Jim started prepping for his meal by washing the produce, seeding the jalapeños, choosing a large frying pan from the cupboard, and hunting up additional spices from our stash. He found a head of garlic and roughly chopped it up; skins included. I found the soy sauce, but remembered that we’d used the last of the oyster sauce and hadn’t replaced it yet. Jim said that was OK, he’d get by without it. Teacher was assigned to slice the carrots, cauliflower and broccoli, and halve the grape tomatoes. My usual job is to clean up as Teacher cooks, and while I cleaned up after Jim I was able to remove the garlic skins without being noticed.

Although Jim had told us that he didn’t know how to cook he moved confidently around the kitchen and looked like he knew what he was doing. He began by cooking up some Thai noodles (like Ramen noodles with a kick) without the little seasoning packets, threw in a bunch of garlic and stir-fried it with some carrots, tomatoes, soy sauce and fish sauce. When it was done Jim carefully placed it in the middle of a large plate and garnished with cilantro. “Thai style” Jim said, explaining that Thai food generally makes use of colorful vegetables and garnishes as decoration.

Next Jim mixed eggs with garlic, soy sauce, and a little water for what he called a “Thai omelet”. He watched the cooking eggs intently so they wouldn’t scorch, then flipped them almost effortlessly. Like the noodle dish, the finished omelet was carefully placed on a plate and garnished with cilantro.

For the vegetable dish Jim stir-fried broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, and mushrooms with more garlic, a few carrots and tomatoes, and spinach tossed in at the last minute. Soy sauce and fish sauce enhanced the flavors without adding the hot spiciness I had worried about. By this time the kitchen smelled incredibly good; my mouth was watering, my stomach was growling and I couldn’t wait to eat!

Next Jim brought out two packets of traditional Thai seasoning he’d brought from Thailand: Green Curry Paste and Phad Prig Khing Curry Paste. He put about half the package of pork stew meat into the frying pan and began to stir-fry it. Once more I was concerned that there wouldn’t be enough food, but Teacher had made lots of rice so I decided not to worry. Jim added sliced asparagus and a few carrots for decoration, sprinkled in fish and soy sauces, then stirred in some Phad Prig Khing paste. “You taste… not too spicy?” he asked me. I tasted… mmmmm, delicious! It had a slight kick but wasn’t too spicy at all. In fact it was less spicy than some of Teacher’s dishes.

By this time the rice had finished cooking and was set aside with the other dishes to wait as Jim made up Kaeng Kheaw Whan: a Thai soup based on coconut milk and chicken. “Kaeng Kheaw Whan” means “curry, green, sweet.”I was nervous as I watched Jim add raw chicken breast slices to the bubbling coconut milk. Up to now he’d just been stir-frying - a process that went very quickly. What if he didn’t cook the chicken long enough? How would I keep the kids from eating undercooked chicken without being rude? How could I get the chicken cooked all the way through without insulting our guest? But my fears were for nothing - again. You’d think I’d learn, wouldn’t you? Jim simmered the chicken in the coconut milk, added mushrooms and simmered some more, added water and simmered more, stirred in the green curry paste and simmered even more. But the time he transferred the soup to a serving bowl and added the cilantro and jalapeño garnish I was feeling pretty silly about worrying.

As we took our places at the table I was amazed by the bounty spread in front of us. Not only did everything look and smell delicious, there was so much food! Somehow Jim had taken what Teacher and I thought was way too little food and turned it into a feast! We said grace and dug in. Yummmmmm! Everything was perfectly cooked and delicious with little to no heat - except for the Kaeng Kheaw Whan which ended up being too spicy for most of the kids. Little Guy drained his bowl of broth then gave a cry of surprise and rubbed his mouth vigorously. But that sure didn’t stop him from eating it! When I discovered that the chicken and mushrooms weren’t as spicy as the coconut milk broth I didn’t give Little Guy any broth for his seconds… and thirds.

When we were all full I took stock of the leftovers. There was a scant quarter-cup of the pork/asparagus dish and lots of rice left; all of the other plates were totally empty. I never would have believed it, but it had been the perfect amount of food for all of us. Jim seemed very happy that we liked the meal so much, and proud of himself for cooking it. As we cleaned off the table he confided that he’d been very nervous since he hadn’t cooked for other people ever before. I told him that he’d done such a good job he should start!

