First off, it must be said, I am so over The Rain. It’s August. And it’s raining like it’s the end of the world. (Crap, I hope it’s not the end of the world. I do not have sufficient food storage.)

The Highlights from the Garden Party I attended last nigh with the ladies from church:

• The fajitas & grapes (Dude, of course the food is number one.)

• The woman who admitted, during a heated game of “Two Truths and One Lie”, the back story of her “truth”.

• Apparently she had participated in naked cliff diving.

• The friends she was with were upping the ante with each dive and diving off higher and higher cliffs.

• She decided to “up the ante a nipple” and jumped naked.

• Watching as the room full of nice Mormon ladies busted out in laughter will forever be etched in my memory.

• Seriously, she said “up the ante a nipple”.

• That’s comedy gold.

• The looks of confusion on the faces of the nice Mormon ladies when another woman read her list, which included, “has had a Brazilian”.

• I was shocked and horrified that nobody knew what this was.

• I’m half thinking they were just playing dumb.

• It was her “lie”.

• My friend’s husband who graciously offered to watch Babboo so I could attend and The King could get some work done around the new house.

• Just being around fabulous woman made the night extra fabulous.

The Lowlights from the Garden Party:

• Having the woman, who was sitting next to me, inform me that the baby she’s currently pregnant with has a congenital heart defect and might not live after she gives birth to him in a few weeks.

And because I don’t want to close on that note, here’s a video of my second favorite thing (not to be confused with my first favorite thing) about the new house.

Shower Room in the new house from holaisabel on Vimeo.

I heard you wanted to come over to the new house to check it out.  If you want to come over, make sure you call first.  That way I’ll be sure to meet you down in the driveway.  The front porch hasn’t been built yet, so you can’t actually access our front door.  I’d have to let you in through the garage.  When you walk through the garage, be careful to not step on a rusty nail or trip over one of the many saws.  You won’t want to touch anything in the garage; it’s all covered in dust and it will get all over your clothes.

And never mind the basement.  It’s finished, really.  It just looks like a mess since it’s the “staging area” for the rest of the construction.  Yep, that’s a compressor in the corner.  Those boxes are full of tiles.  And yes, those are paint cans.  Be careful not to knock them over.

Watch out for the nail sticking out of that one middle stair.  It’ll get your pant leg.

I hope you used the potty before you came over to visit.  While we have four working toilets, we don’t have any doors on the bathrooms.  See that pile of wood in the front room corner?  Yep, those are the bathroom doors.  They are ready to be hung up; we’re just waiting for the hardware to come in the mail.  Then we’ll hang them up.

I know we still have a few boxes that need to be unpacked.  I know.  Don’t worry, they bug me too.

You see, we don’t have our official Permit To Occupy from the city of Seattle.  That means we’re living here illegally.  In the event that we do get busted we have to act like we just moved in today, hence the boxes.

It’s all part of the plan.

Try to not do anything in front of the kitchen windows.  We’re still in the need of curtains in certain rooms.  But dude, I’m a little sick of sewing curtains right now.  So I’m taking a break this week.  For now, just stay away from the windows.

Yes, that’s plywood on the floor.  Yes, that’s the finished product.  Yes, we like it.  No, we’re not going to put carpet over it.  Or tile.  We meant for it to look like that.  We like it. Really.

While I know it seems odd that The King is working in the back deck when we don’t have doors on our bathrooms or a closet system for Babboo, we have to have the deck completed before we can get our Permit To Occupy.  We don’t need bathroom doors to get the permit.  We’re prioritizing.

Plus, I’m dying to put on my bikini and lay out on the deck.  You know, when I’m not busy sewing curtains.

I know we’re not much fun anymore.  I know we never hang out with any of our friends.  It’s just that we’re busy with the new house.  I know The King deserves to take a night off.  Believe me, I know.  We want to.  But we can’t.  Not now.  Probably not next week.  Maybe next month.

Once we get some doors on the bathrooms, and a way to get to the front door, and our Permit to Occupy we’ll be much better friends.

I promise.

Until then, just make sure you pee before you come to visit.  And don’t stay too long, I’ve got sewing to do.

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It’s Wednesday.  Which means I’m over at SeattleMomBlogs today.  Head over to read about how I thought I broke my foot on Monday and had to take a taxi home from work.  (Apparently it’s not broken.  I just broke a blood vessel. Whatever that means.)

