Oh, I forgot I had a blog...

Well I promise I didn't really forget, but it probably seemed like it.

So here's a short run down since December 2010... Made it through the school year (mostly...). Finally got my CCC's! Woohoo. Funny story though, when I texted the man to excited tell him he had no clue what that stood for and said something about cables. Can you tell he works in AV?? The vets have decided that our dog has allergies - good job Sadie - they believe that's why she gets red around the eyes and tries to eat her skin off. Interesting, huh?

On a different note, we've been tinkering with the real estate market - looking at houses that is, not trying to sell. I'd like to now share some things I've learned thus far.
1. People like cats as pets, but home buyers (and home sellers) should not like cats. Cat urine is the enemy of a home search, it's stinky.
2. Many home still have pastel colored bathrooms. I've now seen (online and in person) yellow, blue and purple. I'm waiting to see pink and green.
3. Realtors use nice language in their listings - they are in short, sales people. Be CAUTIOUS when you read that it's a fixer upper. For example "IF YOU THINK OLD HOUSES ARE JUST PLAIN NEAT & YOU HAVE VISION, THEN CHECK THIS OUT * WE DON'T KNOW THE EXACT YEAR BUILT, BUT PROBABLY EARLY 1900s" is translated to: "This house is a mess and we have no nice things to say. The floors are sloping towards the middle. We aren't sure when it was built because it was built at different times, additions were added and it actually has about 5 different levels. Reno = more expensive than the structure is worth."
4. Cash is king, if you don't have the most you loose, especially in short sales.
5. If a realtor says there will be no pictures posted because the owner was a hoarder, run - see below.

I'm going to delve into #5 just a little more. We knew the house would need reno, but from a good listing, you'll never know how much. But I thought, 3 bed, 2 bath, 2 car garage, that's worth looking into, right? I asked our realtor if I could take pictures to show Andrew if he couldn't make the showing. Her response was " I think that should be find, let me check" and then that the listing agent said she would not be posting pictures because the previous owner was a horder... anyone watch "Hoarders" or seen that hoarder episode of CSI? I thought, there is a chance that the term has been over used here, right?
Enter front porch, 2 mini-fridges and some boxes. Weird. Enter house, clear living room with dust and cat hair all over the ground (remember #1?). Oh yeah, this house was built in the 1950's, cue wood panelling, EVERYWHERE!! Another 2 fridges in the kitchen (hm, most people just have one in the kitchen maybe an extra in the garage, but not 2 in the kitchen...) and yet another fridge in the landing area outside the bedrooms and main bath. Oh yeah, there were also piles of crap in the landing area and kitchen. And there were also 3 milk crates of records - full size and 45s (that's kind of cool I think). Black sink, toilet and tub (WHEN was that in style???). Meanwhile cat hair and piles of crap are littered around - although walkways in all rooms were open. Basement time, cat hair covered stairs, room with a deep freeze and more piles, oh and another deep freeze under the stairs. Basement entry attached garage, state of the art garage door opener systems with weathering and digital temperature gauge (WEIRD). Back upstairs, I found the washer/dryer in the mudroom - key here, Kenmore Elite front loading Steam Clean series set (WHAT?!? that's worth a LOT of $$!) I wanted to find the second bathroom so on a search I went. I found the mother load, AKA the master bedroom and bath. Cue cat urine smell and room without walkways and only piles of stuff - no space for a bed, or to walk more than 2 feet past the doorway. Wow.

So if you took the time to read that long description, and on the off chance that it made any sense... You too will NEVER go look at a house that someone tells you was owned by a hoarder. That is, unless you have (#4) a lot of cash to strip the house down to the studs and floor boards and start over. Even then there are no guarantees.

We will continue our house search. Slow and steady, we don't even know what we really want right now. Hopefully our realtor doesn't get fed up with us... haha... ;) Maybe I'll continue writing blog posts, or maybe I'll wait another 8 months.

I didn't forget, I just got... sidetracked...

So wow, my history says my last (which was also my first) blog post was July 20th... I've thought a lot about posting again, but obviously have not done so until now!

