On your mark...get set...WAIT!

We went to an NHRA racing event in Norwalk today:
Left at 9 this morning, just got home at 11:35 and due to track delays we only got to see a few of the motorcycle races and street series (name escapes me now) but none of the top fuel or funny cars...dang. Though John Force did almost run over my foot on his scooter! :-D

It was a long, hot (yes, I said hot), loud day with two kiddos, a canopy tent, some cool pics and very, long walks but I will give further explanation tomorrow when I have working brain cells....right now I need shower and sleep.

I really only fired up the beast to check weather for our yard sale tomorrow, but thought I could drop a quick post about our day. I'll fill in more details and highlights later.

Oh yeah, tomorrow's forecast... 70% chance of rain all day....NICE.

Yard sale!

Have I lost my flippin' mind?!?! Yard sale is always a good idea when you are stuffing something in a box, or drawer or the back of the closet. Draggin' all this crap out is a serious time and motivational killer. Joint yard sale this weekend with my sister. She already has at least a car load and is now talking of bringing a trailer too...yikes.

Over the past few years of fluttering behind FlyLady, I have really decluttered and tried to get rid of things as much as I can including clothes in closets and toys so if something isn't used regularly, out it goes...well, normally. I tossed/sold/yard sale/donated literally truck loads before we moved two years ago, and the movers were ever so thankful. :-D So I am learning to NOT hang on to stuff...or trying. Even so, truth be told, I have certain areas for "yard sale" stash around the house that slowly get filled up; mainly my Pit of Shit office and the basement, and we add to those through the year as the kids grow out of clothes, good shoes, and other things decent enough to pass on/sell. I have helped picky child go through her closet, and I swear half of those things she has never worn. Monster Man gladly went through his shelves and box and proudly had a large muck bucket full of mostly toddler toys that he's outgrown in about two minutes! Color me shocked. I expected no less than kicking and screaming from that hooligan!

After gathering those items and pulling things out here and there around the house, I have half of one side of the garage near full. Seriously. The kicker is I haven't even ~touched~ the yard sale stashes mentioned above that amount to no less than four garbage bags, three huge boxes and two large Rubbermaid tubs. Man I hope it doesn't rain this weekend.

The Thanks

Earlier this week, Mr. FixIt had a very terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. Yeah, just like the book. He had gone to work but debated to come home early all day. When I returned home after dropping B off for her early afternoon dance class, he was home, already in the chair, covered up with his quilt and "out of it." Earlier in the day he had requested grilled cheese, so before I left I'd started a pot of chicken soup to go with that. I know he was not well because as the smell of grilled cheese filled the house he was still in the COD (chair of death); not being his normal cheese vulture self trying to dive on the first one done. In fact, he was snoring. (I should have smacked him for insulting my awesome grilled cheese that way) I actually had to wake him up to eat! I still had to run back to the dance studio to pick up B....which he normally would have done. Upon our return, his plate and bowl were empty but he was snoring again. Wow. He really must be sick! The kids have another bowl of soup, and I clean up a few things...he's still snoring. I figured I'd start cycling kids through quick showers so if he did wake up and want to go to bed, the upstairs would be fairly quiet. Ironed a few shirts for him for the week (which he usually does since I only iron in the midst of a sewing project) and the kids help put away some laundry before/after showers. By this time Mr. Fix has been home 4 hours and is still cuttin' down a forest in the den. Hmmm. I did check a few times to make sure he was actually breathing. :-D (and no Monica, I did not pinch of his nose and wait for him to GASP! LOL)

Now it's bedtime for the kiddos and I'm about whipped but they have decided to gang up on me and after teeth brushing, they both jump in my bed. So I jump in with them and then about half to sleep think better of it...if he actually does make it up the stairs tonight, he will not be in any shape to get kids out and to their own beds, and I really, really don't want to wake up and do it either. Since they weren't yet asleep, I convince them to move over to B's room (full bed). I woke up steaming in the middle of the two sweaty kiddos about 11 pm...phew! No sign of Mr. FixIt upstairs. Now this man rarely sleeps more than six hours for various reasons, and at this point, he's going on seven hours in one heap. He's still in the COD, and even in my half-sleep state I'm shocked.

