Ah... The move is over (well almost)

It has been a very long process, but thankfully, Buddy & I can finally say we are done. We at least we can say all of our stuff in is in our new place. It might not all be put away. We might not have everything arranged just perfectly, but it is all there.

This moving process started in June, when my roommate announced she was moving to Indiana to be closer to her family. Ok, then No biggie. I looked for some time for the perfect place for Buddy and I. Of course I wanted a 3 bedroom, a room for me, a room for Buddy, and one for our guest (Nana Sheri & Grandpa George) when we have them. Buddy informed me he did not want to have to give up his room when we had company. We wanted a house. Buddy wanted a fenced in yard. I wanted to be closer to the Carrin & the kids, Buddy wanted to make sure there were girl dogs around he could run around with. I wanted something in price range. Buddy wanted some place he could party in while I was gone.

Needless to say we looked at quite a few places and couldn't find just the right place, so we started looking at apartments. Here I found a couple I liked, but only ended up looking at 2. One was a townhouse complex, the townhouse was nice, the neighborhood was not. I felt unsafe just walking to my car after looking at the townhouse. The second place I looked at was it. It was a 2 bedroom, 1st floor walkout. I put in an application and set a date to move.

So moving day is approaching. We take a little trip to Wisconsin, come back and our down for 3 days with whatever crap, Aunt Paula, Jace, and Mo had. At least most of our stuff had been packed before this. I asked some people for help, confirmed with the apartment complex that I could sign my lease on Saturday Aug 15th. Sure no problem I have you down for 10am that day. Woo Hoo. Friday night,Toby, Carrin Megan, Noah, and my friend Heather came over and helped me load as much as possible on the Uhaul. I take my bed apart that night, and Buddy and I can hardly sleep that night thinking of our new place. We wake up the next morning, get ready to head over there in the truck, Toby calls and says he doesn't have to work now, so he will just go over there with me at 10. He drives the Uhaul, I drive me truck, and we get there, and...... We wait. And we wait. So we decide to drive and grab some breakfast. Surely who ever is supposed to work went out the night before and is just running late.

We get back, and still no one. We start calling the maintaince man, the other complexes owned by the same company. We can't get a hold of anyone. Aparently everyone went out last night. Finally I get a hold of someone at 1 of the complexes. She assures us she is going to call her manager and get someone right over there. So Toby and I figure we will wait there so we don't miss them. We wait for 4 hours. Just before 2pm after talking to the girl at the other complex numerous times, and having her assure us she is in touch with someone, she calls to tell me she hasn't been able to get in touch with anyone so I can't sign my lease today. WTF!! Are you kidding me. I sat here from 10 until 2 while you told me someone was on the way, and now you are telling me no one was on there way the whole time. I have Uhaul all loaded up that I need to have back at 6 in the evening. I have people willing to help me today. Seriously. Seriously.

So Toby please his heart. Took me back to his place, bought me dinner, and drinks, and helped me just forget I had a Uhaul loaded sitting back at my place.

I wake up Monday morning, and head back to the apartment complex, and lay into the people working there. Come to find out they fired the entire staff from the complex that week, and no one bothered to look at the schedule to see if they had anyone coming in on Saturday. Ok really nice. I had rent the Uhaul for 2 extra days, I had people lined up, I don't care if you fired anyone, someone should have called me or been here. So after giving them a piece of my mind a couple of times, they gave 200.00 off of my rent for a month. Ok that is ok. I will be ok with that.

So my roommate who is older then my mother, helped me unload my Uhaul so I could get it back to the place before having to pay for another day. She was a total trooper. And when it got down to the little bit of furniture that I had loaded in there. (It was the stuff I had in storage, not the stuff I had at the house) a couple that lives in the building offered to helped. Really. Wow that was totally unexpected from people that I don't even know.

Over the next couple of days I loaded up my truck on the way from home from work, and unloaded it at my apartment. I did probably 20 loads of dishes, put them away. Looked for a washer and dryer on Craigslist. And made plans to move the rest of my furniture on the Saturday after.

I had Toby lined up, he was going to borrow his brothers truck, I was going to borrow a trailer. We were going to get my washer & dryer, and then get the rest of my stuff. Carrin & Todd were going to help it was all set. All Toby had to do was ask his brother to borrow his truck. Yup sure no problem. Toby came over on Friday I asked him if he had talked to his brother. Yup don't worry.

Next day I get a call, Just meet me at the house. What. Ok. I get there. He is there in his work truck, his brother is there with his wife's Ford Focus, and a guy we work with Aarron is there with his little Toyota Tacoma. Seriously. Ok. Some how the fact that his brother didn't bring his truck with him to work that Saturday was my fault. I am not sure how exactly that is, but in Toby's crazy little mind this was all my fault. But the got the furniture moved. Somehow. Carrin & Todd borrowed a truck from Ameristar, and helped me get my washer and dryer. I got them to my aparment. Todd took a look at the broken knob, (I knew it was broken before I bought it, but they were only 2 years old) and we got the washer to where I could still use it with out the knob.

I was so excited to be doing laundry in MY OWN washer & dryer. I felt like it was a big rite of passage to own my washer & dryer. Then I realized it was taking way to long for the washer. So I went to check on it, and it was still agitating after 2 hours. Wow my clothes much have been really dirty. So I went on to start the load again. Still taking 2 hours. SO finally I decided to manually adjust the knob to the next cycle. The next morning, I get up to move the stuff to the dryer, and realize my once khaki colored pants, are a really neat shade of light blue, and my jeans are still soaking wet. Apparently my washer doesn't spin, and having to do my jeans so many times bleed some of the blue out of the blue jeans, and dyed my khaki's. But the khaki's are perfectly dyed so I can still wear them if I find something to wear with them.

