Holly’s Happenings

Would someone PLEASE remind me why I do this to myself? You know what I mean, offer to do WAY more than I know I’m humanly capable of in order to try and help someone who has more to handle than they humanly can themselves? We’ve all “been there, done that, got the t-shirt”, so I know you know what I’m talking about!

I’ve spent part of last night and all of today making salsa and tortilla chips as well as peeling, depitting and slicing half a bushel of peaches, and I still have a LONG ways to go before I’m done! And the kicker is, I need to leave for my moms house by 11 AM tomorrow morning.

Here’s what’s left…..I have to finish up the tortilla chips (I’m about half way done), then I have to mix up all the ingredients to make 2 batches of peach cobbler. While the cobbler itself isn’t that much work, it has to be baked in the morning so that it’s fresh. It’s the chips that are driving me nuts and that are going to take FOREVER! I can’t believe I’m only about half way done making them, I know that they are time consuming, but OMG, I had no idea it was going to take this much time…LOL! The end result is definitely worth the work and time, I just wish I’d have started making the chips last night rather than the salsa!

But because of how stressed and frustrated I am right now I am one ORNERY person! I’ve yelled at the hubby and both kids for the stupidest of things in the last half hour. I’m totally exhausted and just feel like saying to heck with everything! But I can’t and I won’t. Time to push forward!

Now that I have you scratching your head wondering what in the heck I’m talking about, I’ll fill you in…LOL! A week ago our home phone/DSL and cell phones were turned off because the bill was behind. They’re all from the same company and on the same bill, which I’m now realizing might not be the brightest idea I’ve ever had….LOL!

We “thought” we had a week to make the payment, that’s what the piece of paper on top of the bill pile for this particular bill said. But because the services were turned off we were told that they would not be turned back on without the entire bill paid in full. This particularly stunk because we knew hubby was going to have a smaller than normal check this week, but thankfully I had a better than normal pay coming in, so we thought we’d be fine. But, as the saying goes, that’s what you get for thinking!

After cashing his check and adding in my pay, we’ll be four dollars short of paying the bill. And that’s before the ATM fees to take my pay out of my account, and before the fees to put all of the money onto the prepaid debit card that we use to pay this particular bill AND before the fee that we have to pay each time this card is used. So, once you total those fees up we’ll actually be almost $10 short. We didn’t think it would be a big deal, I mean, it’s almost there ya know, and when you consider that I was overcharged by almost $20 on my cell phone bill for text messages, which is in dispute, I really didn’t think it would be a big deal.

But once again, that’s what I get for thinking. Hubby called the phone company to double check and see if they would still turn the services on if the payment was $10 short of the total amount, and what did they tell him? No sir, your services will not be turned back on with a payment less than the entire bill paid in full. All I can say is )(#@#)(*$&#@*(&)#@$&#@*$^)#@$&)@*(#&$)@#*&$#@)(*%^@)#*($^

OK, now that I have that out of my system I feel a little better, but I’m still friggin pissed off! But, I’ll get over it! In the mean time, since realizing we’re short on paying the bill, I’ve been a raving lunatic tonight but when you add in the fact that my stomach bug is about a billion times worse and Aunt Flo decided to arrive two weeks early again, I guess it’s not surprising. I HATE MENOPAUSE AND DIAL UP!

I don’t know what’s going on, and I’m honestly not sure if I want to…LOL! At the end of the week last week I was having some stomach problems and I put myself on a “diet” of unbuttered toast and black tea for about 24 hours. Whatever the problem was, that seemed to have fixed it.

Then tonight while I was doing the dinner dishes, out of the middle of nowhere, BAM, my stomach is all messed up again and I can’t keep anything down. Thankfully I have a very wonderful husband and kids who took over dish duty for me. I made myself some toast and a cup of tea and they stayed down. I’m on another “round” of toast and tea, hoping that will stay down, then it’s off to bed in the hopes that when I wake up tomorrow all will be well again…LOL!

UGH! I don’t like being sick, not one bit!

And before you ask, no, the house hasn’t sold! We have a good friend that lives just around the corner from here and his girlfriend has been pestering him to get the remodeling done on his house so that he can sell it. But the fact is, he doesn’t want to sell it! The current real estate market is in bad shape and with the amount of work that needs to be done on the house, he’d have to invest about $25,000 in it right now to even get a decent amount out of the house. On top of that, he bought this house more than 10 years ago as his “retirement” house.

