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Archive for October, 2006

No more ice cream

October 31st, 2006 at 03:35 am

I was buying ice cream from a delivery company. I'm not sure I can mention the name on this site, but there aren't that many food delivery services out there. They use a swan on the side of their big yellow trucks. I have been a steady customer for years. I realize it is a bit unfrugal but the stuff is great. As of today I am no longer a customer. The catalog they dropped off had a big pink bow on it and advertised their Think Pink sale. To me that would seem that they are going to donate something from the sales to help fight breast cancer. I emailed them to ask since I couldn't find any info on the catalog. The instant reply I got back said no, they just wanted an eye catching color on the front. I think the pink ribbon campaign has gone on long enough and is well known enough that people will think the same thing I did. Some of those people won't follow up on it and will just buy stuff without realizing they aren't contributing. I have cancelled my customer status with them as of tonight. My DH agrees with me.

Awesome

October 29th, 2006 at 03:03 am

Once in a while the Lord reminds me of how beautiful a place we live in. This morning on th eway to church to sew I say a bald eagle soaring over our place. We drove along a river as still as glass with myriads fo color reflected in it from the trees in all there autumn glory. A bit further down the road are the cranberry beds. The concept of a million becomes easier to explain to a little one who has seen the billions of little red fruit floating on the water they flood the beds with. Tonight when we took the dog out for the last time we were thrilled to find deer feeding on our apples. The quickly bounded gracefully away but I imagine as I type this they are out there again. As we talk about DH walking to work we realize he has to make sure he is at least a bit noisy when he does for there is a young black bear in that area many days. This week seems to be migration week because we have seen scads of cranes flying silently overhead. They look ungainly until you see them take off rising majestically form the ground after a running start. Also leaving for the winter are the scores of Canadian geese. You can hear them go over. We've been blessed to watch them raise their young on the bank fo the local river within walking distance. We have to be careful to keep our distance though, they are fierce protectors and always have a lookout. I am waiting to see how soon we see the pheasants. A pair visits us every winter wandering through the back yard providing an incredible contrast against the glistening snow. The hummingbirds have been gone for awhile now. I miss the flashes of color out my kitchen window but am enjoying answering my door to discover that our local red headed feathered friends have fooled me again. Last winter we were delighted to find eight cardinals all perched in out front tree. It would have made an awesome picture with the splashes of red against the white backdrop of new snow, but i couldn't tear myself away long enough to get the camera. I bet Eden was even more amazing.

So many pieces of fabric, so little time..

October 29th, 2006 at 02:50 am

How many pieces does it take to make a quilt? Amazingly enough not as many as you might think. OUr whole family (ok not the dog) spent the day at church today. At 9 am th eministry that makes quilts for children and servicemen had a "quilt in" I was one of the sewers. We also had tyers, pinners, ironers, and a painter. DH was the painter after he made the stencil. It was fun. DH went out for pizza about noon an dthen ice cream a bit later. Our DS2 played with the leaders kids and had a great time. Aroung 3:30 the next shift of stuff came in. They were making craft "kits" for the kids in Guatemala. Our church is sending 9 or so people down on a mission trip and one of the things they will do is a "vacation Bible school" WE countied, cut , glued and wrote on enough craft foam to make 300 kits. It was fun, very little overlap in the groups so we got to meet new people an dfellowship with some we've known for a bit. When we got home we discovered the canine missed us but had managed to amuse himself in our absence. I may forgive him at some point but right now he is on thin ice!!

Bagel 4 us!

October 29th, 2006 at 02:44 am

And muffins too!! The local bagel shop had their grand opening and as part of the promo they gave coupons to the first 25 people who showed up on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Wednesday's coupon entitled the people to a free sandwich every month for the next year. Fridays was for a dozen bagels a month and Saturday's for 1/2 dozen muffins. My DH was there bright and early on Friday and Saturday and lamented the fact that he hadn't read about it until Thursday evening. We have breakfast taken care of for awhile!! Several people were there on Friday morning but Saturday was mobbed. Of course in this town more than 30 is a mob. The local paper featured the store and more people knew what was happening. Someone was there at midnight the night before, no one else showed up until 6 AM. One couple was asleep in their lounge chairs under a mound of blankets (it's cold here) when my DH arrived. I know what to serve for breakfast to the people who help us move in December!!

