We looked a two other home possibilities today and both were basically a waste of time. One was decorated like and also smelled about as good as a nasty no-tell-motel room. You know the cheap indoor/ outdoor carpets in the most disgusting color and the wafting cigarette smoke/ someone died in this place smell?

Yep, that was the first place we looked at. We literally walked through the living room, in one bedroom and we’re ready to get out of there as fast as possible!

The next house was much more expensive and looked much newer and more promising based on the listing photos. Too bad it wreaked of cat piss/ spray at the entryway. The living room was bright and open but the kitchen was tiny with limited cabinets and bad decor. The bedrooms were closet sized and had all sorts of nasty stains on the carpet. Basically it was super tiny and had cosmetic issues. Not worth the $1175 they were asking per month.

So we headed back home feeling defeated. We are scheduled to look at a patio home tomorrow that we suspect we’ll be able to settle on. It’s not as big as we would like but we already know we like the floor plan as we’ve toured other homes on the street with the same floor plan. It is $100 less rent per month than we are paying now and the owner is offering a lease/ purchase option on it. We’ll see if it works out for us tomorrow…

Once we got home from our home touring I began working on a family member/ business owners site. If you look at the photos on his site you’ll see some very nice looking living areas (he remodels homes). Looking at those beautifully finished remodeling projects just makes me hate this house more and more!

Also, we just can’t believe how insanely different homes are here compared to those homes in Arizona that we are used to. Things are just so small and old here and most people don’t take care of their homes so they are also pretty much trashed. In Arizona you can find lots of new construction that is both affordable and also a good investment. Here nothing seems to be worth the asking price within our price range and houses are supposed to be cheaper here!

Oh, we enjoyed watching American Idol that we recorded last night. My old choir buddy Scott MacIntyre was on and he had a pretty good performance, yay! We’ll watch tonight’s recorded episode when N gets off work to see if Scott makes it on to the top 12, I hope he does!

N got the power back on in the bathroom, dining room and kitchen today. He had to completely unwire an outlet just to cut power to the garbage disposal. Cutting power to the disposal was the only way to turn the darn thing off. The disposal is so old it’s wired directly to an outlet as opposed to being plugged in to one and it has no reset switch.

So we’ve undone and taped off all the exposed wires from that outlet and have left the outlet plug disconnected. We have power in all three rooms now (just not in that one outlet). Yay for having power again. Now I can use the dishwasher, washer, dryer and bathroom lights!

Well that is pretty much all we have to report here. I am off to make the blog rounds now. I still have like 40 unread items in my reader and I have a feeling my commenters aren’t showing love because I’ve been such a slacker. Hopefully I can get caught up on blog reading today.

The post Um, did someone die in this house? Man it smells! (Evansville rental home search continues…) appeared first on Updates from Ryder Family Farm.

• My tap water gives me diarrhea.

Yep I know that is TMI huh? It is serious though. About every 2 weeks it happens and oddly enough it is coinciding with my water intake. Any time I drink more than my 2 jugs of water it just runs right through me. Someone remarked “wouldn’t you just pee the water out?” and I thought to myself, “why yes I should”. Problem is that is not what is happening. Then my mom reminded me that her water has some unusual levels of minerals that cause them stomach upset among other issues. Our bodies really can have problems with the levels of stuff in our water and if my body can’t process whatever is in it and sees it as harmful wouldn’t it just eliminate it as quickly as possible? We are putting this theory to the test, I am now only drinking water that had been distilled first. Hopefully that will do the trick, I can tell you after 2 days I am peeing way more!

• Our OBGYN never called about our appointment that never happen.

We were planning to have our ultrasound on the 29th of January but since the town was literally shut down as a result of the storm our doctors office wasn’t open. They didn’t call to inform us of this either, this makes us a bit annoyed. We’ve been expecting them to call us to reschedule the missed appointment but I guess they really don’t care. I called them today and got booked for an appointment next Thursday, 2/12/09. We should be finding out Tater Tot’s sex then. *fingers crossed*

• I am still researching genealogy, now for Tater Tot’s sake.

Remember those silly family tree projects you are assigned as a kid in school? I never had fun doing them and always kind of despised them because we had no info on our family history at that time. In my baby book in the family tree area my parents and grandparents are filled in but nothing else. Where it says great grandmother/ grandfather someone wrote “dead”… Nice huh? Anyway, I am still loving the myheritage.com site and would encourage each of you to sign up there (it is free) and record all the info you know about your family. It may help others later on down the road and you never know when you might want to reasearch your own genealogy further.

