MAY YOU ALWAYS HAVE A ROOF FOR THE RAIN....

Posted on 2006-Mar-18 at 01:19

Photo: Irish transplant survivor at the World Transplant Games, London, Ontario, Canada, 2005    

Erin Go Braugh! Ireland Forever! Happy St. PatrickÂ’s Day!

I'm looking over a four leaf clover
That I overlooked before
One leaf is sunshine, the second is rain,
Third is the roses that grow in the lane.
No need explaining the one remaining
Is somebody I adore.
I'm looking over a four leaf clover
That I overlooked before.

I almost got pinched this morning for not wearing green, but then the girls spotted my green “Donate Life” band on my right wrist, so backed-off. They chased their Dad into the bedroom, but he slapped on his “Donate Life” bracelet before they could pinch him, too.

We havenÂ’t made St. PatrickÂ’s Day goodies, yet, but we plan on baking some brownies layered with green frosting and topped with green sprinkles for holiday dessert.

I allowed the girls to bypass heavy-duty academics this afternoon and play games.  Actually, Shivan wanted to help me clean. Alaina and Lindsea played Battleship.  Before that, the girls read fairy tales aloud to one another.

We normally try to take a field trip on Fridays, but heavy rains persuaded us to stay home. It didnÂ’t help that our home renovation project has problems. Water soaked through the unfinished wall outside one daughterÂ’s room, ruining the carpet. I spent a couple hours today putting all the childrenÂ’s books in that room in boxes. The bed will need to be disassembled, the carpet pulled up and thrown out, and the room redone. If itÂ’s not one thing, itÂ’s another.

Earlier this morning, we experienced another leaking mess. A clog in the aquarium pump caused fishy water to overflow the aquarium.

Our new sunroom leaks, too. My hubby took the old rain gutter and reconfigured it to create a makeshift gutter in the room. Now watch it not rain anymore the rest of the year. ThatÂ’s MurphyÂ’s Law for you. We hope to get a new roof on the house before the rainy season hits next year. 

It will probably take two years to fix the house—as the majority of construction will be done owner-builder. Every wall in the house will eventually come down. The house needs re-stuccoing and re-roofing.

When two daughters mysteriously needed heart transplants, three years apart, and we had three household floods, we figured it would be best to totally re-do our house.  Pray for us! ItÂ’s like the movie “The Money Pit”—so much cash to fix-up the place.

My husband quips sometimes that maybe we should look into emigrating to New Zealand. He saw an online ad recently for a beautiful ocean-front home in N.Z. for only $350,000, U.S.-equivalent dollars. When water drips from the ceiling and I feel like must squeegee the walls, I daydream about KenÂ’s quip and think about that oceanfront home--hopefully within sight of the worldÂ’s smallest penguin, the blue or little penguin. IÂ’ve heard about those penguins waddling from the sea in the middle of night and strolling New Zealand suburbs. WouldnÂ’t that be an interesting sight at 2 a.m.?

Well, itÂ’s stopped raining and I must answer pen pal mail (I still like old-fashioned correspondence), so Happy St. PatrickÂ’s Day everyone.

Irish blessing: