catio woes

11-27-13

Oh thank goodness for a 4 day weekend!

We have light! We found some cool lamps at Lowes and are quite pleased with how they make the living room not only light up, but they really match nicely and ultimately were probably the cheapest set we found. Yay!

Ken hired some day laborers and got the driveway dug up at Eydie. Our neighbor there is going to do the new concrete, which should look nice. Over this weekend, I plan on going over one day and try to pack up a lot of the remaining items there and start scrubbing a room at a time. If we can get a room done at  a time, we can declare it done and it will feel like we are accomplishing something. The garage is going to be the hardest.

Ken started painting the trim at Steve. Hopefully we can get the house itself painted perhaps even this weekend. We moved all the cat pans to the catio and the boys took their first shower in their bathroom last night. Yay! I am going to go through the duck box this afternoon so they can pick a few to put up.

While Ken worked outside, I worked on inside. We got a ton done. We have another trip to Lowes today for some wall mounts since I want to hopefully put up some mirrors and the mausoleum today. The stuffed animals that the boys decided to keep are being put above their closet. I did a lot, but it turns out a chair plus my limited height do not make for a good combo for putting them all up there.

Poor Bellatrix hurt her foot. She is quite tiny and she must have sprained it jumping down from a counter.

We had quite the scare on Monday night. The boys and I were at Rizzo’s setting up for the Zombie team party and Ken ran home to grab the banner. Thank goodness he did. Luna had broken through the screen door to the catio, leaving the door wide open for cats to escape. Thankfully, Ken located 7 of them pretty easily and it looked as though our normal escapees didn’t even know there was this golden opportunity. The one cat he could not find was Tonks, which was a bit terrifying since she isn’t good with stress. Luckily she had just figured out how being a ninja helps her out in her hiding. We found her after the party and she was ok. Phew!

The catio does need some work to make sure the door doesn’t have this issue again. We are considering putting a second gate on the side of the house to not allow the dogs to even get to where the catio is. Right now we have the trash can blocking the door, but this is obviously not ideal. We will modify some things and hopefully we can get it set up in a nice and secure way.

My primary focus this afternoon is gearing up for tomorrow. I would like to make sure everything is neat and tidy and get some of the food started for the big meal. I need to go to Rite Aid to pick up some wine. I figure this is going to be a nice time to drink with my dad! I know, it sounds like a strange thing to get excited about, but it is one of those fun bonding things I enjoy.

Now if today at work will just go quickly, life will be good. 

Catching Fire

11-25-13

Soccer is done until at least January!!

Ok, that probably makes me a bad person to be excited about this. If perhaps it was Dax’s team, I would be less enthusiastic about the loss. A lot of that is because I also think Dax would want it to keep going. Bobby is pretty indifferent. I mean, there were kids on our team crying after the hard loss, and Bobby says to me all proud, “I am the only one on the kid not crying. I know we lost, but hey, we had fun!” Mind you, the same kid burst into tears when he thought he lost his soccer ball. I suppose everyone has a different break down point.

Dax actually burst into tears after the first loss. He isn’t even on the team, but it bummed him out hard!

What really makes me happy, aside from that whole having my weeknights and weekends back, is that I am done with the parents. I was so embarrassed to be a part of the team this weekend. Sunday morning in particular was brutal. I am used to the coach acting the fool, but to hear parents actually yelling at the ref and yelling to their kids to push back was appalling. The ref was fine. It was a tough match that resulted in a shoot out, which in itself is hard, but the parents on our side were actually yelling at their own kids and making them feel bad when they missed a kick on the field. It was awful. The kids were crying on the field. They were already sad, yet there was nothing positive to help them out. It was absurd. This isn’t professional soccer, for fuck’s sake. It is 9 year olds playing soccer. Ken was the side ref on our side and there were actually multiple times in which not only our coach, but our parents were asking Ken who’s side he was actually on. I was livid. The center ref actually had contemplated clearing our side. I would have happily left the field. At one point, the coach was threatened with the next warning to be a yellow, and he actually didn’t care. He said it isn’t red so it didn’t matter. The parents actually encouraged him to keep yelling at the ref. Holy fuck!

After the game, I mentioned it to the RC and others that were there for just these reasons. I told them that it was horrid and how embarrassed I was. The next game certainly brought out more of the upper folks, but the second game was less heated. It was one of those times in which I am certainly glad I don’t live in places like Texas where there is even more pressure on kids and sports.

Although one would think 3 games would eat up the entire weekend (which it mostly did), I did manage to do some other things. Friday night I got to go see Catching Fire!!!!!! YAY!! It was quite good. I enjoyed it and am anxious to see it again. It certainly wasn’t as great as the first, but it held up. The issue, which is what most adaptations suffer from, was that one could not give quite enough depth to each character. All of it almost should have been broken up into two films. It would have certainly been doable, with half before the arena and the other one in the arena. Oh well.

We were supposed to meet up with Jenni Friday night, but with Dan catching a nasty cold, they had to opt out. We ended up going to Ralphs at 10 at night and did our Thanksgiving shopping. LOL! It was cool since we had no kids with us and the place was empty. I did feel kind of bad, though, since when we got home and found that we ended up with our groceries along with another person’s. Oops.

I also was able to get over to the JFK Bidet to place my rose, which made me happy. I cleaned out a bit of the leaves in the bowl itself and took some time to reflect. It was nice. We probably looked odd, hanging out at this fountain in the middle of the night, but I didn’t really care.

Saturday afternoon was a whirlwind of activity. After the game, the boys and I managed to go through a huge box of their packed clothing and all of their toys and stuffed animals. We cut down everything by two thirds and all of the items we opted on getting rid of was put into the van and we took it all over to Savers. There are now actually spots open in the garage! Plus, the toys are put away and the boys have nice shirts hung up ready for any occasion.

