Think Out Loud #20 ~ The Last One I Adopt - I Promise!!

Have something you'd like to get off your chest? Want to talk about anything? Join this meme hosted by Thinks Books ! Get to know your fellow bloggers outside the bookish realm. Click here for the 411. The posts go up every Thursday or whenever you'd like. :D

A lot has been going on lately, and I have so much to tell you all since I've been sucking at doing TOLs lately. >.< 

~ The New Addition ~

This poor kitty was just dumped by somebody last week on my street, and my mother-in-law (who lives across the street from us) had been feeding him. He kept following us home, and he hung out with us while we had a garage sale last Saturday. I saw him sleeping on my husband's lap and knew he had fallen in love with the kitten, too, lol. See below. ;D 

We've taken him in, and my husband named him Billy. This is the last one, I swear! I am not turning into a crazy cat lady!! No way! 

First came Charlie:

Next came Charlotte: 

After that came Beau:

Now we have Billy:

My rationale is since we're eventually going to get a bigger house, there'll be more room for four pets. But that's it. A lady tried to talk us into getting a puppy from her, and I was like no way lady, lol!

~ Steps to Selling Our House ~ 

1. Rent a large dumpster and rid out the garage - check!

2. Have a garage sale to get rid of the nicer things and try to make some money for paint, etc. that we need to spruce up the house - sorta check! We only made $60. Where the hell was everyone??? 

3. a. Take whatever doesn't sell to Goodwill - check!

b. Take kids' clothes to Once Upon a Child to sell/donate 

4. Rent a small dumpster and clean out the house once more

5. Buy the supplies to fix up the house

6. Make an appt. for the real estate lady to see how much our house is worth

7. Put the house up for sale

8. Live for a long time with a "For Sale" sign out front of our house, lol 

Well, everything's coming along. Every weekend we're doing something. :)

~ Band ~ 

Yay!!! Janie has her trumpet, and this past Monday was her first class! Kids here start band in 5th grade, and at the end of school last year, Janie tested highest on the trumpet and flute. She chose to play the trumpet. It's funny because I played the trumpet (sold it to my friend's brother, lol), and my sister played the flute. We're renting a trumpet for Janie, and she's doing so well already! I'll try to take some pictures of her with her trumpet if she'll let me. ;D 

How are you guys doing? Love you guys for commenting!! I appreciate each and every one; they make my day! :D

Think Out Loud #19 ~ Double Date

Have something you'd like to get off your chest? Want to talk about anything? Join this meme hosted by Thinks Books ! Get to know your fellow bloggers outside the bookish realm. Click here for the 411. The posts go up every Thursday or whenever you'd like. :D

~ The Sad Anniversary ~ 

Last Thursday marked two important events in my life - one happy, one sad. On August 8, 1995, eighteen years ago, I lost my mom to brain cancer. She had just turned forty in June. I had maybe three weeks until my first day of high school as a freshman; my sister was going into fourth grade. My dad had a week until he turned forty. 

I list all of those numbers because I think it makes a huge point - that we were all too young to deal with the disease that was thrust into our lives. My mom was way too young to die. My dad was way too young to be a widow. My sister was way too young to remember our mom, and she barely has any memories of her. I was way too young to lose my mom right when I was on the threshold of needing her more than ever. 

Early that morning, a severe thunderstorm blew through, hitting my dad's CB tower, and a hole ended up being burned into our carpet. When the storm lifted, my dad, sister, and I spent the morning picking up pieces of the fiberglass that had been blown around the yard. I went inside afterward and took a nap on the couch. My mom was lying comatose in a hospital bed in our living room, an oxygen machine breathing for her. 

That machine lulled me to sleep most nights, except for the times I'd run out into the living room at all hours of the night to make sure she was okay and still alive. I didn't want her to die alone while we were all asleep. Eventually, I just started sleeping on the couch in the living room with her so I wouldn't have to keep getting out of bed. 

While I was napping on the couch, I had a dream that she died and that I called my friend, Brandi, telling her I had a dream my mom died. I woke up, and the very first thing I did was look at the clock which read 11:45 AM. I glanced over at my mom, and I knew she was gone and that maybe my dream was her way of preparing me for the inevitable. 

I never mentioned the time or the dream to anyone until well after the funeral. Then I saw it. In her obituary, the time of death was listed as 11:45 AM. I was so shocked, I had a hard time breathing, and my heart felt like it was going to burst from my chest. That couldn't be a coincidence, and so to this day, I believe my mom and I were so connected that she knew her death was going to hit me so hard and wanted to prepare me. To this day she still visits my dreams once in a while and gives me advice, which I always take because I know she's always right. 

~ The Happy Anniversary ~ 

On the flip side, the same day also happens to be the day me and my husband's relationship became official when we began dating. We've been together for twelve years now. Our wedding anniversary is coming up on September 14th - we'll have been married for six of those twelve loooong years, lol. ;D My husband doesn't count the August anniversary since we're married, and he says that is the real anniversary. My opinion is that if there hadn't been an anniversary in August, there most likely wouldn't have been a wedding. Duh! On our tenth anniversary, I guilted him into going on a trip, and we chose Vegas. 

So, twelve years, two kids, and three pets later, we're still together. We've traveled over some rocky roads, we've sailed along smoothly at times, and other days are just ordinary ones. 

Now we're getting ready to move on to another stage - we want to sell our house and buy a bigger one. That means we need to get our house ready in the hopes that someone will buy it, and then when we find a sucker home buyer, we can start looking at houses seriously. The bad thing is that the other day we found a few houses we loved only to find out we can't let my sister rent our house. We're actually gonna have to sell it, and who knows how freaking long that's gonna take.

We just want a family room and a basement basically. We're all living on top of each other. There just isn't any room. The way our house is set up is basically like an apartment - we have no dining room, and the kitchen and living room are pretty much the same room. It's crazy. So yeah, we're hoping to move sometime this century. :D