SOC Sunday: Two Days Later

August 2, 2011 By 1 Comment

Whoops! I missed Sunday again! We were at my parents’ house at a lake with *gasp* no internet or cell service. I know, I know… Jana, how do you do that? Well, I don’t do it gracefully, that’s for sure!

So here goes my Stream of Consciousness Sunday post, only two days later than normally scheduled!

Well, the countdown is REALLY on now. Tomorrow I go register my baby for FIRST GRADE. I’m just speechless that he’s going to be in a real number grade now.

We’ve been so unbelievably lazy the last two weeks but then have had lots going on during the weekends. It’s going to be hard getting him back on a schedule but the great thing is — we get to walk to school!

Remember we moved? Well, we live RIGHT across the street from the school. It may be a two minute walk. One minute if the light is in our favor crossing with the crossing guard. And once he gets the hang of it and I’m ready to let go of the apron strings a little, he’ll be able to walk by himself or ride his bike!

When we lived in Fort Valley, he was in school 45 minutes away. ONE WAY! We have cut our commute from a minimum of 90 miles per day to 4 minutes walking per day. I’d say that’s going to be really good for the gas budget, huh?

I’ve already gotten my PTA assignment. Apparently I’m a social media maven (heehee) and will be handling the Facebook page for the school. Well, that includes setting one up and THEN handling it. I’m looking forward to that. I think it’ll really help the community of the school, even though the community of the school is amazing already!

So here’s to the last week of summer. May it be short, sweet and without incident. And maybe that damn tooth that’s hanging on by a thread will come out and he can be a snaggletooth in his first day picture!

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This was my 5 minute Stream of Consciousness Sunday post. It’s five minutes of your time and a brain dump. Want to try it? Here are the rules…

  • Set a timer and write for 5 minutes only.
  • Write an intro to the post if you want but don’t edit the post. No proofreading or spellchecking. This is writing in the raw.
  • Publish it somewhere. Anywhere. The back door to your blog if you want. But make it accessible.
  • Add the Stream of Consciousness Sunday badge to your post (on Fadra’s sidebar)
  • Link up your post on her SOC Sunday post.
  • Visit your fellow bloggers and show some love.

Filed Under: Henry, SOC Sunday, Thoughts Tagged With: , , , ,

Testing, 1-2-3

July 12, 2011 By 10 Comments

That’s how many hotels we’ve tested this week. Three. Within miles of our house.

Georgia heat wave + broken air conditioner = impromptu tour of hotels of Atlanta

I don’t really have a lot to say about it other than I’m frustrated and this really blew our emergency fund and fun fund and every other fund. This wasn’t in the budget at all.

That, and I’m super proud of how well-behaved Henry has been through this. It’s been hot, boring and we’ve had to be quiet in the hotel rooms. We’ve had to eat out at night and haven’t had snacks at the ready. This isn’t kid-friendly, I have stuff to do at home, laundry needs to be done… I could go on and on.

But.

If all goes as planned, tomorrow afternoon we’ll have air conditioning.

If all does not go as planned, this blog space will spontaneously combust, along with my head!

Let’s hope it goes as planned.

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Update: This is me now.


 

Filed Under: Adventure, Family Tagged With: , , , , ,

SOC Sunday, er, Monday

July 11, 2011 By 3 Comments

I’ll be honest. I was too flustered yesterday to even tap out 5 minutes worth of writing. Today, well, about the same. So you’re getting 5 minutes of writing on Monday, from Sunday. Got that?

Go check out Fadra and her SOC Sunday Meme… it’s one of my favorite things to do each week!

#SOCsunday

It’s hot. It’s the South. We don’t roll without AC down here.

When the AC is out, people get grumpy. When people get grumpy, things fall apart.

So when we got home yesterday and the AC still wasn’t fixed (not that I thought it would be since nobody ever called), we sat around for a few minutes, got grumpy and hit the hotel.

It was like a mini vacation! We went to the Hyatt Place about 2 miles away. It was lovely. Great price, great amenities, breakfast, a pool… perfect little place.

Henry and I hit the pool and then we headed to Sweet Tomatoes to eat. It was delicious. Salad, soups, dessert… what more could you want when you’re hot and grumpy? Other than a vicodin valium chocolate chip cookie with a vodka chaser!?!

This morning Jason went to work. Henry and I hit the breakfast and pool. There should be AC repairmen to our house shortly. If not, well, they’ll REALLY get to see the grumpy side of Jana!

(side note: The homeowners are amazing, she even called from Germany to check on things. I believe she’s expressed her frustration with it not being fixed, too. I mean, it’s their house and a house with no AC in 100* heat isn’t a good thing for anybody)

************************************

This was my 5 minute Stream of Consciousness Sunday post. It’s five minutes of your time and a brain dump. Want to try it? Here are the rules…

  • Set a timer and write for 5 minutes only.
  • Write an intro to the post if you want but don’t edit the post. No proofreading or spellchecking. This is writing in the raw.
  • Publish it somewhere. Anywhere. The back door to your blog if you want. But make it accessible.
  • Add the Stream of Consciousness Sunday badge to your post (on Fadra’s sidebar)
  • Link up your post on her SOC Sunday post.
  • Visit your fellow bloggers and show some love.

