Where O Where?

 

Where O Where is the Springtime?

 

Why isn't it coming to Wisconsin my home?

 

I searched the web over, and thought I'd found springtime,

 

but I checked my bankbook,

 

and Pftttt that idea was gone.

 

 

I you happen to be a youngster and don't remember Hee Haw the above should be sung to the following:

 



 



Besides the fact we've had more snow in March than we had in December and January combined I am still hopeful that spring is around the corner.  I can see bare ground in my yard which has a few hazards, one is the inevitable mud that happens in the less grassy areas of the yard - which a good chunk of the side yard.  The other is land mines laid by Callie.  Snow covers a lot of ills.  Today Sonny Boy was given a handful of plastic bags and told to go pick up poo.  Igor in an effort of never being left out of anything, insisted he be given a bag so he could participate as well.  Whatever floats your boat kid.  I didn't watch, but I imagine that most of the poop that was cleaned up was done by Igor just cause that's the kind of kid he is.  Good news for the kids is that I have a bid in on fancy pooper scooper on Ebay, bad news is I didn't realize that the auction didn't run out for 6 days yet, so unless I'm out bid it will be a little while before the super dooper scooper gets here.

Like we don't have enough stress going Hubby has gotten a wild hair that we must remodel the kitchen.  Now I'm not against remodeling the kitchen, all the kitchen gods agree that the kitchen is far from being functional, and only a couple of upgrades ahead of where it was when the house was built in 1893.  I'm just not sure right now is the best time to tackle such a stressful project.  However we have been planning on remodeling the kitchen since the day we bought the house 8 1/2 years ago so it's probably time.  Since the kitchen has such a poor design layout and we hope to remove a couple of walls, and somehow squeeze a mudroom/laundry out of the deal, we have hired an architect to design and tell us how to deal with the structural elements.  Today the architect came and measured all over the house from the attic to the basement.  If this proves feasible both structurally and financially I'll likely be cooking meals in the camper all summer.  Yay.

The little rent house behind us is emptying out again.  The young family that moved in last spring is in the process of moving out.  Kind of a shame as they have been our best neighbors there yet, actually keeping the lawn mown and doing a couple of little outdoor projects that looked very nice.  Mom is eyeballing it and threatening to rent it and live off of her savings.  I don't think I'm going to talk her out of it if she does.  I have no idea how much longer it will be before her disability is approved, but honestly I've had about all of it I can stand and frankly she's sick of us as well.  I'm hoping she goes for it.  Hubby says that maybe she can get a six month lease so if the disability isn't approved she would have a way out and at least we would get a break.  I'm going to keep my eyes open for the landlords and send her over to speak with them as they always come in and clean up after each tenant.

Mom has been good about going up to the library for her coupon job.   Mostly she's been stuck filing coupons which I'm sure sucks.  The upside is she LEAVES THE HOUSE for a couple of hours a week which has been really good for her.  She is still not good about getting dressed, she stayed in PJ's all day both Saturday and Sunday and most of the day on Monday.  I was flipping through the calendar today and saw that she has a shrink appointment in a couple of weeks.  I'm going to go with her and tattle.  I don't need to go and listen to her deepest darkest secrets, but I know her and she won't report she only dresses 3-4 days a week, and makes no big effort to make friends here in town.

Today I was telling Mom about a dream job opportunity (same company) that we hope comes Hubby's way.  Right now it's a very long shot, but he has definitely thrown his name in the hat.  If the dream job comes to fruition it would mean moving temporarily.  Mom's first concern was what about me?  My response was "you live here rent free!"  "But I don't know anybody!" and I told her she better get out and start making some friends.  Of course this is all just talk at this point and very well may never happen

Sonny Boy is being a handful lately.  His daily reports from his teacher are rather hit and miss.  Homework and behavior have become regular issues despite being warned, grounded and the like.  I'm beginning to think it's time to up his ADHD med dosage as he must be in a growth spurt because it's totally impossible to keep groceries around.  I honestly think I haven't seen the kid eating something in the last two weeks.  I also discovered that he was eating breakfast at home and then going and eating it at school as well!  I called the cafeteria and put a stop to that as he can eat his fill at home.

