I have said many many many times I am not a fan of chocolate. Most days just the SMELL of it makes my stomach do flip flops and I can feel myself getting pale. My father witnessed the color so quickly drain from my face while taking a tour of a chocolate shoppe where they made the chocolate confections right there on the property...he took me outside to get some air cuz he was afraid I was going to faint.

I bought most of the Easter candy at a local candy company (their 'factory' is in Piqua where I go to college). They have about 4 shops around close by. The clincher is they sell coffee drinks, too. The strong aroma of the coffee cancels out that noxious chocolate smell.

I made a mistake. I tried two of the chocolate foil eggs...you know, those little ones. One egg was just chocolate the other one was crispy chocolate. It was STRONG! Not your ordinary Nestle's eggs that are part wax. And I will tell you...NO MORE CHOCOLATE! Within the hour...SICK! It isn't the candy itself...the kids and Troy have been eating it. They are fine. I just can't eat it! It is as bad as when I ingest black pepper. I am STILL sick!

And another thing...this has nothing to do with chocolate but...
Troy took off for Florida today to some training classes. His plane was supposed to leave at 10. It took off at 1. He got to Atlanta and he had missed his connecting flight. They found him another and he had enough time to get something to eat before it took off. It was delayed also. So, instead of getting to Florida by 2...he didn't get there until 7 p.m. Delta. Delta airlines. But I am not sure it matters. These air carriers wonder WHY they are having trouble filling their seats. I'd rather drive.

Now, if you will excuse me...

Tuesday (sorry, just reminding myself what day it is)Troy went off to Florida for the week...we spoke with our 'assigned' realtor yesterday. We took a drive to look at the outside of a few of the prospective properties on the list. I don't know....(if you heard me say that, you would definitely hear a whine). sigh. This is all so very daunting. The house has to be in just the right place with just the right sized yard and just the right number of rooms, etc. Then the realtor (Tanya) feels the need to warn me about outdated fixtures, cabinets, etc. I told her that as long as it all works I am not worried about 'outdated' anything...it can be replaced as we go. The only thing that is important to me is that they don't have some nightmarish carpeting throughout the house becuz it would then need to be replaced right away and we will not have the funds or time to do so. I also told her that I do not have a problem with having to do some wall painting...I just hope I don't go into some house where they have painted whole rooms that cross between blood red and barn red. I am sorry...I know it is supposed to be THE THING and some ppl like it...that's fine. I just don't. I cannot sit in any room of a house I have to live in and look at that.

I am not so much into bold wall colors anyway. Muted tones are more my style.

We did find a house we are interested in looking at further...in the right neighborhood, privacy, lots of pluses...BUT it is lacking that all important 'extra' room...you know...the large family/rec room where the computers are hooked up...the video games are played, etc. It has a greenhouse/sunroom attachment (MINE!) and a really wonderful stone patio out back surrounded by raised beds (also MINE). A very large yard...part if which is fenced in for pets (the kids can take care of that). We decided that we could very easily convert the double garage into a rec room and build another garage on beside it. We have relatives that are builders. The biggest expense would be the concrete floor.

There is a hitch. The house was on the market for almost a year. And the owners just recently opted out of the contract with the realtor they were using and technically the house isn't on the market. They have moved. No one has bought it. SO...I plopped it in the lap of our realtor. We had seen the inside of the house via a virtual tour that the old realtor still has on their web site. It is so amazing! It looks a wee bit odd on the outside, though...especially considering the other homes in the development. The other houses are of a more traditional style...whether two-story or ranch. But this house is a California Ranch...covered in stucco, of course. I do not know what to do to maintain a stucco exterior. But the place kinda reminds me of my Aunt Wilma. She and my Uncle Starr lived in California in a California Ranch with YELLOW stucco on the outside. There's lot of big windows which means lots of light.

This whole thing...dealing with that psycho landlord, cleaning up the flood mess, clearing out stuff as I clean, house hunting, trying to do my homework... None of it is all that hard...I'm just feeling in a state of anxiety all the time.

