Tired

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas/Holiday!

We have a sick person (the Mr) who is laying in bed groaning about being sick. I'm pretty sure it's the same thing that ran through all of us last weekend. If it is, this will make my stepson the only person in the family to not get it.

I can't get moving today. It's either because A) Holiday Hangover, B) I'm still a little sick (the massive heartburn would support this theory), C) The melatonin I took last night to help me sleep but didn't stop me from waking up at 3am is still in my system and making me sluggish, D) that time of the month, or E) because I didn't sleep well last night (see [C]).

In any case I did play a video game with my daughter (I played with my son yesterday, my stepson the day before that and I tried on all my stepdaughter's nail polish with her lol). Now I just need to play a game with my youngest boy and I'll have played with all of them.

I'm off to do nothing. Not too excited for the New Year, yet. Possibly because I'm just still so tired. We will see. :)

No blahs for us!

Things are going well.

My stepdaughter was supposed to be training to get her driver's license when she turns 16, which is this month, but due to several things school-wise, she was put on the back burner and hasn't met her required school driving hours. It took three school trips from me and just one from my husband before they finally had her start driving (I had a huge problem with people driving that weren't turning 16 for six months [OR MORE], but here she was needing to get those hours in and being ignored [not that she was fighting for it all that much]). So she's finally been getting her driving hours in.

As it stands she still needs some 30-odd hours of driving time to complete with us before she qualifies for her driver's license....so it's unlikely she will get her license when she turns 16....but she is well on her way FINALLY!

I wanted her to drive me everywhere over the summer but she refused. (Like I said she wasn't fighting too hard.)

The kids only have a few more days of school and then they're home for Christmas break. Two whole weeks of doing whatever they feel like (after chores are done because I'm a mean mom). I won't like all the extra noise but I like spending time with the kids and it will be super nice to be able to stay in the house. I FOR ONCE have all my shopping FINISHED and I don't like going out in the cold at all so it will be wonderful to stay nice and warm. :)

The big day is nearly here....6 days until Christmas. This is the first year that I can ever remember that I'm excited for Christmas. I've already told everyone I don't need anything so if you haven't gone shopping for me, don't bother. :)

The only three things on my Christmas list this year were 1) All the Child's Play (Chucky) movies on Bluray. 2) Dr. Sleep (Stephen King), and 3) Running shoes.

If I get them great! If not I will start buying them when Christmas is over.

Even though Christmas is near I've started unpacking again. The husband started doing it and he does it wrong LOL. He brings in boxes without even checking them and dumps them in the basement and says: "Deal with it."

Well, ONE box was clothes that were being saved for kids when they get a little bigger so that was a waste to bring in, and the other box was movie boxes, wii boxes, ps2 game boxes and other boxes....all empty. So THAT was a waste to bring in also. He should just leave it to me.

Our washing machine was broken so I'm way behind on laundry, but the husband fixed it yesterday so it's laundry all day today. Waiting on the dryer means only a couple to three loads a day max, but it's better than nothing.

I think that's it.

Merry Christmas y'all!

It's that time of year:

December is the BUSIEST month of the YEAR for us!!! So naturally I don't have a lot of time to blog. Not that I'm doing anything really worth blogging about.

I'm not sure if it's because we're in a new house, a cleaner house, a warmer house, I haven't been sick in about a year, or maybe it's because I've been exercising every day, but this is the first year I've been kind of excited about Christmas in a long, long time.

I generally don't like Christmas, and I really haven't liked it since I was 13. I find it way too commercialized, I find it the holiday of the selfish people, I hear horrible stories of people who feel so much pressure to buy junk for their family that they feel forced to steal to make ends meet. All my atheist friends think Christmas is by far the best holiday of the year (which I find rather ironic considering that Christmas is supposed to be a celebration of Christ). Since I moved to Illinois it's also the time that we have had to go out driving to see family in the worst driving conditions of the year.

You ask most kids why Christmas is their favorite holiday and they don't say anything about Jesus, it's almost always "Cuz I get presents."

I will admit it's nice to get things and it's nice to buy things for the kids and friends and families, and since I've had kids it's pleasant to experience their excitement, but I feel like you should get things for your loved ones and not-so-loved ones more than just one month out of the year. Christmas has never been my favorite holiday. That's just who I am.

Since I was 13 I have told people they don't need to get me presents, and that's still true. People laugh it off or outright ignore me because they think it's a plea for attention or that if Christmas morning came and I had nothing I would hate everyone for not buying me presents. That's just not true. If I woke up Christmas morning and didn't have any presents, I would still enjoy the kids opening their gifts. Still, I stopped beating that dead horse a long time ago. I always keep a list of things I would want for when the day comes when I'm asked what I want. Right now that list only has three things on it. Of course, it's really easy to keep me happy. Gimme a cool pack of playing cards and I'm just thrilled. Or shoes. You can never go wrong with shoes LOL. Let's not forget my horrible hoarding of books.

Anyway, USUALLY (since I moved to Illinois, anyway) once the leaves start changing colors I start going through a depression. It has been extremely bad in the past (needed small forms of therapy), but generally these days I can deal with it on my own. I have done some wallowing but in general my depression has been a physical thing, nearly an entity. I can usually recognize it for what it is and deal with it in a way where it doesn't disrupt my daily life.

This year I can feel it hanging around....it's almost like it's an arms-length away but I can keep it pushed back. But it hasn't gotten any kind of hold on me. I'm very grateful for this.

It's taken me to a whole new awareness of Christmas. Usually I'm stressed about this time of year and my part in perpetuating the commercialism. But this year I keep wandering around my new house with all my old decorations and a couple new ones, including a wonderful new 7-foot tree that a friend gave us, and I feel what can only be described as good old-fashioned Christmas cheer. I've been getting a warm, snuggly sensation in my stomach. I've been wrapping presents and thinking of how happy the kids will be with their gifts. I'm touched by the season for the first time in over two decades.

That's enough of a present for me!

And even better, my dad agreed to what I've been asking for since I was 15. Instead of buying me a present, he's going to make a donation to one of the charities on my list. He did something similar last year and this year I sent him a whole list of charities and what the money would be doing. It made me very happy.

Merry Christmas!

I found this wonderful blog: Organized Home and found THIS on it: Your Clutter Personality Type.

I am several of these types, unfortunately, but most of them I can work through except for "The Hoarder." I know exactly WHY I am a hoarder, but I just can't help it. I have STOPPED (for the most part) hoarding things but I can't let go of the stuff I've already accumulated because "I will need that someday!!"

So I'm working VERY HARD on USING all that stuff, and whatever stuff I can't go through I'm going to have to get rid of it no matter how much it distresses me. THIS MUST BE DONE!! I'm putting it on my calendar right now. THIS MUST BE DONE!! I will not die leaving boxes full of magazines for my kids to go through!!

I'll try to come up with a plan sometime today but I have dogs to walk, laundry to do, Christmas boxes to haul out of the garage and cleaning as per usual. So we'll see. :)

PS This house is (so far) AWESOME at staying warm!

Baby, It's Cold Inside

In my old house the only place that was guaranteed to be warm was my bedroom closet. My bedroom was originally the warmest room in the house but thanks to a husband who is half vampire, half yeti, he made sure it was actually the COLDEST room in the house.

 Since I cannot function in cold weather AT ALL, I would get up and rush into the closet where it was warm enough for me to wake up and get dressed and get ready for the day (it was a lovely walk-in closet).

This new house is a bit different. My daughter has a space heater in her room which wafts up to my room because heat rises (duh lol). My husband detests the heat (half vampire, half yeti remember) so he still has the air conditioner on occasionally. Yeah, you read that right. It's November in Illinois and he has the AC going. At first I rushed to the closet, as I had done countless times in our old house.

Only, it's a LOT colder in there than anywhere else in this house!!!

It's because there is another closet on the other side of this closet, and THAT closet has ZERO insulation. It is SO COLD in there that my pop that I hide in there is freezing. I opened up a diet Cherry Pepsi and it was frozen slush inside.

So now I don't have a warm place to run to in order to wake up.

I guess I'll just have to plug in the space heater by my computer desk and warm up while staring at the PC and/or playing "Farmville 2." ;)

Blogging paused but life is not.

Haven't had time to blog lately! It isn't that interesting, frustrating or funny things HAVEN'T been happening....but I'm getting ready for my annual "After-Halloween" party and it has been more difficult and time-consuming to get it ready in the new house than it has been ever in the past. As a result, unpacking has been paused, blogging has been paused, scrapbooking has been paused....pretty much everything is on the back burner until I get this house cleaned up and organized.

The Mr. and I have been hitting the after-Halloween sales and got a few deals. As per usual we get better deals with broken or malfunctioning Halloween items. I got a pair of really neat candelabras, but one had a broken candle and the other had a missing piece. The broken candle isn't a big deal because as long as it has batteries the light still flickers. We can also replace the battery candlesticks with ACTUAL candlesticks....I'm not sure if our wedding tapered candles made it through the move (I didn't pack them, not sure if anyone else did) but if not I'm pretty sure there's a candle store SOMEWHERE that carries them. PLUS I got a call from Halloween City and they found the missing piece from the other candelabra!! So I'm driving out there today to get it.

We kept talking about getting a really cool item, but ON SALE it was still $170. A little out of our price range for something that only spends 30-40 days out of the box.

