Bleh...

This morning I got up 2 hours later than planned, because I didn't sleep very well and I felt crappy. I took the dogs for a walk and now I have a busy day ahead...

1. Feed the dogs

2. Do the dishes

3. Clean the kitchen

4. Dust

5. Polish

6. Vacuum

7. Mop the floors

8. Clean the bathroom

I guess I should probably have some breakfast, too. I'm so not in the mood for all this housework today! I'll probably feel better for getting it done, though.

Good news!

Wednesday evening while we were at the dog park, we got a call from our realtor to say that our offer on the house has been accepted - the listing agent has confirmed that any other offers they might receive will be treated as back-up offers, so unless we back out we should get the house! Yay!!!

Of course with it being a short sale, the bank has to approve the price (again). It's all a bit silly, but that's the way it is. Hopefully they won't mess us around - we just want to buy the house, after all! Right now they're not getting any mortgage payments on it, so hopefully they'll just be glad to have a genuine offer from someone who is definitely good for the money (us!). We'll see, anyway.

Some not so good news - there's a US government shutdown looming, which if it goes ahead will start at midnight tonight. All the national parks would close, including the Grand Canyon... Well, we have 2 sets of visitors coming in the next month and we're supposed to be taking them there. My friend T arrives 2 weeks today, and we're supposed to be going to the GC on Sunday April 24th... My Mom and stepdad arrive on May 3rd and we're supposed to be going to the GC on Friday May 6th... Fuck! Now obviously this shutdown (if it happens) will cause a lot of other problems, but I know T, my Mom and stepdad would all be really disappointed if they couldn't go to the GC. Sure, they will probably be here again sometime so could visit it another time, but it's gonna be one of the highlights of their time in Arizona. So I'm really hoping the shutdown either doesn't happen at all, or that if it does, that everything is up and running again before April 24th!

This morning I felt like absolute crap... I don't think I slept very well last night, and I had a lie-in this morning for a while but kept getting disturbed by Suzie so when I got up at 8 I had a really bad headache and also period pain. Great! Well, it was my day to clean the house (I aim to do it Monday, Wednesday and Friday but this week I did it Tuesday and was supposed to do it again today). Well, I really didn't feel like doing anything at all. I forced myself to, though, because I would've been really disappointed in myself if I'd left it. So I changed the bed linen, did the dishes, cleaned the kitchen, cleaned the dogs' water fountain, tidied the house, dusted, polished, vacuumed, mopped and then I cleaned the bathroom. After all that I had a nice shower - I sure needed it by that point! I feel much better now that the house is beautiful again! :-)

Then I made us lunch, and now I'm relaxing after taking some painkillers which seem to be kicking in now, so that's good.

Oooh, we have cupcakes! We got them last night at Albertsons - they were $1 for a 4-pack, so we got 2 packs! How bad is that?! Sooo good though, yummy cupcakes! :-)

House update

OK, so now we're waiting to find out if our offer on the house has been accepted. I can't stop thinking about it! It should be accepted I think, we offered asking price and they previously had a buyer who "wasn't able to perform" (makes them sound impotent! haha) so I think they'll be glad of the offer really.

Our realtor just called and told us they're trying to get ahold of the listing agent to check that they've received our offer (they should have done, but so far the realtor hasn't been able to speak to them). Obviously this is going to be a waiting game and I imagine it'll be quite stressful at times, but hopefully we'll be lucky and not have too much trouble. We're aware that it's going to take several months to complete, and with the house being a short sale the owner's mortgage lender will probably take a while to agree to it (we're hoping they'll be reasonable but who knows?!)

Our realtor told us to be cautiously optimistic, which I think is how we both feel anyway. We're excited but anxious, because we know nothing is set in stone yet and it may not go through. We'd be really disappointed if we didn't get the house, because we both love it to bits, but I'm trying to keep in mind that if for some reason it doesn't work out, there will be other houses that we'll love too. Still, I really hope this is the one!!!!!