It’s a cute little house that sits on a little more than 5 acres of land. The house itself has a little more than 1,500 square foot of living area, basically the same amount of room we have here. But right now, it’s in complete disarray! Our friend has been working on it, little by little, for about 5 years now. The walls are currently nothing more than drywall and the floors are nothing more than sub floor. He’s gone over all of the wiring and plumbing in the house and is currently finishing up the wiring and insulation in the attic. Once he gets that done it will be a matter of getting all of his clutter out of the house, then he’ll start working on all of the finishing work.

Right now he has a brand new kitchen and bathroom, complete with some really sweet looking Hansgrohe faucets, sitting in boxes in the dining room. So we told him that we’d come down and help him get both rooms installed and get the painting done, in lieu of a deposit. The house will still need more work done after we move in, so part of the rent will be “taken out in trade”, in other words he’ll provide the materials and we’ll do the work.

The best part about this house is that it gets us out of the horrific school district we’re currently living in! We’ve lived in this school district for the past 5 school years and it’s literally been a nightmare! Rather than putting the focus on important things like making sure the kids get a good education, they’d rather put the focus on a ridiculous uniform dress code and whether or not the kids are wearing a shirt to school that has a logo on it or whether or not they have a frigging belt on. But it gets even better! Depending on who you are in the eyes of the school administration staff, you can actually get away with wearing what you want to because the uniform dress code is NEVER administered across the board. One child can get into trouble for wearing something and another child who is wearing the same thing or something worse will get away with it. And the school is so poorly underscoring that it’s currently rated in Academic Emergency. But hey, at least the students all look the same, that’s what’s important, isn’t it?

My daughter was extremely upset because sometime between Thursday morning and last night her friends had decided to change the date of their end of summer slumber party from next weekend to last night. Since they had no way of getting in touch with her she didn’t know about the change until around 8 last night, which was too late to go. I felt so bad for her, she couldn’t stop crying, and no matter what I said or did, nothing helped.

After crying for about an hour, she was completely drained and I knew that if she could just get some rest, she’d feel better in the morning. Being the little con artist that she is, she batted her puppy dog eyes at me and said something like “I’d feel better if you’d stay with me until I fall asleep”. That was the first sign that she was going to be OK. I gave in and grabbed my pillow and she and I flipped the channels on her TV until we found something we both liked.

The next thing I knew she was tripping out over a mosquito hawk that was on her TV. I told her if it was bothering her that bad to take a flip flop or something and kill it. The next time it landed, she swung the flip flop and made contact, but we couldn’t see where it landed so we weren’t completely sure if she had killed it or not. She then starts in saying stuff like “If I didn’t kill it, it’s going to come back and get me, maybe it will suck my blood out while I’m sleeping”, and stuff like that. We were laughing so hard I had tears in my eyes, but the next thing I knew she was flailing her arms and screaming. When she finally calmed down she told me that a mosquito hawk was flying in her face. WRONG thing to tell me…LOL!

I looked around on the stand next to her bed and found a colored pencil. I’d wait for her to drop her guard for a moment then I’d take the pencil and ever so lightly touch her hair or her arm, making her think it was the mosquito hawk….LOL! I can’t believe we didn’t wake the dogs or my husband up because of how hard we were laughing! Then, out of the middle of nowhere, she wrapped her arms around herself and said “I hug myself at night so that I know there is someone close by that cares”…….ROFL! We were having a riot, and after a couple of stressed out days, it was what we both needed!

Not having internet can stink, but it’s also brought the four of us closer too! I did manage to find a dial up connection that will work until we can get the money together, and we all take turns sitting at my hubby’s laptop to check our email and stuff. So I’m kind of back, but not completely…LOL

It’s weird to think that the Olympics are just about over! After more than 2 weeks of watching them nearly nonstop, I guess I’ll have to learn to start watching something else during the daytime again. But then we have roughly 18 months until the 2010 Winter Olympics start. I look forward to those because I really enjoy the skating and the bobsled races!

This morning on the news they had quite a bit of coverage over the “scandal” that’s going on with the female gymnasts from China. I have to admit myself that when I was watching them perform I questioned their ages, to the point that I went online looking up what the minimum age to compete in the Olympics is. When I read that it was 16, I told myself that there was NO way those girls were 16! I know that people in different countries and of other ethnicities age differently, but you could almost tell by looking at those girls that there was no way they were any older than 13, 14 at the most!