Cooked noodles with garlic - doesn’t all that garlic look yummy? And the finished noodle dish. It was definitely one of the kids’ favorites!

Here’s Jim cooking the omelet, and the finished omelet - Thai style. The omelet was one of the boys’ favorite dishes - they all love “eggies.”

This is the pork and asparagus dish, and Teacher cutting the asparagus. All the kids except College Boy like asparagus, except some will only eat the stems and some will only eat the tops. They trade until everyone is happy - crazy kids!

Jim’s veggie dish and the Thai soup. The soup was a little spicy, but sweet and rich from the coconut milk. Delicious!

Raise your hand if you’ve heard of “Social Networking” before. Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Sorry, couldn’t resist it!

How about MySpace or Facebook?

I thought those would ring a bell - I’d heard of MySpace, but didn’t realize it was a “social network” until recently. Did you know there are about a million gazillion social networks in cyberspace? Check this out: Wikipedia list of social networks. Amazing, isn’t it? And that doesn’t even include Digg, StumbleUpon, Hubs, etc. It’s crazy out there!

Maybe I’m crazy too - I’ve recently dipped a toe into the huge social networking pond. I was hoping to connect with old friends and make new ones, but haven’t had much luck yet. Either my old friends are too old busy to get into social networking, or maybe I haven’t found where they all hang out. Maybe they’re all hiding from me so I won’t find them. Some friends!

Anyway, I’ve got profiles set up in a couple of places, if you’re in the same places stop by and add me as a friend! Since my old friends aren’t around I’ll just forget them and make new friends. They’re probably mad that I called them old, but who needs them - I have you, right? Ummm, unless you are one of my old friends, then I didn’t mean you; I meant those other guys. Really, I’ve always liked you, wanna be best friends forever?

Here’s my networks so far, I’ll LYK that means “Let You Know” if I join anywhere else so you can look for me there too:

StumbleUpon: http://amysuen.stumbleupon.com/ I was addicted to StumbleUpon, it’s like playing the slots, Not that I’ve ever been to a casino, but it’s what I’d imagine playing the slots would be like. You click the Stumble button and a website pops up… is it a good one or a bomb? The fun is seeing what comes up each time. Try it, you’ll like it!

MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/amysuen Admittedly pathetic so far. I just recently joined and haven’t taken time to personalize everything yet. But it’ll get there eventually, I swear! I think it’ll be fun once I figure out how everything works and I have a bunch of friends to “play” with.

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1044494416 This is relatively new too, but I’ve already found some friends and joined a couple of groups. I’d like to play more games but it bugs me that I have to invite all my friends in order to play. I’m just stubborn enough not to do it. Pop in anyway and feel free to invite me when you play games; I love seeing all the fun games and stuff there.

So there you have it - I’m hip, cool, groovy, phat, happenin’… and hoping College Boy isn’t falling off his chair laughing as he reads this! Whatever you want to call it, I’m not totally out of touch yet. Stop by my profiles and be my friend. Pretty please?

Teacher told me that Jim wanted to go to a grocery store to buy food so he could make us a meal. I was a little uneasy about this prospect because Jim had said he didn’t know how to cook, although he did like to watch cooking shows on TV. I was also worried because Teacher and I had tried Thai food a few times and each time it was too spicy for me and I hadn’t liked the flavors. I knew Teacher and I could eat just about anything politely, but I worried that Jim’s food would be too spicy for the kids, or that they wouldn’t like it and he’d feel bad. Finally Teacher told Jim he could cook on the weekend, and we hoped he’d forget or something would come up.

As the week went on my fears didn’t diminish. At the Amer-Asian store Jim had purchased some Thai noodles in addition to the coconut gel and chili paste. The next morning he made some for breakfast for Jo-Bear and himself, and invited me to try them. Jo-Bear’s were mildly spicy, but Jim’s noodles brought tears to my eyes. “Not too spicy!” he said, obviously having a higher tolerance for spice than I have.

Saturday came and Jim asked about cooking for us again. He explained that the children were expected to cook a meal for their host families, and we began to understand how important this was to him. Teacher and I agreed to take him to the grocery store; hoping for the best and determined to find a way to make it work.

