A nice little break.

Hubster and I went out on a date for the first time in months last night. Bugster watched Hopper and Scooter, so we could go out and relax and also agreed to guest blog for me. I can't tell you how incredibly grateful I am for her help! We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, and it was just nice to be away from everything else. I'm glad we had the time with one another, because it will be several months before we get that time again. We just need a break from reality from time to time.

I started a major project when I woke up yesterday, and it was hard to leave it for the time we were gone for fear of losing momentum. It's been years and years in the making, but it switched locations last year when the basement flooded. I'm talking about...laundry. Not just ordinary laundry. I'm talking years and years of laundry that's built up. Well. Sort of.

I have a tendency towards perfectionism. A strong leaning, even. I think it comes partly from hearing, "If you can't do it right, don't do it at all!" when I was growing up. That has been my personal mantra on so very many occasions. It's why I don't take on something new until I can see the outcome in my mind. It's why I obsess about pinatas before I make them, why I fluff our clothes in the dryer before hanging them to dry, and why I am in the mess I'm in. It's why I don't do a lot of things, and it can be maddening.

This particular project I started at least 8 to 9 years ago was laundry, but not just your everyday garden variety of laundry. This was the sort-each-piece-of-laundry-and-make-sure-it's-clean-before-packing-it-up-to-donate-or-save-but-it-must-all-be-clean-before-sorting-may-begin-kind-of-laundry. I cannot tell you how many times I have started this laundry over the years. I've washed it only to forget about it and be frustrated to find it covered in dust and have to be washed again. But this is the last time.

Hopper's bedroom became a catchall when the basement was flooded last year. For some reason, the people who packed things up and took them out to the storage pod when they were cleaning put all these baskets of laundry in Hopper's room. I'm thankful in many ways. At least they're not sitting out in the heat of the pod cooking in stains and odors, but it also means I need to take on the task of finishing it up, so Hopper can get back into her bedroom, or I have to move it again. I voted for option 1.

So I brought all of the baskets and boxes of clothes out of Hopper's room and began to sort them Saturday morning. There were 5 of the 18 gallon totes (like the ones I emptied on the porch the other day), 3 large laundry baskets of clothes, and 2 boxes. I know. It was as lot. I'm not sure why I was even surprised at the amount, but I was. Anyway, I got busy sorting, washing, and hanging the clothes out to dry on the line.

Thankfully, only some of them needed washed. About half. And most of those are still waiting for me to wash them, dry them, fold them and put them in their proper places whether the proper place is the trash, the donation pile, or the save box. It's going to take a few days, but if the weather holds up, and we don't get too much rain, I'll be able to get most of them done tomorrow and will hopefully be finished up on Tuesday.

I already sorted the ones that didn't need washed. Right now, we have right at 20 grocery bags stuffed and ready to be donated. They just need to be loaded in the car and dropped off. I figured I'll wait until the rest of the clothes are ready before loading the car, but I'm very much looking forward to getting them out of my house!

One thing that's obvious about the clothes is that they have dog dander on them. I've been sneezing and wheezing the entire time I've been working on them. I know part of the sneezing and wheezing has to do with the brilliant move one of the workers who helped clean out the basement after the flood made. They put some wet clothes in a black plastic bag, put more stuff on top of the bag, so the clothes had no way to breathe and actually dry out and no choice but to grow mold and mildew in cosmic proportions, and then put it in the bedroom. I found it yesterday.

Yeah. So *that* was a fun discovery. I'm just hoping it doesn't prevent me from going in for my surgery this week. I'd rather just get the procedure over with, but I'm not sure, if the doctor will be comfortable putting me under with my asthma acting up. I'll be taking Bendadryl again tonight before heading off to bed. I'm hoping it might help the situation.

Oh! I almost forgot! That huge bag of clothes from the porch as well as the bag of shoes? Listing them on Craigslist was the perfect answer.

They're in their new homes.

They're no longer my problem.

Best of all?

They're no longer here!

