Coming soon...

...to a kitchen near me - new curtains!
Maybe that doesn't excite most of you the way it does me, but take a look at my kitchen. It has really nice new cabinets with tired, dreary, late 80s print curtains in all the little windows. Need to see that closer? Here you go:
So depressing! Not to mention coated in dust.

With the help of my mom and sister, I picked out this new fabric at JoAnn's, and soon I'll be cooking in a much brighter, cheerier kitchen. I was going to wait till it was finished so I could just do before and after shots, but seeing as how "soon" can be a pretty relative term, I thought I'd show you the fabric now.
Do you see the tiny chickens? A tad cliched for the kitchen, perhaps, but still fun! I can't wait.

*****

I had a great birthday weekend, and so far 30 isn't really any different. So for all my college friends with the summer and fall birthdays, DON'T BE AFRAID! I think it just means I'm officially old enough that I don't have to be offended when I don't get carded for liquor. That's fine with me.

In addition to JoAnn's, my mom and sister accompanied me to Target and Kohls, where we found bedding for some of the kids and a curtain for the bathroom that matches better than anything I could have dreamed up. It's one of those little things you buy, then love it more each time you look at it. I love when shopping actually produces successes.

My dad came up with my female relatives, but opted to mow our lawn rather than come shopping for fabric. Understandable.

We had a low-key party on Saturday night to celebrate my birthday formally. Just family, cake, drinks and a chiminea in the backyard. That's my ideal birthday party. Even the early mosquitoes couldn't get me down. Marianne asked me to wear her dress-up princess crown, and so I wore it all evening with pride. She'd been very sweetly wishing me a happy birthday since Friday evening, so I could hardly refuse her. Ruth spent all of Saturday repeating "birf. ay. mom." to which I'd reply "Thank you" and she's say it again. A little repetitive, but very endearing.

Ruth was completely tuckered out by the whole weekend experience.
(Yeah, I know. Gratuitous cute kid shot.)

*****

In big news, today is the day! We're closing on our house in Colorado! We signed and returned all the paperwork last week, and the couple buying the house did a final walk-through over the weekend, so hopefully nothing will go wrong now. We should know by dinnertime that the house has sold for sure. I cannot believe how perfectly this has all come together for us. Praise God.

Home improvements

Wow. That was an overwhelming response regarding the need for larger closets in the world! Both in the comments and by email, every single person who responded said to make the closet bigger. Nathaniel and I had been leaning toward the larger bedroom, as I foresee using that as my retreat area, and want to have a nice living space to relax in when I need a few minutes of "me time", but the closets are certainly important. We're re-thinking our decision now, and I think we'll probably go ahead and shrink the bedroom a little to expand the closet. I'll keep you posted.

In the meantime, I've done a little work on the basement family room. Ellen refers to it as the "church basement room" and I describe it fondly as the "gradeschool hallway room". The key factor behind these endearing nicknames is that the room has cinderblock walls painted pale yellow, and the floor has stick down tiles in white flecked with tan and then a pattern of dark blue making a diamond shape in the center of the floor. In the realty house photos, it had had carpet and enough furniture to keep it from looking so institutional, but not when we moved in.

My sister and parents are coming to visit today. As I expect that means Marci will be sleeping in the basement on the futon, I needed to do something to make it more comfortable. To minimize the cost and maximize the fun factor (it is, after all, a basement family room - the room I foresee hoards of little girls giggling in till all hours of the night during sleepovers), I stole an idea from Renee's parents and purchased a pile of carpet samples from a nearby carpet store.
They didn't have enough that day for the whole room unless I wanted a lot of white and barely-off-white squares, which I didn't, so for now just the center of the room is carpeted.

I'm in the process of taping all the squares together so they won't keep sliding all over the floor. Marianne and Ruth think this is pretty much the greatest thing ever - like a giant hopscotch board. Plus, we can play educational games down there. "Everyone find a blue square!" The best part for me is that if I should, say, trip and fall while carrying a blackberry smoothie, spilling it to the far reaches of the room (not that that's ever happened before...), I can fix the stains by simply replacing the squares affected at just a dollar a pop. Sweet!

