little bit of karma

We checked out the classifieds in the newspaper of where we were renters and it turns out our old house is still for rent. In addition to it still being for rent he has reduced the price by about $300 and is willing to pay first month free. I guess you should be nice to renters you have, before you have to beg new ones to move in.

the final days

I have been extremely busy lately. Family get togethers, Dodger games, errands, kids, gym, etc. But one event can not go un blogged about.

The final walk through of our rental...
For me, and even Jerry, it was as big of a nightmare as you can imagine. I have never had a landlord as crazy as this one. Part of me wants to put an add in the local newspaper stating don't rent a house from mr crazy ever. But I might get sued for defamation of character or something dumb and un worth it like that. I was pretty much sick the 2 days before and it turns out not a bug, but stress was making me feel awful. All this pent up stress and the cleaning of this house made for a big ball of angry steph. The end result was a tongue lashing for the landlord, a refusal to pay a maid to do what we had done already 3 times, an earth quake, and a full deposit back (we hope he doesn't back out for dust in the floor vents). It was funny after I gave him a piece of my mind, I didn't mind the cleaning. It felt good to tell this man that this is the most absurd rental situation ever. He is so weird, he just looked at me with a blank face, I tried to keep my calm because money was at stake but there were several times my head almost blew off the top of my neck. I told him, "we kept your house clean right?" he answered "no" I said "what?" He replied back, "there is dust on the ceiling fan blades" I said "that's because I left them spinning for 3 weeks after I shampooed the carpet." I could go on but it's just not worth it.

Jerry and I have gained nothing in our lives from ever knowing this man. I hope I never rent again, even though it turned out good from an investment standpoint. Best wishes to all renters out there, you have my sympathy.

mounds & mounds

of stuff, maybe even crap.

At least that's what it feels like when you are moving. Un-packing is going to be real fun.

But everything is out of storage and the rental and into the new house. Few, what a weight that has been lifted. Even if I still have to put away mounds and mounds of stuff.

And... I have high speed Internet again!!!!! WOO HOO

1/2 in

Our beds, clothes, toys, kitchen stuff & computer are in. The rest is coming in the next two days. Wednesday is empty the storage unit day. Busy Busy. Better posts coming soon!

Updates

We survived the inspection, barely. I was sent away from the house and Jerry dealt with the landlord. That is our new solution, Jerry gets to deal with him.

It's snowing, again. I have not been following the weather and I wasn't expecting this one. Its doesn't change much for weekly stay-in Saturdays.

I was a big blob of a mom today and didn't get out of my pj's. Tomorrow I will have more motivation. Today was a recoup day from all of the anxiety of the inspection.

We were supposed to find out how many gallons per minute we have our well, but it was rescheduled. Maybe this week. I would really like to find out before Easter.

I think the week after next we will start house plans. Some big decisions headed our way.

That's it.

Upset all over again

It's the day before one of our famous inspections. I am completely upset over it. This feeling of knowing just how much our personal space is going to be invaded tomorrow is making me sick.

I have told our creepy landlord I don't like the inspections, they make me uncomfortable, you can't feel settled in the home your supposed to have as your own, etc. None of this information deters him. Jerry said tomorrow he would tell him this would be our last because we will be moving when our leases is up.

Do I really want to move before we move into the house we are going to build. No. But I will not do this again. I have been on the verge of tears and angry all day. Its not worth it, so I will move.
Plus it just makes the lack of movement on our property that much more discouraging.

Not to be a bummer, but I am.

It's been awhile...

Since I have made a list.

Here is what I have been up to, lately.

1. still cursing the slow Internet, there is a whole bunch of you I have been meaning to email, but the frustration of it all. I just give up.

2. preparing to have my privacy invaded again, 6 month rental inspection this week. Woo Hoo!

3. getting ready for Easter - hair cuts, outfits, eggs, etc.

