Sarah’s Neighborhood

These posts are copied and pasted from another blog I started, then lost track of. Another example of when life was good and I had no idea of the catastrophe about to befall us.

Saturday, February 18, 2006

Friday, February 03, 2006

Wednesday, February 01, 2006

It's been almost two years since I blogged last. That gives you an idea of what life has been like these last two years. There have been so many changes in my life, and I am not big on change. You can ask anyone in my family and they will tell you, I do not like change! In fact, I don't even move the furniture around. When something finds a home, it stays there! So, this move from the Pacific Northwest to the southwestern desert has been almost more than I can bear, for a lot of reasons. Primarily, it has been stressful because we lost the house to foreclosure after being unable to sell it. Part of me died when that happened; we lived there for 25 years. That time could have been titled "It's a Wonderful Life!" because it was. Not anymore. Instead of my beautiful flowers, water fountain, bird feeder, and swing, I look outside and see dirt and rock. Most of our belongings are in storage in WA, several states away from where I am now. Also, I've worked here 1.5 years now and Gaylen has yet to find a job. The economy is in the toilet, but I still thought he would have found something by now. I am paying all our living expenses (rent, utilities, groceries & gas) as well as expenses for the girls and emergencies--like when the Maxima needed $800 worth of repairs so Andrea could get to work. I had to fork over the money I had been saving for their Christmas airline tickets, so then I didn't get to see them until 2 weeks AFTER Christmas. There always seems to be more money going out than coming in. I am also stressed out because the girls are so far away. I only get to see them once a year, and that is just not enough. And I HATE the heat here in the summer. (Today it was 114. Can you say MISERABLE?) Coming home from work (a summer job to keep us afloat) in a hot van means that I am soaking wet by the time I get home. I drive with my fingers crossed that the old van (176,000 miles on it) doesn't overheat, because when the temperature gauge needle goes up, I have to turn the A/C off. Yuck. To cool off, I run about a gallon of water into the bathtub. However, the water is about 140 degrees, and that's on the coldest setting, so then I have to take the gallon water jug out of the refrigerator and add that to the bathtub so I can cool off a little. It feels like steam is coming off my skin at that point! I am ready for this "tide of bad news" to turn. I want life to be good again! I want to find a reason to get up in the morning! And, I want a reason to hope. Hope that next month will be better...I don't know how much longer I can take life like this. School starts in 3 weeks, and that will be another emotional roller coaster/merry go round. For me, it means putting in 10 hour days 5 days a week, and a few more on the weekend, trying to keep up. Maybe, since this is my third year, it will be easier this time around. But my class is much bigger, so maybe not. We shall see.

Gaylen has been working non-stop for the past several weeks getting the house ready to put on the market. It's amazing how much "little stuff" there was to do!

• Bathrooms - new light fixtures and lightbulbs, repair a crack in the tub, re-grout, oil wooden cupboards, paint
  
• Kitchen - clean out ALL the clutter so countertops/microwave/fridge are bare, oil cupboards, new light fixtures, paint
  
• Bedrooms - clean out everything except bed and dresser, clean out closets (donate extra stuff or put in garage), paint
  
• Family room - repair skylights, repair walls, paint
• There was also new weatherstripping for the doors (the cats had shredded it), new paint for the front porch, flowers for the front walk, washing windows and kitty prints off walls and doors, sanding and varnishing the wood floors, and shampooing the carpets

The plan right now is that Gaylen will drive down early with a loaded trailer, and find us a place to live. Apartment or rental house, we're not sure which. He's seen several houses for rent that are fairly reasonable. I would fly down about Dec. 25 and meet up with him, then we will unload all my boxes of school stuff into my new classroom by the end of that week. I need to get the room set up a bit. Being a brand new classroom, it may be kind of stark for a while until the kids have a chance to make some artwork for the walls.

Sarah will be home for Christmas break, working, and will be our kitty-sitter while we are gone. She has to be back at school Jan 2, so Gaylen will need to come home soon after that. He will leave the van in Phx for me to use, and fly home. Not sure what vehicle he will drive, as we sold my Escape.