Anyway, our party won't be quite as awesome as it has been in years past, where we get a pinata and prizes for costumed children and games and face painting.......but it's our first Halloween in our new house and just the addition of neighbors who might stop by it might be the most popular one we have ever had. Plus our neighbors will meet our families and vice versa (well...MY family anyway....my husband and his family are pretty well known by everyone. Also it's my first time living in this small town but my husband has lived here before when he was a kid lol)

So wish me luck! It won't be too hard to clean up the house since we still don't have a whole lot unpacked...but it will be time consuming especially since I have to give one of my dogs twice daily medicine plus ear meds every day.

I found out yesterday that my dog Porkchop's ongoing skin problems are a result of severe allergies. "One of the worst cases of pet allergies I have ever seen" said the vet. So now I have to start spending money on special shampoos and he will need to be bathed TWICE WEEKLY. It will be hard to get into THAT habit!! The dog we've had for 11 years would only be bathed twice a YEAR. When we got the new puppies and moved the elderly dog inside it became baths once a month. TWICE WEEKLY?? Wow. That puppy is going to HATE bathtime LOL. I was also told to give him COLD baths. Well that's just mean! I also have to add fish oil to his diet and make him special home-made meals, give him a dawn dish soap plus hydrogen peroxide bath a couple times a month and it was even suggested I wash him down with "Head and Shoulders" every so often to keep the nasty skin flakes down. It is revolting. I have to clean this poor dogs' kennel out every few days because the skin piles up so deep. I started lining his cage with rags (old shirts) instead of blankets because they have to be changed daily. This poor dog is so gross. And the SMELL. Is. AWFUL. My poor baby thinks I'm the only one who loves him because in this condition I'm the only one who will pet him!

The other day I put on a shirt that my youngest boy outgrew on Porkchop to help him not scratch. The kids thought he was SO CUTE that they all gave him snuggles. So I might continue to put shirts on him to keep him from scratching and so the kids will still give him attention even with his skin maladys. At least until the meds start working again and we see how his new beauty routines help out.

Gotta get to work! <3 br="">

My "Blah" Day

I didn't sleep well so it was hard to get up and function today. I ended up watching TV via the internet (no TV services for us for now) for a couple hours and then it took me another couple of hours just to get jazzed enough to get dressed. I drove my daughter to her and my dentist appointments.

Surprise surprise I needed a filling. I had not emotionally and mentally prepared myself for the shot and/or the drill, so I started shaking pretty badly, but I was able to keep from crying as my daughter was in the room with me and I didn't want to traumatize her with my psychosis LOL (irrational fear of needles....fine with the pain....have severe issues with things penetrating my skin tho ~ and as for the drill I had a bad dentist one time, we'll leave it at that).

I with my half-dead face and my daughter with her "she's fine but will need braces someday" checkup done we headed for lunch. She picked McDonald's (of course) but I can't stand McDonald's anymore, so even though I ordered I didn't eat anything except a few fries.

Driving home was awful - I kept feeling so tired I could barely keep my eyes open! Either because I didn't sleep well or because I was coming down off the adrenalin of getting a filling (if you've followed any of my blogs you know what an ordeal it is for me to go to the dentist even though I have the best dentist ever!!). I ended up trying to slap my leg really hard but accidentally hit the gearshift and the unexpected pain kept me plenty awake all the way home.

Once home I found out some children decided that if I wasn't home to ask permission they could do whatever they wanted. Well I had to nip THAT in the bud! We now have a new rule in place: If a parent isn't available to grant you permission, the answer is NO.

I quickly tried to make dinner. My husband had requested chili, so I had kids grab me the ingredients while I prepared my workstation and got started. My stepdaughter brought me ground turkey instead of ground beef. I had to go to the store to get ground beef. While walking home (the store is just down the street) I was thinking the LAST time we had chili we mixed ground turkey in it in an effort to be a little healthier, and if my memory served it was pretty good! The seasoning in chili is pretty stout and you can't really tell what meat is in it anyway, so I went ahead and put on pound of ground turkey in it along with a pound of chili (feeding seven people, over half of them very LARGE people).

I thought the end result was excellent!! Even better than the last time we had chili!!

Well my husband took one bite and asked me what kind of meat was in it. I told him and he shoved his plate away exclaiming how much he hated it. I was surprised because I thought it was so good (and everyone else was enjoying their chili with gusto) and we had the same thing a while back! But then the Mr. informed me that it was actually sausage we mixed with the ground beef the last time. Well oh well, bully for him because ground turkey in sausage was AWESOME!

Now I'm just trying to baby step until bedtime, and it might be an early on at that. I have no idea why I'm so lethargic, but it's horrible! Hopefully tonight I'll get a good night's sleep!

Books for Halloween

 I am reading flavorwire.com's "50 scariest books of all time." Surprise, surprise, the #1 spot is held by "It"(Stephen King).  I guess I'm the only one on the planet who thought that "It" was about as scary as a newborn kitten crying under the bed. I may re-read it sometime and try to get past the ridiculous (seemingly drug-induced) junk and see if it's better.

    What WAS surprising was to see Margaret Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale" on the list (at #8 even!). I thought that was a very interesting story (I'm all about the utopia/anti-utopia genre) and I was fascinated right up to the last page, but I would never have considered it a "scary" story. I think of it as more of a disturbing story, because it could actually happen. Maybe THAT'S why it's scary. ;)

     "Lord of the Flies" (William Golding) is also on the list. I haven't actually read this book yet (that I can remember) but I'm pretty sure it's in my garage so I'll get to read it soon.

Another surprise: "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark", by Alvin Schwartz. I seriously read this when I was like, 11. Yes, they were super-scary (I remember some vividly, TO THIS DAY), but I honestly thought they were scary for KIDS (thus, why I was reading them). If I still have this book, I may reconsider letting the kids read it yet.

It's final.

I have successfully removed all traces of my existence from anywhere else in the world and have moved it all completely into my garage.

So when people ask, "are you all moved-in?" I say, "yep."

Still not a whole lot is in my HOUSE, however....it's almost exclusively in the garage. But it's all on this PROPERTY so it counts.

I am moving things in slowly but I'm basically at a standstill.

The standstill is this....a lot of my stuff needs to go in or on something. Something that is usually a larger piece of furniture. Most of the furniture is still in the garage. I cannot move the furniture in until after we paint. We cannot paint until I have plastic sheets to cover up the floors and what little furniture that's actually made it into the house. We don't have those sheets of plastic so nothing is getting done at all.

I'm mostly fine with this because we have found it's relatively easy to live with hardly any of life's little extras, but at the same time it's frustrating because at the beginning I was all excited to have all that extra time to get the painting done before we even started moving in and then suddenly I didn't have that time and it never got done, due to either a miscommunication with the husband or his temper (dealing with the unfair landlords), not sure which.

Still, it's all good. We will eventually be able to start scraping and sanding and I will do it all myself if that's what it takes to get it done. But like I said...we're kind of in a standstill.

Slow and steady steps is better than nothing.

His mission, and he chose to accept it.

The agent: "The Bear" a.k.a. "The Picky Eater." (8 years-old)

The mission: avoid eating lasagna at all costs, highly annoying everyone in the process.

The Picky Eater: "I don't like this."
Mom: "You haven't even TASTED it yet!"
The Picky Eater: "I don't have to taste it. I already know I don't like it."
 
The Picky Eater: "I wish I could turn into Garfield. Then I could eat it all really fast like 'GULP!' and turn back into myself and be like, 'Can I have dessert?'"

The Picky Eater: "I wish I had superpowers. I would make any food I don't like turn into pizza. Pizza from Little Ceasar's. That's the superpower I want. Then I could go 'POOF!' and make all this gross food into something that tastes good."

The Picky Eater: "Mom! YOU ATE MY LASAGNA!! I don't want to eat YOUR lasagna! I want MY lasagna!!!!"
Note: this child and I use the same sized plates and about the same amount of food. The only real difference between "my" lasagna that I did not even touch and "his" lasagna that I inadvertently ate was mine had some cheese on the top.


Mom: "Sit down and eat your dinner."
The Picky Eater: "THEY [the other kids] don't have to sit down and eat!! THEY get to watch TV! THEY get to play on laptops! THEY get to play on the Wii!"
Mom: "THEY already ate their food!"
The Picky Eater: "SO?!? They get to have fun and I don't!"

It was at this point Mom left the room to let Dad deal with The Picky Eater. I am pretty sure I just heard him running into his room soooo I'm guessing:

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED

Crazy Weird Day!

I got a late start today because quite frankly I didn't feel like doing anything, so I sat on my bed and watched "Evolution" (the movie). When I finally DID get up to get things done today it had been a few hours so I knew the dogs needed to go out. As soon as I got back in my husband called me and requested I pick up lunch for him and one of his friends, so I put the dogs to bed and headed out.

The restaurant he requested was Arby's, and it wasn't too crowded, but I was the only girl there.

Now since we moved I have not colored my hair - have barely done anything to it except shove it into a bun or ponytail and I have not worn the first smidge of make-up. My clothes are almost entirely "work-clothes" (read: not very cute) and I wasn't even wearing my good shoes ~ I was (and still am) wearing my five year-old white tennis shoes that aren't white anymore because I used to wear them exclusively for mowing. So I was kind of surprised at how many guys were talking to me! I mean, I haven't received THAT much male attention since about 45 pounds ago. I was nice to everyone but I checked to make sure my wedding ring was on because I couldn't figure out why they were all talking to me! (I was wearing my wedding ring)

Then after I got my food, my husband's food and my husband's friend's food (so it should have been pretty obvious I wasn't eating alone) THREE guys were running over each other to open the doors for me! I was highly embarrassed but flattered nonetheless.

