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Category Archives: House & Home

Before & After

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So we’ve been wanting to get this chair redone every since Tom’s mom handed it down to us in 2003 (when we got our first house)…and we finally did it. The boyfriend of someone in my mom’s group does reupholstery and it wasn’t nearly as expensive as we’d always thought (though it was still a chunk of change). It’s not perfect—if you look close you can see he used white (?!?!?) thread—but it’s not super obvious from a normal viewing distance. We also lucked out on the fabric—upholstery fabric is notoriously pricey, but we got it from a $7.99 store. YAY!

BEFORE

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AFTER

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FABRIC CLOSEUP

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Half done!

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The lumber arrived this morning—and my first thought was HOLY CRAP! It takes that much wood for our small deck?!

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Yeahhhh. Our order was just a tiny portion of the truck. 🙂

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The machine was really cool. I asked what it was called—a Crab.

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Working on the deck!

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The first section was finished in about two hours! They’ll be back tomorrow to continue…but I think it might take one more day since they have to build the support structure for the second half (they just reused—and added onto—the original one for the first section).

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Poor Katie

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Ugh. Poor Katie.

Before we left, I noticed two red spots on her face by her eyes. I just thought they were random baby pimples and didn’t think much else about it.

We came home and she had another one—and the old ones weren’t gone. Another day, and she was up to five—all around her eye.

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It was at this point I decided to ask my sister, Kathryn, who has professional dermatology experience. Her diagnosis was Molluscum, a type of wart. (FYI: don’t google–EEK!—though the pics are all WAY worse than what she has.)
Unfortunately, they are contagious, and can be spread on herself or to Owen (or to us). 🙁 But how do you keep a baby from touching her eyes/face/mouth? EXACTLY. YOU CAN’T.

My sis said to keep her (and Owen) very moisturized because it spreads more easily to dry skin. So I lathered her up really well last night…but then she woke up with three more around her mouth and one on her finger! Ugh. I bandaged the one on her finger but then I have to watch that she doesn’t chew the bandaid off (and swallow it). And of course it’s one of the two fingers she puts in her mouth to comfort herself. 🙁

They’ll (supposedly) eventually go away on their own but it sounds like it’s something that can stick around for a long time (like 5 years) and the best treatment is burning or freezing. 😐 Though my sis says from what I’ve said and pics I’ve sent they don’t seem to be that bad. There are other creams but Googling says they’re not very effective (and my guess is they shouldn’t be applied around a baby’s eyes).

I just hate that she has to deal with this. (Okay, I’m not kidding anyone. I hate that I have to deal with it as well.) They look awful but don’t seem to itch (fingers crossed). Though she does seem to be more cranky than she’s ever been…and I’m guessing her no-nap days are because of this somehow, too, though she does sleep all night.

We have an appointment with the pediatrician tomorrow so we can confirm. We don’t need to quarantine ourselves (you just have to take precautions) but I really want to because it just seems easier. I did cancel our playgroup date tomorrow but I’m sure we’ll be back next week depending what the doc says.

I just hope there’s something we can do…

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Annual Accidental Freezer Defrosting

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I swear this is becoming an annual thing. Ugh.

I went to put some bagels in the freezer this afternoon and discovered that the door was ajar and EVERY SINGLE THING was thawed. Still cold, thankfully, but completely thawed. Even the super thick pork loins. Ugh.

You’d think I’d be used to this by now but your mind still races with the HOLYSHITWHATDOIDONOW thoughts.

Of course, my first thought was “Oh crap! The babysitter probably got in the freezer this weekend and I hadn’t showed her or even told her about the baby lock so that probably got in the way and caused this.” So I texted her and asked when she had been in there (just to know how long it had been open) and she said she didn’t go in there. Hmmm. Then I noticed that the baby lock had busted off. (We’ve had it on ever since we had the door pop open before.) Tom says that the door seal doesn’t work well at all so if it got hot enough maybe the lock popped off (it’s just on with glue after the sticky tape popped off). Well, I didn’t think the entire seal was bad…but maybe it just isn’t as strong as it used to be (it IS 10 years old). So anyway, we’re sure that was the reason but man…WHY did it have to happen the 48 hours we were gone when we’re NEVER gone? Ugh.

So anyway, I rushed to the shed to pull out the huge cooler (which, of course, was under a bunch of crap). I had piles of TOSS, EAT, and REFREEZE. We have no space heaters anymore so I had to get hair dryers (I wanted to defrost the ice as quickly as possible)…except I blew a circuit when I tried to run two at the same time. Owen was intrigued by what I was doing and helped for about three seconds.

