Happy New Year's Eve

This is about it for my new year's celebrations, woohoo. With four kids and no babysitter it's impossible to spend it doing any grown up thing. Well, even if we had a babysitter we probably wouldn't go out anywhere. Hubby and I just don't really do that sort of thing. We'll sit around the house watch tv/movie or play games, and probably be in bed between 10 and 11. New Year's Eve has been turned into just another day for us. When I was younger I would get excited about being up till midnight, watching the ball drop in Times Square on t.v. Since marriage and kids I've lost interest in it all. Why stay up till midnight or later when you know the kids will be up around 6 in the morning.
I do more on New Year's Day. I make a nice dinner, tomorrows will be hoppin' john, cabbage and turkey and mashed potatoes and gravy. I'll make something for dessert, just don't know what yet. We'll watch the Rose parade, but not the Rose bowl (I just don't really care for college football).
I hope everyone has a great New Year's Eve and day tomorrow.

Well it's not gonna happen...

at least not this week. We were going to close tomorrow at 5pm but today got a call. The owner has to put a new roof on the place. The lender said the price will probably go back to what it was originally, which is fine with us. So know we get to sit and twiddle our thumbs for what another week or two if the weather holds out. Also it will be dependent on how fast whoever the owner hires to do the job and how big of crew and all sorts of other variables. At least we shouldn't have to worry about it being too hot. Well I shouldn't of said that cause now we'll have 90 degree weather in January and everyone will come down with pneumonia. Because, that's just how our luck goes.

Done for a year..

Christmas is over. We didn't have a real exciting one or anything. It wasn't bad, it was nice, the kids didn't fight with each other. Hubby and I tried our best not to get on to them for not doing their chores. My daughter actually opened all her presents without complaining or whining that she didn't get what she wanted. This was the best part for Hubby and I. Over the last few years we have gotten where we dread giving her any gifts for Christmas or her birthday. Every time she would throw a fit that it wasn't exactly what she wanted. A big screaming, I-hate-you, I-hate-this type of fit. This year though she graciously opened her gifts, thanked her brothers and seemed excited to get what she got. She didn't get everything she wanted but she was actually nice about it. Now that was probably the best Christmas gift she could of gave her daddy and me.

Merry Christmas

I hope everyone has a good one. Ours is in a little lighter mood now. We found out the closing date will be the 28th and all the paperwork and everything is at the underwriters right now. I think that's a good thing. I hope it is. We still aren't real sure how much we are paying for the place, lol. It's probably going to be less then what it was originally. We should either find out today or Monday. It'll be great way to spend the New Year, in our new home.
Well I'm gonna go and help the kids wrap their gifts. We had them draw each others names and buy for that person. I went and bought some stocking stuffers this morning and could you believe that Wal-mart is already taking down their christmas stuff to put up valentines day items. It's still 3 days till Christmas for goodness sakes.

Thank You...

For the nice comments. I'm thinking if we were going to hear bad news about the house surely we would of heard it by now. We should know something today hopefully. Everyone will know which 'cause I'll either be doing a happy dance around the house and yard or I'll be sitting here sullenly pouring over the real estate ads looking for another place.
Hubby and I saw something cool we're going to get to use when we move. It's called a forearm forklift . It would come in handy when we go to move the heavy stuff as it's gonna be just the two of us (well and yea the kiddies but I don't expect them to be much help). We saw it on diy network on a show called Cool Tools. It's only 20 dollars at a hardware store. I think it would be easier to use then a dolly and probably stores a lot easier.
Well that's it for today. Have a great weekend.

Taking a step forward only to find out your walking backwards

Okay that title does not really make any sense. But, it really describes what I feel. Here we thought the house deal was going OK. Then we get hit with a big whammy. It seems that the mortgage lender didn't trust the previous appraisal since it was done by the same guy who did it before and he came up with the same number. So they sent their own guy to do one and he came up with a lower number. So now the whole deal is on hold while we wait for the seller to decide if he wants to redo it all and go with the lower number. We don't know what the new number is, actually we're not suppose to know about any of this it seems. We wouldn't of known if Hubby hadn't called the lender to find out whats up because we hadn't heard from him in a couple of days. I think if the seller was going to out right and say no we would of heard something by now. Our lender says we should know by the end of the week. I just hate this, I'm tired of the whole home buying thing. It's depressing, I really didn't get my hopes up till last week when we were being told that we could close this week. So then I start getting excited and packing and making future plans in my head. Now this. Goes to show I really should not ever get hopeful about anything 'cause something always happens to knock it down. The Fates must have a hay day with my emotions. My whole freakin' life is this way.
When my youngest son was born and we were getting ready to go home. I had just got dressed, was getting his clothes out to wear home. Getting excited to introduce him to his siblings and they take him to the nursery for one last time. Then we get hit with a major whammy, they hear a murmur. Turned out he had two holes in his heart. We did go home later that day, but the excitement level was way subdued. He's fine now, the holes healed on their own though he still has a slight murmur.
My own wedding was a bit of a mess, but I won't go into that too much because weddings are not suppose right. At least that's what I tell myself I guess, lol. Either that or they foretell how the rest of your life is going to be. Now that's a possibility, while I have a great marriage and a wonderful husband. Our life since we've been together has been one struggle after another. But, we pull each other up along the way and laugh about whatever problem it was later.
Well I guess I'm done posting for today. Unless of course we hear good news about the house...but I'm afraid that is over. I'm afraid the seller won't want to lower his price and so will cancel everything. He was wanting a certain amount for the place so he could buy another piece of property. I don't know, Hubby wants me to try to be optimistic about it, but my optimism flew out the window two houses ago. It seems we get right to the closing part and everything falls through.

