Sold and Moved

     So most of the last month was filled with actually preparing ourselves to move because we accepted an offer on our house in 2 weeks. I never expected it to go that fast. Because we didn't expect it going that fast we passed up on the opportunity for 2 apartments that we really wanted, and of course we didn't like what was available when we were looking. Low and behold we found our house. The house across the street from family, on the water, original wood floors, 2 large bedrooms, and maybe best of all a lovely porch that always seems to have a breeze blowing through. Now that we are all moved in and our house was signed away in paperwork, we are getting settled into the rental lifestyle once again.
     Of course renting a house does come with some of the issues we wanted to get away from, like yard work... oddly enough, I've found my husband enjoying the yard work... even coming up with new ideas of things to do in the yard. I've even started planting things and they are growing! I'm not really that bad at growing things, but keeping up with it hasn't always been something I can do, I've also been known to pay too much attention and over water plants, killing them that way as well. So far so good.
      So far it seems that renting is allowing us to live in a nicer house in a nicer area compared to what we were facing with ownership. I can't really say that I've missed the old house a lot since we've left. Last year when we moved out to stay with family and rented it out I missed it a lot, there were a lot of tears all the time. Thinking back on that last night, I was trying to figure out why the tears last year and not this year. I suppose the reasons would be that last year we were crammed into a house with my in laws, and even though my mother in law would give us her entire house if I asked, I didn't want to ask. It was not my own space, that was hard. Also, after going back to the house and being fairly happy in it things started to go south very quickly with repairs that needed to be made but we couldn't afford. In fact, this week was exactly 2 months since we got the news of the insurance wanting to drop us for not being able to replace the roof right away. Everything has happened so fast.
     I do want to add though, because most people make the comment that we are lucky to have sold so quickly. We don't consider it lucky, we actually sold for less than what we purchased for. We accepted $10,000 less than what we were asking. Not a smart financial move, but we were coming down to the wire and really wanted to get out while we had the opportunity. Perhaps because the buyers were rental property investors they may have gone higher, but we weren't in the mood to take that chance. We are much less stressed now without it hanging over our heads. We are quite happy here, and the best part is that when we are no longer happy here, we can find the next place to make us happy... and grow a garden until then.

sort of sold...

We have accepted an offer on our house, it was listed for 2 1/2 weeks and soon it will no longer be ours.  I am full of emotion right now. 

It's exciting because we decided long ago that we just aren't cut out for house ownership, between the problems with the floors, roof, wear and tear, and regular house things that just need to be fixed we just don't have the money that old houses (or any houses for that matter) require. 

The next emotion is sadness.  The memory of being proud to own our own home, it's the place we've lived the longest together, it's the place we came home to after exciting vacations as a young married couple, and it was the place we brought our baby home to and watched her grow over 2 years. The place has so many memories for me, and always  will, but I think it's done with us. I feel like it will move on to get the facelift it deserves and become home to other families. I also think this is another reason I'm not cut out for ownership. 

I love the idea of dwellings, people take a series of boxes and sometimes oddly shaped walls and turn them into a home. Each one has a different look, a different shape, some are stacked on top of one another, some stand alone, some stand next to twins and triplets who look just like them. What is that thing that takes an empty shell of construction to being an irreplaceable part of your life?   This is the kind of interesting thoughts that come to me as we are thrown into the next phase of the process, finding a rental!

Originally we had agreed on an apartment. My husband is still very much PRO apartment. I was very much PRO apartment 3 weeks ago when we viewed 4 apartments that were in our price range and available for us asap. We passed on those because we were afraid our house would take a long time to sell and we could not afford to pay both rent and mortgage. Little did we know we would be searching the ends of this town, and the next town, looking for a rental in our price range that feels like home.  There is next to nothing. The only option until today was to accept something in a slightly higher price range just because it may be available. However both of those units are contingent on the fact that they have someone in line in front of us. Then I get a call from my Aunt who says there is a house across from her coming up for rent. I should have never gone there,  but of course I was driving by in less than 10 minutes and working on viewing the 3rd room by the time my husband made it out of the car. My demise is that it's old. It's "horizontal bead-board, bead board ceilings, original wood floors" old... my heart was stolen. The great part is that for the most part it's been remodeled. Unlike the old house we've been in, this one feels well insulated, has insulated windows with screens, and central air and heating. It has been incredibly well cared for and updated.  It has a HUGE laundry room, and a porch. Wait, I'm not even emotional yet. This house and it's porch (I'm a sucker for porches) look directly onto the house where all of my childhood memories take place. This house is directly across from my grandma's house. My grandma's house was such a point of pride for her, and my Aunt has certainly carried that on in caring for it. Just the thought that I could sit on the porch of a well cared for old house and have coffee looking onto a place that means so much to me, every morning, is unreal. It makes me really nervous that the lady who owns it has not yet called me back. The current tenants did talk to her about us being interested, and the rent is surely in our original price range. Now all I can do is wait.  

