Tackle It Tuesday

So in my blog surfing, I found someone who had Tackle It Tuesday as her theme for today(if this was you, let me know so I can give you credit). Anyway, her theme inspired me to do some tackling of my own. In keeping with imaginary house hunting, which I hope to turn into REAL house hunting....a decision has been made to get our house ready to put on the market. This means, a LOT of de-cluttering and hiding things in friend's basements organizing, not to mention cleaning, decorating, and staging. So today, I tackled one of the biggest projects of all---the master closet!

Cleopatra told me I needed to go through and get things into piles, so I decided upon "Goodwill--aka. Why the heck do I still own this? I think I bought this in middle school!", "Summer clothes that I've never EVER actually put away for summer and typically just take up space in my closet and dresser", "Maternity clothes that should've been put away at least 6 months ago but I keep them around because I'm convinced that I can get more bang for my buck if I keep wearing the tops", and finally "I'm no longer working so why do I need dress pants?? aka...I'll wear you later." The clothes that didn't fit into these 4 categories stayed in my closet.

So I left Bug to crawl around on the floor and get into trouble every 5 seconds in her curious exploration of this new world around her while I tore myself through my closet like a Kansas tornado (ok, my only knowledge of Kansas tornados comes from Twister--was that even Kansas?). I had clothes flying off their hangers and parachuting to their appropriate overflowing piles, all while watching Bug eat paper tags she managed to steal from the Walmart bag playing with Bug. Oh, don't hate or chastise me just yet....I was at least watching her chew on these tags. And YES, I did take them away, so don't call child protective services for tag-chewing negligence.

This is what my closet and bathroom looked like after the tornado whipped through.

Once my closet managed to puke up these separate piles, I folded and organized them. I even employed the "EXTREME folding" strategy (aka...nursing Bug on the floor of my walk-in closet while folding clothes). I don't mess around when trying to become Cleopatra. :-) It's all or nothing, baby!! Darling Dearest even brought home storage bins that he picked up on his lunch because there was no way in the world I was heading out in the torrential downpour with Bug. It hasn't stopped all day and is still pounding on my window as I write this. So off to Goodwill and friend's basements storage these bins will go!

Unfortunately, this "Tackle It" theme will have to go on every day until our house shines like the top of the Chrysler Building, as my dad and Mrs. Hannigan would say. I'm regretting that I didn't take any "before" pictures of the closet, but am proud that I even went through undies, bras, winter wear, shoes, belts...you name it! This may be the normal scene for some of you, but the packrat inside me is dying a slow and painful death in the war against clutter. Onto dreams of a clutterless, model home (the one I hope mine will transform into) before waking up to another day of tackling the chaos that is my house and chasing around the cutest Bug ever!

Imaginary House Hunting

Please tell me I'm not the only one imaginary house hunting right now! We have more than outgrown our house. Yes, we've got enough rooms for us and the bug currently, but we have zero storage and our stuff is starting to need a house of its own. We don't have a basement, and between all of the baby stuff we're no longer using and and entire classroom's worth of teaching stuff (materials, books, crates, supplies, rugs, shelves), our garage looks like it's thrown up a dump truck! Bug and I have to squeeze our way through mountains upon mountains of STUFF just to get her in the car. One time, I even knocked over a gas can that was against the wall of the garage far from where I was because Bug's carseat knocked into something, which tipped over something else...and so on until a gas can fell over and leaked all over the floor. What makes it worse is that I didn't even realize it until I came home from our errands and the stench (even though I'm typically one of those weirdos who love weird smells like gas...creepy, I know) was overwhelming. We were high off gas fumes for days, even after clean up.

Aside from our hideous mess of a garage, all of our closets are overflowing with CRAP too. It doesn't help that I'm a HUGE slight pack rat and don't want to get rid of my textbooks and binders from my graduate (and some undergraduate) courses...plus, my husband's stuff. We're a mess and are in need of more space  plus someone to throw away our stuff in the middle of the night so we don't put up a fight.  There is no way we can be in this house when we have another baby. We just don't have the room.

The problem is, you can't sell a house that looks like a tornado whipped by and threw all of the neighborhood's junk strategically in your garage and closets. "Hey, come buy this house...plenty of room for all of your needs. Great storage. Perfect for your family!! Make this mess your home!" For whatever reason, that argument doesn't seem to work.

