What a strange holiday this has turned out to be...

I can't believe Christmas is over! I never again want to move during the holidays and I swear, if one more person makes a comment to me about moving this time a year I ask that I not be held responsible for going postal. WE DID NOT CHOOSE TO MOVE THIS TIME OF YEAR! Yeah, we could have waited until January but really would not have been any better off. We did manage to get our Christmas tree up and quite a bit of holiday decorations. Randy and I even hung lights, garlands and bows out front. Yes, we are still up to our pits in moving boxes but when you have little ones, you can't exactly put Christmas on hold. I told Randy on Christmas eve that #1, no one will ever appreciate what I did since moving here to make it all happen, and #2, if we didn't have kids we probably would not have even had a tree! But we did the whole thing and now I'm ready to take it all down so I can get the rest of our house in order. I'll probably start this week.

My mom is on her way down to spend the week with us, but I'm not sure she's going to make it. She decided to drive because she is bringing Jack with her, her little Shih Tzu who is extremely attached to her. I spoke to her this morning though and found out she had just blown out two tires on her car. Later we found out the rims had been destroyed and the only place to get them is the Volvo dealership...which, of course, is not open on Sundays. So, she and little Jack went to a hotel and will deal with her car in the morning. I think this is a sign from God that she shouldn't be coming for whatever reason and that when her car is fixed she should turn around and go home. As much as I'm looking forward to her visit, I would rather she be safe, go home, and try to come in between the girls' birthdays when pops can come with her.

I did manage to get the spare room unpacked today and even made the bed in there! YEAH!!! So, with Emily's room done (although already trashed by her and Grace) I now have 2 rooms done, 7 to go...not counting the 3 bathrooms. So tomorrow brings more of the same...unpacking, unpacking and unpacking!

What a strange holiday this has turned out to be...

I can't believe it's already over

Merry Christmas!

Wow, I can't believe it's been almost a month since I last updated our blog! So much has happened since then that I don't even know where to begin. First of all, let me tell you that Randy, Emily, Grace and I hope all of you the merriest of Christmases and may we never forget the true meaning of Christmas.

Our gift-giving started a couple of days ago after Randy came home from last-minute shopping. He had my gift in the back seat of his truck and needed help removing it so I got it early - an absolutely gorgeous solid oak hope chest. I have always wanted one to help preserve keepsakes and as he usually does, Randy came through and gave me one this year. He bought it at a store in Tampa that sells only Amish hand-made furniture and when I say it's heavy, I mean it is HEAVY! And like I already said, absolutely gorgeous. Thank you, baby!

The gift was quite a surprise since we had decided not to do gifts for each other - a new house is quite a large gift! Plus, we bought the new flat screen for our bedroom so I thought that was it. I still wanted him to have something in his stocking though so I got him 3 gift certificates for 1-hour massages. Hopefully they will help relieve some of the tension he's been experiencing from his new job.

The girls had a wonderful morning...but not without drama last night. As is typical with most children, they did not want to go to bed last night and used every excuse they could think of to keep getting out of bed. Grace was so bad about it that I finally put a sign on her door to Santa telling him not to leave her any presents and that the only way I'd take it off her door was if she didn't get out of bed again! Well, it worked...until she came in our room at 3:30!!! Emily did better...until she realized we'd forgotten to put out the reindeer food. Once that was done though, she was out like a light.

The girls were ecstatic when they saw the tree this morning with gifts from Santa. The best gift for Randy and I has been that the two of them have played together VERY well, with no fighting to speak of!

I called my younger sister Stephanie's a little bit ago - the entire family is there today so we were able to speak with almost everyone. It was nice being able to tell them I was sitting outside on our lanai in shorts, enjoying the 76 degree weather. But I have to admit, at times I would like to brave the cold and snow up there just to be able to be with my entire family for the holidays.

We're going to be starting our Christmas dinner soon...a wonderful crab boil with shrimp and lobster tails. Randy is off work until Monday so it will be nice having him home and actually being able to spend time together. Our second shipment of household goods arrived yesterday so I'm thankful to finally have everything under our new roof. More on the 'move from hell' to follow in another blog. In the meantime we're going to try to unpack as much as possible and get the spare bedroom ready for mom's arrival on Monday. Right now it's become a catch-all room but she'll be here late Monday to spend the week. We're all looking forward to her coming down with her Shih Tzu Jack.

I hope everyone enjoys a wonderful Christmas and may we never forget that the true meaning of Christmas is not the presents under the tree but the birth of Christ. May the New Year bring happiness and prosperity!

The Anderson FAMILY has arrived...household goods to follow...

We finally arrived, are now in our new home with the majority of our household goods and the rest to follow on Sunday.

Black Friday...and painting...