See, one look at nostalgia and I've ruined husband's life and have my heart set on this house that may not even be available. He agreed to it though, which was a tad bit surprising. He rationalized that while it's a house, it's a rental, which means that leaks and roof replacements won't be left up to us. Rental insurance is a lot lower here in the south than homeowners insurance. The updates should also really help with the electric bill.  I'm trying to not get my hopes up however. (Yeah like they aren't already.) There was a very nice apartment in a very nice area that my hopes were already on earlier this afternoon.  I know I have to just let it go and say that we will end up with a home, no matter where it ends up being I'm really just hoping we only have to move once (instead of once into storage and then again into an available place.)

downsizing for a new reality

       If anyone reads this blog at all (*crickets*) they would know that in February of last year we rented our house out and went to stay with relatives due to my husband's job change.  We were able to move back into our house in November of last year, and while still struggling, we are getting by.  Thankfully he enjoys his new job, and they've sent him to training, and he is working his way up which also involves raising his pay to close to what he was making before the job change. This is all great news for us of course. After moving back into our house we have been left with making evaluations of what we have enjoyed and disliked about living here and living with relatives. We have come to the conclusion that while thankful, we didn't care for living in someone else's house. It was crowded, difficult for everyone, and we were all relieved to get out of that situation. However the relief was short lived after coming back to our house. We had to look at weather we actually love our house or love having our own place. As any family would tell you, your own home is an important part of life, but does it make that much of a difference where that home is? If it's owning your own house or renting an apartment, does the details of the home make a difference? 

       I've been reading a lot about people who have given up owning their home and all the costs and labor that comes along with it, for renting. There is a guy who write a blog about his family's journey after giving up their house for apartment living (http://www.rethinkingthedream.com, great blog, well written, not like this crazy un-organized ranting.) We really see this as something we would be happy per suing. By this point you may be thinking that we are crazy. Almost everyone in our lives thinks this is crazy, (they pretty much think we are crazy anyway, but that could be an entire blog entry on it's own.) What do you do when you don't like your neighborhood (not my neighbors, I love a couple of my neighbors...), you don't like making home repairs, you don't have extra money to repair anything anyway, your husband hates yard work, you hate the outdoors*, etc. It seems awfully logical to us. We could be closer to his job and save on gas, we could be in an area where I'm not afraid to take my daughter on walks down the street (I'm not so much afraid of the people, mostly the neighborhood dogs). It has come to the point where home ownership has caused far more stress than joy in our lives, and that should be the sign of it being time to move on. 

        Of course this whole issue comes with a much larger LARGER problem that is effecting a lot of people right now... we have the wonderful job of selling a house we no longer like to someone in a very down housing market. I'm far too honest of a person and will be the first to tell anyone why buying a house is a foolish thing to do, so that leaves me as the sales person out. We have hired a real estate agent, our poor agent... I really like her personality, she's friendly, I just feel terrible because this is her job. From what I've heard she's good at her job, but it has to be rough right now. I pretty much feel bad for most people who sell things for a living, some people are good at it and do well, I'm just so bad at it that they get sympathy from me. 

       For now I will document our selling, searching, moving, and living journey here. I pray that it doesn't take years. I have a sinking feeling that it will not be at all easy. Hopefully it will be worth it. Maybe one day if anyone ever reads this blog, they can tell me why they think we are crazy also. 

     * We don't hate the outdoors completely, I am terribly afraid of most bugs, dirt, tetanus, snakes, things that fly, things that buzz, the sun, skin cancer, sex offenders, all of our neighbors have large scary dogs that they don't treat very well and attack other neighbors, we don't have a fenced in yard... See why I'm not a good sales person?

