An Extra Touch of Irony

Two things have happened concerning recent posts.  

1) The very first friend I made the very first day of first grade (most kids had gone to this school for kindergarten, and although I was registered to, I did not) got in touch with me.  I was excited about first grade, but I was also quite scared.  On that first day, my new friend offered me her chocolate milk. Now really, is there anything better than being offered chocolate milk the first day?  She and I became quick friends, and we were excited to learn we lived a mere two blocks away from each other.  We remained close for several years, but we eventually drifted apart.  I do not think I have seen her since my wedding.  Hopefully we'll be able to meet up again soon.  Talk about timing though!

2) The bitch spoke this morning.  I was tucked away in bed sleeping rather soundly.  Before she could even telling me where the fault in the system was, I had jumped out of bed.  Thankfully Linus had snuck into our room during the night. Since she was in our room, I was able to lock my bedroom door and head for the phone.  Linus was still asleep, so I chose not to wake her up. She told me that the basement door had been opened.  Thankfully I can key-lock the basement off from the rest of the house.  One thing I noticed on the way to the phone was how bright it was outside. I must have really overslept, because judging by the light, it had to be at least nine.  On my nightstand with the phone, there is a clock.  The clock clearly said it was much earlier than 9:00. Before grabbing the phone to call the police and rat out the intruder, I glanced at the dog's bed. She as gone.  Dang it!  At this point I was pretty awake and realized she spoke because Army let the dog out.   Have I mentioned lately that she drives me nuts?

Extra Loud!

The bitch is back.  Unfortunately she's learned more words than before.  Army and I both went to bed with migraines last night.  Guess how thrilled I was to hear her yapping away this morning (with her new expanded vocabulary).  

Extra Annoyed

Why is it that people don't really stand behind their work anymore?  What ever happened to doing it right the first time? Hmm, I sound like my grandmother.  But really, why has customer service gone down the potty?

We had a new alarm system installed today.  The two installers were very nice, and neither seemed to mind any of the questions that Linus threw at them (and yes, I did try to keep her away).  The remained at my house until they got every known kink out of the system.  There were a fair number of kinks since the original alarm was not put in correctly (and no, I don't think that was a marketing ploy because we did not have to pay for the extra time they spent).  

About 2 hours after they left, the alarm started sounding.  We called one time and company head quarters told us what to do to fix the problem.  Only that didn't work.  So we called back. Army got a new guy when he called back, and this guy told us how to replace the special $30(!) battery.  As Army was discussing this, I was pitching a fit.  This is BRAND NEW, I should NOT have to replace it at my expense.  When Army told him it was brand new, he said they'd fix it.  They will be here at some point in a five hour stretch.  Army told them that they really needed to narrow down the five hours.  They said they really could not narrow it any further.  Because we were late meeting somebody, Army didn't argue.  

I do realize it's not that big in the scheme of things, but what if I still worked? Teachers are not given the luxury of taking off an hour here or there. Our options are full day or half day.  If I were still working, I would have needed to take off a full day today for the installation, and another full day tomorrow for the repair since their five hour block does not fall within a teacher's half day hours.  And that doesn't matter anyway, because no matter what you line of work is, you should not have to take a five hour chunk out of your day to babysit a doorbell.

I'm finding more and more companies are giving themselves large time slots in which to show up at your house. On some occasions, I do understand, but most of the time it irritates me.  We had a guy coming to give us an estimate on some work on our house.  He cancelled the first appointment. The second time he kept pushing the time back further and further.  At the point that he was pushing two hours behind, he called Army to tell him he'd be another half hour or so. Army very plainly told him that we'd have to cancel the estimate because if he couldn't show up on time for an estimate twice, then Army felt like that may be reflective of his work running behind when he began a project on our house.  

So, how do you handle situations like this? Do you have  stock answer that really works each time?

Extra Nosy

We are enjoying our new neighborhood.  We've met several neighbors, and we were already friends with several before we moved here.  We do, however, have one terribly nosy neighbor. As far as we can tell, she's nice, just n-o-s-y.  

