Of Scooter and beds.

I've been very careful lately about buying anything and adding to the mess. However, Bugster and her new husband did pick something up for me tonight from Craigslist. I found a pair of pretty solid wood headboards to make into a bed for Scooter. She's still sleeping on the bottom half of the bunk beds the girls used for years, and I want to sell them and get them out of my house!

The headboards are both 4' tall. We'll be cutting the legs down on one to make it into a footboard. I'll be using a bit of elbow grease to get some purple crayon marking out of the filigree-like pattern on one board, but once it's done, I'll prime them and paint them white. Then, we'll attach the springs that are part of the trundle bed that we brought in from the side of the house, and we'll slide the trundle underneath. It will be so nice to have it done, and I have no doubt she'll love it. It's not the biggest priority right now, but I will work on it as I get time.

I know it sounds counter intuitive to go ahead and buy this right now with all we have going on, but the timing is right. I've been looking for several weeks for something that would work. We needed something that matched, that looked good, that was in decent shape, that was a good price, that didn't look super outdated, and that didn't have holes already drilled in them, or that didn't have places for the slats to slide in. To be able to get all of that for the price we needed was difficult.

The timing was right. The price was right. The person wanted $35 each for them, or he'd sell them 2/$60. However, when the kids got there, Bugster said she could tell he realized she might not take them. So she asked, if he would go to $50 for the pair, since there was more crayon than she expected, and because there were some small dents in them and a slight chunk out of the one. He went to $50, so I told her we'd split the difference. We were both happy.

I'll probably paint on it as I can in the next couple of weeks. I still have some painting to do on furniture that we're using in the basement. And since things are still set up down there to paint the furniture, I'll be trying to get the painting done as soon as I can. That way, the furniture can be moved into place, and we can get the storage unit unpacked and put away before the end of July.

I'll also be taking before and after pictures of it. It may take me months to get the pictures up. But I will.

It will be a visual reminder that things don't have to stay the way they were.

My first Mother's Day as a mom-in-law.

Our youngest went to bed last night with a horrible cough. I can tell the chest congestion is thick, and she's definitely struggling. She had to do a breathing treatment today, but she did seem marginally better when she went to bed tonight. Even so, she won't be going to school for a couple of days. You know how when you have kids at least one seems to love naps and the other doesn't? She's our non-napper, but she napped for a couple of hours today. She is just not feeling well, the poor thing.

Had a nice and fairly quiet Mother's Day. I got a beautiful flowering plant from my husband as well as a Collin Ray CD that has the "She's With Me" song on it that I posted about earlier. I highly recommend seeing the video, if you haven't already. It's beautiful. You can see it here. You can also see a picture of our girls from 15 years ago on that link. They were and are such beautiful little people. I am blessed beyond measure to have them call me Mom. :)

I wasn't able to reach Mom today by phone. She can be hard to reach on holidays, because we have so many in our family calling her. I left her a message and I'll be calling again tomorrow. I don't like special days going by without touching base with her. I'm just glad she knows how special she is to all of us. My mom really is the best I could have!

Our oldest and her hubby came over for the afternoon/evening. We really enjoyed their company. They brought an adorable card and flowers in a really neat little chalkboard vase with messages all around it from them and our youngest two daughters. There were 3 lavender roses and 1 peach representing each of them. They are very sweet, and I hope it stays cool enough in the house that they don't open too quickly. I may have to put them in the refrigerator, if it gets too warm.

The kids brought over a couple of movies to share, so we watched Avatar and Sherlock Holmes with them. I'm surprised, but I liked Avatar better than Sherlock Holmes. I loved the colors in the film. It wasn't as dark as SH was. I don't do well with dark movies. Even when the movie is only filmed as though it is nighttime in the story, I don't really tend to care for them. I'm sure that's one reason I liked Avatar better. In spite of it being predictable, it was good.

Once again, I've waited to write my blog until the stroke of midnight, so my post will be late. I really do need to try to get to it earlier in the day, but this is the first the computer's been on all day.

I hope all the mothers that read my blog had a wonderful Mother's Day today with their children in some way or another!

I confess...

