I've got tickets to Buffett...AGAIN!!!
I can't wait!
If you've never been, and you get a chance, you NEED to! Just once...
Monday, February 9, 2009
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
BANG...BANG...BANG...
That my dear readers is the sound of me banging my head against this brick wall called life. As most of us learn over the course of our lives, sometimes life just SUCKS! But...what really matters when life sucks? Is it all the crap? Is it the joy we are missing out on? What really matters?
To quote Jimmy Buffett, "When life gives you limes, make margaritas!" In other words take it with a grain of salt, deal with it and move on. Life is too short to dwell on all the crap that comes your way It is far better to deal with it, drink a few margaritas if necessary, and LET GO!
Letting go of the negative is something I have always struggled with, in fact I still tend to focus too much of my energy on the negative things that come my way. In the process, I'm missing out on the good things in life. So from now on, less focus on the negative, make the best of every situation (even when the odds are against me), and enjoy life more.
Here's where I need your help. If you notice several posts oozing with negativity, please give me a reality check and help keep me focused on the good things in life!
To quote Jimmy Buffett, "When life gives you limes, make margaritas!" In other words take it with a grain of salt, deal with it and move on. Life is too short to dwell on all the crap that comes your way It is far better to deal with it, drink a few margaritas if necessary, and LET GO!
Letting go of the negative is something I have always struggled with, in fact I still tend to focus too much of my energy on the negative things that come my way. In the process, I'm missing out on the good things in life. So from now on, less focus on the negative, make the best of every situation (even when the odds are against me), and enjoy life more.
Here's where I need your help. If you notice several posts oozing with negativity, please give me a reality check and help keep me focused on the good things in life!
Monday, January 5, 2009
Update...
This mess is what used to be a bar full of glassware (shot glasses, pint glasses, collectibles, etc.) which was the last "domino" in the chain reaction to fall...
And this heap is the cabinet unit that fell from the ceiling, broke my dishes and coffee mugs, crushed the bar stools, and knocked over the freestanding bar, which contained the shot glasses and bar ware in the picture above. On a good note, not a drop of liquor was lost! :-)
**Can you see the hole on the underside of the cabinet (the one facing up)? Believe it or not, that was made when the cabinets dropped from the ceiling and landed on a ceramic cookie jar. The unbelievable part...aside from cabinet dust all over it, the cookie jar was not even scratched!
This is where said cabinets used to hang. Can you believe the proper installation on these were 4 screws, into a stud, per unit? That is 8 screws holding up the main cabinets in this kitchen set up!
We've visited with the insurance company...of course this falls under one of those few things that are "unfortunately not covered" by our policy. Now, had we "accidentally flooded the bathroom directly above these cabinets and caused water damage, then no problem replacing them and walls and ceiling and carpet etc. Bottom line, claim dropped! Next...
Phone call to builder since this house is only 7 years old. Mr. Warranty came out to "check out our situation" which drew the same response we heard from the insurance dude, "WOW! I've never seen THIS before!" "Let me take a few pictures." To which I responded, don't bother unless you need your own, you can have this stack we took right after they fell to document damage.
Don't get me wrong, Mr. Warranty was nice and apologetic about the situation, but "unfortunately, don't think we can help you." Until I played my woe is me card and told him that all of my new dishes I just got for my birthday were broken and my daughter had just been sitting there and that there was china from at least 4 generations in there that was lost, etc etc. To which he replied, "Don't order any cabinets just let, I'll call them on Monday and see if we can get you a new set of cabinets. It's the least we can do to ease the sting of the situation a bit." Fantastic! It's Monday now and we haven't heard from him yet...I'll give him until Wednesday to "get back to me" with his resolution before I have to start naming names and builder bash, but only because it is cold and raining ice on us today!
I guess I spoke too soon. Mr. Wonderful just called to tell me that Mr. Warranty left him a voicemail earlier to inform us that the actual cabinet maker was going to directly contact us by Wednesday and that they want to come out to look at the cabinets and installation after seeing the pictures of the aftermath.
Monday, December 29, 2008
Unexpected gifts...and Thanks!
This unexpected gift arrived Saturday morning about 9 am. I was reluctantly loading the dishwasher over coffee while Mr. Wonderful was breaking down Christmas boxes for "recycle michael".
When...
from behind me arose such a clatter, I spun my head to see what was the matter...
