Because I simply cannot take the aggravation any more, I have now set up an authentication service for my comments to prevent spammers from befouling my bandwidth. To leave a comment you'll have to register with TypeKey. They're a reputable company (the same company who produces the publishing platform I use on this blog) and they will not sell your email address or anything sleazy like that. Also, you may encounter other blogs that use TypeKey to authenticate their comments and, in that case, you will be able to sign in and comment there, too.
It's an inconvenience, I know, but I absolutely WILL NOT any longer allow these bottom-feeding scumbags to post advertisements and pornography links on the bandwidth that I'M paying for. My only other alternative is simply not taking comments at all, as I've been doing the past few weeks. Apparently that wouldn't be so terrible since I've gotten all of nine comments in the past two months, but my conscience won't let me disallow all comments, "just in case."
Sorry for the inconvenience.
Reopening comments....not that I've exactly been inundated with them lately. ;)
I am safely ensconced in my parents' house in California. The trip had one snag, which was minor owing to the fact that I had only myself to care for instead of myself plus three small kids.
My first day here has been good; quiet and relaxing. I will have more to say on the subject later but for now I'm off to enjoy the rest of the evening.
New pictures up on Picasa! Clicky-clicky the slide show on the left to view them in their full-sized glory.
Will regale you with the tale of the Dallas trip tomorrow or Tuesday. For now I'm off to bed; a trip to a kids' ranch with a gaggle of kindergarteners and basketball evaluations and sign-up for two of the three crumbsnatchers loom on Monday's horizon.
We. are. moving.
! ! ! !
Long story short: The other week Robert and I were talking and we came to the decision that buying our current house just might not have been the best decision for us. Directly on the heels of that realization came the news that the financing deal was dead, anyhow. We took it as a sign. A lovely house had recently been offered for rental after its owners were unable to sell it in a timely manner. We jumped on the opportunity and, within a matter of a few days, it was settled: we're moving. We gave our thirty days' notice of intent to vacate this place and we already have the keys to the new place. The moving will be an ongoing project over the entire month of September. We don't have an exact date for when we'll actually be sleeping in the other place but I think we're going to shoot for mid-month to get all the utilities (plus the cable and satellite) turned on/transferred over. Once that happens we'll shift our base of operations to there, even if we haven't gotten everything out of this house.
As for the new place, it's just wonderful. It's across town from where we are now, near(ish) the big city park. It's five years old, a two-story red brick affair with a great, fenced back yard (something we don't have here, which curtails the kids' playing outside). Downstairs is the master suite with Australian closet, half-bath, living room, kitchen with breakfast nook, dining room, and finished basement. Upstairs each kid has his/her own bedroom, plus there's a family room, a play room and another bathroom. Closet space abounds. Seriously, I think we own a LOT of stuff but it will probably only fill half of the storage space there. There are minor cosmetic issues I'd fix, if given the chance, but I could see us being happy there for as long as we can stay. We hope to rent for about a year while we iron some things out and then we'll definitely be interested in buying the place, providing Robert's job situation doesn't take us away from the area. (Incidentally, this move won't affect the kids' schooling at all, as the schools here are divided by grade, not by location of residence.)
More info to follow later, as well as photos, as I start getting the rooms fixed up the way I want them. For now: Crap! I need to start packing!
I'm still here! She hasn't killed me yet! :)
It has been a crazy-busy week and it's not over yet. Madalyn's dance recital is tonight and we're getting down to the wire on that -- she will be picked up from school in about an hour and then it will be complete insanity until about 9:00 tonight. Unfortunately that means I don't have time right now to sit and write properly. This weekend, maybe, though! I plan to get out for some "me time" and there are a couple places in town that have Wi-Fi so perhaps I can go do a little blogging in peace and quiet?
Until then, I leave you with this:
Awwww.......
Just a quick update while my hands are free for a few, brief moments:
I'm still here. Also still living, which is a big bonus.
