Unreserved

Milestone #1: On Monday, I turned 30.
Milestone #2: On Wednesday, I picked up the keys to our new house.
Milestone #3: On Thursday, I found my first grey hair.

We haven't moved in yet and already the place is turning me grey. It's either that or the kids. Or Mr. Unreserved. Or work. Yes, the lack of pigment in one hair at the very front and center of my hairline has nothing to do with age. It's all stress related. At the rate I'm going, it'll all be completely white in five years.

We got our first real look at the yard yesterday - such a great lot with so much potential! It's brimming with potential! And weeds! And dirt! And rocks! Which means we'll be brimming with yard work. Mmmm, but at least all the yard work on this house will be for our own benefit, as I have no plans of leaving it, possibly ever. (I say that now, but I guarantee at some point, deep in the middle of a project that has gone on far too long and cost far too much, I will wish we had bought a condo.)

I had a vivid dream last night that I was about to give birth to a third child. In the dream my skin had stretched so thin that I could clearly see the babe within and was trying to figure out the gender. This tells me that my subconscious isn't satisfied with all the actual sources of anxiety. It feels the need to go and dig up some new, fresh, completely fictional anxiety. I've had several third baby dreams lately even though we are just as far from deciding that matter as we were a year ago (which is to say completely undecided and not really worrying about it). I've also dreamed that we bought a huge, empty department store with attached living quarters, all in deplorable condition. Gee, wonder where that one came from. I also spent an entire early morning wandering a dream grocery store full of angst because I wanted to bake a cheesecake and needed six 8oz packs of cream cheese and all I could find was 12 4oz packs. For some reason that wasn't good enough.
Why can't I have nice dreams about Brad Pitt in a pile of kittens like normal people?

This weekend we have been promised our (new) house will be vacated for real. Laisser les bonne temps rouler!

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Have camera card, will blog!
As mentioned before, Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival was a blast.
Mom, Aunt Sue, and I filled the role of "girls gone (fiber) wild":


Mom was happy with her find of baby camel/silk:


Aunt Sue got up close and personal with a friendly sheep who liked his head skritched:

(in case you can't read her shirt, it says "Too much to knit, too little time.")

I managed to wait to assemble my wheel until we got home.
Anna had to try it out, having already had treadling practice with Grandma's wheel:


It's monkey see monkey do in our household. Claire jumps on the treadles every chance she gets. The wheel has been stained and waxed in this picture - I really like how it came out!


The fiber obsession, it starts young. The force is strong in these two:


Claire gets into everything she does. Literally.


Bartender? One beer, please!


Ahhhh, there's nothing like a cold one after a hard day at the office.


Lest you call CPS on us, the beer bottle was empty, and she made a healthier choice for her beverage enjoyment.


Where was Anna while this was going on? She fell asleep in her seat. This has been a common occurrence lately as she refuses to nap and all that fresh air and sunshine wipes her out by dinner time.


And every time she does this her foot falls asleep and she wakes up fussing and we put her down on the couch and she konks back out once her foot quits tingling.

Also, isn't my dining room wallpaper lovely? Don't you wish you owned a house with such lovely wallpaper? You can! For a limited time only, buy the dining room and we'll throw in five additional rooms, a basement, a garage, and a lot at no additional charge!

Labels: Kids, sheep

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So the (old) house has been on the market since mid March now. I keep telling myself that it really isn't that long in the grad scheme of things, but as May trickles away and the first double mortgage payment looms, we're even more anxious to move this house. I honestly thought we'd have more people looking than we have, and I realize that current conditions make it a buyers' market.
Towards that end, we had a "Moving Sale / Open House" yesterday. This area is a terrific place for yard sales and the like. Our neighborhood typically has two a year, and the traffic in our quiet back streets gets really heavy. I figured the best way to get people at least looking at our house was to hold a sale. We had a bunch of junk to clear out anyway. Everything we sell off is one less thing to move next month.

