What's new with me

Wow, it's been a while.
Just so key points of what has been going on:

• Had an exhausting week. Had Monday off from work because the school district was closed for snow. This coming Monday looks like it'll be a repeat.
• During the exhausting week, Shane had to get sick on me Wednesday night. So, he woke me up a million times (in all actuality, it was probably 10) for some reason or another. At one point, I was awake for a stretch of an hour. Seeing as I didn't go to bed until 1am and had to wake up at 7am...and I was awakened for about two hours total, I was tired. And sick like him. Fun.
• Long story- My mom doesn't have a degree. Therefore, she makes very little. Sarah's daycare costs and her share of the rent take about 80% of her two paychecks. So imagine how hard it is for her to buy food, insurance, etc. My mom is currently getting NO assistance from Sarah's somewhat father, my mom's ex-husband so we've been struggling a bit (with Shane and I buying the groceries). My mom had to apply for federal aid for Sarah (a tricky process seeing as my mom is not Sarah's legal guardian...have I explained that craziness? I forgot). So we're recieving two hundred a month (which will cover little of her daycare costs but it helps). The sad part is, is that the state is going after Sarah's biological parents to cover those costs, and her parents will probably just come up and take Sarah back, though they haven't seen the now-five year old since she was 11 months. And the saddest part is, they have every legal right...moral is another issue.
• Shopping for mine and Shane's January 31st anniversary. One year buddy! Shopping for boys just sucks though.
• A kid said I looked like a witch at school today. Sweet.

Yeah so there is a quip recap, quick enough at least. I am EXHAUSTED! I just finished babysitting my twin cousins...and they are the biggest of handfuls. Oh well.

Oh, and Shane's ecstatic that his Seahawks are in the Super Bowl...he's going absolutely nuts!

Ciao.

P.S. Sorry for the lame-o post, I'm ready to sleep the week away.

OY!

Have I really been procrastinating? Well...we've been a bit preoccupiedo.

The apartment we're renting is the second-floor of a three story house. The first floor belongs to the land lady, the top floor is rented by two men and a baby.

Our land lady, K, told us that she was considering selling the home we're in. At first, we were hopeful. Perhaps the people who are interested in this home will want tenants to occupy the second floor? It is a very big home after all and a lot of maintenance is required. Sadly, K told us that there was a couple she was acquainted with and they were considering (if they purchased this home) turning it into a single family home again. Now, back in the day, this home was a single family home, this house is listed as a "historic home" according to Bellows Falls. The couple that are interested are loaded with cash, and turning this back into a single family home could cost at least $100,000. That sucks.

To make matters worse, we don't have the cash to hire movers to help us move. We also cannot find any 3 or 4 bedroom homes for under $1,000/month rent. As it is, we're paying just over $900.

When we first moved in, it was just Shane and I, hauling HUMUNGO furniture from Charlestown into here. My mom worked later than us so we were the only ones able to move. All the furniture you've seen in the other pictures were pieces Shane and I moved ourselves. It took us 4 days to do it all and many aches all over. It's a process I am definitely not looking forward to doing. It's sad, that with my mom's 6 brothers and sisters, not a single one offered or has offered to help us move. There are over 100 members of our family but the moving will come down to just Shane and I again. So, if there's anyone willing to help us when we do move again, I'd appreciate it if you let us know! (Free pizza is being offered!)

By the way, I am curious why the anonymous blogger remains anon...who are you? :D

Ciao.

The Five

So, I was tagged by Brian to write a blog listing five weird habits about myself.

The rules are: The first player of the game starts with the topic, "5 weird habits about yourself". And people who get tagged need to write an entry about their five weird habits, as well as state this rule clearly. In the end you need to choose the next 5 people to be tagged, and link to their web-journals. Don't forget to leave a comment in their blog/journal that says "you have been tagged" and tell them to read yours.

Well, I've thought and I've thought so I will have to give the five that stick out most in my mind I suppose.

