what would happen if...?

I am very good at playing the "What would happen if" game.

You know, What would happen if we bought this car?

What would happen if we just dropped our car insurance, or health insurance?

What would happen if cars quit running and I was trapped in Dodge, and the kids were alone in Bucklin and the power also went out and cell phones didn't work and...and...

What would life be like if we'd stayed in Colby?

That's the question I've been asking myself for the past year. That and, "Did I make the right decision?"

Kev and I went back to Colby yesterday for the day. He was a guest lecturer for the PTA class, I went along to get a few things I'd left at the library and to see former colleagues and friends.

But it didn't feel like home anymore. And, after visiting with folks there, I just felt like we'd made the right decision in moving.

Oh, there are many things we miss (like customer service and our friends), but all in all, moving and changing careers has been good for my career, Kev's career, for our family lifestyle and for our kids.

Now if I could just answer those other pressing questions...

the real estate business

Before I start, Happy Thanksgiving everyone. I'm headed home today to spend 4 wonderful days with my family. Stay safe and don't eat too much.

We made an offer on the house in Bucklin. Kevin and I cussed and discussed at length about it and about another house we looked at that was a possibility. We went over all the pros and cons of each, we went over each of my reservations on the Bucklin house. I had some on the other house, I just didn't get as emotional about it, because to me, it wasn't a real contender. So, we agreed on a price to offer.

I called the realtor and told her what we wanted to offer...and I told her it was low, but I wanted to test the waters. Then, I got a shock, she wanted to put the offer in writing. What! Ok, this is a new one for me...anytime we've made an offer on a house, and any time an offers been made on our houses, we do lots of negotiating verbally and then, and only then do we issue contracts. So, on our house in Colby, we went back and forth 3 times before anything was ever put in writing! Here, all offers are in writing. Holy cow, what a waste of paper!

So, our realtor decided to call the sellers realtor and ask if this offer was even worth putting on paper. He said yes, so I had to do paperwork yesterday and, I had to come up with earnest money. Oh, we have the money, that wasn't an issue, but...well...you see, I'm here without a checkbook. I've been using our debit card for all my purchases. And, the amount of earnest money I needed was over my daily limit.

Fortunately, I got my first paycheck from the new job yesterday, so I thought I could just use it to open a local account and write a check for the earnest money. But, the bank I went to said they wouldn't have checks for me till today. And they wouldn't cash my check and just sell me a money order. So, I had to go to the bank where the college banks. They'd cash the check, but wouldn't sell me a money order. Yeah, didn't make sense to me either. So, I cashed the check, felt nervous about carrying around that much cash, and ran to Wally world to get a money order. Then back to the Realtors office.

We went over the contract, I signed it, got a copy for Kev to sign and then we'll fax it in to the sellers realtor tomorrow, or Friday, probably Friday. And, I'm sure they'll counter, and we'll probably counter again. But all will require more signatures and more paper. Sheesh. What a nightmare and waste.

We've been pre-approved for a considerable amount of money. I filled out two online loan applications, one for approximately the price of this house, and one for much more, trying to see what our price range was (since no one would tell me....) Anyway, once the bank saw the higher amount that was "pre-approved" by the system, their whole demeanor changed. I find that rather interesting, when we were applying for a modest loan, we were treated one way, but when we applied for a significantly higher amount, and then approved, well, we were treated with much more respect. Interesting. Very Interesting.

My Daddy loves me...

Remember that house I posted about a few days ago--the one I lust after, and I've only seen photos online. Well, I asked my Daddy if he'd give me an advance on my inheritance so I could pay enough down to finance it. I only need, oh, $100,000 or so. I could probably make it work with, a measly $50,000. It would be a stretch, but I could do it. So, I asked Daddy for an advance. After all, I'm his favorite daughter. I'm his baby girl. I'm the child who will take care of him in his old age.

He said, "sure," and handed me a check he'd received that day. It was his final settlement check from a local CoOp that had gone out of business. They finally made their final payment to the shareholders. Daddy's share was a whopping 16 cents.

