Thank goodness I'm home....

For a while there I didn't think I'd make it back alive! What a horrible trip that was! LOL! I just can't make myself re-live the whole experience so I'll put it in a really quick nutshell for ya. Our flights were good, we stayed at a 5 star hotel that was beautiful but when we got to our room it looked like a crime scene ie: blood on the floor, bed, ect....I can't begin to tell you how horrified I was. Especially since Mike and I watched a really creepy hotel movie called vacancy the week before. Yes we did get another room immediately far away from that one. House hunting was horrible and depressing. The areas we could afford to live in weren't very good ones. We made an offer on something but had to withdraw it as it was fixing to go in to foreclosure and after we made the offer the bank said it would be 10-14 days before we'd get an answer. Back to square one we go. We had to have something before we left as it was only gonna be about 30 days until we needed to move. The day before we left our realtor showed us a house that had gone on the market the day we arrived. She didn't show it to us sooner because it was a bit more than what we had told her we wanted to pay. The people who owned it are going through a really nasty divorce and were hoping to get rid of it quick. We were the first people to look at it but there were a couple of more showings scheduled after ours. It was perfect so we bought it! 2 stories, 3 bedrooms, a fully finished basement, 2 full bathrooms, and it's nearly 1,800 square feet! The house we live in now is only 1,100 square feet so that gives us a lot of extra room to move around! It's got a beautiful deck in the back and you have to go down some stairs to get to the backyard. It has a privacy fence all around it that has a gate in the back that takes you in to the forest. Seriously...look on a map. The house is on Plantation Forest Dr. in Spotsylvania, Va. and the forest is called Plantation Forest. I LOVE the entire area!! And I love that we have a forest out back! It's so perfect! I can't wait to take the kids exploring! I got this pic off of my realtor's site. Our inspection is Tuesday morning and she'll be there for it. She's gonna take some better pics for me when she goes. That tree's covering up a nice portion of the house in this pic so hopefully she can get a better pic of it. I think they may have trimmed back that tree a bit after this pic was taken as I don't remember that tree covering up that much of the house. I'm so glad this is done and hope I never have another trip like that one again. It was SO stressful. I can't tell you how thrilled I am that we won't be living in a townhouse. And I tell ya, the D.C. area sure could use some more signs to tell ya where you're going! We spent a great deal of time being lost. We had our atlas but a map doesn't do you much good if there aren't any signs. I think I've about recovered from the trip. I guess I really should get to packing. It looks like we'll be moving on Oct. 8th.

P.S. If you ever go to D.C. don't rent a car..lol.

Just about ready to fly....

Again. I've been so busy lately. I just got the kids packed up and off to my parents house. They're spending 3 nights with my parents and 2 nights with my MIL. They're really excited I think. Mike and I are leaving at 6 in the morning to drive to Dallas. We get in to D.C. just after 4 eastern time. We have a small layover both ways in Cleveland. We've got about 13 houses to pick from. I can't wait until that part of this adventure is over.

Yesterday was my MIL's birthday. My mother & I met her for lunch at a Chinese restaurant and had a really great time. I was going to give her gift to her then but the kids wanted to give it to her so I waited. Her husband took her out to dinner last night so she stopped by afterwards so they could give it to her. We've had a pretty busy day. We went out to lunch with my FIL and his wife and my BIL and get this...that niece I was talking about that we haven't seen in 5 years?? He brought her! I was SO surprised! I had to remind Cassie who she was and Joshua had no clue. We had a really nice lunch together and then went we all went over to my FIL's house for a while. I just wish we could have all done this before now. Better now though than never I guess. Joshua played ball out back for a nice portion of it and the girls had a really great time. They LOVE taking pictures and posed for several. I'm glad I had my camera with me. These are the only pictures I have of them. Even if we don't see her again (but I really hope we do!) I'm glad they got to spend the day together. Cassie really loves her and I do wish she could've seen her more. My FIL and his wife and some gifts for the kids and a really nice gift for Mike & I. They got us one of those Garmin Streetpilots! That was VERY appreciated! Now maybe I won't get AS lost in the D.C. area as I would have without it...lol. Mike tried it out on the way to take the kids to my parents house and it's FANTASTIC!! I'm not near as afraid to drive in the D.C. area now that I'll have this thing to help me...who the heck knows where I would have ended up otherwise..LOL!

