Say goodnight

Again with the lyrics... but JoBros said it man - Hold on tight, It's a roller coaster ride we're on, So say goodbye 'cause I won't be back again, Up and down, You're all around, Say goodnight and goodbye.

There has been so much going on and I have wanted to post for a couple weeks. When I try to put it all together all I can think is to randomly list what I can of it all...

Remy has been having high blood sugars. I am not overly concerned. I assume she is growing.
Mark has been having low blood sugars. Ugh, I hate this. It reminds me of the days when we were dating and he would get low. It scares me. His transplant just can't go bad. It can't.

Mark recently had his A1c done, and it was high - 8.9
Remy's last A1c came down since her last one, 8.4 from 8.9
I am worried that Remy's is still going to be high when we go in this week to see the endocrinologist.
I worry about Mark, that with his blood sugars going so high and so low, he's going to end up back on a pump.

My folks came out to visit us a week or so ago. They went and looked at some houses while they were here.
None of them were in the exact town that we live in. There are some great houses that would be perfect for them!

The house in Illinois. I don't know if I even want to talk about it. But you wouldn't even believe some of the things that have been going on. The play area in the basement has a shelf with a rod attached to it for the dress up clothes. My folks found it on the floor of the playroom, completely ripped out of the wall. All the things that were on it were strewn all over the room. There was a toilet completely, how shall I say... "full" and clogged. The whole house smelled of it, I guess. One of the blue stone stepping stones from the back yard was stolen. Someone keeps smoking on the back deck. There were muddy footprints on the pool cover. One time when my folks stopped at the house to check on things, the neighbor took the liberty to let his party guests' children use our swing set. The kicker was this last week though. My mom went back to the house to take care of the toilets. They get so gross just sitting there. Molding. The first toilet she went to was in the Master Bath Room on the first floor. Inside the toilet was a squirrel. Yeah, dead. I'll let you take that in for a minute. How does that even happen? Someone had to put it there. Seriously.

This past weekend was a nightmare with an Open House at the IL house. I won't get into it in detail. I'll just say there is some kind of egotistical battle between our realtor, her husband and my parents. Ugh. Enough already!

It just goes to show me that I come from a long line of crazy people. (It makes me fear for my kids. What have I done passing down my DNA to them?) I can't understand these situations that God keeps presenting me with. After this weekend, I honestly didn't know what to do. I just wanted to curl up in the fetal position and remain there for a good long while.

The hardest part of the whole event was the fact that Mark got this voicemail from our realtor after we had this great morning. Mark and Remy went to the lab, first thing in the morning and Remy did great getting her blood drawn. She said it really didn't hurt. Then both kids went right in to Children on the Move at church - gladly! The sermon series has been about parenting and very timely. After church they had an info session on a Dave Ramsey series that the church is doing for thirteen weeks. Also, there was a new friend of mine there, that I know from the neighborhood and her daughter and Remy are in the same class this coming year and they also have a son the same age as Dax... long story short, she and Mark graduated high school together! We were meant to be here!

So when all this happened after a great morning... I crashed. Surprisingly, I didn't cry. I felt stronger than that. But, I felt like I just don't know what to do anymore. It's an awful feeling.

Regarding the house. The house has been on the market since the end of March. Early April? We started out listed at 648,000. It is now listed at 599,000. We owe that much in mortgages. That leaves nothing for the realtor, taxes, lawyers, stamps, yada yada yada. We are doing a short sale. Which means any offer that is made goes to the mortgage company to approve. We have nothing to do with it. The offers we have received are 425,000 and the latest is 465,000. But we hear nothing from the bank. There is no follow through, follow up, or communication. An appraiser from the bank was supposedly out at the house. There is no record of it, no one knows anything. Anything we fax (with confirmation of it going through) they say they have never received. Mark spends his days and nights on hold with Chase for either our first, or our second, or the realtor, or the attorney, or the attorney for Chase. (He now calls daily, seriously) No one knows anything. No one has anything. Mark was on hold again tonight and after getting transferred for the umpteenth time, he gets to the person’s voice-mail box, it says, "There is not enough memory for this mailbox. Good bye." Mark says, "You got that right!"

Oh, and the date has been moved up for the auction on the house if it doesn't sell. It was originally going to be auctioned in February. Now it is December 20-something. Merry Christmas! Someone can get a great deal on a house from the bank for Christmas!

We are getting every last thing out of the house this weekend when we are in town. We didn't plan on this. We are getting a storage in IL. I would have rather brought everything up here, so I felt like I actually "had" it. We have no money to rent a trailer. We have no money to rent the storage. We have no money. Period.

Thank the Lord for Mark's office manager at work. She understands our situation, and gives Mark an advance on his paycheck. It doesn't last long, as we buy groceries and meds with it. Or gas for our cars. It makes no sense how fast it's gone. When do those financial classes at church start? Not soon enough!

Kids are still home this week. School starts after the holiday. They are excited to go back to IL for the weekend.
Before we leave, the kids have "Sneak Peek" at school. They drop off supplies and meet their teachers.
I have a feeling this year is going to be a good one. Well, as far as school goes!

So, I had this group interview, for a retail job. I filled out all the paperwork after the interview to get hired. I know they called one of my references. But I have not heard anything else. I was hoping it would all be moving right along... they do orientation that takes a few nights to complete. They also require drug testing before hire. Maybe nothing will happen until after the holiday. I am excited to get out and work and have money to contribute to things we need, like food. medicine. heat. I don't look forward to retail, drama, and hawking the store credit card. But the store discount is sweet.

Work is good for Mark. Thank God for that. Humbly, I really, really thank God for that. It is going well, he seems to like it there and I am thankful it brought us here.

My life couldn't be stranger... even if it were fiction.

Now go watch some Ace of Cakes. Duff can make anything awesome. Out of Cake. Yummmmmm.