nothing to complain about...

When visiting my father-in-law in the hospital a few weeks back, I was suprised and glad to hear him say at least once each time we visited that he had, "nothing to complain about." Just imagine that. He can barely walk, his memory is failing him, he is probably not ever going back home, but he as nothing to complain about. Okay, so he is a bit confused, but still. He is thankful!

So from now on, I will have nothing to complain about. Well, just for conversation's sake, I will rant a little. Vent a bit. But no complaining, ha.

The princesses now have a lavender room. All done, furniture moved back in, finished. A few of my nice helpful daughters did a majority of the actual painting for me, and lest you think I am one lucky girl to have so much help, I will mention this: when I walked in and noticed how much purple paint was along the ceiling, I almost flipped out. Thankfully I found my Nice Voice, and mentioned it nicely. They taped up the baseboards, but not along the ceiling. My bad, I didn't notice, as I was talking to my sister on the phone at that point. oops. Anyway, they were tired of painting, so I finished up. I filled in some places where the yellow peeked through, put a second coat on, and washed the paint that splotched on the woodwork. I tried to get the paint off the ceiling, but me standing on a chair is not my idea of fun, so I didn't try very hard.

It isn't very noticeable now that everything is moved back in anyway.

It is very cold here in New York state this morning. It was eleven degrees with a brisk wind when I took puppy out this morning. She wanted to play fetch, and I wanted her to do her business and come back in the house. She doesn't mind the cold, I guess.

Miss Char did not go to school this morning. She came out to the living room, covered up with a blanket in the comfy red chair, and that was it. She did not get up and eat her toast with jam, nor did she pick one of the three shirts I got out for her to choose from. She just snuggled into that chair, ignoring my requests that she Get Moving. She doesn't miss as much school as Camille does, and rarely does she skip a day alone. So I didn't press it. Camille realized as the bus was coming down the road that Char wasn't going. She questioned it, but went out and got on the bus with Jonathan. Now Charlotte Claire is as happy as can be. She has the toys to herself, their newly cleaned, painted and organized room to herself, and the computer to herself. She is playing SIMS right now, creating a new family and asking me how to spell names like, "Juliet". She says it is nice to play without Camille sometimes, and while part of me thinks that is kind of mean, I know what she means.

I don't get much quiet time on the weekends, and this was a three day weekend...I love the kids, but now that it is relatively quiet, I find it hard to get up and get moving. I was looking up reviews and photos of this place I would love to go to in Jamaica...oh, the white sand and the aqua water....sunny blue pools, the nights lit up with sparkly lights on the beach. I was also looking up hotels for our weekend get-away in June, to a wine-tasting event in the Finger Lakes. I was also looking at a hotel for a girls get-away in a few weeks. Oh, it's fun to plan. But today I am staying home, making a pot of stew, doing laundry, perhaps trying to figure out why my sewing machine won't sew.

Oh, I want to say a special Thank You to Julie, who sent me an under-the-counter CD player/radio. We put it up under the kitchen cupboard near the sink, and guess what? My daughters love it! It makes kitchen clean up much more fun, but not all the boys love Carrie Underwood and Patsy Cline:) (yes, Marg likes the oldies). I enjoy it too, so thank you again, Julie!!!

Dang, one puppy wants to go out. Probably to just play fetch, but....she might really have to "go". dang. With great puppies come great responsibilities, I suppose.