March Random Island Family Updates

1. This is just a mom thing, but I’m getting the biggest kick out of the fact that my younger son, in the space of five days, managed to lose both his top front teeth. He’s a very smiley and goofy sort of child, so I can’t look at him now when he’s smiling and not start chuckling. It’s adorable. Although, I think I’m starting to drive him a little batty. “Mom, why are you smiling and staring at me?” he keeps asking me. And of course, heaven forbid I call a first grade boy “cute” to his face, so I keep apologizing for my intrusive ways and telling him I’m just getting used to his new look.

2. After nearly eight months of anticipation and events leading up to what I feared would be known in infamy as The Boys’ Bed Debacle, we have achieved a resolution. Ultimately, cartons 1 and 3 of the bed ensemble (carton 2 had been damaged) had to be returned to the store and the entire set of cartons 1 – 3 had to be reordered. This process, I’m told, would make much more sense to me were I in the business of manufacturing or distribution or some such related field.

May I remind you that I am not?

Um, hm, that’s what I’m saying.

Anyhow, the new bed cartons arrived with what I will concede was relative expedience, and last Saturday, LCB and the small people constructed the first of the two beds.

Ladies and gentleman, you are looking at the finest cheap loft bed packaged in three cartons with major assembly required that money can buy.

3. Yes, the walls in the boys’ room can be best described as lilac, if you were wondering from the above pictures. Yes, they came that way. Yes, the boys want them changed. Yes, I intend to paint them soon(ish). And yes, I still haven’t started painting the entire interior of our new house that clearly needs to be painted yet, but we did have an exciting development on the painting front.

Over the weekend, I managed, all by myself, to get myself all the way to the store with my paint swatch and buy our very first gallon of paint for the new house. Hope you didn’t get whiplash over how quickly the painting is now beginning to progress. We’ve decided to use the same paint color that’s already there (Woodlawn Snow) in the main part of the house, because I do like the color. It’s just all the strange marks from unidentifiable sources, the dog scratches, the stickers and the words (yes, actual words) sprinkled all over the walls that I could do without.

4. I did something fairly unusual last week. I went shopping without baby-girl. Now don’t misunderstand here; I absolutely love shopping with that precious little girl. What I don’t love, however, is dressing like a Disney princess, and whenever baby-girl comes along, we spend 49% of the allotted time picking out things for me to wear that look like they could be sold at one of Disney’s theme parks, and I spend another 49% of the allotted time coming up with clever reasons for why the princess apparel she’s chosen clearly demonstrates her strong fashion sense but won’t work in this case for some practical reason like size, cost, no ball to go to this month, the lack of hair bows in my life dating back to the 80s, and so forth. This leaves 2% of the allotted time to just grab something and hope for the best. Similar things happen when we shop for household items. “Mom, we need to buy a tower for the top of the house for when my hair grows longer so I can be like Rapunzel,” and the like are frequent focal topics of our shopping voyages.

So, while baby-girl was in preschool, I headed out to T.J.Maxx, Marshalls and Home Goods. A girl’s just got to go there once in a while and do some damage that technically, I feel, doesn’t count because it’s all drastically discounted.

At T.J.Maxx, I bought these, because I love the color and I’m reasonably confident, after beginning my quest for accent pillows for my sectional in 2005 (for real), I’m now ready to commit. Between this confession and the painting one, y’all are just wondering how I manage to ever even get out of bed in the morning now, aren’t you? Me too, now that I think about it. At any rate, they had some at both T.J.Maxx and Marshalls in several different shades, priced at an impressive $20.00 for two pillows.

This was from Marshalls, but I found some at Home Goods and T.J.Maxx, too. Given that it was on clearance for $3.00, and that I feel it’s impossible to have too many shells in a beach house, I also felt it was a moral imperative to purchase it.

This is my favorite purchase, coming in at $12.99 from Marshalls. It looked great in the store, but now I have to find a way to wear it. Last night, I tried to do this fancy knot thing I saw somewhere, but every time I attempted it, it just turned into a giant messy knot that stuck out at least a foot from my neck. I have no clue what I was doing or why I failed. I’m sure if I ever get a personal stylist someday, it will look quite lovely though.

I also picked up a swimsuit that’s black and boring. Since the scale and I essentially parted ways a while back after the New Health Regime fell strangely and mysteriously silent, I felt the black color might be of assistance. Don’t judge; I’ve maintained the exercise portion of the Health Regime, and dark chocolate is just such a friendly food group.

5. Finally, stay tuned for next week, where I reveal another Island Family change, which is why I’ve been a little less vocal on the internet these last few weeks. Don’t worry, though, I haven’t forgotten a single one of you and no, we’re not moving again, in case any of you are wondering.

By the way, if you live away from the coast, do your national stores, like Home Goods and so forth, have a section of coastal-themed décor and/or apparel? I’m curious as to whether national retailers target coastal stores for this or whether it’s largely available regardless of locale. I’d love to hear from you on this and, as always, on any other observations you might have.