My House

When I first bought my little house I was single. No fiancé, no kids, no dogs. Just me. I had already started the adoption process and was just waiting to close on my house to fill out the last bit of paperwork and get licensed. I had very few requirements when I was looking.

1. At least two bedroom. One for me and one for my future child.
2. A yard for my future child and dog.
3. Close to my sisters house because of babysitting.

I didn't think about local school ratings (which mine local ones are bad), about neighborhood kids (there is only one and she is 3 years older then my princess), the fact that I might get more then one child, or eventually meet and fall in love with J. I was just so anxious to get a child and excited to be able to buy my own home.

I will be honest, I had my doubts I would be able to qualify for a house. My previous boyfriend really screwed up my credit. But I had been trying to fix it since our breakup. I was so surprised I qualified I  wasn't too picky on the house. I did end up with a cute two bedroom, one bath with a huge yard and 10 minutes walking distance from my sisters house.

Fast forward three years and I have two girls, 3 dogs, a bird, fish, and a fiancé. And to make matters worse my parents stay here most nights in the back finished room in our yard. We are bursting at the seams.

Last week I was at my concurrent foster parents monthly group and the adoption unit supervisor that runs our meeting mentioned she had a sibling group of 4 who's parents parental rights had just been terminated. Each of them were in a non-concurrent foster home (concurrent means that they are foster parents that would adopt that child if the parental rights were terminated) so they were going to have to be moved to another home. She didn't think any of the siblings were going to be able to be adopted together. It broke my heart. These children had been removed from the only parents they knew, separated from each other and placed in strangers homes, and now a year later they were going to have to be moved and placed in new strangers homes. And they don't even have each other to lean on. I came home and told J "lets take them". He of course looked at me like I had lost my mind. I know I can't take them but it got me really thinking of my home situation. Somethings got to change. So I'm going to get some bids on adding to my house and weigh that against the cost and trouble of selling my house and buying a new one.

It's funny how in life so often we look at the here and now and never think that our situation might change.

(Yes I still have the baby for now. That's a story for another day).

Too Much Info

I think I've mentioned it before but for those of you that aren't aware I am an office manager at a pest control company. I hate bugs. A lot. Luckily we don't have any in the office. And if any guy brings one in I make sure the office is treated that very night. Don't want anything alive that shouldn't be.

Last weekend I was working, lucky me. I only have to do it once every 8 weeks. It's over time so I don't mind too much. But last weekend I really wish I wouldn't have. See I have this fear of bed bugs. We have had lots of training on them and they seem to be everywhere. They make my skin crawl just thinking about them. I know how difficult and expensive they can be to get rid of and I've heard some really bad horror stories. I think I've actually had nightmares about them. And I have also been warned continuously by more then one fellow employ to watch out. See people that have bedbugs often try to give rid of their infested items either through garage sales or thrift stores. They think it's a quick and easy fix. And guess where I get most of my merchandise to sell. Yep, garage sales and thrift stores.

Well last weekend I got an I told you so from a fellow employee. We received a call from someone thinking they might have bed bugs. I sent my tech out to do an inspection. Turned out she did have some. And the item that was infested was bought at ... A local thrift store. I can't say which one but it is one that I frequent. So now I'm staying as far away from thrift stores as I can. Sometimes ignorance really is bliss.

People Will Buy Anything

I have a chubby baby. I admit it. But I refer to her as slightly not skinny (that only works with babies not adults). She eats a lot. Her doctor told me she would eat more because of the drug exposure and she sure does. Might be why she won't crawl.

Most of my recycling every week comes from her baby food containers. As I was throwing another away this morning I thought to myself "there must be something I can do with these". I have admitted in the past that I have no creative bones in my body. So I turned to Pinterest.  I was shocked at how much you can do with them. But then I thought "I wonder if people would buy these?" Turns out they  would buy them both the glass and plastic containers.

Hmm wonder what else people buy.

Branches: willow, birch. Tumbleweed. Empty wine bottles (any lushes out there?). Empty tequila bottles (this is more up my alley). Hotel shampoo bottles (if you travel for business might be worth saving).

If you ever get bored look up random things on eBay. You would be amazed what people will buy.

The really weird stuff are the fetish items. Used socks. Pictures of feet. I think I will stick to normal clothing and toys.

Rule I Live By

I tell people all the time but for some reason no one ever listens to me. I don’t know why. Any one that knows me knows I’m not soft spoken. I know they can hear me so they choose to ignore me. But all I can say is “your loss”.

