The House on Maple - Before...

I wanted to get all fancy and do a "before" video. Let's suffice it to say the learning curve for me and my perfectionism were getting in the way of getting any thing posted before we actually moved into Maple Street. So I'm giving you a pictorial account of the house before renovations and what not begin. So let's start shall we?


This is the old Magnolia tree in our front yard. Magnolia trees are great for climbing!


This is the living room


Me and the professor in front of the fireplace in the Living Room on the day we closed.


View of the Living room from the mudroom/laundry room


Dining Room


moving into the butler's pantry


The kitchen circa 1932


The original sink...should it stay or go?


Jenn Air Stove...circa 1974...ugh.


LSD trip or 1974 linoleum kitchen floor...you decide.


Master Bedroom "suite" (aka den and sun room combined with 2 bathrooms -one a handicapped accessible one and the other bathroom...untouchable)


Fireplace in Master bedroom


Sunroom half of master "suite"



The "untouchable" bathroom...none will enter until it's sparkling new.


All it needs is a little "bon ami" am I right?


Oooh, I feel the need to take a shower just lookin' at the picture!


Let's move onto the handicap bathroom...it's usable.


Shower big enough for a family of four...


Are you jealous of our corner toilet?


Scary long dark hallway...


Anna's room after the professor painted it a blissful white


The entire room used to be this color, pepto pink from the 1930's. Gotta love that lead paint!


Jack and Jill bathroom between Anna and Gavin's room. How to tone down the pink for a boy? Any suggestions?


Isn't she lovely? Isn't she wonderful?


Gavin in Gavin's room - painted blissfully white by the professor. Before it was a mustard yellow floor to ceiling...yeah.


The porch is all repaired and repainted...the overgrown bushes gone.
Come say, "Hello" to the House on Maple.

More to come...of course.

God help us.

The House on Maple

Well, hold onto your pants.
As I mentioned in the last post, we are homeowners once again...finally...and in the deep South. And I have to say if we have learned anything in this whole process it is patience.

Most people go about buying a house the traditional way. They find themselves a great Realtor like Sherry Soforic and go house hunting. It's a very different animal here in small town Clinton, population 8,000 give or take a few. Here if a house is actually listed, it's usually overpriced and on the market for...well let's just say we've been here almost two years and many of them are still for sale.

The start of this transaction began in November last year with an e-mail and ends with the most unusual closing I've been party to on June 28, 2010. No joke, we signed our names on one piece of paper in an attorney's office in Clinton and then he shooed us out of there saying the office was too hot and we could just pick up a copy tomorrow. We then went directly over to the Presbyterian Home where the owners live. You see, the attorney's office isn't handicap accessible and Mrs. Skinner is in a wheel chair. Instead of having two elderly people wait out in the car in the attorney's parking lot on the hottest day of the year (record breaker I might add) as was suggested by the attorney's secretary, we all trekked over to Presbyterian Home's assisted living. After signing their name in the comfort of air conditioning, we were handed a whole bunch of keys by both Dr. Skinner and Mrs. Skinner. We were handed hope. Hope that one of those keys might actually work because right now we only had one key to one door.

Oh, did I fail to mention we had a key? Why yes, doesn't everyone get a key to the house they are buying several months before they are actually the owner? No? Uh, well this is awkward. Yep, the house on Maple was fair game for several months prior to signing that one signature on the dotted line. So much time for dreaming and lamenting and dreaming and lamenting. Did I mention dreaming and lamenting?

So we're the third owners of this Southern brick bungalow built in 1937. The Little's of Clinton built it. I tried to convince Anna that Stuart Little and his family lived here. But she wasn't having any of it. Then in 1965 the Skinner family bought it. They were a young couple with a new baby. Dr. Skinner taught English at Presbyterian College and Ramona dabbled in art and raised little Jimmy. They wanted to see that the house was passed onto another professor thus here we are...dreaming and lamenting.


We'll keep you posted.

The House on Maple: The Beginning

house2, originally uploaded by missmonkeymae.

We are officially home owners in our little town. The house on Maple is a 1937 painted white brick bungalow that needs a lot of love and attention. And we are just the family to give it to her.

More to come....

