Sunday, July 29, 2007

The Deathy Hallows

I have never gotten a book the day it was published.
I have never read almost 800 pages in one week before.
I have never been so into a book that I stayed up until 4 am reading it.
I have never cried so hard that I couldn't read the book, and yet tried desperately to make myself stop crying so I could continue to read the words.
I have never committed myself to reading a "story" for this long (all 7 books).
I have never chosen a book over TV before.

I loved this book. I loved that I was able to stay away from the spoilers and enjoy the entire book. I am a little sad that I read it so quick because now it is over.

Thursday, July 12, 2007

Crash, whizzzz, bam!

So there you have it. I have officially hit the wall. As I chatted with Tiffanie today, I thought perhaps I would skirt the inevitable crash this time by taking Monday and Tuesday off this week, but that did not work. I am coughing, losing my voice and generally falling asleep here at my desk as I type this.

I hate that when you have so much to blog about, you have no time to blog, and when you have oodles and oodles of time to blog.... nothing seems to come to mind.

First of all..... and I am too lazy to link so just wander over to my side bar to find him... you MUST go visit my very dear friend Kyle at "I probably shouldn't say anything....". He has recently started video blogging and I cannot seem to get enough of him. His most recent with guest blogger, Dennis, also a very dear friend, nearly had me in stitches. Now I will preface this with I have a very long history with these guys, so I am not sure if they are truly that damn funny or if it just so damn funny to me because I have been around these stories for 10+ years. Any way... go visit....

Enough of them... back to me.... well not me directly, but what is going on near me.... let's see.... My sister got married this weekend. She was lovely, it was all lovely, but after several nights, up until 2-3 am trying to get it all together, I am glad it is over.

As stated in the previous post, the house is done, and by done, I mean I am no longer in the process of changing anything. I have everything that I need on an almost daily basis where I want it and I am quickly contemplateing flicking a lit match in the general direction of all the other boxes. You know, the boxes that has all the stuff that was crammed into the closets and not taken out until it was time to cram them back into boxes to move to the new house? That stuff. We still have an entire storage unit of boxes to free, but that stuff is attic and garage stuff, but I have to clear out the garage before I...who am I kidding.....Mike, brings all the stuff from storage.

Speaking of Mike....My sweet, loving, Ta Ta..... I ruined him... I broke him. I took my loving husband, sold him into slave labor to re-do our floors downstairs, and I broke him. I tore his knee all to hell. THE BAD NEWS: He has to have surgery. THE GOOD NEWS: the floors are done....I am cold and heartless, I know, but it would have been hell hobbling around on those crutches on un-even un-finished floors!

Oh...let's see... since I am babbling, let's throw in a couple of kid stories just to round out the entry:

Yesterday, Max had an "incident" at school. Daddy picked him up and was informed that he threw his lunch plate on the floor because they made pasta with red sauce and he didn't like the pasta with red sauce, so splat on the floor it went. This is my fault because I usually just make him dry pasta, but I didn't think he would throw a tantrum when offered a different way. They ended up giving him dry pasta. Well, Daddy took away his TV and pool priviledges for the night and informed him we would be writing letters to say we were sorry to his teachers, eating dinner, showering and going to bed.... I then added to it by making pasta with red sauce for dinner and told him that if he was hungry he would eat it.... which after sitting there for 15 minutes, finally did, with a smile saying, "see, mommy.... it's good......"

Do not get me wrong, there was a lot of crying and kicking and screaming before that first bite, but eventually I took out the can of spagetteo's (which he inhales, practically) and showed him that there was NO DIFFERENCE between the pasta with red sauce there and the pasta and red sauce that was on his plate. The really funny part was seeing Ben sitting there, covered in red sauce and thoroughly enjoying every bite of his dinner looking at Max like he was crazy.

Then, we could not get Ben to settle down for bed. At one point, Daddy had to take the flash light and head up to his room to get him back into bed and he calls down to me, "Babe..." and I come around and look up the stairs, and he asked me to look around downstairs because he wasn't up there. So I holler out "Ben!" into the darkness and hear " I right here".....He had smushed himself up against the wall in the corner right outside our door and was sitting there as silent as midnight with a huge smile on his face the whole time... both daddy and I walked right past him.

So, tell me... what's up with you? Where are you? Why are your lurking? I see you coming.. I see the click, click, clicking of the stat counter, yet no "hello"? Don't be afraid... I don't bite.... well I do, but you will get over it, I promise!

Monday, July 02, 2007

It's a home

It's no longer a house being renovated, it is a home. Now... don't get me wrong. The boxes will never end... but the essentials are where they need to be and the rest will come in time.

Four months later, we have torn up the downstairs floors (approx 1500 sq feet of tile and laminate), put down new laminate wood floors, took down a wall between the kitchen and breakfast area, put wainscotting around the breakfast area, new backsplash in the kitchen, new granite counter tops in the kitchen, guest bath, and 1/2 bath, and painted every wall in the entire house excluding the utility room and a couple of hallways.

My dearsest loving husband - thank you so much for "going with" all my wild hairs and grinning and bearing it, even though you are going to need knee surgey now (another post)

Opa Jim - You will NEVER - EVER - know how thankful we are for all you have done to help us! We would never have been able to accomplish these huge tasks without your guidance and direction (and loving push to get Mike going in the right direction).... thank you, thank you... thank you..... and thank you, Oma Linda, for sharing him!

Mom - I have cherished this time we have had to plan, play, shop, demolish, paint, decorate, and garage/estate sale shop. Thank you so much for your loving push to help me keep motivated on those days I wanted to keep it as a great storage place, rather than find the energy to make it a home.

Pictures to come...I promise.....