Happy New Year

May it be better than the last one

Good bye, Christmas

Christmas came and went.

And with it a huge sigh of relief. And I don't really know why. It's not like I had to do a huge amount of entertaining or visiting.

But I think it has alot to do with the expectations of Christmas- the most 'wonderful time of the year' and all that jazz.. for me it just forces me to go shopping. Which I'm not a huge fan of, particularly for those who seemingly have everything they need or want. Like my in-laws.

Every year it's a struggle with what to get them and every year my husband give me very little input into what we should give them. In years past it had been restaurant gift certificates, but then we found them in the glove compartment of their car, unused, years later. Then it was pictures of the kids. Cept I was going to send them pictures anyway.

This year.. I had a moment of inspiration. Or maybe just a moment of passive-aggressiveness.

Either way..

I'd been after them to visit. It's been over 1.5 years since we'd seen them and the kids really should know who their grandparents are. They're both retired and it costs 1/3 the cost to fly the 2 of them here than it costs to fly the 6 of us there. Not to mention flying/traveling with JM is pure hell. For the surrounding passengers AND us.

And since Larry didn't get anytime off last year, we didn't travel. And we got news that he's deploying for a year (in feb, now probably march) and.. well.. if they want to see him, they're just going to have to get on a plane. humph. so there.

I've been threatening to just buy them tickets and mail them to them. They have 100 excuses of what they need to do that they can't travel.. I won't hash them out here..but when I went to actually buy the tickets, Larry said to not waste our money. And hey.. they're his parents.

But this year it came up again 'what do get his parents for Christmas' and he couldn't' come up with anything. I still had a bug under my skin about getting them here and looked at air tickets, told them I was going to buy them for Christmas, and they said 'oh, no, let us buy them, we want to be able to decide' followed by the usual reasons why they can't travel..

So I bought them suitcases. The kind you wheel behind you. A whole set. Perfect for flying.

he he he

They asked 'is that a hint?'

hmmm...

What do you think?

Next year they're going to get a 'trio of dairy animals' or chickens or ox sent to Asia in their name, I think....
Wonder what kind of hint that'd be?

yeah, we still are wasting time

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Because the kids think being elves is funny

Once we got past the "which one is me?" questions

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We should have stopped while we were ahead

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Really. We should have stopped. Although it looks the same, trust me, it isn't.

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

and... by special request..
The SHAKE YOUR BUTT one

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And with that...

We really have other things we should be doing

What I learned today

-Painting Cathedral ceilings is a level of purgatory.
-Leaning back off a ladder to reach that last little spot is a bad idea.
-Falling into a just-painted wall doesn't hurt as much as you think it would.
- It will mess up your paint job
- Choosing paint colors in the cave you currently call home does not give an accurate idea of color
-Once you actually get the color on the wall, you will swear the guy mixed the paint wrong
-Cept it isn't, your lighting was
-What appears as a cream in a cave will appear as a pink in light
-Pink is not a color most men will accept for their dining rooms
-Re-painting rooms with cathedral ceilings is a lower level of purgatory

To be continued................

And just because I am killing time tonight

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Now accepting reservations, call 1-800-visit-paradise

Should anyone who's known us more than a month want to visit..

We should be open for visitors in the next month.

However.. if you're handy with a paintbrush and like to help move you're welcome now.

 The clock is ticking and it's looking like we just. might. possibly be fully moved by Jan 1.
In reality it will probably be Jan 9.

What I've learned the past week from this experience is:
- it is MUCH easier to get stuff done if you are able and willing to hire someone.
- Had we hired a sheet rock guy, our first house would have taken us 1 year less than it did
- some people are worth their weight in gold.. Well.. maybe not literally..
-If you open the paint can and think 'that's no where near the color we chose' it will not magically turn into the color you chose after spending 2 hrs putting it on the walls
- The McDonalds around the corner from the new house will always mess your order. Always.
- You will almost be on a first name basis with all the employees at said McDonalds after buying the kids' food there 2 x a week.
- 'Extra pickle and ketchup only' will be lost in translation at most Mc Donalds in Southern Ca.
- The drop in daycare doesn't always have openings when you want them to have them
- Kids like helping painting
- Kids' painting skills are best kept on paper, not on walls
- Even when not painting themselves, they will manage to wear paint on at least 1 part of their body and one article of clothing
- If you leave the front door open, neighbors will wander in to see what you are doing. Especially if they share your floor plan
- The neighborhood watch guy takes his job very seriously. Don't let his cane fool you, this guy gets around.
- California does have rednecks and you can find them selling stuff you need on Craigslist

It's been a busy week here in Lake Woebegone (uh.. San Diego County)

I'll just be uploading a few pictures as photographic evidence

What the house actually looks like outside. Like every 3rd house in the neighborhood.

The Girls' Room so far.  "princess pink"

The Boys' Room so far.

View from front door.
Big Ugly orange post gone. Tile in Dining room, going in Kitchen. That's a guy installing the tile.
Office doorway to the right, now.

Sonia walking on the new tile.
New French door into the guestroom/school room
Fireplace and windows taped over
New lights going in ceiling. Make that lights going in ceiling. People who built California houses don't believe in lighting from the ceiling which makes for very dark rooms once the sun goes down. Larry fixed that. :-)

View into kitchen from dining room. That's the other tile-guy.
Living room to the right, wall far right is the wall to the new-made office

We were very blessed to have my parents here for a week (and a day). They kept our kids entertained so we could paint, clean and fix up the house. The kids had been going with us (as seen in the pictures) but were 'helping' a little too much with the paining. And getting pretty bored. We'd brought over a laptop and all our movies and set it up in the girl's room for them to watch movies and eat snacks (why the carpet remains in there for now) and for a while it was working fine.

Yesterday the kitchen cabinets arrived and the fort they have been planning for those boxes ought to keep them busy for another week and then the house should be done.

My parents got to experience life from the blog. I'd been meaning to write about it, since it just fits with my life, but my life has been a little busy even to blog.

But Monday.. was a typical nutty day. It started with plans to drop my parents off at the airport, stop at the Navy exchange and buy a Christmas present for Larry, get lunch for the kids, go to JM's Pediatric GI apt at the Navy Hospital at Balboa and then drive to Chula vista and pick up a van full of diapers from our friends' garage.

That was the plan. I had a schedule it was going to make the best possible use of my time.

What really happened was I dropped my parents off at the airport and before I got to the exchange I got a call that it looked like their plane was going to be canceled. Due to ice (in Pennsylvania). Which still strikes me as funny that you can get 'snowed in' as far as planes go when you're in San Diego.

Anyway. We stop for gas and just before we find a parking space we get the call that they are spending another night with us.

No biggie- go to pick them up.Get them and their suitcases back into the the van.

Try to get back to the exchange. I should have just gone the way I just had gone to the exchange, the one way I know, through downtown.  Except I had a new GPS and decided to trust her judgment. Yeah. Sometimes she's just wrong. And oddly the Navy exchange isn't among her 'points of interest' so she's not all that helpful, anyway.