So we've found ourselves looking for imaginary homes. Why are they imaginary?? Well, we have a house that's about as far away from selling/renting condition as possible (ok, this might be a slight exaggeration since I'm Queen of that. My mom totally has it worse, right ma? We just need to de-clutter). We haven't even considered putting it up for sale right now. Oh, and did I mention we don't have money to front two mortgages??? SO why are we torturing ourselves by looking at the imaginary houses in glass boxes?? I don't know, but darnit...there's so many good deals on houses right now. So do we take less for our house to get a house for less than it's worth? Do we do all the work to get our house on the market only to be lucky to break even? We're in a slight predicament, and don't know what would be the wisest decision...so we've got a lot of research and educating to do. But you know me...I'm a totally nerd, so I eat this stuff up! My husband thinks I should've been in business instead of teaching. But hey...we teachers are smart! :-)

Until then, I am living in my imaginary world where we move into a house complete with areas for storage, rooms for our family (and future family members), and even room for our extended family to visit us.  Darling Dearest is also on this fantasy ride with me...so who will snap me out of it?? What makes it worse is that my college friend, N (I'll have to think of a cute nickname that fits her later. Hmmm...another project!), has embarked on this imaginary house journey with us....and we're imaginary neighbors in this beautiful, older neighborhood with majestic trees and big yards (real place, but "imaginary" for us in that neither of us have houses on the market). Oh, and did I mention the imaginary house she found on realtor.com has a pool and is beautiful??? Unfortunately, she's staked her claim into this house, so Dean and I can't pursue it on our imaginary househunting journey. Hmmm, maybe we could have an imaginary bidding war against our college friends!

N asked me what I wanted for my b-day coming up on Friday and Darling Dearest told me to tell her that she didn't need to get me anything since she already found a house with a pool for a sickeningly cheap price for us (I mean...the kind of house that you'd totally deal with a sink hole just to have --or at least, I would..hehe). To which she replied, "and coincidentally there will be a fire set to that house immediately after you move in." YEP...full on fighting words in our imaginary war over imaginary houses. Are you getting sick of me saying IMAGINARY yet?? I'm sure sick of writing it. :-) 

What makes things worse is that realtor.com is not super up-to-date with their properties and several of the ones I loved (You know, the kind that make you pee your pants a little bit in the excitement of just thinking about them??) already were under contract. Crazy things start happening in my head at that point. I think....hmm, maybe we could put a hit on the buyers or develop some sort ridiculous scandel so the contract would fall through and we'd come trotting in on our white horse (yep, myself, Darling Dearest, Bug, and the two pups on a white horse...awesome mental picture, huh?) to save the day and sweep up the damsel in distress (in this case...our coveted imaginary house). But, instead of resorting to plan A (crazy plan detailed above), I glumly agree to plan B (moping at the loss of our imaginary home that we can't buy anyway).

Why am I so emotionally involved with some of these houses?? I mean, how can I have enough love in my heart to share between Darling Dearest, Bug, my pups, my new boyfriend (DELL), and now my new rotating crushes---imaginary houses?!? At least with the others, I know they're always there for me....but as with all crushes, they'll soon break your heart!! And so far, they've done it 3 times (Truth: Yes, we've even driven around to look at these imaginary houses and 3 of them are out of commission due to silly little detours like UNDER CONTRACT signs..boo!). How much more rejection can a girl take?? Why am I putting myself in this misery of this fantasy to begin with?? Maybe it's DELL's fault for seducing me into the world of realtor.com! Well, boo on DELL then too. Maybe he isn't always there for me like I said before.

Please tell me some of you have made the same stupid decision as I have. Why must we want what we can't have?? Oh, I will be accepting donations. You can write your checks to the "Helping First Time Mommy Turn an Imaginary Home into a Real Home" fund. OR, you can buy my house...complete with overflowing junk!! Either way, it's a steal! Any takers???

Randomness

I know it's been a couple days since I've blogged, but things have been crazy in this household. So this is going to be a random list of all you've missed in the last couple days---since I'm that exciting (can you sense the sarcasm??).