Penny for your thoughts

We're making some plans for building walls. Here's a quick poll for my readers, just to pick your brains...

We're making plans for a master bedroom, walk-in closet and (someday) master bath. The master bedroom, as it's currently planned, is luxuriously large. Like, in addition to our current bedroom set, I'd definitely need to get a comfy chair and ottoman, and if we should be blessed with another baby someday down the road, I have no concerns about fitting the bassinet and rocking chair in there.

The closet is way larger than our last, but not enormous. There'd be room to walk in and have clothes hanging on three sides of you easily, but not much more than that.

Do you cut a foot off the side of the bedroom so that you have a very nice, larger closet? The kind of thing that could really grab a future buyer's attention should we ever put this house back on the market? Or do you leave that foot of space in the master bedroom so it's guaranteed to feel very open and roomy?

One foot is not a lot of space on it's own, but when it results in 10 square feet in a closet, or 15 square feet in the bedroom, it could make a difference.

Man, this is hard. I'm glad I'm not an architect or an interior designer.

Well?

"What would you do if your mother asked you?"

(First person to name that book in her response gets extra credit.)

A beautiful day in the neighborhood

6:30am - Get up and go for a run. Shower. Lie back down in bed till the girls need me.

8:30am - Girls wake up. Breakfast ensues.

10:00am - Sit with the girls in the front lawn planting bulbs around a small tree till we're joined by a neighbor from across the street and four small children (some belong to her sister). Continue to plant bulbs while the neighbor entertains my children with sidewalk chalk and short walks to the end of the block.

12:00 - Lunch.

1:00 - Naptime. Only naptimes aren't so easy these days, so it involves me lying on the third bed, forcing the girls to stay in their own beds and repeatedly shushing them, until finally Ruth falls asleep. Along the way I endure several rounds of conversation with Marianne along these lines:

Me: Ruthie, please lie down. Put your head on your pillow.

Marianne: Ruth, put your head on your pillow.

Me: Marianne, don't tell your sister what to do. You're not the boss. Please be quiet and sleep.

Marianne: I know, Mommy. You're the boss. I'm not the boss. Only you are the boss. And daddy is the boss, too. You and Daddy are the bosses. But I know I'm not the boss... (droning on and on as I shush her).

3:00pm - Play with Ruth till Marianne wakes up from nap, since Marianne didn't actually fall asleep till 2:30.

4:00pm - Snack time. Get a phone call from Renee inviting us to join her and William on a walk to a nearby park. She'll come by our house. Get girls pottied and shod.

5:00pm - While walking home from the park, run into Ellen (Nathaniel's youngest sister), on her walk home from piano lessons. Invite her in to hang out.

5:15pm - Phil, Renee's husband, arrives to meet Nathaniel for a post-work run. Renee and William leave for home.

5:30pm - Arrange a "playdate" for tomorrow (more likely a chance for me to catch up with a good friend I haven't seen in years while our children stare at one another suspiciously). Let Ellen alternately entertain the girls and chat with me while I cook dinner.

7:00pm - Dinner.

8:00pm - Sherri (Nathaniel's mom) and Ellen come over to help him hack down some overgrown decorative grasses in the front yard. Get the girls ready for bed.

9:00pm - Share a pot of tea with Nathaniel, Sherri and Ellen before the latter two walk home.

*****

We are taking full advantage of this close proximity to family thing. When we're not running into them on the street or jumping on board for quick fieldtrips, we're coming up with long term solutions to pesky chores like cooking dinner. It came to the attention of Phil, Renee, Nathaniel and myself that we're all cooking nearly every night (at least on the nights Sherri doesn't feed us). That seems silly, right? Starting this week, we decided to try sharing Tuesday and Thursday dinners. Tomorrow night Renee is cooking for our combined families, and on Thursday I'll return the favor. Since they're barely a block away (we have the same house number, one street apart), it's no problem getting our family over there and home in time for bed. They may decide to opt out of this plan when our family nearly doubles in size, but we'll have to wait and see just how much Sara and Jacob eat.

