Busy, busy, busy

You'll need to go over to my Mommy Monster blog to see how full our lives have been this week.

I did not get as much done on the Challenge piece as I would have liked. Angie's first tooth became extremely wobbly on Saturday and I had to shift gears to get the pocket for Angie's tooth fairy pillow completed and attached to what will become the pillow.

Work is still crazy and hectic thanks to the new program, but since we need the insurance and the money, I hope to remain employed, even though in my heart of hearts, I'd rather be home with the kids. There is some hope that by the end of the year, I will have some relief, although it may mean moving to a different building and paying for parking.

Taxes were very bad this year. Ugh. See previous paragraph.

I hope to accomplish some yard work and gardening this weekend. I hesitate to throw some seeds around as it may still snow, but the flower beds need cleared of weeds and leaves. The weather is gorgeous today. Unfortunately, Angie has a terrible cough and my throat is getting scratchy so this may just be another weekend lost to the sicks.

I hope your weekend is nice.

Reasons #45 and #46 for why I hate renting....

After the fire and while we still lived in the temporary apartment, the landlord put in a new roof (rather than painting Angie's room which still has soot stains around the vent). To be fair, it did need a new roof. However, I have been pulling piles of rusty roofing nails out of our driveway (in addition to the bits of broken glass I keep finding). They know we have a child. Why couldn't they be bothered to ensure that our yard would be safe for her?

And then lets discuss what they did to the flower beds.

On the shady side, they dropped screws from the old gutters. In the course of planting this year's bed, I've found at least thirty in the front of the bed. I haven't managed to dig much around the very ugly shrub at the back of the bed.

On the sunny side, they placed a large pile of rounded stones at the base of the drain, wich covers some of the vines and the wild strawberry, but was necessary. However, directly in the middle of the bed, where I had several pretty flowers, they piled a huge mound of dirt. Not soil from another part of the bed. Sandy, yucky dirt with rocks burying my flowers. The tiny rubies dianthus blooms every year as does my other dianthus. Somehow they managed to just miss the hydrangea I planted last year. Why couldn't they throw the dirt behind the other ugly shrub (the twin to the one on the shady side)? Then at least it would have killed the weeds rather than actual flowers because nothing grows in this dirt.

I must remove this mess before I can plant on the sunny side.

And they tore down the wooden window box leaving a ragged edge and then painted it a darker shade of grey than the house (which has white trim). I had flowers in a coconut liner. They were just tossed to the side in an unattractive lump.

They seem to have a sentimental attachment to this house (it belonged to the wife's parents I believe) but you would think that they attachment would lead to some sort of desire to keep the property attractive and in good shape (don't even ask about the condition of the driveway).