Quite a bit has changed since July 20, 2010. We've moved out of our little apartment on Elm Street in Springfield. Lived out of suitcases for two weeks at my parents lake house. We've become Virginia residents - with the most hideously ugly driver's licenses ever, no joke. And 2010 is nearly gone!

I've been working at my school for a grand 4 months now and I'm ready for summer break! But wait, I have five and a half more months to go before then! Ah!!! I like my school and my job, it's just draining (as any first year SLP or teacher could attest to). I'm still trying to figure out the SPED (special education - if you weren't in the know there) system and how it works in LCPS. Perhaps I should say 'functions' instead of 'works' because did doesn't always work correctly. I'm sitting at a caseload near 60, with potential newbies and potential "graduates." Thankfully some of those are "consult" but that makes it hard to get the minutes when they aren't solid every weekers on the schedule. I'm not sure how I feel about this whole "consult" model, but I guess it doesn't hurt to wean them down off therapy...

Andrew just passed 90 days with his job. He's worked out of town more than in town as of now. That will likely be the case as we continue into 2011. La Quinta near the base he's been working at since the end of October, has become a home away from home for him - from number of nights spent there, not the level of comfort. He's been commuting this and last week, which has been nice since he had to work. The funny part is that his round trip time is 3 hours, and when he travels an extra hour (30 mins each direction) they get him a hotel... weird. He's learning some new skills, logging hours of experience time, paying bills/feeding savings and getting a security clearance - those are the positives. The negative is neither of us remember how to not hog the blankets come Friday night! haha...

I've slowly unpacked and am still not sure where some things are... I was glad to find the box of coats on the bottom back corner of stacked boxes in late October/early November. Next I'm hoping to find the shower curtain I plan to use in our nearly finished new bathroom (our current bathroom has doors on the shower - so I have not been letting the water fly free for  4 months).

Sadie is adjusting to a bigger residence, yard with leash restrictions, neighborhood construction noise, knowing which door to sit in front of to say "OUTSIDE please!" and living with an old-man dog. We call him a dirty-old-man dog. (Just think, I'm sure you can figure it out.) She likes to play, typical puppy, and he sometimes goes along, other times not so much. He's loosing his teeth and eats slowly. She's learning not to eat his food under supervision. Although when his food is left unattended by person and old-man dog, it's a free for all.

That's the Cloudy wrap up for 2010. Maybe I'll be better at this blog thing in 2011 ;)

Stats of Change (it's not as nerdy as that sounds)

So I've read friends' blogs and wondered "Do I have anything to blog about that anyone would care to read about?" Now with some large impending life changes and transitions I decided to go on with it whether anyone cares or not! :-)

I knew as I named this blog, that Andrew would hate it (the name). I guess I'm still in the honeymoon period for my name, I still find "Cloud" jokes funny! After 23 years of hearing them, Andrew does not find them funny. You'd think a guy with such a strong sense of humor would find funny things funny. Maybe after 23 years of marriage, I won't find "Cloud" jokes funny either... 22 years left to see ;-)

After nearly a year of marriage (11 months and 18 days- including today, but who's counting?). Andrew and I will be making some big life changes. Here are some stats comparing where we live in Springfield, MO to where we will live in Lucketts, VA.

Currently in Springfield we live within 5 miles of 5 Wal-Marts. Once in Lucketts, we will be 12 miles from the nearest Wal-Mart!!
Springfield has one mall. Lucketts has one stop light.
Springfield has like 10 zip codes (do I exaggerate?). Lucketts doesn't have a post office.

Okay, so maybe you're confused. I've said I grew up in the DC Metro area... well I did. We're moving in with my brother who moved out just into the rural-beautiful-ness that Virginia has to offer. I've said I was a city girl right? Okay, well don't start feeling sorry for me yet! Leesburg is large enough, just over 10 miles away. And Leesburg is home to an Outlet Mall :-)

My parents house in Sterling is a mere 24 miles from Lucketts. Granted, if you go at the wrong time of day that 24 miles could take you an hour. Sterling has it's own Wal-Mart, Mall and numerous things I could not list (partially because it's all changed so much in 6 years!!!)

By the way. No panic allowed. Still a couple weeks before the big moving day! ::sigh of relief::