Have wheels will travel is the song of the WAHM

I knew my time was going to be limited yesterday. It was one of my errand days. The tile guy wasn't coming back until today, so I knew I had to get the errands out of the way.

So, I left the house at one to drop Rachel off at 1:30pm. Oh, and she forgot her ID for work, so we had to turn around and go back home. She literally had to leap from the car to clock in on time.

I hate close calls. And that's why I was so worried about the possibility of running out gas. Still, Rachel needed to be to work on time, so I tempted fate and drove with the light on. I made it. Whoohoo!

From there, I managed to get lost in the wilds of South Carolina as I tried to find the office where I was supposed to be able to pick up a check for Sam. Only I arrived and got the runaround instead of a check. Sam was not happy when I texted.

From there, it was off to the library to drop off overdue library books. Yeah, I'm horrible with that. I used to be better, but I've been busy. Sue me. Actually, they bill me. And I'm thinking it's a good five bucks right about now. Dammit.

Then it was to the other side of Charlotte, the dark side. Yes, I have to pass a series of strip clubs to get to another one of the companies we do work for. I found the place just fine. And when I walked it, it was like a boy's club. There were guys lounging all over and hanging out. And would you believe they didn't remember me? Well, given the sundress I wore, that will never happen again.

I dropped off the check, but they didn't have a check for me. So, I headed to Lowe's and called Sam. He didn't take that well. After Lowe's, it was back to the company again...over the railroad tracks and back past the strip clubs to the remodeling company I went. This time...check. And more time out of my day that I would never get back.

In my zeal to get home and get some writing done, the fun stuff, not the boring stuff I make better money on...for now...I forgot to go to the bank. Yes, I actually pulled into the driveway, stopped the vehicle, grabbed my purse, saw the check sticking out of it, and started the car again. All while emitting a colorful display of my displeasure.

Four hours I was gone. Four hours. Half a normal work day spent in a car. Mostly. Glad I only do this once a week.

And when we sleep, we dream

This has been one heck of an exhausting week. We have the bathroom remodel that will not end, still going. We have Rachel and Austin here. Sam has been working, and estimating, and working on estimates. And I have pretty much been holding down the fort.

It's been a week of late nights and early mornings. It's been a week of running errands and staying busy. It's been a week that I look forward to ending.

And I suppose that it's no wonder that when I get to sit down for too long, I start to get sleepy.

I've been working on SEO articles for Sam and Carolina Home Enhancements. I've been working on a novel that I need to finish. I edited 224 pages yesterday. That'll wear a person out. And I've been keeping up two blogs, two Twitters, three Facebooks, one Google+, and a partridge in a pear tree. Or it feels that way.

Rachel had me at the grocery store at 7am, since she needed to pick up a few things and it had to done before the tile guy arrived. I was still sleepy then, even though I had been up since 5:30am. Stupid mornings.

So Sam came home around lunch time. He had been to the siding job twice. And he had done a glass replacement once. We were on our respective pieces of furniture. That's pretty much all I remember. Luckily, Rachel recorded it for posterity. But I'm pretty sure I dreamed. Happy dreams.

What makes me think so?

I woke up relaxed...and happy.

Dreamers love using their imagination

It's been a while since I've had an excuse to read a good children's book. After all, my babies are currently 13 and 17. They have long since stopped wanting me to read to them. It stinks because I rather enjoy it. So, when I had an opportunity to get a The Costume Trunk, a children's book, for free with the From Left to Write Online Book Club, I had to jump at it. (Plus, a picture book is almost all I can manage these days commitment wise...)

The beauty of reading children's books is that they do so much for the imagination. And for me, it reminded me of growing up in the Adirondacks and winters spent entertaining ourselves in the basement. My parents were genius at keeping us entertained. This was before the time of video games...or maybe we simply weren't interested in them. All I remember is the hours of fun we had with refrigerator boxes.

We would each get a refrigerator box. That was just the beginning of the fun. The refrigerator box was a canvas. We could draw on it with markers and crayons. We could cut it and modify it with scissors. We could turn that box into a boat. We could turn the box into a house. We could turn two boxes into a train. We could make a small village. We had a blast.

We spent lazy afternoons reading in our boxes. We would load them with blankets and pillows and just hunker down. I would load mine with books and run a library. We could throw a blanket over it and turn it into a table for a tea party.

