present to us

so some of you know that last year we got two dogs, besides being weiner dogs and crazy it became horribly apparent that I was completely allergic to them, we found them wonderful homes and decided that we weren't a dog family. Then in March when I could take no more sinus infections I broke down and got allergy tested, I am apparently not allergic to dogs... I am however very allergic to dust- uhmmmmmmmmmmm we have an old house, and trees... even in this horrible anti-preserve the environment state we live in, there are still some trees. So we read books on dog breeds and found the most hyper allergenic dogs breeds, then from there narrowed it down to how a breed would fit in with our family... then we applied to rescue a Bichon Frise... I'm assuming we got turned down- they never responded, they don't believe in adopting out to families with younger kids. Anyway long story short we found a breeder who charged for papered bichons 25 $ more then the adoption place. Now I don't generally agree with breeding critters any more, I know I have had several purebreds I even tried to breed the Siamese cats, but if I can't even be considered to help a dog, we even filled in the fostering section of the app. then screw them. I was just going to go over and take a peek, they had 2 13 week olds and a new 2 week old litter, I figured we would all go home discuss it and wait for the 2 week olds to be weened... mind you the hubby was whining about timing, and potty duty... well he held one of the 13 week old girls and yes we left with her. Her name is Daisy and she is wonderful... except that she really has taken quite too much to the hubby. She hasn't made any messes yet... knock on wood... she just flops in your lap and stays put... ahhhhhhhhhhhh... a lap dog! So there is my present for my bathroom accomplishments... but I suppose I'll share!

the sight of sweet success

Well I got 6 tiles down... and it looks SWEEEEEEEEEEEEET! Hopefully I'll be able to grout tonight and tomorrow we should get the sink completely in! Next step is the gross step... gotta take the toilet up so I can tile that area... since we put the toilet in last year it won't seem so yucky, I dunno, it's seems so much worst when it's not your pee and poop residue in the pipes. Definitely a job for the hubby and he has already volunteered... that's my trooper, yep I'm doing 95% of the work... but he'll take care of the ultra disgusting stuff 100%!!!

tiling

okay... so today I begin to tile the bathroom!!!! Right now I only have to do under the sink so I can get the sink finally permanently in place... but it's a start!!!!!! I'm trying to decide what my reward should be for finishing the bathroom. Once the outside painting is completed we are buying a ceiling fan for the porch that is a tad more expensive then we would generally allow to spend on such a fixture. I should be kind and tell the hubby he can do his shed... but where is the reward in that for me... other than he won't bug me anymore:) Any ideas?

okay so...

... this is why sometimes it's not so great to be me. While we are on vacation Mr fix it is going to put a base down on the sub floor in the kitchen so I can start tiling. Well he mentioned that the glue would have to come up... in places its hard, no longer tacky and quite thick, I'm not sure if the previous people actually knew they were putting down linoleum. So I said I'd take care of that, cut some costs, make it easier, put my time in... well I really didn't quite know what I was doing, and I've been digging and scraping with chisels and floor scrapers for 3 hours... I got 7 tiles up and the sub floor is beautiful... now lets count my blisters!!!!! So I gave in and called Mr fix it to see if there was an easy way to do this task... he laughed... FOR 10 MINUTES... I was only supposed to scrape up the loose stuff, it should have taken 3 hours if that for the whole kitchen!

Call me Shelia Villa!

house painting

Mr fix it will finish painting my house... I was kinda wondering how I was going to get all the way up to the top... better muscles then I! We can honestly say we worked on it when and where we could! I'm now starting on the kitchen floor... it needs to be scraped. So progress on the bathroom will stop for a few days... maybe weeks... but the plumbing is done now!!!!!

problem procrastinated and then fixed

yeah... I slacked and I procrastinated on the sink issue then I got an idea and it worked. basically the sink has feet and then sub feet for leveling... they screw in and all the way out lowering the sink 5/8ths of an inch! I'll have to find a different way to level the front out, but that won't get in the way of the trim on the half wall. Even though I worked a double yesterday... 6am to 11pm with a 2 hour lunch, I got the bead board almost all cut and up, just need a last piece about a foot in length. Plus it's all painted. Plus the trim is almost done too. half of that is painted as well! All in all it looks like my end "o" month time line will work!

I've also been busy planning the Breaking Dawn midnight release party for my Borders store... tomorrow I have to build a mini coffin. I can't say what for as of yet! I've set the hubby up for making our mixed Cd overhead play list. I've also come up with an original game, and embellished on a few that we have to do. Costume is almost ready... really just very plain and simple. Not revealing that yet either!!!

