Weekend visitors

Well, everyone was out celebrating valentines this weekend. We did the family thing, watch TV on Saturday. I did sneak out to have my nails done while picking up soup for Trevor. I was supposed to get cat and dog food, but it completely slipped my mind. The cats will be so mad. I know I wont forget tomorrow or they wont let me sleep.

Tom went outside for the naughty cigarette, and I joined him. Not for the cigarette, but for the quiet moment together. W e could see in our neighbor's window from our back patio.
They were eating by candle light. I commented that I thought that was so romantic and why do you suppose they were doing that. Tom said it was valentines. We gave each other a long hug. It was more a passing of strength of love to each other, than just an I love you hug. It was hard to let go.

We slept in late Sunday. I didn't want to get up and face the day. But people have been dropping by. I told the boys they should be up and dressed in case the door bell rang. Yesterday the Girl scouts wanted me to buy cookies, but I was strong and said not this time. But I did give a big bag of cans to the next girl that rang the door for some sport team at the high school. That was a useful donation.

I am glad we got dressed. The doorbell rang and a it turned out to be a dear friend from Longview. She had wanted to give me an old digital camera she had. She had upgraded and knew I needed one. Rather than dropping it in the mail, she wanted me to get it right away. So she piled the husband and daughter into the car and drove down. It was lovely. Tom and her husband watched Nascar, while the kids played and we chated. It was lovely and broke the tension in the house.

Since the men were watching TV, we decided to make a dent on the garage. A lot of the stuff in the garage is just garbage that needs to be tossed. We couldn't see the floor when we started. After about two hours we had to quit. It started raining and my garbage and recycle cans were full. I felt like we had made progress though. We could see the floor. Tom came out and commented on the fact he didn't know the garage had a floor before now, humorous.

We still have more to do but it was a good start. They left right before dinner and the phone rang. It was another friend who wanted to come over and do a cleaning on my house. She had seen in the blog that I had said I was going to clean but she knew me too well. Tom had already commented on the fact I had yet to bring out the vaccum. She asked if she and her girls could come down and bring her stream cleaner to tackle my carpets. Ah, to have such good friends. They mean the world to me.

She arrived around seven in the evening and immediately emptied my refridgerator of all my expired foods. She even found something dated from before my children were born, OOPS. The fridge sparkles now. I made her quit cleaning after that so we could enjoy ourselves. Her daughter continued to scrub the cabinets for a while until we put in a movie for everyone. Tom hid upstairs for most of this. This particular friend though and her daughters, he always welcomes because the house always looks much better than when they arrived.

I did warn Tom we were expecting more company on Monday, so he was up at six am and off to work, beating a quick retreat after a week at home. My girl friend's daughter had us all up at 8:00 am to start cleaning again but we put her off until nine so we could enjoy each others company. Then They went to it again, and I just followed directions.

They removed all the furniture from the living room and brought out an industrial cleaner. Each spot was hand treated in the carpet then gone over twice with the machine. I was amazed aat the results. They finished tackling the kitchen and my laundry room. The cats got new litter and all the golf tees and change found a new home.

At eleven two local girl friends arrived with food for dinner. I took the moment for a nice break to chat. The cleaners kept going though. The kids played. It all seemed so normal except for the cleaning. The house hasn't looked this good since we moved in. I still have to do the bedrooms, but first impressions show a lovely clean environment downstairs. Its a great start.