OK! OK! I am not the best t keeping this up and I have heard from everyone who bothers to read this that it is time for another post..

I have heard from Justine now twice. The first call was 30 seconds long and garbled from a bad connection, so I could hardly hear a work she said, which made me soooo sad! Then last Sunday, she called again and we got to talk for 10 minutes, so I am happy again. She did say she would get a few more phone calls, so I am happy about that, but she said that they don't let you write much so not to expect any letters back from her any time soon. Its ok for me, because I will just keep writing to her. It has been a weird experience to have her gone like this - She has never really been away from home for any significant time and I miss her terribly! She was driving me crazy the last few weeks she was here because she was bored, but she was still a help for me to have around. Even if it was just someone to talk to on a more "grownup" level. (And the fact that she is funny as hell doesn't hurt) I can't go to her graduation in April either because of the lack of time off I have for work since my knee and foot incident so I probably won't see her until summer - it just kills me!
I have been keeping busy to keep my mind off Justine. I am trying to finish "my" part of the remodel of the house. Last week I took all the popcorn ceiling down from the livingroom and chose the paint for the walls. On my next week off I will paint and put the new texture on the ceiling so David can get hot on the flooring. After all that is done, I will pick the new furniture (I know, I know, it has been a long time coming!) and put up the new baseboards and door frames. David is progressing nicely with the upper cabinet doors for the kitchen and will be starting the lower facing soon. The cabinets are ready for stain and they are beautiful! I am ready to put them up because everything inside the open cabinets is getting dusty from exposure. More dishes to wash UGH!! I am also going to work on moving Hayden from the upstairs bedroom to Justines old room. I have to paint in there too because there are purple flowers on the walls. Hayden offered to help me and I will take full advantage of it! I should have had her room cleaned out by now, but the first few days I tried to do it I just got all teary putting her stuff in storage boxes. (such a big baby!) I will be done with the packing by the end of this week and the carpets will be cleaned after we paint, so by next week he should have his new room.
Maddison is going to help me too, but she is doing her bathroom. She said it needs to be more "boyish" since Hayden will be sharing with her now. I have picked a stripe pattern in a navy/green/teal/white combination for the shower curtain and we will paint the walls in something (haven't decided on that) He will use the shower in my bathroom still since the showerhead in her shower hits him at about neck level (thanks to all my tall family for letting me know that!) and it is going to cost WAY too much money to fix. We would have to cut the wall to move it higher and it is way too much work with everything else going on this summer. (All my tall family members need to use MY shower from now on! :-) Maddy is getting new bedding in her room but doesn't want it painted anymore, now she is just covering everything up with her racing posters.
Hayden broke his finger a month ago but didn't know it. He was messing around playing basketball at Codys house and smashed it into another kids elbow. It swelled up but I thought he just jammed it. We had gone to the doctor about his knee ( he has Osgood-Schlatter syndrome) and he mentioned the finger in passing. The doc took one look at it and said"X-ray". Sure enough it was broken. He has to wear a splint for 3 weeks. (don't worry, he is still playing baseball and basketball)and then re-evaluate - possible surgery if it doesn't heal. We will plan anything like that for off-season so he won't miss any sports.
Hayden also started baseball (Freshmen team) and started practicing with his traveling basketball team. His first baseball game is on the 20th and his first basketball tournament is on March 28th. Maddison has a racing class in Vantage tomorrow and her first race is the 28th weekend too. We are getting in the swing for the summer sports, so if anyone wants to come and visit and watch, let me know and I'll pass on the entire schedule!
until next time.......