No more double house payments.....

Well today we got word that our OLD house has been bought by the Relocation Group. It has been hard to sell in this economy. Every time our Realtor got an offer it was way too low to even fathom the idea. Our buy out was better than we could have ever gotten by selling it to an individual.
So, today we are minus two mortgage's, two electric bills, two this and that with the whole move thing!! YEA!!!!!
Oh, and no more trips back to mow, clean the pool, and to collect left behind items.
From now on when we go back that way it will be to visit Lacy, grandparents and old friends. That won't be often though.

Two last photos of the OLD HOUSE. Goodbye Aledo!

Lesa

NAP??

Poor Wendy has caught a virus of some kind! Yesterday she was running a fever and her eye began to itch and swell. This has become a usual sign of a virus coming on or at least an allergic reaction to something. Well this is a Virus since she is running a goodly fever. She NEVER takes a nap anymore, and this makes two days in a row that she has fallen asleep in my chair.

I really need to find a Pediatrician now that we are moved and settled in.

I don't think Wendy has been well for very long periods at a time for some time now. I am hoping it is just that we aren't use to things here.

Lesa

Cute aren't they??

Well, unpacking was put on hold for a bit to capture these photos....

I found Ethel Mae Potter and Miss Tallulah "Dahling" on the window ledge sunning themselves and checking out the lovely birds. I sneaked the camera out and turned it on as quite as I could and got some pretty awesome photos of them. You see Ethel doesn't like to have her photo taken. She will come toward you or turn as you snap.

Take note of how they are sitting. I've never seen dogs sit like this before!
I thought while I was at it I would take one of my handsome Luther "Hague"; named after a Don Knotts Character.

I hope Lacy is checking in because she misses Miss Potter LOTS!! Lacy this is for you.

Love,
Mom

Icky Wallpaper!

Look what I found lurking behind the already dark and dungeon like wallpaper that the last owner had put up. There were two owners of this house before us. The one who we bought the house from had much better taste in the long run, but BLACK!!! She even put a black painted shelf up and then a black ceiling fan with dark globes. We kind of figure that she was going through some kind of depression.

I woke up this morning ready to pull more down and found that the first owner had only put one panel of wallpaper up and that was the one with the daisies. The second owner went with the black over it but took it one step further, because what I found behind the next wall panel was just textured wall!! Why not just cover the wall that had the paper and be done with it and paint the rest!!?? Our commode area has the same black wall paper, but she took it even further there and added it to the ceiling!! What goes on??

Just with me pulling down one panel has made the room less gloomy and I can see what it will look like with lighter walls. Now to replace the ceiling fan and paint the shelve after pulling all wallpaper down. We'll see what we will do.

Wallpaper is nice, but in moderation. If I put any up at all it will be to just cover the daisy panel, but I think I want to get some bids on getting it textured the way she has it in the rest of the house. You know the old world style.

Any ideas out there???

Lesa

The "Failed" Fell of the Tree!!

Okay, Mike was at it once again. He is our handy man and loves working in the yard, but this is a little ridiculous!!

He had already accomplished felling one of the trees in our new back yard. They are really undesirable willows...not the pretty kind. He started on the second one today and I caught him way up on the top of the ladder and then climbing like a young chimp to the top of the second willow. Gee!! I just knew he would fall. He did, and hit his arm "elbow" on a piece of metal that was left by the last owner. Thank God an Angel was with him.

Then I was inside looking for lunch when he said "Hey Lesa, you want to come out and play Lumber Jack?? Not really, I said!

I was to pull hard on this rope! Okay.... I pulled hard and was to direct the trunk of the tree toward me. If it started then I was to run away fast. FUNNY!!! Yeah, not really. The darn nylon rope decided to come off as it was being pulled! Right at the wrong minute too. Instead of the trunk coming toward me it went toward the house which we were trying to avoid. CRASH!!!! Right into the family room window. Well, now we have to get someone out pronto to fix the window. I'm grateful that the darn thing didn't land on Mike or the electrical.

Now to get someone to take the stumps out of the ground.

Take a look at the photos!

Lesa

Moving Trip and Only Slightly Unpacked......

Following the Leader...
Wendy Climbing at the Rest Stop...
Mike and Wendy at the Rest Stop along the way....
Mike unloading the first of many boxes. The big Moving Van came on Monday after we got there on Friday......
Lesa unpacking in the house.....
Puppies waiting in the kitchen.... Note the boxes in the background.
Wendy watching a movie the first night....
Luckily we had this for the first couple of nights....
We even made time to go to the local Zoo, but it lacks a whole lot compared to what we are use to with the Ft. Worth Zoo.... We will miss it!!
We even managed Easter!
Starting to get some of our trinkets in the house...
Kitchen our way...notice the new refrigerator!




