Big Decisions

So, in the spirit of believing our house sale is going to go through this time, we went house hunting this weekend. We are just so ready to move on with the next phase of our lives and tired of the waiting, we needed to start. Saturday, we went to look at four houses. The first was in a wonderful neighborhood, had a phenomenal yard and came with a sun room and a hot tub. I still like it, but when we sat down to really discuss it later, we realized the layout of the place just would not work for our needs. It's a shame, because the neighborhood was so wonderful. There was also a little work to be done and I don't want another project house.

The second house we looked at was wonderful. It was so beautifully finished inside there would be very little to do to it. The kitchen was beautiful, the three living spaces (yes, three!) were plenty of room for everything, but the down side was there was only one full bathroom and the other half bath was way in the back of the house. The bedrooms seemed a little small to me, and the back yard wasn't fenced in. There also was no basement, which I really want because we living in tornado alley. It did have a great deck, though, and the garage was nice.





Our third stop was a house the realtor had heard wonderful things about and once we visited, we could not understand why. It was awful. I guess some people were dazzled by the fact that it had a pool out back, but the house itself was awful. The worst feature was an ugly, old pink tub that was installed into the floor in such a way that the top edge of the tub was at floor level. Ugh! Why!?

Our fourth stop was the red house I've been in love with since our first visit last November.



I know, I know, they say not to get emotionally attached to a house before you buy it, but I'm not sure I would want to buy a house I didn't feel some sort of attachment to. Why else would I want to live there? I just can't walk in that place without it calling my name. I love the history, the charm, the old feel to it. It comes from another era and doesn't resemble these horrible cookie cutter houses that are plaguing the suburbs. I'm sure we'd run into projects and issues with it, but I just love that house. Down sides? Only a one car, detached garage and John would have to go up and down stairs to the basement in order to get to his train area and woodworking shop. I'm not sure how many more years John will be able to maneuver stairs, so that's a big consideration. It's going to be quite the decision in the next few months, and we're just getting started.

I Need a Little Spring

I've lost my mojo. Not just my scrapping mojo, my life mojo in general. Maybe it's the winter that would not end, even though it has been a spectacular 60* most of this week and as lovely as I could ask for in a world still stripped bare for winter. Maybe it's this illness that has pervaded my household for weeks now. I had to keep Shona home today to administer breathing treatments in an attempt to knock crap out of her lungs. I still have it in mine, too, but I carry on and try to ignore it. Honestly, though, it's exhausting. I am 90% recovered, but I was down for so long and I was SO far down that I can't seem to get all the way back to 100%. I think that's still only part of it, though. I'm sure the weariness from the house sale isn't helping. Nothing new on that end, but I don't expect there to be until March.

I have kits sitting here to scrap and I just look at them, admire their beauty, but feel completely uninspired. It's like my entire world has gone gray. No, it's not depression. I lived on Main Street in Depression Land for over a decade and I know the entrance gates to that place far too well. I am not even popping in for a visit. I just feel....blah. I think what I need is a little green grass popping up, maybe some trees sprouting leaves, a few birds singing and the warm sunshine beating down on me. Yeah, that's it, I need a little spring. I can't wait until it gets here. I want to roll my plant back out onto the porch, sit in the rocker outside and enjoy the lilting sounds of the dump trucks and concrete trucks rumbling through the neighborhood. Hopefully I'll be doing that from the front porch of my new house soon. Come on, spring.

News? What news?

So I'm still sick. This is the neverending illness it seems. Tomorrow will be a week since I came down with it and it just drags on and on and on. John keeps threatening to take me to the doctor and I keep saying it just needs to run its course, but if it isn't going away I might have to give in and go to the doctor. I hate admitting defeat like that, but after almost cracking a rib coughing all night and feeling woozy and drained today, I am getting to the point of saying "UNCLE!" with it all. I still don't know what they would do for it, but something has to give.

The other big news that isn't really news is that we accepted another offer on our house. Yeah, yeah, don't get too excited because I'm not. I refuse to celebrate until we sign those papers and hand the keys over.