1. I'm a HUGE procrastinator. Like with this post, I put it off and off and I probably would have for another week or two. But it gets worse. Most nights, I put off dinner until 10 or 11pm with the excuse that I'm busy (doing something like laying in bed and reading). To add on top of that, I won't wake up for work until about 20 minutes before we have to leave (just enough time to brush my teeth, make breaky and dress...usually I run out of time). I'll be the first to admit I procrastinate out of laziness. Cleaning my room could take months. Same with emailing someone back, I can put that off for four months, just ask the person who tagged me.
2. I run into things constantly. I used to blame it on the Italian hips I inherited from my mother, but it's actually because my left leg is unaligned. My left hip tilts towards the center and my knee (on the same leg) tilts outward...so I will run into things and blame it on sheer clumsiness (only because I don't want to admit I use to wear leg braces like Forrest Gump).
3. I don't know what to call it. I will ask Shane what time it is, he'll answer and then five or ten minutes later I will ask him again. Shane will become exasperated because he told me the time all ready "Whitney, you asked me five minutes ago", but I don't remember it at all. I guess my short term memory fails me? Either way, it's almost like ADD, I can't concentrate on anything I say or do too long without easily forgetting it.
4. Don't ever think about sharing a bed with me. According to everyone whose ever have the opportunity to, I'm a horrible bed partner. Apparantely I hog blankets (Shane insists on having his own, but then claims I still take his along with mine), kick people (no joke - my mom has scars on her back from my toenails scraping her during my sleep), sleepwalk, and most prominently, talk in my sleep. I've been known to have full conversations with people who were awake while I talked in my sleep. I also wake Shane up several times, shaking him violently telling him to stop dying. And worse (or so Shane thinks), instead of turning off the alarm clock in the morning, I will put one finger to my lips and hush "Shhhh" every few minutes (it won't wake me up!), or wake Shane up telling him to "shh"
5. In high school, I never studied (procrastination again) but five minutes before every test, I would skim over some notes and ace the test. I have somewhat of a photographic memory, and once I've viewed something, it stays in my head. In fact, I still have a speech I memorized in the 7th grade on Cleopatra stuck in my head, when I viewed my speech notes once. (Hard to believe with what I said on #3)

Okay so that's the five. Perhaps I put a bit too much description into it but who cares! Time to nominate my five victims... Miss Min, Leif, Shaner, Joello, and finally, Polish girl. To be honest, I chose these people because a few of them never blog and a few that do don't post anything of this nature...so we'll see how many do...

Ciao.

123

So Shane and I went to this small town in mid-NH last Sunday called Weare to buy some baseball cards. We used "trusty" mapquest.com to get our directions...

The main route to Weare was on Rt. 123... The opening to Rt 123 happened to start (near us anyway) in this:




Um....yeah.








As you can see, the opening was pretty much impossible. That's Alstead, by the way. One of the hardest hit towns in October's wild weather (the flood). Obviously, that route was impossible. Before we had left, my mom said that 123 was open again....so when we came upon this sight:







We disagreed with her. This was the opening, going across this bridge, but Shane and I opted against it, instead trying to figure out which way to go around it (which we eventually did, and thankfully our guesses turned us to the right area). (Mind you, this is just a walk from where we live, not even a mile)


So, along the way, we come across several more sights through the opened parts of Alstead. There was a house that was still half'demolished, parts of it scattered in the Cold River. There was a trailer home that was spray painted in big pink letters "FEMA, I'VE LEFT HOME FOR IRAQ, PLEASE HELP FAMILY!". I can't believe all the suffering there is still. It's such a beautiful area, with hills rolling along the river, beautiful snow covered pine trees and the kind of homes that have been around for a hundred or more years. Just go to google and under images type in "Alstead 123" and you'll see all of this and much more. It's just very sad to me.

Anyway, we made it to wear about purchased 12,000 baseball cards. What are we going to do with that many you may ask? Probably go crazy. And then perhaps we'll sell them on eBay. Actually, we all ready planned to. Hopefully, we should make about 20x more than we spent. (if not that, at least 10 because we got really great cards).

Uh oh, Aladdin is on tv, gotta go!

Ciao.

10 Things

Normally, I don't like to steal ideas from other bloggers, however I thought this one was interesting so thanks Clare.

The rules are to to write down ten things you wish you could say to ten people in your life. You also have to disable comments (I see the reason, but I choose to keep them enabled) and you can never talk about it again. Basically, I think I might just follow the first one. I think it's important to talk about things that bother you and this past year I have gotten a lot out of my system. Most of you know how blatantly honest I am, but there are a lot of things I keep to myself.

