Yes, we're Moving. Again.

Taking a short break from all the moving, packing, project-related-thingy, stuff to do.
Got a notice in the mail, and thought you'd check to see if we somehow lost our minds?

Well, no, we haven't, I'm pretty certain! LOL!! Sorry, best to leave that up to other people!

And, sure, sure, sure, we've already heard it all! If you have a new one, feel free to leave a comment below. Who knows, maybe I'll even edit this posting and add in your comment, AND give you credit!

"OMG! You're moving again?"
"What! You're moving again?"
"You should be experts by now."
"What happened?"
"You could write a book about moving, by now, huh?"
"Where are you going after that?"
"You must really like moving."
"We thought you were just kidding about the gypsy-thing."
"We're thinking about moving next year. Do you want to come and pack for us?"

We're fine, we haven't lost our freakin' minds, if that is what you were still wondering. We are in transition right now, on many different levels in our lives, but it's a good thing! When we left NM last summer, we never dreamed that we'd be uprooting our family so soon. Again. Never saw it coming, but we are realizing and seeing how it's working out just the way it's supposed to be, for this juncture in our lives. Sometimes the best laid plans....just show up to let you know that some things are never really in your "control" and then end up making you a better person for it. For that, we embrace these transitions.

We moved to Hampton, VA last summer, in a temporary apartment for a few months, for a promising job that hunted down and found Mike. Followed by a move to a rental house in Newport News, VA, where we anticipated we'd be for at least a couple of years, maybe more. Now, we're heading to South Orange, NJ, where we will be for an indeterminate amount of time.

Without going into the boring details here, let's just say we survived the housing crash, despite not being able to sell our NM house for more than 8 months, and by finally switching gears in the middle to get tenants instead. They move in the first of April. The company Mike went to work for has more internal issues than a group of drunks sipping moonshine could lie about on a breezy summer weekend. It is unlikely they will be in business at the end of this year. About that sitcom that a couple of us are always talking about writing...let's just say that we acquired a lot of juicy material in the past 9 months!

So Newport News was an "okay" stopping ground. We met lots of really nice folks here, including some friends for life. We will miss the Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic Ocean and our friends here, but not much else. We are excited about moving to NJ, to a mere 20 miles from NYC (and yes, we really just said that, LOL!). Christopher is excited about getting to see some of his cousins more often, and we will get to spend quality time with Mike's parents. It's a bonus that the schools are fantastic in that neighborhood.

Sorry we missed most of you while "this close" to Virginia Beach and Williamsburg, but next time could be the charm. We probably won't be posting much online in the next few weeks. That whole packing project thing....

If you are bored and want to clean or do yard work, we know where there's some just sitting there waiting patiently for any enthusiastic sponsors!

Peace out to you and yours!

First Independent Purchase!

Christopher made his first purchase with his own money, his own wallet, and all by himself today! We had a neighborhood yard sale this weekend, planned a few months ago. His friends Quintin and Kyle were at Kyle's house about 5 houses down the street selling their toys for the yard sale today. Christopher walked down to see them, and next thing I know, he's back and telling me that, "Mommy! Mommy! I need a dollar so I can go buy a transformer at Kyle's house!" Earlier that morning, we had put his wallet in an inconspicuous place, so he could find it, but it wasn't sitting out in the open. His dresser, where he normally kept it, had been removed for the yard sale yesterday. So, I suggested to him that he go get his wallet, and get a dollar out to take and buy the toy he wanted. About 15 minutes later, he returned, very proud of himself, and told us that, "Mommy, I spent TWO DOLLARS and bought two transformers from Kyle. It cost me TWO DOLLARS! And then we counted the money in my wallet! Guess how much money I have in it, because we counted it! And I bought my transformers!" His wallet had tooth fairy money in it. Half went in his piggy bank, and half to his wallet. As we know, he's been losing a lot of teeth this past year so his little dollars were starting to rack up! And now his class is learning about money and the different denominations, and how to add them together. We practice at home, as well, so he was so excited he could count his money with his friends and know what it meant. Before this month, he really didn't care about money, even though he knew about it and what it was used for. As he likes to say, "Hey, I made a connection!" "Look what (two nickels and two pennies equal)!"