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It seemed like it took forever, but I had the entire thing emptied, defrosted, and refilled in about an hour. (I guess experience does pay off, eh?)

Thankfully quite a bit of the stuff could be immediately refrozen (hot dogs, professionally packaged stuff, spaghetti sauce). Some stuff will be cooked and refrozen (brats, ground beef, hamburgers, pork). But we still have about 15# of meat to eat this week.

And we obviously also need to look into other door locks and/or alarm systems. I remember it was a bit challenging to find an acceptable door latch in the first place and the reviews for alarms on Amazon don’t look too promising.

Hoo boy.

The General’s Dinner

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A few months ago we went to a USMC charity event called Basket Bingo and a group of us bid on—and won—a five-course dinner at the general’s house. Well, it was tonight.

Our good friends happened to be behind us coming on base—and we were quite early—so we stopped by the water to take some pictures. It was just a little windy.

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Karen and Tom

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The first couples to arrive.

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FIRST COURSE (appetizers on the back deck)
Watermelon tequila shooters
Brie toasts with papaya salad
Chicken satay skewers with chocolate BBQ sauce
Mojitos

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Our Hosts, General & Mrs. Lukeman

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The table setting.

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SECOND COURSE
Plantain soup

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THIRD COURSE
Mélange of jumbo lump crab, mango, and avocado in a tropical fruit purée

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FOURTH COURSE
Island pork tenderloin with a brown sugar glaze
Coconut shrimp with a mango sauce
Baked green rice
Green bean sautée

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FIFTH COURSE
Raspberry sorbet
Layered key lime tart
Molten chocolate cake

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The staff from the gourmet club that prepared and served the dinner.

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The whole group enjoying post-dinner drinks on the deck.

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Then, we got takeaway gifts of a rum cake, spiced nuts, and a packet with ALL the recipes! I will definitely be making the Chocolate BBQ Sauce because it was DIVINE and I could have drank it with a straw!

Overall it was a fun night and a very enjoyable meal…I just wish I hadn’t been running on fumes (zero hours of sleep after our short weekend trip to DC).

A friend in the pool

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After play group today, Amanda and Xander stayed so the boys could go in the pool. Xander is two…and wasn’t quite sure—for the first hour anyway—about the whole thing. But he eventually went in. They were having a blast splashing each other.

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Later, Amanda texted me:

Thank you again so much for today. Xander has not stopped talking about playing with Owen since he woke up.

Xander just adores Owen and it’s sooo cute to watch…

Prepping for the new deck

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Step 1: Remove overgrown bushes.

I anticipated that being hard, but apparently they have very shallow roots and Tom pretty much just pulled them out without much digging.

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Step 2: Get bushes ready to burn in the fire pit.

Yes, I agree—we need a bigger fire pit. 🙂

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Step 3: Remove and move bricks.

Owen helping daddy: “Keep ’em coming!”

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The old bricks will be used to “embiggen and fancify” the fire pit. 🙂

That’s all for today.

Fun in the dead pool

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The top inflated pool ring gave out a few days ago—I was upstairs in the office when I heard GUSHING water so I ran to the window to see that the side of the pool collapsed. I ran downstairs and stopped it, and we decided that it was probably just overfilled (we had been trying to regulate the salt levels) and the pool ring probably had another hole in it or was just not strong enough and gave way—so in the end we opted to just get a new pool (actually the cheapest part of the whole deal). It came today, so we had to get rid of the old one. The fastest and easiest way? Slit the side. It emptied so FAST that Owen barely got in in time to enjoy the last foot of water. When it got down to a few inches, I let Katie splash around as well and they both had a ball.

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Then it was nekkid baby time as it was still plenty warm enough and Tom was getting the new pool set up.

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And do you see what’s in that second to last pic? Tooth number five!

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And last but not least…she loves spending time with her daddy!

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What is with people?

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So we want a new deck. Tom doesn’t have the time (or help) to do it, so I asked around for some recommendations and made some calls.

Guy #1 comes over the next day. He’s nice enough, takes measurements, then says he’ll email the estimate within two days.

Guy #2 comes over the next day. He’s nice enough, takes measurements, then says he’ll call with an estimate. Two hours later I have the estimate.

Day 4 and we haven’t gotten the first estimate yet. We call. Oh, he’ll have it for us by Saturday afternoon at the very latest.

Day 6, still no estimate. He doesn’t return our calls.

In the meantime, Guy #2 has called twice to check in so he can get us on the schedule if he needs to.

