Punch Bowl Party

It's almost here. The Superbowl. Jake was sitting with me at the table this evening eating a bologna sandwich (I had to cook supper) and he was telling me about his trip to the store with his dad. "Do you know what Dad told me he did when he went to a punch bowl party when he was a kid?" his eyes were big and his smile told me it must have been something good, "He went up to the line (of food) and got all the cookies!" By this time his whole face was alight with the pleasure of that idea. "Dad said he's going to make some cookies for our punch bowl party tomorrow."
That's just what he was doing in the middle of a break he had at work earlier this evening. One of his cooks went AWOL and he's stuck there and naturally, that means I'm stuck here cleaning house and trying to get ready to have more than 30 people stuffed into my livingroom to watch the game tomorrow night.
I was reminded today why I should follow flylady more closely. There is enough dust in my curtains to fill a grave, cobwebs haven't been knocked from their corners in quite some time and there are a bazillion little jobs that I really should be making time to get to before tackling another job (like those built in's I'm about to start in the office). That's just the way I am. It's how I work best I reckon. I'm not sure why.
Sure enough, my kitchen will need new flooring before I get the baseboard trim down. At least that will make laying the new floor - vinyl, no more wood - much easier than if I had to remove baseboards first. I'll call it long-term planning. Looking ahead.
That makes me a visionary. I like that better than she-who-never-completes-squat.
Truth is, I've run completely out of motivation for this house. I'm not happy here. Hate it. Don't like it one bit. So I don't enjoy working on it anymore. I realized a short while back that all the fixing up in the world isn't going to make this house my home and now I'm ready to get out of Dodge. If things work out with this new house, we should be ready to move within the year. Yee Haa!
Back to the punch bowl...I've cleaned and cleaned and cleaned today. Curtains are vacuumed and much lighter in the dust department. If I'd have had time to wash them I would have but I just couldn't fit it in. I'm amazed at what I go through for company. It's not like any of the people who are coming tomorrow have ever stopped by just to visit, it's not like they will do so once tomorrow is over, but I actually considered washing curtains. True, it would save me the embarrassment of my curtains causing someone to suffer an asthma attack but it goes far beyond that. Since I don't work people tend to think I don't "work" and I feel like I can never justify my house being messy whenever someone does happen to come by. The house is a direct reflection on ME and it just kills me to think of it not being finished by the time people start showing up. Nevermind the fact that it will be completely trashed by the time they leave, it simply must be clean upon their arrival. And so I spend the last two days - my weekend - cleaning like a fiend so we don't have laundry waiting to be washed or splatters on the faucets or trash needing to be taken out...you know...like we don't actually LIVE here.
Why? It's beyond me but it's how I am. Not that it will ever make it to perfection no matter how much I clean. I still have rooms that need flooring and there's that trim I mentioned before that's not only lacking in the kitchen but in most of the other rooms too. I guess I'd just like to come to a day when the house seems finished. And well, I just wish it looked more "done".
I guess I get that from my mama. She always kept our house ready for company and even then she'd apologize for the way it looked. Oh well.
So anyway the punch bowl is tomorrow with clean up immediately after. I'm gonna need a vacation after all this.

Em made it to school one day, at least. I had to pick her up early yesterday because she had a headache that wouldn't go away. It gets better then comes back with a vengence and she woke up with it this morning. I'm narrowing down symptoms and I think it's either tension or sinus so I gave her Motrin and an antihistamine and decongestant for good measure. She's still sleeping.

Jake's still sleeping too, though i will have to wake him shortly. Right now I'm just sitting here alone (with 3 dogs and a couple of cats) enjoying the quiet. Soon enough it will be time to wake the other lazy mutts and see my husband off to work. The day will get interesting after that. I have to get ready for the superbowl party on Sunday- figure out where all those people are going to sit/stand to watch the game and how in the world we're going to fit them all in here. Assuming they all show up, that is. I think Doug has invited just about everyone he's seen for the last couple of weeks and everyone he hasn't seen in years and years. We'll see who ends up showing up.

