And Heaven got 2 New Angels

Just a forewarning ... this post is going to be about something that is extremely violent and heartwrenching.
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On Thursday, on my way to work, I called my mom from my cell phone to ask her something. During our conversation, she asked me if I saw the news. I got a little worried, because the last time something like that had been said, it was when she phoned me the morning of 9/11.

I told her no, and she told me there was a stabbing in Hoffman Estates (the town in which she lives, where I used to live as well). She told me it happened on John Drive, and 2 kids were stabbed to death. The father came home and found them. The mother was in the house with them. I thought, well, then why didn't the mother call 911? Something wasn't right.

I knew that at work we had a customer that lived on John Drive, so when I got into the office, I looked up the address. All the news was saying was that it was on the 1100 block. Our customer lives on the 1100 block.

That was all I knew. That afternoon, I picked up my mom and we headed to the post office like we do every Thursday. It just happens that John Drive is right on the way. There was traffic and tons of local television news trucks, police cars and people milling about. We drove down the street - why is it a part of human nature to be drawn to things like this?

As we went by, I realized I forgot to look at the addresses. I was really expecting our customer to be a neighbor. We drove back past, and I looked at all the addresses which went in incriments of 10. The last house didn't have a number on it - it was the house of our customer. It was the house where 2 children were slain.

I couldn't believe it.

I called the manager at work - and uttered the words - it's her. Our customer is the one who killed her kids.

My body went cold and I felt like throwing up. I don't know these children. I don't personally know the mother. But it was enough in knowing that it's highly likely that I've talked to this woman before. That this woman supports our business, buying milk for her family, for her kids -- 2 kids that she took the lives of.

The more information that the public found out, the more disturbing the whole thing got.

She ended up confessing (isn't that noble?). She killed her daughter first (3 years old) upstairs. Her son (9 years old) was running and trying to hide from her. She chased him through the house and caught up with him downstairs where she attacked him.

The coroner said that each child had over 200 stab wounds. And that the children struggled with their killer.

It makes me sick to think that these children died, trying to fight off their own mother. And that boy - for him to have been running and trying to hide - he must have seen his mother kill his little sister - and then he was attacked by her. His last image of this world was his own mother - the one that should have been protecting him - chasing him down to murder him.

My heart aches.

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Rest in Peace little angels

^i^ Christian Vasilev ^i^
^i^ Gracie Vasilev ^i^

Left this Earth to go to Heaven
Wednesday, April 27th, 2005
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Catching Up

I realized there was more I had wanted to talk about before. And now I have a TON on my mind.

I celebrated my 25th birthday a few weeks ago. For some reason I just couldn't grasp the idea of being 25. It just seems like such a weird number. 25. Maybe because it's halfway between being 20 and 30? Because I'm a 1/4 of a century old. I don't know. But now that I think about it, 26 seems like it'll be even more weird. Oh well....sooner or later my age has to match the gray hair I already have.

Okay, enough of the age thing ....

Friday we drove by the house again. They were working on the roof. Pretty cool.

I have a couple more things to talk about, but really they are big things, so they deserve to be in their own posts.

So .... more to come!

Time keeps on slipping .....

Wow. Can you believe it? It's nearly MAY. :sigh:

So it's been a month since I've written last. Where do I begin?

Let's see. My baby girl will be 10 months old tomorrow. I can't believe she's nearly a year old already. Saddens me. Really. She's growing up WAY too quickly. And then there's my son - in the oh-so-terrible-and-much-worse-than-the-two's 3's. Really - who decided to mark the 2's as terrible? Had they ever met a 3 year old?? Sheesh!

And what else - oh - our adorable twin neices. Doing SO WELL. 7 months old now and developmentally are right on schedule (Bailey is actually a little advanced for her adjusted age). BIL and his girlfriend asked Mike to be Alexa's Godfather, and they asked *ME* to be Bailey's Godmother. I am thrilled. It's such an honor.

The new house is coming along nicely. They started it the beginning of April. Things have really started progressing since last Friday. We went out to the site to see, and we had a foundation/cement floor. When we went out on Monday, the entire first floor was framed and they had started on the 2nd. I went out tonight, and nearly the entire 2nd floor was framed. Soon we'll have a roof!

In the midst of all this - I decided to ween myself off my Zoloft. Yeah, bad mistake. Why I thought doing it while we're in the middle of packing, cleaning, trying to get this house ready to sell all while the new house is already being built ..... I can't do it. I picked up my RX tonight.

So, I've just been keeping busy. Very, very, very busy. Working full time, then coming home and trying to make sure everyone eats dinner, get the kids ready for bed, tuck them in, and then try to squeeze in everything else like showering, listing things on ebay, packaging up ebay items to be shipped, packing boxes to move over to the storage unit (to declutter the house so it looks more presentable to sell), and still try to get in relaxation time. And then of course on weekends - even though I don't work - we have been trying to do weekly garage sales (did 2 so far and brought in a little over $500) to get rid of more stuff, and we try to have some family time as well.

