Friday morning, I got out of bed running. I grabbed a shower, put the kids on the bus, stopped by my neighbors to leave her Little Man's carseat, and headed for Tennessee to pick up Hubby. After we returned home, I checked my email and the various things I usually check on a daily basis including the obituaries in the local paper. I was shocked to find a lady that I used to work with at Wal-mart listed in the paper. I had just thought about her earlier in the week, how I hadn't seen her at the store lately, but I knew that she had cut back on her hours by a day at Halloween and she was also a garden center employee. I just didn't seem to make it back there much. Turns out, she had been diagnosed with a brain tumor/cancer in December and they didn't give her much time. Her services were yesterday. I'm still reeling from the news.
By the time the kids came off the bus that afternoon, Hubby had painted the fascia boards on the front of the house and was working on our front door. When we bought this house, it had this hideous black door on the front and we couldn't figure out why for the life of us. Well it turns out the door was originally red and they decided to paint black over it. It is now white. I mowed the a neighbor's yard our front yard. The kids came off the bus with report cards for the year. Belle and Brady both had straight A's for the nine weeks (and the year I think), and Bryce missed straight A's by two points. Now I have a fourth, fifth and sixth grader for this fall. It just doesn't seem right! Brady started the year out with trampoline burn (evidence with his fall picture) and came home Friday afternoon with gym floor burn on the same eye. A friend had accidentally tripped him and sent him sailing. It looks worse today than it did the day he came home with it.
Saturday, Hubby painted the shutters, washed the siding on the house and knocked some of the mortar off the bricks from the chimney. I went through and weeded my garden (huge deal...I seldom do that!), worked on cleaning off the carport some and picked up the mortar and broken bricks that we couldn't use. The kids swam in our neighbors pool, ran around the yard and did their usual things. Saturday night, Belle had the neighbor's little girl spend the night and Hubby and I spent a lot of time chatting with Little Man's mom and dad. It was after 11 before Bryce and Brady went to bed and after two before I got up and told the girls to give it up.
Today has not been much calmer. I got up and fixed muffins for breakfast, started washing linens for the beds, cleaned off the carport and took Hubby back to his truck. Hubby and I picked up a slip n slide for the kids yesterday and they broke it out this afternoon and had some fun. Tonight, the boys are "camping" in Belle's bedroom. They were so excited that they all went to bed without being told! Of course, I had to tell each of them a few times to hush and sleep already. Now I am waiting on the washer and dryer, gonna get a shower here shortly and try to read a bit before heading to bed. That is if I don't crash before I make it to bed! How has everyone's weekend been?
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Thursday, May 28, 2009
The Itching Could Drive You Insane!
My sunburn has hit the next stage. Peeling. And itching. And peeling. And itching. I kid you not when I say the itching could literally drive you crazy. I feel like I spent all day long itching and trying to pull the dead skin away so it will stop. So I've been trying to keep busy. I hate to say it but since putting the roof on the house, I've been lazy for the most part. Except the day that I got sunburned. Honestly, I just haven't felt good. In fact, last week Hubby informed me that he wanted me to go to bed early, get up and take the kids to school then go right back to bed because I sounded so bad. I didn't argue. Last Friday morning, I drove Bryce to school for a field trip, came home and put Belle and Brady on the bus and not 15 minutes later I was out cold on the couch. Of course, I had some help the night before not being able to sleep. Friday night, Hubby was home, brought me Nyquil caplets and instructed me to take them. And to sleep. And the next morning when he got out of bed? He told me to go back to sleep. And I did. Words cannot describe how wonderful it was to have him home, looking out for me because last week? I was tired of looking out for me. I just wanted to crash and not have to worry. About. Anything.
Because of the way last weekend worked out, there really wasn't any time to clean up the yard from where we had worked on the roof. I had bricks from the chimney in my flower bed, boards from the doghouse and rotten boards from the roof in the yard. Tuesday, my neighbor came by to let me know his buddy needed his trailer back. The trailer that has our shingles on it because we haven't made it to the dump yet. The trailer that was in the driveway loaded up with most of the shingles from the front of the house that neighbor decided could hold more, moved into the backyard and proceeded to load down with half of the shingles from the back side of the house. Unfortunately, he hooked to the trailer and the trailer did not move. Surprise, surprise. It wasn't surprising either that he got stuck in the wet yard since it had been raining the night before. So he called a buddy to pull him out and the buddy got stuck. They got him out and called another buddy who also got stuck. They managed to get him out and eventually got my neighbor out of my backyard but not without yard damage.
Yesterday, I decided it was high time that I tried to accomplish something. It was the first time that I had felt up to doing anything other than the usual laundry, dishes, kid stuff. I also knew that Hubby has so much stuff that he feels he has to do when he comes in that I wanted him to come home and find the front yard clean. So I went to work pulling nails out of the boards so that I could move them to the backyard for burning. Eventually, I moved about half the boards under my carpet where I was working so that the yard was empty. Then I picked up the vinyl that was still in the yard, moved the metal to the backyard so that I could eventually pile it up and get it ready for recycling, and set the doghouse up again the front of the house because I couldn't get the pieces apart to put it away. When I finished, my front yard was cleaned up and ready to be mowed. Until it rained last night. And today. Today, I went back out and worked on more nails. My pile is now down to less than half of what it was. I have washed laundry, swept and vacuumed, washed dishes, and babysat Little Man from 2:30 until 9pm. I even wiped out both of my refrigerators. I accomplished stuff! And I still have energy to spare!
Tomorrow is the last day of school before the kids start summer vacation. They are so ready for this break and after tomorrow I will be the parent of a sixth grader. That is so. not. right. I am going to get Hubby in the morning and then see what the day brings. Now I'm going to watch more Ghost Whisperer before going to bed.
Because of the way last weekend worked out, there really wasn't any time to clean up the yard from where we had worked on the roof. I had bricks from the chimney in my flower bed, boards from the doghouse and rotten boards from the roof in the yard. Tuesday, my neighbor came by to let me know his buddy needed his trailer back. The trailer that has our shingles on it because we haven't made it to the dump yet. The trailer that was in the driveway loaded up with most of the shingles from the front of the house that neighbor decided could hold more, moved into the backyard and proceeded to load down with half of the shingles from the back side of the house. Unfortunately, he hooked to the trailer and the trailer did not move. Surprise, surprise. It wasn't surprising either that he got stuck in the wet yard since it had been raining the night before. So he called a buddy to pull him out and the buddy got stuck. They got him out and called another buddy who also got stuck. They managed to get him out and eventually got my neighbor out of my backyard but not without yard damage.
