February 25, 2013

  • PatchWork Blog

    G’morning.  I haven’t done one of these in a coon’s age.  I don’t even remember the last time.  And so much has been going on around here, that I just… I have to try to throw it together, but it’s more than a bullet blog can handle!  So this’ll have to do.

    Backing Up.  Did I mention that my mom is in the process of selling her house and moving to the country?  Well, she is.  It’s been kind of a thing for them for a few years, and off and on they listed it, but suddenly around X-mess they got wildly freaked out and dropped the price to bargain basement and… well, it went right away.  I never liked that house, anyhow – it’s ugly, the layout was crappy, it was completely user-unfriendly, iand it had nothing for yard (which… she decimated, anyhow), the landscaping got more unsightly every year.  And it’s in a terrible neighborhood – there was a drug bust next door last week, and a cop chase thru their yard where the perp allegedly knocked over one of the girls in their backyard.  It wasn’t a good idea from moment one, but y’know, it’s not my place, so…

    History of ThatWhen Brian and I got our house up north back in 1997, my mom had decided she had to have a house (instead of the single wide in the trailer park that was BEAUTIFUL in and in a nicer neighborhood), and so she’d put the trailer up for sale and it went right away (It was beautiful. You’ve never seen a trailer like the one we lived in. It was amazing.).  But because it sold so fast, she FR-eaked out, and bought the first thing they could find in their price range… and it blew.  And there they’ve sat, for ten years.

    The New House.  The same thing happened this time.  You’d think they would learn from their mistakes, but they haven’t.  They threw the crappy house on the market at a clearance price, it sold fast, and they’ve FR-eaked out… A-Gain.  So they’ve done the SAME THING as last time… bought the first thing they could snag in their price range.  And… I haven’t been in it.  Heck, Pop hasn’t been in it, and it’s HIS money that bought it (I… can’t think like that).  You don’t buy a HOUSE sight unseen.  My mom’s been in it, but… wha.  It’s not in a location I’d call ‘country’, it’s not a pretty house from the pictures I’ve seen, the layout is NOT what they need.  My mom has really bad knees, and it’s a bi-level with a basement – she needs a ranch, so that everything was on one level.  But then, my mom isn’t driving the boat on this one… it seems very much like my sister is at the wheel.  There aren’t words for that.  They really want us to be happy for them, and… I’m really having to work hard at it.  But I keep telling myself that it’s NOT my life, not my choice, and they can do what they want.  I just don’t think this is the place for them.  But they refuse to rent for a few months until they find the right place, which is what I would do, in their shoes… but again, it’s not my choice.  So I guess… whatevs.

    Twisted Family.  My family is really dysfunctional, and it seems to get worse every day.  Now when they come over to talk ‘Moving’, it’s all about how they’re buying with the outlook that my mom is going to die or end up in a nursing home, so the house “is really for Pop, my sister, and her girls”.  Like my Pop is going to switch from being my mom’s husband/provider to my sister’s, when my mom is gone.  R’something.  It sounds SO wrong, when they talk about it… I can’t get the distaste out of my mouth.  That’s not a healthy, normal family dynamic.  And the crazy thing is that they aren’t helping my sister at all.  This is her fifth year living back home like a sixteen year old (with three kids) since the divorce… only it’s more like Mom and Pop have four girls, not that it’s Mom, Pop, my sister and HER girls.  It’s freaky weird.  And my sister is turning 36… she doesn’t work, doesn’t date, doesn’t go anywhere without my mom, has no hobbies and no friends.  She has no car, no phone (my mom gave hers to my sister to use)… it’s very, very strange. And this move seems to just be distorting it, even more.

    Enough of That.  As for us, we’re doing well.  School is going great, we’re celebrating just about everything under the sun, the kids are loving the snow, and Brian has had a good amount of side work.  The two of us are getting along better than we ever have before – it’s one of those marriages little girls dream of.  I had dreamed the same things, but for a long time, there, I thought it was elusive and stuff of faerie tales.  But we’re doing SO well together – so happy.  It’s been incredible.  It almost makes me nervous… people aren’t supposed to BE this happy, together, are they?   Do you see why I like to stay here, in my own little bubble, where we’re happy and creative and untouched by other people’s issues?  Anyhow, we have big plans for our homestead this summer (moving Critter Corner around, possibly adding a bedroom and schoolroom onto the house!)… and things are going great at Brian’s job, too.  We got a profit sharing check just this past week…. SO….

