just keep swimming

(that's a dory reference (from finding nemo, Z's first favorite movie))

finally after many a year of swimming lessons, the boy is catching on - YEAH!
we've signed him up for lessons for the past 3 years, each failing miserably, so much where we were told "don't bother" because it was a waste of their time & his (because he hated it too).

it's been really hot (seriously, like in the high 80s!) heehee, i know it's AWFUL to say that after living in the desert for 4 years & 80s were a fricken dream come true, but in SD that's HOT. so we'd been hitting the community pool a few times & suddenly Z seemed to be comfortable in the water after just a few days so we got passes for the remainder of the season.

it was day 2 when he was ok with putting his face in the water & even going under the water a bit. day 3 he was doing the jellyfish/dead man's body/float on your belly thing & jumping in the pool probably 30 times. once he was that comfortable, the swimming part was pretty easy, he's not so good on top of the water, better under, but that's how i was too. he's not all the way there swimming laps or anything, but finally his fear is gone & he doesn't swim like my mom anymore (ie, a rock).

another reason why i shouldn't drive automatic

B's out of town so i decided to take his truck in to be washed. i've gotten pretty good at driving his truck & even remember to put it in park [most of the time], only occasionally look for the clutch when i stop or attempt to put it in 2nd when i go around a corner. see, i'm getting comfortable!

however, the guys at the carwash threw me a curveball [damn them!].

Z & I leave the car wash & are a little ways down the street when the red "BRAKE" light starts flashing. i know i'm not pressing the brakes, so it must mean the emergency brake only i don't know where that thing is.

i know where it's at on a automatic car, but this is a truck & it's set up differently.

so i kinda panic, but then i see the extra pedal at the floorboard - AHA!

before it was only slightly engaged & that's why i was able to go, now it was fully engaged & i'm at a DEAD stop in the middle of the flipping street.

full panic because i can't fricken move, only saving grace was that i chose a side street not the main drag, so there were only a couple of cars behind me.

then i finally saw the release lever & we were free!

fancy automatics are so confusing to me...

Weds July 8th, my birthday

seriously! in the midst of all the chaos i was struck down by 38.
it was a slap in the face.

i'm kidding, wasn't a big deal at all. nothing like 30.

i was happy though, i woke up in our bed, not on the floor & not on a (borrowed) air mattress & we were in SD. we tried to relax which was kind of impossible with boxes everywhere, so we did some unpacking. my mom called & left a happy birthday message. [my dad will probably call in a few weeks, oops, maybe not, he doesn't have our new #, oh well]

moving on, mom drove up & we all went out for lunch at chili's. Z didn't want to go there, he was afraid everything was poshy [spicy]; he was fine though, he cleaned his plate.

because of the chaos, mom gave me a gift card & flowers, i'm owed by B [a nice place to sit, although i owe him as well]. Z made popsicles for me [what a sweetie!] although after eating a massive piece of death by chocolate cake from costco, it was impossible to even consider such a thing.

all in all a good day!

time sure does go quickly!

Tues June 30th - B went to work, I continued prepping the house & putting stuff aside that we didn't want the movers to pack [ie, my chonies oh, & clothes too].

Weds July 1st - movers show up a little after 8, pack all our stuff up but leave our beds for one last night.

Thurs July 2nd - everything we own except a few boxes [& my chonies] go on the moving truck, the house is EMPTY. we didn't even think of bringing the air mattress up from SD house, but luckily R let us borrow his.

Fri July 3rd - a blur

Sat July 4th - took a break & went over to R's in the afternoon to hit the pool, then went to a BBQ. we ate like ranch-hands after living out of a ice chest for 2 weeks. went over to another friend's house to light up our leftover fireworks from the previous year. um, yeah, fireworks were confiscated again. but this time they weren't ours, they had some really good stuff!

Sun July 5th - another blur

Mon July 6th - worked our asses off like you would not believe. we handed over the keys to the new tenant about 10pm then had a 3 hour drive ahead of us. we stayed in close contact the entire drive knowing we were both completely exhausted. we arrived a little after 1am. there was a box from cox (communications) at the front door & i started reciting dr suess's box with a gox story & giggling, delirium had set in.

Tues July 7th - movers arrived shortly after 7am to unload all our stuff. by noon the truck was empty & quite a bit had been unpacked. the house was a mess & there was no point in having them continue to unpack when everything needed to be washed or wiped down so we let them go.

prayers for friends

B's best friend R, last weekend his mom was in a bad motorcycle accident.
she's finally doing better, but now R's brother came to visit from out of state, on their way home they were in a BAD car accident. the entire family of 4 suffered broken bones, internal injuries & one of the kids has been induced into coma.

it's so sad when bad things happen to good people.

warp speed

this is the week when all hell breaks loose...good times are coming...i can feel it!

carpet is being installed in SD house today, hopefully the neighbor was able to let them in.

ghetto house is getting all cleaned up. the master bath countertop was grouted yesterday & today the sink & faucet will go in. kitchen cabinet doors & drawers were painted yesterday & will go back up today or tomorrow. a bit of minor touch up needs to happen in Z's room & other than a few little things, we are just about done with all the stinkin improvements.

