Getting Settled In

Hard to believe - I mean everytime I drive down the street, I am amazed that I am in familiar settings. We're back in Cincinnati - permanently. It's totally awesome. We had Christmas in town with our family and friends in our new house.

The house - well, what do they say about the "best laid plans"? It's so true. Everything was set for closing on 12/14. I was just waiting for the dollar amount to get it from the bank, tick tock, God I was a wreck waiting. Then at 3:30 in the afternoon the call came and it was a disappointing phone call. The bank reviewed the appraisal at the last minute, compared it to the surrounding houses that sold and decided the house was over-priced and pulled the financing. So, literally 2 hrs before the closing it was all over, cancelled, NO HOUSE!

OMG!!!!!

The movers had already picked up our belongings, my job had already started, my daughter already had roommates to take our place in the townhome we lived in, mail was already being delivered to the new place (by accident) and here we were - no house at the last minute - and we have to come, no choice. The wheels were in motion.

So, once we got over the shock of the house - we ventured off to come to Cincinnati. We started out on Sat, 12/15 and drove for 2 days, then stopped in Austin to take a day off, visit with some friends, and just relax. Get out of the car, let the dog run and play in the backyard. What a great day! We loved every minute of it, visiting. Then back on the road - drove to Cincinnati arriving here around 7pm on Wednesday 12/19.

Worked on Thursday, closed on the house that night and the furniture arrived in the morning! What a trip! Everything down to the wire.

I'll write more later and post some of our funny pics taken on the trip.

Cincinnati Bound

All I can say is YIPPEE!! We are less than 2 weeks from closing on our house and heading out on another wonderful adventure in life. I am totally amazed at how all of this has come together. I mean, one minute, I'm spending 10-15 hrs a week commuting then next thing I know, I'm flying to Cincinnati and working a new project at Ethicon and trying to stay on top of things at my current job. I had a very challenging week, making plans for the move, staying with my friend who has no internet connection at her house, which meant I had to stop in Panera Bread on my way to and from from work every day!

It's been a crazy week, but you know what? It's totally worth it. I know that it's all changing and soon I will be a Cincinnati Girl working a Cincinnati Job and seeing my Cincinnati family and friends. I'll be home for Christmas! OMG - last year, on this date, I had my foot surgery.......what a day that was!! I have never had sooooo much pain in my life. I will never forget it. When morphine doesn't touch the pain, you know it's more pain than you can stand.

But this is a new year. 2007, Christmas, in Cincinnati with my family. I just can't believe it. We are going to be in Cincinnati. We might not have furniture, we might only have what we are bringing with us, but hey, we will be in our new house and home for the holidays.

When we get to town we need a few things: sofa, lounge chair, coffee table, end table, coffee pot, desk and office chair, a 4 drawer file cabinet and a few other items. But the living room furniture is a must. We're leaving our living room furniture here for my daughter. Plus a bunch of stuff in the kitchen. So, we are leaving a legacy here and making a new one in Cincinnati.

So, if you're in Cincinnati and you know someone that is getting new furniture for Christmas, maybe we can be the recipient of the old stuff!!

Happy Holidays! I'll see you soon!

Happy Thanksgiving!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

I hope you had a wonderful time on Thanksgiving and had the 5 F's - FUN - FAMILY - FRIENDS - FOOTBALL - and of course, FOOD!!

Ours was wonderful and the meal seemed to come together so easily. I was so pleased. We had turkey, stuffing, green beans, corn, deviled eggs, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce, parsnips, cheesy rolls and pumpkin pie! YUM! Everything was homemade by us and delicious. We have leftovers and plan on having them for dinner.

I've spent most of my day packing up my treasures. Today seemed like it was the day to pack just treasures. I went around and packed all the fragile items. Snicker hung with me all day, sniffing and helping me. In fact, he's laying next to me right now. He's such an integral part of our lives. I'm so happy that he's here. He's going to LOVE our new place.

Here's our new house back in Cincinnati! It's so hard to believe, it happened SO FAST! And without a hitch. Geez. I just am amazed. New house, back home, back to my job. We truly have come full circle. I'm so glad he's called me and put things back together. Less cost, less traffic, more family and friends, huge yard, nice neighborhood, close to shopping and work, more time back to us - just saving commuting time alone will buy me 10 hrs a week or 520 hours a year! It's amazing.

