Mom came and got the girls for a while today so I was able to get out in the yard and paint their jungle gym and other 2 pieces. They turned out really well, they look great and the kids just love them! I wanna be a kid in my yard!
Lisa took me to get some firewood this evening. We're going to go get some more tomorrow. Mom came with her and damned if she wasn't right there in the wood pile helping to load that truck. I love doing that. I love the smell of fresh cut wood. I love the fires in winter too. I think we're going to need about 8 more loads to have enough to do all winter. That seems like a lot to me, but we ran out last year before it got warm. It's a lot of work, but it's well worth it. Thanks, Lisa, Thanks, Mom, for helping!
Today I started thinking about getting the house decorated for Christmas. I like to get the lights out now so it's not so cold my hands stick to the gutters and shutters in December. I got out my old Elvis Christmas CD, and turned it on, the kids were dancing and enjoying the heck out of it, when the thought of Christmas without Dad went dancing through my mind.
Mom's not going to celebrate Christmas Eve at her house this year.. she said a change would do us good. I agree. We've not decided what we're going to do yet, but I'd really like to go away for the Holiday. Wouldn't it be nice to go to the beach for Christmas?
One thing I did decide to do here, is to go buy new Christmas lights, decorations, all blue. In memory of Dad - we're literally going to have a blue Christmas. Lisa liked the idea too, so she's going to do her house blue too, and we're going to go take down the Halloween things from his grave and do it in blue Christmas stuff in a day or so.
On Christmas day, Mom's going to send some balloons up in memory of Dad. That's a pretty cool idea too.. Sarah said she should put some lottery tickets in them.
I still can't believe Dad's gone. I just have the damnedest time accepting this ever was. Acceptance usually comes easy to me, always has, but this time, it's just not happening. The weekends are harder for me than the other days because that's mostly when I'd go to Mom's and spend time with Dad. So... that's where my mind is come Saturday evening and on Sundays. I really really think this part of the perfect plan isn't so very perfect at all. I really really think it just sucks.
Joel is spending the night tonight. He's still up and at it, doesn't seem the slightest bit sleepy, but keeps going on about how we're going to play in the park yard tomorrow. He really likes that slide. I really love that we don't ever have to go to a park again. YAY!! That alone is worth giving up my yard space to the kids! I got to where I absolutely hated going to the park, and the kids loved it so much I couldn't deny taking them.
Speaking of yard space, we moved our fence back about 8 feet so we'd have a place to park our cars without having to use the driveway. I figured we could do that much and not clog up the driveway though we have a right of way to, and a contract allowing us to park 2 vehicles in it. We just never did that, if we did, the neighbors wouldn't have a place to park.
At that time, the neighbor's visiting family were parking down the hill across the street at the park. It was a good arrangement, everyone had room to park, and turn around and it was nice. No bottlenecks. But then one of the neighbor's cars got scratched and somehow he charged the park owners for car repairs to a tune of over 2500 bucks, they had to pay him and didn't care for that, (I don't blame them) so they stopped letting them park down there.
Which meant.. they all pull up here now when they visit their Mom.. which is every day, and for a few of them, all day. Three of them pull up here in our yard and use our parking space. Which means the driveway is always bottlenecked. Dad couldn't come visit much because he could rarely get a parking space up here and wasn't able to walk from the bottom of the hill. I always resented that but never said anything to them.
Today though, I got angry enough to go say something. Lisa and Mom came up here to get me to go get the firewood and one of the nephews was parked up here, on my yard, his van sideways taking up a ton of space. He was standing there talking to his uncle, and Mom and Bon were out there, Mom asked him as she passed why he didn't park straight so other people could come up here. Lisa was waiting at the bottom of the hill. The guy.. UGHHHH, he got smart with her, told her to tell me and Dips to get a dozier and have some of the mountain taken out behind the house that we could park there.
I saw red. I was feeding Tristan when Bon and Mom came in to tell me what he said, and I handed him to Bonnie and I went out there on him. I don't even know his name, he's not a regular, just a once a week parker. Still, that was enough to set me off. I didn't walk, I stormed .. *laughs at herself* .. over to him and I pointed to his van and very firmly I told him (didn't ask, I told him!) You get your van out of my yard now so my sister can pull up here and park. He looked so shocked. He got smart with me, said well I can't go anywhere until she moves. I pointed to Lisa, and I know I had on Mikyla's thunder face, I called out loudly, Lisa, move your truck so he can get off of my yard! And I turned and stomped back into my house.
The nerve. Take out some of the mountain out back and we'd have a place to park. We would still have to get past his van to do that if we took ALL the mountain away from out back. If where he'd parked had been true driveway instead of our yard that'd be one thing, but the jerk was in my yard. When I looked 2 minutes later, he was gone. Ughhh!
I figure they'll either stop parking there altogether now, or they'll start blocking the drive so we will have a hell of a time getting in and out. We'll see.
Sarah and Roy are on their way here. More business Monday. Then they're heading straight back. They should be here in a few more hours.
Oh how sweet. All 4 kids are sleeping. That just happened while I was writing my parking rant. I love this time of night.
I better get now - though it's Sunday tomorrow, it's going to be an early day. G'nite, world!
Posted by juel at November 3, 2007 11:03 PM