April 19, 2007

We have finished re-cementing the footer and Lord help me, that is hard work! We had a cement mixer for the first two or three mixes which only fixed about a four foot section and then the cement mixer went caput on us. Mixing this stuff consists of; four shovels full of mortar mix, six shovels full of sand and nine full of gravel. You take all of that and put it in a wheel barrow, then add a shitload of water to it while you take a hoe and mix it. It is like a thick cake batter for about a thousand people. While mixing you keep adding water until it is a thickish consistency but not too soupy. Then you have to push the full wheel barrow over to the edge of the concrete slab and then try to dump it onto the footer without dumping it where it isn’t intended. After about forty trips doing this process over and over again, you finally see the end of it and as you are thinking that you cannot move another step, it is time to finish shoveling the debris off of the house slab. After shoveling about twenty loads of ash and broken glass, mixed with a metric ton of nails into the trusty old wheel barrow and taking it over the hillside to dump, then you realize that the sweeping must begin. Beck and I were the ones doing all the gravel, sand, mortar mixing and did all that and then we had the chore of cleaning off the slab. We work together fabulously by the way! We actually had fun while we worked! But Beck had to leave right as we finished up sweeping and I finished shoveling our piles off so that it would rain and mess up all the sweeping that I had done. The slab is clean and there are no hidden nails waiting to stab me in the frigging foot. A while back I had a run in with a rusty nail and have been a little paranoid about nails on the ground ever since. So, when we went over to work and were walking through all that rubble and ash with all the nails from the house all over the place it made me very, very nervous. I was the one absolutely in a panic about cleaning that all up before we moved a muscle. After working all day long (from 9am until 8pm) the footer was done, the slab was cleaned and prepped and I felt a feeling of accomplishment like I have never felt before. Tomorrow we get to move 1000 concrete blocks (that is a literal number, not an overestimate.. There is exactly 1000 blocks!!) into place to prepare for building the block for the foundation. Saturday morning, very bright and earlier, we will begin building that so that the house pattern can be delivered, then the building will begin. I see many, many painful days with early bedtimes ahead, but lots of learning and lots of accomplishments.

Joe started on the soccer team today and had his first practice. The team is great with him, they are all older with him and two other little ones being the exception and the older kids are so supportive of the younger that it makes you want to run over and hug them. He ran with the older ones and if he started to lag behind they would slow down. When he would kick the ball they would holler and yell his praises and tell him what a great player he was. They are awesome, great kids! It was his first practice and he has some work to do but he is taking to it well and had a great time. Not to mention that my baby looked so cute out there! LOL. Now, he has a field trip coming up and I am trying to figure out what I should do. Ok, he is nine years old and hates to ride the bus if his brother and sister aren’t on that bus with him. The field trip consists of riding a bus almost four hours to get to the Newport Aquarium, then they will be running around there and then come back. I worry that it is too far, he will be worried, feel like he is lost, want me or get hurt. What if he gets scared and I am not close enough to get to him. What if he gets hurt, thats a long trip for second graders isn’t it? Would I be a totally overprotective Mom if I went on the field trip? What if I followed behind the bus in my own car, thus giving him the bus ride with his friends while knowing that I am close? Would that seem psycho Mom?

We have two Cats… we have Miss Kitty, whom I am now referring to as IK and then we have OK.. Outside Kitty. OK is desperate to get in, while IK is desperate to get out. IK got out a while back and I forgot that I hadn’t mentioned that here… I was sitting in the bathroom… I know, ew, shaddup, I am human… and thought I heard her through the heater vent so I called out for her. I could hear her meow and it was close sounding, so I got up to investigate. I look and the little shit is in the closet area where the hot water heater is, it is also where you gain access to the bathtub pipes. I know you are thinking… “she was in the house the whole time, you just thought she was outside” and you would be dead wrong. She was stuck in there because there is a ‘screen’ door on it and she was on the inside trying to get out. Apparently there is a hole big enough for her to get through that is under my tub and it goes under the house. I wound up having to pull a part of the screen up to let her in the house and now she has a little kitty door so she can come and go as she pleases. The only problem is A. she isn’t fixed yet and B. after she roams around until 2am, the little hoe bag comes rolling in and wraps her body around my head with spider webs hanging off of her. Blech! I need to plug up the hole, but then I know she will roam around moaning and bitching to get out. I think she has a boyfriend and that is going to be fun to deal with eventually. Although kittens are adorable, I am not one that likes to get rid of cats so I will become a crazy cat lady!