Flower Beds

I wish I had taken a before picture, but trust me it was pretty bad. I worked for several days to get all the weeds out and then Marcy and I went shopping for flowers...then she even helped me plant them, Norm even came over and helped! It went by so much faster with their help, I was so grateful!

This one was one of the hardest spots cause it was just grass so we had to dig it all out! Noah was nice and helped me with this part.

Yes I know there is quite a bit of purple...but for some reason I just couldn't help it :)

I love the flowers and it just makes me smile now when I look at the house.

Here's hoping that I can keep them all alive...I tend to have a not so green thumb.

So...We Have a Fridge!

About a month and a half after moving in...we finally got a fridge!

What an ordeal we had to go through!

When we saw the place and signed the paperwork, it had a fridge, a nice fridge. When we moved in, it didn't have a nice fridge, or any fridge for that matter. The lady from the management company said, "I didn't know that the fridge belonged to the previous tennents, so I don't know what you want to do about that." Mike replied, "No...what are you going to do about it?"

The next day she told us, "Good news...we are going to provide you with a fridge, but I don't have anyone who can go and get one until next week. If you want to go (to a certain used appliance store) and pick one out for (certain amount of money) we will reimburse you."

We decided that we didn't want to wait for a week or so, so we would go ahead and pick one out and get reimbursed. Sounds simple enough doesn't it...

Well we went to the place she told us to go and found one that we liked and that we thought would work. We brought it home and it seemed to work ok, except for the ice and water dispenser... which for us is a need...and we paid extra for that feature. So...as luck would have it the place we were told to go doesn't deliver or pick up... we had to get a family member with a truck again to help us move the fridge out and take it back. About a half hour after we dropped it off they called and said it was fixed. We turned around and went back and picked it up and moved it back into the house and hooked it up again. ...it DIDN'T work...grrr!

So...we got my brother in law Norm (again) to help us out and take it back again! A day or so later they called and told us it was fixed and ready. When we got to the place, I was not leaving there (and making Mike and Norm load, unload it again) until I knew it was working. We asked them to hook it up and show us that it was working. They were trying to figure out just how to hook it up...and I'm thinking, you sell refrigerators that you have supposedly reconditioned or fixed up, you should have a way to hook them up to a water supply and make sure they work! Anyway, they finally figured out a way to hook it up, in an area where they test dishwashers. Wouldn't you know it...it wasn't fixed! In fact, it was worse...water started coming out all over the floor in a huge puddle!

So...she said we could just pick a different fridge. So we did, and we even had to pay $50 more for it which was annoying! We loaded it up and brought it home and hooked it up. It seemed to be ok...at first. Then I noticed, or rather didn't notice any ice dropping. I thought maybe I was just being paranoid, so I waited until the morning. In the morning not only was there no ice, but all my freezer stuff was soft. I decided to turn the freezer colder and wait...but that didn't do anything. I had called the company several times, but could never get anyone. I left a number of messages too but no one ever called me back, not that I was surprised. I finally just called the management company and told them that I was done and I was turning it back over to them.

So...they sent someone over to pick up the fridge and return it to the company. His dolly had a flat tire, so he borrowed mine to take the fridge out and said he would return it when he brought a fridge back. Fast forward to a week later and still don't have a fridge and I still hadn't heard anything from the guy who took the old one or anyone at the management company. So...I decided to call and see what was going on. They told me that my fridge was being fixed and it should be ready in a few days. Then the next day they call me and tell me that the fridge actually can't be fixed so they are just going to order me a new fridge. I asked her if I would still be getting a fridge with the same features (water and ice dispenser) and she assured me that she would make a note of that. Well a couple more days pass and a brand new fridge is delivered to me. Not by the guy who took my old one, so I still didn't get my dolly back, but by the company it was purchased from. As they are hooking it up I was just screaming on the inside...not in a good way...The fridge was tiny! ...and it did not have ice and water. I kept wondering if I was being ridiculous and I should just be grateful to have a working fridge. But...it was just eating away at me. Yes, I'm afraid I cried...I was just so frustrated!

So... I talked to my parents and my siblings and siblings in-law and expressed my feelings. I came away knowing that I needed to say something to the management company. I knew that this fridge was not adequate for the size of our house. I mean it didn't come close to filling up the space in the kitchen set aside for a fridge. The cabinets above it were about 6 inches wider than the fridge. Anyway...after a blessing and lots of thought and prayer, I called them. In retrospect I'm very glad that the fridge was delivered on a Friday and I had to wait a weekend to contact them. It really gave me time to put emotions aside and think clearly and be calm and reasonable when I spoke with them.

So...the outcome was that they discovered that the wrong fridge was ordered. But, now they said they would get me another one, but they wouldn't get me the water and ice dispenser, because those cost extra. Well I calmly told her that I was frustrated and disappointed because the house was advertised with a nice fridge. She agreed but said that her budget wouldn't allow for it. So...I told her that I had found two fridges on classified-type sites. Craigslist and KSL.com that were in her budget, would fit in the space, and had the features I wanted. I sent her the links and she approved them. I even talked the people selling the fridges down so that she would be happier with the total price. I went ahead with one I found on KSL.com and the great thing was that they said they would deliver and set it up for free! That made me so happy considering all I had been through and the fact that my strong husband was half way around the world.