I know that it's going to be winter there, I know that I'm leaving the best weather in the country behind. I have to be honest, I will miss it. I will miss the beach 7 miles from my house, the mountains that I can see from everywhere I go. I like my job, so I'll miss all my co-workers. But the truth is - I don't go to the beach hardly at all, I do drive to the mountains because they are my favorite. So, I will have to just make time to go to Colorado, to the mountains and enjoy time off. The fact that I'll gain 500 hrs a year is so worthwhile. I'm not getting any younger.....I hate to give away my time and money.

Things cost so much more here. Eggs $3/dz; milk $4.50/gal; meat is expensive; fruits and vegetables are cheap. Gas is $3.40/gal. Food, clothes, furniture, etc. All cost more.

I'm coming home! We moving back by Christmas! Another adventure and to be honest - I hope it's the last one of this magnitude for a long time!!!!!! My future adventures should be known as vacations!!!

Is It KARMA??

One more unbelievable event in my life..........I guess I just sit back and watch life and find myself amazed at what life offers. Today was no exception to the rule!

I GOT MY STUFF BACK THAT WAS STOLEN!!! It was returned by a perfect stranger....GOD BLESS HER AND HER FAMILY!! I pray for them that life returns the favor. I was soooooooooo grateful.

Again, I can't talk about the details but I can say that I'm always surprised with life and it's been an emotional roller-coaster. I'll write more about this later as I'm allowed to share the circumstances.

"Here's all you need to know about men and women: Women are crazy, and men are stupid. And the main reason women are crazy is that men are stupid."

-- George Carlin

You'll NEVER believe this........

OH MY GOD!! This is unbelievable.........we have only been living in our new place for 2 weeks and on Friday morning, when I woke up, two teenage boys broke into our house and stole some of our stuff out of the dining room! I couldn't believe it. Nothing like that has ever happened to me. And the nerve of them - WE WERE HOME IN OUR ROOMS - ALL OF US!! Those little fuckers!

I'd rather not list what they took, but the moral of the story is "everyone told me that living in Oceanside was crime riddled, we were taking a chance, blah blah blah - so we moved to Vista, safer, nicer neighborhood, home owners, less rentors, nice nice nice". CRAP!!

I just can't say more, since the Sheriff is still investigating........and they did investigate. Dusted for fingerprints, ground dogs, foot prints, I was impressed. So I want to publicly thank the San Diego County Sheriff's Department!! Let's hope they get enough on them to punish them.

I have a few ideas...........

"Here's all you need to know about men and women: Women are crazy, and men are stupid. And the main reason women are crazy is that men are stupid."

-- George Carlin

got settled in......kind of

I took off time from work to unpack, organize and make room for the corvette in the garage. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED - really!! We've been working hard getting the house together and trying to do it without spending alot of money in the process.

Spent about $250 and did some great bargain hunting: bought a bed, bookcase, rugs for the bathroom, rug for the living room and some misc. things. I am looking for suns & moons - especially because my favorite one got broken somewhere between my move from Cincy to this house (yep, I packed them up in Sept 2005 and haven't opened the box until this past Friday). I really want to find some fun suns for my sun room. I'll be out and about looking for great finds.

Roland has been cooking some great meals since we moved in homemade tacos, enchilados, spaghetti, breakfast burritos, and other assorted goodies for the girls. He loves to cook and we all love to eat. Speaking of eating, I am starting my diet. Have already lost 3 lbs. Hope to keep it going. Ever since my surgery, I haven't been able to walk and workout, gained about 9 lbs. Hope that I can get it off. I am going to start swimming, sit ups on exercise ball and various exercises with the ball. Hand weights, upper body and I found the other day some "CHAIR YOGA". I'm going to give it a try.

One other thing-I want to thank the people from mybloglog that are reading my blog. It's been an exciting couple weeks to see over 300 people have read my profile, a constant stream of folks that have read my blog and hopefully more will join my blog community.

Uh-oh - ONE MORE THING REALLY!!! Saw 3 movies in the last couple weekends - The Messengers, Hannibal Rising, and Ghost Rider. I know the critics weren't too nice to the first two, but I liked them; thought Hannibal Rising was good, well put together to match the Silence of the Lambs. The Messengers was interesting - the story had a twist. I like a good scary movie that is suspenseful and has a twist - this story had it. :) Ghost Rider was typical super hero, boy loves girl, can't have girl because he's a super hero - but he's a super hero that is in debt to Satan. A bit strange. But for the fun of it.