Day 7, the estimate we’ve been waiting A WEEK for? That was promised within two days, then another two days? On Day 7 we get this:

Sorry, just been too busy to get to that estimate, I’d like to refer you to *** he does nothing but decks his numbers ***-****

Jackass.

The time to tell me you’re too busy (or just didnt want to do the job) is when I first contacted you or even when you showed up to give the estimate—not a week later.

So even though I wanted nothing to do with anyone he recommended, we had to call because we need at least two estimates.

GRRR.

And we have a playset!

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We weren’t really planning on getting a big playset, but once I saw Owen playing on his little Step 2 playset and saw that he had really outgrown it…I looked on the local Yard Sales board and found exactly what we wanted, emailed the lady, and made plans to go look at it (it was 45 minutes away). I was excited because most of these types of sets are SUPER expensive and have too many things that Owen wouldn’t really use, but this one was actually quite reasonable and had things Owen would like (towers, ladders, a rock wall, and a tunnel!). We looked at it, Owen played on it and loved it, so we left a deposit last weekend and made plans to get it this weekend (Tom was in the field all last week).

I thought the process would take ALL day, possibly requiring two trips (and since it was 45m one way, two trips would have been dreadful)—even with our friend’s big trailer—because Tom had no one able to help him. But thankfully at the last minute I managed to get a friend’s husband to help (the ones buying our old playset!) and then one of our best friends was also able to help…and he also offered his big truck (which ended up being critical) and the whole thing was done in like two hours, not counting drive time! They had it apart and loaded on the trailer and truck in under an hour (the lady texted me to tell me and we were both amazed) and I think it took about the same to unload and put it together. YAY!

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“Mom! The number one!”

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“Mom! Look! It’s the letter A!”

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Testing out the bench.

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He had to run and get some cars…

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Are you done screwing the slide in so I can use it?

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Wheeee!

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Tunnel!!

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Uncle Tom! (A great picture that I’m ticked ended up blurry! I had an in-focus one but you couldn’t see Owen’s face.)

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The workers!

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Katie’s first swing!

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Also, as a bonus, we didn’t have to use any money from the savings account for the cost of the thing (which was not inconsequential). We had our stash of Craigslist/LejeuneYardSales cash from a few recent sales for the deposit last weekend, then I sold a bunch of stuff this week to finish out the rest of the payment. YAY!

15,146 views…?!?!

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I happened to check my YouTube Analytics this morning, and saw that this video has the most views—to the tune of 15,146. WHAT THE? REALLY? WHY? I’m intrigued.

Even the number of times other videos have been watched amazed me…the top ones have 400+ views. WHY!?! Who the hell is watching my videos? Not that I care, it just really interests me!

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The pool is officially open!

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Owen has been bugging me to go in the pool ever since the first day’s brief splashing, but I haven’t been able to let him since the salt levels were too high. Today I finally over-filled the pool by about 2″ hoping it would be enough…and it was! I warned him it was going to be cold but he didn’t care…until he got in.

“EEK! IT’S COLD!”

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Happy, happy boy!

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Then I had him empty some of the water. It’s easier (and more fun) for him to do it!

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Then he wanted balls. And water guns. And his AquaZooka. And then…

Owen: Mama, I want the fish.
Me: What fish?
Owen: The floaty fish!
Me: We don’t have a floaty fish.
Owen: Yes! In the shed!

I go to the shed and look around. I don’t see a fish.

Me: Owen, I don’t see a fish. Where is it?
Owen: Behind the wagon.

And damn if it wasn’t there, buried UNDERNEATH a hose. He must have seen it last weekend when Tom had everything out.

Then I noticed the sky looked like this:

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So I kept an eye on the weather, but the clouds just moved right over us. Katie was enjoying watching her brother.

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Then, strangely enough, AFTER the clouds passed, THEN it started to sprinkle, so I got Owen out of the pool:

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And he decided to give Katie some love:

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And then post-pool Lego play—of course in the kitchen where things easily get bumped or knocked off. But, to his credit, he said “But it’s out of reach [for Katie]!” which is exactly what I told him he had to do.

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Unfortunately, when I went out later to fix the skimmer (that Owen had knocked apart), the pump started beeping at me that the salt was too high again. I have NO idea how that could happen, so I get to try again tomorrow…

Poooooooooolllllllll!!

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Oh my goodness he was SO excited watching Tom get it ready and start filling it up…

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I love the feet here.

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And the face here.

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Tentative first step…

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Hey, this is fun!

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Posing for mom’s request.

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More splashing around.

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“Can I take my shorts off?”

