It smells like…
…teen spirit! Of course!
It started like this. Back in the day, The Asshole and his friends would take over my living room and drive me insane. So the “Man Space” was born, and we built him his own room to destroy at will. A 9×12 space, we put a tv, cable, couch and chairs, a drumset, and a bar -complete with keg and tap kit – inside. Color the Asshole and his friends happy!
Fast forward to the past years since Kevin’s death: The boy spent a LOT of time in the ManSpace. We got a new heater, and he continued to spend time there, and then he got friends who love the idea of the ManSpace with their whole teenage little hearts. I’m the cool mom -I have cup of soup and the ManSpace!
Soon, the boy was spending the night in the ManSpace, leaving his room neglected and empty. You can see where this is going, right? The boys asked me if they could get some of the storage boxes out of the manspace and into the garage. I said sure – clean the garage, and work with me over the summer, Boy, and you can make the Manspace your room (though we have some things we have to finish according to Papa before winter sets in again – as well as the fact they had to keep it clean in case we had visitors that needed a place to stay, he’d have to give up the room and couch surf). OH the GLEE in his little eyes and his not so little heart! Only thing better would have been handing him the keys to a brand new Mustang or something…
So move he did. He got all of his items from the room, and enter The Girl. Oh how her eyes gleamed at the thought of an empty room. I, of course, being the mean mommy that I am, told her that I was going to reclaim it for my office, as it once was before she was born. Hahahah! She gave me that wide-eyed pitiful look that she’s so good at, and I confessed to thinking one of the girls could take over the Boy’s old room. GLEEFUL CHILDREN! She shocked me by claiming the smaller room recently vacated by the boy, instead of kicking her sister out. Then she asked if she could paint over the old icky marked up blue walls. I agreed. SHE could paint over whatever she liked. After all, I firmly believe in avoiding manual labor letting a child learn by experience.
On her shopping day, The Girl and Nana picked out paint, and curtain material for Auntie to make up new curtains, and toothpaste to be used as cheap spackle. (Yes, Toothpaste. It was recommended, and it works! There’s your tip of the day!) They also got a basic painting kit, with rollers and edgers and all that good stuff. Nana loves her muchly, it’s true!
So, this weekend, she and her BFF cleaned out the rest of the room, washed down the walls, and then toothpaste spackled. I only peeked on occasion to be sure they were allright – after all, it’s manual labor a learning experience and there was a LOT of giggling going on. A lot. Giggling like that scares me, so I sat here and listened from afar. They then had to wait for the toothpaste to dry completely. And wait. And wait. and Wait.
Until there were only a little bit that wasn’t dry, and The Girl decided she had waited LONG ENOUGH and she wasn’t going to wait any longer and she’d just paint around the couple of still damp spots and dammit her room would be PAINTED!
Then came the question “…mom? how do I do it?!” As if she hasn’t watched all the episodes of Trading Spaces WITH ME. Harumph. You get your NEIGHBOR to do it. But, barring that, I gave her the basics I had gleaned from my considerable experience sitting on my ass observing, and let her loose. I did a little, but she honestly wanted to do it all herself – all the paint spills and glops and pink spots on the ceiling and all. We’re not about perfection here in Casa de Lessa, after all! We’re in it for the EXPERIENCE.
See more after the cut!
FINE! HERE! GOSH!
So, my lil blog crush, Adri, (who’s probably blushing already since I called him my blog crush again) he’s been insisting that he get to see something that I’ve written, since I’ve been bugging him relentlessly about his own writing and he finally caved and posted excerpts. At which time I totally wanted to hide because OMG he’s good, and I can’t ever hope to compare with THAT… AND he’s actually submitted something that is under consideration and holy wow.
*Inhales*
So. Because he asked so nicely (cough) and insisted, and even offered to read my bits of fluff that is totally not his usual style and offer crits for me if I could ever manage the guts to send him AbO and have him look it over… I shall relent and post a little ditty I wrote one day after seeing a sparrow – I think. I don’t remember why it came, it just did. Likewise, I dunno where it was headed, if it was going anywhere, or if it was simply all told in the 500 or so words that I pounded out one day last year. All I know was it was a story to be told, so I told it. Sorta. *g* He wants to read a bit of my first person memoirs of memories not my own… so… after the cut!
Be kind. (Rewind. hahah!)
Nim’s Fluffy Goodness
We recently got a box of goodies from TBF that he brought back from his trip to Singapore to visit family. We love goodies! Inside the box was an additional goody from S for the pup.
S works at a major movie production company in the visual effects department – yes, the MMPC that made Nim’s Island. TOLD you it was MAJOR….
ANYWAY. S loves to impress the kiddos by sending them little things from the movies (and we repay the favor by scrolling through the credits, pointing and loudly exclaiming OMG I KNOW HER!) and this time the pup had the good fortune of receiving this Nim’s Island beach towel. It is large, it is fluffy, it is cuddly goodness and the pup ADORES it – as you can clearly see.
Thanks S! We love ya!
To answer Nana’s question…
She asked how the first day went – it went well. The second day saw me getting a text message on his break…
“Dishes suck.”
Welcome to the working world, my darlin’ boy! He also has discovered that he intensely dislikes one of the managers, which I told him he’d simply have to get used too. It’s good for him to learn to deal with a variety of people and there is no better place to learn those type of skills then slinging fries at a fast food joint. I honestly credit my years there for making me the person I am today – with the strength to stand up for what I believe in despite the possible cost, as well as for giving me the means with which to deal with people en general. Especially as I generally dislike most folks. Heh. Ya gotta learn to put those kinds of things aside to work together and it’s a hugely important lesson to learn. Kudo’s for him having to start that on his second day of work – though the boy, he’d beg to differ and say its not at ALL worth it.
He’ll learn. *g*
The girls are almost done filming their little movie – they’re editing at the school right now, and will film the final scene here in a little while. Thus, the days of Irish pirate queens and English Lords battling it out in my back yard will come to an end. But the pup – she’ll wear her costume forever…
A milestone…
Yup, another milestone has been achieved in the Lessa Household. Today, my baby, my 16 year old son (what? He’s still my baby!) officially joined the work force. He tried to skip out on a picture, but I was too fast for him. He was SO NERVOUS. And so adorable. On Sunday, I coached him through his call to return the message asking him for an interview. I even wrote a script. Then on the day of his interview, he asked that I walk in with him – I did, and then sat in the dining room waiting for him to finish up. Then the day of his orientation, I walked him in again, then left to do some errands. Then today – I made him walk in all by his lonesome. It took a lot for him to get out of the car – he was quite nervous. But yes, click the picture to bigafy, and see the newest local McDonalds worker…
…the twins just called, and apparently they have him on the front counter, learning the register! They’re gonna get that boy to speak up yet!
In other news: The pup is cute while awake too.
And we woke up this morning to this:
Which is not so cute, or amusing. So I decided I was going to pretend it was yesteryear, and use Pioneer Woman’s Actions again, and do my best to forget this picture was taken this morning. Just a few short days before May.
It’s working – as long as I don’t look outside… heh.
