Trying to Connect…Or Not

We’ve been in San Diego over a month now and still haven’t settled in. I don’t know why. I suppose there’s lots of reasons at the top of the list being, laziness.

Our garage is so jam packed full of boxes, both packed and unpacked, both full of packing paper and broken down flat, that you can’t get into it. If you open the door from the house, you can’t step into it. If you open the main, big door to the driveway, you can’t walk into it. It’s spilling into the laundry room which makes it darned difficult to do laundry. It’s terrible.

Another reason is that we’ve been real busy. We’ve been keeping our weekends full of activities. There’s so much that we’ve been wanting to do for the past six years, that it’s hard not to go out and do it all at once, lol.

This past weekend we went to the LA Times Festival of Books at UCLA. I’m sorry I didn’t get pictures. My phone died on the way there and  my car charger was in the other car. :( It was soooo busy that it was hard to walk around and see things. I went into the mystery books tent and once I had my purchases in hand, couldn’t figure out how to get to the checkout because it was wall to wall people, lol. Karen Slaughter was there. I almost had her sign a book but changed my mind. What did I get?

Well, I bought two Skippyjon Jones books by Judy Schachner. Everybody in my house is too old for these books but we find them hilarious and read them anyway, heheh. If you haven’t read one, do. I also got a SIGNED copy of Neil Gaiman’s A Game of You  from his The Sandman graphic novel series. I’m a big fan of his novels but have never read one of his graphic novels. The girl in the booth recommended I start with this one. I couldn’t be more thrilled that it’s a signed copy. And that’s it. Honestly, with two kids and my social anxiety, I had a hard time with the crowds and was ready to leave pretty quick. Oh. And the UCLA campus is pretty great. The buildings have some great architectural elements.

Afterwards, we hit Tito’s Tacos for lunch/dinner. It was just as good as I remembered it being when Jennifer and I went there two years ago. If you haven’t been and find yourself in the Los Angeles area, go.

So, tonight is a Twitter event for San Diego moms. I’m sure others can attend (it’s Twitter. Who could stop you??) but it’s geared towards moms and it’s to promote Kids Fest that’s happening here in San Diego this weekend. I don’t think we’re going because we’re trying to do NOTHING this weekend, but Twitter parties are usually fun and I’m trying to connect with other real life people. I think. I always have reservations about making new friends for lots of reasons. Mostly, I get tired of them or me moving away. It blows. Secondly, I’m a pretty terrible judge of people and some of the people I have tried to be friends with in the past ended up being not so nice people. That’s life I suppose.

Anyway, if you want to join in, the hash tag for the party is #KidsFestSDMoms. If you don’t know how to use hash tags with Twitter, let me know and I’ll help you out. They are having pretty neat giveaways to include family 4 packs to Legoland and Sea World as well as other stuff but you have to attend the party to be entered to win.

Thanks for reading to the end! I know I was longwinded.

Celebrate Differences

I have two very beautiful daughters. I know. They’re my daughters so I’m biased but I still say they’re gorgeous, both inside and out. I’ve talked about them often but I’d like to take this blog post to tell you a bit more about them and maybe a little something else as well.

My oldest daughter is 13, going on 21, lol. She’ll actually be 14 in July. She’s tall, thin, pretty, outgoing, and not afraid to try new things (for the most part.) I sometimes wonder if she was switched with someone else’s baby at the  hospital because I possess none of these traits. Then, she opens her mouth and her attitude spills out and then I know…Yep, she’s definitely mine. She has other flaws too. For instance, she’s lazy when it comes to her homework and her chores. She talks back way more than is good for her health. She picks fights with her sister over nothing (in her mind it’s not nothing, but in reality, it’s nothing). Sometimes she can be moody and no fun to be around for no good reason at all.

When she was younger, she had a speech and language delay. It made her different. Having a speech and language delay affects all aspects of your life. If you have a hard time understanding what you read or what is being said to you, you not only have a hard time reading, but you have a hard time with math, science, history, everything. It’s tough being different but she was lucky in that kids never picked on her for her problems. Luckily, she overcame this setback and performs normally in school now. Well, except for when that laziness thing interferes. ;)

My youngest daughter is 11 going on 7. She’s a pretty girl with the best tan you’ve ever seen. She looks like she’s lived in California all her life instead of just one month. She’s sweet beyond all belief yet she has a wicked sense of humor. She has some of the quickest comebacks I have ever heard in a kid or an adult. She hates to see anyone or anything hurt either emotionally or physically. She has the ability to pick up on other people’s emotions around her to the point where they affect how she’s feeling. This can be a good thing or it can be a bad thing. It’s bad when someone else is angry or sad and she ends up crying and upset as a result of picking up on that.

She’s a different kid though. There’s no other way to say it. She was diagnosed with ADHD but she also has developmental delays and learning disabilities. Despite having taken her to several doctors, psychologists, and psychiatrists in three different states, we’ve never gotten a specific diagnosis for her. She has a touch of a lot of things but not all of any one thing. Sometimes, she exhibits traits of Asperger’s Syndrome or autism, but all the doctors insist she does not have either. She’s 11 but has the maturity level of a seven year old and that is the age of most of the kids she plays with, with them being as  young as five but no older than eight or nine. All of this has combined to make it so that she struggles in school. A lot. A really lot.

Because of her differences and the tough time she has at school, she gets picked on a lot. Kids call her dumb and stupid and ask her questions that they know are too hard for her to answer just so that they can make more fun of her for not knowing. We homeschooled her for a while in North Carolina but she missed being in a “normal” school with other kids. So, we put her back into public schools here in California. She’s gone to school here all of 4 1/2 days and has already come home crying because of the other kids. Today, something pretty major happened and her dad and I had to go into the school.

It’s tough being different. Maybe all of this will make her a stronger person as an adult. Maybe being bullied is a part of growing up. Maybe saying that being bullied is a part of growing up is an easy answer to why a child hasn’t been instilled with the knowledge that being mean to others for the sake of being mean is wrong. Maybe more kids need to be taught that their actions have consequences and that making someone cry isn’t funny. Maybe more kids need to realize that words can injure and leave permanent damage in the same way that fists and weapons can.

Good Things

Grumpy and the lesser known dwarf, Bitchy have been my favorite dwarves of late. So, it's nice to have a few things to look forward to that are good.

We're doing something this weekend. I don't know what yet, but it'll be either the beach, Seaport Village, or maybe Old Town. We'll have to wait and see what we're in the mood to do and what the weather is like.

Next Saturday, the 17th, we're going to a Padres game. The Mister bought the tickets weeks ago, lol. He got them online at that website, www.stubhub.com. From what I understand, the tickets are sold by season ticket holders that don't plan on attending the game or event. Which means, they are excellent seats. We're very excited to take the kids to a major league game. We went to a few minor league baseball games in NC and the girls thought that was cool. Just wait until they see a major league game!

The following weekend after the baseball game, we are going to the LA Time Festival of Books!! I'm so excited about this that I could pee myself. I've been reading about Literary Feline's experiences at the festival for the past couple years and I can't believe that I actually get to go this year. It's a two day event and we're not sure if we're going Saturday, Sunday, or both days but we'll be going at least one day. Woot!

That's the next three weekends! Woot! I can't wait. They are all very excellent things to look forward to doing.

Excitement vs. Boredom. Which is Worse?

Things I like about living in San Diego again:

1. Convenient shopping. There is no shortage of places to shop.
2. Mexican food.
3. I like that it's not weird being here. It feels like we never left.
4. The Pacific time zone. It's dumb, but I like knowing that when everyone else that I know is getting ready for bed, I still have three hours to go, lol.
5. I like my new living room furniture and my living room.
6. I like the view from my backyard.

Things I don't like about living in San Diego again:

1. The neighborhood. My neighbor called animal control on us after only living here for a week. It was completely unfounded and the animal control lady was puzzled why she had been called at all. My answer to her was that the bored Navy wife, neighborhood busybody called her.
2. I hate that base housing never changes. Why can't military spouses evolve like other homo sapiens?
3. That we have bugs and our dishwasher is already messed up and the smoke detectors like to go off at random times for no apparent reason.
4. I have a terrible kitchen. Despite having rearranged it several times, there just isn't enough counter space or cabinets. It's hard to cook harmoniously in it. Oh. And the light in the eating area was burned out when we moved in and we still haven't replaced the bulb. We eat dinner in the semi-dark.
5. The garage isn't big enough. We have to park both of our cars outside. I watched kids bounce balls off of my car twice yesterday. I'm going to be driving a banged up piece of crap if we have to live here for any length of time. I WILL NOT buy a new car until we live somewhere else.
6. The office is still full of unpacked boxes one of which contains my desktop computer. I miss it.
7. The neighborhood. It just sucks.

I don't mind the earthquakes. They liven things up. We already had some sort of brush fire in the neighborhood. I'm willing to bet kids started it. There was also a house fire about 3 houses away. A kid started that one too. It's been pretty exciting living in base housing with all the fires, earthquakes, and nosy neighbors. I don't need to worry about being bored, that's for sure.

Now that I'm done here, I get to add to the excitement that is my life by calling base housing to see if they can send someone out to look at the dishwasher. Can you stand it?

The Grand Scheme of Things

We have finally arrived in San Diego. At the very least, this move has been an adventure.