For those who know me best, go ahead now and pick your jaws up off the floor because yesterday morning at 3:30 I was in Wal-Mart waiting for the sales to begin. Yes, I know it's hard to believe but due to the fact we are moving I couldn't really do my online shopping that I love so much so I was forced to battle the masses in Wally-world. Why did I pick there, of all places? They had a tv on sale that we wanted for our bedroom...plus I could get everyting else I wanted and needed. So, in the course of 2 short hours I finished the majority of my shopping (actually STARTED and FINISED is more accurate)...as well as purchased the supplies needed to start painting in the house.

Which brings me to my latest project...painting the girls' playroom. I've decided after today, 2 hours of scrubbing till my hands cramped and fingers were sore, not to mention going through 4 Mr. Clean Erasers, Grace is no longer allowed to have colors of any kind...crayons, markers, colored pencils, chalk, you-name-it! All four walls had graffiti, which is why the entire room has to be re-painted. So while Randy is gone to Tennessee - he's not going to Tampa this next week so said he'd take his mom back home this weekend - I've spent the majority of the day scrubbing walls and taping off outlets, switches, windows and doors...but only in the playroom...I still have their room to do! UGH!

As for our holiday, we had a wonderful Thanksgiving with my mother-in-law, Katie, Efren and Liliana, and our former neighbors and good friends, Lisa and her kids. Randy deep-fried the turkey again, which was absolutely delicious! He even did one for our neighbors! Randy and I spent the night before and most of Thanksgiving day cooking all the food...my grandma's casserole mashed potatoes, sweet potato souffle, green bean casserole, corn, dressing, dirty rice, seafoam salad and my grandma's wonderful pecan pie. Lisa added to that a delicious apple and a delicious pumpkin pie and our cleaning friend even surprised us by stopping by with a pumpkin pie she had made. Everything was delicious, everyone had a wonderful time and we certainly gave thanks for the blessings God has given us this year. We also said goodbye to Efren, who left early Friday morning for another TDY and won't return until after we've moved.

Well, time for me to close and get painting. Now that the 'hard word' is done and everything is taped and covered, painting should go quickly. We all hope that all of you enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving. We certainly did...I just really miss not putting up our tree right now!

Time is getting shorter...

...and my list of things to do keeps getting longer! I spent this weekend driving to middle Tennessee to pick up Randy's mom so she can spend this week with us. I woke up in the wee hours of Saturday morning and decided that as long as I was awake I would go ahead and leave early and drive to Nashville and go to a sale I'd been told about that was going on that day. It was a Kelly's Kids warehouse sale and I had no idea what I was in for! I got there about an hour early and realized later that I should have gone to get in line as soon as I got there. There were people in line since 4:30 AM! For those of you who don't know about Kelly's Kids, there clothes are absolutely adorable but very expensive so when they have a sale where they are selling all tops and bottoms for $9.99 (regularly priced $28 to $42 EACH) and dresses, longalls and dress coats for $14.99 (regularly priced $48 to $65 EACH), a lot of people tend to show up. I talked with some ladies in line who told horror stories of other Kelly's Kids sales they had been to where some people went in and just grabbed entire racks of clothes! A lot of people go and resell the stuff on eBay. By the time the door opened I was hoping to get lucky enough to get an outfit for each of the girls. Well, ten minutes after walking in I was walking out having found a few things for Emily, Grace and even a complete outfit for Liliana. I estimated that I saved approximately 75%! Then it was on to my mother-in-law's where I spent the night before returning with her the next day. Randy had dinner ready for everyone and I crashed early! Today was spent at the doctor's...my last regular appointment with my pain management doctor, my only other appointment with him being next week for trigger point injections. After that we had lunch with Randy and then Judy, Emily, Grace and I decided to brave Wal-Mart and get as much of our Thanksgiving grocery shopping done as we could. We came home and shortly after Katie came by and treated her grandma to a pedicure. When they came back Efren and Liliana were with them and stayed for dinner. Tomorrow is another doctor appointment and then Randy and I have an appointment to get our wills done. He just informed me though that he has a phone conference with his boss at 2...in the middle of our appointment. He's known about this appointment for two weeks and I asked him if he could adjust the time of his phone call but I'm not holding my breath. We've said since we moved here that we would get our wills updated (they haven't been done since right after we got married) and we haven't, now Randy says he wants to wait until after we move...but I know it won't happen anymore than it happened after we moved here. Oh well, I'm still going to get mine done. Everyone will probably be here again tomorrow night for dinner. Wednesday Randy is making gumbo and then we'll start cooking everything we can ahead of time for Thursday.

Sometime this week I want to start on the painting that has to be done. We're not painting the whole house, don't feel we should have to after having lived here 4 years, but both of the girls' rooms need to be done and their bathroom in order to cover up the evidence from them coloring on the walls in each of those rooms! I still need to pull out all of the holiday decorations in the crawl space upstairs and move them into the garage (we're moving them in the u-haul so we have them immediately when we get down there). Randy still needs to empty the shed and bring everything up to the garage as well. He did tell me today that in addition to not working all of this week, he's not going to Tampa next week but instead work out of the Tampa office so he'll be here to help get done what needs to be finished before the move. The week we are moving he'll be going down on Monday though...I'll be here when the packers come Wednesday and Thursday...he'll be there for the closing on Friday...and I'll clear us out of here on Saturday and head down with the girls.

