Update

Update on the house: It looked like the drywall was almost finished when we were there yesterday, and the new kitchen ceiling is in.

Update on my life: I had a fun weekend getaway with my friends Angie, Beth, Deborah, Elizabeth, Linda, and Sheryl. (In alphabetical order so that nobody gets offended) We spent Saturday afternoon and night at mom's cabin, eating, drinking, playing Scrabble and watching funny DVDs. Scrabble does not come easily to me when I've been drinking, and I'm proud to say I had the lowest score. We shared much laughter and got little sleep, but it was so wonderful to get away for a short time! I think I gained 5 pounds and Sunday brought a headache and nausea, but it was all worth it. It's been too long since I had so much fun!

Now, I mostly live in my car. I drive 30 minutes to the girls' school and 30 minutes back twice on a good day, some days more. Cab driving is not for me. I get lonely in the car. We are all looking forward to a long weekend! I'm going to wear this car out, soon! Thank goodness for good books and good music!

Nothing more fascinating to report. The highlight of my day is usually falling into bed!

Suck It Up, Drama Queen

I guess to understand this post, you need to know where the title started. When I was learning to drive, my mother would make me pull over if I got upset. "You're too emotional to drive. Pull over." I found myself riding with an emotional teenager, recently. She felt that I was being a bit over-ly corrective. I feel that I was trying to save myself from a certain death. You can probably guess that we were both right! As she began to cry and insist that she wanted to stop, I realized that there was no place to pull over, and there was a car behind her. At that moment, I realized that, sometimes, you can't pull over when you are "too emotional to drive." In what was not my kindest parenting moment, I said, "Suck it up, drama queen, we can't just stop in the middle of the road." I'm sure I have no idea where she gets her flair for the dramatic!

Now I find myself wanting to stop my journey in the middle of the road. A lot of bad things have happened in the past year, and I feel like, for the most part, I've been a pretty good sport. Chin up, keep smiling, and all of that crap. I've shared my job hunting trials with you, so you know how difficult that has been. In July, I was offered a position as a floater 2 days a week at Parent's Day Out at our church. It was only part time, and would not come close to paying the bills, but as I continued to search for a job, I felt, at the very least, I had this to look forward to, and boy was I looking forward to it! Yesterday, the interim director called with an option to start in September (next week!!!), and I was soooooo excited. Just to have something to do and a purpose for a couple of days a week was thrilling. Then, I was told that after September, they don't need me for the rest of the year. Only I can lose a job I haven't even started! To say that I was disappointed is an understatement. Discouraged doesn't begin to describe it either. My house may never be finished because I don't have any idea where the final $15,000 to pay the contractor is going to come from, but I was just holding onto the idea that I had a small job in October. A small light at the end of the tunnel. Now it's gone, and I truly find myself in a crisis of faith. It may seem stupid, but I needed this one little accomplishment. Now, God and I are not really on speaking terms. The whole chain of events leading up to this job position disappearing have had me questioning God. It's not that I just HAD to work at Parent's Day Out, it's that I actually had some kind of job, any kind of job, and now I'm back to square one. I scrambled up the edge of this cliff, finally found a foothold, and somebody put their head on my forehead and pushed me back down. I'm not sure I want to try to climb up again.

Am I a drama queen? Absolutely! Does this mean my feelings aren't real? No. So if you are on speaking terms with God, maybe you could ask Him to hurry up and open a window now that He's closed this door. If everything happens for a reason and God has perfect timing, then I would ask that this reason and timing show itself soon, because, I'm beginning to believe these things aren't true.

Tubs, Tile, and Filling The Hours

Well, school has started again, I've successfully crossed over into the next decade of my life without losing more memory than I've already lost or breaking my hip. Now I just continue with the job search and talk to the contractor, and pay him. The bathtubs are in, and the drywall is pretty much up. Next comes the tiling. I'll try to get pictures of the progress posted, soon! When I went by the house today, my mother had already started moving us back in by dropping off a patio chair and table. Do you think she's trying to tell us something? :)

With the girls back in school, I am just trying to find productive ways to fill my day until I find a job. I will work two days a week at Parent's Day Out starting in October, but that won't pay the bills. I used to look forward to down time, but now I look forward to busy days. Loading and unloading the dishwasher and doing and folding laundry only takes up so much time. Since Ashton doesn't have her license yet, Sunday's are pretty much spent driving back and forth to church and Ashton's dance lessons and back to church. There's football on Friday nights, and Lofton's soccer on Saturday Now, to fill the hours between 7:00 a.m. drop-off and 3:05 pick-up. Soon Donna will have her baby, and I can go love on that sweetie in the daytime and spend special time with the big brother.

