2 Years

Two years ago I was at work and I got the call. I asked how old she was and maybe where she was. They volunteered that she had lots of hair and she was happy looking in her pictures. Then they said they would send pictures when they finished calling everyone. I said something along the lines of, hang up hang up, I want my picture!

I got the top one first. I was really surprised. That wasn't my baby. She didn't look anything like the baby in my head. Then I opened the 2nd and 3rd one. THERE SHE WAS!

It didn't take long for me to become very fond of her little mug shot. And I think we were matched because my home study mentioned me going to the beach quite a bit and there is a palm tree on her shirt :)

I called my Dad first and told him the news. It was his birthday after all. He was so excited. I miss my Dad a lot.

Christmas - Easy Smeasy

Natalie told me she wanted...

1) A red angel. It has to be red.
2) A snowflake.
3) Bouncy balls.
4) A box - OOHH NO MAMA, LOTS OF BOXES!

So far I have a new pool for her (the kind that flips open), a transforming little Einsteins rocket, a generic play-doh hair studio and a generic play-doh cutting tool set. I need play-doh, coloring books, construction paper and paints. Shoot I might be under $100 this year for her Christmas, yay me.

Let's see, my recap for the day...

Went to work. Blah
Went to lawyer. Blah
Moved a carload of stuff to the little house. Blah
Unpacked several things. Blah
Made pizza - not too shabby.
Moved all the furniture out of the den. Ouch
Going to bed @ 9:15. Woohoo

Nice and boring huh?

Back to Work

It wasn't too bad and it went pretty quick. Everyone knew I didn't want to talk about it.

Last night I sanded my bedroom floor and put a new coat of poly on it. The difference is huge, I am glad I did it (even though the smell of poly makes me want to gag). I think I might go ahead with a light lilac color on the walls.

John didn't get the pink room painted but he did get the messed up wall fixed (I am not a good mud-er) and primed it. Carpet is going in a week from Wednesday because he can't get in there to paint it until Sunday. He did paint my bathroom and hall and redid all the trim. It is now a light tan color which offsets the white trim a lot better. He is itching to paint the pine in my living room, he wants to caulk the seams, all 8000 of them (ok maybe not 8000, but there are a LOT) and use super paint on it. I might just let him!

I have my car loaded with things from my walk in closet. It is almost empty, it is my plan to clear out the closet and my bath, clean it, then close the door so the paint won't get messed up. We'll use the hallbath, much easier to repaint if we do something to it.

Carpet goes into the den Wednesday. House listed on Thursday on Realtor.com. Saturday, yard sale with an ad in the paper (I'll have all the house info available too and will show it if anyone wants to see it). Sunday afternoon, open house.

Someone seems to know someone who wants to live in this neighborhood and I am undercutting the competition by 15K and my place is move in ready. I am optimistic that it will sell quickly.

Day 8 & 9

Day 7 was slacker day. I was physically pooped and didn't accomplish anything except shopping at Old Navy.

Yesterday John, Mom and I (and the baby) went to the little house. Mom and I cleaned while John tackled Natalie's old red room. His OCD went a little wild when he started looking around. I am not the best painter, I drip a little (a lot). He walked around muttering about all he was going to fix. I stressed to him that I had lived with drips for 6 years in that house and I could live with them another 6. I think he ignored me tho.

The red room's crown molding is now fixed. He caulked it and fixed a spot where Dad and I set a nail to hard and cracked it. I have to admit that always bothered me, but who had time to fix it? He also put another coat of red paint on, the primer was bleeding through. That is what you get for buying paint at Home Depot (boo hiss). The Sherman Williams gold plated paint should hold up nicely. When I left he was shaving my bathroom door that was sticking then he was doing the red room's baseboards.

Today John has already painted the hall bath and is halfway down the the master bath at the big house. After lunch we are headed to the little house, he'll tackle the pink room and I'll work in the basement (baby is going to nana's). My damp musty basement is no more, I wish I had dryblocked the entire thing when I first moved in. Who knew it would work so well? I have things to shift out of the way and a lot of vacuuming to do.

