White Follow-Up

A few days ago I blogged about trendy, beautifully staged bedrooms all in white.  Apparently Volkswagen got the memo prior to the Portland Auto Show.  They brought their entire car line, every one in white! I tried for more minutes than I should have to get a good photo of the cars, but there were too many people. This is the best I could do.  By the way, it did make the VW display memorable, so maybe there is something to the "all white" motif.

A bunch of white Volkswagens:

A Year of Dates: January

Last Saturday, Eric and I went on the first of our Year of Dates.

January 2012


The Date: A trip to Portland for the Portland International Auto Show.  Since we don't live in Portland, this ended up being a full day date.

The Envelope: 2 tickets to the Auto Show, Starbucks gift card for fancy coffee & sandwich across the street from the convention center.

It Went a Little Something Like This...


My mom watched the kids for the day, and we ended up leaving the house around 8:15am.  We enjoyed 3+ hours in the car without the kids. It's amazing how stress free longer drives are when you don't have to pack tons of extra food, clothes, games and toys! And manage fighting and whining! Instead we got to talk about life, catch up with each other.

We saw SIX Bald Eagles along with Columbia River during our drive. I didn't take pictures from the moving car, but basically it was like this guy's picture:



The actual date isn't super interesting for re-enactment. It was walking, talking, sitting in cars, looking at cars, taking pictures of cars. Towards the beginning of our adventure, we had lunch at Starbucks.

Appetizing, huh?

A few observations from the car show:

1) When pretending to drive an auto show car, it is apparently mandatory that you also pretend to shift manual transmission gears, even if the car is an automatic.

2) There is something about having my picture taken while sitting in a completely still car in the middle of a crowded auditorium that compels me to flash a peace sign. 

3) I apparently like the current trend towards using the exterior color of the car as the dash trim color inside the car. It is cute and fun, and reminded me of when my KitchenAid  mixer was brand new and shiny. 

Eric and I got to ride in a Jeep that essentially drove over/through an obstacle course, and also in a tiny Scion which Eric test drove in a small driveway parking area outside. Those were some of his highlights. Plus seeing his current dream car/future actual car, which he couldn't sit in because it is still a prototype. 

A little sad he couldn't sit inside. And that they didn't have the Scion version. 

During our ride, I was in the middle seat in the back. Eric was sitting on my right, stranger on the left. And then we did this. It was a little unfortunate for the stranger on my left.

Here are some more pictures from the day:

Vespa! 

Tiny Scion (this is the one that Eric later test drove)

One of the most bizarre things at the Auto Show: a truck painted to honor 9/11 first responders. On the hood: angry presidents and angry birds of prey. I am still trying to figure out how to alert Stephen Colbert. 

Eric being "manly" in front of a truck in his "Dexter shirt".

Someone take me to the beach. I'm ready to go surfing. 

Weird, massive fuel economy scooter thing. Only in the Pacific Northwest.

On our way home, we stopped for burgers and took more pictures of ourselves eating food.

We had a lovely drive home. Almost ran out of gas, but didn't. That was nice.

Next Month: Eric still hasn't looked into the date envelopes, but I did have to reveal the February date after he scheduled a church voter's meeting for the exact time we were supposed to be on our date. So it won't be a surprise, but it will still be fun!

Keeping Myself Occupied... by becoming a stalker

Today is confession day: I am a stalker. Specifically, I am stalking our across-the-street neighbor's home. I don't know anything about the couple, but their two boys are favorites of Little Man. Even though they are approximately 10 and 13 years old, they have always been really nice to him. This summer, Little Man regularly went over to "sweep" their driveway for them.

ATS Neighbors have been trying to sell their home for awhile. I'm thinking it's been at least a year at this point.  It was for sale for awhile and then we saw them outside once and asked how their recent open house went. Not well. No one came! We found out that day that they were building, or planning to build, a new home near the river. (I actually don't know if it is supposed to be 'near the river' but that is what Little Man always says when he talks about them, so I'm going to pretend that is true.)

Side comment: we live in one of the few places in the country where home prices are slightly increasing, and home sales have slowed but it isn't as bad here as other places.  The length of time that passes in this story is unusual for our area. 

Last winter, they took the house off the market for awhile, and re-listed it in the spring with a new agent.  We saw people come to look every now and then. I admit, once or twice I let the kids play outside a little longer than I planned so that I could check out the family walking through the house!

And then one day this fall, the SOLD sign was hung on their For Sale sign. It was a sad day for us, especially Little Man. The two nice boys would be moving away. But, hooray!, that means they get to build their new home.  The husband told Eric that they "had to be out" by Halloween, so we assume they were supposed to close then.

