We B Moving

Well it's official. I wanted to wait until it was completely official but it's now that time. Dave's promotion means less travel and less travel means more time in Idaho twiddling his thumbs at night in the apartment he shares with a coworker. The same coworker who's family lives in another state and is in the process of beginning a move as well. The same coworker who has two teenaged boys living with him. So this means that Dave pulled the card: so we b moving. I follow his lead so here we goooooooooooooo.

Idaho. Now if you know me, then I bet money I know what you're thinking. Yeah, I swore that I'd never come back to Utah after getting the hell out of crazy ville dodge BUT it's a state away. And, I've learned many lessons since then so I'm taking this self-realization, my tattoo and dyed hair, rum and coke drinking, cig smoking, Jesus loving, southern girl baptist self right on up there. And I'm gonna work it baby!

In the boonies, this new town of ours is tiny and far removed from city life and I can't wait. While on my vacation, we got a house, signed the contract (hence the sneak a peek pic on the main page), we've contracted the movers and I gave notice at work. Giving notice about damn near killed me, can I just say.

It's now an all out free for all trying to get crap to the point to where we can go.

The kids are excited. They are ready for a move and while they will miss their friends/schools they are making the steps needed to "take them with us" via phone calls, internet and etc. Not to mention, scheduling trips this summer for "play dates" lol.

It's with a very sad heart that I'm leaving my job here though. I love my work, I love the people I work with and I will spend the next two weeks busting my butt to get them ready for life after me. My boss is an oak and is bending over backwards to make sure I can squeeze in dr appts and kids' school stuff as needed while I try and get the office ready for life after me. They have my ego all swollen and puffy but I know that they'll be just fine. I just have to make sure to leave them with a big ole "SOP" on how to do things until my replacement gets authorized. Then whoever takes over after me will have a starting place. It's more than I had. I kinda feel like I'm losing a family made up of all older, crazy uncles but dang I can already tell I'm gonna get misty eyed when it's time to hand over my keys and badge. Crap!

So now that it's all out here, I can post all along the way.

So here we go.............

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The New House....part 2

So see, I can totally follow through. I charged my battery and here you go, the rest of the pics. Minus things like the laundry room, the big ole long hall, the attic, and the empty front hall because I have nothing to put in there. Fun times. So here you go, a peek into what has taken me forever to accomplish....

So this is the master bathroom, it's a long corridor thingy with two closets and an alcove at one end, and since the other two look similar, well I'm too lazy to go take pics.

So the look for the new house is "minimal clutter", and since before we put everything into storage last winter, we gifted alot of our stuff to others I'm running a little short on some things. Like surfaces to put things........Dave must have seen this as his one chance to whittle down some of my tables, cause I had a ton and it wasn't until this week that I finally noticed they were all gone. Hmmm, obviously I'm a sharp tack. And since it was evening when these were taken, please notice Murphy and Princess laying like broccoli after having a long day of work.

And another note: Jeromes' furniture of California is STILL my favorite furniture store evah because I bought these couches when I was pregnant with Duchess who is now 7.5 years old peeps. These are some seriously rocking quality couches. I seriously hope I still have them when I retire. Love them.

Pretty empty corner which needs a table, reading lamp and something....but for now will have what we call the baby rocker, our first brand new piece of furniture after we found out we were gonna be parents. And the entry wall into the front hall holds my lovely little armoire that is FULL of other pottery and such cause I have no where to put it. Hi Duchess, hiding in the hall.

Princess got a bigger girl room. Looks better in person than pics but we gave up all our black IKEA furniture and spray painted her bed so that was the extent of my help. The rest of this room was all her. I kept my hands off. Although she gave me a list of things she needs: rug, artwork, different curtains.......OKay....

The other side of her room. Kid has her own walk in closet... it's almost as big as mine. I'm not sure that is a good thing.

Other than a new desk chair, Duchess is complete. Pink and purple paradise......frankly since she is at the very end of the house her room get SOOOO much sunlight that between the light and the bright colors, it hurts my eyes to go in there. Get a good look cause I doubt we'll see it this clean ever again.

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The New House...part 1

Part 1 cause my battery just died on my camera so opps..... meet my favorite area of the new house....big arse kitchen. I love the floor, the counters, the amazingly large prep space.

Still not sure where to put all my appliances so this is kitchen set up #1, I'm sure by the time I hit set up #75 I'll have it just perfect. As you can tell, I got the whole Louisiana decor going on in there....

And cause I keep it so real around here, here's my messy cluttered dining room. I'll get that cleaned up real soon.

Oh pumpkin, there's mommy's boy.........

