Somewhere Over the Rainbow

Okay so maybe while not technically, over any rainbows, it is still pretty high.  Oh, maybe I should explain what it is I am talking about.  Bill is on the roof.  That makes me pretty uncomfortable.  We have really good insurance, but still, its a very tall house.  Yesterday, he had to install a new vent, and because we are expecting rain, he needs to make sure its sealed up, so nothing leaks.  The roofers will flash around it when they get up there.  Today, he is going to install my new dryer vent.  Finally!!!!!!  For the last several months, I have been venting the dryer out of the window, which is an amazing pain in butt.  Its a long story as to why, but in a nut shell, the old vent wouldn't work with the new dryer, something about where it was located or something. Whatever, now it will be fixed and I won't have to deal with it.  Progress is awesome!
Managed to get the Wal-Mart run done early.  As suspected, no one was there, and they still had the stuff I went there to get.  Awesome.  Bill broke down and bought a new weed eater.  The old one was stolen last summer. Someone was going around stealing lawn equipment.  Maybe they wanted to start their own lawn service or something.  I just can't imagine what you would need 15 weed eaters, half a dozen lawn movers and 8 chainsaws for.  I finally just broke down and bought a Rosemary plant.  I hate admitting it, but I am completely incompetent when it comes to Rosemary.  I have no reason why, other than for the past 6 years I have tried to grow it from seeds and just can't seem to either get them to even sprout or if they do sprout the seedlings are so weak and pathetic they don't make it.  So, I got a very nice, good size plant, that hopefully, if I baby, it will live.  It better, if it dies, I will just give up.
We got most of the stuff moved out of the way yesterday and several more rows of beans in.  We are going to hold off on the tomatoes another week or so.  I think it is still to early, and my luck, we'd get them planted and then we would have a freeze.  I'll just wait:)
I got the wandering Jews re potted and outside, the tulips & irises weeded and a few herbs planted in pots.  And for the most exciting part of my day, I went into the house next door.
I was gathering up my pots and saw that there were about 10 of the gallon size black plastic pots laying around the yard next door and since no one is going to be using them, I snagged them.  Bill said since I was over there to look and see if the kitchen door had the hardware still on it.  So, being the dutiful wife I am, I did.
OMG!  We haven't been in there since early last summer.  I could not believe how much damage occurred over the winter.  I understand why the city said they wouldn't be responsible for accidents.  The first room I walked into was the kitchen.  The floor in the center of the room was gone, as was the ceiling over that part of the floor.  Since I am a pretty nervous nelly, and I am pretty familiar with where the joists are, I decided to stick near the wall and old step where the joists should be.  I went partially into what was the dining room and no further than that.  The ceiling in the living room and the front room as also partially down and big holes in those floors as well.  I could see into the hallway, and it was a mess.  The whole staircase had collapsed.  Their staircase was just like ours and the banister and spindles were all on the floor. With a huge hole in the ceiling.  I could see the sky in several places.  I can't even begin to describe how utterly sad it is to see that.  Their house is almost an exact copy of ours, alot of the woodwork was carved by the same man, and to see it, just rotting.  Each spindle is hand carved and so beautiful, to see them laying on the floor like that was really depressing. I am not sure why it struck me like that, or why that one think was so overwhelming.  Maybe its PMS??  who knows, but it is just really sad.  What's really bad is, the guy who owned it was a roofer!  When we moved in they had tarps on the roof, and never did anything other than put up more tarps.  I had heard that they had 50 gallon barrels on the 2nd floor to catch leaks.  I have to imagine  that it was true, since you can now see parts of barrels that are now in the basement. The basement is completely full of water.  Anyway, it doesn't look like much inside will be salvageable, there was some door hardware , but Bill will have to go and check that out. 
So that's it for now, I need to go and get the boys outside before they riot.

So Excited!!!

I am so excited about the roofers finally getting started!!!  Bill and I are acting like kids, on Christmas Eve!.  Got the mammogram this morning.  It wasn't that bad, a bit squishy, but pretty quick and painless.  I should get the results within 7-10 business days.  I am not worried, not one little bit:)
So, this weekend should be pretty fun.  The weather is gorgeous and it won't be hot, which I like.  I can't find my big floppy sun hat though.  I may have to get another one, I have alot of gardening to do:).
The Irises have decided to go on ahead and start to bloom.  Nice.  I was hoping that they would hold off until the roof was done, so I could actually enjoy them. They way they are looking this morning, they could open up within a few days.  For some reason, it seems a bit early for that.  Bill is hoping that he can get the rest of the beans planted today. That is after he runs a new vent pipe from the kitchen up through the closet and then out the attic.  Thinking about that, I imagine that will take a while.  Whatever, the boys and I will be enjoying the sunshine.  I have pulled out all of my big planters and I should be able to do the herbs exclusively in planters.  We just need to get to Wal-Mart to get some soil.  And groceries, because the boys have ate all the food.  We decided we will go in the morning about 6 am.  There shouldn't be anyone there and hopefully they won't be wiped out of the stuff I need to get. 
We have been trying for the last couple of years to move some Star Jasmine, to get it closer to the house.  We just love it and it smells amazing!  So, of course, because the roofers are going to trample everything, we have a nice patch that decided to come up next to the stairs.  Maybe it will be close enough they won't step on it, and I can trellis it when they are done.  I'd like to eventually get that and the morning glories trellised on both sides of the porch and between the bay windows.  We'll see how that goes.
Bill got to go on a Home Depot shopping spree this morning.  He really needed some drywall shims and a framing nailer.  He got them and several other things, because he can't just get one or two things.  I almost wish Home Depot didn't have an online store.  We would probably not spend so much.  But, we had a coupon!  Well, not exactly a coupon but a $100.00 Gift card, so that came in really handy.  Instead of the bill being $170.00 it was only $70.00 with free shipping. Gotta love free Shipping.
So, today will be a day of making sure the guys have a clear path around the house and that nothing is in their way, and getting the garden in.
I wish they were starting, yesterday:).  So far the weather forecast is staying clear for next week, I hope it stays that way!
I think we should grill tonight and tomorrow. I have less to clean up that way, besides the boys love BBQ chicken. Maybe I should make some potato salad...hmmm, I don't know.
I did happen to catch part of the Royal Wedding, while I was waiting to get squished.  It was lovely.  But then I imagine, if I had that kind of money and my grandmother was queen, I'd have a really nice wedding too:). I really did like her dress. I am just glad its over and the news can go back to reporting things that actually affect most of us.  Like, the economy, the war, natural disasters, you know, the normal everyday crap.
I think that is about all I have for now, I need to go and change so I can play in the dirt:)

