Why is it that to clean we have to make messes? We're in the middle of moving rooms around here. That means dragging things out of rooms, dealing with things in corners that haven't been dealt with in a long time. The beds are in the proper rooms but I have a table and a empty bookcase in my livingroom that DOES NOT BELONG THERE! And the books that were previously on that bookcase? Sitting on a bedroom floor waiting to be carried down the hall. OH my already aching back!
Luke's been the big helper here, tearing bunkbeds apart, carrying huge things up and down the stairs. I'm sure he's sore this morning. I just keep reminding myself that once it's done, the rooms will look nice. Especially if I can get them painted too.
We're suppose to go to my uncle's house on the lake but the weather doesn't seem to be cooperating. It's chilly, dark and gloomy out there. A day that makes you want to go back to bed with a book (or my crocheting). I can just start to see some blueness breaking through so maybe it won't be THAT bad. Still, I think we'll delaying leaving for a bit.
Then I got busy and it's now the next morning...
So the dark clouds did start to break up and before 1pm the skies were blue. We
decided to leave about 3 (well I mentioned 3, Tom was thinking 5 lol). We got out the door about 4 something. It was weird to think I was wearing long sleeve on July 4th though. People were freezing all night long.
After leaving this post hanging in midair I got busy working on the bedrooms and the library again. I'm giving the wall of shelves a lot of attention. I don't think it's been cleaned this well since we built it in '97. I'm hoping with Tom's permission to ditch a bunch of the books. I really love books and it's hard for me to get rid of them. These though...most are discards from a library that Tom junk picked in the early '90s. They're falling apart, smell musty and haven't been touched since they were put on the shelf.
I got into a groove and was going like gangbusters when I realized it was time to get ready to leave. It was really hard to not say....Oh let's just stay home. I know Tom probably would've been fine with it. The kids not so much but they'd have gotten over it. I'm glad I didn't give in to that urge though. It was so nice to see a lot of my relatives. The kids had a blast at the lake even though I was a meany and wouldn't let them go swimming. Just watching Sean's reaction to holding a sparkler and seeing the roaring bonfire and fireworks was worth it. I wish I'd thought to bring my camera!!!
My uncle's picnic is a mixed venue with his family and all his friends. It tends to stay in distinct groups with family near the food tent under the tarps. Friends up by the house with the music and the beer. There are times when those lines aren't distinct since my dad's also friends with a lot them. (My uncle runs a golf league made up mostly of his friends, my dad's on it) For the most part though, the line's there.
My mom was funny. One of my uncle's old friends that I've known since I was little (the same one mentioned in this post) came over to her and was sweet talking her (you look the same, etc). She called him on his BS as she usually does. Then he braggingly said...I have 5 grandkids...How many do you have now? She said with a big grin on her face...I have 18! She sat with the grin plastered on her face and waited for him to stop OMG'ing. Then she pointed to me and said...Kim has 12 of them! And grinned some more. And the OMG'ing started again. I thought it was neat that he mentioned the son that's given him the 5 grandkids has said he wants to have 12. :o) I hope he does. My mom answered all his questions while I went to chase Danielle and Sean. What are their ages? How old is she? Then a strange thing happened. I went from just being Kim the cousin and niece (albeit the crazy one with ALL those kids!) to my family. To...that girl there has 12 kids! She's 44 and has a 25yo! I kept hearing little tidbits of comments and heads would turn to watch me as I was dealing with the kids and meandering around the place.
I know I shouldn't care what people think and I really didn't care about their opinions. But to feel the eyes on me while I was walking and hear the whispers and such...didn't matter that they were mostly positive...became heavy to me. I'd lost my "anonymity", my sense of being just Kim. Luckily it was near the end of the evening and the fireworks started to distract everyone and me lol.
The night ended with me having to call my sister. I've had her youngest since Wednesday. The plan was that if we met at up my uncle's she'd go with my sister. If not, my sister would come out here Sunday morning and pick her up. Well our paths didn't cross. My sister had to leave for her inlaws (who live on the same lake in the next town over) minutes before we got there. My niece kept coming up to me and complaining of a belly ache on and off. I'm not one to coddle too much, my sister...just a bit. I could tell that my niece was getting more and more on edge over it. So I asked her...do you want to go home home? She sure did. So calls were made and we arranged to meet at the store parking lot to exchange the package. Then we stood in the dark empty lot and talked. :o)
As usual, almost everyone fell asleep on the ride home. We pulled into the driveway, climbed out of the van, untangled the dog from some yarn and jumped into bed. THE.END.
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