The end is near.

Today has been a long but productive day.

I spoke with the school to reschedule Hopper's IEP staffing. We had to cancel the first two appointments, because the kids were sick. Exploding gastrointestinal issues aren't conducive to getting out of the house for a meeting. We got the letter on Saturday saying that the final date we could have the staffing was the day I was going in for surgery. But of course. I explained how critical it is for us to have this particular staffing, because Hopper ages out of the program either in May or December of next year, and the date hinges on what happens at this meeting. I got a call at the end of the day. They made a special appointment for us 10 days after I have surgery. Hopefully, I'll be feeling well enough to go by then, but at least The Hubster will have the time off to attend, if I can't. It's quite the relief.

I also got a call from the school saying Hopper wasn't feeling well and had a headache and claimed her ears hurt. I went down to the school to pick her up, and she started crying. She didn't want to come home. She asked to take ibuprofen. I asked, if it was okay, if we tried the ibuprofen out to see, if it worked. They were okay with it, so I went home. I called back 45 minutes later, and she was apparently doing fine.

However, an hour after that the school called again. She apparently had taken a turn for the worse, and she totally freaked the teacher and aides out. When I got there to pick her up, they had her sitting in a wheelchair, and she was all slumped over. They kept talking about how they'd never seen her like that before, and they were quite concerned. They said she complained about her back hurting and that her leg or knee were also hurting her.

I absolutely believe they were very concerned about her. However, I also think she had their number. When she got out of the car, she didn't limp, and she ran downstairs when we got home to see a young woman who had come over to help me out. There appeared to be no pain at all. However, she has been asleep since shortly after she got home, so she definitely isn't feeling well. She just isn't on death's door or in need of a wheelchair. I think she's constipated and doesn't know how to say what that feels like, so it's manifested itself as a headache, ear ache, back ache and sore knee all in the course of a few hours today. We'll keep her home tomorrow and see how she does. She'll go back to school Wednesday, if she's feeling better.

We'll leave the wheelchair out of the entire equation.

The young woman, K, who was helping me out today is a year younger than Hopper. We've known her and her family for most of her life, and I just can't say enough wonderful things about all of them. I needed some help with getting as much done downstairs as possible, so I can relax knowing it's all done before I have surgery. It's the stuff that's kills my back to do on my own. Hubster and I talked about it, and we figured it was worth paying someone to help me get as much done as possible, so we can get rid of the pod and the payment we're making on it each month.

I am beyond excited! K and I worked downstairs today, and we got so much accomplished. The trim work (crown moulding, baseboards and trim) that we've only worked on sporadically for the last year has finally met it's match. K filled the last of the nail holes with putty and she filled gaps between the crown moulding and corner boxes. I worked on filling gaps, too, but I only did one of the corner boxes. The rest of the time, I was caulking the door trim.

The original door trim that we replaced must have been slightly different in thickness. It was wooden. What we replaced it with was the MDF stuff. It could also be that we just weren't sure of what we were doing, but let me just say there were gaps. I used a paintable caulking, so we can go over it all with paint, so it doesn't show, when we're all done. But I am absolutely thrilled and amazed!

The caulking makes everything looked finished. It makes it look like The Hubster and I knew what we were doing when we installed the trim. And it makes it look like the gaps weren't our fault. They've disappeared! Finally, after all this time, I feel like we're going to be able to finish the basement before I go in for surgery. I am so excited!

Tomorrow, K and I will be working on some shelving, since we have to use the saws outside, and it's supposed to be warmer. Once we get done with them, we'll go back downstairs and work on the trim. Then hopefully, we'll be able to work on painting the shelves later in the week when it's warmer. I'm just so excited that we're making such good progress.

The end is in sight!!

Being square really is all it's cracked up to be.

Well. We tried.

We did get a lot accomplished on our list of things we needed to get done, but we were less than successful with putting the cubbies up above the stove and refrigerator. The wood apparently was warped - probably before we even assembled it. So it didn't fit. It was all out of square. If it fit okay on one end, it was a half inch away from the wall and the soffit on the other, which was 6 feet away.

So The Hubster went to the hardware store before they closed and got some MDF cut, so we can start on it again. I'm at least going to get it put together this week. I'm hoping I can get it painted before I have surgery, but the biggest thing is getting it up, so I have a place to put the things that came out of the cabinet. It will make it so much easier to keep things clean, if I have that area for storage. I can paint it anytime.