Livingroom although I have yet to replace the tiles on the coffee table that broke in the move so it's not complete. Plus, Dave gave AWAY all my little tables so I have nowhere to put my drinks now, I'm on the look out...

So this is part 1 while I charge my camera battery so I can spit out the rest of the pics. Once took 2 weeks to get everything completely unpacked and put away. Whew, I'm exhausted!

So there are decorating gaps and such for now but I'm working on it all........just not in any hurry, lol.

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It Really Gets Interesting Around Here....

So we found our great house in Texas. We picked out the perfect school for the kiddos. And I got all our stuff moved here to the little South East Texas town we love and it happened.

The company Dave went to work for showed their true colors.

And frankly that is a problem that had to be dealth with immediately; see Dave has a moral code that he won't budge on and when push came to shove....he resigned.

And I've never been prouder. And God truly listens to the prayers of his children because the morning before he resigned, the phone rang.

He was offered a job with his old company in the Cadellac division. Before he worked for the Ford division apparently, but this company was something he was to proud of. He enjoyed the heck out of the work and frankly he had respect for the people who run it.

So he's on the road working again, except this time it's shorter more intense projects and he just a few hours away instead of states.

I'm so excited because he's happy and he's in a good place.

And even though it is amazing to me that we have done a 180 turn here, it feels right.

So here we are, in a similiar but very different situation. Except now, we will go for long weekend visits and he'll be home for weeks or a month at a time. This works well for me considering that while he's working, he's really working....I absolutely love how my guy goes out there and gets the bacon...he busts his butt for us constantly with his eye on the prize.

Frankly, it feels good. So I'm working on setting this house up and getting things moving along here. Getting the kids' settled here and ready for school. And as usual, I'm plugging away at my degree, which will hopefully finally be finished in Jan/Feb timeframe.

Which considering I've applied to school for my masters it's a good thing.

I think I'm addicted.

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Road Trip 3002

So I flew last week into SLC to go about the process of moving my household goodies. Dave was absolutely tied up with his new company so it was up to me. Since the babies were already scheduled for church camp with their grandparents it was time for me to move and move quick.

So I flew into SLC (I think I said that already didn't I?) But stupid me booked myself on the 6ish am flight and driving from the lake is a several hour trip so I didn't get myself any sleep at all. But the real drama came when my frugal nature had an argument with my packing choices.

You see, you have to pay for luggage checked now. Are you kidding me? Like these people aren't ripping the crap out of us already....I digress, sorry. So I realized that I couldn't check both my gun and my clothing considering my carryon was my laptop bag containing all the homework I needed to accomplish during the move.

So what would any good southern girl do?

I went with the gun.

And flew to SLC with my checked gun and no clothes.

Because honestly, I wouldn't be caught dead without my gun during a cross country move. There is no way on earth I was willing to do that.

So I was going naked.

I had the clothes on my back and that's it.

(Thank you mother for loaning me clothes and taking me for shorts/shirts!)

So I was sleeping walking at the point Dave dropped me off at the airport at 4 am. And since noone was working yet, I carried my gun safe upstairs to ask someone in security how to check it since the regulations constantly change.

The sleepy TSA guy smiled so sweet at the security checkpoint and asked what I was carrying, when I said handgun, he freaked. OMGawd did he freak. He yelled at me that I wasn't allowed to bring a gun upstairs and all the TSA people at the checkpoint got a nice little wakeup as I screamed back at him that I didn't know and how the hell was I to ask when nobody was downstairs but the guy cleaning the floors who didn't speak English.....it was entertaining to say the least.

They calmed down when I flipped it upside down and shook it to show them it was all safely locked up and promised them it was unloaded then directed me to where I needed to go and get it checked.

So finally I got my gun checked and loaded onto the plane. I refused to give up my aisle seat to a grumpy arse lady and then got a look that promptly told me she hoped I fried in hell....I smiled and gave her a thumbs up cause I believe in sharing the love.

Laying over in Denver was fun, especially when I realized that they had a smoking lounge. Hello, then after a couple smokes and a coke I realize I have 10 minutes to make it 10 gates or the plane would leave without me.

Turns out, I should really wear my glasses in situations like this. Turns out I got in at gate 31 and flew out of 91.....why did I read that as gate 41? Interesting. So yeah, I ran and I ran like a bad guy in the movies, taking out little old ladies with my laptop bag, hopped over several carry ons left in the aisle while their owners ordered lattes (really could have used a latte at this point) and finally because I can not lie, I rounded a corner and ran smack into a pilot who was apparently running late too cause we went down like two freight trains meeting in a tunnel. OMGawd....this wouldn't be quite so bad except he was like old and little and I totally was horrible and jumped off taking off leaving him in the middle of the corridor, cause I suck. Sorry little pilot man, I was late...........really really late and I suck.