Finally get to the exchange after a detour through a fairly sketchy area of town. Pull in, go shopping. Mom and dad wander around shopping, too. We check out, get them checked out and I realize JM has a particularly foul odor coming from his rear quarters area. Send mom and dad to the food court for lunch and I head to the van to change the diaper.

Now this is the point where I should track back to earlier that morning. When I could. not. find. my. keys. Of course that's a fairly common occurrence here, and they usually show up, eventually. But we had a plane to catch (or so we thought) so I didn't have a ton of time to try to find them. I thought Larry probably had them in his pocket from yesterday, so grabbed the spare key and left.

But the spare key is just the key, not the little remote thing.

So I manually unlock the door and toss the key on the car seat. Change JM and pull him out of the car, put him in the stroller and shut the van door. Hear the  'ding ding ding' it does right before it locks.
I must have hit the 'lock' button on the driver door when I shut but the sliding door was open so it didn't lock until 2 seconds after I closed the sliding door

With the key sitting in there on the car seat.

Crap.

At this point, the clock is ticking and we REALLY needed to be on our way to the Ped GI apt to get there on time.

Call AAA. They tell me my membership is expired. I tell them that can't be since it's supposed to be on auto-renewal (because as evidenced in this blog... I NEED them. often) They transfer me to their membership dept, I renew on the phone, they transfer me back to the chick who will send me someone who can unlock my door. Tell me he'll arrive in about 30 minutes.

uh, oh. That's going to be really cutting it close.

Go inside. Tell my parents I locked myself out, leave kids with them, head to the car to wait.
Finally get a call from the AAA guy saying I had to meet him at the Gate (since I'm on the Navy base) and they won't let him in without my being there.

Walk to the gate, explain my situation.

The guy gets there and the guard tells him to pull over and wait for an escort.

WHAAATTT???

AT this point, it was 10 minutes before my apt, 20 minutes after I was supposed to arrive to register. After waiting on hold forever on the apt line for the hospital (the entire time I was walking from van to gate and until the tow guy got there), I get a human who transferred me to the GI clinic who I explain my situation and beg them to still see JM. They sound confused and say 'well.. I'll let her know what's going on.' click.

Call Larry frustrated and ask him if he has the keys. He doesn't. 

Sitting there with the tow truck guy, it seems like an eternity. I ask 'how long does it usually take for an escort?' and he says 'sometimes an hour'
oh.no. That's not going to work. Go back to the guard and fill him in that I NEED to get to the hospital, my son's been waiting for this apt for 4 months, I'm supposed to have been there 25 minutes ago.... and he says he'll call (again) and about 20 second later the 'escort' show up. Which is just military police.

Tow guy takes 40 seconds to open the van. MP then needs my registration and ID to make sure the van I had the buy break into was really mine to break into.  Joey proudly informs my parents that he knows they use a long special stick to open the van. And he knows this from the last time I locked my keys in the truck.

Into the Van, race to the hospital.

Leave the Van running with my parents and older kids trying to find a parking space while we sprint the 1/2 mile to the other end of the building after finally finding the Ped GI clinic. Which doesn't have a sign. The PICU has one right there, but it doesn't.

Meet a team of Senior Citizen Santas as we were running down the hall who made JM stop in his tracks in fear. That didn't stop them from touching him, talking to him and giving him a bear. Now named "stuffy bear" and goes with us everywhere.

Get to the apt was whisked to vital signs and seen and done with the DR in about 20 mintues. She seemed as thorough as one could be trying to get history on a kid who's had newborn stool since he was a newborn.
Sent me to schedule him for an EGD. Waiting to schedule it took about as long as my visit with the dr. 

As we get out to where my parents are, Sonia has to use the bathroom. And the last place I saw bathroom signs was about 1/2 mile away. Trudge back up to the hospital and see an hourly child care place. hmmm... stop in and inquire about leaving the older 3 there for the AM of the EGD (because it's 2 days before christmas and we'll have to leave at 6:30 in the AM and finding a babysitter at 6:30 am 2days before Christmas will be challenging) and arrange that while Sonia uses their rest room.

All this time my father's been stuck in a traffic jam trying to get out of the parking garage. And absolutely none too happy about it. We didn't leave to find the bathroom until after he'd called about being stuck and were back to the parking lot just as he got out.

Back home, ate dinner, went to paint the new house

Next AM tried again to get them to the airport (successfully this time), actually got to fill the van with diapers (which wasn't going to happen with suitcases and stroller), ran a trillion other errands and got home in time to make dinner.

Oh.. yeah,  those missing keys?
They were in my father's coat pocket.

Pictures. Finally

The Kitchen of days past and future (top) the view from dining room to front door(bottom). Yes. I know it's blurry. You get the idea.

Spectacular view of the ugly orange post in the middle of the house. Behind it is the soon-to-be office (to the right, by the bay window) and to the left will be the living room.

Room currently decorated with 5 gal buckets of primer and ceiling paint.

Dining room, Toward the Right will be the kitchen. The bricks used to be the fireplace mantle thing. But we needed the 18 inches of floor space to fit our table. And they were ugly. And fun to tear down. Destruction is sometimes fun.

Yes, That is a double vanity. I know you're Jealous, Andrew ;-)

The Elephant Room.
Soon to be boy bedroom. Minus the elephants. Apparently they liked them so much that when the painted the walls from tan to blue, they tried to paint around the elephants, rendering them even scarier looking than they would have been otherwise.
Note the freshly painted ceiling and missing floor tile.
These people liked painting their ceilings. This room was tan, the girls was pink, the master bath was Mississippi mud brown.

Master bedroom. Bathroom to the left, patio door to the right.

Yes, all the ceilings in this house have odd angles. 

Master bath and closet. yeah, crummy picture.

View from kitchen. Through dining room. You can see through the future "guest room" and the last doorway leads into the elephant room.

Those white things you see in the foreground are electrical wiring.

Backyard. Looking from back kitchen door, there is this little patio-bricked area and then the back yard. Beyond our yard is open space. (yeah!!!) and a firebreak and coyotes. What would our backyard be without a fire break and active coyotes?  But.. if you're going to have a few square feet for a yard, it's nice not having to share your back fence with another family.
Since it's rained 1 day (and not even a whole day- a few hours) since.. uh.. forever. The plants are mostly dead and so is the grass. 

We are homeowners

Now I can post pictures

Just as soon as I take them

He's not a baby anymore!

My youngest wanted a snack yesterday mid-morning. I was in the middle of something and when done (4 minutes later)  I went into the kitchen and found him

With...
bread
Peanut butter
Fluff 
knife

AND a half eaten sandwich that he proudly told me he made.

whoa.
Time to rethink where things are kept in the pantry

If you're not from New England, you've probably not heard of a Fluffernutter sandwich.
You are missing out and must go to the grocery store today and buy a jar of Marshmellow Cream (which is the closest thing you'll find outside of New England to actual Fluff) put it on one piece of bread, peanut butter on the other and munch. So easy, even a 2 year old can do it.
Especially Yummy to the under 10 crowd.

Today might be the day

That the house is officially ours. We were told last night it was supposed to be yesterday. So.. we'll see.

