Safety first!

Today, while at my parents' house, cleaning for the out of town relatives that will be arriving later today, I found almost this exact same image. (In this case, it was the bottom outlet, but who's counting?)


Yup, there was still one outlet with a child safety plug in it!! In the midst of my Grandfather passing away, my parents are having parts of their house done over. They had a new floor put down in their kitchen and downstairs hallway, and when they moved a hutch out to put down the flooring, this was there. So funny to find one of these, given that I'm 30 and my brother is 28. Meaning: it's VERY old (probably as old as I am). I wonder why my mom never pulled it out--probably because she couldn't access the outlet anyway when the hutch was placed in the hallway.

I wonder if she'll take it out now, or if she'll leave it as a mini time capsule of sorts...

Saying goodbye

My grandfather passed away last week. He was 85 and had been in declining health for years due to strokes. In the last month, things had gone very downhill. Due to some family logistics, we won't be having the funeral until next Monday. (Yay family drama!)

My parents haven't been to church in awhile, and for my uncles it's been a VERY long while. It makes me sad that I'm the most religious out of my entire family--and now I'm the one working on the plans for the funeral Mass.

Tonight, while typing this, I'm reviewing hymns. My family's parish provided me with a list of hymns and in which parts of the Mass they are typically used, as well as a packet of the readings. Thank God for youtube, seriously, because I don't remember a hymn until I hear it. Just seeing the names doesn't do it for me, not to mention that I haven't been to a Roman Mass in months. Byzantine Liturgies don't have as many hymns. Plus, I want to make sure it's the "right one." I looked over the readings earlier, but I'm still not 100% positive on any of them. Turtle's better at that stuff, I might have him take a look too.

As for the hymns, I think we're going with:
Entrance: Be Not Afraid
Offertory: I'm torn between Come Back to Me (Norbet) and You Are Mine
Communion: Prayer of St. Francis
Recessional: On Eagle's Wings (One of the suggestions was Lift High the Cross--UMMM NO. That's too "chipper" for a funeral.)

For the Psalm: Still undecided.

This is hard. You want it to be appropriate, but fitting for the person. I think the only thing I can do is pray that I make the right choice. I know Grandpa wouldn't really care which song or reading was chosen--as long as the person chose it with their heart.

I can sense another post brewing from the statement I'm about to make: it's hard being religious when your family and friends are not.

Why animals are not always better than kids

(I don't say the above comment, but I hear it a lot from my friends/other people who have sworn off children.)

We have three cats. They are usually pretty good. Tonight was not one of those nights.

I came home, and was about to throw a load of laundry in the washing machine, when I felt my foot go sliding a bit across the tile in our back hallway. Thankfully I still had my shoes on, and thought "Oh gross, who puked???"

By the way, the lights weren't on, and it was getting dark outside, so I really couldn't see too well.

Flip on the light. At first I thought it was puke, but on further investigation, NOT SO! Ugh, really gross. Plus, the shoes I was wearing had treads in the soles. Yeah.

Off came the shoes! Thank goodness for old toothbrushes that I keep under the kitchen sink. That, and some vinegar and water in a spray bottle, helped get my shoes back in order. (And then I threw out the toothbrush!)

But the rest of the mess. Two areas on the tile. Lovely. Got that cleaned up with paper towels and the vinegar/water mixture. I thought "Now I'm gonna have to mop the entire floor, just to make sure I got everything." Get out the Pine Sol, the mop, and the bucket, go into the downstairs bathroom to fill it up....and OH NO!

OH YES. Someone had a big mess in there. I will spare everyone the details, but it wasn't fun. And they missed the litter box. So the bathroom floor was mopped along with the hallway floor. Cleaned out the litter box, took out the trash, and went upstairs to get some more laundry for the next load.

What do I find there? Puke. In the upstairs hallway. At this point, I'm thinking "Okay, someone did not have a good day here, and I need to check EVERY ROOM to make sure I don't miss anything." Good thing I did--there was more in the guest room.

A few rags and a lot of Nature's Miracle later, that part was cleaned up. The rags got tossed--I was beyond grossed out, irritated and tired.

All this, and then I still ate dinner! I was STARVING and exhausted by this point.

Anyone want some cats? LOL

Yes, I'm still here

Hello, it's been awhile. Sorry for the lack of posting for the rest of the summer and most of the fall.

Sigh. I've been busy.

There are so many things that I'd like to say and post and talk about...and I never get around to it, and I feel like I should be better about keeping this thing updated.

I have ideas, and then I get distracted...plus, there is a thing called work...and I'm not 100% sure if blogger is blocked. I can read tons of other blogs. Plus, I don't know if I want work even KNOWING I have a blog. Pesky IT, never know what they can dig up on ya!

Maybe I need to make a plan...and then stick to it. Kind of a blog outline?

We're coming up on our 1st anniversary of living in this house...and there's still so much NOT done, but there are a lot of changes too.

I am very hard on myself, if you couldn't tell.

OK I shall return, hopefully sooner rather than later. ;-)