Author Archives: Jenni

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The Middle Life: Making it Real

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Hey, everyone! How’s it hangin’? Where have I been? I guess I’ve been on a writing sabbatical and not sure why.

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking since the school year started. So much so that I’m having trouble putting two sentences together to express myself.

What is the predominant thought swirling in my brain? Middle Age. At 46 years old, I have to admit I’m smack dab in the midst of middle age. By the way, when does middle age evolve into old age? . . . . . . . . You know what? Never mind, I’ll worry about that later.

How did I envision this stage of my life? I don’t have an answer. I’d never really thought about it much until I arrived so I can’t say that it’s not what I thought it would be. I’ve been going through my life like a freight train racing through the farmlands of the Midwest. Everything a blur. Until now. The train has now come to a screeching halt awaiting directions.

It’s so weird not to have plan. I’m a planner. I’ve always had a plan – get through high school, go to college, get an awesome career, get married, buy a house, have wonderful kids, . . . . . . . . Then, the plan is blank. The items listed so far have been completed, but now what?

Obviously, the next stage is . . . . . empty nester. Yikes.

Why am I dwelling on this now?

Rachel got accepted into the first of five colleges that she is considering (yay!) – we found out a week ago.  Reading the formal written acceptance letter was like seeing a Technicolor rainbow while getting pelted with ice-cold rain. Then, the rainbow disappeared. I thought to myself, “It’s really happening – she will be leaving.” I cried the entire day and still can’t talk about it without sobbing. I really need to pull it together, but I’m struggling.

Of course, I’m always thinking waaaayyy too far in advance. Since Rachel got accepted into college, I’m seeing my future with no kids at home (I sure can make the leaps, can’t I?).  What the hell am I going to do with myself when that happens?

The hubs is always saying to me, “Don’t under estimate the value of you quitting your full-time job and being around more for our kids.” I’m sure he’s right, but it’s also easy for him to say. He has a career that he enjoys and will still have this career when the kids are gone. Most of my day revolves around managing the kids. (Holy crap! I’m going to have a lot of free time.)

This next part of my life journey is like an unformed lump of clay. I’m scared of that – I really don’t know what to do with clay.

I need a plan. Any ideas?

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Uninspired

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Uninspired. That’s what I am. I’m not sure why.

I have a lot to say and there’s a lot going on in this brain of mine, but I’m struggling with expressing it. What are the words?  I’m just not sure.

As I drift off to sleep, I think of what to say (it’s perfect!), but then I fall asleep. By morning my brilliant word play is gone and then, I’m left with trying to recover it. This, of course, is impossible. Back to square one.

Over the last month, I’ve been hit by a school bus (I’m okay), two out of three (three? I know, we are spoiled) of our home computers crashed, and my son had to go to the ER. This series of events have just thrown me off kilter a bit. I sit down to write and my mind goes blank. What’s up with that?

Due to the bus accident, I’m in a rental van (going on week three). I miss my old, red Town & Country. But, what keeps me going is that I know we will eventually be reunited and she will look shiny and new.

The computer situation? We replaced one of the two broken home computers – the new one is so awesome! You may be wondering why we have so many computers. We have just accumulated them as our family has grown. When you have three kids and a hubs that all require the computer to do work/homework, you need three computers. (I did fail to mention that my work laptop has also crashed and it will be replaced on Monday – I have  been cursed by the Microsoft gods.)

My son? He is okay – he slipped and fell in the dugout and braced his fall with his face against the bench (ouch!). It looked way worse than it was (confirmed by a $2,000 CT scan).

Well, that’s it. Nothing earth-shattering or life-altering, just life.

Hopefully, this funk will go away soon and I can get back to dazzling you with my insightful, brilliant and funny posts!

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Salmonella with Tarragon & Cider Sauce

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It was time.

“Time for what?”, you may be asking. Well, for my mid-year cooking meltdown, of course!

Please don’t get me wrong, I’m not a perfect chef every other day of the year. I make things that end up on the Never-Make-Again List, or don’t look like the picture but still taste good, or don’t look like the picture and don’t taste good.

But, I usually don’t put my family in danger by serving Salmonella on a plate covered in tarragon-apple cider sauce!

