It's almost done!

      Today was a hard day for me on many levels.  Today would have been my dad's 75th birthday.  Would have been.  My dad was a very special guy.  He was one of the first 2 groups of computer programmers trained in the US.  He and my mom were married just shy of 50 years.  That in itself is a major milestone in today's day and age.  Dad's been gone 6 years now and mom still wears her wedding ring.  When SD and I split up, Dad stepped up to try and fill the void in the kids lives left by SD's desertion.  Dad never missed a milestone, a birthday or just a call to see how they were.  He was the only stable male influence in the kids lives and he has been sorely missed.  By all of us.  


     Today was also my day for the pain clinic.  Guys, I cannot begin to tell you how much I hate my monthly trip to that place.  They usually over-book.  I am usually there for somewhere around 3 hours.  There is usually no place to park or sit.  And I have to bribe one of my kids to go with me every month.  I told that it's usually a night mare.  Imagine my surprise today when I pulled in and there was only one other car in the parking lot.  I thought I was in the wrong place.  I will admit that that was the easiest and fastest I have ever been in and out of that place.  Now, I don't know what anyone knows about going to pain clinics.  These guys are not going to operate to make it all better.  They are solely there for long term pain management.  They are specially trained to hopefully keep you comfy.  Personally, I like comfy.  I did tell the doc about the medicine that they gave me at the hospital when my back locked up.  He asked me if it helped.  I said "oh yes!".  Because it did.  For my back at least.  It  doesn't do anything to help out my knee( s, ankles, arms, etc) but it's great for the muscle spasms in my back.  Nice pain doc wrote me a prescription of it.  Yeah him!  I was a bit on the paranoid side to take the last few I had from the hospital for fear that my back would start doing it's thing again and I'd be on the floor crying like a baby again.  Now, I feel a bit more confident and able to push myself a bit more.  Ok there- no comments from the peanut gallery about over-doing it!  I said push myself a bit more.  Not that I was going to start hefting freezers onto my back or climbing trees.  LOL  I was pleasantly pleased when I spoke to them about what was going on with my orthopedic doc too.  They will really work with those docs.     They were able to change up my appt for next month to be able to work around the tests I had already scheduled too.  That was a big plus for me!


      I stained the trim for the bathroom floor today.  Well, actually, I don't know if trim is really what its called.  Its the stuff that goes over the seams where like carpeting comes together with the wood flooring.  The stuff you put in the doorway.  Anyhow, I stained it.  It's drying and tomorrow it will be up.  Say ... Yea me!  I am this close to having it all done in that part of the house.  So many details to take care of.  Of course, if we hadn't of replaced plumbing and stuff, it would have gone faster but...  What can I say.  It only made sense to replace the leaky plumbing while we were at it.  For those of you who think that I'm a jack of all trades- believe me, you'd never hire me.  I'm good at the cover up.  Kids put a hole in the door and you can't afford to replace the door what do you do?  You print out pictures of their favorite ball team and mod podge them all over the door - including the hole which effectively hides the hole.  Does it look better than what it did?  Definitely yes!  Does it look pretty darn good?  I think so (but now remember it's my sweat, tears, mashed and black and blue fingers we're talking about).  So much of remodeling is do something and wait.  Like today, I stained that trim type stuff.  Well, now I sit around and wait for it to dry.   I also have to paint the quarter round for the floor trim.  That will also me a hurry and paint it - then sit around and wait for it to dry type deal.  Hopefully, but Weds, I will be ready to start the back hallway.  And won't that be fun.  NOT.  Before I can go to work down there, I have to bed the children to pretty please move the extra fridge some place else.  Now, were I an able bodied type person with nothing else to do in life but work on that- I'm sure that it would get done quicker than I have gotten it done.  But.. As I am a disabled wench with only about 1/10 of my body functioning at a decent level - the fact that it's getting done at all is a minor miracle and people out to be just dagplum happy.  


  Well, folks, My knees are crying for mercy.  They cried uncle a couple of hours ago.  I'm going to take pity on them and actually take my medication.  B is with Kristi at work.  I think Little Man drove up there too.  I am, once again, home alone.  I'm going to sit here and read for a bit.  Y'all have a great night now!  

Fun times in the life....

So yesterday, yet another productive day. It didn't start out so well, I guess the heating element in our dryer went out because that baby isn't getting hot any more. Now, that sounds pretty bad right? But B helped me hang out laundry yesterday. Kristi pulled it down off the line once she woke up. Kristi and Little Man both offered to help come up with the money for a new dryer. I feel loved!

So, then this morning, my brother - my real 1/2 brother - talked to me on IM. A real conversation and sharing of information. Now, both my 1/2 brothers that I found on that social networking site have added me to their pages. And we've traded a few short emails back and forth. But today is my brothers 36th birthday. And I actually got to talk to him and wish him a happy birthday! The first one I've ever even known he existed. I love it!

As to the work gotten done yesterday. B and I ran to the feed store. We picked up some chicken feed. Then we ran over to the store and got the essentials. You know- bread, milk and more mayo type stuff. We're getting eggs in a good quantity now days and now it comes in to how to use them all before they go bad. Guess we'll be eating lots of egg salad and tuna salad and scrambled and deviled eggs. ;) Little man got the rest of the closet ready to put the carpeting in today and took the measurements so we knew what size piece of carpet to cut. Kristi ran the vacuum and did the counters. She also helped me pull the toilet apart in the bathroom. We ended up replacing all of the innards in the toilet. This is not a bad thing though now. There was a ton of rust in there. It's all gone now. We changed out all the rusty bolts and the gaskets. No more leaking any place in my bathroom. Only one more faucet left to change out in there and that's in my garden tub. I treated the whole bathroom with the mold killer and preventer again. Then this morning I put the other treatment stuff on the floor. First coat. When/If it dries- I'll put the 2nd coat on. Hopefully today.

B's rotator cuff is apparently torn again. He can't raise his arm and he is in pain. I'm trying to find him a doctor to treat it and not having a whole lot of success.

So, there was a whole lot of fun last night at Kristi's work. To read what Tom and crew have been up to yet again and about the harassment charges that are being considered as well as the restraining order that we're talking about - read HERE.

As requested... The start of the remodeling pix

Kristi painting. Notice the bare floor. Please ignore my ugly comforter. It's old and has been abused and will be replaced shortly

Done. Walls painter. Pictures re-hung. Yes, those are all photo albums to your left. The ugly comforter still there. It will be replaced. I swear!

The old faucet that was in the master shower

The new one installed. Yes I know there is rust stains on my shower. I have well water and that's a scrubbing job and a half. I will get to it once I'm done with getting the floor down

The master bath. Notice the top of the toilet doesn't go on. The pretty blue tape to protect things while I paint because I am not a neat painter.

Yes, I know - see the mess on top of my counter. That's the old faucet that we took out of the shower. Notice the walls are all painted now. The cabinet is still torn up but at least you can't see it as badly.

The front of the lower cabinets. I got the knobs in just a plain wood and then stained them to match what the flooring will be. We painted these cabinets too.

