PMS and a bad date

Not a "date" as in going out. A "date" as in on the calendar. Today is April 19th. This would've been my father's 61st birthday. And you know what? It didn't even dawn on me that his birthday was coming up until I stopped at the school this morning and saw today's date on a calendar and I did a double take. Part of me is actually glad that I wasn't forced to spend some afternoon with him for his birthday. (My sister always made sure we all did the "right" thing like that.) The other part of me is still mad at him for being such a slave to alcohol.

And I'm probably just feeling all sorta sappy and melancholy because I'm PMSing. I'd be fine if they took *those parts* out - I have no more use for them and I'd be happy to have no more periods.

My 14 month old niece was here for an hour tonight. She's such a cutie, but I spent soooooo much time just trying to get her to stop crying. Yowza! Not even the kitty interested her enough to get her to stop. Fortunately, it was nice outside so I was able to walk around outside with her and finally found something that made her stop crying - watching a purple Hot Wheels car go down the slide in the backyard. Once she finally calmed down, I was able to stop the Hot Wheels entertainment and walk around the yard and show her my plants growing and the trees and we listened to birds. Then we sat on the garden swing in the front yard and watched the cars go by on the street and listened to more birds until mom came back. And she was here for just an hour. Next time, I do this on her turf. She does much better there.

The past two days hubby and I have been helping Aunt Jen get a new roof put on her house. Aunt Jen is a single gal that purchased her first home last fall. I'm so proud of her for doing this!!! When she bought the home, she knew it would need a new roof in the spring. Her boyfriend said he'd be happy to do it if she could round up some help. Well, she got a couple other guys from her work lined up to help out and they both backed out last minute. So yesterday, hubby and I and Medicine Man and Nurse in Space all went over and helped where we could. Boyfriend wouldn't allow anyone without a penis up on the roof. Normally, I'd complain or just march right up there anyhow and be all bratty, but I'm not fond of heights, so this was one time I wasn't gonna argue too much. ;) Yesterday, the three guys got all the old shingles (THREE layers!) torn off while the three gals put the old shingles in a trailer to haul to the dump, and also ran errands and anything else that needed to be done. The guys even got a bit of the shingling started. Today, I was back over for a few hours and I'd walk a stack of shingles up the ladder, deposit them on the edge of the roof, then walk back down and repeat the process many times. I also got to use the circular saw to cut some boards. :) (Remember, I'm a gal that likes power tools!) Aunt Jen keeps telling us how she's gonna find a way to pay us, blah, blah.... We keep telling her she doesn't need to - that we don't mind helping out a friend when needed. Other times we've helped her out, we've just told her that someday, she gets to help someone else out to pass it along. Goodness only knows how many times we depended on hubby's dad to help us out!!!

So I'm pretty pooped. And I didn't get a big housecleaning done. (Can you tell I'm crushed about that? LOL!) I got the bathrooms cleaned and the kitchen cleaned up a bit. I'll just sweep and vacuum tomorrow evening and call it good. I just don't want to come home to a dirty house after being gone. I hate that.