I'll post pics of the new place by the weekend. Have a great week at work!!

"Here's all you need to know about men and women: Women are crazy, and men are stupid. And the main reason women are crazy is that men are stupid."

-- George Carlin

Organization, Program Management = WORK

It's funny, seems like no matter which hat I'm wearing, I'm always a Project Manager. At home - like with the move, packing, unpacking, organizing, arranging and rearranging - all takes project management skills. At work - balancing all the responsibilities of my role - delivery management, risk management, time management, and release management - all part of the project management background and it's what I do every day.

I love doing being a program manager, I love the feeling of accomplishing something every day. I love making a difference and actually influencing an outcome. It's exciting to help keep the plates spinning.

But as all good things - sometimes they wear you out. And right now, I'm tired - the work load + the move = TIRED!! heehee!!

So, I bid you adieu...and will write more later. I'll try to take some pics of the new place (after I get the boxes out of the way completely) and tell you how wonderful life is!

"Here's all you need to know about men and women: Women are crazy, and men are stupid. And the main reason women are crazy is that men are stupid."

-- George Carlin

Moving day

All I can say is THANK GOD MY DAUGHTERS ARE HERE!!! They worked their butts off today, all day long. They carried, loaded, packed, unloaded, unpacked, well.........you catch the drift. Anyway, their friends showed up, but they had done most of the work before they even got there.

We got everything out and in the new place. I whipped. Tomorrow will be day one of unpacking, organizing, and hopefully - we'll take in a movie, just to have something relaxing to do. Hmm...what to see? Maybe the Messengers or Hannibal Rising. Decisions...decisions!!

"Here's all you need to know about men and women: Women are crazy, and men are stupid. And the main reason women are crazy is that men are stupid."

-- George Carlin

One last word .... moving tomorrow

I'm moving tomorrow. I will take pictures of my new place - post them so you can see it. I am VERY excited.

We took all the plants over to the new place today. We have tons of plants, in fact, a whole truck bed full! I have a few pics of my plants, but certainly not all of them.

I love my plants! Although, I have to say they don't look all that great right now, just going through winter. Even in San Diego we have had some freezing temps and I didn't bring my plants in because I had no place to put them!! So, I do have some work to get them looking great again.

I have plenty of room in the new place to repair, love and make them all amazing looking again.

Increased traffic

Well, I told you a few days ago that I joined MyBlogLog and I have found some GREAT blogs out there, fun to read, lots of pictures (I really need to put in more pictures), great personality. I'll start adding them to my list. But what I've already noticed is the traffic on my site has increased from my fellow MyBlogLoggers!!

Plus, its fun to see how people find my blog from google searches and people really click on the link and come here. THANKS!!

Now that I've been checking out other blogs, I am going to start putting more pictures on my site. I am not going to worry about starting it until after I get moved, but I will start adding pictures, everyday if I can.

Moving this weekend!! Been taking loads of boxes to the new place. I am pleased with the progress and tomorrow night I should have everything packed up that is still sitting around and I'll be ready to go on Sat. Wow, one year here in this little apartment, with the noisy neighbors, the unsupervised kids, the police always in our parking lot sometimes with guns drawn and I won't miss it. I'll definitely post pics of the new place :)

I probably won't write until over the weekend. Oh yea, Anna Nicole Smith died today.....in case you just crawled out from under a rock and haven't listened to the radio, read the newspaper OR watched TV. They still haven't said what happened, but I would probably guess that drugs and alcohol have something to do with it. I guess inquiriing minds will want to know.

"Here's all you need to know about men and women: Women are crazy, and men are stupid. And the main reason women are crazy is that men are stupid."

-- George Carlin

moving update

We're moving in a couple weeks. I am so excited because it's so great. And in the meantime, I totally lucked out and bought a patio set for $50!!! I LOVE IT!!

Moving is a hassle, hopefully this will be the last move for a while. Or until we move to Cincinnati. So, I'll post some pictures of our new digs when we get in there to take pictures on 2/5. Furniture getting moved in on 2/10. Boxes and clothes all week up til Sat and all week after as needed.

Have a great weekend!!

"Here's all you need to know about men and women: Women are crazy, and men are stupid. And the main reason women are crazy is that men are stupid."