We also ended up going by Eydie and picked up several things, including the vacuum cleaner. This allowed me to get some of the crud up off the carpet. Ken also was able to bring over the final Brenan family members. The fish now reside in our living room next to the tv.

Jenni and Dan came by in the afternoon on Saturday so it allowed me to show off Steve and to catch up a bit. It was really cool to have them over and be all hostesy and stuff! It is a shame they don’t live closer.

This morning I am hoping today goes by quickly. I have reports tomorrow, so today is just gearing up to that. I have Dax’s team party tonight, so that will be fun since I adore those boys, and those are the kind of parents I want to be associated with when it comes to soccer. Hopefully I can get over to Target, too.  

death day

11-22-13

50 years.

I was probably in the 4^th or 5^th grade when I discovered the Kennedy assassination. I remember being pretty obsessed with Lincoln having been shot, but this was a whole new world to me. I would sit in the library in Redondo and pour through every Kennedy book I could get my hands on. There were many that covered everything from his legacy and politics, to the theories and conspiracies that I became enthralled with.

I gravitate towards things that fuck with my head. When Ted Bundy was executed I lost my mind. How it was that we as a society could actually punish people in such a brutal fashion was beyond me. Kennedy was a charismatic leader of the free world. He had a beautiful family and even if someone doesn’t agree with his stance on important issues, did he really deserve a bullet to the head?

Of course, as my age grew, so did my knowledge. I discovered all of the different pieces of information about the epic event of today’s date in history. It really could be considered an unhealthy obsession, but luckily on this one I am not alone. Of course, that doesn’t really make it better.

It being the 50^th anniversary of his death, I in a strange flurry of excitement. Am I actually happy for a day that is about someone who was murdered 50 years ago? No, not at all. I find myself sad and I want so badly to know the truth. I want to hug Jackie. Actually, the one I am most impressed with is Caroline. She has lost so many members of her family in such a tragic way.

Ok, enough with death and on to, um, well, death.

Tonight is the release of Catching Fire, and I get to go!!!!! This evening at 6 I will be chillin in my seat, getting all excited to see my girl Katniss kick some ass. After my movie, Ken and I are supposed to meet up with Jenni and Dan who are in town this evening. I will hopefully be able to bring them by Steve to show off my house, but I have a feeling this will not happen. They are driving today, so they will most likely be tired. I really would like to show off Steve, but if it doesn’t happen I will be ok.

I am decked out in my Hunger Games necklace and pin. I really don’t have an appropriate JFK outfit. LOL! I do, however, want to make sure to place a rose at the JFK Bidet.

We got a shit ton done yesterday. Ken built the closet and put on the screen door. We were able to hang up just about all of the clothing that goes in there. I even got rid of two bags of clothing and shoes! YAY ME! I was very proud of myself. The boys started the tedious process of going through the boxes of toys we had packed up months ago. I was impressed with them, also, since they really did take out a lot of items to toss. Once they decide on everything, we can put in the shelves to organize the ones they keep. It will hopefully be one of our accomplishments of the weekend.

Our catio is not waterproof. There are a number of leaks, which only is really bad in the idea of keeping anything like cardboard boxes in there. Ken is going to go up to the roof and will hopefully be able to patch some of the leaks. My folks will work on it tomorrow to set up the door and screen to block it all off to make it an actual catio. I am anxious to have it all done.

Let’s hope this weekend is awesome!

fingers

11-21-13

Beautiful rain!!

I was on a roll yesterday. The shelves and screen door are done being painted and my back porch is now cleared off. I managed to do a bunch of clean up, also. I was pretty pleased with myself.

I went up to pick up the boys a little later than normal. I started walking maybe 3 minutes before the bell rings. I didn’t worry since their classes never come out on time. Of course, the one freaking time they came out EARLY was yesterday. Sigh. They snipped at me when I got there, and one of Dax’s classmates even questioned my whereabouts. Dude, I was maybe a minute late, peeps. Sheesh.

I pulled a box marked living room and determined that I was only going to keep like 4 things in the box. I am being very picky about what stays and what goes and I am pretty proud of this. I figure as I keep going through stuff, there is going to be more and more things donated to Savers.

I met our new neighbors. The house next to us was leased out and I met the nice young man who moved in. He and his wife are here from Hawaii. He was stationed there before and now reports to base near El Segundo. He was super polite and it shocks me at how charming it is when army folk refer to me as “mam”. He and his wife have a little boy named Noah who is like 14 months. Super cute! You should have seen him light up when he spoke of him. I am anxious to meet the baby and his wife. I am getting more social, too, since I actually invited them to the house warming party, and Ken wasn’t even with me talking to him! I know, right?

We got a letter from Bobby’s teacher asking us about the best time for parent/teacher conferences. On the other side was a letter where he was hoping to schedule a home visit! Apparently he likes to visit with families at their house so he can get to know the kids and to see what their home life is like. I love this! It will be nice for him to understand Bobby and really all of his students better as I would imagine it actually improves his teaching skills. I am more than happy to welcome Mr. Chin into my home for an afternoon.

The good news for today is rain! This not only just makes it happy for me because I love the weather, but it also means that practice will most likely be canceled due to it. This means less stress about getting them done with homework before the practice time. Seriously, next week and going forward is going to be so nice. No more practice!!!

Hopefully Ken can get the shelves into our closet today as that will be my project for this afternoon. I will get to put my clothing away!!! YAY!!! Getting shelves in really is going to be good for all closets since we need to get the garage emptied so we can move the rest of Eydie over ASAP. The sooner we get that cleared out and fixed up, the sooner we can get a renter in.

I am excited about the long weekend next week, too, since it provides me with gobs of time. Sure, turkey day itself will be a bit crazy, the rest has me free as a bird (not a turkey, obviously). Ken will be reffing over at the turkey tournament, which actually makes some things easier on me since it means I can really jump into boxes and get things done. Plus, with the computers, I don’t need to worry about entertaining the boys.

