Basement @ MindSay 
gross
After I last wrote, we were getting ready to go see my mom in Jacksonville,NC where she is in a nursing home...That morning we got up to a flooded basement...so, we had to stay,, called insurance, and plumber...Both came out that day and next day...with the insurance check we got we made an extra house payment..God works in mysterious ways! now we are only one month behind...but they continue to not want to help us..just this week we were again denied for the loan mod...they told us as long as we were behind and in the hole each month we would never qualify!! What??makes no sense...we were told that was why people like us could qualify for it..job loss, behind on payments,etc...That's what Obama said!! its so frustrating!! Our second mortgage co. gave us a loan mod in 2 days!!! and we were behind with them too!! what's up with that?? who do you contact to find out if your mortgage co is jerking you around??/ they have to report to someone do they not?? sigh----
Good news is I got a job yesterday...Its part time like I wanted, no nights and no weekends..and only about 3-4 hrs a day, but every bit helps..I'm on Emergency unemployment now and my understanding is that that runs out in Oct... so we are still fighting to save our house as it stands now... oh and our first mortgage told us we needed to pare our bills down since we are in the hole every month..ok, well, we went to a credit manager and He told us there was no where to cut back!! we are paying only what we have to right now-utilities,insurance,gas,food,stuff like that that you cant pare back.. other good news, my husband and my daughter got some help to be able to go to Doctor and get meds now...Ours is no cost to go to Doctor and daughter has to pay $5 each visit.Husband is diabetic, so he got his meds for free and my daughter is on a couple of meds that are free now too..that is a big help there..and our past doctor bills were covered and paid also which was almost at $1000.00.....now just owe the dentist $500.00...dont know when that will get paid...as no extra money at all. And here in NC taxes went up!! are they trying to kill us??? Our property taxes we owe this year are almost $2000.00!!!!! and sales taxes went up too... and now Duke Energy is wanting to raise its cost??? great...people are struggling..what do they want?our blood??? Christmas this year will be bleak..I just basically want my family together.. still trying to figure that out..with property taxes due right in Jan. that kills us..Christmas isnt about getting anyway..its about Christ and his birth.. we love each other and have fun as a family..that's what matters..The Black Friday list has already come out...those that have $ to spend-have at it...we don't.... yesterday in the mail we get 3 different letters from the county ..we owe $5 per cat we now have ..taxes on our animals!! I thought we came to America to flee Taxes on everything !! and for Religious freedom!! good grief... tax this, raise this, what next???
have I said enough??? No wonder I was depressed earlier this week...
I was going to leave for the beach today with 3 good friends. they were going to take care of me so I could go.yesterday evening we get a call from one of them, my really good friend(I call her my Sis!) and her Dad was in ICU.. She had to call 911 earlier as he fell twice...so weak.... he had been sick all week but thought he was getting better... he was so dehydrated that they had to use a force bag to get the fluids in him. he took 4 bags I think..anyway, the rest of us told her we were not leaving her behind to go on to the beach..She wanted us to go on..can you believe that??She is so unselfish..I told her to shut up!! we were staying to be with her and the beach would still be there whenever...She couldn't help it that her dad got so ill...they weren't even sure he'd pull through last night! and she wanted us to go on.. No way!!my husband and I went over to hospital after she called and stayed. we took her to get something to eat. she went to be with her mom last night. her mom is diabetic and confined to the house..She has to be carried several times a week to receive dialysis. And she needs constant care..my friend is an only child so everything falls on her. She is a wife, and mother to two teens herself and works.. talk about having a full plate.. she does..
anyway I talked to her about 9 this morning and her dad stablizied during the night. they want to move him into a room out of ICU and regulate his meds. he lost so much weight...Will find out more later this afternoon..
my daughter started College in late August and she has adjusted well. Its our local community college, but she is doing great!! She has already aced a couple of tests! next fall she will transfer to UNCC. She has a new "Boy friend" lol says she doesn't want to be involved with anyone right now and they are just friends. I like him he is very nice.
