I don’t know, I was thinking about it, but, there are so many things I wanna do online. I wanna get that snazzy razzy Wordpress 2.5 on this blog and on Bookworm Broadcast and on Reliable Home Repair and Remodeling. And there are a million and one Hippie posts languishing in my head, as this place has been fairly neglected as of late. Oh, you noticed, did you? Well, heck - you think this place is neglected - my living room is stacked up with Christmas decorations!

Our living room is not exactly a room, yet. It is in mid-renovation, and the renovations are sort of - ok, completely - at a standstill. So the room is half torn up (half the pergo floor pulled up, half the door frames and stuff between the ceiling and wall taken off [what the heck is that called? some contractor's wife I am, huh? I'll think of it, gimme time! Besides, Mark'll be home soon - I'll just ask him, so there!]) and kind of just used for storage and stuff. The kids have their computer in there and I have a HUGE poinsetta in there, and a wooden rocking chair and that’s it. So don’t go thinking all my Christmas decorations are all up decorating my house or anything crazy like that! Sheesh! They’re piled up in neat piles on the floor in the corner of the room, on the hearth, and on the three card tables, ok? Good Heavens, whaddya think I am? A slouch?

So anyway, March 24th was Mark’s birthday and all he asked for was for those things to be boxed up. (It’s a thing with him, he buys himself CRAP all year, then doesn’t really let us buy him much for bday/Xmas.) And one thing after another happened last week that I didn’t get it done. Legitimate things. Really. I swear.

And I had SUCH a killer migraine on Sunday, that Monday I had the migraine hangover. Yesterday I have no excuse for whatsoever. Today I had some crazy TIRED attack, kinda like when you’re coming down with a sinus infection. Dead dog. That’s been me - all day. Weird.

Then about an hour ago, I took some Excedrin. Now I’m a bit hyped up. And I fully realize that I should get my ass in there and just clean up that stuff! But I have all these ideas in my head that neeeeeeed to be unleashed! I want to launch a hardcore social networking plan of attack for Mark’s site (listed above - Reliable…) and I also need to fix that site. First I got it WITHOUT the dashes - then I screwed up the WP install, royally. So I went ahead and bought the domain with the dashes, thinking that’d be better for SEO purposes, anyway. Mark and EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. of his clients hate the dashes, with the burning, scorching heat of a thousand SUNS, though. So then I had a friend set up the UNDASHED site to redirect to the DASHED site and all was right in the world. Until a few weeks ago, when I noticed the redirected, dash-free domain was no longer redirecting. Gah. Back to square one.

However, I recently MANUALLY uploaded and installed WordPress on Bookworm. I even set up the freaking database all by myself! I was am so proud!!! And I figure that all that tinkering - successfully - could quite possibly mean that I could fix this whole RELIABLE REMODELING fiasco all by my smart self, too!

So there’s another cool online thing I wanna get to - and I’ve got several reviews to write. But alas, those bloody Christmas decorations are burning a hole into my back, screeching from the floor behind me - “Lisa, come now, come and box us up - hurry, get started, so then when he walks in and at least sees that you’ve begun, he’ll be so relieved…..Lisa, come….”

Damn holidays! I hate ‘em! We’re not getting these suckers out next year!

**UPDATE** I just got off the phone with Mark. He is at his brother’s house, helping him put up some CROWN MOULDING in the bathroom. Yes, folks - the stuff between the wall and the ceiling - CROWN MOULDING. Irritated I didn’t think of it on my own. Funny, though, that he mentions it before I get the chance to ask him. Or not. He is a contractor. So there you have it.

It’s driving me absolutely nutty having my living room in the basement, and having my living room half torn up and empty! I’m just getting so sick of it. It wouldn’t be so bad if you didn’t have to go through the garage to get to the basement hangout room. I totally understand the reasoning for it - keeping it empty until we do the renovations so we don’t have a whole ton of furniture to move when it’s time to do the renovations. And so we don’t put off doing the renovations, because, we don’t feel like moving a ton of furniture. It’s just starting to really get to me. It would be nice to shop for some discount furniture and just get a couple of pieces, like maybe two soft chairs, so that we’d have someplace comfortable to sit up here, besides on our beds. We had a new thrift shop open up in town and it is huge. I’m keeping my eyes out there for some decent chairs. I’ll just be so glad when we can make this house our home. It sure would make this whole transition easier!

