Journey & Adventure

First, Happy Belated Mother’s Day to all Moms out there. On that note, I don’t see all the commercial hype about Mother’s Day. I believe you should respect and be nice to your mother every day of the year – not just one day designated by Hallmark Cards. Believe me (and I speak from experience), one day does not make up for the grief and torment we caused our mothers throughout of lives. Don’t get me wrong, the ability to sleep in or a nice dinner is always appreciated, but the gushy cards, flowers and gifts just feel “forced” upon us by society and somehow they become phony and fake. I’d rather the attention come at random times throughout the year….those are the moments that make moms feel special. The renovation on the spare room continues. With the room totally striped out and the millions of nails and screws removed from the studs, J can now start running the electrical. It seems like it’s moving slowly, but considering we’ve only been working on it for a few hours each ...

As part of the 5 year plan , you may recall me mentioning that we needed to renovate our spare room. When we finished our addition and renovations, the spare room was the last room needing to be finished. Having ran out of steam from the other construction, we simply closed the door to the spare room and walked away…for 7 years and for the past 7 years, it has merely served as a storage room for misfit belongings. Well, we began to remedy that situation this past weekend and the demolition has been completed.   That had needed to be done for a long time and as much as I was dreading it, it feels good to know we are beyond the point of no return. Obviously, the necessity of getting the house in tip-top selling shape (so we can retire comfortably) has been just the motivation we needed to move things along. Let’s hope that by the end of May, all of the current mess will be a distant memory and we'll be moving onto the next project. Stay tuned…

As I type this post (which won’t likely get posted for another day), I’m waiting for news from J. He’s at the hospital with his immediate family (mom, brother, sister) where his Dad is undergoing open heart surgery today. I decided to come to work instead of being with the family because I thought “one more cook” might be too much for the kitchen to handle…if you know what I mean. Needless to say, I’m distracted.   UPDATE:   The father-in-law came through his triple bypass surgery just fine and now the recovery begins. There are times like this when I wonder about leaving for Ecuador. I realize 5 years is a long way off, but I still worry about the “what ifs” of having aging parents and The Boy still in Canada. On the “getting ready to escape to Ecuador” front, J and I have made a list of things that need to be done around the house before we can sell it. Once again, I know 5 years is a long way off, BUT it’s a big list. About 5 years ago we completed a major...