Home Sweet Home

Excuse the quiet 'round here!  It's been a very busy week and weekend.


Among the normal insane busy-ness of my life, I had to fit a move into the middle of it all.
This is a VERY good thing, don't get me wrong!  I am incredibly happy to have found the perfect, little old house (my long-time friends may remember I LOVE old houses).  It's absolutely perfect for my life at this time.  


After a couple of crappy months of taking one step forward and then being shoved two or three steps back....this feels good.  

*Squee!!*  Isn't it adorable??

I can't wait to get it all decorated and personalized.

Home Sweet Home!

A Moving Post

As many of you know, we recently moved. There are a lot of changes & adjustments involved in moving. Let's discuss some of them.

1. We moved from a house way back in the woods to a house in a neighborhood near a relatively busy road. Before, if we heard a car pull up, someone was visiting us. Now, there are cars riding around us all the time. We feel popular - for a minute..........

2. We are now walking distance from a store. A store that sells Diet Dr Pepper (and Mike's Hard Lemonade). Hallelujah!!

3. I will NEVER move my armoire again. I will burn that bad boy. It will kick your ass, then stomp on you while you're down.

4. Taking your son shopping for bedding, towels, etc. is a very bizarre experience. Fun, but sad.

5. Working for nine straight days immediately after moving is NOT something I recommend! Usually I am unpacked within a day or two of moving. We're 2 weeks in here and not even close! I'm a flipping zombie.

6. If I hear the question, "Mom, do you know where _____ is?" ONE MORE TIME I'm going to put a hole in the wall. WITH MY HEAD.

.....and last but certainly not least.....

7. It's important to remember that we now have neighbors. Particularly when some of our windows do not yet have any curtains or blinds. (sorry, new neighbors!)

P.S. I had a very nice Valentine's Day & I hope you all did too!

Cutting Edge!

It's peanut butter fragment time, peanut butter fragment time! Peanut butter fragment - peanut butter fragment - peanut butter fragment with a baseball bat!

Apparently, I'm on the cutting edge of a new trend - divorcing bloggers! It seems that both Dooce and Bossy are also in the process of separation /divorce. Who knew I'd be one of the 'in' bloggers?
I shouldn't be so facetious about it; divorce sucks and it seems that Dooce is really struggling right now. But you know what? She'll be okay. She'll emerge stronger than ever.

It's moving weekend! And I am already exhausted. I also have to work this weekend. How am I going to pull this off? I am not quite sure. Wish me luck!

My son and his friend are getting their own place. It's just a little ways down the road from our new home. But it will be his first time living on his own. And I'm going to miss him! (sniff, sniff) He has been a huge help to me these past few months and I don't know what I'd have done without him.

My main client had a bad fall last week (thankfully, not on my watch). She has a huge goose-egg and two enormous black eyes. I told her she looks like the poster child for elder abuse prevention. She cracked up!

Watch what you say on Facebook....people will take what you say completely out of context and tell your mother all about it. People like...your mother's hair stylist. She told my mom that I posted something on FB that I absolutely did NOT post! I don't know if she got confused or took something the wrong way, but I don't need that kind of drama in my life. So I deleted her! Haha.

Love this song. Enjoy your weekend!

Wrapping Up the Weekend

I'm taking a break from unpacking to check in & do a weekend wrap-up!

The March for Babies walk was wonderful. We exceeded our $200 goal, raising $225. $90 of that was from blog friends! Thank you all SO much.

My son Tim's friend Zack walked with us too. The weather was wonderful & we enjoyed ourselves.

This year for the first time, we had a sign placed on Memory Mile for Johnathon Wayne. It was really touching to see that.

{I remembered to bring my camera to the walk. However, I forgot batteries! So these are cell phone shots.}

After the walk, we went to my parents' house and had a birthday celebration for my son Tim, my husband, & my Dad. Both Tim's friend Zack and Tim's girlfriend Jessica came, along with my best friend (who is like family) Danielle, her daughter Ashlee, & Ashlee's boyfriend. My whole family was there too, so it was a nice crowd. We had some fantastic food, including a layered ice cream cake that I made. I got the recipe from my friend Debi's blog, Who Says 8 is Enough? It was a BIG hit, and super-easy to make.

Sunday was the Big Move. Some of the guys from church came over with two trucks & two trailers and had them loaded in no time flat. Then we came to the new house and they unloaded them almost as quickly. My sister, niece, & her fiance also came over to help out. We had a good time hanging out with them & unpacking.

There are still a few things left at the old house but we're almost done there. Now I have the job of unpacking, which I don't mind much and I can't really relax until it's done, so it probably won't take me long.

I worked for two & a half hours this morning and then ran errands and came home. Love it!

