Well, I have about three different posts about three-fourths done, but just gave up on them for now. Anyone who knows me knows that I tend to travel down an "occasional bunny trail" when trying to tell something....I came by this honestly-directly from my Mom! I got a pretty good dose of it from my paternal grandmother also. Even though she passed away when I was twelve and don't have alot of memories of her, I DO remember trying to follow her conversation with a bit of frustration!
At any rate, I MOST definitely write the same way I think and talk.....going all around the world to paint the ENTIRE background/sideground/above-ground and underground picture, often totally forgetting the main focus of....wait a minute.... Now what was I writing about????
Oh yeah...the progress of our log home.
We spent about two or so weeks on excavation. And of course, the one thing that anyone trying to dig a basement fears, happened. We hit rock. Fortunately, we have a wonderful excavator/landscaper and dear friend..."Special Ed" of ELS (Earth Leveling Systems/ Edward L. Scarborough). Be it known that mere rock would prove to be no barrier for Special Ed. (He really has that on the sides of his trucks!) He just got a bigger truck/digger thingey and blasted through the cursed rock. Not meaning to take away from Ed's glory, but thankfully the rock was mostly sandstone.
So after excavation, comes the next step/disaster/way over-budget item- the pouring of the concrete. For some reason that I am not sure I totally understand, we used about twice as much concrete as estimated for the footings and slab. The bad thing about this...$$$$$ spent on something so drab/unappealing as concrete. The good thing about this....this house is going to be built on a bomb shelter. I even proposed just putting a roof over the basement walls and stopping there.
After the concrete work was done, we had about a week waiting on the delivery of the logs. During this time, we experienced monsoon-type rains pretty much daily. Tom took advantage of the short break to (1)make a quick trip to the coast to host a Continuing Ed dinner for the Physicians we work with there (2)cook a wonderful Mother's Day dinner for me and both our Moms (3)lend a hand to Wes and Sarah on the renovation of the house they have purchased recently (4) repair tractors/lawn mowers/weed-eaters and multiple other yard equipment that I had torn-up working on the yard/property (5) stand there shaking in fear for his life as I shot my first snake...a 3 foot rattler (6) briefly work on our "one-week" bathroom renovation that started mid-March. I'm sure there were a few other pressing items he had to deal with during this time, but it all starts to run together at some point. And just a note in reference to #4....we have someone coming out tomorrow to do our lawn as both lawn-mowers are now at the John Deere place (they just love us up there...we alone provide a large portion of their business). I, as usual, had nothing to occupy my time during this brief break, so I busily "helped" out by making more work. We/He decided it might be cheaper to pay someone to do the lawn versus me tearing up all the equipment regularly.
The little black bar that appears to be bending downward actually is.....thanks to me. Oh yeah....I don't typically drive the tractor in my snappy little copper-colored yellow-box slides.
...this would be the snake I shot with a shotgun.....the little stringy things hanging down on the left side are where his large head WAS....before I BLEW it off with my first shot!
Finally, the day came in which the logs arrived....at least two eighteen wheelers of stuff, anyway. I was all set to document with photos this monumental day. I sat in the POURING rain at Top-Hat where the trucks arrived and proceded to unload portions of the delivery to a smaller truck that would be able to get up our road to the house site. Well, theoretically would be able to get up our road which was just a "bit" slippery/muddy due to the monsoon rains of the months of April and May. So after taking up the longest beams, it was decided that the truck would not be the best mode of delivery. Enter the "monster" fork-lift/road-eater. For each large load of materials it took up to the building site, it ate one foot of mud/road.
The actual construction of the exterior walls is in full-swing now and hopefully the roof trusses will be going up beginning tomorrow.
After going over budget on the concrete, we came up with a way to make-up the overage.........outdoor plumbing!!!.....It's not too expensive and they come and empty it weekly...perfect for us....as there is always somebody around here full of it!!!
OK, so yesterday I finally tackled trying to get the pool ready for the summer. I had put this off about as long as possible due to just being lazy not wanting to fool with it and also due to the fact that it adds one more thing to my list of "stuff" to take care of.
So while I am trying to drain the nasty stagnant water and debris off the cover, I scared up a couple of frogs. Anyone who knows me even a little, knows that I absolutely HATE reptiles (mostly snakes), and only barely tolerate amphibians. This was fairly unnerving as I am always scared to death that a snake will come slithering out from under the pool deck.
At any rate, Clara was "helping" me, which translates "running around frantically trying to catch the frogs I had scared up". After loosing a couple, she penned one under the lid off a bucket of pool chemicals. I was given the order to maintain the "capture" while she ran up to the house to try to find some kind of container to hold the frog. I was kind of creeped out doing this, but after about five minutes waiting on her to get back, I became suspect that the captured frog had succumbed to the overwhelming fumes of chlorine from the lid I was using to hold him. He didn't seem to be moving any longer. I carefully eased up the edge of the lid. I guess he got just enough fresh air in to revive him, as he took the moment to make a run (or hop) for the hills.
