A good way to kill time and lighten up a bad mood…. Ways to Kill Martha Stewart! Courtesy of Carl, Mom’s beau.

If I was a work of art, I would be Pablo Picasso’s Three Musicians.

I am colourful and provoking, always looking to break out of the mould and to pioneer new ways of doing things. I have a jaunty outlook and although I am a bit weird, most people have some idea what I’m about.

Which work of art would you be? The Art Test

Wow, that’s pretty accurate. Just taking a break form all the gluing. Angel wings are done, so is lace skirts with roses at the waist. I’m making the headpieces now. Soldier outfits are due on Friday.

The house is OURS! YEAH! {A guest entry by Ron}

It turned out that our picture was not in the local paper. There was a whole two page spread on the tree lighting (and subsequent carol sing), though. Yah, yah, I know you want to hear about the house.

We got the keys on Friday between 4 and 4:30 PM. Talk about cutting it close and making it a somewhat tense day for us, since our lawyer’s secretary had said she would call us when she had a key. When I called at about 3:15, she said she had been calling so and so all day and they were not returning her calls. I said I would try, and found out that the ball was indeed already rolling. It seems the folks who did the title search waited until the last minute to type up the report saying that it was cleared.

Andrea’s grandparents came up for the weekend to get a first look at the house they had heard so much about. Papa said it was a bit of a fixer upper, meaning there would lots of little things that would need to be done. When some people say that they mean it is a handyman special. Anyway, we had quite an entourage when we arrived to look it over. Of course I had to carry her over the threshold. We had been practising it earlier in the day. And even though most folks use their back entries for everyday travel, I felt I should carry her through the airlock entry at the front of the house. Carl took pictures of the whole process. I am none the worse for the wear.

Mom brought us a guest book for folks to sign on their first visit. Mom and Carl had already seen the house so, we just had to show the grandparents around. We had been told that one of the pocket doors (probably weigh about 100 pounds each) that led to the livingroom was off the track. Papa and I checked it out and discovered that after it was out a bit, it worked just fine. But, it was hanging crooked and didn’t line up with the other door. (On Saturday evening, I took the flashlight and had a look at both doors. They both had adjusters on them to line them up. The one on the problem door had backed off so loose that until the door was out so far the track wasn’t holding the door up. So, I fixed it on the spot.)

After everyone but Andrea and I had left, Andrea ran skipping through the ground floor yelling, “Yippee, I have a house.” We then returned to Mom’s house for supper. I, at least, had a restless evening. We decided to wait until Saturday before returning to our new home. So, after spending the evening at Mom’s we came home and sent the older kids to bed. About 15 minutes later, Mom calls and asks if they can come over. Her and Carl arrived with a romantic house-warming basket with wine (non-alcoholic), goblets, cheese, crackers, and other treats offering to sit with the children while we had a romantic retreat at our house. Since we didn’t know how long it might be before Emma would turn into a crank, we decided against the trip to the house. Shortly after Mom and Carl left, Emma was ready for bed. Once she was out like a light and in bed, we did dip into the basket.

On my last trip to Wirral, I had forgotten to take boxes with me. I loaded up a number of already full boxes, the contents of a bookshelf and the shelf itself. On Saturday morning, being fully wide awake I drove up to the house without boxes to put the books in. So, after taking out what I could, I returned here to get boxes. This time, we all hopped into the van to go up and start the cleaning job. We grabbed a bunch of supplies and went shopping for the rest.

Our Saturday afternoon and evening schedule was hectic as Meaghan had a dance class while Addison and Sarah had a practice for a musical evening at the church. After all of that running around and a brief rest, Sarah had a dance class. Then, all three had to go to the special evening service. The morning was good, though. And there was a garage sale just down the road which was selling furniture. I don’t know how much furniture they started with but there wasn’t much to talk about by the time I arrived. Disappointed I went to a local antique auction. Not quite everything the auction off is antiques though. I ended up picking up a couple of mahogany barstools for the kitchen counter/breakfast nook. On their way to the evening service, they dropped me off at the house. I grabbed a few CDs and the ghettoblaster. I picked away at a few of those odd jobs that needed to be done. Oh, and I poked around in the attic and found 2 antique wooden bicycle rims. ‘Spose we could put them on ebay and pay off the mortgage?

Other than when I was there on Saturday night, we actually spent most of the day spilling out all the ideas we had and showing each other things we had discovered. So, today, after church we actually got down to getting some stuff done. If A. hadn’t mentioned it, the realtor had described out lot as ‘park-like’. It has a whole grove of jack pine (planted 15-20 years ago) behind the house. A. had been talking about getting some garland for the railing of the front veranda. I suggested pine (knowing I had a ready supply out back). So, that is what I did this afternoon. If you know which tips to take you don’t harm the tree. And the icicle lights may go up tomorrow. While I was doing that, A. and the older 3 were applying a cleaner/polisher to the woodwork in the foyer. The room is about 11×15, has 9 foot ceilings and the floor, walls and doors are all ‘woodwork’. Half a bottle later, the room still isn’t finished (partly because we didn’t have a step ladder). But, it is looking much more brilliant. There was also some window cleaning and kitchen space organizing happening.