I last left off when we were in Texas. No offense, but I don't care if I ever see that state again. It's HUGE and the western part is BORING. I liked San Antonio though and would like to go back and actually see some of it. Seeing our friends again would be nice too.

Our next stop was Tucson, AZ. A very good friend of ours lives there so we made dinner plans and met up with him, his girlfriend, and their three daughters for dinner. You know someone is a good friend when you haven't seen them for six years but when you finally do, you pick up right where you left off. We went to this place called Chuy's for dinner. Pretty decent food and they make really good, really cheap margaritas. After dinner, we went back to our friends' apartment for some more visiting. I hadn't laughed so hard in a long time. Josh, our friend, said it was his goal to see me laugh/cry which I did several times. Best of all, we woke up without a hangover, lmao.

We made it to San Diego on Thursday. The very first thing we did was drive around Lakeside and Santee which is our old stomping grounds from when we lived here the first time. Very little has changed in Lakeside. They gated our old base housing and there are some new shops and stuff but other than that, it looked exactly the same. Santee has a lot of new shopping but it's mostly the same too. After that, we drove downtown to our hotel.



I booked us into the Sheraton because the room rate was decent and they were pet friendly, not charging any pet deposit. I had no idea it was such a nice hotel. I didn't look at the pictures online, I just read the reviews. I was a bit intimidated walking in. This is the kind of hotel where they take your luggage to the room for you. We had never stayed in such place before. The hotel lobby is on the 12th floor and our room was on the 24th. Our view was pretty great. The youngest parked herself in a chair in front of the window most of the time and watched planes land at the airport. San Diego's airport has a unique approach route with planes landing over the downtown buildings. It's neat to watch them land.

Thursday night, we walked to a place called Brian's 24 for dinner. The Mister chose it out a magazine because there was a picture of fried chicken and waffles. Fried chicken and waffles was one of the things we laughed about with Josh so the Mister had to try it out. He said it was a unique combination but probably not something he'd want again. I had the meatloaf which was yummy. I also had a Ruby Screwed which is like a Screwdriver but with grapefruit juice. It was GOOD.

After dinner, we walked back to the hotel (I love big city living) and left the girls in the room while we went to the Sky Lobby Lounge in our hotel for a few drinks. I had this:

Ciroc Champagne Cosmo
Ciroc Vodka, Grand Marnier, cranberry juice and
fresh lime juice topped with champagne and gar-
nished with an orange twist.

It was so good. The bartender was really nice and made them really good if you know what I mean. This night resulted in a bit of a rough morning on Friday. Perfect for having to go to the housing office for our lease briefing, lol.

So Friday takes us to signing our lease, picking up our keys, and checking out the new digs. Sounds simple enough but it was a process. First we had to go to 32nd St Naval Base for our lease briefing. This consisted of reading this HUGE binder and then going to a conference room with a bunch of other people so that the binder could be read to us. Something unique to signing a lease for military housing that civilians will probably never encounter is the explosive ordinance addendum. We had to sign a paper acknowledging the fact that our housing was built on the site of a former base and finding unexploded ordinance is a possibility. Fun times. After all that, we had to go to our local housing management office to pick up our keys and a folder with a bunch of info for schools, utilities, a coupon for a free pizza, etc., etc. We drive to our house and the keys wouldn't work. By this time, our movers were waiting in the street to unload our stuff. We had to tell them to wait while we drove back to the housing office to get keys that would actually work.

Finally, we get to see the inside of our new house. What do I think? It's base housing. That's pretty much it. It has walls, ceilings, rooms, blah blah. Oh yeah. And it has bugs. FREAKING BUGS!!! The water pressure is non-existent. The kitchen in miniscule. It says it has four bedrooms but it's more like two bedrooms with two oversized closets. But, it has brand new carpet and the living room/dining room is very nice-sized and we're using it for a living room/reading area. The kitchen is an eat-in kitchen so I have no need for an additional dining area plus it's all carpeted and I don't like eating on carpet. The view from the backyard is nice. It opens into a canyon which overlooks the 163 so we're high up and we don't have any neighbors behind us. Other than the bugs, which someone is going to get an earful when I'm done here, I can live with everything else. It's base housing. IT'S BASE HOUSING!! I expected everything else. I can live with it. That's my mantra.

I hate our cable. Time Warner is confusing. We have so many channels (it goes up to 1000+) that I can't find anything. If there's an organizational schema to how the channels are arranged, I can't figure it out. I've had Cox, Charter, Suddenlink, and now Time Warner and Time Warner is by far the weirdest.

The packers broke the flat screen TV we recently purchased for our bedroom. It turns on but we have no red. Red is black and skin tone is green. They took several screws out of the back of it trying to take the base off to pack it. I don't know if that's what broke it or if it was the actual transporting it 2700 miles, but it's broke. We'll file a claim but it could be years before we're reimbursed if they decide to reimburse us at all. We're only about 1/2 way unpacked and that's the only broken/missing thing so far. I guess I should count myself lucky. We know someone who was moving from Japan to the U.S. and they dropped his entire shipment off the side of a transport ship to the bottom of the ocean. So, things could be worse. They managed to get my Grandma's Italian table here with no problem and that's one of the few things we own that's irreplaceable. Other than that, our movers suck butt and I hope they rot.

My car was delivered after much hassle from the company. NEVER use Car Go Autotransport to ship a car. They suck ass. Suck as in S-U-C-K. I won't go into all the details cuz it's really boring, but in the end, they delivered my car sans the antenna. They swear it's in the car but my car is very clean (at least on the inside) and there is no antenna in there. I have to figure out how to get a new one because only one radio station comes in without it.

I have now moved into the, "I'm sick of moving, unpacking, living out of boxes, being so sore I can barely move at the end of the day, being so tired that I fall into bed exhausted but can't sleep because my back hurts so bad, sick of eating out constantly because I can't find enough kitchen stuff to cook with" phase of life. I'm irritable and I want moving, school, and work to go the hell away. AWAY! I've missed several assignments in both my classes so that a good grade is now an unattainable goal. I'm so far behind with work that the light at the end of the tunnel is no longer visible. And I don't think we'll ever be done unpacking. CRY, WHINE, COMPLAIN!!!

To get some perspective, we're back in San Diego after longing to be here for the last six years. The only complaint our old landlord had was that we didn't pooper scoop the backyard. (Go cry to someone else about that because we paid almost $1000 getting YOUR house ready to rent to SOMEBODY else and if dog crap is your only complaint, count yourself damned lucky dude.) All the boxes will eventually go away. Logically, I know this. Base housing isn't choice, but it's in a pretty perfect location, it's free (basically) and we don't pay utilities. As long as they get an exterminator here to kill the bugs, I can be happy here. In the grand scheme of things, life is pretty good.

Don't Mess with Texas

We’re a little over halfway done with our trip. We really spread it out so that the driving wouldn’t suck and so that we could see people along the way.

We spent our first night on the road in Atlanta. I’m sorry to say it, but we didn’t take the time to be tourists in Atlanta. We considered stopping by the Olympic park Saturday morning but decided not to because we wanted more time in Pensacola, which was our next destination.

In 1998, the Mister was in Pensacola for his MOS training. I moved down there, even though the Marine Corps frowns on family living with you while you’re in school, with the oldest child into a tiny apartment with nothing but what I could fit into two suitcases, my purse, and a diaper bag. Still, it was the best time. We made awesome friends there and despite being broke all the time, it was all fun and we have only good memories. I really wanted the kids to see PCola and where we used to live.

We drove by our old apartment first. Neither the Mister nor I remember it being so rundown, lol. The whole town seemed run down. I don’t know if it’s life experiences that changed our perspective or if the town really has gone downhill over the last 11 years, but if I had the choice of moving there, I wouldn’t.

Anyway, next we took them on base to NAS Pensacola. After driving around looking desperately for the NEX (Navy Exchange) cuz I had to pee baaaad, we drove to a sandy/grassy area so the dogs could stretch their legs. The base didn’t seem like it had changed all that much.

After the base, we drove out to PCola Beach. This has always been my favorite beach. Real, sugar-white sand beaches, warm, blue-green water, and a really nice boardwalk. I’ve always measured other beaches to Pensacola Beach. Not much had changed there either despite the hurricanes that have passed through since we lived there. It was collllld though. Some fool was laying out on the sand in a sleeping bag of all things. It was also really windy. Even so, it was packed with people on Spring Break.

After the beach, we drove to Gulfport, MS which is where I had made us a hotel reservation. FYI, we stayed at the Residence Inn at the airport. We had a king studio and it was NICE. Very nice. If you’re ever in need of a hotel there, I’d recommend that hotel. Anyway, we got in early enough that we had time to go shopping at the outlet mall. SO MUCH FUN!! We all made out pretty good. Lots of good loot.

The next day, we headed out to our next destination which was San Antonio. Somewhere between the Texas border and Houston, we got a flat tire on the I-10. Changing a tire on the side of the Interstate was very much NOT FUN. You hear news stories all the time of people getting hit on the side of the highway. In our family, we have a long line of bad luck when it comes to carjacks and I was pretty scared. Nevertheless, we got the tire changed and we were back on the road in about an hour. Luckily enough, I got the warranty on those tires so we’ll get reimbursed for the cost of a new tire.