I woke up freezing cold this morning even though it's pretty near to 20 degrees warmer than we've been waking up to most mornings. The satin sheets I bought Doug for Christmas are decadent for sure, but they are dang hard to keep from sliding off the bed and taking the much needed warm blankies and quilts with them. I think we may need to save them for summertime when it doesn't matter so much if we lose them to the floor during the night. Will miss them though. I've become very spoiled to their silky comfort.

Yesterday Jake and I tackled a chair recovering project. For months now the kids have been sitting in an office chair with scraps of ripped cloth hanging like fringe from a dress from the 20's. Half the padding was missing (gimli ate it) and it was generally looking ugly sitting there in front of the playstation tv. Jake picked out a heavy duty flannel with rugrats pictures on it and we salvaged a bit of the unscarred padding for the arms and a couple of unused pillows for the seat and back. We ended up with a pretty great game chair if I do say so myself. It looks a lot better with nothing ripped and dangling too. We were proud of our results.

Not a lot to say this morning. Much work awaits. Have to clean Jake's desk off before we can even think of sitting down for school. I'd just have it in the livingroom but no need in trashing the only halfway clean room in the house.

Shoeless Jake

We have another day with no school because ice has yet to clear from a majority of the back roads our county school buses must travel. Yay us! I like snow days now just as much as I did when I was a kid. Not sure why, considering it completely throws me off schedule. It's fun though, for me and the kids.

I've managed to catch up on laundry AND ironing. Clean out the basement some (though the trash men have yet to catch up with their schedule) and the house has stayed generally clean. Amazing.

I've spent more time reading with Jake and watching movies with the girls than catching up on "me" things or enjoying the quiet (there has been no quiet). We've been prone to outbreaks of pure stupidity and hysterical laughter. We've told bad jokes, made up silly songs, acted out cartoon characters...it's been fun. Well, except for the part where Gimli chewed up the ONLY pair of shoes Jake has, it's all been fun. Doug had to go buy another pair of shoes on his way home from work yesterday. Without shoes for the boy, we were completely housebound. Not that we have anywhere to go - we've quite enjoyed being at home during these unexpected days off school.

Tomorrow I doubt school will be called off. It will depend mainly on the back roads of our county near the mountains. I figure a two-hour delay at best. It's almost sad because I'm not ready for it to end. Normal weekends and scheduled days off school are never this much fun. I'm not sure why.

Another round of icy weather is expected to hit us around noon today. Hubby closed the restaurant, thank goodness, and he is home for the day. We walked to the store up the road with Em and Jake to get the essentials (beer and cigarettes - we have milk) and the kids came home and slid down the hill in the back yard. Lots of fun to be had on ice too. For now we still have power and I'm looking forward to a fairly lazy day spent at home with the entire family. These unexpected days seldom happen for us so they are lots of fun.
The dogs aren't sure what to make of the ice on the ground. Corri seems to like the sounds she makes when she goes tearing through the back yard...kind of like a woman in heels. She's pretty funny. The other, more spoiled puppies, think they shouldn't have to go outside at all, so they will spend the majority of the day sleeping in the crate.
If we manage to get through the day with power I'll be back later, I guess, depending on how bored we get.

ICE, ICE, BABY!

We've had nothing but sleet pouring down since about noon today. I don't know if we will wake up with power tomorrow or not. That's assuming we make it through the night with power. I am shutting down the computer shortly - just in case. If I'm not around, I'm froze in :) It's beautiful here, looks like a blanket of snow. The warning has just been reissued and this is supposed to last through noon tomorrow. It's been changed 3 times already today. Apparently this cold front is taking an unexpected downward turn. All of this was supposed to miss us.
Wouldn't you know it...I'll be out of cigarettes by morning. And stuck here with the kids when they cancel (I hope they cancel) school. Adventure!

