I am excited and nervous today because the repairs at my house have begun as of today. The sheetrockers are there now and they are tearing out ceilings and walls and putting up new rock. I am excited because they are going to take that horrible popcorn off the ceiling and orange peel it instead. Yahoo, I hate that crap! They started in my bathroom and bedroom, so that hopefully when I get home, I will still be able to use that part of the house. If not, I am going to a hotel or to stay with my Mom. Tom can stay there with the chaos. I can't take much more of it.

We went to a flooring store the other day, because we had to change companies because of the contractor pulling out on us. We were very fortunate to get the exact same ceramic tile that we had chosen at the other store. I was excited to get that. But we did have to choose different carpet. This carpet is really nice, but a little more costly that we wanted to spend. But hey, I am hoping it's the last I will need to buy. I just want it all over with, everything moved back into it's place, and life to settle down again.

We have less than 3 weeks before I retire, so we will be just just be getting finished by then I think. I may have to wait until I retire to get the carpet layers and the ceramic installers out there. I am not sure about that. One thing at a time Cindy, One thing at a time.

B is coming this weekend to paint, and by then all the rooms that need new ceilings will have been finished, so she should be able to get in there and get after it! I sure hope so. She is really being kind to offer to paint for me. I hate painting and she loves doing it so there you have it. Someone else told me they love to paint too, but I can't remember who it is. I wish I could because I would ask them to come help too. I will give moral support, cold drinks, snacks, dinner and anything else they want. I JUST DON'T WANT TO PAINT! NO, NOT ME, NO WAY!

Well, I may have to eat my words on that issue. Mom said she will do the walls, if I do the trim. BUT I DON'T WANT TO PAINT AT ALLLLLLLLLL! WHAAAAAAAA!

There is really no new news about Susan. She is trying to do her therapy, but they won't let her stand on her legs for at least 6 more weeks. I will keep you posted on that.

Here is something I was tagged for by my friend Renee

What's 'in my' stuff? and I also find it hard to pass up a good list, so here goes:

In my purse/wallet:-- Hmmmm......Do I really want you to know?

• Afrin Nasal Spray
• A cute little shiney Pink Alligator coin purse with plastic cards, but not many coins.
• my cell phone
• keys
• various junk papers
• a tube of lipstick I never use
• Avon Dew Kiss chap stick, I do use

In my Refrigerator:

• a small watermelon that has been there for weeks uncut.
• a bag of oranges also there for weeks.
• bagged shredded cheese
• homemade strawberry jam
• Skim milk (for me)
• Whole milk (for Tom)
  

In My Closet:

• Too many clothes (ditto for me here, Renee) A lot that don't fit
• Shoes I never wear (a lot of them)
• Suitcases (I am ready to pack one a GO)
• A box of all sized of batteries (for hurricane preparedness)
• a baskette of laundry to be done
  

In my Car:

• Empty boxes for my Mom for moving time
• A large First Aid kit
• A large road emergency kit
• CDs
• I just had my car vacuumed so the normal dust and dirt is not there right now.

Does anyone else want to share?...
Anne?...
Daisy?...
Markd60?...
Marc?

That means there are only 22 days left before graduation/retirement. I have not been to work in a few days. After all the moving and shaking this past weekend, my back has been giving me fits. It gets so that I can hardly move my legs to walk. YUCK!

Susan was moved to a rehab hospital on Monday. They are saying they will keep her there for 2 to 3 months. She will have to be able to stand on her feet before they will let her go home and they won't let her put any weight on her left leg or both feet for 8 to 12 weeks. THEN she can really get into rehab. Right now, she can't do anything for herself except feed herself. Here is a picture of her before her accident. I am trying to get a pic of her now to share too.

She had a really rough time when they moved her by ambulance from one hospital to another. Ambulance rides are NOT smooth. I don't know why they can't make them ride better since they are usually carrying injured or very ill patients. But who am I? They didn't ask me how to build those things.

Anyway, Susan has been down to the therapy room a couple of times a day since she has been in this hospital and it wears her down pretty badly. She has been doing her exercises like they ask her and the therapist is really impressed with Susan's determination. Like I have said before, she is not one to be kept down for long. She is a fighter just like her big(as in OLDER)sister (that would be me).

I will keep you posted as things progress.

After this past weekend, I finally feel like Tom and I have made a little headway. I felt like a lion tamer with a whip and a chair trying to keep Tom and Ashley moving and doing things together. It wore us all out, but as Tom said "it feels like a milestone has been passed now". Yes it does.

We cleaned EVERYthing out of 3 bedrooms and the office, pulled carpet up in two rooms and put it out by the road. I have lots of boxes to go through this week, because we have finally run out of storage room in the two 'half a train cars' that they have parked in my front yard.

These things are similar to PODS, but are Steel with wooden insides and are much more protective than PODS. AND they are cheaper than PODS. Anyway they are huge (10 x 10 x 20) and we have filled both of them up.

