Poison

I know, I know. I've already said I hate this house. Now I have more reasons. As if I didn't have enough already. :o)

Brad decided to fix up the yard now that the sun is out and the temps have warmed up. He was out there for a few hours, mowing the lawn with a push mower, trimming the hedges, etc.

And in thanks for his efforts, he woke up the next morning with a nasty rash down the entire length of his right forearm. When I say nasty, I mean oozing, disgusting, NASTY. Poor boy. And forgive the TMI, but I need to explain. Most nights, Brad sleeps with his arm around me. Yup. I have an itchy, nasty, gross rash along my waist. Oh fun.

I can't believe I survived 2 yrs in this house. And even more, I can't believe I have another year to go. Boo.

Here is your chance to avert your eyes if you'd like to avoid seeing the oozing arm that is actually improved from a week ago. And my poor hip.

Traffic law

As I am sure I have mentioned, I'm just not a fan of Philly traffic. Ugh. So, I'm calling on people with knowledge of traffic laws to help me out. What do you make of this intersection?

Like my stop signs? And my lovely house really is that long and narrow. So, knowledgeable people of traffic law, who has the right of way in the following situations?

• Turning onto "My Street" from Main


• Turning on Main from My Street

I try and turn onto My Street and the people "stopping" at Bad Street don't even pay attention to that sign and stop at the My Street sign, effectually blocking my turn onto My Street since they are stopped across the street.

I was trying to turn onto My Street today and the lady completely blew through the Bad Street sign WHILE I WAS TURNING onto My Street. I'm still shaking. I honked and she stopped, but I'm really tired of this happening.

Any ideas on how to deal with this besides moving, which is obviously my first choice. I called the Traffic Safety number and he said to treat it like it is an intersection, so, the people on Bad Street don't have to stop for people coming down My Street if they got there first. Okay fine, but the fact is, even if I DO get there first, they still go while I'm there. Freaking annoying. Don't you take TURNS at an intersection???

Have I mentioned I am really, as in REALLY excited to move? Is 52 weeks to soon to start my count down?

Where could she be?

After a long afternoon at the pool, we came home, piled the towels and suits to get washed, I started dinner, sent the boys to clean their room, then I went to work on my Signing Time stuff for a little while.

Dinner was done and I realized I had not heard Sugar yelling at her brothers in probably 30 minutes. I sent Roo up to look for her. He said she was gone. I figured she fell asleep after a busy day, even though she has given up napping. I looked in her room. No Sugar. I looked in my room. No Sugar. I look in the boys' room and the toy room. No Sugar.

Panic starts to set in a little. This house is small. There are storage containers under every bed, she couldn't be there. The closets are too small to fit a human being laying down. I would have seen her go out the front door. The back door is locked. All of the windows are locked. Where in the world could she be?!

I finally opened up our IKEA storage and there she was, asleep. She had shut herself in. Little stinker.

The wrath of Melisa

I *try* to not complain about this house as much as I want to. Honestly, if you knew how frequently I encounter something about this house that makes me mentally scream, you'd be surprised. Unless you've seen my house. Then you wouldn't be shocked.

Anyhoo... I've earned a venting post and this is it. Read at your own risk. It will get ugly. :o)

Yesterday we were blessed with a nice big storm. It took the temperature from 99 degrees to 76. It was lovely. We had been at church, driving home in the pounding rain. We pull into the driveway and before we can even open the doors to get out, a huge (and by huge I mean longer than 6 feet) branch lands on top of poor Odie. If only we'd been a few minutes later, Odie wouldn't have (yet another) huge dent on the roof thanks to the neighbor's tree. Maybe the tree is doing it on purpose because I called the police when this car was parked in front of my house for over an hour. How was I to know he was visiting my neighbor???
After most of the rain stopped, I went to visit my friend Bea and pick up a book. I wanted nothing more than to just sit and chat in her house for hours on end and play with her adorable baby, but alas, Brad had to be somewhere in an hour and I had more errands to run. So, off I dashed with my gas light on, when I come to a firetruck and police tape blocking an entire block. Ever find out what it was, Bea?? Thanks to GPS, I was able to find a way out of the neighborhood and into the city.