I have been very proud of myself this week. I have gone to the gym every day. Each day I have done between 20 and 25 minutes of quick walking. I have shows to watch, which is helpful. I like getting away from my desk, and although it is only like 300 calories that I burn, it is still 300 calories! I also have been walking faster when I go to the school. I figure every step helps. Today I am hoping the rain is such that I can still walk and not hear them bitching. I have no idea where their umbrellas are, so it isn’t like they get to use those. I actually have a feeling they are at Eydie.

I gave myself a paper cut yesterday with a piece of plastic. It is right on the joint of my finger, too. Not cool. It hurts. I also have this nasty scrape on my other finger from the fridge. Dude, I am broken. LOL!

Nose

11-20-13

I will be happy when I don’t have to paint anything for a long time.

I painted one side of the screen door and one side of all the shelves for the closet. This afternoon I should be able to paint the other side of everything which means I am one step closer to having a closet, and we will also be able to get rid of the yucky screen door in the front. Woo!

My folks plan on working on the catio after Bobby’s game on Saturday morning. I have plans to continue to work on various items at the same time. If all goes well, we should have a catio by Monday! YAY! This will be great as I am tired of the litter being in the bathroom.

We stopped by Eydie last night and got to talk to our neighbor, Anna. That was fantastic! She has been living elsewhere since the fire that hit her house back in March. The insurance only now has finally got to a point where a dumpster should be there this week to start clearing out things so that they can start to rebuild. Crazy shit. I was a little sad to have to tell her we had moved, but the good news is that since we will rent, we will still see her from time to time. I also told her she needs to come to the house warming party.

I managed to delegate some soccer party crap, which is good. I got the coach to handle making bowling reservations since I told him I was swamped. I do have to still collect some money from people for the party itself and I need to order the presents for the coaches, but I can do a lot of that this weekend.

I solemnly swear that next soccer season I will NOT be the team mom.

I found out that there is a horrible rumor of who will replace the RC of the region when Jerry steps down in a year. The good news is that it will be kind of nice to walk away at that point. LOL!

I have no plans to leave the house this afternoon. The boys can do homework and even get it done kind of early so that they can play Minecraft all evening. I will continue to tackle boxes. I found the bathroom box. Sheesh. Yeah, shelves in the linen closet will be nice. It will give me a spot for things like that.

I was so comfy this morning. Stupid alarm. I must have been snoring last night since I can feel my throat being angry with me. My nose has been all kinds of fucked up, so I am not surprised at all of this.

I have so much to do this weekend. I need to shop for Thanksgiving, there will most likely be 2 soccer games to attend, I want to get more things done at Steve and on top of that, I plan to have a life! I am going to see Catching Fire on Friday night, then out for drinks with Jenni who comes in town. Sunday I get to hopefully go to the museum with Stephanie, so this is happy making. Damned soccer games better not screw things up. LOL! 

fluid

11-19-13

Nothing ever goes as planned.

Turned out there was in fact practice last night, which put a bit of a wrench in my plans. Luckily I was able to bounce back and accomplish other things. I was still able to stop by Eydie and gather more items for transport. I really need to stop by today and do what dishes are left there. I meant to throw a box in my car to be able to carry those items.

I was able to do a crap ton of laundry along with even being able to go through some boxes from the garage. I put up some signs and even a handful of knick knacks. I am quite pleased! I did have to man the whip since the square carrot of Minecraft was not going to be used since we had a short time to do homework due to the early practice time. Luckily they get home early enough that they were able to play a bit last night.

Tonks is either getting braver or is just desperate. Poor girl wants to eat but also wants to maintain her scaredy cat status. With the food located high up for now due to dog, she would have to get up on the desk to eat, which in her mind exposes her to demons or something like that. She has now started coming out more and more, and seems to be ok with dealing with the other cats and even dogs if it means getting close to food on the floor. She doesn’t want to go on the counter for now. Hopefully the catio will be done soon enough, which will allow her the safe privacy she covets.

I put out the invite for Steve’s Big Debut! December 14 will hopefully bring some peeps to Steve’s door and I can show off our digs. We started it at noon since it looks like many people might not be able to make it due to other holiday commitments, but I figure our party isn’t formal, and is more of an open house with snacks, so it should be ok.

Today I will hopefully get more done. I am pretty sure the practice scheduled for tonight will be canceled which will allow for more time to get things worked on. I still would really like to paint the closet boards. I determined that finding an outfit for today was quite challenging due to how everything is currently stored. Plus, with my laundry crazies, I am noticing the amount of clothing is getting greater.

I hope to hit the gym again today. This time I am more prepared. I have a fully charged iPad which I hope to watch some tv on instead of what happened yesterday. Although, even with it being charged, yesterday was frustrating since the boss’ boss came in and was chatty, which is annoying when you are trying to get your sweat on.

Lots of Tables

11-18-13

Holy crap! Thanksgiving is next week?!?!?!?

My Friday and weekend were almost ruined by the dreaded phone call. Ken said the school had just called and Bobby was in the office with a bad stomach ache. I was so worried that the poor kid had the issues I dealt with earlier in the week. It is one thing to manage a flu in which there is at least some form of output, but one with just horrid pain is much harder to cope with when you are only 8.

I got to the school, of course in my western wear since I had opted to go all day in the theme of the school. As I entered, I saw Bobby in the nurse’s office and he looked miserable. My poor baby! I rushed in and he looked like he was going to cry. It was clear he had already been crying, which only strengthened the concern that it was pain based and not vomit based.

We headed home where he sat on the couch looked positively beat. Luckily Monarch and my superb comedic timing when it comes to the critters was on hand to cheer him up significantly. He and I hung out and thankfully the pain started to subside. It is possible that he had only a minor issue and not what I had because by the time 5 o’clock rolled around, he was good. Yay!