We just got our satellite transferred over so now I can enjoy my TV shows, and since I have great internet service here, I can make an attempt to catch up on my blog reading tonight!

I hope you had a great weekend too!

If you blogged about your weekend, link up below!

I Don't Know Whether to Scratch my Watch or Wind My Butt!

{Anyone know what movie that's from?}

TGIF!

I am very glad to see Friday roll around!

This was my first week at my new job. I only worked two days, but today was a busy one and it kicked my butt! This job is great because I basically set my own schedule. I can be home when the kids get home from school, but on days that they're not home, I can work later (and make more money!).

On Thursday, my Littles (Elayna & Andrew) went to Saint Augustine on a school field trip. They had a blast and Elayna took about a million pictures. I'll be posting them here soon! Well, some of them anyway. I won't subject you to all 983,276.

Thanks for all your concern & sweet words about my burn. I have 1st and 2nd degree burns. Mostly first though. They're healing well and not very painful any more. In fact, the fingernail I broke way down deep today hurts far more!

We have a crazy busy weekend ahead. Tomorrow is our March for Babies, and tomorrow night we are all getting together to celebrate my husband, father and oldest son's birthdays. They were all born in March! Which I think is kind of interesting.

Then on Sunday, we'll be moving all day. A bunch of guys from church are coming with trucks & trailers to help us out. Have I mentioned lately how much I love our church family? They are AWESOME.

Speaking of love. I can't even explain how much we love our new home. After looking at homes in other school districts, one total dump, and even considering an apartment, we found this absolutely amazing little home out in the woods. Instead of being bummed about the move, we're all excited now. One of the things I'm most excited about? There's a chicken coop there, and the landlords are going to give us some of their laying hens! WOOHOO Fresh Eggs!

Next week is my kids' Spring Break. My kids will be with their Dad, and Andrew will be with his Grandma. It's going to be so weird for them to be gone for a whole week! But I have a feeling I'm going to stay very busy & it will fly by.

Time for the Song of the Week! I love this one. Enjoy & have a great weekend!

And don't forget to visit Mrs 4444 for more Friday Fragments.

My Happy List

I have some ~*Happy*~ to share with you today!

So I'm joining in with Mamarazzi's Happy List.

~* I think we've found our house. I don't want to jinx anything, so I'm not going to say much....but I'm crossing everything crossable!

~* My parents invited us to go out for dinner with them tonight - their treat! This is a rare occurrence, so it definitely goes on the Happy List!

~* I won an adorable Coffee Cozy from Cream No Sugar via Mamarazzi's Taking Back Mondays. It came in the mail today (so fast!) and I just love it! Thanks, Sue & Mamarazzi!

~* One of our cats scared us very badly this week. I was certain we were going to lose her. Now - she has made a full recovery! I will post the whole story next week. But I am SO happy that she is okay!

~* I start my new job on Monday! Happy happy happy!

~* After a run of some bad luck, it seems like maybe things are turning around for us. What a relief!

~* I have a giveaway up at Southern Loving. Giveaways make everyone happy!

~* Mamarazzi makes me happy. I'm so glad I found her blog; she is one of the sweetest bloggers I've ever "met"!

Hope you have a ~*HAPPY*~ weekend!

Blame in on the Little Guy.....

Y'all know what time it is: Friday Fragments time.

I just have a few tidbits for you this week.

One of my friends posted this on Facebook this week, and of course, I reposted it too:

FIVE DEADLY TERMS USED BY A WOMAN: (1) FINE-this is the word women use to end an argument when they know they are right and that you need to shut up. (2) NOTHING-this means SOMETHING and you should be wary. (3) GO AHEAD-This is a dare, not permission, DO NOT DO IT. (4) WHATEVER-is a woman's way of saying F*** YOU. (5) THAT'S OK-She is thinking long and hard on HOW and WHEN you will pay for your mistake....

My husband had to get his driver's license renewed last week. He had to take a vision test, and his vision is so bad in one eye that the examiner literally asked him if he was BLIND in that eye. (he's been putting off getting an eye exam for way too long.) My new nickname for him is "Mike Wazowski".

Searching for a home, especially on a time-line, is a unique and horrific form of torture.

I think I forgot to mention that last week, Elayna went back to the orthopedic doc to recheck her broken thumb. He said it's healing very well, and she was released and can go back to her normal activities. She is LOVING soccer!

I leave you with my Friday Song: I Will....But by SheDaisy, which is where I got the title to Wednesday's post, I Refuse to Be Last in Line, and I also referenced a line from the song in that post. It's a great song!

A Moving Story.

I posted earlier this month about the fact that we are moving.

Having already moved eleventy billion times, John and I kind of have a system.