I was dressed crappy, my hair was a mess (not to mention ALL the GRAY LOL) but I suppose a smile DOES go a long way!! At least I now have a good story to tell my girls when they wear too much make-up and trashy clothes (unfortunately it's the style here now, much to my disgust). It's not what you're wearing girls!

After enjoying my lunch with a bunch of mechanics, I figured since I was in town I'd stop by our storage locker and get a load to take home with me. After I loaded up the van pretty full I took stock of what was left and decided I only need one more trip to empty the storage locker and close it out. I was feeling pretty happy at this point and got in the van to leave.

Unfortunately I had forgotten to shut off the dome lights (the lights in the van that come on when a door opens) and my battery died so I was stuck. I called the husband and he had to send out one of his coworkers to jump my van. I didn't mind so much, it gave me a chance to read my van-book "The Once and Future King."

So I FINALLY got to go home and it just so happens all this took so long I really don't have enough time to clean or unpack anything before the kids get home sooooooo I get another break! Ha Ha!

I will go and start bringing in shelves to my special bookshelves that my dad made me. He made the whole thing: He cut the wood, shaped it, smoothed it, varnished it....the only thing he didn't make were the metal thingies that hold up the shelves. They should be coming in the house this evening or next.

Great Monday so far!!

"Braking" News Of Books & Ovens ;)

If you've been reading my blog during the past month you've already read that even though we bought a brand-new oven in the past six or seven months, it's a gas oven and our new house has only electricity hookups. The house came with an electric stove so we figured it was fine.

Unfortunately, this stove is absolute junk. There is no rack on the inside so I cannot bake ANYTHING. The oven is almost all I EVER use to fix dinner anymore so we've had to "downgrade" and eat out of a toaster oven and a microwave all this time. Out of the four stove-top burners, only three work and one of them lets off such a nasty stench when it's on we don't bother using it at all. The other two work but one is insanely small (I'm guessing it's a warmer only) and the other, although large, I still haven't been able to figure out temperatures on it.

That might be mostly my own mistakes since this is the first time I have EVER used an electric stove in my entire 35 years of being on this planet. I have yet to serve a meal that isn't insanely over-cooked or under-cooked in this house.

So we've already started saving up to buy a new electric oven, and we're hoping this week sometime we can go get one. My husband wants to buy from a used-appliance store since it's cheaper, but I want a guarantee that it will work better than the used one we currently have before spending money on it. Still, it'd be great to be able to use the oven to make dinner again.

As far as books go I grabbed the first book I could find out of the garage and it happens to be C. S. Lewis's "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (from the Chronicles of Narnia)" and I'm already halfway through that. I've never read it before (that I remember) and it's a cute little read.

I'm supposed to be in my garage unpacking some more but I'm grumpy since my daughter's car blew a brake line. Luckily we live in a small town so when I ran a stop sign there was no one around except a guy in a truck who had plenty of time to stop and shoot me a dirty look while I was trying to figure out where my brakes went. I had to drive VERY slowly and VERY carefully around the block and get back home, and I still freaked every time I had to try to hit the non-existent brakes. Thank goodness my daughter wasn't the one driving!!!!

Lookin for something to read again haha!

"11/22/63" (Stephen King) was SO good I finished it in five days. It was over 800 pages long, but I managed to cram it all in very quickly.

Now I'm looking for a book that isn't written by Stephen King before I dive into another Stephen King story. I have "The Once and Future King" (T.H. White) in my van. I might bring it in and read it since it takes a little concentration to read and it's so old I'm afraid being in the van is more than that ancient paperback will be able to handle. Otherwise I have two non-King books in the garage I might read instead (or maybe I'll just throw one of THOSE into the van to be my "van book."). I'm pretty sure both of those were Dollar Store buys, so they're pretty little.

I need a bookshelf in here already! LOL

Although I will be a little more picky on what books actually get to stay in the house this time around. Only the books I'm sure I will want to read again someday will stay, along with my display books and of course my Stephen King Collection. I just don't have the room for books I liked but will probably not read again any time soon. As far as my "stuff" goes....the new house is really exclusive - not everything is going to make the cut. As far as books, certainly no duplicates will be allowed to stay. I have far too much of everything I own. I am close to understanding why I have kept all the things I've kept, and I am very close to getting over it and working through all that junk.

Blug....it's hot already. Oh well, I have things to do ;) Have a great day!

3 weeks of 7 people using ONE bathroom!

The switch from all seven of us using two bathrooms to all seven of us using ONE bathroom has been a lot better than expected. We are still adjusting some things to make it better (it mostly has to do with the teenage girl and I clashing on where all our important bathroom stuff goes LOL) but overall it hasn't been too traumatic for me.

My only real complaint is that I have NEVER ONCE, since we moved, been able to take a shower and step out onto a DRY bath mat. NEVER. ONCE. EVERY SINGLE TIME I get out of the shower the bath mat is SO SOAKED that water comes squeezing out the sides.

I know why....it's because the kids have school and therefore bedtimes ~ so they get first shot at the shower (that's 5 kids dripping onto that bath mat nearly every night). Then the husband is usually grungy from his day at work so he gets next shot. All six of these people apparently don't understand that you can get most of the water off of you while you're still standing in the shower.

So by the time I get a shower the bath mat is a cold wet squishy thing....it's like stepping on a dead drowned fuzzy worm.

It helped a LITTLE when I started instructing kids to hang the bath mat up over the side of the tub so it will dry a LITTLE before I use it....but it doesn't help much, so I've decided I'm getting a second bath mat to set out right before I take a shower. Then the first one can dry and by the time all six of these people I live with soak the second mat I can whip out the first one again.

It's a plan, anyway ~ we'll have to see how it goes.

;)

Settled

Tomorrow we will have lived in this house for three weeks. I think everyone is pretty settled in at this point (I was settled the first night ~ actually I had more trouble with the displacement when my husband moved our bed than I did switching from sleeping at Farfa Yccono to here); even my two reluctant kids have told me this place now feels like home.

I have been feeling a love for this house, new as it is, that I haven't felt for the past four places I've lived in (pretty much every place since I moved to Illinois from California). Maybe because it's mine and I'm paying to own it, maybe because it's a real house with real floors and real walls (which I haven't had since California). My husband often complains about the comments (and dreams, and Sims houses I made to duplicate) I make about "The La Mesa House." He feels like no house we've ever had can "compare" to what I believe is the fabulousness of that near-mansion. Well he's right. No house CAN compare....but I didn't love it because it was fabulous. I loved it because it was mine. The entire downstairs (with the exception of bedrooms) and the entire backyard (with POOL!) was basically mine to maintain. I was responsible for all the animals, cleaning the ENORMOUS bathroom that basically I was the only one who used on a regular basis, cleaning the hallway and bookshelves, trimming the rosebushes (that my grandpa taught me how to take care of), and cleaning the pool and it's filters. It was all mine and I loved it. So maybe, even though this shabby little house doesn't have the grandeur of the La Mesa House, I'll grow to love it in the same way because it's all mine, and so far I am the only person taking care of it :).

=-00-==-00==-00-==-00-=

I have been slowly compiling a "Rule List" as we go ~ and I make sure to note the person or persons who can be blamed for having such a rule in the house. I hardly believe what my own kids do LOL. Here's what we have so far:

"NOT ALLOWED TO USE THE TRASH CAN IF THERE ISN'T A BAG IN IT!! EVER!!!!" (unknown)

"No skipping stairs when going DOWN the stairs. You can skip going up as long as you do not touch the walls" - Star (middle child)

"NO ONE is allowed to leave the house when [parents] aren't here unless we specifically said you could" - Star

"NO ONE is allowed to come over when [parents] are not home" - The two oldest (15 & 14)

"If you are in Illinois you HAVE to have a sweater in the vehicle NO MATTER WHAT THE WEATHER from September to May. NO EXCUSES!!" - me (mom [I am not above making rules to learn from my own dumbassery])

"You are NOT allowed to play outside or do anything that might get you dirty (i.e. climb trees) right before school!" - the two oldest

Seeeee? What normal people consider to be common sense we have to make rules over LOL.

Been a while

I've been busy! Let's see.....I had finished "Delores Claiborne" in two days...I had only had a few more pages before I was done when I had to run to town (I already knew how it ended so it wasn't a big deal to leave it [it was the eighth or ninth time I've read it]).

On the drive home from town I was already thinking about which non-Stephen King book I was going to pull out of the garage to read next when I drove past the library. On a whim, I decided it was as good a time as any to get my new library card, so I parked, strolled in and requested one.

The library in this small town wasn't exactly "high tech" yet so I stood and waited for my new card to be typed up on an actual typewriter. While waiting I looked around. This library seemed to be a bright and cheery place and I saw popular reading for this town was "romance novels" (which I do NOT enjoy) and next to it was a large shelf with just so happened to have authors J-M on it. A large light-colored book drew my eyes and excitement shot through my system.

"11/22/63."

