I'm on a roll!

I just wanted to updated with more pictures from this afternoon of the snow......but first, I want to say to my dad:

*no eggs were harmed in the posting of this video

HAPPY 50th BIRTHDAY, DAD!!!! Hope you have a great one and I love you!

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Updated blizzard pics from this afternoon:

The snow drifts are 3' deeper than this morning in just a few hours!

A fancy white back drop wasn't used for this photo shoot with Jack - it's just a complete white out with all the snow!

Here you can see that the snow is deeper than our porch - the porch is 3' high!

In the thick of it

I'm really bad about keeping up with the blog, but here's a real time live update! We're in the middle of the blizzard and it's pretty intense. The only dogs that are willing to go out are Jack and Tyson and that was only earlier this morning:

All of the other dogs make sure to keep a wide berth from the doors to avoid the cold blast of air (in the teens, but feels like it's below zero) and us making them go outside - kind of like how they used to avoid being near the pool for fear we'd push them in ;p

Now Tyson and Jack won't even go outside because the snow is about 4-5' deep all around the house. We're guessing we've gotten about 6"-8" snow in the last 12 hours, but the crazy wind (a consistent 30mph gusting to probably 50mph) has piled up the deep drifts around the house/stationary objects. We can barely see our neighbors' homes! Here's a (shaky) video I took on my phone around 11 this morning (the snow has gotten about 2' deeper since then):

The backyard - you can see how strong the wind is by our patio furnitur that's blown over; and how deep the drifts were INSIDE the dog house late this morning - you can also see our fence that's being built! I wish it were done already; they've been working on it for weeks now. But people just don't move fast here.

the otherside of the backyard - you can see how much snow has just fallen; about 4" because it's covering the kid's sandbox from the previous owner. And you can see the deep drifts up against the shed/piles of gravel (for the fence/yard that we still need to spread)

BLIZZARD!

It's snowed a couple times since we've been here, but nothing like the forecast is calling for over the next couple of days!

From the Weather Center:
SNOWFALL AMOUNTS BETWEEN 8 AND 16 INCHES WITH LOCALLY HIGHER AMOUNTS NEAR THE OKLAHOMA BORDER ARE EXPECTED TONIGHT THROUGH FRIDAY. HEAVY SNOWFALL COMBINED WITH STRONG WINDS OF 30 TO 40 MPH WITH GUSTS TO 50 MPH WILL CREATE WIDESPREAD BLIZZARD CONDITIONS. SNOW IS EXPECTED TO TAPER OFF FRIDAY NIGHT BUT GUSTY WINDS WILL CONTINUE TO BLOW AND DRIFT THE SNOW MAKING FOR DIFFICULT TRAVEL CONDITIONS.
A BLIZZARD WARNING MEANS SEVERE WINTER WEATHER CONDITIONS ARE EXPECTED OR OCCURRING. FALLING AND BLOWING SNOW WITH STRONG WINDS, POOR VISIBILITIES, AND WIND CHILLS NEAR ZERO ARE LIKELY. THIS WILL LEAD TO WHITEOUT CONDITIONS... MAKING IT DANGEROUS TO BE OUT SIDE. TRAVEL WILL BE DIFFICULT OR IMPOSSIBLE AND IS STRONGLY DISCOURAGED. IF YOU MUST TRAVEL... CARRY A WINTER SURVIVAL KIT WITH YOU. IF YOU GET STRANDED... STAY WITH YOUR VEHICLE.

Crazy!!! I was supposed to go to Tulsa for a business trip, but looks like that's out! Instead, J and I will be snuggling up at home in front of the fireplace with our laptops and working from home. Snow days rule!

We're Still Alive

Sorry for the lack of updates, but we've been INCREDIBLY busy. Still are, but now it's more due to unpacking/working and I'll do anything to put that chore off.

I believe I promised a summary of our crappy ordeal moving up here - a long, complain-y, whiny post. But the cliche, time heals all, is true....it seems so long ago and so trite now, it's not really worth droning on and on about with explicit words thrown in at least every sentence. So, in a bulleted nutshell our "moving to Kansas" experience:

• Seller of this house finally signed the contract the week before we were to move up here. If you're good at following timelines, it took over 2 wks just to get a damned contract signed due to the fact that he didn't own a phone/live in the same town as his realtor.


• We lined up everything for the following week: movers to come tues-thurs; inspector for my house to come wed (per HIS assesment that the movers would be done by then); vehicle shipper to come tues; my dad took vacation to drive up to Kansas with us/help put in flooring/drive the RV back to Houston; rented an RV; set aside our "temporary living" things that wouldn't be going to storage; QUIT OUR EFFING JOBS; packed our bags; etc etc etc


• Monday afternoon, as in the DAY BEFORE the movers were coming, we get a call from our incompetent, idiotic, ass of a realtor, SUE, letting us know that the seller wasn't going to let us rent from him before closing....which pretty much meant we wouldn't have a place to live for the next at least 3wks that it took to close b/c he was an effing loser that took longer than even remotely necessary to get a signed contract back to us (if the douchebag had been prompt, we probably could've already closed by the week we were set to move to Kansas/start our jobs).


