So much to do..the big 0-1!!!

Just when I thought things surely had to slow down around these parts.............

Bug got sick a couple weeks ago. She had a terrible cold and horrible cough. Poor thing was miserable, and it lasted for nearly two weeks. Needless to say, I wasn't getting much sleep with her being such a little sicky. Like any generous sweetheart, she shared her illness with Darling Dearest and I. He didn't really get it too badly and was under the weather for maybe a couple days. I, on the other hand, was feeling the worst I have felt in a LONG time for week or so. I'm still sick now, but feel 100% compared to how I felt before--constant headache, burning nose and eyes, sinus pressure, never-ending snot, achy body--just horrible. I would wake up in the night because my nose burned so bad or because I couldn't breathe, and I couldn't fall back to sleep. So really, I have been going on a little less than 3 weeks of not-so-hot (putting it very mildly) sleeping. I long to feel caught up on sleep, but that's not happening anytime soon because.......

Bug's turning ONE!!!

Her actual birthday is on Wednesday (the 24th), but we're having her party this Saturday. With me not working and thus, the cash not flowin', we really wanted to keep her party extremely small---just the closest of friends who have been involved in this past year of Bug's life. I feel badly, because if I had the cash to drop, I have a million other people that I would've loved to invite (ok, a million may be a slight exaggeration, but there are several others)---but I guess we'll have to wait for another year for that. Bug's not going to know what's going on this year anyway. I also decided to keep it just desserts and a couple appetizers. I made my own decorations, and still have more to finish before Saturday. I'm SOOOO not a party planner/thrower, but there will only be about 10 people coming, so I need to convince myself not to worry about it. For the record, even though that's the sane thing to do---that will NOT be what I'm doing. I will be running around like a chicken with its head cut off until the party is over and done. Although, I really hope I can be organized enough to take a deep breath and ENJOY the party and this milestone in my daughter's life--not to mention, OURS (we DID make it through a whole year as parents and she's still here to prove it)!

After consultation with some friends and my cousin (all great party-planners), I finally feel good about the menu and party in general. I have taken on the responsibility of making the cupcakes and her smash cake, so I'm just praying I don't mess those up. Can't have a birthday party without a cute and tasty cake. I'm sure I'll have a million and two things to do the day of, but I'm hoping to get as much as I can done before Saturday while keeping my house in tip-top shape in case someone wants to see it. UGH! We'll see how that goes. It's been an extremely slow week with showings, so maybe no one will interrupt my party-planning mode.

ANYWHO...Just thought I'd tell you all that I'm still alive and kickin'. I've just got a ton to do in the next 48 hours (not to mention squeezing in time to go see a lot and model homes in the neighborhood we're considering building), so you won't be hearing from me until after the party. I'll have lots of pics of my Bug and her first birthday party.

Until then, I'll leave you with some pics from our minor (huge for GA) blizzard and snow that lasted all of 12 hours. Glad I forced Bug to go out and play (when she should've been getting ready for bed) so I could get some pics of my sweetie rockin' her Walmart bag snowsuit. We "southerners" (ok, wanna-be and currently-located 'southerners'), have not invested in a snowsuit for the one time a year it snows here. The only thing prettier than snow in GA (and it did look beautiful) is the sweetest snow bug IN the snow in GA. hehe!

Jumping for joy at the sight of snow!

Cheezing for the camera

Hmmm, I can pat it OVER and OVER and OVER again.

My favorite Walmart purchase

After crawling in the snow and realizing snow is C.O.L.D.

Daddy makes it better!

Finishing up dinner after our fun in the snow

*Until next post.....wish me luck on my turn at being Cleopatra (if you don't understand that reference, you've got a lot of reading to do on my blog. hehe!).

Mommy Meeting....I did it!!

I went to my first meeting-with-complete-strangers, Mommy group Saturday morning. You have to go to a public event before you can do private play dates at someone's house (for obvious reasons), so I bit the bullet...and went. Not only that, but I went without Bug. I had planned on bringing her as a distraction. "Oh, I'm sorry. I'm so busy interacting with my daughter that I'm slightly anti-social and not wanting to talk to you complete strangers." I thought Bug would help break the ice. I'm SOOO not about going to meet strangers, which you wouldn't guess unless you knew me. I'm an outgoing and social person. I make friends really easily, BUT I need to be in a comfort zone...like a school or something. Yeah, I don't do the coffee outings with a bunch of women I never met. The outing was at Starbucks, so I knew I would be tempted to go in...check out the situation, and immediately turn around. These people don't know who I am. As I waited in line for my Chai tea, I saw a group of women with the tables pushed together. Ugh. I wanted to get my cup of warm deliciousness and hop in my car. I've got enough great friends of my own, who needs to make any more?? BUT, I came here for a reason. I wanted some mommy friends in my area who I could meet up with, join for play dates, and enjoy getting advice from. So I sucked it up, and went. I'm SOO proud of myself. There were only a couple people there since I went toward the end, but the girls there were really nice. I'm now looking forward to my Forsyth Mommies group. YAY!

I can't hear you...I'm going through traffic???