Move up?

October 27th, 2006 at 09:08 pm

Why does everyone think you have to pay alot for a house? The last thing th eguy said to us when we filled out our mortgage papers was when we want to move up in a few years we can arrange a larger mortgage. The first was why did you pick a house that price when we preapproved you for one three (or 4) times that much. Why is bigger better, or at least more expensive better? This house has 4 bedrooms (there are 3 of us) 2 bathrooms, a dining room an dkitchen a living room a large lot back porch, front porch. garage, workshop, storage shed, and other various amenities (hot running water, roof within last 2 years etc.) We need to provide some paint (ok alot of paint) a couple new windows, sanding and varnishing of floors or rugs if we want, and a few appliances. So.... why do I need more expensive. The more expensive ones didn't have 4 bedrooms or as large a back yard. in 20 or so years i expect to be scaling down, not moving up. I have bought three houses in my life The first was 25,000, the second was 34,000, and this is 48,000. Considering inflation I don't think I did bad so far!

For Rent

October 27th, 2006 at 09:02 pm

It feels wierd, there is a for rent sign out in front of our house. The realtor was here this morning to make sure they have keys that work for the house. We signed papers yesterday for a mortgage (spell that more debt) and the offer was accepted pending a home inspection (our choice) and an appraisal (mortgage company choice) I am starting to look at everything in our house in terms of can I do without this for 2 months.

Easy Money

October 26th, 2006 at 03:55 pm

Not for us of course (nothing is easy for us) but our "real estate agent" will make the easiest money of her life. We made the decision to buy a house. We picked 5 things that we wanted it to have. In no particular order they are 1. A yard , big dog and children need big yard. 2. Proximity to his job and our church so we can sell one car and he can walk to work. 3. minimum of three bedrooms so we can have more kids. 4. minimum of 2 bathrooms. 5. a fireplace. Of course it had to be affordable as well. I decided that even though we would be eliminating one car payment we still wouldn't want to pay more for the mortgage payment than we do the rent payment. We are very willing to fix it up but can't do alot of plumbing or any electrical. I don't think I want to try roofing either. We looked through the homes book that came in the next weekends newspaper and picked several that met some of those parameters. You can't tell where they are and they didn't all list things like fireplaces. We have to buy through the people we rent from in order to break our lease so I called and asked her to look up umpteen numbers and see which ones were within a mile or 2 of where DH works. She came up with about a dozen papers describing the houses and giving addresses. I went through and picked 4 to start and asked her to set up appointments to see them the following Monday morning. That Friday we decided to take his lunch time and look at the outside of the houses. We eliminated two right away. One had no yard at all although it had a really nice river view. The other had a warped roof. I want a fix it place but not that much of a fix it place. We liked the two others form the outside. As we pulle dup to one of them we realized we knew the people who owned it. In fact we had been in it a couple years ago when we first moved to the area. So I knocked on the door. She was home as as we talked her husband pulled up and gave us the grand tour. I called the realtor and told her to cancel the showings we had found our house. It has 4 bedrooms, 2 baths, is within a mile fo work and church, has a double lot (flat even) and roof is 2 years old, new electric, needs a couple things replaced in the upstairs bathroom, has a claw foot tub (I love it!) and the bedrooms are really big. The kitchen isn't very big but the dining room is right there and I think I can manage. There is no fireplace but it has a fire pit in the back yard. The best part is the price. 50000. Needless to say it is an older home, but I am an older home buyer! The payment should be under the rent when we are done. Unfortunately we will have to finance all of the price so our interest will be higher until I can save enough to refinance in a year or so. All in all the realtor had very little work to do. Our mortgage was pre approved for 3 times the price so I think we'll be ok there. We are signing th e papers today so I will keep posting what we learn. The couple are grateful to sell the house since they need to pay off alot of debt and our 48000 bid will give them the ability to pay it off and have a few thousand to buy the next house. They have 4 boys and need to move soon. The downside is that places the move for us very near the holidays. We have to give our landlord 60 days notice before we move so we gave that today as well. We are planning a trip East in early January so we will move an dthen get a break by traveling. We won't be able to stay long because of the expense but we'll get to see the kids, grandkids and show a movie of our new house.

