Brad has been driving a 1995 Green Ford Escort Station Wagon in hot, sticky, summer weather back and forth to work every day, vowing not to buy a new car until after we close on the house. Thanks to my mother's assurances that it would not hurt our debt ratio, Brad finally bought himself a car.

His slightly used car is a 2004/Honda Accord EX with a V6 3.0 liter engine that is decked out with leather seats, seat warmers and a satellite radio. The best feature, according to Brad, is the AC.

Doesn't he look happy? Bishop is also happy because he inherited the Escort.

The only problem is that now our cars look like FSU colors. Go Gators!

Manicures and Construction Work

I’ve been staring at my hands too much lately. My nails accidentally grew long. Usually I don’t grow out my nails because then my hands become decorative rather than useful, but since I haven’t been sitting at my computer writing papers and chewing my nails lately, they’ve gotten a little long. Then I made the mistake of painting them with some clear polish and now they’ve grown even longer.

Now things have gotten really out of control. I bought a French manicure kit. This is a multi-step process. First you have to put these tiny stickers on your nails and then paint just the tips white. Then you paint over the whole nail with the really light pink polish. In between each step I have to wait for the polish to dry, and I can’t really do much of anything because it will mess up the nails.

This morning I was sitting around painting my nails and watching the workers put in sand behind our house. I know nothing about construction, but I assume that they are preparing a foundation. So far today they have brought in loads and loads of sand in those big trucks that tilt up. Every time the truck empties the sand, the tail gate slams back down and makes a huge noise. Even though I know what is happening, I still jump. After a couple of truck loads of sand, the bulldozer flattens the mounds out. Then the trucks go back and fill up with more sand. In between, though, the construction workers are pretty bored. They do a lot of sitting around while they wait for more sand.

This is how manicures and construction work are alike- busy for a little bit and then nothing to do for awhile.

Testing, testing...

I am one step closer to being a certified teacher. Last weekend I took two state certification tests. I am happy to say that my classes in the education program prepared me for these all important exams.

Also, I spoke to my directing teacher who will be sharing her classroom with me this fall, and she said that I am welcome to attend planning next week. I am so excited! Finally, after so many education classes I get to experience the big picture. This may be the last summer that I ever feel happy to see summer end.

Brad is also happy. He got his Jaguar season tickets in the mail. His seats are way up in the stands on the home team side of the stadium. If he invites you to a game, be prepared to climb some stairs. The seats are five rows from the very top, but as Brad says, the important thing is that they are IN the stadium.
The countdown to the end of summer includes visits to schools to get schedules and books. Mitchell's registration was today. He wants permission to wear flannel pajama pants to school so we asked the teachers at school teoday if they were allowed. Four teachers gave four different answers. Oy! We struck a deal. He can wear them if he carries a pair of shorts with him so that he can change if he is sent to the dean for inappropriate clothing.

Lest you judge my decision... listen, I had to hear an hour's tirade about how UNFAIR it was the he had to wear UNCOMFORTABLE clothes just because I thought they were more APPROPRIATE than pajamas. I cannot have a fight with him every day about pajama pants. I have to fight with him every day to get him to wear shoes! "Why should I have to wear SHOES everywhere just because YOU want me to?!"

This school we will have four children at four different schools. One of them will be wearing pajama pants (and shoes if we are lucky).

The House Next Door

I don't know why I assumed that the house being built in the lot next to ours would be a one story, so when I saw this, I was surprised! The house next door is big. Although we have some serious envy, it is fun to watch this house go up.

I wonder who will live here.

The other day we met some very nice neighbors from across our new street. It is hard to believe that in only seven or so months we might actually live on this street.

We got two letters in the mail from our builder last week. Each was a form letter about a minor change in their general policies. Still, for a brief moment each time we hoped that it was something important, like a design center appointment.

While we continue to be patient, life marches on. The land behind our current home has been cleared to make way for a condominium development. We have always looked out our back windows to see woods, but now there is a huge hole. Every morning we wake up to the sounds of cranes and bulldozers. I feel sorry for the people who are living in our new neighborhood because they have to live with constant construction, too. So, there is one advantage to buying the last house on the street. Once the construction is done on our house, the construction is done.

Coincidentally, it is the same builder that is putting up the condominiums behind us here as is building the houses in the development that backs up to our new lot. Luckily the new lot backs up to a preserve area because when this builder clears the land, they leave no trees behind.

Baby Love

Tonight I got a glimpse into our past when I visited my friend, Elizabeth, and her family. Her son Benjamin is eight months old and he’s full of sweet baby love. He’s round and cuddly and busy and sweet, sweet, sweet. Of course I was reminded of all the baby love that we’ve had, and although I don’t want to go back there, it was nice to visit for a little while.

Charlie is at quilt camp this week, and he’s found a new passion. He loves sewing! Olivia is at Girl Scout Camp this week, so she comes home everyday good and tired from crafting, swimming and singing all day. Bishop’s got a job at a local restaurant. He comes home wet every night smelling like a kitchen. Brad used to smell the same way when he was a chef. What’s Mitchell up to? He’s at camp sleep-a-lot.

