Finally!

Yeah! I finally got some pictures up! The house is done! Okay, not completely, but mostly. We'll just ignore the fact that the study, basement and garage are disasters. I am only one person and can only do so much. The only reason I got as much done as I did is because of all the help! Thanks! I really appreciate everyone who came for a day or even an hour to help. Kate, my dear, I owe you big time. You came over almost every day for 3 weeks and even brought Paul to join in the fun. :) Rachel, none of this would have happened without you taking Stinker so often. I think you saw her more than I did this week. And last week... I hope you know how much easier it made my life not having her getting into everything while I was painting, spackling, nailing, or whatever.

Are you ready to hear my ingenious idea for keeping Stinker's diapers on? I put one piece, footed pajamas on her backwards. There is no way she can get in there. But in reality, this was probably someone else's idea and I just didn't listen the first time. It is saving me a lot of duct tape. :) This wouldn't work great in the summer. Or during the day. But her problem time is at night so it is a great solution for us.

We need Brad back. Jamo just got on the phone with Brad and said, "What's your name? Is this really daddy?" Sad. :(

Okay, that is my update for the day. I'm putting the slides on the cookie blog very soon. Halloween pictures may or may not be up tomorrow. I didn't really have time to think about costumes, so I let the kids go through our dress up box and come up with something. And I didn't get to go to their schools to take pictures because I couldn't be at both schools at the same time. That and I had the photographer here... I couldn't decorate for the holiday either because I didn't want the pictures on the listing to be dated by having Halloween decor. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. :)

Photo tag

I am still not techincally in the blogging world. I'm going nuts cleaning. Pictures are tomorrow, listing on Saturday. Any and all help would be appreciated! Stinker will be playing with Haley, who see her more than I do these days.

I got tagged by Sarah and it looked pretty fun. Plus, I'm on my lunch break and need a distraction. :)

"Here is a fun & easy photo tag. Here are the rules: just go to your picture file, open the 6th folder, and the 6th picture! Then post it and tag 5 friends. "

I can't think hard enough to tag 5 people so consider all ya'll tagged. ;) If you want to do it, leave me a comment and let me know you did so I can see it! :)

Sorry mine is a boring picture of my partially tiled entry way. Too bad it wasn't folder 7. That has my pictures of the Twilight movie. :) But, just because I can, here is one anyway.

P3: Plea, picture, politics

I am in desperate need of moving boxes. Any boxes. Please, if you have any boxes that would love to see Philly, let me know! I could really really really really use them. If you are wondering why someone who moved so recently doesn't have boxes, I'll explain. When we got here, we thought we had 5 years in this house. We have away all of our boxes to a poor sap who had to move. We thought we would have 4 years to wait until we needed to start collecting boxes again. Instead, our time frame is closer to 4 weeks. Ugh. Now, we are the poor saps who are moving and could really use some boxes. Thanks!


Okay, I'm pretty much going crazy trying to get everything done. But at this point the big projects are done and all that remains is cleaning and redecorating before the realtor takes pictures for the listing on Friday. If I get a copy of the professional pictures, I'll link them or put them up. Until then, here is a picture of the FINALLY finished basement door as seen from the rental.

I'm kicking myself for not taking before pictures. This looks SO much better. There were gaps, and holes, and it was plain drywall, etc. I worked my hiney off on it, and so did a lot of other people. But I got to do the final touches. :)


And just to warn you, if you are voting for Obama, don't read any further.






Brad and I have worked extremely hard to get to where we are, and I would like to not "share (my) wealth" with those who haven't made the sacrifices necessary to have a comfortable life. Having said that, this totally cracked me up. I asked my friend Elizabeth if I could use it. She got it in an email. Enjoy! And if you are an Obama fan, don't blame me. I told you not to read this.


*'Twas the night before elections*
*And all through the town*
*Tempers were flaring*
*Emotions all up and down!*


*I, in my bathrobe*
*With a dog in my lap*
*Had cut off the TV*
*Tired of political crap.*


*When all of a sudden*
*There arose such a noise*
*I peered out of my window*
*And saw Obama and his boys*


*They had come for my wallet*
*They wanted my pay*
*To give it to the others*
*Who had not worked a day!*


*He snatched up my money*
*And quick as a flash*
*Jumped back on his bandwagon*
*With all of my stash*


*He then rallied his henchmen*
*Who were pulling his cart*
*I could tell they were out*
*To tear my country apart!*


*'On Fannie, on Freddie, *
*On Biden and Ayers!*
*On Acorn, On Pelosi'*
*He screamed at the pairs!*


*They took off for his cause*
*And as he flew out of sight*
*I heard him laugh at the nation*
*That wouldn't stand up and fight!*


*So I leave you to think*
*On this one final note-*
*IF YOU DON'T WANT SOCIALISM*
*GET OUT AND VOTE!!!!*

So, super busy weekend with Brad getting projects done. Hope to update soon. Maybe...

