Holly’s Happenings

Ty Pennington and the team from Extreme Makeover Home Edition are in my neck of the woods this week. The family that was chosen is most definitely deserving of a new home! The father is an ambulance driver that was hurt and saved the life of his partner during the 2005 Toledo Riots. His wife is an ordained minister who has recently experienced some serious health problems and was also diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. They have a total of 11 children, three biological children, three children they’ve adopted from the local area and five children that they have adopted from Haiti.

I think it is wonderful that Ty and the EMHE team are building a new home for this family, and feel that they not only deserve it but that they will truly appreciate their new home! The excitement in the area over the new home build is so neat, I LOVE reading the updates about what is going on! Today was the day that the demolition was actually started and the big reveal is on Sunday.

It’s definitely a LARGE family, and their former home of four bedrooms was way too small for them! I can’t wait to find out the specifics about the home that is being built! Obviously with 11 children it’s not going to be possible for each of them to have their own bedroom. And with a total of 13 people living in the home I can’t help but wonder if they’ll put something like home theater seating in the family room or living room so that they can all sit down and enjoy a movie or TV as a family comfortably?

I’m hoping to make it up to the build site at least once this week and will definitely get some pictures if I can! I already have one request from a friend to get a picture of Ty and she plans on printing it out and sleeping with it…LOL! Lets just hope her hubby doesn’t mind

I’ll keep you updated about the house if I can!

Yes, I know it’s already Tuesday, but it’s honestly taken me until today to “recuperate” from the weekend…LOL! This past weekend was spent at Michigan International Speedway courtesy of my husbands employers. There were only 5 employees that could or were willing to make it up this weekend, then there were the two brothers that own the company as well as many of their family members and friends.

The initial group headed up to the campground on Thursday night to set up the campers and tents because they were staying right through until Monday. My hubby and I didn’t go up until late Saturday morning and spent part of the day hanging out at the campsites before heading up to watch the Busch race, which was won by Carl Edwards. After the race we went back to the campsite for a FANTASTIC hobo dinner cooked over a campfire! I’ll admit that I drank a few too many, and trust me, I REALLY paid for it too…LOL! But we had a totally awesome time!

By the time we got home Saturday night it was nearly 10 PM and we had to be up the next morning by 4 AM so that we could leave the house, drop off our daughter at my mothers house in an attempt to be to the campground by 8 AM. We ended up being a little later than that because we didn’t figure in the fact that we were taking a different route than we had the day before because we were meeting one of my hubby’s co-workers so they could follow us up to the track. So we ended up not making it up to the campground until nearly 9 AM, but everyone was either just waking up or just stumbling back to the campsites, so it turned out to be a good thing we weren’t up there earlier anyway!

Sunday was probably one of the most amazing days I’ve ever had, except for my day in San Francisco…LOL! Not only did we have FANTASTIC seats to the NASCAR race (10th row in the 4th turn), we also had pre race pit passes that allowed us to go right down on pit row where the crew teams were at, getting things ready for the race.

Some of the team for Paul Menard (the #15 Quaker State/Menards car) was MORE than happy to smile for me! THANKS GUYS!!

We also got to see some of the cars already out on the track getting readied for the race.

It was just a fantastic experience! I’ll be the first to admit that even though I’ve watched many NASCAR races on TV, I was usually kind of bored by them. But watching them in person…..WOW, I could really get into NASCAR if I could watch all of the races in person! It’s just so different! And of course the people you’re with help make it a good experience as well! I got to sit next to Fred for both races and let me tell you, this man MADE the races an awesome experience! He was such a fun guy and I didn’t even mind that he was rooting for Tony Stewart! JUST KIDDING!

By the time we finally left Sunday, we ended up not making it back home until almost 10 PM again…LOL! And yes, just in case you’re wondering, I did end up with one heck of a sunburn that was REALLY made to look goofy when combined with the mark from the lanyard around my neck that held all my tickets and passes…LOL! But amazingly, even with it being the first real sun I’ve gotten all summer, it never did hurt. And my husband, who is REALLY tan, got a sunburn as well and his hurts to beat all get outs and is already starting to blister up…LOL!

Anyway, I have a TON more pictures and probably more video footage from both races that I hope to be able to get to at some point this week. When I do, I’ll definitely share them with you!

My daughter is probably the queen of procrastinators! Although she’s known for several weeks that she’s leaving tomorrow and will be gone for a month, she’s been putting off straightening up her room for over two weeks now. It wasn’t that her room was dirty, we had just tore it apart cleaning every inch of it about a month ago. She had just let things pile up and get cluttered, mostly on her dresser and bookshelf.