Only 2 ½ weeks until school starts!

Moonlit Madness

The full moon lured us to the ocean last night. Actually it was my idea. I thought that we’d have a mellow moonlit walk on the beach. It was a beautiful night. The water was warm, tickling our ankles. The moon reflected off the waves and some occasional fireworks lit the sky. Unfortunately, only the setting was mellow.

In between yelling for somebody to stop hitting somebody else on the butt with their flip flops, or stop running and splashing people who don’t want to get wet, or stop rolling in the sand there were a few peaceful moments. You would think that a woman with four children would know better than to expect them to be mellow at the beach.

What was I thinking?! Well, next time I'll be prepared for the craziness.

Photo found here.

A Quiz

Tilt your head to the left and consider why a handsome young man would be wearing such a ridiculous outfit.

A. He's color blind.
B. He's so brilliant that he cannot be concerned with a minor detail like dressing himself.
C. He's famished after a day of swimming and tubing down the Itchetucknee, and a pesky "no shoes/no shirt/no service" law is all that stands between him and a meal.















Tilt your head again to the left to see Mercedes and her pink tube, which needed to be rescued during lunch when a person tried to walk off with it.
















The river was very high from all of the recent rain. There was a lot of jumping from trees into the river by some- including MeMe. We even walked up to Blue Spring to swim over the caves and feel the strong pumping of the water. I think that everybody had fun.

Tomorrow Mercedes and Sebastian will be on the way home to Seattle. I wonder if they'll have any chocolate covered popcorn from Peterbrook's for their mother?

A television in the BATHroom?!

Patience is a virtue.
Good things come to those who wait.
Don’t wish away today longing for tomorrow.

That, dear reader, is not advice for you; rather, it is advice for us.

We did not pick out spots for our phone and cable jacks when we signed the contract. This gave us an opportunity to go back to the sales office to talk with our sales agent again. The story this time is that the house will probably get started in late August. We are the very last house on the list. Since we signed, there haven’t been any other sales in our development because they are just now getting the land developed- roads put in, lots designated, etc…

If they say the start date will be in August, hopefully they won’t begin later than September. If they say that it will take four months to build, maybe it won’t take more than six. That would put us in the house in February or March maybe?

Patience is a virtue.

Brad decided on a treat for himself: a television in the bathroom so he can lay in a tub of hot water and watch hockey. (We have to give credit to Jan and Peter who inspired us with their luxurious bathroom in the house on the river.)

Yes, HOCKEY! Thank goodness somebody agreed to something so that there will be a hockey season this year. Brad is very happy. Maybe it will make waiting for this house a bit easier.

But, I predict that this will cut into my decorating show watching time. My current faves: Designed to Sell (for obvious reasons) and Christopher Lowell.

Tomorrow we are going down the Itchatucknee- (actually, I’ve been corrected. It’s the Itchetucknee) for the FOURTH time this year.

Flooring

We spent a lot of time this week putting in a new floor downstairs. The plan was to put it in the kitchen, bathroom and half of the living room, but once we got it all down, the carpet looked yucky. So, we put it down everywhere downstairs. The flooring is a vinyl tile that looks pretty good. It is a huge improvement over the worn out carpet and linoleum that used to be there.

We pulled up the old quarter round and put the tile up to the baseboards. Now the baseboards look very battered so we are painting them. I have always wanted to paint them white since we moved here. I love the way that white baseboards look with some color on the wall. So to finish up we have to cut all the new quarter round to the strange angles that we have in this house. Once it is all done, we’ll post a picture.

In the next house we vow not to wait until we are selling to fix things up.

Oh, and spending several days on our knees may have made us more willing to pay builder prices when we pick the flooring for the new house at the design center.

Soaked on the 4th

We waited for the first rain band to pass before heading to the river walk to stake out our spot for watching the fire works. Unfortunately, the sun was brief and we ended up soaked! The fire works were amazing, but next year we are going to bring big umbrellas and stay dry, like Mike.

We got wrapped!

We got our first visible sign that something might be happening to our dirt. They’ve wrapped our lot in plastic! They also wrapped the other Mercedes lots/houses with plastic so it could mean nothing, but that doesn’t quell our excitement. Unfortunately the wood and dumpster are for the house that is being built in the lot next door.

Rolling bowling relatives

The other cousins also came to visit this summer. Among other exciting adventures, there was a bowling trip.
Josh is the king of NINE, but when he pulled off ten, you should have seen the victory dance. Charlotte’s bowling skills were sharp and in between shots she took pictures of the fun.


Charlie got a couple of lucky shots in there and had a few strikes himself. Olivia was looking stylish in her ultra cute hair-do whilst she experimented with several bowling approaches.









Mitchell had the highest score the first game and the lowest score the second game proving that sometimes you are up and sometimes you are down. Either way he played it cool, earning the title of “the casual bowler.”



Bishop is the power bowler. He made the pins quiver in fear, and when he figured out how to aim, he was racking up the strikes.




Pop-Pop showed everybody how to get it done with the high score on the second game. We heard the sounds of gobble gobble when he bowled a turkey.