Almost fall

The summer seemed to go by so fast, with all the sewing and all the heat. It seems like I have only enough energy to do the things that have to be done, and not at all the things that I'd like to get done.

And so with more furniture moving, more de-cluttering and more organizing, both the sewing room and bedroom have new settings, and I now have an upstairs sitting room for myself. It has been really nice to get away from the chaos of raising little ones, and just concentrate on my "world"..... sewing and trying to get healthy again.

I've been sick ever since the week end we decided to move the rooms around. First it was just a "fibro crisis".... that horrible lack of energy, and then pnemonia moved in and just doesn't seem to want to leave.

This is the first week that I am feeling better. Today was a good day again, and I'm so excited to see some actual progress on some projects that had been put on the back burner.

Megan is in Japan now, sending pictures when she can. The beginning of a long three years. I'm so excited for her. Life is good. I've got a great family

Megan's Home

Life here has been rather busy this week. Not only is it my biggest sewing week of the summer, but Megan and her family were able to make the trip home. It has been so wonderful to be able to see them before they leave for Japan.

Becca threw Megan a "surprise unbirthday" party, seeing as Megan won't be home for her birthday this year. We had a back yard Brat Party that was a huge success. Some new friends and many of the girls' old friends were able to make it, plus of course most of the family.

Megan and her family were able to spend the afternoon with her Grandparents, and then the evening out with Brett and Bobbi before taking in a movie. It was a great break for them.

Watching the kids interact as adults is interesting. It has brought home for me the changes that are my life right now. Landslide.
Cousins playing with and fighting with each other, many of them so close in age, it has been interesting to see how different, and how similar they each are.

Plans made and broken so easily. Feelings that get hurt and I wonder if they ever are mended. You don't understand the pain you cause when you are young and now as I begin to look back on my life, I realize the things that should have, could have,..... should Not have....

I'm not real happy with this stage of my life. Becoming one of the elders without elder status. Being put off and delayed for more interesting venues. So many of us are guilty of doing just that.

Don't be reckless with other people's hearts. Don't put up with people who are reckless with yours.

Plant flowers, make your phone calls, keep your promises. Make Fewer Promises!
Say "I Love You" and mean it. Or don't say it

It's almost funny how simple that is, and yet how hard it is to carry through

when the going gets tough....

the tough move furniture. it seems to be what i do. i wish i had taken some "before" pictures of the basement, but the house is getting scrubbed from the ground up. first, as the old washer had died, i scubbed the basement floor while andy and tom went to get my "new" washer. what a mess that was, but the scrubbing made such a difference. i'm excited to see the clean floor then we had to move the book shelves to make way for the new plumbing. altho, of course, we didn't need to as that pipe was not replaced. it still gave me a good excuse to scrup and bleach that floor. little by little the change is amazing. this week i started in the area between the furnace and the outside wall, so we could move becca's storage area and make room for her. i got everything off the black carpet, an area about 8 x 12, and we cleaned that up. bins of toys have been sorted and the bins are ready to go upstairs today we emptied the rest of the "cement" area, so that we can re lay the carpet and make a bedroom and tv room down there, plus some book and dvd storage. i am really hoping to be able to move my ebay storage back downstairs and create a play room for the kids on the first floor. right now i feel as if every peice of furniture in my house is going to be moved, if not from one side of the room to the other, then from one floor to another. the only thing that is constant is change

The Plumbing Saga

I finally got my phone and my computer to talk to each other and play nice... at least to download the pictures that were on it

I can finally tell the story of the "drip", which started in late December. I walked into the first floor bathroom to see an alien had made it's home on my wall.....

It really was an impressive "bubble". My sister's friend said he had never seen paint hold that much water. I, however, was far from impressed. We've always had trouble with that bathroom being "water tight" when you took a shower and the curtain was not closed right, or one of the kids took a bath that was a little too.... splashy.....

So a few phone calls and we are searching for the sourse of the water. The floor upstairs is not wet. it is rather confusing. Votes including the over flow on the tub or the vent pipe.

