Today's recap

Furnace broken. House temp: 48 degrees.

Furnace man came. Opened furnace door. Big dead bird.

I almost passed out.

Then behind bird, dried up gigantic wolf spider. I screamed. Furnace man screamed. Chumley ran down and slapped furnace man's leg 10+ times. Furnace man screamed again.

It was sheer madness.

But furnace is now fixed.

Just another day.

Tom went to Milan

for ONE day.

He comes home tonight, then I leave tomorrow.

The past 2 months have been so completely chaotic and we've kept no semblance of a schedule or routine whatsoever. I'm hoping things will start to settle after the holidays. That reminds me I need to get my Christmas cards done by tomorrow morning. CREPE!

have to get this out

This morning I woke up feeling very uneasy. Like something major and life changing is lurking in the not so distant future. I'm thinking that maybe if I get this out and off my chest nothing bad will happen but it's a very strong sense of impending doom that I can't explain. I have felt this way, this strongly, one other time in my life. I won't say when.

These are challenging times that we're all facing and I pray that those of you reading this right now are safe, healthy, warm and find something to smile about every day.

Here is my smile for today. (I've probably watched this 20 times. I love the momma's reaction)

Extreme Appliance Makeover

This is what we are in need of.

So, we've been living here for a little over 2 weeks now with no microwave- which surprisingly I'm not missing too much, no clothes dryer- I've been doing small loads everyday and hang drying over the heat vent (which still blows cold air, but it's air none the less) and in the last week our guest bathroom toilet has broken, the sink in our bathroom has leaked all over the contents of the stuff jammed in the cabinet below and now today our dishwasher is broken. It's the first time I washed a load of dishes and before I did I said to Tom, "I'm sure this thing won't work." Tom says, "Stop being so negative. Your negative energy makes everything break!" Whatever. I load up the dishwasher.

It actually works fine! I'm relieved and for once, happy to be proven wrong. I head out to run some errands for the day and when I return home a couple hours later I head into the kitchen to unload my sparking clean dishes. I open the door and...

The FLOOD GATES OPENED!

The dishwasher did not drain any water and it was a swimming pool in there. I call Tom at work to let him know that AHA! the dishwasher IS in fact broken! I think I was a bit too excited about this.

So now, we are down one dishwasher.

Tonight I'm making some homemade chicken chili and Tom and I were planning to stay in and have a fire in the fireplace but guess what??? Yep, that's out of commission too. Landlords told us not to have any fires because it has not been cleaned in 6 years and there may be bird nests and debris clogging the flue.

Speaking of bird's nests...


This poor guy flew into our window today. (in case you can't see, it's a little tiny bird resting on our patio chair)

But, it was soooo sunny today that he probably couldn't see where he was going!!!

Critters

We have moths and they are huge! Every night before we go to bed we see them. Tom has been able to catch 3 of them and throw them outside. Tonight's moth is still on the loose. I was unpacking some scarves and wooly wraps and out flapped the furry beast and shot up to the ceiling into the darkened skylight, never to be seen again. I screamed bloody murder, Wrigs jumped off the bed and started barking like a maniac then tried to hump me and then Chum ran in hissing and bellowing like a crotchety old man. Tom shouts, "Everyone in this house makes me CRAZY!" We've all calmed down now except for Chum who is still howling while humping his teddy bear.

I'm sure the moths are keeping the "dandy" long legs company who in turn are tooling around with the army of carpenter ants. We're all just one big happy insect infested family.

Tom just caught the moth! A struggle ensued so he ended up throwing him in the toilet (him, being the moth). Tom came out of the bathroom saying that the moth hit the water then bounced back up and flew away again!! I'm sure he's going to attack us while we sleep with toilet water dripping off his spindly legs. YUCK!

Speaking of YUCK I found my teeth molds from a couple years ago and the last few mornings I've been hiding them in Tom's bathroom drawer. It's the first thing he wakes up to when he reaches for the toothpaste and he HATES it! He told me today that if they are in there tomorrow he's going to throw them against the wall and shatter them to pieces. Maybe I'll just hide them in his work bag instead...

today's update

*update* Chumley just shit and threw up all over the bathroom floor, next to his litter box. My heart breaks for him because I know EXACTLY how he feels. I wish I could explain to him that he won't be left behind. Poor little stressed out monster. I'm going to cuddle him a while.