I rescued my dolly from the stuff we were giving away. I realized I do need to have a toy or two left over for our future grandchildren to be able to enjoy, so it's going to be her. I also set aside a couple of outfits for her to be changed into, since babies do need to have a change or two of clothes. If I change my mind later on, I can get rid of her then. However, if I did give her away, I would have no way of retrieving her. So...she's back home for now.

Speaking of future grandchildren...we find it absolutely hysterical that the pressure for the newlyweds to start a family is not coming from us. Instead, it's coming from our middle daughter. Now that they're married, she wants them to have a son, and she has mentioned it on several occasions. We have no idea where this is coming from. We just find it hilarious that it's coming!

In the meantime, the hubby dropped off the rest of the things at my friend's house. So this is the second load that pretty much filled up the back end of our little station wagon. I feel bad in some ways for dumping it on her, but it will give her some new toys for her little ones, and she said she'll just get rid of what they don't want. Works for me. And I very much appreciate her willingness to take care of it.

Scary thing happened to our oldest daughter's boss's daughter last night. Ok. Did you follow that? It happened to the daughter of the people our oldest works for. She and her female cousin were out clubbing. The cousin started throwing up and she started going into a major rage. It sounds like she attacked her father and a police officer. They took her into the hospital for evaluation, because they had no idea what was going on with her.

Her urine tested positive for GHB. It's one of the date rape drugs. Thankfully, she is fine now, but she doesn't remember anything that happened last night or how she was acting. It's really pretty scary. So, sorry, but I have to put a little reminder here: If you are out in public don't ever leave your drink unattended. Keep it in your hand. And don't forget that someone can slip a date rape drug into any kind of drink. It doesn't have to be an alcoholic beverage.

Thankfully, sometimes people do step forward to keep things from happening to women on dates like GHB. In fact, a waiter at a Ruby Tuesday in Colorado stepped up a couple of years ago and took the woman's drink from her, after he saw her date drop something in it when she was at the salad bar. They'd met online and decided to meet in a public place for dinner, because she felt it would be safest. You just can't be too careful. And the waiter? In my eyes...he's a HERO!

Laundry calls. Besides, it's probably time for me to step off my soapbox about now anyway.

Stay safe now, ya hear?

I. Am. SO. Impressed.

We had a Monday Morning Meltdown before school today. Our middle daughter was upset she couldn't help her younger sister get ready for school and raged for a full 30 minutes. Her meltdowns are brutal. She gets right in your face, turns different shades of red and purple and yells, "NO!" as though she's been through a self-defense class and has actually been attacked. The yelling and crying is accompanied by clenched fists and the occasional hop up and down as she tries to get herself together.

She tries to keep herself under control and not hit me, but this morning she was so angry she shoved me by the shoulders while I was sitting down. I felt her fingerprints for several hours due to the fibromyalgia. The meltdown lasted lasted for 30 minutes straight. There is no talking with her. No reasoning. She is out of control when it happens. When anyone does try to say anything to her they are met with an ear piercing, "NO!" If she starts moving towards her little sister, one of us moves between them. She's never attacked her sister (only me and her dad once), but we know she could do serious damage, if she did.

We're breathing a collective sigh of relief that it's over. We're hoping it means she's done with meltdowns for another month. We're hopeful that by then the Theanine will have reached it's full potential, and she won't have another episode. That sounds... heavenly.

Her meltdowns drain me physically and mentally both. So this morning, I went back to bed for awhile after we got the girls off to school. When I woke up, I got busy in their bedroom. When they got home from school, I had our middle daughter help me finish things up. Then all 3 of us went through almost everything that had been in the bedroom and sorted it.

Our youngest, who is non-verbal would sign her version of "finished", if she no longer wanted an item. She put the toys she wanted to keep in a basket. Our middle daughter is verbal, but she does struggle with words and how to say things. So if she didn't want to keep something, she'd say, "Keep it. NO more!" and wave her hands in her way of she was done with it.

I was in shock and so very, very proud of them. I made sure I told them. Often! They easily got rid of 2/3 of their toys! (1 huge box that we sorted when my mom was here that was 2' cubed, another box that was at 75% the size of the first box, a big black garbage bag of toys (I ran out of boxes) plus a sizable box of wooden blocks. They also got rid of at least 15 pair of shoes, flip flops or slippers.

