Typically someone might point out that they've reached post number 75, or post 100, or some other number that seems somewhat significant. But for me, this is post 73. And it is only significant because I was born in 1973. Not too significant, eh? Oh well.

Today I am listening to my house rumble as my kids threaten to tear it to pieces. Not really, but it sounds like it. I think they are busy jumping off things and doing somersaults. As long as I don't have to go to the hospital with an injured kid I can deal with it.

Tomorrow we are going to Lagoon again. It's Stake Lagoon Day so there are discount tickets available, but we don't need them because we already have our season tickets. King Isepik had previously said that he would meet us there after work which I took to mean that he would skip gaming that night to be with us. Apparently he didn't think about gaming, so I'm guessing he's not going to come with us unless gaming is cancelled. I don't blame him for wanting to go gaming, it's something that he really enjoys. But I figured that since I mentioned Stake Lagoon Day multiple times, and mentioned the fact that it was on Friday multiple times, it would be enough to clue him in to the fact that he usually goes gaming on Friday's. Guess not.

For the record, I'm not mad. I'm simply writing in my blog.

I wrote a letter to the editor of our local paper on Tuesday (did I mention this before?). It got published on Wednesday. There weren't any responses to it today (phew!). I think my opinion needed to be said, but I'm dreading the potential hate mail. It will be interesting to see what happens though.

I took the kids bike riding this morning. That is to say, they rode their bikes and I walked along behind them. The Pink Princess complained and whined so I told her we would just take her bike home and she could sit on the porch and do nothing. But her friend Laura arrived, and suddenly, The Princess wanted to keep on riding bikes. She has training wheels, but she is still afraid to ride - or so she says. After a few minutes she was racing along at a pretty good clip with no falls. She's such a drama queen when it's just me and her.

Nothing else to say. Life is boring and I'm too lazy to do anything about it.

I'll be heading to the Post Office shortly because I just finished filling out all the forms and making all the necessary copies for the stack of rebates that I've been ignoring.

Over the next 4-12 weeks, I (we) will receive the following:
$250 in an assortment of checks
A coupon for a 10% discount on my entire purchase at the Home Depot
A Portable DVD Player

Cool, huh? Mostly I'm just excited that this stack of papers has been taken care of.

Time to catch you up on our life, I suppose.

We wanted to go to Lagoon on Thursday night but the girls had an incident, and therefore, we didn't go. Friday went fairly smoothly so we decided to go to Lagoon that evening. Everyone had a blast. The Pink Princess rode the old white roller coaster for the first time - and loved it! She got to go two times in a row, because The King and I switch off and take turns waiting with The Purple Dragon. Thankfully, Lagoon seems to have a "Baby Swap" policy, so we didn't have to wait in line twice which was really nice. She also tried the "Screamer", the "Wild Mouse" and the "Paratroopers" and liked all of them a lot. The Purple Dragon's new ride for the day was the "Paratroopers" and she did NOT like it. Other than that, we had a great time riding the "Sky Ride", "Music Express", the train (Lagoon has a zoo, complete with a lion!), the "Tilt-a-Whirl" and a few others. We stayed until about 10:30, and it was a lot of fun to experience Lagoon at night -- something I hadn't done in years.

On Saturday, The Pink Princess woke up with a fever and a sore throat. We medicated her, then dragged both her and The Purple Dragon to Home Depot. We bought a tree (a maple), and a microwave/hood to go over our stove/oven. We probably shouldn't have gone with The Princess being as sick as she was, but we didn't realize how bad she was until we were already at Home Depot. We went home and I made her a nice yogurt fruit salad with strawberries, apples, bananas and peach yogurt.

On Sunday, the intent was to go to Church, but it didn't happen. The Princess was still sick and I took the easy way out. We had my friend Deana (from college) and her fiance Derrick over for dinner. It was so nice to see her again, and her fiance seemed to be a really great guy. I'm really happy for her, and I'm excited to be a brides maid (matron) for her wedding next month.

This morning I decided to keep The Pink Princess home from summer school because she still had a low grade fever (99.1), only because fevers are usually lower in the morning, so I'm assuming it's going to go up as the day progresses. She says her throat doesn't hurt any more, so that's good. At any rate, another day of rest (sort-of) won't hurt her.