Drinking Lunch

     Since I've known my husband (at least the past 11 years) he's always been very health conscious. He's always been one to be fine with trading lunch for a smoothie or something similar and just as healthy. For the last 3-4 years, ever since the "Will It Blend?" videos on YouTube were popular, my husband has been wanting to get a BlendTec blender (http://www.blendtec.com). Then when the $400 for that was out of the question a few years went by and we put some serious thought into getting a Vitamix (www.vitamix.com). Of course, once again by that time being a family on a budget the price of a Vitamix was a large investment. So when he saw the advertisement for the Nutri Bullet (www.nutribullet.com) on TV one night he started talking about it every day and every night for a few weeks straight. When I saw the price at $99 I considered picking one up for him for Christmas, but decided I wanted to read more reviews. Luckily for us, he received one as a birthday gift last month.
     Now we had gotten a juicer a few years ago, and last year when I went through some health issues of my own and couldn't eat for a week, juicing was a great option. However for us, juicing has always been an expense issue. We buy organic where organic needs to be (the dirty dozen and few others),  and the amount of juice that comes out of 3 carrots compared to the waste that comes out of 3 organic carrots, it's bothersome to me. I think about all of the things I could have made using the entire carrot instead of juicing it and tossing half of it away. There are a LOT of people out there with their own opinions about blending vs juicing and which is better for you, etc. The way I've decided to look at it is that if you don't have money to basically throw away and you are on a tight budget like we are, my 3 carrots and hand full of spinach is going to go a lot further blended into a smoothie type juice rather than having to use 2 or 3 times as much to get enough juice to supplement a meal or snack.
     Not only is it my opinion, it's been a little over a month now and having done both, I've witnessed it. Some days we've replaced lunches with a drink made with the Nutri Bullet, and some days it replaces the after dinner ice cream we may have had but no longer buy.  Just like my recent quest of vegetarianism, this is not some big diet sham or quest for weight loss. Am I losing weight? Absolutely! But it's all a part of getting healthier and actually using food for nutrients instead of eating foods void of nutrients for fun. Pizza is good, do I still eat it as a treat now and then? Of course, but I can't eat pizza everyday and then down the road wonder why my body is failing to function the way it is supposed to when I'm not giving it what it needs to function. Most people know that filling up on spinach is better for you than filling up on french fries, to do it is a very different and sometimes difficult choice. No one makes the best choices all the time, but if it takes drinking a smoothie made up half of spinach and kale and the other half bananas, berries, and almonds for you to get nutrients from healthy sources you normally may not have gotten, then it's worth it. It's also true that making one healthy choice leads to more healthy choices, if you don't believe me what will you lose if you try?
     I'll leave with a couple of drink combinations that are our favorites lately. Please, leave opinions, start discussions.

What we call "the chocolate chip milk shake"
    1 banana
    handful of almonds
    handful of cocoa nibs
    1 tsp honey (even better with the organic raw acacia honey that deserves it's own post later on, but   any honey will work.)
    1 tsp of coconut butter (optional, it's good with or without)
    half a cup of almond milk
     2 ice cubes
    water

My usual breakfast drink:

  two handfuls of spinach
  a few leaves of kale (too much kale can make it bitter so it depends on what you like)
 frozen organic peaches
 fresh pineapple slices
 1 tsp honey (once again same as above)
 1 banana
  handful of goji berries
 1 tsp coconut butter (optional, but in this drink it gives a great tropical flavor)
 water
(Also in this drink sometimes I replace the peaches and pineapple with strawberries, or a strawberry, blue berry, raspberry mixture)

Note: One more thing about the drinks made with the Nutri Bullet. Sometimes I use frozen fruit which gives it a "cold" smoothie texture. I include Ice in some drinks (like the milkshake) because some people aren't fond of the texture of the room temperature smoothie. It's a personal preference.

A little bit of this and that... updates and whatnot.

 I'm going to be doing some construction on the blog for a while trying to get it just the way I want it. In the meantime I'll attempt to get someone to read it so that I'm not just  talking to myself. Until then,  here are a few updates that have been going on in life.

