Mirror Mirror on the Wall

mirrormasterbath
Originally uploaded by kalymiller.

We finally got some mirrors installed in the bathrooms. This is no small miracle, considering that small mirrors with no frame can cost $35 or more, and the people who make the mirrors often decorate them with frosted swans and flowers. I suppose that increases their cost/value, but - not my style at all. But after poor Mom and Dad had to check their images in the reflection off the TV, we felt a little embarrassed, and with the next check set aside some big bucks to get some mirrors made. Luckily, we found these medicine cabinet types for only about $79 at a hardware store. We had to put them together, but Andres is good at that kind of stuff. Medicine cabinets are hard to come by here so they actually look pretty cool in our bathrooms, and they are very practical since we were hiding the medicine under towels in the linen closet for want of a better place to put it. Now we have them on the highest shelf... and Agustin cannot get to them. That feels good.

Interestingly enough, I didn't mind not having a mirror around. It was peaceful in our house with no mirrors, and though I've never been a vain person, it got me away from worrying about what I looked like or how my clothes looked on me. Of course, that is probably why every time I saw a picture of myself I would give a little gasp, haha! Well, we are back in the land of living and mirror-life - no more lala land mirrorless house - and actually we have even found some cheap ($15) full lengths that we bought too. So now there is no excuse not to make this diet work...every time I pass by my bedroom door that mirror reminds me...

Big House = Big Money

I have figured out a new mathematical equation. For those of you already with houses, you're probably like...

duh, Kari, how original.

But for those of us just getting out of those teeny-tiny (as Tin would say) starter apartments and into something with more than three floors (that are your own, mind you), the bills can be quite overwhelming. And that is without the need for heating or air conditioning! Just the electric bill is over three times what we spent in the apartment, the phone bill is higher (probably because I am using the Internet more, but also because now we are in a "rich" residential zone, where there are more taxes, whereas before we were near the poorer residential area Comite del Pueblo, so prices for basic services were lower). In our apartment we didn't have to pay for water, since the monthly dues took care of that, but here in our new house we pay like $20 a month. Gardening and upkeep, cleaning supplies to clean five bathrooms (don't laugh Andres - even if I don't clean them regularly I DO buy the supplies!), even furniture and wall hangings to try and fill up the space a bit! It is so weird to go from an apartment where you could barely move to a place where your voice actually echoes for lack of "stuff." It is quite fun, in a way, because I no longer have to fear those U.S. shopping sprees (that is, until the house gets cluttered again and we have to sell it and use it for storage and get our very own mansion).

One thing we finally decided to splurge on was sitting paraphenelia. Mom and Dad both experienced how awkward it was to visit while using the stairs and coffee tables as chairs. We plunged in and bought a beautiful sofa set, a la St. Albans, very soft and suede-y (dry clean only and please do not get it wet... Aargh! what?!"@# With two little boys? Oh no, what did we get ourselves into...) and definitely worth the price of a car!


Whew! We'll be paying that one off for some time. At least our guests have somewhere to sit (did you hear that my sisters? You can come and visit now because you have somewhere to sit).

Plans to buy a matching set for the third floor, but once the kids are a little older. As it is, the ones up there match now, too, due to the artwork (with non-removable pen, of course) of my little 2-year-old.

Mom and me

Here we are - Mom and her little bookworm (shhh, don't tell anti-book daddy!)

You know you're obsessed with books when...

1. the first thing your eyes are drawn to in magazines are the books on shelves and tables
2. you get a small magnifying glass out to read the titles of those books in the magazine photos
3. you feel like you lost your best friend when the local English bookstore closes for the summer
4. you browse the virtual bookshelves of other Library Thing subscribers
5. you secretly buy books instead of running an errand and hide them in the corner of a room of your house to later pull out and put on the bookshelf so that no one really notices them, especially since you haven't yet read the last one you bought (saving it for a special occasion)
6. you hoard books like candy, saving them for this unforeseen "special occasion"
7. you sometimes pull books down off your shelf and just run your hand over the cover, leaf through the pages looking at random sentences, and imagine what's inside
8. you do the above in bookstores, also, occasionally generating looks of bewilderment
9. you experience a rush of exhiliration every time you purchase a book
10. you get onto Amazon.com various times a day to see if your recommendations have been refreshed
11. you get REALLY excited when someone reads a book you recommended them
12. you go home to visit family and friends, traveling almost 4000 miles, and then spend the majority of your time in the library
13. your husband doesn't want to even hear the word book
14. the only thing that can quiet your two-year-old boy down is getting out a book (usually about cars or trains) and reading together (he doesn't let me read to him - we just sit next to each other and read our own books simultaneously!)
15. you write a blog entry about this addiction!

All set

Well, as many of you know, Bati is back in MN and has already made his first trip to the cabin. I am sure he is excited about that.

As for me, I was very depressed on Saturday, thinking about all of the Minnesotans outside roasting on their decks. Hearing that it is hot even at night didn't help. How many times have I made a trip back just to enjoy that humiliating, opressive heat? And instead got fifty-degree weather? Well, it just figures that you all would have a *great* summer without me. And that we'd be planning another winter trip. Bet this winter will be really cold, off the records...

Daily Zeitgeist for my Family

Hey everyone. If you're not getting enough photos of my boys, please scroll down and check out the flickr photos daily zeitgeist. I'll try to keep this updated. I'm sure Andres will help.

Soundproofing walls

Any ideas on how to soundproof walls? Our new neighbors are finally moving in (at very odd hours of the night...those poor kids need to sleep, I say!) and they are not what I would call "quiet." It looks like it will be a long ten or twenty years (by which time I hope the mommy screams and crying and ball throwing and drum pounding will have stopped and our lovely new neighbors' kids will have moved out of the house... or at least have decided to sit down and watch TV instead of triggering car alarms and house alarms and tears from me as I try to drown out their noises at 1 o'clock in the morning).

Happy 4th

Oh, and I should probably say Happy 4th to family and friends. Have a nice time at the cabin...without me! (Here I am, slaving away at work ... read: posting on my blog!)

Just flea bites

So, no, I am going to assume Tin doesn't have chicken pox. Last night he had a few pimply-looking things starting on his neck, but this morning they were gone and his belly marks are fading fast. No pus, no scabbing (yet), only a few marks on his leg, in a straight line where his sock ends. I guess our first hunch - FLEAS - was right. Now, how do you get rid of fleas? (Pretty sure he picked them up in Calderon - the weather has been dry and hot...perfect for those bloodsuckers, and he was playing in the same area where the dogs take their naps during the week... Glad it probably isn't chicken pox because I didn't know what I would do with the baby in that case).

Chicken Pox?

Uh-oh. We'll see tomorrow, but I think it may be...