Things that they were never able to part with before were gladly put in the box of toys to donate. The hardest thing for me to see go was a little die cast dump truck with Big Bird at the wheel. It was our oldest's favorite toy when she was tiny. All 3 of the girls played and played with it, and I was shocked when our middle daughter said, "Keep it NO more!" It's the only thing they got rid of that I thought twice about.

And I've thought more than twice about it. It's one of only 3 or 4 times I've had physical symptoms when getting rid of something. I'm still contemplating having it returned to me. I have slight heart palpitations knowing it's gone, and my mind keeps wandering and wondering, if I made the right choice to give it away. I may just ask the person who has it now, if they'd mind taking a picture of it and emailing me the picture. I really should have done that before I let it go out the door, but I didn't want the girls to see me struggle with it. I didn't want them to see me search through everything they'd given up only to retrieve it.

Our oldest and her husband came over, loaded all that we'd gone through into the back of our car, and dropped it off at my friend's house for her and her kids to go through and take what they wanted. They will pass along what they don't want to friends or family or donate it for me.

It is no longer my problem.

Yay!

I am so excited and happy about dehoarding their bedroom. I still have to clean out the closet and a small toy box, but compared to what we've already gotten rid of, that ain't nothin' but a thing!

And I am so impressed with the girls and how they shone that I don't have adequate words!

Of doctors and dentists and root canals and dogs.

So. I was supposed to go to the doctor today. Didn't happen. When they made the appointment yesterday, they asked, if I could come in 'tomorrow'. I said yes. Apparently, 'tomorrow' was supposed to be Friday, because the doctor I'll be seeing doesn't do morning appointments except on Fridays. I rescheduled for next week, because my hubby will be out of town for the weekend, and it's an appointment I don't want to go to alone.

Finished working in the kitchen in the kids' new house. I can't handle being there anymore, because of our old dog. I love the dog, don't get me wrong. But I developed a severe allergy to dogs sometime over the years, and we had to get rid of her as a result. We were just thrilled our daughter wanted her. Still. I need a break. I've been over there several days in a row, and my nose is running and I've got the whole sinus thing going on from being around her. Benadryl is in my present and my future for awhile.

Was very, very thankful for a surprise phone call this morning. It was my dentist's office saying they had a cancellation at 10 and offering the appointment to me. Since I missed my scheduled appointment last week through a comedy of errors, and I'm on antibiotics for an abscessed tooth, I was thrilled to get the call. Until I realized I had the above mentioned appointment today. When I called the doctor's office to see, if they'd gotten the paperwork from my doctor faxed in yet, they told me that my appointment was Friday and not Thursday. So I called the dentist's office back only to find that the appointment was still available. I showered quickly, dried my hair and got to the appointment right on time.

While I had a doctor's appointment today that ended up turning into a dental appointment, I was relieved. I had a spur of the moment root canal. I was surprised when the cotton swab with the topical anesthetic started hurting my tooth withing moments of being placed between the tooth and my cheek. Even though he'd already suspected I needed a root canal the sudden pain from the cotton swab confirmed it. I now have no pain in the tooth at all. My cheek is sore from the shots of numbing medication and from being stretched, so he could work on my tooth, but I'll take that over needing pain medicine from an abscessed tooth any day!

I will be catching up on blogs tomorrow and this weekend. I'm behind a few days. I'm also behind on laundry, so I'll be working on that as well. I also plan on making cookies or a cake with the girls over the weekend. I'm just praying things go well when they realize their daddy is gone for the weekend.

I have a feeling it's going to be a long 3 days.

Oh Fiddle-dee-dee.

I hate hormones. Really. I detest them. And now that I'm getting older, I'm feeling more like a teen again. You know that age when the hormones kick in and you have horrible mood swings, and you feel like you can't do anything right, and you go from crazy angry to crying jags that last for hours? The kinds of hormones that convince you that something that was said in jest was really said to hurt your feelings? Yeah. Those kind of hormones.

I hate that raging hormones like this make me feel like I've lost total control over my life. I hate that they make me doubt myself and hate myself. I hate that they make me cry. I rarely cry. I hate that they make me feel so vulnerable and exposed. I hate that they make me doubt others and their feelings toward me.

