It is 12:59 am on Friday night. The man and I just got home from putting the last coat of poly on the floors before we move into Willacy in 9 hours. The floors look alright. Not perfect by any standard and not even good enough by my standards but .....
".....it is what it is."
This seems to be my mantra of late.
Tomorrow as we move in the plumber will be there hooking up sinks and toilets because with 7 people in a house sinks and toilets are a necessity. The furnace guys will be there as well cleaning out the battered and dust encrusted vents. Because it is cold outside. And I want to turn on the heat so I don't freeze. That's not too much to ask is it? I didn't think so.
Nothing like having all the excitement happen at once.
Oh well..... it is what it is.
Now I must sleep for tomorrow the impossible will become possible. Just watch me move mountains.
I am woman. Hear me roar!
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Thursday, September 9, 2010
What day is it?
Today is Thursday. We move on Saturday. On Monday we sanded the floors AGAIN and then we continued to sand them on Tuesday. On Wednesday we showed up to clear coat the floors with polyurethane. As I was doing one last vacuum I entered the back bedroom and was almost knocked off my feet. A third of the floor from wall to wall was under water. I gasped. I stepped back. I madly tried to think of a way to keep the gargantuan eyesore from the man. I had to tell him.
He took it well. No yelling, or throwing, or growling or cursing, maybe a little cursing. He held it together. He went to Rona, bought some plastic and went up to that freaking roof and water proofed it. We had a leak into the basement for a while early on but we fixed it and didn't have any problems with for a long time, until Wednesday. It was shortly after that I shed my first tear because of Willacy. I am nearing the end of my rope, I can feel it.
And.....we need a new roof.
Today I put coat 2 of the polyurethane. It needs another coat. We move Saturday. I can't believe we are moving into this house. I can't believe we are moving in two sleeps. I need to go pack but I needed to sit for a second. I don't ever sit anymore, except to drive the hour to school and then home at 8 at night. I have never in my life been so exhausted.
The other day the man and I were commiserating about our lives and we started to joke around about the things we would rather be doing than this stupid reno.
A friendly game of would you rather. It went something like this:
Would you rather take five hours to push a baby out and then have a bladder infection because of it for three months or do this reno? Bladder infection. Duh
Would you rather have a c-section or do this reno? C-section. Double duh.
Would you rather have an ectopic pregnancy rupture and almost die because 75% of your blood bled into your gut or do this reno? Ectopic. A week in the hospital by myself? Duh.
Would you rather have cardiac catheter surgery or do this reno? This was a toughie. I really super hated that surgery. But then it was only a day of horror. We'll give it an almost duh.
Would you rather have Bell's Palsy for a year or do this reno? Since my palsy only lasted a couple of weeks the jury is still out on this one. I don't know. Which one's worse? Hopefully I'll never know!
So two things were realized during this productive conversation.
1. I have a pretty unusual medical history. Some good stories to tell at parties, if we were ever invited to parties.
2. I am really hating this reno.
He took it well. No yelling, or throwing, or growling or cursing, maybe a little cursing. He held it together. He went to Rona, bought some plastic and went up to that freaking roof and water proofed it. We had a leak into the basement for a while early on but we fixed it and didn't have any problems with for a long time, until Wednesday. It was shortly after that I shed my first tear because of Willacy. I am nearing the end of my rope, I can feel it.
And.....we need a new roof.
Today I put coat 2 of the polyurethane. It needs another coat. We move Saturday. I can't believe we are moving into this house. I can't believe we are moving in two sleeps. I need to go pack but I needed to sit for a second. I don't ever sit anymore, except to drive the hour to school and then home at 8 at night. I have never in my life been so exhausted.
The other day the man and I were commiserating about our lives and we started to joke around about the things we would rather be doing than this stupid reno.
A friendly game of would you rather. It went something like this:
Would you rather take five hours to push a baby out and then have a bladder infection because of it for three months or do this reno? Bladder infection. Duh
Would you rather have a c-section or do this reno? C-section. Double duh.
Would you rather have an ectopic pregnancy rupture and almost die because 75% of your blood bled into your gut or do this reno? Ectopic. A week in the hospital by myself? Duh.
Would you rather have cardiac catheter surgery or do this reno? This was a toughie. I really super hated that surgery. But then it was only a day of horror. We'll give it an almost duh.