I loved winters spent in those refrigerator boxes. Those are some happy memories. There's something about childhood imaginations that can turn the most boring things into something magical and wonderful...like a simple cardboard box. I wouldn't trade that time and those experiences for anything. In fact, I did my best to encourage those same experiences in my kids. So far, so good.

Dreamers hate down time

Okay. That's not entirely true.

Every once in a while, I really enjoy having a moment where I can simply breathe. I like being able to relax and to stop thinking and just be...truly live in the moment.

Ah, but then there's Sam. And Sam does not do down time well. He gets all fidgety. He wants to be making money. He starts looking around for something to do...anything to do.

So, it looks like the gate is getting stained...finally. It's a good day for it. There was rain yesterday. The great outdoors is cooler than it has been in forever. And it feels like there's even a bit of a break in the humidity.

That means I get to work. Sometimes, the work part is easy. I get the house to myself. Bishop and I work on the couch for a bit, then the lounge chair, and I'll even sit at the desk once in a while. Then, when I get cold from the air blowing on me, we move to the garage. I turn on the fan and I write from the comfort of the couch while getting to enjoy a change of scenery.

I like my life. I like that I can do this. And I really like that for the first time in a long time, I am really making money. I'm really at a point where I can contribute. I'm really at a place where I can feel good about where I am financially.

It's getting better. And as long as Sam keeps working and I get to keep writing, life will continue to be happy and balanced. And when he's home, I have to find projects to keep him busy. I have a running list. It shouldn't be too hard.

The important thing is that dreamers find a way to channel that energy for good instead of wallowing and making life bad. So, we're heading to the Canine Cafe today. It's Bishop's birthday tomorrow. We'll be celebrating a day early so that he can enjoy the extra time with Daddy. And tomorrow, Sam starts a job that will occupy him quite possibly through the weekend, followed by another job that will cover the following week.

Fingers crossed, there will be more work after that. We're doing everything we know to do. Oh, but we're open to suggestions. So, anyone want some exterior work done? Carolina Home Enhancements is open for business.

Where the wild things shouldn't be

I love nature. Tamed. All nice and neat and in its place.

I like nature less when it intrudes. No, I don't mind the deer that stand in our yard here and there. They are lovely to behold. And I don't mind the array of lizards that cross our driveway and sun themselves on the the cedar siding of the house. And I especially don't mind the rabbits that hop through the yard.

I do, however, take issue with spiders and snakes. And last week we were ripe with both. I very nearly had a car accident caused by a rogue spider that made an appearance and climbed up the windshield while I was driving. Then, if that wasn't enough, there was a snake on Thursday night.

I hate snakes. The garter ones aren't so bad. The problem is that it can take a moment or two to distinguish what I'm dealing with and by then, the thing is dead. I'm more of a shoot first, ask questions later kind of girl when it comes to snakes.

So, we were sitting on the screen porch. You may recall that the screen porch is our little private sanctuary. We rid ourselves of the hot tub last summer in favor of a more functional room that we could entertain more people in. The result has been that we have a lovely room to share with friends. There are a few places that the screens aren't secured anymore. These are places that Rachel's rotten cat, Ninja, has discovered so that she can make a break for it and hide under the shed. And these are places that birds have discovered when it came time to nest for the season.

We have a lovely bird's nest behind the television and we would gain pleasure each day from seeing the mom and dad bird come in and feed the young, clean up after them, and even watched as the babies learned to fly around the safety and security of our screened in porch.

At least it felt safe and secure.

And I love the door way of the screened porch, right next to the television. It is the spot that Sam and I had our very first kiss. We still stand there and re-enact that moment from time to time. Because I can stand indoors a step up and he's so much taller than I am, it makes kissing perfect and easy.

Ah, but we won't be standing there so much anymore.

As we were talking Thursday about how tired we were and how we were ready to go to sleep, as we innocently planned our next day, a snake dropped down from the nest...with a baby bird in its mouth. Oh, and it wasn't just any kind of snake...it was a cottonmouth. They are pretty much highly poisonous.

Sam: What the heck is that?

me: Snake.