Igor had an open house this last week that Hubby and I attended.  He had glowing reports from his teacher and was proud to show off stuff.  It was the first time Hubby had been in Igor's classroom so everything was new to him.  Igor's teacher reports that his reading has really "blossomed" in the last month.  Igor really wants to be a reader but he has to work at it, however he's right on grade level so we don't have any worries.

Good News!  FIL's crazy live-in moved out of his house without us having to pay a lawyer.  Thank God for small miracles.  Maybe the plea I posted on FIL's facebook page to haunt her worked.

Well it's late, and the is quickly descending into drivel.  I always come up with great blog topics as I lie down to sleep, but like magic they are gone by the time I get to a keyboard so I write about my real life dramas.

A Glimmer

Well hopefully we might be seeing some improvement in things around here.  I'm saying this optimistically.

The nightmare with FIL crazy live-in should come to a close soon.  She has promised to be out by the 17th, if she is not we have already contacted an attorney to get her thrown out.  Every time we talk about it we all get angry because she has all these "rights" to property that is not hers by any means be it lease or deed.  Either way that drama will likely be over with in the next couple of weeks and we can start really cleaning up FIL's place and put it up for sale.

Hubby and I sat Mom down for a heart to heart the other night.  I didn't say anything new, but Hubby was involved in it which was and for some reason when Mom hears something from him it's no longer me nagging but is heard at least somewhat.  We basically said she has to get out of the house for some amount of time - I offered up 6 hours a week - doing SOMETHING - because it was totally unhealthy for her to go weeks at a time without leaving.  I also offered up she needs to dress daily and do some walking.  When I went to the library on Monday to check out some books I asked the librarian if they had any volunteer jobs Mom could do. She was super excited to have Mom come clip coupons and file them.  The library clips all the coupons from the many newspapers they get, and puts them in a file for the people in the community to use. They have stacked up for weeks as they don't have time or a volunteer to get it done.  I came home with this information and the afternoon book club book.  Mom went yesterday to talk to them and came home rather excited because they were super nice and glad to have the help.  Thank God.  Maybe clipping coupons will give her some way to feel needed in the world if she has that silly little job to go to.  So now I have at least two hours of the house all to myself!!!  I might have a party, or just pay bills if I can ever get the bank website up.

Wrestling season came to an end.  Sonny Boy did better than expected at the regional tournament defeating his first opponent, however he was beaten the next two rounds and was out.  Weigh - in was the night before and when we got there he was .4 lb from the lower weight bracket, in hopes of giving him a little edge we dressed him in Igor's jacket, his own jacket, and my jacket and he ran laps around the gym for 45 minutes.  Yeah not the healthiest way to drop weight, nor really something I wanted to teach him. We have always just let him wrestle at whatever he weighed in at, but we knew competition would be fierce, and being at the top end of the weight bracket does give a bit of advantage.  Now I'm looking into summer camps, just got an email from a parent who wants to get a group together to attend a camp, it's rather expensive, especially compared to a camp at a nearby university campus.  The hitch is that is a rather prestigious camp that has a good reputation, so we'll see if the team discount and a commuter discount (I'll take the camper and stay nearby) will make it something we can do.

The dishwasher is still out of order.  The repairman came on Tuesday and said the motor was shot, he didn't have a replacement motor in stock so it is on order and he will be back next Thursday.  Yay, another week of hand washing dishes.

The head cold I struggled through last week passed on to Hubby who battled it a couple of days.  The kids seemed to have missed it, but yesterday the dog started coughing.  My resident Internet vet (Hubby) declared she has "Kennel Cough" and that it will clear on it's own.  The worst part is she coughs so hard she starts gagging and pukes up a little.  Nice.  So now when she starts a spell we all run for the door in hopes she gets outside in time.  Today she seems a bit better, but yesterday was rough on her,  Igor was concerned and wanted to take her to the vet immediately and to be honest he's not even that in love with her.  For now I'm feeding her small amounts of food at a time and the kids have been ordered to leave her alone so she can rest as the coughing seems to start up when she gets excited playing.

