I was this close, people.
I almost convinced the Husband to buy a big TV recently. It was a killer macho awesome windfall kind of a deal. But Mr. Logic says, "No, we'll wait till after we move. Wouldn't want the movers to break it, would ya?"

Fine. Be all sensible. I love that man.....and I know he's right.

But still......

Can you tell I have a bad case of LCD-itis? I am not alone. We were just about THE last family on Earth to get a DVD player. And I'm pretty sure we'll be the ONLY family left without a big flat TV....It's not that I want to keep up with the Joneses. I just want a better, fuller TV experience. We have special needs kiddos so we don't get to go out a lot. Entertaining at home IS the ONLY way we get to see movies....Really...

So what am I doing to make this possible? I'm utilizing online reward point programs (like SwagBucks, My Points, etc) and I'm pooling together my points and savings towards whichever TV I will eventually buy. I've "saved" about $125 off of THE TV so far. I'll get there...just you watch. I will not add to our debt to have a bigger TV. That would be flat out stupid. So I'll "point" my way to it....

What else have I been doing? Working out. Getting ready for the move. happily purging junk. I'm so ready to go :)

oh.my.gosh....

(or as my friend Paige, from PA says, OH MY GARSH....)

I went to Wal-Mart (no judgement) and asked one of the employees what *I* thought was a simple question about LCD TV's and man, did they blow me away with the info. I left more confused that when I arrived.....

I felt very intimidated by the whole process. Buying a TV, or at this point, researching a TV shouldn't make you feeel BAD.....

So I skipped over to the super helpful and completely non-judging videos that they have here at Living HD. That Answer Man rocks...

I know which TV I want now......Now I just need to win the Lottery.

I know I want 1080P, I would really like it to be at least a 40"....

I can wish, can't I?

Maybe I'll be SUPER lucky and get picked to be one of the Living HD Families. If they picked me, they'd be in for the ride of their life. My house is wild and untamed. And i would so love to test-drive their TV....

Again with the wishing....aaahhhhh.....

I'm buying a scratch off ticket on the way to the gym!!

I am back.....

Oh...you didn't know I was gone :)

We went home to Alaska for a MONTH'S VACATION.....I didn't want to come back.

In AK, I had a 3 bdr apartment hotel, with a MAID....and there was snow.

But I'm back.

While I was gone, I fell in love.......with a TV. My heart is even more set on going flat.

Although I got diamond earrings, I still want a 42" flat LCD.....is that so wrong?

I intend to post more frequently....

So did I mention that our house is on the market now....? This means I purged and packed stuff out and we have a great storage facility full of stuff that we couldn't bear to give away....my house is sooooo de-cluttered. It's nice.

But having it clean has made me somewhat anal about staying clean. My husband would never believe it but I used to be a clean freak. Of course, that was when I was only a mother of one, on my own, living in a tiny 1 bedroom apartment, with a TV with no sound....so there were no distractions. (I honestly believe my house might be cleaner if I had never signed up to Facebook....seriously.)

But the kids are tiring of me actually making them put their stuff away.....And I am a bit compulsive about the trash can not looking full....

When we move, I swear, I SWEAR....that I will have less clutter. It chokes me. I feel oppressed by stuff. I am talking useless stuff, like old magazines, toys that kids have outgrown, clotes I'll NEVER fit into again....I want a cleaner, more streamlined household. I want NOT to be freaked out if someone drops by unexpected. I want to feel good about inviting people over. (My kitchen used to be so ugly that I just didn't invite people over...$2.000 later and I'll invite you if I'd thought you'd come..)

All this cleanliness has also shown me that I would really like a separate TV/entertainment room for the family. If we get a Wii...well, if the KIDS get a Wii, I'm going to want to watch TV while they play whatever game it is that they're crazy about....A separate room would fulfill that. But we've always been a family with ONE TV....Will we lose touch and disconnect if we have two? It might sound silly to some of you who have a TV in every room.....

Any thoughts?

I had THREE DAYS of luxury at a spa...It was actually a Ladies Retreat for our chucrh, but totalled up, instruction time was about 6 hours over 3 days. So basically, it was a luxury weekend. This was my last Retreat before The Big Move. So I am soaking it up.....

The coolest part (I am such a dork) was that the EXACT LCD flatscreen TV that I wanna buy was the one in my room!! So I got to sample it and test-drive it.

Let's just say I'm in love. Now I have to save enough money to get one....I do the SwagBucks thing (which rocks) and I have enough Amazon gift cards to pay for HALF of it now. So I gotta get cracking!

I never thought I'd be that into a TV. But for us, and for our family, it's valuable. With special needs kids, you don't get to GO OUT. You stay home and your entertainment is all-inclusive so for us, having a really nice set-up is a good thing.

I need to win the Lottery....

:-)

Our house goes live on the market tonight. I wish I'd had a video camera, showing the flurry of insane cleaning. It was not fun. It is not recommended. How do normal people do this so frequently? Sheesh.....

Okay, moving onto to funner topics. So glad that baseball is over and my TV watching can return to normal. But the TV is an issue...I find myself grappling with LCD-envy. It happens I know...but for me, I've been surfing the web, trying to learn about LCD's, and brightness, resolution and a whole lotta other stuff that makes my brain mushy....

I just want a really good TV. Without forking over my life's savings.
Is that too much to ask?

I will admit: it's intimidating to NOT know what's what. So I eam leaning, bit by bit. I am not afraid to look stupid in front of the sales people and then go home and research some more. Trust but verify is my motto. I don't take the sales-dude's word for it. He works on commission......Ah ha!

But I am sitting on the couch, wishing I could watch the return of "Glee" on a 32-inch LCD. I'll admit it.....I'm feeling some envy.....but I'm dealing with it through the holidays to maybe take advantage of the suckage of the economy and the retailers' desperation to move high value products :)

My momma didn't raise no fool.....(my momma doesn't have an LCD either...)

So I am researching, watching prices and dealin' with my envy....

And writing this entry that NO ONE will read. It's like I am talking to myself, only virtually......

In military life, you move a lot. That's just the way it is.

The reason that I have been so quiet (read: absent) is that we're getting our house ready to sell so we can move. We're headed for Ft Lewis in Washington State. We're THRILLED with the location, not so thrilled about selling the house in a tough market.

But God provides. We'll get through this. One day at a time.

How I wish we'd done a good series of "before & after" photos of our house. It's being transformed. From the comfortable cluttered mess that IS home, to a you-can-walk-through-it show house....Ugh. It's a lot of work. But when someone else buys our home, it'll be worth it.

Life goes on....

Suzanne
who is tired, REALLY tired....