hello again

I've been a lazy blogger, haven't I? It was lack of sleep for 5 nights that did it to me. We never have gotten our smoke detector problem completely fixed. In my last post, we'd changed the batteries in all the units and were sure that would help--until approximately 1:30 a.m., when the alarms went off yet again, nearly reducing Quin and me to tears and successfully reducing Maren to screams and tears. Finally, at 3 a.m. when the alarm had gone off multiple times and nothing we'd tried had worked, Quin just unhooked all 7 of the units and we slept in peace.

The next day, Quin called the manufacturer of the smoke alarms and they gave him some long list of things he was supposed to do upon changing the batteries, up to and including standing on one leg and howling at the moon, it seemed. We haven't actually been brave enough to attempt putting them all back together yet, as it's going to take quite a while to do the complete process with all 7 units and get them wired and put back up. Also, I think we're scared that despite the manufacturer's assurances, it won't work and we'll find that out in the wee hours of the morning again. I just don't know that our sanity can take such a blow.

The fourth night (Thursday), we were looking to a nice, quiet slumber as the alarms were all unplugged, but for some reason I couldn't get to sleep and tossed and turned for several hours before making the questionable-but-done-out-of-desperation decision to take an Ambien at 2 a.m. I believe you're supposed to block off a good 8 hours for sleep after you've taken one of those, but Maren woke up far before I'd gotten in my full allotment, so I was a total zombie for a few hours that morning.

That night I was so exhausted that I was actually sick to my stomach but was also stressed that I might have insomnia again, so with much trepidation we got ready for bed. We were interrupted at 10:40 p.m. when my mom called to give us the bad news that my dear grandmother had been in a car accident. She didn't know any other details, so we had no idea how severe the situation was, but anytime your 80-year-old grandmother is in a car accident at night, you can surmise that the outcome won't be great. Oddly though, I wasn't worried too much, as we'd said a prayer for her and I felt calm. However, I still couldn't sleep and spent most of the night drifiting in and out of a fitful sleep on the couch and in the guest bed. So if you're keeping count, that's night #5 of bad sleep in a row. Thankfully, I was able to sleep well on night #6 and every other night since then.

My grandmother was hit by a drunk driver who was also high on drugs at the time. My Gram slowed way down and moved over in her lane just before she was hit, which surely saved her life. As it is, she has a broken wrist and hand, a large wound on her arm, and some severe damage to her eye that she already has very poor sight in. Things obviously could have been much worse--I could be preparing to go to Alamosa right now, instead of preparing to go to Hawaii, like I am!

Yes, that's right--Hawaii! There's a very good chance that Quin will be going to Hawaii next week for work, and Maren and I might be joining him! His trip will be all expenses paid, and Maren is under 2 so we don't have to buy an airplane ticket for her, so all we'd need to purchase is my airfare and of course whatever we do while we're there. We think it's just too good of an opportunity to pass up, plus NO WAY am I staying here with the Li'l Monster for a week while Quin whoops it up on Waikiki for a week. Forget it. Quin will hopefully find out today if he's going or not, so we can get the go-ahead to purchase my ticket and make hotel reservations.

So that's the update. The photo at the top is some stuff I picked up at a garage sale and a thrift store recently. The wooden bowl was $2.00 and I thought it would look neat with some silk leaves and dried gourds in it this fall. The vintage child's utensils were .25 and .50 and are too cute! The little pie server actually matches some forks and knives I bought at an estate sale a while back. I don't know what the 2 wood things are, but I thought they looked neat so I bought them anyway. They were .50 each. They look like some sort of spindle, and are about a foot tall. Thought they would make a good display item. And the quilt--that's my favorite! It was $6.95 at my favorite thrift and will be so great for Halloween decorating with the yellow, orange and black stars. It's very soft and a little worn, just the way I like quilts to be. I'm not sure that it's particularly old--the whole thing is sewn with a zigzag stitch--and in some places a bright yellow fabric has been used instead of the lighter color which looks weird, but I still think it's neat and was terribly excited to find it!