I've already unpacked 2 boxes today, and am in the process of unpacking two more. I'd like to find our knives. We are also missing our vegetable peeler - do you think it's with the knives? Got another load or two of laundry to do, and I need to change the sheets on all the beds. That should keep me sufficiently busy today.

Ah yes, my brilliance is astounding.

Little ol' me managed to program the DirecTV remote to work with our television.

The DirecTV technician was unable to do it (good thing the installation was free, eh?), and King Isepik was unable to do it (granted, he was only just beginning to attempt it), but me, yes, YOURS TRULY, solved the problem all by myself.

Thank-you.

A 'To-Do List' Update: As I predicted, I only finished items 1, 2, 3 & 10. Pitiful.

We were going to go to Lagoon last night after King Isepik came home from work, but things went awry. The King IM'd me that he was going to stay late at work to play Unreal Tournament (only for about 30 minutes longer than he would normally stay), but during that course of those 30 minutes, the girls had a complete breakdown and I got angry and sent them both to their rooms. They both fell asleep.

So, if The King had been home at the regular time, this might not have happened and we might have made it to Lagoon -- but we might have had a terrible time at Lagoon because apparently the girls were very tired and cranky.

As it was, eventually we woke the girls up, Isepik gave them a pretty good talking to about their behavior and why we weren't going to Lagoon (though the behavior wasn't really WHY we didn't go to Lagoon, but he thought it would make a good teaching opportunity) and both the girls cried and cried and cried, but then we went outside and played baseball with them. They both learned how to hit the ball, and The Pink Princess enjoyed trying to catch the ball. Maybe I need to look into T-ball teams (or softball) for them. Though I think The Purple Dragon might really like Soccer. *shrug*

I haven't accomplished much this week. I think I'm exhausted. I'm not too worried about it, though I am a little annoyed, and I have high hopes that next week will be better.

My plans for today consist of doing a load of laundry. Ok, I really need to do more than that, and I WILL... but I really do need to do a load or two of laundry. That's a priority. Oh, and practice the piano with The Pink Princess - we missed the last two days. Well, she did practice a little... but not what we really need to be doing.

King Isepik was a sweetheart this morning - apparently he got up and bought us a gallon of milk because we ran out of it last night. So thoughtful of him and I (and the girls) really appreciate it.

Something smells. I hope it's not me. I'm leaning towards the pile of laundry -- or The Purple Dragon just pooped again. *sigh* This child has GOT to get potty trained. I'm going nuts.

Oh yeah, if all goes well tonight we are probably going to try to go to Lagoon again.

That's it for now.

Let me guess, you came here for excitement! You wanted to be entertained! You were hoping that I was going to post pictures of the new house? You wanted a cute story about the girls? Well, I've got news for you. You're getting NONE of the above. HA!

Today, you get to see a small portion of my To-Do List.

1. Go get The Purple Dragon some milk.
2. Go take a shower and get dressed.
3. Dust off the piano.
4. Finish clearing "stuff" out of the living room.
5. Put away the last of the dishes that have been found (the knives are still MIA).
6. Empty the 'medicine cabinet' (a tool box) into the REAL 'medicine cabinet'.
7. Put The Purple Dragon's clothes away.
8. Finish organizing the Linen Closet.
9. Get the toys out of our closet.
10. Pick up The Pink Princess from school at 4:00.

I guarantee I will get numbers 1, 2, 3 and 10 completed. Wanna place bets for the rest? *grin*

So I told a few people about my blog today, so I thought I should post something.

Something.

Not much else to say. I know some of you would like to see pictures of the house (more than what I had previousl posted), so I guess I will have to take some pictures over the next few days. They will probably only be pictures of the girls rooms, because nothing else is really done yet. I'm sure the girls would love to pose for a few shots of them in their new rooms.

Today was a long day. I am tired. Oh yeah, I now have a piano in the house. It got moved in today. It needs some repair work (long story that I'm not sure I'll ever tell because it makes me feel sad), but it is here.

My friend Deana asked me to be her bridesmaid in her upcoming July wedding. I said yes, though I feel like I'm going to ruin all the pictures because I'm so freakin' fat. I know I need to lose weight... I just... I dunno. *shrug* Maybe this will motivate me? I know I can't lose enough weight to be gorgeous, but I could lose some and that might make me feel better? Oh well.

