Deep breathing

My hands were slightly swollen and certainly chapped, so I removed all of my rings to apply lotion. Then I hung them on the window crank, that was on Monday. Today I grabbed them to put them on. One was missing. The diamond band that we were married with.

I am breathing deep, very deep.




p.s. No on the after school program. Total bummer.

The question

I sent an email to the principal of Oldest's school inquiring about an after school program. Today, for example, KD had a faculty meeting and couldn't be home to meet the bus. He was home by 3:45, because we currently do not have an after school program, I left my office to be home for Oldest. In this economy, although my job is flexible, I am sensitive to the notion of "earning my keep." If we had an after school program Oldest could have played until such time that KD could pick her up. I would go so far as to say that many people who are not currently working could eventually start working as many companies are laying people off and/or cutting back salaries and bonuses.

It would make good sense. But I don't make such decisions.

Good things to come

COME ON

So the meeting with Oldest's teacher was less than productive. We did not gain any further insight during our one hour meeting. I am now receiving a weekly progress report. The first week she completed all of her work, without extra time, three out of five days. The second week she completed all of her work, without extra time, two out of five days.

We have researched and spoken to friends who are teachers, with areas of expertise in special ed and not. We do not believe there is any organic issue, but rather she needs a set of skills to enable her to complete the task at hand without distraction. Her parents are not the ones to be teaching her these skills as we are the people she can completely fall apart with.

KD and I researched the Kumon Centers and feel that this may be of benefit to her. I have spoken to our local center and will be dropping in this evening to further investigate.

Bottom line - she is our daughter and we want her to be successful, not the best, just successful. Isn't that what we all want?

The painter is there

The painter is there. Even just primed the kitchen looks divine! Pictures soon!

Crack

This morning she decided to take the bus. With the cold weather she has been riding the Mommy Bus. We heard the bus pull up and I waved at our bus driver, she mistakenly thought I was waving her on. Oldest burst into tears and my heart cracked. I calmed her down and into the car. On the way to school, I told her that she should tell her bus driver, B, that I was waving hello and that I didn't mean for her to keep on driving.

When we got to school and she was disembarking the Mommy Bus she said, "Just don't wave. It is too hard when I cry."

Her little spirit was a little less bright this morning and I feel awful.

Take me to your leader

A whole week?

I am exhausted! Completely and totally exhausted. Work is crazy, motherhood never stops. I would love to stay in my jammies all day today and do nothing. KD is working on fixing up the kitchen before we get it painted. The kids are destroying boxes with various tools, in their pj's of course.

The breather before the week comes crashing down on us.

Calling all designers or people with opinions

Bathroom Remodel.
I didn't think that is what we were getting ourselves into, but it seems when you ask a plumber to come over and estimate moving your bath tub and sink, that is what it is called.
Oh. Ok.

Our house is 1 and 1/2 stories high so the second floor has slanted ceilings. Our upstairs bathroom, previously a bed room up until 1970's or so, is spacious for a bathroom, tiny for a bed room. As you can see from the pictures below, this bathroom leaves a lot to be desired in terms of style. Prior to our ownership, the house was a rental for 15 years, clearly the only design factor considered here was cost of materials.

In order to do the addition in stages, we have to "remodel" the bathroom. Access to the eventual addition will be through a hall going through the window above. To begin, we turn the bath tub 90 degrees and move the sink to the newly created wall. This serves two purposes, it creates a hall and enables us to utilize the bathroom space more appropriately. The closet (see flowered wall paper above) behind the tub will be opened up and the tub will end at the knee wall. Yes, the ceiling will slant over the tub. The original floor is exposed in the closet, the green wide planks above, the remaining has a plywood sub floor with an adhesive linoleum tile, which as luck would have it, is already coming up.

Since our house is old and still retains a significant amount of the original charm, we are committed to maintaining historical accuracy, within reason. For example, I do not plan on scouring salvage yards for sink fixtures, a reproduction is fine. But upon thinking about the flooring in our bathroom and a conversation with our plumber regarding the slant and pitch of the floor, I have decided to paint the floor with marine grade paint. The level of effort to prepare the floor for tiling, would be counter productive. I just hope the floor is in good shape.

I would like to use white subway tiles for the tub surround and the ceiling (can you tile a ceiling?). I found some at Home Depot, but on the shelf, they looked cheap. Traditional bead board for the walls. We will purchase a new right hand bath tub (who knew?!) and a sink, the toilet can be reused. A skylight will enable us to have natural light as we will loose the window.

That is about as far as I have gotten in my thought process.

Thoughts? Opinions? Advice?