I have been wanting to read that book for a year!! The library at my old town never got it (it's too soon, I imagine). Even though I was thinking of my "non-King books between every King book" lifestyle choice, my hand reached out (seemingly without any instruction to do so from my brain) and pulled it off the shelf. The first thing I noticed was it was a LOT bigger than I expected! So then my brain thinks, "Well my old library never had it (yet) so this might not last long before someone else borrows it....it might not BE here by the time I finish my other book!"

So I plopped it on the table and as soon as my card was handed to me I gave it back to borrow "11/22/63."

It had me HOOKED by the second page!!!

blah blah blah - why is she still talking?

As far as the reading goes...my stepson went to his bio-mom's for his court-appointed visitation and he left his library book behind. I knew if I decided to read it I would have to finish over the two days he was gone. But I HAD to read SOMETHING, and it looked like an easy read (AND it was NOT a Stephen King story, so I could go get Delores Claiborne later and not feel guilty LOL)

So I grabbed it and read it while my stepson was gone and I finished it just in time!

Having finished it (it was "Don't Look Behind You" by Lois Duncan) I ran out to the garage and even though it was pitch black, I grabbed "Delores Claiborne" and took it in the house. I ended up not even starting it but it's in and I'll get to read it hooray!

My next big project will be organizing the garage. All the stuff that needs to be unpacked relatively soon will stay by the door, then I want all the decorations in one spot, all the bags of clothes in another (I'll get back to that as per why), all the OATs boxes (my boxes that I need to work through One Atta Time) hidden in the back and all the "unimportant"-but-still-needs-to-eventually-be-unpacked boxes in the middle. I'm also going to make a quick list of what's left out there so if someone says "I NEED [something I didn't deem important enough to pack in the needs-to-be-unpacked-right-away boxes] BUT I CAN'T FIND IT!" I can look at the list and know right where it is.

(Yes I know I have WAY TOO MUCH stuff....working hard on getting rid of a lot of it)

Now - the BAGS....as I was lining up kid's boxes to bring in the house I noticed all the kid's names on their respective boxes except one. I searched and searched but I could not find one single box with my stepson's name on it. So I asked him and he said he just shoved all his stuff in bags! So now I have to go through all the bags and try to find his stuff. More work, thanks.

Anyway after it gets too hot to work in the garage I will give the pups their monthly bath. Then the usual laundry and cleaning. ;)

I think it's quite ironic that I started out cleaning and organizing my garage, then it turned into moving, and now we're in a brand-new place and already I'm having to clean and organize the garage! LOL! I've come full circle!

Gotta Getta Book in here!

Yeah, it's time to get a book in here. I brought in the Bible and read some of it, but like Shakespeare and Milton, it takes dedication and concentration. I love heavy reading, but at night right before bed sometimes I want something I can devour quickly; a quick ride where all I have to do is sit there and enjoy it. Since I have no other books in the house except the Bible (which I've already read cover-to-cover once back in 1996) and "On Writing" (Stephen King), which I finished reading last week, I decided to re-read "On Writing." I think yesterday I read about 30 pages of my NIV Study Bible (and all the notes + essays in between) and I read 84 pages of "On Writing." Part of it was I had JUST READ On Writing, so I could skim. Part of it was "On Writing" is an easy enjoyable read. A fun little ride. Where as the Bible, fun in it's own way, is like mountain biking: It's awesome, but I've got to do all the work myself.

I know where a box of books are in the garage, and I'm pretty sure "Delores Claiborne" is right up at the top. I usually try to read a non-Stephen King book in between King books, but Delores Claiborne is one of my favorites. It's in the top 4 spots that jostle around for first place among my favorite Stephen King stories.

It's also fascinating because there are no chapters. It's all one person's side of a conversation in one long stretch...there's no one else talking. It's brilliantly written and I have never EVER gotten tired of it. So I might look around for a non-King book...but I am really excited to unpack Delores Claiborne so I might just go ahead and snag it. ;)

Quickie Post I gotta get stuff done today!!

I MISS MY BOOKS!

I did not pack the book I borrowed from my brother (Stephen King's "On Writing") because I didn't want to lose it. I've already finished it and now I'm desperate to start reading again, but I don't want to start hauling books into this house until I have bookshelves!!! I keep thinking I'll only take ONE book inside....but that's always how it starts LOL.

I'm running out of clean clothes and I know I'm not the only one, so if my husband doesn't get the washing machine and sump pump connected today I'll be going to a laundry mat for the first time in six years.

Seven people sharing one bathroom has been QUITE an adjustment, lemme tell ya.

I've asked the kids if this house feels like home yet and they all say no **giggles**. Guess I'm the only one :D

Short Post: We're Done

We only have one item left at the old house. After hauling away the garbage bags we will be completely moved out!

Things at the new house are going well. We are cleaning and organizing things as we move them in. I imagine after our last load tomorrow we will be able to devote a lot more time to unpacking.

Thanks to my brother in-law and his father in-law for helping us out. Lots of love to ya!

This is it. There's no turning back.

After an exhausting marathon of hauling loads, running to town to get a few more things, and another last-minute load, we are finally spending the night in our very own house!

I am super-excited! This place feels like home already. Of course I could live in a box and feel perfectly comfortable (as I've said) and I love change to an extent.

The kids are dealing. One has said even though he doesn't like hte old house better, he's used to it and he's NOT used to this house. One brave little girl wants to spend her very first night in her brand-new room, but she keeps trying to get me to stay with her longer. I finally had to be firm with her and say I'm EXHAUSTED....my feet and my ankles are begging me to sit or lay down, and my back hurts every time I move. I LOVE you but I HAVE to go to bed!!!!

The first dinner we had as a family in our new house was hamburgers and hot dogs my huband grilled, with corn on the cob, salad and chips (Doritos Cool Ranch FYI). The first movie we watched together in this house was Tron (the newer one).

I'm ready for my first night spent at the new house so goodnight!!

Books Books and more Books

I have thought (and posted) that there are no books left in the old house about six times. I'll go back and check, but I'm pretty sure six times. I have no more book shelves. Every time I post it I am SURE that there is not ONE SINGLE book left in this house.

Then I open a drawer, or move something off a shelf (and today was one for the record books ~ I looked in a bucket) and there I will find between four and twelve books.

So I guess I'm not sure anymore. We might get the house empty and right before I shut the door I might find yet a few MORE books behind it. I have an addiction!!

Oh. No.

The WORST thing about moving is I'll be forever giving up on finding my wedding ring!
When my daughter was four or so (2008 or 9), she asked to see my rings. I let her. She toddled off and only came back with my engagement ring. As that was the ring with the six diamonds on it I wasn't too worried, thinking we would eventually find it ~ it's not that big a house and it's not that messy.

Now, five years later, we STILL haven't found it. Our theory was it might be in the heating ducts and we'd find it when we tore them out to rebuild. Now we are leaving......

I have had a few kids try to look in the vents but once we leave today we are officially giving up.

I am sad.

I have been using the ring my grandmother left me as a wedding ring, so I can either keep doing that or order a new set. However, I know this engagement ring so well I could probably pick it out of a lineup. I know each and every flaw in the diamonds, so it might be hard to give it up. SIGH.

Unless there is a ring miracle it's lost to me forever :(

My Marks

In every house I have ever lived in (except the apartment I stayed in until I was a year old) I have left my mark. I got in huge trouble for some of them. I leave them in obscure places. Places so obscure I have forgotten where some even were. Usually it was my name and the dates I lived in that residence. The Santee House it was on a stud in the garage (I think). The La Mesa house it was in a corner where the drywall overhung the shower/tub (my parents didn't find it until after we moved and I was in HUGE trouble for THAT). The Opera House it is inside a wall. The 915 apartment it is on the inside part of the bathroom door under a hinge (I think [you can't see it until the door is open all the way]). In Farfa Yconno it is inside the toilet room closet where no one could see it unless A) they managed to cram into the closet to hide, or B) the doors got taken down.

The one in Farfa Yconno has obscure references to our names, the kid's names, and even our pet's names. Today I added the names of the three pets who died here (all rabbits) and the date we left.

I have no idea WHY I'm compelled to do this - just that I always have. At the moment I have no plans for marking the new house - maybe because we're not sleeping there yet so it isn't our "home" yet. Maybe I've outgrown the habit, not sure. In any case my husband has announced he's never moving again so hopefully we have plenty of time to decided....and there's more than one way to leave your mark in a house you love.

Deceased Pets we're leaving buried at Farfa Yconno:

 Snickers - buried under Rose of Sharon bushes.

Blacky BonBons - buried under the Willows

Ritz Carlton - buried under the Willows

~You are Sorely Missed ~

Almost there!

We are on our final big push. Either today or tomorrow we will be completely moved out of Farfa Yconno.

Then one last major clean and we will leave it and move on to our new town where I will begin the arduous task of unpacking everything.

I'm really going to try my hardest to get everything out today because my husband is really stressed out that we can't do it by this weekend and he doesn't want to pay rent again when we will start making mortgage payments. My husand is one of those men who don't really know how to deal with extreme emotions so when he feels scared or sad or stressed he instantly becomes a huge jerk.

Trying to avoid MY stress by avoiding HIS stress I will empty this house as quickly as possible. I'm even emptying the fridge. All I have left is the bathroom, the kitchen, the boys bedroom and what's left of the garage.

We might be sleeping in our new place tonight!!

