It's official! The buyers signed the final paperwork this afternoon and I have never been happier to be homeless! From what I hear, the new owners are "good people" and they already know the neighbors across the street. It's nice to know that there's finally someone living there who can give a great house the love and care it deserves. This old girl tried her best, but I knew when I was beat. I wonder when the rest of the hood is going to let them know they have to host the Halloween Part this year.
To add icing to the cake, apparently I passed the WorkKeys assessment I took last week (the lovely 3 hour test) because today's mail contained my certificate. That magical piece of paper was the last thing I needed before I can start stalking the HR department for the #1 job on my list.
It's been a great end to a fantastic week. My Census training finished up yesterday and I had my first go at actual solo fieldwork today. Luckily I got an area close to the house so I didn't get lost . . . finding all of my houses was a different story! Lets hope practice make perfect in regard to my navigational skills. My trainer and classmates were awesome and I got a promotion after only 4 days. Most of the time I will just be one of the annoying people who interrupts your morning coffee to probe for your personal information, but on the days my Crew Leader is tied up, I get to be her and liaison with the rest of the crew. Works for me.
K had four "green" days at school this week and her behavior chart had more smiley faces than X's this week. It just doesn't get much better than that . . . now if I can just find a good job, a good house and a good man, life would be perfect.
We also had a great day (in addition to an awesome week). After K did her chores and homework we headed up to the Kishbaughs to help Ang get ready for Ryan's 9th birthday party tomorrow. K loves to play with all the other kids and I am an official member of the Veggie Slicing Crew. The evening ended with me going to collect K only to find her curled up on one side of the couch with the birthday boy curled up on the other. It was so darn cute I could have kicked myself for leaving the camera in K's soccer bag. Lucking Ang captured the Kodak moment, now one of us just has to remember to e-mail it to me.
Tomorrow is soccer and the birthday party . . . can't wait!
Friday, April 30, 2010
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Catching Up . . .
Although I didn't actually see one myself, I heard snowflakes were spotted in the area today. Yes . . . snowflakes . . . in April. It's hard to believe two weeks ago I was having dinner on the boardwalk in Virginia Beach with Erin and today there were errant snowflake sightings in PA.
Speaking of Virginia, the rest of the Closeout Tour went great. I signed most of the closing documents Friday when I met with the realtor and the title agent had a daughter the same age as K who shares her flair for the dramatic . . . there's speculation they were separated at birth. I collected the last few odds and ends from the house and met Erin at Mahi Mah's for a mojito and dinner outside on the boardwalk then headed to Murphy's Irish Pub for a Harps. I love PA, but it was nice to be back in civilization, even if it was only for a few days. Saturday I helped Kristin out selling her awesome chocolate at the Herb Sale in Ghent then met the girls from work at Knuckleheads for some live music and Miller Lite. Sunday morning Rick utilized his amazing packing abilities and managed to fit all my stuff in the car while still leaving room for me, K and 2 suitcases. I am constantly amazed at the spacial aptitude of men. I collected K and we headed back to PA.
Monday and Tuesday were spent mostly getting K back on schedule . . . apparently 5 day weekends are not conducive to smooth Monday mornings. Wednesday was fairly uneventful which was a good thing since I had to take my WorkKeys Assessment test on Thursday at 9:30 . . . this is the three part 4 hour test I need to pass to even be considered for the only job I've applied for since January that I would probably actually enjoy. I got home in time to take K to her last soccer practice before games start. Practice only lasts an hour, but somehow she managed to stop a corner shot "between her leg and her girly parts" (ouch). If that wasn't enough to make her gun shy, about 10 minutes later, she got hit so hard that she actually had the imprint of the soccer ball on her stomach for over 2 hours. Needless to say, I had to bribe her with a double scoop of ice cream on the way home to get her anywhere near a ball for the last ten minutes of practice.
Friday is Movie Knight around here. Mom and Dad go to the AmVets and K and I commandeer the living room, scarf down pizza and popcorn and enjoy a good movie. It was our first movie night in awhile, so I though K would be excited, but she shot me the "Seriously?!?" look when I told her I rented "Dr. Doolittle, Million Dollar Mutts." Of course, once the animals started talking, I was Mother of the Year again.
