Cecilia Turns 3

Cecilia turned 3 on December 26th, and we had a nice day. The girls got tobaggons for Christmas and it snowed pretty good on Christmas Eve, so Cecilia, Charlotte, Helen and I went sledding at Art Hill; the premier sledding place in the Lou. Cecilia and I loved it. Charlotte hated it, and made Helen's time less enjoyable too. Hopefully she'll like it when she's older. Then we had everyone over in the evening for dinner, cake (pink and purple just like she wanted)(John made the cake), and then opened presents. She's 3!

All The Leaves Are Brown

This might be one of my favorite pictures ever of the both of them. Such raw joy.

More leaf raking...Aren't they adorable, all three of them...Hoping our next house has leaves to rake...John is hoping it doesn't.

She drank so hard the bottle ached

Natalie was in town for Thanksgiving, and we went out last night, along with her friend, Maura. We started at Pi and ended at Blueberry Hill, where I left my debit card. =( It took some energy and a wardrobe search to go hang, but I was glad that I did. It's always fun to catch up with Natalie, she's got a million guys, and a million things going for her. Working with practically all guys, plus my Dad, it's so nice to find time to have some girl time and girl talk. I'm somehow refreshed and exhausted all at the same time today. Thanks, to John, my amazing husband who stayed at home so I could go hang with the girls twice this weekend, once with Natalie and Maura and once with Cori and her radioactivism.

I Hope You See This Heart Behind My Tired Eyes

Trying to sell our house is the hardest thing I've done in a long time, and that includes having two babies. It's not fun. It's exhausting, and in this market, it breaks my heart. I love this house, and it's hard for me to picture leaving this house, but I know it makes sense for my family. If you would have told me 15 years ago that I would willingly move to Ste. Gen, I would have laughed in your face. Behold the power of love.

We had the sign in the front yard from May 17th to September 17th. We had at least 4 open houses, plus a handful of people make appointments to see it. We had zero offers. We lowered the price $13,000.00 =( We landscaped, spiffed, sweated, organized, and stressed ourselves out to the max. The hardest part was keeping the house clean. We are clean people, but keeping our house clean enough to show at a moments notice is entirely different. It sucks. We are up every weekday morning at 5 a.m., and our family of 4 is out of the house every morning by 6 a.m. Then, if that's isn't impressive enough, picture trying to have the house spotless on top of all that. If they call at 1:30 p.m. at work, and ask if they can show the house at 3:30 p.m., I can't get home and clean it before they get there, and we never wanted to, or did turn down a showing. The weekends were their own disaster. We didn't want to be home, because the girls can destroy a clean house in about 8 minutes flat, and we didn't want to leave the house because that meant we had to we all of us in the car and a clean house. Don't even ask about the cats and the kitty litter. My brother reminded me that Phyllis Diller once said, "Cleaning your house while your kids are still growing is like shoveling the sidewalk before it stops snowing." So, our contract with our real estate agent was up, and we decided not to renew. Wasn't anything she did wrong, just October is the busiest month for John and I, he with marching band and me with grape harvest. Now, here we are, wondering what to do next. Should we call and interview new agents, and try to decorate the house cute for the holidays and put it back on the market pronto, or should we wait, the holidays are busy enough and get it back out there in January?

I don't know what all these people are looking for anyway, our house is as cute as a button. We loved it the first time we saw it. After looking at dozens of city houses, I can guarantee this house is in tip top shape. While we were in Chicago, my cousins' wife Lisa had just been to a live taping of Oprah, and in true Oprah fashion, suggested I should write down all the things I love about my house and send it to the universe. Instead, I'm going to send it to you. I love my house because:

It is brick. It has unique arched doorways. It has beautiful stained glass windows. It has a two car garage. It has hardwood floors that we refinished. It has tile on the walls in the bathroom and kitchen. It has a brand new kitchen that we redid ourselves. It has the most darling nursery. I'm in love with those slanted walls. It has 4 bedrooms. It has a functional mud room. It has daffodils that I planted. It has a laundry shoot. Our mailbox is built into the wall. It has a rose, a mum, a crepe myrtle, and bleeding hearts that all bloom. The walls of the basement are in excellent condition- not something a lot of city houses can say. It has a brand new electric box. It has matching, original, art deco looking chandeliers in the foyer and dining room. It is within walking distance or Tower Grove park, an amazing coffee shop, the Library, 3 playgrounds, the grocery store, dry cleaners, restaurants, and all sorts of other fun city stuff.

