Only famous peopel blog now...

For me it's become more difficult to get to know new folks. I've realized that being technically an active duty family who isn't actually living the typical military life has placed me in a strange void between two worlds, neither of which I feel a part of. Perhaps it's irrational, or real, but I don't feel totally welcomed in either. Frequently I'm told "you've been here forever" or "you're still here!"

Yeah, thanks...

Such as it is, I know there are many wonderful folks out there. Perhaps many wonderful potential friends nearby in my own neighborhood... probably not my direct neighborhood, but.... Our fast paced society isn't necessarily the easiest tempo in which an aloof sort thrives in.

I miss blogs from 10 years ago, when holed up housewives could blog, and get to know one another during even nonconforming naps or bedtimes. I miss the days when one could nurse at the keyboard and vent the frustrations of the everyday life.

But now a blog needs to have content of elevated academic substance. They're not worthy of anyone's time unless they can go viral and spread some highly insightful epiphany, or heinously hilarious hijinks. Blogs aren't read to forge friendships anymore.... at least not like they used to be.

I miss that though.

Fixer upper on my street...

One of our neighbor's foreclosed on his house and abandoned two old cars before leaving. Having a bit of an obsession with the trends of my local market I've been watching this house like a hawk to see what would happen. Nothing obviously awful transpired, and it I hadn't looked it up I might have assumed the neighbor moved and then listed it himself. Alas, he never even bothered trying to sell it and the bank had it under contract and sold within a couple months.

Yesterday the dumpster arrived in the driveway, and today a work crew filled it up. I'd love to see what's going on inside there! By my calculations they can do about 80,000 in work before bursting past the profit ceiling. I'm eager to see what happens next. My guess is that it's going to get flipped.

There's a lot of interior work that needs to be done. The exterior and landscaping could use some help too. A little sprucing up wouldn't hurt our property values either.

As for my own little fixer upper...that I one time called "turn key" I've got so much painting to do... and little motivation right now. I'm kind of sick of painting. I'm beginning to accept that we're not moving out of here in the next year, and do there's no rush.

It's week three of our 2016-17 school year and we're in the swing of things now. This morning was cool enough that I was able to open the windows and let in fresh air. While it's suppose to warm back up again next week, this week's reprieve from the heat is a very welcome repast.

Instead of dance we're going to focus on other things this year.

Foyer light and deck paint

The glass on the light fixture in our foyer was cracked and I'd been searching for the perfect replacement for months. It's probable that the fixture was original to the house as the wires were enclosed in cloth. That's like 1960's era right?

 Last month I thought I'd found just the right one, but it was out of stock... So I put in "notify me" request, which was fulfilled last week. This weekend my handyman in shining armor spent hours and a trip to the hardware story trying to install the new fixture. Being about 1.5 stories in height required a fully extended ladder, and the aid of the 6' teenager with long arms. It wouldn't work. He tried reinstalling that fixture three times with no success. After the second attempt I was more than ready to toss in the towel and just get a big box bargain, because it was clear the "perfect" fixture was anything but. Indeed, the fixture we picked up at Home Depot was cheaper, seemed to be a better quality, and was much easier to install. It also worked! My request for a return and refund for the "perfect" fixture was honored.

I put in another hour of painting the deck floor and some of the railing.
We went to the pool for an hour.
My brilliant knight found a recipe for fish tacos, which I have a thing for.
And I tried to organize the kids' binders and lesson plans for the school year.
So that was our weekend.

Nice commute

And... we're back to work. Thank goodness for the location of my husband's new assignment! He couldn't have a better commute in this area then the one he has now. My little 5 square mile bubble just got a lot better in that sense.

The kids and I also resumed school.

Meanwhile we're still on the hunt for the right placed to take dance lessons. We had a pleasant experience sampling four classes at the "Massive Art Studio." I loved the parent friendly facility and the commute (with just the right short cuts) was a taxi-mom's dream come true! We were given the course recommendations for the first two classes we tried (tap and jazz) but on the final day, after the ballet trial we were told, "we'll call you." I thought that was a little odd, but oh well. That place is the most expensive option and we'd likely have to limit the girl's choice down to one class each to make it fit into our budget. However, it was worth considering because they were responsive, their performances, music selections, and costumes in their previous shows passed our modestly mindful parameters. The level of dance instruction surpasses all the other options in our practical driving vicinity. The girl's could learn a LOT more there.