So now, I'm feeling just a tiny bit guilty for letting him get away. This guilt really comes from a deeper-seated guilt related to the fact that we, the parents have pretty much had a "no-pets" rule at our house. This rule came about for several reasons, the primary one being that with six children, I/we had dealt with way more poop than anyone should have to deal with. (Unless you can cash in on this and get your own "large family" reality show on TLC!)
What we did not realize was the severe and damaging psychological effect being a pet-free home would have on our children. Looking back now, I think there were signs of this trauma our children were going through that we missed. It probably was a BIT unusual that Mason and Jordan had pet ladybugs for a couple of years during the Great Lady Bug Infestation of the 90's. We thought it worked out great, satisfying that desire that all kids seem to have to have a pet. And on the plus side, ladybugs didn't leave poop to be tracked in on shoes, didn't really have to be fed or watered, didn't have to be boarded when we went out of town, no hefty vet bills, etc. They kept them in matchboxes until they would die (usually fairly quickly) and as soon as one died, they would just catch another off our walls or ceilings. There were so many, I guess they didn't really get attached to any "one" of the thousands which tried to cohabitate with us, so we also didn't have to deal with the sadness and trauma of losing a dear family pet, either.
I'm asking you honestly, DO THESE CHILDREN LOOK DEPRIVED/DAMAGED due to not being allowed to experience the joys of having their own puppy?
Jordie, about age 4, BEING a lady bug for Halloween.....well, maybe this COULD be a sign that we were just a little tough with the "no-pets" rule.
In our defense, we DID have one brief "pet-encounter" allowing the kids to have a beautiful champion-line Brittany Spaniel who was given to the kids by one of the surgeons I used to scrub for who "insisted" that no family was complete without a dog. The first problem with Henry involved naming him...five kids-five names. For once (and maybe only once)they finally settled on "Dr. Laws" as the chosen name. But I had to veto that because it seemed a little too weird to call my boss and my dog by the same name. Still wanting to give Dr. Laws a bit of honor/thanks for the gift, they settled on Henry. (Dr.Laws' first name) Unfortunately, Henry was either dog-napped or took off, possibly looking for a home where he did not have to wear doll clothes or ride in a doll carriage.
We were however tricked/severely guilted into allowing one small white fluffy dog enter our family about five years ago. I'm still not really sure what happened with this. I think Tom and I both had just gotten over the flu or something and just weren't thinking clearly/got hit with the request during a weak moment. Or maybe it was that little bit of grieving you do when you realize that your "child-bearing" years (i.e. joy, cute little sweet-smelling cuddly babies) are officially over and now you are just left with "child-rearing" years(i.e. work, $$$$$, cute cuddly babies are now pre-teen/teen-agers with car keys and wildly fluctuating hormone swings). Those sweet, fun "nurturing" years were long gone.
So what we are now left with is "mostly" grown children "mostly" out on their own. And what is one of the first "big" decisions they make now that they are in charge of most of their own decisions???........they get pets. (insert more parental guilt here over the "no-pets" rule) Blake and Jenny....dogs Petey and Rascal; Wes and Sarah....Kimono; Rachel....Hurley; Mason....Sunday(tragically killed by a car), then Jules; Jordan....Pierre, the wonder dog (abandoned, but remains at home with parents who don't want a dog) unknown named fish who died over Christmas break due to being transported 300+ miles home for Christmas Vacation.
Kimono...my only female grand-dog
Petey and Rascal starring in their own video made by Blake who has a theory that the dogs on the ASPCA Commercial with the tear-jerking Sheryl Crowe song are not really abused dogs, but are in fact actor/imposter dogs posing as poor neglected dogs. He theorizes that THESE imposter dogs actually are much like his own Petey and Rascal, who live very comfortable, if not lavish lives.
Sorry Hurley, I don't have a picture of you yet, but that doesn't mean you are loved any less.
Addendum...we now have a picture of Hurley, who looks alot like the dog Winn-Dixie in the movie "Because of Winn-Dixie"...which is kind of funny, because Rachel looked ALOT like the little girl (AnnaSophia Robb) who played Winn-Dixie's mom when she was about the about same age.
Lastly, we have Clara, who desperately wants a puppy. Since she knows we won't cave on the the "dog issue", she frequently adopts anything and everything and deems it her "pet", hoping for the love and affection that only a puppy gives. Luckily, since her other pets are minus the "cute" factor and really haven't given back much love, they are quickly abandoned. Case(s) in point- Hermit Crabs x3, miniature hamster x1, lizard x1, dog abandoned by older sister, two outside cats, several kittens (before we FINALLY got our cats spayed) and other "critters" that slowed down long enough to get caught.
