Stupid People

Do you remember me complaining about all the stupid things the precious owners of our Abingdon house did? Well, I think their cousins lived in this house. My PSA of the day: if you are going to make changes to your house, do them correctly. Yesterday was fan day. Dan went in to school to finish his in processing. While he was gone, I decided to get a head start by taking the fans down in Caden's room. The idiots who put in these fans didn't assemble the fans correctly. There's supposed to be a small arm with a ball in the end on top of the fan that sits into a cup on the brace that's secured to the ceiling. Not only did they not secure the braces to the ceiling correctly (toggles are not the correct hardware people!), they also left the arm with the ball off the fan. I took 3 of the 4 screws out of the cap and the whole fan fell on me. The electrical box should have caught it, but again, idiots, they just poked a hole in the ceiling so no electrical box to hold the wire. Needless to say, Jaelyn also got a new fan because her old one matched Caden's and I didn't want it falling on her in the middle of the night.

Dan and I have become expert fan installers, but we've decided Hunter needs to rename their "five minute fans" to "sixty-five minutes fan."

While not the fault of the previous tenants, we discovered yet another thing wrong with the house last night. We needed to disconnect the landlords washer and dryer to prepare for ours. The cold water would not turn off no matter how far down Dan cranked the knob. It's crazy. Our "plan" for now is to turn off the water to the whole house, unhook and rehook the washer, and then turn the water back on. Our handyman is coming back on Saturday. We'll be adding it to the list.

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Things Are Looking Up

The handyman showed up today. Hallelujah!!! Unfortunately, he didn't have time to do everything on the list, but he did paint my bedroom which makes me super duper happy. It looks sooooo much better. Gerber (that's his name, like the baby food, he told me) started out suggesting I go with an antique white. Honestly, I had no opinion about the color. It was painted a milk chocolate. I told him to add a bit more color than antique white - I'm enjoying the color after white walls for two years - and he came back with paint almost the exact color as the original. LOL. He's coming back Saturday with materials to finish up the other items. We really want Caden's fan, that's being held up by toggle bolts, fixed sooner rather than later. Amy told me I could fix that instead of waiting and why not? She's saving on labor cost :).

The kids and I shopped today. We went to Kohls, Home Depot and Virginias largest outlet mall - all within five miles of our house. I'm in shopping nirvana after two years of Walmart. I couldn't resist buying some black eyed Susan's that were on sale at Home Depot. I loved my BES's that I had in Abingdon. There are Barberry bushes on either side of the steps that I hate. As soon as I have a shovel and gloves, I'm going to yank them out and plants flowers that make me smile. I'm also adding a porch swing to my list of wants. I sat on it today to read a book while the kids played. I've never had a real front porch like this before. I love it!

One Week

I can't believe we've been in Virginia for a week already. It feels like months, literally. Or maybe it's just the stress that makes it feel that way. I am running hot and cold on the house. I really like the secluded feeling location even though we are in a big subdivision. I love the big yard and the fence and the kids LOVE the pool just a short walk across the lake from our house. I haven't been to the pool yet. Dan has been taking the kids while I clean. I'm happy to report its much cleaner now :). Theres still a lot of work to do though.

After some investigating, Dan and I figured out the fan issues and roar in our bedroom. The remote with our fan and the one in the family room were interfering with each other. Five minutes later, with the help of a YouTube video, we successfully reprogrammed our fan to match the remote (no toggles to do it the easy way). Now we just need the handyman to fix the disintegrating shutter, the master bedroom patches, and a few safety things. Then, I'll be happy with the house. Our household goods come on Wednesday. I can't wait!

I took Gracie to our new vet yesterday. She is in agreement that the best option for Gracie's luxating patella is surgery. I called the University of Pennsylvania and Virginia Techs vet schools, but after gathering information, I think we'll be doing the surgery locally. It's major surgery with an 8 week recovery, but the alternative is continuing dislocations leading to arthritis and pain.

We got out today and did a little hiking at Mason Neck State Park. It was good to get away for a little bit.

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Adventures in Fan Installation

We bought Allie a pretty, new fan this morning. We spent a little bit more (because its not our money) and got a Hunter five minute fan. It came mostly assembled. Boy were we naive to think it would be a quick project.