So know I am at the beginning of week 3 in my new place. Buddy and I only had to sleep on the couch for 5 days. I can only do one load of laundry a day because I forget to manual advance the washer, and it takes longer to do a load. I have unpacked about a million boxes. I have loaded and unloaded my truck about 100 times, spent about a billion dollars on stuff that I need, (or I have to admit just wanted). And I am still not completely done.

So maybe in 3 more weeks I will be all unpacked and can get some pictures posted for all of you to see.

Buddy is still getting adjusted to his new place. He has to be on a leash when we go outside so I know he misses just being able to run. He is misses his girls Abby & Skylar. And he misses Ruth. We stopped over there yesterday to pick up a few things, and he looked in every room twice for her. And she wasn't there. Poor guy. This weekend everytime I sat down he would climb on my lap and wouldn't get off for anything. But he will figure things out, and one of these days I will done unpacking and can spend a little more time with him. Until then, he is just drinking thru all my alcohol, and moping around. I made him give up the smokes when we moved into our new place.

Remebering Senator Kennedy

Please indulge me these few moments. I do not tend to talk politics with many people.

On Saturday I was watching Senator Edward Kennedy's funeral. What a sad day for American Politics. It is because of he and his brothers John, and Robert that I became and am proud to say I am a democrat. The Kennedy's believed in making the world a better place for all of us. Not just those of us that have lawyers and lobbyists speaking for us. They all wanted to make sure we had a better world to leave for our children.

For those of you who aren't democrats. For those of you reading this that think democrats are evil, think of this the next time you need to take Family Medical Leave, or think you are being treated unfairly at work because you are female and you want to take it up with OSHA or take it to court, or in my case when you are a diagnosed with an illness that you sometimes need special consideration for. It is because of Ted Kennedy that we are able to do these things. He had a major part in the Civil Rights Act, the Equal Rights Ammendment, in the Americans with Disablity Act, in the Family Medical Leave Act, and in the helping our children have more opportunities, with the State Children's Health Ins Program, and the No Child Left Behind intiative. I believe we have all benefited from some if not all of these laws and thousand more that Ted Kennedy helped shape and helped get passed.

He was born and raised in his brother's shadows. First his brother Joe Jr, who was killed in a heroic plane crash in the second World War and held all his father's hopes and dreams of a great politic career. Then John, who was a great president, and was killed way to early in his life. I for one would have loved to see what John could have done had he lived longer. And finally his brother Robert, who picked up John's torch where it was dropped, and tried to carry it on only to have his own life cut short, by a bullet. Ted, picked up where they left off, and tried to carry their torch and legacy on to help a new generation.

Ted Kennedy led an imperfect life. He made lots of mistakes. Some that costs him he chance at the White House. But Ted Kennedy also lead a very public family thru some of America's saddest times. He was the one the family rallied around when they had to grieve their losses in the public eye instead of being able to greive like the rest of us in private and away from the public eye. And he did this in such a way that gave us all hope. Hope that tomorrow will be a better day, hope that the loses won't always hurt the way they do, and hope that we can come together and carry on.

I teared up a couple of times watching the service for him. He was a great man. One that was flawed, but one that never the less tried to do the best he could to make this country, this world, this generation the best it can be. For that I will eternally remember and thank him.

May you rest in peace Edward (Ted) Kennedy.

My Sister!!

Today is my big sister's birthday. Ok well maybe not big sister, but older sister's birthday. She is 3 1/2 years older then me. And today she turns... well I won't tell you what her really age is.

I don't always tell her how much she means to me. But I love her.

Growing up I always wanted to be like her. There was just something about her. Still is! That makes people just want to be around her. She always had a boyfriend. She always had a ton of friends. I always wanted to be one of them.

Her and I are about as different as you can get. She is easy going, doesn't let much bother, I let almost everything bother me. She is bubbly, & outgoing, I am moody, and reserved. We don't always see eye to eye. We rarely got along growing up. But today I consider her one of my best friends. I moved 500 miles away from home to live closer to her, and do not regret that decision at all.

My sister has a great family. She is raising 3 1/2 kids, and doing a great job. She lets them try whatever they want. Soccer, dance, band, choir, baseball, football, volleyball, cheerleading. I don't think she has ever told one of her kids, NO you can't try that. She might tell them not right now, but NEVER has told them, NO I don't want you to try that. She teaches them to help out when they are able, to treat others with respect. She has shown them how much family means. She has taught them how to love, how to laugh, and how to enjoy life.

She has met a good guy, who makes her extremely happy. They are getting married in 10 months and though I didn't always give him the easiest welcome, I do see how happy he makes her, and how good he is to her kids, and can't help but like him for that.

On this day I want to her to know how much she means to me. How much I love her. And How much I still look up to her.

Happy Birthday Carrin!! f

My Dog

My dog is white.

My dog is named Buddy.

My dog loves attention. I mean loves attention. If you aren't talking to him, petting him or playing with him he will remind you he is there and you forgot him.

My dog sleeps under the covers with me.

My dog likes to drink beer (unless Nana Sheri & Grandpa George are around)

My dog has 3 girlfriends (Abby, Jade & Angel)

My dog is SUPER sweet.

My dog gets so excited when I come home he seriously can't control himself.

My dog loves me just the way I am no matter what I do. He accepts me as me.

My dog gives me tons & tons of kisses every day.

My dog is the cutest dog in the world.