I did it! I did it!!

I'm sorry it's been so long since I've posted something on here. I've been very busy trying to wrap up school. I did it! I'm finally done with school! I'm happy to report I never missed a day and I stayed on the Director's Honor Roll the entire time!! I'm very proud of myself! It wasn't easy at all, especially this last sequence. We learned about the instruments and procedures and it was A LOT to absorb!! I had a hard time in the beginning of this sequence, I'm not sure why? I think maybe it was because it was coming to and end and I was a bit worn out and overwhelmed at the same time. I just wasn't getting it at all and then I sucked it up and ended up getting the highest grade in my class! I got a 100%!! I honestly think it was pure luck! My last day was February 18Th and it was a sad day for me. I've made some GREAT friends along the way and I had a wonderful instructor that I will dearly miss. I truly owe my doing so well to her because she made learning fun and the material interesting. I know I wouldn't have done so well if hadn't had her as my teacher. She's a very wise and humorous woman that I will greatly miss seeing every week.

Last week I started my externship. It was a VERY LONG week!! My externship is literally right down the street from our house so that's a huge plus. I get to come home for lunch every day which is a nice escape. Everyone I work with is very nice and has been very helpful........even if they lose their patience with me once in a while. The Dentist is very young (only 27! Just a puppy!) but a very good dentist. I can tell he prefers an assistant with experience to help him but when it's slow he lets me get some practice in and he's very patient with me. Friday I got to assist him as he did 2 fillings on a 7 year old girl. All week I mostly did sanitizing instruments, cleaning and took xrays on patients. Most of the patients are nice to me, I tend to take a bit longer because I like to chat them up a bit before I shove my fingers in their mouths! I will say this, I LOVE taking xrays on full grown men because they have much bigger mouths and a bigger mouth means less room for injury and error! I also got to work up at the front desk a bit as well, I thought this would be my forte and what I would enjoy most but to my surprise I almost fell asleep up there! I can't honestly say at the moment if I like the front or back more. The day goes by much quicker in the back and you're constantly doing different things and I like that. I won't fool you, it hasn't been all rainbows and sunshine, I had a very rough day on Thursday but I held myself together until I was done and sitting in my car......then I started sobbing uncontrollably. I went home and drank 3 glasses of wine that night and then I was fine! LOL! We will see what the next week brings......hopefully each week I will get better and better and like it more and more.

As I started on my adventure of re-entering the work force and tackling a new career Zach too started his own journey. He started preschool. Actually he went for 2 half days the week before I started my externship, just to get him used to the idea. Last week he started full time, and it's been a bit of an adjustment for him. He has his good days and bad days but for the most part he's enjoyed it. I take him in and Dwayne picks him up. I kind of have to peel him off of me in the morning and when his teacher trys to console him he screams at her to not touch him but he eventually comes around. It's really good for him to be around other kids, I know he was bored staying home with lazy me. Of course he's already sick! He wasn't there 3 days and he picked up some cold/cough thing, but so far he's been OK.

Calvin also started going to safe key after school every day. He kind of likes it because he can get some of his homework done before he gets home, so that leaves him more play time after school. I recently gave him one of our old video cameras because I got sick of him asking me to video tape him. He really gets a kick out of it, he and Zach have made a few movies with Dwayne's help. If we ever get the program to transfer video to digital I will post their movies here, they're pretty amusing. His newest obsession is the Titanic (or TitanTic as he calls it). I'm not sure where it came from but now he wants to learn all about it and has been building models of it out of his gazillion Legos.

Both boys start spring baseball soon. Calvin just found out he's on the A's this time. Zach will be playing T-ball in a different league. I'm sure he'll LOVE it. He's already very excited about getting his own bag, bat and helmet. I myself can't wait to see him in his helmet because I'm sure he's going to look like a little bobble head out there! I'm not sure how Dwayne is going to pull this all off, both boys expect him to help coach their teams and they're in two different parts of town! I know he's SUPER DAD but he just may be pushing it this time! We haven't found out what Zach's schedule is going to be like yet, we're crossing our fingers it's different than Calvin's.

As you can see from the above slide show I've finally gotten around to posting some photos of our house! The inside is all done except for my "wall of fame". I will probably work on that next weekend, it's a weekend project. I have to get it all looking spiffy because we have some company coming this month! We have The wonderful Waddells joining us in a few weeks for a few days. Then on my birthday my lovely mother in law Lynn and sister in law Lori will be in town over spring break. Last, over Easter weekend we will hopefully be visited by The Swarm family whom we haven't seen in about 6 years or so! It's going to be a busy busy month of March for us! To top it all off I will still be doing my externship through all of that so be fore warned my future guests.........our house may not be as spick and span as usual ;0) unless my dear husband hires a maid for my birthday present to spiff it up! Phffffttt! What are the odds of that happening?!