Just breathe deep

Okay. The painters/wall repair guys haven't shown up. Haven't returned any of my calls. Who me, panic? No... not me! Realtor coming on Saturday to do listing paperwork? No problem. ACK! I have 3 guys coming tomorrow to give bids. We'll see how it goes. I'm pretty nervous about it. I told them part of the consideration would regard how soon it could be done. I just hope it is done before she gets here so we can have a good idea what we have left to do before listing. And hopefully that list will be small.

I'm not being very patient these days. It isn't a good thing. I'm not letting stupid, rude, or annoying comments go these days. I'm having a hard time smiling sweetly and ignoring it. For example, I have a 3 day overlap with renters. My new guy starts Monday, but the first guy doesn't leave until Thursday. So, the original guy says he is concerned about having another guy in the place. I said, "Well, I was going to have him sleep on the couch, but Arnold is already sleeping there." Then he said something about how it would be hard to share the bathroom. I said "You're worried about sharing the bathroom? I had 3 girls down here for 10 days and they didn't have a problem with it. But if you do, fine. Don't worry about it then. I'll just let him stay upstairs for 3 days." Do NOT whine to me right now. I am just not in the mood to hear it. I have enough drama, don't bother adding to it. Technically, he was down there first as has the right to not want an extra person. Fine. I'll figure it out. I most certainly don't need your help or to hear you whining about it. I can manage just fine, thank you very much. Maybe I'll let him sleep on the inflatable bed down there and come up to use the bathroom. Who knows? I'm sure it will work out. I have much bigger issues to deal with. Like, WHERE THE HECK ARE MY PAINTERS?!??!

Delay

Okay, I am soooo bummed my painter guys didn't show up today. I was really hoping to start putting everything back tomorrow. Argh! At least the Watkins and missionaries came over today and saved my sanity. They fixed my front door, put up the rail, hung pictures, put boxes down in the basement, put in the baseboards, helped clean, raked leaves, and in general made my day much better. Tomorrow I need to paint all of the baseboards that got installed and paint the bathroom cabinets. I don't know if my painters are coming tomorrow as they didn't return any of my calls... I hope they do so I can start putting back furniture and hanging up pictures and such.

Rachel has been watching Stinker a ton the last week or so. She took some super cute pictures of the girls together and I stole them from her site. :) They are up on cookie blog.

Bubble bath + carpets

Bubble bath does not belong in carpets. Didn't know that? I'm telling you now. My bathrooms have been a disaster as they wait to get painted. They aren't exactly childproof presently. Needless to say, some unnamed stinker of a two-year-old decided to spill the entire contents of a 16 oz Spider Man bubble bath bottle in the playroom. Nice. Right before basketball practice tonight, so it sat on the carpet for 2 hours before I could get to it. Here's a tip: Don't add water until you've soaked up as much of the soap as you can. Duh, Melisa.

And because I needed the distraction and I was unofficially tagged by Jessica's blanket tag here it goes. ;)

Where is your cell phone? floor
Where is your significant other? Philly :(
Your hair color? blondish
Your mother? amazing
Your father? athletic
Your favorite thing? sleep
Your dream last night? uhhhh
Your dream/goal? finish
The room you're in? cold
Your hobby? computer
Your fear? loss
Where do you want to be in 6 years? DONE!
Where were you last night? lonely
What you're not? ready
One of your wish-list items? couch
Where you grew up? NM
The last thing you did? phone
What are you wearing? sweats
Your TV? off
Your pet? plants?
Your computer? fabulous
Your mood? accepting
Missing someone? desperately
Your car? awesome!
Something you're not wearing? socks
Favorite store? restaurant
Your summer? fast
Love someone? madly
Your favorite color? green
When is the last time you laughed? 10
Last time you cried? constantly

Before anyone freaks out, I maybe be crying constantly, but as many happy tears as sad are falling. This whole move is such a mixed bag for me. I'm still not past the totally thrilled, totally devastated thing. But I'm doing great. Getting ever closer to being done with the house. As soon as I can justify it, I'll be back in the blogging world full-time. Until then, sorry I'm not commenting, rest assured I've read most everything. :)

***Update: okay, the question about where I grew up was hard because New Mexico, Los Alamos, and White Rock all are 2 words! I suppose NM might be considered cheating, since it abbreviates two words. I just barely (a day later) came up with "southwest" and "mountains" as alternatives. Any of you who are from Los Alamos or have visited know what I'm talking about. :)

New slide show on cookie!

