13 May - Continued – ended up with some bug that is going around and “rested” for the better part of the 10th – got the letter signed though – and got some groceries. We were down to the bare basics – make that the bare shelves. The new refrigerator does not get here until the 14th and I am trying to not have to move a lot of stuff from one to the other – that only makes sense to me but no cream for coffee was carrying it a bit far. Well no milk might have been a little far to carry it too.

Let me tell you about the insurance thing – something to maybe even watch out for although I will give my loan officer the benefit of the doubt. My loan officer showed me a quote from an insurance company which I had never heard of – this was early in the loan process and I suggested he hold up as I was intending to stay with my insurance company – State Farm. LO said “But they are more expensive.” I said, “But I have heard of them and I know how well they respond to claims. And they have agents everywhere – not a faxed estimate from somewhere in CA.”

So I thought it was settled – I would have SF as my insurance company. A few days before we closed, I called my SF agent, Nate, to ask why I did not have a policy yet. He was very surprised to hear that I had insurance since he had not written anything. Come to find out – a clerical mistake was made at the bank and I had insurance with this strange company no one had ever heard of – well no one except the loan officers in Nevada and California which are the only two states the company is licensed in. Oh well – this was the day before closing so there was no way I was going to rock the boat. Nate and I decided to just leave it until after closing and then he would write me a policy and I could cancel the other insurance.

Getting a policy from Nate was easy. Getting the other policy canceled and a refund – not so easy. First the woman who answered the phone was probably the nastiest human I have ever talked to on a phone – just plain mean sounding. Scary! Demanded that to get a refund I would have to send a certified copy of the back and front of the payment check. Since the payment was made from closing funds that was something I had no access to. Then demanded a copy of my policy from State Farm – why I don’t know but they could not cancel unless they saw that. Finally I threw myself on the loan officer’s mercy. He was somewhat insulted but I managed to calm his ruffled feathers – and he faxed the letter and the copy of my insurance binder. So hopefully, in about ten days, I should have a check from the insurance company. I am NOT holding my breath however.

14 May – today I had to get blood drawn. You know, I did not realize that turning 65 meant I had to give more blood than I have every few months. Oh well – it sure beats the alternative and I guess I am glad my doctors are making themselves – and more importantly me – aware of any health issues so I can control them. I have lots of stuff to do – AFTER I get all these boxes unpacked.

After the blood draw – I THOUGHT I was going to unpack, but I had to fill out all the rebate forms for my new appliances. WOW! They really do not want to give that money away. I have to have all sorts of proofs – proof that I purchased the “right” appliances, proof that they were delivered and installed, proof that the old stuff was taken away and will never be used again. That last part is a given since I am pretty sure the appliances in this house date back to the 60’s. I do not even remember my mom having a range with grids like those. The house does not date back that far, but I think the previous owners found the oldest appliances they could to put in for the sale. Oh well, my shiny new appliances arrive tomorrow.

I can hardly wait! I did not realize how much I relied on my dishwasher, microwave and washer. With my son and granddaughter here – we use a mountain of dishes and a mountain of towels. The washer is going to be very busy tomorrow night!!!

Now, my granddaughter and I are going to roll up the rug I have down in the family room – with two dogs bringing in small bushes and trees – a rug is just not practical. Besides I have to keep moving the chairs further and further from the bookcases to keep the dogs from getting into the living room and the new furniture. While I was sick they forgot some of their house training and I want to retrain them before they have the run of the house – but they do have the run of the family room and the yard – and they are in seventh heaven!

Angel – my very misnamed dog – will start to bark and when I yell and tell her to stop – she does this little quiet “woof” --- “woof” --- “woof”. Reminds me of when I was a child – my mom would tell my sister and me that she did not want to hear another peep out of us as we were supposed to be going to bed. You know we had to say “peep” veeerrrrrrryyyyy quietly!!!
Rug moved to garage – family room back straitened up – trees and bushes swept up for now – dogs ecstatic.