YEAH!!!!

oh, i am working on the schedule for getting the carpet install here, too, but we aren't doing that, we just have to approve of the finished work.

today & tomorrow (while B goes to work & has a few last minute medical things taken care of) we set aside our stuff that we don't want the movers to pack. something i didn't get to do last time beings our move was completely f-ed up, although B did all the right things our schedule was lost.

so posting will be light & we don't even have internet service set up at the new house...if i'm desperate i'll make posts from the crackberry.

past out on the bathroom floor

the timeframe: we need to go back to last week when we were still at the beach, the day i felt awful & thought i possibly was having a bad reaction to the antibiotics [macrobid].

at the ER they hooked up an iv to give me some fluids, more antibiotics, some sort of painkiller/tranquilizer & anti-nauseous meds. we were finally done & back to the cabin about midnight.

i was beyond exhausted & although i had just been given anti-nausea meds, they already seemed to be wearing off. B parked, i gathered my stuff & headed for the door. the 3 steps to get up to the door were more than i had to give & i started getting hot flashes, the ones that are in time with your heartbeat. i got inside, dropped everything in front of the bathroom then went in & sat in front of the toilet waiting for the inevitable to happen.

i sat with my knees to my chest but got uncomfortable so i stretched my legs out across the floor. the nausea & hot flashes started to subside so i leaned my back up against the tub & my head against the wall. before i knew it i was sleeping [on the bathroom floor of a trailer that rents out by the week - classy!], dreaming, the most glorious & refreshing sleep you could imagine. this sleep was so good i'll remember it for years to come.

i was dreaming [it felt like i had been sleeping for hours] when i was abruptly awakened by B yelling my name out. when i finally was lucid he asked me if i was ok? I said yes [duh!], i was just sleeping [on the bathroom floor of a trailer].

B's side of the story: when i went into the bathroom, he walked to the front of the trailer (like 15 feet) to close a couple of windows, when he returned i was out cold. he said i was snorting/snoring/gagging/choking/breathing erratically & thought i was indeed having a reaction to the new meds [k-flex]; he thought he was going to have to call 911 to come get me.

i crawled into bed fully clothed & slept all night long. in the morning we went over the scenario again, i was was so tired & weak, i must have past out & i was just snoring from exhaustion.

that which will not be admitted to (aka the biohazard story)

the setting: ghetto house, B's really been making progress on the kitchen, the appliances were all moved to the back patio, kitchen cabinets were sanded & painted, new faux wood flooring was put in, only the stove was returned.
(ie, the ikea table & fridge were still outside)

the timeframe: after my last day of work (thurs the 11th), we packed up clothes & food (including some from the fridge) for the trip. then we went to SD house, the beach, the ER, back to the beach, back to the ER, back to the beach, back to SD house. we also had delays in SD & didn't get home until mon afternoon.

B headed out to run some errands & i decided to go pull some hamburger meat out of the freezer to finally have a real home cooked meal of stuffed bell peppers. i walked out to the back patio & noticed seepage from the fridge.
[i am dumb & did not make the correlation to consider why such a thing was there.]

i opened the freezer door [surprisingly didn't really notice the smell] but saw a lot of mold at the bottom, then immediately shut the door. i knew i needed to open the fridge side to verify the settings were all where they should be, so i did, they were, then my attn was attracted by the full grown maggots i disturbed when i opened the door. [sorry guys]

so i call B & tell him [yeah, i was being completely selfish & figured if he was going to be pissed, better he take it out on the people who needed the a$$-chewing (his errand included getting paperwork we needed to move that should have been completed before we left!)]. he was surprisingly calm about it.

we don't know when it died, but we know by the time we found it, it was beyond repair. ok, maybe it could be repaired, but there's no way anything could ever get it clean enough that i would ever FEED anyone food out of it.

but we've been busy & it's been HOT, so it wasn't until today that we finally got rid of it. we certainly didn't want to bring it through the house, so that meant we had to get it through the side gate over a fair amount of grass. [in case you're wondering, that isn't easy] in fact, once we got it on the grass, it was virtually impossible for us to move & B ended up putting a rope around it, tying it to the back of the truck & yanking it to the driveway. [hell, if we ain't ghetto who is?]

OMG, the smell was beyond atrocious, both B & I were gagging, we had even taped all around it but nothing could mellow the stench. as we drove to the dump, B was worried they wouldn't accept the fridge, that they may ask if it was cleaned out, etc.

i told him if they ask about the tape we can tell them it was in the garage & we had taped it for safety reasons. that if they didn't accept it, we'd have to go for a drive in the desert - heck all those drives we've been through we've always talked about perfect places to dump a dead body, why not a fridge full of rotting food? then we told Z he WAS NOT allowed to talk to the person who let us in; we knew if there was any delay our secret would be out.

as we drove up the lady at the entry point was outside of her hut, so B slowed down to give her time to go back in & hopefully not catch a whiff of our stench. she took a look at the back of the truck & asked "just household?" we said yes & she let us in!! [ok, we aren't very religious people but once we entered we said a bunch of "thank you God" & "God is good" statements because we were SO grateful! that woman has no idea what we would have given her to be allowed to dump that fridge.]

we drove over to the pile of regular trash & got rid of that, then headed over to the section where the appliances are. B attempted to go around back [to hid our secret] but there was a little hill preventing it, so we had to put it right in front. all the other fridges there were old, dirty & in poor condition, this fridge is a side-by-side & it's only about 8 years old , it stuck out in the crowd. we KNOW some poor soul is going to think it's a find that they can fix or have repaired [until they open it & possibly die].

as we drove off i told B we should have covered his license plates & that now we needed to go to confession. [he's not even catholic, but whomever opens that fridge is definitely going to curse us for a long, long time.] we showered as soon as we got home & washed all our clothes immediately because they reeked as well. i've tried cleaning the concrete, even putting concentrated cleaning directly on it but the stains remain.

B said something about how they could trace the fridge back to us from the serial #, i told him if anyone calls, we gave it away, this story never happened.