I finally got my grades!

Okay, they aren't my grades, Mr. Z finished his first semester of college!  Low and behold he got straight As in the classes that have posted grades.

I am a homeschool mom who has been told by people through the years that homeschooling would ruin my children's ability to function in society and attend college.

I normally keep my blog clean and neat so for those who told me how awful I was to homeschool my kids go f yourselves. He got straight As b@#$%@#!!!!!!

We Found it! Now how long should it take to get a loan!!!!

April

After months of searching, having allergic reactions to properties, watching my mom fall down one set of stairs into a wall, and looking at so many properties our realtor told us we had finally reached her most looked at houses clients we found a house.

It wasn't perfect but close to. It has an office, a two room suite with a bathroom downstairs, and a casita outside for my mom, a room for each of the kids and a master bedroom we can hide in when all hell breaks loose down stairs.

The house had just fallen out of escrow and we were able to buy it for that price.

We were qualified for our loan so this part should have been easy.  As my grandmother says, "Nothing is easy."  I will never use that loan person or company again. Good lord they almost asked for my ex husbands mothers birth certificate. Not that extreme but they did ask for his tax returns.

10 days late, and after saying I would give them the dog we finally got our new house.....Let the adventures begin!!!

Fire in the kitchen.....and other mishaps over the last week

To: DH

Had a moment to think of how grateful I would be if my dear husband would install a fire alarm near the kitchen. Especially since no one alerted me that the kitchen had been on fire. My first indication that there had been a fire was when I started cleaning the stove and found ash and soot all over the place.

From DH

Giggle...I will


To: BFF

This morning I wake up to glass shattering. I got up and got my robe and told the dog "come on and let's go see what they broke now." I find my mother and grandmother trying to clean up a large vase that had fallen on the tile floor. Amusing to watch the two blind mice trying to clean up the glass. More amusing when they tried to take the vacuum from me,
"why do you want it?"
"So I can clean."
"Can you see the glass?"
"No."
"No vacuum for you!"
Just another day.

BFF: Life on the edge.

Yup

Get it? Glass breaking, edges  Haha

Month 3 of the search

In the throws of my busy season, tax season, I am looking at houses at every opportunity. I have become immune to pretty paint and floors. I can walk through a house in 35 seconds and say yes or no.

I have begun looking at houses by myself as we have approached the 150 marker of homes we have looked at and arguing with my mother about the houses and how they can be changed before we even like the floor plan is making me nuts.

We got so desperate to see one house we gave them proof that we could actually buy the house with a pre-approval and proof that we had the funds to actually buy the house. It was a wonderful house on 10 acres with a pond and a couple of out buildings. Exactly what we thought we wanted. 

What we thought we wanted until my oldest child, my mother, and myself started having watery eyes, running noses, and coughing. Apparently we are all allergic to the outdoors and would probably die of anaphylactic shock within two weeks of buying the place. 

I swear our realtor is a saint. She just said "okay I will change your portal to look for track homes instead of country properties, I'm going to go home and have a drink." I think I am going to make this poor woman into an alcoholic. 

In the mean time we had heard that our friends would be staying put and not losing their home. One less parameter to worry about. 

A wrinkle in the plan

After looking at houses for over a month my mom and I went down to visit some friends.

It appeared that they were going to lose their home and that maybe if we got a house with property they could get a trailer and park it there.

At this point my honey lost it. "Ummm so now we get your mom, your grandmother, your mom's best friend, and your oldest childhood friend who is in a wheelchair? "

"Well jeez when you put it like that it sounds like a lot!"

It didn't strike me as strange or weird to open my home to people who may need a little extra help. Its what you do for family.

I am pretty sure the realtor was ready to kill me at the prospect of changing our parameters of what we wanted again. We had already looked at over 30 homes and hadn't found what we wanted. God bless that woman for putting up with me and crazy....or crazy and my mom.

The search

This is the email I sent my realtor....

I am going to be house shopping and selling houses this year. Looks like I need something with a mother in law sweet, cottage out back and even better both…..I may be moving my mother and my grandmother in with me. I think my budget jumped but really would like to stay under the original amount I told you if possible. My house, my mom’s house and probably my grandmother’s house will go on the market (though I think she will want my uncle to sell it)  Lots of work to be done after tax season. If you hear of anything can you let me know? 

My realtor sent me a link on the MLS and I started shopping, sending my mom links to houses and finally setting up some time to look at said houses. 

Almost a month after we started looking online my grandmother informed me that if we didn't hurry up she would want to move into temporary care facility until we found the right house so the search was on for real!

Living with a Saint...Sometimes...

After the conversation with my mother. I called my dear, sweet, loving, patient, saint of a husband. This man has already taken on kids that aren't his some who have special needs and a crazy woman.

"Hi love! So I just left my grandmothers."

"How was she?"

"Good......"

"What???"

