Adventures on Ambien - Part 2

Apparently I had a pretty funny conversation with Eric two nights ago after taking my Ambien to help me sleep.  Typically on evenings I take the sleeping pill, I read for 5-10 minutes and then harmlessly pass out until morning. But two nights ago, Eric didn't come to bed until after the 5 minute mark and then we started talking about things. At some point it seems I crossed over into crazy Ambien world while we were talking.

Good timing. The same day there was a guy in the news for making a threat on a trans-Atlantic flight headed to the US. Oops! Turned out he took EIGHT Ambien at the start of the flight, and that is where some people are looking to find the rationale for the threatening behavior/statements.  Talk about an "Ambien Adventure".

In comparison, mine is pretty tame, but still funny (at least to me and Eric). Below is the dramatic recreation based on what Eric recapped for me the following morning. Of course, I have no memory of most of this.

So, we were talking about his trip to Portland, a three hour drive he'd be making the next morning.  I remember him talking about his schedule and what he'd be doing while he was there.  Then, as I crossed into crazy world, I decided it was necessary that he take my car to Portland.

"But, it really needs the highway miles!" I insisted.

Well aware of my altered state, though I guess I probably looked pretty normal, he said, "I can't take your car. Remember? My car only fits one car seat." [His car is older and the seatbelt configuration can't hold both our car seats at the same time.]

"That's ok," I replied. "I don't have to go very many places while you're gone."

(Eric looks at me like I am an idiot)

"But, even if you have to go ONE place, you still can't fit the kids in my car."

Apparently I was working really hard to convince him that he needed to take my car. The next morning he gave me props for my tenacity and "creative" persuasive skills. "Unfortunately for you, you didn't make any sense and your arguments didn't work."

Lost in the landscaping

I logged on to blog  this morning and discovered it has been a month since I last wrote. *hanging head in shame* All I can say is that I have been overcome by a busy life. Not a moment to spare for a random thought to float through my mind, much less to snatch on to it and direct it through my fingers. And yet, I may be worn out, but I am coming through to the other side.

Let's go back a month...

Eric and I spent his spring break working on our backyard landscaping. We had ambitious plans for the week and pushed ourselves to the limit to get almost all of it done.  Starting Saturday, we woke up, got the kids dressed and fed, and then basically spent the rest of the day until dinner hard at work.

In the end we cut out almost a quarter acre of sod, moved some, hauled the rest away in 3 very full trailer loads and then unloaded them. Talk about sore! We tackled the unusable, weedy dog run and made it clean and useable.  Eric moved or capped around 8 sprinkler heads. We replaced sod in the flooded part of the yard.  We marked area for our patio extension.  We ordered and received 5 trucks of mulch, 1 truck of gravel and 1 truck of playground chips. Spread all of that lovely ground cover.  And, in the last 2 weekends we built the kids play structure.  We've gotten bids and scheduled work for the patio extension and concrete curbing. We've priced trees for our landscaping.

Some pics...

Before....

During...

 

After...

I will admit that during our work, there were many times that we concluded we were really insane to take on such a big project on our own.  Two thoughts kept me going:

Number One, the logical rationale: We are doing these improvements on a tight budget and the more work we do ourselves, the further we can stretch our money when making these changes.  I kept saying, "We could be paying someone $30/hr. to be doing this for us." True, after loading 2 trailers full of sod and seeing we had another load left, the following thought was, "$30/hr really isn't that unreasonable!" But, we pressed on and our reward is that we actually have some money left for some trees and flowers!

Number Two, the illogical, but more fun, rationale: As I was chucking sod on to the trailer, I was reminded of multiple challenges on The Amazing Race that essentially involve "finding a needle in a haystack" and how some of those tasks apparently go on for hours and hours. I decided to think of the sod carrying and throwing as a task from The Amazing Race. "If I load all of these sod rolls before the other team, I will get to the mat first and hear Phil say, 'Amanda and Eric, you are the first team to arrive! You have won ONE MILLION DOLLARS!'" Looking back now, I was clearly insane from exhaustion. But, at the time, it was the quirky motivation I needed to press on. 

However we got through it, a majority of our backyard work is now complete.  It has been really nice the past few days to be able to go out there in the sun and really take pleasure in the yard we created.