Mapel

My boss in Seattle, Jenelle Landgraf is an amazingly talented woman,. She recently started a fashion boutique in Leavenworth with her friend who has a fashion background. If you are looking for some trendy items to spruce up your wardrobe, check out http://www.shopmapel.com/. They are currently having a BIG SALE!!!

And while you are there, I would like these earrings: I'm kidding ... but not really.

Front Bedroom (a.k.a. The Activity Room)

We have been successfully ignoring the activity room* for some time now. Putting up visitors from near and wide on a blow up mattress in a room without heat that looks like this:

Yeah, not very nice of us. This proves though that we have wonderful aquantances. (Ha ha ha, we were just testing you!) Let's take a look at an example corner of the room ...
As we said, we are terrible people.

But there is hope ... although not much with our construction skills ... because we have recently painted the room (PURPLE!) and are in the process of putting up crown molding. Yippy!

The picture shows all the dirt that is created by hammering into walls backed by lots of plaster and a neighbor who smokes in the house (YUCK!). We will show beautiful photos once all the trim is painted and ...

...we figure out how to get the new box spring up the stairs and move the mattress out of the hallway. Fun times. At least I have something to think about other than this semester's schoolwork.

* = As you may recall, we chose to sleep in the tiny bedroom and use the large front bedroom as a room to watch movies, keep our desk and store our clothes. This arrangement has been working out well for us.

Whelihan Invasion

Did we tell you that we were able to have a visit with part of the Whelihan gang (L's mom's side of the family) when they were in town last weekend? It was great to see them ... it's been a while since we have had a proper visit!

In the last two months:

* Over half of the nights were spent with at least one of us sleeping in another household.

* Almost a quarter of the remaining evenings we were housing individuals in our tiny row home.

* We have shared dinner (or big breakfast) in our house with an additional 27 individuals.

* Met 13 friends, who we don't see often, for dinner and attended another three dinner parties at friend's homes.

* We have traveled five full days.

* Joshua went to Denver for the day for a meeting and was back in Camden in time for an evening meeting.

* I have been using my break from school to work for my dad -- painting part of a nursing home and re-doing old chairs in my brother's garage.

* We still have time to dress dogs in funny shirts.

All of this has been wonderful.

Don't know why I started calculating this. I was actually surprised by the results because I thought we've been busy, but not this busy. Joshua loves visitors and is a trooper through all the hordes of people we have tramping through the house all the time. He tries his best to speak some reason into my scheduling. There are just so many people I want to see ... and feed!

This past weekend, we purchased a mattress set and a few other items so that we can finally make our "activity room" into more of a guest bedroom. Pumping up the air mattress was becoming such a regular occurrence that we popped a hole in it!

So if you are thinking about visiting or stopping by for dinner, the answer is always a resounding YES! This may not seem like the logical conclusion if you incorrectly assume that this post is about how tired of traveling and visitors we are. That isn't what we are saying at all.

Truth: We love visitors.

Fact: You probably don't visit often enough.

Baby Thompson is Coming!!

(Bridgette and her sister Beth at the baby shower.)

Bridgette wins the prize for being the most un-pregnant looking mother-to-be. She is her normal petite self with just a big belly of a baby attached to her front. She doesn't even waddle! She is amazing and we cannot wait for Brian and her to become parents ... in two months! OMG!

Do you see the resemblance?

Krista, of Seattle's Pink Palace fame, visiting us in Philadelphia. What an awesome girl and a fun visit!

Confusing and Wonderful Things About South Philadelphia

We live in South Philadelphia. Yes, it is technically part of the City of Philadelphia. But it is a land all of it's own.

The history of South Philly is basically a list of immigrants who moved in among the factories before moving to nicer areas of the city or New Jersey. The factories are mostly all shut down these days. Immigrants in order: Irish, Italians, Asians (I could list the subgroups, but might mess up the order of arrival) and now Mexicans. The Italians claim that they own South Philly and so it is known as the Italian area of town with the Italian Market being the most touristy attraction. The outdoor market is on the wide sidewalks outside of the traditional meat and cheese shops.

There are still a lot of traditional Italian families who have multiple generations all living on the same block. It seems as if the pattern is something like: When you get married and move out of your parent's house for the first time, you trade homes with your grandmother. She moves in with your folks while you and your spouse get her home. When we tell people that one set of parents live in Carlisle, a whole 2 hour drive away, they freak out and tell us we are bad people for moving so far from home. We have learned to by-pass the subject of where Joshua's family lives.

We have gotten in the habit of purchasing only fresh pasta from a local shop. Not surprising, Sal, one of the shop's employees, looks like a guy from The Sopranos. Joshua has threatened to divorce me if I tell Sal that my husband makes a wonderful tofu tomato sauce ... or as it is known around here "gravy." As in, "My grandmother makes the best ravioli and gravy." Um, yuck?

There is a South Philly hairstyle that every lady sports. It's like a bob but with enough fluffing to make it more of a helmet. They stare at my hair because it is so flat.

When I went to school in Baltimore, I learned that sneakers hanging from the power line was a gang code meaning that drugs are being sold on that corner. Not sure if this is still true, but there are pockets of South Philadelphia with this cultural phenomenon. At times, they seem to hang more and more sneakers in the same spot to the point of absurdity. One place had at least a dozen pairs hanging from the wires.

The ice cream truck drives through our neighborhood at least once a day. During the first snow of the season, he was driving down our street and was mobbed by customers. Not sure of the reason for the ice cream craving. (This picture was taken a few weeks ago out our front window between the Christmas decorations.)

But the most notable aspect of South Philadelphia is how friendly the neighborhood is. People say hello and if they know you live on the block, they will introduce themselves. This community connection has been surprising at times -- like when they used to just stroll into the house uninvited during the house remodel -- but it is always wonderful.

Even though I would love to leave this analysis of South Philly in the Polly Positive Realm, there is one major part of living in this area that we cannot stand: The frequent use of yelling to parent children. Now, obviously we are not parents and we aren't the authority on the subject, however we have seen far too much yelling, hitting and swearing at children for our taste. It seems in such stark contrast to the friendly welcomes we receive. It is still difficult to get our minds around how to deal with this issue.

As with any city, I'm sure the list of things we find unique and exciting will continue to grow as we learn more about our surroundings. We will be sure to keep you posted.

Recent Email Message from Amy

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Hi everyone,
This is a momentous occasion seeing Hayden do the pink tower, a classic Montessori material. He is officially a Montessori kid starting in Feb. I have done my job!

We went to the library last week and Hayden came up to me saying, "Look mama, a book about engines and rockets" You have to imagine him emphasizing the engines and rockets in his best dramatic voice. In his hands was a Star Wars book with all the ships from every movie. Pretty funny, eh?

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This makes Uncle Josh and Auntie Laura very happy!

Happy New Year!

After a day of Guitar Hero, playing tennis (it's warm here!), going to a movie and enjoying a wonderful seafood dinner, we had an amazing New Year's countdown from the roof of our house. We could see fireworks going off all over the city -- it was awesome! The residence of the next block said they spent $2000 on fireworks and we would believe it. The fireworks were professional-grade wonders. We got up early on New Year's Day to go to the Mummers Parade with Heather. As usual, it was epic.

Yes, those are big men dressed in pink and blue baby costumes and another man in a shiny costume adorned with feathers.