Did you know that in the city of Philadelphia, when stoplights go out, you don't treat them as a stop sign? Really! You just keep driving as if you are the one with a green light. And be sure to honk at anyone who does treat it like a stop sign. I'm pretty sure honking at people is a law too. Drive in Philly, take your life in your hands...

I did manage to make it home on fumes, and thankfully there is a gas station across the street from me, so I can fill Odie up before we go anywhere.

Without ever intentionally doing so, we've started a dog-sitting business. We've had Dax twice, Jasper once, and now have a sweet and adorable little puppy named Brynleigh (welsh puppy=welsh name). She still isn't sleeping through the night. We were asked to bring her crate into our room for her to sleep at night, but it wouldn't fit in our room. And even if it did fit, I'm pretty sure dogs don't enjoy sleeping in rooms that are 85-90 degrees all.night.long. So, that means leaving her downstairs and me running up and down the stairs all night. I've taken her out no less than 8 times since 3 a.m., and yet she still has peed twice and pooped once in the house today. I really believe puppies are cute as a survival mechanism. How else can you explain her surviving after chewing my only pair of strappy shoes?

Here is where it gets graphic. Feel free to stop reading now if you haven't already. :o)

I ran up the stairs to discover that the only toilet in the house was being sat upon. I asked if he was almost done. He said, and I quote, "Yes, but be careful flushing because it was almost overflowing this morning." Ummm, why wasn't I informed of that this morning instead of after you've already done your business in there???

After 20 minutes, I gave up trying to plunge it myself. I called 5 plumbers and none would answer there phone. Is today a plumber holiday I don't know about? Keep in mind again, this was our only toilet. I'll spare you the goriest details, but I will say that most of the room, myself included, was covered in poo water before I finally got it to work. For the briefest of moments I considered taking a picture of the horror of it all. But then I realized that there will NEVER be a moment in my life that this will be amusing and worth reliving via picture.

The clean up stage took longer than fixing the toilet. As we ALL know, most disasters in the home occur during meal time. It isn't a disaster until you are covered in poo water with kids crying about how they are starving! I had the puppy outside on a chain during all of this. And boy, was that puppy mad. But really, I can only handle so much at once, and a puppy chewing on things, and kids, was not an ingredient I wanted to add to this mix. My bleeding heart daughter couldn't stand to hear the puppy's whines, so she decided to go and let the puppy off the chain. Which would be fine since our yard is fenced, expect that the puppy is small enough to fit through the closed gate. And who doesn't need a puppy running around loose while you are covered in poo water?

And now, it is nap time. The toilet is working, the bathroom is cleaned, I have showered, the kids have been fed, and I have vented. Brad is working late tonight and I'm supposed to take dinner to someone. I think pizza is a perfectly logical choice at this point. :o)

Candlelit dinner

Last week, something broke in the box for the dining room light. Brad was on call and ended up being gone most of the weekend. Last night he was in a laryngectomy and didn't get home until after midnight. Today, we were having company for dinner. And the light was still broken. Thankfully, it stays light longer since it is the summer, but I wish I could have found some candles so we could have all eaten by candle light. Oh, the stories I'm living in this house.

And yet again

The car owner was working on my neighbor's roof, so I was able to tell him to move his vehicle. Gotta love Philly.

Phreaking Philly!

I really do love living here, except for when I don't. Here being Philly, not this nasty house. More often than not, I don't like living here (here being the house, not Philly). Like last night when the water on the floor in the bathroom dripped into my kitchen. Or when I found this little piece of nasty running around my living room. GAG!

But then there are times when I don't like living in Philly either. Like when I can't find a parking place at Sugar's school and have to drive around for 10 minutes even though I'm already late. Or when some inconsiderate person decides that my driveway entry looks like an acceptable parking space.

Since when is this kind of parking job considered okay?! Even a parking job like this makes it hard to get out of my already highly annoying driveway.

And now I need to clean and pray that the person coming to look at the house today wants to buy it. :o)

Dinner guests

Today, we had some friends over for dinner. And in true Mons fashion, is was not without some excitement.

