Almost Back...

I'm almost back to our regularly scheduled programming. Moving is hard work!! I'm hoping to have my stamp room ready for business by the end of the upcoming weekend. I'm planning to hold a stamping event sometime during the month and will be e-mailing invitations for that event. If you aren't on my mailing list and would like to receive those invitations, please e-mail me at Jen_Barrett at sbcglobal dot net (I type "at" and "dot" out to avoid spam since spammers have software tools that scan websites for e-mail addresses).

The recent purchase of a home and the move have gone relatively well, except...

I had my "new homeowner's initiation" last night. Here's how it went down. I went to dinner with my brother and sister-in-law (and Miss Em) immediately after work yesterday. By the time I got home I was exhausted and needed to unbutton my pants, if you know what I mean. I was on call for work until 7 AM this morning, so I wanted to get settled in before I started getting calls. I changed into my jammies around 7:45 PM, made a cappuccino, and started a load of laundry. I headed back to the living room with my cappuccino to watch the tube and check my e-mail. About 15 minutes after I sat down I could hear water running, but it sounded like it was coming from the full bath which is on the opposite end of the house from the washer. "Weird", I thought... "have the cats learned to turn the water on by themselves?" (they like to drink FRESH water from the faucet in the bathroom sink). By the time I got to the bathroom, there was water standing in the floor and it was still coming out of the toilet. Unfortunately, all my towels (except ONE (yes... I'm yelling)) were in the washing machine. I knew I had an old blanket in the garage that I'd been using to wrap things in as I moved them, so I headed that way. By the time I got to the kitchen, I could see the water running into that room from the laundry room. "What the..." I turned around and headed out the front door and used my garage door opener to get in to get the blanket. I headed BACK to the main bath and threw the blanket in the floor to start absorbing SOME of the water. I called the plumber in a panic and explained what was happening. The guy on the other end of the line said "Do you want someone to come out tonight, ma'am?". WELL, DUH!?!?!?! I then called Curtis to ask him to bring some towels and anything else he might have to sop the water up with. He got to the house about 20 minutes later and helped me get things cleaned up. Clorox doesn't make bleach strong enough in my opinion. I was frazzled by the time we got everything cleaned up. Fortunately, the sewage that backed up into the house wasn't bad as far as sewage is concerned. I never noticed an odor, thank goodness. If I had, there probably would have been other things to clean up.

Apparently, the sewage pipe had backed up when the washer was draining causing the water (and all the other things that go down the drain and toilets) to come back up into the toilets and the bathtub. The plumber got there at 9:50 PM and cleaned the sewage pipe out. He said he never found a blockage, so I need to call and make an appointment to have them come out with a camera that they can run through the pipe to look for obstructions. I guess it's a colonoscopy for your yard. Anyway, I guess I've been initiated. HOPEFULLY, that was the ENTIRE initiation. I don't think I could take much more!

Oh... to top things off, I had an appointment with the exterminator this morning. I had it on my calendar for the 9th - my bad. You have no idea how much of an organization freak I am (ok... maybe SOME of you do), so to be disorganized just makes my entire life total chaos. To start my day off right, today, my alarm didn't go off. I specifically remember setting it last night and double checking the time. At 6:40 AM my cell phone rings. It's the bug lady apologizing for not calling yesterday to remind me of my 7 AM exterminator appointment TODAY (yep... yelling again). Well, color me happy... I have 20 minutes to get out of bed and make myself presentable for the bug guy!!! I went ahead and called work to say I'd be late. I was just hoping I didn't have any other unexpected surprises that kept me from going to work at all today! The bug guy finished up around 8 AM and I was only an hour late to work... not a big deal.

These things happen in three's, right???? The plumbing, the alarm (or lack thereof), and the bug guy... that's it, right??? I'm terrified to do the next load of laundry, but you can be certain that I'll start it when I have several hours and lots of towels and bleach to devote to the task.

I'll be back soon with some crafty projects to share and some class times for this month. Toodles!