Murphy's Law can go to HELL

Have you ever had one of those moments where you just want to sit and cry, perhaps throw a tantrum. That last little sliver of self-respect or quite possibly dignity prevents you from doing so but then you're mad that you are too mature to throw a fit. That is the kind of day/ week/ month I am having.

Today, Madi was 20 minutes late to school. Typically, Friday she rides to school with my friend’s siblings because Monte leaves for work before I have to take her and that way I don’t have to wake Mario up. Well, I kind of figured this morning they would forget considering the mom is really sick.

So, I was right and I was ready to go if they didn’t show up. I went out to my snow covered car with both kids in tow only to find all four doors frozen shut. With my lower back already out of place I had to fight to get my kids in the car and then scrape extremely stubborn snow and ice off my car. This took all of twenty minutes. Then I had to take and sign Madi in while wearing mismatching pajamas. I was feeling slightly embarrassed and a bit humble.

This was after a night where I had laid in bed till four unable to sleep because my back was in so much pain and being worried sick over the whole house struggle. Nothing has been easy in our attempts to buy a house. We had found a house, a nice old farm house on three acres and we jumped on it bidding, then accepting the seller’s counter offer. Which was a pretty nice counter offer.

I called my loan officer only to have him say “oh this isn’t good." Apparently, though my husbands credit is impeccable the credit score they have to use is zero. He hasn’t had a late payment on anything in his name in well over five years. The problem arises from the fact that all the bills and credit he has is only showing up on one of the three credit reports. The loan officer has to use the middle credit score of the three reports.  Being 755, 0 and 0 as the scores he has to use a zero.

That basically means that we may not be able to get a loan because apparently a score of 0 is worse than having poor credit. I know people that have had every car they have bought reposed and poor work history get a loan easier. Monte has worked the same job for 7 years and every bill in his name has been willing to write a letter saying he's an excellent client but it doesn’t seem to matter.

So besides finding a house that we have always dreamed of out in the secluded country and always paying our bills on time, we still might be screwed. This emotional load is only compounded by the fact that our land lord is selling the house we are renting and if and when she sells I have no idea where we will live and move to.

I want to settle. I want my kids to not have to change schools. I want to decorate and make a home that we will grow old in. I want to live life with out having to struggle for every little thing. I want Murphy’s Law to leave me the hell alone. I want to cry and throw a fit and maybe punch a hole in the wall. I want to sleep through the night and I want to be able to pick up my son with out my lower back almost bringing me to tears. I don’t think I am asking for too much.

Waiting and waiting and waiting.....

Well, we put a bid on a house. I know Monte and I are kind of rushing but… Monday is the deadline for rural development loans. I really like the house. It isn’t as perfect as the other house was but this has 3 acres to compensate. It is also in the middle of nowhere  Our nearest neighbors are about a mile down the road.

The interior needs a decorator’s touch, but has the potential to be really nice. It was last decorated in the ‘60s and has the yellow green carpeting to prove it. It is big too. It has a formal dining room, family room, living room, kitchen, utility room, 1 bath and 6 bedrooms. Two of the bedrooms are extremely tiny so the one downstairs will most likely be turned into an office/library and the other will be turned into a walk in closet.

The electric has all been redone recently and it has a newer energy efficient boiler. I’m kind of excited about the hot water heat… I hate dry heat. The down side is there is well water and a septic tank. The health department tests well water for free and I can get a Brita filter for the taste.

Besides that the house has a 3 car garage and there is a trailer on the property. The trailer will be sold immediately  (and will hopefully finance our redecorating and any repairs) and the land is mostly flat and treeless. There are some pine trees that surround the house. There is plenty of room for a pumpkin patch and huge garden.

All in all it will be a great place for Monte, the kids and I to settle. Lets just hope everything works out. I feel a bit worthless not being able to do anything but wait.

Uhg

So it is safe to ignore my last post totally because the house is in contract already. I feel so defeated, really. I am so sick of looking at houses. When your young and you think about buying your first house you imagine it to be this fun adventure where you find the perfect house and everything just happens. Yea, that doesn't happen. I have been looking for months and all I have found is frustration.

Here is a bit of info on the house.

