Ha! I Won! (Sort of...)

When Meg got to work this morning, she IMed me, asking if I thought gas would go up today.  She had already filled up on her way to work but was just curious.  Along about noon, I saw on the news that gas was $4.19.9 in places, so I decided to dash out to fill up...hoping I wasn't too late.  Judging by the line of cars that ran out to 267 as I approached Thornton's, I guessed that the stations down by the interstate had already gone up.  I got in the queue and filled up at $3.83.9.  Lucky me!  But still...$49 for 3/4ths of a tank is an all-time record.  I won...but what's the prize?  We are cutting back on food purchases just to try to accommodate for increased prices at the pump.  I shop at Aldi's.  (Good food, actually!)

I started stripping wallpaper at 9:00 this morning, and stopped, due to sore fingers, at 4:00.  Slow going!  I hate stripping wallpaper, but it is a necessary evil in order to get  updated decor in a room.  Meg's new comforter arrived today.  She'll have to choose wall color now.  It MIGHT get done this weekend, although that's pushing it a bit.  We are totally re-doing every room while each is empty.  'Tis the only way!  One at a time... 

 

No More West Side Story!

I have slept in my new bedroom the last two nights but couldn't get the cable TV to work, so had to watch a video instead of TV while in bed.  I chose West Side Story.  The tape wasn't rewound.  It happened to be cued to my favorite part of the movie--the dance on the roof.  "Oh, good.  I'll watch that.  ZZZzzzzzz."  I don't think I even got through two minutes of it before I was in Slumberland.  Last night, still without cable, I put West Side Story in again.  Understand that I LOVE West Side Story...but it is no substitute for the mindless entertainment that I look for when trying to fall asleep.  I was also cold.  I really wanted to go to sleep, but my feet were like ice cubes, so I snuggled down under the covers, putting my feet in various positions under my legs to try to get them warmed up enough to nod off.  I think it took 45 minutes!  I'm used to the waterbed with the heater, I guess...

Today, a ham friend came over to help me get the waterbed drained and out of the old bedroom (which will be Meg's room).  He also installed a new ceiling fan in that room and moved a big piece of furniture.  Before I could let him go home (God bless the dear boy), I asked him to check to see if I had the coax screwed in right on the TV in my bedroom.  I did, but it still wasn't working.  He took the plate off the wall and discovered that the coax wasn't even attached to the plate.  He fixed that in short order and voila!  I don't have to watch West Side Story again tonight!  I am so very grateful for his help.  (I am under strict orders not to use his name because he's afraid someone else will snag him for household repairs!)

I am so relieved to have the old room cleared out so I can start wallpaper removal.  I tried some today.  The good news is that it is very good vinyl wallpaper applied really well.  The bad news is that it is a bear to get off the walls, and every wall in the room is covered with it!  It will be a BIG job.

The house is still trashed, but I can at last see some daylight at the end of the tunnel.  We are still de-cluttering as we go along.  Meg is playing with a floor plan online tonight, trying to figure out how everything will go in her "new" room.  We are asking a lot of small spaces, but it is sure better than all of us cramped into two bedrooms!

I have worked out a sleeping arrangement for Robin while the transition moves forward.  She will sleep on an air mattress on the floor in my room.  Her dresser is there, and some of her toys.  It will be a good arrangement, I think.  When HER room is done, she will have her own space (which she claims not to want).  Ryan will continue in his toddler bed until everything else is cleaned out.  We're looking at mid-July before we are far enough along to remove radios and computers from his room...

Speaking of the little skunks, we miss them!  Kendra (Daddy's lady friend) called to say that Ryan has/had a fever but seems okay.  And apparently Robin was skipped up a couple of notches in swimming lessons because she is a little fish.  They are also going to Vacation Bible School.  Keeping them busy is a good idea!  We talked to them on the phone tonight.  Robin sounded quite excited and happy. 

Tomorrow, I will tackle more laundry and wallpaper removal, and clean as I go along.  Happy "vacation", huh?

Okay...I Need Help!

Meg and the children went to visit Meg's father and wife this afternoon, then she delivered the children to their father for the week.  I puttered around here at home, attempting to continue the move into the new bedroom.  I accomplished some, but if this house project is going to get done this summer, I need help!  There is just too much to do for one person to make much of a daily dent. 

What is holding me up?  The fact that the house was in such disarray before the remodel project began is at fault.  The fact that I had to work and Meg has to work and we deal with two chilluns every day.  The fact that there is too much junk to go into too small a space.   Today, I did a load of dishes, a couple of loads of laundry, some sorting and moving from my old bedroom.  Washed bed linen.  Made my new bed.  Meg and I both agree that things always get worse before they get better.  The house is a total shambles.  The only thing that looks good is my new bedroom!  It will get better, but only God knows when!

We are enduring a pre-summer steam bath right now.  Temps in the 90's, when we were running heat in the car just a couple of weeks ago.  Welcome to the Midwest!

I will have trouble adjusting to the new bed location.  I keep going in the wrong direction! This will get better...  It just takes time!

