Reality show

There are days that I really feel like I could have a reality show. We come across so many interesting people on the rentals. We have great people, we have terrible people, we have funny people and then there are the others. It truly is amazing to see how different people are and how nasty some people can be. Nasty in a cleanliness way and nasty in a behavioral way.

Last week, I came outside of one apartment and saw an older lady sitting on one of our porches. She was sitting in a chair, no big deal. I said hello to her and then realized that her pants were at her ankles while she was sitting. I immediately called 911 as I was kindly asking her what she needed and why she was there.

She said she was looking for Lou and Stacy. She assured me they lived upstairs, obviously I know all my tenants names and that was not who lived here. That's beside the point, her pants were at her ankles, that was the main thing that alarmed me. I told 911 there was an indecent lady on my front porch, blah blah blah. She finally walked off while I was waiting for the police and as she pulled up her pants walking away, I went hesitantly to see if she had pooed or peed. Thank goodness it was just pee, but still very gross. I slowly moved the chair off the porch and dumped her toilet in the yard. Then I thought, she was sitting to pee and she had to have gotten it all over herself, so gross. Obviously she was mentally challenged or very high. This is one of many incidents that I am tired of dealing with at our rentals.

Then, today Kevin went into one of our apartments at last minute to check on something. The tenants weren't home so he let himself in and in one of the bedrooms he found huge mushroom caps drying on tin foil. He of course expected it was the hallucinogenic type, so he calmly called the tenants to let them know they were being kicked out, after one night of living there. Come to find out, the guy swears it is a hobby and they are not for drug use. Sure, we will accept that for now. I'll keep my eye on him.

It is amazing what people think they can hide behind closed doors. I am tired of opening those doors and wondering what I might stumble upon. Reason number 3039977293 that I would like to sell our rentals.

Ready for a change (this could get long)

I don't discuss our rental properties too much with most people, compared to as much as I'd like to complain about them all day, everyday. I try not to complain in general, I know how blessed I am and how much worse our situation could be. Kevin and I however have reached a point where we are not sure we can work this hard and this much for something that will show no progress for another 15 years. Is it worth it? Is it worth spending every summer working myself to the bone cleaning, painting, calling the cops, showing apartments? Is all this enough to feel like I am losing such precious time with my gifts from God, Sallie Rose and Lulie?

In the past month, we have lost Kevin's dad, worked non stop to get the apartments ready for turnover and Kevin and I have hardly seen each other. Poor Kevin didn't even have time to sit down and mourn the loss of his dad. He was too busy to be sad. That's sad. This has been our life for 7 years! Since we got married, we have struggled with time and of course financially. For what?

Kevin has a great job, I have a masters in Architecture and I am highly employable (sorry to sound a little vain). I work extremely hard and could very easily make a decent living working in architecture and still have weekends off to spend with my children before they are grown up and off to college. For the last three years, I have given up my career in my field to help our family by managing the rentals. This year will be my last year, one way or another. Is it bad everyday? No, it's not, but for 4 solid months it is bad. It is nothing but stress, cleaning, getting contractors to try and do their job, and of course talking on the phone to annoying parents of children who are going to college for the first time. These parents don't want to do any research on the area or housing, they want to call me, talk for an hour, then decide they don't like the location, price, etc. I have way too much to do to baby them and it actually angers me that they think my time is so unimportant, that I can spend all day telling them where everything is in Savannah. 

 

I would say in the last month, Kevin and I have had one conversation outside of rental talk and child talk. We have not done a single thing that was fun on the weekends with our kids. If I am home on Saturday, he is at the rentals, and visa versa. Then, Sunday comes and we go to Church and come home and are so tired, we have no energy to do anything. The thing that really got me this Summer, was after I had Lulie, I had to immediately go back to work. I had zero maternity leave. I had no time to lay around and snuggle my new baby. I was either on the phone or responding to emails. I only stopped to feed her and change her. And poor Sallie Rose, no wonder she was such a terror at that time, neither one of her parents could give her the real attention she needed. We go through the motions and that's about it.

 

So, it's time for a change. What will that change be? I am not sure. I know that I am done missing my children and being so tired that I can't bring myself to play Barbies. I am done missing my husband and discussing nothing other than rentals and when the baby ate last. I am done missing my family and not having the money or time to go see them when I want.