Living Room	13x15 Level: Main
Family Room	16x20 Level: Main
Kitchen	10x15 Level: Main
Master Bedroom	12x12 Level: Main
2 Bedroom	12x12 Level: 2nd Floor
3 Bedroom	9x12 Level: 2nd Floor
Laundry Room	6x8 Level: Main
Additional Rooms	3 Season Room

There is a wood burner and the huge yard is fenced in with a privacy fence.Most of the carpeting looks brand new and the house is decorated very nicely. Not to say I wouldn't change it to make it more personal later down the road but it looks all right to live in now.

When we go out to look I will take more pictures... these were just the ones listed on the Realtors website.

Quitting smoking sucks. I have never been a heavy smoker, somewhere between a ½ pack and ¾ a pack a day. Just something to calm my nerves. Well that something costs about 20 bucks a week and I would rather spend that money on something a bit more enjoyable that cancer packed in a menthol flavored wrapping.

I am doing pretty good for the most part, I haven’t kicked the habit completely but have significantly lowered how many I smoke a day. I know the trick is to just quit cold turkey. People say cold turkey doesn’t work, but for me it is my best bet. Giving in and having that one cigarette makes it so much easier to have the next one… and the next one.

It probably did not help that my land lord was taking people through my house because she is in the process of selling. She had called me Thursday and was like “someone wants to look at the house.” I was in the car and had people coming over on Friday and Saturday so I suggested Sunday at one. Well, aren’t you ready now.

I am sorry but I don’t know a single person that would be ready at a minutes notice to have people come through their house. My house is typically at a happy medium, somewhere in the middle of the spectrum between spotless and pigsty. I’m not ashamed that I am not a perfect house wife, but that doesn’t mean I want strangers going through the mess while I am out.

I don’t really think my land lady is all there. About 9 months ago she asked us to take everything out of the garage so she could clean it out. No biggie, we moved most everything to the basement. Well the kids have a plastic picnic table and since we couldn’t put it in the garage I just left it by the back door. She decided to call me in the middle of a blizzard with 3-4 foot snow drifts to ask me to move the table. I didn’t move the table. It is okay she won’t remember asking me to move it anyways.

Hopefully, soon the landlord won’t even be an issue. We are house hunting. It isn’t as fun as an experience as I had hoped. But it has made me realize just how perfect a pair Monte and I make. He checks the foundation, roof and structural things. I look at things like closet space and storage, location of outlets, if our furniture will fit and leaky pipes or cracks in the walls and ceilings.

Monte and I have found a house we are pretty excited about. Our Realtor just got back into town last night and we want to see it pronto. We went and peeked in the windows and I loved it and Monte did too. I am pretty sure this might be the one.

Time Warner Cable is an evil, evil company!

Getting internet should never be this difficult. Prior to moving, we had buckeye cable and never had any issues. When we moved we were forced to have Time Warner being it is the only provider in the area. About 3 months ago, I got on the internet and tried to enroll for service... it has all been down hill since there.

I chose what speed I wanted, set up an installation date and enrolled in automatic bill pay because it waived the installation fee. When I went to submit my order, it said the site was down and to try again later. (This is where I should have been like gee, the internet company's website is down that kind of says something) Instead I called and spoke to a very friendly man at customer service and exlpained the situation.

He had no problem setting my account up, exactly as I had online. I was a bit worried that the speed would not be fast enough and he said that if we were unhappy with the speed we could call in and upgrade and the next speed up was only 24.95.

So after a week or two of super slow internet, we decided to upgrade and I called in. Well the first lady told me that there was no way I could upgrade for 24.95 and that it was 36.95. She was rude and treated me like a moron and would not even listen to what I was saying happened. She transferred me to another  lady who reacted the same way and treated me the same way. "You are wrong, you can't do that. He didn't say that." Finally that lady transferred me to a third lady who was actually interested and able to help me.

I recited what had happened for the third time and she was like lets look at your account. She informed me that the installation fee had never been waived and told me that she hated to admit it but apparently the guy who enrolled me lied and never even tried to waive it and there was no way for me to get the 24.95 price because that is for people who bundle the service with phone and cable.  Instead she gave me the next speed above the 24.95 for 29.95.  She also credited our account for the installation fee and told me that the first bill would show it but just to ignore it.

She started the new speed right away and then my internet stopped working. For days our internet was down.I called tech support and they were of no use and the hour or so on the phone was a waste. Finally my brother came over and fixed everything and it worked okay. It was about the same speed as the speed we had with buckeye for ten dollars more a month.