Nothing else I can think of to write about right now. I'm tired, but I think I'm gonna head for the bathtub.

I found the dish cloths and dish towels!

No luck with the knives. :(

As far as everything else? We have too much stuff. Period.

Other stuff I want to remember:

- The Pink Princess made her bed all by herself.
- The Pink Princess made a 'reading spot' in her room.
- The Purple Dragon likes to call flamingos 'falingos'.
- They both seem to like their rooms very much as they spend a lot of time in them.
- Three little neighborhood boys are going to be in big trouble if they don't stop ringing our doorbell every day, all day.
- When I get upset and worry if we made the right choice about moving into this house (yes, Isepik, I worry too much), all I need to do is go and look at our two little girls happily asleep in their new bedrooms and I know that all is right.

We put together The Purple Dragon's new bed last night, AND she actually slept in it!

The bed is huge (though it really is a twin size bed), and it is waaaaaay high off the ground, which was NOT our intention. But she loves it. And now The Pink Princess is miserable because her bed is too "short".

Anyway, it is very pretty, and huge, but as I said before, The Dragon likes it. Hopefully we can keep her safe, because I was starting to make her bed this morning (pulling stuffed animals and the like off of it and dumping them on the floor), she decided to take a flying leap off of the bed and into the pile of animals. I have to admit, it did look like fun, but I don't want her doing it on a regular basis. The bed is so huge she has to have a chair to step on in order to climb into it. Oh well, she'll grow in to it eventually -- and I am not in a rush for that to happen.

On another note, I think I have email again. If you sent me something and I didn't respond it's likely I didn't get it. But it could still show up... so never fear!

The update is this: We are in the house.

Most everything is still in boxes which are mostly in the garage, but you could say that we live here now.

I have been working like a mad woman to get the kitchen unpacked. I think we must have the slowest dishwasher in the world because it is taking forever to get our dishes washed - and they ALL have to be washed because they have been in storage for 10 months. Interesting problem - I have emptied almost all of the obvious kitchen boxes (and browsed through the ones that are not emptied) and I am missing two types of items. Butter knives and dishcloths. The dishcloths I can understand they could be packed in a box with breakable stuff -- or heaven forbid -- left in the dryer at our last house! But the butter knives? How can I have all the other utensils but no butter knives? It's very strange.

The Pink Princess' room is almost done. It looks very pretty. It's very pink, with lots of soft white frilly accents. We did the majority of it last night, and it still needs a little more help (I haven't painted the dresser yet, for example), but she loves it. It made her happy for a few minutes at least.

The Purple Draong's room is still purple. It needs a lot of decorating -- nothing has been done. A few more days.

Our room is not painted, but it is put together in the sense that all the furniture is arranged and some of the clothes are actually where they are supposed to be. Also, we got a new comforter set and I splurged and bought nicer (300 thread count) sheets. It really doesn't sound like much, but MAN, these sheets are nice! They feel so soft, I really, really, like them. It's amazing what a slightly higher thread count number can do for a good night's sleep!

Almost everything else is chaos. I take comfort in the fact that, as mentioned earlier, most of the boxes are in the house.

The burn on my arm is much better. I can tell it is healing because it is very itchy today.

The mosquito/spider/bite/zit bump on my face is ugly. I want it to go away. It's hard and gross and I don't know if it will go away on its own or if I should be concerned and call a doctor in case there is something really wrong about it.

The Pink Princess is in summer school. I do not know if this is a good thing or not, but it only last for 5 weeks, and it's only 4 days a week. They are going to the Planetarium today. She always says she wants to go, but she comes home extremely cranky and it's hard for me to deal with. Maybe with her room done she can go in there and chill out for a little bit before joining the rest of the family? Unfortunately, I have to pick her up at school today which most likely means that the ride home will be miserable.

The Purple Dragon is a couch potato. I think we need to go for a walk today, maybe let her ride her tricycle around the block. All she wants to do is watch TV. Also, she's not eating very much which kind-of bothers me, but she's 3, and that's supposedly normal behavior (eating in spurts), but she is also more naps than usual. She is also adjusting to the new house. She says she is lonely in her room. Sad!