He was very proud of himself!

And then we realized how he had gone out on his own on a mission (with permission), he found something he wanted, he figured out how to get it, and he made the purchase with his own funds, and all by himself without us.

Our baby is growing up!
We are very proud of him, and love to see when he makes his "connections" in his day.

And today...we also sold and gave away 3 big boxes of baby clothing, blankets, sheets, toys, and more. We sold his baby crib last month. That was hard. It was easier today. We held up his first Halloween costume, an octopus, up against his body today before it went to its new home. The top of the head and eyes didn't even come up to his waist!

Our baby is Really Growing Up!
and learning how to spend his money
next, he's going to start asking for an allowance, we just know it

Successful Yard Sale!

We've all had yard sales or been to one, at some time in our lives. It's a tradition!

We don't usually like to have yard sales, they haven't always been worth our time in the past. You give up a day or two, to sit and deal with random people. I think we've had about 8 or 9 total since we've been married, mostly at times of transition, to downsize or make room for something new.

Our neighborhood planned this weekend as a community yard sale 3 months ago. Five families participated on Fri, six were out today.

We got rid of what would be the equivalent of about 5 pickup truckloads of "stuff" that somehow had woven themselves into our lives. Now, they are all spread out in the community and beyond. One lady bought stuff to take halfway across the country to her sister.

Some people kept coming back, once they figured out we kept adding to the pile. That's the problem when you don't have enough time to fully prepare, you keep going. We had one room FULL of boxes that we had to go thru. And WE DID IT!

It was interesting to meet a variety of the locals in the yard sale setting. We had had a sale back in Dec, to make room for Christmas, and offloaded at least two truckloads that time. One guy that came over, looked to be in his 60's, asked if we had any country music cds. I looked him and laughed and said, "don't you know that listening to country music kills your brain cells?"
He looked at me in total surprise, not knowing what to say at first, then asked me what I had just said, so I repeated it. He actually caught an attitude and got angry. We just laughed when he left, mostly because of his reaction and that he had gotten angry at a joke.

Well, yesterday, this guy walks up and says, "you got any country music cds?" I instantly recognized his voice and then him. I laughed and looked at him and said, "You know, I'm not going to tell you again what I said the last time! But, no, we don't have any country music cds."
He recognized me, and actually smiled and then said thanks. When he left, we laughed again, at the last time.

Well, about 45 min. later, he came back into the neighborhood to pickup a large item from another sale, and stopped at the sale across the street, where I happened to be at the time, chatting with the two neighbors over there. I told them quickly what had happened when he was driving up, and they laughed. When he go out of his truck, he walked up and recognized me, and then told the other ladies, "We came to a yard sale at her house last year, and do know what she said to me? What was it that you said?"

Now, the ladies laughed even louder, the timing was just too perfect! I laughed, and repeated what I had told him, but then followed it up with, "But you know, since then, I actually checked, and found out that you really don't lose brain cells. So, I was wrong, and you were right after all!" He looked at me and then said, "oh, well you're right about that." The ladies were about to fall out of their seat. I honestly think this guy had spent some time after that last yard sale ticked off and telling people about what some dumb lady had told him today, and then here we go again, but then it was the complete opposite scenario. I don't think he's a flexible sort of character.

At the end of the day, a local charity thrift store showed up as they had requested and picked up all the leftovers from 4 different houses. It was almost like having room service!

For the first time ever, we have NO LEFTOVERS sitting in the garage, wondering "what next?"

We made $15 in coins. Selling that stuff for a quarter here, 50 cents there adds up after awhile. We made $435 total for two days, which is a feat unheard of for us. We really sold things at low prices, just to get it moved on... those many small sales also really added up.

BUT.....the BEST part of all is this: we are ONE MORE STEP CLOSER TO CLUTTER-FREE LIVES.