Wendy loves her new Frog Bathroom and her new bedroom with a very nice closet....


The boxes are dwindling in the house some what. We still have our bedroom and the entry boxes along with the laundry room to go.....not to mention the ones in the garage!

For all of the boxes we have emptied we have kept some, thrown some, and have a pile for garage sale/Good-Will. Depending on how I feel when I'm done I may or may not have a garage sale.

We are getting use to the house some and are meeting new neighbors. The area is very friendly. The weather has gone from cold to warm and tomorrow it is suppose to be around 60'.

A dear friend lives here and we will be going to see Snow White on Saturday with them. I can't wait to see how Wendy will react she has never been to a Children's Play before. She has been to the Theatre before since her sister, Lacy, is into Drama.

Lacy, I want to let you know that we are thinking of you on your opening night. Break a Leg!! This is the first play in ages that we will miss.

Okay, here are some photos of the move so far!

Oh, we really enjoy reading comments. Especially with this new move. Hope to hear from many of our friends that are checking in on us.

Lesa

Moving Boxes, Take Out Food, and Turmoil Oh My!!

We had our very first taste of the moving experience today from a Moving Company. We have ALWAYS moved ourselves. I really trust us more; if we break it we have no one to blame but ourselves.
They started out by coming in and introducing themselves and then they assessed the house. Not long after that all these boxes started coming in right and left. Lots and lots of paper to wrap things in, but no bubble wrap....HUM!
The Kitchen was the first to get the once over. One guy was packing up our family room and broke one of my trinkets my best friend from school gave me ages ago. It was old; had the word Japan in red. I about died!! He didn't even say he was sorry or anything they picked it up quickly and placed it on the fireplace mantel. Gee....my dad and I were standing right there when he did it too. Movers don't seem to have a care in the world for your possessions....hum lets see how many porcelain dolls we can fit in a box. Holly has this very large porcelain doll we brought back special for her from Germany when she and I went with her school group. She saw it in the window at the moment we were boarding the bus to go to Heidelberg..... I'll never forget her excitement that day. I had found that perfect Cuckoo clock, but had it shipped home, not Holly that doll was going home on the plane with her. It almost didn't.... I know she will be heart broken if that doll is broken. I think we will take it ourselves! I'll just get the box and put it will our things we are taking.

Moving is the most stressful thing....has to be a top stresser at least.

My baby, Wendy, has cried at the drop of a hat all day today. She made us go by to say good bye to several of her favorite people today, and every time she wept. She is such a sweet sensitive little thing, and EVERYONE LOVES her!!! She has touched so many people. Many who have had a hard time racially. I love my baby, my Wendy. I can't wait to have my Mylie too. I know she will be just as sweet. I know that Wendy will be there to teach her how to be as sweet.

I plan on taking some pictures of all of the blasted boxes tomorrow. They aren't finished packing and will need at least a couple more days. I did find it funny that we had bought paper goods so we could let them pack up the breakables and I'll be twitched if they didn't pack all of them as well. Thus the reason for take out food; that and the fact that they packed up my pans and all of our food. I'm not use to this at all.

Lord, please help me to remain sane during all of this.

Lesa

Touching Bases....

I wanted to let everyone know that we have been very busy trying to get our house set for showing; which everyday we do something to improve the looks. We have had 12 showings since Feb. 11th! I do hope someone will hurry up and buy it. We have a total of 60 days to sell in order to get our bonus from our moving service.
The negative feed backs have been the wallpapers. Funny how you can just love something and no one else loves your taste. I also find it funny that purchasers can't get past it and look at the bones of a house. Hey we have done what many have had to do; price it low enough that they can replace the wallpaper. It isn't like there are major repairs at all. We have kept up with our place very well. We have added fresh new carpet to the upstairs bedrooms and have moved Wendy's bedroom/play things back upstairs instead of them being in the dinning room.

Come On Buy It Already....PLEASE.

Lesa

As Promised, here are some of the photos of President Clinton and Wendy!!!

President Bill Clinton reaching for Wendy Monet Chunchu!!
President Bill holding Wendy (Obviously)
President Bill passing Wendy back to daddy.

I so want to thank the lady who sent these our way. We had not realized that we could have our camera, and when we actually got in there here everyone had them! I am so happy that someone was kind enough to send the photos our way. Wendy will never forget this! She has the news paper of him making his speech and just stares at it, but when these photos came to us last night via email she was in a trance. Who can blame her. It all happened so fast. I cried when I saw he was actually going to hold her. I could have never imagined. It was like being at a Beetles Concert with hands going every direction, and getting squeezed and pressed between Holly and the 75 other people from behind just wanting to see him or to do as we did to shake his hand.
It was just so surreal.

