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Thursday, January 31, 2008

Edwards drops out

Edwards dropped out of the race. No! Not Edwards! The race will forever be aesthetically changed now with out his $700 hair cuts. Oh. Wait. I don't care. That’s right. It made no difference to me at all. He hasn't been that much of a factor for a while. Of course, he could always come back as Obama's VP.

I was reading this article about him dropping out of the race. I found part of it particularly disturbing.

Edwards said Clinton and Obama had both pledged that "they will make ending poverty central to their campaign for the presidency."

"This is the cause of my life and I now have their commitment to engage in this cause," he said before a small group of supporters.
Seriously? This is your life's cause? He goes on to say that he actually stopped to talk to a couple of homeless people under an overpass on his way there.
Hang on. Let me get this straight. You stop. Get out of your limo. Adjust you perfect hair. Tell people you are sorry they are in this predicament, and you will do you best to help them. Promise that you will not forget them. Then, get back in your limo, and drive off. Now, call me crazy, but wasn't that an opportunity to help people. I know he can't put everyone he meets into a house personally, but how about taking them to a shelter. Giving them a good meal. Making sure that they get in tough with the right groups who will find them housing, and get them job training, or whatever they need. Those organizations exist. I used to work for one. I mean, come on!! Get real. How full of yourself can you actually be?

How about this. Start going to Supercuts. You can get a good hair cut for $20, with tip, and donate an extra $680 to the cause of your life every few weeks. Don't tell me that won't add up. You could put an entire family in a house in some area for that much every month.
No. You go on. Just pretend to care when the cameras are on. (That is the only time it counts, you know.) Take your comfy ride and your perfect hair back to your own mans now that you are all done campaigning. Again.

Saturday, January 26, 2008

A house is not a home....

Sometimes, in time of distress, you forget about the good, and only see the bad.

Yesterday, my oldest daughter started crying again because we are moving. She just brought it up on her own. Came over to me, told me she didn't want to move, and started crying. I feel so badly for her. Unfortunately, I know that she will have to move a few more times in her life. Such is the life that her father and I chose for her being a military child. She was very upset.

I started to console her, told her that we were taking everything that made this house our home with us. I explained that a house is just a building. It is walls, carpet, and a roof, but it is not a home. It isn't a home until someone moves in, and makes it a home. Home will always be where ever we are together, and of course, I had to use the line that home is where her heart is. She got it, and it did make her feel better, but it really made me start thinking about our home right now.

Right now, it is putting me through so much stress. With all the problems it has had, and the owner trying to force us to move out early, totally interrupting our plans, it makes me feel like this place is nothing but trouble. It also makes me think of the first house my daughter lived in. It was much smaller than this one. When we lived in it, I remember thinking that it had so many issues. Sometimes, I would talk a lot of trash about that little place. Now that I remember back though, it really served us well. We made it a great little home for the time that we had it, and I have a lot of fond memories of it. Now, thinking back, I recall that it wasn't the house that was the problem, it was the maintenance staff that took care of the housing development that we lived in. I remember their incompetence. I remember their not being able to complete a job well or timely, but that was them, and not so much the house. I also remember that I could look out my back windows and see the gulf of Mexico. I remember that little bougainvillea that was growing up the side of the house. I remember the mole that started to live there beside our walkway just before we moved. We tell my daughter now that was her first pet. = ) Yes, that house served us very well.


Now, I am still very stressed out here, and all I see are the problems and issues, but I expect that I will look back some years from now and remember that this house served us very well. Of course, by then, this will just be another building, and we will have moved on to make somewhere else, maybe even two somewhere elses, a home.

My poor daughter will undoubtedly get upset again about the whole move, but she is really very lucky. She has something that many people are never lucky enough to have; a real home. A house can fall down. It can burn to the ground. It is just a fallible building. A home, though, is something that you carry with you. It is an emotional state that a family makes no matter where they are. A home is much more valuable than a house, and she has what I think is a priceless one.

Friday, January 18, 2008

Starbucks - So good it has it's own language.