-- George Carlin

The weekend is here

I'm so glad that it's the weekend. It's been tough going to work with my foot hurting. But I made it an entire week, I stayed all day every day and that's whats important. I tackled some big projects, got quite a bit done and am well on my way to leading a few teams to successful delivery. I have some hard deadlines to meet and some of the teams are VERY hard to "herd" - but I will drive drive drive if I need to!!

The one thing that's fun for me over the weekend is that I use my DVR and record many of my favorite TV shows and then watch them early Sat morning, while he's doing laundry. Of course, once we move, the laundry will be in the garage and can be done as needed :) but until then, he's been going by himself because of my foot. He does a great job, so I don't fear everything coming home "pink"!!!

Speaking of my foot, it continues to "look" better, but of course I can't see inside. But I believe that whatever is going on inside my foot will be reflected outside. So, I'm being very optimistic, claiming the healing and waiting to see what happens when I go to the Dr. Wednesday. I would like to be told that it's "all good" and I can soak my foot or something to help ease the pain in my big toe joint. You would think that I'm used to it, since it always hurt before the surgery and I walked on it anyway. But not now, I am still following EVERYTHING the surgeon said to do because I want to come out of this with a wonderful looking and functioning foot. :)

We have no big plans for the weekend: running out to the farmer's market, taking Tamara out to fill out applications, get a Rx filled, cook ham and bean soup with cornbread, watch football, keep packing boxes. Pretty soon the apt will be full of packed boxes!!! All ready to move out starting 2/5. Geez, it seems so far away but I know that it's not.

Hope you have a great weekend!

"Here's all you need to know about men and women: Women are crazy, and men are stupid. And the main reason women are crazy is that men are stupid."

-- George Carlin

worked from home today

Still don't know why, but my foot is so swollen that I can't put any weight on it. It's a total bummer, so I worked from home today, but would have preferred to be in the office. I know my presence is required, sure makes life a little easier. I managed to shower, do the toe exercises the Dr. suggested and walked around the apt a little, but that's about it. BUMMER! Hoping tomorrow will be another day of less pain!!

I am hunting for a bed for Tamara's room, have plenty of time to find one - need it after Feb 5th when we have the keys to the new place. I'm trying to get rid of stuff that we don't need to move that we don't use. Including my stereo. I would like a small unit - something that uses my iPod as the music input, like the Bose system. I'm going to look around and try to come up with something like that. Then I guess I'll buy my music from the iTunes store.

Hoping to move into the new place the weekend of 2/10. Some of our Marine friend's are going to help us, so I have to be sure they know the date. I'm going to supply beer and food for them! And a truck that we have to rent from UHaul, I guess. It's going to be a good time getting moved in and settled into our new digs. I'm going to hang everything on the walls, unpack everything I brought from Cincinnati-some of it I haven't laid eyes on since I packed it "oh so long ago"! I didn't keep much, but the things I did keep had special meaning to me.

I'll post pics of the new place when I can get in there to take them.

If you can pray for my foot, I would appreciate it. I have two prayer requests: the immediate - swelling and pain to decrease quickly, long-term - that the "memory" in the cells is forgotten and it doesn't try to go back to it's old self. turning inwards.

take care, more later. Should I post pictures of my foot? I'm still afraid it might gross people out.

worked from home today

Still don't know why, but my foot is so swollen that I can't put any weight on it. It's a total bummer, so I worked from home today, but would have preferred to be in the office. I know my presence is required, sure makes life a little easier. I managed to shower, do the toe exercises the Dr. suggested and walked around the apt a little, but that's about it. BUMMER! Hoping tomorrow will be another day of less pain!!

I am hunting for a bed for Tamara's room, have plenty of time to find one - need it after Feb 5th when we have the keys to the new place. I'm trying to get rid of stuff that we don't need to move that we don't use. Including my stereo. I would like a small unit - something that uses my iPod as the music input, like the Bose system. I'm going to look around and try to come up with something like that. Then I guess I'll buy my music from the iTunes store.

Hoping to move into the new place the weekend of 2/10. Some of our Marine friend's are going to help us, so I have to be sure they know the date. I'm going to supply beer and food for them! And a truck that we have to rent from UHaul, I guess. It's going to be a good time getting moved in and settled into our new digs. I'm going to hang everything on the walls, unpack everything I brought from Cincinnati-some of it I haven't laid eyes on since I packed it "oh so long ago"! I didn't keep much, but the things I did keep had special meaning to me.

I'll post pics of the new place when I can get in there to take them.