 

Are there people who work harder than me? Of course. Are there people who have jobs that are a lot more gritty and dirtier than me? Yes. And as I am praying that God will give me the strength to make it through this turnover time one more year, there are people out there praying for their children who have life threatening illness. I am not naive and I am not ungrateful for what I do have. There just comes a time when you decide something doesn't work and you either make a change or you stay miserable. I like to make changes and not be miserable. I love life, I love my family and friends and I have done my part of this business for 3 years. I deserve to make a change and I can. Kevin is ready for a change too. He does not want me to have to do this anymore than I want to do it. He feels awful that he brought me into this situation, but God brought us together at these properties and he had a plan for us. This is not Kevin's fault, I chose to do this in order to help my husband.

 

Soon, we will begin trying to sell our rental properties and yes I do pray that there is someone out there that wants to buy them. And I pray that I can make it until the time when they get sold. I know I can, but I don't want to.

 

I have learned many thing about myself through this. I have learned I am strong, I do work very hard, I can handle many different people and their personalities and I am also very handy. This situation has brought Kevin and I closer (odd since we never see each other), and it has definitely made me more grateful for many things in my life. God does have a plan for each of us, I have no idea why those plans work out the way they do, but I try to trust him and pray that I will go in the direction that he intends me to go. I just hope the next direction is straight to the bank with a check from an investor who just purchased all of our houses. :)

Guess who is 3 months old?

This little lady is. She is such a good baby and so easy. I do wish she would sleep a little better at night, but we can't have it all. She smiles all the time and just hangs out when she is not sleeping or eating.

Sometimes, when I put her in her swing or chair and go about doing my chores, I forget she is even there because she is so quiet! She is hardly ever fussy and most of the time will give you a big toothless grin.

She has been a true blessing to our family and we love her more and more each day.

Hotel room, men vs women

It is so ironic the way Kevin and I differ in our hotel living vs our actual home living.

At home, I am a super clutter freak. I can not stand clutter. It makes me crazy. The mail stacks on the dining room table and I have to restrain myself from throwing it all in the trash from clutter rage. I have to organize the playroom every week so that I don't go in there and just throw all the junk away. Kevin, on the other hand, completely clutters his side of our bedroom with clothes, magazines, books, a safe (for the moment) and I'm not sure how he gets out of bed.

At a hotel, completely opposite. He puts all his clothes in the closet or dresser. He gets so angry with me because I walk into a hotel room and throw my bag down and then proceed to scatter everything around the room. And now that I'm in charge of 3 bags and lots of clothes for me and the girls, he is so annoyed! It actually makes me a little happy, so he can feel how I feel 360 days of the year. Wha hahahah!

So here is my latest hotel room trashing. It's so freeing for me!

Prayer

This week we lost Kevin's dad, Edward. He had a very risky heart surgery performed on Wednesday. The surgery went well, but after the surgery his body just couldn't survive. He passed away on Thursday afternoon and of course went to be with God.

This is the second time in my life that I have watched someone take their last breathe. I watched my Grandma Rosa Lee take her last breathe and then watched the funeral home take her body away just hours later. Each time I was so grateful that I knew in my heart their souls had gone to heaven already and it was just their body left for us to bury into the Earth.

This time was slightly different though, because Ed was having a high risk surgery done and was basically told he had the choice to have the surgery or he had the choice to wait for a very large aneurism in his heart to burst. He chose the surgery in order to take the chance that it might work and he might survive. He chose the surgery for Nancy and for his grand daughters. He went back and forth on his decision and just the day before, he told Nancy he was not having the surgery done. Of course he did and I assume he knew when they took him back to the operating room, he might not come back. He told Nancy it had been a great 54 years and went in. I am so sad to think of how scared he might have been, but I would like to tell myself that he was peaceful about it.

I caught myself doubting prayer yesterday. I had guilt that maybe I hadn't prayed enough or maybe I wasn't faithful enough or maybe since I had a small amount of doubt he wouldn't survive, he didn't survive. Then I thought, this is God's plan. Well if this was God's plan, why did I even pray about it? I have been a Christian all my life and I strongly believe in prayer, but I had doubt for the first time in 31-3/4 years. It didn't feel good. Maybe it was me grieving? Or maybe it was because I am still struggling with having a newborn, working part time and trying to be a supportive wife/daughter in law, and my mind is tired. My thoughts are tired.

