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A Sad Day for Rural North Florida

Not far from where WaWa grew up, this happened: http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/01/31/sheriff.shooting.ap/index.html

Small towns are so different. You just know the victims a whole lot better.

I think I'm going to yack!

Remember that problem with the subfloor in the master bedroom? Where the mud subfloor was cracked or crumbling?

Remember how we had 3 people look at the problem? How 2 of them said "no problem" and one said "just patch it and don't put down any hard surfaces"?

How we decided to put down carpet and were going to patch it? Then how WaWa decided that it was beyond his scope and we went to the vendor and Home Depot and they charged us almost $2000 more to pull up and repair the subfloor?

The workers are here now to fix it.
The workers don't speak English.
The workers don't understand the project.
The crew leader has arrived who does speak English.
He says this is out of their scope. The subfloor has failed in several areas.
The vendor said the problem was in "one small corner" and that the crew leader was to "assess the project upon arrival."
The crew leader has assessed it as out of scope and told the vendor.
The vendor is now telling Home Depot.
I am sitting here waiting.
Freaking out. But waiting.

What are the options?

Crew leader says every bit of the mud must come up. Every bit of OSB must come up.
Then they must look at the joints/joists to see if there is damage to them (please God, NO!). Then they have to lay new plywood.
Then my baseboards will be uneven and will need to be dropped and the walls touched up. Then they can put down the carpet and the tile.

What could have caused this problem in a 22 yr old home?

I think (and this is just me and my research online) that the sink was leaking years ago. You can see it was repaired and that the cabinet base has stains. I think the water caused the OSB to expand and that started the cracks. Over the years they got worse because of the excessive movement of the OSB.

The areas far away from the wall where the sink is are perfect. Lovely.

It's only the section up against the wall where the sink is....but we can't take up part of the mud and part of the OSB. Why? Because it would be grossly unlevel. Like...ah..two or more inches!

Trying to breathe. To be calm.

In honor of PostSecret

I mailed one of you a secret. Well an old secret. Tell me if you think you got it.

There's a new baby in the family

What has two wheels...eats sand...is somewhat skeletal but really digs playing in the yard with WaWa?

Give me your guesses. I gotta picture that needs to be posted.

More Favorites from PostSecret

For everyone who has listened to my tales of woe involving WaWa and the lost keys...lost wallet...missing shoe...This one is for you!

And I loved this classic tale of revenge. She is my anti-hero!

Humm...I feel uncomfortable with that...

I was sitting in my first CEU meeting to keep my foster parent certification. Today's speaker covered identifying drug or alcohol exposed infants and basic therapies which any home provider could perform. Great subject. Terrific speaker. Nice group of people.

Everything was going so well until one innocent foster father - who obviously leaves 90% of the work up to his wife - and who was maybe 80 years old if he was a day - asked a question about why foster parents don't require Georgia DFACS to uphold the foster parent bill of rights. In particular he was concerned that DFACS wasn't telling foster or adoptive parents when their child or children were "testing" as drug or alcohol-exposed. Why was DFACS telling people the children were simply "delayed" and that the kids "would thrive in their home?"

This poor man got an earful and so did sweet innocent me.

The seasoned guard reported that anyone who made demands or who pointed out failures with the system would be summarily investigated and possibly charged with some baseless crime. Their foster or not yet finalized adoptive children would be removed. They would be barred from continuing the process. Their name would be dragged through the mud from the police department, to the schools, to the hospitals, to basically anyone who would listen. The leader of the class said that she had "seen some awful things done to foster parents who advocated for their children." She also warned us not to complain to anyone about anything unless we did it through a large group or organization. In the past lobbying as a large group or as part of a non-profit's campaign had proven successful and shielded foster parents from harassment.

Holy shit!

This is exactly what I thought.

These people have been doing this for years and run a highly regarded foster support group! If they say that it is this bad, then what are we getting into?

I probably turned white as a sheet. I know I must have because the leader quicklt retracted to say that "there are some good case workers out there but you never know if your's is one of them." Again. Not something I wanted to hear. Not after the experience we have had to date.

She went on to say how badly the State covers up medical or development delays; and that as adoptive parents, we must be assertive in getting all the documents before we commit to a child. Well we would definitely get that...I am pretty well versed on the "hide the public record fast" game.

But still I don't want to foster a kid and then wind up in court because I stood up to a civil servant Nazi who is now pressing some trumped-up charge against me.

I tried to call WaWa and get his feedback. It was pretty scary. These aren't the grousers and the complainers and the quacks that you see on the Internet or read about in the paper. These people aren't drug users, abusers, or nutcases. They don't need your messed up kid to make themselves feel better nor are they collectors of children. They don't need to "steal" your neglected and abused baby to satisfy some biological urge to parent. Of the group, I was the only one without a biological child.

Given the group, I take their expressions of fear and worry as something to really consider.

A Very Early Valentines

Last night as I sat waiting on my massage, I was updating my appointment book with the dates when I needed to have packages mailed. I am sooo bad at not getting my secret pal boxes out in time and now with Army Brother overseas, I have to factor in that time lag as well. The secret pal box just needs to go out by the 17th of the month each month because the rule is that it must arrive by the 20th. I am sooo bad at making it there by the 20th!

So I realized that I need to get my packages to Army Brother out at least 3 weeks before the holiday. So the Valentines box must go out in the next week or so. This brings up the question of what can I send to him. He gets free laundry. He gets decent meals every day. He still has most of the stuff he took over there.

So what shall I send?

• Heart shaped Little Debbie snack cakes? Check.
• Magazines. Check.
• What else?

I am also starting to put together an assortment of greeting cards so that he will have a stash when birthdays and holidays roll around. It's not like that have a Gold Crown Hallmark on base, ya know! I have to get the cards to him at least a month early so that he has time to send them to his wife, mother, etc. I found a handful of birthday cards and some thank you cards. But I will need to go buy some holiday cards (Valentines Day, Mothers Day, Easter, etc).

Got any leftover unused greeting cards you want to get rid of??