Life on Pause

You don't realize how much junk you have in your house until you try to empty it. Or at least I didn't! I have spent the past three hours cleaning my bathroom and my toilet room. I've filled up four (small) boxes and three bags, plus two sacks of garbage! Just in those two rooms!!

Over the past three days we have taken eight loads (a load = the van full of boxes and bags and the pickup truck full of furniture and other heavy odds & ends) over to the house. The list of items I can't live without keeps getting smaller and smaller. I have a shoe box with my bathroom necessities (toothbrush, etc) and a suitcase full of clothes for me to wear while my life is on pause.

My kids have school and I'm doing everything I can to not disrupt their lives during this move. My husband has work and some severe issues with how he deals with stress (read: he's a huge jerk LOL) so I'm trying to keep his stress level down. Doing all this PLUS packing and cleaning makes me feel like my life is paused. On one hand it might be making me work harder and faster because I can't wait to get moved and get unpaused. On the other hand, there's still all the unpacking so I might not get unpaused until Christmas!! But I'm very happy.

Back to work!

Yesterday :(

We started moving in yesterday. We got three van loads and two truck loads (big furniture) moved into our new garage. Then we took a break. I was very happy with our progress but my allergies were just killing me.

Soon my allergies progressed (rather suddenly, actually) to a full-blown attack. I took an allergy pill, but then suddenly I couldn't see out of my left eye. It didn't phase me much as I often lose my ability to see out of one eye or the other during particularly bad allergy attacks. But then my thoughts felt like they were attached to butterflies and were zooming through my head in all different directions at once. I told the kids not to ask me questions because I couldn't focus on anything anyone was saying.

Then it felt like a club was raving in my head - I still couldn't see but there were colors and flashing lights everywhere - except it was all in my head. At this point I was terrified that either I took the wrong medicine for my allergies or I was having some sort of stroke.

I was really starting to panic until suddenly my vision sort of cleared except for a large glittering circle. I could see through the middle of the circle but outside the circle was still glittering flashing lights and colors. I instantly realized what was happening because I've experienced that glittering circle before.

For the first time in over two years I was experiencing an occular migraine.

Two years ago I suffered five of these horrible episodes in a span of four months. It usually starts as a glittering spot off to one side of my field of vision. Then the spot gets bigger and bigger (completely negating my ability to see ANYTHING) and eventually it becomes a glittering ring. Then the ring gets bigger and bigger until it expands out of my field of vision. Shortly thereafter, the very worst migraine of my life hits me like a sledgehammer to my skull. I become incapacitated for hours - needing to lie down (and not move AT ALL) in a silent, dark room.

They were dangerous because I couldn't see to drive while the glittering circle is present. These ocular migraines are why I keep an emergency stash of migraine medicine in my vehicles just in case one hits while I'm driving. After the first two times, I started taking a full dose of migraine meds right when I noticed the glittering spot, and the migraine part wasn't life-altering.

Then just as suddenly as they started, they disappeared. I've had a regular migraine or two (not a walk in the park but tolerable as far as migraines go) but for the past two years I've all but forgotten about ocular migraines!

After finally realizing what was happening I quickly took a full dose of migraine medicine to stave off the horror that hits after the glittering circle expands past my line of sight. Unfortunately, I had already taken allergy meds, too. As a result, even though I did not suffer a migraine I was high from the many meds in my system and nauseated to boot. So I still ended up spending half an hour laying down in bed.

I'm mostly better now. I'm still a little woozy and still on an extended break ~ but my head is clear and I can see again. It's been a crazy couple of days! I'm still going to work in the garage when it cools off, tonight, though.

IT'S CLOSED!!!

It's closed! It's ours! We can start moving in!! I'M SO HAPPY!! I'm really surprised at how quickly this all came together....a month almost to the day! This is such great news! We are going to start moving TONIGHT! If I wasn't so busy looking for home insurance I'd start moving right this second LOL!

We basically have as long as we want to move out (the end of October, actually) but we want to be in our house as SOON as possible heh heh. My husband is going to force our boys (whom've only packed ONE box each) to start going through their room tonight and I've been working like mad on our room. My closet still isn't done either. After that it's just the bathrooms and the kitchen. Then we're done! All we need to do after that is get all the stuff physically moved to the new place and then the fun but time-consuming process of deciding where everything GOES.

The last time we moved it took me three years to get completely unpacked. It won't take that long (hopefully) this time because I'm still committed to getting rid of 80% of everything we own.

I'M SO HAPPY!!!!!!

Need a break!

This whole moving thing has me exhausted! I feel like I've been going completely non-stop since we started packing! I am so busy I forget to eat. That's a problem. I have a condition like hypoglycemia where if I don't eat I become almost enebriated. I'll start acting drunk. My speech slurs, I don't remember stuff I do or say. I will start shaking and it becomes difficult to walk. Eventually I'll pass out. I'm told the worst-case scenario is I could have seizures. It's important for me to eat and keep my blood sugar pretty constant.

Yesterday I forgot to eat lunch and when I remembered I started water boiling three times to make something to eat but then forgot about it. I finally had to stand there waiting for it to boil.

The kids are little help to me because they're in school and dealing with their own stuff.

Finally today I asked my stepson to walk the dogs for me cuz I was just too tired to do it. He said, "If you're too tired to walk the dogs then you're too tired to keep working. So sit down and take a break."

It's sad when you need your kid to point out the obvious.

So I'm sitting at the computer, listening to music and enjoying a snack. I need to slow down a little. I'm going to start setting a timer on my iPod. Every two hours I have to sit quietly and eat something. Then I will chat with my kids. THEN I can get back to work!!

My health and my kids need to remain priority ONE! I guess I got too easily lost in my project and moving is a huge undertaking.

I'm grateful to my stepson for snapping me out of it today and I'm glad for a break!!

LOVE YOU TANK!! XOXO :D ><

Electricity

I have arranged to have the power & gas shut off at Farfa Yconno and set up a new account and power will be turned on at our house in a few days. :)

Udaaaaate

We have been warmly welcomed by all our new neighbors!!

We have made a quick assessment of things that need to be done right away at our house.

That's right, I said it: "Our House." The place we are in the process of moving out of will henceforth be referred to as "the/our OLD house" or it's unofficial name of "Farfa Yconno ("yuhk-own-oh")." (All the places I have ever lived in has had a "name." I came up with the name Farfa Yconno when it came up as a code in the cap of the 20 oz Pepsi I was drinking when we moved. The place before Farfa Yconno was Chesterchin. No name for our house yet.)

I have called and cancelled the cable services for Farfa Yconno and I will call to shut off the water today. We are hoping we can move in this or next weekend.

I am waiting on the phone call saying we're allowed to start turning on utilities and using it is our primary residence.

My husband is so desperate to get out of our old house that he has called four times to see if I've heard back yet (like I wouldn't call him when I found out ~ jeesh). But it's not like we can start sleeping over there or anything...we still need to paint, and we still need to clean the old house. I am not interested in a "circus jump." I want things done slowly and in a way I can't lose control of everything that's coming in. I want to thoroughly CLEAN and REPAIR (if necessary) every single item that comes in and construct an extremely detailed and extensive "chore list" full of extra things that need to be done if the kids want to start earning money.

I will be very unhappy if this move doesn't go exactly the way I want.

I have our television room and almost all of the computer room packed and at the storage locker. Next I will be "packing" up the yard, including digging up and potting plants I want to take with us. I want some iris', our grape vines, some raspberries and whatever I can save from the garden.

I am fairly confident that the book I am borrowing from my brother is the only book in the entire house. Everything is looking sad and empty LOL.

Surprisingly (or not, with this family) it is still pretty difficult to keep the old house clean....

Back at it!!! :D

Quick Post

The papers are signed and notarized. The living room is completely packed, the TV room is very nearly completely packed, the kids are all working on their rooms....my husband and I are both so excited! We're like kids getting ready to go to Disneyland!!!

We could be able to move as early as this weekend if everything goes all right. We already have paint over at the new house along with scrapers and spackle to make repairs. We are getting new locks for the garage so we can start loading it up with our stuff.

Well I'm off! Lots to do!!!

Frustration

I had a whoooooole list of things to do today and I can't do any of them!! (Except laundry)

I wanted to dig up plants I want to transfer to our new house but either the kids have lost my shovel or it got stolen (and lets hope the kids just lost it).

I wanted to finish packing up my walk-in closet but I'm out of boxes!

I wanted to take another load of packed boxes out to the storage locker! Buuuut I can't do that either!

I wanted to finish cleaning out the pool!! Actually, I want the pool to be done, but I don't want to DO it.....I might bribe a kid to do it later, idonwanna.

So what am I left with? Doing regular chores, doing even more laundry (which I'll do regardless), or cleaning out the garage.

As you know, I was originally cleaning out my garage before we decided we were moving, and if I continue to work out in the garage at least I'll feel like I'm accomplishing SOMETHING today!

So I guess after I walk the dogs I'll be in the garage sorting through stuff. SIGH. Today hasn't turned out nearly as fun or productive as I hoped it would. It is the kid's first day of school and I'm just a wreck without them. Although it will be nice to blast whatever music I want without worrying about not hearing the kids or worrying about some of my non-PG13 sings heh heh. (I say that but right now I'm listening to classical/orchestra music. What a badass am I?)

TOO MUCH STUFFFFF!

