last weekend i went back over to the old house to continue with the cleaning and last-minute things to fix the place up, and there were still many things to do.  when i got there, kevin and hank, our friend and realtor, were there signing the papers for the house-selling.

and then i was informed that the house was going to be listed on MONDAY.  this was a rather enormous surprise, and it meant that instead of doing a few more things so that hank could take photos of the place, we basically had to do EVERYTHING.

not a pretty weekend.  i was still trying to get over being sick, which now involved coughing a whole lot.  saturday was all about geting the inside of the house done, and that was a good feeling, finishing up.

but then sunday, as i was somehow feeling worse instead of better, we tackled the outside.  amy and jim and mom and david came over and helped, and if they hadn’t i’d probably have been crying  because of the sheer volume of stuff that needed doing.  so much pulling weeds and pouring down mulch and it was a flurry of stuff but the yard kept looking better and better…

later in the day everybody else had left but kevin and i were still there working.  dad had given kevin his power washer, to clean parts of the siding that were especially dirty.  kevin did this in the front yard as i toiled in the back yard, but then i came out and he was power-washing the driveway.  it was kind of dirty, but kevin was bent over the power washer nozzle, holding the amazingly powerful sprayer approximately an inch from the driveway.  this made an even more intense spray and it was incredible, how clean each little inch got after the force of the spray cleaned it.

it seemed a little…tedious to me, though.  couldn’t we just power-wash the driveway with big strokes, getting off the dirt, not worrying about somebody wanting to eat off the driveway?

after a while kevin had to return to the roof to continue repairs up there and i volunteered to take over the power washing.  it wasn’t so bad for a while, but i knew that if i didn’t spray it an inch from the driveway like kevin was doing, he’d then later go back and do it himself.  i didn’t want him to work that hard..but I WAS THE ONE FEELING SICK.

i kept power-washing and more power-washing and soon i was ready to start sobbing.  i was covered in mud and water, my t-shirt was soaked, i was ready to collapse, and then soon it was too dark to continue so we finally stopped even though nothing was finished.

we got in the car, as i whined a whole lot, and kevin said we had to stop at meijer.  to get cat and dog food.  WE CAN BORROW SOME FROM AMY AND JIM i said.  he was very insistent about buying it, though, so we ended up going to wal mart which was closer, but as i trudged around the store, looking more like a street person than ever before, even more than a couple of days before when i realized that i’d been shopping at meijer with paint coating the bottom inch of my pony tail, feeling sick, wet, wearing old tennis shoes with no socks because the pair i’d been wearing were of course utterly drenched, and i kept thinking WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY and WILL THIS EVER BE OVER?

if i was the kind of person who ever got in a fight about anything, i think we’d have had a fight that night.  i had asked kevin why we couldn’t call hank and wait a few days before listing the house, but he said it was too late, but that didn’t make any sense to me.

now, a week later, it is done.  well, it’s not really done – kevin is over there now, putting the siding up on the back of the house where the window was replaced.

i’m not going back.

monday morning, after spending most of sunday night coughing, i went to the doctor and he diagnosed me with bronchitis.  i’ve spent the week trying to rest and also trying to empty some of the boxes that litter this house we’re now living in.  things are looking a little less chaotic at least, but we don’t have much of our furniture in the house yet, so there’s no place to put many things.

i’ve lost my eye shadow, for some reason.  i brought my other little  bits of makeup over here – eyeliner, powder, mascara – and i can’t figure out why i wouldn’t have also packed up the eye shadow with the other stuff.  i must have packed it earlier, thinking that it wasn’t so important since i don’t wear it very much.  tuesday night the women where i do massage took me out to dinner because it was my last week there, and i realized the eye shadow was missing.  i know it’s a trivial thing but it was making me a little crazy, looking for the stupid eye shadow, but i think i’ll just buy another one.  i’m sure it will turn up someday, along with the myriad of other little things that have disappeared in the move.

i would apologize for not writing all week, but quite frankly i think it’s a miracle that i even survived it.

i hope your weekend is lovely and stress-free.

ok then,

saturday morning grace.