Spent the better part of the AM trying to find who controls the utilities in the town. Sadly, when you move to towns with a population under 4000 there isn't a city hall to call to get this sort of information. There isn't even a town hall. gasp!

There are, however.. 3 liquor stores, 1 bar and 1 tattoo parlor. So you know we're moving up in life.
Just kidding.
It's really a cute town. (as far as southern CA cute goes) and if it wasn't for the liquor stores and tattoo parlor at the one traffic light in town you wouldn't know the town even existed.

Oh, yeah, there's also a big ole horse track. Which is why our neighborhood has names such as 'thoroughbred lane and triple crown drive' I don't think any major race happens there.. but I have no clue.

Anyway..

This week's lesson is life is...

"If you think you know what feeling stressed is, just wait until you see what the future holds for you. It's only been practice so far."

Good thing I've had so much practice, cuz the next few months look like some real doozies.

Nothing to report

Especially since my publicist (*cough*mom*cough*) thinks I've been sharing too much publically. I told her no one reads this, but apparently someone read it once to tell someone in the cloth diaper world that I was going to sell the business.. so maybe she has a point.

We signed something like 60 pages of stuff that was supposed to make the house ours on Friday.

Today I have a request to sign and provide  yet more stuff.

So.. yes. Still in house-owning pergatory.

Thanksgiving came and went. Rather than spend time eating with family, we went shopping. And planned our day-after-thanksgiving shopping spree.

We planned on both going and one of us taking the kids, but cooler, more rational, or at least sleepier heads prevailed at 4:30 am and Larry stayed home with the kids. By the time I came home by 9am, he decided that I did indeed have the shorter straw in the game of parenting.

We bought a fridge at a black friday price, then went to another store and in conversation with the appliance dept manager, came back the following day (Sat) to store b to buy the newer version of the same fridge for $200 less and returned fridge a to store a. Sounds difficult, but it really wasn't, since we didn't pick up fridge a from the store, yet.

Now if only we can find a great deal on a stove and dishwasher and gas dryer.


Have decided that if we're actually going to be able to move from this house by Jan 1 that we're going to need to hire help.

And now I go to fax 50 pages to someone new in the 'sign, fax and return with documentation' game.

Brief Update

We've been to the Sequoias and back.

It was nice and I'll come back when I have more time (ha ha ha! perhaps in 2062? Ok- less pressing issues) to upload the pictures. There was...SNOW on the ground and the day we left they were supposed to get FEET of the stuff. We did not have chains for our tires, so we were not supposed to be there.
I didn't realize Sequoias only grow at 5000+ ft altitude.
Silly me.
I was expecting to get there for the 60-something degree weather we have here.

Next time we bring winter coats hats and gloves.

The house closing is not going well.
At all.
The "assistant" who is supposed to be handing our case has let it sit on her desk countless days and now (supposedly) our file is back at an underwriting department for yes, you got it, ANOTHER underwriting. We've been approved but the first underwriting, but apparently there is a second underwriting that has to happen.

And it being a holiday week, if it doesn't get done by Tuesday, we can't close this week.
[bang head here]

And then we go into the penalty stage.... Because Wells Fargo branch A has someone who has dragged her feet and sees no urgency, we will be charged by Wells Fargo branch B because she didn't do her job in a timely manner.

No. Not at all pleased with this turn of events.

I wish I knew a lawyer who could start threatening them with something. Anything. It's just incredibly frustrating.

Up to the minute housing news

We got a message from our realtor that the house finally passed and that we're good to close on Thursday.

And then tonight I get an email and phone message from our mortgage broker assistant wanting to go over the numbers on our W2s and taxes.
Seriously.
I sent back a 'break it down Barney style' email and cc'd her boss.
I am still not in a mood to be messed with. And I'm not even sure who to direct my frustrations about this whole process at. But she got in my line of fire tonight.


So between now and Thursday we might go take a road trip as a family to see the Sequoias.
If I disappear, that's where I'll be.

Or sitting in a corner rocking and moaning to myself

With the good comes the bad

Sometimes it's good that I've been able to get over my fear of talking to people and talk. Sometimes too much and sometimes I says stuff that comes out completely wrong and leads to one of those silences.

Sigh.

The more tightly wound I become the more I have a tendency to say just whatever that comes to my mouth (it skips the mind part, so it doesn't come to mind). With the house and everything else going on, it's safe to say I'm pretty tightly wound these days.

I started running again which used to help me unwind, however I gave myself a bursitis in my foot which put a quick end to that and made me even grumpier. That and the dumb dog tried to bite the rotating belt of the treadmill or has jumped up on it only for it to fling her backwards into a chair. Which the kids think is hysterical if they're awake and encourage her to do it more. But it ruins my rhythm having to stop to yell at the dog to stop or to put her outside to howl to come in or behind her gate to bark and howl to come out. (why did I get a dog??)

But my foot decided it'd had enough of that nonsense, anyway.

Other than that.. it appears the appraiser has it in for us because she doesn't like our real estate agent or the fact that he challenged her appraisal value. Larry is about 1/2 a breath away from calling her up and asking 'what is your problem?!' House has still not passed her inspection and while she's not supposed to add new things when she goes to re-inspect old ones she did and appears that she will. 
I can't wait to hear what she'll say when she sees Larry moved our little trailer into the garage there.
He's about ready to start moving all our tools over there so we can start moving now while she's dinking around with the reports and inspections. Really, we've already been working on fixing it, it's practially ours.
And to be really honest, I'm digging the real estate lock box with key feature. You don't have to worry about loosing the key, you just remember the 4 digit code. That would come in handy here at least weekly.

In other news.. wars and rumors of war.

Kids are doing well, I'm learning a whole lot reading all the history books before deciding to dumb it down considerably for my first graders.  I never understood the Crusaides before. I mean I'd heard of them, particularly with the Spanish Inquisition, but I never understood the reason behind them before. And NOW all the volitility surrounding Jerusulem makes alot of sense to me.

And we also studied comets and shooting stars. Apparently a big one fell in Jerusulem which is a holy site for a religious group. Built a shrine around it and bow to it.  My kids couldn't understand the concept of bowing and worshiping a rock.

But it all ties in. It's pretty wild. And as much as I'd love to send my kids to school, I'm still hemming and hawing on what or how much they'll actually learn there. I mean besides the required gay penguin book in 3rd grade. Yes. It's CA required ciricullum to study a book about gay penguins in 3rd grade. Somethings I could live without living here. That would be one.
The traffic would be another
And the cost of living
And rain would be nice once in a while

But if I need a little kick into being thankful all I have to do is watch the weather channel anytime from now until April. Always makes me feel better about living here. Just wish I could convince family and/or friends to move here with us.

So my father sent me a link

And I thought it was funny enough to share with my bloggy audience of 2.
Or at least it was funny if you'd worked in healthcare or intimately knew someone who did.

But before I went and cut and pasted it for the world to see, I read this: (I bolded for emphasis)

Copyright © 2009 by the American Academy of Family Physicians.
This content is owned by the AAFP. A person viewing it online may make one printout of the material and may use that printout only for his or her personal, non-commercial reference. This material may not otherwise be downloaded, copied, printed, stored, transmitted or reproduced in any medium, whether now known or later invented, except as authorized in writing by the AAFP. Contact fpmserv@aafp.org for copyright questions and/or permission requests.