Week in review

This is my peaceful room. A couple posts ago I mentioned that my mother in law helped me get our living room cleaned and organized so that I'd have one box-free space to relax in. The sad truth is, it's still nearly the only box-free space. Technically there are no longer boxes in most of the bedrooms or the kitchen, and only a box or two in the dining room, but those rooms all still feel cluttered to me. We're working on getting it all unpacked, but it's slow going. I'm very glad I have my living room to sit in for a few deep breathes between projects. (Note: it's not intended to remain the greenhouse room - we just haven't determined where all those plants will end up).

*****


Yesterday's projects included purchasing beds for a whole slew of small people. The attic room still needs a lot of love and attention to get it in a cute, decorated state, but at least now Marianne and Ruth are up off the crib mattresses on the floor. They "helped" me assemble the new beds after nap, and were thrilled to get ready for bed last night. Thankfully I had three sets of twin sheets from my dorm room days, so each bed is made up a little. I'm still considering my options for bedding. There are a million Pottery Barn Kid options I'd love... however the reality is, I'll be shopping Target or something similar. Luckily they have tons of cute choices as well. I just have to narrow it down a little. For now, the girls have their old blankets tossed onto their new beds and they are perfectly content. The fancy bedding will be much more for me than for them.

The room looks a little too hospital or orphanage-ish with the beds lined up like this, but for ease of walking I think it makes the most sense. I may change my mind.

Ruth is loving every minute of her new big girl-ness! She needs a stool to climb into it and that safety net on the side is a definite necessity, but you can tell she feels extremely grown up and proud when she's in her bed. It definitely makes her feel more grown up to me.

*****


On Thursday we went to the Childrens' Zoo for the first time with Renee and William. She has a family pass, and we were generously given one by friends, so I look forward to going frequently. Marianne and Ruth rode ponies, an experience about which they were impressively stoic. They begged and pleaded to be allowed, then refused to crack a smile or talk to the pony handlers. We won't be spending the extra money on that much in the future, but it was fun once. Just next to the ponies are the cages of goats, donkeys, llamas and other feed-able, pet-able animals, and that seemed more their speed. The zoo, overall, was a very fun time. There is a decent variety of animals, and lots of activities thrown in to lengthen the experience. This giant spiderweb for the kids to climb on, for instance. I'm looking forward to many mornings roaming the zoo. Next time I think we'll skip the stroller, though. Not that it's not large enough to warrant one, but it's such a hands-on sort of place, the girls would want out of the stroller within a few seconds of climbing in. I tried to convince them not to keep getting back IN the stroller at all, but Marianne is big lately on talking about how her feet don't work. That's a topic for another day.

*****

We're settling into our new life and new routines nicely. Which is sort of funny, I suppose, since we'll shake it all up again in just a few weeks by bringing in all the new kids. Still, it feels good. I can't spend 30 minutes in the front yard without meeting a neighbor who's a friend of my mother-in-law or of Renee, so I'm meeting new people right and left. Not that I could tell you any of their names now if you asked.

We're having dinner tonight with a couple who has kids the same ages as the girls. The wife called me a few days ago and said she knew Phil and Renee and had known we were coming, so they'd like to have us over to welcome us to the neighborhood and the parish. At first it made me nervous - dinner with a family we've never even met - but then it turns out Phil and Renee are coming as well, so it shouldn't be so high stress. Of course, I was so caught off guard by the invitation that I didn't think to ask on the phone what I could bring. We're just going to take a bottle of wine. Hopefully they drink, or we'll be off on the wrong foot from hello.

Play acting

Do you ever feel like you're playing house? Or dress up? Or like you are, in general, living a life that's not really your life?

I don't mean that so seriously. It's not as though I feel like an impostor in my own life or something scary and deserving of therapy. It's just that sometimes I really do feel like this is all a game. Since we moved into our new house, the feeling has been more pronounced. It's such a great house, and it reminds me some of my in-laws' home, and some of the house I grew up in in Kansas... all with the result that although I feel at home here, I also feel like it's not entirely real. I'm cooking in my kitchen and sweeping up my hard wood floors, and it absolutely feels like Nathaniel and I are playing house.