When we arrived at the grocery store Jim was a man on a mission! He took off like a shot with Jo-Bear trailing in his wake while Teacher and I followed with Little Guy and Z-Man in the cart. We watched as Jim flew through the produce area, selecting jalapeño peppers and cilantro; a small bag of mixed carrots, broccoli and cauliflower; a container of grape tomatoes; and a bag of spinach. “That’s not going to be enough for all of us.” I whispered to Teacher, panicked at the small amount of food in the basket. We pushed the bare cart behind Jim as he raced through the store. Since he arrived I’ve been amazed at his high energy level - everything he does is much quicker and more energetic than anyone I know. I don’t know if it’s just him, or another difference between Thai and Americans.

We followed Jim as he searched the meat aisle for chicken, pork, and Thai sausage. He spied an open box of individually wrapped frozen chicken breast and indicated that he was looking for chicken breasts, but not as many. As he pulled the string of plastic-coated meat out of the box I was afraid he didn’t understand that the entire box was to be purchased as a unit. I quickly steered him to the fresh chicken case where he studied the shelves for a couple of seconds then selected a package with two organic chicken breasts. Sometimes it’s hard to remember that Jim’s an adult older than I am and used to living on his own but I managed to stay quiet and not to point out that organic was more expensive than the others.

In the pork case Jim was excited to find a 1-lb package of pork stew meat, already cut into small pieces. As we led Jim to find coconut milk and rice I looked at the small amount of food in the cart and tried to imagine how it was going to feed the 8 of us. “We can make lots of rice” Teacher whispered to me, knowing what I was thinking. “You know how to make rice?” Jim asked Teacher. Teacher assured Jim that he knew how to make rice, and we exchanged worried looks as we followed Jim. He was cooking and didn’t know how to make rice? Yikes!

Walking through the frozen section Jim asked about “The long green beans, like you have everyday?” and gestured the length of his forearm. Picturing some Asian green bean I was stumped. “I don’t know…” I said, “Maybe back by the vegetables?” “Like you eat every day” he repeated, “And you…” he made the motion of chopping a long bean into sections, “You make like this.” he said looking at Teacher. Suddenly it dawned on Jo-Bear, “Asparagus?” he asked. We’d had asparagus twice in the past week since it’s one of my favorites, thus the “every day” in his description. “Yes! Asparagus!” Jim said. “By the vegetables” Jo-Bear said. They headed off across the store as the rest of us tried to find a short check-out lane. Jim and Jo-Bear appeared moments later with a handful of asparagus, just in time to check out and go home.

To be continued…

On the way home from school Monday Teacher drove Jim past the Hmong Amer-Asian store that’s around the corner from our house. Jim had taken a long walk Sunday afternoon - over two hours which was long enough to make me worry that he’d gotten lost or been mugged not that muggings are common around here - but he hadn’t seen it. The first thing Jim did after taking his school things up to his room was grab Jo-Bear and walk over to the store.

He came back very excited, telling Teacher that it was “All Thai food there.” I didn’t understand why the Hmong store would have Thai foods until Teacher told me that Lynn had said many Hmong lived in refugee camps in Thailand. Ahhhh, makes sense now! Jim brought home a bag of goodies: two jars of coconut gel, a pouch of chili paste, and a ton of Thai noodles - like Ramen but spicy. Wasu, one of the Thai students, had already gone through the stash of Thai noodles he’d brought from home so Jim replenished his supply.

While Teacher worked on our spaghetti supper, Jim opened the chili paste and found the leftover rolls from the previous night’s dinner. He encouraged each of us to take a taste. I was more than hesitant - it looked like ground up beef jerky, but I could see from the package that it was made of fish and seafood. I asked if it was hot and Jim shook his head “Is OK” he said.I broke off a small bit of bun and tentatively dipped it into the particles and took a bite. Spice… and… fish. Not my cup of tea - I didn’t mind the spice, but could have done without the fishy taste.

As the kids were setting the table Jim opened the jars of coconut gel. I’d thought it was jelly, but it was actually small slightly translucent squares of gelatinous coconut swimming in a clear liquid. “Sweet” Jim said, pointing at the gel and smiling. He poured both jars of gel into a bowl then put the bowl in the table along with the chili paste. As everyone dug into the spaghetti Jim sprinkled chili paste over his portion then passed the coconut gel. I gamely took two spoonfuls, figuring that if he could eat our food the least I could do was to try his.