Would you rather have Bell's Palsy for a year or do this reno? Since my palsy only lasted a couple of weeks the jury is still out on this one. I don't know. Which one's worse? Hopefully I'll never know!
So two things were realized during this productive conversation.
1. I have a pretty unusual medical history. Some good stories to tell at parties, if we were ever invited to parties.
2. I am really hating this reno.
Monday, September 6, 2010
sand and re-sand
I've adopted the whole "if you have nothing nice to say then don't say anything at all" mentality. This is why I haven't blogged since last Wednesday. But then, today, I decided that it's my friggin' blog and if I want to whine and complain then that's what I'm gonna do because it's MY blog and I do what I want on my blog.
I don't even know where to start.
First day of school. Busy but mostly uneventful. We get up at 7. We leave at 7:45. We get to school just before 9. Sounds normal, right? Well it's not normal to drive an hour to school but apparently that's how I roll. Like a total maniac, I do everything the hard way. Last Thursday and Friday I spent a lot of time driving and waiting for kids. Getting the teen registered for high school only took about 7 hours of really annoying tasks. Seven hours I'll never get back. (Yeah, yeah, I'm sure it wasn't seven. But still........)
Jack and Chandler wouldn't let me take any pics. Whatever.......
While I was dealing with children and new registrations and all the driving the man was sanding hardwood. I tried my hand at the sanding and it was dumb and exhausting and was taking forever. He took over and rented many a tool until he found one that worked. I won't comment on the quality of the job he did.
I love you Darcy.
Friday we picked out a stain we both loved. Spice. The paint store only carried it in little bottles. It takes a week to order it in gallon cans (of course it does) which would be half the cost. We don't have a week. Two choices: one, buy 20 little bottles for $300 or find a stain that is similar for cheaper. The man said he would search out the perfect stain look alike on his way home. He came home with a stain that looked nothing like it.
I shook my head no.
"Don't shake your head no at me," said the man.
"It's too dark," said the woman.
The next morning, we set out to gather 20 bottles of this Spice. Three Rona's and one Ben Moore later we had 20 bottles. The guy at Ben Moore said "This is the best stain in the world. It doesn't smell, it only needs one coat and it is seamless". Perfect.
With my mother at my house with the kids, which I am pretty sure is not where she wanted to be, we put the stain on. It took forever, we covered 1000 square feet. It looked BAD so I put on another coat. I still hurt from this 8 hour pilate-like workout.
The next day we went to check on it (after we attended our new ward which only has two words to describe it and they are 'gong' and 'show', but that is neither here nor there).
Floors...... Not perfect. Hideous. Blotchy. Light spots, dark spots, seams up the ying yang and the man's not so stellar sanding job glowing though the stain. We hung our heads in defeat.
This brings us to today. We had only one option. Re-sand the floors.
Even Holden lent a helping hand.
Today we re-sanded floors all day long. The man stayed after I left to sand all night long if need be. He has no bed, no blanket, no pillow, no food, no water, no me.......
We move in 5 sleeps.
You can imagine what the stress of this has to done to him. He is a bear, to say the least. Cranky, miserable, unhappy, exhausted. On Saturday, we had Chinese for dinner and his fortune cookie said 'Your magnetic personality will draw people to you this month'.
I laughed till I cried.
I don't even know where to start.
First day of school. Busy but mostly uneventful. We get up at 7. We leave at 7:45. We get to school just before 9. Sounds normal, right? Well it's not normal to drive an hour to school but apparently that's how I roll. Like a total maniac, I do everything the hard way. Last Thursday and Friday I spent a lot of time driving and waiting for kids. Getting the teen registered for high school only took about 7 hours of really annoying tasks. Seven hours I'll never get back. (Yeah, yeah, I'm sure it wasn't seven. But still........)
Jack and Chandler wouldn't let me take any pics. Whatever.......
While I was dealing with children and new registrations and all the driving the man was sanding hardwood. I tried my hand at the sanding and it was dumb and exhausting and was taking forever. He took over and rented many a tool until he found one that worked. I won't comment on the quality of the job he did.
I love you Darcy.
Friday we picked out a stain we both loved. Spice. The paint store only carried it in little bottles. It takes a week to order it in gallon cans (of course it does) which would be half the cost. We don't have a week. Two choices: one, buy 20 little bottles for $300 or find a stain that is similar for cheaper. The man said he would search out the perfect stain look alike on his way home. He came home with a stain that looked nothing like it.
