I’ve been super busy and stressed the past two months. It’s really taken a toll on me and I need a vacation badly. Unfortunately I have no more paid time off so I guess i’m just screwed.
Work has been kicking my ass. I’ve been working on projects that are causing me so much stress…unnecessary stress. I need to get away from work (even for a day), but I can’t until all my projects are done (hopefully by November).
Trying to buy a house is the most stressful thing Hubby and I have ever had to do. Buying a house in the bay area is a joke unless you are a millionaire. We’ve saved up enough money where we could get a nice house out in the middle of America. But in the Bay Area, that money will barely get you a 2 bedroom 1 bath condo! Sheesh. We placed a bid on one house and lost. Our bid was out of 18 and we didn’t bid too high above the asking price. We also bid on a 3 bedroom 2 bath town home and came so close to getting it. We ended up backing out of it when we carefully did our finances. Had we gone through with that town home, we would have been living paycheck to paycheck just to pay the mortgage! That place had everything we needed, but it would not be ours. We just didn’t have enough down payment money to have a decent monthly mortgage.
We took a break from house hunting for about a month before looking again. This time we’re lowering our budget and standards. While we would love to get a 3 bedroom/2 bath single family home or town home, we’re now considering 2 bed/1 bath places. If we find a place like that and live there for a while, there’s hope that we’ll have equity to finally afford our dream home. Even then it’s still hard. We’ll see a listing online for a place that looks nice and by the time the weekend comes around, it’s already pending sale! Or we’ll look at a place, like it, have our agent send us detailed reports about the place, only to find out it has termite damage, or some other issue that we would have to fix. We can’t afford to make any major fixes like that. Last week we saw a place that was really nice, but had a hard time finding parking just to see it. If we got that place, we wouldn’t be able to invite people over unless they got dropped off or take public transportation. We also saw a town home that we liked, but there was no washer or dryer hookups. I really don’t want to have to deal with coin-op laundry. I’ve done that before and I don’t wanna do that again. Our agent is my best friend’s mom who thinks of me as another daughter so I know we can trust her. She knows what we like and also knows which areas of the bay to avoid. She keeps telling us that in time we’ll find the right place. When we do, we’ll know it instantly.
Lilo has been going to obedience school for the past few weeks. I enrolled her so that she can mingle with other dogs and so that I can learn how to properly train her on the basics (sit, stay, come, etc.). Our instructor is very good and insightful. Lilo is the loud one in class. She always has something to say. The instructor calls her the chatterbox! She is also a flirt in class. She loves playing with a male labradoodle puppy named Snuggles. Every week we get homework and she pretty good at what we train her at home, but in class she’s just too distracted.
I don’t think I’ll do a October Bark Box review. She didn’t get too many good things this month. She got lamb ears which I threw it away cuz I assumed it would be like bully sticks or rawhides and I don’t like giving her those. She got goat liver and pumpkin treats which were too hard for her to eat (and too hard for me to break off into smaller pieces for her) so I threw those out as well. She got several fruit snacks that she seems to like (I’ve only given her pumpkin and blueberry treats so far). She did get a new toy which looks like a tiger with chevron pattern stripes. She loves that little thing. We call it Tigger. The only other food thing she absolutely loves is the meatball mix. It’s a small pouch of dried seasonings like dried basil, dried parsley, and oats. You add that to a pound of lean ground meat and 1 egg. Make mini meatballs and bake them in the oven. Lilo loves it! I’ve been using it as her reward treat when we do our recalls (telling her to come). Two more months of my subscription left. After that I will not renew it. She has way too many treats. Even Petsmart started giving out free treats when I pick her up from day camp! Ugh.
Oh yeah…so I gave up on the iPhone. I got tired of it and after they announced the 5S and 5C, I decided to switch to android. With the money I made from selling my iPhone 5 (and then some), I bought the Samsung Galaxy S4 Google Play Edition. I love it! It’s got a much bigger screen and yet I’m still able to hold it with my tiny hands. I don’t have a case for it, but I bought some different colored battery covers and I got a new wristlet that’s big enough to fit my phone in it.
So there you have it. September and October not quite in a nutshell. I’m really hoping the rest of the year gets better…
k e r o 