At Starbucks

It's evening.   I'm at Starbucks because I have a test tomorrow and I need to study and do on-line practice tests.  The kids, especially K, won't leave me alone.  First I tried the library, but I forgot they are closed on Thursdays.  I came here next.  I found they don't make decaf coffee after 11 a.m.  That's a stumper.  If it were before 11 a.m., I'd love to have the regular coffee.  I need to sleep tonight so I ended up with an herbal tea.

Holiday

The kids were home today because of Martin Luther King day.  Had they not been, I would have got more studying done.  I had to break up several fights among them.

J wanted tacos for lunch, so I made that.  She and I were the only ones who eat tacos, we discovered, and K just came by to eat the shells.

Tomorrow is the first time since the bathroom was done that I have school.  N and I will not have to work around each other's schedule for the shower as we had been when we were all using the shower in my room.  I get to sleep in an extra half hour.  I am delighted.  Mr. K had his first shower in the "new" bathroom tonight.  I showed him how the new faucet works.  It mechanically remembers the temperature setting last used on the water, which can make it easy to get the temperature right if the person who showered before had similar taste.  It also allows me to be able to shut the water off while I am soaping and turn it back on to rinse without having to spend three minutes getting the temperature right and getting soap in my eyes in the process.

Bathroom done

My bathroom now has vinyl floor that looks like fake stones instead of fake wood.  The walls are antique beige with white trim.  I have a tropical beach scene shower curtain (for just a while).  My tiles and tub have been refinished a glossy white.  Right now it probably looks as good as it ever will.

Snow day

The kids and I had a day off of school because it snowed overnight.  It's mostly melting off now, but not entirely.  That should happen tomorrow.

Mr. K and N left a few minutes ago for a Boy Scout wilderness survival camping trip this weekend.  It's dark now so they'll be out in the snowy, wet woods setting up tents in the dark.  To me that really sounds awful.  I think tomorrow's high will be in the 50s, so that won't be quite so bad as tonight.  They're both bundled up pretty well, but I sure am glad I don't have to go.

Warming up

I think we got to 66 F today, which is a degree warmer than I keep my house.  I had my door opened, with the screen door closed to keep the cat in and the chickens out. 

My bathroom is still not finished.  I think the contractor will come around 1 p.m. tomorrow.  I'm supposed to have clinical, but because it is the first week, we have shorter days as we get oriented.  Next week there will be no such mercy.

Mr. K is preparing for a Boy Scout wilderness survival trip he's doing in a couple weeks.  I think this warm front will have passed by then and the weather will be much colder.  It sounds miserable to me.

N is getting more short-tempered and rude.  He'll be thirteen in March.  I guess it's part of growing up.  Mr. K sent him to his room this evening when he was rude while we were watching TV.

First day, last term

I learned in class today that one of my two classes (the two-credit, not the nine-credit one) is an online class.  We all had to attend class today and we'll have to go to a field trip to the board of nursing next month, but the rest of the class will be done on-line.  That means that I do not have to attend class on Mondays.  The rest of the week I have either class or clinicals.  J and K are especially happy that I am free on Monday since they can stay home and ride the bus that day instead of going to daycare as we had planned.

My bathroom is coming along more slowly than I had hoped.  Unfortunately J messed up a wet repair in the wall that will probably cause the project to get dragged out another day.  We now have a sink in the bathroom and hopes that we will have the shower working in the next couple days.  Next Monday I am scheduled to have the tub and tiles refinished.  So far it hasn't been too bad studying while the kids are at school and the repair people are here.

Out of Time

I'm out of vacation time.  My first class is tomorrow morning at 9 a.m.  I have the guys working on the bathroom arriving after that.  They'll also be here after my class on Tuesday.  I won't be able to have them back until after Friday's class so I hope they can finish up by Tuesday.

We went down to the creek this afternoon and found a geocache someone's put there.  It explains why there are often cars down there.  I had been meaning to find that cache, but I wanted to wait until winter so all the poison ivy would be dead.  Mr. K found it.  I never would have.

I'm not sure how much I'll be keeping up with my blog once class work gets going, but I'll try.  I tried last term and pretty much abandoned it for the term.  Maybe this term won't be so bad.

Great price on gas

I filled my tank with just over 13.5 gallons of gas that I got for about 75 cents per gallon.  My supermarket gives you 10 cents off per gallon at certain stations for every $100 spent on groceries.  They also had a number of "coupons" last month for an extra 30 cents off per gallon.  Those added up to $2.50 off per gallon.

I don't remember when I last saw the gallons filling the car rise faster than the dollar amount, but it felt great.

Back From the Garden

My toilet came back!  The floor is in place, the walls have had their first coat of paint, and they will get another and more wall defects will get fixed.  The tub is still out of service.  There is a huge hole in the tile where the faucet goes, there is a huge hole in the wall where the shower head goes, and the drain is opened freely to my basement.  There is no sink in my bathroom.

We have hit the minimum point I wanted to reach this weekend--the kids can be denied access to my bathroom in the night.  The toilet is available to them, and they can wash their hands and get a drink in the kitchen.

Yes, the colors I want my bathroom to be are going to be boring.  I want the walls antique beige, the floor fake, light-brown rock, and the tub and tiles should all get done a stark white color, which I hope will match all the trim.  I am hoping the tub can be made to look so good I want to take baths again.

Bathroom Sharing

K got up to pee four or five times in the night, and J came into our room twice.  I woke up every time as they  jiggled the door knob.  I'm leaving the door wide opened tonight so they don't need to use the knob to get into my room to reach a working toilet.

I can't wait until our regular bathroom is up and running again.  I think the contractor will get try to have the toilet back by the end of the day tomorrow so we don't have to keep our room opened over the weekend.
Right now the wall repairs are drying, the subfloor has been repaired, and the new vinyl flooring has been laid.  The walls will be sanded, primed, and painted tomorrow, and I hope the toilet and vanity will be returned.  The tub/tile refinishing will come probably a couple weeks from now.

Garden Throne

Here sits my toilet in the space I named my "outdoor living room."  When the weather is good, I study here. 

My main bathroom is torn apart.  The tub is full of junk, the floor has been removed down to the subfloor, and the process of prepping the walls for a skim coat of mud has begun.  The room is non-functional for a while.  I am hoping to get it back before the weekend, but that's probably not happening.

My class had not opened up online earlier, but I see that it now appears.  I'll need to spend a bit of the evening printing things out.

Happy New Year!

We're getting our Christmas thank you notes finished today.  The kids go back to school tomorrow.  I go back next Monday, but my class material becomes available tomorrow so I can begin printing things out, setting up my folders, and doing the reading.

The kids have been getting pretty bored so it is good that they are returning to school.  I don't get bored the way they do with nothing to do.  I always seem to find a lot to do. 

I'm supposed to be getting some of my bathroom re-done starting tomorrow, so that will be quite the mess.  I hope it all works out.  I need to clear all the supplies out of there tonight so there isn't a bunch of junk in there when the guys come tomorrow and rip things out.