A Riddle For You

What do you get when you mix a sick lady taking codine and sleet from the night before? Not good ideas, that's for sure. Yesterday, I told Mike I would run to the hardware store for a part he needed. I could not remember where I had put my regular tennis shoes so I grabbed my exercise ones - you know the type with the funny sole to make you balance as you walk. My first step onto the sidewalk told me what a bad idea it was, but I was too stubborn to go back inside to change.

We Did It

After only 2 weeks of advertizing it, we got the 2nd apartment rented again. Back to 2 down, 1 to go! I know we've set them before, but our new deadline to finish the last apartment is to be done by the end of March. We have a renter on the line for it and he wants to move in badly. Our being sick the last 2 weeks has set us back from where we could have been, but that's the way things go. We will finish this one, take off a week or so, then back to the apartment house to finish the entrace hall. The inside will then be complete. A bit of time this summer will spruce up the outside and we will have a very fine rental house that we are proud to show anyone and I think anyone would be happy to live in.

Mother Nature?

I don't know who ever decided that Nature is a Woman. And if she is indeed, she is no Mother. She may be some catty, vindictive single lady out on the prowl, but I see no Maternal Instincts to comfort and sooth.

Last Tuesday my Darling Husband came home from work feeling lousy. Wednesday came around and he felt so bad he called in to work sick - something I have never known him to do. He even called the Dr. in the afternoon and made himself an appointment without my prompting him to. He gets his diagnosis of Bronchitis, is handed his prescriptions, a quick trip to the pharmacy and home we go. He stayed home again on Thursday and then back to work on Friday- probably should have waited until Monday, but that's another can of worms.

By Friday late morning, I feel the bronchitis coming on - ya know that wheezy feeling in your lungs- so I made a quick trip to the grocery store in preparation for Mommy to be sick - I didn't want the world to stop turning because I was not able to keep it spinning. By Saturday night I'm down with it, Sunday was awful between the chills from the fever and the hot flashes from my perimenapause. But Monday I was feeling better - just that cough that won't allow me to catch my breath. That had DH worried and I promised to see my Dr. on Tuesday. Then I get my diagnosis - asthmatic bronchitis, sinus infection, and just for kicks and giggles an ear infection. In fact my Dr gave me a breathing treatment on a nebulizer in the office before I left. She warned me this was going to get worse before I really feel better and she is right, last night I was ready to just collapse and I told my family I am not doing anything for the next 2 days.

If Nature were really a Mother, she would have spared me the hot flashes when I was already sick. She wouldn't have thrown that ear infection in there on top of the other stuff, and caring for my sick husband would not have left me down and out.

It's Back

Oh, how spoiled we became with a week of warm weather. We were down to just a couple piles of snow, where the driveway was plowed out. The dog was frisky and wanting to spend time outside during these beautiful days - Mike and I did not want the dog spending so much time outside until the mud made by all the melting snow had dried up. (She's so hyper sometimes that bath time is a family affair - I miss the days I could just throw her in the sink and rinse her off.) Yesterday we first got HUGE, fluffy snow flakes, then came the freezing rain. This morning everything is ice coated, and if we did not already have today off from school for President's Day, school would have been cancelled. I had begun to think the ground hog was right and we would have an early spring. However, it is only February and winter is back.

My Best Plasticware

As we are working on the rental house, I have been trying to cook meals there. Usually this involves the crock pot - a working mom's best friend. The other day I made a roast with potatoes and carrots. As I was checking for supplies, I noticed that we were out of plastic forks, and Mike wanted a spray bottle. Off I ran (OK, I drove) to the dollar store. When dinner was ready, I stuck the fork in the meat and used a plastic knife to cut it into pieces. As I served the meat, I immediately noticed that the fork was melting. OK, I had left it standing in the roast while I was serving the veggies. Bad idea. Everyone gets their meal and my best plasticware and now it's time to eat. As we are eating my family begins to complain about their forks melting. Apparently that dollar store plastic is not made for hot items!

