A new adventure every day

I love my school breaks. I am so productive and get things done around the house that I normally avoid....

I have been especially productive this week. Along with reading a book, playing scrabble, watching TV and taking naps, I have been able to clean out the fridges, take down the outdoor Christmas decor, put away all the Christmas stuff from inside and outside the house, wash/fold/put away all the laundry, and even mulched all of the leaves that had covered the backyard.

Since I have been so productive, we have generated a lot of trash. The town's code violation lady came by yesterday. We haven't seen her since shortly after we moved in so we thought our ranking in the neighborhood had risen. Alas, we are still the "bad neighbors". We got a warning violation for having trash in our dumpsters that prevent the lid from being closed completely.

Really? Someone actually wrote an ordinance about the aesthetic requirements of our trash dumpster?

We have until 1/6 to remedy the situation. I have decided to take no action at all until Monday, January 3. This is the day the debris removal people come through the neighborhood. I am going to pile all of our trash on the curb the night before (after 6pm per the ordinance). There will be boxes from Christmas gifts, bags of trash, huge bags of leaves from the backyard and maybe even some branches if I get around to trimming those. That should piss off whatever neighbor it is that calls to complain about our trash dumpster. Ooooh, maybe I should paint flowers or some other aesthetically pleasing picture on the dumpsters!

I still haven't found any help on the attic so I guess I will tackle that one box at a time today. I'm going to try and generate more trash on this project just so I can piss off a neighbor.

Cranky Betsy today. Need more coffee. And prozac.

Flowers in the Attic

Years ago, I read a book titled Flowers in the Attic. It disturbed me and I have never been a fan of investigating attics. In my mind, an attic is just a rodent infested hotel with pink fluff, wires, and air conditioning ducts.

However, I had to face my fears recently. We now have two vehicles that fit in the garage. But, we have so much crap in the garage....I mean treasures in the garage, that we have room for only one vehicle to park in there. This was never a big deal because Troy's monster truck was too long to fit in a standard garage. It's freezing cold here and it takes a while for the ice to melt off the windshields. So, I decided to tackle the treasures and store them in the attic. (I was reminded by a certain man in the house that he ALREADY has gotten rid of enough treasures and he could not part with anything else.)

I went to Home Depot and got plywood and had them cut it in half lengthwise.
I went into the dreaded attic.
I scared away the rodents (at least I never saw any!)
I raked that pink fluff all over to even out the insulation.
I hauled that plywood up to the attic.
I screwed the plywood onto the trusses and made a storage platform.

I did all this while teetering on the beams so I didn't fall through the drywall ceiling and land on my butt inside the house. I even have a blister!!!

The attic is now ready for our treasures to be stored up there.

I did not, however, consider how I would get those treasures up into the attic by myself. It turns out you cannot carry a box up the little attic ladder safely.

Now, I am left in limbo.
I can't park in the garage because there are boxes all over.
I can't carry those boxes up to the attic alone.
Troy and Megan are both unable to help with lifting.

Megan's swim coach is going to send over a few boys from the team to help me finish moving those boxes up to the attic. If they don't show up........

Maybe I should have just planted flowers in the attic?

Merry Christmas

I didn't realize how long it has been since I last posted. We are getting ready to head to Abilene to see Steven for a few days and spend Christmas with him. It will be so nice to have all 4 of us together.

We've been keeping busy with the medical issues for Troy and Megan. Every day is a new adventure, but we are hopeful 2011 will be a much easier year for our family. Troy's next surgery (and hopefully the last!) is scheduled for 12/29. The recovery for this one is really rough so he will be out of commission for at least two weeks.

Megan and I are enjoying our school break. It gives me time to get caught up on things around the house that never get done when I'm teaching....exciting stuff like cleaning out the pantry, organizing the garage, cleaning out closets. I enjoy doing those things when I have the time.

We hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas! We'll post pictures after we return from our trip!

Love,
The Fishgods