New House!

So, today we got our keys to the new house. After finishing the projects for my mom we loaded a few things into the Xterra and headed over to sign the lease and take some measurements (and pics). Then we tried to get a Penske truck only to find them all being used. Last minute Luis I tell ya! So we came home to drop off Kassie and I looked online for a Uhaul and found one. The shop was closing in 15 minutes so we rushed over to pick it up. Then we headed to Ikea for some seriously needed shopping. We had 5 star dining in the Ikea cafeteria then had less then an hour to shop before closing time. Ikea is HUGE!!!!!!!!! So we rushed around the store picking up items here and there and writing down the bin numbers for the large items. Finally, with 10 minutes left on the clock we got to the warehouse. We were again rushing to gather our furniture from the many different aisles. We made it. Barely! We checked out (leaving a gaping hole in our pockets), Chuck brought the truck around and we loaded up. It was a tight fit. The passenger seat had to be moved all the way up to fit the desk top. Needless to say...I drove! We bought a tv stand, 2 bar stools, 2 dressers, a desk, 3 rugs, and curtains. Now guess who has to assemble it all...I owe hubs a massage!

*

This is the view of the house from the driveway towards the right. The barn (garage) door is faux!

This is also the house from the driveway towards the left. Notice the view of the mountains.

This is the side of the house but our front door.

This is a small part of the backyard.

This is a small part of the front yard from the top of the driveway. It is completely fenced in. Kassie died and went to heaven!
This is our front door.
Living room looking straight back from the front door.
Living room looking toward side window.
Kitchen.

Hallway with closet. (yay for storage)

Bathroom.Shower.

Bedroom from doorway looking all the way back to the left.

bedroom.

bedroom. Yes, it is that big! We are going to put a curtain up to hide the washer and dryer.

I am soooo tired. Sorry if I left anything out! Sunday is moving day!!!!

Our very busy Saturday

Today Chuck and my brother John replaced my moms wall mounted oven and dishwasher. Later they will also replace her countertops and her cooktop stove.

My brother brought along my second cousin Seth. He loves our wii. CLEARLY!!!

At one point I found Seth sitting in the dishwasher box playing the wii. He is only 8 after all.

Exciting!!!!

Just got a call from the new landlord. The house is ready now. We're going over later to take measurements and sign the lease. So exciting. Should have pics on later tonight. The big move is tomorrow!!!

You can take the cat out of TN but you can't take TN out of the cat!

Does anyone else notice Aria's nose? It is shaped like a T and it's bright orange...

Go Vols!!!

Not Me!

Another day another dollar! Time to confess my sins even if Mckmama is on a cruise right now.

*

My smile has not been wiped off my face. I am always happy no matter what. I would never let another person ruin my day!!!

*

On that note, I am not so happy to be moving into my own place in just one week. One week...one week...one week...one week...one week...one week...

*

I did not go to bed at midnight last night only to lay there wide awake till 4 in the morning. I am not so frustrated by my lack of sleep. Surely my current headache is not because of the lack of sleep.

*

Hubs and I did not run into an old friend at church yesterday who we have not seen in 5 years. It was not a miracle by God himself as this friend has long since moved out of town and we have not been to this church in over a month aaaand this church is just shy of mega church status. Actually, he saw us! And chased us down. It was so good to see a familiar face.

*

I am not procrastinating my run to walmart and Von's writing a not me post and eating peanut m&m's and drinking a diet pepsi waiting for my headache to ease up. hehe...not me!

*

I am not using my female hormones as an excuse to be eating said m&m's. Really!

*

I most certainly am not hoping for better not me's next week. Peace out!

*

*

p.s. I am NOT number 337 on Mckmama's mr. linky!

Kitty Photo Shoot...

My sweet sweet Aria. Okay, not always so sweet! I was playing with my camera today and she sat next to me on the couch thereby becoming my subject. Click on the photo for a full size view.

Kassie is a heater hog. I don't think she could get any closer to it if she tried. Oh, and by the way...it was only in the mid 60's here. Why is she even cold???

Please Pray!!!!!

Today was my mother-in-laws hip replacement surgery. Please pray for a quick healing and for the doctors to listen to her needs as we are not there to help. The biggest fear is them sending her home too soon. She's going to an aftercare facility upon leaving the hospital but we also fear them sending her home too early as well.

Not Me! Monday

Seriously, it's time to jump on the band wagon people. The rules are here. So easy! But wait, the fun does not stop here. Go see Mckmama's blog for more funny Not Me's.

*

I have not been trying to talk hubs into getting me a new cell phone because mine will no longer hold a charge. I have a great cell phone that I love and it is only 1 year old. It might be obsolete but who cares...it's a good phone. I just want a new toy to play with!

*

I am not too happy about the fact that when I move in 2 weeks my cell phone will actually have reception at our new place. (when I can get it to work...that is) My mom's house gets no cell reception at all making my cell phone pointless to have in the first place.

