goo gooby goo

Facebook rules my life right now (not really) so I laid this blog down for a nap.  It's still napping, but every once in awhile I try to lift it up again and remember how much fun I had playing with it.

It's still sleeping, but I'm just about to lower the crib side and see if it can stand up for a moment.  Come to mama ...

Ooh, the knees are a bit wobbly.  The feet are struggling to stand ... but that hand is reaching out for the pacifier.  And a bottle.  And ... an entire box of Arrowroot cookies.  Yep, that's my child.

While the ol' blog is blinking and trying to get a feel for the world again ... let me grace you with this little bitty napper.  She was mad at her daddy for leaving her ... and going off to the military to save the world ... and save Kauai from Hurricane Iniki.

When they were reunited ... well, I'm just glad I had my camera rolling.

:)

* tap tap *

Is this thing on?

* tap tap *

It's just me, checking in again, albeit way late ...

It's cold in McKinney, there's ice on my car, my garage is full, my storage unit is full, my daughter sold her car and she's driving Rick's now.  He's carless and hating it.  We spent the evening at WalMart last night (whee) and I came home with a new trash can.  Again, whee.  We're headed to a basketball game tonight and I'm looking forward to eating the peanuts.  I'm carb-free now ... so I'm hoping I can have the peanuts. 

Liz has a new job at a book publishing firm and she's just been promoted to a publicist.  Ted Danson's ex-wife is one of her clients and that seems to be all she can talk about ... Casey Danson this and Casey Danson that ...

And I'm in the process of buying a new car.  My lease is up in April and I want to have another car all ready to go.  Like now.  I can't seem to stay off of car-buying websites.  Jeep. 

Low carb, SUV, Cirque D'Soleil, Sunroof ... those are the only words in my vocabulary anymore.

Maybe summer.  That word figures in there pretty often, too.

Jeep.

sailing, sailing ... flooding, flooding ...

So, we did go to Hawaii.  We were fortunate enough to set sail on my daughter's ship, The Pride of America, and get to see her in action at some of her work events.

We also met her "intended", Ben Adams.  Lovely man.  Lovely couple.  We will be proud to have him join our little family.

While in Hawaii, we heard the most beautiful words in the world; "You have an offer on your house" from our real estate agent.  You don't know how much I wanted to hear those words.  I nearly cried.

Being in Hawaii though, I realized that I would no longer be able to hide scuff marks or cracks in the walls nor water damage.  I became stressed, worrying about hiding things and making the house sellable, but what could I do?  We had an offer.  And those words sat above any concerns that I had for the house.

We accepted the offer from the kind folks who wanted our house ... and we were still in Hawaii when the inspection happened.  Yeah, I really was forced to lay down my paintbrush and stop the madness.  I did it willingly.

We witnessed our future son in law ask for our daughter's hand in marriage.

We returned to Texas to begin packing up our big ol' house ... and start the closing process.  And find a new place to live.

AND THIS IS WHERE THE CRAZINESS BEGAN.

We packed and we packed and we packed.  And Rick got sicker and sicker and sicker.  And the Texas weather got hotter and hotter and hotter.  And Elizabeth and Ben (the intended) jetted off to Scotland and England ... and watched their luggage not follow them.  They spent two weeks with us in Frisco all the while waiting on their luggage to catch up to them. 

And wouldn't you know it?  The ring that Ben had planned to propose with was IN the suitcase that hadn't found them yet. 

Hundreds of phone calls to the airline and I finally jumped in and alerted the media.  Yep, I did.

WFAA's Monica Hernandez came to our little (big) house on Creek Point and filmed a story about a guy who wanted to propose to a little Texas gal ... but didn't have his luggage (and all of his worldly belongings) and didn't have the ring.

One phone call from WFAA and dang!  The airline found the luggage!  In Baltimore, of all places.  Go figure.

More packing, more closing junk on the house .... and finally the luggage arrived.  WFAA arrived, too.  They came back to film the actual proposal ... which was pretty darn cute!  We all hauled off to The Shops At Legacy and watched Ben propose ... and watched the news station film it.

AND .... right before we were slated to close on our Creek Point house ... we had a flood inside.  Of course we did.  OF COURSE WE DID! 

Got that all cleaned up and we were all set to close on the house ... WHEN RICK GOT SICK!  Ambulances and everything. 

Sigh.

