There you go! Happy HNT!

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Crude… but really funny!

Related Tags: HNT, Half-Nekkid Thursday, Happy HNT, legs, Thursday, crude but funny, funny

Guess what? I’ve got a new renter…

Hurry up and wait seems to be the name of the game these days. I know I’ve mentioned the new house almost non-stop over the last week (or month, whatever) I can’t help it, it seems to be the top on my lists of obsessions. . I’m planning on getting some major packing done during spring break (about a week and half away now) it just seems like the right thing to do when I have full-time slaves children on my hands with nothing to do but annoy me and each other.

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Maggie and I got home this morning after dropping E and K off at school. Maggie instantly spotted a fat pidgeon on our front lawn…

“Hey Chicken, what doing?”

“Here Chicken Chicken *makes chicken noises*”

Later that afternoon we were getting back into the car to go get E & K…

“Hey Chicken! Where go?”

“Oh no! Chicken gone.”

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Actual phone conversation:

Me: So, uh, about dinner… E & K are spending the night at my mom’s, it’s just the three of us.

Mike: Oh, ok.

Me: I’m thinking Atkins shakes for dinner.

*silence*

Me: So, that’s a no?

Mike: Uh, yeah.

Me: Thought so.

It’s cold and rainy today. The weather has just been so strange over the last 5 months. I’m about 15 minutes away from making the long drive across town to pick the kids up. It’s only Tuesday and I’m ready for the week to be over.

I found out yesterday that the little jackass who arrived on motorcycle to inspect and complete the appraisal on our house brought it in $5,000.00 LESS than the conservative appraiser who appraised it LAST JULY. Now, the market has softened slightly but values have NOT gone down and the average value in our neighborhood is $16,000.00 MORE than what he appraised our house at. Not to mention our house is one of the largest in the neighborhood (granted, it’s only 1600 sq. ft. but that actually makes a HUGE difference when all the other houses are under 1400 and most with only 1 bathroom while we have TWO).

In short, the “appraiser” was actually a trainee working under Daddy’s supervision (although no one was supervising him when he inspected MY house) and Daddy apparently has a hard-on for Mike’s boss. I’m sure it’s like this everywhere but around here if you are a member of, for example, the dental profession than it’s a very small community where everyone knows about everyone else’s business. It’s no different in the real estate portion of the community either.

Apparently there is a lot of very bad blood between Mike’s boss and snot-nose, wet behind the ears, poor excuse for an appraiser’s Daddy.

So in short… he low-balled our value just to be an asshole.

Fortunately, Mike pulled a ton of comparable properties to support a much higher value and the appraisal is going to be contested. We’ll see what happens…

I hate assholes.

This is the only excuse I can come up with to explain the strange things going on around the world lately.

Sometimes the negativity around me is absolutely overwhelming. I don’t necessarily mean negative people… just seems like there is a lot of bad “stuff” going around. I feel like I am spending a lot of time telling people how sorry I am that bad things have happened and are happening to them. Not that I don’t mean it, I definitely do.

I guess I am wondering WHY? Why do all of these things have to happen to such wonderful people and why all of it now?

Perhaps I’m being overly dramatic and Monday is REALLY getting to me. It seems like everything today has taken extra effort that I don’t have to spare.

In my daily existence outside of the Blogosphere it seems that there are a select few people who have absolutely no clue that the past month or so and the next 30 days are all about us on our toes moving at a near-frantic pace until the loans close, we have the keys in our sweaty palms, and all the boxes are safely distributed to their rightful place in the new house.

I have to say that my mom absolutely rocks. She gets this whole thing (having been forced out of her house by a fire a little over a two years ago) and what it is going to take to get out of this house and into the new one. Even though she drives me up the wall reminding me about “timing” and “reminder lists” and “getting at least three estimates” - I’m still glad that she’s here to do it.

And, she’s not all about the advice either, she actually dropped all but one class this quarter (even though she is graduating in June) because she knows I’m not going to be able to pick Ethan and GJ up for lunch every day AND get moved into the new house. She thinks about that sort of thing WAY ahead of time and acts on it.

Then there are other people who are completely oblivious. ‘Nuf said.

Usually, I use my daily blogreading as a way to escape and get away from it all - and boy, do I understand that not everyone can be happy and funny 100% of the time but lately, almost everybody out here has been going through a really tough time so I’m just about convinced that something strange is in the air.

I’m in CE Therapy now, which works out really well for this time of year. CE… Cadbury Egg. I’m a hopeless addict and this time of year wreaks absolute havoc on my best low-carb intentions. So until the universe moves into a more positive alignment, I figure SOMETHING has to give somewhere and it might as well be covered in chocolate with a sweet, gooey, creamy center.

I’ve got nothing important or even remotely entertaining to say today.

I’m feeling a little spent. I’m coming down with a cold, thanks to my favorite red-head, Kate. Now, it’s Friday and I may very well have to spend the weekend in bed just to get over it and be half-way normal on Monday. Still, not even a cold will keep me from going out to the new house and going over every square inch of it.

Because that is just the kind of freak I am.

We drove by today… our future neighbors (across the street) were inspecting their house (which is a couple of steps behind ours) and grilling the contractors (a HUGE - NO-NO!) as they gestured at their house and then gestured at ours. I understand their impatience, but come on, are you REALLY going to get somewhere by hounding the sub-contractor’s minions? Good grief.

All the while their daughter (looked to be nearly 3) and was trooping around picking up pieces of wood, she’ll probably end up jamming a nail into her hand or foot. Call me crazy, but I don’t allow Maggie to walk around the new house while it’s under construction. One of us always carries her through.