• Our residential roads are still iced over, the city doesn’t plough them- ever.

Flagstaff had 12 ploughs in operation, the same number of ploughs are working here in Evansville… Funny thing is we had better snow/ ice removal in Flagstaff, which is was smaller than Evansville and gets way more winter storms. Things are ass backwards here with regards to winter weather response/ management, big time!

• Scott MacIntyre did advance to the next round on American Idol.

I recorded it and fast forwarded thought all the commercials and annoying drama girl parts but did see him in many of the filler shots and the show did indicate that his group made it to the next round. Of course he wouldn’t be featured in the group night drama episode, he is nice, cooperative and does well with others. I am sad that they didn’t show his groups performance though.

• Tater is crazy active and we are in the planning for baby phase now.

Tater’s kicks and punches continue, I am used to them now. Shoot! We’ve only got about 5 months left to this pregnancy, almost half way through and we have tons to do! [cue anxiety]

Here is my “perfect world” scenario brainstorm: We’ve got to get out of this place and in to another rental preferably before May (even though our lease doesn’t officially expire until August 31st). Any ideas on how to nicely get us out of our lease?

This means we only have 3 months to pack, find a new place and move in to it. Didn’t we just do the moving thing? *sigh* Once we are moved we’ll have the month of May to unpack and nest before any chance of early labor. We don’t want early labor folks!

Then I’ll take it easy for 2 weeks before we drop me off at The Farm (around the 2nd week of June). Then I’ll wait at The Farm for labor to begin while N is back in Indiana working and caring for the pets (I could end up being there until the 2nd week of July if baby wants to come later).

I’ll call him when I feel like it is time for him to make the trip down to be with us for the delivery (but who will care for the pets?). We’ll hang at The Farm for a few days after labor to get breastfeeding support and to make sure baby is doing well, then we’ll head home and adjust to being new parents.

See? Told you this was a brain spew post! Oh and we sat down and got our baby registry lists semi updated too! We still haven’t added gender specific stuff like bedding and clothes but all the other junk is on the registries now! You can check out the registries by using these buttons:

So basically that is it in a nutshell, sort of… Stop diarrhea, find out Tater’s sex, genealogy research, clean, pack, find new home, move, buy baby stuff, unpack, nest, rest, go The Farm, squeeze baby out, rest more, learn to breasfeed, bond with baby, enjoy, adapt, head home. The end (for now).

The post Brain Spew: Bullet Point Thursday. Bun in the oven edition. appeared first on Updates from Ryder Family Farm.

Anyway I had the pleasure of meeting and performing with a ton of people who have gone on to do great things with their musical talent.

At one of the many choir concerts the MacIntyre family, 4 of the many musical lovers that came through my life, had the opportunity to perform one of their pieces in a concert. Here is a video of the song I remember them doing at a concert:

They were all amazingly talented musicians and were all so genuine and kind to everyone. They took care of each other and loved making friends, best of all they had a huge passion for music. You see the tallest guy there second from the left? That is Scott MacIntyre. He is blind but his musical talent has sort of taken the place of his eyesight with reagards to his senses if that makes sense. Whenever I heard him sing or play the piano I was lost in the magic of it. It is hard to explain.

His sister Katelyn is first from the left, his mother Carole is to the right and Todd is on the far right. They are all super talented huh?

Well Scott MacIntyre just advanced in the American Idol audition yesterday. Now before you run screaming because you despise the show or whatever I want you to hear me out. I am not an Idol fan, I watched the first season briefly but got bored. Anyway, the show is significant now because someone I know is advancing and because his story is so heartwarming. Here it is: Wait Fox news is having every single video of American Idol removed (even the ones people shot with their own cameras of the TV set playing the footage) so the video wont play. However, if you follow this link you can read about him. I’ve also got some images of the footage to share:

I cried when I saw the video from his audition (that I still think you can see here) and I am so stoked for him. He is seriously amazing guys, the video does not do him justice! Thanks to my mother in law for informing us of this info (we don’t watch the show and wouldn’t have known it was indeed him unless she had asked up about it.) Yay Scott! You rock and will blow everyone away.

Now go back to my previous post Better late than never- Delurking Day 2009, delurk and read about my 6 unimportant facts okay?

Oh and if you have noticed my site timing out now and then be advised I know about it and am very ticked off with my hosting provider. I have contacted them about it and am waiting for a resolution. Sorry about the inconvenience dudes.

The post Way to go Scott MacIntyre of Scottsdale, AZ!! appeared first on Updates from Ryder Family Farm.