Misplaced Princess

Today is the Day...

2006-06-30T05:53:00.000-07:00

we are supposed to sign closing papers at 2 this afternoon. Yesterday the girls and I moved 7 yes, 7 loads. We picked Joe up from work after #6 was loaded so he was there to help unload and he and I packed and unpacked #7 while the girls took a bit of a break. We still have two buffets, two dining tables (all the chairs are moved) the big book shelf, the couch & loveseat, Joe's drums and music stuff, the beds, our dresser and linen cabinet and all of the pantry food (all the other junk in there has been packed for a couple of months and moved already). Right now I should be doing the laundry we have so that I'm not packing any dirty clothes, but I wanted to updated here because I won't be able to be gotten a hold of for a few days.

AT&T does not service the area we are moving to, instead we would have to use a little independent phone company out of Big Cabin (which is stupid, because Big Cabin and Vinta are both serviced by AT&T) so our internet will be gone...no more scoutmomjen@sbcglobal.net either, since that was with AT&T. I set up a new yahoo email so now you can get me at jencountrymom@yahoo.com, or at least once we get service again.

We will be getting internet service through Dish Network I guess, I can't face going back to dial up, especially in a po-dunk area like this. Since we probably won't be using the independent phone company, we'll be getting cell phones again and so I don't have the numbers for that yet either. Divinity and Jen I will call you when we do get them and let you know the new numbers.

This is it...

2006-06-01T05:34:00.000-07:00

the house that Joe and I have found. It's on ten acres, more than half wooded, and is a four bedroom, 1 1/2 bath. The square footage is just slightly higher than what we have here, but there is a whole lot more yard. Joe and I went out to meet with the people last weekend and see the woods (or timber as the guys call it) and see more of the inside (we had seen so many I couldn't remember what was what). The girls bedrooms will be the two upstairs and the half bath is up there for them to share. There's also a full bath downstairs next to the master bedroom that we plan on converting into a master bath (with a jucuzzi tub). There is a 10x10 storeage room that we plan on converting into a second full bath. The second downstairs bedroon will be our office and what is now the dining room (where the front door is) will be an entry/sitting area with a small table. I want to get a table that is round with a couple of leaves so we can make it big if we need to, but it won't be in the way at the front door. The pipe sticking up is the corner of the dining room where they have a wood heat stove, but we will be taking that out if they leave it, the place has central heat and air and I think the pipe is very ugly. That corner is also where I would like to put in the table. The addition on the left hand side is the new living room that the current owners added on. It has an open beam and wood ceiling. All of the floors (except maybe the downstairs bedrooms I can't remember) have laminate hard wood or ceramic tile. They are also leaving enough of both to finish upstairs. There are three out buildings, so Joe will have plenty of storage space (and I might be able to bribe him out of the little one for GS stuff). The woods have well defined trails because they have had a 3-D bow range set up out there. The trials curve back into themselves so it's not easy to get lost (yeah!) and will be perfect for troop hiking. We also have a small stream and some caves in them. The people said the caves were from coal mining so they will be deep ones, Joe can't wait to explore them, I'm a little less excited about that part. lol

We are supposed to close on the city house today at 9 (so I really gotta go) and then start the closing on the country house. The city has to give us a 30 day lease (I guess the city attorney isn't too bright, he wrote in the contract a week by week lease) and we don't have to carry insurance on it to lease it (again, the city attorney wanted a million dollar policy while we were here, shoot, we only insured it for $100,000). The insurance agent called the attorney and told him no one would do a policy for that much on a residence or on a week by week basis. Yeah for the insurance man! So, I think that's all the updates, oh, when we get the place we will be doing lots of GS stuff there and I'm trying to decide...Camp S'more or Camp 10 Acre Wood. The place also has a sign that says Twin Pines, that was their 3-D range, but it's not really cute. I liked Dogwood trails too (the woods are full of dogwood trees), but there's a council named that. What do you think?

Grad Proud

2006-05-23T06:53:00.000-07:00

It's offical, Krista has her diploma and after today will no longer be a grade school kid. I'm kind of mixed about it, I love the big girl she is, but it's hard to let go too....anyway. I did get some pictures of the ceremony and as promised (Jen) have added them here for all to see.

This is her coming out of the building before the ceremony.

And her getting her diploma from Mrs. Gwartney (that's Mrs. Wakely's shoulder in the picture too).

And this is her on the way back to her seat, each girl got flowers from the school along with her diploma. Krista though it wasn't fair that the boys didn't get something too, but then decided that boys wouldn't appreciate flowers anyway. (c:

I like that this picture looks almost exactly the same as the one above, it's like a before and after. She doesn't look that different, but the ceremony really made her think about how different life is going to be next year.

