Friday, May 25, 2007

The Letter 'S'

Snakes: Two. Caught. In our yard! Husband is my hero. He caught them both. One was living in a wood pile in our back yard. Moved the wood, caught a snake. This one was pretty little. The other was living in the tree right in front of our garage. It was on the tree soaking up sun. This one was bigger. Both were kept safe in a pillow case, shown to the neighbors, then released miles away from here. Bye bye.

Sleaze: The jerk at the car dealer thought he could get away with a tricky move. He offered an extended warranty with stain protection (for all the interior fabric as well as ding protection for the exterior) for x dollars. We agreed. When we read through the contract the next day we realized he charged us the same x dollars PLUS $700 for the protection plan. Hello. We went back today and re-did everything. We still paid x for the warranty, but they took off the 700 and gave us the interior protection for free. I guess they were pretty annoyed with us by the end of it, but if they had done what they promised we wouldn't have had any trouble.

Salesman: Our sales guy (K) was nice. He was very new, but nice and helpful. The other guy (J) 'helping' our sales guy was the definition of car salesman. J was friendly in a jerky way and tried to tell us what we wanted and get us out. We left. Without a car. Then came back and dealt with K. They have a cooler of water bottles to give to customers for free. J asked if we wanted anything. I asked for a soda (the planet dealer gives you soda) and he said "we don't have any, it's just water." OK. Except when I said something to K, he directed me to the repair shop where there is a vending machine. Why couldn't J have said that? K paid for my soda and a candy bar.

Stop it: Peanut has to stop being so helpless. He will drop something and it will be just out of reach. Tears. He can't seem to just reach out two inches and pick it up. The World has ended. I know he is still very young, but he knows how to ask for a snack or drink. Why will he not do this? It's frustrating.

Super: My new van. It's beautiful blue and drives nice. I'm nervous as heck driving it that someone will smash into me. I think this will work out just fine. I kind of miss our other car, but this will grow with our family if we someday choose to grow.

Sucks: The house is still for sale. We haven't had many lookers either. I know with the holidays it's bad timing, but if people need/want a house then it shouldn't matter. We're giving it another couple weeks and then our realtor needs to do something to get some folks looking at it.

Supervision: The dog is in trouble for digging up my landscaping the same night I got it finished. As far as I know the other dog is innocent. Trouble is no longer allowed to be free in the yard without someone out there with her to supervise.

Super Hero: Husband has been a real man lately. He wrangled two snakes, and caught two in our yard. Get it? The first two are the jerks at the dealer. Ha. Anyway, he's been great and deserves a cookie.

Thursday, May 17, 2007

Day 22 and The Circle of Life

So it's day 22 of the house for sale. No showings this week. Hello. If you live near me and want a house, ours is fabulous. Really. Come by and then come buy. I think we are waiting for that one person out there currently living in an apartment to buy a house. Then those people will buy and those people will buy and so on. The chain must start. Then our house will sell. Or I'll go crazy, one of the two.

Did you also know we are selling our Vue? Yah. Sort of just decided on that. It's fine, but we could get a good deal on (are you ready for this?) a mini-van. I know. If we have another kid we'll need the space. Two adults, two kids and two semi-big dogs. There is no room. So we're trying to get all we can out of it. So come by and buy our Vue, then fall in love with the house and buy that too. Hey, what more could anyone want? A new house and a new car. Fabulous.

So, in an effort to spruce up the house I planted some grass seed. We have a few bare spots in the yard and I am attempting to fill them in. You might want to peruse the previous post about my green thumb (not) to decide how this will turn out. Anyway, I was outside watering some of the spots when a young bird came crashing/flying out of a nest not two feet above me. This spot was under a tree. So teen bird goes flopping across the street trying to get the flying thing down. It's sort of walking, flopping, kind of flying down the street. Then. The neighbors cat comes out. These cats go out of the house and just stay in the front yard. Weird. Anyway, the cat starts to chase the bird. I briefly thought of going after them and chasing the cat away. Then I realized it was the circle of life. I had to leave. I don't know if the cat got the bird or not. It was starting to fly a little, but couldn't go far. The cat was on the chase. I felt awful. If I hadn't been watering, the bird wouldn't have left at that moment and the cat wouldn't have chased the bird, possibly catching it, but who knows. Of course, it could have just been time.