It is Sunday, so rather than spend another insane day trying to fix this house, I am putting up pictures and catching up on blogs. Check out the slide on Cookie!

Child free zone

I was hoping to have kiddos out of the house if possible so I can get stuff done. Is anyone available to watch them this weekend?

Calet is pretty easy when she has something to do other than follow me around and try to do what I'm doing. In an ideal world, I'd drop her off at 8:30 with a packed lunch, she'll eat around noon, and then sleep about 1 - 4 and I'll come get her when she wakes up. So far she has done good at sleeping in a pack and play. I already have someone watching her on Saturday (THANKS RACHEL!!!), so I would just need someone for Friday. If you are feeling super generous, you could take her a day next week. I don't need her gone as the painting, tiling, and spackling will be done by then (I HOPE I HOPE!), but it would sure make packing and cleaning easier.

As for the boys, Jaden is in school all day, and Daven gets on the bus at noon. So I don't really need help with them, as they can play computer or games without wanting to be involved with my projects. But Saturday I'm hoping to get a lot of projects done and it would be facilitated with them gone. I'm not sure if it would be easier to have 1 boy all day, or 2 boys for part of a day. (all day being 8:30 - 4:30, but if you wanted them longer, I wouldn't say no. ;) ) I could pack lunches for them too.

If you can spare a hubby for an hour or two on Saturday, I have a nice long 'honey do' list that Brad wasn't able to get done before leaving a few days ago. I think the most technical things are installing a bathroom sink, replacing a toilet tank, and putting in a new light fixture on the porch. Most of it just involves the use of our power drill and nail gun.

Or if you are willing to come over and help me clean up at the house, that would be great too! The tiling project generated A LOT of dust. And don't get me started on the mess from the wallpaper glue and spackle. Ugh.

So, if there is a way you can help out with any of these things, it would be greatly appreciated. THANKS!

Waiting

I have some time while I wait for paint to dry in Calet's room so I can return it to a normal state. And for the spackle to dry so I can sand, yet again. So while I waited, I uploaded the pictures and videos. Check out the Cookie blog. Sorry the bday pictures are after the tiling pictures. I was too lazy to move them. I even have a picture of poor Matt after an all day heavy labor marathon. The Castles and Cokers were amazing last week. And it wouldn't even be possible to upload these without Rachel. THANKS for keeping Stink today! Her room is almost done!

Happy birthday, Roo!

Well, the Urgent Care was kind to him. As kind as shots and stitches can be. He was happy he got a sticker. And he left school early and came home. And because 3 other kids have the same birthday, no one minded waiting to have his cupcakes. In all, the experience wasn't too bad. It has hardly registered with him. He was hanging upside down at the Kids' Gym today. Sheesh. I do have lots of pictures and videos of the celebration. What I don't have is lots of time to upload them. :) I hope to have them up by the weekend. I'll be sure to let ya'll know when they are up. I do have Jamo's school picture up. Did I mention that? I can't remember any more...

Brad left today for Philly. Sigh. I'm on the verge of being overwhelmed, but I'm not. I just really have a peaceful feeling. It is all going to be okay. We knew this was going to be hard. We also knew this would be best in the long run. If we can just get through these next few months, it is going to get better. And I know it sounds strange, but I'm actually grateful that we finally have male renters. We've only had females for over a year. But this month we have 2 guys. And today 2 more asked for housing next month. I feel safe because our door has a lock between their place, plus it nice knowing there are 2 other adults in the house if there is a fire or something. It makes sense in my head.


Thankfully, I am living in the same town as a whole army of angels. I've had people in my house every day helping out. I am completely overwhelmed by all of the love and kindess I've been feeling lately. It is worth the price of the insanity I'm also feeling.

Urgent care

Sheer madness is what it is. Still doing paint prep. Tile people in my kitchen which is a total disaster. Scheduling Craigslist pickups. Waiting for the Got Junk people to get my junk. Why not throw in a 5 yr old who is having a birthday today? Can't make cupcakes or cake without a stove. Buy some at Kroger. Problem solved. Then have 5 year old fall off a chair at school and get a gash requiring stitches. I sent Brad over, since he can tell better than I can what requires stitches. Yes, indeed it requires stitches. Brad has him at Urgent Care right now. Kate, I could kiss you for keeping Stinker away from all of this insanity. But then Paul would beat me up. So I'll just say THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for all of your help sanding and keeping Stinker.