So instead of staying on here blogging, I'd better get off and see what I can get done tonight. There are always boxes to go through and clean out! Hey, I just realized that since Randy isn't going to Tampa next week, maybe he'll take his mom back on Saturday. That's going to be a quick turnaround trip though...there and back same day, about 12 hours drive time. There's just too much still to do to be away two days again.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Now the fun begins...

So now the fun begins. We close on our house in 4 short weeks and I have a lot to do to get ready to move. We are fortunate in that Randy's company is hiring a moving company to come in, pack us up, load up the truck and move it to the new house as well as unload our things and put furniture back together (i.e. the beds and anything else they have to take apart to move). So at least I don't have to do that! I spent today scheduling them...they'll pack on 10 Dec and load up the truck 11 Dec...contacting both girls' schools to let them know we're leaving and to find out what to do to transfer Emily to a new school down there...contacting doctors' offices to request copies of medical records...notifying our property manager that we finally have a date and are leaving...cancelling any appointments I already had sceduled after the 5th of December...whew! It's been quite a day and the battery on my cell phone died from too much use!!! Randy and I hope to be able to get the painting done before household goods are packed, one of several projects to do on the weekends when Randy is home. Both of the girls' rooms need to be re-painted, everything else just needs to be touched up from where we hung pictures on the wall, chairs scraped the wall, etc. The problem is though that there are only 2 weekends when we can really do it together - this weekend, and we're not ready yet, or the weekend before we move. The two weekends in between are going to be spent with me on the road to Tennessee. Randy's mom is coming for the week of Thanksgiving and I need to go pick her up and take her home. Randy would do it but with him travelling back and forth to Tampa every week, the last thing he wants to do is spend more time in the truck travelling. So, I offered to do it. It'll be great having her here, our last holiday in this house. Once we move to Tampa it'll be more difficult to see her for weekend trips like we have since living here.

Well it's late and I need to finish a couple more things before I catch a few hours sleep. It seems as if the work to get ready for a move never ends and sleep suffers as a result. But hey, is anyone ever REALLY ready when it comes time to move???

WE DID IT!

Yep, it's official, our offer was accepted this evening!!!

Housing offer, round 2

Our offer was rejected though we're not surprised since we asked for a lot and offered a low price. The current owners did accept our request that they pay closing costs though so that much is good. They countered with a higher price as well as a change in closing date (one week later which is not a problem) and the use of a different company for the 1-year home warranty (which is also not a problem). Our realtor has suggested that we take the difference between what we offered and they counter-offered and split it and re-counter with that. I've put a call into our mortgage guy to have him run the numbers but am still waiting on him to call me back. I have also called Randy but he has two big-wigs from corporate in town so is in meetings all day. So I sit and wait...

Pics of our *hopefully* new house...

We may have found our new home!

Randy and I decided to take today a little differently. Instead of all of us piling in the vehicle together and heading out through every house, Emily and I went while Randy and Grace stayed back at the hotel. He was getting frustrated with not finding what we were looking for so this gave me the opportunity to 'weed out' properties I knew he would not want to see. So, he and Grace eventually met up with us at the 4th house of the day, arriving at 16606 Blenheim Drive in Lutz (pronounced LOOTZ) to meet the realtor, Emily and myself. The flyer for the property describes it as:

"4 Bedrooms, 3 Full Baths, 3 Car Garage, New Stainless Steel Kitchen Appliances, Solar Heated Swimming Pool, Outdoor Kitchen & Scenic Pond.

It will be easy to make this wonderful house your home. It has a spacious open floor plan featuring high ceiling & decorator shelves. The kitchen has been updated with all new Stainless Steel Appliances and features a built-in desk. The formal living and dining rooms offer an opportunity to display your finest furnishings. There's a cozy family room / kitchen combo with decorative wainscoting, built-in entertainment center, a wood burning fireplace and breakfast nook overlooking the pool and pond. Nearly 2,700 s.f. of living area in this sturdy concrete block / stucco home offers plenty of room for your family to grow. The exterior paint, A/C handler, water heater and pool pump are fairly new. The huge 15 x 30 swimming pool has all new sreens and is solar heated. There are beautiful shade trees everywhere. Windsor Park is a gated community that features tree lined streets, scenic ponds, playgrounds, tennis courts, an activities pavilion and a boat/RV storage area for your use."

