Neighbors

Most of my neighbors are loosers, but I have one funny woman living next door. In response to my last post I got this in an email.... I'll miss you Am-bear. You'll always be french to us.

Butterflies

I am a nervous wreck. I can't lie. I have never moved nor have I ever bought a house. The escrow lady even corrected me and told me she was not my lender. Ya whatever. I still don't know the difference between the lender, the escrow company and who ever is preparing my docs in San Diego. I wish I knew what was going on but not enough to stop what I was doing and learn. I need a For Dummies book on buying and selling houses. I love those books!

I look around the new property and I think I may need Fencing for Dummies, not like "on guard" fencing, like chain link or vinyl horse fencing. I have decided I will try to do my own fencing. Silly woman. I am also on the look out for a shed I can turn into a chicken coop. I still don't know if I can eat my own chickens. That is the true test. Real homesteaders can eat their chickens. I may have to stick to nuggets. Whimp!

Horns was student of of month. Cute little bugger. We have this thing where we always make faces at each other. It makes him giggle, and me look retarded but its our thing. My Mom had the kids for the weekend....ahhhhh. So what does a wanna-be homesteader chick do when she has a weekend with out kids?



She stacks firewood. She works all night and comes home, and makes a few trips to get firewood all in her uniform and this is what the end result is. I tried splitting the wood. I did a few pieces and decided I would do it when I actually live there. She came to the conclusions she should be packing or sleeping because she worked all night and had to go back in a few hours. She was nervous though and doesn't know where to start when she walks into her house. In retrospect she should have poured a coffee and watched the Grey's Anatomy she TiVo'd earlier.

I will quit talking in third person now.

I spend way too much time thinking about useless things. Please tell me I am not the only one who does this.



Where ever is this person going to put next years registration sticker? I know, get a life. I think trying to distract myself. It's not working...

Im packing can't chat.

Ok, I'm packing which makes me bitter. But I have to share this.

The lesbian I work with called in yesterday to say she couldn't come in because her stomach was upset, she ate something bad. Took me about 10 minutes to gain my composure...

For the record

Moving sucks.

Due to the fires and our documents being prepared in San Diego, the close of our escrow has been delayed until next week.

Errr.

How did my house get so much junk in it? I blame the kids.

Six things that make me laugh...

In no particular order...
1. When I say something to Sarge and he flips me off.
2. Waking my boss up in the middle of the night to run a call.
3. When someone gets mad and tries to go around me on the freeway and has to slam on the brakes and get back behind me because a car beside me is going slower. ahahahahaha!
4. When Horns calls my Crocs (the shoes) crotches. Even better, he once told me he hit PPP in the bee-otch, he meant crotch.
5. Reading the males for males personals on craigslist. (I laugh so hard my guts hurt).
6. Knowing that who ever was stealing my food from work drank toilet water out of the mens restroom at work when they thought they were just enjoying some of my Mountain Dew.

When children are raised with a lot of animals...

While looking at pictures of PPP 5th birthday party:
Horns: Where am I? Was I at this party?
Diva of Dysfunction: No, you weren't born yet.
Horns: Were you at least in heat?

There is a reason for everything....

So sometimes horrible things happen for a good reason. I have dreamed of living a simple life on acreage with all the animals I could dream of all my life. For the last few years I have asked my husband a billion times over if we could leave California and buy an old farm house in Virginia or Kentucky or Tennessee or anywhere that's green and far away for the traffic and neighbors who can hear everything you say inside your house. I dream of gardens and horses and CHICKENS! Oh do I need some chickens.

I breed dogs. They are my kids first and foremost. I love them so much I can't stand it. Im like the crazy cat lady but with dogs (that's what sarge calls me). Now my house does not smell like dogs and my dogs are all well groomed and its a lot of work taking care of them. I have a handful of dogs. When we were sited by animal control for having too many dogs within the city limits I was so depressed. Just sad through and through. I was attached to all of my pets and it was very upsetting to think that I had to get rid of some of the kids.

Sarge loves me. He has lived in our house for 15 years. I have only lived there for 8. He lived there with his ex-wife before me. I wasn't crazy about all that but I was grateful to have the home we had. It was never a home I would pick. But I moved into the house when I was 24 and all of my friends were still at home with their parents or in an apartment. I knew I was lucky.

When Sarge saw that I was about to loose a part of my identity, yes animal lover is part of who I am, he just very casually said "Then I guess we have to move". I am so lucky to have a man like that. It's a huge financial commitment and sacrifice. We are practically going to have to give our house away and he will willing to do that for me. When I would dream out loud about having a monster garden and owning a horse he would just tell me that in 10 years when he retires we can move where ever I want as long as he has a TV and his playstation. I would always sigh big impatient sighs.

But now we are forced to move, take the plunge, go potty or leave the bathroom lol. Now we still need to stay in the same area so he can still work. We live in ugly terrain. It's brown and rocky and there aren't very many trees. All that aside, I am being given the chance to live the life I've always wanted, raise my kids more simplistically. I never thought this day would come. So who ever in my neighborhood who called animal control on me for having more than 3 dogs, I don't hate you anymore. I still feel betrayed but I have lost the hate and anger. Thank you for forcing us to take a risk.

Without any further ado, here is my blank canvas. Our homestead waiting to be built. Our chunk of dirt with weeds. In southern California it's rare to have more than a postage stamp yard. We are truly blessed.

I look at all this space and I wonder where Im going to put everything. I see a barn on the flat spot beyond the fence and the rocks...

We have been bulging at the seems in our house for years. We had 7 people in a four bedroom 1730 sq. foot home. It wasn't horrible but we were packed in pretty tight. This house has a lot more room. I might even have a place for my sewing machine which makes me gitty. I am so excited to have a pantry too. We don't have a pantry in our house now. See that front porch, it brings a tear to my eye.

Chicken coop maybe?

The garage...

I am 31 years old and this is the first time I have ever picked out a place to live. It's the most amazing feeling. It's also sooooo scary. We will have two mortgages until the other one sells. It really freaks me out. Maybe I need to learn to have faith...