Growth Spurts Sucks, The Royal Wedding, Grocery Budget & Mud Galore

For the last couple of weeks, Aden & Evan, have pretty much done nothing but, eat, sleep & whine about being hungry.
Evan is the worst.  I think our grocery bill has just doubled, if not tripled.  This morning alone, Evan has had; 1 big bowl of Raisin bran, 1 banana, 1/2 can of mandarin Oranges and now he is eating peanut butter.  Shit, they've only been up 2 hours.  I went to get him dressed for school Tuesday, and his jeans that fit on Saturday, were too small!!!!!!!!  We just got him a new pair of shoes about 4 weeks ago, they are too small now too.  And this isn't one of those, he needs a 1/2 size bigger, which was in the past how it went.  He went from a size 8 to a size 9 1/2.  I am glad I had set some in that size aside for Aden who is still in a size 9.
And the shirts!!!!!  Omg, none of his shirts fit.  Even Aden's shirts are tight on him.  At this rate, we'll go broke this summer just keeping Evan in food & clothes.  Okay so its really not that bad, but still.  Does the putting a brick on their heads thing work??  I have some bricks laying around, maybe I should give that a try and see. 
Bill expects me to keep us on our budget.  How exactly am I supposed to do that??? We just got groceries, now we are going to have to go again, this weekend.  So much for shopping every two weeks.  They just ate two weeks worth of food in 4 days. AHHHHHHHHH
Okay, enough of that, moving right along.
The Royal Wedding.
Okay so, I must admit that I was sucked it.  But now, its starting to get a bit old.  I am happy for the royal couple, but I don't really care who they invited or what the seating chart is.  Really, I could care less, it doesn't affect me.  I am going to a wedding this summer, which I am pretty sure will be alot more fun.  That is the wedding I want to hear all about.  Seating, food, who's invited, who's wearing What...These are details that concern me and I can't hear enough about it.
It may also be that I don't know the royal couple.  But, obviously, I know the people who invited me to their wedding this summer. And this will be my first dress up shindig, since Aden was born.  And, this is my favorite part....Children ARE NOT Allowed, at the wedding!!!  Brilliant!!  Its like they read my mind and are doing this all for me:)  Isn't that sweet of them!
This couple is awesome and I know them and have no doubts that they will have a brilliant and completely wonderful life together.  Because they compliment each other!  I don't know the royal couple, so I have no ideas on whether or not their marriage will last, besides, it doesn't affect me. So the only wedding, I care about is the one I get to go to.  Oh and I will go.  If the sitter backs out, Bill can stay with the boys. I am still going.  I need a dress, and shoes, maybe earrings.  Oh my God! what will I do with my hair!  Now this is excitement!
I am sure you will hear more about the wedding from me at a later date.  I need to move on, tons to say and not much time to do it.
So, since I am freaking all out about what to plant where, the boys and I went outside yesterday to see what containers I have that will work.  They were supposed to help me.  That went about how you think it did.  I worked, they threw mud at each other, and at me.  Once they had relocated most of the mud, we came in.  Mistake.  Big Mistake.
I should have stripped them down in the yard and hosed them off, even though it was a little chilly for that.  So stupid me, brings them inside, while they are covered, and I mean covered head to toe, in mud, into the house.  Evan immediately starts running around in circles, while I try to pry Aden's shoes off of him.  They were a bit wet, so it was a pain.  So now I have mud all over the rug, the couch, everywhere.  I finally get the shoes off and tell Aden to get undressed and into the bathroom.  I had to chase Evan, he thought it was a brilliant game.  Meanwhile, Aden decides to imitate Sam and do a spectacular shake that managed to get mud on the walls and ceiling.  Sam decided it looked fun, so she did it too.  More mud on the walls.  I still hadn't caught Evan, who is now rolling under the coffee table to avoid me.  I felt like one of the people who try and catch greased pigs at fairs.  I was not having much success.  Eventually, Mama cat decided to help, by getting her fat ass off the couch and standing in the doorway, hissing at everyone.  When Mama talks, everyone listens.  That stunned everyone long enough I was able to catch Evan.  I didn't bother trying to take his clothes off, I just carried him up to the bathroom.  Aden, decided to be generous and actually follow. Sam tried too, but Mama was blocking the doorway and wouldn't let her pass.  I had to give Mama a stern talking to. lol.  She eventually moved over a bit, and started licking her butt, so Sam could get passed.  I finally got everyone, including Sam in the bathroom.  After shutting the door, to hopefully prevent anyone escaping, I put them all in the tub, Evan with his clothes still on.  They would have to be washed anyway.  I considered it a pre-rinse:)  After, washing, rinsing and repeating a few times, I finally got them clean.  But now my house is trashed.  After threatening them with a slow and painful death, if they left their bedroom before I was done cleaning, I proceeded to clean my way downstairs.  Dinner was delayed by 2 hours, its hard for me to clean the 14 foot ceiling, even when standing on the ladder. 
They actually must have taken me seriously, because they did stay in their room, till I called them.  They hadn't had a good day anyway.  For 3 days I asked very nicely for them to clean up their room and put the toys where they belong.  They were told that if they didn't, I would clean their room and they would loose all of their toys.  They didn't clean it, so I took 2 big black trash bags with me, and I cleaned it.  I left them 1 stuffed animal each, 1 toy truck and one small buzz lightyear.  That was it.  I didn't throw their toys away.  I did tell them that they can earn the toys back, if they behave & do their chores.  So, I made up a point system. At 10 points they can pick one toy to get back.  They get a point for doing their chores or doing what I tell them to.  If they whine, talk back, fight or otherwise irritate me, they lose a point.  They so far have 1 point each, but their room is spotless  and I haven't stepped on any legos:)
I think that just about covers it.  I'm off to wash the mud crusted clothes:)

Gardening, Historical Issues & yet a few more Issues :)

So, we met with the Roofer yesterday.  Everything is set up and ready for them to start.  Colors have been picked, shingles are ordered, all other misc materials ordered. They will be out about 8 am next Tuesday to get started.  Since we are the first big job they have, we get a big crew to work.  With such a big crew, the sofits and fascia should only take 2 days for the entire house.  As soon as that is done, weather permitting, they will start the roof tear off and rebuild.  With a crew of 20 guys, he thinks that they can bang out the roof in 3-4 days, remember its an entire rebuild.  When that is complete, the gutter guys can start.  That may take as long as a week, and because of that they are going to set up a temporay gutter system thingy, in case it rains while they are trying to restore the Yankee gutters.  I can finally see the light at the end of the endless remodeling tunnel.  So, here is the Before picture. Hopefully, next week, I'll have a much nicer After picture.

Interesting bit of information.  The guy who we have been dealing with for the roofer, he's the owner of the company, is also the nephew of the people who used to live next door, in the house that is being torn down.  He told Bill that he really should go over and salvage what he can from the house, he spoke to his Aunt, who now lives in Texas, and she said it was fine with her.  That's nice and everything,but the city now owns the house.  So, I called the City.  They said no, at first. So then I called the historical society and told them the situation.  We need 3 windows, 2 window sills, and if we can get to them, we would like to snag 2 hardware pieces for one of our transome windows.  We would also like to see if they have any hardware left on any of the downstairs doors.  One of our doors doesn't have the original hardware.  After a few hours, the city called me back and said we could go and get what we need, as long as it is done in a safe manner, the house is condeemed after all and we get everything out by June first.  I don't think that will be a problem, seeing as how we need the stuff now. lol.  Since, the guy seemed in a generous mood, I asked about getting some of the brick, when they start knocking down the house.  He said that we can do that, after the basement has been filled in.  Outstanding!  That should give us plenty of brick to make the retaining wall in the back and a brick patio/bbq area.  Aden is still convinced that we should make him and Evan a brick playhouse.  He even drew up 'plans' so we will know how to build it.  We'll see. It would be kinda cute though.  I should post the picture he drew its a bit unrealistic.  But, then this is the kid, who thinks we should build a rocket ship out of brick too.  I don't think he really gets the whole concept of physics just yet:)
So, the Historical society will be out today, sometime to take yet more pictures.  They must have already taken several hundred.  I know that on the inital application, I sent 178 pictures. How many do these people really need :)  They are also going to be coming up through each stage of this roof thing, to take pictures of that.  So, that's that.
Next up on the list, the garden.  Man, this is turning out to be pretty tricky.  Since the roof materials will be dropped off in the back yard, where we normally put in the vegetable garden, we have to make sure the guys have a clear path to get to the materials.  So we have moved the garden over to the west side of the yard.  This does not give us enough room.  If I want to have enough vegetablea to put up for winter, I need alot more space.  It takes 5 rows, 20 feet long,  of green & wax beans, to give us enough to eat all summer and have enough left over to freeze or can, to get us through the winter.  I have enough space to do that, but then I don't have any room for anything else.  I eat a ton of spinach.  I am not kidding, we go through about 2 pounds a week of fresh spinach.  I also like lettuce, tomatoes, peppers, squash, cantalope and cucumbers. Not to mention the herb garden, which gets pretty big too, because what plants I don't bring in for the winter, I like to dry or freeze. Plus, we use them almost daily once they start coming in. That take alot of room.  I don't like it, but it looks like we will have to wait till the roofers are done, before I can put that stuff in.  Which means a longer wait till I can start eating :) Oh well, it is for a good cause.

