You won't want to miss this!

Stay tuned, tonight I'm going to drink wine and post about my traumatic Christmas vacation. It's my story and I'll be drunk, so it's bound to have some humor in it.

Serious discussion with a 6 yr old

I have several granddaughters, but some crack me up more than others. Chloe is one of those who do. I overheard a conversation between she and Oldest Child about Chloe leaving the house Saturday without underpants on. Then Chloe and I had a conversation about the same topic...

Me: Chloe, how did you forget to put on underpants?

Chloe: I didn't forget, I meant to not put them on.

Me: Why didn't you want to put them on?

Chloe: I don't like underpants.

Me: Why not?

Chloe: They give you wedgies.

Me: Why did you wear them today, because it's Sunday?

Chloe: No, because it was a little cold this morning.

I really wanted to laugh during this entire conversation, but I managed not to even crack a smile. Chloe just turned 6, and she's very serious and has this very deep voice for a child. It was just too funny.

I must quit living in denial.

My family went to Mass w/o me this morning because I feel pretty lousy...I feel lousy because my fasting BG is 210. If that wasn't bad enough, my asthma is making it very hard for me to breathe recently. These 2 chronic illnesses are like vicious circles, and most of the time I just choose not to think about them. Unfortunately, it's that choice that leads me to days like today-sick and gasping for air.

I can no longer pretend that I don't have an illness. I can no longer pretend that I can eat whatever I want to. I can no longer ignore the fact that I need to lose alot of weight, and I have to accept that it's going to be a very difficult challenge. My only other option is to accept that I'm going to die alot sooner than I'd wanted to, alot sooner than Youngest Child would want me to. I don't want to do that to her, or to the rest of my family. Nor to me! So that means that the denial has got to go, and that the hard work must begin! Starting today!

The Glorious Fourth

We had a very nice holiday, it was very relaxed. Second to the Youngest Childs' husband had to work, so she and the baby came over for a cookout. We grilled marinated steak and chicken, plus marinated vegetables in this really cool grill pan that I have. For dessert we had vanilla ice cream w/fresh blueberries. Youngest Child had a guest for dinner.
After dark some of our neighbors set off some pretty impressive fireworks. While Youngest Child and Better Half participated in the fireworks, Second to the Youngest Child and I drank two bottles of wine. Her bottle of wine was better than mine, and mine was a Kendall-Jackson! :) I really think that I could've drank a third bottle of wine, because I'm still fairly sober.
Now that we've moved I'm going to have to build up my wine collection-we drank my last bottle tonight :( I like to keep a selection, however I can drink it almost as quickly as I can buy it :)

One of my favorite places

We went to Capitol Market today, which is indeed one of my favorite places. I like the market atmosphere, not to mention the choices. I have wanted to go there for some time, my blood sugar numbers have been decent, (Thanks to the Januvia), but they could be better and I need to shed about a bazillion pounds or so. What I needed was fresh produce. What I didn't need was already rotted produce, nor produce grown in some country where the fertilizer of choice is human feces. Those 2 choices seem to be all my local Kroger is offering these days. Don't even get me started on WalMart, I won't even walk through their produce department.

Speaking of food, when was the last time you heard anyone suggest farming to their child as a career? The sad truth is that the American farmer is a dying breed, and the food we are importing is inferior-and that's putting it nicely. My cousin has a farm in rural WV, she once gave me a fridge magnet that put it quite bluntly. It said, " NO FARM, NO FOOD ". I don't get it, we have enough land to feed our own with far superior food than the crap we're importing, we have oil in Alaska that's there for the drilling, not only would this break our dependence on Middle East oil, but it would also provide jobs, good paying jobs, for Americans. What am I missing here?

Tired, butt dragging tired

Yesterday afternoon Youngest Child went to a birthday party in Huntington, it was the party of a former classmate who had moved. This gave me time to visit w/Next to the Youngest Child, cook dinner, and weed my flower beds. (And do some more laundry, I'm always doing laundry.)

Youngest Child hadn't been home 5 minutes when she began complaining of a stomach ache, and these complaints continued for the rest of the evening. She's not one to get stomach aches, or to complain about physical ailments in general, so I knew something was up.

At around 1 AM it all came up, and continued to come up, for the rest of the morning , til around 6:30 AM. There was no fever, nor can I think of any ill person she's been around. HOWEVER...

We went to Mass yesterday at 10, as usual. What wasn't usual, is that it went to 11:30. We ordanarily go to Bob Evans after Sunday Mass, but we ordanarily avoid the majority of the after church crowd, but not yesterday. There wasn't even a spot in the parking lot down on the farm, so we didn't stop. Against my better judgement, we stopped at Shoney's. The food was AWFUL. I must be becoming a wimp in my old age, because not only did I pay for this garbage, but we also ate it. After the first few disgusting bites we should've walked out, without paying. It won't happen again. No more Mrs. Nice Guy.

Moved in and back online...sort of

Sort of on both counts. We're moved in, but we've still got alot of full boxes in every room. I've got internet service, but it's extremely emotional...for reasons unknown to me, sometimes I can get online and sometimes I can't. Before we moved Verizon was my provider and I never had a problem with them. Where we live now Suddenlink is the only provider. I used to work for the city, who also has Suddenlink, and it wasn't unusual to hear someone in the office sing, "Suddenly we're disconnected." (sung to the tune of the Suddenlink jingle)
So far I like living here. It's very quiet here compared to where we moved from. Most of the neighbors here are very friendly, (we didn't know most of our old neighbors even though we lived there for almost a quarter of a century), they're almost too friendly for us as we tend to be very private people. On the other hand, Youngest Child is in Kid Heaven-there's a pool here that she can ride her bike to. There are many kids here to play with, even some that attend the same private school as she.
Spanish Camp was fun, I think that I enjoyed it more than the kids did. Now that it's over I really have to get serious about unpacking. My goal is to have it all unpacked within the next 7 days. We'll see...

What a day...

Again I say, what a day! We spent most of today sorting through and packing up 23 years worth of stuff. The paper stuff was the worst of it, we had to read through all of it, ALL 23 YEARS WORTH, searching for stuff with our socials or bank account numbers on it. At first we shredded that stuff, but then our shredder got bogged down from the sheer hugeness of the task. So then Better Half decided to start a small bon fire in our grill, giving the shredder a break.
We set out a ton of stuff for special pick up tomorrow, but as soon as the sun began to set, here came the trash pickers. All but 2 items have magically disappeared from the curb. Actually I'm glad that people took it, better them than the trash men. At least now it won't end up in a dump.
Youngest child made the strangest comment tonight, we were talking about love and she said, "Well I know that you and Daddy hardly even love each other." That made me sad. I asked her why she thought that, she said it was because we argued so much. This move has been very stressful and the source of many arguments, *sigh*
The good news is that we moved 2 carloads (Van and SUV loads!) to the new house, and threw out tons of junk. I need to go to bed so that I can get up and do it all over again tomorrow. We plan to spend our first night at the new house Saturday. Then all next week I'm helping w/Spanish Camp at youngest child's school. But the weekend after Spanish Camp, that's the weekend that I'm planning to keep a steady alcohol buzz ALL weekend-it's the thought of THAT weekend that's getting me through THIS weekend :)

Move time

We're finally ready to move...EVERY room in the new house has 2 fresh coats of paint, EVERY bathroom has been scrubbed from top to bottom, and yesterday I had all of the carpets professionally steam cleaned. Better Half has this week off, so we can go shopping for mattresses, washer/dryer, and draperies. We can also get the rest of the packed boxes moved this week. We're saving the best for last, we're moving the furniture next weekend. We'll get a U-Haul, and big strong son in law to help :)

I'll be glad when this move is completed, I'd really like to have my regularly scheduled life back. We haven't moved in 23 years, and I knew it'd be difficult-I just didn't realise how difficult. A group of people can accumulate ALOT of junk in 23 years! The worst of it has been I feel guilty if I read a book or watch a TV program because there's been so much that needs to be done. I will just be sooooooooooooo glad when it's over!!!