We arrived in San Antonio late and exhausted but really glad to be there. Our very good friends that we’ve known since Vermont now live in San Antonio and we were very excited to see them again. We spent all of Monday at their house visiting. Again, we didn’t get to sight see in San Antonio. The only things we saw were a Super Target, Jack in the Box, Discount Tire, and an Italian restaurant that I can’t remember its name. No Alamo, no River Walk. And I could really care less. Catching up with old friends was wonderful. Now if only I could talk them into transferring out to San Diego…

Today, we drove to Van Horn, TX for the night. Um. Scary town. The only reason we decided to stay in this town is because San Antonio is too far from Tucson to drive in one day. This is a hole in the wall town. We’re staying at the Ramada, which is the nicest place in town…unfortunately. The water is cloudy. We bought bottled water to give to the dogs and to brush our teeth with and we’ll have to take showers in Tucson. Yeah.

We went for dinner at the Wendy’s which is inside of a truck stop. Some old, greasy-haired, truck driver was checking out the oldest. I pushed her behind me and he freaking leaned over to see her around me. The Mister had to give the guy the stink-eye so he would knock it off. I was close to making a scene. The pervert was old enough to be her grandfather. Sick. I can’t wait to leave in the morning.

Our next stop is Tucson. We’re going to meet up and have dinner with an old friend there. We’ve known him since PCola but haven’t seen him since our very last day in San Diego when we moved away six years ago. We’re all very excited to see him again.

Despite the hotel room, this part of Texas is very pretty. The view out of our hotel is a mountain. West of San Antonio though, it’s very desolate. At one point, we could only get in one radio station, lol. I bow down to Steve Jobs. If it weren’t for my iPod, we would have gone insane.

Now, since there is nothing better to do in this no horse town, I’m going to catch up on some work and schoolwork and read a book. We're going to bed early so that we can get up and leave early, lol.

Finally...Some Down Time

After not getting to sleep until after 2 am last night, I finally have nothing to do. I figured I would take this time to update properly.

Monday, the packers were here, on time, bright and early. They seemed to be doing a good job. The Mister, Youngest, dogs, and I sat out back on our patio furniture while they were packing and they kept coming out constantly to ask questions. "Do you want this packed?" "Should we leave this out?" They told us to leave whatever we didn't want packed on the beds so we did. This is so that we can sleep on the beds one last night and then the actual movers box up the mattresses and linens the next day. Well, they left my bed alone but packed up the girls' and we didn't discover this until that night when we were trying to go to bed. The Mister had to run out and buy a blanket for the kids. Oh well.

Tuesday, the movers arrived, on time, bright and early. They very efficiently started moving boxes to the driveway and furniture onto the semi-truck. The company I hired to ship my car was supposed to be there around 9'ish in the morning but they got held up at a truck inspection site and were pretty late. What is irritating about that is that they weren't supposed to come until yesterday but asked if they could come early. Then, they told me that because they picked up the car early, they would be delivering it early, on the 16th, which is 2 days before we get there. I had to ask a "friend" to accept the delivery and this person made me feel pretty bad for asking. Thanks.

As the movers were loading the truck, I started noticing a LOT of stuff the packers didn't pack. I walked through the house the day before but I guess this stuff was behind boxes or something. They were also very "by the book" and didn't pack ANY of my candles which really pissed me off. Sorry, but it did. They also packed half-full bottles of some oils (for soap making) and left some of the others which I have no explanation for. They packed half-full bottles of lotions and body sprays, but left others. It was just very strange what they would pack and what they wouldn't pack. They packed four bottles of sodium hydroxide with no problem though. Explain that one to me. OH! And then this. I have this old toolbox that my dad gave me when I was 15 or 16. I used it to lock up letters from boyfriends, my diary, and other things that I didn't want my sister reading, lol. I haven't taken anything out of this toolbox since I got it. I mean, I would take out a letter or two to reread, but overall, it's never been emptied. The packing lady took everything out and dumped it into another box. I was pretty upset by this. It may seem dumb, but I felt really violated. They did that with a lot of stuff; unpacked boxes to put them into their own boxes. Whatever. They also wouldn't pack jewelry, savings bonds, or loose change. Whatever again. I think in the end, I don't like them very much. And to be totally bitchy, one guy spelled "board" "borad" on all our boxes. Like keyborad.

Wednesday, we spent most of the day picking up odds and ends in the house, touching up the paint (which I said I wouldn't do but did anyway) taking apart furniture that we threw away this morning, and stuff like that. Nothing too exciting. Well, I guess I had a bit of excitement turning in our cable boxes to the cable company. When we get there, the woman (who is ALWAYS rude) made us stand there while she chattered to herself, then asked what we wanted. I told her we needed to cancel our cable and she asked me for our address. I told her, "**** Sweet Briar Ct" then started to spell it for her. Since we've lived here, NOBODY has ever been able to spell our street name and always ask if it's one word or two. Well, she looks up at me with this disgusted, holier than thou look on her face not bothering to type as I spell, waits till I'm done then types our address in her computer. Sooorrry lady. I was just trying to be helpful. After that, I was all short answered with her just waiting for her to ask for our forwarding address. I so was not going to spell our street name for her. I was practically dancing waiting for her to ask. Finally, she asks where she can send our final bill and I say, "**** Bordelon St." She's like, "Say that again." And I do and she's like, "Borderlon?" And I'm like, "No. Bordelon." And she's like, "Okay. Borderlon." Like she's all correct and I just don't know how to talk. I didn't correct her. We'll see if we get our final bill in the mail or not. Regardless, I'll pay it online, but we'll see. Bitch, hehehe.

Today has been an adventure. We got up bright and early to finish picking up inside the house and moving all of our luggage into the garage. I had Merry Maids scheduled to come at 8:30 am which would give them plenty of time to clean and be gone before the carpet cleaners come at 4 pm. We also scheduled the dogs to go to the groomers from 9-11:30 so that they would be gone for at least some of the time. Well, 9:30 rolls around and there's no sign of the cleaners so I call to make sure I got the time right. The lady tells me that they had a scheduling issue and that they wouldn't be there until between 1 & 2. And they hadn't even bothered to call and tell me this!!! WTF?!?! I tell her that that won't work for me at all because of the carpet cleaners. She puts me on hold and calls an outside contractor to come and clean the house. This lady finally arrives at 10 BY HERSELF and says that there is no way she can be done by 4. I tell her either she's done by 4 or she's going to have to dance with the carpet cleaners because everything has to be done today. UGH!! So, she calls the Merry Maids people, explains the situation, and they agree to send her some help. On top of all that, because this lady wasn't scheduled to come, I had to walk her through the house and show/tell her what needs to be cleaned which is something I had already done with the other lady prior. The lady that is cleaning the house is real nice but I hate Merry Maids. I will never call them again. It's one thing to need to reschedule but it's another to not even bother to call. They can bite me. And it's not as if they didn't know this was a move out clean ahead of time either. Grr!

Anyway, right now we're sitting in the car while the house is being cleaned. I still have my cable internet and my wireless reaches the driveway, heheh. The dogs have been groomed and they're all pretty and smell good. I just hope there are no issues with the carpet cleaners. They've been here before so I think it should be all good, knock on wood. After all the cleaning is done, we're checking into a hotel for the night. Then we'll meet our landlord at the house in the morning, turn over our keys, and hit the road. First stop, Atlanta.

I'm Still Alive

We're still in NC. Our stuff is not. We are sleeping on air mattresses but will be checking into a hotel tomorrow night. I'm having Merry Maids and the carpet cleaners come tomorrow. We still have some work to do around this house with taking stuff to the recycling center and to Goodwill. We're also taking the dogs to the dog groomers tomorrow in hopes that they won't stink up the car too bad.

Umm..We've been watching lots of Hulu on the laptop. It's just too darn quiet without the TV on in the house. We bought some pretty awesome air mattresses though.

We're exhausted but hanging in there. We'll be hitting the road first thing Friday morning.

I have lots more that I want to write about but I have to work now. Yep. 10:11 PM but this is the first opportunity that I've had all day to work. At least I can do so from my "bed".

Tomorrow is going to be a really hard day for the oldest child since it's her last day of school here. I'm dreading it. She could use some positive thoughts if you have any to spare. ;)

Thursday Meme

Brought to you by Booking Through Thursday

In honor of National Grammar Day … it IS “March Fourth” after all … do you have any grammar books? Punctuation? Writing guidelines? Style books?

More importantly, have you read them?

How do you feel about grammar in general? Important? Vital? Unnecessary? Fussy?

I'm an English major. I have TONS of grammar and style books scattered throughout my house. Have I read them? Not cover to cover but I refer to them constantly. Loads. All the time.

I feel that grammar is very important. It is a foundation. However, I also think that it can be fussy at times. In particular, I think using whom in everyday language sounds pretentious, lol. Yeah, yeah. You're a grammar whiz that knows when to use who and whom, but is it really necessary to make the distinction all the time?

I also think, being the parent of a texting teenager, that we are raising a generation of grammatically impaired kids. IKR, IDK, OMG, thx, kk, sup, ur, and tons of other shortened and abbreviated words are becoming everyday terminology. I use them myself which makes me a bad example, lol. My daughter purposely misspells words in texts that she knows how to spell otherwise but does so because it's cool. I worry that it will become a habit. This generation of kids will be leading our country someday.

