Umbrella

As you can see, I've added a list of songs that I've been enjoying as of late. You may be wondering, "What's the deal with the Umbrella song being on there three times?" Well, I'll tell you. When I first heard this song by Rhianna, I thought it was incredibly obnoxious. The way she said "um-ber-ella" bugged me, and then she repeated the end of the word two more times (ella ella) and then proceeded to end it off with a very unintelligent sound (eh eh eh). It drove me nuts. Lately, however, Braden has been requesting this song often and asks me to find it on the radio frequently when we are in the car. Umbrella is, after all, one of his favorite words, and he likes to sing along to the chorus. Anyway, I've heard it more recently, and I've really started enjoying the message. It really fits for me and Spencer right now. Our life is not at all how we'd planned at this point. It seems like when we think things can't get worse, something else comes up and we go back to the drawing board yet again. I'm not complaining. I know we'll look back on this and grin and say, "Yeah, that was tough, but look at where it got us." I'm just feeling the rain pouring down, and the more it pours, the more I feel like just holding on to Spencer and riding out the storm together. I don't know if this post makes much sense, and I know it's cheesy, but I'll end with this: Spencer, I'll always be willing to go through the storms if you're the one with whom I share the umbrella.

The WalMart Experience

WalMart, a place I love to hate. It seems like every time I run in to grab something really quick at WalMart, it turns into a long drawn out process that nobody should have to bear. Here is an example of what I'm talking about:
As I mentioned in my previous post, last week was very crazy and I was kind of running around like a headless chicken (except my head WAS, gratefully, intact). I had a ton to do on one particular day. Part of my errands included re-filling a prescription for Spencer and shipping an Ebay item. Naturally (though it fails me time and again) I decided to go to WalMart and take care of both items in one shot. I was lured by the imagination (which turned out to be completely mythical) that I could jump on in there, ship my item at the Crown Mailing center up front and then trot on over to the pharmacy, drop off the prescription, and later come back for it after my other errands. So, in I went... all proud of myself that I was being so efficient. I rounded the corner of the mailing center and who did I find? Thats the problem... no one. The place was an empty tomb. Instead of a person there was a badly written piece of paper taped to the counter that said, "Be back in 15 minutes". 15 minutes!? That was the amount of time this trip was going to take in it's entirety. I can't blame the guy, he is working the mailing center all by himself, and he's got to take care of himself sometime throughout the day, but what are the chances that I would be the lucky one that walks in during that particular window of time? Anyway, I was there. So, I thought maybe I can go to the pharmacy first, but I was hauling a heavy box so that didn't sound appealing. I couldn't just leave it there as it was somewhat valuable. So, I waited it out. Finally the guy came and I gave him my box and said, "I'm just dropping this off. Thanks". At this point, I was feeling like my list of stuff for the day might not ever be accomplished, but I headed to the pharmacy hopeful that I could at least accomplish that quickly and be on my way. I raced past the cheesy Valentines day items and through the toothpaste aisle and got to the pharmacy in record time. The line was fairly short, but there was a serious problem. You know how at a regular pharmacy there are usually 3 windows? Drop-off (generally takes 10 seconds) Pick-up (takes a little bit longer) and Consultation (takes a few minutes). Well, there at the WalMart pharmacy, they had decided to change things up a little and close two of the windows. What a brilliant plan! So, the 3 employees were servicing people one at a time doing like a musical chairs thing when it was time for them to do something. It took FOREVER. I saw two ward members while I was waiting, and made friends with someone else in line as we discussed that the only reason he goes to WalMart is because it saves him about $100 a month on medication. Then, I finally got up to counter. The lady who helped me was portly and mannish and extremely intense. I thought maybe the roof was falling down or something and I was just missing it. Anyway, she took my prescription and started keying in some stuff on the computer. She asked me what the name was (since she couldn't read it). I started to tell her, and then AHH a crisis she HAD to multi task real quick and solve one of the other employees problems or at least try to help in some way even though it wasn't her specialty. So, she was off on the other side of the counter (behind one of the closed windows). So I stuck my head through and asked, "Am I done here? Should I stick around to verify that the information you have on file is correct and make sure you can read the perscription?" A frantic reply followed, "No no, we'll figure it out" (still completely involved in the other employees problem). "When can I pick it up?" I pressed. "Give us at least an hour," she said with big dramatic eyes. At this point I was thinking whatever, my day is shot already there is really no point in being irritated. So, what was supposed to be a quick in and out trip to WalMart ended up being nearly an hour.
But wait theres more. The story doesn't end there. Because I had taken so long at the beloved super store, I was unable to complete all of my errands, and I had to come home for some other plans before I could even pick up the prescription. We didn't get back to WalMart until close to 8 o'clock that night (about 7 hours later). The pharmacy was almost closed. The same three people were working through the same single window one at a time (poor saps). We got to the window to find that our prescription still wasn't filled yet. I was bemused. I chuckled a little and told the portly lady, "It's been here all day." She looked at me with her intense eyes (I swear it would seem that she worked in the ER, not the pharmacy by the way she acts) and said, "I'm sorry. We had trouble reading the prescription, so we couldn't fill it." AHHH! You guys drive me crazy! Well, I had to be amused because what other option was there? Irate has never worked for me. We were there for about 30 minutes as they filled half of the prescription and then told us to come back the next day for the rest. I told myself, as I picked out a new razor calculating the initial cost plus cost of refills for each option and then doing it over again a couple times to be sure, that saving $100 or even $200 dollars a month may not be worth going through the agony of the WalMart experience.