Um, there is probably more to write, but I can't think of it right now, so this will just have to tide you over until I really have computer access again. Another day or so, says King Isepik. We are having router problems.

It's 5 am, and yes, I'm still awake. I've been busy packing, but mostly depressed. I have come to the conclusion that we have far too much stuff. I'm not sure I know how to get rid of it though, or what to get rid of. Actually, I do know *how*, I think the hinderance is more that I don't want to.
The King and I have been fighting and it hasn't been fun. It's both of our faults, I suppose. His for the way this move is turning out. Mine for my attitude which makes me extremely difficult to live with. On the plus side, I think we are speaking to each other again.

All I really want to do is go to sleep. But if I go to sleep, will I ever wake up in time to go get the truck? I think I might take my chances.

My life for the next month (at least) is not going to be fun. At all.
Don't even think about the next 24 hours.
Let's just say that I am NOT a happy camper.
The End.

It's 3:00 in the morning. We just got home from the house a few minutes ago. I am exhausted and filthy. King Isepik just finished his shower and so now it is my turn.

And, as a bonus, this is (I'm pretty sure) the shortest entry my blog has ever seen.

My mom was a sweetie and watched the girls this afternoon so I could go to the house and steam clean my fridge. I worked on that for a while, then I burned myself, so I put a popsicle on my arm and drove 'home' to Grandma's for dinner.

Then The King and I went back to the house to paint some more. All was going fairly well, until The King remembered that he wanted to turn on the sprinklers to water our very brown, very long, almost dead grass. In case you don't recall from previous posts (that is, I think I wrote about it), there is a problem with the sprinkler system which the previous home owner is supposed to fix. Well the problem now seems to be much bigger as the 'stop waste valve' broke tonight and water was rapidly filling the very large hole that is currently in our front yard. We tried to turn it off, but couldn't, and ended up having to make an emergency call to the City to have them come and turn off the water. We couldn't get in touch with David (the previous owner), who is the only person who knows who is supposed to be fixing the sprinkler in the first place, so the whole situation was/is very frustrating.

As it stands right now, we have a very large hole filled with water in our front yard, and we have a house with absolutely NO water. And we have no idea of when it is going to be fixed. *sigh*

We did manage to get some more painting done, but we have a very long way to go, and I honestly feel that our time table is going to need to be adjusted. This is not a terrible thing -- frustrating, yes; end of world, no. But it's early yet, but this time tomorrow I could be singing a completely different song.

At least I have a sparkling fridge! OH! And my pretty new washer and dryer! They work great, too. I managed to get a load of laundry washed before we had to shut off the water. Yes, I brought dirty laundry to our new house just to try out the washer and dryer. They needed to be washed... I figured it didn't matter much WHERE they were washed.

Oh yeah, and I learned how to shut off the water between the street and our house. I suppose that is a very good thing to know.

And just for fun... this post was brought to you by the letter W and the number 6.

Wow. It's been a long, strange 24 hours.

I managed to get the girls dressed and in the car and we did a whirlwind trip to Home Depot and Wal-Mart and arrived at the house shortly after 12 pm.

We did a quick walk-through which kind-of depressed me because when there is no furniture in the house you quickly realize how much work there actually is to be done.

Everything seemed to be OK for the most part, so we got the keys and just like that, we were officially homeowners.

I spent the remainder of the afternoon there attempting to do some taping in preparation for painting, but in reality spent most of my time talking with the girls and feeding them popsicles and juice drinks and opening and shutting doors for them, because the doors kind of stick. So I didn't get a lot of taping done.

We left at about 4:30 to go home so The Pink Princess could watch her favorite TV show (CyberChase), and we could have dinner (BLT's... YUM!)

We loaded up the car with drop cloths, a steam cleaner, more cleaning supplies, paint supplies, and clean towels for my eagerly anticipated bath. Then we had to make a quick stop at Home Depot to buy some paint brushes and a different kind of plastic because I had bought the wrong kind before. Then it was off to the house.

