Things are getting a little more settled around here. Carla is still not completely out of her house...the first sale fell thru-the people didn't pass the park's background check. Then she had another offer just a week or so after the first one didn't work out-the guy passed the park's background check and he said he had cash for the house-well, apparently not-he called Carla a couple of weeks ago and told her he had a financial emergency and didn't have the money for the house after all. So it's back on the market-pretty sure no one is going to even make an offer till the holidays are over now! So of course she can't pay the mortgage on Dad's place since she has to continue to pay her house's space rent until it sells...bleah...
Carl and Carla went down to California to visit their Dad and their sister Jackie. Dad lives with Jackie and her husband in El Sobrante. Carl had found a vanity plate that Mom had on her car. It was in one of the storage sheds out at the Spanaway house. So he made a cigar box guitar using the plate as the face and took it to Dad. He doesn't play but Carl thought it was a nice way to use the plate. He thinks his Dad liked it but was kind of in shock...He is definetly healthier living down there it sounds like.
Anyway that's about it for now-I've been sick for a week and a half with a really nasty cold but seem to be coming out of it-at least I've had a 4 day weekend to try and recoup!
Been doing a little sewing-making needle books out of scraps of fabric-they are kinda cute!
Went to work with Carl on Friday since I had that day off and he only had 16 stops. He has a route in Lynnwood and Brier on Friday-it was so icy out there! We were constantly sliding and fish-tailing around! Ugh it was scary...
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Saturday, November 5, 2011
2 weeks into my new job and still learning! I started some training classes this week. Will be in training almost the whole month of november. Some days will be be 6 or 7 hours and some 3 or 4 hours. We are learning ALOT about insurance...my brain feels overloaded, lol! Some of what we are learning really has almost nothing to do with my job but my managers feel we should take all the classes anyway, to get an idea of what all the other departments do at Davita and how it all ties in with our job. I'm getting a little frustrated though-I just want to be at my desk learning my actual job!
I won't be going to Denver-actually kinda glad about that-don't like to fly and have talked to others that have gone to "academy"...most describe it as kinda of like being in some cult.
On to other news-my sister-in-law Carla will be moving in with us today.She lost her job awhile ago and is on unemployment. She also lives here in the park and just sold her mobile home. Once she is living here with us she will take over the mortgage payment on the Spanaway house which will take a burden off of Carl and I. Carl lost about $800.00 a month of his income shortly after we started paying that second mortgage and my lousy nine bucks an hour wasn't helping much. So we have been getting more and more behind every month and had to stop working on the Spanaway house because we are paying out of pocket to do all the repairs.
With Carla's help and my raise, we should be able to get back on that project soon and maybe even be moved out there by spring or early summer.
We'll see how it goes...
I won't be going to Denver-actually kinda glad about that-don't like to fly and have talked to others that have gone to "academy"...most describe it as kinda of like being in some cult.
On to other news-my sister-in-law Carla will be moving in with us today.She lost her job awhile ago and is on unemployment. She also lives here in the park and just sold her mobile home. Once she is living here with us she will take over the mortgage payment on the Spanaway house which will take a burden off of Carl and I. Carl lost about $800.00 a month of his income shortly after we started paying that second mortgage and my lousy nine bucks an hour wasn't helping much. So we have been getting more and more behind every month and had to stop working on the Spanaway house because we are paying out of pocket to do all the repairs.
With Carla's help and my raise, we should be able to get back on that project soon and maybe even be moved out there by spring or early summer.
We'll see how it goes...
Monday, October 24, 2011
first day at the new job
Today was my first day in my new job...it went well for the most part, but, wow, do I have alot to learn!!
I wasn't able to access 3 of the programs I need to actually do my job-had to call IT at our corporate offices to see if they could fix that-they were showing everything had been done on their end, but I could not log in. Was on the phone for almost an hour with them and still not fixed...hopefully tomorrow.
So I had to do my work at my trainers computer, kinda lame for both of us but we managed. I learned how to pull up claims and print them-how to look up information on claims, starting to learn what certain codes mean.
Took some notes but it's a little more difficult when you can't get logged into the programs your going to be using every day, sheesh!
There are 6 people on my team, 4 women and 2 men. Today was the first day on the job for one of the other women as well so there are 2 of us that are new to the position.
We all went for a walk around ten for our morning break-it was nice and apparently they do that pretty much every day as a team.