The Great Race

Jake came in 4th out of his group of 17 (or 23...never got the count right). He wasn't thinking about winning or losing. He just enjoyed running down the line of boys, young and old, and slapping hands on the way back to his spot in the crowd. He cheered for everybody and had no idea that he was so close to winning. He was just having fun.
At the end of the race, when the meeting was about to start, the leader stood in front of the rows of parents and children seated before her and said, "Traditionally the pinewood derby is known to be a traumatic event. Glad that's over."
True, for some, it was.
All the kids had a great time until it came down to the wire and elimination races began. One little boy, whose mom was sitting next to me, started to get really uptight as he progressed. He had spent the whole of the race sitting next to one of his friends. They had played and laughed together throughout the race from the beginning. This race though, they raced together and the other little boy won - he would be moving on and his friend would not. At the end of the race, the boy who won, put his arm around the shoulders of the other boy - the sore looser - who shook off the sympathetic arm of his friend, walked straight to his mom, sat down in her lap and cried. The winner stood looking at his friend, looking like he might cry also. Such sadness for a face that young to carry. What a hard lesson to learn that you're very likely to lose a friend (even temporarily) during something that started out being so much fun. The boy who won that race, also won the next elimination round and was again shunned by his friend who shook off the congratulatory arm around the shoulder as he stomped back to place his car in the holding box. This time the winner boy sat down and had a good cry himself.
It didn't take but a minute for his dad (one of the leaders) to notice he was crying. I saw him call the little winner boy over to his side and though I couldn't hear what he said, I could see it plain enough, "What are you crying for? You won."
I looked around at the area that held the scouts. The younger ones all sat together, still cheering for everyone who raced. With each run made, the 6-8 year olds would jump up and down together when it was over, after needing to be reminded to look to see who won. The older boys, up to around 12, I'd guess, had separated from the tight group that had played together up to this point. Now they stood spread apart, faces tight with the strain of competition...friendships stretched thin like a rubberband waiting to snap and sting the one that held onto it the longest. And I had to wonder if this method of promoting sportsmanship was as effective as it was intended to be.
I mean, can it really be considered effective when someone has to stand up and practically yell at the boys, forcing them to shake hands after the race? According to my observations, these kids didn't start off this way so the pressure came from somewhere didn't it?
Jake had no idea he was racing for a trophy when he lost the round for 3rd place. He continued to stand by the line and cheer for every race ran after that even though he was finished. He threw his hand out for every person to slap as they walked back by. He looked confused as the older boys that didn't win walked past with their eyes on the ground and hands in their pockets.
Traumatic indeed.

I should be baking, but I'm sitting here blogging instead. Blogging - Baking...close enough.
I volunteered to make snackies for the pinewood derby tomorrow for Jake's troop/pack/den/whatever that thing is called. I wouldn't know that much about it being that every meeting they've had scheduled since he joined back in early December has been cancelled. Tomorrow though is derby day and he will get to see lots of the kids. Actually, he will get to see lots of them tonight when he goes for weigh in and the practice run. That's a thing he will be doing with his dad and I'm skipping the festivities. Since I'm sitting here on my butt now, I will most likely be here baking (since I'll have already done the blogging thang).

