The Road to New England

A scar is a healed wound

2010-02-19T18:09:00.000-08:00

I have a scar on my left hand that was the result of deep cut that happened a year ago. At the time I received the injury, I was sure that the scar would be visible for years and years. This morning, I looked down at it and could barely see it. Then I realized this was my battle scar from our moving weekend…one year ago tomorrow. This scar will always be linked to one of the toughest decisions of my life.

Everyone told me that time would fly by; I was sure it would stand still. It feels like it all took place yesterday, yet the decision seems so much easier today than I remember it feeling. People told me that sometimes you have to take a step backward to move two steps ahead; All I thought about was how hard I had worked to get to that point in my life and how it would killed me to loose it all.

Flash forward 12 months and I never imagined my life would be this good. I am watching my nieces grow up right in front of my eyes. We are closer to our families than we have ever been. We are reminded everyday how blessed we are. Jeff will have been unemployed for a year as of May and I love that we have had very little stress about it. This is the first time in my whole life I haven’t been worried about money. We are not able to travel as much as we are used to and we have to watch where we spend our money more than ever before. But after the bills are paid we still have a little left over for pizza if we want to indulge : ). With all of that being said, we still can’t wait to move and start the next phase of our life. But, we have come to accept and are okay with the time its taking to complete that goal.

We have falling right back inline with the country life we grew up in and fought to get out of. We have learned that it's not about where you are from that makes you who you are, but what you've taken from that place and done with it. We still can’t stand the town we live in, and it still hasn’t earned the right be called our “hometown”. But, right now, it's our home and we are just fine with that.

life outside our ark...

2010-01-28T17:09:00.001-08:00

Our lake front property is coming along nicely. We even have a bubbling stream now.

14 Christmas' past

2009-12-22T18:04:00.000-08:00

I have been processing this blog in my mind for several weeks and I can’t seem to get it the way I want it so I am just going to turn it into a picture blog about my last 14 Christmas’

Jeff and I celebrated our first Christmas together 14 years ago. He proposed to me on Christmas Eve. I don’t remember anything about presents, I don’t remember about decorations but I remember the moment he asked me to be by his side for the rest of his life as clear as if it was just yesterday. It was a blue moon and he said we should go outside to look at it. It was cold and I was complaining because I wanted to go in and when I turned around to go in, he was behind me on bended knee. It was wonderful and just perfect.

We were married for our 2nd Christmas together. We lived in a small rent house that was literally 2 feet from a bar. There were a few times when people would accidentally walk into our house thinking it was the bar. We would also occasionally find people passed out in their cars parked in our front yard. We shared the house with several small rodents who made themselves at home. We drew the line when they got into our Coffee and then we had super-hyper-I-will-fight-back rodents. Have you ever seen a mouse stand on its hind legs and bat its tiny arms at you when you have a huge broom in your hands? It was just like a scene out of a cartoon.
That was my first Christmas as a stepmom. I was so excited to give Annah all her gifts. She got so many small thing but the big thing is what I remember the most, a Jeep Powerwheel. She was really good at driving it. Her gift to all of us that year was that she cut her own hair.

Annah ( and her self performed haircut ) and her Jeep Powerwheel

Our First Christmas Tree

Our First Angel

Our First ornaments :

I bought this one for Jeff, he just loves Alice in Wonderland

These are so delicate, we lost one the first year but have maintained to keep the other 3 together for all these years

These were a "free with fuel fill up" Jeff would get one each time he filled up his car on his way to work at this small gas station. These are ALWAYS on the tree, no matter what the theme is.

Our first stockings, Jeff's, Annah's and mine.

Our 3rd and 4th Christmas’ run together; we spent those in apartments. We had gift exchange parties with our friends. I honestly don’t even remember where in our apartment the 3rd Christmas tree was placed. It was around this time that we stopped exchanging gifts for Christmas and Birthdays. We felt it was silly because buying little surprises all year long was so much more fun and more of a surprise than waiting for it on a specific day.

Our 5th – 9th Christmas’ were spent in our first house in Azle. The first year we were there, we tried to decorate the outside but soon realized that it took a lot more lights than what we expected. All we had were the mini lights and there were 5 different colors attached together strung all over our house. We called it the Punky Brewster Christmas. Its funny how even with me being a perfectionist at so many things in my life, we were able laugh at our first attempt at decorating. We learned about C9’s in this house and how if you complete a circuit and plug the ends together, you can blow a fuse and start a fire. I remember being on the ground looking up at the roof and watching Jeff plug in the lights and the next thing I know, I see smoke coming from the attic ( where the whole circuit was plugged into ). I climbed up the back of my jeep and jumped on the roof so fast it was amazing! Thankfully, there was no fire but again more laughter. Paloma’s first Christmas (our 5th) was celebrated in this house, as well as Daisy’s (which was our 7th). We had fun dressing them up and making them pose in front of the Christmas tree. Paloma was such a sport and even let us put bows on her head. We also discovered after Christmas sales while in this house. My addiction to shopping the day after Christmas is what led to the 17 storage boxes full of ornaments, decorations and lights that I have now.

This was one of the strands of lights that were on our house in Azle. They were PINK but as you tell over the years the color has started to come off the bulbs.

