I'm having an interesting week.  In all honesty, it will be better tomorrow.  I'm not kidding.  I know this for a few reasons.  One reason is slightly personal.  Without giving too many details, I will say that something that has been raging the past three days (they start with the letter H) will be more "balanced" as opposed to slightly "unbalanced" after today.  Another reason that I will be better tomorrow is that Jerry has gone back to work today!  I know...I know...what an awful thing to say.  It makes me sound like I don't want him home.  It makes me sound like I would rather have him gone than have him here.  That's not true.  It just means that things can go back to "normal" with him at work and me here keeping things in order.

Now, before you start thinking I'm unhappily married or that I don't like my husband or I'm obsessive compulsive, hear me out.

My sister-in-law moved on Saturday.  While she was packing, she came across a bag or two of clothes for me to put aside for the twins later.  I LOVE hand-me-downs!  I know that there are some people who don't like their kids wearing someone else's clothes - but not me!  I'm all about saving money and not having to buy all new clothes for 4 kids is one way that we can save some cash.  Anyway, I had some hand-me-downs stored in the twins closet.  You see, in order to get the clothes to were they were going, I had to get my husband to go up to the attic.  Not an easy task...we get to our attic by climbing a ladder that is propped up against a wall in the only big closet in this house.  We don't even have the drop down steps like the Griswolds.

So...this is the stack of boxes I had that needed to go up the hole in our ceiling.

13 boxes.  Labeled with Size: ___ and Season:  ___ ~ all ready to go and just waiting for someone *ahem* to tell me they are ready for me to hand them up the ladder.  (This is totally not a one person job)

The start of my problem

Instead of heading up to the attic, my sweet husband gets motivated to do the plaster patchwork that has been hanging around for the last...4 or 5 years?  That's not entirely true...one patch was 5 years ago...one was 3...one was 2...and one happened last week.  How can I complain about him doing work around the house?  I wasn't completely upset he was doing it.  In fact, I was thrilled because a few of them have become eyesores.  I was excited because that means I'm 1 step closer to doing the painting I've been talking about doing for the last 3 months.  However, I was slightly irritated because the boxes were still in the hall but I had other things to do and I didn't say anything because I don't want to discourage him once he decides to do something that needs done.

5 years ago - hidden by our fridge until yesterday when the fridge was moved to allow room for Jerry to patch it.

3 years ago - my dear  friend Jason was helping Jerry get everything ready while I was in the hospital (after having Danika) and left our hot water radiator open.  It leaked through the floor and into the kitchen.

This one is hard to see but 2 years ago we removed a banister because the screws kept falling out of the wall.  There were 2 marks left that needed patched.

This one is even harder to see - we had a security system installed a week ago and when they guy tried to run the power cord up the inside of the wall it kind of crumbled.

By the time he finished the first coat (or whatever it is that you call plaster that is drying) it was almost dinner time.  We talked about grilling the chicken I had originally planned on baking - but that didn't pan out because Jerry does the grilling and he was still busy.  He took Nate out to ride his bike and Danika and I started dinner.  Dinner didn't go smoothly.  I ended up having a major overflow of the sauce I was cooking the chicken in.  (I have no idea what happened, but it was all over the bottom of my oven)  So...Jerry decided that we should self-clean the oven.  I told him that it would cause a lot of smoke...so he decided we would just shut the doors to the kitchen and it would be fine, right?

Long story short...my kitchen still smells like smoke and I have to get the shop vac today and vacuum out the bottom of the oven.

Finally, after dinner and fighting with one baby to go to sleep, Jerry headed up to the attic.  :)

I'm happy to say that all my boxes made it up the steps and he even found the boxes I wanted him to send down (some old photos/books/diaries) so that I could go through.

So you see, it's not that I don't love my husband.  It's not that I'm not happy when he is home.  It's just that I need a day or two to recover from the 3 out of 4 days he was home with me.  I have to get everything back in order so that we can run smoothly again...he just messed up my groove by being home.  I have to FLY through my house and put all the things back that didn't get put back yesterday.  I have to find a place for the plaster stuff so that it's still out (because I'm pretty sure we have a few more "coats" to go) but not in our way.  I have to attempt to get the kids back on a schedule so that bedtime goes better tonight.  We didn't eat/nap/play at the same times because Daddy was home...and that is fine because it doesn't happen EVERY day.  I'm anxious to get the house back to order...so why am I blogging?

Anyway ~ in my boxes of stuff I found my complete collection of New Kids on the Block trading cards (in plastic sleeves and everything) if anyone is interested.  I'd put them on ebay...but it would probably cost more to ship them than they are worth.  hehehe

Oh...and just so you know, I also found a lot of letters and cards and pictures of Jerry and I in those boxes.  I found the diary I started when we got engaged and a few I'd had when we were dating.  So, we ended up laughing about them before we went to sleep and teasing each other about how we looked and how cheesy we were.  :)