TERRIOR IN MURRAY VILLAGE...

HELP ME! HELP ME! I'M STUCK IN PRISON!
FREEDOM!
IZ TRERRIZ THE VILLAGE! SHAME ON YOU FOR HOLDING ME CAPTIVE!
OH LOOK A SNACK!

Shocking I know, I did not get up at 2am to go do Black Friday. This is the first time I can remember not going. How did I do this? I didn't read the ads.
Kaitlin and I went yesterday to play with Les' dog, as they are at Disneyland. Dad is taking care of all her pets, but figured he didn't have time to play fetch with Smuckers, so we ventured over.
On our way we went by Big Lots and grabbed the dvd/vcp for $35. We are having digital cable installed on Tues. The guy said our tivo would still work, I don't believe him, it's analog. So might need to move the tivo to our bedroom, but want to still be able to record in the livingroom.

Thanksgiving

The finally holiday's countdown till we move has begun...
Thanksgiving went well...

the table, darn Lisa's mom, as a result, Ally insisted we do china, and dress up the table

we had a small turkey breast, it was jenny-0. Said it takes 2 hours from frozen. Wrong! Took it out after 2 hours, the box said was supposed to be 165 degrees, it was over 200 degrees, lol. I don't know how it tasted I had the rotissori chicken, it did have tons of gravy, so it didn't look dry at all.

We represented the grandma's who have passed. The china was Grandma Lois'(Jeff's), the girls glasses were Grandma Bahnsen(mine), the music box was Grandma Pat's(my step mom) and the bear was Grandma Connie's(Jeff's mom). Pappaw(Jeff's dad) was represented in the mashed potatoes, we put his signature sour cream in it. Tasted great!

more current condition

the wood edging, is like this all around the outside of the house

our porch, upstairs balcony is the same way

moisture damage in master bath. looks like it is standard dry wall in there, not the kind that has a moisture barrier

stucco splatter on screen door

lawn, pat had said she would resprinkler and re sowed, 7 years ago, never happened.

the famous crack in the sink, the reason you can't use this side, the water damage on the floor and the reason you can not use the dishwasher

for safety reasons

we are going to have to sign a lease with Jess in Jan. This makes me nervous since we have already lived here 7.5+ years, We don't want to get charged for things like paint, floors since normally after 2 years they would be done. And especially since it will only be a 6 or 7 month lease (will have to move by Aug first or have a rent increase of $750 per month), don't want her to come back and say we did the damage in that short of time. So I am using this to help document some of the conditions before we sign the lease...
the cabinet that we put in that was left in the garage (never fit right)

the vanity drawers that don't shut because of a pipe behind them
and example of lack of base boards, this is in the hall bath, Ally's room is also missing base board, the kitchen is missing molding
stain in Ally's room
outside deck
the back side of the fence



Richard's side
damage from the crack in the sink

more sink/dishwasher damage, dishwasher drained into the side with the huge crack, we couldn't use the other side, because a broken garbage disposal was on the other side, and so it didn't drain (a worker dropped glass in it and tried to grind it up, breaking the disposal before we moved in). As soon as Pat was better dad repiped the disposal side so we could use it. Since we had area rugs in the kitchen and dining area and a video cabinet we didn't notice the floor for a while. You can't use the dishwasher still, until the crack is fixed.

this pix also shows the compactor that doesn't latch shut, but it does work
in the dining room, the video cabinet and large area rug used to cover this, and yes the cabinet was water damaged as well

Thanks, Les...

Ok, I have Michaela and Con tomorrow for Veteren's day (Syd is busy). First, I can just see it Mic walking in, "why is there a xmas tree in your living room already?!!!" Me, "I **** sprung for a new tree (artifical) and I want to see the thing!" And I don't want it recked by the cats, on stages at a this time, next lights, then ornaments...
So the thanks, Les, is for the recipe for Meatball Soup, thought I would have to wait till Dad passed before it would be handed down, think Lesley got it first because #1 she is older and #2 she wouldn't want to take the time to make it LOL, sorry, Les, and not true, seem to recall, got it too as a xmas gift, Les just managed to remember where she put it. You have to at least marry in to get it. Once I got it have to try it, so, the house is now smelling like it. Boy does it smell good!!! Will not be ready till tomorrow night

Better late then never....

The holiday’s have started….yesterday was Halloween. Ally went as me and I went as Ally. Kaitlin went as a “cereal killer” (thanks to Aunt Lesley for the idea). Thursday, Connor and I worked on the girls as well as my costume. Of course with a almost 5 year old it took longer, but he was a good helper.
Then Thursday night was spent preparing for Aunt Cici’s , as we were planning on spending the night, so we had to pack change of clothes, as well as bedding.
We also carved the pumpkins. Since we were not going to be home, Kaitlin actually asked did we have to carve them. She said it just seemed like a waste, especially since if uncarved we could use them for Thanksgiving, something I don’t decorate for.
So we settled on only carving one. So only Ally was going to do the pumpkin. She asked me if she had to make a face or could she draw something else. Thinking she was referring to Uncle Aaron pumpkin which had a cat, I said that was fine. Nope she wanted her ABC7 logo from her favorite tv channel. Kaitlin got mad and drew a face over it, which Dad carved (Ally was watching Jeopardy on ABC7 of course), I felt bad, so I carved ABC7 so they would both be happy




Friday morning was a whirlwind of making sure Kaitlin had candy for her friends, Ally had pencils, candy for Ally’s girls club, etc. In mid-morning I surprised Lisa and Chris, there weren’t expecting me to remember Stephie parade. However, I felt this was a very special day for Steph, her first in real school and I knew didn’t have a camera (or it was broke, can’t remember which) and she will some pix. Steph was adorable!!!!
Then it was home to work on packing and loading the cars. Left for Ally’s parade at 1:30pm. It was nice, Ally now insists on going to the MUR in the morning and picked up in the pick up zone. So now I don’t get to talk to the parents.
I dropped Ally at girls club (her social group, it’s working on teaching autistic girls how to act in play settings, there are 5 girls right now.). And was off to pick up Kaitlin, we went straight to Cici’s and hung out with Cici’s 13 month old mastiff, Ruby. We finally figured out how to turn on Cici’s tv. She arrived home 40 minutes after she said she would, but this is Cici, at least she remembered candy.
I was on pick up dinner detail. This should be easy, there is a Jack in the box at the end of Cici’s block. It took me 30 mins. They were really slow, the drive thru was backing up, so when I got the order couldn’t get out. Finally made it back to realize, I forgot ketchup and hot sauce. Cici didn’t have either, called Jeff, Ally was mad in the car as her dinner was 45 mins late, but he stopped at the store for me.
After all that, we took them out trick or treating. They ended up with ¼ a bag full each, which is fine since I wasn’t passing out candy at home, I still had what I bought.

We ended up at Cici’s best friend, Vicky’s and her hubby Tom’s(about 7 houses up). The girls and I stayed till about 9 and Jeff came back about 9:30.
Felt kind of bad that we took over Cici’s room. We got the bed the girls the air mattress. At around 3 Ruby got upset, because Mommy wasn’t in their room, so she barked outside for about 3 mins, then came to the room and decided to join the girls on the air mattress. She stayed till morning.
We managed to get packed up and back home about 9 this morning.