In 2005 (our 9th Christmas) we spent it in our beautiful house in Fort Worth. We bought this house for its decorating potential. We even had an outlet put in the alcove above the front door so we could put another tree up there. The first year, we realized that the tree we once felt was huge was now too small to be put in the front window. We had to place it on a box to give it some height. Jeff climbed on our steep roof in 20 MPH winds and put up the Christmas lights. I loved decorating that house. We were in that house for 4 years but only celebrated 2 Christmas’ there. In 2007, I went through a deep depression after finding out about an unexpected loss. In 2008, we didn’t decorate because we were preparing to make one of the hardest, most important steps in our lives… moving back to Boyd so we could save money and move to dream destination, Vermont.

Our Tree in the back living room

The Tree in the Alcove

Front Room Christmas Tree

All of this leads me to our 14th Christmas together. It has been a hard year for us. This year we have learned so much about ourselves, our expectations, the importance of family and the perceptions you have about others. We have laughed a lot at our situation, our house that just isn’t right, family drama and people that are too serious about life. We have grown up a lot and realized that success is not measured by the size of your house or your belongings but by your happiness and your compassion towards others.

Our tree this year doesn’t have a star or angel on the top because it brushes our 8 foot ceilings and we don’t have any lights on the outside of our house but its beginning to feel like Christmas used to feel, surrounded by love, family and laughter.

The porch that Jeff (and his dad) built

2009-06-14T11:14:00.000-07:00

For the past 3 months every visitor has had to do lunges to get into our house. FINALLY we have a porch - we still plan on building a roof and putting rails on it but its so pretty just as it is.. AND now we don't have to worry so much that someone might fall and break their neck getting in or out of our house.

Before

After

Lake Media Room

2009-04-30T19:02:00.000-07:00

I had no idea that I had Lakefront Property. We are going to name it Lake Media Room (how do you like that lame promotion..hahaha)

So besides a boat, what is one of the one things you have to purchase when you now have a lake forming around you.

These:

I haven’t needed rain boots in about 12 years.

Brian Bergeron

2009-04-24T08:50:00.001-07:00

Check it out HERE

Lisa PIccirillo

2009-04-09T21:04:00.000-07:00

Curious???

New Blog @ Media Room

Time flies when your having fun…

2009-04-07T17:54:00.000-07:00

Can you believe it has been a month?
Because I am having a hard time believing it. One down and … well… I wish I had a number to give you as what we have left to. Our goal is three years (36 months)

However, there have been some interesting things that have giving us a reason to laugh and maybe that is what is helping this time pass so quickly.

I am going to start with the story of our oven. The rest of the stories will come later to fill in the gaps of time.

Side note - we were told this oven was brand new.. it could have been.. who knows.. and I am okay with never knowing.

The first time we turned on our stove; Jeff was baking chicken and cooking pasta on the stove top. About 5 minutes into this task, preparing to smell yummy chicken, we got whiff of something MUCH worst, the smell of (the only way I can describe it) a dirty diaper baking. As Jeff searched for the cause, I started opening windows and turning on fans. I had to cover my mouth and nose because I was actually getting sick from the smell. The smell lingered for a few days even after burning a million candles and using all types of “smell good” agents. We couldn’t identify what the heck this awful smell could be. The people that sold us the house didn’t believe us. They thought at worst it was burned food that might have been trapped under the burners. When we turned it on, they begged for us to turn it off and snapped at us once when it appeared we were going to turn it back on. They agreed to replace it for us but in white. So we decided to call up Lowes (who they were ordering it from) and find out if we could just pay for the difference and get the stove (and dishwasher – that story to come). They agreed and somewhere in the mess of charging back the items to their corporate account and charging us for the difference, we ended up with 2 delivery charges and a full charge for a new stove and dishwasher on our card. Keep in mind, when you are dealing with ANY company in small towns they are extremely slow to respond and they don’t have to worry if you are giving your business to someone else, because… well… there is no one else. When you are dealing with these same companies in larger towns, they know you can go right down the street to the competitor. So needless to say, it has been over a week and we haven’t been refunded the money. (Warning this next part is not for the weak). The night before the items were delivered Jeff was taking the chord off the back of the stove (because new stoves don’t come with chords... I had no idea) he was following the wires on the back of the stove trying to figure out which one went what when he realized he wasn’t following a grey wire, he was following the tail of a dead mouse… From Jeff’s yelp I knew exactly what he had found. Now for the hilarity, Jeff can’t handle mice and of course, neither can I so I had to call my mom up here to help us dispose of it. Here we are two GROWN people who have to call our “mommy” to come and help us. We can assume that this is the dead mouse that is responsible for the smell that the stove produced when it was turned on, however, we didn’t look under the cook top to see what secrets were contained under there. Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww… Jeff still gets a cold shiver when he thinks about it.

Thankfully, these friends stowed away on houses trip out here and were permanently asleep before we moved in .. However, this does remind me that we are in the country now and pest control service is probably a good investment. Welcome to the country my friends…

And now my friends.. here is the new stove - its so pretty.. I don't even want to cook on it.

Now I have to decide which story to tell you next… We have so many…
* The butt sauna
* The rigged dishwasher
* The story of three refrigerators and 4 couches
* The lightswitch that controlled the house
* Lake Fry
* Our natural perm shower
* The backdoor that loved to be open
* Is it hot or cold
* The little hotwater heater that could
* Three Drawers and a pantry

And I am sure this is not the end of the list and honestly I am not complaining because Jeff and I are learning to laugh at everything. You know, the whole - don't-sweat-the-small-stuff idea. I don't think I have ever been able to do that and it is kinda nice to not stress about everything. I do have a sort of peace that is helping me get through this. Whatever it is, whoever it is.. THANK YOU!!!

