Random Ramblings

I have good news.  I think.

We have an accepted offer on a house that we want to buy.  It still has to pass inspection, but barring the discovery of any major hidden damage, dead bodies, or nuclear waste, we should take possession next month and the sale will close after the first of the year. 

There hasn't been a whole lot to tell you guys about and I have been real busy with offers, counter offers, setting up inspections, researching schools, etc.  Then this weekend, we had to give up the corporate apartment that the company had provided because our first month is up.  (I am really going to miss that place -- it was so nice to go hideout over there and read or screw around on the Internet all day without the kids).  There is a bright side though:  It is one less place where our stuff is spread out.  I have been going a little nuts trying to keep track of everything and everybody.  The majority of our worldly possessions are in storage, but the suitcases, clothes, and some toys are all over the place.  There were days where some things and some kids were at my mom's, my mother-in-law's, my sister's, in the car, at the apartment, etc. all at the same time.  I am really looking forward to getting our own place where most of us and our junk can be centrally located.  There have been several times when I go to get one or more of the kids clothes for the day and discover that the only pair of underwear that they brought from the last place we stayed is the pair that they wore over, or that they only brought a pair of flip flops and we have to go to church.  It will be nice when all of their stuff is in one place.

Also, it will be nice to have our own stuff.  Last night, my husband turned on his netbook at my parent's house and it automatically went to set up their wireless network.  He had no idea what it was doing and inadvertently renamed their wireless router to his name.  We told my parents about it this morning, but I used my marketing background to put as positive a spin on it as I could by telling them that we upped their security.  Before this, anyone could have used their Wi-fi because it was an unsecured network.  Now, its so secure that no one will even know it is theirs because it has my husband's name on it. Of course, we have no idea how to change this, but they don't really care. 

We have been looking at furniture for the family room too.  We left all of our stuff in Texas because, well, it was crap.  We had a huge sectional that we had bought off of Craigslist.  The children had used it as a trampoline for the past few years and so it stayed.  We keep going into theses stores and looking a furniture and we try to explain to the salespeople that we are not buying anything yet because the deal on the house could still fall apart and we don't want to have even more crap to have to put into storage.  They follow us around, telling us all about their "once a year" deals and sales and trying to get us to go ahead and order it to "lock in the price" and because it can take 6-8 weeks if we order special fabrics.  We tried to tell them that we have 4 young kids and that unless they have a couch made out of dry erase material, we won't be needing any special fabrics, but they don't listen.  We went to one store, where you can get on their website and custom design your own couch.  We went home and tried it. It was beautiful.  Aaaaaaannnnd it was $4,000.  I look at those places a lot like I look at luxury cars:  Lamborghini's are beautiful and very desirable machines, but they do not work for us.  We don't need a Lamborghini couch -- we need a good, reliable Ford couch. 

The house we are trying to buy also has a formal dining room.  It will be empty for awhile since every table that I have seen that I like, that is big enough, that would match the built-in china cabinets in there, is over $3,000.  I am pretty stoked about the built-in china cabinets though.  I can finally get my fine china and crystal out of the bubble wrap where it has been safely stored away from my minions since 2000. 

Last night as I was discussing all of the finances with the husband, he looked at me funny.  I asked him why he was looking at me like that and he said that he could see "it" coming.  I said "What??!  What can you see coming?" He wisely moved out of punching range before responding "Your meltdown."  He's right though.  I am trying to estimate back-to-school costs, decorating and painting costs, even our initial grocery bill so that I will know exactly what I can safely spend on furniture and we don't even officially have the house yet.  There are still too many unknowns.  I hate not knowing. 

So here's what I DO know:  I am home.  Everything else will eventually fall into place.  And hopefully, I will be back to writing full-force as soon as we get settled.  Oh, and for the first time in a long time I am optimistic.  There may be a meltdown coming, but there will not be a shutdown with it.  I am where I want to be, and all the unknowns are not going to bog me down.