Can it be that my baby is five years old?: Rainbows

Baby to Five in the blink of an eye.
How does that happen? Remember when Summer vacation lasted forever? Now it seems like it's a week long and they are back in school. And it was just a few weeks ago our Anna Mae was a baby.

So she had her Rainbow Party. All the invitations were created (Anna drew and cut out all the rainbows)then sent along with a request for each attendee to wear a designated color of the rainbow.




Gavin and Daddy created the sign behind the kids. See, I have visual proof that her big brother (or bother as she, thanks to Olivia, refers to him)can do something nice for his little sister.



We had rainbow cupcakes. I had seen them featured many times in many blogs. They all look so pretty and rainbow-y. Mine...not so much. Advice to anyone considering making these...be prepared for color gel stain-a-palooza. Oh, and make sure you are totally a left brain person or have a left brain person handy to separate out all the cake batter and layering. I sucked at that part. But we did get very bright colorful cupcakes, so I'm pretty sure that the kids that came ingested their fair share of food dye for the next year or so. And can someone tell me where to find a cupcake liner that doesn't ruin the look of a perfectly beautiful cupcake? Are you sensing cupcake frustration dear readers? Dreams of a cupcakery were dashed because of the dreaded rainbow cupcake.



Oh, and the tropical heat pretty much melted any great frosting fantasy I may have thought might save the look of the cupcake. Okay, enough already Betty, move on.


One more beef...it pains me that there is no "y" in this cupcake, only RO_GBV...the shame.

There was also the quintessential party event, the pinata. I have a hard time watching children trying to bang the living daylights out of something that may have represented a living thing. So what does it say about me that I was okay with them beating the hell out of a rainbow? Kinda seems like some sadistic dream killer if you ask me. Not that anyone is, but if they did ask me that would be my answer.


This was the before the dream killing began. Such a sweet image don't you think?


Let the dream killing begin! It would have been perfect if only I had loaded that thing with all sorts of vegetables.

But in the end, after all the cake that was ground into the carpet, the sticky dried juice on the table and the remains of the destroyed rainbow, there was a five year old girl that loved the celebration she had with her friends.



I guess that means we'll do it all over again next year because after all, how often do you get a chance to whack the hell out of an object and not get arrested?

Can it be that my baby is five years old?: Surprise!

Yes.
And I've got birthday party pictures to prove it. After great gnashing of baby teeth, she decided that she wanted a Rainbow birthday party (I'm not sure why I capitalized rainbow. Maybe I'm finally giving it the respect it deserves). But before the official birthday party kicked off on the actual anniversary of this dear girl's birth a surprise birthday party was thrown for her the weekend before. And it was cause for celebration because we finally got some cousin action down here. Cousins, Aunt L. and Uncle K. and Gramma descended on our little house and we partied.


Clearly she wasn't expecting this when she came in from playing.


"I've always wanted a cookie pizza!" -Anna


Aunt L. and Anna get her itty bitty twin dressed in her new birthday clothes


Gramma Cece and the girls!


I swear there is a story in these pictures! Happy cousins, uninvited giraffe man comes to party, dress up gone bad...

...so we laughed, gossiped, chased kids around, and all around celebrated being together. Is it any surprise we had a great time?

Graduation Presbyterian Style!

Well, another graduation has come and gone.
That means another Summer of freedom for the Professor.
If freedom means turning into a Summer camp director for the kids and a full time domestic for his working all the year around wife. But, hey, in my world, if you don't have to get up by an alarm clock and you can wear the same clothes several days in a row, that, my friends, is a Summer of freedom. God bless academia.

So, if you are curious about a little high brow Southern culture, attend a graduation from a private college that's been around since 1880. Presbyterian College has introduced me to a different kind of Southern culture than Clinton introduced me to. And it is a relief to know that the state has some *cough, cough* diversity in it's history of the white person. It's probably your basic old money, new money, no money southern style. That is pretty much the norm every where you go right? But I digress. I'm here to share some graduation goodness.

One of the things I love about PC's graduation is the bagpipes. They bring the graduates in and they lead them out. It's really a cool tradition.



The other part of the ceremony that is really special is at the end. The bagpipes exit, followed by the professors who make an aisle of academia for the graduates to walk through. As the graduates are walking through, all the professors clap for them. It really is a touching moment.


Of course, my videography leaves a lot to be desired. Not so touching.