Just when you think you've got it all under control ... the escrow folks would not close until Rick could sign, OUTSIDE of THE HOSPITAL, which he couldn't do.  Why?  Because Rick's little bout of a bladder infection began to spread ALL THROUGH HIS BODY ... enough that his bloodstream was infected and he had to be put in isolation.  NO ONE would go through the trouble to gown up and go in for Rick to sign the closing papers.  Not even the HOSPITAL NOTARY.  Like, seriously?

So, we waited.  And we extended our closing date.  And we searched for an apartment.  And we found ourselves NOT getting into any of the apartments that we wanted to ... sad tale after sad tale.  We were about to be homeless.  And you know what?  I didn't care.  I knew we'd be fine. 

So, Elizabeth was now engaged, Rick began to improve by leaps and bounds (turns out he was also a bit toxic and had to get some of those awful pain meds out of this body) and dang if ELIZABETH didn't turn around and get sick.  OF COURSE SHE DID.

We were still packing and packing and packing ... and getting further and further behind it seemed.

We finally had to call out for help ... which we did get, in the way of four women who stepped up and helped us.  Note: Women.  Yep.  Women for the win!

So, to summarize, we finally did close on our house once Rick was out of isolation.  We nearly emptied our Creek Point house (a wayward desk and a few garage items had to stay behind, sadly) and moved into an apartment complex overlooking a baseball park in Frisco.  We have belongings in two different PODS and a storage unit AND WITH OUR MOVING COMPANY.  Yeah, don't tell me about having too much stuff.  That's all I hear from my dear, darling daughter.

107 degrees, 108 degrees, 109 degrees.  The temperature kept a'climbin'.  Life got hotter and busier and crazier ... but we were out of that house. 

And ... on July 31st, I returned to work.  Suddenly my summer break was over and you know what?  I'm totally ready.  That was the wildest summer ever and I'm happy to see it go.

Rick is home in the apartment with me.  Buddy and Jeannie are there, too.  And Elizabeth is recovered and prepping to return to her ship for one final contract ... and to her beloved, Ben.

Anyone doubt me when I say that we had a flood on day one?  Yeah, didn't think so.

And there's a wedding in the works (November 30th) and that's what's on our minds now.  Floods don't bother me now ...   HOWEVER, if the wedding goes off as planned, well, it'll be the hottest day of the year and yet, it'll rain.  We won't be ready on time and the dress will be delivered to Kansas.  And the whole place will flood.  I just know it.

'Cuz we're Kahles.

so saturday is the day ...

This very Saturday, this coming Saturday, I will ...

meet my daughter's boyfriend
meet my daughter's soon-to-be fiance (yes, same person)
see my daughter's workplace
see my daughter's living quarters
eat at the restaurant that she eats at daily
eat at the restaurant that she can never eat at (but I can)
order drinks at the bar that she hangs out in (her bf is the head bartender)

and just, in general, enjoy all that Honolulu has to offer ... aboard a big ship.

Sunday we'll head to Maui and start the process all over again.
Monday we'll disembark and try out the "Road to Hana".  I've always wanted to do that.
Tuesday we'll head to the Big Island and see if it's still there.  There's been a volcano erupting, I hear.
Wednesday we'll change positions on that Big Ol' Island, provided it's still there.
Thursday we'll head to Kauai and take in a Luau.  The pig is already trying to escape ...
And on Saturday, back we go to Honolulu for an extra day. 

It's a whirlwind and I'm very nervous.  Yes, I am.  And I don't know why.

Maybe it's because of Rick and his pain problems.  Or his cognitive problems.  Or all of his problems in general.  Maybe I'm the problem.  Most likely ...

Maybe it's because I was just in Honolulu in October ... and it weren't real pretty.  Maybe it's because I don't like ships.  Or harbors.  Or flying.  Or travelling.  Or vacationing.

Odd.  I used to live on a cruise ship.  I grew up around harbors.  I used to be a flight attendant.  I used to be a travel agent.

Hmmmm.  Maybe I just drank too much caffeine this morning.

anyone seen the flashlight?

So this happened.  About three houses down from where I live ... this happened.  And it happened four times.  Four LOUD bangs, pops and ka-booms!

Four times my power went off.  The fourth time, it stayed off.  

All of the neighbors came out of their homes (of course, everyone was curious) and it really was a pleasant evening, chatting with everyone, meeting new neighbors, asking if anyone wanted to buy my house ...  yes, I actually threw that comment in a couple of times.

Seriously, it was pleasant.  I've always liked catastrophes, though.

Most of the neighbors got their power back on within the hour.

