Happy Halloween!!!

Happy Halloween!! Today was an pretty mellow day for us despite it being Halloween. Noah has been sick since yesterday morning with some sort of stomach bug so he has not wanted to do anything. When he got up this morning, he just laid on the couch most of the day. He finally ate a bit and kept it down so I told him if he felt ok when he got up from his nap then we could go trick or treating. He was pretty indifferent about the whole affair and stated that if he couldn't dress up tonight than he would wear his Darth Vader costume for Christmas. It was too sweet and that is how I knew he was still not feeling well.

So the kids got up from their naps around 6 and I had their costumes all ready to go. I got Jordie dressed and Noah just laid on the couch. So I figured he decided he didn't want to go....until our first trick or treater. Once that first kid came to the door, it was a whole new Noah. He got so excited and was rearing to go. Pam came over with Baby Six Pack and off we went.

Jordie loved going up to the door and getting candy. She figured out that if she said Trick or Treat, she got candy so the whole time she was saying "Kick or Keet". It was so cute. Noah was being his shy little self like usual and forgot to say anything most of the time. But finally after about 30 houses or so, he said he wanted to go home. So we went home and gave out candy while hanging out with Pam and Six. After a bit, we headed to Golden Corral for dinner and enjoyed a nice evening with some good friends.

This year was definitely different than last year and I think that is one of the reasons why Noah didn't last too long. He missed going with his friends but we sure didn't miss the weather up there. It was so nice and warm here!! But hopefully next year he will have a friend or two to go Trick or Treating with. That would be nice!!

Darth Noah


Our Bama Cheerleader







Candy Monster

LOI Friday!!

It's Letter of Intent Friday!!!
Every Friday Julie from www.myfourboys.net does Letter of Intent Friday. Basically the idea is to write a letter to a person place or thing and let it/them know how you feel. It is a good way to get some thing(s) off your chest!!



To the minor annoyances in my life this week,

Please go away!!! You have made my life uncomfortable and it is unappreciated.
To Ms. Carpenter, please pay your bills so creditors will stop calling my house looking for you.
To automated phone message system, if I indicate that you have the wrong number and the wrong person by pressing the correct buttons, please understand that and do not call my house 7 more times in a 43 minutes period.
To creditors that are looking for someone else, if I tell you I am not that person, that we just acquired this number, please don't call back and insinuate that I am really the person you are looking for. My name is not J------ Carpenter!!
To the phone company, please don't re-issue a phone number that had been recently disconnected. Please keep the phone numbers inactive for at least 6 months in order make people stop calling it first.
To Mr. Stomach Bug, please leave my son's body so he can feel better for Trick or Treating. While we understand you need a home to live in for a bit, your are not welcome here so please pack your bags and leave!! (And that doesn't mean to move into either myself or my daughter)
To sleep or Mr. Sandman, it would be nice if you visited me a lot sooner than an hour or more after I lay down to sleep. My body is tired and it needs you to make it feel better!! And if you could swing by my son's room while you are at it and make him sleep longing that would be awesome!!!

I thank you for your time in these matters and if you all could correct yourselves, it would be greatly appreciated!!

An annoyed person

Letter of Intent Friday

It's Letter of Intent Friday!!!
Every Friday Julie from www.myfourboys.net does Letter of Intent Friday. Basically the idea is to write a letter to a person place or thing and let it/them know how you feel. It is a good way to get some thing(s) off your chest!!



Dear Solicitor,

Thank you for stopping by. I appreciate your hard work but I would also appreciate your understanding when I tell you I am not interested in whatever product you are trying to sell me. If I try to tell you that at the beginning of your sell and you cut me off, don't get mad at me that I won't buy anything. And please don't try the guilt card because that only makes me mad and makes me want to shut the door in your face.
If your product is so wonderful, why can I not buy it online or through a catalog. Why can I only buy it through you? And why don't you have a business card, flyer, etc..? Please don't tell me you will take my pennies to pay for it and then get mad when I take you serious. Don't offer if you don't mean it!!!
All in all, it would be best if you just didn't knock on my door because I am never going to buy something from you. Now if you are dressed as a Girl Scout selling yummy cookies, then we can talk but some wonder cleaner/vacuum/mop just isn't going to do it for me. I trust in three products only...bleach, a scrub brush and the hands that the good Lord gave me!!

Thank you and have a fabulous day!!!!

An annoyed wife who is tired of answering the door.

