

1988 - All Over Again

Since it is very likely that Mark will take this blog political very soon, I thought I might get a word in before that happens. Not on politics though, I'm not going there. Mark would just think "his" blog had been hijacked by some radical socialist spouting crazy talk. Actually I would probably just complain about the whole US election process, the circus it is, how no one actually lays out the specifis of accomplishing all of their promises, just what they will do, and the most annoying part of all, how it just becomes about who can take the lowest swipe at their opponent without breaking the skin.
What I would like to talk about is the only other people who seem to be on TV as much, or more, than anyone/anything political. Who might this be you ask? One acronym - NKOTB. That's New Kids on the Block for those who might be too young to know who I am talking about. Probably the forerunner for the modern day boy band, only from the 80's (how much do you love Donnie's t-shirt?).

I know this dates me incredibly, and if my 17 year old niece was to read this, she probably has no idea who they are and any semblance of coolness I might have once had has now flown out the window, but yes, I was a New Kids fan, and will happily admit I still rock out to their tunes from back in the day. I had the t-shirt with the painted hand prints on the back (Thanks David!), the tapes, the pins... my friend and I would drive down Portage Ave with my mixed tape in the tape player blaring Step By Step - we were THAT cool.
I won't get in to why I think they finally got together...it does make me wonder though since vh1's Bands Reunited tried to get them back together a few years ago only to have Joey say no. Hmm, now he is suddenly all over it? His stint on Wicked is over, Dancing with the Stars flamed out... just sayin'.
Anyway, as they've lipsynched their way through The View and now the Today Show (for the 2nd time this summer), I wonder why I am pulled into watching them. Memories of days gone by? Rekindling the love of an old favourite group? Seeing if their new material can ever top Hangin' Tough or Step By Step?
No, it seems I watch them to try and gauge the level of uncomfortableness shown by Jon, the always painfully shy looking member of the group. He makes me wonder if he even wants to be there. Perhaps brother Jordan pressured him into it? It's not like he ever sung lead on a song or was their unofficial spokesman - they could reunite without him, it would be rude, but they could. It's quite interesting to watch him give a half effort to the outdated dance steps, sleepily lipsynch his way through the lyrics... he just looks like he doesn't care. When interviewed, I don't think he ever leaps to answer a question, and when questioned directly, it's always a nice 2 or 3 word answer. Funny. After 80 million albums sold and throngs of girls screaming for him (and the others), he just doesn't seem to care, or want to be back in the spotlight. I sit there and think, "Is this the song/dance routine he just finally gives up on wand walks off stage?" I doubt it would happen, but I think it would be hilarious if he did!!
I am saddened to say while many a poster of Joey adorned my bedroom walls growing up, I seem to have outgrown the crush. Is it just me or does he not come off as little mister arrogant? Just a thought. Donnie seems to be the most successful, in a non-arrogant sort of way. Remember him in the Sixth Sense?? Did you even know he was in it?
We always laughed at my little sister because she thought Danny was the hottest and we thought he looked like a monkey.
So, am I glad NKOTB has reunited? Meh...doesn't change my life the way it might have a decade ago...okay maybe more than a decade ago. Will I buy their new cd? Nope, but I might download a few old school tunes for my mp3 player though. Boy, will Mark be excited for that and this post since this is how he feels about most of what I write. Oh well, I'll let him rant about Obama, Biden, McCain, Palin and everything in between another day - someone has to be the voice of all things craptainment on here, right?

Do we need Jitterbugs already!?

When did we become so old?

Was it when I first moved away from home? Graduating from University with a graduate degree? Moving to New York City? Buying a house? Buying a bedroom suite? Having a baby?

Or was it many years ago when my love affair with Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy started?

I know for Mark it must have been when we rented our first house and I discovered I had married an 80 year old man who was fixated with feeding hummingbirds and mowing his lawn. I guess it won't be too long before we are sitting in our rockers on the porch, Mark shaking a stick at those darn kids walking across the lawn and me cursing those punk kids driving by with their car stereos blasting out some sort of "rap" music. Mark will long for the days when kids respected other people's property (oh wait he does that know) and I will long for the days when kids drove by blaring the good tunes like Styx's Mr. Roboto or anything else from the 80's! (Oh how T will openly laugh at us!)

Maybe I need to hot a club one night and see if the bouncer would card me!!

Think there are people who can teach you to be as cool as you once were (or at least as cool as you thought you once were)?

