New Surprises Around the Corner

I was outside working in the yard again, tending my rose bushes that are on my deck, when I noticed three tiny blue spots directly under my feet.



I had seen a bird's nest under the porch when we moved in, but I thought it was empty. Certainly it would be empty as soon as we moved in and started making a bunch of noise.

I hope that momma bird hasn't abandoned her nest because of all the foot traffic now - I hadn't seen any birds over there since we have been here, but maybe she is just being quiet. I did see a momma bird sitting on some eggs in a nest on the other side of the house, but I haven't been over there because I didn't want to disturb her. I don't know if she's still there or not. I don't want them to leave!

First we were surprised with potatoes, an alien embryo growing on the window, and now little blue eggs. I wonder what surprises will show up next?

A Little Spa Treatment

The past month and a half (seems like it's been a year!) has been so tough for me that I decided that it was time for a little spa treatment!

First, let me say, that my son is now covered by Medicaid so his injuries are now covered. I was so worried about how I was going to pay such a huge hospital bill. The hospital bill alone was $14,000. That didn't include follow up Dr visits or the anesthesiologist for his surgery. That was just the ER visit and use of the operating room! So needless to say, I was stressing bad! Like really bad. Not even chocolate would help. haha! After submitting our application for state and county assistance last Wednesday, I got a call from a case worker on Thursday and she said my son was approved for Medicaid retroactive back to April. So he's covered! I told her that she made my day and that if I could reach through the phone and give her a hug, I would. A huge boulder has been lifted from my shoulders!

So now that that bit of stress is gone, and we're actually gearing downward from all the "excitement" of the last 6 weeks, I felt I needed to treat myself.


At our new house, we don't have to haul water anymore. YES! So I can take a nice long hot bubble bath whenever I want! YES YES!! So I grabbed my candles and placed them around the bathroom while the tub filled up with hot water and fragrant bubbles. Ahhh, so nice! While in the bath, I gave myself a facial with a cucumber avocado mask and nighttime super moisturizer that helps keep your face looking young and beautiful. After the bath, I used some of my favorite scented lotion (that I made) and soaked my hands and feet in a paraffin bath. I topped it off with a manicure and pedicure. I felt like a million bucks when I went to bed last night.

Who says you have to go to an expensive hotel for the royal treatment?!

When It Rains, It Pours

Everyone says it...

When it rains, it pours.

or

Things come in threes.

When it comes to me, that's usually the case.

This summer so far has been an extremely stressful summer. First, we find out we have to move and we had less than a month to move. I had to do most of it by myself, but I was very fortunate to have wonderful neighbors and friends that were able to help me. When my husband got home from his month out, he kicked it into high gear and moved all the furniture. I was lucky to have my mother come up too. With an extra car and set of hands, we were able to really kick butt the last few days of the move.



While we were moving, my grandmother had been in the hospital. She had come and gone into the hospital for more than 3 weeks between June and and the first part of this month. Finally, she was diagnosed with Small Lymphocytic Lyphoma. For those of us who do not speak medicine, it's cancer of the B Cells. She will be taking Chemotherapy.



And three - less than a week after we are finally moved into our new house, with my husband gone for a month again, my son fell and broke his leg. He broke the tibia clean through and the fibula in three places. We rushed him to the hospital where they had to take him in to get surgery. They put these flexible pins in his leg because he is still growing. And we have no insurance.


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It's pouring!

But you know what? It's tough...VERY VERY tough. All these setbacks are very stressful and we're wracking up some more debt, but I think I've been handling it well. I'll break down and cry a little, let it out, and then I'm good for a while. I'm not afraid to admit that I have cried a lot recently, I'm not afraid to admit that I'm completely stressed out, what is important is getting out my frustrations and move forward. And now we're moving forward. It's slow...very slow...but we're moving forward.

The rain is a drizzle now and the sun looks like it's trying to come out. :D

Finally Moved!

I have moved a lot in my years, but this move has been the hardest. I think it's because of several things.

1. We had been at the old house for so long.
2. It was just me and my son.
3. When hubby did get home, we had a very short time to move our things.
4. uhaul screwed us over and we didn't have a moving truck. Haters. In the end though, it saved us about $150 for truck rental, so take that evil uhaul.

We are now out of the old house and in the new. We have actually been out officially for two days now, this is day three, but we've been sleeping at the new house since July 2. It's been nice. We have all been so tired that as soon as our heads hit the pillow, we're out. LOL

My mother came up from Austin to help us move and we were able to spend a couple of days NOT moving when we were done. It was great! Very short, but it was nice to see her again. She just left out early this morning...even before the chickens wake up! Ha! I already miss her.

While Mom was here, we hit the "city". She had been telling me about all the cool things that she and my sister have found at a local thrift store over the years and suggested that we go check some out. Especially for things like dressers or cabinets or other furniture items we might need. We found the Goodwill in the "city" and ran in to take a peek. Honestly though, I didn't expect to find anything but old junk that I didn't really want. I was pleasantly surprised however, when we found a tv and PlayStation game for my son, a shelving unit, three pairs of pants for my son, a pair of Tommy Hilfiger jeans for me, and some odds and ends for around $30! The TV was only $3.99!! My son was VERY excited about it. He has been wanting one for a while now and I just couldn't justify spending $150 for one for him. Besides, everything is hi def and blue ray and we have none of that, so a new TV wouldn't even work with our (old) entertainment system. He was thrilled to set up his little TV and video games in his room.

