Act I: Introduction.

So, I'm writing this while I take a break from soaking and scrubbing my drip brew coffee maker (honestly, there has to be a better and easier way to clean this stupid thing. Yet another reason we've switched to french press; about a thousand times easier to clean!). I decided it's better to keep anyone interested apprised of our doings via blog. It's mostly my rambling thoughts, some pictures, and about 88% kid related stuff, because, you know, I stay at home with the kids all day. Here are some pertinent points and promises:

1. I promise not to discuss my thus far mostly unsuccessful attempts at potty training, because even though everybody poops, most do not like to talk about it (except for me to tell you this one story: Igs finally "went" in his potty, and the dog ate it. I am still trying to find the humor in this, while also attempting to wash the dog's mouth out with anything possible because she is a licker, and I think I might actually die if I think about this much longer. *deep dramatic sigh*)

2. I am a recovering neat freak. It was simple when I lived alone; I could vacuum the floor into perfect patterns every single night and come home from work the next day and it would remain, in perfect symmetrical stripes! But now, as a stay at home mom with two dirtball kids and a huge hairy beast of a dog (and a husband who really tries, but is still a man after all), I have realized I may need to reconcile a bit on the obsessive cleaning. I still mop and vacuum daily, but there are sticky little fingerprints in places I can't begin to fathom how they were acquired, I'm routinely horrified at the amount of fur one dog can produce and what it does to the vacuum, and any vacuumed stripes don't even make it until the cord is neatly and counterclockwise wound up on the back of the vacuum and then stowed away (recovering, I said, not cured.)

3. I like making things and baking, and much of what I do when both kids miraculously nap in tandem is (after cleaning, of course), some type of craft or art project, usually resulting in more tacky stuff that adorns our house and necessitates extra cleaning. Sloan likes pigs, especially butcher's diagrams, so we have lots of those. I usually have some sort of half baked craft idea for the kids and I to do which then inevitably results in Mollie eating part of it, Iggy breaking something, and the dog ending up with something sticky all over her that she scrapes off all over the house.

4. Sloan is a chef, so I don't cook as much as I should. I really need to start more, because left to my own devices I'll make something decent for the kids to eat and then I end up eating half a Costco-sized bag of goldfish for dinner after they go to bed.

5. I really, really like watching Jeopardy. Someday I may make it on the show, at which time you all can laugh at my nervous tics and stage fright and marvel at the made up stories I'll tell Alex (because no one cares about who I once met in the elevator or how Sloan and I got engaged). Until then, I'm unavailable every weeknight from 7:30-8.

6. I once collected nail polish and have, at a modest estimate, over 1,000 unique bottles. I haven't bought in any real capacity for a couple of years (funny how having kids makes even the most innocuous hobby seem extravagant), but my hoard rests in the basement, ready to someday make its resurgence.

That's it for now. I hear a kid calling and, like John Muir, I must go. Please, please feel free to comment and share stories or ideas or speculate on my Jeopardy chances.