Pecking Away

Greetings & Salutations! Man, is it Friday already? Well, I don't know about YOU but my week started off with a bang.

I got home from work Sunday night about midnight and just wasn't feeling well. I couldn't tell you specifically what was wrong; I just felt off and very unwell. And cold. So I crawled into bed, tried to read and discovered I couldn't even do that I felt so bad. I turned off the light and just laid there, shivering and covered in goosebumps. I might have dozed finally, but I woke up shivering and my teeth chattering. I finally nudged Hubby and asked him to snuggle me because I was freezing, which he willingly did and then noticed that I was burning up. He got out of bed and got me some Tylenol and milk which I managed to get down, but for the rest of the night I could do nothing more than doze. I was physically miserable: my stomach didn't feel right, my head was starting to pound, my wrists and arms were killing me and my back was aching. It was a long night.

Thankfully, I didn't even have to ask Hubby to stay home from work the next morning. I think my misery was quite evident. The rest of the day was spent trying to get comfortable, trying to sleep and trying not to throw up. I did not succeed at any on these tasks. I finally was driven from my bed by the back pain and ended up in my recliner in the living room, with a washrag over my eyes to soothe my head and block out the blinding sun (why don't we have blinds in the living room yet?!!), trying to sit upright and give my back a break. It was a long day. One little gem of wisdom I learned, and will now share with you, is that it is unwise, EXTREMELY UNWISE, to partake of a potluck at work the night before any form of vomiting. Particularly a potluck where you eat copious amounts of taco salad and red Thai curry. 'Nuff said. You're welcome.

On Tuesday I gave myself a Get Out of Jail Free card and lazed around the house, doing absolutely nothing productive except getting Sam to school. And actually, I had just gotten out of the shower (around noon) when the school called and said he wasn't feeling well and could I come get him. Turned out he was fine; I think he just had played a little hard at recess because he was a rambunctious little goat at home the rest of the day while I played on the computer recouperated.

Wednesday Sam got out of school early and Hubby was done with work early, so we fled the country in search of furniture. Ok, so that sounds a bit more exciting and worldly than it really was. We crossed the border into Canada and went to IKEA to look at some couches. After spending far too little time there, we managed to bring home a couch, two new nightstands, two lamps, and some art. Lord knows the kind of damage I could have done had I been allowed to browse and actually look at everything.

Yesterday I attempted to clean up the house a bit, but to be honest, I still don't feel great and am still having a few, uh, intestinal issues. I have very little appetite and when I do eat, toast is about the only thing that sounds good. I've been in a funk since being sick on Monday, so much so that even Hubby commented "Boy you just haven't been yourself since you were sick." I've been snapping at the kids, sullen and unsmiley, and have lost interest in most everything. Yesterday afternoon we managed to get to the stone supplier to pick out rock for our fireplace, which is still unrocked. I think it's going to beautiful when we get it put up - I love the stuff we picked out.

Today, Zoë and I are heading out to run a few errands and then we'll be heading to Sam's classroom for his Valentine's party. Fortunately the sun is shining, although it's windy and VERY cold, so I'm hoping a little sun in my face (through the car windows) will perk me up a bit.

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Lately I've been feeling like I'm being pecked to death by ducks. Zoë has been especially demanding and clingy and WHINEY, oh my stinkin' hell, the whining....is killing me. And Sam has been SO argumentative. If he gets an answer he doesn't like, he just keeps on asking and whining and asking and whining and ASKING and WHINING until I want to gag him and throw him in a closet. And they seem to feed off each other so I get it from both sides at once. It's all I can do to keep my head from exploding.

Zoë also has grown quite the attitude for an almost 3.5 year old. If I scold her or tell her to do something, she flicks at me with her tiny fingers with this look on her face, like I'm an annoying bug she can just flick away. Grrrr.....

{sigh....} This too shall pass. I hope.

Sunny Saturday

Happy Saturday!

