Seriously..

Where did all this crap come from?! 7 person family + 7 years in one house = TOO MUCH STUFF!!!!!

We are purging as we go.. but damn, where do we put it all in the mean time? We’ve already packed several boxes.. and it feels like nothing has been done. The walls are bare and the tupperware cabinet is empty.. And some of the stuff from my kitchen storage shelves is packed. Oh and my spices that I know I won’t need until I’m settled and cooking again.. I hope the kids can survive on sammies for a week or so, because I am NOT cooking and packing and moving and cleaning up dishes.. No freaking way. I had Dave get a huge thing of paper plates today so I don’t have to worry so much about dishes this week.

Speaking of dishes.. Neither Dave nor I remember seeing a dishwasher. As obsessed as I am with kitchens, why did I not memorize every detail of this damn kitchen?!?! Probably because I really thought we were going to be turned down again and live here forever. Seriously. I did. Anyway.. there might be a dishwasher over in the corner by the sink.. but honestly, I really don’t know for sure. I know there is a window above the sink. I know there is a big black side by side fridge with ice maker. I know that the stove is white and gas powered. But I do not know if there is a freakin pantry or dishwasher. We called our realtor and asked him if he’d look at the listing paper and see if it’s listed in the appliances.. he said there is nothing there about it, but that the house was built in 1978 and every other house he’s showed in that area has one.. so he’s pretty sure there will be one, but “don’t quote him on that”.. Nice, eh? I said it’s too late now and if there isn’t one then the boys are going to learn the fine character building art of scrubbing dishes by hands, as well as drying and putting away. LOL If I could do it, so can they. *I* will not be handwashing dishes. No freakin way. I paid my dues as a teenager.

Hopefully we’re signing the lease tomorrow and getting keys. We couldn’t get ahold of her today. I can’t wait!!!!! I wanna get some of these boxes out of here already!

PRAISE GOD!!!!!!!!!!

 

We are……. MOVING!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Friday 5

1. Would you ever vacation alone?

Alone as in no kids? HECK YES!!!  Alone as in without my girl Lori or my hubby?.. eh that doesn't sound as fun, but yeah, I'd prbably go and SLEEP the whole time.

2. Do you go the speed limit?

Pretty much always.  Bad things happen when you're speeding.

3. Why did you start blogging/following blogs?

I started blogging when I did a twin pregnancy journal for www.pregnancy.org.. it sort of stuck.  I've been blogging/online journaling on and off for a little over 8 years now.. sometimes it's a way to keep my friends in the loop, sometimes it's like therapy for me. 

4. Where do you shop for yourself?

Fashion Bug... speaking of.. I need to go get my layaway back into layaway. LOL

5. What was the song that you danced your first dance with your spouse to at your wedding...or...what song would you like your first dance to be to?

It was supposed to be Amazed, by Lonestar.. but we got tired of waiting for the DJ to play it (we went to a club in leiu of having a dance type reception), so we ended up dancing to Tim McGraw's "More than a Lover".. and then right after that they played Amazed. LOL

Speaking of kids…

 

They’re great.  Mostly.  I’m going to send Justin straight to the freakin moon if he comes home again tomorrow with yet another check on his conduct card sheet.  Seriously. 7 since the second semester started.. 3 weeks ago.  And for stupid bullshit like talking and not filling in his reading log.  Needless to say he’s got no reason NOT to fill out the reading log because he isn’t allowed any pleasurable passtime other than reading. No TV. No radio.  No video games of any kind.  He can read. Or he can do chores.  For two weeks. I’m done, damnit.  If he comes home with another check tomorrow I’m seriously going to consider getting that tambourine out and sell his punk ass to the gypsies.

And the twins.  Dear God I understand The Mother’s constant frustration with my cleaning habits, or lack thereof, as a child.  I can’t even stand to have their door open anymore.  Another reason we need to move… packing their shit will in turn clean the place up! LOL

Jason made a most excellent science fair project.. It looks just as great as Justin’s last year, so I think he might have a shot at regionals.  I hope he doesn’t get too upset if he doesn’t. He did get an invitation to join some Duke University talent search something or other because of his outstanding perfect performance on last years TAKS test. Apparently only the top 5% of the kids grade gets invited to apply to this thing.  He said the counselor told him it’s a summer camp type thing that you go to for a week.. and honestly.. I think he can handle that!!!! That makes me so happy.  Look how far he’s come since just this summer alone, when I had him go stay with my mom while the other kids went to church camp because I knew he couldn’t handle 3 days with strangers and without me to cool his ass down in a meltdown.  But he has made such progress he acts like a normal child.. and I think if he gets accepted, he should totally go!!! Provided the tuition isn’t an arm and a leg.

