The good, the bad, the ______________

Well, I don't know how to shorten this up, but I am gonna try.

The people flatly refused to meet Shannon. (But she's so cute!!???...). So, we decided to try to buy the house outright. When we were wheelin' and dealin' with them, they said the purchase price would be $110k when we sell our house, after the lease is up. So, we offered them $95k... just to let them make a counter offer.

Well, they countered... their offer? $110k.

So, we offered $100k and please pay the the closing costs b/c we don't have the cash for that AND a down payment. They thought about it for about an hour and got back to us.

Their counter... $110k. AND, if they pay the closing, then it will be $112,500! So, they wanted us to FINANCE the closing costs! 

So, we are finished with them. No house is worth this much trouble.

Then, Shannon found the perfect house... and it is $20k cheaper than the one we were dickering over... so she put in a bid and now we are waiting, again.

On the plus side, my house is a wreck and all I see when I look at stuff is, "how will that fit in a box?". I dream about boxes... 

Matt Agee brought Mackenzie and Ian over to swim in the pool tonight and help move some stuff. When Mackenzie was done swimming, she went to stand up, lost her balance, hit her teeth on the metal support bar and busted off the inside of both her front teeth. She has a half-moon hole in her two front teeth! They are her permanent teeth, too... what a shame... 

I am disconnecting my 'puter on Sunday to box it up... I am afraid! I CAN'T UNPLUG!!!!

GOODBYE WORLD!! I'LL SEE YOU ON THE OTHER SIDE!!!!

(of the Ohio River...)

Half the family in town

Well, Shannon, Ed, Alia, Spanky, and Dexter all made it safe and on time to KY. (I'M PROUD of you Shannon; I think it's the first time you've been on time in a long time... LOL! J/K)

Shannon spend 4 hours getting her dad settled into his new home. She is really pleased with it and really feels like the people will take very good care of Ed. That is a big weight off her. 

Now, to get the other half of the family there!

We had a very good plan to move into a great house and lease it with an option to buy when our house sells. The sellers were gung-ho and excited, we were very happy and very excited... the the sellers daughter came into the picture and filled her parents with all these horrible ideas about who we might be and how we were gonna take advantage of them and trash the place and leave it a wreck... so they backed out completely. There WERE even gonna meet Shannon, just to put a face to us and see what kind of people we were like... but then just cut the rope and let us fall. So, we now have half the fam there with no house to go to... 

But at least we can sleep with my sister... not very comfortably, but it is possible. SO, we won't FREEZE TO DEATH!   HAHAHA!!!

That was a Kentucky joke... if you didn't get it... I don't think ANYONE can freeze to death there... 

First departure

Well, yesterday Shannon took Alia, Ed (her dad), and our two whiny cats and took off in the van for the very last time. There were tears and, of course, excitement. She was nervous, but she has so much to deal with concerning her dad and the pets and so on that she doesn't have a lot of time for focusing on her own thoughts.

The weather was great and she made it to Birch Run before she had to stay the night. She was going to try to get farther, but Ed was starting to get agitated. Today, (Thursday) she has to get to her dad's nursing home by 5PM. I hope she is up by now... I am gonna call her soon. We'll see how it goes!

More goodbyes...

Well, another sad departing. We got to see our long-time friends Larry and Rindy. They were probably one of the very first friends we met here. We have grown in relationship with them on so many levels... Larry and I have hunted, trapped, and fished together, our families have played together... Larry and I were youth group leaders together for quite a while... Larry and I worked right next to each other for a year or two... we have even butchered chickens and shoveled horse do-do together... now THAT'S bonding!

It's like Larry said... "you've just always been here..." you know... like we have just always lived here and we knew that we could always see each other. Now, we are leaving and it's kinda like pullin' a tooth. Sad. We sure will miss them. They are very special people. When we left thier house tonight, it was kinda like we were driving away from family. 

