Excuse Me Waiter, There's A Frog In My Soup

Of course in our case that would be a frog in our POOL - jinkies! Apparently they not only didn't use the pool for the past couple of years but they didn't cover it properly so David got in there in his waders and was mucking out leaves and sticks while the frogs frog-paddled around him. The pool itself is fine, but needs a massive cleaning out .Obviously. David said he came home one day to cows peeking through our bushes but some sturdy woman came and called them home. He said the cows call at dusk as they meander thier way home and you can hear the wind whistling in the old mines down the road. I think we're in for an interesting life! The house iself is a sturdy thing too and needs cosmetics as far as we can tell so far. David and Copper are happy to be here in Pa with heat and all, they spent the week roughing it in WV -  no heat, hot water or phone but aside from that both seemed to have had a great time. David met some more of the neighbors who seemed pleased to have him there and he bought a riding John Deere mower for $600. Right now we're trying to keep a handle on the spending since almost all of our equity is still tied up in this house here. The RE has two appointments for today so cross your fingers for me - or you'll be swimmin' wit da froggies!!

TGIF!

Except for those of us that have to work a 12 hour shift today, then I suppose it would be TBIF (Too Bad It's Friday). David and Copper are heading back here this morning from WV, David's been busy with the house all week. Apparently the pool does indeed have a new liner but hadn't been covered properly so it's home to leaves and baby frogs. David bought a used mower and has made a large headway in the yard around the house and the plumber put in the new hot water heater we bought here on sale. He wasn't able to get ahold of the gas company though so it was cold spongebaths for the week - yikes! - he's VERY much looking foward to a hot shower. Jackson and I did alright all week, I managed to get him to school on time despite work, I just ix-nayed out a few minutes early both mornings and he wasn't late once. For his part he was up and ready to go both days AND even fed the cats and walked the dog! He had pizza again last night and ate the entire thing by himself which I find just short of amazing and we watched The Rocky Horror Picture Show which he loves almost as much as I do. It had been on VH1 the other night but we missed most of it and it's edited so I picked up a copy at Borders - I forgot how great a movie it is. I'm considering extending my resignation since we're not going to be leaving here until the middle of June but we'll see what I can work out.

We're moving where??

Things have been quite busy lately. Mom and Grandpa Carter came a-calling on Thursday. I had to work so I was sleeping and David being helpful as usual, stopped home to lock them out and then left. Mom had a bit of a time getting Grandpa up to the house, I promised Grandpa that our house in WV is on FLAT land. The weather didn't co-operate so there's not a whole lot of pictures (and the ones I have are in WV on the camera with David) but we did have a nice visit and even managed to get out to the chinese buffet. While they were here the RE was in and out as usual - we did get another offer but I don't think it'll pan out. The woman wants the house re-roofed which isn't a problem, but she wants to wait until the end of July to close which IS a problem. Her RE says that she has a piece of property she wants to sell first so she won't have to take a mortgage and he says the deal isn't contingent on it, but we're afraid if she can't sell the property she can (easily) wiggle out of the deal and we'll have missed the big selling season. Our RE agent was re-writing the contract so she couldn't wiggle out - at least not as easily -  and she would be paying for the roofing materials prior to closing - we haven't heard a peep since. So we soldier on. David returned to WV yesterday with a large portion of our belongings and Copper in tow for company. The house here is starting to get that lonely echo to it, even though we didn't have a good time here it's still a bit hard to leave what you know. Work continues to be a stressor - they snuck an extra day in at the end of the schedule and I protested and the nursing supervisor is mad about that. We're looking at the situation from opposite ends, she's viewing it as I'm  leaving so why can't I work the extra shift (and of course it's a 12 hour, not an 8) and I'm  looking at it that I am leaving and going straight home to pack and deal with the RE, why do I have to work an extra shift?? Why do they always have to make leaving so ugly?? I shaved Charger yesterday and got pounds of hair off him, I need to tidy him up a bit but overall, didn't do too bad of a job. The people at Walker Carpet came on Saturday, what a pain in the butt they were. David called them repeatedly and they never showed up so he got ahold of the owner. What a piece of work she was - told David first that someone would be here "maybe" to look at the stains between 11am and 5pm and when he got mad about having to sit around all day she claimed the installer told her WE were responsible for the stains - that we were probably walking through leaves and made them. I have to say that didn't have much of a calming effect. David pointed out the entry is tile, he'd called about the carpet the morning after it had been installed and WE HAVE NO LEAVES. The guy came on Saturday and it took him about an hour and a half to remove the "leaf stains", one of which mysteriously looked like a water stain, who knows, maybe we were standing in puddles. All in a day's work I suppose.