So, we went through it as a family and we all really liked it. Randy especially loves the pond view and there was even a duck swimming across while we were there. The owners put a wooden bench swing down near the water with a lattice arbor as well as a wood & rope swing hung from the tree. We left there though and went and looked at a couple more but finally decided we just wanted to go back and see the first house together again. I have to admit, I never had the AAAAAAHHHHHHH moment I was hoping for but I can definitely see my family growing in this house and us definitely making it our home. There is a wonderful little pond when you walk up to the front of the house and when you reach the front step the 'mauve-colored' tile becomes very noticeable. Oh, I guess I forgot to mention there is mauve tile throughout the house but the owner's were going to to change it out before they received a job transfer so are giving an allowance for the cost-estimate they received. The mauve tile even surrounds the wood burning fireplace! It's actually not that bad though - I'll know better when the house is completely empty. The master retreat is huge with sliders to the pool area. There are also sliders from the formal living room, the breakfast nook (2 sides) and the family room with a separate door to the pool bath which is next to bedrooms 3 and 4 (on the opposite side of the house from the master retreat). We will probably convert the formal dining room into Randy's office - guess that means we'll have to do better about keeping it clean!!! Bedroom 2 has it's own bath and private door to the outside of the house, but it's on the side of the house and not the back where the lanai and pool are located. The pool is beautiful with a lage covered area and the whole thing is screened. There is also an outdoor kitchen with a built-in down-draft Jenn-Air grill. In anticipation for the dog the girls want to get, there is also a dog run located on the side of the house!

So, we've returned to the hotel for the night and our realtor went on to run the numbers and see what sort of realistic offer we can make. We already know the taxes on the property so all I have to do tomorrow is call around about insurance. Then our mortgage-guy will crunch them all together and let us know if we're within the ballpark of where we want to be. So, tomorrow's the day...hopefully we'll find out if our total number is within our reach, make the offer, and hopefully have it accepted.

This is painful...

...I mean, REALLY painful. Day 1-1/2 of house-hunting proved no more fruitful than the first 1/2 day. We've already paraded through about a dozen houses and I have yet to experience that 'AAAAAAHHHHHHHHH' moment. You know what I'm talking about...think Chevy Chase and Beverly D'Angelo standing in the middle of nowhere with their freezing kids in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. All of a sudden through the trees though they, or at least HE, sees the perfect 50-foot Christmas tree already glowing in lights and you hear the music in the background - 'AAAAAHHHHHHHHH'. That's what I'm waiting for but all I'm hearing is the little voice in my head telling me to run, Run, RUN as fast as you can out of there! No, it hasn't been that bad and to be perfectly honest, if we could take one house we saw and put it on another property we saw, our search would be over. We either find the perfect house with no yard to speak of or the perfect yard with the house that screams 1970s! We've also found a couple that would be great...with very attractive prices...but they would require a lot of work to be done before we could even move in. It's been almost sad at times walking in some of these homes that are bank-owned where the previous owner lost it through foreclosure. It's actually pretty pathetic when you see every appliance has been removed, light fixtures and ceiling fans torn down, baseboards and crown molding ripped out. Our realtor told us she went in a house once that had been foreclosed and the previous owner had even torn out the toilets!

So for us, at the end of today, we've looked at the homes that meet our criteria that are within a 30-minute commute for Randy...but without any luck. I haven't seen a single one that I would like to go back and look at again. So tomorrow we expand our search to include the 30-45 minute commute area and hopefully we'll have better success.

Daddy has a snatch...

...or at least that's what Grace says. She's been on this kick lately about who is a boy and who is a girl. We haven't gone into WHY some people are boys and some are girls but she does know there is a difference. Daddy was on the love seat this morning enjoying his cup of coffee when Grace walked up to him and informed him once again that he is a boy and she is a girl. Then she went on through her mind reciting the name of every person she knows and telling him who were boys and who were girls. Then she told him he has a snatch! and poppa has a snatch! but that even though Efren and Ryan are both boys, they don't have snatches!!! Have you figured out what she was trying to say? Moustache! We tried correcting her, as we have in the past when she's said it, but she just can't get her mouth to say the word right. I guess it's like our friend Henrietta - she's Grace's best bud but she can't say her name to save her life, she calls her Miss Mari-hetta! So yes, in Grace's mind some boys have snatches. I can't wait until she's A LOT older and we can tell her why this story is so funny!!!

