Updates

It's hard to even keep this current, so much crazy stuff happens every single day.

Mr F had 3 interviews last week (2 for 1 job, 1 for another).  Both seemed to go well.  One is to stay and one is to go.  It's very hard to know what the situation is, how many candidates are up for them, how soon they'll be through the process, and if he'll be left standing.  Some jobs are very clear about time frames and his position in the pool, other's not so much.  People can talk like he's one of one candidate.... when there could be 4 or 10... trying not to assume too much at this point.

Mr F revealed all the craziness related to his current supervisor to an upper management co-worker who is in the position to maybe help advise him on how to handle it and/or alert the boss if needed.  He basically said he wasn't surprised and felt really badly that everyone had kind of dropped the ball on that front and knew his supervisor is A) a bad designer that never had the credentials to get the job and no one but the boss wanted him hired B) is a terrible manager and communicator  C) the boss is clearly not going to fix that even if it drags the whole magazine down.  Weird.  It's very hard to even understand a situation where they are paying someone 2x what Mr F makes to do 15% of the work (badly), while Mr F does 60% yet has no content control so he can't head a redesign or keep the supervisor's shit out of the book, they know it and they won't fire him... even after hearing that he is also self promoting himself for another job with his staff's work. WTF?  The boss is a loose cannon who is out of touch with reality.  Case closed.

Remember when I thought this was going to be the year where I finally could have some time to myself?  Things would finally be stable, the girls would be in school, and I'd be able to make working out a daily priority?  Ha! What a joke.  I laugh about that pretty much every single day.  Then I cry when I look in the mirror (kidding... but... really I could).  Prolonged stress (tornado and now job/move) combined with age and it seems my metabolism is basically giving me the finger.

Mr F is still finishing up the exterior paint.  I think I've convinced him to take the trim color up over the blue... but he's waiting to see if we have to move before he tackles that.

I've spent some time inventorying the interior projects.  There are some things we can juggle (light fixtures, etc) to help stage it for selling without needing to invest too much.  And, hell, I'm going to order new stainless appliances now so I can at least enjoy them for a bit before we have to pass them on.  It takes me an HOUR to boil water, people... for the love of god... I could use a new stove!

I figured out that if we had rented this house for 2 years we would have spent 48K (ouch!  but true).  If we sell our house for exactly what we paid (which was under assessment at that time and a fair amount under now) even after our payments, realtor fees, closing costs, and 10K in improvements (which includes all new appliances) we'll be right at 48K out of pocket... so it's a wash and I won't stress over that.  The truth is we have now had about 50K in improvements (40K due to tornado) so it shouldn't be a stretch to sell this for a little bit over what we paid.  If we can't we will hold it as an investment and rent it (again 2K a month which is a fair amount over our house payment).  Because who the hell knows?!  We could be back here again (It's happened before).

The girls start school in 8 days!  They have both had home visits from their teachers, which went well, and was a really nice gesture.  It reinforced our feelings about this being a good choice for them.  I'll be really sad if we have to pull them out.  I've got all of their uniforms and school supplies and we are all set.  They even made me take them out to buy crosses... they wear them every day... it's hilarious how into it they are.  The only major bummer (outside of not having them around) is that I have to make lunches again (war criminals should have to make lunches for picky kids... they'll break after the first week).

In other fronts, my stone farmhouse is still listed!  The dream continues.

Mom, the summer kitchen could be your guest house it appears to have electricity... how much per month is that worth to you ;)
 

I've also figured out how to homeschool there... which... is a priority until we know where we should settle (if we settle).  There are about one thousand school districts and it's very confusing... it's pretty unlikely that we can find a rental in an area where we would want to buy later on or that would be in the same school even if we did.  Except that stoney which they are open to selling (but who knows if it's in our price range... unlikely).  Either way this time WE ARE NOT BUYING!  We plan to rent for at least one year while we figure out if it's a long term move or not, and where we'd like to live.  In the meantime we'll homeschool (virtual charter to meet state req) and not mess the kids up with changing schools more times than absolutely necessary.  This also gives us the perfect opportunity to try country living pretty risk free and see if it suits us or not.