Well, that's it for now! It's getting late and since I am now a working woman (although it's for FREE!) I need to get to bed! It's hard for this night owl to hit the sack early but I've made it so far. I make sure I take lots of vitamins in the morning to help me stay awake! I'm pretty exhausted by the time I get home. I will keep you all posted about my progress in the field of dentistry! Until next time remember to brush and floss!!

It's been forever so there's so much to talk about!

Wow! Where do I begin??!! We officially moved in to our fabulous new house over Thanksgiving Weekend. Archie spent the first few days IN the box springs of our guest bed though! We literally had to tip the box springs up and shake him out! He's since adjusted and taken to doing laps up and down the stairs every night. It seemed to take forever to move this time and I'm not sure if it's because we actually have a ton of crap or because we knew for sure we wouldn't be moving again for a very long time. It was a long weekend for all of us, going between the old house and new house. I kind of gave up after a while and poor Dwayne ended up doing most of the moving. I think it all works out evenly though because I'm the one who unpacks and organizes EVERYTHING once it's moved. It's a daunting job let me tell you!!

We spent Thanksgiving with our friends Sandi, Eddie, "Ferfer" and their exchange student Maxi. Sandi prepared a delicious dinner and we all gave thanks for what we had. I gave thanks for them for having us for dinner because my kitchen wasn't any where near being unpacked!! Good food and wine was consumed and then it was back to the castle for more unpacking and such.

Everything was unpacked and put away long before our beautiful new furniture arrived. We spent many nights sitting on camping furniture watching Dwayne's new big TV. No one seemed to mind but Archie, he just wasn't in to curling up in the close quarters of a camping chair. We were so very excited when our leather couch, love seat, ottoman, TV console and end table FINALLY arrived in mid December! Of course we didn't have it 4 hours and Archie got a wild hair up his butt and flew across it at top speed and scratched it. I was SICK about it! Those of you who saw our last couch know what I mean.........most of that damage was done by my precious Smoochi and Ada but it was UGLY! Archie doesn't scratch he just gets super excited and runs EVERYWHERE at 100 miles per hour, and that does damage. I decided to get him declawed. I made the appointment, rounded him up and put him in his cage for Dwayne to take him in (I wasn't gonna be the bad guy!). While Dwayne was on his way to the vet I googled "how to care for a cat that was just declawed". To my surprise I only came across many articles on reasons why NOT to have your cat declawed and how inhumane it was. I called Dwayne crying hysterically and told him I couldn't declaw Archie and to my surprise he begrudgingly brought him back home. I immediately got to searching for declawing alternatives and I came across "soft paws". They're silicone tips you glue on to your cat's claws after trimming them down. I made an appointment to have a vet tech put them on Archie. The tech said that Archie took them very well, he only noticed them for about an hour after we got home and that was it. They should last about 6 to 8 weeks then they will need to be replaced. I'm sooooooo very thankful for finding them because I so didn't want to jeopardize the bond that Archie and I have made over the past year or so. "Mr Fancy Toes" come very far, he's so funny and I love him more every day.

Next up was Calvin's 8Th Birthday. We were bad parents last year and talked him out of a birthday party so this year we had to have one, so we had a bowling party. Only about 4 kids from his school showed up but it was still a good time. He got TONS and TONS of Legos, a few Transformers and quite a bit of "rectangle money". He also had his first ever sleep over, his friend Steven came and home with us and spent that night at our house. He's a sweet boy who is wise beyond his years when it comes to being kind to your siblings....let's just say he didn't like the way Calvin talked to Zach and let Calvin know it. (I thanked Steven for that!). I'm sure Calvin would agree that his 8Th birthday was a great one.

It was a great first Christmas in our new house. Dwayne put lights on the house for the first time since we've been in Vegas (Bad me, I never took a picture of it! And he worked so hard! Sorry honey!) We spent Xmas Eve at esenttric Lonnie Hammergran's house with our family here in Vegas. That night Santa came to town and brought our boys lots and lots of goodies. Since we spent Thanksgiving at Sandi's, on Xmas night Sandi and her clan came over for dinner. It was a low key first Christmas for us and that was perfect because the few weeks prior to that were very busy.

