Squeaky’s Blog

The Squeaky Wheel get’s the grease, and the snotty nose gets the tissue

20th June 2009

Florida Gators

Florida Gators are everywhere you look.  They are plastered over the town.  When it comes to an actual Gator then you have to go looking for them.  That’s what I was told by almost everyone.  Oh don’t worry they would say.  “I’ve lived in Florida all my life and never seen a Gator.”  I like a fool believed this.  I thought there’s no way we would be the exception to the rule.  HA!  I was wrong.  We moved into the new house over the last weekend of May.  Then the following weekend came and DP was at work and I was in the shower, when someone started knocking on the door.  Its Saturday morning I thought who the hell is at my door?  No one knows where we live at yet.  It must be Jehovah Witnesses and I am not getting out of the shower to look.  I was about done and the dog kept going on and on at the door the whole time.  I knew the person hadn’t given up so being done I got my towel, a robe and headed to the door.  This was one determined person and who it could be was making me curious.  It was my neighbor with a big stick in his hand.  Confused, I opened the door and he proceeded to tell me that there was a Gator under my car and to stay in the house and not let the kids or the dog out!  What the hell?!  I asked if he had called anyone yet.  He hadn’t and just wanted to make sure we stayed inside first.  I said okay and thank you and went to get the phone.  I was pissed and frantic and looking for the number to the police department thinking I can’t call 911 because it’s in the driveway under my car and we are in the house so it’s not a real emergency.  I was getting frustrated by the minute looking for the number to the sheriff’s office.  I tried 411 and thanks to automated BS I couldn’t get to an operator because it kept giving me a number to somewhere else.  I was pissed so I called DP and started cussing him out; asking if he wanted to know what was going on at home while he was working.  After he got me to calm down and tell him he said to call the operator and ask for the police department.  Okay that made sense so I hung up and called.  Oh that didn’t work because once again it was automated and after a few minutes of listening to BS again I hung up and went back to the phone book and found the number to the police station in the next town over.  I called them and they were closed!  What how can they be closed I thought as I listened to the recording and then it says if you stay on the line you will be connected to my town’s station.  Okay stay on the line and I will get through.  Wow!  I couldn’t believe it was so hard to find the damn number.  I was starting to think I might just have to call 911.  Well the dispatcher answered the phone and I told her what was going on and she wanted to know how big the Gator was.  What I don’t know I haven’t seen it and I am not going out to look at it.  I told her I didn’t know he was under my car and my neighbors told me he was there and that’s all I knew.  A few minutes later I had 3 Police Officers at the house.  They told me I had to call a trapper myself and gave me the number and said he was probably about 8 feet.  The trapper was another dispatch office and said the trapper would call back in a minute.  A few minutes later the trapper called back and said he was 2 hours away!  What how is that?  Wait was all we could do and my husband wanted pictures but my camera was in my car.  How was I going to get it?  One of the cops offered to go in from the hatch and get the camera but couldn’t find it.  Well if he can climb in and nothing happened then so can I.  I left WC in the house and Giggles was in his bed napping.  When it all started I put Giggles to bed since it was about that time and it was the safest place for him.  WC was on the couch eating and watching toons and out the door I went.  I climbed in got the camera and then moved my car out of the driveway.  Now he is out in the open for all to see.  Oh and I had a crowd now!  All the neighbors were outside my house with camera’s and videotaping it all.  I am thinking I have been here a week and now this!  What a great way to meet my neighbors.  Well the cops didn’t want to wait 2 hours for a trapper and decided to try to move the Gator to a swap like area across from my house.  Oh yeah that went so well!  The Gator ended up on my door step.  Now, I am thinking my kids are inside and if they open that door.  I ran around to the back of the house and WC and I sat in the front window watching it all.  Well part of my front door is glass and the cops stopped poking at the Gator afraid he would break it and get in the house.  NICE!  I called my home phone from my cell since I had left it outside and told the cops if he broke the glass and came in I was going to shot him.  Worried about the glass I took everything off the sofa table and put it on its side in front of the glass.  I then locked WC in my room with toons and told him not to come out unless I came to get him.  I was surprised he was actually scared of the Gator though he won’t admit that.  He stayed in my room lying on my bed with his food and drink watching toons the whole time.  The trapper finally showed up and then told us that anything over 4 feet in Florida has to be killed.  I went in the house to make sure WC was okay and tell him to stay in again since they were going to catch the Gator now.  Then I went back out and they had already pulled him from my door and had him in the middle of the front yard where they shot him with a bang stick.  It was sad but understood.  I didn’t cry nor was I all animal rights fussing.  I just said okay.  It was a fact of life and I didn’t want to take the chance of him coming back.  The trapper checked him and said it was actually a male Gator and took his body away for me.  Relief set in that it was all over but at the same time I was still worried that another one might come.  It’s been almost a month now and I still find myself looking but I have also left and not thought about it.  It will take time to get the security back but I am not sure I want it back.  A Gator can do so much damage to a life in no time and that is not something I want to go through.  I think it may be good to have a little fear in us still, just enough to remind us of what happened and to keep us on our toes even if it is a once in a life time thing.  I am going to pray it is a once in a lifetime thing and the next time someone knocks on the door on a Saturday morning it will really be a Jehovah’s Witness.