And what to my wondering eyes should appear? Not a miniature sleigh and 8 tiny reindeer, but my cabinets crashing to the ground. I stood, unable to speak a word, and watched as my cabinets dropped from the ceiling, smashed into the counter, bounced onto the bar stools, toppled head over heels, knocked over our free standing bar, sending shards of glass and wood in all directions.
After the initial shock and assessment of the situation, Mr. Wonderful turns to me and says, "That looks pretty damn good! You know I've always hated those cabinets hanging down there! This sure opens up the space, doesn't it?"
It indeed did open up the space. In fact, we've actually discussed removing that set of cabinets and reworking the kitchen, but couldn't come up with a way to do it without losing half the limited cabinet space I have available. So, we never pursued the idea past a conversation.
Thanks to the "organization gods" blessing me with the opportunity to completely rearrange my remaining cabinets to house the few dishes that survived the crash and to get rid of some way-past-pitching items. It only took the entire day, yesterday, to dump everything from my cabinets and pantry into the middle of the floor, wipe down inside all cabinets, organize, and put away everything I decided was worthy of keeping. Which in turn forced me to clean out the stair closet, that was overflowing with backpacks and coats from the kids dumping them the last day of school. Just in order to put away camping stuff that wasn't properly put away after our last camping adventure.
Most importantly, a special thanks to the angel that called Middle Child to the living room to look at a new toy, just minutes before the cabinets dropped from the ceiling. There were definitely forces of a greater being working in my house that day!
**I'm having trouble uploading pics to show the damage...I'll try to edit later! Be sure to check back to see our blessing!
When...
from behind me arose such a clatter, I spun my head to see what was the matter...
And what to my wondering eyes should appear? Not a miniature sleigh and 8 tiny reindeer, but my cabinets crashing to the ground. I stood, unable to speak a word, and watched as my cabinets dropped from the ceiling, smashed into the counter, bounced onto the bar stools, toppled head over heels, knocked over our free standing bar, sending shards of glass and wood in all directions.
After the initial shock and assessment of the situation, Mr. Wonderful turns to me and says, "That looks pretty damn good! You know I've always hated those cabinets hanging down there! This sure opens up the space, doesn't it?"
It indeed did open up the space. In fact, we've actually discussed removing that set of cabinets and reworking the kitchen, but couldn't come up with a way to do it without losing half the limited cabinet space I have available. So, we never pursued the idea past a conversation.
Thanks to the "organization gods" blessing me with the opportunity to completely rearrange my remaining cabinets to house the few dishes that survived the crash and to get rid of some way-past-pitching items. It only took the entire day, yesterday, to dump everything from my cabinets and pantry into the middle of the floor, wipe down inside all cabinets, organize, and put away everything I decided was worthy of keeping. Which in turn forced me to clean out the stair closet, that was overflowing with backpacks and coats from the kids dumping them the last day of school. Just in order to put away camping stuff that wasn't properly put away after our last camping adventure.
Most importantly, a special thanks to the angel that called Middle Child to the living room to look at a new toy, just minutes before the cabinets dropped from the ceiling. There were definitely forces of a greater being working in my house that day!
**I'm having trouble uploading pics to show the damage...I'll try to edit later! Be sure to check back to see our blessing!
Friday, December 19, 2008
Chaos...
Chaos- A condition or place of great disorder or confusion.
That is how I would describe my house right now! CHAOS! Today is/was the last day of school/ first day of Christmas break. The kids are all strung out on a sugar-high from Christmas parties, backpacks and shoes litter the floors, boxes and bags of gifts from my students fill up the remaining floor space, and a layer of dust covers most everything else. But not to worry, my adrenalin rush, from the $40 worth of Starbucks gift cards, will kick in soon and I will be motivated to motivate these sugar-junkies into high gear before Mr. Wonderful makes it through the front door in two hours!
That is how I would describe my house right now! CHAOS! Today is/was the last day of school/ first day of Christmas break. The kids are all strung out on a sugar-high from Christmas parties, backpacks and shoes litter the floors, boxes and bags of gifts from my students fill up the remaining floor space, and a layer of dust covers most everything else. But not to worry, my adrenalin rush, from the $40 worth of Starbucks gift cards, will kick in soon and I will be motivated to motivate these sugar-junkies into high gear before Mr. Wonderful makes it through the front door in two hours!
Monday, December 8, 2008
memories...