Son has new girlfriend this year at Appalachian. he loves his apartment and having his own room!
I'm glad they are both settling in well.
well gotta run for now..maybe I will post again before another month rolls by! or two!
We decided to go shopping before the zoo, my sister and I! What a great day we had planned. And it was going so well! Out of the six major Thrift World Stores in the Metro area of Omaha, we hit two. The two nicest ones with the Brand Name clothes! One on the Northwest side of Omaha and one on the Southeast side of Omaha near the Zoo.
What a great way to end our mini camping trip that just turned in to being a mini stay at my sister's house due to the varying weather that kept popping up! Instead of staying at the really nice free camp grounds we stayed at my sister's house for a few days, I wasn't going to chance being caught near a big man made lake that had extermly high levels near the banks of the camp ground!
Anyway, after a GREAT haul of a summer woredrobe for both kids from two different thrift shops and then treating the kids to lunch, we headed to Henery Dooley (sp?) Zoo for a nice afternoon. It started out great! We hit the Jungle, the Sea Lions, the Garden of Senses, the Cat House, part of the Avaiary, the Gorrila House, the Cat Complex, the feeding time for the smaller tropical birds, the Desert Dome, and the Giaraff House. With smaller enclousers along the way of course! Of course pictures are on here! Enjoy!
While we were just ouside of the New Butterfly House and the Aquareme deciding which one we were going to go in first before we started heading to the town were my van was sitting so the kids and I could head home and my sister and her kids could head home, we heard the tornado sirins go off! Now I know why so many ppl get killed in public places during storms! The tornado sirns go off and the majority of the Zoo visitors head for the Goddess Dayum parking lots! I kid you not! Well being country girls, my sister and I herd the kids to the aquarememe (sp?) house under the canapoy and bust out our cell phones. Each of us respectively calling our hubby's, asking them why the hell neither one of them called to tell us there was a storm system heading straight at Omaha! We informed both of them that we were heading for the storm shelters in the Fish house and we would call once the storm passed. Then we hearded the kids towards one of the Zoo Workers holding a door open to the basement of the complex leading to the exective offices and we were one of the first groups down.
There were a few other ppl down there already but what we found the most funny out of this was that everyone single person down there including us, were NOT from Omaha persay but from the surrounding communities and areas! We are NOT fools! While the main secruity guy was telling us and the few zoo workers what the plan was, he was getting reports from the weather radio and the few of us that stopped and made calls. Then he asked us to sit tight, while he and his other crew went outside to go round up the rest of the Zoo visitors and get them inside various zoo complexes till the storm passed.
We had a couple of upset kids of course, my daughter being one of them, and a lot of upset ppl, including ball players that stuck around after the College World Series before they went home. Those of us from the midwest were laughing and joking and calming the kids down. We kept telling everyone that we are in one of the safest buildings and don't worry about the animals they know what to do and the zoo workers were making sure they were safe also. Once all the zoo workers got in the main secruity guy came back in to our basement and said it was pitch black out and winds up to 90-100 miles per hour and they would not know if a tornado hit till after it was clear out. The lights did go out and thankfull the generator kicked on right away.
After we got the okay to clear out and leave the zoo, we got some pictures of the damage done in side the zoo. Down trees and one of the heavy glass safety entrance doors to the Wild Kingdom Palliviallion was completely blown off and laid gently down in front of the Pavillion! I missed that picture! There was hail everywhere! We had to make our way out of the Eastern Side of Omaha back towards the I-10 exit so we could head to Freemont NE which is an hour Northeast of Omaha, where my van was sitting! Damage everywhere! While driving the news said, the Art Festival got hit hard downtown Omaha, there was a boat taken off of a dock in the Missiouri and was dropped on the roof of a house, trees blocking roads, and down electrical poles all over Omaha downtown/metro area! We stopped on the outskirts of town to feed the kids and the Taco Johns we hit had running TVS. The area heading to Fremont NE was hit hard also and a semi rig was entangled in electrical wires! Cars of the road, rigs off the road, and major damage. This system worked its way into IA and massive damage and two killed on the IA side.
