Key West Weekend

We took a long weekend mid-month and headed down to Key West to do some fishing over the weekend and to allow the girls to do a special "backstage" tour at the Miami Metro Zoo. We have a friend, who works for the zoo, who was gracious enough to spend her day with us and even cook dinner for us that night. The girls had a wonderful time with the baby rhino and giraffe, and feeding both carrots and apples from their hands. I've scrapped some of our pics and posted below. Thanks to ConnyB and Misty Cato for their templates. Their templates made my scrapping so much faster....just plop down the colors and textures, add the pics, and VOILA, a colorful scrapbook! :)

We didn't get to do much fishing. The cold weather followed us down. And on Sunday, the winds were 35 mph....the one day that DH talked us into spending the day on scooters zipping around the Old Town of Key West! But regardless of the weather, the scenery, food and culture were wonderfully relaxing and a great break that was most needed by all of us.

Here is the link for the picture slideshow, just in case it doesn't load below. I'm still learning this flash slideshow stuff and not doing well at it thus far :(
Key West Slideshow

Kitchen Changes Part 2

Well, the kitchen floor is finally finished except for a couple of pieces of the floorboard/trimwork that couldn't be cut due to the storms that moved in. DH says he'll finish it next week when we return from our fishing trip. It looks much better than the old floor and was much faster and easier than sanding down and refinishing the hardwoods underneath. It's not the finish that I would have chosen; but I think it turned out really well.

This floor is not nailed nor glued down. In fact, it's not attached at all; it's just laying there. And there is a spongy layer, like a carpet pad, between this floor and the original hardwood floor. So it will cause no further damage to the floor underneath. This thing is what they call a "self-leveling floating floor" system. It contracts and expands with the weather and temperatures. And let me tell ya, it feels GREAT to the feet! It's like a hardwood floor, but not "hard" like a floor. It feels like wood but yet feels like walking in a good pair of tennis shoes. But you don't feel it or see it give or move with you. It's pretty wild!

My hairdresser came over tonight to cut my hair. The first thing she said was, "OMG! Look at this floor! When did y'all do this......OMG!!! FEEL this floor!!! What the heck is this?!?!" She must have walked and stomped across the kitchen ten times! *LOL*

Well, it's called oak. But it sure doesn't feel like it! The boards came pre-stained with a protective finish. And let me tell ya, that's one heck of a finish!! When we were moving the stove back into it's spot, the cord got hung up underneath it. That huge 3-pronged cord end scraped across the floor. I almost cried at the thought of having a brand new floor with a horrible gouge right down the middle of it already. DH jumped up and said, "Don't worry honey, they say this finish is practically indestructable; you just clean it with a damp cloth." (Yeah right! Like a damp cloth is gonna take that scrape out of the floor!)

Ummmm, well, as much as I HATE to admit that DH was right, he was and it did! It "wiped" right off and leveled back out!! You can't see or even feel where it was! I'm telling ya, this stuff is the bomb, as Katelyn puts it!! :) Anyways, here are some pictures of the new floor. (The kitchen really isn't lop-sided; I just didn't do a good job with the camera! *LOL*) The gouge from the stove cord WAS right there in front of the refrigerator.

Changes in the kitchen

Well, DH came home from work late this morning. He stopped by Home Depot on his way home so he would have something to do this week. ~sigh~

After church, he talked the girls into helping him tear out the old floor. What a mess! And guess what we found under it? A "new" looking hardwoood floor that has never even been finished. The original owner glued linoleum directly onto this floor! Check this out:




Heaven only knows when I'll get my kitchen back. And why DH would want to start this project three days before we have to go out of town is beyond me. But I'll keep y'all posted on the progress!

Week 3 off work

DH decided that he could replace the kitchen floor with the use of just one arm. Yeah right! I wasn't waiting around to see how that one turned out!
He was already calling around to various Home Depots to find the "eucalyptus finish" that he wanted. (I don't know why he can't get it through his head that I want bamboo in the kitchen) And I wasn't willing to take a chance that he might hurt himself even further and be stuck at home for even longer than he has been over his ribs. (I'm only thinking of his well-being, you know!) So I called the doctor and begged, pleaded and came close to threatening him into allowing DH to return to work. Light duty at work must be safer for him than light duty at home! I was adament with the doctor that DH would be far safer at work than at home; his life would be literally hanging on the line if he was at home for another week.

Tonight, I sit here alone while DH is at work. Notice that I said "alone" and not "lonely"? I'm actually feeling relieved. He's called me a half dozen times to see what we're doing and to tell me how much he misses us, how bored he is on light duty and how he can't wait to get back to his old routine again. I didn't have the heart to tell him that I can't wait either! I'm wondering if he will ever be able to retire? Hmmmm, I'm not thinking that would be in either of our best interests; I might turn into a spider!

Week 2 with DH at home

As the snow melted, the weather returned to normal, and the kids returned to school, DH became more irritable, impatient, bored and dangerous.