Andy is my sweet little Boo as always.  He’s getting so big and so much like Dave.. he’s turning into a tween, yet still trying to hang on to being a kid at the same time.. today he was wandering around the backyard with Simon (aka The Idiot Dog), just poking around.. moving bikes around, acting like daddy.. lol He found some of his old matchbox cars buried in the dirt (yes, he was digging… little twerp).. brought them inside and washed them all off in his bathroom.. with half a bottle of my dishwashing soap from the kitchen. Nice, eh?

I do have some funny stories regarding Girl Scout cookie sales that I’ll impart when it’s NOT 3:08am. Be on the lookout because said stories will come with pictures that are hi-freakin-larious.  Seriously. My kids crack me up with their ingenuity.

Trying again

 

We put another application in today.. This house is smaller.. a bit bigger than we’re in now.. one story, 3 bedrooms.  I told The Bestfriend when we first started looking that if I could find a house that was at least as big as this one that was an actual house, not a duplex, with a double garage and decent backyard.. then I’d take it gladly.  And that’s what this house is.  And the best part? Instead of being 500 more a month than we’re paying now (which can get difficult if work is slow at The Husband’s shop).. it’s only 100 more a month than we pay now!  Most definitely doable!  It has a huge backyard.. well not huge compared to the awesome backyard that The Bestfriend has.. but it’s pretty big.  With two oleander bushes back there..which I’m cool with because the twins are old enough to understand “that’s poisoness leave it alone”. And if they don’t they can be easily cut down and hauled away. The front yard has a HUGEMONGOUS tree, Dave says it’s an Ash.  I think it’s big and pretty and my kids will love climbing in it and sitting underneath it in the summer. 

Let’s see.. inside the house.  Pergo floors in the livingroom and hallway.  Laminate tile in the kitchen.  The kitchen is bigger than I have now and the dining room is big enough to hold my hutch.  Comes with a big side by side fridge with an icemaker!  The garage is right next to the kitchen like my current one.. so my system of shelves in the garage for my extra kitchen equipment will still be doable.. plus there are 3 linen closets in the hall.  Come to think of it.. I don’t remember seeing a pantry.  Surely there was one! That might be a problem.  I’ll work with it if I have too.. maybe that’s why there are two linen closets right off the dining room.

Carpet in the bedrooms.. the bedrooms are laid out well that I think things will work out well.. The closets are not walk in closets for the kids rooms.. but big closets with several shelves as well as clothing bars.. so it’s gonna work.  We’ll make it work. :)

The master has a fantastic large closet.. gotta love that. :)

All in all, it’s a cute little house. And I really hope we get it.  They at least took the time to verify our rental history and not just turning us down solely on the credit report.  We’re hoping to hear something by the end of the week.. My fingers toes and everything else are crossed. 

If it' doesn’t work out.. we’re going to look at the 3rd house, which is also a bit small (but actually has more sq footage than the one we put our app in for).. and if that house doesn’t come through, then it might just be time to accept that it won’t be this year.  I sincerely hope it doesn’t come to that, because I NEED to move.  I need new space, I need the purging that comes with moving.. the new reorganization of everything. I have run out of places to creatively put things away here.. and it’s becoming nauseating.  I hate being here.  I just want to start packing.  But I won’t pack one single box until someone asks us to come sign a lease.. I will NOT get my hopes up that far and have to just unpack boxes back into this godforsaken duplex hellhole.  I will be patient and wait to see if the moving is going to happen. Then I will pack.  We have till the end of February, and I plan to take the time to really go through things.. I am not taking an unneccesary things to the house.

And here it is 3am once again.. I keep telling myself I am going to stop doing this… staying up so darn late.  It certainly isn’t helping me get off my butt and be productive during the daytime when the kids are gone.

Well...

It was a No. :( I'm disappointed. Especially since they didn't even bother to contact our current landlord for a rental reference OR talk to Dave's employer to verify his income. They just turned us down based on our credit. Yeah, we have bad credit. It's almost all past medical bills because we don't have health insurance and when the kids get sick we have to take them to the ER (well DUH healthcare in this country is a joke), and a few past utilities. Yeah, we haven't paid those bills.. because we were paying our freakin rent instead!!!! Ugh. And we ARE trying to pay those bills off. Two of the past utilities on the credit report will be removed soon, because we're paying them off.

Oh well. Onward and upward. We're going to keep trying. We plan to look a few more houses with the realtor on Tuesday evening. Maybe there is a better house out there. Or maybe we're supposed to stay here. I don't know. I hope not.