 

 

Outside my front door

Outside my front door

My front door

My front door

In the rock bed outside my front door

In the rock bed outside my front door

 

Still in the rock bed

Still in the rock bed

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20th May 2009

Beach No More

I must say I am going to miss my sandy backyard and playing with the boys in it.  We don’t have a lot of neighbors and have been spoiled with the big yard.  I don’t think I knew how relaxing and fun it could be outside flying a kite for the kids until we did it.  We did have a few hiccups, like WC lost control of the kite.  It actually went pretty far before getting caught on something and DP managed to untangle it for us.  Then we lost another one on the roof, which came down the next day.  All in all though, it has been really nice playing at our private little beach.  I must say I won’t miss the mess it brings and the constant baby powder and showers required to remove the sand or the constant dumping sand out of shoes.  We will though begin a new journey with a covered & screened in back porch where they can play even in the rain.  We will have an Orange tree and a Tangerine tree that we can pull the fruit off.  I am looking forward to that since I love Tangerine’s and so does Giggles.  We will have less room and a few other trees but we will be able to walk to the lake.  I think we will be having little picnics and fishing at the lake a lot.  WC wants a Rocket fishing pole so much and my mother bought him one.  The only catch is he has to learn to write his name.  He is getting there little by little and is writing some numbers on his own.  I think it’s only a matter of time and he will be out there shooting the rocket fishing pole into the water and I just pray this time we don’t lose it in the lake like before.  It would make for a long walk home.  The stories we could tell though may be worth it in the end.  After all if we don’t have a few hiccups along the way are we really enjoying life? 

    

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17th May 2009

One More Time

We are moving at the end of the month yet again.  We get the keys to the house and have a U-Haul all set up to rent on Saturday.  The only problem is we haven’t packed a thing.  DP is going tomorrow to get the paper work for the Army to move us but we don’t know if there will be time for them to get us in.  We finally found out that the Army is stepping in and helping with people who are renting and the owners are being foreclosed but the woman who does it was out last week.  The thing that may kill us is we have to be moved out by the first and since we are so far a way we just don’t know.  Tomorrow will be the day we find out if it’s going to be an easy move or a pain.  If we have to do it then I will be visiting Wal-Mart to get boxes and I guess spend the week packing everything I can.  I am hoping it won’t be too hard since we are just going across town.  I am also hoping that after this we can actually just settle in and things calm down.  We will also have new renters in our house in Oklahoma and we were able to up the rent a little too.   I am keeping my fingers crossed the Army will be able to get us in.