Ahhhh!

I'm so going crazy right now. I'm up to my eyeballs in wallpaper glue and tile dust. Still haven't painted. Must stay calm. Hope to re-enter the blogosphere soon. Roo's birthday is tomorrow. Lots of insanity to go around. Still don't have a definitive date for Brad's departure. Tues or Wed if he doesn't get his new license. We'll see. I'll try to keep ya'll posted. I'm so behind on reading blogs. Sorry everybody!

Addict

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This is bad news because I'm not getting my fix lately. The house has yet again kept me from my beloved blog reading. I intend to get back to it soon, but we'll see.

Why I am going crazy

I was hoping to paint tomorrow. Still need to sand and re-spackle. Don't even get me started on the master bedroom. I'm having a professional come in to fix it. It is way beyond my ability. A billion and one 'thank you's to you amazing helpers! I'd still be working on Calet's room if not for you!

So you can see what I'm up against, here are some pictures of the master bedroom.

If you are bored and want something to do tomorrow, just let me know. :)

S.O.S.

Okay, I'm hitting a wall here, ladies. I need to finish getting wall paper off, spackle, prime and paint by Sunday. At least that is what I'm hoping. Each step could use a day of drying in between. I'm working on wallpaper tonight and all day tomorrow. Tomorrow Melissa is going to try to start spackling while I'm ripping off paper. We will probably start around 10. I will be at it all day, so you can come and go as you please. Even half an hour would help. Or watching kids so they don't try to eat the glue or get burned by the steamer would be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much ladies. You are wonderful and I'm so sad to be leaving you all. sniff sniff

Check the cookie blog

Not much on there actually. A super cute picture of my boys being all doctor-ly (with Roo's eyes closed of course). Stinker has learned how to shimmy out of a duct taped diaper, so Brad tried taping her shirt to her pants. So funny. A picture of the beautiful hibiscus blossom. And a slide show of the book I made for the new owners with info on the yard. Let me know if you need an invite!

8 things

Elaine tagged me and I thought this would be easy, but it wasn't... :)

8 TV shows I love to watch:

1. Monk
2. Psych
3. The Closer
4. Law and Order (all 3 varieties)
5. Survivor
6. Dirty Jobs
7. House
8. Bones

8 things I did yesterday:

1. blogged
2. listened to conference
3. picked up my curtains at JC Penney
4. scraped glue off the walls
5. visited Deanne (Hi Deanne!)
6. looked at houses and schools in Philly online
7. chatted on Facebook
8. got milk from the store

8 things I'm looking forward to:

1. having the house ready to put on the market
2. having a stable living situation
3. Brad studying otolaryngology
4. the Twilight movie
5. turning 32
6. my mom coming out in November to help keep me sane
7. Thanksgiving (wherever that may be...)
8. the election being over

8 things on my wish lists:

1. selling my house
2. finding a house I like in Philly
3. being prepared to move
4. new couches
5. a new table that can seat more people
6. cable TV
7. new PDA
8. meet my weight loss goal

8 people I'm tagging- Brooke D., Aubrey W., Resa. J., Raina E., Rachelle W., Nata-Leigh P., Victoria H., Holly S.

PA trip and tripping out with wall paper

Philadelphia was beautiful. So many old and historical buildings! And the leaves on the trip out were amazing. I could have enjoyed the scenery more if I hadn't been listening to Stinker scream for 10 of the 11 hours. Okay, maybe it wasn't THAT bad, but it was really close. She didn't nap the entire drive out there. UGH. Don't believe me? I took a video so you can see what we put up with. It is brutal. It is on the cookie blog if you are looking to be tortured.

I also put up some pictures of the wallpaper we are taking down. The blue wallpaper has tiny little hearts on it. You can't see it from this view. And we can't get it off. It tears like crazy. And I never make my bed. Maybe I'll add it to my New Year's resolutions, but it isn't making the priority list right now.



Brad hates all of the little hearts everywhere. Poor guy.

Here is all of our green grass.
My bracelet that Dana made. It is my reward for losing 50 pounds. Her link is on the side if you want to check out her other stuff.

Stinker's room before we ripped off all of the wallpaper.



It makes my eyes bleed. Okay, that is an exaggeration, but I really hate it. :)