New Home…I hope?!

 

Along with the new laptop, we’re using our tax refund to try to move into a new to us, bigger home.  We met with a realtor on Tuesday and found a gorgeous two story house for rent.  It’s so perfect, and I’m really nervous about it.  We dropped our application off yesterday morning, a long with a hefty deposit to prove we’re serious and that we’re willing to pay a little extra in deposits because of our shoddy credit.  I’m trying not to worry about it and stress about whether they are going to say yes or not.  There’s a good possibility they are going to laugh when they see our credit.. but our current landlord said she would give us a good rental history reference and do everything she could to help us get into this bigger house.  Bless her for that.  As I told JD in an email right after I dropped off the application.. it’s in God’s hands now, and if it’s ment to be, it will happen.  Hopefully we’ll hear (I almost spelled that “here” LOL) something by the end of the week. 

A little about the house.  Well aside from the fact that it’s a gorgeous brick two story home… LOL  The outside is fabulous.  It’s on a corner lot (LOVE that), and has tons of trees.. including a magnolia tree. LOVE those!  Has a big two car garage with a window that The Husband is super stoked about.  The kitchen is fabulous, nice sized, plenty of room in the dining area for both my table and china hutch.  The countertops in the kitchen are a purple color.  That’s a bit different, but I actually kind of like it.  There is an island in the kitchen (YAY!!!!) and seems to be plenty of counter space.  There is even a dry bar in the corner of the dining area, next to the space where the hutch will be that will be perfect for storing things like my kitchenaid mixer and the food processor, etc. Oh Oh Oh!! And there is a window seat along the wall in the dining area!!! How cool is that?!

  There are still only 3 bedrooms.. with the master suite downstairs and the other two bedrooms plus the second full bath are upstairs.  The rooms are about the same size as the kids have now, but with HUGE walk in closets.  I think the fact that the rooms aren’t bigger will be okay because of the closets.  The dressers and whatnot that take up so much space in the room can be in the closet, with will in turn make the room appear bigger than their current rooms even though they are not. The master suite is lovely.  HUGE double sink bathroom with a walk in closet that I almost swooned over.  My shoes will fit in it!! ALL of my shoes.  All 45 pairs of them! That’s BIG.  The bathtub has a tile seat a long the side of it, which brings back really fond memories of my mother’s bathroom in the house I grew up in.  Her tub had an identical seat in it (like a window seat, but without the window).. and when I was a little girl, I just LOVED it when she would let me take a bath or shower in her bathroom because of that seat.  I felt all grown up sitting on it, pretending to shave my legs. LOL  It would be neat for The Twins to have that same childhood memory.  Oh, and the bedroom itself has a window seat. 

Oh, and the walls are not all white!!!! It’s the first time I’ve ever been in a rental where the walls were not all high gloss white.  The living room wall is actually about the same color I painted our dining room wall in this house.. a warm brownish beige color.  The staircase wall is white though.. and I think I’ll paint a bold brick or terra cotta color if (when!) we move in.  A long with nice painted walls there is gorgeous flooring. A really pretty terra cotta colored tile covers the downstairs from living to kitchen, but there is brand new cream colored carpet in the master.  The stairs and the entire upstairs is also cream carpet.. and I think I remember the realtor saying it was new.

The backyard is amazingly huge.  With a wrap around patio/deck.  The backporch has a covered area that even has an outdoor ceiling fan.  Lots of trees, and gated dog crate/dog run area that I totally see becoming the twins little clubhouse.  :)

All in all the house is amazing.  Perfect.  And that’s what scares me.  I’m so in love with this house already.  It’s going to hurt a bit if we get told no.  The realtor seemed to think we had a chance since The Husband makes twice the income requirement and we have good rental history. He said as long as we were willing to pay first and last months rent and possible a large deposit, we have a good chance.  He talked to the landlord and they said our credit wouldn’t likely be a problem..but I just can’t help but worry.  Things like this don’t usually happen for us.  But it’s about time they did, darn it!

No matter what, though.. this is in God’s hands.  He knows that we’re cramped here and that we’d really like to have a larger.. and nicer place.  We live in a tiny duplex right now, and it’s just not the sort of house that your proud to have company in.  When the twins brownie troop was asking for people to please help and have the meets at their house, I didn’t even consider allowing the troop to come here.. but at that house, I totally could and would.  I can just SEE us there.  But I can usually “just see us there” to any house we look at. LOL  It will be a let down and I’ll probably cry a bit if we get turned down.. but I have faith that if this is not “The One”, God will point us in the direction of the house that is.  And if it’s ment that we stay here another year.. then we can do that too.. I’ll probably grumble and moan about it.. but I can do it.  At least we have a roof, heat in the winter, and a/c in the summer.  It really could be a LOT worse.. I’m sure people in Haiti and other places that are poverty stricken would love my tiny duplex.  So I’m thankful for what we do have.  And I pray that it is right and it is time for us to move on from here into a larger home. 