I just hope Wheel and Jeopardy are always on my TV.

You Can't Judge a Book by It's Cover...or Can You?

So in the few short weeks we have been parents, I have found a new frustration. I don't know if all parents, or mothers specifically, have this frustration, but I don't see it can be avoided.
Being a first time parent for anyone can be stressful enough with just being pregnant and all that it entails, add on to that having to buy every gadget ever made for baby, or at least that you think you need but probably don't, and it is a wonder people even have babies. Even more stressful, and more important (outside of buying the cutest clothes ever made) is how you will parent that little baby. Granted things like discipline are not needed at this young age, but how on earth will you schedule your baby's day, or will you schedule it at all? I guess it depends on what book you read, what your Doctor tells you, how your Mother thinks you should do it, or how the wind blows. Whatever method you go with, I say congratulations, because I don't know how you decided. I thought we would go one way, but after trying it for a few days I realized it just made me feel like I was inadequate and stressed me out too much. Not too mention it made me feel like I was missing out a little bit on baby time - you know, the sit on the couch while you watch Law and Order and the little one sleeps ever so soundly (or ever so grunty like ours does) on your chest.

It seems that everyone and their dog has a "theory" on how you should parent a newborn, but does anyone take into consideration the personalities of these little newborns? I'm sorry but my little one does not take 4 or 5 naps a day that last up to 2 hours. I am lucky if I can get her to sleep 45 minutes in the afternoon...unless I want to spend every nap time with her sleeping on me, then I think she might tend to sleep all day. I would love it if she slept 9 hours a night, but right now we get up to 6 hours in a row, a 40 minute interruption and then another 2-3 hours. I think that's pretty good, but according to some, if it's not a straight 9 hours we are doing something wrong.

As my Dad mentioned numerous times while they were here when T was born, they never had all of these books, or theories or rules to newborn care. Heck, they didn't even have car seats!! Sleeping on their back? Never, tummies were the best sleep position.

Sure times change and thankfully technology, science, medicine and knowledge have enlightened us in some areas, and mostly for the good. I am all for what will help babies, but for any parent who reads all of these books and opinions... it seems like confusion, stress and maybe a little self-doubt are the only things you will get from them!

I've found a few nuggets of wisdom that we like and want to make into our routine, but I think some "experts" seem to overlook that gut feeling about what a parent feels is right for them and their baby. If your baby only naps for 45 minutes at a time, but is happy and healthy... I guess you just have to become super efficient at getting things done with minimal time!

Who knows, maybe we will end up scarring T because she isn't sleeping for 10 hours at night when she is 8 weeks old, or maybe she will be cold, distant and hate us because we didn't cuddle with her enough... given who her father is, I think there is a good enough chance of that anyway, right? Just kidding Mark! Sort of. No really.

Anyway, maybe some more "seasoned" parents out there have different opinions on baby matters and theories that they swear up and down by, but I just don't know if I want to even try reading what any more "experts" have to say. I'll just go with the flow, try to get our own routine down and hope little T has a little bit of fun with Mom every day!

Who wants to be a VIP?

So I have joined the ranks of the baby blog, sort of... we have created a new blog for all things Tennyson related. I am going to jump on the bandwagon and keep it limited to those we know however...so if you'd like to be a witness to Mark's parenting skills, leave a comment with your email and we will make sure you get a front row seat to watch our little T grow up to realize her parents are great, big nerds.

Yes Mom and Dad that means you will have to leave a comment or I won't add you to the invited bloggers and you'll never get to see pictures of your granddaughter!! mwah hahaha!

**Just to calm fears of Mark and I abandoning our random rants and offenses - this blog will keep going strong; it will just be T's blog that we have private**

How To Mess Up Your Kids

With the impending birth of our first child, I've been thinking a lot about what kind of parents we will be, and how not to screw this up. Spending time recently travelling to visit with friends and family has made me realize, I probably don't want my kid to end up like me, my siblings or friends, but how do I avoid this. I’ve resisted the urging of my psychologist and dug deep into my memory of my childhood to think of the things that traumatized me most and made me the shell of a man I am today. Here is a list of ways that I think we can really screw this kid up.

