For my non-Face Bookers ---Dad and Kim.

Well it all started with the phrase, "maybe we should go ahead and put the house up for sale, it might take awhile?" The next day Brian posted it on Craig's List and 4hrs later it was sold!Then we got busy! We started packing and packing and packing, well mostly throwing things away. We had more junk than anything else. The kind of stuff that was not worth storing. We had a garage sale and sold Katy's, hand me down furniture and my bed room furniture that I got when we moved to the house on Country Cub I think I was in 5th or 6th grade. It had more glue than wood on it. We now have no house and our "lawyer" is advising us to get out asap because it is storm season and we need it to be in the buyers possession. So to get out we have to move the fence, move half the carport, the shrubs, take the front porch off, take the roof off the back porch, take off the skirting, move the flagstone walk, put up a temporary fence for the dogs...OH! and paint my purple room. And move out!

I packed two weeks of clothes in the camper and the rest of our clothes in plastic tubs. Then my friends came over and helped me pack up the rest of the house on Monday and Tuesday. We put all our stuff in our Morgan storage building and the girls playhouse that we boarded the windows on. Brian's friends were coming over on Thursday to move out the furniture. Wednesday night it started raining and it was still raining on Thursday so Brian rescheduled his group for Saturday. They were coming to get the house on Monday. Monday came and it was still raining I don't remember how long it rained but we got about 6 inches! The lawyer was right the roof started leaking! Sixteen years in that house with no leaks and the minute we sell we get a leak, the house was probably mad at us. So, after the rain stopped they said it would be at least a week before it is dry enough to move the house out, eek! While we were watching the dirt dry and living in our bachelor pad, Brian cleaned out the gutters and patched the roof. At this point we have two weeks of clothes, 4 towels, 4 plates, 4 bowls, 4 forks, 4 spoons, 4 cups, 1 knife, 2 pots and a frying pan and our big furniture. Because the women, efficient as they are, now have everything packed and put away. Also, during the monsoon, we decided to go look at other houses just to make sure this was the one we wanted and there was not one that would be OK for a better price. There was not one that even compares, because we took the floor model, which means we take the color it is and no options we did not want the options anyway. During our hunt we learned from another dealer the we qualify for the government rebate which is $6500. Hmm that got us to thinking we were planning to wait and buy in Sept when we pay off the studio and Katy starts school, that would be our house payment. If we get that rebate we would not have to finance the concrete, dirt, fence repair and skirting gasp! We could pay cash! With the floor model already SEVERAL thousand off the sticker price and we had talked the salesman down a few. We can buy that house now. One problem we had 10 days to sign the contract. Now we are scrambling again banks, loan officers, lawyers, notary, tax accountant. AAUGH! We got it done and qualified for the rebate, the check is in the mail ha.

Well, during the monsoon Mozey bought a shed for her "stuff" she graciously let us use it until we got our new house. When it finally dried out enough for us to move the trailer Brian got his guys back over to help get the big stuff out and we moved in to the camper. It has not been to bad we have a nice temporary front porch.

They finally came to get the old house and we watched it roll away. And had a little fun!

Now we really have no house and are living in the camper, we did set our TV up in the studio and put our clothes in there we have a small love seat and and a reclining lawn chair in there.

The next thing is to get our site ready for the new house. We have to finish taking down the carport, cut down the mulberry tree and and a bradford pear, move the neighbors fence, and now move the fence on the west side of the house. Good Gravy just how big is this house? We also have to get the electric company out to replace our transformer, we are going from a 100amp to a 200amp, cap off the septic line, dig up the septic thank and find the clean out, dig up the water line, get a cliche pad and drill and pour concrete piers. Whew! The girls and I helped by picking up the little pieces of concrete/side walk and putting them in the ditch the dumpster truck has been making. I also "let" the girls smash the bigger pieces of side walk with a hammer. Mozey and Boone(her boyfriend) helped us cut the tree down.

Boone's Boys came to help us with the concrete. It is amazing how much help you can get for a 30 pack of Bud Light.
Of course the girls wrote their names and made hand prints in the wet concrete.

Brian then had to dig the water lines and put in the new water line, another friend had a ditch digger and came to help. Brian went all out he put in three underground, outside faucets. No more crawling under the house to turn off the outside water, in the dark, after we see the freeze warning on the 10 o'clock news. Yea! Now Brian has about 12 hrs of down time :) and thinks he will start looking for the septic tank so he starts digging and would you know three shovels and he hits the clean out! What the heck? We stand there and look at it for about an hour thinking this can not be it, it was too easy, we have to dig up the whole yard that is just the way we do things. But, no, that was it we even had a friend come look at it and he said, "yep, that's a clean out". So, we go to bed that night staring in to space just saying WOW!

