I dreamed a dream

Welp. Another couple weeks have come and gone. And they've been good. Brian's in serious crunch mode trying to finish the dental office that he has been working on. And Brian's crunch mode is unlike that of most others. His is the kind where he only sleeps a few nights a week--the others he just works straight through. Right now he is asleep and has the alarm set for 12:45 a.m. at which time he will get up and go back to work. I don't know how he does it. I would die. Seriously. I'm just praying he doesn't. But anyway... In case you're interested (Terry), you can go here: http://-6www.holmesoffice.wordpress.com to see how the office is coming along.

And me? Well, I actually did a little artwork. Not the amazing kind that Tiffany does, but the kind where you have at least been able to take up some space on a wall. My bedroom has forever needed a little help, so I needed to figure out something that I could put in white frames that would tie in the colors in my duvet cover. Soooo, I went to Michaels and got some blue and green jewelry pieces, and then I just glued them onto some mat board and framed them up--I mean, why wear jewelry when you can put it on the wall, instead? Very uncharacteristically modern for me. I've always considered my decorating tastes to be casual traditional, but a little modern flair has just started penetrating my boundaries. Get a load of my new lamp! I almost feel like a traitor! I still prefer (and plan to remain loyal to) curved lines, turned legs and feet, and raised panels in furniture, but more and more I'm starting to enjoy and appreciate the non-stuffiness of somewhat modern accessories. I suppose my style is more transitional these days...(I heard that classification on HGTV the other night.) That's as far as I'll go, though. I can't imagine ever being a fan of splattered paint artwork or lucite. You know what? What the heck am I talking about? At this point, my house is nowhere close to having a style. I need to be speaking in the subjunctive. If my house had a style, I would want it to be transitional. Yes, that's MUCH more accurate. But anyway... I also framed up two little scraps of the material I used to make my duvet cover and put the frames--along with my cool lamp--on top of my dresser. Those aren't really doing anything for me due to the fact that from even a three foot distance, the colors and pattern of the material are indistinguishable, but at least the white frames still brighten things up a little. And I painted a couple of paisley designs on two canvas boards (thanks, Sarah) in order to take up some space on the wall next to the armoire in the family room.
And lastly (and best of all) I bought a few more ceiling medallions and added them to the cool one that my mom gave me for Christmas, and I hung them on my red entry wall. I need to get a few more, but I think they look fabulous. I got the idea in my Better Homes and Gardens magazine. It was a Christmas decorating idea. They were supposed to be reminiscent of snowflakes. I decided however, that they were definitely cool enough to have up all year long. (Kinda like my red berry wreaths.) Pleeeaaassseee.

Wow. This is not a fun post for anyone but me. You know what would be a lot more interesting to a lot more people? A post about my toenails. I am not kidding you--I swear at least 25% of the few hits by blog gets come from people who have done google searches about toenail picking. Isn't that hilarious? So the post I did about toenail picking about a year ago gets far more hits than anything else I've ever written about (with my Pampered Chef post coming in at a distant second.) Sooooooo, in honor of my toenail-picking comrades, my next post will give an update on my toenails. Now THAT is something you don't want to miss.

P.S. You know what is even cooler than the fun I've had doing my little art projects? The fact that I had a dream about Scotty last Friday night. Earlier that day in the car, Jane told me that "she had a brudda name Cotty who died, too" and something about water and Jane trying to help him or something like that. So that night, I had a dream that I had started a race and was in the lead, running through water, until Scotty caught up to me and was yelling my name, smiling big. He was only wearing shorts (and maybe shoes)--which is exactly Scotty style-- and he gave me a huge hug and I told him I loved him, smiling big back. Then, he ran ahead and that was that. (I was running in the Rhody Run the next day--hence, the race.) Anyway, so cool. I hope you really are putting in your miles up there, Scotty, because I'll be ready for a re-match next time I see you.

Happy Mothers' Day

I hope you all had a wonderful Mothers' Day. Mine started out a little rough--neither of my kids would go up to the stand to sing with the other primary kids and the song they would have been singing is the very one I often sing to them at bedtime: I often go walking. Where the heck is the love? And Camp's primary teacher came by my class to deliver the Mothers' Day card he had made me. She said she wanted to get it to me before it was possibly destroyed. She said that Camp was in somewhat of a destructive mood and that he had said something about cutting it all up and killing something/someone. Yikes! (To my family--can you see me pulling at my collar right now?) But other than that, my day was pretty darn good. I was treated to the greatest luxury: a nap. Man, sleep makes me happy. Aaaannnndddd, while I was sleeping, Brian and the kids made me cookies. Oh, and Brian got me a couple of house plan magazines (man, there are some ridiculous plans out there), because I am in the process of looking for a house plan for our next house. I will likely be putting our house up for sale again this week. Why? Because in anticipation of so many of you coming to visit us, we've decided it would help to have a guest room. So tell all of the people you know who are moving to Florence that you know of the best house for sale. To start out, I'm going to be giving the for-sale-by-owner thing a whirl just to see what happens. But anyway....
Let it be known (in case I die, or in case it isn't known already) that I love my mom, and I love being a mother. I am grateful for the chance I have as a mother to experience the closest thing to Christ's love that I will ever experience in this life. I am also grateful to feel unconditionally loved by my mom and by my children. I hope they feel the same from me.

P.S. A special "Happy Mother's Day" to Brooke, who is sure to be one heck of a cool mama to the little Lima bean chillin inside her. And CONGRATULATIONS to Heather and Mim on their new babies!

Just curious.