Lack of adult conversation

So I remembered why I hate moving....it is so lonely until you meet people!! Yes, my friend Pam lives here but she is away right now and won't be back for 2 more weeks. They just got offered a house so she will be back soon but still. Poor Noah keeps asking to play with his friends and I am at a loss. I feel terrible for him that he has no one to play with, not that I would have anyone over here anyways because my house is still not unpacked. I signed up for a meet-up group here and we are suppose to go to play-date on Thursday so I hope it turns out ok. I am so nervous about it. I have gotten more and more shy as the years have gone on and it is very hard for me to make friends with people. But not only do the kids need playmates but I need someone to hold an adult conversation with. I am tried of discussing Wiggles, Caillou, and Gameboy. I just keep reminding myself that we just moved here and it took me 6 weeks to make my first friend in Great Lakes (love you Anna!!). I just wish it was easier!!! Not that I don't adore my kids or anything but I think that is part of the reason I have been in a funk for a few days. Hopefully I can shake it soon!!

The house is still full of boxes!! I swear they multiply in the night or something. I have set a goal for myself to unpack 5 boxes a day until they are all gone. Monday I did good, I unpacked 4. Today, not so good. I didn't unpack a single box. So tomorrow I have to double my efforts. The plan for tomorrow is to go buy a mattress for Noah finally (I have been putting it off bad) and finally start getting his room organized!! The poor kid wants to sleep on his new bed so bad and Mom is being a procrastinator. I am still trying to figure out how to use some magical powers to get this house unpacked or something. I am so over moving, it isn't as fun as it used to be!!!

Moving In

Well we have been here in Jacksonville, NC for 9 days now and we are settling in slowly. The house is very slowly coming along but that is OK, slow and steady wins the race, huh? The first couple of days we were here was such an ordeal though!! I wanted to leave after only being here for 24 hours...it was quite a roller coaster.

It started with the trip here. We decided to try to drive straight through because the kids refused to sleep. So instead of spending $75+ on a hotel room for a few hours, we decided to drive until we hit a rest area after they fell asleep and then rest while they slept for a couple of hours. Yea, that worked for about an hour and a half when Jordan woke up screaming. She would fall back asleep and wake up screaming every 20-30 minutes after that so finally I told Lee that we need to just hit the road. Once the sun came up, it was much better. We got into Jacksonville around noon which meant we were in the cars for 24 hours!! UGH!! So to say I was grumpy was a total understatement!!!

Once we got in town, we went right to the rental place to pick up our keys. Then we went to the water company to have the water turned on since you have to do it in person. After that, we stopped at Sonic and got some lunch before finally getting to our new house. Once we got there, we walked in the door and the house smelled so bad. It smelled like the people before us had a pack of dogs instead of just one. Walking around, I got more and more mad because the house was a mess. Lee called the maintenance people to come out and fix a few things right away and we set out to see what else needed to be taken care of. Plus they arranged to have the carpets re-cleaned.

As the weekend progress and I spent more time in the house, I became thoroughly convinced that the previous tenants did not believe in cleaning products nor did the inspector look at the house at all when they moved out. It took me 1 1/2 hours to clean our bathroom alone. I scrubbed it from top to bottom. Then on Sunday I cleaned the kitchen. 3 times I changed the water from scrubbing the floor, it was so nasty. Thank you to whoever created bleach but by Sunday night, not only was the house livable but it smelled better too.

The cleaning continued through the weekend until Monday, they delivered our household goods. Well of course, one of my kids has to have something wrong on this day and I end up having to take Jordan to the ER because she has pink eye. We are even registered on base here yet and the local ER came recommended so off we went. A little less than 2 hours later, we were out the door and off wasting time until the movers were done. Then we got the call to come home and I walked into a sea of boxes!! That's when the fun began!!!

On Tuesday I went to talk to the rental office about the condition of the house. I showed them the pictures I took of the mess and they agreed to give us money off our first month's rent. So we are getting $250 off our rent for my cleaning efforts and they are still coming out to redo the carpets once I get all the boxes unpacked. Go me for sticking up for us!!

So far, trying to fit everything into this house hasn't been too bad. I am figuring out creative ways to utilize space. I am loving the ideas coming to my head for decorating and I have ordered some cool things off the Internet for our room and Noah's room. Noah's room is the only one completely changing since he got a new "grown-up" bed. I can't wait until it all comes together!!! Let's just see how long it takes me....LOL!!!

Letters of Intent Friday

My dear friend Rose shared this link on her blog and I think it is a good idea. Every Friday Julie from www.myfourboys.net does Letter of Intent Friday. Basically the idea is to write a letter to a person place or thing and let it/them know how you feel. It is a good way to get some thing(s) off your chest!!