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I've been busy again today, got up before 6 feeling like crap (didn't get enough sleep!) and made us breakfast and coffee, took the dogs for a walk, did the dishes, tidied up, did laundry, dusted all over the house, vacuumed everywhere but hubby's office, mopped all the tile floors and finally cleaned the bathroom. The house looks fantastic again, yay! :-) Then I made hubby some lunch, and now here I am goofing around on the internet... again.

I think I should make myself some lunch now!

A day in the life of a housewife... again!

This morning I got up at 5.35, made breakfast and coffee, walked the dogs and fed them (Gracie wouldn't eat anything - that pissed me off!). Then I did the dishes, did some laundry, changed our bed linen, dusted, vacuumed, mopped and then cleaned the bathroom. I also cleaned the dogs' water fountain. I cleared the yard of dog poop too. Then I made us lunch, and now I need to do some more dishes and put the other ones away. I'm tired!

We're going to look at some more houses today, there are 4 we're supposed to view this time. Hubby is finishing work an hour early (he didn't take his lunch break) and we're meeting the realtor at one of the houses right after that. Then this evening the in-laws are coming for dinner. It's 92ºF right now and it's going to be 97 later - it's too hot! It's going to be hot for a while, I think. We're in April now and it's not going to cool off now, not much anyway. That means walking the dogs early every day, before it gets too hot for them (and me!).

Last night I had another driving lesson, it was my first one since Sunday. It went really well, I ended up driving for about 4 miles on a main road and didn't do anything wrong! I shifted gear fine every time, I obeyed the speed limit and I didn't drive too far to the right of the lane! Hehe. I also had some traffic lights to contend with, and stopped behind a car without getting too close. I also got a good start when the lights changed, so that was good. I didn't get all stressed out - I think I'm getting the hang of this driving business! :-)

I drove us to our local supermarket on the way back, and parked in the lines albeit at a funny angle! Then I drove us home, the long way, so I didn't have to make any left turns, haha! I enjoyed it, it was a good confidence boost because I did good and that was by far the furthest I've ever driven on a "big" road so it showed me I can do it and everything is fine. :-)

Houses!

OK, well we hoped to look at houses on Tuesday as I wrote in my last post. Our realtor was supposed to call hubby around 4 p.m. but she didn't, he texted her and asked if we could look at houses and she said she wasn't free until Friday. We've felt for a while she was messing us around, and we didn't think we'd ever end up seeing any houses if we waited for her all the time. So, hubby called his mom who knows a husband and wife realtor team through church, and she gave him their details. He called and left them a voicemail and they rang us back within a couple of hours, and hubby gave them the info about what kind of house we're looking for, our price range, etc. Yesterday the guy came to our house at about 3.15 p.m. to pick us up to view houses! Yay! We finally looked at some houses! We saw 6 in total yesterday, and a few were a definite "no" - one was in a very dodgy area and pretty run-down, one had loads of water damage on all the ceilings and was generally in bad shape, one had been ripped apart for termites and had a tree out front with the roots probably going into the foundations of the garage and house and one had power lines right next to the house, had a very very old A/C unit and needed a new roof - and was definitely overpriced! There were 2 houses we really liked but they'd just received offers on them and we're not ready to make any offers just yet, we need to look around a lot more. It was interesting anyway, it showed us what to look for with regards to potential problems and we found it to be quite an experience! We're hopefully viewing more houses tomorrow afternoon, then the in-laws are coming round for dinner (hubby's parents and brother too, so our little house will be a bit cramped but it's OK!)

When I last spoke to my Dad, 2 weeks ago tomorrow, he told me he would call me "next week" (so last week) - guess what? He still hasn't! Now don't get me wrong, I'm not exactly shocked, but come on! For fuck's sake, this is getting ridiculous! He knows how much it annoys/upsets me when he does this, and still it continues. I guess he'll never, ever change. I'm still not going to call him though, because why should it always be me making the effort? More to the point, why should it always be our phone bill getting run up? So no, there won't be any calls from me.

