He also redid the dining room walls. Here is a before shot:
Showing posts with label mom. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mom. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Kitchen Remodeling
For the past four months or so, my husband has been my mom's slave on weekends. She decided that she wanted to redo her kitchen, and asked Junior to do it. This is what it looked like before:
And this is what it looked like Thanksgiving Day:
Big difference, right? He removed all the cabinets, and completely rebuilt the bottom ones. He also left off the bar and made an island instead. I think that is my favorite part of the entire kitchen. It has huge doors that open up the entire front side, and inside there is a shelf. All my mom's small appliances and pots and things fit in there perfectly. She didn't want upper cabinets put back up, so Junior made her some shelves. You can probably tell that there are still things left to do...the molding isn't finished, and the floor needs some tiles replaced. Junior replaced the ceiling fan and the light fixture above the sink, too. I think the only things he didn't replace were the Kitchen Doors.
He also redid the dining room walls. Here is a before shot:
And here's what it looks like now:
Not bad, right? I love the blue my mom picked out. It's so bright. The kitchen has been put on hold until after Christmas, so Junior is finally able to relax a little on the weekends. I think he's earned it!
He also redid the dining room walls. Here is a before shot:
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Painted Glasses
I get my craftiness from my mom. Growing up in NY, she had a ceramic studio in our basement. She made all kinds of decorations for our house. I especially love her Christmas stuff. There is this one piece in particular that is two mice singing (it plays music) that I plan on owning one day. I may have to sneak it out of her house one Christmas, but it will be mine.
These days she paints more than just ceramics. Knowing that my favorite color is purple, she painted a nice set of glassware for me with flowers and butterflies. She also painted a candle, serving tray, candy jar and hurricane shade to match the glasses. They are all displayed on my hutch for everyone to see.
I am not a talented as her when it comes to painting. If I follow a pattern, I do fine. It's looking at a blank canvas that throws me. I can't visualize a finished product, so it's hard to even start a project like that. I think I'll just stick to painting in between the lines.
These days she paints more than just ceramics. Knowing that my favorite color is purple, she painted a nice set of glassware for me with flowers and butterflies. She also painted a candle, serving tray, candy jar and hurricane shade to match the glasses. They are all displayed on my hutch for everyone to see. I am not a talented as her when it comes to painting. If I follow a pattern, I do fine. It's looking at a blank canvas that throws me. I can't visualize a finished product, so it's hard to even start a project like that. I think I'll just stick to painting in between the lines.
Thursday, July 29, 2010
I'm Beat
We just have to hope that there are no storms tomorrow...
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Work Before Play, At Least For Today
No pool for us today. I couldn't have timed a day away from the pool better, because it is raining outside, which means we couldn't have swam anyway. I told my mom yesterday that I wanted to stay home today and get some stuff done around the house that I have been neglecting. Plus, my sun burn is really bad, and I think a day out of the sun will help it get a little better.
Junior also made plans today, so he couldn't have taken us over there anyway. When he got off of work, he came and picked up Ryan and they went to work on a Toyota Corolla. The car belongs to a friends of Junior's ex-father-in-law, so he won't make much money putting in a new water pump. But that's okay. This is an older man who doesn't have much money, and taking his car to a Chicago auto repair shop is out of the question, so Junior does the work cheap. I believe in karma, so doing this for him will come back around to us someday.
Tomorrow, though, we are heading back to mom's to swim, and help her get the steps into the pool. My foot and lower shin are bruised from where I fell trying to get out of the pool the other day, so I am looking forward to the steps being in. It will be easier on the kids, too. They are continuously getting out of the pool to jump back in down in the deep end. Brandi is a maniac, and yesterday always hit her head on the side of the pool as she jumped and spun on her way into the water. Ryan has been working on diving, and he's getting the hang of it.
My dives are looking pretty good, too.
Junior also made plans today, so he couldn't have taken us over there anyway. When he got off of work, he came and picked up Ryan and they went to work on a Toyota Corolla. The car belongs to a friends of Junior's ex-father-in-law, so he won't make much money putting in a new water pump. But that's okay. This is an older man who doesn't have much money, and taking his car to a Chicago auto repair shop is out of the question, so Junior does the work cheap. I believe in karma, so doing this for him will come back around to us someday.
Tomorrow, though, we are heading back to mom's to swim, and help her get the steps into the pool. My foot and lower shin are bruised from where I fell trying to get out of the pool the other day, so I am looking forward to the steps being in. It will be easier on the kids, too. They are continuously getting out of the pool to jump back in down in the deep end. Brandi is a maniac, and yesterday always hit her head on the side of the pool as she jumped and spun on her way into the water. Ryan has been working on diving, and he's getting the hang of it.
