My dd is addicted to Farmville. R has been letting her play his Farmville (a game via facebook) for a week or two now. She loves it. I don’t play the games on Farmville. I am not much of a game player like that. The only reason I play BoomBlox on the Wii is because my kids will whine and cry til I do—and then they found out I am as sneaky and as good as R at it. It’s funny to watch E—she got so upset when she found out her pumpkins died—she planted them before bed—and by the time she got to play again that evening they were dead—pumpkins apparently only last 8 hrs and then you harvest them. Dude, I have enough trouble trying to remember to water my live plants—which is why I have so many of what I have (lots of bamboo, to start)—and why I keep Peace lilies, so I know when to water them and everyone else. The Peace lilies droop and it’s time to water everyone—it’s a good system. Now that all the plants are somewhere warm—well—not all—but most—the trees are all outside. I am planning to get some more olive trees come warmer times—when it is safe to ship them…that thing is brilliant, even in this weather. I lost two of the mimosas though. R is fine w me planting them once we move into the bigger house though—he gets a tree for his mom—I get a grove for my grandfather—but then again, he knows I will plant whatever he wants for his mom too.
We’ve already been discussing our plans to landscape the new house. This time, since it is not for me long-term, we are trying to balance the needs of the grounds (since the ground shifts water towards the house) versus ease of care for renters…and still have all my other requirements…pretty…insulating…pest repelling…that sort of thing.
My one philodendron did not survive. It’s been slowly dying since the move—since before the move really. It was the only thing injured in the break in at the other house—pretty much…I have had what was left of her in a bottle of water, hoping to stimulate root growth, but her poor little heart just wasn’t in it. She slowly faded away. So, I have a lone philo on the over the door mantle—not that I don’t have pothos galore there too—but I love my philos for some reason (other than their toxicity).
I am not really certain how well my large snake plant is going to do—after the millipedes and then the frozen soil transfer. All the stalks are not dead. I lost a couple smaller ones, which was to be expected, but I do think several of the major stalks are taking and are trying to grow.
I am looking forward to warmer weather. I want more bamboo—and I have a great supplier on ebay (somewhere)—landscaping bamboo is awesome—but invasive and darn near indestructible…so I won’t do that on a rental property—although it would be a great boon in a few places…outside I am going to be concentrating more on ornamental grasses and hardy bushes. I am going to get older bushes this time around…we’ll have to see. I am not going to have the luxury of thinking hey this will fill in a year or two from now, even though this is a rental property…I want something solid that tenants won’t destroy inadvertently or otherwise…I want more house plants…I have the sister plants from R’s mother’s funeral—Chinese evergreens (I think they are called—I love them) – I am planning to get more of those. I think I can rehab the pothos he gave me that used to be in his office at ATT/IBM—I had trimmed it back to root out the branches—but the cold across the river was too much and the light there too little.
I am just looking forward to things. There’s a store nearby that has an elephant sculpture that goes outside that is also a planter…can you see me growing my herbs in that thing? Lol
R and I went furniture shopping without the kids yesterday. We went furniture shopping w the kids on Saturday—and Saturday night I took us out to outback and found out that wallaby darned’s are no longer on my able to be drunk list (after I drank two)—which sucks because I could drink a pitcher of those things and not hurt—but I conveniently forgot it had vodka in it—and just plain didn’t realize it had schnapps in it. I can’t drink schnapps—period. No explanation forthcoming—it’s just bad for me. And vodka—well—vodka bad. I only drink when R is watching me—and I don’t over-indulge when the kids are present—but—vodka bad—whiskey worse, but vodka bad. Nuff said there.
Furniture shopping without the kids a MUCH better experience—although it was fun to watch N haul butt up stairs to get to top bunks on bunk beds. R is going to make him a set of stairs for his bunk bed…we ordered the beds for the kids this weekend. But R and I are going to be renting a truck at some point in the next week or two and go pick a few things up locally for both of us.
We’ll also be able to take E’s dresser from the neighbor K back to our house the way E wants…despite the fact we might as well leave it here at R’s since we all know we’ll be moving in together sooner or later anyway…we are also taking R’s old entertainment center—more about that directly…
Last night, I got into lots of trouble. R and I stopped first at Sams Club, to look at things other than what we bought—I can’t even remember what we went to look at now—we always check out the clearance section. Other than socks and milk, we walked out of sams w a 42 inch flat screen tv—which leads us into the entertainment center issue – R bought the tv—because he had to or else I would have—so I get to buy the entertainment center for it and we inherit his old one for our house—and our little temporary entertainment center goes down in our basement—along w his old 26 in tv—and all I have to do is buy a vcr and dvd player to go down with all that.
We’re renting the truck to pick up his entertainment center, and some other furniture the kids and I need for the house. We even found E the perfect steel bench for the front porch—she has several to chose from—she’ll like the hummingbird one, I know—but I like the one w the star…we’ll see what she picks there…
Since we had the tv in the back seat when we checked out this store, R would not let me buy a fake suit of armor—this store has gold and silver suits of armor—in 4 ft and 6 ft heights--$70 to $100—and oh—E would just DIE it would be so awesome—how Addams family is that!?! I love it. R did agree when we go w the truck I can get one if they are still there. Lol I told him all we needed was a Kitty like the Addams family—but I had to explain what type of cat Kitty was…at least he and I are in agreement over cats at the moment…although once we get a barn—I will have barn cats—they just won’t be ignored and left on their own. They simply will not live in the house, that’s all.
We found a mattress—we found several actually—to replace R’s water bed mattress, which he has been talking about doing for awhile now. We are still debating on buying me a mattress for my bed at my house or not…since we have to buy the kid’s mattresses for their bunk beds, we did more direct research of our own for us as well. He told me awhile ago he’d buy me a new mattress for my bed—he told me he’d buy me a whole new bed if I wanted. As much as it drives him crazy when I buy him stuff, it goes the same way for me. Hey, of all the things we could have to deal with together, this seems a decent enough problem to have to work through! Lol I am still debating—we’ll see how things go. We may move my bed from full to queen, simply because R and I can sleep in a twin bed together without an issue, and the full is terrific—until N comes to spend the night and spends half the night in our bed w us—then R says the queen is really a good thing. I don’t know what R complains about—I am the one trapped between the two of them. At least I can get N to fall asleep in his own bed, now that we have E squared away in the other bedroom—the weirdo. I can understand her point w sleeping in the same room as N—he wiggles—it apparently interrupts her wiggling—and singing and all the other things she does…so we got that fixed…but N always crawls into bed w us in the mornings…like 2-3a, sometimes later—it’s been getting later, the earlier we send them to bed, believe it or not….so—we are making progress…come to think of it…hey!
So, we are doing really well, considering…and are all very happy.
Despite recent events (as read in this blog), things have been thunderously good for all of us here. Some days it really is down right scary. After living for someone else and living a shadow life for so very long, I am now living my own life, living w the man I love, raising my family, doing what I love for work, living in a –well—fine--living in 2 terrific houses….things are good w the ex. Things aren’t so bad between N and R…two stubborn people who love me and don’t really want to share me—although R is willing to share on his terms…it is interesting to watch these days…I worry about that boy as he gets older…he really is all his own person there.
I am surprised by how good things are. I am not used to things going this well. R knows what I get like when I am in a good mood. I EARN the nickname Tigger – I am bouncing and playful and downright startling in my energy…and now—I’m like that all day every day…I can’t wait to see how much things continue to improve. This is bliss.
Ciao.