Isn't he a wonderful dad, he just handed over that entire check. Wow, that will do so much for me. Now I can buy a piece of bubblegum. Maybe a sucker. I can call and make a bid on that house today!

I guess I should appreciate his willingness to share his cash cow with me, his only daughter. And, since it's a gift NOW, I won't have to split it with my brother. I'm sure he'd be heartbroken not to get his 8 cents. But after all, I'm Dad's favorite...daughter.

Aren't Daddys great?

reservations...

Along with searching for a house, Kev and I have also been considering maybe finding some land and putting a modular house on it. We (me) ordered a catalog and have gone through the floor plans and have picked out our two favorite plans. (Miss Kat and I picked out about twenty floor plans that we liked, but Dad nixed most of them.)

While dream shopping, we set up certain criteria....

• The master bedroom and master bath would be on the main floor. (so we could live here well into our twilight years and not have to go up and down stairs.)
• The children's rooms would be at the opposite end of the house. (mainly to give us parents privacy.)
• The floor plan would be open, meaning, while I was cooking in the kitchen, I could see the family, talk to the family, order family members around, etc, all in one open area.

Well, the house we looked at in Bucklin was much appreciated by Kevin, Andy, Kat...but not me. Oh, it's a nice house and all, and it has a large shower and master bath (with jacuzzi tub), it has a wood burning fireplace, nice sized rooms, finished basement, 2 car garage, but...

Those three criteria listed above? None of them were applied to this house. The kitchen opens to the dining room, but no other room. The Living room is small. The bedrooms are smaller than our bedrooms. The house is sitting on the edge of a hill and they built a walkout basement, and use that basement entrance as the main entrance of the house. To go upstairs, the main floor, you HAVE to go "up...stairs." All bedrooms are at the same end of the house. The garage is in the basement. This is a house where you have to live on both levels. And, a huge concern for me is...the house is entirely electric.

Electric furnace, electric water heater, electric stove. How on earth am I supposed to can, to preserve our garden if I can't use a pressure cooker? (Yes, I know someone is saying "I can on my electric stove, what's the deal?" Well, the deal is the stove has a flat, ceramic top. Those don't sustain the high temperatures and the weight. And, I've done the research, if your water bath pot is not flat on the bottom, well, it won't work either.)

So, I have reservations. No one else does, but I do. My poor husband, he doesn't know what to do with me. He's trying to be understanding and supportive, but doesn't understand my reservations. This is the best one we looked at, and I'm the one with the big reservations. He doesn't have any, he's being so adaptable and is looking at what he could do with this place, and thinking and planning. But, I'm dragging my feet and stalling. And...and...and, sigh, we'll probably buy the darn house and I'll just have to adapt. But it's hard, being the odd man out. It's hard because we are usually in accord, we usually agree and have the same concerns, the same ideas, the same vision. And this time, we don't. It is my fault that we are looking at a new house, and moving anyway. So, I'll probably give on this, not willingly, but I probably will give.

desperately searching for susan--I mean, a home.

We're house shopping this weekend. I've called 2 Realtors, emailed 3 or 4 others, and looked at every website that I could find. Right now, we are scheduled to look at 5 houses and I am supposed to call another realtor this afternoon about another property to hopefully look at this afternoon.

We will be driving to Bucklin, Dodge, and Cimarron. It will take most of the day. Which means that I won't have to go to the Berends Thanksgiving. I have mixed feelings about that...

Right now, all I can think about is finding someplace to live. I have all these pro's and con's of different locations, schools, etc. rolling through my head. It's enough to drive me mad.

I looked at the house in Bucklin online...it looks like US. But, do I want to live in Bucklin? It's an hour away from my folks, an hour away from where we'd like to hunt, but it's a small town, good schools, etc.

