This is a corner of our basement, aka "the man cave", which is now the new journaling/crafting area. The large red dragon on the cubbyspace is the dragon from the movie Shrek . I found it in Jacksonville shopping at a consignment store with my friend Lisa. Christmas break the kids were home with me for two weeks and I took the kids on the very first Dragon hunt ever. Since then our Dragon hunts have gotten even better, with real treasure, chocolate eggs in the dragon's nest and rotten oranges as we run through the orange tree grove.

Here is a picture of Diesel Boy working at one of the crafting tables. I was sitting here all by myself enjoying my coffee and then .....the children just can't allow me to be all by myself.

You can see my journal was open and I was diligently writing away. But here is the strange thing....When they are at school and the house is totally quiet..I can't write then either. Its like I must fight the noise and tell them 45 times, "shh, mom is writing and this is her quiet time, don't bother me.", to get any work done. Why is that? I can't write with them here and I can't write when they are not here....Hence... I started this blog. I have no idea why I can type but not write around, between, under, through and over the noise. If it can be proven that I have a brain, I suppose that is just the way my brain works.

What you can't see in this picture is my drafting table. Well you can see the corner of it. Its odd how I wanted a drafting table, and yet, I am not a drafter, everything I do is final copy. I have to figure out the best use for it and until then its just a diamond in the rough. Behind that is our BAR.

Its a wet bar with sink and ice maker. We use it as our coffee bar. I have a coffee maker and a Kurig single cup coffee/tea/latte maker. This is also the theater room complete with surround sound. (little black box hanging from the ceiling)

Here at Hotel Schmucker we have a little bit of everything...including.... a pole.

AH, here is the Pole. Right in the middle of the room. Quite the conversation piece huh? Neighbors have called it the dance pole, but we don't call it that. We just call it "the pole". Structurally,I suppose it might be a support system for the upper level of the house, but that has yet to be proven. ok this is Girl Schmuck signing off.