Category: At the Moment

I did mention that I have a photo blog now, right? And the GOOD pictures? Are the ones that Kevin took. Because I suck.)

(Here’s the feed to that photo blog, if you’re interested.

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We’ve been talking about redoing our kitchen for … well, years. We’ve been watching kitchen renovation shows for … well, years. And we have a pretty good idea of what we want. The only thing stopping us?

It’s freaking expensive to renovate your kitchen!

As in $25,000 to $50,000 dollars expensive!! (Doesn’t that number just make your head spin? It makes my head blow up so much I actually have to push brain matter back into my ears).

So … we have wistfully dreamed of the day we might get rid of our dark 70’s-style cabinets and upgrade our old and ugly appliances.

But that day, my friends, is now.

We have enough money in our savings account that we can pay cash for our renovation AS LONG AS it’s not terribly expensive. As in terribly. So, for kicks and grins, we went to Lowe’s yesterday to salivate over their kitchen displays and to get a general ballpark figure on how much it would cost if we say, ENTERTAIN the thought of someone actually coming in and demolishing our cabinets and rebuilding us some pretty, classy cabinets. (We had been thinking of recovering them before).

So, we sat down with Bill and Bill asked us the dimensions of our kitchen and other various tedious questions and using his magic kitchen software, he put an estimate together for us. And just as he was about to tell us the magic number?

His computer crashed.

Oh no, Mr. Bill! Bill was not happy, to say the least.

So, we left to run some more errands and good ole Bill ran the whole scenario back through his program.

In the meantime, we ran to Harter House to grab some flank steak for fajitas (which were DEE-LISH, by the way, mainly because Kevin cooked them because HELLO? Remember? I only cook things that I can scrape out of a can) and started taking turns on freaking each other out about how much we thought this renovation would cost us. By the time we arrived back at Lowe’s, we had already half written off the whole idea because we were convinced it was going to be way out of our budget.

We sat back down at Bill’s desk and awaited our verdict.

He had printed off various graphs and charts showing us the dimensions of our kitchen and began talking about various options (do we want someone else to do the demo for an extra $300? Oh heck yes, so worth the money for not having to do it ourselves), do we want any special drawers, do we want trim, do we want an arch above our sink … etc.

After answering all of those questions and picturing a slot machine with dollar signs spinning crazily out of control, we waited to hear how much it was going to cost us.

(I got tickled at Kevin because he was literally sweating. He had to grab a brochure and fan himself he was so nervous about the price! HA! Me? I just sat there and told myself that there was no way in Hades I was going to spend $30,000 on ONE room of our house. No. Freaking. Way. So I wasn’t too nervous, I was more resigned to it not happening, quite frankly).

When Bill finally pushed our paperwork across the desk to us with the estimated dollar amount, we stared. And were dismayed. And a glimmer of hope actually burst in my chest like the grand finale at a 4th of July show.

It was less than half of what we were expecting to hear.

And before I could properly absorb that fact, Bill asked us if we wanted to pay $75 to have the guy come out to our house to get exact measurements and Kevin immediately said, “Let’s do it.”

So, we left Lowe’s yesterday seriously considering the possibility of doing this. And by the time the guy came to our house at 9:00 this morning? We decided that it’s a done deal – we’re doing it.

I still can’t believe this is happening. We’ve been talking about doing this for so long that it sort of morphed into this impossible dream – only it’s not so impossible anymore.

Kevin and I decided we wanted a built-in trash bin, that we wanted this wedge door above the cabinets at the sinks were we can store our sponges and dish brushes, that we wanted to put in two glass doors, on either side of the sink, that we wanted two, smaller cabinets above the sink, under the cabinet lighting and a bookcase at the end of our bar to store our cookbooks, a built-in microwave above our range, and quartz counter tops.

Our cabinets will be a little larger than they are now, which means we’ll have to tear out our tile floor to accommodate the different size, but we were going to change the floor anyway – that’s not a big deal.

We’re leaning toward the Hickory spice color along with the Cathedral shaped door panels and the Sapparo counter tops (scroll down and click enlarge to see counter top pattern up close).