The coconut gel squares weren’t as sweet as I’d imagined, but I’m learning that American “sweet” is much sweeter than Thai “sweet.” The consistency was like Jello Jigglers, if you used 4x the amount of Jello - very firm yet gel-like. As I chewed, the gel just disappeared into juice, yum! I’d imagined that it was made by adding gelatin to coconut milk, but since each piece tasted slightly different I realized it was made from the coconut flesh. Little Guy gobbled his up and had thirds, but Z-Man wouldn’t even try his. Definitely showing their ages!

Jim outside the Amer-Asian store.

Jim poses inside the store. He seems very happy to find something Thai in America.

Well, it’s been over a week and things aren’t nearly as stressful as I thought they would be to have a foreign guest. Jim is the teacher from Thailand that we’re hosting until the end of April. My two biggest fears were that he’d be hungry all the time because he wouldn’t like our food, and that we wouldn’t be able to understand each other. I was also worried that our modest home wouldn’t be nice enough for a non-family guest. And that he wouldn’t be able to handle the everyday craziness our zoo family usually is. OK, so I had more than two fears - do you blame me?

Saturday was kind of weird getting to know each other and getting used to having a stranger in the house. The kids gave Jim the “grand tour” around the house and yard while I cringed wondering what he thought of it. Tom made grilled chicken, steamed asparagus, and cilantro rice for dinner - hoping the simple flavors would be OK. Even though Jim said he ate “every kind of food” we didn’t want to freak him out the first night. As he was helping to set the table he told me that in Thailand they used forks and spoons but not knives. I asked if they used chopsticks also and felt stupid when he said “No, that is Chinese.” I’d always mistakenly thought that Thai culture was very similar to Japanese and Chinese but have been learning that it’s closer to Indian. Meaning India Indian, not Native American Indian.

Sunday we took him to church then got bagels and coffee from my favorite coffee place, Jo to Go afterward. Jim hadn’t had a bagel or cream cheese before, but was familiar with bread and buns. He chose a cinnamon raisin bagel and spread it half and half with strawberry and chocolate chip cream cheese. After taking a bite he said “It’s yahmmy,” a phrase we’re happy to hear quite often from him. After we changed clothes and cleaned up the house a little Jim brought out two DVRs that he’d brought from Thailand for us to watch. They wouldn’t play on the DVD player, but did work in my computer. The first, “Elephants and Tourists,” was interesting for the first half, but was all in Thai so once the images started repeating it got a little long. It didn’t help our patience that we had some errands to run, but we didn’t want to be rude so we watched the whole thing. The second movie was about the International Flower Expo held in Jim’s hometown of Chiang Mai. Chiang Mai is the second-largest city in Thailand, next to Bangkok, so it seems weird to me to call it a “hometown.” All of the countries’ displays were interesting, but I really enjoyed the glimpses of Chiang Mai itself.

Jim also brought gifts for us, which I hadn’t expected at all. He had elephant key chains for Little Guy, Z-Man and Jo-Bear; and woven cotton shawls and silk scarves for the girls and I to choose from. I chose a dusky blue silk scarf while Princess chose an off-white shawl, “This will go perfectly with my Prom dress!” and Angel Face chose a rusty red shawl. For the whole family he brought a wall hanging of an Indian god, and a gorgeous painting of a traditional Thai dancer that he’d asked an artist friend to paint for his host family. I was touched by his thoughtfulness - especially since the last he’d heard before leaving Thailand was that they didn’t have a family for him!

Little Guy’s is purple, Z-Man’s is reddish, and Jo-Bear’s is turquoise blue; which Z-Man is terribly jealous about. Jo-Bear took his to school for “Show and Tell” so it’s not in the photo.

These are the shawls and scarf Jim gave the girls and me. The scarf is so incredibly soft and delicate I’m almost afraid to wear it.

The figure in this wall hanging is Ganesh, a Hindu god. Although it’s pretty, I don’t know if we’ll leave it up after Jim leaves. Since we’re Christian our friends and family might wonder why there’s a Hindu god on our wall.

