Rambles

I always say to myself on Friday "sweet...I will have time to write this weekend" and it never happens. Life gets in the way, and it is perfect that way.

We spent all of Saturday going here and there, getting things done and playing outside in the cool Minnesota Spring weather. We are working to retrain Koda on some things, and took our first walk as a family since last fall. It was glorious.

Today was another day, only we actually did some house stuff.

Have I mentioned before that I DETEST wallpaper? I am FINALLY getting to pealing the wallpaper in the kitchen (it gives me nightmares...seriously) and it feels so good to get it done. I am still up in the air on colors for the room, but we found at least an accent color (I think). I am going back to Home Depot tomorrow...so who knows what I will come out with in the end.

I am listening for Boo tonight. She has been getting some headaches and they are waking her up in the middle of the night. The poor girl can't catch a break it seems. Hopefully it is just something she is going through because Mama needs a break!

And that concludes the most boring post ever...man...my brain is shutting off and ready for bed.

Night all!!

Almost Garden Season!

Today was a day for nothing. We had nothing planned, nothing we HAD to get done. It was perfect.

And the weather, sweet mother is was FANTASTIC! We had windows down in the car, no coats...wonderful.

We are planning our garden for the year, and have spent the past few weeks talking about what we wanted, how much and where. The where is still iffy, but we know Tomatoes (duh), onions, cucumbers, peppers, green beans and snap peas. I can't wait. Fresh green beans are the best, snap peas too. Last year we had a ton from my sisters garden, and my in-laws, but this year we will grow our own.

The worst part about it, planting indoors for 6 weeks due to snow, frost and still frozen ground. Tomatoes and a couple others will have to be started indoors, but not too many. It just makes a mess of things at times. Especially since we have to find a place with sunlight that Koda won't get at. That is always a challenge.

And don't get me started on flowers. I planted some tulips on my own this fall, and I can't wait to see if they come in or not. I adore tulips. They are my favorite flower ever. But I need some more spring/summer flowers that are hearty...I kill flowers. It is really a gift I am told.

So, what flowers do you put in? What have you found that lasts? What veggies do you love to do?

Let the snow come

About a week and a half ago we had our first big snow fall, 7 inches or so but some killer winds. The winds were so bad that Boo's school was canceled because they couldn't keep the doorways cleared.

The night before, when there was about 3 inches on the ground I shoveled so that Hubby could get out and that it wouldn't be to bad the next night. Little did I know that Hubby would be home sick, and school/work would be off.

Boo decided that playing in the snow was way more fun that helping me get it off the driveway. I buried here as I went along, and she had the best time.

Here I am, all bundled up ready to clear the way, and it was fabulous. This was the first snow fall in OUR house, one that I knew would be exciting (nerve wracking) and wonderful. Who knew what the house would "do" in the snow, it was completely new.

We survived the snow, and the snow day. We spent most of it watching the snow fall, watching movies and napping on the couch. It was glorious.

What I Learned this Week

I am a day behind on this, but still wanted to link up with Musings of a Housewife's What I Learned This Week party. So, let's begin shall we!

- Know what's worse than a sleep walking Boo...a SASSY ATTITUDE filled sleep walking Boo. I laughed, because it is sort of funny.

- Trying to clean your house, while you husband is framing in your bathroom, the kids are "helping" and the dog is running around like a crazy person doesn't really work.

- The grocery store is REALLY quiet at 1 am on a Saturday.

- If you beg enough, you just might get your name "drawn" for your child's field trip. Just maybe.

- Having the chance to see the play you were in as a child WITH your child, will make you bed, plead and borrow. Just saying...

- A total of 40+ leaf bags is what it took to clean our yard.

- It is not fun having to explain your self over and over and over again.

That's it, it wasn't that big of a week.

Head on over to Musings of a Housewife for more What I Learned This Week posts.

Building a Bathroom

The "random toilet" won't be random much longer...

We got Construction!! Woohoo!!!