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11th May 2009

News Vs Consequences

There is a young girl that went missing not long after we moved here and her name was Haleigh Cummings.  She has been missing for 3 months now and they still have no signs of her.  She has stopped being reported on the news.   The news reported on her for only about a month.  I can’t imagine what it’s like to lose a child.  I feel for her parents and family.  My heart goes out to all people that have lost a child.  The thing that I don’t understand though is why we spend so much time listening to the news talking about Casey Anthony.  The news reports on her every time they air.  They call it the “Case against Casey.”  I understand that it’s an ongoing case but isn’t Haleigh’s case still ongoing.  I know they found Casey Anthony’s daughter and unfortunately it was too late to save her.  But when did we become so obsessed with a woman who may or may not have killed her own child when there are still missing kids out there.  Why is one child’s story more interesting or important than the other?  Why do we stop reporting on any missing child?  I think the news needs to stop talking so much about one woman whose daughter won’t be brought home safe and spend that time on the still missing children than maybe we could bring a few of those home.  It’s so bad now that the lawyers are talking about how Casey Anthony won’t get a fair trial because she is so well known.  I really think that sometimes the news stations don’t stop and think about the consequences of what they air.  I have heard them air stories here of a man in witness protection that just was in the wrong place at the wrong time.  I stopped dead in my tracks that day and thought I did not just hear that.  While it may be interesting didn’t anyone think of the consequences of what they just said?  If that was the case then it wouldn’t be too hard to track the man down now.  Which I would think that the man would need to be relocated now and who pays for it the government that’s already poor.  There have been many times I couldn’t believe what I heard from the news.  There have been times that they aired things about soldiers and deaths where the family hasn’t been notified first.  There have been times where they aired things about first responders and if the families had been watching the panic that would have come from it just doesn’t seem worth it.  I just don’t understand how some things make it on the news and why the news seems to have no common sense on some subjects.  I think that someone needs to step in and say as interesting as it maybe that some things should just be left unsaid and the world might be a better place.

