Progress!

BJ and Brandon are downstairs tiling the kitchen as I write this.

I am sitting upstairs, blogging, eating cookies, watching Saturday Night Live, and feeling appropriately guilty. However, after I told several eye-roll-worthy jokes, I figured that I wasn't actually doing much in the way of helping, so I might as well get out of the way.

Another fun day today! We got up and went to the Art Fair downtown, and ran into several friends. I bought a picture that I saw when BJ and I went the year I was pregnant with Mary Grace. I figured if I liked it then and remembered it now, it must be worth buying. God love the internet, that's it over there... You really can find anything. The artist's name is Lou Zale (he's from Deerfield, IL, and it seems that he does quite a few art fairs). I like it because the shape of the kids' room is the same as the shape of the room in the picture, and because the color part, outside the window, is really blue and brilliant in the print. It is so eye catching. I like the blend of fantasy and reality, and I thought it was perfect for our space-themed nursery.

I can't find a website for Mr. Zale, specifically. I lifted the photo from an art fair online program.

I spent most of the art fair distracted, though, because tomorrow's Fran's birthday, and it was my job to keep her busy for the morning so Tim could get her house ready for the surprise party at noon. We finished the art fair about an hour before I expected to, and Claire was being really fussy, so I improvised. "Let's go get a donut!" I said, over-enthusiastically. Who cares that Krispy Kreme was all the way over on the other side of town and gas is $4 a gallon, right? Who cares that MG didn't actually want a donut? (She wanted a cookie). We killed about 15 minutes doing that, and then I asked her to come in and help me pick a new wall color to match the new tile better.

We still need to do that, kids, but that's a blog for another day.

Anyway, Fran left at 11:50 am, even though I was supposed to stall her until 12:15. I called Tim right away and said, "She just left!" then threw the kids in the car. Tim had asked Fran to stop at Walmart on the way home, so that I could get to the house for the big surprise. I pulled up in front of their house and BJ came out and got the girls out of the car, then I parked around the corner. As I was walking to her house, Fran pulled up! I started talking to her neighbors ("Pretend you know me!" I said. They must have thought I was insane.) and tried to hide my big obvious tote/diaper bag. Once she drove into the garage I tried to sneak in the front door, but it was locked. I wasn't there to yell, but oh well. She was still surprised.

The party was a lot of fun. I stayed in the same lawn chair too long, though, and got sunburned on my left arm. I need to go for a long ride on the passenger side of the car to even myself out. It stings, too. I'm such a dork.

That's the news around here. BJ's going to the Indy 500 tomorrow, and I have to keep the girls off of the kitchen floor for 24 hours, so that should be interesting. There's a carnival at the mall that we might go to. I'll just have to remember to keep my right side toward the sun.

Monday is our seventh wedding anniversary. That blows me away. It seems like we got married yesterday in so many ways. The real miracle, though, is that BJ has put up with me this long. Especially when I make him re-tile the kitchen while I sit upstairs and eat cookies and blog.