Well about 3 weeks after I started this blog several things happened. Some completely horrible and some not too terrible. I guess I should start at the beginning. I grew up on a golf course in my Grandparent’s home, it was me, my Mother, my grandparents and my siblings, we all lived in the house together and it was awesome having so much family around, I loved every second of it. I loved having my Grandmother home with us during the day while my Mom and Grandpa would go to work in their business suits, coming home after 5. It really was a pretty ideal childhood.

The house itself was great, there was hardly anything around but the golf course and later some restaurants that popped up in town, the worst thing that would happen would be that our windows would be busted from a stray golf ball, but we had storm windows so all in all it was fine.

Later when I grew older I ended up coming back to live in my parent’s house when I discovered I was pregnant with twins, at that point it was obvious to me that my then Husband was not the man I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. (though he’s a good man, it was just not for us, we are much better off where we are now) So I packed up and moved back home from the little apartment we had. After they were born I stayed, my Grandmother’s health started to decline so I sort of took over the day to day house care, my mom was not the domestic type God bless her, plus she still worked and my Grandpa, well he can cook about 4 casseroles and fry an egg and a piece of bacon and thats about it!

So I took care of the house and worked a 9 to 5 job, and life went on. In 2002 I started dating Randy and we married fairly quickly later that same year, we just knew we wanted to be together, even only after a few months of dating. We married when the twins were 2 years old and we decided that is would be best for him to just live with us in my family’s home. I just could not imagine leaving the house with my Grandma in poor health and needing so much assistance with normal everyday things and my Mother and Grandfather being elderly as well, so we stayed and we were happy.

During all this a casino was built on the front nine of the golf course, it was fairly small and didn’t really bother us, but then other things started to pop up, the most annoying of which was the Taco Bell / KFC that was built practically in my back yard! I could actually hear the drive through intercom from my upstairs bedroom, it was that close!

After awhile the casino grew, and grew and then blew up to be the Hard “friggin” Rock Casino and Hotel, which Randy and I dubbed Biffs, can you imagine? Our small town now plays host to a Hard Rock establishment, and a big one at that. The picture below was take from my back yard, you can see how close it was.

At this point in 2008 my Grandmother health too a turn for the worst and she passed away, it was a hard time because she raised me and I spent a lot of time with her. All my memories are of that house and her always being there since I lived in that house from the age of 2. Even though I was and still am severely attached to the house we knew we wanted to move away from the casino. So Randy and I set out to search for a house we could move our family into. It was a challenge because together we have four children, and of course we were bringing my Mother and Grandfather with us, so we were looking for a fairly larger home.

While we were looking for a new house we new we wanted to put our old house on the market. The house had of course been paid for for years and my Mom wanted to pay off all her and my Grandfather’s debt and save the rest for their retirement with the money from the sale, it was a good plan we thought. So we started to put on a new roof, new flooring, new countertops, all new paint, pretty much the works so the house would be nice and up to date to sell. Then the worst thing possible happened, the builders working on our home ran off with the job half done, but before the did, they managed to steal about 18,000.00 dollars from my family, which not only broke our hearts, but stopped out plans to move in it’s tracks.

The man not only ran off but sold his company first to an unsuspecting older gentleman, so when we called to see what was to be done about the house and the theft he was a wreck. So many people were left in the lurch and now he was financially responsible for the mess since when you buy a company, you buy it’s liabilities as well. Some of my friends think were stupid, but I just couldn’t hold that poor man responsible. He had been taken to the cleaners as much as we had. True maybe he should have done more homework on what he was buying, but I couldn’t poor more salt on his wounds so we let it go, filed a police report for the missing man that actually took the money and of course, nothing ever came of it.

So all plans to move now at a halt Randy and I had to quickly think how to get money to at least finish our roof, another 7000.00 to hire a new company to fix the old roof and also fix the damage done while the roof was half leaking and damaged from the old workers.