Michael - Jacksoning the Cat

There's Jackson doing an impression of The Gloved One and his kid on a balcony -  please note that Vincent is NOT amused. David had carpet put down in the basement yesterday, today he noticed the large stains on part of it so the carpet guy has to come back, the dumpster guy never came back and picked up the dumpster - all in time for the RE to do the Group Troop through the house. We had about 14 of them, but they were pretty brief about it and now I have the rest of the day to pretend to get things done. David has a bit of short fuse these days helped along by the stupid dogs. He spent the morning waxing the floors and right before the RE showed up Charger dragged in leaves and dirt and Copper did his bit by barfing by the door. Yikes. We've been hearing alot from Adam lately, he's finally back in port after almost 3 months out at sea and has had to replace all of his uniforms, they're working him too hard, he doesn't have enough time to spend with his girlfriend, yadda yadda yadda, usual stuff. I'm glad he's on dry land though, I can't imagine being out at sea on a 500 foot frigate for months on end with a couple hundred people. But if he has enough energy to carp, he's fine. Work is dragging, we've had a low census but I was told I cannot be called off, I HAVE to work because I resigned I have to give them X amount of hours, not sure where calling in sick falls in there. One more thing I suppose.

Monday Monday

We've had 3 sets of lookers, no takers. Another set is coming today, then  the entire REMAX office will be trooping through on Tuesday. We've also been warned that the weekend viewings will probably be picking up due to the warm weather - sigh, no rest for the wicked. David has been battling it out with Slava, the pain in the ass he's been building the deck for. He had given him a good price since he's a friend of Roman's and it was supposed to be an easy job. He should've known better. Since he started it was constant phone calls, one yelling session, Slava changed plans a few times but didn't understand why he should pay for it, etc. Then David went to finish the other day and was stopped by security (it's in a planned community) to see his permit. Turns out Slava never filed for one. So David told him just to pay him for the work done and find someone else. It took him two days and another arguement to get him money but he did it. Of course now we find out this seems to be this guys'  usual behavior, Romans' wife told David Slava had gotten into with someone over a parking space last week and the police were called and he's already been battling with the guys he hired to build a retaining wall. So I'm glad to be done with that, we certainly don't need anymore stress around here! Jackson has been a good egg lately, he worked for one of my co-workers last week raking leaves and made $40 for the day which he found impressive. He also got to use a leaf blower,sweet! That's a picture of his new hat for the summer, only Jackson could find a beach hat in Funeral Black with skulls around the brim!

Darn It!

The house here is back on the market. Harry the RE agent called yesterday and the buyers changed thier minds and have backed out, so we're back to people trooping through the house and me hiding the zoo in my car. We already have people coming today and Saturday and Harry is escorting the entire Remax office through for a tour on Tuesday. I was very much looking foward to going back to living like the bunch of slobs we are but for now we are Martha Apprentices. David's still working on the deck for the Pain In The Ass, one of those charming clients that changes the plans all the way through and then A) complains it doesn't look how he thought it would and B) and more importantly, doesn't want to pay the agreed upon price. I think it usually has more to do with B than A. The changes usually slow down once the person realizes they have to pay every time, but still it's just one more little stressor in the works. David handles it much better than I do, I would just slap the crap out of them and let them finish it on thier own. I'm on the countdown at work now - can the days go any slower? We're also busy trying to keep Jackson focused on his school work so we can ix-nay out of here the second school ends. But it's been hard for him because as we get closer to the day we leave, the more his friends in WV call him. When we were out shopping yesterday his cell phone was constantly ringing and he was busy text messaging every 15 feet or so. I can see the swimming pool and pool table will be gettting a lot of use this summer at the new house!

Take Me Home, Country Roads.....

David arrived home yesterday full of news and dirty laundry, happy to be a new homeowner once again. He's already bargined for a slightly used garage door and has at least one horse trading session going with the neighbor down the hill. We had some other happy news - one of the lookie loos accepted my counter offer and the house here is now under contract!! Hopefully that'll go smoothly dare we hope! I handed in my resignation this morning, my last day will be the 11th of May - that I do feel bad about because they're very very short of nurses and can barely cover the staffing even with the supervisors filling in the holes. So. Now we have to get organized and start packing - David's probably going to be making several trips back and forth since we won't be out of here all at once like the last time. That sure sucked. I'm off to bed, worked a 12 hour overnight and am feeling it this morning, but I'll keep everyone posted.

It's Offically Ours!

