Buns of Steel

Not mine, I wish, my husbands. Vince left Dallas yesterday, around 2pm his time, and as of 10:00 am this morning, my time, he is already past Las Cruces, New Mexico. He's been driving, driving, driving, except for the four hour break he took to sleep last night. I wasn't planning on him being home for dinner tonight, but it looks like I was wrong. When he went up to Montana to get our stuff out of storage and move it to Texas, he left here Saturday afternoon. Got to Helena Sunday morning. Loaded up the trailer, and hit the road immediately. Went from Montana to Texas in about 36 hours, arriving in Texas Tuesday morning. Got back on the road Wednesday evening and arrived home in the wee hours of Friday morning. I'm telling you, Buns of Steel.

The house Vince found for us to lease is not going to go through afterall. First the house was suposed to be available immediately. Then the owner said he'd be out by the first week of December. We figured that was o-kay, we'd spend some time with my mom. No hurry. We filled out all the application stuff, made arrangements for the dogs (he won't accept pets), turned in our $50 application fee, and now the owner is saying he won't be out until after the 1st of the year. What a wanker! We're jumping through hoops to get everything done that we need to, and he's screwing around. I guess real estate woes are real estate woes and it doesn't matter if you're renting or buying, they're all the same. So now we get to start from scratch, and since we aren't actually there to check out houses in person, it's going to get tricky.

But back to packing for now. I'm getting discouraged and can't wait for Vince to get home to help because I don't feel like I'm making a dent.

Texas is a Big State!

So where in Texas are we moving? I wish I knew.

We' re looking in the North Dallas area. We have friends in Plano, Frisco, and Flower Mound. So we're starting our search there. McKinney, Allen and Prosper are other towns that stick in my mind. The house we're currently trying to lease is in Frisco. So the plan is to get a six month lease and get to know the area before we decide where to settle.

Oh, and Vince needs to get a job before anyone will approve us for a loan for a new house anyway. It's always the little details that get in the way, huh?

I'm still not getting near as much packing done as I'd hoped. I'm a bit overwhelmed. Plus being a mother of four all by myself is stressing me out. If one is poopy, then the other just fell down and is screaming, and the other two are hungry or thirsty and are underfoot. Bedtime is my favorite time of day. For them, not me. I hate going to bed when Vince isn't home. I'm such a chicken I leave the bathroom light on. Yes, that's right. A nightlight just doesn't cut it for me.

And since I mentioned Vince coming home, it looks like his return date is getting delayed by one day. Why? He was suposed to leave tomorrow morning, but he got a job interview tomorrow at 11:00 am. So he'll be getting back on the road sometime in the afternoon. I guess I can handle one more night with the bathroom light on if there is a possibility he might be getting a job. But we're quickly approaching one week mark before we have to be out of here, so he needs to get his butt home and start packing. Lord knows I'm not getting much done on my own.

American by Birth, Texan by Choice

I know moving to Texas does not make me a Texan, but we're in escrow again. And this time it looks like this one will be going through. Third time is a charm right?

So we have to be out of our house by 5:30 pm on Friday, November 17th. Vince is in Texas as I write this. He took another load of our stuff to our storage facility there, is meeting with a real estate agent tomorrow to find a rental house, and is suposed to be looking for a head hunter/placement agency to meet with on Wednesday.

My plan was to get one room packed each day, so when he got back we would be able to load our remaining belongings and not be frantic our last week here. Of course being home alone with four kids is a bit much and I'm not getting near as much done as I'd like. Things would be going more smoothly if Annamaria wouldn't freak out and start crying when she sees me packing up her toys. The child cannot be reasoned with, she just doesn't understand. And she may be small, but man, don't mess with her. I have to wait until she goes to sleep, pack her things and get the box taped shut before she can try to pull everything out again.

