Spring Cleaning on a deadline

I am so tired and sore that I can barely move. We are in the process of refinancing our house. The appraiser called me Friday morning to see if he could come to do the appraisal that day. Um that would be a negative, Hubby and I both were at work and the house was a total mess. The grass hasn't been cut yet this year because both of our lawnmowers are broken and the second lot looks abandoned, it was so overgrown with weeds. So I told him Mondya would be better, so I bought us 2 days to get it all done. I started Friday night with the inside and started working as much as I could. Thank goodness I had cleaned some major stuff inside the weekend before, so the inside wasn't nearly as bad as the outside. I am embarrassed that my yard looked that bad. I called around Friday to get someone to come and clean the yard for us, but of course everyone was booked, so that meant we were gonna have to get it done. I found a place that rented lawnmowers, so we got up EARLY Saturday morning and Hubby went to get us one and wouldn't you know it, the only one they had left wouldn't crank. Hubby called me and I started crying, I was so tired and just felt like there was no way we would get the yard cleaned and the house wasn't going to appraise well and we wouldn't be able to refinance and we would have to move! You know on top of everything else I was PMSing! He went to Wal-Mart and bought the cheapest lawnmower that they carry, brought it home, cut the front and side yards and then it was time for the NFL draft to come on, so I lost my help. I had told him that if he got up early with me and helped me then when the draft came on, he could go watch it. I cut a little of the back yard, but it was such a mess I could not get much done, then the babe wanted to come out with me and I did not want to cut grass with him outside. I put him in the swing and proceeded to trim hedges, cut down briars and rake up the pinestraw and pine cones. I HATE PINE TREES with a passion. I wish we had the money to have the 3 main ones in our yard and the one in our neighbors yard that puts pine cones in our yard chopped down. Anyway, I worked out there until it got too hot. Then I went in took a shower and got dressed and the babe and I went to run errands and go to the grocery store. I took him for ice cream, he loves ice cream! He has started feeding himself with a spoon now. It is so cute. He will get a bite in his mouth and shake his head yes and make a mmmmm sound. It just cracks me up! Anyway, 4 hours later I was back at home and hauling more pinestraw down to the street. I worked outside until dark.

Sunday was pretty much the same thing, work, work, work. Hubby got all of the yard cut, even the back part that was nearly has tall as me. Let me tell you the lawnmower that he bought is the cheapest one that we could find, but it runs like a dream. He cut all of those weeds in the back lot down with that lawnmower and it never even shut off. He also ran over bricks and landscaping timbers with it and it just kept going. It was like the little engine that could, it just kept going. I like it more than the expenisve one that we got last year, that won't even start this year. Anyway the appraiser was there this morning just as scheduled and everything went well, as far as I can tell. He said that he did not see anything that detracted value from the house and our house has a lot of extras, like a deck, patio, out building (shed). He also said that he had appraised 3 other houses in our neighborhood in the past month and that our house will be on the high end of the market value. WHOO HOO! We need for it to appraise at least for what it did 2 years ago, but hopefully more. I will let you know as soon as I know something. If you ever needed an excuse to do some spring cleaning, just have your house appraised. Hubby said that our house is cleaner than it has been since the babe was born. I think he is right, but normally I just don't take as much time, I would rather spend the time with my family, not cleaning.

Happy Administrative Professional's Day

Today is my day along with the other millions of Administrative Professionals out there. Happy day to all you! I hope your bosses were generous with you and you got the recognition that you deserve. Without you, most companies would not be able to function. Pat yourself on the back. You deserve it! Now get back to work!

Running

I am running and running and getting no where. Trying to get ahead, but only falling farther behind. I don't know how to get out of this mess. I don't know which way is up.

Right place, right time

Our weekend was pretty good, no major catastrophies. We managed once again to escape the severe weather in our area on Saturday night. Saturday after we had gotten the kids all packed in the car and buckled up for our weekly run to the bank and then to get some lunch, my car wouldn't start. It has done this before in the past few months, and then it will start and so I don't worry about it. Hubby jumped it off and off we went. He was driving. We got to the bank and he turns the car off, not thinking that it might not start. Sure enough he comes out of the bank and nothing, just some clicking noises. Thankfully another couple was coming out of the bank, just as he opened the hood and asked us if we needed a jump. They gave us a jump and we were on our way. I have said many prayers of thanks that those people were there and were so willing to help us.