Yesterday, I decided it was high time that I tried to accomplish something. It was the first time that I had felt up to doing anything other than the usual laundry, dishes, kid stuff. I also knew that Hubby has so much stuff that he feels he has to do when he comes in that I wanted him to come home and find the front yard clean. So I went to work pulling nails out of the boards so that I could move them to the backyard for burning. Eventually, I moved about half the boards under my carpet where I was working so that the yard was empty. Then I picked up the vinyl that was still in the yard, moved the metal to the backyard so that I could eventually pile it up and get it ready for recycling, and set the doghouse up again the front of the house because I couldn't get the pieces apart to put it away. When I finished, my front yard was cleaned up and ready to be mowed. Until it rained last night. And today. Today, I went back out and worked on more nails. My pile is now down to less than half of what it was. I have washed laundry, swept and vacuumed, washed dishes, and babysat Little Man from 2:30 until 9pm. I even wiped out both of my refrigerators. I accomplished stuff! And I still have energy to spare!
Tomorrow is the last day of school before the kids start summer vacation. They are so ready for this break and after tomorrow I will be the parent of a sixth grader. That is so. not. right. I am going to get Hubby in the morning and then see what the day brings. Now I'm going to watch more Ghost Whisperer before going to bed.
Monday, May 25, 2009
Flowers, Flowers and More Flowers
The kids have four more days of school for this year so I figured that I had best put up a blog because when they get out of school, there will be no telling what my blogging habits will be.
Last week, I think it was Wednesday but I can't guarantee it, my neighbor and her husband decided it was time to drain their pool and get it ready to open for the summer. So they borrowed our water hoses, and eventually had water coming out of three water hoses and a vacuum hose. Thursday morning, my neighbor called to ask me a question about cleaning out the pool because now that the water was out of it, she was up to her ankles in algae, literally. So I called Dad because it had been years since I had been involved in the startup of a pool, and relayed to her that she needed to vacuum out the rest of the algae and water, scrub the sides and bottom and then start filling it back up again. Sounds a lot easier than it actually was. Her hubby had to work that morning so I went over and started scrubbing the sides of the pool as she vacuumed the algae out of the bottom with a Shopvac. She started at 7 am, I got in around 9:30 and we didn't finish until about 2pm, after stopping for a bite to eat. What we didn't realize was how bad the sun actually was. Both of us were in swimsuits and when we stopped for the day, both of us were burnt. My back and shoulders are literally fried!
Which brings me to today because the rest of the week has been me trying not to move this way and not to move that way but can't lay down that way and "No, don't touch me there!" Today, the sunburn is better across my lower back but my shoulders and upper back are still pretty bad. So I tried to accomplish a little more than I have the past few days. I have washed laundry, dishes, swept the kitchen and read another part of Harry Potter (he had to go on hiatus for a bit). Then I took pictures of my flowers to show my few readers. I downloaded them and went to reduce their sizes when I found what I thought was a picture on my memory card that I know I didn't take. Upon further investigation, I found that it was actually a video that Brady had taken when I didn't realize he had my camera.
Last week, I think it was Wednesday but I can't guarantee it, my neighbor and her husband decided it was time to drain their pool and get it ready to open for the summer. So they borrowed our water hoses, and eventually had water coming out of three water hoses and a vacuum hose. Thursday morning, my neighbor called to ask me a question about cleaning out the pool because now that the water was out of it, she was up to her ankles in algae, literally. So I called Dad because it had been years since I had been involved in the startup of a pool, and relayed to her that she needed to vacuum out the rest of the algae and water, scrub the sides and bottom and then start filling it back up again. Sounds a lot easier than it actually was. Her hubby had to work that morning so I went over and started scrubbing the sides of the pool as she vacuumed the algae out of the bottom with a Shopvac. She started at 7 am, I got in around 9:30 and we didn't finish until about 2pm, after stopping for a bite to eat. What we didn't realize was how bad the sun actually was. Both of us were in swimsuits and when we stopped for the day, both of us were burnt. My back and shoulders are literally fried!
Which brings me to today because the rest of the week has been me trying not to move this way and not to move that way but can't lay down that way and "No, don't touch me there!" Today, the sunburn is better across my lower back but my shoulders and upper back are still pretty bad. So I tried to accomplish a little more than I have the past few days. I have washed laundry, dishes, swept the kitchen and read another part of Harry Potter (he had to go on hiatus for a bit). Then I took pictures of my flowers to show my few readers. I downloaded them and went to reduce their sizes when I found what I thought was a picture on my memory card that I know I didn't take. Upon further investigation, I found that it was actually a video that Brady had taken when I didn't realize he had my camera.
Not much to it, I know, but I love how he had to just wiggle it around like it had wings there in the middle. I have no idea what it was that had my attention on tv, but I had Little Man on my hip, which meant I was probably watching GAC trying to keep him happy. This was definitely before the pool cleaning, because today is the first day I've held him on my hip like that (instead of turned and facing out) since I was in it. On to my flowers.
When I was growing up, I never dreamed that I would be into flowers as much as I am because Mom was always trading flowers with my aunt and cousin. If they had something Mom wanted, she ended up with a piece of the entire plant and vice versa. Now? I have two crepe myrtles (and have been offered more), a weeping willow tree, a magnolia tree, a chicken and hens plant, five or six different annuals from the kids for mothers day, six african violets, a "mother-in-law's tongue", calla lilies (which are about to bloom), gladiolas, and a Christmas cactus that has been putting out leaves this year like there is no tomorrow. Pretty good considering I was beginning to wonder if I had killed it. This is a violet that bloomed last year and was still going strong until Callie turned it upside down in the sink, but it's finally coming back out.
This one is one Mom brought me from a friend that the kids turned upside down in the sink and I thought we had lost it too but she rallied and came back as good as she was.
This one was started from one of Mom's violets and I was wondering if it was ever going to bloom.