This cooking mishap occurred on Tuesday. I was excited because I was making two new recipes (I love making new recipes) from my new cookbook, Eating Local.  They sounded so delicious!

What caused the disaster? The 2 mutant chicken breasts (MCBs) that I bought from the grocery. Along with the MCBs, I also bought 4 thighs and 4 drumsticks.

The recipe called for browning the chicken, removing chicken from skillet, making braising liquid in same skillet, then returning browned chicken to skillet for braising. I can do that!

But, wait….The mutant breasts took up my WHOLE iron skillet (there may have been room for one additional thigh and drumstick).  One skillet! I was supposed to be able to use only one skillet!

Curse you kitchen gods!  The chicken pieces and parts had to be relocated to a big pot (now I’m on my second pot/pan) that could handle all of the poultry and the braising liquid. Damn those breasts! There’s not enough liquid to cover the chicken for braising. I ended up winging it a this point to make sure I had enough liquid by adding more chicken stock and apple cider. Now, the recipe was so out of kilter and there was no turning back.

There’s more to this sad chicken braising tale (sauce needed to reduce and thicken and didn’t, blah, blah), but I won’t bore you with that.

We finally sat down at the table at 7:45 pmish (by this time, the people in my house started eyeing each other to decide who would be the first sacrifice because they were starving to death). Everything smelled great. The side dish looked great. I’m a little flustered, but ready to eat.

Mike cuts into one of the MBCs. “Ahhhhh!” There’s major pink. My son cuts into one of the thighs, and again, “Ahhhhh!” Major pink. Now, I’m just plain frustrated. I mean, I browned and braised the pieces double the time stated!

We threw everyone’s uncooked pieces into the microwave (I always consider this a major defeat). And, I reheated the pot containing the remaining chicken and sauce and cooked the crap out of whatever was left in the pot (I needed to make sure it was safe for leftovers).

The consolation? The chicken did have a great flavor (once cooked through) and the tarragon sauce was awesome.  I’m definitely going to make this again, but with some tweaks. When I have the nerve to try this again, I will post it on my food blog – Suburban Foodie. I do have the potato side dish posted.

Look at the size of this sucker:

I think I’m going to buy organic chicken from now on – I’m assuming there’s no breast enhancement in those chicks!

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The Year of Letting Go

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This begins my official year of letting go. You see, my oldest has officially started her senior year in high school. Next year at this time we will be driving her to college. *sigh* 

Actually, this year is a big one for me because all three of my kids are experiencing transitions – Ray is a senior, Maddie entered high school as a freshman (I have two kids in high school, acckkk!) and my baby entered the world of junior high as a 6th grader. You’ll have to excuse me, but I’m a bit melancholy these days.

The college thing will be my first major, major transition involving one of my children (of course, besides actually bringing them into the world). I will need every bit of this year to prepare myself for day when we drop her off at college and then just drive away.

I do want to assure you that it’s not like I’m new to transitions and I do handle them pretty well:

~First day of daycare: I bawled like a baby that first day when I returned to work full-time (and every morning after that for about a month).

~First day of first grade: I sobbed like a fool after driving her to school for her first day of 1st Grade. When I dropped her off at her classroom door, she marched right in and never looked back. I wanted to give her a final smile of encouragement, but apparently she didn’t need it (I needed it more than she did. She was ready and I was not).

~First time at sleep-away camp: She had just finished 2nd grade and she was going to be gone for two nights. I cried on the way home after dropping her off. She was 90 minutes away for goodness sake! 

~Freshman year: What about the day I drove her to the Freshman Kick-off at the high school? On the way home, I cried so hard that I nearly blinded myself with tears and almost didn’t make it back to the house.

Um, after taking this stroll down memory lane, I’ve been reminded that maybe I don’t handle transitions well at all. I’m doomed.

This next milestone in both of our lives will be different from those previously mentioned. She won’t be coming home at the end of the school day.  There, I said it.

Man, you think I’m a worrier now, what is it going to be like when she doesn’t have to text me when she gets to her destination? Or ask permission to stay later somewhere or spend the night at a friend’s?

I do realize that with texting and skyping it will be easier to keep in touch with her which will ease my worry a smidge. As my parents can attest to, I rarely called home once I got to college and they couldn’t text or email me to find out why I wasn’t picking up my phone!