none

Can't really think of a title so ignore that lack of creativity, my excuse is that it's Monday. We had a very uneventful weekend. We got some boxes to start packing with. With the rain we've had the past few days and it was raining Saturday, I decided to go out and buy boxes. I don't think I'll do that anymore. 25.00 dollars for 10 boxes is crazy, especially since all we'll do with them is give them away. We need the boxes but it makes me feel like a sucker to buy them.


My lovely, smart daughter last night decided to try to wash dishes with one of my candle samples. Hubby said that she told him that she thought it was soap. I have soap samples and candle samples. Either way you don't wash dishes with that type of soap. So now all the dishes need to be redone because they are covered in candle wax...I bet they smell good though. Hubby told me that our dd is smart but has no common sense whatsoever. I said that was everyone used to tell me. I was always told that I had plenty of book smarts, but when it came to street smarts or common sense I came up lacking. So my daughter comes by it honestly I suppose.


Still not sure what day is going to be closing, the insurance agent told Hubby on Saturday that our lender told her Tuesday. I guess we'll know when we get a call to meet at the title lawyer(I think that's what it's called) office to sign the papers. I hope it's tomorrow, I would love to be moving in over Christmas. I wouldn't mind one bit. It would also give us plenty of time to get this house looking like it did when we moved in a lil over a year ago. Needs some painting (the cheap paint they used on the cabinets around the sinks came off when the kids let the sink overflow) and the carpet needs cleaning (four kids and a husband will do that). I think at the new place I'm going to get bench, set it right next to the door on one of those rubber mats they put under desk chairs and have everyone remove they're shoes before walking through the house. That house has brand new carpet throughout and it is a lighter color then what we have here. I'll even get some houseshoes in various sizes so that when company comes over they don't have to worry about their feet.


I have to laugh that last sentence stems from my thing I have about feet. Basically, I think they are gross. At work I wear gloves to clean the residents feet. I don't touch even my own childrents feet. Even when they were babies and babies shouldn't have dirty feet. If they have socks on I'm fine with it, but barefoot ewww. Hubby has learned not to ask to have his foot rubbed, lol.

Well got some good news..

Well I think it's good news, we may be closing on the house this week. We got a call yesterday and some papers to print out and sign and have the seller sign, then we get the joy of faxing it all back in to the lender. Hopefully by the end of the week we'll be homeowners.
Still no real diagnoses on my nephew, they're waiting on some lab results on tests that were run yesterday. It feels frustrating to me and I'm sure its triple to my sister and her husband.
Well, that's it for now. Short and sweet, lol.

I Feel so Helpless

My sister needs me. She needs everyone she can to gather around her and give her strength. Her son isn't doing to well. She called me at about midnight and again at 2:20 this morning. His temperature broke, which is good. But now it's going too low, which is bad. He went from 104 to 94 in the matter of a few hours then when she called me the second time he's body temp went down to 92 in spite of 3 blankets, an electric blank and my sister and her m.i.l. snuggling up to him to give him their body heat. Needless to say she's a mess right now. She's tired, she's not really slept since Sunday afternoon 'cept for a cat nap here or there. Her husband won't be able to get there till around noon today. The doctors and nurses are not listening to her (she told them about 3 hours before they took his temp that he was cold and something wasn't right).
She told me she needs a hug and oh do I wish I could be there to give her one. Even if I had the money to make the 12 hour trip there, I would have to bring all my kiddies and so I still wouldn't be able to help much.
Well she just called me and his temp has came back up. It's 99 now. The pediatrician has seen him already this morning and is upset that the other doctors were diagnosing him with an ear infection with out even looking in his ears. There was a lot of wax and they couldn't see to be sure but prescribed antibiotics anyway. Well I guess she scraped out the wax so she could see and said his ears looked perfectly normal. So now they are waiting for a gastroentologist to come in and check him out. They said the reason for the temp changes is because of all the antibiotics he's been on at once. So she's taking him off all of them so she can see the symptoms and have something to go on. He's still having cold sweats and my sister says he feels like ice. She says she just wants to wake up. This is a nightmare for her. Currently they still don't know what is going on with the little guy (he's only two btw, I don't think I said that before).
Times like this I hate that I have very little medical knowledge(I'm only a nurse's assistant and have an associates of science degree majored in medical assisting, so very very limited knowledge) and wish I could be more help. I wish I could fix this for her and him. It kills me that I can't fix it, that I can't tell her what it most likely is. It makes me want to finish college even more so I can tell my family and friends and reassure them or explain things to them when they or their loved ones get sick.