We had a feeling she was kind of snoopish when we first met her.  Two minutes into our first conversation with her she let us know that somebody had been at the house the night before between the hours of 9 and 11.  Hey, guess what! Somebody had been there. WE had been there!  Another time she let us know that a package had been on our doorstep for a while (a few hours, NOT days). She told us that she was about to come get the package off our porch because it had been there so long.  I laughed. The UPS guy doesn't ring the doorbell here.  I don't make a habit of checking my front door every 30 minutes to see if I have a package. 

One day this week, we got another package.  Three sides of the package were plain white. The fourth side of the package was purple with HUGE letters describing what the contents were.  Lucky us, the box was filled with laxatives.  Got to love the marketing department for that OTC drug.  WHY oh why couldn't they have sent it to Army's office? I'm sure by noon that day my whole neighborhood had been told we have serious bowel issues here.  

Every morning, Ms. Nosy wakes up and (I'm assuming) immediately opens her blinds.  If we walk out our door, she's out her door within 30 seconds.  The blinds remain open until (I'm assuming again) she goes to sleep.  Army has taken this as a personal challenge.  He insists on walking around in his boxers each morning and night. Our front door is glass, and we have glass sidelights, so she can easily see in.  Here's the problem though: so can the rest of the neighborhood. I'd prefer that they not all see my husband in his boxers.  On occasion, he'll even wave in her direction.  

On the flip side though, I'm pretty certain a burglar couldn't break into the front of our house without her noticing.  

Oh well, at least she's nice!

 

Some Extra Irony

This has not been the best day.  I can sum it up with the first event of the day: we had an electrician come out to help us with some unknown wires. Less than five minutes after he showed up, the power company shut off power to the whole street.  Lovely.  I'd ask what the chances are, but knowing this is my life, they are pretty dang great.

-----

I know some of y'all have been following the story of my dad's incident.  He had to be rushed to the ER this morning.  My sister is very worried, which worries me.  I think he'll pull through this time, but I'm worried that he doesn't have enough fight left in him for the long haul.  Poor guy, each time he gets ill, he loses a little of what he's worked so hard to get back.  Any prayers and good thoughts would be tremendously appreciated!

Extra Tired!

I'm exhausted!  We're in the new house finally.  Linus was very worried the first night, but she's coming around.  We haven't hooked up a single television yet, and it's actually working out very nicely not having one on.  I kept forgetting to bring my laptop from the old house, so I wasn't really distracted by the internet either.  

We've met several new neighbors, and they all seem quite nice.  Linus really wants to make friends with the girl across the street, but there is a three year age difference, which is a good bit when you're five.  She's also been begging to have a lemonade stand, so I think I might let her do one so that she can meet a few more neighbors.  

Poor Army worked Monday, moved Tuesday, and went back to work Wednesday.  He's been exhausted by the time he comes home, but we're still working on the old house to, so his evenings are filled.  

WonderDog stayed at the vet's office while we moved. Since she was already there, we went ahead and had her teeth cleaned.  Now the poor pup is refusing to eat or drink. At all. She's acting fine, but you can't go forever without food or water.  :(

I've had an incredibly eventful week, complete with being horribly sick yesterday. I had a doctor's appointment yesterday afternoon, and it was filled with humorous moments that I plan to bore you with tomorrow.  For now, I'm going to bed.

Hope all is well with all of you!

Extra Ready!!!

It's moving day!  I can't believe it's finally here.  Poor Linus had a little meltdown last night.  She decided she didn't want to leave the house she's known as home for the past four years.  I tried everything to calm her, but nothing could stop the tears.   After lots of reassurance and hugs, she's on board with the move. At least right now.  We'll see what the end of the day brings.  