Having trouble getting the floor finished. My loving, wonderful children (read with all sarcasm intended) don't feel that they should have to help do something when (and I quote Little Man here) it's "not their floor". I don't have the strength to do some of this so it's very frustrating for me. Off here now to go start taking the net off their phones and suspending phones. Yes - I am that mean!

Productivity

When I went out to gather the eggs from the chickens yesterday morning and let them out to roam around and get in my strawberry plants for the day (yes, the chickens and I have an ongoing battle over the strawberries. I'm winning btw) there was something interesting with the eggs. One egg was totally flat and one had a nice little hole in it. Something had been in the pen and had been sucking my eggs. This was unacceptable and had to be dealt with immediately. Well, that day at least. And I'm happy to say that I've gotten 8 eggs so far today and none of them had had the insides sucked out of them.

The boys had a spaghetti dinner for their youth group at church yesterday. They've done 3 fund raisers already towards church camp. The cost of camp is $170/kid. That's a price that is obviously out of my price range. The boys have worked all 3 fund raisers. The youth group has raised $1200 so far in the first 3 fundraisers. With any luck, they'll be able to fundraise enough money to drop the cost per kid enough that they boys will get to go. It's looking pretty good. They made $600 today at their dinner. I went and made my donation to the cause. I met a few people from the community and got invited to the church. On Sundays that I can actually move around and walk - I may have to take them up on their kind offer. The people I met today were genuinely nice. I'm pretty much a hermit. I don't like new people - don't like crowds so I tend to avoid situations where there are large groups of people.

After I got home from the spaghetti dinner, Kristi was pulling in from her night out on the town. Buddy (as she has nicknamed him) got out of the truck and he and I chatted for a bit. He's a really good guy. He's good to her. Good to the boys. The boys love hanging out with him. He's well educated, he knows baseball (a big plus in our world), he and I sat here one night till 2 AM talking about old tv shows and the actors/actresses that were on them. We also hit the topic of several baseball teams during that conversation. Kristi wasn't quite sure what to make of it. One night Buddy sat around here playing 360 with the boys. He and B have a running smack talking going over the stupid game. He's a good friend to Kris and to the boys. When I told him about the eggs, he told me that there was some snake stuff that we could get to keep snakes out of the pen.

After Buddy left, Kristi and I took a run into the big town nearby. We were going to go to the big home store for some plumbing stuff and carpet we needed. Well, when we went into town, we were going to stop at the hobby store. That was closed. But we ended up going into another store that Kris wanted to look at. And we meandered thru the store checking out things. Kris was really excited to get ideas for decorating. She wants to decorate so badly. She lost so much stuff over the years.

Then we went to that home improvement type place. Got a new shower faucet set for my bathroom. Got some new carpet for my closet and my bedroom. Picked up some other odds and ends that we needed for around here. Can someone please tell me why when they built this house, they didn't bother to put cut-offs on any of the individual water lines. There was one cut off and it shuts off the water to the whole house. Over the years, I've added cut-offs to the individual water lines so that if one line goes - you don't have to lose water to the whole house. It's quite the pain in the tuckus. Little Man is intrigued by the plumbing work. It's something that he loves to do with no begging, pleading, or arguing. Got the snake keep out stuff. I'm putting a barrier of this stuff around my house too. You sprinkle this stuff on the ground. Something in it burns the snakes skin or something and they can't crawl thru it. However it works, when we got home from that expensive store, we started working on the chicken coop. We added some wire, stapled down what was there better, fed and watered the idiot birds, and put the snake barrier stuff around the coop. By then, the sun was going down and the birds were ready to roost for the night.

Then it was inside. We cut the existing water lines and put the cut-offs in. We started to install the new faucet but (as usual) we were missing 1 little CPVC piece to make it work. That and we need some white calk. Isn't that the way it always works with plumbing. You always end up making a $10 trip back to the home improvement store for a 50 cent piece. But I went and picked up everything else today and LM and I have been putting it together. I found a large patch of mold under the tile too (can you say thank you water leaks?) and also picked up some type of mold killer stuff. After you spray it with the mold killer stuff, you paint it with a 2nd expensive little can of stuff and that solves your problem. Theoretically at least.

It was another pain night last night so I ended up being up till 5 this morning. Kristi stayed up and chatted with me. Kept me company and my mind off the pain. We spoke a lot about the garbage that has been going on. For the latest update on what Tom and his crazier than nutty family have been up to click: HERE

Well, I'm happy to say that LM got a new job today. Many more hours than his old job and a job he is excited to be starting. His mommy is thrilled.

Anyone who doesn't have a password to the other site will have to email me to get one. Bonnie and Clyde Tom are just way too interested in my opinion of them. Let me close by saying. This is my playground. This is my World. Read the title folks. If you don't like what you're reading - see the little red ex? Click it! I didn't ask you to come play. I surely didn't ask you to come stalk. There's this thing called free speech and I choose to exercise my right to it. I am not going to change my opinion just because you don't like how you're portrayed. If you don't like how you look when it's typed out in black and white- don't complain to the management - change your actions! Whining about how you look in my blog doesn't make you look any better- it just shows that you don't like the way you look in the mirror. Get a life and do something about the pathetic one you're obviously living.

its a rainy friday

Yesterday was such a productive day! We got a lot done and I'm very thankful to the kids for the work they did. Little Man was my motivated one yesterday. He got most of the front yard done and helped out in several little projects around the house. I did the touch up paint on 2 of the 3 colors in the bathroom and got rid of all the paint from where it didn't belong. Now, I just need the boys to finish up the flooring. I need to get new handles for the bathroom cabinets and a new toilet seat. But none of that is really a big deal. Its more so that the bathroom is all matchy cutey than because the old ones are gone. I just don't like the way they look with the new paint job.

So, Kristi has been waiting for her disbursement from her schooling. This is money that they basically give her for going to school. She was in shock yesterday when she found out that all the money had been disbursed for the year already and that she didn't have any coming. She jumped in the shower and asked me to run her into town to look for one. That little thing called lack of cigarettes is a powerful motivator. Stop one - they told her that the guy who does the hiring wouldn't be in till today but to call him today. Stop two- they hired her on the spot. She started last night. Now, I'm happy for her with this on so very many levels. To start with, her self confidence took one devil of a beating in the 3 years that she was with Tom. He beat her down to where she thinks that she can't do better than him. She was a pale imitation of the child that started dating that jerk years ago. We have all been working so very hard to bring her back up again. Every time she does something for herself- it brings her up in her self esteem. For another, she will meet new people and make new friends and that will be good for her too. Tom didn't let her have friends. The only people he didn't run off was his family. He is such a jerk that no one else could stand to be around him. And where she's working - she's bound to meet guys. And I can't imagine anyone worse than what she had so... short of bringing home a serial killer- she's gonna move up. And when she called me last night- she was bubbling over. She had already made a friend. They were going out and she wasn't coming home till this morning. I hope she had a great time!

Me? I'm moving right along with what I want to accomplish around here. I've taken a few pictures and I'll post the before and after as soon as I finish it up. Just the bathroom and bedroom so far. I finished up the paint job in the bathroom totally yesterday with the last little bit of touch up. I'm trying to put things back in the room. Get rid of some of the clutter that accumulated in there when we moved. Today I finally get to move my special things from my kids and my pictures back into my room. Now all I need to do is save the money to get new curtains and a bed set. ;) And then on to the next room. Something new to work on every day. And only 4 weeks to get it all done.

