Catching up

I can't believe that it's been over a week since I last blogged. How did that happen? Let's see there have been a few new things since then.

B started pre-school. We finally were able to get the paperwork and he started last Wednesday. So far he loves it. The only thing I've heard him complain about is the music is too loud. He's enjoyed everything else. He was even the "Star of the Day" yesterday, which really excited him. He was telling everyone about it yesterday and today. Makes me proud to have such a great boy.

L is the normal L, loud and crazy. He misses his brother while he's at school but he does sit and watch TV without the screaming that usually takes place at some point when brother is home.

We're still dealing with the electricans. I thought for sure we'd get the bill, pay it and be done with them for a while. Nope not the case. Seems they've decided to overbill us on some extras they did. Wouldn't have minded it so much, had they forwarned us that there would be additional charges and given us an estimate on it. Having a talk with one of the head honchos tomorrow hopefully to get this thing taken care of once and for all. Hopefully we can come to some conclusion on it tomorrow.

I found out my little sister is pregnant and due on my birthday. At first I was shocked and scared for her and wasn't sure what to think, however, now I think it's okay and I will be here for her. Sounds weird to think that she's going to be a mommy soon (4 months tomorrow is her due date).

Hubby and I have been spending some good snuggling time together. It's so good to snuggle with him at night after the boys go to bed. I remember when we first started dating and later got married that we'd snuggle with each other on the couch and then I had the boys and the snuggling pretty much went out the window. The only problem with snuggling is I tend to fall asleep when we're laying together. Drives dh crazy cause it means I missed the end of a show. The only good thing is we typically don't watch live TV, so I can always go back and catch what I miss.

I attended a funeral today with the boys. The funeral was for my mother in laws aunt. She was 75 and had lived a pretty rewarding life. She was mentally challenged and really 75 is a good long life for someone like that. My mother in law called me tonight and told me that the boys were so well behaved while we were at the service. It made my heart swell that she said that about them.

My mother in law and I have not always gotten along. When my husband and I first started dating, she tried to talk him out of dating me. Thankfully, it didn't work, but it also caused us to get off on not the best foot. It will be 10 years this July since our first date, and I'm sure my mother in law wouldn't have thought it would last half this long, but I'm proud to say it has. Of course some days it only seems like yesterday since that first magical date.

Evil thoughts, I know

If you read my blog from yesterday you'll know that I've been uploading pics to get them printed. Well today I finished the kids ones, now I'm working on my flower pics. If anyone knows anything about me, you know that I love gardening. I can't say I know a lot, but what I do know I've learned from experience.

One thing that I do know, I will never get another chinese lantern plant. Those things are pretty but they spread like wildfire. I started with just a few plants 4 years ago and they spread all over the place. I'd run over them in the yard with the lawn power. They even creeped under the fence and tried to take over the back fence flower bed. I did go through last fall and pull tons of it out, however I know I didn't get nearly everything. I also know that the new owners will be cussing in a few months when they see how much it spread.

I'm actually kind of laughing, cause I know how bad it will be and I don't have to take care of it.

I do, however, have my own things to worry about in my new beds and it should be loads of fun, come spring.

I am hoping for some pretty spring flowers to come up. I sit and think about the beautiful tulips I left behind and get a little sad, though.

Here are a few for your viewing enjoyment.

Bittersweet memories

I sit here, while I'm typing this, uploading pics to eventually get printed. Most of the ones that I am uploading are from our old house. The first house we've ever "owned". I say it that way cause while we took care of upkeep on it, it truly wasn't ours. The bank techinically owned it.

The house that held so many memories, all of which were once in a lifetime memories. This was B's first house, the first place place to come home. It was because of him, that we bought this house. I discovered on New Year's Day of 2003 that I was pregnant and after some talk we decided we wanted our own house to raise our children in and not the small two bedroom apartment we'd called home for two years. So we started our home search. We came close to buying another house but we weren't certain the house we looked at was going to be large enough for a growing family. We were pretty certain at that point we'd be having at least one more child after B. We went and looked at two other homes the next day, this being the first one. We loved it from the first moment. We started from day 1 of home ownership into making it ours by painting. In years to come, we redid the dining room floor, replacing gross carpet with laminate flooring, repainting and replacing the molding. The following year we replaced the living room's gross carpet with laminate flooring.

We welcomed L the following year and last year we replaced the flooring in the powder room with ceramic tile. All these projects were do it ourself projects. We also added a fence to our backyard. I relandscaped the whole area around the house and started going around the fence. We made this home into the place we thought we'd live in for the rest of our lives.