I looked at a house in Cimarron online. We aren't looking at this one tomorrow simply because it's about, oh, $100,000 above our price limit. But, it's drop dead gorgeous. It says "Shell, you need to live in me, look at my hickory cabinets, my rough paneling, my rustic feel...I love you Shell, come live with me..." I, on the other hand, keep drooling at the pictures and lusting after the gourmet kitchen with it's granite countertops and hickory cabinets and its fireplace, and I fight off the temptation of this house saying, "no, no, beautiful dream house, you are much to expensive. If I buy you, I'll have to pawn off at least one of my children, and maybe have to sell my body to...to...well, maybe I'd better rob a bank, but I can't afford you beautiful house, leave me alone. I'm not even going to ask to look at you!" But I really want to. If we looked at this house, I'd have to ask for an advance on my inheritance, but since my folks and Kev's folks are spending it, well, I don't think either would come up with the money to help us buy this house.

Two houses we're looking at were just listed this week. One North of Dodge, one South (I think, mapquest can't find it's address.) So, maybe, out of these 6-7 houses we can find one that will be ours. Maybe one of these houses will make me lusty, just like that expensive place in Cimarron. Maybe...

Quick action

We listed our house in Colby on October 29th. We signed a contract, in essence, selling our home yesterday. It was on the market less than 2 weeks. Phenomenal in a market where the average house in Colby is sitting for 6 months. Now, lets all pray that everything goes smoothly. We turn over possession on Jan 2. We hope to be out of there before then, but now the pressure is on to find a place HERE.

Mom and Daddy drove me out to a potential place last night. It has potential, but needs a tremendous amount of work and no basement. It's a manufactured home, which is a drawback, but it's cheap, cheap, cheap. It's farther from the highway than I'd like, but it's cheap, cheap, cheap. It has an old barn that might be salvageable and an old house on it too which needs to be torn down. It has a view of pasture and not just fields. There are neighbors within 2 miles, but it's real isolated. Kev and I need to look at it. Of course, it's in foreclosure and we can't see the interior yet, so will have to wait a couple of weeks.

I've also got a call into a realtor today. His speciality is rural properties. Hope he has one for us.
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I drove home this weekend. Seems like weekends go quickly. I got home around 8 p.m. Friday night and got up before 5 a.m. on Saturday to go hunting with Kev and "the boys", meaning Lynn and Gene. I can't hunt, as I didn't get a permit this year, but I took my camera, hoping to see some action. It is rut, so I wanted to see something!

At 5 till 8, I watched Kev shoot a nice buck. A nice big bodied buck, who happened to be following a doe and her fawn. I saw Kev shoot, I saw the buck fall, less than 30 yards away from where he was shot. The "girls" weren't concerned or frightened off and came across the river and down in front of me. I hope I got some great shots, lighting might have been an issue, but they messed around a long time before running off. Heck, Kev and I even talked across the river while they were there! If I had been able to hunt, we'd have had two deer in the freezer.

After helping Kev start to gut his buck, I drove back to pick up Lynn and Gene. I walked in to meet Lynn and scared up a covey of quail. They were right at my feet. Scared me half to death! In fact, they scared me so badly, I had to check to see if I'd wet my pants. Then, I scared up a bunch of pheasant. Lynn and I figured that the covey of quail probably had 30 birds in it and we guessed that we scared up that many pheasant. I know I counted over 7 cock pheasants.... at least they didn't scare me as badly as those stinkin' quail!
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Miss Kat went to a friends birthday party, Andy had to work, so Kev and I had lots of alone time. We even went out to supper alone, just the two of us! Went home, for some snuggle time on the couch, and I was asleep by 8:30. Some date I am! I slept until after 7 the next morning. That is so unlike me!

Sunday, I did laundry, we cooked lunch, I helped Miss Kat with her rabbits, then we signed papers and I drove back down.

Every activity was quick, and over all to soon.

family connections

One change I'm noticing that's related to my new location is all related to family.

In Colby, we weren't related to anyone. No cousins, in-laws, no nothin'. It was just us.

But here, it's going to be different, we are close to MY family and we will be related to people in the various communities surrounding Dodge.

I got a glimmer of what might be in store when Kev had his interview, and his potential boss pointed to a picture on the wall at the hospital and asked Kev if she was a relative. "She" happens to be one of my cousins, who is a Dr. in town. "She" is also the one cousin who looks the most like me, except she's probably 50 lbs lighter, and 8 years younger...but, we both have the Woodruff red hair (even IF mine comes from a bottle now...)and we both resemble Grandma W the most, but I don't think we look THAT much alike, that someone would know we were related!

