"Would you dance with me today, I'll show you how to have a good time...."

I haven't got much to report this week.

The builder was here, to begin the outside work for our kitchen remodel, but he found some bad news when he started ripping the siding off the back of the house...there are all sorts of pipes/return lines running through that wall. I may have to reconfigure my layout, because it seems like I'm going to have to have two 32" deep walls running up each side of the kitchen between the addition and the existing kitchen. It kind of defeats the purpose of having one big kitchen, but I'll have to see what I can come up with.

Someone asked me to marry them at school this week. A wonderful hispanic eighteen year old with long, long hair, braces and an ankle monitoring device. After thoroughly considering his offer, I had to decline. He took it well. One of my co-workers is getting a divorce and it's all I hear about. She's in her early thirties, and suddenly is behaving like a 21 year old...drinking every night, coming to work hungover and making googly eyes at all the male staff. She's really making a fool of herself, and I feel kind of bad.

I had to send a written itinerary of our vacation plans to JJ's DHS caseworker, who said she'd try to get our trip approved. Our fingers are crossed.

Last weekend, I got my front flower beds all cleaned out/deweeded/raked...now I have to do the back, and the end of the driveway. That's on my list for tomorrow. My neighbor called me this morning because she found her husband's to-do list sitting in her kitchen. Along with the usual stuff...mowing the lawn, changing the oil, etc, was written blow job. While she found it amusing, she went ahead and crossed it off so as not to get his hopes up.

you're screwed.

Mum's blog reminded me of this.
My kids have a really hard time...no that's too mild, they never refill the toilet paper roll. They have their own bathroom upstairs, so it's not that big of a deal, but downstairs in the powder room it really drives me nuts. But, the other day, I walked past their bathroom, and something caught my eye. I walked over to their empty tp cardboard roll there, and on it was written "you're screwed"...actually it said "your screwed" so I know Braden did it.
He can't take the time to put on another roll of tp, but he can come downstairs, get a marker and write his little message on there.

"You get up every morning From your alarm clock's warning"

It was kind of a humdrum week...which is a good thing, in my book. We all went back to school on Tuesday - believe it or not I was glad to go back. I was kind of tired of making pancakes/eggs/french toast every morning. JJ started at Nazareth full time. He really likes it. It's the first time he's been in a regular school in years. The high school cafeteria/school lunch really impressed him. "Miss, I can get pepperoni pizza every day!"
Braden and Keith are going on a scout camping trip next weekend. They're going to Orange County Choppers in New York. They're both looking forward to it (but I doubt as much as I am).
I went shopping Friday night to spend some of my birthday money. I went to TJ Maxx because I wanted to get shoes and a pocketbook. Usually, if I'm there for some other reason without extra money, I can find a few pair of shoes and handbags I love. I didn't find anything on Friday. I was pissed. I need a pair of springish shoes for work, but they can't have an open toe. I ws thinking of going back out today, but the weather here is horrible! Pouring, heavy wind....I think I'd be better off staying in and catching up on laundry.
Our kitchen remodel is supposed to start the first week of May. I might start packing up some of my kitchen stuff today too. Mostly the decorative things that I have on top of the cabinets and some of my serving pieces I rarely use. Plus, I might read some of the new book I bought..."Driving with Dead People".
Braden hasn't had a meltdown in weeks, and it's been very nice. We're all so much more relaxed.
Oh yeah, JJ was finally able to get a hold of his mom, so now we have all the information we need to apply for a birth certificate so we can get him a passport, in case we're able to go to Jamaica, we'll be all set.
That's about all I've got. Schell out.

"Baby what a big surprise"

I surely enjoyed my week off. I rented a couple of movies...I watched "Little Miss Sunshine" and "Running with Scissors"...loved them both. I also read The "Time Traveler's Wife" for my book group this month.

I started "housecleaning" the downstairs. Monday and Tuesday I took everything off the walls in the dining room, hallway and bathroom. Cleaned all the moldings, baseboards, light fixtures, etc. That took me two days. Then on Wednesday, I had to do transportation for the Children's Home...drive a 14 year old girl to Philadelphia for a supervised sibling visit. That wasn't too bad, except on the way there I got into a little fender bender. Hopefully the adjuster will be coming out today to give an estimate. Thursday, I was going to start cleaning again, but I started thinking that if we're ripping down a wall and remodeling the kitchen, everything's just going to get dusty again, so I may as well wait. That sounded good to me, so I stopped.

The rest of the week was pretty much uneventful. JJ decided he wanted to go visit his aunt, so we took him to the bus on Thursday. On Saturday we went to go pick him up from the bus station around 7:pm. After we got him, we arrived home and I walked through the back door and my house was full of my friends and family. "Surprise!" they all yelled. Braden and JJ had planned a surprise birthday party for me, and I was totally clueless. Earlier in the day, while I was preparing my desserts for Easter Sunday, Braden asked me, "Mom, would you make up some of that iced tea/lemonade punch for tomorrow? Everybody loves it." Of course I did. During the party he said, "I hope you know I lied to you. The punch was for tonight" I told him I didn't care. Braden and JJ did most of the work themselves. They took my address book upstairs one night and called all my friends, they told Keith what kind of food they wanted to have. When Keith and I ran to get JJ, Braden and my oldest son (who I thought had just come early for Easter) vacuumed the downstairs and did a quick cleanup. (I still can't find where they stashed half the things that were laying around) It was a very nice night. Except for all the "you're really old now" ribbing I took.

Yesterday my family came for Easter dinner. The day was fairly uneventful. Except the tea lady loaded her plate up so high, then was holding it crooked and half the stuff ran off onto the dining room floor. Keith yelled, "Jesus Christ, Jane" when he got up to fix it, which made her feel bad, but other than that, everything was nice. Except the weather. It was colder here yesterday than it was on Christmas day. That's a bunch of crap.