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January 4, 2004 Happy Anniversary, Sherry and Scott Mercurio! He is handsome, funny, smart and laughs at even my most stupid jokes (I don't require much). Sherry got a wonderful guy in the deal and it couldn't happen to a better person. Sherry is one of my dearest friends and I wouldn't sign her over to just anyone. Both of them are very, very good at choosing spouses. I admire their ease with one another and how well they fit. Great going, Mercurios. Do something fun today. Yesterday, as some of you know, was my first day of spending hours alone in my life. I was raised with my very loud, vocal and omnipresent family. I had Joe while I was still at home and then married Paul and went out into the world. From that point until yesterday (and that was in 1978), I have always had children at home, whether I was working or not. My times alone have been commutes to and from work, trips to the grocery store and things like that. When I am home, there was always someone with me with the exception of a scant couple of hours this summer when Eric took all of the kids to the river to play. Yesterday, I had seven hours to myself. Know what I did? Not a damned thing. I didn't even journal. I answered e-mails, napped a bit, watched TV, chatted on AIM to people and that was it. It was a celebration of my independence. It was glorious. We found out yesterday that (hurray!) the
appraiser is coming tomorrow. Skies are clear and we could see stars
last night, so with any luck, we won't have any more snow. The
forecast is getting brighter all the time. We actually have a bit of
sunshine for tomorrow. Of course, this same weather program says
that it's 17 degrees outside and it's 29 degrees according to my
thermometer, which is quite good.
All yesterday, the snow was melting off the trees and rooftop. I kept hearing these crashing sounds and immediately thought it was the kids screwing around, then remembered there were no kids here! (I am so institutionalized, evidently) It took me a while to figure out what it was and it was huge ice floes and snow drifts falling off the A frame roof and onto the porch. We ended up with about 30 inches of snowfall and big ol' drifts. Eric now parks at the very bottom of the driveway, not only because he can't get back up the driveway, but also because he can't get out once he gets up here. The flag is still up on our mailbox, so I don't know if the mail ladies are boycotting us because our mailbox is surrounded by (and at the moment, held up by) a giant wall of snow. They could easily (there are two of them in one car) stop the car, open the door and do the mail exchange, so I don't know if they aren't into that or if they just didn't make it here yesterday. The snow plow deposited quite a mound of snow along the roadways, so I can't imagine that ours is the only box that is snowbound. Mail is a highpoint of my day, so I miss it when it doesn't show up. The snow is still knee deep in the yard and driveway, so I'm not going outside except to get kids down to the bus stop (I'd pretty much carry them there on my head if I had to). I noticed that Eric left the dumpster halfway down the hill, so I expect he ran into trouble getting it to the curb (as in there is no longer a curb), so I'll try to work on that after the kids go. I also need to brave the snow sea to get wood for today and do a little chopping. The boys' teacher told me yesterday that she's taught up here for 8 years and only seen it like this 2-3 other times, so this is not the norm, which I was relieved to know. With a good bit of winter still in front of us, I was a little shaky about this whole snow deal. The literal sense of truly being "snowed in" was looming heavy when Eric didn't even seem able to get out of the driveway on Sunday in anticipation of going to work on Monday morning. I'm glad he worked on it then rather than leaving it until departure time on Monday or we would have been in trouble. During the holidays, a lot of general contractors just don't work, which leaves Eric unable to work which leaves Eric unable to get paid. His career field doesn't have any kind of vacation pay or leave. If you don't work, you just don't get paid. So the two weeks of the holidays really killed us. This is nothing compared to other challenges we've faced, so we aren't by any means crumpled or anything, just working with the process. With the appraiser coming tomorrow, we will be a step closer to having the refinance go through. When that happens, we will have the first real relief from financial distress that I think we've ever experienced in our marriage (for me in my LIFE). Paying off our debts will free up as much money a month as if I got a part time job, which will be just enough to take the sweat off the brow and let us relax a bit. For now, we make just enough money to cover the monthly expenses. If anything comes up, we're in trouble. With the refi, that won't be the case any more, so I am really putting a lot of eggs in that basket. With any luck, we'll know in a couple of weeks! Cross everything! So today will not be spent like yesterday, doing nothing and being all hedonistic while the kids are gone. Today, I will be cleaning like mad, zen cleaning in fact, being one with the house to see what it wants to have cleaned and making it glow and sparkle. It's a beautiful home and deserves to show off a bit. (Kelly tells me to bake something before the appraiser comes so she gets happy thoughts as soon as she walks in the door. Since I'm dieting, I don't have much around to pull together into baked goodies. What can I make?? Eeep!) Kids are out the door and after a little journal work, I'll be up and running. Still have to exercise for the day, but at least the first hour or two after they leave is mine. Word is that more bad weather is coming, set to hit Thursday or so. I'm doing my best to ward it off. I've had enough of this snow stuff for a while. When I took the kids out to the bus, I had to drag the trash cans to their curbside and the baseline snow is definitely up to my knees. Glad I got boots this weekend. That would have been uncomfortable in tennies. That's about all I have for now. Wish me luck on the refi. I'll be cleaning like mad today. Have a good week. Love, PS: I forgot to tell you about my cool dream last night! I woke up at 3:30, knowing the dream was about the refi. I was pregnant, full term, but my belly was so small that I was worried about the baby in a big way. Eric had to go somewhere and it ended up being just me and Delena around. We were watching TV together when I felt an urge to push. Pushed the baby out in one push, no pain and very little effort. Baby was a very big, healthy baby boy who opened his eyes and started nursing right away. I felt some contractions while he nursed and the placenta separated and was born, also effortlessly. There was even no blood, just a perfect little placenta on a perfect little cord attached to a perfect little baby. I always have birth dreams when a "new life" is coming. From this dream, I got: I am worried about the new life (baby) because of how things look now (small tummy), but baby is really fine and the "birth" will be quick, effortless and all will be well. :) Happy Happy. |