He moved the Xbox to our bedroom and set it up on a TV at the end of our bed. Then after he became bored with the games, he decided that the bedroom looked cluttered. (Gee, I wonder why?!?) So he decided to clean while I was at work.

A little reminder here: DH can build a house from the ground up. He can build elaborately beautiful furniture. He can rebuild his old truck. He's an exceptional cook. He's quite talented.........as long as he doesn't touch the laundry nor "clean" the house!

When I came home that night, my first clue that something wasn't quite right at home was the rug in the entry way. The tassles were gone.
DH: The vacuum cleaner ate them! I don't know why; it's never happened before!
Me: That's probably because the rest of us don't run the vacuum over the tassles on the rug.

The second clue was at the top of the stairs where on the table sat my grandmother's glass bowls, now empty where once was potpourri.
DH: I threw it out because the dog kept bumping into the table and I didn't want him to spill that stuff on the floor.
Me: The vacuum cleaner could have handled that job.

Then I noticed the boxes in the hallway.
Me: What's this?
DH: I was bored today so I cleaned the house! :)
Me: OK, so what's in the boxes?
DH: Stuff that I didn't know where to put. I put it all in boxes until you could go through it and decide where it goes. Can you do that tonight so I can finish up?
(Ok, I'm starting to feel a tinge of irritability at this point.)

The rest of the night is now a blur in my mind! As I walked through the house, I became totally disoriented, no longer able to think clearly nor to be responsible for my own actions!

The stacks of receipts, forms, legal papers, spreadsheets, etc that I had spent the previous weekend preparing to do our taxes that week, that had been neatly stacked in categories next to my desk, were now gone. The wicker basket on the other side of my desk that held my computer supplies like printer cartridges, disks, USBs, cords, etc was now gone. The floors were TOO clean...absolutely NOTHING on the floors. My desk was TOO clean...all my paperwork had vanished. MY dresser top is clean.......TOO clean. Where the heck is my music box? My little lanterns? My wicker basket? The clothes basket in my closet? GEEEZ! Even my Home magazines on my nightstand are missing!!

As he smiled proudly and walked over to the dresser and opened one of my drawers, the only thing that would come out of my mouth as he smiled and TRIED to say "Look what I did" was "OH NO YOU DID NOT!"

Yes he did! He sorted and straightened my socks! No longer are my casual socks on one side and my dress socks on the other. Now they are all mixed together and sorted by color! Where once I had a drawer for bras and a drawer for panties, now there are two drawers of mixed panties and bras....all sorted by color.

And he did MY laundry! And he washed my jackets and sweaters with my blouses and put them in the dryer!!!! Do you know what happens to jackets and sweaters in the dryer!?! And do you know what happens when your husband lets a bra get into the washer with your sweaters? How about when one of those little bra hooks gets caught in a sweater??

But then I glanced over into my craft room. MY room. The only room in the house that is entirely MINE; the room where NOBODY dares to venture without going through ME first. As I growled, he complained, "There's no reason for you to be so upset; I didn't touch a thing in your craft room!" No, he didn't touch a thing. But now I can't either! I can't even get through the door, LITERALLY! He has stacked all the books from the bookcase and all the bags of stuff he cleaned out from his closet inside my craft room so that he could make room for the Xbox, DVD player, games, joysticks/gamesticks, (whatever you call those things) movies, etc that are now in our bedroom at the end of our bed with that danged TV that takes up half of the room! So in other words, our bedroom is now the family room!

And another pet peeve, if I might share yet another vent...he didn't even dust any of this stuff while he was moving it all around! But he's concerned about me going through the boxes he has stacked up and putting stuff away? I'm beginning to understand why some female spiders mate with the males and then eat them! The males get one mating experience and then they're history! Sounds like a plan to me!!

The bad blogger continues (Part 2)

As I sat warming up the Beast, I thought, "Why the heck am I doing this?!? I just drove my car yesterday and did fine in the weather! Heck, I was driving a tractor in 5th grade! I should just turn this thing off and drive my car! Nope! I don't need him worrying! I don't need to drive down such a potentially dangerous snow-covered driveway. And I don't need him worrying about me getting stuck. He's probably going to worry about whether or not I even know how to drive this thing too! Heaven forbid! I can't have him worrying like that! I owe it to him to help alleviate all this stress and worry!"

***EVIL GRIN***

Slowly I backed the Beast up, being ever so careful to back around the basketball goal and aim the nose of the Beast carefully down the driveway. Then I looked back up to the house, where DH was standing at the patio door, watching me back his "baby" up, ever so carefully around that basketball goal. (Yes, he told me afterwards that he was worried about me sliding into the goal post. I KNEW he would worry about that!) I smiled and waved goodbye to him.

Then I put that bad-boy into 4 WD-HI and took it right down the middle of the yard, right through the middle of all those trees! (It's really not as bad as it looks. The yard is a much more straight shot than the driveway is. ) WHAT A THRILL!!! If I had known that 4WD'ing across the yard was that much fun, I would have done it a long time ago!