Eliza is doing better at night -- well, at least up till 5:30 or 6:00. We're getting 2-3 hour stretches out of her, in her own bed. However, early in the a.m. she starts grunting and wriggling and squeaking and it takes a good hour-and-a-half to get her back to sleep -- by which time it's time to get up with the older two to get ready for school. I had forgotten all about it but JZ did this exact same thing around this age and I never did figure out why. He grew out of it after a while so hopefully Eliza will soon, as well. Unfortunately she's also now giving me some trouble during the day. She doesn't seem to want to stay asleep more than 20 minutes at a time. Yesterday and today it's more like five minutes, if I'm lucky. I'm getting a bit frazzled because, though she will pay some attention to her gym and bouncy seat, that only lasts a few minutes. Mostly she wants to be held and eat and it's very hard to get anything done. I sort of count on her naptimes for a little "me" time -- you know, for such luxuries as feeding myself, showering, etc. I'm still clinging to the hope that at some point soon we will have both nights AND days arranged into some sort of manageable routine instead of just one at a time -- sooner rather than later!
In exchange for all the trouble, though, she smiled at me yesterday. No, it was NOT gas! It was in response to my talking to her. She also cooed twice. Then she gave me another quick smile this morning, too. I seem to recall JZ was around 3 weeks old when he first smiled, too. As I mentioned, she's also starting to show a little interest in her baby gym and the toys on the toy bar of her bouncy seat, so that's a big plus. With Robert being gone overnight regularly and me being responsible for morning and nighttime routines by myself it's a big help to have something that will keep her occupied and happy for a few minutes while I tend to the other two or do some other small task. I think we've got to the point that those items' helpfulness will only increase as we go along.
Eh, there's probably more to say but she is awake yet again after a five-minute nap so the crying is about to start and I have to dash.
Whoops! Sorry to leave everyone hanging! The full story will come later (hopefully this evening or tomorrow) but here is the long and short of it:
Eliza Claire was born at approximately 4:43 p.m. on Tuesday, March 27th, delivered by Daddy because the midwives did not make it in time!!!! She weighed 7 lbs., 9 oz. and was 19" long (finally my short genes caught up with us).
As you can imagine it is quite the story and I'm working on it as we speak, in between taking care of this lovely new little girl.
In the meantime, please enjoy a picture to tide you over. Due to the circumstances surrounding her birth we did not get any pictures until much later in the day! I haven't been able to get a really good one where she's not looking off to the side but I will keep trying and post more when I have them.
P.S. -- If anyone is reading this entry who feels I should've called to announce her birth to you in person, my apologies. The whole situation really turned us on our ears as we were obviously not planning an unattended home birth and then there was a cascade reaction of circumstances after that, including an ambulance ride and an overnight hospital stay. Eliza was very needy all day yesterday, in addition, so we just haven't gotten to a lot of the stuff we'd planned to do, which includes phoning people to let them know she's here!
Total Choice Hosting, in its infinite wisdom, saw fit to suspend my account because of "a billing problem". Yeah, there was a problem, alright -- they never emailed me and let me know the server costs were due, nor did they ever email me and let me know they had suspended the account. I only found out when I tried to sign on to blog. I had to go ferret around and find out for myself what had happened and then it took them a day to turn the stinkin' thing back on. I have no idea what happened there as I renewed last year with no problem. They sent an email, I paid it, no interruption of service. Normally it would've just been an annoyance but, having never had this happen before, I was in a panic that all my data had disappeared. It appears to be safe and sound, though, and I've learned a valuable lesson -- do weekly backups of all entries, just in case!
At any rate, we're back in business. There are numerous things to report but I will save them for later as I'm currently being called on my promise to let John-Zachary play at Noggin.com.
Okay.....WHO SENT ME MALLOMARS?
The UPS man brought me a package today and, inside? Four boxes of Mallomars. I almost fell on the floor!
There is no name on the package and no packing slip of any kind inside. So now the mystery has begun. Who is my Cookie Fairy?
And, equally as important, can I keep from consuming an entire box in one sitting?
Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words.
