Lookie Lookie

Mr F and I scored a new light fixture for the dining room at the Antiques Fair today...

(don't mind all the garage junk in the shot) I've been wanting one of these for a LONG time. $85 bucks down from $155.


We also got to walk around with this all day...

This was free.

A Teaser

Me in my "off-duty" crossing guard look.

Like all people who wear day glow reflective safety vests... this look reads: I'm comfortable with danger.

The Decor... Or Lack There Of (aka longest post of all time)

So since we last spoke of it, truthfully, not much has happened.

The other day (Sunday) after walking down the street to the cider mill and bringing home cider and fresh donuts, we sat on our screened in porch and ate.

Mr F said "I'm really happy."

and lately I'm just enjoying that I don't have to live through a life and a circumstance that was kind of killing my spirit.

More so than I really could stop and take in or I would have stopped trying to change them.

So I guess don't give up.

Some people (few) know exactly the crazy CRAZY financial risk we took in moving here.

And maybe one day I'll outline it because it's kind of interesting.

Anyway, I made the decision that we should come.

(Mr F wouldn't have risked it... he's not so much the risk taker in the family)

Well, if you're a long time reader you may recall that we moved to Asheville two years ago and then pretty much anything and everything possible went wrong.

It was just impossibly tough and the hits just kept coming.

More than you even were forced to bear witness to.

And then, after literally crying and begging the Gods to turn back time...

This opportunity came up to come back.

But it was a bad deal.

Really.

Only a complete crazy person would have walked away from what we had for what we were going to have to live on.

But I am completely crazy.

And I knew that it was risky.

But I also knew that it was a risk worth taking.

And it stood to be the ultimate chance to rework our cards.

And the crazy thing is...

That just as quickly as everything went bad in Asheville...

Everything has gone well here.

Mr F got freelance work from his NC job which more than made up the financial deficits of the new one.

Then he snagged another high paying freelance gig.

We weren't here so he had nothing better to do but work like crazy.

We sold our house.

He got a raise so he's actually making a living wage and doesn't need to work around the clock.

And then we moved.

There was never an off month.

Things transitioned perfectly.

Right after we moved in, new bigger paycheck coming, his NC freelance gig ended.

So we're all together, in a house that's massively more affordable, in a good school district (no more tuition)... I mean no joke our monthly expenses with just those two changes are about 1500 less.

And we can now buy groceries, and go out for dinner, and buy *hot* new school clothes without having an anxiety attack.

And I can actually decorate this house.

And like my life.

Our house is messy... but... you know what? I don't really care. I'm relishing the opportunity to be lazy. I might not have gotten that spa weekend... but I don't have to put the clean clothes away if I don't want to. And that's feeling pretty good.

That I'm the master of my own destiny.

That I can spend the day walking to the library, and taking Baby out for an ice cream cone (shh don't tell Kid), and listening to Kid's plans for seducing 7 year old boys... and nothing else (well... except make breakfast, lunch, dinner, laundry, pay bills, go grocery shopping, and laugh at Baby singing "don't you wish your girlfriend was hot like me?! with her pacie hanging from her lips... which is really hot, you know the usual).

It feels pretty good.

I'm feeling more like me.

I even bought a fashionable hat.

"Maybe that's a little too fashionable" Kid said.

Mr F said I looked like a cancer patient.

I looked in the mirror and thought... yes, but is that a bad thing?

Maybe soon I'll start exercising...


Oh and the decor:

Bought this runner at Target ($89)

I'll try and get another one or two to finish out the hall way.

I've also decided to dabble in re-upholstery.
I'm starting with my headboard. It's seen better days. We've had it for 9 years. It is was white. Don't mind the movers saran wrap (see I don't have to do things anymore... like take that off).

For $12 bucks I got this fabric (fabric.com)...

So if it's terrible, whatever. No big deal.

I'm painting the room a similar grey to what we had in NC... I think the headboard (which honestly is mostly swallowed by pillows) is going to be a super fun pop against the wall. And I can always change it.

I also got this small bit of fabric (mistake... should have gotten more)($3)

to either make a valance for our door window in our kitchen (it's very complimentary to the drapes we have in our living room and now in dining area of kitchen) or cover a drum shade to make a hanging pendant light over our table.. ala this...
Which is over $300.



Oh and I got this ($8) outdoor fabric on crazy clearance to upholster the tops of the basic stools we're going to use at our kitchen counter (basic stools will be painted a dark dusty blue). And to make a seat cushion for our piano bench.
I figured those cushions will take a lot of wear and this will be easiest to keep clean. either way $8!

$68

That's how much I've had to spend out of pocket trying to making walking to school a safe option.

Today, after waiting at the crosswalk for several minutes while 50 or so cars drove by oblivious TO THE LAW,

(and P.S. every afternoon while I wait at the same crosswalk a Sheriff's patrol car zooms through too... just sayin')

A woman along side of us, waiting to make a left turn, started yelling in her car.

(No, not at us.)

At the other cars... that it was a CROSSWALK.

Then she put her car in park and got out and tried to stop the traffic for us in her business suit.

I started getting worried that she'd get herself killed.

So I came home and ordered that hand held Stop sign.

I'm also thinking of suggesting to the local paper that they follow us to school.

For real.

This is an expensive school district to live in.

We pay township and village taxes.

And yet they can't maintain the crosswalks or get crossing guards?

Up until a month or two before school started the school district tried to remove the buses from the village limits (except for students who cross the train tracks). All other students within the village limits were to be walked or driven to school. I wasn't shocked by that, seeing as most school districts have about a mile radius that is the walk to school zone. But, here, people were in an uproar. For the last several years they had actually been offering a bus door to door for every single student. But here is my question... up until this summer there was the possibility that all village kids would have to walk... what safety measures were they going to put in place to accommodate that? Weren't they going to spruce up the crosswalks and man them with crossing guards?

In the end the busing situation was compromised. Instead of manning the crosswalks... they have continued busing all kids that live on the other side of what is essentially "main street".

I just find it confounding on so many levels.

People, we live *relatively* far from school. 3/4 mile door to door. And we get there in 12 minutes which includes waiting to cross the street.

But for a town and school district that theoretically wants more walkers (saves them money) they have done nothing to make it safe for students to do so. I've thought of video taping our crossing situation for you, so you can see how bad it really is. They have about 1000 para pros meeting the school buses (slight exaggeration) and they can't get any crossing guards (no exaggeration). The school superintendent is crossing us when we get to the school complex.

The thing is... it currently is not safe for us to walk to school. And we're just about the only walkers. If I wasn't so hell bent on making my point... that we have a right to walk... and that we, factually, have the RIGHT OF WAY... even I'd have given up. The situation is disappointing and dangerous. There is really no safe way for children to walk to and from school by themselves here. Walking my child to school is stressful and infuriating to me. That I am forced to question whether or not we can continue when I have a 7 year old that actually WANTS to walk every morning is pissing me off.

I mean what is going on that I have to spend nearly 70 bucks trying to make walking 3/4 of mile to school... in the school crossing crosswalk... safe? How is this not a BIG PROBLEM?

I'm about to make it one.

IMPORTANT REMINDERS

I found this note taped up inside Kid's closet this morning...

From The Furious Parenting Files

"Baby turned off my radio!" Kid yells running into the kitchen.

"I'm going to kill her." Mrs F replies deadpan, without looking up from the recycling.

"Grab the sharpest knife in the drawer." Mr F says to Kid mid dish wash.

Kid turns around and sulks back to her room.

"Sarcastic parenting is the best kind of parenting." Mrs F says to Mr F.