After packing for a few days I have come to the realization that I have too many interests!!!!! I have SO MANY things that I can't give up! There's my books, my playing card collection, my Animaniacs collection, my Star Trek collection, my unicorns, my musical instrument collection, my stuffed animals, my NAIL POLISH! (I have a suitcase full of nail polish, I'm not even exaggerating.....I will have to post a picture of it, it's just pathetic.) I have too many loves!!

The kids watched me pack all my books, all the pictures and paintings off the walls, and I have even packed a few boxes of their own stuff and they never said anything.  Today they saw me packing up my Animaniacs collection and exclaimed "she's packing up what she loves, we must really be moving!!!" **rolls eyes** What jokers.

I took a large load of packed boxes to the storage locker, stopped by two different places to get boxes, and dropped off two bags of nice, mostly name-brand clothes to the Good Will. After going through a bunch of clothes I used to fit in (10 years ago) that I refused to give up because they were expensive jeans, I realized they were too small for my 15 year-old stepdaughter...there was NO WAY I would ever fit into them again, so I donated (most of) them.

I am trying to keep it even as far as packing in the house and packing in the garage. I want it to be obvious to my husband that I'm working, and at the same time get everything I want to keep from the garage taken care of, too.

The town we're moving to is so small that even though we haven't told anyone that we're moving, my new neighbors congratulated me!!

Word travels FAST, LOL!

It's Ours 2!!

We went over to the new house (I can finally say that now!) and took the "for sale" signs down. When we came out we had to talk to some people (I'm assuming the neighbor and one of his friends) that were standing outside waiting to ask us if we bought it LOL.

We also put down all the blinds so it looked more lived in.

It's OURS!!

(Taking down the "for sale" signs)

VERY HAPPY!!

It's ours!!!!

I have been to the bank and I have made the down payment - the house is ours!! It's great news but I'm still waiting for the other pin to drop. On my way to the bank I was SO NERVOUS. I was actually shaking. I had to do calming meditative breaths while I was standing in line. I finally told myself, if it's meant to be, it will be ~ if not, then the house wasn't for us anyway. But it's ours (after the paperwork gets processed).

Now I have a hundred things to do and I can't do any of it! I keep getting started on ten different things then I turn around and start something else. My head is just spinning with this news!!

When my Mr. gets home we will go over as a family and take the "for sale" signs down. Then my Mr. will change the locks while I'm photographing everything! (Need those "before" shots!)

But for now I had to concentrate on one thing at a time!!!

I can't pack anything else until I have more boxes, which will be tonight. I can't mow because it's going to rain any second. I've started the laundry...that just leaves my regular chores. I've already given all three of my dogs baths and their collars are in the wash so I think I will go out and clean the garage. I will stack boxes by the door to be loaded some other time.

I am very happy to be a homeowner!! I can't wait to get started on repairs and painting. I can't wait to make it our home. I just have a hundred things to do!!

Getting Excited

Almost every book in the house (not counting the garage yet) has been either thrown away, donated, or packed. Most of the books are in banana boxes (no lid and has holes to "breathe") but my "special" books got wrapped inside plastic garbage bags and packed that way.

I have procured a 10 x 15 foot storage locker and I have taken a load out already. My mad Tetris skills come in handy at times like these. I have all the boxes and tubs already stacked in a corner. Not very many people are as good as I am with utilizing vertical storage space!!

My husband and I have already started looking at furniture for the new place even though we haven't GOT a new place yet. We didn't buy anything, both because we're saving up for the down payment AND because we don't want to jinx it, LOL.

We are really hoping to pay the down payment tomorrow and seal the deal.

We met who would be our neighbors if we get the place - and she said several people have been by to look at the place, and a few of them more than once (like us - we've walked through it four times now).

We are already trying to decide what colors to paint it so it would be pretty hard on us if we didn't get it. We are trying SO HARD not to get our hopes up.

I'm honestly surprised at how excited my husband is to move! His whole family HATES MOVING! My husband's brother has had to move three times in six years and he told us when he moves away from the house he's currently living in he will be in a hearse, haha!

But my husband almost seems more excited about it than I am! I guess that's just more of me rubbing off on him! He is almost cute in his boyish enthusiasm. ;)

The Stress Starts

So now we're moving. Moving is stressful under any circumstances but in our instance it's starting early LOL! We haven't even made an offer on this house yet and we're already arguing about how to pack!

 My husband thinks we should pack up everything that irritates him: the books, the kid's stuff, my decorations.....and he wants them out of the house the very second we get a storage locker.

 I, on the other hand, would rather get everything out of the garage (storage) except the Mr.'s tools and fishing and camping gear, THEN get all the pictures and things we just look at, THEN start packing by room - doing the common rooms first and doing the bathrooms and kitchen last. THAT way the most important (or at least the most used) things get UNpacked FIRST.

But the Mr. wants something to be visibly done by the time he gets home, so we can at least go through all the books and maybe my photo albums. That will take a lot of time and he will be able to tell something got done. Then I can get to work on what I want to work on.

Sheesh. Men.

Decision Made

We have pretty much decided to go for the house. So now we're in super-saving mode.

I have packed 12 boxes so far, and I have run out of boxes. So now I am pretty much stagnant until I get more boxes. My father in-law left us some "banana" boxes but they don't have lids. They're perfect for books, however, so at least they'll get utilized quickly.

Short post today ~ I'm tired!

Hopefully we can get enough money put together for the down payment ~ and hopefully the house is still for sale if and when we DO come up with the down payment!

Massive and obsessive cleaning starts TOMORROW.

Pros and Cons

I have included my father in on the discussions. We took our reluctant daughter for our second walk-through, and she said she would be willing to live there even though she would miss home.

CONS:
-We would have to start all over in a new town.
-The house we are looking at has less actual living space (I won't have a foyer hallway, a computer room or a TV room)
-ONE BATHROOM. ONE BATHROOM!! FOR SEVEN PEOPLE!!!!
-It has a MUCH smaller yard. I would really really REALLY miss our current yard!!
-We'd lose our fruit trees. I've spent the past six years turning saplings into an orchard....this is the first year we are going to get fruit ~ and now we could just leave them?
-ALL the work and money we've put into this house and yard so far and we'd just be giving it up.
-We just bought a brand-new gas stove and the house we're looking at only has hookups for electric.
-This other house needs a lot of improvements.
-There is no gas station in the new town. I would have to drive nine miles away to get gas.
-We would be even further away from our families than we are now!
-The roof needs work
-The basement needs work
-No cable (I'm sure by now you've gathered that it's a small town)
-Neighbors ~ I haven't had to deal with neighbors in TWELVE years! I have five loud kids, three dogs, a penchant for loud music and a husband who doesn't care who sees him in his ratty undies when he's checking the mail LOL
-My youngest son & daughter have a LOT of friends here, including a couple of best friends. I have no doubt they will make NEW friends, and probably pretty quickly given their personalities, but it will be hard to not see these kids every other day like they do now.
-Small closets!! I am so used to my wonderful walk-in closet that I'm not sure I'll be able to handle a step down from this! WHERE WILL ALL OF MY FABULOUS CLOTHES GO?!!??!?
-"Better" quality house means a lot more rules from me. Also more strict application of the rules we already have, plus added rules in regards to neighbors!
-I am going to want this new house spotless from the get go. I want neighbors, friends, and family to be able to come over whenever and I want a clean house for them to come to.
-The payments aren't going to be any easier than rent.

PROS:
-A fresh start. We would have over a month to move ~ we could do whatever we wanted (within reason) to that house before we even moved in!
-There is a LOT more storage space in that house! Unfortunately none of it is closet space.
-A tiny yard means a lot less yard work.
-We would own it, so we could start improvements right away!
-There is a reasonably priced grocery store a block from the house one way, a post office another, and a park another.
-It's a real house! With REAL floors, and REAL walls!
-The floors are all hard-wood floors. More work but well worth it!
-The trailer we live in is like Swiss cheese. We have had mice & occasional bug problems since before we even moved in. I saw bugs in our original walkthrough, and because of all the holes in the house, we've never been able to get rid of them!!! A new start in a real house (no holes, I checked!).
-Real windows (as apposed to the plastic ones we have now), and a lot of them!
-A basement. Enough said.
-A HUGE garage! HUGE!!
-Stairs. We will be healthier just by going to bed!
-My older kids have friends in the new town.
-It's a REAL house! That's very important to me. I haven't had a real house since San Diego.
-I can pretty much live anywhere and be happy....I am afraid I will miss the yard terribly, but I could live in a box and be happy.
-I can keep it clean from the get-go!
-Our boys would get a real bedroom
-Our credit score will be better (we currently do not have a credit score...really)
-We will not be scrambling to find money for "extra" charges our landlords keep coming up with.
-LAUNDRY SHOOT
-Plumbing that would be SO MUCH EASIER than here!!
-Outlets; outlets everywhere!!
-There are clothes lines. Awesome!
-The kids wouldn't have to change schools
-I would finally, after TEN YEARS, get my own side of the bed!!! I have rarely complained, but I am getting older and I will just keep getting older no matter what we do, and it would be so great to have my own side of the bed. (Read: the past 10 years I have had my side of the bed up against a wall - I have had to climb to the end or crawl over my husband and whatever kid ended up sleeping with us)

As you can see, there's a lot more pros than cons, and indeed I am leaning towards moving. The allure of a new house alone is making me want to move....it's saying good-bye to this yard that's hard. We will see. We should be making a decision soon.