I’ve not wanted to write a new post. I’m not really ready to move my last post down on the page. But, eventually, I have to think about other things besides my Weekend of Awesomeness.

Sigh.

Things are slowly coming together over at our new house. We don’t have an official permit to occupy yet. We’re still accessing the house through the garage and not the front door (since we don’t have a front porch yet). But hey, as of Monday night, we have window coverings in our bedroom (that aren’t made out of cardboard.) (Don’t ask.)

This means we won’t have to crawl, literally, out of bed in the morning so our neighbors don’t see us in our underwear.

(Be assured the seeing The King crawl around on the bedroom floor, in his undies, is a sight.)

Everyday The King gives me a list of things that we both need to work on at the new house. And everyday I somehow end up hiding in my little vanity area reading my latest obsession, the “Twilight” series.

Never before has a love story between an immortal vampire and a teenage girl been so awesome.

Or so addictive.

I have not been pulling me weight in The King household lately. But damn, these books are addicting. My book reading quickly evolved past the usual “only when I blow dry my hair in the mornings” to…every waking second.

Thankfully my friend gave me all three of the “Twilight” books on CD this week. Edward, Bella and Jacob now live happily on my iPod.

Look at me, Hands Free nerdiness.

Now I can be a little more productive. I can cook dinner while listening to the books on my iPod. No huge hardbound book to lug around anymore.

Not only can I prepare dinner while being lost in the complex story lines of forbidden love between a teenage girl and an immortal vampire (and the sexual tension that exist because of said forbidden love), but I can listen and separate the laundry at the same time.

And brush my teeth sans fear of dropping any toothpaste remnants onto my beloved books.

Right before bedtime last night my nerdiness reached an all time high when I discovered that not only could I listen to “Twilight” on my iPod in bed, but I could listen to it and do Sudoko at the same time.

Dude, while IN BED!

I woke up this morning and was happy that I could blow dry my hair while actually looking at myself in the mirror and not have to worry about reading words on pages of a book.  That’s so last season.

Dude, it’s all about the iPod.

And Edward.

So tell me, am I the last person to jump on the “books on tape” bandwagon here?  And um, anyone else out there a “Twilight” fan besides Christar and me?

(And just to prove, once again, that Mormons are awesome, do you realize that the author of “Twilight” Stephenie Meyer is a Mormon?  Yes she is.)

One of the many places my ex-husband I lived in was a house that his great uncle owned. It was a very, very old house. Old enough that it was the house his great uncle has been raised in. The house was just a little farm house with only two little bedrooms and a bathroom that always seemed like more of an after thought.

My ex’s family wanted to keep the old farm house in the family. I liked the fact that his uncle only charged us a few hundred dollars a month in rent and they were just happy that we were willing to live in the house.

Unfortunately his uncle lived next door to our little farm house and my in-laws lived across the street.

Suede (which is what I like to call my ex, mostly because he hated that nickname) worked evenings and I worked days. I would get home from work every afternoon and have about five hours to kill until he would get home. This was perfect on the sunny days where my girlfriends and I would head out right after work to do something fun. But on the boring days where I had no plans between quitting-time and husband-getting-home time, I had to try to kill the time.

When we first moved into the house, I was excited to spend my free afternoons working out in the yard. I had never had my own yard before and the thought of planting flowers I bought and watering them with my very own garden hose was thrilling. One of my first free afternoons was spent at the nursery picking out the perfect plants for the yard. I came home with a crate full of pretty flowers and a new shovel. I turned on some music and started planting away.

Almost as soon as I starting planting the flowers, Suede’s great aunt appeared from inside her house. She didn’t say anything to me, she just messed about in her own yard. I couldn’t be sure, but I felt like she was there to watch me. To make sure I didn’t do anything she didn’t approve of. Since I wasn’t planting marijuana or burying dead babies, I was pretty sure I wasn’t doing anything that she wouldn’t approve of.

I shook of my feelings of being watched and just kept planting.

The next afternoon after work, I went back out in my yard to check on my new plants and to give them some water. Almost immediately after I turned on the hose, Suede’s aunt appeared in her yard. She wasn’t doing anything really, just puttering around her yard. But again, I felt like I was being watched. This time it wasn’t as easy to shake off this feeling. I quickly finished my tasks and went back inside my house.

The next day, Suede’s aunt was already out in her yard when I pulled in the driveway after work. It was as if she was waiting for me. I nodded to her as I unloaded my car and walked inside my house. I closed the front curtains as soon as I put my things down and decided to stay inside the rest of the afternoon.