It was awesome that he felt better since it meant we were able to hit up the hoedown! We walked up to the school all decked out. We looked pretty amusing I am sure, walking up the street with our cowboy hats and bandannas. Then again, the neighborhood is probably used to this being that the school does this each year.

I was impressed with how many people showed up. It was awesome! There were games and a photo spot along with nummy tacos and a kick ass bake sale. The dance floor is what sucked my Bobby in as he proceeded to dance for probably 90 minutes. He is something special when it comes to his dance moves. He is very insistent on having moves and choreography for each song that is different. He was doing his own version of the robot along with gobs of awkward white boy moves which were delightful to say the least.

Dax, sadly, was much more shy for the evening. He was insistent on staying close by me, unwilling to dance or go off with the gaggle of girls that wanted him to join them. I worried for him since he gets so clingy at times, whereas other times he is the life of a party. His insecurities really do bum me out, especially since I understand them on a different level and know how hard it is to be shy and social all at the same time.

We stayed until about 7, which was perfect. When we left, the place was swarming with people. I was so pleased to see so many people show up to a school event, and happy that they would have an event in the evening when people could actually make it. I know I have said it before, but it is one of those things that just keeps swelling in my heart and it is hard not to scream out, I LOVE THIS SCHOOL!

Saturday morning was tough. We had two hard played games, both of which ended in a loss for my kids. Bobby doesn’t care much about the loss since he has tasted the sweetness of victory in the past on this team. My poor Dax has been playing all season, getting better with each kick, and yet once again, we lost. It kills him a little each game. This one, being the last of the season, hit him harder since we actually had an almost full roster for the first time in week. Yet we just couldn’t get that ball in. Dax carries the team, but he is only one kid who can’t do it all. The other coach even told me after how good Dax is. But sadly, the goals against us is all he will ever hear.

Thankfully Matt had a surprise waiting for them. I kept the boys away from Steve for a bit while my folks and Matt went and got ready, and then when we showed up, they were greeted with a happy uncle and new computers at their desks! YAY! I am pretty sure Bobby was more excited, but it definitely  improved Dax’s mood considerably.

It really was perfect timing since I was going out that night and it meant Ken and the boys could just play Minecraft all evening.

Sarah came and got me around 5 and we headed out to Lazy Dog. It was a wonderful evening full of catching up and remembering old stories while talking about what we had been up to since last we had spoke. It still baffles both of us as to what took place that allowed for the falling out, what with both of us only assuming that the other one was mad. LOL! Either way, I am happy to say said issue isn’t an issue since we don’t care what took place since we are back to the wonderfulness of friend status.

Sunday morning allowed me to sleep in a bit. I felt guilty what with all that still needs to be done. The good news is that we still managed to accomplish quite a bit. My original plan had been to go clean up at Eydie and get more supplies. Ken pointed out that we really needed to start populating Steve with the items in the garage. Instead, we determined the best use of time was to paint the catio since it would allow us to put up some of the storage shelves in there along with being able to install said catio so we would be able to get the litter pans out of the boys’ bathroom.

The lavender color is wonderful, and I can’t wait to see it all over the house. Yeah, we will most certainly be the talk of the town, and there is no way people won’t know which place is ours.

Once we did that, we went out in search of lamps and other furniture needed for Steve. We didn’t have many lamps at Eydie, especially not ones for the living room since we had track lights set up. We hit up IKEA, which is always nice since the boys don’t have to deal with us and they can play in the kid area for an hour. Ken and I managed to find some lamps we liked, but not enough to get yet. Instead, we found a dining room set we fell in love with. This is where fate kicked in. We headed downstairs to pick up the set and hit up the As-Is section like we always do. There was our table we had just picked out, just with a few minor dings in it. And it was half price! YAY! On top of that, while Ken was waiting for someone to help us with the table, and I headed off to get the boys, I noticed a coffee table that was only $20 that would match. I let him know and when I came back, not only was said table on our cart, but so was the matching end table we needed. Woo!

It was a successful trip to IKEA. We will need to still go to Target and maybe a couple other places to look at lamps, but for now, we made a very good purchase.

We hit up Costco for some groceries and then went home to put together 2 tables and 8 chairs. I actually was able to assemble the coffee and end table, which was impressive since let’s face it, I am engineering challenged. The dining table is freaking awesome. It is nice and big and it will be perfect for our normal dinners along with when we have people over, such as Thanksgiving, since it expands. YAY!

Once we got everything set up, I made good on my promise to Miss Luna to take her up to the park for a walk. The boys and Ken came along and the three of them played some soccer and I tossed the ball for the pup for a while. It was a nice evening and it makes it even better that the park is a block away! It’s like we have an extended yard. So fantastic on every level.

Today might be nice since I don’t know that we have soccer practice. I am hoping to stop by Eydie on the way home to pick up some things and then get back in time to start some laundry. We are so behind on laundry, but the new machines seem to kick some serious ass. Having never had brand new appliances before, I am feeling rather spoiled.

I would then like to paint the shelves Ken cut for our closet since once that is all done, we can install them and I can get my clothes out of bags and put them away. YAY! It will be so nice to be able to see everything I have again.

Today also marks the first day I can use the carrot. I can see if the lure of Minecraft playtime is as powerful as I am hoping since it will make Bobby do his homework quickly. Crossing fingers for this one.

I am starting to think that despite my long and steadfast rules of no Christmas decorating until after Thanksgiving, I may need to reconsider if only for this year. It seems silly to put out my standard knickknacks right now when in reality, I will be decorating for Christmas in a little over a week. I might as well just plan for that so that I am ready for things like the party and Christmas and it means I don’t have to put things up for only a few days before taking them back down.

I am struggling right now to determine where to put the boys’ toys and where to put the mausoleum.

As if standard stress isn’t bad enough, I still have to figure out these two soccer parties, on top of getting a damn coach’s gift that I had not planned for. Crap.