1. I don't blame you for what happened. I hate that our relationship is so strained fifteen years later because of what he did to both of us. It wasn't your fault, you need to realize that. I'm proud of the person you have become, but I miss your friendship more than you know.

2. Even though I'm glad things worked out the way they did, I still miss talking to you when we friends. I hate that everything got so completely screwed around and you felt awkward talking to me. I'm sorry that things weren't what you expected and even sorrier that you let it happen.

3. Do you realize what a trap you're in? You try to deny things that aren't true but we both know you're deeply insecure. You've been through it all before and I blame myself for encouraging you through this a second time around. I only want you to be happy, not to settle for the first person that will give you a little attention.

4. I feel like I've lost a part of you. You used to know everything, now it feels like there is just this space between us that keeps getting wider everytime we talk. I miss having you, having someone that I can tell everything to, now I feel as if there is no one that could ever take your place, even you now.

5. I'm sorry that I can be a real (in your words) bitch sometimes especially last Aug-Oct. I realize now that I was taking so much for granted and was in a sense pushing you away. I thank God that you got past all of that and I thank you for all your honesty. I truly feel like I've gotten past it and we can work on the more important things.

6. I don't know why it's so hard to tell you I love you. I've known you forever and you mean so much to me and I wish I could be more open with you, like I used to. I wish that things were the way they were before even though I was unhappy. I'm so proud of you, it's important that you know that.

7. I feel like you blame me for what didn't happen. I couldn't have made her love you the way you wanted. You rushed things, you scared her. Am I the permanent reminder of what you don't have?

8. I tell you I am glad that we moved on, past everything, but I don't think you feel the same way. You hurt me a lot with what we had, but it hurts me more that we can't move past that. Why won't you tell me the truth about you? I all ready know everything but whenever I ask you to be the friend you were, you get scared.

9. I think this friendship is a joke. What kind of friendship is it when we're always arguing? Are we holding on to things for nostalgia or do we really think we can move past everything we've gone through this past year? I'm afraid to end it because of what you know. What are you afraid of?

10. I feel like I've taken everything you have done for me for granted. I don't understand how you can look past it and help me move on. You've been there for me since I was a baby and you know more about me than most. I don't deserve you but I am too proud to admit it.

I think what I learned most from this is that I could've made this list to 20 people. That's sad.

COMMENTS ARE WORKING!

As one anon. blogger found, my comments are finally working! After spending four hours thoroughly studying my template, I found the problem and corrected it...thank goodness!

Anyways, onto much more important news...BIG BIG NEWS>>>

Shane and I adopted a baby on Wednesday. See below




















Isn't she gorgeous?! I adopted her at the Springfield Humane Society on Wednesday. We went there with the intention to look at a completely different cat (the choice was mine, as it would literally be my cat mainly) and I was browsing some cats in their cages when Shane grabbed this cat named "Austin". Well, I didn't want a boy because all my pets had been boys so I left Shane alone to play with the cat. I walked back over to him and the cat reached out to me (like a baby would reach for someone) and it reached up and kissed me. How could I not be sold by that? So I decided to concede, only later finding that it was a girl. The reason they had given it a boy name was because when it first came it, they couldn't tell if it was a "she" or a "he" so they listed it as a neutered male (which was problematic when we brought her to the vets for her spay today!). So I got my wish after all and dropped that fugly name. Her name is Akila (uh-kee-lah) because it means intelligent in Egyptian (she looks Egyptian to me! Shane thinks she looks Russian but his opinion doesn't matter anyway...:D)

We didn't even have to pose her. I was reading up on html and she climbed on my lap and moved to the laptop (at this point, she was entertained by the way I was scrolling up and down)

And here she is again, stretched across my laptop watching the screen still. What a bum! Honestly though, she has to be the sweetest, most loving cat I have ever known. She's very eager to please and playful but at the same time is more than willing to crawl up in your arms (and she follows me everywhere!). Plus, she only answers to me when her name is called. She could be curled up with Shane but if I called "Akila" she'd run right over to where I was. YAY! She looks chubby in the pictures but she's really quite svelte and only 7months old. I need to go pick her up from the vets now...I love her so much!

Ciao.

COMMENTS

So far, I have two emails about my crappy comment system. If you have tried to comment but it refused, please email me at luckyduckys@hotmail.com. Thanks geeks