Sounds perfect doesn't it? Want to buy it? =)

Top of the Slide

Tower Grove Park

We've spent a few afternoons at the Tower Grove Park lately.

It's so close we can just walk, which is so nice. Cecilia usually

chases the ball, or a robin, or a duck, or bubbles, and Charlotte

is in constant motion, usually trying to climb on

something (me) or putting something in her mouth. I am so happy

to have these few extra moments with them. Cecilia's hair is

out of control, and Charlotte seems to be getting skinnier.

(Maybe just taller)

Just the 4 of us

Joe and Amanda and their family always like to see the Hot Air Balloon Race from on top of St. Mary's Hospital parking lot, and this year we went with them. We were so happy we did, because balloons went directly over us, it was really neat. Here's our attempt at a family photo, with a few hot air balloons in the background.

Turtle Park

Water Baby

John took Cecilia to the Tower Grove Park playground one day where they have fountains that shoot water straight up.

She Puts the Color Inside of my World

Downtown St. Louis has a new Citygarden, and it is so cool! John and I saw it Friday night, and then took the girls and his mom back on Monday evening. It has lots of great sculptures, and water for kids to play in, and just all sorts of stuff. I can't wait to go back, and I can't wait until Charlotte gets a little older, and she can enjoy it more too.

Warm Weather+ New Outfit+Husband Working Late=Photo shoot at the Park

Anticipation

John woke up at 4:45 a.m. to get ready to go vote. Cecilia woke me up at 5 a.m. John went to vote and at 5:05 a.m. there were already 25 people in front of him. I hung out with C, got her ready, John came back at 6:30 a.m. and picked her up and headed south. I took a shower, and headed to the polls at 7:25 a.m. At 8:40 a.m. I left the polls without voting because I had a doctor's appointment. =( Sat in traffic on Hwy 270, went to the doctor, heard the heartbeat, everything's fine, head to work. Bottle Christmas Plum, pick up Cecilia from day care, and stress the whole way home about standing in line again, only this time with Cecilia with me. How am I going to feed her dinner? How am I going to entertain her for hours in the stroller? Do I really need to vote? Yes, I do need to vote, it is important to me and Cecilia. We are fortunate to live in a country where we can choose our elected officials, and I want to pass that respect and gratitude on to Cecilia. When she's older I can tell her how she and I stood in line for hours in one of the most important days in our country's history. 4:20 p.m. arrive home, put the stroller in the trunk, run inside, grab as many toys and snacks as I can carry in my purse, make a bottle, run back out to the car, and drive us to the polls. At 4:40 p.m. I get her out of the car and into the stroller weighted down with a years supply of food and non annoying toys, walk quickly to the polls to get in line where I see that there is no line. Take the stroller up the stairs, sign the notebook thing, Cecilia and I get stickers, I vote, cast my ballot, and we are back home by 5 p.m. I almost cried because I had worked myself into a frenzy about waiting that long with her.

For me, this evening, "voting" spells relief.

Love is...