I shook my head no.
"Don't shake your head no at me," said the man.
"It's too dark," said the woman.
The next morning, we set out to gather 20 bottles of this Spice. Three Rona's and one Ben Moore later we had 20 bottles. The guy at Ben Moore said "This is the best stain in the world. It doesn't smell, it only needs one coat and it is seamless". Perfect.
With my mother at my house with the kids, which I am pretty sure is not where she wanted to be, we put the stain on. It took forever, we covered 1000 square feet. It looked BAD so I put on another coat. I still hurt from this 8 hour pilate-like workout.
The next day we went to check on it (after we attended our new ward which only has two words to describe it and they are 'gong' and 'show', but that is neither here nor there).
Floors...... Not perfect. Hideous. Blotchy. Light spots, dark spots, seams up the ying yang and the man's not so stellar sanding job glowing though the stain. We hung our heads in defeat.
This brings us to today. We had only one option. Re-sand the floors.
Even Holden lent a helping hand.
Today we re-sanded floors all day long. The man stayed after I left to sand all night long if need be. He has no bed, no blanket, no pillow, no food, no water, no me.......
We move in 5 sleeps.
You can imagine what the stress of this has to done to him. He is a bear, to say the least. Cranky, miserable, unhappy, exhausted. On Saturday, we had Chinese for dinner and his fortune cookie said 'Your magnetic personality will draw people to you this month'.
I laughed till I cried.
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
go away. i'm begging you!
Everyone is waiting. I am waiting for the kids to go to school so I can get back to work on the reno. The children are all waiting to go to school so I stop barking and nagging them to death. This waiting game is killing me. I've had it.
**********************************************
My Dearest Children,
I love you so much, I really do. But you need to go away now. I can't take the bickering, the pestering, the loudness, the laziness, the whining, the fighting, the torturing, the fussing and the endless questions that all begin with "Can I...." any longer.
"Can I eat?"
"Can I play my DS, or the Wii, or the game cube or the computer?"
"Can I buy this?"
"Can I?"
"Can I?"
"Can I?"
These questions, asked millions of time a day, no exaggeration, are driving me mad.
I love you. I love you. I love you. And I'm not trying to talk myself into it, I actually do love you but....
BEAT IT ALREADY!!!!!!!!!!
If you don't, my head will explode and you'll get my brain guts all over your pretty little faces.
Capiche?
Love,
Your sweet, patient, kind, loving mother.
******************************************************
Yesterday I registered 5 kids in four different schools. This is what that particular activity can do to a person.
Lucky kid......
**********************************************
My Dearest Children,
I love you so much, I really do. But you need to go away now. I can't take the bickering, the pestering, the loudness, the laziness, the whining, the fighting, the torturing, the fussing and the endless questions that all begin with "Can I...." any longer.
"Can I eat?"
"Can I play my DS, or the Wii, or the game cube or the computer?"
"Can I buy this?"
"Can I?"
"Can I?"
"Can I?"
These questions, asked millions of time a day, no exaggeration, are driving me mad.
I love you. I love you. I love you. And I'm not trying to talk myself into it, I actually do love you but....
BEAT IT ALREADY!!!!!!!!!!
If you don't, my head will explode and you'll get my brain guts all over your pretty little faces.
Capiche?
Love,
Your sweet, patient, kind, loving mother.
******************************************************
Yesterday I registered 5 kids in four different schools. This is what that particular activity can do to a person.
Lucky kid......
Saturday, August 28, 2010
early morning fretting and camping
This morning I was up at 5 am because I had to pee. Then I couldn't get back to sleep because I couldn't figure out the best way to patch and sand the wrecked walls from the stupid lacquer guy without making a big mess. Should I just sand them and then vacuum as best I can? Or should I have someone right there helping me by holding the vacuum as I sand in the hopes that most of the dust won't even hit the new carpet. Turns out I don't really care when the sun is up, only when I should be sleeping.
The other morning I was up at 5 because I was fretting about the kitchen sink. I bought it with the intention of making it under-mounted and so then I bought a cool faucet to go into the countertop. But then we decided that under-mounted was a bad idea with the type of counter we chose. So do I have to return the sink or the faucet? But the hole is already cut, and I really love the faucet. Turns out the faucet comes with a little thingie that makes it work any way I choose to use it and of course, when the sun came up I already knew that.