So far so good-hopefully I will catch on quickly and be up and running pretty much on my own in a few weeks!
I wasn't able to access 3 of the programs I need to actually do my job-had to call IT at our corporate offices to see if they could fix that-they were showing everything had been done on their end, but I could not log in. Was on the phone for almost an hour with them and still not fixed...hopefully tomorrow.
So I had to do my work at my trainers computer, kinda lame for both of us but we managed. I learned how to pull up claims and print them-how to look up information on claims, starting to learn what certain codes mean.
Took some notes but it's a little more difficult when you can't get logged into the programs your going to be using every day, sheesh!
There are 6 people on my team, 4 women and 2 men. Today was the first day on the job for one of the other women as well so there are 2 of us that are new to the position.
We all went for a walk around ten for our morning break-it was nice and apparently they do that pretty much every day as a team.
So far so good-hopefully I will catch on quickly and be up and running pretty much on my own in a few weeks!
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Haven't been out to the Spanaway house in months now...it's tough when you're paying out of pocket to do a project this huge. Looking like we won't be moving out there anytime soon. We did get some of the trees taken down. One that was about 80 feet tall and leaning toward the house, really relieved we got that one out of there before the bad weather sets in. Took out some smaller ones where we intend to put Carla's place and cleaned up alot of the big trees that had dead branches that needed to come out. A friend of ours from Montana came out and did most of the work for us (he owns one of the biggest tree-trimming businesses in Montana) We learned alot!
I applied for a new position at Davita and got it! I start on the 24th. It's an entry level position where I will be generating insurance claims and doing some follow up calls if they don't get paid in a timely manner. That's kind of a basic idea of what I will be doing anyway...it's a nice raise too-right now I make $9.25 an hour working as a mail processor-I will be making $13.50 an hour in my new position and no heavy lifting required! Yay!
I'm looking forward to learning something new :)
I was also nominated to go to Denver next month for the Davita Academy. Denver is where the company has their headquarters. Academy is kind of a 3 day overview/learning event about Davita. Not sure if I can still go as I will be changing teams and usually one person from each team is chosen to go...I hate flying and am nervous about going anyway-but the company pays for everything, so maybe I will go if my new manager doesn't mind.
I applied for a new position at Davita and got it! I start on the 24th. It's an entry level position where I will be generating insurance claims and doing some follow up calls if they don't get paid in a timely manner. That's kind of a basic idea of what I will be doing anyway...it's a nice raise too-right now I make $9.25 an hour working as a mail processor-I will be making $13.50 an hour in my new position and no heavy lifting required! Yay!
I'm looking forward to learning something new :)
I was also nominated to go to Denver next month for the Davita Academy. Denver is where the company has their headquarters. Academy is kind of a 3 day overview/learning event about Davita. Not sure if I can still go as I will be changing teams and usually one person from each team is chosen to go...I hate flying and am nervous about going anyway-but the company pays for everything, so maybe I will go if my new manager doesn't mind.
Sunday, June 19, 2011
The house is coming along, sorry I don't have any new pics to post-camera needs new batteries.
Read an article on flower arranging in a magazine at work on Friday that made me think back to when I was very young. My maternal grandparents owned a flower shop in Seattle when I was a little girl, Columbia Florist, and I spent alot of time there growing up. My mom worked there and did alot if not all of the wedding and funeral flower arrangements. My great-grandmother spent time there as well but I don't remember if she had anything to do with the flowers or if she was a receptionist...
I remember the fragrance of flowers filling the place, riding with my step-grandpa Les on deliveries and someone had small dogs that were at the shop too, pekinese I think...
Actually my grandma gave me my wedding flowers for a gift so they must have still had the shop even then! I will have to have my mom refresh my memory lol.
I do remember I loved it there though!
Read an article on flower arranging in a magazine at work on Friday that made me think back to when I was very young. My maternal grandparents owned a flower shop in Seattle when I was a little girl, Columbia Florist, and I spent alot of time there growing up. My mom worked there and did alot if not all of the wedding and funeral flower arrangements. My great-grandmother spent time there as well but I don't remember if she had anything to do with the flowers or if she was a receptionist...
I remember the fragrance of flowers filling the place, riding with my step-grandpa Les on deliveries and someone had small dogs that were at the shop too, pekinese I think...