So, yesterday Cousin Josh called LM to see if he could come stay here for a day or two. LM told him that Kristi had found a job at stop 2 and that he might have found a new job yesterday. Josh has been looking for a job living at Tami's house for over a month and no such luck. Of course, the way he presents himself when looking for a job might have something to do with that. So, if you remember, I mentioned that something wasn't right with Tami. That after I cut her off, she started texting LM which was something I find inappropriate. If they had had that type of relationship before I cut her off- that would be one thing. But they didn't. This is a woman who never recognized their birthdays or christmas or came to see them when they were in the hospital even though she lived nearby. So, Josh tells LM that all week Tina has been racking him in his privates. And he just needs to get out of there for a bit. So, an hour later- he calls back and supposedly Tina has kicked him out. And LM bugged me and bugged me to let Josh come here. So, about the time LM was going to go pick Josh up and take him to big town to his dad's house, all of a sudden Josh texts him and tells him never mind. Well, I told LM - "Tina found out Josh was coming here and it ate her up till she stopped it from happening". And I think LM is finally starting to see thru it all because he told me "Yeah, I know mom". Then he told me that Tina tried to text him and ask him if he was going to pick Josh up. Then he told me that he didn't bother to answer. Good for him! I hope he sees thru her!

Well, off here to finish up the touch up painting in the bathroom and put all my pretties up in the bedroom. The I need to get the boys to lay the last little bit of flooring and those two rooms will be done. Wish me luck that I get it done today!

Welcome to Amy's world of crazy

I'm going to have a hard time writing this update. Let me start out by saying that the doc's visit was fun. Cathy is a blast. We have a great time together. And Troy, the doc's assistant, is great. He thinks we're funny when we're making jokes about my condition. When they came in with the 4 page results of my MRI, we were joking that "the longer the better right?" Yeah- the longer the report - the more they found wrong. That's just me and Cathy keeps me laughing even when it's bad news. And today- bad news. They did xrays. The knee has degenerated to the point that you no longer need an MRI to see the damage. It's visible on the xray. The cute little puffy stuff that's supposed to cushion the leg bones from each other and be the shock absorber in your knee- mine is gone. They said that I was stage 3 on one side- stage 4 on the other. I, being the smart ass that I am, said "that's good right". Ummm no. It doesn't get any worse. That's as bad as it gets. I'm just bone on bone. So, with every step I take, I do more damage in there. So, now, I get to go in my next trip and get this big ole needle stuck in my knee so that they can shoot it up with some dye stuff and find out where the leak is. I tried to tell them that I wasn't leaking anything out of my knee but Troy wasn't buying it. He did suggest that I not walk on any uneven ground and that I kept something handy to help me out with that little walking idea. So, how do y'all think I'll look sporting a cane? What do you think? Something nice and chic like a skull head? So, here's the bad part of the cane idea. They disease has moved into my left elbow type area too. So, I've already had to have both wrists worked on. Now we're looking at the elbow idea. OK, so what happens when I can't walk without a cane or crutches but my arms won't support my weight? Y'all are welcome to try to figure that one out - I think I'll skip worrying about that idea right now. Can't change it, it hasn't happened yet, and I have faith that Dr MK will keep me mobile. A friend last night told me that I'd just turn into the bionic woman. That works for me too.

So then I came home, and Kristi was talking to Tom. Apparently, she got lonely and melancholy while I was gone. And she gave in and called him. Cause see, no matter what her head knows - her heart misses being married. As she explains it- it's not the drinking and the fighting she misses. Its not what their marriage turned into that she misses. It's the crawling into bed with someone at night and having someone hold her. It's in the middle of the night when she feels alone. And Tom - he tells her everything she wants to hear. He told her that he changed. That she could still see her family and he wouldn't interfere. And I reminded her how many times we had heard that before. Every time she's left him its been the same thing. Every time this has come to a head - he's told her the same thing. And he talks a good talk. He tells her that he wants her to have a relationship with us but his every action makes sure that we won't let him around and then he forces the "Kristi is his wife and we have to deal with him". I can't get on that train again. Kristi asked me if I would still talk to her. Well, I'm not going to not answer the phone when she calls. I always have answered. But - the closeness we've shared these last few weeks - would be destroyed. She said she'd call me when he wasn't around because not one time have we ever been able to have a conversation with him around that he hasn't sat in the background running off at the mouth till we hang up just so we don't have to listen to him. And I wouldn't call her. In all actuality, when she's with him - I dread even answering the phone. You never know if its going to be him calling from her phone or her calling because he "wants to talk to you about this or that mom". Because he pushes and pushes until he pushes us away. So, why jump back on that merry-go-round? And then her brothers jumped in with their 2 cents. And that's what turned the corner. Remember when I said that for all their fighting amongst themselves, they are very clannish? Yeah, well all 4 boys were definitely on the same page in this one. Ice Cube told her that if she went back to Tom, then she wouldn't see him, Ruth or Elmer anymore. That he loved her but that they had always been there for her and going back to someone who had blacked her eyes and bloodied her face was a slap in the face to that love. I don't know what all Hurricane said to her. But he was more the voice of reason I think. Little Man was unhappy to say the least. He told her no- she couldn't go back to Tom and end up dead. Whatever talking that they've done since she's been here has some special meaning to them because he kept telling her remember? Remember what you told me? And folks- I didn't ask. I don't know what she told him that she hasn't told me. He was there in OK that night. He saw the abuse that she suffered that night first hand. Cause that's why Tom went after LM that night. For standing up to his sister. Following some conversations with her brothers, Tom called in yet again. (yea, so much for changing the number right? She ended up letting him have it. Now, she says she's going to change it yet again next week when she renews her card.) She told Tom that she couldn't do it. That if it were "right then it wouldn't be like this". I guess his family was no more happy with the idea of them getting back together than our family was because I heard him yelling something at Kristi about how he'd been arguing with them for the last hour over ... (she walked further than 10 feet away and I could only hear yelling and not make out actual words). Of course, after she told him that she couldn't lose her family over him again - he started screaming again. She ended up telling him that she couldn't do it right now and hanging up. Of course, then his family had to start jumping in. Bonnie called. Kristi just stopped answering the phone again. So, then Bonnie has to leave messages. Which Kristi didn't listen to. She can't. And part of this would have never happened if Tom had just left her alone. Instead of stalking her online. Sending her email after email after email. All of them full of how much he had changed. All of them playing up to what she wanted to hear. If he had changed his number when she changed hers. But no- she deleted his number. He sent her emails with the number asking her to call him. His sisters girlfriend called it right when she said that they were toxic. She compared their relationship to combining bleach and ammonia. And she was right. They're bad for each other. But Kristi is going to do what she'll do. But Tom - not welcome here. Ever. And the rest of us - not going to forgive Tom for all the abuse.