Everything is kind of in limbo right now, waiting for the house to sell. If it sells soon, he will come down and stay with me. If it doesn't, he will stay here until it does, keeping an eye on things.

Copy/pasted from an email I sent to my mother:

"

I'm "home", in Redmond, sleeping on an air mattress in my brother's room. I have never lived here, in this apartment, and it shows. My presence has been erased. I spent as much of last night online as I could, staving off the almost-forgotten feeling of overwhelming homesickness.

I miss my bed and my food and my friends.

Arashi is familiar. I watch old episodes of their TV shows on youtube because it still SOUNDS like home, that way.

This entire blog is very emo. I seem to only remember it's here when I have things I don't want to say anywhere else. How strange.

I still can't believe it. I got the job in Phoenix! It doesn't seem real to me yet. I keep thinking it's a dream. Pretty soon I need to start thinking about my new class, and what am I actually going to do with a class of 2nd graders? The principal is mailing me some curriculum in a couple weeks to look through. I'll have a better idea then how to plan. This new school will not have PE, Music, or Art specialists that first semester, so it will be up to me to make sure my kiddos have a good balance of that in their schedule. PE and Art I can manage; not so sure what to do about music. I guess we'll be singing songs. I know lots of children's songs. And I have lots of song books. Should be fun!

We had a garage sale this weekend and got rid of lots of stuff. Towards the end, we were moving more and more things into the FREE pile. One woman came out who scrounges for homeless people, and she took the free sleeping bags and backpacks. I had a load of old pajamas and t-shirts in the wash for Goodwill, and she was willing to take those too, even though she'll have to throw them in the dryer. I'm glad she knows people who can use all that stuff.

When Gaylen and I start this new phase of our life in a new city, we are not going to accumulate so much stuff. It is too hard to store, clean around, and get rid of. I just want the things around me that are beautiful that I enjoy or use every day. Everything else just takes up valuable space and emotional energy.

How does a person begin to organize and clear away clutter for moving, when that person has lived in the same house for 24 years??? My DH and I are doing the pre-move clear-out, and there is just stuff everywhere I turn. I can't figure out how to get started. We will have 2 piles--the pile to keep and move into storage, and the pile to sell or give away. Out of the keep pile, some essentials need to be left accessible, and others hauled away, to wherever we end up moving. We're not sure we're moving yet; we just figure we will get the house cleaned up so were are READY to move. The hardest part is parting with some "treasures," old momentos/furniture that belonged to my parents. I'm still haggling over keeping their huge sectional sofa. It will be too large for an apartment, probably, but wouldn't do well in storage either. I can't bear to part with it. Or the record albums. Or the bedroom set. Most of our other furniture will be sold, and replaced when necessary. It will be interesting to see what we end up with. We are going to Phx in a couple weeks for a wedding. I am going down a couple days early, and have a job interview about a teaching position there. If by some miracle I get the job, we would trek down and move into an apartment, though hopefully not long-term. I don't know if I could handle living in a 1-bdrm apartment again, like we did in 1980. 400 sq. ft. just isn't much to move around in.

I've found a new series I enjoy; however, I am enjoying it on dvd. The series was cancelled a few years ago. Isn't that always the case? By the time you find something you love, it's already gone. Oh well. I watched a marathon this week. There are 4-5 episodes on each dvd, and I've watched three of the dvds already. I have 3 more disks scheduled to arrive in the next day or two. The series is called "Once and Again." Lovely. Sela Ward is in it. I was not familiar with her work, but am loving the character she plays. Actually, I love ALL the characters. They seem like they could be the family next door, or your best friend. Very down-to-earth, realistic characters.

Someone on craftster asked how to get a "roving" from handcards. Well, it just so happens that I chronicled this very adventure with pictures!  And they're already up here on my vox!  Eerie, I know. So, without further adieu, I give you:

:::::::::::::Cigar Roving::::::::::::

Start with your hand carded batt.  You can either doff the batt completely from the carders or you can proceed to step 2 with the fiber still on the cards.

Step #2:::::