Actually my grandma gave me my wedding flowers for a gift so they must have still had the shop even then! I will have to have my mom refresh my memory lol.
I do remember I loved it there though!
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Kitchen before
You can see how filthy this kitchen was-we tried to clean some of the cabinets...they are all coming out!
Sunday, May 1, 2011
progress on the house
This is the front of the house after we tore down the ivy that was completely covering the walls and windows-the front porch is also torn down at this point.
Ivy covering whats left of the front porch roof.
Front porch torn off and siding being removed-we found lots of dry rot and termite damage.
Front corner of the house next to the garage-the master bedroom. The floor was completely rotted thru in the corner next to the gate. The wall and window were removed shortly after I snapped this pic.
One corner of the living room before we started emptying the house.
Dining room. The carpet is literally soaked in cat pee.
Smaller bathroom-carpeted, yuk!
One of the two smaller bedrooms that Mom was using for her sewing room.
Another of the smaller bedrooms after we pulled carpet and started packing.
Living room.
Dining room.
Taken from the doorway of the master bedroom into the dining room and farther back is the living room. I can't wait to tear out all that paneling!!
Master bathroom.
Master bedroom. The hole in the floor is in the upper right hand corner behind the chair. This is taken after we pulled the bed out of the room.
Back porch-we are moving that bamboo-its completely blocking the kitchen window and is way too close to the house. The back porch is coming off too.
Front yard.
One of many storage buildings out on the back of the property. Feral cats have been pooping on the rafters for years! Needless to say thats coming down.
Old chicken coop and more sheds.
Some kind of screened pergola thing Dad built. Its rotted.
Some of the back yard.
More rotted storage sheds. The roofs have rotted and leaked-everything inside these is ruined pretty much.
Back porch and yet another storage unit almost completely engulfed in blackberry bushes.
This is part of the deck on the back of the house. It extended to the left and right of this section. The rest was rotted and dangerous so we pulled it off.
Front porch. Gives somewhat of an idea of the ivy engulfing the house.
Front porch-this furniture was for the cats...
Driveway and front corner of the house.
Ivy covering whats left of the front porch roof.
Front porch torn off and siding being removed-we found lots of dry rot and termite damage.
Front corner of the house next to the garage-the master bedroom. The floor was completely rotted thru in the corner next to the gate. The wall and window were removed shortly after I snapped this pic.
One corner of the living room before we started emptying the house.
Dining room. The carpet is literally soaked in cat pee.
Smaller bathroom-carpeted, yuk!
One of the two smaller bedrooms that Mom was using for her sewing room.
Another of the smaller bedrooms after we pulled carpet and started packing.
Living room.
Dining room.
Taken from the doorway of the master bedroom into the dining room and farther back is the living room. I can't wait to tear out all that paneling!!
Master bathroom.
Master bedroom. The hole in the floor is in the upper right hand corner behind the chair. This is taken after we pulled the bed out of the room.
Back porch-we are moving that bamboo-its completely blocking the kitchen window and is way too close to the house. The back porch is coming off too.
Front yard.
One of many storage buildings out on the back of the property. Feral cats have been pooping on the rafters for years! Needless to say thats coming down.
Old chicken coop and more sheds.
Some kind of screened pergola thing Dad built. Its rotted.
Some of the back yard.
More rotted storage sheds. The roofs have rotted and leaked-everything inside these is ruined pretty much.
Back porch and yet another storage unit almost completely engulfed in blackberry bushes.
This is part of the deck on the back of the house. It extended to the left and right of this section. The rest was rotted and dangerous so we pulled it off.
Front porch. Gives somewhat of an idea of the ivy engulfing the house.
Front porch-this furniture was for the cats...
Driveway and front corner of the house.
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Broke a tooth last Thursday, went to the dentist today to see what could be done, ended up having to have it pulled! Great, now I'm missing 7 teeth...I really have to look into getting a partial denture. This is what happens when you don't have dental insurance in your 20's and 30's. Sure, some of it is my fault, but if I could have afforded a few small fillings back then I don't believe I would be having the problems I'm having now. Oh well, at least I took the day off-as soon as I can take this wad of gauze out of my mouth and the numbness passes, I'm going to the fabric store!