I cannot wait for this decade of my life to be finished. At least this part of it! The rest of it can go slowly. The hormones have my permission to high tail it out of here and NOW!

So. I'm feeling a little better today. Went to the newlyweds' house and finished putting the red gingham shelf paper in the upper cabinets. I'll do the drawers tomorrow, and they get to do the bottom cabinets. My back can't handle getting down that low. Actually, I can get down that low, but I can't guarantee getting back up again.

In the famous words of Scarlett O'Hara...

"Tomorrow is another day."

All that and red gingham shelf paper.

My t-shirt is splattered with little gray specks from cleaning the kids' cabinets in their new house today. The kitchen always seems to be the most neglected room in homes, and this was no exception. The grease and grime on the cabinet doors and drawer fronts was built up at least 1/8" of an inch. More in places.

They looked much cleaner once I was done with them, but cleaning them with a scrub brush took some of the finish off. They're all wood with just a little stain - they aren't sealed with anything. So I was able to spruce them up with some Old English Furniture Polish Scratch Cover. Love the stuff! The cabinets look new, and the kids are thrilled.

I ache all over. Not sure, if it's just from working on their kitchen, or if I'm coming down with something. Got sick to my stomach last night, so I guess it could be a stomach bug of some sort, too.

Found out today that I missed my dental appointment last week. They said they'd called with a reminder call, but it doesn't show up on my Caller ID. My name's been put on the wait list for cancellations, but if nobody cancels, I won't get in to be seen until the middle of June. I just hope this antibiotic kicks the infection, and it doesn't come back before I can get the tooth looked at.

Hoping to finish up in the kids' kitchen tomorrow, so I can concentrate on my own house!

Right now...I'm off to bed.

Tomorrow will come early enough without me waiting up to meet it.

A day of rest.

My tooth was feeling better when I woke this morning, but my body protested. Loudly. When prescription strength ibuprofen didn't do anything to curb the pain, I allowed myself a prescription pain med.

It took care of the pain, but it also made me extremely tired and nauseous. So my wonderful husband took the girls with him on some errands, and I crawled into bed. I slept hard and deep, and I felt much better when I awoke. However, I still am not at 100%.

I still have some deep cleaning/scrubbing to do at the newlyweds new house, but I decided to stay home today and give my body a break. I'll go over tomorrow and try and finish up while the kids are in school.

Aside from a really nice nap and a couple loads of laundry I did nothing today.

And I'm okay with that. :)

Here's to a more exciting tomorrow.

Exhausted tonight.

Tooth becoming abscessed.

Back spasming.

Helping newlyweds with cleaning their new house today.

It's dirty. Sat vacant for over a year.

So. Yeah.

That's all for tonight.

Will be crawling to bed soon.

73

That's how old I feel today.

I worked in the girls' room today. It's the one Mom had helped me with the other day. I spent 5 hours working in there, and I got rid of a lot of stuff, but I'm still not done. My back is spasming, so I'm relaxing with my good friend, Mr. Heating Pad, as I write this. It will probably take me a couple more days in there, but I made a really good dent in things.

I finished filling the extra large outdoor trash bag that Mom and I had filled half full with trash the other day. I then proceeded to fill another huge trash bag over half full, and I found a smaller black garbage bag full of paper garbage where I'd last sorted in there. So it went out to the trash, too. I had to toss the Little Tykes grocery cart that we'd gotten our oldest over 20 years ago. It was broken. And while it made me sad to throw it, I felt released of any guilt over disposing of it, because it was broken.

I also finished filling the 2'x2' box of stuff to give away and started filling another, smaller box with donations. It's full. I need more boxes. But that's a good thing. I also removed a full pillowcase full of laundry from their bedroom and started filling another.

Overall, I'm pleased with what I've accomplished today. I'd love to finish it up this weekend, but I won't be disappointed, if I can't get back there until later next week. The best news is that neither of the girls were stressed today about me working in the bedroom. Last week, our middle daughter started getting stressed when Mom and I were working on it, so we stopped. Just glad it doesn't seem to be bothering her now!

Oh! And the newlyweds closed on their house today. The sellers covered the graffiti in the house, but it's obvious, so they'll still have to paint. They also fixed the locks on the windows that were broken. Don't think they fixed the doggy door, but the kids should be able to handle that on their own.