In other good news, we have had several showings on the house and an offer. Hopefully it will all go through and we can have the notorious “sold’ post soon.

Check our Media Room for a review of Syd's EP

2009-03-28T16:26:00.001-07:00

Media Room

And now I am home!!!

2009-03-23T19:34:00.001-07:00

This weekend I came home... My home... I looked out my kitchen window and the trees had bright green blooms on it as to tell me that this was my new beginning. I opened my windows and let the breeze flow through and listened to the sound of near silence. I walked out my door and traveled just a few feet to greet my brother and my niece Rayleigh and heard a little about her day, walked in to say a quick hello to my parents and then walked out and greeted my sister and my other niece Abby and listened to her joke how she was going to still my mom's sour cream. And then I walked back home ( i didn't have to drive 3o minutes ) and I looked out into the once dark black night and saw stars. I now know that this was the plan all along.. a stepping stone to our final dream.. but I am happy and for the first time in a year, I feel like I belong...

Thank you all for your prayers, the encouraging words, the help moving boxes, painting and packing. Without you I would have never gotten here and without you I won't get to the my final destination.

And now ... drumroll please... Here are the pictures that I have been promising you all for several months. Here are the pictures of my Zen!!

Kitchen

Living room

Living room towards front door

Dining Room

Downsizing is hard...

2009-03-17T16:44:00.000-07:00

so we gave up and bought this.

I already have all my holiday decorations in it and have not even filled 1/4 of it. I figured this would be the easiest way to move our stuff to Vermont when it came time so why not invest in it now and use it to store stuff.

Good Point # 1 about living in the country... no HOA's to tell me no!!!!

Chaos!!!

2009-03-15T19:22:00.000-07:00

This is my life right now. The Storage building is being delivered tomorrow. I am hoping that I can post 'zen approved' pictures by this weekend.

ps - for anyone who had seen my house pre - redesign, this is your chance to peak at the improvements done to the kitchen.. Its about 90% done and I should be able to post pictures of that soon also.

We interrupt this move to bring you.....

2009-03-03T16:57:00.000-08:00

free music - syd's new EP - UPSWING -download now!!!

For Sale

2009-03-01T19:14:00.000-08:00

There is a really long story on why I just now posting the listing for our house... but... better now than never. Especially if it helps spread the word.

Please pass this onto anyone who is looking to purchase a house in the Saginaw/Fort Worth Texas Area.

http://www.century21.com/property/index.jsp?id=35222031

Boyd Population 1099 + 2 ( and 2 puppies )

2009-02-27T14:53:00.000-08:00

Step 2 of our 5 step plan to get to New England has just been accomplished.

Goodbye roomy, organized McMansion

Hello cluttered, disorganized manufactured home

For now, there are 2 more residents ( and 2 puppy doggies ) added to the population of Boyd.

baseboards...

2009-02-23T19:15:00.000-08:00

So for the last 4 months, you have read about the several projects that we have had going on with the "new" house. Each project lead to 2 more projects. Some projects are not done ( and I don't want to post pictures until i put complete before and after pictures... )

Baseboards and wall color were the first project completed!!!

Before...White walls and no baseboards

after...

Chocolate Walls and Vanilla Baseboards.. My freezer will always have to be stocked with ice cream now.

Stay tuned - hopefully I will be able to finish the kitchen project ( which I am VERY proud of ) and post pictures very soon....

The move date has been set

2009-02-15T18:35:00.000-08:00

Our official move date has been set IN STONE to be Feb 28th. Yes, you did the math correctly, that is only 2 weeks away. Stay tuned the next few weeks as I post pictures of our home and the whole moving process. This is scary and exciting. I am sorta glad that it has taken so long for this to do item to be checked off. It has given me SEVERAL months to get used to living in Boyd again. I do see the light at the end of the tunnel and I KNOW this is only temporary.

Here are some pictures of the packing party I had a few weeks ago to pack up all my breakables - as a party planner it was hard not to collect a million glass wine glasses, pretty glass containers .. not to mention as a Scrapbooker/Card Maker.. I also seemed to add a MILLION starbucks bottles to hold buttons, pins and beads in.

First I would like to send a HUGE THANK YOU to Shell, Sandy, Machele, John, Anthony and Mom for spending several hours one Friday evening wrapping tons of breakables in bubble wrap, climbing on cabinets and packing SEVERAL fragile boxes into a truck. I couldn't have done it without you.

This is only two sets of my kitchen cabinets. There were 2 sections that I did not take pictures of; not to mention the several under cabinets that I have -all fully stocked with serving dishes, vases and whatever else you could think of that was made of glass. I left everything on the bottom shelves because honesty, that was all I used on a day to day bases. My brother, Anthony, was the chosen one to stand on the cabinets and pull all the decorations and items down to a reachable level.

And this is the outcome. All these boxes came from just my kitchen and my dining room hutch... I know I said I was downsizing.. I obviously need to look up the meaning of downsizing.

The next day after the packing party, it encouraged to me to pack up the majority of my closet also. So I took out everything that I don't wear on a day to day bases ( I know there are rules to this.. like if you haven't worn something in a year, you should give it away.. again.. another rule that I have never followed - but really should )

This was what remained in my closet (and on my floor from recently washed loads that needed to be folded ) after the above was taken out. Again, what does downsizing mean??

and then this was another attempt at packing up the garage. This was our Goodwill run. And what we still have left to tackel in the garage.