I've spent a big part of the day cleaning out our bedroom while Jake worked on school stuff. It was worksheet day so nothing for me to do except yell "Hey boy! Get back to work!" every few minutes. Hehehe, it's not like that really, but Jake's about as interested in working today as I am so we went light with the stuff to do. Besides, he's blown through gajillions of workbook pages this week and the worksheet thing is getting tired. I think we're both ready to DO something. I'm thinking of switching us over to a project based system. He's really enjoyed building Jakenstein (we're putting together a body and learning about each system in Science). I want to do more cool stuff like that. Granted, he's perfectly capable of doing the worksheets but geesh, he's working out of second grade books, he makes a perfect score on most everything and the kid is BORED. he needs something more challenging.
Enter Good Mom.
"Hello bored little boy. How about we chunk all these workbooks in the can and do something FUN?"
He's all for it. Now I just have to figure out what we're going to do. If it turns out to be too much effort we may have to go the way of the worksheet again until my life settles down a bit, but I think we will be doing a lot more projects that will help us avoid so much of this mundane busy work. If it weren't for needing ot have papers to show the state, we would do little more than read and make stuff.
Cleaned my bedroom this morning while Jake worked on classification worksheets (BOring!) and it's looking right spiffy if I do say so myself. Nothing like ridding a room of the layers of dust to make it inviting. No wonder I've been wkaing up with serious sinus headaches for the last two weeks. Somebody call a maid service, quick!
Please!
I'm like Koni in that I'd love a maid. I'd like to join my husband and children in the little game of "nah, just leave that there, the maid will be along to pick it up shortly."
Inconsiderate bunch, they are.
On the home front, after I told my husband that I want the old house he called to get an inspector and builder to have a look at it so we can get an idea of the amount of serious work involved. We should know within the week if we're going to make an offer on it and how much that should be. Yay me!
AD: Looking for someone to take one adorable puppy dog. He's helpful (cleans off my counters every freakin' chance he gets) He mops (doesn't remember to close his mouth after drinking so my floors are in a constant state of mopping) He's entertaining (in that clumsy stage - can fall while doing nothing more than standing still). Only drawback is he has teeth. Call 1-800- IMA-SUKR.
Note: Tampons not included. His ears are supposed to flop. (though tying some onto his ears might help with the mopping after he drinks)

Ah well I should go start baking I guess. Just call me Betty

Chasing my tail

I'm not very good at keeping up with things lately. No news there. We spent the day yesterday looking at houses again - found two good possibilities, and I discovered that I'm just too weird for words.
The first house is a lovely little log cabin on a nearby mountain. It's 24 miles away from Doug's work, has beautiful seasonal views of the mountains on 3 sides, is well laid out, very low maintenance and with the basement we could eek out the extra space that we'd need. The 10 acres that come along with it has areas flat enough to make a beautiful pasture and it has enough hardwoods that we could have it logged and cover part of the cost for fencing or barn building.
The other house is nothing to squeal about but the land is great. Six acres already fenced and crossfenced, a barn that's probably worth more than the house and privacy galore while still offering a real neighborhood nearby that would provide (most likely) kids for my kids to play with.
And what do I do?
I sit down last night and tell my husband I want to live in the house that needs the new roof, wiring, plumbing and a complete overhaul on the inside. That house just calls to me for some reason. I stand in the front yard and my heart whispers "home". I just love it there. From the beautiful yard with the cushiony planting of zoysia, the variety of nut trees, the distance from the road, the circle of ent-like trees surrounding a small, round clearing in the edge of the woods out back, to the charming house with more than enough room for us and such personality. This home has known happiness. It knows life. It seems to know me and what I need.We'll be having someone to look at the house to get ideas on the cost of repairs and upgrades that will be necessary and talking offers (if all goes well) with the people who are handling the estate of the sisters that lived there to get either a better price or more land (hopefully the latter).
I have an idea where furniture will go, what flooring and wallcovering I'd like to put where, and what spot I would find myself sitting at most often. Pasture would be easy enough to run and the barn could be saved with little effort since only the last 20 feet or so is damaged. I'm sold...now we just have to wait and see.
Hate that part.