Me and My Nook

I mentioned yesterday that the Mister and I got ourselves Nooks. If you read my blog at all, you know how long and how much I have debated on getting an electronic book reader. When it comes to books, I'm very much a traditionalist. I love browsing in book stores. I enjoy the quiet atmosphere of being surrounded by books. I love buying books. I consider my books to be a collection. They reflect who I am and my interests. I enjoy displaying them on bookshelves in my house. My favorite pastime is curling up with a good page turner and losing myself in a story. I really could go on and on.

I have another obsession: electronic gadgets. It gives me a little thrill to have the latest, greatest, most technologically advanced gadget in my hot little hand. If you ever see me without at least one of my beloved gadgets, my Blackberry, my iPod, or a laptop (usually I have all of them within reach), then something is probably seriously wrong with me. Now, I get to combine my two favorite obsessions in my Nook. I LOVE IT!

What I love about it:

• The size is pretty perfect. It's about the size of a DVD case which is slightly bigger than a paperback but smaller than most hardcover books. It's also lightweight.



• Aesthetically it also appeals to me. It looks very "now" which is to say it's sleek and with its two screens, it looks technologically advanced.



• I like that you can download newspapers and magazines (choices are currently limited, but more will be along eventually) as well as books.



• You can pre-order unreleased books and you will get a notification as soon as your book is ready to download. This is a nice feature for those of us lacking patience.



• You can lend your books to other Nook users. This, to me, is a truly great feature.



• You can use either cell phone towers or Wifi to access online features. This means that you can browse and purchase books virtually anywhere.



• The main display has NO glare at all, even in direct sunlight. When I try to read books on my iPod, I sometimes have a hard time seeing the screen when I am outside. The display on the Nook actually looks like a page out of a book.



• The touch screen navigation makes it super easy to add bookmarks. It's also simple to navigate your way around the Nook. This screen is backlit.



• You can upload MP3's to your Nook so that you can listen to music while you read. It has built in speakers as well as a headphone jack.



• You have several choices of fonts and font sizes. There should be something in there to please everyone.



• The Nook has a built in dictionary so that you can look up words that you don't recognize.



• The Nook has a sleep timer, screensavers, wallpapers, and other features which allow you to personalize your device.



• It comes with 1.28 GB of internal memory as well as a slot for a microSD memory card.



• I haven't timed it, but the battery lasts a good long time. I think I'm going on day 4 or 5 and still have 27% of my battery left since I've last plugged it in.



• You can download daily free content and you also get special free content if you take your Nook into a Barnes and Noble.

What I don't like about the Nook:

• While books are lendable, not all of them are.



• The main reading screen isn't backlit. HOWEVER, if it were, the battery wouldn't last as long. Not having the screen backlit is something that I can live with.

That's about it. I pretty much love everything about the Nook. I believe that it was money well spent. I wish I had had it for my trip to Ohio but I'll definitely have it for our trip to California, heheh. If you've been thinking about getting yourself an eBook reader, troop your little self into the nearest Barnes and Noble and play with their display model. I think it's a safe bet for me to say you'll like it. It's fun, it's versatile, it saves trees, it saves space (I don't know about you, but I don't have enough bookshelves.) it's convenient, and it encourages reading. What more could you want??

Curling at the Olympics

We've been joking about how curling is addicting to watch even though we don't really understand what's going on. What's more, we can't decide if enjoying curling makes us nerds, old, or old nerds. Check this link out. It's funny.

http://www.savagechickens.com/2010/02/curling.html

Keep Reading

I have lots to say. I’m thinking bullet points would be the best approach to how I’m feeling today, heheh.

• The Mister and I got a Nook. I LOVE it. He loves his. We’re responsible for the sale of four more Nooks. :D I think I’ll have a post on our Nook to go over what I like and dislike about it later.
• I’m sick. I just have a cold but I feel like I’ve swallowed razor blades. My throat is so sore it hurts to breathe. I’ve given up on getting a good night’s sleep.
• I have taken both my dogs to the vet this week. They’re both very healthy thank goodness. The vet was impressed with Hannah’s lean, muscular physique. We always worry that she’s too skinny but the vet said he’d rather see a lean, muscular dog rather than a tubby dog. Which brings us to Bailey. She gained EIGHT pounds since her last vet visit in March. She weighs 69 pounds to Hannah’s 53 pounds. Bailey needs to pass a few of her excess pounds to Hannah. Then they’d be perfect.
• We had the handyman out on Monday. He took care of a few household projects that the Mister and I didn’t want to do. Now, aside from cleaning, the house is ready to turn over to the new people.
• I have Merry Maids coming today to give me an estimate on how much it will cost to clean our empty house. I’ve never hired professional cleaners before but I don’t want to do it so here we go. I really don’t know why I’m bothering with an estimate. I have no idea what a good price would be to clean a house.
• I also have an appointment to take the Mister’s car into the dealer for a regular maintenance checkup. This is the car we’ll be driving to California so we want to make sure all its fluids and filters are good to go. I was worried about being able to get it in with all the recalls (it’s a Toyota) but I had no problem at all making the appointment yesterday. And as a side note, if I were in the market today for a car, I’d still buy Toyota. Just saying.
• I have both the carpet cleaners scheduled and the pickup for the Scion scheduled. The only thing left on my “To Do” moving list is to get the girls into the dentist before we leave. I’m calling today for an appointment.
• Our movers will be here 3/5, 3/8, and 3/9. That, people, is a week from tomorrow. Yikes!!
• Classes are going good so far. Even with my sudden trip to Ohio, I’m still on track. I’m totally loving my forensic anthropology class. I have no opinion of my E-commerce class. We haven’t really done anything in that class yet.

Well, I think that’s it for now. I need to clean my house before Merry Maids gets here, lmao. I could really use a nap too. :/

Real Quick

I’m in Ohio. I had to fly here Wednesday I think it was. My dad had to have open heart surgery. For the fourth time. He was told after his second surgery that they wouldn’t be able to do any more for him so for doctors to be willing to do a fourth was really scary. I booked my flight and was in the air less than 24 hours later. He made it through the surgery with flying colors though. They didn’t have to put him on the heart/lung machine which made such a difference. His surgery consisted of a bypass using a cadaver blood vessel (he has none left that can be used) and they also shot holes through his heart with a laser. About 11 of them. It’s amazing what they can do these days. But he should be coming home on Monday and I fly back to North Carolina tomorrow morning, which would be Sunday morning.

I’m tired and exhausted and wore out. I can’t keep track of the time of day or the days of the week. It’s pretty crazy. Anyway, I have to get up pretty early to go to the airport and it’s pretty late so I’m going to bed. See you all on the other side.

What I’m Watching Part…

Remember way back when premium channels only had movies on them? I can still hum the song that HBO used to play in the 80’s before a movie. Nowadays, my favorite shows are on HBO, Showtime, and I’m getting to like a new show on Starz. I can also remember a time when series’ were only on the main networks, ABC, CBS, NBC, and FOX. Again, these days I rarely watch the old networks anymore. For lots of reasons I suppose. A big one is that those networks show A LOT of cheesy reality shows (sorry if you don’t find them cheesy) like Survivor, The Bachelor, SYTYCD, and American Idol just to name a few. There isn’t a single reality show on the main networks that I like. Not one. Not even one that would make me feel silly to admit. And I’m not saying that baaaaad reality shows are limited to the big Four, just that all their reality shows suck, lol.

My favorite networks these days are Discovery, TLC, A&E, Bravo, TNT, and AMC. One reason that I like these channels are that they seem to give shows more of a chance to gain an audience than do ABC, NBC, CBS, and FOX. Or maybe the shows I like on the other channels are actually better. I dunno. I just know that they tend to get cancelled less.

My top favorite shows lately are and in no specific order:

• The Tudors (so sad this is to be the last season!!)
• Weeds
• Big Love
• Hung
• Secret Diary of a Call Girl
• True Blood
• United States of Tara
• Nurse Jackie
• Mad Men
• The Closer
• The Big Bang Theory
• Two and a Half Men
• The Little Couple
• Grey’s Anatomy
• Private Practice
• Spartacus:  Blood and Sand (the new show I mentioned on Starz)
• Bones
• Flipping Out
• Raising the Bar
• Dirty Jobs
• Myth Busters
• Medium

I would put cooking shows on this list, reality and otherwise, but I can’t watch them anymore. They make me hungry, lol. It’s probably a good thing. My DVR gets quite a workout as it is.

Do you wanna know what my monthly cable bill is? Well, too bad. It’s embarrassing to admit it out loud. You can take a guess if you’d like. We have digital cable with HD service, all the premium channels to include HBO, Showtime, Cinemax, TMC, Starz, and Encore, three DVRs and one regular cable box (which has never been used, lol). Needless to say, we will be downsizing in California. I’m going to have to wait with the common folk for my favorite shows that are on the premium channels to come out on DVD. Which, in my opinion is totally unfair. This is the concession that I am making. The Mister and the kids (of course) don’t watch those shows. The HD service, however, I could do without. I really don’t care nor do I notice much difference between an HD channel and a regular channel. HD is the Mister’s indulgence but we’ll probably subscribe to it out in California. I may have to do some negotiating, hehehe.

Wild and Crazy?

Just crazed. I have moved into the crazed portion of the program. And before you tell me it will all work out, see the following post:  STFU It’s really not what I need or want to hear right now.

House hunting isn’t going well. Our number one favorite pick is a house that’s 4 miles from the Mister’s new base, it’s HUGE, the dogs aren’t a problem, and the rent is right. HOWever, they have someone that has already put a deposit down, sight unseen last I heard, so we probably won’t be getting that house. BIG BUMMER!