My dives are looking pretty good, too.
Monday, June 7, 2010
Hey! Remember Me?
It is so weird, but I have hardly been on the computer at all the last three days. This is why:
(that's Brandi under the water...she just jumped in)
Mom finally got the pool open, after a lot of hard work, and we were able to get wet and have fun. We spent most of Saturday, yesterday, and today over there, enjoying the pool. Tonight we had a throw together at the last minute cookout with mom, colleen, and the kids, and it was great.
The kids love the water as much as I do, which is awesome. As a kid, I was always the first one in the pool, and the last one out. My kids are the same way. Ryan and Kasi are both swimming well enough to be in the deep end, but Kasi is not confident in her swimming enough to jump in yet. but she'll get there. Brandi has no fear at all, but I make her wear swimmies at all times, just for my peace of mind.
I plan on spending a lot of time over at mom's this summer, so if I disappear for a few days, you'll know where to find me :D
Monday, May 10, 2010
Horseshoes And Branches And Eyes, Oh My!
Consider yourself warned...this may turn into a really long post. Ready?
I feel like it has been forever since I have been on here, but I think that is just because I had a very busy weekend, which continued into today. Let me start at the beginning....
A couple of weeks ago, Junior build a horse shoe, um, what do you even call it? Let's just say he build the boxes with the sand that you use to play horseshoes at my mom's house. It is between her pool (that's in the fence on the left in the picture) and the big trees that line the road to the right. It came out great, and we all love playing whenever we go over there. (which is every weekend here lately)
Yesterday, we were over there for mother's Day, and Ryan wanted to play. My sister Colleen and I decided to play with him, but we needed a 4th. We convinced Kasi to play with us, and while she was cleaning up the game we were playing, Colleen and I took some practice throws.
Well, I threw one of the horseshoes and it rolls into the trees. And we couldn't find it. All of us were looking for about 30 minutes, and we never found it. It was like it disappeared. But, while we were looking, Junior ended up hitting himself in the eye with a tree limb. Of course, being a "man", he refused to go to the ER and have it looked at, even though he couldn't see out of it properly. (everything was blurry) For the rest of the day, no matter how much we begged and yelled at him, he refused to go, even though his vision never returned to normal.
So, when I woke him up at 2 this morning, he said he was going to go to the ER because he still couldn't see right, and his eye was really, really hurting him. I told him to call me when he left the ER and tell me what they said. He ended up waking me up before he left, saying his eye was okay so he was just going to go ahead and go to work.
I get the kids off to school and crawl back in bed. (I didn't sleep well all weekend and I was exhausted!) Not an hour later, Junior wakes me up saying he left work because the lights were killing his eye, and he was wanting me to go with him to the ER. So I drag my fat behind out of bed and off we go. We finally got into a room around 9am, and that is when the waiting started. Finally, around 11:15, the doctor came in. He looked in Junior's eye, and said he didn't see anything, but it was definitely irritated, and his eyeball itself looked swollen. He put some numbing medicine in it (which Junior said was wonderful) and then some dye, and looked again to see if he could see any scratches. He said he still didn't see anything, but he thought that Junior should see a real eye doctor just to make sure. I told the doctor the reason we were in the ER to begin with was because we didn't have insurance, or any money, so I was worried about seeing an eye doctor. The ER doc called anyway, and assured us that the eye doctor would see us anyway.
So we drive there (he was actually waiting for us) and when we get there, I start filling out the paperwork. The receptionist comes over and says that we needed to pay $80 before we could see the doctor. We were like, um, the ER said you would work with us because we didn't have any money right now, and they said that they were. Um, well, we don;t have $80, so I guess we'll just go back to the ER and see what they can do.
So off we go back to the ER, and luckily the receptionist there let us walk right back and talk to the nurse we jut had. We explained what happened to her, and she said to go back to the room we were in, and she would send in the doctor when he came out of the room he was in.
When he came back in he room, he was clearly ticked. We explained that we didn't have the money to see the eye doctor, and he said that he really was working with us, because it would normally cost over $300 for the exam. To which I replied, "when you don't have $80, it's not really working with us". He said he understood, and handed Junior a prescription for Lortab. I asked if there was anything else he needed, like antibiotic drops or something, and he said the only thing Junior needed was to see the eye doctor. By now I was starting to get ticked. I KNOW that he wasn't an eye expert, but if he didn't see any scratches with all the tests he did, what exactly did he think the eye doctor would find? I asked if we needed to patch it or something, and he said no. I asked if there was ANYTHING we could do to make Junior more comfortable, and he said to go home and sit in a dark room.
