As if my house wasn't enough of a disaster area

For those of you who don't know, I am a recent addition to Spartanburg SC. When I lived in the mountains of Western North Carolina, we lived in an old farm house built by my husband's grandfather. The place had a lot of character. It also lacked a single wall, floor or ceiling that was level. The windows were old and drafty, and the kitchen, although of a nice size did not have a space for the fridge. It was in the dining room. The square footage was also pretty small and we had one tiny bathroom. With five people, that bathroom was the most popular room in the house in the morning.

When we moved here, our new house was about 300 square feet bigger. Its doesn't seem like much, but for us it was a huge difference, or rather it was at the time.

We moved four people and two cats to our new house, as our oldest child had already finished college and was on his own. We relished in our new space, discovering we had space for all our things with a bit of room to spare. It's been nearly three years since we moved here, and I am wondering what happened to all my space. Now in all fairness I am hardly Mrs. Neat Freak, and my daughters, especially the youngest could win awards in livable clutter. Our house has a lived in look, very actively lived in.

I suspect two factors. The first is my granddaughter who came into the world 10 months ago. She's the most adorable baby in the world,(me? prejudiced? NEVER!) and is the light of my husband's and my life. But she has gotten to the age where she is crawling destruction. If she isn't pulling things off a shelf, she's dragging a toy along in her wake. I now call my living room Toys R Us.

It is amazing the space required for a crib, a high chair, a toy bin. Oh wait, we put dvd's in the toy bin as the baby kept pulling them off the entertainment center. There is a huge stuffed dog, a musical gadget that she can eventually ride, and various and sundry kid friendly toys. They are in their place for the first ten minutes after you put them away. Then things are right back where they belong, strewn all over the floor, just as my granddaughter prefers it.

Then there is the laundry. I thought two teenaged girls produced massive amounts of dirty laundry. I had forgotten how much a baby could produce. Even though we all share laundry duty, we seem to always have at least one load in both machines. And it doesn't take long to have overflowing hampers again, with tiny outfits in every single one.

The other factor to the growing chaos that is my home is the new kitten. Yes now we are a house of three cats, and the litter box may not survive. The kitten is a rescue and of course who could resist 1/2 pound of inky feline cuteness? The baby adores the kitten and the kitten adores the baby, when it isn't trying to outdo her in the game of "make a mess." One of my cats, Luna-tic, aka Jabba the Kitty, usually stays out of the way of all this living activity. Of course I think that cat was actually a slug in a former life, she's so lazy. Chernobyll, feline number 2, loves the new kitty playmate and has stepped up to the plate to keep up with the youngsters. Yes I named a cat after a nuclear disaster sight. Remember the a fore mentioned litter box? That cat is what sent it on the road to its ever pungent demise. Of course the new kitty had to have unique name just like this housemate. so Kit-astropheis what we dubbed him.

As Kit and the baby follow each other around, I know that cleaning up after them is only going to be caught up while they are sleeping, that is if we can find the energy with all of us working, some of us in school, Of course it would help if we stopped playing with our most recent additions and taking pictures of that durn cuteness long enough to do something useful, like clean.

Of course soon, my daughters will be moving out having finished college and with the older will go the granddaughter and at least one cat. I will then sometimes long for the days of barely contained chaos. Or will I?

Apparently someone out there likes me!!

Someone in my area has decided to take the time to search out other people who blog in my city. They read a recent entry I had written, liked it and after asking permission, posted an excerpt on the local blogger site.

Spartanburg bloggers are an eclectic group, but that isn't surprising as most of us who like to write are eclectic in our tastes, our writing styles, our subject matter and our viewpoints. The name of the site featuring us bloggers from Spartanburg is http://www.sparklecityblogs.com/ which is tied in to a local online paper called the Spartanburg Spark. (yay, a new possible place for me to blather on about)

Should be interesting.

That whole election thing

For what seems like the past two years this country has been considering who to choose for the next president of the United States. I saw my first roadside sign featuring a potential candidate long before most people had decided to even to run for the office.(No, they did'nt make the final cut) I knew then that it would be a long, long, LONG campaign. I also knew, considering the political temperament over the past few years that things would likely get ugly.