Boo's Room - the Finished Product

I was reminded last week by my IRL friend Andrea that I hadn't posted the last of Boo's room pictures. I was slacking...sorry. lol

So, this post is really picture heavy, just bear with me, you will love it.

First is Boo's three drawer night-stand. It was in Hunters room for many years, and before that in Hubby's room at his parents house. It has been beaten up, repaired and repainted more times than I can count. When it was Hunter's it was forest green with dark brown shelves to match his old room theme.

I sanded down the entire thing, drawers too. It was easy to do, just a pain. I was covered in green and brown flecks. After that I primed it, to cover the dark colors.

Once that was dry, I spray painted the main part of the shelves a silver. It matches a lot of things in her room, and adds to the girly/glam look she wanted. The drawers were painted the three colors of her square wall with silver drawer pulls. Because of how skinny (and shoddy) the drawers are it took a while to find short enough drawer pulls. That was the hardest part of it.

Here is the finished look:

Next up was her bed. It was a garage sale find, one that we loved. It was cream with posts on the headboard, but they had been broken on the foot end. I sawed off the broken parts on the end of the bed, and sanded it all down using a power sander (power tools are FUN!!). This was easy, except the foot board had some trim that was sort of the pain.

Orginally I was going to paint only the trim silver and the rest white, but once we saw how cool it looked silver I couldn't resist. It was easy to paint, using the same silver spray paint we used on the night stand. I just laid the bed down on a tarp in the yard and did one side at a time. I sealed it will a clear gloss, so the paint wouldn't chip later on.

Now that it is all done, I LOVE IT! It looks so glamorous in her room, and she loves that bed is so different from everyone elses.

We also did one of her hanging shelves in silver, along with a metal sign I had won from An Iowa Mom long ago. It simply says "Dream" and is hanging on a white shelve above her bed. It is a perfect fit in there.

Here is a shot of her finished room, well as finished as it is right now. There are a few other things I want to do, mirrors and picture frames mostly. It is a very girly room, and she loves it.

If only it was clean...

Boo's Room - The great room switch part 3

How many of you remember what Boo's room looked like when we moved in...here is a picture to refresh your memory.

While the room was perfect for Hunter and his love of hockey, Boo wanted something a bit more girly when the kids switched rooms. I was more than happy to oblige her, as the kids have never had rooms to decorate before.

We started off stripping the wallpaper border, which I think was held up with super glue. It was very difficult to get off, it took two different nights to get it all off. Then sanding and washing the walls to make the surface perfect for painting.

Next up, primer. With the dark green, there was no way I wasn't going to have to prime the heck out of these walls. That was one night, not counting the wall I missed...so really one and half (no clue how I missed a wall, well half a wall. Boo painted the lower and I forgot about the upper.).

Next came the fun part. We painted three of the walls a wonderful lavender color. Boo picked all the colors in this room, so it was really hers. She wanted bold colors, but also some soft ones. It was fun to see her mind work through each step. Boo even got in to help paint the lavender. She got more on her than the wall, but that's alright.

After that, I couldn't have her help me. I had to paint the remaining wall a silver/gray color so that I could mark out about 80 squares. Yes, 80 squares on her wall. I don't know the exact number, I lost count at about 67 or so. lol

Boo wanted squares. I did some research and finally found a couple examples of the best way to lay it out so it didn't seem to overpoweringly modern for a little girls room. It took me about 2 hours to tape out the first set of squares.

Oh...didn't I tell you they were overlapping?

Big Sis came over to help with the first set of squares, mostly big ones, but after that I was solo. It was a lot of work, and there were days I just wanted it DONE, but then Boo would walk in, and I would see how excited she was, and I got right back to work.

As the days went on, with second coats being done, more taping and touch ups it became more clear that this was going to be a cool room. Boo would do a happy dance every time she walked in, I painted her bed, a shelf and her night stand. I kept adding different touches to make this room her own.

Monday night, it was done. The last coat was added, the last 5 squares were painted. The touch ups were done, and any errors were fixed and painted. All the tape was removed, and the floors scrubbed.

