On the mend

  After my "bug" a week ago or more, I am feeling 100%!  Yeah!  A 100% better but also 100 % overwhelmed!  We have spent the last week in my husband's hometown of Columbus off and on.  We are now home to stay for a while thank God.
  My husband and his brother sold their deceased mother's condo whih is both good and bad.  Good because we no longer have to make the monthly condo fee payments on it, but bad because it is a chapter of our lives that is officially closing!  Which is very tough.
  My brother inlaw and his wife (which I will affectionately call "The Witch" more on that some other time) were going the last bits and pieces of my mother inlaw's belongings.
  My mother inlaw was a "pack rat" never threw anything away.  I was very, very close to her and felt bad about throwing anything away (because I now if she kept it, it must of meant something to her) even if it was some napkin from somewhere she had been.
  But, I'm still glad I was there to be the voice of reason at times.  "The Witch" (my sister inlaw) was not close to my mother inlaw, and I think she was jealous of the relationship I had with her (though she will never say it, and I think that's just one of the "issues" she has with me and my husband).  Her idea for everything was to just donate things or throw them away.  She was just going to throw away the locks of hair from my husband's first haircut that were carefully place in a sealed envelope and labeled by his mother, so I took them.
  My husband and his brother opened a box and found folded up linens inside and were going to donate them. I looked at them and realized they looked just like the linens that their Great Grandmother had hand stitched in the early 1900's that were given to me by their aunt.  Their aunt didn't want anyone else to have them, so she gave them to me.  I told them not to donate them, and told them what they were (they didn't know any better).  "The Witch" tells them to not listen to me and just "get rid of them".  I said "there's no way in the world that I'm going to let a family heirloom just go to some stranger who doesn't know a thing about the family, and wouldn't appreciate what they are" so I took them, and heard "Witch" say "okay...stupid to keep them if you're just going to keep them in box and not use them!"  I said "their Great Grandmother hand stitched these, I'm holding on to them because I appreciate it!"  My brother inlaw doesn't put his foot down and speak his opinion to his wife (which irritates me to no end!)  If my husband or I have an opinion about anything, good or bad, we tell each other.
  Anyway, we ended up coming home with 2 car fulls of items we didn't want to be discarded, and I'm now dealing with the overwhelming task of fnding places for all this stuff!
  Does anyone know a way to preserve old letters?  let me know.

Lists

When New Years rolls around, I don't make "official" resolutions. The kind of resolutions I make are to myself (and are kept to myself). This year one of my little resolutions was to be more disciplined and less of a procrastinater. I make myself little lists every day, and check things off as they are done. The more important things are first on the list and so on.... Now I'm not perfect at it and the list isn't set in stone or anything, but I am proud to say that lately I have been at nearly 100% of list completeness! Nearly 100%, until yesterday! The second my hubby turned the key in his car's ignition I mean the second the car started, an odor that smelt in a weird way like burnt cinnamon arose from that darn car! I had a sinking feeling my "list" was going to go "out the window". After the smell and my husband pulling out of the driveway the phone call came. On the phone was my worried hubby telling me the car was making a loud "roaring" sound when ever he sped up and the smell was still lingering. I calmly told him I would look at his car when he got home from work (yes, I know more about cars than my husband). He was on his way to work, and after eating breakfast I started on my list. I wasn't even 1/2 way thru the first thing on my list when my phone rang yet again. Again, on his break, he was calling me and insisting his car needed to go and get fixed today "immediately"!
At that moment I realized I was going to have to meet him on his lunch break and switch cars with him, so I could take his to our mechanic. This also meant possibly spending hours at the repair shop waiting while the car was being worked on (list out the window!). I wasn't mad at my husband (he thought I was)I was mad at the situation, and the fact I wasn't going to get anything done. Why can't the car act up on my schedule darn it! I know that will never happen.
I was right, I spent many hours waiting in the car repair's waiting area. I did have some comic relief when a jerk of a customer with a really bad toupee accidentally spilt coffee on himself when he sat down! Karma! What pay back!
Anyway, many hours and $900.00 later (Ouch!)the car was finally fixed! I know "life happens" and things definitely don't always go as planned no matter how we much try. I know one thing, today's list is definitely going to get done, hopefully! My fingers are crossed!