How's that for wordage? and how much do you imagine they paid a law firm for that line?

But since they won't share, I can't, either.

Bah humbug.


PS.
Does this count as filtering what I write?

Terriffic Tuesday

The selling bank accepted the lower price!
YIPPEEE!!

Now they're just hammering out the details about the termites

But the re-inspection revealed a new/not on the last inspection issue that needs to be fixed before it passes inspection. *sigh*

And Larry says I need a better filter on what comes out of my head and through the keyboard. So.. I won't call the home appraiser names. At least not in cyberspace. Does that count for a filter??

So.. best case scenario- we have the house late next week.
Worst case- one thing pops up after another so we're closing on it the week before Christmas.
But come H*ll or highwater, this house will be ours.
God told me, afterall.
He just forgot to add some of these nerve wracking details.

But then again.. He doesn't seem real keen in revealing details.. like..say.. when the Israelites were wandering in the desert. Sure.. He promised them they were headed for the promised land. He just didn't mention how long it was going to take or where it was.
Note to self- Remember to thank God that it isn't taking us 40 years to close on this house.
Or that we're 100 years old and having the baby promised some 70 years ago...

Yep. Much better off than that. Much.

Monday Monday

First of all...
Mom- We're fine. No matter what impression I give you on this blog. We are in fact fine. If you were here you wouldn't notice anything other than the usual madness.

So..
That said...

Still no word on the house's price adjustment proposal.
The re-inspection should be tomorrow.

Tomorrow I plan on going to Sea World. Larry has the day off for the Marine Corps birthday, so we're going to take advantage of our 4 free tickets a year and head down there.

At least that's the current plan. Subject to change, especially since I haven't told the kids that's the plan. If the kids don't know then they can't get upset if we don't go.

The kids and I went to the Wild Animal Park Sunday after church. I was thinking 'hey, we'll be half way there from church' so we went. Larry had AirSoft plans.

Ladies, if you husband doesn't play Airsoft, please do not introduce it to him. It's like grown ups playing GI-Joe. Without paint guns. They have these pellet things they shoot at each other.In a Hollywood-like city setup.
Larry's friend bought him a gun so now Larry plans on playing once a month.
He could have worse hobbies, I guess. Gambling, beer and women, for example.

But I was not going to be sitting home while he was out having fun. And we have Zoo passes this year, lol. We'll be going alot. And I thought to myself "hmm, maybe if I drag them up and down the hills at the animal park they'll be tired and sleepy at bedtime"
No. Someone needs to be there reminding me everytime I have that thought that "no, YOU will be tired, the kids will be whiny and complain about being tired until the moment you announce it's time to get into pajamas. At that point they will no longer be tired and want to be awake for the next 4 hours." Which would not be different from normal. The difference is my degree of fatigue.

I have pictures and I have to move them from camera card to computer, and that isn't going to happen today.
Unfortunately I no longer have a camera and card that I can just pop the little disk-y thing into my computer. I have to use the old camera and disk which I need the special adapter which is usually lost and takes forever..
I asked Santa for a new camera card and/or camera for Christmas.
He told me to research it and buy one for myself.
It's just not the same as when I was 6 years old.
But at least I'll get exactly what I want (or think I want, lol).

So.. As I was saying..

I thought we had all the loan stuff approved and taken care of and it has been certainly a nightmare submitting everything at least twice since it seems to get lost...

Today...
I get a call

I need to provide a document showing how much I pay for childcare. How does one do that exactly? I stay home with the kids. Do I need to contact every daycare and babysitter in town and get a letter stating that I do not pay them? This is getting ridiculous. I'll just write a letter saying that I stay home with them- like women used to do as the norm - why is this something that needs to be documented?!!?!!!

In addition to re-submitting Larry's work address. Apparently BAS, Headquarters Battalion, 1st Mar Div,  Camp Pendleton 92055 isn't acceptable.

And he needs a letter that he's employed from his commanding officer. And how long he's going to be employed. Again.

We've already gotten a trillion papers saying we've been approved under 45 XYZ conditions and none of those conditions included anything above

In addition to this, it turns out the Rug Dr machine I was using wasn't actually working so after 30 minutes on call with their 1-800 call center in India, Twice, in which after sitting through recorded instructions of how to actually use the machine, followed by the Indian on the other line talking you through how to use it, then when you finally get to the point where the machine should work, but doesn't.. they say to keep trying it and call back if it doesn't work and they'll call the place I rented it from to issue me a new machine.  Call them back. Repeat. Sarcasm doesn't translate  well.

$%&&^@#^%$#%$&^#!!!!!!!

I was so aggravated that this took up at least 6 hrs of my life.

I brought the machine back to the store and told them to keep the replacement. I don't have time for this nonsense. The carpets will just have to be clean enough as they are. The deadline was today.  They'd been vacuumed and spot cleaned and you could spray (or, rather, in my case- dumped buckets of the cleaner/water mix) and then the machine would scrub and suck it up.. which is what I ended up doing. Because the spray thing on the machine did nothing. Except when on the phone with the Lady in India, when she has you pull the hose out on upholstery setting it sprays water everywhere. Plug it back in and switch it to carpet. Nada. Zip. Siltzch. Nothing.

Just another beautiful day in paradise

Randomness

The house is now nearly 100% complete on the projects we had to fix before we could have it re-inspect to close.

We should hopefully hear soon if they are willing to accept the (lower) assessed value as the sale price

Larry tells me today that Fridays are his least busy days at work.. because no one wants to be sick for the weekend.

Now in the civilian world- when you "don't want to be sick for the weekend" you call on friday or an apt that day because
a. you've been putting up with something all week that you're sure will get worse that weekend and want to pre-empt that
or
b. you feel something coming on and want drugs to prevent it.

In the Military..
If you don't want to be sick for the weekend, you stay as far from the Dr as possible. Because if he agrees that you are sick, he can write 24-72 hours of sick leave which confines you to rest in your dorm room. And if you're a young marine, spending the weekend in your dorm room would be torture.

viva la difference, right?

Well..
it's off to finish the carpet cleaning project and get the cleaner returned by noon, meet Larry with his lunch (because he's not busy today), and then a million other random things including schooling the kids some.

So.. NOW...

After calling to get homeowners insurance lined up for the theoretical "our house"...

They have to send THAT to underwriting because it's within 300 feet of a "red zone" for wild fires.

Are you #$%#$^&$#% kidding me??

MORE UNDERWRITING???

Sheesh.. at this rate I'm starting to think God himself has an underwriting department and that I'll be sent there for at least a week when I die.

I feel like I'm on one of those amusement rides that just will.not.end. Every time I turn a corner, there is something else to put me in a spin.

In other news. I hereby fire my neurologist. I really hope that one day he gets health "care" from one who pays as much attention to his patients complaints as well as he does.  If you are in the Oceanside area and want to see someone for a neurological complaint who tells you at least 2x in the 3 minutes (max) that he's in the rooms with you that he is an expert.. then let me know and I'll send you his name. Otherwise... if you want someone who hears why you're there without rolling their eyes at you and sighing.. I'll let ya know when I find that person.  

