It’s Sunday, November 13, 2011. Today started off with me hitting the snooze button on the alarm clock. I set it to wake me so we could visit the UU church in Wausau, WI. Today is the last day of the kid’s relocation vacation. Everyone was sound asleep except my 9 year old, Levi, who is usually the first up on non-school days and playing games on my lap top. I decided to let everyone including myself sleep in after all so we missed church. We got up after 10am.
Mornings consist of my little guy, Kyle age 6, needing help getting his breakfast. His sisters, Hannah age 13 and Kara age 11, were quite capable of taking care of their own breakfast by age 6 and I believe Levi was too but Kyle has youngest in the family syndrome. I don’t care a lot for cereal at this time so I usually cook up an egg and sausage or make a breakfast burrito for myself. I’m not usually hungry in the morning but I try to eat because I believe my metabolism has suffered enough and I try to at least start the day off right. I usually end up forgetting to eat lunch though so I’m really not really doing my body any big favors.
The kids and I are staying at my ex’s small two bedroom apartment in Marshfield WI. We moved here from Springfield, Mo where the kids were enrolled in school and had councilors and therapy for the ASD and friends who are family to us and even made some new friends and so forth and so on. We were there a year and finally got established. I tried to convince my ex to move there when he retired from the Navy for the kid’s sake. He made up his mind that moving to Marshfield, WI would be best for him because the state would then pay for his college education. Marshfield is where his parents and youngest sister live and it’s close to the collage he wants to attend in Stevens Point. The youngest three of my kids have expressed one way or another that they want a daddy figure around so we pulled up the tent stakes and now… here we are.
This area doesn’t seem to care for advertising much on Craigs List and not at all on Rent.com. Not only that but rentals are few and far between in the winter, apparently you have to wait till spring to actually have choices. That’s not just for Marshfiled, but Stevens Point and Wausau as well. I finally settled on a duplex that was actually nice except for the via duct at the edge of the backyard. I was concerned my boys might get curious and hike up there and get hit by the train. However, it didn’t seem there was anything else and we really need to get out of this apartment that belongs to my ex. He could stay here, there’s an extras mattress, but he chooses to stay at his folks house. Neither of us is interested in reconciling our marriage but we both have agreed to get along and be nice cause of the kids. Personally I think this is the best we have ever gotten along. It seems we do better as friends than as a couple.
I settled on the duplex and called Success Reality and let the lady that handles rentals know I would take it. Before I could come in on Monday I had to take Kyle to the ER because he had flu like symptoms and was dehydrated. I had been trying to get Pedialyte into him as often as I could but it was a struggle. My ex, Preston, hadn’t yet left on his trip to Jordan to meet his girlfriend for the first time so he was able to come to the hospital and stay with Kyle while I went to the office and filled out the rental application. I asked how long it would take to get approved and she said it could be up to three days.
I called the lady at Success Reality the next day and she said all she had left to do was call my last landlord and get a reference. The next day, day three, I called again. The man that answered said it was her day off but he would look into it for me and call me back. He did just that and was happy to tell me I was approved. The lady called me the next day to tell me the exact same thing and then to add the clincher. She told me the place wouldn’t be available for a few weeks because the folks living there hadn’t moved out due to trouble they are having with buying a home. I was pretty ticked. I really was hoping to be moving out and have it done before Preston got back so he could have his place to himself, or at least without me being in it. I also was hoping to have stuff unpacked before the kids went back to school. And, I didn’t like being deceived. She should have been upfront and said something about it before and added a note like others do in all the Craigs List adds.
So I continued my search and Friday I had two appointments to see four bedroom homes in Chili and in Spencer. The home in Chili was a wonderful farm house that the wonderful owners told me would be available at the end of the month. The one in Spencer was two blocks from the public school and owned by a realtor who works for Success Reality. It was purple and even the inside made me feel like I was in an enlarged doll house. It was actually very nice and the lady who owned it gave me the scoop on the lady who I was ticked at at her job.
I found it ironic that all this time I couldn’t find a home I was happy with until Friday when I found two. The farm house was on the top of my list because I felt most comfortable there and because it was what I had wanted all along. At one time I even told Preston and his parents I wanted a home like that and they thought I was funny. Getting a farm house and all isn’t something you can do when you first move to a new area.
I decided I’d go with the farm house in Chili and called my ex-in-laws to see if they’d help me check it out again on Saturday. They are from here and know what to look for in a home. The folks were more than happy to help me out. Saturday I text my ex-sister-in-law who shares the same name I have with a different spelling, instead of Lori Koran Revels, she’s Laurie Ann Revels. She said she was already with the folks and would see me there. They were more than pleased with the house and what good shape it was in and the owner.
Grandma and Grandpa Revels on their anniversary.
While we were there checking out the garden area Laurie informed me she and Kevin broke up. He had been mean and forceful with her and she asked him to leave. I also found out she has taken herself to the ER cause she had been sick like Kyle and sadly Kevin wouldn’t drive her to the ER for no reason even though she was really too sick to drive herself.
Preston, Kevin, Laurie, Allison and Allen on the folk’s anniversary.
So, back to Sunday… In the afternoon I got a call from Laurie. She was crying and asked me to come over. I got dressed and went to her house. The police officer, who looked like an older version of High School Musical’s Sharpay’s brother, was still there. He finished going over some things and asked us to come down to the station and fill out an official report. Laurie had been beaten by her last two husbands so when her boyfriend Kevin came at her she grabbed the house lease, the key to the upstairs dead bolt and locked herself upstairs and called the police. Thankfully Kevin can’t come back to the house for three days.
Moving here has given me a lot of mixed feelings. There have been times I felt I made a big mistake and times like today when I realize it was the right thing for the right time.
For dinner I took the kids to McDonalds so they could play. They have a big screen TV there and I spent some time fussing at the boys for watching Power Puff Girls instead of playing. While the boys were watching the show an older gentleman suddenly appeared with his thumb in Kyle face. He spotted Kyle sucking his thump and decided to give him a hard time about it by offering his stained beat up thumb instead. Then he gave the kids a lolly pop and wandered away. I noticed he had a very old worn out Army base ball cap on so when he came back by I asked him if he was in the Army. He had served thirty years, fought in Korea and been all over the world. When we were almost ready to go I asked Kyle if he wanted a picture with the old Arm veteran and Kyle agreed to it. I’m glad to have a kid that helps me get cool pics. I just loved the character lines in this man’s face.
The man agreed to the pic of him and Kyle then told me he took pictures everywhere he went while he was in the Army. He said he even had pictures of the Japanese’s surrender. At one time his house caught on fire and a bunch of his pictures fell through to the basement into the water. He used some solutions and rescued what he could. He informed me that Fuji Film just fades away in water but Kodac will hold up. He learned that pen disappears in water but pencil doesn’t so it’s best to write photo info on the photo with a pencil. Then he went to his vehicle and got a small very used photo album and showed me some of his pics including the one of the Japanese surrendering and a massive hole in the ground that was a Korean burial place where they camped near and used skulls as footballs. The pics were pretty dang cool.
Mr. Frank and Kyle
The evening ended with watching the Disney movie Geek Charming and lots of yelling “get back in bed!!!”
The kids start school in the morning. I have important phone calls to make, like the SS office and the food Stamps office to let them know I moved and other exciting things. Plus I need to see about how the school bus system works and if they still will charge me when I move to Chili, WI. We will be using my minivan for now but the school bus could really come in handy when that long drive way to the farm house gets piled high with snow.
Who knows what new adventures will come my way…tomorrow!
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