First of all, thanks to everyone for your feedback on our crazy tenant situation. It was a good motivator to have so many of you emphatically telling me to get her out, because I did waver a bit with feeling badly, wanting to help, BEING TOTALLY CODEPENDENT, etc. But as Mark said to me on Saturday, “We’re just going to need her to have this life crisis at a location other than here.” Anyways, with a little confrontation she did admit to hitting something with my car. She said she thought it was a grocery cart . . . I’m pretty sure a grocery cart would not have left a long streak of white paint on top of the dent, so it’s likely she hit another car. On Sunday, Mark knocked on her door to see how things were going and she said she needed a few more days. He also noted that she had not even begun packing, and let her know he was pretty frustrated that we had given her three days to get it together. She started another tale about her bike being stolen, and how that was preventing her from being able to move. (???) Mark was really, really firm and told her that she needed to be out or he would get the police involved. This was mostly a bluff but it worked. We went out on Sunday night and when we got home, she was gone. Phew. I’m glad that’s over.
For now, I’ve converted the backhouse into an ebay selling station. I’ll figure out our next steps after we regroup.
Alright, here are some photos from the past week.
Karis upped the ante with the DIY manicures. This time, she found a Sharpie in a drawer that I clearly need to move. My little goth princess is a persistent one.
Mark and I got a nice night out in LA this week. I love LA – a lot. I would NEVER want to live there. But I love that we get to drive in, experience it for all that it is, and then drive back home to the suburbs.
On this particular night, we ventured into the big city to attend a book reading by Jillian Lauren. Her new novel Pretty was just released and it is amazing. I cannot put it down. I loved hearing Jillian read . . . she told us that they hired an actress to read the novel for the audiobook, and let me tell you, SHE WAS ROBBED. Jillian is a fantastic actress on top of being an amazing writer. And blogger. And she sings. And she’s smart and hilarious. And can pull of six-inch heels. I’m actually not sure we can be friends anymore.
The big event of this week was everyone starting school. Karis was so excited to go. She looks so big! A huge thanks to Tea Collection for the girl’s clothes for our first day. (They have adorable boy’s clothes as well, but Kembe will be rockin’ the uniform this year).
I love this picture because it capture this time so well . . . Karis wanting to be a big kid like her siblings, but still holding on to her “softie” like a toddler. She was just so proud to be starting school.
Poor little fourth kid with the hand-me-down lunchbox!
I may have been a little obsessive about capturing the moment. (There are about 29 more where this came from).
The rest of the week went by in a blur. Packing lunches is my new hobby. I don’t think I realized what a chore that is.
On Thursday night, this happened:
This is what happens when your husband’s BFF is a concert promoter: one minute we are settled in for the night and picking a movie on Netflix, and five minutes and a text exchange later, he is running out the door to join Tim at a Def Leppard show. The cruel, cruel irony in all of this is that Mark has no interest in post-1970’s music, and (TRUE STORY) asked me to record a PBS special on Peter, Paul, and Mary as he was leaving.
So just to clarify, Mark was walking around backstage at a stadium show and I was at home watching this nonsense at his request. (Okay, I do realize no one forced me to watch it. I might have gotten sucked in by their folksy harmonies and soothing voices). Interestingly, Mark said that Puff the Magic Dragon was in the row ahead of him at Def Leppard!
After the first week of school, we were all exhausted. We spent Saturday morning being exceedingly lazy, watching YouTube videos of Uncle Kipp surfing.
On Sunday, I got to take the boys to a Weezer show (the uber-talented husband of the aforementioned uber-talented Jillian is in the band. I would seriously hate them if they weren’t such ridiculously, ridiculously nice people). This was Kembe’s first concert and it was pretty epic. Before we left I gave the little boys an education of the Weezer anthology via YouTube.