    FLATSCREEN!!  I am the world’s most un-technological person, ever.  Yes, I know I blog and Facebook and can even do basic HTML coding, and pick up on computer stuff fairly fast.  BUT… we don’t have cellphones, we don’t have television or modern gadgets like iStuff or Wii or that thing that plays Blu-Ray DVDs (please don’t ask me, I don’t know).  We watch VHS, play Atari and Nintendo NES, and listen to CDs on the player Brian bought when he was nineteen.  We’re stone age, seriously.  So imagine Brian’s surprise when I told him I wanted to buy a flatscreen TV on Friday.  Yeah, he didn’t believe it for a minute.  But the thing is, SIX of us have to climb all over each other, huddled around the laptop to watch our Salsa Spanish lessons or our Twebrew Hebrew lessons.  And I’m SICK of it – there’s no volume, the screen in tiny and wedged in a corner of the parlor, kids are elbowing each other… and if we got a flatscreen, they have high-tech cable thingers (HTCT, or something that starts with an ‘H’) that you can plug your PC into and play what’s on your laptop on the TV.  Besides, we got our TV off Craigslist, it’s a behemoth,  weighs a ton and a half, and came from the home of this little Chinaman who apparently liked sushi (because the TV smelled like that for a month).  And the picture tube r’something has been going out, because the picture shakes, and you have to stomp your foot to get it to stop.  We’ve been doing that for a while… it’s kind of annoying.

    Best Buy!  So Friday night I announced that I thought we should get a new TV, and yesterday we went to Best Buy to look at some.  Apparently there are a lot of things to consider.  There’s plasma vs. LCD vs. LED, to start with.  Then there’s vertical resolution and screen refresh ratio and all these numbers that are supposed to make a HUGE difference, but really I just… want to play my You Tubes on something in the living room.  So I found a sales dude, and explained to him that we’re technologically impoverished, and need to know what there is to know about picking out a flatscreen.  I told the kid that I’m a homeschooler and just want to watch our Spanish and Hebrew lessons on a bigger screen than the laptop… which he thought was funny (and ironic – he was a pastor’s kid, and his dad is into the whole Hebrew thing).  He found us extremely amusing, and we walked away knowing WAY more about flatscreens than we wanted to… but we bought one!  It has TV channels that WORK, but  we’re keeping it on the ‘blue screen’… we do NOT do television at our house.  But it’s so exciting!  And… there’s this monster of a TV in the middle of the living room that we have to figure out how to get rid of, now.

    PoX Party!!  Friday was an adventure day for us, too – I’m in a group of people looking for the chicken pox, as you know.  Well, a lady over in Metro Detroit had a baby who came down with it, and was opening her home to anyone who wanted to come and get it.  Now… you have to know how stupid I think other mothers are, in general.  They’re posting DESPERATION over on the pox board, they’ll do ANYTHING to get the pox… but when someone announces a party?  “Oh, I don’t know if I can come this week… it’s a long way to drive… I’m really busy right now…”  WTHeck!?  I’m SO there, if I want something.  And so I called Brian Thursday at work the moment I read about it, and told him about the party, and… okay, I told him I’d go without him, but driving a 6+ hour round trip to Detroit alone with five littles?  I was hoping he might be able to get the day off and come with me.  And he did!  ((Did I mention our marriage is doing really, REALLY well, right now?))  So we all piled in the car and went for a play date.  In a snowstorm – all the schools in our area were closed when we left!  Across the STATE.  The lady was really nice, her baby so cute (he liked to give kisses), and my kids were pretty well behaved, considering we descended on her like a swarm – but everything was picked up and we were a short-n-sweet visit.  Crossing our fingers that we caught it… because I really just want to have it and be DONE with it.

