Run Ragged

So yeah, I'm feeling a little run ragged today! CPT didn't come to bed till late last night because he was tired of me complaining about how the dining room was messy because of stuff that he'd put there after he got home from deployment, and now the kids can't do their dining room chores. It always comes down to that. hehe. Well, I always find a way to bring it back to that... Anyway, he'd had enough, and finally buckled down and cleaned it up. Well, his part, anyway.

So, when he left for early PT at 5am this morning, and I couldn't fall back asleep, I decided to hop up and go clean up my part of the mess! Aren't you proud of me? Cleaning? What's that! It's usally not in my vocabulary! I must REALLY be branching out! LOL.

First, I did this last night, and it looks fabulous!
Then, I work on my dining room, and it looks SO much better after 2 hours of detailed cleaning! Again, PROUD moment for me - hehe. The kids were happy when they woke up that they could eat breakfast on the table again!
Eme and Me and Jake. Look how we get progressively bigger. LOL.
I worked up until the minute that I walked the kids to the bus. CPT came home sometime in that time frame, too. I chatted with Suzanne at the bus stop for a few minutes, the came back home. CPT and I hung for a few minutes after he was done with PT, then Kari texted and said that hiking was at 8:30am. I texted all the girls to confirm our plans. We were doing hiking at 8:30am and Laser Tag at 12pm. I wasn't so sure about it, but it sounded fun-ish.

I wasn't quite ready when Kari came to get me, so I grabbed my wallet and shoes and socks and all my junk, and ran to her car. She just laughed. How well she knows me :) We picked up Julia and Kim, then off we went to hike in the mountains. And I was so glad that we had Julia with us today. Because I thought that I was gonna die last week. hehe. Julia is still recovering from Surgery, so people HAVE to go easy on her. I'm just getting fluffy. So people try to kick my butt. ROFL!

We did an easy, but long, hike today. It was nice and good. I enjoyed it. Not hard at all. Good, too, because I was getting tired from being up at 5am.

We headed back to post, and stopped by the Youth Center to sign the kids up for Baseball. Unfortunately, I still hadn't turned in Jake and Tom's physicals. So they weren't completely registered. So I couldn't get Tom signed up for Baseball. Sigh. But, I did get Joe and Jim signed up. And Eme want's to play volleyball, which doesn't start until April. So it all works out. I just need to remember to go back and get Tom signed up before the sign-up process is closed! He'd be seriously bummed if he missed it!

We realized that we didn't have time to go home and change or shower before laser tag, so we just dropped Kim off at her house (she wasn't feeling up for laser tag), and picked up Erin, and we headed out. And made a quick jaunt to the Taco Cabana drive thru! And I totally thought of Andrea while I was in line! She LOVES that place. hehe. It was ok. They DID have DDP, though! Oh yeah :)

We headed to the West side, and we each purchased 2 games. And we split into 3 times. Erin was on her own team, the yellow team. Kari and I were on a team. And Julia and Liz (she met us there) were on a team. We had no clue what we were doing. Apparently, you hold the gun a certain way, and a beam of light shoots out, and if it beams your opponents vest lights, then you get a point.

Also, you're trying to put out your opponents "base" light. By shooting it with the "beam". It was pretty fun. I wasn't too sure at first, but I got REALLY into it! I was running, sneaking, shooting, being covert, sniping people from the 2nd level. Oh yeah, I was having a blast!

When we broke after the first game to check our scores, I got the HIGHEST score! Go me!!! The 2nd round, the dude from the store snuck onto Erins team, and we didn't know! We just kept wondering how she was getting SO good at snipering everyone!!!! hehe. We finally figured it out, though.

That was, truly, the most fun that I've had in a SUPER long time. We instantly made plans to come back! And to play 3 rounds instead of only 2. SO much fun! And with a bigger group, I think. We're gonna need to recruit some more girls!


Kari dropped me and Erin off at my house, and Kim came over too. Kim and Kari and Julia and I had talked about solutions to the Jake and his tiny closet room problem. The best solution I'd heard was to create a wall inside of Tom's room. So that it was 2 rooms. Because, with him being Aspergers, and aggressive, he CAN'T share a room. His therapist said that. He'd hurt someone before we could get to him.

And Kim said that she had the knowledge and skills to build the wall! AND, that it would be super easy. And removable, so that when we moved, the house would go back to normal. Double score!!!

Erin and I didn't quite get the vision, but Kim seemed to know what she was talking about. We took her word for it. Erin headed back home, and Kim and I headed off to Lowes. And proceeded to have the WORST Lowes trip in our lives! Usually, Lowes is wonderful. They are helpful and great. Yeah, NOT this time.

It was so bad, that while the worker was helping us in door, some hot little chick walked up looking for hooks, and he stopped what he was doing helping us, helped her, then came back to us. Um, RUDE! So what if we are old ladies with a door! We were there first! She was super embarrassed ,and apologized a few times to us. She knew he was being rude.

We got the 2x4's that we needed, and the dry wall, and the screws, and the pre-hung door, and the door knob, and we went to pay. And someone tried to cut us off in line. Then, we asked for someone to help us out. Cause it was gonna barely fit in our truck. Nope, said the lady. There were 2 - 3 guys in front of us. Guys? I asked. Well, us GIRLS will just have to do it ourselves, I guess....

So we tried to wheel our stuff out the exit, and it was blocked by carts. WHAT THE HECK!!! I had to go and unblock the exit. So not cool! Finally, we made it to the Suburban. And the wind was SUPER strong! I was afraid it was gonna blow the cart away! We tried and tried and tried to get the seats to fold down, but try as we might, we couldn't figure it out!!! We did manage to get the back seats down, but not the middle seats. Sigh. I know there must be some sort of trick...

We tried to get the first double sheet of drywall into the Suburban, and it dropped, Kim tried to save it, but the wind blew it over. And it cracked a little bit. Finally, some nice man saw us, and came to our rescue! THANKS!!!! We would have been there ALL day if not for him! He helped us (it was a 3-4 person task, I think!), and we headed back to post.

We got Kim's kids from their school, then went to my kids' bus stop. Kim headed to her house, and I grabbed mine. We went home, and Kim and kids came over after a few to play. And we unloaded the suburban, and got to work.

We dismantled the bunk bed in Tom's room, and then worked on getting the lengths of boards cut outside. The Skil saw had a dull blade, so we hung out waiting for CPT to get home. Unfortunately, this was the first night that he was 'late'. So we ended up waiting outside for about an hour... But when he got home, he quickly cut away on the lengths of boards with his table saw. Awesome, honey! YOU ROCK!

And then Kim and I set to work. And my me, I mean moral support. And the occasional tool passage. Or nail handage... Yeah, that's about it. I have no skills in woodworking. Or craftsmanship. But the gift of gab? Yeah, got that one - ha!


She got it all framed, then the door squared up. It was pretty late by then, so we each put our kids to bed. I had Tom sleep in Eme's room for the night. Tomorrow, I'll move Jake and Tom's crap into the rooms during the day.

Then, the drywall went up pretty quick.


Kim headed home around 10pm. Or was it 9pm. I don't know. I was so sore and tired. I can't even imagine what she felt like, because she was the one actually working. She was the one with all of the mad skills. I really hope that the boys appreciate their new rooms. Especially Jake. This new room is 6 feet across! SO much better than the Utility closet! I don't know it's dimensions, but it's gotta be better than that, right??!

I sat down to blog, and CPT started working on the boys' and his Pinewood derby cars. And here it is, 11:36pm. And I'm beat. Spent. Run ragged. Totally exhausted. More than ready for bed. Night, you guys! I'll see you in the morning :)

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