Over the next few days, Dan worked on what he could do with Jeremy's guidance over the phone. I'd say it was entertaining, but i was still too mad that I had a leak.... soI was not Really entertained. But it seemed to work so I was satisfied. More or less. Every now and then, we'd see a pencil thin line of water running down the wall, so finally i called the plumber, who replaced my ugly toilet and $400 later, we are all happy. add some new caulking to the end of the tub and the leaking seemed to stop.

Not so! After my shower one day, I find a NICE puddle on the floor. Andy and I agree that we need to open the ceiling and part of the wall and see what is going on, and another phone call to the plumber confirms a cracked pipe in the wall. It was a learning experience.... at least we can finally learn how the plumbing lays in this old house. Again, I was only marginally entertained. My poor walls. I was not at all sad about tearing down the ceiling, because it had been so damaged over the years that it was about to fall down on its own. The plumber left me some notes, least I forget what he said. As if that was possible.

And so the tear down began. Susie and I went shopping, in an effort to stay out of the plaster dust. One wall, ceiling to floor between these two studs and the whole ceiling. An ugly mass of deteriating pipes were reveiled, and one repair that had been done before i owned the house.....

Not as much floor damage as we expected, although there is one place that has no floor boards at all. Methinks we'll be adding some bracing in there!

So now I have, in addition to these new pipes, a new pipe from the second floor down to these, which of course required one more hole in my wall.... this one in my office. This allowed us to tuck an old gas pipe into the wall, so that when the dry walling is done, the pipe will no longer stick out.

And of course Omega slept thru it all

day light saving

the first day of the day light savings time change, one step closer to spring. it was a bright sunshiney day, but i still had trouble waking up and getting moving. i just kept turning over and going back to sleep.
i did finally make myself get up and get a few chores done. a little more straightening in the basement, which has begun to overwhelm me again.
floors and that nasty bathroom, got at least a once over
the bin of things i've made to sell has been sorted into two smaller bins
the kids book shelf in the living room was sorted and weeded out.

7:00
time to start ebay, the work for tonight, and it is still light out.

i can't wait for summer!

no leaf unturned

at least that is the way it feels. i have been going through every drawer and cubby over and over for the past year, and now working on the basement with the same thoughts. every bin of stored things, every holiday and costume bin. every box, every every....
and the things i am finding!
some of the old toys i am keeping for the kids. it's been fun watching antonio explore old transformers and k-nex
but most of the things are going out. trashing what is not worth keeping and the rest is going to good will
i found the bin of quilts that my mom had finished but not quilted out, so my sister and i will split those. also in that bin are a couple of afghans i was wondering what had happened to. i'm not sure what else there is, but i'll save that for going thru another day
and i found the bin of "little" costumes, including the care bears i made the year brett was born. i wonder if anyone will ever use them or if i should just send them along as well. they are a little harder to let go of
but one corner is almost done and i'll be able to turn that whole corner into storage for becca's boxes and block that off as i begin to rearrange the basement.
i'm thinking i want a desk or work space down there, near the book shelves, so i am thinking osme major rearranging is going to be happening soon. i really can't wait. it'll be so much fun having useable space again, not just storeage space.

and my new routines are beginning to set in. after errands today i remembered that it was "desk day" and i had all my reciepts ready to put into my book, paper work ready to catch up on, even took the final exam to my personal finance class, and passed it! i had to look up a few of the answers, but i knew almost all of it without a problem. that felt so good.
cameron's sweater is in the mail and selena's sweater is in my lap waiting for my attention. life is just where i want it to be.

almost
what do you do when someone you love says something that cuts you to the core? do you tell them? how do you tell them? how do you look at them the same way when you feel like everything has changed between you?

to sell or not to sell

i met with a realtor yesterday, with less than satifactory results. he made it clear that i needed to get the house clean and clutter free if i want any money out of it. i need to made things look so much better than they do now
and nothing is selling for the house value. most of them are going for $20,000 less than assessed value.
that is not good enough for me. i need more
and because the house on rethke is no longer available, i think waiting is the right thing to do

so another day of working in the basement. several boxes yesterday. tons more today. two huge bags of trash, ready to go out. the front porch is crowded with boxes ready to go to good will. i can't wait to see the end results. i am getting very excited about being able to continue moving forward

one day at a time