46 posts tagged “stress”

Thumbs Down:

1. A woman looked at our house last week and just loved it.  She brought her husband to see it on Monday and he was very quiet except to say one of the bathroom's needed remodeling and they'd already done a lot of that on their current house.  Our realtor is hoping the woman just needed some time to talk her husband into it.  I'm afraid it was a woman who thought she needed a new house and her husband didn't. 
2. I was a crabby patty today.  It's not very often that I'm in a cranky mood all day but this was one of them.  Several little things that put me in the mood. 
3. My great uncle passed away.  He was my step grandpa's brother.  Grandpa died when I was 12 but he lived in town and I spent tons of time with him.  Out of his 3 brothers, this was the one I was closest to.  He and his wife have lived in AZ the past 10 years and had just moved back to MT to be closer to family.  I've made at least 3 trips to Billings and wanted to stop and see them but always had other things to do.  Now, I regret waiting.  I'd also like to go to his funeral tomorrow but it's not going to work out.  He has such a twinkle in his eye.

Thumbs Up:

1. We really are making good progress on the house.  We've started painting the basement even though we don't plan to totally finish the basement right away.  The tile is done in the foyer and Lily's bathroom floor and shower.  Ray's started hanging interior doors and putting on base trim so the carpet installer can come.  2/3 of the kitchen cabinets are done.  I need to get pictures of some of the lights Ray's installed because they are gorgeous!  We're very tentatively hoping to be in around the end of the month.  (No laughing, mom).
2. There's no school tomorrow so Ray's taking the boys hunting.  This will be Cody's first time going as an official "hunter" since passing Hunter's Safety.
3. The 1st quarter is done at school.  Cody really struggled the past few years but is finally taking school more seriously.  There is still room for improvement but he made the Honor Roll so we're very proud.  All his teachers had great things to say.  This is Jace's first year to receive letter grades and he earned all A's and B's.  He's also suddenly taken a huge interest in reading.  He's always hated reading but is now reading 300 page novels!!  Lily is also doing well.  All of the kids' teachers are very impressed with their transition into new schools.  It truly has been amazing and we couldn't have asked for the move to be any smoother.
4. Cody has started Middle School wrestling and his first tournament is Saturday.  Wrestling is such a different environment here.  In Jamestown, Cody was teased a lot for being a wrestler instead of playing hockey or basketball.  Here, wrestling is huge!  Last night, they had a photo shoot for their team poster!!  He's best friend here is also a wrestler and a super, nice kid.
5. Though the weather in October was awful, November is off to a gorgeous start.  It's even supposed to hit 60 tomorrow.

 

Yesterday morning, I suggested Ray back up our computer before moving it.  Last night, it crashed.  I was seriously stressing out since I have 3 years of pictures on it that weren't backed up aside from being on here and Shutterfly!  Thankfully, our BF's are both computer wizards so Ray was able to fix it with their help.  We got the pictures backed up and then it started acting weird again.  Apparently, we have several viruses because Ray let our Norton software lapse because we got the new Trend Micro software.  Too bad he didn't actually install the Trend Micro software.

We cancelled our contract with our current realtor who in 2 1/2 months never once gave a private showing of our house.  We're meeting with a new one tomorrow.

I thought our a/c wasn't working properly and when Ray went to check it, he discovered the water heater was leaking.  The good news is the a/c is fine but now we need a new water heater.  I guess better to have discovered it now then have it fail after we'd left.  I hope this is the end now.

Thumbs Down:

1. You know that cold I was complaining about 10 days ago?  Still here.  It's really weird because I have this loose cough but feel alright most of the time.  Then every few days, I start getting short of breath and need to have a breathing treatment.  Enough already!
2. Still no movement on our house.  I'm trying to decide what the next step should be.  We leave June 1 and will leave all the furniture since our new house won't be ready yet.  Our contract with the current realtor is up at the end of May so we're trying to decide if we should switch.  Aside from the 2 open houses, she has not shown the house once herself.  I'm wondering if we should paint over some of the purple, change the kitchen/dining flooring, get a new front door, lower the price, etc?
3. This afternoon is my last practice with the kids' choirs at church.  I wrote each of the kids a personal note and included some "I'm on God's team" tattoos.  We always conclude the year with a root beer float party.
4. I haven't updated on the flood lately mainly because nothing's changed.  The releases from the reservoirs are still at record levels and probably will be another 3 weeks.  The dikes and levees are holding.  Most of them are only made for 3 weeks and it'll be at least 2 months so I hope they can maintain.  The reservoir levels are finally dropping.  The biggest concern is the sewer system.  On an average day, 1.5 million gallons goes through it.  Since the flood started, the average is 6-7 million gallons per day.  For at least a week, 4 lift stations have been emptied into the river.  Yes, it is legal.  Apparently, with the amount of water in the river, the sewage is very diluted.  Regardless, I won't be going for a swim anytime soon.  Residents are being asked to conserve water.  (I've spent years trying to get the kids to always flush the toilet and now I'm telling them not to)!  I just hope the system doesn't fail before we're out of here! 