And that is what I just don't understand. Why are people so vicious in their attacks on the current president, as well as the potential presidential candidates? While I don't agree with everything our current president has done, I still believe he deserves our respect. He was elected twice, as was his predecessor, who I had far greater issues with. It surprised me that this former president could seem to do no wrong, despite having scandal, after investigation, after legal proceedings after impeachment. At times his private life made public would make any tabloid editor drool with happy anticipation. Yet despite my personal dislike for all of that, I still believe that he deserved the respect for the office he held. During Mr. Clinton's tenure some positive things were done that he deserves credit for, he did and still does have an amazing gift for public speaking, and is a natural diplomat. Of course he made as well as all who have gone before him some very poor decisions.

Why in the race for the "big seat" is everyone so polarized? If some say that they are for one candidate, or express, as I have admiration for something a candidate has said, even though they are not my voting choice, do some immediately decide that I am either a complete political idiot, or someone out of touch with reality. Therefore I tend to avoid most politically minded conversations for the potential argument that could ensue.

The current president has made both good and some very bad decisions, yet he has received none of the respect that usually goes with the office. While he's not the most eloquent of speakers, but he sure can handle a press conference. In comparison to his immediate predecessor, the sitting president's private life is rather boring. He sometimes makes decisions that seem short-sighted and often goes against his advisers when making decisions. Sometimes he's proven wrong in those choices, but he is also often right. Somehow the right decisions get no attention from his critics, only the wrong ones. Mr. Bush has had to make unpopular decisions and quite difficult ones as some of the situations faced were unprecedented. Of course every president since Washington has found themselves thus, and so will whomever we elect in November.

We can "If I was president, I'd do this" all day long, but for what end? We elected them to make those hard decisions so we don't have to. And of course when making hard decisions, one is likely to upset someone along the way. that is why they are called H-A-R-D decisions, because of the potential, often unknown consequences.

One would hope that people would stop listening to the nastiness, the half truths, the innuendos, the slanted polling, the talking heads in the media and simply look at each candidate and the merits of what they hope to bring to the table. By looking at their views on important issues, their voting record, if they have held legislative office, what they have written, business decisions they have made, and lastly and least importantly personal lifestyle choices.

Maybe if we didn't have a plethora of pundits on every media station trying to tell us how to think the decision of choosing the president would be easier. Of course it would be nice if Congress would enact a law limiting all the campaign hullabaloo that gets worse and worse every year,. But then I remember that they take regular dips into that murky campaigning pool themselves. And I guess that some journalism graduates are thankful for the job that reporting on the circus that is politics allows. I just wish this circus would at least have a decent high wire act.

It's a bird! It's a plane! Oh! it's just rain.

Yes rain, something we have seen very little of over the past couple of years. We in the deep south have been under what the experts call a drought. That doesn't mean that we have been completely rain free, but instead have had brief forays of raindrops now and then, usually not at my house.

On the plus side the lawn only needs mowed ever couple of weeks or so. On the down side, what few flowers I planted this year are either already dead or wish they were.

Currently the remnants of Fay, a former tropical storm with the moving speed of an ancient tortoise, is making her way through my area. We have had on and off rain since yesterday evening, some of it a bit on the heavy side. Tornadoes have made brief appearances south of us, but thankfully leaving little damage. We won't be getting the flooding that Florida received, thank goodness, but there will be little flooding in a few areas. Especially as our ground is so unused to being wet.

I had to run an errand this evening after dark in a downpour. I was very thankful that most of the other motorists on the road were going fairly slowly as visibility was far less then ideal.

It is a grand thing to hear something I've not heard much of lately, the pitter-patter of raindrops outside my window.

Thus ends Sylvie's personal weather forcast.

Water Glasses and Other Bouncable Items

I have two cats Luna-tic aka Jabba the Kitty, and Chernobyll aka dammitcat. They are ordinary cats, in the fact that they can render a litter box into a toxic waste dump in three days max, they are very picky in their choice of kibbles, and in Chernobyll's case breakfast MUST include a spoonful of gooshy food. They sleep in all the best places, the couch, the love seat, your shirt that you had just set on the bed to wear for the day. And they shed, well at least Luna-tic does. Just wear black and come to my house for an hour. You will be wearing some of her snow white hair on your black clothes within five minutes of entering my house.