4. dreaming up the house so maybe we can meet with our architect soon. If we ever get our well tested. Talk about anti-climatic.

5. trying to eat 35 grams of fiber a day, ha ha ha ha ha ha I'll leave this one to your imagination.

6. running again, thank goodness at the gym and at home.

7. trying to fit in some yoga when I can.

8. potty training miss Hannah - who is actually doing really well. She can be a bit mischievous and this one is up to your imagination also.

9. trying to clear up my skin - thank you lebec water district. I hope our well doesn't have the same effect on my skin.

10. spending lots of time with just me and the kids, Jerry has been working a bunch. This is good and bad at times.

11. enjoying the weather but still hoping for some serious rain this spring - I guess all the snakes drown when its a wet spring.

12. wishing I could see everyone I haven't seen in awhile & there is a long list of all of you.

13. watching tv, wishing some of my old shows were back on, wanting to find the time to sign up for netflix again.

14. drinking a new wine/grape variety - viognier - a kind of fruity white, its my new favorite.

15. trying to keep the kids and myself healthy, we have been sick enough this year.

16. wanting to go to the library and checkout some books to read.

17. wanting to sew up some of my own shopping bags to take to all of the stores.

18. staying up too late.

19. driving too much.

20. not blogging and reading your blogs enough.

Interesting time of year

Interesting is my word of all words. It fits for when I like something and when I don't like something. Or when I am confused. I like the snow. But I also like routine. So this makes it an interesting time of year.

We have been housebound and are fighting RSV in both kids. Hannah even got a hospital stay for it up in Mammoth. But that is a whole new story that I don't feel like blogging about.

Interesting behavior from myself includes dragging the treadmil into the livingroom from the garage. Planning out the future home in my head. Hopefully I can find all the words and pictures so that those around me can help me build it. Watching all my saved up DVR'd tv so that now we are back to Noggin 24hrs a day.

Interesting time of year.

Rental Schmental

My landlord called today to check up on the new faucet he installed because the last one leaked. I mustered up all the courage I had to explain to him how by not knowing what was expected during the rental I found it to be very awkward, uncomfortable and an invasion of our privacy. He was extremely apologetic and explained to me his method as well as why he does it. I guess its less to look at us and more to fix broken thing that just happen in a house. Still, I don't think I will handle much more than a year of this guy.

Then there is the Internet situation. Lebec finally got dial up. However the canyon we live in is only accessible to it near the beginning of the homes not up here near the top. I don't know what to do. Do we get another phone line for our dial up and tough out the rest of our time here or do we pay a fortune for satellite Internet. I know that I will have high speed in Lockwood Valley. So what do we do? Some of you empathise with our mourning of all things highspeed and some of you probably don't understand the fuss. But how I love to use the Internet at my in laws just because it is fast.

Oh, invasive day.

So today's maintenance inspection is pretty blog worthy. I go between letting the whole thing roll off my back and being pretty upset about the whole situation.

We basically had about 2 weeks to move once we thought our escrow was going through for sure. The house we found met all of our needs with regards to kids being safe in the yard and a garage for Jerry. Actually the house is not bad at all. However, the landlord. What a nut case. We joked that Jerry and I were clear to work for the FBI with our background check that we had to go through before we moved in. We seriously thought that OK, this guy is protecting his property but once he gets to know us he will ease up. Wrong.

He is very weird, nice but weird.

I decided to read through my lease yesterday again before I had him come in to try and guess what today was going to be like.
It said "Scheduled inspections shall be performed by Landlord to identify and make needed repairs. Inspections will be arranged at about the (3) month and then the (6) month point from move in date. Regular maintenance will be scheduled every (6) months thereafter. Such timely maintenance will assure your home remains in good working order."
Now after I read this I relaxed just a bit. I still cleaned from top to bottom. But I relaxed that it wouldn't be a fine tooth comb-over.

