Two Toots for Tuesday

September first! Fall is my absolute favorite time of year, and I love the first hints that it is on its way. Pumpkin Spice lattes are back on the Starbuck's menu, and I found this little evidence of autumn on my front lawn today. Things are shaping up nicely, and I feel happiness creeping into the corners of my soul. Not to mention the fact that Kate Gosselin is back on the cover of People magazine, right where she belongs, and my Mom just brought me the issue so I have great reading waiting on me tonight.

So, over the weekend a few of Hannah's friends agreed to bring their muscles and patience over to help shlep furniture. These sweet souls shuttled my china hutch from wall to wall while I wallowed in indecisiveness. I felt ready for a change and wanted things to be just a little bit different. I didn't want to put all the old furniture back in the same old spots. I wanted to shuffle it around to new and exciting places. Rather, I wanted them to shuffle it around to new and exciting places. And shuffle they did. It is amazing what teenage boys will do when you butter them up with some pizza, soda, and a box of nutter butter bars.

This barrister bookcase has been in my room for several years. I bought it to house overflow books, but it has always looked out of place in the bedroom. So I scooted it out into the hallway where it nestles perfectly into this little nook. I love how it looks with the round mirror above it. I kept this mirror hidden under the sofa in the living room to put a manger scene on at Christmas time. It has now found a year round gig so I'll need to find a new nesting spot for Mary, Joseph and the gang.

A big country hutch relocated from my den to the dining room. I wanted to take the dining room from the previous formal look to much more casual. I think I like the open front hutch in there. It matches the dining room table and it feels rather cozy.

There are still plenty of things sitting around where they don't belong. I'm still rotating and playing around with where to display things. That means there are lots of opportunities for little fingers to explore and touch and try to carry. I have lots of help.

Clean clothes are hard to come by these days, so they are strictly optional. We sport a sassy new haircut though. Our very first (real) haircut. Mommy and Daddy hacking away at your bangs with manicure scissors while you're wrapped in a pink elephant bath towel doesn't count as a real trip to the beauty shop. So these are what straight bangs look like. It we'd have known they were this spectacularly cute we'd have opted for them long ago.

Cute counts when you're touching no-no's. It helps to keep you out of trouble.

This was the scene here this afternoon. My Mom stopped by to check on our house and when she went to leave the electrical system in her car flipped out. The horn honked, the lights blinked, and things were clicking. The car wouldn't start, but everything on the car was working all at once. Loudly. AAA came to take Oma's car away after almost an hour of horn honking. Toot, toot! Thankfully, it was just the battery and there was no charge to get it fixed.

The funny thing about the horn is that it just added to the rumble and chaos of the past two days. We've had little piles of things that pop and hiss...

...spray and suck and saw and sand.....

...no shortage of noisy mess makers here, so a honking horn seemed to fit right in. I'm so glad we're friendly with all our neighbors!

But all the little noise and mess makers worked together to create great things. Look at the tranquil shade of blue/green in the homeschool room. Doesn't it seem soothing? Doesn't this look like a color that would inspire you to LEARN?? :) It was exciting when they started moving in the new shelves!

Things are still under wraps, but I'm excited to show you the big reveal soon! I can hardly wait for the paint to dry so I can start unloading books. I'm motivated to get the rest of the house tamed so I can lolly gag in the new library room.

Hayden and I dropped Oma at the car dealership tonight so she could pick up her car, and we decided to stop at Kroger on our way home to pick up Bluebell ice cream before it goes off sale tomorrow. I stopped in the produce department to check prices on watermelons because it's always more comfortable at the check out lane if you have a little fresh fruit to balance out a conveyor belt full of ice cream! Anyway, watermelons were $7 tonight, which caused Hayden to exclaim for all to hear, "WHAT??? These people need to go to the Walmarts where they can save more AND live well!" Top of his lungs. That's my boy. The shy one who apparently watches too many TV commercials.

We're up and running early tomorrow. The kids have a full day of activities and I'm determined to get my room, bathroom and closet fully back to normal. "Normal" means no china in the underwear drawer, no canned goods in the linen closet, and no spare furniture lining the walls. Those seven loads of dirty clothes can stay though. A girl can only accomplish so much on a single cup of Pumpkin Spice latte.