Best TV Moment EVER!!!!!

No. Not Sunday night's Lost Finale. I'm sorry. I'm sure it was a lovely show. And most likely at some point I will netflix the dern thing and watch it all. But this is not about that.

This is about last night's Glee. I can't say I was too pumped about the night - I'm NOT a GaGa fan, so an evening of Bad Romance and La La OOOOo AH AH AH AH just wasn't sitting to well with me...

(I know you've seen this, but I still think it's funny - Lady GaGa Math - (RAH)² (AH)³ + [ROMA (1+MA)] + (GA)² + (OOH)(LA)²)

Ok..THE moment.

The Boys (minus Kurt) decided they weren't into the whole GaGa thing, so they wanted to do the "male" version... whom they determined to be KISS. They came out in full KISS makeup and "clothing" (really... can you call that clothing???) and nailed a full on rocking Shout It Out Loud.

But that wasn't the moment.

It was when Puck decided that Jack Daniels wasn't a good name for a baby girl, and called his fellow KISS members down to sing....

yes.... I grabbed Mr. B's hand "Oh my gosh... are they going to????"

The Piano starts playing....

"THEY ARE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Yes... my favorite group of singers did, indeed, sing my all time favorite song.

Beth.

And it was made all the better because the first weekend after Mr. B and I met, he was returning home and in the airport. At that point we didn't really know what was happening between us and he just wasn't sure. As he was walking through the gangway into the airport, he realized that Beth was playing on the airport Radio. KISS not being in your typical public space music rotation, he took it as a sign. So it is OUR song.

And it's been Glee'd.

And I... am so happy.

(I can't find just a clip of Beth - so check out the episode below... go to about 29 minutes and you can watch the BEST MOMENT IN TV EVER!!!


Check out this video: Theatricality

You Give Love... Errr.... Home Remodeling A Bad Name

Alright boys and girls... get comfortable. This could take a while.

Things you need to know:
Section 203(k) insurance enables homebuyers and homeowners to finance both the purchase (or refinancing) of a house and the cost of its rehabilitation through a single mortgage - or to finance the rehabilitation of their existing home.

Ok - that's what we have. In order to do a 203(k) loan, you have to hire a 203(k) consultant. They are the ones who gather the invoices and such from your various contractors, approve their work, and then send the invoices onto the bank to be paid (called a draw).

So... we have C.C. as our 203(k) consultant, and we'll call our contractors AH Inc. (I would more than happily name them here so anyone searching them could find out their true colors, but since there could be the need for legal action, I don't want to mess that up.) (Kinda give you a sense of where this post is going, doesn't it).

AH Inc. started the demolition portion of our house remodel last week. Things were going well, then we got an e-mail from C.C. saying that he had heard that we had fired him and wanted to know the status. Mr. B and I were all... "Homeboy say WHA????" (well... no we weren't... we don't talk like that... I think the words that were actually used were ones that probably shouldn't be repeated here.)

Mr. B called C.C. and asked what was going on. I will explain... no... there is too much.. I will sum up.

#1 - AH Inc. apparently called another 203(k) consultant, said they needed to make 2 draws - one for $17,000, and one for $15,000 and that we HAD FIRED OUR 203(k) guy and needed a new one, and could he help them get the draw and also be our new 203(k) guy. Well... this guy called C.C., and that's where the e-mail originated from.

Clearly, we had not fired him. They were trying to make this draw behind our back.s

#2 - AH Inc. called ANOTHER 203(k) consultant and invited him to their offices to discuss a "national organization" of 203(k) consultants and contractors. When they got him in their offices, they proceeded to tell him about our "situation" and called our Lender while he was in their offices, and tried to get him to tell the Lender that he was our new 203(k) consultant and it was ok to release the draw. He walked out, called our 203(k) consultant and told him what happened.

#3 - 2 more 203(k) consultant call ours and tell him that AH Inc has contacted them about helping them get draws.

Holy Fricking Thieves.

Then.... we bring in another contractor to give us a bid for the work, and he finds about 10 different blatant safety violations on the part of AH Inc.

THEN when we start trying to gather information about AH Inc. to report them, we find cover ups and misleading info and corporate changes and inconsistancies and silent partners and weird mailboxes in UPS facilities. I can't even begin to tell you all the crap that has come out about this company.

Suffice it to say, then, that all work on the house has now stopped and will stay stopped until they are paid what work they did, and we get another contractor hired.

The thing that sucks? After meeting with 2 different new contractors, Mr. B asked me what I thought. I said "I think they both seem like nice, knowledgeable people.... which is exactly what I thought about AH Inc." I don't trust any of them now.

Sigh.

This is their idea of how one secures an opening above a flight of stairs.....


This is their idea of securing an elevator shaft on the 2nd floor of a residence. That hole is completely open all the way to the basement floor. Oh YES - a little yellow caution tape will catch ANYONE who might stumble as they're walking.

