This and That

It’s been several weeks since I posted a real update – I have to think back on all that has been going on.

A few weeks ago some friends of ours called to see if we would like a loom.  It’s a huge thing – will probably be over 10 feet long all set up.  I couldn’t see it going into the dump so I took it.  It’s going to live in the shed until we have a place to set it up.  Bill says I need to get a spindle so I can spin the dog’s hair into thread to weave!  By the looks of what we get from the dogs several times a year we could probably made several rugs or even clothes with it!

Production on the house has pretty much come to a standstill.  Lack of funds is our major problem.  We need to get the floor upstairs finished and the furnace in downstairs before any more major projects can be started.  I’m hoping for a nice tax refund to help with both of those things.  Until then, the ‘barn’ has been used for storing the loom temporarily and we’ve ‘camped’ in it a couple of times.  Bill is slowly getting his tools moved down there so that the ‘shop’ part of it can be operational soon.

We’ve both been cleaning and clearing at home.  I have 13 years of stuff to go through and decide to keep, pitch or give away.  I’ve started in the computer room.  The old computer finally gave out – I need to get the hard drive in to have it moved to an external drive so I can still get to the documents.  I have moved bookcases in and all my books are now living in one place.  We need to start calling it the library now instead of the computer room!  I still have some clearing to do in there but it’s a major improvement.

There is finally some movement on my mother’s house.  My sister agreed to auction it off.  The auction is set for the Saturday after Thanksgiving.  I had been making trips up there to try to clear it out and it just seemed to not be getting anywhere.  This auctioneer will go through and stage everything and set it all up for us!  I’m hoping we get enough from the sale to pay him and both of us.  Hopefully, that will be enough to finish the ‘barn’!

Well, that’s all I can think of for now.  Tomorrow I’ll be taking Austen to the oral surgeon to get his wisdom teeth out.  I hope he has a better time of it than I did.  He’s young so maybe that will be to his advantage.  J

I have such cool kids!

Aubri has a coffee date this afternoon at Star Bucks with a junior (17 year old that drives - *sigh*) so he just came by to pick her up and I had told Austen that he should take off his shirt and go out to meet the guy when he arrived. So when the date got here, Austen stripped off his shirt (he has several tattoos and piercings and that flaming red hair!)



and he followed her to the door. He was acting quite crazy doing his best ‘Sand People’ imitation. The guy saw him and started doing it back! LOL Poor Aubri is so embarrassed.

Odd week

This week has been an odd week.  I’m not sure what really constitutes ‘normal’ around here but this week was not on the normal curve of things.  Bill and I went up to my mom’s house on Saturday where we met my sister and we proceeded to further clear out stuff so we can sell the house.  I don’t know why I always get ‘talked into’ taking more stuff every time I go up there but I did.  We had originally planned on bringing home the glass top for the desk that we brought home a few months ago – we had forgotten it the last time we were up there.  But somehow we ended up bringing home a whole pickup load of stuff and there is still a pile in the dining room at mom’s house yet to get.  How does this happen?

I was really hoping to get the rest of everything cleared out so that we can start the selling process but alas, while we got a lot done, there is still things that need to be taken out and cleaning up to do.  We are planning on auctioning the house and contents (what is left) so we have to now go through websites of a few auction houses in the area to find one that will come out to the house to auction it off.  I really think we will get the quickest sell this way as this is a little town at the corner of No and Where in Illinois and no one has any money these days to pay full market price.  The house needs work so I don’t feel too bad letting it go for less.

Got home on Sunday night and as we were turning into the subdivision Austen’s car was sitting out in the middle of the cul-de-sac and Aubri was trying to call me on the cell phone.  Seems his power steering was out and they both needed to be at work.  Just after we pulled into the drive, Erik and Meghan pulled up in Meghan’s car and Erik hopped out and ran into the house to change his Cardinal shirt (they had been to the Cardinal game) into his Racanelli’s shirt and he took Aubri to work and covered Austen’s shift.  That brought Erik home after 10 and he was supposed to drive back to school that evening but I convinced him to sleep over and drive back in the morning – 5 hours starting at 11:00 is too late in my opinion!

Erik got back to school ok the next day and Austen started his quest to find out what was wrong with the car.  He drove it over to Dobbs auto (I hate that place but it’s close) and they didn’t call him back until Tuesday morning with the bad news that it was the power steering pump and they would have to replace the entire assembly at a cost of $1100!  Wow!  Bill suggested he check to see if it was still under warranty and since he also thought the part was a dealer only part that it might actually be less expensive to take it to the Mazda dealership and see what they could do.  Unfortunately the warranty expired last month (figures) and the cost will be about the same since they have to work on some electrical stuff as well.

So, Tuesday evening when I got off work, I picked Austen up from the dealership and took him to Enterprise rent-a-car.  Now Randy used to work at Enterprise and we have never had so much trouble renting a car before – I even used them in South Caroline in August when we went to Tom’s graduation with no trouble but jeeeze!  These people wanted a pint of blood and my firstborn male child just to rent a car for 3 days!  Seems that a debit card is not good enough to rent a car- you have to have a credit card or fill out a resume of your finances in triplicate!  I was not at all happy with them but Austen needed a car so we did it.  They had promised him a compact car but when we got there they had NO CARS so they gave him a Chevy Colorado for the same price.  Austen didn’t really care what car it was as long as it got him to work.

So I left Enterprise, stopped at Weight Watchers to weigh in and then was off to Cahokia Mounds for a memorial service.  I posted about that earlier this week so I’ll leave those details out for now but I did get to see some folks I haven’t gotten to see in a while so that was nice and we all went to Cracker Barrel afterwards for dinner and really had a nice relaxing conversation.

Today I have to make the rounds to the Electric Company to pay the bill, go to the bank, and then class tonight.  Bill is pulling the trailer up some time today so that we can leave in the morning for Columbia MO for a weekend camping festival and hand fasting of some friends.  More seeing of folks not seen in a while – hopefully we have a stress free and relaxing weekend – although the weather forecast is for rain all weekend!