Mumford & Sons - The Cave

Just because I can..........I'm posting this song.

I LOVE this band...more like ADORE them.

It's been a long time since music has moved me. Like shake me, make me cry. Not at the words, but the music. They are AWESOME. Watch out if they come on tour locally....because I'll be calling you to babysit.

Enjoy :)

Whats that smell?

Sniff....sniff?
In a moment of caffeinated clarity at the breakfast table this morning.......I realized that smell was me. I can't be 100% sure, but I think the last time I showered was two days ago. Not that that's completely unheard of around here. But these snow days are really screwing with my days. I have to go on my computer every morning to see what day it is. THAT'S bad!
So The Hubbs is home today and decided to take Child 1 to "the beer making store" after breakfast. NO not the liquor store! I mean it's only 9am folks........what kind of parents do you think we ARE?!?!?! My beloved brews his own beer...one of the many reasons I married him. He's very resourceful! And tonight "the guys" are coming up to brew a batch. This includes The Hubbs actually doing all the work while the rest of us helpful folks just sit around and drink beer already brewed :) I LOVE brew nights. Anyway, he needed some last minute supplies and took Child 1 out before cabin fever completely overtook his person.
Child 2 is drawing pictures and Child 3 is still buckled in his booster seat munching on Cheerios and sipping on his morning milk. While child services wasn't looking.....I turned on a Laurie Berkner CD and asked Child 2(at the ripe old age of 2) to watch her baby brother while I hopped in the shower to get the sheen out of my hair.
It's amazing how wonderful a shower can make you feel. It was a quick one, but cleansing none the less. Good thing I don't have to worry about pesky things like shaving my legs or anything. Whew! Marriage is grand!!!!
Life is good..........beer AND cupcakes will be made in this house this weekend!
PERFECTION SQUARED!

A Brand New Day

Isn't it amazing what a decent night's sleep and a little break can do for one's outlook?! I passed out....like snoring and drooling OUT...at 10pm last night. This is unheard of for me. So apparently I needed it. I was SO unconscious that The Hubbs had to get up with our daughter in the middle of the night because she was yelling. She does this when she wakes up in the middle of the night because it pisses her off that she woke up. So she makes this awful yelling/pushing noise that makes the veins in her neck stick out. Lovely. And all we have to do is walk in her room and lay her pretty little 2 year old head back on her pillow and she falls back asleep. This doesn't take a lot of energy on our part. And SOMEHOW The Hubbs heard her before I did and went in there. This. Is. Monumental. He hasn't gone in the kids' room without being asked to since...since....before we had kids?!  Awesome! Obviously a great day was in the making. The minis awoke, and our day started. Business as usual. Not all pleasantness. Fat Bastard shat or puked (unfortunately none of us could tell WHICH) on the friggin rug again. But other than that, things were looking up! It was snowing, so The Hubbs decided to go into work a little later today. And then these magical words flew like glitter covered rainbows from his lips "why don't you run out to Target for a bit while I stay here with the kids?" What? WHAT?! OKAY!!!! Snow be damned. I hopped in the shower which was nice and hot for once. Proceeded to have an entirely uninterrupted shower(weird...usually at LEAST one person pops their head in the bathroom to "see what I'm doing"). And booked out of the house lightning fast before The Hubbs could change his mind.
I realized after I returned home that I never even turned the radio on!!! I just sat back and enjoyed the silence :)
Isn't it sad that this is my guilty pleasure these days? HAHA Who cares. I'm in a good mood!
So I headed to Target to pick up Fat Bastard's anti seizure meds. Unfortunately they don't carry anti puke/shit on the rug meds. But whatever. And I strolled aisle to aisle mindlessly picking up items I knew we needed. Rug Cleaner> CHECK. Milk(of course....everywhere I stop I pick up milk....I may just buck up and buy a cow this Spring)> CHECK. Laundry Detergent> CHECK. Mini Toothpaste> CHECK. And of course some other stuff too. If you really care to hear my entire shopping list, message me. LOL
My gentle stroll through Target ended at the checkout which was virtually empty and I let a woman with her little girl go ahead of me. When she thanked me I chuckled "no problem....I'm out without the kids....in NO rush" and quickly reminded myself of my father! Yikes!
The drive home was uneventful but Quiet. Peaceful even.
And when I got home the minis greeted me like I'd been away for months! The Hubbs needed to go to work, so I prepared lunch(newly purchased mac n cheese) and he left for the. While it's a "tad" louder in here than it was in the car....I'll take it. The minis are being good and playing relatively nicely together. At least one of them(the baby) has a nap in his near future. And I'm accomplishing things other than just blogging today.
Fun quote of the day: Child 1 comes up to me after The Hubbs leaves for work and says "Mommy, we should have 10 more babies! So you should go eat 10 eggs for lunch and when they're in your belly, turn them into babies!"
And this is how my children will explain the "act" of procreation for years to come if I can help it. Who needs a stork when they come up with this very intelligent explanation all on their own?!
PS
I threw out all the eggs. Just in case.
:)

