Mid-week again

Last week was a long one, this one is flying by. Go figure. My MIL left on Sunday to spend the week with Teresa and she comes home tomorrow. Marshall is off again today. He has been doing really well on catching up with his sleep. We watched every Love Comes Softly series movie on Sunday night and Monday. There were 7 of them. I love the books and the movies were alright, even if they did depart from the books somewhat.

Today is laundry and kitchen day for Heather and me. I bought new tablecloths for the dining room table yesterday and I am looking for fabric to make curtains. I have blinds in there, but I like curtains. They make the room look more complete.
I also got a new roaster yesterday. I have been needing one for a while and I found one on sale yesterday so I picked it up. Now I have one big enough for Thanksgiving. Things are coming together nicely so far. The other thing I am wanting to do is re-cover my dining room chairs. They are too "fussy" for our family and I am wanting something more durable than the thin fabric that is on them right now. I can't complain though, we got 8 chairs and the large table for a really small cost, so I can afford to not like the fabric. It won't cost a lot to re-cover them either. Marshall knows how and has been doing upholstery in our house for years. He's really very good at it.

It's Been a Long Week

This past week has been a long one. We were pretty much trapped in the house by the Nor'easter that went through our area. Three long days of lots of rain and high winds and cold. Today is the second day of dryness we have had and Marshall is taking advantage of it. He has cut Mavis' yard and is working on ours. The air is smelling like onions, our yard is full of wild onions and there's no way to cut the grass without cutting them as well.
My SIL Teresa and her boyfriend Chris are here with the kids. I am hoping we can keep the kids for a while. I have missed them terribly.
Next week is the start of the revival at Marshall's uncle's church. I am thinking we will be going a couple of times.
I have gotten almost all the food for Thanksgiving. We are having 14 people this year. It means a lot of cooking but it is well worth it. My apron is washed and ready to go. The three women in the house are going to be really busy cooking. Lucky for us my MIL has a stove we can use so the turkey can go in it and we can get the other stuff in mine.
Marshall has three days off this week! Today, tomorrow, and Wednesday. He has been working six days a week for three weeks now and really needs a break. His sleep schedule has really been off and it shows. He slept until almost noon today. I am betting he will go to bed early tonight too.
With the washer having been fixed on Thursday it has been a non-stop laundry fest here. It is finally all done. Now back to the daily laundry. I am so glad to have my washer back. There is nothing to make someone feel so helpless as not having the means to get everyone's clothes washed in a timely manner. I washed as much as I could by hand, but it was so time-consuming that not everything got done like I would have liked. I still have to take some things to the dry cleaners, but that will be easy.
Well, I had better get going on dinner. There are more to cook for tonight and that means a little longer in the kitchen.

Plans for the Week

Here it is Monday again and I have a really long list of things to get done this week. I am in the middle of cleaning the whole house for winter, plus we still have no washer so I have to go into town to do that, plus grocery shopping on Thursday and finishing the organizing of my books and collectibles. Add to that the normal bill paying, kid driving, and schedule juggling for 7 people and you have my week.
Sean's team made it to the finals, so this Thursday is the final game.
Ian's last day of driver's ed is Saturday then he starts driving in the student car. I am seriously not ready for him to be driving. It seems that just yesterday he was a little guy having to climb on a chair to turn on the light and now he is 6 ft. tall and driving. Where have the years gone???
We are back to looking for a new church. Marshall wasn't totally happy at the old one, so we are looking again.
Looks like my daughter Jessica will be coming here in January instead of around Christmas. I will be glad to see her regardless. I miss her even though I do talk to her a lot. It's not quite the same as seeing her.
Well, I better get going. I am cleaning our room tonight.