Brad is amazing and went shopping last night. Olive Garden's Chicken Gnocchi Veronese was on the menu and ingredients were needed. I had to laugh this afternoon as I was getting out the bell pepper and zucchini and instead found a cucumber. That's okay though. We just added green bell pepper and put cucumber in the salad. :o)

Jamo and Roo don't always get along great, but they do NOT frequently have fist fights. Of course, today with company over would be the day that they do. Sigh.

Then, as is typical in this house, the toilet flooded when the boys used a too much TP to flush a bug. In their eagerness to get it down, they kept flushing it even as the water rose. Thankfully we were no longer seated at the table as the water from the toilet rained down into the dining room.

Are we great hosts or what? Wait, don't answer that.

Can I just go back to bed?

Oy. What a day. And it is only 9:24.

After a week of no school and lax sleeping schedules, getting the kids up this morning was a challenge. Then Jamo's school didn't have volunteers to help with Game Club, so I offered to go, with my 2 other kids of course. We got everyone ready an hour earlier and I packed some DVDs and the DVD player for Sugar. Thankfully, Brad got the snow off the windshield, but it was a mess outside. Of all the days to NOT have a snow delay! Sheesh! It took me 3 tries to get all the way up the hill on our street. I finally got to the school, and there is no parking. Anywhere. Like most Philly establishments, there is no parking lot, so you park on the street. Only the streets are lined with huge piles of snow. You end up parking practically in the middle of the street. I drove around awhile, but finding nothing but snow and more snow, I just decided to become a true Philadelphian and park halfway into the street.

I finally got the 3 kids into the library, and the guy in charge looked none to pleased I had extra kids. Can't say I blame him. Sugar, in her sleep deprived state, was especially whiney and clingy. I managed to bring the wrong cord for the DVD player, so that wasn't an option. Instead she whined and complained that she couldn't play Mastermind like the other kids. Finally, the guy in charge said, "You can go ahead and go, there aren't very many kids." Hint hint. But Roo was in the middle of a game with Jamo, so I decided to distract Sugar with Othello. The poor guy saw us playing and said, "I don't know if that is a good idea." I told him I was playing it with her, not leaving her alone. To his credit, he kind of shuddered and then walked away. Smart man.

We left to go home because I watch a 2 yr old and 6 mo old on Tuesdays. But I couldn't get back up the driveway. There are huge ruts you can't really shovel that get icy. It took me 4 tries, but I got up the driveway enough to park. I couldn't park in the street because the snow piles in the street are so big, if you were to park on the side of them, you'd block the entire street, not just half of it.

We have one of those lovely dishwashers on wheels. You have to hook it up to your sink, and plug it in to get it to work. Yeah, it's a party. Brad, being Mr. Amazing, started the dishwasher this morning. But, being the tired resident he is, he didn't turn on the water. LOL!

So, I will be spending the day with 4 kids and thinking my child bearing days are over. Can I just go back to bed?

Reason 192

Have I mentioned I don't like this house? It has it out for me, it really does. Remember my chili plant I'm trying to bring back to life from seedlings? This is what some wind and some useless windows did to my precious plant: The window blew open because there isn't a good way to keep it shut. It is obvious that people have tried before with various strings and latches. But I didn't think it would open with enough force to knock my plant off the table. You can see the poor, defenseless chili plants lying in their own dirt. So sad. Let's hope they recover from the trauma.
This pot has the older chili plants that weren't damaged. Let's hope they stay that way! They've already got a few flowers on them. Wohoo!!! I'm really hopeful to see some chilies soon! Am I asking too much?

And on another note, reason number 73 why I hate this house is that I have to flush with a plunger or deal with water leaking into my dining room as the toilet overflows. Twice a week is too often to deal with overflowing toilets. Urgh.

Parent visit

We had so much fun with my parents in town. Philly has plenty of attractions to see. We even had our first Philly cheesesteak sandwiches. So, here is a tiny little photo session. There are tons over on Cookie.

So, I was supposed to get rid of all the chemo counter bracelets in a way that they would be out of our lives forever. But wouldn't you know, just as we were getting ready to cross the street, along comes Bill the horse and the chemo bracelet. Sigh. At least my mom was a good sport about it and took a picture with it.

It was my daddy's birthday that weekend. For his birthday, BYU beat OU. Okay, maybe those 2 things are completely unrelated, but none the less, it is a very good day when my favorite team beats the team I can't stand.