I’m not sure where the painting will hang, but it’s so gorgeous it has to be hung somewhere. It’s hard to tell in the photo, but the painting shimmers with gold and silver glitter.

I’ve got some ideas of things we can give Jim to take back to Thailand with him too…

My Zany Zebra contact form seems to be hit by spam in cycles. For a while I won’t get any, then all of a sudden I’ll get a ton. Apparently I’m in another spam-me cycle because this morning when I checked my Inbox I had messages from:

Buffy Cuffy Bink Cuffy Margaret Bitsy Jerry Bink Alice Win Wog Topsy Bridget Pat Bunny Jerry Skip Win Missy and Bunny.

Since they all arrived in a 3 minute period I was fairly certain they were spam, but I checked a couple just to make sure. Then deleted them al - so long suckers!

I wonder when the next wave will hit, and what names they’ll use next time…

I love Burt’s Bees Buttermilk Baby Bath How’s that for a tongue-twister?! but I also like to support fellow WAHMs (aka Work at Home Moms). So when we ran out of the Burt’s Bees I decided to buy some buttermilk baby bath from a WAHM. I found 8 oz of lavender scented baby bath for $8 plus shipping.

When it arrived the first thing I did was take a whiff… mmmmmm, I love lavender! Then I checked out the ingredients… nonfat dry milk, buttermilk powder, lavender essential oil. Hmmm… that sounds like something I could make at home for less than $1 per ounce. I started to feel kinda dumb, and turned to my trusty laptop to Google “buttermilk baby bath recipes”. Only about a million results showed up. That’s when I felt really stupid.

At least I learned from my mistake and now know how to make my own buttermilk baby bath for the boys. I’ll share my recipe but suppose first I probably should post a disclaimer: don’t use any ingredients that your child may be allergic to, discontinue use if there’s any sign of skin irritation. I’m not an herbalist or anything, and I don’t play one on TV. I’m just a mom who likes to make stuff for her kids so please use your own common sense.

Amy Sue’s Oatmeal Buttermilk Baby Bath (makes 1/2 cup, enough for 2 baths)
1/4 cup dry buttermilk
1/4 cup nonfat dry milk
1/4 cup oatmeal flakes
2-3 drops lavender essential oil - not fragrance oil
Whirr the dry ingredients in a food processor or clean coffee grinder to grind up the oatmeal and dry milk powder. Whisk in the essential oil and pour into a airtight jar or resealable plastic bag. To use just sprinkle 1/4 cup of the powder under warm running water as you fill the tub.

You can increase the amounts of the ingredients as long as you keep the proportions the same and you can substitute your favorite essential oil for the lavender oil. I’ve heard that orange oil smells yummy, but since orange is an energizing scent it’s probably not the best choice for a bedtime bath.

Splish splash, go take a bath!

Saturday morning dawned cloudy, cold, and snowy. Snowy?! Yep, 32 degrees and snowy. Welcome to Spring in Wisconsin. When the girls and I went to band at 8 am the windshield was covered with ice and snow and we shivered until the heat kicked in.

Aside from complaining that I was SO tired of winter I didn’t think much of the cold until it was time to pick up our Thai guest from Teacher’s school. We were the first family to arrive and had just scurried inside the building when the small bus pulled up behind us. “They’re here!” Teacher called to me. “They’re here!” I called to Jo-Bear, Z-Man and Little Guy who had run ahead of me into the cafeteria area. We all turned around to watch as the bus doors opened. Yeah, I realize I’m a loser for not bringing the camera, but it had been a busy couple of days so gimme a break.

The Thai children tumbled off the bus with giggles and exclamations of “Snow! Snow!” Our guest later told us that it doesn’t ever snow in Thailand, even in the mountains. The children spun in circles and jumped around, releasing some of the energy that had built up during the two-hour bus ride from Madison. Lynn, the Thai teacher, Teacher and the bus driver quickly unloaded the luggage and the Thai teacher shooed his students inside.