I made it to the plane and boarded last. Figures. Then realized my seat was the last row, aisle seat on a small plane.

Like small as in "pack of gum with wings".

Seat didn't recline and my seat mate was apparently a BYU football player. Huge young guy.

So I get settled and then promptly turn to mr. football man and told him in my best stern mother voice that he was in my seat and frankly I paid for my WHOLE seat so he needed to hug the window and put the armrest down.

He balked. So I gave him the look and then before I could speak a very sweet adorable flight attendent totally put him in his place, quoting the FAA regulations for the armrest. So I got my seat and football man went to sleep, only drooling a little. I really envy people who can totally put themselves to sleep asap like that.

Anywho, so we get settled and then the little adorable flight attentant guy totally put the seat down and snuggled up to me. Cause you see, the flight attentent seat was a fold down from the back of the bathroom door making the last row actually 5 seats wide. And after I caught him reading the new Janet Evanovich over my shoulder, he introduced himself and announced that he was my new gay. I was thrilled, we shared my book, ate M&M's, talked shoes and promptly had us a great time the whole flight. It was a fab time and got my mind off the wildly small plane.

I landed in SLC and there was my amazingly great bestest friend in the world to welcome me back to hell. Looking like a million bucks since we both left our old company, I was so excited to have some girl time.

We had a great lunch, we totally acted up and talked about everything under the sun. We looked at shoes. We went to the gun range and blew the other girls away cause we some serious pistol packing mommas. Then we went shopping somewhere that I swore I won't put on my blog....but it was her idea and I didn't buy a thing, thank you very much. Almost, but didn't. And when she dropped me off to my momma and daddy, I was so glad to catch up.

Then at 7 pm I shut down and literally fell asleep in a blink which is so not me. I slept for 12 straight hours too, which is also not me.

The next day was all packing.

My daddy picked up our truck. My momma and I loaded all my house from that storage unit into that Penske truck in 4 hours. The three pieces we couldn't move wound up being the easiest when their friend showed up with a truck that had a hydrolic lift. OMGawd, I gotta buy one of them things. Awesome!

So when it was all said and done, Daddy and I pulled out of SLC less than 48 hours after I arrived driving the Penske truck to Texas.

Step 1 was complete.

And you might have wondered why I didn't make time to blog....cause we all know I blog just about everything. lol

Step 2 tomorrow, my fingers are tired.

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Hello Little Town

Oh what is a girl to do when it's raining and Murphy is hiding in her lap, Duchess is still snoozing and Princess isn't due home from church camp till this afternoon.......

Why she should catch up on True Blood and Hawthorne episodes online.....of course.

That aside I've been up to my eyeballs in crazy around here these days.

We got our rental house.

Then I made arrangements to fly up and get my household goodies out of storage in Oootah.

Then I realized that I blessed a good family friend with my 10 year old bedroom suite that I absolutely loved but Dave said was on it's last legs. Oh it was a beaut. Honey wood, gracious me alive that bed was beautiful, wrought iron and 4 posters. It was a birthday present from Dave a bout a million years ago and had been through about a million military moves.

So Duchess and I made hay while the sun shined and after a million and one furniture stores, I finally did the smart thing. I asked my hairdresser, Lance, where to find a good bed and not bleed money. So there we went and there it was.

A big ole beautiful king sized all wood, Ashley sleigh bed on clearance being the last one in the store. It was insane that it was still on the floor, but once I left the store it was sold baby sold.

So we got it all delivered yesterday and set up in the new house. The bed is gorgeous and even more so because it was so dang cheap....but seriously I am in love with the new bed. I surprised Dave by taking him over after work to see the new bed, put together, in the new room, in the new house. And he promptly took off his shoes and tried to take a nap. Now he's pushing to have us move in asap. He's ready for that bed.

I'm ready for the showers, baths, 3 toliets, and yeah the bed.

However, it's the kitchen that has been featured in several dreams. You see, it's massive...seriously massive. Countertops for days. A dishwasher and all the usual kitchen stuff.

So after our house "visit" last night, we tried out our new neighborhood's super walmart. And I realized that I'd left my old must have square plates that I just had to have with my renter at the old house cause frankly they were a pain in the butt to wash and basically live with. So at the new house I would be living with more paper plates, plastic cups and utensils. I did what any sensible woman would do, I purchased a walmart set of plates. And man oh man, it become the biggest conversation and debate Dave and I have had in weeks. We swiftly agreed on the fabulous white, thick, 50's style diner dish set for 19.99 and then we talked about how much we've progressed from "buying it cause we can" to now, being uber frugal and cautious with our spending, just because we want to.