Happy Monday

Or at least I hope it is for you. I'm kinda waiting by the phone today. One of my nephews has been pretty sick for the past few weeks and my sister took him in to the e.r. last night because in spite of antibiotics and Tylenol and Motrin, his fever will not go away. Well they ran tests and took samples but could not tell what was causing him to be so sick. They gave him another antibiotic by i.v. along with a bag to rehydrate him and a steroid to help his fever. This was finally enough to break the fever and he ate and drank and they sent them home because there was nothing else to do right then. They were waiting on more test results to come in. This morning poor lil guys fever is back so my sister took him back to the hospital. So I'm waiting on a phone call update. My poor sister probably hasn't slept more then a few hours the past 24 hours or so, she works 3rd shift and had to work Saturday, and slept some on Sunday then had to take lil guy to the emergency room so has been up all night with that and before she can even attempt to get rest today is back at the emergency room. If this wasn't bad enough, her husband is out in the field(he's a marine) right now so if not for her mil she would be by herself. I wish I could help but being 1200 miles away there's not much I can except send positive energy and my best thoughts to her and my nephew. Sucks to have a family member in need and you cannot physically be there to help. Seems to be happening a lot in our family lately.


The other tests ran were inconclusive, so the doctor was thinking it may be a really bad inner ear infection. I guess his ears are so gunked up(yea that's a technical term for it, lol ;) that he couldn't seen the eardrum. So they are waiting for the blood work to show them something.
This is all kinda scary 'cause it's almost a deja vue for us. My brother and his wife went through something similar with their youngest son. They kept taking him in to the doctor/hospital and they kept sending them home saying it's just the flu or it's just an ear infection here take this antibiotic. Well it got bad enough she took him in and the nurse noticed he was pulling his hair behind his ear, he got transported to another hospital for emergency brain surgery. They didn't think he was going to make it, and he barely did. He had to have i.v. antibiotics for a long time it was a scary time for my sil and brother. He's a fighter, though, even to this day. My youngest son and him have so many similarities you would think they were brothers instead of cousins.



Well nothing else new to blog about I guess. We are in a waiting period, again, on this house. Buying a house should be easier, I dislike all this hurry up get stuff together then sit on it for a few days waiting on who knows what or who.

T.G.I.F.

I hope it's a good one for my readers out there. I'm going to have a busy one, well a busy weekend. My mom, sister and nephew will be here sometime late this afternoon. Hubby and I are going to a christmas party for the company he works for tonight and tomorrow will be spent running my mom and sister all over town shopping. Then I have to work Sunday. I'm suppose to work tomorrow but I'm going to call in sick. Bad girl, I know. I asked for the day off but little did I know if you wanted a day off one month you had to ask for it by the 10th of the month before. I know they make the schedule a month at a time, what I didn't know is that it seems they make it nearly a month a head of time. Who knows when they are going to need a day off a nearly two months early? I didn't know I was going to until right before Thanksgiving.
I like it better when companies make the schedules two weeks at a time. Gives you enough flexibility for last minute things that come up and you need a day off. Also gives enough time to tell your babysitter when you'll need her(so does a month I know, but I've also worked at places that did scheduling a week at a time and that makes it hard to plan things). Oh well I'm only going to have to worry about it a few more weeks. Whether we get this house or not we're moving at the end of the month, most likely. The kids will go back to p.s. and we like for one of us, usually me, to be within a few minutes of the kids at all time. Especially when they are at school, because I never feel safe when my kids are at school. My daughter has a tendency to get hurt at school and when kids go to p.s. they get sick all the time. Basically you never know when the school is going to call for one reason or another and I don't want my kids to wait more then a few minutes for me to get there when they need me. If I continue to work where I'm at and we get this place all right their school and my job will be 45 minutes to an hour apart depending on traffic. That's just too far for me. There's a nursing home that is only about 5-10 minutes from the house and so only maybe 15-20 minutes from their school. That's not too bad, its about the average time it's taken me with every school they've been to, to get to them.
Well I need to get off of here and get things done and baby-proofed or toddler-proofed actually, the whole two years old and ten foot reach thing.

It's cold today, but...

