Flanagan Clan

Today I had one of our new neighbors come to our house with a fundraiser she was doing for her school’s soccer team. One thing I’d like to do, as a good neighbor, is to help the neighbor kids with their fundraisers, so I listened patiently to her little sales pitch. Then the particular item she was selling came up: MAGAZINES. I don’t know why selling magazines has become such a big thing to sell for fundraising. I am willing to buy gift wrap, like I use to sell in grade school. I can always use more. I am willing to buy candy (especially chocolate!). World’s Finest Chocolate has a great fundraiser, and the fliers have pictures that are mouthwatering. I might even be persuaded to buy coupon books, if they seem like a good deal and I know they are for something I can actually use. I will definitely buy Girl Scout cookies. The one thing I will not, and have absolutely no interest in, is MAGAZINES. Typically the magazine selection is scarce, and there are no magazines that I’m actually interested in. In addition, I know how little time I actually spend reading magazines, unless I’m waiting in a checkout counter at the supermarket. I know I don’t want magazines, and I have no clue who actually buys them! Certain magazines have had appeal at different times in my life: bridal magazines while I was getting married, any pregnancy magazine while I’ve been pregnant, and currently I will flip through parenting magazines, though I do not tend to agree with a lot of the stuff in them. I read through World Magazine at my parents’ house when it looks interesting, and I enjoy magazines that spark creativity and provide neat ideas, such as Martha Stewart and This Old House, although I do not own any subscriptions to them. Sometimes I will even flip through Andrew’s Popular Mechanics and Popular Science. Other than that, I’m not interested. Please, if you are considering doing a fundraiser, do not do magazines!

Things have been pretty busy here at the new house. While all the boxes are gone, there are many closets, drawers and cabinets to be neatly organized and many little fix up projects to complete. Last weekend Andrew made two beautiful shelves above the kitchen desk, we repainted the kitchen, which was a ketchup red and yellow mustard theme, and I continued working on lining shelves and drawers and finding places to put everything. We definitely have a lot more room in this house, and it’s nice to not feel cramped. We have big plans for making this house better, although right now it’s pretty great the way that it is. I absolutely love this house!

This week Andrew is gone on business, and Diane is here with me. While Andrew is gone Diane is going to be painting the kid’s bathroom. The previous owners painted it a very girlie lavendar color, which we all decided definitely needs to go. We found a very beautiful teal that goes well with the tropical fish theme. Diane then plans to paint coral and brightly colored fish around the bathroom. We will be sure to post pictures when all is finished!

There is much left to do before the baby comes. I can tell that there’s a definite nesting instinct going on because I’m discovering dirt in places that I normally wouldn’t look. It is almost driving me crazy! Last week I spent over half an hour just cleaning our kitchen sink and the window above it. I wasn’t happy until it was perfect. Diane and Andrew are probably going nuts over the way I’m obsessing over the slight inperfections in the paint job they did in the kitchen. If I were allowed to paint during pregnancy, believe me, I’d have a paint brush out in a moment and begin carefully going over everything until it was absolutely perfect. I guess it doesn’t help that I’m a perfectionist!

There is not too much else new around here. Getting the house ready for the baby has taken up most of my time and energy. There are some fun things coming up in July: a good friend’s wedding, Diane’s birthday party, my baby shower. Andrew and my three year anniversary comes up on August 1st. Herbert Feucht, a very distant relative from Germany, will be coming to visit in August.  Despite all the fun we’ll be having this summer, I hope that the next 5 1/2 weeks go by really quickly (and I get everything done!) because this pregnancy is tiring me out and I’ll be so happy when our new little one arrives!