It is time for some deep breathing exercises, I think.

The flood in our basement was caused by two things...the refusal of the landlord to take care of the structural problems that he has known about for 3 years AND the sump pump he put in 12 years ago finally quit. He sent a plumber to put in a new one on Thursday morning. By that time Troy's office was under 2-3 inches of water and TJ's bedroom was all wet. The ONLY part of the basement that wasn't wet was the corner with my diningroom set.

It took a couple of hours for the new pump to get the water out...but...it pumped the water out through a pipe into the bushes in front of the house. The ground was already pretty saturated. So...where does that water that's being dumped go? Straight down right there...no way to go out to the road so it came back into the basement.

Our house sits up a little and the front yard slopes down to the road to a storm drain. The back yard slopes down gradually to another storm drain by the sound wall that separates our yard from the on ramp to the highway.

Troy got home from his trip in the late afternoon. I was helping TJ with his physical science and cooking dinner. TJ had made arrangements to go stay with his friend Steven so he would have a bed to sleep in (and he stayed tonight too). Later that night, Troy went down stairs and the pipe fittings on the sump pump had come apart and the water it was pumping was spraying water and silt all over my laundry room. He got a pipe wrench and put it back together.

This morning we got up, it had come apart again...and...the basement was flooded again...this time with silt mixed in for added fun. Troy called the landlord and the landlord got nasty. He hung up on Troy. Troy called him back in a few minutes and I heard Troy trying to calmly talk to him but that guy is a total nut job. So, I asked Troy to let me have the phone. I talked slowly and calmly to the creep and he calmed down and we got some things settled. THEN he tells me that I have a very soothing voice and I can get my point across in a way that he can listen to. Go spread your cotton candy somewhere else. Do I look like I've had a lobotomy?

BUT...Troy got an email from this financial company that works with the company that Troy works for. It was telling us they could help us buy a house! Divine intervention? Call it what you will. But after only 3 hours working back and forth on the phone with them, we have been preapproved for a loan for more house than we want to buy. Which is good...in case. And they are hooking us up with one of their realtors. AND we already have a house that we are interested in...in the neighborhood where all of Bethany's friends live.

Her reaction? "Yay! I will have a bedroom I can paint AND we can get a puppy!"

We went out to dinner and while there the landlord called ME...didn't want to talk to Troy. He wanted to know if giving us a month's free rent would be agreeable to us for all the clean up we were having to do. What did I say? "We haven't even thought about that, yet. We are out having dinner and I'll call you tomorrow." Click.

He may have thought I had a soothing voice...however...he has NO IDEA the anger that was swimming behind it. Do the words 'Going Postal' sound familiar to anyone?

He really should watch himself...if it wasn't so much of a hassle, we have enough documentation over the last three years to take his butt to court and take him for a sizable amount of green. However, I just want to get away from the bipolar weezil.

Although the two inches of water in parts of my basement is not on par with New Orleans...it is bad enough to me. We have had days of torrential rains. The storm drains/pipes were maxed out and the water that was just an annoying leak from one side of the basement could not go down the drain and be pumped out to empty into the city storm drains. Those city storm drains started backing up into the basement until I have two inches of water. Mostly on one end of the basement...the end with the family room and laundry room. I rescued the gaming systems and brought them upstairs. Everything else I found a place to put them off the floor. Our indoor/outdoor carpeting in the family room, though, I think might be a loss. We have some old recliners down there and a futon. The carpet is soaking up some water but the deep water is on the other side near the drain...and flowing into my laundry room. I am praying my washer and dryer make it.

My son's room is starting to get some water seeping into it from the back basement wall. This means having to rip up the carpeting and have it dried and cleaned along with drying out the padding. We got special padding that is suppose to dry quickly and fight growing bacteria/mold, etc. He had to move things out of his room too. He is now taking over my room for the night while Troy is out of town. I will sleep in the livingroom. I end up sleeping there a lot anyway.