I'm afraid that I'm going to have to start giving up family time in order to take care of everything else that needs to be done. That's the LAST thing I want to do, but really, I don't know how else we're going to get things done. There is SO MUCH to do. I can't wait til September and this will all be over with.

Hopefully I won't be entirely gray (or bald!) by that time.

Let me introduce myself

I know, I know. It's been ages since I've posted. Seems this is becoming quite a regular thing. If this keeps up, I'll only be posting 12 times a year.

What can I say? Life is extremely busy these days.

I don't know where to begin.

Let's see.....we've officially started packing. Granted it's only 3 boxes worth - BUT - it's a start! We started with what we definitely won't need for the next few months. All our CDs and PS games and accessories. We'll just have to wait a few months if we feel the need to listen to the American Idol Season 1 CD, or play GTA.

I've been selling on ebay like crazy. Making some extra money - and getting rid of this stuff so we don't have to move it. I feel like I'm not getting rid of anything - just because there's SO MUCH - but the extra money is nice. Helps support my new habit.

Cocaine? No. Heroin? No way. Drugs are not my thing. Booze? Naaah, not a big drinker either. Male prostitutes? Is there such a thing?! Nope, not those either. My new addiction --- GYMBOREE.

It's terrible. Terrible, terrible, terrible. Granted, if I didn't have a daughter, the addiction probably wouldn't have started. But -- they just make ADORABLE little girl's clothes and I've been filling The Girl's closet with lots of summer Gymbo items. And now I've started buying and looking for things to fill The Boy's closet with. But - I have not bought anything that was full retail price. I buy from the clearance racks - or buy online. I've gotten some good deals on ebay - mostly stuff that is new with tags. I've even joined some yahoo groups in which deal only with Gymboree chit chat, trading, buying and selling. I've already bought from 2 people and I've only been on the lists a week.

At least the kids are going to be two extremely stylish little ones (as if they weren't already though!).

And now for my update on the biggest "going on" right now -- THE HOUSE. We're meeting with the builder and construction foreman on Monday to go over everything one last time. After that -- they'll be breaking ground and starting on our house. So pretty soon we're going to have that week timeline of when we'll be moving. It's all very exciting. I'm anxious for them to start digging and start on the framing of the house. Our only pictures we have are of our lot -- just a lot full of dirt. Oh - and now we have a stake in it too! LOL With our lot number - 159 - on it. It's progress. At least all the lots are staked and ready to go.

We'll probably be attempting to sell our place by owner. Realtors take SO MUCH of a commission it's not even funny. If we find it's too hard, or we're not having any luck - then we'll list with a realtor. We just had someone come out to do a market evaluation - so we'll see what comes of that. A townhome right on our street - just sold for $205,000 earlier this month. I don't know what they did to the place -- upgrades or whatnot -- but it was listed at $163,000 -- and the end sale was $205K -- I don't know exactly how it would go up THAT much (I know sometimes you end up with a bidding war if there are people THAT interested in it). I know better than to think we'll get anywhere near that for our place. There is one currently listed at $180,000 right now. So, we're hoping when it comes time to sell ours, that we'll at least get $175K for it. And hopefully it won't take too long to get a buyer. We put a bid and got the house on day 8 of it being on the market. We'll cross our fingers and see what happens.

Other than all that, things are going well. Kids are great. We went through several weeks of being sick. Once someone would start getting better, another would be getting more sick again. We were dealing with poopies, pukies and yuckies. I'm also in the process of planning The Girl's first birthday party. Have it penciled in for June 25th. Just need to finish getting everything for the party (supply wise) and I'm search of a bakery to order her cake from.

In just a couple more weeks is my birthday. The big 2-5. Seems like such an odd age to me. I don't know why. Many of you might be reading this, rolling your eyes, saying -- God, if only I was 25 again!! I'll be in those shoes someday. But for the moment - 25 just seems like ... I don't know ... a "milestone" or something. To celebrate our birthdays (hubby's is 10 days after mine), we're going out to dinner and to see Larry the Cable Guy on the 16th. I'm looking forward to it.

Well - there might be more I could update on, but frankly - I'm pooped. It's after 1:30am now - and I desperately need to get some sleep since God only knows when the princess will wake and decide she wants to fill her belly with a giant bottle. Does anyone else have an almost 9-month old that STILL gets up to eat during the night?? At least it's only once - but come on -- she eats like a pig during the day, why does she need to get up at 3, 4, or 5am to eat? Can't she just hold off until 7-8am? Even 6am would be doable.

Okay, I'm signing off for the night for sure now .... until next time (hopefully not next month!)......