A Flood Can Never Wash Away My Friend Collection

First, I don't know who wrote all of that yesterday. Somebody must have hacked into my blog! :) Today, I'm not such a jerk!

It's actually been quite a trip down memory lane, today and tonight. A friend posted some facebook pics of Belmont, back in "the day." Good grief, our hair and clothes......all I can say is, you could switch up the faces in any of those pictures with mine, and it would be me! What were we thinking? What I see is that all of the stuff I accumulated, and lost is nothing compared to the friends I've accumulated and kept. I've known my friend Sharron for 32 years! Tiffany is a close second at 29 years, Jeanette and Brenda for 22, Elizabeth for 19. Then I've got great friends that I've only known for a short time, with some of my best friends right there in the middle! I've known my mom my whole life and my sisters and daughters for all of their lives! Does having such friends from so long ago make me feel old? No, just lucky. These friends will never be swept away in bad weather, and with each new year of my life, I plan to keep adding to the group! You can never have too many friends. The girl scout song is wrong, one isn't silver, while the other is gold. They are all more precious than gold, and I thank God for them every day.

Post Traumatic Sress Disorder, Anyone?

This is a big rain we've had over the past 24 hours. It has not rained no-stop, and it is nowhere near what we had on May 1 and 2. Still, after being grateful for the first hour of it, yesterday afternoon, I was not feeling quite so comfortable by 11:00 p.m. last night. It's not the thunder and lightening that get to me, it's the sound of the unrelenting rain. Then you watch the news today, and you see that some schools are letting out early due to flooded roads. Flash flood warnings are everywhere, and I don't ignore those anymore. Frankly, I'd rather my house flood again right now, while I haven't spent all my money to re-build, than have it flood once we get back in there and develop an attachment to it.

I find myself to be so grouchy on rainy days, now. I HATE being grouchy. Seems like everyone would, but some people don't seem to mind it. I prefer to smile and laugh, not bite off every body's head, complain, and feel very tempted to climb back into bed. I blame this grouchiness on this being the last day before school starts, allergies, inability to go to the pool, but the truth is, the rain scares me. I guess it will for a while. Soon enough, I'll be distracted by other happy things and feel safe again that rain won't wash away everything I own. Hopefully some man will come along like in Eat, Pray, Love, and say "You don't need a man, you need a champion." Then I'll be laughing my head off, because what man ever really says things like that??? Seriously, that would be very distracting. :)

SWAT Team Update

Just an update on our neighborhood SWAT team situation. Apparently, a man barricaded himself inside his house and refused to come out. When did that become illegal? I'm sure I would do that if I could, and if I do, PLEASE do not call the police. I am not a danger to myself or others. I'll probably just be taking a hot bath.

Nothing Big To Report

Things seem to be rolling along with the re-build. Today, I was grateful not to be home when I saw on the news that the SWAT team had the road blocked off. I figure somebody just snapped and was holding a FEMA inspector hostage until they got more money. Actually, I haven't heard the whole story as to what really happened, but I'm sure it will be on the news tonight, and it won't be as good what I think happened.

I spent today recovering from the weekend which was busier than a normal week, even when I worked full time. There are two more days until the girls go back to school, and we have to start getting up at 6:00 a.m. Both girls have expressed regret that we aren't back in the house before school starts. They don't care if we get a break on our property taxes if we don't move back in until September 1st. The ETA is September 30, but we'll see. I'd really like to be in before Christmas! :) There won't be room for Jennifer and her boys if we're still here.

That's all for today, maybe something exciting and or reportable will happen tomorrow. I don't know if it will be more exciting than the SWAT team, though.