Many Thoughts

I have so many things flying around in my head these days that it’s hard to figure out what to say.

I hate listening to other people’s descriptions of the dreams that they had which is why I don’t talk about mine that often, but I’ve been having some absolute doozies lately. Sunday night, I didn’t sleep at all. The Mister has a cold and when he has a cold, he snores like a bear. Coupled with taking nighttime cold meds, he’s impossible to wake up. Monday night, I couldn’t take it anymore so I went out on the couch. I don’t mind doing that. My couch is pretty cozy to sleep on. Still, even without the incessant snoring, I didn’t sleep very well. Around 3, I finally dozed off only to wake up again around 5. I laid there for a while and I think I must’ve dozed off again because that’s when I had my dream or whatever it was. I really could have sworn my eyes were still open at this point. Anyway, I “dreamt” that the youngest child came out of her room and then stood in front of me just staring. In my conscience, I knew that was wrong because she never gets up and the figure in front of me was too short to be her. This realization startled me awake and I was up for good after that. It totally weirded me out. Tuesday night, I started out on the couch instead of getting up like I did Monday night. I didn’t sleep very much at all because my other dream left me with an other-worldly feeling all day. When I did sleep, I had nightmares. Same thing last night too although I slept in my own bed. I figured that I’m not sleeping on the couch either so I may as well at least be in my own bed not sleeping, lol.

This not sleeping thing is totally getting ridiculous and having nightmares when I do get to sleep is making a bad situation worse. Whine, whine, bitch, moan, and complain. I know. Enough already. 

Now I’m on the phone with my sister and I get to listen to her whine, bitch, and complain. It’s really not so bad because it distracts me from my own whining, lol.

Info on the New House

We went and toured the new house on Saturday so the kids could see it. I didn’t take any pictures because I thought it would be intrusive to take pictures of someone’s house while all their stuff is still in it to post to the Internet, lol.

It’s really nice and I'm totally excited to move now. The Mister and I had been to visit them before but I didn’t remember the layout. The living room opens up into the eat-in kitchen. It has a gas fireplace which they said that they use as a primary source of heat in the winter and it only costs $70 to fill up the tank. Nice! Above the fireplace is a nook that is wired for TV’s. Our new TV will fit into the space but we’re not sure if we’re going to put our TV in there or not. They have vaulted ceilings in the main living area (living room and kitchen) so I am NOT painting. I did that in Vermont and it's such a pain. I like their color scheme anyway. It goes with my furniture.

The kitchen is real nice. The only thing missing is a pantry but I can live without that. It has a side by side refrigerator with water filter and ice maker. The fridge actually works and keeps food fresh. The stove is one of those ceramic cook top deals. I can live with that. AND!!! It has a garbage disposal! I haven't had one of those since 2003 and holy cow! do I miss it.

It has a split floor plan where the master bedroom is on the opposite side of the house from the kids' bedrooms.

The master bedroom has a big walk-in closet and bath with his and her sinks. Lovely!

The kids' bedrooms are nice-sized with generous closets.

Overall, the new house has at least twice the closet and storage space of our current house. And it has a nice sized privacy fenced in backyard. I just hope that we can figure out a way to keep Hannah from digging. Any suggestions?

We also went over the lease while we were there. They were so funny about it. This is the first house that they've rented out so they were nervous that the lease would offend us, lol. There were a couple things that I had never heard of but that I wish I had put in the lease for our house in Vermont so I wasn't offended in the least. I actually told them that they were being too nice about it. It should be a business deal, ya know? They're having the carpets cleaned, touching up the paint on all the walls and leaving us several gallons for our own touch ups, buying us a bottle of cleaner for the stove, and having the house tented for termites before they leave. The termite thing is preventative. See? They're being way nice, not that we don't appreciate it.

They said that they hope we're still friends at the end of this, lol. Us too but I don't see us having any problems. We're good renters. The Mister and I have been renting since 1996 and we've never once been late on our rent. The one time I even requested to pay our rent late was last year when my brother-in-law was killed and we had to go to Ohio unexpectedly. I forgot my checkbook at home. My landlord said it was okay but I went to the post office and paid him with a money order on time anyway. I just can't not pay my rent on time.

Bad news. Apparently the Mister was wrong about the school districts. Neither one of the kids will be in the same school district. The oldest child can be carpooled to her original junior high which will be a pain for me but I don't want her to have to change at this age. We knew that the youngest wasn't going to be in the same school district but we're still not sure what we're going to do about her. Our friends said that the elementary school in their district has been excellent with their son who also has learning disabilities so we're thinking of going ahead and switching schools. I just don't know yet.