The next big issue is the boobs.  The big squishing is Friday morning, and I am starting to get pretty nervous.  Not so much for the squishing, I think I can handle that.  I am getting pretty nervous about the results.  I had someone ask me what I would do, if the results of the test were bad.  Ah, well, I am trying not to think about that.  But, she mentioned that I may want to, just in case.  But, I don't want to.  But, now the idea is already planted in my head, and it won't go away.  Its like a cheesy song that won't go away lol.  Maybe I should watch the Wiggles for an hour or so, that way the only thing stuck in my head is that Big Red Car song lol.   Yeah, I like the Wiggles...What of it?
I also really enjoy Turbo Dogs and Jane and the Dragon.  I heard that they are coming out with a Smurf movie.  I frickin' love the Smurfs!!!!!  Although, I always thought it was a bit strange that there was only 1 Smurfette and all of the others were boys....  It totally makes sense to me now.  No, wonder all the other smurfs, did whatever Smurfette wanted.  I'm not going to say it, but I think I know what was really going on!
I have noticed that alot with cartoons.  I never picked up on the adult humor in them when I was a kid, obviously.   But, now watching them again with my kids, alot of them are just really frickin' funny.  But, I still think I am old enough to know what it is that the Road Runner is saying, they can stop bleeping it out :)
Alright, I guess I should get off here and get busy.  I am sure there is something I should be doing:)

Rain, Headache, My Old House, Abandoned Puppy & Roofers

I woke up about 3:30 am with a massive headache.  So, I am sitting here waiting the Motrin & coffee to kick in.  Maybe that will help.  I am not sure if it is just a tension headache or maybe its the allergies, or maybe even both.  Whatever the cause, it is starting to get on my nerve.
I have a friend out in California, who has been beside herself worrying about a neighbor's 10 month old German shepherd.  The dog has been alone in the house since last Monday, crying.  She called Animal control, the police & several news stations trying to get someone to come and check on the puppy.  She couldn't go over there, she has cerebral palsy. Finally, yesterday after one of the news stations was able to get someone to check on the dog.  Still no sign of the owners, but at least the puppy has food and water.  They will keep checking on the dog, and if the owners don't show up soon, they will take him.  My friend, still would like a few minutes alone with the owners & everyone who wouldn't come out. Maybe now the puppy will be okay.
It has rained for 24 straight hours.  Which has had me running around like a crazy person, trying to catch the leaks.  That sounds worse than it actually is.  There are only 3 leaks.  2 in the attic, near the roof hatch and one where the addition meets the house. As far as that one goes, its because it needs new flashing. The two in the attic are being caught in buckets.  So I am doubly glad Bill is off today.  Those buckets are full and I am just not coordinated enough to bring full buckets down the ladder from the attic. 
They are calling for the rain to end this morning.  The forecast is clear until Saturday afternoon, so hopefully that holds true.  The roofer will be out today and I hope he can get everything started.  He said the whole job should take about 2 weeks.  Its not so much the tear off, re-decking and shingles that will take the longest, its all the other crap.  Fascia, Sofits, gingerbread, flashing, etc., that will take the longest.  They are pretty much ripping the roof off and rebuilding it.  Of course, being the difficult people we are, we couldn't just go with new gutters, we are repairing the old Yankee gutters.  Pain in the ass.  But, we have looked at alot of houses that have had the Yankee gutters replaced with the new kind, and it just looks funny.  Whats the point of having all of the fancy woodwork decorating the house, if you can't see it because there is metal covering it.  With the Yankee gutters, the gutter is build into the roof so you can't see it very much. 
I just want to get this done already.  I've been with Bill, twelve years now.  9 of those have been living in one remodeling project or another.  I love my husband and am so glad he is good at this sort of thing, but enough already :)  I have informed him that I will not, ever, live in another house that is not finished.  Completely.  If he wants to buy another handyman especial, he will need to rehab and or restore it, before I move in.  At least this house is structurally sound.  The place he did in Florida, was not.  It needed all new floor joints.  That was interesting.  But it was very impressive to watch Bill re-build it.  He has mad skills.  When we moved in here, the last owners had put in carpet throughout the house.  We of course ripped it up.  I don't like carpet.  They had used a very generous amount of glue on top of oak hardwood floors.  They had also glued carpet on top of Walnut stairs.  Walnut!!!!  The floors upstairs were pine, and only tacked down, but still.  They even had carpet in the bathrooms and kitchen.  Bill was able to sand down and re-finish all the downstairs floors, with the exception of the kitchen.  The carpet was covering several places that had severe rot.  Upstairs he had to put in new wood floors.  So instead of pine he went with a 4 inch oak planks.  I love those floors.  You can really see the grain because those aren't stained.  The downstairs floors are stained and because of the boys and all the critters, will have to be refinished, eventually. 
Other issues with house, included burl wood, pocket doors, that had the hardware removed and the doors were shoved back into the pockets, while they were not hung.  We found the hardware in basement in a pile of junk. Bill got those all fixed up and hung.  There also wasn't a level surface in the house.  He spent months jacking up the floors, quarter inch, by painful, quarter inch.  The floor joists are made out of Redwood.  And they are pretty much petrified now.  But, they still smell really nice.  Strange.  Anyway, its been one thing after another.  Jacking up floors, so doors would work. Finding William Morris wallpaper in the bathroom along with an archway that had been sealed up, that led to the master bedroom.  But the roof is our last major project.
Once that is done, its all smaller things.  Rebuilding the addition, this time to code, with insulation and proper wiring & plumbing.  It sounds like a big job, but its really not. The back room is small.  Then some minor cosmetic things.  Then we can actually hang pictures on the walls, get curtains to match, and make it look like people live here. Not like people are just are working here:)
That the house doesn't look like much of a home, has always bugged Bill's dad.  He is the type that just hires the work done.  He was always telling us just to hire someone.  And pay them with what??  Our good looks and Charming personality??  Right.  Besides, Bill likes doing it himself, yes it takes him a while to get stuff done, because he is always working, but its done right, the first time.  He is a bit of a perfectionist, which is okay with me:)
It looks like we'll be in the house for several more years, so why not have it the way we want it?  Yes, alot of things could have been done the easy way, like using drywall, instead of plaster, to repair the walls and ceilings, but we like plaster :)  We like the old floors and the 6 foot claw foot tub. The tub was the deciding factor for me, on this house.  The only way they could have gotten the tub into the house, was by putting it in before the roof was on.  They hoisted it up with mules.  That to me is just awesome.
Once everything is done with the house itself, I can get down to the business of finally landscaping!!!  Organized gardens, instead of just putting stuff wherever I can find a spot. 
Anyway, it will probably be a long day, so I should probably get busy.

It's A Beautiful Day in OZ

Oh what a beautiful day!  Its raining, outstanding!  It is supposed to rain and storm most of the day.  Which means I'll spend most of the day trying to keep the boys from bringing down the house around my ears.  I can't wait till we get the fence :)
Not to worry, I have paints!  With enough paint and paper, I should be able to keep them occupied for at least 10 minutes.  I just hope that this time, they don't paint the dog, or the cat.
Sam didn't mind so much, but Mama, got pretty irritated.
My surgeon should be back in town today, so hopefully, I can get in touch with him before I go to the other guy about the stitch thing.  I really don't want to go. 
What I want to do is go on vacation!  The roofers are supposed to be here tomorrow!  I hope they can get started this week.  Bill informed me that he wants to go ahead and have a garage sale really soon.  Okay, that would be nice, except, every time we have one, he ends up working and I have to do everything myself.  That sucks.  He suggested the first weekend in May.  I wonder if he realizes that is next Saturday.  Yeah, that isn't going to happen.  I need more than a weeks notice.  Besides, if the roofers are working on the roof, how exactly am I going to have a yard sale in my front yard???  He'll just have to wait.  I can probably get someone to come over and sit with the boys while I have it.  I'll have to, there is no way I can chase them and do the yard sale.
I say we wait till the roof is done, and the house looks all pretty.  Just a thought.
There is a house next door, that the city took over and is going to knock down sometime this summer.  Its almost exactly like ours.  We need to go and loot it lol.  We still have the original windows and need 3 replacements. And some door hardware and a window sill.  Think the city would mind???  I doubt they would.  The only problem would be that the house next door is condemned and the second floor has collapsed.  May be a bit tricky to get the stuff lol.
I have decided that from now on, when I clean the house, I am going to take pictures and put them on the fridge.  That way people can see that I do actually clean the house.  It only stays clean about 10 minutes.  Well, yesterday I think it was about 15 minutes before the boys discovered I had cleaned the downstairs and decided they needed to 'fix' it.  Oh well, at least the mud is gone.