Decision time

October 23rd, 2006 at 02:20 pm

My DH and i have been praying about where we should go next. We felt that when the Lord sent us here it was for a season. That was 3 years ago. We have been job hunting (or he has mine stays no matter where we go SAHM) with a lot of phone calls but no interviews or offers. I think it was the concept of topping the salery and job description he had now. We wanted to move East to be near children and grandchildren. We finally asked th eLord to show us what he wanted since living in limbo was driving us crazy. How do you make long range plans when you don't know where you'll be? As much as it hurt to not move within a days drive of the kids we feel that his answer is to stay here. I don't know why but he wants us in this area. Now all we need ot do is find a house before the lease is up. If we buy through our leasee we can get out of the lease early (as long as we give 2 months notice). House hunting and mortgage hunting Oh joy. My DH has never owned his own before but this will be my third time. The last two I bought and fixed up then sold at a profit when I moved somewhere else. Hopefully we can do the same here.

On the mend

October 20th, 2006 at 04:43 am

The dog is on the mend Thank God. He is even learning some manners although play group this morning was soooo tough for him. He wanted to run with, lick, sniff, knock down (accidently of course) and lick, those little ones so badly and all I would let him do was sit by my side and wait for one of them to get the courage to come over to him. He is really coming along, after an hour I could drop my intense hold on his collar an dhe stayed by me unless they got really rowdy. His "helping" cut down on the rowdy stuff pretty well. His cough is down to only a couple times today and thats with an extra walk even. I am so glad we don't have an extra surgery to deal with. By the time he is done with this antibiotic I should be able to schedule his surgery and then no more vet bills for awhile. Left him in the house alone for the first time today. He was good but so grateful when we came back. We were only gone about an hour and a half. I would have taken him (after all we even took him to church) but couldn't figure out how to fit him, DS2 and a ton of groceries in the car at the same time. DH took the van because he had a conference in the next town. Paid bills today, lots of them! Went to the USPS and got more bills out of the mailbox and have to pay them tomorrow. Thank Goodness we saved before we took that trip !! It makes a big difference when the credit card bills come in.

Dogs

October 17th, 2006 at 02:44 pm

I really love dogs. Honest, ask anyone I love them. We took the 14 month old male Sheperd to the vet for a pre-op physical. We are having him neutered and the pre-op is part of that price. I knew that expense was coming. When I called I explained he needed a rabies shot and agreed to leave a stool sample for analysis (DH job to retrieve since he's the one who wanted this darling) They told me to expect a bill of around 26.50. When we went in for the surgery we would be expected to pay around 80 more since we put a deposit on for the neutering to get the dog in the first place. When we wnet in they offered blood work for only 71.00 more whihc considering we knew nothing about his past we agreed too. We also needed a heartworm test from the same blood for another 26 dollars. I had noticed that he seemed to have a respiratory problem that I was very much afraid was bordatella (kennel cough). After the vet examined him and pronounced him healthy and awesome I explained my concern. After listening to the symptoms she agreed with my diagnosis and said since his lungs were clear we might have caught it quickly enough. The medicine was another 66 dollars of course. Then there is the heartworm medicine we need to give through January. All in all it totals 172 dollars for the first visit, an dhe couldn't have the rabies shot becuase of the infection. If the medicine doesn't clear up the problem in a week or so they need to do a transtracheal test that means putting him under anasthetic and that translates to big bucks plus the new medicine to take care of whatever yucky bug this has morphed into. Then we can look at the neutering and rabies shot and....