I hope you’ll take a moment and say a small prayer for that, too.  We feel like we outgrew this place long ago. Probably before we ever even moved in.  Please say a prayer that this is right and that it happens. Whether it be the pretty brick home or somewhere else.  And if you did take a moment and actually pray, thank you very much. :)

And a prayer that I can accept whatever decision we’re given, even if it’s a no, with grace and dignity would also be appreciated.

I should have an update on this by the end of the week. Keep your fingers, toes and everything else crossed!!! :)

Dude! I got a Dell!!!

 

So The Laptop died a most horrible death a week or two ago, thanks to Miss Butter Bean.  She kept unplugging it from the wall (it didn’t have a working battery), and now it won’t even boot up. 

And now that we have our ginormous income tax refund.. The Husband went to Best Buy last night and bought me a brand spankin’ new Dell laptop last night.  I’m in HEAVEN.  Well sort of. I’ll be in complete heaven when we get a broadband modem that is compatible with Windows 7.  Windows 7… not my idea, but I’m liking it so far!!  And I’m sure this is not important but it’s one of my favorite features in my new toy: It’s RED!!!! :D  I love red, it’s my favorite color and I freakin love my red laptop.  It’s fast, has a mega HUGE hard drive, and I’m really enjoying having it. It’s got a wifi modem built in, and I’m able to connect to the internet through someone in the neighborhood’s modem.. but at a very slow speed.  The Husband is going to pick up the new modem  tonight on his way home from work. 

Oh, and it has a webcam built in!! How freakin cool is that? 

Friday Five (little late, yesterday was busy)

1. Worst trouble you ever got into as a teenager?
Hmm.. it's a toss up between the time me and Caroline Koziol skipped school junior year, and the time me and my cousin, Trish, crossed the border into Mexico to go bar hopping when we were 17.

2. Are you a morning person or a night person?
Most definitly a night owl.

3. Are you a one-handed or a two-handed Texter?
Little of both, but mostly one handed. Gotta keep the other hand free for driving. LMAO Just kidding, I do NOT text while driving. Anymore. LOL

4. Democrat, Republican, or Independent..or maybe even Green Party (whatever that is).
Bleeding heart, left sided liberal democrat.

5. Are you a pet person?
Yes. :) 2 dogs, 2 cats. :) I lean towards being a cat person though. If I had to pick just ONE pet, it would be my Butter Baby. :)

4 down!

Unless my scale is lying, I'm 4 pounds down! I choose to believe that my scale is NOT a lying bastard for once. LOL My eating well, getting moderate excersize and the Alli stuff I'm taking seems to be working. Btw.. JD, I ROTFLMAO at your comment in our email catch up about how useful the "treament effects" could be. I still LMAO everytime I say "treatment effects".

Tonight I'm going to have some orange chicken with veggies over brown rice. It comes with white rice (premade from the freezer section).. but I'm going to try to just get the chicken and veggies out and put them over my own brown rice. And a couple of chicken potstickers on the side. :) Yummy! I even said no to the eggroll when The Husband asked me if I wanted one! Whoo hoo go me! That's a big step for me, because I freakin LOVE eggrolls. It was hard. But when The Husband said there were 10 grams of fat PER eggroll.. I said "NO". I WILL lose this weight. I WILL. :)

What the heck!?

It's Sunday and so that means everyone needs clothes for the upcoming school week. I had the boys gather up a basket full of their clothes and took it out to the garage to get them started. When I pulled the knob to get the water started, nothing happened. I pushed the knob back in, checked the knobs on the water spigots behind the washer. Everything was on. I thought "did I forget to pay the water bill?!" and then remember, no it's Sunday and we've had water all weekend so it can't be that. I ask Dave to come and see what's wrong and after messing with the knobs and settings for a minute, the washer springs to life and starts filling with water. The problem? The water inside the hoses was frozen!!! Now to some, especially my Canadian friend, this is probably not such a new thing.. but for this Southern girl, I can honestly say that has NEVER happened to me before!! LOL It's gone below 30 degrees F (and most nights below 20 F) every night for about a week now. It is coooollllddd here in the South!