I am still unsure what to do with my herbs this year.  Where I normally have my herb garden is right were the fence is going to go.  I do have a very old radio flyer red wagon, one of the old metal ones, that is all rusted and the handle is busted.  I may just have Bill drill a couple of holes in it and line it, then I can plant some of the herbs in there.  Very convenient for moving around the yard, to keep out of the roofer's way.  Everything else will have to go into containers.  Although, the metal is pretty rusted, I may be able to poke holes in it with a screwdriver:).  Yep, its decided.  That is what I will do.
I wanted to put in planters that hang over the porch railing, maybe I can do that after everything is painted.  I have these brass rectangular planters that I was going to use, so I can bring some of the herbs in the house for the winter. 

Just spoke with my surgeon.  He said not to worry. It would have been one of the stitches that was supposed to dissolve.  Good!!!!!!  I didn't want to be poked today anyway.  He said he'll see me Friday if I am still concerned.

Okay, the laundry is calling me, oh the fun just never ends :)

Easter Sunday, The Roof gets started, Victorian Colors & Garden started

Alrighty then, got a bit of gardening done yesterday.  Got the Irises, Sweet William & some Marigolds planted around the maple tree in the front.  I figure they should be safe from the roofers there.  We also 2 rows of wax beans planted.  So we are well on our way to getting the garden planted.  The boys and I will see what else we can get in today.  I need to figure out where I can safely put my herb garden so it doesn't get trampled. 
Everything is all set to start the roof.  They should be able to start Wednesday or Thursday, depending on the weather.  It should only rain thru Wednesday, so hopefully the forecast will hold and they can start.  I think the dumpster is scheduled to be delivered Thursday regardless.  We have settled on some colors, I think, but who knows.  We are a ways off from painting. 
Bill has figured out what he is going to do about the porch.  In order to get the North column back in plum,  he has to replace a joist, and re-deck the porch, which he was going to do anyway.  That however, can wait until after the roof is done. 
Passover was awesome!!!!  It was so good to see everyone, well almost everyone.  Barry had to work, so that was depressing, but the food was good and the boys were fairly well behaved :)  We didn't get home till after 11pm which I knew was going to be a problem and it was.  Sam and Mama alone, in the house for long periods of time, usually means trouble of one kind or another.
Apparently, Sam had problems holding it till we got home.  It was a mess.  I ended up staying up till almost 2 am cleaning up pee, crap & blood.  Not sure what Sam did this time to annoy Mama, but she was a bloody mess.  The couch is micro-suede, and it took forever to get the blood off of it. Glass Cleaner is what I finally had to use.  I know sounds strange, but it worked.  I just had no idea a dogs ears could bleed that much.  I think Mama isn't just scratching her, I think she is biting her.  I think we might want to consider a life insurance policy on Sam, just in case.  They seemed to have worked it out by the time we got home, because they were both hanging out on the couch, watching me clean. 
We discovered yesterday, that the kitten Gravy, is in fact a girl, not a boy as we had originally thought.  Which gives Gravy a much better chance of getting into the house.  Bill is a sucker for girls :)
It looks like half of the mud from outside, is now inside.  The boys kept running in and out yesterday, so I am going to have some massive cleaning to do today.  If I was smart I would wait until we are done outside today to clean it up.  But, I can see the chunks of mud all over the floor and it is starting to get on my nerves lol.  But, this is one reason we only have wood floors, its easy to clean :)
I might well go ahead and do it now.  The boys are actually occupying themselves in their room and besides it is sprinkling now.  We may have to wait a few days to plant anyway. 
Well, its already 9am and I haven't gotten anything done today, I want to get alot of crap done today, just in case tomorrow doesn't go well.
I still have hopes that the doctor can do whatever repair work he needs to do without keeping me in the hospital more than a few hours.  I guess we'll find out tomorrow afternoon :) 
Anyway, I better get busy.  Happy Easter :)

Friday, Mammogram Postponed, Seder & Storms

Finally, its Friday! I had to reschedule the mammogram, because Bill has his monthly staff meeting which just happens to start at the same time my appointment was.  He thought the meeting was yesterday.  Anyway, I am not happy and happy at the same time.  Happy, because I really didn't want to go get squished.  Unhappy, because now I have to wait, yet another week to find out what is going on.  I am trying not to obsess or even think about it, but its hard, I don't like not knowing.  :)

So, tonight we go to Nana & Papa's for the Seder dinner, it is still Passover, after all. I love Passover.  Of all of the Jewish holidays, it is by far my favorite.  I think it is because it involves several of my favorite activities.  You get to drink alot of wine, I like wine.  You get to read a really cool story about vengeance, and why it is a bad idea to irritate Jews.  Then there is food.  Lots of food.  And some more wine.  There is also singing at the dinner table.  Lots of loud rambunctious singing.  And a little more Wine.  Its just a overall great holiday. 
I didn't find any dress pants for the boys, so they will wear jeans, no big deal.  I did find some nice shirts, so that will work. 
Papa has a tendency to go pretty quickly over the plagues, so the boys mostly miss what he says, they have also been too young in the past to actually know whats going on.  I think this year, Aden may at least understand some of what is going on. 
Several years ago, I watch a movie, called ' The Devil's Arthimetic'.  It had the girl from the original Spiderman Movie, I don't remember her name, but the cute blond girl. Anyway, she plays a Jewish teenager that doesn't want to go to Seder, because she thinks its a waste of time. And of course, in the way of movies, she learns different.  It is a great movie, but it made me bawl like a baby for most of it.  But it is still a really good movie. 
The boys are still way to young to watch it, it deals with the holocaust, but eventually, they will watch it.
Speaking of the boys, they are so excited to go to Nana's. But then, they usually are.  The trick will be to keep my sanity until we go.  They tend to be harder to control when they are excited :)

They are already driving me nuts.  Aden had to start off the morning by coming into my room at 5:06 am and telling me what time it was.  I told him fine, he could go downstairs.  Which he didn't.  He went in to his room and proceeded to wake Evan up.  Evan was not ready to get up.  So, Evan is still cranky and probably will be all day. 
I am hoping that I will be able to figure out the video camera I got Bill.  I have never seen anything so small.  Its the size of a credit card. But, it is really cool! If I can't, no worries, I still have the digital camera.

Well it appears that the storm has finally reached us.  Its been raining with a bit of occasional thunder for the last couple of hours, but now it's shaking the house.  I love a good storm.  They aren't calling for much severe weather.  Only golf ball size hail, frequent lightening strikes and some strong, damaging winds.  Nope, that doesn't sound severe to me.  Flooding though.  There could be some flooding.  Aden asked if the whole world was going to flood.  I said no, not today, its Passover, it may rain frogs, but we'll be okay :)

Bill is off to his meeting & I am off to see if I can't get something accomplished this morning.