Overall, I have to say I absolutely was worried about how this new move would turn out for us. Except, it's shown me that we can still be somewhat normal, putting ourselves back into society without conforming to everyone else's standards.

This weekend, starting a move in on the new place........then on the 5th I'll be going up to Utah to drag my stuff back and people.....it's gonna get crazy after that, trying to set up house.

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Baptist at the BBQ

(**** my happy stupid self has internet people.......at my house......woohoo.....)

So two nights ago we got a knock on the door at 9 p.m., since I was surfing the big ole tub in my bathroom, The Man graciously went to the door. He came back with a cute, scrapbooked invite to the neighborhood BBQ.....the next afternoon.

There went my plan to photo copy it and get it out to all the uninvited neighbors......dang....they must have seen the evil smile on my face....

So I got home yesterday and got busy making stuff to take. Then my boss had a travel emergancy in Midland Texas. Then since I had no internet I was on two phones, one with my boss and one with a travel agent, trying to save him. No such luck, dang economy and cheap, flight reducing airlines. Sorry boss man, I tried....

So hence, I was late for the BBQ, and I went in my office clothes, all black with the whole professional face and hair plus heels. Rocking that burb look, I was not. But I had food, happy clean cute kids and The Man was due in any minute from work. I put on my happy face and promised The Lord I would not drop one F bomb at all. Not one.......so help me Jesus.

It didn't start off promising at all, I got there and my oldest took off to coo and hold every baby around, this is Utah so there were tons of infants to occupy her time. Duchess promptly climbed up the back of my shirt, thus lowering my cleavage level into dangerous territory. She's shy and doesn't like strangers. Lord help me, I taught the poor kid to be unfriendly, great.....

I put the food down and promptly two husbands walk up and start the 3rd degree trying to juice me for my life history. I so don't fall for that, boys I have worked for people like you forever, I totally can turn the tables, learn all your little secrets and then remind you of them later. But it was fun to watch them try. Meanwhile, I'm holding my cleavage as Duchess continued the Hudini act behind me and The Man was not showing up as promised. He was hanging me out to dry, it was pay back and I was not happy.

Not to mention, the wives of said husbands sat 50 feet away in lawn chairs surrounded by their children. Glaring. Okay, should have expected that, I wore heels to a BBQ, fry me at the stake. This continued until I was able to gather everything, including my dignity and return home.

Until The Man walks up with lawn chairs, a big ole kiss and promptly gathered Duchess out from behind me, thus saving my dignity and cleavage. The husbands quickly shifted their attention and the wives slowly began approaching the area in the yard, out by the curb where the children and I sat while waiting on our steaks to cook. It was looking up....

Until as we all gathered around the table to serve up sides and one wife asked me where I got my cute little accent....(mental eye roll inserted here, man I'm a cynic) but I'm game and I do want to get along decently with my neighbors. So I just smiled, told her I left Louisiana on a bus 13 years ago but it was hard to shake. Then she mentioned how people must just love to hear me talk. Well I said sure until they start automatically deducting IQ points. Silence...... then a full minute later her husband starts laughing hysterically and yells, I got it. Oh boy.

But I chatted and talked recipes and answered questions about what I did for a living and how my kiddos had to attend kids camp since I work. I started to feel pretty good about the whole thing. My kids were being adorable too.....One family complimented Duchess on how articulate she was for her age, then she preceeded to tell them every large vocabulary word she knows, in random order. Little cute show off, she gets that from The Man.

As the sun started to set, I gathered my dishes, peeled Princess away from a bald headed baby named Oscar (yes girlfriend, Oscar........how is that for a hoot......bigest brat you reading this...I pay you to read my blog so you'd better), wrestle Duchess away from the dessert table and The Man and I start inching towards the street where we'd walk two yards over to our house.

Two things happen that became the train wreck........one, a husband who just loves to talk and had followed The Man around all night chatting, actually told The Man that he was just amazed at how many big tough guys (i.e. ex-military) lived in the neighborhood and that The Man was the bigest of the bunch......that silence was golden until the poor guys wife picked him up and carried him home, I jest.....really he is just such a little fellow, he meant no harm.

The Hope4Grace moment of shame came when our hostess' dad showed up in his car and promptly went around shaking hands and kissing babies. He came over and caught us as we had made it to the street and introduced himself as a local church leader. We shook hands and The Man introduced himself....the guy looks at me and goes "well are you related to him"

WTF?