And again... if yellow caution tape is good enough for the 2nd floor, it's definitely good for the 1st cause.... hey... it's not THAT far down to the basement...

Lizzy and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

There's a chance I'm repeating the title of this blog. Ask me if I care.

So.. over the last 3 days there has been EXTENSIVE drama with our contractor, the details of which I shall share later this weekend. But, suffice it to say that it has been a VERY stressful couple of days.

Yesterday... I got home from work, put water on the stove to boil for pasta, put the pasta sauce on medium... texted Mr. B something about wishing I had wine cause it was one of those days, went to go to the bathroom and realized, I had forgot to buy toilet paper at lunch yesterday. Grabbed the keys, told The Big Gulp to stay put and ran to CVS to get toilet paper. Texted Mr. B that I was headed to get toilet paper. He called me as I was leaving CVS, asked where I was and said "Stay put, I'm about a mile away and I have a bottle of wine for you." So I stayed put... until it hit me that I had left everything on the stove still cooking... ACK.... so I pulled out, passed him in the parking lot, he handed me the bottle from his window to mine... got home... FORTUNATELY I had (and I NEVER DO) put a lid on the sauce, so the mess was limited. And the water was boiling but it was a BIG pot with about 3 quarts of water so it was no where NEAR boiled dry... SO... I finish making dinner... fed the girls, poured myself a glass of wine, went to get something from the bed room, got back, and there's a BUG floating in my wine.... sigh... so I dump it out, and put the glass GENTLY in the sink... and it hits something and... breaks into a bunch of pieces. Fine. I didn't want the dang wine anyways.

Then this morning, I went to microwave a bagel for Essie and found the vegetables I made for supper last night.

Today just has to be better.

The One Where People Say Awwwwwwww....

Really, do I need to say anything?

The More Things Change, The More They Stay The Same

Gert's Birthday - 2007 (4 years old)



Gert's Birthday - 2010 (7 years old)

I Blinked

7 years ago right now I was 40 weeks and 6 days pregnant. I had been to the midwife that afternoon (Thursday). They did a non-stress test. I wasn't having ANYTHING resembling a contraction. The checked me.. wasn't dilated at all, not effaced... NOTHING. The midwife patted my hand as the tear slipped down my cheek, "Nothing's gonna happen this weekend. Call Monday morning and we'll get you set up for a induction."

I went home. Dejected. Essie had been induced 2 weeks early, so I had now been pregnant with this baby for 3 weeks longer than I had been pregnant before, I was miserable, and since Essie was induced and I had every drug known to man, I didn't even know what a contraction felt like. I was anxious.. miserable.... Did I mention miserable?

I went to bed that night... in my bed (which was unusual because I had been sleeping in the recliner because I had been so miserable in the bed)... and woke up the next morning, laid there for a minute and thought "Ouch... that hurt." I got up... took a shower... and "Ouch... that hurt" some more. The ouches started coming closer together. I got Essie up and ready for Preschool. I told then-Mr.-Gray (Well... he is still Mr. Gray he's just not MY Mr. Gray anymore... thankfully) that I thought maybe we should head to the hospital.

We dropped Essie off at preschool, telling her 7-month-pregnant teacher that we were headed to the hospital.

Arriving at the hospital, the nurse lead us to what.. I swear... was a slightly converted janitorial closet. It had a bed and such, but it also had shelves of cleaning supplies. She said to just hang there for a little bit and someone would come and check me. About 8:45 someone came and checked, and I was 2 cm dilated. They weren't impressed, and were going to send me home. The nurse went to find a dr. type to confer, and they were gone... a long time. The ouches were becoming much more ouchie, and much more often. It was about another hour by the time someone came back to our closet. She checked me again... 6 cm. Guess what, I get to stay.

Finally being released from the janitorial closet, we headed to a real L&D room. We got settled in, and about 10:30 my midwife came in saying she was AWFULLY surprised to see me. I told her I was equally surprised to see her, but that I was in no way sad about the meeting. She checked me... 8 cm. About11 I started feeling.. you know... the big CHANGE... they called the midwife, and sure enough, we were at 10. OH, did I mention that in all this I didn't get the epidural I wanted? Cause it all went too fast. So there I was... totally drug free... quite a change from Essie's completed drugged didn't-feel-a-thing birth. MAN it hurt. A LOT. I pushed.. and pushed... and pushed....

And at 11:36 on Friday, May 9, 2003, Miss Gert arrived. All 9 pounds 9 ounces of her. With DARK long hair. She was perfection. And she was mine.

And she is still perfection.

And she is still mine.

And I can't think of a better way to spend Mother's Day then to share it with my baby and her 7th Birthday. Happy Birthday Miss Gert. You are growing s0 (too) fast. Your beautiful spirit, your pep and enthusiasm and COMPLETELY girlyishness are a blessing to me every single day. I Love you!!!!!!!