Krista also got an award for being on the A/B honor roll this year. We got her a frame for her honor roll certificate and her diploma, I didn't want either one getting messed up in the move.

At the end of the ceremony the kids had a little something extra for us. They all sang nananana,nananana hey hey hey goodbye. Krista was too busy grinning to sing, but thankfully she was smiling and not crying. (c:

Moving on, moving up

2006-05-22T08:24:00.000-07:00

Things are certainly changing around here. Today is Krista's 5th grade graduation and I can't help but feel like this is the end of an era for her. She's really growing up and it seems like she's doing a great job of it. Thankfully, we haven't hit that same "I wish you were dead" phase I went through with my mom, and I can only hope we never will.

All of this thinking about her growing up made me want to take a look at the long-ago her with the long pretty hair (her hair is still gorgous, just shorter now) and the cute little girl smile. So, I searched out her Kindergarten tea picture. Wasn't she just the cutest little thing?

Now, she's almost all grown up, but I still see that sweet smile and warm heart in her. She makes me so proud...Oh, I almost forgot to share a brag on her. For Mother's Day she did such a sweet thing, she got up extra early and made me breakfast. She made pancakes and toast and when she couldn't find the syrup, she went online and found out how to make homemade syrup! She even made me cappicinco (she knows my addictions too well lol). She brought everything back to me on a tray and was even quiet enough I had no idea what was going on. It's she a sweetie?

My 69

2006-05-11T05:41:00.000-07:00

1) Are your parents married or divorced? Who knows right now…they are living in separate houses (and states) but I think things are going better and they’re both moving to Indiana soon

2) Are you Vegetarian? your’re kidding, right?

3) Believe in Heaven? totally and completely

4) Have you come close to dying? not really

5) What jewelry do you wear 24/7? my wedding band, engagement ring and promise ring

6) Are you eating? nope

7) Do you eat the stems of broccoli? if I eat broccoli I eat the whole thing

8) Wear Makeup? if I’m going to work that day

9) How many people have you made out with in the last 6 months? one…

10) Would you ever have plastic surgery? not after watching the vidoes of one, but I was seriously considering getting some boobs

11) What do you wear to bed? tee shirt and pj pants

12) Have you ever done anything illegal? how illegal…

13) Can you roll your tongue? yes

14) Pluck your eyebrows? of course (I’d pluck everyone’s in the house if they would hold still long enough)

15) What kind of watch(es)? cheap…I’ve got a habbit of loosing them

16) Abortion? not for me

17) Hair color? used to be blonde, but I cut off all the light stuff (somehow my hair grows two toned on its own) so now I’m just plain old brown.

18) Future child's name? no more future children for us, unless of course I get impregnated by aliens

19) Do you snore? hubby would say yes, but I don’t think so

20) If you could go anywhere in the world on a vacation, where would you go? where ever hubby was going, but somewhere within the US

22) If you won the lottery, what would you do first? let hubby pay off all the bills, then buy a house and keep these just to spite the city…

23) Gold or silver? right now it’s silver

24) Hamburger or hot dog? hamburger (with cheese and bacon)

25) If you could only eat one food for the rest of your life, what would it be? steak

26) Beach, city, or country? country

27) What was the last thing you touched? my mouse

28) Where do you eat? at the table, in the living room, at the pc, in bed…where the mood strikes me…

29) When's the last time you cried? omg this is pms week are you kidding me

30) Do you read blogs? not as often as I would like to

31) Would you ever go out dressed like the opposite sex? only for Halloween

32) Ever been involved with the police? how involved…

33) ther was no 33...hmm

34) Do you talk in your sleep? I’m asleep…how would I know?

35) beach or pool? since the beach is many states away I’m going with pool

36)What's your favorite song at the moment? what ever is on the radio

37) also MIA

38) Window seat or aisle? I don’t fly or ride the bus…I always have a window seat

39) Ever met any famous bands/singers? I went to high school with Joe Don Rooney, but no one I’m really impressed with (except for my hubby of course)

40) Do you feel that you've ever had a truly successful relationship? it’s taken a lot of years, but yeah

41) Do you twirl your spaghetti or cut it? twirl

42) Rickie Lake or Oprah Winfrey? I guess Oprah, Rikie Lake is so whiny

43) Basketball or Football? football, but only if it’s a high school game (I’m not big on pro sports)

44) How long do your showers last? 10 minutes to an hour, depending on whose home and if I’m doing laundry at the same time

45) Do you drive a stick? not now, but I have

46) Cake or ice cream? Ice cream (with hot fudge, nuts and whipped cream…keep the cherry)

47) Self-conscious? I have my moments

48) What time do you get up? around 6 – 6:30

49) what's up with the missing numbers, is there a party going on somewhere?