The buyer was the one who went there three times and took measurements. He’s either military or a reservist getting ready to be called to active duty, because he wants to close in four weeks and get his family moved in before he deploys. At first he wanted us to do a land survey before selling, but that was going to cost $1400 and we flat out refused to do that. I have no idea why someone would even want something like that done, but even if I had that kind of cash sitting around, I wouldn't waste it on finding out whether the property boundaries are six inches different from what we think they are just so the next buyers would know. That's crazy talk in Anita world. The next demand was that he wanted us to pay $2500 toward his closing costs, but we countered that he would either have to raise his asking price or both agents would have to cut their commissions to do that. He was unable to raise because his loan approval topped out at the amount he was offering, but amazingly, our agents both said they’d cut their commissions to cover enough that we could do the deal. I’m still surprised by that. I know how desperately our agent wants to sell the place because it has been a thorn in her side for eight months, but I am surprised the other agent agreed to it. So as of this week, we are officially under contract.

What gets me is the guy guy is having an inspection done, supposedly for his own purposes. I don't blame him for wanting to know, but we are completely firm that the place is sold “as is” and we cannot and will not for any reason change the selling price for anything the inspection person may find wrong with it. It's a fixer upper. Deal with it. That's why I won't celebrate until I have the final papers signed. You just never know what nonsense they will try to pull. I’m not even telling my family until the deal is final. Until then, it's not even news and you didn't hear it from me.

Oh, spring, where art thou?

I was just standing at the side door, peering out into the night, watching big, fat, wet snowflakes drift onto the steps. Another night of snow. I can say at least we didn't get what Ohio and other northern states did, but we have had our share and it was someone else's turn. This would have been a wonderful winter to spend up at the house, as I'm sure the fireplace would have had a good workout. You watch, next winter when we are all settled in again, it won't snow a lick. I think I could live with that, though. I really could. I'm glad my kids enjoy it, but I'm over the whole glistening loveliness of the winter world. It has dragged on too long and it needs to end. Now.

I'm suffering through a bad bout of something. I'm not sure what to call it. I haven't had any fever, so I wouldn't classify it as the flu, but my throat hurt so badly for two days I could barely swallow and I couldn't talk at all. Right now it's still a little swollen, but a lot of the pain has gone away. Now it has moved on into my lungs, as all sickness loves to do to me, making me even more miserable. Next up will be my head. It always works its way out of me that way. I hate head colds, but I would rather have a miserable head cold than a sore throat any day. There's something about not being able to swallow and breathe that messes up all life as I know it.

And in the non-news category for the day, our realtor called and mentioned that someone is coming back to look at our house for a third time, this time to measure the rooms. Know what my response is? Big whoop. Doesn't even register on my excitement scale anymore. I've been down that hope road too many times to bother and you know what? It's more of an annoyance to even know people are looking at the place at this point than sitting around dreaming of an offer. As far as I'm concerned, it's my house, it's not going to sell, and they are trespassing. I'll be relieved to take the "For Sale" sign down in another six weeks. So don't cross your fingers for me, because I sure won't be. ;)

Just another day

Today was just another day in a string of days, all like one another. They're becoming a blur. I decided to cheer myself up last night by making a list of the top five reasons I will be happy to move back to my old house. First, as much as they drive me insane, I will be closer to family. Usually that's a bad thing, but with my grandmother heading into her sixth week in the hospital and my being over two hours away from that hospital, the distance is palpable.
Second, better job and school opportunities for me. I won't have to fight the ridiculously tight job market here. There are more schools to choose from up north, too.
Third, access to shopping. I have to drive an hour in any direction to get to decent shopping from this town. I can cut that in half up north.
Fourth, at least we would be out of this sardine of a rental house and would have room to breathe again.
Fifth, Katy would be back with her old friends, and I know she misses them a lot.

That's about all I can come up with at the moment, but it does make me feel better. One of the houses we had been strongly considering before the contract on ours fell through is currently under contract. I saw it on the sign when I drove past today and in a way it was a letdown, but then it was also a relief. At least they are getting their house sold. Good for them. I may never know what that feels like but I can be happy for someone else when it happens to them. ;)

What my birthday means

Hmmm...other than that psychic bit, this is frighteningly accurate.