Last weekend I was up at 5 because I was afraid the carpet guy didn't lock the door and that he left all the lights on. I was contemplating a very early morning drive out to Willacy just to check on it. Turns out he did lock the doors and turn off the lights. Turns out when the sun is up I couldn't care less if the door was left open.
I've been getting up at 5 a lot lately and as it turns out the things that plague me in the night are ridiculous in the day and not worth a lot of thought. I am tired.
Last year, and the year before, and the year before that and the year before that.... okay I'll stop now, I was camping with my kids. I love camping with my kids. We pitch our tent. We set up the picnic table. We hang the rope for drying things. We find the garbage 'spot' and the bike 'spot' and the beach toy 'spot' and we settle in for as long as we can stand it. It's just me and them. Occasionally the man shows up and graces us with his presence but mostly he isn't there. I am gravely out numbered and sleep with a dagger under my pillow but once I get over the whole 'I am alone in the wilderness with 4 kids and if something happens to me they are really screwed' mindset we have a great time. People think I'm nuts but I think I'm brilliant.
We didn't go camping this summer. We didn't do anything fun. The man and I are too busy, too broke and too emotionally spent to make the kids' summer a happy summer. Never again. Next summer is planned and it is all fun and games and please feel free to shoot me if I agree to some absurd antic that makes next summer anything but totally awesome.
We reminisced a lot this week about summers past. Good times.
Next year.................
The other morning I was up at 5 because I was fretting about the kitchen sink. I bought it with the intention of making it under-mounted and so then I bought a cool faucet to go into the countertop. But then we decided that under-mounted was a bad idea with the type of counter we chose. So do I have to return the sink or the faucet? But the hole is already cut, and I really love the faucet. Turns out the faucet comes with a little thingie that makes it work any way I choose to use it and of course, when the sun came up I already knew that.
Last weekend I was up at 5 because I was afraid the carpet guy didn't lock the door and that he left all the lights on. I was contemplating a very early morning drive out to Willacy just to check on it. Turns out he did lock the doors and turn off the lights. Turns out when the sun is up I couldn't care less if the door was left open.
I've been getting up at 5 a lot lately and as it turns out the things that plague me in the night are ridiculous in the day and not worth a lot of thought. I am tired.
Last year, and the year before, and the year before that and the year before that.... okay I'll stop now, I was camping with my kids. I love camping with my kids. We pitch our tent. We set up the picnic table. We hang the rope for drying things. We find the garbage 'spot' and the bike 'spot' and the beach toy 'spot' and we settle in for as long as we can stand it. It's just me and them. Occasionally the man shows up and graces us with his presence but mostly he isn't there. I am gravely out numbered and sleep with a dagger under my pillow but once I get over the whole 'I am alone in the wilderness with 4 kids and if something happens to me they are really screwed' mindset we have a great time. People think I'm nuts but I think I'm brilliant.
We didn't go camping this summer. We didn't do anything fun. The man and I are too busy, too broke and too emotionally spent to make the kids' summer a happy summer. Never again. Next summer is planned and it is all fun and games and please feel free to shoot me if I agree to some absurd antic that makes next summer anything but totally awesome.
We reminisced a lot this week about summers past. Good times.
Next year.................
Thursday, August 26, 2010
aaron wallace
Today I met baby Aaron.
I love him. He is little and calm and so so sweet. He has a pudgy face.
He was 8lbs 13 ozs of pure perfection who got smooched by his favourite auntie today.
Welcome to the world baby Aaron.
I love him. He is little and calm and so so sweet. He has a pudgy face.
He was 8lbs 13 ozs of pure perfection who got smooched by his favourite auntie today.
Welcome to the world baby Aaron.
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
question and answer
Question: If a person has given up buying books for a whole year and takes books she already owns and has read to a used book store and gets in-store credit, does it count as buying books if she uses that credit to get books she hasn't read and takes them home?
Answer: now you have to answer the question for me by actually physically responding to this post in one way or another. I know you are reading this so answer me when I ask you a question. And if you don't then I will..... I will..... I will........ I don't know what I will do. Just answer the question already.
My life depends on it.........
Answer: now you have to answer the question for me by actually physically responding to this post in one way or another. I know you are reading this so answer me when I ask you a question. And if you don't then I will..... I will..... I will........ I don't know what I will do. Just answer the question already.
My life depends on it.........
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