A Day at the Park with Abby

2009-02-13T17:53:00.001-08:00

If you don't like the weather in Texas...

2009-02-02T19:02:00.000-08:00

just wait a few minutes and it will change.

10 Am on Jan 28th - complete ICE

Same road.. 2 hours later

In Sims World...

2009-02-01T19:45:00.000-08:00

we would already be moved into our new house.

As everyone knows, I am *kinda* addicted to Sims. So just for fun and so people could see the layout of our house, I recreated our house in Sims. Of course, Sims doesn't have my furniture so I had to improvise. For example, the bathtub in the masterbath is a corner bathtub and actually has 2 cabinets - however, the master closet ( which the dresser will not really be in.. ) is really that HUGE. Anyway, here is it.

The Media Room is BACK!!

2009-01-29T17:20:00.000-08:00

We have started back up our other blog, The Media Room. First post - Jeff's amazing video's he did for Syd from the footage while he was on tour. This was also Jeff's way to tell me that we have a crappy video camera and that its time to get one of those new and fancy hard drive video camera.

So please enjoy and give my hubby some love on what you think of the videos - He worked very hard on these.

The first video was made a few months ago and contains explicit language. The other two are more like music videos and have no dialoge, only music.

Today ... A moment in time

2009-01-20T10:01:00.000-08:00

Today I felt like a child
Once again, I felt the
The hope that flowed through me while I was still innocent
The pride that I roared before I lost my voice
The dreams that I had before I was blinded
The satisfaction of freedom before it was frightened out of me
The proof of equality before I was exposed to discrimination
The love for my neighbor before I was betrayed
The responsibility to change what I can, instead of placing blame

2009 so far... so good....

2009-01-17T22:14:00.000-08:00

I already know that 2009 is going to be the year of change. This is the first New Years eve that we stayed home and veg’d out on the couch in YEARS. We have been spending every weekend at the new house and just didn’t have the energy to do anything.

I started my new job @ Chrysler. I am now a Compliance Analyst and I LOVE IT!!! I have so much freedom and it was a promotion – what else could I ask for? This was how I did my hair for my first day of work – how cute is this?

The weather here has been crazy. It has made working on the house extremely difficult because you can’t plan what the weather is going to do. One day it will be 30 degrees and the next it will be 80. Its not that I am complaining, I just wish for some sort of consistency.

You might be wondering how is the redecorating of the house coming along??? Well this picture says it all.

I am beginning to love being out in Boyd. I love spending time with my family especially my nieces. They are something else. I missed out on so much of Rayleighs life because I wasn’t around all the time and I am so blessed to be able to get the chance to be part of Abby’s.

Today we took the first load of “stuff” to the new house. We filled up my brothers truck with boxes from the craft room and the holiday decorations. We included the guest room bed also.

What is even worse is this is the way the garage and my craft room still look. Based on how little of an impact removing these items from our house left, I am guessing we will have about 20 more truck loads of stuff before we are done. .

Oh and this is our dining room. Trying to live in a house that you have been moving out of for 4 months, is a hard thing to do.

We are hiring movers to move all the furniture. Hiring movers is totally worth the money they charge. We used them when we moved into this house and they were my new best friends.

One last thing. I am totally addicted to Photoshop brushes. Does anyone know of any expansion packs that I can buy that would be worth it? AND SIMS 3 will be out of shelves in March... how cool is that??

I have been watching my feedjit and I am seeing so many people from all over reading. I would love for you to leave me a comment and let me know who you are (even if I don’t know you; I blog hop also, so don’t be embarrassed)

Our online Christmas Card to you

2008-12-17T18:22:00.001-08:00

I am on the MOVE to end Alzheimer's!

2008-11-14T10:00:00.000-08:00

If you would like to pledge an amount to sponsor me, please visit the following:

2008 Alzheimer's Memory Walk

Halloween 08 - 4th Annual Open Mic Fright Night

2008-11-01T11:25:00.000-07:00

Halloween 08 will go down in the books as having one of the best and most memoriable Open Mic Fright Nights. We have 3 special guests make appearences for our live music portion of the evening and as a tribute to this being the final, we took out all 7 Plastic bins of Halloween decorations and decided to use them all. We had that 7 hour live Ghost Hunters downstairs, tons of yummy goodies thanks to our Chef this year ( Amy - AKA Ugly Betty). It became a little sad when I realized that I am going to have to pass the torch onto another one of our friends to host the next several years of Halloween BlowOuts! now for pictures.

Our house

More proud Auntie Lissa photos.. a beautiful witch and a adorable lamb

Our special guests for the Open Mic night :

Urchin - My brother-in- laws band. That is Jeff on congo's and my brother on bass.

Taylor Davis

Syd - via webcast - Live from LA

Close enough.. I guess.

2008-10-19T11:18:00.000-07:00

I really can't wait to go to a real pumpkin patch in my favorite fall atmosphere. But for the next few years this will do.

I am such a proud Aunt. This was both Rayleigh's and Abby's first time to a pumpkin patch and they had so much fun!

What a great night! Can't wait for next year.

An eight year tradition

2008-10-09T18:21:00.001-07:00

Every year for the past 8 years we have gone here:

to celebrate John Lennon's birthday. Today he would have been 68.

