Changes

This past weekend I have hardly been near the computer. We spent most of the weekend making changes in our house. The old sink has finally been removed from the kitchen. It was a lovely old sink top on a metal base. The faucets were falling apart and it was not in working order. It just sat there taking up space and making people wonder why I had two sinks. So, I am now down to having one sink in my kitchen. I was going to put the dishwasher where the old sink was but there wasn't room to do that and still allow Amanda room to get through. The dishwasher was a portable one but I wanted it to be stationary. We had to do some changes in our plans to be able to do that. So we moved a few things around and now the dishwasher sits next to the new refrigerator. Yes, I have two refrigerators too! (There are plans for the second fridge as well.) Anyway, instead of using the plumbing to the old sink that plumbing had to be capped off and new plumbing had to be installed. My kitchen resembled a swamp for most of the weekend. I moved the kitchen table to a new spot. I can actually move around at the computer desk now. It also feels less crowded at the table and actually feels cozy. I didn't think Amanda would be able to get her wheelchair to the table if I put it any other way than it was before but this way works well. I splurged and spent $18 on my kitchen. I got a new table cloth, salt and pepper set and a set of coasters. The next project is to move the old refrigerator to the basement. I use it to store drinks in. It also comes in handy when you are preparing food for a get together. We didn't move it this weekend because it was rainy. In order to get it to the basement we have to take it outside and around the house. So the ground had better be solid. We will have to rent a big dolly for that job. We have small ones but not one for moving refrigerators. It won't be that bad to just wheel it out the door, down the ramp, down the hill and into the basement door. Much better than going down a flight of stairs with it. We just don't want to do it on soft ground and have it get stuck in the mud.

We also managed to get Jenny's little school room all set up. Her printer/scanner/copier took forever to load the software onto her computer. She now has a little office area. She has a work table with her laptop, the printer thingie, her tablet, stylus and mouse, a work lamp, shelf for her text books and notebooks, a caddy for her pens, pencils, post-it notes and flags an electric pencil sharpener and a hook to hang her carrying case. And the area is perfect. She is in a little room just off the side of the kitchen. I can keep an eye on her and make sure she is doing her lessons but she has enough privacy to keep her from being distracted by what is going on in the rest of the house. Today is her first day of classes. She will start at 8:00. Although she can have flexibility with her cyberschool I am going to keep her to pretty much a normal school day. The difference being that if we have to go somewhere during the day she can finish up her classes a little later. She is to devote a full hour to each subject every day. That will give her enough time to complete all her tasks on schedule. I think she has already read through her psychology text book. I had to pry it out of her hands to put it in the classroom. She loves psychology. At this point she wants to be a psychologist. My mother claims mentally unstable people want to be psychologists. That may be true but at least she doesn't want to become a stripper. I told Jenny to do what she enjoys. She will do well in anything she wants. She is a smart girl and loves to learn. She wants to attend cyberschool in the summers right now so she can get ahead. She would like to finish high school early so she can start college early. We'll see if that lasts though. It might and it might not. It is up to her. As long as she is at least where she should be I will be happy. I know she always gives it her best.

Amanda has been pretty good over the weekend. She wanted John to watch RV with her. So I decided we would all sit down together and watch it. So we all started watching the movie. Amanda decided she wanted to go instant message with Grandma and left us all. So we ended up watching it without her. We were enjoying a good laugh when Amanda came back. There was about half an hour left of the movie. She had decided she wanted to take the movie out and put it away. We managed to convince her to let us finish watching it.

Friday night John and I left the kids with my parents. Jenny took her computer down to play around with it with my dad. Amanda watched movies. We went to see World Trade Center. Very good movie. Very moving. I sat there bawling. Afterwards we went out for a cup of coffee and a dessert. We split a piece of seven layer chocolate cake between us. I ate slowly so that John would eat the most. Even with the extra insulin I took I still can't eat very much of it. It was a really nice evening though. I think we both needed the time alone.

This morning John left for work feeling achy with an upset stomach. I gave him some tylenol and pepto bismol. Hopefully he will feel better. Poor guy looked a little green going out the door.