The next step is to go back and talk to Bill and iron out the specifics. Once that’s done, we’ll start making appointments and planning on having our kitchen totally demolished. Since Kevin made the counter tops that we’re currently using, the cabinet guy said we should be able to temporarily re-use those until our new counter tops come in (which takes a few weeks! Ack!). In the meantime, we should be able to plug in our stove/microwave and cook meals like usual. I hope so. I would hate to think we would have to eat out every night for weeks until this project is completed. Ugh.

We’re pretty excited about this. We know that it will likely end up costing more than the original estimate, but it still should be well below our “worse” case scenario. I hope.

I’ll be sure to take some before and after pictures and ya’ll can be sure you’ll hear more about the progress as we go along. Remember, our house was built in the 70’s – this renovation is LONG over due, trust me.

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I had this hair-brained scheme to sell my books on Amazon. I had been giving them away and Kevin mentioned something about a co-worker buying an Amazon book store from a local gal and that got the wheels to turning. So … the boys and Kevin went up into the attic and pulled out … are you ready for this?!

SEVENTEEN boxes of books!! Seventeen, as in ONE SEVEN. Isn’t that crazy?! That doesn’t even include the THREE boxes I have in the garage AND in my bookcase!!!

Wow. I knew I had a lot of books, but … wow.

However, we discovered that about four of those boxes are old textbooks (why Kevin and I kept our old textbooks from college is beyond me) that we will likely just throw away. I did list about a dozen of them on Amazon, they’re in great shape, but old, so who knows if anyone will want them, but we’ll see if we can’t get some money for them first before tossing them.

So, in the meantime, my desk is surrounded by books:

I’ve already inputted one box full at this point, I’ll work on getting the rest of them inputted over this next week. If I had to estimate, I’d say I will likely end up with about 800 books in my store.

You can find my store here: KAREN’S BOOK KORNER.

I’m also going to work on making it “pretty.” Hopefully.

So … if you’re in the need of a cheap book, visit my bookstore! You’ll get a good deal, trust me. 😀

I love these random posts because it gives me an excuse to pull out my short attention span, check for holes, mold, rust or any other strange foreign object that does not belong there, hang it on the line, allow it air out and smell nice and then stuff it back in that huge black hole between my ears.

The first semester ended today. Both boys are elated; I must say, I’m pretty jazzed about it, too. If what the boys are telling me is correct, they think they did pretty well on their final exams so hopefully there won’t be any unpleasant surprises on their grade cards. I do NOT like unpleasant grade card surprises.

We now have a four-day weekend ahead of us. Well, the boys have a four-day weekend, I will be working. In fact, I have a lot of catching up to do. But I’m looking forward to not having to stress over whether the boys are on top of their homework or if they’re spending enough time studying for their tests. I can turn that particular thought burner to the off position.

I took the boys in to get their hair cut today after school. I took them to Too Hotties and though the girls do a fine job of cutting their hair (we’ve gotten used to the fact that they all run around in uber tight clothing and shorty-shorts), they are expensive. I just spent $40.00 for both of them. That includes a $6 tip ($3 for each girl). I think that’s a MITE too expensive for a simple trim. And by the way, if you don’t tip the girls? There’s a sign that CLEARLY states: DO NOT COME BACK. They take their tips very seriously. I have a feeling we will be looking for a cheaper stylist. But I don’t know, you get what you pay for and I have to admit, they DO a good job so ….

This is the last week that Kevin’s fellow accountants will be working with him. Their last day is tomorrow. He is now the LAST person in the office. His boss will be taking a vacation in the next few weeks so he’ll literally be there, by himself, all day. They have the office leased out until March so Kevin will continue to use the space until then. I’m thinking of packing up my work and claiming one of the vacant offices to 1. give me someplace new and fun to work and 2. to keep him company. Poor guy.

Jazz had to play at a basketball game Tuesday night. That was the first high school basketball game that Kevin and I have gone to. I was disappointed to see there wasn’t that many people there. Our guys were good and they creamed their opponent – both the junior varsity team and the varsity team. The band director splits up the band into two groups – this happened to be Jazz’s group’s turn to play. The band sounded sluggish, but overall, not bad. They played “Crazy Train” by Ozzy Osbourne and the audience really enjoyed that. I found out after the game that the kids hadn’t practiced the songs they played, which explains the sluggishness.