In other news, Leirin won her class spelling bee yesterday and will move on to the school-wide bee. As a former 6th grade spelling bee champ myself (though you'd never know it now) I'm proud of her. She spent last night going through the dictionary to learn new words. She doesn't want to be unprepared. She is growing up so fast. Twice yesterday she stopped me in my tracks and left me awed at how much she is changing. Every time I passed her she had either the dictionary in her hands, studying for the upcoming spelling bee, or she was reading The Illiad. She's quiet but strong...still young but completely sure - confident. She is led by her own interest in things and determined to find out what she wants to know. I never know what to expect from her anymore and she never fails to make me stop and watch in wonder.
It's impressive. I watch her grow, change, and mature. She is such a far cry from the baby I once held in my arms - the child that could be entertained by simply tossing a wadded up napkin in her lap as she moved back and forth in her wind-up baby swing. That always cracked her up. And still somehow she remains that baby I remember holding in my arms the night she was born when suddenly I realized exactly why my mom's voice seemed to crack each time she said "One day you'll have a little boy or girl and then you'll know."
Thesedays Leirin is likely to be completely entertained by the absurd. I watch her with her friends and remember being just as overflowing with giggles and silliness, but the part of her that knows herself well enough to have a plan for her life peeks through, even then. She is doing the near impossible job of being a kid while making plans to realize her dream. She knows herself - knows what she wants from her life.
Her plans are more well developed and sensible than many people have by the time they are 25...and she's only 12.
These moments come along with each of my kids occasionally - moments when I look at them and catch a glimpse of the adult they will become.
They make me proud, they amaze me, and I know I am blessed.

Ok no more blogging for me before I've had the ENTIRE pot of coffee. All the left out words and wrong spellings are embarrassing. Apparently my brain actually IS in the bottom of the coffee pot.

Leirin has been invited to spend the day at the mall with two of her friends (and one friend's mom). My baby is growing up. True to form, she walked in here first thing this morning and said, (insert poor, pitiful, neglected child voice here) "Mom, I have no money to spend."

(insert evil Vincent Price laugh here) "Awww, poor baby. Well I guess I can find a couple of jobs for you to earn..." (I count Doug's tip money he left on nightstand real fast) "...this whole twenty dollars."

Her eyes light up and she smiles. Twenty dollars could be spent on several semi-cool things at Claire's. Doug should learn his money left laying about on the nightstand is public domain and finders keepers.

"What do you want me to do?" she says

(more VP wicked chuckling)

"All you have to do is clean the back porch, the kitchen and bag trash in the basement...and I'll give you fifteen dollars. If you'll clean the kitchen too, you can have the whole twenty."

The deck is simple. True, the way it looks is a pretty accurate of destruction (compliments of Gimli, the great chews up everything lab puppy) but the cleaning of it will be simple enough. The pond is shut down for the winter, dead plants need to be tossed, chewed up bits swept up, chewed up candles tossed, nice candle holders brought inside to be put away, sweep and mop. That's a good 7.50 worth. The basement is another story. Our basement would be the ultimate Survivor locale. But the job of simply gathering some things to toss is a pretty easy 7.50 job too. Cleaning the kitchen (which is already clean) well, that one will pay 5.00. The kitchen will save me lots of time in my own cleaning routine today. The porch and basement are things I have yet to find time to work into my regular schedule so any amount of work in either place is a HUGE help.

I get help and she gets money. Sometimes, the system works.

I am one lazy bummer! Yesterday we wrapped school up early and I napped on the couch from 2:00 - 5:30. I woke up in a foul, FOUL mood, ate a grumpy dinner and fell asleep at 9:00. Doug woke me up at 10:30 because he KNEW I wouldn't want to miss ER and as soon as I saw the weather report on the 11:00 news I was out again.
I'm not myself lately. I am still not sleeping well though yesterday is definitely no indication of that problem. I'm having weird, funky dreams of death. Spooky.

Yeah, I am the type that pays close attention to my dreams and those little "feelings" I get. I believe we have the ability to know without seeing, and when I get in modes like this it bugs me. I worry about what is coming - about what I may be missing the signs of when my eyes are open. Last night it was Jacob tied to my dream when other dreams of late have been of people I am supposed to know but they have different faces - call me silly if you want...it bothers me.

My husband has said countless times before that his biggest problem with me is the fact that I'm always right (my thoughts on that are a whole 'nother blog) and though he exaggerates, he's right. I am usually right. I pay attention to my gut feelings and they do me right. So when I get into this kind of mode, especially when it links to someone I love, I get a little wiggy. I wouldn't call myself psychic by any stratch of the imagination, but there is a part of me that is definitely in the know. Sometimes that's a good thing. Sometimes not.

