We got home late Friday night/early Saturday morning. I'll do another post later about the vacation itself with photos, but right now, I feel like I need to do a post about the house.
It felt so amazing to come home to a "clean" house. I'd made sure I left the kitchen clean and had all the laundry done before we left. My oldest daughter who lives here in town was supposed to come let the dogs out and feed and water all the animals every day, but apparently that wasn't good enough for the animals - or she didn't really come over as often as she said. They had food and water, but there were dog and cat piles everywhere. It was so gross. So, we got those cleaned up immediately and left the windows open that first night home.
I am now determined to rip up all the nasty carpet in the living room and hallway even if I can't afford to get all the new flooring right away. It's all stained and nasty and the animals think it's perfectly ok to use it as a toilet.
My husband's grandparents (where we stayed on vacation) have the vinyl plank flooring that I wanted to get and theirs looked great. It's obviously vinyl and shiny, but it looks great and seems easy to keep clean. I like it better than laminate too. Laminate just always sounds like you're walking on a bridge or something.
The flies are still here and now seem to be even worse. The ants had disappeared, but after someone left a bowl from ice cream in the sink overnight, they returned. I'm just going to have to be diligent, no matter how I feel after work, and make sure the dishwasher's run and emptied and then any dirty dishes put into the dishwasher so there's nothing sitting out in the sink or on the counters overnight. I still really need to mop the kitchen floor too.
I've gotten almost all the laundry caught up. Well, I think I have one load each of colors, whites and darks to go. I'd normally be done already, but the girls are changing their rooms all around and finding dirty laundry stuffed into corners, so there's more to wash than I'd planned. Still I plan on getting it all done today.
But yeah Zoe had the smaller room all to herself, but she just got worse and worse at night. She really hates being in a room by herself at night, so we decided to give Rhiannon one more shot at having her own room. She had it before but lost it due to not keeping it clean and refusing to spend any time in it after her computer died. Well, after we got all the furniture and toys etc moved, Faelyn then asked if she could switch from her side of the room to the other side - which would mean moving Zoe's stuff again, but just a little ways at least. The worst part is how messy Faelyn's side of the room is. It's been divided by a curtain so we couldn't see her side and I kind of preferred it that way. I'm hoping she'll finally get rid of some stuff. She's a hoarder. She has all her old school binders from like Kindergarten and she's going into 8th grade this fall. I told her I'd allow the move if she gets it all cleaned up, so we'll see.
I still just have the mini fridge, and it's driving me nuts. The vacation cost way more than I'd budgeted, (of course) and I'm behind even more in bills that HAVE to be paid. I thought about getting one at a rent to own place, but WOW at the prices. I'll just keep using the mini fridge til I can save up enough to either have one of ours fixed, or just get another used one. It's just so frustrating.
For a year that I was just sure we'd get out of debt and were on track for the first quarter... it's turned out to be another crappy year we spend in more debt than ever. It looks like we're even going to need to get a small personal loan just to get caught up on the house payment. I'd sell the stupid pickup truck if it was running, but I can't even sell it in it's condition now. July is full of things that suck the money up, 3 birthdays (I've gotten used to not getting anything for my birthday cause it's between two of the girls' birthdays.) and then back to school shopping. School starts here the first week of August, so we have to get the list of stuff for each kid early. And I swear to G-- that if they say either girl needs ANOTHER scientific calculator, I may lose it.
Then there's new school clothes, which they may just have to deal without for a while this year. The teens have a crap-ton of clothes except Faelyn does need jeans. Zoe will probably also need more jeans, but that's it. No more spending 300-500 in clothes for these girls. Also, Christopher's birthday is in August. Then our 20th anniversary is in October and we had hoped to take a REAL vacation together to Savannah or Charleston.
Something's gotta give. I'm going to have to sit down with the incoming and the outgoing and figure out where we can cut back. When everything is roses and butterflies, we have money for everything plus some, but we know better than to believe it's always going to be days like that. I just don't know where we can cut back and not have it hurt hard. Like I can see getting rid of the girls's prepaid phone packages, but OMG I don't even want to think about the stress that would cause. I don't think it'd be worth what we'd save.
Well, anyway we're home and back to work. Vacation was nice while it lasted, but now it's back to reality.
I hope you all are having a great 4th of July and long weekend!! Please consider praying we get out of this hole and get back on our feet soon. THANKS!