Oh - and in case I'm not on this weekend:

*****HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE!*****

2005, slow down!

Sheesh. The last time I posted I couldn't believe it was already February ... and now look, it's almost MARCH!

2005 is going by so quickly.

I'm having mixed emotions in regards to this new year going so fast. I'm thrilled that it's going quickly and that in no time we'll be in our new house, BUT, my daughter is growing up much faster than I'd like.

And she's probably our last baby. She CAN'T grow up yet.

She's nearly 8 months old. It's so hard to watch her learn and do new things. While I'm so proud of her, and I love seeing her grow -- it's so bittersweet. Before I know it, she'll be a 3 year old like her brother is now (and good lord - he'll be nearly 6!!).

Anyway ..... I've been busy. Working full time outside the home and then trying to keep up with the housework, laundry and raising a family. Yeah .... we're always doing something. Plus I have been selling on ebay - trying to get rid of stuff so we don't have to move it with us. Mostly I sell the kid's used, outgrown clothes. They have SO MANY clothes. In most cases I make more than I would if I sold them in a garage sale. And the little bit of extra $$$ helps go towards bills or the expenses we'll incur in order to move.

I've ordered some moving boxes and supplies and plan on starting to pack up things we won't need for the next 6 months. I DREAD the whole packing, moving, unpacking, process. When we moved into our house now, I dealt with a 20 minute long bloody nose (in the moving truck, nonetheless) and when I finally got a moment to shower late that night after moving, I had clumps of hair falling out. Ugh.

And this time I get to deal with SELLING a house while moving into the new one. *boink* *boink* Did you hear that?? Yep - those were a couple new gray hairs sprouting out of my head. Lots of gray hair, and not quite 25 years old yet. :sigh:

Anywho .... things with the new house are coming along. We've made all our interior colors/options/upgrades and we picked the exterior color package. Now we're just waiting for the building to begin.

We did take a picture of our dirt lot ... LOL ... you can see it here.

Gorgeous, isn't it? ;)

February?

Can you believe it? February 5th already!

Busy day planned today. We're going back to the builders to pick our exterior color package for the house. Then we also get to meet with the guy from the mortgage company to go over some details with that.

Exciting stuff. :)

Anyway ..... don't have much time right now to post. Will check in again soon.

Insomnia

I can't sleep.

Here I am, it's nearly midnight and everyone else is sound asleep.

I thought I was tired, but I couldn't get comfortable in bed, and sleep was not happening.

I figured I'd come downstairs and boot up the laptop, in hopes of tiring myself out. So far nothing is happening.

I think the problem might be that my mind isn't turning off. I have all these thoughts running through my mind. Ideas for the new house, thinking of all the things we have to do to our house before selling it. I'm already stressing myself out, I can feel it.

When we moved into this house, I had a hard time. The day we moved was a long day. It took a few truck loads, and we worked all day long. By the end of the night, I had a nosebleed that lasted a long time. We got our bed all ready, exhausted, and got in the shower before collapsing into bed. While in the shower, I had clumps of hair coming out. I figured it was all stress related.

I'm not looking forward to all those things again, but I can't help but think of everything that needs to be done. I've already started listing things on ebay, as a moving sale -- because I know we have to get rid of some of this stuff before we move. And let's face it -- we have 7-8 months.

That is not a lot of time. Less time than a pregnancy, and I know how fast those go.

New home, here we come!

Yes, that's right. We are building a house!!!

I'm soooo excited it's not even funny.

We spent a good chunk of the day WAITING. They had a list of people interested, and it was first come, first serve. And they only had 2 people working in the sales trailer.

So, we waited a good 5 hours before we got to sit down and talk it all out. Then it was another hour and a half discussing everything before we got out of there.

But, as of 8:30 last night we have a contract on a house.

We already have our new address and the house hasn't even been started yet!!

They are estimating late August, September for completion.

I'm thrilled, thrilled, THRILLED!!!

In the next 30 days we'll be busy meeting with the mortgage guy, going back to the sales office to pick exterior colors, etc. We also have to go to the design center and pick all our interior colors, carpet, floors, etc etc etc.

So, it looks like March or April they will be breaking ground on our house.

And so, the house is 3018 sq. ft. 5 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, den, living room, dining room, family room, kitchen with center island, master bedroom with TWO walk-in closets, master bath with shower & tub. :sigh:

I CANNOT wait to see it coming along and then finally LIVE in it!!

My dad is thrilled as well -- but mom had a hard time writing out that check for the earnest money. It was a big lump ... but I know she's just as thrilled as we all are.

And so, I've started a website for our new home. I can't wait to start snapping pictures of it all coming together. First things first -- as soon as this snow melts, I need to get out there and take a picture of OUR DIRT! Yes, right now we are the proud owners of a lot of dirt, but soon, oh yes, there will be a home on top of that dirt. A glorious home.

Check it out