*

Hubs and I are not the kind of people who would miss church like 3 Sundays in a row. We love going to church and would never blow it off for any reason. We do not miss our church in Knoxville soooo much. Who wouldn't want to go hear Dr. David Jeremiah? We should feel blessed!

*

I did not fill my gas tank then use just about every ounce of gas on a trek through the country side. Who does that? Our trek did not take us through the city to the mountains to the desert and back...and never leaving our county!

*

I am not desperately needing gas again now! Guess who's staying home tomorrow? Yup, ME!

*

I am not enjoying our 80 degree weather. I have not been to the beach once since winter hit. We are not saving a ton of money by not needing to run the heater or air conditioner right now.

*

I am not worried about my mil who is having hip replacement surgery this week. She could really use one of us there right now. Please pray for a fast recovery for her.

Prayer needed!!!!!!

I heard from the bloggy world of a Christian family in Colorado with 10 children who lost their home to a fire. Check out their story here. Please pray for this family! If God puts it on your heart to give to this family you can send checks to their church.

The River Church
Saunders Fire
860 Plymoth Dr.
Durango, CO 81301-4755

YOUR CHECKS MUST HAVE "SAUNDERS-FIRE" IN THE MEMO OR YOUR DONATION WILL GO INTO THE CHURCH GENERAL FUND!!!

I personally chose to give to this family who I do not know. I imagine reoutfitting 7 or 8 children (a few are grown and out of the house) and getting the necessary bedding together and all the many many other needs they have is overwhelming right now. God has blessed us. We have lots of clothing, plenty of food and a roof over our heads as well as toys and gadgets and junk we don't even need to survive. BLESSED!!! If you cannot give monetarily can you just pray? Please!!!

We're MOVING!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Chuck and I started thinking that a year is a LOOOOOOONG time to be living with my mom. As it is we have been here for 7 months (Chuck for 9 months). We need our privacy!!! We found a cute little 1 bedroom house in Jamul. It's about a 20 minute drive east into the country. Chuck's commute to work will be about 30 minutes. The house is on an acre of land that is fully fenced. The landlord's house is also on the property and they seem really nice. The rooms are fairly large. I will be able to partition off part of the bedroom for an office, it is that big. There is no dining room area but there is a bar off the kitchen. For the 2 of us that will be just fine. We eat in the living room most of the time anyway. The house is only about a year old so it has a very modern kitchen and bathroom. It even has ALL the appliances in it including a washer and dryer. I can't wait to take pics to post here. We don't move till Feb 1st (the 3rd at the latest) so that is the soonest I can get pics. The rent is about double what we pay my mom but still cheaper then most rentals and way cheaper then if we bought. Rental prices here for an apartment are as high as an average house payment would be in Knoxville. Let me clarify!!! A 1 or even 2 bedroom apartment runs about $1000-1500 a month. And that is the lower class. The "nicer" places run closer to $2000 and up. So imagine what a house payment is around these parts. We feel blessed to have found a nice little house for under $ 1000 and with a large yard too.
*************************************
So, today my mom and I decided to go for a nice country drive. My mom put a stew in a crock pot and off we went. We did not get very far on the freeway before I heard a loud noise. I did not see anything in the road nor did anything come out of the backside of the car (looking in the rear view mirror). To be safe I pulled off an off ramp which luckily was right there. I got out and heard a loud hiss. It was the tire...going flat and fast. We quickly turned around and headed back to Viejas Casino which was a mile down the road...THANK GOODNESS!!! There we got help from their security. They called out their maintenance man to change it for us...for FREE! God bless the native Americans:) I have no idea what happened to the tire. I'll take it in tomorrow to find out and get it fixed. Thankfully my spare is a full sized tire.
*************************************
So, back to our country drive. We left the casino and continued up to the mountains. We drove through Mt. Laguna stopping at the occasional look-outs (pull outs for views). Then we drove to Julian and continued on the back side of the mountains heading into the desert. We took our time making lots of stops for pictures or to reminisce the good ole days. There was plenty of memory sharing of our backpacking and camping days when I was a child. We drove through the desert till we met back up with the freeway.


In Jacumba we got back off the freeway to drive through all the country communities. This is my childhood stomping grounds. More memories. The Mexican border is very close. In Jacumba you can see the border fence. These next 2 pics show the border fence in the background. This is from the roadway too.

Then we kept driving westward on the back roads toward Boulevard. Here we stopped at the Candy Cottage. Oh, the memories!!! We used to stop here as kids. They have some top notch chocolate. Of course, I bought some!

Then we made our way to Campo. This is my home town. This first picture is my old elementary school. They rebuilt the school on a new location a year or two after I went to Jr. High. So it has run down...a lot. This building has been boarded up but behind it are more buildings that are being used as a continuation school for troubled teens and adults wanting their high school diploma. Below are a couple of old pics of me standing in front of this building. le sigh!