I guess I'd better go. It's getting late and sadly our luggage isn't going to pack itself. I really hate that we have to leave the kids behind again. Hopefully the next 4 days will fly by. I'll be back the end of the week. Until then, you kids play nicely while I'm gone :)

I got jipped!

Ok, see my egg to the left of the screen here? Actually it's not an egg any more, it hatched. Let me just point out how disgruntled I am about what hatched out of my egg! Anyone who knows me knows that I have no desire whatsoever to have any more babies. I was hoping I'd get a little animal or something. Sheesh. All my other friends got fur friends and all I got was something in diapers. That was the last thing I wanted to see this morning....I got a bad egg...LOL! Cassie's been waiting for a week for that thing to hatch. Boy is she gonna be disappointed when she gets home from school. LOL! I'm gonna get another one...there's gotta be something better in the next one...lol!

My partner in one of my yahoo groups received her package from me for the pin exchange so now I can post a pic. We were supposed to stitch something that was pin related or held pins or needles. My partner was Ming. I made a pincushion for her and a scissor fob. The pieces I stitched are from The Prairie Schooler's Pins & Needles chart. I think they turned out really great and I'm really glad that she likes them :).

Well, I'm off to pack my box for the day and then I need to go shopping for a new pair of jeans. It's a lot quicker and a lot more fun when you don't have kids in tow :). I guess I should pack 2 boxes for the next few days to make up for the 4 I won't be here...lol.

First day of school

Well, today was the first day of school *sniff sniff*. Gosh, it seems like I've been doing that a lot lately. Cassie had a really good day. She loves her teacher and her best friend just happens to be in her class. Cassie just got around to telling her we were moving and boy you shoulda seen her face :o. I'm sure it looked something like my best friend's did when I told her. Joshua had an ok day I think. He was pretty ticked when I picked him up. When I asked him what was wrong he told me a girl in his class was walking behind him and smacked him on the back. Right after that he looked up at me and said, "I thought for a minute I was gonna smack her back but then I thought that might get me in some trouble." Probably so..LOL! He NEVER hits or hurts anyone you see, he's very very sweet and sensitive so she must have really ticked him off to make him want to do that.

We have a big window in our living room. When I have the vertical blinds open all the way this is what I see. Isn't it pretty? There are a few more but this is the first one to bloom. I believe it's about 6' tall. Mike and the kids planted them a few months back along with some miscellaneous other things. Several things I can't identify but I do know this is a pumpkin...lol. I bet you're wondering why it's laying on the sidewalk aren't ya? Can you believe that 1 little seed can take over a whole section of a yard? LOL! And here we have our first watermelon . What a slow growing watermelon it is. It seems like it's been this size for weeks. The watermelon sprouts way before the pumpkin I believe. Do they usually take a long time to grow ot do you think we have a dud? It looks fine it just doesn't look like it's getting any bigger. Maybe I should sprinkle some miracle grow on it or something. It's a good thing Mike likes taking care of these things because I suck so bad at gardening it's not even funny. I can't even keep a weed alive. How sad is that? I cringe when the kids come home from school with little pots with a wee little plant in it. They planted a seed at school and then they get to bring it home. Kinda makes me sad. Poor little seed would've been better off at school. LOL! Sad but true...hey at least I'm not in denial like some people. I know I can't garden and I know I can't sing. I can cook, bake, stitch, and do lots of other things though :).

Hey, guess what? I actually packed a box today. I don't know why I've been putting it off. I guess I figure the house can pack itself. I did go down to the uhaul today and I bought some big boxes. That is progress....lol. I'll pack another box tomorrow..lol.

Taking a little break

I didn't do anything that has to do with the house today. I really needed a little break. It seems like when I'm not on the phone talking to a bank/realtor/relocation person I'm cleaning, sorting things, or having to leave on a moments notice with the kids and dogs because a realtor wants to show the house. I've got to get up early tomorrow though and get crackin because the realtor's having an open house from 1-3. They told me they thought they were gonna get an offer on it the other day but later told me for some unknown reason the realtor that showed it didn't bother to see about getting the people pre-qualified before showing it. The people ended up not being able to get a loan. I don't understand that for the life of me. Why on earth would someone go house shopping without being approved for a loan first?? That sure does waste a lot of time for a lot of people.

