this is going to be like THE topic for awhile, can you tell? lol (and, in case you didn't notice, it's taking me a bit longer to get the site into the new layout than i figured on. lol d.com is just too damn big!)

anyway, told mother about the move. ug. maybe i should have kept my mouth shut until we were on our way out the door. my mother has 2 obsessions right now: me and religion. now, i don't mind religion so much, i am a born again christian myself. but for my mother it's different. i'm not sure how much of a true conversion we're dealing with here. because of her mental illness, it could just be an obsessive thing and not true belief, if that makes sense. let me put it this way, she believes she's god's daughter literally and that she will be crowned queen of the world and given god's power literally so that she can rule the world. granted, if god chose, it could happen, but with my mother that is a truly scary thought and highly unlikely. the other thing to keep in mind is that anything happening that she doesn't like should be prayed over. while i get her point (being a christian myself), her telling us to pray about things is also her way of saying, "i don't think you should do that and if you pray i'm sure god will tell you the same thing."

the joys of having a paranoid-schizophrenic as a parent.

anyway, so her first reaction is silence. her second is "i think you better pray about this." ummm, no. cali has no jobs for us and has a horribly high cost of living even if you're not poor. i have a chance at work in atlanta. they have the plus program - a training program for teachers who aren't yet already certified. even if that's the only work we find out there right away, that's better than sitting here with no chance at anything at all, especially with 4 kids to support. i explain this to her and tell her the decision is made. silence. then, "i have to think about this." um, what? there's nothing to think about. we're moving. get used to it. yes, the phone call was extremely frustrating.

things are still developing concerning the how's and what's of the move. we've decided it will probably be better for me to get into the plus program and start teaching, letting saxy work part time and go back to school. teacher salaries in atlanta start at about $37,500. teaching in my area starts at $36,000. not a huge difference, but a difference none the less. my first step in this process is to take the praxis 1 asap and hope i pass the sucker. then i can apply to the program.

my oldest hasn't decided if she's going to come with us yet. in all honesty, knowing the differences in the schools, she'd probably be better here. she has a tough enough time in math, out there she'd be lost. schools on the east coast tend to be more advanced than out here in cali. i'm not sure what that means for my 2 gifted kids. we have that in the list of things to look at for my brother.

and today saxy went and bought collars, name tags, harnesses, and leashes for the cats, as well as a second cat carrier. they were not happy about the collars. vagner was doing that twisting thing they do when you put a new collar or something on their necks, and he kept rearing up and falling over. poor baby (she says tongue in cheek). roro, on the other hand, was fine with the collar, having had flea collars in the past i guess it wasn't too disturbing, but saxy tried the leas too. oh, that did not go over well. lol she flattened her ears and crouched and pulled backwards. lol anyway, we'll have a few months to get them used to all that, thank goodness, plus long lengths of time in the carriers.

he also picked up walkie-talkies for us for on the trip. we wanted new cell phones, but nextel wanted a $500 deposit PER PHONE! okay, yea, our credit sucks, but, uh, no way! lol so, walkie-talkies it is! and he's been poking around on atlanta related sites to figure out what's out there. this is good, it will make the transition so much easier for him. heck, it will probably make the transition easier for all of us.

next: box hunting.