So this week has been a busy one. Our house is officially on the market. YAY!! The sign went in our yard Tuesday afternoon, the pics were taken, and we were up and running on the internet by Wednesday. I found myself feeling extremely anxious when we were officially "for sale". Not worried like we made a bad decision---just worried in general. I was more anxious then excited, which I did not expect to feel. Maybe it's because we've been in this house for 5 years and I've got used to being here, maybe its because I like this house, maybe it's because our Bug has spent the first year of her life here.....I don't know, but I kind of felt sad.

I also started thinking of all the craziness that could happen these next several months. What if our house sells and we haven't found a place?? What if there's a period of time between this house and the next?? Where would we go? I started mentally going through my friend list---nope, they don't have room for us, nope, they already have a dog (or dogs in some cases) and would definitely not want us with our 2 dogs, nope, they don't have a dog...for a reason. They hate dogs and wouldn't want us. We would have NO WHERE to go! Then I started looking up apartment complexes (seriously, this is how far I went with this fear that hasn't happened) and couldn't find any that did a month-by-month situation. After looking into a handful of apartment complexes, I realized I'd lost it. I didn't need to be worrying about something that hasn't happened. So yeah, initially, I wanted to run right back out in my yard and take down the For Sale sign. Sure, we could happily fit all 4-5 kids we hope to have, plus all the family visitors we like to have in our 3 bedroom house with no basement. We can stay here! I don't want to be homeless!!

The house has been on the market for just under a week, and I've calmed myself down. Well, at least about the issues I mentioned above. Instead, my crazy energy has gone toward the showings. It was raining and really crappy the days right after it was listed. Saturday, though, was beautiful. I met for coffee with a Mommy Group (tell you about that next post) after an hour and a half of attempting to put Bug down for her nap. She's SOOO sick. She's got the worst cold. She can't breath, or nurse well. She's coughing all the time. She's had a fever and has actually lost her voice from coughing so much. Poor thing is miserable. It breaks my heart to see her like this. It's taking me forever to get her to sleep without her waking up from coughing her lungs up. After I got home, I had to get my sick Bug ready to head to her best pal's 1st bday party (yes, I told the mom (one of my besties) that Bug had been sick...we were only going to be there for a while).

This is Bug and Cleopatra.....this picture shows exactly how she felt the past few days--MISERABLE.

After the party, Darling Dearest, Bug, and I were going to get some lunch with Cleopatra and her hubby. On our way there, I was trying to do a on-the-go nursing session as we cruised down the highway. This was when we got our first call for a showing!! Oh my gosh! Was the house ready?? We had just been working on a project the night before and the house smelled like glue. Did I have things put away? I don't think so...we were in such a rush to get to the party. Not to mention, Hubby accidentally answered the phone when he was fishing it out of my purse. I picked up to someone saying, "HELLO, HELLO??" Oh my gosh, who is this?? Should I recognize this voice? I was panicing and completely out of sorts. My boobs were out and about. This lady is asking to see the house and she's RIGHT IN FRONT OF IT. I'm frantically racking my brain to recall the condition of our home. You would've thought I'd never spoken to anyone in my life. In my attempt to buy time and mouth to Hubby "What does the house look like??", I was trying to tell the lady to repeat herself because I had static on my end. What did I say instead??? "UM, I'm sorry. Can you say that again? I'm going through TRAFFIC."

WHAT???? TRAFFIC?? DID I SERIOUSLY JUST SAY THAT?? SOMEONE SHOULD TAKE THE PHONE FROM ME NOW!

Did you think that was bad?? Well, it gets worse! Hubby tells me that he DID crate the dogs (against his will because I was being "optimistic"--his words--for thinking someone would come see our house so soon). "Yes, realtor lady you CAN come see the house." Oh what?? Darling Dearest NOW remembers that he set the alarm system. OOPS! "Nevermind, realtor lady. You will be treated like an intruder and the police will be called if you enter our house. We need to run home and turn off the alarm (aka, spray Febreeze everywhere and do last minute cleaning right before we turn off the alarm)".

So we make a quick turn back home. I call Cleopatra to let her know plans had changed and they'd have to come for lunch by my house. We got the house in tip-top shape in 2 minutes and left (Cleopatra and her hubby helped too). I was a frazzled mess. This is NOT an exaggeration. If anyone who saw me in the midst of this shinanigan was writing this post...they would concur that they'd never seen me such a hot mess (and trust me, I can be the definition of "hot mess" so that's how bad this was).

Yep, it was bad...really bad. How can I expect people to come see my house when I can't seem to speak coherently to the realtors?? Well, you'd be happy to know that we had another showing yesterday (Superbowl Sunday) and another today. I actually remembered that I had NOT been living under a rock since birth. That I had actually gone to school, even grad school for that matter. That I, at one point, TAUGHT proper English and grammar usage. The 2nd and 3rd time around, I saw that the number was unfamiliar, picked up expecting a realtor, and scheduled a showing like a real life human being. IMPRESSIVE!!

So yeah, that's the update. I told you I'd be better about blogging and now that I've written a book, I have zero time (or desire) to edit it *SURPRISE, SURPRISE*. Please forgive me in advance. I already told you I don't speak English. I'm sorry, I can't hear you...I'm going through traffic!