It's always something

I just got through filling out and printing off 3 change of address forms to turn in to the post office. Family, business, and father in law. Gonna have son fill his out so I don't screw it up. I have things set to start going to the new house on the 3rd of Sept. Son should be there by then....trying to get him ready to move on closing date to be there for anything we have to have done before we move...cable, phone, etc.
But there is always something that will screw up. I have a dear friend that is going to go to Saudi for a year to teach English with a mission group. She is set to leave next month. She has an account set up with an Arab mission group that we can support her with. So I waited till the house was finalized, then sent off a check with the new address listed. She was in tears sunday because the group she was registered with is disbanding and her account is going to be with another company.....so the first one is sending everyone's checks back! You know what that means? My return will be sent to the new house and I haven't even gotten the keys yet!!!! Grrrrrrrr!
Also, The Clueless One has changed his days off. Instead of coming home next week to pack, he will be coming home the week of the move. That means I had to email him the electric company application to sign and send back to me so I can fill it out and send it off. But first, I have to call my electric company today to see what the hold up is with our letter of recommendation to be sent with the application. It has been over a week and nothing has come in the mail yet. Geesh, they are only 20 miles away. It's not like it has to go around the world first. Or does it?
I also have to call about Home Warranty Insurance. ugh. You know, in all honesty, Clueless One is in charge of millions of dollars of equipment and men on the jobs he does, so is very busy and trying to complete jobs without having to spend more millions......but having to do the whole move thing by myself is driving me nuts!

Since I double posted pictures......

How about a different set of pictures? I can show you more of the inside of the house. Will I be forgiven for totally losing my mind?

 This is the front porch....you can sit on the swing and catch a breeze, but come on in.

 Right in the door is the staircase. To the left is the office and the guest bathroom. Lets go upstairs.

 This is the only spare bedroom I will have for a while. Family will want me to make it the guest bedroom, but it is the only option I have for a studio right now. From the door to the left.....

 And from the door to the right. I am sure I will stuff the closet full, it's an decent size anyway. That is Clueless One opening the closet. And yes, that is how he dresses to ride the Harley.

 This is the room that I covet for my studio. But kid has claimed it. I am sure it will be painted soon. That is the view to the left with his closet.

 And the view to the right. Not a big room, but see that door there?

 The room has a small room off of it. You step down into this cute little windowed room. covetcovetcovet When kid finally is able to move out....I am moving my studio in here!!

 The room for myself and Clueless One is the biggest...except for FIL's suite. The pink walls will be pained pronto!

 But take a look at the small pan in the ceiling! Tricked out in decorative wood! way cool.

 Our bathroom...meh. It has a tub/shower to the right of the toilet. And to the far right out of camera shot is a small alcove with storage. I am not too worried about having only one sink. Right now we have two and he never uses his...always uses mine.

 The very dark upper hallway. Looking from the front of the house to the back. To the left is kid's room and across the hallway is his bathroom. Between them is a storage closet with a bookcase in the wall. To the right is the door to my room. To the left out of camera shot is the extra room/studio. And behind me when I took the picture is the multipaned door to the upper balcony. At least you don't have to go through anyone's room to get to the balcony.

The upper balcony. Nice view and should be able to catch a nice breeze up there. I can hardly wait to move.