It was the last look at Gitchee Gumee that I will see for a while, and she was beautiful. Little swells and small waves, nice cool air coming off the Lake. A few times, I could see my breath. Not that it was COLD, but it was about 65 I guess. When we left, the fog was settling. I told Shannon that it was the same fog we seen when we first visited up here. I seen the fog outside our window one night in the summer and I said, "Oh man, I love this weather... this is where I wanna live!" That was the summer before our last year of college. Then we moved straight to Ironwood and have been here 11 years. Now, 11 years later, it is back to Kentucky!

It's been a good stay here. Lots of great friends, lots of time outdoors and doing things that I wanted to do... this is where we started our family. Lots of good memories.

Sadness setting in

Over the past couple days we have made time to visit and say our good-byes to some very special friends.  Matt and Elizabeth and Jacob and Joel came over and played with the kids in the pool last night. It was sure nice to spend some time with them. Then Hannah came over. I was especially glad that she got to make some time before she left back for JPUSA. (Take care of yourself and keep in touch). Otto and Laura surprised us with a visit today... THANK YOU! I needed to make time to see them before I left, and the just popped in, so that was great! We got to visit for a while, then I went and seen what they are doing with their home... WOW! You would not even recognize it. ALSO, I am finally getting a REALLY AWESOME man-desk... so I am not taking any of my 3 desks to KY with me... . AND, Matt and Brenda and kids came to play and visit tonight, also. They are so awesome... we really will miss them and all their clan. (VERY sorry we didn't get to see you, Breanna, but we will miss you greatly!)

It really started to hit me today... first time, really. I am really going to miss a LOT of people around here. Me and Shannon were talking last night... we don't remember feeling this way when we left college to move here. We don't remember the anxiety, the heart-ache, etc. This is not easy. But, thankfully, the kids are doing great with it. They are sad, but they are not heart-broken. That makes it so much easier.

There are still others that we will see before Shannon and Alia leave on Wednesday. Not a lot of time... but these are important things.

Steppin' it up a bit...

Well, looking at finances and schedule, we have decided that Shannon will go down to KY early and STAY there for GOOD. She is currently on the verge of a panic attack.

So our plan is that she will leave on Wednesday the 23rd, moving her dad (Ed) down with her and also taking Alia. She will move her dad into the nursing home and stay at my sister's house. Then she will have to secure housing for us. Sounds crazy, eh? We don't know where we are going to live. We figured, a long time ago, that we would simply buy a house. But now that ours is no longer selling, we are not sure we can buy right away. So, we are thinking we may have to rent for a while. 

However, there is one house that we looked at last month that is for sale, and empty. The relator said that maybe there is some way to work into that house... maybe rent, maybe lease. Or, if need be, maybe we can move in and commit to buying when our house sells. Who knows...

... that's Shannon's job anyway. I can't spend my time thinking about unimportant things like a home for my family! LOL!

I will probably be renting a truck on Monday the 27th, packing up and driving out of Ironwood on the 28th or 29th at the latest. Anyone that feels like helping me pack/load truck is welcome to pitch in. I can only offer wonderful Ironwood City water to drink and delicious Little Caesar's Pizza to eat.

Bon Appetite!

So it begins...

Well, if you are watching my Xanga blog, you will see that we sold our house, and then we didn't sell it. We just showed it again and the guy really loved it a lot... it is just what they are looking for. They have one little situation to deal with and then they may want to buy it... but only time will tell.

So, because the Central American Yooper Report is going Google, then I thought it my duty to do the same. I will chronicle my life in the pages of a Google blog, the thoughts and situations of a Michigander/Yooper/Yankee living in the Appalachian foothills. It will be quite a change... most of you know that we lived there before for 5 years... but that was a bit different. We were living on campus and going to college. Now, we will live like normal people... in town and working like we all do. And we have kids this time... so life will be completely different than before.

Our jobs seem like they will be perfect for us, and my mom and sister live about 20 minutes away... and my niece. She is Alia's age and they all love to play together. ALL the kids are SO excited to be living close and be able to play together. That sure makes it that much easier to move, when the kids are excited!