• We've returned to the 617. Yes we have returned to living in the house that was the inspiration to my blog in the first place. We were displaced for almost a year because my husband had to take a lower paying job due to the closing of his family's company. Of course the family company didn't close, and we lived with family members for far too long, but we are slowly but surely getting back on track. It's been difficult, probably one of the most emotionally difficult situations of my life. I really didn't expect it to have such an impact on me, I also didn't expect to end up in therapy with severe anxiety because of it either. Of course these are all subjects to be addressed in upcoming posts. 
• My tiny princess is 2. She walks, and talks, and forms opinions. She has started playing "mommy" to all her baby dolls, and it's so heart warming to see her talk to them and rock them the way I do to her. She tells me all the time she wants to play the piano, the violin, and go to dance class. According to her she is a princess and learning to be a ballerina.  We are currently in negotiations about potty training, then hopefully the rest will follow soon after. 
• I've fallen in love with blog reading, and although several of my favorite bloggers don't write too much anymore, I've found a few more that just make me happy to read. I plan to share.
• I turned 30, in turning 30 I became a vegetarian. I have not had meat since the day I turned 30. It's kind of a deal I've made with myself about becoming healthier before I have health problems I can't turn around.  I've made it easy on myself by being okay with wanting to eat meat again if I decide it's what I want. So far I haven't wanted it. It's also helped with a lot of the health issues I was having before. My husband is a part time vegetarian, and my daughter is not. She likes chicken nuggets and hot dogs. I really try to shield her away from the processed stuff as much as possible, and we don't cook meat at home so as of now it's a once in a while treat for her. Hopefully as her tastes develop she will add more to her menu of acceptable foods and I can take away the not so great stuff as we go. 

So that's the updates for now, hopefully I will have some well thought out blog posts soon and this is not just another empty attempt to keep up with this. I know I have the time for it, I just need the motivation. So if you have read this, please comment with something to motivate me. Until next time. 

Thinking...

I've been thinking about blogging more. I really should write down all of these things that happen and pop into my head. There are several subjects I have thought about writing about, however the thought of writing where no one is reading makes me not want to put in the work. That's probably a bad way to look at it. I should write more, even if no one is reading. So I just may just dust off the old blog, dress her up a little, and get to writing the magazine of my life and all the things that interest me, along with the life and times of my family. Why not give it another go?

I need to write more!

I really do need to write more, maybe one day someone will actually read this blog and there will be nothing to read, and that will be very sad. I don't know how likely that is to happen, but either way I really should be writing more.  So, what have I been doing? I have been dieting, reading the 50 shades trilogy, getting over the depression that follows the 50 shades trilogy, sniffing scentsy, spending time with friends from out of town, randomly going cross eyed, finding out I need "all the time" glasses as opposed to the "reading " glasses of yore so apparently i'm getting old yay, snapping pictures at absolutely every turn, STILL adjusting to life in the commune (my in law's home), watching the view, eating pepper jelly, spending way too much time on Pinterest, moving furniture, reading apartment therapy.com, and quite possibly getting my urge to bake back. Today I'm making square corn dogs in my pampered chef brownie pan.  I'm hoping to bring in some extra writing help and spruce up this blog a little.

the business of pictures n stuff

To get back to where I was very recently, I officially accomplished a few tasks today. I enrolled back into a photography certification course (because while I know the basics, and a lot of the advanced, the certificate means a lot to me... and learning more than what I already know is a sure plus!). Super importantly I applied for my Tax ID and Occupational Licensing, purchased my domain, and worked out some hosting issues. So www.6seventeenportraits.com is officially a website, it is still pretty empty... I'm working on that.  I'm also working on free portrait sessions to friends and family to build up some fresh pictures for the website. I really hope to get support from my friends and family for my business venture. This has been my dream for a long time, and I'm determined to make it work. The name, of course, is the same inspiration as this blog. This blog has been big inspiration for me too. Thanks for being there blog, and readers (eh, reader? you there?).

I miss you Carrie Bradshaw!

     Sometimes I enjoy a lazy day.  Sometimes it is brought on by a bout of mild depression. That's when I enjoy a lazy week and a half. This time it is probably because I finished my class and have had nothing pressing to do for a little while. I have also made the decision to change the school that I'm attending. I don't really want to get into the details here about the reasons because I'm not an expert on the school itself, but there were some tuition and legal issues with the school itself that I'd rather not get myself into a bad situation with.