We're flying back to D.C. in a week to go house hunting. I wish I could be a little more excited about it than what I am! I could really use a little encouragement right now. I know my parents are having a hard time with this but my dad hasn't spoken to me much at all since our last D.C. trip. I know this isn't easy for him but it's not exactly easy for me either. You would think that he'd want to spend as much time with me as possible instead of not talking to me. I know everyone has their own way of dealing with things but if he only knew how much harder he was making this for me. My mom has been pretty good about things lately.

Is there ever anything that you really really wanted to be that you're not able to be? For example I know some women want kids but can't have them. I've always wanted to be an aunt. I've always thought it would be super cool to spoil a niece or nephew rotten and then send them back home :P. Unfortunately my brother's not able to have kids. I do have a niece and a nephew on Mike's side of the family. My nephew lives in Japan so we don't see him. Our niece however lives in town. Her parents split up several years ago and for some extremely unknown reason, they don't make any effort to let us see her. I've asked dozens (probably closer to a hundred) of times for them to make some kind of arrangement so the kids could spend time with her but no such luck. I've told them I'd come to them or they could come to us. I've told them we could meet them somewhere or I could pick her up. Still nothing. So we live in the same town and we've not seen her in over 5 years. She's 10 1/2 and we've not seen her since she turned 5. How sad is that? Actually, I take that back. We have seen her mother and her walking through the mall but as soon as she sees us she flies off in the opposite direction. I've told them several times that it was really important to me that the kids know their cousin. Apparently that's not a priority on the other end. So now we're moving really far away so any chance of them getting to know a cousin or me getting to be an aunt has pretty well been buried. That's really unfortunate because I have really great kids who would have really loved her and I would've been a really great aunt. That child wouldn't know any of us if we were standing right in front of her.

We went shopping for shirts and ties for Mike today for his new job. We got some really great deals and he got some really nice things. He got lots of ties at Khol's! They had a bunch of really nice ones for 70% off so we got them and then shirts to match. I think it's easier to pick the tie first and then find a shirt to match. I LOVE shopping for men's dress shirts and ties. Maybe even more than I like shopping for myself. I don't know what it is...I just have a "thing" for them. Stick a man in them and they're even better...LOL! You know, when I was little girl I always said I would marry someone that wore a tie to work. Did I call that or what?! LOL! He's still got to get some more clothes but we got a nice start today. We'll probably go shopping for some more when we get back from this next trip.

We went to meet the teacher night on Thursday. Both kids are really happy with their teachers. They both got who they wanted. That figures since they'll only be there a short time...lol. Oh well...hopefully the time they are there will be really good. I still can't believe school starts on Monday! We had a very eventful summer and it flew by. Speaking of flying, I've done enough of that this summer to last a bit. I just can't get too terribly excited about hopping on a plane again next week. I am however looking forward to landing at Reagan National again because I got a fantastic meatball sub there our last trip and one has been calling my name...lol. Lucky for it (and me..lol!) I'll be around in a week :). That reminds me...did I mention that Mike and I aren't sitting together on our flight to Cleveland from Dallas?! I'm so annoyed about that!! Right after we bought our tickets I went to look at our seats. I went to change them but realized quickly why I couldn't. Apparently everyone else who bought tickets wanted aisle seats and they were all filled so we couldn't sit together, darnit! I would ask someone to switch with me but we did that last time and 2 people told us no...sheesh. It ticked the flight attendant off that they wouldn't so she gave us seats in the exit row so we could sit together. She asked in the event of an emergency if we'd be able to help with the exit door. You'd better believe it sister!! In the event that happens, that doors coming off because I wanna be the first one of that thing! LOL!

Well so much for that......