Approved!

**Note** If you're reading this, keep the subject off Facebook until we're absolutely sure we're moving, thanks. :)

We got approved today. Even though we're still not sure if we're going for the house or not I was so thrilled to hear those words! It doesn't make our decision any easier, however.

We broached the subject with our children. I told them we would have a family discussion later tonight, so they need to really think about everything until then.

The oldest, Poinsettia was at first distressed but then gave an enthusiastic "yay."

My stepson, Tank, was all for it under the condition that when the basement is fixed he can use it as his bedroom.

My Star, 13, gave an enthusiastic "YES!!" Since his best friends are already there.

My youngest has no opinion yet. I have yet to really discuss it with him in a way he will understand.

My daughter, Diva, was the only one I was afraid to talk to. She tends to be dramatic and you can't get much more superficially traumatic than a family move. The other four kids knew we have been thinking about this and even walked through the house with us. We weren't about to involve our Diva. When I finally tried to gently introduce the idea to her she did NOT disappoint.

"WHAT?!? There's NO WAY! I love it here! All my friends are here! I'M NOT MOVING! YOU CAN'T MAKE ME!! IT'S NOT happening because I'm STAYING HERE!! If you leave you're doing this without your daughter!!!!"

Then the tears started. No crying - just tears. I tried to soothe her and assure her that we hadn't even decided yet, we just wanted to TALK about it. As I left the room she made sure to exclaim, "I'm not going anywhere!!"

It's hilarious that she's so predictable and even through all her tears and screaming I was trying so hard not to laugh. Her universe is going along exactly how she thinks it should and how DARE I suggest to change it!! She gets it from her Dad's side of the family. Specifically, his brother and his dad.

I also begged all the kids to keep it to themselves until we've actually made a decision. Some of the people we know and interact with LOVE drama, and will cause it just to have it. Also I didn't want anyone to know until WE know for sure.

Just so happy that we're approved if we want to go for the house!!

Deadlocked

I have secured first dibs on our local convenience store's boxes next time they get a shipment. I started going through some things to separate what's to be gotten rid of and what I should keep. I packed all of two boxes when I received a phone call. Apparently my husband told his parents about our looking at other houses, they told my husband's brother and his wife, and his wife told the daughter of our landlord. So our landlord(s) called us up saying they'll take $2,000 off our final price and rewrite our contract so it's a little more fair and if we give them $5,000 now and $5,000 at the beginning of 2014, our current property will be ours free and clear.


Let me take this opportunity to exclaim how I hate drama-starters and gossips!!! I was LIVID when my husband told me! I love his family like my own but if I wanted something kept a secret I KNOW not to tell things to someone that I KNOW will tell the one person who would blab it to EVERYBODY!! But at least I have this example to put to him the next time I tell him NOT to tell his parents something~!!!!

UG!!!!

Now, on to the new contract...I am still as hopelessly deadlocked as I ever was. My current yard is gorgeous but the trees have been dying over the past few years and it's a LOT of WORK!! But I love it so!! Also, the trailer I'm living in has had floor problems since before we moved in. We've spent who knows how much money trying to keep up with the floor repairs! But at the same time I have a nearly-new kitchen sink, a gorgeous bathroom double-sink, and we installed a large bathtub with spa jets!! I LOVE THIS TUB!! Also my husband installed it in such a way that there's no way to ever UNinstall it. So if we leave, we leave the tub.

Also as far as the one house we did the walk-through on...it is a lot smaller. The kitchen is smaller, it doesn't have a dining room, TV room OR computer room! The foyer here is a hallway complete with a closet, this other house's foyer is a mere 2 feet by one and a half a foot. Also, the yard is miniscule - there would barely be enough room for my pool ~ and with three dogs I would have to pick up four times a day instead of once every three days as I do now. Lastly - this other house we are looking at is in-town surrounded by houses. That means neighbors. I have not had to deal with neighbors in 12 years!!

Then there's the house. Small or not, it's a real house! With a foundation and walls and floors....and I haven't lived in one of those since California - TWENTY years ago!! If we decide to keep this place we will still have to live here until we can afford to tear it down and build our own house, and who knows how long that will take!

So many pros for leaving, so many pros for staying - so many cons for both! Plus I have five kids I have to take into account.....being a grownup sucks LOL.

To be honest I'd love a change of scenery. I've lived here for seven years and that's longer than I've ever lived in any one place. But also we've spent so much time and money here it would be hard to let go.

Still deadlocked.

No More Garage Cleanup Posts

So we might have to move. I have mixed feelings about it. On one hand I'm not happy about it; on the other hand I'm crazy excited. On one hand I have too much junk to take to a new place; on the other this is a great excuse to finally go through it all and minimize! On one hand I hate the POS trailer that I've been living in but I love love LOVE the property!! I would miss it so much!! On one hand, we can't afford anything nice...anything we could afford is going to need a LOT of work; on the other THIS place (the POS trailer) needs more work than is worth spending the money on...we'd have to tear this place down and start all over again.  On one hand it would be great to start all over in a brand-new place, on the other it would take a lot of effort to clean, prepare, move and repair all my valuable items (valuable to me anyway). On one hand it would be a great learning experience for the kids; on the other hand it will be hard for them to leave their friends here, especially the three who have hoards of friends that they hang out with every day! And of course there's the money ~ the down payment, etc, etc, vs not having to pay rent anymore!

Even though my mind keeps going back and forth between how wonderful it would be and how horrible it would be, I have an obsessive/compulsive need to be prepared either way. While I'm currently in discussions with my husband, the kids and various extended family (and family-like friends) my mind is already getting ready for a move we might not even make. I already have a moving AND packing checklist for the whole family. I am already thinking of what I'll want to buy new and what I'll want to save. I'm already asking businesses about their cardboard boxes and looking into temporary storage companies.

We have already looked at a few houses and we've done one walkthrough.

Right now we are still trying to decide whether or not we're going to try and get the property we're on or move somewhere else, and the uncertainty of it is driving me up the wall. I haven't slept an entire consecutive 8 hours since we started talking about it! I HATE not knowing for sure, and if things aren't planned out exactly right we would end up temporarily homeless, and I'm certainly not wanting to experience THAT! ESPECIALLY with five kids, two of which are my stepchildren, who's biological mother is prone to throw fits over any little thing if a certain mood hits her. So everything has to go smoothly!

My first order of business was to make up a list of things NOT to pack. A list of essentials and things we'll need before we unpack all our junk at the new place:

-Bible (ya, I'm religious)
-Spot (he is a stuffed animal that will be buried with me, I won't risk him being lost or otherwise destroyed or damaged)
-Toilet paper & paper towels
-Notebooks & pens (OCD!! I NEED these!!)
-Soap (hand & body)
-washcloths
-toothpaste, tooth brushes, floss & mouthwash
-sunscreen
-trash bags
-bath towels
-5 school/work outfits, 2 play outfits, 1 dress outfit, & shoes for each outfit
-nail clippers and a nail file
-hair brushes
-broom & dustpan
-1 complete set of dishes or disposables
-a shower curtain
-flashlights & some basic towels
-curtains for bedrooms and a set of sheets for each bed
-important papers
-ladder
-camera
-favorite snacks for the kdis
-a favorite movie to watch on a laptop and the laptops.

I will also likely bring a scale with my workout binder just because I am trying to get healthier and I don't want to get out of the habit of working out every day while we're in the process of moving (if we move).

Next will come packing. The things we are the least likely to need will be packed first and unpacked last, and while I'm packing I forsee a LOT of trips to two places: the local Goodwill for donations, and the DUMP. Even if we DON'T end up moving I am on a mission to get rid of ALL excess belongings!! I'm sick of it! I will be ruthless!

All this and we're not even sure we're moving yet!!

I'll keep you updated!!

Dear Spider:

Dear spider that I killed:

I am very, very sorry I had to brutally murder you by smashing a book into your body three times. You were a brown color, small, had long legs, and you were sitting on a small irregular web. I apologize for jumping to the conclusion that you were a brown recluse spider.

 If you were a brown recluse spider, you should already have known that punishment for being in the vicinity of my children is instant death.

If you WEREN'T a brown recluse spider I am very sorry you died for no reason. :( I will take any and all blame.

Sincerely,

I don't usually judge a book by it's color but you were the WRONG color, in the WRONG-shaped web in the WRONG place at the WRONG time.

<3 br="">

No New Pics Today

I did work out in the garage a bit (about two hours) but all I mostly did was separate clothes and move stuff around....I have come to the conclusion that I desperately need new boxes to store my decorations, and therefore I will not get much else done until I receive boxes.

So luckily I am on very good terms with most of the people who work at our local convenience store so the next time they get their deliveries they will save their boxes and I will go over there and pick them up. Any leftover boxes I get I can use to reorganize everything else in this garage.

So even though it LOOKS like I just moved everything around I actually did do a lot of work. Went through some more books, took a box of books and FOUR bags of clothes to the Good Will.

I live halfway between two fairly large towns, one much larger than the other ~ where I need to go for whatever reasons determine which Good Will I take all my donations to. Since today we had to go to the big town in our county I went ahead and took the bags I had in the van today over there and dropped them off. If I get a lot more bags during this week they will likely go to the really big town in the next county over because we have back-to-school shopping to do and we usually do it over there.