      All of that aside I am still planning to pursue my photography professionally and continue to attend classes. I am working on a new website portfolio for my work and obtaining a business license. I have also scheduled 4 portrait sessions this morning to brush up my portfolio and have some fresh work for the site. I know that it seems as if everyone who buys a camera or can use photo shop is a photographer these days... and sometimes it can be a bit discouraging. There is beautiful work out there. I also know it is very hard to break into a field already bombarded with amazing professionals and semi-professionals and really bad non-pros trying to come across as professionals.  This is a lot of the reason I have never really charged much for my pictures. I enjoy doing it and at this point have done countless family portraits, senior pictures, and kids photos. I have done 4 weddings.  I've been doing this for over 10 years now, I'm waiting for the time that I can get rid of the fear of looking like one of these really bad non-pros. I also hate over processed, over photo shopped photography. I assume that the only things that will help me is to do great work, and to have confidence in my work. So I'm growing up and building a website to showcase the work that I think I should be proud of.  Getting a few photo jobs out of it would be great, at least getting my family and friends to get me to do their portraits would be great (they don't, I don't even think most of them know I take pictures, or they just absolutely hate my work because they are always hiring out. This makes me feel super special and is a whole other story for a never time however.)

     So on these lazy days, like today, when I'm on the couch researching website building and setting up photo appointments, sometimes something as great as 2 hours of Sex and the City on E! and nap time align, and all is wonderful with the universe. While watching Carrie Bradshaw write her article on men, being single, and the pursuit of happiness, I realized how inspiring the show is. I think if Carrie had in fact given up on writing her column and moved to Paris for good she would have at least taken up blogging.  Between the cancellation of this show and Friends, NYC based (even if just in theory) shows are really few and far between. I miss them all.
 
      So that's what I've been up to, what about you?



(pic from http://eastcoastchic.com/carrie-bradshaw-adventurous-and-unforgettable )

Mondays are for...

Mondays are for organic toaster pastries, grits, coffee... blog updating... A new week of lecture reading, assignments, and text book chapters... Washing laundry from the weekend... Coffee with my sister... and later today Monday will be for rain.

To my shock, my first class is actually teaching me something. This is a strategies class for learning, doing college online, reading ability, time management, and basically how to work with your abilities and limits and use them to your advantage. One of the assignments last week was to make a calendar for everyday during the week to map out time for everything in your life. Of course including enough time for reading, studying, and doing assignments. I love my calendar. It has made me realize how much time everyday we actually spend doing very random meaningless things. Now I'm not one for enjoying having every minute planned out, but just allowing specific time frames for things has made it possible for me to accomplish an entire weekend in one day. Sunday my family woke up, showered and dressed, had coffee on the patio, played in the backyard, cooked on the grill, had a picnic, went to a birthday party, visited friends, made it home in time for baby bed time and mad men. It was very fulfilling to have such a full day to spend with my family. So if you can't tell, school is on week 3, and going very well so far.

One of the side effects of being so busy and not yet having cable in our part of the house is that I have been watching very little to no television lately. Mad Men on Sunday nights I watch when it airs, sometimes on Wednesdays I watch TV with the husband if I'm done with everything I have to do that day... and other than that i may watch one show online when i have the time. That's approximately 4 hours of television a week. Now lately my sweet pea has been in front of Sesame Street anytime she is home, luckily I've found her playing with her toys more even if the TV is on, but I hope to get her to do more without the TV soon.

That's pretty much what's going on in my head today. Now it's about time to get to work. I hope if anyone is reading this you have a great week!

Road trip, INSTAGRAM style.

Life at full speed

So this week I started school, part time, so far it's going well. I was able to complete all my assignments and reading for the week so that we could take a mini family vacation 3 hours north to visit family for Easter. We drove early this morning, eating at all our favorite road places on the way. Made it in time to still enjoy an afternoon at the zoo. This is my sweet pea's third zoo. I have been to more zoos in a shorter amount of time since having a kid than ever before in my life. Zoo's are fun.