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“I have to go potty!”

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I tried to get a cute shot of his face with his butt blurry in the background…but for as scary smart as he is sometimes, he could NOT grasp that I wanted him to move his legs around. 🙂

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Tom working on the walkway.

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She LOVED the water and wanted to GO GO GO!

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When she first got in, it was pretty shallow so she could kinda crawl/float around…and boy did she scoot quickly!

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But since it was filling as we were in it, it obviously kept getting deeper…

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…and she started taking on water!

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And of course big brother was RIGHT there the whole time. He wanted to play with her SO badly!! And we taught him that if he sees Katie go under, the first thing he has to do is pull her up then scream for us if we’re not right there. 🙂

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I sense a very wet summer for me…

On a sidenote, we’re trying a saltwater system this year. It’s supposed to be a lot easier since there’s no chemicals—just salt—and it’s less harsh on your skin and hair. We had to get a new filter system, but we’re still ahead of the game cost-wise compared to the neighborhood summer pool cost (heck, I think we might be ahead of the cost from last year still—not even including this year)!

NEW CONTENT:

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A great day to be outside!

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Wow. Just wow.

Today was one of those rare North Carolina days where the weather is perfect, there’s a nice breeze, there’s no bugs, and it’s perfectly glorious to be outside…so we took full advantage of it!

I got out the kid enclosure our friends loaned us to put Katie on the deck under the umbrella (so I didn’t have to worry about sun) and she didn’t mind it too much.

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And then he climbed in with Katie.

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Meanwhile I was catching up on some of my big ol’ stack o’ magazines.

And Owen was running around playing with/snapping his Indiana Jones whip (something he’s not allowed to do inside), running around the yard, climbing on his playset, and playing with his army men* that he earned this morning for pooping. 🙂

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And here you can see him in all his adorable action:

We came inside for a little bit because after her nap, Katie was NOT having it…but when daddy got home, we decided to eat dinner outside!! By then it was a little cooler but still definitely worth staying out to enjoy it.

Ahhh, spring!

* The army men were an unplanned surprise. They were a gift from Grandma Marsha probably two years ago (in a Diego backpack) that we just tucked away until he was old enough to play with them. And I had kinda forgotten about them as they were in Katie’s closet (Owen’s old closet). But today, Owen happened to be in her room with us and the closet doors were open and his inquisitive eyes glommed on to Diego RIGHT away: “What is this?!” 🙂 Then he opened it and found the army men…which I then immediately used as a potty training bribe!

Locked in.

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Yeah, so, I just got locked in the bathroom with Owen while Katie was roaming around ungated. (I thought she was gated in but then I heard her playing with the dog bowl and knew she was on the loose.)

Talk about trying to stay calm in a panic.

How did it happen? Well, the door knobs were off from a kid-locking-herself-in-during-play-group-incident earlier that morning and I hadn’t put them back on yet (no, we were never given the little keys to unlock the doors—and we’d tried to find some to buy but just never did). So I didn’t even think about it when I shut the door behind me to keep Katie out while I dealt with a diarrhea pull-up.

Talk about an instant all-over body sweat.

Okay. I can’t get the door open. Who do I call? Who is closest that might be home? I thought of any of the mommy group people who were just there but I knew the closest ones had kids napping…

Okay, I can get one pin out—if I can get them all I can take the door right off the hinges. Nope, the other two are stuck. Calling Tom was pointless since it would take him at least 45m to get home (and there’s not much he could do over the phone).

Who would know how to get the door off? Roger might, but he’s likely busy. Ursula—she could at least come get Katie and then—oh, duh—she could likely put the knob back on. So I called her and she wasn’t home (5m away) but was in town (15m) so as I was telling her what was going on I was still messing with the door and trying not to sound terribly panicked…when I somehow managed to move something just enough to allow me to open the door.

Ah.

Breathe.

Wipe the sweat off my forehead as I thank Ursula for answering her phone.

Then race to find Katie…who was happily playing in the playroom.

Breathe. Breathe. Breathe.

And put “buying keys” on our shopping list. 😐

We’re really behind.

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14 Family Handyman
1 USAA Magazine
3 Costco Connection
2 Taste of Home Simple & Delicious
11 Entertainment Weekly
1 Popular Mechanics
1 Cooks Country
3 Cook’s Illustrated
7 Consumer Reports
3 Food Network Magazine
3 Parenting
3 Parents
3 Family Fun
1 Yum for Kids Food & Fun

Though I think most or all of the Consumer Reports have been leafed through. And possibly some of the Family Handymans. But some are still in the plastic…