Barack Obama, President-elect

I have to admit I was greatly disappointed Tuesday night when John McCain did not win the election, but I also must admit I wasn't surprised. Senator McCain had a lot to overcome, baggage from the current administration, that he unfortunately was not able to do. I am a flag-waving Republican, conservative by most standards, and very protective of my money. I don't like the idea of campaign promises made by a candidate that mirror socialism. I earned that money, my husband earned that money, and I'm not too keen on the idea of having to share it with those who 1. choose not to work, 2. prefer to milk the system of their own 'perceived' entitlements, 3. or to have it re-distributed in a system that does not promote furthering of education or job skills. Where is the incentive to better yourself when your money will be taken from you and handed out to those with less than you? That being said, I fell I should retire my soapbox. There is nothing that can be done now, the majority have spoken and the electoral college followed. Barack Obama will be our new president on 20 January 2009. I am excited...yeah, I said I'm excited...that history has been made and the first African American has been elected to the highest office in our country. However, I am concerned about articles I have read pertaining to 'friends' in his past (i.e. Bill Ayers, Jeremiah Wright), I am concerned about the controversy surrounding his birth certificate and wish the original would be produced to shut that theory down, I am concerned about his Muslim ties, but what I am most concerned about is his complete lack of experience to lead this nation. That, my friend, is what scares me the most. My hope and prayer is that he will surround himself with a cabinet of people with more experience than him and utilize them heavily. My hope and prayer is that a peaceful withdrawal of our troops in Iraq will occur with no lasting repercussions on the citizens of that country and that what has been accomplished the past 5-1/2 years will not have been done in vain. I pray for change and I believe Barack Obama will deliver, I only hope that it's the kind of change that benefits more than takes-away. If President-elect Obama is the God-fearing man he claims to be, I pray that he will maintain and further develop his faith and convictions. This can be...is...and will be an exciting time in American history and despite the fact that I feel that John McCain would make a better president, I will no longer stand opposed to President-elect Obama. I even removed all of my anti-Obama 'flair' from my facebook page. I will admit, Barack Obama is a very eloquent and charismatic speaker, he has a gift. He may just be the right person to re-unite the un-united of this country and this world. He has an ability to draw in the masses. I only hope it's not like the Pied Piper drawing in the mice and directing them off the side of a cliff. I hope his promises for change ring true and that my fear of American becoming a socialist country becomes unrealized. After all, campaign promises have been broken by, I'm sure, almost every president ever elected. But hey, if not, I hear Canada is nice.

New Recipe

Thanks Vanessa - you gave me a great idea when I saw the recipes posted on your blog. Last year I gave Randy a cookbook for Christmas from the Dean Brothers. For those of you who don't know, Paula Dean from the Food Network has two sons who travel across the country visiting restaurants, many of which are just out of the away and could be classified as a 'hole in the wall'. Anyway, one of our favorite recipes from the book came from a restaurant in Round Top, Texas, called Royers Round Top Cafe and it's called Creamed Corn and Fried Onion Casserole. Here it is:

1 x 8-ounce package cream cheese
1 x 10-ounce package frozen corn, thawed
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 x cup canned french-fried onions.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 7-inch square baking pan or casserole dish. Spread the cream cheese evenly on the bottom of the pan. Top with corn, pressing the corn into the cheese. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Spread the onions evenly over the top. Bake for 30 minutes.

The third time we made this we added a little half-and-half to the cream cheese and liked the consistency better but it's up to you. Add just enough to make it smooth but not runny. This has become one of our favorites for Sunday dinners with the kids. Mom even took the recipe with her back home to Illinois and made it recently when they had everyone over. The recipe is super-easy, tastes great and even Lily and our picky-little-eater-Grace ate some!

Bon Apetit!

Southern Living At Home...I need help!

Many of you know that I am an independent consultant for Southern Living At Home. I got involved with this company a couple of months ago at the urging of a friend of mine. I've bought so much through her in the past year and a half that we thought it would be a great idea for me to become a consultant because at least that way I could continue to buy the products I like but with a discount!!! Well, had I known the economy would take a turn for the worst I probably would have waited but not knowing, I signed up and have been struggling with this for a few months now. I say 'struggling' with all the sincerity I can muster since I've only been able to do two parties with unfortunately no prospects for any future ones. Maybe it's just me, maybe I'm not meant to sell!!! Even so I've decided to have my own catalog/website party where anyone can view the current catalog online through my website (www.southernlivingathome.com/marykelly) or I can drop off a catalog to anyone who is interested either when I'm out and about or in the mail. There are some really great sale items in November as well as great hostess and customer specials. Catalog parties count towards redeeming hostess specials - all that's required is a minimum of $250 in sales. So talk to your friends, generate some interest and give me a call! I'd love to 'hook you up' with some great deals through a company whose products I absolutely love! P.S. There are links on my website for the November hostess and customer specials as well as the November sale items!!!

More Halloween pictures...

Here are the rest of the Halloween pictures...check out Lily's shoes! and Katie's boobs!

Happy Halloween!