We got detoured outside of a town between Omaha and Fremont due to massive damage and accidents. Where I got a phone call from Randy when he got home. My dog Spud died during the day yesterday! Randy was upset and of course the kids and I were very upset also, but we also knew the dog was going to end up dying on us. Spud was the dog with the unknown seizures. At first Randy thought he somehow choked while he was outside on the chain but when he went up to examine Spud, there was plenty of slack in the chain and the collar would have slipped right off of his neck (we made sure that it could slip off if he was caught up when running or on the chain if something would have happened). The way Spud was laying and his facial features, you could tell he had a massive siezure. So trying to find our way on back country roads and county paved hiways we didn't know to get back into Fremont, we had upset kids and nobody was out directing the traffic. My sister and I again being country girls said fuck it and got on a country road and started heading towards the sun because Northwest was where we wanted to head. We picked up a truck in front of us from our home area just a different county and he had the same idea. We got rerouted via the roads with no help from anyone due to big trees, silos, fencing, and other debries in the mushy gravel roads! A normal 1 hour drive from Omaha to Fremont took 2 hours!
Once we got to a lil town Southeast of Fremont which would have been the quickest route we got denied by a State Trooper directing traffic. Nobody was allowed into town where a small lake was surrounded wiht houses and such due to the damage! They weren't letting anyone through not even family members of the town or land owners with no houses. Ambulances and Fire trucks were all over the town and two of the rural fire trucks were making their way towards the other road leading to Fremont. We just turned around and followed the fire trucks into Fremont. Finally! Fremont NE had no major damage. Some trees down and some windows broken but no major damage. Then we pull up into the truck stop where we left my van. I got a lovely suprise! My rear windsheild was blown out or a rock got kicked up in the storm! I have no rear windshield now! Nothing was stolen. But everything was glass covered clear up to the front seat and everything was water logged! Thank GODS I had what ever paperwork I did have in there in sacks and covered up! My Leadership Manual alone would have cost me 100 some dollars to replace if it got water logged or damaged somehow!
So I called Randy yet again and told him we FINALLY made it into Fremont but I would be still a lot later because we had to clean up the glass and find places for the kdis to sit with out getting cut up! Thankfull we were able to pull a couple of the pillows from underneith my tent that dind't have glass on it and give those to the kids to sit on. My sister handed over one of her towels so I could sit on it while driving. And then we rearrange the back so none of my Thrift shop finds, my tents, sleeping bags, blankets, pillows, or other camping gear would go flying out for my hour drive home! I ended up pulling over twice on the way home to rearrange my back but FINALLY my normal two hour drive ended up being a 4 hour and 45 minute drive and we made it home at 8:45pm. where we promptly unloaded the van and shop vaccued it out so I could get some plastic on the windshield due to more storms coming this weekend.
After we got that done, we gave Spud my Fat Man Dog a burial worthy of a King. See we couldn't bury him. The ground is too wet and his smell would draw the local wild dog pack and the local coyote pack. Not to mention all the other wild critters int he area. So we took my lovely burn pile Randy made up for me this weekend and gave Spud a Funeral Pry. We didn't want any other anmals digging him up and eating on him. Randy loaded him on the bonfire and I threw some sage, cedar chips, and sweet grass all over Spud and we said a lil blessing for him and said our goodbyes.
Now today, I get to call his old family and inform them that he is gone. I am doing laundry from the back of my van and going to take the kids down to my girl's house because they are still stressed from last night. A lil fun down at Aunties house and coming home about the time Daddy gets home from work will do them good.
Now I am off to throw another sleeping bag into the wash! Pictures to come after this post!
It was a nice warm fall day yesterday. The trees were swaying and dropping their leaves. The massive flock of black birds and crows desended into my woods to chitter with us all day. I had clothes blowing on the line while I was picking up and dusting my living room. All was going well until that fatefull moment!