I love irony. Oh, and also: brrrrrrr.
And this time we have visual confirmation that everything's okay!
The long-awaited and even longer-delayed ultimate vehicle update!
I have pictures but I want to give the whole story. For those of you with short attention spans, or who just don't care about details, here is the bottom line: I GOT A CONVERSION VAN! You may now skip ahead to the pictures. Everyone else, read on.
I have a lot to tell about the car situation....but I'm not going to post it right now! I'm not trying to be a tease; it's just that every time I've sat down at the computer since we got home from Texas I've had a million other things I needed to do. This is no different. I just finished doing all the "must-do" things but I have to dash now because I have errands to run. I promise the update will be forthcoming. It will be up by tonight. Check back later!
Apparently Cosmo has an abcess in his leg. He is running a bit of a fever so he's being sent home with antibiotics. She shaved his leg to look at it but didn't see anything that needed to be lanced so I guess what we do is just give him the meds and wait for it to go away.
I'm relieved but still extremely cautious. I have had more pets than I care to mention go completely downhill after I'd been convinced by the vet that everything was going to be fine. (Not this specific vet, though.) I don't think I'll be able to relax completely until the lump on his leg goes away and he's back to acting like his old self.
I totally forgot I hadn't updated on the car situation yet. D'oh!
I can't do it right now as I have to go get Cosmo ready for the vet (see post below) but I will post an update later today. We have excellent news, folks.
Sorry to leave everybody hanging.
Hang on, folks....things may not be as bleak as they seem.
Watch for more updates as information becomes available.....
My new wheels!
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, our long national nightmare is over. I have transportation.
I am pleased and thrilled to announce the arrival of:
Our tax refund!!
Vehicular ownership is just around the corner. We will be shopping around town tomorrow and going up to the city later in the week.
(For those just tuning in I have been without an automobile since June of last year, due to a fiendish convergence of financial difficulties.)
As much as I'd like to be able to say we are going new-car shopping, alas, this is not the case. The credit, she is bad. So much so that it will probably be a couple years before anyone will finance a new car for us. We will be browsing in the pre-owned section and probably our choices will be fairly limited as there are likely not too many places who will be willing to deal with us at this point. We remain optimistic, however, that we will come away with a car that is not too many years old and in the moderate- to low-mileage department. Something that is going to fall apart on us in a month would not be terribly beneficial.
My dream vehicle, oddly enough, is a conversion van (go ahead, mock me. I know you're thinking it.) I have been fascinated by the idea of them ever since I rode in one on a class trip to Magic Mountain when I was in the eighth grade. Since I've been car-less I have been thinking a lot about what I'd really want and a conversion van is it. What I would truly love is one of the brand-new, macked out models with a flat-screen LCD t.v., backup cameras, and every other bell and whistle you can imagine. Unfortunately we are several years away from one of those at this time. Very nice used conversion vans are available but, as mentioned previously, with our ugly credit situation we will be limited to the stock on hand at the very few places who will even consider speaking to us. So it looks as though we will have to work up to the conversion van. I am willing, in the interim, to drive a mini-van as long as it's a relatively nice mini-van. Not my favorite type of car but I can deal for a year or two. Hell, at this point, I could deal with my old, two-door, 1976 Oldsmobile Cutlass. So long as it runs reliably and doesn't have vermin infestation in the upholstery, I can deal. Just let me be able to get out of the house when I want!!!
You might notice there's nothing under the "Photos" category over there on the left. It is in the works and will be up and running soon. Bear with me.
So what do you think of the new duds?
All the credit goes to Zoot, of course. I did pick out the graphic, but, hell, a trained chimp could do that. I don't think I'll ever get tired of looking at this. Have I mentioned blue is my favorite color? Blue is my favorite color.
Now, if I could just think of something interesting to say, I'd be all set.
Congratulate me, blog-reading-people. I am pleased to report I am down 8.5 pounds as of yesterday!
