The Last Couple of Days

So, here we are, at Friday already. This week seems to have gone quickly, yet other times it seems to have taken FOREVER to end. On Wednesday I could not believe it was not the weekend yet.

Wednesday we went to the pre-trial hearing for one of the young men accused of vandalizing our rental. He was the one who used to live in that house with his mom and step dad. His biological dad was at this hearing and from what the Procecutor told us, the boy had not been honest up to this point with his parents and when the police reports were shown to the parents, it was a bit of a surprise to them to see the extent of the damages. All 3 have now pled guilty to one felony as a plea bargin. We go before the judge sometime in May to hear sentencing and find out about restitution.

Yesterday Steve went back to Ann Arbor for another post-op check. This time we got good news- the healing is doing well so the stitches and everything came out!! We are all relieved with this. We go back in 2 weeks for another check, but everything is looking GREAT!! I am very happy to see a pretty normall looking belly button. Steve has decided it was worth the surgery now - a big change from 2 weeks ago when he was in so much agony he was sorry we ever did it.

The renovations continue in the rental. Mike changed the window in the bathroom since we pulled the plaster off the walls rather than try to strip the wall paper and then hope the wall underneath was in good condition. It needed insulation anyway - we found absolutuly NONE in that bathroom's walls. He even re-wired it - much needed in this old house. The workers we hired have hung all the drywall now and the last of the wall paper should be down soon. She is properly fixing the cracks in the plaster (not too many are in there either, that was a very pleasant surprise) as she goes, so the bedroom is just needing the layers of mud over the joints and then sanded. We will order the carpet soon so it is here and ready as soon as I have it all painted. Home Depot will lay it in both rooms for only $97 in labor - well worth not doing that ourselves!!

Man Toys

Today I got to play with the Man Toys. Whooaa... I mean the riding lawn mower!!! I had the boys begin mowing the lawn tonight, one on the riding mower and one pushing. My goodness they were taking FOREVER!!! I know we have a lot of land but Come On!! After an hour and a half I called them in for dinner. Not even a third of the yard was done. Now partly due to the job I used to have and partly just my personality, I hate it when the boys poke along getting a job done. Pete of course threw a couple little tantrums during the process until I told him that when we re-instate allowance, that poor attitude would mean an instant loss of that week's money. So after dinner I had Darling Oldest give me a refresher course on how to start the rider then had him do a couple of inside tasks and I began mowing - when he was done with those tasks then he needed to come back outside to finish mowing. It was a little scary at first - it needs some power steering and better shocks!! - but I got the hang of it. I used to tease Steve about mowing on "Turtle Speed", but I must admit I was there for a while myself. I do see why the men go out in the spring with the lawn roller to flatten out all those bumps - No, Mike, that is not permission to go out and buy one, I'm just saying....

Rental House

We are finally making progress on the rental house. We have hired someone to do the wall paper removal, and putting up, mudding and taping, and sanding to "ready to paint" the drywall in the upstairs apartment. Mike is learning how to let go of the control - big sighs as he was looking around at their work last night when he got out of work to check things out. Most of the work was fine, just not how he would have done it. There were a couple issues, but they were addressed last night with the lady in charge of the project. Overall, it will be a good thing. Meanwhile while they work upstairs, I worked downstairs. This house has been empty for years. And Mike knocked down the plaster ceiling, so all that dirt from over the years plus much from the ceiling (he had cleaned up the chunks of plaster, just not swept the dirt and dust) was all over the floor. I have swept in here before, but there is so much stuff all over it was hard to move around. The house had just been left with stuff still sitting in here. We are down to mostly building supplies in here now, and I get a 5 foot round folding table to take home - garage sale destined, since I never have enough tables for my sales. I so badly want to take some Kilz primer to cover the graffitti on the walls down here while I work, but we need to skim coat part of the plaster anyway so it would be a waste of money since I would have to prime again after that. I did get a lot of the vandalism cleaned up - scraped the spay foam off the floors, walls, doors, got rid of the things they broke and the trash they left laying around. I don't think I mentioned that one of these kids was charged as an adult and he pled guilty, his sentencing is sometime in May. The other 2 are charged as minors, and we have another pre-trial hearing on one of them later this week, the one who used to live in an apartment in this house no less. We are going to that one, Mike wants to look this kid and his mother in the eye. We also seem to have a lot of interest in the rentals all of a sudden. The lady doing the work has 2 sons helping her and they both have asked me questions like they were interested in renting. My realator who sold the Sturgis house called me yesterday because I had mentioned the rental to him and he had someone looking for a rental house. I had to tell him we had about a month until it is ready to go. Then today the lady doing the drywall said they had a young friend just engaged who thought the apartment sounded perfect for them. Guess I will bring some rental applications up next time I come and people can start to apply. If they need to give their present landlord 30 days notice the timing would be about right. We figure another month after that and the last appartment will be ready. Then we can concentrate on our projects back home again with the income property taken care of. Overall, things are looking up for us.

The Perfect Storm

Yesterday was one of THOSE days. It started out all right, while Mike was getting ready for work, he asked me what my plans were for the morning, would I mind going out and putting the "Weed and Feed" down on the lawn while the grass was still dewy (is that a word?). Sure, no problem. Hubby leaves and Darling Youngest goes to the bus stop, so I throw on some clothes and run a brush through my hair. HMMM. I'm a little hungry, I grab a quick granola bar for now, breakfast can wait until I am done. Oh, I better throw my cell on the charger now, before I forget, it should be ready for the day after I shower and dress later. We have the same kind of door handles here that I had in Sturgis, you can open the door from the inside whether the door is locked or unlocked. I learned my lesson in Sturgis, locking myself out of the house more than once because of that, so I made sure the door was unlocked and out to the garage I went to get the spreader and 2 bags of stuff for the lawn while Darling Oldest is getting ready for school. I was about 3/4 done with this task when the Oldest comes out onto the porch looking for me and to see what I am doing. He had about a half hour until he had to be down to the bus stop. I sent him back into the house when he tells me the door is locked. He did not know how it was locked, because he unlocked it before he came outside looking for me (Remember that I had unlocked it earlier, so he actually locked it). OK, no problem, check the basement door. Maybe Hubby or Youngest left by that door this morning and it is unlocked. The handle turned - good, we're golden and can get in that way - but door did not open, the deadbolt is still on. UUHHHH. OK, call Hubby to let us in - UUHHH my phone is in the house charging. OK, we have permission to use the Amish phone booth across the street in an emergency, we'll call Mike from that. His phone rings, then goes to voice mail. All right, he's at work and does not recognize this number, I will call again, he'll answer if the calls keep coming or someone in the service shop will tell him to answer it so it will just stop ringing. No such luck. I called 6 or 7 times and no answer, so I leave a message that we are locked out and need him to come let us in. Oldest wants to try picking the lock on the door - "No, I don't know how to pick a lock and you need to stop trying too before you ruin the lock." "But if I don't have my homework and lanyard ID tag for school, I will get detention - you don't understand this is MIDDLE SCHOOL and they expect us to be prepared!". HHMMM - he's the one who locked the door and he's mad at ME because we're locked out???? I found a book to read in my car and there was a lawn chair on the porch. I sit down to wait for My Hero to come let us in - good thing I put on my winter coat to come out this morning. Half an hour later it is time for Darling Oldest to go to the bus stop and off he goes, still mad at me - "you are not staying home from school because we are locked out and you can't get your backpack." I continued to sit on the porch, reading my book ( thanks Mom for sending me a Janet Evonivich book the other day, I never took it in the house!) and begin to think Mike will not come - by now I've been outside almost 2 hours - and I'm getting cold and hungry. With my luck he will not come home for lunch today, so I'll be out here until he comes home from work!!! AND WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO WHEN I NEED TO GO TO THE BATHROOM??? Of course this thought makes me have to go. I may have to walk down to Coachmen, but that must be at least 3 miles from home and the day before I had run my bare foot across a pricker bush in the yard and still had prickers in my big toe which hurt like heck. Mike had not been able to get them out the night before and my toe hurt where he had been digging at it with a needle. I really did not want to walk that far. SIGHHHH. Just about then, I saw an unfamiliar car coming up the driveway. It stops in front of the house and a man I didn't know got out of the car - "Mrs. Fair??? I'm a counselor at the Middle School and I think I have something you want." He holds up a key on a lanyard. "Your son told us what happened this morning, and we thought he was just upset about the possibility of getting detention, but then he told us his mom was sitting on the porch. We tried calling your husband again and when we could not reach him, I went to the Intermediate School and got this from your other son. I can take the backpack with me to the Middle School for your son." Hallelujah, I'm in!! I get the backpack, and thank this unlikely savior several times. I decide to call Mike and let him know in case he comes home in response to my first message, that I am in now. I dial and hear his phone ring - in our home office!!!! He forgot his phone at home today. PERFECT! I go potty (gotta have those priorities in order), make myself some hot chocolate and get under some blankets to warm up. After about an hour - DUHHH, Amy, take a hot shower to warm up - I am ready to get in, when the house phone rings - "Honey, I left my phone at home, can you bring it to me during my lunch hour?"

It's True!

People and their pets really do begin to look alike!! Mike and Santara were all cuddled up the other day, sharing some bonding time, when Mike hollered down to me that Sanatar has "Feline Pattern Baldness"! HUH? That's right her hair line is receeding from her eyes back to her ears, in a line about a half inch wide over each eye. All this time I just thought that was the way her markings were. Upon closer inspection, he is right and she has very thin fur there. Who would have thought it? Where do they sell the Rogain for Cats?

A New Pet

Mike went out to work on the Mother-In-Law's apartment over the garage Monday night. He needed to evict a family of birds building a nest and finish closing in the eves to keep out more. This was apparently a bit more complicated than anticipated, Pete came running into the house asking were the awning hook for the camper is kept. Just as I get into the "Why would you need that?!?!" questioning of the child, my phone rings, darling husband told me that he had indeed sent the boy up for it, he needed it to pull the nest from the eves. Sighhhh, I'm blogging about the oldest, and this is interupting my trian of thought. Out to the camper I go to get it (I really hope SOMEONE besides me remembers to put it back so we have it when we go camping this year). Soon, the oldest runs up to the house to tattle - a favorite activity for him - "Pete found some Blue Jay eggs and wants to raise them!" Before I can say much, in comes hubby and the boy carrying 3 light blue eggs (for those of you wanting to be correct, they are Robin eggs). One was cracked, the other 2 intact. One boy ran down for his desk lamp, the other to get Easter grass, while I found a small Tupperware bowl. Hubby will bring the aquariam up to put the whole apparatus in to keep safe from "The Girls"- AKA Santara and Fiona. Mike opened the one that was cracked to see how far they are in their developement, and they are brand new. Guess next I will be researching how to incubate eggs. The boys have been warned how unlikely it is for these eggs to even hatch. Pete can't wait to find worms and chop them up to feed the babies with an eye dropper.

More Trials

Today at 1 PM, Steve was to go back up to U of M for a second post-op appointment. Now, this is a 3 hour drive for us, so the late appointment was a bit of a luxury, we would leave at 9 and miss rush hour traffic on the highways. Steve could sleep in - after all, he was missing school. So, 7 AM comes and first hubby leaves for work, then Pete off to school. Steve was up eating breakfast, so my turn to take a shower and leisurely get ready to leave. I step out and grab my towel when I hear Steve yell to me that there was something wrong, his cathater would not drain. "OK, go get dressed. I am getting dressed now, so when you come back up I will take care of it." After all, I am MOM - superwoman extrodinare!! Or so I thought. I tried all my best tricks and nothing. By this time it is 7:30 AM, the clinic is not open yet to call for instructions - ER or up to U of M early? The Dr. was very adament after surgery, he would be the one to take out the catheter, so I choose U of M. I called them on the way to let them know we were coming. Our Dr. is not in until later but Dr. Bloom, who used to be head of this department when Steve was born, was in as well as a Physician's Assistant and a couple of nurses. Someone would take care of him. I made the trip in 2 1/2 hours, and by the last half hour, tears were running down his face and he could not sit still. I wanted to weep with him. It had been 14 hours since he had last emptied his bladder. Think how bad it feels to REALLY have to go, but then you can't so it keeps getting worse. By the time we get to clinic, he feels sick and needs to throw up too. They had paged Dr. Park and he had left instructions for his staff to irrigate the catether, but not pull it out (he was on the way in to see Steven). And get the bladder empty!! Now, irragating involves pushing more liquid into his already over-full bladder. He was a trooper with only minimal complaints. We had to have him change positions a couple of times, push the base of the catheter around a little (which hurt him) and some other things I won't get into, but finally, FINALLY things came free and he was able to empty. Out come a couple of hospital urinals and by the time he is done, he drained almost 2 liters out of his bladder. Remember, his bladder was agumented when he was 5, so it's a bit fragile. We were close to a rupture. Thank God, I set out early - it was only 15 minutes from his call for help until we were on the road. Dr. Park told me our local ER probably would have been squimish about doing what needed to be done to drain him and it was right to come to him instead. By the Grace of God, this did not happen on the weekend when the clinic is closed.