Ohh it looks like I got a little off topic! ha! This was supposed to be about the move! LOL Well, we're officially moved, though I have tons of boxes everywhere and I can't find anything! My furniture is in disarray and nothing is in place yet, but it feels good to finally be done with the move...especially since I've been moving since June 19. As soon as we got to the new house, hubby set up the washer and dryer and I've already done about 13 loads of laundry - and we didn't have to haul the water!!! Mom helped me get my plants into the new garden and found a sprinkler...omg I can actually use a sprinkler now! If something breaks, all I have to do is call the property manager and they will fix it...I don't have to wait a month or two (or three or four) for hubby to get home to fix it. Wow...what a change that will be!

So what does the new house look like? Take a look...

Okay, well it's NOT quite like THAT... LOL But it does look like an alpine ski lodge on the inside, and it looks like a farm house on the outside. It's much smaller than where we were, but SO much nicer! And it's not that far away from where we were. We won't have to change much of anything - phone, bills, etc. And we can pretty much keep our normal routine with our runs to town. Ohhh, and I forgot... the road to the house is PAVED! No more potholes!

Now we will have to see what winter brings us...

Mooooving Right Along

Well, our move is going slower than planned, but it's going.

I reserved a uhaul truck June 21st for the 4th of July weekend since hubby was going to be home for the move. He was coming home on the 1st and we were supposed to pick up the uhaul on the 2nd. The first came around and uhaul had not called me to confirm my reservation, so I called them. What do they tell me? That there are NO trucks. No trucks? Are you kidding me? I have been seeing trucks running around town for the past two weeks. Don't tell me there are no trucks. We have moved a LOT in the past, and we've used uhaul a LOT, and usually, if there are no trucks, they shuttle a truck up from a nearby area. NOPE. They told me that there are no trucks and they will put me on a wait list. Hello?? What the heck is a reservation for then?? SHEESH! So after that bit of a setback, we went to plan B and decided NEVER to use uhaul again. We'll go to their competitor in the future. Ryder, Penske, or Budget. Screw uhaul.

Well, we spent the entire weekend loading up furniture in our old pick up truck. It's a 68 Jeep Truck Flat Bed, has break issues, light issues, and now a power steering leak. Great. It's a really good thing that I was able to take lots of the smaller things over to the new house over the prior weeks with my car. What really helped a lot was when my most wonderful neighbors let me borrow their truck and even had a friend bring hers over to help one day. They are the GREATEST people ever!

By the 3rd, we had emptied the house of the furniture (there wasn't a whole lot), and started working on the garage. Hubby has so much in there and I hadn't packed anything in there. I've been too busy working on the house. Our old landlord kept calling us while we're moving stuff over, even though Hubby told him to leave us alone so we could get our stuff done. The old landlord has someone else packing and moving stuff for him - we don't have that luxury. We need every minute we can get to do this and don't have time to waste on idle chit chat.

The 4th was spent the same. Packing, moving, and cleaning. My mother flew up from Austin to help (and visit) and we spent the day cleaning the house while Hubby worked on the garage.

By the time it was dark we were all too exhausted to go anywhere to see fireworks or anything, but a few people around the area shot some up into the sky and we were able to catch a few sparkles.

The 6th was spent hauling things from the garage to the new house and Mom and I dug up some of my plants to put in my new garden. I was so mad when our old landlord told us we had to move - I had just planted my garden and hubby just built my greenhouse. The plants were finally taking off. *sigh*

While hubby was trying to get our lawn mower on the truck, our old landlord calls again to ask annoying questions about the utilities - like we were going to set them up for him! As if! I think he is too lazy to do it himself. He asked Hubby if he could buy his truck for next to nothing. Hubby laughed and said, first, it's not his truck, it's mine, and I was not going to sell it - especially to him. Second, it's a collectors and I'm certainly not going to sell it for cheap. He wanted to buy our truck so he wouldn't have to "mess up" his new truck. Sheesh! Then he assumed that he would be hauling water from our neighbors. Hubby told him that HE would have to talk to the neighbors about that and work something out with them. I'm rolling my eyes here because our neighbors are wonderful people, but I don't think that they would appreciate the landlord just coming over and filling up without asking. Next the landlord asked Hubby if he minded if one of his moving guys could bring a load up to put in the garage. That's why he got mad. Hubby told him NO! We are busy, we're not out yet, and legally, we have until the 20th to move out. Besides, the garage is still full. Hubby expressed to him that we have been busting our butts to accommodate HIS schedule. We have been working our butts off to get out as soon as we can, but we can only do so much. We don't have the luxury of having someone pack and move things like he does. Hubby then told him that if he or anyone of his move guys comes up before we are out, he will call the police. The old landlord got mad and said that he didn't have to jump down his throat. Hubby then told him that he will only say it one more time and that he will not say it again, we will call him when we are out. Stop calling us and bugging us with tons of stupid questions that waste our time. We're trying to work with him and it's been a miracle what we've done so far, but really, we still haven't even seen a written notice that he wants us out. Legally, we're still occupying the place and according to state law, he's in violation of many laws. He has been the whole time, but that's an entirely different story.

Hubby had to ask for another day off to finish this move, and they were not very happy about that. In fact, they were mad. I just hope this doesn't jeopardizes hubby's job. So today we HAVE to be out. Today we HAVE to get hubby's drivers license changed to the new address because he won't be home again for another month. So it's going to be a crazy crazy day.

Overall this move has been hard on us all, we're physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausted, but I think in the end it will be a good thing. We won't have to haul water and hopefully we won't have to use as much wood. The new house, well it's not really new, is MUCH nicer than where we were. I guess we'll all be happy when the move is all over.

Then we can unpack.... oh joy.