Where do I even begin?!?!

So I've been on a downward spiral lately. Don't know why? I'm a pretty optimistic person. And I'm quite motivated to get outta Dodge. But I swear "stuff" keeps getting in my way so I can't do anything to make this happen. I'd pay GOOD money...ok I don't actually have any but if I did, I would......for some sleep so I could wake up one morning and just get everything I want taken care of, taken care of. WHY is this such a tall order lately?
Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa. I know I know.....we all have these spurts of crap-filled days. But this is mine. Just remember>you signed in to read this, I didn't call you to bitch! (yet) hehe

So where do I begin. Officially our day starts at midnight. SO......at 12:21am I was awakened by the wonderful wretching noise that I've become so familiar with. Except this time it wasn't the dog?! It came over the baby monitor and was the sound of my daughter puking all over herself, her bed, the floor near the bed, the night table, her pj's, and I swear there was a splat on the door too. She's such a trooper though. Her sweet little two year old self just said "I puked. I'm tired. Please change me MaMa?" I smiled even though I felt like puking myself. I don't think I'll ever go near those oatmeal breakfast squares OR peaches ever again. The smile was because she's just so awesome no matter how crappy she feels. She knew she was a little under the weather, but really just wanted to have clean, dry clothes on and go back to bed. Mommy's little girl <3 Unlike my 4 year old son who already makes the rest of us suffer through his "mancold". You know.......the cold only a man can get that he feels coming 3-4 days in advance and makes everyone suffer 10x more than he actually does for the duration of it?! I've birthed 3 minis and haven't asked for that much attention. So now the trait has been passed on to my eldest. And I'm sure it's only a matter of time until the baby, also a male, picks up on this dreadful behavior and follows suit. Hopefully Mommy can teach them a little something about how self pity doesn't pay off. But THAT will have to be a battle for another, less smelly day in my household.
So I changed my daughter and her linens and cleaned the general area surrounding her bed and she fell back asleep instantly. Child 3 was less than content throughout the night though. So I kept waking to him crying. Then I'd go in their room only to find he'd fell asleep in the time it took for me to climb out of bed and walk alllllllllllll the way across the hall. Then I'd walk alllllllllllll the way back to my bed, get all cozy back under the covers, almost fall back asleep and he'd start at it again. This went on all night until about 5am. Then he passed out hard, as did I. 6:15 was the next time I saw on the clock in our room. I looked up to check the time because I heard my older two picking out clothes for the day. It will never cease to amaze me how self sufficient 4 and 2 year olds can be!! Of course they failed to remember their little brother(who had JUST fallen back to sleep after a night of on again-off again crying) was in the crib in the SAME room. So they woke him up as well! Awesome. Luckily, he was in a decent mood all things considered. and didn't mind hanging out in his crib for a while so Mommy could procrastinate getting out of bed a little longer.
But the second the older minis walked down the stairs we hear "MOM. DAD. CHAUNCEY (aka Fat Bastard) POOPED ON THE LIVING ROOM RUG!" You know you should pull the covers over you head and just try again tomorrow WHEN_________________all of the above happens. Ugh.
The Hubbs took care of that issue, and I crankily rolled out from under the covers that I feel like I hardly know any more, and threw on the same clothes I was wearing the day before so I could get everyone ready and take Child 1 to preschool. Child 3 spared me of a blowout(a trend of his for the past 4 or 5 days) so I felt there was some chance the day would turn out ok. Child 2 seemed to be feeling just fine. She has communication "issues" sometimes though, so we can never be 100% sure. We'll ask "do you feel ok honey?" to which she responds "no". This really means "no-there's nothing wrong with me". This is particularly fun when she's actually crying and hurt and you have to name every part of her body at least twice and STILL end up pushing on things to see if she reacts to find out what actually hurts. We're working on this. We got through breakfast. Child 1 was ornery. But it all worked out ok. The Hubbs left for work. I packed the minis in the van and headed to school. Everything seemed like it was going to be ok. I come back home with the younger two and before I have my little girl's jacket off, she pukes on the rug. Joy. But once again the trooper, she wipes her mouth on her sleeve(oh great) and says "I puked MaMa" as the baby speeds toward it. This is exactly the point that I decided there is no rescuing today, it's better that I just make another pot of coffee and accept that this is how it's going to be today. Don't fret....Child 3 was scooped up by yours truly before he could splash around in the fresh pile o' vomit! So at least ONE thing went right today :)
Here is my optimistic view for today........Child 2 puked in the exact same spot Fat Bastard shit. So at least the rug will only need a deep scrubbing in ONE spot today :)
I'm trying I'm trying. In an attempt to keep being smiley.....I'll refrain from telling you how Child 3 spit up his milk all over himself in the van and how Child 1 came home from school even MORE ornery than when he left. Oh....I'll also leave out the fact that the weathermen are calling for another "nor easter". Those are getting really fun! Better get snow rations in the house(aka liqour).
Keep smiling........it makes them wonder what you're up to ;)

