For Carla

who shares my love of camo.

Fabulous, and my bargain find of the day.

W.almart

$14.87

Worth that and more, no?

Conundrum

My boss is still trying to replace me. As time goes on I care less and less about this. The Boy will start kindergarten at the end of August, and when we figure out his schedule there, I can go to work outside the home if need be.

I got an email from said boss on Tuesday evening. Attached to the message was an accounting test. He has been having my prospective replacements take the test. He asked me to take it, explaining that he wanted to use my score as a benchmark for the other candidates. It seems the majority of them were scoring between 55 and 65, having anywhere from 10 to 20 years of bookkeeping experience.

He wrote that if I too scored in that range, it would make him feel better about hiring one of these people.

Keep in mind that I feel like this arrangement is working out pretty well. I am getting my job done as well as if I were in that office 150 miles away. Sure, the AA and I email or speak daily as issues arise, and she has taken on some additional workload, but so what? She is used and abused too much by the lazy salespeople to take care of the menial tasks that they don't want to do.

I took the test.

There were 45 questions varying from basic accounting to controller/CPA difficulty.

I scored 91.

That's a lot of years!

That's what The Boy said to me this morning after wishing me a Happy Birthday and then asking how many I am now.

He wanted to spank me 48 times, and I said only if he could count that high. By golly, he can.

He had some money to buy me a gift, and this really horrible picture of an earring is what he chose. Hearts because he loves me, a crown because I am a princess, and pink because I'm a girl. Never mind that they say "C.heetah G.irls" under the crown. He said to just pretend it says "Princess". I can do that.

It's all relative

When we first decided to move here, MFH's second cousin called his parents for our phone number. Her husband had recently ventured into real estate and wanted us to buy a house from him.

Against my better judgement, MFH agreed to talk to him.

We met with him one time. He showed us two houses, one new and one old. He wouldn't show us one of the houses we were interested in because he couldn't find it and wouldn't call to ask anyone where it was. He explained it away saying, "This isn't started yet. It's just a drawing. Besides, it's in a gated community and they wouldn't be interested in a gated community." He made this comment to my MIL, who was riding with him and then later told me.

We were very interested in the new house he showed us. He couldn't answer any of our questions about the property, and didn't bother to find out the answers and get back to us. At the end of that afternoon he assured us "he knew exactly what we were interested in".

He then entered us into his database, which automatically sent us email when a property was listed that met our specifications. Only, all the emails were in an area of town that we told him we weren't interested in. And, they were all out of our price range.

The next weekend that we came down to look at houses, I couldn't reach him. His MIL told me he was at a football game, so I left him a message to call back with directions to a subdivision we couldn't find. He called back the next day and told me he was with a client all day, but did I look on map.quest?

A lie. A big red flag.

I ended up calling the developer of the gated community, where the house was indeed under construction, to ask him some questions. That property was not one that offered what we needed after all. His wife then told me about another house, the one we eventually bought.

We used the realtor that has our old house listed to negotiate the deal. I didn't feel guilty about it considering cousin didn't even show us this house.

His wife confronted me at a funeral to get this off her chest. Her husband worked hard for us and they were hurt that we didn't call him when we found this house. Besides, he just bought a brand new truck and the nice fat commission off this house would have helped pay for it.

Too frickin' bad. He did nothing for us, and he lied.

Now we find out that some other members of the family are saying that it was "shitty" of us not to buy the house from Marc.

Up yours, Marc.

Because I'm a nice guy, and because the rest of the family is important to me, I chose not to bring up how hard he didn't work for us to his wife or his in-laws. But I could have, and if I had it to do over again, I would have.

MFH is going to the root of the problem to straighten this out.

But never again will we involve a relative in our personal affairs.

It's the little things

This morning I rode my bike up to the main road to get the newspaper.

Our house has a concrete driveway, but the circular drive in front of the house and the not-quite-half-mile drive to the main road is gravel. It's hard for The Boy to maneuver his bike in the gravel.

I really miss our daily bike rides together. And, I fear that he'll never learn to ride his bike without training wheels out here.

I know I could help him get his bike up to the main road to practice riding, and that's what I'm going to do.

On this morning, I'm missing the familiarity of our old house and neighborhood. And, it makes me wonder what The Boy is feeling but not telling me.

Just following the rules

When I enrolled The Boy into swimming lessons, we got a card in the mail with some simple rules. Come dressed for swimming, apply sunscreen 15 minutes prior to swimming, and long hair must be braided or stuffed under a swim cap. Does anyone even wear those anymore?

