The poop is outta here and so am I

Thank Goodness for plumbers & septic tank people. Yes it took a plumber & a septic tank company. But the poop is gone, I did however inherit a very lovely hole right out my front window.. Not sure if they were supposed to take care of that or not. I am new to this. I really wanted to hug the septic guy but thought that is probably inappropriate & who knows what he has touched so I opted for the thank you very very much approach. This was immediately followed by bleach fest 2009 & any other chemical I could think to use. I scrubbed that tub, gagged, scrubbed some more, moved onto the toilet bowl, the sink, then the floor. So my bathroom is full of fumes with the windows wide open now. I will re scrub in a little, I think it is going to take more than one for me to put my feet on the floor of the tub or the bathroom itself.

All the towels & bath mats are on their 3rd washing, with double doses of detergent & blazing HOT water to sanitize, though I don't think they are going to find their way back into the bathroom. I think today I am going to be purchasing new ones. My hands stink of bleach, but my mind feels better & my bladder too!!

So Taylor is getting baptised Sunday.. Big to do for us!! We are so excited to see everyone & have them meet her and share in her special day. Aunty is being awarded woman of the year Saturday & we are excited to award her as so, no one deserves it more than her, for whatever reason.. She is an awesome person & I am blessed to have her for an Aunt.

So that leaves me to maniac mode... Cleaning the house, doing laundry, packing, making sure I have everything, which requires making 10 million lists & checking everything off as I go... Eventually at some point this evening loading Lissi & Taylor into the car & heading down to Nanny's for the 3 time in 3 weeks... the driving is starting to get to me. But anyways the poop is gone & so am I in a few hours!!

Um, Pat, there's poop in the tub.

So yeah, yesterday my day starts with Alyssa coming into the living room at 7:40 am & saying,
" Mom what is wrong with the toilet? The water is all brown & up to the top".... Wonderful. So I go in & gag cause it is nasty... Sewer water is what I called it. Pure gross-ness... So I plunge it cause that is about as far as my plumbing skills go, anything with water should be able to be fixed with drain-o & a plunger & worst case scenario something called a snake that my grandpa would break out from time to time but I don't think we have one & I wouldn't know how to use that anyways, so I plunge. All this is doing is making the water come out the bottom of the toilet where the toilet meets the floor... I don't believe that is good so I stop, tell Alyssa to hold it till she gets to school, think to myself no eating for the next 24 hours & Pat is lucky he can pee outside.

So I grab some of my crappier towels, I don't really have crappy ones so I take the older ones & put them down around the toilet. GROSS. Then I grab a bucket & a plastic container that I will definitely be throwing out & I start to empty the gross water out & walk as far away from the house as possible to dump it, all the while gagging & pulling my shirt over my nose & thinking I am waaaayyy to prissy for this, wood stove OK I can handle that but this is above & beyond my quickly resurfacing spoiled Long Island ass. I call the landlord & she tells me that it's too late to call a plumber.....

Now we have been having a problem with this for over a month now this & the water draining slowly from the shower & kitchen sink & told the landlord so when it first started...Her solution when it first started... Baking soda, vinegar & a plunger. Temporary fix sure for like a minute, but then after that every time we flushed, you would hear this loud weird noise in the kitchen sink, bathroom sink & shower. Whatever as long as it was going down.

Too late? It's fucking 8 am & I have pure sewage in my toilet... & all over the bathroom floor now cause its leaking out the bottom & then upon further looking in the bathroom, I see that this nasty water is now in my tub, there is poop in my tub. This is the most disgusting thing EVER.