Newer Cupcake Creations

I have yet to update the Widget at the top of my blog with new pics of some of my latest projects. And seeing as I'm having a completely overwhelming feeling wash over me the past few days(ok, maybe that's an understatement), I'm doing this the quick and easy way by just posting the pics on here :) Forgive my laziness....something's gotta give somewhere! Right?!

This came out AWESOME! (holy patting myself on the back Batman!!) But I can't help it.....it really looks SO much better than it did in my head! (hence the surprise in my "voice" and the back patting)

For my 13 year old niece! Very chic :)

Fun with Fondant

Check out the buckle! So cute!

This is by far my most favorite TASTING cupcake yet! Chocolate Candy Cane: rich, moist, chocolate cupcakes filled with dark chocolate peppermint ganache(A-MA-ZING), iced with pink vanilla buttercream and sprinkled with candy cane pieces. YUM!

I have a TON of orders coming up now. It was kind of slow (thankfully) around Christmas and is picking up with a vengeance! I'm booked through March :)

Yay for cupcakes!

Happy Wednesday

That's what I posted on a friends' FB wall right before I dragged my arse to the nearest dentist where he promptly pulled out two of my teeth. The pain started yesterday afternoon. Making the mere opening of one of the minis' mouths hurt the very depths of my brain. But I had other things to worry about AND the Hubbs was at work. Bringing all three of them along for the ride sounded like the beginnings of a horror movie to me. Not to mention they'd probably leave with a deep seated fear of the dentist after watching him rip 2 of mommy's teeth from her mouth. Now I'd love to say right now that I feel better, but this is not entirely the case. If only there were a "Mommy Recoup" place. I think it would be packed all the time! But I think they would make extra room for people that just lost body parts and stuff like that. Then I could pop some "super" Motrin (which is the prescription The Hubbs is picking up as I type) and sleep until the pain wore off. Or at least until I were able to not squint when someone spoke to me in an even tone. UGH. And as I speak, the TV is babysitting my daughter....the cartoon on is called Olivia, and there is a JACKHAMMER on it right now?! Are you kidding me?!
So it's 2:30pm here....and I feel the makings of a loooooooooong day coming. Unless some miracle from the Heavens above comes to me and I'm actually able to take a little nap! But the minis have been a little........off today, NOT making things easy for the Hubbs. And in turn, probably won't be easy for me to sleep.
Wish me luck!