And since we have less than two weeks left in the house, I've been cooking every night, trying to use up all the food in the fridge/freezer. I'm not big on cooking when Vince is out of town. My kids are not picky eaters by any means, but they're still kids and are less than satisfying to cook for. I end up eating the majority of everything. Something I really do not need to be doing. Still, there is no way I can eat all this food in the time we have left. Non-perishables, no problem. But what am I going to do with that six pound pork roast in the freezer? I think my mom is going to find her already full freezer even more full.

Also I'm still home schooling Sophia, and her schedule got jacked up last week, so we were playing catch-up today. Hopefully tomorrow won't be so bad. We'll finish her week as scheduled, then she'll get an extra long Thanksgiving break until things calm down. One of the perks of home schooling. She's looking forward to it anyway.

We haven't decided if we're sticking around for Thanksgiving or not. We'll either stay with my mom and have Thanksgiving with her at her friends house, or head down to Texas and have Thanksgiving with our friends, the Jensens, who invited us. It really all depends on how the house/job search goes.

I'm getting pretty good at this "playing it by ear". Being the control freak that I am, I'm really impressing myself here with my newly acquired ability to go with the flow. And I know I should be happy, happy, happy that the house has finally sold, but of course now I'm just sad that we're really leaving. But like I tell Sophia, think of it as an adventure, and if we find out we don't like it there, we don't have to stay.

Finding Faith

Today at Mass was the Rite of Welcome for those going through the RCIA program at our church. I went through RCIA ten years ago, so I'm always interested in the program and when I see these people it touches my heart. RCIA stands for Rite of Catholic Initiation of Adults. Or something like that. Anyway, it's for those who are adults and want to become Catholic or finish the process to becoming fully confirmed in the Catholic faith. They may never have been baptized; maybe they praticed another faith and are converting; maybe they were baptized into The Church but didn't continue with their First Communion or Confirmation and now want to complete the process. But for whatever reason, they have come to get closer to God.

RCIA meets once a week, and at first they get to get all their questions about The Church answered. If they decide they want to continue on their faith journey with The Church, they get partnered up with a sponsor who is there to support them and answer any questions they may have. The meetings continue each week and they get lessons on the church's beliefs, history, practices, etc. I was lucky enough to get a wonderful woman for my sponsor. We connected so strongly that her and her husband (who is also a wonderful person) are Sophia and Harrison's Godparents. They are people who will continue to be in our lives no matter where we may end up and no matter how much time passes.

So this morning the congregation met outside the front doors of the church where the candidates were lined up with their sponsors and Father Fernando introduced them and asked them what they asked of The Church. Answers vary from learning more about God, to growing closer to God, to becoming who God wants them to be. The answers are endless. They are then welcomed into our Church and congregation and Mass begins.

What struck me this morning and made my eyes tear up a little were three people specifically. Two of them were a couple. And man and a woman, both about my and Vince's age, who were obviously married and had a baby girl with them about 10 months old. It reminded me of the importance of my faith in regards to my children. When I was young and single, I really didn't give my faith much thought, if I even had any faith at the time I don't remember. But once I was planning on getting married and having children, my faith became important to me. So important that even as a full-time college student who also worked part-time, I still found time to find a church, join the RCIA program, attend my weekly meetings with commitment, and attend the couple of retreats that were required. And no matter how busy I was with everything else, I looked forward to my RCIA commitments. I wanted my children raised with a strong belief in God, and good moral convictions. And most importantly, I wanted to be an example of a good person. I know that just attending Mass regularly doesn't make a good person, we also have to live our faith and follow "the rules". That's what Vince and I try to do. So it touches me when I see other families trying to do the "right" thing. No matter how many mistakes we've made in the past, we can turn it around and be an example to our children.

The other person who caught my eye was an older woman with white hair. I'm guessing she was in her 60's, maybe pushing 70. I think it takes a certain kind of courage when at that age to stand up in front of hundreds of people and ask for The Church's assistance with her faith journey. I know that as we get older we get settled into ourselves, and change gets more and more difficult. Did she never practice any faith before? Did she belong to another church and decide that it wasn't the right one for her? Has she been attending Mass all along, but was never able to partake of the eucharist and decided to finally become fully confirmed? I may never know, but she touched me the most. She reminded me that our faith is a gift from God. It's not something we earn or aquire on our own. And no matter how old we may be, God is there for us, welcoming us. It's never too late.