Our number two pick house is in San Marcos which is a bit of a commute from the Mister’s base but not terrible. It’s also a really big house but it’s nice and allows dogs. Couple issues:  It doesn’t have a refrigerator and the owner wants us to provide our own or raise the rent to buy one for the house. Really?!?!

Another house is the right rent, right distance, allows dogs, but wants us to start paying rent on it beginning on March 1 even though we won’t be moving in until March 19 and will still be paying rent on this house until March 12. I really don’t think that’s reasonable at all.

Other houses that we are considering are either too far for too much rent or too small. What I mean is that we would consider a longer commute for less rent and will take a small house if that’s our only choice. This really sucks out loud.

As for base housing, they won’t put us on the waiting list until March 10th. This means that we would have NINE days to get into base housing. Last time I checked, waiting lists were much longer than NINE freaking days especially for housing that allows dogs.

On top of house hunting for ourselves, our house we currently live in is listed for rent so I have to field calls from potential tenants and have our house ready to show at any time. That effing sucks out loud. On top of that, my semester starts on Monday, I still have work, and I still have homeschooling the youngest. You really gonna tell me not to worry? I wouldn’t risk it if I were you. Cuz on top of all that, I’m dieting and exercising again. Probably a bad time to start but at the same time, the exercise is good for my mind. I’m still sleeping at night and I haven’t killed anyone. Yet. However, denying myself chocolate and other comfort, fat-filled foods at this time is probably a risk to others, lmao. But, I've already lost five pounds in one week. Yay me!

 

Ugh.

Also, I need some sort of program that will sync between my laptop, my desktop, my iPod touch, and my Blackberry. I really don’t think such a wondrous thing exists but if you know of something I could use that would keep all my tasks, to do’s, calendar items, and e-mails up to date on all my devices, I would appreciate a point in the right direction. I need something that will work with MS Outlook.

Don’t Wanna Hear It

These are things my kids, and I’m sure tons of others, say that drive me up a wall.

• “I AM!!!!”  Said in response to me telling them to something I’ve already told them to do at least once before. UGH!!
• “I’m up!” Said in response to me telling them to get out of bed in the morning for the umpteenth time.
• “I didn’t do it.” Sure you didn’t.
• “She’s bothering me.” Shut up before I bother you.
• “Do I have to?” or “I don’t want to.”
• Responses to bad grades:  “I didn’t know it was due.” or “My teacher hates me.”
• “I’m doing it!” or “I did it/I”m done.” Again, in response to me telling them to do something, usually their chores or school work, after I’ve already told them to get going at least once or when they think they’re done but I can still see dirty dishes or counters that need cleaned.
• “It’s not fair.” Whine, whine, whine.

 

I’m sure I’ll be back to update this post, lol. Leave a comment with  your kid complaints and I’ll add them too.

Home is Where I Hide My Gun

We’ve started looking for a house in earnest this week. We have a line on four different houses that we like and I’m working with a “relocation specialist” (their term, not mine) in San Diego to help us find a house. Even so, we haven’t totally decided whether or not we want to live in base housing. Pros and cons of base housing:

Pros:

• It’s free. We don’t pay rent or utilities except for phone, cable, and internet.
• It’s safe. Unless we do something majorly drastic, we can live in base housing as long as the Mister is stationed out there.
• There will be no end to the kids that my kids will be able to hang out/play with.
• The housing area we are considering has it’s own Popeye’s (this could actually be a con, heheh), gas station, and convenience store.
• The commute is very minimal.
• It’s easy.

Cons:

• Most of the units are duplexes so we would have neighbors sharing walls.
• In my experience, people that live in base housing are gossips, busy bodies, and look for any reason to be in your business and to complain about you. Not all of them, to be sure, but a goodly portion of them.
• The square footage is small.
• We haven’t had to live in multi-family housing in six+ years. It will be a big adjustment.
• You’re not allowed to paint. Anything. At all.
• I hate base housing.

Three of the houses we are considering are in San Marcos which is about a 45 minute commute from the Mister’s base. But they are really nice. BIG. Of these three houses, one is really affordable and the other two, we can afford but we’ll have less money left over at the end of the month than we would if we lived in base housing. The fourth house is 4 miles from the gate to Miramar, it’s HUGE (5 br, 3 ba), and the owner is military. But it’s at the top of our price range being the most expensive rent of the four. Our biggest issues with these four houses are the rent and for the other three, the commute. The biggest “pro” of all though, is that they aren’t base housing. UGH! Not for the first time I wish that someone could tell me the future, lol.

No matter where we live, I have to have office space. I work from home and need an area where I can shut the door and work. No matter how disciplined I am, it is impossible to balance the books for an organization with kids and dogs pestering me. I need quiet for that and for the many other tasks I do. This could be a potentially big challenge in base housing. More often than not, you are given a unit based on how many kids you have. We have two so we rate a three bedroom. This doesn’t leave space for an office.

What to do???

STFU (Updated)

These are saying that I hate. People say them because they can’t think of anything better to say. To hear them is like fingernails on a chalkboard to me.

• It is what it is. What the eff is this supposed to mean? What IS IT? I can’t think of a phrase that is used more that could mean less.
• When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. Come a little closer and I’ll show you how I like to make lemonade when I shove those lemons in one of your orifices. This is such a callous thing to say to someone. Basically you’re telling them that their problems are insignificant. Tread carefully should you choose to say this one within striking distance of me.
• What doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger. While there is some truth to this statement, very rarely is it something a person wants to hear. Shut up.
• For the good/needs of the Corps. This basically allows the Marine Corps to screw you all the while saying that your problems/needs/wants don’t matter so long as the situation benefits the Marine Corps. I actually saw a bumper sticker type of thing at the legal office on Cherry Point that said something to the effect of if your needs/wants/goals/problems are first in your life, you need to get a new job. I’m not kidding either. I can only shake my head.
• Because I said so. I hated hearing it as a kid and I do my best not to say it to my kids (Yes, I’ve said it to them before but I consciously try not to.). It’s such a copout. When I’m telling my kids no or telling them to do something, I like to explain my reasoning because more often than not, when they understand why something is, it helps to avoid arguments. I also believe respect is a two way street.

There are tons of other sayings that I hate but I can’t think of them right now. Maybe people have good intentions when saying these things, but you know what they say about good intentions…

Feel free to leave a comment with a saying that you find annoying, irritating, insensitive, or just plain stupid.

2/2/10 Additions:

This one came to me from my sister-in-law via Facebook:

• You're strong. You'll get through this. She says, and I agree, that strength oftentimes has little to do with surviving. You get through something because you have little other choice. I also think that's a strength in itself though; to get through something and not give up.

My next one was inspired by the previous saying:

• Don't worry. You'll get through it. Do you have any idea how useless it is to tell someone not to worry about their problems? If you have something staring you in the face, what else are you supposed to do but worry about how the situation is going to be resolved? The only way not to worry, imo, is if you don't care. If you don't care, then it's not really a problem after all.
  

Revelations

You ever have a moment or event in your life that clearly delineates a "before" and "after"? My earliest of those moments that I can remember is when I spent the summer with my brother when I was 16. Before I went, I was painfully shy, backward, and the very opposite of self-sufficient. Then I went to stay for the summer away from my parents with my brother. I learned to do my own laundry, I had my first serious boyfriend; it was a summer of change. I came home not a grown up for sure, but on my way to being a young woman.

I've had other such moments in my life: getting married, becoming a mom, the three years in Vermont. This past Tuesday was another such day. It was another before and after event. If you think I'm being dramatic, even Bailey, my dog, has noticed a change. Hannah, my other dog, is too oblivious, lol. What the hell is my point? This week has truly been a week full of craptasticness. Crappy, craptastic, crap. And to top it off, there was a pretty big shake up with one of my clients. Everything is different and not in a good way. Actually, there were two craptastic revelations that occured on Tuesday. It will be forever in my mind The Day of Craptasticness.

I wish I could go back to Monday and try to live Tuesday differently. I wish e-mail and cell phones didn't exist. That's really saying something coming from me, lol. If I could really have any wish at all, it would be to go back to 2003 and avoid Vermont altogether. Why did those three years have to be so freaking pivotal? My sister's husband went to culinary school in Vermont a while back. He had such a terrible time there that he still believes Vermont is evil and they wouldn't come and visit us while we were there. Aside from the good friends I made while we were living there, I believe Vermont is evil too. And considering what happened on Tuesday, I would give those friends up, as much as I love them, to have not ever had to live there.

I'm sure things with my work will work themselves out. I'm in need of more clients should you know of anyone that could make use of my talents. I feel terrible for the other people that were involved in this work shakeup more than I feel for myself though. My pay doesn't support my family but rather it cushions it a bit I guess. I can afford to lose a client and wait for another to come along.

As for the other thing that happened on Tuesday, it's not going to kill me and I'm not dying so I guess I'll survive it too. Don't ask cuz I'm not telling. Anyone. At all. Oh. And I have no plans on killing anyone else either. ;) Sometimes life sucks and that's the price to pay for being. More often than not, it doesn't though, right?

It’s a Blustery Day in the Neighborhood

Nobody in my household got very much sleep last night. The wind is blowing so hard that the house is creaking loudly. The Mister and I have been up off and on since 4 this morning. The funny/bad thing about it is that today is trash day. The girls put out our trash and recycling last night before it started raining. We got up this morning and all THREE paper grocery bags of recycling are GONE! I feel really bad that all that stuff is blowing around the neighborhood but we had no idea the weather was supposed to get so bad. Cleanup is going to be a bitch.

