The Checklist -- Part 2

Part 1 pretty much contained all the exciting stuff. This is just a spin-off from what's already happened.

I See Dead People -- CHECK

I didn't know how the whole funeral thing would affect the kids but they seemed to be handling things pretty well. It helped that they spent most the of the time with their cousins, playing. Knowing this, I figured that they knew something was up but didn't know enough to make things scary.

After Ba Co passed away, we met some friends at the park and I happened to eavesdrop on a conversation Kael had with his friend Rachel (age 7).

Kael: Have you ever seen a dead person?

Rachel: WHAT?!

K: You know, a dead person. Have you ever seen one?

R: (Silent with an incredulous look on her face, mouth hanging slightly open.)

Apparently taking her silence as a negative, he continues.

K: I've seen one. My Ba Co -- that's my Grandma's mom -- she died. Like dead. And I saw her.

R: (Still silent but now staring at him like he grew a third eye.)

K: Yeah. So I've seen a dead person. For real.

R: (Still no words, but staring, staring, staring.)

After getting that off his chest, he continued to chug his water before running off to play.

He wasn't bragging or scared. He was very matter-of-fact. I didn't interrupt and really, what was I going to say? He hasn't said anything to me about the events leading up to the funeral aside from that he misses Ba Co so I'm going to let this one... go quietly into the night. Unless he brings it up of course. Coward's way out? For sure. And I've added another couple of dollars in his therapy jar -- just in case.

One Small Bathroom, Two Contractors -- CHECK

Our leaks are fixed and the walls are on their way to being drywalled. We should be close to done, right? Wrong. Our insurance adjuster insisted on sending her contractor out to check the leak, just to make sure. I figured since they were footing the bill, why not? Turns out the contractor found moisture in the walls. Lots of it. And the plumber had already started drywalling the bathroom walls. So Cathy (the adjuster) called a halt to the repairs to allow the contractor to properly dry the walls to prevent mold. Well crap. We don't want mold so I gave the OK. Contractors came in and used this handy dandy camera and detected water in six walls. That's right: SIX walls. So six of my walls all have 2 feet cut out of them to dry. That's in addition to the 2 walls in the laundry room has the wallpaper peeled off but no holes cut out because it's a shear wall. So I guess technically I have 8 wet walls. I've got 2 fans in the kitchen and 2 dehumidifiers in the individual rooms running 24/7. The stupid things are driving me nucking futs. They are so fricking loud and they are blowing crap everywhere. Meanwhile the plumber has been asking when can he come back to finish out the bathroom.

Ugh. What that means is I have the plumber and the contractor both working in my itty bitty bathroom, 2 walls per company. I'm going to let the adjuster referee that one.

The good news is the contractor told me they won't be able to repaint the repairs and have it match so they are going to have to repaint my entire kitchen (oh, rats!). Oh - and, did I want to re-wallpaper the laundry room? The answer to that would be no. When we first moved in to this house, we painted the entire house except the laundry room. I don't know why, I guess we just didn't want to incur that extra cost for a simple laundry room. And now I'm being offered an opportunity to have it painted at no cost to me? Hell yeah, paint the puppy brown!

That we will get the kitchen, bathroom, and laundry room repainted at the cost of our insurance (minus the deductible) is probably the only bright spot in this whole mess. I haven't had use of my laundry room in a week and probably won't for a few more weeks is something I don't want to think about. I just focus on: new paint, new paint!

The Checklist

You know how sometimes life gets so hectic that you need a checklist to keep everything in order lest you forget something important? That's me. I have so much going on that I can't even keep my days straight.

It all started last week on Sunday, February 14: Lunar New Year. We always spend it at Ba Co's place. Ba Co is Vietnamese for Great Grandmother (Truong's grandmother). This was a very special New Year's since it would be Ba Co's last New Year. She was 96, bedridden for over a year and a half, and was on hospice for 9 months. Every day was literally a gift and we knew her time was ending. At 11:45am she took her last breath, surrounded by family members from near and far. It was very sad but at the same time it really was the best way to pass: surrounded by her many children, grandchildren, and (I think) around 12 or 13 great children -- all there to say good bye.

My house was the staging area for all things Orange County (as it pertained to the Mai family, at least). That meant I had 13 people at my place, including my 5. It was fun, tinged with a little bit of madness to keep it from getting boring.

Fast forward to Friday, February 19: Funeral Weekend. Multiple airport pick ups, car shuffling, room moving.... This is where my checklist begins.