November came and went. The SOLD sign stayed out there, but no one moved in.  December, the same.  The exterior garage lights that were left on burned out.  Since we did a short sale on our old house this past summer, I am a Zillow fan.

And my stalking began... I checked out Zillow and learned that the house was taken off the market in October. And then, nothing. We kept waiting for someone to move in. Still nothing.

Naturally, I started regularly checking Zillow to see what was going on with the house! (Because wouldn't anyone do that?)  At the end of November, Zillow showed the house going active again as a listing. Same listing, same agent. And yet, the SOLD sign remained outside. A search of our local MLS doesn't show the listing number as active.

In December, as Little Man and I drove past, I noticed some kind of flier on their front door. No, I did not go to their front door, I saw it as I was driving by! I thought it would be bad in a "drawing attention to the fact the home is vacant" to leave the flier on the door. Not wanting to be spotted stalking, I made Little Man go get the flier. And it was essentially a utility delinquency notice! Oops! (So Little Man ran back across the street with it and re-attached it to the door. Told you he is smart!)

Now I feel really sad for our ATS neighbors. I think their sale must have fallen through. And maybe they are stuck with a half built other house. Our recent short sale experience has made me feel really horrible for them, and extra curious about the circumstances.

A few weeks ago, a sticker showed up on the front window of the house. This time I actually did go over to see what it was. You know, because of punk kids. (!!) It was the dreaded notice from the mortgage holder that the home has been deemed vacant and will be winterized, locks changed, etc. Yikes!

Then last week, Eric and I were outside (legitimately - shoveling snow after the "snowstorm") and a guy with one of those bluetooth ear piece things got out of a truck with some kind of metal pipe tool. He explored the yard, through 6 inches of snow, by banging the metal pipe tool thingy all over the ground. I didn't even pretend like I wasn't watching. Was he looking for the irrigation? Was he the realtor? So many questions! No answers!

This week, we had some excitement! 3 days in a row a white sedan was at the house. We thought maybe someone was moving in this past weekend. And there was a boy! Hooray! I told my mom to keep an eye out while Eric and I went to the auto show out of town on Saturday. Prime moving day!  When I got home she reported that there were actually 3 different vehicles outside of the house.

The For Sale sign with accompanying SOLD sign is still outside. We thought maybe the ATS neighbor decided to rent the house out. Or maybe the buyer moved in, but why would the SOLD sign still be there? And why is there now a lock box on the door?

Today, no action again. When Eric took our dog for a walk, I asked him to check to see if there is furniture in the house. It was dark, so he brought his cell phone so he could use the flashlight app to take a peek.

The mystery continues... the house is empty!

So many hypotheses! Now I think the action last week may have been the mortgage holder changing the locks, cleaning and doing other stuff to the house. Our maybe it was the real estate agent and people cleaning the house to get it ready for showings? My theory that it was home stagers is out since there is no furniture.

Part of me is a little bit ashamed of how much mental energy I have put into investigating the ATS house, but it is an interesting mystery at least, right? It leaves me wondering what I will do with myself when someone actually does move in!

I'm a Titanic Groupie

My mom and I went to see The Descendants this afternoon. We walked in a few minutes into the previews and...

SHUT THE FRONT DOOR!! 

I heard the soundtrack to Titanic!!!

"Somebody's life is about to change..."

And that somebody is ME, baby! I am not even lying to you, Titanic is being re-released in April in honor of the 100th anniversary of the actual Titanic sinking. And I practically started crying with emotional joy just seeing the preview today. 

The movie was originally released in 1997, while I was in college. At first, I resisted seeing the movie because of my whole thing where I am forced to have an attitude and hate/dismiss things that everyone else loves. And I don't tend to like "girl movies". It was a "pass" for me. But then I was home over winter vacation and my mom and I thought, "Let's go see this Titanic movie that everyone is talking about."  

Was the Celine Dion song already being played 24 hours a day on the radio at that point? I am not sure. (And, no, that scene isn't a favorite of mine.) 

So we saw the movie, and I liked the movie. I thought it was an adventure, and I liked the love story. (I also really liked Shakespeare in Love, which came out the next year and shares a similar tragic love story theme.) Plus, it had a great soundtrack, which is always key when you're talking about an epic film. I was in college with plenty of free time, and I actually had a job that didn't pay poorly for work study. So I invited a friend to see Titanic. And then I would learn someone else hadn't seen it, so I'd say, "You have to see it! I'll go with you!" 

A month or two later, I had seen Titanic in the movie theater... 10 times!

Not even 9 times... 10 times!! That's 32+ hours of Titanic movie theater time. And probably $60-ish of Titanic movie theater tickets. Plus popcorn X10!

It was sort of an accident. I didn't mean to become a Titanic groupie, but it happened. I cried in the movie theater 10 times during this scene...



Oh goodness, I am practically crying RIGHT NOW!

And you are either a)also crying or b)siding with my husband and making fun of me.

I am not as obsessed with the movie now as I was then. But I do own it. And we did "watch" it while I labored at home with Little Man. (What a strange choice I made! If I was in my right mind, I clearly would have chosen "You've Got Mail".)

How about you? Are you freaking out about going to see the re-release of Titanic? If you need me in the week or two after April 6th, check the movie theater, because I will probably be there!

The White Room

Since I've been trapped in my house for the past few days with my sick kids, I have been planning out my organizing and redecorating schemes with the help of Pinterest.  I also watched an episode of Colour Confidential where the woman redid a simple bedroom with a design that seemed almost achievable for a normal person.

And so, I spent an exciting Friday night at home watching The Debt and looking around on Pinterest for bedroom colors and bedding that might give me some inspiration. I'm not talking about finding super extravagant, ridiculously expensive, architecturally stunning bedrooms. Just simple things that someone like me (not very crafty, almost negatively skilled in the artistic department, with a very meager budget) could actually attempt.

I stumbled upon a strange phenomenon: the white room.  Here I am looking for fun and stylish bedding, and I keep finding white bedrooms! White furniture, white comforter. White, white, white.  I notice the same thing when I look at other room ideas: office, playroom, kids bedroom. So much white!!

In my real house, we don't have any white furniture, and that is on purpose. You see, it gets dirty! I routinely curse our hideous kitchen and dining room vinyl floor because it is "white" (in quotes because it isn't actually white anymore).  But we do have white trim and some white walls - the people we bought our house from painted not long before we bought the house and they seemed to really like the style of "3 walls color, 1 wall white" - almost every room in our house was that way when we bought it. Only some rooms have been painted since then.

Looking at white bedrooms and white bedding is nice. Oh so crisp and clean! But, seriously? With 2 young children? And a dog? And a husband? This will never be my house, so it isn't much inspiration.

I dare you: go on to Pinterest and type in "bedroom" in the search bar. Here are a few of the most recent pins:

               

     
    I spy some green on that bed!!!   

We Interrupt This Blog Post...

This is an alert of the Child Sickness System.  This is NOT a test.

Throw on your rain poncho and be prepared for overnight puking and waves of crying.  Do NOT attempt to take Ambien to sleep, as you will be awakened multiple times by a puking child. Even your dog will puke in sympathy.

Sticky green boogers will be in abundance for the next 5-10 days.  Imagination play will center around disease and medical treatment. Intermittent fevers will be spotted.

Check emergency supplies of Children's Ibuprofen, Children's Tylenol, 7Up, crackers and popsicles.  Gigantic iced lattes from the expensive coffee stand down the street may be in order.

This concludes the alert of the Child Sickness System.  God be with you.

Book Love

I'm a part of a book club. It is actually my third book club. Right after Big Girl was born, I joined a book club associated with an attachment parenting group in my town. I was drawn to it because they met once a month and chose a wide variety of books: fiction, parenting, other non-fiction.  I was introduced to In Defense of Food and Brain Child magazine.

Then a few friends who knew I was book clubbing mentioned the possibility of doing a book club among ourselves. I ended up sort of being in charge of that one. I think we only read a few books (because then I moved away), and they were pretty big fails in my mind. (If I never hear about this book again, it will be too soon. Sorry Mom.)

When we came up here to visit so that Eric could consider whether to accept his Call to become principal here, I met a few school moms at Starbucks one morning while he was doing... something. I mentioned I was in a book club, and one of the moms was all about it! So when we moved here, she and I started Book Love - a women's book club with a generic name! =)

We've been meeting every month or two for the past 2 years. There have been some big successes (The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, The Forgotten Garden, etc...) and some fails (The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake. Breakfast with Buddha, etc.)

Some people join book clubs to "force" themselves to read. That is not me.  I don't have any trouble with finding time to read.  I like book club because it gives me a chance to hear about books I wouldn't otherwise discover, read some books that are outside of my reading comfort zone, and talk with friends about books we've read.  I admit, I don't really enjoy the "book club discussion questions", I prefer a less structured talk about what everyone thought about the book.  And I have gotten a chance to get to know some women a little better, which is a good benefit.

Thinking about joining a book club? You should totally do it! Even if you can't read every book or make it to every discussion, it is a perfect kind of format to pop in and out.  You'll get to spend time with other book lovers and keep that brain working too!

I have to give a shout out to GoodReads, which is a great website for finding books, getting info and reviews on books you hear about, and keeping a list of books you hear about that are interesting that you want to remember to read when you have a chance!