Apparently, through this, we have been ignoring our kids because I came out and found Katy running around in the back yard naked. Really, the kids have been pretty good they have had fun playing on the dirt and machines and have really enjoyed "camping".

Now, this week we got the new house! I came home from work and there it sat, in two pieces and on wheels but there none the less. They will put it together Thursday and finish it out Friday and Saturday maybe Monday. I hope we get to move in next week.

The House

This is the house we have picked out. We have not signed the contract yet so there is a chance still we may not get this one. I hope so because it will be a long wait if we have to order it.

Why is it the days I need to get up early I can not sleep? Tomorrow is Easter, in Ministry that is the Super bowl of Sundays and here it is 1:30 am and I can not shut my eyes!

My Girls

They are so Beautiful! Each in their own way. I love them so much. Tara you are so kind and tender. You are full of compassion and smart. Katy, you are so sweet and loving you are a wise soul and very strong.

Update on my coffin!

My Planter boxes went from looking like coffins, according to my mom-in-law, to having cute little flower peeking up over their edges, to completely OUT OF CONTROL. I had to remove the potato plants from one of the boxes. The other box, I just sacrificed the flowers. The potato plants turned out to be quite pretty. They did however take over the back porch. I actually had a dream one night that they had grown over the house and I had to cut them away from the front door to get in. Brian did weed-whack them back some because we were afraid there may be snakes hiding in all the foliage. They grew up the power pole, all the way over to the hot tub and up under the porch.

Protection

Protection!
I think I am pretty capable of taking care of myself. I know my limits as a kungfu master mind you. Although, I did take two years of karate in Jr High. I won’t be taking on any Jackie Chans or walking down dark alleys. In my home if feel very safe. I have a dog that barks and big husband that loves me and I assume will lay down his life for me. Aaahhhh Sigh of content…that is until “Perry the Possum” snuck in our doggie door Monday!!
Here is how it went down:
Monday night
0345hrs lover hears something eating the dog food; he thinks to himself, “I have never heard the cat smack that loud. The fact that I am pinned to my bed by the dog and (the preacher’s dog we are babysitting) tells me that sound is not coming from my dog. Wonder what it is, maybe the stray cat that has been hanging around lately. I hate that stray cat he sprays on my truck. I will get up and drop kick him out the doggie door.” So lover gets up and sneaks into the kitchen and there was nothing there just a mess around the food bowel. Maybe it is a dream. Lover spends the next 3 min pushing our dog and preacher’s dog off his side of the bed and resumes his supine position.
0445hrs lover again hears something smacking in the kitchen. That! DARN! Cat. Very quietly lover again sneaks into the kitchen flips the light on and bam!
He meets Perry the possum. Yep a possum is in our kitchen eating the dog food. As lover turns on the light the possum walks around the corner into the living room and waddles down the hall to the girls’ rooms. So lover starts looking for him he did not see which room it went into. Flash light in hand lover is diligently digging through stuffed animals, my little ponies and little people looking for Perry. All to to no avail Perry was nowhere to be found.
0530hrs my alarm goes off and I wake to find lover roaming the halls with a trash grabber, aka. The critter gitter, and an igloo playmate cooler in his hand. With goosebumps the size of golf balls. Apparently lover thinks possums are “nasty” worse than snakes or rats.
Tuesday we shut the doggie door before we go to bed we will have no visitors tonight!!
0100hrs the smacking begins lover and I both hear it, I jump up and rush into the kitchen flip on the light and find nothing but another mess around the food bowel. I grab the flash light lover grabs his critter gitter and the cooler and we again go on the hunt for Perry. Again we find nothing. Lover thinks he is getting in through the air conditioner vent I think he spent the night in the house. We look for about an hour and find nothing.

The crazy thing is the dogs never even woke up. It is like they have a deal worked out with the possum. If you don’t scratch my eyes out I’ll let you eat my food. Lover gets that horrible shudder every time we mention the possum. So my question is am I safe?

YES! I am Lover would lay down his life for me, I know that and have no doubt. Unless maybe if there was a possum involved :)

"Mandatory Days Off"

So, on my days off I decided to do a little home improvements. Of course they were all on my back porch! Some my hub helped with some I did all by myself and Mozey helped with some. It was fun! The planter boxes took more soil than I planned but they turned out great. Mozey and I found a way to keep Satch from digging all the flowers out. We put chicken wire in the box and stapled it to the sides then we fill in the last 2 inches of dirt. We planted the flowers in the holes of the chicken wire. The last pot of flowers I had he would dig until every speck of dirt was out.

I built a shelf to display my bottles on. I really felt they needed to go out on the porch but could not find a way to incorporate them. Then I came up with the shelf it looks more like a window box turned on its side but it serves the purpose, I just hope when the washer hits the spin cycle the do not "walk" off the shelf!