Me with Benjamin Franklin.

I went with my parents to the Washington DC temple.
Some sites of Philly:

I have a video of these lights changing colors on the Cookie blog.

Philly has some crazy parking, as I've mentioned before. There is a part of Philly where people park in the median. For reals. It is crazy.
And here are my chili plants. I accidentally left my chili plant outside one night in MI and killed it. I'm still sad about it. I took some seeds from one of the peppers and tried to grow them. This is what I have so far. I am SOOOOO hopeful I can bring my chili pepper plant back to life!!!
Do you love our neighbors weeds?
Our house. We are on the left side. As you can tell, it is not very wide.
Cookie has a ton of pictures of the kids and my parents.

There is beauty all around

Isn't this tree so beautiful! Who knew it would bloom into something so bright! I love it!

And here is someone parking in the street to unload a truck. I just love it when they do that.

How do I love this house?

Let me count the ways.... uh. Yeah. Does anyone else get annoyed when dishes come out of the dishwasher dirtier than when they went in?

Here are some pictures from my house today.

Have I mentioned how much I truly miss AC? It is a little sad to see Sugar's wet ringlet's in the middle of the day.
This is from the leaking ceiling because Sugar dumped water out of the tub during her bath.

But I do have good news. I have a sitter for tomorrow! Woot! Thanks, Jen! You rock, girl!

Looking for ideas

Okay, before I ask my question, I'll just let you all know that I found mouse droppings on my counter this morning. I will refrain for commenting further on this as I am sure you all know what I am thinking. :o) But I will say that perhaps I should consider inviting Cricket over for dinner or something.

My mom's final chemo treatment is this week. I'm looking for a really "smashing" way to get rid of the chemo-counter bracelets I've been sporting for the last several months. Here are some ideas I've come up with:

• shoot them into the Schuylkill river like a sling shot (they are elastic)
• take them off the band and let the kids throw the beads in the river one by one
• smash them with a hammer (this one sounds particularly fun to me!)

So, what ideas do you have? Just so you know, I'm not really a pyro, so I'm not looking for methods involving fire, okay? I only have a few days to decide, so send me ideas quick! :o)

***UPDATE*** I have been asked to describe what we will be destroying, so here it is:

The beads are mostly plastic, but there are 3 glass beads on each strand. They are mostly clear, but there are tiny square pink beads on it as well. Does that help? Now, have at it! :o)

Better and better

I really am trying. I am trying to adjust to living in this house. And I'm failing miserably.

Today I got in the shower only to discover why the window in the bathroom is covered in black mold. The bathroom window leaks when it rains.

Don't you love cold water dripping on you in the shower? I know I do. Yes, this is the old picture. I can't bring myself to go back in there without crying. I know it is a small thing, but they keep adding up.

Feel free to pray for my sanity that is drifting more each day...

Bound to happen

When your driveway looks like this

Eventually your car will look like this

Poor Odie! And yes, I still hit my door on the wall every time I get out of the car. Argh.

My Saturday

This is how we spent our Saturday.

This was the side that had all the flowers die. So, I was able to fill it with dirt and then transplant the ones that didn't die from the other side.

This side had all the flowers that lived, so I transplanted them to the other side so I could fill it with dirt. This is what it looked like before:

Brad did awesome with the bricks and the siding, huh. Makes a huge difference! These flowers are now on the other side.

And this is the before of the ivy garden

I can't even tell you how many hours and how many bags and how much shoveling and pulling it took to rip out this much ivy. Ugh. And just so I don't forget the experience, I have itchy rashes all over. I've scratched so hard, I'm bruising. And that was from last week's pulling. We pulled it all last week. This week was prettying it up.

We made it a hosta garden. Why? They were free. We got them from the driveway. This is where they used to be.

It looks kinda silly there, huh.

I love it now. I think the rocks are so pretty. I didn't feel like investing in flowers, but the mulch was a must since I don't see myself enjoying weeding here as much as I did in MI. Oh, and the plant in the pot was brought from MI. Jamo got it in school and it has grown from an itty bitty little plant. It has beautiful purple buds. And this is what the neighbor's side looks like. Yes, I will be spending plenty of time keeping the ivy and weeds from coming back over. Joy.