Chad, the husband, often goes on about how ordering coffee is a different language. I mean, I know it can be confusing and it is a big ordeal for him when he has to order for me. There have been many times that i wanted a vanilla frap only for him to return with a vanilla bean creme. = (
Lilly confirmed how different that coffee language is for me today. We were sitting at the dining table, eating breakfast and going over words in Spanish. I want her to at least have a basic introduction to the language, and we often just go over words. She asks me what something is in Spanish, and then repeats it. Well, as were going over words this morning, she suddenly pipes up "Mom, I know something in Spanish!" "Great!", I reply. "What is it?"

"Caramel Macchiato". Apparently, she was sure that I was speaking a different language every time I ordered coffee. Its ok. That is exactly how her dad feels. = )

Thursday, January 17, 2008

One more thing

I forgot to ad that we received a letter from the owner of our house formally asking us to move 2 months early. He ask us to give him special consideration as he did for us last year when we renewed our lease. I don't remember any special consideration last year. What I remember was us asking if he was going to sale it then, or renew for another year. He told us that if his mother was well, we would renew. Well, he did renew..and raise our rent $100 a month. I don't know what kind of special consideration that is, but it doesn't sound like that much of a favor to me. Of course, moving early for him would cost of thousands of dollars (We plan on staying with family for a couple of months before moving to a new home, and saving money from having no house bills in that time. If we move, though, we will be in a lease, and unable to stay with family and save that money.) That is some SERIOUS consideration and not something that we are likely to do just to be nice. I'm really not that nice. Really.

Crappy Day

You may have seen this on the news, but there was a helicopter crash in Texas late last night. My husband called me about it early this morning. That was his last squadron, and where he is considering taking orders back to. So, he, or we, may know the crew. They haven't released the names yet, and Chad hasn't been able to find out by himself either. So, we wait to find out if any of them were friends of his. Even if they weren't, it is still hard on them when they lose members of their community. Really hard. We have just spent the last hour talking about it, looking at pictures in the local Corpus Christi paper, etc. Very sad right now.

My thoughts and prayers are with the families of the crew members aboard that flight. I am truly sorry for your loss.


Then, not that it was nearly that bad, but a good friend of mine called. Her husband who recently got out of the military just found a job....in AZ! [:(] They are moving at the end of the month, and she needed me to watch their kids so that he could get some things taken care of. So, he brought all 3 of their kids over. That meant I had 5 kids for a good part of the day. It was very sad to know that this may be the last time our girls get together and play. They have been friends since we moved here basically, and were some of the first people that I really met in San Diego. It was totally bitter sweet to have them over for a play date today. I took pictures of our oldest together, and it was funny to see them doing some of the same things that they did the first time we had them together about 3 years ago.

My husband is also up for orders right now. It means it is time for him to select his next duty station. There are only a few places and things that he can select from this time. One of them is something called Individual Augmentation. That means he leaves his squadron alone, and goes over to a combat zone to basically take the slot of someone in another command or even branch of the military. Usually, it means that they get 3 months of training, and then go fill in for someone in the Army. (He is Navy.) Of course, he comes home today and tells me that is what he is leaning toward. I knew that, but I didn't want to know that. KWIM? I have really felt like that is what he was going to pick for a few months now, but now that he says it outloud....well....it just sucks. It would mean he would leave and go to Iraq for a year. He has already been to the middle east twice in all this mess. This time, though, he would be combat forward with an Army unit. Man. I just can't wrap my head around how scary that is. There are a lot of benefits for him to go, but nothing is worth the worse case scenario. All I can do is hope and pray....

Monday, January 14, 2008

House Difficulties

Well, our property management company came by today to do a full inspection at the request of the home owner. Actually, let me add that they were supposed to come by Friday, but just neglected to do so. They called us Saturday morning and ask if they could come over then. We had plans. So, we let them come over this morning. Seems that everything is going to be difficult right now.

Why a major home inspection you might ask. I know I ask why. Apparently, the Real Estate Agent told the owner that he couldn't even show the house in the condition that it was in. So, they came by for a full list of everything that needs to be repaired. What a load of crap. The house isn't in great shape, that part is true. The house is 30 years old, and everything, and I mean everything, is original. That doesn't keep the house from being shown. They just yields a lower price. However, what the agent really means is that we have too much crap in the house, and it looks too lived in. I know that we make it difficult for him to sell. I know he wants us out. That is just tough cookies, though. We live here. We have a lease. I hate the fact that this real estate agent seems to want to play dirty with us. I know this is how he makes a living, but this is where we live. This is our lives. For Pete's sake, we only have 6 months left in the house anyway. Why not just wait to list the thing?!?