The wind also blew over our grill and our patio chairs. The grill is way to heavy for me to lift by myself and the Mister is at work so I’m hoping the propane tank is ok. Ugh!

In other news…

We have worked out a semi-solid moving plan.

• 3/8 – The movers come to pack the house.
• 3/9 – The movers come and load the truck.
• 3/10 – I have cleaners come to clean the house.
• 3/10-3/11 – We do any repairs and/or painting that needs to be done.
• 3/10-3/11 – We have carpet cleaners come.
• 3/12 – We hit the road. Our first overnight will be in Atlanta.
• 3/13 – We drive to Pensacola, Fl for a bit of sight seeing then onward to stay overnight in Gulfport, MS.
• 3/14 – We drive from Gulfport to San Antonio to visit with Dana and her family.
• 3/15 – Visiting in San Antonio.
• 3/16 – Drive from San Antonio to El Paso, TX for the night.
• 3/17 – Drive to Tucson, AZ to visit with another friend of ours.
• 3/18 – Arrive in San Diego.

Of course, this is just a preliminary plan and I’m sure things will change, but this is my ideal idea. ;) This means that we have to have everything completely ready to go by March 7th. That means that including today, we have 58 days to get ready for the movers. Big UGH!! But really exciting at the same time.

We’ve started looking at houses for rent out west. Base housing isn’t off the table and is probably where we’ll end up, but we’re still looking. While reading listings, it occurred to me that people are pretty stupid. I can understand why people don’t want pets in their rental properties. However, some people’s reasoning isn’t reasonable at all. One listing said cats ok and small dogs will be considered. In my experience as a pet owner, small dogs do just as much damage if not more than large dogs when it comes to chewing and not being house broken. To say that this is the domain of large dogs is preposterous at best. As for cats, cat pee is way worse than dog pee and cats scratch walls and carpet and stuff. Chances are because we have two 55 pound dogs, we’re not going to have much of a choice but to move into base housing. Why? Because most people are uninformed twits.

Two Left Feet

We had a rather eventful long weekend.

Saturday, it was very spring-like here. Temps got into the 70’s which was a really nice change from the freezing temperatures we had been experiencing for a few weeks. We decided to turn off the heat and open the windows for the day. The Mister and I also tackled the task of cleaning out the garage. We had a ton of boxes that were broken down and needed to be recycled and a few packing boxes that were filled with packing paper that also needed to be recycled. Something that we had been putting off for a year and a half took only a couple hours to do and two trip to the recycling center. :/ Now the garage is 90% finished with only needing a little bit of organizing and a few totes of old toys going to charity.

We also got the girls’ hair cut on Saturday. Their hair was long enough, and they got it cut short enough, that they are both able to make a donation to Locks of Love. They are so very excited about being able to do this. And they got really cute haircuts.

Sunday evening, the girls were outside playing and the Mister and I were up in the office. Next thing I know, I hear loud crying and wailing through the open window and then I see the youngest running into the house. She comes upstairs and says, “You need to hurry!! My sister is on the ground!” She’s so funny. So we go outside and the oldest is all hunched over on the side of the street crying. Once I manage to get her to straighten out, I see she’s scraped and bleeding but at first glance, it doesn’t look that bad. So I tell her to get a grip and come inside so I can clean her up. I’m such a sympathetic mother, huh? After getting a good look at her, the child is scraped literally from head to toe. I’m all like, “What in the world were you doing??” I guess she had been walking along when one of the kids kicked a ball to her and she didn’t notice and tripped over it. I dunno. But her face is scraped in a couple places, both her palms, her elbows, her knees look like someone took a cheese grater to them, the tops of her feet, and we’re pretty sure she broke one of her toes. FROM TRIPPING OVER A BALL!! She honestly looks like she’s been in a car accident. Sometimes I just don’t know about her.

Yesterday was pretty quiet. The Mister and the girls had the day off due to MLK Jr Day. I, however, had to work. I had to get up early for a phone call with a potential new client. I’m pretty sure he’s going to hire me too. Then, I had work for my other two clients. It sucked being the only one that had to work.

Remember how I said we turned off the heat the other day? Well, it’s not Spring yet and we forgot to turn the heat back on. I woke up to a freezing cold house this morning. BRRRRR!!! Now I have to take the oldest to school. The Mister is still in bed snoozing because he has today off of work too. That’s right. He worked until noon on Friday and had Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday off of work for MLK Jr Day. Doesn’t he suck?

Moving Progress

I was recently called out for not updating my blog regularly. Yeah well. I have very little of interest to say. So :P

We found out yesterday that the Mister will be checking out of his current command 15 days earlier than we thought. Our move date has moved up. Again. He checks out on March 10th now, not March 15th. In actuality, we have 26 days from March 10th until he has to check into his new command out in San Diego. We won’t be leaving NC exactly on the 10th because we’ll have movers and then the cleaning of this house.

::Side note::

I had to stop typing to take the oldest to school. On the way there, I got behind a school bus. After picking up a bunch of kids at a stop, it took off down the road going 45 in a 35 and in a school zone. What’s up with that?!?!

Anyway, essentially, we have 1 month and 27 days or so before we move. Yikes! I have so much to do and with our move date constantly being adjusted closer, I have less and less time to do it in, lol. We’ve opted to have the military pay for movers rather than moving ourselves so that takes a big load off but I still have organizing, cleaning, arranging to have my car shipped (we decided not to drive two cars cross country), getting the dogs to the vet for one last check up, finding somewhere to live in San Diego, taxes, and every day life in the midst of all that.

Did you know…

When you’re making a military move, you have two options. 1.) You can choose to have them pay to have a moving company come in, pack your stuff, and ship it to your destination. You get travel pay for mileage to drive your POV and for food and hotels depending on how many days they estimate it takes to drive to your new duty station. In our case, 8 days times 4 people. They always pay you way more than you need. We also get paid for the weight of our luggage that we have in our car. What that means is that we have to have our car weighed empty, pack it up, then have it weighed full. We get paid for that weight. 2.) You can choose to pack your own stuff and arrange to have it moved to your destination and have the military reimburse you for your expenses. This 2nd option is called a DITY move or Do It Yourself Move, pronounced, ditty. In all of our moves, we have done one DITY move and that was from Ohio to California. I packed up our very meager belongings which were at my dad’s house. We really had nothing. A bed with a plain metal frame, baby stuff (crib, changing table, etc.) a dinette set, sofa, 19 in. TV, a couple dressers and a few other odds and ends. I flew out to California with the girls and our families loaded a moving truck and drove it out to California for us. We reimbursed them with the money we got from the military and had some left over that we pocketed. I’m not sure if they have increased the money you get for doing a DITY move or if it’s just inflation, but nowadays, people get A LOT more than we did in 1999 for doing a DITY move.

A Marine that the Mister works with is moving out to Cali with his wife and some household belongings. They don’t have kids. They are getting $20,000 to move themselves!!! You may be asking yourselves why we don’t take advantage of such a deal. Well, I’m telling you that IMO, the money isn’t worth it. I would rather NOT have to pack up a 4 bedroom  house, all of our furniture and appliances, and the rest of our crap, and move it across the country. I’m not even sure they make a rental truck big enough to fit all of our stuff in. Professional movers come with a semi-truck. Plus, if stuff gets broken, you get reimbursed for the damages whereas if you break your own stuff, you’re out of luck. We moved ourselves across town a year and a half ago and that was such a major PITA that I think the peace of mind is worth $20,000. Maybe I’m just lazy. Yep. Movers are a wonderful thing.

Did you know::

This is how professional movers work:

1. They come in one day to visually assess how much stuff you have and what kind of boxes and moving supplies they will need to pack your crap.
2. On another day shortly thereafter, they come in and pack up your crap. Yes. It only takes them ONE day to pack EVERYTHING.
3. On the next day, they come  in and load your crap up on a truck. It only takes a few hours to load.
4. They make arrangements with you to have your crap delivered; a date and a destination address.
5. At your destination, they arrive on the prearranged date and unload your crap, putting together furniture and placing boxes where you tell them to. They will even unpack your boxes if you tell them to. We don’t because at this point, we just want them gone.
6. That’s it. You unpack your crap and settle in to your new home.

There. Now I’ve updated my blog. :P

Snow in the South Part 2

It didn’t snow. It didn’t get cold enough. It rained. They delayed school for two hours for rain. Sadly, even though MCB Camp Lejeune and MCAS New River had two hour delays this morning, MCAS Cherry Point, the Mister’s base, did not. He wasn’t happy.

I’m not bothering with pictures. Rain is rain.

Have a great weekend!

Snow in the South

As I sit here composing this post, I can’t help the shaking of my head or the feeling of silliness. I’ve had the luck to live in several different parts of the United States and in living in different parts of the U.S., I have experienced several different climates.

Having spent the first 20 years of my life in mid-Ohio, this is what I consider “normal”. I compare everything from neighborhood layouts, architecture, and traditions to how I first experienced them in Ohio. Ohio has very distinctive seasons:  cold winters with bare trees and snow, mild springs with lots of rain, summers that are hot and humid with strong thunderstorms, and mild autumns with changing leaves and cooling temperatures. I would guess that out of all the United States, the midwest has four seasons that you can actually tell when they are happening.

