Thursday, March 29, 2012

We are continuing to do our best to live in the fish bowl.  We have another Open House scheduled for Sunday and are praying hard that someone decides to make us an offer that we can't refuse!  Nonna may be on the unemployment line in a few months as everyone in her department has to apply for other jobs within the company.  Her department is going away.  This is the fifth time she will have been involved in this type of shuffle and let me tell you, working for Corporate America is NOT easy. 

I think we all like to believe that our company values us and our input and when it comes to turning us out to pasture we hope that they will give us dignity and respect as they are escorting us out the door with our things.  Many big companies no longer have any place for this type of courtesy and you get downsized or reorganized out the door when it is too late to get another job.  At almost 64 years old, who is going to give her another chance? 

We did have a horrible case of lice in our home that left me pretty frustrated.  The school knew it was going around and even sent one of the kids in my daughter's class home.  You would think a courtesy letter sent home telling us about it would be the standard procedure, but no, I hear about it from my kid.  Then, the unthinkable, I find the creepy-crawlers in her hair.  (I should mention she has almost waist length hair)

So, off to Walgreen's to buy lice killer, douse the child in pesticides then spend hours and hours combing all of the bugs and nits out of her hair.  Luckily she only had a few bugs, but they were busy laying their super-sticky eggs in my daughter's thick hair.  I was ready to get out the scissors and cut it all off but then she started crying so I patiently kept working.

A week later, I'm out of town in Austin and a call from the school sending her home.  Daddy got the luxury of repeating this process <GIGGLE>.  Not that I would wish that torture on my daughter again, but her dear Daddy was less than sympathetic when I mentioned it to him.  Take that!!!

It has been a week since then and every morning/afternoon/evening we do head checks on everyone - well, everyone except the Hubby because he is bald.  Tee hee...

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

What does a Realtor really do?

I have come to realize that we pay a Realtor not to sell our home, but for who they know.  The reason I say this is that my Realtor has done nothing beyond list my home.  I have had one open house and that was at my request.  Since then, I have not had one single showing and it has been over two weeks.  She blames it on Spring break.  Heck, I want to go where these people have been for the last two weeks!  I have scheduled another open house for April 1st.  Not sure who is the bigger fool here...

Now we have heard that dear Nonna may be losing her job that she has worked at for 22+ years.  They are reorganizing her department - aka downsizing - and everyone has to reapply for their jobs.  With retirement being just over a year away and her current health history, who would hire her a second time for the job she is already doing?  I think that is such a crock requiring people to reapply for a job they are already doing.  You already know who you want to get rid of, so stop wasting my time.  The good news is if they don't rehire her, she should get a severance package and hopefully qualify to at least apply for COBRA until Medicaid kicks in next year. 

I have started her on the path of filing for disability as her COPD is so bad now that the doctor has instructed her she needs to be on oxygen pretty much full time.  She doesn't want to do it because she is afraid it will make her look bad.  Hello Lady...yes you, the one laying on the floor dying from lack of oxygen, do you think you look good now?  Sorry - Bitter, party of one...

As you can tell I am still frustrated with her denial of how poor her health really is.  It is bad enough that I am in the process of selling my house to accommodate her needs.  I have heard your comments about not doing this, but I am not sure what my other choices are.  We don't have any assisted living facilities in the area that we can afford, so sending her elsewhere isn't an option either.  I honestly think assisted living would be a million times better for everyone, but how could we pay for it?  They want over $1200 per month just for an efficiency at a run down dump that is up the street from my office.  The really nice ones are well over $2000 per month and there is just no way to afford that.

At the end of the day, she is still my mother and my family and you don't turn your back on your family.  Hubby grew up in this type of environment so he knows better what to expect than I do.  I figure she will be another bonus kid and as such will have to be parented by both of us!! 

Other than that, life is moving along slowly but surely.  We are ready for school to be out for the summer so the traffic won't be quite so bad and maybe they will even finish the major road between my house and work?!  That will increase our property values I would think!!