I'm so grateful that we don't live further up north. In Oregon and Washington state they're having loads of rain and in the Midwest through the New England states winter has struck with vengeance. Down here we are at 35 with a high of 47, and that's pretty cool for us. Actually it's probably pretty seasonal temps here. But I get spoiled with 60 and 70 degree temps in December, lol. I also like that we get very little snow here, more then say Florida but a lot less then Illinois. Just enough of the white stuff to let you know there is four seasons. Not so much that your freezing your behinds off from October to April. By the time you get the sleds out its melted, so it may not be as much fun for the kiddies, but they don't have to drive in it. I don't drive in it either though, I let hubby take me everywhere when the roads are slick.
If we get this house I'm pretty sure there will be days where even Hubby won't venture out. As this property has a real steep driveway and you may get out but your not going to get back in. Both of our vehicles are front wheel drive so we may be able to do it, or I should say he may be able to. I won't even attempt it.
We drove out to the house last night because there was a couple of things we wanted to look at a bit closer. We are going to get it, hopefully, but we just wanted to know how much work we are looking at. We saw some water marks on the ceiling we didn't notice before. Not necessary a bad thing, could of been from an old leak that had been fixed, could be a water pipe burst or some of the roof shingles failed at one time. Though I didn't notice anywhere on the roof that looked to of been repaired, doesn't been that the roof hasn't been. We have some strong storms hit this area every year so you kinda expect less then perfect roofs. I have yet to see a roof that doesn't have a few shingles look like they are curling up a bit. I don't know if this is because of a storm or the 100+ degree temps coupled with high humidity in the summer. The property is about 12 miles from the Mississippi River, probably less as the crow flies. So I'm sure that has something to do with humidity and everything. I'm still not real sure about the house, but I am optimistic. It has potential, like I told Hubby it may not be the house of our dreams but there is no reason we cannot turn it into the house of our dreams. I want to take the windows out of the dining room install french doors and put a porch/deck on the back. Hubby is talking about putting a 2-story addition on the house, giving us one or two more bedrooms and just extra room. I would like to make the kitchen larger, but I'm not sure how to do that. I like the separate kitchen and dining room so really don't want to join the two, but the kitchen is narrow and just taking out the back wall and adding on will probably give me a long narrow kitchen which will be awkward. All this is in the future really, we won't have the money to do all at once unless we win the lottery or something. I want to do the landscaping and build retaining walls/ terraces first. I worry about erosion with the steep slope in the front yard. There's a lot of trees but still. I really shouldn't get to hopeful and start thinking too much just yet on what I want to do with this house and property. We haven't closed yet and until then I'm trying not to get my hopes up.

Look Into Our Eyes....

Now I know how they are training us so well. I've read that dachshunds have real compelling eyes. The camera tells no lies, lol. I know it's just the reflection of the flash, but it looks kinda freaky with those weird, blue, glowing eyes looking up at you. Next I'm going to start seeing orbs floating around them. I wonder if I can request that the pups train the kids to clean up after themselves.

Your Daddy is on his way home!

That's the magic phrase in my household. I don't know why this popped in my head but it did so I'm going to write about it. It seems every family has a magic phrase. "Just wait till your Daddy gets home" "Wait till Daddy finds out" etc. Ours is "Your Daddy is on his way home!" Which of course is then followed by a chorus of "When will he be here. How many more minutes till he gets home." This is very powerful and I only use it sparingly(once a day). I have been tempted to do it several times a day. Like when I've been trying to get dd to do her math work for the past 3 hours and she's whining and complaining it's too hard (it's not she had no problem with the same work a week before). Or when the house is a total wreck and I've been trying for the past 8 hours to get it under some sort of control only to have everything undone the mysterious 8-handed, 8-footed Notme monster. Or it's cousin Idaknow.
It's like magic...the phone rings with Hubby's ringtone and everyone pauses. Then I hang up and say the magic words "Your Daddy is on his way home." and all of sudden all four of them begin this mad dash. Papers are being picked up, dishes are getting done. Is that the vacuum I hear? The living room, entryway and kitchen become clean in less then 15 minutes and the kids are heading to their bedrooms to start there when Hubby walks through the door.
This makes me wonder why can't they see I'm as serious as their daddy when I want things done. Why must I turn into some screaming harpie in order to get 3 minutes of work and all their daddy has to do is come home? I'll get my revenge though...well through my daughter anyway...one of these days she'll be a mom and will be calling me complaining that her kid(s) will not listen to her as well as their daddy. While I'll try to be sympathetic and helpful on the inside you know I'll be whooping it up and saying "See that's whatcha get" My boys probably not so much as they'll grow up to be the Daddies and while hopefully they won't understand why their children won't listen to their mom...they won't have to go through it directly. But I'm sure their future children have something else in line for them.