A Happy Halloween

Our Halloween was pretty low key, only had about a handfull of trick-or-treaters. Needless to say we have waaaay to much candy left over. Annamaria slept through Halloween last year, so this was her first trick-or-treating experience. One she got the idea that the reason they were going house to house for people to give her candy, she got right on board. Vince was holding her though, so people didn't realize she was collecting candy too. If she got left out she would promptly start yelling to let people know that she wanted candy too. Of course she said "thank you" once she got hers. We have taught her her manners afterall. Harrison insisted on being Buzz Lightyear again this year. He didn't care that we had a bear costume, we wanted to be Buzz, so Buzz he was. Sophia was a perfect Snow White, her short haircut worked perfectly with her costume. And Annamaria was Tinkerbell. Even though Francesca slept through Halloween, I bought her a Pumpkin footie outfit. I'll try to get a better picture of her in it later. She had a diaper blowout in it, so it's currently in the wash.

A Negligent Mother

It has occurred to me recently that I have been shirking my responsibilities as a mother of a new born child. Francesca will be six weeks old tomorrow, and since I posted a announcement of her arrival, I have not posted any other photos of her. What is wrong with me? Is it because she is our fourth child and the novelity has worn off? No. Could it be that with four children I simply don't have the time? Maybe. Could it be that the depression hanging over my head about this house not selling has just sucked the joy out of my life? Another maybe. But there have been over sixty photos on my digital camera, waiting to be downloaded, so it's not for lack of pictures. Lack of motivation maybe. But that's not fair to Francesca. She deserves equal billing. So I'll try to do better.

So we bought a new swing for Francesca when she was born. Our old one was fine, but it's packed up in storage, so that's no good. Part of the reason we chose this one is because the weight limit is up to 25 pounds. One of the highest we could find. And Annamaria weighing in at 18 pounds at the time, was thinking it was for her. So the swing gets double duty, both Annamaria and Francesca have become swing babies. Pretty funny since Annamaria wasn't interested in the old swing when she was Francesca's age. And no, we normally don't let them swing together, but this just made Annamaria so happy we had to get a picture of it.

And no, our funds are not so low that we've resorted to eating our own children, but since Halloween is coming, we decided to brew up a batch of Harrison stew just to get in the mood. Just kidding, but we thought this was pretty funny anyway.

Another Showing

So yesterday we had an agent come by to take a look at our house. She has a client that needs to buy three houses by the end of the year as investment properties. Can I just say here that that is one situation that I would much rather be in. She said our house may just work for him, and she'd call us today to set up an appointment for him to take a look at it. Needless to say it is now 12:30 pm, and no phone call. But our agent also called us yesterday to let us know that someone who took a flyer from out front called him and wanted to see the inside of our house. So he's bringing them by today at 3pm. This is the first time our agent has showed our house. Is that normal? Vince says he just must not have any buyers that are looking for what we are offering. But I'm thinking, who cares, you've got them hostage in the car anyway, bring them on by. You never know.

And just so no one thinks our house is a total hole, and that's why it won't sell, I've decided to post some photographic evidence of our hard work and effort that we've put into this place.

O-kay, so it's a 1972 ranch style house. Nothing to brag about, but we have 1/4 of an acre, and for San Diego, that's considered "property".

Here is my beautiful remodeled kitchen. Complete with double convection ovens and six burner professional range. Stainless steel appliances and granite counter tops. Vince made the cabinets himself. Solid Brazilian Cherry wood. Top of the line drawer pulls and my sink is huge. I think there are photos of not only Annamaria but also Harrison getting a bath in it somewhere on this blog. I'm going to miss my kitchen the most.

In the living room, the fireplace used to be faced with slump stone ( I think that is what it was called). Anyway, we had it refaced with travertine to match the floor in the entry way and kitchen, and tumbled marble. Can't believe it's the same fireplace. I'm wishing we had before and after pictures.