If you can pray for my foot, I would appreciate it. I have two prayer requests: the immediate - swelling and pain to decrease quickly, long-term - that the "memory" in the cells is forgotten and it doesn't try to go back to it's old self. turning inwards.

take care, more later. Should I post pictures of my foot? I'm still afraid it might gross people out.

"There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure."

-- Colin Powell

Starting the new year out right

Tomorrow morning we are going to see the rental agent and pay our holding deposit on the new place. Right now our living room and hallway are full of boxes that are broken down, ready to be taped and packed. I have already made a list of things that need to get done. I know it's going to be a little crowded in here for a few weeks, but it's only temporary - just until Feb 5th when we pay the rest and get the keys. Then start moving in!!

I'll try to get some pictures of the place as soon as possible and then once I have them. I'll get them posted to show you.

The weather here is a little crazy, rainy, windy, chilly. We've had the heat on every day for at least part of the day. But the good news is that it's not everyday all day long, not a long, gray, cold winter. Only a day here and a day there.

My foot is getting better, but it's at the point that the healing went fast then got to this point and I think it's slow now. I go to the Dr. on Monday to see him for the first time since the surgery. I hope he is pleased with the healing progress so far. I have followed the instructions to the letter and the swelling is mainly across the top of my foot where most of the incisions were. All to be expected. Overall, I think I'm doing good, we'll see what the Dr. thinks on Monday. Wonder when he's gonna do the left foot......hmmm.

Work going well, in fact, my job has been "re-prioritized". Simply put, I have been relieved from part of my duties and it's the part that I have the least control over, but have the most frustration due to lack of accountability. The priority is now working closer with my own group, helping them with their projects and their deliverables. Driving business requirement's docs to be delivered on time, leading reviews and signoffs. I am sure that these new priorities will challenge me as well as allow me to "shine"!

The girls will be here in 5 days. I can't wait. It seems like its been FOREVER since I saw Beka and it's only been 16 days. But so much has happened in that time! Healing, Christmas, New Years, Presents, Vacation, time with Roland, found the House, starting packing. Dr. visit and hopefully release to go back to work. I haven't seen Tamara since October over the wedding weekend. It will be good to have some time with her, talk to her, help her through her problems. I'll try to do it as a friend and mother.

The house hunt MIGHT be over

I THINK we found a place. The only reason I hesitate to tell you that we do have it is because I haven't heard back on the credit check. There should be no issues with that step, but I don't want to "jinx" myself. When our credit was run back in the summer for a home loan, we had very high numbers. Nothing should have happened to change that.

So, I'll tell you about the place and continue to hope that when I hear from her today, it's all good.

It's in Vista, CA. This is not very far from where we live in Oceanside. It's a smaller community and this townhome is near the library, town center where the movies and a quaint little shopping area, the farmer's market, the community center.

The townhome is a 2 car garage with washer/dryer hookup, 3 bedrooms, 2 full baths, living room with fireplace, large kitchen with lots of storage, small dining area that leads out to the patio which is bigger than our current patio - plenty of room for plants, some patio furniture, and we can even grill out there!! There's a pool and spa for the community. The house is about 1500 sq ft, which is BIG for out here. And the price was right! We were VERY happy with it.

Hoping to report that we get it! Then all I would have to do is start packing!! (which I am doing tonight!)

House Hunting

It's hard for me to rest...

I am finding that I want to be on the go, more and more but I can't. It's so hard for me to rest, keep my foot up and stay off of it!! I always think I have so much to do, especially right now. It's a week that he's off work, so I have a ride to places I need to go to, for one. Another thing is that we have to move in Feb, and that's not too far off - we have to start looking now to find the right place! Plus, when a GREAT deal comes along I don't want to lose out! Tamara is coming, so we have to make room :)

We were going to try to find something in the same price range. Man, it was challenging - but I did it - I found the PERFECT townhome - 2 big bdrms, 1.5 bath, 1 car garage with washer/dryer hookup in a complex with a pool and a jacuzzi. $1100 - SWEET!!

But then.... there's always a catch isn't there???? .....he decided that we really need a 2 car garage. So we looked at a couple of those this morning - not too far from where we live now and to be honest - wow!! They were BEAUTIFUL - 1275 sq ft! 3 bedrooms, 2 bath, 2 car garage, super large patio, eat-in kitchen, big living room with vaulted ceiling and fireplace, washer/dryer hookup, lots of storage space and lots of windows. The rent was more than what we originally wanted to spend, $1477/month, but we get so much more. The other catch with this place is they require the first lease to be a 6-8 month lease, which is ok, except at that time they can raise the rent!! Plus, then they will offer the 12-month lease with the possibility of the higher rent. The reason they want to do that is so that the lease will run out in the summer, easier time to rent than end of the year/first of the year. I'm not too keen on this.....

