Here And There

I feel a bit bad it’s been so long since my last  post.  What can I say, life happens.  It’s been a nutty summer with our basement issues, neverending baseball season, and general craziness from kids being out of school.  (when oh when is year-round school coming???)

Knitwise I’ve been working on some socks which were supposed to be DH’s birthday gift three weeks ago.  It’ll be another month before they’re done.  Not much knitting happening.  But I’ve been reading a lot.  Just finished East of Eden.  wow, what a book,my new favorite book I think.  It was about 600 pages.  When I was chatting with my mom about it she said she remembered my grandma reading that book when my mom was in high school.  “I remember her lugging that big book everywhere she went”.   how funny.  Also recently read River Queen, a non-fiction about a woman’s journey down the mighty mississippi on a houseboat.  Wish it were me.  My life is insanely boring.  Now trying to finish harry potter and order of pheonix (which I started two years ago) so I can finish the series.  I know, it’s lame.  Not nearly as lame as the Grace Slick autobiography I read before that though.  Sheesh.  Did you know she’s as old as my mom???

We got new neighbors recently.  I always wished for more similar age kids in the neighborhood, now I am regretting it.  The kids are over here all the time ringing the bell and we have no peace at all.  And my kids are lukewarm about playing with these kids.  It’s becoming a bit of a problem.  I miss our old neighbors, I never thought I’d say that.  They were a bit annoying and had teenage kids and lots of friends coming and going and noisy at all hours outside with friends.  I’d give a million to have them back.  As Forest says, “Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get.”  So, so true.  The real moral of the story is, ‘Be thankful, it could be worse.”  That one’s for you, Jean, my pessimistic friend.  (EUGENE!!)  because you’re probably the only one reading this assinine blog.  Remind me why I still do this, I forgot.

Blog Schmog

Who has time for blogging?  I cannot seem to manage all the things in my life right now.  As the saying goes, “Just when I think I’ve got a handle on things, it falls off”.  How true.

For starters, oldest son made it on the all stars baseball team, then he was also asked to be on a traveling tournament team.  So, instead of being a rational parent and saying, “Choose one team to be on”, we are being insane trying to juggle the practices and games of both teams.  And all this in addition to the camps and events already scheduled for the summer.  It’s all just too much.  Thankfully, the two other kidlets’ baseball seasons are over.  Yee-Haw!

The event that pushed me over the edge happened about a week ago, (right after we returned from a weekend trip to St. Louis to the arch and Six Flags).  We got about 5 inches of rain over two days and due to a broken sewer pipe and excessive rainwater, our sewer backed up into our basement.  When it happened we were on our way to my sister’s cabin for a day of fun.  The kids and I went anyway and spent the night since we couldn’t use the water at home till the sewer line was fixed.  The next two nights we spent in hell at my parents’ house (THERE IS A REASON WE LEAVE THE NEST).  I kept telling DH a hotel stay was in order, but the convenience of  a kitchen and laundry at their house won out.  (Later we found insurance would have paid for any meals we ate out, as well as a hotel.  Guess what I’m doing next time?!!)  The basement is a complete disaster and will take months to clean up and get back to normal.  Not much of value was damaged, mostly sentimental items like my wedding dress (now at the cleaners and fine), a large framed print which was an anniversary gift.  It’s so frustrating and overwhelming.  (I have no idea how the people in Mississippi and New Orleans went on with their lives.   It’s amazing how much a person can handle and still function. ) For me the frustrating thing right now is that the immediate mess is over and now it’s dried out and the issue is removing ruined paneling and wood and deep cleaning everything.  All our posessions that weren’t ruined are temporarily being stored on the main level of our house, which is feeling a bit cramped right now.  We’re so busy with summer activities that the basement mess is temporarily on hold.  I wonder how long it will be that all my soap, yarn, and crap are in my face every day.  The worst of it: DH doesn’t seem concerned about it. 

Enough negativity.   It could have been so much worse.  Our furnace, water heater, and water softener are all fine.  I am thankful my yarn (already planning better yarn storage!) and soap weren’t damaged, and that my wedding dress was able to be cleaned.  Everything damaged was replaceable, and most was just crap we should have tossed years ago.  Maybe this was a wake up call to clean up our lives a bit.  And our insurance company is treating us well and it looks like all will be covered, even the cleaning of the dress, which was $107!  Holy inflation Batman!  I think I paid $30 in 1995.   Another positive:  we will get a refinished basement out of the deal and we’ll hopefully get organized too.   And unlike Katrina victims, we spent three days out of our house and could come home to our normal lives, with our health and our children intact (the only truly irreplaceable things) .  For that I am completely thankful.   

Moral of the story:   plastic totes rock.