FIFTEEN YEARS

It's been fifteen years since I golfed last. We went out with my parents last night to their course and played 9, then had dinner with them. I had such a good game, it makes me want to play again!

My first drive was so beautiful, I sunk a couple 20 ft putts, I had a great time.

Neil, on the other hand, said he played the worst he's ever played in his life. I don't know if that's true or not because I've never seen him play, but it was pretty ugly. He had spent all day under the green Mustang replacing a fuel pump and trying to get it running (he did, it runs now) so he was tired and sore and stiff when we got out there. Oh, and he smelled like gasoline so he dumped a bunch of cologne on, ended up smelling a bit...uhhh...interesting. And then he went on to get drunk since he was playing so badly and was so tired, so I pretty much kicked his @ss. I think he was surprised that I am a good golfer? He's never seen me do anything sporting, I don't think.

Anyway, it was good to play again. I missed my Grandma Clare, she's the one who taught me how to golf when I was a kid. As I'd watch my mom swing, I could see Grandma Clare, their swings and their stances look the same. I miss her so much.

Hold me, John McCain!

Sometimes Cooper just cracks me up. I got an email from the John McCain campaign today inviting us to a rally on Sunday, so Neil was totally excited about going and taking his friend Bob (this old guy he and Cooper met at Starbucks a few years ago), who is a die-hard Republican. So I went online and sent our RSVP, and saw that there is a campaign office in Sunset Hills. We decided to drive down Lindbergh and find it before going to Bread Company for dinner.

The plan was to pick up our tickets at that office, and Neil wants to aggravate the neighbors by putting out a McCain yard sign. We live in a sea of hippies and Obama signs. In Webster it's a badge of honor to live in a million dollar home with ridiculously high taxes but let your property look like it might be an abandoned house. It's like the hippie version of shabby chic. But I digress. As we're driving, we told Cooper we were looking for "John McCain's house" so he starts his litany of questions -

Where's John McCain?
Who is he?
Will John McCain hold me?
Hold me, John McCain!
I like John McCain.

I was laughing so hard by the time we got to Bread Company. We never found the office but it was well worth the aimless driving to listen to my kid talk about John McCain. He's the most social person in our family. I think John McCain would like it that my two-year-old loves him.

Molotov cocktails

Foreclosed houses are so weird. I'm sure there's a sad story behind each of them. I went to see another one yesterday that made me think of the molotov cocktail story.

Anyway, the house I went to look at yesterday is in a neighborhood with million dollar homes, relatively new (5-8 years old), and the neighboring houses are beautiful. This particular house was disgusting inside. Food and liquids littered every surface of the kitchen, the wood floors looked like they'd had massive wear or water damage, the carpeting was covered in pee stains from either a dog or cat, there were holes in the drywall for no apparent reason, weeds grew 5 feet tall in the landscaping, the posts that held the porch/deck up were rotten at the bottom, the door frames outside either had dry rot or termite damage....it was unbelievable, the list goes on and on. Upstairs each bedroom had a different vinyl flooring! It was as if the owners had removed the carpeting with a blade cutter and laid vinyl themselves. There was paint spilled on the carpeting upstairs, cobwebs with those egg pods in the corners! Seriously, spiders are breeding in that house. Imagine the food source they must have? These people built a beautiful home for almost a million dollars, and then proceeded to live like disgusting pigs until the bank took the house back because they didn't make their mortgage payments. So sad. They had never tried to sell it themselves.

So a few weeks ago, Neil and I went to look at a different foreclosure in Pevely Farms. The area is stunning, sweeping hills with views for miles, a golf course in your backyard, horse farms with white picket fences, etc. The house was a two-year-old french country with stone and brick on the exterior, and a floorplan inside that was perfect for us. It actually wasn't trashed, which is odd for a foreclosure, other than all of the appliances being ripped from the kitchen. But here's the weird part....in the garage, there was an old wooden soda crate, the kind that holds glass bottles. And there were twelve perfectly lined up glass bottles...molotov cocktails. My dad and Neil both said "uh, you may not want to buy this house...what if the crazy old owner comes back to seek revenge?" I mean, something really weird was going on there. In the drawers in the kichen were a bunch of owner's manuals for different guns. There was a pile of keys that had all been broken off at the stem. Just some really weird stuff.

Anyway, our adventures in home searching continue....I am ever optimistic.

STOP TIME

I can't seem to get it to slow down! Time is flying by, days turn into weeks and now summer is over. Every day I want to blog and I don't have time. I'm going to make a renewed effort to update this diary at least twice a week. I can't pressure other people to update theirs if I'm not willing to do the same.

Some things I've been thinking about:

1. It definitely takes a village to raise a child. This may be the only thing Hillary Clinton and I agree on. She's right, it takes a small team of people who love and care for our kids to do this parenting thing right. I don't mean caregivers like daycare, either. When you add that in, you have a small army! I don't know what I'd do without my parents. They are a gift from God.

2. I was waiting for the skies to open and angels to sing on high when I started treatment for PPD, and I think it happened! I feel so happy it's a strange feeling for me. But I love it!

3. Why am I stuck at this cruddy weight? I'm walking with resistance every morning, I'm not overeating (at least not too often), and it won't budge. Crap, that means I have to eat even less, which is a terrible option.