I want a do over!

I've had a rough couple of days with the kids. I'm sure every parent feels that way at some point or another. But I feel like it's kind of early in the winter to have cabin fever set in?! Now I know I don't venture out nearly as much as I used to when it was just the two of them. But this is crazy. Their schedules are all off. And while they sleep through the night, they wake up wicked early and don't stop talking until 8 pm. That's so not cool! My brain needs "quiet time" for at least 20 minutes a day, and it doesn't get it. AT ALL. I know I was blessed that all 3 minis would nap simultaniously from time to time. But they SHOULD nap. It's just our dumb luck(ok it was a conscious decision to buy this tiny house) that they all sleep in the same room. Which means every day at naptime, I have the lovely task of playing a chess game that involves who goes up first, wait them out, then put the next one in for a nap. Hopefully I can put the 3rd up for a nap before the other 2 wake up! It. Was. Exhausting. And still is. But I find myself giving in to my oldest because he's 4 and really doesn't seem that tired at naptime. But come dinner time, he's a disaster. So obviously he still needs even the 40 minutes of down time that he takes when I put him in his room! My daughter who slammed into the terrible twos....also believes she doesn't need sleep. She argues until she passes out, locked in her room at naptime AND bedtime. Fun Fun! And if anyone else is in that room with her, awake or asleep....she's on top of them somehow. And the baby, well, he's moving himself from 2 naps to 1. sllllllowly. He'll take a decent 2-3 hour nap late morning and then have to go in again around 4pm. Then I wake him up for dinner. Lovely.
This morning, the unthinkable happened. We woke up and there was no coffee in the house. The Hubbs ran out to the local gas station prior to going to work and brought home 2 large cups of steaming hot coffee for us! Love him. But it's days like these that you just know you should crawl back into bed and stay there till tomorrow. If only I had someone to call upon to watch the minis. That's exactly what I would have done! I had a grocery store trip lingering over my head because of yet another impending snowstorm hitting NJ tomorrow, and of course, we're low on milk. It was 16 degrees out this morning! (said the Hubbs when he shivered back in the house with our coffee) He needed to leave for work, and I had to manage these crazy minis and get them all ready to go out in the great chill to buy milk and a few other staples. Well, all was kind of going according to plan, when it all just veered off course and quickly. The kids lost it. All were whining, Child 2 wasn't eating, Child 1 pooped in his pants(I SWEAR he only does this when Daddy's around to get his attention and it sets me off ROYALLY!), Child 3 was less than thrilled because his brother and sister woke him up early and he was tired already. Then The Hubbs kept saying "I have to go. I have to go." But WOULDN'T. Not that I want him to go to work. But sometimes he just adds to the crap going on around here. Especially with Child 1. He wants all the Daddy time he can soak up, which I totally understand. But things need to get done too! Like...................getting his shoes on. This simple task(hellooooo velcrooooo) usually takes......a minute? Maybe 2? This morning it was close to 12! Because he was talking to Daddy or watching TV(who put the TV on?!?!?!) or fumbling with the velcro trying to figure out how to open it? What the????? While this is going on, the younger 2 decide it's a good idea to mess with Fat Bastard while he's sleeping in his chair. Great. Not that I like him or anything....but I know what all that poking and prodding feels like when you're trying to sleep......and I don't wish that on anyone. Not to mention that I've almost bit them when they've done it to me, so could hardly blame the dog for doing it!
My steamy cup of coffee was now lukewarm at best.
And definitely wasn't enough to get me through so far.
So now I'm snipping at the Hubbs. "Just go!!!" "Why are you still here?" And he's getting snippy right back. Somehow in the middle of all this, neither one of us accomplished showering today. Ahhhh the joys of parenthood.
So here I sit. Lunch was fed. Groceries are put away. Nick Jr on tv. Child 3 sitting on the floor next to me drinking his milk and clapping for little chunks of banana that I'm holding hostage on my computer desk. And the "background" music is the eldest 2 kids having a screaming contest (literally trying to see who can scream louder and longer) while locked in their room. You see, the baby got his nap today. And I'm just not in the mood to do the dance that is NapTime. I'm too beat today. So I shut them in their room. Told them to stay in their own beds (HA) and to be quiet (double HA) and take naps. It's been 27 minutes. I need a little sanity. These kids can handle some one on one time with each other and will hopefully play hard enough up there that they just pass out! Wishful thinking, I know.
BONUS: The grocery store has a display giving away to the first 1000 customers, a FREE can of Coke!
It's like they knew I needed all the caffeine I could pump into my body today :)
Thank you Shoprite!