It's Coming

Fast and fuious, I am on my way to turning 40- next month. Turning 30 hit me hard - I was in the middle of divorce, a single mother, no longer young (yeah, I know, but at that time, I did not feel young) and facing the daunting possibility of what my new life would be. I was just realizing the challenges of parenting alone. It was not a good time for me. Now here I am - facing 40. This decade shows those possiblitlies from my 30's blossoming. I am a newly wed (Mike and I married a year and a half ago), living in a new community, my babies (they were just 1 and 3) from my 30th birthday are becoming young men, whom I enjoy getting to know. I find 40 bringing me a new confidence in myself, and my husband brings me great happiness. My work life is so totally different now from what I ever thought it would be. I loved my time I just spent as a receptionist, and one of the part time tax ladies I work with is keeping me in mind for when she needs another receptionist at her full time job, in the next town over. My life experience is showing (some call that wrinkles and gray hair), and I no longer have the energy of youth. But I am approaching 40 with optimism. I have learned a lot in 10 years - patience, tolerance, compassion. Maybe I had to go through all I did to learn to put aside the selfishness and arrogance of youth.

Moving Day

Our great tenants moved the other day from one apartment to a bigger one in the house. As usual, my darling husband and myself were a little behind on finishing the projects we had started, but we told them they could begin to move things into most of the house, but we still had a few things to finish in the kitchen and in the basement. As we were working, they were in and out with things. Now, mind you, this apartment is 2 stories, and the staircase goes in through a doorway and in about 4 steps it turns 90 degrees. Soon we heard them coming in with a Queen sized box spring. I just giggled to myself knowing there was no way they would get that up those stairs. Hubby went out to tell them to hold on, he was pretty sure they could get it in through one of the upstairs windows. Out to the barn to get the scaffolding and set it up. Off comes the framing for the storm window and unscrew a piece of wood across the top. OK, here we go. Hubby and 2 others outside heaving it up. Female tenant and me inside to guide it inside the house. Darn, it did not fit. OK, phone call to Good Will to see if they have 2 twin box springs - no luck. The final plan - Hubby got the saw and cut the frame in half. Hubby and tenant hubby fold the thing in half and again it gets heaved up from the outside but this time goes through the window. I told them to remember this, I think we get bonus "Landlord Points" for that.

Snow Day

Last Wednesday, after our big storm came through, we all had a snow day. The county declared a snow emergency, so all non emergency vehicles were to stay off the roads or be ticketed. This gave Me and Hubby snow days from work too. We were pretty sure that would happen, so Hubby had brought home from work his Carhart Overalls. As a family we went outside to play, but there was so much deep snow the sleds would not go down the hills. Then we tried to make snow forts, but it was not good packing snow. It was trash day, but who knew if the trash man would be coming in the next day or so. I had the boys get the trash can close to the driveway entrance before the snow, since our driveway is VERY long and it would have been awful to drag it out in deep snow. So out to the end of the drive we all went, Pete with a snow shovel to clear a spot for the can. We were all tired after our walk so we sat in the snow to rest and bury Hubby in the snow, although the wind was still biting and whiping snow in the air and into our faces. Up we go, only to stop in about a hunderd feet to make snow angels. By that time we are cold and went back in the house. The rest of the day was spent in the house watching movies - for some reason the satalite TV is giving us free STARZ channels for a year. Some sort of anniversery gift or something. Good timing for that! The driveway got plowed about 9 PM that night. and everything was running normally the next day. So much for the Blizzard of 2010!

I'm Back

I know it's been a long time since I've posted, but life has a knack for getting in the way. Anyway, I want you all to be the first to know that Mike and I are expecting. After a rough couple of weeks and lots of waiting around to see what would happen, it's official - we are expecting to have another day of below zero temps tomorrow and another school delay!!

Actually I already know there is a delay. I get an automated call on my cell phone from the school whenever there is a delay or no school day. And lately they have been calling the delays or day off the afternoon before. They boys like this because they don't have to set their alarms and can just sleep in. I think they are missing some of the excitment of sitting in front of the TV in the morning watching the alphabetical list of school closings or delays, perking up everytime your school's section came up. The cheering when you see it, or the scrambling 15 minutes before you have to be out the door because you did not get ready to go, just knowing you would be closed, or at least delayed!