Lesa

House Hunting Trip and meeting a GREAT MAN!!

Well we left for Amarillo on Wednesday and got there around 5:30 pm. Not too bad since we made 3 stops, and they were long ones. We found some Rest Stops that were called Safety Stops. They have really nice restrooms, and then inside the centers they have Coffee and Coke machines along with snacks. Mike and I spent 85 cents on a cup of coffee and it was really good. They also had large Play Grounds that Wendy fell in love with. The dogs even enjoyed the breaks we took.

We went House hunting on Thursday and toured 14 homes that one day alone. We had it narrowed down to one home finally and found out that another couple had sold their home and were coming to make a bid on it! They had seen it before the sale of their home and told them they wanted to have them hold it for them until they could sell their house; which sold in two days!!!!!!! Mike freaked and called our Realtor back and said we wanted it. Holly came down from Lubbock to House hunt with us on Friday. Before Holly got there we put down earnest money and signed a contract. Made a bid and then she countered and then we back and then she came back with the final bid on Saturday Morning. Well, both previous owners swore that they never had any problems with flooding. He had such a hard time with accepting the house and the Realtor took us around to four other houses we headed back to the motel to get the dogs and check out and then look some more. I set there getting depressed and thinking at that rate we would never find a house. They are either were too expensive for the size or the rooms are too tiny or the floor plan was terrible.....nothing at all like the Ft. Worth housing costs...which also made it difficult.

He could see I was not doing too well and said lets just get that house. He said he just needed to know I loved the house and that we had a back up house in case something went wrong. I told him I loved it and the back up would be a house we had seen on the internet with lots of BLACK Tile in it. The guy who owned it was a Realtor himself, but chose BLACK!! Holly wanted to see it so we took her to it and she said good back up but we would have to redo all cabinets and it would be a fun fixer upper. Enough said, if the inspections go well and the people who inspect it swear it won't flood we have a house.

I will post photos as soon as we get the word.

Now then, after all of that and an Icy Saturday trying to finish up house hunting we drove all the way to Lubbock to go to a Basketball Game....needless to say we didn't make it to the game.....

We had learned in Amarillo that Bill Clinton was going to be in town at 2:30 pm and then 5:30 in Lubbock. We got so excited.. Mike has always wanted to meet him.
We got in town at 4:50 pm. and parked, walked to the High School that Buddy Holly attended and found many people were wanting to see him; many coming from the metro- plex and surrounding areas. We walked down past the school and someone said keep going it wraps around about 5 blocks. Well, we made it to the fourth turn and got to the end of the line. People were starting to leave the line because of a rumor that there had to be a ticket to get in (NOT TRUE) we stayed the course and got almost to the Gym door with about 40 people in front of us. They were only allowing 1200 people in the main gym, but we heard they had actually allowed 1750 in. The doors shut and then they directed us to the Practice Gym. Only 100 could go in and we made it in there with being shoved through the door like sardines being vacuum packed in a can. We found out he was leaving that direction and they had blocked it off so he could walk through. We were second row behind the bars and after 3 hours of standing in line and in the gym listening to his speech he finally came back to us and we really didn't think he would shake hands just leave, but wait he did he started at the bleachers and worked his way back toward us and I touched his hand while the guy next to me shook it then he grabbed my hand and Holly's together and gripped (his hands are so soft!)....Wendy leaned it toward him and he took her from Mike!!!!!!! She went over the barricade and he held her. He asked Mike if she were his and he said yes sir. He said that she sure was beautiful and of course Mike told him thank you. Back she came and I cried that someone that famous took and held my baby!! He shook Mike's hand went on down to the end and came back shaking hands again he shook ours again and then told Wendy "bye bye darlin' ". Can you BELIEVE it?????? Me neither!! We didn't have a camera since we ran from the car to get into the mega line. The nice people around us had captured it on their cameras and we are hoping that they will be kind enough to send them our way. We left our addresses with them so maybe one of them will get a photo to us. As we were leaving many stopped us and congratulated us on our daughter be held by him. I hope Wendy will remember this. She woke up this morning and said where is President Bill? We got a local paper with the photos of him inside the main gym, but the Media wasn't anywhere around to know that the 100 special people got to actually come in close contact with President Bill Clinton!!!


Lesa

PS... I bought Holly a "Hillary Rocks" campaign pin in HOT PINK. I would have gotten more but we were afraid of losing our place in line. Not to mention we thought we could get more after we left the Speech.....we were sent out the opposite doors. Darn it! At least we have the one pin from that night.