Brrrrrrr

JD, did you come to Texas and forget to tell me???? It's COOOOOLLLLLLDDDDDD here!!! Canadian cold fronts are the best ones....

Miss you...

Oh man, I really have to lose it

So I tried on The Red Dress. My hot ass red long sleeve wrap dress that I wore on Valentines day last year. The one I looked damn hot in last year. The one I'm supposed to be wearing in 2.5 weeks to The Brother-in-law's wedding.

It looked AWFUL!!!!!!!!! Just awful! I almost cried. Almost. I only need to lose 10-15 lbs for it to look good. So I just have to do it. I hung the dress on the outside of my closet door. That way every time I look at this huge box of little debbie snacks that we keep locked in our room (so the kids don't go overboard when we aren't looking).. I will turn away from it and quit getting snacks for myself out of it. The damn ding dongs are finally gone and so are the boston creme cakes, so that will help. LOL

I'm about to go web browsing for my reward boots. I'm going to put them as my new screen saver when I find the ones I want. LOL

So far today I've done really good. I had a salad with lots of veggies and nothing else, with light dressing. And some low fat cold cuts. I've had a migraine most of the day, so I didn't cook dinner. Dave is going to pick me up some panda express on his way home. And I was a good girl and changed my order from my usual double combo with lo mein noodles, spicy crispy fried beef, and crispy fried chicken to plain white rice, and something chicken that is not fried, but sweet and/or spicy. I'm starving though and I hope he gets home with it soon.

I'm going to distract myself from my growling stomach with boots now.. LOL

Dinner was..

easy.. Had to go to a parent meeting for the girl scouts, planning for the year... So Dave made him and the kids some chili dogs, fries and heated up the leftover baked beans. When I got home, I had a Simply Aisa noodle bowl.. spicy kung pao flavor. It was spicy and yummy! :)

Tomorrow I'm planning to make brandy chicken and rice. Maybe some buttered carrots on the side.

Oh, and I got the red velvet cake mix. Soooo making more cake balls tomorrow. LOL And I'm thinking cinnamon rolls are going to be in the works very soon as well. ;)

Shit, there went my new years diet. LOL But damnit, I am SO in the mood to be creative in the kitchen. Diet be damned!! I'm just going to have to get the junk off my treadmill and get on the damn thing. Ugh! The Brother in Law is getting married at the end of the month and I *really* want to wear my red dress. So I *have* to lose some freakin weight! I also want a new pair of boots to wear with it.. so maybe I could make the boots my present for losing 10lbs. Hmm.. that's good motivation!! LOL But I still want to bake. So I need to bake and SELL. Or give away. Something. LOL

Happy Birthday Boo!

Today is Mr. AndyBoo's birthday. He is officially 9, and he's quite proud of it. :) And he's really stoked that he got the day off from school afterall! LOL Yes, we're all still having a pretty good laugh about that one. At first Andy said "Happy Birthday to me! I'm goin home and gettin back in bed!" Then when he got here, he was too awake for that so he said "Forget bed, One more day of video games!!!!!!!!!!" LMAO

Back to School! Erm, maybe?

So all day yesterday we prepped for the kids going back to schoolt his week. We did several loads of laundry, located all of the backpacks, binders, folders and library books, cleaned the bedrooms up and put the Christmas stuff away, made sure the kids went to bed early, etc etc...

This morning went pretty smoothly! We got the kids up, dressed and out the door ON TIME!!! Not too shabby for the first day back if I do say so myself. There was one little, uhm "problem" though. We Dave got to the school, it looked rather empty. No kids anywhere, only a few cars. He waited while the kids went to the doors.. locked. Hmm. Mrs. Brown, Heather's teacher, came to the door and said "You're early! School doesn't start until tomorrow, guys!" and had a good laugh as she walked away.

Oops. Feel free to laugh at me. I am. LOL

At least they weren't late! But they probably will be tomorrow when it counts. LMAO.

Friday Five

1. If you could bring one character to life from your favorite book, who would it be?
Edward. mmmm


2. Where did you get your very first kiss?
His name was Lee Walwin, and we were in 3rd or 4th grade and it was at my friend Thea's house.



3. How did you welcome in the New Year?
With a glass of sparkling cider (just wasn't feeling the champagne) in my hand and Dave's arms wrapped around me, and the kids counting down as the ball dropped on the TV. :)



4. What is your favorite Beatles song?
Let it Be. And I'm seriously ticked off that it's not on Beatles Rock band. LOL



5. Donuts: Overrated, underrated, or 'bout right?
Donuts... mmmmmmmm I'll take mine with a maple glaze and a crushed up chocolate covered english toffee bar, please. :)