I so feel like I've wasted my time the past week! Mike thought Hagerstown would be an affordable and nice place for us to live but we've scratched that! I spent most of yesterday looking up info on the place. I found a website that had a forum where people could tak about the city and ask questions. I wasn't very pleased with what I read! I didn't see one single positive comment from people who live there :(. I read a lot about people being rude, schools being very over crowded and not up to par, and I read a few people mention there being a big drug problem in town. I was wondering why the houses were so much cheaper up there. We decided we don't really want Mike to have such a long commute anyway. I'm feeling so frustrated! It's hard to know where to look when you don't know the places. Luckily we've had some pretty good advice from the loan officer at the bank we plan to use. It looks like now we're focusing on Fredericksburg, Va. Fine by me!! I'll be closer to the ocean, I have a stitching friend who lives in Richmond which is less than an hour away, there's a cross stitch shop in town, and the schools appear to be fantastic from what I've been able to find out. The thing is, real estate is through the roof there so most likely we'll be living in a townhouse. Originally I didn't want to do that but at this point I don't care. As long as we're in a good neighborhood with a really great school I'm thrilled. Not exactly what I had hoped for but it wouldn't be forever. I'd live in a box if I had to to make sure the kids were in a great school. Their education means more to me than any place I could ever live.

I've been feeling really frazzled lately. It's a good thing I'm not a drinking girl! LOL! Our house went up for sale late yesterday afternoon and I've already been booted out twice so people could look at it. I really hope someone wants it quickly so I can get on with the other things that need to be done instead of making sure the house is spotless all the time.

My best friend and I spent a good part of the day out with the kids. We took them to Jump for Joy and then to McDonald's for lunch. Afterwards we came back to our house and hung out until the realtor called. She took the kids back to her house so I could clean up a bit and then I headed over too. We had a really good day and I'm hoping we can spend some more time together Thursday after Cassie's ortho appt. I want to teach her how to stitch before we move :).

House for sale

Well, our house went up on the market today. I was a little sad about that. We've not even lived in this house for 2 years. The realtor seems to think it'll sell really quick. All of the other houses in this area do. I know the housing market is way down nationally but it's still booming here. This is a good thing for us. Hopefully we'll sell ours quickly at a good price and then find one we can get a really good deal on in Maryland or Virginia. We've already been pre-aproved for a home loan from a couple of different places. We've heard from several people that houses are not selling quickly up there and sellers are coming way down on their prices and are even paying all the closing costs ect...Hopefully we'll get a good break on whatever we decide on. There was one house that I've had my eye on. It's beautiful and I love the inside of it from what I saw in the pictures. As luck would have it though someone else thought so too and made on offer on it. It says pending so I'll still keep tabs on it just in case it doesn't work out for them. There are still about 6 others to look at. It did have the #1 spot on my list though. Oh well....that one wasn't meant to be I guess. We're supposed to chat with the realtor in Maryland tomorrow. Hopefully they'll have some houses for us to look at that I missed somehow. I'd really like to have between 8-10 to look at. I'm really not worried about finsing a house anymore. I'm more worried about finding a good school for the kids. They go to a really good school right now. There's even a waiting list to get in. From what I've been able to find out about the schools in Hagerstown, they're "average". Of course I don't know what they're comparing them too. We're still not set on that location, it just happens to be where most of the houses are that we're finding. I think I'm gonna have to go on a tour of some of these schools when we go back up there.

I just realized last night that if we live in Hagerstown it'll be a 3.5-4 hour drive to the ocean. I was really hoping we'd be 2 or less from it. Don't get me wrong, I'm thrilled that I can drive to it and back in a day if I want to, I was just hoping it would be a wee bit closure so the kids and I could go at least once a week in the summer. You know what...I love the ocean too much, I may drive down there once a week anyway...lol. Do you know what I just realized? If we do end up in Hagerstown, it's only a 3 hour and 45 minute drive to New York City. My birthday's 2 days after Thanksgiving and I'm seriously considering going up there to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. I REALLY wanted to do that for my 30th b-day since it was on Thanksgiving but didn't get to. Since I can get there and back in the same day I can do that now! How great is that?! And how great for all of you that I'll live right smack in the middle of everything and can take you all sorts of places when you come to visit me! LOL! I can take you to D.C. (since I'll be right there..lol), the ocean, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Atlantic City, New York City....I could just go on all day here LOL! I'm terribly sad that I'm moving away from my best gal pal but am really excited that one day I know she'll come see me and I'll be able to take her places that we've only read about or seen on the news :). For the first time Cassie's made a big request that's actually doable. I really could take her to see the Statue of Liberty and could be there in just a few hours :). Our atlas has definately been my friend lately. I've spent a lot of time looking at the things that'll be near us and all of the places that we can go.