Thursday January 31^st

 The days are flying by so quickly. It's hard to believe only two days have passed since my last write up. So much has happened.

 Becca got her report card yesterday and we're proud to say that she made 5 A's and 1 B. We were so ready for a B in Science but she pulled it off with all that extra credit and hard work. Her only B was in Critical Thinking and we were well aware of that one. WOO HOO!

 I sent a few emails out to my realtor asking his advice about our home situation. I'm feeling desperate and NEED to sell this house. His comment to me was that we'd need to lower the price as low as we possibly can and hope it sells within the next few weeks. He says price is what's selling right now. Well GEE, I don't want to go any lower in price. He says he's not had any bites since out previous call out when the house was a disaster and the alarm was going off. Huh, probably scared everyone away. Well, after I got his response, I talked with Chris and we decided to sit down and decide how much lower we'd be able to go. As I sat down at my desk with pencil, paper and calculator my cell phone rings and it's my "special" realtor ring. It's from the answering service asking if we can be out of the house between the hours of 5 & 6:30. Oh boy oh boy YES!!!!  It was 4:10, dinner was cooking on the stove and I was preparing for my Girl Scout meeting. WHO CARES! We ran around making sure everything was cleaned up, turned off the stove, piled the dogs & my Girl Scout stuff into the car and was out the door by 4:45. We had just under 2 hours to stay away from the house with no where to go because we had the dogs with us. When I picked up Becca from the bus stop she asked if we could go out to dinner to celebrate her good grades but I'd already put the roast on for dinner and told her we'd do it Thursday... HA! We couldn't eat dinner at home and couldn't go out to dinner then because we had the dogs and there's no way we could leave them in the car. We headed to the nearest park and let Becca and the dogs run around and play. After about 30 minutes of that we headed out to the beach. We really need to think of a better get away plan. That one sucked!

 So, I'm trying to stay positive and hope maybe just maybe these folks will buy this house. PLEASE someone buy this house!!!!

 I had to work again today and boy oh boy do I find more and more things I'd do differently if I had my own day care. I just keep making a list of my do's and don'ts. There's so many!!! My boss is a part time realtor and she had to head out for a closing today. She wasn't sure how long it'd take so she told me to plan on being around for 4 hours. My job today was to feed the kid's lunch. They broke their lunch table a few days ago so they had to sit on the floor and eat their beefaroni. NOT GOOD. The kids were a mess after that since 2 of them can't even hold a spoon the correct way. So I spent 20 minutes trying to feed the two of them while running back and forth to the living room where the two 7 month olds were crying in their cribs. It was SO not fun. Of course, I couldn't find diaper wipes again so I had to use paper towels and soap. EWWWW! Talk about unsanitary. Then of course 10 minutes before "mommy" is supposed to show up, one of the 7 month olds decide his fingers taste real good and he gags himself into barfing up his entire bottle. So not only do I not have diaper wipes to clean the little guy up but..... NO CHANGE OF CLOTHES!!! I had to dress him in a little girl onesie! And it just so happens he is the son of one of my GS mom's who HATES ME! Just what I need! As I'm cleaning him up, I hear screaming in the other room. One of the little ones decided to bash another kid in the head with a toy. It just so happened to hit the corner of his eye, cutting it and making it swell. LOVELY!  Couldn't find an accident report to write up but I was able to clean up the wound and put ice on it. OH the things I'd do differently...

 So, I go home and a few hours later my boss calls me to tell me about what happened after I left. Apparently, the two babies were playing together this morning and when the little boy grabbed the play keys from the little girl, he scratched her face. Nothing dramatic, no blood, just a little scratch. He doesn't know any better, he's 7 months... Well, when momma came to pick up her little princess, she went ballistic over the little scratch. She's insisting on an accident report so that she can take pictures and the report up to DCF. "This is unacceptable. Her baby is just too beautiful to have these scratches!" OMG! I got there AFTER the fact and never noticed a scratch on the child's face. Mom must do some serious inspections. It's hysterical. So my boss says to come by in the morning and pick up the accident report...and oh by the way...don't come back. GOOD for her. This lady actually wanted the phone number to the parent of the other child so she could confront them. They are freaking 7 months old!!!!!! Ahhh, it makes me wonder if this is the field I want to work in.

