Night-Time Escapades....

Don't worry, this story does not involve my gun....

A little backstory - my neighbors next door moved back to Arizona in July, and the house has been on the market since then. They had no luck until finally a couple of weeks ago they got a buyer. Everything was going great until the appraisal came back at less than their asking price. They decided they didn't want to sell it that low, so they would keep the house and rent it to my folks instead. Well, the buyers had already put in new carpet and paint, and are upset that the contract is being cancelled. I would be too in their situation, but that's why you don't put money into a house you don't actually own yet!

So the contract is supposed to be null and void as of tomorrow morning. WELL, around 9 pm this evening, I notice a big SUV with an attached trailor back in to the driveway of the house. I thought that was kind of odd for a couple of reasons, one being that the contract was being cancelled, and another that it was so late. They didn't turn on any lights except for one inside. We had all been a little worried about vandalism, seeing as the situation was getting a little ugly. Maybe they might want their new carpet back....I called my neighbor to see if anyone should be over there, and he told me that "no way should there be anyone there, call the police".

So I call 911 and report it. Right after I called, the big truck leaves. Great. So the deputy shows up (and by the way, just how young can you be to graduate from the academy, anyway? Shouldn't being old enough to shave be a requirement for those who serve and protect??), and he gets my key to the house and goes and checks it out. He said everything looks fine except for a brand-new dishwasher sitting in the middle of the kitchen floor. Apparently the buyers are under the assumption that they are still moving in. I called my neighbor back and he was upset. He's having the locks changed in the morning, and I will be the only one with keys. So if they want their dishwasher back, I guess they have to come see me!

So that was my excitment for tonight, can you tell that it doesn't take much??

Baby Update

I had my 12-week OB appointment today. Everything looks good so far, and we heard the heartbeat loud and clear with the doppler. My morning sickness seems to be tapering off, so that's REALLY good news! I was really getting tired of throwing up all of the time. I actually lost 3 pounds because of it, but now I should start gaining it back and then some, now that I can manage to keep my food down!

In other news, it looks like my parents will be moving in next door to me!! I'm so excited to have them next door, it will be a big help once the baby comes. Our former neighbors (and friends of ours) moved back to Arizona in July, and have been trying to sell their house. They had a prospective buyer, but it's fallen through. They've decided to hang on to the house for a while longer, and rent it to my parents in the meantime. I can't tell you how glad I'll be to have them close by while Chris is gone.

I've had it....

...with the South. I'll probably have people yell at me for saying that, but this West Coast Girl has had enough. I really don't mind the South, except for one thing. The bugs. There are bugs everywhere. It's so humid here in the Summer and Fall that they flourish and breed like crazy. I've managed to keep them out of the house for the most part, with the exception of the odd spider or two once in a while. In fact, I'm quite proud of not having an ant problem in the house, something that is really common here in Alabama. Until last night.

I went to bed about 11:00. I laid down on the pillow and leaned over to kiss Aiden (yes, he's sleeping in the bed with me...) when I saw a little ant crawling on the pillow. Eww! I flicked it away. Then I saw another one. I picked up the pillow and realized there were ants IN THE BED!!! I totally freaked out. I picked up Aiden and checked him for ants (didn't see any) and put him on the couch that's in my room. He's totally confused and upset, having just been so rudely awakened. I stripped the bed, sprayed down the headboard and footboard with Raid and then cleaned it to get rid of the Raid smell. New sheets, new pillows, and I was ant-free.

I checked again this morning (and about 50 times during the night last night), and still no ants. I checked under the bed and around for anything that might be attracting them, but there was no food or anything. I don't usually allow food in the bedroom, for that reason. When I get home today, I am so sanitizing everything in that room. I'm still so grossed out, I almost want to sleep on the couch!!

The Urge to Purge

Do you ever get that feeling that you just have too much crap lying around your house and you just want to throw it all away? I've gotten to that point. I can handle clutter for a while, and then I just reach my limit and I have to have a big purging. That is my plan for this weekend. I'm tired of all the "stuff" everywhere, and I've decided to do something about it.

I really don't understand where all of this stuff comes from. I really don't buy that much (anymore), but it always seems to pile up anyway. So I've got a big box of industrial strength trashbags, and I'm prepared to be brutal. If I haven't used it in 6 months, I'm pitching it. If it's still in a box from the last time I moved, I'm pitching it. If I don't know where it came from or what it is, I'm pitching it. I thought about having a yard sale, but that is just too much work. Maybe I'll put some stuff in the shed for when I do decide to have one, but for the most part, it's just going to the dump.

Prison Break

I don't know how many of you are Prison Break fans, but the new season premiered last night. Prison Break and 24 are the only 2 shows on TV that I like to watch, and actually make time for every week. I'm not sure why I like it so much (it probably has something to do with Wentworth Miller being so hot), but it always sucks me in. Lots of twists and turns, and you never know what's going to happen next. I thought the premiere was pretty good, it made me want to find out what's going to happen to Schofield, who's holding Sarah and LJ, and why is it that Schofield keeps finding himself having to break out of prison? I guess that's why they call it Prison Break....If you watched it, what did you think?

Gross!

My dog has been doing really well with the potty training thing. We've had over 2 weeks with no accidents in the house. She was even starting to come and tell me when she needed to go out. Then, this weekend, she went in the house 4 times!! The last straw was this morning, she pooped on Aiden's bed. Luckily he wasn't in it at the time, but how NASTY is that!!?? I stripped the sheets this morning, and when I get home I'm going to sanitize the mattress. I'm so grossed out right now. I yelled at her and put her outside so that I wouldn't be tempted to beat her to death. I just don't know what's going with her? Why is she all of a sudden doing this? I'm letting her out just as often as I always have, and the routine has not changed. I don't understand. And she knows she's been bad, because she will go hide after she's done it. So I know she knows better. I'm just really frustrated with her and totally grossed out. Any ideas?

Black Tuesday

I can't believe it's been six years since 9/11. When I drove into the parking lot at Aiden's daycare this morning, I saw that all of the classes had made posters and hung them on the front of the building. Tiny handprints and footprints with the words - "We will never forget", and "United We Stand". It occured to me that none of these children had been born when the attacks happened, but a lot of their parents are off fighting the war that began on that day.

I will always remember September 11th, 2001. We had just moved to Germany, I had been in country for 13 days. I didn't know anyone, we didn't have our stuff or our car, and Chris was in the field. It happened around 3 in the afternoon for us, and I remember that I had walked down and bought a small TV that day, and arranged for the cable to be turned on. They said it should be on by 6pm at the latest. I had the TV onto a German news channel while I waited, and I was doing a puzzle at the government issue dining room table we had. I looked up at the TV and saw some news footage of a plane colliding with the first tower. My first thought was, "what a horrible accident!" Everything was in German, so I couldn't understand what was going on. Then they showed a press conference given by the President, but of course it was dubbed into German, so I still couldn't understand. I figured something big was happening, so I called home. I talked to my sister, my Mom, and my mother-in-law, but nobody really knew what was happening. Finally my cable came on and I was able to watch the news in english. At about midnight, Chris came in from the field, and they started pulling shifts guarding the gates to post.
We had a mattress on the living room floor, next to the TV and our only phone. It stayed like that for at least 3 weeks.

The conditions on post were almost akin to martial law. There were armed guards outside of every building, including public bathrooms. Identification was required everywhere. Cars were stripped and searched coming into the gate, and all mail and shipments were stopped. There was no fresh meat at the commissary for a while, and no fresh produce. I remember the little signs in the empty bins that said, "due to customs regulations and current threatcon levels, this item is out of stock". Luckily it didn't last too long.

After that we went to war, and everything about Army life changed. We went from a peacetime Army to an Army at war, and we are still at war today, 6 years later. I think that 9/11 was the defining moment of my generation, much as Pearl Harbor or the Kennedy assassination was for generations past.

I'll ask you the question that everyone is asking today - Where were you on 9/11?

Scary!

Last night about midnight I was just getting into bed when I heard a scratching outside my bedroom window. I froze, thinking maybe it was just a branch from the big bush that's outside. The noise kept on, getting louder and more insistant. It definitely wasn't a branch, something was trying to get in the window.

Oh God. Breathe, breathe. Where is a big, strong soldier when you need one? Oh yeah, playing soldier. Okay, that means it's up to me. I take another deep breath, grab the gun (yes, I have a handgun), my cell-phone and my shoes and creep into the kitchen to go out the back door. My heart is hammering the whole time. Why didn't I just call the police, you ask? Well, because I'm an idiot. I sneak out the back door into the carport and start to slink around to the side of the house where the noise is coming from. I can still hear it, there is something out there. I peer around the corner at the window and see a big, black thing scratching at the window. At this point, I'm thinking I need something other than a gun, a wooden stake, maybe? Silver bullets, at least. Too much Buffy late at night. I take the gun off safety and peer around the corner again. The thing looked right at me and then started coming toward me. I pointed the gun and was just about to shoot something for the first time in my life when I realized it was the neighbor's dog.

I almost collapsed in relief. No vampires or werewolves tonight, just a really irritating dog. I shooed him off and went back inside, thinking that this was absolutely the last straw. That dog has been coming around all the time, digging holes and wreaking havoc, and we have warned his owners that we were going to call animal control if he didn't keep him contained. So this morning I called animal control and placed a complaint, we'll see what happens.

One other thing, where was my dog during all of this??? Asleep on her pillow in my bedroom on the other side of the very window in question. Some guard dog she is.