I suppose I should at the very least get to that this morning.  

Clark Kent

11-15-13

Yesterday I had to explain to someone that Clark Kent isn’t the actor who plays Superman.

In other news, my new washing machine and dryer are freaking awesome. I did a bunch of laundry yesterday and am shockingly ok with the machines being in the garage. I have a nice system for it and am happy with how quickly they seem to work. Of course, they might be working at normal times and I am just doing so many other things that I have lost track of time. LOL!

Ken built the boys’ desks and they are cool! We have to flip the keyboard tray for Dax’s but other than that all is ready for the big reveal on Saturday, which consists of new computers for the boys. YAY! I swear, Bobby is chomping at the bit to get on a machine. I didn’t tell him when they would come, so he is going to pee himself come Saturday.

I spend much of homework time cleaning up trash and other piles in the living room. It looks pretty damned amazing now. I am so pleased! It is all coming together and it just feels so surreal.

I ate dinner with the boys at the table again (I am so happy with this!!!) and had fascinating conversations concerning friendship, divorce and things that are gross. It was all kinds of crazy. Bobby is so freaking insightful on these things and it was pretty nice to feel like I wasn’t talking down to either of them.

We went out when Ken got home to get cowboy gear for the hoedown tonight. I knew that there would be the hats needed at Party City, but we hit up Savers and Goodwill first just because. Bobby was particularly excited that Party City had a white cowboy hat. He decided that would be his persona tonight. He was going to be the cowboy in white. I don’t know. Roll with it. LOL! I am rockin the hat and boots today at work. The boots are not as uncomfortable as I had feared, but it is early.

I realize I have to hunt down soccer uniforms this afternoon along with go by Ralphs to get my crazy meds. What a crazy day it will be! 

Energetic

11-14-13

Eydie looks ransacked.

I went by Eydie on the way home and picked up a bunch of stuff. It is a house in disarray. It makes sense what with the last bit of haphazard style of packing mode we are in. Cupboards were open, random piles on floors. It was a mess. Dax and I also went back in the afternoon to get more supplies, including laundry detergent (the new machines are up and running!!!!!). I packed up almost the rest of the kitchen. I think my plan this weekend will be to finish the kitchen and scrub it down. That way I know that room is done. A room at a time.

The good news is that all of the kitchen stuff I have brought over has a place and is in said place. My kitchen is pretty much fully functional at this point now that I have food, spices, dish soap and all my pots and pans. Yay! I will make something for dinner tonight, which is always fun.

The boys’ desks were delivered to Eydie yesterday. Of course it was after we had left, but at least they are on the porch and if Ken was able to, he will have picked them up last night. This means we can hopefully get them set up, even maybe as soon as today. By getting them up, it will add to the computer surprise on Saturday. It really works out well. My folks will come by after the games and set up the machines. I will take the boys to lunch and then come home to the surprise. It is double awesome since I am going out Saturday with Sarah which allows Ken and the boys to play Minecraft all night! YAY!

Oh, yes, did I mention? The net is up!!!!! Fuck yeah! I have not used it, but it was set up last night. We have cable and internet. Things are moving along nicely.

Ken also installed the back door that he had stained. There are like a million doors in our house now. We have to figure out names for everything. The back door really isn’t the back of the house. It is the one to the backyard from the living room. Then there is the catio door. Of course, there is also the sliding glass door. Ok, it isn’t that many, but it is more than we had before. YAY!

I am anxious to get the catio set up since it will allow us to move the cat supplies out of the boys’ bathroom. Ken is painting in there possibly this morning and I know he and my dad are working out the catio plans. We will have to have litter and grub up off the ground since the watering hole will be out there, too which means dogs will have access. I suppose it is also a dogio, but it is more for the cats’ benefit.

Bobby is in major dinking mode. I can’t tell if he is struggling with math and school or is just not motivated. I am not going to panic until I have my brick carrot. Minecraft play will be a major factor I think in helping him want to do his homework with a greater sense of urgency. Right now, he truly just sits there. Yet when I see him actually do a math problem, he does it pretty quickly and doesn’t seem to have too many problems. I don’t know what it is, so I will not freak until I have a way to assess it better. I think telling him to finish by a certain time so he can play on his new computer will tell me if he is really having difficulty or not.

We had our first sewer blockage. Ken called our new plumber to actually come out to check out how the place looked. He came and the sewer blockage happened at that time. He actually fixed it for no charge. Yay! Seriously, this guy is awesome. Super sweet, and very nice. I am excited to have a guy we know we can call for plumbing work that we trust.

Closets are still being worked on. Those will be nice to get set up so we can hang clothing and get more things put away. I really need to start pulling boxes, but the wiring and different things needed to be done first, so I suppose it will be done soon.

I have a month.  I want to do our holiday/house warming party on Dec 14. It will really be a weekend long event, but the actual “party” will be that Saturday night. This means I need to get everything put away and cleaned for that. By giving myself a deadline, I will be more inclined to bust my ass.

Apparently Papa Brenan is disappointed that we moved in before he saw the place. Yes, I should be worried that I upset our financer, but I feel like it will all be ok. He wants to stay in our guest room, but if the first time he was going to stay in our guest room was the first time we would be able to stay there, I would be pretty upset. It takes away the special. Plus, I still maintain the way we have been moving stuff makes more sense in the idea that it isn’t all at once, which would make more of a mess.

I am looking forward to the 24^th! Stephanie and I are going to this cool art exhibit that has these photographs of skeletons that are adorned in jewels that they were dressed in when the people died. I hope there are a lot. I am guessing I won’t be able to take pictures, which is a super bummer, but it will still be a cool outing.

I got a light up leash for Miss Luna. I am anxious to take her for a walk up to Sur La Brea. Perhaps I may need a quick jaunt this evening just to get out and stretch my legs a bit.