In the family room we had a tongue and groove wood ceiling and 70's paneling on the walls. Can you say "yuck"? We had new walls put in and recessed lighting. There used to be track lighting. So much better now. I'm not ashamed to have people over anymore.

Where Are We Moving To?

No where. Last night we got the call that the deal fell through. None of the other buyers could qualify for the house, so that's the end of that. What I don't understand is why are people out looking at houses and making offers on houses that they either don't qualify for or aren't completely serious about. What is wrong with people? Don't they understand that there are other people's lives involved in the transaction? Aren't we all adults here? Can't we all just act like upstanding responsible adults and not jack around with each other's lives? Apparently not.

Hold Everything!

I knew I'd find something to complain about. Last night I got a call from our real estate agent letting me know that one of the buyers, the one carrying the loan, was hesitating on being the only person on the title to the house. Now, I'm really not racist, or prejudice. At least I don't think I am, but this is the second round of real estate nightmares and both buyers were hispanic. The first, a Ms. Nunez, just backed out for no legitimate reason. At least none that she could give. And kept us off the market for three weeks during prime selling season while she made up her mind as to whether she wanted to go ahead with the purchase of the house or not. Now, the second, also involves hispanics. All I know is that there was a young woman, currently pregnant, her two small children, a young man, and an older woman were the ones who came to look at the house. When we got the offer, they were signed by an Amos someone. Now I was told that this Amos person doesn't want to be the only person on the title, but no one else has good enough credit to qualify for the house. And this was all suposed to be a done deal, he was pre-qualified and everything, so he knew he'd be the only person on the title and now he's backing out. Now when they had the home inspection, another young man by the name of Roberto, who is suposed to be the boyfriend of the young pregnant woman, showed up with the buyer's agent and the inspector. He didn't speak English so I didn't speak to him myself, but he is suposed to be living here too and wants the deal to go through. The young woman also wants the deal to go through. So who is this Amos person, and how does he fit into the puzzle? And why can't we just get some normal people in the door who have their act together, and can act like responsible and civilized people? So now Roberto is trying to get his mom to sign for the loan on the house. So say a little a prayer, make a little wish, do a little dance, whatever it is you do. We could use any help we could get at this point.

Stole My Thunder

I was all set to blog about our real estate nightmares and the fact that our house has been on the market since May. We've only had two showings in September, and I've been throughly discouraged. We went ahead and had the house tented for termites at the end of August. We figured it had to be done sooner or later, so we packed up the kids and spent two days at Disneyland while the house was being fumigated. It was great, but more on that another time. Our last day at the Magic Kingdom I get a call from our agent saying that someone wanted to show our house the next day. I told them as long as the gas was cleared out and the house was free for reentry to go ahead. So we got home at 12:30 am, that night or the next morning, whichever you prefer to call it. Got a few hours of sleep, woke up and started getting the house ready for the showing. Of course I was about a week and a half from my due date at this point. The house wasn't perfect, but at the point my attitude was "whatever". Of course nothing came from that showing. We dropped the price of the house AGAIN, and had our agent put a notation in our listing that we had a new born and needed a couple hours notice for a showing. Then earlier this week we got a call from an agent who said he wanted to come check out our house for some clients of his. He set a time, 45 minutes to 1 hour from when he called, and we rushed around getting the house ready. And guess what. He never showed. Forty-five minutes later, Vince call him and he said he was looking at another house and he'd be over soon. Vince explained we were about to sit down to dinner and he'd have to reschedule. To say we're being less accommodating these days would be the truth. We're really tired of it all. The next day, Vince was out running errands with Harrison and I was home with the girls. Sophia was doing school work, Annamaria was toddling around, and Francesca was taking a nap. The phone rings and it's the agent from the day before saying he was down the road with his clients looking at another house, but his clients really wanted to come by and check out our house, could they come over in about 20 minutes. Screw it. So I told him I had a three week old down for a nap, so as long as his clients didn't mind us being here, to come on by. So they did. All six of them. And again, the house wasn't perfect, but hey, I have a three week old, give me a break. So the next day I sat down and started typing to vent about our real estate woes, when our phone rang. It was our agent letting me know that we had an offer coming in. Apparently they really did like our house. Now was their offer great? No. Were we excited to be getting an offer anyway? Heck yes. We countered to make the deal a little more palatable to us, and they accepted it. Amazing! Of course since we lowered the price for a second time, we'll be getting about $40K less than we really wanted when we started all this, but that was five months ago, and the times they are a changing. The market here is so flooded I'm really feeling quite appreciative that we even have a buyer at this point. And it looks like these guys are actually serious, unlike the other "offer" we had. They've already scheduled their home inspection for this Monday, so things are moving along. Oh, the only kicker, they want escrow to close by the 27th. Yes, October 27th. And we still have a house load to get moved out of here. And of course Francesca is being baptized on the 15th, and I've already sent out invitations inviting over 30 of our closest friends and family to come and celebrate with us. So it should be an interesting few weeks. I've been praying that our house sells "now", and we get moved and on with our lives "now". So be careful what you wish/pray for, you just may get it. But now what will I complain about? I'm sure I'll find something.