As we were leaving, he did say that he was 99% sure that Junior's eye would be fine in a couple of days. If not, we should go back to the ER. I felt like asking him what they would do then, because really, if they didn't see anything wrong today, what are the going to find in a few days?
I know it's hard for people who don't live paycheck to paycheck to understand how difficult it is when something like this happens. If we had money, we wouldn't have gone to the ER to begin with. We would have went to our regular doctor. Now, please don't think that I was expecting the eye doctor to see us for free. That is is no way true. We just needed to wait until Junior gets paid on Friday before we could give them a payment. I don't expect handouts.
So, the end of this story is Junior blissfully sleeping pain free, thanks to the pain medicine. I am still exhausted, and I still have so much to do before we leave for our "girls weekend" trip this Thursday. I was going to go to bed early, but then I remembered that Nurse Jackie and United States of Tara is on tonight, and I have to stay up for those.
I am hoping that I can catch up on my sleep tomorrow, after the kids get on the bus.
A couple of weeks ago, Junior build a horse shoe, um, what do you even call it? Let's just say he build the boxes with the sand that you use to play horseshoes at my mom's house. It is between her pool (that's in the fence on the left in the picture) and the big trees that line the road to the right. It came out great, and we all love playing whenever we go over there. (which is every weekend here lately)
Yesterday, we were over there for mother's Day, and Ryan wanted to play. My sister Colleen and I decided to play with him, but we needed a 4th. We convinced Kasi to play with us, and while she was cleaning up the game we were playing, Colleen and I took some practice throws.
Well, I threw one of the horseshoes and it rolls into the trees. And we couldn't find it. All of us were looking for about 30 minutes, and we never found it. It was like it disappeared. But, while we were looking, Junior ended up hitting himself in the eye with a tree limb. Of course, being a "man", he refused to go to the ER and have it looked at, even though he couldn't see out of it properly. (everything was blurry) For the rest of the day, no matter how much we begged and yelled at him, he refused to go, even though his vision never returned to normal.
So, when I woke him up at 2 this morning, he said he was going to go to the ER because he still couldn't see right, and his eye was really, really hurting him. I told him to call me when he left the ER and tell me what they said. He ended up waking me up before he left, saying his eye was okay so he was just going to go ahead and go to work.
I get the kids off to school and crawl back in bed. (I didn't sleep well all weekend and I was exhausted!) Not an hour later, Junior wakes me up saying he left work because the lights were killing his eye, and he was wanting me to go with him to the ER. So I drag my fat behind out of bed and off we go. We finally got into a room around 9am, and that is when the waiting started. Finally, around 11:15, the doctor came in. He looked in Junior's eye, and said he didn't see anything, but it was definitely irritated, and his eyeball itself looked swollen. He put some numbing medicine in it (which Junior said was wonderful) and then some dye, and looked again to see if he could see any scratches. He said he still didn't see anything, but he thought that Junior should see a real eye doctor just to make sure. I told the doctor the reason we were in the ER to begin with was because we didn't have insurance, or any money, so I was worried about seeing an eye doctor. The ER doc called anyway, and assured us that the eye doctor would see us anyway.
So we drive there (he was actually waiting for us) and when we get there, I start filling out the paperwork. The receptionist comes over and says that we needed to pay $80 before we could see the doctor. We were like, um, the ER said you would work with us because we didn't have any money right now, and they said that they were. Um, well, we don;t have $80, so I guess we'll just go back to the ER and see what they can do.
So off we go back to the ER, and luckily the receptionist there let us walk right back and talk to the nurse we jut had. We explained what happened to her, and she said to go back to the room we were in, and she would send in the doctor when he came out of the room he was in.
When he came back in he room, he was clearly ticked. We explained that we didn't have the money to see the eye doctor, and he said that he really was working with us, because it would normally cost over $300 for the exam. To which I replied, "when you don't have $80, it's not really working with us". He said he understood, and handed Junior a prescription for Lortab. I asked if there was anything else he needed, like antibiotic drops or something, and he said the only thing Junior needed was to see the eye doctor. By now I was starting to get ticked. I KNOW that he wasn't an eye expert, but if he didn't see any scratches with all the tests he did, what exactly did he think the eye doctor would find? I asked if we needed to patch it or something, and he said no. I asked if there was ANYTHING we could do to make Junior more comfortable, and he said to go home and sit in a dark room.
