This time of year

It kind of seems like I've been neglecting the blog lately. And the truth is that I have been. It's not that I don't want to blog. Actually it's quite the contrary. I compose meaningful and engaging posts while I'm in the shower, driving to my mom's house and wandering around the food store grabbing a bunch of random items.   Then I get home and real life starts and I forget about that awesome idea I had while I was in the car or the shower or the store. So I let a few more days pass hoping inspiration will smack me on the head. Or that my computer will open up and beckon me over. Or that a beautiful post will magically write itself.   Part of the problem (if you can even call it a problem) is everyday life. We've just been so busy over here. I feel like I'm all over the place and not doing anything well right now. My house is messy (it's clean, just not neat), the fridge is emptier than I'm comfortable with, and the laundry is piling up all over the place. I take something from the clean pile, wear it and then put it in the hamper. It never even sees the closets or drawers anymore.   

 Here's Gia, cheesing it up in my mirror. See that bag on the left? That's from vacation. Yup. Haven't unpacked it yet and we went away in February. It's pretty much April. Oh, the shame.

And, there's one other tiny little thing. It's called our money-pit, suck-the-bank-account dry, house. I have some other choice words for it, but I'll keep them to myself for now.   As you may remember we had a rough week in February when we had to replace the hot water heater and the washer. At the end of that, I was asking "what next?" Well, that seems like a breeze compared to what came next--aka what happened last week.   I went down to to basement to do laundry (see, I'm trying) and there was the infamous puddle on the floor. Turns out our old washer, which was old, was not really broken, nor was it leaking. Because, see, we replaced it and we still have a little water in the basement. So this time I knew that the water must be coming from somewhere else--I assumed it was from the snow melting outside. I threw down our old slop towels and didn't worry too much.   A few hours later I went down to check on it and found a small stream. It was threatening to reach the other side of the basement (which has carpet and is where we store our stuff). I threw down more towels and Jon walked in from work just as I was doing this. He went right down (this was around 5 pm) and found the problem. One of the huge pipes down there was actually dripping. We put a bucket under the leak and called the plumber (who happens to be an acquaintance of my husband and who came right over, thankfully.)   He diagnosed the problem right away: the sewage pipe was clogged. Yes, that's the poopy pipe--the one that carries sewage from our house to the sewer outside. No using water or flushing till we could get another guy out to unclog it. Enter 2nd plumber-type guy, who was very busy and could not come till 10 pm that night. He took one look and told us it was best to wait till morning.   We sent Gia to school a little stinky, as we weren't able to bathe her the night before--and the 2nd plumber guy came over bright and early and unclogged the pipe. In the light of day he was able to follow the pipe out of the basement and guesstimate where it was under our front lawn. Then he stepped in a soft, muddy divot on the front lawn and he knew exactly where the pipe was.   Of course there's more. There's no way that simply unclogging a pipe is the end of the road when it comes to this house.    So back to plumber guy #2 (I'm calling him plumber guy because he's not a regular plumber, but I don't know what exactly he is). The soft spot on the front lawn, combined with all his pipe experience, told him that the pipe that comes out of our house and meets with another one to take the crap out to the sewer in the street was probably not flush against the other one and was leaking sweage into our front yard. This was causing the soft spot on the front lawn. A few more months of this, combined with warm weather, would have made a huge, smelly mess of our lawn and cause several other issues for us, none of which I can remember now.
Enter the excavator and the backhoe. Plumber guy #2 sent over his buddy, a 73 year-old retired DPW guy who excavates. He agreed that we needed to dig up the pipe and replace it so it wasn't leaking. He drove his backhoe over, dug a huge ditch in our front lawn and fixed the pipe. All of this happened before dinner time. Kind of amazing how in less than 24 hours this all transpired.

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So, all of that was my very long-winded way of saying, I am so ready for spring. Spring is rebirth, new beginnings, new life...and I can't wait.  

WW: our week

Top Row: Putting sprinkles on our green St. Patty's Day cupcakes, lunching with her bestie, homemade Irish Bread (aka Soda Bread)
Middle Row: wearing her crown, making St. Patty's cards, asleep on sly
Bottom Row: She lined all her cars up, trying on my tiny Gucci shoe keychain, being silly with my girl

Calling all the LADIES!

It's no big secret that I love to read. It's truly one of my favorite things to do and is the main reason I decided to become an English teacher.  I wanted to (and still want to) inspire others to read.    You also know how much I love blogging. Even though I'm still a newbie, this has been an awesome journey so far, and I have so much more to say, to write, to share.   A few weeks ago I wrote a post called I Poop Glitter. (The title is an homage to the title of one of my favorite posts on Kelle's blog.) In it I spoke of one of my favorite bloggers: Kelle Hampton. Kelle and I share the same philosophies about life and motherhood. Reading her blog makes my heart happy. 
So where am I going with all this? Well, about a year ago Kelle became a bona fide author when her first book, Bloom was published. I wasn't a reader of Kelle's blog at that point so I missed out on pre-ordering her book and having the opportunity to Skype with her about the book.    In April Bloom comes out in paperback & Kelle's doing it again. For anyone who pre-orders 8 copies of the paperback, Kelle will set up a time to Skype with you and your fellow readers. 

   To say I'm really excited about this would be an understatement. I was ready to order 8 books all for myself and just spend a half hour Skyping with Kelle alone. But then I thought about it. Why not tell all my friends about this? I'm sure so many of you will love her blog as much as I do--especially if you are a mom, or a mom-to-be. And maybe you'll also want to read the book with me, and then come over to my house for a girl's night and Skype session with Kelle. And if not, I'll just go back to my original plan and just order 8 copies for myself!     So, take a look at Kelle's website and check our her book and let me know if you're interested in coming to the book club. (I have no idea when this will happen--but I'm guessing sometime in April or May.) You can email me or leave me a note on the Facebook page (make sure to "like" it while you're there!). Or, if you aren't close but still want a copy of the book, that works too! I'll be placing the order for 8 books (hopefully more!) on March 31st.    UPDATE-- I clearly didn't read Kelle's website closely enough. The Skype session is only open to the first 40 people who order 8 or more copies. So I just placed an order for 8 copies of the book (on March 15). It looks like we are among the first 40, and Kelle will be Skyping with us!  If you'd like to join us and would like one of the books, please let me know. They were $13.59 each. No shipping charges.   (Yes I just spent $117 on 8 of the same book. I'm really hoping some of y'all come through here and want to join me!)