Year in review

Waiting till (almost) the last possible second, but still, here it is - my bloggy year in review.

Reminder: It's the first sentence from the first post of each month of the year.

And here we go....

January - I'm hoping to update my ridiculously out-dated blogroll real soon, so if you read regularly and have a blog, and would like your blog to be included, please comment and let me know and I'll put you on!

February - Anyone have any prayers, good karma, or healing vibes to spare?

March - I’m about to prove what a big dork I am.

April - We really need to get this potty training thing going full force.

May - To blog or not to blog. That is the question.

June - Since I believe you can never have too many people praying and sending you good thoughts, I'm going to ask that you keep a friend of mine in mind.

July - Jaben's website... While still somewhat under construction, it's still a pretty good start for an 11 yr old with limited computer knowledge.

August - Just really, really, relentlessly busy!!

September - To celebrate the long weekend, we went to the zoo!

October - Yay for Dani!

November - All the cool kids are doing it, so why not some of us not-so-cool kids?

December - Yeah, it's that kind of day.

Actually, I think it's been that kind of year. Here's to 2008 being a better year for all of us!

Christmas is over!

Yay, Christmas is over for another year!

Yes, I am glad about that. No, I don't have pictures or gift lists to share. Sorry, I suck at all of that. Suffice to say, the kids got spoiled and are very happy with their Christmas loot. The house is a disorganized, filthy mess because I've worked the last 2 days and just haven't had time. I am, however, on day 1 of another 5 day vacation and things should be looking up by then.

Tomorrow we are going over to the old house to get out the rest of the junk we've got there. If we needed it, we'd have gotten it already - so should we go straight to the dump? Probably. Will we? Probably not. But hopefully it'll be done and we'll be all set when the sale (ohpleaseohpleaseohplease) goes final.

My car still isn't done yet. They're waiting on the new steering column, then it'll have to be put in. No idea when that will happen. I'm starting to miss my poor car. It's been 2 weeks now since it was stolen and I'm ready to put it all behind me. I don't think my insurance company will replace my mp3 player and that sucks big time because I really miss having it. The radio isn't so great when it's your only option. Maybe I'll get lucky, but without serial number and reciept (it was a gift!!), the chances of a replacement are slim to none.

Just waiting on New Years now. I fully expect 2008 to be better than 2007. This year wasn't the best. In fact, it was pretty rotten towards the end there. I'm just ready now for it to be over. Year in Review post to follow soon, but until then, enjoy the final days of 2007!

Merry Christmas!

I'm sure I won't get a chance to post tomorrow, so I wanted to wish anyone who drops by a very Merry Christmas!

Peace, love, and joy to you all! May God's blessings be abundent in your home this season and in the coming year!

Finally some good news!

Our house has basically sold!!!!!!!!

One week on the market - can you believe it??

The offer came to us yesterday and it was a liiiittle low. We couldn't accept it because we would've lost too much on the deal, so we countered at just a tiny bit higher. We heard from the realtor this morning that he ACCEPTED THE COUNTER!!!

Now, we still have to go thru the inspection and all that, but I'm sure it's structurally sound, and the buyer knows it's a big time fixer-upper - but he's buying it specifically to fix up. SO... as long as we do okay on the inspection, our house is SOLD!!

We're not making jack on the deal, but we figured out that carrying costs are $740/mo, so we kind of are making a bit, if you think about it that way. Breaking even on the sale is absolutely fine with me. With the market being what it is, can't ask for more than that. OMG - one week on the market!!!! And actually, this was the second offer, but the first was so low as to be laughable and the realtor turned it down without even checking. It was pathetic.

But WHO CARES because our house is (all but) sold!!!!!!

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ETA: I got a call from the place that is fixing my car yesterday. My poor, beat up Jeep will not be ready until next Thursday. They were going to try to have it back to me yesterday but when they got into the steering column to do the repairs, they found there was significantly more damage than first thought. So they have to replace the entire steering column. That means ordering and waitng for more parts (at Christmas, no less!), and waiting for it to be fixed. They're closed Monday and Tuesday, of course, so Thursday it is. We hope.

Best search ever!

Checking out what searches lead people to this blog, I found…

Muslim woman boobs out

‘Nuff said.

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I need to be quick here, but please look up Mrs. Grumpy on the bloglist to your right, and stop by and give her love. Her daughter is very ill and in the hospital. This family has been thru enough, so please send healing vibes!!

Rental cars and car seats

I have a car to drive now. The dealer who’s fixing my car talked to my insurance company and found that I am covered for a rental, under the circumstances. So yesterday I dropped by and picked up a really cute Chevy Cobalt. LOVED that car. Didn’t get to keep it tho.