    Red Vs. Blue.  Going to Detroit was SO WEIRD, I have to say.  The west side of the state where I live is NOTHING like the east side of the state where MoTown is.  Grand Rapids is the most kid-friendly/family oriented place in the nation.  Detroit has the most violence and crime and unemployment and… skank in the nation.  Grand Rapids has bible verses on the expressway billboards.  Detroit has words bleeped out.  Grand Rapids has sappy radio stations.  Detroit… well, let’s just say I got an education… we were laughing a LOT at the radio stations over there.  Grand Rapids has a pleasant, cleaner, more conservative, more organized feel.  Detroit is like a dumpster, tipped over and kicked around, with all the welfare people and nasties teeming around it.  It was… not someplace I would want to spend any amount of time.  It’s funny, how the Liberal people over there live are compared to the Constitutionalist/Conservatives on my side of the state.

    Scary Chick.  There’s the woman on my pox group that’s wigging me out.  Frankly, I think she’s a Xanga troll who read about the group and is trying to become a RL problem… thinks that she’s going to come to my house.  But then, I’m paranoid.  Anyhow, this woman is… strange.  She keeps messaging me, asking me if she can come over to my house for a pox party if my kids get it.  There’ve been something like FIVE messages… it’s pretty intense.  And weirder… she’s only a jog from the woman in Metro Detroit, but made up a ton of excuses not to go to her party… while begging to come to my house on the other side of the state the next day.  I’m not comfortable.  It almost makes me want to lie and say we didn’t get it, even if we end up contracting it.  I… feel really funny about it.  But then, I don’t trust a whole lotta anybody, and this woman is raising all of my red flags, and a few of Brian’s, too.  Hm.  I just wanted to put that out there.

    pUrIm.  Our Purim was wonderful.  We had blueberry, apple, and cherry mini-turnovers for our hamentaschen, we tried a spinach tortellini chicken bake that was SO good, we banged on pots and the kids did a ‘RiverDance’ Purimspiel for us.  ((Owen, 3, was the self-proclaimed ‘Yord o’ da dance’)).  Costumes are strewn everywhere, and we had a great time.  And we got to tell the Best Buy dude about it, too, so… that’s always good.

    Not Feeling Well.  I should go.  Mostly I’m just sitting here, writing the epic novel of my LIFE, because I don’t feel so good.  Isaac complained of stomach aches last night, Lydia first thing when she got up, and I’ve got them, now.  So I think maybe we brought more than a TV home from our Best Buy adventure.  I’m hoping a) it’ll pass quickly, and b) that it weakens the kids’ immune systems so the pox germs we ((((hopefully)))) got will have a better chance of infecting us.  But then… I’m a little one-tracked for ten days after a pox party.  LoL!! 

    Feel well.  Be productive for me.  And have a blessed day.

Comments (14)

  • Hmm well keep in mind stomach troubles can happen with the chickenpox. But I’d think it would be a little too soon..

    as for that lady…steer clear. something doesn’t sound right with them. hope the tv works out alright. welcome to technology! and the house thing… I just… yeah. *sigh* what will be will be.

  • Um the crazy scary lady? Stalker? If you say you didn’t get it – she will be reading here and know what the deal is. And pretty soon she will be showing up at every library event in the county hoping you will be there will your kids. R something.

    Once your kids get the pox – you can just drop off the list right?

    I wish you had a video of the kids performance – sounds like so much fun.

  • I do have the video. But it was something like half an hour, and got kind of crazy at the end. But I was thinking of posting a little video of Baby O and Brian at FB… if I’m feeling more motivated later on.

  • Good luck with the pox! I’m tempted to ask if you’d wipe a pox-y kid or 3 down for me, and mail the cloth….but that be a bit too weird. :lol:

    Re: moving. Geez! Before I bought this place, I spent WEEKS looking at everything on the market that met my criteria. The big thing was the acreage……I didn’t even pay attention to the houses until I had an idea of what was out there…and ended up buying land and building. I can’t fathom putting our house on the market without SOME idea of where we might end up.