My Mom and Dad came to town for New Year's Eve! I was so very excited that they came up to see us. It meant so, so much to me! They bought us a Wii for Christmas so we all spent a lot of time playing with that. On New Year's Eve Sandi and her family came over as well as our new neighbors. We like our new neighbors, they have 2 little girls the same ages as the boys, but they definitely aren't Sandi and Eddie if you know what I mean. We LOVE Sandi and Eddie, we don't LOVE our neighbors. As usual, I drank a lot of wine but this time I don't think I made too much of a fool of myself ;0) at least no one's told me so! My Mom and Dad left the next day, unfortunately it was a very short trip but like I said, we were so glad they came.

After the new year it was back to reality for all of us....except maybe Zach =0). Calvin started his new school. At first he was very excited about it but that first day he was VERY nervous (no matter how much he denied it!). He wasn't at school 2 hours and the school nurse called to tell me he was in her office and not feeling well. I asked her if he was wheezing (we've had lots of breathing issues this year) and she said no he's seems fine. I asked to talk to him and sure enough he was wheezing (turns out it wasn't the school nurse...grrr). I ended up bringing him his inhaler, he took a few puffs and started crying. I told him everything will be ok, he can do this, he's changed schools before and played baseball and soccer and that in soccer he was the only one who spoke English and he was ok. We went outside to get some fresh air and calm down and I asked him if he was going to do this the next day...his answer was "NO, cuz it won't be my first day!" And he didn't, he's been just fine since...thank God!

I too went back to school. I'm in my last session. I'm happy to report that I again made the Dean's List!! This session though, I have to admit that I am VERY nervous about!! We learn all about instruments and such. We basically learn the BULK of our jobs!! It seems very overwhelming and daunting to me this time!! I was REALLY stressing in the beginning of the week but then I took my weekly test and I'm sure I did fine. Six more weeks and I'm done!! I finally started my vaccinations so I should be ready to start my exturnship in the beginning of March! YIKES!!! I'm so very very nervous about that so please keep your fingers crossed for me!

Ok, shwoo! That's it! Wow, that was a lot of typing!! But, now you're all caught up on our lives! I'm sorry there isn't any new pictures of our new house all put together...give me time. It is all put together but there were other more important pictures to post and many of them! I promise I will post house pictures next month. In the mean time, the Carpenter Castle is ready for visitors so just let us know when you're coming!! Last year was a good year for us despite a few major things like having to move before we were ready. I'm a firm believer that all things happen for a reason though cuz we never would have thought about buying a house were we not forced out of the one we were in. I am extremely thankful for each and everyone of you. We wish you all a very Happy and Prosperous 2010! We hope to see you all someday soon!!

Much love to all of you!!

I got a new Flip video camera for Xmas so here's the boys wishing you all a Merry Christmas....this is my life! (Click on the pause button on the green player to stop the music so you can hear the video.)

It's Official!!!

Yep! We're officially home owners!! We can hardly believe it ourselves!! We're very excited!! We haven't moved yet but we're getting the carpets cleaned today then we'll start the moving process.........because it is a process...LOL. I've been packing slowly but surely and I catch myself walking around like a chicken with it's head cut off wondering what to pack or take care of next. Moving is very overwhelming for me, and as you can guess it's my least favorite thing to do. Thankfully we won't be doing it again for a long, long time!

My friend Sandi and I went to Ikea in California last weekend. We picked up some new bookshelves for the playroom because our boys have a TON of books and the old bookshelf wouldn't survive another move. We also found some shelves for our den, I've always wanted a wall of shelves and now I'll have them! We're finally getting a new couch because my precious deceased cats (not to mention the boys) really did a number on the old one, that one will be in the playroom for a while. It's funny, I'm way more excited about getting and setting up new furniture than I am about packing up all the crap I already have! LOL. The new house has LOTS of windows so I won't have to worry about covering up wall space.......those of you who know me and have seen my house know how I can't handle a naked wall! I'm like my Mom in that way, I have to use up all space that's available.

Ok, on to other things! I'm still doing well in school. I regretfully didn't make the Dean's List this past semester (missed it by 1%!!! GRRRRR!!!) but I did make the honor roll. We've now moved on to Administration and Anatomy of the mouth and I'm doing great. It's very interesting and I like it but I'm worried about being in the "real world" of dentistry. There is sooooo much to remember and be responsible for and I've been out of the working world for so long I just hope I can hack it. Thankfully as a dental assistant there are many avenues I can take, I won't be limited to an office, I can do insurance or work in a lab making teeth. I'm really hoping to work in a lab because you can use your artistic skills more. We shall see, this semester finishes just before Christmas and then we move on to tools and learn chair-siding (assisting the dentist during procedures).