The Boy's hair is curly in the back but when it's wet, it hangs midway down his back. So, I decided to pull it back. We've done this in the past when riding the motorcycles, so it was no big deal to him.

It's funny the reaction he gets at the pool. I realize it's uncommon today to see a little boy with long hair, but no more odd than the little AA boy with a mini mohawk that has one side painted red and the other side painted yellow.

Or, do you think people just wonder why this little girl with the long hair in the pony tail is wearing boy's swim trunks?

Make new friends......

In an effort to find our way in this new community, we have contacted the Junior Hockey League here and signed up to host a player for the upcoming season.

The housing coordinator called me yesterday to set up an "interview" for Thursday evening and visit our house. She did laugh and say looking at the house mostly consists of making sure we have a bed for the player. They will also need our permission to do a background check.

We did chuckle together last night, MFH and I, when discussing her pending visit. In our old town, the coaches knew who we were but they did not really KNOW us at all. And, nobody ever visited our house until they brought Paul to live with us in February when our second season was almost over. I'm sure they pumped our players for information, but that's really not the same as visiting with us.

She asked if I need any time to "get things in order".

Just don't open any closed doors and don't look in the garage.

Jellyfish

Every summer at daycare The Boy has taken swimming lessons. Only, it really was just playing in the water learning not to be afraid, which is important. I think he learned how to kick, float, etc. I wanted to go watch him everyday, but then he would cry when I left and didn't take him with me.

Last fall, winter, and even spring, we wanted to get him into lessons at my gym, but it interfered with hockey.

When we moved here, my friend suggested a really good swimming school. Only, when I called the sessions were already full because, well, they are really good. They use an outdoor pool, so the sessions are over once school starts. I asked them to put me on a waiting list for any session at any time of the day. Then I started investigating the y.m.c.a.

The very next day I got a call from the swimming school. Because I could take him anytime of the day, he got in due to a cancellation. He starts today. Each session runs for two weeks and I'm hoping there will be a cancellation in each of the next two sessions as well. If not, I will again investigate the Y, which will be good once fall comes since they have an indoor pool.

He is a very excited "jellyfish" today.

And, so am I.

This kid needs to stay busy.

I am completely in awe of daycare providers.

Boots

Meet the newest member of our family, Boots.

Yes, we thought of Socks, but his entire back legs are white, not just his feet. I immediately thought of thigh high boots, but that's the way my mind works.

The Boy has wanted a kitten forever, and since the Black Dog thought kittens were only good to satisfy his hunger, we had to wait until he went to Heaven. Now we've seen signs of mice in the garage, and figured it was a good time.

I haven't had a kitten for about 20 years, and I forgot how much fun they are. Especially at night when they don't realize it's time to sleep. I swear that cat crawled from one side of my head to the other, purring all night long. Really, he's been on the go since we picked him up yesterday at 4:00. Do they ever sleep?

He already owns the entire lot of us.

Welcome to the family, Boots.

"This is terrible!'

We had a storm last Saturday, and during the entire thing The Boy kept running all around the house looking out the windows and exclaiming, "This is terrible!"

We had 85 mph winds and it rained 2.5 inches in 1/2 hour.

Down the road and downhill from us, the neighbor's basement flooded. They are putting their house on the market. Across the street from us, the alarm was going off to let them know the drain field was flooded.

At our house, five of the eight evergreen trees that the previous owner planted this spring blew right out of their holes. My flowers were windblown, but they have since bounced back.

MFH was on the road between our former house and our new house, when the radio announced to get off the road and stay off.

I was soaked to the bone from running outside to make sure the hood stayed down on the new riding lawnmower after my attempts to start it and move it inside failed. I didn't know were the choke was. In my defense, why wasn't it in the garage in the first place?

Anyway, the point of this story is that the store where I bought all my new furniture experienced a flood during the aftermath of this storm, and somehow the order to deliver my furniture disappeared. I called three times yesterday morning and was put on hold each time for over ten minutes. When I finally hung up on my sales associate the last time I called, after 14 minutes and 36 seconds, she didn't even bother to call me back. I sent a nasty email to the manager and then called back late in the day.

Yes, I heard about your flood. I guess I don't really understand how this affected my order coming from the warehouse and then not being delivered on schedule. The warehouse was not part of the flood. And, I realize when you came back on the line this morning, I had hung up. Why didn't you call me back?

I work for a company where customer service is number one. If this had happened to us, every one of the employees would have been on the phone calling customers and explaining what happened, apologizing for Mother Nature. Then, our delivery department would have been working from sun up to sundown to get the product out there, because we care, and because we realize the customer could have gone numerous other places to spend their money.

