10/52

Running a little behind again.  I'm gonna blame it on that darn Daylight Saving Time crap and the lack of warm weather.

*a portrait of my children, once a week, every week in 2014*

Rowan's hair seems to be growing like crazy lately.  She complains her haayer is in her face.  I have to clip it back.

She doesn't want her picture taken.  She doesn't want me to ask her about her day.  She doesn't want the sky to be blue.  She's going through that phase of adolescence.

Currently {march seventh}

this week's themes

declaring, saving, demolishing, sniffing, despising

Declaring all out war on the mounds of laundry strewn about the house.  Last weekend, my husband and father moved our washer and dryer out of our dark, cold basement and into our "back porch".  Why did I quote that?  Because it used to be a porch.  About 50 years ago.  But it's been closed in for years, however, it doesn't have a specific purpose so we still call it the back porch.  This move required re-plumbing (I still don't have hot water yet), re-wiring, and making a place to vent the dryer.  This house is a little over 60 years old and most of the water lines crisscrossing the basement ceiling are copper.  We are now hoping to get the whole thing redone and switched over to PVC soon.  But right now, I'm just so stinkin' excited to NOT have to pack clothes up and down stairs to that basement!

Saving as much hope as I can for any kind of Summer vacation.  Today marks my children's 19 snow day of the year.  This is the second time this year that they have missed a whole week at a time.  My only complaint about all this is that they may end up extending the school year into June.  Normally, we are an August to May school year.  The school board has already extended the year from May 21st to May 30th.  It's been a very unusually snowy Winter here.  Maybe the state will step in and give us a break.

Demolishing pots of coffee a day now.  I've turned into my mother.  Minus the smoking.  P.S.  Dear Mom, I know you read this.  Smoking isn't good for you.  "Don't ever let me catch you smoking!" *as I point and wave my cigarette at you*  This is an inside thing.  She'll get it.

Sniffing dishes in the fridge.  We recently bought a brand new refrigerator and still food disappears inside it's doors.  How does this happen so quickly?!

Despising.  You know what?  I'm not really despising much right now!  Maybe all this snow and cold we've had, but really I've just let that roll on by.  I've really made an effort to change my perspective on life.  This requires me to not take things so seriously.  It's been easier than I thought it would be to let things go.  However, some things leave a deep seated pain that a change of attitude just doesn't fix so quickly.  I'm still working on that.

                                                                  next week's themes:

hoping, wondering, working, wearing, eating

Currently prompts hosted by Lindsay of Ot & Et and Randalin of Harvesting Kale.

ACHOO! *sniff* *cough* *wheeze*

We have been doggy sitting my in-laws three dogs for a few days.  My father-in-law had to have surgery to remove a spot of cancer from one of his lungs last week.  Not to worry, the docs say that it was found early, fully removed, and no chemo/radiation!  Dodged a bullet there.

Luckily they live only a hop, skip, and a jump from us.  Really it's only across the church next door's back yard and over a road.  We've been walking back and forth to let the dogs out to do their business, eat, drink, and be merry.  On Friday, I brought the schnauzer over to our house to spend a little time socializing. All was well.

On Sunday we were expecting a bad ice/snow storm.  News reports were urging everyone to have back up heat and supplies because it was nearly certain that we would lose power due to ice on the lines and fallen trees.  The National Weather Service released a briefing that upped our snow/sleet total to 7-10".  Nearly an unheard of number for this part of Kentucky.  We decided that it would be best to pack up the dogs, their crates, food, etc. and bring them all to our house.  We didn't want to have to trudge through snow and ice to do all this IF we did lose power.  Which the news outlets were saying was a near certain probability.

Like I said, they have three dogs.  A schnauzer, a pug, and a German shepard.

Within a few hours, I had developed a scratchy throat with cough.  By the end of the night, it felt like I had a wad of hairy mucus stuck in the back of my throat and our son began coughing as well.

That's when it hit me.  I remember feeling like this before.  I had thought it was just seasonal allergies.

*light bulb*

It was our dog.  And in this case, it was the pug and German shepard.  I was fine with the schnauzer, who are hypoallergenic dogs, but as soon as we introduced the other two dogs into the house, the itchy, scratchy throat began.

We kept them overnight.  We didn't receive nearly the snowfall or ice that was expected so we didn't lose power.  Monday afternoon after the plow trucks and sunshine had done it's thing, my husband packed the dogs, their crates, food, etc. all back up and took them back to their rightful home.

A few hours later, I was fine.

It's taken me 35 years to realize that I'm allergic to dogs.