We spent the majority of the night taping. We taped everything. It is now resembling a gigantic plastic bubble. I was exhausted long before we finished, so dear sweet Isepik finished up the taping while I basically sat on the floor and was completely useless. I think the main reason why was because I spent the entire afternoon there with very little cool air -- we got the swamp cooler running, but it simply could not cool off the house. It was hot and I was drained.

When King Isepik started painting the ceiling, he gave me permission to go and take my bath. JOY! I had already bleached and vinegared the tub, so it was ready to go. It was kind-of funny because when I first climbed in, I thought it was a little small (it is smaller than our last two jetted tubs), a little loud (the motor is right underneath your head), and very whistly (the knob that controls the air flow to the jets whistles if water gets in it). So I wasn't thrilled and a bit disappointed. However, here's the proof that water is extremely therapeutic for me -- after about 5 minutes, I didn't care AT ALL. I was lost in la la land, completely oblivious to the world around me, drowned in bubbles and really warm water. HEAVEN! I haven't had a bath in 10 months (Yes, I HAVE taken SHOWERS), so this was a luxury.

After my bath I felt rejuvenated, and since Michael didn't need any help with painting, I began to clean the fridge. My Mom loaned me her steam cleaner and it is really good at getting sticky dried on stuff off... it basically just melts away. I stuck the 'door shelves' in the dishwasher and let it do the work, and I handwashed several of the other shelves. There's more to do, but it looks much better. I didn't think I would like the steam cleaner but it really does a good job, so I think I'm going to take the time to use it on the rest of the fridge and other surfaces in the house.

We finally left at about 2 am. I know The King and I will both be exhausted tonight (him more than me, because I got to sleep in some), but there is more painting to do, so we will persevere. I told him that my main concern was the girls room, and after that it was kind-of a tie between the kitchen and our bedroom, kitchen ahead by a hair. After that, I feel like everything else can wait. So we will just do what we can, and it will be fine.

I am currently awaiting a phone call from the people who are supposed to deliver our washer and dryer. They are supposed to call me about 30 minutes before delivery, which is supposed to take place at noon. This means they should be calling in the next hour and a half. However, in an hour, I have to take The Purple Dragon (and The Pink Princess who will tag-along) to her music class -- so this probably means that The King will have to go there to meet them when they finally do call.

The girls are being so good through this challenging period. They don't quite grasp what's going on -- The Pink Princess was begging to go to Lagoon yesterday morning. The Purple Dragon just wants to know when we are going to sleep there. I think it will make a lot more sense once the furniture is actually there and we are sleeping there. Normalcy (to a degree)! All in all, they have been really good. They were angels at the house yesterday, and really enjoyed playing in the master bedroom closet.

Oh - and one more random thought... whenever I leave (just in general) The Purple Dragon gets upset and cries. She always says "But I don't want to miss you!" I thought it was cute at first because it's essentially the way that she says "I'll miss you" - but her way of saying it is so much more profound. We know that we will miss someone when we say good-bye (usually!), but the truth of the matter really is that we DON'T want to miss them... meaning we don't want that "missing" feeling. I just think it's cute and it's something that I want to remember... so now it's blogged.

And the delivery people just called, so King Isepik is going to meet them there because if I go, I will probably miss or be late for The Purple Dragon's music class.

Consider yourself updated!

I'm awake now. I didn't sleep very well last night, I guess because I was excited or nervous or something - can't pinpoint my feelings very well because they seem to be all over the map.

We are supposed to meet the PREVIOUS home owner's there at noon to do a walk through and get the keys. This is exciting, I think.

In the meantime, I need to get dressed, get the girls dressed and head off to the store to buy some paint brushes, a big roll of plastic to cover stuff while we paint, laundry detergent, dishwasher detergent, bleach and a few other needed items.

Brother T came over for dinner last night, and we managed to convince him to let us fill his SUV with all kinds of stuff (a ladder, and furniture that I need to paint) and he is going to bring it by the house after he gets done with work. His work isn't very far from us - well, technically it's about 17 blocks - but compared to where everyone and everything else is, it's close.

I am going to spend the afternoon 'taping' in preparation for King Isepik painting, and then I'll move on to cleaning. Got to clean that nice big jetted tub so that I can take my long awaited bath!