Tilex

So I was.......somewhat productive today. Didn't get done nearly as much as I'd wanted to. But I think I set my goals too high. And I have a REALLY good reason for sitting on my rear, blogging right now. I cleaned my bathroom. Ceiling, walls, sink, counters, caulk, window, all of it with Tilex. I'm not a total moron, I had the window open at least. But in the interest of time, I did this while the 2 youngest minis were napping and instead of doing a little, leaving to breath some fresh air, then coming back.....I took the room on in one big shot! Smart? Maybe not. The bonus? I may never know because I'm pretty sure I killed the braincells that would help me deduce that decision in the future :) My bathroom, is shiny though. So it's all worth it! Well, almost shiny. I ripped a piece of the wall off the other day in a moment of haste when I was trying to "straighten up" for my realtor friend to stop by. That part of the wall had taken on some water damage from the steam heat vent and I......well.........cut it out with a utility knife. I truly had good intentions of going in the basement, getting the spare drywall we have laying around, measuring, cutting, and replacing the part I removed, then the Hubbs got called into work. It's hard to work with utility knives around the minis. They're so.....grabby! And honestly, it's hard to measure with them around, because they're constantly distracting you! Anyway, I abandoned that project when he left. As a matter of fact, I left the pile of cut out nasty drywall on the floor in there until today. In my defense, my husband shut off the valve to the heat so that the steam would no longer blast against the wall and make that loud hissing noise. But now, we have no heat in there. I thought DYFS was going to knock on my door last night after bathing the minis! It was cccccold! And I tend to run a little on the cold side, so I'm avoiding the bathroom except for emergencies. Like Tilex emergencies. My esophagus hurts. Can't say I've ever said that before! And I'm a tad dizzy. But I can't tell if it's any more than I usually am. hehe At least I don't have anything important to do like..........take care of my kids or anything! Nah. We're all fine here. The kids have a pre-dinner movie going and are happy as clams while I sit here typing for a few minutes. The Hubbs will be working late tonight, so it's just us for dinner. Thank God for the bottle of wine in the fridge. Dinner has been a chore around here lately!
Child 1 has an on again, off again relationship with napping lately. So he can be a real joy just before bedtime. My daughter has flung herself head first into the terrible 2's. She suddenly refuses to eat most food and screams for the entire sitting. Pleasant. My sister-in-law and her new husband got to witness this craziness just last night. I'm sincerely hoping it didn't set them back too far in the baby making department! But I, for one, couldn't blame them one bit. I wouldn't have blamed them if they'd called for an exorcism after seeing Child's head almost spin completely around! The girl is nutso! Funny, but crazy :) Chubsy Wubsy Child 3 is usually great at meals. He's an eater (obviously) and is just content at dinner time. But he does like to yell with glee at times. So once this dizziness passes, I may pour a glass of mealtime wine to ease the process. Or just put headphones on while they eat. We'll see.

