I decided to look at this one again though and read over some of the posts. It’s amazing how far we’ve come.  Things were really hard and pretty dark for a while.

Now, my oldest daughter is 18 and has graduated highschool. She’s still engaged to the guy I don’t like, but I’m hoping she meets someone new at college… YES!  She’s going to college! She got accepted to me and DH’s alma mater and got scholarships enough to cover all but a small loan. She’ll only owe about $8000 after she graduates and it’s interest free and postponed til after graduation (or if she quits… I AM REALLY HOPING she doesn’t quit.)

The next oldest is starting high school this fall and wants to be a nuclear engineer (YAY!), the next one will be in 7th grade and my baby will be in 2nd grade. She had to take 1st grade over due to her being so much younger than the other kids and not really “getting it” til this last time around.

I’m still working online from home and finally got a small raise. DH is still asst manager and got a raise and a bonus this year WOOHOO!  We also got a nice tax refund AND the first-time homeowner’s tax credit WOOHOO!  lol Our previous tin box we “lived” in did not really count as a previously owned residence. In fact I could not find any proof we even lived there. The property tax records don’t even show our name.

So, what happened to the old place? Well, apparently the guy I physically handed the title and info to never even came back to it. So, he never signed the lease and the park was left with an empty trailer sitting on that lot. I had no idea actually until months later when a woman came by the new house and asked if they could have the swingset at the old place, and I told them it belonged to the other guy now and she said the place was empty.  I was heart broken. I mean the place was our home for years and I knew it would take no time at all for it to be totally run down if someone didn’t work on it immediately. I couldn’t imagine how bad it was by now. I drove by a couple of times. The yard was overgrown and someone took all the skirting off of it (probably stolen).  But finally my oldest daughter was driving around other there recently to see a friend who was moving after graduation and she said the re was a big dumpster in front of the old place and it looked like they were remodeling it like they’d done to a bunch of the old trailers when we lived there.  So, the park ended up with it afterall, but I don’t even care anymore.  I’m just glad to know it’s being fixed up and *someone* will live in it again (even if they end up spending way more in rent than it’s worth).  The yard might have kids playing in it once again, and that makes me happy.

I do miss the old neighborhood… but you can’t go home again.  it’s not the place it was when my older ones were little. There’s been murders, drug raids, you name it. Cops are there constantly.  Cops rarely ever come through here. But back in the day, that was a great place to raise kids and just be a happy young family.  Back when my college girl was just a kindergartener… wow I can’t believe so much time has passed… so many years. Sigh.

Well, just wanted to say hi to any of the old readers who might still be subscribed.  I hope you’re all doing well and things are looking up in your corner of the world too.

*waves*

My oldest daughter is now 17.  Her boyfriend proposed at the prom, and they’ve decided to get married in 2011. Well, at first she wanted to get married in November, because it would be when they were both 19 and it would be in the fall with the trees’ colors and the cool air making it a nice for an outdoor wedding.  I was OK with that, though her father says she’s marrying this jerk over his dead body.  Well, now she’s decided the wedding will be on her 19th birthday.  I texted her and told her that was a bad idea since it screws her out of stuff for their entire marriage (not just stuff, but reasons to celebrate, etc)  and it was likely due to him just wanting less dates to remember.  She texted bad and said that it was indeed his idea and it was to make sure they didn’t fight over him forgetting their anniv.  Well hell!  If he thinks he’s going to forget the anniversary and they’re NOT EVEN MARRIED YET, then why the hell even bother with this idiot.???  If he can’t pull his head out of his ass long enough to put an alarm on his phone or mark a damn calendar, what makes her think he’ll care enough to come home at night????!?!?!?!

What kills me the most though is she actually said he cares more about her than we do.  ….  She is my first born.  My baby. I sat up holding her hand every night for months because she’d have bad dreams and was afraid to go to sleep alone.  I worried more about her spending the night at her grandma’s when I was in labor with my second – than I worried about my second being OK.  My oldest was my whole world. I’m sure my husband wasn’t happy about that, but it’s just how I was.  And now she’s 17, apparently some asshat highschool dropout jerk care more about her than i do.

Even her grandfather didn’t like him before he’d even met him just from the smirk on the kid’s face in their prom pictures.