On other notes... I am so very glad to be home. I missed being here so much! I need to have this chance to regroup. To get my head together and take care of things around here before going to do battle with my body again. I have to have my head right. I have to get my support system ready and lined up. I don't want to go into surgery worry about anything or with things not all done. So, the kids and I have a lot of tail kicking to do in the next few weeks. I have a lot of things to finish up before I can be off my feet for a while. And that includes making sure that all the kids lessons are ready to go and they can keep going on their schooling on those days that I am not quite up to par. So, off here to start some of that proverbial tail kicking. I told the boys that they could have today to sleep in and then tomorrow- it's off to the races. I'm going to pick up the new bar for the chain saw and they have some tree work to take care of. We're also going to get this flooring in. Totally and completely done. All the stuff that needs to be completed for the insurance- needs to be done. As well as fixing the things around here like the chicken coop that need to be done before I can be done. I told the boys. I warned them that today was their last day of sleeping in before we got going. And that we were going to hit the books hard and heavy too. So, they are warned. I'll try to keep y'all updated as we go. Surgery scheduled? Not yet. They need this dye study before we can see where to go next.

I'm in a good frame of mind. I'm going to relax today. Take care of the laundry and some organizational things while I let the boys sleep in. And I'm going to relax a bit today too before I get active tomorrow. And yes, I am going to leave the heavy stuff for the kids and be careful of my back. Thanks!

Happy Easter 2010

Well, a big thank you to B today for all the help. The paint store messed me up pretty badly though. I ran out of paint. Took my lid back in like they asked so that they could match it up. Not. Even. Close. I ended up repainting a wall tonight. And the bathroom, will have to have another coat over what I've already done now since the 2nd coat on 2 walls wasn't finished. But it actually is making me do something pretty cool with my bedroom. And yes, I am taking pictures here Red. ;)

We started laying the floor in my bedroom today too. I'm thinking that by tomorrow night, the bedroom will be done. Completed. Well, except for the trim that has to go along one wall. And that will be done on Monday. Folks, I can't even begin to tell you how much I love the laminate flooring! My colors are cream and rust. The cream has a tint of gray in it. Have y'all ever seen those old wooden/brass stars that they use in western themes? That's basically the idea I'm going with. Changing my bed set out to a gray set from the red that it was. Redoing the cabinets in my bathroom in the rust color. Walls in there cream. I bought a new wooden set for the towel bar, toilet paper holder, etc for the bathroom. I still have to figure out what I'm doing with the floor in there. I'd love to put ceramic tile down in there but with this house, I'm not sure if the studs would hold the tile..... Just kidding there folks.

Well, it's after 3 in the morning and I am not used to seeing any of these AM times. Thing is that B and I were laying the new floor in the bedroom. He was sliding all over the floor like he was 5 again. I'm glad he was having fun as we were working on the floor till after 2. I wish the kid would let me take pictures of him but that's a big no-no where he's concerned right now. I have enjoyed my time with him. He's actually talked to and hung out with me a bit. He even brought his blankets out here to the couch and we're watching a show called "The Singing Bee". I didn't know that my little redneck rapper knew the words to this many country songs. He did about pee his pants laughing at me when I smashed my thumb. And then he banned me from touching the hammer. While I appreciate him putting his fingers at risk so that mine were safe - I could have done without the hysterical laughter as I was jumping around like a rabbit on crack holding my thumb and trying not to cry.

Well folks, its 3:30. I hope everyone has a very Happy Easter. B and I have plans to finish laying the floor tomorrow. I'll make him whatever he wants for dinner or we'll go get something. We're sitting here now watching baseball updates and starting our yearly debate over the Yankees vs the Red Sox. And he's gonna rub it in which team won the World Series last year. ( *see me sticking my tongue out at him across the room?*) Y'all keep smiling, don't eat too much candy and have a great day tomorrow! Happy Easter all!

No yelling at the Amy

What a day. Here's the deal folks. For me to be able to go back up to the next wedding that's coming, I have things that need to get done. Do y'all remember the flood of earlier this year? The broken water pipes? Yeahhhh those. And we have been waiting and waiting on the insurance check so that we could fix the damages. Check in. Sent the boys to the big store today to pick up the flooring for the first room. I taped off the master bath so I could start painting it tomorrow. The boys ripped the carpet up from the master bed. B is bored so he's in there sweeping it now. Tara and I spent the day cleaning, doing laundry, and moving the stuff out of the bedroom so that the boys could rip the carpet out. I left all the heavy stuff for them so no one can yell at me.

The insurance says that the floors need ripped up and replaced in the master bed, bath, kitchen, and back hallway. There is also dry wall that had to be replaced. Air ducts that need cleaned and tightened up. A hallway and bathroom that have to be painted now. The whole thing is a good excuse for me to redo my bedroom though right? We're putting laminate wood flooring thru the house now. I really like the convenience of carpet but I hate the dust, dirt, allergens, and smell that comes when it gets dirty. And no matter how much you clean it- it never seems to get all the dirt and grime out of it. And folks, I've tried all kinds, brands, companies to clean carpets. And I hate to mop so don't think that I'll like this much more. But at least I know it will stay cleaner.

10:30 last night, the boys were wanting me to get in there and tape the bedroom off so that they could start painting. I'm thinking I've been up and going for over 14 hours now. I'm a veggie for the rest of the night. *says the woman who can't stop yawning* I will be up and going on it long before they think about prying their eyes open in the morning.

So Tara wrote a post today about abuse. Physical, mental and emotional abuse. No matter which you look at or if you've ever experienced one - it's bad. My ex (SD) spent years telling me that I couldn't make it without him. That I was worthless. That I was a nothing. A nobody. I was so scared to leave - so afraid that he was right and I wouldn't be able to survive - that I was afraid to try. And when the time came- I cried my way thru 2 states. And then I found out that he was wrong. I could make it. I didn't need him. (financial support would have been nice although I've proven that I can do it without that). When I left, I couldn't make a decision for myself. I was so afraid to make a mistake that I couldn't make a decision. And yet, I had kids. I had to make decisions. And I couldn't afford to make the wrong ones either. And the kids - they were the same way. SD was such a control freak that the kids weren't even allowed to decide whether they wanted chicken or burger from fast food. They weren't allowed to talk. They weren't allowed to voice an opinion. They talked to me. They argued with me. And then he (SD) would come home off the road and the kids would clam up. I'd tell the kids "daddy is coming home" and they'd groan. Luckily, he never stayed home for long. And when he was home- he was more interested in drinking with his friends and cousins than spending time with me or the kids. And the last time I had filed on him, I took out a restraining order. He walked thru the restraining order and stomped every phone in the house. He was out of jail before I got out of the hospital. I got to spend 5 1/2 hours in the middle of the night at the hospital with 4 kids under the age of 8. We were surrounded by his family who (of course) weren't going to come pick up the kids or support me getting my broken bones set. Instead they were bailing him out of jail.