Halloween was fun but kind of uneventful. I was very happy that Calvin wasn't in to the stupid plastic store bought costumes this year. He decided he was "old enough to be something scary" so he chose Dracula. I was very happy to oblige and do a little face painting. Poor Zach the hand me down king wore Calvin's cowboy costume from a few years back. He didn't mind though, he was actually in to Halloween this year. We didn't have to fight him to keep his costume on and he walked the whole neighborhood with us in his clunking cowboy boots and didn't complain once. I think the fact that he got to play with a toy gun and get candy did the trick. I've since packed the gun away and he keeps asking for it. There's no doubt I'd be the worst mom on the block if I let him carry around an orange toy pistol!! Normally I wouldn't be so politically correct but he would "kill" all the kids in the neighborhood and I would catch hell for it. He has a weird violent streak that we're really trying to nip in the bud. I can handle being the Meanest Mom on the Block but not the Worst Mom on the Block, that's a crown I refuse to wear!

We had a rough week a few weeks ago. Poor little Zachary was in the hospital!! I took him in because he had a cold and the night prior we were noticing he was breathing rapidly. When I brought him in the doctor immediately checked his oxygen levels and they were in the high 80s. They gave him 2 breathing treatments and it only brought it up to the very low 90s and it's suppose to be near or at 100. The doctor admitted him to the hospital and he was there from Friday to Monday morning. It was a VERY LONG weekend for all of us. Dwayne and I took shifts staying with him in the hospital while our friend's Sandi and Eddie watched Calvin for us. Sweet Calvin missed his pesky little brother so much he cried, I guess they do love each other after all. Zach was hooked up to oxygen the whole time and it drove him CRAZY!! They had him on steroids and gave him breathing treatments every 4 to 6 hours.....he was not a happy camper at all. I joke and say he had "roid rage" cuz man was he a handful. Then when we finally got the ok to go home he didn't want to!!! He even refused to get out of the car when we got home!!! The tiny little prince in the big bed enjoyed having us waiting on him hand and foot while he barked orders at us!! Talk about a power trip!! I have to admit he looked so sweet and innocent in that big hospital bed, I wish I could get the pictures off my phone so I could post them. Now he's back to his feisty little self bothering his brother and sassing his parents, the little darling!

Well, I thinks that's it for now!! I guess I better really get my rear in gear and get back to packing!! We hope this finds you all healthy and happy. As soon as we're settled I will take pictures and post them on here. Happy Turkey Day and love to all of you!!

Holy Crap!!!

I haven't updated our blog in a while because I wanted to wait until we had some good news to share with everyone. For those of you who are on facebook you already know our good news. I tend to be on there a lot.........too much really! LOL

I will start with my own personal good news. I finished my first 7 weeks of school. We have four 7 week courses that we have to pass. The first one was called "core" and it involved study skills, computer skills, anatomy/terminology, and math. Well, I was aiming for the Honor Roll but I'm proud to report I out did myself and I made the Director's List (Dean's List)!!! As our instructor was calling out the names of people on the Honor Roll I was eagerly awaiting my name to be called and when it wasn't and others whom I know didn't do as well as I did name's were being called I was crushed and devastated! Then when he read the Director's List and my name was the first one he called I literally almost fell out of my chair I was so shocked and excited!!! I couldn't believe it!!

I have since moved on to the Dental Assisting courses. Our first course is in Xrays and let me tell you, it isn't easy at all! My Xray skills aren't the greatest but I'm working on them. I have about 3 more weeks of Xray and then we move on to the Administration part of it, I'm looking forward to that part because I know I will be great at it. My instructor is a very funny and interesting woman who makes learning fun. She's the new agey type who only likes to lecture or what have you for so long then encourages us to take a break.