In the meantime, we'll figure out where we're going to put the other cubbies we couldn't use. We'll probably put them in one of the girls' rooms. We may just hang them on the wall, but the fact that we won't have to hang them under a soffit will make them much easier to put up. Who knows? They might work well in the closet to put baskets in that hold toys or socks. Needless to say, they won't be wasted.

We did get the rolling bookshelf together and got it downstairs. It should work just fine for what we need it for. I realized after we got it down there that we had wanted it about 2" narrower, but it will work fine. There is no way we're going to start over on it. We just won't see the door trim on that side of the wall. We can live with that. Besides. If we were to shave off the extra 2", there's be less room for The Hubster's obsession. And considering the thing is 6 feet tall, that's quite a few books. We'll just leave it as is for now.

My poor husband has to be exhausted tonight. He did a lot of lifting for me today. One of the tables I'd painted that we had downstairs was mismatched. The holes didn't line up to attach the base to the top. So he took the base from downstairs out to the back porch and brought the one that was with the table top out there downstairs. I appreciate it so much! Now I'll have 2 usable craft tables to sort things on when they come in from out in the pod that's on the driveway, to wrap Christmas gifts, and to use for crafts or sewing projects. I'm so looking forward to it.

The Hubster also brought the old water heater upstairs from the laundry room by himself, as well as a couple of smaller things that I couldn't bring up on my own. It will be so nice to have that extra space in the laundry room. It will give more airflow to the furnace, too, so that's another plus.

I also got the dehumidifier we use in the laundry room taken apart and cleaned out well with the air hose and a steel brush. The dust build up in it was unbelievable! And although the thing turns on and the fan works and all, it's not taking any moisture out of the air. I think the coolant needs charged. If I can find where to charge it, I will, but I'm not going to worry about it for a few months. It's so dry here in the winter that a little extra humidity won't hurt a thing. It can wait.

Overall, I'm satisfied with what we got done. I am admittedly frustrated that the cubbies didn't work, but I'm hopeful that I'll get the other ones built this week and put up before I have surgery. One of our friends' daughters will be coming to help me out in the next several days, so I can get things done before my surgery.

I have big plans.

Hopefully, they're not too grandiose.

Hope springs eternal.

Today has been long and not as productive as I'd like.

Some days are just like that.

Hopper is stressed over my upcoming surgery. She stresses easily, and it comes out in all sorts of rough ways. Like stressing over her dad going on his run today. We really have no idea what sets her off. Sometimes it happens. Other times, she's fine with him going for his run. Today, she started having a meltdown a good 15 minutes before he left. The meltdown didn't stop for 30 minutes after he was gone.

She was upset he was gone, but she started fixating on something, and for the life of me, I couldn't figure out what she was saying. While she's verbal, she's not always intelligible, and she was definitely struggling. She also often says, 'no' when she means, 'yes', and vice versa and very often, she doesn't hear what we're saying correctly, so it can be quite the puzzle trying to figure out what she's saying. And while sometimes it can be a bit humorous, it can also be quite traumatic.

For 30 minutes, she cried and tried so hard to tell me and show me what she was asking. She kept trying to act out what she was asking. She would draw her one arm up, so her fist was by her shoulder, and the other arm was outstretched. It looked like she was trying to shoot a bow and arrow.

But she's never even seen one.

I asked her, if it had to do with Daddy's run. No. It didn't. But it resulted in more crying and exasperation.

Was it on a street driving away from here? No. And cue crying.

Was it at the store? Nope. Not there either.

Was she talking about exercises? No. That wasn't it, and the drama continued.

At one point, I joined her in the crying. It's so frustrating to not be able to help her, and it's so hard to see her go through the pain of not being understood.

I asked her repeatedly to show me where it was, if it was in the house. She said it wasn't.

Finally, I just asked her to follow me, and I pointed out some workout things my husband uses to strengthen his forearms. If he doesn't use them, he has a problem with tendonitis. So I took her to them and asked, if that was what she was talking about.

It was.

Finally.

She was trying to find out, if he was going to do his exercises when he got home. He wasn't. But she has such a hard time living in the moment, because she's always looking ahead to what's going to happen or not going to happen next that she just can't relax. Today was a prime example.

After I finally figured out what it was and discerned her unintelligible jargoning, she was fine, but my neck and shoulders are still tight all these hours later. I'm just so glad she was able to go to bed with a smile on her face, and it all but forgotten.

Somehow, I was able to get 6 or 7 loads of laundry done today, even though we didn't get started on the list just yet. We'll be kicking into overdrive to work on it tomorrow. I think we'll be able to get most of it done.

I hope.

I need a bigger win.