Or at least the blog world.
Well. Time certainly goes by fast. I believe the last time I seriously posted Littlest had left for boot camp and Middlest, who had moved out, realized she had made a grave error in judgment (what else is new) with her roommates and moved back in-and brought her boyfriend with her. Yes there's a guy. There's always a guy. That's just the way it is so I don't question it anymore. I don't like him, let's just say I find him 'insufficient' for my lovely daughter, but at least he isn't a drunken abusive felon, so I let him live in my house -temporarily. So we were going along like that and enjoying our granddaughter, because it occurred to me that the sad days that had fallen upon me, where I would pathetically stare at the cute dresses and holiday paraphernalia, like Valentines that no one expected anymore...except Biggest.. and Easter Baskets no one wanted anymore...except Biggest...were now over again, and I could resume the fun. Let's stop for a moment and ponder whether Biggest had a child as an excuse to keep getting gifts...hmmm....ok anyway...
After we nearly went crazy with our youngest being away and not being able to talk to her, she finally graduated recruit training on February 28th. She did great, received the highest Combat Fitness Score in her platoon and earned an Expert Rifleman rating, which is highest you can get in the USMC. Am I bragging? Damn frigging tootin I am, anyway...I was so proud of her, and it was amazing seeing her in uniform and on base, her behavior was so professional. It was surreal. She was awesome. And I didn't cry. Not on family day. Not when I saw her platoon marching in. Not when they broke ranks and the crowd rushed in for congratulations. They aren't allowed to show overt displays of affection in uniform so it was very reserved. I was grinning ear to ear. I didn't cry. Not till we drove all the home and walked up the stairs and were headed toward the kitchen and I realized I had my daughter there with me and she was mine for the moment, which is when I grabbed her and held on for dear life and cried my eyes out. She was allowed 10 days leave before leaving for a month of Marine Combat Training. Apparently basic training is very basic and MCT is where you go to shoot all the big guns and learn all the really scary stuff so...Now, we decided to be kind because she and her boyfriend Daisy are both of age and have been together over two years, so we allowed him to stay over while she was home. The SeaMonkey just proclaimed very solemnly to them to "Respect My House" and everyone knew what he meant. So I had 2 daughters and their boyfriends living in the house 24-7 and I admit that after a couple days, and with the fresh memory of the whole month we had the whole house to ourselves, I'd had enough of boys and I wanted my house back desperately.
Now, when Lit left the first time, everyone put a brave face on it and she was nonchalant. Because you see, someone who has never been away from home has no idea how hard it is to leave home. Personally my parents shipped me all over the place and I spent a couple weeks at summer camp every year and I have never had a problem walking out of a place and never looking back. Over the years I tried to convince the SeaMonkey that camp was an awesome idea but we have always been a close knit family and he much preferred camping as a family and spending all our time together, which truly is great, believe me, we have wonderful memories but if I have any bit of parenting advice to give it's, "send your children away", just a little while is fine. It is to their benefit.
Because I got a devastatingly homesick young woman back. And I have to say it was much harder on us to get her back and then have to let her go again. We were all basket cases and collectively sobbed when she left the second time. But we will adjust. Though her original dream was to train all the way across the country, by chance her final Occupational Specialty training will be done in our state, just a few hours away. And I think she is happy about that now. She graduates from MCT on April 15th and will then head to her training facility where she begins 5 months of school, learning to...do something I can't tell you about...and I'm not just holding out on you...because
I'M not allowed to know exactly what she's doing either. Let's just say that if you've ever wondered, the Grounded family has been thoroughly scrutinized. The abbreviation Op Sec had become part of our vocabulary. Nuff Said...
So Then. By happy chance one week later Middlest found a house on Biggests street just a few doors down. Happy Dance! So now they have each other. And it works out well for Biggest because recently she really pissed me off and when she realized she went to far she craftily changed the topic to tattling on Mid for things she thought would piss me off, but guess what? None of it was serious, so I don't care! Yay! I have my house back and after years and years everything is in it's place and I can finally get everything just as I Want it without having to worry about others, breaking, spilling and generally destroying....for a few months and then I will have to baby proof it...: ) That's ok, it's totally worth it, but anyway...
Now to the part about where the hell I've been and what I've been doing.