I wish I could say that I said, "Oh I'm his better half" or "I'm *&%$%&, his wife" or even "F--- you, have a nice day" but oh no.......I had to pop off a quote from my favorite Simpson's episode and I go "Oh yeah, I took his DNA when we got married, and then we had babies"

Silence = Awkward

Everyone kinda laughed a little after a minute, while one guy was literally swallowing his tongue while his eyes bulged out trying not to laugh, The Man just kissed my forehead. Yeah, you know it's bad when he does that.

Poor old man, he was awful red in the face but we left and marched our little family home. The Man, he loves me enough to assure me that it all went great and we'll all be best of neighbors.

I'm soooooooooo not getting invited to the next BBQ.

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True Story (Raising my Right Hand)

Overheard.....yesterday.....

The Man on the phone: "yeah so just swing by.....we're on the corner, yeah......oh and it's the yard that looks so good it should have BAD MOTHER----ER written on it"

Name that movie.....

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Still NOT unpacking

This past weekend we managed to get alot of NOT unpacking done. Between last minute ballet rehersals, play dates with friends from the old neighborhood at the new house so the kids wouldn't be sad.....and The Man's new fetish with our yard, we managed to unpack ZERO boxes.
It started Saturday when he realized that our yard was a tiny bit too tall......so he ran to the store and bought a mower. Then lectured me about it for 30 minutes explaining the difference between a bagger and a mulcher, like I'm EVER gonna use that nasty thing....
Then we began the process, which apparently included doing it redneck style with a ciggie hanging out of his mouth.......I kinda think he looks hot there.....but that is me.......
It continued.....see there was a geometrical shape in his head and the yard had to be mowed to its exact specifications. I was seriously just enjoying the feel of tall, lush, I pay for it therefore I own it, grass between my toes......

Duchess and FiFi came out to observe too, and they had to put their toes in the grass as well. I think it's very important to raise your kids to appreciate the little things in life......grass between your toes is one of the big ones. Notice that the garage is still so packed, you can barely walk through it, much less park a "very spoiled and never parked outside" car in there.
See his cute little bag of clippings over on the sidewalk.......see his pattern in the grass......see his adorable little hat......although I do wish he'd have gotten the mower in a different color, I'm not so much into red.
Neither is Duchess, we're leaving this party and going back inside where it's exactly 71 degrees.
Princess stayed the course. Riding her bike and then stopping to help her dad bag up clippings as needed. What a little helper.......well and she was grounded and that was part of her punishment but it would probably be nicer not to mention that, or the fact that I threatened to empty out her room and donate all the goods to charity........
Speaking of charity......this wasn't part of her punishment, she just threw it in for good nature. What I missed was the 1.23 hours The Man spent edging the yard precisely, with military precision.........I was shopping.......for groceries I swear.....nothing fun...... ;)

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Unpacking.......Still

Well the mighty unpack job is underway......still.........we're now days into this, but we're coming together quite well, except I was tired so I needed me some beauty sleep, so then I wasn't unpacking......and I had to work, so I wasn't unpacking, and then the people I live with wanted to eat dinner every night (the nerve?) so I wasn't unpacking......are you picking up what I'm putting down?

So here is where we left off, the livingroom........hmmm not impressive at this point.....

Kitchen, yeah there is no way this is what it looked like in my dreams...... Oh wait, it's starting to come together......I do so love me the face to face conversing seating. I have a fixation with it......but I'm sure other people do too.....right? I will get around to filling those bookshelves, I promise........first I have to find the boxes of books......hmmmm
Starting to see some promise in the kitchen too.......slowly
But the best part was watching my hubby, The Man sink our first ever brand new mailbox. Go hubby go........

Anyone notice that it got dark really freaking quick? It's already 9 something at this point.....
Still going. He's very meticulous at his work. It doesn't help that I pointed out it wasn't up to postal code so he had to start over.........not the point at all...........
And still going..............OMG do you need some help?
Almost there........putting the finishing touches on..........

And what was I doing? Well I was sitting in the grass in my "I see London, I see France" pjs documenting this glorious experience so we can look back on it when we're 80. Maybe, just maybe when I point out that he was doing it wrong and it took almost an hour to do, he'll finally think it's funny.

Well it was funny..........Still waiting on internet service (we be in the boonies now) so will probably be back Monday morning, hopefully with full house shots of a beautiful and unpacked house.........

Maybe

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Square Peg......Round Hole

I just don't fit in all the time. And you know what, I'm totally okay with that. Even though since moving to Utah, it's becoming glaringly obvious that I'm the square peg. Don't get me wrong, I'm not melancholy about it, I'm not gloating in it either, just stating an obvious.

I'm different.