Wait, wait. What? I’m sorry my hubs is whispering something in my ear –  “Babe, she’s not gone yet!” Oh, yeah, right.

Did Mike and I teach her all she needs to know? My mind will be churning this year trying to make sure we’ve covered all of the important lessons. What are the important lessons? Does anyone have a list I can borrow? I’m starting to hyperventilate and I can’t think properly.

I mean, I think we’ve covered the biggies: Treat others as you would like to be treated, Be cautiously skeptic (mommy, I’m not cynical like you!), Believe in yourself, Use your common sense, Have a good work ethic, Respect yourself and others, ummm, any others? Come on, people! Help me out here.

It’s the stuff that takes a lifetime to learn that I’m concerned about (not laundry or budgeting training). Did we do her justice? I sure hope so.

I need to know if something is lacking in our life skills training at home. I’ve got two others in the queue for the push from the nest and there’s still plenty of time to amend the lesson plans!

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What IS that sound?

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“What is that noise?”, I say to myself. “Where is it coming from?” And, then silence.

“Ah, I must be losing my mind”, talking to myself as I meander back to my office. Then, “What? That noise is back. What IS it?”

The resurgence of the noise confirms that I’m not losing it – there is a strange noise afoot in my house!  I start wandering around the house looking for the cause of this mysterious sound. It sounds like a cat in agony just after a cat fight or maybe an elephant dying. Maybe we have a strange animal wheezing its last wheezes in our basement. (It really wouldn’t be that far-fetched as we’ve had baby possums in our basement ceiling before – long story).

The noise seems to be emanating from the basement so I cautiously wander into the depths of the house to put an end to this insidious sound. Then……I see it.What? What is it? Something so shocking so as not to be believed.

It is my son practicing the trumpet (without being asked). Yep, the trumpet.

The mystery sound story happened during early June – about the second week after having his instrument.

My son (my baby) is entering junior high this fall (actually next Tuesday!), can you believe it? I sure can’t. I don’t want to talk about it or I will start blubbering. As Jack and I were walking into the middle school this past Tuesday to pick up his schedule and get his locker assignment, he looked at me and said, “Mommy, please don’t cry.” He knows me so well.

Anyway, to explain the trumpet in our house, I have to take you back to the end of this last school year. During this past May 2011 (the end of his 5th grade year), his 6th grade schedule had to be determined. At our middle school, they have to take all of the usual subjects and then, there is the tough decision whether to take band, orchestra, choir, or a study hall. Study hall was out of the question and he immediately said, “No choir!”

Why so adamant about choir? Both of his sisters elected choir at the middle school so he had attended many a choir show. I think remembering the boys (especially the 6th & 7th graders) in shiny shirts and ties doing the choreographed dance moves somewhat awkwardly (I thought they were adorable!) sealed the deal. No choir. Also, unfortunately for him, he inherited my strong inability to carry a note.

So, orchestra or band? Well, at the end of this last school year, the middle school had a “try on”. It’s really pretty great. The kids got to go and literally try on any instrument they wanted. What instruments did Jack choose?  The cello, clarinet, percussion (drums), viola and the trumpet. The band and orchestra teachers watched the children individually at each instrument selected for their “try on” and made notes. I think at this point, the teachers try to narrow it down to two instruments for each child and in doing this they will also take into account the child’s opinion.

Case in point:  Jack had been hounding me about viola lessons and I, being the good mother that I am, essentially ignored him. We had just finished 2 years of piano lessons which also included parental nagging about practicing (or lack thereof). He was gung-ho at the beginning, but then his interest diminished (maybe some of you have experienced this with your own kids). Well, long story short, he “tried on” the viola and decided that he hated it (so even if he had viola-potential, the band director would not consider this instrument for Jack).

Side note: Lesson learned for me? Listen to your gut. NO viola lessons was a good decision.

It was determined that he had the best potential with trumpet or clarinet (SO glad it wasn’t the cello). The band director really wanted Jack to pick the clarinet – apparently his try out went really well. But, Jack picked the trumpet instead. Why?  Well, it has fewer buttons! Duh! Kids crack me up – especially mine.

After practicing all summer (20 minutes a day), the trumpet-produced sounds coming from the basement no longer resemble the moanings of a dying animal. They have improved – now his music resembles the sound of someone blowing his (not hers) nose in a cartoonish, loud, exaggerated way. This is a definite improvement. Trust me.