I only lived in Florida for six months, April until September. Spring until very early fall basically and it was a long time ago. All I really remember of it is HOT HOT HOT! Very humid with kickass summer storms and a few hurricanes thrown in to make things interesting. You could practically set your clock by the afternoon thunderstorm that rolled in from 1-2 in the afternoon almost every day.

Then we had California. San Diego county is unique in that you can experience almost every climate in the one county. It’s very temperate along the coast, hot and dry inland and in the deserts, cooler with occasion winter snow in the mountains. They say that you can snow ski and surf all in the same day in San Diego county. We lived inland and the summers were very hot and very dry. Winters were mild. That was it. I loved it though. I remember one time during the Santa Anas that it was so hot that when you walked outside your skin would tingle with it.

Next, we had Vermont. They basically have 2 1/2 seasons:  Winter, Mud Season/Spring/Summer, and Autumn. You had cold winters that started as early as September. Cold barely even describes it. In the dead of winter with wind chills, you could get frostbite by being outside less than fifteen minutes. And because it was so cold, the snow never melted until spring so it just accumulated all winter long. They make such a thing as roof rakes so that you can rake the snow off your roof so that it doesn’t cave in from the weight. It is the bitterest cold I have ever experience in my life. There were times when it was warmer in Alaska than it was in Vermont. No kidding. Vermonters know how to clear a road better than anyone else I have ever seen. School was rarely cancelled or delayed due to snow but more often because of the bitterly cold temps. Winters would very reluctantly give way to spring sometime in April or May. Then it was time for Mud Season. The snow melts until everything in sight is a muddy, mushy mess. Mud Season was terrible. If you are a neat freak, you can forget about living in Vermont because mud being tracked in was just something that you had to learn to live with. Sometime in June, things would begin to dry out. It didn’t rain all that often during the “summer” months. In the three years that we lived there, I can only remember two days where I wished that we had had air conditioning. The rest of the time, open windows and fans during the day were enough and those had to be shut at night because it would get too cold for them. Then, of course, you had Leaf Season. This lasts for 2-4 weeks before it starts snowing again. Vermonters pretty much hate Leaf Peepers if you’ve ever a mind to drive there to view the autumn colors. They clog the roads and pull over to the side of the road whenever they see a particular scene worthy of a picture. It’s annoying but I did the same thing, lol.

Now we live in North Carolina. This is again, a state with basically three of the four seasons: Hot, hot summers, and coolish autumns and winters, and mild springs. Neither spring nor autumn last very long at all. It seems like one day it’s in the 70’s, next it’s in the 90’s, then it’s back in the 70’s for a few days before that gives way to chilly winters. Summer is, by far, the main attraction. We have very hot and humid summers where the nights only get as cool as the mid 70’s. I like the weather here although the cool months get cooler than I prefer.

The entire country is experiencing a cold snap, North Carolina is no exception. We’ve had overnight lows in the teens and tonight, we’re bracing for snow. Now’s when I have to shake my head at the silliness. They’re forcasting a trace to an inch at the most and they’ve already posted 2 hour delays for the schools tomorrow. Even Camp Lejeune Marine Corps Base is on a 2 hour delay tomorrow. They’ve even salted the roads already too.This is when Vermonters would laugh and call us “low landers”. It is so funny to think that less than an inch of snow is going to shut the state down. Still, in a land where people never see snow, the thought of being on the road with these people is scary indeed. I, for one, am grateful that I won’t have to venture out with people that consider an inch of snow to be a lot. In Vermont, people would still be wearing shorts, t-shirts, and sandals with only an inch of snow on the ground.

All in all, I am GREATLY looking forward to being able to sleep in for two hours tomorrow. What a way to start the weekend! I’ll do my best to post some pictures tomorrow, heheh.

Inauspicious Start to the Year

My first post of 2010. I really don’t have anything to say.

Christmas was good. New Years was fine. It’s cold. We’re moving in just over two months. The spring semester doesn’t start until 2/14 so I still have lots of free time on my hands which is nice. Very nice.

I’m reading, playing games, and getting ready to move. That’s it. That’s my life. It’s very boring but very busy.

I got into the bad habit of staying up very late (3-4 am) and sleeping in very late (11-12ish) while on Christmas break. I guess I was channeling my inner teenager, heheh. Monday, the kids’ first day back to school, was painful. I overslept through my alarm and fell asleep on the couch around 9 pm. I’m feeling better this morning though.

Now, after this very lousy blog update, I have to go and take the oldest to school. I need to find socks. Did I mention it’s very cold?

Ten Things I Like About Christmas

1. Christmas carols
2. Movies
3. The smell of a real tree
4. The decorations
5. Driving around looking at the lights
6. My kids opening their presents
7. Baking cookies
8. The ham
9. Ham gravy
10. Christmas vacation

Hectic = Forgetful

When I’m in a rush, I forget things. I think that’s something that happens to everyone occasionally.

Last night, the oldest child had what is for her, the final band performance at her school. Since we’re moving, she won’t have any more performances at this school. One of her very good friends wanted to go so I agreed to pick her up at the last minute. While I was out picking up said friend, (luckily, we live in a small town) and running red lights doing it, the oldest was home taking a shower. Why she waited until the eleventh hour to get in the shower is beyond me. Also, the Mister was doing his best to rush home so he would make it too. It was madness. I get home with the friend long enough to run in the house to pee and then we all ran out and piled in the car to go to the school. Her band instructor is a beast and very strict. We got the oldest to the school one minute late, heheh, but she didn’t get into trouble.

In all my rushing, I forgot the camera. Big :( I had it sitting on the mantel and  had even charged up some batteries for it but walked out the door without it. I’m totally bummed. Her last performance at this school and I don’t have any pictures or video. Again :(

Afterwards, we took the lot of us out for some Arby’s. We had dinner at 8:30 last night, heheh. Even without the camera, it was a good night. All three classes, 6th, 7th, and 8th grade bands, played Christmas songs so it was a good way to get in the Christmas spirit.

I Guess This Is Something Else I Shouldn’t Have Said

We had a bit of a thing happen today. I’ll explain.

Last year when we took our OBX vacation, I wrote a letter of explanation to the oldest child’s school two weeks beforehand to let them know she would be absent and to request that her work be sent home with her so she could do it while we were gone. They didn’t give her her homework but let her do it when we got back. Whatever. But when we did get back, I fielded a couple calls from the school explaining to me the importance of students attending school. I was miffed but I let it go. I take my kids’ educations very seriously and don’t just arbitrarily let them miss school. Besides, we visited a lot of historic places which provided a hands on learning experience AND the kids only missed 4 days of school because of Veteran’s Day.

This year, I was better informed having read the student handbook that the kids get from the school district. Turns out that if you take your kids on an trip which has “educational opportunities” that the absence is excused as long as you send in your letter five days prior to the absence. I did so this year and even quoted the paragraph out of the handbook to cover my butt, not wanting a repeat of last year’s phone calls. Again. They did not send the oldest child’s school work with her but I didn’t receive any phone calls this year. I figured everything was good.

Yesterday, the oldest brought home her 4 1/2 week grades. NOT GOOD! She was missing a lot of assignments. She is now grounded. GROUNDED. She tried blaming our vacation on the missed work but I wasn’t buying it. One of her progress reports (they are sent separately from each of her teachers) had a hand written note at the bottom that said that it’s necessary for her to attend school in order to maintain her grades. That was it. The final straw that broke the camel’s back. I’m sick and tired of them riding their high horse and judging me because I choose to take my child on a family vacation. This year, she only missed 3 1/2 days because of the weather and Veteran’s Day. If they had sent her work with us, I can guarantee you it would have been completed and turned in when we got back. So, I write this teacher a letter explaining how I followed procedure according to the handbook, blah, blah, blah. My tone was a bit snarky but not overtly disrespectful. I was careful. I signed it with both my phone number and e-mail address at the bottom. She replied by e-mail, cleared things up, and the oldest is still VERY GROUNDED.

However, we find out that her teacher, upon reading my letter, yelled at her in front of the entire class. Maybe I was snarkier than I remember being. I am not happy about it though. She shouldn’t have taken out whatever feelings she had about my letter on the oldest let alone in front of the entire class. It’s immature and unprofessional. Sometimes I just really don’t get people.

Oh well. Only three months to go and I’ll get to deal with a whole new school, new teachers, and new snarkiness.

Random Floating Thoughts

I have all this stuff floating around in my head so I’m gonna write about it and get it all out.

The other night, the Mister and I were going to bed and we were locking up the house for the night. We turned  out all the lights in the living room and were walking to our bedroom in the dark. Weird thing about is that while I was walking in complete, pitch black dark, the Mister said he could see well enough from the light coming in the windows to make out shadows of where stuff was. It wasn’t until that moment that I realized how very bad my night vision is. I knew it wasn’t 100% but I didn’t know it was that bad. I guess it’s no wonder why I hate driving at  night.

The oldest child had a dance performance at her school last night. She did really great!! I am, of course, the proud parent. I’m going to put up video on my other blog which is private. I’m not comfortable putting video of my kids and other people’s kids on the Internet for all to see. If you’d like to view the video, leave a comment and let me know. I will need your e-mail address to send you an invite.