I'm being a good little housewife, I cleaned the entire house again yesterday and I'm still doing the dishes after every meal which makes it a much more manageable task! I washed the doggy beds yesterday too, and today I've done more laundry. I'm going to clean the whole house again tomorrow, it works out well because that's when we're having the in-laws over for dinner, but I was going to do it anyway - Monday, Wednesday and Friday are my full-on cleaning days now. That gives me Tuesday and Thursday "off" but I still do other things around the house, just not a full clean. It also leaves weekends free, because that's when hubby is free so we can do things together. I'm finding it to work really well, the house always looks great because there's never too big a gap between thorough cleanings and it keeps me busy. On a Friday I have a couple extra tasks, I clean the dog water fountain and change our bed linen in addition to dusting, vacuuming, mopping and then cleaning the bathroom. Hubby's only "job" around the house is to be in charge of the fish tank, i.e. do the water changes. He doesn't mind doing it, it's not like he has to do anything else housework related after all. He's really happy with the way things are now, and so am I! I love being able to take pride in our house every day, it's not a fancy house but it's clean and tidy and it's our home for now :-)

Busy again

This morning I made us coffee and breakfast, did the dishes, cleaned the kitchen... I fed the dogs, hubby medicated them... Then I dusted, vacuumed, mopped and cleaned the bathroom. I also did a bunch of laundry too and put away all the clothes I washed yesterday.

After all that I had a shower and then we took Suzie up to the vet, they need to try and get a urine sample and see how her UTI is responding to the antibiotics. I hope they manage to get a sample! The house feels really odd without her here, it's not nice. I miss my baby!

When we got back from dropping Suzie at the vet, I took Gracie for a quick walk so she could do her "business" hehe, and now I'm home and I've done everything that needs doing already... I'd finished cleaning the house by just before 9.15 a.m. so I was pretty productive today.

Tonight we're going to the filming session for Suzie's agility class, I hope she does well this time because they're going to put it on the internet! Hopefully she'll get a little bit of practice time beforehand. I know a few of the other people were going to take their dogs for a half hour practice session yesterday, but we didn't go. It would've been another $10 which isn't bad at all, but we didn't arrange to do it. Oh well, I'm sure it'll go fine.

Well, I'd better make us some lunch. Soup and sandwiches! I'm really hungry, it's almost 5 hours since we ate breakfast (at 6 this morning) so we're ready for lunch even though it's not even 11 a.m. yet!

Sunday

I had another driving lesson today, which went pretty well. At one point I had some idiot in an SUV tailgating me, even though I was actually driving slightly over the speed limit. That pissed me off - I slowed down and gave them the finger! Oops. I probably shouldn't do that, but it worked, they backed off. I'm not gonna be bullied into driving faster just because some impatient tw*t behind me can't tolerate the speed limit! Some people... jeez!

I'm doing much better with changing gears and my confidence levels are higher now too. I'm getting used to driving on the big roads - it's still daunting to me but I just need to keep doing it and eventually it'll be second nature.

After my lesson we went to get some groceries, then came home. I've been doing some laundry and prepping for dinner tonight, we're making green curry so I've chopped up the onion and red bell pepper, and the chicken. We're taking the girls to the dog park in around half an hour, so when we get back dinner shouldn't take too long to make. I've also done the dishes twice today already, after our pancake breakfast and just now too. I'm really trying to keep on top of the housework at the moment, it's easy to let things slide sometimes and I end up getting mad at myself so I'm making a concerted effort to be a good little housewife. I'm still not sure it's really who I am, but I'm trying to give it a chance. I do want to provide a good home environment for us, I can't provide for us financially right now so it's the best I can do really. The thing is, I could get a random job doing something rubbish, and I don't want to put people down who do those jobs because I think people do whatever they have to do in order to live, but I don't need to work right now. In some ways I feel guilty about that, but then at the same time it's not really anyone's business but ours. Hubby is happy with our situation, and he likes that the house is kept nice without him having to do anything around the house. I can also take care of the dogs so he doesn't have to worry about them while he's working. Basically what I'm saying is that this works for us - so I don't know why I feel guilty sometimes. I'm just not used to being unemployed yet, I guess!