It was supposed to happen at 10 this morning and he shows up at 8 and is lurking around. We are clean and dressed and fed around 9 so I go outside and pretend I didn't know he was there. I asked him since he was early if he would like to start. I can only keep my house clean for so long. He said he couldn't because he had to trim the trees around the property and there was someone coming to haul off branches soon. So whatever. Then 30 minutes later he is back and ready to do the "inspection". In the mean time Hannah has fallen and has a huge goose egg and is crying. He starts in the kitchen looking at everything the walls, phone, sink, then he opens the microwave, oven, every single cupboard door and drawer, the window, turns on the lights and the fan. All the while still making small talk and smiling away. My skin was crawling. I don't like the guy much and he is looking at every single possession I have. Family doesn't even do that.

I get distracted with the kids and he moves on to the living room and then our room. He must have been in our room alone for 10 minutes. I didn't know if I should go in or stay out. He had a clipboard and was making notes on it. I felt violated because I know he was opening every drawer in the bathroom and the closet and looking in shower and the toilet.

So I just decided to play with my kids and ignore the big idiot rummaging through my house. All the while hating every second being alone in the house with him. Now he is nice, but how weird is this? He spent an hour fine tooth combing this 1200 square feet we are living in.

Actually I am sick just writing all of this down. I told Jerry about it tonight and he was like "we are out of there if he plans on doing that again, he can just take his mansion and shove it." However, we paid almost $5000 in deposits that I plan on getting every penny back. So I guess we will have to find a very civil way to deal with the invasion of our privacy. No stupid home is worth it. But money that I could be spending drilling a well is.

This rental is one of the more degrading life situations I have been in. We had more freedom in college. I had a landlord who gave us a checkbook and had us hire people to make repairs on the house. This nut wants to do everything himself. I don't know if he is OCD or what but I think we really need to talk to him before he head back to Mexico.

updates

Well I would have done a Halloween blog but I ran out of time and it already is too far past. Hello, Christmas decorations!

So here is a life update.

Halloween was a blast. Jame and Hannah were soo much fun. James was a monster truck, Hannah and I were a pair, Hannah -boots the monkey and Me- dora the explorer. We had fun and now there is way too much candy in the house.

Kristin's baby shower was today. It turned out nice. I enjoyed myself and I enjoyed the fact that it was done. I was stressing big time on it.

Hannah has quite the vocabulary these days. Tonight she was saying "night, night" I love it.
I would list all her words but that would mean have to turn my brain back on.

I drove past our old house, it's still there although no one has mowed the lawn near the mailbox. That looks kind of trashy. But I don't care, it's not mine anymore.

Jerry is doing well back at work.

Jame is turning 3 in four days and I can't hardly believe it. I am the mom of a 3 year old. CRAZY! Plus I get to figure out how to make a monster truck birthday cake this week.

I got to talk with my old friend Nicole today. It has been a long time since we talked. She is engaged and is getting married on my birthday. I guess I get to go to Sonoma this summer! That's where she had my bacholerete party and I loved the area.

We get to do our 3 month inspection for our rental, I don't know what to expect. I don't know how closely he is going to inspect the house and I am dreading it. So tomorrow I am cleaning from top to bottom. It should only take a few hours. And on top of this stupid inspection, I get to do it by myself, Jerry has to work. Yuck. If he gets all weird, I might loose my cool by myself. Oh well.

Well that's it for the update. We have been looking a house plans a bunch lately so I think we are really getting started going. I hope.

Been Busy

I have been busy.

Traveling to see my parents.

Hiking (with strollers & 2 kids each) with my new friend Misty.

Sewing, nursery set for Kristin.

Planning baby shower for Kristin.

Getting some fabulous Halloween costumes together.

Being a mom.

Returning Jerry back to work (1st day today!!!).

so needless to say I haven't had the time to Blog.

And we are still using dial up, which reminds me I should call tomorrow.

Beer Can Pie Crust

When in a pinch, you can always use a Coors light beer can to roll out pie crust.