I-Phone, Tomato Thieves, SWAT Teams & Stupid People

I still haven't got the hang of the title thing. I was told to make sure my title is relevant. Relevant to whom? Me, You, People in Singapore, the Dog? Now its been a long time since I took any writing classes or even an English class, but I seem to recall, way back in the day, before crawlers, that your title was just your title. Not a bunch of key words strung together. Granted, they didn't have crawlers then, but why should I cater to them? If I was doing the title I wanted it would look more like this.
'Stupid Mother leaves babies in car, Swat Team called in while Tomato Thieves run Rampant through Florida, all while being tracked by their I-phones'.
Its a bit long, but I think it sums it up better. I am starting to really dislike key words. I especially don't like tags.
Whatever, I should stop or I'll end up complaining about it all day :)
So the porch guys came back out yesterday with an engineer this time. Smart move on their part. After several hours of fiddling, the North column is as good as it is going to get, with taking it completely apart and getting a real mason to rebuild it.
Bill is actually considering this. I think it is a very bad idea, for now. The porch roof is supported, it will not move. The columns are as level and straight as they are going to get. Let's just get the roof done, before any more damage is done. We can always rebuild the column at a later date, after the roof is done.
Speaking of the roof, we just saved $3500 on the roof, by switching 2 materials for the sofits and facia. Awesome!!!! We aren't sacrificing anything because both materials have a 50 year warranty. Works for me. So instead of using PVC for the facia, we are going with fiber cement. And Engineered wood Strand for the sofits. So, there we are. Hopefully, very soon, I can start complaining about what a mess the roofers are making, I hope.
Let's see, Evan is feeling better today, I think. Yesterday, I couldn't get him to eat anything, which is very strange for him. He eats everything in sight.
Bill is so looking forward to having the weekend off! I am too. It just seems like I see him less now, than I did before he was promoted.
I wanted to make sure the boys had something to wear for tomorrow night, so I went upstairs to make sure I could find their dress clothes. Yep, I found them. Damn it! they don't fit! How can this be? Evan's slacks are about 2 inches to short, Aden's are to tight in the waist, which means Evan won't be able to wear those either. At least, I can give Evan, Aden's shirt, then I am only down 1 shirt and 2 pairs of pants. I know I kept alot of boys clothes from when I was doing Ebay, so I should have a bin or two somewhere, with pants and shirts. But I think I only kept size 6,7 & 8. Aden needs a 5 slim or he did. I have the sewing machine out so I can always take in a size 6 and let it out later. But what a pain. At least I found out yesterday, and not tomorrow when I was trying to get them ready. Now I just have to find that bin! And I have to fine me something that fits. It does really amaze me, how skinny Aden is now. He was such a fat baby! Not chubby, huge.
I did find this sewing sit online, that talked about customizing your store bought bras. They had awesome instructions on how to take in your bras. I followed the instructions and now one of my nice bras fits! Finally! I had to take in 2 inches on each side of the band, but I was to scared to actually cut the material out. What if I end up getting bigger and need those inches back? Bras are stupid expensive. Well, the ones I got were anyway :)
But since the sewing machine is out I can start taking in my jeans so I don't have to keep using Bill's belt. I know, I could just go and by a belt, but that would involve actually spending money :)
Storms today and it looks like through the weekend :( I wanted to try and get the garden in Saturday. I want to at least get in spinach, lettuce, tomatoes. I think the green beans & peas can wait a couple of weeks.
Bill will just have to fence around the garden.
Okay so I watched the news this morning. Yep you guessed it, it was an idiot fest.
First, we have a mother, who drove her mini-van to dollar general or dollar tree, one of those, left her 11 month old and her 3 year old in the van, while it was running, and she went into the store. When she came back out she noticed her van driving away. The SWAT team was called in, and a 3 hour stand off, ensued. The children are okay. Maybe its just me, but what kind of idiot leaves her kids in the car, while its running, to go shopping????? Does she not watch the news, ever? She told authorities that she has never had a problem before, because the 3 years looks after the baby... The 3 year old! Really? I have a three year old, I wouldn't trust him to babysit anything living. I can't believe the mother isn't in trouble.
Next up on the list.
It seems that there is a new organized crime ring in Florida. If this doesn't convince you the economy is in the toilet, nothing will.
Apparently these guys, set up a fake trucking company, in order to steal....wait for it.......tomatoes.
Tomatoes. Hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of...tomatoes. They have yet to be caught. So, be very careful out there. They could be armed with bacon & lettuce. Very Dangerous. I wonder if when we plant our tomatoes we should put in some sort of security system??? Maybe we will just let Sam stay outside at night to guard them? Maybe we should get a couple of vicious Doberman's to guard the tomatoes.
The next idiot was perhaps my favorite. This guy was in court for parole violations and he decided that instead of going to jail, he would try jumping out the window. He broke the window, then tried to jump out. He was stopped by a petite policewoman, who yanked him back into the room. He only suffered cuts and scraps. She probably saved his life, since it would have been a fall of a couple of stories. I think, she should have let him jump. They would have had plenty of time to send officers down to the parking lot to make sure he didn't get away, just in case he lived. He might have only broken his legs. It would have saved the state tons of money. Unless of course he did live and broke alot of bones, then the state is stuck paying his medical bills. Okay, I have to change my mind. The policewoman was right to stop him.
But it was still funny.
Then we have the story about how people with I-phones are having their movements tracked by their phone. Gotta love it.
On today's agenda, we have alterations to make and hair to cut, if Aden will let me. He is starting to look a bit like Shaggy (from Scooby Doo, not the singer, although I really like that Shaggy)
I hear the laundry and litter box calling my name. Oh joy of joys!
Protect your tomatoes!!!!

Reconstruction, Column Do-Over, Passover & losing my mind

I really don't even know where to begin.  Everything is just wonky.  Let's start with the Porch.
I thought the guys did a good job, Bill however, was livid.  The south column, was cracked and not where he wanted it.  Not to worry though, I just spoke with the guy who did the job, and he will be here in about 1 1/2 hours to fix it. 
Moving on.
Went to the doctor yesterday and he pretty much threw his hands up and said, "I cannot fix this and I would be afraid to try."  Nice.  So he is sending me to an OB/GYN surgeon who specializes in this sort of reconstruction.  I was a bit surprised when I learned who this specialist is.  It was my OB/GYN that delivered Aden and Evan.  Well, he didn't actually deliver Evan, he was out of town that week, but anyway.  He is the doctor who, because I had so many issues, told me that if I got pregnant again, he wouldn't see me.  I was to much of a liability risk.  No Shit Sherlock! There is a reason why Doctor's are required to carry malpractice insurance.  I was amazed that I even got an appointment with him.  I really like him, and have tried several times in the last couple of years to get in to see him.  But, getting an appointment with him is like trying to get an audience with the pope.  Actually, it would probably be easier to get in to see the Pope :)
So, I go and see him Monday at the hospital.  Apparently, it is enough of an issue that he'll see me.  Now, I like this doctor, the one I am seeing Monday.  But, I had alot of issues with Staph infections after the surgeries up in St. Joseph.  2 staph infections after Aden and 5, yes 5 different stains of staph after Evan.  That last one required an almost 3 week hospital stay. 1 of those infections was MRSA.  Now I know that the doctor himself doesn't give you the staph infections, its the hospital.  And I really don't want to go through that again.  So, I would rather not have to have the surgery in St. Joseph.  But, I don't know if this doctor has surgery privileges at the hospital here in town.  I didn't get a staph infection after this last surgery, so apparently its a cleaner hospital.
I know that I shouldn't focus on it, but it just really sucks, and I can't come up with a backup plan for this, should anything else go wrong. 
I won't know until Monday, whats going to happen.
It could be a fairly easy fix and he can do it Monday with a few quick stitches.  Or, it may be that I have to be sliced open again so they can completely re-build the cuff.  That is supposed to require a hospital stay, but that is not going to happen, I will not stay. The biggest problem would be the recovery from yet another surgery.  having another surgery this quickly would not be a good thing.  I think I should stop worrying about it for now.  It is what it is and I am sure it will work out.
I got the mammogram scheduled for Friday morning.  I am not looking forward to being squished, but it will be good to even if its nothing to have a baseline before I turn 40. 
But I must say, I am getting really sick of being felt up lol. Well, being felt up by people who I don't want to be feeling me up :)
Bill is pretty disappointed to!  I really feel for him.  We just got the go ahead to get friendly and now he's cut off again.  Poor guy.
Friday night, we are heading up Bill's mom's for Passover dinner.  I think this year, to save myself the headache and the whining, I'll feed the boys before we go. That way they don't think they are going to starve to death, waiting on the actual food.  Dinner isn't suppose to start until sunset, but she's going to start about 6pm because otherwise the boys pass out at the table.  Usually they only make it till about 8:30 pm before they start nodding off.  Hopefully this year we can wind it up by 10pm.  No brisket this year :(  But we do get the chicken liver which is all I care about :)  I think she is making chicken this year. 
I should probably get off here and go shut the dog in the boys room before the guys show up.  Sam was NOT a happy camper when they were here before and I was sure she was going to break the door down.  Mama of course didn't care.  I'll post the before and after pictures in a few days.  The historical society is coming up tomorrow with their architect to check out what they did and to drop of the paperwork for the roofer to fill out about the gingerbread and cornices. 
Ah, The Fun just never ends :)

Mama Goes for a Ride!