**Bug is all over the place. This week she has morphed into a little super baby. (Yes, I'm aware that it's totally normal progression....but I'm her mom, so Super Baby she is.)  Like I said earlier, she started crawling this week to chase Cleopatra's shoes. Since then, I have found her crawling down the hall with leaves brought in by one of my dogs in her mouth . I was sooo tempted to take a picture for the blog, but my internal monologue went something like this, "Wow, Mom of the Year, you already have a Bug with leaves in her mouth and have won a M.O.T. Y. award for that. Do you really need to win another one for choosing a blog photo over getting the leaves out??" Would've been cute picture though. :-)

This same week, she managed to pull herself up in her crib, take down the video monitor that was a good 5 inches away on the wall, and toss it on the floor when she should've been napping.  She's already letting us know that we're all up in her personal business. I mean, haven't we heard of an 8 month old's need for privacy? RUDE!! Super Baby has also been trying to fly this week and had I not had a firm grip on that diapered behind, she would've----right into the ground. She grabs the edges of the bed to pull herself off head-first in order to check out the scenary below. This means, I'm holding her butt at the top of the bed while she's got 1/2 of her body off the bed. This girl is fast, which means I need to move faster. No head injuries YET! :-) 

So I realize you all don't really care about the fact that Bug is doing what all babies her age are learning to do SUPER BABY, but....this blog is also my form of a diary, so you get to read stuff you don't care about while I get to document these little things that make me amazed by all God's little miracles in her life. I mean, it's amazing that 8 months ago she couldn't even hold up her own head. These little things we take for granted are huge strides for our little ones---but you all know that. You know the feeling of unabashed joy, the sound of angels singing, and the rays of sunshine that fill up the room when your baby goes from constipation to a beautiful blow-out up to their neck!! Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, right??

**On to random topic #2--yesterday's Pampered Chef get together. So this is the main reason I haven't posted in a couple days---parties stress me out! It's a lot of work for ME to attempt to become Cleopatra (remember that post??). Things that involve entertaining that are common sense to most people, are not to me. I grew up in a small town with a big family where people just dropped by all the time. My birthday parties were wings and pizza, a boxed vanilla cake with chocolate icing (no decorations other than candles that counted your years)...and all on paper plates--WHITE ones. No clever themes, goody bags, blow up slides. There was none of this "presentation" or cutesy entertainment. We were the definition of casual (and "casual" is putting it nicely). So needless to say, trying to be cutesy and homemakerish is not my cup of tea. Don't get me wrong, I'd LOVE it if it were because I admire that in people...but it's going to take me some time to get there, and by "time" I mean MIRACLE! I love white paper plate girl who doesn't care, but I also love Cleopatra. Is there a way to be a Cleopatra who doesn't care or stress out with these things??

Overall, our little get-together went off pretty well. One of my besties came up to help me--another one who's good at entertaining. Love you, N! Cleopatra was out of town, but called me to make sure I was feeling good about things--love her! My husband managed to stay married to me and even endured the pre-party, stressed-to-the-max, bossy me. I didn't think I'd turn into that person but between little things to finish around the house, a baby who needed to eat, and a P.C. consultant who needed my assistance with her set-up (most MY responsibilities)...an ugly side of me came out with my Darling Dearest. "Honey, can you do this?? Hey, I need you to move this! Can you hide this upstairs where everything else that doesn't have a place has gone in preparation for this party bring this upstairs?" I mean, can I BE more annoying (said in my best Chandler voice)?? Does Cleopatra act like that before a party, or is she cool and together, sipping on a glass of wine and waiting for her guests to arrive since everything was finished hours beforehand??? Needless to say, I got to see some awesome people I haven't seen in a while, ate some delicious food, saw some pretty cool gadgets that I can't afford since I'm not working, and had an overall great time!! On top of that, I'm still married and my husband still loves me....until my next attempt at entertaining.

Are You Making a Wig with Mommy's Hair??

Lately, I've been finding myself asking my non-speaking, eight month old daughter the age-old question (Why do we constantly ask them questions when we KNOW they're not going to answer?? I do it all the time. Since I am an academic snot a former teacher, I say it's because I'm helping her language develop, BUT I really think I'll start talking to myself and become the crazy mom if I'm not talking to her. This way, I can actually weirdly talk to myself process things aloud without getting gawked at. You know, "Do you like this centerpiece for the table? Is it a little too red? I don't know if it'll match the fall berries." I'm helping her language develop, right??)