It started sinking in more last week, on day 2 of my new job...I got a call from a friend, who used to live in Colby. She invited me to lunch and then said, "Your cousin is so excited that you're here, so do you care if she comes to lunch."

My initial reaction was astonishment and some confusion. Astonishment at my thoughts, which were "Holy cow, I have family here." Then confusion, as I tried to figure out which cousin she was talking about...Tonya? who else? Then she cleared it up by saying "I work with Stacy."

Oh, THAT cousin! I mean, i have over 20 first cousins and oodles and oodles of others, at least this narrowed that one down.

Then today, day 5 on the job, I met one of the ladies in the Business Office, who asked: "So are you the one who's related to Woody?"

Gulp! "Yes, he's my Dad." Her husband is friends with my Dad. Scary! Weird! I'm-gonna-have-to-watch-my-step!

Now, In Colby, I got used to asking friends, who were natives, just who was related to whom and tried to keep that all straight, now, I'm one of those who's related to several people and families in the area...it's gonna take some getting used to.

the drive

Surprisingly, I don't mind my hour long drive--in the mornings. Since the time change, I'm leaving in the daylight, so I can see the scenery better. I've seen deer every single morning and there's even a hunter who is sitting in a tree row north of Big E every morning. I know he doesn't have a deer yet because if he did, he wouldn't still be there every morning. He's from Virginia and I wonder how long he will be here hunting...

But that morning drive is actually nice--not sure how it will be in nasty weather, but for now, it's rather nice.

I really dislike the evening drive home tho. I'm tired and just want to get home and relax, but I have to fill the pickup up with gas every evening and then, by the time I get home, it's dark. But I'm not enjoying that evening drive at all. As I drive, I think that I need to be looking for some property, maybe drive by one or two that Mom and Dad have mentioned, but it's getting dark, and I'm tired. I'm more lonely then too. So, that's when I call home to talk to my family. It's still not long enough, and we don't have really good conversations, but that's when we can talk.

So, other than the cost of fuel, the drive isn't too bad.

The worst part...

A quick post. I can't post about the new job--cause I promised that I'd never talk about my JOB or place of employment or other employees. But I can say that I have lots of work to do and I hate the layout of my office. I'm working on the latter.

Now, I can blog about living away from my family, about looking for a new home, about getting up at the ungodly hour of 6 a.m. and leaving for work at 7 a.m. to be there by 8 a.m. And, i can blog about "living" in my grandparents almost-empty house without TV and good radio reception with a neurotic cat. And, i can blog about missing my family. Cause I do miss them.

The worst part of this new job/new home is being away from my family. I don't have a phone--other than my cell phone, and it doesn't work in the big town of Englewood, so when I'm "at home," I can't talk to anyone on the phone. And there are at least 2 dead spots between Dodge and "Big E", so talking then is disappointing. So, Mom has offered my her cell phone if I want to call home in the evenings, since, as she put it, Kev and I are "attached at the hip" and have to talk to each other daily. I have yet taken her up on her offer. Ha! So there Mom!

The second worst part is, I'm lonely. Yeah, my folks are 1.5 blocks away, but I get up in the dark and get home in the dark, and so far, I've been tired, so haven't felt like barging in on them at night, and then there's the cat...my cat, who is adjusting at this new house, but isn't necessarily enjoying all her alone time either, so I go home to her and silence. But, this weekend, I brought back a TV and stereo and some DVD's and CD's. The stereo doesn't get any radio reception and I wonder how long I'll be happy with watching or listening to DVD's at night. I keep telling myself that I'll clean the house, cause it NEEDS cleaning, but haven't done any of that yet...

The third worst part is about Grandma's house. It's old and it stinks. The grandparent's hadn't been good about keeping on top of cleaning. I washed out one cabinet in the kitchen and cleaned off the counters, but there is lots and lots of mouse poop in that kitchen. I need to empty everything, wash all the dishes they left behind and scrub cabinets. I need to do that in every room. It's not a big house, but it's not a small house. I'm not real comfortable going over everything that's still there. And, I don't feel like I can make it "my" home, even if it is for a short term.

