The kids went back to school today. YAY! My work day was the same just lacking the sound of my two kids screaming at eachother in the background. Emily woke up around 7:30am, went to the bathroom and was very upset that neither Kris nor Cass were in the house. Then she spent the day pestering me and poor Molly cat who is her new abusee. Molly runs and hides when she sees Em coming and I don't blame her one bit. I told Em if she whaps you with a paw, you deserved it.

It was a big day for Emily yesterday. She moved from her crib to her first "big girl" bed. About 2 weeks ago, she refused to sleep in the crib anymore and announced that she was too big. She slept with me for two weeks. Thursday, her crib was disassembled and Joe and I both commented that we still remembered setting up her little crib about 2 weeks before her due date. After the crib was gone, I spent two days cleaning the area and yesterday, we moved her temporary big girl bed into the space and set it up for her. She was so excited last night, she couldn't lie down. Finally after midnight, she fell asleep. At 3am, I woke up and she was in my bed. Go figure! Another rite of passage for my little girl. It's depressing in a way. She is the
last child I'll ever have and her rites of passage are also mine as I leave the child bearing years behind and move into whatever comes next. I guess whatever that is, is up to me.

I went and chose paint for the downstairs today. I looked through scads of paint colors to find the right one. Colors were called, Mystic, Indian sand, peanut butter, Scandinavian Sunset, Harvest Moon, Cinnamon Stick and after I searched through all those I settled on Taupe. Yup, that's what it was called "Taupe". It was in the special section for male patrons along with the neato colors "brown" "red" "blue"... ;-) The painters are coming on Wednesday. After I get the flooring in, I'll have finally finished the basement after the flood of 04. I hadn't even lived here a full year when a storm came through that knocked power out for 12 hours and then of course it rained all day with no working sump pump. It was a day that will live in infamy here in the raised ranch in HP. I got my very first taste of some of the joys of home ownership sloshing through a foot of water in the utility room trying to get the sump to work while a 2 month old Emily screamed bloody murder in her crib upstairs. Of course, I was by myself with the kids, severe weather all day. Joe was at his friend Matt's house tying one on when I interrupted in a panic and sent him to the store in the middle of the night to find something that would get the water out of my basement. My brothers room was dessimated so he wound up sleeping on an air mattress for two weeks. It just sucked. It sucked all the way around. Everytime I found some cash to fix the basement, something came and took it. I had to give $8000 to an attorney so that worthless waste of a human being that calls himself Emily's father can don my doorstep. Ouch! I would have rather had the new paint and flooring. So here I am, FINALLY 2 plus years later with some cash to finally get it back to good starting with taupe paint and hopefully ending with some new furniture.

Kris handed me some sheet music today and told me I'll be accompanying him in a solo contest at his High school. SAY WHAT??? It's been like 20 years since I played in front of anything outside a couple of cats and some dust bunnies. This makes me nervous. I have anxiety disorder and it's part of the reason I never really pursued music performance as a hobby. I'm frickin terrified of playing in public. I used to sing in Choir and that was alright. 200 other voices drowned out mine and it wasn't like I was on stage by myself belting a happy tune. When I was asked to sing at a wedding 20 years ago, I felt like I was drowning up there despite all the prep. I got through it by staring at the stained glass windows while trying hard to pretend that there weren't a few hundred people in there with me. So, I'm now deciding whether I should hire a teacher for a couple months or get a prescription for Valium. Is it too late to find a person who looks like me who can play the Piano? Any takers?

This concludes today's version of My Mundane Life. Ya'all can wake up now.