Last night, Boo moved back into her room. Thanks to Ma coming over, it was quick and painless. She loves it. She got home from school today and laid on her bed just looking around her room.

Oh...you want to see the wall?

Really?

Okay...

Boo picked three colors that balanced nicely together. We did the lightest color on the three walls, and are using the other two as accents throughout her room as it comes more together. She also has an accent of silver, but that I will show you later. She picked the perfect pallet. Even the Menards Paint Guy was impressed, and told her how perfect the colors were together. The Colors are Dutch Boy Lavender Luck, Royal Liqueur and Surfing U.S.A.

This project turned out even better then I could have ever hoped. It took over a week, but is so worth it. I am so lucky to have Big Sis and Ma around to help if I need, or just to answer the questions I may have about painting.

I do have to say that I am proud of myself. 90% of the painting was done by myself, something I didn't think I could have done. It was great to get it done, and done in a way that Boo was involved all the time.

Now, I am going to go lay on Boo's bed and just look at the wall.

What I learned this week

This Labor Day was just that, labor. I spent 80% of my day butting heads with Koda (worse than the 12 year old sometimes) or working on Boo's room...which still isn't done.

I learned a lot this weekend, most of which have to do WITH the weekend and a little beyond.

- Painting is hard, but doing what your daughter wants can make it even harder if she wants something completely out of her norm ( I swear I will post pictures when I am done!!).

- Watching your daughter smile everytime she walks into her room to see the progress makes it worth the sore arms, hands and shoulders. Very worth it.

- In order to do what Boo wants, I have gone through 3, count them, 3 rolls of painters tape, and I'M NOT DONE YET. At least one more roll will be used this week. I am seeing Blue Tape in my sleep!

- A 7 year old that is UBER excited to start 2nd grade tomorrow will have a hard time falling asleep. Still. After two hours...and counting.

- Hardwood floors are not the best thing for a dog. Koda body slammed himself into the wall AGAIN, and dog-SCREAMED so loud I thought he had broken something. He was good, and back to his normal puppy-crazy self within a few minutes, but my heart took some time.

- Canning tomatoes is great, but time consuming and messy. I have had to mop three times this weekend. But we are pretty much set for chili season.

- We need a fence. NEED A FENCE. 11 more days, that is what I keep telling myself.

- Preparing for said fence will cause Hubby to work outside a TON digging holes and measuring where the posts will go. This is forcing me away from Boo's room. Not a good combo.

- I still miss Hunter. I talked to him tonight to wish him a good first day at school and it was hard. Better, but hard.

For more What I Learned this Week posts, head on over to Musings of a Housewife.

Painting is fun...or that is what I am telling myself

My weekend has been spent painting, canning and cleaning. More the first two than the last, but oh well. Boo's room is up for painting, and of course it is taking so much longer than I thought it could. But she is helping, not sure if that is a good thing or a bad...

On top of painting her room, I am painting some of her furniture too. Her bed was old and beaten up, a garage sale find a couple years ago. Her night stand used to be Hunters, but with the room switch he had to pick between two and he chose his sports one. So sanding, painting, priming and sealing have taken over the weekend, and just might tomorrow too.

Actually, I know it will but that is okay. We are having our "house warming" at the end of the month, and I want it all done by then. We also will be painting the kitchen in a couple weeks, after I peel some wall paper that if anything like Boo's room is held up with SUPER GLUE. Ug!

I am going to rest my sore and painful hands...who knew painting was such laborus work!

The Room Switch Part 2

I haven't painted since I was 16, for my self at least. I helped my Dad a couple times, but not in 14 years for myself.

This past week, while the kids were gone we got started on Hunter's room. If you remember, the kids are switching rooms. We didn't think Hunter would appreciate the purple and dragonflies like Boo did.

So, I picked out some "approved" paint samples and he debated for two days.

TWO DAYS. It's paint man, you can change it in two years if you want too. Man alive.

Finally we came to an agreement. Black was not, I repeat NOT an option.