It is a form of freedom we have been pursuing for a really, really long time, doing it one step at a time, but all the stuff we unloaded this weekend was like taking a thousand steps at once! It's a good thing!

The Little Guy Takes Pictures

I just love to see the world through the eyes of a child.

Here are some pictures taken by our son, Christopher, today.
He's 5, in kindergarten, and a lot of fun!

Here are some from us. Spring is here!
Flowers in the front lawn.

Can you find a 4-leaf clover?
Okay, I didn't see one this time, either, but I going back to look this
weekend when the ground is dry
How about the odd-shaped one?

Kids all had a 2-hour delay for school today, due to heavy fog.
We thought it was kind of pretty.
And the kids all came over here to play for 2 hours until the buses came.

How NOT to get an master's degree

This is not a bitch letter or a "feel sorry for me" posting. It is a factual posting of the events that have surrounded my attempt attempt to earn a master's degree. Throughout this process, I have questioned the worth of getting this degree, and I have to say it had better be worth the hassles and expenses!

Why get this degree? It is a nice compliment to my IT background and experiences. Hopefully it will help me in my decision making processes on future jobs or projects. Simple as that.

Costs associated? Obviously, the money part of it. We won't even discuss student loans. More than that, it's the constant pressure of papers due, books to read, research to hunt down, concepts to learn and then reinforce so I don't forget them. Most of all, though, it's the missing time from the family or from trips we could have made, friends to invite over or go visit. Days to sleep in, or nights to go to bed early, neither of which happen since forever. Burning both ends of the candle? We are pros now.

The journey? Where to begin? I could wander all over the place in side conversations, but here are the main points. And all of it to say: this is how NOT to pursue a master's degree!

• finished my bachelor's on July 9, 2007.
• had scheduled a month prior to that to go right into my master's degree the next week, for an educational degree, with an IT emphasis
• that morning of the 9th, I had sent an email to tell my counselor that I didn't feel right about that program, and wanted to see all my options to change it
• then...I got the call that Mom had died that morning :(
• put a master's degree on hold indefinitely
• re-visited my options again that fall
• started an MBA program in October 2007
• the first few classes were great. my study teams were great, no problems!
• then, Mike accepted a job in Virginia for July 2008...so we have to move if he takes it
• he found out he got the job the same day he had an outpatient surgery, which was also on a class night, so I had to miss class. you can only miss one night of each course, and I usually never missed a night
• I had planned to miss the last of this course, because it was going to be on July 9th, the one year anniversary date of when Mom died. I did not want to be in a classroom that day. now, I had no choice. it worked out okay, even though of the 4 people in my study group, one was on vacation that night, one was on prescription drugs from being admitted in the hospital that day, and the other left class to go to the hospital for what he though was appendicitis. needless to say: our final group presentation was the worst one I've ever participated in. it was BAD.
  
• but, we finished that class, and I started a new one. tried to finish that next class, but realized I had not been thinking clearly! it is too hard to try to pack up a house and prepare to move...not a good combination
• withdrew from the course, to retake it later
• Newport News does not have a UOP campus in driving distance...so now I have to take courses online
• first instructor was the same one I had in Albuquerque. she turned out to be a DUD
• this instructor actually ignored all correspondence from me, unless I called her on her home phone. her excuse: she changed her computer from a pc to a mac, and couldn't get connected. she took the money from me for this course...no excuse! I had to finally turn her in.
• next instructor for next directed study course...he also turned out to be a DUD. disappeared for a couple of weeks at a time, two times in a 6-week course! I had to finally turn him in also. he offered no excuse.
• next instructor is one I had back in NM, and I liked him the first time around. he was great. however, now we were moving AGAIN, from the apartment to the house we are now in...and I fell behind. I ended up doing 4 papers in one week, which was insane and not recommended, ever. it was not planned that way
• never move when you are in a class, not a good idea
• next course, and final directed study course (before I switched to the more expensive versions of the classes that involved online work teams), was not good. I made the mistake to use Mike's company as the example for my papers (you choose a company that you can research), and it was an exercise in futility. I did not like the info I found about them, and it did not work well. in addition, I started losing interest in the course, then Christmas was here with a 2-week break and there I was trying to write these really senseless papers in a company that was not that interesting afterall.
  
