Disappointment

Wow, I'm surprised at all of our bloggies. It looks like Alex wins again. Don't y'all know that Alex always wins at everything and you should have voted for my painted idea to take him down a notch?

I would like to defend my painted floor position and try to win some more votes. I could just disregard everyone's opinions and do whatever I want, but I'm a people pleaser and I like harmony and agreement. Sometimes I just like quirky things and I think it works (I think you have all seen my chicken chair.) Some of you were concerned about the floor becoming faded, scratched and worn out. I personally love this look and it would make me happy for it to become all of the above. Justin felt that the painted floor would not go with the overall "rustic" look of the deck, but I think with the distressed finish it will end up having that it will compliment the rest of the natural wood and just look a little more prettyfied.

In the end, I at least got my x's in the framing for the screens so I am content even if I don't paint the floor. We all know that I have way more style than Alex, though, so you should definitely vote for my idea. I think you'll all be surprised at how rockin' my painted floor is going to look.

Blogger Poll

Alright Alex's Blog groupies, it's Super Wednesday which means it's time to let your voices be heard. Lettie and I need your help deciding how to finish the deck floor. We've been arguing all week, and I might be losing. We need you guys to settle this for us. Here's what it looks like right now:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/alexlettie/

The question is.... Do we paint the deck floor with a checkerboard pattern (clearly not orange/white checkers), or do we put a simple, yet tasteful and classic, wood preserver down.

Pros/Cons of the painted floor:
Sure it looks cool when we finish it, but how does it look after Jackson and Patrick do Big Wheel donuts all over it. Also, the sun will fade the paint and the checkers will be near impossible to repaint. We've discussed putting polyurethane on top of the paint, but we don't want a thick layer of sealant. Here's an example floor, but ignore the rich person furniture:
http://www.artsparx.com/floor_painting_intro.asp

Pros/Cons of the sealed floor:
It's easy, it lasts forever, and it looks pretty good on a deck. I'm not re-creating the oval office floor:
http://www.whitehousemuseum.org/west-wing/oval-office-history.htm (very bottom picture). This is a simple deck, and should be treated as such.

Please make your vote work for you by posting a comment to this post. If you vote for the winning theme, you will be invited to the deck warming party. If you vote for the losing theme, but it's the same theme that I want, then we will have our own party and it will be way cooler than Lettie's party. If you vote for the losing theme and I win, you will move one step closer to archenemy.

I need to tell you that your vote counts once, but Lettie and my vote counts more. Your comments are equally important. Please use your name because I don't want a bunch of anonymous archenemies to hunt down.

The Wild Animal

I took both boys to the doctor this week-Jackson for his 2 year checkup and Patrick for his 2 month checkup. I know I promised I wouldn't talk about boring motherhood and house cleaning stuff, but being a mother is actually pretty entertaining, and come on it's the only material I've got if I don't want to be mean to Alex in every post.

The doctor's office is usually where Jackson's dark side comes out (it also comes out if you try to make him ride in a shopping cart.) As soon as we crossed the threshold to where the exam rooms are he turned into a wild animal. Kicking, screaming, hitting and gnashing of teeth ensued. Who knew that asking him to stand on Scotty the scale was such a terrible request? The doctor seemed entertained and insisted that because he is 2 he feels the need to be "independent" and that is why he acts this way. I did not know that independence equaled turning into a werewolf.

So...we were there for an hour going over my huge list of questions for both boys. This was very hard for me because over the last year I have become quite a germaphobe. I spent the entire time trying to purell Jackson's hands in between the time he touched something and then tried to put them in his mouth or down his pants (his hands spend a lot of time down his pants lately). Apparently applying purell is also a completely outrageous werewolf inducing request, so that made it even harder.

People always ask me how I lose the baby weight and it turns out that lugging around chunky babies and fighting a wild animal a few times a day really melts off the pounds.

I'm glad to report that both boys have a clean bill of health and Patrick is rolling over now! So far, neither of them have come down with any yucky viruses so hopefully my forceful purell applications did the job.