Tara went thru the same type of situations. Thank Goodness that she and Tom never had children. And there is more than one reason to be thankful for that. For one- Tom already has 3 children by his first wife. Kids that he professes to love. Kids that he hasn't seen in over 2 years now. Oh he has court ordered visits. They are supervised due to his violence against his (other) ex. Which means that he has to pay the center's fee to get his visitation time. Paying that fee just doesn't rank up there with buying the next bottle of booze don't ya know? He says he loves his children. But there are no actions to back up the words. Love is more than a feeling. Love is actions. And like my kids counselor told me all those years ago... Kids need tangibles. They need to see/feel proof of that love. Otherwise, its just empty words to them. And in Tom's case, he was chasing their mom around with a knife with the kids in the house (yes, I know knives seem to be his favorite weapon as that's what he chased Little Man with too). He thinks the kids were asleep while he was trying/threatening to kill their mama. Does he not think that screaming and yelling would wake them up? So, Tom is a dead beat dad. He doesn't send his kids anything for holidays. He doesn't utilize the court ordered visits. He doesn't pay child support. He does absolutely nothing to show love for those kids. Oh he's really good at getting drunk and crying about how he "loves them". But as for doing something - anything to show it? Well, his "love" doesn't extend that far. He's too busy getting drunk and beating up more women, children, and elderly. Which brings me to the 2nd reason that it's good that Tom and Tara never had children. Tom is abusive. He's a bully. Period. He doesn't fight men. No! He saves his particular brand of abuse for woman, children, and elderly. He attacked Ice Cube with a beer bottle when he was 16. He attacked Little Man with a knife when he was 15. He has attacked Tara more times than she can count. He just put his 60 some year old dad in the hospital. He's an abuser. He is unfit to be around kids. Its best for his existing children to not be around him. So, had Tara had a child with him, those supervised visits that exist to protect the children he already has - wouldn't have applied. Which would have put Tara's kids at risk for suffering the same abuse that my boys went thru.

Thank Goodness Tara got away from that mess. Even if Tom did steal everything that she bought with her checks in the last 2 years. He stole her camera, her flash drives for her schooling, her computer stuff, even a computer. Not to mention, both cars that she paid for. He even kept the crock pot I bought her. Why would he want a crock pot that I paid for? Its not like he'll cook with it. I told her that she should go to court and ask for it all. I doubt she will. She is so happy to be away from him that she just says she'll replace it all. All he'll do with it is pawn it for crack money like he's done so many times in the past. She should have at least found for a judgement for the money for it. But I doubt she will.

Last update and then I need to go hit the painting job that's waiting on me. Officer Nice called me yesterday about the phone harassment charges that I filed on Tom. He wanted to know if I wanted to move forward with those charges. I'm seriously considering it. Tara may be ok with the stuff that Tom has done and stolen. I'm not. I was honest enough to let the officer know that we hadn't heard from Tom since Friday night. And to let them know that Bonnir hadn't called since the night the officer talked to her. I have to call them by tomorrow and let them know what I've decided. And I don't know what I'll decide yet. I'll think about it while I'm painting today and tomorrow. I have another big issue with one of my boys that I need to deal with first before I can decide what I want to do with Tom's worthless tail.

Off to the paint drudgery. Keep smiling all!

so much....

So much accomplished. So much left to do. I have decided that I am going to blow off the rest of the painting. I have one day left after today and I will need to spend that day packing and doing other moving related things. All the actual remodeling work is done. All that is left is painting. I feel good about it. Pancho has been so much help. He is a great kid!

I believe that Little Man and one of his friends are going to paint his room tomorrow while I'm running some errands and going to the Dr. That's great. Me, personally - I'm done. I got the walls fixed, the trim, hung and B's room totally painted. Tomorrow is going to be organization and cleaning and getting our fence down so we can take it with us. I was going to try to keep going tonight but then my friend Roofer guy told me that with everything that I have lined up in the next week with moving I should take some time to relax before I have to hit it hot and heavy. Since I was pretty tired anyhow (we stayed up till 3 AM last night hanging trim and drywall and fixing the last of the places where I had fist holes in my wall) I decided he had given me a good excuse to be lazy and take a break. So, I showered and put on clothes that don't have paint on them and I'm trying to relax. Of course, B has other idea's. He's bored. He's always bored. It would help if his 360 wasn't a piece of junk and wasn't on the fritz again. So, part of what I have to do tomorrow is drop it off to get sent off to get fixed again. I'm really sorry that I bought that piece of junk 360. This is the 3rd time that it's had to be sent back on the warranty repair program in the last few months. Now the piece of junk won't even power up. I guarantee you the next one I pick up with be a PS3. The guy at the pack and mail place told me that they had one customer who has sent their xbox back 12 times in the last year. It's averaging once a month. That's pretty bad considering that the turn around time for the repair center to have it is usually 10-14 days.

Thursday night, we're going to the game again. I'll need to relax by then. However, I'll really have to work hard on not feeling guilty for taking time off to go watch it. Roofer guy is going with us Thursday night. He's never seen a major league game before. He claims that he's always wanted to go. We'll see if he gets bored or not Thursday night. I don't think he knows much about baseball at all. I'm not sure how much he's ever watched even on tv..... And me - I'm an addict. LOL

I'm a bit worried about B. He's had a cough for the last few days and it just seems to be getting worse. It seems to be draining him. It's 7 Pm and he's in bed already. He's never in bed at 7. He didn't go to bed at 7 when he was 2. I've mentioned going to the Dr. a few times and he's been adamently opposed to going saying that he "feels fine" and it's "just a cough". It doesn't really seem to be a asthmatic type cough and he doesn't seem to really be having trouble breathing. But it's a lingering thing. And today I'm noticing that his cheeks are a bit flushed. I'm getting worried about him getting pneumonia again as he's been really prone to getting pneumonia. He may find himself at the Dr. tomorrow whether he thinks he "feels fine" or not.

Well, guess I'll watch the game tonight and get to bed early. Y'all take care!

short break....

I'm taking a short break to fuel my obsession with baseball. My 2 favorite teams have been playing a 3 game series against each other. I, of course, had to watch at least part of it. Things are going well here around the house. We're getting things done at a good pace. Not that I should be sitting down right now, but hey - no one's perfect. I have all but where I'm waiting on mud to dry painted in the hall way. The whole left hand side of the hall is done and painted. Little Man is busy running off to see his friends and arguing with me about helping so I've decided to ignore his room. He wants it done, he can quit being a lazy tail and help get it done. He and Tom took off to go swimming while Pancho and B helped me finish off the trim work in B's room. All I have left to do in what was his original room is paint one wall and it's done. I am SO happy about that! We got the piece of dry wall replaced this morning where Hurricane had put all his nice holes in it. Wouldn't you know that it was 3 1/2 inches too short for the wall? So, I still have to piece in that bottom couple of inches. I just thought I was done hanging dry wall didn't I?

On other notes, the check from crappy insurance company came in. We got it to the roofers and they have been here at 8 am the last 2 mornings working on the house. Can you imagine how unhappy my children are that there has been someone banging on the roof over their heads on their first two days of summer break? They all got up this morning yelping at me about it. My sympathy level is at an absolute low right now and by the time the third child got out of bed complaining....let's just say my response wasn't very nice. I think I got progressively ruder by the complaint. They were warned and they could go to bed earlier than they did so .... not. my. problem. When things need done - they need done.