The absolute worst part is, I miss my family. I miss seeing them, talking to them, even yelling at them :) I miss them terribly. And, I keep telling myself that other folks do this separation thing all the time, we will get through this! But I still miss them.

Last day

Today is the day. My last day at CCC. Most of my office is packed and it looks very lonely in here. It's so empty that I think if I yelled, I'd get echos bouncing off the walls. Hopefully, I'll leave the way I want to, and quietly walk out with no fanfare. Not sure I could take fanfare. This is much more emotional than I thought it would be. But, CCC has been a part of my life for 20 years as a professional and 2 as a student. It's been my home for many, many years. Yes, I've grown to hate many things about it, but it's still a part of who I am.

Enough of this dribble.

Ok, today, I'm turning in my keys, I'm finishing up my office packing. I'm wiping off my computer, (and that will take a huge portion of the day. My lord, why did I install some of this...stuff...)

Jody and I are NOT crying. Nope, nope, nope.

So, importantly for you all, I don't know when I'll have time to blog again. I hope to "borrow" son Andy's laptop and then "borrow" my Mother's neighbor's wireless connection and post some stuff to sell on e-bay. Maybe I'll get to blog next week while I'm doing that...lets all hope that the emotional dribble stops today and you, my poor 6 readers, can read something fun and funny and irreverent. I'm much better at the irreverent and stupid than I am the emotional and sentimental.

Weepy

I've known that I'm leaving for a month now and it's been cool, refreshing, comfortable. I've been able to brush off lots of politics and troublesome issues just by thinking "It's not my problem, I'm out of here." And yet, as I've worked on various committees and various projects, I have kept saying "We," and "our," and "I," and "my."

Until yesterday. I'm not sure what happened, but yesterday, it hit me hard. I'm really leaving, I've crossed the point-of-no-return, what the heck am I doing? So, being me, I got weepy. And, I was weepy and crying all damn day.

I hate being weepy. I hate being an "emotional woman." Hate it, hate it, hate it.

I couldn't talk to Monica, cause I was weepy. Couldn't talk to Jody, cause I was weepy. Pat said it was good for me to be weepy, cause I'm letting out all my stress and anxiety. (She was probably just grateful that she didn't have give me another massage and try to loosen up my tight, tight neck and shoulder muscles...)

But it still doesn't mean that I have to like it. Resolution for today and tomorrow, No more crying.

A place to call home

Yesterday, I went with Kev to a job interview in Dodge. While he was interviewing, I was finding a realtor and trying to find some places to look at--a place which we want to call home.

I've been looking at realty websites, at houses online in the area. There's not much that I want to consider, and I'm really afraid that we won't be able to find anything of the caliber of the place we have now...

We want a place in the country, preferably south or west of Dodge. I want 4 or more bedrooms, 3 at a minimum. We want a nice sized kitchen with ample storage. We need 2 or more bathrooms and a laundry/mudroom area. We'd like some outbuildings, some trees, a view, good water, a place easy to get to in all kinds of weather. We want a basement.

What we looked at yesterday was rather disappointing. And, when we got home, I was so grateful for the beautiful home we have.

House A is 10 miles west of Dodge. It used to belong to a family that owned several grain elevators. In fact, it's right across the street from a large grain elevator. It's an old house that has been added on to over and over and over. You can track the additions by 1. carpet, and 2. style and 3. holes in walls, often called doorways. The only original rooms are two small bedrooms, probably 10 x 10 and the dining room, which was the most beautiful room in the house. It still had it's arts and crafts styling. If I could take that room and gut the rest, it could work, but it would have to be gutted and I'm not sure it could be gutted, because when they would add on, they'd cut a hole in the wall--the structural wall and then add another room(s) on. No fooling, it took us 10 minutes to find the front door from the inside (we came in the back door.) And the outbuildings were cobbled together just as badly as the house was.