I was a married adult and I didn’t like feeling like a child who needed supervision. Especially when I wasn’t doing anything wrong.

Okay, so I admit that this all might have been in my head. Suede’s aunt was a pleasant lady-even if she was a million years old. She had lived next door to the little farm house since she had been a new bride. She was probably just used to keeping tabs on the old farm house, no matter who lived there. And really, it was technically her house. Suede and I were just (paying) tenants.

The rest of the time Suede and I spent in the old farm house had me shut inside with the curtain closed. The yard work was only done when it had to be done. I gave up on having bright flowers and spending time out in the sun in my yard.

As you’ve all heard, The King and I moved into our new house this weekend.  It’s still technically under construction, so yard work is the last thing on my mind.  I’d like to first hang up some window coverings and maybe figure out where the toothpaste is.  Then I’ll think about tacking the yard.
Maybe.

And since work is still being done on the house, it means that when Babboo and I get home in the afternoon, we aren’t alone in the house.  The King’s dad, who is semi-retired and awesome enough to help us, is there working on the last few odds and ends.  It really has been a blessing for us to have him available to help us with the new house, but still, it feels a little odd to come home to a house where someone else, someone that doesn’t live there, is working away.

I know my father in law isn’t watching me.  I know he isn’t keeping tabs on me.  I know this.
And yet, I can’t stop feeling like I did with Suede’s aunt.  I immediately want to put down my things and hide from my father in law on the top floor with Babboo.

But yeah, I’m a married adult and mother and I just can’t do that.

Last night Babboo and I made dinner while my father in law was in the basement working on my new house.

So tell me, am I the only one that feels super weird knowing that someone is watching me in my own house?

——————-

Head over to read all about my latest New Thing.  (And dude, I wrote that post before last night’s ride home on the bus where the bus driver decided to take his own route headed in the completely wrong direction and I feared that we were being hijacked by a terrorist.  Seriously.)

Want to hear what the latest “How I Met Your Mother” news is? (hint: someone knows who The Mother is!) Read all about it over at WeHeartTV.

Things I learned during this weekend’s move into the new house:

• Having to climb up two flights of stairs in your new house when you’re used to having an elevator at your apartment is hard work. My calves are killing me today.
• I own a lot of clothes.
• And shoes.
• Towels warmers are a gift from God.
• I need to make a trip to IKEA and buy one millions things for the new house. (You know, things like hand towels and rugs and mirrors and bar stools and TP dispensers. Oh my.)
• We need food in our fridge. Must go grocery shopping so that we don’t have to eat any more of Babboo’s frozen waffles.
• Having good friends bring us dinner on Saturday night was a blessing in disguise as not much of our perishable food items made the move.  Thanks to our friends we had enough food for the entire weekend.
• The new house is awesome.

• The new kitchen isn’t splotchy, my camera lens is just dirty.  (At least I hope the kitchen doesn’t really look like this.)
• A nice new bedroom the size of our old apartment is double awesome.

• Having said new awesome bedroom filled with our mattress and piles of all my clothes isn’t so awesome. In fact it’s double-not-awesome. (Closet system needs to be installed asap.)

• I am super duper paranoid about Babboo falling down the different flights of stairs. Unfortunately he does not share my fear and wants to play precariously close to them at all times.

• Going from a 4 block commute where I just walked to a 45 minute commute (which consisted of walking, taking a bus, taking a boat and then walking some more) sucks a@@.  Totally.  Even more then I thought it would.
• Waking up in my new house with The King and Babboo all snuggled with me in bed totally rocks.  Totally.

So tell me, did you learn anything this weekend?

———————-

Holy crap, did you read that Carly saw the Old 97’s in concert last night in Tulsa?  And did you see that her husband designed the concert poster and that I was the inspiration?!!!  Dude, that totally ME on the poster for the freakin’ Old 97’s!!  What’s even cooler is that the band signed one of the poster for me (ME!) and Carly will be sending it my way shortly.  It will then be framed and hung in the new house for all the world to see.  For shizzle, this is the coolest thing I’ve ever been a part of.

Thanks, Carly, for putting this together for me.

The wood flooring was installed on Tuesday.

The carpet is being installed today.

The old couch has been sold and is being picked up tonight.

The old TV has yet to sell.

Phone and cable are being turned off on Friday.

Rent is paid through Saturday.

It looks like it’s really going to happen!