    And crazy lady…….I’d steer clear, like you. That’s just a weird-sounding scene.

  • Something I just thought of…..it might be easier on you to get an Apple TV or Roku box to stream your ‘putter to the TV. It’s wireless, so no cables to hook up every time you want to watch something. (We’re Apple fans here, so we have Apple TV. I can stream almost anything from my iPad with no muss or fuss -it has improved our schooling to no end! And, you can use Apple TV with a windows machine – but I don’t know how hard it is to set up.)

  • @fiberaddict - I don’t understand how any apple thing works. Can I get apple TV also?

     

  • Girlfriend, you’d better not post about the pox until they’ve all crusted over! She’ll hunt you down!

  • Idk if this site has anything you’d be interested in but I stumbled on it looking up something else related to AO.

    http://chinuch.org/index.php

    alidansma sounds pretty normal cause I was thinking more along the line of asking for pre-licked lollipops. :) chicken pox are pretty rare or nobody talks about them. I learned one of the students in dance class had them but Momma didn’t want to “scare” anyone so did not say a word until it was all over. It was a surprise to her to learn anyone wanted their kid to actually have them. She thought she was the only weird one around.

  • @alidansma - yes-it’s a box-thingy that hooks up to the TV, then somehow wirelessly hooks up to the computer. I love ours – we can watch You Tubes of our Latin, I can stream from the iPad…..and we can download movies from iTunes (both on the computer and from the cloud)

    It works with windows too, but I don’t understand all the technical stuff.

  • It’s illegal to send any diseases thru the mail, so I’m sorry – you’d either have to come visit or join my group and see where there’s an outbreak nearby you. They had one in Arkansas about three weeks ago, but I wasn’t going to drive THAT far… and before that, southern Indiana. Right now there’s a party (today) in Chicago, and if we hadn’t gone to Detroit, I might’ve gone there… but I’m going to wait and see. Besides, the ladies who go to the Chicago party will have parties in two weeks, if our Detroit visit didn’t work. But I’m REALLY tired of schlepping a carful of kids hither and yon, imposing upon folks.

    We don’t do the lollipop thing, either – I just feel funny about that. We’re huggers and players, and touch-things-he-touched kind of people, but swappin’ spit isn’t really… ew. The baby was a kisser, so that was kind of ‘awww, isn’t he sweet?’ and I could deal with that. But sharing drinks/food… I have a line.

    :halo:

  • Hon, I was mostly joking – both my kids are at the dangerous stage for CP….Ian will be 13 next week :eek: I don’t know WHERE the time has gone! I just pray…..

    And if you’d gone to OK, you could have stopped here – depending on what part of OK. We’re about 2 hours from the Red River…so, not close, but not Far. (Until you factor in the goats…we don’t do long trips much.)

  • I kinda feel a kinship with your mom now! We’ve both bought a house site unseen! LMBO! It’ll be fun to see how we both cope with our new places.

    Yaayy, for a new flat screen tv!!! I know I balked last year when dh got a big ol one for our living room, but it is pretty amazing. We still don’t watch it much at all but it is nice to watch movies and computer stuff on.

    Ghost Whisperer I was like you when we got to that season. I wanted more glimpses of the other guy in the mirror. I was ticked off that her husband was soooo freakin selfish! We pretty much stopped watching it after that. It was so good before that and I didn’t want to have to sit through more of her getting used to the ‘new guy’. Worst way to end a series ever!!!

    Hope you guys get your chicken pox!!! It is an adventure trying to get them!

  • yeah I knew it was after I read about a group getting in trouble for sending lollipops to distant friends. It’s the same for loving up on a stuffed animal or blanket and sending that as a gift too, at least if the purpose is to send chicken pox and not a gift. I thought your group was just for Michigan – is it multi-state?

  • It’s nation-wide. Right now they’re talking Indianapolis, Chicago, Wisconsin (and those of us hopefully incubating in Michigan). There’s some talk about Seattle, but it’s not confirmed. But it’s for all over the country.

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