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10th May 2009

A little bit of Hope

After a long and horrible few months things are finally starting to look up.  I have been so preoccupied by everything that I haven’t wanted to do anything.  The house is a mess and so today cleaning is on the agenda.  I don’t even know where to start, so I will start at the beginning.  When we moved here in February, we asked the realtor about every house we looked at, if it was possible it would be foreclosed and finally after two weeks of searching we picked a house.  It was a roller coaster of emotions.  We were all crammed into a hotel the 4 of us, the dog, 2 cats and my brother in law for a bit.  Then when we moved in and had our things were delivered and it was starting to look good.  We love the yard which is a big sand dune.  The house is nice, it works and I like it.  I wouldn’t buy it but it’s a really nice rental.  After about a week in the house Giggles started getting sick and then WC too.  They had 4 trips to the doctors in 2 weeks and both made a middle of the night trip to the ER.  At the end of the month they were finally getting better.  Then thinking March will be a good month, things started to go wrong again.  The people that were renting our house in Oklahoma started complaining about everything.  It was sad and stressful thinking that a screw was loose and they wouldn’t pick up a screw driver to tighten it.  They thought that we should pay a repair man to come out since it wasn’t their house.  They didn’t understand that it is their responsibility to maintain the house.  Then I get a letter that says Giggles doctor’s appointment wasn’t covered by Tri Care.  So, still being the beginning of March I called Tri Care and the doctor’s office every week at least to try to correct the problem.  Then we are in April and I am still trying to fix the Tri Care issue and start to work on the house in Oklahoma, it needed a new fence.  I had gotten an estimate before we left and had the measurements, and knew what I wanted done.  The rental company didn’t want to pay any money up front so they called around and got estimates.  Then when they had them I asked does it included the walk through gate, the drive through gate, and the 116ft of fencing that was forgotten the first time around.  Just as I thought they didn’t have the gate’s added in the price and so I asked again if they had the 116ft of fencing added in.  I was assured that was the correct price.  That was about 3 phone calls in one morning and a few hours later when I am sitting in the post office with the cashier’s check getting ready to seal the envelope that my cell phone rings and it’s the rental company.  They are telling me that they forgot the 116ft of fencing and that the company putting it up is going to give me metal posts for the price of wood because of all the confusion, but they still need just under $1100 more.  I wanting to scream through the phone to them just said okay and back to the bank I went.  Once it had all been mailed I called the realtor back to let them know the money was coming and the amount of the checks.  That’s when I wanted to lose it for a second time that day.  The realtor then told me that I had sent too much and they would send back $500.  I once again just said okay and let it go.  I figured when they realized they were wrong they would call or I would get the money back.   My poor husband though got to listen to me vent a few times, but the fence was going to go up.  It was going to be a few days though since the rain had been so bad the ground had to dry up a little.  The middle of April was upon us and I was still fighting with the doctor’s office and Tri Care, the fence was up at the Oklahoma house and things were going to start looking up.  I was changing doctors office’s because it was one thing I could control that was easy to fix.  That’s about the time the realtor called me to let me know the renters were breaking the contract and moving out.  I was pissed because the market is so bad we can’t sell it and even get what we bought it for.  Then I just paid over 3 thousand for a new fence that could have been put to a mortgage payment if no one was in the house.  I spent a week on the phone with everyone I could think of really.  I called lawyers, realtors, the bank and loan officers (trying to find out about refinancing or selling) and it was just the worst week, at least that’s what we thought.  Then it was Monday morning the following week and a little after 8am there was a knock on the door.  I was shocked to be told that the house was going into foreclosure and that we were going to have to move.   I spent another week on the phone with every one again trying to figure out what my options were and was told I didn’t have any.  Then at the end of the month I went to pay the rent that was pointless since the owner wasn’t paying his mortgage and that’s when things started to go right. They were going to let me out of my contract and let me move.  Though for some crazy reason the owner of the house had my security deposit so I was never going to see that again.  So, I get to stay here for a month basically for free and we are house hunting again.  I think I spent a week looking at houses and had finally narrowed it down to 4 houses all having fences this time.  My realtor from Oklahoma called me with good news to let me know that my house had rented and for the higher price.  Things should have been looking up for us but that night I actually lost it.  I thought I was going to pass out when the room started spinning and I could barely get to the bathroom since I was about to throw up.  Somehow I made it there and DP got me water and a few minutes later I was better.  Scared out of my mind but better and the next morning we were going to see houses so I just went to bed.  When we got up I still felt funny and had decided to look at the houses since it was our only chance and I would go to the doctors later.  We finally made it to the realtor’s office to go look at the 4 houses and found out they forgot to ask if we could take our pets.  The news was bad only one house was then an option.  We drove out there and it just wasn’t a real option there was no fence like said and it was small.  Our last resort was to check out 2 other houses one having no fence, a small yard, but in a great area.  The other house was small but had a fence and apparently backed up to an alley and a back entrance to some stores.  That house was then not an option either.  We decided to take the house in the nice area with no fence.  We signed yesterday and will start to at the end of the month.  I am hoping this will be a new start for us a chance for things to actually go right.  We will be 15 minutes from DP’s office instead of 40 and we can walk to a few different lakes in the neighborhood.  We won’t have a sandy back yard but we get fruit trees and a screened in porch.  I go back to the doctors on Friday and get test results back.  Hopefully it really will be stress related and by writing this I will have relieved some of that stress I have been carrying around.  Though, moving will bring on a whole new stress but they are things I can somewhat control.  I am looking forward to a new start with no worries.  I get to meet the owners of the new house next weekend and hopefully everything will work out for a change.  We have new doctors that I like, even if it is a little bit of a drive it’s not a hard drive and all worth it.  It’s a lot like the clinic we had in Germany before we left.  I like that small town feel where you have everything in one location.  I am hoping to be able to get this move over and done within a week since that’s all the time we have to do it in.  DP is going to talk to the Army since the DOD is starting to help out soldiers that are being forced to move because of the rental house being foreclosed.  If we are lucky they will move us or pay for us to do it.  So, once again I will start calling on Monday for answers and hopefully they will be good ones.  In the mean time I guess I have cleaning and packing to do all while trying to limit my stress level.  The joys of life sometimes they really do make us stronger.  

