Happy Birthday, Kelly!

Today is my daughter Kelly's birthday. Fourteen years ago at 10:34 PM I gave birth to a sweet, precious, beautiful, silly, funny baby girl. She would eventually also become my shadow, not wanting to be anywhere if I wasn't there, too. She wouldn't even spend the night with Grandma. I mean, what kid doesn't want to stay over at Grandma's house? Kelly, that's who. (She's cool with it now, though.)

She's still sweet, precious, beautiful, silly and funny. She's also sassy, goofy, smart, and definitely her own person. And, she's one of my best friends. Yeah, I'm her mother and I do all those motherly things. (Do your work, empty the dishwasher, did you brush your teeth?, etc.) But I'm blessed to also say that she's my friend. We do a lot together and I can't imagine life without her. There are times when I have to go take care of things without her (errands, shopping, etc.) and I always feel lonely for her. She's great company and we make each other laugh until we cry.

I fell in love with her before she was even born. Fell in love with her more when I finally got to see her and hold her. And I love her more than words could ever say.

*~*~*Happy Birthday, Kelly!!!*~*~*

Lame Pip, 41, House Hunting

Well, it looks like we may have to put our second honeymoon to Hawaii off until next year. Pippin (our toy poodle) hurt his leg and the vet thinks he probably tore a ligament or tendon in his back right knee. For the next 8-12 weeks, he will have to stay in the crate, only coming out to eat, drink, and potty. The hope is that scar tissue will be there by the end of the 12 weeks. They'll do x-rays in May and if things look the same, he's going to need surgery. That's going to cost us $1500, not including the cost of the x-rays. *sigh*

 
What happened was Pippin jumped off of Sean's bed. It used to be our bed (it's a queen and we replaced it with a king over a year ago) and it sits up pretty high. I had told Kelly not to have him up there. Not because I thought he would jump down and get hurt. I just didn't want him up there. But she had him up there while I was in the living room. (The PS3 is in Sean's room.) I heard him start yelping loudly and went running to Sean's room. Kelly said he jumped off when she got off the bed.

That leg has always given him trouble (if he ran too fast for too long, as dogs like to do when they get really excited), but it would always get better after a couple days. (I haven't let him run around like that in years because of the problems it would cause him.) The vet said it's actually pretty common in small dogs for their knee cap to slip. Well, apparently it's not his knee cap this time and it's not going to work itself out like it normally does.

He doesn't act like it hurts. He can walk on it and run a little, but mostly he limps. I pray this crating works. $1500 (more with x-rays) is a lot of money. *sigh* Of course, we'll pay that price if we have to.

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Well, as of 3:05 AM, I am now 41 years old. Nothing big is planned. After getting groceries and dropping the kids off at the church for youth night, I'm going to go to Barnes and Noble to get a book that just came out a few days ago (The Secret of Raven Point by Jennifer Vanderbes; a WWII story) and go out on a date with Charlie. He flew in from Oklahoma on Sunday to be home for my and Kelly's birthdays (her birthday is tomorrow). He has to fly back this Sunday. Since he won't be home for Valentine's Day, we're going out tonight.

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My mom is doing well since finishing chemo. Her hair is finally starting to grow back in. (It's about an inch or two long.) The doctor told her it could take a year for her to get her strength back 100%, but she said that she's already feeling really good and that she feels better than she did before cancer and chemo. :-)

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I've been looking at houses online a lot lately. The longer we're in this house (a small "starter home"; about 1000-1100 square feet), the more we want to leave. We've lived here for over 15 years and we're tired of it. We feel like the walls are closing in on us (we want more space!) and the area we live in just isn't as quiet as it was 15+ years ago.

We tried selling our house a few years ago. We put it on the market in November 2007 and took it off the market in November 2008. (I blogged about it.) We didn't have a lot of people look at our house, but everyone who did said that they liked it. A few even said that our house was in their top 2 or 3. We had done a lot of work fixing it up and making it look nice for buyers. New paint, new light fixtures, tile floors in the kitchen, dining room, and bathrooms (to replace the laminate), etc. We had it looking really nice. 

As a matter of fact, it was the nicest house in our neighborhood that was on the market at that time. (I looked at the other houses online while ours was on the market.) Our house didn't cost more than the others in our neighborhood and we didn't do anything crazy in our updates that would only appeal to a few buyers. I never have understood why people chose houses in our neighborhood that have no garage (over ours, which does have a garage), the original ugly white counters, original brass chandelier in the dining room, smaller rooms, less square footage, etc. I guess it just wasn't our time yet.

In October of 2012, we had all the carpet replaced. So hopefully that'll make it a little easier to sell the next time we put it on the market.

Of course, 5+ years later, we're going to have to do some painting and small repairs again. We don't know yet when we'll try again to sell. Maybe this year, maybe next.

We want to move to the country, have some land, no close neighbors. The main focus of our search, in terms of location, are small towns north of Greensboro, but not too far from our church. Preferably no further than 30 minutes away. Summerfield, Stokesdale, Belews Creek, southwest Rockingham County, northeast Forsyth County, northwest Guilford County, southeast Stokes County. 

If we can't find what we want there, our next towns of choice are Liberty, Level Cross, Franklinville, Sophia, Snow Camp (but the house has to be perfect!), and maybe Julian and Climax. All really small towns (or just spots on the map) in northern Randolph County and southern Guilford County. 

Though since we currently live in southern Guilford County, I'd really prefer not to have to get a place near here. I want to get away from this area. I've lived in this part of the county for nearly 20 years and I'm tired of it. I want new scenery. Plus, I just don't like how busy this area has gotten.

We want some place quiet and beautiful surrounded by fields and forests and hills.

As far as the house itself, we want 4 bedrooms (we currently have 3) so that I can use one of the bedrooms as my library/office. I would finally have a room that's just for me! I can't remember the last time I had my own personal space. 

We also want a living room, large den (for our home theater), 2-2½ bathrooms, bigger kitchen, formal dining room, and a woodburning fireplace or two. Oh, and no open floor plan! I know they're really popular and everyone wants a house with an open floor plan, but I really hate it. I like big, individual rooms.

Charlie really wants lots of garage space. Ideally, a 4-car garage or 2-car attached and 2-car detached, but he'd settle for a 3-car garage or a large 2-car garage if that's all we could get.

We want at least a half an acre of land (preferably more, but probably not more than 5 acres) with lots of trees for shade and privacy. Plus, I just really love trees. :-)

I was talking to Charlie last night about houses (what we want and what I've found so far) and told him that I've been thinking about getting a place big enough for my mom to live with us sometime down the road. Either a whole floor just for her (bedroom, bathroom, living space, kitchen), an apartment over a detached garage, or a smaller home or trailer on our property.

My mom has said many times that she'd love for us to all get a place together. She'll be 63 this July and it won't be very long before she may need to stay with us or in her own place on our land. That might be 10 years down the road, but we want our next house to be our last house. I'd rather we get a place big enough for my mom (in our house or her own on our property) now than to have to sell 10 years down the road so that we can buy a place big enough. I don't want to have to buy another house ever again after this next time.

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Well, I suppose that's it for now. I'll be writing another entry about my daughter Kelly on her birthday tomorrow.