Saturday was K's first soccer game of the season and we spent the afternoon working on her very first speech . .. Yes, apparently public speaking training starts in 1st grade. K selected Bears as her animal of choice so we spent most of the afternoon online finding out Koala Bears are not really bears and Black Bears are not always black. The rest of the afternoon was spent sorting through K's stash of stuffed animals for the perfect visual aids. Then it was time to head to our friends, the Kishbaugh's for dinner with their family and my brother, sister-in-law and niece. It just doesn't get any better then that.
After an early night, it was up bright and early Sunday morning for church and K's CCD class, lunch and fine tuning the Bear Speech . . . we also found a great Black Bear Word Search and Maze to copy and hand out to the kids . . . hey, a little extra never hurts! After about 12 run throughs of the 2-3 minute Bear Speech (which was somehow taking 5 minutes a run) I was ready for a drink. Instead, I settled for making sure K and I both had clothes for Monday since she had school and I had work. Yep, w-o-r-k. After more than three months of applying for everything from the temp agency to the copy shop, I finally found someone to hire me. Thursday is my last day of Census training and I've met so many interesting people in class. Next up, knocking on doors!
Speaking of Virginia, the rest of the Closeout Tour went great. I signed most of the closing documents Friday when I met with the realtor and the title agent had a daughter the same age as K who shares her flair for the dramatic . . . there's speculation they were separated at birth. I collected the last few odds and ends from the house and met Erin at Mahi Mah's for a mojito and dinner outside on the boardwalk then headed to Murphy's Irish Pub for a Harps. I love PA, but it was nice to be back in civilization, even if it was only for a few days. Saturday I helped Kristin out selling her awesome chocolate at the Herb Sale in Ghent then met the girls from work at Knuckleheads for some live music and Miller Lite. Sunday morning Rick utilized his amazing packing abilities and managed to fit all my stuff in the car while still leaving room for me, K and 2 suitcases. I am constantly amazed at the spacial aptitude of men. I collected K and we headed back to PA.
Monday and Tuesday were spent mostly getting K back on schedule . . . apparently 5 day weekends are not conducive to smooth Monday mornings. Wednesday was fairly uneventful which was a good thing since I had to take my WorkKeys Assessment test on Thursday at 9:30 . . . this is the three part 4 hour test I need to pass to even be considered for the only job I've applied for since January that I would probably actually enjoy. I got home in time to take K to her last soccer practice before games start. Practice only lasts an hour, but somehow she managed to stop a corner shot "between her leg and her girly parts" (ouch). If that wasn't enough to make her gun shy, about 10 minutes later, she got hit so hard that she actually had the imprint of the soccer ball on her stomach for over 2 hours. Needless to say, I had to bribe her with a double scoop of ice cream on the way home to get her anywhere near a ball for the last ten minutes of practice.
Friday is Movie Knight around here. Mom and Dad go to the AmVets and K and I commandeer the living room, scarf down pizza and popcorn and enjoy a good movie. It was our first movie night in awhile, so I though K would be excited, but she shot me the "Seriously?!?" look when I told her I rented "Dr. Doolittle, Million Dollar Mutts." Of course, once the animals started talking, I was Mother of the Year again.
Saturday was K's first soccer game of the season and we spent the afternoon working on her very first speech . .. Yes, apparently public speaking training starts in 1st grade. K selected Bears as her animal of choice so we spent most of the afternoon online finding out Koala Bears are not really bears and Black Bears are not always black. The rest of the afternoon was spent sorting through K's stash of stuffed animals for the perfect visual aids. Then it was time to head to our friends, the Kishbaugh's for dinner with their family and my brother, sister-in-law and niece. It just doesn't get any better then that.
After an early night, it was up bright and early Sunday morning for church and K's CCD class, lunch and fine tuning the Bear Speech . . . we also found a great Black Bear Word Search and Maze to copy and hand out to the kids . . . hey, a little extra never hurts! After about 12 run throughs of the 2-3 minute Bear Speech (which was somehow taking 5 minutes a run) I was ready for a drink. Instead, I settled for making sure K and I both had clothes for Monday since she had school and I had work. Yep, w-o-r-k. After more than three months of applying for everything from the temp agency to the copy shop, I finally found someone to hire me. Thursday is my last day of Census training and I've met so many interesting people in class. Next up, knocking on doors!