It’s sad, especially since there is questioning about whether or not they really are old enough to compete! But according to the one guy on the news this morning, it will be a long time “IF” anything is even done about it. In the mean time, these girls are allowed to keep their medals. I’m sorry, but if there is any question as to whether or not they were legally old enough to participate in the Olympics, the investigation needs to be done sooner, rather than later! In the mean time they shouldn’t be allowed to participate in any other competitions in any way shape or form! No practicing, no warming up, don’t even let them step foot on treadmills if that is something they do to prepare! But I know that’s not very realistic!

Yes, I know that probably sounds kind of strange, but just stay with me here! When I first got my drivers license I was almost 19 years old. I was really fortunate in the fact that all of my friends were already driving and none of them minded picking me up when we all wanted to go do something, so not having my license was never a big deal, even after graduation.

When I finally did get my license I had grand thoughts about what my first car would be! I wanted a candy apple red Corvette, complete with some sweet looking Corvette rims. I imagined myself spending my free time washing, waxing and polishing my car, I also imagined myself being the envy of all my peers and that they would be standing in line for a chance to ride around town with me in my Corvette!

I was in for a very rude awakening when I discovered that my first car was going to be a 1979 Ford Pinto…LOL! It wasn’t that my Pinto wasn’t a decent looking car, it really was compared to most of the other ones I had seen! It had a shiny pearl white paint job and nice looking rims, but come on, wouldn’t you rather have a Corvette for your first car instead of a Pinto?

I didn’t have my Pinto very long though, after driving it for just 6 months I had my first major accident and totaled it! As much as I disliked the thought of having a Pinto, I cried when I got out of the hospital and went to the junk yard to collect my personal items out of it. Gone was the shiny white paint job, it was replaced with a crunched up front end and a thick layer of dirt and dust. It may not have been my dream first car, but it served me well in the short time I had it!

To this day I still have grand visions of some day owning a candy apple red Corvette with shiny chrome rims just like these Those are exactly the type of rims I dreamed of having on my Corvette! I think the style is very simple, very classy and I LOVE chrome!

**SIGH** Maybe some day!!

On this past 4th of July my mom had all seven of her grandchildren as well as her two great grandchildren together for the first time in quite some time. Usually one or more are missing or her step grandchildren are present as well. So she wanted to make sure to commemorate the occasion by getting pictures of all of them!

I hadn’t seen the pictures yet, mostly because I just haven’t spent much time with my mom in the past month. So I was really surprised when we picked my daughter up from her house Sunday evening on our way home from the races and they showed me that they had printed out the pictures that day. They turned out so awesome!

My daughter also let me know that she and my mom went through several boxes of pictures that mom had found up in the attic. She then went on to tell me about all the pictures of me from my childhood she had seen. It was kind of fun reliving the moments the photos were taken as my daughter was telling me about each photo she could remember. I also found out that there are several pictures of me with my father, I had no clue mom still had pictures of me and dad left. So either this weekend or next I plan on taking a trip up to my mom’s house to go through these pictures. I’m sure I’ll cry over many of them, I almost did just listening to my daughter talk about them…LOL!

I think when I get them home I’m going to scan them into my computer, that way I have the actual pictures but I also have copies of them backed up on my computer. What would be cool after I get them scanned would be to put them into a digital frame that I could set out and be able to look at them or show them to people when they come here to visit! I have many fond memories of my childhood, several of which were captured in a picture, and it will be nice to relive them!

I’m not one to pretend that my life is perfect, because I know that it’s not. Most days, I struggle just to get through the day without losing my mind! Recent cuts in my husband’s hours at work have left us scraping just to pay the bills, and many times, we aren’t even able to do that. This week has been no exception!

Yesterday morning started off as a “typical” late summer morning. I woke up around 9 AM, grabbed my first cup of coffee and headed out here to watch the news and do a little bit of web surfing. I had remembered that my husband had told me that I should be able to go online to schedule a package pickup for a box that I’ve needed to get sent out since Monday, so I did that while I was thinking about it. I then checked out my normal first thing in the morning websites (i.e. News and my feed reader as well as a forum I frequent).