Then as a last chance, when my husband needed to stop in at his favorite bike shop (again) I asked him to try the dance studio I've been having a hard time making contact with. This smaller group of teachers runs an operation that is closer in practice to the studio we've been with. I've been trying to reach them since June. I'd e-mailed and resent, called, stopped by the location several times and nothing, ziltz, nadda...  but I figured they were going to get hounded by a lot of our previous dance classmates, because they were the logical location. And this time, they were open!

So we're going to a trial class this evening at the studio next to the bike shop... which might be a decision I'll learn to regret as my husband already owns three bikes, each with their specific purpose... but that's a different blog post.

This bike shop dance studio has a ceiling of potential in that their performing classes are only offer till age 13, and my eldest, at most would only have one year with them. That might be enough, but it's something we'll need to take into consideration when we decide what to sign up for.

My life was dance... well

I found myself saying that yesterday while chatting with a fellow homeschooling mom of 7 as we both watched our daughters in tap class. My child was joining the class for the day so the teacher could evaluate her for placement. Just when I was beginning to embrace a year of shear boredom without dance, we learned of a performing arts center which offered a massive array of classes in dance, music, and theater, and there we were auditioning for classes.

If we go with this MAS (Massive arts school... that's what I'm going to call it) we're probably going to be lost in the shuffle (ha ha... tap humor), as the classes are quite populated. That might not be a bad thing and will certainly give the kids a chance to see what it's like to have to sink or swim in a large field of peers.

I went from visions of home improvement projects in my free time to... my bank account being raided by copious dance related fees. My floors plans have gone from refinished to being torn up as the girls proceeded to practice their best moves. The notion of listing our house and moving to the country is beginning to fade away... I don't think we'll be leaving this area anytime soon. We're stuck just outside the beltway.

Work starts on Monday and our new routine will start to take form.

End of an Era

Dance has been a big part of our lives over the past five years. This past year I had this feeling that the routine we'd grown accustomed to would come to an end for one reason or another. Initially I thought it would cease due to a PCS move... but then we were extended in place for another assignment. Our instructor has been running her studio for 20 years and had much experience before she began her business, so I suspected one of these days a retirement would loom. I really hoped that we'd get in at least one more season with her. However, today letters went out that she's closing up shop and there will be no dance next year.

With the vitriol going around over the tragic attack this weekend, the retirement letter, and a major fatal tour bus accident on the parkway that impacted almost all the roads this afternoon and into the evening... I'm kind of overwhelmed.

The girls are sad. I think, in some ways, our dance teacher has been kind of like a Grandma to them. I certainly didn't mind her grand-maternal influence in the girl's lives.

But I must admit that I've been growing weary over the driving back and forth. I hate the driving. Sometimes I just don't have a need to kill an hour out of the house waiting on a dance class. I could stand to be home more in the evenings and direct my energies on dinner preparation.

I had said it several times that I suspected the retirement would be soon, but it was still somewhat of a shock, as I really thought "at least one more year" because next year my oldest was going to start Point. And this is kind of selfish of me... but I always wanted to do Point when I was in ballet, but never got to (as I was too young) and was so looking forward to getting to see one of my girls on Point. So close... but not to be.

It makes me quite anxious, like a 7 year itch, to be moving on to something, or some place new. Restless and disturbed in our current setting. Like we no longer belong, but haven't anywhere we're suppose to be yet.

Catch a tiger by the tail...

If he hollers let him pay $50 every day... Home ownership.

House ownership...

But what about when the house is not your home... anymore. Plain and simple a house cost money, continually. Things break, things get broken, caused by both time, use, carelessness, ignorance, and even despite the best of care.... $*!# gets broken. And somebody has to pay for it.

Does the house owner reap any benefits over time.... with this housing market, I don't believe that's likely. In fact I currently feel that any current house owner is taking on a lot of risk and liability and loosing.... no hemorrhaging from the pocket book.

