An open letter to the intruder in my home

All right -- I put up with you eating my food......

I cleaned up after your messes......

I didn't even protest when you started chewing on the edge of my kitchen cabinet -- it will be replaced soon enough..... (and besides, the dogs actually started that damage.....)

I didn't even get upset about you chewing a hole in the bag of wildflower seeds I never planted this spring (it got too hot for planting things, anyway.....)

You've been elusive enough to avoid all the methods I've employed to get you out of my home, humanely or otherwise...

But when you decided to start digging holes and nest in MY ORCHIDS......

That is WAR, my friend!!  You have crossed the line!!  Retreat or DIE!!!

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Random streams of consciousness.......

I keep thinking I should post something, but nothing "major" or "interesting" seems to be happening right now...... just so much "life stuff"....... So, here are random thoughts........

Wedding planning....... blah...... how is that girls who are so excited to be bridesmaids can't find the time to get their measurements to me to order dresses?  Yikes....... time marches on and I KNOW alterations will be needed, but I can't seem to be able to light a fire under these gals and get them moving......

However, I really am enjoying the time spent with Morgan on planning the wedding, and we've had fun going shopping and working on-line, putting together wedding registries.  It's fun to watch the joy she has in planning her own home -- brings back fond memories of that time in my life, so many years ago.....

My nephew Russell is getting married in October to a gal in Honduras.  I found out that it will cost less than $400 to get there -- I wonder if I'll have any money left over after Morgan's wedding to be able to go to that one??  And if I go, I could make their wedding cake too....... Of course, that idea had me thinking about things I might have to bring along -- cake pans, icing decorating tools, cake mixes..... hmmmmmm...... if I brought along two pound bags of powdered sugar, I wonder if TSA folks would suspect me of smuggling cocaine INTO Honduras and check all my luggage??  (that thought definitely got me giggling!!)

I got a box of flowers last week from a client who had her baby last year.  It was her baby's first birthday and she sent me the most beautiful note along with the flowers; it read: "Pam, a year ago, you helped bring our baby Jack safely into this world. Thank you so much for your unflagging spirit that night. Every day, Jack is an amazing gift! Best regards, CS & HS"  Wow....... it's moments like that that help me remember why I do this job; most of my clients are amazing, wonderful people, and every time I see a baby born, I'm witnessing a miracle -- there's just no other way to describe it.

Nelson's talking about finally installing the wood flooring in the upstairs of the house.  We bought it last year; it's been sitting in the garage, waiting for the time and $$$ to install it, but now with the wedding coming up and potentially hoardes of people to come through our house in the next few months, he's decided it might be time to step things up a bit.  YAY!!!  I hope this finally happens......

Nelson went to the hardware store last night; I don't even know what he went to get, but he came home with a beautiful new orchid plant for me!  It's got fairly small flowers that are a very deep purple color, and the flowers have a long throat on them.  I'll have to take some pictures and post them.

Our choir from the homeschool group had their year-end performance last Thursday, and as usual, pulled it all together at the last minute!!  They did a great job!  I love playing the piano for these kids -- they're just so much fun to work with.  Now the band/orchestra concert comes up in two more weeks -- I need to keep Mackenzie busy practicing that violin!!  And she's been sick for the last few days, but no time to let up on practicing now, with the concert coming up -- I'm such a MEAN mom!!

Taxes -- now there's another random thought......  I just can NOT seem to get myself motivated to work on these this year and now Tax Day looms.  Guess I'm filing an extension of time for now!!  It's sure not going to get done in the next two days!!

It's also getting close to the end of the school year, which is prime time for selling old homeschooling materials.  I have SO MUCH stuff to get rid of -- and I'd love to make some money off of them -- but organizing it all is just one more thing in my ever-growing list of things that need to be done.  So much stuff, so little time.....   I need to clone myself three or four times in order to catch up......  It's like that T-shirt I saw:  "God put me on this earth to accomplish a certain number of things -- and right now, I'm so far behind, I'll NEVER die!!"  That's me.....

At least my paperwork for the homeschooling program is up-to-date....... One thing's done, anyway!!  Now if I could just find the surface on my desk..... such a mess....... maybe that ought to be today's project......

I suppose I've now frittered away enough time on the computer, rambling on and on....... Back to real life!!  Mackenzie's Pioneer Girls group is going bowling this afternoon, and we've got a LOT to get finished before we leave.  'Bye for now.......

I think he regrets coming home!!

My poor hubby -- he was working at Ft. Benning, GA for two weeks and was looking forward to coming home for 10 days, to take a class over at NSA as well as to have some R&R.  It was rough enough while he was gone -- subfreezing temperatures and a heat pump that unexpectedly decided to die meant we needed to move a LOT of firewood and get a repairman in to fix the unit.  His flight home was originally scheduled to land at 6:30 pm.  As we watched the weather reports, we realized that we needed to get him home sooner than that and thus changed him to an earlier flight.  He was home less than six hours when the first storm began!!

Since arriving home, he has:

1. endured a 28+" snow storm, complete with shoveling;
2. endured a 16+" snow storm, shoveling off the roof of the storage shed during the height of the storm, along with shoveling (after the storm) not only the sidewalk and driveway, but this time, the house roof (from the huge accumulation that was piling up) and part of our cul-de-sac, since our county didn't seem to want to dig us out;
3. spent hours on the phone trying to locate additional firewood, to no avail;
4. replaced the guts in TWO toilets that decided to leak; 
5. put StopLeak into the radiator of the van, since it also decided to spring a leak;
6. braced up the stand for our fish tank, because it decided to start weakening and tilting to the right at a very alarming angle;
7. gone into the office twice to help out, even when the roads were barely clear;
8. spent the better part of a day on the phone, trying to find out whether the class he was scheduled for was going to be held, and then found out that it had been cancelled;
9. and then after it was determined that the class was cancelled, it was decided that he should go back to Ft. Benning earlier!!
10. and adding insult to injury -- we had a loss of power to our home late Friday night (only our house, not the neighborhood).  BGE had to come out, mark the power lines in our yard (no easy task through multiple feet of snow), bring in a small front end loader to move snow from our sidewalks and edges of driveway to help determine where the problem actually was, and then had to use a jackhammer to remove a portion of our sidewalk, HAND-DIG through that cold soil another FOUR FEET, repair the problem, and then put a temporary patch on the sidewalk until spring time!!

This AM, I drove him to BWI Airport to hop on a plane back to Georgia.  He may actually be GLAD to get out of here -- and I wouldn't blame him one bit!

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I, too, have the "Itch to Pitch"!!

http://thehappyhousewife.com/


One of my favorite blogs to follow is "The Happy Housewife". She's always got TONS of great ideas suggestions on saving money, budgeting, homeschooling info, recipes and so much more.

This summer, she's holding a de-cluttering contest called "The Itch to Pitch"! I desperately need to declutter around here -- anyone want to join me in this endeavor??

Check out her website for more info. Hopefully, the link above will actually work!!

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