My kids are giving me a hard time about our roofer. I will say that I've known this man and his brother for years. About 8 of them. Roofer is a nice guy. Single guy with kids. Custodial parent. We have spent many minutes (hours?) on the phone lately trying to get everything straightened out with the crappy insurance company and get this job going. Our conversations have veered off course a time or ten and we may have talked about other things that just the insurance. So, my brats have started teasing me about "my boyfriend". Their words - definitely not mine. I may or may not have to paint make-up on them while they're sleeping if they don't quit. I must have been too much a hermit the last 11 years since talking to a man on the phone elicits this much attention. Roofer guy is as happily divorced as I am and I'm fairly sure that he has no more attention of ever getting involved with anyone again than I do. So, the kids are barking up the wrong tree on this one. I'm not quite sure why everyone seems to think I would be happier if I were "with someone". Well.... having someone else here to take over all this remodeling stuff would be nice. But, then what would I do with them once the work was done? Just joking folks! I know that most of my friends in blog land are happily married. It just doesn't seem to be the thing for me. I'm no good at marriage. I'm too independent.

Well, the Rangers have almost beat the Red Sox in the rubber match between the 2 teams. I suppose I should get ready to get in there and get that wall painted. I've been too much a bum the last hour anyhow. Y'all take care!

Moving right along in search of.....

This post has been moved to:

http://texaskid55.wordpress.com/

Please contact me for the password

moving update #9737 (just kidding....I think)

looking thru the doorway with the new doors open from what was Little Man's room into what was B's room.  Don't you just love the romex wire running thru the openings?  Most of that has been closed up now.  The top from B's side and both the side panels were hung last night.  They are now awaiting trim.  (the head is Little Man's)

This is the piece of drywall that has to come down completely.  I'm good but not that good.  The hole to the left actually went all the way thru to the hallway.  I'm still not happy about this.  

This was the doorway going from the hall into Little Man's room.  It is now going to be a built in shelving unit.  Yes, those are real guns leaning up in the corner.  Remember, this is the child that wears cowboy boots with shorts.  The 2 blocks of wood randomly sitting on a shelf were not attached to anything.  And yes, that is an Indianapolis Colts pillow.  My boys are all Colts fans.  Don't ask....

Another wall in what was Hurricane's old room.  This one has the first coat of patching done and sanded and is awaiting my lazy tail to get the next coat done.  This is the wall that I got to pull many many little metal bb's out of.  How fun!

From the hallway looking at the shelves in what was Little Man's room.  What you see in the rest of the picture....  The love seat in B's room where he was playing Call of Duty 4 on Xbox 360.  Random remodeling stuff on the floor.  And to your left, a sheet of drywall.  Yes, my house is a mess.  I really need to get this all done so I feel better....

Have I mentioned how much I adore my son, Ice Cube?  If not, it's time to bore you silly.  I really do love that young man.  He stepped up to the plate yesterday and really helped me out in a big way!  He came home from work yesterday and started packing his room.  That's to be expected as he's got to get his stuff packed to move too.  But then, he started hauling things out to the garbage from his room.  Things that he didn't want to take with him.  That was appreciated too.  Then I asked him to check the shed to see if there was any dry wall out there that I could use for a few small pieces that I had to cut.  He went out to the shed and found the dry wall I asked for, then asked me if I wanted him to haul some of the stuff out of the shed out to the street.  When I said yes, he and B went out to the shed, back his truck up to the shed and hauled a load out to the garbage.  Now, was everything that went out necessarily "garbage".  No.  I threw out a perfectly good stove.  One of the cousins gave it to me for Hurricane when he was moving into an apartment.  It's an electric stove and I have a gas hook-up.  Hurricane never took the darn thing and it's been out in my shed ever since.  The appliance man that drives around will pick it up before the garbage guys come thru.  The appliance/junk man always comes thru the night before the garbage runs.  He'll get quite a find in my garbage tonight.  I also had him take out the old dishwasher that I had.  I have a brand new one installed that sits in my counters.  The one he took out was one of the ones that hooks up to the sink.  I brought it with me when I left SD.  Do not ask me why I haven't thrown it out long ago.  I kept it for "emergencies".  Cause don't you know I'm just too lazy to hand wash a dish?  So, those are the type of things that went out to the street.  He also took all the regular trash out.  It was all much appreciated!   Especially, since Ruth was here at the time and usually we can't pry the 2 of them apart long enough for him to do anything.  

I got most of the 2nd doorway closed off last night too with Little Man and B's help.  So, all in all- a productive day.  I'm getting ready to go in there in a few and tear out the one sheet of drywall that's not patchable and has to be totally replaced.  But first, I'm watching the end of the Ranger/Yankees game.  The game is tied up and I'm still a baseball fanatic.  And Vix just asked me to find someone to do the garbage for the new place.  So, I add that to my to-do list.  

I ended up with all the kids out here last night.  They were supposed to all be here together but as it ended up, Ruth was leaving as Hurricane and Donna arrived.  Tuesday was Donna's birthday so I got a french silk cream pie.  And congratulate me folks - I didn't eat a single bite.  Not one taste!  I'm so proud of myself!   Also, Ice Cube and Ruth are going to stay in this area for one more week.  Ruth's boss asked if she could work a full-time next week while another girl went on vacation.  This will basically give her about 3 weeks pay in one week and really help them out financially.  And I'm glad that they'll be here for another week.  Her dad does not know how to not make matters worse.  He told her that if she left to move with Ice Cube that she should not consider his house her home any more.  Also, if she ever wants to come back - it would be under the condition that she was not allowed to so much as talk to Ice Cube anymore or she wasn't welcome there.  This man is an idiot.  Seriously.  I realize that no one is happy when 2 young kids make a mistake of this magnatude.  Really.  This is not where my dreams for my son were headed.  But, as Ruth's mom told him- why does he want Ruth to fail?  His terms and conditions set her up to fail.  The baby is not just Ruth's responsibility.  It's not her mom's responsibility to take care of.  It's Ruths and Ice Cubes.  And I don't mind helping with whatever.  If it's buying diapers or giving them a night off- I'm game.  And so is her mom.  We want them to succeed.  We want Ruth to be able to go to college and get her degree.  Her dad, well, he's a nice guy- he really is.  But he's holding on too tight.  There comes a time when you have to throw on your big boy/girl panties and let go.  I've mentioned this before.  I would love to hang on to Ice Cube and keep him with me.  It's time for him to fly.  It's the right thing to do.  So, we smile and kiss them goodbye.  Although,  I told the kids again last night that if they ever need me.  I'm here and my door will be open to them.  

Well, off to get some more work done.  Y'all take care now!

I'm still here....

I'm still here.  I don't know if I'll be ready to move or not.  I'm moving along and if all I had to do was get the stuff packed to move- I'd be feeling pretty darn good.  And I may make it with a good part of the remodel job.  But I'm not going to get it done in time.  I'm feeling very overwhelmed today.  It's like a never-ending path.  I pick up the truck in a week.  We still haven't gotten out to the shed to throw out some of the junk out there.  And it's not so much that it's "junk" but it has to be packed up and put in the truck in a week.  For every one thing I accomplish- I find 3 more that need done.  I should have planned this for one more week back.  That way the boys would have been out of school for more than a few days before this all happened.  