I had a few blog posts I wanted to get done so I logged in here and started typing one up. As I went to add an image to the blog post I got an error message that said I wasn’t connected to the internet. My first thought was to look at the little icon down in my tool bar, which showed that I still had a connection. I then looked over to the modem, which told me that I wasn’t connected. I won’t deny that my phone/DSL bill is past due because it is. But I had a letter that told me that I had until the 26th to pay it before it was disconnected. Thinking it could possibly be a glitch; I called the tech support for my DSL and was told that my account was indeed suspended and that they’d send me over to the billing department.

Once on the phone with them it was again confirmed that my account was indeed suspended and that in order to have my services reinstated I would need to not only pay the past due amount, but also the current bill with no exceptions. Yes, it is my fault for not paying the bill on time, but when I have a piece of paper that tells me I have until the 26th to pay it and you shut it off 5 days prior to that it creates a bit of a problem.

See, not only is our home phone and DSL on this bill, so are our cell phones. With the work that I do, if I can’t get online, I can’t work and if I can’t work, I can’t earn money. And my husband is called by his employers on a nightly basis to let him know if or where he is working the next day, so if the cell phones and the house phone is off, they can’t call him, which means he can’t work. And when I explained to the phone company rep about the letter sitting in front of me stating that I had until the 26th to pay the bill, she did confirm that is what their files said as well and she wasn’t sure why it was turned off 5 days earlier, but since it was there was no way to turn it back on without the bill being paid in full.

Honestly, days like today make me want to run away, FAR, FAR AWAY!! You know what I mean, find one of those remote Caribbean villa rentals and just plop my butt down in the sand and just escape everything! Yes, I know, doing that takes more money than what I’ll have to pay to get my phone and DSL turned back on, but it sure is tempting after days like yesterday! I’m honestly not sure when I’ll be able to get my phone and DSL back on, it could be as early as today or it may not be until next week, but I’ll let you know when I’m back!

And in case you’re wondering just how it is that I’m making this blog post if I don’t have an internet connection, well, you see, I have a WONDERFUL friend who came to my rescue and let me come over to her house and borrow her computer.

THANK YOU LISA, I LOVE YOU!!!

Good morning! I’m sitting here scratching my head this morning trying to figure out where in the world did this week went?? Honestly, it seems like we were up at the races the other day, but that was Sunday and it’s now Thursday! UGH! I’ve seriously let this week slip by me and now I’m in a situation where I have a TON of stuff to do in just a few short days! And I’m honestly not sure that’s going to be enough time to get it all done!

The kids start school in just a few short days and I still have a ton of supplies and stuff to get for them. I also have to take my daughter shopping because she has to wear uniforms for school again and she has NOTHING! But with as tight as finances have been lately, I just haven’t been able to get her anything! She and her brother both need shoes as well, UGH!! I’m REALLY going to have to get creative this week to get this stuff figured out!

The next couple of weeks are going to be busy as well! We’ve got moms annual Labor Day family reunion coming up on September 1st, that’s also the week of the fair that we all love going to. We’ll have to deal with getting the kids back on as decent of a homework and sleep schedule as possible, which is really going to prove to be a challenge because they’ve both been having some fairly significant sleep problems lately!

OK, I feel like I’m about to lose my mind thinking about getting all this stuff done….LOL! But I do work well under pressure so I have no doubt I’ll somehow manage to pull it off! Just cross your fingers that I don’t lose my mind trying to get it done…LMAO!

After hearing just how bad the current unemployment rate is in my county the other day, the thought of simply moving away from this area crossed my mind again! I basically grew up in the area I’m living right now, only difference is that I’m currently living in NW Ohio and I grew up in SE Michigan.

I do love living in this area, it offers the beauty of all four seasons of the year and some of the prettiest fall foliage you’ll ever see! The only thing I don’t like weather wise about this area is when we have bitter cold winters, those are something that I could really do without! But as much as I love living in this area, with our local unemployment rate sitting at 9.2%, the chances of my getting any calls on the numerous resumes and job applications that I’ve put out this summer are slim to none!

Some of the areas that I would consider living in would be Northern California, Washington State and both North and South Carolina. A couple of my choices would be automatically ruled out simply because of how high their cost of living is, and after checking out some of the beautiful Wilmington NC real estate that’s available, the North Carolina area is looking better and better!