Epiphany

So a very large lightbulb came into view above my head today when I realized it's really easy to pack stuff up when you think "do I want to move this or not?". You see, I used my ninja tactics to talk the kids into letting us take the Christmas decorations down FINALLY! I realize it's only January 9th. But when it didn't really even feel like Christmas to begin with....and then it FLEW by! Once it was gone, I wanted all the decorations to be gone too. They collect dust, and drive my OCD husband even crazier than usual. The tree goes where the toy chest is the rest of the year. So for __weeks that the tree is up, he paces. The toy chest is now in the living room where the couches are, and it wigs him out. It's taking up space against the wall where nothing else ever goes, but it shouldn't be there. So he doesn't like it. He loves our kids to death! But doesn't like one iota of the crap that comes along with them. It actually cracks me up. A LOT. Like their shoes. Inevitably, they're everywhere in the house. Even when they are in the spot they go, it eats at him that the kids shoes now have "a spot". And when he's in an OCD mood all I can say is "ok hon. I'll throw all their shoes out and they can go barefoot." Surprisingly, this pisses him off. Weird? Right?
Anyway, I strayed off subject there :) Another strange phenomena. Whoops!
So while we're packing up the decorations, it occurs to me that we are going to put the house on the market SOON. And it's going to sell this time! This isn't just my optimistic self coming out. It's the knowledge that we are going to list it at the bare minimum so that it does sell! We have already come to terms with the fact that we are going to lose money in this ordeal. And while that sucks, it's coming to accept this fact that is truly the hardest part. Check! Over and done with. Only moving forward from here! Now, once the house sells, we are OUT! Which means our stuff is too! So my brain has moved into packing mode. Sounds special, right? That's because for me, it means the opposite of hoarding. If it hasn't been used in the last 10 minutes, it's out. Okay, maybe that's a slight exaggeration, but you get my drift. I can't get over how much crap I've thrown out. I mean CRAP. We have a LOT of it laying around. I swear, I'm not even being hasty about it. I've had the Veteran's here 3 times already since the New Year to pick up donations of clothes, shoes, kids toys, etc. But there is straight-up garbage laying around the house that I can't figure out what we were thinking not throwing it out to begin with?! So now, my garbage men hate me. And I haven't even put Fat Bastard's chair on the curb yet! Yikes! The problem I run into with my mass exodus of crap, is all the kiddie stuff. I have clothes packed away from my oldest son that will eventually fit my youngest. I have my baby girl's sweet little clothes waiting to become hand-me-down's for more little cousins to come! And more adorable little boy clothes that Ginormo never fit in or maybe wore once but they can be passed down too. Not to mention the plethora(no one uses this word enough! Just sayin'.) of baby GEAR that comes along when you have 3 little ones in 4 years. 2 Cribs, 2 toddler beds....only one of each currently being used! Swings, crib bedding, changing tables, bumbo seats, mobiles, diaper pails, etc etc Oh, and toys. Did I mention TOYS?!?!?! WOW!
We're going to need a bigger boat!
With our wonderful family and fortunate luck to have 417 cousins come before our 3 arrived.....we practically didn't have to buy a thing! And we'd like to keep that tradition alive for the rest of the people in the family :) My little sister-in-law got married in the end of September! She can't WAIT to have kids. But for the sake of her husband's sanity, we opted against filling up their house with baby stuff for their arrival home from their honeymoon. The Hubbs thought it would be funny. His new brother-in-law owes me one! The Hubbs sometimes has trouble thinking a little into the future. So lets say we pull this "practical joke" and his brother-in-law  decides to get him back. He's a cop. This could just get ugly. Imagine all your fears of getting in trouble with the law coming true. But only for a little while...cuz it would be a "joke"! Mmmm hmmmm. I don't think The Hubbs thought into the future at all on that one. Good thing he has ME! Lucky guy.
AND......I'm not 100% convinced that I'm done procreating just yet. So I need to take that into consideration when purging the house too! So for now, all the baby/kid stuff stays. Most of it's packed up in boxes and Rubbermaids anyway, so it's just taking up attic/basement space, not haphazardly strewn about the house to send my other half into pacing fits. Everything else that's not nailed down, or currently in use had better watch it's back though. Our garbage men come on Mondays and Thursdays. So Sunday and Wednesday nights I can be found roaming around the house with trash bags hanging from my back pocket just looking for something to throw out. Strangely enough, the family steers clear of my path, including the fur covered family members? Clearly, they don't realize I only have kitchen sized trash bags.
It's now Monday morning. I was only able to finish typing this since I dropped the oldest mini at school and The Hubbs is at work!
I had the distinct pleasure of watching the garbage men take away our Christmas tree. A feeling of accomplishment poured over me. Even though I'm pretty sure one of them flipped me off. Oh well! Off to another wonderful Monday full of possibilities and hopefully another blog entry later because I have tons of over-caffeinated ideas running through my brain right now!