The sun in shining in my windows and I'm happily puttering around my house, doing chores that normally would make me wail and gnash my teeth. But the sunshine makes it all better. That, combined with some Mozart & Chopin blasting throughout the house and I'm a whirling dervish. So far, I've made bread (which is rising and almost ready to bake), cleaned the kitchen, stood & daydreamed out my kitchen window about my garden-to-be, vaccumed and dusted, thrown some laundry in and folded a load of clean clothes. It's amazing how my energy level and motivation skyrockets when the sun is shining. Seriously, if I lived somewhere that was sunny year-round? No telling what I could accomplish.

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I've been feeling a bit overwhelmed (still!) at all I have/want to do. Fortunately, the hard labor of building this house is mostly over, but now comes the maintaining of it as well as finishing up things. Plus, being here has flipped my inspiration switch on big time and I'm constantly coming up with more things I want to do.

I finally whined to Hubby that he needed to do some of the stuff I was avoiding because I seriously didn't have energy to deal with it. Stuff like calling the property management place and getting that whole mess straightened out. (The mess being that they sent us a bill for $450 after we moved out, claiming we weren't supposed to have cats, when we wrote on our application that we had two cats and had been told when we called to inquire about the house that, yes indeed, pets were allowed yet they apparently failed to collect a pet deposit. So they kept the $500 deposit we'd put down AND wanted $450 more. Oh, and they wanted to charge us $100 for the very cheap dryer knobs that had broken. Josh looked them up: they cost $8.) Anyway, he talked to the property manager and got it all straightened out, much calmly-er (is to a word) than I would have and we should be getting part of our deposit back. Phew.

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I owe you some kitchen pictures too, don't I? Well, here you go.

Hope you're having a lovely weekend too!

Beauty

I've been wanting to take this picture for months. And today I finally did.

It was a lovely sunny day and I threw my camera in the car when I headed to town, thinking I might take Zoë to the park after hitting the store. On the way home, I pulled over to the side of the road to capture my house and the mountain. See my house down there in the bottom right corner?

Living out "in the county" now (which is how people refer to it around here when you live out of the city limits out in or towards any of the smaller neighboring towns), I've encountered lots of wide open spaces, wildlife and other scenes that I really want to photograph. For example, there's an old falling-down barn not too far away that I want a picture of. The mountain would be in the background too, so I want to make sure it's a clear day. But even just the barn with some ominous storm clouds behind it would be really cool. There's another shot of the mountain I want to get too, just up the road from where I took this one. Yesterday on my way home from taking Sam to school, I saw two ginormous bald eagles sitting in a cow pasture about 50 yards off the road. I wish I'd had my camera; they were beautiful.

So much beauty out here in the country, even in the dead of winter. I can't wait until spring and summer.

The Kids' Rooms

At long last, a few pictures!

This is Sam's room. A typically messy, Lego-laden boy's room. I would've shut the closet doors and spared you the mess inside but there was too much stuff in the way and I knew that if I started straightening that up, I'd end up doing the whole room. And I didn't wanna.



And here is little Miss Zoë's room. I was thrilled to find her curtains on sale at Pottery Barn Kids - otherwise I would've NEVER bought them there. But the truth was that I couldn't have bought that much fabric and made them myself for what I paid. Plus there's the time element. Who knows when they would've gotten done had I burdened myself with the task. This was much quicker and easier. And sanctioned by Hubby.

Next up: Kitchen pictures!

Update Coming!

I swear, I'll get back here and post updates. We now have internet at home (via DSL) but I've just been so busy working, trying to finish getting settled, cleaning this MONSTROUS house, catching up on on blogs, blah blah blah. Once I get my kitchen tidied up I'll get some pictures to post, as well as other parts of the house.

Just wanted to let you know I haven't forgotten about ya. But I have to warn you: things aren't finished and some parts are still messy. But in keeping with Stefani's promise to show things In Real Life, I'll show you some of mine. Consider yourself warned.