Sometime between me falling asleep after that and the alarm going off at 5:30 he had stumbled upstairs. He woke me up saying he felt a little better and thanks for the ironed shirt and tie I set out the night before. ~NP man, be quiet so I can continue my ZZZZZZZZZs, and we'll call it square (wink)~. He heads to work and I head back to dreamland.

Later that morning, like normal waking hour, I boot up my puter as I slug my java and I find this in my inbox:

"I know that my new job has placed some more stress on both of us, but I really do enjoy it. Having you home and not stressed so much by work is the only way that I could continue this job effectively. Cases like last night with me being sick are the perfect example. You cared for me, the kids, and everything else like usual. I am a lucky man to have you as my wife, but even more as my friend. There are never enough words to tell you how I feel and I know that I don't show it near enough either so I thought a little line or two would help. I love you Angela.

ps. Nice choice of clothes

Love,

M"



Jeesh-Ok, PASS me a kleenex!!

I didn't do all that so I could be crying in my coffee, man. Glad to be appreciated, but give a girl forewarning!!

Did I mention I really love that man?? Even when he makes me kick and cuss and want to strangle him for silly things, I do love him :-D

You know the day's gonna suck when...

Right off the bat you drop a new bottle of your favorite coffee creamer and it spills all over the kitchen floor. I couldn't have made more mess if I'd thrown it on purpose! The top caught on a fridge shelf on the way down, popped it open and it splattered all over the inside of the fridge and then made a huge puddle on the floor before I could pick it up. Shit. Not a good sign. Now I haven't had breakfast, haven't had a sip of coffee yet and I'm cleaning thick creamer off the floor. I for a second pondered how sick it would make the dog if I let him in the house to help clean the puddle on the floor, but figured I didn't have enough brain cells workin' yet to consider options.

A bit after clean up, grouch recovery, breakfast and a half cup of java down my gullet, I start back to the kitchen to top off my cup. I put my coffee mug to the water dispenser of the fridge..Argh! Where is my brain?? Not too bad though, only a little water. Still worth drinking.

Morning walk with a friend went without incident, thank goodness.

Then while trying to tidy up a bit, putting away some shampoo on the top shelf in the bathroom (do you see the potential for disaster?) and one bottle of shampoo does the weeble wooble dance but it did fall down and right past my hand, popped off the top, shampoo splattered all down the shower curtain, big puddle on the floor. UGH!! What the hell is wrong with me today??

Side note, I tripped going up the stairs from the basement this morning.

Back to shampoo mess- So I grab a wash rag that was hanging to dry and start to sop up shampoo, but as I start to rinse and wring it out in the shower I think, "Well this is stupid. I have a rag full of soap, rinsing it out and this shower needs a wipe down." I felt a bit better about my shampoo incident after the tub/shower and bathroom floor were clean.

So when life hands you lemons....scrub the tub.

Spring pictures

Finally some new pics:
Mount St. Helens and BC trip, dance, barn with Grandma M, pool time at Grandpa G's

Little Garden

Anyone who knows me, knows I have a black thumb...seriously. Kids and critters of all kinds I can feed/fix/heal/grow, but I tend to kill most green plant life I come in contact with. One look at my pathetic little 6 stems of what should be compact-car sized Christmas cactus, that I've had for 12 years no less, is the proof. One day I will post my sister's CC and mine, which are both from the same original plant, for comparison. Pretty embarrassing just to think about it maybe I'll hold off on that thought. Would probably be the final nail in the coffin for my poor CC.

As poor as my growing skills are, I tend to do better with outdoor plants, probably because it rains enough that mother nature does the watering when I either don't have time or remember about midnight that I should have watered the poor dying vegetation, so when we use to have a decent size garden in SC, it did pretty well. We usually had enough zucchini and peppers to share and enough cucumbers for Mr. FixIt to make approximately 400 batches of freezer pickles. (I don't like pickles.) So even with my lack of garden skill and horribly dry soil with clay an inch down, our gardens usually turn out ok.

Usually.

The last large garden we had in SC, I was pregnant with Monster Man, had spent almost a week getting soil turned, fertilized and rows ready, and planted a mess of beans, carrots, peppers, zucchini, cukes and watermelon....which a sudden severe thunderstorm, deluge of water and tornado destroyed in about an hour. Dang. Most of the seeds were floating, then flowing away in the deep water. I was sick, all that work, which was done during my only spare time I could muster during daylight in 90-degree heat which meant my work had to be done late evening and during the night, dog-tired that week. Time, labor and loss of sleep for nothin'. I did have a few sparse carrots and beans that survived, but the true survivors were the cukes and zucchini since they were in tall mounds. I was so ticked off the only thing I did the rest of the summer was go out and cuss the plants that weren't there every few days. Those remaining plants hung on just to spite me and produced enough for us eat that summer and some to share with neighbors.