Oh, back to this age-old question:

"Are you making a wig with Mommy's hair??"

Now, I'm sure you read all the things I did about hair loss around pregnancy, birth, and post-birth. I'm also pretty sure many of you moms are now hairless chiuauas like I will soon be. Cute, huh?? But why did I think I was going to be the exception??? My daughter is now 8 months old and I'm just starting the hairloss process. I thought I had already crossed the hairloss bridge and made it safely to the other side. Don't get me wrong, I've got mounds of hair so I could probably afford to lose a good 50% of it, but why did I think my chemically golden locks would make it through the fire??

If I really analyze it, it doesn't even come down to the actual loss of the hair as much as to the annoyance of it all. You know what I mean!! You've felt that tickling on the back of your arm and have spun around like a dog chasing its tail or have continued to feel yourself up in search of the guilty suspect only to look like a complete CRAZY to anyone who passes you and doesn't see that innocent, invisible hair driving you mad! You have seen the random long strand floating teasingly from your boob or your butt, if you're really lucky (had to get one of mine off my husband in that prime location the other day). I feel like I'm covered from head to toe with hair!! It's all over my shirt. It's in my car. It's in my daughter's hands. It's on her pacifier (along with some dog hair for another tasty treat). It's on the floor, and in my bed, and in my sink.

IT. IS. EVERYWHERE....EVERYWHERE!!!

I'm contemplating using our dogs' Furminator. You've seen the commercials. It gets out all the dead hair in the deep underlayers of the dog's coat (No, this is not an advertisement...on second thought, Furminator, call me!). Wouldn't that work for me?? Just check out what it does for the dog (and honestly, it REALLY gets that much hair! We've done it on our little Cavalier King Charles Spaniels and the result is pretty disgusting)!

As you can see, I'm getting pretty desperate to stop this insanity before I lose mine. Calling all fellow hairless chiuaua moms....what should I do??

Spiffy New Technology

So I've finally entered the world that many of you found a long time ago---new technology. I've always considered myself quite technologically capable, so I needed my blog to match. ANYWAY, for your reading pleasure (or maybe just for your reading convenience--pleasure is probably a strong word...hehe)----------------EMAIL SUBSCRIPTION!!!

Yep, I figured out how to add that neato little widget (Is that what they call it?? I feel so much more authentic just typing the word...maybe I'll type it again just for the rush:  WIDGET!!) that allows for email subscriptions and other types of subscriptions that I don't quite understand. I was on the quest to figure out how to do the email subscription when I accidentally landed on the other one, so that came first. I decided I'd leave them both in case the other one is this groovy thing that I'm just not cool enough to understand....YET (guess that'll be my next goal). How exciting is that?? You can now follow me, subscribe via email, and subscribe via yahoo/google or whatever else that other thing is!! You can now blog stalk follow me in multiple technologies! Why not do all three so you can grow to hate me and feel annoyed by even the title of my blog LOVE me more?

Oh, I also changed the background and whatnot of my page, in case you didn't notice. Even better, I figured how to do it myself. I made my own header using scrapblog.com (which I'll totally have to post on that later because that's the best thing since sliced bread) and saved it as a JPEG. Are you totally impressed because I felt like I had just climbed Mount Everest!!  So how do you like the new page?? Is it easier to read?? Does it look more professional?? You know, I've been doing this blogging thing a whole week....practically a professional, right? :-)

On another note with this technology theme....How come in this new editing format (which I love because it has the scratch out option), I don't see the spell check?? Please tell me they did not leave Mr. Spell Check by the wayside, that it was one or the other---scratch out or spell check--and they chose scratch out! Honestly, isn't there room for both?? Can't we have our cake and eat it too?? Please advise!

My First Award

Yay!! I'm so excited to have been given my first award!! I feel like I'm moving up in the world.

Thank you so much to FeliciaE over at Living Just Like Grandma for awarding me with the One Lovely Blog Award. Go check out her blog!

So here are the offical rules:

Accept the award and post it on your blog. Make sure to link back to the person who awarded you. Then pass it on to 15 other blogs you find worthy and make sure to let them know they have been awarded.

