The Stay At Home Mom Diaries

While driving the back rural roads to Jules' camp all this week, I happened to catch a glimpse of a private family farm with cows.  We didn't think too much of it, Madi excitedly mowed and we drove on. They were pretty far back in the pasture so we didn't have a very good view until this morning.  Today, Jules and I were alone driving in to camp and came upon the house where the cows were attempting to graze in the front of the property.  We both did a double take as Jules exclaimed, "I can see their ribs!"  My jaw was on the floor in disbelief and I promised her I would check it out more on the way back.

As I drove back, I slowed and stopped infront of the property.  I was shocked to see these cows--hard to say how many--looking like no more than skeletons with skin.  I could see their hip bones protruding, ribs, misshapen backs.  I was horrified and sickened.  I made a note of the location and went home to make some phonecalls.

Our local humane society doesn't handle farm cases and told me to contact animal control.  Animal control turned me over to the non emergency police line.  A nice lady there took all the info and said an investigator would go check on the situation.  I plan to call back next week to get an update.  I know the process to correct the situation can be a long one but I sincerely hope it works out.  That image will stay with me for a long time.

....the kids, puking dog (yes he got car sick despite the heavy RX medication) and I hopped in the car and took a trip to NJ.  Matt is out to sea right now so we headed in to spend a week with his family (his gmom just turned 80--I'm glad we could see her right around her special day) and then a few days with my parents before I kidnap my mother to take her back to our house.  Dad will follow a few days later and get to the see the house for the first time.  I'm really excited to have my family start seeing the new place!

We spent a few days in Cape May swimming, shopping, hanging out with friends and hitting the Wildwood boardwalk. We, of course, visited my grandparents' grave and also swung by their old house.  I still get that urge to walk up with my bags, ring the bell and tell the current owners to get the hell out of my grandmother's house.  It looked virtually the same although I frown at them for not keeping up the front garden beds.  (May their feet be pricked by pins, right, Ryan?)

On the boardwalk, Jules, the daredevil, rode crazy rides like the Great White and Alyssa went on her first ride in the vast group of rides that I won't go near but I will let my children go on when she climbed onto the "Sea Dragon" with Matt's step dad.  The Sea Dragon is a remake of a viking ship that swings back and forth giving one that intense "I'm about to throw up" feeling.  Thankfully she did not get sick and actually went on the ride twice.  Pictures of the whole experience will be posted once I make it back home. I took about 60 pictures in Cape May but since we have moved on to my mother in laws other house, I have only snapped one.  I gotta start catching up.

So here we are at my mother in law's other place about to head to my parents house.  I travel in, unpack, spend a couple days, pack up and move on to another house, unpack for a couple days, pack up and move on to another house, etc.  It's not overly relaxing but very good to see everyone.  I pretty much have it down to a science anyway.

I have yet to find a chance to sit down to share some pretty big news so I might as well sneak it in here at the end of a post that is completely unrelated--let's see how many people catch it (or are you just skimming at this point?)  I have become a work at home mom.  Yes, you read that right--Stacey actually has a job.  It's been 6 1/2 years since I have done anything but wipe noses and butts and 6 1/2 years ago when I had my last job, I actually wipes noses and butts--the difference being I collected a paycheck since the little ones didn't belong to me. 

Shortly after moving into the new house, on one of my walks with Max (the only time I have to really think), I started wondering if there were any legit jobs to do from home--anything that would ease up the painful mortgage we just took on.  It hit me that our real estate agent used an asst that was a stay at home mom.  I started wondering if I could manage to find a job like that. I did some research online and wondered if I should go for my license or not.  I emailed our agent and told her to take her time replying but I just wanted to pick her brain a bit.  I hadn't heard back from her but also knew she was busy. Fast forward a couple weeks to the night I wrote out our first obnoxious mortgage check.  I literally prayed to God we would not fall on our asses in this house.  The next day I got a call from our agent and at the end of the conversation, she offered me a job.  Turns out the day before I had emailed her asking her for information, her asst had given notice.  It took a minute for me to realize she was even offering me a job--I have no experience in this field although I could only assume the "people skills" (smiling when you want to punch someone) and organitional skills I had acquired during my several years on the PTA executive board would serve me well and Lord knows I know my way around a computer and the internet.  I briefly spoke to Matt who said it was up to me and there was NO pressure to take the job. I called her back and accepted--extremely grateful for the chance she was giving me. I looked up and whispered, "Thank you!"  Once again, with this whole new house situation, something has just been handed to me.  Time and time again I have wanted something and it's been delivered on a silver platter with a shining light around it.  It never ceases to amaze me but I can tell you, in the last several months from the first time we stepped foot in the new house and thought about putting an offer on it to writing the first mortgage check on the place and wishing I had a way to earn money from home, I have said a lot of silent thank yous.  I don't know what we did to deserve such amazing luck as of late but I am extremely grateful.  We took a really big and risky leap but so far, we are being provided for. Hopefully as long as we keep the faith, that will continue.

