House Drama

I fell in love this weekend. In love with a house. And I spend my time daydreaming of me and this house together one day. I have mentally moved everything in. I mentally cook, clean, garden, and give Drew baths in this house. I picture more little Pattersons running around this house in the future.

Is it the biggest house we saw this weekend? No. Is it the newest? No. The most expensive? No. But is it the most charming, dignified, comfy-home feeling? Absolutely.

The waiting game begins to see if we get this home or if my heart is wrenched out of my chest and broken.

Old Ties

The coolest way to ever decorate an Easter egg is using silk ties. These are mine and Jason's eggs from three years ago. Jason gave me three or four of his old ties and I cut them up into big squares (big enough to wrap around an egg). Basically you wrap the right side of the tie square around the egg, then wrap over that with white sheet or rag material. Then you twisty tie or rubberband the end of the materials to secure. After you boil the eggs in a water/vinegar mixture, it completely transfers the design over to the egg. The very best part is unwrapping the egg at the end to see how it turned out. You have no idea how it will look! It is bounce-in-your-seat exciting.

Since that first year Jason has refused to give me any more of his ties. So the next year I picked up some from various secondhand stores for dirt cheap. Unfortunately, other people's silk ties do not perform as amazingly as my husbands. The designs wouldn't transfer well. But since Jason's ties are still off limits to me, this year I will just have to try for ties again at Salvation Army and hope I get lucky.

I would love to hear how it turns out if anyone else tries these this year.

It's On

The search for two very important things has begun.

1. our first home

This is one of the most exciting things we have ever done. Buying a house! I'm pretty sure it will look just like the house in this picture.


2. a new swim suit

This is also an important purchase. According to my last suit's track record it must last me for at least five years and through at least one pregnancy. My old tankini has gone through thick and thin, literally. I wore that thing hiked above my bulging pregnant belly while laying out at my mom's pool. Remember, Shawnda? It is definitely time for a new suit. And of course Jason is pleading with me that it be a teeny bikini.

From now on...

...call him the Big Cactus. Because we're moving back to Phoenix!

But don't call him a molester (although his facial hair suggests otherwise). All the ortho guys had mustaches today... really.

Wouldn't you trust this doctor working on you?

Sidewalk Chalk

The stresses of life can all be forgotten with a little sidewalk chalk.

Where's Waldo?

Jason got a letter yesterday informing him that he successfully matched into an Orthopedic residency program. Now we have to wait until Thursday to find out where. Oh, it's only going to tell us where we will live for the next 5 years of our life. No biggy.

Lunch Lady Land

This week has been particularly humorous.




Drew gets funnier all the time. Her new phrase is, "Aw, MAN!" sounding straight from the hood. She says this a hundred times a day. Usually when she trips and falls or when she sees me and Jason kissing.



She also pretended to wear my bra yesterday, or "bwah" as she called it.



So we booked our cruise! How romantic. Seven days, just Jason and I. Three stops on sandy Mexican beaches. Wandering the ship together doing whatever we want. Sleeping in bunk beds. Bunk beds??? I was contacted by one of the cruise representatives the other day making sure I was aware the room I paid for was "upper and lower bunk beds". I did pay for a room upgrade, but love to picture us on our romantic vacation fighting over top bunk.



Sometimes when I substitute they need someone to fill in for an associate (or classroom assistant) and not the actual teacher. It is the same pay as a substitute, but you never know what kind of duties you will have. It's risky. I took the risk the other day and had a once in a life time experience. The morning I spent working with second graders. Lunch time I was the lunch lady. Literally. Hair net, serving spoons, and all. I only wish I was serving sloppy joes and then it would have been perfect. Corn dogs was a close second though.

An Old Shirt

I am in love with this dress. I've been wanting to make a patchwork dress/skirt for some time but haven't gotten past the other hundred things on my list. I was going through some old clothes to get rid of the other day when the thought came to me to just cut it all up, like I did the green prom dress. It's kind of therepuetic, actually.



But I really love the idea of Drew wearing clothes out of fabric that used to be mine. And actually only a couple of the prints from this dress used to be mine, because well I don't wear grandma clothes. The rest of the prints I pulled from my fabric scraps. Total cost of this dress... $0!

All Hail

Photo of recently dubbed Queen of Everything, affectionately known as Queenie.

There comes a point in a child's life when the cute things they did when they were little begin to be not as cute anymore. I know this firsthand. My sister Shawnda is three and a half years younger than me. She was a cute little girl and I had apparently hit the mid-elementary school awkward phase. She could do something and it would be cute. I could do the same exact thing and it would just be annoying.

When does Drew's queen antics become, well, not so cute? So she has been bossing me around lately. She tells me where to sit. She tells me what to eat. And she tells me what to do. When she first pointed to the ground and said, "Mama, sit," so that I could watch her dance, of course I sat! I thought she was so clever and funny. She is really learning to communicate what she wants, and I want to reward her for that. But sometimes I feel like her personal monkey that is there to entertain her ("Dance, monkey!" -Zoolander).

I had fun in Photoshop with this picture. I know, is it really another picture of her in the purple dress? Yes, it had to be. Because the face was perfect.

Oh, Monday

Things I am thinking about this week:

• Can the terrible two's come at one and a half?
• I'm loving Beyonce.
• Is John Locke dead or alive?
• Can I stomach drama queen Nathaniel enough to watch American Idol?
• Trying to find the right fabric to cover the chair that will not break the bank.
• Planning a Mexico vacation for June. Should we go to a resort or do a cruise?