FINALLY!

YAY! We finally got the seller's lender to agree to providing an engineer's report on the foundation of the new house!
What that means is that we may actually close on said new house some time this fricking century!
We were originally supposed to close May 15th. Then it got moved to May 28th. Then to June 16th. Hopefully we will actually be able to close before we load up the moving truck on the 28th!
Yes, we are scheduled to leave on June 28th because of hubby's job.
So, there is a fair potential for homelessness in the very near future. Has anyone ever tried living with three people and two big dogs in a Hertz moving van in Northeast Texas? Was it comfy?

Meanwhile, back at Gal Central, things are in fair upheaval. Today I plan to go through all the boxes that we just filled with stuff and stuck in the garage when we started the demo on the office a few weeks ago.
I plan to donate a lot of stuff to the free store, but, if I recall correctly, there is a lot of junk to be thrown away.
Perhaps if the rain stops long enough I will get to dance naked around a big fire in the backyard.

Graduation Day

It's been a very busy week, therefore, posts have been lacking.
Sorry about that.

Graduation day went just about as I had expected. I got up at 6am and started cooking for J's party. Between stirring four pots on the stove and chugging coffee like a stevedore, it was a busy morning.
The ceremony began at 1:30, and when the processional started and the grads walked into the room, I started to cry of course.
I know so many of these kids. Most of them have been to our home at one time or another. I have watched them grow from 8th grade midgets to adults. There were actually only about five to ten that I did not recognize. Many of them are my children by other mothers.
Hubby teared up right alongside me, (sorry honey!) although very manfully controlled the flow. (there. happy now?) He has raised these boys for the last eight years and loves them as his own. He was so proud of J., and has the blurry pictures to prove it. (Did you know that when you try to take pictures through tears, what you think is focused actually is not?)

J's father, step-mother, their new baby and grandmother came out for his graduation. I have no idea how I managed to be married to this man and his mother for so many years.
Anyway, their new baby is adorable. He actually looks a lot like D did when he was an infant.
Very cute.

The party went great, except for the fact that as usual, I made WAY too much food. We have been eating leftovers all week.

Off the Grid

Sorry for the lack of posts. Things have not been interesting, just really busy.
Back to it soon, I promise.

Milestones

It's here. Finally. Yet way too fast.
J is graduating from High School tomorrow.
Wasn't he just born last week?
Time has gone by so quickly. He has grown from my beautiful little 8 lb 9 oz baby to this large, hairy wonderful man in a matter of days it seems.
Of course, as an honest woman, I must admit that some moments have seemed that time has stopped completely. (You know those times, the terrible twos, the mouthy teens, etc... ya know, times when you completely understand why some animals eat their young)

J is this amazing person, one who will get out of bed in the middle of the night to help a friend. Someone who will stop at a broken down vehicle to help the stranded person. Someone who will go pick up a friend that has had too much to drink at a party, and bring them home for me to take care of. People know that they are safe with him, that they can trust him. That alone makes me proud to be his mom. That alone makes all the frustrations worthwhile.

Tomorrow will be a very emotional day for me. For the last half of my life, he and his brother have pretty much been the focus of my life. I have been to countless football games, wrestling matches, track meets, teacher conferences, spent nine days at the beginning of football season dragging myself to the school every morning at 5am to feed the football team breakfast and lunch while they participated in the "nasty nine". Nine days of living at the school as a team.
Being available whenever, wherever, and however they needed me to be.
It was always the most important thing to me that my boys know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I was there for them.

And now, my firstborn is a man. He is graduating high school, starting a new full-time job on Monday and moving into his first apartment with his buddies in a couple weeks.
I will worry. I will wonder. I will drive hubby nuts missing him. But, I will know that he is okay. He is intelligent, (although of course doesn't always make the best decisions) he is strong, he is independent, and he is wonderful.

I love this man that came from my body. At times I have loved him fiercely, been frustrated beyond words, been enraged, been completely bewildered by his choices, been enraged. But, overwhelmingly, I have been proud.

I am proud to call this man son.

Slobs

Not only am I surrounded by those of the testosterone bearing breed; I am surrounded by something even worse.
Slobs.
That's right. Total slobs.
My darling step-sons are total slobs. This is what comes of parents (such as their mother) never making them clean up after themselves or help out around the house.
Every day I come home to a mess. Every day. The kitchen counter covered in dishes, and crumbs and spills that they have not cleaned up after causing.
I don't ask a lot from them. Just CLEAN UP YOUR OWN MESS!
I got home tonight to the biggest mess so far. There was not a clean dish to be had. Somehow these two boys had managed to dirty every single dish. (My two sons are still in school til the end of the week)
I thought my head was going to explode. Not only do I already have plenty on my plate every day but now I have these two extra bodies laying around taking up space and wrecking the place.
I really, really want to bitch-slap their mom.
Grrr.

Stressed, Tired & Worn Out

I have officially reached maximum overload. I am truly at meltdown point.
I think I am in major need of a "girls night" of poker, beer & belly laughter.

He's gone again, and other random thoughts

So, wonderful hubby left yesterday for yet another business trip. Sad face.
This time though, he will only be gone a few days, and should report back to the homestead around midnight Thursday night.

We finally have a contract on the house in Texas, and the in-laws went to do a walk-through with our agent on Saturday and sent us a bunch of pictures. It is a bit of an older home, but on the plus side it IS 85 years newer than our current house, which is definitely a good thing! The only downside I can see is that it has a "one butt" galley kitchen and not a lot of cupboard space in the kitchen, but I am sure I will learn to deal. The rest of the house is very open and nice, and the closets are great.

In the two weeks that they have been here, eldest stepson has logged an average of 13 hours per day on the computer and youngest stepson has watched the first four seasons of BTVS on DVD in their entirety.
The only time they have stepped out the front door is when oldest takes out the trash and youngest takes out the dogs. The weather has been gorgeous, and I cannot fathom spending every minute indoors. They confuse me, I admit it. But, basically they are great kids, if a bit messy, so it's all good.

Oldest son is prepping for Graduation on Sunday (YAY! finally!) and we have all been making the rounds of various Graduation Parties this past week.
My ex-husband, his new wife, and their newborn (yes, a graduate and a newborn, **shudder**) will be here this weekend, along with my former M-I-L. Fun times, fun times.
Most of my family are teachers in NY state, and are still in school til the end of the month, so sadly will be unable to make the 500 mile drive out here.
We will be having a BBQ for his party out in the backyard, son is planning a trap-shoot competition, and we will have a bonfire after dark. Should be a good time, except for the noise of the gunfire. However, a good thing about that is we should not have to worry about any of the hundreds of birds that have decided to take up permanent residence in our trees poo-ing on anyone. Can't imagine they will stick around long once the guns start blazing. I may even take a turn trying to hit a tiny flying disk. We'll see.

Picture at top is our (hopefully) new house in Texas. Keep your fingers crossed for us that all turns out well and we can close next week as scheduled. Bureaucrats make the home buying process WAY harder than it needs to be.

Have a happy day!