My 39th birthday is looming very near.  To be honest I don't really care, but I do.  Why?  I don't really know, I still get carded when I buy liquor at the grocery store, but then again they say they card anybody who looks under 40.  Like the saying goes, it's better than the alternative!

I wish spring would get here.  I have some daffodils that are trying to poke up in the bed by the back door (that bed is always very early as it is pretty sheltered) however I'm still looking at a fair amount of snow in the yard and it's spitting snow as I type.  March is always the time I get really sick of Wisconsin winter and yearn for Arkansas's early spring.

Blah, I'm going to see if I can get my bills paid now.  Double Blah.

Yuck

The dishwasher has been making funny noises for a while.  Hubby looked at it declared it needed work and since it's less than a year old he called the repairman who is supposed to be here on Tuesday.  The dishwasher went to dishwasher heaven last night as the load I ran through it, funny noises and all isn't even remotely clean.  Now I have a full dishwasher of dirty dishes and a counter full of dirty dishes to hand wash.  Nice.

To top it off I have one heck of head cold.  The kind of head cold where you can't breathe through your nose at all and it feels like your sinuses are going to explode out through your eyeballs.  Horizontal is not a position that works at all, but of course that's the only way I can sleep.

Lovely, I'm off to blow my nose and see if I get Mom to help me with the dishes before somebody from the health department shows up.

A little bit of nothing

The last couple of months our weekends have centered around Sonny Boy's wrestling tournaments.  I am amazed at the amount of youth tournaments in Wisconsin in a given weekend.  Now I'm sure some of them don't draw the same amount of crowds as the ones we attend but I'd guess on any given weekend in Dec, Jan, Feb and early March there are 10-20 tournaments in Wisconsin. 

This one was a couple of weeks ago.  Sonny Boy in 3rd here but only missed 2nd place by 1 point.  The kid who won was a real scrapper and certainly had an advantage on Sonny Boy. 

Today's tournament didn't go nearly so well, in fact I don't know if I'm up to attending that tournament again.  We were in a large "field house" where the only bleachers must have been dragged in from outdoors and were only 3 levels high.  We ended up sitting against the wall - on a set of two step bleachers that were behind another set of bleachers.  Ug, between that and the fact Sonny Boy was in an 8 kid bracket which leaves little room for flubbing a match and placing well.  Today Sonny Boy placed 7th.  The first kid he wrestled pinned him very quickly, the second kid he gave a really hard time but lost by decision.  The third match he was mad, and made the kid pay, and won it but gave us and his coaches a few heart attacks by nearly getting pinned once or twice.

Couple the fact the last nights supper came back to haunt me and I had to make several embarrassing trips to a very busy ladies room early in the day left me not too humoured to be there.

Next week is regional.  Honestly I don't expect him to make it too far.  Several of the better wrestlers on the team are not going after being disappointed last year.  We've done our best to explain to Andrew that he's not likely to do great but he declares that it's just like any other tournament.  The only upside I can see is that it's double elimination and once he loses twice we go home.  Is that bad?

Hubby is trying to fit in a little ice fishing here and there.  Really only gotten out once and the kids are begging to go again.

 

 

A week or so ago he took the boys out and this little northern pike is all they caught.  I know he looks longish but they are a bony fish and must be pretty big before they are worth keeping.  Not to mention they smell, even 10 seconds out of the water they are slimy and stink.  Fun to catch though as they are pretty aggressive.

 

Currently the I can't decide what's offending my nose more.  Hubby dragged up his beer making stuff and made a batch of beer this afternoon and that smells pretty bad.  Couple that with the methane releaser we call a dog this evening and I want to put a clothespin over my nose.  Normally I have a nice candle around to try to cover up the stink but I haven't purchased a good one in a while and the cheap ones hardly have smell to them at all.

 

Tomorrow nothing is down on the "books".  Hubby said he may have to tend an broken airplane, if not it's possible he'll take the boys fishing again.