Wisdom from my walk

Ugh!! got an estimate to replace our gutters, $11,000!!! sorry, if we sell the new owner will have to deal with it.  I just hope it doesnt come up as a problem that we have to fix before we can sell!   Still no news on the job front, I am guessing nothing will pan out but of course my hubby is ALWAYS the optimist, so he’s holding on hope.  I havent given up hope I just am sick of waiting to hear something.   Dean made a lot of progress on some repairs last night, I’m just glad he’s finally motivated to fix things I”ve wanted done for a long time.   Still waiting on my bathroom to be done though…not holding my breathe!   but our office downstairs is almost perfect!  one room almost down then on to the next is our theory!   or until we run out of money to keep making repairs!

He’s such a happy baby!  And so is his big brother!

but he does have some serious faces!  Dean does in this one too for some reason. I am hating how much weight it looks like I”m gaining, but it’s mostly in my face, I am fitting in my prepregnancy clothes, even some of the ones from when I lost a lot of weight, not sure what all this extra swelling is about, I cant even wear my rings anymore.  I didnt even swell at all like this during my pregnancy.

This is from our trip to the trolley musuem last week.

Dean and I havent been out without all of the kids in a long long time.   We knew we needed a break, especially yesterday being such a long day.  Boaz has become a very independent, too smart for his own good rotten little stinker! one day he may be mad I said that of him but he’s really been trying our nerves.  he’s just testing his limits and it’s hard to enforce rules to a toddler while feeding an infant so consistency in discipline is lacking and so he thinks and knows he can get away with things he wouldnt otherwise if Zeke wasnt keeping up busy.

But the point was, we got to go out on a date! we left the kids w/ my mom,  before we left Boaz threw up his dinner that was fun and I was worried about leaving him, but we did anyway.  We went to a crab feast that Dean’s coworker had helped organize and given him tickets to.  The tickets cost $40, we paid nothing for them!  it was great! the food was good, I saw jello shooters for the first time in my life, dont know why anyone would like them, I didnt try them though, but the thought of jello unless I’m sick just isnt appealing.    Dean tried them and liked them.   The company was interesting, I knew no one, Dean knew 2-3 folks.   My favorite part, other than being kidless was dancing with my honey.   well time to get ready for chuch, just wanted to check in while it was still quiet around here.

Having a crappy day or five….good thing this week though, my best friend had her baby, an adorable red haired little boy. He was 8 lbs, I said he will probably be as big as Zeke or bigger soon, my kids are so tiny! That was about the only highlight of my week, I’m just having a crappy day. We’re supposed to get the money from our refinance today, but still waiting…..I was going to pay off our medical bills so I could to the dr on Monday but I dont think it’s going to happen. So now I’ll have to wait another month to be seen. on top of that I tried to make a dentist appt, a much needed one, but got an earful from them about a bill for get this, not ME but Dean. So I spent an hour or two trying to fix things turns out it IS the dentist office’s fault, they woudlnt accept that they made a mistake not even after the insurance agent had the handwritten claims for the visits showing their mistake, so she was faxing it to them. this was after they made mistakes before when making appts for me. So now I can wait to see them, thier first avail isnt until Sept or try to find a new dentist which will probably take just as long. I am so finished with drs and medical bills, seriously. but I know I am going to spend the rest of my afternoon dealing with it. I am so annoyed.

ugh. so I just called to cancel my appt for Monday, she said that the appt was already cancelled today because I owe them.  No one called to tell me that, so again I would have gotten a sitter and showed up to no appointment.  If I didnt feel so crappy all the time I would never go to the dr again.  I am so hating today.  so looks like I wont get in for an appt with that dr for another month, even if I pay today.   so stupid.