50) When was your first crush? Kindergarten, Ryan Truster where are you now?

51) Where do you wish you were? right where I’m at

52) Have you ever broken someone's heart? I don’t know if I broke it, but I’m sure I’ve cracked it a bit

53) Have you ever ridden in an ambulance? No

54) good grief

55) Last gift you received? I don’t know if you would call it a gift, but Jen gave me a sweet card that’s in my living room now

56) this is just redicilous

57) Things you spend a lot of money on? Girl Scouts

58) What state do you live in? Oklahoma

59) How do you eat an OREO? with mint cream filling

60) Last wedding attended? Jody’s cousin Jonny, Joe was in it

61) Favorite fast food restaurant? subway

62) Where do you work? in the schools and at home

63) Most hated food/drink? liver

64) someone needs to learn to count

65) Can you sing? only around children

66) One thing you hate? cleaning

67) One wish…that this junk with the city would be over and we would have a great house

68) Favorite drink? iced tea or diet dp

69) Current Crush? hubby, of course

I get the missing numbers now, a lot of work to end on 69 don't you think?

I'm a bad mom...

2006-05-10T11:40:00.000-07:00

I sent Syd to school this morning in shorts and it's down right cold now. The poor thing is cold blooded as it is and she brought all her stored jackets (who knew the kid had so many) home from school last week.

I'm also going to be in the dog house when she hears that I'm picking her up again today. Normally, she would be thrilled, but we packed a few sneaky packs of fruit snacks in her bag to share with some very special bus friends and now she won't get to share them. Hopefully when she finds out we are picking up baby Mudd she will forget all about the cold legs and missed snack opportunities...maybe...if I'm lucky...

On a happier note, we are picking up baby Mudd again today (yes, I know I already said it, but this is the happier note so it's got to be said again) and we love having him hang out with us, he's just so cute. (c:

On to more fun...we are supposed to hear something from the city today about our houses, hopefully this counter offer will be high enough to take, or at least over $100,000. I know some of you don't know the whole story so I'll go into some detail here, if you do know the whole story, feel free to skip this part...A city rep visited us in March wanting to purchase our houses (no, we are not rich, we just got a good deal on the place next door) so they (the city) could put in a parking lot. We have been in negotiations with them ever trying to find a happy medium for the price. Here's what we know: 1) our original bid was $200,000 (no, we didn't expect to get that much, we wanted plenty of wiggle room) 2) the real estate agent the city had drive by quoted them $110,000 for both places 3) the city's first counter offer (which took about a month to get) was $80,000 4) their counter offer is slightly less than we owe on the two houses 5) we are now waiting for their counter after our counter Now...more about the new stuff

So, whether you skipped the last paragraph or have read the saga, here we are, the new stuff. We found another house to look at. Hubby and I both really like the house in the country, but we are less than thrilled with the attached price tag. The new house is on the lake, has 4 bedrooms, 1 3/4 bath rooms and some really neat outer features. We're supposed to go look at it tomorrow night. Oh, and it's about $75,000 less than the country house (which is a big plus). It also looks like it's been on the market a while (the trees even look bigger than the photo on the listing) so we might get it for even less, if we like the inside. And that's a big if...we've seen lots of houses I liked on the outside, but once we get to the inside there's something wrong...small rooms, uneven floors, strange bug infestations...we've seen it all

A Benevolent Visionary

2006-05-10T08:59:00.000-07:00

that's me....

So I took this quiz thingy I found at Irish Divinty's blog and now I know all about my personal dna...

I got out of it that I know how I want the world to be and how to make it beautiful, I've just got to get everyone else around me on the same page. I'm also an all around nice person (who would've thunk it?) and enjoy taking care of other people (and how can you be a mom and not take care of other people...riddle me that Batman).

You can know all abot me by reading the whole profile here... My Personal DNA report

The Refi from Hell, Part 2

2005-10-14T12:15:00.000-07:00

So, the not so smart guy, Brad (who's real name turned out to be something like Justin, but again, I'm so sick of these people I still can't remember) called this morning and said that he "got to the bottom of things" and they think they can go ahead with the refi if we get another appraisal because the ding-bat who did the appraisal (my word, not his) wouldn't use any comparisons. Then he says, oh, no she did it's 1739 E 50th St. Now, all of you other Miami-ites know that there is NO 1739 E 50th St., because there is no 50th St in town. Just to be sure I visited good ol' rand macnally.com and sure as shit, nothing. I told Brad-Justin that there was no such address and he suggested we get another appraiser out. The other one had issues with the condition of the home. No, really? I mean our hard wood needs refinished and the ceilings are in but they are not pretty right now. I thought the frog was jumping the gun a bit with all this but hey, who am I to complain? So anyway, now we are looking at getting another person in to appraise the house again, or maybe using the original one from when we bought the house, who knows. I have redirected this guy onto the frog as well, it just makes life so much easier.

