$1453.78

That is the grand total for the plumber...so far. He still has to come back after we get the flooring down in the newly repaired/remodeled bathroom. YIKES! That man is worth a lot of money. Granted, he did a lot of things while he was here but that's less than a week's work. My mom had to float me a loan to pay him. I get paid on Friday and will have to hand my check over to her. Guess we'll be eating whatever we can find in the pantry for a couple more weeks.

Despite the sticker shock, it is nice to have 2 working bathrooms with the promise of a third within a week or so. The dishwasher is making me very happy, too. I hope to never wash another dish. Of course, we seem to have lost a lot of our dishes and silverware since we've been filling the landfills with paper and plastic ones. The only "real" plates in my cabinet are the survivors from a set of Corelle I got when I went to college (peach and country green hearts stenciled around the edges, thankyouverymuch) and a few leftovers from two different sets of winter/Christmas plates from many, many years ago.

I got to school today and wasn't feeling well. I got a sub and left half-day. I picked up cheapo Chinese lunch specials on the way home and Alli and I sat on my bed and ate them. It was a nice break in our stressful existence. We'd barely finished when Boy Wonder showed up to pick up her and Elvis. She took off, not even thanking me for lunch. However, they'd been gone about 30 minutes when my phone announced I had a new text. It was from Alli and said, "Thanks soooo much for the lunch. It was wonderful! :)" I felt a little better. And, for the record that was the first time she'd eaten a meal with me since before Baby Blair. (By the way, that is the new way of marking time in our house - before Blair and after Blair.)

Less than two hours later, Alli and Elvis come in the front door and I hear it slam loudly. About that same time, I heard Boy Wonder's tire squeal as he left our driveway. She just said she was okay and dodged me for a while. Elvis was screaming so I took him and he fell asleep within 10 minutes. My best guess is that he was screaming at BW's house and BW couldn't play the video game with the screaming so he brought them home.

Alli asked to borrow my van for a while. She said she needed to go walk around by herself. I told her to be home by 5:30 because I needed to pick Cori up from her school at 6:00. Alli offered to go get her so I agreed. She was home with Cori by about 6:20. Alli has been rather cheerful and talkative. She gave the hall bath a good scrubbing and chatted with me while she did it. She says she's going back to community college in the fall. She wants to go to her friend's baby shower on Sunday. (Man, that's going to be hard. The friend is having a girl and is due about a month before Blair was due.) And, she's willing to call about a local preschool program for kids and their parents. I worked there when I first graduated from college and it's a great program. She and Elvis will have something to do and she'll get some adult time and some help in dealing with this cranky little guy. Elvis will get some preschool time which he will love and he will have something special to do with his mom. I'm going to keep encouraging her until she calls and gets on the waiting list.

Cori came home from school, ate supper, and disappeared into her room. I'm not complaining.

Beth has spent the evening on the phone and myspace after finishing her homework. Despite some of our recent adventures, she's a good kid.