Adventures at The Bunny Manse

It's been a harder than expected winter.  Hillary losing the election has hit our family hard. Many of our friends will be hurt by the policies being put forward, our communities will be damaged, and there are kids and adults all around us sad, scared, and afraid for what this means for our county. Harris works at the Jewish Community Center - his clients, friends, and families have seen Jews be vilified, images of their children in ovens, references to the Holocaust. Jews make up less than 3% of our country. Why are you picking on them? Why are you silent when you allies seek to hurt them?  I get it, everyone disagrees about political ideas and concepts , but fundamentally, I'm not saying the religious right has no place in our society. I'm not saying that Republicans should all die and yet, the rhetoric I see from others is that immigrants don't belong here, that some people 'deserve' more than they are getting, that gay people are gross and shouldn...

Madeline was Luna this year for Halloween. Margot a bumblebee. We 'made' Madeline's costume after a trip to the Trosa thrift store and scrap exchange to get some supplies. Total cost around $12. maybe. 

This Sunday we took a day trip to Charlotte but really IKEA. While browsing the 'scratch n dent' as-is section for linens, Harris pointed out a fridge. Yeah, ok, so what, I'm in a bin. No says he. That's the fridge we were looking at upstairs. And it's half off making it $900. It's a side by side counter depth fridge with ice and water in the door. We need to buy it. So I go stand by it to claim it - three other people realized what it was while we were chatting about it. Then ask about the warranty stuff - 4.5 years from manufacturer and yes they will deliver it to your house for $100. Why in the world do we need a new fridge? Because the one we bought in 2013 has been a PITA. Currently the ice maker is broken (again) and will cost over $500 for us to fix. So we bought the fridge and sold the other one as is on CL costing us less than the repair cost of the old fridge that has had multiple problems.

Someone turned 2!  We had a small party at home on her actual day, presents from Mommy, Daddy, Madeline, and grandparents and a little cake. Margot very much enjoyed all of it.  We'll have a sweet little party with friends soon - we had to postpone the first one after our party girl caught a fever last week.

When we were dating, I told Harris that if we ever stayed together and had children, I 'got' the first girl. I saw over and over and over again girls then women disappear in census records and hated it. He could have the first boy, and after that we'd alternate. We have two girls and the plan worked out nicely. We have a Spring, we have a Carpenter, and it looks like in February we'll add another Spring. Harris is so completely and lovingly outnumbered.

There's the beautiful princess tub that I looked for on Craigslist for over a year. That Harris almost didn't get because we got into an argument the morning he was to go get, that Madeline rescued from adult drama by quietly saying, 'but my princess tub...' with her head hung low making the adults feel pretty low.  It's been sitting, waiting upstairs, for two-ish years.   There was a gross shower here. Now it is gone forever and the tub will go there using existing plumbing.  Us checking out paint colors. We all mutually decided we liked a peachy pink color for the walls.   Harris getting rid of paneling after I got rid of the shower stall. Well, I unscrewed and unbolted everything so he could chuck it in the dumpster across the street. The last of the paneling is now gone from the house. I think. I'm sure I'll find another little bit here or there.  The tile arrives next week. We need to buy a new sink/v...

The summer has gotten away from us. We planned to be PRODUCTIVE! and finish the playhouse for the girls and swingset by the end of June. Then we realized that the back fence area needed to be dealt with by our adjoining property owner, which destroyed the fence, making putting girls in that space a very bad idea. We're still waiting to hear from the church about whether or when they are taking down the huge tree that's leaning over their building since that impacts us fixing the fence. And then there's the flooding at the little house. We replaced ducts in early July to have them wash away and damage the unit in a massive storm. We're waiting for insurance (WE HAVE FLOOD INSURANCE) to tell us how much they will pay then we're moving hvac to the attic. And then putting on a new roof as well. It's going to be great. Our property taxes on the house tripled as well, so this year, the house is just a loss for us. Overall we're in the black, but we've owned ...

We went to Southern Shores, OBX NC for a week. Madeline is a fish, Margot begrudgingly played with the sand by day 5. I officially have a beach buddy now.  I have way too many pictures of my girls sleeping cuddled up with each other.  Eating hot dogs at Capt'n Franks.  Me and my beach buddy. Going to see the ocean for the first time. Margot is not amused.