The Queen Has Her Throne Once Again

In our culture, buckets are referenced many ways. Five gallon buckets are a common scene. Many times they are carriers for paint, other fluids such as water, and they even carry solids, often in the form of dirt or grains. Some common phrases about buckets are 'to kick the bucket', 'its pouring buckets', and 'a drop in the bucket'. Another thing that people think of almost instantly is a 'honey bucket'.
I would be very surprised to find anyone who did not understand what the reference to a 'honey bucket' implied. But for those who don't know, a 'honey bucket' is a portable toilet. Many won't use a porta-potty unless they are camping. And even then, the direst of situations usually is all that will convince them to use one.
What would you do if you had no toilet? How long would you last in your home when your bathroom has virtually zero working appliances?
My home has undergone a major home improvement. This all began on October 17th. The demolition began that night. Then the next day the real heavy work began. Gutted, the bathroom was bare. We removed the toilet, sink and tub. A new tub was installed the first weekend. But that still left us with out a toilet and sink. And really not able to use the tub except for Saturday the 18th night. Now what would you do for a potty?

My answer- five gallon bucket.

My husband's job called him away the Wednesday after the work began on my bathroom. This was no short trip either. He was slated to be gone for almost three weeks. (In fact, as I write this he is still away.) This left me, pregnant and nauseous (often throwing up multiple times a day) to deal and handle the work on my bathroom. Now, don't get me wrong, I personally did practically no physical work on the renovation efforts. But the stress was present all the same. Decisions had to be made regarding this such as what to do about a plumbing issue. Or how to fix the issue of 'fur'ing out the wall to meet the tub. I have no experience in this category. So when things went wrong, it was all I could do to not just loose it.
Now the work that had to be done on our bathroom with Chad away was tiling the floor, counter and the tub/shower walls. Granted we had a guy from church we hired to do it, that had its own set of problems. He did 'cut some corners' to save us money. Which honestly, just do it right and I won't mind paying you the extra was my feelings. It's technically just rent money so it doesn't effect my lifestyle persay. He did do a wonderful job tiling. I love it. There are some quirks but I trusted him to be in my home while I was by myself and even while I was away, so what do you do? Live with it right?
Let me remind you, this whole time, I am peeing and pooing in a bucket placed in my garage. My nauseous tummy was relived in my kitchen sink. Surprising to many, the bucket didn't bother me as much as the sink did. I hated puking in the sink because if there were chunks I then had to clean out my sink which usually made me throw up again. Vicious cycle I tell you what.


The light in shining on my home tonight though. My loving father came by this even and installed my 'porceline throne'. I am on my way to being civilized once again. I installed the shower head this evening and placed a new shower rod with my new curtain on it. I placed a rug on the floor. Its beginning to look like a bathroom again. One that is functional as such at least.
There are still things to be done though. I need to go buy something to hide the half inch gap in the drywall and hardibacker board, base boards, trim for the door frames. The walls need to be sanded in some areas and retextured. A new coat of paint is definetly on the list. I need to clean out the vanity cupboard from all the dust and water on it. Its gross. The water shut off valve flange under the vanity needs to be snipped off so I can put a new one one. The old one is stuck otherwise it would normally just pull off. The door frames also need to be reinstalled.
And that is just the work in the bathroom. My whole home has exploded from the dust and chaos. I need to vacuum and shampoo the carpets. Its more than I can stand. It will be nice to have my hall and living room empty of the extra stuff. One bathroom remodel turned into a house of disaster.

But the end is near. Chad comes home on Sunday. I am eight weeks pregnant. Life is hard, but would you want it to be otherwise? A friend of mine used to quote to me something to the effect of 'Everything will work out in the end. And if everything is not alright, its not the end'. That is comforting to think on. The Lord has a plan, though we may be miserable, we always learn something from it. We grow from struggle and that's why we're here. Hold your head high while you walk through life, its humbling to know you don't have to pee in a bucket.