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Went to the Spanaway house over the weekend-got a few more things done...most of the rooms are packed up and the carpet is pulled up in all the rooms except one bedroom. Did I mention this place had carpets in the bathrooms?! Yuck! Each time we go out there the first thing I do is open the doors so we can air it out! You can't imagine the reek...when we pulled up the carpet in the dining room it was wet all along one wall-soaked with cat pee! Getting all the carpet out and the ancient curtains has helped with getting rid of the stench. We found a large hole in the floor of the master bedroom, rotted all the way through and mold half way up the wall. It is looking better though if you can believe it. Carl fixed some of the wiring-from the way he described it I can't believe the place hasn't caught fire! Kyle and Carla have been helping alot, going out there a few times a week while Carl and I are at work. Carl is having some issues with his job-they want to cut his pay by about $100.00 per day-it costs about that to fill his gas tank each time he does his route! So they are bargaining right now-but Carl is telling me he wants to quit, which is fine, but I don't know what he will do for work at this stage of his life. He has some applications in at Boeing but each time he has heard back they have filled the position. I hope he can find something...
Sunday, March 20, 2011
kinda busy weekend
So in our current situation, (paying 2 mortagages), my husband has been trying to figure out some ways for us to cut down some of our expenses. Decided to take the Harley down to the shop and see if we could trade it in on something else or maybe consign it down there. He decided to trade it in on an '07 police escort bike. Our payments will be a little over a hundred dollars less per month. I keep trying to suggest small ways we can save money but I get the feeling he doesn't really want to try most of them. Things like getting rid of cable, we rarely watch tv, he mostly watches movies that we own. Also thought we could quit playing WOW. It costs us a little less than $30.00 per month which adds up over a year-he hasn't played in several months, but again, he doesn't want to do that either...I can't seem to convince him that those few dollars a month that just trickle away do add up and we would notice a savings over time. He wants to go for the big stuff, try to cut payments in half, that kind of thing. We did pay off our Shell gas card and he shredded it so thats good. We have some other credit cards as well. one for Lowe's and one for Home Depot-they each have $300.00 dollar limits and we should be able to pay them down fairly quickly-plus we want to use them to fix up the house in Spanaway. I really want to take pictures of how bad that place looks before we get much further cleaning it up-maybe post some of them here-it's pretty disgusting-and it reeks of cat pee and mice and I don't know what all...my eyes start burning as soon as we walk in and by the time we leave my throat is burning too. I'm sure getting the carpet pulled out will make a huge difference.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
not much to tell
A few things have happened in the past couple of months. Israel moved out at the end of January. Moved into a duplex in Tacoma just a few blocks from where he works. Didn't want to depend on us to get him back and forth to work, now he lives close enough that he can walk or ride his bike. He texted me a couple of weeks ago that he had paid off one of his traffic tickets so he is getting closer to getting his drivers license back.
Jericho and her husband Mike moved to Lynnwood last weekend. Mike works out there and they had been looking for a place for awhile. Jericho got a new job in west Seattle not sure when she starts. She is currently working in Auburn. They are renting an older split level with 3 bedrooms 2 bathrooms and 2 fireplaces! It's on a nice piece of property with lots of trees and a couple of raised beds she wants to plant some veggies and herbs in. There were a few bunches of snowdrops coming up when I was there. She took her cat home with her-he has been living with us for years. They couldn't have him at the apartment they were in. She said he has explored the whole house and is settling in nicely. He did not like that hour long ride in the car though...
I got my sewing/craft room back when Iz moved out but other than moving things in there I haven't really spent any time in there.
Carl's dad is moving to California this week to live with his daughter Jackie. She has a little one bedroom house out in the back yard of her place that is all fixed up for him-all he needs to do is bring his clothes! So we are taking over his old place in Spanaway. We won't be living out there for a year probably but at least we can get started gutting the place this weekend. We will be paying 2 mortgages starting next month...at least they are both pretty low. The place is a mess and we really do have to gut it-it's an old, old mobile home-there are soft spots in the floors, mice in the cupboards and feral cats in the back yard! But it's a nice piece of property, almost an acre I think, I can have a garden and we might even get a couple of chickens. Carl can have a shop out there for his woodworking too. So maybe I will have something to blog about more often once we get started out there :)
Jericho and her husband Mike moved to Lynnwood last weekend. Mike works out there and they had been looking for a place for awhile. Jericho got a new job in west Seattle not sure when she starts. She is currently working in Auburn. They are renting an older split level with 3 bedrooms 2 bathrooms and 2 fireplaces! It's on a nice piece of property with lots of trees and a couple of raised beds she wants to plant some veggies and herbs in. There were a few bunches of snowdrops coming up when I was there. She took her cat home with her-he has been living with us for years. They couldn't have him at the apartment they were in. She said he has explored the whole house and is settling in nicely. He did not like that hour long ride in the car though...
