More news...

We've now been residents of the fine state of Maryland for eighteen days and I am happy to report that it is starting to get easier. One of the first things I had to do was align myself with a new grocery store. I spent the last few years braving the nightmare that is the Market Basket. The Market Basket is like a bad boyfriend. The crowds and weird set-up made me cringe and yet the prices were just so good. I dated visited different grocery stores in the area and they all sucked for one reason or another so I decided to go with the Rockville Giant. Want to know something crazy about the Giant? It is the Stop and Shop! The same logo, layout, and scanning guns! It's more expensive than my dear old Market Basket, but at least I can use the scanning gun and avoid the "fill the cart, empty the cart, refill the cart" madness at check out.

Now, that I have properly bored you with the tale of my grocery shopping I will get to the important news. I have found junk heaven. No, seriously. I thought my old junk stores were good. Ha! I was a fool! I have visited four junk shops within ten minutes of my home and they were all top notch. On Monday I went to a shop called Unique Thrift and found a great desk for Lily. It was originally 39.99, but since Monday is Customer Appreciation Day it was another 25% off! While there I found a beautiful deep red velvet Pottery Barn quilt for a song. I tell you, walking into that shop was like coming home.

Some of you may be wanting an update on that asshole cat Stan. I am happy to report that Stanley made a full recovery after the move. After a few days he emerged from the new basement and began his usual swagger around the house. The bad news is that he decided that 4am is the perfect time to walk around the house and howl. For two weeks I endured his miserable song and then I got smart and banished him nightly to the heated porch where he sulks and contemplates the state of politics and considers whether today's pop music is better or worse than the pop music of the past.

I would be remiss if I did not tell you that our family made a foray into Bob's Discount Furniture. You've probably seen the horrible commercials with Bob in his bright yellow shirt yelling excitedly about the great bargains to be had at Bob's. It was those commercials which kept me out of the store- I didn't want to encourage him. However, the time had come to pay a piper of sorts in the form of the bunkbeds which were promised to Lily once we moved.

"I know we are taking you away from the only home you've ever known and all of your dear friends, but we'll buy you a bed!"

Lily and I did a lot of bed research and naturally the bed she wanted was the super duper crazy expensive bed with stairs and a built in desk and maid service. It became my job to talk her out of it help her explore other options. We found our other option at Bob's. We found an inferior bunkbed, but one which she has been given permission to pimp out with black and hot pink zebra striped bedding, so maybe she did get the last laugh on this one. We also ordered a cheap couch, a cheap chair, and a cheap mattress. All of the furniture we ordered cost less than that one bed that Lily wanted. Once again, Lily's taste exceeds our budget.

All in all, we are doing better. Lily is generally cheerful. Rebecca has not cried at all today- no small feat! We made some new friends today thanks to the power of Facebook. (If you are not on Facebook yet, please go on it. It's fun and I'll friend you.) Everyday is better than the last and I have much to be grateful for. And am.

House updates and other nonsense...

I have now been a resident of Potomac for about a week.  I have not made any new friends, and as such have resorted to excessively chatting up the cashier ladies at shops. I compliment their hair and fashion choices. I make informed commentary about the weather. It's practice for when I meet a live one a neighbor who might like to befriend me.

Luckily, unpacking and working on the house has been a distraction from my abject loneliness friendlessness pathetic wanderings lack of adult social interaction. This week the children and I went to Ikea which it should be noted, is not a place improved by the presence of children. I love the children. I love Ikea. The two together make me grind my teeth and say uncharitable things to the children. "Stop talking! Mommy needs quiet in her head!"

Little wretches.


We were there to get Rebecca a new bed and not just any bed mind you, a four poster canopy bed. It's the sort of bed where Juliet would pine away for Romeo in. Dreamy isn't it?



Today I also worked on the guest room, or as I like to think of it, Amy's room. I find it very amusing that all three cats have decided that Amy's bed is the place to sleep.