After many months of complete FRUSTRATION and exhaustion we FINALLY have a house!!! We looked at soooooo many houses over the past 3 to 4 months, and put offers on 3 of them only to be out bid. It was so annoying, overwhelming, and crazy!!! I had literally almost given up, I was ready to just stop looking for houses. Dwayne convinced me to go look at a few more, so he took off of work early one day. I had wanted to look at one in particular that was close to Calvin's school, as we went to exit our neighborhood Dwayne went left instead of right like I thought he should. I asked him where we were going and he said we were only looking at one house that day. I grew quite irritated with him and he asked if I had remembered the Toll Brother's house we looked at that I loved, but we weren't sure what the status was on it. I said I remembered and he looked over at me and said "Well, I put an offer on it without telling you and they accepted it. It's ours." I about crapped my pants!!! For once his sneakiness and secrecy finally paid off!!

As you can see from the slide show above it's quite a big house! It's in the shape of an O because there's an atrium with a fireplace in the middle of it!!! There's french doors that open up to the atrium from the den, dinning room and family room! It has a large kitchen with lots of space, including a butler's hall! Downstairs there's a guest room with a full bathroom, as well as a half bath down the hall. Upstairs is the master bedroom and the boys' rooms and a giant playroom. The backyard is a very nice size........big enough for a pool one day! It has a back patio and it backs up to a quiet street. In all it's a 4 bedroom, 3.5 bath, with a loft and a 3 car tandem garage. It's in a nice quiet gated community between where we used to live and where we live now. Calvin will have to switch schools and I'm not very happy about that because the school he's in now is great, but he's a bright kid who will do well any where he goes.

I have to admit, I will be a bit sad to leave this neighborhood. We love living so close to our friend's Sandi and Eddie. The boys have made a few friends here and have a lot of open space to play baseball. Our new neighborhood is so quiet, you don't realize how much noise donkey's, peacocks, parrots and weddings make until you're away from them! (We currently live across from a bird sanctuary and outdoor party area.)It will be so nice to finally put down some permanent roots for our boys. I wish those roots were in Arizona but oh well. It's a beautiful house and I'm looking forward to making it our home. I'm most looking forward knowing for sure we won't have to move again for a LONG time!!!

The boys are doing fine. Calvin is still playing baseball and getting better at it every day. Zach is running around messing up the house all the time so I just stopped cleaning it...just kidding... he really is a tornado though.

So, I believe that's it for now! I'm not sure when I'll be able to update this again. we're suppose to close on the house November 13 so I'm going to be very busy with packing and purging for the next few weeks.....not to mention school!! I hope all is well for everyone! We love you all!

Shwoo! What a month!

I finally started school in late July and I LOVE it! I'm happy to announce that I'm doing great in it! So far I've got all A's! The first 7 weeks is called "core" and they say if you make it through that you should end up doing just fine. Core consists of Study Skills, Computer Skills, Anatomy, Math and CPR. So far we've just done the first 3. We move on to Math this week and honestly I'm very nervous about that. Math has never been my strongest subject. Thankfully I have Dwayne and his big brain to help me through it. Fingers crossed that I ace it as well. My goal is to be on the honor roll or dean's list as those are the students that have a better chance at being permanently hired when school is over. I REALLY need and want a job! That is the light at the end of the tunnel for me.

Calvin started school as well (finally!). He's in a new school this year. His teacher seems very nice and his class size is only 16 students so we're thrilled about that. He had a bit of an issue the first week but I'm sure it was due to not being used to being in class and that we had a house full of unexpected company all week.

My Gramma Marge passed away on August 20Th. She was my Mom's mother and lived here in Las Vegas. I would take the boys over to visit her when I could. We shared many laughs and she was always great with the boys. Lots of family came to town for her simple memorial service. We had a house FULL of family! My Mom and Dad, their Dog, my Aunt Kathi, Jess and Gilbert. Also in town was my Aunt Kim and Kathi's son Eli and his wife Kim. It was a packed house a couple of nights. They didn't all stay at our house but they all came over to visit, laugh and drink wine. Although it was hectic at times, it was so wonderful to have everyone over. It's too bad it takes a death for that to happen sometimes. My Gramma's service was held in her little home and it was short and sweet. Her hospice nurses had a story or two to share, she was quite a character that touched many lives. She will be missed but she's where she's wanted to be for a very long time and she's no longer in any pain. We're sad she's gone but at the same time we're happy for her.

Now our house is back to normal. I wouldn't say it's quiet but it's minus 5 people and one dog. Poor Archie was just beginning to bond with my Mom and Aunt Kathi when my Dad and Jess arrived with Louie. To my surprise though, Archie did pretty well with everyone here. He spent most of the time in our room but once everyone left he was downstairs and back to himself. Although he did give me an ear full for letting a dog in the house. He didn't shut up for days.