What I've determined is this, I no longer wish to ever be a landlord. When the time comes, I hope for a sell... but that time is not now and I can only hope that when it does we'll be prepared to offer at the right price to move it fast. A local relator we'd been fliting with called this week and I was able to confidently tell him, "we're not going anywhere for another two years," but I said it kind of wishing we could go somewhere new. However, the prospects for an upgrade aren't in the cards right now, so it's not worth pondering anymore.

This week, nothing big broke. Our phone and internet service was restored, and our 13 year old Kitchenaid mixer began showing signs of going out, but that's not included in the typical household amenities.

When we bought I "picked the very best one." When it's time we might try a winter listing to curb the competition, which is thick in our area at the moment. Prices are dropping like rocks!

One after the other...

Something kept me up late Saturday night/ Sunday morning online... so I know exactly when the internet and power went out... A quick search on my cell phone indicated that the power company had shut down the power for a emergency repair and I was confident it would be up before I got up Sunday morning. Indeed the power was back, but our phone and internet was down.

We thought initially, it was the Verizon system back up battery... the replace battery light had been flashing for some time and an intermittent chirp could be heard coming from the box downstairs. A few years ago the battery had died, and we'd been able to find a new one at Radio Shack... who is now out of business. Verizon doesn't stock them in their local service centers, so our failure to replace that battery was out of ignorance of where to get one. But when push came to shove... a weekend without Netflix was at hand, and no internet or WiFi in the house pushed us to restrict the cell phone usage, a push to find a new battery fast finally yielded a engine search for replacement battery for Verizon Fios, at which point we learned Home Depot had them in stock.

Unfortunately, the new battery did not solve the problem. A long conversation with customer support resulted in the necessity for an appointment with a repair technician. We moaned thinking about how long that might take given the current strike. However, we didn't have to wait that long. A very courteous man arrived at our home Monday and replaced the entire power supply box (which was over 6 years old and predates our purchase of the home). That's all it took and we were back and running, yeah!

So it's the start of birthday season in our house. Tuesday and Wednesday were our double header. I've made two cakes in the last 48 hours. While trying to slowly mix my ingredients I realized that the mixer's low speed function was running at medium or high speed, and when turned into high, a clunking sound began. I bought our Kitchenaid mixer at a Walmart in Kentucky while stationed at Fort Knox... it was a BIG deal, and a major splurge. And we've used it a lot! Still, it's only 12 years old, I expected it to last closer to 20 years. Yet we've dreamed of replacing it with a larger model as our family size requires larger meals, and some of the recipes I've used make our kitchenaid look quite small.

Didn't I just get a new stove?... yeah I did. This evening I baked a turkey, but I feel it came out kind of dry, even though it "looked" beautiful.


If you have a larger kitchenaid and a big family, please share with me which one and why you would and wouldn't recommend it.  We outgrew hand mixers a LONG time ago, which is what I grew up. I need something that needs dough and lots of it.

TGIF

Monday, cracked stove top rendered out range full stop, do not pass go! But managed to wrangle up the troops and purchased a new range before the day was out... and still got the boy to swim practice on time, whoop!  Later that night researched and purchased new pots and pans for the new range. Go Amazon's open box special, yeah! (it was a mom ain't getting a shower morning).

Tuesday, is always hectic... add cooking on a port-a-burner, four dance classes... but had a nice 20 minutes at the park for some topical Vit. D therapy. Two pizzas from Costco, one being supreme made for a very balanced dinner ;)

Wednesday, up and waiting, because who knew when those delivery guys would actually show up. I expected them at any second, all day long. No shower day again! Well, not till before bed. I didn't have to go to speech! Yippy! One of us had to be home, so the hubster came home a bit early to pull taxi parent duty, while I waited for the range. New pots and pans arrived and are a hit. As was the lasagna which christened the  new oven. Ah, finally a shower at night... And I studied the owner's manuals with due diligence. Oh and managed to squeeze in a trip the barber shop, to get the boys' hair cut... I had attempted to do them myself a week ago, for which my shoddy results garnered a well deserved stink eye from the barber, as she set to work fixing the mess I'd made. Nope, I'm not going to try that again. Did I finally get a shower. Yeah I think so.