Update

October 16th, 2006 at 04:13 pm

I did go onto the main website for the first hotel and let them know what I thought (politely of course) but haven't heard back not do I expect to.
In the good news department is a dog. I swore for years i would never have a German Sheperd (smy apologies to all who adore the breed)not would I have a make dog nor one over a year old at the onset. Then my DH fell in love. I new there was a dog in my immediate future but I didn't know how immediate until at the end of a 3000 mile trip he insisted on going straight to the shelter in town. Two days later we stopped back because he was tired and needed a lift before returning to work after lunch. He went straight to the cage of a dog we'd "met" on our earlier trip. He stayed there except for a cursery glance at the others and to help me drag DS2 away from the puppies in the corner. I knew he was in love. You guessed it, a male german shephaerd 14 months old!!

Promises Promises

October 12th, 2006 at 01:54 pm

Last February I booked reservations at a hotel. We were meeting another family there and wanted to be able to put kids asleep in one room and play games or at least have lights on in the other room. The kids are young enough that we had to have a door between the rooms in order to do this, going into the hall was not an option. I was told that yes they were available and I could be locked into those two rooms then. We're talking 8 months ahead of time. I called closer to the time to make sure our two rooms with door between were still in my name and was assured that they were. They even told me the room numbers I would be in. At the time I was also promised a microwave and a fridge. I had confirmation numbers. When we arrived we were told that i should have asked for adjacent rooms not connecting rooms if that was what I wanted. I considered offering to buy them a dictionary but decided to go with the flies on honey thing instead. We were told that there were 4 groups there that day. Again I considered asking if all 4 groups had booked 8 months in advance but bit my tongue. They told us they were going to accomoodate us but no microwave and i decided I would take what I could get. We were shown to a room with one bed and no connecting door (I didn't know they made hotel rooms that small!) I called down and was again told that it had been explained to us when we were there at the desk that they couldn't accomodate our request and I shouldn't believe promises like that. I asked for a manager and was told he was the manager. At that point I turned the phone over to my DH and grabbed a phone book. I found a number ofr another hotel who made the same promises and when I explained why I was skeptical assured me that she indeed knew the definition of connecting. We went down to the lobby and were told we hadn't been charged yet and could just leave if we wanted. I told him my credit card had been imprinted and I wanted the paper I signed back NOW. He complied with a frown and we went to avery nice hotel that we could walk between rooms in. Of course we paid a bit more but oh well. My DH got on line and gave his opinion of the hotel.

Back at home

October 11th, 2006 at 01:37 am

What a relief, we're home. The vacation was nice. The driving wasn't. Hugging Grandchildren is always wonderful, as is seeing our little one get to know them. It was interesting to hear one of my GC complain of being cold when they were out playing with my DS2. It was funny because my DS2 was comfortable. We realized that one was from the south and one from the north. Different comfort zones. Now to get on with home stuff again, like familiar toys, homeschooling, friends, church, and cold weather. As we made it around the bend and saw the river we live near it was breath taking. The trees have turned and the still water reflecting all the colors takes our breath away. We live in a beautiful place. We drove through the familiar streets and were delighted to see them harvesting the cranberries (it is an unforgettable site) and that the geese waited for us to get back. The cranes were enjoying the already mowed fields in droves. Our home was cold when we got here but the fire we built is taking the edge off of it and we only have a couple more weeks until I am willing to turn on the heat (Nov 1st) This will be the first year we have to buy wood. As I said It is good to be home.

and were off

October 3rd, 2006 at 04:09 am

trip day 1 we've made it to our 3rd state. left at 3 in the afternoon and are in a motel 6 (under 50 and they take pets, not that we need that feature yet but we can dream)got here about 10 but lost an hour at the border. Tomorrow we'll be in DC.So far expences are downwhere we want them.

final tally

October 3rd, 2006 at 04:05 am

The garage sale went well. made a bit over 400. still have to take the toys and kids clothes to the resale shop for syore credit or cash and that will be that.