So now we have a pet frog.....named Patricia. That is one of the "interesting" things about Clara and her pets....they usually have "unusual" names. Case(s) in point- Hermit Crabs - PeeWee Hermit, Joe (as in Joe's Crab Shack?), and Nobber-Nobber Jerry Holmes; miniature hamster - Olive; outside cats - Cheese-Puff and Whitey.(the only "normal" pet name, in my opinion) Pierre, the fluffy white dog abandoned by her older sister has seldom been called by his name by Clara. Instead, he is called Zucha Poodems, Frank or Frank Miller (after Grampa Frank in the Junie B. Jones books-he, like Pierre, naps alot) Snookrums, PW, P-double-U air (a slight variation of PW) and many other names that slip my mind at the moment. I am not sure if there is any psychological significance to the "unusual" naming of the pets, but my guilt for depriving my kids of pet ownership tends come soaring in here. Since she has been "pet-deprived" by her parents, there probably IS some damage being done to her "psyche" as evidenced by her attempts to make "anything" a pet. And I'm sure the unusual pet names are some type of evidence of more underlying latent damage. When questioned about the origin of the name Patricia, she simply said she liked it. I want to believe this, but my mother-guilt is struggling.
PATRICIA
Asking her how she knew that Patricia was a "she-frog" was a bit more risky, as we have been having "those" talks as of late. I was a little nervous that the "p" or "v" words might be used. I know, I know, I'm a NURSE for goodness sake...that shouldn't even faze me. Nurse or not, I revert back to a Mom when it comes to matters like these with my kids. And even though I've had "those" talks before, I still kind of draw up in a knot and get kind of sweaty when it comes right down to it. Thankfully, her answer was simply "She looks more like a girl-frog".
As it has turned out.....I convinced Clara that Patricia might be happier under the pool deck....and it seems as though Patricia, once released, met up with Patrick as the next day we had evidence of some big time frog-partying going on.....bunches of frog eggs on top of the pool. So now.....we have a tub full of the consequences of Patricia and Patricks night of carelessness......about 50-60 TADPOLES!
Ok, so if you are wondering why a fifty year old woman would change her blog background to Tonka trucks, well that's what is going on in our lives just now. We are paying lots of $$$$ to play with Tonka trucks on our property.
Actually, about three years ago, children began to leave our home at warp-speed. Rachel and Wesley began college four years ago. The next year, Mason was added to the mix. And then last year Jordie began her freshman year. My strategy at the time was to quickly move some of my own junk in their rooms as soon as they moved out and therefore claim the territory as my own, hoping to block their return at a future point in time.
About a year and a half ago, we had to move Tom's parents here from their home in NC due to aging issues...specifically bumping into other people when they drove their car. And that was just Grandma. Grampa had his license confiscated by the MD a couple of years earlier, but we were suspect that he might have actually been "sneaking" and driving just a "little bit"!
This transition made us rethink some decisions we had previously made regarding staying in our present home versus building a new home. We have a modest older home in which we had utilized every square inch, converting the basement into much needed bedrooms, children's den, LARGE bathroom and laundry room. So about the time we got everything completed, creating six bedrooms and three baths, everyone (except Clara Beth) moved out!
I wanted my basement back....for covered parking. I wanted a larger living area upstairs as all the children are MUCH larger now and usually are accompanied by friends and/or spouses! I wanted my laundry room upstairs. I didn't need six bedrooms. In fact, having six bedrooms encourages one to collect or hang on to more "junk".
So, we are doing our part to boost the economy by building a new place. Space-wise, other than losing Tom's "warehouse/workshop/junk-catcher" in the back yard, we will have about the same amount of living space. Just larger living/family areas and less, but larger bedrooms. And a laundry room and garage on the main level.
Now all I have to do is get rid of approximately 2500 square feet of junk in the warehouse and playhouse. And a couple of bedroom's worth of furniture. And about 54,134 homeschool books. (Anybody need 4 years of Latin curriculum?" And about 67,324 yards of material for "all those quilts I was going to make". And about 548 boxes of baby/kids clothes. And about $3,854 worth of "Creative Memories" scrapbooking stuff that I used to complete maybe 4 scrapbooks. And about 784 Beanie Babies that were going to be worth millions of dollars. And about enough Christmas decorations to decorate the entire city of Birmingham. And about.......you name it, we probably have it....and alot of it times eight(one for each member of the family!) And about 789,678 other various items that I might "need" some day.
Sigh.......
On a positive note, I have sold about 15 homeschool books on E-bay. At this rate, I'll be done in about 40 years.
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