In other news I finished My Horizontal Life... very entertaining, now on to homework for work, I'm reading Un Lun Dun right now to see if it is appropriate for my group, so far so good... I'm not really into the story, but I love how the book has random drawings on the pages... that's cool!
The craft went over super well on Sunday, and the boss loved it... I sent her pictures!.

WHY WHY WHY WHY

Throwing a small tantrum... so why is it that I make some incredible progress on a project, incredible... only to have the hubby come up to me with that scared out of his pants look and tell me "it looks great but how is this part right here going to work" That's about the time that I realize at step 1 I forgot about something very important... like the fact that the tile will raise the sink about 1/2 an inch and I've got just over an 1/8 to work with. Needless to say I'm not a happy camper today. I got almost all of the bead board and trim work done yesterday now I've got to figure out how to fix my boo boo. I'm going back to throwing my tantrum!!!!!!!

Bathroom Progress

Well it is just too darn hot to paint outside... I have a feeling that was what led to my dehydration early this month. So I started doing little things... then I found a new Mr. fix-it guy, one of my co-workers... So he came over yesterday to assess the bathroom situation and he will be back to work on it on Sunday!!!!!! Of course the outlook of progress led to a flurry of more progress... and the stud work for the half wall is done along with the bead board cut and painted for the area and one other smaller wall... me sooooooooooo proud. I've got to run to Lowes to pick up the correct bead board color nails and some pipe and trim and I'd say if I continue a little each day I might have the walls done the end of the month, and bathroom done by the end of next month!!!!!! Then with any luck it will have cooled off enough to start on painting the rest of the house. Mr fix-it is also going to "mud" the kitchen while we are at the PKU camp so that I can continue to finish the kitchen. I'm so excited.

Well I finished the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants bk1 for my YA reading group, I'd read it before but I enjoyed it just as much this time. I've got to start getting the craft supplies ready for Sunday's group. We are making locker pockets out of jean pockets, magnets, and art stuff to decorate them. in the mean time I'm reading an extremely adult book entitled My Horizontal Life... any guesses on it's subject... yup SEX, I think the author is a comedian ... it is funny. Next I'm going to do some advance reading for my group... first title is Un Lun Dun. We shall see if it fits my criteria!

hopkins

well... we survived the bi yearly visit to Johns Hopkins... but we did have a few hiccups. First is good and bad news, apparently the little guy is not eating nearly enough calories... good news he far exceeded the weight/hieght/head circumference goals... he is the size of a four year old... well duh, he fits just fine in the little mans four year old clothes. So back to eating habits... we were actually told he needed more food... don't they know/comprehend the fight we have with what we feed him now, I only call once a week stressed out over it!!! And apparently we don't feed him enough fatty food... they prescribed junk food... uhm............... what, and I've been so proud that we don't fall into the every night junk food family category. On a good note in November they are going to put him on the new drug, and then instead of counting grams of PHE, it will be grams of protein in NORMAL FOOD. The down side is that we will have many visits that month... thank heaven for grandma's who have already volunteered to watch the little man... apparently they are quite the little team. And finally the last piece of bad news... which at this point is not to be worried about until they figure out what is going on, or how to test it... he doesn't appear to have dermal pain sensors... we had noticed a few weird things, but yestreday as we were there the little man decided to throw a tatrum and flung himself into the edge of a desk... with no reaction! Hot water that is too hot for me, nothing... cold water is the same, when his brother lovely pounds on him... he laughs. So a batch of tests await him for his yearly big visit. JOY:( I guess I should be glad he is on a good growing curve my brother and I never were, and that would be bad for the little guy. Let's all just cross those fingers and hope his numbers come back okay!

inchworms like chamomile

I've noticed several inchworms on and among my chamomile flowers... interesting new tea... inchy-mile... better double check my flowers prior to storing them! Of course they are such cute little worms... and these guys are real small, I kinda love watching them!

I finished my book today, work on the half wall for the sink in the back bathroom, found a bonsai tree for my desk at work, and found a st john's wort plant... kinda cool. Tomorrow I hope to build the wall and get it up... we shall see. If I get out of the gap early enough I may go to borders and play with my bonsai! It needs to be "trained"

Poor hubby... I apparently gave him whatever was ailling me... he always complains i don't share enough:)

vampires and werewolves oh my!