So she is coming over, with the plunger, vinegar & baking soda I am sure & I was right. First she bitches about the driveway being icy, her responsibility to make sure its plowed, I ignore it, then she goes in the bathroom & immediately starts with, we didn't keep the house warm enough (its usually between 70 & 80 depending on how blazing I keep the wood stove), or one of the kids flushed something, Alyssa is 9 & knows better was never one of those kids & Taylor, if she did then bravo to her for being 4 months old & getting herself into the bathroom & flushing something. Then it was we lose too much hair in the drain, which I have one of those covers for & clean out daily, or we didn't use the fans when we showered which I am not sure what exactly that would have to do with the water backing up, but whatever. I was getting madder by the minute. So I left her to it, I had done more than enough already I thought. So after completely destroying my bathroom & 4 more of my towels, she decides she needs to call a plumber. Um Hello, you could have saved yourself the trip if you just listened to me.

So she goes home & tells me to stay home cause she is going to call a plumber. Wonderful, I just got home last night & have a crap load to do & now I am stuck here in this shitty house ( Ha ha I could make these jokes all day) so hours go by & finally around 5 she calls to say that a plumber is coming at 9am. Great, whole night of nastiness... So I chose my pees carefully & Pat is forbidden to go to the bathroom... He is instructed by me if it is absolutely necessary your mom lives right down the road go there.

So this morning, I am doing laundry, dishes then I walk away from the sink for a minute cause I hear the baby & on my way to her I hear water flowing & I immediately run into the bathroom & I am standing in an inch if not more of this disgusting sewage water all over my bathroom. Goodbye to all my towels. It was at this point that I figured my potty mouth ha ha was perfect for the situation so I go on a rant... Luckily Lissi is already at school & Taylor is in her crib. Once again I use a tupperware bowl that will immediately get thrown out, a bucket & my uggs which I am pretty sure are never going to be worn again & I start bailing out my bathroom. Apparently all the water from the sink was just coming up & out the toilet, I know this cause the water was warm. So here I am, Taylor screaming, me trailing across the property to dump this & back in cause I definately cant touch her till I boil my hands. Not even 2 minutes after I am done the plumber shows up.

He goes in, takes the toliet off, snakes it & says its the septic tank, which is what we said the first phone call to her. So he calls the landlord & she is fighting him on this. So he finally tells her to call the septic tank people & she agrees. Stubborn old bat. So then 45 minutes later she calls me to tell me she called them & they have to call her back. I lose my mind after the words you have to be patient come out of her mouth along with you could use a bucket to go in for now. A bucket? You want me to go to the bathroom in a bucket? I basically in a not so nice manner tell her she better have someone here TODAY or I will pay for it myself & she can consider that the rent for this month & next. So here I sit, wanting to take a shower but cant cause there is poop in it, feeling nasty & not able to wash clothes or do dishes & I am pissed... HA HA.

We are ALL crazy, I am not alone in my insanity

So I went to city again this weekend. I love going home. My cousin Jay who most everyone knows just finished his tour of duty in Iraq, was flying home Saturday & this was the first time for all of us to see him since he arrived back at base in Texas. So of course I had to be there, especially considering he is my # 1 & a big part of my sanity in life. So Friday my brother Nick was at my house & was going to be taking the ride down with me so I decided we need to make a banner. We made one first using a brown roll of paper I had & nick drew all the lettering out in graffiti... I ruined it with ugly sparkle placement. The next one, he told me I was on my own, so I grabbed all of Alyssa's arts & craft from the arts & crafts cabinet (yes I have a WHOLE cabinet for these) & I began... Here is my end result, I added a barbie with no arms & a brush for our famed character of Barbie stubbs... Stubbs Life. (Super inside joke with me, Jay & Lisa) & Nicky made a little star with some neon pink kicks to represent Jay's fly-ness!! Cause he is super fly!! Along with a little WOOT WOOT... & Viola!!

So Saturday we are ALL going to the airport to receive him at the gate and he has no idea EVERYONE was coming. His flight comes in at noon. My Dad & Noreen are watching Taylor & I load Lissi, Nicky, Nanny & Poppy into the truck at 11 & we are off. At the airport at like 11:30 (took alot less time than I thought), Lizzy & Jocelyn are already there. Soon followed by Aunty, Uncle Jim, John Boy, & Anthony & Jay's daughter Riley. Now Riley had NO IDEA that her Daddy was coming home.. She thought we were there waiting for Tonty & Uncle Scott so we could all go out to eat. So once they showed up it was interesting to keep this going. There was thank god a Starbucks as soon as we walked in so I of course got a hot chocolate, 2 teas on for Nan & Nick, & Lissi wanted a double choc chip frap which I ended up drinking.