Well at least last night I got 2 hours of sleep.

I am still a wreck. Can't stop crying. My sister is on her way over in a bit. Her husband is home from the hospital, will be ok, just taking it easy. Thank you for your prayers. She's bringing me some Xanax. I need it because I got so mad today (at something unrelated to move stress) and I punched the bathroom counter top and I cracked something in my hand. This is the same hand I used to beat the shit out of my computer a few weeks ago and its never been the same since.

Movers are here again today and tomorrow. That translates to, we have too much shit. I'm overwhelmed. And to think we will be doing this same thing again in 6 months makes me want to set everything on fire.

Tom comes home tonight and I really wish he would have been here the last 2 nights. Would have nice to be together during this time and have him here to pick me up when I fall. (I mean this literally as well, I tripped and fell over packing materials and had a melt down.) I'm really a mess right now.

Today the movers told me they couldn't take our plants on the truck and I broke down again. 2 of the plants have VERY sentimental value to me, one was a gift from my mother in law after my Dad died and this plant has been growing non stop and I feel my Dad's spirit whenever I look at it. I will end up carrying this on my lap in the mini van. I can't part with it.

The animals have been scared/worried. They don't understand. Chum's infection is back so we're starting him on meds today and will continue with them for 10 days. What fun that will be to give a screaming, hissing, biting cat oral syringe meds on the freeway in a moving mini van.

There is sooooooo much more I want to say just to clear my fuzzy head but I can't because my mind is mush. Oh I will say that this morning I had a McDonald's iced coffee. And guess where I am right now??? Hence the time I have to blog. What really sucks is that there are 4 men in my house right now, each one in close proximity to the bathroom so they all know what's going on. This is my 3rd trip to the "office".

Someone wake me when this is over.

time out

Movers are here today. I needed 5 minutes to sit and gather my strength.

Got one hour of sleep last night.

Intense thunder and lightning storms late last night and early this morning.

I am starting to feel sick and my energy levels are zapped. In addition to the stress of the move we've had some family crisis's arise in the last week.

Tom's Dad is in the hospital for a recurring illness. Please keep him in your prayers.

My aunt (my mom's sister) fell and broke her hip and now has pneumonia. It doesn't look very good. My mom is flying down to see her tomorrow and if there was any possibility I could go I would be there. My heart breaks for her and my mom right now. I feel helpless.

Tom's aunt (his mom's sister) was recently diagnosed with stage 4 lung and brain cancer. She is being treated for this now and we are hoping and praying. Just struggling with quite a bit of sadness yet there's nothing we can physically do.

My sister was on her way to come help today but her husband is not feeling very well so she may be taking him to the ER. Symptoms sound like they could be heart related and they don't want to chance it.

Puts things in perspective.

Ok back to packing up...

I should be more upset that...

-We will miss the cut off to register to vote in the state of Washington by ONE DAY. So now I am doing a vote by mail ballot (previously known as absentee ballot) for the state of California. Thing is, I can't let the state know that we're moving out of state. I need the ballot sent to our new home in Seattle but obviously that will raise red flags. This is tricky and this is what I'm trying to figure out right now in the midst of packing/cleaning. And OF COURSE, my printer doesn't want to cooperate so I can't print out the applications!

-Tom will be on a golf trip Monday and Tuesday, the days the movers will be here to pack up our house. Yes, the timing of this sucks (it's a trip he had planned months ago) but I've done this before without him here so I'll just f*cking do it again.

-We have been waiting for a refund check from Audi for over a month now and still nothing. It's over $4000 and believe me, we could use this money! Last year Tom's timing belt blew (on the freeway) and it was right after his car was serviced by Audi. Then a few months ago we get a letter in the mail saying that we will be refunded the money. Why do I think it will show up the day we move? I'm going to see if our neighbors will take in whatever mail doesn't get forwarded on. In fact, I should make a set of labels and have forwarding envelopes ready. I'll do that now. Oh F*CK the printer!!!

-About a week ago we ordered the Peticure online (thanks to another late night informercial) and after the fact, realized we should have had this sent to our new address. I'm sure this will show up the same day as the refund check.

I hope eventually my head pops out of my ass.

Until then, I'm going to enjoy my Saturday morning ritual of listening to Car Talk while sipping my last Green Tea Latte. I'm officially out of the mix.

Holy Crap I just heard Paul Newman died. Wow, this is so sad.