My Apologies, Mr. Rucker

Dear Mr. Rucker,

Sorry, Tom. I have single-handedly ruined your entire fall of 2008. I feel terrible about it. I really do. I know how much fun we have in the autumn. We both love the cooler weather, we both absolutely love college football and we enjoy riding in the mountains and hiking. Heck, we just love to sit outside in the swing and watch leaves fall, right? You, poor Tommy Boy, have not enjoyed any of these things this year.

Yes, it was my bright idea to redo things in my kitchen. Hilariously so, I just knew everything would be completed by the time G.G. #2 was born. Did not happen. Not even close. I don't know why but every time you do any project, big or small, you are tested to what seems to be way beyond the norm. I don't know what God's trying to teach you, but would you please absorb that knowledge and move on? Just kidding.

I knew yesterday wasn't going well when I returned home and saw you sitting in the middle of the kitchen floor with your head in your hands in total frustration. I wanted to turn around and go back to Abby's. I'm sorry the cabinets on the sink-side of our kitchen are not level - probably going back to when it was build many years ago. So you ,Tom, who always want things done right, are trying your best to level that darn cabinet so the granite tiles will be level and last until we go to a nursing home. I've thought of suggesting to continue living with an unleveled countertop, but I don't think that would be a great idea at this point in time.

Today was a particularly frustrating day for you.. Not only are you far behind what you wanted to accomplish today, but you just returned from Lowe's and realized that you bought the wrong item. So you went back to Lowe's to return it and on to Home Depot for the correct item. (Hope you doesn't meet up with the Home Depot maniac I mentioned in an earlier blog.)

I know you are feeling the pressure. Today is Nov. 8. Thanksgiving is Nov. 27. Simple subtraction says "we" have 19 days left to get countertops finished, stove top back in, sink back in and the house put back in some semblance of order. We are, as you well know, hosting the family Thanksgiving dinner (YIKES). I think I'm breaking out into a massive sweat! Yet to be done post Thanksgiving are the undercabinet lights, touch-up paint on cabinets, painting the walls and ceiling, adding beadboard, putting in two new light fixtures, etc., etc. I'm giving myself a headache thinking about all this.

I'm not sure why, but when we do any remodeling, the entire house gets messed up, doesn't it, Tom? I know you are tired of this, too, because you are such a neat freak. Even I, the messy one in this marriage, am sick and tired of dust and junk.

My dining room looks like a pig sty! Many of the kitchen items and new light fixtures, etc. are piled on furniture and in the middle of the floor.

I was once so proud of my butler's pantry. Now it's ground zero for Tom's tools and granite tiles.

I'm trying to be the cheerleader of all cheerleaders - rah, rahing you to victory - patting you on the back - giving you words of encouragement - and in particular, staying out of your way! I must say that today was especially trying for me, too. I, in all my stupidity, volunteered to prepare dinner tonight for a friend coming home from surgery. When I returned from the grocery store, this is what I saw in my kitchen:

No countertop space to unload groceries, no possibility of getting to my refrigerator, no place to prepare the dinner for my friend.

But, Tom, I was fine with that. I'm the one that pushed for a kitchen redo. So I used my noggin and came up with an alternative plan so that I could get the crockpot meal cooking. I creatively used the laundry room:

I turned my washing machine into a countertop so I could cut up my meat!

I covered a filing cabinet with towels and made a table to put the crockpot!

Tom, you don't know any of this b/c you were having trouble in the "krazy kitchen". Hope the food tastes good; I won't share with my friend exactly how this was prepared nor where it was cooked.

I could not believe it when I went to CFF to get some takeout for your lunch. All you wanted was sweet tea. More than you wanted the chicken melt, you craved sweet tea. I should not have been surprised when you took your first sip and gagged on the unsweet tea. I felt like crying. Why you? Again, I don't get it. I will get you some sweet tea for CFF for supper if I have to go and pour it myself to be sure it's SWEET!

I'm also sorry you feel stressed because you need to get leaves up and cut grass. Admittedly, I could take on this task, but you and I know full well that I'm not a yard person. I'd probably pull a muscle in my back dumping the filled leaf bag time and again. I honestly prayed for you as I was driving from CFF (I should have prayed for that employee who gave me unsweet tea!). I prayed God would allow you to get things done today and for nothing more to go wrong. What a shock it would be to finish the day with nothing going wrong.

So, for the rest of this Saturday, I'll keep shaking my pompoms (gold & black, of course) and trying not to drive you crazy in the mean time. And, as I promised, tonight we'll watch a college football game and eat apple slices with that great cream cheese dip!

I love you,

Your guilt-ridden wife