This is another cut from one of Mom's but finally opened up this week after I impatiently waited the last two or three weeks for the teeny buds to open.
I have one more violet that is just budding out now and should be opening in the next couple of weeks. I think it is another purple with white. Then I have one more that Mom brought me, another cutting that has turned into three plants. I have to separate it so that it will finally grow big enough to bloom. Right now it is just putting out teeny new leaves and tangling itself up. But my excitement comes from the fact that I have had that first flower since I went to work for Wal-Mart in 2005 and it didn't bloom until last year. Now I have five violets blooming! They actually look like they're supposed to!
Oh, and my garden is coming out nicely. I didn't get as many carrots and I would've liked but I should have squash coming out my ears pretty soon. Brady will be so excited! Now that I have talked about my newly green thumb, I'm going to give it up for the night and try to sleep. Hopefully, there will be a new topic present itself tomorrow.
When I was growing up, I never dreamed that I would be into flowers as much as I am because Mom was always trading flowers with my aunt and cousin. If they had something Mom wanted, she ended up with a piece of the entire plant and vice versa. Now? I have two crepe myrtles (and have been offered more), a weeping willow tree, a magnolia tree, a chicken and hens plant, five or six different annuals from the kids for mothers day, six african violets, a "mother-in-law's tongue", calla lilies (which are about to bloom), gladiolas, and a Christmas cactus that has been putting out leaves this year like there is no tomorrow. Pretty good considering I was beginning to wonder if I had killed it. This is a violet that bloomed last year and was still going strong until Callie turned it upside down in the sink, but it's finally coming back out.
This one is one Mom brought me from a friend that the kids turned upside down in the sink and I thought we had lost it too but she rallied and came back as good as she was.
This one was started from one of Mom's violets and I was wondering if it was ever going to bloom.
This is another cut from one of Mom's but finally opened up this week after I impatiently waited the last two or three weeks for the teeny buds to open.
I have one more violet that is just budding out now and should be opening in the next couple of weeks. I think it is another purple with white. Then I have one more that Mom brought me, another cutting that has turned into three plants. I have to separate it so that it will finally grow big enough to bloom. Right now it is just putting out teeny new leaves and tangling itself up. But my excitement comes from the fact that I have had that first flower since I went to work for Wal-Mart in 2005 and it didn't bloom until last year. Now I have five violets blooming! They actually look like they're supposed to!Oh, and my garden is coming out nicely. I didn't get as many carrots and I would've liked but I should have squash coming out my ears pretty soon. Brady will be so excited! Now that I have talked about my newly green thumb, I'm going to give it up for the night and try to sleep. Hopefully, there will be a new topic present itself tomorrow.
Monday, May 18, 2009
ShortyMom. Wife. Mother. Roofing Assistant.
I cannot tell you how busy this house has been over the last week and a half. I don't think I stopped moving until yesterday. To start things off, I'll cover the last week and a half. The kids school is conveniently located near a nursery, so every year for Mother's Day, they trot over to get gifts for "someone" the week before. Thursday afternoon, I was treated with these array of flowers.
Some of them are kinda puny looking because I planted a handful into the ground and the rest into my pot. The flowers in the pot thrived while the flowers in the ground wilted so I moved them yesterday.
Thursday night, my neighbor gave me a call to let me know just why Little Man has been so fussy as of late. Turns out he was cutting a 1 year molar and she had no idea! In all fairness, it's been so long since mine have been that little that I had completely forgotten they get one year molars. After she mentioned it, the whole week suddenly made a whole lot of sense. I babysat him on Friday for a bit before Dad picked him up early, then not long after the kids got off the bus, I ran to Tennessee to get Hubby so that he could start his "work"ation. That evening, we did absolutely nothing. We came home, watched a little tv, sent the kids to bed and crashed after watching the weather. Rain was in the forecast so it didn't look like we were going to be able to get much done on Saturday.
Saturday turned out better than we expected. I think we did get a little rain that morning but as soon as it had moved past us on the radar, Hubby was outside on the roof to start tearing down our chimney.
By the time we went to bed on Saturday night, I had a big hole in my roof covered by a flimsy tarp. Sunday morning, we awoke to find that Callie had knocked a glass of water over on my desk and spilled water into my keyboard. Totally my fault for not pushing the keyboard up and/or putting away the glass but the keyboard was fried! Later, Hubby went back to work cleaning out the rest of the bricks that he need to and I went to work, mowing the front yard. 
Yes, I know. I mowed on Mother's Day, but it needed to be done and Hubby was on the roof. I got a card from the kids in addition to their flowers and slept in that morning which is always welcome. Sunday afternoon, I climbed onto the roof for the first time. And I parked my butt at the top of it and did. Not. Move. I told Hubby I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to get up there and help him after all. I crab-walked my way back down to the edge and held onto his hand as I stepped onto the ladder and crawled my way back down.
Monday, we went to work as soon as the kids were on the bus. The fascia boards that are directly behind the gutters were rotten and needed to be replaced. Hubby went to work pulling them off and I helped him put them back up as soon as he was ready. In honor of the occasion, he pulled my dad's tool belt out of the truck we had borrowed and set it up for me to wear.
I got my own tool belt and my own hammer! I got to hammer nails! When Hubby was finished, he climbed into the attic to support a couple of boards that had been around the chimney. While he was up there, he called me up there to adjust a board he was using and couldn't get to. Then on my way down, he needed another board and I was to cut it. He told me I didn't have to adjust anything, just to cut a certain 2x4 at the end and send it up. So I set up my board on the saw and cut it to send it up.
I used that saw and didn't cut myself! Then he climbed on to the roof to start pulling off the doghouse that we had decided we hated and was coming down. 
I got up and helped him pull shingles off that section of the roof because we had to expose the doghouse in order to knock the support out from behind it. I did not get anywhere near the edge of the roof. I was ok as long as I was in the middle and not on my feet. By Monday evening, the shingles were off of the roof from the doghouse to the end and I watched from the ground as Hubby knocked the front of the structure loose from the roof and then tip it over onto the ground. By then, it was time for the kids to be in bed so we covered the exposed area with plastic and went to bed a short time later.