People in the airport are looking at us like we are nuts, cause here are 14 people just staring at the escalator... 14 people expecting this huge dramatic moment when he comes down the escalator in his uniform & his daughter runs to him screaming Daddy, Daddy.... Yeah, he comes down in a bright neon green sweatshirt, Oh Riley ran but now people really thought we were nuts. No one knew that he just came home from Iraq or that he was putting his life on the line to protect theirs or that he hasn't seen his little girl since May. Neon green sweatshirt & neon green kicks, stylish yes, but sooo not the drama creator we were expecting. Oh & my Aunt let him know it too. Not, hey, were glad your home, your alive, you have all your limbs, no scrapnel in your ass, nope we all give him shit about where is your uniform? Ha Ha... But he knew just by all of us being there that we love him & couldn't wait to have the 6 complete again & we were complete finally.

* the 6 is what I always referred to us as... My Nanny's 3 girls & 3 boys... All very close & all lacking when 1 is missing*

So everyone was heading back to Aunty's for chicken cutlets, a family favorite & a night of drinking & celebrating... I had to go get the baby & order the food for the christening before I headed to her house so Nanny & I went to do that before we headed to Aunty's. Once at Aunty's it was chaos... Everyone was there, Jay finally met Taylor & of course the jokes started with the wood stove smell... the liquor store runs began, food everywhere, people everywhere, kids running around, the old home movies are on the TV & everyone is laughing. This is when I took a minute to take it all in, I miss this sooo much. I miss the closeness of my family, the comfort being around all of them brings. I miss all the silly moments & just all of us being together every weekend. Then Jays friends start showing up. Then the party moves to the garage, for the cool kids anyways. I was informed by my father that I COULD NOT drink, cause I had to drive nanny & Poppy home. I was planning on staying but that plan was given the axe... What am I 16? I didn't listen then why am I listening now.... But I did with this face on the whole night.. LMAO

Anyways, Taylor fell asleep & Lissi was playing in the basement with the kids so Mommy aka ME went outside to play with the big kids... It was absolute havoc... Dart game where if you lose you get hit in the leg with a baseball bat, BB guns fights at point blank range, shots of any & all liquor available for everyone but me, music, laughing, more BB gun assaults, Aunty coming out yelling, My Dad coming out confiscating all the bats & BB guns like we were 3 ... Kill joy, ha ha, you know the usual Munro chaos just a little more violent than usual. Around 9:30 I decided it was time to leave to get the kids back to Nan's & in bed. So all of this happened before 9 can you imagine what happened after I left... Even more craziness I heard. It's OK though, I have this weekend to make up for it. Aunty is being awarded woman of the year & then my sweet little Taylor is being baptised!!!

Nothing says love like the germ that keeps on giving

So about a week ago, Pat was sick.. He had KFC, we chalked it up to that. Then Lissi got sick about 4 days later.. Stomach bug. I was FINE.
So this past weekend I go to Nanny's because Lissi had off on Friday - Mon & I had crap to get done for Taylor's christening.
Get to Nan's Thursday night, hang out, go to bed.

Friday -
go to LI to see my Noodlebug & her handsome little man Colin, then to Mary's to see her & Eileen. Mary & I head out to the new outlets in Deer park because Lucky Brand is having a HUGE SALE... So I get 4 shirts & a pair of Lucky Brand jeans for 50 bucks (steal) Originally these items would have cost me over 500 dollars. Then we peruse the outlets, I get a pair of converse all stars which I have been dying for $29.00, $20 cheaper than normal, & hit AE & get 2 pairs of jeans, a scarf & a top for 30, plus I have a coupon for 20% plus another for 10% so all in all I did pretty good for the 100 I allowed myself for clothes that will now actually fit me, I even have money left over to go with tonight.