But then we have my husbands job to think about. The possibility of his hours picking back up are looking a little more promising and do we dare take the risk of walking away from a good paying job that might have a decent future to move somewhere unfamiliar and start all over? I guess we’ll just have to wait and see what happens and weigh our options when it gets to the point where we have no choice but to decide!

What about you? If you could move anywhere right now, where would you move?

Yes, I know it’s already Tuesday, but it’s honestly taken me until today to “recuperate” from the weekend…LOL! This past weekend was spent at Michigan International Speedway courtesy of my husbands employers. There were only 5 employees that could or were willing to make it up this weekend, then there were the two brothers that own the company as well as many of their family members and friends.

The initial group headed up to the campground on Thursday night to set up the campers and tents because they were staying right through until Monday. My hubby and I didn’t go up until late Saturday morning and spent part of the day hanging out at the campsites before heading up to watch the Busch race, which was won by Carl Edwards. After the race we went back to the campsite for a FANTASTIC hobo dinner cooked over a campfire! I’ll admit that I drank a few too many, and trust me, I REALLY paid for it too…LOL! But we had a totally awesome time!

By the time we got home Saturday night it was nearly 10 PM and we had to be up the next morning by 4 AM so that we could leave the house, drop off our daughter at my mothers house in an attempt to be to the campground by 8 AM. We ended up being a little later than that because we didn’t figure in the fact that we were taking a different route than we had the day before because we were meeting one of my hubby’s co-workers so they could follow us up to the track. So we ended up not making it up to the campground until nearly 9 AM, but everyone was either just waking up or just stumbling back to the campsites, so it turned out to be a good thing we weren’t up there earlier anyway!

Sunday was probably one of the most amazing days I’ve ever had, except for my day in San Francisco…LOL! Not only did we have FANTASTIC seats to the NASCAR race (10th row in the 4th turn), we also had pre race pit passes that allowed us to go right down on pit row where the crew teams were at, getting things ready for the race.

Some of the team for Paul Menard (the #15 Quaker State/Menards car) was MORE than happy to smile for me! THANKS GUYS!!

We also got to see some of the cars already out on the track getting readied for the race.

It was just a fantastic experience! I’ll be the first to admit that even though I’ve watched many NASCAR races on TV, I was usually kind of bored by them. But watching them in person…..WOW, I could really get into NASCAR if I could watch all of the races in person! It’s just so different! And of course the people you’re with help make it a good experience as well! I got to sit next to Fred for both races and let me tell you, this man MADE the races an awesome experience! He was such a fun guy and I didn’t even mind that he was rooting for Tony Stewart! JUST KIDDING!

By the time we finally left Sunday, we ended up not making it back home until almost 10 PM again…LOL! And yes, just in case you’re wondering, I did end up with one heck of a sunburn that was REALLY made to look goofy when combined with the mark from the lanyard around my neck that held all my tickets and passes…LOL! But amazingly, even with it being the first real sun I’ve gotten all summer, it never did hurt. And my husband, who is REALLY tan, got a sunburn as well and his hurts to beat all get outs and is already starting to blister up…LOL!

Anyway, I have a TON more pictures and probably more video footage from both races that I hope to be able to get to at some point this week. When I do, I’ll definitely share them with you!

I have to tell you, this Olympic thing is really starting to get addicting! I finally wrapped things up and went to bed about 1 AM this morning, and even though I was so tired I could hardly keep my eyes open, I turned them on in the TV that’s in our room. I wanted to hear everything that was going on, but I was worried the sound would wake up my husband, so I hit the menu button on the remote and turned on the closed captioning so that I wouldn’t have to worry about that…LOL!

I have to admit that I really look forward to watching Michael Phelps swim, it’s just mind blowing to see this young man break record after record! I’m bummed that he won’t be in another final until Friday, but you can bet your toosh I’ll be tuned it when it happens! The kids have been coming out here and watching the Olympics with me too! When their dad goes to bed, they’ll shut down their computers and come out here to sit with me and watch what’s going on! That in itself, is a miracle!

OH, and I’m not sure if you’ve heard yet or not, but one of the girls from the US gymnastics team actually performed last night with a broken ankle. I read on Yahoo News that Chellsie Memmel revealed after the medal ceremony that she had a broken bone in her ankle on August 4th. All I can say is OUCH, but that’s how dedicated to their sport these kids are!