Thumbs Sideways:

1. 19 days until we leave.  We're at the point of lots of "lasts":  last choir practice, last day of confirmation, last hair appts, last massage, etc.  I've sent out most of our "change of address" updates.  Sad as all of these things are, I'm still excited about starting our new life back in MT.

Thumbs Up:

1. Progress on the new house is continuing.  The basement forms have taken a little longer than expected because of all the "jogs" the house has.  They hope to start pouring the walls today.
2. Ray mowed the lawn for the first time last night!
3. Friday, I'm making a quick trip to Fargo while the kids are at school.  I simply must have one more trip to The Children's Place before I'm forced to do all my shopping there online.
4. My aunt just sent these pictures from my grandpa's funeral reception. 
   

   Kids & Great Grandma

I am off to the Sugarland concert with some friends.  It will be a nice break from all the stressful things going on in life right now!

After my visit to the chiropractor today, I went over to some friends' houses to help them sandbag.  I know, not the smartest thing to do but it made me feel better (mentally).  Let me tell you, those things are HEAVY!!  After about an hour and a half, I could barely even lift my arms more or less a 10 lb. sandbag. 

You can see the river off to the right. The situation is more dire across the river.  You can see the giant dike in front of this house.

Ray took the boys to fill sandbags now.  The situation 30 miles east of us is not helping my mental state.  They're on another river system and have been fighting the flood for a good week.  They were winning against the water but had the entire sewer system collapse today.  It's a community of 7000 and they had already evacuated about 1/2 and now most of the rest half to leave.  They're putting up 400 porta potties!  There was no school this week, they've cancelled it next week, and it's possible they won't be able to return for the rest of the year.  Though our house is high and dry, the sewer issue would definitely affect us.

Ray & a friend fish a tournament on the reservoir 6 blocks from us every year.  It's already cancelled and it wasn't until the weekend before Memorial weekend!  The river levels are actually down a bit today because they've decreased the releases so the diking can be done.  After that, the releases will go up and eventually, both reservoirs will go over their spillways.  Let's hope those hold because 2 other small communities have had breaches in their dam once the water reached the spillways.  We've already been told to start conserving water.  I'm guessing we'll also have school cancelled once the water has reached the spillways.   

I finally heard our snow total for the year - 85 inches.  I think our record in 1997 was over 90 inches but the flooding this spring is going to be much worse.  We have a dam about 6 blocks from our house (we're above it so are safe) and another dam 5 miles out of town.  The two rivers meet in the center of town.  The maximum combined releases from the two dams is 1800 cfs (cubic feet per second).  We're at that level now and expecting to get to 4000 cfs!  Plus, they expect both dams to go over the spillways.  All of downtown including the kids' school is in the valley.  There's tons of sandbagging going on, dikes and levees being built, and the National Guard have arrived.  It's all a bit surreal.  The high school and college are closed today so students and staff can help sandbag. 

On our way home from MT Monday night, we drove through this on the interstate.  They closed it 2 hrs later.  There is no lake or river here, it's all overland flooding.  ND is extremely flat so overland flooding is a big problem.  It's like pouring a glass of water on a countertop and watching it spread out.

 

This is the dam near our house.  The spillway is the brown, concrete structure in the left.  You can see that the water is already getting very near the top.  The reservoir is already higher than we've ever seen it. 

A house with some sandbags near the river.

 

The water is already at the deck of this house.

Now remember, this is with a release of 1800 cfs.  That's going to be more than doubled.  I can't even comprehend what that will look like.

Add to this my grandpa not doing well at all in the hospital, trying to build a house, sell a house, and move, and I'm about at my breaking point. 

Friday night was the dual which is a team competition.  Jace was an alternate so didn't end up wrestling.  Cody won 3 of his 4 matches.  Our team took 4th out of 5.  Not the greatest but they got neat trophies so they were happy.   Kids are so easy to please :)

Saturday was the individual tournament.  Just like last year, it was held at a high school that is not large enough for a state tournament.  Again, just like last year, the boys wrestled at the same time on 2 different floors!  Cody had 9 people in his bracket.  He pinned his 1st opponent easily.  His next match was a tough one and he lost.  He was coming back in the 3rd period but just ran out of time.  He was struggling to breath when it was over and one of the guys working the table came over and said "It'll be at least 4 matches before you have to wrestle again.  We want to give you plenty of time to rest because if there had been 4 periods, you would've won that match.  You wrestle with a lot of heart and have a lot of talent".  I was so touched that he came over to say that to Cody.  I still tear up thinking about it!  That's not the first time Cody has been complimented on wrestling all the way to the end and never giving up even when he's behind.