The windshield washer fluid didn’t work, and with the snow, etc, and my commute, I couldn’t have that. I had a guy here at work look at it for me and he couldn’t get it to work either, so I called the dealer/rental place and they agreed to swap it out for me. So after work last night I picked up an absolutely beautiful Chevy Malibu. VERY nice car. A little too much car for me – the Cobalt was more me, but this’ll be juuuuust fine for a week or so until I get my Jeep back. It is an awesome car. Jaben loves it and would prefer to keep it… ahahahahaha!! Like that’d happen, even if I didn’t owe so much on the Jeep. Malibu’s are super nice cars and waaaay outside my price range.

And that’s another thing. I still owe quite a bit on that Jeep, and I’m certain that being broken into, stolen, and molested like it was, it’s not worth as much now. I’m afraid that, after all the progress I’ve made paying this loan down, I’m back upside down again and that pisses me off to no end. I wish I could come up with the money to just pay it off and not have to worry about it. Soooo not gonna happen, but it’d be nice.

I have moments when I do feel sorry for myself. It’s frustrating, I do everything right, as well as I can, and still can’t get ahead. And I know this theme is universal, it’s not just me, but I have needed a few moments here and there to wallow. As a whole, I know I’m handling this a lot better than anyone expected of me (being the emotionally stable person I am, ha-ha), and that’s good to hear, but I wish I didn’t have to deal with it at all. It sucks. It just sucks. Apparently locking your car, parking close to the store near lights doesn’t help after all. I wish I could afford an alarm system, but then again, what are the chances it’ll get stolen again? Especially in this area, it’s slim to none. Which is good, but that doesn’t help with the paranoia. I’ve got this super nice, rented car, that’s way outside what I could afford to pay for, sitting in the parking lot, and I’m worried about it now. That’s just not right.

On the up side, I got a great deal on a new car seat for Kyan. It was on sale for $34 (yay!) and it will convert to a booster when he’s ready. I discovered he was nearing the height/weight limits on his old seat anyway, so it would have had to be replaced with in the year, so it’s okay. And he really likes his new seat. He got very excited when I carried it in the house last night – he wanted me to open it right away. I made him wait until we had dinner, then we installed it and all went for a ride in the super-nice Malibu with a new car seat for Kyan. I offered the old car seat to Ky’s DCP, and she said she could definitely use it – but she had to promise she won’t put Kyan in it. Fortunately she’s a mom and she gets why I feel that way.

So, we’re getting there. It’s still just weird and rough. I think I’ll be happy when I have my own car back and can put all this behind me. It’s just kind of hard not to think about it when I’m driving a car that is so obviously not mine.

Belated thank you

Before it gets too belated, and even tho I'm absolutely certain that it won't be seen by anyone from the department, I want to extend a very heartfelt thank you to the Perkins Police Department, and Detective Jenkins in particular. They took good care of us and made things much easier than they could have been. Detective Jenkins made seeing my car, broken, violated, and in pieces, much easier than I thought it could ever be. After the initial shock, he made me (and my sister, who thoroughly enjoyed herself!) very comfortable and what could've been a painful process much easier.

So to the Perkins Police Department... thank you!!

And um... catch the bad guys, okay?

I win!

For worst week, that is.

Go ahead, try to compete. You don't want to, you won't win.

It started going downhill Weds night when my mom started having chest pains. They were getting really bad and so of course we all thought "heart attack" and took her straight to the ER. They actually did a pretty good job of taking care of her, and she was admitted. They did a ton of tests, and while I'm still not convinced at the results, she's okay now.

I got NO SLEEP that night and called off work on Thurs (obviously) to be at the hospital with her. It was a long night and day, and it was pretty much the scariest thing I've ever witnessed. It was awful, I had to call my sister in Delaware and let her know what was going on, and that was a horrible phone call to have to make. I've decided there are going to be some changes made, some big, some small, because this isn't happening again. And, thinking of my own children, I don't want to put them thru something like that.

After Jaben got out of school on Thurs, I picked him up and went ahead with the plans for the boys Christmas pictures, since mom was okay. My younger sister was with her so it was all good. We went up to the mall (I had a great coupon!), and the pictures came out beautifully! Kyan was awesome, and I think my kids are the most beautiful boys I've ever seen. They still take my breath away. I should have them back in about 10 days or so and will probably post some to share. So that was good, but when we walked out to the parking lot, the car was gone.

It had been stolen.

My car had been stolen while I was inside Sears getting my kids' Christmas pictures taken.

