The Sky is Falling!

Apparently there is a reason that home building / remodeling is listed as one of the top reasons for divorce. After struggling to remove a 2X4 firmly embedded in the ceiling of the living room – it was nailed every 4 to 5 inches with three inch nails to a 2X6 - Chuck gave a frustrated yank and a gigantic chunk of sheetrock approximately 2 feet by 6 feet opened neatly and deposited several garbage bags full of insulation onto the floor and down the new stairs. Now we’re not talking the nasty pink panther type insulation. No it’s even older and nastier. It looks a little like shredded wood and settles in clumps like hair falling from an irradiated head. I won’t repeat the words that floated in the air. Let’s just say I was worried that one of us would stroke out and it wasn’t me – at least not at that moment. That was the low point of the evening.
Chuck did get it all put back together and now a week later we have not only put up sheetrock in the offending openings, but he has also mudded and textured about half of the ceiling. It looks pretty good too – at least as good as that craters of the moon looking texture can look. We have also put up sheetrock on the second half of the living room wall. So, now when someone comes they can’t look directly into our shortened bedroom. I have put one to two layers of mud on the sheetrock and if all goes according to plan we should be ready to do the mudding on the walls sometime this week (at least on the upstairs portion – the downstairs is another story entirely!)
Lowes finally called today and our tile has come in, and only 4 weeks after they said it would! I still have yet to actually talk to Hal, the custom cabinet man. I have left messages on his phone and cell phone, somewhere in the high teens. He left a message on my cell once a day ago; otherwise I would have said he didn’t really exist. Needless to say, there has been no progress on the kitchen.
Well, there is some good news though! Brianne had her baby this last week. Dominik Mendoza weighed in at 7 lbs. and has tons of black hair. She had a pretty fast delivery for her first baby and is doing well – though quite tired. Chuck will be in Boise this weekend for drill and has been instructed to take plenty of photos.
We also had a bit of a scare with Miss Chloe on Tuesday. She was very lethargic and obviously not well, but had no fever. When she got her in to the doctor he was very concerned and sent them to the hospital for tests. They took blood work and did a spinal tap to test for meningitis. They spent 24 hours in the hospital and all tests came back negative- thank goodness. The next morning Chloe woke up and appeared completely normal. The neurologist seemed concerned about the lack of muscle tone in her legs and also the size of her head. Kelsey explained that she comes by both naturally. Miguel is like rubber band man and can lay his leg flat up along side his torso. And as far as the big noggin goes – one need only check out grandma Karen and great grandpa Bob and there is no mystery. At any rate, unless there are any further symptoms she will check back in a couple of months. It was an anxious 24 hours and I felt pretty helpless so far away. Kelsey handled it all very well though.