MOST of the neighbors.

I, however, live on the street where the explosion happened.  I was without power for nigh on seven hours.

I was told to go find my candles and flashlights while we still had some daylight.  So I did that.  None of the flashlights had batteries and I only found two candles and no candle holders.  I was not worried, I had a phone.  Of course, the phone was nearly without power.  Okay, THEN I worried.  

Sitting in the dark was ... quiet.  Rick was napping (he never knew what hit him) and the dog and I had literally nothing to do after we'd exhausted all of the fun of searching for candles and flashlights.  And the house just got darker.

Eventually, Kyndra, our upstairs tenant came home and I finally had somebody to play with.  I like Kyndra cuz she had a working phone.  With a light on it.  And she had a deck of cards.  We were ready to have some fun now!

There we sat, at my kitchen table ... looking something like this:

It was a pretty fun card game ... IF you could actually see the cards.

You probably wouldn't believe me if I said I won.  I wouldn't believe me, either, though.

Kyndra's phone flashlight was fading ... and she suddenly discovered a way to make the phone shine a bit brighter.  She placed it under the dome of a cake plate that I had sitting on the kitchen table.

Voila!

The room lit up!

Well, not really, but it did make for some pretty interesting light pictures on the ceiling.

The lights finally came back on at ....

1:30 AM

when the whole house suddenly lit up very brightly.  Yeah, it's hard to turn all the house lights off when you have no idea which lights were actually on when the explosion happened.

I awoke to this the next morning, still sitting on my kitchen table.

I have no idea what card game we were playing ... 

but I did win.  

No really, I was winning.

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checkin' it all out ...

Since we were forced to give up our half-built house because our main living domain hadn't sold yet, I was forced to select a different house, one that hadn't even broken ground yet.  But all was well, because I actually like THIS house better than THAT house.  THAT house was darn cute, it was ... but THIS house is darn fancy, it is.  And I prefer fancy.

Thought you'd like to see the house that we'll be moving into, now that it's finished ...

This is the site that we were stuck with chose for our final house building project.  

Pretty normal.  No views.  And actually we had no choice.  If we wanted THIS house, it went HERE.

*

And THIS is the finished product.  All ready for us to move in to.  This was just two weeks later.  That building team works fast!

We took the 'open air' option so we could enjoy those warm summer days ... and pretend we were at the beach.

*

We paid extra for guest bathroom.  Feel free to stop by and use it.  Our door's always open! 

The guys below are working on MY room.  I picked the corner spot ... so I'd be closer to the restroom.  And any guests that stop by.

This is the room Rick picked.  No bathroom in site.  He says he doesn't need one. 

Good thing Rick doesn't need a bathroom, too.  Our neighbors behind us have too good of a view of his room.  And his bathroom, if he had one.

We ordered a fancy address sign for our front yard.  I wish I could design like that ...

So there you have it.  Our new house.  There may be a few other finishing touches added over the next six months but for now, it's just perfect.  We couldn't be happier.  Even if the house DID have a roof.

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because i'm crazy ...

I just decided that I won't have enough granite in my upcoming new house.

I will have it in all but one bathroom, and of course, it will be in the kitchen.  But I began to feel that the dining room and the family room would feel left out ... so I just signed away to have granite put there, too.

Hey, it's only money.    Sure hope my house sells.

And because I'm crazy, I decided to have a garage sale this weekend.  It's supposed to rain.  Strike that, it's supposed to STORM! 

And because I'm crazy, I just signed up to be a hippo in a game at my school.



Never mind that my back is out currently.  Never mind that I'm risking it to go back out during this game (assuming it ever comes back in.)  And never mind that I'm NOT 21 anymore.  Nor 31, 41 or even 51.  Never mind that I'm crazy.

By the way, those fools on the floor grabbing balls?  Those are the hippos.  The very thing I signed up to be.

Sure hope my house sells.

But speaking of really, really crazy ... I reorganized my garage last night.  (Gee, I wonder why my back is out!)  Stuff I'm keeping over here ... stuff for said garage sale over there ... and stuff that I'm hiding from Rick goes under here.

Know what Rick said when he noticed?  "Hey, I like what you've done with the garage!"  Um, all I did was push stuff to one side, push the other stuff to the other side and remove a car.  Pushing that car out was a killer. 

There's now room for us to play "Hungry Hippos" in our very own garage.  Wanna play?  Yeah, me neither.  What if I put some granite in there?