It was that bad, they left everything in a partially done state. Most of the new doors hadn’t even been hung so rooms were open, the roof was leaking, the baseboards left off, tiling half finished, they left all their tools and crap in our garage. It was a nightmare. We managed to get the new roof on and that was it, our money was all gone, we had no money to put down on a new house and my Mother and Grandfather being retired at the ages of 65 and 89 of course had no large amount of money set aside to help us either, not that we would have asked.

In the meantime Randy and I fixed things here and there and it was better, totally livable after a while, livable as in I didn’t want to rip some runaway builders head off every time I rounded a corner in my house.

So we lived in a half fixed house for 2 years. Lesson learned people, don’t trust ANYONE, even if you have a contract, like we did, and even if the company had insurance, like they did, we were still taken advantage of because we paid money before the job was done. DON’T EVER PAY BEFORE THE JOB IS DONE. Just some advice from me to you. ;)

Let’s fast forward to 2010, Randy and I still don’t have the savings we want for a house downpayment and the situation surrounding our home is starting to become very bleak. The neighborhood from the proximity to the casino is deteriorating fast. Twice the neighborhood has been graffitied. My neighbors, RV’s, cars and homes were all tagged, of course with very bad language you would never want to have your kids see let alone have to explain. Luckily ours wasn’t, maybe they felt sorry for the state of our house lol. ;)

Then the bums showed up. Now I’m a fairly compassionate person, I understand sometimes life kicks you in the ass, trust me I get it, but when we find a homeless man sleeping in your neighbors yard and your neighbor is the freaking chief of police, Randy and I new we had to get the hell out of there.

We started looking around and keeping our options open, and then the most unimaginable thing happened. My Mother passed away suddenly in November of 2010 and again our world crashed and came to a halt. She had been ill and had  needed surgery, everything was fine and the surgery went well, but her surgical scar had trouble healing, so we hired a few nurses come out twice a week to check and clean the area making sure it was healing properly. It was, she was on the mend and becoming mobile again, she was actually baking and learning to cook which we all thought was so funny because my Mom was not one to cook while we grew up, she would make us Micky Mouse shaped pancakes and thats about it, the cooking always went to my Grandmother who homemade everything from fried chicken to the pickles we put on our burgers. I guess in retirement my Mom tried it again and found she actually enjoyed making cakes, cookies and breads, and my kids loved helping her.

She was healing tremendously and then one morning she didn’t wake up as early as usual, it was probably about 10 in the morning but I wasn’t worried because it was Saturday and sometimes she would sleep in. My older brother Mike happened to be staying with us and he had checked on her and knew something was wrong. He ran upstairs into my room and and grabbed me, he was so upset and talking so loud I couldn’t understand what he was saying, but I didn’t need to, I knew instantly by his face and demeanor it was Mom.

I ran into her room and called the ambulance while I tried to wake her. They instructed me on giving CPR so I shouted instructions while my brother tried to revive her, but we both new it was too late. When the ambulance arrived it was obvious she had passed away in the night. Now we know she had a heart attack but at the time we all were just so numb from astonishment. Even her home health care nurses were completely taken aback because of how much better she was doing. One of her nurses burst into tears on the phone and I tried to comfort her and thank her for the care she gave my Mom, but she was so upset. When she calmed down she asked how my kids were taking it and how I was doing, these ladies were really great and I still am surprised to this day how much care and patience they have, I could never do their job. My Mom will definitely be missed, I miss her horribly, we all miss her, it’s just not the same with her not being here to tease us or to gripe at me and my sister for bickering or scold my brother to have more patience.

Like with anything we got through it somehow spring and summer came. My kids, especially my older 12 year old twins played with their friend’s in the neighborhood more and more and I let them walk 2-3 houses down to visit since they now had cell phones. That all stopped abruptly one day over the summer when a man driving semi truck called out to my girls and their friends and told them to come over and talk to him. Truckers would park in Taco Bell / KFC’s parking lot to grab some food and then get back on the road, we saw it all the time everyday so nothing new there.

