Egg Hunting. SPP Style.

Our neighborhood, SPP, had its annual Easter egg hunt and visit from the Easter Bunny.

First, our Olive was not a fan of Mr. Bunny. 

"Olive, would you like to visit the Bunny?"

"No."

However, she really enjoyed time in the park collecting eggs and swinging!

"I am ready.  Are you?"

"So, the eggs go in there?"

"Weeeeee!"

For $3 at a church garage sale, we found this firetruck (it has an extending ladder attachment).  It is apparently her new lovey.

So. There are actually tutorials for making bows online!

Some photos.

So. I really want some spring photos of Miss Olive.  Unfortunately, we haven't had an opportunity to get out of town and snap the ubiquitous Texas bluebonnet photos.

There is a small patch in a neighbor's yard.  So. I put Olive in her little red car and the camera around my neck and walked around the corner.  However, Olive was not totally thrilled to be taking photos ... I didn't get a single photo of her smiling with the flowers.  (Maybe we'll get out of town next weekend.  Not sure the flowers will still be around ... let's hope!)

I snapped a few more on our driveway once Olive and I walked home.  Those brown eyes kill me.

The Curtains.

We always intended that the curtains in our new home would not be long for our little world. They are not new, they are not our style, and they are, generally, not great colors for us.  BUT ... they block light and provide privacy.  So, we put up with them.

(Now, we are not the type of people that need new everything.  In fact, many of the objects in our house are not new.  Good condition, however, does help.)

We still have quite a few sets of aged curtains hanging in our home, but last weekend, we tackled two windows: the office/playroom,

(which is now sporting clean, white blinds)

and the dining room (matching curtains, but not the same room).

In the dining room, we decided to keep (for now) the rod on which the original sheers were hanging.  (The bay window curve makes finding an acceptable, alternative cover a bit of a challenge.)  However, quite some time ago (read: before this photo), we replaced the aged, taupe/off-white sheers with some white IKEA sheers from a prior window covering adventure (in St. Louis).  They aren't perfect, but for now, they'll do.



We still have some work to do (uh, fill holes, touch-up paint and eventually replace the windows) to get these windows exactly where we want them. For us, progress is incremental, but it does feel good.

And, I have to admit, there is a part of me that wanted to channel Scarlet O'Hara and do SOMETHING (maybe not sew a fancy outfit to go visit Rhett in prison) with those curtains (in all of their green-pom-pom-ed glory).  I resisted, and they are bagged up for a trip to either Re-Store (a Habitat for Humanity organization) or Goodwill.  As it turns out, I don't have a need for repurposed green pom-poms in my life.

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes.

We updated a few things while Russ and Rae were here recently, primarily ceiling fans (5 of them) and door hardware (I dunno, a LOT of them), but a light fixture as well.

The old doorknobs were brass colored and had seen better days.  Also, the keys had been used so many times that they were thin ... and not easily copied.  Our new knobs all look something like this:

They vary in locking mechanisms, which I now understand to mean that our closets are non-locking, our bathrooms have push/toggle locks, and our exterior doors are keyed.  It is a little thing, but the new hardware definitely adds freshness.  (And, now we have more than 2 keys to any given lock!!  And we don't have 16 different keys to the house! Ok, there weren't 16, but there were a lot of different keys.)

And the ceiling fans.  The old ones were not in great shape - two of them wheezed quite a bit before actually moving air - the third was fine, but it was a bit dark and didn't have a light.  Also, Olive's room and the guest room were fan-less.  We bought four plain, white, slightly modern fans:

The only different one was installed in the kitchen, which needed a smaller fan:

Finally, we replaced our breakfast room fixture (faux-stained glass in orange, yellow and red) with this:

It isn't fancy (in fact it is an IKEA special), but it works and it is FAR MORE our style.

Our to-do list is still miles long, but these are definitely nice steps in the right direction!

An interesting talk.

Kyle listens to the TED talks on podcast regularly. This weekend, he shared Sheryl Sandberg's talk with me.

(Follow the link below.  Her talk is less than 15 minutes, and it is not wasted time.)

It has been stumbling through my brain ever since!

Sheryl Sandberg: Why we have too few women leaders Video on TED.com

Glamorous!

Olive loves these little sunglasses, although sometimes they're hard to get back on her face after she shoots you a glamorous look ;)

Firetrucks.

So.  How many firetrucks have been to your house this year?  This week?

Mine?  Only one.

As it turns out ...

when the guy who repairs your clothes washer/plumbing fails to fully re-connect it and in cleaning up the massive amounts of water that are spilling into your laundry room you decide to hang sopping wet towels on the fence outside and then the door with the new self-locking mechanism shuts behind you with the dog and your sleeping baby inside the house

locksmiths (at least in Houston ... and yes plural) when you call them barefoot from a kind neighbors' house will refuse to come open your home because the sleeping baby inside prohibits them from rescuing you and requires you to call 9-1-1 who will then connect you to 'your local fire department' who will ask repeatedly if anyone has been hurt

even when you sheepishly (and with way too much stress, I mean she was sleeping the last time I checked, but leaving the house with her inside and outside of the range of my trusty baby monitor - which was locked inside anyway - is totally not kosher) describe that you are locked out of your home and your baby is locked in (and you do not include that your husband is in another state for work and you haven't exactly distributed the extra keys you just had made to the new locks your husband and father-in-law recently installed on your home)

the operator will send a firetruck with flashing lights (but no sirens, I mean, it was late at night) and four large firemen will jump out and start assessing your home with big flashlights even while you dash out of your neighbors' house to explain the situation before anyone wakes up your (hopefully still sleeping) baby

the kind firefighters will not look annoyed at your silliness but will check to see if any window is inadvertently unlocked (found one!) to avoid breaking a window to gain entry into your home

(one firefighter said, "we really don't want to break down the door ..." ... yeah, me either)

your dog may just think she has gone to heaven with her four new best friends ... and confirm your suspicion that she is NOT in fact a guard dog 

(hello, Zoe, firefighters are our friends, but you could have tried to look menacing or even tried not to wag your tail and jump around as if you just knew they had a ball to throw for you)

and the kind firefighters will even tiptoe while you determine that the baby is indeed still fast asleep and has apparently spent the evening dreaming sweetly without a clue 

they will say goodbye while you apologize profusely for your carelessness and then they will drive off into the night

leaving you to express gratitude to the One above and to clean up the mess in your laundry room

as if the whole locked-out-of-your-house-and-unbelievably-panicked interlude never happened

(April Fool's joke?  Not so much, just Wednesday night.)