This morning I told her that she had ran out of time, either she picked it up right then and there or I would, and she wouldn’t be happy with what happened if I did it. That motivated her and she got busy. A little while later I heard her yelling for me, so I went to see what was going on. She had seen some papers and stuff under her bookshelf, so she decided to move it out of the way and clean under it. When she moved it out and picked up the papers, lying under them was the gold anklet that she had been looking for. When she had originally told me she couldn’t find it, I told her to look under and behind her bookshelf and her dresser, I had a feeling that’s where it would be, but she didn’t listen to me. And I don’t have any grandiose plans that she’ll start either, but it was nice to be able to tell her “I told you so”….LOL.

OMG, I can’t even remotely explain how excited I am right now! I got the tracking numbers last week and have almost stalked the UPS website checking for updates. The delivery date said May 13, which is tomorrow, so that’s what I expected. But when I got home from taking my son into school a little while ago I almost died when I seen a package on the front porch!

As you may recall, back in February I wrote this post with a video that I made telling why I felt Buy.com ROCKS! I had so much fun making that video and it started me on a video making spree…LOL!

But that video won me one of THESE!!! I am SOOOOOO totally excited, this is something that my family has wanted for a VERY long time, but it just was one of those things that, as much as we wanted it, we just couldn’t justify the cost! Well, thanks to Buy.com and the company that sponsored this, I now don’t have to choose between paying a bill or putting food on the table and buying something that is going to bring my family even closer!

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!

I just thought I’d give you a heads up and let you know that I’m going to be taking a trip in a few weeks! It’s not one that I had planned or expected, it actually came up very unexpectedly in a conversation yesterday!

I’ll be leaving around Memorial Day and will be gone for a week or so. I’m going on a road trip with two wonderful ladies to the West Coast, our final stop being San Jose, California. Along the way we hope to be able to make a few stops and seeing some of the many wonderful sites our country has to offer and after arriving in San Jose I think we might try to sneak up to San Francisco before flying home.

It will be the first time in the 15+ years that I’ve been a parent that I’ve gone away from my kids for more than a couple of days, but I have no doubt that they and their father will be fine while I’m gone. OK, I lied, I do have my doubts….LOL! But you know what, I NEED this more than I’ve needed anything for a VERY long time! I give everything I have to give to my family and rarely do anything for myself, so for once I’m going to be selfish! I think I have the right to be…LOL! I do plan on taking my husbands laptop along, but not for anything more than keeping in touch! I need a break from everything, but that’s not saying that I won’t pop in and say hello and let you know how my trip is going!

And honestly, I think we lost it a VERY long time ago! As you may know, we currently have three dogs. Our “first born” his Harley, a boxer/shepard mix who is almost 3 years old. Our “middle child” is Riley, a pure bred lab who just turned 2 in December and our “baby” is Willow, a Heinz 57, who just turned 1 this month. The three of them are most definitely a handful, but also a never ending source of joy in our lives! Yes, they do your typical dog things and get into trouble (i.e. chewing a hole in the cushion of the couch), but for the most part they are all very well behaved dogs and I can’t picture life without them!

Enter the hubby and a phone call about 30 minutes ago. He first asked how my day was going and if it was going better than yesterday, to which I said “Yes, now what do you want”…LOL! He then asked me if I remembered when I said something a little while back about wanting another puppy, to which I quickly said, “I never said that and you can’t prove it”, then said yes, why? Well, you see, there is the guy that he works with. And this guy just happens to have a female dog. And that female dog just happened to have a few puppies 6 weeks ago. And those puppies just happen to be pure bred boxer puppies without the papers. And he’s having a difficult time finding homes for them because of them not having papers. And would we be interested in assisting this guy by giving one of the puppies a home…LOL!

Can someone just speed up the process and call the guys with the funny white coats for me?

No, this is not going to be one of those posts that tells you how to organize things, mostly because I have really become a very disorganized person lately! But this is going to be about what I did this weekend and what the AWESOME end result was!

I’m not sure if I’ve ever shown you the drawing I made that portrays the layout of this house. I’ll include it at the end of the post so help you visualize things better. Over the weekend my husband and I decided it was time to do some serious cleaning and decluttering! We still had empty boxes sitting around that hadn’t been put up in the attic, I still had Christmas decorations out and every where you looked you could see TONS of cob webs! We decided while we were doing this that we would also rearrange some of the furniture, or I guess I should say that I decided that because if it were up to my husband nothing would ever move from the spot it was originally put in…LOL!

