Laura's Journal

I am practicing my photo restoration skills. I have a lot of old photos I would like to restore. Here is my first picture, a photo of Max that had a bunch of stuff spilled on it. I think I did a pretty good job. Nothing like being a bored housewife to work on new talents.

Before....


After....

Its been a crazy week. Freed the Hyundai, dug way more snow than I ever care to see again, moved my mom to her new apartment, & went to a birthday party for my friends' daughter. Little Marley is 5! We have been friends with Bob & Julie for so long, Max was friends with them before he met me. I feel really blessed that even though they had Marley way after Max & I had kids, they still include us in the events of their daughter's life & still participate in the events of our kids' lives. I love having friends that are truly like family.

So here is a picture of Marley on her 5th birthday...



Another project I have taken on...




I am attempting to grow Date Palms from seeds I retrieved from the package of dates I received for Rama Dan. I have no idea if the dates will grow, but I figured why not.

I grew up here in Omaha, lived in Colorado for 5 years, & then moved back here. During my 34 year lifetime I have NEVER seen a city shut down for 3 days because of 9.4 inches of snow & some wind. The mayor's office actually told me, "this is a different kind of snow than the snow Colo. gets because of the altitude". Really? Seems just as deep to me...

There was no prep work for this storm. No sand nor salt was spread until today, 4 days after the fact. Earlier this year the mayor laid off many road workers & said contractors would be hired to make up the difference. The contractors can't handle it.

The news stations report that if we want our streets cleared, don't park on the street. Where are we supposed to park then? The side streets didn't get plowed until 8:00 last night, day three of this storm. And it doesn't matter, because I can't access my alley. One of our brilliant neighbors paid a private plow company to plow HALF our alley leaving a 3' high x 4' wide x 20' long wall of snow in our alley, mostly in front of my parking pad. I called the city & explained the situation. City won't help, they told me alleys are last on their list.

And if cars on the street are such a problem then WHY is my neighborhood zoned by the city for multi-family dwellings? If 8 cars on the street is the reason the plows can't get through, then don't allow a house to be broken up into a 4-plex, allowing 8+ people to live in it! But even I find that hard to believe that the plows can't get through, because our trash trucks get through without any problems.

And, I live in a predominately blue collar worker area, why is it that our streets are always hit last? West Omaha has a higher concentration of white collared workers & their streets were hit first & usually are. White collared employment generally allows for paid time off. As someone who has worked many blue collared jobs I have been told MANY times, "Show up or you're fired". Hard to do when there is a 3 foot high wall of snow not allowing our car to get out or in. Plow the poorer neighborhoods first! Maybe then the unemployment rate won't rise as fast.

Omaha has created this nightmare with generations of bad judgment & poor decision-making & WE, the public, are forced to suffer through it, even though WE pay outrageous taxes compared to other states.

I am sick of "The Good Life" & ready to move.

The plowed part of the alley...





The unplowed part....


The mighty wall of snow...


See how deep it is in comparison to my bumper?...

So, this is what our backyard normally looks like...



And here is how deep it is now...



As all can see, the snow did an excellent job of drifting into my yard. I am hoping the basement doesn't leak again, but realistically, it will. We have quite a bit of digging to do, too. So much fun. Yeah, that is sarcasm you detect.

Other than that it was a pretty good day. We hiked down to our neighbors' house at the end of the block & spent the day eating, drinking & playing Boggle & Scattergories. I made some really awesome Chocolate Chip Date Bread. Very happy with the way it came out. The kids don't have school tomorrow. AGAIN! Which is fun, but at the same time, this is so not getting my Christmas shopping done.

Never had a cat who liked to sleep face down. Sprite doesn't mind it though. Wish I could take a nap.




A funny thing happens when you use your flash in a snow storm. Its makes my house look purdy.

Actually, Mrs. Maria (Robinson) McCracken, my maternal great great grandmother. I recently got hold of some family photos & a family tree. Maria Robinson married James McCracken & immigrated here from Ireland. This is as far back as we have gotten in our family tree. I am trying to research family members in other parts of the country & I am trying to figure out the next steps in how to research this.



I don't have a scanner so I took a picture of the photo. Counts right?

Time for the December Photo blog. I really enjoyed doing this last year. I also enjoyed looking through last year's photos again. I found carrying my camera with me last year kept my mood up during the holiday blues. So, I am off & running again...

Christmas lights!!!! I love 'em!

Max & I finally got the new electrical line to the bathroom fished in yesterday. Today, we ripped out the door frame (there was a second door to our bathroom that was left there by the previous owners when they enlarged the bathroom) & began framing it in to make it an actual wall. I took pictures today out of monotony while Max was bracing the framing.



When we bought the house the bathroom was covered in paneling that was painted powder blue. Not a very pretty place. Once we ripped off the paneling we found the walls were in REALLY bad shape, as demonstrated by the last photo. The previous owners had the sink under the small window in the 4th photo, so we would basically watch the drug dealers making transactions as we brushed our teeth. That got old. So we are putting in a pedestal sink in between the two windows where the black ventilation pipe & large boards are. We still have one more window to replace. It can be seen in the second photo (pink duct tape is the only thing keeping it together. ha!) but we are not putting anymore holes in the wall to the outside until Spring. I can't stand being cold. There are also holes in the wood floors as seen in the 1st & 3rd photos. When we took up the subflooring that was covering wood, we were pretty shocked to see whole sections that were missing. So once we get the electrical complete, we are taking up the floor boards & laying new subflooring. 