My father goes in for his neck operation tomorrow. I thought my brother was taking the day off and going with them so my mother had some support and he could drive home with her. It seems he has changed his mind. AND he will 'stop in' after work BUT he isn't even going to wait around to make sure she gets home okay...dark, snowing...I would just like to slap the crap out of him! 40 freakin' years old and he doesn't have a family or anything else! He lives with my parents and doesn't lift a finger to help out in any way! I blew up when I found that out tonight and you know what my mom said? "Just don't say anything. Just never mind. I don't want any hard feelings." Worthless...lazy...selfish... But then, he was always allowed to live by a different set of rules.

Just like the talk I had with MY son tonight. He tried he whole, "I lay awake at night realizing how old I am and that I will soon be out there in the world and I don't have a clue as to how to get to where I want to be." I told him, "Well, getting your butt out of bed each day and doing your daily assigned school work would be a REALLY big step in the right direction. I don't expect you to do things like find your own college or anything like that on your own HOWEVER...I sure as he** am not going to help if you don't show me any initiative! If you cannot discipline yourself to getting up and doing your class work..this simple crap...then neither your dad nor I am going to raise a finger to send you to college let alone pay for it! College is totally all YOU. No one there to boot your butt every day or keep on you about your work...start showing us you WANT it and will work for it. Right now I'm thinking... you MIGHT be able to flip burgers at the local Mickey D's. And if you think I'm kidding...try me. Maybe a year or two working fast food will convince you."

Does it sound like I've had it?

OH! and BTW...that question I asked...if anyone knew what "D12" means? I was just trying to find out if my oldest sister was right. She told me that no one outside of our little town seems to know that term. It is something we all grew up using. My mother grew up using it as did my dad. Everyone that we knew used it. It was just taken for granted everyone knows it, I guess. "D12" is short for "dirty dozen" and that term is the same as 'white trash' or any person of a low life standard. It was the worst thing we could ever use to label anyone. If we considered them "ick" we would call them a D12. I guess it is just a localism.

So, Big Chris...good try and it did have something to do with Dirty Dozen...just not a rap group or a movie.

Two posts in one day! dang...I haven't done that in a long time! I have been doing two posts a week lately.

Someone told me today that I am a very good complainer. (no...I will NEVER let you live THAT one down! )Then that person said that when I complain I have something to complain about and don't just continually 'wah wah'. Nice back peddling btw. I hear the circus is looking for a new act. However, I have been stepping back from my blogging for many reasons...I am getting my 'head' back in the game of life around me...which is the big thing. Mostly trying to get myself back (or forward) to a better place/a better me. Getting ready for getting back out in the full-time work world. I did really well back when I was teaching. Had lots of friends and learned to work around the others...but I still never got into butt kissing. That gene was left out of me. However I found out an interesting thing...if I planted my feet and looked my boss straight in the eye and stated my case...if he/she could see my conviction and determination they backed right back on down that hill faster than a rabbit trying to out run a hawk. There is no room for wimps.

I also have been able to tackle some things that have given me much anxiety and I am feeling really good about it.

However, I have not written so much becuz I have had things to 'complain' about...but who wants to read that crap all the time? And it is mostly frustration. I figure instead of spending my time writing about it I should put my energy into keep trying to make it better or figure out how to deal with it in some way. After all, no one can live my life like I can.

All that being said...I got a big piece of irony in my email yesterday. It was one of those online colleges that was telling me I should get my teaching degree becuz with all the baby boomers retiring there is a predicted teacher deficit of 2 million in the next few years. No sir. You are NOT going to fake me out! I was told about the teacher deficit since I started college. sure sure. I am not sure I have the patience to go back into that classroom anymore. I loved it when I was teaching but it is a whole new show now.

Another thing that I keep getting in my spam...and I'm sure a lot of you have seen these: Marry Rich! Just who is 'Rich' and why should I marry him instead of a 'Mark' or 'Tony' or the 'Troy' that I'm married to? Besides...just becuz he is 'Rich' today, he could be just a regular 'Joe' tomorrow. You know how the economy can turn on ya.

A question I was debating with my sister: Do you know what the term "D12" means?