Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Home Owner No More

I am offically no longer a home owner. I owned my home yesterday....today I don't. It happened in the span of 30 minutes. It was like the blink of an eye. I feel a little like an orphan, or maybe more of a squatter since I still actually live here.

This was my first home. Where I have raised my babies. Where I have grown so much as a person. As a wife. A mother. Some people may think I'm being silly....but it really does hurt.

It feels surreal.

Very strange.

Heartbreaking.

It took all I had in me not to break into tears. (My kids were present at the signing....there was not breaking down allowed-not that I would in front of anyone anyway). This is MY house. I loved it from the moment I saw it. I love the people around me. I love my life. But it's time to move on from here.

My comfort zone.

My safe place.

There are better things to come. I know this deep down. I have to keep reminding myself to keep moving forward.

One foot in front of the other.

One step at a time.

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

House Hunting We Will Go

We are (almost) packed and ready to go for Friday. Friday we head out for spring break to fly across country to hopefully find our new home. I've been house hunting online....it's not quite the same as in person, so I'm kind of excited to start this process and find somewhere to live. ASAP.

My criteria is as follow:

3 (4, I need 4!) bedrooms
2 1/2 bathrooms (the half is the most important)
living room
family room (yes both)
big (huge) closet-the kind that is like an extra bedroom!
tub (separate from the shower) (the giant soaking kind)
decent sized yard (with a play set!)
2000 (3000) sqft.

Not asking for much, right?? I know darn well I won't find that at an affordable price where I would rather be. So I guess I better get used to either a smaller house, or living somewhere else. We'll see how it goes.

Friday, April 15, 2011

The Dentist

Yesterday I went to the dentist. I hate going to the dentist. I have always hated it. I was not blessed with a pretty mouth full of teeth. I don't know how common it is, but I had duplicates. Just about 2 of everything....needless to say it led to LOTS of dental work when I was younger. Back then I don't even know how common pediatric dentistry was. I know it's not something our little town had. The dentist I had the misfortune of seeing was not that great with children.

I had a husband and wife team who had their own practice. One day I had to have some teeth removed. I was pretty young. (This is one of those things you never forget). I don't remember the events leading up to it, but I had the wife working on me this day. I'm sure I had some laughing gas....I never really felt it worked that well. I felt everything and it hurt like hell! Anyway, the wife is working on me and whatever she was doing hurt. I had an adverse reaction to the pain, and I ended up kicking her. I didn't mean to start a fight or anything, lol...it was just a knee jerk reaction. She stopped, walked out and she never worked on me again. The feeling was mutual. I guess I can't blame her...but I was just a kid.

Thankfully I haven't had to have any teeth pulled in years. They do keep warning me about my wisdom teeth though. Apparently after 30 you are supposed to keep a close watch on them.

Great.

The top wisdom teeth are coming in sideways.

Awesome.

The dentist told me yesterday the problem is you don't want the good tooth next to the wisdom tooth to be adversely affected by it. Meaning...you might want to consider getting those out at some point before it becomes a real problem.

Even better.

I actually wanted to get these out when I was younger...like 10 years ago before I moved here. My parents didn't want to pay for it.

Thanks Mom and Dad.

To this day I'm always really nervous when I go to the dentist...even though they're just cleaning my teeth. I'm quite sure I will always be a nervous wreck. The good news in all this happens to be that I can proudly state that, in all of my 31 years, despite my jumbled mouth full of teeth, I have never ever had a cavity. :)

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

ChampagneTaste on a Beer Budget

This is a famous term in my family. I think my grandmother coined it when I was younger...and it fits me perfectly. I (sheepishly) (maybe not sheepishly exactly) admit I have champagne taste on a beer budget. I want the biggest and the best and the highest quality of everything.

Not exactly a saver's attitude, now is it? I suppose one could say I'm like a child in that respect. Except with out the tantrums!

I want, I want, I want. I just don't have it.

Our housing situation has me a little frustrated. Looking for houses is frustrating when you can't afford what you really want. I know where I'd like to be....but to live there I almost need to match hubby's salary, and that ain't happenin. Don't get me wrong, there are houses we can afford.....

(Shoe boxes)
(Grass huts)

We've also been toying with the idea of building. I must be out of my mind...I don't think you can build a nice big new home on a beer budget, can you? I'd love to....that would be beyond perfect.