We are seriously looking at the possibility of taking another cruise this summer (Eastern Caribbean this time). We (and when I saw “we” I really mean Kevin) are carefully analyzing our finances to see if we can swing it. This is going to be a pretty busy year for us as we also want to re-do our kitchen – with the labor coming from Kevin, myself, and the boys to save on money. We also want to put in some hardwood floors and quite honestly, I’m not sure we can, or even SHOULD, think about going on a cruise with Kevin’s job situation up in the air right now. Of course, I will be getting a job to help out (most likely after our summer vacation because who’s going to want to hire me when I have to say, “Oh, by the way, I need a week off in July.”) and that will help our finance situation. We’re going to start shopping around this weekend and weigh our options. If we find a good deal, we may just go for it. We have enough points to cash in for four airline tickets, so that right there saves us about $2,000. We’ll see.

I think I’m more excited about the boys’ second semester classes than they are. Here I’ll list them (because I know grandma is at least interested):

Jazz
English
Geometry
Intermediate Band
Jazz Band

Dude
Liberty and Law
English III
Biology
Computer Applications

I had to laugh because Dude had originally been scheduled for a Relationship class and he about died when he found out. The Relationship class consists of learning about getting along with people and there is role playing involved. Though I think it might have actually been a good class for Dude to have, in the end, we emailed his counselor and got it changed to Computer Applications, which is a much better fit. This is one step closer to the website design class and he really acts like he’s interested in learning more about that. Wouldn’t that be something if he went into that field? Then we really WOULD have a lot to talk about and heck, the kid could teach ME a thing or two. Actually, he already does. I’m really looking forward to seeing some jazz band performances. I know, from year’s past, they do some pretty incredible things and I know Jazz is looking forward to the competitions and trips as well. I’m so glad that our school is set up on the four block program – the kids have an opportunity to take classes that their interested in, which keeps them interested in school, which keeps them IN school and makes the whole school experience much more enjoyable – for ALL parties involved.

Did I mention I have a photo blog?

I woke up this morning with a start. What was that annoying beeping sound?

Oh. My alarm. I hadn’t recognized it because I haven’t had to use it for the past ten days.

I sat up, stretched, yawned and them remembered – we got snow.

A lot of snow. As in, over four inches of snow.

The roads were covered. The roads were hard to drive on.

Did this mean school would be canceled today?

I threw back the covers and headed toward my computer. I switched it on and went to make myself a cup of coffee. I heard my computer’s Windows start up jingle play as I poured half a bag of sugar into my bitter, now sweet, brew. (Okay, maybe not half a bag – more like a fourth of a bag. Stop splitting hairs).

I opened up a Firefox browser window and took a sip of my steaming hot brew.

My window was taking much too long to load, so I got up and went over to open the shades in my husband’s office. This would allow me to gaze outside from my computer chair.

I sat back down, cupped my mug between my cold palms once more and stared out into the darkness – would the kids be out of school today?

Kevin and I had gone grocery shopping yesterday and the roads hadn’t seemed that bad. But then again, we were in a 4×4 pick up truck – nothing really seems insurmountable when you’re in a pick up truck.

But we did see a few cars that had slid off the road and were parked on the side at awkward angles. They were dark and abandoned.

I heard that our side of town, the south side, actually got more than the north side of town.

Naturally.

I took a sip of my coffee and turned my attention back to my computer.

I’m usually the last person who wishes school to be out. After all, that’s one more day closer to having to extend the bloody school year and THAT is not something I’m keen to do – at all.

But … the temperatures were frigid (it was a balmy SIX degrees this morning) and I got to thinking about all of those poor children who would be forced to stand out in frigid weather while waiting for their buses. And all of the traffic jams and likely accidents due to our hazardous roads and I soon convinced myself that there would simply be no way that school would be in session today.

I took a few moments to focus on the Google logo before I immediately clicked over to the school district’s website to see if I would be braving the elements to take the kids to school.