Calvin started fall baseball. This time he's on the Las Vegas Bears and it's real baseball where the kids pitch. Last year he was in the coach pitch division. They just had their first game yesterday and they won. Dwayne said he's one of the better pitchers on the team but he has no interest at all in pitching. He did play catcher for a few innings in the first game and he did very well. He even got an RBI that scored the first point. Go Calvin Go Calvin Go Calvin!

Zach is still his feisty self. He's officially potty trained and has been accident free for weeks (knock on wood). He would LOVE to play on a baseball team but he's still too young. He has to wait until he's 5 before he can play. Everyone tells us how coordinated he is, so once he's allowed to play he'll probably be very good at it. We tried a one day soccer clinic but he wasn't interested in that one bit.

We're still searching for a house to buy. We did get some great news about this house we're in though. The bank DIDN'T approve the short sale!! YIPEE!!!!! I no longer feel we have to settle for a house because the pressure is on. Now we're in the best possible position we could be in. We found a beautiful single story but it's a bit further away from here than I would like. We're going to walk through it again and also another house that is closer. The market here is so messed up! We still haven't heard anything about the one house we put the offer on. We also lost out on another home because we weren't pre-approved through Wells Fargo.....even though we were pre-approved through the credit union for 30,000 more that the offer we were going to put on the house!! Grrr! Now all our ducks are in a row though, we have commitment letters from both our credit union and Wells Fargo, so all we have to do is find the perfect house.

Well, that's about it for us at the moment. We hope this finds all of you healthy and happy. We love you all.

Wow! This month flew bye!

First and fore most....Zach turned 3 in the end of June. It was a small uneventful party as we were leaving town the next day. Besides that, he doesn't seem to be a fan of the birthday song; he screams every time we sing it to him. We had the Ferency's and my Vegas family over and had pizza and cake and ice cream. The next day we were off to scenic Seattle to visit Dwayne's family.

We were in Seattle for 5 1/2 days and as you can see from the slide show above we packed a lot in to those 5 days! The 4th of July festivities, parent's night out, the zoo, the Ballard Locks, Seattle Science Center, Lori and Denton's new digs, and a Mariners game.

One of my favorites was the 4th of July festivities in the quaint little town of Edmonds where Dwayne's mom and sister Leah live. The boys got to be in a kiddie parade that went right through town, followed by the main parade. Zach got a huge kick out of the fire trucks and cars in the main parade. Later that evening we went to Leah and Darryl's for a BBQ and then it was off to see the fireworks. It was a fun filled family day, much like the Independence Days I had growing up. I'm hoping we make it an annual tradition as it was a lot more fun than anything here and you really can't beat the Northwest summer weather!

My other favorite part of the trip was visiting the Ballard Locks. A lock is like a canal that raises and lowers to connect water crafts to different levels of bodies of water. The Hiram M. Chittenden Locks located in Ballard provide a link for boats between the saltwater of the Puget Sound and the fresh water of the Ship Canal connecting to Lake Union and Lake Washington. It was very interesting to watch the water drain down and the giant gates open to let the boats out. It's amazing to me that these have been operating since 1917.

I LOVE Seattle! It has sooo much to offer as far as culture and history. They have amazing museums and educational experiences for kids. We went in to the butterfly atrium at the Seattle Science Center, it was full of butterflies, fluttering about and landing on your head. The scenery is so beautiful too, so green and lush, a very different environment compared to what I've lived in my whole life. It's a simpler way of life there. Everything seems smaller....houses, cars, carbon footprints. I only saw 1 hummer while we were there! You see those EVERYWHERE here in the southwest! Here it's all about bigger and better, and that just doesn't seem the case up there. I wish that we could live there, but Dwayne hates the weather so I just don't ever see that happening. Oh well, at least we always have a beautiful place to visit!

Speaking of a living some where.........this house had an offer put on it while we were out of town. It says that their tentative closing date is August 30th! I'm sure that's a giant crock of shit though. The house we put an offer on has a tentative closing date of October 10th and we put our offer in a month or more before the folks did on this house. By the way , we still haven't heard anything more about the house we have an offer on. Last word was that the bank who holds the 2nd mortgage on it approved the short sale and now we're waiting for the original bank to hand it off to a negotiator. Who knows how long that will take! In the mean time Dwayne has been searching daily for a foreclosure that we like, unfortunately none of them have held a candle to the one we have an offer on. More and more pop up each day so we keep looking. It's a very frustrating time to be buying a house.