Monster man coming along late that summer, the next spring was a horrible drought, a 700-mile move the next summer, and two cold Ohio summers later, I finally am giving a garden another shot. A very small garden, only about 5x10 and less than a fourth of our SC gardens, is in the works. Mr. FixIt helped turn all the soil, the kids helped work in some new soil and fertilizer and we planted some cucumbers, beans, carrots and two tomato plants. It has rained nonstop so they sprouted in about 4 days...

One cucumber mound (I know I need to thin out a few)

A few beans sprouting.

Even wildflowers!! Woohoo! These are in the front yard in an area that was covered with ivy/ground cover stuff that apparently hadn't been thinned/tamed/dealt with in the past 15 years so the soil is a bit scary even with the added soil/fertilizer, but we'll see what happens.

I'll keep you posted, but don't get your hopes up. I could be showing pics of brown deceased items at any given moment.

FYI

When you've had a nutty day, Aunt Flo is knockin' and you don't have any brownie batter...

Teddy Grahams slathered in cheater chocolate fudge icing is a pretty decent substitute.

Just FYI.

Daddy Day and Apple Pie

In preparation for Father's Day, Saturday afternoon the kids helped me bake pies, apple for grandpa, peach for FIL and cheesecake for Mr. FixIt. Of course Mr. FixIt took a motorcycle ride to visit his dad so when the kids and I join them Sunday the desserts will be surprise. :-D

There's two of them, peach on the left and apple on the right. Yes, the apple is more full because I had two peach hounds that kept snagging peaches from what I was slicing up! Also notice the difference in color. The left was half Crisco/half butter for the crust and the right is butter flavor Crisco only. Just so you know :-D

It's been too long since I've made pies and I found myself pleased when they were done, but kind of bummed...I wanted to make more!! I'd forgotten how much I love to do things like that! Wow-life is a bit different without 8 or 10 hours of work each day. I have time to bake again!! Yeeeeehaaaw!! I did get a little frustrated a couple times with Monster Man as he kept pestering to roll out the pie dough, again...and again. He wants to roll it out, ball it back up, then roll it again (the kid does LOVE play-doh) and then kept wanting me to cut edges so he could have a taste. Though I can't blame him for that one, I do love pie dough myself. Yuu-uum-my. One look at my bottom half gives away that sin. Anywho...it's now near 1:30 am, I'm tired but for some reason am sitting here watching Die Hard for the 537th time, and I need to be on the road by 9 in the morning, so I'd best get my arse showered and in the bed.

Oh, and I washed "my" motorcycle earlier...just wish I was RIDING the damn thing farther than from the driveway back to the garage. Will have to work on that this summer.

And I didn't touch the Pit at all yet. There's always next week...

Makeup

Nice little exchange my daughter initiated with me this morning as I was slapping on a quick face of foundation and mascara. Went like this:

DD- Mom, you look better with makeup...(kind of a giggle) really.

After I picked my jaw up off of my makeup table: Uhh, yeah. Good to know the bazillion dollars of CoverGirl, Mary Kay and Maybelline over the years weren't for nothin'! Won't even mention the BeautiControl rep that ripped me off 4 years ago and still owes me a bronzer and 60 bucks. (She apparently went under and took her last several party patrons with her sorry self, including moi.)

DD- Do you use blush?? (not waiting for response) Yeah, you need some of that too. That's better.

Ok...am I sitting here?? Am I really hearing this?? I know this horrid well water and whatever crap is still IN it after filtration, softener and basement full of fixes is seriously killing my skin but HOLY SHEET BATMAN!! Is this my normally sensitive, cares about everyone child?? Whiskey Tango Foxtrot* just happened???

That little skinny brat had better just hold that thought a couple years. I can't wait until one bright day, in the midst of her trying to find something to wear, say maybe 9th or 10th grade, cause I'm gonna get her back--

Honey, you look much better with those liquid-filled add-a-cup bras...really.

Brat.