I hope to move in 2 weeks. Uhauls are cheap and I have people lined up to help. Everything that is going to Goodwill is staying in the large house until pick up on Jan 4th. After we move I'll have to come back and start cataloging my donation for taxes. Then I'll have a pick up at the little house and by Feb/March 2010, I will be "stuff" free. I am looking forward to it.

Mulan for her school party.

Tinkerbell for Halloween

Pant head picture is sponsored by candy. Lots and lots of candy.

Crack

Old Navy is like crack to me. Today, if you were the first of like 100 people in the store, you got a golden ticket, aka, 50% off shopping tote.

I think the idea was to just fill the tote. I checked with management, nope, if you had a golden ticket then you could buy anything you wanted. Twitch.

My winter clothes are in pitiful shape and the tops are too big. Why is it, when I actually loose a little weight, it doesn't come off my considerable sized rear end? I already had jeans in a smaller size brand new and I'd never really bought myself anything at Old Navy. It seemed like everything was too short.

Well I hate to tell all my short friends, this year is the year of giant at Old Navy. Tops are way past my butt, sleeves go *gasp* an INCH past my wrist.

So I bought all my winter clothes today. After ONs prices, I won't shop at Lane Bryant again unless I get a $15 off of $15 coupon. Example, my brown pea coat from LB was $150. My black pea coat from ON today was... $30. It isn't that much different and since I wore holes in the brown one, it was time for a new coat. I feel pretty sharp in it. I got work tops for $3.50-6 and sweaters for $12.

But I didn't stop with me. I raided the clearance rack for Natalie for next year. They had convertible capris for $5.99. Extra 50% off clearance, plus my golden ticket. I paid $1.50 for pants, $3 for sweaters, $1.75 for skirts, it was madness. I also got her and DD2 matching Halloween PJS for just buck! Shoot, princess PJs were just $2. Tank tops were 23 cents. I bought a beautiful red ruffled dress for holiday pictures. I stocked up on tights, at $2.50 a pair, it would be dumb not to.

Then for kicks I bought my brother a whole new wardrobe. His clothes were in worse shape than mine. I bought him the same pea coat but cut for a guy in charcoal gray for $27.50. He also got a sherpa hoodie. Rugby polos, button up shirts and zip up light jackets were $7.50. Guy henleys were also $3.50. Nice sweaters, $10. I didn't buy him pants (he is 6-4, I can't ever get that right) but he is set from the waist up for all of winter plus some.

So for $291, I outfitted myself, my brother and my kiddo for a long time. I think that is pretty good.

Day 6

Cleared out the back flower bed, mulched all the leaves in the side and back yard, finished the front flower bed, tore down the last shelving unit (ka-ya!), cleaned cleaned cleaned and dry blocked several square feet. I am pooped.

Tomorrow I am working at the big house cleaning and packing. I have to shift the garage stuff around and move the bedroom furniture I'm taking to the little house towards the front. All those pieces should be moved by Sunday. I am not sure when we'll officially move, but that is a big step in getting everything organized.

Day 5

of getting my act together.

So I did get off my butt and spent my 35th birthday dry blocking a small room in my basement that is actually under my front porch. That is my problem area, I always have a small puddle of standing water. So I mopped it up, hit it with the fan for an hour and hopefully sealed it. Tomorrow is sunny too, so I'll do another coat. For kicks, I think I'll smear a bunch of caulk all over it too.

I also tore out my 8ft front flower bed that was way overgrown. I trimmed down my peonies, dug out those stupid rock lilies that I try to kill every year (I don't like poke-y plants) and tried to pull up 4 o'clocks. I like the 4 o'clocks but they grow so weedy. If they'd just stay in one spot and grow instead of popping up here and there I'd like them a lot more. I have a weird stump thing to saw down tomorrow, who knows what that is. I went to Home Depot and bought 2 6packs of winter pansies (one purple, one purple/yellow mix) and 6 bags of Scotts black mulch. It is suppose to stay blacker longer than other brands. I have to admit it looks pretty sharp, and it should, it was twice as much. I got about half of the weed block (cat chow bags cut open) down and half of the mulch. I hope to finish it tomorrow. If I feel super energetic, I might grab my handy dandy metal head stick thing (matic? madic?) and start chopping the mulch line around the house.

