Yep, that's the name our oldest daughter's friend Diamond came up with. She thinks we should set up video cameras and broadcast our life on the web. She says "OMG, something is always going on over here, you should make a show for real; I'd watch it every day." Thank you Diamond, I think.
In the best of times I like to think of us as a normal family of six with a family pet thrown in for the portrait. In reality, we live in almost constant chaos, all six of us, plus the animals, each with our own particular idiosyncrasies, including the crazy but adorable dogs and the cat that I think is autistic.
Add in various relatives and the kids friends and a simple trip to pick up lunch from Burger King becomes a logistical nightmare. "Okay, lemme see if I've got this right, you don't want mayo on yours. You're allergic to onions, oh sorry, you're the one that's allergic to onions. You wanted totally plain right, no, you want ketchup on it only? Alright...well we have ketchup here; okaaaayy, you don't like our ketchup. Cheese makes you itch!? Who said that?"
Apparently, chaos is a good thing, otherwise why would our kids friends prefer to spend all their free time here instead of someone else's house? I'm not complaining, really, just wondering.
I know when the parents drop their kids off, they look like they can't wait to leave. I can tell, while trying to make a little smalltalk with an actual adult, that they are getting a little antsy to leave - they start to get a little twitch under their eye as they edge closer to their car and freedom.
Our house is really pretty big, but in various stages of construction and remodeling. Most of the floors are plywood right now cause I ripped out all the carpets a bit prematurely. Okay, I'll admit it, a lot prematurely. Anyway, we have table saws in the family room, stacks of lumber and trim, too many paint cans to count and not enough room for everything.
It is starting to look better though. At night, with just a table lamp in the distance, if I squint just right...I can almost envision what it will look like one day.
Kids don't care about things like that. See, it's a great place to cut off all the lights at night and play flashlight tag. That gorgeous leather sectional that wraps around three walls is perfect for sleepovers. Uh yeah, it does look a bit out of place with all that plywood and those boards stacked up on the walls? Rustic ambiance? Can we call it that?
Throw in 2 big screen tvs and 2 of average size, along with subscriptions to Gamefly and NetFlix and we are the happening place baby! Four-wheelers and the trails to ride them, we don't have much luck with grass anyway. A huge, but low-class above ground pool, surrounded by a deck with cheap plastic chairs and no handrails or steps yet, kicks up the fun come summer.
We'll be adding a screened-in porch on the deck soon. Yeah, probably before we ever get the handrails done. I just can't wait to have an actual screen door, the sound of the spring stretching, the slap of wood on wood reminding me of vacations at the beach. It will probably be opened in a rush, then left to slam shut a hundred times a day, and that's okay, really.


















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