I’m really looking forward to attending my son’s band concerts – it will be a definite change from the lavish choir shows (costume changes with each song and choreography) we have been attending since my oldest was in 6th grade (she is now a senior. sniff, sniff).

Here’s to my budding band geek! xoxo

 

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Live Your Truth

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I heard someone say this statement on TV about a month ago or so. As you can see, I’m still mulling over this one. This person (I wish I could remember who it was!) said it in response to a question regarding the key to her success.

Is this a new buzz phrase like “shift your paradigm”?

Anyway, ever since I heard this phrase I’ve been asking myself, “Am I living my truth?”. And, then I’m asking, “What the hell does that really mean, ‘living your truth’?”

For me, it means that you are being yourself in every moment, not hiding. Is that how you would interpret that statement?

That seems really hard to do. Maybe I’m the only one, but I don’t let just anyone in and see the complete Jenni.  Some trust has to be earned first. Yeah, I have rejection issues. I will admit that sometimes I still feel like the awkward 7th grader that just wants to fit in and not be rejected. Part of that girl has never left me.

So . . . . . Am I living my truth?  When the hubs and I were talking about it (after I told him my post topic), I told him that I honestly didn’t think that I was assuming my definition of the statement was accurate.

Why? The big one that popped into my mind immediately was church.

I confessed to my husband that once the kids stopped attending Sunday school, that I would probably no longer attend church. He was surprised by my statement, and in turn, I was surprised by his surprise (3 surprises in one sentence!). I suppose that’s the first time that I have voiced this aloud to him.

By the way, I’m not an atheist – I would call myself spiritual. I am open to the idea of a higher power, so it’s not that. It’s the rules and constraints of organized religion. The concept of “it’s my way or the highway”.  Christianity seems like an all or nothing proposition, right? Either you believe there is the one and only way to heaven or you don’t. Either you believe that Jesus is the Son of God or you don’t. Fence-sitting is not going to get you everlasting life.

Other than the love I feel for my friends and family, I’m not 100% sure of hardly anything in my life (My kids would roll their eyes at this one – to them, I appear to be very certain on most things).  And, I’m a little wary of those people who are. How do you grow and evolve if you’re not constantly questioning?

I feel that by attending our church (I’m a practicing Presbyterian, by the way), I am tacitly agreeing that my Jewish friends are doomed or that I whole heartedly agree that there is one way to heaven or – you get the idea. I can’t reconcile taking communion and feeling the way I do.

The hubs offered up the idea that maybe I wasn’t unique in this regard. Maybe that’s so, but it doesn’t change the fact that I feel like a big faker each time I go to service.

I heard someone on the TV say that she believed in all paths to God. I really like that statement and it makes more sense to me.

Anyway, you may be wondering about my children – I have always been honest with them on my feelings toward organized religion. I’ve also told them that they need to figure it out on their own – I will not tell them what to believe when it comes to something as personal as faith. They love Sunday school, Bible study, church camp, caravan, and their church friends and I won’t be the one who gets in the way of this.

I do have many friends and family that have what I call “true” faith – these are people who attend church because it’s meaningful, not because they want to be “seen”. These are people who have shown me that their faith truly has helped them through really tough times. These are the  people who accept the Doubting Jenni “as is”. However, I’m sure some of them are praying that I eventually come around (right, dad?).

I’m not dismissing faith and religion all together – I have witnessed the meaning and comfort it brings to those in my life.  And, my church does really nice things for the community and the church members. I can’t argue with that!

I guess, if I were living my truth, I would stop attending church because I’m tired of pretending. But, I won’t because I still have my kids at home and they really enjoy it. Shhh. . . . I will have to continue with my little scam for a while.

Wow, I feel like I just sat in the confessional (and I’m not even Catholic) or just came out of the religious closet! 

Are there other areas where I may not be living my truth? Maybe. . . . .but, I have rejection/trust issues as I eluded to earlier and we’re still just getting to know one another so I will leave those for another day. 🙂

What does “living your truth” mean to you?