The Refi from Hell

2005-10-13T08:43:00.000-07:00

How can all the dumb people of the world (ok, not all, but a lot) work for one company? And what would be that company you ask? Centex home something-or-other. See, the frog (that would be hubby) got this great idea that we should refinance our house to get some kind of good interest rate thing (I really don't handle any of this stuff). Fine by me, I said (and how I wish someone would have shot me then). So, he works out something with a guy named Brad and wants papers to look over, just to make sure we are not getting screwed here (because let me tell you, the frog only enjoys getting screwed by one person in this world and it is not a man named Brad). It takes a week to get these papers (say hello to our great post office, they do a kick ass job of nothing). During this week I get at least 4 calls from Brad wanting to know whats going on (each time I remind him that this is not my thing and he needs to talk with the frog, each time he igornes my reminders). Finally Brad calls in back up in the form of a woman named Ms. Becky. Ms. Becky is sadly to say, even less intelligent than Brad. She begins calling and getting very annoyed with the fact that not only do I not know what's going on with this deal, I don't care. After much harassing we get an appointment set up with an appraiser, which I have to reschedule later on because I have no ceilings in the living room or dining room, and I don't know much about this stuff, but I'm guessing that that would have an adverse effect on the outcome of the appraisal, how about you? Well, apparently, Ms. Becky does not think so, she gets quite snotty about needing this done by the end of the month (hello, I rescheduled the dang thing for the 11th, is that anywhere near the end of the month I ask you?). So anyway, the same day of the appraisal Ms. Becky is calling just after 8 am (mind you the appraiser is not to be here until 10:30) wanting to know how it went. By this time my normally nice self is gone and I tell her that it's not time yet and to back off (and a few other things too, I'm not a morning person, can you tell?). That afternoon Brad calls wanting to know how it went and what we found out. Now, again, I don't know much, but I do know that the people handling the loan will hear the results before we do (and I know this because the appraiser told me so before she left). I explain all of this to Brad and tell him that all further questions should be directed to my husband because I am tired of dealing with people who don't know their ass from a hole in the ground (only I was feeling nicer by the afternoon so I left out that part). Yesterday (during Gilmore Girls no less) a new guy named Chad calls and wants to know if we are still interested in refinance our home on south Moreana Street since we haven't done anything with the paper work. First of all, we have no paper work and second, there isn't even a Moreana street in Miami. Ugh! He's supposed to call back today after he has figured out whats going on. If that's the stipulation I'm betting I don't hear from him.

Pigeon Toe Woes

2005-10-11T08:21:00.000-07:00

We took the tomboy to see yet another specialist yesterday, this one is supposed to be the only guy who specializes in "in-toeing" in the area. After visiting three other doctors I was ready for some serious answers. Guess what, she just hasn't outgrown it yet. No, x-rays, no walks down the hall, no nothing. Just wait. I know it doesn't sound like it, but I couldn't be more thrilled. The only thing that bums me out is that we spent two months and a hundred dollars on other doctors who couldn't do squat. There was a doctor here in town (I know I should have known better, whip me now) who was willing to x-ray her and do a surgery, but only if another doctor who specialized in children, said it was ok. Um, no thanks.

I want to be Eve...

2005-10-10T08:47:00.000-07:00

She was the only woman in history who was able to have a husband and not a mother-in-law.

I'm not sure what kind of sin I committed that deserved such extreme punishment, but my mil has decided that she likes me. A lot. Not in the sense of I'm finally good enough to take care of her baby (I don't think that time will ever come) but in the sense that she wants to give me stuff and spend time here, a lot of time here. The giving me stuff part I could handle, except the stuff she keeps giving me is stuff that her daughter wants. I'm not sure if she's doing it because she's senile or because she wants to see the fur fly. Probably a little of both. The spending time here thing, that's killing me. She will just show up "so I don't get too lonely with the kids in school". Hello--I'm doing the happy dance all over the house, the kids are in school and the frog is working days (finally) so now I have a full four hour block in the morning with no one to take care of (the frog comes home for lunch) and then a couple of afternoon hours too. I have had to start locking all the doors or she lets her self in and there have been a couple of days where I've hidden so that she would think I was gone and leave (but only after she had already been here at least once each day). At this point I don't even think a boat load of Calgon can save me, maybe it's time to become medicated.