Land of the Too Much

I posted recently about the obscene amount of toiletries and chemical beauty products in my house. Then Bethany recently posted about excess in general, too much space too much stuff too much too much. This reminded me of a conversation I've had with a number of girlfriends, about our homes. Only in America do we have every day dining areas and formal dining rooms, or every day family rooms and then living rooms that are just "for pretty." My daughters and I live in a very small 2 bedroom 1 bath home, so there are no "guest baths" or "parlors". In fact there is not one square inch of space that is not used to its fullest! This is a problem when we got to homes that do have rooms that are just to look at, because my girls can't fathom having a living room we don't go into! (Although mommy would LOVE some space where there are no crumbs or barbies or fingerprints....) What do you guys think?

God Bless Roto Rooter

They're cleanin the crap as we speak and I"m done bloggin about it! On to happier things: I'm posting some pics of the wedding I did a month ago! Much prettier than the poop pics I could have gotten from the sewer dept. to post...

Poop, Part Deux

Ok so I've had the sewer dept here twice, and had a plumber here this evening tell me I can either continue to put a band-aid on the problem (which costs $135) or fix it (which costs $975). I am an educated person and I understand that this needs fixed, and in the long run I"ll be better off and save more $ blah blah blah if I fork out the big bucks now and fix it once and for all. I get that. But I'm opting for the $135 just so I can flush my frigging toilet! It'll be done in 10 minutes. I ain't goin 4 more days for the plumber to "fix it for real!" And as un-environmentally friendly as it may be I CAN'T WAIT TO BLEACH THE WHOLE FLIPPIN BASEMENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's Raining Sh--

I've done things today more disgusting than any I've ever done before. I tried to prevent the inevitable: called my insurance guy, called the sewer department, but to no avail. The storms have been so bad and incessant here that the homes in my neighborhood are floating in sewage. Yep, the sewer guy actually had to come to my house and TAKE PICTURES OF THE PILE on my basement floor (everyone together now: EEWWWW!) and, although he admitted any amount of human poop on a floor is gross, he did tell me mine wasn't that bad. There apparently are homes on the north side of Valpo with a FOOT OF FLOATING SEWAGE in their FINISHED BASEMENTS. Uggghhhh. So, I have my dehumidifier plugged in and am trying to dry the, um, liquid portion. In the meantime I rubber gloved and shovelled and dumped the, um, solid part. (I use the word "solid" loosely here). Once it's dry I'll have to bleach everything but until the water in the town's sewer lines goes down, the water around the pipe of my basement will remain. So bleaching at this point doesn't do any good, except the poop smell becomes bleachy poop smell.... again, Ugghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. I LOVE BEING A SINGLE MOM...........................................................

S C H O O L !!

Fourth grade and second grade. Geez. No idea how that happened, I don't think I can possibly be old enough to have a 7 and 10 year old! I love love love these girls though, they're so good and fun and happy. I'm very blessed.

Bye Bye Summer...

The munchkins start school this week, and with that comes the beginning of the fall season (it's been raining and cloudy here for 4 days now, ugghhhh) and the end of summer (it's been raining and cloudy here for 4 days now!) So I thought I'd take this week and pay respects to this summer that's been so busy for us, with 2 roadtrips and party/wedding planning and 2 trips to the fair and some 4th of July stuff thrown in for good measure. I'd posted some Dells pics before, so I'll post pics today of the pool party I did for some clients in July. It was so much fun! (For more end of summer fun go to "The Pumpkin Patch" blog (swtbamamaof2.blogspot.com) and enter your 2007 hot weather stories!)

Travel

American is a trip...literally. We take for granted how big our nation is, until you've gone to Europe and can do 3 countries in a day or something. Or do what I just did, which is travel 15 hours to see friends, stay 3 days, and travel 15 hours back. HAD A BLAST. But 15 hours as a single mom in a car, well, that's an adventure no matter what. My kids were good thankfully, and I saw a variety of signs/billboards that celebrate the diversity that makes up our nation. For example, I drove through a town called "Friendship" (awwww...). I saw a sign that said "Free Manure" (um, as opposed to poop I would have to pay for?)! I drove through a town in southern Ohio that is preparing to celebrate their annual Tobacco Festival (huh). I drove behind a truck in West Virginia that said "Body Piercing by Smith and Wesson" (again, huh). I saw a billboard with a picture of a coal miner in a hard hat that said "Coal. Keep the lights on" (this goes against my eco-mommy thing, trying to get away from fossil fuels, and yet aren't these people just trying to support their families too?) Anyway, we're home now and thankful for Indiana but also thankful to be a part of something...bigger. I won't break out the Lee Greenwood's "Proud to Be An American" or anything but driving through the country is a good way to get the ol' thankfulness brewin' !