I'm sure with everything else going on right now isn't helping me emotionally deal with him, but I was ready to fire him back in May. It just took me until today to be irritated enough to do something about it.

Today I'm in a mood that I might officially fire their school too.. I hope I don't have to deal with them today...

It has been a challenging few days on the housing front

We had the appraisal. Appraisals are done by the bank to make sure that their money they're lending is backed by something of that value.

And while 5 of the 6 comparison properties were valued at $80K more than our house when you adjusted for everything (bedrooms, neighborhood, etc in the way real estate people do, in reality 2 were sold for $100K more) there was 1 house $15K less than ours and as I understood it was a completely trashed foreclosure. And while "our house" is far from immaculate and in reality needs quite a bit of work, it in no way qualifies as completely trashed. We'd been in some houses I was wretching in the moment I walked through the door.
But somehow the appraiser decided that the lowest house was the value she was going to give our house so our official appraised value is now less than our offer price. Which is insane.

And she must have been drunk when she inspected it because she saw mold that in reality was dirt, a hole that didn't exist and couldn't figure out how to operate the ceiling fans or gas cooktop so she said none of them worked.
Oh, yeah.. the carpet that we're going to tear up... She says it has to be cleaned.

And that's just what was left after the rest of her nonsense was "expunged" from her report.

So..It hasn't been a great few days here.
I guess on the positive note-there is a possibility that the bank will sell it to us for $15 less than we offered. On the not-so-positive note, we have alot of work to do on a house that isn't ours just so it can be ours because it's a bank-owed-as-is property and they will not be doing any of the work that the drunk appraiser said needed to be done. And we still have to deal with her because she is the only one that can sign off that the work has been done to her approval.

On the other positive note. We have been fully approved by the mortgage company and could theoretically close tomorrow if there weren't all these work requirements that needed to be done.

Joy.

ETA:
I need more Maalox.
We weren't yet approved.
Someone lost our entire escrow package.
Everyone involved is getting cranky with each other
There are at least 9 people involved in this right now and none of us know what the other is doing, the least "in the know" is Larry and I.
And Larry is at the not-ours-yet-house fixing holes in the drywall, re-porcelain-ing a sink (I'm probably making that word up since spell check is freaking out on it) and we don't own the place yet.

Pictures

We had 2 Cinderella's, a purple dragon and Batman living here last night.

This AM we have kids smacking their lips about eating pounds of candy later today.

PS. no, we did not have a single lion this year.

Marine Corps Ball

I probably would have had a great time if
a. Larry was not the only Navy officer there and (in his glowing white choker white uniform among the sea of Dark Blue Marine Dress uniforms) wasn't quite so conspicuous.
b. I was 22 and liked getting drunk and dancing.
c. If Larry liked dancing
d. Knew someone there besides Larry

As it was, it was OK. Over an hour of pomp and ceremony, lots of talk, lots of Ooh Rah- Go Marines. They have the Ball to celebrate the Marine Corps Birthday, so of course it's all about the Corp. Still scratching my head as to why we had to be there. But the entire BAS was there, so I got to meet the people Larry is in charge of. .
The picture of the other guys in white are the guys in his BAS. They were the only guys wearing white in a room of 1000+ Marines.

And today is Halloween. Hurrah.
The kids have been up since the crack of dawn excited for candy later today.
Sheesh.
you'd think it was Christmas morning or something.
I remember the happy days before they knew what Halloween was..

This just in..

about the house-

The VA appraisal is lower than what we are financing.

It's not a dead deal, yet. Apparently there are things that real estate people do when this happens.

getting myself some more Maalox
And crossing real estate off my list of occupations I think I would try some day.

Larry's home

From his 2 week all expenses paid trip to the desert.

His uniforms could literally stand on their own from the dirt.
None of the guys showered the entire time they were there- over 2 weeks- in mostly 90+ degree heat.
go ahead- say it with me- "ewwwwww!"

Tomorrow we go to the Marine Corps ball. Ooh Rah.
Alot of these balls are held at fancy places. Not ours- it's being held at the SNCO club here on base.
At least arranging a babysitter won't be hard.

I have 2 dresses. Once of which I needed to loose some weight to fit into, the other that fits. I have been spending some quality time with the treadmill and tomorrow I'll figure out which one fits.

We're still waiting on the house closing. I've re-submitted nearly everything twice- taxes, W2's and a quatrillion letters explaining stuff. Even a letter as to why the Navy issued him 2 w-2's. Really? you think I speak for the Navy or the DOD?? You think for a micro-second that I could tell you why they do 90% of what they do?
Really????

Anyway..
I need to get offline, but in case my mom and dad were worried- we're ok- even if I'm not blogging. It's just life is getting the better of my time.

Please pass the Maalox

Because that's one or two of my current food groups.
The other big portion of my food intake is caffeine.
Yes, it's a fantastic combination.

It's never been quite so nerve wracking and unnerving as to apply for a home loan.
I have new appreciation for paying for stuff with cash now.
Too bad I don't have that much sitting under the mattress that we could buy a house with cash.

As it is, I priced out an Ikea kitchen and I'm thinking.. 'hey, ya know.. maybe we can work with the cabinets that are there?'

And then other thoughts go to selling our stuff and moving into a mobile home. Or two.

Someone shoot me now

Last night I grabbed 2 of the same box of diapers and missed the ONE I needed the most.

ARGH
ARGH
ARGH

I'm going to email the garage owner and see if they can't print a fedex label on it and I'll have fedex go pick it up. At this point, I think it'd be money well spent.

And in other news- it's Saturday.
I think there are cartoons on and I'm thinking I'll turn them on and get the house cleaned.

OK. no. Really shoot me.
I found the box I needed. It was in the garage the entire time.

ARGH
ARGH
ARGH

Going back to bed to start the day over

The End to the Week

Of course Friday is pretty much the same as Monday, Tues, Wed, etc.. around here.

oh what to say?

Life's just been marching on here. Funny how time does that.

We did manage to get to the kids' school apt to prove they've learned something. Sonia repeated nearly entire chapters out of the science books she's been reading (because that's her preferred reading, not because I decided we were going to study what she picked from the library..) And Joey really demonstrated how he's turned into a reader.

And after that visit, I'm overhauling what we're studying. Because the school's curriculum (which we aren't using.. but..) and emphasis is on chronological order of time. So.. from the earliest people to the Egyptians, the early writing, Babylon, the Greeks..
It sounded like a good idea- I mean, I didn't learn the stuff in chronological order, maybe that would help?
No. I don't believe it does. I think it's like reading the entire bible and starting at Genesis. The first time you attempt to read it.

So.. starting immediately we're going to jump ahead to medieval times. Because that's when real princesses lived.
And because Joey wants to slay his brother the purple dragon with his lightsaber sword.
And because Robin Hood is a cool book.

And after that we'll be learning about the Gold Rush. And go pan for Gold.
And the Revolution and and and...