Then the train went by, and so did we. We could live with trucks and harvest season at an elevator, we could slowly remodel, but we can't live right on the train tracks.

House B was also an old farmhouse that had been remodeled...by idiots. It had 4 acres, but was surrounded by wheat fields. Few trees, no yard to speak of, odd roof line and bathrooms. It had potential, but was rather icky and Kev found lots of evidence of water leaks. Nope, not going to deal with that. Good bye house B.

I also looked at a couple of lots that we maybe could build on. Only problem was they were out east of town by the meat packing plants. No thanks.

So we didn't find anything we would even consider buying. Yes, we only looked at two houses. Lord, I hope there is something better.

I want to find a nice house, one that says "Shell, this is your home. This is the place for you. This is where you need to live." I found one house that said that to me...can I find another one? O lord, am I making a mistake, moving to another part of the State?

Packing

I packed some yesterday. I leave my family in one week, and I just started packing yesterday. I packed only necessary items yesterday.

Stuff like China. And glass ware. Oh, and one box of books. (which I have to repack, because no one can lift the dang thing.)

Then I decided to go into my "craft room/library" formerly known as Kat's old bedroom.

I bagged up all my fabric, one nice big trash bag full. I tossed lots of marginal craft items, you know, those scraps and miscellaneous...stuff, that you might use someday, so you keep it. I packed up all my embroidery stuff and my pattern books.

Now, is any of this stuff useful? Is any of this stuff important and will it be anything I will personally use in the next two months while I'm homeless? No.

Have I packed anything that I will need--things like, clothes, food, personal hygiene stuff, sheets, blankets, etc? Nope, not one item.

But, I've made a mental list of what all I think I need to take.

1. TV with DVD player and VHS player for those nights I'm alone in the house.
2. Stereo with CD's to listen to when I don't have any DVD's or VHS tapes.
3. My embroidery stuff, so I can cross stitch or embroidery tea towels at night while relaxing in front of the TV or Stereo. (unless I'm at Mom and Dad's)
4. Work clothes.
5. Shoes.
6. Necessary clothing items.
7. One dresser.
8. Maybe one linen cabinet (cause it's taking up space and won't show well in realty brochure...)
9. Kev's collectible cars and my collectible Garfield stuff so I can list it on EBay. (we bought a digital camera yesterday, just to do this...)
10. Food--yet to be determined.
11. books. I always pack books. Always.
12. At least two boxes to go to my new office.

I'm sure there's more that I'll need, it's just that I'm really procrastinating about packing. I need to get on the ball, but motivation is seriously lacking. Everything is so up-in-the-air, and I don't like things being up-in-the-air. This week is it, my last week. I've got to do something besides procrastinating....

Headache

It's 8:30 a.m. and I already have a "College Headache".

It's a tension headache. But most of my stress and tension comes from the College, so that's what we call these headaches. It will get worse and eventually develop into a migraine. By tonight, all I will want to do is crawl into bed and cry from the pain.

Today's headache probably isn't all college related. It's probably related to the stress of moving and not having packed a thing. It's related to having a house to sell and not having it listed yet, and not quite ready to list yet. It's the stress of not having a clue where we will be living. It's the stress of me wondering if I'm messing up and screwing up the lives of my family.

It's related to a car that isn't running which inconveniences Andy, Kevin and me. Andy's inconvenienced because he has to take me to school and then I have to take him to work. Kevin is inconvenienced because he has to take the Diesel, which uses more fuel and more expensive fuel. And it inconveniences me because I can't leave campus all day and I have to listen to my son whine about having mean parents who won't let him buy a car of his very own.

My headache is related to having an employee out all day today. She's my right arm and I'm really aware of how short our time together is.

The college is contributing to my headache because we are finally close to finishing up negotiations, and I have several meetings related to that this week. All are stressful. And I need to wrap up things here, which is stressful.

I need to learn how to stress without internalizing everything. My jaw is so tight already today, that it aches--at 8:30 in the morning.

Wonder if anyone would notice if I put some good old relaxing booze in my Dr Pepper...that just might be the ticket...Maybe I'd be better off asking those of you who pray to ask the Man Upstairs to help me cope with this stress. That's probably better than booze...but... booze does taste good...