The first thing that caught my attention when the site loaded was this big, yellow box that clearly stated: “Springfield Public Schools ARE IN SESSION for Monday, January 4, 2010.”

Crap, I muttered. (Actually, I think I muttered something different, something more along the lines of excrement, but not nearly as nice).

I suddenly dreaded waking the boys up. Though they have long since given up HOPING that school would be canceled (it really takes an act of God to close them), I know they still harbored that small sliver.

Alas. It was not meant to be.

Part of me was relieved – we didn’t have to use up a snow day. Part of me was annoyed – didn’t they realize how freaking INCONVENIENT it was going to be for so many people?

But real life is, well, real.

I woke the boys up.

They were sluggish, grumpy, but not really surprised, I think. They went about their morning routine and I went out at 7:10 to warm my car up knowing full well that as cold as it was, it STILL wouldn’t be warm enough by the time 7:25 came around and it was time for us to leave.

However, my knight in shining armor came to my rescue. Kevin offered to take the boys in his truck.

I declined. And the reason I declined was because the last time we had inclement weather and he offered to take the boys, I agreed. Only the boys didn’t get ready fast enough for him and he got really annoyed, and that irritated me because would it KILL the man to alter his schedule even five minutes and we ended up getting into an argument that bled over into the evening and I really didn’t want to go through that again.

But Kevin insisted. Now that his job is coming to an end, he’s a lot more relaxed about the time he arrives at work.

The world will now NOT come to an end if he shows up at 8:02.

He took the boys. And I puttered around, somewhat lost, because my own routine had been broken and it was WEIRD not taking having to take the boys since I’ve done it for the past 12 years and will continue to do it for the next three.

The time for school arrived and I began to fret. Did they make it okay? They didn’t have any problems, did they? Was Jazz able to get out of Kevin’s (extended cab) truck okay with his saxophone case? I suddenly had visions of him tumbling out of the truck, landing on his face and the saxophone case crushing his legs.

Yes. I really do think like this. It’s the curse of an over active imagination.

I forced myself to calm down. Nothing happened. Everything was fine.

And then I heard an ambulance siren. Which is really weird to hear in a snow-covered, muffled world.

And then our local newspaper, who I follow on Twitter, tweeted about an accident on the highway.

So, I called Kevin on his cell phone.

It went to voice mail. It never goes to voice mail because if Kevin can answer, he will. He’s really good about that.

So, I started thinking, “Great. He must not be able to answer his phone.” And on the tail of that thought came another, “He’s lying in the road, bleeding to death and the kids are watching, feeling helpless and will be scarred for the rest of their lives.”

I called his office. No answer.

I emailed him.

Nothing.

Finally, after fifteen minutes of running even more horrific scenes through my head, one after the other, Kevin emails me.

Will call you,,, in meeting

Well thank God, the man was alive.

My husband knows me. He knows I worry and he made the effort to send that email even though he was in the middle of a meeting.

You can see why I adore him.

He called me a short time later – all was well. He got the kids off to school without incident and though he saw a few cars off the side of the road on his way to work, he didn’t have any problems.

My family was safe. I could breathe.

The boys are at their cousins’ house playing games, laughing themselves silly and drinking copious amounts of soda.

They’re having fun and I’m glad.

But I miss them.

*****

Kevin got a really strange call from his company’s alarm provider. It was enough for him to fairly sprint to the bedroom, change from his comfy sweats to jeans and then high tail it out to his truck. I fretted and worried about him on Twitter and was just about to call him, when I heard the garage door open.

Meeting him at the door, I learned that though his office was okay, the building did indeed have some smoke pouring out of it, but at the opposite end of the building. Fire trucks were already there when he arrived and they walked through his office to make sure everything was okay.

Kevin has had to field several late night alarm calls over the years and though he’s left to physically check on the office, all of them turned out to be false alarms. What was different about this call was the call itself. The operator didn’t say, “there is an alarm,” but rather “there is a fire and the fire trucks are already there.” That slight difference was enough to throw Kevin into full-scale alarm mode. Which in turn freaked me out because he’s usually so calm when these things happen.