It was less than two feet from me and I automatically curled up in my chair. Sam vaulted over the snake into the kitchen and grabbed a chef's knife from the butcher block. He came in and started slicing away at the snake. Seriously, this is the only time I've wished for a ginsu knife. Soon the snake was dead and the baby bird had been put out of its misery, and we were researching snakes.

We weren't so sleepy anymore.

And my lovely screened porch, a place to relax and unwind, not so relaxing anymore. And it doesn't seem quite so safe. And my kissing spot has become the spot where the snake dropped.

I torture myself some with what ifs. What if we had been standing there? What if Bishop had happened upon the snake while going to the bathroom? What if we had been outside making a bonfire when we had crossed paths with the snake?

I'll recover from this. I'll get past my fear. My life won't feel so tainted eventually. It would just happen a lot faster if I knew that the wildlife would stay in the wilds.

Dreamers don't ever stop playing

It's really important to me that I be playful. I think that when you stop playing, you start aging. And so it was incredibly important to me that I could find someone who would indulge my playful nature.

I still like running around playing Hide and Seek. I'm not above being goaded into a game of tag. And most of all, I love doing things when I'm not stuck in front of a computer.

So, would it help to explain my romance with Sam if I told you how we play? Oh, because we do...all the time. When we first started dating, we used to play Hide and Seek all the time with the neighborhood kids. We always hid best. And only our giggling could give us away. And we'd run around and play with paintball guns. Yes, he's shot me before. It's still one of my favorite nights. We were playing!

Is it surprising at all that when we were shopping for our nephew's birthday party that we picked up some toys for us, too? Ummm...of course, we did. And then we spent the evening just waiting to get home to play with them.

We picked up some Nerf guns. It led to one of our epic battles. We were chasing each other around the house, shooting and reloading. We were diving behind furniture and ducking and pretty much having an amazing night.

I never want to get so old that I stop playing. I never want to get so mature that I can't stop and see what's important. Playing is important. Try it some time.

The impatient remodeler

That's what I called Sam yesterday. It's a nickname he's earned over a few days. And you will soon see why.

First of all, this bathroom remodel began as a big dream. We talked about what we wanted to do. We knew we needed to have it done by the time the kids started school again so that they would have their own bathroom. We have been struggling to share one bathroom with all the conflicting schedules. It's worse because the one bathroom is in the master bedroom.

So, then we managed to get a really good deal on a new power tool: the air chisel. And Sam was off and running because he just had to try it out. When I did my hall bath, the identical floor plan, it took me DAYS of chiseling and snorting dust. Sam had ours out in just a couple of hours. I even helped some. And one afternoon, Rachel's boyfriend, Austin took it for a test drive. We maybe should have given him more instructions on account of he about chiseled to the dirt under the slab. Oops.

And then we bought materials and started checking out the rates for the tiling and plumbing that we couldn't do. Well, even though everyone claimed they could be ready to start on Monday, the tub, which was the first thing that had to be installed, didn't get in until yesterday. Oh, but it's pretty. And so worth it.

Thursday was the day that Sam had to replace the electrical outlet with a GFI and the light switches to black so that everything matched and looked good with the oil rubbed bronze. It does! And then he had to pour cement into the hole that was left from the plumbing installation.

So today is install the floor today, which will culminate in Sam's installation of the vanity. And this is where the impatience part comes in. We went to the movies Wednesday night. Afterwards, we ended up staying up waaaaay too late.

Sam had to find out what the top would look like on the vanity. And he had to put the handles on the vanity. And then he had to make the drawers all level and even and spent a good half hour adjusting them. Oh, but to top it off, he had to try out the new faucet. It looked great. But the problem is that it all needed to be undone before it could be installed anyway.

What's the point of doing everything twice? I couldn't figure it out. Oh, but he had to see what it all looked like.

It reminded me of the year that my mother bought me a Cabbage Patch Kid for my birthday. Then she hid it and forgot that it was in the basement closet when she asked me to get her something out of there. I spent six months, no lie, visiting that doll every day. I even became very bold and would unwrap its packaging, take it out, and hold it before I would secure it again, and put it away for the next afternoon while mom was at work.

That whole deal was a lot of work. And I can't keep assembling and disassembling the bathroom. By Thursday the bathroom should be done. Fingers crossed. Maybe we're both a little impatient.