In Laws in the House

My father-in-law, sister-in-law, and niece are staying with us this weekend. Lord, beer me strength.

Are You Freaking Kidding Me: Cheese Edition

Last night, after I had gone to bed, my husband ate 2/3 of a wheel of brie. I don't even know how to respond to it.

"Dude, do you know how much brie costs?"

"Do you realize how much saturated fat is in cheese? It was nice knowing you."

"Were you actually hungry, or just bored?"

I'll probably just let it slide though. Living with other people never gets less weird.

Are You Freaking Kidding Me: Library Edition

To access my local public library online, even just to browse the library's collection, I need to enter my fourteen digit library card number and a four digit PIN. That means if my wallet got stolen, it would be as hard for the thief to get into my library account as my bank account.

This level of security seems unnecessary. Who do they think is going to break into my library account? As if anyone besides me cares how many people are in front of me to get The Girl Who Played With Fire.

The library doesn't even let me pick my PIN. That means I have to remember a total of 18 numbers just to see if my branch has a copy of Never Let Me Go. Ridiculous.

Have you read any good books lately?

And the Winner Is...

...Lucky number 3 Taryn. (Chosen at random.org)

Thanks for everbody's patience. It's been one of those weeks and I haven't had a moment to blog. I plan on spending the weekend catching up on reading your blogs, catching up with my DVR, napping, and hopefully getting ahead on my blog.

What are your plans for the weekend?

Remembering My Dad

Today would’ve been my dad’s 63rd birthday. He died almost three years ago, but I’ve been crying for the last two days anyway. I’m going to bake him a birthday cake and tell you a story about him because I’m thinking about him.

My parents had three kids, including me, and we are all very close in age. When it was about time to teach us how to read my dad tried to persuade my mom that they should teach us to read using a mirror so we would only be able to read in the reverse.

Thankfully my mom did not allow him to do this, but he always defended his idea. I would ask him, “What would we have done in school?” He said we would just bring a mirror to school and he would tell the teacher, “Yeah, they know how to read, but they only know how to do it backwards.” He insisted that as long as we were providing our own mirrors it wouldn’t be a big deal.

I would ask him where he got this crazy idea and why did he even want to do it and he always said, “What’s the point of having kids if you can’t experiment on them?”

What a weirdo! He also used to crack my toes and sing at full volume to the background music in the grocery store and tickle me until I couldn’t breathe. He was my weirdo.

Daily Decluttering

Before

I'm still working on decluttering and reorganizing my apartment. I'm taking on smaller projects than I was before, but the satisfaction of completing a small project keeps me more motivated to keep going than getting stuck in the middle of a big decluttering project.

Above you see a corner of a shelf in the master closet. Two crates were filled with Chuk's and my belongings. I took them both down and got rid of everything that was mine except for a photo album from my first trip abroad when I was 15 years old and my diary from elementary & middle school (which is both hilarious and humiliating). Both of these went on a bookcase in another room, which I've already cleared out.

When Chuk got home from work I politely asked him to review the items that were left in the bins. As a matter of respect, I don't get rid of his stuff. Turns out I didn't need to. He took pictures of a lot of what he had and then got rid of almost everything.

After

This is all that's left: a tub we occasionally use to soak our feet (is that TMI?), two crates just in case we have something we want to store later and in the bottom crate Chuk's old camera and lenses. (His camera case is green so you can't see it very well in the photo.) He's thinking about selling them, but hasn't made up his mind yet. I think he did a great job already, so I don't want to pressure him.

We have lots of extra space in our closet now and are feeling great about how much better our home is looking.

Big Giveaway

I have a $45 gift certificate to give to one lucky reader! All Modern, a CSN Store, has a fantastic selection of modern bedding, furniture, lighting, accessories, and so much more.

You know I've been lusting after new bedding lately. This would match my bedroom curtains perfectly.

Hello, Gorgeous. Do you want to come live with me?

These vases are screaming autumn to me and would transition nicely into winter too.

I seriously need this rug.

I actually use this chair as my desk chair. It is seriously comfortable.

Pretty fabulous stuff, right? Want to win? You have up to three chances.

To enter:
1. Visit the website of any of the CSN stores and leave a comment telling me what you'd get if won the gift certificate.

2. For an extra entry, become a follower of my blog and leave a separate comment telling me you are.

3. Tell readers on your blog about this giveaway, linking back to this post. Leave a separate comment for that too.

I'll pick a winner using the random number generator at 9:00 pm EST next Tuesday, September 21.

Please note, the gift certificate cannot be put towards the cost of shipping, but it's no biggie because almost everything they sell has free shipping.