I got my sewing/craft room back when Iz moved out but other than moving things in there I haven't really spent any time in there.
Carl's dad is moving to California this week to live with his daughter Jackie. She has a little one bedroom house out in the back yard of her place that is all fixed up for him-all he needs to do is bring his clothes! So we are taking over his old place in Spanaway. We won't be living out there for a year probably but at least we can get started gutting the place this weekend. We will be paying 2 mortgages starting next month...at least they are both pretty low. The place is a mess and we really do have to gut it-it's an old, old mobile home-there are soft spots in the floors, mice in the cupboards and feral cats in the back yard! But it's a nice piece of property, almost an acre I think, I can have a garden and we might even get a couple of chickens. Carl can have a shop out there for his woodworking too. So maybe I will have something to blog about more often once we get started out there :)
Saturday, January 1, 2011
another year gone
Whoosh! Another year just flew by didn't it?!
Not making any resolutions but I am setting some goals.
Started my day off by getting some sewing done that has been waiting on me for a few months-just hemming some pants for my nieces that I just hadn't been able to get to. I think I mentioned a while ago that my sewing machine and my beading table are now part of the dining room so it's been a challenge to even get near them let alone do any work.
It's a gorgeous day here today really cold but beautiful blue sky as far as I can see!
Getting back into the rhythm of working full time again finally...and the job isn't bad-we have really busy days and really slow days but we are a really good team and all help each other. There have been some fairly big changes to our routine though-the accounts payable department was moved to another building where we have the rest of our finance departments. It's the Columbia Bank building in downtown Tacoma and it's about 6 blocks away from our building. So this means we are making 3 or more trips every day to that building, taking the invoices over there and picking up checks that have to be processed and mailed out. Some go regular mail and alot we send overnight via Fedex. It's alot of hard physical work lifting huge bins of heavy mail in and out of the vehicle, loading them onto hand trucks, delivering to 4 different floors, picking up mail to be sorted etc and taking it back to the mailroom...anyway you get the idea!
I want to work on my attitude this year-I need to be more positive, smile more, face every day expecting good things instead of negative.
I've been feeling vaguely fearful most every day and need to work on that as well-don't really know why and don't like to over-analyse why I feel the way I do just want to get over myself!
Was feeling really depressed for awhile too but started taking some herbs and vitamins and melatonin to help me get more sleep and I think it's helping.
Really hate getting up at 4:30am though...lol.
Not making any resolutions but I am setting some goals.
Started my day off by getting some sewing done that has been waiting on me for a few months-just hemming some pants for my nieces that I just hadn't been able to get to. I think I mentioned a while ago that my sewing machine and my beading table are now part of the dining room so it's been a challenge to even get near them let alone do any work.
It's a gorgeous day here today really cold but beautiful blue sky as far as I can see!
Getting back into the rhythm of working full time again finally...and the job isn't bad-we have really busy days and really slow days but we are a really good team and all help each other. There have been some fairly big changes to our routine though-the accounts payable department was moved to another building where we have the rest of our finance departments. It's the Columbia Bank building in downtown Tacoma and it's about 6 blocks away from our building. So this means we are making 3 or more trips every day to that building, taking the invoices over there and picking up checks that have to be processed and mailed out. Some go regular mail and alot we send overnight via Fedex. It's alot of hard physical work lifting huge bins of heavy mail in and out of the vehicle, loading them onto hand trucks, delivering to 4 different floors, picking up mail to be sorted etc and taking it back to the mailroom...anyway you get the idea!
I want to work on my attitude this year-I need to be more positive, smile more, face every day expecting good things instead of negative.
I've been feeling vaguely fearful most every day and need to work on that as well-don't really know why and don't like to over-analyse why I feel the way I do just want to get over myself!
Was feeling really depressed for awhile too but started taking some herbs and vitamins and melatonin to help me get more sleep and I think it's helping.
Really hate getting up at 4:30am though...lol.
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