Sick Kid -- CHECK

Malia chose that night to get sick. Literally. She threw up at Chevy's during dinner. Yikes! I know. Slight fever, no appetite, sick tummy. My kids aren't sick-thrower-uppers. Aside from Taede's sensitive gag reflex, I can't remember the last time my older two kids threw up. Well, now I do: Friday, February 19, 7:15pm.

Mystery Water in the Kitchen -- CHECK

That's right: mystery water. Discovered Friday afternoon in the kitchen before we headed out to Open House at school. Seeing how Truong and I know plumbing about as much as we know the mating rituals of the woolly mammoth, we did as much as we could. Which pretty much summed up to mopping up the water and hoping for the best. Evidently our best wasn't that good. Coming home from the vomit-at-Chevy's dinner, we discovered more water had invaded our kitchen. It wasn't gushing out by any means but there was definite seepage from under the base boards. Truong was so disgusted with everything that was happening (vomit, crazy crowds at Open House, funeral preparations, airport pickup -- what else can be piled on me?!) that he didn't want to deal with it. Besides it was 9:00pm at night. What plumber would come over now? We ended up once again mopping and laying towels around with the prayer that it would magically go away by Saturday morning. Which surprisingly it did. It was still a little wet but had stopped seeping out. Weird.

Fourteen People in the House -- CHECK

It was round 2 of guests, with a 4 day break. I felt bad for Thien, Maureen and Ronan. They flew into OC Friday evening, spent New Year's here, witnessed the death of Ba Co, flew back to Davis Monday morning, and then had to come back Saturday morning for the funeral. The body count went like this: Trieu and Ingrid from Colorado Friday night (fly). Thien, Maureen and Ronan from Davis (fly). Thao, Robert, Thai and Son from San Diego (drive). And of course my five. We had more people than we had cars. This necessitated in some car seat juggling, car borrowing, and ride sharing.

The Return of the Mystery Water -- CHECK

Remember how the water seepage stopped Saturday morning? The plumber came by that morning and said it happens sometimes and to call him when the water came back. To chase the leak would be pretty hard when there's no water to search. Sunday morning around 1am Trieu stepped into a large puddle of water in the kitchen. It came back and was even more than it was before. Great. The funeral was Monday and Tuesday so clearly this madness had to stop. The plumber came by again and we were literally kicked out of the house Sunday morning as they searched for the leak. Several large holes later, 2 leaks were found. Of course it was under the tiled kitchen floor. Option A: tear out the kitchen floor and fix it. Option B: reroute the line to outside the house. We choose Option B. I did have a couple of seconds where my mind screamed "NEW KITCHEN FLOORING!!!!" but that was a moment of insanity.

One Shower, 14 People -- CHECK
Good news: they found the leak. Bad news: the leak is to the hot water line to my master bathroom so they shut off the hot water line to my bathroom. There was no way in hell I was going to subject myself to a cold shower. So we all (and I mean ALL) took turns in the one remaining shower. It was a lesson in scheduling since we all had to get ready at the same time to head out the to funeral Monday morning. We left the plumbers to do their thing and hoped that when we came home all would be well. Or at least wet and hot.

Two Showers -- CHECK
So they got the hot water back on. Hallelujah! But wait - why is the pressure to crappy? Argh! I have hot water but it's so low pressured that if I pointed the handheld showerhead up, it couldn't even spray any water. Great. So we're back to 14 people sharing the one shower. Again.

4 Sick Kids -- CHECK
I almost forgot about this one. Malia you knew was sick. She got better Saturday. Thai came Saturday morning with a fever. Taede started getting a snotty nose. Ronan had lots of mucous (that's his word, not mine). Malia started getting another fever Sunday afternoon. The Mai Bed and Breakfast turned into a petri dish of all kinds of germs. However, there was no vomiting so at least we didn't pull the exorcist card.

To be continued...

There's more. (Can you believe that there's more?!)
But I'm too tired to type it out now so I'll have to return and finish this tomorrow.

Breath as fresh as...

To keep the potty fresh in between cleanings, I use the Scrubbing Bubbles gel stamper-thing. It stamps a gel disc on the inside of the bowl and freshens the bowl with every flush. Comes in a few scents and through trial and error, I've discovered that I like the blue ones best.

Anyway, I opened a pack of gum after lunch and Malia says to me: "Mommy, that smells as good as the potty!"

At least she said it in the car. However, I am bracing myself for a public announcement with something along the lines of "Mommy, your breath smells just like our potty!"