Today I went walking on my morning break, which I have not been doing lately. But the weather was nice today, so I put on my walking shoes and headed around the block. As I rounded the corner I saw a car broken down headed in the opposite direction and a small child, maybe 5 or 6 years old standing on the sidewalk. There was an older man trying to push her out of the street, but in order to do that traffice needed to be stopped because the car needed to be pushed to the other side of the street. So I walked into the street and put my hand up to stop the traffic and then I waved the cars that were behind her on through and then I helped the man push the car out of the street. All of the traffic stayed stopped and I crossed the street and took the child's hand, and he was reluctant at first, but then he went with me and I walked him across the street to his mom. She had already called her sister to come and get them. I am glad that I went on my walk today because I helped someone who really needed it. I was in the right place at the right time!

The stationwagon

When I was a small child we had a stationwagon. It was a powder blue '70 something Chevrolet Caprice Wagon. It was huge! There were 6 of us, including my parents, so it was just the right size to transport everyone. I loved that car. It wasn't much to look at, but as a child things look different to you. It had blue interior, plasticy seats that were SSSSOOOOO hot in the summer. I don't remember if it had an air conditioner or not because it seemed like we always had the windows down. I got my first arm sprain in that car. I was in the front seat sitting in the middle and I kept hanging my arm over the back of the seat, well my sister thought she would grab it and see how far it would go. Needless to say, it did not go very far. I think I was about 3!

My mom would put blankets in the back part, we always called that the wayback, because well it was way back from the front of the car. My sister D and I would always crawl over the back seat and play in the wayback. If we went on a long trip, we would crawl back there with our pillows and sleep. That was before the days of children riding in booster seats until they are 10, heck that was before children had to wear seatbelts. We would climb over the seats in that car like the monkeys that we were. There were storage areas in the sides of the wayback, underneath the windows, and we would put things like crayons in there for safe keeping. We all know what happens to crayons that are left in hot cars. I'll bet there are still crayons melted in the back of that car! I was driving down the road a couple of months ago and got behind one just like it, maybe it was it. I tried to get beside it and see if I could see melted crayons in the back, but I couldn't get close enough to it.

A joke for Wednesday

Natural selection in employment

1. Put 400 bricks in a closed room. 2. Put your new hires in the room and close the door. 3. Leave them alone and come back after 6 hours. 4. Then analyze the situation:

a. If they are counting the bricks, put them in the accounting department.

b. If they are recounting them, put them in auditing.

c. If they have messed up the whole place with the bricks, put them in engineering.

d. If they are arranging the bricks in some strange order, put them in planning.

e. If they are throwing the bricks at each other, put them in operations.

f. If they are sleeping, put them in security.

g. If they have broken the bricks into pieces, put them in information technology.

h. If they are sitting idle, put them in human resources.

i. If they say they have tried different combinations, and are looking for more, yet not a brick has been moved, put them in sales.

j. If they have already left for the day, put them in marketing.

k. If they are staring out of the window, put them in strategic planning.

l. If they are talking to each other, and not a single brick has been moved, congratulate them and put them in management.

Finally, if they have surrounded themselves with bricks in such a way that they can neither be seen nor heard from, put them in Congress.

**Quick note: My birthday was awful. The babe was sick with a fever and runny nose and sinus drainage. Took him to the doctor and he has a virus. He kept me up for 2 nights. I got 2 hours of sleep on Monday night. I finally figured out the correct amount of Benadryl to give him without making him crazy, so that helped ALOT and we were all able to sleep last night. He seems to be feeling better today, still a little runny and a low grade fever, but better. He is eating and drinking. Even though he was sick we had a good day at home together yesterday. Anyway, sorry for the short post and joke, but since I missed work yesterday, I am behind!

Happy Easter

When I was growing up, every year my mom would take us shopping and get us a new frilly dress and shoes for Easter. Then we would wake up on Easter morning and run into the dining room to see what the Easter bunny left us in our baskets. Sometimes we would have store bought baskets and sometimes my mom would put some stuff together for us. Either way we always had a basket full of goodies on Easter morning. Then we would get dressed and go to church. After church we would go home and take pictures in front of various different blooming bushes in our yard. Then we would change out of our Easter dresses and have an egg hunt. It was always so much fun. We had a dog that would help us hunt the eggs and eat them.

Now that I have a child, it is time for us to start our own traditions. We still have not found a church, so we won't do that this Sunday. The Easter bunny will be leaving baskets of goodies for the kids to enjoy. We are going to my mom's Saturday for my birthday party and Easter dinner and an egg hunt. Then Sunday we will go to MIL's house for dinner and an egg hunt. At my MIL's we have a grown up egg hunt. MIL and SIL get little trinkets and things and hide them all in the yard and the grown ups have to hunt for them. We did it last year and it was so much fun! There are a few eggs with money in them! I hope I find a big money egg, I need some lunch money! What are you doing for Easter? What traditions does your family have?

Mrs. Plumber

Just call me Mrs. Plumber. In my house I am the one responsible for the plumbing, not that my hubby doesn't help out, he is just a procrastinator and so for him to actually get around to doing something, it takes a while. You see our icicle lights are still on our house, yeah it is April people and I still have Christmas lights on my house! In his defense he has been working 2 jobs and when he isn't working, he is either playing with the kids or sleeping. That means all the house work is falling back on me. Anyway I am getting sidetracked, back to my story. Monday night I cooked tacos for supper and the grease from the drained ground beef got poured down the sink. Well you know what happened next? Yes the drain got clogged! I didn't say anything, hubby was playing with the kids, so I go the plunger and tried to unclog it, but it didn't work. Instead all the water and yucky stuff ran into the dishwasher. GROSS! So I had to dip the water out of the dishwasher, so it would not overflow. We had some stuff for slow drains, so I tried that. On Tuesday morning I felt like the clog was gone. I had ran some water and it seemed to be draining, so I turned on the dishwasher and left for work. In the middle of the day I wondered where would the water from the dishwasher go if the drain wasn't unclogged. I freaked out a little bit and as soon as I got off work I rushed home fully expecting a flooded kitchen. Much to my surprise, the dishwasher had just backed up into the sink and then drained back into the dishwasher. So for the second time I had to dip nasty water out of the dishwasher. I got most of it out and put more drain cleaner down the sink and waited. After a few hours everything seemed to be fine, well the dishwasher is the real test, so I started it again. Again water was backing up in the sink so I just turned the damn thing off and went to bed. Yesterday I went to the store and got some Drano Max, poured it down the drain waited 20 minutes, poured some boiling water down the drain and voila, it was unclogged. You see hubby's solution to the problem was to call the warranty company and request a plumber, which would cost us $50.00 and I would have to take time off work to sit at home and wait for the plumber. Glad I didn't listen to him. My solution cost us about $4.00 and no lost time from work! Now if I could just find the time to fix the toilet in the kid's bathroom!

Where has the time gone?

I will be 31 on Monday, enough said.

The pursuit of tears

Hubby and I had a date of sorts Saturday. My mom came to our house and kept the babe for the afternoon and hubby and I went to the movies, Target, and the grocery store. It was nice to have time with hubby alone. We hardly ever get that. It was nice to go to the grocery store and Target and be able to just browse the aisles and not have to rush around because you know in a matter of minutes your fabulous child is going to morph into a screaming banshee that's screams could pierce the eardrums of the deaf. We went to the discount movie theatre and watched "The Pursuit of Happyness". Has anyone else seen that movie? It was great, but it was so sad. I swear the movie stressed me out! I was sobbing in a few parts. It ended very happy, but boy how he got there was just heartbreaking. Even hubby shed a few tears in a few parts. If you haven't seen it, rent it, it is worth watching. Let me know what you think if you do watch it, I am just curious.

The babe decided that naps are for whimps yesterday. He went to sleep 2 times only to wake up after about 5 minutes. I was so stressed. I am PMSing and it has been the mood swing roller coaster for me. I was so tired yesterday, I was cramping and ill and the babe would. not. go. to. sleep! Finally after being awake a little more than 12 hours I put him to bed for the night. That lasted about 5 hours and he was crying again. I put him in bed with hubby and I and he tossed and turned and kicked. I thought I would go insane, everytime I would get comfy and dose off, he would start moving again! Finally about 4 am I felt someone looking at me and I rolled over and he was staring at me. I took him and put him back in his bed in his room. He cried for a few minutes then went back to sleep. Then at 5:30 he was crying again! I have to get up at 6:15, so that was like the best part of my sleep. I put him back in bed with us and he went back to sleep, I wish I could have! I am so tired and ill today, I just wanna scream. Actually I just want to turn the fan on and lay my head down on my desk and take about a 2 hour nap. Do you think my boss would mind?