So.. while I was in the library I picked up a book. It was about Old Sturbridge Village. Literally. And it made my eyes mist. I wish I could give my kids all the cool experiences I had as a kid AND all the cool stuff I can give them now.
humph. Guess I'll have to go visit. And I'll tell the kids 'hey, I've been there' and they'll think 'oh, boring' but if I tell them 'hey, Sonia and Joey- you were here when you were babies- they get super excited and they compete with their "memories" of that time.

Also doing a study on False/implanted memories here. I completely believe my kids would be susceptible to that, so please don't suggest anything bad to them. Of course I play into that as needed.. hey, do you remember when we were here? Well- THAT place was significant because of.. (xyz) works really well if I can produce pictures of the kids in front of XYZ. Even if they were 6 months old, it still produces a "hey I remember that time" statement from someone. Especially funny is the 4 year old pipping up that she remembers it from when she "was in mommy's tummy"

But of course future pictures will require a new camera. Sadly my little Cannon has groaned it's last breath. If you are going to buy a camera, do not buy a cannon point and shoot. The second you get sand anywhere near it, it won't work. If you bang the snot out of it, it will begin working again.. only until you get sand in it again and bang the snot out of it again and then it fails to work in many other ways.

So.. I'm back in the wishful thinking market for a point and shoot camera that is alittle more indestructible than the Cannon. or at least have less of a sand Achilles heal since we like to frequent the beach. In the mean time you might find me lugging around my old SLR Cannon. They certainly don't make them like they used to.

So the camera breathed it's last breath at the Zoo today. I didn't realize that the backpack I tossed it, my wallet and our water bottles into had sand at the bottom of it. So the Camera gave me the 'lens error' message again and I thought 'oh. I know how to handle this, I googled it last time, Larry banged it and it worked'
No. it didn't work for me. Instead of giving me a groan and grind and 'lens error' message it give me nothing. I think I killed it.

The zoo was ok. It's free kid month so all the schools in Mexico send their schools to the zoo this month so it's a bit crowded with swarms of identically dressed kids speaking spanish. The identically dressed would be the difference from normal San Diego. Their uniforms there are different than the standard uniform in a US school- really cheesy gym suits mostly are worn- track pants, polo shirt and the matching gym jacket or sweater.

But the zoo was really a diversion for the real reason we went south which was to get fill the truck again with more diapers since we were out and the diapers we needed are in our friend's garage and the other reason was Ikea.
Because
a. kids eat free this week, so I didn't have to cook dinner or shell out $ for fast food if I didn't cook and
b. free babysitting for an hour
c. They have kitchens that are alluringly cheap with cool features which Consumer reports rated fairly highly, so I decided to go look at them with a more critical eye.
and
d. did I mention free dinner and babysitting??

I really wish other places adopted the feed your kid free and watch them for an hour. Like, say, the Commissary.
maybe I'll suggest that to them.

Mama said they'll be days like this

What she didn't say was to sit down with a glass of wine and blog about it.

But I think it might help.

It seemed to be a constant barrage of assault of life today- cranky kids who fought more than usual, made worse by the lone surviving lightsaber and the boys' intense desire to practice their Jedi Warrior talents on each other and the dog. And since it's Halloween coming up soon, we have new costumes for play and Batman was flying down the stairs sliding across the floor and attacking his little brother to save the princess.

While he was supposed to be doing his school work.

The looming appointment tomorrow to prove to the school that I have indeed taught my kids something this month and realizing I'm coming up short on something to actually hand in in 2 subjects. And wondering where this month has gone..

The aggravation of dealing with chronic health issues, medical appointments, arranging daycare or babysitting for said appointments, and sitting on hold for forever.

The realization that I forgot the bag of wet bathing suits and towels in the back of the van. From a week ago.

The realization that the noxious smell in the truck was someone's lunch from heaven-knows-when.

The fun of chasing a toddler to wipe his nose, re-clothe him after he's stripped his clothes off, and tolerating his desire to be in purple dragon costume all day.

The urgent run for pull-ups since we were out.
2 days ago.
And the need to do 2 nights worth of laundry.

And while buying pull ups, the kids keep sitting on the floor to play games picking up lord-knows-what germs.

The frustration of cooking 2 meals - lunch and dinner and having them stick their noses up in the air and refuse to eat. Stuff they requested.

And the helpful advice from an older lady tonight that one day they'll be grown up and I won't remember their being little except for pictures.
I doubt that. I'm pretty sure I'll remember this.
And if I don't, I have a blog to go back to read about it.


And for the record:
No wine was consumed in the making of this blog post or any time thereafter. Or any other alcohol. This is the random ramblings of a sober mind.
Just in case you're going to wonder about such things and think I'm heading towards alcoholism.
My "drug" of choice is M&M's.
And yes. M&M's were consumed in the making of this blog post.

You have GOT to listen to this one-

http://www.northcoastchurch.com/sermons/sermon_archive/2009_sermons/corinth/how_free_is_free/

I love our church

If you prefer the video I think it'll be up tomorrow at searchablesermons.com

Birthday marathon

Forget those marathons where you run. If you want to find those with REAL fortitude. Try marathon kid birthday parties.

Somehow this was THE weekend for kid birthdays. We were invited to 3. We made it to two. And it is certainly in contention for one of the longest days of my life.

We started just before lunch at 5 year old twin birthdays. The theme was pirates and aliens and the kids were too busy having fun to be bothered with eating. I tried crammed pizza into them, but not much. And then they filled themselves with pinata candy and cake and ice cream.

The highlight was the party favors- foam light sabers that make noise and light up.
The kids spent close to an hour banging each other with these light sabers towards the end of the party. The boys were opening their presents in the middle of a scene from the outtakes in Star Wars. Some of the kids were doing Jedi-Knight ninja moves and the little kids were collateral damage.

Joey of course thought it was AWESOME.

So into the car we go with 2 broken lightsabers and head to the second birthday party.

This was for a 6 year old girl and Sonia's "best friend" so you know we had to go. The theme there was candy. Pure candy with a little disney princess mixed in there.
There was a "candy bar" aka a table with jars of candy which the kids could help themselves. They were welcomed with cotton candy and a popcorn machine, too.

By the time hotdogs and hamburgers were cooked none of the kids had any appetite for them. None. There were also nachos which the kids also passed up for candy. Of course, right?

THIS party had a DJ there playing music, karaoke and some unique games. Joey of course is MR. Competitive and won every single game. The birthday girl was in tears when she was the first one "out" in nearly all the games. And Sonia decided she'd had enough loosing at competition and decided to sit out most of the games after she won (with Joey and another kid) at simon says.

And the party went on f-o-r-e-v-e-r. 4 hours into the party they brought out the pinata. And not like the pinatas you typically find, this one was a special order from Mexico and about the size of Rhode Island. Seriously. They put 25 lbs of candy into it and it still had room in it. There were only about 25 kids there. This in addition to the candy bar the kids had been visiting throughout the afternoon.

So.. What I've learned from both pinatas is.. the ones from Mexico are not made from paper mache anymore. Nope. Cardboard. Taped shut and then decorated.
Cardboard is far more durable than paper mache. I don't care how many layers of paper mache you put in there, it will never be as durable as the double walled corrugated cardboard. Both those pinata made it through the starting line up more than 1 time. Pinata #1 was then re-taped shut and re-filled for the second inning. The kids were too busy picking up the candy from Pinata #2 for the better part of 20 minutes that they weren't terribly interested in a second inning.