(*Credit to Mon for that one!)

Summer storm

I started the day off in the front yard swing...basking in the sun and unusual heat for 8 o'clock in the morning. The day did turn out to be a scorcher (well for these northern Ohio folks) with record high temps and of course ending a hot humid day, some dandy thunderstorms are quickly moving in! I LOVE a good tree-swaying, thunder-rolling, lightning flashin' storm...as long as it doesn't shake the trees until they fall down and hurt anyone or start crashing into houses. Also I don't wish any flooding as has happened over in Indiana and out west last week., but I do love a storm. I was always the kid with my face out the window watching the lightning until my mother screamed that I was "gonna get KILLED, come away from the window!" So true to my heart I am ending the day, 9:30 pm, sitting on the front yard swing, wind blowing, thunder booming, heavy clouds quickly rolling by and waiting on the rain. Of course the dog is hiding in the basement freaking out, but I'm gonna sleep well tonight. Aaaahhhh, summer storm.

Four Things

I received this in an email from Kriss last week and hadn't replied yet, then today Cece posted this in her blog, so I guess I will blog it instead of emailing it! Thanks for the idea Cece! :-D

Here ya go- Four Things

Four jobs I've had in my life:
1. Pharmacy technician
2. Freelance book editor (yes, my name is on the inside cover of three books!)
3. Pool concession stand worker
4. Teacher

Four movies I've watched more than once (like 100x):
Honestly too many to list, but here are the top I guess:
1. Hunt for Red October
2. Grease
3. Top Gun
4. Shawshank Redemption

Four places I've lived:
1. Zanes-vegas, Ohio
2. Beaver Dam, KY
3. Goose Creek, SC
4. Too close to Cleveland, OH

Four places I've been:
1. Lakeland, Florida
2. Mount St. Helens (AMAZING)
3. Vancouver/Richmond, BC
4. Matoaka, WV (you need a really detailed map to find that one!)

Four people who email me regularly:
1. Use to be my youngest sister but she fell into Lake Ontario
2. Mon
3. B's teacher
4. My aunt

Four of my favorite foods:
1. Anything Italian
2. Anything chocolate
3. A really good salad with eggs, bacon bits, spinach, tomatoes, cucumbers
4. Steak & shrimp w/ fried rice and noodles at Wasabi Japanese Steakhouse

Four friends I think will respond:
Maybe Mon or Lindsey or Carmen, but it took me a week to do this, lol, so I don't blame anyone for not.

Four things I'm looking forward to this year:
1. Not squeezing 8 to 10 hours of work into every spare second between kids, house, dinner, schooling, and 4-5 hours of sleep.
2. Getting more normal sleep (due to #1)
3. Staying more regular with the elliptical workout (due to #1)
4. Turning the Pit of Shit office/sewing/school supply space into a usable room so I can finally make my sister's curtains instead of glaring at the fabric across 10 piles of "stuff" and wishing I could get to it.

Four TV shows that I watch:
1. ER
2. L&O
3. CSI
4. Intermittently Days of Our Lives.

I'm not tagging anyone, but if you want to join in- have at it! :-D

Summer- bout time!

School hours and subject completion are in the home stretch, the weather is nice enough to leave the windows open in the day (though only a few cracked at night so not THAT warm yet), dance recitals are on the horizon and both kids are growing out of shoes!! It must be SUMMER!!

WOOOHOOOOO!! Picture me doin' the happy dance!! Ok, well maybe not...anyway, even with pouring rain all day, the previous several days of sunshine have made me feel MUCH more content with the world. Thursday and Saturday I worked on some seriously cleaning that I had been neglecting-- windows washed inside and out, curtains washed and heavy LR curtains put away leaving the light sheers for summer, blinds from the kids' rooms pulled down/scrubbed/back up, and I even shampooed a couple carpets. Boy did they need it! I just need to work on a few more carpets and do some kitchen re-organizing and I'm pretty well wrapped up except for daily stuff. Of course the Pit of Shit/Office is in need of a stick of dynamite or a black hole to drop by and suck all the crap out I don't know what to do with, but I'm not letting it rain on my "Summer is finally here" and "my house is decently clean" parades!

I say again- SUMMER IS HERE!!! YEEEHAAAWWWW!!!

-sorry for screaming--I've been waiting for long, treacherous, frigid months for this!! Really.