Trails & Tears

We lost two tenants in February. 

It's never great when someone moves out - it means time and money.  Even if the place looks good, there is always update maintenance that needs to be done. And since we're weekenders, it takes us longer because our time is so limited.

So two empty houses at one time really sucks.

One of the tenants had only been with us a little over a year. Her new husband got a job out of town so they're off to start their new life.  She was great - always paid on time and her house was in great shape. That was just some touch up paint and a little cleaning. We got it ready and rented before the end of the month. Sweet!

The other house is a completely different story. The family lived there for about 6 years and were spotty with their rent. It was always kinda shady - the husband would act surprised when we called asking for rent and claim the wife had told him it was paid. Not sure if that was part of the tactic or if it was the truth. We began to suspect the wife had some kind of..."issue" because every time we went over the kids (one still in diapers) would be outside playing unsupervised and she would be asleep. Every time. A few years ago she won $20,000 from the casino (we felt lucky too because they paid several months in advance) so we know she gambled.  Not sure if she gambled all night and slept all day or was into drugs. Somethin.

So we knew that house was going to be a beast but we never imagined what we found. This was the nastiest house I have ever seen.  Kinda surprising too because they appeared to be clean. The husband was in the military so I thought he would be a little rigid about housekeeping.  Apparently he was not.

The floors:
These are real hardwood, not laminate. They used to be really pretty.


In this picture, we had ALREADY scraped off layers of gum! LAYERS!  

The kitchen:
I have never seen a kitchen SO gross. This is where your food is made...shouldn't that warrant maybe cleaning every once in a while?

The grout was originally off-white, see the spot I cleaned?

 

The back door, off the kitchen.
 

But none of that filth was anything compared to the worst...

The roaches:

Roaches! We haven't seen any roaches. Alive,anyway - we've found a ton of dead ones. The house has a distinct chemical smell too so we can only assume in a misguided effort to "clean" they sprayed the house. What we have found was roach poop. Everywhere. 

And I really mean that. 

Trails of it EVERYWHERE.

 

This is a KITCHEN cabinet! Disgusting!

 

You know those wall stickers that are really popular now? Apparently, they're even popular with roaches...

Family. A family of roach poop.

I'll spare you the other roach poo pictures. 

 

We've spent the last two weekends just cleaning this crap up. It really stinks too because usually when we work on houses we bring the kids and let them play outside but this house was too gross. No way I was gonna let my babies in there!  

 

Next we've got to get it fumigated and painted. We're looking at another 3 weekends of work, at least. I'll also make sure to post updated photos after we're done. Which cannot be done soon enough!

Laptops & Lent

My laptop crashed. Totally died. I went to boot up a few weeks ago and nothin. That partly explains why I haven't blogged in a while.

It also explains why my house has been cleaner the last few weeks than it usually is...interesting how that works.

I've been crazy busy at work. Not just busy but CRAZY busy. That's were you don't get to pee for about two hours because you literally have so much to do that you don't want to step away. I should seriously consider putting bodily functions as a priority on my list...

Bathroom breaks aren't the only challenges I've been experiencing. I gave up soda for Lent.  Way harder than I thought it would be.  I am so struggling. And it doesn't help that the other day, in a particular moment of weakness, hubby encouraged me to go ahead and have one. In response to my resistance, he grabbed a coke from the fridge and slowly popped it open. Right in front of me. The cruelty!

And I swear, that boy has been drinking soda now than he ever has.  I think just because he knows I can't have any...or maybe it's just my heightened awareness. I promise you, I can hear him open the can from across the house. Yep, this addiction is no joke. Can you say highly addictive personality?  Thank goodness I never got into smoking or anything worse - there would be no hope for me.

So it's been hard.

And that's the entire point.  I really do believe it's meant to be tough. On Fat Tuesday I was explaining Lenten season to the girls and I stressed that you have to give up something difficult or something meaningful. And when it gets tough, you think about how God sacrificed his only son, how Jesus sacrificed his life. Giving up a soda, well, suddenly it doesn't seem like so much.

I was really touched because M asked me what I was giving up and when I told her she said she would give up soda too. Well, we don't really let her drink soda.

Isn't that so hypocritical? I've always sucking down a pop but I rarely let them drink it.

So then M thought for a minute, realizing it wasn't much of a sacrifice, and decided that she would also give up candy.  She doesn't get that too often either but she loves candy, so that was a big deal. And I really didn't expect her to participate, I was just trying to educate them. Her heart is amazing.

Both their hearts, really but M2 is still a little too young to understand. After watching big sister, she volunteered to give up her beloved blanket. This has been her nightly companion since she was brought home from the hospital. It is her most cherished possession.