• I asked my instructor for a week extension (which they can do), and when I logged on next, found he had dropped me from the course.
• this meant I had to pay for half the course instead of all of it, AND take it all over, but it was a relief not to have to figure out how to write about senseless dribble
• next came my first real online course with a virtual classroom and classmates...and an instructor that was engaged! what a difference that has been! of course, there is a cost, at the tune of over $500 more per course than the same courses I took in Albuquerque!
• this course has been a good experience, even with a little adjustments on my part. you have to practically log on every day for an hour or two to write participation answers in the online forum, in addition to the many hours of reading the chapters and articles and doing the actual homework.
• and then Mike lost his job 2 weeks ago and we are MOVING again. combining households for awhile, downsizing our physical possessions, purging ALL unnecessary items and papers. ALL of them!
  
• it's a good move, we feel fine about it, and it's for all the right reasons. it turns out that Mike losing his job was really a catalyst to push us in the direction that we are destined to go. if we had been still living in NM at this time, we would have had a harder time making a move. moving 400 miles is much easier than moving 2,000 miles any day!
• and so.
• I will finish this course
• I will BE SMART this time, and NOT take a course...while we are packing and while we are moving.
  
• and now, instead of being done the middle of May 2009...my final courses will be done sometime the end of September or middle of October.
• three moves in the middle of two years, in the middle of this adventure.
• other things did happen along the way. we had to put our son in two different kindergartens. and now we have to withdraw him from kindergarten 6 weeks early.
• our dog got infested with fleas, and we had a hard time getting them under control. she's never had them ever in her life, poor baby. we got it down, now, though!
• someone recently stole over $3K from our bank account by taking one of our checkcard numbers, probably from a restaurant, but maybe from online. more likely from a place where they got the card in hand where they could take the numbers down. we got it all back, but it was a slight hiccup in our otherwise mundane lifestyle
• family dynamics in our extended families achieved an all-time new level of discovery and surprise. some good, some still figuring itself out
• some friends came and went. sure, this happens in life sometimes...but it sure happened in strange ways this time around.
  
• I started writing an online journal/blog, which has had many unexpected and creative benefits along the way
• I've always been close to my family unit...now we are even closer and more on the same page than ever before
• the friends that I have that are special and worth keeping are SO worth keeping. they were appreciated before these past couple of years, but now are appreciated on a whole new level. it's a good thing!
  

the moral of the story is: go to school when you are YOUNG, and when you don't have RESPONSIBILITIES and a FAMILY and JOBS to worry about. it's much easier that way. AND, you might just make more money at a job, which will pay down your student loans sooner. just maybe.

Snow in southern Virginia, finally!

Yes, we knew that this new location would be wetter and warmer, and less snow than we've enjoyed in years past. However, the weather folks kept teasing us since November last year with "it's gonna snow tonight"...and then nothing! After the first dozen times, it lost its appeal and humor.

And then sometime between 3 am and 6 am, we actually got about 2 inches of snow! The boys LOVE it, as does Maya!

Throwing a snowball at his buddy, Quintin.

Trying to make a snowman, but the snow isn't rolling into big enough balls.

This is her favorite type of weather. Cold and comfortable. She's checking for the squirrels that she usually gets to chase off the deck. None here today.

The Rest of the Story

Paul Harvey Died on February 28, 2009

Yet another icon of our generation that our kids will never know.
We grew up learning many tidbits of trivia from the famous Paul Harvey. As farmer kids, we didn't really have a choice, because the radio stations were controlled by the adults around us. Between all the country songs and boot-scoot'n melodies, we heard the long tales offered by the one and only Paul Harvey. Not that I remember any of them, specifically, but I remember his voice, and many of his stories were entertaining.

He will be forever known for his:

“Hello, Americans. You know what the news is. In a minute, you're going to hear the rest of the story.”

May he rest in peace. He sure has a lot of great company over on the other side...