28 days later....

28 days later and not a zombie in sight, neither does there seem to be an end to the kitchen remodel.  The cabinets have been installed but the trim-out has not been completed as there were a few missing parts from the delivery. The appliances have been delivered but they have not yet been installed. The electrician needs to come by and connect the new wiring to the outlets, switches and lights, and also install a new breaker box. He has to meet the Electric co. here to raise the power lines to the house. I am also waiting for the countertop manufacturers to come measure the template for the countertops, then make them and return to install them. They are scheduled to be here on Friday April 5 to draw the template, oh and then it takes about three weeks for them to make them, then return and install. Will that be the final bit... well no. Backsplash to be tiled after, and faucet, drain, dishwasher to be hooked up, and then the final trim work and then maybe, just maybe I will have a beautiful new kitchen. So by my estimate we are halfway there.

This weekend we planning on building the deck - or at least get it started. I know the dogs will be happy as they are now having to walk up and down a very steep temporary ramp to get in and out of the house. I am looking forward to having a nice place to sit out. The backyard will still need loads of work but that will be a project for 2014.

Alan hasn't had any more problems with his heart. He got the all-clear just one day after they had thought he had a heart attack. I don't know if we will ever know what happened to cause his heart to go a bit crazy, but at least for now he is doing well.

The kids have once again proven to me that it is impossible for them both to be in great loving form at the same time. Abate after several months of being a withdrawn, angry, and moody teen suddenly returned to his formerly sweet loving funny self. Then about a week or so later Fantu has decided that we all must hate her ( because I posted on FB about how proud I was of Abate making 1st Team All-district soccer). She decided she's not interested in being a part of this family.  Why can't they both be in good form at the same time? AUGH, some days it just gets so exhausting and frustrating. It has not been an easy month with the remodel taking so much of my attention and energy and trying to give the kids the attention they crave. I know that once this is all complete it will have been worth it. we will have a home that encourages interaction, conversation, and great times to be shared over many meals to come.

Sirens and Flashing Lights

This family never seems to have a typical Saturday. I awoke with a full day of "must do's" on my list. The first arrived at 7:30 am when the electrician and his crew of 4 took over the house to replace and add new wiring to the kitchen. Once they got stuck in I dashed out to the store to get the weeks supply of feed for the teens that will be home all week on spring break. Less than an hour later I return with bags of food that would surely impress the dogs with my great hunter/gatherer skills. It is unfortunately much harder to impress the teens living under my roof. The electrician finished this part of his job far earlier than I had anticipated so I would be able to get stuck in restoring the floor in the kitchen. I venetured out once again to get the supplies I would require for this insane DIY task.
I returned as the boys were just emerging from their cave, they were already dressed and grabbed a bag of donuts as they headed out. They were off to Temple to the Childrens Hospital where Elmer's baby sister had been taken the night before.
I went to work. I received a text from Alan saying he was feeling ill and would stop in Childress until he felt better, he was going to try to get some rest. I continued into the middle of the afternoon scraping old tile off the floors. I was really wishing Abate and Elmer would hurry back as it was a much more difficilt job than I had imagined. No sign of them so I struggled on. Finally the last tile and of course thats when the boys returned. Abate jumped right in and removed that last one so heroicly. He then tells me about something that happened while he was in Temple.
It seems that as they were heading out Abate was driving his own car and Elmer was driving his Mom's. They became separated so Abate pulled over into the far right lane and was driving slow with the hopes that Elmer would soon catch up. Within minutes a policeman pulled up behind him turned on his lights and pulled him over. He was perplexed as to why but he remembeed everything we taught him on how to sit, be polite and cooperate. And if you are wondering, we have talked extensively about how he will be mis-judged and at times pulled over for no reason except that he is black. This it seems may have ben one of those times. The policeman approached him and asked him if he knew anything about a robbery at the nearby Kohls store the evening before. Abate replied that no, he was from Gatesville and had just been visiting a friend that was in the hospital. The policeman was polite and thanked him and went on his way. The strangest thing about this story is that the cop was black too. Abate luckily was able to have a bit of a laugh about the whole thing.
I went back to work on the floors. It was time to start sanding.It is a dirty, noisey, messy, dusty job that had to be done. The oak boards had such a buld up of glues and other crap you could ony faintly see that they were in fact wood. The sander is noisey - I missed a call from Alan. I called him back but he did not answer.I took a break from the sander to sweep up some of the dust. He called back about half an hour after I had called him. He was in the hospital in Childress Texas, something was wrong with his heart. They didn't think it was a heart attack, but they knew there was something wrong with it. I stopped what I was doing. I started cleaning up all my mess. I waited for another call. After another test they were starting to think that maybe it wa a heart attack, he was going to be transferred to a larger hospital in Wichita Falls  he was going by helocopter. I would have a 3.5 hour drive rom Gatesville. I started packing, giving instructions to the kids, ordered them a pizza for dinner and checked the weather as thunderstorms were forecast for later and I thought I had already heard thunder (plus Sadie was already shaking like a leaf and was glued to my side). Well one look at the radar and I knew I wouldn't be going anywhere for several hours, a massive storm was right in my path. So I joined the kids eating pizza and decided to get some sleep and head up early Sunday morning.

Sunday morning at 1:00 am the clocks jumped forward to 2 am. The USA went back on Daylight Savings Time, so we lost an hour of sleep. I had hoped to be on the road by 4 am, instead it was after 5 am. I got to the hospital just after 8:30 am. When I found his room the nurse was drawing blood and checking his vitals. The doctors were back to thinking it wasn't a heart attach but he has an enlarged heart possibly caused by an infection. There would be more doctors and more test to come. He is currently on a liquid diet, no caffeine (poor man is miserable  with out his morning cuppa joe). I ventured out for lunch while he went down to have a stress test done. I am back in his room, he is not. So I wait.

So it was a Saturday of flashing lights and sirens for the two men in my life. It was one of firsts - Alan's first helicopter ride and Abates first time being pulled over by a cop because of the color of his skin.It was two firsts we could have done without. It was another weekend that reminds us that plans and schedules are not meant to be kept. Life has it's own plan no matter how we might protest. I guess the only way to avoid having a change in plans is not to make any. But I don't like that because to me plans are a bit like our dreams, and without them what would life be?

Keep us in your thoughts and prayers as Alan recovers and we travel between home and the hospital.
I will try to post an update as we know more.