When we got out here to the family room where mine and my husbands desks and computers are, I decided that it was time to majorly clean off the book shelf that stands next to my desk. It had become clutter central for this room and had papers and books piled and stacked everywhere, which made it especially difficult when I was trying to find things for school or do homework. After I got my bookshelf cleaned off I decided to go ahead and pull it away from the wall to see what all had fallen behind it. I almost scared everyone when I screamed because one of the things lying behind it was the gold bangle bracelet that my husband had given me many years ago. I also found one of my homework papers that I had to redo because I had lost it as well as various pens, pencils and receipts.

We accomplished a lot over the weekend and yes, I did also get all of my Christmas decorations taken down as well as putting the vacuum cleaner to good use sucking up all the fake snow that I had put out around said Christmas decorations…LOL! The house looks and smells MUCH better!

I just wanted to stop in and let you know that if you don’t hear from me for an extended period of time, there’s no need to call out the National Guard!  My memory foam bed from BedInABox.com arrived today and it’s all set up and put together (with some help from my daughter).  This is, without a doubt, the most comfortable bed I have ever laid on!  I’m seriously considering relocating my computer so that I don’t have to leave it…LOL!

If you’re wondering exactly which bed it is that I won, it is the Queen sized 11″ PacDown Plus as well as the foundation.  They actually have a special going on right now on this set, so if you want to check it out for yourself you can see it HERE.  While you’re checking that out, I’ll be napping!

I thought I would stop by and give you an update to THIS post that I made last month. The video that I made was chosen as one of 10 winners! And my prize? A queen sized memory foam mattress and foundation! Saying WHOOOHOOO doesn’t even begin to explain how tickled I am right now! This is going to be SOOOOOOO awesome and I can’t wait until I get my new bed!!!

But the REALLY exciting news is THIS:

Feb 2, 2008

5:04 AM

On FedEx vehicle for delivery

TOLEDO, OH

Scheduled for delivery next business day

My bed is on the truck here in my town!!  I wish I could just go get it rather than having to wait until Monday….LOL!!!!  I’m just so thrilled and excited!  The bed my husband and I are currently sleeping on is one that we purchased shortly after we were married, and our 16 year anniversary is less than 3 months away…LOL!!  It’s needed to be replaced for quite some time now, but we’ve just never been able to justify doing so, we’ve always found other places where we felt the money could be better spent.  So stay tuned and I’ll update you after I get it set up Monday!  I’m REALLY looking forward to a wonderful nights sleep!

THANK YOU BedInABox.com and PayU2Blog.com!

We received some awesome news from our landlord this week! Well, it’s awesome news for us, but not so awesome for him. He decided that since our local economy and real estate market is in such bad condition, it would be better for him to keep this house as arental property investment than try to sell it. This is good news for us because it means that we have more time to establish our credit better and put ourselves into a position so that we can buy the house ourselves! His original intention was to put the house on the market this summer, now he’s not sure when he’ll put it up for sale.

Today’s mail was filled with the usual items, bills, bills and more bills…LOL! I also got a FUN package that I’ll tell you more about later, a letter stating that our health insurance is going to be canceled in one week because we forgot to sign something and a bank statement.

First topic, letter about the insurance being canceled. The last piece of paper that I signed for this insurance was in April, over 7 months ago! I immediately got on the phone to find out WTF was going on and the person I need to talk to about this matter wasn’t available and I was sent to their voicemail. I left a very detailed and polite message and hung up the phone. I then called back and asked for this persons supervisor, figuring that if the person I needed to speak to wasn’t in, their supervisor might be able to explain. Once again, I was sent straight to voicemail and once again, I left a very detailed AND polite message. I then went online and looked up an email address so that I could send an email trying to find out what is going on. I mean, for God’s sake, it’s Friday afternoon, no one is available on the weekends, Thursday is a holiday and they’re saying my policy will be canceled on Friday. That gives me a grand total of 2 freakin days to try and keep my insurance policy from being canceled. Am I the only one that sees something wrong with this scenario? So, I sent out a very detailed AND polite email in hopes that between the voicemail messages and the email that someone would get back with me today, to at least acknowledge that they’ve heard from me. I mean, how difficult is that? Apparently too difficult, because it’s been 2 hours now and I’ve heard NOTHING!

