Testing for Comments

Haloscan doesn't remember me, so I am going with the Blogger comments for now.

Maybe I will magically remember my user name and password from 2003...

Motivation to keep posting

Well, I have gone back to the posts that show up on the Previous Posts list and changed what I could. The more I post, the farther down they go.

Today has been overcast with some rain showers. The perfect day off for Fishing Guy and I to drop the kids at school and go looking for houses. We toured 3 model homes and looked at a bunch of new developments. One neighborhood looked OK, but the lots are still much too small for what we want.

We found a really nice house in our little-bitty town yesterday afternoon and nothing else has measured up. The only problem is that it is over-priced by about $25,000 and that's going off of the taxed value. This one has a lot of special touches that we loved and I hate to just let it go. To add to the dilema, there are brand new homes going up in the next lot for about the same price, but with another 1500 square feet of space. We weren't planning on buying until spring, but one of the Realtors we talked to today, said everyone she's asked is waiting until spring too. So, do we push up our timeline and my comfort level to buy now or wait with everyone else for prices to come down a little bit more? Choices...

Oddly, looking at houses to buy coincides nicely with me finally getting the last box unpacked on Saturday. We were looking for the car-washing bucket and it was in the last box. Of course. I still have a bunch of books to sort and put on shelves, the kid's computer to set up and I need to figure out a storage solution for all the board games we own, but there are no more lost things. The goal now is to get the craft area functioning well, fix that door so it doesn't lock me in there when I shut it and then move the kitty's litter box out into the garage.

I'm finally starting to feel moved in.

A Fresh Start

This whole story pretty much summed up last week.


We had a new stray show up at the back door less than a week ago. It was an adult version of one of our kittens, so that was a little strange to begin with. This one we had never seen before and isn't one of the 4 regulars we see running through the yard. Anyway, this poor cat was very, very skinny, had almost no fur on his back legs due to mange and was very vocal. I felt badly for it, so I put a little kitten chow in some water and put it out on the back step, hoping that he would eat and move along.


Of course, the cat didn't move on and he got so persistent within one day, that the kids couldn't go outside without this cat running up to the screen and jumping on it, which freaks them out and then the kids start screaming. I can do without the added drama right now.

Side note and a funny-now story: One night I had to run out to the car in the driveway and as I opened the front door, he ran in the house and under the couch. I started yelling NO! and trying to keep him from going any further into the house, while Fishing Guy ran to investigate what I was yelling about. The Princess, following shouted instruction from Dad, got the broom and the mop from the kitchen, which I promptly tripped over and gave myself a nasty bruise and welt on my shin. We had a heck of a time getting him out from under the couch and back out the front door.


Fishing Guy was home one morning during the week, Thursday I think, and when he tried to feed The Stray he just about got the dish knocked out of his hand. We decided to try to catch it and get it to the county rescue north of us on his next day off, 3 days away. That would have been today.


Saturday morning (yesterday), the kids wanted to go outside to play. I was feeling horrible from the nasty chest/head cold I've picked up, so I just told them to stay in the yard while I stayed in bed watching TV. They checked the back door for The Stray and when he didn't come, they went out.


They were back in about 5 minutes.


They found the body of the stray under a jutted portion of the house. It had been a frosty night and had probably frozen in its sleep. I called Fishing Guy at work and he said he would take care of it when he got home. The kids and I did other things on the front of the house for the rest of the afternoon and I tried not to feel guilty for someone else's neglect.


So, when Fishing Guy got home, he and The Prince dug a big hole on the edge of the lawn and we buried the stray as if it was one of our own animals.

That makes a hamster and a cat we have buried and neither was our animal.

On the bright side, this morning as we were getting breakfast on the table and sipping our coffee, I realized that all the birds have returned to the feeders again.

Lots to choose from

Well, I've thought about the blog and I'm not quite ready to let it go yet. I'm going to try to get back to posting as I did B.A. (Before Alaska) and I still might delete the archives and I've come up with Secret Squirrel names for all of us.



In the meantime, there has been a lot going on. I have the following stories to choose from at the moment.



1. The Stray Cat

2. A Store for Fishing Guy

3. Pink Eye for The Prince

4. The Princess' Books

5. The Last Box Unpacked

6. October Water Fight

7. Crafty Mama Loses It

8. New Church

9. Kittens x2

10. The Door Opens!

11. The House Hunt

So how about I choose a story a day and try to tell it as if you were here in person? And of course, I'll add to the list as we go so that I will eventually get caught up.

Choices

So, as you may have guessed with the pictures going away, I have had a little disagreement with Flickr. With all of the stealing of photos and copyright issues going on, also that a picture of The Prince was viewed 18 times (compared with 1-3 views on all the rest) it just confirms that I was a little unsure about them for a reason. Anyway, all but 4 of the photos that I have uploaded there are now labeled friends and family only. I haven't decided if I want to just delete the account and stick with what I already have set up.

I also feel like too many people can find me now and that puts the kids at risk, which scares me. The web stalking realities have me freaked out, on top of moving back to the "big city" where stranger-danger is a fact of life. When we were in Alaska, that fear was very small because of where we lived. Now we live on a fairly busy street in a small town and everyone in the neighborhood knows when we moved in. Add photos and our names. Well, I just don't want to think about it.

So that brings me to the conclusion of deleting the archives and moving to a new blog address. But is it worth all the hassle of setting up the templates and stuff? That, I don't know yet. For now, I'm just going to take down the weather thingies, backup my archives and repost pictures with the other hosting site. I'll see how I feel in a week or so.