Tuesday, Hubby and I climbed back up as soon as the bus ran and was pulling more shingles off. Severe weather was supposed to be moving in and we had to get as much done as we could. Not long after we started, our neighbor (Little Man's dad) came up to help up clear off the old shingles. That afternoon, Hubby's uncle showed up just after we cleared the last shingle. He replaced boards that needed replacing or filled in while I went about pulling nails out of the boards. By that afternoon, I would get off the ladder by myself and ease down to the edge of the roof while pulling up nails. At bedtime, we had the tar paper rolled out and the top covered in preparation for the rain. I also had a nasty sunburn.
This picture did not do my arm justice. My neck and forehead were just as bad. By the time I went to bed, I was miserable.
Wednesday morning, I was still without a keyboard. I was twittering from my cell phone and anything else that I sent to anyone was copy and pasted or typed by using the computer's on screen keyboard. Hubby, his uncle, our neighbor and later my dad raced to get the front of the house shingled before more rain moved in that evening. Since I was not needed on the roof, I washed clothes, mowed our backyard, neighbors backyard and the other yard that we usually mow. By the time the guys quit, our front part of our roof was completely shingled.
Thursday, we were delayed doing anything because rain had moved in the night before. Finally it burned off and the five of us climbed up again to start removing shingles from the backside of the house. By the time we got the roof ready for tar paper, I had pulled 99.95% of nails that was left behind in the roof and put them in this bucket. A one gallon bucket almost 3/4 of the way full.
The guys replaced more boards that needed replacing and finally got the tar paper down just before time for the kids to go to bed.
Friday, Hubby and his uncle put the shingles back on the back side of the house. Neighbor and Dad had to return to work so they were on their own. I spent the day inside trying to bring the house back under control. Here's what it looks like now with new shingles and without the doghouse and chimney.
I am very proud of what we managed to accomplish last week. What I hated is the way we had to do it. We were on the roof from 7am until after 7pm most nights. For the most part, we didn't see a whole lot of the kids who took advantage of the chance to come inside and watch all the tv they wanted. Then, because we had to reach certain points to have the roof ready for the night, the kids ended up going to bed anywhere from an hour to an hour and a half after I wanted them to. Hubby and I would go to bed at like 9:30-10pm, only for me to be so tired that I couldn't get to sleep until 1-2am. Then I would have to get up at 6 to get the kids ready for school and start the day again. Hubby was great on Thursday, allowing me to go back to sleep for an hour and putting the kids on the bus. Since it was rainy that morning, there wasn't a whole lot we could do to the roof and I had only been getting 4 or 5 hours of sleep, so he told me go back to sleep. And then I could only sleep for an hour because my body refused to sleep more. I hate that.
Friday afternoon, we told the kids that if they would help us pick the shingles up out of the yard that there may be a monetary reward involved. At first, things were going great but after a while they started to wear down. After supper, Hubby started helping us pick the rest up after he had finished with the roof and the kids started asking for ice cream. So I told them, as soon as we had the last bit up (and there really wasn't all that much) I would take them inside and fix them ice cream. Hubby decided since they had did some hard work, we would take them and the neighbor's little girl to Dairy Queen. So we did.
The neighbor's daughter spent the night, and Saturday morning we got up and prepared to take them fishing to help reward them for all their hard work. We stopped at one of the few places we usually fish only to find out just how much rain we've gotten over the last few weeks. The place has a pier over the water to fish from, and in order to get to it, you had to wade through the flood waters. So we fished from the banks. Or Hubby and the kids fished from the banks. I took a book and spent most of my time pulling tangled lines from trees and brush. I hated that I forgot my camera, again, because I saw a crane fly through and watched as two geese flew not 25 feet from where I was sitting. They caught two brim before we moved on to the next task. Then we took the kids to a local miniature golfing place, and to Kentucky Dam. We came home where I fixed pancakes for supper. The kids response? "Why are we having pancakes for supper?" To which I answered, "Why not?" What better thing could I do after not being able to be there for them like as much as I would've like the week before than to take them fishing and golfing and then bring them home and fill their bellies with sugary goodness? They didn't complain.
We spent yesterday recuperating and trying to get things ready for Hubby to go back to his truck. He has to be in New York tomorrow morning (technically he's already there) so he went through and got his stuff together and we drove him to Tennessee. An hour later, he was calling me to let me me know he was leaving and that he was on his way home. That's right, his route brought him home for supper before starting his long haul and it as of right now will bring him back by the house Wednesday. It's nice that his first week back will give us a chance to see him in the middle of week.
Now we are finally up to today. Today was uneventful. I can tell I carried a couple of things back to Lowes that we didn't need and got a refund. I took my library books back since they were due today and I finally finished my last one last night. Then I borrowed two more. I came home and got the house ready so that I could babysit Little Man this afternoon. Dad came and got him right after supper. I have cleaned my kitchen, washed more laundry than I can count and had a normal day with the kids. Today I'm glad for uneventful. Maybe tomorrow can be uneventful too.
Oh. And the cold that I just got over a few weeks back that left me positively miserable? Showed it's ugly head again around a week ago. So not only was I on a roof most of the week, I was hoarse, honking and coughing on the roof. Fun times and it's only improved a slight bit. My voice is stronger but I'm still coughing a lot and my nose is trying to finish a marathon I think. My sunburn? Peeling of course so if you see me out and about, I don't have some contagious dermatological rash that I can share with you. It's good old fashion sunburn. How has everyone else's week gone?
Some of them are kinda puny looking because I planted a handful into the ground and the rest into my pot. The flowers in the pot thrived while the flowers in the ground wilted so I moved them yesterday.Thursday night, my neighbor gave me a call to let me know just why Little Man has been so fussy as of late. Turns out he was cutting a 1 year molar and she had no idea! In all fairness, it's been so long since mine have been that little that I had completely forgotten they get one year molars. After she mentioned it, the whole week suddenly made a whole lot of sense. I babysat him on Friday for a bit before Dad picked him up early, then not long after the kids got off the bus, I ran to Tennessee to get Hubby so that he could start his "work"ation. That evening, we did absolutely nothing. We came home, watched a little tv, sent the kids to bed and crashed after watching the weather. Rain was in the forecast so it didn't look like we were going to be able to get much done on Saturday.
