Spring Sprung

It was MARVELOUS to have some bright sunny
days with temps in the 70's and even 80's.
But now it's back to reality for awhile as
we're going to be in the 50's and 60's till
further notice =(

Earlier this week my kid went on a school
trip to St. Louis. Hubby and I took the
afternoon to go house shopping, go out for
drinks and eats at Colton's, and then go
to school to wait for the bus.

Which brings me to house shopping - we're
starting to look for a house in the town.
I WANT TO MOVE TO THE MOJAVE DESERT, but he
doesn't want the stifling summers. I hate
the constant cleanup of country life here,
the sharing of the well, the rental neighbors
(although it does get quite interesting on
those occasions when the cops break neighbor's
door down and raid the place), etc. SO
if we're staying, I think city life is for me!
I haven't lived in the city (or town in this
case) in many years, but I can adapt. Just have
to figure out how the cat is going to adjust.

So I find houses of interest, give the paper to
hubby, he checks them out and narrows the list
down. On one, I found a $27,000 fixer upper.
He checked it out, said it was in need of a lot
of TLC, and oh yeah Molly, there's a cemetery
not far from the place. Okay so I thought
a cemetery was across a field or something and
from the house I might glimpse a headstone or two.
I could live with that.
WRONG.
He takes me to the house. We're kind of talking
about how much is too much to put into an old
house. I glance at the very tiny back yard (the
front yard is larger and fenced), and notice
a sign or something. Is that on the property?
What does it say? I go walk through the back
yard, walk up to the sign, look, nothing written.
Look DOWN and there are two freshly dug graves.
WELL EW!
I could sit on the back porch of the house and
throw rocks to the graves. I don't want to
be that close! I did the sign of the cross and
we got out of there.
I did fantasize about Halloween parties at the house
though, how fun they could be =)
We then went on to check out other places.

2nd week of March over

Not totally awesome, but not the worst.

I need to get with the program. Starting
to get the blahs a bit. Hopefully warmer
weather will be upon us soon (it was upper
60's today so that's not a bad start) and
that will help my mood.

First week of March over

And unfortunately it was not the best all around.
Oh it wasn't that bad for me, but for some of my
family:
Last Monday a cousin to a sister in law was swept
away in a flash flood and tragically drowned. She
was in her car when it was washed off the road and
called 911, was on the phone for 4 minutes before
it went dead. Her last minutes were described in
great detail - her panic, her anguish, her unknowing
of what to do. The media really went into this in
great detail. Hopefully it will help save someone
at some point, and it will be a good thing, otherwise
there is no obvious good in sharing the last few moments
of this person's life in such a way. Sometimes
it was better before cell phones!

And this was the second tragedy I heard about in
a matter of about two weeks - as around mid February
a fire claimed the life of 3 small children and
a 24 year old babysitter. The babysitter was on
the phone with 911 when she perished, and her last
minutes of life were shared openly. Again, sometimes
it's better not to know things......

DISH Network installed their services last Thursday.
As much as I watch TV, a converter box would do, but
the others in the household seem ecstatic over the
new lineup of channels.

I finalized one of the summer trips, and booked our
flight and room for Vegas in July - yay!

Bye bye February

I cannot say I'm sad to see you go.
This has been one of the worst months ever.
Not THE worst, but it's certainly up there.

Started out with more inclement weather - snow mainly. And
that meant no school and everyone home driving me nuts.

The school gave me hell in an anonymous letter. My son
missed his 11th day of school and they sent me a generic
form letter full of assumptions and legal threats. We
were supposed to have a conference but due to snow no one
was there, and no one called to reschedule. I had to
write them a message addressing their letter as I can
find no one responsible for sending it. I sent my letter
to the Superintendent and Principal.

I never met the new neighbor, but her mother came over and
bitched me out for 'complaining' about neighbor's dog. Doing
a little investigating afterwards, seems neighbor wasn't supposed
to have a dog, and several neighbors complained to her landlord
about the dog getting loose etc. I took the heat. I came to
the conclusion I wasn't the one that wasn't supposed to have
a dog in the first place, so I wasn't going to put up with
her coming over again.

Our poodle monster Tommy got sick. Two trips to the vet before
it was discovered he had oral cancer, and on February 23rd he
was put down.

On February 24th we had a new dumped dog. Friendly border
collie mix, young female. It was NOT the time and I was NOT
in the mood. I hate people. The next day I begged vets to take
it - vet that charged me almost $200 for caring for Tommy
refused to help at all. Ginger's vet agreed to take it if I
surrendered it with $.

Serious storms were possible last night, and meteorologists were
wetting their pants with anticipation. Luckily nothing bad
happened.

Bye bye February. March is going to be great!

I'm a thief

I wonder how long before the statue of limitations
runs out for stealing elephants?

I wanted to find a picture but after lots of searching
I don't think I have one on the computer. But I am
an elephant thief. Oh I eventually gave him back to the
party I stole him from. Maybe I'd best explain......

When our son was about 3, he constantly was saying he
wanted an elephant. Living in small town, U.S.A. there
was no place to buy a stuffed elephant, a big one like he
wanted. I could order it online but shipping would
cost a fortune.

One dark evening we were driving past the local charity
thrift store. Everything was closed. There sitting on
their front steps was a 2 1/2 foot tall stuffed elephant!!!
Oh my God!!!

What did I do? What would YOU have done, when you spent
weeks listening to your child begging for an elephant?
I pulled that car in and stuffed the elephant in it.

Took Mr. Elephant home and gave him a good disinfecting
and cleaning. And my son enjoyed him for several years.
When he was done enjoying him, we returned him to the
charity. Just a few years late but also a lot cleaner
than when he was there before.

Funny

My husband does electrical work for these local
property owners. They own rental houses, apartment
complexes, shopping centers, business buildings, etc.
They are super cheap, but won't mess around with
electrical problems and will pay his price when something
comes up. On plumbing, however, they have their own
maintenance men who do a shoddy job and try to band
aid everything.

So when hubby goes to work on a job for them, he usually
meets their renters. Before leaving he hands them a card
and says, 'If you have any problems don't hesitate to call'.
Hehehe.

Many occasions one of their renters will call me and
request hubby come over to fix something - it is usually
something minor in the plumbing department, such as the
toilet won't stop running.
Most of the time when they call they tell me their
medical history and problems they're having health wise
(cuz I'm on the other end listening).
After about 15 or 20 minutes I have to break the news to
them - hubby can't run over there unless they intend to
pay the bill themselves. We have to check with their
landlord before going over otherwise. OF COURSE the
renter doesn't want to pay for him to come over. So
I tell them I'll call their landlord and relay the information
(which they already have done multiple times without action)
and see what happens.

I call their landlord and relay the message and we usually
have a laugh or two. They take the 'call me if you need
me message' to heart, without realizing that the landlords
have to approve. I call landlord to relay message in case
it helps them to fix the problem a bit faster.

Happy New Year