In the Big Middle of Oh-So-Much

There is SO much going on in the family right now. It's somewhat overwhelming, and I'm feeling a good bit of pressure to deal with it all.

Let's start a list:

1. remodeling our house.
2. buying and remodeling a new rent house.
3. still trying to get Gentle Winds back on line after Hurricane Ivan. Remember...that was September 16, 2004. Yes. 2004.
4. Arlington rent house is empty.
   
5. school starts Monday for me.
6. I had a hinky mammogram.
   
7. oh, and yeah...Amanda is going away to college in 15 days. Two weeks from tomorrow, I'll be taking my baby girl to Tuscaloosa.

OK, now - one by one:
Remodeling our house: This is the never-ending story. We started this back in MARCH. Three bathrooms at one time, and redoing most of the kitchen. We are SO close to being done we can taste it, but there's still finishing tiling the area around the tub (Randy promises that'll only take a couple of days' work), and recarpeting the bedroom and putting down wood laminate in the upstairs hallway, then putting up all the little stuff - hooks and towel bars and TP holder, etc. Then we'll order the new oven and it all will be done. YAY!! I'll never ever want to move out of this house.

New rent house: we bought a cute little house over on Briarwood this week. We've already had new tile put down, and Amanda and I painted the paneling in the kitchen. Behr Creamy White from The Home Depot. Bill Kitchens is coming Saturday to finish up the bathrooms, install the new range and dishwasher, and a few other little things, the gutter guy will come Saturday also, then Paul Stansell will do new countertops in the kitchen and hall bath next week, and we can hopefully rent that sucker quick.

Gentle Winds: September 16, 2004 - that's the day Hurricane Ivan blew through. Ron Kimbrough (a really nice guy) and his crew have been working on this complex since about October 1st. They're getting close to being done, but picking out stuff and making decisions about things from 600 miles away has not been loads of fun. Then even after we have a CO, we'll still have to find some time to go down there and furnish the place before it can be rented or stayed in.

Sandalwood. Several repairs needed before Ebby Halliday can rent it out. The tenant who has been there for five years just got deployed to Iraq. W's damn war is messin' up everything.

School starts Monday. This is my last year at Aikin, and already things are different for Pat. I haven't been up there AT ALL this summer. No "there every day from the middle of July till Day 1," no "I'll just stop by for a few minutes this morning that will turn into home by 7 p.m.," no nothing. How have they survived?!? No PowerPoint ready for the first day with teachers. Not every computer will be working on the first day of school. The world as Pat has known it is coming to an end.

Mammograms. I've never really minded having a yearly mammogram. It's just seemed like part of the price of being a girl. But I'll tell ya, when the doctor's office calls and says "there was a problem," well, it kind of makes your heart skip a beat. I was scheduled for a followup mammo yesterday, but the doctor got sick and had to go home early, so I'm rescheduled for Monday afternoon. WHAT KIND OF DOCTOR GETS SICK AND LEAVES WORK EARLY?!? That seems just so wrong. Whatever happened to "Physician, heal thyself?"

Amanda's leaving in two weeks. This will be a whole entire post unto itself. Nay, a multitude of posts.

In the meantime, we have piles everywhere. A pile to go to Gentle Winds. A pile for Briarwood. A pile to cart to Tuscaloosa. PILES of crap related to the 39th St. remodel. The normal Quizno's piles. A pile for a potential garage sale. Piles of trash.

Remember the old song "Signs?" Piles, piles, everywhere a pile...blocking out the scenery, breaking my mind....