So.. after 5 hours at the second party my kids were higher than a kite. They each had a lunch bag filled with candy to the point where the paper was ripping. And everytime I looked they were helping themselves to it. John Michael devoured 5 lollipops in the time it took me to take Sonia to the bathroom. He started looking green around the gills but screamed like I was killing him when I confiscated his bag.

So.. after today, the kids had eaten little food that qualified as anything remotely food-like were somewhere in orbit around Venus from the sugar and toward the end, the birthday girl asks if Sonia can spend the night. And her mom confirms that indeed there are 5 other girls spending the night.

Well, now... you sugar up my kid that does.not.sleep. and you want to keep her overnight???
well.. ok. If you insist. I'll be right back with her PJ's and sleeping bag.

Of course the other 3 were off the walls as we left and I felt kinda bad that Kayla wanted to stay but I didn't think it was a good idea with her sleep walking tendencies. And the fact that she was oh.so.tired and a tired Kayla is a very whiny monster.

So.. mommy guilt added with the fact that they had eaten barely anything that qualified as food despite my efforts.. we stopped at Mc Donalds on the way home. They had a play scape and the kids were willing to leave the party without throwing a fit if I'd take them there. Scary to think that today Mc Donalds was nutrition in comparison to the rest of the day.

Well.. we closed the place down and at 9 we were told that they were closed.
And now it's 10pm. We've been home for an hour and the house is finally quiet. And I'm chuckling to myself thinking that I don't have to send Sonia back to bed some 500 times.

But on a funny side note- The first party my kids looked just like the other kids. The second party they were the only white kids. They didn't notice it at all as far as I could tell. I, however, thought it was funny. Mostly because I wonder how hard you had to work to get that ratio.. because we have met so few African American kids here. And I think they were all at the party - with a few Hispanic kids and a Chinese boy mixed in to round out the races.

So I kinda hope that Sonia will get some hair care tips from the other girls with hair less manageable than hers. But if not, I'm happy thinking that *I* will get to sleep at a somewhat reasonable hour and her host family will be the ones up anyway with 7 very hyper 6 year old girls.

chuckling myself to sleep at the thought..

Summer is still here.

From time to time I get nostalgic for seasons..
And then the memories of winter come back and I get over it.

This week we had 2 cooler almost fall-like days and I thought 'hey, this is awesome!'

well, Awesome has left the building and in it's place left 'ugh will summer END already'

So it was hot and we went to the beach. Because we could, of course.

I had bought the kids each a mini boogie board (or kickboard for all I know) a few weeks ago. We were buying birthday presents for the 3 kid birthday parties marathon we will be attending Sat and passed the isle holding clearance swimming stuff. And since we go through goggles like no ones business by forgetting them, loosing them or them becoming the latest dog chew toy.. I took the opportunity to clean them out of .49 goggles.
And with all the money I saved I bought 4 of the .79 boogie/kick board things. Moment of weakness, I guess.

Anyway. back to the beach..
We went and took those boards and the kids...USED THEM!!! as they were intended for. how cool is that? They are getting over their fear of the water.

I on the other hand have not gotten over my fear and was out there making sure they didn't drown or get washed out to sea.

all except JM who doesn't care for the water at all. He spent the time burying himself and another kid in sand.

The kid didn't seem to care and neither did his mother.
And it was preferable than him chasing the sea gulls down the beach where I had to run to catch him. With the kids trailing me whining 'but we want to surf why do we have to get out of the water...'

I need 2 of me. Maybe 3 of me.
No- 4- yes 4 would be good.

Seriously nothing to say

Stunning, I know.
But I really haven't had a whole lot to say these days.

Or rather, I haven't had a whole lot to say online. I've had plenty to say in person.
To the kids about not acting like wild monkeys
To the school and everyone around it about canceling stuff and not telling anyone it was canceled
To my new friend who is also a parent in the school about my frustrations with the school
To the dog about how I want to send her to a new home
To the computer that it is wrecking my night by crashing every 5 minutes because I updated something that isn't compatible with everything else.
To the kids about cleaning up after themselves
To the empty space over my kids' head about listening
To the mirror that I can.not.possibly.  look like that.

 We are up to our necks in paperwork on the house. You would not believe what you need to produce to get a loan these days. I remember getting a mortgage on our good name and a signature when we bought the Christiansburg house. We had zero income, no jobs,  and were borrowing the money for the down payment from family AND we still had a mortgage on a Mansfield house to pay.
Nope, no problem there- sign here and we'll cut a check for the closing.

NOW.. oh help you should you need a mortgage.
You need...
3 months of bank statements with itemized statements of where all the money in the accounts came from
2 years of W2's
2 years of tax returns and they're also going to get a copy from the IRS itself incase you didn't really pay your taxes
1 years worth of canceled rent checks
Name, Rank, phone and address of Larry's commanding officer
A letter from someone with authority stating that Larry will indeed be employed by the Navy for the next 3 years (seriously- how could a civilian produce such a letter??!!)
Form DD214 from 1996
1 letter from your (non-existent) CPA that the bank account that has your name and the business name actually belongs to you and that you have access to the money in it. seriously.
A letter explaining EVERYTHING on your credit report- including all the credit checks that happened with everytime we had to 'prequalify' with a bank to bid on a bank owned house (which would have been alot of times)
And a letter explaining that there are 2 student loans for every semester we took out loans- one subsided, one non-subsidized- so, yes- not a mistake that there is two loans for the same dates in similar amounts. And that yes, We know it looks like each loan is a "maxed out credit card" on our credit report. It's not. We know maxing out credit cards is a bad idea.
A letter explaining loan deferment
A letter from the loan company stating the above loan deferment applies to our loans

And THEN.. the grandfather of the paperwork:
107 pages of signed acknowledgment
That the property is in a high wild fire zone, but not a very high fire hazard zone,
In an earth quake (excuse me- seismic activity) zone, but is not in a flood zone, and not on an earthquake fault.
That they don't know if said house is in a landslide or land liquefaction zone
That you acknowledge that floods are bad should you have a flood and you should have gotten flood insurance
That you acknowledge you have 17 days to determine if you can even get homeowners insurance on said house.
That they don't know if there has been a violent crime or death in the house,
That you should have Radon testing,
That you realize that asbestos is bad
So is lead paint and toxic mold
That the area is affected by an airport
That you house may be subject to special taxes at will of the government due to some act passed in 1915.
That said house may also be subject to a supplemental property tax bill
That you have to have energy efficient heating/air installed,
That you need something special to do with the water heater,
That the property is not located within a California Tiger Salimander habitat sensitive area (!!!!!!!!!).
That if the property has been used for a methamphetemine lab they will take the property from you,
That you can check megan's law website,
That the property is is 'as is',

That we have a right to a home inspection- anything we bid on can be used against us. We have a right to have a the home inspection report and real estate agent present at closing and that if we cannot afford a home inspector (you shouldn't be buying a house) your fairy godmother will step in and provide one for you. Do you have any questions?