Speaking of cats, as some of you know I have another little blog I started a few weeks ago. I like to think of it as a lighthearted blog full of good humor and fun. It's also pretty snarky. Give it a read if you are so inclined and if by some freaky coincidence you happy to live in Potomac please stop by with some coffee cake. It's a little lonely over here.

The Classroom or The Room That Made Me Cry...

Unpacking has been going pretty well. Basically my philosophy is to get the stuff out of boxes and in the general area where it belongs. For example, all of my clothes are unpacked and in the closet. The closet is however very disorganized. Once all the boxes have been unpacked in a meta way, I will go back and organize things in a micro way.

This strategy has made the house livable in record time which is nice.

I must confess that I did save the worst boxes for last. As of this morning the classroom was full of boxes of books. I love books. The kids love books. Books, books, books! After the seventeen box of books I was ready to burn them all and buy everyone Kindles. Can you imagine? All of those boxes replaced with a single device? Now I know many of you will be all, "Books are teh awesome! You are very, very wrong!"

Whatever. You come unpack the books and you'll change your tune.

I spent about two hours drowning in the books when I decided that I had had enough. This is how I left it.

At around 9pm Lily announced that she simply had to find the sixth book in the series she is reading and she began opening boxes and dumping more books onto the floor. In the very last box she found the book she was looking for.  Tomorrow I'll get back in there. I've got to get the room set up for school by Monday or my children will never be educated and my only accomplishments in this life will have been an unusual predilection for frequenting junk stores and an addiction to chocolate, and while I am not ashamed of these things, they are not quite the same as having children who can do math.

Some thoughts on moving...

It was with many tears and fond farewells that the intrepid residents of Shiny Red Houses made their way south and to their new home. The journey was quite easy for me, as I only had dogs and children to wrangle. David, on the other hand, was responsible for gathering up the cats to his bosom, or at the very least to their cat carriers so that they too could join us on our adventure. Foolishly, we had underestimated the difficulty of collecting three cats bent on not having an adventure. It took 24 hours, many scratches and bites, a net, an air mattress, borrowed underwear, and the brave and only partially conscripted service of Amy and Bethany, but the cats were finally caged, sedated, and transported. The timeline of "Catscapes 2012" can be best enjoyed over at Facebook where David and Amy provided real time updates, including the realization that one of the cats Amy tried to rescue was not in fact our cat.

The movers delivered all of our worldly possessions on Saturday and since then we have been in a frenzy of unpacking. You know by now that I am a woman of action and as such, the house is largely unpacked. This house is very different from my last. For one thing, it's much larger and so the cozy cottage feel that worked so well in my Arlington house would look silly here. I've decided to take a more minimalist approach to my decorating with this house. This may be related to my aversion to unpacking.

There are several things to consider about this house. Firstly, it's a rental. Since we are brand new to the area we decided to rent for a while and get a sense of where we might want to settle down. Because it's a rental I won't be painting anything which I am not ashamed to tell you is a complete effing relief. It doesn't hurt that the house is painted in lovely inoffensive Pottery Barn colors. What is interesting to see is how easily the furniture I used in my last Shiny Red House fits into Grown-Up Lady House.

Remember those pieces from my colorful dining room? Same furniture, completely different look. (All the window treatments in the house belong to the owners.)

The bedroom is hardly different at all.

Happily this house has a family room where the television and wii can go (no photos yet) and a separate living room which I have decided is Mommy's room of sanctuary. I love this living room. I want to marry it and have beautiful living room babies with it.

All of the pieces in this room were in my living room in Arlington, except for the couch which if you remember I trash picked and then put in David's office.

Tomorrow the girls and I are tackling the last room- the classroom. I am so excited to have a dedicated classroom where we can set up our maps and projects without having to take them down every night.

Before I go to bed, I thought I would let you know that the people of Maryland so far seem very nice. I was only warned once that I would go to hell for not accepting Jesus as my personal savior, but it was via a flier tucked under my windshield and as such is probably not the final word on salvation.