• We freaked out for a bit and realized what an incompetent, idiotic, ass of a realtor, SUE, we'd been stuck with, so Jason managed to get ahold of the seller's agent, Darrin,(and even this was not done w/o a ton of phone calling/message leaving/cursing). After talking to him, found out that incompetent, idiotic, ass of a realtor, SUE, never sent my preapproval letter to the seller NOR did she tell them what all we were willing to do as far as rent and whatnot NOR did even SPEAK to them - just told us it wasn't possible based on an email that was QUESTIONING us moving in/renting before closing...... seller's agent, Darrin, agreed that with all the information from us (preapproval letter; 2 corporate relo's; etc) that it was a 99.9% guaranteed deal that wouldn't fall through and he should have no problem getting the seller to agree.


• With that good news, we decide to go ahead with the move: movers/packers come; vehicle shippers come and take off with my cars; confirm RV rental; let dad know it's full steam ahead; and inspector comes (MUCH drama there that I won't even go into)


• Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday do not hear from seller's agent, Darrin,; he does not return our calls; no emails; NADA. Now we seriously do freakthefuckout - we have no furniture, cars are gone, no dishes, not even a fucking towel. All that stuff is on its way to be delivered to a house we can't even move into!


• We have no choice at this point: we pull out of the contract on this house "based on the inspection report" (really though, we had just cause for that - they didn't even turn on the effing water to test pipes, faucets, toilets, dishwasher, etc. And there were fresh water stains in the basement ceiling). Weeelllllll in podunk towns in Kansas, this.does.not.happen. Our incompetent, idiotic, ass of a realtor, SUE, was really leary; she said she didn't even know if it was "possible" to pull out of a contract. We had to point out and EXPLAIN the verbage in the contract as to why we COULD.


• Jason (Jason, NOT our incompetent, idiotic, ass of a realtor, SUE,) found a house for sale in the local paper - talked to them over the phone and they said they were cool with us renting until close and that the house was move in ready (with new carpet, tile, and paint). *whew* so, even though we hadn't seen the house, we figured it couldn't be any worse than the original shag in the other house - and anything mechanical/foundation/major wise, we could fix. We just really didn't have a choice at this point.


• That Saturday we went ahead with the move: picked up the RV , loaded up all our junk the movers wouldn't take, cleaned out our houses until they were sparkling, picked up my dad/bro, and off we went. We were SUPPOSED to hit the road MUCH earlier than we did and visit/have dinner with Jess, but we suck and left about, oh, 5 hours later than the absolute latest we should've. So needless to say, we had to cancel on Jess, . We made it to OKC around 2am and got a hotel room - well dad/chris did, Jason and I stayed in the RV in the parking lot with the dogs/cat


• Sunday around 5pm we made it to the house we had yet to see. NO ES BUENO. It was a shithole and in a neighborhood (dude had told us it wasn't). And the "sherrif" showed up to chew our butts out for parking the RV too far out into the street (it was half in the grass, half on the road). And we were told multiple times that it was a great town where everyone knew everything about you/watched out for you. Um, after butthole neighbor experience I just had, we wouldn't have bought that house even if it meant we had to live in that RV with all the animals for the rest of our lives.


• We decided to drive to the town I'd be working in and put our heads together to try to figure something out. Oh, and guess what? Jason was set to start work the next morning. And yes, he did start work the next morning.


• That night, and the rest of that week, Jason and I lived in an RV park with the dogs/cat while dad/chris got to live it up in hotel rooms. At this point I could go onandonandon about how crappy that was.....but it really wasn't as bad as it could've been. At least we lucked out and found an RV park (link removed due to shitty ass lurkers) - usually they aren't open for the winter but they made an exception for us (pets and all). We had water, electricity, heat, and a nice open field to walk the dogs. And could take showers in dad/chris' hotel room. We also had driven Jason's truck up, so we weren't having to drive the RV/dogs all over with us


• We left the RV at the park (with the dogs - and they did SO well considering) and drove Jason to work (1.5 hours away). We (me, dad, chris - Jason was at work) then drove out to a town that is almost exactly in the middle of the 2 towns J and I are working in. We didn't want to make it that long of a drive for me b/c I don't do as well with commutes as J, but at this point, we didn't have a choice. That Monday we saw 2 houses; both would've worked. One was absolutely fabulous - a little grandma-y, but a funky layout and awesome woodwork/trim/door knobs since it was built in the 30's. Only bad thing(s): really big for just the 2 of us, but the major thing was that it sat only about 20 yards from a MAJOR road with a speed limit of 65. Wouldn't have been a big deal aside from the fact that we just can't chance that with having all the dogs - I can't imagine how I'd feel if one of the pups was run over b/c I wanted to live in a house with pretty trim and door knobs.....The second house would work: it was newer (only 4 yrs old); on the side of town that made my commute just a tad bit better; on 3.5 acres; and it already had a dog pen....At this point we were breathing better and we'd found a very capable realtor - we just had to wait to hear back if either of those sellers were willing to let us move in right THEN and rent from them until we closed. In the mean time, we made appointments to see several more the next day. But we knew they wouldn't really work - they were all in town/neighborhoods (but had large yards). And for being such a rural area, people here are STRICT about the number of animals you can have.