David went to the closing yesterday, everything is signed and sealed and we are now once again, homeowners in WV, Brady Bunch color scheme and all!(the house hasn't been decorated since the late 70's). David and Kristi went to breakfast yesterday morning and then went to do the walk through. The owners were packing so David, being true to form, helped them pack. But in return, they let him put his stuff in the garage, walked the property with him and introduced him to a couple of the neighbors. Now that it's really ours, he's fretting about all the work that needs to be done, but as I pointed out, we've got years to do it. He'd eventually like to go to the Carolinas, but I think in the future when Jackson is out of the house we can look into buying a little shack on the coast and be snowbirds. I'm personally hoping to be like glue this time. Unless of course Missouri is on the boards........

Looking Skyward...

...and it's starting to feel like we're about to step off the edge today. David's in WV, the closing's at 4pm, he and Christy (our RE agent and friend) did the walk through around 9 am after breakfast. Christy is hilarious, everytime she calls we get at least half an hour of what everyone is doing in WV and have to gossip back about what we're doing and she never says hello when you pick up the phone, just hollers your name and gets right into it. At the same time the real estate called here this afternoon to let me know we got our first offer, lower than expected so I halved the difference as per Harry and that will be the counter offer. I did try to discuss it it with David but true to form he took the cell phone and didn't leave the number, is not at the motel, took the roladex with him (!!!) AND snagged the list of numbers I'd left for myself off the table effectively making sure once again I have absolutely no way to get in contact with him. I told Harry he didn't have to worry about David's opinion on the whole thing because I was going to murder him when he got home and bury him in the backyard. He's such an ass sometimes. Jackson didn't get up for school today, he was playing with the new alarm clock I bought him and somehow unset the alarms so I got home from work, he jumped in the car and I drove him to school - I don't think he was even late. We have another set of looky-loos this afternoon so there goes my day off. Sigh. This has to end sometime!!

Give Me A Home Where The Buffalo Roam...

How cool is that - there's a buffalo farm down the road from us and the whole herd was out yesterday, it's a rather eye catching sight.Not sure what you call more than one though - buffaleese?  We had 2 sets of lookers for the house yesterday with one repeat, I just wish someone would hurry up and buy it already. I'm getting very tired and am never sure if I should go sit outside or dodder around trying to look busy when people come to look. It worked out because by the time Ray got here, had coffee,he and David went  to go see Slava (the guy he's doing a deck for and is currently being an enourmous pain in his ass) everyone had seen the house and we were ready to get going . We had lunch at Cordova's which always makes me feel like I should be arranging a hit on someone - very 70's Godfather decor, but according to Ray they make a good Stoli on the rocks with a twist of lime and they do serve vegetarian burgers so they've got my vote. After that we went back to the house and sat on the front deck. The weather's been beautiful for the past day or so and I cleaned the deck furniture so David and Ray had beer and Jackson whupped my butt at chess the stinking little gloater. We were about to leave for Dixon City when Roman called to discuss Slava which made us WAY too late to get haircuts for David AND Jackson - can you believe Jackson after having long hair for years now asks for haircuts??? So we did a few stores and then had dinner at the local italian restarant, that would be enough of THAT. I think I'll have to walk 30 miles today to get all that cheese off. I've also posted a picture of the current sweater I'm working on, it looks much better in person - trust me. I'm back to work tonight and then David leaves for WV in the morning, I'm getting very nervous about that and will not be able to relax until all the papers are signed and it's really ours! OH! Jackson bought Devil May Cry 3 at Circuit City, no questions asked.

You're Fired!

Well, we had a little incident at Best Buy last night and will not be patronizing thier establisment anytime soon. Actually Jackson was the one with the Incident - they refused to sell him Devil May Cry 3 because it's one of those ones that's  of the 18 and Older variety. However, whether that rule is followed or not tends more to depend on if the clerk has a bug up thier butt that night than the age of the consumer.  I offered to go in and buy it, but Jackson was Infuriated and announced we will NEVER buy anything there again. He has vowed he'll be getting the entire staff fired due to their Rudeness and they'll be lucky if they can find work in the fields with the illegal aliens. Ha! On the homefront things are picking up more quickly on the moving thing than comfortable - it seemed like we had all this time and now Eek! we don't!  I had to sign power of attorney over to our WV lawyer since I won't be ther for the closing - this will be the 2nd house I've moved into in the past year and half sight unseen. I guess it's more of a surprise that way!It's limited power of attorney so he can't stick me in a loony house or anything which is a little bonus.  David will be leaving on Monday and the closing - if all goes well - will be on Tuesday, then I hand in my resgination because I dont' want to do it before and jinx the deal, we're packing AND the RE is busy escorting potential buyers through 3 to 5 times and week and I'm still working full time......Sigh. But I still find time to knit!