Before moving here, I can easily say that I'm the most conservative person I know, this counting the f-bombs and smoking......my two greatest faults. Yep, ask most, I'm a prude. But I'm a fun prude.

Nope, here I'm the "one who shall be spoke about in quiet whispers". And again, strangely I get a kick out of it. My boss is a perfect example. Not too long ago, he remarked that I was in an oddly good mood that week, when asked why he thought that, he replied that I haven't dropped an f-bomb or given anyone "the look" all week. Yeah, talk about classy! Whew, move over, cause the pearls and the highlights are helping my redneck image, not at all.

So last night after chasing my children around the house, begging them to put clothes on and go to bed, I finally managed to drag my sorry self out on the back porch for a bedtime smoke, cause I was sooooooo gonna go collapse. Now, I don't know about you? But me? I do not have cute pjs. Oh I have two sets that are company friendly but otherwise they are old exercise pants and one of The Man's white t-shirts, that dwarf me. So there I sit, on my back porch, swearing cause who can really sleep with the sun shining so brightly at 9 p.m., smoking away in my pjs.

The Man comes out to join me, he is not in pjs. He must be psychic. Cause sure enough, before I could get through my ciggie, five (please count them FIVE) couples had wandered over to meet and greet. The Man quickly looks down at me (probably remembering that the pants I had on at the time, have a rather large hole in the seat of them, greeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeat!) and promptly rushes over to the sidewalk to intercept them. All the while, gesturing with his head for me to go in, presumably to change clothes and come back out.......

Does he not know me?

So I ignored them and finished my ciggie, finished his too. Waved a couple times when someone looked my way, and completely hung him out to dry. Then I went in. Where he scared me half to death by beating on the bathroom window.

Okay fine. I got dressed and went outside, with my hair on top of my head, no makeup, and a not very genteel attitude. Sorry Nanny, just couldn't do it.

So I finally met EVERYONE, good lord. And then we chatted, yes I work, no I don't mind, yes I like it, no I'm good at it, geez...........MYOB much people.

But then we started yaking about HOA's and I totally started communing with these people. They were real nice at that point. Till one of them said this.........

"I'm so glad you moved in, our kids swore up and down there was a dead body in your house, with blood all over the ways and a ghost, ha ha, you know........kids being kids, especially teenagers....but at least they'll stop trespassing and looking in the windows........"

Before I could stop myself my mouth popped open and the words that were coming out of my mouth were pure Louisiana gold....you know the type.......sugar wouldn't have melted in my mouth......accent so thick you had to pay attention to really get what I was saying.....(I blame my mother for that ability, I really do....)

"Oh of course, how very rude of them, well we'll have a fence, real soon and I do conceal and carry for a reason you know. Oh honey, remind me to call the preacher and have him come purge that damn ghost right across the back yard into her house would ya?"

Okay, #1....did I really just tell them people that I shoot trespassers and #2.......did I really just threaten to send evil spirits over to visit?

There was probably good reason they all stood there with their mouths open, I swear one crossed himself and I'm 100% sure he was not Catholic....but the minute I shared this gem....

"Oh we're Baptist"

Everyone smiled and nodded and went back to our conversation like it was the most natural thing in the world.

Square peg..........

But in the end, before I yawned so big The Man told me not to eat him, we were invited to the neighborhood bbq this next week. Holy cow, it's almost like being in a click in high school.......cause not just anybody gets invited to those.......or so they assured us.

Square peg..........

Square peg trying really hard to resist the urge to invite all the other poor neighbors who didn't get a flyer and then play stupid.........

(insert evil laugh here)

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Move Day

Move day started early.......real early. Especially since The Man insisted on sleeping at the new place, on pallets.....awww isn't he cute? My back was killing me! I'm too old for that crap. But while awaiting the troops, he spent his breakfast time calling people to set up new house stuff.


Whereas my baby, Duchess slept in.........then wandered around in her jammies until I made her go to kid camp for the day. Moving with kids underfoot is NOT cool......


The calvary finally arrived. We started with four. That rocked, four guys that work with The Man (sporting his favorite Dads Againest Daughters Dating shirt). Four meant that I could make donut and coffee runs and then work my way over to the new house put things away as we received them. Didn't happen. Why you ask?