OK, I admit, it wasn’t until just a couple of days ago that I watched my first minute of the Olympics. Life has been a bit busy the past week, and I just didn’t think about it. That, and the fact that they’re on so late at night, and I’m usually in bed by 10 PM.

Tonight the kids and I have been watching everything we can! We watched some Beach Volleyball, we’ve watched some Gymnastics and, of course, we’ve watched Swimming. It was absolutely thrilling to watch Michael Phelps achieve Olympic history, and you can bet that for the rest of the Olympics, I will be glued and watching him EVERY time he swims!

Both of the kids think that the gymnasts are absolutely amazing, and I have to agree with them! Tonight we’ve been watching the women’s teams, which just wrapped up. It was heartbreaking to see Alicia Sacramone on the US team fall off the beam and fall on her toosh for the floor exercise. You just felt so bad for her and could tell that she just wanted to cry her eyes out. My daughter was like “Mom, she just made a mistake” and I told her that’s exactly was, a simple mistake. But this kind of mistake isn’t one that can be erased like putting blemish acne cream on a pimple. When you get to the Olympics, there is no room for simple mistakes, and I’m sure that Alicia will never forget that! It was awesome that they were able to go on to win the silver medal, though!

WOW, we just watched the mens 4×200 freestyle swimming team receive their gold medals, which includes Michael Phelps getting his 11th gold medal. It’s VERY cool to think that we just watched Olympic History be made, history that will probably not be broken in my lifetime. AWESOME! And on that note, I’m calling it a night!

I love music, but the fact of the matter is that I don’t like just one kind of music. Being a teen in the 80’s exposed me to what I think are some of the best rock songs EVER! Yes, I’m talking about all the Hair Bands…LOL! The music was so awesome and most of it actually made sense! But there were so many different groups and so many different types of music and songs!

I remember jamming to groups like The Beastie Boys, The Eurhythmics, Poison, Ratt, Quiet Riot, INXS, and of course Motley Crue! But then I had my moments where the true country girl in me came out and I wanted to listen to songs from Garth Brooks, Travis Tritt, Tim McGraw, and even Willie Nelson!

Today I still love a vast array of music, and what I want to listen to depends on my mood. If I’m in a goofy mood I might want to listen to songs about things like spaghetti, boa constrictors or even adult diapers. If I’m in a serious mood I may prefer to listen to songs that talk about how special friends and loved ones are, and if I’m in a mad mood, I just might want to jam out to some serious head banging rock and roll!

My point is that MP3 players give me the ability to pick and choose what songs I want to listen to! And since the MP3 player I have is ran off an SD memory card I have the ability to have a different card for each type of mood I’m in or each type of music I want to listen to. Or, I can do what I’m doing right now and mix them all up! The card in my MP3 player right now has a little bit of everything! It’s kind of funny to go from a song that makes you want to jam to a song that brings tears to your eyes. But then I can just hit the fast forward button if a song comes on that I don’t feel like listening to at the moment!

You’d never think it was mid August by this mornings weather! Normally this time of year, we experience drought and heat waves, but not this morning. It’s a chilly 51 degrees right now, which is WAY below normal for a temperature! Don’t get me wrong though, I’m not complaining one bit, I actually enjoy weather like this! I’ve said more than once that if I could find somewhere in the US that had temps like this year round, I’d move there in a heartbeat!

It’s so quiet here right now! The kids are still sleeping, the dogs are all lying on the couch sleeping and my hubby is kicked back in the recliner taking a morning nap, so it’s just me and my puter this morning. I opened the slider door and muted the TV so that I could hear what’s going on outside! That has to be one of my favorite sounds, especially in the morning!

It’s going to be a long day today. Today is the memorial service for Del, and yes, I will eventually talk about something other than losing him, thank you for bearing with me while I work through this! I try doing different things to get my mind off it and think about other things. For instance, yesterday I organized the office supplies on my bookshelf twice…LOL! I did it once in the earlier part of the day then after dinner I was straightening them up again and my husband looked at me and asked if I had remembered that I had done the same thing earlier. It wasn’t until he reminded me that I remembered I had. But I think getting today out of the way will help, or at least I hope so!

We got some news yesterday, news that we really didn’t want to hear. Our landlord has decided that he’s going to put up a for sale sign on the house. He’s not going to deal with a Realtor right now, he’s just going to try to sell it himself and see what happens, then go from there.