Yesterday morning I got up, tidied the house and got the girls and critters fed. Mr. Unreserved came home from work, and we put all our assorted random stuff on tables in the yard. Once we were set up, I went back out to the shed and grabbed the bulb planter. I dug a 5" hole suitable for tulip bulbs in the front flower bed, and plopped in St. Joseph, feet pointing heavenward, facing north. I said a little prayer, and sold off a bunch of household belongings. We made about $85, but had no takers on looking at the house. However, this morning I had a little chat with a man in a pickup who was stopped out front taking down our realtor's number.

I am Catholic, but admittedly of the "cafeteria" variety. I never really bought into the bit about praying to saints, looking at them more as interesting stories about people of faith that have little impact on my life. I've got to admit if the house moves in the near future, I think I may do a little double take.

Labels: House

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I spun for 2.5 remarkable hours tonight. I say remarkable because no one woke up screaming, and I didn't fall asleep. I'm getting the hang of this spinning thing!
I filled a bobbin with singles of creamy white wool/mohair blend (I think. . . Hey, Mom, what was that fiber content again? I think the tag got left at your house.) and very rarely was it kinky or lumpy. It feels like yarn and not twine. I really like the Ashford Kiwi, not that I have a whole lot of basis to compare it to, but the treadling is effortless and I find it very easy to control.
Now all I have to do is repeat it with another bobbin then it's on to learning to ply.

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I want to post pictures, lots and lots of pictures, and details. I am too tired to get up and round up the camera and the card reader and the names of things and places. The only thing that will motivate me to get up off the couch this evening is food, so this will have to do for now.

Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival was awe inspiring! It was everything I hoped it would be and then some. It felt so good to be surrounded by fellow fiber enthusiasts, especially considering we're in the minority in everyday life. No one minded if you checked out their sweaters behind their backs. People understood the oohing and ahhing over beautiful fibers in gorgeous colorways. Apparently now in addition to being a regular garden-variety geek, I'm also a fiber geek.

If the conversion to full-blown geekdom wasn't complete before we left, my mom made sure it was by the time we got home. My birthday present - a starter supply of fiber and an Ashford Kiwi! Fun! (Thanks, again!) I spent as much time as I could this past weekend making kinky yarn (that ought to make for interesting google hits) between getting Claire out of the trouble she's gotten very good at finding. (more on fiber acquisitions when I get pictures and details at some later date)

Things Claire got into / trashed this weekend:
Dumped the remains of two beers and a Pepsi all over the dining table and played in the puddles
Climbed on the table and ate margarine straight from the tub with both fists
Completely ransacked the bathroom drawers
Completely ransacked every storage device in the living room
Incompletely emptied the bin of giftwrap from under our bed and began unrolling and ripping it into shreds
Dumped the dog's water dish all over the kitchen floor
Ransacked the playroom (but that's par for the course - that's why it's a playroom)
Unraveled many yards of kinky yarn and wrapped them around the living and dining rooms
Dumped the contents of my purse and began eating my ipod headphones

Keep in mind that all of these were really over the span of about a day and a half, as we went visiting our mothers for Mother's Day. Maybe we should supervise her more closely? Ha! You are full of such helpful suggestions! Why didn't we think of that!? Certainly we don't need to prepare meals or change clothes or shower or go pee. Also imagine all of these things happening while Anna whines and throws herself around in dramatic fashion at the cruelty of being served milk in the WRONG CUP. She wanted the one with the MONKEY ON IT. NOW. Each misadventure was followed by a screaming fit from Claire as we stole her newfound fun from her. Now you see why I have no time for uploading pictures.


We are learning how the other half lives - we're the proud owners of TWO houses! And TWO mortgages! Heaven help us! On my to-do list: Bury St. Joseph in the flower bed. The closing was a nightmare. Do any of these ever go smoothly? We're landlords until May 31st, after which the sellers can kindly vacate the premises or find their belongings on the lawn. Honestly, I'm a nice person until pushed too far. I've been pushed too far a few too many times since February. As if this blog didn't have a fuzzy enough focus to begin with, I expect it to be even more of a renovation blog as home improvement takes over even more of our lives. I especially like the saying I found on another renovation blog: We call it "home improvement" because it couldn't get any worse.

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