Fall into puppy love.

Autumn has long been my favorite season.

I love everything about it. The cool nip in the air, the changing leaves, harvest festivals, fairs, blustery days, and the beginning of the holiday season. 

My babies seem to like it too. 

 

This is Penelope.  She's our 8 year old great pyrenees rescue puppy.  Calm, quiet, docile and laaaazy.  But she does look very pretty in the leaves.

 

 And this happy boy is Coach.  He's ours as of a month or so ago.  He used to be my brother's dog but due to some... domestic issues... Coach had to relocate.  He's been doing great with us.  He's about 10 years old and is a golden retriever.  His favorite past times include playing with a tennis ball and humping his pillow.  He's my happy old man :)

A little less magic every year.

This weekend was full of emotional lows.  Get low, get low, low, low.  I wont delve into the nitty gritty details.  Good news is I'm feeling slightly better after three days of ridiculousness.

Bad news is that the reason I'm feeling better is that I'm filled with anger.  Anger is easier to deal with than sadness any day.  Not surprisingly my anger is directed towards my lovely MIL.  

Close friends will remember the drama after my father died and the roller coaster of holiday related passive aggressive behavior the year after.  It seems that absolutely nothing has changed and the world must still seemingly orbit around her. 

I'll hit the bullet points if you don't know what I'm talking about.

• 2009 Dad has cancer.  Enters hospice.  MIL needs hysterectomy.  Her surgery same day as Dad's passing.  DH had to leave deathbed to sit in waiting room for hysterectomy to support MIL.  MIL still complains family wasn't supportive during HER tough time.  (No, I still haven't gotten over it.)
• 2009 Christmas.  Brother overseas for holidays.  First year without Dad.  Most of extended family in California, invite mother to CT for Christmas.  Plan to host Christmas at apartment so Mom and I will be kept busy.  Discuss with MIL in November.  She agrees and seems supportive.  
• 24 hours later MIL calls DH and claims we stole her favorite holiday, went behind her back and that we don't care that she had a rough year.  (MIL mind= hysterectomy > dead father)
• MIL completely unwilling to compromise.  States she will have Christmas alone if we do not agree to come to her house as same time as usual.  Still no reference to my mother's being in CT or her prior willingness to share.  Eventually 'compromise'  that we can have late dinner and she'll do early lunch Christmas day.
• Christmas Day: MIL 'lunch' happens at 3pm.  *rage*
• New years to date: Minimal contact with MIL.  DH visits alone for most for events and I work most holidays.  MIL laments that 'no one ever visits anymore.'  Truth in fact.

We spent last years Thanksgiving (I left early for work) and Christmas (was supposed to be at work but got the day off last minute) at her house crammed into her tiny kitchen doing all the work for her.  Of course no one is allowed to bring anything to holiday dinners, but SIL and I are expected to show up and do her bidding.  Especially ironic when SIL is expected to finish making food that she cannot eat (gluten allergy) and I'm expected to prepare food I wont eat (pepperoni.) Then we must thank MIL for having us and tell her how delicious everything is.  (Note: Dear MIL, turkey should NEVER come out of a microwave. I never knew something with the consistency of a pencil eraser could be so dry.)

Which brings us to this year.  The year after we bought a big new house, with a huge dining room table and a big kitchen.  Once again my brother will be overseas and once again I crave the distraction of hosting friends and family at my house.  October comes and DH discussed Christmas with MIL.  

It's like talking to a wall.

"Christmas is my favorite holiday."  Really?? You must be the only one with that feeling.  It's not like I gave up my family to move to a different state to be with your son or anything.  (I love my husband but yes, I do still get very bitter about this.)  I shouldn't expect to get to see them every year, that's just ridiculous. 

"It's the only time people visit anymore."  Did it ever occur to you that the reason no one visits anymore is because you act like a raging thunder@#nt so often that we just can't bear to be around you?!  Remember how before this all happened your we got dinner together every week or two?  That was because of ME not wanting to take your baby from you, not because he was dying to see you.


Christmas when I grew up was a time to be with family.  ALL family.  We rotated holidays among the grandparents and siblings to everyone got a turn and everyone compromised to make it so that we could SEE each other and spend time together.  Being around such a self centered individual makes me not even want to celebrate the holiday.  I'd rather volunteer to work than be embroiled in the MIL family circus.  It's the only way I feel that my DH doesn't feel forced to choose.  When it becomes our family Christmas vs MIL's Christmas he is stuck in the middle.  I can't force my husband to not see his mother.  So once again I'll take myself out of the picture.  Another holiday lost.  Seems like the magic is gone from this one anyway.  