The sense of play acting was heightened further this weekend at the ordination. To see a handful of men with whom I went to Philosophy 101, went to bars, went on a Tower of London tour... to see them standing on the altar as priests was incredible. A High Catholic Mass is always theatrical with the robes and the incense and the music, and having people I know up there makes it all the more so. We're not OLD enough to be married with children, to be priests, to be owning homes and getting PhDs. But we are.

Maybe this is all a tiny sort of mid-life crisis without the crisis part. I am turning 30 in less than two weeks. And while that doesn't scare or upset me at all (heck, with two small children to chase around I've been feeling significantly older than 30 for quite some time now), it does carry with it some weight. Some sense of time passing that other birthdays don't. I'm happy to say that I love the life I'm play acting, even on the days when fussy girls and burned dinners and stacks of laundry make it all too real. I might feel old, but at least I feel like the years have been well spent.

Ordination

Despite a chilly weekend with even a brief bout of snow, Nathaniel and I had a wonderful time at Notre Dame celebrating the ordination of our dear friend, Father Stephen. (Stephen and Nathaniel were flatmates while studying abroad in London their junior year.) We were able to catch up with several other friends and acquaintances, a few of whom were recently ordained priests as well, and we spent almost four straight days without having to shush our children or hustle them from a room where kid noises weren't appropriate. Some close family of the men being ordained had, of course, brought children with them, and it was a good reminder to me of how glad I was to have left our girls behind. We went to mass for three days straight, and none of them were particularly short. There were some other church services thrown in for good measure, plus a few late night celebrations... none of which would have been fun with kids. Hooray for grandparents nearby. We don't have big plans to take advantage of that very often, but it's certainly nice to have the option.

We arrived at ND late on Thursday and were lucky enough to run into then-deacon Stephen at the seminary (he'd offered us a free room there for the weekend, which we'd gladly accepted despite the resulting need to use shared, dorm-style restrooms all weekend). We had a cup of tea with him and his parents before calling it a night. The next day we spent most of the day on campus. Nathaniel visited several of his college professors with whom he'd been close. I, having been a business major and therefore in much larger classes throughout my four years, had no one in particular to call on. I could have rung up the director of the Liturgical Choir, but since we parted on somewhat poor terms when I dropped out senior year to have more time to study for the CPA exam, I didn't think that was necessary. Rather, I wandered the campus, poking my head into all the newly constructed buildings and generally reacquainting myself with the school. I ended at the bookstore, of course, where Nathaniel met me and helped me pick out shirts for our whole expanding household so we can cheer on the Irish in good style next fall.
After blowing that small fortune, we had lunch at Reckers, a 24-hour cafe behind South Dining Hall and a regular haunt of ours during senior year.

Friday evening began the official string of ordination events. The Holy Cross priests definitely know how to celebrate. There was a mass at 5:00pm, followed by a cookout (we skipped the cookout to have dinner at a favorite dinner-date restaurant of ours). Then at 9:00 they held Lucernarium, a night prayer service that's done entirely by candle light, mostly sung by Fr. Michael, a classmate of ours at ND who was ordained three years ago. Lucinarium also included the blessing of the chalices and patens that the soon-to-be-ordained men had received. I wish I had a picture of Stephen's chalice as it was really beautiful - simple and small, with amazing engraving all over it - but I did not think to get that photo at the time. After the service there was a big reception with ridiculous amounts of food and drink. And that was just to get the weekend started!

Saturday we visited another friend and ex-flatmate of Nathaniel's and Stephen's, Nathan. He and his wife and daughter live in South Bend while she's working on a masters degree, so we went to their apartment to have lunch. From there we rushed off to the ordination, where we arrived about 50 minutes early and found it challenging to find seats. That's why all the pictures you're about to see are from a slightly obstructed view - we were front row, but off to the far side of the church (also, flash photography was not allowed, so the photos are all a little rough - sorry). The only thing we really couldn't see at all was when the men prostrated themselves in the main aisle of the church while the congregation prayed the Litany of the Saints. I really wanted to see that part, so I was a little bummed, but it was all an amazing experience so mostly I was able to get over missing that little piece.

As you can see, we were extraordinarily near to the men being ordained. This photo is during the readings, while the deacons looked on with the rest of the congregation. From nearest to furthest away, the deacons shown are Pete, Stephen, Greg and Jim.