I need to set up cameras all over the house, just to record the weird crap that goes on here.  Once again, something worth recording happens and I have no idea where the camera is.
Yesterday afternoon, Mama Cat was lounging on the couch when Sam decided she needed to go sniff her.  I am still not sure what the sniffing is about, but apparently it needs to be done often.  Sam tried to sneak up on Mama.  Have I mentioned that Sam may not be the smartest dog in the world?  I certainly wouldn't try and sneak up on a cat that kicks my ass every other day, but then, I think I am smarter than this dog.
So, Sam slinks up to the edge of the couch and proceeds to try and stick her nose up Mama's butt.  As I am sure you guessed, this did not go as planned.  It took me a while to process what I saw, because it was just so....odd.
I had no idea Mama could move that fast anymore.  She rarely moves at all.  But, she jumped up on to Sam's back and stayed there.  Sam of course panicked.  I would too if a 30 pound cat jumped on me and was hanging on with her claws.  Sam was running in circles, trying to get her off and Mama, who I think was laughing, kept hissing and swatting at Sam's head.  The boys were screaming, "she's killing Sammi", "help her", and a bunch of other really helpful phrases.  To be completely honest, I did not want to be involved.  I was thinking about calling animal control to come and separate them.  Mama scares me.  She had a free set of claws, I did not want to be mauled.  But, Sam wasn't having much luck dislodging her.  I finally decided to try and rescue the dog.  But she wouldn't hold still. No that I blame her, I am sure it hurt.  Finally, I convinced the boys to come and help me hold Sam still, while I got Mama's claws out of her back.  Mama did not want to let go.  Finally, we go Mama off and she walked around in a circle and hissed at us, then sat down and proceeded to lick her butt.  Sam ran upstairs and hid in the bathroom.  I think the whole thing maybe took about 3-4 minutes but it seemed like an hour.  Sam is fine now, just a few holes, and nothing a little neosporin & peroxide won't fix.  The boys are traumatized and none of them wanted to brush Mama later. They didn't want to even be on the same side of couch as her.  That's too bad really, because its not about what everyone else wants, its about Mama.  When she wanted some attention, she just went and flopped down on whoever it was she wanted to pet her.  Everyone obeyed.
Aden has finally stopped puking.  It must have been some quick stomach bug they picked on vacation, because I heard that Nana was sick yesterday too.  But Aden was fine by mid-afternoon yesterday.  Evan however, started puking about 3 am.  So we've been up since then. No fevers so hopefully this will blow through the house quickly.  Because I am sure we will all get it.

The porch guys should be here in an hour or so.  They are planning on completely destroying my side yard.  The process was explained to me, but, I lost interest about half-way through.  Something about they are going to dig down and put in concrete supports or something and attach permanent jacks that will go underground to the bottoms of the columns.  Something like that.  That will be after they jackhammer up the sidewalk.  My neighbors are gonna love us!!!  Especially since there is no school today, and I imagine several people thought they might be able to sleep in. HA HA

What else? Oh yeah, Passover begins at sundown today.  Yippie! No really Yippie :)
I love passover.  But then any holiday that insists that you drink copious amounts of wine with dinner, is wonderful in my book :)
We are going to have to do the dinner on Friday, because of everyone's schedules.
I have the lovely mammogram on Friday, so I am sure I'll be in a wonderful mood.  Good thing there will be wine :)
Tomorrow morning I head back to the doctor to see if he can sew me back together or if I need to go to a specialist.  I'm thinking super glue, lots of really expensive, super glue.  Why wouldn't that work???

Anyway, I should go and start the stinky, puke covered laundry,  I know, sounds fun.
The pier guys should be here by 8 am, permits have been pulled, utilities marked off, contracts signed and checks written (that was difficult). 

Home Again, Birthday, Drama, Contractors & More Drama

Ah, home Finally!!!!!!  After what has seemed like the week from hell, the boys, Sam and I are finally back home.  Now, were to begin.............
Let's go back a bit.
Okay, so Last Tuesday, I had my doctor's appointment and then another company was supposed to come by and take a look at the porch columns.  I'll go into the Doctor's appointment later, because I'm going to classify that with the other drama.
So, Contractor shows up, on time, brownie points for that.  He and Bill walked and they talked, and the contractors said he's get with the company's engineer & get back to us.  He did.  Apparently, it can be fixed!!!!!!  And they will start Monday.  It should be done no later than Tuesday, including replacing the sidewalk they will have to rip up.  from what I understand, it will be very loud and very messy.  I don't care as long as it gets done.  The roofers will be here Tuesday.  I am not sure how much they will get done this week because it is supposed to storm all week, but at least the porch will be done.
It will cost $5000.00.  Peachy.  I am supposed to be grateful it isn't twice that, but I can't help being a bit freaked out with the price tag. That is pretty much the entire budget for the Fence and the back bathroom.  We will probably still be able to do the fence, but probably not as soon.  The bathroom????  Who knows, but probably not this summer. 
So that's that.
Next, Doctor's appointment.
It sucked.  It just really fuckin sucked.  I can't begin to express how much it sucked.  But, being the kind of person I am, I'll give it a go. 
So, we'll start small and work our way to the big stuff.  I seem to have pulled a muscle in my stomach while doing Zumba.  Not a really big deal, except when I cough.  Then I want to die.  With the allergies as bad as they are, I am coughing alot.  But, its not life threatening, which is a plus. 
During the getting felt up portion of the exam, the doctor found a,  and I'll quote here, "little, small, bump like spot"??????  Huh?  
Now, I don't tend to get freaked out about much.  But when a Doctor starts repeating himself and asking stupid questions, I get concerned.  I am really not all that worried about it.  I'll just go get the mammogram and be done with it.  But I am not looking forward to it.  I was supposed to go last Friday, but because of other drama, I wasn't able to. I am pretty sure its just scar tissue  or something like that, since I do have a talent for scar tissue and the only risk factor I have for breast cancer is that I have breasts.  I'm not really worried.  I'll just keep on saying that :)
And just because its my birthday week, there just had to be yet more crap.  Within a few hours of learning that for my birthday I had to go get the squish the boobies test, we learn that I will need to pack up and go stay in Kansas city for the remainder of my in-laws vacation.  That was a pain in my ass.  I had a considerable amount of things to do at my home.  Anyway, it was alot of Drama.  Don't really care for drama.  Eventually, I will go into why I had to, but I was asked, in order to protect the guilty, to not say anything about it.  Okay, I'll try.  Please take bets amongst yourselves, as to how long I will remain silent. 
Oh wait!  I forgot to mention that I will need to go back to the doctor because it appears that some of my permanent stitches have come undone and I may need yet another surgery to repair what has come apart.  Maybe, I'll find that out Tuesday. Again, Maybe I'll find out.  He may have to send me to a specialist.  Lovely.  Just F'ing lovely.
Apparently this is not a good thing   For the record, I didn't do anything to cause this.  He was that last person anywhere near it!!!!  Happy Birthday to me!!!!!!Happy Birthday to Meeeeeeeee!

I think that about covers it.  Nope, but wait there is more...........
We get home yesterday, and Aden pukes the second we walk in the door.  And has continued to puke every few hours since then.  He was apparently not sick enough to prevent him from running through the house like a maniac chasing his brother, but just sick enough to make a bit more work and see if he can play this off so I will wait on him. Well, it works.  I think it may be that his digestive system is all wonked up, from his vacation.  I hear that it was the best vacation a 5 year old could possibly have outside of Disneyland :)

Mama Cat was not pleased to see Sam.  Sam got a little bloody.  They seem to have worked it out though.  As long as Sam stays away from Mama, and stops trying to sniff her butt, things should be fine.

I was amazed at how clean the house was when we got home.  That lasted about 3 minutes.  And there was toilet paper on the dispenser!!!  it was almost out we we left.  I think Bill may have actually changed it himself!  Or maybe he had someone else come over and do it, I didn't ask. 
The boys and I have a few little things to do outside today to make sure we are ready for the guys to come tomorrow.  I am not sure what I am going to do with my wind chimes.  I will probably just put them on the pear tree out back.  I don't think the tree will look too stupid with 8 wind chimes on it :) 

It finally looks like we are going to get the outside finished!!!!  I can't wait.  The historical society has requested pictures of ever stage of the of the process which, will be a bit of a pain, but not too bad.  It's for a good cause :)

Bill want to start taking my e-cig to work with him.  I think I'll be okay without it after today.  I think I just need a day or so to calm down a bit.  But, it did end up working pretty good for me.  I am now down to using the 11mg cartridges and I don't use it that much.  I mostly just carry it around like a pacifier :)

The weather is at least beautiful, if I ignore the the pollen.  The claritin is at least working pretty good now.  Now if I can only convince Evan to stop trying to pick up mama, we should be okay.  Although, he would only have to do it once and I bet she'll convince him it wasn't a smart move :)  She is at least alot more gentle with the boys.