The whole ceremony takes place on the mall of the campus. Flanked by old old oak trees, it is a beautiful setting.



The building at the very center and rear of photograph is Neville hall. This is where the Professor's office is and his classes are held. The college's campus, in my opinion, is a beautiful setting. There are some campuses that are pretty sterile in their beauty. Presbyterian College has an "antique quality" about it that I love. We're very excited to be buying a house that is right of the edge of campus. Wait, did I write "buying a house"? Yep, that's right. We're taking the small town plunge. And I'm here to tell you, this house has so much blogging fodder I'll keep you bored, uh, I mean, entertained for years.

Meanwhile, I'll leave you with a few pics I took of the kids while we were hanging out at graduation. Come visit us soon. We miss you all.



Can you only imagine what she's thinking?



Bored but behaved. What a blessing.



Miss Monkey Mae in all her cuteness.


Tours are being planned. Space is limited. Book your trip soon.

Limos for Learning!

Local celebrity, Gavin Kiley, was recently seen getting out of a conspicuous white limo around one o'clock last Monday at Clinton Elementary. Rumor has it that he advanced five reading levels this past semester. This reading star was returning from a red carpet event where he was honored along with other amazing readers. The Limos for Learning event rewards young readers who make steady, conscientious efforts to improve their reading skills. It's a program that recognizes every kid who demonstrates a determination to improve.

When Gavin found out he had been awarded the Limos for Learning Certificate you would have thought he had won the lottery. But we know how much he has worked at improving his reading skills this year. The lottery is pure luck. What Gavin "won" was through persistence and practice. He had educators and supporters who helped him get back on track when he got frustrated. Is he a voracious reader now? Would he rather be reading a book than playing outside? No. It's still a struggle to get him to read. But now when he sits down to read, he reads. Not me, not his dad but Gavin does the reading. That makes him a star in our eyes.

Chartruese: It's the new black for Spring!

Imagine you're out for a run one fine Spring morning in South Carolina and you come home and your shoes look like this. Well, Zero to Boston runs daily training for marathons and this is what the god awful pollen looks like on his shoes. Now...imagine the inside of your nose looking like these shoes. Welcome to Spring in South Carolina. Is it yellow? Is it green? My preference is "chartreuse". Never having experienced allergies before, I used to scoff at those seasonal complainers. Not anymore...no, not anymore. We are surrounded by clouds of pollen dust. It isn't pretty.

But, there are a couple of blooming plant life here in the Southeast that we don't get up North. My favorite is wisteria. Sure, in Indiana there is the errant vine here or there. In South Carolina, it's a freakin' menace practically but a beautiful menace I must say. Here's a house down the street from our little house with a beautiful wisteria.



Another sign of Spring is Easter, of course. We started a week early with Presbyterian College's annual Easter egg hunt on Palm Sunday. Anna and her itty bitty twin girl got a chance to wear the dresses Aunt Laurie got them last year as a gift. They looked adorable.



It was bound to happen. But I was in denial. Our son is growing up. No longer did he want to be seen at a public Easter egg hunt with an Easter basket. Just a plastic grocery bag would do it seems. What's next? Oh, please, don't even tell me. Let me be blissfully ignorant.





How does a parent even slightly logically convince a child that a gigantic rabbit brings Easter baskets on Easter Sunday? I mean, at least Santa is a human being! I struggle...truly.



We walked back home to our little house which I have begun referring to as the "cardboard box" we live in. Anna, skipping along, so proud of that egg and Gavin, deep in thought about all the eggs he got.



Easter was low key. We got together with another family and hunted eggs at their house. Take notice, that Gavin had no problem with an Easter basket in a private setting. I've got some time still. Then a few more families arrived and we all celebrated Spring's arrival with a cook out. Of course, given that the pollen came uninvited, my nose and eyes were wishing they were inside.



It was the start of Spring break for the kids. And the official start of Spring for Mother Nature too. Here's to Claritin.

Happiness: Better Late than Never!

laughing Buddha, originally uploaded by prayerna.

Some of you may know that I've deemed 2010 the year of "letting my life speak". In January and February I've had many many chances to practice this. Part of my journey has been a little thing called The Happiness Project. Gretchen Rubin is the cause of all that happiness. It's a fascinating story that I encourage you to check out.