More bad news is that they have an HOA. She (the owner) had actually been on the board but got kicked off, lmao. I guess the HOA is filled of retired Marines and their wives who have nothing better to do than to enforce every little regulation. What's more is that they have a website where they bicker and gossip about each other on it. How high school is that?? Are all HOA's like that? They told us a story about a guy who had been in a car accident. He parked his banged up car in his driveway which leaked oil. The HOA told him he had 5 business days to move the car and clean up the mess. When he didn't, they sued him and put a lean on his house!! Holy cow! So, I already hate the HOA. This could prove to be an interesting experience. I told the Mister that this would get us ready to live in base housing again in California, lmao.

Anyway, their movers will have their stuff packed and out of the house on the 20th. Our friends are going to clean the house and then leave themselves on the 25th which is when we can take possession even though they're not making us pay rent until Sept 1. We're paid up in the current house until the 31st so I'm going to take the 25th to the 29th to paint bedrooms and move the small stuff over a little bit every day. The 30th and 31st we'll move the big stuff I couldn't get on my own with a moving truck.

Insomnia and stress headaches are once again my constant companions but I'll be better in October or November when things get back to normal. At least the fall semester doesn't start until Sept 8th. One less thing to worry about.

Rolling Around Friday

Guess what it's doing at my house right now. If you guessed raining, you'd be correct.

I forgot to mention that I got some news the other day that made me a little sad. I found out that they are tearing down my high school. I haven't been back since graduation day, but I'm still sad that it's not going to be there anymore. It was built in 1922 so it is a really old and outdated building . I wish that I had the opportunity to go back to Ohio and see it one more time before it's gone but that isn't going to happen. Hmm.

I have another product review, heheh. I already blogged about my recent bout of insomnia. Well, yesterday I had a migraine to go with it and we were all out of my Excedrin Migraine. I sent the Mister to the store, because by this time I was in so much pain I was a bit nauseated, and he came home with two different types of Excedrin: Excedrin PM and Excedrin Migraine. I was torn. With Excedrin Migraine, you can only take one dose in 24 hours so if I took those, I wouldn't be able to take the PM stuff. But what if the PM pills weren't enough for my headache? I decided to try the PM stuff because I figured if they didn't take away the headache, maybe they'd make me sleep through the pain, heheh. The results: I took the PM pills at 9 so that hopefully, I'd be more than ready for sleep at 11. They made me sleepy without the annoying side affects that I usually get with meds that make me drowsy like dizziness and just a generally feeling of weirdness. Still, I didn't fall asleep until about midnight and I didn't stay asleep either. I tossed and turned all night. As for my headache, they reduced it to a dull roar and I still have a nagging headache this morning. Bottom line: I don't really know. I liked that the PM pills didn't make me feel all weird, but they didn't really help me sleep all that much and they also weren't strong enough to make my headache go completely away but I didn't really expect them to. Who knows?

Oh! The shrimp burgers were really good. It's the first time that we've ever had them. We weren't really sure how to top them. Ketchup, mustard, cocktail sauce? Turns out that they're good with some A-1 and Parmesan cheese just in case you were wondering.

Happy Friday everyone.

Long Night

Sorry. No BTT today. Not in the mood.


I had so much going on yesterday. That's weird for me, lol. We went out to dinner with a friend and her parents and my friend PICKED UP THE TAB!! How nice, right? I didn't have to cook and we didn't have to pay for dinner. Also, it was good company. I really enjoyed meeting her parents.

I had a really late night last night. I went to bed at 11, tossed and turned until 1:30, got up and checked my e-mail, went back to bed at 2, and finally fell asleep around 2:30 or so. I did the same thing the two nights before that too. I don't understand it because I'm tired all day because I didn't get any sleep the night before, but as soon as my head hits the pillow my mind starts to race and I can't relax. It's a bit frustrating.

I also used Twitter to my advantage last night. I have a little something in the works that I would completely and totally appreciate crossed fingers, good thoughts, and whatever other positive vibes you want to send my way.


My Monday funk lasted through yesterday and I got to take it out on some idiot woman, heheh. She totally ran a stop sign and if I hadn't been looking, I would have been ran over. I yelled some obscenities and she had her window down so she heard everything. What is with some people??