Two Week Check-Up

Today Francesca had her two week check-up. She's almost back up to her birthweight, weighing in at 9 lb. 3 oz. The doctor said it had been eight days since her last appointment and he would have liked to have seen her gain an ounce a day, but she only gained five ounces. Obviously she's not wasting away though, so he wasn't worried. And here I was thinking what a chunk she is, and he was expecting an ounce a day? Geez. Also, she measured in at 21 1/2", talk about a growth spurt. She's going to catch up to Annamaria before we know it. They're only one diaper size away from each other as it is.

She's still sleeping great. During the day anyway. She'll sleep through feeding time if I let her, and I can put her in her cradle and she'll sleep the day away. That is until the sun sets, then don't even think about putting her down. Maybe she's afraid of the dark? Doubt it.

On the fat front, as of Monday I was below five pounds below my starting weight. But today only four. I know it's only one pound, but I was getting exciting about actually loosing weight. Of course I made brownies yesterday, and felt the need to have a brownie sundae for dessert not only after dinner last night, but also after lunch today. And I wonder why the scale is creeping back up.

And since I'm still a lazy and haven't downloaded any more pictures of Francesca, here's a picture of Annamaria from my birthday dinner.

She's so happy to have a cup with a straw like the big kids. She cracks me up.

Introducing . . .

Francesca Diane

Born September 13th, 2006

5:15 a.m.

9 lb. 4 oz., 20" long

Sorry it has taken me so long to get the news out. It was really laziness and nothing else. We are all doing just fine, especially considering that we now have 4 children. My only complaint is that she's nocturnal. Other than that, she's a really good baby, the biggest by far. I can't believe she weighed over 9 pounds. I expected her to be another tiny considering I only gained 15 pounds with this pregnancy. Good news/Bad news: I'm already 3 pounds below my starting weight/I'm still about 35 pounds heavier than I should be. Oh well.

I was a little concerned about Annamaria being jealous, but she just loves her. She keeps trying to lie her head on the baby and gives her kisses whenever she gets the chance. It's very sweet. Sophia and Harrison love her too. Harrison is still not convinced that he didn't get a brother though, and calls her "him". Speaking of the baby, I hear crying, I'll post more later.

No Baby Yet

Well, today is my due date, and no baby yet. Perhaps I'm being a bit impatient, it is only 10 in the morning, but still. I'm tired of lying around the house, waiting to go into labor. Yesterday at mass, people would ask me when I was due, and when I would respond, "tomorrow", their eyes would pop out of their heads and their response would all be the same, "oh!". What do they expect me to do? Continue to lie around the house doing pretty much nothing? I thought I'd at least go to mass and do something good for myself. Of course if I was really on the ball, I'd have gone to reconciliation on Saturday, but I'm not that organized. So in an effort to get things going, this morning I vacuumed the house, swept the kitchen floor, windexed the mirrors, and emptied the dish washer. Still nothing. Patience is a virtue, but unfortunately not one that I possess.

