Monday, February 28, 2011

February 19, 2011 Marathon NYC day

Saturday was our trip to NYC  for the follow up doctor appt for Natalie's surgery last October. The doctor wanted to check her healing and he was very pleased.  After the doc appt we had lunch then stopped at my moms very briefly on the way home.  We got home around 9:00.  We were all very tired when we got home though surprisingly I had a burst of energy and did some major "catch up" at this house. I had bills to  pay and a kitchen sink to find!!!  LOL  I've been spending a lot of time at the new house doing major "detailed cleaning" and today I started painting the 2 rooms  that need painting.

update..this is a post I did  a week ago and fell asleep and then never finished!!!!...here it is and I'll start a new one!!!

Friday, February 18, 2011

Feb 18, 2011 Closing Complete

All went well yesterday! The closing is complete.  I'm still cleaning and moving!  Our focus has changed a bit..I was preparing Alford to rent...now a new plan.

We did learn yesterday  that renting Alford is not a great idea...we have to keep it our primary residence or we get zapped on "capital gain"  taxes......so after much thought  through the rest of the day .. I suggested we rent the new Lenox house  for the summer.  We need to be in Alford anyway getting the house ready to sell....so at this point it seems to make sense to rent Lenox at it's peak season. ...Tanglewood season.   We'll stay in Lenox  the rest of the school year starting mid-March- June  but we'll live "very simply" so not to make rental preparation difficult.  We have a locked garage in the new house so we can store everything in there  that we don't want to be in the "rental".  This way we can free up space in Alford to make it easy to clean and prepare when it is being shown to prospective buyers.  

So that's the story in a nutshell! Tomorrow we go to NYC for day to have Natalie's "post surgery appt".  She got her hair cut short..I'll post photos if I ever have a minute!!!  lol  Life is busy!!!  SOO busy!

Best,
Tonya

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Feb 17, 2011 Closing Day

This will be short. I cut my finger and portion of the finger nail and it's all wrapped up and difficult to type!

Bob is progressing..still has good days and bad days..yesterday was bad..he was very chilled and wiped out.  Eating is still no fun for him.  They said he has a 50% chance of getting salivary gland back so until then he has to eat food while drinking water.  It's a struggle...annoying.  Other days he does pretty well.  I can tell on the good days his energy level still isn't what it used to be. His body has been through so much and he'll need time to recover.  Understandingly he gets impatient. He wants to be back to normal.

Today is the closing on the new house.  10:00 am.  I've been in there for about 9 days cleaning and moving stuff in.  I know the owners and since the house was empty they said "go for it".  After cleaning it I may do some painting in 2 of the rooms..other than that it all looks fine.  So excited. I really like this house. It fits our needs so well!

Hope all is well with everyone.  We've had a couple "mild" days...that feels good!

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

February 1,2011 Snow Daze! Snow DAYS!!!!

Hello

Yes we are experiencing "Snow Daze" and the girls will have some more Snow Days!  I think we are past our snow day limit....they'll be going to school until July!

I can't believe we are having another storm and this one sounds like a whopper!  I'm really hoping that Bob opts to not go to work.

I know people who know my "weather obsession"   (laughing) would never believe that this storm came out of no where for me. I've been so caught up with doing all that needs doing to buy the Lenox house and move that I have NOT...I repeat have NOT been keeping up with the weather.  When I read about this storm early yesterday morning I realized that our roofs need shoveling before this storm hits!  There was already at least 2'feet on the roofs..including chunks of ice that have fallen from the roofs above.

 Bob did a bit of  it before leaving for work with the Roof Rake, however, because there was that crunchy layer he couldn't get much off..basically was able to just scrape the top layer off.  Most of it was still left because of that icy, crunchy layer.

Since Bob was going to work and I didn't want to do this "monkey work" while  home alone I called neighbor and friend Matt  (he helped tremendously with the leaf issue)...and asked if he would be willing to come and work a couple hours to help clear the  roof.  He used our little  snowblower..YES ON THE ROOF.... and blew most of the snow off...the beauty of that is he blew it  WAY into  the distance so it wasn't all next to the house.  I'll post some photos another time....they are still in my camera..my camera is in the entryway which is where the pups are sleeping and I'm not ready for THEM to be up yet!!!!


Because this project took longer than I expected I didn't have time to go food shopping before picking the girls up . I had to do some food shopping in case we get stuck inside some days.

I called my friend Shouroq and asked if I could leave the girls with her while I  do my errands.  (She will be my neighbor..less than 1 mile away)...when we move to Lenox.  She was happy to do it.  The girls enjoy playing with Shouroq's to children Aziz and Danah...plus of course there is Baby Leena..who is only 3months old!  Adorable!  They are from Saudi Arabia and is living  here while her husband works at Sabic...I think Leena doesn't know what to think of these blonde haired girls looking at her..she stares in complete disbelief!!! laughing

The stores were a madhouse.  That took me much longer than I thought so Shouroq made us dinner...THANK GOODNESS because  when we got home at 6:45 with a car full of groceries..2 tired girls and 2 hungry dogs that had been in the car since 2:45  the last thing I needed was to make dinner!!!

When I spoke to Bob around 5 he was leaving the office.   I called Bob's  cell on the way home..I tried the home number a few times first but it just rang......I wanted to ask him  if he would be willing to get the girls bath going if he got home before me ...That's when I heard he was still in the parking garage in  Albany! His car was stuck in the parking garage ..it would not start.   He tried jumping it
and no luck.   so he waited and waited and waited..Bob was stuck in Albany waiting for AAA for 3 hours !  Totally unacceptable.!  A lettter needs to be written to them....not only did he wait for 3 hours
not once did anyone call HIM to tell him the status. He called like 3 times.

ANYWAY. they finally came and got the car going ...i think they popped the clutch....our neighbor followed  him to Gt/ Barrington to leave his car at Dominic's shop...I suggested doing that so NOT to   turn it off here and have it not start again....IF the car  didn't start in our driveway then plowing the "monster storm" would be complicated and probably very limited.  sooo...

Bob did NOT have a good day.    He's been battling Thrush AGAIN so that makes talking more difficult for him.

Before work someone from Wheeler and Taylor was supposed to be here at 8am to look at the house to help us rent it and the guy never showed.  Bob didn't get out of here until 9 am  and he likes to BE at work by 8:15-8:30.  ......  Wasted time waiting for a no show!   So that was the beginning of the day and the car issue was the end of the day.   He didn't get home until 10:30.  He was exhausted.

So...that's what is happening now.

As you know If you write to either of us and we  do not respond it means we don't have internet service My guess is that this storm WILL interrupt our satellite internet service.....as well as possibly phone and electric....soooo....We may lose power and phone as well...if the phone just rings
you'll know why!

More later in the week...