Step One

Well, my life is moving in a different direction as of late......forward.
I love my kids dearly, and am not certain that I'm done procreating just yet. But for now I am! And for me at least, my world has just about stood still for the past 4 or so years. Yeah yeah....I've done a few things, parties, birthdays, gone to school at night one summer, bought a "new" car, baked a little ;), and made some new people to add to the craziness around here! But in my mind's eye, I've been........stagnant. That word sounds as gross as I feel about putting my dream chasing on hold. But it really was all for a good reason! Man...these little people are awesome!
Today, I sent out the invitations for my baby's 1st Birthday. Just like my other 2, he'll be walking at his big party!(He started all out walking last week) I'm beaming. And at the same time, it's the reality check that I'm no longer holding a brand new mini all the time nor am I incubating one. So time to shake off the dust and get my arse in gear.
First things first. Sell this house. We've been trying to get the hell outta Dodge for a long time now...(see above paragraphs for excuses) Once we started having the minis, we swore we wouldn't have them go to school here. Our town is not....great.....for school or anything else. What did we know when we bought here?! NADA. We were young and stupid. And of course bought at the peak of the market. So now we're going to loss a shitton of money. Oh well. Can't take it with you right?! And all along we thought we had all this time to prepare for this. But we blinked and Child 1 is four years old already. Almost old enough to start public school! Holy Crap! It's time....it's PAST the time we should have done this.
Whew.
An associate from my broker's office comes by the house tomorrow. She'll be offering up advice for us to spruce up the place and what to hide/get rid of so that potential buyers have a clean slate to look at when picturing themselves living here. Hmmmmmmmm I wonder if she'll advise us to hide all the chunky primary colored loud toys laying all over the house? And the 2 giant smelly beasts we call PETS?
You wanna hear something funny? We have to throw away a piece of furniture in our living room prior to showing the house. We live frugally here. Nothing fancy. The one "nice" piece of furniture that wasn't bought at a garage sale or Ikea or handed down to us from a relative or friend is my chair and a half. I LOVED this thing when I bought it. I bought it when I lived in God's Country(to be announced in a future post). I bought it with my own money from Pottery Barn itself. As I'm typing this, there is a hillbilly sounding voice reading it in my head. LOL It was large, and cushy, and perfect. And one day in the future, I'll buy another one. Although maybe not from Pottery Barn this time. We'll see what the budget's like. THIS is the furniture that will be sitting on our curb in a couple of weeks. Any guesses as to why? Yep........Fat Bastard got to it. We've been calling it "Chauncey's Chair" for years now. It's where you can ALWAYS find him. He really is gross. And not all his fault, but gross none the less. I believe I've mentioned his seizure disorder before? And being that he spends all his time in this chair, inevitably he's had a couple of seizures in it. We'll just leave it at this........bodily fluids tend to be spilled during a grand mal. Ew. And yeah, I wash the upholstery. And aired out the cushions. But it'll just never be the same. And lets not forget the atomic flatulence leaking out of him 24 hours a day.
It'll never be that comfy CLEAN chair that me and the Hubbs curled up in and passed out while watching a movie before I could legally call him The Hubbs. It'll never be the place guests would crash....even our really tall friend who's feet hung over the ottoman, but he was snug as a bug. It will never be the nice chair it once was. And while I know I'm sounding all sentimental right now, I am very aware that we can and SHOULD buy new furniture down the road. I'm really just laughing inside at the poor soul that drives by and decides "that's a pretty nice chair...let's garbage pick tonight!". Because it probably won't smell that bad in the crisp NJ winter air. But a short while after they get it through their front door, the stank of Fat Bastard is going to lovingly fill every crevice of their home, just like it has in ours. And trust me, Glade doesn't make anything strong enough to kill that stank!
But that's my first step in 2011......sell this house. All the good memories we've made will come with us! And there will be TONS more to add to them made elsewhere.
Stay tuned. :)

THE CHAIR-notice how Kayles got to it first, so Fat Bastard sat ON him to establish that it was indeed...HIS chair