My cell phone was ringing almost before I got out of the yard and onto the road. I answered it with, "Hey honey! I didn't slide down the driveway! These bad-boy wheels never even touched that driveway! Aren't ya proud of me?!?"

I thought I was going to have to turn around to go back to the house to give him CPR!

***Have I ever mentioned that I've been somewhat of a rebel my entire life? I try not to be; I just can't help myself sometimes!***

I'm such a bad blogger

I know. I know. I need to keep this thing more current. Life just seems to get in the way sometimes.

I'm still trying to maintain my sanity, at least what little I have left. It's been difficult lately. DH hurt himself while working out at the gym and rather than going to the hospital as advised, he insisted that Katelyn, who was at the gym with him, drive him home. Now up until this time, Katelyn has only driven my car. And even that takes much encouragement because she really would rather not learn to drive at all. But DH drove his truck to the gym that day. Katelyn was already upset and worried about "that loud pop in Dad's chest" and when she got outside and remembered they were in the truck, she just about cried. But DH encouraged her with "You'll do fine. It's just like driving Mom's car. Just take me home."

We live in the mountains. From town to our house is nothing but winding country roads with nothing along the sides of the roads except trees and steep embankments...not an optimal environment to learn truck driving skills. She drove the truck out of town with no problems; but coming around one of the curves on the county road, one of the wheels dropped off the pavement. She overcompensated and jerked the wheel back, creating an entire chain reaction of panicked responses, not only of her own but from DH also. DH attempted to take the wheel and yelled at her to brake. She hit the gas instead of the brake and jerked the wheel, with him attached to it, the opposite direction. Needless to say, DH's ribs took another beating inside the truck on the ride home.

The end result was Katelyn announcing she is never driving again. DH announced he's never riding again. The truck is going to be fine. However, I'm not sure the occupants will be, at least not emotionally! DH finally went to the hospital to find out he was bruised up and had ripped muscles in his chest and around his ribs. He was ordered to be off work, on light duty at home, with no lifting, no extensive standing or sitting until at least mid-month. We made it a week before I started complaining to the doctor that if he didn't release DH to go back to work I was going to kill him!

Men are such big babies when they're down anyways. But my DH is far worse than most. He gives "cabin fever" an entirely new meaning! Here is the chronicles leading up to his return to work this week:

Day 1: He spent most of it griping, complaining, pacing, sitting, flipping TV stations, playing on the computer, complaining about noise, complaining about the weather, stomping to the refrigerator and complaining there was nothing there, then repeating all the above again and again.
(And why in the heck does a sick man suddenly become blind when looking in a refrigerator?)

Day 2: Much of the same as Day 1, but now the real pain and soreness has moved in. Not as much pacing on this day, but more time in bed along with additional complaints that the sheets are tangled up, the comforter is too hot or too cold and never stays on the bed right. The pillows are all wrong. The lighting in the bedroom is all wrong. And there's nothing on TV.
(I guess the "sick man refrigerator blindness" strikes when the TV is turned on too? Over 100 stations of satellite TV and he can't see a thing!)

Day 3: The girls dug out some old movies that DH hadn't watched in a while. Most of the day was spent watching movies, playing on the computer, and sleeping. Not too bad......until the snow started.

Days 4-5: We've had snow, sleet and rain and some wickedly cold nights around here. DH had to be the macho man and take care of his family....just in case we lost electricity. He went down to the garage and fiddled with the generator. Then he went down to the well and checked it out. Then he checked the fire in the stove at least twice hourly. He ran extra water into all the jugs, pitchers and containers he could find in the house. He refilled all the kerosene lanterns/lamps and put matches next to the candles. The he fiddled with the generator some more. Then checked the well again, and then the fire....getting us prepared to be months without heat, light or power. But hey, it kept him busy! :)

Days 5-6: DH wanted me to call out of work due to the weather. But I can't do that. When the weather gets bad, things at work get even crazier. Besides, I needed to get out of the house anyways. I don't think I could have taken another day of his preparations around the house. Once I had finally convinced DH that I was going to work, and there was no negotiation on it, he began to complain that he was worried about me driving down that long, curvy driveway in the snow, and cautioned, "You better take the Beast (his dual 4 WD with a lift kit, manly type toy) just in case."

Now, we're not talking about a New York style blizzard followed by an ice storm. We had snow on the driveway....simple snow! I've taken my car through far worse on many occasions. That car could probably get down that driveway in a snowstorm without a driver! But he just kept on and on and on and on about how careful I needed to be because he was so worried about me trying to get down the snow-covered driveway and about what would happen if I got stuck somewhere. (Did I mention that all the roads were cleared by noon the previous day?) So I relented and agreed to drive the Beast. A little overkill, if you ask me, and a waste of gas, but I didn't need to give him anything else to worry about.

So I went out to warm up the Beast. Here's the "before" picture: