Day 7, A Song That Reminds Me of an Event

This song is one that I have related to for a few years.  It reminds me of my move from Texas to Colorado 3 1/2 years ago.

I listened to it repeatedly when I was longing to make that move.  It was during that time that I realized home is not as much about the location as it is about the people that are there.  Home means comfort, contentment, love and peace.  It's the feeling I have inside that tells me I'm in the right place.  Every time I hear this song I'm taken back to those feelings of sadness and loneliness and I'm reminded of how good I really have it right here, right now.

P.S. I skipped Day 6, A Song That Reminds Me of Somewhere because a) I couldn't think of one and b) we went to the Rockies vs. Astros game last night and did not get home until reallyreallyreally late.


P.P.S. There was an earthquake last night! No worries -- we are fine. More about that later.

In a Blogging Mood

I'm in the mood to write.  My house is clean, the laundry is (mostly) done.  (There's a large basket that needs folding but I'm going to ignore that.) A really funny episode of The Office is on.  I lit approximately 17 candles around the house and they smell incredible.  I have a glass of decent merlot at my hand. There's a formerly happy chicken defrosting in my kitchen; it'll soon be roasted and made into chicken pot pie.  It's fall and I'm fortunate to have a comfortable, warm, well-stocked home.  For some reason I feel the need to describe all of this to you.

Also:

• Solomon lost a tooth today.  It's the first tooth he's lost in at least 2 years.  I know he hasn't lost one since we moved to Colorado.  I told him that he should check under his pillow tomorrow for the Tooth Fairy's prize.  He said, "Can you just give me the money now?  Like you're buying my tooth?"  So I did.  And I laughed heartily.
• I took Solomon to the doctor today because he's had increasingly worse heel pain in the last few days.  Instead of being something worrisome, it's just inflammation that happens sometimes in kids who are growing and healthy and active.  He should be fine in a couple of weeks.  I'm grateful for all of this.
• I'm taking the Spanish placement test tomorrow so I can register for not-Spanish I next week.
• I bought lots of bulk spices today for less than $1.00.  Total.  Not each.  Total.
• I saw my endo today for a post-op appointment.  Everything is good.  Assuming my thyroid panel is all normal I'll see her again in 6 months and if the thyroid panel then is all normal and if I never have any weird thyroid symptoms, I'll never see her again.  She's a nice person and all but this makes me happy.  She said I was her easiest patient all day.

And that's all for now.  I should probably have made some of these items separate blog posts but I didn't.  That's how I roll.  I reserve the right to elaborate upon any, all or none of these items in the future.  That's also how I roll.  (You know, until now I didn't know I 'rolled' at all.  That just came out of no where.  Apparently I roll that way, too.)

New Apartment

This is our living room upon entering the front door. That fireplace? So weird. I assumed we'd have a gas fireplace because that is mostly what people have around here, especially in apartments. But no. It's electric. Weird, huh? You flip a little switch and it lights up and blows out heat but there are no actual flames.

Another view of the living room. I'm desperate for summer so I can get some plants (even if they're fake! Ssshhh!) and put up my little patio lights and sit outside with the warm air and some wine and some music ... aahhhh. I love summer in Colorado.

The front door.  Not much to say about that.  Behind that built-in bookshelf is the kitchen, for a reference point.

This is the view from the front door and built-in bookshelf.  Miriam loves her Wizard 101 account.  I'm not entirely sure how that works.  She has fire wizards and earth wizards and she banishes evil spirits or something.  I think.

The dining area as seen from the computer desk.  My tablecloth is wrinkly.  Don't look directly at it, please.

The kitchen.  Yes, that is a beach towel rolled up and stuck at the bottom of the laundry door.  That little closet has an outside wall and no heating vent.  It's flipping cold in there and the towel makes a huge difference in the temperature of the kitchen floor in the mornings.  Please excuse the clutter all over the fridge.  It holds our life, basically.

This is our mondo boring hallway.  It's between the fireplace and the computer desk.  I need to figure out what I can put here to make it less boring and still uncluttered.  I'm still thinking about that.  Suggestions are welcome.  To the right is the world's tiniest closet.  It holds approximately 2 1/2 coats and maybe a pair of gloves. Past that is the door to Miriam's room and then the door to the boys' room, which you cannot see from this vantage point.  The door you can see is the kids' bathroom and my bedroom is to the left.

My girl's room.  She loves it, in case you were wondering.  Any where the boys aren't is a good place, in her opinion.

Her stuff.  That wall needs something.  Their dad is sending a disc of photos from his last visit up here.  I plan to print several and make a collage for her to hang on this wall, above the shelves.  That will take a bit.  I forgot to take a picture of the wall to the right.  It's just her closet.

Boy room.  I'm not sure I like their beds turned this way.  There are about 3 feet on the other side of the beds.  It does make changing sheets on bunkbeds much, much easier but it chops up their floor space.  So far, they like it because they can hide from each other on either side of the bed and shoot Nerf guns.  The jury is still out on that one.

A wall with more toys than they really need.

Another wall with lots of toys.  That collage is from a weekend trip with their dad about 4 years ago.  The Chinese lanterns are in kind of an odd place.  Still not sure about those, either.

Kids' bathroom.  The framed painting above the toilet was created by Samuel in art class.  It has red fish stenciled on it, some green seaweed and gold pebbles.  It matches their bathroom perfectly and he's so proud to have it there.

My room.  I'm most displeased with my room.  Next to the hallway, it's the most boring part of our place.  And I kind of think that makes it worse because hallways kind of get a pass when it comes to boringness.  I almost didn't post pictures of it because it's so boring.  But I figured some reference would be good because if anybody has ideas, I'd love to hear them.  Also, when I spruce it up, I'll post After shots.  By the way, those are boy legs.  They are watching Star Wars.  And while we're talking about it -- television in my room?  Not so sure about that.  There are pros and cons.  I have yet to decide which carries more weight.

The Most Boring Wall ever.  Don't you feel special to be experiencing this?  I have matching lampshades but I haven't expended the energy to change out the brown one to another red one.  I'm in more of a blue phase these days.  I really love my bedding.  It's brown and accented with kind of a dusky blue so I want to move in that direction.

My bathroom.  I really love my bathroom.  The closet is to the left and it's pretty awesome.  I have tons of space in there.

So there you have it.  Our new place.  I like it so much better than the old place for a lot of reasons.  Its only drawback is being on the third floor and even that really isn't that much of a drawback.