They are so adorable!!! We had wonderful Halloween this year with Emily going as a '50s girl' and Grace as our own little 'Stinkerbell'. Katie brought Liliana over who was dressed as a beautiful ladybug. Katie even got into the spirit by dressing up as one of the Housewives of Orange County or as a dark-haired Lindsay Lohan-look-a-like, depending on your perspective! I'll add photos of Katie and Lily when Katie sends them from her camera. It was Randy's turn to 'walk the girls' this year. Ever since we moved here we've taken turns - one of us stays here to hand out candy while the other walks the girls door-to-door around the loop here in our neighborhood. This year Emily got a special treat when she was invited by our neighbors to ride on a hay-covered trailor pulled by a 4-wheeler. Of course Grace wanted to go too but Daddy and Katie walked her and Lily to some houses and then brought them home. Grace got into the spirit of things when she got back by helping mama pass out candy. She even gave more candy to the kids whose costumes she liked best! She was too cute. After trick-or-treating ended and we wrestled all three of the girls to bed, Randy, Katie and I sat down with some pizza and hot wings to watch Jeepers Creepers. After being up most of the night before, fatigue set in and I fell asleep before it ended. To be quite honest, I can't recall if I have ever seen the movie all the way to the end! What I do remember is pretty scary though so if you like scary movies, it's worth checking out!
I really had a hard time getting into it this year, probably because I didn't really decorate a whole lot. With the upcoming move, on top of me putting all of the fall decorations BEHIND the Christmas ones in the attic, I didn't pull them out. I'm going to make more of an effort though for Christmas even though I dread the thought of moving in the middle of it! Oh well, Santa will hopefully be bringing us the best Christmas present for us all to enjoy - a new house with an in-ground pool! I'd better close and get back to my online househunting...

Happy Birthday to my oldest...

Happy Birthday, Jamie! I hope you have an absolutely wonderful day. I wish I could be there. Although, this birthday means you are getting your driver's permit and for that I'm grateful I live 6 states away. I'll never forget the day you were born and my first thought when I saw you was that your full head of hair certainly explained the problems I'd had with heartburn! You were so tiny, so beautiful, so perfect. What happened? Ha ha, just kidding! One of my first thoughts when I found out we were moving to Tampa was that I'd actually get to see you more. For that, I'm grateful and excited.

Happy birthday, kiddo. I love you.

I love this!

I'm really loving this blog! This is a lot of fun!!! Anyway, another day in the Anderson household brings a little more disappointment on the house-hunting front. I got a list back from our realtor that I had sent her with different houses on it and asked her to identify the short sales. Well, of over 30 I sent to her, only 4 are still on the list for us to possibly look at next weekend when we're down there. UGH! The rest are either short sales, just went under contract, or are too far for Randy's commute. So, now we're expanding our criteria and see if that brings about more results.

In the meantime, Grace has been quite the little handful today. She is usually really good, usually self-entertaining and content to play by herself or watch tv. Not today though! She's been under my feet all day, every 5 seconds it seems she's asking me for something, she keeps disappearing into her bedroom only for me to find out that she's taken something in there she shouldn't have (the baby powder, the band-aids, the gatorade jug, etc!). Fortunately she's going to Katie's this afternoon and will be able to play with Lily while I take Emily to a doctor appointment. I hope she's not a handful for Katie though, she's had her own hands full with Liliana who broke the top of their coffee table yesterday and laughs at Katie when she tries to discipline her. Sounds like the terrible-twos are alive and kicking in the Gonzalez household!

I still haven't finished our laundry yet and have a sinkful of dishes that need to be washed. The excitement in my life never ends...

SHE'S A STAR STUDENT!!!

Well, she did it! Emily is a Star Student at Lake Joy Primary School! YEAH! When the bus pulled up in front of the house after school today, I saw the sign before I saw her and my first thought was 'Oh no, another Star Student among her friends but not her.' Emily has not had the best week at school having had her behavior card pulled to orange on Monday. She was grounded by daddy for two days with no tv or friends and told that if her card gets pulled again this week, even to yellow (which is the first color) then she doesn't get to go trick-or-treating on Friday. Apparently he made quite the impression on her because she's been great the past couple of days and the smile on her face when she got off the bus was priceless! When she saw me she started yelling 'mama! mama! I was on green today!' Now we have a sign in our front yard next to the oak tree that says a Star Student lives here! I have to admit, I'm pretty proud! We just got off the phone from calling daddy - he's in Tampa - and I must say, it was nice to be able to call him at work and tell him something positive for a change!!!

House-hunting sucks!

Yep, that's my attitude today about the whole thing. I am so frustrated right now I could spit wooden nickels! The 'C' school house? Not a worry anymore because the house is a short sale! UUUUUGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!! So are 3 more of our top 5 so there goes 4 houses I wasted my time on with research. I'm waiting for our realtor to send me a listing that does not include short sales so I don't waste anymore time. Our realtor is great though and I know when she has it done she'll send it - no worries with her - I'm just frustrated that I wasted my time looking up boo-koo information on 4 houses we won't even consider for purchase because they are short sales. I did speak with her this morning though and she told me one good bit of information I had not found out on my own - that Florida DOES have pre-K for all 4-year-olds and it is free for the first 4 hours. Basically that means Grace will get to go to school in the fall 5 days a week, half days unless we want to pay the difference for her to go all day. I'd better end this blog before I vent too much more, I do have other things to do besides researching houses. It's addictive though and once I start I tend to do it all day. I can't today though - Grace and I went to Publix earlier and I still have groceries to put away not to mention loading and unloading the dishwasher, 4 loads of laundry that need to be washed, dried, folded and put away...and the myriad of other things I haven't even started to get us ready to move in approximately (*hopefully*) 6 weeks!