When Dan took down the fan, we discovered one screw into the edge of a joist and the rest of the screws in mollies. There was no electrical box, no support for the fan. I can't believe it hadn't fallen on someone's head. Back to Lowes Dan went to get a fan brace so that we could put the fan up safely. What started as a quick project turned into a 5 hour ordeal. I climbed up in the attic to check out the other fans. Jaelyn and master bedroom fans seem to be okay, but Caden's is hung up with toggle bolts. Crazy, stupid people. It will be added to the handyman's long list of projects.

Better Day

Today has been a better day. It started with getting Dans car diagnosed 'again' and getting the part ordered. The kids and I stayed at the house and waited for the carpet cleaners. I can't tell you how good it feels to have clean carpets. They were really yucky. It brightened my whole day. We moved boxes out of the garage into the basement storage room and I degreased the stove and microwave. Every little bit of dirt and grime that I remove makes me feel better. I also unclogged the sink drain (gross... I don't ever want to know what that stuff was that was inside it) and straightened the sink on/off lever. It was sitting at a 45 degree angle to where it should have been. I was by myself, so I used bungees to hold the lever in place while I slid under the garbage disposal so I could reach nut. Oh the crazy thing I do to make things "right."

We met our landlord this afternoon. She made a long list of everything we wanted fixed. She also offered to pay for a new fan for Allies room and new shelving for the master closet if we do the labor. I liked her and I liked that she's fair. She's knocking $100 off next months rent for the inconvenience of the carpets and $200 for the cleaning.

I also talked to a very nice lady at the school board. I have until August 15th to turn in an "intent to homeschool" form. A neighbor told me about all the homeschooling resources in the county. It's a very popular option here apparently.

That's all for today. Tomorrow, I'm going to focus on unpacking our "first night" boxes and deep cleaning the upstairs bathrooms. Thursday night is our last night in a hotel.

Continued

I got distracted earlier and never got another chance to finish till now when everyone else is asleep. I should be too, but sleep is elusive these days without help.

The house...did I mention its filthy? There was enough fur under the stove and fridge to cover a medium sized dog (white and wirey from the look of it). Gross! The AC floor vents were clogged with all sorts of stuff and fur. I don't think they've been cleaned out in years. I know for a fact no one has ever cleaned under or cleaned the sides of the stove. The layers of grease rival some of the kitchens Robert Irvine sees on Restaurant Impossible. I have a bottle of Greased lightening to tackle it tomorrow. The carpets were covered in pet hair and haven't been cleaned. After a very frustrating day with no communication (have to work on that), they are scheduled to be cleaned tomorrow. The walls had been patched and touched up in the main level, but the handyman left in the middle of patching the master bedroom and never came back. I have a list of several other small broken things and safety issues that need to be corrected. Did I mention its been a long couple of days? And we don't get our stuff until the 31st. We have 5 more days in a hotel and then it's air mattresses for us.

The kids miss their friends. Unfortunately, everyone is retired in our cul-de-sac. No kids to play with. Dan took them to the community pool today. They all came back happily talking about playing with other kids. We registered Allie and Caden for school today. Later this week, I'm going to check out a gym for Jaelyn. We also found out there's a Tae Kwon Do club that meets at our school. I still have to check out dance studios for Allie.

So there's positive and negative. It'll get better. It's a process. I know this from experience. It's just hard waiting to get to that better place!

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Have I Mentioned I Hate Moving

Even though we have been looking forward to leaving Missouri for two years, it was hard to say goodbye. We had friends we loved, a school community where we fit right in and a house with furniture in all the right places ;).

Moving is hard on so many levels. Saying goodbye was hard and compounding that was little tiny logistics things that threatened to go wrong. Dans engine inspection required light came on in his new car on our second packing day. It turned out to be a sensor out, but they couldn't get the part until Thursday evening. The technician assured Dan that it would be fine to drive 1000 miles, but as I was the one driving it, I worried for all of those 1000 miles. Then Dan went to pick up our trailer on Wednesday (Thankfully the guy offered it to Dan a day early free of charge or things would have been worse). Of course there was a problem with the wiring on the van. Dan ended up in Springfield at a large Uhaul facility on Thursday...when we were supposed to be loading our trailer. I stayed home with the kids and put them to work cleaning. For a clean house, it was pretty dirty. I probably spent 20 hours cleaning total because I had heard how picky the inspection was. I put a lot of stress on myself. It probably would have been worth paying them to clean just to not have that :) with all the other moving stress.  I just missed a few things that we could fix quickly. Dan said later that she told him I'd done a good job.

