Sold!

We sold our house today to a very nice couple. They have been looking for the right house for a couple of years. They shed tears when they heard we accepted their bid. Isn't that sweet? I'm glad it's going to someone who will appreciate it. We move June 1st.

We are going to live a short distance from the city pool/park. There are lots of boys for my kids to play with in that neighborhood also. They can't wait. We will be across the street from my parents. I called and told them to get some deadbolts installed on their doors and windows before June 1st. He he.

Now I get to plan a water feature garden for the new house. Time to get out the landscaping books and start dreaming.

Open house results.

We had our first potential buyers come to our open house Thursday evening. Seven couples came. Two may want to buy our house but, they need to sell their own homes first. One lady fell in love with the house but couldn't convince her husband who would like to build a new home.

Our realtor will continue showing our house and we will see what develops from here. He called today and before answering I had a feeling of fear that someone actually wanted to make an offer on our house. I am so conflicted. I will definitely miss this house if we move. I finally have everything done here with the help of my family... artwork on the walls, nail holes filled, doors painted, front porch railing installed, gardens established etc. Then I think of the house across the street from my parents home. It is 200 square feet larger than our house and has a den and 2ND bedroom upstairs as well as a full bathroom upstairs for the boys. It is close to my parents, swimming pool and lots of kids for the boys to play with. Like I said, I am conflicted. Our current house is perfect for me but the house in town is better for our family. Time to be unselfish I suppose.

Want to buy a house?

Water feature garden in the back yard.

These are pictures of my house, the house we built 2 1/2 years ago.

The kitchen.

We made an offer on a house in town and our offer was accepted. We will move if we can sell our home. The house we bid on is larger than our current house and is near lots of neighborhood kids for my boys to play with. It is blocks from the swimming pool and the city park and it is across the street from my parents.

This is the tub surround in the master bath.
The tile job was done by my brother Rick, me, brother John and his wife Marlys.

However, this means I have to give up the house I designed and had my brother Rick build. That won't be easy. This house was literally made for me. If we don't sell I will not be sorry. If we do sell that will be good too.

Living room and entry.

Office.

Backyard garden.

This is the description the realtor used to describe our house:

Stunning is the perfect word to describe this home!! This home is a 1400 sq ft custom built Ranch style home. The workmanship is excellent and shows in the open floor plan and gorgeous Cherry woodwork and cabinets. This home is really indescribable and you need to see to really appreciate the beauty! The main floor consists of an open living, dining and kitchen. The kitchen has Cherry cabinetry which you will love and the dining room has patio doors to the deck--which has a awesome view. The master bedroom is huge with a gorgeous master bath right off of the bedroom. There is a main floor laundry with office and another 1/2 bath on the main floor. The basement boasts 2 bedrooms, bathroom and a large family room. Outdoor entertaining is made easy with the large patio and backyard and plan to spend many evenings relaxing by the gorgeous pond!! The home is located on a 1 acre lot on a hard surface road in the Rock River Bluff addition. Don't miss this one!!

So if you need a home in North West Iowa e-mail me. Open house is Thursday evening. I'll let you know how it goes.

Blood boiling rage and a turning point in my life.

Tonight my twelve year old son Levi asked, "What is the angriest you have ever been."

Wanting to share a valuable life lesson that I had learned the hard way, I explained to him that when I was younger I had always been mild mannered and quite shy. I tried to avoid confrontation and anger to the point I could have been called a wimp, except one night when I was in high school...

I was one of the youngest in our sophomore class. My classmates had turned sixteen and were driving long before I was licenced to drive. My parents wanted me to contribute gas and a vehicle along with my friends so they allowed me take my dad's red farm truck to the edge of our small rural town as long as I promised to let my trusted friend Shelli drive it after we met up. We had great fun with that truck even though it wasn't the coolest vehicle dragging Main. One redeeming feature of the truck was the powerful spotlight mounted on its hood. We interrupted couples parking in secluded areas with that light and shined it into the cars of other kids driving up and down Main. Good times, good times.

One Friday night while cruising Main we heard that some older kids were having a party out by the river that runs through our town. The river had wooded areas laced with rugged dirt paths. There were small grassy clearings just perfect for parties.

We decided to put a little scare into the party goers. We went to the river and turned on the spotlight and speared its light through the smoke and trees as we approached. Thinking we were the police, under aged drinkers scattered into the trees like a herd of frantic deer chased by a mountain lion. It was awesome! Surprisingly, our humor was not enjoyed by those at the party. He he.