While we have been talking about wanting to move for a while now, I just don’t know if it’s something we can do right away, especially with not knowing what’s going on with my hubby job wise. Yes, we could check out some mortgage quotes online, but we’re honestly just not in a position to buy something right now. And renting something else, with four dogs, well, that’s NOT going to happen! We got lucky finding this house when we did! So I don’t know what we’re going to do right now! I guess the only thing we can do is start looking around. maybe we could find a way to buy this house, but I’m not going to hold my breath on that one!

I love my daughter, I really do! But honestly, she’s going to be the reason I end up in an insane asylum some day..LOL! It’s been several years since she’s been to a funeral, so much so that she was at an age where it was still OK for me to pick out the clothes she was going to wear. Well, at 13, she won’t let me pick out her clothes any longer, which is probably a good thing.

So far tonight, she’s come out here in at least 6 different pairs of pants or shorts and a minimum of at least a dozen different dress shirts and t shirts wanting me to tell her which ones would look the best to wear to the funeral home Sunday. It’s not so much that I mind her trying all the different clothes on, what I mind is the fact that all of them will wind up on her bedroom floor and in the laundry when she cleans her room tomorrow. **SIGH** The joys of parenting a teen girl.

OK, deep breath, in, out…..I think I feel better! Thanks for listening to my previous post, I appreciate it!

Let’s see, what have I been up to today? I’ve argued with the kids about picking up their stuff and doing the dishes, I washed, dried and folded/hung 4 loads of laundry. (Yup, I let it get out of hand this week…LOL). I honestly had no clue exactly how many company logo shirts my husband had until I was trying to sort out the clothes that were hanging today, I was looking for something decent looking for both of us to wear to the funeral Sunday. We’re BOTH in serious need of a wardrobe makeover! Honestly, I have more sweat pants and T-shirts than I have room for! But I only have one pair of dress pants and one dress! How sad is that? Thankfully the dress pants were just bought in December, so fitting into them shouldn’t be a problem at all!

My husband, however, his only pair of dress pants consists of a pair of Carhart carpenters pants. Thankfully this isn’t a black tie “affair”, so him wearing those, or even a pair of nice looking jeans, isn’t going to be a problem anyway. It’s pretty sad though…LOL! OK, my brain is going back to mush here, so I guess I’d better wrap this post up before I fall apart! I don’t like death, I really don’t!

I know that I’m a person of words, it’s actually quite easy for me to find things to talk about in my blog posts. But so many things have happened in the past 24 or so hours that have put my mind in a whirlwind, and for the first time, in a VERY long time, I’m finding it hard to find something to write about.

My mouth wants to scream out to people and remind them to take the time. Take the time to let the special people in your life know just how special they are to you. Take the time to remember that no one is perfect and we all make mistakes and that it’s not our job to judge someone when they make a mistake. And to take the time to be just a little more thoughtful and caring to someone who just might be a little down on their luck in life.

It’s so easy to want to turn our backs on someone when they do something wrong, to cut them out of our lives in the hopes that they, and their problems, won’t be a part of our lives any longer. But the worst part about doing that is that when something happens and that persons life ends, you’re left behind with this huge mountain of regret for the choices that you’ve made and wishing that you could do anything and everything to get those moments back. But they’re gone, forever, just like the person you’ve finally realized was so special to you.

No, I’m not talking about myself when I talk about cutting someone out of your life, I didn’t make that mistake. But I have several family members right now that are struggling to deal with the guilt of doing this, of turning their backs on someone who needed their help, the help they refused to offer. I’m also dealing with the fact that for the first time in almost 8 years my husband is going to come face to face with several family members who cut him out of their lives because of a mistake he made. But to be on the safe side, we made sure it would be acceptable for him to be present at the funeral this weekend, and amazingly were told there would be no problem with it. Could this be a new beginning? I’m honestly not going to hold my breath! It’s their loss for cutting him out of their lives, especially for something that did not affect their lives in any way, shape or form.

It’s going to be a difficult weekend, at best. Saying goodbye to a person that has been a part of your life for over 30 years is never an easy task. And seeing the pain and guilt that his family members that refused to allow him to be a part of their life for nearly 20 years are now having to deal with will make it even more difficult.