I am rescheduled for Saturday.

I got the delivery fee dropped, but next time I need furniture, I will shop elsewhere.

I wouldn't exactly say I've been missing work

My part-time job working from home is turning out to by my full-time job being done whenever I can fit it in.

My boss is having quite the time with the interviewees. If they fit into our organization, they aren't the best candidate to perform the job. If they are a good candidate to perform the job, he doesn't think he can work with them or they won't fit in at the store.

Most days I get up at 5:00 and go straight to my office to get as much done as I can before The Boy wakes up. After all, what I didn't want was for him to spend his summer in front of the television. Most of the past week and a half has been spent trying to get moved in and acclimated. On Monday he starts swimming lessons, we are arranging some play dates, the ice rink here has open skating all summer, and there's always grandma. My mom is coming to get him for the day tomorrow, bless her heart. I'll have an entire day in front of the computer. Ah, the good old days.

To top it off, since I am "home" now with nothing to do, I am cleaning my own house. For the first time in 13 or so years. I think I'll be hiring that out just as soon as I can. It's bad enough that I gave up my nails, but cleaning? Too many sacrifices. Sheesh.

The good news is that I am almost unpacked. If it's still in a box it's for sale, I don't need it yet, or I haven't found it yet. The house is coming together nicely. I am having a new sofa and a bedroom set delivered tomorrow. I am so excited. It's the first matching bedroom furniture, and very likely the last, that we'll ever buy.

Now if only I could sleep. My body is tired, but my mind won't shut down.

16 years

Happy anniversary, MFH.

I wouldn't change a thing.

I love you.

I love a parade

The small town where my in-laws live has a 4th of July parade every year. It is so small that they go around the town twice just to make it worth their while.

This is The Boy anticipating the start of the parade. In this small town, they still throw out candy, much to his delight.







Here he is with his loot. There didn't seem to be as many children competing for the candy this year.

He will pick at this for a few days, and then forget about it. I usually throw the majority of it away just in time for Halloween.

My FIL seemed was quite pleased about not hosting the family picnic. MFH is still bent out of shape about it. We will host it next year, and even invite the deadbeats that have my FIL so up in arms in the first place. There will always be people that will not contribute, and I refuse to live my life being angry about that. I will host it because I enjoy doing so.

We invited MFH's cousin and his new wife to our house for take out chicken and fireworks. We did not think to invite my in-laws, and in retrospect, maybe that was just the way to handle it.

Isn't it ironic

I have pictures for you all, but I have yet to find the cord thingy to load them onto the computer. What is that called? My mind is mush. It escapes me. Cable! That's it!

For generations the home of my in-laws has been the location of a potluck Fourth of July picnic after the parade in the small town they live in. Every year we would travel down for it. After all, the fourth is MFH's favorite holiday, largely due to this family reunion of sorts.

Now we are here.

They aren't having it this year.

My FIL has decided he's tired of "having all those people in his house".

Last night we called them and offered to pick up a fried chicken lunch for just the immediate family after the parade. My FIL said if we want food to go to the park and buy a burger. They are not doing anything at the house. Period.

We haven't told The Boy yet, who looks forward to this function every year with the same enthusiasm as MFH.

So, one reason we moved here was to be closer to family, and they don't want to be closer to us.

A little too ironic, I really do think.

We bought a bunch of fireworks and will try to set them off and enjoy them without starting a brush fire in the neighboring fields.

Have a safe 4th!

In

The only thing worse than packing is unpacking.

One of the girls who works at the bank near my office said she loves to unpack and put things away. "It's just like Christmas!" she said.

I beg to differ.

Whereas this house is much bigger than my old one, all I can visualize is where things used to be. I can't decide where to put anything in the kitchen, so I just put things in the cabinets to get them out of boxes, and I'll rearrange it later. I had more cabinet space in the old house.

But, we are getting there. The pile of boxes in the garage is shrinking.

The woman who lived here previously did a fabulous job with perennials in the front of the house. In general, I couldn't be happier about the landscaping. I know how hard it is to start a lawn, and a mature yard was one of my prerequisites when shopping for a house.

My first day as a SAHM went swimmingly. Tomorrow, however, I need to work for a few hours in the morning. The Boy is used to being with other children doing organized activities, and I'm finding he only does well independently for short stretches of time. I think I'll be looking into some day camps.

MFH likes his job.

The hardest part of this whole move was this morning.

I got up and had no where to go for the first time in many, many years.