I am also pleased to report (but embarrassed to admit, all the same) I am finally beginning to resemble a mere fat girl as opposed to a fat girl who is 5 months pregnant. This is an improvement as I've spent much of the past couple of years holding random objects in front of my stomach for fear someone would ask me when I was due. So progress, it is being made. At this rate I will be smoking hot when my trip comes around at the end of May. Not that I need to be smoking hot since I don't plan to pick up Beatles impersonators or anything. It just makes me feel better, is all.
I finally updated my Blogroll. I axed a few blogs -- basically anything that no longer exists or those things which haven't been updated in months and months. I also added a few new links. Check 'em out, if you are so inclined.
I have a new blog!
No, I'm not forsaking my incorrigibility. This is not a replacement; it's an addition to the family. Check it out!
This time I have a good excuse for disappearing off the face of the blog for a while. We just moved on Wednesday. Check that - the movers came on Wednesday and moved all of our furniture and we brought over some essentials and have been spending the night here ever since. Our former house, however, is still littered with all manner of non-essential items. So not only have I been dealing with all of that I also was without a computer from Monday morning until Wednesday evening, as it was in the shop.
Since we started staying here we have been going back to the other house to work on packing periodically. We bring over a carload of stuff every time we come away but the bulk of it will be moved via rental truck which we hope to be ready to procure a week from Monday. Our intial plan, because we are idiots, was to get a truck this past Thursday and bring at least part of the remaining contents over, despite the fact that most of said contents had not come within five yards of a box, let alone actually taking up residence inside one. It finally occurred to us that if we waited on the truck and packed up everything first we could probably get it all in one load. We also have the added bonus of being able to draft my brother-in-law to help us by waiting until a Monday to do it. So that is the current plan.
Meanwhile I am not the least bit sorry to be out of the old house and I'm having fun figuring out how to arrange this one. We have even more square footage here than there and we might actually be able to afford to buy some new furniture to fill it up. We've already been out looking.
Will write more later about the new place. I may even be persuaded to do a photo essay of some sort once I get things put in order.
Completely unrelated aside: 6 more days until I see 1964! And 7 more days till I see them the second time! Hee. I'm a Beatle geek.
Prior to this week it had been at least four weeks since any realtor had come to show our house. This was not entirely unexpected, as I don't know that many people go house-shopping immediately prior to Christmas.
On Wednesday our realtor called to discuss lowering the asking price. I had no qualms about teling him to do so, as I had thought his intial suggestion was too high in the first place. Being that it is, technically, my house (check the deed), and also because Robert isn't the boss of me, I told the realtor on the spot to go ahead and bring the price down.
The very next day, Thursday, I got a call in the morning that someone wanted to show the house at 2:00. I tore through the place like a poodle on espresso for three hours, getting it ready. An hour after I got back in the house following the showing the phone rang again. Someone was wanting to come this morning at 10. No problem! The house was already clean so the kids and I took to the streets while the people looked around. We had literally just gotten back and I had the key in the door when the phone started ringing again. It was our realtor. There was another realtor who happened to be just up the street and was wanting to stop by. So we were off on another walk again. When we got back I checked my messages and there was yet another message from our guy's office that still MORE people wanted to come at 3:00 this afternoon!
I don't know what it is; whether it was the lowering of the price (we only brought it down by $3k but it put it into an entirely different price bracket) or whether it is that people were waiting till after Christmas to house-shop - or a combination of both, but I have renewed (though still cautious) optimism about the whole situation. We haven't even buried the St. Joseph statue yet. We have one on order and it will probably arrive next week. So we have the warm bodies and we will soon have a little divine intervention. Perhaps the end is in sight!
Well, the California trip? Not gonna happen. Today was the first time I would've (financially) been able to book a ticket and there is NOTHING available in my price range. Well, if I wanted to leave on Christmas day I'd be golden but anything you click on past that says "sold out." The cheapest thing I could find on the dates I actually needed was $575 and that is simply impossible right now, especially when you figure in rental car, spending money, the dress, the hair, etc.
