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Yesterday was an interesting day. We have been having some problems getting the permit for our house to even begin to be built (yes I know, RIDICULOUS) so Richie called our "quite unhelpful, liar, could care less" sales representative at DR Horton. We were informed that due to some floorplan changes blah blah blah they are not sure when they can get the permit for our house to be built with the vaulted kitchen ceiling I was so looking forward to. The way things are going, I am starting to doubt we would move into our house before the end of the year, when originally the target date was the end October. We have a few options to consider, one of which is to move into a house that is part of their standing inventory for probably the same price as our home. The house would probably be somewhat larger and pretty comparable to the options we had chosen, but it would NOT be the house we designed. Richie was pretty shocked when I told him I would highly consider that option opposed to just giving up the vaulted ceiling. Then last night I told him about the experience I had while walking the streets of downtown Whiteville...

Yesterday Richie and I both had dental appointments near the downtown area of our ghost town more commonly known as Whiteville. My appointment was first and Richie stayed with the kids in the waiting area during that time. Then when I was done and it was his turn, I noticed the kids were done being there. So I pulled the stroller out of our trunk and took the kids for a walk.
I was actually quite surprised at how fun our walk was. A lot of the stores in the downtown area are shut down, but there are a few cute shops that are still open. The kids were thirsty and hot from our walk so we stopped at a little coffee shop for a while. When I ordered two juice boxes the guy at the register gave me kind of a weird look. I don't know if that was due to my order or if it was because he was confused as to what me and my 2 kids were doing here. I usually get asked that question quite a bit, I don't really "blend in" very well here. And usually I have to tell them the whole story....Richie joked about how he's going to have a shirt made for me that says "Just moved here from Oregon, husband works at GA Pacific, building a house near Myrtle Beach, stuck here til then." Anyway, he didn't ask which made me happy because I didn't feel like telling the story once more.

I was starting to feel like I should maybe give this little town another chance on our walk back to the dentist. And then this happened:
A man is walking the opposite direction as us. I smiled while I walked past (everyone is pretty friendly here), which I tend to do so I don't stand out even more than I need to. As he walked past me, I thought I heard him ask me something, so I turned around. (with quite a puzzled look)"Excuse me?" I said. "mumble mumble mumble mumble peanuts mumble mumble." I quickly was trying to figure out what exactly he was asking me. I have a hard time understanding people here because of the southern drawl but this was a little more difficult than usual. Then I realized he only had 2 teeth so that provided an explanation. I felt pretty silly but once again I asked "what's that?" Hoping for 3rd times the charm I listened as he asked "Do you want to buy some peanuts that I sell at the back of this store over there?" Hmm...for a whole 10 seconds I was silent while I was trying to figure out if this was really happening and what my answer to him should be and if I should just make a run for it. I politely answered "No thank you I'm allergic to peanuts."

The man said something along the lines of oh no we don't want you eating those then go take care of those kids...While I walked away I thought, ok, seriously, there is no store around here that sells food or that would sell "peanuts." I didn't know if I should be laughing or if I should go home and check the America's Most Wanted website. We are DEFINITELY not in Oregon anymore. And tomorrow, we ARE driving down to our new development and looking at some of those houses they have in inventory. And just in case that doesn't work out, I already ordered myself one of those shirts that tells my story.