At least she is going to NY next week.  She’ll be gone with her 13 yr old sister and her grandmother and stay with family on Long Island who have some money.  They even asked if they could spoil them.  I’m hoping the time apart from asshat boy will help her realize she can make her own decisions and not have to listen to his incessant whining.  Everytime I had her talked into this trip, the boy would whine and talk her out of going.  He’d miss her TOO MUCH. HAH!  This kept going back and forth, him undoing everything I’d done to get her to go willingly, til I told her she had no choice.  Finally her uncle in NY talked to her and convinced her to go and like it.  I’m fairly sure he bribed her. Whatever it takes.

I just wish she’d look for someone other than a  HS dropout mama’s boy.

He was very nice, and I got an honest vibe from him (like the people who wear the gold capes in that phone book commercial).  After looking at it for a while and only coming in to fiddle with the breaker once, he came in to talk to me.  He explained how the coils needed cleaning badly and to use Grease Lightning on it and how to clean them.  He said we needed a new filter (duh- we’re so not used to having central heat and air!),  and then said whoever had worked on the heatpump last had wired it all wrong, and he knows it wasn’t him. After he explained the wiring issue, I even asked how the previous occupants could possibly have had air conditioning.  We were both at a loss. It’s just one more mystery about this place (like the stuff on the bedroom wall that looks a LOT like blood splatter on CSI.)

So, I was like, “So it’s working now?” and he said, “Feel the vents.”   Ahhhhhh I think I can hear angels singing.  I have air conditioning!!   Since there were no parts involved and he got it done in one visit, it just cost $75 – that’s less than the price of a window AC unit.  WOOHOO!!  OMG I am so happy y’all, you just don’t know.

I’m gonna go do laundry and house cleaning and stuff, cause it feels so nice in here.  Ahhhhhh!  here’s hoping everyone has a nice cool home this summer too.

The guy’s friend came by as well as the maintenence people who happen to be the parents of 17′s (16 had a birthday) ex boyfriend.  Well one of them. She had dated their son when she was 14 and he was 16 until they were 15 and 17. Apparently he was a jerk and couldn’t keep his hands off of her – though we didn’t know it at the time.  Nothing terribly major though, but enough for her to dump him for a nicer guy.  ANYWAY, his mother is one of the rudest and mose crass people I’ve ever met.  When 17 came outside to dump a trash bag in the pile, the woman called out to her and called her “Fatty”.  I have to say 17 is not fat. She’s chunky maybe, but she’s got a great figure and does have a waist (as opposed to my spare tire ugh). Anyway, doesn’t matter, the woman was just rude.  I wanted to say something to her, but I felt it just was not the place or time, and I would simply not stoop to her level.  I knew my kid would just ignore the woman, as she can’t stand her anyway.  Oh, and let me just say the woman has no place to talk, she’s missing teeth and has no partials or dentures to replace them, she’s got a man’s haircut (and not one of those sassy spiky things – just an ugly man’s haircut with graying dark hair)  and she’s also heavyset.  I simply do not understand.

So, anyway, I heard the maintenance people leaving, then the guy’s friend asked what exactly they were doing there, and then they all got in their cars and left. So, my family was left to get our junk out of there.  The girls got the inside done and two of them went off to a bday party. 17 went to get her boyfriend (the nice one) and brought him over to help.  I think it took 3 loads to the dump, and about 4 hours and a box of trashbags, but we finally got everything out of the shed, and hauled off or brought back here.  I didn’t think we’d have much left to keep, but we did. I found a lot of old stuff from when I was a teenager.  I’d like to go thru it again before throwing most of it away.  no need in keeping everything.  Now my gazebo is covering piles of stuff. That’s what I get to do tomorrow.  Sort.

We did leave one tub of stuff that had been half ful of water black with mold.  We kicked it over to empty the water out, and we’ll have to go back and figure out how to take care of that. There’s also still a pile of wood stuff the dump won’t take. We’ve got to see if a friend of ours wants it for his burn pile.  He’s a pyromaniac, so shouldn’t be a problem.

The guy said he signs his lease tomorrow, they’ve already approved him, he just has to fix the underpinning and get rid of the shed.  The woman said she was going to see if they could talk them into letting him keep the shed if he put a new roof on it and painted it.  They also raised his lot rent by $15.  They had JUST raised it less than 6 months ago.

But basically it’s over.  In fact, if I can talk DH into going over and dealing with the moldy tub full of stuff and the wood pile, I might never have to go back there again. Oh happy day!!!