After the bishop had the men state their intention to join the priesthood and received testimony from other priests and lay people with whom they'd worked that they were ready for ordination, he blessed them, then invited all the other priests present to lay hands on them and bless them as well. It was an impressive sight, as there were easily a hundred (maybe many more - I didn't count) Holy Cross priests present. We couldn't see Stephen because of a pillar in front of us, so this picture is of another good friend of ours, Father Nate, blessing Greg, another ND '99 grad who we knew a little during college.

Once the men were ordained, they put on their new robes and the bishop put blessed oil on their hands. Then they were invited up to join the other priests at the altar.

Here you can see three of the four newly ordained as they participate for the first time in the Eucharistic prayer.

And, of course, the shot at the post-ordination reception of Father Stephen in his cassock. I love this outfit. The Holy Cross priests often dress in plain clothes, so it was really cool to see them all in their black cassocks with the little half-cape through this reception and the formal dinner that followed. We attended both events, followed by another reception that evening back at the seminary. Like I said, the priests know how to celebrate. I don't know how anyone could have still been hungry when the night reception rolled around, but there was food and drink in abundance.

The next day we were very excited to attend Fr. Stephen's first mass, which happened to be the 10am mass at the Basilica, a.k.a. the one I sang for every Sunday from freshman year till second semester senior year. I couldn't have been happier! It meant, however, that Fr. Stephen's mass was also the one that's televised live on Sunday morning on some DirecTV channel. No pressure, eh? It all truly went off without a hitch, though. He preached an excellent homily, chanted beautifully through the Eucharistic prayer (I had no idea he could sing like that!) and wrapped it all up right on the mark for the TV hour. Nathaniel said he could tell Stephen rushed the closing prayers a little to get it finished, but I didn't notice it. If there was any chance you saw me on the TV, I would have been the one smiling idiotically the whole time. I was just so happy for Fr. Stephen and the others of our friends who were behind him at the altar, that I could not wipe the silly grin off my face.

Here's one last shot of us with Fr. Stephen after he celebrated his first mass:

A new chapter (of novel length)

Let me start by saying that a week without internet - without my email, my blog... basically without any communication with my best friends seeing as how we've all but forgotten how the phones work - has felt similar to narcotics withdrawal. Or at least how I would envision narcotics withdrawal to be. Very minor withdrawals. I was alright for the first few days, but as time dragged on and the phone guy still hadn't come, and then he did come but we had to wait longer for a little DSL box to arrive in the mail, it was torture! Today the little box arrived, and after a few hours of Nathaniel working to rewire what the phone guy had done wrong, we have internet! Paradise found, folks. I'm back.

But don't get too excited. Tomorrow we leave for Notre Dame for Stephen's ordination, so I'll be offline for the next several days. That's why I'm working to get my fix tonight. Your sitemeters can confirm that I've been catching up!

*****

On a significantly more important topic, we moved to Nebraska last weekend! Those of you privy to such information should have received an email from me tonight with our new contact info. If you haven't seen the email and you think you deserve it, drop me an note.

Things went incredibly smoothly for the move. I packed mostly nonstop on Tuesday and Wednesday, then Thursday we loaded up the giant Penske truck. Thank heavens we opted for the free upgrade to the monster size, because we filled almost every square foot of that thing. The first few hours of loading went quickly, then the last several hours involved a lot of backing furniture out to turn something sideways or upside down in an effort to create a few extra inches of space. Still, by the time the after-work crew showed up, all that was left to do was eat pizza. Friday morning at 9:00am, we pulled away from an entirely empty and tidy house. Weird.

The drive was happily uneventful. We pulled into our new home in Lincoln around 7pm. The guys planned to unload enough of our stuff for us to sleep at the new house, but once we got started, we just kept going. By the end of the evening, all but a couple rows of boxes were out of the big truck! When we'd started, most of our neighborhood had been attending Good Friday service (it's a very Catholic block) A couple families introduced themselves on the walk home. The neighbors from across the street even sent their two oldest sons over to help carry furniture. That's friendly! I'm still waiting on baked goods, though. What's up with that?