OK, sorry about the broken neck to view these pictures. These are the memories from the previous post. The picture below(tilt head to the left) is the angel that sat on our tree as I was growing up. The poor thing looks like it has been through a fire and back, but I still put her on display every Christmas like my mom did for years and hopefully one of my children will want to carry on the tradition once we have passed. I hope!
This cherub is the epitome of the 70s, this is one of a pair of cherubs on red velvet that hung on the living room wall of my mom's house (right beside the silver ship on red velvet that I hope doesn't find it's way to my house anytime soon) up until about 2 years ago when this one arrived, all cozy in bubble wrap and a brown box, on my doorstep right before Christmas.
I have wallowed in my own memories enough, time to share some of Mr. Wonderful's as well. This next picture shows a village that was displayed at his house while he was growing up. There are metal people that were given to his parents from his paternal grandfather and then to us three years ago from his mother. The train was passed down to us this year, again, by his mother. It originally belonged to his paternal grandfather, then his father, and now him. It is a Lionel train from the 50s and has been stored for longer than I've known Mr. Wonderful, which has been at least 13 years. His mom gave it to us a couple of weeks ago, Mr. Wonderful bought new track for it at the hobby shop and had the transformer tested. Believe it or not, it still works, it still makes a chugging sound, and smoke still pours out the top as it goes around the track. The look on Mr. Wonderful's face when the train made it's first lap around the track nearly brought tears to my eyes. Since his dad is gone, it was special to bring back a big part of what he shared with his dad growing up.
This cherub is the epitome of the 70s, this is one of a pair of cherubs on red velvet that hung on the living room wall of my mom's house (right beside the silver ship on red velvet that I hope doesn't find it's way to my house anytime soon) up until about 2 years ago when this one arrived, all cozy in bubble wrap and a brown box, on my doorstep right before Christmas.
I have wallowed in my own memories enough, time to share some of Mr. Wonderful's as well. This next picture shows a village that was displayed at his house while he was growing up. There are metal people that were given to his parents from his paternal grandfather and then to us three years ago from his mother. The train was passed down to us this year, again, by his mother. It originally belonged to his paternal grandfather, then his father, and now him. It is a Lionel train from the 50s and has been stored for longer than I've known Mr. Wonderful, which has been at least 13 years. His mom gave it to us a couple of weeks ago, Mr. Wonderful bought new track for it at the hobby shop and had the transformer tested. Believe it or not, it still works, it still makes a chugging sound, and smoke still pours out the top as it goes around the track. The look on Mr. Wonderful's face when the train made it's first lap around the track nearly brought tears to my eyes. Since his dad is gone, it was special to bring back a big part of what he shared with his dad growing up.
Blah Humbug
It is that time of year when "Blah Humbug" strikes me. This is when I feel all sorry for myself that I can't be with my family (mom, dad, brothers) for the holidays. It has been this way since Mr. Wonderful and I moved our family to first the Bluegrass State and then to the Lone Star State.
It really saddens me that my mom has not spent a Christmas with the kids in 10 years and they are getting to the age where they will start not "believing". It also saddens me that I have not spent a Christmas with my family and our traditions of ham and macaroni salad and huge family gatherings with all sorts of fun and games and sharing. Although I am grateful that we live close to Mr. Wonderful's family and get to share the holidays with them and we have our own traditions with our kids, it just isn't the same as being at "home".
My mom has been gracious over the years and sends me reminders of "home" to display during the holidays. Such as the angel tree topper that was on our tree every year for longer than I can remember (looks like it has survived a fire) that she sent me about 5 years ago, and one of the pair of cherubs that hung on her wall for years which now one hangs on my tree and my brother owns the other one.
Although I wish we lived closer, we are close at heart and that is what matters.
It really saddens me that my mom has not spent a Christmas with the kids in 10 years and they are getting to the age where they will start not "believing". It also saddens me that I have not spent a Christmas with my family and our traditions of ham and macaroni salad and huge family gatherings with all sorts of fun and games and sharing. Although I am grateful that we live close to Mr. Wonderful's family and get to share the holidays with them and we have our own traditions with our kids, it just isn't the same as being at "home".
My mom has been gracious over the years and sends me reminders of "home" to display during the holidays. Such as the angel tree topper that was on our tree every year for longer than I can remember (looks like it has survived a fire) that she sent me about 5 years ago, and one of the pair of cherubs that hung on her wall for years which now one hangs on my tree and my brother owns the other one.
Although I wish we lived closer, we are close at heart and that is what matters.
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