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24th April 2009

Dreams of Boobs

We all dream.  We have good dreams, bad dreams, strange dreams and dreams we don’t remember.  It’s the things we do in our life and the things that we go through that affect us and give us some of our dreams.  It’s said a women will dream about babies if she is pregnant even before she knows she it.  Some say that if you dream about death it means life and vice versa.  We have dreams we want to forget and then ones that we want to share.  I have shared a many dreams along the way and I encourage WC to share his dreams with me.  WC tells me about his dreams daily.  Usually, every morning we start with the good mornings and how did you sleep and from there we go into if he had any dreams.  He then normally tells me that he had a nightmare and describes it in great detail.  I listen to him and ask him if it was a good dream or a bad dream.  Then I try to explain what a nightmare really is.  This is a conversation we have on a daily basis almost and it’s normally first thing.  So, when we were riding home in the car the other day he started talking about his dreams again I was surprised.  I think because we have to take the interstate to get home which he calls a bridge.  Since, we have to drive under the overpass to get on it.  He hates the being under the overpass and the bridge as he calls it.  He always asks for something to cover up with so he can hide and take a nap.  Well this day he removed the cover and started talking about how he woke up and had a dream.  WC proceeds to tell me about how when he dreams, he dreams of boobs.  He dreams of all girls with big boobs and going to the beach to see them.  He says he doesn’t dream about seeing my boobs though because that’s icky since I am the mommy.  WC says it doesn’t matter who the girls are just as long as they have big boobs.  He likes boobs and they make him happy.  He wants me to take him to the beach so he can see all the girls with big boobs because we are in Florida now.  He says Florida has lots of beaches with girls with big boobs.  That’s what he wants to do and that’s what he dreams about.  He wants to know when the summer is going to get here because I keep telling he has to wait for the summer.  So, now I want to know if it’s that simple.  Do we just really dream about what makes us happy?  Or is this just some phase he is going through because I am still breast feeding and that’s what started his fascination with boobs.  Will this go away in time?  Will he continue to love girls with big boobs?  Is this a sign of him being a family man when he gets older like the saying?  Will he always dream of boobs or will he grow out of it and dream of something more appropriate for his age?  What is appropriate for him to dream about though?  Am I wrong for thinking he should be dreaming of something else?  Have I turned him into a boob fanatic?  Or should I just encourage him to dream about what ever makes him happy and if that’s boobies then by all means go for it?  He does at times point out to girls and friends that they have big ones though.  I guess at this point I am just grateful that he doesn’t run up and grab girl’s boobs.   

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23rd April 2009

Who Cares

What I want to know right now is who really cares if some magazine put a picture of Obama in a bathing suit on the cover?  When Bush fell of his bike it was all over the place.  I think Clinton fell when jogging and it was blasted.  He is the President, the most powerful man in the country and he is going to blasted all over every TV, newspaper, magazine, and it is something that comes with the job.  We may not like what is said or the attention that comes with the job, but we have this desire to know it all.  We want to be accepted, acknowledged, and in control.  We want to know if the postman is married and what his wife looks like.  So, where would we think that Obama would be any different?  Is there something somewhere that says he’s off limits just because he is the President?  Doesn’t that make us want to know more about the man?  I think the only thing the most people would agree on is that children are off limits.  But even then I remember pictures of Palin’s kid being pregnant all over the news and when she split with her boyfriend it was plastered.  There was even an interview on at least one major news show.  So, once again we may not like what is reported but we listen and we voice our opinions.  If the news was bland and nothing to really discuss one way or another then it wouldn’t be interesting and we wouldn’t watch it.  If you stop and think about it, the leading stories are always some kind of catch phrase to get you in an uproar and freak out so you will watch.  This is just another one of those things and people really should try to remember he is going to be looked at with a fine tooth comb for at least the next four years.  I remember within a month of him taking office the news reported on all his gray hair.  They even compared a picture from when he started running for office to the present time and pointed it out.  So, there wasn’t some stink because he isn’t using Just for Men.  So why do we care if he goes on vacation with his family and they take a picture of him in his bathing suit?  We should be glad that he is a family man and instead be concerned with everything else that’s going wrong in this crazy world we live in. 