So he settled for tan with blue and green stripes. I curse Big Sis for suggesting stripes by the way.

With my back being goofy, I couldn't do most of the taping, but Big Sis took care of that for us. She spent a lot of time getting the top lines straight, and the bottom line too. She was a ROCK STAR!!

So, here are pictures. It took three days, two coats for the green and blue and three rolls of tape to get the windows, doors, baseboards and stripes done right. We even reused some tape so we didn't have to start another roll (look at us saving money! woohoo!).

The tan is called "Camel", and has lot of gold in it. It looks really bright during the day. That is a major bonus since the room is smaller. Having the tan break at the top and between the blue and green made a difference too. I worried it would pull down the ceiling, make the room even smaller. Having that tan stripe makes all the difference.

Hunter is moved into his room, and he loves it. His space, his way. He loves his big window, the closer space and his own colors. I have to say it turned out pretty cool.

Boo's room is next, once I peel some wall paper...not the best time ever.

Little bit of this and that

My Kidlets have called, they are alive and having the BEST TIME EVER (Boo told me I had to write that HUGE). They have seen prairie dogs, baby prairie dogs, lions, tigers and bears (oh my). They have been to the Corn Palace, Wal-Drug and Mount Rushmore.

But they miss us.

Both make me happy.

I am all kinds of random today, so here we go...

-I am about half way through painting Hunter's room. Ma and Big Sis were over on Monday helping me tape and paint. Taping takes FOREVER, but the painting took maybe 20 minutes. Tonight Ma, Lia and I are taping more and painting the next color. Hunter wants stripes...so he gets stripes.

-Boo has picked her paint colors too. Her room will take FOREVER a little longer because it is that dark green. But, she has some cool ideas and is going in a direction that I NEVER would have thought from her. It will be wondeful when it is all done.

-I am sad that Brooks & Dunn are retiring.

They are wonderful.

-I haven't started getting Boo's school supplies, but did find out what was needed to excuse her from gym the first week of school. Priorities I guess.

-We only have two and half weeks of Hunter left.

I can't talk about it.

-Lia is getting married. Finally. In 9 months.

I get to be in the wedding!!!

Now, time to paint some more...

The Room Switch

Last week I asked a question on Twitter, and got a couple great responses from Fried Okra and The Mommy Esquire.

Boo has the smallest room EVER. I asked for ideas to make it more livable, and storage friendly. I was told: shelves with drawers, under bed boxes, purge stuff (already did that, but man why do girls have so MUCH STUFF) and either a Captains Bed or a Loft Bed.

Well, we got Hunter a Captains Bed, and we just got rid of our Loft Bed. We didn't want to get rid of Boo's bed, she just got it and loves the posts that she can hang her array of baseball caps on. Boo made me nervous on the Loft Bed, she falls off a regular bed.

So we made an executive decision on Sunday. The kids are switching rooms.

The only reason they are in the rooms they are currently in is because of how they are painted. We didn't want to paint every room in the house (except ours and the living room) and we knew that we couldn't paint until we closed. We wanted simplicity...but now it is just a MAJOR pain the butt.

Our reasons for switching are easy ones.

- Girls have WAY MORE STUFF. It's true. If you only have girls you may not know any different. But if you have one of each, you understand my pain. If you have all boys, I don't even want to hear about it (except if you have three boys like some Iowa bloggers I know you may feel my pain.).

- Hunter will be moving to a new room next year, so why should I wait.

- Hunter has the Captains Bed, he has TONS of storage already, it will be a smooth transition.

- Did I mention that girls have a TON OF STUFF!

So, next week while they are gone I will be working hard to get at least Hunter's new room done. Boo can live with the Wild colors, the girl loves hockey. Hunter, not so much with the dragon flies and purple. He is not a fan.

Here are the before pictures:

Boo's "old" room (it is purple, with dragon fly wallpaper.)

Hunter's old room:

Wish me LUCK!!

Our House Story - Part 1

So...I have been keeping a secret. It isn't anything major, I just haven't told anyone except for family and a few people at work that are in similar situations.