This was about the time Jace finally got called to the mat.  We were running up and down the stairs trying not to miss anything.  Well, we both missed Jace's first match but he pinned the kid quickly.  Cody was up again and had another really tough match.  He lost by just a few points.  Back downstairs we went only to find out that we'd missed Jace again and this time he got pinned.  Ray decided to stay downstairs with Jace so I went back upstairs.  The boys matches started at the same time so I watched Cody in the match for 5th/6th place.  Jace got pinned again so Ray got to make it up to watch Cody win 5th place. 

Meanwhile, I am absolutely livid over missing every one of Jace's matches.  Jace had 16 in his bracket but we really thought he'd place.  This is the 1st year that he didn't.  We may have goofed up by not making him take off his clothes when he weighed so he could've been down a bracket.  However, there were 22 kids in that one and Jace hadn't even been scored on the previous 2 tournaments.  I truly feel not having us or a coach at 2 of his matches was detrimental.  I plan on writing a letter to the club that hosts this tournament begging them not to have it at that location again even though we will be in a different state next year!!  We host the State Freestyle tournament and have it at our civic center so everyone can see and are in the same spot!  Ugh, it still gets me ticked off just thinking about it!! 

Thankfully, kids are resilient and Jace took it well.  I think it bothers me more than him.  Not that he didn't place, but that he wrestled without any support.

Thumbs Down:

1. The cost of building this house is getting a little crazy aka scary.
2. Lily's attitude has been atrocious lately.  I dread every morning because of the fights.  I guess we'll see if being grounded every night helps improve things.
3. I found a summer picture of the front of our house (which is much more inviting that it currently looks) and had the realtor use it on their website.  I know I have a summer picture of my backyard somewhere but can't find it so just took one.  Doesn't it just make you want to move here?

And if that's not enticing enough I also took a shot looking down the street.  The snowbanks are almost as tall as me (and I've grown 1/4 inch).

Thumbs Up:

1. My house has never looked so perrrrty.
2. All the realtors in town toured the house this morning.  I guess there was good feedback.  Now, they need to bring in the buyers!
3. My roots are blonde again.
4. The temperature is above 31 and snow is melting.  PTL!
5. I bought a new sweater at the mall today.  Haven't tried it on yet.

Our house officially goes on sale today.  I swear I'm going to have an anxiety attack.  I was crazy cleaning windows last night and keep finding other things that need done.  Ray thinks I was abducted by aliens and replaced with a cleaning monster.  He better not get too used to it because I'm not staying like this forever!

Our realtor comes at 11 and then she'll return at 1 with all the other realtors to tour.  The idea of people critiquing my house just bothers me for some reason.  Hopefully, it will sell quickly enough that we don't have to keep it spotless too long but not too fast that we have to move out before the end of May.  We're not asking for much, are we?

Thumbs Down:

1. Sunday night after Cody's shower, he noticed a circular red patch on the top of his scalp.  He showed us and went to bed.  Then, Ray said I should probably research ringworm because he thought that's what the patch looked like.  It was still there yesterday morning so I made him an appt. after school.  First, we saw the NP.  She was completely baffled and didn't think it looked like ringworm.  She got the Ped. who was also very confused.  When they started to culture the area, some of the red came off.  I kept asking Cody if he'd had anything in his hair and then he burst out laughing.  When he'd spent the night at a friend's on Saturday, the friend had squirted red hair dye on top of his head.  When he took the shower, it must've come out of his hair but not off his scalp!  Everyone got a pretty good laugh about it and I told Cody he would get to pay for that Dr. appt.  Then, I called Ray to tell him his son had a serious case of AMNESIA!!!
2. The 4th day in a row with temps way below 0.  Thank goodness this is supposed to be the end of it!
3. Our annual church meeting on Sunday.  A budget 11% more than last year's was approved making me glad I won't be around for the whole year!  We had to withhold paychecks one weekend in 2008 so I don't know how they think they're going to manage this one. 
4. My new house designing software still has not arrived.

Thumbs Up:

1. Woman to Woman at church last night was amazing as always.  We tackled the subject of busyness.  Instead of just being "busy", we need to make sure we are "fruitful".  We watched some great video of Joyce Meyer's "Enjoying Everyday Life" TV show.  I set my Tivo to record it when I got home.  She's a hoot!
2. Catholic Schools Week.  I took Jace's class skating yesterday and will take Cody's today.  They also have different dress up days.  Yesterday was Twin's Day, today is PJ Day, tomorrow is Dress Up Day, Thursday is School Spirit Day, and Friday is Wacky Day.  Tonight is our annual Kindergarten Recruitment Social.  I've co-chaired the Recruitment Committee the past 3 years so it'll be sad that this is my last one.
3. Super Bowl is this Sunday!!  We are super excited!
4. It's so nice to finally be able to share our news about moving.  Of course, everyone here is very sad.  I can't wait to tell our friends back home who will just be happy but I have to wait one more week.
5. My new fluffy, white boots.  I'll try to post a picture one of these days.

A Good Laugh:

1. I'm so distracted that yesterday morning I grabbed a load of laundry to put in the washing machine and threw it in the garbage instead!!