Also in Campo, we drove by the old community swimming pool. It has long since closed and has been filled in with dirt. But you can see the outline of the old pool. It was L shaped.
This is the building were they sold snacks and had the mens bathroom and locker room. The womens was around the corner. On the left side you see those storage bins?! That was the other part of the L shaped pool. The shallow end! Directly below was the deep end.
At the back of the picture you see a rock wall. Those were actually wide bleachers or steps for sunbathing. They went down the length of that side of the pool.

Here is an old pic of my sis and I in the pool. You can see the bleachers. My sister is sitting on the edge and I am in the pool right next to her. The girls locker room would have been right behind my sisters back. I think it cost a dollar to get in. We would spend all day here. Our church was within walking distance so we would bring our stuff with us and spend the rest of the day at the pool.

It was fun to visit the old days through memories. The drive took us about 6 hours (remember, we were going slow and making lots of stops). We drove through city...to the mountains...to the desert...got to within 1/2 mile of the Mexican border and back again and we NEVER left San Diego County!!!

Not Me! Monday

he...he...he!!! It's that time again! Play along...you know you want to. Go here for the rules and here to read other great stories!

*

My mom did not have surgery on her eyes this past week to remove extra skin in her eyelids. It would not have left her virtually blind for the next 3 days. If she did have surgery then I imagine something like this could have happened: We went grocery shopping and she had to follow me around the store pretty closely. As we left the store and unbeknownst to me, she fell behind in the parking lot (I thought she was right behind me). When I got to the car I turned around and saw her an aisle over and looking around frantically. The only way she could see at all was to throw her head back and look out the slits. hehehe...now keep in mind...none of this actually happened ;)

*

We did not decide yesterday that living with the blind mom was for the birds and start looking for a place to rent. Since we weren't looking, there is no way we found a cute little house for rent on someones property. It is not a 1 bedroom and it is not large and spacious and in our price range. The people that live in the big house on the property are not nice at all and they hated Kassie. The property is not a completely fenced in acre. Kassie did NOT love the place at all. So much that when we put her back in the new used Xterra so we could talk to the landlord she did not jump out of the car window.

*

There is not another person interested in this rental house. We are not hoping or praying we get it. Please pray with us!!!

*

I did not take the blind mom or Kassie to the beach...yet again. Because, Kassie does not like the beach. Pure torture! Kassie did not come home with more sand on her then she left at the beach.

*

We did not go through a greek drive thru on the way home. My mom, who is on a low carb diet, did not steal one of my fried zucchini's. It was not so hot that she dropped it on the floor of my truck. Did I mention dirty floor? She did not reach down and pick it up and proceed to eat it anyway. 5 second rule!!??

*

My list is short this week. Sorry! Thanks for stopping by for some tea and scones. Come again!

Beach Puppy!

My mom had minor surgery on her eyes today and it was down off Rosecrans. Since I was going to be a few blocks away from the beach I brought Kassie with me for a frolic in the sand while we waited. My dog does NOT like the sand or the water or other dogs! Nope, not her!!! That is not a smile on her face...her tail is not wagging. She could not find even one other friend to play with while we were there. Crazy mutt!!!

This was my first attempt to edit video. I took 4 shots about 30 seconds each. Usually I pick my favorite 30 second video to put on here but hubs encouraged me to give the editing a try. The dogs are NOT fighting. This is just some heavy playing. The owner of the other dog was near by. This dog just left the baby world and entered the teenager years. Can you tell??? Kassie is almost 5 yrs old but she loves this age in her playmates.

Not Me! Monday

Yup, it is once again Monday my friends. Honesty is a soul cleansing act. Why don't you give it a try...you might actually like it. Go visit the mastermind behind this carnival.

*

Hubs and I did not go to Palm Springs for a wedding this week. And not on New Years Eve! It was not for his boss and there is no way the boss paid everyone for the day whether they came to the wedding or not. We did not stay in another fabulous hotel for the night. No really, we didn't! :(

*

Nope! We decided to not hang out with friends on New Years Eve. Staying home alone, bored is a much better way to ring in the new year.

*

At midnight, our friends did not raid their kitchen to find pots and pans to bang very loudly while yelling on the top of their lungs. Their neighbors did not answer back with their own pot banging and yelling. We are not white trash here people!!! (insert dueling banjos here)

*

I was not a terrible guest and break one of my friends glasses. Am I a child? Do I need plastic cups instead of glassware? How embarrasing!!!!!!! There was no alcohol involved just plain stupidity.

*

moving on...

*

We would never take our puppers to the beach in the freezing cold. In fact, it wasn't windy either. brrr... She did not even notice the cold or the wind.

*

Hubs would never wait til 2 days later to give Kassie her bath. A little salt and sand never hurt anyone...right? RIGHT???

*

moving on...

*

I am not procrastinating getting back in the swing of eating healthy...NOT ME!!!

Payton who??? GO CHARGERS!!!