Busy weekend

I think Neil was in seventh heaven, we had a super busy weekend! Socially, that is. On Saturday night we met our friends Tom and Lourdes for dinner (got a babysitter!), on Sunday morning our new friends Sarah and Dave came over for a playdate with their son Greyson, and then on Sunday night we went out to my parents' house for dinner. Neil claims to be the kind of person who doesn't need to be around people all the time, but that is so not true! He is so happy when we're doing social things with other people. I got a migraine on Sunday morning so I held it together for the playdate but as soon as they left I had to pop a bunch of pills and lay down for a few minutes.

Greyson is the cutest little boy, he has red curly hair and he is so sweet, he'll hug anybody. His parents are both attorneys at a Clayton firm, and they specialize in tort law and suing drug companies!! I just laughed and said I thought about being a whistleblower but I didn't have any paper documentation of the offenses in mind. I like them, they're super nice and I think they are in the same situation as us with both of them working and having kids close together. Yay for new friends!

Leaves

I chose my new blogger layout because I am turning over a new leaf. And let me tell you, leaves are hard to turn! It's hard hard hard to stop doing what you used to do and try something different.

• I started with a manicure on Monday morning, I got acrylic overlays on my own nails. So they'll always look nice and professional without being daggers. I was also a little embarassed about my yucky hands.
• I'm also walking almost every morning. I read an article today that said walking slow or fast will (over time) lead to much more tone and muscle vs. fat than not walking.
• I'm also forcing Binnie to turn over a new leaf by hooking her up to the leash for these walks. She was clickety clacking along with us this morning and she seemed to really like it! It beats letting her run free in the backyards, coming back full of burrs and whatnot.
• I have a sitter scheduled for almost every Saturday night so Neil and I can go out without kids. This is a hard one for me, I'd rather be home with my boys. But I know it's important for us to go out without them, too.
• I asked a new family over for a playdate this weekend, we're slowly making friends with other parents of small kids! Yay!!!
• And most importantly, I'm working harder at work. I really want to reinvent my career and this is the hardest thing on my list. Ten years is a long time to develop bad habits, but I really really want to change them and go back to being good at what I do again. I'm enjoying it again, that's super cool!

I love Webster Groves!

The house we went to look at was great but the location just wasn't that nice. I'm realizing more and more that I love Webster Groves and it will be really hard to find a new home in such a great community. This morning I walked Griffin two miles to the Starbucks and Bread Co. Then I made it halfway home and had to call Neil to come get us! But it was so nice and we have all of these great shops and restaurants that we can walk to.

Here we go again!

I found another foreclosed house in a lovely neighborhood that backs to a golf course. There was dog poop on the carpet! But it's a great house, probably way too much house for us, but I still liked it. It's far away from any development, though, like Starbucks and such. Hmmm, we're going to see it at 5:00 tonight, I'll post the update.

Operation Whittle the Belly

OK, I started this morning. Operation Whittle the Butt aka Operation Whittle the Belly has begun! I strapped both boys into the mammoth double stroller at 6:15 and we went on a walk.

Stroller - 40 lbs.
Cooper - 32 lbs.
Griffin - 21 lbs.

Total - I pushed 93 lbs! No wonder my calves were complaining on the uphill stretches. I'm hoping to be able to do this almost every day in the morning, either with both boys or just with Griffin. I think it might help me tighten up my stomach and lose the extra 6 lbs I put on in the last two months.

I hope it helps because I really don't like working out and I don't want to have to resort to doing that!

Binnie's Summer Vacation

Binnie went to Grandma's house for four days. Gage (my nephew) was in town from Houston and he wanted her to come spend the night with him, so they picked her up on Friday night and brought her back Monday afternoon. She had a blast! They played tenny ball with her constantly, she got to sniff new places outside and sleep with Gage (i.e. lick Gage all night long). When they brought her back on Monday, she crashed for a while....until the terrorist came home from preschool. Poor Binnie! She went and hid under my desk the rest of the day. It was then I realized that Cooper has really traumatized her. She loves Griffin because he just sits there and lets her lick his toes, but Cooper has really taken a liking to her. And this is not a good thing in Binnie's world. He squeezes too hard, he pats too hard, he screams too loud, and he cries too much for Binnie's liking.

Poor girl! I'm going to make an effort to give her extra attention and try to carve out a peaceful spot for her somewhere when Cooper's home.

Then Neil came into the family room this morning and said he wants to get a chocolate lab puppy in a few weeks. He's lost his mind.

Strawberry Shortcake

Mmmm, Angela made me think of strawberry shortcake tonight! Well, that and I was looking at Griffie's adorable noggin while at my parents' house tonight, and my mom and I both noticed at the same time that his hair has a distinct pink tinge to it ~ it's strawberry blonde! Until him I don't think I've ever seen a true strawberry blonde. Maybe once? Ack, he is so stinking cute I can't stand it. I could imagine him smelling like the old strawberry shortcake dolls.

Tomorrow I will be starting my new Eat Better diet. I'll post the details when I think them up.

Tooth!

G has a tooth! That explains his fussy behavior the last few days. He's such a sweet baby he doesn't do much more than "eh eh eh" and rub his eyes when he's upset. I could just eat him up! I long for more babies, I don't know why. I hate pregnancy, my marriage is rocky and I'm getting old. It's a sickness. I won't succumb to it. All I have to do is grab my fleshy muffin top to remind myself that I can't do it again. But there's always plastic surgery.....