Not A Good Sign

The other day we received a notice that our street would be closed for repaving on Tuesday, Sept. 12. They do this to us every few years, and the night before we have to park our cars around the corner, out of our driveways if we plan on leaving the house the day that the repaving is taking place. So since my due date is Monday, Sept. 11, I'm really considering this an inconvenience.

Now on my chart at the OB's office my due date is listed as Tuesday, Sept. 12, this is because the OB just couldn't stand putting 9/11 on my chart. But whatever, if anything a 9/11 delivery will just help redeem that day for me.

Then today as I was running errands, I was driving down Centre City Parkway, which happens to be a main road through Escondido, and the one that I use to get in and out of town from our house. While running my errands I see a big notice stating that Centre City Parkway will be closed on Monday, Sept. 11, and Tuesday, Sept. 12 for repaving. So the fact that if I go into labor when expected, I will not only have to walk down my street to get to my car to get to the hospital (luckily we only live four houses down from the corner), but we will have to find an alternate route to get to the I-15 to get to the hospital. Which by the way is almost 20 miles from our house, and getting from our house to Mary Birch (the hospital) in morning traffic can take over an hour. The past three times I've been lucky and gone into labor either at night or at some ungodly hour in the morning and have been able to avoid the traffic. So I'm hoping the two road closures and the distance to the hospital are the only obstacles we have to overcome. It's beginning to make me very nervous.

Birthday Update

O-kay, so the first half of my birthday was a bummer, but the second half was very nice.

My sweet, sweet husband, seeing how bummed I was about no chocolate cake, made a special trip to our local bakery and picked up a chocolate mousse cake for me. He returned with a very nice cake, and a bouquet of beautiful flowers.

Then we hit the road, picked up my grandma and met my mom at Buca di Beppo's for a very yummy dinner. Fried calamari, antipasto salad, baked ravioli and veal limon. A good time was had by all, and the kids were pretty well behaved. Especially Sophia. She enjoyed feeding her little sister, who sat in the booth with her and climbed all over her waiting for the next bite. For my birthday, my mom remade a lap quilt she had made years ago and I wore out with love. So she gave me the new quilt wrapped up in the old quilt, which at this point is still torn and worn, but I was happy to get it back anyway.




This morning my sweet, sweet husband woke me with a cup of decaf and a piece of cake for breakfast. A good way to start the day.

It Must Be The Hormones

Today is my 37th birthday. And all I really wanted was a really good chocolate birthday cake. I usually make my own birthday cake, being as picky as I am, but being in my 39th week of pregnancy I decided I just wasn't up to it. I also didn't want to spend a fortune on a cake that only I would be eating most of, so I thought Costco would do. They make this multi-layer "All American" chocolate cake that looks amazing. Then of course you can always pick up one of their sheet cakes, chocolate with chocolate mousse filling of course. So today my birthday consisted of working with Sophia through her school work, making french toast for breakfast for everyone, and that's about it. We went to Costco, needed milk and paper towels anyway, and what do you know? No chocolate cake. No "All-American" chocolate cakes anywhere. Of course they have them every other time I go in there, and I have to use great restraint not to buy one "just because". But today when I actually have a reason to pick one up, nope, too bad/so sad sister. So I head over to the sheet cakes, and guess what. No chocolate with chocolate mousse filling. If I wanted one I'd have to order one and wait until tomorrow to pick it up. Well, tomorrow is not my birthday, today is. They had white cake with chocolate mousse filling, and chocolate cake with cheesecake filling, but that's not what I wanted, and it's my birthday dammit, and I'm 39 weeks and 2 days pregnant, and all I wanted was a freaking chocolate cake! Apparently it's just too much to ask. I was so dissapointed, tears actually started to well up. It must be the hormones.

On the baby front, I had an OB appointment yesterday and the current conditions are as follows. 1 cm dilated, 50% effaced, with a very soft cervix. And no, I don't think it would be neat to have the baby on my birthday. It's my birthday. And I don't want to spend my birthday in the hospital in excruciating pain. Not my idea of birthday fun.