So, the reason for this post is not only to update you on my never ending search for personal happiness but to offer you the chance to increase your own. There are a couple of really handy things that Gretchen has put together that has helped me put my focus where it needs to be when it comes to my happiness. Namely, me....or you, if you are thinking about your own happiness. The first one is the Happiness Project Toolbox. It is chock full of fabulous self-esteem goodness! There are so many opportunities in there to help you "trudge the road of Happy Destiny". An aside, if you will, on the word "trudge" which means to "walk with determination". It makes trudging sound much better now don't you think? So, with determination I am walking the road of happy destiny.

The other support she offers comes by form of a pledge. Now, if you are anything like me, I've pledged my life away one too many times on things like weight loss, organizing, bill paying, exercising. Embarrassingly, my list could go on and on. This feels different to me...somehow, more attainable. Well, Gretchen's proposed to those of us pursuing happiness that 2010 be the year of the Happiness Challenge. Each month, she suggests an area of life to take on, and over the next four weeks, she proposes real and manageable resolutions to help you increase your happiness. So far over 7,800 people have taken the pledge to be in charge of their own happiness. You can join me on this adventure by going here and signing the pledge too.

And, finally, I wanted to take the time to let those of you (and you know who you are) know how grateful I am for the love and support you have given me over the past year. Moving to South Carolina has been challenging in so many ways and on so many levels. But you, my dear friends and family, have never failed to love and sustain me throughout it all. Know that I've got your back too if ever you should need it.

You Are Lovable!

One of the blogs I follow called, Kindness Girl, is by Patience Salgado, a real woman with a big heart. She has a project called Guerrilla Goodness. You might remember me writing about this in a post around this time last year entitled, Guerrilla Goodness Quaker Style. Well, she's put together a piece that is inspiring. I'm ready...are you?



Oh,and by the way, you are so lovable!

A Huge Decade of Change for Betty

Image by max_thinks_sees via Flickr

I started out thinking I'd do a year in review. You know, the best and the worst of 2009 kinda post. Then it hit me. Not only has the last year been life changing for me, the Professor, and our kids but this entire decade has been life changing. As I think about the past ten years, visually I'm looking at it in fast forward because it all seemed to happen so fast.

• The professor got his PhD
• I had a miscarriage
• The professor got a tenure track job
• I got pregnant
• We became parents to baby #1, Gavin Patrick
• I moved to part time at my job
• We found Irvington Friends
• I lost my job at Saint Vincent's
• I opened up a private practice
• I had a miscarriage
• I got pregnant by surprise this time
• We had to put Klondike kitty down due to cancer
  
• We became parents to baby #2, Anna Mae
• The practice grew, more therapists, we moved to our own location
• The professor's job became turbulent
• He "went on the market", as they say in the business
• I left my practice for a full time gig in the insurance business - crossed over to the well paying darkside in hopes of keeping our family in Indiana
• The professor was offered a job at Presbyterian College in South Carolina and accepted.
• We looked for a house to live in...found nothing but a tiny little cottage on a beautiful street
• We purged our belongings to fit into the little house
• We said goodbye to all our friends and family
• We became landlords
  
• I quit my job and became a SAHM for a year
• Gavin had a new school to adjust to
  
• The professor had a new job to adjust to
  
• We had a new life to adjust to
• We made new friends and missed the old
  
• Our marriage suffered huge challenges
• I got a new job with an hour commute
• We stopped being landlords
• We traveled many times to Indiana
• We looked at many houses to buy and even put an offer on a couple
• We waited (and are still waiting) for the right house for us
• We learned patience on many levels
• We put our house on the market

And here we are at the end of 2009...

Okay, so maybe all of you shut down before reading the entire list. I forgive you. It really was an exercise for me. Oh, and maybe an opportunity to play the sympathy card a little...just a smidge. Who would have predicted on New Year's Eve 1999, when we were partying "like it's 1999", that all this was in store for us? Certainly not me. Frankly, I'm tired. What I know is that everyone has a list like this. We can not escape change. My list may look like a cake walk to some and hellish to others but it's my list all the same.

So here's to 2010. Which I have personally deemed "The Year of Letting Your Life Speak" (you can thank George Fox for that one). I'll keep you posted.

Happy New Year, ya'll.