Your Birthdate: July 7

You are an island. You don't need anyone else to make you happy.And though you see yourself as a loner, people are drawn to you.Deep and sensitive, you tend to impress others with your insights.You also tend to be psychic - so listen to that inner voice! Your strength: Your self sufficiency Your weakness: You despise authority Your power color: Maroon Your power symbol: Hammer Your power month: July

http://www.blogthings.com/whatdoesyourbirthdatemeanquiz/

Trudging on

I weighed in this morning and found I am one pound shy of a twenty pound weight loss. I'm still feeling so incredibly motivated right now, and that just isn't like me. I'll take it for as long as it lasts, though.

We are expecting the temperature to climb to a balmy, spf-concerning 44* on Tuesday. I can hardly wait. Of course, that is to be directly followed by another drop into the freezing cold and more snow. We may even get "heavy precipitation" on Wednesday or Thursday. Maybe I should take this as a direct sign that I am supposed to leave this state. Just pack everything up, burn down the house that will not sell, and head south where snow is such a rarity people actually welcome it when they see it. I don't know how Canadians and Alaskans do it. I really don't. There was a time when I loved snow and reveled in its beauty. That was sometime before I had to drive in it, had to keep the gas tank full so we didn't freeze, and long before I had to worry about bundling my kids up to keep them from suffering frostbite just to go make snow angels. Perhaps someday I'll be able to enjoy the serenity to be found walking in a gentle snowfall again, listening to nothing but the crunch of my boots while strolling through the glistening landscape. But somehow I think winter is ruined to me forever. Have a wonderful week.

Round and round we go

More snow. We could get up to 3" overnight. Personally, I'm hoping for zero. I want to wake up tomorrow to see the sun shining, the snow melted and the spring birds heading back in. Why does spring take such an eternity to arrive?

Tag, I'm it!

I was tagged by Catherine to list five random things about myself that no one knows. I'm not sure there's anything left that I haven't divulged. They are entirely random, but here goes:

1. I don't have much of a sweet tooth. I particularly don't like chocolate. I abhor white chocolate and dark chocolate (with the occasional exception of a Zero candy bar...odd now that I think of it) and can tolerate milk chocolate. I will eat milk chocolate if there is a redeeming quality such as caramel inside, but for the most part, I am perfectly content not to eat any. My theory on this is that my mother was such a chocoholic during her pregnancy with me that it turned me off the stuff for good! It doesn't end there, though. I don't like most pies and I am not crazy about cake. I do like cheesecake, but I'm picky there, too. You would think this would work in my favor with my weight, but it doesn't seem to!

2. I have an almost irrational fear of artificial sweeteners. My husband used to drink Diet Coke by the liter bottle daily and when he was diagnosed with Lupus, his doctors informed him that the aspartame used to sweeten it triggered the effects of the disease. The amounts he was drinking directly contributed to his illness and dramatically affected the rate at which his health declined. I don't like any artificial sweeteners because of this. As long as I don't know something has artificial sweeteners I am OK, but I will not eat or drink things if I am aware. And I read the labels of everything. Religiously.

3. About 75% of the time I think my mother is faking her mental illness. I should be ashamed, but after the hell she's put us through, I refuse to feel guilt on her account. Plus, there's the distinct possibility that I could be right.

4. I'm extremely sensitive to scents. Candles can give me an instantaneous headache and I nearly lost consciousness from someone's burning incense once. Don't even get me started on perfume counters.

5. I deeply regret choosing Missouri to settle in after my husband's retirement from the military. I had hoped being around my family would be a positive experience for the kids and myself, and some parts have been good...but overall, I think we would have been happier moving to Florida.

A Light Dusting

Our weather forecast for yesterday and today? A light dusting of snow. I'm sitting here looking out at at least 3" and it's still coming down hard. Boy, what a dusting. I took Bailey out for her walk this morning just as it started snowing. Midway through the walk, I looked up and felt like I was in a snowglobe someone had shaken...hard. I think tomorrow Bailey is going to have to deal with no walk and I will hit the treadmill after everyone goes to bed. I do have my limitations on walking vs. weather and a foot of snow to tread through would be right up there with walking in sleet! I won't even go into how much I hate winter. I'd sound like a broken record. I also won't go into today's disappointing news on the house because, again, I'd sound like a broken record. I'll just leave it at that.