so its my birthday

and normally I am a huge geek for birthdays, be it mine or my children's or really anyone else's. My husband jokes that my birthdays are actually weeklong celebrations and there is a little teensy bit of truth to that, I love to celebrate and will stretch it out as long as I possibly can.

This year is different. Not because I am turning 33 and feeling like that is old or any of the other normal reasons for not being excited about a birthday, but because my health is not great. It's not horrible, but things are pretty rough. I am having a lot of trouble walking and moving, my joints are locking up and I'm hurting quite a bit. Also having more memory issues and some of the myoclonus again. It's really frustrating, I feel way too young to feel this old. It's also a little scary and I am trying not to let myself even think about the what ifs.

So, it took me forever to get going today, just getting the kids to school sapped a good part of my energy. I ended up crying in the shower and I really, really hate letting this get to me. It is though. Made it to work, and the preschool surprised me with a card and sang Happy Birthday and I got lots of little hugs. You've gotta love that.

My own kiddos sang and said Happy Birthday and gave lots of hugs and my sisters sent me a really pretty necklace, I haven't gotten jewelry in forever.

I just wish I could get out of this funk.

No pictures yet...

my health is not so fantabulous at the moment, mostly I am working, being with my kids, doing some house stuff, and getting ready to turn 33 tomorrow. Okay so I really don't have much to do to turn 33, but the rest is all true.

Will update when I am feeling better.

My littlest guy is SIX today!

Colin had just turned two years old when this picture was taken, he is making a fashion statement in one of his sisters' hat and coat. He was such a little chubba. Today we are celebrating all day that he is now six years old, boy is he feeling big. This morning he announced he can now reach the tallest monkey bars, because of course he must be taller. He's asked for a jet pack and a dirtbike, both of which have been nixed for obvious reasons, but his dad did look them up on the internet for him. Colin will now tell you "I really wanted a jet pack, but they cost way too much money." lol

He is also wearing a "birthday tie." We had stopped at a consignment store yesterday and he found this tie and wanted it for his birthday, he's been wearing since then. I'll post pics later but it is hilarious, he walked up to my dad and yelled "HEY GRANDPA LOOK AT MY BIRTHDAY TIE!"

I love this kid.

CATS!

I love my cats. I really do, I am happy we have them and the whole family loves them and it has helped one of my sons get over his fear of animals to have them in our lives.

BUT. Last night, fairly late I heard a loud noise. I thought it was my husband and paid no attention. An hour or so later I got up as I suddenly remembered I needed to dry our clothes for this morning. As I walk into my kitchen I am smelling a perfumey sort of smell, like dryer sheets, so I follow the smell and why is the laundry room floor blue and WHAT IN THE HELL?!!?

My laundry room is a sea of detergent. The brand new just opened bottle of detergent is laying on its side on the floor with the cap off and it is now EMPTY. I stood there with my mouth open just staring at this gigantic mess, this waste of an ENTIRE bottle of laundry detergent.

I decided to ignore it and go back to bed. If I started cleaning it up I would be up all damn night and I had to get up early this morning and it would keep. I tried to think it would be easier if it were more solidified anyhow. I mean the floor in there is old anyway and it just isn't worth it.

Damn cats.

And again with the gone forever!

Finally, here again. Blah blah with the whole school started life is nuts still getting house together illness stuff, etc.

As a special gift I will post the master bathroom pictures. I do not have the pictures of it finished, it is now bright yellow and I will probably change it when I get enough energy to tackle it again.


Here it is, with the lovely border and sponge painting:


And shells which were hot glued around the top of the wall and all around the shower:


Some of the many tools used for removal and cleaning as well as odor control (odor control was most important at first):


No more border, thanks Dif and my handy dandy scraper!


The shell graveyard, also a shot of the really yucky carpet. The black around the edges is dog hair from the Newfoundland:


Yeah, seriously gross carpet. You can see why we were wore shoes in this part of the house.


And the shells are gone! They were stuck on fairly well, until I sprayed them with Dif, let them soak, and voila! they popped right off.


And finally, covered in primer. Whew. I had some yellow so I muted it quite a bit with white and it ended up still being VERY bright. Eventually I will repaint, but again, there is still so much that needs tackling it may be ten years before I get to it.


So, there you are, the bathroom redo. We also painted the bottom cupboards, which were a very dark wood, with a light, light brown. Much better.

I promise more pics soon!

Between the house, kids, work, and other activities I haven't had much extra time. I've then had to spend a lot of time recuperating from doing waaaaaay too much lately, my body was not very happy with me for a few days there.

We FINALLY have our carpet in upstairs, thank goodness. Now will be moving things into the bedroom. It is going to be so nice having bedrooms and beds and space and doors that can close. 6 people in three rooms for this long is a little wearing.

I can't wait to have dressers again.

The temporary kid play area, Arenne, Colin, & Abbie intently using it.


The Living Room, new couch hasn't been delivered yet:


The dining room, currently a storage area and where the Wii is, Drew is found here often.


The other side of the dining room, again storage for now.