We haven't closed on our house yet.

Well, NOW we have, but not until this past Wednesday.


See...this is where the story gets long and boring and if you make it through it you will be my hero. lol

We put an offer in on this house in March. Yes...March.

We started looking at houses in late January/early February. We looked at a TON of houses, so many I lost count. We took a ton of pictures, so many that my memory card got almost full ( and that takes a lot to do).

Finally, we found the house. It was our second look, and while I loved the house from the get go, Hubby was a second-look kinda guy.

Which house?

The Random Toilet House.

The random toilet didn't scare us, as it had scared so many others. It had been on the market for almost a year when we made our offer, sat empty that entire time. The owners had split and moved to opposite sides of the world really.

The house was a short sale. I wrote that post in March if that's any indication of how LONG this has gone on. At that point it had been just three weeks.

It is now July people...you do the math (okay...almost 5 months after we put our offer in).

So, we waited...

And waited...

And waited some more...

Finally, the end of April Hubby called the Selling Agent. No normally how it is done, but oh well.

He told us that it was looking like it could be up to another 4 weeks before the second mortgage agreed to a price.

Let me tell you how frustrated I was with that piece of information.

We told him our lease was up the end of May, we had to make a choice.

1 - keep waiting, and have no where to live the end of May

or

2 - Move on, pull our offer and try for a different house risking another short sale

He had a third plan, and this is where it can get confusing for so many people...

We could rent the house until we close, have a contract for closing drawn up stating that we will close on the house when it is finally ready to happen.

We would be in charge of all maintence on the house, and the sellers would maintain homeowners insurance. If something broke, we would fix it (which we found out 1 week after moving in...the sewer backed up. Thankfully, no tree roots. Just from lack of use).

However, we couldn't change the things that many people want to change when they move in: garage code, paint colors and putting in a fence. I was even leery of planting a garden.

This is scary for a couple reasons. What if it takes MONTHS to happen? What if something (anything) happens that would prevent us from being ABLE to close on the house? What if we find that after two months we hate the house?

We talked about it for days. We thought about it, did pros and cons and asked family for their opinions. We got advise from other agents, and found out that there are so many people that are doing this now.

With the amount of short sales in the market right now, a great deal of people are renting their houses before they close on them, just to get into them. Many of them, in situations like ours.

Not only was our lease up, but if we didn't move by the last day of Boo's school, she would have to change schools. We did NOT want that. Her school has had a LOT of changes in the past few months and we wanted her to continue to be a part of it.

So, we took the plunge. We signed the contract for closing and moved in in May. We only unpacked the things we needed to live. No pictures, games and very little toys for the kids. Our walls are STILL empty, but that will change this weekend.

It was two weeks after we moved in that we found out that the first mortgage accepted our offer, no counter offer at all. That was great news.

But we still had to wait for the second mortgage.

About two weeks later we found out that second mortgage accept our offer, with a side deal that we agreed to. We wanted to be done.

Then the waiting began again. Short sales are not a high priority to close. It was 6 weeks after we got the acceptance from the second mortgage before we finally closed.

And that was delayed.

5 Days later...Wednesday...we closed.

FINALLY.

It is done.

We signed the bajillion pieces of paper, and the house is ours. We can hang pictures, we can paint, we can put up a fence for Koda.

We can move in.

But...there is more...

This is only the tip of our heartache/frustration/anger.

There is more to come...and not from a likely source.

That's It!

Our fridge is dying.

A slow, painful and LOUD death. It started this morning, and the motor is going non-stop with this rattle, banging type noise.

It is not pleasant, and I am not a fan.

But, we have already bought our new one, and will be picking it up tomorrow. Thankfully it will only take a couple hours to "warm up" once we have it here so the level of annoying isn't to bad.

Plus, we will unplug the the current beast tonight because I can't STAND the noise that is coming from it.

Did I mention it is RIGHT NEXT to my computer? Yeah...lots of fun.

Alice is wonderful!!

