Adrift at Sea

This is a new painting by my husband. It is an image of me mixed in with drawings from sketchbooks that he did when he was a child. I have to give my husband alot of credit. He can work all day, be a dad when he gets home and somehow muster the energy to paint after everyone goes to bed. I on the other hand think about doing that and end up watching "Project Runway". 

On a different note, I am not sure I will be able to take my kids only going to school half day for much longer. There is constant fighting. I have tried to help out a couple people by having their kids over so they can go to work. This always sounds like a good idea. It is hard to have kids come over at 7:30 in the morning. No one is in the mood to play, all kids have a different morning routine and they don't always like to be flexible. Hopefully we only have one more week but there is no guarantee. I feel fortunate I can be home and I don't have to scramble to find child care.

I was on the 11:00 news the other night. I went to the school board meeting and went up to the podium to speak and thank teachers, administrators and parents for all the hard work they have put into this effort of moving our kids to a different school. I am very tired of the negativity and thought some positive feelings needed to be expressed. After I had sat down a woman from the news tapped me on the shoulder and asked if I could speak to her in the hallway. When I got there they got the camera out. I did not realize it would be filmed. I was asked a lot of questions and again remained very positive. She asked me how this all started and how my kids were coping. I came home and watched the news hoping they would cut this segment. Just when I thought it wasn't going to be on there was me talking. Of course the one sound bite they used was not all the positive things I said about how well everything was going. They went with the rehashing of how this all started. I guess the positive just doesn't go over as well.

Asbestos update

I dislike about 96% of the parents in my community today. Harsh, but true. A community meeting was held last night to talk about the Asbestos problem. A spokesman from the E.P.A. and from the Allegheny health department were there to inform us on the findings. There were air samples taken and swab samples taken. To my relief they came back negative for asbestos.

Thank God my kids are safe and can return to school.

WRONG!!!!!

This was not enough for pretty much 96% of the people in the room.

It seems people are equating the love of their child to how loud they yell.

I must be a horrible mother because I want to send my child back to a school that is deemed safe by the E.P.A. and the health department.

I am aware that no asbestos is safe, but in this scenario once it was found the work was stopped immediately. It is in a form that does not become airborne.

When they take it out in the evenings the roof will be covered. The roof will be wetted down and a saw will be used with a vacuum attached. The debris will instantly go into a sealed bag and be hauled away. Air quality samples would then be taken and posted.

If I lived in the next county over none of these precautions would even be necessary.

Now my kids are home again and next week will attend a different school for 3 hours a day. The students from that area will go for 3 hours in the morning and my kids will go for 3 hours in the afternoon until this clean-up can take place.

I cannot walk to this school. There is no parking. None of the kids are going to know where the hell they are supposed to go. By the time these kids get settled it will be time for me to pick them up.

You know who will be bitching the loudest when there is complete chaos on Monday?

It will be the 96% of parents who wanted this. I know this because I am starting to realize that alot of people are not happy unless they have something to be pissed off about.

Now that I am done ranting, The gentleman from the E.P.A. informed us that all children can be exposed to this. Some brakes have asbestos in them so if your child is next to a school bus they can be exposed at low levels. Also old linoleum tile should not be lifted until you know how it was put down.

No School!!

I just found out there is asbestos in my kid's roof at school. The school board meeting last night was a nightmare. Of course parents were upset but it got to the point that they just wanted to tar & feather someone then run 'em out of town. By the time the night was over we went from the school is safe to the school is closed indefinitely. INDEFINITELY!!! Now my kids are home. We all just got back into the swing of things, the new routine and they are home INDEFINITELY.

I joked with a friend on the phone that I may need to home school and my son ran in the kitchen yelling "NOOOOOOOOO". I think I would be done in before he would.*

*note to home-schoolers : I am in awe, I just couldn't do it myself.

So I am now hoping for a soot free house and an asbestos free school.

Not a happy cat

One of the drawbacks of trying to fix up our back room is all the dust. Black sooty dust. We plastic off the room but somehow a fine layer of black dust gets on everything. Everything includes poor Xena. After cleaning up for the millionth time I noticed her laying in the kitchen with blackness all over her belly and paws. Missy Miss Xena as Ella calls her is 24 lbs. of love who does not enjoy baths (what cat does). Ella finds this completely hysterical and screams with laughter the whole time which doesn't do much for Xena's anxiety. I've got to say it is pretty damn funny to see a cat that looks like it swallowed a bowling ball try to get out of the tub. She survived and is back to her beautiful self.

The first crop

We got to pick our first batch of grapes last night. These are special grapes to us. Kurt's parents first grew them at their home in East Eden NY. We dug some up and brought them to Pittsburgh because Kurt's mom was moving into a retirement complex after his Dad passed away and the house was too much for her.

When I ate some I thought of Kurt's dad making wine every year and how he got better at it each time.

I thought of Kurt's mom's jelly and how we always got to bring some home after weekend visits.

I thought of the grape juice that my kid's would gulp down in grandma's kitchen.

I thought of that scent that you could smell all around Lake Erie when you drive by the Wineries.

I feel so fortunate I can grow this little piece of history in my backyard. 

I'm a general contractor

This is me for the last 3 days and god knows how many more. We have a back room that will eventually be our bedroom so the kids won't have to share a room forever. This is no easy remodel. This is a complete demolition of very old drywall and some form of insulation that looks like many 100's of sheep were sheared to make it. I am unearthing dust from the early 1900's and soot from when this was a mill town. I was hoping to find hidden money or some relic to take to "Antiques Roadshow", but no luck.

I don't do well with disorder and I am getting very cranky. I just had a homework freakout with my son and am not happy with myself. I am going to regroup and dream of a soot and dust free space to relax in.