As we were leaving, he did say that he was 99% sure that Junior's eye would be fine in a couple of days. If not, we should go back to the ER. I felt like asking him what they would do then, because really, if they didn't see anything wrong today, what are the going to find in a few days?
I know it's hard for people who don't live paycheck to paycheck to understand how difficult it is when something like this happens. If we had money, we wouldn't have gone to the ER to begin with. We would have went to our regular doctor. Now, please don't think that I was expecting the eye doctor to see us for free. That is is no way true. We just needed to wait until Junior gets paid on Friday before we could give them a payment. I don't expect handouts.
So, the end of this story is Junior blissfully sleeping pain free, thanks to the pain medicine. I am still exhausted, and I still have so much to do before we leave for our "girls weekend" trip this Thursday. I was going to go to bed early, but then I remembered that Nurse Jackie and United States of Tara is on tonight, and I have to stay up for those.
I am hoping that I can catch up on my sleep tomorrow, after the kids get on the bus.
Monday, April 26, 2010
My Mommy Guilt Is Kicking In Big Time
I have a secret. Well, maybe I should say that I had a secret, but now it is okay to share it with you. But just a little, because there are still some secrets that go along with it.
Confused yet?
Let me explain. Sometime in January, my sister approached me and asked if I would be willing to do something special for our mom's birthday this year. She's turning 60. Of course I said yes, so a trip was planned. We are taking mom away for her birthday weekend. She doesn't know where we are going, only that she will need to pack comfortable shoes and clothes she won't sweat in. Brandi will be coming with us, because she doesn't want to stay home, and honestly, if I left her behind, I would be worrying the entire weekend that she is home crying. I know she's 8, but I have never been away from her for more than a few hours, and really, it's not a big deal that she comes.
Anyway, we are leaving May 13th, and coming back on the 16th. This is where my mom guilt kicks in, because Kasi's birthday is May 14th, and I won't be here for it.
And it's her 13th birthday.
Yeah, I know. It's been killing me. She says she doesn't care if I'm not here, and we are planning two different parties for her the following weekend. But, I know if my mom missed one of my birthdays, especially the one where I became a teenager, I would be a little upset.
This is Kasi the day we brought her home from the hospital:
She was jaundice, but perfect. I was so happy that I had a little girl. Don't get me wrong, I love my son to pieces, but I wanted a girl so bad.
Anyway, Junior plans on taking Kasi wherever she wants on her birthday. In fact, I told him to make the whole weekend special. And I plan on making the following weekend special for her, too. We are planning a slumber party for the 21st, and a big party at my mom's house (with the pool!) on the 23rd. My grandmother and favorite aunt are coming up from Florida that weekend, so Kasi will get to see them. They haven't seen my kids in about six years. That will be special, too.
I just wish I could get rid of the guilt I feel for missing Kasi's birthday. Any suggestions?
Confused yet?
Let me explain. Sometime in January, my sister approached me and asked if I would be willing to do something special for our mom's birthday this year. She's turning 60. Of course I said yes, so a trip was planned. We are taking mom away for her birthday weekend. She doesn't know where we are going, only that she will need to pack comfortable shoes and clothes she won't sweat in. Brandi will be coming with us, because she doesn't want to stay home, and honestly, if I left her behind, I would be worrying the entire weekend that she is home crying. I know she's 8, but I have never been away from her for more than a few hours, and really, it's not a big deal that she comes.
Anyway, we are leaving May 13th, and coming back on the 16th. This is where my mom guilt kicks in, because Kasi's birthday is May 14th, and I won't be here for it.
And it's her 13th birthday.
Yeah, I know. It's been killing me. She says she doesn't care if I'm not here, and we are planning two different parties for her the following weekend. But, I know if my mom missed one of my birthdays, especially the one where I became a teenager, I would be a little upset.
This is Kasi the day we brought her home from the hospital:
Anyway, Junior plans on taking Kasi wherever she wants on her birthday. In fact, I told him to make the whole weekend special. And I plan on making the following weekend special for her, too. We are planning a slumber party for the 21st, and a big party at my mom's house (with the pool!) on the 23rd. My grandmother and favorite aunt are coming up from Florida that weekend, so Kasi will get to see them. They haven't seen my kids in about six years. That will be special, too.
I just wish I could get rid of the guilt I feel for missing Kasi's birthday. Any suggestions?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)