So, the property mgmt guy makes a list. I know I named off about a thousand things that were wrong with the house, and I was sure to point out that basically 99% of it was not our fault. Of course, having lived here for almost 3 years with a child, we were bound to alter the property to the negative some. It needs to be repainted. White walls can only bear so many grimy hand prints, even after repeated scrubbing, before they need repainted. We put baby gates in at both the top and bottom of the stairs. We accidentally made an extra hold for the bottom that needs to be filled. Of course, then there are some nail holes from pictures and art being moved around. You know, its all the little things. However, the major things, like the need ofr new water heater, all new plumbing fixtures, the entire electrical that needs to fixed, that we have no part of and the owner is going to have to pony up for.

We try to fix things our selves. We let things go if they are a nuisance, and don't really need to be fixed. We are fantastic tenants. That all makes it even more aggravating that we are being treated this way. I don't look forward to the next few months of dealing with this nonsense.

I know that I am obligated to allow them to show the house with 24hours notice, but I wouldn't recommend it. I don't think that 2 kids running wild will really help their chances to sell, and I am not about to let strangers walk through my house with out me in it. More tough cookies.
For now, we wait to see what obscene list is given to use with things we need to fix. Though, if I were them, I wouldn't play that either. Otherwise we will request that everything we have lived with, as a nuisance, will be fixed. Harrumph.

Monday, January 7, 2008

Poor Unfitney

Sometimes, when no one else is looking, I LOVE To check out all the celeb gossip rags online. Truth be told, I have been sort of mesmerized by the whole Brit Brit saga as it has unfolded. While I was never a fan of hers, her story has just been....well....enthralling.
Now, however, the whole thing is starting to piss me off a bit. I really feel for the girl. She needs some serious help. If she has a mental disorder, which I believe she could, then the girl needs to get help before she ends up like many other celebs who couldn't take the life given to them.
What is really pissing me off, though, would be the people around her. Come on. We, the viewing public, all saw this coming. We have been watching it for months. We knew (I did, didn't you?) that she was spiraling out of control. So, why didn't anyone around her take charge and take care of her? She is more of an asset to them than a loved one. I think Lynn Spears, and the whole clan surrounding her need to be cut off completely. Now, don't get me wrong, you have to want help to be able to get it, but maybe if it hadn't been allowed to get so far out of control, they might have been able to talk her into getting help if they had got an early jump on it. I also remember that she pretended to go to rehab twice. Maybe that was even too late. I mean, there had to be signs that we couldn't recognize, perhaps when she got married in Vegas, that her family would have instantly recognized as being troubled. I really hope that she gets help, whatever that help is. If she needs meds, therapy, rehab, what ever it may be, I hope she is able to get it, and use it in time. I feel for those kids and wish them all the best of luck right now. They need it, and so does mommy.

Wednesday, January 2, 2008

No....No..No...

So, my landlord came by today with the real estate agent to assess the house. Within the first 2 minutes of being in the house, they ask about getting us out early. It is called a lease, people. Get is straight. We are here until June 30. No sooner, unless you want to seriously pay for it. We are not going to just roll over and spend a wad of cash moving, for what may only be for 3 months. AS it stands, we should be moving out of state after our lease is up for Chad (husband)'s job. So, if I move for you in March like you suggested, I would only be moving for 3 and then I would have to pick up and move again.
Not only that, but the renter's market is fierce right now. The influx of people who are losing their homes from that nasty market, along with the fires have really upped the renters side of real estate. So, the amount of trouble and money that we would be out to move now would just be insane and unreasonable.
I just don't understand that mind set. What would make people think that we would be willing to move on a whim like that? Do they think we won't mind to uproot our entire lives for them because they suggest it to us? Let alone the money we would be out.
It isn't happening like that. Don't get me wrong, I do have my price. Not sure what that is just now, but I know it is out there. I would be willing to move a few months ahead of schedule out of state for that right price, once I figure that out. Though, I doubt anyone would be willing to pay it up. So, no money, no move. Get it. Good.