Something else I just realized is that we will be moving, actually on the road moving, in just over three months. The movers will be here around the 1st of March. I’m not sleeping again and since I’m not worried about anything else, I can only guess that I’m worrying about moving. I’ve also had the worst indigestion. Yes, yes. I know I’ve moved before and will make it through this one, but moving cross country with such little time to get ready is, I think, a perfectly legitimate reason to be stressed out. I’ve also never moved when I was both working and going to school. I’m also concerned about where we will live in California. I think it’s the thought of having to move back into base housing after living like regular people for six years that has me worried the most.

Another realization…I’m getting burned out on social networking. Maybe it’s just a phase and I’ll get back into it.

I’m tired of hearing about Tiger Woods. Move on. Next subject.

Yesterday, it was in the 50’s, today it’s in the 70’s (as I type it’s 72 with a heat index of 77) and tomorrow’s highs will only be in the 50’s again. Totally weird weather.

I’m still rereading the In Death books. Not counting the novellas, I’m on book 20 of 28. The last book, Kindred in Death just came out last month and I haven’t read it yet. I’m excited to get to it. I annoy myself though. Having reread the series as many times as I have, I can pick out a lot of mistakes that Robb made in the story line. Why do I have to be so nitpicky?

Finals on Monday were a nightmare. I took 17th and 18th Century British Literature and Concepts in Marketing this semester. I enjoyed both classes and learned a lot. I don’t know why my exams kicked me this year. I don’t have my grades yet. I probably won’t be posting about them either, lol.

I feel much better now. Don’t forget to let me know if you want to see the dance video and click on through to see my new blog template if you haven’t already!

New Layout/Theme/Template

Whatever you want to call it. Not sure what I think yet. I always need to give new templates a few days before I decide whether or not I like them. And besides. Let’s face it and be honest…How many people actually visit blogs rather than read them in a feed reader these days? Still, if you’re curious to see the changes that I’ve made, feel free to click over and check it out and leave me a comment with your opinion.

The whole reason that I changed was that I wanted to find something more Christmas-y or at least find a template where I could make the header more Christmas-y. I missed the mark there, lol, but I like that this template is brighter than my old one. I was seriously getting tired of the dark brown.

Anywho, dinner is in the oven and I’m cramming for finals tomorrow. Gotta run.

Good Moods vs. Bad Moods

My blog has certainly evolved, or de-evolved depending on your point of view, since I first started it back in 2003. What started out as a simple and easy way of updating family on our move to Vermont turned out to be the only thing that kept me sane during our time in Vermont. A theme has never been seen around here either. I’m not a mom blogger even though I’m a mom who blogs. I’m not a book blogger even though I love to read and occasionally talk about what I’ve read or am reading. I’m currently rereading J.D. Robb’s In Death series in case you were wondering. I’m not a thinly disguised money-making blog. I’ve never earned one red cent by blogging. I’m not even sure how you’d categorize my blog other than to call it a personal, not professional, blog. Blah blah.

What I have learned through the years of blogging is that it is much easier to find things to write about when I am in a bad mood. Ranting, raving, complaining, and just plain bitching are things at which I excel. Idiot drivers, lousy neighbors, family, the Mister’s job, money or the lack thereof, cleaning house, my kids, other people’s kids, and I could go on and on. These are just some of my favorite subjects that I like to blather on about.

Lately, I’ve been in a really good mood. I seriously can’t figure out what’s gotten into me. I’m usually an up and down kinda person. Holidays usually make my moods worse. This year, I just can’t get enough of Christmas. Maybe it’s because I don’t have sucky renters trying to make me go insane this year like I did last year. Or maybe it’s because the Marine Corps isn’t being a major PITA!! like they were in 2006 at Christmastime. Who knows? All I know is that I’ve been in an exceptionally good mood lately which makes it so that I don’t have anything much to say. At least nothing new to say anyway.

I seem to be alone in my joyfulness. I’ve been reading around Facebook and blogs how people aren’t in the Christmas spirit this year. Stop it!! Put out your decorations, bake some cookies, put on some Christmas music or a movie, adopt a reindeer, burn a pine scented candle, whatever it takes!! And hurry it up! My good mood surely won’t last for much longer. ;)

Our Last Thanksgiving in NC

We had a pretty decent Thanksgiving this year. For the first time ever, we  had a fresh turkey instead of a frozen bird. I didn’t think there would be very much difference between the two but I was way wrong. A fresh turkey is juicier and tastier. Honestly. Fresh birds only from now on. The only thing was that we got a 12 pound bird which was big enough for dinner but didn’t leave enough leftovers. Part of our Thanksgiving tradition is to make a turkey potpie with the leftovers. We had to go out and buy a turkey breast in order to have our potpie! And it did NOT taste like turkey at all. I heard on  some Thanksgiving Day special on TV that it’s the dark meat that gives turkey its flavor. I’m guessing that explains why the turkey breast didn’t taste like a normal turkey. Still, the potpie was good and it made leftovers in and of itself!

This year, the Mister and I did some Black Friday shopping. I do believe this is the first time we’ve gone shopping like that since 1995 or 1996. It was fun and other than a few odds and ends, I’m pretty much done with my Christmas shopping. Woohoo!!!!! I’m pretty proud of myself being done so early. Basically, I just have to figure out what I’m getting the Mister for Christmas. He is absolutely the hardest person in the world to shop for. If I was only going to get  him PS3 games, I’d be set but I like variety and PS3 games are pretty much expected. Too bad I don’t have the money to buy him the airplane he’s always wanted.

We have most of our indoor Christmas decorations up. Kinda. We buy fresh trees so we’re waiting a week or two before we get one so it’ll last until New Years. We have two smaller artificial trees up though. One we bought this year that’s pre-lit and the other is older than dirt but still looks nice on my grandmother’s table. My mantle is done up real nice too. I bought a cranberry garland to go across the front and we also bought some really nice stocking hangers. Today, we’re starting on the outside decorations. It’s about 70 degrees here today so it’s perfect weather to put up outside stuff. I just need the stuff, lol. I tried out my lights and all but one long and two short strands are broken. I have no idea what happened to them. They worked last year. I’m too impatient to figure out what’s wrong with them so I trashed them and I’m going out later today to buy new. I can’t wait. I also need to buy my Christmas cards. Yep. I’m sending them out this year. I hope I have everyone’s correct mailing address!!

Still loving the holiday season!!!!!! We bought Andrea Bocelli’s new Christmas CD on iTunes (It’s really good!) and I’ve watched The Santa Clause about 3 or 4 times already, hehehe.

Odd Behavior

I don’t know what’s gotten into me this year, but I’m so excited about the holidays. Usually, I’m a real bah humbugger about holidays. I don’t know what’s gotten into me!

We have all of our Turkey Day food ready to go. We’re not having anyone over this year but that’s okay. Not to be inhospitable, but I enjoy the time with just my family. Maybe next year will be different though. ;)

I’m also totally into Christmas already. I’m itching to put out my decorations. I saw someone yesterday with their yard already done up and it was nice to see. I also stop to listen to commercials with Christmas music in them. Hmm.

Maybe I’m in a good mood about the holidays because things are so good for us right now. With San Diego on the horizon, I’ve been taking things in stride a lot more than I usually do. There was a freakazoid in the carpool lane at the oldest’s school last week and instead of flipping my lid, I laughed at them instead. I only have to deal with that craziness for 4 1/2 more months. Yep, yep!

Well, I gotta meeting in five minutes, so I’ll stop my blathering now. I hope all of you are in the holiday spirit this year too!!

I Don’t Work Weekends

It was another slow weekend at our house. Friday the Mister and I did a bit of Christmas shopping. We also bought snack food for the Ohio State v. Michigan game on Saturday. We picked up pizza for dinner that night too. Real exciting, right?

Saturday we watched Ohio State beat Michigan for the sixth year in a row. Michigan fans want their coach fired, hehehe. The Mister wore his fuzzy buckeye hat and weirded out the neighborhood kids, lol. I think I’ve posted a picture of it before, but just in case, this is his hat:

I bought it for him for Christmas forever ago. He wore it to the grocery store one year in California. I did not go with him, lol.

Saturday night, the oldest child was invited to a birthday party. We didn’t let her go. It was for our neighbor who turned 14. She had a party that started at 8 and ended at midnight. The Mister and I don’t feel she’s mature enough (even though she’ll be 14 herself in July) to attend such a party. Funnily enough, she wasn’t even mad or upset. I don’t think she wanted to go anyway. This girl doesn’t go to the oldest’s school so she wouldn’t have known any of the kids there anyway.

Sunday, the Mister and I went to the commissary for the first time in about two months, maybe longer. We had been doing our grocery shopping out in town, but with all the Thanksgiving food we needed, we decided to hit the commissary, save some money, and stock up. It was a freaking madhouse. They didn’t have any eggs, chicken broth, allspice, and a couple other things. It’s annoying having to go two places for stuff. Add that to the crowds, the drive, and having to tip the baggers, is it really any wonder why we opt to shop out in town??

We also did some more Christmas shopping on Sunday. This is the earliest head start I’ve ever gotten on Christmas shopping. We are always very last minute usually. We’re also doing a red and silver theme on our Christmas tree this year and picked up these really neat LED lights for our tree. I can’t wait to try them out. I’m totally excited about Christmas this year. I’m really in the Christmas spirit and I’m looking forward to getting out my Christmas decorations and putting away my harvest decorations on Friday. Yay!!