All in all a good day.

Crawling into bed again...

I will still definitely write about the wedding and the list I made the other day, but I fear it will need to wait until Mom goes home. I cherish every moment I have with her, and I just can't bring myself to tear away from our moments to do the blog, so I'll write more later.

We had a very busy day today. It started with a hazy, dark morning that allowed us to not wake up nearly as early as typical. Still...we had lots of fun and got things accomplished to boot.

First, our newlywed daughter treated her gramma and me to tea at a quaint little place downtown. It's a cute little place with a hodge podge set of furniture and mismatched dishes, and it felt like home. It was so very comfortable, and we thoroughly enjoyed our time visiting and looking at the antiques in the place. I will definitely be going for tea with our daughter again sometime!

We met the kids' realtor at the house they're buying. She graciously agreed to meet, so they could show the house to Mom, but there were problems. The kids showed us the backyard, and when we opened the gate, it was obvious someone had tried breaking into the house. The doggy door had been pried apart and there were hunks of plywood from it strewn about. Then when we went all the way into the backyard, we noticed that one of the window screens was bent up and on the ground. Two window screens were missing completely.

When the realtor finally got there a few minutes later, she couldn't get the key to work in the deadbolt, which was locked. She was surprised the deadbolt even worked saying that deadbolts are often disabled while vacant homes are on the market, or if they've been foreclosed upon. It's just added security, so people aren't locked out of the house. The only way the deadbolt could have been locked was from the inside.

She was finally able to get into the house through the side garage door, where we saw even more of the doggy door in pieces on the floor. The only thing that kept the punks from getting in the house was the 2x4 that had been screwed diagonally across the doggy door. It didn't look all that good.

Upon quick glances, it looked like nothing was amiss. On closer inspection, however, it was obvious the kids who broke in wrote on every wall in the place with ink pen and pencil. They'd gotten in through one of the windows in the back. When we discovered that, we checked all the windows, and two of the locks were broken. They got in one of those two windows.

They wrote death threats, vulgarities and just teenage crap on the walls. But they hit every single wall in the house. They went into the crawl space, but our son-in-law went in to check it out, and he said it looked and smelled okay. They called the cops, but heard nothing until after waiting an hour and a half. The phone rang. It was someone at the police station. They apologized for not being able to make it out, but they said they were so swamped they couldn't get away. So they took a statement by phone and gave the kids a case number. Unfortunately, even though the neighbors are sure it was some of the punks in the neighborhood, it appears nothing much will be done.

It could have been SO much worse! There are local stories about feces, paint, or food being thrown around inside vacant buildings at least once or twice a year. This was just ink pen and pencil. However, it also means that every single wall will need to be painted before the kids can move in. We're very much hoping that the sellers will give a paint allowance or send someone in to paint before they close on the house toward the end of the week. Otherwise, it's going to cost a few hundred extra dollars they weren't expecting.

When Mom and I got back to our house, I told her of so many of my plans. She was very encouraging. It was wonderfully fun being able to share my vision with someone who could see exactly what I was talking about! She also told me that I really need to concentrate on what I've already gotten done instead of what I have yet to finish. It makes sense. It is definitely a more positive way of looking at things, and I think it would likely help to keep me motivated.

After showing her around, she insisted on helping me in one of the rooms. We chose to tackle the girls' bedroom. Mom said it reminded her of cleaning out a toy box from when we were kids, but it's the entire room. We got more accomplished in an hour and a half than I'd be able to do on my own in a day. We filled a box that has to be 2' square 3/4 of the way up. We'll finish filling it up tomorrow, and it will go to the car, so we can drop it off to be donated. We also got a big box of laundry out of there and filled a huge black trash bag half full with garbage. We'll finish that room up tomorrow. Once the stuff is out of the house, it's going to be so much easier to keep the room clean! Visiting with Mom while getting things done definitely makes things go faster. I've loved every minute of it!

We stopped for the night when the newlyweds came over for supper and pineapple upside down cake for dessert.

It's been a long and exhausting day, but full of fun and productivity. I fully expect tomorrow to be the same.

I'll do what I can to catch up on blogs after Mom goes home.

Right now..I'm going to drag myself to bed.