So the plan for Friday night is, go out with Megan & meet Mary & Lisa in Bellmore at God I still cant remember the name of the damn bar, anyways to see Lisa's boss' band play. So we get there around 11, we are dancing, drinking, laughing.. at some point poor Meg was cornered by some guy so I ended up telling him she had 6 kids by 6 different fathers, she was on welfare & used the money to go clubbing instead of on the kids... HE DIDN'T CARE. So Meg was on her own I eventually got her away from him & we left the forgettable named bar around 1 & headed to McGoreys... My stomping grounds or it used to be anyways

This is my 2nd time there in about a month... & it was my second time not knowing ANYONE except the bartenders... Very sad. This was my cheers.. I knew everyone now I feel like the grandma of the place. So we leave McGoreys & as we leave I feel like I was walking out on the end of an era that ended in my absence.

So onto Last Call to stalk Megs old flame.. We walk in .. We know no one.. no John, no Timmy, no Hailey, no one. So we walk down the block to the Nutty Irishman, walk over to the coat check & ummm Meg don't look now but John is right behind me... Meg freaks.. don't look, don't say anything. SO me being the good friend I am of course walks immediately right over to John & bumps him.. He looks at me like he has just seen a ghost & is like holy shit... & then I point to Meg & his face lights up. We say our hello's & catch up then we walk off, 3 seconds later she wants to go back but they are gone. So of course we have to search the whole club looking for them... Nada, nowhere. Meg has in this time replayed using me as her the way John hugged her hello.. To me GOOOOOD hug hello. So after looking a little bit longer we decide to check Last Call one more time since the car is parked right there.
Meg wont come in, so I go in & see John & pretend I have to use the bathroom ( this is when I start to feel sick)
I go out & get Meg & she comes in, I am talking to John, she is talking to the Army guy whose name I can never remember that John is friends with, then eventually we switch our conversation partners & well that is when a little alcohol was mixed with a little left over emotion & long ass conversation ensued... Now I felt like crap which is funny cause I didn't drink all that much for my standards. But I got sick. & again & again & again. I finally convince Meg to leave & she wanted to do our normal 4 am McDonald's run but stomach was not up to it. She got her food & I was going to stay at her house but something told me to go home. So I drove to Nan's got home around 5 am & that is when the germ gods unleashed there hell on me...

Saturday-Valentine's Day
5am ... Nanny I don't feel good.. Oh you probably drank too much. Yeah maybe the pineapple juice they used was bad.. Nanny goes to bed, I lay down, but not for long... Lets just say I was SICK really really sick. It required a bucket while I was using the potty... This last for 12 hours. I called Pat & told him he needed to come to Nan's to help with Taylor after he got off work. Warned everyone that I was sick but they kept coming anyways. At some point Lizzy, Jocelyn, Mary, Christian, Aunty, Uncle Jim, John everyone was there. I was like oh god the last thing I wanted was company & to be blamed for this once they all had it. Everyone thought that I was just hung over... I DON'T GET HUNGOVER PEOPLE.... EVER. So Saturday was spent moaning in pain, crying in exhaustion, being sick, feeling a little bit better, then oh no wait I am sick again...Sleeping, daring to go into the living room where everyone was & talking, back to bed shaking with the chills, then out for the night. Oh BTW, my brother was upstairs with the same thing.. so unless we were both drinking ..LMAO

Sunday-
Nanny & Pop have it. I feel a million times better & they are sick now. BOTH of them. I wanted to stay to help but I wanted to leave before I caught it again. Plus the heat was off at the house & Patrick was afraid the pipes had or were about to freeze. So I stayed with the old people for a little bit till I thought they were coming out of the woods with it. Cleaned the house, packed the car, went up to see my Dad who kept spraying Lysol & telling me to get out.. LOL. Said my good byes, Nanny thanked me for the "gift" & we came home.