Oh the irony!  I was looking for houses online on several Ohio newspaper websites, when I saw this.  I moved to Ohio after a year of College, I was 19.   Dean of course being the theater buff he was, well got us involved in a community theater group, I of course initially went to be w/ the love of my life.   Our first show we worked on was The Music man, during that show there was a storm and tornado watches during rehearsals.    Similar to what this group experienced yesterday.   I always say I would never live in places like Florida where hurricanes threaten every year, I forgot when planning on going back to Ohio about tornados.

after we were married and living in our first apartment, one night I awoke to neighbors banging on our doors. I could hear a loud siren but never having experienced a tornado or siren before I was clueless.  I tried to wake Dean but it was useless, he slept through it and I sat up worrying.  We barely made it into work the next day, if I remember right we might have gone late or something.   Less than a mile away( I’d say a few blocks but in Ohio nothing was really close like saying “a few blocks” here)  houses were ruined.   The roads we took to work were filled w/ debris from the tornado.  It was the worst thing I had ever seen in my life, and all i could think was Dean slept through it and had it been any closer who knows what would have happened to us.

After  reading about the storms there today I  remember talking to Dean’s parents last night and them asking if it was raining here, and it wasnt.  Our weather patterns tend to follow a day or two behind when they get storms.   Maybe it was Dean’s brother, I dont know one of them I talked to yesterday said it was storming, I think!   So just one of many reasons not to move to Ohio but still, theres lots of reasons to move there too.  Still no news on the job front, kind of frustrating as we are very ready to prepare and sell the house.  Oh well, we need time to make repairs anyway.  getting an estimate on flooring/carpet for our basement and new gutters too tomorrow, hoping it’s not too ridiculously expensive.  our plan was to finance those repairs and pay it off when the house sells.  we are just getting estimates tomorrow.   if we more or not those things should be done as well as others we are planning to do, it’s just I hate going into debt to fix things up if we arent going to move.   I guess we just wait.   You know how much I hate waiting!!

Every now and then we get postcards in the mail for houses in the area that have sold by this one realtor.  I had seen it before stating she grew up in our neighborhood and I knew she has sold a few houses in our neighborhood.  So last week that was who I called for our consultation.  She came this evening and was very optimistic about our house, you know the place I refer to as a “peice of crap” Ironically the more I do to fix it up the more fond of it I become, or rather I’ve tried to change my perspective, I look at our house as I think a buyer would, and really it’s not THAT bad.  the realtor was very optimistic price wise.   I cant believe what she thinks we could get for it, I almost feel guilty making that much profit off of the house.  It’s plain crazy.  She’s going to run some numbers, give us numbers of what we could expect after selling, closing costs, her fees and the like based on different sale prices so we know roughly what we can expect in regard to looking at houses in Ohio.

A lot of what we had already made plans to fix were things she mentioned.   I had done a lot of things already this week to help and  I think it made a difference.  She is confident we can list as a 4 bedroom, 3 bath, w/ den, family room, storage rooms, deck and shed(as is shed) and of course she noted our nice sized yard.   I was planning, before today, on getting a new shed, but I guess if we dont we can use that money for other things, like we need closet doors for all of our closets, which is a tad pricey so that will be good, to not have to worry about the shed.  I was also suprised that she didnt say we have to paint. not one room did she think we should paint, I mean that really amazes me.  Everyone keeps telling me that we’ll probably have to paint, but she said our colors are good, when looking at the kids room she said the baby room is great and when I mentioned the orange walls she said it’s fine that buyers will probably repaint how they want anyway.   the only things we need to paint are the baseboards, window frames.   So not too bad!  there are other things that need done, and we are more than likely going to need to put some sort of flooring in the basement, that will be costly but based on what she thinks we’ll get for the house it’s very minimal.   She said if we do the repairs we talked about we’ll easily get that money back and probably 3 times what we put into it!   Crazy stuff!  I just cant believe if we sell it we’d make so much money as profit.  It’s just unbelievable.

now that the house is clean and I’m exhausted, I think I”ll make this the first night in a few weeks that I’ll go to bed before midnight…we’ll see.