I am meeting some of my workers this week. Today I have a glass man coming to repair two broken windows that have been broken since over a year ago. Friday a cabinet man is coming to see what he can do with the warped cabinets. Next week, the sheet rock hangers (my son and his partner) will be starting on the demolition and then hanging new sheet rock.

I feel like things are beginning to move now and that I am not as stagnated as I was. I was beginning to think I would have to live on concrete for the rest of my days and it was/is driving me crazy.

I have fought battle after battle over this thing now. Even today, I called Waste Management to come pick up the carpet and padding 'trash' that we pulled out of the house yesterday. Now they will pick up refrigerators, washing machines, any kind of furniture, and other types of junk, but the woman says to me "Oh we consider that remodeling debris and we don't pick that up!" I immediately felt a hissy fit coming on! If I could have reached through the phone, I think I would have rung that lady's neck.

So I called the Parish President who put me in touch with another man that works for the Parish and handles Wast Management problems (since they are always give us problems and WE PAY FOR THIS SERVICE!). He said he would call Waste Management himself and make arrangements for the carpet to be picked up. Thank you. One battle won, or at least turned over to someone else to fight for me.

With all the battles I am fighting and with all the battlers coming at me from every direction, I have started feeling like I could turn into the Incredible Hulk at any moment. Someone is going to attack me just one too many times, and I won't be responsible for what will happen.

I am off now to see the Glass man, have a great day you all!

I think I need to start focusing on good things in my life because if I don't, I will going down the tubes right now. There has been a lot of shitty things happening in my life for almost a year now and I have had tunnel vision and have focused on how all the crap has made me feel. So here is some good stuff for me to look at instead.

First of all, the Termites:
The termite man came and looked at what we have. He said these are not the bad termites because these particular ones don't tunnel up from the ground and make little trails on the outside of the house, in fact, he found NO trails at all. Yeah! Instead these are call Dry Wood termites. He said they are sometimes dormant in wood from the mill, and sometimes they just come in on something you bring in from outside. They are usually localized to one little area and instead of eating 150 pounds of wood a year, these only eat about 3 pounds a year. Well, I felt better. ALSO, you can kill these Dry Wood termintes by using a common household bug killer or even soapy water. Sigh! I can do that. Now we do have to repair the window sill, but that's no biggy in the scheme of things. RELIEF!

Friends:
You know, I have so many friends and they all love and care about me and I them, but there are a few very special ones. One in particular who initials are PLC, called me yesterday after reading my blog and seeing what is going on in my life. She listened to me yell, and complain, and bitch and moan about things and supported me all the way. I did feel so much better when I got off the phone with her. Thank you PLC and you know who you are. You are one of my dearest friends and have been for a very long time. You are one of the most endearing people I know and have always been there when I needed a shoulder to cry on, someone to laugh with, or even to just sit with on the porch watching nature. And we both love homemade icecream! Thank you and I love you.

Another very special friend is BKS. We have known each other for over 30 years and have been very close most of those years. We have very different backgrounds, and live very different types of lives, but for some reason, we have always just been able to talk about anything. We have been through a lot of life's trials and tribulations together throughout the years; divorces, births, deaths, etc. But through it all, we have and will always remain friends.

And then there's KM and RM. We have only known each other for a short period of time, like 5 years, but I consider KM one of my closest and dearest friends. It seems I laugh a LOT when I am around her or talking to her on the phone. We live VERY far apart but are close in so many ways. I think if we lived near each other, we would be stuck together at the hip. I love you KM.

There are many others too, but there is not enough time, nor space here to write them all down. Special friends are hard to find, but I have found some of the best!

Family:
There are no words to express what my family means to me. Each and every one of them are special in each their own way. And the community we form is full of love for each other, help for each other, concern, support, and all of the other things that go along with a wonderful family.
Thank you ALL for making my life more special to me.

I am very tired as I didn't sleep well last night, but I only have to work a few hours this morning and then I am out and about running errands, so I can get home and STAY there for the weekend. I will be able to sleep late tomorrow then we have to finish getting everything out of the house, so my son can come in and start sheetrocking. I have decided now, what I am going to do about the house, and now there's no stopping me.

You people have a WONDERFUL day and a great weekend. I probably won't blog again until Monday.

How bout that! I just looked at the ticker above that says how long it is until retirement and it has changed itself to days now instead of weeks. COOL! 29 days!!!!!!!! 21 working days.

I have always said "graduation" instead of "retirement". My daughter is bringing me her cap from graduation so that I can wear it for MY graduation. I will wear it proudly. She said it still has the tassle on it, so I can actually move it from one side to the other when they give me my walking papers! LOL Oh, and just so you'll know, graduation gifts will be accepted. LOL

Things are not getting any better yet at home. I talked to the contractor this morning and I get the feeling he is just putting me off, but he said he will call me back today with some figures. If he doesn't, I think I am going to just starting hiring people to come in and do what needs to be done and be my own contractor. I am tired of all this crap and waiting and not getting anywhere. It really sucks.