But, the other piece of mail brought GOOD news!! Yes, I’m talking about my bank statement. The last time I had checked my checking account, I had a grand total of $1.51 in it. I figured I’d just let it sit there and draw me a penny’s interest every quarter….LOL!!! Imagine my surprise when I opened my statement today to find that my account no longer had $1.51 in it, instead it had MORE! So now I don’t have to fret and worry about how I’m going to pay one of the bills that was due yesterday, which is a HUGE relief!

So, even though I’m really ticked off about the insurance thing, the balance in my bank account made me feel better….LOL!:D

Jennifer over at The Life of a School Bus Driver gave me her Blogger of the Day Award today!  I feel so honored, especially after looking through the previous winners blogs!  So Thank you Jennifer, I’ll display my award with pride!

Current Mood: Esctatic

I got home from school a little while ago and there was an  email in my inbox from an address that I had never seen before, but the title of the email was OCC Saturday Morning Grade Report.  OCC are the initials for my college, and Saturday morning is my Algebra class.  I didn’t want to open it because I knew after reading the title that it was my grade for my Algebra test that I took Saturday.  But I also knew that there was no way I wasn’t going to open the email because I was dying to know how I did.  When I left the class after the test Saturday I felt fairly confident that I had passed the test with at least a B.  Imagine how blown away I was when I read this:  Homework             10/10    100.0% A+;  Test         92/100     92.0% A-    Then imagine how much more blown away I was when I read THIS:  Grade: A- (92.7%) Total Points: 102/110 Class Rank: 3

I have an A- for the class so far and I’m ranked 3rd in the class, there are like 25 people in the class!!!!!  I don’t even know what to say right now, I’m so blown away!!  I did peek into my hubby’s email to see what he got, and it’s not good.   Although he also got an A+ on his homework, he only got a D- on his test.  I feel really bad, I know he’s going to take it hard!

OK, I love my puppies, I honestly do, but what I don’t love is how they chew things up! I have all kinds of bones and toys for them to chew on when they get the urge to chew, but for some reason the just don’t understand that my husbands work shoes aren’t chew toys.

As you just read, we spent a good part of today car shopping. We didn’t think we would be gone very long so we didn’t put Willow in her cage. Willow, at 7 months old, is the youngest of our three dogs. She’s a good dog, but we know that if we’re going to be out of the house more than a hour it is in our best interest to put her in her cage. When we got home from the car dealership we found my husbands work boots lying in the middle of the living room with the insides completely torn out of them and chewed up. To say the least, he wasn’t a happy camper! Those boots were only a few months old and no where near needing to be replaced.

Thankfully MetBoots.com offers many brands of high quality workboots at really decent prices! On top of that they offer free shipping on all orders over $100. And since they offer many types of shipping, including next day, when he orders his new boots at least they will arrive quickly! Thank goodness for that because he has to go out of town and work the end of next week!

Guess?  Go ahead, I’ll wait while you think about it!

All right, I’m tired of waiting, man, you are SLOW!;)  I’M GETTING A “NEW” CAR!!!!!!!!!!!!  The word new is in quotes because it’s new to me and not brand new, but that’s OK because everyone knows how badly the price your brand new vehicle is worth drops once you drive it off the lot!

I’ve searched online for what seems like MONTHS for a new to me vehicle!  I knew what I REALLY wanted, but I also knew that since we really don’t have any credit history, that it would be nearly impossible to get what I wanted.  So I shopped around with an open mind.  The biggest thing that I NEED is simply a vehicle that is going to be reliable, but it also has to be within my price range with a payment that we can afford!

Today I test drove a Saturn L series wagon, a Ford Windstar, a Mazda 3, and a Ford Taurus.  I didn’t like the Mazda at all, the Saturn was really cool, but the engine light was on, the Taurus ended up being WAY out of our league, and I LOVED the Windstar!  But with as creative as they had to get in order to finance us, even though the Windstar was less expensive than what we’re probably going to get, it was a year older than the company that we’re financing through would allow.  So, unless something happens between now and next week (when I’ll have the downpayment), I will be the proud owner of a white 2004 Chevy Mailbu Classic.  Although I’m not a fan of Chevy’s the company that we’re going through for financing requires and provides a complete warranty on the vehicle for the duration of the loan/lease, which will help me feel better about buying a used car.  They even provide a loaner car if your vehicle ends up in the shop, which is a huge plus to me, that way I don’t end up having to find transportation back and forth to school and work in the event that the new car does break down on me!  What does worry me is having car payments for the first time in over 16 years!  But I’m excited!

Here is a picture of the actual vehicle from the dealership’s website:

She’s pretty, and she’s in MUCH better shape than my Honda!  And I don’t think the kids will be embarrassed of my car any more, do you?  LOL!