Staying Afloat

Wow, it's been two weeks since I've written anything. Geez. Sorry 'bout that. Not that you were all sitting on the edge of your seats, waiting with baited breath for me to post. But here I am again, so have no fear.

I have to admit, I've been in a bit of a funk lately, my mind swirling furiously with too many thoughts and emotions. The last two weeks have been kind of a "perfect storm" in my head and I've felt like I was drowning and unable to get to the life raft that was just feet away. Now, I'm simply treading water but at least my head's above water. (How's that for an analogy, huh?)

The first wave that hit me was when we refinanced our home loan. Long story short, refinancing cut off our construction loan and with the new, tighter lending restrictions due to the economy we are unable to get the last draw we'd planned on getting added to the new loan. So we are left with a huge credit card balance that we had planned to pay off with that draw. (It's so backwards - the bank wanted us to complete the work before we could get the money for it. So we paid for it and now we don't get the money.) Anyway, this unexpected debt pretty much ensures me going back to work nearly full-time. And this breaks my heart. Breaks it into tiny little pieces, grinds them into powder, bakes them into a loaf of broken heart bread where a heartless, ugly ogre eats it, digests it, and then....well, you get the picture. So I've been picking up extra shifts at the hospital and will continue to do so until I can add hours to my current job or find another position that is enough hours. Of course, I've already talked about the downside of me working so you know how I feel about working more.

After working 6 of 8 days, I was hit with this second wave tsunami: the Montana plane crash that killed 14. It was a devastating event to be sure, but even more so when I logged onto my Facebook account and learned that the victims were people I had once known. I went to high school with two of the girls (who were sisters) and one of the brothers of another victim. As if having three whole families wiped out isn't mind-bending enough, to actually have known them is another. I don't claim to have been close friends with them in or out of high school, but the mere fact that I walked the same piece of earth with them makes me feel connected, if only by a very thin gossamer thread. I'm at a loss to explain or justify the absolute grief I've felt since learning of the crash. I've reconnected with many high school classmates thru Facebook over the months and the shockwave of sadness that has washed over everyone has just left me feeling hollow and very, very sad. The families have been in my daily thoughts and prayers because I have nothing else to offer. If you are the praying type, I would ask that you pray for them too. Because how does one family recover from losing two daughters, two sons-in-law and five grandchildren?? I can't imagine. The work and days ahead for those left behind will be excruciating, to say the least.

Throw in some probable Seasonal Affective Disorder, a general sense of discontent and feeling alone, a son who is practically begging to be homeschooled, working opposite shifts and feeling like I never get enough time with my family, and being cold ALL THE TIME and you have a perfect recipe for an emotional hangover.

I'm working to make it better, if only in my head, and I know that there is hope and resolution and solutions that will come so don't call the looney squad on me just yet.

And thanks for listening.

Midnight Intruder

I awoke with a start last night, to Hubby standing in the middle of the bedroom, talking to me rather excitedly. It took me a minute to clear the cobwebs and comprehend what he was saying. Something about a tail sticking out of a cupboard and his need for some pliers.

I heard him in the kitchen and my mind finally registered what he was talking about.

The other day he was taking the garbage out from under the kitchen sink and said "I think I see some mouse droppings under here." Oh great. We have mice. When we were still in the construction phase, the garage door got left open one night and after that we started seeing tiny little mouse footprints in the sawdust, as well as droppings. We put traps around and actually caught three or four of the critters. Not too much later we moved in, with our two cats, and haven't had a problem since. Until the other day. We'd been noticing Murphy the cat sitting in front of the kitchen sink, watching the cupboard rather intently too and figured our furry friends were back. So Josh put a trap under the sink.

And apparently we had a visitor last night. Whose midnight adventures didn't end well.

The story was relayed to me that Hubby heard something clattering around in the kitchen and went out to investigate where he saw a tail sticking out of the cupboard door. First he went and got Murphy off of Sam's bed, as backup I guess, and then went and got pliers with which to grab the invading rodent, only to discover that Mr. Mouse was caught in the trap by his leg and not dead. Hence the clattering around under the sink. So Hubby grabbed the mouse and the trap and took them outside, where he tossed the whole thing into a puddle. While Hubby was outside taking the mouse to meet his Maker, Murphy was inside crying and caterwauling about not being able to do his duty and take care of the mouse himself. I appreciate the interest but would rather not find mouse parts scattered all over my kitchen first thing in the morning.