I was surprised by the Thai teacher’s appearance; he looked much younger than I’d imagined - although I later learned he’d been teaching 18 years which made him about Teacher’s and my age. He was thin and not very tall (close to Teacher’s 5′ 9″), with black hair sticking up in all directions and a big grin. He was wearing a lightweight leather jacket, colorful scarf loosely tied around his neck, and had a leather backpack slung over his shoulder. “I am Jim” he said, pressing his hands together and bowing slightly to me. His slight accent that caused it to sound like a cross between “Jim” and “Cheem”. His Thai name is Warawut, but he goes by “Jim” which is much easier for English-speakers. “It is cold!” he said, holding his arms and shivering. He told me that right now in Thailand it’s the hot season, with temperatures near 100 when they left. I looked at the Thai children - they were wearing scarves, sweaters, and sweatshirts, but not winter coats.

The other host families began to arrive and claim their guests. Pannapat, Praeploy, Natpawat, Bhurin, and Wasu each pressed their hands together and bowed to the members of their guest family. “Hello, I’m happy to meet you.” and other polite greetings were exchanged. In the little time I was able to watch I was very impressed with the Thai students’ knowledge of English. I also marveled at the Thai families’ bravery for sending their 10-12 year old children halfway around the world to stay with strangers for 3 weeks. Jim told me that these students were from different parts of Thailand and didn’t know each other or him before this trip. I don’t think I’m a clingy parent but I’m not sure I could send Jo-Bear or Angel Face to Thailand with a stranger for three weeks!

Jim handed out his card with phone number to each family while Lynn passed out her cell number and our home phone number. “Just treat them as you would your own children.” Lynn told the host families. “You can call me 24/7 if you have any questions or concerns. If they get homesick have them call their English teacher, Jim.” Later Jim told us that one of the students racked up a $70 phone bill calling home from the hotel. Of course the student didn’t have any idea how expensive it would be, he (she?) was just homesick.

Among a flurry of “goodbye”s and hugs each Thai student left with their family until only Teacher, Jim, Lynn and I were standing in the commons chatting and watching our boys run around. “He’s so cute!” Jim said with a smile, pointing at Little Guy who was following Z-Man across the floor as fast as his little legs would go. Jim tried talking to Z-Man, holding his hand out for a “Five” but Z-Man was acting shy and hid behind me. The adults chatted a few minutes more and amidst lots of laughter and hand gestures Jim told us how another student left her passport on one of the airplanes, the mad dash to retrieve it, and how the plane was held for them.

I felt a sense of relief as I listened to Jim talk - I’d been worried that we wouldn’t be able to understand him and vice versa, but he obviously knew the English language and had a huge vocabulary. When he spoke quickly I had a hard time following him because of his accent, but most of the time I could figure out what he was saying. He seemed to understand us well enough, and wasn’t shy about asking us to repeat something he didn’t catch.

Soon it was obvious that Little Guy needed a nap sooner rather than later so we said “Goodbye” to Lynn and headed for the van, stopping to pick up Jim’s luggage on the way. “You pack light!” Teacher commented when he saw the small suitcase and duffel bag, “I don’t think I could pack that lightly for 3 weeks away.” “I know I couldn’t!” I said. So true - the amount of luggage that Jim had for these three weeks is less than Teacher and I take when we spend three days and two nights in Chicago for the Midwest Clinic.

Teacher stowed the luggage, I “stowed” the kids and we all climbed in, Jim sitting next to Little Guy. As the van left the school parking lot we all began our adventure together.

Our guest, Jim, on the bus. Jim has been to several countries in Asia but this is his first trip to America.

Bhurin (nicknamed “Green”) meets his host family. Green has been to America several times without his parents; the first time he was only 4 year old!

Lynn (far right) handing out phone numbers to Pannapat’s host family. This is Pannapat’s first time in America.

My old purse refused to zip shut. I don’t know why, it just held a fat checkbook, coin purse, PDA, cell phone, set of keys that would make a janitor proud, two pots of hand lotion, three tubes of lip balm, and enough lipstick for a kissing booth, and several packs of gum. My current faves: Ice Breakers and Orbit Melon Breeze. OK, maybe I see why it wouldn’t shut but I NEED all my stuff! Since I can’t ditch anything it’s obviously time for a new purse.