Watch the Wizard of Oz. What kind of a twisted mind writes this type of book, flying monkeys, unionized midgets and a homicidal green-hewed woman with an extreme allergy to water. I did not do enough drugs as a kid to really learn to like this movie.
Read Where The Red Fern Grows. I swear I have never seen people cry like they do when they read this book. Why do we feel it’s a good idea to build children up with tales of animal friendships only to give them the emotional scars they receive when a pet dies, let alone two of them in a week? Damn you Little Ann, eat, eat. I cried like a little bi!@& reading this book.
Labyrinth. Muppets, birds eating their eyes out, flatulating rocks and David Bowie's prominently displayed package; sounds like a great kids movie.
Let them watch anything on VH1 or MTV. I don't think we have enough penicillin in the house to let our kid watch this crap. I Love Gonorrhea, Flavor of Chlamydia, Rock of Syphilis and all the other "reality" shows will warp your kids more than anything. Why not just order the Spice channel and let John Mark Karr watch your kids.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Oompa Loompas still freak me out.
Any rated R movie for toddlers. I know someone, who will remain anonymous, who was shown "Missing In Action", a great Chuck Norris war movie when they were under eight years old and had a nightmare so bad that they defecated in their bed. That is fantastic parenting.
Spoil your kids with love and encourage their creative urges. I remember the days when parents were honest with their kids and actually disciplined them for doing things wrong. It seems like these days kids are rewarded for bad behavior and parents are supposed to dismiss the terrible things kids do. Writing on the walls is no longer punished, but encouraged as it lets kids develop their creative personalities. All you have to do is watch American Idol tryouts to see what happens when we let kids run amok and constantly tell kids they are special and talented instead of being honest. Do you really want your child to end up like these miscreants?

What other terrible parenting traits should we avoid? Should we beat our kids? Will we be terrible parents? Can I fight crime with my washboard abs and boyish good looks? Please discuss these topics in the comment section.

Babies, Puppies and Bruisings

Alright, well, I have heard the cries for details...so I will cave to peer pressure this one time, and one time only! :o)

Yes it is true, I am knocked up. Oh my parents will love reading that! (Hi Mom!). Not that they didn't know, just the using the "knocked up" terminology - that's something that would be expected to come out of Mark's mouth, not mine, right?

Anyway, so the details. I am approaching my 15th week of pregnancy and everything has been hunky dory. No morning sickness (or afternoon, or evening), no aversions to food, nothing more than pants that don't fit me so well anymore and occasional tiredness. So I can't complain, and just ask that those friends of mine who have had kids, or are pregnant currently, but haven't had it so smoothly don't hate me too much.

Our due date is June 8th (not too far into the hot, humid MN summers), but as my Mother so lovingly pointed out to me when I told her the news, "Just so you know Melanie, that is just an estimate. It might be earlier or later than that." (Thanks Mom!) You know I love you Mom. Not too many other details to really share. Mark is holding a gun to my head to make me find out gender, which won't be until the end of January or early February, so I might still have a little bit of time to change his mind. Although he always brings up my one weakness, and that is shopping. Of course I can shop more if I know if it is a boy or a girl, right?? So we will find out, and when we do, you'll all be the first to know.
Well, not sure what else anyone wants to know...if I missed something, leave me a comment and I will be sure to answer it. Oh one thing, for those of you who see me, either regularly or intermittently, I just wanted to give everyone a pre-warning...don't touch my belly. Not that any of you would...I just wanted to cover that topic so that there are no hard feelings if I punch you in the face for rubbing the belly! I have never understood the need for people to touch other people's stomachs. Okay, maybe the father of the child, but a complete stranger?? Does pregnancy give random people on the street carte blanche to just rub your belly?? Not in my book. So if the urge ever comes over you to put your hand on my stomach - be warned, I can not be held responsible for what happens next (just ask Mark what happens if he tries to tickle my feet!). I am also not looking forward to the unsolicited baby advice everyone and their dog will try to give me. Well I might be interested in what the dogs have to say. I think if they can pop out a littler of like 8 puppies...they might know what they are talking about, and how cool would a talking dog be? I know, complete tangent (think I want a puppy maybe?).

It will be an interesting next few months, I guess my trip to Greece in March and Iceland in June are going to have to wait, aren't they? Thank goodness the folks live nearby so that we can drop of little GW (George Washington), John Rambo/John Wayne or Boone so we can go on vacation (PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE tell Mark how RI.DIC.U.LOUS. all of those names are). That is a major reason why this child had better not be a boy!
So, on a completely unrelated note, I discovered tonight that one of my previous co-workers is a sometime visitor to my blog, but he's never left me a comment to let me know. Just want to say hi to him (Hi Joe!!), hope everything is well! Tell the MCIB crew hi for me! Hopefully we will see you guys early next year!