I started the vaccum up to finish off the vaccuming in the living room and I saw somethign small and dark dart into the hall way. At first I thought, it was one of the two new black kittens, so I shut off the vaccum and poked my head around the pocket door to the hallway. It was no kitten! It was a fat pudgy lil field mouse! It had run past the stairway door and was sitting on the bottom step, looking at me as if to say: "YOU dared to disturb my slumber you bint!" Don't ask me why the lil rodent had an English accent it just did! I screamed a lil and started yelling for the kids to bring a cat! And fast! I have six of them one of them should be able to get this lil dieses carrier out of my home!
DeLaney came bounding down the stairs and chased the four legged lil cretion my way! I hate snakes but can at least tolerate them and will jump a mile and run the other way on them. As long as they stay away from my house snakes can live a long life. But rodents, rodents must die a painful death! I don't know if is because I have read way too much on the Plague or what but I will jump and scream like a girl if a mouse comes my way.
And sure enough, with DeLaney bounding down those stairs like a newborn filly with no balance, she chased that mouse right back at me! I did a lil hope skip and a big squeal as I jumped up on to one of my couches! The whole while 3 out of 6 cats sitting in the living room and my mousing dog laying on the other couch just looking at me! I came down off the couch once I made sure the lil rodent was safely behind the couch the dog was laying on and immeditally called my hubby to ask him when he will be getting home and why the hell do I have a MOUSE in MY HOUSE! By Fand, I have six cats who all mouse and a dog that mouses!
Randy belly laughed at me over the phone and had the nerve to say: "I can't believe this, you will take a shovel to a snake's head, you will field dress a deer, and you love to handle any type of animal there is including snakes if it is in a safe enviroment but you can't handle a mouse! Darling, we live in the country, we are surrounded by fields and pastures, they harvested, the mice are going to try to get into the house now! Either your cats step to the plate or put some traps and poision out.
Fine! After getting off the phone with my hubby who has no sympothy for me dealing with an enemy in my HOME! I decieded that I was going to war! I already went to war on the dayum bugs and won! I geared up. I ran up stairs and put jeans and socks on and then ran backdownstairs to my kitchen sink. I needed posion and traps! Alas my supplies were none existant! It was time to gear up fully! I loaded the kids up in our tank (the truck), and we ran into town. Where I promptly bought out all the enclosed reusable snap traps and two boxes of posion. This mouse was going down!
DeLaney and Coltin the whole time were laughing at me for squealing and jumping on the couch until I put their little butts to work, baiting the traps with peanut butter! While they were busy baiting the 6 enclosed mouse traps, I opened one of the multipacks of poisoin and started down to the basement. I bet that is where that lil english accented rodent came in at! The basement! I slowly but surely go down the slow rotting steps and lay out all 4 boxes of the posioin in key positions. Then I came back upstairs and grabbed the snap traps and put 3 of the traps in the living room, one in the dinning room, and two in the kitchen. I put the rest of the posion, another 4 boxes, under neith the kitchen and bathroom sinks, in one of the bathroom cupboards that I keep the cleaning supplies in and one out on the mudporch in a cubby whole that I didn't get around to putting steal wool in but thankfully is to small evne for the baby kitties!
I walked back into the living room and wouldn't you know it that lil fat rodent was sitting in the middle of the living room watching tv! I swear! I pick up the nearest cat and throw it at the mouse! And it chittered at me in that dayum English accent of it. This time I swear it said: "Catch me if you can!" Let me tell you then the battle was on big time!
Well the enemy didn't make another apperance till last night. I heard a snapping sound while I was working on Winter Solistice gifts and by the Goddess Fand, I had the lil sucker in one of the snap traps! I won! So I thought! I was going to leave the lil english talking mouse in the trap till tomorrow because my luck ran the course were it didn't snap the neck! But I figure I leave it there and torture it to death then I could rid myself of the mouse today!