Dear neighbor with the barking dog,

While I can appreciate how sweet and adorable YOUR family pet may be, s/he is not adorable when they are barking non-stop throughout the day while you are out of your home. They have the most ear-piercing bark and it is like nails scratching on a blackboard to me.
It would be much appreciated if you were to come up with other accommodations for the animal so myself and the rest of the neighborhood are not subjected to the company of your dog for the majority of the day.
Thank you.

Mom

I know I haven't blogged in a while because of the move and I have so much to say about that but tonight I want to focus on a very important person in my life....My Mom!!

My mom is going through a really rough patch in her life right now. The man she has been with for the last 20 years has decided to end their marriage. This came completely out of left-field for Mom and she was shocked by it all. Yes, there is another woman. After this happened, I was so worried about Mom but then I thought about all that she has been through in her life and I knew she would make it through this too.

She is truly an amazing woman. She was born a Navy Brat, in San Diego and moved to my grandmother home state of Louisiana at a very young age. She grew up there and when she was a teenager, my grandfather moved the family to Buffalo, NY. Life for her as a child was not easy. My grandfather was not a pleasant human-being and has many shortfalls and my grandmother was no better. Mom is the oldest so she was looked upon to be the care-taker of her younger siblings. She learned at an early age how to look out for herself while still ensuring other peoples needs were met.

She met my father and fell very much in love. To this day, I still believe that he was the love of her life. They wed shortly after she turned 18. They had my brother a year later and me 21 months after that. Tragically my father passed away shortly after my mother's 22nd birthday. A widow at the age of 22 with 2 children under the age of 4 can not be an easy task for anyone to endure. But again my mother used the skills she taught herself and drew her strength to go on day by day and care of her children.

Through the years, she has had to endure many hardships, learn many life lessons and deal with a lot. I know we do eventually but when I look at what I know of my mother over the 33 years (and even before my life began), I am so proud of my mother and how she has handled herself these last few weeks. She has lost a considerable amount of weight, something she set out to do even before this bump in her road. She has pulled her life together and has been showing that strength that I have come to expect out of my Mom. I know she is tired of hearing how strong she is but I have never met a strong woman. Maybe it is condescending to say you are proud of a parent but I am so proud of her!! I only hope that I am able to show my daughter the strength that my mother has shown me throughout my life.

I love you Mom!!! You are the best!!

Moving and Clean

Well the house is for the most part empty. The only things left in it are what we need to live until October 12th when our things are being delivered to our house in North Carolina. It has been a little difficult over the last few days as things just keep coming up. We have had a lot of issues with the house and are beyond ready to turn over the keys and be done with it. This has been the worst experience of my life!! I am anxious to see how the inspection goes on Thursday and how much we actually end up owing Forest City. I have heard that people get taken to the cleaners by these people so we shall see.

The last couple of days have been spent primarily cleaning. But we have had some time to do some nice things. On Friday, Anna threw a surprise going-away lunch for me and the kids. It was so nice and I am going to miss the ladies here so much!!! On Saturday, Anna and I went out for lunch just the two of us. I gave her the scrapbook I made for her and her birthday present finally. We had to laugh because we each gave each other a Willow Tree and thought we may have gotten the same one but we didn't. Sunday was spent turning and burning in the house. I am officially calling myself "Paint and Spackle Queen". It was a long day and an even long night because when Jordan woke up from her nap, she had a fever and was miserable. It bummed me out too because I was suppose to go get coffee with the girls but I had to cancel. BOO for sick kids!!!

Speaking of kids, Jordan had her 18 month well-baby yesterday. She is 30 1/2 inches tall and 23lbs, 10 oz. She is 40th percentile for height and 60th for weight. The thing that made me laugh is her head is in the 95th percentile for circumference!!! My big noggin kid!!! She got 4 shots and didn't do to good this time. She cried for a long time!!! Noah and I both our flu shots too and my brave dude didn't cry one bit!!! Last night, when Jordan got up from her nap, she literally cried for almost 3 hours straight and wouldn't let me leave her side so I am thinking now she has a cold versus teething. She was a cranky girl!!

Today we are going to finish up the house when I get done babysitting Grace. This will be my last time babysitting her....I am so sad about that!! I adore that little girl and will miss her tremendously!! We are staying in the temporary lodging tonight and tomorrow night so it will be nice to sleep in a bed and not on an air mattress. I am so looking forward to it!!!!!!!!