Changing Locations

 Sorry folks, I guess in my excitement, I posted the same pictures. Just ignore those, I am losing my mind.
uh oh.....the whole  flavor of the blog is going to change. I just realized yesterday that I am cutting the distance between us in half.....and moving off of I-10. I will be closer to 35. What to do, what to do?
Anticipating the move has driven me up the walls. First there was the decision....made easier by the Clueless One being home to witness the latest crap by one neighbor. Then, after he left, the other neighbor pulled a childish foolish prank. When Clueless One was home, I experienced such fury at the jackass neighbors that we are forced to drive through their place to get to ours, that I did something I have never done before. I had to break something. I grabbed my heavy work gloves, hunted down a 4x4 wood post, and proceeded to whack an iron pipe post with it until it broke into three pieces about a foot each. Of course, being me, the first post I hit contained a nest of red wasps. They were not appreciative in the least of my disturbing them. I got to suffer through about 4 days of a swollen arm.
So we found a house.... a big one on a lake, at a great price. I was nuts about that house. But Clueless One balked and by the time he decided to buy it, there was another bid on it. We still had a chance.....until the bank decided to take their sweet time putting together a simple prequalifying letter for us. We lost that house. I was absolutely furious and hurt. And I was mad at God for that and a few other things that happened this year. A friend of mine tried to get me to still thank God for things, but for the life of me, I couldn't think of anything.
It was on a wednesday that I was driving to the city to pick up my new glasses and do some shopping. I really hate that hour drive. I do a lot of thinking then...some not so pleasant. This time I realized that I had something to be thankful for....the finances to buy a house away from this horrible place. So I did thank Him.
The next day, my real estate agent sent me an email with about 5 listings on it. Clueless One and I went through them and found a couple in our price range to look at. After we set things up with the agent, I went back to look closer at the other ones she sent. I had bypassed one house because of the price. When I went back to look, I discovered I had looked at the wrong price...it was lower that the original price and in our range. Looking closely at it, it was perfection. Something we never even dreamed we could have. I called the agent back and set up to see that house. Clueless One had found that his days off had been shortened (no surprise there) and had to go back to work the next morning...friday. So we set up to see that house at 9am, and another one just down the road from it.
Friday morning we got up at 5am to hit the road by 6 in order to see the house at 9. We were dazzled when we drove up, but the selling point was that the spot for Clueless One's dad was exactly what we were looking for. The house has an added on Master Suite, at the other end of the house for privacy, outside access, and a room that is set up to be a perfect kitchenette! Dad will be able to live on his own as in an apartment, and still be very close to the family.
I won't go into details about the nerve wracking back and forth on the bidding....at one point wanting to kill Clueless One, but we finally have a house. Clueless One works only about 2 hours away instead of the 5 now. Our close date is the 30th, and I have movers arranged to load us up on the 7th of September. I am a wreck over the whole thing and wish it was over with. Clueless One will be home for maybe a week just before closing....in other words, he will help pack up that one week, then the next time he has days off, he will go to a new home. Yep, the whole circus is totally on me. That is why I am a wreck. I am in charge of moving two households and decades of living in one place, plus get everything switched to the new house. The power is awaiting his signature and our co-op referral letter, and the cable tv/internet/phone has been set up to be turned on the first. Living in one place for 20 years means it's challenging to get everything switched to another place in a county 3 hours away. My guts are in an uproar, I have lost weight, and don't sleep for very long at a time before my mind goes into a panic and wakes me up.
So, now that I have set things up, here are pictures of our dream come true.

On Pleasant Lane in Pleasant Valley. The style is called Hill Country. It's perfect.

The back of the house from the garage. There are nice decks, lily pond full of frogs, fenced in garden, and chicken pen.

The view out the back door. I predict many hours spent in that gazebo, starting with coffee in the morning.

ohhhhh.....a hot tub! then a picnic table, then a swing. The swing overlooks the pond and a rock swale that goes across the yard and under the deck.

Inside the front door to the right is the living room, dining room, and kitchen...all open to each other. No more secluded kitchen. Notice the trim work and the ceiling beams.

A lovely dining area. Love the ceiling clad in wood. In front of where that clock is, will be my china cabinet.

And a most excellent kitchen!! My red and blue things will fit very well in there. I can hardly wait!
One really nice part about the house....cable internet. I just spent about 2 hours  trying to get all of this uploaded. My satellite internet has been totally off for over a month now.
I will post more pictures later. I am worn out from trying to get this post up all morning.
I just noticed that blogger isn't posting the whole picture. I changed the size of them, so maybe it will now.

Quick post

The day is about to start full speed again, so thought I would knock out a quick post of what it going on. 16 days to closing now. We had an inspection and now have to hammer out problems with the seller. I have to get my house packed up, line up a mover, and iron out the tons of things that have to be taken care of when you move 3 hours away after living in one area for 20 years. Oh, and I am doing this house buying detail all by myself. There is a lot on my plate because hubby is about 5 hours away working. I think if there is just one more glitch, I will start tearing my hair out. The immature jackass neighbor's are a mere laugh now.
So, a few little peaks at the house.

Pleasant Lane....so charming!
Cubedog: that front fence is DIEING for your vintage roses!

A gazebo out the back door, there's a mug next to the coffeepot, grab a cup and join me.
Cubedog: wisteria-'nuff said.

The living room, looking into the dining area. Not crazy about the green walls, but easily fixed.
Cubedog: you need Grandma's big cast iron kettle on that stove.

Very lovely dining area....and real wood cladding on the ceiling. The door just out of sight on the left leads to the gazebo.

Do a half turn from the previous picture and there is a nice sized kitchen. That door at the end leads to the very large butlers pantry, then turn right in there to the laundry room. At the other end of the laundry room is the entrance to the Master suite that will house my father in law. Private, with it's own kitchenette.