I am disappointed but do feel an enormous weight lifted off my shoulders in regards to the guilt I was feeling about trying to push the trip through when we really couldn't afford it. We have already decided we will be going out for Spring Break so hopefully next month things will have improved to where we can book our tickets early and get good fares.
I just hope my friend can understand and forgive me for pulling out of the wedding at the last minute! If it had been in May, as originally planned, it wouldn't have been a problem but the end of December was too soon after getting the new restaurant open for us to be able to manage it.
(And just so you don't think I'm a total jerk, she did realize, when she called a few weeks ago to tell me it was being moved to Jan. 1st, that I might not be able to make the trip. She knows about our current situation!)
I'm still here!
Can you say E-X-H-A-U-S-T-E-D?
I swear I don't remember being this tired for this long the first two times I was preggers. It seems like the fatigue left for a while and didn't come back until quite a bit later.
So...the big news, I guess, is we are selling our house. I could go one of two ways, here. I could give the sanitized, socially acceptable vague and evasive reason or I could just flat-out tell the truth. And since this is my blog, and I have never been accused of being socially acceptable, here's the truth: we can't afford to live here any more. Hell, we couldn't afford to live here when we moved in. We got a bad deal on our mortgage. Bad bad bad bad bad. Did I mention it was bad? Cop this: the night before closing the $*%&# woman from the bank calls us and says, "Oh, by the way, you have to have mortgage insurance and it's $550 a month." This is after we'd moved in. And unpacked partially. And the previous owners were moved into their new house upon which they were making payments. Oh yes, and I was about 8 months pregnant at the time. We kind of felt like we had to just go forward with the deal -- and we've been in trouble ever since. The fact that I haven't had a car since we sold my 4Runner in June? That's not because we are frugal or because I like not being able to set foot out of my house for days on end. That's because we can't afford another car, y'all. Not even a $500 junker. Nearly all of our income is getting sucked up by this house payment, which, by the way, went up about another $150 a couple months ago. So that's it. Finis. We are out of here.
It's a little hard letting go but not nearly as bad as I thought it might be. I had recently come to the realization that I, in the back of my mind, was not imagining us staying here forever, as I first had when we bought the place. I had/have hopes of buying a bigger place once things improve for us. I had just intended to stay here until we could do that. Instead we will have an interim house; a rental. We will stay there for a year or two while we rebuild our credit, get a steady income going and get back on our feet. We should be able to rent a decent-sized house and have our rent payment be about half what we are paying on our mortgage now. This will allow for things like a car for me, getting our cell phones turned back on (done), Christmas done with no problems, and then the really luxurious stuff like being able to go to the store and buy groceries when we run out instead of having to wait days until we can find some cash.
So better days are ahead, my friends. Our income looks to be due to increase while our expenses decrease, which is always a good situation. Once we get a few things sorted out and get the house sold we should be able to secure a vehicle for me, and not just an "it'll do" car; something I really want.
We have looked at a possible rental already and are interested in it but have not made any committments. It is actually larger than our current house. It has kind of an odd layout because it's an older house (though the inside was entirely redone this year so it's in good condition). I think it would be unbelievable good fortune if we were able to actually move UP in size going from owning to renting. However, we don't want to rush into anything, and, while I can see us making do there quite nicely for the next year or so, we are not head-over-heels in love with the place. So we are giving it till the end of the month and if it's still available we will likely take it and get out of here so the realtor can show a nice, empty house.
All in all, this is going to end up being a good thing. Robert and I are both already less stressed than we have been in a long time. Although the thought of having to pack up everything we own and move it....again....makes me want to vomit. But, hey, what doesn't these days?
Well, this isn't quite how I was expecting to spend my summer next year.
Hee hee hee....
On a more cheerful note, my birthday was somewhat salvaged, after all.
A decision has been made that Madalyn will not be attending the Dallas Paul concert with me.
So, happy birthday to me, I guess.
I staggered out of bed this morning at 7:15, long enough to fix Madalyn's hair and make sure Robert knew both kids' outfits were laid out for school. Then I headed back to bed and didn't get up until 11:45.