Just kidding...really...

He made me cry.

I cried at work today, not 1/2 an hour ago.

All week, I've had folks come in saying "I heard a rumor that you were leaving." No big deal. The rumor is true, I'm leaving.

This was no different, a fellow teacher came in, one who started here the same year I did.

"I heard a rumor, " he said.

"It's true." I replied.

He then went on to say the nicest thing. He was sincere and well, it made me cry.

All he said was thank you for always being nice to him, and that he wished me well.

The interesting part is this gentleman isn't a colleague that I'm close to. I'm not. He's almost a stereotypical absent-minded professor.

And he made me cry.

I don't like to cry. I don't want to cry. I'm still fighting this. But this man's good-bye was probably the most sincere one I've gotten yet.

And he made me cry.

This leaving thing just might prove to be harder than I thought.

Cleaning the bathroom

I just don't know about this "moving" stuff. It's starting to bother me...

We need to list the house. But before listing the house, we need to pick up, clean up, remove the normal house clutter, fix a couple of thing, etc.

Last weekend, I cleaned the carpets and cleaned the living room and dining room areas.

Yesterday, I scrubbed both upstairs bathrooms, ours and Miss Kat's. Miss Kat cleaned her bathroom before I re-cleaned her bathroom. She doesn't understand the concept of "Put your crap away." Evidently, that means move-it-around-and-set-it-in-different-locations. And, how many opened bottles with less than one inch of shampoo does a girl need? She had 4, F-O-U-R bottles of shampoo sitting around the tub. And 3 razors. The child has just started shaving her legs this fall and she had THREE razors! I'm lucky to find one, and I'm really lucky for it to be sharp enough to cut the hair on my legs.

I also have a bone to pick with the idiot who invented the aerosol hair color. There was blue hair color all over every vertical and horizontal surface in that room. Even the toilet seat had blue hair color on it. The floor had a blue tint--on the white portions of the floor! It looked like a blue bomb had gone off. And, it was still there--AFTER Miss Kat "cleaned".

And toilet paper. Why oh why can't the girl put the roll ON the roll holder? And, why, when she uses t.p. for kleenx, can't she throw it away? Is it funner to have those snotty pieces of t.p. sitting around for souvaniers, or comparison? I just don't understand.

Yes, I realize that I should have made her clean the bathroom to my standards, but...see, it was therapy for me. I was mad, so I scrubbed and muttered and scrubber harder and muttered and cursed my child under my breath. And I purged. I tossed lots and lots of stuff. If Miss Kat had "helped", then I wouldn't have been able to purge as much--like 3 bottles of shampoo and 3 of conditioner and two razors and upteen t.p. kleenx and 4 old ratty toothbrushes and 3 different tubes of toothpaste and...

I wonder what Andy's bathroom holds for me. Boy funk. That's what, boy funk. Yeesh, something to look forward to...not.

Things you need to think about when moving...

There's a new theme to my blog now, the moving aspect... holy cow, there's lots to think about and do before making this big move.

things like:

What about our medical records...do we take them, or when and if we find a Dr there, do we just let the Dr get our records. I have no earthly idea. I haven't been to the Dr in 2 years or so. Last time anyone in our family was at the Dr was 2 years ago when Andy was hospitalized with pneumonia.

What about school records...this one, I'm not sure about either, especially since we aren't sure where the kids will be going to school. But, will the school give me their records, or do they get sent straight to the new school?

Selling our place...Do we take all the stock panels, do we take the dog kennel, do we take the rabbits, goats, and chickens? How do we take them? When do we take them? Do we want to take them? How much is the house worth? How much can we get for it? Can it sell quickly? Can Miss Kat ever get her room clean enough to show the house? When do we need to start packing? What do we pack first? Where do we store what we've packed?

Starting the new job...I'm not ready to go there yet.

Finding Kev a new job...Why am I the one updating his resume? Why am I the one getting it in the mail?

I need to think about something else for a while....like...o yes, chicks and chickens.