Well...there you have the whole story. Congratulations to you if you read all of that! I mostly just wanted to record it since this blog is like a journal for our family. Plus maybe I want some sympathy, ha ha!

Anyway, here is the fridge,

because I have trouble doing a blog post without a picture :)

I won't bother you with the story about the outlets and the dishwasher. The outlets were fixed pretty quickly in comparison with the other stuff and I'll just say the the dishwasher didn't work when we moved in and still hadn't been taken care of by the time we got the fridge. But it has finally been taken care of and though it's not a great dishwasher, at least it works and cleans mostly...and I think my kids are much more excited to have a dishwasher than have to do the dishes by hand...but I'm glad that they were helpful and mostly willing to do hand washing to lighten my load a little.

Oh, and I did eventually get my dolly back after reminding them about it.

When it rains...it pours!

Yeah, I know...I didn't come up with that clever saying, but it sure seems to describe life sometimes (like right now...it is literally pouring outside!)

First the earthquake...no big deal really.
Then Hurricane Irene...we thought that would be no big deal really too, but it has actually left us with quite a mess :(
Then the first day of school was cancelled...oh the horror!!
Then our lawn tractor broke down (our lawn is so high right now I'm afraid I may lose a kid if I let them out to play...and all this rain isn't helping with that!)

Also, all of this is happening at a time of change for us too (I'll be posting more on that later) which is adding a teensy little bit to the stress level here.

Anyway, this post isn't a happy post full of cute pics of our kids, but again...this is life and this is my journal right now for better or worse.

So when Hurricane Irene came for a visit, she caused some trouble. First of all we had to cancel our camping trip to Solomon's Island...how rude! Then she made our power go out. Our basement got pretty wet. Mike worked on it with a shop vac and we had fans blowing on it, but then it got stinky! You know the smell, when you leave a load in the washing machine too long...yeah, that's the smell...times that by at least 10! So he pulled up the carpet to let the floor dry out. Thank goodness that took care of the smell.

*update* we had an insurance adjuster come by today and it looks like we will be replacing all the carpet and padding downstairs. Wish we could get the upstairs carpet in on that... ha ha, it really needs to be replaced :)

So basically right now, I can't even stand to go downstairs. It just makes me want to throw up! My house may not always be spotless clean, but I try to do a pretty good job of keeping it tidy and organized, and this is just... yucky...and the thought of having to put all that stuff back doesn't make me happy either. I think I'll go through it and get rid of some of it.

oh...and we have about 3 trees that we need to take a chainsaw to.

Oh...and like I said it is pouring outside and has been most of the day today.

We won't be going anywhere until the county comes and moves the barricades that are blocking the only other way in or out of our neighborhood.


*update* the barricades were moved for us so don't worry we are not stranded anymore...but I still think we'll stay in tonight :)

Flashback Friday - NC House

I've seen several friends do Flashback posts and have always thought it was a good idea, so I think maybe I'll take a stab at it. My friend Tina has a journal jar that she pulls ideas out of, since I don't have one of those I'm just going to wing it. 

This is something I have told people about before but never got around to posting so here's my first Flashback Friday with a look at our home when we moved to North Carolina. 

When Mike got accepted to Duke Law School we took a weekend trip to North Carolina to look for a house, talk about stress for someone who can't decide on anything in one weekend, let alone a house... Anyway, after searching we narrowed it down to house A and house B. 

I really liked house A (but didn't check out the neighborhood, schools, etc...) Mike liked house A too, but didn't think the neighborhood or the school was very good. So, off we drove to house B. Our Realtor assured us that the neighborhood was wonderful, and as a bonus it was very close to the church we would be attending.

Well, as soon as we pulled up to it I said NO WAY, I hate it! I think Mike was shocked that I would think that anything with purple on it could be ugly. He looked at me and said that we should take a look on the inside.

This home was a foreclosure so the inside was a mess. You couldn't take a step on the main floor without stepping on a dead roly poly, the carpet upstairs had burn holes all over it and the fridge...let's just say something died in there and leave it at that. I was not sold. My dear sweet husband and our wonderful Realtor felt great about it. As we walked out and drove away, I was still had visions of house A in my head.

We came home and against my husbands better judgement, we made an offer on house A. But...for some reason Mike just didn't feel good about it so I finally bent my will and listened to my husband and we withdrew the offer and placed an offer on house B.

What do you know, we got house B...and I'm so glad we did. Yes it was a lot of work, but we had some of the best neighbors we have ever had (we have moved over 13 times so we've had a lot of neighbors) We still keep in touch with them and have gone back to visit several times, and they have come to visit us too. 

Yes great neighbors are a huge bonus...but my house was still ugly! So with the money that we saved buying house B instead of house A we set to work on the inside and finally on the outside. When we finished painting the outside we had a neighborhood barbecue. Several of our neighbors thanked us for painting the "eyesore" of the neighborhood. One neighbor joked, however, that now he couldn't just tell people to turn left at the blue house to get to his house. The HOA was thrilled since the previous owner had painted the house without approval and they had tried to get him to change it back with no luck.

Anyway...long story. For the 1 or 2 of you who are still reading, here is a before and after picture of the house.

We ended up loving that house and made many great memories and friends while we lived there.