I don’t like them. I’ve decided that. My husband used to say that we should move out to the middle of nowhere so that I wouldn’t have to be around people, especially the neighbor-type of people. Which is totally unfair because I don’t have a problem with all neighbors.

Just people who seem to be inclined to offer unsolicted advice, overly cheerful greetings, or exhibit any other traits that annoy me.

Now these people strike me as the type who THINK they have good taste (but as quoted by Carrie Fisher in “When Harry Met Sally” - “Everyone thinks they have good taste and sense of humor, but they can’t all possibly have good taste and sense of humor.”) but in reality will only end up copying what everyone else is doing.

I like to be different. These are tract homes already… so I plan to do everything (within reason and budget) to set my house apart, look a little more unique than the next guy. I’ve already planned out how to beef up the skimpy landscaping in the front yard and my mom and I have a few other ideas in the works as well.

Which means if these jokers duplicate any of my efforts, I’m going to snap like a bad rubber band.

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My apologies for not keeping up and responding to comments lately, it’s been a really crazy week. I swear I’ll get back to business as usual next week, I promise.

Related Tags: new home, house construction, neighbors, annoying neighbors, When Harry Met Sally, Carrie Fisher

Happy HNT! That would be half-nekkid Thursday for those of you new to the term. As you can see below I”m pretty uninhibited this week. ;o)

My son snapped this one yesterday when we were driving home. I just love teenagers.

We got “the call” yesterday… that’s right, our house is officially 45 days from completion. It’s completely sheetrocked inside, partially stucco’d outside, and they should be pouring the driveway any second now. This is just so wild and almost surreal for me.

I am just so ready for all the extra stuff to be finished. The financing, the move, selling the old house, blah, blah, blah. It just seems like we’ve been bombarded with lots of little loose ends. Such is life, I suppose.

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Much more important than HNT pictures, new houses, and other truly meaningless things, I’d sure appreciate it if you would send your most positive thoughts and prayers of love and strength to a dear blog buddy, 3T (blog - Stumbling Through Life With Grace) who is going through a rough time right now. If you’ve read her blog (or the thoughtful, sweet comments she is so awesome about leaving) then you know that she is just a really all-around great lady, send her some love, people, she deserves it.

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Count your blessings, hug your loved ones, and be thankful that your chicken’s ass doesn’t blow open the oven door.

Related Tags: HNT, half-nekkid Thursday, house construction, Stumbling Through Life With Grace, 3t, chicken

Happy freaking hump day. It’s all down hill from here!

Funny, my husband said the same thing to me when I turned 21… not the hump day part, the other part. I might have been thrilled at the comment if it were the former and not the latter. TMI… shutting up now.

And, it’s not food…

As much as I would like to keep her all to myself, TJ over at Zazzafooky has been selling her art on Ebay. She is one of the most talented people I have ever been lucky enough to become acquainted with. Aside from being one of the most interesting bloggers on the planet, she’s an extraordinary artist. She is also one of the coolest individuals and has the most wicked sense of humor. In fact, were I to have one of those platonic girl crushes that they talked about on the Today show a while ago - it would be TJ. ;o)

I’m absolutely in love with her folk art and have bought several pieces for the new house. Several… heh, well, er… actually, I’ve lost count. In fact, there are some days that I have to try NOT to go to Ebay to see if she has posted anything new. I’m afraid… I’ve become quite addicted. Eventually, I plan to post pics once I get them hung up in the new house.

For now… these are my latest acquisitions:

I am going to have so much fun finding places to put these in the new house. I have ideas… but you know how that sort of thing goes…

*gulp*

And, now I have stalled enough. I’m reluctantly sharing the link to find her listings. Go, bid, buy and savor… I described her art the other day as “Coffee House meets Mary Engelbreit on crack” - that might not be entirely accurate, but it is entirely a compliment. ;o)

Related Tags: tj, zazzafooky, folk art, ebay, art, auctions, bid, coffee house, mary engelbreit on crack

Ok, let’s see, it’s not even noon and already I’ve managed to get Ethan through an orthodontic consultation and have the house inspected for an appraisal.

Ugh.

I’m going to sound really, really bad. I think the back up drummer for Green Day just inspected my house.

The young man who showed up to do the appraisal inspection? Yeah, well, he looked to be about 24, and that is being really generous, because, truly, I would have carded this guy for cigarettes. I’m not even sure a valid ID would have convinced me to sell him a beer.

I would have expected him to be delivering pizzas not doing appraisals. I’m about 95% sure that I’ve seen the shoes he was wearing in a Green Day video. He rode up on a motorcycle, not a manly Harley motorcycle, but one of those sleek, ultra-modern motorcycles that look as if a parachute ought to shoot out the ass end. He was dressed in jeans that could have been bought at Hot Topic… definitely not anywhere close to Gap or American Eagle.

OMG… I sound old.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Related Tags: Appraisal Inspection, Orthodontist, Orthodontics, Hot Topic, Green Day, Gap, American Eagle

My favorite place…

It is a delicious moment, certainly, that of being well nestled in bed, and feeling that you shall drop gently to sleep. The good is to come, not past; the limbs have just been tired enough to render the remaining in one posture delightful; the labor of the day is gone.
~ Leigh Hunt (James Henry Leigh Hunt)

Happy HNT!!!

Speaking of being in bed… I’ve heard about a couple of twins who have been stuck in bed since March 5th. The results are pretty hysterical.

Related Tags: HNT, Half-Nekkid Thursday, Happy HNT!, Bed, Dreams, sleep, twins