Stop The World, I Want To Get Off

Here we go again. The family that is supposed to be moving into our house called us yesterday to let us know that a client had bounced a big check (he's self employed)  and he wouldn't be putting the down payment in escrow until the 15th. David told him to talk to the RE but I have a feeling this deal will fall through again. The money was supposed to be in there yesterday - they can't move in til it is - but I don't think he put any money in at all. The agent will be in today and we'll discuss it with her, but I'm really angry now. We haven't really shown the house for a month because we had a deal with these people and in the meantime the bills have to be paid - by us. I'm thinking we're just going to have to rent it - but not to these people since we've been through the mill with them twice. I feel bad for them but we're not the salvation army -not to mention you don't agree to do something you can't afford in the first place, especially if you know you can't afford it. The  pool leak guy was here yesterday with his daughter the helper who looked totally thrilled to be spending the day helping her dad (NOT)  - they just find the leaks not fix them so he found the leaks. We have 3 small ones - all on the deep end of course. So we'll be looking into fixing that. Jackson slept over Marcus's last night, they were going to do fireworks with the neighbors so he probably had a good time. David and I are heading out to Uniontown this morning for a road trip since we've never been up that way. We had a serious thunderstorm last night, thunder rolling constantly with lightening every 15 seconds, Copper almost crawled out of his skin. I took a picture of the flowers I planted which are very cute I might add. And  a picture of the deck David moved, eventually there will be a walkway from the pool to it, but at least it's near the sliding glass door in the back now instead of all the way around the house.

The Object Of My Affections.

This stupid rabbit comes here everyday lately and sits right in front of the sliding glass door, moving about in a snack-like way and driving Vincent C-R-A-Z-Y. There's a large number of baby bunnies so David said the cats HAVE to stay in. I just heard from the agency - I got the job!! and will be starting Monday. The icky thing is the benefits don't kick in for 3 months but we'll just have to deal with that for now. I guess I'd better enjoy the weekend. I took the kitchen apart yesterday as the project of the day - we're getting to the point now where things have a place or at least should. David finally put up my pot racks and I took everything out of the cabinets - once I rearranged them I found I had tons of room. The 4rth picture is the livingroom, you can see 4 of the lamps, there were 2 more on the other side plus the four in the ceiling fan. We took a couple out, fearing jets would try to land in front of the tv. Dont even try to "go to the light" in our house - you would be all day at it! AND we still have more table lamps to spare, but I guess we don't have to use them all. The dining room is still under rearrangement but is looking better. David called a  pool leak finding company, we're finally down to that. We're between a rock and a hard place, we don't want to spend the money right now to have it fixed but the only other options are to either drain it and hope it doesnt' collapse or let it go back to the Black Lagoon and let the frogs have at it. Neither of which are optional. David ordered the part for the hot tub and then of course there is the one in the house - the last picture. Since it's old, ugly, and has only two jets ten bucks says it runs like a top. Right now the cats enjoy it, we throw thier balls in it and they chase them around. Yesterday we had a mouse in the house, but despite all the frantic running about and peering under things, we've come to the conclusion none of our cats could catch a cold, let alone a mouse. Jackson was the head mouser and stepped on the dopey thing.

MHS

The paperwork drags on and on with no end in sight. David and I spend a significant amount of time on the phone and at the dining room table, waiting on hold and filling out yet another form. Yesterday we went to Morgantown High School to enroll Jackson, the secretary pulled out a packet - not a good sign. David attempted to help but tends to ask too many questions (how old is he? when is his birthday? Does he live with us? really?ARRGH) so he instead spent most of the time chatting with the chemistry teacher and the secretary. I'm sure Jackson will be overwhelmed, all of the schools he's ever attended have been well below 1,000 students - this school is well above 2,000 and has 3 floors of classrooms. The way the school system works here is all the little towns have elementary and middle schools but EVERYONE either goes to MHS or UHS so the first year for them can be pretty tough.Jackson's  finger is much much better thank goodness, the swelling is finally going down. He came with me to the chinese grocery later on and I took pictures of the Monongalia River with his royal Crabbiness carping away the whole time. I heard from the agency and now they're having trouble getting my references, this just goes on an on, doesn't it? I'm hoping that will be resolved today and I can get to work, I'm just putzing at this point I'm so bored.  And the pool thing continues, we still can't find the leak so David called and left a message with a leak finding corporation, but they haven't called back as of yet. We put a bit of water in it last night since it seems to have stopped leaking BUT it also rained again last night so we have to wait til this afternoon.....if anyone has an idea or knows how to pinpoint a leak, let me know!