Not long after Luna-tic got old enough, she discovered the perfect way to people up. For my older daughter it was using an ear as a pacifier. The cat is now four years old and still tries to sneak in an ear fix on Ashley now and then. The younger daughter, keeps her door firmly closed against all kitty intruders when she sleeps. Smart girl. For me, ear sucking wasn't going to work, because I wasn't going to let that cat anywhere near my earlobes. So being the determined feline that she was, she figured out a way to get me out of bed and into the kitchen to fix her breakfast without fail. She bats my glasses around aiming to knock them off the nightstand. When Chernobyll came into our lives, Luna-tic taught Nobyll that nice little trick. One or both cats will be in my room every morning, making sure they hear the "alarm" they have set off. I haven't set a real alarm clock in years, unless I have to get up at some ungodly middle of the night hour. That is quite rare however.

Chernobyll liked the wake up Meowmie game so much that she decided to take it further. Any object is fair game to what I have dubbed "bounce". She'll knock off anything off my nightstand, my desk or the coffee table. She once knocked off a baker's lamp off my overhead shelf onto my bed, missing me by inches. Her favorite target however is water glasses. The fuller they are the better she likes it. She never targets glasses when people are in the room. She considers them fair game however, if someone makes the mistake of leaving it on the coffee table for awhile. I try to make sure that all glasses are in the kitchen, preferably in the dishwasher before bed, but every now and then one will escape my notice. Mainly because my college aged kids go to bed after I do. When that happens, it is almost certain that Chernobyll will go glass tipping.

Of course the glass will still have some liquid in it. Of course I am a light sleeper and hear the sound of glass making that sound it makes when it merely tips over onto the coffee table surface or manages to hit the floor. Of course I also hear the splash of liquid. And then I yell Chernobyll's nickname and get up to clean up the mess she's left once again.

Weightlifting

Ok I just did mention that I need to "de-slugify" my body, especially as it is increasingly Post-op. I have discovered a new weight-lifting method. Well that isn't exactly true, it is one I used to do quite regularly years ago. This method takes no special equipment, no new expensive wardrobe, just a sense of humor and a baby.

Yes a baby, preferably six month old or older. Why that age? Because of the weight! In my granddaughter's case, seven months old of age means 22 pounds and counting of amazing, yet quite hefty cuteness. All you need to do is lift her quickly over your head as many times as your arms hold out. Believe me you'll tire of the game long before she will. Just when your arms fell like they are about to fall off your shoulders from sheer exhaustion, you can then put the baby on your knee for your cool down.

That cool down is a simple exercise. Just bounce your knees up and down with the baby sitting on them. Do this for at least one minute intervals. Hold the baby at least by the waist as they tend to be wobbly or discover something worth attempting to lunge off your lap after.

When your calves are now jiggly masses, you can stop your exercise routine for the day. All that is left is some stretching. You can accomplish that by picking up the toys she has strewn all over your living room. How such a small person can make a mess covering such a wide area is a special skill quickly mastered by children.

Now, I have another excuse to avoid that exercise bike for a day.

As the flab turns

Ok, it is officially 65 days since my surgery. I am doing much better physically and the absence of my uterus and it's squatters is not missed at all. My energy levels are slowly returning to normal, and I just get "pulls" or twinges when I move contrary to my healing tissues.

However I am still a slug. I look like one, and I feel like one. Loose fitting clothes is my preferred wardrobe choice. I wore jeans today and felt most uncomfortable. Ok, they were 7 years old and likely not for my body type anyway, but did it help me feel better? NO!

I need to get my butt on my exercise bike daily, and when August starts, begin to de-slug my belly. Oh heck, I need a drill sargeant, dragging me out of bed, yelling at me when I order french fries or head towards the candy machine at work, and forcing me to be a work-out queen.

Anyone interested in the job? The pay sucks, but I'm getting desperate, I can't get motivated.

sigh.