Tide & Prejudice

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a married woman in possession of a new frontloader, must be in want of a laundry pile.

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Oh Samsung Frontloader! What do I not owe you! You taught me a lesson, hard indeed at first, but most advantageous. By you, I was properly humbled. I came to you without a doubt of my laundry abilities. You showed me how insufficient were all my pretensions to wash a laundry load worthy of being washed.

Call me prejudiced towards my ancient (and now dead) Maytag washing machine, but my life improved by leaps and loads with today's Sears delivery. 

A (Bed) Room with a View

She knows which birds are singin'

And the names of the trees where they're performin' in the morning

--January Wedding ~ AVETT BROTHERS

I'm newly obsessed with knowing the name of every tree and plant in my yard, as well as the names of the birds singing outside. Partly because of this song lyric, partly because our yard is suddenly becoming beautiful and lyrical. 

So yes, I will admit to making my husband buy THIS for me for my birthday.

Try to understand; he's a magic man

At our rehearsal dinner, Whit's sister outed him for his many weird traits as a kid...i.e. creating and wearing stilt shoes to school, owning daytime and nighttime ninja constumes... collecting switchblades...proclaiming that he would be a magician when he grew up...

I did not fully --- 100% fully --- grasp just how serious this magician ambition was until yesterday morning at about 7 a.m. We'd gotten home from the gym to discover our next-door neighbor calling Whit's name. His wife and children were still out of town on Spring Break, and he'd somehow locked himself out of his house. "Do you happen to have one of our spare keys?" he asked hopefully.

We did not, but I'll tell you what we did have! (and which I had no knowledge of until that moment). Whit's lock picking set, known officially as the "Magestic Pix-Quix" (model A, mind you). He was able to locate said kit in our unorganized house in under one minute. Imagine the scene: my husband in ruddy gym clothes, slouching over the neighbor's front door, armed with a set of lock picks. He used words like "torque" and "pins" and "shaft" to try to describe what he was doing, but despite it being in the name of magic, I still cringed every time a jogger ran by the scene. I'm surprised our neighborhood alliance hasn't already sent out a mass e-mail alerting us to be on the lookout for sweaty men breaking and entering in the area. "When asked what he was doing at ### Woodward Way, the perpetrator said he was a magician!"

Most neighbors trade keys for emergencies like these; we simply wait to pick their locks.

Compost Gross

One of our neighbors drives a Hummer. Every time I see that thing barrel through the neighborhood, I feel a flower wilt and a baby sea turtle gasp its last breath. So, we try to do right by Mother Earth and actually registered for a compost bin when we got married. 

We received it.

We use it. All the time.

I didn't realize it before today, but if you don't empty it before you go out of town, it gets pretty sick. Right now in our bin it appears that an alien encased in white webbing is about to hatch out of a banana peel. I hope my husband feels grateful enough that I cooked him dinner to go dump this sh*& out!

In-spiration

In-laws -- a HUGE topic for newlyweds. Before Whit and I got married, I can't tell you how many people asked with a tone of simpering uncertainty, "Do you like your mother-in-law?," hoping for a horror story. The less-than-dramatic truth is that my mother-in-law is to die for, and judging from some delicious MIL stories I get to hear from some of my girlfriends, I know I'm lucky. Bubbles (as I'll call her here) is warm to everyone; she's generous; she's thoughtful, cheerful and cute. (And no, I'm not sucking up - one thing she's not is particularly tech-savvy, so I'm pretty sure she doesn't know this blog exists.) She's fun and creative and always has an interesting story to tell. Even though she and her current husband (Whit's father, like mine, passed away a few years ago) are building a house exactly 1/2 mile away from ours, she'll never be the pop-by, intrusive type. In fact, I'll be the first to admit -- WE followed THEM to Woodward Way.

One of my absolute favorite things about Bubbles -- and it's a trait I hope to emulate as a mother and grandmother -- is her ability to always get in the spirit of things. Since I've been in the family, I can't think of one holiday big or small that has passed by without her doing something special. She even buys her loved ones lottery tickets when there's a Mega Millions drawing!

The best -- her themed toast with sprinkles, on any special occassion! Here is her Halloween pumpkin and bat, and a St. Patrick's Day clover.

This is the Valentine's Day toast in action, complete with matching strawberries, raspberries and place mats, during breakfast at her house.

 
Last Easter she gave Whit (at that time, still a bachelor) these bunnies/flower holders. Adorable! He just couldn't get enough of them. ;)

The first time I met Bubbles was Fourth of July.  I wish I had pictures of the decorations at her lake house!

She's definitely given me license to step it up a notch. So, here's my attempt to follow in her footsteps for Easter 2010. Some may say cheesy; I say festive, fun and INspired.