My sister called me while I was standing there trying to decide what to do (in my confusion I wondered if maybe I hadn't parked it where I thought I did) and she came right up. In the meantime, I flagged down a passing police car and told them what had happened. Turned out that they knew there was a stolen SUV in the area. The people who stole it used it as a getaway car in robbing another store in the mall.

This could only happen to me.

They tell me this is done by professionals. They steal a car from one side of the mall and park it in front of a store on the other side, rob the other store and use the stolen car to get away. They then dump the stolen car nearby and get into their own car. They can now drive right past the police without drawing attention. And that is what happened. My car was found in a restaurant parking lot nearby. The back window was smashed out, the steering column was destroyed (hotwired), and it was still running. The officers told me they had to turn it off with a screw driver. (insert giant sigh here)

So I spent today getting all this worked out. I had to meet the detective at the impound lot to identify what belonged to me in the car, and what didn't. They left the rock they used to smash out the window and break the steering column in the cup holder, pieces of my steering column were all over, and they went thru the entire car. My MP3 player was taken, but as far as I could tell just by looking, everything else was still there. They had left a nasty cigarette butt on the center console and tore thru all of my stuff.

My stuff. My car. Our things.

I am so creeped out and feel so violated. Jaben is the same. He's doing a lot better now than he did last night, but it's still just an awful feeling.

The car can't be towed to where it's being fixed until Monday, I need some sort of proof or reciept on the MP3 in order to get it replaced, and I have no idea when I'll have my car back, but there's no deductible on this, so that's good. I also will have a rental car Monday morning. That was a nice surprise since I neglected to get rental coverage. They said my coverage on this is comprehensive, which means anything I need, in this situation, is covered. So that's good - one less thing. And it won't cost me anything. Except some time, peace of mind, and a feeling of security. Pretty expensive, if you ask me.

Of course I was a wreck Thurs night and couldn't sleep, but that was okay because Kyan spent that whole night vomiting on me. About once an hour. Poor baby, and poor me. He's doing a lot better now and we're going to try some mashed potatoes in a little bit. I have my reservations on that one, but we'll see how it goes.

So all in all, I haven't slept in 2 days and, at least for the next 2 days I have no car. I will still have to be late to work on Monday so that I can do the paperwork on my car and get my rental. BUT -- other than Kyan's tummy, everyone is safe and well. It could've been worse... we could've been in the car when they wanted to take it. That's not something I want to think about.

So... I win, right?

Merry Christmas!

Christmas has come to our house! I will take pics of more decorations soon, but I got 2 uploaded tonight.

First, Kyan and Santa at the library. He wants to see Santa again so I will try to make that happen. Besides, it's a cute pic but not the best. This Santa, however, was GREAT! Real hair, real beard, sparkling eyes and sweet as pie! He was awesome!



And then, our tree. It's huge and bright and gaudy and perfect! We LOVE it! We haven't been able to have a big tree in years, but now we can have whatever we want. It's AWESOME!! The bigger and gaudier, the better!

The tree is wet and the kids are fighting

Yeah, it's that kind of day.

We actually had a good weekend, after a couple of bumpy weeks. I'm sure I haven't written about it, having been so long since my last post. 2 weeks ago, Jaben's fish, Bella, went to the big fishbowl in the sky. Then, this past Thursday, the bird, Retro, went to join her. Not a great time to be one of our pets. Or to be Jaben, for that matter.

But this weekend was okay. Jaben went to camp and tobogganing (which is a story in and of itself, and NOT a good one), so Kyan and I went Christmas shopping yesterday. I've got everything bought, thank God, except for stockings. That will probably either be done at the dollar tree or Big Lots. Cuz that's how I roll. Cheap, cheap, cheap.

Ooh, bad time to make bird jokes.

But anyway, the weekend had been fine, and we were waiting for Jaben to get back from camp (they were 2-1/2 hrs late getting back!!) so we could go get the tree. And it started raining. It hadn't let up by the time Jabe got back, but we went anyway. We ended up bringing a soaking wet tree into the house, and having it rain all over the blanket we put under it. It's a VERY good thing we did put the blanket under it. At the moment, the blanket is in the dryer and the tree is in the middle of the room (having dripped it's last drop), and we're just waiting on the blanket to put the tree back by the window. We'll decorate tomorrow when we're more certain to avoid electric shock.

That's it, in a nutshell. The bird and the fish have died, the tree is wet, Jaben's being a total pill (to put it mildly), the boys are fighting and I want to go to bed. I think I have a mild version of the stomach virus that's going around. Fun.

And um, yeah... this post sucked. Sorry.