The laundry room:


Kitchen:


The master bathroom, will be painted. We've torn out that weird sliding curtain thing and I am in the middle of epoxying the shower/tub surround.

even more pictures

This is the dog run in the backyard, the shed is pretty old, and there is concrete along with that lovely green umbrella.


We had this dumpster delivered as we knew there'd be lots of carpet and things thrown out. We filled maybe a fourth of it and let the former owners use it as they moved out (this saved us from having to throw it out ourselves). They filled the rest.


Natural Vegetation, yeah.


Side view of the deck, the tire and wood was left. The pvc piping was put up to hold an awning, we'll be removing it.


Very tall birdhouse

The skeery basement

Next are pics of the basement, which had been annihilated by a very large Newfoundland and a small pooping and peeing everywhere dog. We still have one room to tear carpet out of and a lot more bleaching and cleaning. We're going to put a sealer paint down
on the floor. This is waiting while we finish the main floor.

Here are the stairs going down:


One of the best parts, rows of shelves!


Some things they left:


My Future Craft Room!


The absolute worst, very horrifying room, you are looking at dog hair, pee, and poop along with mold-which was thankfully on the surface of the wall. This carpet is now gone, as is the mold.


Eventually this will be the playroom, after much work. This carpet is also going, and there was surface mold here as well, it has been removed. All of that is stuff they left, although we don't mind the treadmill and big screen tv.


Once again, all they left. We have lots of extra paint now, although most of it has now been painted over.


The work are next to the shelves, a better part of the basement.

As promised...pics!

First, the outside, we have a lot of work to do with the gardens and the outside needs painted, but the yard is huge and perfect for the kiddos:

we've finally made it out of the ghetto!

We're officially in our new house. In case I have not clarified before, our old neighborhood was not an actual ghetto, but it is full of duplexes with a lot of people crammed into a small area. As it is mostly rentals you have a mix of people who care about where they live and those who definitely do not. We're in a smallish town in the midwest, its as ghetto as towns like ours get.

We've been renting for the entire eleven years of our marriage and are so very happy to FINALLY be in our own place. Thankfully the house has cleaned up much better than expected and the awful, horrible dog pee smell is confined to two rooms in the basement, which we're tearing the carpet out of. I'd love to power-wash them with bleach, but regular old scrubbing and mopping with bleach will have to do.

New carpet for the bedrooms and hallway upstairs will be (hopefully) installed at the end of the week, I'll be painting this week. Also painting the shower/tub in the main bath with epoxy and I just might have killed a few of my much needed brain cells with the fumes.

For now all six of us are living in three rooms of the house; living, dining, and kitchen-along with using the bathrooms. Yes, we're living like squatters. It's tight, but will be worth it once the carpet is in and we can move in all the furniture.

Too tired now, but promise pictures soon!

The good news

is that they are cleaning the house a bit as they move out, along with airing it out. It is MUCH better than when we'd been there last.

The bad news is I am STILL packing and we have a big gigantic ton of work to do over the next couple weeks.

Yay!

Finally here again

I once again forgot my email and password for this thing, until I remembered I use Mozilla and they are saved. Whew.

Where to start? On the health front I am having another flare, now the vasculitis is attacking my joints and causing arthritis. I feel like an old lady and am worried I am taking too many NSAID's. I started a new drug called Plaquinil, which will hopefully stop the joint damage in its tracks. I had to have an eye exam prior to starting it, apparently my eyes are reliable. I told the doctor I was happy to hear that something actually worked right. I'm having more of the jerks/shakes/tremors and hands aren't always working right, at least I've had a few years of this to get (mostly) used to it.

The five year old has climbed onto my lap in an effort to convince me he should get to do an "art projeck" using glue right now. I am staying strong with my no's. Colin+glue=scary, sticky disaster

On the home front-AACK GAH ACK HELP!! We're moving over the next week or so, the house we are moving into is a mess. Apparently the one or both of the dogs that have lived there have made it their mission to shit and piss everywhere. Contributing to the awfulness of it, the house has been closed up for a couple months. It SMELLS horrible and makes me want to cry. We have a LOT of work to do now, but have to wait for them to get the rest of their stuff out-of which there is a ton. Scary, scary, scary. We're trying to focus on the end result, instead of the process in getting there. We may just get drunk and stay that way through all of the work in cleaning it up.

The end of this movie

makes up in a teensy way for the rest.

So it's been a bit

and I know the plan was for me to blog every day this month, but I haven't made that goal. At all. At the moment I am watching "I think I Love My Wife..." starring Chris Rock. I wish I could say I like this movie, but at this point it just irritates the shit out of me with it's stupid cliches and ridiculousness. There is something about this whole crappy genre of movies that treat wives like they are this ball and chain or thing to be put up with that just completely irritates the shit out of me. Not even just wives, but even those who have long-term commitments, all of it. It is completely insulting that in movies we are relegated to picking out wall sconces and wallpaper and apparently that is all we are good for. Blech. And another blech.

The other thing is that it assumes wives are these are ignoramuses who would have NO IDEA that their husband is being a ridiculous jerk off chasing some chick who can't stand on her own two feet to find someone not already with another person. Starting a fight to get out of the house? Blech, yuck, patooey!