Susan had a filter put in the vein in her leg yesterday to keep any blood clots from getting to her heart and lungs. I haven't heard anything negative, so I assume everything went fine. I will call when I get off from work to check on her.

Hope you are all well and fine these days. I think I will go read some blogs now. I need to catch back up.

Have a great day!

UPDATE: I just talked to that blasted contractor that was suppose to start working on my house and now he has backed out of the job saying he can't make any money on it. Now what do I do? I guess at this point, I am just going to have to hire sheetrock hangers and finishers myself and then go buy my carpet and tile from somewhere and use their people to lay it. I am soooooooooooooo angry about all this. I am sick and tired of living on concrete and I have had enough of this crap. I don't know what to do about all of this. I did let that guy have it on the phone when he told me he wasn't going to do the job afterall. I told him that I didn't appreciate the way he has strung me along for 6 weeks now when I could have been getting this crap done by someone else and that he was a terrible business man if that is they way he treats his customers. Then I hung up on him. What an asshole!!! UGGGGHGHGHGHGHGHGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hi everybody, My sister is doing well. She had more surgery on Monday that lasted about 6 1/2 hours. The doctors are having a very difficult time getting her pain under control. They are even giving her drugs stronger than Morphine. I didn't know there WAS stuff stronger than Morphine.

Even though Susan is in a LOT of pain, she is in good spirits. She says "I will walk again" and "I will not let this keep me down". She is grieving the loss of her little dog, but is also grateful for her own life having been spared. She knows she had many angels surrounding her when that accident happened. She is very fortunate.

The doctors are taking her back to surgery today to put a filter in the vein in her right leg to keep blood clots from passing into her heart and lungs. They are also giving her LOTS of blood thinners. The shots for that have to be given in the belly area.

I am very grateful to the Man upstairs that he spared her life and let us have her longer. She is a very giving person and has lots of friends and people who care about her.

Still waiting for contractors to contact me. Left message again today. I am getting very frustrated with this whole deal. I am about ready to just start hiring people to come in and do the work and be my own contractor. This waiting is getting very very very old now. I am also waiting for the mortgage company to send me back some of the money from the insurance check so we can do some of the stuff that WE can do. It seems everybody is waiting for somebody else. WHAAAAAAA!!!

Susan spent 6 hours in surgery today. They repaired her broken back during the first 4 hours and then worked on the femur in her left leg. They pinned it all together to stabilize it and she is now back in intensive care. She is in good spirits and is talking and responsive, even showing a bit of her humor.

Sunday or Monday they will go back in and try to do more repairs to her leg. Right now the rod is on the outside to stabilize it, but the next surgery will put the rod inside. The doctor said she is looking at about 3 months before she will be able to put any weight on her back or leg and then she will have LOTS of physical therapy.

I am just so grateful to know that she will recover and hopefully will be able to do most of what she has always done. She is not a couch potato type of person. She is always busy doing something. Well, not right now she isn't. She is lying flat of her back which she will be doing for a while.

In 35 days when I retire, I will be spending some time there with her while she recovers. I wish retirement was sooner, so I could help her more. With her being in another state, it's difficult for me to help much right now.

Please keep up the prayers. I know that is what has brought her through this far.

Life is..........somtimes I don't know how to describe how I feel. Lately life has been chaos for me and my family.

Yesterday, my sister, Susan, was in a terrible car accident. She was driving back from a camping trip pulling a boat. She had her two dogs, and her 3 cats in the truck with her. Her husband was following her pulling the camper behind him. A man came around a curve and hit Susan head-on. She is alive, but broken up everywhere. She has two broken ankles, her left leg is shattered (femur and tibia), back broken in 4 places, left arm is broken, tale bone is broken. She is in the University of South Alabama Trauma Hospital and in intensive care. She has had to have 4 pints of blood so far because her broken bones are bleeding inside her legs.

The boat broke away from the truck and it went down a ravine while her truck flipped over onto it's roof. Susan was pinned in the vehicle upside down for about 1 and 1/2 hours. She was wearing her seatbelt, thank God. Mike, her husband tried to get her out, but couldn't. The paramedics and rescue people had to cut her out of the car. Her Shitzu dog lived, but was also banged up a bit. He will be fine; but her little pomeranian died in the accident. Sassy was her name. She was a tiny little thing and just didn't have a chance as she was pinned in the vehicle too. The cats are fine; they were in a carrier.

Susan has no brain injury or internal organ injuries. Thank God again, for that. She will be having surgery tomorrow morning to fuse her back in the broken areas and they will try to stabilize her femur during that surgery. She will have to go back to surgery to have the rest of her leg and her ankles repaired. She is currently casted and in traction. Please say prayers for her speedy recovery.

On a lighter note, I have finally gotten a contractor to take on my house repairs, Mr. Adjuster seems to be cooperating, etc. Repairs should begin very soon.

Have a good day.