Mid-week

The washer isn't going to be fixed until Tuesday because the part didn't come in yet. I am not pleased, but there isn't anything I can do to speed up the process.
Sean's soccer team won! 4 to 0. Now they are second in the district and start semi-finals today in Hobbton.
I still have that cold, but am feeling somewhat better. Yesterday I couldn't stop sneezing no matter what meds I took. I finally took NyQuil and went to bed around 9:50 last night. Looks like Ian might be getting sick now, but he has a doctor's appointment tomorrow morning to take care of any absences he might get so all is good.
I am considering hosting a PartyLite party. I don't know anything about these parties and I hate bringing people over just to have them buy things, KWIM? I like their products though, and they would make good presents for Christmas. Anybody interested?
As to Christmas shopping, well, I haven't gotten anything done yet. I was going to go this weekend, but my SIL Michelle is on the verge of having her baby (almost had it last night as a matter of fact) so I am hesitant to make plans that far in advance, just in case we have to run to Fayetteville at the last minute.
Well, that's about it for the middle of this week. Have a blessed rest of the week all!

Washer Woes

The repairman came out today to fix my washing machine and gave me some bad news. It will cost over $400 to fix it and he won't be out to fix it until Thursday or possibly even next Tuesday. He didn't have the part on his truck to do it today and his company only comes out to our area on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Oh joy. Two or more days longer without a washer. Looks like I need to find a laundromat.
I have contracted the cold Marshall had last week. I am not feeling very well at all, but still have to be up to keep the house, so it's lots of cold meds for me. At least Marshall is doing better and is only a little stuffy.
The party Friday was a massive failure. None of the kids' friends showed up and it rained all evening. The kids and I came home and watched movies. The plus side was that Heather and Bryan got to go to a haunted house at the Wallace Fire Department on Saturday. They had fun. The other two didn't want to go so they stayed home with me and watched more movies.
This afternoon Sean's soccer team is having a game so we are going to that and then their tournament games start on Thursday in Hobbton so we are going then as well. They have done really well this season, only losing one game.
Well, I just heard Bryan's bus pull up so I better get going so we can go to the game when Marshall gets home.

Friday's Plans

Here's what we have to do today:
1. Heather's court date for the wreck is today. We have to be there at 9:00. Hopefully the DA will drop the charges since our insurance paid to fix the other guy's truck.
2. Pick up the last of the costume stuff for the boys.
3. Pick up Marshall's paycheck and get it in the bank.
4. Come home and make all the food for the party. I will also be doing laundry and working on the costumes.
5. Marshall leaves for work at 1:30. He has a 9 hour shift today.
6. The party is at 5:00 until whenever it stops.
7. Help clean up and get the kids back home.

Whew! That is going to make for a long day. I am hoping it all goes off without problems. There's no time for wasted minutes today.

Gearing up for the weekend

Mavis made it back from Texas yesterday afternoon. We picked her up at the Fayetteville airport and came right home. Marshall has caught a nasty cold and has been in bed most of the time since he got off work Monday night. I am hoping it isn't anything worse than a bad cold. H1N1 is all over the place out here and it would be bad for him to catch that. I have lots of disinfectant and hand sanitizer ready just in case.
We are having a party Friday night for the kids at Marshall's cousin's house so we are getting costumes together and Heather is working on a really nasty looking menu. By nasty I mean "Halloween food", which is not normal looking by any stretch of the imagination, but fun none the less. I hope no one is too grossed out by the bloody punch or the ghouls hands or other less-than-savory sounding goodies.
Last Saturday we went to New Life Baptist Church in Clinton to their Harvest Festival. The boys had a blast. Sean got a ton of candy from the games and Ian and Bryan were all over the place playing games and climbing the rock wall. Heather, Marshall, and I spent our time watching the kid in the dunking booth get dunked and eating cotton candy. We also went and looked at the farm animals they had there and spoke to a woman with the sweetest male Great Dane. He was HUGE!
I got an email from Marshall's Aunt Judy this morning about their revival in November. Maybe I can get him out there for a service.
My mom's caretaker called yesterday saying my mom wanted to talk to me. I talked to her for a few minutes before she lost interest and gave the phone back to Althea. I miss my mom. I haven't been this far away from her in years and Christmas won't be the same without her here. None of the holidays will.
Well, I've been fighting some sort of stomach problem for a couple of days now so I better go lie back down. I really can't afford to be sick on Friday.