It's kind of hard for me to come up with 15 blogs, given the fact that I've only been doing this blogging thing for a week. But I've done my homework, and here are some blogs that I love for various reasons: some are funny and witty, some are touching, some have links to save us some cashflow--gotta love that, some have awesome Do-It-Yourself projects, some have helpful blogging tips, reviews, etc. but ALL are fantabulous. Yes, I'm aware that's not a word, but don't you think it should be? :-) Definitely take the time to enjoy these blogs like I have.

In no particular order, the award goes to..........(drumroll please):

The Suburban Jungle

Confessions of a Slightly Neurotic New Mother

MommyLite

"Deal"ightfully Frugal

Jenna in the Ditch

Taking Time for Mommy

Saving Cents With Sense

The Edwards Edition

MckMama

A NYC Housewife-In-Training

MommyB Knows Best

Pickles and Cheese

The Shabby Chic Cottage

Mommy Words

A Soft Place to Land

First Time What?????

So I meant to post this last night, but Hubby was stepping in with my love affair with DELL. So I'm sneaking in on the side while he's at work and Bug is sleeping. :-) It's funny how when you start a blog, suddenly you start thinking, "Oh, I'm totally going to have to blog about this!" Unfortunately, I said that thought aloud, and my Darling Dearest totally made fun of me by doing a Carrie Bradshaw/Gossip Girl impression. You know how Sarah Jessica Parker's character sits at the computer writing all of these deep thoughts in her lingerie?? So that's me, RIGHT??? Minus the deep thoughts or lingerie. Hmmm, guess that just leaves me sitting at a computer. :-( Oh well! Back to my hubby's impersonation--------- In the most girly voice ever (clearly not mine if you've ever heard me talk), he said, "Dear blog....bla bla bla bla bla bla bla....XOXO, FTM." He was clearly trying to make fun of me because he knew I was going to tease him by telling the following story:

Last night, I was spending some QT with Darling Dearest doing what I love most---watching So You Think You Can Dance---and forcing him to join me in doing what I love most. Anyway, he remembered that we bought goodies for S'mores a week and a half ago when my college bestie from Tampa and her fam came up to visit. Well, we didn't end up making the S'mores with them because we were so busy stuffing our mouths with apple crisp, cookies, and other delectable treats. So we still had all the S'more supplies ready to rock and roll for our eating pleasure. Anyway, I thought we'd make them on the stove for several reasons: 1. SYTYCD was on and I was not about to leave my television even for a minute, 2. I was in my pjs and was not about to head outside to get the fire pit going (even though we have yet to use it since we bought it, and I'm dying to), and 3. Did I mention SYTYCD was on??

Darling Dearest got all the supplies lined up and ready to go: Publix-brand (yes, I've become that girl on certain things) marshmallows and graham crackers and Hershey chocolate, when he asks me this: How do you melt the chocolate?? Do you put it in the microwave?? This was when the world stopped turning for me and my mouth hung open. Let it be known, that I've known my husband for over 10 years and we have been together for the vast majority of it...so there's not much that makes my world stop turning when he comes to him. It hit me---OH MY GOSH, Darling Dearest has never made a S'more before!!! Is that even American?? I couldn't even contemplate the idea that hubby has gone nearly 30 years of his life without making a single S'more and needed a S'more tutorial!! I mean, do you know ANYONE who hasn't had a S'more??

After he confirmed my suspicion, I suddenly felt like he was a small boy who needed all my attention. I paused my SYTYCD, got my p.j.ed booty off the couch, and went over to share this first time experience with my love. Major disappointment that his first time was going to be over a stove with generic supplies. Who wants their first time to be second-hand?? Boo to that! BUT, we proceeded with the American rite-of-passage and ate up our stove-made S'mores. Note to self for next time: Publix graham crackers don't hold a candle to regular brands.

All of this hype, and my poor, inexperienced husband's first time was "sub-par" in his words. SAD!! Maybe we'll make a special occasion this weekend to break out a couple firsts: Having a fire in our "new" (but purchased months ago) fire pit and making NON-generic, over a REAL fire S'mores, so the hubby can have his first time at a REAL S'more!!