If you need any tips on pinning down a 2 year old with your knees so your hands are free, I am definitely the girl to ask. I think I might apply for WWE soon.

What a life

The 3 things I heard Jackson say in his sleep last night:

• vroom
• wow!
• choo-choo

I wish I were 2.

Performance Anxiety

Ok, ok...you asked for it, but I'm feeling way too much pressure to live up to Alex's wittiness. I couldn't sleep thinking about the guilt I had for not writing a blog entry and then I got up and saw that Alex had blessed us all with another one. Thanks, Alex.

So, I'm now going to try to keep up the blog and hopefully not bore everyone with too many tales of potty training and Patrick's milestones. I'll also try to not make as many derogatory remarks about Alex's cooking as he did about mine. Oh wait...he doesn't cook.

We are now going on day 5 of my missing cell phone. How is this possible? Is my house that messy that a cell phone can be hiding that well? I really love that bright pink cell phone, too. Alex says I'm compensating, and I guess I am. I'm surrounded by boys, so I have to buy pink,girly things whenever I can.

See...I warned you, I'm already out of things to talk about that don't involve housekeeping or children. I guess I'll hang in here for a little while and see what happens, but now that the writer's strike is over I'll probably lose you all when TV gets good again.

Apologies

I've been deeply involved in the middle of a standoff this week. The blog has been an unfortunate loser to this standoff. Lettie has not had the inspiration she craves to enable a blog from her. I have refused to continue the blog without the support of my dear spouse. Well, it turns out everyone loses. Here I am writing another entry. There you are having to read something written by me again. And Lettie continues to refuse taking the plunge to become a published bloggist. Apologies.

I think Lettie has been distracted by the practical joke someone pulled on her. We've lost her cell phone. It's gone, and now the battery is dead. We can't find it anywhere. If any of you did this because you thought it would be a good joke, that's funny. Now please give us the phone back.

Jackson learned 1 new word this week. "AWESOME" It sounds a little different coming from his mouth, but he understands the meaning. This word happens when he rides his tractor down the front yard hill at break neck speeds. Here is his running list of other words, and if necessary, their phonetic spellings:

outside = duote dois
daddy
mommy = wa wa
milk = mmmmmaaa?
Bob (the cat) = baaaa
drink = dubee
cheese = chis
shoes = shoes
socks = socks
baby = bebe
peepee
poopoo
weeee = beeeeee
snack = sssss

He also has a large list of animal sounds, understands possessives, can snore on command, and as shown, he likes his hand down his pants when he's sleepy.

My BP hasn't changed much since this weekend. I don't have full strength on the left side, but I do have taste and fantastic blinking ability. It's the last I'm mentioning of all that because it's not noticeable to the untrained eyes anymore.

I'm Healed

From Friday until today my nerves sucked in all the steroids and grew back just as they were supposed to. My mouth and eye just seem to move on my command. The doctors were right that about 2 weeks would be needed. I have a small amount of movement left to gain on my left side, but it's not enough to merit a full up blog of daily complaints. My taste is mostly back as well. With full mouth movement it's super easy to eat. Food doesn't pull up in my lower lip and I can take big bites out of hamburgers. Nice.

I'm glad that's over. I guess Lettie and I will keep up the blog. I'm surprised at the number of people that have said they read it. Lettie feels some sort of pressure to create a fantastic blog entry. To fulfill blogger expectations, her life needs to take a turn to the wild and exciting . I need all of your help to make her life full of surprises. Whenever you see Lettie, please pull a practical joke on her so she can have an exciting life. The 2 boys aren't old enough to play pranks on her, and I think she needs this to complete her. If you do your part, I think the blog will live on.

Thanks to Lisa for the Flickr account. I love Flickr. We're switching from Picasa Web to Flickr. There aren't many pictures up there yet, but here's the latest of the deck: http://www.flickr.com/photos/alexlettie/2273494734/