Thursday, Oh I awoke thinking, "ah, nowhere to go, just school to do," and I began a workout while cooking oatmeal on the new stove. After we ate I read a chapter of the new book to the kids, and looked at my calendar to see if the pediatrician appointment (I'd received an e-mail reminder for) was on the board... Oh CRAP! only to discover I was an hour late for the kid's dental appointments.... Oh my gosh!  Flew out the door and figured we'd get at least a few of the kids seen today (as he always books the whole morning for us. How very lucky we are that he was able to talk a little less today and managed to see all six kids in the remaining time. And didn't insist on breaking up our little appointment block for the next visit in six months. I've not had a blunder like this in a long while...My system failed... I need a new system.  I'm going to chalk this up to being extra focused on the stove issue this week... No, I haven't showered today.

Friday, I've double checked, there ain't nothing special I need to do... just school... and shower!  Yes, I plan to shower tomorrow, even if it's the last thing I do. ;)

Every appliance replaced...

just about! April 2010 we moved into our home... now six years later we've replaced the washing machine (twice), dryer, dishwasher, microwave, both zone control valves on the boiler, two thermostats, a sump pump, garbage disposal, almost all the water fixtures, many light fixtures, some flooring, the ROOF, and I've painted more than half of the rooms in this house. I fully expect this house to bleed us dry...

Now I've been using iron skillets on my glass top GE range all this time, and only today did this sort of abuse finally catch up with us. When I found pieces of glass (or ceramic or whatever) on the bottom of the iron pan, it couldn't be denied that somehow it had caused the final blow to the last appliance original to the home at the time we moved in. Opps.

The new top would have cost almost as much as full replacement. So it seems like the time to buy a new range.

As this occurred this morning while I was prepping to make the sourdough pancakes I'd began the night  before, we wound up using a portable electric burner, a remnant of our college dorm days, to finish breakfast. Between reading the last few chapters of Little Women (our literature book for this quarter) and all the other unmentionable motherly tasks I began cramming for the unavoidable shopping trip we would need to squeeze into the afternoon. Thankfully the internet can be somewhat helpful these days in cutting out time that otherwise might have been wasted driving all over town price comparing. Today, Lowes seemed to have the best prices, and soonest delivery dates. All we needed to do was commit to a stove, purchase, and get on their delivery schedule, and on with our lives.

Reviews are a blessing and a curse. I had to just throw caution to the wind and go with the one that looked the best to me. It became a toss up between the GE Profile and the LG Smooth Surface Freestanding electric ranges. Originally I wanted to look at the Whirlpool model, but when it wasn't available on the showroom floor, we looked about at the others and I decided I liked the models that had control panels that I could clean without wiping away the decals (as my GE decals have disappeared with the vigorous degreasing stripped off the painted labels). I know well enough to never use the self cleaning feature (a repairman's wet dream as the high temperatures are well known to cook the electronic components) and selected the oven that looked like the easiest to clean by hand. Oh, and had three racks included... for pizza night! 

While we fumbled through dinner, cooking rice in our large dutch oven over the top of the little port-a-burner, the efforts shifted towards figuring out what kind of cookware we could safely use in the future. We're very sad to loose the use of our cast iron, but have no plans to get rid of them, as we feel the chances of our moving within a few years are good. It's likely we'll have opportunity to use them again. Begrudgingly we'll be relearning to cook using some plain (none of that non-stick chemical coating crap) steal/ copper pots and pans I've picked up from amazon, which are proported to be good for our flat surface stove. Our old Revere copper bottom set has suffered quite a bit of wear, some warping that caused them to rock back and forth on the stove, and several missing handles means we've been limping along for a while in this department already. The stove incident serves as the kick in the pants to reassess and pushes up the replacement.

Not very reassured...so

We're not holding our breath on the chances of promotion. The career fair the other day yielded some interesting insights and we learned there is no such thing as too soon when looking for that first job after the Army. The market isn't very hot, but the vibe is that "something" will open up, even if that means a contract gig., which my impression defines as temp work.