Patty
It felt so amazing to come home to a "clean" house. I'd made sure I left the kitchen clean and had all the laundry done before we left. My oldest daughter who lives here in town was supposed to come let the dogs out and feed and water all the animals every day, but apparently that wasn't good enough for the animals - or she didn't really come over as often as she said. They had food and water, but there were dog and cat piles everywhere. It was so gross. So, we got those cleaned up immediately and left the windows open that first night home.
I am now determined to rip up all the nasty carpet in the living room and hallway even if I can't afford to get all the new flooring right away. It's all stained and nasty and the animals think it's perfectly ok to use it as a toilet.
My husband's grandparents (where we stayed on vacation) have the vinyl plank flooring that I wanted to get and theirs looked great. It's obviously vinyl and shiny, but it looks great and seems easy to keep clean. I like it better than laminate too. Laminate just always sounds like you're walking on a bridge or something.
The flies are still here and now seem to be even worse. The ants had disappeared, but after someone left a bowl from ice cream in the sink overnight, they returned. I'm just going to have to be diligent, no matter how I feel after work, and make sure the dishwasher's run and emptied and then any dirty dishes put into the dishwasher so there's nothing sitting out in the sink or on the counters overnight. I still really need to mop the kitchen floor too.
I've gotten almost all the laundry caught up. Well, I think I have one load each of colors, whites and darks to go. I'd normally be done already, but the girls are changing their rooms all around and finding dirty laundry stuffed into corners, so there's more to wash than I'd planned. Still I plan on getting it all done today.
But yeah Zoe had the smaller room all to herself, but she just got worse and worse at night. She really hates being in a room by herself at night, so we decided to give Rhiannon one more shot at having her own room. She had it before but lost it due to not keeping it clean and refusing to spend any time in it after her computer died. Well, after we got all the furniture and toys etc moved, Faelyn then asked if she could switch from her side of the room to the other side - which would mean moving Zoe's stuff again, but just a little ways at least. The worst part is how messy Faelyn's side of the room is. It's been divided by a curtain so we couldn't see her side and I kind of preferred it that way. I'm hoping she'll finally get rid of some stuff. She's a hoarder. She has all her old school binders from like Kindergarten and she's going into 8th grade this fall. I told her I'd allow the move if she gets it all cleaned up, so we'll see.
I still just have the mini fridge, and it's driving me nuts. The vacation cost way more than I'd budgeted, (of course) and I'm behind even more in bills that HAVE to be paid. I thought about getting one at a rent to own place, but WOW at the prices. I'll just keep using the mini fridge til I can save up enough to either have one of ours fixed, or just get another used one. It's just so frustrating.
For a year that I was just sure we'd get out of debt and were on track for the first quarter... it's turned out to be another crappy year we spend in more debt than ever. It looks like we're even going to need to get a small personal loan just to get caught up on the house payment. I'd sell the stupid pickup truck if it was running, but I can't even sell it in it's condition now. July is full of things that suck the money up, 3 birthdays (I've gotten used to not getting anything for my birthday cause it's between two of the girls' birthdays.) and then back to school shopping. School starts here the first week of August, so we have to get the list of stuff for each kid early. And I swear to G-- that if they say either girl needs ANOTHER scientific calculator, I may lose it.
Then there's new school clothes, which they may just have to deal without for a while this year. The teens have a crap-ton of clothes except Faelyn does need jeans. Zoe will probably also need more jeans, but that's it. No more spending 300-500 in clothes for these girls. Also, Christopher's birthday is in August. Then our 20th anniversary is in October and we had hoped to take a REAL vacation together to Savannah or Charleston.
Something's gotta give. I'm going to have to sit down with the incoming and the outgoing and figure out where we can cut back. When everything is roses and butterflies, we have money for everything plus some, but we know better than to believe it's always going to be days like that. I just don't know where we can cut back and not have it hurt hard. Like I can see getting rid of the girls's prepaid phone packages, but OMG I don't even want to think about the stress that would cause. I don't think it'd be worth what we'd save.
Well, anyway we're home and back to work. Vacation was nice while it lasted, but now it's back to reality.
I hope you all are having a great 4th of July and long weekend!! Please consider praying we get out of this hole and get back on our feet soon. THANKS!
Patty
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I love getting comments, and I read every one. Thanks for coming by my site and reading my ramblings. I hope you have a wonderful day! -Patty