Home Sweet Home

Last week, Bean and I headed back to Texas. He did his last two days of school, and I closed on the house. We had a great time - one last goodbye to good friends and to the old house. Mrs. House of Toys was a great hostess.

Bean really enjoyed his last days of school, they had a water day and a fizzy foam day - you know, those last few days are packed with education :) He had lots of fun, though, and I'm glad I took him back for it. He also loved spending lots of time with his best buddies and enjoying their birthday party.

Closing on the house was easy. I mowed that huge lawn one last time (and told the property good riddance - I hate mowing that yard). A few signatures later and we're richer. The buyers only used about half the closing costs they were anticipated, so we walked away with $1500 more than we expected. We certainly won't complain about that!

We are settling into Louisiana nicely. We're only 20 miles from the Texas border, but it feels like a world away. I am loving Super Target and living within 10 minutes of nearly everything.

Bean made some friends today. There is a five year old boy two doors down one way and two brothers (maybe 6 and 7 or twins) and a little girl (4 or so) two doors down the other way. Best neighborhood ever :)

I brought home my potted plants from the House of Toys and have been arranging them around the house. I also have two big hibiscus plants that Mrs. House of Toys acquired from a mutual friend. Mrs. House of Toys doesn't care for the maintenance of plants (and escapes to North Dakota for MONTHS during the summer), so I rescued the pretty plants. I know they sell hibiscus plants in our area (I saw them at Lowes), but I haven't seen anyone with any in our neighborhood.

Our master bathroom has a bizarre smell that only ceases when we leave the window open all the flipping time. I stuck some indoor plants in there - particularly the fern. It doesn't seem to be helping. Maybe a bigger fern? We can't determine the source of the smell and no amount of air freshener freshens the room. Suggestions?

I am also very bothered to learn that the show Billy the Exterminator features a pest control business that serves my area. That means EVERYTHING I have seen on his show could very likely be in my yard or house - huge rattlesnakes, alligators, armadillos (which carry leprosy - yes, freaking LEPROSY), bats, etc. Ohmigoodness.

Oh, my birthday is Wednesday! We've been so busy that I haven't thought that much about it. My sweet husband had balloons set up (yes, already) when I arrived home from Texas, and I've received a few gifts in the mail :) Maybe I'm waiting to open them (but maybe not).

On the camera front, I narrowed it down to the Nikon D3000, Nikon D5000, and Nikon D90. I fiddled with all of them at Best Buy today and have decided on the D5000 - the features/options seem quite a bit better than the D3000 (justifying the price difference) whereas the D90 doesn't seem that much better than the D5000 (therefore, not justifying the price difference), so the D5000 it is. Now, I'm going to investigate a couple lenses and decide on one of two of those (probably just one, hot damn, this stuff is expensive).

Oh, the counter tops were tiled while I was away - they look much nicer than the burnt linoleum that was there before :) Husband also cleared out the courtyard and remulched the front. He also got a shepard's hook for our bird feeder - so far, I've seen a few finches at it, but that's it. I think food is pretty plentiful right now, so the birds aren't scouting out feeders right now. We have LOADS of squirrels in our yard. They haven't messed with the bird feeder, but I always see at least four running around the big oak trees.

Moose has taken to calling everything "Maaaamaaaa" lately and in the most whiny voice ever. Oh, I love him to pieces, but those Terrible Twos are hitting hard.