When we were packing apparently thought I would not be doing any baking of any kind when we were renting. So I don't have my rolling pin, cookie cutters, cooling trays, etc. I guess I may have to go dig them out of storage and a few of my cookbooks as well. Not using the ol' noggin.

It's an end to an era

Ok, I have a weakness and it is piles. I pile everything from papers to clean laundry.

Our bedroom had gotten a little out of hand with the piles lately. Partly due to the lack of storage and partly due to the lack of motivation by me. We had been pretty busy and not feeling all that great so the house had gotten very messy. Yesterday I started cleaning and this is where the adventure begins.

I was working on the kitchen floor so I moved my sink rug away and when a returned there was a lizard on my kitchen floor. Not being a fan of anything like, lizards, snakes, mice and frogs, I was quite startled. Now as the the great white lizard hunter there were several attempts to remove it from the kitchen. Lets just say the shop vac came in very handy, especially with the long tube extensions. Ok, breathe lizard is removed I can quit walking with my toes curled.

The kitchen and living room are looking good time to move into pile central our room. So I shift a few piles around. Move some more of my clothes to James' room, then I begin the process of sorting. I go pick up a pile of socks and what do I find? Another creepy crawly thing, as of right now I still don't know what I found. So I drop the pile and get the heck out of there. I need a moment to breathe, again. I return with the broom. Why I didn't bring the shop vac I have no idea. I thought my critter was dead. So when I flip over the pile I drop my new buddy goes slithering across my room towards the corner that is our desk and where I get out of bed. GREAT!!! As I am jumping away from my 4 inch potential attacker I knock Hannah over. So I close the door and don't go back.

That's it! the kids and I are now in the car driving to the Burbank Ikea for a dresser. I get a dresser and a desk/table for our computer. When Jerry got home he tore our room apart looking for the threat. Guess what, nothing was found. So needless to say I am not a big fan of putting my feet anywhere on our floor. As I type right now they are up on my bed.

Plus I have more laundry to do now than I ever have. Because everything is getting rewashed.

I guess it is a good thing that my pile habit will be broken from now on. I might even miss them but I hate the creepy crawlies more than I like my piles.

catching up on my reading

While I use the computer I am catching up on my reading while it loads the next page. HA!

Jerry has been working on stretching and becoming more limber. He is one of the least flexible people I know. So last night he was laying on his back stretching his hamstrings and grimacing. James laid down next to him to stretch also. He did the exact move then wrinkled up his face to look like he was in pain too. I think I got a bigger kick out of it than Jerry did.

I uploaded to flickr this morning while I was in the shower. I have the patience for about 4 pictures at a time.

No news on building. We are waiting for Jerry to get back to work. He will be off another month. He will probably return the first week in October. He tweaked his back and he set his return to work date back. He has to get back in shape without getting hurt. I am looking forward to getting him back to work and not doing light duty anymore.

Well that's the update. Thanks for checking.

Coming at you at the speed of.... Dial up!

I have not posted in a long time. I can thank moving, no Internet, then dial up Internet for that. It is basically torture for me to post, so I will make it quick, who knows you could be trying to call me right now.

We are moved and basically un-packed. Do we feel settled? I don't know. But the rental is fun. There are lots of spiders and green carpet. Oh Ya! James has a huge room to play in and we are trying to teach the kids that they can play in their rooms. Since they are used to playing in the family room because of the two story house they aren't giving up that habit easily yet.

Hannah is sleeping better here, its quiet and cools down much better at night.

I do love the small town, the post office is great, the church is tiny. It takes me back to my small town roots. I have to re-train my self for shopping though. I don't have stores just minutes away anymore.

So I am liking the move. I miss my friends in Palmdale but I like living here much better.

Jerry started light duty yesterday. It's good. The rest of his family is ready to get back into some of our routines that have been thrown off since he got hurt.