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gettin' ready

Our little rondevous cruise is over a month away.  In fact, it's 5 weeks away.  It's also 38 days away.  It's also not close enough to begin packing for.  And yet, that's what Rick is doing.  Packing.

I'm packing, too, but not for the trip.  I'm packing for a move down the road.  Up the road?  Either way, I'm packing up everything I see.  Rick is packing up everything he sees, too, but he ain't helping me switch houses.  He's readying himself for a vacay.

We're both ready for a vacay.

Rick has been through a not-so-fun surgery and I've been through wall painting, spackling, packing, planting, cleaning, patching, band-aiding and hiding.  I haven't been hiding, but I've been hiding cracks.  I've hidden the dog a few times, too.  The cat pretty much stays hidden all the time, so no worries there.

I've also driven through every drive-thru in Frisco that gives out treats for dogs.  Yes, we head out with our dog every time the house is being shown.  The dog does NOT love it, until we get to Andy's and get him ice cream.  Our local ice cream shop gives out ice cream to traveling pups.  Starbucks givcs out puppucinos and if I could remember the other three places I've learned about, we'd head there as well.  For now it has to be puppucinos and ice cream.

They have finally broken ground on our new house (our THIRD new house ... no, I don't own three new houses ... I just can't seem to hold on to one) and here's a peek at what we're getting.





Apparently we're getting a swimming pool in the front yard.

Oh goody.  More things to patch and repair.



I don't see a bathroom.  Do you suppose we just use that box-thingy?



Here's a better shot of where we're going to be living.

Glad summer's coming.  The spring hailstorms will be killer ...

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me and noah

Because we are about to move into a new home ... we are just about ready to list my house for sale.  Well, we were anyway.

And because we were just about ready to list my house for sale ... the world began to flood.  My world  began to flood anyway.  Noah's got nothing on me.  My house has become a virtual ARK.

Except not exactly that cute.  Maybe more like this:

Maybe MORE LIKE THIS:

That's about all that's worth keeping in my house.

Wait.  Maybe more like this:

Yep.  For sure like this.  My house sprung a leak and the water poured in for a full day ... and then suddenly stopped.  The rain didn't stop, but the leak did.  Where all the water went is a good guess.  Okay, I know where it is ... it's in the wall.

I am sickened by my house every time I walk by that wall.  Or any wall.  Every wall is trying to get back at me for trying to sell the house.

GET ME OUT OF THIS HOUSE!

But there is a bright side to all of it.

We were involved in a class action lawsuit for one of the meds that Rick takes.  Apparently we were WAY overcharged and somebody figured that out.  And, out of the blue, a check for over $2400 appeared in our mailbox.

I wanted to jet off to Hawaii STAT but God had other plans for us.  To get our damaged wall fixed, we will need to pay our deductible.  Guess what our deductible is?  Yep, $2500.

God is amazing.

He knew that we would need some money for all of this mess ... and here it came.

I have no words.

I have no house, either.  Mine is about to float down the river.  But I've got the peace of knowing that I don't have to come up with $2500 to pay my deductible.

Yay house!  Go house!

Seriously, GO house.  Just go away.

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only me

 Only I would wear these shoes ...

... on a day when my windshield looked like this.

Yep, that's my windshield.  Those be ice flakes.  I'd say 'snow flakes' but it was darn near too cold to be snowing.  It was icing.

Wanna see a close up of the lovely shoe I chose to wear?

I swear, I haven't got a brain in my head.

No, wait.  I distinctly remember someone telling me it was going to be warmer!  No, really.  I heard that.  It was no longer going to be 9 degrees out ... so, in my little head, it was BEACH WEATHER!

Hence the sandals.

Yeah, no.

Well, it WAS warmer.  40 degrees IS warmer than 9 degrees.

It is, right?

Fortunately, my desk at work comes equipped with this ...

Just don't tell the fire marshall.

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if a tree falls ...

Nope, didn't hear it.

But I did try out my gardening skills over the weekend. 

Rick has been wanting to trim up the front bushes for many, many moons.  I kept telling him (mostly as a way to simply 'put him off') that if he'd wait until December, the bushes would pretty much cut themselves.  Trees and bushes in Texas ... in the wintertime ... do not flourish.  They do not green and they do not pretty.  They pretty much brown and they pretty much 'stick'.  Yep, we've got nothing but brown sticks in our front yard.