A Little Extra Organization Talk

We are attempting to move most of our stuff to the new house, and the movers will mostly move furniture and large items.  In theory it's a great idea because it will save money.  In reality it's another story. For example, I set a goal of emptying my kitchen by the end of the weekend.  After I cleaned all the cabinets at the new house, I moved my dishes over.  I bought one pack of paper plates last weekend so that we'd have plates to eat on.  It's been easy, and I must admit, it's been nice knowing that I have accomplished something towards getting us moved.  There has been one little problem though: dinner last night.  We had filet mignon, twice baked potatoes, and asparagus...on paper plates.  There's just something about a filet; it needs to be served on a real plate!

Another thing I have moved is hanging clothes.  Army thinks I have some anal tendencies, and truth be told, he's probably right.  Now all my hanging clothes are grouped by color.  They are NOT in rainbow order as I HAVE to start out light and end up dark, and let's face it, yellow is lighter than red.  My long sleeve shirts are on the top row, and my short sleeve ones are on the bottom.  For the past four years, Army and I have shared a closet.  Our entire married life before that we had separate closets.  It just hasn't been feasible to have things completely my way in the closet we share, but now that I'm moving on over to the other one, I'm LOVING it!  Army walked in just as I got the finishing touches on my hanging order, and before he made it completely in, he said, "Hey, Lanny, I'd be willing to bet you have your clothes arranged by color, huh?"  Apparently I'm predictable too.  

Army thinks I'm a little bit on the obsessive side that my closet is arranged like it is.  I think I'm just a little organized. I'll admit they are also in size order right now (because yes, things do vary between two sizes in my closet), but I know they won't stay in size order. That'd be too difficult to maintain once we move in. If I were anal, I'd keep them in size order, but since I'm not, I'll let that go. ;)

So, how are your closets organized?  

PS-There's also a slight possibility my spices are in alphabetical order (it's easier to find the one you're looking for that way), and there may be a few more issues like that, but I still stand by organized rather than anal.   Maybe my question should be a little more broad: how are things organized in your house (not only your closets)?

Extra Crossed!

We've got our fingers crossed. We've even got our toes crossed. Maybe our legs too?

Our house is UNDER CONTRACT!

Linus is really excited that we'll get to move to the new house soon. And she found out something that made her even more excited today.  Here's to hoping everything works out!

Graduation update tomorrow.  :)

Extra Pictures

House pics:


Thoughts for a color for the walls in the dining room? Not that I'm trying to match my walls to my china, but my good china is ivory with a deep blue and gold. I just don't think that works well with the red (pinkish) walls.

As far as the kitchen goes, I'm not liking the green with the backsplash. I tried a really pretty deep green/blue color, but I'm afraid that would make the kitchen waaayyy too dark. The countertops are black-ish, so I can't go too dark on the walls without making the room a dungeon.

The ceiling

The ceiling w/ wall:

Kitchen paint with backsplash:

Thoughts?

If I get really brave, I'll post some pictures of the rest of the house.

Extra Slow

I'm *trying* to load a few pic of the new house, but I'm apparently too slow to figure out how to do it on my mac.  Any normal person would go upstairs and just use the pc, but I must not be normal.  No comments necessary on that fact, thankyouverymuch!  

The paint in the kitchen is bright green. As in green apple with a splash of neon.  It's not a horrific color by itself, but the backsplash is grey, and they do not work together. At all.  My current kitchen is a sagey color, so I grabbed some paint chips and tried a similar color, but it's a no-go.  That doesn't work with the backsplash either.  

The dining room is red (but a pink red, not a red red) with a gold cathedral-ish ceiling.  Not what I would have chosen had I been the one making that decision.  I can't figure out what color would work with the gold ceiling though.  And no, I'm not changing the ceiling.  Waaaayyyyyy too much work because of the angles and the chandelier.  I know, I know, hire a professional. I would, but since money isn't dropping out our derrieres at the current moment, that ain't happenin'!  We've already bought new furniture and still have more we need to buy, new carpet for the upstairs, cleaned the basement carpets, contracted to get the deck/porch/deck (yes, it's three) refinished,  oh yeah, and we're paying a double mortgage right now.  Oh, and there's one minor issue there too...my manly man of a husband has gone all girly on me and says he likes it.  Like a man should care about this stuff. Seriously!  

