my suburban diary

my suburban diary: paint on the floor

kdavis Leave a comment

here in georgia our nephew bode lives nearby, and each november when his birthday rolls around, his parents invite us to his celebration. it’s only been four years now, but phillip and i have set a reputation for dressing up for the event to really enhance the theme of the party. the first year we were tigers and lions and cheetahs for “wild and one,” the second year we were minnie and a hot dog for “twodooles,” and the third year we were a paleontologist and dinosaur for “three-rex.” you get it.

well, when bode turned four earlier this month, it was time to channel my inner crafting skills and get to work. the theme was “the need four speed,” and my mother gets all the credit for this idea: box car lightning mcqueen and sally! it was genius and, i’d say, beginner on the difficulty scale. 🙂 getting the boxes folded just right was step one, and then they needed some beautiful coats of paint. well, i opened the garage door, laid down some spare cardboard and newspapers, and got to work. i was highly satisfied with the results, but when i pulled up my “protective” base layer, i couldn’t help but laugh. that spray paint sprayed a little further than i intended, and we now have lovely abstract blue and red artwork on our garage floor. it’s not like we have a professional finished garage floor, so it is no big deal, but it just made me smile because i feel like everyone at some point works on some sort of craft in their garage (if lucky enough to have one) and inevitably gets a little of the art where it shouldn’t be. but honestly, isn’t it a memory you are making? i am certain that each time i walk in the garage and see a little sliver of paint here and there, i will think back to, yes, the craft, but also the reason for it: family. you’ll have to check in next november to see what we come up with next!

my suburban diary: the ultimate favor

kdavis 1 Comment

with a new year comes a new blog series (don’t worry, i promise i’ll finish the mcu!). this one is going to be casual and fun and will include posts whenever the mood hits me. i’m looking to minimize self-induced stress this year, and blogging when i want to (rather than when i feel like i should) is step one. 🙂

a couple years ago phillip and i moved out of atlanta and up to the suburbs for more space and more affordable housing. city livin’ has its price! our neighborhood has proven to be the ultimate suburban dream, one of which i feel like i have been waiting my whole life to live. so, as fun things happen up here in our little bubble, i’ll share them with you!

there is a family of five down the road with the sweetest group of daughters, and a few months ago they went on a roadtrip. i of course offered to pick up their mail and boxes while they were gone, and a couple nights before they left, the mother saw me on a walk and asked if we could watch their fish, too. i don’t know if i have ever been more flattered in my life! i immediately replied yes and ran home to tell phillip the good news.

for five days, we kept their beta fishes bluey and bella alive. my only regret is that i did not get a picture of them! they were in a compact tank with a divider (apparently beta fish attack each other if they are in the same space?) and each gobbled up their fish flakes when they were fed. only bluey gave me a scare a few days in when he was lying side-up at the top of the tank and not moving much. turns out their water probably should have been changed once or twice while they stayed with us. but hey! the fact that we walked that little aquarium back to their house with both fish alive is all i wanted.

p.s. the fish did finally meet their fate about a month ago. i think they had a little ceremony in the backyard and buried the fish in some shoeboxes. some things never change. 🙂