Life is funny

I’m deciding whether or not I will take a week off from posting while I’m on vacation. This would of course mean that the Quest for the Blue Dates for a Year would be dashed. But holy cow I need to chill out. There’s much to do to worry about blogging right now.

So I think I might take the week off. Or not. Or maybe I will.

I’ll let you know.

We’d been in the car for a few minutes already after school chatting about Bug’s day when we got to a red light. I turned around to say something to him and noticed that he had a decoration on his forearm that I had not yet seen.

“Hey Bug, what’s that on your arm?”

“It’s a tattoo! It has a bag.”

“A bag? You have a tattoo of…a bag? Let me see.”

I leaned in a little closer to inspect, and by golly he wasn’t lying - it WAS a bag. Public Service Announcement included.

He’s a cute little feminist, don’t you think?

Welcome to Racher’s Home Improvement Blog Yestertime.

No, for real. I promise I won’t post any more pictures of the dining room after this forever and ever amen, unless they contain something more interesting in them besides furniture, like our new baby or Justin Timberlake or something. But after some friends came over and spent like 17 and a half hours helping us take down the ceiling fan and installing a chandelier, I had to do one more picture to compare the before and after. Of course, I didn’t take full room shots of the before much, seeing as how the grape wallpaper gave me hives, but you can piece together what it looked like from these two shots:

And now…

Ok, no more, I promise. And now I’m off to get a haircut.

(Thanks for your help Ashley!)

Around 75% of my conversations these days go like this:

Me: Hi buddy! How was your day?

Bug: HEY YOU BONKER!

Me: That sounds like it was great fun. Who did you play with today?

Bug: YOU ARE A CHOCKY BUGAWKY!

Me: Did you have a good snack?

Bug: YOU HAVE A CHEEKA REEKA DING DONG!

Me: I’m glad you had such a good day. I’m ready to go home - how ’bout you?

Bug: DONKEY! CHEETO! GOCKA! BONKY! MUNKO! COOKA! FROGGY!

Me: Great, glad to hear it.

Isn’t it glorious? I rather think so. And we did it in one day. And I only freaked out thinking Bug was bleeding once. You should come over and have dinner and see it in person. Only not today, because I am tuckered out from all the painting.

We had to prime the room first due to the plum-colored half wall left after stripping the wallpaper. This was much to my chagrin, because I like for things to be done like ten minutes ago. Or maybe twenty. When Lorso brought the primer back and we went to work, I thought, “Hmm, maybe a salmon dining room? It would save us a step. Plus pink is my favorite color.” But then I realized it was just the toxic paint fumes talking, and we soldiered on toward Tuscon Red.

Having finished and set up the new dining table and chairs I have come to the realization that we have created a very gorgeous, very formal dining room. And for a split second I thought we made a mistake, because no one in their right mind with a three year old and baby on the way eats all their Kix cereal and Ramen noodles on a shiny smooth espresso finished table with cloth covered chairs in a deep red room. People like that have breakfast nooks with big formica tables you can take out back and hose off after snack time. But unless we make our third bedroom into a breakfast room, or get rid of our washer and dryer in favor of a picnic table, there’s just not anymore room in this inn. So it was a split second of crisis in my mind. But then I thought you know what? No. WE’RE JUST GOING TO BE THAT DAMN CLASSY. Life is short! Carpe diem! Eat off the good china! Enjoy the finer things and all that!

Plus there is no way in hell I am repainting that room.

And besides that, I have always wanted a red dining room, and I told Lorso last night as I looked around our two newly painted spaces with our new couch and table and chairs that for the first time in our marriage I felt like I was surrounded by our stuff. Stuff that wasn’t particle board or duct-taped together, or taken stealthily in the night off the side of the road near the seminary apartments. It’s all stuff we chose. Stuff that makes me want to say, “Everyone come watch the game at our house!” (Apparently in this fantasy we have cable and good reception.) Or, “Everyone come over for a Christmas dinner!” (Catered, of course, by Boston Market.)

So yes, the red formal dining room is here to stay. And I am glad.

And as for Thursday’s post, I’m not all that surprised by the outcome - 14 for girl, 4 for boy. (And just so you know, Bug says girl too). There’s a thing about people wanting women to have little girls, that I have to confess I don’t really understand. I mean, don’t get me wrong, girls TOTALLY ROCK, but I have to say that I think Bug is the best kid I ever could have asked for, and if I found out that this next kid was going to be a boy too, well how could I be anything but ecstatic about another kid even a little bit like Bug around these parts?

I do have a teeny weeny gut feeling about the chromosomal outcome of this next baby, but I think I’m going to hold on to that knowledge for a little bit longer. Like maybe until June 3. I could wait until June 4 (ultrasound day), but then I could cheat and say I TOTALLY KNEW THE WHOLE TIME THAT IT WAS GONNA BE THAT and you would all call me a big poseur.

And I’m already a poseur enough serving Spaghetti-Os in my fancy pants red dining room.