Kevin and I discussed it and Kevin was so insightful and so at peace with Ed's death. He was so grateful his Dad didn't suffer. He could have been in a vegetative state or he could have been in pain, but he really never came out of sedation and when they removed the ventilator it only was a few minutes before he took his last breathe. Kevin feels God was kind and merciful to his Dad. I see that, but I am still struggling with my thoughts and wrapping my hands around the situation.

If he didn't have the surgery, how much longer would he have lived? I will never know the answer and now I must pray that God will help me have faith to believe that he did what was best for Ed and for Nancy. I want to believe that and I want to be grateful he did not suffer at all, and I am.

I do miss him already, so does Sallie. We stayed the night with Nancy last night and Sallie told me quietly that she missed Pop Pop. She has not cried, but she was very quiet the whole time we were there. He was a wonderful man and we will miss him. I pray for Nancy and Kevin that after the dust settles and everyone is gone, they can grieve quietly and that they are truly at peace with his passing.

The many faces of a 3 year old

This is what a typical day looks like with my 3 year old:

Happy one minute, sad the next, mad, and of course silly. She's gorgeous in all of them!

July happenings

Lulie is 2 months old today. She is doing really well. She has a little bit of a tooting problem, but that runs in her Mother's side of the family. Other than that, she is healthy and easy. I am very grateful for her health and I am very aware of how blessed we are to have 2 healthy children.

She sleeps fairly well. She does not really sleep as much during the day as Sallie Rose does, but it probably also because she has so many places to go with her big sister that she doesn't have time to sleep. I feel as if sometimes she is in her car seat more than she is at home. She just goes with the flow. I am sure that she will be a more laid back child than Sallie Rose, just for the fact that she has to be. Her World is much busier and much louder than Sallie's was. I was the 4th child and that is why I am so cool as a cucumber. :) Not really.

Lulie eats well, and just last night she slept from 9 pm to 7:30 am. She woke up once and I gave her a pacifier and she slept through the entire night. I am not sure that this will be the norm, but I think we are getting close to her sleeping through the night on a regular basis. I am very happy for that. Although, I haven't really minded getting up with her once a night to feed. I am a lot more relaxed about not sleeping than I was with Sallie. Sallie Rose trained us a lot for this 2nd child. She is our coach.

Sallie Rose has been really wonderful lately. We are all finally adjusting to our new life. It only took 2 months! She is still very Mommy needy, but not as bad and not so much in a bad behavior anymore, but more loving. I can't blame her, I am pretty fun to be around. :) Once again, not really. Sallie has been taking swim lessons once a week. The first 2 lessons were dreadful and she cried the whole time and would not put her face under water. Then, the 3rd lesson she cried less and went under water. And finally, she is getting more comfortable with the fact that her hair and face will get wet in the pool. Not to mention, we were at a friend's house the other night and she almost drowned. It was very scary, but she also realized that she needed to learn to swim in order to be safe and have fun with her friends. And it reassured me that however painful it was for me to watch her cry during lessons, it is would be a lot more painful to have her unsafe in the water.

Sallie Rose is also head over heels in love with her baby sister. I am so glad that she loves her so much. She just sits and watches her sometimes and laughs at her "tiny hiny". She is so happy to have her around and she can't wait for her to crawl and play with her. I hope that their love for each other grows and that they never have a sibling rivalry that causes deep seeded jealousy. I try not to compare them in any way and I always try to give each of them the attention they need. I hope that we can continue this way and have 2 girls that are best friends.

I am back to work again. As nice as it is to get out of the house, I forgot how much work and drama I have to deal with at the rentals. My first full day back, I stepped on a used "contraception" in our parking lot. We have our summer prostitutes back apparently. So, I dealt with calling the cops, getting a gate lock and so on for the first full week back. I would much rather have a babysitter come over and me go lay by the pool or go shopping or workout. Of course everyone wants that.

We are doing well here in the scorching hot, humid Savannah and we are enjoying our new addition.