A Nice Place to Be

And now... the moment you've all been waiting for and waiting for and then forgetting about and finally not even remembering you were ever waiting at all! I am now going to introduce the new basement. Ta Da! The before pictures were actually taken after some things had already been re-arranged and some clearing and cleaning had taken place, so the change is actually more dramatic than it appears. I really did get this done late during the night of the 19th, but then I hesitated to take the pictures because I am still wanting to sew a few more pillows and also put some more streamlined toy storage on the shelving unit. Then, after that, things really got crazy around here, so I am now finally getting around to this.

Before:
The basement lacked a specific purpose. It was kind of a place for kids to play, but it also was a place to store food (lots and lots of it), and it also provided a place for us to put a bunch of our stuff, not to mention a house for an industrial sewing machine that was not being used, and a big yellow chair that had been very loved.
After:
We found places to put things that were more appropriate and we also got rid of some things that were not in use. I added vibrant colors to make the room more warm and cheerful and tried to make a focal point (a stage) to define the room as a place to "play". Flowers, pillows, and window treatments were added as comfortable and cheerful accessories. The vases are plastic to insure safety to the children. I also made a rug to break up the commercial carpet floor and make it a little more soft and inviting. A black futon was covered and throw pillows were added to make comfortable seating for the audience or to curl up together and read books (which we've really enjoyed). I painted the dressers a bright white to give contrast to the vivid colors and to coordinate and balance the room. The kids table and chairs set was painted red to echo the strong color from the stage curtains. White curtains were hung in front of the food storage to focus little eyes toward things they CAN play with and hide the things that aren't toys. Special thanks goes to: JulieAnn and Allen, My Mom, Kara, Sherilyn, and Spencer. It's now a nice place to be.

A Fun Project

I have started a project! As you know, we have been living in the Shaw's basement for awhile now (a lot longer than we had originally planned). During this time, I have really craved some artistic expression in the form of decorating. We haven't unpacked our stuff, so none of the things that give our place our personality are out and visible. The idea of decorating the basement came up about a month ago. I helped decorate for Esther's bridal shower, and everyone loved how it turned out. I mentioned that I really liked decorating, but that it was a side of me that I hadn't really shown since I had moved in. JulieAnn mentioned to me that since we would be staying longer, she wouldn't mind if I did more in that area. That was enough to set my mind turning. I thought and thought about the potential the basement had. After I had thought for some time, I approached JulieAnn about my ideas (after I had tested them out on Esther). She liked the ideas, and has been helping me come up with workable solutions to some of the obstacles. I should be done at the end of this week, and I'll post before and after pictures then. I'm very excited about the whole thing and glad to be working on a fun project.

Catching Up!

Shame on me. I've gone over a week without posting. So, coming to you now is a triple post of awesomeness, where I will stick a bunch of pictures together and put some thoughts in with it all. So, here it goes:

I love falling leaves. Lately, I have found myself spending more time staring out of windows than I ever have before. This could be because I have been longing to get out but have had sick children for a long time, or, more likely, it could be that it has been windy around here and there has been a constant rain of leaves coming from the trees. I love watching them fall. They blow and twirl and finally rest on the crunchy yellow grass. With all of this watching I have been doing, I decided to take the oppourtunity once the kids were feeling better to go outside and play with them in the leaves. What liberation! It is amazing that the simple acts of putting leaves in piles, throwing them around, and sitting in them can bring such a sense of joy and appreciation for the world around me. The kids seemed to feel this too. They squealed with delight over and over again.
Next Thought:
I got a haircut on Friday. I know, I was supposed to be growing it out, but there is a story behind this. A little while back we got all these coupons for free stuff since we'd just moved in. I think it's a Town of Gilbert thing. One of the coupons was a free haircut. Well, I cut the boys haircut, and I wouldn't dream of getting Jades cut since she just got enough hair to do stuff with it, so naturally I was the winner. So, I went in on Friday thinking about a trim just to even out the overgrown mane I had. Then I got in there and started talking to the stylist and told her I wasn't sure what I wanted. We were bouncing ideas around, and I remembered how much I had loved my last haircut. So, I went for it... an inverted bob with mild layers all around and texturing in the front. We thought about doing a long bang with it, but after she had finished the bob, it looked great and she thought the bang would distract from the sleekness of the style. So, you see, I tried pretty hard, but in the end my poll mattered less than my need for a change. Sorry (but not really).Third Thought:
I love my brothers. They are kind of like night and day, but they both have great and endearing things that I just enjoy a lot. On Saturday, the family and I had a chance to meet up with both of them at Tempe Town Lake for a picnic. We all brought our food and just ate and hung out and watched the kids run after birds. It was so chill and so fun. The definite highlight was the birds. They were not afraid of people at all and were all about getting a handout. We'd throw a piece of bread and then suddenly out of nowhere, there'd be like 30 birds swarming around it. So, of course, Spencer took advantage of the situation. Whenever someone walked by, he'd toss a little piece of bread on the sidewalk and then suddenly there were birds flocking around the person (or people). There was this one bird with a mohawk that was so crazy looking. I just had to get a picture of him.
So I hope you've enjoyed this lovely mass of posts. I'll try to be better about keeping up instead of catching up!

Someone Famous

It all started when my phone started ringing around 2:15PM, but it wasn't a ring tone that I use for calls, it was an alert from my calender. Immediately I began walking toward my purse and trying to remember what was going on. I was busy and hoped it was something I could just ignore. So, I looked at it and discovered that the puppet show I had been wanting to take Braden to at the library was starting in about 15 minutes. I weighed my options and determined that it was worth it to take some time out of my busy day to treat Braden to something fun. Besides, a puppeteer from Sesame Street was the starring guest. It had to be pretty good, right? Well, that was a total underestimate on my part. It was an outstanding show and a valuable experience. The lady doing the puppets was none other than Fran Brill, first female puppeteer hired by Jim Henson and Frank OZ to work on Sesame Street. She was wonderful. Braden was completely captivated during the performance. She showed the children how to turn a sock into a puppet. Then she took a generic puppet with no features and showed the children how many characters the puppet could become with just a few Velcro eyes, noses, hair, and clothes. And the fun part was the many voices she did. First the puppet was Billy and he was angry. His sister had used his crayons and broken all of them. Next the puppet was the little sister and she was sad. "Billy yelled at me and said I broke his crayons, but I didn't try to... sniff. I'm sooo sad" And lastly, the puppet became Grandma and she was happy. "Hello kids, I brought a surprise for you... a box of crayons and a coloring book for each of you." It was simply delightful. She also brought along Zoe from Sesame Street to sing and dance with the kids. That was so fun. Fran Brill actually developed and plays the characters of Zoe and Prairie Dawn as well as other characters from Sesame Street.
Then it was my turn to be completely captivated as she answered questions from the audience about her career and about the art of being a puppeteer. One person asked how she decided to be a puppeteer. She explained that she had really tumbled into it. She was a struggling actress on Broadway. The show she was in closed after only 40 days, and she was out of work. She saw that Jim Henson was hiring actors for Sesame Street which was only 1 year old. So, she applied and went in to meet with them. She new she could do voices for characters, so that's what she told Mr. Henson. He explained to her that at Sesame Street all the puppeteers did their own voices. So she took a two week crash course in puppeteering and learned the rest of it on the job. She called herself lucky. It was an amazing story. I felt like it had come out of a movie or something. Anyway, she was a very kind and easy-going, down to earth person. At the end of the questions, she said that her and Zoe would pose for pictures. Wow, I wasn't expecting that. I went home and grabbed the camera and Jade (who had been napping before) and went back to the library. I didn't want to miss this opportunity because I'd really gained respect for Mrs. Brill, so I didn't take time to brush Jades hair, clean Braden's lunch off of his mouth, or get Jades shoes. Luckily I made it. Turns out, there was still a long line by the time I got back. She also handed out a signed picture of Zoe to everyone. I was impressed that she would travel to an AZ library from New York to do something like this. She was great with all of the kids and even had Zoe have a little conversation with Braden. It was so cute. It was my first ever experience (and what an enjoyable one!) with someone famous.

Happy New Year, Everybody!

I'm so excited for this year. It's totally different than I had expected, but I feel like we can really only go up from here! I'm excited for the fresh start that a new year brings. I know that many people end up tossing their resolutions after about 2 months, but I am determined to stick to mine this year. I've written them out, I told Spencer about them so he can remind me from time to time, I'm going to post them somewhere obvious. Anyway, I'm excited to try and improve myself and I'm grateful that the turning of a new year encourages me to examine what improvements are needed. Wish me luck! Happy New Year, everybody!