Zumba is calling....I'd better go answer :)

Monday, Masons, Evan's Iris Issue & Contractors

Did you know that contractors make so much money, they don't have to return calls?  Or show up for scheduled appointments?  I need a career change.  Out of 6 contractors I made appointments with to come and look at the porch, one showed up.  That's right one.  And he stayed for all of 30 seconds.  I am getting very tempted to just call the Vo-tech and see if the Masonry teacher needs a project for his students.  I am betting they would show up.  It would probably take 2 years to get the job done, but at least they would show up!
I'll call more Masons today and see what I can do.  I'll stop complaining about that, for now.
Evan picked out some Midnight blue Irises.  They came in the mail Saturday.  He really wants to plant them.  Problem is, where can we plant them???  I wanted to put them in the front, along the front porch, but that isn't going to work.  I guess we are going to have to pot them for now, that way we can at least keep them from being trampled.
Today, Evan and I will attempt to transplant some of the yarrow, just to insure some of it survives.  But, we'll wait till this afternoon.  This morning we have inside chores to do.  He was so helpful yesterday!  Helped me with the laundry, dusting & even picked up his room without me asking! 

Tomorrow I have my last followup from the surgery, hopefully! I still haven't completely regained feeling in my right thigh, but its not a big area so I imagine its not life threatening lol.  I am feeling pretty good overall, rarely any pain around in incision and the pain up where my gallbladder was is pretty much gone, only a twinge now and then.  So we'll see what he says tomorrow.
The smoking thing is pretty much the same.  I still occasionally cheat with a real cigarette, but that seems to be only when Bill is around and then only a puff or two.  But I am really not using the e-cig all that much, which is pretty weird I think.  I use it more in the evening after Evan goes to bed.  Bill ordered more cartridges.  I am not sure why.  I still have 3  1/2 left. Maybe he got them for himself.  I hope so :)
Anyway, sitting here on my ass isn't getting anything done and I do need to get to the post office this morning and do some Zumba!
See ya.

The Money Pit

Between Bill & Evan, my yard is now one big mud puddle.  Sam helped a bit too.  Bill has been digging out so he can put in a retaining wall in the back and then put in some brick pavers.  I am sure it will be nice.  However, now the yard is one huge mud puddle.  Evan and Sam are very happy with it.  I am not so happy.  I have no problem with mud puddles.  I like them.  I do prefer, however, that mud stay outside.  This is not happening.  I imagine that I will live, but I am still not happy about the mud being dragged into my house.
No Call, No Show, for the 2 contractors who were supposed to come by this weekend about the porch columns.  Figures.  I have found a few more to call, but this time they are all masons.  I don't even want to think about how much they will want to charge. 
Bill has decided that he will probably call the roofer to come out and start this week, anyway.  We will just have to figure out the porch columns later.  I think, that if we supported the columns now, before the roofers start, we should be able to get away with waiting till the roof is done  to get the columns put back in place.  They are supporting the roof just fine at the moment, be we are pretty sure straightening them out and bringing them back to level, will involve completely ripping out the porch, & digging around the columns to expose the pillars.  The joys of home ownership.  When we filled out the forms for the historical society, they ask if your home has a name or what you would want it listed as.  I think usually they want the name of someone significant who has lived in the home.  We haven't had anyone really important live here.  There was a butcher who lived here once, I bet alot of people at the time thought he was pretty important.  He died in the house, on my birthday, back in the '30's.  Anyway, we didn't put down a name for the house, but I think I should change that.  I would like the plaque to read '1890 Money Pit'.  Because that is exactly what it is. 
Bill has presented me with about 19 colors that I have to pick 7 from.  I thought we were done with the colors for the outside.  I thought we settled on 4.  I thought wrong.  Bill has changed his mind.  He really thinks we can come up with 7 different colors for the exterior if we really apply ourselves.
I really don't care at this point. As long as there is no blue, I'm good.  Unfortunately, the colors I like, he doesn't.   There is only so much paintable space available on this house!  Why can't the shingles count as a color?  or the Brick?  That would be brown and Red, great two colors already picked.  Oh I am just being cranky, I am sure we will figure it out.  But he's asking someone who doesn't like to shop, not at all.  Food shopping is okay, I really like food.  But I dislike all other shopping.
Oh, we did go to a few garage sales yesterday morning.  The very first one we went to, had Jazz Sneakers...in my size!!!! They fit great and had only been worn a couple of times.  Yay!  I got them for Zumba.  And for cheap!!!  I love cheap!  I also finally got the Zumba book & dvd I ordered.  I think I am going to like this DVD better.  It has 60 minutes of music on it.  I was playing the dvd yesterday and Evan was dancing around having a great time.  Bill was not so impressed.  He came downstairs and said he felt like he was in Miami.  LOL  I love it.  There are not many things I miss about Florida, but the music and awesome Cuban food are two of them.  Since Evan and I have a ton of cleaning to do today, I think we will listen to the very motivating latin music while we do.  Really loud.  It should confuse the neighbors,, heheheheheheheheh.
So that said, I am off to wage a losing battle against dust, mud and laundry :)

Idiot of the Week

Friday....
I am pretty sure I am delusional.  I always had this dumb idea that as I got older, I was getting smarter.  That is apparently not the case.  I have had allergies since I was very little.  Not just a little sniffle here and there, but severe, choking on my own snot, can't breath, sort of allergies.  I suppose it would be good for me to avoid those things that trigger my allergies.  The only problem with this course of action is that I am allergic to EVERYTHING.  Maybe not rocks, if they don't have dirt on them, but pretty much everything else.  All animals, cats. dogs, rabbits, ferrets, cows horses, not sure about pigs.  Anything with feathers.  Anything that grows, trees, flowers, grass, small children.  Anything and everything.  You would think, that since I have had this little issue since I was little, that I would be expecting my allergies to get really bad in the spring.  The trees starting to bloom, should have been a big clue.
But no, not me.  Why?  because I am an idiot.  Who doesn't pay attention.  When Aden started getting snotty, I thought , 'well, I have the neti pot, I'll just make sure to use that twice everyday, and with that and the benedryl, I'll be fine.
But when around 12pm yesterday, when I suddenly couldn't breath or stop sneezing, for some strange reason, I was very surprised.
I tried the neti pot.  To late.  Already so stopped up, it won't work.  So I started popping benedryl like they are tic tacs.  Nope that isn't working either.  Tea? Lemon juice?  Hot lemon juice with Honey?  Crown Royal, in tea with lemon & honey?   Well, the teas did work, i didn't try the crown and tea, which I know works very well.  I also understand why it works.  If you drink enough, you just don't care that snot is running out of your nose like water out of a garden hose.  Which it is. 
Evan, is also very snotty, but I am quite convinced that he is alot tougher than I am or his isn't as bad as mine.  Bill will tell you that he doesn't have any allergies.  That is complete BullShit.  He doesn't have them very bad.  Just a day or so of occasional sniffling, when the elm tree out back blooms.  
So, Evan passed out about 6:30 last night, shortly after the benedryl kicked in, I didn't hear from him until about 12 am.  Thats when I noticed that Bill wasn't even home yet.  He left for work at 7 am and didn't get home till 1 am. This schedule still sucks.  But at least he is off today and tomorrow.  The bad thing is I do not want to go outside with the evil pollen monsters.
Evan does.  I just need to get to the store and find something that will work.  Claritin? Zyrtec?  Who knows, maybe I'll get them all and just start trying them all until I find a good cocktail that will banish the snot.  My Head feels like it going to explode, I really hope it doesn't. Well I do and I don't.  I do, because then my head wouldn't throb, I don't because if it did, no one but me would clean it up.
I will probably go with Claritin, since I have taken that before.  Why am I not taking it now??  Because I am a dumbass.  If I had started taking it on Aden's birthday, I probably wouldn't wouldn't be suffering right now, but like I said, I can be a real idiot.
I want to have a good weekend, since Bill is home.  I want to enjoy these two days and play outside, maybe grill something, enjoy the evening since I know Evan isn't like Aden and will be in bed and completely asleep by 7:30.  I really should go and get Bill up.  He doesn't like sleeping more than 6-7 hours.  And I am hoping that if we can get the grocery shopping done we can be back before the next contractor calls to come by today.  I still can't find a brick mason, they just aren't in the phone book.  If they are they certainly aren't listed under Mason.  The only thing under Mason is Masonic Lodge.  Maybe I should call them.  Surely they would know a guy.
Whatever, I will live.  My allergies were this bad the first spring after we moved up here.  I ended up taking Claritin an Nasonex, with a benedryl chaser at night.  That worked pretty well except that I had all of the listed side effects with the Nasonex.  I am fairly certain that bee wanted me dead.

