Crazy times and crazier people.

Bad blogger buddy! I've been a bad blogger buddy! For some reason I have not had it in me to write at all lately. If you are reading this, thanks for still checking in. I've kept up with you guys but have been a bit of a lurker. So....these are my thoughts and happenings, for what they are worth.

• I guess our big news is that our home is sold. The sweet couple that wanted it all along bought finally sold their home so that they could buy ours. The crazy news is we had been making updates all along. ie. Wallpaper gone; walls textured; neutral paint, etc. They liked the house just the way it was and are disappointed that the wallpaper is gone. All of that work and money gone. Guess we should have had a little more faith. We had a lot more interest after we did those things, but no one had made a decision yet. I'm so happy that this family will be here though. They loved the house. They even showed up in the middle of a snow storm because they "wanted to see what the house looked like with snow on it". Isn't that the cutest? The little boy is trying to get us to leave the cat. Not today! They emailed and said that it was "okay" with them if we didn't moved our bench and fountain off from the entrance. No to that, too. Nice try though.
• We went to AR last weekend to buy a house. Two and a half days, no pressure. We saw a few different houses and actually felt we had some better options than we thought. We even looked at a half completed spec house that would be a really nice home for us. We really didn't want another brand new house. We've done that twice and they come with another set of issues. We found a home that was really fabulous in every way except that it was 3 bedrooms. Hardwoods, stainless appliances, granite, large rooms, nice back yard, good landscaping, 3 car garage....it even had plantation shutters in every single window. Hub was thinking he could sacrifice his office for a 3-car garage. We saw it the first day it went on the market and another offer was made that day. Our agents talked and they were holding a response until 6 pm the next day to let us finish looking and make a decision. The last home on the list the second day turned out to be "it". Hubby and I both just walked around in silence for awhile realizing that this home felt good. It was located in a nice golf club, in the city we wanted to be in, 1-story, 4 bedroom, 3 bath plus an office. No 3-car garage, but an extra large 2-car garage with extra storage and permanent stairs going up to the floored attic. No more pull down stairs to go to the attic. The funny thing was that we seemed to keep coming across this one builder in our search. He builds a really good house, but most of his new construction was out of our price range. They had advertised that this home was built by a builder for his daughter to live in. Of course, it would be well built and had many extras. After we looked at it and fell in love, our agent called the other agent to let her know we would put it an offer. She started laughing and said "Guess who the builder was?" We ended up with one of his homes after all. It was meant to be.
• Now the dilema. We close on our house here the middle of May and have to be out then. The house in AR closes the first week of June to allow everyone to finish school. We are just now realizing how complicated and expensive it will be for us to stay in a hotel for 3 weeks with three people, two dogs and a cat. Are you thinking ZOO? The company won't pay for that time (new news to us) as we had already used our interim living budget for hub to be in AR. We are trying to see if there is a way to speed things up here and then will check with the owners in AR to see if they can accomodate. Crazy times.....crazier people!
• I think that I told you about my aunt that passed away on Super Bowl Sunday. The memorial had to be postponed due to heavy snows here and in the Northeast where her grandaughter lives. It had been rescheduled for yesterday. My brother and sis came up and it was good to connect with that side of the family. I had not seen her granddaughter since we were both kids and played dress up in my aunt's closet. My aunt had a nice life filled with fancy evening gowns and furs. Great fun for little girls. We still recognized each other right off. She is now an international attorney and has lived and lives a life really different from mine. We still have the bonding of two little girls who played together though. There has been a lot of sadness and disfunction in this family. Auntie had 3 children who I will call Greedy, Beauty and Crazy. Greedy and Beauty only had 1 child each. Crazy had 2 with an even crazier, greedier woman. Crazy died a couple of years ago and Beauty was killed in 1991 by her 4th husband for her money. Greedy is somewhere in NM living with the results of a too fast and hard living. Beauty's son didn't even come to the service. Greedy's daughter is the one I played with and loved and she was the guardian of her grandmother. I will call her Smarty just to keep things straight. So you can see it is a very small family. One of my Crazy's sons (a daddy now himself) is so hungry to connect with family. He cried when he saw us. I cried because when he smiled it was exactly like his dead father. Crazy's son just returned from military service and is working at a night manager at a convenience store. He is also driving a new Hummer. Doesn't add up to me. His sister was at my wedding almost 27 years ago but she was an infant then. I had never met him. Crazy's wife was a really weird bird. My aunt was quite wealthy and Smarty told me that she had received a call from the bank that Crazy's wife had shown up at the bank, using Crazy's name and wanted her share of the estate. Crazy had already once kidnapped his mother to get her to change his will and leave him everything. Luckily, Smarty had taken care of all of that and made it where she could not touch it. Sounds like Smarty has her hands full. She was glad to reconnect with semi-normal family. Compared to them, we seem like the Waltons.
• Speaking of disfunctinal....is anyone else sick of Jon & Kate Gosslin? The all American big family has just gone down the tubes. Is anyone really taking care of those sweet kids?
• Spring is definitely springing at school. OMG these baby teenagers are going wild. We are having more and more DR's (discipline referrals) coming in. I got two last week that really made me laugh though. Two of our long haired hunks came in with DR's. They were written up for telling the athletic director that they wouldn't go outside because it was humid and it would make their hair frizz. Seriously? Crazy stuff! Actually, I'm REALLY going to miss these kids. :(
• My son's birthmom called the other day. She has decided that he will come live with her in AZ and become a motorcyle mechanic. She found a school for him that will just cost us the bargain of $26,000. Of course, she is unemployed, on food stamps, and renting a room from a friend. She's also dating a man/boy who is 2 years old than my son. Oh, and she wants to be there when he gets out and come hang at our house with him for just a week or two. Needless to say, I am less than enthusiastic. We deserve to have him by ourselves for a while first. I tried to remind him that he will be going through a HUGE adjustment and that might be too much, too soon. She says that why he needs to be surrounded by our family and her. Anyway, he does need to get to know her for himself. We have an airport pass waiting where he can go one way and come back as soon as he's ready. I give him 3 weeks tops. He will be out 1 month after we move. Looks like we will have a really busy summer.

I guess that is enough to catch up for now. Life is busy with houses, moving and baseball right now. Please hang in with me for the next few months. I think I'm really going to need some confidants more than ever.

Later.