Marianne and Ruth could not have been more thrilled by their new room. The minute I opened the door to stairway they burst into giggles and have hardly stopped the giddiness since. They refused my suggestion that they sleep downstairs on Friday so they could find us more easily if they got scared. They've been sleeping in their new attic room from the very first night and loving it. Ruth is moving into a big girl bed (currently a crib mattress on the floor, to match Marianne's toddler bed mattress on the floor), and doing reasonably well. Naps have been a challenge, but that's as much because ALL of the toys returned to the house in Nebraska, so it's like Christmas morning every minute of the day. Soon I'll have to weed out some favorites and pack the rest away. I've gotten used to a certain level of tidiness, and tearing open seven boxes of toys is not conducive to maintaining that level.

Saturday the last of our stuff moved into the new home and garage, and the serious unpacking began. By the end of the day there was a little stuff unpacked everywhere, and the formal living room was furnished and clean. That was my mother-in-law's idea, so that we'd have a space of peacefulness amid the chaos. Brilliance! It felt amazing to have a room to sit and relax in between boxes, to really see the new house taking shape as our own. (I should have pictures, but I don't yet, and I'm getting too tired to go snap some now. Soon, though. I promise.)

Sunday was Easter. We took much of the day for rest and relaxation with family, though we couldn't resist a little more unpacking. Nathaniel's family was wonderful about including us for meals all throughout the weekend so that we didn't need to worry about groceries for a few days. We celebrated Easter three blocks away from our new home (walking from home to church, from church to Grandma's house for lunch, back to our house for nap, then back to Grandma's for dinner...) and felt exceptionally blessed all day.

This week we've been trying to settle. I've made my first trip to my new Target and my new grocery store. I tried to get the van licensed and failed (just a few more days of illegal driving should do it... that's a story all its own), but acquired a Nebraska driver's license in the process. Seriously, my dear Kansas friends. I'm officially a resident of Nebraska. I've done laundry, run the dishwasher and we even built our first fire in the fireplace last night. I've spent several days in my new house and have never felt anything but at home here. We are very blessed and I feel it more every day.

Now we're off to the ordination before Nathaniel begins his new job at the University. This should be a wonderful weekend of prayer and celebration and hopefully a rejuvenating kid-free weekend (the girls are staying with Grandma - hooray for having family nearby!) before I really begin the stay at home mom life. We have a million house projects to work through before Sara, Jake and Elizabeth join us in late May (like putting up some walls to create a master bedroom so we can get our stuff out of Sara's future room), but we're looking forward to it all. We have amazing friends here helping us every step of the way.

Happy Easter to all of you! I'll be back in a few days more!

ps. Things are going smoothly with the contract on our house in CO. The inspection is done and fixes negotiated, so hopefully nothing nothing else will crop up in the next couple weeks. If all goes as planned, we'll close 4/30 and avoid any gigantic double mortgage payments.

A fond adieu

Today is my last day of work. Paid work, that is. The company I work for now is the same one I started with after graduating from college nearly eight years ago. The same one that I interned with while still in college, even. Apart from the internship I did at Disney World that one summer, and the work study hours I logged at ND, this has been my only real employer. It's definitely an end of an era for me. I'm glad to be moving on to my dream of being a full-time mom, but I am (and I'm not even kidding) sad to leave my company. The benefits are phenomenal, the people are top notch, and I've enjoyed the opportunity to work here. I always had a vision of myself working in a big office building in a cool downtown area, with my laptop and my Starbucks and me all 20-something and hip. Apart from the "hip" part, I lived it. I've done it. I've had firm-paid spa days and I've flown to LA and back the same day to attend a going away lunch. I've stayed in fancy hotels enough to earn "rewards" from them. I've jet-setted, darn it. I feel like I know exactly what I'm giving up to become a stay at home mom, and I'm glad I do. It makes me appreciate it all the more.

If I'm offline for the next week or so, don't be surprised. After today I plan to be packing non-stop till we move, then unpacking non-stop at least until we get internet access set up. I'll try to drop a note now and then so you know how things are progressing, but I'm not making any promises. As for after that... well... we'll see how the stay at home lifestyle lends itself to blogging. A million other moms do it every day. I imagine I'll manage as well.