Saturday turned out better than we expected. I think we did get a little rain that morning but as soon as it had moved past us on the radar, Hubby was outside on the roof to start tearing down our chimney.
By the time we went to bed on Saturday night, I had a big hole in my roof covered by a flimsy tarp. Sunday morning, we awoke to find that Callie had knocked a glass of water over on my desk and spilled water into my keyboard. Totally my fault for not pushing the keyboard up and/or putting away the glass but the keyboard was fried! Later, Hubby went back to work cleaning out the rest of the bricks that he need to and I went to work, mowing the front yard. Yes, I know. I mowed on Mother's Day, but it needed to be done and Hubby was on the roof. I got a card from the kids in addition to their flowers and slept in that morning which is always welcome. Sunday afternoon, I climbed onto the roof for the first time. And I parked my butt at the top of it and did. Not. Move. I told Hubby I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to get up there and help him after all. I crab-walked my way back down to the edge and held onto his hand as I stepped onto the ladder and crawled my way back down.Monday, we went to work as soon as the kids were on the bus. The fascia boards that are directly behind the gutters were rotten and needed to be replaced. Hubby went to work pulling them off and I helped him put them back up as soon as he was ready. In honor of the occasion, he pulled my dad's tool belt out of the truck we had borrowed and set it up for me to wear.
I got my own tool belt and my own hammer! I got to hammer nails! When Hubby was finished, he climbed into the attic to support a couple of boards that had been around the chimney. While he was up there, he called me up there to adjust a board he was using and couldn't get to. Then on my way down, he needed another board and I was to cut it. He told me I didn't have to adjust anything, just to cut a certain 2x4 at the end and send it up. So I set up my board on the saw and cut it to send it up.I used that saw and didn't cut myself! Then he climbed on to the roof to start pulling off the doghouse that we had decided we hated and was coming down. I got up and helped him pull shingles off that section of the roof because we had to expose the doghouse in order to knock the support out from behind it. I did not get anywhere near the edge of the roof. I was ok as long as I was in the middle and not on my feet. By Monday evening, the shingles were off of the roof from the doghouse to the end and I watched from the ground as Hubby knocked the front of the structure loose from the roof and then tip it over onto the ground. By then, it was time for the kids to be in bed so we covered the exposed area with plastic and went to bed a short time later.Tuesday, Hubby and I climbed back up as soon as the bus ran and was pulling more shingles off. Severe weather was supposed to be moving in and we had to get as much done as we could. Not long after we started, our neighbor (Little Man's dad) came up to help up clear off the old shingles. That afternoon, Hubby's uncle showed up just after we cleared the last shingle. He replaced boards that needed replacing or filled in while I went about pulling nails out of the boards. By that afternoon, I would get off the ladder by myself and ease down to the edge of the roof while pulling up nails. At bedtime, we had the tar paper rolled out and the top covered in preparation for the rain. I also had a nasty sunburn.
This picture did not do my arm justice. My neck and forehead were just as bad. By the time I went to bed, I was miserable.Wednesday morning, I was still without a keyboard. I was twittering from my cell phone and anything else that I sent to anyone was copy and pasted or typed by using the computer's on screen keyboard. Hubby, his uncle, our neighbor and later my dad raced to get the front of the house shingled before more rain moved in that evening. Since I was not needed on the roof, I washed clothes, mowed our backyard, neighbors backyard and the other yard that we usually mow. By the time the guys quit, our front part of our roof was completely shingled.
Thursday, we were delayed doing anything because rain had moved in the night before. Finally it burned off and the five of us climbed up again to start removing shingles from the backside of the house. By the time we got the roof ready for tar paper, I had pulled 99.95% of nails that was left behind in the roof and put them in this bucket. A one gallon bucket almost 3/4 of the way full.
The guys replaced more boards that needed replacing and finally got the tar paper down just before time for the kids to go to bed.Friday, Hubby and his uncle put the shingles back on the back side of the house. Neighbor and Dad had to return to work so they were on their own. I spent the day inside trying to bring the house back under control. Here's what it looks like now with new shingles and without the doghouse and chimney.
I am very proud of what we managed to accomplish last week. What I hated is the way we had to do it. We were on the roof from 7am until after 7pm most nights. For the most part, we didn't see a whole lot of the kids who took advantage of the chance to come inside and watch all the tv they wanted. Then, because we had to reach certain points to have the roof ready for the night, the kids ended up going to bed anywhere from an hour to an hour and a half after I wanted them to. Hubby and I would go to bed at like 9:30-10pm, only for me to be so tired that I couldn't get to sleep until 1-2am. Then I would have to get up at 6 to get the kids ready for school and start the day again. Hubby was great on Thursday, allowing me to go back to sleep for an hour and putting the kids on the bus. Since it was rainy that morning, there wasn't a whole lot we could do to the roof and I had only been getting 4 or 5 hours of sleep, so he told me go back to sleep. And then I could only sleep for an hour because my body refused to sleep more. I hate that.Friday afternoon, we told the kids that if they would help us pick the shingles up out of the yard that there may be a monetary reward involved. At first, things were going great but after a while they started to wear down. After supper, Hubby started helping us pick the rest up after he had finished with the roof and the kids started asking for ice cream. So I told them, as soon as we had the last bit up (and there really wasn't all that much) I would take them inside and fix them ice cream. Hubby decided since they had did some hard work, we would take them and the neighbor's little girl to Dairy Queen. So we did.
The neighbor's daughter spent the night, and Saturday morning we got up and prepared to take them fishing to help reward them for all their hard work. We stopped at one of the few places we usually fish only to find out just how much rain we've gotten over the last few weeks. The place has a pier over the water to fish from, and in order to get to it, you had to wade through the flood waters. So we fished from the banks. Or Hubby and the kids fished from the banks. I took a book and spent most of my time pulling tangled lines from trees and brush. I hated that I forgot my camera, again, because I saw a crane fly through and watched as two geese flew not 25 feet from where I was sitting. They caught two brim before we moved on to the next task. Then we took the kids to a local miniature golfing place, and to Kentucky Dam. We came home where I fixed pancakes for supper. The kids response? "Why are we having pancakes for supper?" To which I answered, "Why not?" What better thing could I do after not being able to be there for them like as much as I would've like the week before than to take them fishing and golfing and then bring them home and fill their bellies with sugary goodness? They didn't complain.