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Wanted: Green Thumb

I went to the Home a De po today to work on landscaping. The house looks OK from the front, but the back yard is a little plain. I was overwhelmed to say the least. Did you know there are like 4,983 types of soil? I did not. There are also an equal number of fertilizers, plants, flowers, stepping stones, edging options and pots to put said plants in. I had to go home.

After eating lunch and thinking it through I went back. I purchased several pots of various shape and size, a bag of soil (the one the clerk suggested) and a handful of flowers (mostly purple since I like that color). I planted all the flowers and at least today they look lovely. How long do those things last? Oh well. There were a few other things purchased, but I didn't get to those little projects.

The dogs are not helping the yard situation. One or both of them keeps digging little holes. It looks like we have a groundhog or something. They also run through and and lay in the plants. At some point we'll have to contain them or block off the plants.

All in all I enjoyed the day. The sun was out, but it wasn't too hot. Peanut was at daycare so I didn't have to worry about him for the day. I can't say things are fabulous, but at least I had an OK day. Although, there is one thing that did try to spoil my day. There is a snake living in our yard. It was sunbathing in the front yard this morning and it was in the back yard later on. Ew. The neighbors boys have offered to catch it if I can spot it while they are home. That's the trick. Between school and work they aren't home much. Maybe I'll get lucky and they will catch my critter. Again. Ew.

Monday, May 14, 2007

My Smile is Upside Down

I'm tired. I seem to be constantly annoyed and/or angry. I feel slow, sluggish, heavy and foggy. I hate that I feel any of this because my husband and son are paying for it. Part of it is PMS and part of it is depression. The PMS will go away in a while, but I'm not sure what to do about the other.

I tried a therapist and she seemed good, but then she stood me up one day. That's not really something you want to do with someone that is depressed with self-esteem issues. My silly brain said something like "screw you, see how you like it if I never come back". Which is silly because it doesn't really hurt her if I don't come back. It only hurts me (and those around me).

Her logic was that I'm depressed because I am a very creative person with no creative outlet. She said I needed to tap into that to feel fulfilled. OK. I get that. I don't seem to have time. Sure I have some free time twice a week, but then there are usually things I want to do or get done. Creativity seems to take a back seat for the most part. Would that help with my marriage? Would that help deal with my son? I kind of don't think so. Maybe though. I'm in such a horrible place right now. I don't want to be, but I kind of don't give a crap either.

What would do me some good is a swift kick in the butt to get me on my way. You know, like one of those life coaches on tv where they go live in a house and they change their whole lives for the better. I need that, but I'm only free two days a week and I have no money to spend. Other than that, sign me up. Really.

I'd say I need a vacation, but it hasn't been all that long since I took one. I really don't know what I need at this point. A job? A hobby? A friend? A life? Yah. Probably a little of each.

Monday, May 07, 2007

One Week

So the house has been officially for sale for over a week. There have been no official showings, but a few people came to an open house yesterday. So far, this sucks. The house has stayed pretty clean and neat, but I'm disappointed we haven't sold it already. I know it's a lot to ask for, but why not?

Before we actually put it on the market I had dreams of it selling the first day. You always hear stories of "it was only on the market 3 days". Why can't that be us? So then it rained. For days upon days. No one seems to want to look at or buy a house in the rain. Last weekend were a lot of graduation days and next weekend is Mother's Day (Happy M Day to everyone!) after that is Memorial Weekend. Bah!! I hope this gets better. What if it never sells? Is it over-priced? Is it nice enough? Why is no one in love with it like I was six years ago?

On the flip side is the new house situation. I haven't looked to seriously, but I've gone to several open model homes and a few 'lived in' homes. There have not been any that I've fallen in love with. There are a few I like, but none I love. Maybe we should design our own house. Maybe we should try to find the land we want and build on that. I don't know. It's exciting and fun and stressful all in one minute.

In other news we went on a mini-vacation. We flew to Texas for a long weekend with family and it was very nice. Peanut did fantastic the whole time. Sure he cried a little during the landing of the first flight. I think it was more because we made him sit down in the seat than he was scared or anything. The flight back was pretty good too. Like I said, he was terrific.