"So........how would you feel if we looked for a house that would fit her and my mom.....?????"

"Okay." (What is wrong with this man? Why doesn't he run? I would have run. I tell him to run all the time but he stays.)

"Okay....you sure? You know you are damning yourself to a life with 3 strong willed women under one roof and the kids?"

"I love you. Let me know when you find something."

RUN MAN RUN!!!!!!!! It is one thing for me to gladly anticipate living with my family members...Its a whole other thing for someone else to live with my family.

Why I have not been blogging.......The Idea.....

The idea to eventually move my mom into our home has always played in the back of my mind.

Even though I know my mom has enjoyed living alone over the years as she gets older it seems less and less practical for her to do so.

I toyed with looking at different new homes, they have some really nice new ones with in-law suites attached with their own entrance and everything.

Earlier this last year I was discussing this idea with my grandmother who was debating moving to an assisted living facility. She is in her mid 90's, still driving her own car, and living alone since my grandfather passed a few years ago.

"Well we could start looking now and you could move in and mom could move in after you pass." (We are a morbid family.)

"If you find something we will think about it, but I think that sounds like a good idea."

I never in a million years expected her to say maybe let alone yes. She is so independent and determined that no one will ever take care of her. I was in shock, not that I didn't want her to move in with us I think it is a huge benefit to my children but I just really thought she would tell me to piss off that she really wanted to live in a facility.

I left her house that day in a daze. I called my mom and told her what had just happened.

My mothers response was "if your grandmother is moving in so am I. I am tired of living alone." WTF just happened?  I just went from a roughly 2800 sq foot house to a monstrosity in 1.2 seconds

Note to self, call when you get certain text messages

Well nothing like having the hell scared out of you on a Sunday afternoon.


My oldest sweet pea is away for the weekend at a karate seminar. Its a huge 2 day program that certifies him to be able to continue to teach at his karate studio. My mom went with him as this is a busy time of year for me. Really what could happen with a room full of trained black belts.


Why do I assume nothing could happen in a room full of karate students? Dumb.


I get the following from my mother:


Me: You on your way back yet?


Mom: Not yet. There was a man who has been taken into custody he was threatening everyone. About 20 police sheriffs and fire are here. He threatened to blow up the school. I don't know if they are going to shut down the class early or what. Will let you know as soon as I do.


Me: WTF?!?!!?!??!??!


Mom: I am in my car in the parking lot. Saw and heard everything going down.


Mom: How's the weather up there?


Me: cold


After the last message I had called the studios owners wife, she had no clue what was going on. Point one to always call my mother before I call anyone else. We talked for a few and figured that it couldn't have been a big deal but you never know.


I called my mom:


Me: Again WTF mom.


Mom: well a transient went into the school where the kids were and screamed at the kids and started throwing all his stuff around the gym. Then Zs instructor and a friend picked it all up and put it outside, apparently the man left at the same time. He was starting to move towards the men who evicted him at the same time the sheriffs showed up. They calmed him down and took him away.


That's when the instructor told my mom she might want to leave for a while.


Okay that isn't what your message indicated but I am so grateful that everyone is safe.


As I am relaying this information to my grandmother she says "you are so calm, most parents want to get in the car and get to the kids."


Me: Well for one thing I know sometimes mom gets a head of steam up about little things so I wanted to make sure of what was going on before I went on a momma bear strike. For another thing, if that jerk had gone back in there to hurt those kids I have no doubt that my mother would have put her car in drive and run his stupid ass over and I would be buying her a new car this week.


My grandmother laughed, "you're right, you sent him with the right person."

Life according to Mr. C, a Les Schwab commercial

Woo hoo!!! Fast food frenzy day!!!!

The day the kids get to go with 25 other kids to a bunch of junk food places and eat whatever they want for 2 hours.

I happily allow the two oldest children to walk around with their friends without too much supervision so I can hang out with my friends for a bit and have some adult time.

Tonight when I got home I was looking at the Instagram posts and low and behold there is a picture of my middle son in a freaking shopping cart, making a goofy face. Oh hello kitty why??????

I call said child to our bedroom for a little powwow about stupid photos and them showing up on social media.

Me: Why did you put yourself in the shopping cart?

C: Because my friend told me to so he could take a funny photo.

Me & Hubby: Seriously, you need to make better choices. You cannot let other people dictate to you what you should or should not do. You need to make choices that keep you and other safe.

C: You mean like Les Schwab tires, doing the right thing matters.

Making sure I didn't make eye contact with my husband and trying to keep my face without expression, "Yes, C, doing the right thing matters, I love you, go get ready for bed."

C leaves the room and my dh says "did we just spend 20 minutes of our lives trying to instill the if your friend jumps off a bridge should you theory into the child to be quoted a tire commercial?"

Me: (While snorting with laughter) Yup, he needs to be their spokesperson.