Days go by and I stare at a blank white screen thinking there’s nothing to say. And then more days go by and sometimes by the time I ponder on the entertainment value of an incident, the time to write about it drifts away because there’s other crap that needs my attention, like work and feeding the family.
So Internet, How are you? It’s been awhile. While we enjoyed this little break from one another life has moved along at a rapid pace, filled with changes and obstacles and inconveniences and some good times.
Let’s see if I can catch you up on what’s been happening in Catootesville, shall I? Because it is exhilarating stuff.
Ace had surgery on his shoulder the first week of June. Due to a shoulder dislocation that happened FOUR years ago, there’d been a weakening in the shoulder which was further exacerbated by two more years of baseball and three years of swimming. By the end of this swim season, his shoulder hurt constantly and was unstable in the joint. We didn’t know that last bit until Ace came to us one day and asked “Is this supposed to happen?” while lifting his arm to illustrate the shoulder slide right out of the socket. “Well, No” we replied and called the orthopedist. Ten weeks of physical therapy did naught to alleviate the problem and only seemed to increase Ace’s now constant pain level. A new orthopedic surgeon and an MRI revealed a severely stretched shoulder capsule which was promptly repaired with four bone anchors -doesn’t that just sound ridiculously painful? Ace assures us all that IT IS INDEED painful- and recovery is commencing.
No swimming in senior year for my boy, a reality that is sad and horrible and unfair and sucky and all other degrees of miserable a pissed off sixteen year old can drum up when confronted with his favorite activity being yanked out from under him. I can’t really disagree because I would be pissed off if I were in his shoes. But YAY! Surly restless uncomfortable teenager in residence. Our defense to that phenomenon is suggesting that he study more for his upcoming finals –tests he was unable to take at the end of the school year due to unavoidable surgery- his next round of SAT’s, and do college research. Of course we are horrible slave-driving demanding parents for making him research colleges and scholarships now, while he is broken and not even in school. YES, YES WE ARE rotten mean parents for thinking of his future like that. I think the only thing that could make this entire shoulder issue worse for him is if we had taken away his ability to play Minecraft on his Xbox. Given the amount of time he’s logged on this game since March, he should be a certified Minecraft champion by now and XBOX should be paying me.
There’s a constant running battle in my house between my husband, who is firmly in the YOU PLAY TO MUCH XBOX camp and Ace, who is entrenched in the NO I DON’T IT’S MY ONLY FORM OF ENTERTAINMENT RIGHT NOW field. I get sucked in the middle of this thing regularly and it makes me want to bash both of their heads together and have done with it. But since that option has legal consequences, I’m left with negotiating irritated men into a compromise neither of them like. And somehow, they both end up mad at me. Because clearly the stubborn testosterone personality conflict is ALL MY FAULT. Maybe I’ll play on the Xbox all day. A little Kinect Boxing might make me feel better, especially after imagining their heads as my opponent.
Giggles graduated 8th grade! You know what made this awesomeness squared? I was able to present her with her diploma and give her a great big hug in front of the entire graduating class. (It was just as awesome when I was able to do the same for Ace.) With Honors and an academic scholar award! My little baby girl. How the hell did this happen? I swear she was screaming in a two year old snit yesterday and now she’s a high school freshman. At the eighth grade dance she won the class award for Most Individual and was skipping on clouds of happiness with that accolade. It was the perfect award for her. I think she appreciates that one more than the High Honors award. She deserves to be proud of herself for believing in herself, remaining true to who she is and not letting other people influence her. It’s not easy standing up to the gauntlet of middle school mean girls who don’t appreciate the strength in being different. My Most Individual Girl rocks!
She’s getting ready to test for her Black Belt, something she’s been working toward since she was six. A major milestone, yet she’s a little trepidacious about the six plus hour test itself. The test consists of a mile run, innumerable push-ups, sparring with black belts of all levels, giving a speech on what the study of karate has meant to her, performing the multiple level kata’s and exhibition fluid knowledge of all the defensive moves. Now that I’ve put all that out there I completely understand why she’s having some anxiety about this test. I know she’ll do just fine but she has to believe it as well.
We went on a lovely vacation, which I’ll post separately because we did cool stuff at a new place and it deserves its very own post with pictures!
We came back from this lovely vacation to discover the dishwasher felt neglected so it went on strike and refuses to drain all the water after the rinse cycle. I dismantled the guts of it and plucked some paper substance out of its innards in the hopes that would achieve maximum drainage and put the thing through a cycle all the while praying to the dishwasher gods, who were obviously unappeased by my salutations since there is still water in the bottom of my dishwasher. Which is only two ½ years old and I didn’t purchase the extended warranty because WHO EVER NEEDS THOSE THINGS ANYWAY. Apparently I do. Perhaps I should have performed a dance of supplication to the dishwasher gods, naked, in my back yard. Would that have been enough?
While the dishwasher was having its snit, the tiles from the bathroom wall also decided to revolt and fling themselves to the floor. Now in all honesty there have been signs of rebellion from this sector for quite some time. A shift in tile alignment here, broken grout there, adhesive failure resulting in random tile escape. This was too much for my husband to take, this blatant disobedience to the laws of structural integrity and three days after we got back from vacation he was in the trenches waging a war with the tiles while wielding a pry bar, hammer and many power tools. The result is that my bathroom is now stripped to the framing timbers, the toilet is currently sitting outside the back door (if it stays there too long I’m going CLASSY and planting flowers in it), there is no sink or running water. Last night saw the replacement of the subfloor (Thank you to whatever gods are listening) and I no longer have to look into our crawlspace from the bathroom. Mind you, this is the ONLY BATHROOM we have. We can only be super thankful that my in-laws live in town and our neighbors are friendly.
There is much to be done. Finish insulating, put up WALLS, set the new tub surround, install the marble tile, paint, and replace all necessary appliances. Yes Toilet, I’m looking at you!
While we were unloading many large pieces of sheetrock from the car on Saturday, a vicious storm front came rolling through town. We were about to haul a piece inside and looked up to see the two weather fronts collide, creating amazingly beautiful cloud formations (you’ll have to take my word on this as I couldn’t get my camera due to the aforementioned piece of sheetrock in my hands) and then the wind arrived. Above the roof I could see the trees in the backyard start whipping around and I stood there amazed at the sudden intensity of it. And then one of the trees disappeared. Just dropped out of sight. Fell right over. By some miracle it missed landing on the deck and the shed. But you know, BIG ASS TREE DOWN.
My son has to take his Junior year finals now that he’s no longer drugged with painkillers and can use his writing hand. My daughter has swim practice three days a week, ½ hour away from home. My dishwasher is broken. My bathroom is not really a bathroom at this time. I haven’t done laundry since Friday. There’s a downed tree lying across the backyard. My lawn hasn’t been mowed in two weeks. And we’re leaving for vacation in four weeks.
All of this? In the past four weeks. I know. You can’t make this shit up.
And I keep thinking there’s nothing much going on in my life worth writing about.
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