We have a feeling that it's going to be a very long process and that means we'll be in this house for a while and that's ok with me. I like this house a lot and will be sad to move out of it. We have such a great location and it's pretty quiet except for the occasional birds screaming at the bird sanctuary, or the occasional wedding or prom at the Groves. There's a lot of open space around us and that's the way we like it. The house down the street finally sold and the family is moving in as I write this. I guess they have a boy about Calvin's age. Let's hope I like this one! I'm still not a fan of a lot of the kids in our neighborhood and I think they know it. When they see me coming (with my big Meanest Mom on the Block crown gleaming in the sun) looking for Calvin they hurry up and get him for me. I'm sure they feel sorry for him, hell, I even feel sorry for him.........I truly can be crazy at times!

Which is precisely why I'm going back to school!! I NEED a change! I have NO IDEA how some women spend their whole lives staying home taking care of their kids!!! I don't get it! I can't take it any more, really. For my sanity and my family's happiness I am now officially on the road to higher learning. I had my orientation a few days ago. I must admit, I'm a bit intimidated and worried. I will have sooooo much to memorize and my memory has turned to mush over the past 4 years. I know I can do it though, it's just going to take a bit of getting used to that's all. I see the light at the end of the tunnel and that light is a job and more financial freedom for our family. This being broke and grumpy SUCKS!!

Well, I believe that's it for now. As you can see in the slide show above I added some pictures of Calvin with my Pa and Brother at a Diamondbacks game when he was down there last month. Jess just sent those to me. Also at the end of the show is some pictures of Zach and I at the Wiggles show. Sandi and I took our boys to see them and they both LOVED it! Below I've also posted a few videos from our trip to Seattle and such. We hope all is well with everyone. Hopefully I'll be able to keep this blog up while I'm busy with school, I promise I will do my best. Love to all of you!!

Oh wait! Another happy note to add is that Zach is officially potty trained! YAY!! Now I only have to wipe his butt for the next 6 months or so then I'm free from other's poop and pee!! Yay me!!

My Oh My What a Month!!

This month didn't start out that great. We were informed that the house we just moved into in November was being put on the market. Yep.......same shit, different house! I couldn't believe it. I was devastated. We breathed such a huge sigh of relief when we moved in here! We were so happy to get out from under the mess of our old house being on the market then going in to foreclosure. We were also under the impression that our landlord fully intended to hold on to this house until he could make his money back. He seemed relieved when I told him we hate moving and planned on staying here for as long as possible.

We met with the agent assigned to this house and now I wish I never had. She scared the crap out of us saying she would be able to sell this house in about a week or 2 and that we should probably be ready to move out by the end of July beginning of August. WHAT?????? We'd been through the "short sale" process before and it's a VERY LONG one! Not only that this guy isn't even behind on his mortgage! We were panic stricken! I frantically called my friend May whose husband is a realtor in Arizona and he calmly talked me off the ledge I was ready to throw myself off of. As it turns out the agent is just a blowhard fast talking BITCH.....who later called to scream at me because I wouldn't let someone in without an appointment. WHATEVER!!!!!

The first few days there were a lot of inquiries, but so far I've shown the house maybe 8 times. I make sure to tell everyone who comes through, my sad story of how this is the 2ND rental that's been put on the market while we lived in it and that we JUST moved in. It seems to have worked as there still isn't any offers on the house so far.

During all of this turbulation we came to the conclusion that we should finally bite the bullet and buy a house. The market is low and we really need to put down roots for the boys. Now is the time to buy, our mortgage could be the same or less than our rent. Besides that, the chances of us moving into the same situation up here in "foreclosure land" are VERY high. I seriously don't think I'd be able to handle this situation yet again!

So, we went out with our agent and found a house we LOVE! It's a few miles from here, which makes us sad because we'll be away from our dear friends the Ferency's. But it has a pool, a beautiful large kitchen, 3 bedrooms and a large loft. It's all painted very nicely and well taken care of. It literally has everything that we want minus the location. We put in our offer and the buyer accepted. It's a short sale, so now it's a waiting game......wait for the bank to approve the sale....this could take forever! It's fallen out of escrow 2 times since January due to buyers pulling out because the bank took too long to approve it. We're lucky though, we have the time to wait so that's what we plan on doing. In the mean time we will be looking at foreclosures as they come on the market and if we find something we like better we will put an offer on it.