I also need some lamps. The living room is much too dark. The question is, where does one shop for lamps? I don’t want pricey ones, and I don’t want to order online since I kind of want to see them up close. I have not seen any at Lowe’s that I really loved, nor did I see any at Target. I may need to run over to IKEA this weekend.

Dax and I managed to find gear for the Hoedown tomorrow night. We still need to hit up Savers today. We need cowboy hats for he and Bobby. If Savers doesn’t have one, then I am thinking Party City since they tend to hold on to their Halloween costumes for a bit. I got cowboy boots. They are not super western, but enough you can tell that they are for the night. I got a denim shirt so I will rock that with either jeans or my denim skirt and my own cowboy style hat. Yay!

OMG! Plans have just been made in which our Christmas cookie making fun will now be done at Steve!!!!! Holy fuck muffins! This means I am in a place that has room and facilities to make cookies. I am like a real grownup now. Tradition is shifting. It is coming to my home. OMG!!!!!!!!! I bet you can actually hear me giggling now, right?

Dammit, I need to go get my good gum. Stupid Costco doesn’t carry it.

Ok, browsing the Target site for lamps is showing some that are not bad. I may need to hit up Target in person, too, and pick up 2 lamps. We need some light!

I need a radio/iPod player, too. Maybe just speakers, since really I would be happy to plug in my iPod so I could listen to music in the house. Thank goodness for Christmas. Perhaps now I have things to tell people when they ask me what I need/want. LOL!

Ok, I really need to do something productive today. I am full of chit chat and energy!

I'm Back!

11-13-13

I am not dying anymore!

I went home on Monday in excruciating pain. I was sure I would end up throwing up, but shockingly, I didn’t. In fact, I had nothing coming out. I suppose it didn’t help that I consumed nothing. I felt exhausted and weak and the waves of stomach pains were awful. I slept much of Monday. On Tuesday I assumed I would feel better, but it didn’t really start to subside until close to noon.  Thankfully it did since I was ready to feel better.

I did enjoy being able to rest in my good bed. It is cool to be kickin it in Steve. I love this house more and more every day. Carpet went in on Monday and it looks fantastic. Ken starts to paint the exterior tomorrow in the catio. This will allow us to get that set up. Yay! We have been bringing loads from Eydie over almost every day. I need to go by today after work to pick up some more things. This weekend will be a lot more moving.

The cable gets set up today, and I am hoping this also means the net soon after. I have been only on the net via my phone which is ok I suppose, but isn’t as good as using my computer.

There still are many things to do at Steve. One of the main things is we now can start taking out boxes from the garage and we can start to put things away. That sounds so daunting, but exciting at the same time. I once again think that I will be getting rid of a bunch of stuff since I will be determining what has a place in my home. We expect a yard sale in our future. Since we don’t have practice the rest of this week, I have tonight and tomorrow night to work on Steve. I plan on getting out boxes every spare minute.

We do have a school family night on Friday, which will be awesome. It is a hoedown! I need to get some cowboy gear. Really, just my one hat would be good, but I also need to get the boys hats. I will hit up the thrift shops tomorrow night and perhaps party city.

Games on Saturday are 10:30 and noon and Dax’s game may be his last of the season depending on if we qualified for the after season play. We would have our team party that afternoon, but I am trying to schedule this shin dig for a time in which all the kids can make it. Not an easy task to coordinate 9 boys. Sigh.

I'm Back!

11-13-13

I am not dying anymore!

I went home on Monday in excruciating pain. I was sure I would end up throwing up, but shockingly, I didn’t. In fact, I had nothing coming out. I suppose it didn’t help that I consumed nothing. I felt exhausted and weak and the waves of stomach pains were awful. I slept much of Monday. On Tuesday I assumed I would feel better, but it didn’t really start to subside until close to noon.  Thankfully it did since I was ready to feel better.

I did enjoy being able to rest in my good bed. It is cool to be kickin it in Steve. I love this house more and more every day. Carpet went in on Monday and it looks fantastic. Ken starts to paint the exterior tomorrow in the catio. This will allow us to get that set up. Yay! We have been bringing loads from Eydie over almost every day. I need to go by today after work to pick up some more things. This weekend will be a lot more moving.

The cable gets set up today, and I am hoping this also means the net soon after. I have been only on the net via my phone which is ok I suppose, but isn’t as good as using my computer.

There still are many things to do at Steve. One of the main things is we now can start taking out boxes from the garage and we can start to put things away. That sounds so daunting, but exciting at the same time. I once again think that I will be getting rid of a bunch of stuff since I will be determining what has a place in my home. We expect a yard sale in our future. Since we don’t have practice the rest of this week, I have tonight and tomorrow night to work on Steve. I plan on getting out boxes every spare minute.

We do have a school family night on Friday, which will be awesome. It is a hoedown! I need to get some cowboy gear. Really, just my one hat would be good, but I also need to get the boys hats. I will hit up the thrift shops tomorrow night and perhaps party city.

Games on Saturday are 10:30 and noon and Dax’s game may be his last of the season depending on if we qualified for the after season play. We would have our team party that afternoon, but I am trying to schedule this shin dig for a time in which all the kids can make it. Not an easy task to coordinate 9 boys. Sigh.

New home

11-11-13

I have a new place of residence!

It is an understatement to just say I am tired. I am exhausted and in ways I thought not possible. I am sore and sleepy and bruised and even feel a little sick, but it is all so very worth it. We are in!

The plan had been to sleep at Steve on Saturday night, but in an executive decision made, we ended up moving in. I pointed out that we would have to take our pillows back which seemed silly, so we decided to just jump in.

We managed to fit in moving couches, dressers, clothing, and 8 not so happy cats all over to Steve in the midst of a soccer game and birthday party that took up much of Saturday. I even got to cook a meal on Saturday! My first cook at Steve!

