That is not to say that it has been a week wasted or lost. The down time has given me the chance to attend to administrative duties, paperwork, and house hunting. That's right a change is surely coming. The blow up with the landlord earlier this month, left us sitting and discussing options and working to determine what is in everyone's best interest. Greg and I have had the idea of taking permanent housemates for years as we understood that financial burdens would be lessened and quality of life would be improved. Perhaps we were somewhat idealistic in our vision of "perfection" ... I don't think either of us envisioned jumping in with a single mom and teenagers.. Our sights were more on a childless couple...With home decorating talents and whose Two additional incomes would provide an extremely luxurious lifestyle with much travel... off to Amsterdam... or to France on a cruise ship.. or fly out to Japan.. whatever.. to visit friends abroad (I have a few!) once a year.. Retire early.. start our own business. It was an awesome dream!
but...
Back to reality... And honestly the reality isn't bad. No its not "Ideal" and no we wont be likely to travel the globe just yet, but making this move will improve our lot in life. When Greg was first promoted to Director, he turned to me, and asked if he thought we would be able to host work functions at our home. As a Director, it is sort of expected. At least, all his previous directors have always hosted holiday parties and the like at their residences. And I am a decent hostess who is more than a little willing to offer Hospitality when it is necessary.. but we can't do it here. There is no way. Now with the promise of additional income to support expenses, we CAN have that house. Greg CAN be the boss he is supposed to be.
And there are other benefits as well. Our quality of living will improve and we can work on paying down some debt. Also, there is the practical side of things. With Greg gone as much as he is, we have companions to keep us company. This offers him a peace of mind.
With house mates, the chore distribution is more evenly distributed. In otherwords, Im stepping back in my role of caretaking/housekeeping. Which quiet honestly is a relief for me and good for my children to learn some responsibility.. like how to clear and wash their own dishes and cook a meal. How to clean a bathroom and run a vacuum cleaner. As things are now, everyone chips in and does their part and I get glared at if I slip into my bad habits of doing everything for everybody all the time. And they were bad habits. To proceed in the same fashion, would likely turn Con into a mamas boy who is incapable of doing anything for himself. That's not who I want him to be.
This might seem like a bit of a topic switch.. but hear me out.. have you ever seen the show Wife Swap? The goal of that show is to take two families from very different backgrounds and swap the wives. In doing so the new wife lives the old wife's life for a week then makes the family live by her rules for another week. The show can be comical and it can be ugly.. just as all real life dramas can be. But in the end, the aim is for these households to emerge from the experience more balanced and with greater perspective. There is no "swapping" part in our situation, however, the outcome of this family being with us does give us just that... a sense of balance and perspective. Angele and I have very contrasting personalities.. eternal optimist verses pragmatic pessimist.. yet our goals and ambitions for our families are in complete line. Her presence makes me stronger, I in turn soften her up a little. Each of us finding a happy medium and in turn making us each better in our job as parent.
And what about travel? Well... there will be more of that too. We will be able to manage more vacations... we will save the globe trotting for later. This summer we have a number of camping trips lined up as well as a trip to Disneyland. Some of us have not had the experience and it should be done at least once in a kids life plus we will be celebrating a 16th birthday. on a side note.. you may be wondering how I plan to y navigate the noise and crowds (when it first came up I know I was)... Im hermitty by nature... Not because I prefer to be alone but because lots of people packed in small places and conversing (Even a restaurant) leaves me stunned and unable to fully function in a mental capacity. I sort of shut down because I process so much through auditory channels. As if in response to this my phone finally took its last breath and I was forced to replace it. Now I have the means to plug into music when I need to calm my frazzled nerves. Music does indeed soothe my savage beast. The kids are all stoked.
We dropped applications off earlier this week for a house in the hills. Beautiful country. Our fingers are crossed. Its going to take a few more days for the application to be processed. The property managers offices were impacted by the AT&T cables being sabatoged in San Jose. Im not going to talk too much about it as we have kept the kids in the dark a little until we get a confirmation. Don't want to dash hopes although they know we are busy looking. I hope by Monday we have definite word.
Also this week is the Sea Otter Classic Bike race. http://www.seaotterclassic.com/ Greg volunteered 12 hours as a lap counter. Hes there as I write this... I hope he took sunscreen and a hat... and tissue.
Thursday I hosted a Beach Clean Up near the Aquarium for a a group of 250 homeschool parents and children from Grass Valley Ca. Stretching my voice far enough was rough but it was fun. We pulled a 5 foot tall 12 inch diameter PVC pipe out of the sand even. The kids aught to remember it a little.
.JPG)
Willow scared the heck out of me the other day... I ran to get some meds for Greg and noticed it was sunset so on a whim I drove to the beach for a quick survey. I pulled up and sat back to watch from the comfort of a semi wind block while I listened to the crashing waves through my open window. Three older people stood near by taking pics. I got lost in thought... daydreaming and embracing a moment of bliss. when.. BANG BANG BANG willow starts hitting on the passenger window. Willow and Irie were laughing so hard I thought they would pee their pants. Im sure the look of shock and freaking out-ed-ness was hilarious but Damn! I know I about peed mine!
Let me take a moment here aside to address something very important... You CAN look cute in a helmet. How?! http://www.refinery29.com/helmet-hairstyles Don't let me catch you without one again.. missy! You know who you are and now Im done scolding you.
This weekend promises to be very active and busy. We plan to get a car, see sharks (in the sea.. not on the ice), go to a birthday party, Aden is off to Magic the Gathering Compitition, And Iries very nice long distance boyfriend with the last name of, ironically, Holsclaw but not a direct relation, has managed to sneak a ride across the state with his uncle (our neighbor and long time friends with our roommates) who was picking up a puppy to surprise his own kids with and is on his way here now. Was that a convoluted sentence or what?! Anyway.. there is much surprise and fun in the weekend forcast.. as long as we stay on top of this bug and don't let it get any better of us.
P.S. Mom.. you'd be proud.. I henna'ed my hair to cover up the expanding forest of grey. Now Im a bit mahogany.
No comments:
Post a Comment