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Off the Grid

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Hey! Were you wondering what happened to me? Well, I left the grid for a bit (not completely). I mostly became a voyeur on Facebook, WordPress, Blogspot, and Twitter. By that, I mean that I didn’t comment/participate much, but stayed current on what was happening with my peeps.

I have kind of been on vacation since mid-June.  Sounds nice, doesn’t it?

My oldest daughter will be a senior this year and we wanted to take a “big” vacation this summer. We won’t be able to afford any big vacations next summer because of looming college expenses (we found out that book rental for one semester can be $700!!).

So, on June 22nd we loaded the family truckster with our luggage and began our 11-day trek across the West.

On the first day of trip we stopped in middle of Minnesota and encountered a 60-foot Jolly Green Giant in this small town, Blue Earth. By the way, the Engledows are not highbrow travelers. Bring on the cheese – the cheesier the better.  So, you can imagine our excitement when this discovery was made! 

On the second day of trip we reached our first destination – Hill City, South Dakota. We stayed there for 3 nights and visited the usual sites in that area: the Corn Palace, Buffalo Gap National Grasslands, Badlands National Park, Mt. Rushmore, Chief Crazy Horse Monument, Custer State Park and Bear Country USA.

Here is a montage the South Dakota part of our trip (we have 1000 pictures between 4 cameras so these are just a sample):

South Dakota was beautiful. I didn’t expect it to be as gorgeous and green as it was. What was I expecting? A lot of brown, dusty looking panoramas. This was just not so!

Day 5 was the transition day from South Dakota to Colorado. This required us to drive through Wyoming and was the eeriest part of our trip. Why?  There were rarely any other cars and we had no cell signal – we could have disappeared without a trace! But, we didn’t. Wyoming had wonderful, interesting panoramic views that you just don’t encounter in the Midwest and I would have enjoyed the drive more if we had had cell coverage.

Our second major destination was Estes Park, Colorado. OMG! I love this place. I could move there. Seriously.

We stayed 4 nights and had a wonderful time. We saw Elk wandering the downtown sidewalks, went rafting down the Colorado River, toured the Stanley Hotel (inspiration for The Shining), drove over the Rocky Mountains (we reached 12,000 ft above sea level!), went hiking in the Rockies, saw wildlife galore (wolves, elk, moose, marmots, bald eagles, pronghorns, mule deer), etc.

Pictures from the Colorado Part of our trip:

We rounded out our trip with a hellish drive through the entire state of Kansas (talk about desolate!) and then spent our last two days in St. Louis, Missouri. We toured the Arch and the St. Louis Zoo.  Their zoo is fantastic and it’s free!

What a great trip!! It was definitely my favorite of all of our family vacations. We had been saving money for this trip for two years (we had a trip jar) and it was worth every penny.

Our kids are the best travelers and made the whole experience absolutely wonderful! I hope this trip will remain in their memories as something really cool from their childhoods.

What about the rest of the summer? Well, we got back from our trip on Saturday, July 2nd and left again for another family vacation on July 9th (No, that’s not stressful at all. Yeah, right!).

We were not on the go during this vacation so it was very relaxing. I read three books and started a fourth (in one week) – I did pay some attention to my family, but not much! 🙂 That’s okay – they were busy swiming in the lake, going tubing, fishing, etc.

 Michigan Sunset

Now I’m back in the real world (hiss, boo) and ready to get back to it!

It would be a lot easier if I wasn’t still daydreaming about being back in Colorado. These intrusive thoughts are seriously hampering my ability to get back into my real life.  Hopefully, these daydreams will eventually go away and quit taunting me!

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A Major Award!

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I have to share something with all of you. I received a blogging award on May 30th. Surprised? I sure was!

The Irresistibly Sweet Blog Award was bestowed upon me by Dawn at Recovering Dawn and, I just discovered, by Cynthia at Knowledge Maven. I have to tell Dawn & Cynthia, “Thank you very much!”

I found Dawn’s sweet blog while surfing on the She Writes website. You must check it out. I love the honesty of her writing.

And, I discovered Cynthia’s blog by looking at someone else’s blog roll.  I love her stories about her family. Her writing is wonderful and it speaks to me.