• The next morning we did the routine of dropping Jason off (1.5 hours away), driving to the town we were looking in (1 hour away), looking at houses, ruling out all those houses, driving back to the town we were staying in (1 hour away), picking up my brother (he stayed that day in the RV with the dogs and didn't even complain. That was pretty awesome of him!), driving to pick up Jason from work (1.5 hours away), and BACK to where we were staying (1.5 hours back). If you're good at math: that's a lot of effing driving!......BUT the good news: at the end of that day, we'd heard back from the sellers of the newer house that was on 3.5 acres. aaannnnd we signed a contract! aaaannnndd THEY signed a contract. aaaaaannnnnddd we were UNDER contract the NEXT day. not THREE weeks later like with THAT house.


• If you're keeping track - that was Tuesday/Wednesday. I forget why at this point, but we couldn't/didn't move in until Friday. At that point, we realized it was pretty ridic to keep staying in the RV park that was 1.5 hours from Jason's work/1 hour from the house we'd be moving into, so we loaded up the truck* and moved to Beverly** (queu banjos). At this point, the hotel bills were adding up, so we went high class and put dad/chris up at the luxurious Best Western.....and parked the RV in the "truck parking" of the BW. To pass the time btwn driving Jason to/from work, we went to several hardware stores pricing fencing (there isn't/wasn't a fence around the house other than the dog pen out back), went to wal-mart a lot, did some laundry (holy carp laundromats are expensive!!), AND luck of all luck, we found a DOG PARK. A veryveryvery underutilized dog park....basically, it was the dogs' backyard for the next few days.


• By that Friday morning, we got the keys and unloaded the few things we'd brought with us....we then drove aaallll the way back to the town where we were staying in the RV park at to pick up stepmom/sister - they were flying in to see our new diggs/have an adventure (you fly in on those small prop planes)/and ride along with dad/bro on the way back to Houston to return the RV.


• That Saturday, Dad/bro/Jason built a deck out back for the hot tub to set on (it wouldn't arrive for a few more weeks with the movers, but we needed to give dad something to do and take advantage of his mad handyman skills). While they did that manly task, us gals went to a laundromat and did laundry and gabbed (and stepsister did her homework - what a good student! I know I definitely would've used going out of town as an excuse to put that on the back burner!)


• The house didn't have a range or a refrigerator so we were making due with a large ice chest and microwave....but mostly eating out. That night we decided to take advantage of the RV before they left with it. I made chili, and Frances (stepmom) made cornbread and cheese dip. It was soooo nice to have a white trash meal cooked in an RV after so much eating out.


• Sunday early morning the fam set off for h-town with the RV......and something really weird happened, I missed them; I even teared up! Even after being cooped up for a week in an RV with them. And that's when homesickness really set in - especially since we didn't have anything at our new house to make it home. Not even an air mattress - we slept on the floor until our bed arrived a few weeks later. My back hated me.


• The next 2 weeks I painted rooms, we put in flooring (we don't do carpet), I got all of our utilities hooked up, my cars were delivered (I don't know how those with only one car for a family do it - I felt so constrained), we ordered a range top, we ate out A LOT, got our finances set up at a new bank (we miss Wells Fargo), watched a lot of infomercials on the TWO channels we could pick up with rabbit ears (of course we managed to lug a tv up here with us ;p), streamed in A LOT of shows with my satellite card so we wouldn't get behind on tv shows (oh yeah, baby! We have our priorities in order! but it made us go waaaaay over our monthly plan usage!), walked the dogs a lot (remember, no fence?), and had satellite installed on super bowl Sunday!


• I started my job....and that helped with the homesickness. I think it was the whole not having anything to do/a schedule. The movers also came on superbowl Sunday and then finished while I was at my first day on the job (J took off work to be here for them).


• Now we're just busy unpacking and organizing. Even though we both got rid of A LOT of things before the move (and have even donated to goodwill once since unpacking!), we have a crapload. Especially with combining two houses and with this house having soooooo much less closet/cabinet space than my Houston house did.

I think that pretty much sums it up. And as usual, much longer than I anticipated ;p.....I'll post pics of the trip/new casa tomorrow. It's valentine's day and I should probably do something other than blog for the rest of the night. Happy brownchickenbrowncow day to you all ;p

*truck = RV
**Beverly = something faaaaar from "Hills that is"....

brrrrrr

it's fooking COLD here. single digits! which isn't exactly pleasant in an rv. we have a heater + 8dogheaters so it's bearable....but not fun.

good news: we found a place to live and people who are willing to work with us and let us move in before closing. we get the keys on friday! yay! i'll outline our long sooky saga soon. i'm good at complaining, so it won't be short ;p

Life is AWESOME*

we're living in an rv at a campground with 8 dogs and a cat. saturday, dad and chris leave with the rv to drive it back to houston. then we'll be 100% homeless. with 8 dogs and a cat.


*by awesome, i mean completely sucky.