We spent yesterday recuperating and trying to get things ready for Hubby to go back to his truck. He has to be in New York tomorrow morning (technically he's already there) so he went through and got his stuff together and we drove him to Tennessee. An hour later, he was calling me to let me me know he was leaving and that he was on his way home. That's right, his route brought him home for supper before starting his long haul and it as of right now will bring him back by the house Wednesday. It's nice that his first week back will give us a chance to see him in the middle of week.
Now we are finally up to today. Today was uneventful. I can tell I carried a couple of things back to Lowes that we didn't need and got a refund. I took my library books back since they were due today and I finally finished my last one last night. Then I borrowed two more. I came home and got the house ready so that I could babysit Little Man this afternoon. Dad came and got him right after supper. I have cleaned my kitchen, washed more laundry than I can count and had a normal day with the kids. Today I'm glad for uneventful. Maybe tomorrow can be uneventful too.
Oh. And the cold that I just got over a few weeks back that left me positively miserable? Showed it's ugly head again around a week ago. So not only was I on a roof most of the week, I was hoarse, honking and coughing on the roof. Fun times and it's only improved a slight bit. My voice is stronger but I'm still coughing a lot and my nose is trying to finish a marathon I think. My sunburn? Peeling of course so if you see me out and about, I don't have some contagious dermatological rash that I can share with you. It's good old fashion sunburn. How has everyone else's week gone?
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Who Says Babysitting is Easy?
I was to report to our local courthouse by 9am for jury duty. I was there a few minutes early, as was most of the other prospective jurors, and had to go through the metal detectors in order to get into the courtroom. I had nothing in my pockets, had my wedding rings and anniversary band on, sat my purse down so the officer could glance through the mountains of receipts stored in it, and walked through the detector. And the darn thing went off! The wand set nothing else off so I can only assume that it was the fasteners on my slacks or something in my shoes. Talk about cringing! I was only there for 45 minutes as it was orientation. They handed us our schedule for the month so it starts. Next week will bring something totally different.
Yesterday, a storm blew threw about 4:30am. I awoke to hear a clap of thunder, the kind of thunder that seems to roll on forever. And it felt like forever. Well, Sophie and Gracie don't like storms (neither do the kids for that matter), and they were scratching at the laundry room door, trying to get out. I fussed at them to hush, ended up squirting them with a water bottle to get them away from the door and to lay back down, but by then I was up. Then, I babysat Little Man all day. He and I had a good morning playing, napping and then we joined Bryce for lunch at school. Little Man was mesmerized and couldn't take it all in fast enough. It was chicken nugget day so we enjoyed our lunch and our time with Bryce before I brought Little Man back home. He played a bit more before crashing for another 45 minutes. His mom picked him up a short time later, after the kids had made it home from school and they were playing outside some. We had a late dinner and they went off to bed around 8. Overall, a typical day where I did wash a few loads of clothes but didn't get a single dish washed.
This morning, Little Man was here just after 7. He was still sleepy and grouchy which made for a tough morning for him. He didn't want me to leave the room unless he was with me. He didn't want me to put him on the floor to play. I carried him around while I made him a couple of scrambled eggs for breakfast and then brought him to the living room to eat them. He was more than willing to stand on the floor while eating. Then I changed him out of his pjs and we went off to Wal-Mart where he was a perfect angel. He talked the entire time and not once did he cry. Then I brought him home and he bawled because he had eaten the last bite of donut. So I picked him up in my lap and 10 minutes later, he was fast asleep for the next hour and a half. Dad picked him up a little bit ago so I have picked up my living room, cleaned off my desk again, and loaded the dishwasher so that I could have dishes to cook with tonight. Now I'm watching last weeks Grey's Anatomy online so I will be all caught up.
Tomorrow I'm supposed to babysit again, we'll see how that works out, then I am off to Tennessee to pick up Hubby. Then he's off for the next week while he re-shingles our roof. Please remember us next week. I'm going to have to remember to breathe since it will take a couple of days for us to adjust to him being home more than a couple of days. Don't get me wrong, I love my husband with all of my heart, but right now we are more accustomed to living apart during the week than together so it is an adjustment when he's on vacation. Hopefully next week will not be that hard. For now I'm going to finish watching my show, start my dishwasher and put a blanket in the dryer so I can relax.
Yesterday, a storm blew threw about 4:30am. I awoke to hear a clap of thunder, the kind of thunder that seems to roll on forever. And it felt like forever. Well, Sophie and Gracie don't like storms (neither do the kids for that matter), and they were scratching at the laundry room door, trying to get out. I fussed at them to hush, ended up squirting them with a water bottle to get them away from the door and to lay back down, but by then I was up. Then, I babysat Little Man all day. He and I had a good morning playing, napping and then we joined Bryce for lunch at school. Little Man was mesmerized and couldn't take it all in fast enough. It was chicken nugget day so we enjoyed our lunch and our time with Bryce before I brought Little Man back home. He played a bit more before crashing for another 45 minutes. His mom picked him up a short time later, after the kids had made it home from school and they were playing outside some. We had a late dinner and they went off to bed around 8. Overall, a typical day where I did wash a few loads of clothes but didn't get a single dish washed.
This morning, Little Man was here just after 7. He was still sleepy and grouchy which made for a tough morning for him. He didn't want me to leave the room unless he was with me. He didn't want me to put him on the floor to play. I carried him around while I made him a couple of scrambled eggs for breakfast and then brought him to the living room to eat them. He was more than willing to stand on the floor while eating. Then I changed him out of his pjs and we went off to Wal-Mart where he was a perfect angel. He talked the entire time and not once did he cry. Then I brought him home and he bawled because he had eaten the last bite of donut. So I picked him up in my lap and 10 minutes later, he was fast asleep for the next hour and a half. Dad picked him up a little bit ago so I have picked up my living room, cleaned off my desk again, and loaded the dishwasher so that I could have dishes to cook with tonight. Now I'm watching last weeks Grey's Anatomy online so I will be all caught up.