"There Is Nothing Going On Down There"

I had my weekly check-up with my OB yesterday, and that's what I was told. Which is just fine with me. I still have two and half weeks to go anyway. Plus, there's so much going on in every other aspect of my life right now, I really down want anything going on "down there" anway.

Vince drove up to Montana and got our stuff out of storage up there. We didn't tell anyone we were planning on getting our stuff out because we wanted to avoid as much drama as possible. Of course that backfired. After removing our things and getting back on the road, Vince called my cousin's husband and told him he decided to not come and work for him afterall. Vince didn't want to get into any of the nastiness, he said/she said crap that has been trickling down, and just tried to keep it at that. But Chris wouldn't let it go. So Vince ended up telling him what he thought of all the rumor mongering, called him arrogant and judgemental, and ended the call by saying that he hoped their paths never crossed again. Of course being who these people are, and doing what they do, my cousin then called my 83 year-old grandmother, who by the way has nothing to do with any of this, and told her that my husband just threatened her husband. "I hope our paths never cross again", was twisted into "you better hope our paths never cross again". This is what they're good at, and since they really have nothing better to do, it seems they get a lot of practice. So now my uncle is calling my grandma, telling her Vince threatened Chris, so I'm wondering who will be next. Diane Sawyer? Ted Koppel? Barbara Walters? Who else can they go to to spead some more rumors? After calling my grandmother, my cousin then called me, blah, blah, blah. I held my own and kept my cool. But then she called me again last night, and I lost it. I ended the conversation by reminding her that I was 8 1/2 months pregnant and didn't need her calling and upsetting me anymore, so I asked to not call me again and hung up. Of course my phone rang all night. The only time my phone stopped ringing was when I placed an outgoing call and purposly stayed on the line for as long as I could. By time I hung up it was almost 10pm, so at least the rest of my night was peaceful. Seriously, what kind of psychopath repeatedly calls a pregnant woman to upset her?

In other news, our house has officially fallen out of escrow. If it technically was ever in escrow I'm not sure, but we're back on active status on the MLS. That's three weeks of our lives wasted. And now I need to get this house back into showing shape, which I'm really not up to. But I do what I can.

Pissed Off!

O-kay, I wasn't going to say anything until is was a done deal, because I didn't want to jinx us, but we seem to be jinxed anyway, so here it goes. A couple of weeks ago we got a couple of offers on the house. One was total crap, we countered, and they walked away. The other was o-kay, except that they wanted more money back at close of escrow than we wanted to give. But apparently these people have no cash down and are financing 100%, we countered, they came back with basically the same offer, and we decided to take it afterall. After weighing the pros and the cons, we decided the market here is really getting soft, and we'd like to get on with our lives and what's $15K in the long run. So we accepted the offer and thought things were moving along. We called the septic guys to get the system inspected, we called the termite guys to get all that started, etc, etc. Then we get a call from our agent, who is our friend Dave, who tells us that the buyers have not dropped off their deposit check to the escrow company yet, have not scheduled a home inspection yet, and have come up with some cockamamey concern that their over-active five year-old is going to play on the propane tank and blow it up. What?! First of all, who lets their five year-old (over-active or not) play on a propane tank, which is in the front yard, next to the road, unattented, anyway? After talking to the buyers agent, Dave finds out that these people have been putting their agent through quite a trying time and he said if they don't go through with this deal, he's dropping them as clients. And I'm sitting here thinking that we took an offer we really weren't happy with, gave them the microwave and washer and dryer they asked for, gave them a short escrow (45 days, they wanted us out by August), even though I'll be moving with a 10 day old newborn, in addition to everything else and these people cannot even have the consideration to get off the pot or piss. Either sign the freaking release form letting us out of the contract with them, or get moving and get the things done that they need to get done to move forward in this whole debacle. Apparently they have 17 days to make up their minds. So once again I'm back to living in limbo, and frankly I'm really sick of it.