The girls are asking me to take them to Lagoon. I'm afraid that's just not going to happen today or even this week. My Mom originally said that she would watch them while we were cleaning and painting and unpacking, but she's taking real estate classes and has decided she needs to finish them all and the state licensing test by mid-July. In other words, she is now extremely busy. I've had a couple of people offer to watch the girls for 2 hours at a time, and I REALLY do appreciate the offer, and I probably will take them up on it eventually, but it doesn't help that much because of the driving time involved with pick-ups and drop-offs. It would be helpful if I could time it where one of the neighbors could watch the girls for 2 hours and then my Mom would be home and could watch them for 2 hours - or vice versa. But as it is right now, it's not happening. I'm going to bring some play-dough for the girls to play with -- that usually occupies them for a couple of hours, and maybe some bubbles. We won't have TV for another week, so I'll probably need to remember to bring a radio too.

Well, time to go. Obviously I've got quite a few things to do!

Ok, just in case you've lost track...
11.5 MORE HOURS!

And now I am going to bed so that I can sleep for 6 or 7 or 8 of them.

King Isepik was going to go get stuff out of storage today so I could start arranging the kitchen but he said it was too hot. I don't blame him, those storage units pack a lot of heat, but I am disappointed (not in Isepik -- just the situation!). Maybe we can stop by tomorrow night or Tuesday instead.

G'night!

49 hours to go... 49 hours to go... 49 hours to go.... 49 hours to go....

Don't mind me, I'm just busy waiting for Monday.

I should be going through piles of papers so that I don't need to take them with me, but I'm not. Instead I am sitting around doing nothing and watching the clock. I do have a load of laundry going, but if I want to do more laundry I have to go and buy more laundry detergent. I think, that if I am going to accomplish anything today I am going to have to use a timer and have a 15-minute day. Hopefully this will get me going!

Our adventure began 31 days ago when we became pre-approved for a mortgage. 2 days later, we found our house. 29 days after that... we're home owners!

We have to wait until Monday for everything to fund and record, but we take possession on Monday at Noon.

YES!

Just thought I'd update and let you know that The Purple Dragon does have an ear infection. No fever, but a pretty bad ear infection. She's on antibiotics now, and I'm sure that within a few days we'll have our happy baby back who will be sleeping (rather than screaming) through the night.

In less than 12 hours, we'll have "paid" for our house. Too bad we can't get in it until Monday!

It's 9:30 in the morning and I should be getting ready for the day. Instead I'm sitting in front of the computer, still in my PJ's and doing nothing.

I must get The Purple Dragon some food - yogurt is her preference, and I must go to the store to find the most perfect apple in existence for The Pink Princess to give to her teacher. While I am there, I also need to buy Children's Tylenol. I must also go to Blockbuster so that I can buy a gift card for the same teacher. We are giving her a "movie night" gift so she can have some relaxation, but The Pink Princess has been begging to give her an apple all year so we are doing that too. I'm supposed to take the kids to the park today to play, and I still want to do that, but I don't think I should because The Dragon sounds absolutely terrible - hoarse, coughing, sniffling, and she's been waking up screaming multiple times a night for the past couple of nights. I don't know what she has, but I can't help but think that whatever it is, it's not good. So she has an appointment at 2:30. It's not that I don't think she would have fun at the park - she would. But more like "what if she is contagious and gets all the other kids sick" kind of thing. What to do, what to do...

Oh, and today is The Princess' last day of Kindergarten (boo hoo hoo!), and I'm feeling a bit emotional over that, but am still so stressed about the new house none of it has really registered yet. I can't believe she's going to be in 1st grade! Where did the time go?

I am also awaiting a call from the Title Company so I know how much to get a big fat cashier's check so that we can settle on our house tomorrow. That being said, King Isepik was at the house on Tuesday and he says that it doesn't appear that the seller's have packed a thing. I guess they will have a very long weekend ahead of them. I don't envy them at all. Along those same lines, I haven't really done any packing HERE... but the majority of our stuff is in storage so I guess I have managed to convince myself that it really won't be that bad. I probably will get some boxes in the next couple of days and start packing up a few odds and ends, but really - we're going to be here for at least another week and so a lot of this stuff simply can't be packed.

So, obviously I've got a lot to do, so I'd better get going. Bye!