 So, I go back tomorrow morning for a couple of hours and then decide when I'll be available next week... Uhhh, maybe never! LOL

Tuesday January 29^th

 So now I'm seriously starting to get nervous. Anyone need a house?? PLEASE, PLEASE come and buy my house! It'd make a great rental unit! Anyone have the cash to buy, renovate and rent?????

 We went to our walk thru meeting today with the contractor. This is the meeting before they put up the drywall. Chris was in absolute heaven looking at all the wiring and future hiding places. They've got the windows in now along with the security pre-wire and they said the drywall will be in place by Friday. WOO HOO - UH-OH! We have less than 8 weeks to get someone to look at and buy this house or I'm going to have to wave bye-bye to my new dream home! This is so not funny. We walked through the house and we were able to picture where are entertainment centers will go, where our beds and furniture will sit. It's awesome. And my dream back patio!!!! SIGH!  I can't wait! Please, Please someone buy my house!!!!

 I've got some serious issues with the upstairs though. I'm terrified of heights and looking over that banister makes my tummy do weird things. I can't even handle looking out the upstairs windows. I'm sure I'll get over it once the walls and carpets are in...right? I never had an issue with the upstairs at my brothers' house, I'm sure I'll be fine. But I will say, looking over the railing by Becca's bedroom....NOT good! I guess I'm just waiting for the solid walls.

 I've actually been working (day care) for the past couple of weeks, bringing in that little extra cash. Every time I go over there I think of so many things I'd do differently. First thing I'd do is make sure everything stays sanitary. I'm so tired of being sick. Runny noses need to stay wiped, drooling mouths should be wiped every now and again and the play area should be for playing.... Not eating! UGH! And don't forget those dirty diapers... Change them every few hours please! I can't wait until we settle in so that I can begin my business adventure. As I walked through the house today I tried to picture where I'd place the kids "learning centers" and where they'd nap. I have to figure out what I'll do with the dogs when we have outside time. Maybe set up an area out front? I'm just so excited! I know I can do this!

 If you can believe it... we're heading closer and closer to the end of the school year and our schedules are filling up. The next few months are packed full of appointments. We've got 3 weekends filled with cookie booths and cookie deliveries; we've got an ice skating field trip and a community service project we're working on along with planning out our end of the year field trip and bridging ceremony. And that's just for Girl Scouts! Our entire troop will be bridging up to Cadets next year so we're planning on a huge ceremony where they will actually cross over a miniature bridge to become cadets. Woo hoo! Now, I've just got to decide whether or not I want to continue next year. NOT! The trip to DC is coming up along with festival and Easter. By the way, it looks like the closing of the new house will be smack dab in the middle of DC or Festival. No, the stress is not killing me yet! I've got 3 days scheduled so far for volunteering at Becca's school and I've got a week scheduled for working at Don Brewer along with my little part-time job babysitting.  Calgon! Take me away!

 I got to visit with my sister today; a short visit but pleasant. She's doing great and loving her new business. She'll be taking a trip up to South Carolina to check out some businesses that she may be doing security in. If all goes well, she'll be moving to South Carolina to open up another shop up there. Good luck to her! I wish her well.

Friday January 25^th

The stress is starting to wear on my nerves again. I don't know how much more I can take without exploding. Everything is happening at once and I just don't think my shoulders can bear any more weight.