Getting closer...

Now the only room left to be painted downstairs is the family room! Today Better Half, myself, youngest Daughter, and a friend put 2 coats on the dining room, the living room, the entry way and the hallway. We're going to paint the family room tomorrow.

Next weekend I start painting upstairs. We might actually move in next month after all...IF my arms and legs don't fall off first.

Good to go

My arms and legs are screaming in pain, but the entire downstairs of the new house is taped and ready to be painted. It only took us 6 hours to do this, and that doesn't include the kitchen-we painted the kitchen last weekend.

The living room, dining room, family room, and hallway are the rooms left downstairs that need painted. We have people coming to help paint Saturday and Sunday, and since all of the prep work has been done, I really have hope that we'll finish the downstairs this weekend.

I thought that we might move in next weekend, but Better Half says he has to work next weekend, so I guess that gives me time to start painting bedrooms upstairs. At this rate I may become addicted to paint fumes.

This seems to be the odd pattern of my life for now-I work all week and paint all weekend. Adult Offspring #4 asked me when we planned to move in and my honest response was, "Before Christmas." Actually I was being a smartass, but honestly I have no idea when we're moving in. Not a clue.

Tired and lacking motivation

I've been sitting here in a chair since I got home from work, waiting for the oven to preheat. Actually I'm waiting for the school year to end, but I don't think that I can sit here that long.
I've finally admitted to myself that I've got a huge case of burn-out...it takes everything I've got to make myself go to work every day, and at the end of the day I've got nothing left over. We closed on our new house April 2nd, and we're still living in our old house. Why? Because I'm not motivated to pack and move. We're not selling our old house right away-big mistake, I really could've used the deadline to push me out of here.
There IS light at the end of the tunnel. I do plan to do some packing in between work shifts tomorrow, and I plan to throw away much more than I plan to move. Hopefully we will move next month. The school year WILL end. I am going to semi retire next term. Things will get better, life will be good again. Someone please tell me that I'm right.

It's never too late to blog again...

...especially once you get bored enough to figure out how to find (reset) your long lost password! I owe it all to you Evil Twin's Wife-I read your blog faithfully, and I got frustrated with not being able to comment...especially after yesterdays exciting fireman and gas company story! So thanks to you, I can now bore folks with my exciting life.
For those that don't know, which includes everyone but ETW, I've rejoined the ranks of the employed. I work at a small parochial school as a preschool aide and I also provide before and after school care on certain days. I work every day, I just don't do the same thing every day. Anyway, I was sick yesterday and I hate to be absent on Mondays because it is very difficult for the school to find someone to cover for me as I wear many hats on Mondays, but I was too sick to work. I did wonder who worked for me, and I figured it was probably more than one "who".
I was the first one at school this morning (as usual), not usual and a little creepy were all the doors were unlocked and opened, including the church doors and the before school care room looked as if a man had been in charge. Only women will understand what I mean. No offense guys, but you don't care where toys go and kids know that you don't care. The mystery of the unlocked doors and the empty Tinker Toy can was solved when the principal arrived. She told me that the priest worked my after school shift for me, hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaaha. Sorry, I couldn't do that in front of the principal. Don't get me wrong, I like the Padre, but I'm surprised those kids didn't tie him up and set fire to him. There are some poster kids for ADHD in there and the Padre, well, let's just say he's no spring chicken anymore. The good news is that he did tell me that I am a "saintly person" this morning. He probably decided that after spending a few hours in the purgatory of after school care :)
Tomorrow I get to take preschoolers to the Ash Wednesday Mass for the Imposition of Ashes, otherwise known as "Why is he putting dirt on my head?" I bet you can't wait to hear about that. Until then, enjoy Fat Tuesday everyone!