Within two seconds of offering it up, she realized what that would mean and quickly changed her mind. She was, however, willing to sacrificed her pillow. She has a multitude of pillows on her bed - a Stuffie, a Pillow Pet, a mini Pillow Pet and a ginormous Hello Kitty body pillow.  I ran through each pillow - nope, nope, nope. The girl was adamant that she give up her regular pillow...which she has slept on every night since Fat Tuesday.

So M are in this together, keeping each other in check. And counting down the days until Easter!

Patience, Parties & Pretty Teeth

I learned a valuable lesson this weekend. Kids need to be pilot tested before they are allowed to sleep over! 

I let M have a friend sleep over and it didn't end well.  Everything was fine until bed time and then it just fell apart. I had a crying kid and no response from the parent.

Even though I had sent a text earlier explaining she seemed kind of nervous about spending the night. But let me pause here to explain she only seemed nervous after she asked me to move a tv into M's room so she could watch tv until she fell asleep and I said no. After that little warning, I reached out to the responsible party and asked for directions on how they wanted it handled if she got upset.

Then when it happened I called and got nothin.

The kid cried for almost two hours. I was like, look I would love to take you home but I can't get a hold of anyone and I can't just drop you off at the doorstep, so we're both kinda stuck.

Deep breath.

I really was trying to muster all the patience that I had and I was trying to be sympathetic to the girl. I know she was upset, I understand it's a new place and it can be scary.  In the meantime, I've got my kid whining and carrying on because she's tired and just wants to sleep, another kid crying and I'm going crazy because it all seems to be out of my control.

After multiple calls to two different people, I finally got a call back.  It was close to midnight when I drug her out and delivered her to Mom.

So no more slumber parties for me!

At least no more slumber parties with kiddos. Because I went to a grown-up slumber party the other day and that was awesome. I had so much fun -  I can't remember the last time I laughed so much.

 

The girls

 

The lady of the hour

My "cup" buddy!
 

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What? It's not suppose to fit this way?

All good games have fun accessories, right?





And the slumber party isn't the only good thing that's happened lately!

 Last week I spent the morning looking like this:

 

 

And by the afternoon, I looked like this:

I'm done with the braces!!! Can't tell you how ready I was or how happy I am to get that metal off my teeth! 

Although I have to admit, it took me a minute to adjust. Immediately after I was really, really upset because it seemed like I had a huge overbite.  All I could think was that I seriously jacked up my teeth.  Now that I've settled into it I don't see the overbite.

As much.

And in case you don't remember, here's what caused me to get braces in the first place:

Yeah, think I would rather have a slight overbite...

Dearest Neighbors

Dear "We'll Use Our Neighbors As Free Babysitters Because We're Too Lazy To Take Care Of Our Kid" Parents Breeders That Live Next Door:

Stop sending your kid to my house every single day. Please, use a little judgement and have some consideration.  When I pull up in the driveway at 6:00 and your kid is ringing my doorbell at 6:05 - it's a little much.  Can you just give me a minute to breathe? To settle in? To take off my freakin coat?

And EVERY Saturday morning?  Do you not think we might like to have a little time to ourselves? You know, to enjoy some time together. Oh wait, yeah, you wouldn't understand that since you're obviously only interested in pawning your kid off as much as you can.

Since that doesn't happen to you, let me give you a little picture of what that's like.  It's Saturday and I want to sleep in a little. Because I get up at an ungodly hour during the week because I work...oh yeah, never mind. That's another thing you wouldn't understand. Sorry, I forgot that you aren't interested in gainful employment either.

So I sleep in a little, roll out of bed and just wanna bum around a little.  Due to an early bus, long commute, and busy life - having some lazy time is precious to me.  So I'm sitting on the living room floor in my pjs playing S'Match with my kids when it comes. The knock.

And I know immediately it's your kid. Again.

And I know it shouldn't, but it really annoys me. Yeah, I said it - it annoys me to have your kid around all the time. I know that isn't something I'm suppose to admit - I mean, what kind of horrible person gets annoyed by a little kid, right? 

This horrible person right here!

I'm annoyed that I have to get dressed. Okay, so that's a mild annoyance. It's not like I wasn't going to get dressed anyway but dang, can't I indulge in at least half a day of wearing my pjs around?

I'm annoyed because you send your kid over without any supervision, which makes me feel uncomfortable. It also makes me feel like I'm the one responsible for her safety. I'm not cool with her walking to and from our houses unsupervised - even if we're only a few houses apart. So I send my kid to walk her home while I stand on the porch in the cold to make sure she makes it safe. I realize the chances of anything ever happening are minimal - but you can't replace children! Or undo the damage of some crazy monster. And there are monsters out there. Probably more than you know.