Now, keeping in mind that the new requirement is a 2 car garage instead of just a garage (and I should explain - garages here are VERY small - only a car fits in them, no room on the side except to get out and in, no room for extra storage and no room to work on them) I did a search on my favorite utility - www.craigslist.com - everyone uses it here in San Diego. The first place I found I think is it!!

Tri-Level Townhome - 1500 sq ft, 3 bedrooms, 2 bath, sunroom, 2 car garage, washer/dryer, pool and jacuzzi in common area, patio, yard, living room, dining room, kitchen. It sounded very very nice plus the rental agent sounded even nicer. I really want it and we haven't even seen it. The location is great, close for everyone to get to work, school, shopping, and dialysis. We're gonna see it on Sat morning, first thing - we were the first one's to call, so I hope we get the first shot at it. She said we would.

We have to pay a partial month's rent in Feb here, a deposit and full month rent when we move into the other place Feb 1, so for 17 days we will be paying double rent. I guess it's just the way it goes. My guess is the rent will be $728 for the 17 days in Feb, but the good part is, we can start moving into the other place on the 1st and have 2 weeks to get things moved in and settled, like we can get the kitchen set up, our clothes in the closets, the bathrooms set up, everything in my garage can get into the other place and most of it can be unpacked - FINALLY!! I'm really happy because I believe I'm gonna be in a nice home for our duration of our stay in California. YIPPEE!!

Well, I am asking for anything that you think will help us be certain that we get JUST THE RIGHT PLACE. Crossing Fingers, Saying Prayers, Burning Candles, Repeating Mantras, ANYTHING....just so we get led to the RIGHT PLACE FOR US!!

thanks!!

"There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure."

-- Colin Powell

Vacation Week

I'm on vacation this week. So is my sweetie. I'm not sure that working from home over the last week and a half doesn't constitute vacation as well - but at least this vacation means I don't have to open my work laptop and read any emails.

But what it does mean is I have to take care of some things with him while he's off work. PLUS a couple of friends are visiting San Diego, so we have some plans with them.

The most important thing is to try to locate somewhere to move. I know I'm looking a little early, but it gives us plenty of time to look around and if we find something that is hard to pass up, then we can jump on it. Like a place that we looked at today. It's perfect for us - which makes me nervous because I am not getting a speedy return phone call from the rental agent that I would expect to have. I have talked to her a couple of times, but each time she was in a hurry, couldn't talk right now, will have to call me back - sometime this afternoon. OK, OK...it's only 3:15pm HOWEVER to me that's afternoon, I finally broke down and tried to call her again - left another message and apologized for "bugging" her.

We just don't want to lose out - it's great - 2 bedrooms - really big with lots of closets. laundry room that walks out to a 1-car garage with extra room for storage. Nice size living room, half bath downstairs that is really big and a big full bathroom upstairs. We could park the car in the garage, have one assigned spot and park the truck on the street. We could actually get to use our washer and dryer instead of it sitting in the garage doing nothing. There is a pool and a jacuzzi in the subdivision so actually we would have EVERYTHING we had hoped for - and for a price that we can afford.

Now I just have to wait, I'm not too good at that. But I'm praying that it works out, keeping in mind that if it doesn't something else will be coming our way that we like and works for us just as well. If we get this it's gonna cost us extra for a couple of months. We have to give a 30 day notice and we have to stay until Feb 19th to complete our lease, so we'll have to pay Jan rent and a partial month's rent for Feb - But if this comes available and they want to rent it out Jan 1 - then we will have to pay double rent Jan 1, start moving in when the girls get here and be completely out of our apartment for inspection on Feb 15 - but pay until Feb 19. It's ok, if that's what happens, in this case, it's worth it not to lose the place we found.

In the meantime, I'm just trying to mend - letting my foot heal and trying to take good care of it. And my friends are coming by later tonight for dinner - heading out to get sushi. I'm not real hungry, but I can get a nice roll or something that I really love!!

My honey's at dialysis, I'm here by myself just relaxing. Hoping for the phone call.

"There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure."

-- Colin Powell