This sweet award is given out by blogging peers which makes it all that more wonderful (I think). “You like me; you really like me!” As a winner of this award, I’m supposed to share with you 7 things that you may not know or ever guess about me from reading my blog. I’m also supposed to bestow this honor upon my favorite blogs (between 5 and 15). I’m also supposed to contact these award winners and let them know that they have won (since I can’t call them up on stage like at the Oscars, I will contact them via the web).

You may be wondering why I’ve waited so long to share this wonderful news with you. Well, I’ve been mulling over my 7 new things to share. Hmmm…..

The Seven Things that you may or may not know about me:

 #1  My sister (my only sibling) and I have the same birthday, but we aren’t twins. I’m two years older – what a birthday present, right?! Hey, Jen what do you want for your birthday? How about a little sister?

When I was younger, I really didn’t like the fact that I had to share my birthday. The birthday is supposed to be the one thing that is yours alone! But, as I’ve gotten older, I like it. It’s one of special things that my sister and I have in common.

#2 My guilty pleasure is watching Bond films. I just love’em! There used to be Bond movie marathons on TV (I haven’t seen any lately) and when this happens, you can just forget about the laundry, cooking, paying attention to my family, etc. My butt is parked in front of the boob tube. My favorite Bond? Before Daniel Craig came into the picture, it was the young Sean Connery hands down! Now, I’m struggling. I mean, have you seen Daniel Craig?

#3 I own an autographed t-shirt signed by Hall & Oates (Yeah, Baby!) and autographed pictures of Candice Bergen, Tatum O’Neal (when she was young) and Ryan O’Neal.

My girlfriends from high school (Tam & Elise) and I went to the Hall & Oates concert when we were 17 or so and they (H & O) signed only one of our shirts (not sure why – too long ago). We were supposed to share the shirt (like the traveling pants, but it’s a shirt). I guess I wasn’t a good sharer or friend because I have it. Also, my sister might say the same thing about the autographed pics since Mom got them for us. Don’t worry everyone, I’m taking good care of our treasures! I swear!

#4 I was born in Waynesboro, VA and moved 5 times (5 different states) before I was 7. We moved to our final location when I was in first grade and I’ve never left. I still remember my new first grade teacher – Mrs. Burns (she was really mean).

#5 I’m a control freak and compulsive organizer (Bed, Bath & Beyond LOVES me) in my every day life (which you all know). BUT, when I go on vacation, don’t you dare try to impose a schedule or itinerary on me! Vacation Jenni likes to live life on the edge without a schedule. I don’t want to HAVE to be anywhere at anytime – let’s wing it!

#6 I LOVE daffodils, but I can’t find anyone in my life that will ever get me any (hint, hint). I guess I’ll have to buy them myself. Why are they my favorite flower? They remind me of my grandma Helen’s house (that no longer exists). Their wonderful smell takes me right there.

#7 I graduated 2nd in my class out of about 676 students. That year we had 5 Valedictorians – crazy, right? The shocking thing is that I’m not really that smart – just focused and determined. It was important to me to have straight As (my perfectionist tendencies). Now, as an adult, I’m not sure if all of the late nights studying really paid off.  I could have had a little more sleep and a little more fun and probably still ended up a math major at Ball State!

My favorite blogs? This is a really hard list to make (I apologize to those that I left out). The winners of The Irresistibly Sweet Blog Award are:

Writerly ~ This blog is by a friend of mine. I stumbled upon her blog when rifling through my FB feed. What I read was really interesting, funny, introspective, etc.  Her blog inspired me to start my own.

As the Actress said to the Bishop ~ Her descriptions of her casting calls and life in general are incredible, funny and entertaining. Her life is very different from mine. I get a kick out of peeking in on her life as she lets me!

Punch It In! ~ I really like this blog. It’s a compilation of rantings, writings, and stories from a 30-something Chicagoan. I like this perspective since I don’t hang out with many 30-somethings any longer! Her insights can be very thought-provoking and I like that.

Writing in the Margins ~ Her writing is just lovely and beautiful. I don’t know how else to say it. You just have to go to her blog and check it out.

Perpetually Peeved ~ She is just funny. There is no beating around the bush and she tells it like it is. This blog is a glimpse into suburban life with two daughters, a hubs and her mom.  It will make you smile. I promise.

40BlogSpot ~ I like this blog – it’s life through the perspective of a French woman living in England with her family. Her writing brings a smile to my face! 