We still haven't seen any houses yet, I really hope our realtor gets in touch with us soon (i.e. tonight or tomorrow) to set up an appointment with us. I don't want to sound harsh, but if she doesn't then I'm considering hiring someone else. Our lease on the house is up in 8 months and we want to find somewhere soon to get the ball rolling!

Busy busy!

This morning I got up with hubby at 5.50 a.m. (he starts work at 6) and made us coffee and breakfast. I also did some laundry and changed our bedding. Around 8 a.m. I gave the girls their breakfast and their meds, then did the dishes, cleaned the kitchen, tidied the house, dusted all over, vacuumed everywhere, mopped all the tile floors, cleaned the pugs' water fountain, cleaned the bathroom, cleaned the sliding door in the living room and cleared the yard of pug poop. Then I took a shower and hubby took me out for lunch at the local Thai restaurant which was a lovely surprise!

I might need a nap now, I've been on the go non-stop for 7 hours now! :-)

Also - the dogs are doing much better now. We've started using the water spray bottle again with Suzie which is a good deterrent and stops bad behavior in its tracks! Yay!

Anxiety

Today has been a wet one in Phoenix - it's been raining pretty much all day! Tomorrow is probably going to be somewhat the same, too. Oh well, we can't complain - it's not like it happens very often!

My Dad arrives from the UK tomorrow. I'm not sure how I feel about it yet - I don't mean to sound awful, I am looking forward to seeing him, but I'm also kinda dreading it because he insisted on staying at our house and we really don't have enough room. He'll be sleeping on an airbed in the living room until Monday, and then he can sleep in our "second bedroom" which is actually hubby's office. He works from home and his hours are 7am-4pm so if my Dad's going to sleep in there he needs to be up and out of there by 6.50am... I'm not sure if that will happen, to be honest I really have my doubts. He can't sleep in there before Monday night because hubby is on-call all of this week and as usual he's been called at ridiculous times every day so far - 4am today, 5.30am yesterday. He has to get on his computer when they call him so we can't have anyone sleeping in the office while he's on-call.

The other thing that I'm worried about is that my Dad will probably expect me to pay for lots of things, like coffees and lunch etc. I'm lucky because I do get an allowance from hubby (his idea, not mine) so I do have some money I can spend, but not much. I've got good at making it go pretty far, but that's mainly because I don't go out very often! It won't go very far if I'm having to buy lunch all the time, or pay for admission into whatever places he wants to go to. Even a couple of coffees at Starbucks would end up using a decent chunk of my cash, because he'd expect a slice of cake or a muffin with it. I don't want to sound tight, but when you don't have a job you do have to be quite prudent with the money you have. I don't waste money on things like going out for coffee anymore, which is something I used to take for granted back in the UK when I was working full-time. Your priorities change when you're unemployed!

Finally, one last concern is that hubby and my Dad don't exactly know each other very well. I mean, hubby only came to the UK once while we were "dating" because he only gets 2 weeks holiday in a year and I used to get a lot more than that, so they've only actually spent a day together. I don't want to be pessimistic but I'm not sure how well they're gonna get along when they're thrown together for 10 days... It's probably going to be awkward for both of them, and me by default. I'm worried that hubby and I might get stressed out with the whole situation and snap at each other. Earlier today I explained that to him and he agreed - it probably will put us under quite a lot of strain, because of the space issue as much as anything else. That's without factoring in any personality clashes that may occur! Hubby is usually pretty laid back but my Dad can be quite highly strung and not very tactful - he's very stubborn and I think he's probably going to be a high maintenance, demanding guest. I hope that I'm wrong, I really do - I just can't stop feeling anxious about the whole thing.