It is always EXTREMLY busy and crowded

Each year they give us a new glass with british beer of their choice in it.

Each year Jeff drinks all the beer (unless I am near a potted plant that I can pour it into) so we can get one for us and one for my dad (they have a 1 glass per person rule).

We are going to miss this tradition when we move to the East Coast.

One last piece of trivia for you. I have told people that you can always spot my Jeep from anywhere. See, when I first ordered my company car online, I chose a blue Jeep. I didn't even realize they made a NEON blue. Can you spot my car?

A little obsessed??

2008-09-30T19:38:00.000-07:00

Jeff and I went into public dressed in the following Sunday

In addition to this, I also had my Boston bag and Jeff's Boston Red Sox pen.

We didn't realize it until our waiter complemented Jeff on his hat and then looked at our shirts and asked if we were from Boston. He continued to tell us how he was from Boston and showed us his Red Sox belt buckle (a little strange). Then while at the mall we were quizzed by a store clerk on how cool Salem actually was.

We probably do this more than we realize since we have a total of 6 Massachusetts t-shirts. SERIOUSLY!!!

Just Bloggin

2008-09-25T18:26:00.000-07:00

Thanks to my friend, Shell ,who pointed out that I have not blogged in over a month. There has been so much going on (which is the best time to blog) but every time I realized I needed to blog I also realize I didn't have any pictures and that just makes most of the blogs boring. For example, we had a garage sale last weekend it was crazy busy and I got rid of so much stuff but without before and after pictures, it just doesn’t matter to anyone but us.

So here are some pictures from the last month.

We call this Jeff’s tour beard. It only took him a little less than 2 weeks to grow this.

This is a picture of the way my bed looked for 12 days. SERIOUSLY!!!

This is a picture of how my sister tried to burn down my porch – smoking is a NASTY habit and can burn down houses – or at least melt planters.

This is a picture of Paloma when she tried to chew off her foot. She actually kept that mock cast on her foot for 2 days and didn’t even bother.
This is a picture of my dad’s truck when he rolled it. (side note- I have seen several accidents in dodge pickup and all of them have walked away with barely cuts or scraps – DODGE PROUD!)
This is also a picture of princess Abby who played my roommate for 12 days

This is a picture of her after she grew hair.
And this is a picture of Logan being a Rockstar
And Luke playing with socks on his hands… kinda gross but creative.

One busy month down.. SEVERAL to go!

Our move date is still set for the beginning of Nov. I am so ready for this plan to be put into full blown action.

Its 10:30 .. do you know where you husband is? AND the Londino’s are back!

2008-08-22T21:01:00.000-07:00

Well, if so, then you are two steps ahead of me. Not only do I keep forgetting that he is an hour ahead of me, I can’t keep track of where he is. If it wasn’t for me putting his schedule on my PDA then I would have no idea. He was in PA last night, Maryland this morning and VA tonight. He is having a blast and learning so much about being a tour manager. I am so proud of him!! Check out his tour blog that he is writing for Syd right now it has pictures attached.

On another note, the Londino’s are back safe and sound in their home. I can’t believe how much the boys have grown. Chris and Taryn look great ( a little tired.. but great ). Luke is so smart, he remembered EVERYONE, even baby Abby. Logan is still not sure of who we are or why we were in his house but he was still just as sweet as ever. They are looking so much more like brothers than they did when they left. I wish I had pictures… I had a camera… I just was so excited to see them, I didn’t take the time to pull it out and shoot a few.. What they don’t know yet is how I have already planned monthly dinners and a few family get togethers. I took advantage of them when they were here before and didn’t realize it until they were gone.. NEVER AGAIN!!!

So lets see.. My husband is living his dream, My best friend and his family are back in United States, My sister and her family are staying with me while Jeff is out of town and I am getting the opportunity to spend tons of time with Abby, My neice Rayleigh is cheerleading at her first game tomorrow.

LIFE IS GREAT!

Wow…Uhm… Crazy… Speechless..sorta.

2008-08-20T05:45:00.000-07:00

We got the most unexpected phone call yesterday that is leading to Jeff being on a plane to New York Thursday morning. Our wonderfully talented friend, Syd, called and asked if Jeff would be able to go to the left coast for 10 days to play tour manager during his fall tour. Crazy, huh??? So as I sit here in miserable Texas (minus the last wonderfully, cloudy and tolerant weather these past few days) Jeff will be trotting all over the Northeast, EXACTLY WHERE I WOULD RATHER BE!!! I am extremely happy for him and nervous for myself all at the same time. I have a wild imagination and once the sun goes down, all of the sudden I hear all the noises in my house and I can’t let the dogs out because I can’t bring myself to open the back door. However, I have a wonderful family and they are going to be taking turns staying with me for the next week and half. If I already lived in Boyd this would be nothing since my parents, brother and sister would be within walking distance. I do not know how people do this all the time. Jeff and I have been married for 11 years and have rarely been apart. As a matter of fact, we were married for 8 years before we had to spend our first night apart since we had been married.

Jeff will be in charge of keeping a video blog while he is with the guys and I will post that link as soon as I have it. I hope if you haven’t already checked out Syd, that you will and send your support.

Please do not forget to say a prayer for Jeff and the guys that everything goes smoothly and everyone stays safe!