One of the rules I live by is “it doesn’t hurt to ask”. Prime example came up a couple weeks ago. A fellow employee from another office told me her father in law passed away. He lived in Mississippi (we are in California just in case you didn’t know) and her husband had a couple days to get down there for the funeral. They didn’t have enough money to fly him out so he was going to take the bus. Yes you heard that right. The bus! The trip was going to take two days. He was going to have to get off the bus and practically go straight to the funeral. So I told her my rule to live by “it doesn’t hurt to ask”. We have a General Manager at our old corporate office (we were recently bought out by a bigger company so they aren’t actually our corporate office anymore) that is really nice and he flies a lot for business. Several years ago he gave me a free round trip ticket when I needed one (all I had to do was ask). My coworker and this manager were on friendly terms, they had actually just had lunch the week before so I told her to call and ask him if he was will to sell her a ticket (which was free to him) after she explained the situation. I knew he would never charge her since it didn’t cost him anything but that way she didn’t feel bad asking. She was a bit embarrassed to approach him but after some pushing on my part she emailed him. The next morning I received a phone call from her bright and early. The manager said yes, she could have it for free. The ticket was already bought and her husband would be on his way the next morning to attend the funeral. Everyone was happy. And all it took was for her to ask.

I have received so many free or discounted things in my life just by asking. I can tell you I probably hear no about 75% of the time but I figure I’m no worse off then I was before I asked so what does it hurt. It’s just second nature for me now to ask and it comes out with little thought. Unfortunately this happened a couple of weekends ago. I asked with little thought. A friend had a very cute (and big) green M&M candy display. I asked her “can I have it?” and the next day she called to tell me it was in her driveway. I could go by and pick it up at any time. Now what am I going to do with a huge green M&M. She sells well on eBay but I can’t even imagine shipping it. I might just keep it until Halloween and use it to hold our candy on the front porch. Either that or I will stick her on Craigslist and hope someone bites.

Princess Camp

I'm beginning to think I had a very deprived childhood. I didn't get to do any of the things my daughter gets to do. Gymnastics, dance, recitals, soccer, and last week was Princess Camp. Yes there is such a thing as Princess Camp. I couldn't make something like that up even if I tried.

The Friday before camp started I received a call from the coordinator. She gave me some basic info I should know and also informed me that most girls come in a Princess costume. Oh great. I had just sold the last Princess dress I had listed on eBay. I did have a Tinkerbell outfit (luckily the first day was Fairy Princess day) and the old standby Snow White costume. This is the one I bought on eBay my Princess' first Halloween. She has worn it at least a half a dozen times. But the camp lasted three days so I was one outfit short. I was tempted to buy one from eBay but 1)I'm cheap and 2)I wasn't sure I would receive it on time. I called my niece and sister hoping one of them had one listed I could use. My sister came through with a Barbie Princess dress that she hadn't gotten around to listing yet.

First day of class all the little girls where in every Disney Princess costumes you could imagine. Some had dresses fancier then the one I wore to prom so long ago. Looking around I realized a few things. First, soon these dress would be selling at a fraction of the original price at yard sales. Second, parents will spend outrageously amounts of money on their children. Last, this is the reason costumes sell all year long on eBay. There is always some day camp, party, sleep over, or play date that requires that special costume a child must have.

It doesn't matter what time of year it is. I always look for costumes a yard sales (thrift stores around me don't put them out until September) and list them right away. I've actually found that you have a lot less competition when it's not Halloween season.

This week my daughter has Super Hero camp. Luckily I was able to find a costume this weekend for her. I must learn to plan ahead.

Lunch Date

I have a lunch date tomorrow with my DM. It's not a typical work lunch. He is bringing his wife along because he wants me to give him some pointers on selling on eBay. When will I learn to say no? At least I'm getting a free lunch out of it. So I've been thinking on what advice I can give her and I'm at a loss no feel like the blind leading the blind. I wrote down a few tips this weekend but my mind is going blank. But how do you say no to your boss. 

I'm going to look at this in a positive way. It's always good to have someone who can fire you on your side. And if I can help someone else get started making some extra money I'm sure their is some good karma in there somewhere. 

Hopefully it doesn't come back and bite me in the behind. 

Dance Recital

It's next weekend but today is picture day. I never had any of this growing up.