Have I mentioned that I'm on the third Twilight series book... Eclipse. I love them... can't put it down... it's not even my next reading group book. I hate sci fi, I hate vampires... but I am still loving, loving, loving this series... and yes I am special ordering the new book so I can get it at the midnight release party! Which by the way I am co-hosting the midnight release party at borders... with one of my favorite co-workers, since we both love the books we got choosen, we get to do games, dress up, stuff like that... basically be a teenager again for a few hours... like how cool! Okay really it should be fun. My thumbs are way up on this set of books!

Sick, Sick, Sick

Well... I've been sick... I think between the heat and extreme anxiety I've become a ball of sleeping illness.

But I feel better at the moment... been drinking water and Gatorade. I ate today. I also looked at the things that are freaking me out. The little guy is reverting to his old summer ways of not eating... but we have a checkup on Monday at Hopkins so we can talk to the folks there then about it. I really thought I screwed up my interview... well I really could get by with my present job... By the way I GOT THE PROMOTION! So now of course I'm stressing about the added responsibility... should have thought about that first... but I've got a great GM, so again I shouldn't be too worried. I had an issue with a friend that I put off too long addressing because I was afraid she wouldn't be my friend... but I finally dealt with it and as sad as it sounds I will live if she chooses never to talk to me again, and I won't be hiding how I feel any more which is worse for me. Of course the biggie for me is that today is July 10th... Thursday July 10th, and while all the horrible last time dates have been ticking off and reminding me far too vividly of the life I had 5 years ago... I am still here... and I get to have more memories, hopefully much much better ones. I think in many ways I'm a far better person now having lived through those days in July 2003... I don't think I would ever have grown up the way I have... I just wish the price was not the death of someone who I love.

4th of July

Well we had a great time on the 4Th... except for the waiting. It rained buckets during the late afternoon, but it stopped early in the evening so we thought the fireworks would be on schedule... well an hour later we got bored and the little man, Lisa and Uncle Brain and I decided we would walk toward the fairgrounds and see if anyone could tell us if they had been cancelled... apparently not, by the time we got to just outside the gates... ca BOOM. They kinda sucked in two ways, atmospherically we did not have good conditions, the smoke just lingered and after a while you couldn't even see the fireworks. Secondly I didn't get to see the little guys reactions... I heard he got scared and Daddy had to take him inside to watch TV. That really bummed me out, I was looking forward to being together.

As for the interview yeah... I knew the numbers, knew the goals... and in the end she didn't ask one question about any of that... threw me for a loop, I know I floundered. Oh well. I should hear something tomorrow or Tuesday... but I'm not holding my breath.

3rd interview out of 2?

Okay update in my quest to finally acquire the job I was hired for... or so I assumed. The position for the secondary merchandising supervisor that oversees music, video, gifts/stationary, bargain books and magazines had been empty when I joined the borders family in August... and it remained empty until in April they restructured everything and Miss VA either lost her supervisor position or took on that merch position. Well she hung in there as long as she could and resigned in June her last official day is Saturday. I of course applied for it and I've had one of 3 interviews... well 2 if you count the sales manager coming to me and saying, I know what you can do and what you want, I want you in the position, I see no reason to interview you. Cool I guess. So today at 5pm I have my "3rd" interview with the lady either every hates or is scared of... I've done some homework, looked over numbers, I'll try to get in early to run the rewards numbers for today... I feel confident which usually means I'm going to fail. I guess we shall see what happens. The crazy thing is that I've been doing the job since August. Even when Miss VA took she was kind by leaving me alone to do what I had always done... with the exception of asking if she could do anything to help... A great plus if I get the position is that I'll still have that help as she will fall into the hands of whomever gets the position and she'll be helping the inventory people too. Argggggg... gotta chill... I think I'll go chop some chamomile flowers off:)

birthday surprise

Needless to say the hubby loved his gift... we took a white water rafting trip down the Shenandoah and Potomac river... we had a great time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Of course you actually have to work... paddle and I am hurting.

Friday is the fourth already... can you believe it... I can't. We are having the usual suspects over for fireworks and a BBQ. So as usual we have been working on the yard to make it presentable to those lounging on it on Friday... the hubby got half of the border complete, I planted some more plants and replaced the dead ones... it looks great. Tomorrow I'm going to put down the weed control fabric and re mulch and the hubby will complete the last of the border... and just think this is our 3rd summer here it only took that long to finish. Wonder how long it's going to take to finish painting... it is way too hot to do that now, I'll have to wait until the end of August to hopefully complete that. I did talk to a guy today about finishing the pipes to the tub in the half bathroom so we can finish that off into a full bathroom... let's keep those fingers crossed that we can start working on that again soon!

I'm off to soak my hurting bones and start reading New Moon... my reading group meets on Sunday for that... I'm a bit behind!