My girls have a twang...

Yep, one of the best things about moving from Georgia is that hopefully both of them will lose the drawl they've grown up with since moving here (or in Grace's case, being born here) almost 4 years ago. I read an old blog I'd started earlier in the year - yes V, I did start one, I just never published it! - and laughed out loud while I remembered the story I wrote about. That night Grace had asked her daddy to 'swang' her and it came out as 'soo-wang me di-ya-dee, soo-wang me!' She's had this drawl since being born, I think it was issued to her in the form of a vaccine or something that didn't work because she even cries with a southern drawl! My mom says that apples don't fall far from the tree and that Randy has a pronounced drawl of his own - I guess I don't notice it as much with him but it is unmistakable in Emily and Grace both. I've been telling Randy since we first noticed it in Emily several years ago that it was time to move, time to get out of here before the damage is irreversible! Maybe we're getting out of here just in time...

With change comes...

With change comes more and more things to do, I'm convinced, as if I don't already have enough on my plate! I've spent the past three days doing in-depth research online of houses in the Tampa area we are interested in. We've found several that appear to be great so I started doing a little more digging on each one to find our about property taxes, insurance and school ratings. Well, this particular little nugget we found is well-priced, even for the asking price and since it's been listed now for 214 days we're sure we can get it down. The taxes are another issue. I had my shock moment awile back when I looked up the taxes the first time on another property. Fortunately for us this one is a little lower - only a mere $6,000 per year! Yep, I said that right, hope you didn't choke on your cheerios. Now for the other clipper - insurance is only a mere $250 per month! And that does not include private mortgage insurance or flood insurance. That means that we'd be paying more a month in taxes and insurance than Katie and Efren pay for their duplex! YIKES! Surprisingly, these figures are on the low end of average for that area. So in comparison, this one looks great, right? Yeah, NOT! I pulled up the school info and found out the elementary school is a C school. NOOOO! The past ten years it has been A and B but for some reason this year it is a C. I'm tempted to contact the school and ask them about it - because we love this house! There are still several others to consider though so I'll keep you posted.

Emily spent the night Friday night with our neighbor's girls and a couple of other girls from the neighborhood. Daddy and I had Grace all to ourselves and it was precious. She was content to sit in the rocker and watch The Goodnight Show on PBS Sprout all night, all the while waiting for Caillou to come on. We thought by letting her stay up WAY late she'd at least sleep in a little but no, she was tapping my shoulder bright and early at 7am asking for gatorade. I took these pictures of Grace with Randy - she looks more and more like him every day. She's just too cute for words and has truly developed a great sense of humor. She's certainly defined herself as the baby of the family but is quick to point that she's not a baby since she wears panties now 'and only big girls wear panties so I'm a big girl except for at night when I wear a pull-up but I'm still a big girl because I wear panties during the day and I don't wet my panties because if Tinkerbell gets wet she can't fly and Tinkerbell has to fly because that's how she gets around but if her wings are wet she can't so I don't get her wet so at night I wear a pull-up because I still have accidents at night and at night she'd get wet and I don't want her to get wet....' Can you hear her saying that? Be sure to add in the Georgia drawl and you'll get it right!

I had a conference this week with Emily's teacher. Academically she's doing very well and is at or above average in all areas. Socially she seems to have a problem. Apparently she's a talker (no, really?) and likes to walk around socializing instead of sitting at her desk doing her classwork. She's also bossy (no, really?) and it tends to get her in trouble. So, we're working on that here at home. I worry about Emily. Grace is clearly the baby and always will be the baby but Emily's position in the family is less defined. She tries to be the oldest since she's Randy's and my oldest together, but she's not because Katie and Ryan are older. I think she gets lost sometimes in where she fits in. She is an oldest child, but she's not, she is a middle child, but she's not. She's been very patient with Grace this weekend - to the point where Randy and I have asked what happened to her! They usually fight like cats and dogs. I'm convinced she'll find her place and be just fine. I hope she adjusts well when she has to transition schools. Emily is the greatest follower even though she thinks she's a leader - she'll follow you straight off the bridge if you want her to. She wants to be the boss, she wants to be in charge, but she would rather not accept the responsibility. Gee, sounds like a lot of adults I've known over the years!