We had one jailbreak, which was not cool. Breezer somehow got out at some point Sunday evening. Thankfully after sequestering the others and just leaving the doors open, she came in. Phew!

Carpet comes today!!!! When I get home, we will be able to move the couches into the family room. The computer desks will hopefully be here by Friday, which also means the boys can have their new computers set up this weekend. Woo!

It was a series of firsts this morning what with me getting to shower in my new bathroom and I got to commute from Steve to work. I took Ken’s advice and took the freeway. I made really good time, so that will be my plan going forward. Coming home, the freeway won’t be as good of an idea, so surface streets will be fine. I may stop by Eydie to get some more provisions, such as silverware and other kitchen items that I need.

I am feeling rather nauseated right now, which worries me. I know people have been coming down with the flu, including people I have been in contact with. It could just be that work makes me ill. LOL! It also could be all the exhaustion catching up with me. Either way, I have had a couple times where I was sure my trash can was going to be well used.

functional

11-8-13

I am far more functional this morning than I expected to be.

My bout with icky yesterday may have been heat related. I took inventory of my day and I realize I was feeling crappy when someone turned up the thermostat in the office. I turned on my fans and I started to feel better. Then when I got home and was working in the house, the warmer the room, the worse I felt. Ken pointed out that I may have come down with a touch of something which made me more sensitive, and plus the weather has fucked with my sinuses to no end, so all of this coupled with the heat just fucked me up. This morning I am congested, but not as bad, and I am smart and am making my area freezing so that I don’t get to feeling like crap again today.

Ken did so freaking much yesterday!! He went through Steve and essentially finished each room. Guest room still obviously needs carpet and subsequently, base boards, but it is ready. Our room is done. Bathrooms, done. Kitchen, done. Living room, done. FUCK YEAH!! We need to go to Lowe’s tonight to get door knobs, shelves, a trash can and paint for the outside. This weekend will get the place all ready. I am not kidding when I say I want to sleep at Steve Saturday night. It means we will also need to get the blinds so we have privacy in the room.

The board meeting, although longer than I had hoped for, was way less painful than expected. I do enjoy aspects of it and it is nice that I am more comfortable with my smart ass remarks. I also do like that my RC enjoys them, too. LOL!

I got the boys’ soccer pictures. I would have posted them but I didn’t want to brag about having them before the other team mates had them. Dax’s picture shows just how much he had been running around right before pictures. He is al sweaty. Oh well. They aren’t fab, but they are fun. Bobby’s look pretty good. It is funny to watch his hair progression in soccer pictures through the seasons.

Dammit, I forgot to wear earrings.

I need more time!

11-7-13

I don’t want to go.

Soccer board meeting tonight and I can tell you I may fall asleep there. Not because I am tired, although that is a big part of it, but because they are always so freaking boring. I had hoped that we would be in Steve by the time this particular meeting rolled around, but sadly we are not. We are off by a few days. Oh well. It will be ok and it will be morning before you know it.

I really hate homework. It is better than it used to be just because there is less of it, but I still hate it. Bobby dinks like you would not believe. This week was crazy what with the dentist appointment and time change practices, but that being said, my kid has no sense of urgency. I am looking forward to soccer being done and the boys’ new computers being set up since it will be a really amazing carrot.

Of course, I wrote that above and got side tracked on Amazon while looking for desks for the boys. Sheesh. 90 minutes later I get back to this. LOL!

My mom is hoping to set up the computers once we have the carpet in. This means that next weekend will be the time. I am supposed to take the boys out and then my mom will call and tell us to come home (Steve!!!) for a surprise. This means we will be busting our asses for the next week to get everything ready.

I took over another cupboards’ worth of kitchen stuff yesterday. Dax and I also cleaned out the Tupperware cupboard and got rid of a bunch of ones we never use. Most of those are the disposable variety that come with things like lunch meat. We made sure we had a lid to every container. I told Dax it was a puzzle and he was all over that.

Before I picked up the boys, Luna and I took the few boxes I did pack up and started to put them away. We had a knock at the door. It was a metal collector, which was awesome since it meant he took our old water heater. One less thing to worry about discarding.

I had another lady knock at the door this week asking if we were fixing up the place to rent it out. I got very possessive of Steve with the thoughts of someone else living in him, but I was nice to the lady and told her that Steve was off the market.

I like that people at the school know it is our house and have told me how much they love the purple door. Hee! Jim is at the point of the stucco repair that we can also start painting. YAY! We have a big Lowe’s run ahead of us what with needing house paint, and shelves for our closet, and a couple of other things.

Ken put up the hallway trim and the rest of our bedroom trim. We apparently miscalculated which means we do have one more copper one to do, but that is minor.

I go home today and make the financial report for the meeting tonight. Then I am off to Steve with a bag of kitchen stuff and soccer gear. I now realize I forgot to get statements. FUCK! I need more time in the day.

Digital Rabbit Hole

11-6-13

The bump on my head isn’t as bad as I had thought it might be.

I stepped up on a chair to put something in the cupboard in Steve and forgot that the clearance is much different than at Eydie. I smacked my head right into the bottom corner of the door. I hit it so hard I actually worried about a concussion. I almost threw up and was in massive pain. Thankfully it seemed to subside after some time, but I can still feel it this morning.

The sore muscles and other injuries all seem worth it, though since I have two functional and gorgeous bathrooms now! YAY! Doors are on and things are almost there. Ken is going to work on some base boards and trim this afternoon. We borrowed the truck and hopefully we can get a dresser and couches moved over in these next few days. I took a bunch of stuff from the kitchen yesterday (hence the kitchen injury) and will take over more today.

I will mostly spend the afternoon at Eydie having the boys hopefully finish the rest of the week’s homework tonight so that tomorrow they don’t have to worry about that what with practice starting at 4:30 and the board meeting taking place at 7.

