…… it’s been almost two weeks since I’ve written a post.
What kind of writer am I?!! Other than a bad one. Or a neglectful one.
Thank you for your patience.
And grace.
I need a whole lotta grace.
🙂

So, let’s see …… when last you heard from me I was in Waco, helping out Daughter #2 get her house ready for foster children. I had intended to stay there for a couple of days …… you know, the Friday to Sunday kind of thing. Then on Sunday afternoon Daughter #2 said something about me maybe staying another day. I think I had just said something like, “It’s too bad I’m leaving today. I could get a lot of stuff done if I had more time.” So when she said that I should stay, I thought, “Why not?”, and so I did.
And boy, did I get a lot of stuff done!

The bedroom I slept in looked like this when I arrived:

There was a twin bed on the left side of the room, out of the view of the camera here. That’s where I slept.
On Monday, when she came home from work, it looked like this:

I had to disassemble the twin bed so that I could assemble the twin beds that she brought from home, which matched each other.
I put a bookcase together that we had purchased over the weekend. The plan was to put it into the closet. The best laid plans …… are probably accomplished by taking everything into account. Like how tall a bookcase should be if it’s going into a closet.
Something most people call “measurements”.
We took none.
And now the bookshelves are against a wall in the room rather than in the closet. They were a wee bit taller than we thought they were. This knowledge was obtained by eyeballing the picture on the box, not the actual bookcase.
Oh well.
It still looks good. It’s white and will hold a lot more toys and books than we thought.
Given that it’s about 7 feet tall.

She already had a bookcase in there, but it was black and very full to overflowing with her books. So I emptied it and moved it into her room. Then I organized all of her books and put them on the shelves.
Have I mentioned that I love to organize? No? Well, I do. A lot. I’ve even been paid for organizing a kitchen. I’d love to do it for a living, but I’m not sure how I’d start.
Anyway, I digress.
Kind of.

So I organized the bedroom and the closet (after I cleaned it out). We now have mattresses on the beds and new bedding on them. This room is child-ready.

After D2 came home from work, and liked the results (yay!), I said that it was too bad that I didn’t have time to get anything done in the third bedroom, which will be a nursery, if a nursery is needed.
So she said, “Why don’t you stay?” and I thought, “Why not?!” …… and so I did. We went out to eat, had a margarita, and then came home to watch the Emmys.
Unfortunately, D2 doesn’t have cable, or satellite ( I KNOW!!!) …… and the tuner/antenna she has, picked that night to not get NBC. Sigh.
So I went on line and set my DVR to record the Emmys and we watched stuff on Netflix. And I enjoyed another evening with her.

While she was at work the next day I ran some errands that needed to be done, did some laundry, cleaned the kitchen and then organized her paperwork/bills/craft area. I still didn’t get anything done in the other bedroom because dogs were in there most of the morning while we waited for a plumber to get there, and then leave.

These dogs are insane. Or actually, her dog is insane. She has a small dog and she’s been keeping Daughter #3’s dog (a black lab …… not so small) while she’s in NY. Her friend who lives in an apartment behind her also has a dog, so it stays with the other two during the day. They have crates in the bedroom.
When you walk into the room to get them, here’s what happens (again, the small dog (her’s) is the insane one:

See? How insane is it to jump like that and not realize that you could easily jump right out? He jumps like that All. Of. The. Time.
Seriously. He must be part springer spaniel.
Get it? Ha!!!

This dog also started growling one night, seemingly at no one or nothing. Then D2 figured out that a bust of Shakespeare, that I gave her a few weeks ago, was the culprit. It was in a corner of the living room and it seems that RG (the insane dog’s name) was not going to let Will sit comfortably. We’re not sure if someone forced him to sit through “King Lear”, or what, but he does NOT like that guy!

So other than having an insane dog, I think her house is ready for inspection. She’s already passed several, including one by the fire department, so I think she just has the final one to do.

If everyone had to pass these intense inspections before they were able to bring home a baby from the hospital, our hospitals would be overflowing with babies and toddlers. It’s amazing to see all of the hoops she’s had to jump through.
Now I just have to take a CPR class so that I’ll be allowed to babysit.
I doubt that the last one I took will count. I took it when I was pregnant with Daughter #1.
But it’s not like I forgot everything.
Although the thing that stands out the most is having to say, “Baby, baby …… are you ok?!!”, and trying not to laugh while Jim made faces at me.

OK, that’s it for now. I’m hoping to write about my trip to Chicago that occurred this past weekend. I had a great time.
Even if our hotel was full of hundreds of tiny little One Direction fans.
And their mothers.

Yikes!
🙂

P.S. I’d like to take a moment to brag. Did you notice that rug in the second video? D2 made it. She bought a very inexpensive beige rug, made templates for the design she wanted, and then used a Sharpie to draw it onto the rug.
Cute, huh?
She’s SO talented. 🙂