Marathon Nursing...

Before I was a nurse I would have thought that 60 hours in 6 days is a long week but no biggie.  Having just come to the end of that 60 hours I can tell you that I am thoroughly exhausted.  My feet hurt, my shoulder hurts, and I've had a headache for the last three days.

Over the last 72 hours I've been screamed at, shoved, pinched, elbowed and peed on.  We had one patient in 4 point leather locked restraints and another patient who tackled the staff 2 separate times, dowsed their sitter in a pitcher of water, threw their food tray at us, threatened us, faked a 'seizure' and threw themselves on the floor claiming they had 'fallen' and that we made them do it.

We had patients who were wannabe hero's, obsessive compulsive control freaks, drama queens, uncontrolled schizophrenics, rich b*tch diva's and also some of the most inspiring people I've ever known.

My co-workers this weekend were phenomenal.  The floor was hell on earth and basically everything but a full out code happened.  But even with crazy patients and belligerent visitors and no breaks we had each others backs.  No one was left to fend for themselves and we pulled together.  I've never felt so proud of my unit before.  

Today we sent home a few patients who'd been around quite a while by a surgical floors standpoint.  Some of those discharges had us doing cartwheels down the halls and some of them we had to hug twice before letting them go.  A smile and a thank you goes a very long way to a worn out nurse.

We know when you are hurting and we can tell when your scared.  I wish we had the answers you wanted and could always tell you everything was going to be alright. We can't take away the pain completely but will bend over backwards to get you whatever relief is available.  We can't take away your fears but will hold your hand and make you laugh and explain all the doctor-jargon so you understand.  We won't always give you everything you want, but I promise we're doing everything we can to make sure you have the care you need.  Try not to be upset with us when we are frustrated that  you worry more about your meal tray than your meds*.

We're your nurses.  It's our jobs and our duty and our calling to help you in your time of need.  

For the last few days I was your nurse. I'm tired and it's time rub loose those tight shoulder muscles, snuggle with my husband and my furry babies, and get to bed.  

No worries though, the next nurse is just around the corner to take up the reins.  See you in 24.



*In healthcare you'd be surprised to find out how often patient's prioritize customer service over medical care.  It's incredibly aggravating. 

Bathroom Dilemma

Alright, y'all.  Our bathroom currently looks a bit like this: 

I know... not a lot of progress since yesterday.  Things take time when you are a DIY novice! 

We're leaving the mirror up since it is the only light source in the room and our new fixture is not going to use the same wire locations.  Since we're planning on doing accent tile up that wall anyway we wont be painting or doing anything else to the wall for now except fixing the hole.  Once we get the floors and other walls finished we'll have our electrician come in and rewire the new fixture in for us.  If we were just swapping fixtures in the same spot I'd try it myself, but since we need to move wires I'd rather leave it to the pros.

The floor is now scraped smooth.  It's obviously not beautiful but it should be perfect for our project.  Based off of the advice from family and friends and the information I've found online we don't need to scrape down to plywood if we're just laying down new mortar and tile.  It just needs to be mostly smooth with no major high spots.  Check!

We've removed all the trim inside the room, spackled any holes or dents in the walls from old pictures and bathroom fixures, let that dry overnight, sanded this morning and then did a second coat of spackle.  I'm waiting for that to dry and then I'm hoping I can get to painting.

....


Wait, isn't there still a giant hole in the wall???


Yup. 

Sh!&.

Okay.  So new plan:  tomorrow we're going to get a new piece of drywall, cut to size and hang that up.  Then we have to spackle that thing in place, prime it all and THEN I can start painting.  I plan on painting the room and doing the floors afterwards because the thinset has to cure for 72 hours once the tile is down.  And if I drip paint all over it wont get on my pretty new floors.

Anyone know how to hang drywall with pipes sticking out of the wall??  Thank god for DIY videos on YouTube.

Our other dilemma is tile placement.  Due to how narrow the bathroom is (34.5'' wide) we are going to have to cut some of the tiles into narrow strips.  The question is do we cut them so the strip is in the transition area at the bathroom door (see picture below for dry-run) OR do we cut them so that the narrow strips of tile are along that far wall when you enter?

Leave any advice or opinions below!  Thanks.

October Adventures

We're on vacation this week and since we aren't financially up to much travel right now we decided to spend the week working on the house.  (You aren't really surprised much are you?)