It's Friday. the chicks are over a week old and there are 4 left. Yep, 4. For the past 3 days, they, and their Mama, have been contained in the extra large kennel, safe from predators. I've let them out in the evenings for a couple of hours. We've got to figure out how to keep the cats out of their "safety" area...

Livin in a small town...

You never realize how small of a town this is until you make a life changing decision, and everyone, and I mean everyone, knows about it within 3 days.

We shot trap last night and everyone there knew, or "heard a rumor" that we were leaving. Holy cow people, I just decided on Friday afternoon, at 3 p.m. How can the news have spread that fast?

I just gave official notice to my Boss yesterday and it's all over campus this morning. Less than 24 hours, and it's all over campus. I've had 4 phone calls already this morning and it's only 8:30.

*********

Last night, I shot trap for the last time with my team, "Shooters with Hooters." We've shot together for 4 or 5 years now. We've had some rough times, with team members who didn't quite "fit". We've had some really good times. We've never had a day when we all shot to our potential, by that I mean we never were "on" at the same time. But we've consistently improved.

Last night was the last time I'll ever shoot with these gals. Some, I may never see again. Man, this moving stuff is emotional. Thanks for shooting with me girls. I'm gonna miss you all.

I'm going to miss ragging Jody about messing up our patterns... "3, 3, 3, 3, 2" or "5, 4, 3, 2, 4" or "3, 3, 3, 3, 0"

I'm gonna miss ragging Ann about breaking rock left and right and making the rest of us look bad.

I'm gonna miss Carol and Andy arguing about who was the better shot, and then watching them compete against each other.

I'm gonna miss Sharon's laugh, and our exchanged looks of disgust or glee when we were "on". (Like that happens very often!)

I'm gonna miss Kevin, Lynn and Dude, our coaches who sometimes pissed all of us off with their "constructive criticism."

I'm gonna miss those times when someone's gun malfunctioned.

I'm gonna miss it all.

About that job...

Ok, now I can share information about that job...

I couldn't say anything until we had told our immediate families. You know, the kids should know first, then the parents, then the grandparents, then the brothers and sisters then the friends who are family, then the rest of you all.

But, I'm not good. The co-workers heard first, then the husband, then the best friend, then the daughter, then the best friend's kids and husband, then the co-archery coach, then a couple of other friends, then another best friend, then the son...

Yeah, I don't do anything right.

It just kinda happened that way. But, now the really important people know...like the parents, the family, etc. It's just those of you who read here who don't know.

I took the job.

Our family will be leaving our home of 20 years and strike off into the wild blue yonder into new careers in a new community. We'll be moving 150 miles away from here. I'll be moving before the rest of the family, as I have to start my new job at Dodge City Community College on November 1. Kev and the kids will stay here probably until the end of December. Hopefully our place will sell by then.

The big decision for us now is...where to live.

We won't be living in Dodge. We want another place in the country. We'd prefer something in the boonies, yet within easy commuting distance of Dodge. For some reason, I don't want my kids to go to school where I went. It's too far of a commute for Kev and I (50 miles), so we're looking at other options. But our house has to sell before we can make any concrete decisions.

It's a scary thing for us. It's an exciting time for us. It's going to have it's ups and downs, but we'll get through it...together.

Worry

Kevin called me a pessimist. It made me mad, because I don't consider myself a pessimist.

He then clarified, and said that I'm a worrier. That one, I can agree with. I do worry. I can't help it, I was trained by the best, my mother. But, yes, I worry, but I don't let worrying stop me from doing anything, or from changing what I'm doing. And, I'll express what I worry about out loud, to him. Why? Because expressing my fears, my worries makes them less worrisome and I can then move on and just deal with life.

Don't tell him, but he's a worrier too. He's more cautious than I am. Where I'll worry, express myself and move on, he's an "internal worrier" and I'll find out later about how worried he was. So, all in all, we're a good balance.

O yes, remember that job I hadn't heard about? Well, I heard. They've offered me a job. We're negotiating about money. Scary...worrisome stuff. Life changing stuff. And, yes, I'm worrying.