We do have a functional toilet & tub (shower is not usable yet) so its not too bad, but I am thrilled we are making progress this weekend.

Well, Christmas & New Year's Day are now in the past. We are working on the bathroom fast & furiously in hopes to be done with the major renovations by Spring. We still have plaster we are going to need to knock down in the bathroom, which I *HATE* doing because of the mess that goes along with it. The good news is that we will have the electrical & the insulation/dry wall installed so the new sink can be put in in the next couple weeks. YAY!!!!

We have already started pricing flooring & cabinets for the kitchen. I have a pretty clear idea what I want & it should be reasonable in the price department. Of course there is a lot more plumbing that needs to be done, which includes getting the washer & dryer moved from the kitchen into the basement. There will be a lot of plumbing rerouted for that as well. Not to mention we will have to move the 220v electrical line for the dryer down from the kitchen.

SO much to do!

Then we can look at moving.

It has been a very busy week. Christmas came so fast, I barely had time to slow down to enjoy it. So, here are my final photos.




This is Christmas at my mom's house. The kids (mine & my niece) had so much fun playing, opening gifts, being together. It makes me so happy to see them all having fun.

Collin got a spy night vision thingy & Zoë was running around with it on. She looked like Princess of the Borg. Totally cracked me up.

Now, time to deal with post-Xmas let down & getting through the next few cold, grey months.

Well, its 1:00 a.m. Christmas Eve night. We finished wrapping the gifts & Santa came. We have been cleaning up a bit over the past half hour. I am sooo tired. And now it is time for my annual pledge:

"Next year, I swear I am going to start shopping in July, have everything bought by August, & everything wrapped no later than September."

Right.

Anyway, earlier tonight we went to Max's parents' house for our traditional Christmas Eve visit. The kids got to open up their gifts from that set of grands, since we do Christmas at my mom's house on Christmas Day. The kids received a Wii & they were totally thrilled. They had been wanting one for a long time, but we could never afford it. So, after baths we let them play for a bit. Zoë is thrilled to death there is a bowling game. She LOVES bowling. Not quite the bowling alley, but I don't think she minds:

And Collin loves it too, of course.
Here is the tree fully loaded. Our cats have taken up permanent residency under there. Samhain is looking like he is in fear of being evicted:

Well, time for bed. I like Christmas, but its been really hard this year. I am looking forward to it being done so I can breathe again.

Once again I spent most of my day at work. Never knew quitting a job was so hard. hehe. Actually I don't mind it. It's nice having something to do in between disasters. Anyway, Max took the kids to the park & he took this photo:

I think its a beautiful shot.
After dinner, I made some rice krispy wreaths. Then I got brave & made the cinnamon angels. The angels didn't come out great. I need to tweak the recipe a bit & use parchment paper & cook them a bit longer. They looked good though.

I think they look a little more like fairies than angels. It was a fun try though.

I love baking cookies with the kids. Tonight we did butter spritz. I am debating whether or not to make sugar angels. I have the stuff to make them, but they are very time intensive.

Tomorrow is our 11th wedding anniversary, so we celebrated tonight. We went out for Italian & drove around talking. Max surprised me at the restaurant with a small bouquet of roses.

Today was Zoë winter recital. The school is so big that the littler kids do a recital in the winter & then the older kids perform a spring recital in March. It was sweet. I love listening to little kids sing. I think kindergartners are my favorite. They are so shy & usually something silly happens. This particular performance, one of the kindergartners started doing the pee-pee dance in the middle of a song & argued with a teacher while the others sangs. Finally she left to find the bathroom, which meant trying to find the exit through the curtains surrounding the stage. I miss my kids being that age. I am proud for how much they have grown, but those few years when your child changes from baby to kid are so short.

Anyway, here are today's photos:

Zoë is kind of right in the middle, next to the girl in the white hat.

Took my mom to have a medical procedure today, so I spent most of my morning in a hospital, which wasn't too bad. I have become a master at sitting & waiting for doctors. I also know where to find free food/food vouchers, private phones & free public internet access in 3 of the hospitals in Omaha. Theoretically, I think I could live a long time in a hospital without anyone knowing.

Anyway, took my mom home, picked up the kids, & made my way home where I found another message from Countrywide home loans waiting for me. I get tired of the constant calls, so this time I called, even though I have no accounts with them. Turns out they are looking to collect on a home loan for someone in Colorado Springs who is using my identity. Great.

I am stressed.

I took this photo of a statue by my kid's school. It is so pretty & serene. Definitely where I would like to be.

Finally, it snowed! Like a REAL snow. So after school, the kids worked on their gingerbread house kit. They did a really good job this year. Last year it kind of turned into a glob of frosting & crumbs. This year it actually looks like a house.

Pink eye is starting to clear up. Still a little puffy & the tear ducts are still a little swollen, but I don't have nearly as much goo in the morning. Yeah, I know. Lovely.

Its cold. Really cold. My furnace almost didn't kick in & it got so cold in the house that the temperature didn't register on the thermostat. We finally chanted fuckfuckfuckfuck enough until it started. I think the furnace is on its way out & I hope like crazy it lasts us one more winter. Just until we can get more bills paid off.

Until then...

Kitty Heat.
Safe, clean, economical, occasionally resulting in numbness in lower extremities depending on the weight of or number of your Kitty Heat Unit/s.