Homeward Bound

2008-08-19T06:36:00.000-07:00

The Londino’s are on the way home as I write this. The Londino’s moved to Australia 9 months ago and are now on their way back to Texas (via LA for a few days). I am ultra excited and have been counting down the days until they return every since I was told the date.

Please pray for a safe and stress free trip home for them, they are going to have two young boys and several pieces of luggage in tow.

Welcome to Texas, Edouard!

2008-08-05T09:56:00.000-07:00

For those of you who have not heard yet, Texas is being visited by Tropical Storm Eduardo. A few weeks ago, we had a visit from Hurricane Dolly. Both brought with them hostess gifts of rain and a few degrees of cool air. Although, I am hoping their visit is not inconveniencing their coastal hosts, I am loving that they are sharing their gifts with us.

Click here to view video.

Caution : Excessive Heat Ahead

2008-08-02T08:12:00.000-07:00

Today I woke up with the urge to do something outside. I have been restless for the past few months (we are way past our semi annual trip to the northeast). The sky was the prettiest shade of blue and I thought maybe it would be nice to have a picnic and we could take Daisy and Paloma with us and just hang out by the pond in front of our house. I checked weather.com to see how the weather was going to hold up. Needless to say the first thing I saw was this:

My whole life I have dealt with Texas summers, and every year I hope that by some miracle it won’t be as hot as it was the summer before.
I still had hope; maybe we could leave the house tomorrow. I continued on to check the 10-day forecast.

So then (I guess I felt the need to torture myself) I checked the 10 day in Boston.

I just hope that all the Bostonians are taking advantage of their weather and having tons of picnics on the Boston Common. If I close my eyes long enough, I can imagine being there myself.

I can do this, I can do this, I can do this

2008-07-27T10:45:00.001-07:00

I have been spending every weekend out in Boyd to try and get us (actually just me) used to the idea of being back out there. On our way back to the city last night I had noticed how dark it was. I have noticed this before but tonight seemed extra dark. Remember, I lived 17 years of my life there and I had perfect night vision; not anymore.

Would you consider that light at the end of the road my light at the end of the tunnel?

looking at it in a different light

2008-07-23T16:28:00.000-07:00

So I read this blog the other day ( I found it during one of my blog scans ) and the people left there nice comfy house to follow a dream to move to Hawaii. They lived in a converted van until they built their house. I guess my point of this is that people take 1 steps back to take 2 steps forward all the time.

As I am about to mark off another “to do” of my lists of accomplishments, I am starting to get excited about the next 2-3 years of our lives. And of course, I am even more excited about the next several years after that.

downsizing by half

2008-07-16T17:07:00.000-07:00

We are about 95% sure this is the floor plan of our next house. I wanted to find pictures of a video tour, I will just have to wait. Keep in mind, our house now is 2700 sq ft and this is only 1400. No fancy media or craft room. No cool game room. Just the basic rooms, kitchens and bathroom. This will all be worth it in 3 years. I can't wait to see what that house will look like.

Impatiently waiting

2008-07-14T05:54:00.000-07:00

I hate this part of anything. Waiting…. It sucks and I have never been good at it. I know that all of Gods miracles happen on his time.. not ours but why does he have to torture those of us who have worked unsuccessfully their whole life (31 years in this case) to be more patient.

In the past three years, this has been the longest I have gone without a trip to the Northeast so you could probably guess I am having major Northeast withdraws. I have been trying to satisfy this withdraw by watching shows based out of the Northeast. I watch Cheers and then sing the theme song for hours afterwards; I watch Newhart and then rewind the beginning when they are driving through New Hampshire (its suppose to be Vermont .. but that is okay, its still beautiful); I watch Fever Pitch and it leads me to a hunt on Craigslist of houses for sale or rent in Boston. I should hold a contest for the person who can guess the amount of times that Jeff and I have talked the other out of just picking up and leaving (everything) and moving. Its funny how at one second we can be so spontaneous and then the next we can rationalize it out. Usually these fits only last a few minutes but are becoming more frequent.

Please Lord, help me learn patience. I have to get past this or I will go crazy!

Plan B.

2008-06-26T09:44:00.000-07:00

Experts tell how to deal with mortgage crisis - Maybe they would want to buy our house??

With foreclosures and bankruptcy affecting millions of homeowners, CNN's Larry King on Tuesday talked to several experts in the real estate industry to get advice on handling the mortgage meltdown.

His panel on "Larry King Live" was made up of real estate expert Barbara Corcoran, correspondent Michael Corbett, developer Jorge Perez, real estate magnate Donald Trump and financial expert Robert Kiyosaki.

Larry King: Is this a good time to sell a house?

Barbara Corcoran: Of course it's not a good time to sell a house. The question is, if you must sell a house, how do you unload it, considering the enormous competition that's out there?

King: Suppose you have to sell.

Corcoran: There's one way you can always sell a house in any old market. You can intentionally under-price it. If you go out to your own marketplace and intentionally under-price your home 20 percent to 25 percent less than you think it's worth, or that a credible appraiser tells you it's worth, you will sell that house within the week. There's no such a thing as an unsellable house. It's always a question of numbers.

King: What's the biggest mistake people facing foreclosure make?

Michael Corbett: The biggest mistake right now is when you get that default notice, you ignore it. People think that if they just ignore it, it will buy them more time. It's absolutely the opposite. The first thing they should do when they get those notices is contact either the lender or go to HUD [the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development]. Get a certified counselor. There's free counseling out there for people, because if you just go ahead and ignore these notices, they automatically trigger legal action. And that moves it faster. If you want to buy some time, call the lender, call a counselor.

