Pumping

Seven years ago, "pumping" meant that every 3-4 hours, I'd sneak into the "milk and cookie" room at the HP office.... move the little pink and blue ribbons from the inside of the door handle to the outside; indicating to the world that the room was occupied.

In the room, was a desk, office chair, magazines, electrical outlet.... and my breast pump.

Yes, I said breast pump.

I would tell my co-workers sitting near me at the time that I was going to "pump" and would be back in about 20 minutes.

I did that for a year; not only so my baby girl would be fed natural goods, but also because I just plain couldn't afford formula.  There was no way.

So, that's how we did it for the first 12-13 months of her life.

Oh how time changes everything.

Now - pumping means going out in the garage, next to the washer and dryer and lifting up the crawl space entrance.... pulling out the lonnnnnnng connected hoses, plugging in the sump pump and ...

pumping....

...water from beneath my house.


I'm not complaining, because I'd take pumping water out from under my house to extreme ice/heat ANY DAY.

I'm merely stating a fact.

Last summer, my central air went out.  So, I cooled my house with a couple of tacky window units for the summer.

...and it was terrible.   I have no idea how people managed before central air.  I guess we're all just a little spoiled.

So, I toughed it out all summer and decided to wait until this year to install the central air, since prices would be cheaper once demand went down.

and so far, it's proven to be true.  I've gotten 4 estimates so far this last week and they are significantly cheaper than last year's estimates (thank God!).... but still land on my desk to the tune of about $3k.  Gasp!

But the good news is... if i should ever sell my house - it would increase the value, at least a little bit, knowing there's a brand new central air unit.  So, in the next couple of weeks, I suppose I will be biting the bullet, praying over my sweet checking/savings accounts and nursing them back to health.

That's what they're there for, right?

******
In other news, I wrote a much needed letter to my step-dad (adopted dad) a couple of weeks ago.  I don't want to be a debbie downer, so maybe i'll tell y'all about that in a few days.

What I can say is that it was incredibly healing and a turning point in sorting through a lot of the feelings I've had in the past couple of years.