Let there be ART!

So it's been a little longer between blogs than there usually is...is it possible to have lost the will to blog.... ?

Here's the lowdown on the slowdown of the past few weeks.

We've never been people to move into a place and get things up on the wall rather quickly, the one exception being the penguin calendar. So it's no surprise that up until this weekend, the only things hanging on our walls were the calendar and the towel racks in the bathroom.
That's all changed now though!! The house walls have been adorned. We hung up 6 pictures on Friday! Joann's had a great sale on framing last month, so we decided to go check out their prices. Mark has a print that is very oversized and every time we went to have it framed the price was always way out of our budget. However, with this sale we were able to get 5 pictures framed for the same or less than the one picture of Mark's - so we decided to go for it!! Thankfully we loved the way all of them turned out, and I must say, it is nice to finally have some things on the wall, just to make your place feel a little more "yours". We still need to get some family pictures and odds and ends put up, but we have the foyer, living room, kitchen and hallway taken care of for now.

This past weekend we decided to take a drive and explore some of scenic Minnesota (and Wisconsin!). While we were a week or two late to see the leaves in all of their colour changing glory, there were still some beautiful reds and yellows to be seen and we stopped in a nice little city called Stillwater - cute little stores and restaurants (of which I took no pictures naturally). We ate a picnic lunch and had some ice cream. The weather was perfect for a scenic drive!

Other than hanging art on the walls, life is pretty slow. Which isn't always bad!

I guess one newsworthy tidbit is that we are looking forward to our trip in a few weeks! We are heading to Florida so Mark can partake in the NASCAR experience again (you'll never find me in attendance) and then we are off to the Caribbean for a 5 night cruise. We're very excited for the vacation. It's the first cruise for both of us, so we will see if we'll de-board the ship being converted cruisers, or tried and true traditional vacationers!! Either way it will be nice to have some time off work, visit with some family and see some new places!









Hopefully we'll have some more exciting weeks, or at least something will tick me off enough to blog about (it's either that or Mark gets back on here and blogs about baseball, bodily parts/functions, and other things that are better left in his brain)! Any one have any blog topics they want me to discuss to keep Mark away from the blog? :o)

I'll try to make next time more exciting!!

Does this face look 29?

10.11.1978

Well it is!!
Mark turns the ripe old age of 29 today and here are some of the faces only a mother could love!

Happy Birthday Mark!! I hope your day is great and that you get everything you wish for - even a mid afternoon Zinger and Coke Zero snack!
Hope you all enjoy the montage of Mark pictures (sadly I don't have the guts to put up the really good ones).

Happy Birthday to you!
Happy Birthday to you!!
You look like a Monkey,
and you act like one too!

Happy Birthday, Love you!!! :o)

Our House...in the Middle of the Street

And it actually kind of is in the middle of our street...what a coincidence that a great song by Madness would foretell my future??

Anyway, so we finally have some pictures to show. We haven't hung anything on the walls yet, and one room is still full of boxes of books that need to be put away (Mark!), but hopefully this will give you an idea of the place, if you're interested! We still have a few things we want to add, but I think there will always be a list of things we want to add, change etc.

Please enjoy!

The front of the house (obviously). Mark is taking great pride in his lawn and all of the maintenance that comes with it. He is adapting to life as an 80 year old man very well.

The "dining room" - it and the kitchen are joined, so I don't know if it is an official dining room, but it is where we eat. I am happy to say no meals have been eaten on the couch since we moved in! The kitchen over on this side... that would be were we cook.

More kitchen.

The living room. The wall behind the TV has a nice lovely square cut out of it - we are

trying to decide what to put there that won't be too heavy and crash down in the closet below! I'll post an updated picture of this room in November when the real curtains arrive - these are just place holders!

And this is the foyer. We bought this bench because I love it, but it might be a little too big for the space, so we may end up moving it elsewhere.

I didn't put up the bathrooms and bedrooms, because some of them are rather blah and boring, and others we just couldn't get a decent picture because of doorway angles and such, but who wants to look at bathrooms? Believe me, ours are nothing to brag about, no jetted tub, or italian marble going on. As for the bedroom, well it still looks like someone going to college lives in it because we don't have "grown up" bedroom furniture. That's next years purchase!!

Hope you enjoyed a little peek into our home.