I've got to say my biggest problem is that I just don't tackle one project at a time, I tackle twelve.  During the last week I've worked on ripping out our overgrown flower beds and my container vegetable garden, attempted to keep up with the mountains of leaves falling, demo'd a bathroom, primed the staircase, tested paint colors on three different walls, sanded stair treads, primed the oak window casings, and generally watched as my house became a chaotic warzone.  I need to learn to focus. 

Our biggest priority is the half bathroom renovation. This is what it looked like when we moved in: 

 Peach colored walls with brass fixtures, oak trim, ugly cracked tile, almond colored toilet with the seashell printed seat.  (Thankfully the previous owner took the little dog statue with her when she moved out!)

 Peach, orange, pastel vomit?  What color would you call it?

 Oh hello, broken crystal handles for the seashell sink (yes, I wish I had a better picture showing that the inside of the sink is actually a seashell imprint) in cracked black and white marble on top of the most hideous custom (!) oak cabinet to ever grace a bathroom.

Topped off with the silver scrolly mirror/sconce light fixture (and yes, my mother is law has already called dibs on this piece, surprise surprise.)

You can see why it's been on the renovate list since we've moved in.  It was functional, yes, but certainly didn't reflect Jim or my personality at all and was not the bathroom we wanted our guests using for the rest of our lives.

Over the last few months we've been picking up pieces for the bathroom and by doing this we've been able to hunt the sale rack and specials and keep costs down.  (Yay!)  We've gotten our floor tile, our vanity, faucet, new light fixture and last night we picked up our new toilet.  The things I didn't budget for that I should have were the tools we'd need!  Since Jim and I have never done anything like this before we needed trowels and floats and spacers and all sorts of tools.  We've managed to borrow the big ticket items (ie. tile cutters) from my father in law and I had a stash of some tools that used to belong to my father so that helped but it did add up.

The first item on the list was pulling out the old vanity.  We didn't think it would be that big a deal.  Turn off water lines, unhook faucet and drainpipe, pull out vanity.  Sounds easy, right?  Not so much.  The shut offs were inside the cabinet and the holes they went through in the old vanity back panel were not big enough for the valves to fit through.  So we could remove the vanity cabinet but the back panel was stuck to the wall.  Jim tried the dremel and it seemed to not cooperate so after some hammer whacking and crowbar shimmying we got the panel pulled off the wall a bit and Jim went at it with the sawzall. 

This is where things got real. 

About 30 seconds in and I hear a clunk and a hiss and then cursing. 

Long story short we ended up with this:

Yes, I ripped apart a wall with my bare hands...  

Somehow the tip of the sawzall cut through the drywall and nicked this hot water pipe.

Of course it was inside the wall at the time and the only other water shut off is the main one for the house that is in the basement and ON THE CEILING.  So Jim goes tearing off into the basement with the ladder (of course I had it upstairs for my painting extravaganza) when this godawful screeching starts. 

Imagine the chaos: WHY IS THE ALARM GOING OFF, GOOD GOD WATER EVERYWHERE, GET A BUCKET! A BUCKET WONT HELP ITS IN THE WALL, GET THE LADDER, SHUT THE ALARM OFF, IT'S NOT ON, WHY IS IT SCREECHING?! OH GOD THE WATER IS POURING ACROSS THE ALARM PANEL, GET THE FUZE, WHICH FUZE? THEY'RE NOT LABELED! F*&^ IT TURN THEM ALL OFF UNTIL IT STOPS SCREECHING. SH*& NOW I CAN'T SEE TO GET TO THE SHUT OFF VALVE, WHERES THE LANTERN???

Yeah.  It was not pretty.  Naturally the panel box for the alarm system is on the wall in the basement just under the pipe that got nicked.  But Jim eventually got the ladder and the lantern into the basement and turned the main water line off.  I turned off fuzes one by one until the screeching stopped and then we called the father in law.  Lesson learned, no demo after dark.  Ten o'clock at night on a Wednesday is not when you want to have to patch a pipe.  Stores closed, no plumbing parts means no water until Thursday, but thank fully FIL was able to come by that afternoon and create this beauty:

Look at that beautiful pipe!  No holes!  It keeps water where it's supposed to!  And best of all it meant we can turn the water back on!  Hooray for showers and laundry and toilets (ohmy!)

Today with the vanity out and the tile removed from the floor I've spent half of my time scraping up old thinset and the rest of the time figuring out how to remove a toilet.  DIY baby.  This bad boy is GONE now!

 So now I suppose I should get back to work.

 Ugh.... scrape, scrape, scape...

If I can move on the morrow I'll try to be back with a bathroom update.  Who knows, maybe we'll be able to get the new floor tile down!  I'll leave you with a sneak peak of what we chose.