 

Filed Under: Thoughts Tagged With: , , , , ,

To Keep or To Toss? That Is The Burning Question

July 6, 2011 By 13 Comments

*Big giant sigh*

Well, we’re all moved in and 99% settled. But there’s a problem. A big problem.

Two storage units that are sitting in Fort Valley, filled with “stuff” that we OMG HAVE GOT TO KEEP!

Thing is? Other than maybe 20 things, I have no clue what’s in there. I mean, I know in general, but really have no clue.

When we made the sale complete of our house and officially moved the end of our stuff out, we just threw it all into a unit. Or two. We tried to go through stuff and trash things we KNEW we didn’t need, but the rest went in boxes and bins and got tossed into the unit.

Here we are, a year after picking and choosing what was essential for us to live. When we moved to the apartment, we all chose wisely when deciding what we could do without and what was necessary. Thus paring down our lives to “simple.”

We left behind kitchen utensils and small appliances. We left boxes of papers and other miscellaneous crap. We left behind more things than I can even think of. And we lived JUST FINE for a year without them.

But now the time has come to think about getting our stuff out of storage. We’ll be here in this house for 3 years. I really don’t want us paying $165 a month to store all this crap that we can’t even identify.

Tossing it all is a serious consideration… you know, after getting out all of Charlie’s stuff, a few pieces of furniture and the lawn tools. However, it’s not a logical one.

The logical solution is to unload it all into our basement and actually go through it. Which is the same thing we did when we built and moved into our Fort Valley house. Guess what? It never happened.

What would you do?

Our house is decorated nicely without being overcrowded and hoarder-like.

Why is it hard to get rid of stuff that you’ve held onto just for the hell of holding onto it?

Why do we all feel the need to have so much stuff?

Filed Under: Thoughts Tagged With: , ,

A Fresh Start: Finding Home

June 20, 2011 By 17 Comments

A long time ago, Jason had a house in Mableton. It’s where he lived when we dated. It’s where we would have lived when we got married if he hadn’t changed jobs and I wanted to be close to my job. We planned a wedding and a future in that house. He sold that house, but it was sad because it was full of character, quirks, squeaks and memories. It felt like home.

We went to an apartment in Alpharetta for the first year of our marriage (13 years ago almost). It was a brand new development with big apartments and garages. It was nice. But temporary.

Then one year for Lent, we gave up TV. And decided in all our free time that we wanted to move back to Middle Georgia. Macon was as close to Fort Valley as we EVER wanted to be so that’s where we moved. To an apartment. It was decent. But temporary. Until we found a house to rent.

So we moved to Buford Place and rented a cute, quaint, quirky house that was full of character. In that house we would celebrate the birth of Charlie, mourn his death and then celebrate the birth of Henry. It was a house full of joy and sadness. It’s where a piece of my heart will always reside. It’s where the design and building of our Fort Valley (forever) house would be planned.

In 2005, when Henry was almost a year old, we moved into our forever house. In Fort Valley… a place we swore we would never move. The house was fabulous. Well, it still is. It had all the things we wanted and more. It wasn’t our dream home but it was HOME. And the only way we were moving from there was feet first by one of the Rooks Funeral Home people.

But never say never, right?

Things change. Situations change. Some things are within our control, others aren’t.

Life hands you a different set of directions than you had mapped out in your head. The road you WERE taking is closed and it’s time to detour.

Off to Atlanta we moved. To an apartment. This time, it was decentish (at best) at first and quickly went downhill. But our house hadn’t sold so we had no options.

And then… just like that… our house sold! And it was a sad but wonderful day. We said goodbye to our forever house and land and million dollar views and were still sitting in a crappy apartment.

Until I took Henry to school one day. And saw a man staking a sign in a yard of a house I’d been eyeballing for months as one of the smaller houses here in Dunwoody. This area is ripe with 4/5/6 bedroom homes, all of which are WAY too big for a family of three.

I called. And within a week, we had signed a lease… without Jason ever laying an eye on the inside.

We moved last Thursday, thus the lack of updating on the site. I’m about 90% done unpacking. There are still two storage units of “junk” in Fort Valley but they can wait. We are comfortable and getting settled.

I’ve been nervous that Jason wouldn’t love the house. It’s a 1960′s split level with lots of creaks and quirks. Coming from our Fort Valley house, it’s much different. It’s on a busy road. But right across from Henry’s elementary school.

But Saturday night, Jason said, “I think we’re going to really love it here. It makes me think of the Mableton house and that makes me happy.”

And that made ME happy. I want nothing more in this world than for Jason and Henry to be happy and comfortable. I’ve been so worried that my decision, without him seeing the house, wouldn’t be a good one. We’ve lived in limbo for two years and we just want some contentment.

I think we’ve found it.

In this house. With all it’s quirks, creaks, extra layers of paint and character.

We’re home.

Filed Under: Family, Thoughts Tagged With: , , ,
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