So on the real side of things, my kids are fantastic and doing great things every day. I have been having a crapload of arthritis and although I am handling it better mentally, it is really jacking with my daily agenda.

I have also decided that it is officially my mission to let other moms know that most of us are not at all together and prepared and FANTABULOUS, that there are only a very select few who are able to follow that mode and the rest of use muddle along in a realistic way. At the preschool program tonight I was told by three other mothers that were not prepared for dressing their kids up for the program and how they'd rushed to get them appropriate clothes for the night. And how they STILL felt unprepared for forgetting tights/shoes/whathaveyou. I made it a point to let them know two of my four were in lunch stained shirts and all four were in play clothes and we barely had their hair brushed before the program started. I let all of them know that if they were even tempted to feel bad they should think about us.

In the end, while I (briefly) considered rushing home for program type clothes, I decided to roll with it. It was not worth it to rush and go and do so my kids could wear some certain outfit. And not once during that program did I even think about my kids' clothes. I was focused on their smiles and how they sang and did they dance. It was fun and great and FANTABULOUS. Even if they weren't dressed up in their finest and polished up.

My goal is to affirm to other moms that while we feel pressured to achieve some damn goal, the achievers are few and far between and us catcher-uppers are more common than anyone would like to believe.

P.S. I do work for the Lutheran Church and there is a Minister in my title and I STILL am not a super-mom. So there. Take that.

Mother's Day is almost here...aaah.

Yesterday a friend and I went for manicures and pedicures to treat ourselves for Mother's Day. It was fantastic. I hadn't been for either in a looooong time and forgot how relaxing it is. They had wonderful massage chairs-the best I've ever sat in-and did a great job. I had been in a lot of pain yesterday so it was especially nice to feel better. We laughed and had fun and just relaxed. I was a tad overwhelmed and edgy before, so it was to my family's benefit as I came home much happier. Wish I could afford to do it every week.

I have got to get some pictures uploaded, but I am too lazy right now. Colin lost his FIRST tooth and is very excited. As the youngest he often feels like he has to wait FOREVER for these kinds of things and he wanted to pull the tooth out himself when it was barely wiggly. I got him to wait and we pulled it out this morning, he is very, very happy and showing off his grin all over the place. The tooth next to it is wiggly as well and won't be too far behind.

On a hugely exciting note we will be moving soon. We are buying a house! We'll be leasing to own for a couple years, the seller can avoid tax penalties and it gives us a bit more time to get the loan in place. We're getting a great deal and the house is PERFECT. We cannot wait, we've been renting for way, way too long and as much as we've made this our home it just isn't that great and could be taken care of much better by our landlords. It will be so nice to be in our own place and have our money going towards something instead of into someone's pocket.

I can't wait, and am so excited. Except the move will happen around mid to end of June and it's MAY and I have a lot to pack and do. GAH!

I've started

yet another dishcloth. They are so handy and so easy to make and it is so easy to avoid working on a project that seems to be taking forever in favor of a quick little nifty dishcloth.

I'm toying with the idea of crocheting a bathroom rug or two, but because of the aforementioned projects I've been avoiding I don't want to start anything new. I really, really need to just buckle down and work on them. The crazy part is that I like working on them once I get going, so it makes no sense for me to avoid them.

I'm not sure why I expect myself to make sense though, you'd think I'd have gotten used to it by now.

Collect your money

I officially missed yesterday. If only I had popped on to dash off a quick note. Except I didn't.

I spent much of the day at church where the line is often blurred between my volunteering and working. For some I am told to put down hours worked, but for others its all volunteered. I ended up with the notes from the two hour afternoon meeting as well personal notes for all the things asked/given to me to do as a result of the meeting. Wheeeee!

I also went to dinner with a friend and it was very nice, very nice! I think both of us needed a break from husbands/kids/jobs/houses to vent and talk and laugh. I felt much better, especially after being sick and in spite of having fifty bazillion thousand things to do at work and home.

Apparently it was also Ex-Boyfriend Day at the restaurant we went to for lunch. First I saw an ex who I had almost married and was with for a long time. I haven't run into him for at least 8 years and it was sort of strange because he looks older and it was a reminder that I also look older and am indeed in my 30's. The other is a good friend and our daughters and sons now play together and I've gotten over the weird we're grown-ups now factor with him. I did tell my mom that we needed to get out of there because after one or two more ex-boyfriend sightings it could only go downhill from there

Alright

so I made yesterday's post on the 1st, but then didn't get it posted until today. But it retained the original date. So there you go. My only defense is that I have once again caught the latest respiratory whatever going around.

Sometimes I feel like Charlie Brown.

The handy thing about Identical Twins

is that if people want to know what they look like and there is only one of them around, I can say "There's another one just like her."*

*Disclaimer: Yes, we celebrate their individuality and they are not known as the twins or as one person, but as two entirely separate people who look very much the same.

This should've been my post for the 2nd, which I apparently did not actually publish to my blog.