Our overall drive went pretty well. Dan had the girls, I had the boys.  My only jobs were to follow Dan and change to the next Harry Potter section on my iPod. Caden and I listened to the Half Blood Prince. We just have a few chapters to go.

Our house...I was expecting the house we saw in pictures and I was expecting it be clean. I already knew the carpets hadn't been cleaned because the water had been turned off. My first view of the house was of the disintegrating shutter (that the handyman hasn't gotten fixed yet). Inside, the house is a mess. I couldn't even bring myself to take pictures. Lets just say I emptied my dyson bin three time between the family room and kitchen..to be contined

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Packing...Day 1

Today was a long, tiring day of watching other people work. It can be exhausting to do nothing :). To be fair, I've been working my tail off for two weeks organizing our stuff which was very appreciated. Apparently everybody doesn't do that. Jimmy, Justin and Ridge showed up at 8:00 and got to work this morning. So far, I'm really happy with their packing and people skills. I'm with-holding the final judgment until after the unpacking is done ;). They made good progress today. The sheds, dining room, Allie's room, most of the kitchen and some of our pictures are done. Gracie did not enjoy the day. She spent it in her crate moaning at us. I'll have to record her tomorrow to post. It's so funny. The girls made a new friend to play with. Too bad we are moving out as her family is moving in. The highlight of our afternoon was a trip to Froyobelly with our friends, Miss Michelle, Cierra, and Chase. The kids are going to miss them.

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One More Week in the Woods

Picking up where I left off...the kids and I had a wonderful time in Florida.  We enjoying our time playing at the beach, seeing friends and spending time with family (the normal stuff we always do).  The kids are still bummed they don't get their own Florida vacation, and honestly as we approaching moving week, I'm bummed too.  Another summer I guess...

Anyway, once we got home, I went into full out moving mode.  I've spent the last two weeks tearing apart our house.  The walls are all bare, the batteries are removed, our dity stuff has been sorted and separated.  There's still a lot to do, but most of it is stuff that can't be done until this weekend.  I'm a little worried about our cleaning inspection.  I've heard housing is picky, but I have the list and am busy working down it doing everything I can so I just have to wipe stuff down on the last day. 

Jaelyn is starting to feel the reality of moving and her anxiety has kicked in.  She's reverted to a lot of her old fight or flight type behaviors.  Not fun.  I'm hoping it'll be short lived as we get settled into our new house and neighborhood.  Although settled might take a bit because they don't have a driver to haul our load.  It's being crated and stored until they do.  They've guaranteed delivery no later than August 1 - 10 days after we get to DC.

In other news, I don't think I mentioned Gracie dislocated her knee while we were in Pensacola.  It was pretty bad.  The vet had to pop it back into the joint.  She's had the same injury before (we didn't know what it was), but after a minute or two, she's always put her leg down and gone about her day.  Since that major injury, she's had it dislocate on her several times.  One of my first priorities in VA is finding a good vet.  The prognosis is not promising.  Depending on how they class it, 1-2, they don't do anything, but 3-4, they do surgery.  The surgery is big and expensive and isn't a for sure fix.  It might not fix it, it might fix it temporarily, or it might fix it permanently and then she could have the same problem on the opposite side.  There's also the issue of arthritis developing if it continues dislocating constantly.  I've been told by two people that we need to buy her a knee brace.  Do they make those for dogs?  I'll have to google.

And the last of my randomness...it's a go!  Jaelyn will be attending Middle School of the Living Room next year. (Ha...I typed attempting instead of attending - how's that for a Freudian slip?)  I'll be the one attempting it.  A good friend gave me her 6th grade math curriculum.  I've purchased art, english, reading, spelling, and writing curriculums from another friend.  I still have to hunt down what I want for science and history.  We'll sign her up for gymnastic and maybe music lessons and last, but not least to Jaelyn, she wants to volunteer at an animal shelter.  I've also found a theatrical homeschool group that puts on two productions a year. Jae isn't interested in acting, but she says she'd love to help with sets and costumes.  It sounds like I'm going to be very busy next year :).

Prayers for next week...packers Monday and Tuesday, loaders on Wednesday, cleaning house and loading trailer on Thursday, housing inspection, Dan's final clearance and hitting the road on Friday.  And we'll be doing all of the with kids whining "we're bored" at us.  Pray for sanity above all else :)!

Independence Day