Tomorrow I'm supposed to babysit again, we'll see how that works out, then I am off to Tennessee to pick up Hubby. Then he's off for the next week while he re-shingles our roof. Please remember us next week. I'm going to have to remember to breathe since it will take a couple of days for us to adjust to him being home more than a couple of days. Don't get me wrong, I love my husband with all of my heart, but right now we are more accustomed to living apart during the week than together so it is an adjustment when he's on vacation. Hopefully next week will not be that hard. For now I'm going to finish watching my show, start my dishwasher and put a blanket in the dryer so I can relax.
Monday, May 4, 2009
I've Been Summonsed
Is summonsed even a word? According to blogger it is so I guess I will have to go with it. I received a letter in the mail at the end of March, beginning of April informing me that I was to report for jury duty. My day to appear? Tomorrow. Fun fun.
Tonight? I'm avoiding the inevitable. Going to bed. I'm not going to fall asleep easily so I'm playing around. I have given all three dogs baths. They are definitely happy. Since they had baths, I had to wash out my bath tub (because there's no way I'm getting in it until I have) and then grab my own shower to get the wet dog smell off of me. I have towels in the washer (that just screamed at me, ready for the dryer), all of the dirty dishes in the dishwasher. The kids are finally asleep.
Last week, I met Janjanmom at the local library and while I was there, I had to pick up a couple of books. I had been meaning to run by there lately but I just never felt like driving over to that side of town knowing that I have like three or four books waiting on me to read right here at home. One book is in the middle of a series so I'm stalling on that book. Two other books are just hard starting books. Not capturing my attention fast enough to keep me reading even though I've started them both like 3 times. The last book? The Shack. I had mentioned to Hubby a few weeks ago that I had read about The Shack on few other blogs and that some raved over it while others weren't to impressed with it. So he bought it while he was stuck out on the road one week. He loved it. Me? My feelings towards my faith and spiritual well-being have left me out of being able to rave over it. I find myself asking more questions, not necessarily a bad thing, but until things are a little clearer for me I can't seem to concentrate on it. I've made it halfway through and it is now sitting in my car where I had taken it on our last road trip. And didn't touch it. So I left this trip to the library with 24 Hours by Greg Iles and Postmortem by Patricia Cornwell. Postmortem is the first book of the series I mentioned earlier so I had to get started. Only I read the Greg Iles book first which the movie Trapped was actually based off of. I'm hoping that when I turn these books back in that I will remember to look back on my list of books that I haven't read and find one that I would like to. Upon reading over the list again, I find some that I wasn't interested in reading then but wouldn't mind doing so now so we'll see.
As I continue rambling, Belle is doing much better. She returned to school today where she heard the phrase, "We were afraid you had swine flu!" more than once. Tomorrow evening, I have to attend a meeting about next years 6th grade field trip that Bryce will be going on.
As I finish up this mess of rambling, I'd like to ask that you remember a dear friend of mine and her family. Her ex-mother-in-law's body was found this morning after she had fallen and hit her head in her home. She has two boys that are taking it very, very hard so please remember them if you get a chance. They could sure use it.
Tonight? I'm avoiding the inevitable. Going to bed. I'm not going to fall asleep easily so I'm playing around. I have given all three dogs baths. They are definitely happy. Since they had baths, I had to wash out my bath tub (because there's no way I'm getting in it until I have) and then grab my own shower to get the wet dog smell off of me. I have towels in the washer (that just screamed at me, ready for the dryer), all of the dirty dishes in the dishwasher. The kids are finally asleep.
Last week, I met Janjanmom at the local library and while I was there, I had to pick up a couple of books. I had been meaning to run by there lately but I just never felt like driving over to that side of town knowing that I have like three or four books waiting on me to read right here at home. One book is in the middle of a series so I'm stalling on that book. Two other books are just hard starting books. Not capturing my attention fast enough to keep me reading even though I've started them both like 3 times. The last book? The Shack. I had mentioned to Hubby a few weeks ago that I had read about The Shack on few other blogs and that some raved over it while others weren't to impressed with it. So he bought it while he was stuck out on the road one week. He loved it. Me? My feelings towards my faith and spiritual well-being have left me out of being able to rave over it. I find myself asking more questions, not necessarily a bad thing, but until things are a little clearer for me I can't seem to concentrate on it. I've made it halfway through and it is now sitting in my car where I had taken it on our last road trip. And didn't touch it. So I left this trip to the library with 24 Hours by Greg Iles and Postmortem by Patricia Cornwell. Postmortem is the first book of the series I mentioned earlier so I had to get started. Only I read the Greg Iles book first which the movie Trapped was actually based off of. I'm hoping that when I turn these books back in that I will remember to look back on my list of books that I haven't read and find one that I would like to. Upon reading over the list again, I find some that I wasn't interested in reading then but wouldn't mind doing so now so we'll see.
As I continue rambling, Belle is doing much better. She returned to school today where she heard the phrase, "We were afraid you had swine flu!" more than once. Tomorrow evening, I have to attend a meeting about next years 6th grade field trip that Bryce will be going on.
As I finish up this mess of rambling, I'd like to ask that you remember a dear friend of mine and her family. Her ex-mother-in-law's body was found this morning after she had fallen and hit her head in her home. She has two boys that are taking it very, very hard so please remember them if you get a chance. They could sure use it.
Saturday, May 2, 2009
A Simple Gesture Can Turn into the Funniest Moment
Belle confirmed around 4am Friday morning that I had made the right decision in keeping her home from school. She came into my room, after getting sick again, asking to sleep with me so that she didn't have to keep putting Callie out of her room. And my bathroom was closer from my room than the bathroom was from hers. So she climbed in bed with me and got comfy. A short time later, the alarm was going off, setting in motion another busy day. When the alarm went off, the light outside my window caught my attention. It was almost orange outside, the strangest color I've ever seen, not because the sun was coming up but because there was some serious rain about to move through. I ran to the shower so that I could be ready to walk out the door almost as soon as the bus ran. When I got out of the shower, the sky was almost black. By the time the boys got on the bus, it was pouring cats and dogs outside as a storm rolled through. The rain was so heavy, that I backed my car down the driveway and waited for the bus at the end of the driveway, trying to prevent the boys from having to get in the rain as much as possible. I went back inside after they were safely on the bus, encouraged Belle to finish getting dressed and sat down to try to catch a glimpse of the weather radar on tv since I turned my computer off to prevent lightening from running in on it. Belle mentioned a few minutes later that the rain had slowed down so we made a run for the gas station and then off to Tennessee to get Hubby.
