We closed on our old house yesterday- wahoo! I don't ever want to move again. Ever ( Read more... )

So, we're in the middle of piles of moving-related craziness. Two lovely contractors have been finishing an attic for us to use as an office, adding a half-bath, and replacing all the ancient galvanized pipes. They were scheduled to finish by the end of Feb., but just told me today they expect to be done by Friday night. Hooray! Soon I will not ( Read more... )

The cute little yellow house turned out to have potential serious basement flooding, leaky skylights and a past history of bats and mice (ewww!) The things you learn when they send you the disclosure papers ( Read more... )

So we are planning to move and have been discussing how that will work. Today Sarah started asking me what we would be taking with us- crappy stove, no, ridiculously expensive washing machine, yes, her toys, yes, unfortunately, and so on. Then she asked, "Are we taking the toilets?" Um, no.

Seattle's public school system used to have a cool program that let parents help choose which school, citywide, to send their kids to. You put down your choices, in order of preference, and their computer figured out which kids go where. Waiting to see which school you got in to was nerve-wracking, but at least incoming siblings were guaranteed to ( Read more... )

It's nearly summer- bring on the weeds, I can take it! This weekend we did a ton of yard (overgrown jungle) clean-up. It was very satisfying- boy do I love my hedge clippers! There is no better cure for frustration then hacking things up- bwa ha ha ( Read more... )

I talked to Mom tonight and she was totally calm, but then, she's like that. She said Grandpa is doing ok, and maybe even feeling a bit better. The hospital is working on the paperwork to let him stay there for another three weeks for, I think the term was "supervised nursing care", and have insurance cover it. They aren't taking any chances, ( Read more... )

My Grandpa Ted is an amazing, wonderful, loving man. He's 98, and is still living at home. He's at the point where he can no longer be alone in the house, so my Mom and her four siblings have been taking turns going to stay with him, even though the closest one lives a two-hour drive away and two live about six hours away. They don't want to ( Read more... )

Sarah is spending most of her free time lately with her nose in a book. My work here is done now :) She's reading several at once, one of which is the last Harry Potter. She skipped the rest of the series, and has declared that she's going to read it backwards. Contrary child. She's zooming through the Little House on the Prairie books, which ( Read more... )

Can I tell you how much I love my new anti-seizure medication? We've had quite a stressful week around here, culminating in a very stressful day, and yet I've been pretty cheerful and mostly calm all day. I feel like the old me, before the zonisamide that made me the cranky mom from hell ( Read more... )