We moved from a house with two bathrooms to a house with three bathrooms, only to find that we can only use one! That is such s bummer! We can use the toilet and the sink in ours, but, we have to shower in the kids’/guest bathroom. And then there is a shower down in the basement. Mark has recently gotten that one working, but, I would love to have the one in our master bathroom working!

We have a really nice shower in there, too. It is stand-up shower, with no bath, and it is very large and looks like it would be very nice and comfy to shower in. And it would be easy to move around in - some stand-up showers are so tiny you can barely move. This is not like this at all. The only thing is that it doesn’t have a little seat in it - that would be really cool.

But we don’t even have the hardware in place right now for our shower. So I’ve been looking at some shower faucets online and I’ve found some really nice ones that I like.

Unfortunately, I think we actually have more of a problem than just needing the hardware. I can’t remember if it is a leak or what, I just know that I want to shower in my own room.

When we do finally get it working, I would love to have a hand-held shower head - those are so great!

I tell you what - if we got our own shower, and we could have a hand-held shower, I’d be one happy mama! I’d look like this guy:

Ever since the first time I saw a home theater (in person), I have just loved them! I would love to have one, with some big, comfy chairs, and a nice, dark, cozy room! It would just be the coolest! And having teens and a tween, wouldn’t they be the talk of the town? Wouldn’t that just be so awesome, to be a teenager, and have a home theater? You know the parties would always be at your house! (Yes, as an adult, that sounds exhausting…) But Mark and I have always welcomed children into our home, ever since they were babies! And to have our house be ‘the place to be’ when they are in those scary-teenage-could-be-getting-in-trouble years, would suit us just fine. Instead of all the kids being out and about causing trouble, they’ll be at our house having fun! And it really helps us to get to know their friends, when their friends hang out over here so much. And that, I think, is very important, too.

Leave it to me to go on parenting soapbox, when I just wanted to talk about home theaters! It would be amazingly cool, though, to have our own theater! And then when the monsters move out, it would all for me and Mark!

I wonder, though, where on earth do you go to buy home theater furniture?

This house we’ve moved into really has so much potential, but, it needs a LOT of work. And when I say a lot, I mean - a lot! Heck! Our septic tank is even broken and we’re just waiting for it to (ick!) overflow into the basement, because, we can’t afford to fix it. See, we need to get hooked up to city sewer, and that is going to cost a lot - a lot that we don’t have.

And this house is actually 2600 square feet, which to me is huge, but, - but - the first floor, where I spend 99.9% of my time, is only 1300 square feet. And this is where all my stuff is, too. And there’s just no place to put it all. I’d store a bunch of it downstairs, and bring it up slowly as we renovate, but, there’s that septic tank issue. Yeah. Ick.

With some money and some muscle, this is gonna be a totally kick ass house - really! It is on a HUGE lot, in a great location, and it’s just got a great set-up. If only some long lost great grandmother had left us an inheritance, and we were getting a payment each month from a structured settlement company, we could start using that to get started on some of these around-the-house jobs!

Until then, I guess we’ll just peck away at it little bit by little bit!

Oh my gawd! If it’s not one thing, it’s another, with this old house! Sammie came to me last week, one of our days of hosting a bunch of kids over! (Of course!) And said that the bathroom faucets were leaking underneath the cabinet in their bathroom. UGH! So then I had to drill it into six children’s heads, who were busy with water guns and water balloons, not to use the bathroom sink to wash their hands. I told them to come in the kitchen to wash up. The kids were so busy having a good time and were just so hyper, I don’t know that any of them heard me. Well, I take that back - I do know that Shawn heard me, because I saw him come in the kitchen to wash up yesterday morning. And by that time, he didn’t need to anymore. Hey - at least I know one of them actually heard me and remembered! Ha!