There was a large bonfire and music blaring from speakers mounted in the trunk of a car. A kid named Mark put live lightening bugs in his mouth and blew his cheeks out like Dizzy Gillespie, his cheeks glowed green! He was always a big attraction at river parties. However, we were feeling unappreciated because of our prank so we started back to town.

Dan and Greg, two seniors, wanted a ride into town. Dan opened Shelli's door and shoved her over until he was behind the wheel. He had been drinking. I gathered my weak courage and told him, "No, you can't drive. You can have a ride, but let Shelli drive."

He took off with Shelli and I and his friend Greg all telling him to stop. Dan was going too fast down the gravel road and and about a mile later he drove straight into a ditch and the front end of my dad's truck was crushed.

We were shaken up but no one was injured. We all sat silently for a second, I was angry and in disbelief, it had seemed like he had deliberately driven into the ditch. How was I going to explain this to my dad!

Unfortunately for Dan, I accidentally slammed my thumb in the door as I exited the truck and that triggered an emotion like I had never experienced before. It was a blood boiling rage, my blood literally felt scorching hot coursing through my veins. The heat rushed over my entire body! I came up out of the ditch as Dan came towards me around the back of the truck. He was stuttering and saying, "I, I don't know what happened."

I walked straight into him and slammed him hard with my forearms. He was laid out flat onto his back. I followed him down and started pounding my fists into him like that scene from The Christmas Story movie when Ralphie beats up the school bully. I confess I began spewing curse words just like Ralphie.

Shelli and Greg were stunned. First the accident, now shy, happy-go-lucky Lisa was acting like a person possessed. They eventually pulled me off and Dan ran back to the party to escape my fury.

A passerby saw the accident and called the police. An officer showed up and asked me what was going on. Like an idiot I told him that I had been driving. Dan had been drinking and I stupidly decided to protect him. The officer asked for my licence. I told him I didn't have it with me. He accepted this and took down my name. He didn't give me a ticket. We eventually got the truck out of the ditch with a wrecker and they let me drive it home.

I told my dad that I had driven the truck into the ditch. He was pretty reasonable about the whole thing and that made me feel even more guilty about the truck and my lies. The next day I told my brother Rick that Dan had wrecked the truck. Rick was a senior like Dan and Greg. He said, "You need to tell Dad the truth and maybe I need to teach Dan a lesson."

I mumbled, "You don't have to beat him up, I already did."

Rick questioned me and burst out laughing when I admitted that I had flattened Dan and pounded on him until he ran away. Rick thought this was hilarious.

I told my dad the truth later that day, he asked the police to change the accident report so Dan's insurance would cover the repair costs for his truck. Dan denied that he had been driving and the police said that I had lied once and how were they to know I wasn't lying now.

My dad was stuck with the cost of the repairs because of my lies. I vowed to be completely honest from that moment on, hence that night became a turning point in my life.

Do you remember the Nazareth song 'Hair of the Dog'? After that night my friends would sing it with the words changed a bit. Instead of singing, "Now you're messin' with a son of a b****."
They sang, "Now you're messin' with a daughter of Rich." (My dads name is Rich.)

My brother Rick thought that his little sister beating on his male classmate was great fun. He told all his buddies and they laughed at Dan's expense for weeks which was probably his greatest punishment. I do hope Dan learned as valuable a lesson as I did that night.

So Levi, always be honest, especially to the police and your dear sweet parents. Also if you slam your thumb in the door of your truck, go give someone a serious beat down. It will ease the pain in your thumb.

Jobs I've held.

In high school a teacher told us that we would have an average of 8 career changes. I thought he was crazy. I thought I would do one thing and do it to the best of my abilities until I retired. I was the crazy one. Read on about the many diverse jobs I have held so far.

Baby sitter to many nieces and nephews.

Right out of high school I had no idea what I wanted to be when I grew up. So, I got a job at a candy import company. I was the switchboard operator. I directed eleven incoming telephone lines. I try to keep things positive around here, but to be honest I must tell you my boss was a total jerk parading as an upright 'christian'. He would send girls aged 18 to 22 to do candy shows, getting them the cheapest rooms available in the seediest most dangerous parts of the city. He was not a nice man, he actually hit one lady. I left after nine months, I had a lot of fun with the other employees at that company though, nothing like a jerky boss to unite workers. Another good thing about that nasty first job was that it made every one after it seem lovely in comparison.