At the end of the day, it will be wonderful to soothe my aches and nerves by spending time in the hot tub, listening to the frogs living in the little pond that is in front of the swing. Ahhhhhhh
Cubedog: you might want a screen on the house side of that hottub. Its kinda in your FIL's front yard.

Today at 3:25 p.m., we bid good-by to Sheila (WhiteDog), our deaf Australian Shephard. It is suspected that she had pancreatic cancer.
We found her at the Human Society. An adorable white fuzzball. She and BigDog bonded instantly and when we went up to the desk to sign adoption papers, the clerk asked, "You do know she's deaf, right?" And BigDog answered, "So?"
Once I got her home, they were inseparable. She would alert me whenever he was on his way home. And she even nipped me a few times for getting to close to him.
She learned many hand signs quickly and was stubborn as a mule. When she didn't want to do what you were signing, she would simply turn her head away as if to say, "I can't hear you."
We had her longer than our marriage, so she has been an integral part of our little family from day zero. The world will be a little less bright for us now that she has gone to join Buddy and Mz.Kitty.
She was a joy and a trial and she will be missed. It is gonna hurt like hell to watch Ripley look for her.
R.I.P. my precious puppy
Otter: I had decided to just lay down and rest my frazzled nerves from the past two days, and woke up over two hours later. Bubba had lots of messages for me....and text from you. As soon as he said that I rushed to my phone cuz I knew. And appropriately, as I  texted you and BD, and tears were falling, it started to rain. She was one very special "niece".  It was fun trying to remember signs when she came so I could communicate with her. And it was so hilarious to see her turn her head when she didn't want to see what you wanted her to do. Your bed will be very lonely now. I have been through this before and yes, it is heartbreaking to watch the others look for the one missing. Give Miss Rip extra attention right now, you both need it.
And invoking the name of Buddy can still make me cry.
A couple of memories right off the top of my head....the time Tigger met "the big dogs". I could swear that cat's next step was to claw through the ceiling! Also, the only sound Sheila ever heard was the squeaking bark of Mouse....the Shrew. 
The sweet girl had a very long and happy life that she would have normally not gotten to live. There will be small blue stones on your crowns to match her striking eyes.
My deepest love and sympathies for you both. I shall miss her. 

It's genetic

Did I tell you that the oldest kid and his family went to Destin Florida for a week's vacation? From the pictures, it looks like they met her mom and stepdad there. They had a wonderful time....but family history will always win out.
First, they drove there from Oklahoma.....leaving Yazoo City, MS about a half an hour before it was nearly wiped off the map by a tornado. While in Florida, they stayed at a condo on the beach. They both managed to get their winter white skin burned to a crisp. Then they spotted this from the balcony.

Can you see it? Son said it was a good 9 foot. They did NOT tell the short one, knowing she would not even want to go down to the beach again, much less stick a toe in the water.
Then on the way home the next weekend, they hit all the tornadic storms in Arkansas....even believe they saw one. I am soooo happy they got home safely. I just got my soda bottle of beach sand from kid. He sent enough that I can make a nice small bottle of it with label to go with the others....and still have enough to stick my toe into beach sand. aaahhhhh.
Sadly, kid and family are now moving to Virginia. Oh well, on the bright side, I can do genealogical research there when I visit. I may even get to visit the Atlantic Ocean....never seen that one.

Oh, and ps.....who are all those people, why are they here, and how did they find us!!!! I'm gonna go hide in the cactus patches so they can't find me. ;-)

Love, da Otter

To Ava

I just got to the comment notification from Ava. Ava, this blog is just what it says under the title. The prairiedogs are 2 grown sisters, living on opposite ends of I-10 in Texas. If you aren't familiar with the geography, we are approximately 6 hours apart and worlds away. Otter lives in a small town out in the middle of a semi-arid nowhere; Cubedog lives in a BIG city on the tropical coast. Our worlds are so different, we thought it be fun to compare definitions-like what makes a 'crime-wave' or a long commute, even something as mundane as grocery shopping can become an adventure in contrasts. Otter drives to another town to do all shopping in one day and it takes all day and she only goes once a week or so. Cubedog passes at least 20 grocery stores everyday driving to and from work and can pick from anything from African to Indo-Pak food stores, as well as your more mundane grocers.
So, that's what we're about.
We don't have any phenomenal connections to get anyone a job or scholarship. We aren't especially witty or 'insightful'. We are both creative, but not pattern creators or great artists.
We can't get you a recording contract.
I peeked at your blog, God bless your efforts with the bracelets. You sound like a very motivated young woman and God knows we need more motivated young people.
Thanks for asking, Ava. I hope this clears things up for you and anyone else who drops by.