It’s kind of handy having a remodeler in the family. That is, if you’re the mother-in-law. What I mean to say is that, of course, my house doesn’t get a whole lot of remodeling - but, that figures, right? The remodeler of which I speak is my husband, after all - and that is just how things like that seem to work. But my mother, on the other hand - has had lots of cool stuff done to her house, by the master craftsman himself, my hubby. A few years back, he completely remodeled both of the bathrooms in my childhood home. And they are so beautiful! I was so glad that my mom saved the pictures that she had hanging in the now guest bathroom, which used to be the kids’ bathroom, and just had them reframed to match the new look. They are just two small, simple paintings with cute sayings on them, but, there is just something about them that says ‘my bathroom’ (and my brothers’, of course). Both of the bathroom vanities are completely different than they used to be, but, the one in the guest bathroom is totally awesome! I really like it! It is one solid piece of dark something-or-other, marble or something. So the counter-top and the sink are all the same piece. And the best thing about it is that it is a lot higher than most bathroom vanities. That is one of my biggest gripes with houses - why in the heck are the darn bathroom sinks so low? Do you know what a pain it is to wash your face with the sink so low? So that part of it, I just love! I can’t wait until I get to a point in my life where I am the one having remodeling done at my house! I shouldn’t complain because when we get home, he is going to try to get some stuff done at our house. And that will be really cool - like I will finally get to have a living room upstairs, instead of in the friggin’ basement! Yea!!

Mark brought the boys a new TV. It’s really an old TV, but, it is new to them. It was in their cousin’s bedroom, and I guess they got a new one, because this one got sent home with Mark yesterday.

And Mark gave it to the boys. What?

I have been begging and begging for a TV for our bedroom almost since we got here! The two places for me to get comfortable in this house are here at my desk (Mark bought me a great office chair a couple years ago) and in my bedroom. Seeing as we don’t have much home furniture beyond the bedrooms, those are my two spots to get comfy! Our dining room table didn’t fit on the UHaul, and our ‘living room’ is in the basement - so upstairs is kind of a barren wasteland.

And we haven’t had a TV in our bedroom for several years now, and there is almost nothing better than being lazy in your bed watching TV. I love that!

But, as previously noted, he gave the TV to the boys. Bummer. Now, mind you, it is a very small TV - and I definitely wouldn’t want it permanently, but, while I wait for my living room to be IN MY LIVING ROOM - it would be great! In case it’s not completely obvious, I am completely sick of living like this. Completely. Ugh.

I am so happy to actually have an ‘office’ again - an actual separate room! But let me tell you, it is a mess in here! I only have two bookshelves and so there just isn’t a place to put everything. I really want to save the one corner for a comfy chair, that I intend to eventually buy. I am thinking, though, that once Mark closes off the room from the living room, I will have bookshelves all across that whole new wall. That would be really great! I was looking at some Studio RTA Furniture, and they have some really nice bookshelves! I’m going to have to start saving up some money so that I can fix up this office, my space, really nice and cozy!

I think a desk is a very important piece of furniture that we should buy for our children. I almost always had one growing up and let me tell you, it got used and then some!

We haven’t ever had the best set-up for my kids, because we just haven’t had enough room for three desks. And that has really bothered me. If we get the remodeling done around this house that we want to get done, then we will have room for them all to have as big of a desk as they want! That will be so awesome!

Now they have to do their homework on the floor, if they want to be alone in their rooms, or at the ‘kitchen’ table, and put up with the noise of the comings and goings of the family. It is just not an ideal situation.

I have a very sweet nephew and a darling niece who are about to embark upon their school careers (I am SO not crying! I’m not! I swear!) *sigh* and anyway, Coaster Furniture has a great little kid desk that would be so perfect for them to do their little Kindergarten homework! (Not crying, not!)

I really wish my kids had desks, but, as they cannot right now, I will just have to bug my brothers about these cute little desks for my little sweethearts!