I did get a ton of stuff done yesterday.  Unfortunately, most of it is stuff that I can't see.  I got all the utility companies notified to get every thing here turned off.  I also got ahold of everyone down at the new place and set up installations.  Well, those that I was supposed to get ahold of.  Our biggest hold up right now is waiting on the check from crappy insurance company for the roof that we have been waiting on since march.  I'm a thinking that 3 months with a tarp on my roof is about 2 1/2 months too long.  So, on my list of things to do today is a phone call to the company to find out where the devil the check is so that my guys can get on the roof before it's too late.  I'd hate to have to pay them to travel the 180 miles to the new place to do it or have to find another company.  It's rediculous!  

Vix came over last night and we got the sliding doors installed between the 2 rooms.  I think they call them bi-fold doors.  They're an off white on one side and a really ugly brown on the other.  So, more painting.  One of my friends went with me yesterday and we went to pick up some paint.  B's part of the  room is white right now.  He's got his navy blue yankees bedsheets and stuff.  Little Man wanted his side in a really dark color and I had to draw the line at that.  As in NO.  We finally compromised on a lighter blue/gray for the walls and I'm letting him do his built in shelves and ceiling fan blades in the darker color.  It will look pretty cool when it's finally done.  If I ever get it done.  And that's where the problem lies.  I don't know tohat I'm ever going to get it done.  I mean, I'm sure I can- but it seems like an overwhelming task right now.  

Well, off to the races!  The company should be open soon to find out where my check is for the roof.  I still need to call the propane company to get that delivery set up for the new property.  And I need to get the new door trimmed out.  And yes, I will go in and get pictures of it at the stage it's at now.  And my car is getting dropped off at one of the cousin's houses to get the valve cover gaskets on it changed since they're leaking.  I was lucky enough to get  one of the boys to take care of it before I move next week.  Take care and have a good day! 

Another Day in the trenches

Little Man decided that he didn't feel like going to school today so he got sent home for the day.  How did he do this you ask?  He had a day of ISS scheduled (in school suspension) for using a bad word in chemistry.  When they called him out of class to send him down to ISS, he tried to talk his really cool principal (RCP) out of sending him.  When Mr. RCP failed to oblige, he went to ISS where it took him less than 5 minutes to get 3 infractions and kicked out.  Mr. RCP called me to let me know what had happened and to ask me to come pick my little monster up.  I should have been mad.  I should have been more than mad.  But all I could think about was....  free slave labor.  And he was so good about helping out today.  He went to the car wash and cleaned my car out.  Went to the grocery to pick up the things I still needed for the shower.  Went and picked up the prizes for the games.  Then he came home where he measured, cut, and hammered to my little hearts content - helping me out.  Because of his help, when Vix came out today, we were able to completely finish the one opening and get it trimmed out.  And he did it all without a murmur of a whine, groan, or complaint.  And he even took the garbage out without being asked.  So, I'm not mad.  I'm not even upset.  Because of his help today, I was able to get the games printed out for the shower.  I got my big present wrapped, I got all the shower stuff organized, I was able to get the living room and kitchen cleaned while he did other things.  And he agreed to clean his room so his aunt Tia and her hubby could stay here Saturday night.  And if he gets that all done- then all I have to do for that tomorrow is strip his bed and put fresh sheets on it.  

I feel much better about my to-do list at this point.  I got a whole lot accomplished today.  I haven't been down to check on the aunt and uncle down the street in over a week so I'm going to go do that tonight after I finish making dinner.  Then  -- home to paint!  But that's not too big a deal.  I should be able to get all of what we accomplished today done in an hour.  

I'm most upset about all the work I have to do in Ice Cube's room.  That room was originally Hurricane's.  He is on our "rotten kid" list right now.  Until Ice Cube started pulling down all the posters that were on the wall- I didn't know about all the holes that sir Hurricane had put in his walls.  I will be in there for a week with the dry wall mud.  He cut holes in his walls with his sword.  He shot at his walls with his pellet gun.  And we found holes from being punched.  I. AM. NOT. HAPPY.  Apparently, every time he'd put a new hole in the wall - he'd cover it up with a sports poster.  When he moved out and Ice Cube moved into that room, he left the posters up.  So no one knew about the holes until this week.  Have I mentioned that I am peeved?  The holes and issues we just found, will probably create another 3-4 days work for me.  But, I'm in a decent mood about it all now.  The boys are out of school on Monday and they've said that they'll help me do some more.  

2 more weeks of school.  3 more weeks till we move.  The count down is on.

I am so very beat....

I have to slow down.  I have been burning both ends of the candle for so long that I'm on major burn out mode.  I've been packing and working on the house and dealing with kids and running on no sleep for so long that I'm sick.  And yeah, I know everyone told me not to over-do but there's no one else to do it all.  Vix is supposed to be helping with the remodeling.  But between taking care of Cal and the fact that she sleeps constantly, she may get out here 2 hours a week.  She was supposed to make a phone call and in 5 days - couldn't find time.  Of course, I think Vix suffers from depression.  With everything going on, she has good reason to be stressed.  Unfortunately, this makes my ability to get her help - because she sleeps A LOT.  Like yesterday, she got upset and bitchy because I called her at 2:30 PM.  Now, I know that there are nights that she doesn't get to bed till between 4-5.  I've been having those nights every dang night lately.  But 5-2:30 is still 7 1/2 hours.  That's about as much sleep as I've been getting in 3 days.   And after that much sleep, she's still exhausted.  Even with an aide coming in 2 days a week who does laundry and some light cleaning, she falls behind on her house.  I'd worry about her if I weren't so darn tired.  And, at this point, on the irritated side.  I'm sure a good part of my irritation is jealousy that she gets to sleep, ignore her housework, and pretend that everything will get done for our moves all by itself.  She tends to try to ignore things in the hopes that whatever it is will just go away or work itself out.  She tried that with a roofing problem we had on one of the houses.  She "couldn't find time" to file the insurance claim for 9 1/2 months.  By the time she got around to it...  the roof was leaking thru to the inside of the house.  And please excuse my vent.  I love this woman more than anyone will ever know.  I am just overwhelmed and exhausted to the point of being a witch I think.  And I seriously think I'm jealous of the fact that she can sleep and just expect things to get done while she does.  And I'm almost mad at myself for beating myself up.  I've taken more of my pain medicine in the last few weeks than I normally take in a month.  And then I get frustrated because I feel that she doesn't care about the fact that I'm killing myself trying to pick up the slack of things that have to be done while she's sleeping.  Cal told her to find out about the electrical.  2 months after Cal told her to take care of it, it wasn't done.  So I did it.  Then I had to stay on her to make the call to the real estate agent to meet the electrical company out there.  The way it's going, there is no chance that this house will be moving on June 12 as it's supposed to.  There is some paperwork that the mortgage company needs signed by the moving company that she has to take care of.  It's still sitting on her desk.  I decided last night that I was going to just deal with the baby shower this weekend and then I'll deal with the next thing that has to be done and then one day at a time.  Trying to do it all at once has done nothing but drive me borderline nuttier than I already was.  