Father's Day weekend was great! My Pa came up to see us finally.....he hadn't been here since Christmas of 2007! I'm glad he came up because I miss him so much. Sandi and I had a great time visit with him over a few bottles of wine the first night he was here. He got to spend quality time with the boys playing ball and such and he even got to go golfing with Dwayne and Eddie. Then on Father's Day I prepared a big feast of turkey, corn on the cob, salad and mashed potatoes. The next morning he packed up his stuff and Calvin and they took off down to Arizona so Calvin could have some alone time with he and my mom and get a break from Zach and the neighborhood kids.

Speaking of the neighborhood kids they are REALLY getting on my nerves these days!!! The other day I woke up to the ringing of the doorbell at 7:30 AM!!! It was that little boy from around the corner AGAIN! Needless to say, I was none too please with him! I came racing down the stairs to see Calvin standing in the doorway talking to him and I told him to go home and not to EVER come over before 9 am again because this was the 2ND time he had woke us all up!! Who lets their 5 year old run around the neighborhood at 7:30 in morning knocking on doors to see if someone can play???? Well, it's the same mother who lets her kid run around the neighborhood at 8:30 at night ringing doorbells to see if someone can play!!! Apparently they have no clocks in their house!! Or baseball equipment, because the same kid's big brother comes over to ask if he can use Calvin's baseball stuff even though Calvin isn't home!! He's done this TWICE!!!! I recently found out that he doesn't like me.......oh darn!!! Here's a thought shithead, go to Walmart and get your own damn equipment and while you're there, pick up a clock and teach your little brother how to tell time!!! As you can see I am proudly wearing my "Meanest Mom on the Block" crown every day!!!

I got a real treat this month! I got to go to Arizona to pick up Calvin....alone! It was fun for me to have a solo road trip! Calvin spent 4 days alone at my parents. I'm sure he was thrilled to be someone's center of attention....and that he was. My Pa taught him how to swim so he was in the pool everyday! He even got to go to a Arizona Diamondbacks baseball game and sit in the sky box....he had a great time until the D-backs lost, he was VERY upset about that! At the game my Pa bought him a T-shirt and a souvenir baseball bat. When they got home he showed my Mom his goodies. After looking at the bat for a bit he declared it was probably a bad idea to get it. Why, asked my Mom. His answer?......Are you ready for this one? And I quote...."Because my Mom will beat me with it." WHAT!!!!????? My mom told him surely his Mom wouldn't EVER do that. His response....and I quote again......"Oh Gramma, you have no idea." WTF?????!!!!!! Oh. My. God!!!! As if!!! WHATEVER!!!! This kid and his tall tales are getting out of hand!!! Thankfully my parents knew better.........if I beat him with that it would SOOOOO be warranted!!! JUST KIDDING!!!!

Any way, I had a fabulous visit in Arizona with my parents and a few of my close and not so close friends! I got to see a few of my gal pals from high school one night......a few of which I hadn't seen in over 20 years! It was so great to see all of them and catch up on everyone. I think it should be a regular thing for sure!

Then I got to see the old standards......my dear friend May and my fabulous friends My Tom and his Don. (LOVE, LOVE, LOVE you guys!!!!!) I even snuck in a hair cut from my old roommate and sista from another Motha' Miss Branden! (Thanks Girl!!). There were a few folks I didn't get to hook up with, my dear friend Mike Kelly whom I just reconnected with, and my wonderful friend Kristen who has been declared CANCER FREE!! Woooo Hoooo!! And last but certainly not least my old friend Jayne......so sad we couldn't hook up, come see me when you can please!

After a weekend of wine and relaxation at Casa de Williams it was time to head back home. My Pa packed up Calvin's stuff and we were off on our road trip. It was a nice calm ride, Calvin is really a great traveler. All was going well until Hoover Dam, it took us over an hour to travel less than 10 miles. Needless to say I can't wait until that bypass is done, because I truly think the hold up was due to all the folks gawking at the magnificence of the new bridge.

We eventually made it home only to unpack, do wash and pack again. Now we are off to Seattle for a 4Th of July extravaganza! Although I'm looking forward to seeing all our Seattlites I'm not looking forward to the journey. BUT, on a lighter note, at least Mr Zachadoo is finally potty trained!! Wooooo Hooooo!! Yip yip yipeeee!!!!

So, until next month, when I talk about my journey as an old lady student and hopefully the joys of packing up our whole house again (fingers crossed everyone!) I will bid my farewell. We hope all is well with everyone! Love and good Karma to all!!

Here's Calvin the fish. Click on the button on the left to watch.