I was also told she's had a problem with being disrespectful and it took me everything I had to keep my not-so-little-butt in the little kindergarten chair! I was absolutely floored. The kids have colored cards for behavior and when they get in trouble, their green card gets pulled to the yellow card, then an orange card, then finally red, with various degrees of punishment. I told her teacher that first, Emily's never had her card pulled for being disrespectful so I was surprised to hear it, but that if it happens again, pull it to orange and do whatever is done at that level. I've already had a problem with this teacher. Emily colored with permanent marker on their carpet and then lied about it so when the teacher e-mailed me, I asked her to pull her card to orange if it had already been pulled to yellow (one color for each thing she'd done wrong). That's when I was told she never pulled her card, it was on green (good) all day. Yet this is the same teacher that has pulled it twice for Emily talking too loudly in the hallway and for not sitting at her desk doing her work. I'm sorry, but I think coloring on the carpet, lying about it and being disrespectful are much more severe 'crimes' than talking and not sitting in your chair. Randy and I dealt with it at home, of course, but it sent mixed messages to Emily about what is punishable at school and what apparently isn't. Deep breath - we're out of here in less than 2 months!

I have finally succumbed...

Ok Vanessa, you should be happy. Thanks to my neighbor Angela finally starting her own blog, I've succumbed to the pressure you've put on me for MONTHS now to start my own family blog. So what's new with the Anderson family? Randy is already jumping in to his new position as Site Manager for Scientific Research Corporation's Tampa site. He spent Monday down there, coming home Tuesday after enjoying breakfast with our new realtor team, Ronnie and Ralph Evans. He spent yesterday in the office here in WR and is in Atlanta today. He'll be home tonight and back in the WR office tomorrow, Monday and Tuesday, before heading back to Tampa from Wednesday until Thursday or Friday. The week after that he'll head to Charleston, SC for a couple of days before we caravan down to Tampa for our 5 day house-hunting expedition. I say 'caravan-ing' because on Tuesday, 11 Nov, the girls and I will return home but he will stay there for a couple more days. After that it looks like he'll be in Tampa Mondays through Thursdays and then home Fridays and the weekends unless the girls and I drive down there. I know the drive is going to seem longer and longer for him. He already commented that the drive back Tuesday seemed to take forever, possibly because the prior Thursday we 'caravan'd' down to Fort Walton Beach for the Pave Low deactivation, retirement and reunion with him leaving Sunday for Tampa and me heading home.



As for our weekend in FWB? It was awesome and at times surreal. That is just my perspective. For Randy I don't think it can even be described. He saw men that he flew with in Germany in the mid-80s, he saw Lieutenant Colonels, Colonels and Generals that he new as baby pilots with their butter bars. He bid farewell to the helicopter he'd flown humanitarian missions in, he'd flown combat missions in, the helicopter that had caused the loss of life of 8 Green Hornets, as the members of the 20th Special Operations Squadron were called. Four of those Hornets were personal friends. He said goodbye to a later version of the same helicopter he was in and crashed in the mid-80s. He stood stoic and proud as we attended the deactivation ceremony in the Air Park on Hurlburt Field with the big beast behind the podium, remembering flights that were good and bad, remembering proud moments flying in multi-helicopter formations over places from the emerald coast of northwest Florida to the mountains of Albania and Afghanistan to the sands of Saudi Arabia and Iraq, remembering missions of ease and remembering missions he wasn't sure they'd make it home from and the sheer will, determination and defiance that brought them home and defines the Pave Low and everyone who flew her. There were over 500 people at the reunion that followed the deactivation and even after spending Friday and all day Saturday there, we still did not see everyone. I was able to reconnect with wives I had lost touch with after Randy retired and spent a couple of great days with my dear and close friend Tammy. For those of you who remember, Tammy's husband Tony was on the same crew with Randy in Afghanistan. Randy and I had married just before they left and I was new to the wives' group. Even though I was active duty and in reality knew more about what was going on with our husbands than most everyone else, the wives' group was new to me so Tony asked Tammy to take me under her wing and keep and eye on me to make sure I was ok while they were gone. She's been one of my closest friends ever since and Tony and Randy share a bond that none will ever break and most will not understand. The 20th's theme song has long been 'Dead or Alive' by Bon Jovi and even Lt Col Becker, the squadron's commander, incorporated the words of the song into his speach at the deactivation. He said 'It's all the same, only the names have changed,' to sum up the long legacy of the helicopter. Various Pave Lows are at museums around the country - Eglin AFB, the Air Park on Hurlburt Field, the museum at Robins AFB here in Georgia, and at the museum at Wright-Patterson AFB, in Dayton, OH. If you ever get a chance to go there, stop by and see the beautiful bird that was Randy's life for 22 years. The remaining 6 are still in the desert having retired in combat and are now waiting transport back to the US. The 41 birds that made up the Pave Low inventory and created a legacy that extends as far back as the Vietnam Conflict, along with the many men that flew them 'saw a million faces,' and she was the 'steal horse they rode.'

Randy took with him a bottle of red wine that had been part of Colonel Tommy Hull's (now retired) change of command in the late-90s. I opened the bottle and the cork disintegrated! Even so, Randy and Colonel Hull put on their bravest faces and drank the wine, walking around the reunion telling everyone how good it was. Stephanie Hull and I both thought it tasted like vinegar and I had to laugh when she commented that they were telling everyone how great it was yet they still had half of a bottle left! Check out the pictures!