Anyway... I've just cooked dinner (chicken fajitas) and done the dishes (for the second time today). Right now I have laundry in both the washer and the dryer. Hubby is soaking his elbow in epsom salts and warm water (for the 4th and penultimate time today) and pug-pug is chasing her squeaky gingerbread man around! I think I deserve a glass of wine and some chocolate... :)

A Few Things!

Our trip to the orthopedic doctor yesterday went pretty well. Hubby got some soft tissue x-rays to see if the splinter was visible (it wasn't) and the doctor wants to see him again next week for a follow-up. In the meantime we're soaking his elbow in warm water and epsom salts 6 times a day for 15 minutes each time... That's supposed to help draw the splinter out. That option is a lot more appealing than going down the surgery route, anyway. We have an appointment for next Wednesday afternoon so hopefully by then the damn thing might have come out, or it might at least have moved to a point where it's no longer causing any pain. If that's the case I think they'll probably leave it alone.

In 2 days my Dad is arriving, so I need to get the house tidy before then! I could do it today but I know that it would still need doing on Thursday anyway, so I might as well do it then. His flight gets in at 6.40 if it's on time, but I know from my experiences of flying direct into Phoenix that the immigration process usually takes around an hour. Every time I came through there were only something like 3 or 4 officers to process everyone, and there were a lot of passengers! At least that gives me the whole day to clean the house. I mean, it's really not that bad anyway but it means I won't have to rush.

We took the pug-pug to the dog park yesterday and she had a great time! She played with so many dogs, and even stood up for herself when a couple of bigger dogs were playing with her (playing a bit rough for her!). Then after a while there were 7 pugs all playing together, it was so sweet! Some that we'd met before, others we hadn't. They were all such lovely dogs, so friendly and happy. One of them who we'd met before was an adorable little 11 year old pug-girl, her little tongue hangs out and she's such a sweetie. I just had to give her lots of cuddles - she loves it! Her little tail was wagging the whole time and she kept snuggling into my neck. I wanted to take her home!!

Unfortunately though our little girl now has hives though so she must've had a mild allergic reaction to something at the dog park - not sure what, but I guess it could've been something on the grass or on another dog. You can see where the bumps are, they're on her sides and her fur is kind of sticking up around them. She was itching a bit last night, poor little thing. I'm going to give her a bath today, her doggy shampoo is good for calming skin conditions so hopefully it'll help. She doesn't seem bothered by the bumps anymore, she's fine in herself. It just looks weird and it's probably a little uncomfortable for her at times. The bath should soothe her skin a bit, anyway.

Early this morning I spoke to my two best friends on Skype, one of them was back in our hometown for the festive period so they were both together in my other friend's house. It was nice to see them both at the same time and have a good chat!

Busy busy!

Wow, today has been non-stop busy!! Pug-pug got me out of bed at 5.45am 'cos she needed to go potty, I got out of bed properly at 7am and made coffee and breakfast, changed the water in the fish tank, wrapped my brother-in-law's Christmas presents, wrote his birthday card, made an apple crumble, did the dishes (twice), put the laundry away, dried the towels and put them away, cleaned pug-pug's water fountain, dusted, vacuumed, mopped the floors and cleaned the bathroom, got rid of the pug-pug's "messes" from the yard and took the trash out - all before 12.30! I had some lunch, then chatted with one of my good friends on iChat (Skype wasn't working!) and prepped the veggies for dinner. The in-laws are coming to our house tonight for dinner so I wanted everything to look nice. I think I put pressure on myself to have the house looking great, because I don't want them to think badly of me! (seeing as I'm a housewife and all).

Damn, I'm tired now!