Impatience can make one wish to just get it over with and drop papers to get out now. The uncertainty threatens to make lemmings of those who panic. So as not to be irrational, we'll have to bide our time and wait for the process to play out in order earn early retirement. To do otherwise would be foolish indeed.  You'd think I would have learned to be more patient by now, but I haven't.

Still I'm both anxious and excited to see what the civilian life could offer. I'd prefer to look for the rainbow around the corner instead of the rain cloud. Besides, if I set my heart on retirement, experience predicts they'll decide to promote him after all, and we'll stuck for four more years.  Who knows...

Curve Ball

The promotion list was published last week, and my husband wasn't on it. He gets one more look, and if he's not picked up then, we may be leaving the army sometime next year. If you're one of my long time friends with access you can read more here.

So for the now we're set to remain in our home for the next year and will have to begin looking into all possibilities for the future.

End of the second round P90X3

So three months of P90X3 "lean" schedule has come to an end. I'm down to about 124lbs and... I've misplaced my tape measurer, but probably about 33.5 to 34" waist.

No pictures... sorry no time. We're too busy trying to relearn to cook and prepare food in a more "healthy" fashion. This past month my dear husband undertook a 10 day detox to help prepare for his biannual PT and tape testing. Usually, this high anxiety drama is really painful for everyone in that we have to watching him dehydrate and starve himself for days to a week before his taping... and sometimes he'd tape a couple days in a row, fasting till he managed to drop enough fluid to pass.

But not this time. Instead he undertook a regimen that cut out all sugars, grains, simple carbs, and caffeine. For breakfast he had "disgusting" smoothies, salads for lunch, and dinners that consisted of lean meats, fish, and lost of new-to-us vegetables. I only joined in his evening meal plan... and in the 10 days I lost 5 lbs, but I've since gone back up 2lbs, because I felt that was probably a bit too fast for a nursing mom... and I'm in no rush here.

And he passed his tests and we can breath a sigh of relief for another 6 months.

We found the book, The Blood Sugar Solution, 10 Day Detox Diet, Activate your Natural Ability to Burn Fat and Loose Weight, by Dr. Mark Hyman at the library, so aside from all the trips to buy fresh vegetables, it didn't really cost us anything to do. And I learned that I like Bokchoy, grilled red onions, kalamata olives, and lightly cooked chards...  and how fun it is to stump the checker at the commissary when you half to explain all the various produce you just set in front of her.

An another related note, about a month or so ago I declared a moratorium on the purchasing of ketchup and ranch dressing. "Savor that last bottle kids, cause it's the last!" I'd grown irritated with how they coated all their food in this stuff... The ketchup was just an over glorified carrier for adding sugar and completely blocked out the natural flavors of the foods I was preparing. As for the ranch dressing, they were simply guilty of wasting copious amounts by dumping far more then they could use on their plates.

Now, my husband was great in that he realized how serious I was about this. And we both conceded that there are times when a bit of ketchup really do help with flavor. So he decided to make homemade ketchup. While the first batch was a burnt disaster, the second effort was stupendous! He will be making another batch soon, because there's nothing that good on a grocery self.

Did I tell you yet? We aren't moving for at least another year? Oh yeah, no PCS for us... for now. I'm relieved, but to be honest, I want a new house.

No pics this go around

When block one of P90X3 lean finished the pictures looked exactly the same as the pictures from the start pictures. My stats were only a little bit different, so it wasn't worth taking the time to update.

Last week I finished the second block and have lost about an inch around the waist, and gone down to hover between 128 and 130lbs.

Tomorrow will be day 6 of the third block... and my focus is shifting more towards dietary health changes. I'm looking for more whole foods to intergrate into our kitchen. Last month we began sprouting alfalfa and broccoli seeds for sandwiches and salads. Even more challenging I've taken up culturing my own homemade kefir. Finally, I'm working at weeding out the GMO and foods that carry a high pesticide load. So we're looking for more organic produce and eliminating more processed foods.