On other notes, SD went to court on Friday.  He apparently doesn't want to accept the plea agreement that they offered him and they have set the case for trial.  He thinks he's going to be able to convince a jury that he's innocent.   I. DONT. THINK. SO.  "Yes, your honor- that was me in my car selling cocaine to the undercover officer but I'm innocent?"  Hello!  Like I said - they're all nuts!  Every last one of them.  And his crazy sister, Susan, is still on a roll.  She's taken to leaving nasty messages directed at me on April's myspace.  April is about ready to block her if she doesn't start.  And she's so self absorbed, she pays no attention to anyone else or what they're going thru.  Reese' baby girl is still in foster care.  The baby is probably about 5 months old now.  Reese should be getting to take her home with her some time in the near future.  What happened was:  Reese had a baby boy who died at 5 1/2 weeks old.  The little boy was on an apnea monitor.  After the baby boy passed away, Reese kept trying to find out from the sleep monitor company why the monitor didn't go off.  Well, turns out, that the monitor wasn't hooked up correctly.  Now, no one can find the lady that "trained" Reese to use the monitor at the hospital.  Was the lady certified to train Reese?  Where did the lady go?  Meanwhile, Reese's new baby has to stay in foster care while she's on the monitor.  Because Reese didn't "use the monitor right on the baby boy".  And Reese goes to parenting classes, and health classes, and visits her daughter every day that  they allow her to.  And runs up to the hospital to stay with her 11 year old who got hit by a truck.  Makes my headaches with my boys seem that much unimportant.  

To end this on a positive note.....  Sunday, we were at the Rangers game with friends for a friends birthday party at the game.  Not only did the Rangers win their 7th game in a row to sweep the Angels, Josh Hamilton made a catch that was absolutely unbelievable.  His catch changed the momentum of the game and probably gave the Rangers the win.  So, Congrats to Josh!  I hope he didn't hurt himself too badly with this and that he can play the game tonight against Detroit.  The latest word on the news, was that Josh was "day to day" as to whether or not he could play.  Good luck tonight guys!

I don't know if I'm going to survive....

This post has been moved to:

http://texaskid55.wordpress.com/

Please contact me for the password

the germ factory...

I sent the kids back to the land of the runaway diseases this week.  That germ infested place better known as a school.  I am really really ready for summer and 3 months of fighting, wrestling, and constant complaining of "there's nothing to eat around here" after this week.  As I said, I gave the boys Monday off to see what was going on with this flu bug.  Tuesday, B has PT and we spend a good part of the day dreaming up ways to torture him and push his arm trying to get it back to "normal".  Weds, I sent him back to school.  Weds night, he is lying in my room watching a ball game on my tv and I hear the sound that every mother hates to hear.  The sound of a child retching and gagging.  Then the cries of "mooooomm, I need a puke bowl".  Being the loving mother I am  - I pointed out that the bathroom was 5 steps away.  Ok, so shoot me for not jumping up and running to hold his hand while he throws up.  I have a major gag reflex and would have ended up throwing up with him.  Of course, also by the time he mentioned that he wanted a bowl, it was too late.  I got to spend the night cleaning carpets, washing my bathroom rugs, and cleaning the toilet and floor.  

Of course, being the loving brother he is, he was more than happy to share his germs with Little Man so the whole fun process was repeated Thursday night with another child.  Not that B was feeling any better yet either.  Luckily, I have a great pediatrician who saw B yesterday and after 10 years trusts me enough to believe me when I say that they boys were happily sharing germs and didn't make me drive Little Man into his office today.  And it's a 45 min drive which is absolute misery when you have a kid upchucking all over the place.  So, I have spent the last 48 hours with sick children.  I will say that it is not my favorite way to spend time.  Did I mention I love my pediatrician who was kind enough to give the boys anti-vomit medicine?  

Meanwhile, we are doing another huge remodeling job.  We are turning the 3 kids bedrooms into one large bedroom for Little Man and B.  We are doing some neat things like building built in book cases and also setting it up so that they have a door that they can shut for privacy when they need their space.  However, between doing the remodeling, packing to move, and sick kids - I have had NO time.  I've been up to 5 am a few nights, grab a couple of hours of sleep, and then back up at 7:20 to get the kids up and off to school.  I will say that the boys have been most helpful with all of this.  They're a little bit better with the tear down than the clean up though.  

So, back to the grind.  Ice Cube is running thru one of the building stores for me today when he gets off work and picking up my drywall and a door that we paid for yesterday.  I've had a little bit of a break today (ok- honestly, I took a break because I was exhausted and too close to burning out) waiting for the next set of supplies.  

Have a great weekend all and I'll try to remember to get pictures.  It's too late on the one wall which is already down and totally destroyed.  But I have 2 more to go.  We took 2 walk-in closets and turned them into one very large one.  I'm going to start putting things back together on that side today.  Or maybe in the morning.  LOL  Take care!

the headache

As I mentioned in a previous post, I spent most of the weekend giving myself a headache.  My pet peeve since we got this house has been that whomever designed it, had no clue.  There was no way to get thru the door and shut it behind you without stepping on the carpet.  This has caused untold carpet damage over the years.  And don't ask me why I didn't do this sooner.  Chicken  might be the answer I give.  It was a lot of work.  And I couldn't have done it without Little Man and B who really busted tail this weekend to help it get completed before they went back to school today.  

The pink stuff on the wall is drywall mud that turns white when it dries.  There were doggie scratches in the wall. The dark line in the middle is where the old linoleum used to stop.  There was really no way to get in the door and shut it without messing up the carpet.  

This is after we had cut the carpet out and pulled the old linoleum up.  At this point, we were working on pulling nails and staples up out of the floor.  Not fun! (Brushes were used to put some primer stuff on the floor so that the new tile would stick)

Most of the tile laid at this point.  The boys were kind enough to point out that it would have been so much easier if we had started at the wall and worked our way over instead of working towards the wall.  Yeah- they were right.  

More wall being patched by the door.  Dang dog always jumps with one paw right there when he wants out.  It's been 11 years and I still haven't broken the habit of his.  

New floor completed.  Thank you very much Little Man and B for all your hard work!  Their next project that they're taking on is rebuilding the back steps.  I'm pretty impressed with the job they did.  And we have plenty of room now to take shoes off without ever stepping on the carpet.  The blue in the foreground is actually another rug -- not carpet.  

Next step, finish sanding down the first coat of mud.  Apply a 2nd coat and hope that after that one is sanded down, it will be ready to paint.  I still have the paint left from when I remodeled the living room a few years ago.  The original border was mauve and green flowers.  I am just not a flower type person.  Once I get that all done- Little Man's room is next.  I don't know if I can make it thru all that.  After 6 months of debate (arguing might be closer to the truth), he and I have finally agreed on a color.  And yes, I realize it's "his" room.  But he wanted to paint his room this dark dark blue gray.  And I was holding out for a lighter shade.  Not something I'd never be able to paint over again.  So, we're off to the races with that next.  

Have a great day all!