The trip to Tennessee took me a little longer than most trips because I slowed down considerably. The parkway I take down is notorious for holding water and by the time I left there were already three reports of cars hydroplaning on the same parkway. I passed one of those accidents on my way down. While the rain had slowed down so that I could leave to get gas and get moving, the rain picked up again a little bit down the road complete with lightening. About 15 miles outside of where I meet Hubby, I left the rain for cloudy skies and damps roads. We got home a short time later, thankfully uneventfully. Then the three of us grocery shopped, came home for a quick lunch, settled down to watch a little tv and do a little housework before the boys came off the bus. Hubby took the kids back to the store for a bit, as I baked cookies and enjoyed a few minutes of quiet, and let them pick out a couple of toys to spend their money on. Thursday night, I had informed the kids that they had each read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone but none of them had actually moved on to Chamber of Secrets so I thought we should read it together. I think the first two books move so closely to the movies that they figure why read it when they can watch it but there is so much detail they're missing out by not reading the other books. So I told them if they could calm down and get ready for bed when I tell them to, we would sit down each night before bed and read a bit of Harry Potter. Before bed last night, we finished reading chapter two of The Chamber of Secrets. They went to bed quickly and quietly after these readings so I think it's going to be something I continue doing for a while.
Today was a typical Saturday. We got up this morning and made a quick run to the store for the toothpaste and conditioner I forgot to pick up yesterday. There's been so much rain over the last few days that they really couldn't get out of the house to play so this afternoon we went bowling to get the kids out of the house for a bit. Then we came home had a bit of supper. About 7, I told Bryce to grab a shower. Belle followed a few minutes later. Finally I told Brady that it was his turn to get in the shower. When he stood there without moving, I sniffed real loud and told him he stinks and that it was time for a shower. He turned around, and without missing a beat, lifted his arm and sniffed himself. Hubby and I tried hard to hide the snickers and giggles and I attempted to explain that he smelled like the bowling alley and the cigarette smoke from there. He tried to tell me he didn't as he lifted his arm for yet another attempt to prove that he didn't stink then headed down the hallway after his pajamas. We finished chapter 3 of the Chamber of Secrets tonight and Bryce is starting to realize subtle little changes from the movie to the book. I'm anxious to get to the Prisoner of Azkaban because there are so many differences between the book and the movie and I'm hoping they'll realize this.
Tonight I revamped my resume, too. I'm tired of handing out resumes and not receive a phone call for an interview so I went to work. As I was trying to figure out some points about myself to add to it, Hubby started attempting to help.
"Great wife."
"Umm, I don't think that would be what they're looking for."
After a few minutes, I mentioned that I had washed our body pillows and we would have clean, nice smelling pillows for bed tonight.
"Put that on there."
"I don't think they want to know that either. That's what I would put on the resume to be a wife."
"Make me a resume."
"I don't have to. I've already got you." Words can't describe the look on his face as this information sunk in but I enjoyed it. I did eventually get my resume finished. I have gotten nine loads of laundry washed today as well. Now I'm going to bed to enjoy another good nights sleep.
The trip to Tennessee took me a little longer than most trips because I slowed down considerably. The parkway I take down is notorious for holding water and by the time I left there were already three reports of cars hydroplaning on the same parkway. I passed one of those accidents on my way down. While the rain had slowed down so that I could leave to get gas and get moving, the rain picked up again a little bit down the road complete with lightening. About 15 miles outside of where I meet Hubby, I left the rain for cloudy skies and damps roads. We got home a short time later, thankfully uneventfully. Then the three of us grocery shopped, came home for a quick lunch, settled down to watch a little tv and do a little housework before the boys came off the bus. Hubby took the kids back to the store for a bit, as I baked cookies and enjoyed a few minutes of quiet, and let them pick out a couple of toys to spend their money on. Thursday night, I had informed the kids that they had each read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone but none of them had actually moved on to Chamber of Secrets so I thought we should read it together. I think the first two books move so closely to the movies that they figure why read it when they can watch it but there is so much detail they're missing out by not reading the other books. So I told them if they could calm down and get ready for bed when I tell them to, we would sit down each night before bed and read a bit of Harry Potter. Before bed last night, we finished reading chapter two of The Chamber of Secrets. They went to bed quickly and quietly after these readings so I think it's going to be something I continue doing for a while.
Today was a typical Saturday. We got up this morning and made a quick run to the store for the toothpaste and conditioner I forgot to pick up yesterday. There's been so much rain over the last few days that they really couldn't get out of the house to play so this afternoon we went bowling to get the kids out of the house for a bit. Then we came home had a bit of supper. About 7, I told Bryce to grab a shower. Belle followed a few minutes later. Finally I told Brady that it was his turn to get in the shower. When he stood there without moving, I sniffed real loud and told him he stinks and that it was time for a shower. He turned around, and without missing a beat, lifted his arm and sniffed himself. Hubby and I tried hard to hide the snickers and giggles and I attempted to explain that he smelled like the bowling alley and the cigarette smoke from there. He tried to tell me he didn't as he lifted his arm for yet another attempt to prove that he didn't stink then headed down the hallway after his pajamas. We finished chapter 3 of the Chamber of Secrets tonight and Bryce is starting to realize subtle little changes from the movie to the book. I'm anxious to get to the Prisoner of Azkaban because there are so many differences between the book and the movie and I'm hoping they'll realize this.
Tonight I revamped my resume, too. I'm tired of handing out resumes and not receive a phone call for an interview so I went to work. As I was trying to figure out some points about myself to add to it, Hubby started attempting to help.
"Great wife."
"Umm, I don't think that would be what they're looking for."
After a few minutes, I mentioned that I had washed our body pillows and we would have clean, nice smelling pillows for bed tonight.
"Put that on there."
"I don't think they want to know that either. That's what I would put on the resume to be a wife."
"Make me a resume."
"I don't have to. I've already got you." Words can't describe the look on his face as this information sunk in but I enjoyed it. I did eventually get my resume finished. I have gotten nine loads of laundry washed today as well. Now I'm going to bed to enjoy another good nights sleep.
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