Cause seven more people showed up. This action was more than I would have gotten if I'd have had military movers, they only send three. So it began, the tearing down of furniture, the stuffing of crap into boxes, cause I didn't have time to pack ( hey, I was working...... ) the jokes and colorful commentary you get from ALL EX MILITARY guys with only one woman around, hence I was temped to buy earplugs, yuck.
Once at the new place, the guys started really going over the place. Worse than chicks they were. You should put this "here" and that "there", too funny. Especially since I put this "here" and that "there". Fun times. With eleven men on the decorating scheme.....
Then I noticed that they started slowing down around lunch. Most of the big stuff was moved. Now it was all garage junkola.......now The Man and I don't drink. We do smoke, but we just don't drink........so it never occured to me why so much got done before 11 a.m. and then after 11 a.m. everything slowly came to a grinding halt.

See all those coke cans.......yeah.......SOMEBODY brought rum (line: Yes, but what about the rum?) and it wasn't until I went to grab mine that somebody yelled, smell it first, make sure its clean.........oh boy.......
So the chickie here is my girlfriend Mrs. Hockey (named cause she plays every Friday night and is much more aggressive than her husband, she kicks complete arse.....) we typically spend every Sunday together while the guys work. We shop and we hang, cause I haven't been to church lately, but I'm starting back this Sunday so yeah me. Anywho, Mrs. Hockey and I were the chicks in charge of being in charge. We were cracking the whip. And ordering the massive amounts of food that was required to feed all these people. Plus, we switched to Dr. Pepper to avoid the tainted coke cans.....they almost got away with imbibing at my moving party. But honestly, this is one of the dangers of having so many of these rogues in one spot at one time.

Speaking of dangers......Poor guy......they completed nailed him twice with the headboard of my bed. Sorry fellow........there is ice......in the cooler......over there
As he waddled away, the rest just kinda too it in stride, laughing............

So the end product is not quite to my liking. But as of 5 p.m. on Friday, we were completely moved into the new house. Dang.............now we're unpacking..........still............and could use some help...........please.........

More interior shots to come tomorrow...........see you then

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Blank Canvas.....

Welcome to our new home.......come on inside.
This is the view from my front door.......so if I kick you out of my house, this is what you will see. Beautiful green grass......they love them some stucco here.....but the mountains in the background. Worth it. I do miss my morning lake views but I own this view. It rocks. The house across from me is for sale too, anyone want to be my neighbor......oh won't you be my neighbor....
Duchess is introducing the brand new kitchen........ohhhhhhhh.....pretty. I wasn't too sure about the cabnet color but everyone else raved about it, so I shut up. Then I realized it perfectly matched my table and was an upgrade on the model of my house. Sweet, I am in love with it now. The floors rock. I do love me some hardwood floors. Plus the major theme of my home decorating is wood and iron so there you go. This house was build with me in mind.

I lost some dining room space but you won't hear me crying.....the other one was so big and awkward that it was hard to decorate and didn't have that homey feeling that I love. Plus my pub table works well in this area......
This is the entrance to my living room. You see the coat closet.....You see the stairs to the full basement......off to the left you can see the foyer and the other end of that little hallway leads to bedrooms. I must admit that I am loving me some one level living. 10 plus years of multi-level living just sucked once I realized how much easier life is when you're all spread out on one floor. The Man gets points for knowing this ahead of time and forcing the rambler living.

More to come over the next couple of days........you'll get to see, gasp.....the reality of civilian moving. Which might be normal to most of you, but this was my FIRST non-military move. Meaning I couldn't sit and sip iced tea and just point, I had to actually work.......

It was not pretty.....you've been warned.

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Our New Home

Forgive me, as I'll not be blogging till I have new wireless service, in my new house. (Unless I can mooch off a neighbor's....)

Today we bought our home, we closed. Tomorrow we get the key and we're moving. Tomorrow morning, we're going to be buying blinds, curtain rods, and then we're rolling naked through the deep beautiful green grass........hello, new neighbors.....

We left the military dreaming of settling somewhere to do just this......thank you Lord, a year and a half later, here we are!

Plenty of inside pics coming, although please don't let me kill you with tons of house talk. I hate that.

So about the house........wink wink

"Home Sweet Home"

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The Silver Lining

This beautiful shot was taken off my back porch. I just love it, the beauty of God's work. Plus, it's the perfect representation of my silver lining........

We are scheduled to close on our house at 4 p.m.

Cross your fingers.........

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New Paths

Having just celebrated our six month anniversary Post-Navy, I thought it would be a good time to reflect on the differences between Navy life (military life) and civilian life.

Leaving the military was never something we seriously considered until The Man was just shy of his nine year mark. We had already done two dutys and were looking at choices for our third when bam! it hit him upside the head. A little voice that said "hey there is life outside of the Navy, life where you can see your kids everyday, you've given them almost ten years and maybe we can move on and be proud of that, somewhere else."