So two month go by, and I assume they are just taking the money out of my account like they were supposed to. Three days ago I get a message saying to call them and when I do I learn that my bill is late and they weren't taking it out of my account even though the only bill I had ever gotten was the first bill with the installation charge on it. I explain to the guy that it was supposed to be direct debit and he says it was never set up. I told him I hadn't been getting bills and he could not explain it. I told him I would get on in the next day or so and pay it. Then I laughed in his face when he asked how I was satisfied with my internet speed and tried to get me to upgrade. I couldn't help it. I also told him I would die before paying another cent more than I am already paying for their service.

Yesterday time warner called me three times to remind me to pay my bill. I wasn't at home so I did not get the chance to pay it. First thing this morning I get on line to pay it and apparently my account number does not exist. So I had to call customer service yet again and they were no help yet again and could not figure out why my account number did not exist but she did transfer me to the auto pay line and my bill is paid.

I hate Time Warner, even more I hate that they are the only option available!

One Exhausting Week

It always seems that you never just have one thing going on. Typically, it goes from having nothing on my plate other than day to day ordinary stuff to my plate looking like it does at a chinese buffet. I think I have overwhelmed myself with obligations this time around. I have so much happening I literally can't turn my brain off to sleep some nights.

My parents just closed on a beautiful brick home, and because I have a creative and artistic side about me they asked me to step in and fill the role as interior decorator. I happily accepted, my parents are good people and my mom would do anything for me and I want to make their house perfect for them. The house is a custom built brick home that has everything they wanted and more, it is the perfect house for them. My step-dad loves lighthouses and ship and the house has many nautical touches like a metal plate on the fire place with ships and actual portholes in the bedrooms as windows. The previous owner went overboard on blue though. It had the ugliest blue paint and carpets everywhere.

We have been working night and day on the dining room, livingroom and foyer so far. They are all attached and very open. I decided we should sponge them in a 3 shades of a smokey blue. The rooms are huge, but after 4 days of painting we have finished that part. Now all that is left is the trim and the stenciled border. I hand made the stencils it is an anchor with the words "By the light, guide us home." My mom is a strong christian and my dad loves lighthouses so it was the perfect saying. The trim and border is going to be in a shimmery honeyed bronze color that matches the fireplace.

They ripped up the carpet and are getting wood laminate flooring, so my mom, grandma and I went shopping for it. I love my grandma dearly but she is one of those people that always makes her opinion known and it is always negative. She hates the paint, thinks it is too dark and will be like living in a cave. She hates the trim and border color even more, she thinks it should be in blue (even though she already says there is too much blue) So imagine the fun that floor shopping was.

She kept asking questions like to price flooring before mom had even picked out any she liked. The guy was like do you want me to price them all? Needless to say the man at Home Depot told us "I don't work on commission so when you decide you can talk to anyone." I think he meant you can talk to anyone else. Plus she kept wanting my mom to get a credit card and put it on there. They have more than enough money to pay for the flooring. Once she found the floor she liked best she didn't even give my mom a chance to look at anything else and she put away the samples so when we got home we realized they were gone.

My grandma has seven children and she has her favorites and then she has my mom, aunt cheryl and aunt cindy. She treats my mom like she is incapable and not well off. It is frustrating to me because my mom was a single mom to 3 kids and then remarried. She and my step dad have worked hard and now do fairly well for themselves. My mom is very thrifty, but that doesn't mean she is poor. She just likes a bargain. Grandma doesn't realize this. Then again Grandma once yelled at me when I was 7 for getting a fish hook embedded in my back so deep my lips started turning blue and I almost passed out as two forty year old fishermen pried it from my back with pliers. Apparently she felt I had done it to flirt with the fishermen.

So anyways our shopping trip was pretty much a waste, but we had the pamphlet from lowes so after grandma was safely home my parents, aunt and uncle and I decided upon a style. We are going with a wider more defined plank with well defined grain in a darker shade. It is going to look very much like what you can imagine a ship having.

On top of all the decorating I also am working on my application for a grant from the Ohiana Library Association in which I have to write up to six pieces of fiction and sixty pages. I am being anal and a perfectionist. I have three very diffrent pieces, a vampire piece in my normaly style, a fantasy piece aimed at a younger crowd and letters from a revolutionary war soldier to his parents. I think the last one actually is my favorite despite all the research required for it.

My parents' Christmas present is also on my todo list at the time. While I can't say what it is I can say that it is taking a lot of time considering I started about a month ago. It is turning out well, but not coming along nearly as fast as I would like.I hope it is finished in time for Christmas.