Hopefully I can load the pics up at some point and one of you geniuses (and I mean that honestly, not in a sarcastic way!) can come up with a great paint idea.     

Extra Nice

We had a fabulous evening at the new house.  We enjoyed a nice cool breeze on the back porch while we listened to the baseball game at the stadium.  After the game ended, we were treated to about 10 minutes of fireworks.  Linus LOVES fireworks.  Her descriptions of them were amazing: "Look, Daddy, I love how those sparklies dance around like rain on hot pavement" and "Wow, Mommy, that one just fell like marshmallows floating in the sky."  Oh how I love this child!  They'll have more fireworks tomorrow night, so I'll get to listen to more descriptions (hopefully).  The only thing that could have made the evening any better is patio furniture. The furniture that we ordered forever ago that STILL hasn't gotten here yet. And that the store keeps changing the arrival date and story on. Oh, yeah, that and a bottle of wine. Perhaps with the wine I wouldn't have even noticed the furniture was missing! ;)

Linus funny for the evening:  Linus usually pronounces favorite as fRavorite.   Tonight she told us that she'd really love some peach tea.  I love peach tea, so I'm sure she heard me talking about it at some point.  Imagine our surprise when she didn't say it was her fravorite tea...instead she said it's her flavorite tea!  Get it?

An Extra Mission

I have a mission for y'all.  My morning was busy, busy, busy.  When I got home, I discovered WonderDog hath shat all over my room.  We're talking ALL OVER: the shutters, the carpet, my bed, the wall...you get the picture.  So, I'm in need of a new comforter/quilt/bedspread for my bed.  Unfortunately, it really needs to be a set since our house is on the market.  Right now I have one with gold tones in it, but I really love the blue/brown combo.  I'm really in to stripes right now, but it doesn't have to have stripes.  It can't come from somewhere like Amazon---I have to get it today or tomorrow.  I don't really care if it's a nice one or a cheap one, I've just GOT to get one.

So, anybody want to accept this mission and help me find a cute new one?  

Many thanks!!!

Extra Stressed Tonight

I'm stressing out tonight. My house always appears clean, and for the most part, clutter free. Now that we're getting it market ready, I'm realizing how much junk we really have. We've taken embarrassing amounts to be donated. We've probably thrown out an equally embarrassing amount. We do go bare minimum when we have a house on the market, but geez, this is ridiculous! And it's not even over yet.

To make matters worse, Army says I can't have a new laptop until we sell our current house because he doesn't want to pay a double mortgage and pay for a new laptop all at once. I'm LOST without my laptop. We close on the new house in a month. Cross your fingers, toes, hair, ANYTHING that we sell soon.

And even worse, I'm having to stress with NO chocolate at all. WHAT was I thinking? I even had to deal with a female monthly issues (my apologies to any male readers!) without chocolate. UGH!

I'd be lying if I said I'm doing it without any sweets at all. Pralines are my current best friend. I'm going to leave you with a sinfully easy and good recipe for pralines. It's actually my mom's recipe, but since she doesn't have my blog addy, she won't know that I'm taking credit! Best part: you make them in the microwave!

Lanny's Pralines
1 Cup brown sugar
1 Cup white sugar
1/2 Cup evaporated milk
2 Tbsp butter (not margarine)
1 Tbsp rum extract
pecans

Mix sugars and milk in a glass microwavable pitcher. Microwave on high for 7-9 minutes (until soft ball stage). Stir in butter and rum extract. Add pecans. Drop by spoonful on aluminum foil. *It hardens pretty quickly, so you must move fast!
Enjoy!

Extra Bad Luck

I'm becoming convinced that my house does not want to be sold. Let's review what's happened since we decided to put it on the market:

*Light bulb explosion
*New laptop broke
*Old laptop broke
*Linus pulled towel rod out of wall
*Lost electricity to entire upstairs

So, what do you think?