My kittens are working for the dayum mouse I think! I named the kittens Brother's Grimm. The five toed kitten is Brother's and the six toed kitten is Grimm. Grimm decieded to go play with the mouse in the trap! That mouse is not stupid! With the help of Grimm, he got away! I lost the battle! I think! I refuse to go behind the tv to see if there is a dead mouse there so I am waiting for my mom to get back from the doctor's appointment with my dad to check for me! If Grimm did help the lil english talking rodent free himself, he will be put up on charges of treason and helping the enemy! Not sure what I will do with the lil bugger caues he is a cute lil kitten! But he will be punished in some way! I swear it if that mouse is free!
I reset the bait trap and put it in another location by the tv and speakers. I will win this war! There will be no rodents in MY HOUSE!
A couple years ago, the water line to our home exploded on a frosty winter night, and our basement was flooded. About a month or so after that, during a severe storm, a tree in our backyard was struck by lightning and a portion of the tree hit against the house. No real damage was done but that the downspout was knocked off.
Any of you who read my blog here know that money is NOT in great quantities here, although we are certainly not starving! :P Fact is, the results of the flood disgusted me. With the cat litter (4 kitty boxes worth) and misc bugs, it was just gross, so ... it kinda got swept under the proverbial rug. For the most part, the only time we go to the basement is to do laundry.
Well ... yesterday, I ventured a look. Talk about DISGUSTING! Funny thing ... the basement fairy didn't come and clean it all up for me. So, today it begins. I bought the three of us wor gloves, and we're going to tackle the basement before it rots altogether. I measured to replace the downspout, and by golly, I think I can afford it! The top is down, but I think I'll ask my oldest daughter's boyfriend (he has a blazer) to take me to Lowe's tomorrow morning - or some morning this week to get that. The rest is just ... disposing of trash, sweeping, a bit of scrubbing with BLEACH, and a fresh coat of paint. This will not all be done this summer, I'm certain, but ... perhaps all but the painting ... ? The front porch is scheduled to be painted in August, if not sooner. Again, if I can get all my kids and their boyfriends to help with the heavier stuff ... Well, we'll see.
In the midst of all my apparent rambling here, there is a lesson. I have a tendency at times to sweep "ugly" or "uncomfortable" things under the rug instead of dealing with them head on. I am easily overwhelmed by "messes". As I sat on the porch yesterday trying to read (F. Peretti's Visitation), I was RESTLESS ... I had TIME to think things through, to mentally organize the undone chores and make some sense of them. I happen to think I had a bit a divine assistance in the matter of breaking down the chores into "bite size" pieces, manageable tasks, so that we are not overwhelmed with the amount or degree of difficulty of the tasks.
Point is ... we have begun to take steps to remedy the situation and bring the basement back to life. It's the first step that is always the hardest. There is ugliness in our lives that will not go away by itself. We can try to close the door or sweep it under the rug, but ... it's still there, growing. Could it be that God whispered in my ear yesterday, "DEAL with it & I'll help!" ... ??? :)
~ B
You're in the basement and you're bored. Andy and Molly are playing dive bomb on the old couch. They stand on the arm and yell "dive bomb" and let themselves fall face first into the cushions. It was your favorite game last year, but now you're too tall. Your head brushes the ceiling when you stand on the arm, and dive bomb isn't as much fun when you have to squat. Andy's kind of too tall for it, too, but he's pretending.
You tell Andy that he should try jumping on your stomach, just to see what happens. You kind of know what's going to happen–it's going to hurt. But you have to find out for sure. You just can't know unless you try.
So you lie on the floor next to the couch, flat on your back. Andy leaps off the couch with both feet together, like jumping into the deep end of a pool. There's a huge pain right in your gut and you're crying. Andy and Molly run away and later Mom discovers you on the ground. "Who did this to you?" she asks. She has that a bite to her voice that means business. "Andy," you say, and he gets sent to his room for it.
At dinner that night, he stares at you with an amazed look on his face. It's like he doesn't know why he did it, like you don't know why you asked. You don't tell Mom what really happened.
HAHA! Who hasn't done that before?
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