Saturday night didn't start out so good for John. We were supposed to get together with Becky and Brian and Sara and Chuck and Julie for a game night. Becky and Brian couldn't come, and Chuck had to work, but Sara and Julie still wanted to do something. Once John hears neither Chuck nor Brian are coming along, he proclaims he has to have sex with all girls involved or he's not going. Sad face #1. Then we decide to go to the little coffee shop up the street that has live entertainment on the weekends. We walk in and are completely submersed in lesbians. Lesbians singing, playing guitar, playing the keyboard, drinking coffee, swaying to the music. Everywhere you looked there were lesbians. We hurriedly drank our coffee, after I accidentally spilled some of mine on one of the lesbians' kids. (whoops!!) (It was mostly just foam, it wasn't really hot.) John shot me dirty looks every half second, and so we left. When we got back in the car Julie said she wondered on our way into the coffee shop why there were so many bad looking people in that bar. These were not lipstick lesbians, these were 50-60 year old short grey hair lesbians. Sad face of John's #2. From there we headed to my favorite place in St. Louis to go out; 33, which is a wine bar in Lafayette Square. Sara had the tiniest bottle of wine I'd ever seen. John had a beer, which should cancel out the lesbians. Then we went to Square One Brewery where we all had beer. John even ordered chicken wings. Things were looking up for him....until we asked him to go get the car, which was like 10 freezing ass cold blocks away. He didn't even say yes or no, he just hung his head and headed for the door. Sad face #3.

To put the cherry on the top, he was sick all day Sunday. I think he might have had estrogen poisoning.

White Girls Can't Dance

John and I have new additions to our list. John now likes Shakira after seeing this video. I was already a big fan of the song. We don't see many videos, but we went last weekend to Twisters in Ste. Gen with our bed and breakfast guests for a drink and the bar showed the video. I'm not sure who comes off his list, maybe he can comment on that.

My new addition is

Columbus Short. I saw him in the new movie Stomp the Yard. I tend to have crushes on actual characters in movies, and so once cupid shoots his arrow, I could watch that actor in anything. For example, Daniel Day-Lewis will forever be on my list for his role in Last of the Mohicans. This is one of if not the best movie ever made. The part where he tells her to stay alive and he will find her, no matter what, that got me hook, line and sinker. I also had a huge crush on Tobey Mcguire in Cider House Rules. I liked the story less than I liked his character. I have never seen Columbus Short in anything else, but you can be sure I will be looking for him. I guess maybe John Corbett comes off my list.

The state of the St. Louis City Schools is a sad one. They did send me an Adult Education booklet, and so last Wednesday I went to a Health and Fitness class at one of the local Middle Schools. I could walk to this Middle School if I had too, but it's like 33 degress outside, so I chose not to. It's supposed to be Low Impact Aerobics. The first class was extremely lame, the instructor talked to us for 15 minutes about eating healthy and organic foods, then we did 10 minutes of stretching, and then we ran the steps of the school twice. I figure I'll go one more time next week in the hopes that it gets better. I think the city schools are really missing an opportunity though. I think they should teach a "step" or "stomp" class. Not like you step on and off a step, but instead step like they do it in this movie. There has to be people affiliated with the public school system in the city that can step, right? It does create a funny picture in my head, and I would feel bad for the instructor trying to teach a bunch of white people how to step.

I think Shakira would even throw up her hands in desperation at the sight of my incoordination.

Our old school gate

Neighbors have to peer through icicles to see our house.

This foodie took a trip to the international grocery store in the neighborhood.

Trick or Treat

One of the dilemmas of passing out candy at our house is that every year there are a few junior high aged kids that show up at our doorstep wanting candy without wearing a costume. This year John and I decided he would tell the kids- "No costume, no candy!" When the kids actually showed up with no costumes on, though, he turned soft, asked them for a joke, and gave them candy anyway. I laughed and laughed because on the way home last night he told me I need to reach down and grab a pair and tell the kids myself that they couldn't have candy. He couldn't do it either.

He did get to make fun of me, though. Kids show up, I say "trick or treat," I give them candy and then I sit back down to continue watching Dancing With The Stars. John asks, "why do you say 'trick or treat?'" I had no answer.

Can you tell we're new at this?

All A Buzz

St. Louis is kind of in a tizzy right now because the CARDINALS WON THE WORLD SERIES!!! It's very exciting. Sunday they had a parade showcasing the players, and we were there. It was hard to get a good picture because there were so so many people there, but John did take some really good ones. The players were all really excited, and the crowd was all pumped up. Memorable.

city living is the life for me