We had an absolute embarrassing day on Wednesday. Oh my god, you wouldn't believe how humiliated I was. We went down to the Morgan's this past weekend to hang out, relax and of course, pick up Pagan who has spent over a month with them due to our road trip to PA and of course the selling of this house. So, we return Sunday night and immediately head out for dinner with Fred to celebrate his birthday. We get home late, fall into bed and sleep away the morning on Monday. We rest, relax and enjoy are day off on Monday...UH, yeah, in my dreams! We headed out to WJCT to get cookie orders, then head to 5 points for more cookie orders, have lunch and head to the house. Needless to say, I never unpacked our bags from our weekend. Tuesday, Becca went to school and I went to work. When I got home, I had a bunch of errands to do, fix dinner and catch up on my emails, bills etc...Needless to say, I never unpacked our bags from our weekend. I didn't do laundry; I didn't clean up my area. Wednesday, Becca went to school and I went to work. I had this weird feeling all morning that maybe, just maybe someone would stop by sometime this week to look at the house, may just maybe decide they liked it and want to buy it. Well, Wednesday after work, I went home, fixed lunch for Chris and I and straightened up the living room. The kitchen was clean and basically the house looked.....OKAY... except for Becca's pig sty which I planned on blasting her when she got home. Anyway, we decided that after picking up Becca from the bus stop, we'd head over to the new house and see what progress they'd made since our last trip. We then had to head over to the Studio to drop off signed paperwork for our new fencing.  So, we left the house and headed out. As we were heading home from our trip, my cell phone rings and it's our Realtor. He says he's got someone looking at the house and the alarm is going off. OH NO!!! I get hysterical, explain that the house is a wreck, the dogs are outside and NO ONE called to tell us they'd be there!! He PROMISED they'd call before anyone showed. Well, I couldn't remember the alarm code for the realtors so he calls me back and informs me that they went through the house with the alarm blaring. I was so UPSET! I had a pile of dirty clothes on my bedroom floor (from the night before), Becca's bedroom was a disaster area, the dining room table had my mortgage stuff and calculator piled all over it and the back bedroom (where I do my office stuff) was cluttered with Girl Scout stuff and taxes. Not only that, but my bra was lying on the floor where I threw it the night before!!!! OH MY GOD! How embarrassing! I try real hard to make sure the house smells good but we'd had chili for lunch and the house reeked of it!!! Let's just say, that if that was our last hope of anyone buying this house... .WE ARE SCREWED!!!!! I did find out that it was an error on their part, their office forgot to call us and inform us of the schedule. Woo hoo, that makes me happy huh? JERKS!

So, on to the new house....The new house is shaping up nicely. They've got the plumbing, electrical, security, A/C, and "wrapping" done already. They'll be getting the windows in this weekend/first of next week. Chris & I are going out Tuesday for a meeting/walk thru before they put up the dry wall. Once the drywall is up... We have 8 Weeks!!!! We went out yesterday and walked the entire house by ourselves. I took a ton of pictures and I am really getting excited. Becca can't wait to get into her new bedroom and Chris is already planning to cut open my brand new walls for hiding places. Please, anyone out there that has some positive praying, energy, thoughts or whatever... Please send it this way. We HAVE to sell this house within the next 8 weeks or our dream is going to go out the door. I NEED to sell this house!!!!

So, on to Becca.... Becca finished up her 2^nd quarter of school and started quarter #3 with new electives. She's taking PE and Journalism. I can honestly say I'm shocked to hear she is having a blast in PE. She's not the most active child but she seems to be having a great time playing basketball and showing off her "gymnastics" training. Journalism sounds like fun but she's a little intimidated by the teacher. Becca says he's worse than her previous Critical thinking teacher. He has no sense of humor and every wrong thing a child does the teacher comments, "God is watching you and he's not happy." She says she wants to blast him for this because she's not taking a religious class; she's taking journalism... Oh well. It looks like we'll be having a report card with 4 A's and 2 B's. Not too bad since those two B's could have been C's... She's having serious issues with test taking.

So, the next few weeks are packed full with work, Girl Scouts, school, new house, and People to People. Positive thoughts, prayers, energy or wishes are seriously welcome this way if you have it! We must sell this house... we must sell this house... we must sell this house... we must sell this house!!!

Monday January 21^st       

So, it's been over a month since I've posted anything. Since my last post my mind has become a whirling mass of confusion. There is so much going on, so much to do and just no time to complete it all. I'll try to bring everything up to date with as little babbling as possible.

We went to Pennsylvania over Christmas and I had a wonderful time. I really needed to see my dad over the holiday. After spending a week up there with Liz and Dad I feel a bit calmer and more centered. The drive up to dads was uneventful. Chris allowed me to do most of the driving and I had a blast. Chris took over in the mountains of West Virginia because I refuse to drive those curves and hills. We got to dad's house in the early morning hours and Luna jumped right out in the snow and had a blast. We had one good day of enjoying the snow on the ground and then enjoyed 2 days of solid rain. It was sad to see the snow disappear but the girls were excited about all the ice. Ice was everywhere! We had one really serious storm up there... Snow, thunder, lightning and wind. The wind was so strong we thought the windows would shatter! It was awesome! Chris and I slept in a room surrounded by windows and no heat. Becca spent one night out there with us and then decided the living room was a better sleeping choice. It was so cold out there my water bottles kept freezing. I was in heaven!