That is your circus and those are your monkeys

And that is why I make my outings short and concise as possible, because there's only so much I can handle when the monkeys decide to get out of hand. I don't believe in putting them through more than they can handle either. So yes, these days if I get comments from strangers they are usually positive.

And yet, there was a time when one child could drive me to utter humiliation.

I've had two weeks off from taking my oldest to speech and OT (Oh, how I wish I never had to go again). So today was a first day back and I noticed the "regulars" on the severe end of the Autism Spectrum were having very difficult days... almost all of them seemed to be very agitated... for some reason.

But it was the tantrum by a child whose age I'd guess around 3, that really took me back to my earlier motherhood years, when my oldest was about that age. However, the way I dealt with it was very different from how the mother I witnessed today. As she lingered in what seemed to me an exceptionally long time, I distinctly remember struggling to hoist my flailing child up onto my back and hauling him out to the parking lot to the car, while this mother kept trying to coax her hysterical boy to move on his own, and they wound up in the hallway between the therapy center and the other businesses inside the building for a very LONG time. The area she was in is designated as quiet zone out of courtesy for the other building occupants, and the therapy clinic has two "quiet" rooms for folks to use when the kids are over stimulated. By time I corralled my own circus out the door, this mother was very distraught and was in the midst of a confrontation or intervention (it was hard to tell for sure) with another woman (a receptionist or someone who worked within the building). It wasn't a pretty sight.

Still the event took me back to those days when I learned that I needed to be prepared to pick up and leave if the situation required it. Church, shopping, eating out, wherever we went I needed to be able to take my son out quickly if he needed some timeout. And I spent a lot of time standing outside of buildings missing out on ceremony and meals. Looks were made, food got cold, folks may of been quite annoyed... but I always cared too much for what others were thinking to stick around long enough for any of them to give me a piece of their mind.

Guess that's just me... I worry about what others think.

I don't want to be thought ill of.

But I'm so grateful for the calm we are able to find now. We can do things now! But I'm still always mindful not to push our luck and keep our outings within reasonable confines so I don't wind up having a meltdown of my own.

Probably the first of many to come

mini-panic attack...

No, we don't know if we'll actually be moving this summer...

but the thought that we COULD be moving as soon as the end of June (only because that's the time frame we told branch was our earliest out the door date).... that we COULD be moving then is freaking me out just a little teensy bit!


I'm trying not to get over excited as an old army buddy of dh, is PCSing to our location at the perfect time and "might" be "maybe" interested in renting our house. (Update: never mind, they don't like our assigned schools).

What if... what if everything really could workout so that this "possible" PCS could go smoothly and we won't have to loose our shirt over this house in the process?!?!?  That's been my most fervent prayer.
But there's just so much work that needs to be done, and I can't seem to get to hardly any of it. Walls, trim, and many exterior things need paint! It's not the time of year for painting. Even indoors painting is tricky because I can't go outside and hose off brushes as the faucets are shut off for winter. And besides, I'm busy during the days doing what I always do... feeding kids, nursing baby, changing diapers, and schooling the folks.

Last week to surf trulia to acquaint myself with the area we've been told we would "likely" go. I stumbled upon a housing development and got lost in the clouds looking at new construction floor plans. So excited with the possibilities we might find I printed up some of the brochures of my favorites and asked the kids and husband to review them, inviting them to dream a little with me. Yeah, like Eve and that shiny apple, I was sort of wishing we could just start over in a shiny new house somewhere far, far away.... Even though I don't much care for the weather there most of the year. I'm trying to think of the positives.

Unboxing Car Booster Seat videos

It's a thing apparently, and one my children really enjoy. So I've indulge them in their request to film a few for our recent car booster acquisitions.

So the first they sort of caught me off guard, like I'm still wearing my house lounge wear, and my post-workout messy ponytail. By the second video I'd decided to look a "little" nicer.

I've replaced the two expired high back boosters. The new Britax Parkway is installed in the center of the van using latch connectors. Our new Cybex (it's a German designed seat... but made in China) is a little more substantial when it comes to side impact protection, and so I wanted it to replaced the high back booster in our smaller sedan. And... this ought to keep current till summer, when I "might" have to replace one more seat. We'll see...