A girl can dream, right?

But I digress....we'll find something, that hopefully we can agree on and afford.

And soon.

"Spring Spheres"

On the way to drop my kids off at school this morning, I heard on the radio about how a school in Seattle (of course it had to be in WA) wanted to be more politically correct about Easter. Instead of calling Easter Eggs, Easter Eggs....they must now call them "Spring Spheres."

Seriously?? Are you kidding me?

There isn't anything religious about an egg...it just so happens to be associated with Easter, the religious holiday. It's not exactly a sphere either. I do believe it's oval in shape. No?

What is this country coming to? Why do we do this? I don't see this as being politically correct. I see it as being ridiculous. If one peroson doesn't like, or appreciate the actual given name of Easter Eggs, or Christmas, or Hanukkah, or what have you, then that's ok.

Call it what you want!

Don't you think it's equally as politically incorrect to make everyone go from calling Easter Eggs, to "Spring Spheres?" Doesn't that infiringe on our rights to call it the given name?

I thought I lived in America....where we had FREE speech. *sigh*

Who comes up with this crap?

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

The Last 10 days

The last 10 days were so nice. It was so nice to get back to a "normal" place. Hubby was here, and we were all together. We were constantly on the go, we were out of town part of the time, to say the days flew by would be a gross understatement.

It was hard to let him go. To go back to our new "normal." The kids handled it beautifully. Probably better than I did. Saturday night I watched a cute little movie...I don't even know what the name of it was. This guy was interested in this girl, she knew it, but wasn't romantically interested in him. Things happen, they fight, and he moves 3000 miles away to law school. It's then that she realizes that she loves him. She misses him. She quits her dream job one afternoon and the next morning is on a flight to NYC to surprise him. It's not exactly the story of my life, but there are glaring similarities and I just lost it. I had my husband back, and I had to let him go. I know this isn't forever, and there are plenty of people who are worse off than I am. This is nothing. But it's still hard. I'm blessed in the fact that I get him back, and I will see him again in a couple of weeks. Not everyone can say that.

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Rented Ride

We were able to ride in hubby's rented vehicle up to Canaan Valley. It's a Kia Sodona. A very nice full sized suv.

With. Three. Rows.

Oh. My. Word.

Heaven!!

Of course when you use all three rows, that doesn't leave much room for luggage, but we made it work...and it was blissful! SO much less fighting between the kids. I do believe this will have to be a new criteria when it comes time to purchase a new car. In our current car, I would like to build a brick wall between them pretty often. Even just to get from home to Charleston...which is less then 45 minutes away.

Better save some pennies...these wonderful inventions don't come cheap!

Road trip!

Hubby has been here for the past week and it has been so nice to have him around! While he's been here we've have been on the move. We've attended a family wedding 8+ hours away, came back for a few days and now are on the move again.

We drove up to Canaan Valley last night. Hubby has to work here for a couple of days so the kids and are I tagged along. We are staying at the Resort Lodge here....It's such a beautiful place up here. Very serene and tranquil. Also pretty rustic...Which if you are addicted to electronic connections to the outside world...it might be a little irritating, lol. The lodge does have wifi, but is sorta hit and miss...and dial up slow at times. Whew....what ever did we all do before dsl or cable internet?

My kids will never know life before the internet. Or cell phones. I remember...but what the heck did I do? I remember I was outside some...I however have never been outdoorsy. I can't imagine life with out these wonderful, yet often times frustrating modern conveniences. I would now be lost with out facebook. I get fidgety if I can't connect and check my email. Sad or a sign of the times? Both I think.

My one wish for this place is that someone would renovate the Lodge. It has such potential, it's a shame it's stuck in a time warp from 30+ years ago. I think if it were updated it would definitely attract some new visitors. In the winter it has great skiing packages. The summer offers golf packages. There is a pool and hot tub, inside and out. You can ride skii lifts in the summer and walk trails too. Great outdoor family fun is to be had up here in these beautiful mountains!

So far today, our fun has included going to the little playground behind our room, and to the game room. We've had 2 melt downs, and a come to Jesus. The pool is closed....someone is playing a cruel joke here. Haha. Maybe God is talking to me, and telling me to learn some patience.

Seems an appropriate thing to learn up here....