Eye Glue by Noah

This morning when I asked Noah if he slept well I got a story worth sharing.  It started with some eye rubbing and "yeah, I can't get the eye glue out to wake up this morning."  Then he launched into a story about how "eye glue" works for him to sleep good.  I'll do my best to transcribe it as he told and my memory kept it for the day.

When I go to sleep, after my eyes are closed, I have little pet bugs that put my eye glue in.  Eye glue comes as little tiny dots that they lay on top of my eyes.  The little pet bugs keep the eye glue in a jar with a tight lid, but if they work together they can get it opened.  The jar of eye glue is kept on the shelf in dad's workroom, so the bugs go down there under the doors and you don't see them.  They get the eye glue jar and bring it all the way up to my room.  The lid is on tight, so they work together and they get it opened.  Then they put one little dot of eye glue on each of my eyes.  The dots of eye glue are little tiny (he holds up his hand with his index finger curled all the way up).  That's how I sleep like a rock with my eyes glued shut.  In the morning, I have to rub and rub to get the left over glue out so I can open my eyes.  Sometimes that's hard to do.  And my little pet bugs are so small you can't see them.  And they help me to sleep good.  I love my little pet bugs (he closes his eyes and snuggles his blankie).

The end.

Next time you need help falling asleep, you can just get some imaginary little pet bugs to apply some eye glue for you and you'll sleep like a rock!

Tale of a travelling chest

It started something like this:
Jerry: "Do you guys have anything that needs to go up to the dump?  I'm taking this old chest up there and there's more space in the van. Or, maybe, you guys want this chest?"
Me: "What is the chest you are taking to the dump?"
Brian: "No, no, it's garbage..."
Jerry: "It's just this old cedar chest that got a little water damaged at some point and lost a leg."
Me: "It wouldn't hurt to just take a look."

I ended up saving Jerry a trip to the dump and causing my hubby to groan and complain substantially.  I think in the end, I have a nice piece worth far more than the $15 I put into it.  Heh, heh, I even managed to finish it in less than 6 months!

This is the broken leg corner. 

Here she is in all her dump-ready glory.

I peeled off the weird O's from the front and Brian helped build a new base to support it.

The handles also had to go.

Here she is!

After end shot.

That little white tag says: Cedar Chest $195. 

The inside is a very nice cedar that I was able to clean up with some magic eraser, a vacuum, and a damp rag.  Noah helped with the process, but I didn't get any pictures of him in his paint-wear.  In the end it's a pretty smooth, sharp paint job.  The color is Great Lakes by DutchBoy.

Since we're moving to a place where Noah won't have a window seat bench in his bedroom, it will probably serve as his toy chest/window seat.

Sneak peek of the new place

We're calling the next house the Granny house in recognition of it's previous owner.  It's a cute white cape cod on the outside on a cul de sac with a very tidy, flat yard that's still walking distance to work for us and school for Noah.

It's nearly 60 years newer than the yellow downtown house (we need a name for that one!), so we're excited that it won't have so many of the super old house issues.  It had an addition of a great room in the 1980s, so parts of it are quite new.  It isn't all "done" on the inside, so we've got big plans for the place!

Looking into the kitchen from the great room.

Formal dining room, looking into the kitchen

I see a wall that's begging to come down!

Master bedroom

Gotta love pink carpet and peach walls!

Main floor/master bathroom plus laundry

Nothing like swapping out laundry while on the toilet!

While we have big plans for the place, we really intend to take it slow and live there for a while before we change anything.  We want to make a real plan and do things right the first time so we don't have to re-do our work.  I'm showing you here the top candidates for improvement :)

Off to continue packing!

B-B-BBQ

We've enjoyed the Bicycle, Blues, and Barbecue event in Clear Lake, IA several times.  I even raced in it that one year when I thought I might be an awesome bike racer.  It didn't take long to prove otherwise... Anywho, it was extra fun this year because we brought a few friends down and shared the experience.

You may have seen some instagram shots during the weekend. If not, follow me on instagram!  Username greggmelissa.

The rain cleared up just in time for the kids race.  Noah rode it, of course.  Local celebrity Tom Zirbel (a real pro racer) led the slightly older group of kids out.  They had an option to race the full criterium lap or to do the 2 block stretch at the finish line.  Noah, so far as a bike racer, is more like Tom Zirbel than mom!

At the beginning of the road race we observed this cool set of wheels.  Kids and parents alike were fascinated.  It's a bike (well, trike really) that's enclosed with an electric assist and solar panels up top to keep the battery charged.  It even had a trunk sufficient for hauling groceries.  Too bad it doesn't seat more than one, or we'd probably have to get one!

 Clear Lake has some of the best playgrounds we've been to.  Noah played and played.  There is a larger playground right next to the criterium course, so when the bike racing got "too boring for 4 year olds", he was able to play right there.

The weekend might be called Bicycle, Blues, and Barbecue, but for us it was more bicycle, playgrounds, and beach.  It doesn't have nearly the same ring, does it?  We heard the music while we were hanging around at the beach, playgrounds, and watching the bike racing.  We had one meal from the food vendors bragging about their BBQ awesomeness.  To us it was pretty good, but overpriced.

One of my highlights from the weekend was getting our anti-bike racing friends to enjoy watching a bike race.  I brought enough cowbells and clappers to allow everyone the opportunity to make noise at the races.  Lexi thought is was a blast ringing the bell and seeing the bikes go by really fast.  Yes!

The other highlight was seeing all the people we know.  It's funny how small the bike community in our area is.  When there's a good event like this, they all come out.  We get to cheer for other bike team coaches and say hello to plenty of people we know.  And, as with most pro races, the celebrities are close enough at the event to say hello and good luck right to them - try that football fans!

Randomness - aka a list of excuses.

I haven't posted anything house related because we're in that limbo state between buying and selling where we aren't completely positively confident about what's happening until the ink is dry and the money is paid.  It's a totally frustrating and energy-draining place to be.  All fun projects end up taking a back seat to life.

I wanted to pop in here and welcome all those Better After folks who have stopped by!  It was so kind of Lindsey to feature our bathroom remodel.

We're working on a vacation condo remodel, but have that phased and scheduled to be a fall, winter, spring project because we like to play too much in the summer.  I probably won't have next steps and updates on that until November. 

We took a vacation and need to write up all of our fun from that.  We played in the Nebraska panhandle - most people think that's crazy - it's actually a beautiful place and low on crowds! 

Most of my Noah fun blog posts have been relocated to Instagram.  I don't usually have as much to say as a picture to share, so that works well for me.

Up next: we'll be packing and moving and starting over with an old house that needs some love :)
I have an orphan piece of furniture that I'm working on (how's that for a teaser).
I've been maintaining some sanity with knitting projects, but nothing is finished that isn't a gift for a blog reader, so I'm not spilling the beans on that either!

Hope you're all having a great summer!