Well there it is! Happy reading!

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Step Three is Painting the Kitchen from Hell

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Wednesday, as the contractors were putting in our countertops, I heard one of them say, “This is turning into the house from hell.”

I was afraid to go in and find out what was going on. Then one of the contractors told me that the countertops were taking longer than normal because my cabinets were 33 yrs old and warped. They were having trouble getting the countertops level. And, to add insult to injury, our hard wood floors have buckled in a few places also due to age which added to the leveling problem.

It’s hell getting old even for houses.

So, on Wednesday, the countertop guys were done at 5:00pm, the water was turned on by 5:00pm (thank goodness), the guy that hooks everything back up was done at 5:40pm and four 8th grade girls arrived at our house at 5:45pm. And, I started drinking my colonoscopy “cherry-flavored” sh*t at 6:00pm.

Instead of making dinner for the girls as planned, we ordered pizza and then Mike drove 4 giggly girls to the 8th grade dance. We were back on track.

Yesterday, we had the painters in at 8:30am to start painting, the plumber in at 9:00am to fix the broken main water valve and I had my doctor’s appointment from hell at 1:15pm.

The plumber discovered that our water main valve is so messed up that he didn’t have everything he needed to fix it – we rescheduled our appointment for next week.  We just have to hope that we aren’t in a situation where we need to shut the water off to the house (at least until June 1st). Keep your fingers crossed because at the rate we’re going anything is possible. 

Okay, for the big reveal on our kitchen:

Before

After

I haven’t had time to put our kitchen back in order, but what do you think? Much better, right?

I’m really glad we did it and I can’t wait to start cookin’ in my new space!

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Step Two is New Countertops & Tissues

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Classic Stone is here right now installing my new countertops – very exciting!

And, of course, there has already been a snag. I guess that happens when your house is 33 years old (Oh, to be 33 again!). Since I’m also getting new sinks, the water valves under the sink need to be turned off. No biggie.

Well, now it’s a biggie because, of course, the water valves are too old and don’t work anymore (when did that happen, I wonder?). They need replaced which the countertop dude is ready to do, but in order to do that, we need to turn the water off to the entire house.

Dude:  Ma’am (I hate that word now), where is the main water valve to the house?

Me (thinking): Hell. If. I. Know. 

I did take him to the spot in the basement where I thought it was. He turned the valve off and then ran the sink water and convinced himself that it wasn’t it. That was my best last guess*.  

Then,

Dude:  Ma’am, do you know where your breaker box is?

Me (sensing some condescension in his tone):  Yes, I know where the breaker box is.   [I’m not a complete idiot!]

I’m a little concerned about the main water valve being turned off. Not to be too personal, but I’ve got a colonoscopy scheduled for tomorrow and I have to start taking my prepping meds at 2pm.  For all of you that have had this test or know someone who has, you know that it’s very important to have running water the house once the consumption of the meds has begun! Now, more anxiety is creeping in. I need that like I need a hole in the head!

*BTW, I finally got through to the hubs via text and he confirmed my last best guess for the location of the main water valve (Ha! Take that!).

More later . . . . . . .

Today is not going well.  Apparently the main shut off valve in the house is not working properly (the water won’t shut off completely – it’s down to a trickle) and they have had to do heroic measures to get the sinks installed. However, the guy that comes in after the installation of the sinks and countertops to make sure we have functioning faucets and such told me that he can’t say for sure that we will have running water this evening because of this broken valve (he gingerly got it to turn off enough to allow installation of the sinks, but he can’t guarantee that it can withstand more turning to get the water back on). We won’t know for a couple of hours. He doesn’t want to turn the valve until the installation of all sinks and countertops has been completed.

I need to have running water tonight! I’ve got my test prep ordeal (arghhh!) and we are having a pre-party for my daughter’s 8th grade dance. I thought we would have countertops, sinks and most of all, running water by 6pm tonight.

The contractor did set me up with a plumber that is coming out tomorrow morning to completely replace our main water valve, but that doesn’t help me tonight.

Have I told you that I had to start a complete liquid diet this morning? Yep. I’m pretty much a starving, grumpy, panic-ridden middle-aged suburban housewife on the verge of tears in front of four workmen . . . . . . G-r-e-e-a-a-t!!!