We have many wonderful and cherised memories of our first home, the place we called home for 4 and 1/2 years. While I'm sad to have had to sell our house, I'm also happy because we have those memories in our hearts now, and we can make new memories in our new house. Another house we are making into our own. I house that I hope to live in for the rest of my life. Unless of course, I should happen to win the lottery.

On a side note, the electricans left last week. They are finally done and this is my first time in our new house alone with my boys in over a month. It feels good but I do miss that adult company. Too bad, I had to pay them for it.

Will they ever leave?

Seems like I've been dealing with electricans for the entire time I've lived here.

They first came, I believe the beginning of December or somewhere around that time and they're still here.

Let me start this whole story from the beginning. When we found out we'd be moving in September we immediately started looking for a house. We started first by driving around the area to see where we wanted to be and found a few houses in this area that we wanted to look at. I then contacted a local realtor, Matt, who helped us with the house looking. The first day out we saw 9 houses. We liked one quite a bit but we weren't sure it was the one for us plus a rather large family still lived in it and we were pretty sure we wouldn't be able to get in with a month or so. We then drove all the way back home to look over the other options. I found four more houses that we were able to look at a few days later. The first house was the one we fell in love with. It had quite a bit of original woodwork and stain glass doors and just had that feel of history and it had central air. I hate heat so that was pretty important. We put an offer on the house and it was accepted. The only problem was that it was four siblings selling their mom's house so they each had to sign the contract. They of course, all lived far away from each other so it took almost 2 weeks to get our signed contract back. We then had a home inspection done and nothing really major other than the electric came up on it. There was some "exposed" knob and tube wiring throughout the house. We asked that the sellers pay to have it upgraded and we had an estimate done. They agreed but again they had sign that too. They also had to sign the paperwork for the deed to be transferred since they wouldn't be coming to settlement. Needless to say we weren't sure until the day before settlement if we would be able to get to settle because it took so long to get the deed back.

We settled and the money for the electric was put into an escrow account, that was October 23. Here we are 2 1/2 months later and the electric still isn't done. The sellers decided a couple of days after settlement that they wanted to have another estimate done. The guy came out and had no idea what was to be done. He took a whole 15 minutes to walk through the house and see what should be done. I was not pleased with him and was leary of him doing our work for us. He came in on the estimate lower than the origingal but because I was leary of the guy from the start, I asked if we could pay the difference. It was agreed upon but again the sellers all had to sign the form for it. Almost a month later we got the signed form back and we were finally able to call the electrican to come do the work. It took another 2-3 weeks for them to finally get to come out and start it and they're still working on it.

I'm actually glad that we asked to have the original ones do the work. They ran into a couple of problems and I'm not sure if the other ones would have taken the time to actually do it or if they would have just not done it.

We thought they would have been done by now but that doesn't seem to be the case. They have at least another day's work yet. They were trying really hard to get it done today, knowing they wouldn't be back until Wednesday or Thursday. The problem now is, we have no outlets in our bedroom until they come back. So our TV and phone are now running of an extension cord from the boys' room.

Please get done soon, Rick and Nathan. Just because I enjoy the adult company, I'm tired of the mess you are leaving me in my house.

Routine

Routine, that's such a big word. One that I love if only I could get into one. I keep telling myself I need to find a routine, especially when it comes to the boys.

The only thing that is the same everyday is when we have lunch, b/w 12-12:30. Dinner is usually about the same time too around 5:30-6. It's good to know that food is important in my life isn't it?

I was just saying to my husband tonight that I need to start getting my showers first thing in the morning. Seems to kick start my days when I get one as soon as I get up. The only problem is the electricans have been coming by 7:45-8 in the morning, which means that I need to be up by 7 and sometimes that doesn't happen. Wouldn't be so bad but I have to have the dogs out and locked up by then and that sometimes takes 10 minutes of my time.

Soon the electricans will be done, and I won't have to worry about getting up for them. I think I'll still aim to get up by 7 since I do get more done that early, but if I want to sleep a little longer I'll still be able to get that shower before the boys get up.

Today I didn't get that shower, even though I was about 90% sure the electricans weren't coming, but I couldn't pry myself out of bed to get into the shower. I will probably take one in a little bit though. I feel gross if I don't have one before bed. Although a bubble bath sounds good right now, but I wanted to use some new stuff in my hair tonight anyway.

Okay so back to routine. I really need to get on one. It's good for the boys to have a routine and especially good if I put them into preschool next year or if B goes to kindergarten next year.

Hurry up electricans so I can get into a routine, please.