Linus has been tossing funny things our way a lot lately, but some of her stories will have to wait. I'll leave you with one for now though. The other day I couldn't get something to work. Linus came over to me, put her arm around my shoulder, and said, "Where there's a will, there's a way." I asked her what that meant thinking there was no way she understood the saying. She said, "Mommy, it means if you want something badly enough, you'll find the way to get it or to make it happen." I was impressed for at least a second until she said, "And I really want a snack." Being the fabulous mom that I am (haha), I turned to her and said, "Where there's a will, there's a way." I thought I had her on that one, but by now I should know better. She gave me a sly grin and said, "My will is I'm hungry, but I'm not allowed to cook. YOU are my way Mommy since you can. So, how 'bout that snack?" Why do I even try? I don't think I'll ever win!

Since my Dell laptop is now shot too (it was five years old, so I'm not too surprised), it's getting harder and harder for me to get on here. I've got a really good give away for March though, so even if I miss a day or two here and there, make sure you check back the first and second days of March!

An Extra Dose of Blah

I'm usually a rather positive person. Usually. Today? Not so much. I'm not quite as negative as I am annoyed. We put an offer on a house a few weeks ago. All along, his agent kept telling us that anything over $X he'd accept. So we put an offer on the house that was closer to asking price than the agent's $X amount, but we did ask for a few things to be completed. The owner/builder took forever to counter. His counter was higher than the original asking price. We declined. His agent called our agent back a little while later and said, "Please counter again. If you can just come up $Y, he'll accept." So, we tweaked our offer and put it in again. While we were waiting for a response, his agent let us know that there was another offer on the house, but that we didn't need to worry because ours was better. After a few days, he declined our offer and accepted the offer the other couple put in. So the house was a no-go. Then we looked at a ton more houses and realized we could not get a house that size and quality for that price anywhere else. It wasn't particularly my dream home, but I did really like it. The back porch/deck was amazing. So amazing, in fact, that I'd be willing to simply buy the porch and live out there. The yard was a nice yard for Linus and our dog to play in. Fabulous for cookouts, etc. You get the idea...we were starting to regret not getting the house. Regret, not resent, at least not at that point. THREE weeks went by before his agent finally returned our (rather hefty) earnest money check. We looked at some more houses and became quite frustrated with the whole process. Tuesday night we finally decided to take a break from the whole house hunting idea. I was stressing about the whole thing, so stopping just made sense. Well, what do you know...Thursday night, I'm out with a group of friends and I get a message on my cell phone, "This is (agent), please call me as soon as you get a chance. It's important." Then she called again. My cell battery was near zero, and I didn't want to waste what I did have on a lengthy call (plus, I WAS out with friends!), so I called Army and had him call her. When I didn't hear back from him, I figured it wasn't too important. When I got home, I asked him what was so important. Turns out the seller/builder was frustrated with the buyer and wanted to back out of the deal. His agent called our agent and wanted to know if we were interested. So we discussed it again, and decided to go for it. Our agent contacted his agent and set up an appointment to see it again. A little while before our appointment, our agent called to let us know his agent said the other couple found the builder's direct number and worked things out. So we're off again. I'm tired of being jacked around. I'm tired of being used as a pawn. Grr!

We actually built the home we're currently in. I know most people say they'd never build again after building one house, but I would in a heartbeat. I love getting to choose everything--colors, cabinets, counters, fixtures, etc. There are a few things that I consider musts for my next house. I have to have a desk in my kitchen. I have one now, and I use it all the time. I have to have a sink in my laundry room. It's fabulous to throw spit up upon baby clothes in there (hopefully we'll need that again someday!). I also have to have a double oven. I don't have that now, but I'd love it. I also want a gas cook top. One more thing...I have to have a basement (preferably with a main level garage, but I won't push things). Um, yeah, not so easy to find everything I want inside a floor plan I like. I probably do need to build again. I've got one small problem though. Army is on board for getting a new home, but he's completely, entirely, adamantly against building again. What a dud!

So for now, it looks like we're sitting back and waiting a few months before we even entertain the idea of moving again. Blah!