I See Dead Things. It Must Be Spring

If you want to see what kind of wildlife they have here, you only have to look as far the as the side of the road. Dead beavers are on every corner, possums, racoons, skunks, you name it - we hit it. And I do mean everywhere you look too.Anyhow,, it finally got warm the other day, how strange was that. We went from rain mixed with snow right to 70 degrees and everyone in shorts. David is busy busy now - he's doing that deck job, finishing the house here and organizing the Wagon Train for June. We heard from the bank in WV yesterday and Gods willing and the creek don't rise, we'll be closing on the 12th of April. The new fly in the ointment is the septic system. In WV that's pretty much the one thing they like to see and the rule is the seller has to put X amount of dollars in escrow for 45 days in case it doesn't perk and then the money is used for an aeration system if it fails. The problem is someone has to be actively living in the house for those 45 days or they won't come and inspect it and the DO check to see if you're home. So we have the choice of either trusting the system will work or David will have to go live in the house by himself until June when we can join him. I also have to hand in my resignation to work and am trying to decide when . I don't want to wait too long like I did the last time but I also don't want to jinx this whole thing so I think I'll do as I planned and wait until David REALLY closes on the house - it's only 5 more days. That will put me mid-May so I can earn as many paychecks as I can before leaving. I had to do a special form because I didn't realize my WV nursing license had lapsed - I never got the renewal form for it so I didn't renew it. I woke up at 2:30am this morning in a full blown panic attack - there's so much to do and so little time to do it and so much that can go wrong!

ARRGH! Snow AGAIN!

Can you believe rain mixed with SNOW?? Jackson was going nuts yesterday, he cannot take another snowstorm and I dont think I can either! Good thing it didn't last long. With all the rain the cats are quite bored and have been picking on each other nonstop for two days now.  The flooding around here has been pretty bad, the outlying areas are all closed due to the rivers flooding. Here it's not too bad and the water levels seem to be receding. David's spending another morning on the phone, it's constant phone tag with the RE, the bank, etc... at this point. He got roped into going to Motecello on Saturday with Roman and Nadia, they go every week to play the slot machines. David lost $10 and then was instantly bored. He said Roman isn't too crazy about the whole thing - he's always trying to get David to go so he has someone to talk to - but Nadia is quite taken and was pretty annoyed at having to leave after only 3 hours.  She told David he broke her heart by making them leave so early - David didn't care he just wanted to get out of there. The temp this morning is still pretty cold but it's supposed to go into the 60's by Wednesday - that's going to make us happy!

What's Eating The Dogs

Vincent is once again creating a stir in the animal kingdom around here. I changed the dog's food and for some wierd reason Vincent is wildly attracted to it, much to the dog's horror. It's ok for them to eat the cat's food, NOT the other way around. Coppper is especially freaked out by this new turn of events and has no clue how to deal with it at all, he'll probably need dog therapy. I finished the latest sweater, it came out pretty good. I think it'll fit David's sister Maryann so I'll be flinging southward and she can just pack it away til winter. I of course have already started another one, knitting helps me deal with the stress. We've had lookers for the house pretty much every day for the past few weeks, but no offers as of yet. We actually have a renter lined up in the event we're unable to sell it, so at the very worst it'll be investment property. It's just hard because I sleep during the day so David's got to be around to show the house an run the dogs out to the truck. We're fortunate they're very stupid and don't mind sitting in it for an hour or so daily, they actually look foward to it!  It's hard to keep the house perfectly straight all the time as if Martha will be doing a spot check any second!

Heading For The Hills

Ok. I admit it. There has been ALOT going on lately. Last month, after having lived here for almost a year - and yes, it has been that long - we are still very unhappy. So we've decided to try to pack up our toys once again and go back to West Virginia, where we should've never left in the first place. We put the house on the market a week and a half ago (we're already tired of that, there's been over a dozen couples through here already and Harry said it hasn't even picked up yet!) and we are under contract for a house in West Virginia with a tentative closing date the middle to end of April. This is the house---> http://www.k2kgraphics.com/kristi/index.htm which is about 7 miles outstide of Morgantown and sits on almost 6 acres. It was a former horse farm (with a barn to prove it) so once we get settled and financially stable again we can have a horse! Things are still up in the air right now, this deal may fall through, but we're hoping to be out of here by June. Jackson is counting the days as are we . Things here just haven't worked out and quite frankly, sending Jackson to that high School again, I would much rather not. Although he has made some friends and enjoys metal shop, the drugs and the fighting in that school are beyond belief and that's one of the reasons we want out of here. So until everything is finalized, we are holding our breath and crossing our fingers!!