I decided to get a WAHM (Work at Home Mom) one instead of something mass-produced, so I started browsing online. I finally decided on Julia Martinez Designs because I liked the look of her bags, they were reasonably priced, and she would do a custom order for me - hooray! We emailed back and forth a couple of times to hammer out the specifics - I wanted an 18″ strap so it would fit over my shoulder or on my arm and a zippered top so my stuff wouldn’t go flying out when I dropped it. I also ordered a matching zippered bag, just because it was so darn cute!

Today my new purse arrived and I’m thrilled! Here’s the set together:

The purse by itself:

Inside the purse:

The Zip It - isn’t it cute?!

Here’s the purse stuffed with all my junk, it doesn’t look stuffed, does it?

Hard to believe all this is inside, and look how the pockets are the perfect size for my phone and PDA:

I think we’ll be friends for a very long time.

Wednesday night Teacher had class so Princess, Angel Face, Jo-Bear and I cleaned the upstairs whiled Z-Man and Little Guy enjoyed a Little Einsteins marathon. Cleaning went uneventfully aside from the minor bickering between Angel Face and Jo-Bear -for some reason everything each of them does bugs the other to no end. By the end of the night I was ready to strangle them both.

Thursday night the little boys were set up for another Little Einsteins marathon, Princess was babysitting, Teacher and Jo-Bear were at the store picking out a birthday present for Jo-Bear’s sleepover the following night, and Angel Face and I were picking up in the basement playroom. “Why is this wet?” I wondered out loud as I picked up a crumpled Barbie dress. “I don’t know” replied Angel Face, “I wondered the same thing when I picked up my book.” I felt the carpeting. It was wet - not soaking, but not just damp either. “This can’t be a good thing.” I said, and sniffed the area carefully. One of our cats had been peeing in laundry baskets so I was worried she’d started peeing in other places too. Nothing smelled like cat pee though - whew!

Where was the wetness coming from? The ceiling was dry, the center of the room was dry, the walls were dry, there were no cups or containers lying around that may have spilled… I ran my hands across the carpet, to feel what was wet, what was dry, and where the water could be coming from. It seemed to be coming from the bookshelf/TV area we had made by removing the decorative fireplace that came with the house and replacing it with shelves built into the opening. I started moving things away from that area and discovered that the carpeting closest to the shelving was soaked and there was a puddle on the small strip of concrete between the wall and carpeting. Definitely is not a good thing!

We’d had rain for the past two days, in addition to the melting snow, and for some reason the basement decided to leak in a brand new place. We’d had occasional leaks through the fruit cellar into the laundry area, but since all that flooring was cement and sloped toward the sump pump hole it was more nuisance than serious. This new leak spread through Teacher’s closet-sized workroom and under the wall into the carpeted basement playroom.

When Teacher got home with Jo-Bear I showed him the problem and he immediately got the Shop Vac and vacuumed up all the water from the tool room. By the time he’d emptied the water, the tool room floor was covered again. We tried sucking the water from the carpeting with our carpet cleaner, but that only seemed to make it spread faster. We did the best we could then concentrated on picking up. By the next morning the wetness had spread another 2 feet into the carpet. I resigned myself to the fact that we would need to get new carpet, like it or not. Teacher agreed although he wasn’t happy that he couldn’t take care of the problem himself.

Friday night we cleaned College Boy’s room. College Boy, if you’re reading this you may want to stop now. Really, go find Irish Girl and watch a movie or something. Don’t you have homework? How about a computer game? *sigh* OK, it’s your choice - read on at your own risk… We were tired and overwhelmed by the amount of stuff lying on the floor, desk, bookcase, pretty much any horizontal surface. We decided to do things the “easy” way and got some boxes from the garage. Anything that wasn’t obviously garbage like empty candy bags or scraps of paper was boxed up and put in the attic or the far corner of his closet. The girls remade the bed, swept the floor and emptied the trash then we were ready for our guest!

Well, except for the basement. I’d wanted it clean so he could use the computer down there whenever he wanted, but with the pond formerly known as carpeting occupying half of the room that didn’t seem like such a good idea after all. I’m just glad we were cleaning it and discovered the leaking before more things were ruined. So far we have about 4 wet books and a ruined cardboard box - in addition to the carpeting. But since there were tons more books and things stored in that area it could have been much worse. It’s hard to believe but I’m glad we had to clean!