At least I am a little more ready to face the day today since I have finally managed to pick up a little more sleep. The downside of having a husband that works as many hours as mine does is that he gets that second wind right about the time I should be sleeping and he keeps me up. Nevermind that I have to get up hours before he does the next day. Nevermind that he has a schedule his body has been on for the last 17 years without changing. Nevermind that my schedule has been nothing but irratic and I NEED more sleep than I manage to get 6 nights a week.

Maybe I'm just getting sick and that's why I've been feeling so run down lately. Maybe it's the extra work of looking for a new home or the end of the year tax stuff, changing over files, gathering reports and chasing small pieces of paper with faded totals that I've had to do in addition to my regular stuff that normally only consists of housework, school, regular business bookkeeping, laundry, animals and house repair that is wearing on me so. Whatever it is, I am ready for it to pass so I can feel human again. I'm tired of being tired. Tired of being cranky. Tired of always being in need of a nap. It's working on my nerves.

In other news our old dog Brandy dog is changing a lot lately and it makes us face the fact that soon - much sooner than we want to - we are going to have to make some difficult decisions. She is almost completely blind, it seems, and her kidneys are again giving her problems. The cold weather makes it difficult for her to move around and so she spends a lot of time hobbling around when she must move and refusing to move anytime that she doesn't have to. She is still happy, and her quality of life remains good in spite of the problems she faces, but it's hard to watch. Not because she is suffering - arthritis medicine, a special diet and medicine to help keep her kidneys functioning and free of infection help medically and we just don't move any furniture around and we keep her confined to an open area that she knows the layout of well - but because we know each small sign leads us closer to the day we will have to make a decision based on what's best for her rather than what we'd like for us.

We love that old dog - spoiled, demanding thing that she is. It's hard to know she trusts us to do right by her and knowing what that will mean. Brandy is 14 years old this month and though she's only spent the last 4 years with us, it feels like we've loved her a lifetime.

Another test because I like these and this one turned out better than getting the Platoon grade on the movie test :)

You are Form 1, Goddess: The Creator.

"And The Goddess planted the acorn of life.
She cried a single tear and shed a single drop
of blood upon the earth where she buried it.
From her blood and tear, the acorn grew into
the world."

Some examples of the Goddess Form are Gaia (Greek),
Jehova (Christian), and Brahma (Indian).
The Goddess is associated with the concept of
creation, the number 1, and the element of
earth.
Her sign is the dawn sun.

As a member of Form 1, you are a charismatic
individual and people are drawn to you.
Although sometimes you may seem emotionally
distant, you are deeply in tune with other
people's feelings and have tremendous empathy.
Sometimes you have a tendency to neglect your
own self. Goddesses are the best friends to
have because they're always willing to help.


Which Mythological Form Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

And since I get a kick out of these things for some reason here are my results...

discover what candy you are @ quiz me

Give me a suit and a briefcase

Apparently I'm having a bit of difficulty keeping up with all my jobs so far this year. I can't manage to catch up with laundry and it's been a week since I last blogged. Days since I even read a blog (I just finished catching up). Now I feel old because everyone (except maybe Cate) is younger than me. I was graduating high school when they were just getting there.

Hardly fair.

I have spent the week looking at houses, trying to keep up with the house I don't want, but have, school, and the stock market. That's my latest hobby. It turns out that I've got a knack for stock picking and I'm having great fun with it. In May of last year, hubby decided to give me 500.00 to pick a stock with. I'm not sure what prompted it but I think he was just tired of my eyes glazing over when he'd talk about stocks like they do when he talks about football - the only two things that really interest him besides the restaurant. Anyway, he gives me the moolah and tells me to go off and make money. Six weeks later I make my stock pick and buy 75 shares of what I hoped was going to be my money maker. It closed fairly recently at 12.50 (up from the 6.45 I paid). Over the last several months I've picked several of the stocks we've purchased and we've made money in a big kind of way on them - in the way of gains...not actual big money...you have to put big money in to get big money out. Still, we're making money. On average, we're up 60% on my picks. The small fortune we could have made if he'd invested in the penny stocks I liked very much and marked for him to look over when they were 2.75 and 2.89 in August and both closed at over 12.00 today...well, that one will never be ours. There are several other of those small fortunes out there that I've picked and he's missed.