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Who Says You Can't Go Home?
I love being back in PA . . . the snow, the mountains, the roads that look like whoever paved them was "either drunk or following a snake."
But yesterday I brought K down to Virginia for a much anticipated visit with her dad and I'm reminded of all the great things I've missed about my "other home" . . . the beauty of the sunset when you're crossing one of the giant rivers that pour into the Chesapeake Bay . . . the way it took me 2 hours to get out of the neighborhood when I was just "stopping by" for 5 minutes because everyone was working outside and "saying hello" has a 20 minute minimum time frame . . . Mexican restaurants . . . driving past 7 different fast food options on your way to, well, anywhere (our PA home has a McDonalds and a Burger King . . . both are more than 10 miles from the house).
Overall, Day One of the Closeout Tour was very productive. I paid my $60+ balance at the VB dentist and scored the bonus of our charts and x-rays, closed K's bank account so we can open one in PA, paid the library the $8.20 late fee left over from December, actually spoke with a real live person at the post office to explain that my mail is still not being forwarded and could they please, please, please make sure the third time was the charm? Then it was a stop at the Treasurer's Office to see if I had an outstanding utility bill (note previous reference to mail not being forwarded) and pay the $60+ balance due. I'm sure there was more stuff, but the highlight was a visit with my old neighbors the Haws . . . and thanks to Sianna, I can finally charge my camera. Yes, I can't quite remember where I packed the power cord for the Kodak EasyShare . . . so I had to borrow one from a sixth grader. Of course since I bought the camera years ago because of how easy hers was to use, I knew right where to go. Now I can post pics on the blog again (as soon as the camera juices up).
Day Two of the Closeout Tour should be productive, too. I'm helping Kristin package her awesome handcrafted chocolate for an event on Saturday, then it's off to the Realtor to sign some papers and get wiring instructions. Since it looks like a field of wild flowers in the back yard, I'll probably spend the afternoon cutting grass (damn, I thought I was done with that) and if I'm really, really lucky I'll be ending Day Two with a pint at Murphy's or a Miller Lite at Knuckleheads.
But yesterday I brought K down to Virginia for a much anticipated visit with her dad and I'm reminded of all the great things I've missed about my "other home" . . . the beauty of the sunset when you're crossing one of the giant rivers that pour into the Chesapeake Bay . . . the way it took me 2 hours to get out of the neighborhood when I was just "stopping by" for 5 minutes because everyone was working outside and "saying hello" has a 20 minute minimum time frame . . . Mexican restaurants . . . driving past 7 different fast food options on your way to, well, anywhere (our PA home has a McDonalds and a Burger King . . . both are more than 10 miles from the house).
Overall, Day One of the Closeout Tour was very productive. I paid my $60+ balance at the VB dentist and scored the bonus of our charts and x-rays, closed K's bank account so we can open one in PA, paid the library the $8.20 late fee left over from December, actually spoke with a real live person at the post office to explain that my mail is still not being forwarded and could they please, please, please make sure the third time was the charm? Then it was a stop at the Treasurer's Office to see if I had an outstanding utility bill (note previous reference to mail not being forwarded) and pay the $60+ balance due. I'm sure there was more stuff, but the highlight was a visit with my old neighbors the Haws . . . and thanks to Sianna, I can finally charge my camera. Yes, I can't quite remember where I packed the power cord for the Kodak EasyShare . . . so I had to borrow one from a sixth grader. Of course since I bought the camera years ago because of how easy hers was to use, I knew right where to go. Now I can post pics on the blog again (as soon as the camera juices up).
Day Two of the Closeout Tour should be productive, too. I'm helping Kristin package her awesome handcrafted chocolate for an event on Saturday, then it's off to the Realtor to sign some papers and get wiring instructions. Since it looks like a field of wild flowers in the back yard, I'll probably spend the afternoon cutting grass (damn, I thought I was done with that) and if I'm really, really lucky I'll be ending Day Two with a pint at Murphy's or a Miller Lite at Knuckleheads.
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