Guess what I learned, though?  Brown sticks are had to cut.  I'm assuming that green ones are, too ... and maybe I'm wrong ... but I've sure got a lot of bumps and bruises and cuts and scrapes and OH, MY ACHING ARMS! to prove that brown sticks ain't easy to cut.  So much for my brilliant idea to have Rick wait until December to cut the bushes back.  So much for Rick's brilliant idea to schedule surgery in December/January and NOT be able to do it .... but be able to remind me of how easy I said it would be in December.

Well, this is January and it was not easy.

But I did it.  And there is a freakin' bloodbath in my front yard.  Well, a 'sap bath'.  There are sticks and trigs and branches and bushes strewn everywhere.  No one told me that I'd have to pick all of that debris up afterwards ...

Know what the bright side is, though?  The pizza man can find us now.  Our address on the front wall of the house is no longer blocked. 

Now ... if I could just lift my arm up high enough for the pizza to actually reach my mouth.

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2017 in review ...

2017 has closed out.  Gone.  Kaput.  Kicked to the curb.

We ended it with a bang, literally.

Our house is falling apart around us, with creaking noises going on overhead incessantly.  None of our doors are tight so cold air seeps in all the time, in all the wrong places.  Several of our toilets flush at will, usually during the middle of the night. And just as we were about to sit down and watch that ol' ball drop ... the oven kicked the bucket.  Out came the crockpot for our dinner.

So, as we plan to move in 2018, we will not be sad to see this house go.  No oven (although we did reboot it and get it to work), no heat (because I turned the heater off and it thought I meant FOR GOOD), no fireplace logs (used them all, trying to warm up the house), creaking, creaking and MORE creaking, flushing toilets (ghosts?), and several ruined floors from several broken pipes awhile back.   And a peeing dog that helps keep those ruined floors ... ruined.

Yep, we couldn't get out of 2017 fast enough.

So what does 2018 hold for us?

A new house (that'll break us for sure), back surgery for Rick (that'll break us more), a daughter in Hawaii who constantly needs help financially (need I say it, we're broke) and a move (that's it, we're officially poor) done in two parts.  We'll need to take an apartment after we sell our house ... and before we can move into the new house.  My hands are already up in the air in desperation.

But 2018 won't be all bad.  Did I mention that we're getting a new house?  A NEW house.  Literally.  And nothing goes wrong in new houses, right?  Oh, shut up.

We won't be too much further from where we are now ... but we will be out of the Frisco tax umbrella.  We will not live in a creaking house (can I get a BIG AMEN!?) and our peeing dog ... well, he's coming with us ... unless I kill him first.  The toilets might just flush on cue, and the house might just be warm.  And maybe the pipes won't freeze and flood.

There is hope for us in 2018.  The biggest hope is for Rick.  He will be having back surgery that is supposed to be the be-all/end-all back surgery.  It is supposed to put an end to his pain.  And for that, we can only say that no matter what, 2018 will be a good year.

2018, here we come!!!!

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moving in

Went to peek at our new house over the weekend and we were absolutely blown away at how fast this house is materializing!  Yesterday it was a patch of dirt ... today it's ready to move into!  Whee!

That's it!  That's our new house!

I've got the kitchen pretty much unpacked stocked.  I think I just need to hang a few things on the walls to make it feel complete.

And this is ... our guest bedroom!  We're ready for you!

Bring a coat, though.  It gets a bit chilly at night.

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epic failz

I was putting together a calendar, yesterday, for my dear, darling husband as one of his Christmas gifts this year.  I spent several hours pouring pooring stressing over which photographs to include and finally decided on about 60 that I felt depicted our past year pretty well.  Never mind that they all began to look alike after awhile ...

Once done, I couldn't help but marvel at how some of my finer work had managed to get included into the final project.

Just what Rick always wanted on his calendar, I'm sure ...

That there is 409 sitting atop our table.  Glad I took a picture of it.

This is our cat.  She had no head.

Anyone want a banana?

Food I thought my dear, darling daughter would like ...

(no one else would)

My dear, darling husband ... who was never proud of this look.

Glad he didn't keep this look for very long.

Yeah, this needs to be in all calendars.  Typos in an ad for a family night.

A beach with no people.  Also needs to be in all calendars.

And ... our Christmas tree this year.  No ornaments, no lights.  And an attempt at throwing a Santa hat atop it in lieu of an angel.

My husband already knows I'm lazy; let's not rub it in.

So there you have it.  Two hours worth of work yesterday and THESE epic photos are what I have to show for it.

I think I'll go buy him some socks.  He'll need them when he takes my gift out to trash the next morning ...

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