It's a travesty.

So for Christmas he gave me a book on day trading and told me to settle on an online broker. He's turning me loose. With money and no supervision. He seems confident in me. I like that.

See, Doug is an invester. A buy and hold kind of guy. I'm of the day trader mentality. I say take the money and run.

The good news is I'm told I'll never be ignored again (until I end up picking the big bomb, I'm sure) and we're still up 12 bucks on one and double on another and have two waiting to break out of the gate in a big kind of way come quarterly report days at the end of the month.

So that's the story of me, the stock market junkie, sneaking peeks at price fluctuations between math and science, loads of laundry, and house shopping. No luck yet on the home front but there are a few more places to look and one that I dearly love but that requires a lot of work (which I'm ok with, you know). We just have to make sure we don't find one that's ready to move in to that would be just as suitable.

Life's hectic, I'm not sleeping well, and I keep falling more behind. But I'm having fun, enjoying the house hunting (except for that one exceptional house I want and can't have) and we have homegrown popcorn from my FIL's garden and Buffy on DVD. Life's pretty good.

Just Rambling

Since we've been out on holiday break, bad girl here is sleeping until 9am every day. Something tells me we will be late for our first day back at school.

I hate taxes. Last night was the annual (though not last minute as it usually is) gathering and printing of the W-2s and quarterly tax reports. Now I just have to figure out how to file them and we can fire our slack ass accountant. Why we haven't done it before when I had to call them up and say "I'm quite sure it isn't legal for you to hold our taxes without filing them and if you don't get it done in two days I'll call a lawyer and find out for sure." Actually I do know. It's because our little area here is full of bad accountants. So guess who's doing the accounting this year coming up?
How does this keep happening to me? I do several career jobs with no pay. That hardly seems fair. Who do I see to file a complaint?

I'm waiting to hear if we can get in to see that house I mentioned today. I'm so looking forward to it that I dreamed about it. Of course in my dream the inside of that house looked like the inside of the magazine quality house that I stopped and took a run through the other night. Sigh...I really liked that house - white carpet and all.


Why didn't someone tell me it was bad luck to do laundry and sweep the floors on New Year's BEFORE New Years? I did two loads and my floors yesterday. I bet that means they sold the house I love to sometime last night. Why didn't I know this? Me the person always looking for a reason not to do laundry. I missed this? How?

Well here it is, the new year, and I managed to be awake by 8am in spite of being up until 2 (and with a bottle of asti, no less). We settled in early for our quiet, uneventful New Year's Eve - Doug and the kids piled up on the couch to watch Buffy while I went to bed with my laptop. I'm loving the laptop even though it is a kid attracter and it seems every time I sit down with it one of them magically appears by my side and begs "Can I touch it?"

"No, get your own."

So far sitting on the bed with the laptop doesn't make for the most productive time, but I'm hoping the new will wear off of it soon (with the kids anyway).

Yesterday we went to look at two new houses. One is perfect for us and the other is just...PERFECT. Not for us though. That house was magazine house, so dainty it's called a gentleman's farm and though my heart screams to have this house with the breathtaking front porch views of the purple topped Blue Ridge Mountains (I think that's the one there are views of a few different mountain ranges from that town) I know it wouldn't take my kids alone two weeks to completely ruin the nearly white carpet upstairs, or to pull the chandelier from the ceiling - which can be reached from the upstairs railing - SOMEBODY would Tarzan off that thing within a matter of days. I know this - anyway the house is gorgeous, has 4 acres fenced, a bonus room over the garage that's perfect for making soap in, and a clawfoot tub. It was built for me. But me in another life. Me without 5 dogs and 3 kids. Sigh...