He packs everything he can get his hands on. I try to find stuff. Everything I look for is not in its place. I lose my mind.

Seriously. He starts packing early. For example, he's already got a TON of stuff packed and we're not moving until the end of the month.

Last time we moved, I was trying to cook one night and literally could not find ONE SINGLE THING to stir with. I had a complete meltdown.

So this time I've laid down some rules.

The kitchen MUST be packed LAST. (I have to have my cooking stuff, and it has to be in its proper place. Otherwise, things get UGLY.)

He can't throw anything away without my permission. (I'm still missing stuff from the last move!)

He can't pack anything breakable without wrapping it up. (while looking for a flippin' spoon last time, I broke a decorative plate and totally blamed him because HELLO WHO PACKS THE ENTIRE KITCHEN 2 WEEKS BEFORE YOU MOVE??? And it was a thrift store find, therefore irreplaceable!)

Don't pack my toothbrush. (Do I really need to elaborate?)

Do not pack anything that breathes. (I think this man would pack me, the kids, and the dogs in boxes if I'd let him. He may or may not have packed a cat in a previous move......)

I guess it's a pretty good system. He does all of the packing. I do all of the unpacking & decorating. Except for hanging stuff on the walls; he does that, and I supervise. "Nope, sorry honey, it's still a little crooked!" That, my friends, is how I get my revenge!

This Time Last Year

When I looked back at what I was blogging about this time last year, I realized that it's a lot of the same stuff that's going on this year.

We were fundraising & preparing for the March for Babies.

We were preparing for sports season to start (although last year it was softball).

We were getting ready to celebrate the many March birthdays in our family.

We were preparing to move.

All the same stuff as this year.

Yep, we are moving. Again.

Since John and I met & married, we have moved several times. The first three moves were happy occasions; we moved from a crappy place to a nice place; from that nice place to a tiny but decent place in the town we wanted to be in; and from there to a great house that we absolutely LOVED in that same town.

That's when things got difficult. That house started literally falling apart, and to make a long story short, the owner wouldn't fix anything, and we found out that the house was in foreclosure. She was unemployed and using our rent payments to live on; the mortgage wasn't being paid.

So from there we moved into the first house we found that worked for us, in the same neighborhood. It was fine. It was a nice house, but overpriced. But the owner really wanted to sell, and we were not (and still are not) in the position to buy. He actually told us shortly before we moved to keep the house ready to show at all times, in case he stopped by with a potential buyer. I have four kids and multiple pets; that's just not happening. (we later found out that they let the house go into foreclosure after we moved out.) So we kept our eyes out and after about a year in that house, found the house that we're in now.

This house was great. Same rent as we were paying for the house we were in, but so much better. It was perfect for our family. We were determined that this would be our home until the youngest children graduated high school, at the very least.

But unfortunately, when you rent, you don't call all the shots. Once again, the homeowners have decided to sell (or at least, try). When our lease ends, we have to move. Again.

Always before, I looked at the bright side. I told myself and the kids, 'Home is where your family is'. I could always make the best of it.

Not this time. Not last week, at least. This time, it just hit me hard. I just wanted to give up. I wallowed in the unfairness of it all. I regretted so many past decisions and mistakes.

I have since come around, though, I am proud to say. I've dealt with the sadness and the loss. I've reminded myself of how much we have, that nobody can take from us. I've reminded myself of what we have to be thankful for.

And I'm looking at the bright side, and there is definitely a bright side. Financially, we will be better off because we are looking at houses that fit our budget, which drastically changed now that I'm not working. The realtor who rents this house to us has several other homes available in the area that are more in our price range. We will be much more comfortable financially, so that when I do start working again I can easily work part time. This is so much better for our family.

Also topping the list of pros about moving? The internet & cell phone service at the place we're most likely moving to is EXCELLENT. Where we live now, the service is barely existent. And clearly, I have my priorities, people.

And....this new place? Is cool. Very cool. But I'll post more about that later.

And the kids took the news just fine. They're even excited about it.

The thing is, the thing I finally remembered, is that we will be okay. No matter how many times we have to move, we will be okay. We have each other and we are really a happy, resilient bunch. We roll with the punches. I try to use these things as lessons for our children; make better choices so that you can buy your home, and don't have to be at the mercy of homeowners and landlords.

But really. We are all healthy. Our kids are doing very well in school. John has a job & excellent health insurance for all of us. We have our family, friends, and church family. There are far worse things that can happen, than to have to move from one comfortable home to another comfortable home, with your loving, dysfunctional family. Because home really is where your fun, dysfunctional family is!

But I really hope that this time next year, I am NOT blogging about moving. Again.

{Linking up with Mama Kat's Writer's Workshop.}