My next job was at a baseball cap factory. I applied the little button to the top of baseball caps, but that's not all I did, no siree. I also put those little round eyelets in the cap panels. We all know how important those eyelets are! That factory closed after I was there a little over a year and I decided it was time to get back to school.

I still was not 100% clear on what career I wanted to pursue. I had always been a timid sort and had little confidence in myself. I made a conscious decision to try the thing that frightened me most. (Face your fears head-on to eliminate them and become a stronger person is what I was thinking here.) I took a weekend class on computer programming. I had never touched a computer before so this was a huge scary step for me. Guess what, I liked it. I enrolled full time and got a degree in computer programming.

While attending college I worked at a bank and did their nightly processing work. A fun aspect of this job was watching the ATM monitor. I would see people doing the oddest things when they thought no one was watching. ATM users made rude gestures, mooned the camera, kissed the camera and kissed each other. Fun times.

After graduating I went to work for a company that developed, sold and maintained software for about 90 banks throughout the Midwest. My job was to customize programs when a bank wanted to do things a little differently than the norm. I also helped people when they ran into problems and needed help working their way out. It was fun to guide them through their rough spots. They were always very thankful and thought I was the bomb! This company was eventually bought by a larger company and they closed our office. I was offered a job by the new company but I couldn't leave my family and move to their office in Missouri. I can't be without my family!

Payroll specialist was my next title. I did the payrolls for many of the businesses in my small town. The bakery, factory, restaurant, veterinary office and many others. I also did bookkeeping work for a few businesses. Have I mentioned that I prefer to be creative and don't enjoy numbers much? I stuck it out for a couple of years before training a niece to take over.

I went back to school to become a massage therapist just like my older sister. It was a good fit. I had had my first child by then and could set my own hours, staying home with him most of the day. A bad car accident that did some damage to my neck and jaw made giving massages too painful for me to continue.

I helped my carpenter brother Rick part-time building spec houses.

My nephew Justin is profoundly mentally and physically handicapped. I was a licenced respite care provider for him until he turned 18.

My husband Bruce and I started a trucking company. We haul a liquid by-product from ethanol production plants. We deliver the liquid to cattle feeders. Cattle love to eat the stuff, its very nutritious and it's cheaper to feed than corn. I am the one who contacts the plants to procure the syrup we haul in our tanker trucks.

We quickly became too busy for my husband to continue feeding the cattle we had on our farm. I took over the cattle chores, while he drove one of our trucks 16 to 18 hours a day. I drove tractors, mixed and fed cattle feed, worked cattle(sorting, treating, loading, unloading), hauled manure, fixed machinery, basically did everything required to take care of cattle. I think this was my favorite job.

I have always done the bookkeeping for our farm and trucking business.

I was geared up (Get it? Trucks have lots of gears? Just ignore me and read on.) to start driving one of our 18 wheelers full time when I was diagnosed with cancer. I was driving the trucks with my husband in the passenger seat. Fun fact: People who want to practice driving a semi tractor trailer before taking their driving test need to have a learners permit. I had already taken and passed all the written tests required. However, the cancer treatments left me too tired to do much of anything, hence the name Slug-A-Bed. We sold the farm, I continue to do the bookwork for our growing trucking company and I stay at home with our two boys.

Last year I was a substitute teachers helper at my boys' elementary school. I worked in the special education room with mostly downs syndrome boys. I loved it but I became too fatigued and I ended up contracting every virus that thrives in the perfect conditions an elementary school provides, a side effect of my leukemia. Only when I get a normal childhood illness it sometimes morphs into a nastier version and I can suffer for months. Had to give up being a teachers helper.

So these are the jobs I have held. Wow, that is a long and diverse list.

1. Baby Sitter
2. Switchboard Operator
3. Factory Worker
4. Bank Employee
5. Computer Programmer
6. Payroll Processor
7. Bookkeeper
8. Massage Therapist
9. Respite Care Provider
10. Carpenters Helper
11. Cattle Feeder
12. Entrepreneur
13. Teachers Helper
14. Most importantly, I am a Circus Trainer/Mom to two wild boys!

What jobs have you had, what jobs are you training for?