The crap pile was picked up today. Trash guy actually saw me digging out the bed as he drove by and I was like great, I missed it, the yard waste will be here 2 weeks. Well danged if he didn't come back. He saw me cutting the whole thing down and he came back like 1.5 hours later to get it. I thought that was nice.

I took Natalie for her first Trunk or Treating today. She wore her Ariel costume over a turtleneck, she looked like a little yardsale reject. She'll be Mulan tomorrow and Tinkerbell on Saturday. Yes, we like Disney, why do you ask?

Here she is in one of her Halloween outfits. Her head looks freakishly huge in this pic I think, must be the angle.


My Mom kept going on and on about taking me out for dinner. That is something my Dad did mostly. Not only did she take me out, we went somewhere somewhat hip. Stir Fry had half off sushi and I was able to have spicy tuna rolls for my Birthday. She also bought a Cuisinart pan that goes with my other pieces (super duper clearance, $15!). So I thought that was all nice and worth noting.

But here is the best present I could of ever of gotten :)

The church arranged with Olan Mills to send the picture I wanted so badly. They even sent two, one for me, one for John. Absolutely the best thing I've ever gotten in the mail. I can't bear to hang it on my wall yet, but I am so happy to have it.

Happy Birthday to Me

blah

I am torn between working on my to do list or watching TV all day.

Day Three and Four

All the trash was hauled to the road for bulk pick up yesterday. My arms, legs, back and hands are sooo sore. The damp corner in the basement isn't damp anymore (I dryblocked it). The wet corner in my basement (under the front porch) is now dry. I'll dryblock it this afternoon after the carpet guy leaves. I have only sealed 25% of the space and cleaned 50%. But I am confident that I can store more things down there without them getting funky.

I found out my Dad's huge 60-70's stereo was actually my Mom's. It was the first thing she bought herself when she was 18ish and moved out of the house. She wants it back and I am all over that. It is 6 feet long and weighs several hundred pounds, I am not sure how she is going to get it to her house, but that is a nice big item out of the way.

Today my brother is coming to paint the den. The carpet guy comes at 1pm to measure. They are backed up about 10 days with installation so in the next couple of weeks that room will be done and I'll just shut the door. Then we'll head to the little house and measure there.

I let the baby choose the carpet for the playroom (I'll put both girls into the red nursery with only beds and clothes and put all the toys in the playroom). The little house will soon be sporting purple carpet called "violet". So I'll have two bright rooms, good thing the rest of the place is white with tan or brown floors.

Bye for now - Kim

Day Two of the List

I spent 10 hours in the basement of the little house today. I cleaned, I sealed the concrete block walls, I organized the stuff that was already in there and vacuumed like no one's business. the basement has been the dumping ground for all things crappy for the past 7 years. Not just me, but Dad too. It was the place you tried not to remember existed because you felt guilty for all the stuff down there. Bread maker not working right? Put it in the basement to "try it again later". Air purifier stopped working? I bet it's just a switch or something, put it in the basement and I'll fix it later.

Um..well so today I tossed those things. I tossed so much stuff from there the trash pile is the size of my car. Dad loved to play with motors and hated to toss anything electrical. Things were piled on his shelves with a thick coating of dusty crud. I don't even think anyone else would want them so out they went. I also pulled out a desk that we were going to use to work on down there (I got it for free at my Mom's job) to take to the road to recycle (a buba will come in a truck and take it home). I am also curbing some end tables.