It all ended well, but it was still pretty creepy.

*****

We have a really busy day ahead of us tomorrow. I have to pick the boys up from their cousins’ house pretty early so they can get home, shower and rest up so we can go over to my mom and dad’s house for our Christmas get together (our weather didn’t cooperate on Christmas day). We’ll likely be there all afternoon.

Then, tomorrow night, we’re going over to my sister-in-law’s to play “Settlers of Catan.” The boys will play pool or the Wii with yet more cousins.

I wager they are going to be exhausted by the time we get home tomorrow night.

*****

I started a photo blog. It’s all Jen’s fault. She’s participating in Project 365 and started a photo blog so she can post her photos and I thought, “why not?”

And I did the same. I will give ya’ll the link to the photo blog January 1st.

I actually tried to do this at the beginning of 2009 and got all the way to March before I fizzled out. I now know that the ONLY way I’ll be able to pull this off is if I

A. get in the HABIT of taking my camera with me everywhere and then USING it

and B. if I train myself to LOOK for photo opportunities – even in the most mundane of things.

I can’t promise mind-blowing photos, but it should be fun, nonetheless.

*****

I now know, without a shadow of a doubt, that I’m a full-fledged idiot. For those that don’t know, I got a DS for Christmas and I’ve been playing “Professor Layton and the Curious Village”. It’s a mystery game slash puzzle game and the puzzles are totally kicking my a$$.

I mean, TOTALLY. I mean, SO BADLY that I’m having to cheat in order to even MOVE PAST the darn thing.

It’s quite embarrassing to admit that I am indeed STUPID.

But I’m having fun (as long as I can eventually cheat my way through it!)

*****

I”m writing my 2010 Anti-Resolution / Goals posts. I looked over my list from last year and I’ll post my thoughts on THAT soon.

*****

I need to take our Christmas tree down.

*sad face*

At this moment …

The boys’ high school has a supply of the H1N1 flu vaccine and is likely shooting the kids up with poison as we speak.

The school district requires parents to give written permission in order to allow their children to get the vaccination.

No. I will not be giving my boys permission to receive the vaccine.

No. We have never, and will likely never, line up to get a flu shot of any kind.

No. We are not in a high-risk category. We rarely get sick. And if we get sick this go-around, we’ll ride it out.

It’s the flu.

Yes. I realize it’s a pandemic. But here’s how I see it: if this was a life-crippling disease (and yes, I realize that people have died from this flu and have died from other flu strands, but I’m talking about something as serious as small pox or anything else that can alter quality of life), and tens of thousands of people were dying from it world-wide (like in the Black Plaque days), as opposed to the few hundreds that have died (in the U.S.), and statistically die, from the flu each year, then yes, I would seriously consider vaccinating my family.

But when you compare the number of people who have died from the H1N1 flu (and there is some debate that these people actually died from the H1N1 strand specifically) worldwide and compare that to the MILLIONS of people who live on this planet overall and the few thousand that have died is roughly the same number every year of people who die from some flu strand, it doesn’t seem to warrant the panic it has stirred up.

Please understand that I’m not making light of those that have died from the flu. Or the ones who have gotten deathly ill from the flu or any other sickness. But I have a natural suspicion of something, anything, that the government, a company, or anyone else, for that matter, tells me is ESSENTIAL to my overall health. That if I don’t take it, I will likely get very sick and/or die.

There is a part of me that stands back and looks at the situation in a calm, and rational matter and my gut instinct is to question the paranoia and the panic, weigh the facts (as opposed to listening to the lame-stream media) and then make an educated decision for my family.

And my educated decision is to reject it at this time.

No. I am not downplaying the H1N1 flu. I’m sure it is, and has been, a terrible thing to endure for some people, but it’s the flu. And it’s hard to jump on the vaccine bandwagon when I read some physicians vehemently endorse getting the vaccine and other physicians vehemently reject the vaccine. If our health care officials are this divided on this vaccine, then that in itself is a red flag to me and deserves a closer look.

And as of now, I’m saying no to the vaccine. If we get the H1N1 flu, or any flu, for that matter, we’ll deal with it.