just breath...

it's been a long time since i posted, but we have been so busy.
last week it was a comedy of errors at our house.literally, when it rained, it poured. we have had such a wet and rainy spring this year and on Friday the 19th, it stormed. we are guessing that the sewers we so filled and couldn't accept anymore water and it started coming up through the sewers in our basement! talk about yuck. this was beyond yuck by the time i got home from work. i guess normally this wouldn't have been as horrific as it was b/c jim and i would have cleaned it up, but he was leaving that day for Vegas. so lucky him, got to sit in an airport for 9 hours (and yes, it is MUCH better than what I had to do) while the basement filled up about 6 inches deep with sewage. when the water finally receded, i put on my galoshes (good investment from good ol' Target), rubber cloves, tied my hair back and with a gallon of bleach, a mop and bucket and a garden hose, started washing.
luckily, a neighbor had pity on me and my situation and helped me move some of the bigger pieces of crap (I mean, furniture) around and carry things out to the trash, so by 11 pm, the basement was smelling good and drying out nicely.
well, everyone knows when Jim goes away, Nikki does a home improvement project. i really didn't plan on the basement being one of them this time ;0)
i had the master plan of painting the living room and dining room. You can see before and after pics on flickr. it took a lot of late nights and red bull, but i got it done in time to surprise everyone on Wednesday. from drab to fab in 72 hrs and under $500.
Maybe the basement mess was a good thing b/c it really inspired me to take a hard look at the things we are keeping around that we really don't need. We have so many things that we hold on to that really have no significance or things we have outgrown. It was really a big weight off my shoulders to get rid of a bunch of crap and now the reward is to come home to a clean and relaxing space I can feel good about.
There was a comical list of follies that went with the weekend, it seemed like I was being set-up for a challenge to stay sane, that's for sure. From a tire blow-out to mr. p puking at chipotle, to the hamster dying... one thing after another and yet I kept things in perspective and realized early on, they we all external things, items, problems that could be dealt with and it was up to me to choose how to deal with them. I chose to smile and keep moving forward and hopefully, this weekend I can sit back, relax, and enjoy.