The Del Mar Races

My mom went to the race track on Sunday with some friends. I was hoping she'd have a good time and win lots of money. I just got this e-mail from her today. She cracks me up!

"Well your mother is no genius when it comes to betting on the horses. I'll be the first to admit.

But when in the 6th race, number 6 was named Cabo's Dawn - I figured it was a sign.
You were born on the 6th and the horse had your name. What else, the jockey was wearing hunter green with white diamonds - Vince's favorite color is green and you like diamonds. The owner of this horse's last name was Galleger, my favorite restaurant in Vegas - sure the stars and moon had aligned - this was surely a sign from God.

The horse came in last - fuckin horse."

Oh! The Drama

I cannot believe how long it has been since I've posted anything. I'll try to condense the goings-on over the past three or four weeks.

1) Vince headed up to Montana to start working and was gone for almost five weeks.

2) After five weeks of missing his family, missing Annamaria's first steps, Sophia and Harrison's week of Vacation Bible School, missing his wife getting larger and larger during her pregnanacy, he decided to come home for a week for a visit.

3) Vince got home on a Saturday night and was scheduled to return back up north a week later. The day before he was to leave us, a 16-year old with a driver's license less than a month old ran into Vince's truck which was parked in front of our house. I'm not sure how one hits a parked car, but she hit the back of his truck, which rammed it into a telephone pole, flipped her SUV, then landed on the front of his truck. Totalling his 2003 Tundra. See photos for full impact. I'm just thankfull she got away with only 16 stitches in her arm, and was the only injury.

4) Now Vince had been working for my cousin's husband's family landsurveying company. And they were very flexible and accommodating about when he could start, and promised so much overtime to make up for the huge salary cut he was taking to work for them, etc, etc. Vince called up to Montana to report that he would not be returning when scheduled and explained the accident. He was then critisized for not giving enough notice when he decided to come home in the first place. They were unhappy. Vince appoligized for taking advantage of his personal relationship with them, he thought they would understand, and they said they did.

5) A couple of days later we received another call from Montana in which we were critisized for our decision of me staying home with the house and kids until the house sells, and Vince going up north to work. A decision that they "would not support", we were told. Vince should be home with me and the kids, a decision they felt adamant about, ignoring the fact that we still have a mortgage to pay and are sacrificing as we see fit. But he was told he still had a position waiting for him when he did get back up there. I guess they were just going to give him a hard time if he came back up without the rest of us. What business it is of anyone else's, I'm still not sure.

6) Vince received another phone call from Montana in which he was critisized and his character was called into question because while in Montana he went to mass at the cathedral in Helena, instead of driving six-hours round trip to attend a latin mass with my cousin and her husband and kids.

7) While waiting to see what the insurance was going to do about his truck, Vince called up to the office in Montana to ask one of the guys about his truck. Word got around that Vince called and asked to speak to someone other than my cousin's husband. So my cousin calls specifically to ask into the phone call, correcting Vince that if he calls the office he needs to speak to her husband, not anyone else. We explained that the call was not work related, it was truck related, and Vince would never go over her husband's head regarding work matters. My cousin then went into some rampage about a "he said/she said" conversation, which even if "he did say" would not have been any of her business anyway. And instead of chalking the whole thing up to a miscommunication, she automatically jumps to the conclusion that someone is lying, which she'll need to "speak to" someone about. All I've got to say at this point is, Go sell crazy somewhere else, we're all full up here.

7) Needless to say, Montana has lost its luster for us. While the location is still appealing, the having every aspect of our life put under a microscope to be judged and critisized upon is not. There is enough drama in life, I don't need anyone adding anymore.

8) So Vince is now home where he belongs, waiting for the insurance company to get back to him with a settlement on his truck so he can replace it, looking for another job here in San Diego to tie us over until this house does finally sell, and looking into other areas of the country that we may be interested in moving our family to.

9)Oh, and my cat got out again, and this time he hasn't come back. It's been two weeks, I think he's gone for good. Very sad. And I could really use some kitty lovin right about now.