Indiana--State of Emergency

We went to bed with thunderstorms last night...and got up to thunderstorms this morning.  For all I know, it rained all night--and then, it REALLY started to rain!  I sat on the patio and watched water collect in places it has never collected before...and in short order, flooding was all there was on the news.  Not just a little--a LOT.  Hendricks County, fortunately, was not on the emergency list, but the counties just to the west and south were socked.  Pictures of a failed dyke on Princes Lake in Johnson County reminded me of New Orleans after Katrina.  They were asking people with boats to come to the rescue.  Even the Coast Guard sent helicopters to evacuate land-locked Indiana residents.  Some places received 10 inches of rain.  Not good, considering the soil was already saturated from previous storms of the past two weeks.  In any case, we are high and dry, but many are not.

We had plans to take the children to the zoo today.  Uh....no.  And time to go to the Children's Museum was taken up with torrential rains.  So, Meg and the kids decided it was time to move Grandma into her new bedroom.  That, my friends, is not an easy job!  The children launched into vacuuming and picking up a path between the bedroom and what used to be the garage.  They actually were a big help.  Then Meg and I moved my dresser...and I decided, after looking at things, that I should take over the full-sized bed and let the waterbed go.  We went to Meg's storage unit to get a twin bed out for her, only to discover that we needed a bed frame for it.  That prompted a shopping trip on the way home.  We are home now.  Sometime between now and midnight, we hope to have beds set up for everyone, even if only temporary.  I will like my new digs when the dust finally settles.  We just aren't there yet!

Awaiting the delivery of supper right now (pizza), then will be hitting up the second wave of moving work--setting up beds.  Once this project is finally done, the ol' place should look pretty good.  In the meantime, we are still in turmoil.  And the weather certainly hasn't helped!

Discouraged. :(

I may sound like a terrible person for saying this, but I somewhat look forward to the children's being gone for a couple of weeks.  They are going to be with Daddy and his girlfriend in Muncie for a little bit, starting on Sunday.  I adore my grandbabies, but there is just so much to do around here to get this place habitable since the remodel project is done that I scarcely do justice to dinner time, etc. 

Today, I spent most of the day at school in a curriculum meeting.  (I get paid for it.)  When I got home, I got sleepy, so laid down on the couch for a "short nap".  The nap turned into something a bit more major than short.  I woke up around 4:00 and saw that the sky was getting dark again, so I left to pick up our KFC dinner and the kids...just to beat the storm.  When I get the children every day, it's a crap shoot what kind of mood they'll be in.  Both seemed to be okay today.  Dinner went fine, and because it was rainy, we watched "Alvin and the Chipmunks" which we all enjoyed.  Then Ryan went nuts.  (He does this almost every night.)  He gets wild and out of control, throwing huge tantrums, which eventually sends Megan over the edge...and we end up with nightly Bedtime Wars.  Neither of us knows what the answer is.   Meg is tired, of course...and by that time, so am I.  What to do??  Both of the children resist going to day care in the mornings, but I have resisted the temptation to keep them here for the summer because there is too much to do.  Catch 22.  Can't get anything done with them here; want them here because it's summer!

I know it sounds like I'm whining, but there is so much to do that it can easily be overwhelming.  I can't do it all alone.  My ham friends are godsends to me in helping out with some things, but even they have their own crosses to bear.  It seems that they give and I take.  Rarely do they ask me to help them, so I feel that things are out of balance...and I'm not comfortable with that.   The best I can hope for is to get everyone into a bedroom of his/her own before school starts. 

Oh...the 7th grade English teacher in my school, in the classroom right next to mine, has liver cancer that has spread.  He's a young guy with 3-year-old twins and a brand new baby.  (His wife teaches French in our district.)  He's been through the mill but has recently been told that treatment efforts have largely failed and he is "terminal".  It breaks my heart.  It's so unfair.  He has never smoked or done anything that would be a no-no for health.  His doctors are putting him through another round of chemotherapy starting soon, to try to give him a few more months.  Please pray for Rich and Julie Dimmack.  They are both really upbeat, refreshing people. 

And while you're at it, please pray for me, too!

Weather, Weather Everywhere!

One wave after another.  Storms!  Tornadoes in several places in Indiana.  No one dead...yet.  And the hits keep coming.

I haven't been able to update this blog much because my computer is on the fritz.  (Am on my daughter's now.) 

This is my third official day of "vacation".  Monday and Tuesday, I did laundry.  Today, I had to go to school for a curriculum meeting.  I just keep plugging.  One of these days, the work will all be magically done.  (Yeah, right!) 

After all, tomorrow IS another day...

Yucko!

I decided yesterday that we had to clean before we could move just to make space to wiggle.  This morning, I started on the pantry.  Got it consolidated and cleaned out...then went to the refrigerator.  Well!  That turned out to be a bigger job than I thought it would be!  Dirty, yucky, messy--but now clean and bleached.  (We can actually see the shelves and know what is in there.)  Now I will work on the floors in the kitchen and putting things away to make a path...

Still haven't decided about the bed.  I need someone to make the decision for me!