Friday, June 24, 2011

The Secret Room

I picked up Emma from MDA camp a week ago already.  She had a great time--her best year yet, she said.  This was her fourth year attending, and the first time I've ever received a letter from her.  And yes, I've always sent her to camp with pre-addressed, stamped envelopes, so all she had to do was jot down a few words on a card and slide it in.  Anyway, she said I could publish her note.
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Hi everyone!

Today is Monday and a lot has happened so far already!  Right now it's rest time, so nothing exciting is happening.

Guess what?  Savannah reads the Warrior Cat books!  We are really good friends and we just played in a huge pile of sand at the beach!  It was a lot of fun, but now my pants are all sandy, AND I have to go to the dance in them!

Anyways, I miss you all (yes, even Lydia) and I got your letter at lunch, so no worries!  I hope to write you again.

Emma

(Tell Phoebe I said, "Meow!")

= )   Love you!
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Well, she didn't write us again, but I'll take what I can get.  And a speshul thanks to those of you who took the time to write her while she was at camp.  = )

In other news, three houses in our immediate neighborhood are for sale: the houses on either side of us, and one kiddy-corner across the street.  It's making me feel a little self-conscious about the kind of neighbor I am. 

The weather report: it rained so much this week I felt like we were living in Seattle.  The good news?  Our yard looks great.  The bad news?  Our roof was leaking.  Thankfully, we have a neighbor-friend who's a roofer by profession.  He came over today and tarred up a couple of spots.  He wouldn't take a penny, either.  I guess we can't be terrible neighbors then.  Unless everyone is just living in fear of us....

Part of the reason I haven't blogged lately is because the leaky roof has caused me to go through everything in the secret room**.  Everything.  So far I've gone through all of the clothes and shoes, Christmas decorations, reorganized the kids' completed school work, and I have bags and boxes of stuff for Goodwill.  I still have a few boxes of who-knows-what to sort through, and I really need to get rid of some more books.  *sigh*  That's the hardest part.

**The Secret Room is a 24' x 9' space under the slanty part of our roof at the back of the house.  You have to go through Jeffrey's room to get there.  It's one of the things that sold us on this house eight years ago.

 Jeffrey's closet (above)
 Jeffrey's hanging clothes are to my right as I take this one.
 Voila!  The Secret Room
(Well, not-so-secret anymore.)
 This isn't a true "before" picture, so you can imagine how bad it was before I began!
 Our cat, Phoebe, shedding her fur right where I last vacuumed.  Typical.
I don't blame her for being in here though.  It's so nice and quiet.  Ahhhh....
Here's an area I feel is finished.  Emma's and Jeffrey's completed school work (K through now) is in those bins, and the rack holds shoes-in-waiting.  Boots are behind it, and the cardboard box holds soccer gear.

It's going to take me most of the weekend to finish in here, but I'm going through every tiny, little thing.  Besides, I haven't cleaned this out for at least three years. (Hmmm...Samuel is three.  There might be a connection there.)  In any case, it's nice to take a break from working on the porch.  I'll post some porch pictures another day for those of you who aren't on Facebook.

7 comments:

  1. I'm glad Emma had a speshul time at camp. Your secret room is the kind of space that makes old houses fun. They have character.
    Title, Introduction, Proposition, Interrogative, Transitional sentence (w/keyword).
    I've contacted the college about adjusting your transcript.

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  2. Sounds like you're getting very organized!

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  3. I do like our house, Craig. Sometimes, with everyone being home all day I wish it was a little bigger, but really I'm content.

    Lydia is *dying* for me to finish getting it all cleaned up in the secret room. Why? So she can make a fort. Yep! Why do they always want to play where I've just cleaned?

    So, my transcript will now have a special note at the bottom saying how I was a VERY good student, among the best you ever had? (Yeah, Emma let me read her email from you.)

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  4. Among the best, but not *quite* the best. That would be reserved for me, the only student he ever gave an A+, even if he claims to not remember.

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  5. This really has nothing to do with the post, but I am so, so, so (sooooooo) excited to go to CIT next week.

    Phew. That's off my chest. (Do I get to see you next week? Yes? Pwetty pwease?)

    And by the way, your secret room is amazing. Were I to have one, I would join Phoebe and read stacks and stacks of books while the roof leaked.

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  6. I don't know, Sue. Let's not make the poor guy choose between us. ; )

    Bailey...YES! The kids and I will be there. I think we're going to go to park day Friday morning, and then come out later.

    The secret room *is* a pretty great place to read. The pitter-patter on the roof is quite lovely, and hopefully the leaks are stopped up. I almost can't wait for it to rain again so we can see how everything is up there. Almost. ; )

    What about the storage room above your garage? Is that conducive to reading stacks of books?

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  7. YAY! Then I will see you in a few days!

    The bonus room, as we creatively call it, is too big and temperature-dependent. And the windowseats are hard, though you can get a great daydream going, staring out the window over the lake. If you don't freeze to death first. :o)

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