Momentary Freak-Outs

I am officially unemployed now so I have to do this at more creative times than before when I had 4 hours of early morning time at work to do it.  I am finding this morning that I will have to get up earlier than I did today because one of my peeves is someone reading what I'm typing over my shoulder, which is happening this morning as Gwyn got up before the other two.  Ah new challenges.
This past week went by too quick.  Jason was also technically unemployed because he had finished his last day at Volition but had not started at Firaxis.  He did get the bathroom finished!  It looks pretty good if I do say so myself.  It's not what we would have done to it for our own house to enjoy for a long time, but it is a vast improvement on what it was.  We had our burn party on Wednesday.  We had to burn some limbs and brush that we had collected so why not invite other people over to do it?  The boys of course had fun with the fire.  The wood was wet from a previous day's rain so they resorted to putting gasoline on it to get it started.  Why is this what always happens when boys get together around fire?

Thursday was spend boxing and packing.  We actually had our small group over at our house in the middle of all this.  They are such good sports!  We finally had our squirrel dinner.  I did make a pot roast, but we also had fried squirrel fritters.  They were quite yummy.  Everyone had to sit in camp chairs because we sold our couch, but it was all good.  Like I said, they are pretty good sports.  I think it's part of realizing as a group what is really important, and whether or not we have the usual couch and chairs doesn't change that.

Friday was a flurry activity.  We postponed the realtor coming to take pictures because Jason was leaving Saturday and we didn't want our last day to be spent killing ourselves to get ready for that.  So we hung out and he packed.  Then Saturday morning he was off.  The girls and I were sad and I was hanging in there until we all prayed before he left and I lost it.  Such is life.  If I didn't love him so much I wouldn't cry about him leaving so it's a good thing to have something worth crying about.

 

The girls and I didn't have long to think on being sad because a short while after Jason headed off, girl scouts arrived at our house to be taken to Wolf Creek.  Some of our troop was already there and had camped out Friday night, but as we didn't want to miss Jason's last day we opted to go down Saturday along with 2 other girls.  The group camp site there is awesome!  We were the only people out there and the site overlooks Lake Shelbyville.  It was very pretty.  The girls had a lot of fun climbing up and down the "cliffs" and exploring the beach.  When it got close to lunch time we all loaded up and headed over to do a 3 mi. trail before eating.  The trail needed some upkeep, but the girls had fun climbing over downed trees that covered the path. We ate a yummy lunch and I was introduced to the yumminess of white chocolate peanut butter.  There was a playground next to the picnic area we ate at, so naturally the girls wanted to play on that.  Us grownups just sat around and talked for quite a while.  Then we decided to move into the sunshine where I promptly laid down and fell asleep!  What a treat!  Lyla was super excited because they found a box turtle inside the playground area that apparently was trapped by the big plastic bumper around the area.  So we saved him and Lyla stalked him waiting to see him move.  Which probably kept him inside his shell and not moving because she is not the most gentle nor quiet animal lover.

Sunday we got up and got ready for church.  Gwyn was in charge of feeding the animals before we left.  Bless her heart.  She went to feed Ozzie (the guinea pig) and said, "Oh how cute!  He's still asleep!"  I immediately asked if he was really asleep and rushed to the cage.  No he was not just asleep.  He passed on.  Poor little thing.  Celee was just playing with him the day before and he acted alert and just like normal so I am hoping it was just old age.  I was told he was around 3 when we got him so I hope his last year he was loved on and taken care of before it was his time to go.  The girls were predictably sad.  I had to go out into the yard in my Sunday clothes (why did I choose this Sunday to wear stockings?) and dig a hole to give him a burial.  Ozzie was a good and sweet hairy pig and I'm glad he was part of our family for his short time.

After church and lunch we headed off to Rantoul for yet another Girl Scout event.  This one fit into my list of things to do before we move category too.  It was Girl Scout Day at Hardy's Reindeer Ranch and Corn Maze.  I love their corn maze every year!  It's big enough to take about an hour each time we've done it.  They hid 8 punches throughout the maze which is shaped in a theme each year.  We got 7 out of 8 before the girls gave up because we were all pretty tired by then.

We hurried home because I still had mounds to do before Monday afternoon when the realtor was coming.  The girls were a big help!  It makes me so proud that they really do pitch in and do real work.  We were all toting and cleaning and moving things around until quite late.  We all knew it had to be done that night too because we had co-op Monday morning and would be arriving back home at the exact time our realtor was coming.  My one big snafu was that Sunday I had gone around and filled all the nail holes with the plan to touch up the paint Sunday night.  When I went to get the paint out, the paint for the dining/computer rooms was spoiled.  I didn't know paint would do this, but when I opened the can, out came the foulest smell I have ever smelled in my life.  It was gag-worthy.  No amount of stirring was going to fix that, if it even could be stirred back into some sort of paint-like state.  Then I realized that there was no more paint for Gwyn and Celee's room.  Crap on a stick!  (That's a strong expletive for me)  I had a momentary freak out as I realized that any pictures of the house would have white splotches all over numerous walls in them!  I still had the Lowe's label for the downstairs and I scraped some paint off in the green room to attempt to match it in the morning.  So I dropped the girls off at co-op and ran to Lowe's.  The green I had scraped off wasn't big enough so I just had to eye-ball it to try to match it and pray it wasn't too far off.  With 2 quarts in hand I rushed home to cover the splotches.  As I began to paint the splotches in the dining room I realized that the paint didn't match.  It looked much lighter!  Double crap on a stick!  I had another momentary freak out as I contemplated how I was going to repaint the entire two rooms with my quart of paint before I had to leave to teach at co-op at 10am.  I began to paint one wall and by the time I was half-way through, I noticed that the paint was drying darker.  It was not a perfect match, but it certainly might be passable.  I finished painting the one wall and just went ahead painting the rest of the splotches and prayed for the paint to match when it was dry.  Hallelujah!  After-the-fact I will say that it is noticeable if I pointed it out to you or if bright light is shining on it, but it will do.  It has to because I'm out of momentary freak-outs.  The next one might be permanent.
So the pictures were taken.  Everything went well.  And someone already came to look at the house today.  A bunch of realtors are coming tomorrow to look at it. The girls got finished with school early today, even though we did an added science lesson.  I got to hang out and chat with a friend all afternoon. (Thanks Jenn!)  And due to me having my phone accidentally on silent, had to call up a friend for us to crash at her house this evening while the said people came to look at the house.  Thank heavens I had dinner in the crock pot and we had cleaned the house up again before we left after lunch, because I got the message people were coming about an hour before they came.  I grabbed the dog, cat, and crock pot and headed over to a very accommodating friend's house for dinner.  (Thanks Robin!)  Crazy times!  But good times!  I can't complain about someone wanting to see our house.  Every person who does is a potential person to buy it.  And wouldn't that be awesome to head off to Maryland at the end of the month knowing our house was sold.  I can hope and pray.