Oh Alice, how long I have searched for you...

You have no idea how giddy I was when Musings of a Housewife e-mailed me letting me know that I won a $100 gift card to Alice.

Please tell me you have heard of Alice. The bloggy world has been a-buzz with news of Alice. This is the most wonderful shopping site I have seen, for the thing you are always in need of: toilet paper, zip-loc bags, cleaning supplies and even snacks!

I spent almost two days looking at what I needed, wanted and HAD to get. We are always running out of things in our house, like many houses with kids. We can always use tooth paste, shampoo and zip-loc bags. We always use tin foil, our Swiffer and glass cleaner.

So, I got those things and so much more! Plus, they had a deal going where you got $10 off with you first $50 purchased! PLUS I got an additional $13 off because my order was over $100! It was hog heaven I tell you!

So today, the cute little blue and black boxes came via UPS, only two days after I placed my order. I saw the UPS Man drive up, and was waiting outside before he even got out of his truck. I dove into those boxes before he was BACK to his truck.

Everything was packaged so nicely. The dishwasher detergent was in a bag so the odor wouldn't seep into other things, and in case of a spill, same with the dryer sheets. We all know how strong those can be, so having them wrapped to block it was nice. Anything with a plunger was taped down to prevent accidental spills, and all was protected by recycled bubble wrap.

There are so many extras to Alice, I don't know where to begin.

• Free Shipping...always!
• Budgeting tools! You can monitor your monthly spending and see where to cut back.
• COUPONS!! They have so many coupons! I was able to save almost $20 this order with their vast amount of coupons.
• The ease of shopping at home. When you notice that you are running low on anything, get your order ready.

With the good, there are always bads.

• Must have at least three items to order. This isn't really a bad, but something that some might find inconvenient.
• While you may have a coupon for laundry detergent, Alice may not have it. There isn't a way to apply your own coupons.
• Bulk items not available. I buy the HUGE bottle of laundry detergent, and that size is not available online (probably for weight reasons). There are also no bulk paper towels, which we use plenty. They have three rolls max, but I usually buy 12 at a time.

Alice is a tool that we will be using from now on, I can't wait to place my next order.

Head on over to Alice to watch the video testimonials and get other information. If you do head over, click here or the banner below so they know you came from here.

Thanks Alice for the great service!! Like Musings of a Housewife says...We Could All Use an Alice!

We got CURBS!!!

Today is an exciting day...not only is Boo sleeping over at Big Sis's house (which she LOVES by the way) and Hubby and I had a date, but WE HAVE CURBS!! Well...one side of curbs. After tomorrow, we will have BOTH SIDES OF CURBS!! Woohoo!!

The end is in sight. I can feel it coming. Starting Monday we will be even closer to having a road! A ROAD! Can you believe it! Six weeks of living with construction...and it is almost ending.

I need to sit down.

You Capture - Feel

It its another week of You Capture hosted by Beth at I Should be Folding Laundry. This weeks theme: Feel

I was at a loss for this weeks assignment. I had no idea what to take pictures of, and didn't have a lot of time to take pictures either. As I looked at the few of this past week, I have two that bring up the most feelings, both frustration and joy.

First, we have the front of our house. With the road work that is taking place, there seems to be stuff everywhere. And our house, seems to be the dumping ground for all things concrete.

At first I was frustrated, it is simply not pretty. But then Boo said "Oh Mom...they must be so sad being dumped there". Then I felt less frustration and more in awe of my daughter.



Next we have the first time Boo is going through the sprinkler, I think ever. We set it up on Sunday and she had the best time. It made me think of all the times we would go through the sprinkler, down the slip'n'slide and even to the local pool as kids. So much joy comes from those memories.

Plus, hearing Boo scream because it was so cold was a bonus!
For more You Capture posts, head on over to I Should be Folding Laundry.