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20th April 2009

A little Disappointed

Well I had an interview for a job last week and it turns out that I got it.  I was happy at first until they told me how much the pay was.  I wanted to scream.  The job wouldn’t even cover day care for the boys.  Hello, I made that clear when I interviewed with you.   Then there were just a ton of other factors that didn’t add up.  I really don’t understand people sometimes.  I had an interview the week before with another company and it wasn’t a scam but it was selling life insurance.  I was very clear on the phone with the company that I didn’t want to sell insurance and they reassured me that it was for a training position.  So, yeah I went and was so pissed.  It turned out to be a mass interview and so much other crappy factors.  I think I will be giving up in a way.  I want to work for different reasons, but I think for now I am going to stick to staying home until the fall.  In the fall the Army is going to let soldiers sign their GI bills over to family members.  So, I think once that goes through I will go back to school and not worry about a job again for a while.  Who knows we will see how it goes since plans never really seem to work out.  This time though the Army says we are here for 3 years and won’t be going anywhere.  I hope that is true.  I really like this place so far. 

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16th April 2009

Not what but which

It seems to me that this is the best place we have ever been stationed.  DP went to get the boys Easter baskets last week the day before Easter.  I know we are horrible waiting until the last minute.  Anyway, when he got in the store they had this deal if you ordered the local paper you could get a gift card to the store.  It was great since we both wanted the paper anyway, he figured what the hell.  Well, the paper has started coming and in it there is a second paper that comes and it is basically a list of everything going on in the area.  It is amazing to me that there can be so much to do in one place.  I mean I know there is always things you can go do but the choices are huge and the fact that we know in advance is even better.  I remember in Oklahoma that it was few and far between events and they were never or poorly advertised until after the event had occurred.  The few times I remember hearing things on the news was only because they were things that the anchors liked.  Once they went on about the Rodeo coming into town for a week because they were involved.  But when the town had the kid’s day for Police and Fireman out at the park there was nothing until the event had ended that night.  So, we missed a lot of things and opportunity’s to go and yet we got the local paper and watched the news daily.  Here it’s in the paper every day, and we have choices galore.  I now find myself reading the second paper cover to cover wanting to highlight or circle specific things.   Then I can remember easily which things I want to go over with DP and which one we think the boys would enjoy the most.  This area seems to be so family friendly and I really think I might want to retire out here more and more.  I think this area might just be our little slice of heaven.  My hats go off to the community for all the great things they are doing for families.  My hope is that with the economy in such disarray and people being out of jobs, and losing their homes that the community can continue to thrive and be such an active one for families to enjoy.   

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10th April 2009

Giggles

Giggles first birthday is coming up and we have been trying to figure out what we are going to do for it.  WC has finally accepted that it’s okay for Giggles to have a party after much deliberation and has even planned it.  WC has decided that Giggles should have an Elmo cake and we should have a party at a park with hot dogs and balloons.  I think this might be a small one with just us since we still don’t know anyone but DP’s co workers.  We will see I am going to look around for a cake today and hopefully will find one.  I mean Elmo shouldn’t be hard to order right, he has been around forever.  We will see how it works out when it come times for presents though.  I think I may get WC something small so that he won’t feel left out.  I have faith that he will be okay though since we have been talking about it for a while now.  I think we will be continuing our talks over the next week to prepare him. 

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