Basically, I have no plans today. I had plans, until I realized that Robert had his two classes to teach today. Now, I'm not one who is loathe to do things by myself, so if I had the means I'd have simply taken off to Norman or OKC on my own for the day. The monkey wrench in the works being that I HAVE NO CAR so that was out of the question, too.
So, here I sit, waiting for Robert to show up, the idea being that we will go to lunch. Unfortunately, and don't get me wrong; I'm not deliberately looking for reasons to be dissatisfied; this is just the truth: I am sick unto death of the restaurants here. None of them are that great to begin with and then when you've eaten at them about a thousand times in the past couple of years, because you had no other choices, going to them just doesn't seem like any big whoop.
Tonight we have Open House at Madalyn's school and I think I will take myself to a movie afterward. So those are my grand plans for my birthday. *sigh*
You know, it's not like I'm an attention whore who needs a parade and a full marching band to celebrate. But I do like to make some fuss out of birthdays -- even if I have to plan the fuss my own self -- and it kind of sucks, to put it bluntly, to not be able to do something at least slightly out of the ordinary. I mean, the movies will be nice and I will enjoy it -- but I just went to the movies on my own on Sunday afternoon, so it's not like it's some rare treat.
Fear not, though, faithful readers. Lest I begin to sound completely whiny and ungrateful, I will also add that, you know, it's not what I'd hoped for, it's not what I'd planned....but, damn, it sure beats the alternative of NOT having any more birthdays. So I will delay my celebration and just be happy I'm here to do any celebrating at all -- and that my family is here to do it with me.
(And, after all, I am going to see Paul three times in the next two months, that sure doesn't suck!)
Parents = gone
Me = sad
Car = non-existent
Outlook = grim, though slightly less so than it has been
Sleep = not enough
JZ = traumatized by preschool
Madalyn = born to be a school kid
I think that brings everyone up to speed.
More to come later as I get back to my normal, sans-houseguest routine.
It occurred to me that I should add a link to the archive page of my first blog, over at Diaryland, where I hung out for a year before I got my own domain. So, if you missed those entries the first time around, head over and check them out. There's some fun stuff over there.
The link can be found under "Archives" on the right side of this page or you can click this link.
The official Paul McCartney tour dates were announced today.
Naturally, the announcement comes one day after I spent most of the money in my Paypal account at the Galleria in Dallas. *sigh*
However, according to Ticketmaster, the Dallas show does not go on sale until the 30th. So we have almost two full weeks to scrabble together enough money for two tickets.
As thrilled as I am over this development, I am also exceedingly disappointed. Paul will NOT be coming back to Oklahoma City. No, he has decided, instead, that stops in Des Moines and Omaha are necessary. Let me repeat that. O. ma. ha.
Between that and "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey" I have given up ever trying to figure out what goes on in that man's head.
Robert and I have been talking, though, and we have a plan. It is thus: I will only be buying tickets for the Dallas show immediately. Then, as the summer and, hopefully, our financial situation progress we will try to plan for me to see Paul in some other city. Possibilities include Vegas (very large pie in the sky -- that will only happen if things improve dramatically) or perhaps Milwaukee (never been to Wisconsin before) or who knows where else.
Now to begin the countdown to November....
Yes, my dream has finally been realized. No, we didn't win the lottery. No, John-Zachary didn't potty-train himself overnight. No, we aren't moving to California. And that world peace thing isn't really coming along too well, either. But I got my own domain, and that's something, isn't it?
Yay, me. And yay, Zoot, for setting me up with Movable Type. I bow before your greatness.
Some of you may have come here when I initially sent out the e-mail letting you all know about the new location, and then returned to find, well....no new entries and a comments system that didn't work. This is because we had a slight technical difficulty; namely I done messed with some stuff that I shouldn't'a done messed with and I kilt it. Poor Zoot had to reinstall but I have learned my lesson and everything is on track again. Woohoo!