I also played the "name that smell" game. I can smell things miles away (and I think that is why I am fat, if you can smell good, food tastes better!). When I bought the house, there were floor to ceiling wooden shelves. But the basement was wet at the door and damp everywhere else. So you can image how nasty that wood smelled. It was one of the first things to go. So over the years, Dad has fixed the water issue but the smell remained. Tonight I discovered where it was. I have about 60 linear feet of wooden shelving built into 4x4s that we thought had escaped the funkyness. Nope. The top shelf of each unit was gross.

So tonight I released quite a bit of anger in general and beat the.. well you know... out of one of the units. I took my Grandfather's red hammer (they don't make that size and weigh anymore, it is fab) and just demolished it. I recommend when you are mad/sad/upset beating the crap out of something with a hammer really does help. I am also happy to report I have the other one to tear out tomorrow and it is bigger and should be lots more fun to whack.

I also have to cart all the trash to the road for bulk pick up. I am not looking forward to walking up my driveway 80 times tomorrow. But I'll do it. Blah.

Two large dressers, one night stand, one jelly cabinet, one secretary and one dining room table is now gone. Also 5-6 oil paintings. They are now with my step mom's kids, where they should be. Two pick up truckloads are gone, it is a good feeling.

I am tired, bye for now.

House Update

I didn't go to the beach. I paced from about midnight to 2am thinking about what I was going to do. I made pros and cons for each location. And it simply boiled down to, I am a single income family. I need to live within my means. The larger house on paper looks great, I can do the mortgage and all the bills associated with it with just my income. But I had a backup if something happened, Dad received almost as much SSD as I did in regular pay a month. So I had that for the what ifs.

I woke my Mom up at 2am and talked to her about an hour about it. After talking to her about everything, I 100% made the decision to move back to my house. The big house doesn't feel like mine. I've not done anything to claim it. When I moved out of the small house, I cried because I was so sad to leave it. The fact it was empty for almost a year and rented for 6 months (my renter did the first time home buyers thing) and I just couldn't bring myself to list it - says a lot.

The heaviness that has been crushing me is gone. I slept last night for the first time. I am still horribly sad my Dad is gone, but I am functional now. My Mom said I smiled today for the first time since Oct 5th. And my decision to get off my a$$ and work on both houses instead of going to the beach to cry I think says a lot.

I've made an extensive plan on how I'll transition. I am not sure how long it will all take, 2 weeks, 2 months - who knows. The list started today. I was able to purchase 6 gallons of high end discontinued/oops paint at Sherman Williams for $38 (antique white and white, can't beat that). 4 gallons are for the large house, 2 are for the little one. I picked out carpet for the den in the larger house (I am not going to buy hardwood for someone else kwim?) and I picked out carpet for the front bedroom of the little house that will be the playroom. I made arrangements with my step sister to pick up her Mom's furniture (6 pretty big pieces) and scheduled John to work on both houses.

Tomorrow, I'll keep going down the checklist.

Bye for now, thanks for reading.

See you on Tuesday

My Mom is taking me to the beach for three days for my birthday to cheer me up. I'll be back Tuesday.

I posted this on my SAC group and without going into too many details would you...

One - stay in the larger house in the expensive neighborhood with lots of space (about 800 more SF than you use), adopt DD2 with some financial finagling and not have a savings account.

Two - move back to the small house in the working family neighborhood with less space (need about 200 SF more), adopt DD2 with cash and have a rather large savings account.

Three - I guess three would be to sell both and buy a third house. This option just makes me tired.

Which is more important to you? Location and size or financial freedom? I'm not 100% either way yet, I'd love to hear what you all think.

(schools are comparable, commute is comparable, yard at the little house is larger, yard at the bigger house is much prettier)

(Dad died in the larger house in his bedroom, that is a visual I am having a hard time shaking. Dad redid a lot of stuff in the little house, every time I turn around I'll be reminded of something he fixed for me.)

Teaching

I try to show Natalie how to do stuff instead of doing everything for her. At her age, she is a sponge and remembers how to do everything!

She spilled her cheerios in the living room this morning then danced in them. Then she dumped her chips from snack time in the floor too. Guess who learned to use the vacuum today?



She going to "do-it again mama" tomorrow :)