Bellatrix and Narcissa slept mostly somewhere on me all night. The plus side is that neither weigh that much so it wasn’t uncomfortable. Plus, they both didn’t mind too much when I moved around. The negative with new kitties is their total lack of sleeping etiquette. I had kitten butt in my face more times than I can count, and it has come to my attention that I may need to sleep with a shirt for a bit since they kept thinking of my nipples as theirs to suck on.

I just got sucked into the internet. I get fixated on some random person and go down the digital rabbit hole. Today’s focus was the lady who donated the JFK bidet to the city of Torrance. From what I can see, she was a big time philanthropist after her husband died. He had some kind of manufacturing plant, so I am looking for more info. I know it doesn’t really “matter” but I find it all very fascinating. I love that all these old Torrance newspapers are mostly online. Thank goodness!!

I need my keys

11-4-13

Well fuckity fuck fuck.

My keys are in my car. Not to worry being that no one can get to them what with me having locked the doors before I got out. Sure sure. Cause that’s how I roll today

I am hoping this day gets better since I feel like there is so much that could go wonky. I am tired having spent a good portion of this weekend working. Ken finished all the tiling in the second bathroom and it looks awesome. On Tuesday he should be able to install the toilet and sink. We will actually have two functional bathrooms! I stained a door and painted even more freaking trim. I am hoping we are done with trim. Hopefully that can be cut and put up quickly so that it is done.

I put a bunch of things into the kitchen. I meant to bring home the boxes so I could load them up with more. I had even gone through the garage and pulled out at least two boxes of things that could be put away.

The carpet installers will hopefully call sometime today to schedule our installation. If we are lucky, they can come out this week. We are crossing our fingers that it is tomorrow since it would mean that we could actually get moved in this week.

I unloaded the boys’ dresser so that it can be moved into Steve. Depending on how this week starts to size up, I will take a lot of the boys’ clothing over there and populate their dresser. Once our dresser is set up, I will do the same with my clothing. I also am going to take over most of my kitchen stuff.

It is so close I can actually taste it!

In the midst of all of the crazy, we managed to do something questionable, too. Sigh. Look, I don’t regret it, but let’s face it, getting more cats isn’t exactly the best idea. But they are so cute and they are sisters and they are grey and white and they needed a home and well, um, yeah. We now have two new Brenans. Bellatrix and Narcissa have taken up residence. They are truly a couple of the sweetest kitties ever. They love the boys already and have gotten over a lot of their dog fear pretty quickly despite one kinda hairy moment. Breezer in particular, though, is pretty pissed. That being said, she has already calmed down significantly since Friday. Lucy wasn’t thrilled, but she was playing with one of them by yesterday. It will actually be better once we move as there will be lots more room and less crazy.

Halloween went quite well. We hit up the new hood and the kids came back with a lot of candy. Before we headed out, Stephanie, Ellen and I got to drink wine in my kitchen, which was incredibly happy making. It is one of those things that I was looking forward to doing. I love visiting in the kitchen, and with this new one it is way possible. Andrea and Ben even stopped by that night so I was able to show of the new digs to them. YAY!

Kam came by with the kids yesterday so I showed off the progress to them. I love showing off my place. I am quite pleased with it. Ken did a Facetime with his folks and Andy and Scott and they were all impressed with the work. Papa Brenan said that perhaps he just needs to sell the place and have us flip houses for a living. Yeah, I know it’s a joke, but I got a little freaked at the idea of parting with my Steve. LOL! I am proud of Ken since it was all of his hard work to get us to where we are. Sure, I picked out color schemes and things like that, but I am just the one barking orders. He is my handyman!!!

Bobby almost scored twice on Saturday! It was awesome! His whole team was so freaking cool in being encouraging and passing the ball to him. I was impressed and Bobby tried so hard. It was so cool! I am telling you I would have just about died had he scored.

My poor Dax was spent. The Zombies were not only missing 2 players, we had a sick player, and by 4^th quarter, we lost another player. He worked so freaking hard on that game, but the other team was just much better and with our lack of people it was crazy. He broke down not only during the game but after. Just about all the boys did. They worked really hard but let’s face it, there is only so much they can do. I felt awful for him. DJ’s dad was so freaking sweet when he made a point to go up to Dax after the game and told him to never feel bad for how he does on the field. He told Dax that he was one of the best players and that he was truly a hero out on the field. Without Dax, they would have scored so many more goals against us. I really hope that next year my boy gets on a good team. He really needs it. He is an amazing player and I wish he could win one game.

I have so much to do today. I need to balance the AYSO books tonight. I also have some rebate paperwork to fill out (which I wish I had brought to work with me). I have to plan a team party along with packing, packing and even more packing. I also have a dentist apt today which means I have to go home after work (not after getting gas. Sigh) and get their soccer stuff. Then I go to the school and get them out early. Then to the dentist. Then to practice. I am telling you, I will soon collapse.

On Halloween, we got a scary call as I was heading to pick up the boys from school. My folks were with me as my dad wanted to show off his zombie makeup. Apparently Dax was in the office. He had been hit. I got there all concerned, but he had already gone back to class. I popped my head into the principal’s office and she was so incredibly sweet! Dr. Smart told me that poor Dax had been standing in line where two kids in front of him were goofing off and one of them accidently smacked Dax in the face. Dax had ice put on his face (he was hit pretty hard) and when Dr. Smart asked him what should happen to the other boys, he simply said he would like them to apologize. Love it! Both boys apologized without even being asked and they were both adamant that Dax had was not goofing off, only them. Dude, what honest kids! Apparently the school makes sure to let parents know when a kid is hit in the face for whatever reason. She was all apologetic, and it was so odd! I mean, I know it was no big deal since kids goof off. No worries, and Dax was more than fine. Yet she was so upset that this had happened. Mrs. Senechal was the same way! This school is truly just an amazing place and I am so happy to be a part of it.

I have yet another long ass report to work on because my boss is an idiot. Sigh.