Chris complained that dad didn't have a tree up yet so on Christmas Eve afternoon, when Chris took the girls out shopping, Dad went behind the house and found the most pitiful Charlie Brown tree ever and set to work on setting it up for Chris. It was pathetic but the girls loved it and Chris was content. Christmas was fun and uneventful. We enjoyed a quiet relaxing day.  Thursday morning came and it was time to leave but..... WAIT... It's SNOWING!!! WOO HOO! Dad woke me up around 8 that morning and big giant clumps of snow were falling from the sky. No way was I leaving! I wanted to make a snow man and have a snow ball fight and... and... stay! Unfortunately, the snow stopped and melted away. We tearfully left that evening. The trip home was also uneventful. Chris had to drive most of the way because we brought another passenger home with us and he had to sit up front with me because Luna was NOT a happy camper. We picked up a puppy for Julia (half springer/cocker spaniel pup) He was just the cutest little thing! Luna wouldn't allow him in the back seat and Chris refused to hold him so I got to snuggle the little guy all the way home!!!

We got home just in time for Zephyr and Cat to come up and spend the weekend/New Years with us. Fun was had by all and we were ready to begin the New Year.

The New Year started for us as usual.... The washing machine issue was taken care of... we got a new/used washer from a friend but due to it's lack of use, the problem with the plumbing started up again and we aren't able to do laundry because it over flows the toilet in the den. Unfortunately, the "clog" is under the laundry room floor (far be it to be somewhere that we can easily access and repair) so that's more $$ that we need to find to fix that issue.  We had a wedding to attend the 1^st weekend of January and on that day we got our first official call of someone wanting to see the house. So, after an hour of running around making sure the house was perfect and finding a place for Luna to stay, we headed to the wedding. I guess since it's been over 2 weeks ago, it doesn't look like they were impressed. OH WELL... Anyway...

I am still working on getting my license to open my own home day care. I completed two courses and passed both competency exams. I have 4 more to go before I can apply for my license and get started. My plan is to get everything ready and then open it up when we get into the new house. No sense in starting my business here in this house right? So, hopefully in 4 or 5 more months I'll be open for business. I'm so looking forward to that! My own business!!! WOO HOO!!

I went in for my first 2 tests with absolute confidence. I walked out with my head down and lip out. I was so upset with myself. I could have sworn I failed both of them. They were COMMON SENSE questions and apparently I have none. I second guessed my answers, and lost every bit of confidence I'd been holding on to. I was so upset. I flew home and started going over my study guides finding all the answers I got wrong. It sucks living in a house full of smart people and you are the only idiot. Things come so easy for Chris and Becca and the one thing I knew... I KNEW; I failed. DUMB DUMB DUMB, that's what I am. So what if I can take the test again! It's not the same as passing it the first time. If I was smart, I would have passed it the first time right??? So, after a major temper tantrum, hysterics and crying, I found out the next morning that I actually passed both tests. So maybe I'm not as dumb as I think... but I am dumb!

I'm off to begin course #3 with the hopes I'll be able to complete it and pass the damn competency test without stressing myself out.

We've got 70 days until Becca goes to Washington DC. I've got $1000 left to pay on her bill - by January 30^th and she has two assignments left to complete for the program. No the stress isn't killing me yet! Girl Scout Cookie sales have begun with the understanding that cookie booths will soon follow. WOO HOO! No the stress isn't killing me yet... We headed down to Chris's parent's house this weekend to pick up Pagan. He's been down there since before Christmas. Becca gave Luna a bath before we headed down on Friday. Becca gave Luna a "cold" bath... HUH? WHY? Oh, because the water heater is breaking down and it looks like a new one is going to be needed very soon. No the stress isn't killing me yet... Becca's Father/Daughter Ball is coming up this weekend. Becca needs a dress, a new pair of shoes and a corsage. Oh, and don't forget dinner with her date! No the stress isn't killing me yet.

The new house is making amazing progress. The frame is up and they are supposed to be "wrapping" it this week. I don't know what the hell that means but Chris says that's a good thing so I'll take his word for it. The plumbers, electricians and A/C guys were in last week to do all their work before the sheet rock goes up. I want them to hurry up but I'm also hoping work slows down for them because we've yet to get a bite on this house and I NEED this house to sell. I'm not going to start panicking until they tell me the sheetrock is up. When that is up we have approximately 8 weeks until closing. 8 weeks! This house isn't even sold yet! No the stress isn't killing me. Anybody want to buy a house!!! Please buy this house!!!

So, that's just about caught us up to date. Karen is doing great, her business is doing okay and she's thinking of expanding up into North Carolina. (Long story there)

HAPPY MARTIN LUTHER KING DAY FOLKS!!!!