Life and Fairness

I remember as a kid being told "life is not fair". Many parents have heard their child declare with a feeling of great injustice "That's not fair!" While thinking on this the other night, I started to wonder what in life is fair. Parents may try to be, but they are human. Their views are skewed; sometimes they only see one side of the story and you can't reply on the children to always tell it how it was from the objective standpoint. So to all the children out there, when you want fairness where do you do?
Look to the skies. Be a meteorologist.
The weather is completely neutral. There are no biases in weather. The weather does not care who you are. It does not care what your day's plans are. The April showers will not hold off for your wedding if their clouds are heavy. The winter blizzard will not clench its icy winds and frozen rain to let your laboring, pregnant wife get to the hospital in time. There is fairness in nature. Humans, not so much.

In the water

My previous post was about my sister. Not me. Just in case anyone wondered. But I want to update everyone. Today I was informed that Chad and I are expecting. I am only about four weeks along. Best I can figure we are looking at a mid June baby. We are very happy! This has been something we were trying for for a few months now. Thanks for all the support from family and friends.

Unplanned

You hear of the teen pregnancy, the black mark on the family. You hear of it through the grapevine. Its always someone else's daughter. You watch that family mourn the loss of the youth of their teen, too young to be a parent. But how do you react when the said daughter is in your family? You are now the family with the unplanned child of a teen girl.
I never wanted to experience this. I never wanted to know how people felt when this happened. Never. She's too young. She's void of so many skills.


But its positive. Reality is, she is pregnant.

So what now? Where do you go from here? I knew she was pregnant. Even before the test came back. I knew. I saw her belly pudging out. I saw her queasy face. She complained of all the common early signs.

But I didn't want it to show the two pink lines. Reality is, they are bold, bold as day.


Tomorrow we go to the lab. Tomorrow, we call to set an appointment for first trimester check ups.

The baby is on its way. The new addition to our family. To a child herself, how this will affect her life many know. What we don't know is how she will change to handle it.




How do you handle it, when you're the one who was trying?

Life Changes

It's interesting how as we go through life, experiencing different things, how our opinions and out looks change. The young are jaded. The old are wise to the ways of the world. And the young at heart still test the boundaries.
I was thinking on how my views have been altered as I have grown older. I started out believing everyone was supposed to be nice. I think everyone does. But when you're the blunt of everyone's teasing in school, followed home by the neighborhood twerps, you quickly learn otherwise. When you try to get a job, and someone is chosen over you, the reality that you can't get chosen for a job based on how well you think you qualify is a reminder of reality. You need experience for everything you do.
Things never are as they seem. Life is never an easy course. And not that it should be. Its a hard lesson to learn. The lesson every one learns, different times in their life maybe, but we all have to learn it.
We all have to learn to recognize our mistakes. It is necessary for us to learn to say 'I am sorry'. Learning to forgive yourself is the hardest lesson of all. But you can't move forward until you learn from your past.
Take life's lesson with optimism. They are for our good. We have to learn in order to change and grow into better people, for ourselves, for our children and families, and for society.

Feel free to share your life's lesson opinions and stories.

By Request

I told a friend I wrote poetry before. That friend asked me to post some. So tonight, I will post one that I wrote a couple years back.
This one comes from a time when someone close to me was making decisions that I didn't agree with. She was having a hard time overcoming the pressures of teen life and the aspects of pressures that come with that. This poem came from the frustration I felt as she pushed me away. The pain I felt as I watched her screw up. The sorrow that pierced my heart as the sister I loved, walked away from everything I knew was right.

How?
10/26/2004
How can I make you understand?
How can I make you see?
I want to slap you in the face
And say "Listen to me!"
I want to take you by the hand
And show you all that you can be.

But for now, all I can do is dream.
All I can do is pray you will see.
And as I pray, I will stay
Waiting for you to listen to me.
The I will take you by the hand
And show you all that you can be.

Since this poem, many things have happened. Many tears were shed, and many dreams were shattered. But hope has begun to shine in my family. My sister is home again. Happy again. Away from drugs, away from abusive relationships, among other things. I pray that she has learned. I pray she will stay and become all she was meant to be.

Ostrich Feathers!?

I have an adsense window on my blog and this evening I saw an ad for the first time. But I was kinda surprised by it. I didn't know they sold high quality, let alone any quality of Ostrich Feather! Yeah, that's what my ad was today- High quality Ostrich Feathers! What do you do with those anyway? Make a hat?