I'm annoyed that the relationship is one-sided.  She's always at our house but my kid is never invited to play at your house. Which is why I feel you view it as free babysitting. And I probably shouldn't complain about that because honestly, I wouldn't let my kid go over there anyway. Think that sounds judgemental and holier-than-thou? Well, I wouldn't hand you the keys to my car and tell you you're free to take it. And you wouldn't really expect me to, would you?  In fact, if I did that you might even think it was strange- because it's my car and your a stranger. So why should it be strange that I treat my kid like she's more valuable then a hump of metal with wheels? Because she is.

And then I'm just kinda annoyed with your kid. Isn't 9 old enough to know that she shouldn't be going through the papers in our office? And why does she thing it's okay to just open my linen cabinet and start going through it? Boundaries - she should have already learned them. But no worries, I've given her a quick lesson for you. And when I say no she can't stay for dinner, I can hear her whispering to my kid to ask why.No worries on that either, I also explained to her the proper adult/child role. She looked kinda confused as I explained that when I give an answer, it's the end of the discussion. Don't worry though, she'll pick that up quickly if she keeps hanging out at my house.

It would probably be easy to just start turning her away, telling her she can't play and sending her back home. But you know what, my kid really enjoys her and I enjoy seeing my kid happy. And we've had some great teachable moments - about how other families talk differently (I'm not fond of yelling the f bomb to my kids), work differently (I don't expect my elderly parents to support me) and act differently than ours. And hopefully, maybe your kid can learn a few things too.

Mystery Morning Resolved

Sorry to have kept you in suspense. I would have updated you on this a long time ago but I was busy leaning into a toilet trying to figure out how to stay alive while the entire contents of my body was violently projected out through wrenching heaves.

That paints a nice picture, doesn’t it?

Sorry, there isn't a way to pretty that up.

So back to the mystery message. Somehow the suspense makes the story seem a lot more interesting than it is but here goes…

So I got into work and had a written message that someone had called for me – it included a name, company, and phone number.  I didn’t have any connection to the company but the name was familiar. Remember the woman who took my former job who hated me? I would attach a link to that old post but honestly, I’m too tired and drained to try to find it. Anyway, she hated me because she had the illusion that I had the hots for her boyfriend turned husband and she was obviously never able to let it go or to understand that it wasn’t true.  Even though I hadn’t seen him in over 6 years. She was a special kind of crazy.

Well, the name on the message belonged to her husband. Recently turned ex-husband.  I wasn’t sure if it was him, he doesn’t have an unusual name so it could have just been a coincidence. So I looked him up on facebook and guess what? The companies matched.

Well, I wasn’t interested in getting in the middle of that drama so I threw the message away and went about my business.  The next day, I hear someone come in and guess who it is?

Bingo. The man so prized any female with the audacity to speak to him is worthy of a lifetime of scorn.

Great, because what I really want is to get sucked into whatever this is about.

But it seemed pretty legitimate. He was trying to get connected to campus and sought me to have an “in”. There is a tiny bit of me that thinks he may have visited as a kind of vindictive “screw you” to his exwife…but I would like to think we’re beyond that kind of stuff. And that he would have the decency to leave me out of their mess.

If my car happens to get keyed in the next week or so I’ll know for sure…

Now I'm going to spend the rest of the day trying to figure out how to get myself together enough to resemble a professional. Which is going to be pretty difficult because my mind feels like mush.  I didn't make it the whole day yesterday but I'm hoping I can pull it together enough to last through the day. If no one asks me any questions or expects me to make any decisions, I may be able to pull it off...

From The Edge

I'm back from the brink of death.  I got hit with a nasty stomach bug. It was brutal. Wishing I was just dead to make it end kind of brutal. SO rough.

And I don't ever get sick, so this was especially shocking to my system.  I'm still in recovery mode but at least I'm among the living today. Half-way, at least. Still feel kind of zombie-like but I'm plugging through. Not trying to be a hero - I'm only up and around out of necessity, because I have absolutely no other choice. If I could forgo my sense of responsibility, I would have taken an additional recovery day.

In the last three days I've only eaten about 10 crackers. While I'm sure I could hold something down now, I have no desire to. Nothing about food is appealing to me right now, nothing. And while I'm all for dropping weight, this is not what I had in mind.

Please remind me of this moment the next time I start bitching about overeating.  I need to be reminded that pudgy and hungry is WAY better than skinny and nauseous.

Mystery Morning

It's been such a weird morning...I got a mysterious message from someone and I think I know who it's from. I'm hoping it's not what I think but something in my gut tells me it is...which could get interesting.

I'm not trying to be evasive, just no time to explain. Like most my stories, it's long and drawn out and really not that interesting.

Updates when I get a free moment. Which could mean it will be a very, very long time because this girl has a seriously long to-do list to address!