I forgot to mention another product that I recently tried out. I think it's new too since this was the first I had ever seen it on the shelf. It's Febreze Laundry Odor Eliminator.
I have musty towels and they're not even that old. I think it's because my bathroom doesn't have a vent in it and you can't really open the window in the middle of winter to vent out shower steam. So, I tried this in hopes that it would help the situation and it didn't. Maybe musty towel smell is a permanent problem because I've tried other methods of cleaning my towels and they haven't worked either. If anyone has suggestions other than using them in the dog crate, I'd appreciate a heads up.

I read on another blog today of a woman and her family that only spend $250 a month on groceries and they're a family of five. Check the blog post out here: Antithete
I find that amazing. I use some of the same methods mentioned in the blog post, budgeting, having a grocery list, and having a meal plan even though my plan is for a week instead of a month, and we still spend about $400/month for a family of four on groceries. We're having grilled shrimp burgers for dinner tonight so that could explain why our grocery bill is a bit higher, lol. With gas prices driving up the cost of groceries, I really should try and be more frugal and keep the more extravagant meals, like shrimp burgers, to a minimum. I like to cook though. I like having a counter full of ingredients that need to be measured, chopped, sauteed, grated, zested, and combined. It's the nights when our menu consists of fish sticks that I would just rather not eat at all. What's an average monthly grocery bill I wonder?

The Eleventh Hour

I'm sitting here with my frou frou coffee (the genius that put coffee and chocolate together deserves a sainthood) trying to be awake enough to get some work done. I don't think I slept last night. Maybe for an hour or so. I dozed off for about five minutes this morning around 6 and I had the strangest dream that I was trapped in my grandparent's house with a murderer. I climbed out through a window in their bathroom to escape but he saw me as I was running past the kitchen and then I woke up. I wonder what it means. They're not even at their house right now since they winter in Texas, lol.

In both of my posts yesterday I forgot to mention how much I hate the time change. I wish they'd just let us stay at daylight savings for the entire year. How much difference does three months make anyway? I'm not hungry when it's time for dinner and I'm not tired when it's time for bed. Just leave the hour alone is what I'm saying.

I have to call my landlord today. I think our septic tank is backing up because we have this constant wet spot that is sometimes a puddle in our backyard. I'm dreading making this call because I hate bothering him with stuff. I know that I hate getting calls from my renters. This is the first house that I've ever lived in that has had a septic tank. It might be something to keep in mind when looking for our next house.

Okay. So, I've stalled long enough. Gotta get to work.

Something I Didn't Think Of

When I was booking my flight, the only thing I had in mind was to spend as much time as I possibly could in San Diego within reason. As a result, I have the worst departure time for the flight out and the worst arrival time for the flight back. My flight takes off at 5:50 am and the airport is 45 minutes away. I'm going to have to get up SO early Wednesday morning (or Tuesday night depending on how you look at it) and I can't sleep while travelling so the extra time I'm going to get in California the first day is probably going to be spent sleeping, lmao. My arrival time back in North Carolina is 11 something at night. It'll feel like 8 something to me so that's no big deal but the Mister has to pick me up and then go to work the next morning. I kinda sorta feel a little bad about that.

In other news, homework went really well today. I got all of my Spanish homework done and all of my business homework done. All I have left is to finish a paper for my Lit class and do an editing project. I should be able to get all that plus my packing done tomorrow. I was going to clean the house for the kids and the Mister but I don't think I left enough time for that. Besides, they know how to use the dishwasher and vacuum cleaner.

Also, I made a Rachel Ray recipe for dinner tonight that was a huge hit with the family. It was a cream of mushroom casserole thing and I added chicken breast to it. YUMMO as Rachel would say. It's not exactly good for you because you use real cream, lottsa cheese, and carbolicious noodles but I think it's okay to indulge every once in a while. It had three kinds of mushrooms in it. That's good, right?

Oh! And my iLuv iPod case arrived today...twice. Yup. They sent me two and I only paid for one. If they're willing to send me shipping materials, I'll send it back. If not, their loss. I'm not paying for their mistake. What sucks is that we only have one full size iPod so we can't even make good use out of the second case. If I end up keeping it, maybe I'll sell it on eBay or something, heheh.

Okay. So we're pushing on towards midnight and I should probably try to go to bed. Insomnia has been my companion for the past couple weeks so I'm endeavoring to be really tired before I try sleeping. Now, I'm not going to have anything to post tomorrow, heheh.