Back to the job-since most of you are probably wondering what the heck I'll be doing as a real estate asst--I take care of the vast majority of online advertising/marketing meaning when a new listing is taken on, I make sure it makes it to every website possible, manage visual tours while also creating and mail off flyers for info tubes, schedule showings/make appts, fax paperwork to a variety of people, etc.  If anything changes with a listing like the price or an open house is going to happen, I have to go back in to all the sites and change the info. She would also like, if I can handle it, to take on making appts for her buyers for home inspections and such.  My organizational OCD is in overdrive. And I am loving it!  I have only started on the website end of it given my trip to NJ but will start full force when I return next week.  I even went out and bought an obnoxiously large desk to accomodate the obnoxiously large fax machine I was just given to work with.  I know it'll take me a month or two to really get into the swing of things and manage my time so that I don't defeat the purpose of being a stay at home mom, but I'm excited and feel very blessed to have this opportunity.

Now that I have caught up on here and neglected my kids while doing so, I suppose I should finally sign off. I'll try not to go so long again without atleast a little update of our lives like how Madi is still stripping when angry and how Jules has been spending her summer doing things like placing states in alphabetical order and watching Egyptian documentaries on Discovery or how Alyssa learned to ride her bike on two wheels while I ran quickly to the store.  The last few months have been a blur and I don't want to forget a moment of the craziness.

Fenceafterdriveway

Fenceafter

Our fence is done and man oh man, did they do a *fantastic* job. I would recommend them to anyone and everyone! They were only four hours past their estimated completion time AND they did amazing quality work.

The complete set of fence pictures can be seen at the end of our new house slideshow here

Just a note to say I've added a few more pictures to the new house slideshow.  There are a few of the master bedroom, although it's quite bare right now but hey, it'll get there.  And also some mid way shots of the fence.  We were quite pleased when a crew of 6 guys and many trucks showed up this AM and quite upset when four of them left halfway through. They are now running extremely far behind and it's a holiday weekend.  Let's just say I'm taking deep breaths.

Click here to see pictures

We are so frustrated working with outside people right now...

First complaint: Some of you know that during our move (we  hired professional movers), they packed our computer and the monitor ended up broken. We're using Matt's mom's old one--although we are grateful we do have it to use, it also takes up the whole computer area.  The company, after 5 days, gave us a poor excuse for a temp. replacement and said they would work on a true replacement for ours. The temp replacement was so crappy that I just shoved it into a corner and am using my mother in law's.  Yeah it's been 5 weeks now and nothing. Matt's phonecalls have become increasingly nasty. Now we're threatening to take it all online if they don't step up. I don't just mean the BBB either but yellowpages.com and any and all local business website I can possibly find. I knew the owner was looking on craigslist but this morning I found his actual post: "Not looking to over pay for this, but for a well kept monitor 15" flat panel I'll pay up to $25.00. Call R..."

Yesterday, he also emailed me saying he'd just give me $25 to find one on my own.  We are so upset with his total lack of professionalism and his desire to find the cheapest replacement he can that we contacted the BBB this morning to help us resolve this matter.  We'll see what happens.  It's a shame because their crew were all very nice, very considerate, on time and even wiped their feet every single time they came in and out (it was raining) and were very gentle with our stuff--hell, if they even so much as saw me attempting to move a box to another room because I had mislabeled it, they jumped in to move it for me, but hey something broke and the owners aren't stepping up to replace it properly. I would have actually recommended them even with the monitor breaking because hey it happens and as long as they replaced it to our satisfaction, I would say go ahead and use them but not now. <Sigh> When will people learn? You don't mess with people from Jersey.  Lesson learned: Do not fully trust a company just because they, to this date, do not have complaints on BBB.  Always be cautious.