Pretty In Pink

I finally finished it, it came out a little bigger than planned - doesn't everything I make? - for the most part it came out pretty good.  But the person it's intended for is only 11 so she'll just have to step it up a bit on the growing. The fourth was fairly quiet, the people on the next hill over (picture #3) had some nice fireworks and if I had thought about it we would've gone into town where they had the big display at the river. Jackson would've liked us to buy some fireworks but I told him next year - since we're batting a thousand in the Things That Can Go Wrong dept I don't want to take any chances. We are still frigging around with the pool, it seems to have stopped leaking but we've tried everything and cannot find the hole. We need to do something as  the frogs are moving into the vents! David thought we could fill the hot tub for the time being but of course with our track record he then discovered the pipes weren't properly drained at some point and broke. It's not a big deal, but it's one more thing for the every expanding laundry list. Picture #7 is the ivy I planted - it was very tough going as we have clay here instead of dirt and sand. #8 is the tree David got carried away with pruning but he'll probably end up taking it out. It's half a hedge and half lilac. And the 10th picture is of Sheetz which my father claims he's never seen or been to which I'm not sure is possible once you get out of NY. The one near us is the busiest I've ever seen, constantly full and the place To Be Seen. We love Sheetz!

Squirrel Of My Dreams

Yes, the wicker squirrel is back where he belongs. David had brought the basket part last month but left the squirrel in Pa. Everytime I asked where something was David would say he hadn't had room - I was like how could you not have room for a wicker squirrel?? But he's back, sitting tastefully on my desk with his incredibly tasteful Fake Flowers, adds a certain je ne sais qui to the house. David arrived around noon yesterday, he came home early because the contracts had been signed on Saturday instead of Tuesday. We unloaded yet another load of stuff we dont' have room for. Part of the problem is we're doing all the outside stuff now while the weather is good and then during the fall and winter will do the inside. But until then we can't put shelves up and we're  leaving the two bedrooms that will be renovated first empty. Jackson's encouraging that because it keeps him in the basement/family room. Right now the little bugger has a couch, a futon, pool table and fireplace - it's like we handed him a makeout pit. However that's not a problem right now as the only girl he knows is Becky the Kicker. I'm glad we have all of our stuff here, although I'm still not sure how we ended up with so many table lamps. I took a picture of our dining room chandelier which I think is VERY cool. I stood on the table and washed it down and that really brought it back to life. A few of the balls on the bottom are missing but you can't tell if you dont' look closely. AND the most hilarious thing is....it's made entirely of plastic!

Sinking To Your Own Level

Vincent, part cat, part bathroom monitor. David has to fix the latch on the main bathroom as Vincent can push the door open and come right in. Which he does and is ok if you live here and are used to it. It can be quite disconcerting if you do not. A large part of his day is watching the toilet flush so if he hears someone go in, he runs right up there. Anyhow, enough of this potty talk. I finally finished filling out the paperwork for the travel agency and sent it off with a minimum of pawprints  and wrinkles so hopefully they won't think I'm one of those crazy cat collectors or something. David is heading home today so we should see him by this afternoon. He got Ray all straightened out and then went to our house in Pa to pack up the last of our stuff. He went down to the RE and they got all the papers signed, the deal is for lease to buy with them paying utilities and rent. David said they looked terrible (he's met them before) -  the house they'd been renting has been sold and they have to be out by the 9th, they'd been counting on getting the mortgage so I guess when it fell through it left them with a week and no where to go.The husband is self employed so the terms of the mortgage were much higher and the down payment was much bigger . The RE said they're planning on closing sooner than the 6 months and now that they have time to play around with, most likely will get a mortgage they can afford.  David said the husband looked stressed and the wife had been crying (we've been negotiating right up til Friday)- having been in that situation last year I'm sure we can both cetainly sympathize. But it works well for us, the rent will pay the mortgage so at least we'll have a bit of breathing room. Jackson and I have been having fun watching movies, we went out to see Mr and Mrs Smith the other day and we have HBO here so we saw a bunch of movies on that. His finger is still swollen of course (and probably will be for awhile) but he can move it so we'll just watch it for now. I took some pictures of the view from our front door but I have to say, the pictures don't do it justice. At night here we have hundreds of fireflies and I wish I could take a picture of them, it's the most amazing thing.

This Is Your Cat On Drugs

Claw found the catnip mouse ( AKA "cat drugs")she so loves the other day, but I have to say she's a mean drunk so we generally don't encourage her playing with it.. The other two cats could care less but Claw guards it like gold. I thought the pool had stopped leaking but it was a false sense of security because of the all the rain we had. It had stayed at 11" (David put a marker on the side) but this morning it was 1/2 an inch lower so we're back to watching the grass grow and pool drain.. The frogs don't seem to be concerned and are still partying in it at night so at least someone gets some use out of it. I went to my early interview this morning, but the nurse manager of the unit I was interviewing for had a crisis on the floor so I just did the human resources part and went home - the manager will get back to me. It sort of works out for me, I'm not going to hear about the visit nurse job until next week so I can keep everything on the back burner until I hear from them without having to put anyone off. I am getting a bit anxious though, being off this long is only fun if you're rich. Our RE from Pa called this morning and we are negotiating again. The guy that was hot to buy it but didn't get a mortgage still wants it so we're working on alternate finances and are trying to negotiate a lease to buy deal. They have to put money in eschrow (nonrefundable) and pay us rent. If they dont' go to closing in 6 months we can be Snidely Whiplashes and throw they're Little Nell butts out in the snow AND keep all the moola. I'm still fighting with the little milipedes, they're small but numerous, they're in the lower part of the house where the computer room is so for now it's typetypetypeWHAPWHAPWHAPPITYWHAPtypetype.......