I'm just wondering if anyone in real life ever caresses photographs when they are lonely and missing the loved one pictured in the photographs. I've noticed they always do that in movies--you know, gently rub their finger down the face of the person in the picture...Do people really do that? I hope not... Uh oh. I'm having an old memory swirl back to me... It looks like I'm sitting at the end of my twin bed in the Prince Lane house... And I'm holding something. It looks like a picture. Yep. It is. It's a picture of my best friend, Kim Carlson. And the light blue Sony tape player's on. I can almost hear the song. Tiffany, was it? Debbie Gibson? I could never love again--like I did when I met you. And when you said goodbye! Oh the look in your eyes! Left me beside myself--without your looooovvvvveeee....** Oh, here's an idea, Ann. Usually, that would be the kind of song that would remind a normal person of his/her lover--not his/her elementary school best friend. And can I really be remembering a forced tear running down my cheek? Oh, my heavens. I totally remember now. I remember that I was lonely and missing Kim (who had moved across town) like crazy. And I wanted my whole family to recognize the pain I was experiencing so I left my bedroom door open while the drama unfolded. And come to think of it, I'm pretty sure I waited for so long for someone to feel sorry for me that I ran out of manufactured tears and had to close down the whole operation. Hmmmm....at least I didn't caress the picture.

Oh, and guess what? I know what I want to be when I grow up! An editor.

** Remember--my recollection or interpretation of lyrics cannot usually be trusted.

Criminals

My Dad used to tell us how common it was to have people in court (while testifying to exonerate themselves of the crime being prosecuted) incriminate themselves in another serious crime. For example:

My dad: Were you in the Madison home when this beating took place?

Witness (or suspect): No, sir, I wasn't. How could I have been there when I was busy robbing the bank on Fifth and Ivy?

Incredible, but not so incredible that my kids don't do the same on a regular basis.

This morning as I was lying in bed, Jane rushed in crying to tell me that Camp had hit her in the eye. Camp soon followed, yelling, "Liar! I didn't hit you in the eye. I hit you in the cheek!"
It wasn't ten minutes later that Camp came running to my room to say that Jane had called him stupid. This time it was Jane who yelled, "Nu uh! I called you stupid boy!"
I'm glad we're all getting our details straight.

By the way...

If you happen to be using Internet Explorer, I have to apologize for the crazy formatting on some of my posts. In that last post, for example, there are huge gaps between stuff. I use Mozilla Firefox, so if you are using that one, too, the formatting will be normal. Just thought you should know.

Chinese torture

Does anyone know what the heck I'm talking about when I say Chinese torture? Actually, I don't even know what the heck I'm talking about when I say Chinese torture except that my siblings and I spent at least half our lives claiming that somebody or something was giving us Chinese torture....I'm feeling a little bad right now because I just took a second to Google Chinese torture and it turns out it is probably not something we should have been trivializing by making reference to it so lightly all those years. But anyway, if you will forgive my ignorance... Chinese torture to us consisted of those things that gave you the yucky chills down your back, or just drove you crazy. You know--the nails on a chalkboard kinds of things. Well, do you know what gives me Chinese torture (again, please excuse me)these days? Bare feet shuffling or rubbing across smooth cement that has dirt on it, when women wear eyeliner without mascara, utensils falling half way through the darn holes in the utensil basket of the dishwasher so that you cannot pull out or push in the bottom rack, and crayons falling through the crack of the pew all during sacrament--forcing the poor people in back of us to bend over to pick them up fifty times. Ahhhh!!!!!
Anyway...
Things continue to be pretty good here--except for the fact that Camp informed me that my teeth are indeed yellow. If I only had a dime for every time a kid told me I have yellow teeth...I specifically remember, for example, going with Curtis Townsend to visit our "little brother" (as part of the Big Sister Big Brother program)--oh, what was his name?....Kyle!....And he informed us that Curtis's teeth were white and that mine were yellow. It's nice to be able to rely on kids for an honest opinion, but seriously! One can only take so many honest opinions. Besides, if I could change my yellow teeth, I certainly would. In fact, new white teeth would be my plastic surgery of choice--way above a boob job, or botox, or vericose vein removal...and yep, even above eyelash extensions. The thing is--getting white teeth is not as easy for me as it would be for most of you. Why? Well it's a long story, and I'm not good at making long stories short. Oh, alright. I'll try. Needed fake teeth. Long time ago. Teeth whitening new. Didn't know enough. Got yellow fake teeth. Fake teeth don't bleach. Wish I could do it over again. Don't have the five grand to. Bummer.

But, yeah. Easter was super fun. We went up to Jigg's and Julie's property to spend Saturday and have lunch and an egg hunt, and then on Sunday, the kids got to wear their new Easter outfits from Becky and we had a nice ham dinner with Jen and Tim and their kids.






















And my mom surprised us and came up on Thursday! A girl couldn't ask for a better surprise than that! (nor could her kids), so we were spoiled with attention and candy, and had to take her back to the airport today.

And that's about it.




















































































Oh, wait! I trimmed my trees. Yes, I decided they did indeed need a hair--scratch that--needle cut, so I shaped those babies right up. And I think they look marvelous.
































Oh, and we saw turkeys gobbling through our back yard! I mean, we had gotten used to the bear sightings (it pretty much freaked my mom out to see one for herself), but a turkey? We could be selling tickets to our own private zoo! I'm just kidding, Mom. I really will start looking into a solution to the bear problem tomorrow. It really is scary. (f you look carefully, you can see the bear in the picture with the swing set.)
































Oh, and you know what is ALMOST as scary as our bear problem? This.

Here it is--finally.