The house that's more suited to us is smack in the middle of 19.5 acres of hardwoods, has a small but neat yard trimmed out of that, a swimming pool, sunroom, and detached garage with an apartment above it - also perfect for making soap and would hold a stove too so I wouldn't have to mess up Doug's kitchen. We could make enough money for fencing by having the area we want to pasture logged (I think) and we wouldn't have to clear more than is absolutely necessary for pastureland and a barn. I figure about 5 acres and we'd have everything we could possibly need, except the horses to put in there (but we have horses picked out already). The horse Leirin wants is a retired brood mare at the farm named Sunny, and I really love this beautiful dark colored horse (almost that black cherry color that changes from black to red to purple that trans am used to use on their cars many moons ago) named Valerie. Oh it sounds like so much fun.
Want to know the insanely ridiculous part of this new house that thrills me to the bone? The part that tickles me the most? Well, it seens that there was a handicap man living there before and all the carpet was ripped out of the house to accomodate his wheelchair. Down to the subfloor it's bare. Every room would need a new floor. And why that thrills me, I do not know but it does. I could move to the world's most perfect Crysty Place in the middle of a forest - and it's big enough I could give it a name, and plan to...something forest. I thought of SureWould Forest in honor of my buddy Linda who, no doubt, would help me lay that flooring and we'd have a great time doing it if she were here - anyway, got off track there...the world's most perfect Crysty Place and I'm excited because it has no flooring in it. I never claimed to be the brightest crayon in the box.

I think this place may very well be it and it makes my insides flutter at the thought because at this point it's out of my hands. We have to go get a better look at it, find out more details about it and then comes the money talk and that's all Doug's department. Doug's department because I'd have written a check (admittedly a bad one) on the spot for both houses last night.
Impulsive? Me? Maybe a tad.

Back to the New Year festivities. It was fun, more so than we had planned for. We had Asti, the kids had that pretend wine sparkling grape juice stuff and we have Buffy on DVD and that was the limit of our planned festivities last night. But the guys across the street had plans. They had fireworks that made such a commotion of popping and whirling and screeching, we just had to go check it out. Jake hung out of his bedroom window applauding each loud and beautiful burst of color. He nearly fell out laughing at the silly (most likely drunk) boys having roman candle wars with each other. Emily squealed with delight as they lit those little whirling chaser thingies and danced around them in a funky college-boy-Mexican-hat-dance-with-fire celebration. It was great fun. From the street they yelled "Happy New Year Neighbors across the street!" and my kids yelled back, "HAPPY NEW YEAR NEIGHBOR!"

The boys delighted in watching the younger of my two kids get such a kick out of watching the fireworks that they even shared their sparklers with them. We were standing on the porch, shivering in the cold when a guy comes walking over holding a box in his hand. "Can they have sparklers?" he said, "And oh, I'm Joe from across the street, by the way." Joe was very nice and aside from looking just a leetle bit insane when he dropped this whirley thing down in his pants and held the stretchy waist out while the sparks lit him up kind of like those cartoons where someone gets electrocuted and you can see their skeleton, he seems like a really great guy. By 12:30 the group of boys were standing in the middle of the street telling their New Year's Resolutions in complete sober seriousness.

We were awake until 2 and I crashed long before my husband had time to burn off the rush of energy the excitement of the kids had given him so I went to bed with Jake (he thankfully settled down to sleep around 2:30 or so) and now I'm the only one awake in the house with the exception of Gimli (the lumbering, clumsy, precious black lab pup I adore) and Piglet the cat. The rest are still snoozing. My world is quiet. And though laundry awaits in the new year even though I wished real hard that it wouldn't be, it's a great day.

The only resolution I will be making, if anyone is interested, is to get out of this town. I've found peace driving up to a few farms that's enough to bring me near to tears. My heart screams THIS ONE! THIS ONE! LET ME LIVE HERE! and I desperately want to get to move to one of those places.