Apparently this is a strong little virus I had, so far it has attacked since I left.... Nan & Pop, Nick, John, Taylor, my friend Gina who was out with us Friday, Mary's son Christian & others I am sure who I have yet to talk to.

So needless to say I got nothing accomplished this weekend & will be back next weekend.

The big V-day should be everyday

I used to love, love, love valentines day. I used to make such a big deal about it. I used to think it was soooo important. I don't know why, I rarely ever had a good one. Maybe 2 in my whole life & one of them was in Jr. High... OK so that shows my history of the big V-day.

But I was thinking about it today seeing as I am not going to be with Pat on this day of loooove....

Why do we need a day to profess our love? Why do we need to put so much emphasis on something we should show the other person all the time? Why do they always make the men feel so responsible to be "romantic" on this day. Don't get me wrong, I would probably have a heart attack if Pat did something romantic- ever. Ha Ha. But when I was thinking about it I was actually OK with the thought of being in LI this weekend without him because I know I have more important stuff to do than sit there & tell each other how much we love each other all freaking day & spend money on crap we don't have the money to spend it on.

I know he loves me. I know he would do anything for me. I know our family is his # 1 priority. I don't need roses that die, or candy that will only go to my hips, or a fancy dinner that I probably wont like anyways. I just need him to keep being who he his & Pat choosing to work on Saturday is his way of telling me he loves me & his way of giving me everything I need & want & me going to the city to take care of our taxes, buying a car, finishing the details of our daughters baptism & taking care of all the other little non sense he doesn't need to be bothered with is my way of telling him. This works for us. This is the way WE love each other. We don't need hallmark to tell us what day to love each other & how. We do all the time, regardless of what anyone may think & what we have works for us. So I am going to say everyday in my life is my day of loooooove & I am one lucky girl to have that.

Osprey & a pocket full of corks.

So even with getting up early & all my eagerness & anticipation for mine & Pat alone day, I just felt like I was getting a cold again & this made it hard to get motivated. For once PAT was drill Sargent. It seemed like it took forever to get ready, I couldn't find anything I wanted to wear because I didn't think my normal garb of sweats was appropriate & I was feeling a little bloated so of course NONE of my jeans were fitting right. But after the 10th eye roll from Pat & the are you ready yet, the bedroom looks like a war zone comment, I was.

So we packed Taylor in the car & off to my mom's......

Once at my mom's I was having second thoughts about leaving the baby cause she gave me this little eye mouth pout like she was saying Mommy where are you going, don't leave me... But Pat & everyone else assured me she would be fine & I was shoved out the door. I was told several times by my mother in days leading up that I NEEDED to get out cause I was baby talking all the time & she thought I was starting to lose it a little.

Once in the car I started to get excited... I couldn't wait actually, not so much for the wine but for the time alone with Pat. Also Chris aka Beernut & Ellen would be there too so I knew it would be fun. We pull up & it is packed... We push our way through the door & yes we have arrived. Once we got Pauly's attention we order 2 bottles per couple.. & head to the back deck. Now the deck was tarped & had a wood stove but it was cold. The guys left eventually to go get us hats & scarves. Ellen & I people watched , most of the idiots outside by the fire cause they were already so drunk. Oh don't worry we would reach there level of idiocy in the very near future....

There were alot of laughs, A LOT of wine... at one point I could have sworn there was a bench behind me, so I sat... there was no bench.I fell & I fell hard, everyone on the patio of course turns to look & laughs & I was glad I could be the one to give everybody there story for the evening.. but do you think my husband, the love of my life, man of my dreams, helps me up? No he stands there & laughs his ass off at his drunk wife sitting on the concrete patio... I too was hysterical, how could you not be? Anyways..

It was a very much needed night out, with lots of shenanigans & hysterics.. a couple of unforeseen events that I wont even talk about here, but funny tidbits for face to face conversation. Ask me about the snowbank, the winter twilight walk & a pocket full of corks the next morning...