The Yard is ours

I am sitting here lurking at the Old Navy Weekly coupon site just waiting for the new ones to load. I haven't had a ton of luck so far, but this week might change that. Mama needs new flip-flops... This weekend we finally took care of this branch, and a bunch of other ones too. Spent a good 4 hours raking, chopping and chipping wood, leaves and pine needles. Thankfully Ma and Brother-In-Law came over to help us out. It would have taken us FOREVER otherwise.

We have 15 bags of leaves, branches and grass plus the yard receptacle. 15 Bags!! Holy Schmooly! Plus, all of this was from what we thought was a sand-box, but is in fact a garden! Who would have thought.


Hubby was all over getting that branch down, chain saw and all. He had a field day, and even found MORE things to cut down...boys and their toys. Once I opened my eyes and the branch was down, we chipped away.

Renting a wood chipper is probably the best thing we did all weekend. Sorting and bundling all the branches would have taken days. Instead, we had the chipper for just over two hours and got everything done that could go through it. My Dad is taking all the logs.

Hubby just plugged in his ipod, BIL had some ear plugs and they went to town. BIL even found some old wood buried in the woodsy area behind us that they chipped.

Koda was in his kennel, he is scared of pretty much anything right now. Boo hid in the basement to avoid the noise, otherwise she was outside helping us all day. We got a ton done, but there is still a lot more to do. Next weekend we are weeding along the fence, maybe we will know better what is growing over there.

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

We got a man down

This past week we had some high powered wind come through. Walking to my car after work was a challenge, driving too.

When we got home from cleaning the old place, we found a very large branch down.

Hubby cleaned it up as best he could, trimming the branches with a hand saw. My Dad brought us his chain saw, and until next weekend it will hang a bit, but a good 5 feet off the ground so the kids don't mess with it.

I told Hubby "You wanted yard work...there you go..."

The Construction Story

The weeks before we moved into our house, I would stalk drive by the house at least once day. I would literally come up with reasons to leave and drive by the house. I know that Hubby knew what I was doing, but it felt sinister.

Well, the Thursday before Mother's Day Hubby was out of town for Fishing Opener. Boo and I were heading for a night of baseball, and we just had to drive by the house.

What did we see just before we started down the hill??



Crap...that can't be a good sign.

Then we saw these...

Maybe a block away from the house. Not good...not good at all.

Then we get to the house, and see this...

That's when I knew moving would be interesting.

I called the city, and talked to the project manager.

They were tearing up our road to lay a new water main and repave the road, starting the Monday before we moved (last week). I sat at my desk and cried. I knew it was going to be a rough move.

Wednesday I talked to the project inspector, and he assured me that they wouldn't be as far down as our house by Friday. He was certain.

Yeah right. Famous last words man!

As I turned down the road to our house on Friday, I was greeted by piles of dirt and a lot of road work guys. I was stopped and told that that part of the road was closed, one house down from ours. I went the long way around, and was told by three guys that the road was closed. After the first one I was in tears.

I called Ryan, after snapping at the poor road guy that IHADTOGETTOMYHOUSEIAMMOVINGINTODAY, and asked him to find the inspector's phone number. I could see the house, but was stuck behind some large piece of machinery, crying. My father-in-law was waiting in the driveway, and I was stuck.

When I finally got to the house, Hubby called me with the number, my father-in-law left to meet Hubby and I was told the inspector was on his way to my house, he was minutes away.

He introduced me to the Foremen, and was told the timetable of the days work.

We had until 10:30 to use our driveway and then it was being torn up for lay the new water main. The entry to our driveway would be replaced by 3 that afternoon, after we would already be pretty much done moving stuff for the day.

Did I mention that one side of the road was completely torn up, gone. It was dirt and rock. So the one good side meant no parking on that side. There was no where to park right in front of our house! NO WHERE.

Thankfully, we had met one of our neighbors on Thursday and she was kind enough to let us use her driveway most of the day. She let us walk across her lawn countless times, and even offered to help.

After three trips and lots of watching the construction guys work I was ready to be done. Our driveway was replaced by 3, and we will have a new road in about 2 months.

To say it was the most stressful move is putting it mildly.