Not much more unpacking for a few hours – have to leave to go to TNT – our Thursday night Bible study and fun night with the children at church. It is like having about thirty grandchildren for a couple of hours and then getting to send them home! I do crafts with them. Tonight we are ending until summer programs start – and we are making “A Cup of Hope”. One of the children suggested it – and it will be so easy. They decorate paper cups, use yarn to make a hanger and take their cup of hope or joy home for the summer. It should be a fun and quick activity – very good since they are practicing for their spring musical and we only have about 15 minutes of the evening for craft. The rest will be practice, meal and more practice.

Oh, before I end for the day – the garage door sage. Had to have a new garage door installed – that was expensive enough, but the opener s would not work – even the pad inside the garage would not work. And I could not remember the secret code. As I backed out of the driveway to make another Lowes run the day of the big garage door fix, the technician yelled at me to give him a secret code – I yelled one back and asked him to write it down until I could get it memorized. (I used different codes for everything – it really irritates my son!!! Hmmm-do you think that is why I do it? Nah! Just 35 years of security training on the job.) Well – he did not write it down – and I could not remember it. It is very secret.

Since the openers did not work, I called for help and they sent out a technician – he moved some stuff around, installed a new touchpad and said it was ok. It wasn’t! The remotes still worked only when they wanted to. So today I called for a technician – again – this is getting expensive. In the meantime, my son’s had rearranged some wires – I did not know this and paid this technician for another call to prove that I was nuts. The remotes were working fine. I did have him reset the number on the keypad though – to one I know and can remember! Hopefully that little tale of moving is over for good. Now to get all the boxes out of the garage so I can get the car into the garage. As it gets hotter and hotter every day here in Nevada, it would be nice to get back into the car and be able to breathe.

My granddaughter is unpacking books, bless her heart!!!! She told me to advertise the rug on craigslist – I think of myself as computer literate, but I cannot figure out craigslist – I tried this morning for about thirty minutes to post an ad to GIVE AWAY all my packing boxes to anyone here in the area who needs them – all they would have to do is pick them up. Well I could not figure it out – as Scarlett used to say – It will have to wait until tomorrow. Well she said something like that anyway. And if you do not know who Scarlett is, you are not old enough to be reading this.

Actually I would get more done if it were not for all the running I do - – run to WALMART, run to Lowes, run and get curtains because the solar screens do NOT block out visions at night – visions I would rather no one had – LOL. Run to get rugs for the bathroom so I do not slip and fall and break my neck – run to get something to eat because I am too tired to cook.

15 May – well yesterday was exciting – got my new appliances. They make my kitchen look like a Real kitchen – the installers kinked the hose to the ice maker – but Joe got it unkinked and we have cold water and will soon have ice. Ran to the post office to make sure rebate forms postmarked on time - after making copies of 16 gazillions pages of paper - and running to Home Depot to get a copy of my sales slip. Page three had disappearred. Had to go get groceries this morning – I did not want to move groceries so I tried to get down to the bare necessities – and I gave a bunch to the food bank – but I did a better job of getting down to bare necessities than I planned – I was down to Old Mother Hubbard’s cupboard. Today I am making chicken and noodles – homemade – and I think I will pick up some corn on the cob when I go to the grocery to get Dylan’s chicken that I forgot. I love my new appliances – my washer and dryer are bright red and the kitchen is all black appliance with white tile counters and floors – looks great.

Got a few boxes unpacked today – mirror is hung in den – which is also guest room and at moment granddaughter’s room. I can remember back in the good old days – when I was younger – much younger – I would work all day and come home at night and unpack until midnight – usually had the house all settled within a week – maybe week and a weekend. Now – I will be lucky to have it done by Memorial Day – and my granddaughter has helped me a lot. Of course I have had to move around the kitchen a bit, but there is no way another “woman” can arrange a kitchen – just cannot be done. She has done pretty well though – only had a few things to move around. Still have not found my measuring cups though – oh well my calibrated measuring hand works pretty well – for solids. Not so well for liquids – they leak right out.

Found page 3 - granddaughter's cat had moved it - behind the file cabinet! I may wring that cat's neck yet. I am allergic to cats - but how do you tell a granddaughter she has to take her cat to the shelter - so the cat is here and I am taking allergy pills. LOL.

Chapter 3 will be coming up soon.