Ah, the joys of country livin'.

Happy Monday!

Big Plans

I have always been the type of person to dream big. To conjure up crazy ideas, become wildly infatuated with them, made grandiose plans, and then move onto the next idea. I can remember back to high school when trying to decide what I wanted to "be" when I grew up that all kinds of ideas went thru my head. At one point I decided that I should be an aeronautical engineer because my dream of being a fighter pilot was impossible (not sure how being an aeronautical engineer was the next best thing).

Oh, wait. You didn't know I wanted to be a fighter pilot? Oh man, was that ever an obsession. During my late teenage years, say 16-18, I was enthralled with all things jet. Living in Southern California at the time, there were quite a few military air stations around and you can bet your bottom I went to every single air show there was. I even saw an F-5 jet crash once. Instead of having posters of the latest hunky heartthrobs on my bedroom walls, I had posters of jets. Seriously. (Have I not told you before that I'm a huge dork??) I read books on the subject, and picked the brain of anyone and everyone I came into contact with who was remotely associated with flying.

I remember once my sister went on a date with a guy that was a flight surgeon in the Air Force - I was living with her at the time - and they came back to her house after their dinner out, and I proceeded to monopolize the poor guy for an hour, blathering on about flying and jets and spewing out probably inaccurate facts and statistics about my obsession. I seem to remember the guy looking at me like I had a third eye the whole time we were talking. And I don't think my sister ever dated him again. Hmmm.

Anyway, I digress.

My point is that there is SO much out there that I want to do and try, and my brain flies from one idea to the next with frightening speed, that it sometimes appears that I have no "follow-through". Maybe I have no focus, or a touch of Attention Deficit Disorder, and I know that it's probably tiring to listen to me get SO excited and worked up about something, convincing you that THIS is what I'm going to do, when two weeks later, I'm onto something else. But, it's who I am. I have a passion for life and know that there is so much out there waiting for me to do and try, that I sometimes just don't know where to start.

Being the mother of two small kids has obviously been my focus for the last 6+ years, and I've done it willingly. But now that they are getting bigger, and more independent, and easier to manage, I feel the tug to get back to doing things. One of my biggest fears before having kids was that it would completely consume me, change me, erase who I truly was. And while that old Johnson & Johnson commercial is true - "Having a baby changes everything" - it didn't erase who I was. It erased how I used to look at things, how I prioritized things, but I'm still ME. I'm still the crazy, slightly ADD, energetic, "what's next?" girl. And I've decided that if I'm not going to be adding to our family, it's time to get back out there and continue exploring the world and all it has to offer. I want challenges and adventures and goals and spontanaeity and plans to look forward to. Life is too damn short to just sit around.

So. That being said, my first challenge is I'm going for a walk in June. A 13-mile walk. A half marathon. I am NOT a runner, never have been, and I know better than to fool myself into thinking it's something I'm capable of. But I've always wanted the challenge of doing something like this and the personal satisfaction of being able to say "I did a half marathon". My good friend Heather and I have signed up to do the Rock 'n Roll Seattle Half Marathon the end of June and we're both really excited about it. As soon as the weather cooperates and warms up above, say, FREEZING, we'll get out there and start training. We both have an online training program all set up and we're itching to get started. We're financially committed to do it, so there's no backing out or changing our minds. Plus, we have each other to motivate us and keep us going. Both our hubbys are totally supportive of this endeavor, which makes all the difference. We'll take the kids with us when we can, but there are gonna be some long training walks where it's not gonna be productive to drag kids along.

I don't know what else I'll come up with in this new frame of mind, but I'm sure it'll be something. It always is. :)

Go Fly a Kite

I've been kind of mired down with a snotty cold the last few days and combined with working until 11:30pm, I just haven't had much energy. Yesterday what energy I could muster went into folding the eleventy jillion loads of clean laundry that were threatening to avalanche and bury the nearest passerby (which was always ME since I'm the only one who apparently knows where the laundry room IS). I finally looked it square in the eye and said "FINE." And just to show it that I was serious, I even washed a couple more loads. I guess I showed it, huh? But I'm happy to report, our closets and drawers are now all full of clean and folded clothes. For the moment.