Why.. yes...
yes. I have a big question.
Which is...
What have I gotten myself into???

Larry of course is out for "Steel night" or whatever they call it- playing war in the desert. Ooh Rah.

But before he left- we had to get a stove installed in the house for it to pass inspection. Getting a VA loan says you need to have a stove and sink for it to be acceptable to own/live in.  Never mind that MRE's are the fare of choice for Larry right now.. we needed to get and install a stove.

Cheap. Especially since it isn't really our house yet.

So.. to Craigslist we go..
And find one. There were several free ones. Of course the people listing those didn't return email or phone calls.
Some California hillbilly (yes, they appear to exist) had one he was selling from a home re-model/flip he was attempting.

We get there- The stove is outside and appeared to have stuff living in it.
Pick it up and get oh so gross grease on your hands.

Brought it and plugged it in.. and I'll be. It worked.
Cross that off the list.

But in the process of browsing the land of Craigslist, we came across ads- one in particular- 'high end kitchen for sale' you needed to come dis-assemble it.

uh..huh??

So.. in case you were wondering what happened to the kitchens in 2/3 of the houses we looked at and bid on.. it appears this is what happens-

People being foreclosed on get mad and part out their houses.Like you would part out a stolen car.  Put up ads and people come and pay and take it away.  For real.

So this one lady had her $55K kitchen for sale for $5K.. uh.. hmm.. what is to loose? Well.. besides integrity- because I have funny feelings about enabling someone to do that.. but nonetheless..

Larry contacted her and made arrangements to see it and tentatively take the cabinets.
I went with him to a. help and b. make sure what he was getting was something I'd want to live with.

And the house was trashed. She's parted out the baseboards, light fixtures, had done something to the garage door that it wasn't closed and at a odd angle and all the windows in it were broken..

But the kitchen was hideous. Ornate, ostentatious, and.. had few usable cabinets for our needs.
I mean really-- are we going to display our chipped and faded 10-20 year old corning ware dishes in those fancy dish displayer things? And glass doors? oh, heck no. have you seen my organization abilities??? I'm happy if stuff doesn't fall out and you want to display it???

And unbelievably this lady was  moving around the corner to a different house in the same gated community with ocean views and a guard who was not at all interested in letting us get into the development. Goes back to that saying about dressing up a pig..

So..
should we still get this house we're trying to get after faxing no fewer than 250 pages of stuff to real estate agents and the bank/mortgage ladies.. we still need a kitchen.
And someone who wants a cheap stove to come take the old one away

Please Vote for Kayla

http://family.go.com/gapcastingcall/entries/mamatolittlelions/48894594/

I entered her in a contest. I have yet to take a picture of kids 1,2 and 4 that didn't have a scowl, snarl or super goofy face and act in it to enter them.

I forget what she'd win, but she's pretty lucky like that so she often wins. We'll see how her luck works in this contest.

And in other news-
It might rain today.
RAIN

I think I've forgotten what rain is.
Is it that the wet stuff that falls from the sky?

Minor updates

"Our future house" is off the market so unless something horrific happens or shows up on inspection, it will be ours.  We have the code to get into it so I'll be there this friday for the inspection and take a zillion pictures.

Friday is our anniversary.. and oh so fitting that I'd be spending the better part of the day at a home inspection. I mean really- in 10 years we've been through a whole lot of house repairs and remodeling.  But we were talking to a couple in our small group and it took them 10 years to complete their first house and much like us, it was the week we put it on the market because we had to sell it to move. Sheesh. Don't think I could have handled 10 years of that. 5 and I was ready to throw in the trowel into the mud bucket and throw the entire thing at Larry especially every time he said "all we have to do is move this wall"

Other than that, I have very little idea what to get him for our anniversary. I know other people have big parties or re-saying their vows or something.. I'm thinking I'll hit sears or home depot, get him a new chop saw and give myself the night off in the kitchen with some take out pizza or maybe chick fil a.

Yesterday was the first full day of "labs" through the school. Last week they canceled swimming lessons without telling anyone about canceling them. Or rather.. they send an email to people who weren't actually signed up for swim lessons that it was canceled. 

So yesterday was the first cold day here. And yeah, I know cold here is late spring or even summer in New England.. but it is an outdoor pool. And our poor kids were swimming in 60-something degree weather. I think the water was warmer. But it was pretty insane watching the parents in parkas and snow boots sitting pool side watching their kids in swim suits, not looking terribly cold.
(But please someone tell me why they wear boots designed for snow somewhere it never snows. I've seen them worn in summer even. Weird fashion sense here. I blame our proximity to Hollywood. And yes, when the weather hits somewhere in the 60's you'll see people dressed like Eskimos)

Then it was get them dressed in dry clothes, feed them lunch in the car on our way to Karate, change them into Karate uniforms (since they had run out last week, we had to wait til this week to get them). At which point I realize my son still didn't understand what 'pack sweatpants' means since he packed jeans. Jeans for gymnastics. So I race home, realize partway there that I was going to run out of gas because the thing had been beeping at me since yesterday and I'd been in too much of a hurry in the am to get gas on the way to swim. Of course there is zero gas stations on the route I take between karate and home.. go 2 miles out of our way to get to a gas station..Race back and get there just in time to see the end of class and get the kids changed into sweats for Joey and Leotard for Sonia and back to the Ymca for gymnastics.

Since parents aren't welcome in the room and JM and Kayla are pretty much done being patient waiting about 1/2 way through the first class of the day.. we went outside ran around (or they did, I brought a book) and went in to get them at the end of class.

Now at this point, I was exhausted. I know I wasn't the one swimming, doing Karate, or gymnastics, nor was I the one playing the throw-sticks at each other and run like lunatics game.
Got home in time to make dinner and desert to bring to small group feed the kids, greet babysitter and run out to small group as Larry walked in the door.

I question my sanity.

However.. after this am, I'm thinking I'll skip this school orchestrated chaos (really- 45 5-7 year old kids who aren't used to listening to adults in a classroom setting...it's sheer pandemonium with the mom of the kid of the minute yelling their kid's name. So it's almost like listening to a bidding war..

Sensei says "ok, we're going to [fill in the blank]"
(at this point, I imagine the auction begins- 'so who really thinks their kid needs to learn respect that karate is said to teach?)
Mom a yells "grayson!!" 
Mom b yells "caleb!!"
Mom c yells "Nick!"
Mom d yells "Tommy!"
Mom a is yelling "grayson" again
mom e calls "Hayden"
Mom b is calling "CALEB!!"
and it goes on for an hour.
(If your kid is in the class with my kids and I used your kid's name, and you're reading this blog somehow, please don't be offended.)

Believe it or not.. Sonia is not in the top 20% or worst behaved kids. She makes top 25% for kids spinning in a circle on their square instead of paying attention, but she at least stays on her square and doesn't "karate" the kid next to them, run around or away..climb to the top of the tower thing they're supposed to kick..

So right now I'll try sticking it out until it ends for winter break in December. Maybe by then we'll be moved and enrolling in public school. Or I'll research options that the school didn't have anything to do with. And an indoor pool.