Victory, I say! Victory!

Steroid induced incoherent ramblings. My apologies.

It seems like today has been horribly long. But being souped up on steroids to get the breathing under control results in very little sleep. Four hours to be exact. And I feel like I could fall asleep and sleep until next week right now. Except that I still have a dose of steroids to take, and it'll keep me awake again. So. Yeah.

I explain none of this to whine. Only to show that I have a totally reasonable reason for rambling tonight and being totally incoherent, or if you understand any of what I'm writing, I suppose I'd go for being semi-coherent. Hah.

Went to the doctor this morning. I'm on a short course of antibiotics again to try to get this under control. I think they'll do it. I feel like I just need a little extra push to get me through it, so I'm hopeful. Had good news on the TB test as well. It was negative. As hard as it is to know that my husband was exposed to TB, it's a great relief to know that he didn't expose us. To have 4 of us on antibiotics for 6 to 9 months straight could be nerve-wracking to say the least. So we are both quite thankful.

Stopped at a couple of thrift stores while I was out today. I haven't been in a thrift store in months. I almost got some suitcases, because we do need some, and all we have are duffel bags. However, they weren't sporting a clearance/markdown tag, so I passed on them. They were still a good buy. Only $7 each, but I just decided to skip it. I did get 4 pieces of stemware to go with our good dishes. A couple of ours got broken while the good dishes were stored on the kitchen countertop for the last year and a half.

The new glasses don't really match the ones that broke, but they coordinate, so they'll work. The ones we had were solid blue. These are a clear glass with a blue foot and stem. They'll work. And when we have the newlyweds over, we'll all be able to share a little sparkling apple cider or SquirrelAide. SquirrelAide has been a holiday tradition in our house since we got married. It's just half Squirt and half KoolAid, but it's just so yummy! The grapefruit flavor of the Squirt gives it a nice little kick that other lemon-lime sodas don't. We'll be set for our next holiday toast as soon as I get the glasses washed, bleached and put away with the holiday dishes.

I spied a really big bag of all sorts of craft stuff for $4.99 at the one thrift store. It had a myriad of craft goodies in it. A new roll of magnetic tape, a couple skeins of new raffia, several yards of 3"wide lace, lots of pony beads, a couple new rolls of metal raffia and lots and lots of buttons as well as several other tantalizing tidbits that I was drawn to. I'm always attracted to craft stuff. I'm physically drawn to it and visualize everything I'm going to make with it within seconds of seeing what I have to work with. I looked at the bag of goodies for less than 30 seconds and decided to put it back. I have enough craft stuff in the storage pod on the driveway to last me my entire life. So I put it back and walked out with nothing from the second thrift store.

I still want to get the suitcases this weekend, if they're still there, because they'll be 50% off, but I don't need anything else. And I'm not going to feel bad, if I can't find suitcases right now. Duffel bags will work fine until things settle down. Eventually, though, I'd like to get some hard sided suitcases and paint pictures on the outsides for the girls, so they'd have very unique suitcases for when we travel. It will happen. Someday. I'm okay, if it's not anytime soon. I have enough on my plate right now.

Other than running to the doctor, doing a little window shopping at the thrift stores and picking up my medicine, I didn't do too much today. The wind was whipping up really bad, and it took several neighborhood trees down. Didn't feel like being under a tree when it snapped, so I just grabbed my unplanted veggies that had fallen and put them in a safe place out of wind's way. I did get a couple of loads of laundry done and some heavier cleaning in one of the bathrooms, but nothing impressive.

Oh. And I got to watch the LOST series finale. I'll miss the show. It's a wee bit like saying goodbye to a friend. Not a sad goodbye. Just a goodbye.

I'm hoping I'll have gotten some sleep tonight and can get a bit more accomplished tomorrow. It's the last day of school, so I'll take the girls somewhere for ice cream, as is the tradition, and do what I can when we get back home. And I'm even okay, if nothing gets done tomorrow. I'll be spending some time with my girls.

Funsies to all!