That's one fat president

I'm a fan of those educational placemats you can get at Wal-Mart. Julia started learning her ABC's on a Sesame Street one years ago, and I've been buying them ever since. Her favorite has been the one showing all the U.S. presidents, how long they were in office, and random trivia about some of them. She has been fascinated by the fact that Taft was the heaviest president (a bigger bathtub had to be installed in the White House because he kept getting stuck in the regular-sized one). She's also into everything having to do with the Titanic, so she was interested to learn that Taft was president at the time of the Titanic disaster.

"Maybe he was on the Titanic," I said at dinner the other night. "And that's why it sank."

This produced a fit of giggles from Julia and her two friends who were eating with us. Now I'm afraid we've made a hobby out of thinking up "fat president" jokes. Tonight at dinner, Julia was quizzing us from another placemat.

"What is the biggest continent?" she asked.

"Taft," I replied. More giggles. Is this good parenting? Probably not. But it's fun.

I'm still taking pictures around the house, as the rooms look presentable. Here's one bit of insight I've gained since we moved in: If you put lotion on your feet and don't quite rub it in all the way and then start off down the hardwood hallway, you just might break your butt.

Anyway, here's a painting my grandparents bought from a street artist in Venice, Italy in the mid-1960s. My grandpa was stationed in Italy for a few years, and Venice was one of their favorite cities.

Our entryway. I took this today and it already looks different because I put more stuff on the table later.

The garden tub in our yellow bathroom. When we lived in Baytown, some good friends helped us paint our bathroom yellow to help pull me out of my funk after all my miscarriages in 2003. I was really sad to leave that bathroom behind. So when we looked at this house, the fact that the master bath was pretty much the same exact shade was a sign that the house was for us. We want to put a bigger picture up there eventually, but the magnolia works for now. And wouldn't Taft be proud of that tub!