That little voice turned into a roar and before we knew it, we were civilian job hunting, attempting to turn ten years of military experience into a civilian resume (OMG, you have no clue how hard that was, just try googling military resumes! Civilian employers can't read them darn things!) and attempting to ascertain life outside of the Navy.

That was not easy. For instance, we were leaving behind:

insurance for the whole family, at no cost
reduced daycare costs on base
the uber grocery store where everything is about 20% cheaper than civilian stores
the sweet department store , read above line, same thing
military housing: reduced rent in great military only communities, people in the same boat as you, no pun intended
life insurance on The Man

However, we were also leaving:

6 month plus deployments with contact only via email or occassional phone calls
Duty nights every three to six nights where The Man was required to spend 24 hours on the ship away from us
Missed holidays, birthdays, and special occassions like oh I don't know, births!
Navy having total control of The Man and therefore the family

Having six months of civilian life under my belt, I will say this: it was the best move for us.

We were able to pick any location in the US and move there. We were able to find great housing in a good neighborhood and get the kids involved into the local scenes. I breath very deeply every morning when I get up cause I smell his aftershave. He may already be gone for the day but he was there and there is more proof in the dirty clothes on the floor. Cause he is there at home everyday!

He is able to be more involved in our family, he picks up kids, drops off kids, runs to the grocery store (can't recall him ever volunteering to go to the commissary) and does the errands on his days off. He is not just passing through our house anymore or as Duchess used to say "visiting". He lives there full time. He can be found taking the family shooting, fishing or just hanging out. He even cleans and cooks some too.

Yeah, we are truly loving civilian life. Now a better question is would we trade our military life for the past ten years? NEVER. That was an experience of a lifetime and I'm taking so much with me from it.

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On A May Day

We have been blessed to have lived in several different areas of the US of A throughout our tenure with the Navy. However, I've never experienced anything like where we live now. Texas is hotter than I imagine Hell to be, California is busy, crowded and laid back, Chicago is rushed, frantic paced and Louisiana has the moist thick air that makes four showers a day seem reasonable.

But here? Sunny bright days, the lake effect helps with the heat so its very pleasant, even chilly in the mornings, beautiful and crisp in the afternoons. But today... in MAY! Snow flurries.
At four this afternoon it looked like a cool February day. Misty weather and crisp air filled with snow flurries and showers.

It was amazing. I love it here. I have fallen in love with my new home. That is a good thing.

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Child Labor Laws-- Pish!

There are reasons that people procreate. It's fun getting there, once there you get a cutey little patootie that looks like you. Plus when they get bigger, they can do chores. That rocks.

There is nothing like a big ole dirty house with lots of people tromping through it to make a nasty mess. However daunting the task, I never fear to pull out the secret weapon....my kids.
Duchess has a look of horror as she views the extent of the work that is to be done. See Mimi and Pepaw need their truck unloaded, as all their things have finally arrived, this past Saturday! So now the downstairs apartment is lovely and full of their things. The hard part was getting it down there. Since their place is a walk out we figured we may as well carry it down the hill beside the house and walk it all in through the back door. Simple, right?

So what do you do when all the adults are exhausted from moving the furniture and yet many more boxes are staring at you from the arse end of a moving van? Oh children.......

Behold.....I present to you....the reason we procreate....

One red wagon, one strapping young girl straight from tumbling class, lots of energy, and a million boxes. Yep, we drank iced tea on the porch and watched as the show went on without us.

After they were done, we gave them bread and water and a pat on the head....good children.

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Weather, The Big Tease

The weather here has been teasing us all week. Cold, not so cold, burrr and then boom, today was actually nice. Still cold but no wind so we were able to finally venture out of the house (further than the driveway). So we went for a power walk (bike ride) down the street to the marina. I wanted to see if the ice was really hard enough to walk on. On the way there, I realized the view of the back of my house was awesome, so here you go. Sorry it's a little dark, the sun went away at the precise minute I lifted the camera.

So off we went, determined to see the frozen marina/lake area. First thing I noticed, the locals were all over the ice, playing hockey, ice fishing and even skating. Hell, their dogs were out there too. Did I? Nope cause I'm a big fat chicken, see the water had started melting at the far end and I don't trust it! Chicken, I tell you. So here are my two lovely little girls. So cute holding hands and carefully walking along. This photo is completely untouched! The background of the mountains is what we see everyday at our new home. I love it here, very big reminder that God is magnificent!

Got home and even felt productive enough to hose all the nasty snow/ice leftovers off The Man's truck so it's purty again. Besides can't have it dirtying up my driveway! Then I felt compelled to clean off the driveway, then the street immediately in front of that, then hose it all down to the drain. Anal much? I need a job, but that sage is another story another day. :)

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