Today my empty cupboards were crying for food and my head screaming for cold medicine, so I packed up the kids and headed to Wal-Mart. Surprisingly, it was an uneventful trip and we made it home in one piece. While cruising the aisles, we came across some kites and I remembered what Zoë had said the other morning when we headed out into the wind to take Sam to school: "We need to get a kite, Momma." So we did. As soon as we got home and unloaded the groceries, we bundled up and headed out to try out our new flying tropical fish.

It was quite windy, which made for great kite-flying, but dang, it was cold! When we were in town shopping it had actually started to hail/sleet/snow so I knew the temperature was dropping.
We all took turns flying the kite and the kids had a great time. It was definitely windy enough to keep our fish afloat and Sam even managed to do a few loop-de-loops with it.

Even though it was short-lived because of the cold wind, it was nice to be outside and let the kids run around and burn off some energy.

To say we can't wait for Spring is an understatement.

Help Me

My ovaries are twitching.

Winter, Part II

It's a frosty, cold, windy day here at The Red House. The rain turned to snow yesterday afternoon about 2pm and continued on all afternoon and night. Then the winds picked up and the temperature dropped. We get the northeastern winds blowing down out of Canada's Fraser River Valley and they are viciously cold. Weather.com says our temperature is about 18° but feels like 9°. I don't know about you, but that's too cold for me. With the snow and such, school was cancelled today and Hubby isn't going to work, so we're all home together.

Last night Josh and I started laying out and putting up the stone on our fireplace. I've discovered I have quite a talent for applying mortar to stone. I'd slather them up, pass them to Hubby up on the ladder, and he'd put them on the fireplace. This is what we've got so far:

Today, we'll continue getting the stone up and hopefully get it finished. I think it's going to look beautiful when it's all done. I think we'll put some gray slate tiles or something down on the hearth, and combined with the dark cabinets on either side (which are hidden by the tarps), it'll be a real centerpiece for the room. Even just having these few stones up makes the fireplace really stand out, so I can't wait to see how the finished product looks.

I'm being summoned to work so I better wrap up. I'll leave you with this picture I took out my back door this morning. Looks a bit chilly, doesn't it?

Like Peas & Carrots

All the cool kids are doing this so of course I'm jumpin' on the bandwagon! This is a little meme about Josh & I.

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What are your middle names? Mine is Rene, his is Jon.

How long have you been together? August will be 11 years.

How long did you know each other before you started dating? We met 4th of July 1998 and went on our first date about a month later.

Who asked whom out? I think I may have told him he was taking me out. We went and saw There's Something About Mary on our first date.

How old are each of you? We're both 37 although I'm 3 whopping months older, which he never lets me forget.

Whose siblings do you see the most? Probably my sister since she lives here in town and watches Zoë occasionally for us.

Which situation is the hardest on you as a couple? Remembering to take time to ourselves, to work on our relationship.

Are you from the same home town? Nope.

Who is smarter? Hmmm. I'm no dummy but he knows way more about world events, politics, history...you know, all that "adult" stuff.

Who is the most sensitive? He is.

Where do you eat out most as a couple? Various Mexican restuarants.

Where is the furthest you two have traveled together as a couple? Geesh, not very far. Probably Ashland, Oregon.

Who has the craziest exes? Neither of us.

Who has the worst temper? Probably me. Somewhat of a long fuse, but a big bang at the end.

Who does the cooking? Me, because I enjoy it.

Who is the neat-freak? Me. I hate clutter. Although I've named Josh "Captain Throwaway" because he loves to throw away stuff.

Who is more stubborn?
 I don't think either of us are very stubborn, but I might have a slight lead if I had to choose.

Who hogs the bed?
 The cats. :)

Who wakes up earlier? Josh does. Always has, even before kids.

Where was your first date?
 We went and saw There's Something About Mary.

Who is more jealous? I don't think either of us really are.

How long did it take to get serious?
 I knew I loved him about 4.5 months after we started dating. It took him longer to admit his feelings.

Who eats more?
 He does. And the speed at which he does so is impressive.

Who does the laundry? Me. Damnit.

Who’s better with the computer?
He's better at fixing them and troubleshooting stuff. I'm good at using them.

Who drives when you are together? Unfortunately, I do. And that's only because ever since being pregnant with Zoë, I get carsick if I'm the passenger. So now I basically drive everywhere. And if he drives, I just go to sleep.