Galloping horses don't hit, but they do transform.

So, Jen Ham had some compatibility and electronic issues for awhile. Number one, my email was hijacked. Then my iphone, which takes most of my pictures-on-the-go nowadays, could not log into my email and so for whatever reason stopped sending pictures to any email address whatsoever. I also happened to lose the volume button somewhere on my phone but that doesn't seem to be posing an immediate problem.

After I finally solved those issues, I was once again taking pictures and sending them to my new email address with ease. The problem then became that there was a glitch between my Windows 7 with the new Internet Explorer and Typepad. So, even though the photos were on my computer - at last - they wouldn't upload.

Needless to say, my issues are fixed. One might imagine, after all that work, that there was actually something very significant to post. Anybody who knows me there is always something significant to post.

We are getting ready to launch into a very different scene, I think. At some point, the Ham clan will be moving to Pensacola. There is no time soon that Derek will be leaving that station. He has suffered some recent health problems making for a very interesting station assignment situation. It was never about money before, but everything is about money now. We are officially tight on funds and it's mostly because we are trying to maintain two households in two different states.

I have officially pulled money from where there was none to make this house livable. I have been scanning the real estate in this city to find out if the market is continuing to decline here but it is actually just staying stable. I have yet to find another house for as good as a deal as we got here. That is a good sign, I think. Any other house four blocks from the beach with three bedrooms and 1 bath - even listed as a tear down as this one could - is going for no less than 299k - 315k. We purchased at $260k and were able to spiff it up to livable with hardwood floors throughout for nothing shorter than blood, sweat, tears & about $6k. In fact, as I was walking home from taking the kids to school one morning, I looked down our street and my mind "knew" where our house was because it clearly needed TLC compared to the other homes on the street. After remodeling the patio, however, I realized I was going to walk right past my own home.

I have successfully managed to clean it up. It has what I would want in a small beach house - hardwood floors, a patio with an awning & chairs for summer time, a trim yard, adequate sleeping rooms. It's also very low on the utilities, costing me only about $48 a month to heat the house lol I hope that my brother likes this house just as much because he owns a little bit of stock in it until he gets repaid :-D

If I won the lottery, it would be much nicer (nope, wouldn't tear it down) but I'll just cross my fingers on that one. I would probably get new clothes washer / dryer, hand plant year round landscaping plants to enjoy, refinish the hardwood and upgrade the bathroom and finish putting in the flood vents.

It's true that I'm in love with this little house and I'm not sure why.

Darin, me and the cats all love to just sit and look out the window and in the summer time we sit out on the front porch. Darin likes to talk to the people walking by and yell at kids riding their bikes to come play with him. lol

Speaking of Darin. He is growing up. He has made a "favorite friend." But, one very noticeable difference between Jenna, Darin and myself is that Darin has no social anxieties. Some people like him more than he likes them at times. A girl named Olivia really likes Darin and I think even she doesn't realize why quite yet. The point is that Darin has so many options for friendship that he gets to choose. He is readily accepted and loved by all and has no reservations about making new friends. The language therapist who works with Darin's "l's" and "th's" says that she has found Darin a very well adjusted child who is polite, follows directions and seems to be right on track academically.

That is not the same for Jenna and myself, who choose our friends carefully.  It's very sad, actually, that Jenna's best friend is moving away in the next few weeks. Sometimes, I've found, that the friends actually have to choose us. Jenna does not lack self confidence. She is exceptionally bright and can have a conversation with any adult about most anything. She is inquisitive, sometimes beyond her years. Every single teacher she has ever encountered finds joy in Jenna.

They are such different children and Derek and I are very fortunate. Jenna prefers her bed messy - being very particular about whether or not she sleeps with socks or in a night gown versus pajama pants - whereas Darin's bed will be as neat when he wakes up as when he went to sleep. Jenna is my early bird, waking at 5:30 am to play barbies and horses. If left alone, Darin will sleep undisturbed until 9 am.

I feel proud when I see them choosing to play in imaginative scenarios (leaving a path of destruction behind every step) over electronics. About half of the time, the kids will abandon all opportunity to watch a movie or play a computer game and instead elect to engage in imaginative play with each other. Sometimes the play is loud and often wavers between shrieks of joy and screams of terror (think: thumping horses galloping over hardwood floors and then one horse gets out of control and starts hitting the other one before realizing that horses don't hit and then all the horses are back to galloping all the way down the hallway to the barn where they transform into creator of Barbies who are getting ready to get dressed for the upcoming ballroom dance).

My mission this morning before I get dressed, go to work and see patients and then become the midwife on call for the next four days is to clean up my house. I have dishes over flowing, garbage that needs taking out, kitty litter that needs cleaned, laundry that needs transferred, vaccuuming that needs done.

And all of this as the kitties continue to drink all the Christmas tree water and remove the ornaments that have been replaced five times within the last two days. Because, I believe that a disorganized Christmas tree devoid of water and toys spread from one end of the house to the other is what "being well adjusted" is made of.

 

Comments

[wordbird]

But i thought you New Jersians had a fake tree...is the water imaginary, too? ;p