Second complaint: Sears.com.  I ordered an almost $500 table online. A few days later I found the exact same one being sold online from a guy 2 blocks away for the fraction of the cost and it was available right away instead of several weeks from then. It was in great shape, just needed the painting done.  I immediately canceled my Sears order. I've called four times since then because I had yet to receive the money although I was told it would only take 5 days (it has been 3 weeks now). They claimed the company that makes the table is not responding to their emails and there is nothing else they can do. Now I am getting emails from Sears saying the order is delayed--yeah I don't care if it's delayed, I dont' want it. Right now it's set to arrive while I'm in NJ. God help them if I come home to boxes on my porch.  I am supposed to refuse delivery and wait to get my money back apparently. That could take 3 to 4 months at this rate.  Lesson learned: be 110% positive you want something from Sears cause otherwise they make it true hell to cancel.

Third complaint: fencing companies. We had an estimated start date of July 1st. I spent the day before mowing our almost 1/2 acre by hand. Granted it may not sound like much but it was over 90 degrees out and our backyard is not flat. It was rough--I would have been less out of breath if I had just run 5 miles, but I got it done. Then they never showed or called. Matt called and now they said probably July 3rd they will start. Yeah the next day is a holiday--a common drinking holiday. Lovely. I am seriously doubting they will have it done by close of the 7th like we requested.  Lesson learned: be flexible if you have to hire someone to build a fence--it may begin Tuesday of this week or Tuesday of 7 months from now

The overall lesson learned in all of this: do not deal with outside people if you can help it.  It appears no one is a professional anymore.  Granted in some circumstances, you can't help it--you'll have to deal with companies or so called "professionals" but proceed with caution and never fully trust anything they tell you

*Sidenote--you may all be happy to hear that we have not, recently, had any nightmares with Verizon, but I am sure it'll happen in the future.  We're also still waiting to get our gas bill to see if the outsourced employees were finally able to spell our names correctly.  And the final kicker is that our old post office, despite my use of the proper request form long in advance of our moving, then going in person after our move, then also calling, is still not forwarding all our mail to this address. I have notified everyone I could think of of the new address but of course there are still companies or people that mail to the old house. Luckily the new owner or our old neighbors are catching it and we're picking it up.

*Edited to add: A little while ago, our fence guy and his crew showed up to start setting posts. We were extremely happy they are starting a day earlier than we were told yesterday. He said he wants to make sure he has it done by our deadline.  Also, I just received an email from Sears.com saying our order was canceled and money refunded. Wow...two out of three issues corrected in just a few short hours. Now if only I could get a new monitor!*

We've all been held prisoner here in this house for several days as a stomach virus made its way through. Luckily only Madilyn and Jules got hit and somehow, by the grace of God, Matt, Alyssa and I escaped.  Madilyn only had some weird diapers but otherwise was her normal, crazy two-year-old self but poor Jules suffered big time. Her temp hit 104, she didn't eat for two days, lost a ton of weight to the point of seeing her jaw and cheek bones and we were seriously close to taking her to the ER. Luckily on day three, she magically turned around and was able to keep down (and keep in!) a bagel and some random light foods.  Now on day five, she's back to normal--fighting with her sisters.

What a way to start the summer! 

Houseporch

Things are trucking along at the new house-this past weekend, we tackled more of the porch.  We added an evergreen tree, park bench and the mandatory American flag.  I added the other shots I snapped to the slideshow which you can view here.

I've added a few more pictures to the new house slideshow including the sunroom and Miss Kitty's private potty area.

You can see them here

After 7 years of living on one level, I am starting to see the disadvantage of two story living.

My knees are killing me.

I've always had questionable knees-they would crack as a kid constantly as I went up and down my parents stairs.  Then all my years on track/running on my own I am sure messed them up.  But I am surprised by how sore and achy they are now. I dread having to go up and down the stairs. I've been leaving items to go upstairs at the bottom to do them later or asking the girls to do the runs for me. It really makes me nervous down the road given my young age now. And it's summer--my joints are always really bad off in the winter.  Matt wants me to get them checked out but what they going to do? Injections? No thanks. Physical therapy? I don't have time or the chance with matt gone so much. The typical navy way--throw pills at me? Nope not into pill popping.  It's bad enough I'm on RX pills for my headaches.

I told Matt I wonder if we should have bought another rancher! He's going to have to put in a motorized chair for me at this rate!  Of course I am sure he could do something fabulous with wood and black metal scroll work ;)

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