Reconnecting

Hey all! Remember me? Man it's been a long time that I've been away. I've missed you all! There's so much I need to get caught up on and trust me, as soon as my internet is connected, I'll be parking my fanny at my desk and doing just that. Our home phone service will be connected tomorrow (Wednesday) and our internet connection stuff should arrive via UPS in the next couple days and then I'll be back in business. Yee haw!

I have to tell you what absolutely GORGEOUS weather we have had the last couple days. Not the 80° and sunny kind of gorgeous weather that my soul craves, but it's been so sunny and clear that it's breathtaking. The temps are only in the 40's during the day but there hasn't been a cloud in the sky and the sun has been trying valiantly to warm things up, which I absolutely appreciate. On Sunday, Hubby and The Dads worked all day and got our back deck put on. My mom and I sat on the back porch, soaking up the sun and supervising the work. It was heavenly and SO rare for this time of year. Sitting there we wondered at the whacky weather we've had so far this year: a month ago we were buried under 18" of snow and being left to fend for ourselves by a city/county who were completely unprepared & unequipped to deal with it, not to mention temperatures in the single digits; a week ago half the county was underwater due to melting snow, heavy rains and flooding. Then two days ago I was outside in my bare feet and short sleeves. It only served to intensify my hunger for spring and warmer weather, when I can get outside and start planting things.

The house is getting more and more settled. Getting the kitchen completed really made it seem like home and I've been cooking up a storm ever since. I'll have to post some pictures because my kitchen? It's GORGEOUS. Seriously. I can't believe it's mine. And my enormous island? Well, we've decided it's more of a small continent than an island because it's embarrassingly big. The first few days I felt a bit gluttonous, like I maybe I overdid it, but now....ah, now I'm just in love with it. Once you live in a space you start to learn all its secrets and idiosyncrasies and while there are a few minor things I'd change, they truly are minor and I'll happily live with them.

Hopefully the next time I log on and post, it'll be from my own home computer, amongst all my own clutter and mess (which I've yet to organize).

There's No Place Like Home

Especially my NEW home.

I'm stealing a minute to check in and let ya'll know that I'm still without internet service at the new house. The cable company has to come install the cable line first and we were told today that it would be 7-10 business days before that happens. Then who knows how long before we actually get service started. Hopefully not too much longer after that because I am having serious withdrawals from my computer. My Google Reader is positively overflowing with posts I'm anxious to read. And don't you dare suggest I just delete the posts....why, that'd be like...like...like ripping up Christmas cards without opening them. Dispicable. Unthinkable. Impossible.

As far as the house, we're in heaven. We're still unpacking and getting organized but it already feels like HOME. From the minute we carried the first box in, it was comfortable and familiar and felt like a deep, contented, happy sigh. It was hugely rewarding to finally be somewhere that was already such a part of us. I thought I would be in a big hurry to get it all unpacked and put away and just so but I find myself just relaxing, looking around, learning all the secrets of my home and its spaces. Maybe I just know, too, that I have time to do it the way I want. There's no hurry. The rush is over. We're there.

The last big project that needs to be completed is the kitchen countertops. We were told they should be installed this week so up until now, we've been making do without a kitchen sink, dishwasher or cooktop. I have my ovens, a microwave and a toaster oven, and I'm washing dishes in the laundry room sink. Between that and keeping the fire going, we kind of feel like we're camping. It's an adventure, for sure.

Anyway, all is well and wonderful in the Red House. We're beyond thrilled to be there and daily look at each other in disbelief at our good fortune. The kids are settling in and loving their big new bedrooms. Sam has successfully transitioned to his new school and is already making friends. And interest rates keep dropping, much to our delight. hee hee hee

Oh! And for those that know me IRL (in real life) or have corresponded with me via email, my email address will probably be being cancelled here shortly so please temporarily direct your emails to me at my Gmail account listed in the sidebar.

Thanks for all the good thoughts and well-wishes on our new home. I'll check in again when I can!