Saturday.
Well, we went with Claritin for Evan and Claritin D for me.  After about 6 hours it seemed as if it was working for both of us.  Evan was feeling pretty good so after the trip the grocery store, Evan and Bill went outside to work in the yard.  I stayed inside, there was less pollen, not much less, but a little bit. 
Bill wants to put in a retaining wall in the back yard.  there is a pretty sizable hill and after looking at his plans, I agree it will be nice.  That will give me a little courtyard sort of area, Bill will get his BBQ area with seating and the boys and dog will get the rest of the yard to run rampant in.
Its been raining on and off, so the back yard is pretty swampy.  Evan loves to dig so thats what he and bill did.  They dug, big huge areas of mud now take up most of where I like to sit in the back yard.  Bill did discover that someone else must have had the same idea about the retaining wall.  While digging he found a good portion of a brick wall.  Didn't find the rest of the wall, but about a 3 x 2 section, intact.  It has been added to the brick pile. 
Bill also broke up a good section of my concrete sidewalk in the back.  He says he will replace it with brick.  He better.
Evan was so covered in mud.  He probably had mud a few inches thick all over him.  I had to make him take everything off, before he came in the house.  Now I have completely confused him.  I tell him all the time, that we don't go outside naked.  Then I go and have him take his clothes off before coming in the house.  At least most of our neighbors have young kids, they will understand I am sure.
While I washed the mud off, Bill grilled chicken.  It was nice.  Evan passed out about 6:30....sweet!!!!  So we watched a movie.  It was 21 with Kevin Spacey, the one about the kids from M.I.T. that count cards and wins loads of money in Vegas.  I guess it was a good movie, it would probably have been better if I understood what the hell it was they were doing.  But then, my math skills are not all that great.  Bill liked it alot.  But, he really likes math.
Today, the boys will head out to the hardware store to get pipes so Bill can start on the back bathroom, a bicycle pump, and misc other things that guys just have to get whenever they go to the hardware store. 
I will go to a few garage sales, the library & post office.  Aden, Nana & Papa all made it to the lake without incident.  Papa did get a little lost, 50 miles worth of lost, but they did eventually make it and Aden didn't get car sick.  They did have to stop every 40 minutes or so because Aden had to pee.  I wonder if it had anything to do with them giving him his own bottles of water to drink while they were driving???  Nah.  I am sure that him drinking 4 bottles of water had nothing to do with it:)

Stopping Smoking Day 12, Allergies, Neti Pot, Masons & Zumba in a Haunted House

Its like day 12 or so of the stop smoking saga, I am having a hard time keeping track lol. But, I am doing pretty good.  Now I am to where I can go without a real cigarette, but, I still occasionally want one.  Or just a puff or two of the real thing. It appears that my little experiment is working.  I switched the cartridge to the chocolate flavor, and it it so yummy.  I like it better than the vanilla one.  The vanilla one was great too.  The tobacco flavored one was pretty good, but I still don't think it is tobacco flavor.  What flavor it is, is a mystery to me, but it is pretty good too. I have given myself one more week to cheat if I want to with real cigarettes and then no more. 

 One of the companies that we had set up to give us an estimate on the columns showed up yesterday.  Ninety minutes late and no call.  I hate that, I really do.  Before I get side tracked and start ranting about why I dislike tardiness, I'll just get to what he said.  He said it can't be done.  Simple as that.  Mudjacking will not work, Better fine a good mason.  Then he left.  He only looked briefly at the front of the house.  I would have preferred a bit more of an explanation.  The only reason I can think of, would be how the columns are made.  They are hollow inside, we think, and sitting on pillars of brick.  So, injecting  concrete under the pillars wouldn't work.  But then, I don't know, I am just guessing.  We do have a few other companies scheduled to come out, so we'll see what they say.  I will in the mean time go ahead and call some masons to see what they have to say.  I already know that by going the mason route, its going to be pricey and very time consuming.  I do not want to wait 3 months for the roof.  I want it done now.  So I had this idea for Bill.
Use house jacks to jack up the porch, next to each column to get the porch roof up to level.  Then we can have the roofers do the roof and worry about the columns after.  We can't wait on the roof, nor can we wait too long on the columns.  If we do the roof, before the columns, then we will be wasting money having the porch roof done.  Once we have the columns fixed, it would end up pushing the roof line up.  We'd have to have the roof rebuilt. 
I really think it can be done, as long as the roof is pushed up where it should be, before the roofers start.  Then the mason can take his time, rebuilding the pillars under the columns.  We already own 3 or 4 house jacks.  We had to have them when Bill first started working on the house and had to bring a couple of floors up to level.  Some idiot had sawed through a floor joist in the basement.  So that is where we stand on the roof/column/cluster F***. 
Have I mentioned that I am not all the fond of contractors????

Moving right along.  Aden was absolutely miserable yesterday!!!  I wasn't too back until about 4:30 pm then the pollen started kicking my ass. Then I was miserable for the rest of the night.  It was so bad, the neti pot didn't even work, but that was probably because I waited to long to use it. I am praying for rain today.  Just one day, with rain, so we can breath for a little while.

Nana & Papa should be here about dinner time to fetch Aden.  Evan is so excited that Aden is leaving, He packed Aden's bags yesterday.  Brotherly Love, its such a beautiful thing. Evan thinks they should come and get Aden this morning.

About 3 weeks ago, the boys started telling me that there projector was coming on by itself.  Its this thing for babies that projects stars and moons on the ceiling or wall and play lullabies.  I've kept it because they really like it.
Anyway, so this projector appears to have taken on a life of its own.  I have even heard it start playing when no one is in their room.  I thought maybe since it was getting old, maybe the wiring was loose or something inside it.  Or that maybe it was playing if someone jumped or something to close to it.  The boys and I tried jumping next to it to see if it would start playing, it didn't.  Sam doesn't have thumbs so I am pretty confident that she isn't turning it on.  Who knows maybe the ghosts just like Brahms.  Whatever the cause it is pretty amusing.  It goes off at the strangest times.

I am still doing the Zumba.  I still love it.  I have decided though, that while I love salsa music, I am not all that fond of HipHop.  Some of it is okay, but it just isn't something I get all excited about.  So, I thought I would figure out my music to do Zumba too.  I have settled for now on Santana, because I have always loved Santana.  A little Aerosmith, I was pretty surprised that Walk this Way, works for Zumba. Those are my additions for now, other than those I'll stick with the music that is typically used. 

I have started working on a new knitting project.  I am working on a hat with cat ears.  Dark gray with pale pink inside the ears.  The knit is very tight and I am worried that the hat may end up to small for the person I am making it for.  I might get to see this person in a couple of weeks, so I wonder how tacky it would be to go up and measure his head?  It seems a little strange, but since i am the one running around with a measuring tape, it may not seem that odd to the people I assault with it.  They all know  I am prone to odd behavior.  I am also having a little trouble with the band for the hat.  The light gray I had picked out looks a bit stupid, I may need to get another color or just do the band in the same gray as the rest of the hat.  I am sure I'll figure it out, eventually.

Still haven't been able to find out if Bill will be able to take off for Passover.  His mom wants to do it the 19th, but Bill has to work.  Somehow Fran has it in her head that she has to have the first or second day.  I can't seem to convince her that it does last 7 or 8 days depending, and we could easily wait until Friday or Saturday to have the dinner.  Bill is off on Fridays, we could actually attend.  I would hate to miss passover, it is by far my favorite of all the Jewish holidays. 
I am sure we will figure that out too.  Its going to be a really long day.  The boys are going nuts waiting for Nana & Papa.  I should go work on laundry and get the rest of Aden's stuff packed.