My twins and another girl from the neighborhood were visting a friend 2 houses down from my house. It was the girls grandparent’s house as she was visting. I actually grew up with the girls mother, I have known these people for years and had stayed the night in that house myself as a child. All the girls were outside in the backyard playing when the man walked up the the girl’s and started talking to them through the fence asking them to come over and talk to him, and would they like to come and play.

All four girls imediatly ran into the house and told the Grandma. She called the police and her husband went outside and chased the man off. The man went back to his truck, grabbed a reflector and came back over to the Grandpa and used it to punch him repeatedly. The cops came and arrested the man, I was called and my kids were hysterical and had to give statements. It was the absolute last straw.

Not prepared to buy a house, but being in a hurry to move Randy and I set out a search to rent a house for a year while we made more permanent plans. We looked all over, mostly in the town where the university that he works for is located. Eventually my Mother-in-law told us of a a house two doors down from her that had been on the market because the owners were elderly and they moved closer to town for health reason’s. The house was older, which we loved. I can’t stand new construction, all those houses look the same and they are just blah, we like older homes with character. We were immediately excited to hear of the house but weary, we wern’t ready to buy, especially on the spot like that, but my mother-in-law being the brave person she is, pulled some Sherlock Holmes style investigation and found the number to the owner’s son and asked if he would consider renting for a year or so while we considered to purchase and boom, we had an appointment to view the house the next day.

The house itself is in the country, very rural. Nothing but other settled homeowners and cows and horses. Very different from what I’m used to. I’m used to being in the middle of the city and hearing sirens and noise all night, not cows mooing in the distance. ;) The house is made of old red rock and was built mid 70′s. I sort of shuddered when MIL said she remembered the living room having wood paneling. Er, really, paneling you say? But we agreed to look and so we came. I remember my first thoughts were omg the living room is HUGE, it’s the full width of the house! It has this amazing rock fireplace on the full width of one wall at the bottom and indeed, it did have wood walls.

Before you run screaming, the walls are really gorgeous and I actually like it, its that really nice tongue and groove solid wood, not the fake “woodish” paneling you always see. You should have heard the sigh of relief I gave. Even though the wood is amazing and rustic it would look soooo nice painted or even pickled, my Husband vetoed it pretty quickly but I’ll work on him, I’ll have it pickled or painted in no time if we decide to purchase this house. ;)

The house overall had been nicely updated in the last 3 years while on the market, new carpet and tile flooring, new ceilings to get rid of that popcorn stuff, a new roof and new paint throughout. Really the only thing needing to be ripped out it the countertops which aren’t even horrible, just not our tastes. We were definitely impressed and we were ready to make the big move instantly, all 5 miles of it, into the open wide country.

So we went home and mulled it over for a week and a half and on the 6th of august we signed a contract to rent for one year while we think on whether to buy the house or not. It’s been about a month and a week now and so far I love it. The yard is massive, font and back so it’s quite a bit of mowing but it’s so peaceful out here. Every night we take walks with the kids and it’s nice the kids have their Grandparent’s just two houses down.

My Grandpa loves it. He can sit in the back yard or front and he doesn’t have to hear the Taco Bell intercom or deal with major roads being right there and making noise. He can see and hear the birds and work in the yard and then come in for his afternoon nap. All in all I think we made the right decision even though it’s scary to be renting at our age with a large family. We feel Renting here is better than staying where our children aren’t safe and living where we weren’t happy anymore. I had to get over the fact that the house now is not the home of my youth, it’s been taken over by the town and while I’m sad to move, I still will always have my memories of a better time in my childhood home.

Randy and I are seriously thinking we want to stay here in the new house. We always said when we buy a home we want it to be the home we stay in and grow old in because we are done having children, we don’t need to grow into any bigger homes later one. I can see us living our lives here and being happy for many many years to come.