King: Let's take a call from Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

Caller: I have a loan with Countrywide, and they will not refinance our interest-only loan, because they say our debt-to-income ratio is too high, and their workout department won't even look at us because we've never been behind on our mortgage and we're not currently behind. It's going to reset in August. What can we do?

Corbett: Unfortunately, a lot of the mortgage companies and the banks don't want to talk to you. It's very sad, until you're actually in arrears. Their loss mitigation or their workout department, they don't want to help you until you're two months or three months in debt.King: Barbara has a solution.

Corcoran: I have a solution, and it's a fall-back solution, but it sure gets attention. You can make an appointment, or not make an appointment, go over there with the deed to your property and the keys to your front door and say, OK, I've had it. Here's my deed, here's my keys, and you'll get attention.

One other thing, you should always put your requests by certified mail. By law, the banks don't have to answer phone calls. But by law, they have to answer certified mail, and a lot of people don't use it.

King: We have an e-mail question from S.O.S. in California: "I got a condo in April of 2005 for $500,000. Now it's only worth about $400,000. Could I refinance it to get a better interest rate, or should I try to negotiate with the mortgage company to adjust the payment?"

Jorge Perez: I would definitely negotiate with the mortgage company. Lenders are having tremendous problems right now. They have a huge amount of REOs, real estate-owned properties, and they do not want your house or condominium.

We are advising all the people that we know that have those problems to go talk to their lenders, and they will talk to their lenders.

I think one of the biggest problems, nevertheless, is that a lot of people borrowed on variable rate interests when they had mortgages at 1 and 2 percent that grew up over time. And their jobs have not gotten better, and now they're paying much higher interest rates than when they got their mortgages. And this is a big, big problem in real estate today

King: We have an e-mail question from Debbie in Orlando, Florida: "What's a family to do if they lose their home to foreclosure? How can they find a suitable place to live? Aren't they going to be rejected as renters on grounds of poor credit?"

Donald Trump: This is now the time to go out and try making a deal, try buying a house. The banks are there. It's already financed. You don't really need the money because it's already financed. They are already in. They are already wet. I don't recommend renting now. I recommend now is the time to buy. Buying is much better than renting.

King: Even if you've been foreclosed?

Trump: Absolutely. You can make deals. So many people are being foreclosed. Millions and millions of people. It's no longer got that horrible stigma. This is the time to go out and make a deal. The money has already been put in. It's not like they are putting in new money. The money has already been put in. They own a house. They want somebody to live in that house.

King: What's your advice, Robert?

Robert Kiyosaki: Back in the '80s, I got my butt kicked in the market. That's when interest rates were about 18 percent to 20 percent and I was trying to make deals at 18 percent to 20 percent. And it really taught me a good lesson that I had to get smarter. So when I got pounded in the late '70s and early '80s, I at that point said I better get smarter, and today, I have made millions of dollars because of a bad experience.

But if you're not -- if you don't learn from the experience and you think the government is going to bail you out, then you've wasted a big opportunity to learn something

Foreclosures suck!

2008-06-22T17:05:00.001-07:00

You never realize how much someone else’s business affects you until it actually does. What am I talking about you ask?? All those people in our neighborhood that had to foreclose on their homes. I feel bad for them, I really do but it is causing us to not be able to get anywhere close to the amount we need to break even on our house. I wish it was just the new houses in our area; we can deal with that; we can compete with that.. but how can you compete with houses that are as great as yours for $40,000 less? So until we can think of some creative selling techniques we have put the idea of selling our house in the back of our mind. On to plan B..what was plan B again?

all those that dreamt before us

2008-06-11T19:39:00.001-07:00

Today, I couldn’t help but think of all the others who have taken a chance, left their comfort zones, family and friends and moved either a few states away or across the world.

Our friend Amy, who had been struggling with the thought of leaving St.Louis for a long time. A few months ago she announced that she was going to do it. She is heading to Florida and I couldn’t be prouder of her!!

Our Vermont Friend, Elizabeth who is moving to KY at the end of this month. This news was unexpected because I can’t imagine anyone wanting to leave Vermont.

Our northeast friend, Jenna, moving from New York to Boston……We couldn’t be more jealous.

Our Friend, Mike, who came all the way from Switerland for love. Three years later and they are still going strong!

My Uncle Bernie and Aunt Althea. They both started over in a new state, with a new house. This had to be a hard decision and I miss them both very much.

And finally, My cousins Chris and Taryn… they win the award for taken the biggest chance. They moved to Australia 5 months ago. They have struggled but have goals that they are very focused on achieving. I am so freakin proud of them, especially Chris who I know has a hard time with taking chances like this. I miss them all so much and can’t wait for them to return and ready to start their life fresh and new in the States.

I love you all.. and hopefully we will be following behind you soon.

Rooms I am dreading to pack.

2008-06-03T18:13:00.000-07:00

#1 – My craft room. This majority of my stuff will have to either be sold or go into storage over the next 2 years because I doubt I will be lucky enough to have another room like this. Everyone always says that I have too much stuff anyway… I just love having everything I could ever want or need to do any project that is thrown at me within my reach at all times.