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Day 1 Gajillion and 32...

Captain's Log: Star Date 1 Gajillion, 32 - the natives appear to be growing restless.  They have stopped picking up after themselves and the tall one left a dirty plate on the counter.  Not sure how to divert them back to Clean-dom.  May have to resort to using the Phaser - set to stun of course...

Let me just say that selling your house means that you live in a fish bowl.  People may show up at your doorstep with only minutes of notice so it has to be in a virtual state of cleanliness that would make even Mother Teresa throw her hands in the air and cuss.  The husband has been a fantastic sport about this, but little by little his commitment to cleanliness has begun to wane.  Truthfully mine has too, but I am way to OCD to stop now.  I may have to seek therapy when this is all over to ever get back to my previous comfort zone with "things that aren't in their proper places". 

My daughter, fondly remembers what her toys looked like and how cool it was when we used to be able to actually take them out and play with them.  Now she is allowed to take one thing out at a time and it must be put back before another thing can be taken out.  Poor Barbie is in an eternal state of undress because her clothes are in a different bin that the dolls. 

I may have actually risen to a new state of cleanliness for the bathrooms called "Ludicrous Clean".  I swear you could eat off the floor in there now.  And what for?  We haven't seen a soul in almost two weeks.  Four Lookie-Lous, One Open House and then complete silence.  I understand we live halfway to Canada (while still living in Texas of course) and the road construction is a bear, but wait until it is finished and you won't be able to buy a house in our neighborhood for under a cool million...  You can have ours for the low, low price of $XX if you buy today!!!  I should have been in advertising.

Tonight I will rally the troops, pep them up, talk the talk, proclaim the proclamation that somebody, yes somebody just might come look at the house this weekend so pick up your stuff, or else...Zzzzzzap!

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

In a nutshell...

I'm sorry I can't take your call right now, please leave a message after the tone...Beep!

Well, not really, I'm still here.  Just trying to figure out how to fit 30 hours worth of work into less than 24 hours of day because I really do like my beauty rest!!

Work has been taking me all over the place.  I did a gig in Phoenix, then off to San Antonio, Raleigh, Orlando, etc...  In between I try to remember which clothes are dirty and which ones are clean in my suitcase so I can reload.

The house is still on the market and I am very frustrated as our "Realtor" (I use quotes because I haven't seen her do anything that would strike me as Realtor-ish yet) doesn't seem to have any fire in her to sell our home.  I have had to suggest the Open House, I have asked for some rewording on our listing - still not done and I had to come with her with the suggestion to change the price just a little so we would hit the right demographic.  If she weren't one of Rudy's friends, I would have fired her already.  I had an awesome Realtor that sold my old house in 5 weeks just after the bottom of the market fell out and he was able to negotiate for almost the full asking price. 

Hubby is awesome when I get to see him.  Evidently his boss has the idea that he should really work 30 hours each day instead of just hypothetically working those hours - in my defense, those include parenting hours.  Just because I don't get a paycheck for those hours, doesn't mean it isn't real work!!

The kids are amazingly great.  The daughter comes up with new ways to torment me daily and the Bonus Daughter (yes Julianna, I borrowed your phrase) is just about to hit puberty and is learning to master the sullen response.  I asked her if she made her bed on Saturday, she said yes so of course I had to check it out.  The blanket was hanging 90% off the bed towards the wall leaving almost all of the sheets showing underneath.  The good news is that after demonstrating to her the proper way to make the bed, she got it right without asking on Sunday so there is still hope for me yet.  Of course she is only 11 so I know it goes downhill quickly from here.

Other than that, I am still swimming up stream.  Nonna is about to drive me to excessive drinking and I just can't wait for her to move in with us.  Yesterday she accused her lovely granddaughter of grand theft wallet as she had a couple of dollars go missing from her wallet.  Evidently the co-workers are above suspicion, but one blue eyed, honey haired six year old is a hardened criminal.  Sheesh!!

There, in a nutshell, is what' up with me.  I miss you all and hope to catch up more in the days ahead...