We had taken a couple weeks off for Littlest and now we were on doubled work schedule with little free time. Now normally we are do it yourself'ers but our floors had to be done and we were out of time. My floors predate my house by decades. They are old pine barn planks that are worn, uneven, gapping, and I absolutely love them. They, however, do not love giant dogs and have to be patched up every couple of years. We decided to hire a company that claimed it could refinish floors without sanding. The SeaMonkey called and an angry lesbian arrived to take a look and claimed it would work. Um. It might work on average wood floors. She had never seen floors like ours. But she was sure it would work just fine. When she left the first day the floors looked great-until a couple hours later when the finish began to blister. So we said, never mind. But she begged for the chance to fix it...after blaming everything under the sun from non existent water damage to our dogs peeing on the floor overnight -the entire floor in one night. The SeaMonkey wasn't thrilled but he said, "give it a shot", because she was kind of scary. Which is when she came back with a sander. And began to sand one half of my living room. The other half being where all my furniture was stacked, with an open dry sander. Which is why, not long afterward The SeaMonkey stumbled his way through the cloud of dust covering every surface in my house, including the still screwed up floors and asked her to stop. "It isn't anything personal he said, but...." "Just leave", she asked? Yes, please, he replied, to which she packed up and a flew like a bat out of hell, throwing a quick-'we won't charge you' over her shoulder as she bolted out the door.
Damn straight you won't charge us. Be glad I don't charge you for the trouble and time away from work I spent literally dusting every inch of the place. When our client asked the SeaMonkey where I was, he explained and she tried to make the best of, "Well, tell her at least she's getting her spring cleaning done." HA! I asked him, "Did you tell her 'as if I ever spring clean' ; )" Anyway, he had to redo the floors. And we still had a full work schedule, so we hired Middlest to paint Lits room and bathroom. Once we knew she was a Marine and would not be living at home anymore, it was time to convert it to a guest room/new office for me. Since every time Mid leaves The SeaMonkey turns her room into a weight room, and so of course gets a good workout moving weights in and out every few months, this one was for me..anyway... Lits room had walls that hadn't been painted in years. You see, though Middlest leaves a trail of acrylic paint everywhere she goes, Littlest is fond of working in black Asian calligraphy ink. Apparently she works it into her walls and floors and sink too because paper just isn't sufficient. It does not wash off. So, we gave up on keeping it up in there. What, with her décor consisting of Marine Corps posters, Jiu Jitsu medals and a heavy bag hanging from the ceiling, what was the point anyway?
First we cleared the room. I found Daisy's jacket and gave him a call to let him know he needed to grab it, because it was going to be cold the next day, and he said he'd come by. Shortly afterwards The SeaMonkey found the evidence of Littlest and Daisy NOT 'respecting his house', under the bed. So...he took the wrappers and shoved them in the pocket of Daisy's jacket which he handed to him at the door without a word and then shut it without inviting him in. Which the entire family found hysterical. After a couple weeks of not hearing anything Biggest couldn't stand it anymore and called him. He hadn't used the jacket. She told him to check his pockets, which she enjoyed immensely and I haven't heard a peep out of poor Daisy for 3 weeks even though he usually checks in with me every so often. : ) We're just letting it hang over his head like a sword ready to fall. Keep him guessing, the little shit. However the SeaMonkey made sure to embarrass the hell out of Lit the next time she called. But anyway....Middlest may be able to create a masterful work of amazing beauty on a wall if you ask her to paint a mural but getting two colors on to a large flat surface and corresponding straight edged trim neatly is a whole other story. So after I paid her, bless her heart, she worked really hard, I spent two days repainting the edges of the room and bathroom, which has wood walls and apparently no squared or even lines at all, during the process of which, though my kids may sometimes call me
a hypocrite ' the Swear Word Nazi ', Miss Manners here may or may not have been heard to utter the phrase, "Fuckity Fuck Fuck Fuck". So I had to cut her a little slack on the paint job. I then spent a fun couple of weeks purchasing and repurposing things for the new room, which included more painting, and several days of torture over trying to make my work surface more attractive and hide all the crap I keep under it, because in my hole in the wall it didn't matter but now it does, which turned out to be a situation duck tape couldn't resolve no matter how I toiled so I had to break out a needle and thread. I found some in an old sewing box my sister gave to Littlest, that used to belong to her ex mother in law, with materials from about 1956. But in the end it looks very nice for when Littlest has leave or someone visits and as far as being my office goes, is very convenient to the bathroom.
That is 3 1/2 months smooshed in to one post!
So it has been a very busy couple of months and I'm not done yet. I'll be traveling a lot and work is still crazy though the house has calmed down. As a matter of fact I'm on my way out again this afternoon, so if I miss you I'll catch up later. Last of all, with all of that fascinating information about what we've been up to and the hectic activity and emotional turmoil of the last few months there is one thing I can share that stands out as a lesson well learned:
I can assure you that whatever the needs of your project may be-jute IS NOT the answer.
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