#2 – The Garage. This holds all 30+ plastic containers of Christmas/Halloween/Thanksgiving decorations, 4 Christmas trees and several Scarecrows. We bought this house based on the decoration possibilities. We even customized several locations with extra outlets so it would be easier to plug in lights. I am going to miss decorating for the holidays and having people actually see it. I keep telling myself.. just 2 years.. just 2 years.

We got all kinds of time...

2008-05-27T17:03:00.000-07:00

While getting paperwork together to give to our Realtor, we noticed that it was exactly 3 years ago today we signed the papers to purchase this home. I am not going to be too reminiscent just yet because we still have a long road to ahead. The Realtor told us that if we had this home in Grapevine or Keller it would sell in no time but with all the new real estate in the area, we have to be realistic. My fingers are crossed that the first “look and see” for the West and East coast MB employees will play in our favor.

And of course I always look for signs to get me through to the next day, week or year. Todays motivation came from the Scrubs episode I was watching while writing this.
“When you stop fighting it, time is really on your side”

So basically, I am going to make the most of the next few months, weeks or years I have in this house, with my friends and with Texas..

New Pictures

2008-05-26T16:53:00.000-07:00

The process begins

2008-05-23T20:02:00.000-07:00

Today we went looking at houses and it was like 140 degrees. It was miserable going in and out of these houses that do not have AC or any electricity hooked up. I got very dehydrated and it made me sick to my stomach. The sales women had just be transferred from Indiana and she could not get over how hot it was - SHE HAS NO IDEA WHAT SHE IS IN FOR!! We still have a ton of places to look but it was nice to finally get out there and start making this real.

We are meeting with the realtor on Tuesday. This is actually the same realtor that is helping all the Mercedes Business Centers on the West Coast and the East Coast relocate and find homes. And since we live only about 15 miles away from the new MB building, it would be very beneficial if one of them bought our home. The first “look and see” for these two centers will be June 6th and the realtor says that they are not planning on actually moving here until the Fall but maybe its possible that something might actually work out for us.

I will post pictures soon of our “new home location” for those of you that have never seen it.

Inspiration from the past

2008-05-22T09:50:00.000-07:00

Footprints
One night I had a dream--
I dreamed I was walking along the beach with the Lord and across the sky flashed scenes from my life.
For each scene I noticed two sets of footprints, one belonged to me and the other to the Lord.
When the last scene of my life flashed before me,I looked back at the footprints in the sand.
I noticed that many times along the path of my life,there was only one set of footprints.
I also noticed that it happened at the very lowestand saddest times in my life.
This really bothered me and I questioned the Lord about it.
"Lord, you said that once I decided to follow you,you would walk with me all the way,but I have noticed that during the most troublesome times in my lifethere is only one set of footprints. "I don't understand why in times when I needed you most,you should leave me."
The Lord replied, "My precious, precious child,I love you and I would never, never leave youduring your times of trial and suffering. "When you saw only one set of footprints,it was then that I carried you."

...Mary Stevenson

So close.. Yet so far away.

2008-05-21T19:49:00.000-07:00

In September 2005 Jeff and I made our first trip to New England. We always knew we wanted to visit but we never thought that we would want to stay. If we hadn’t just bought this house, we would have gone home, packed up our stuff and moved up there immediately. Instead we gave ourselves 5 years to get up there.

At first, we thought maybe we would wait for my company to move me, that way they would help us sell our house and pay for the relocation, that dream was squashed in July 2007 when DaimlerChrysler announced that Chrysler and MB were divorcing. I still had faith in our original plan, even though it also let us down just within the last few months.

Even though all our friends have asked the question “Why don’t we just move up there since we love it so much”? They just didn’t ask the question at the right time. We gave them all the same excuses, “Our neighborhood was still new and we wouldn’t be able to sell our house”, “We haven’t saved enough money yet” “I am waiting to get my degree so that I will be competitive in the job market” and my all time favorite “I have so much invested in this company, if I leave I loose it all”. Finally, someone asked the question at the right time, it was Syd and we were in the car on our way to drop him off at his hotel from my birthday dinner. We were talking about our jobs and we again expressed our want to move up to the Northeast. He asked the same question everyone else has asked over the last few years“Why haven’t you moved yet?” (This isn’t the first time he has asked this question either). On the way home, Jeff and I discussed it and I was able to discredit all my excuses. Have we tried to sell our home yet; what would it hurt to try? We were never going to save enough money living in this house. We love this house but we spend every single cent on this house (and traveling… and well… we didn’t want to give up traveling). As for my degree, my company suspended the tuition reimbursement a few months ago and if I wait for them to bring it back (if they even do) what will it really do for me? Why do I have to be so competitive in the job market if we don’t have any bills? Why am I so focused on making so much money? Just to buy more stuff? I want to make enough money to live life to the fullest and why am I in Corporate America anyway? I can find plenty of jobs without a degree that I will be happier at, I won’t make as much as I do now, but so what. And this brings me to my final excuse; I have come to learn that when it comes to Corporate American, Loyalty does not get you anywhere. So with all our excuses discredited, our next step was to get started on how to make our plan work.

Now we have 2 years left before our 5 year goal is up and we have decided to finally take action. We are selling our house and moving out to my land in Boyd (yes, you can gasp some more... I did say Boyd). We are spending the 1st year paying off EVERYTHING and we are spending the 2nd year saving all of our money and then we are moving to New England. I have to keep thinking (and praying) that the sacrifices we will make over the next 2 years will be rewarding in the end.