I was happy to hear the Good Will takes books, because I usually donate books to our local VA.....but somehow I don't think they'd appreciate all my little kid's books (reading level birth to kindergarten)!!

All my ADULT reading level books will continue to go to the VA hospital for our injured vets to enjoy (or their spouses, whoever likes syfy & horror LOL).

I nearly have the broken treadmill cleared off but my husband said I'd have to leave it there until he gets rid of what's in the truck. I've been filling up the back of the truck with all the unrecycleable garbage I've been finding. It's pretty full!! He will probably empty it tomorrow or Sunday.

In the meantime I plan on spending all of Saturday in that garage.....and I'll take Sunday off to do nothing but make family home videos and swim ALL DAY (assuming the weather agrees....I haven't checked the weather in a week!).

I hope you all have a great weekend!!

(No pics today, sorry! -- my stepson saw a picture I posted yesterday and said "You can't just shove everything to the side and say you cleaned!!!" I then had to explain to him all the work I did do and the stuff "shoved to the side" were the decorations I needed new boxes for!!! Then I showed him my growing new burn pile which HE can deal with since he made an issue of "what did you get done today??" and I showed him the full bed of the truck AND the four bags of donate. I'm pretty sure next time he will keep his mouth shut LOL!)

Garage Cleanup 4

Today was a hard one. It was finally warm here in central Illinois (it's been extremely cold for the past week!!) and of course I wore jeans. I was unwilling to change, however because I was getting into "the corner," and I was pretty sure there was a spider metropolis back there. I have no fear of spiders and I don't mind sharing my garage with them, but I was going to do some massive reorganization and I was pretty sure I'd be less than thrilled to have fifty spiders crawling up my bare legs....so the jeans stayed on ;).

I reorganized the fourth of the garage I have cleaned out to this point and I am VERY happy with how it looks so far. :)

While going through the books my daughter observed that I have three copies of Shakespeare's "Romeo  & Juliette." She was then horrified as I dumped two copies in the donation bins. I had to explain to her that one copy of a story is all anyone needs unless it is a VERY SPECIAL book. And I never really liked Romeo & Juliette so one copy is more than enough for me.

My sister once gave me a large book containing all three volumes of "The Lord of the Rings" (Tolkien, if you live under a rock) in the same book, so I thought I could get rid of my individual copies of the books. My son saw them, however, and wants them for his personal library, and I went ahead and gave them to him. That's when he noticed something funny on "The Return of the King."

Let's see if you notice it:

 He says the guy on the cover looks just like Nicholas Cage!!!

Here's a closer look.

 Naw.....maybe a LITTLE....but naw, LOL.


Here's what I got done today:

Looks good right?? And of course, within ten minutes of having the weight bench completely clear, THREE children came in to use it. At first I was confused, since I certainly am not the person who put "the pile" there in the first place, and I have been able to use that weight bench two to three times a week!! But it's all good ~ at least now that it's cleaned up I don't have to worry (as much) about kids getting hurt while they're out there on the bench.

Boy, they'd better help me KEEP it this clean!! I'm not doing all this work just so they can trash it in a few weeks....I'm going to keep my eyes WIDE open and if there is so much as a candy wrapper in there I plan on throwing one heck of a hissy fit!!! This is MY garage, now, and people had better help me keep it the way I want it or they can just stay out of it!! LOL

I have been working on the garage for four days, and I'm about one fourth of the way through it (NOT counting the loft). I am very happy with the progress so far, and I'm very happy I've been doing so well about throwing away stuff we don't need, and donating things nice enough that someone else might be able to use it. I am also separating the clothes. I have my own bin, my Diva has her own bin, and my Bear has one. The other kid's are all in one bin until I get some more empty.

I have a pile of shoes to go through and see if I can find pairs. If I find pairs I will see which ones fit my family, and any that don't - too big OR too small - will get donated. I'm going to put the elliptical over there by the weight bench and put a radio over there, too (probably on that little table on the right of the picture). I will get rid of the treadmill because it hasn't worked a single day since we got it and it's not doing me any good since it's broken. Buh-bye.

I feel kind of under the weather after today's work, either because of the massive amount of dust I had to wade through or the mouse nest I found and had to deal with (I'm extremely allergic to field mice, dust, and mold). I've taken some tylenol and I'll see how I feel tomorrow. Hopefully I'll be able to keep up this pace ~ I can have an amazing garage in a week and an amazing loft in two. :) 

Wish me luck.

Garage Cleanup 3

Today it was SO HARD to even get out of BED!! I just couldn't force myself to GET UP!!! But eventually I did and eventually I even got some work done out in the garage. I also burned most of my burn pile since everything was wet and the wind wasn't bad. I got rid of 89% of the VHS tapes I found (Keeping family home videos until I figure out a way to put them on my computer and create family home videos on DVD), and about 60% of the clothes got thrown away or put in donation bags (another three bags in the van). I filled the huge garbage bag and two smaller ones and they're in the back of the truck, and I filled up ONE storage container of clothes to keep (so far). I only got rid of about 20% of the Halloween costumes I found and the rest went in a bin for the kids to go through later. A couple might get used for Halloween this year.

And I got started on the books.

Getting rid of books, ESPECIALLY ones I haven't read, is extremely hard for me. I love books!!  So I set aside all the children's books to be gone through later (and probably in the house). Then I donated as many as I could make myself donate, and the rest I decided to wrap up in plain wrapping paper and I'm setting them in a big box. That way, when I need a new book I have NO IDEA what book I'm getting. I figure it's also a good way to get the kids involved with my books. Bored? BAM ~ mystery book; read it. LOL

Not a whole lot done (and by golly the spiders are AWFUL this year!!!) but enough to feel like I accomplished a little! Off for dinner!

Pics:


Our little artists are the reason why some of my books couldn't be donated ;)

I have had this poster since I was EIGHT YEARS OLD. It was physically traumatizing to let this go, but it isn't in good enough condition to hang up so.........I had to say good bye :(  :'(

Found my Popple!!! Any '90s kids will recognize this cute little creature!!

Closed:

 Open:

No I did NOT get rid of my Popple!!! KEEPING IT FOREVER!!! It went into the "bring in the house" pile. :)

Hooray!

Garage Cleanup Project 2

I worked hard all day yesterday. I've done (so far) exactly NOTHING today. Either because it's dark and rainy (and FREEZING!!!) or because I did so much yesterday that I don't feel like doing anything today. (This massive headache really isn't motivating me anyway.)

I made piles outside the garage so I could sweep everything out IN the garage, as far as what I got cleaned. I NOW have a six foot by TWELVE foot cleaned area (not organized yet, though).

I have a "storage" pile that is so far only two and a half crates, and is mostly clothes I'm not willing to give up yet. I have one decorations box started but it has Halloween AND Christmas in it so obviously I need two more boxes ;). I have a camping/fishing pile, a gardening pile and a automotive items pile. I have a recycling pile that's getting pretty big already, two and a half enormous trash-bags full of trash, a rather large burn pile, and a pool pile. There's also a pile of sorts which is just things to fix up the house with, such as sheets of plywood and siding.

I have three regular-sized trash bags full of clothes that will go to the Goodwill and they are already in my van to be dropped off the next time I go to town.

I did find a box full of stuff to bring into the house. A couple purses, some clothes, pens, etc.

As it is I have nearly enough room to park a car in my garage right now!!! But I still need the space to keep cleaning out there and to get everything organized. I would say I'm about 2/5ths of the way done with that garage. It feels great to be getting rid of all that stuff we don't need.

So far the hardest things will be going through my books, and deciding whether or not I will keep my wedding dress. I mean, on one hand it only cost $90 and it has some stains from being in storage that I really don't know if I can ever get out, PLUS there's no WAY I'll ever fit in it again!!! (Why would I need to wear a wedding gown again anyway??) But on the other hand my stepdaughter wants me to keep it so she can get married in it one day (yeah, I have no idea why, either) and it is pretty sentimental and social convention to keep the gown you got married in.  I will have to pull it out, photograph it, and see what others think I should do with it. I'm strange, I guess, to not care as much about my wedding dress as I do about those New York jeans (my original "skinny" jeans from when I thought 120 pounds was fat), but I might just have to get rid of them both anyway.

Here's a couple pics!



Good bye old VHS video tapes!!! I have no idea why I kept y'all for so long!!! (I did keep family home videos in hopes that someday I will somehow be able to transfer them to my computer and begin making family home video DVDs for my whole family)

Yes, I'm a semi-recovering paper hoarder:

I say "semi-recovering" because I had to sit down and go through all these papers, I couldn't just put them in the burn pile. MOST of these were my kid's school papers from the 2007-8 school year. I kept a few choice papers and I did get rid of most of the rest.

Going through clothes was easy. Too small, too small, holes in it, too small......except when my daughter came out ~ "This is SO CUTE!!! WE HAVE TO SAVE THIS FOR ME SOMEDAY!!!" I finally had to tell her as much as I loved her help I really didn't need help with the clothes and then go through all the clothes in the keep pile AGAIN to make sure she didn't sneak some donated clothes in it (and she did, that stinker).

I was doing so well I didn't want to stop!!! But I DO have kids and a husband, and they DO occasionally need to eat, so I HAD to stop and make dinner.

It was a great day.