Getting It Together

We moved into this house in March 2004. A few months later (September), my dad got very sick and passed away suddenly. My mom had always been frail and I knew Dad did everything for her, so it became my duty to take mom grocery shopping, to appointments and basically anything else she needed.

I didn't mind and I had the time and she really didn't do much, other than shop for groceries once a week and have the occasional doctor's appointment. She had her hair styled once a week, but the beautician was right down the street from her, so she drove herself to that appointment and she had housekeepers who came and cleaned every other week.

This went on for about 8 months and I found out I was pregnant (with Sissy - in June 2005)). I kept taking care of mom and making time to get to my own rather frequent doctor's visits (I was REALLY a high risk pregnancy, so I was at my OBs office frequently).

In October 2005, my mom fell one night and broke her pelvis. While she was in the hospital, they noticed that she was having trouble swallowing, so they did a scope procedure of her esophagus and stomach. Initially, everything looked fine and they planned to send her to the recovery unit of the hospital to do rehab.

Then, the lab work on the scope procedure came back. She had esophageal cancer and it was terminal. With this news, the doctors decided she didn't qualify for rehabilitation, so I had to find a nursing home to give her round the clock care.

We offered to have her live with us, but she refused and even if she had said yes, I would have still needed home health care. At 5 months into a high risk pregnancy, there was no way I could lift her or be of any service, really.

I visited the nursing home several times a day and kept in touch by phone with the nurses. Meanwhile, I was paying the bills at her house and taking care of paying the housekeepers, who I kept on.

Mom was in the nursing home less than a month when she passed away in November of 2005. Sissy was born in February of 2006 and my life continued to be hectic.

To say that my house took the brunt of my over-scheduled life would be an understatement.

I had a newborn and I was going through all the probate and estate stuff necessary to put my parents' house on the market. The house finally sold in May 2007 (and let me tell you, THAT whole ordeal is another blog).

The Evil Twin and I had some remodeling done on our own house that summer, but there were three other things I wanted to do.

1. Repaint our bedroom.
2. Repaint the hallway.
3. Remove the wallpaper from the dining room and kitchen and repaint. (that's going to be a fairly large job).

Now that Sissy is moving from babyhood into toddlerhood, we are able to get some of the baby clutter put away. Last week, I bought her a booster seat for the kitchen table, so the Peg Perego high chair that has served us well through two children is ready to go.

Sissy is a little more self-sufficient, which means I have time to do more around the house.

It's only taken me four years, but my house is finally getting the attention it needs. I'm in crazy woman on a mission mode for organization.

Some people are sad to see their kids growing up, going off to school. They cry on the first day of kindergarten. Not me, pal. (okay, I did shed a tear on Buddy's first day of preschool, but I had spent almost every day of four years with the little man...I wasn't used to being away from him where he wasn't with another family member).

I enjoy seeing my kids grow up, become more mature, etc. I don't look at is as losing a baby, but more like I'm gaining a person. A really cool person, in the case of my two children. :-)

I sense this is going to be a year of lots of GOOD changes. I'm actually looking forward to it.

Since 2004, my life has been chaos. The reign of chaos ends here. Whew.