A Brief Hello from the Trenches

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Well folks, shit is starting to hit the fan in our house.  Thankfully not literally speaking, that would be pretty gross.

Sorry for not posting in almost two weeks, I know those Kansas photos were pretty damn awesome, and it’s a bit hard to come up with an amazing post just like that.  Rest assured though, I do have TONS of photos still from our trip that I haven’t even gotten around to editing.  Some of those including fantastic animal shots from Tanganyika Wild Animal Park, and the “Rainbow” House in Topeka.  If you don’t know what that is, google it and stop living under a rock.

Our final move date has been scheduled, and it looks like we’re pulling out of our driveway July 28th.  Movers will be coming the 25th and 26th. I remember thinking back in November how much time we had, and how 8 months would go by super slow.

WRONG.

We are at 3 months now till the movers come.  Three measly months.  I finally got off my butt last week and faced my fear of planning and realized that “Joanna, you have got to just get it done. No one’s going to do it for you,  you have no help, and you have to get organized.”  First I made a list.  Then I wrote all those listy items onto pink heart-shaped post it notes.  Then I put all of them in a nice pattern on two sheets of 8×11 paper and taped them to my wall beside my fridge.  And now, I am tearing them off the paper.  How glorious it is to see the paper become more empty as each week passes.

All last week and this week I’ve been cleaning blinds, and scrubbing out my shower and the toilets in the house so they’re sparkly clean and look brand new, etc etc.  Today I stood shin deep in my big bath tub, which was filled with a warm soapy, yet murky water, and washed more blinds. Hey, don’t judge…blinds are the least of my worries when I’m raising four kids.  I’m sure you don’t clean them all the time either.  I also finally made myself call the property manager and arranged for her to stop by next week and get a rent assessment for the house.  She comes in a week, next Monday.  I will also sign the contract then, and we can then look for renters.  She actually really scares and intimidates me, and that is why I chose her as a landlord for us.  I rented from her for two years, so I know she will do a good job for us.  I also have to de-clutter more, and more and more.

Yesterday I also start packing some of our fragile stuff that the movers are not taking, including all my antique Pre-WWII Antique colored glass dishes.  And today I called moving companies, and am setting up consults so they can tell us how much poorer we’ll be this summer.

It might seem a bit premature to some of you for me to get this all done now, but in reality, I only have just over two months, because once July starts, I won’t have time with all our commitments during that month.  We’re entering busy season with school: field trips, more band concerts, end of the year activities, and the 6th grade graduation ceremony too.

I’ll leave you with this; One amazing, very exciting, very awesome thing happened last week.  I called to let our hotel in NYC know that we’re going to be on our honeymoon, because they apparently leave you a dessert and a bottle of champagne in your room (Thank you TripAdvisor for that tip!!).  Well, the concierge asked me why we were on our trip, and I told him my husband was a soldier and we were on our belated honeymoon because we couldn’t go before due to Army commitments.  Well, that really awesome guy upgraded our hotel room! We are so stoked and can’t wait to get to NYC.

 

It’s “VOILA”, NOT “Walla”

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One of my very biggest, annoying, makes-me-want-to-hit-people pet peeves is when I hear or see someone write “Walla” instead of “Voila”.  It really fills me with an indescribable rage, and I want to punch them in the throat :)

If you’re going to say “Walla”, why not take it one step further and just say “Walla Walla Onions”? or “Walla Walla Washington”? How am I supposed to know if you are trying to say “Voila” and are just an idiot, or if you are somehow referencing a type of onions grown in Eastern WA state, or maybe the town of Walla Walla itself!

Wouldn’t that be funny? Someone wants to use “walla” as an expressive word, and says “Oh wow, Walla Walla Washington look what I did!!”  Or “Walla Walla Washington, It’s done!”. Or even “My masterpiece is complete, Walla Walla Onions!”.

Do you see how stupid it is?

This reminds me of a time, years ago, when my first husband and I were engaged, and I was working at Subway while putting myself through University.  On several occasions I had customers come in and ask for the most bizarre things on their subs.

What the hell is a “Ja-la-pen-oh?” Seriously? You don’t know how to pronounce Jalapeno? Or this one lady who asked for a “Brah-zill” nut cookie.  IT’S BRAZIL NUT YOU NUT JOB.  I’ve always laughed about it, but to this day I am blown away by the rampant  mispronunciation in of ohhh…about 90% of words North America.

Just to have fun though, one time we went through the Taco Bell drive through and asked for fah-g-eye-tas”.  But that was a joke, we actually knew we were doing it wrong…unlike the person who says “Walla”, and doesn’t know how to pronounce Jalapeno or Brazil.

ps…leftover Beijing Beef and Chow Mein from Panda Express is a most excellent breakfast.

Kansas Pictures

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I just wanted to share some photos I took of this really fascinating, yet eerily creepy home we found on the side of the road on our way to the Oz Museum.  I saw it back in January, but did not have my camera with me, so this time I made sure to take it.  I got some fantastic photos :)

So, I kind of fell in love with this house, and took about 200 photos of it.  Way too many :) I picked out the best ones and figured I’d tell you all what I saw inside.

I wanted to go in the house, but my husband cautioned me not too, as we were concerned the floorboards might give way while I stood there.  I don’t know how this house was even standing anymore, but it was.  As I walked up to the non-existent front door, I took a peek inside, and those are the two pictures you see with the bed to the right, and the empty doorway on the left.

I could almost swear this place was haunted.  Of course it was a somewhat breezy day, but there were some bizarre things happening.  Look at one of the pictures in black and white, do you see the old denim overalls on the right of the door jamb? As I was taking these photos, they kept swaying back and forth, back and forth.  They just hung there by a nail in the wood.

If you look at the photo with the bed, there is a cardboard box on top of it.  While looking through subsequent photos, and clicking very fast, it was apparent that one of the box flaps was also moving up and down rapidly.  The bed skirt also did this.  I am sure it was just the wind, but…I wouldn’t be surprised if it was some other worldly presence, as I didn’t notice any other “fluttering” when I was taking photos, except for the denim overalls.

One other suspicious item I noticed was the fridge.  If you can zoom in on the photo with the old fridge in it, it says “Open if you dare”.  I certainly did NOT dare, though I was very very curious to see what was inside.  I was not able to get to that part of the house though, unfortunately.  I think there must have been an attic or stairs at one point too, because I could see something eluding to that to my left when I stood inside the doorway.

Moving around to my right, and behind the house, I came upon the kitchen window. Through fragments of glass and wispy shreds of old curtains, I saw the kitchen.  You can see that photo in the gallery.  WOW is all I can say about that.  I moved aside the old curtains, and peered inside to see a plethora of old bottles/jugs filled with something brown and long forgotten.  I wish I had grabbed the milk glass vase, but there was no way to reach in through the window and get it off the little table.  Look at the old convection oven on top of the stove too, complete with a cookie sheet!

I kept walking around the house, and came to the actual front of it, which you can see in the photo where the house looks “L” shaped.  I saw a storm cellar and the kids asked if we could go down there to explore.   My husband and I said a resounding “NO”.  If we weren’t sure about the main floor, how safe would the cellar be? I could not get any clear photos inside the cellar, but someone had been doing some canning there ages ago, as I saw some old mason jars filled with what must have been food at one point.

As I was editing these photos last week, I could swear I saw some ghosts in the old screens through the windows.  What do you think happened to this house? I suspect it got hit by a tornado at one point.  Probably squatters too?

All I know is that it had a very “The Hills Have Eyes” vibe about it.  Very unsettling and creepy.