Being the smart mommy that I am, I enabled tethering on my iPhone before we left town, so that on the ride and at my husband's aunt's house, in which we are staying, we could share the Internet connection. I luckily have the ability to access the Internet from my computer, and the iPad, and more importantly the iPod and Sweet Pea on the iPad... she may be a little spoiled? eh, who knows? We require a lot of technology to travel these days. I normally would have brought the iPad without the computer, but have I mentioned how much I love this thing lately? I LOVE this computer. I have had it since January, and I do believe I love it more and more the longer I have it. It is absolutely the best computer I have ever owned / used.  So many people told me it would be the best investment I could make in a computer, and that is so true.

Since we are road tripping it this weekend, I decided to bring out the big camera and snap some shots along the road and at the zoo. I'll follow up with an instagram pic post also. Tomorrow we shall search for more adventures.

blog about blogs and blogging...aka Bob LobLaw's Law Blog

I'm sorry, that joke never gets old... I miss Arrested Development. I think I have explained the reason I started this blog... if not i'm not going to do it now. I read blogs, I actually really enjoy the ones I read, here on the right of the screen. I've added some friends and family to the blog list also. Several of them I've been reading for a long long time. If you are reading this blog (who is reading this blog?) then I suggest reading these blogs.

one month, (two month, three month, four...)

It's been officially one month since the big move, and I think the depression has lifted.  It has either lifted or there has been so much going on that I haven't had time to be depressed. The husband and I were having a conversation in the car yesterday, during sonic's happy hour and nap time in the car, about how much happier we actually are now that things have settled. Routines have changed, Coffee is made every morning when I get up (of course on the rare occasion I get up first, in which I make coffee and the house people are appreciative.), my sweet pea loves to greet her morning with a cup of milk on the couch with her iPad, next to her grandpa if she is up early enough before he leaves for work. I have been getting laundry done and put away, keeping this house clean (probably cleaner) than my old house, and really trying to help out as much as possible. I think the depression was mostly not having our routine, I have become one of those people who are unhappy without a routine... what a scary thought. However, I am glad, exuberant, super excited that my family is happy here.

The husband found a job, with security, insurance, and lower pay, but not so lower that there will never be an end to this tunnel. The best part is that he seems to even like it. I don't want to speak too soon, but he said this himself.

While trying to prepare our house to be rented out, we discovered a few problems with a roof leak. The insurance company came out and I'm praying we will be able to repair it with the help of the insurance, but we have a plan if the insurance doesn't come through. I'm just hoping to be able to have our renters in soon and get this situation settled, because it's been a big cause of unhappiness and stress. I do love my old house though.

This past weekend was a huge party we threw for my In Laws with lots of family from out of town. They were both surprised and extremely happy and everyone had a great time. We have been invited to spend Easter weekend with the family 3 hours north where my husband spent all of his Easters as a kid. Next weekend is the Walk for Autism which is 2 hours away and we went to last year, and had a lot of fun with members of my family. The problem here is that these are two weekends in a row and we can't really afford to spend both of them out of town. I'm trying to figure out a way to work with this, but it's looking like I may have to give up my plans to spend time with his family. I'm okay with that because it's not something we've ever gotten to do and I think it means a lot to him.

Even with so much going on, I'm feeling springtime in the air. This makes me excited about the summer and summer activities. I'm hoping to do more library club, picnics in the park, and days spent outside like last summer. Last summer was a blast, I can't wait.

Yellow

It's been a while since I've been back here to write to absolutely no one. Mostly because we have moved, an I've been trying to piece what feels like my whole life back together. I don't do well with life events that make everything feel like I'm watching a bad movie. I'm expecting to wake up any minute now. Would I ever imagined that the economy would cause my family to pack up and move in with my husband's aging parents in an attempt to help us both? No, probably not. I just keep thinking of all the fun "back during the recession" stories I'll have to tell my grandchildren. The positives are that my new living room is bigger than my old one and I have lots of new decorative ideas, bigger kitchen (not that it matters, some people lose their sex drive when they go through a bout of depression, I lose the urge to bake.), and a nicer bath tub. The negatives are all the things I can't type about without crying like a baby. My husband has agreed to not complain when I decide to fill the emotional holes with decorative throw pillows. It's still early, I just keep thinking "it won't be forever" and hopefully the depression will go away eventually. Thanks, it actually helps coming here to talk, even though no one reads this. :)

Why do I still own things from when I was 14?

Why why why? I read that one of the traditions of the Chinese new year is cleaning, cleaning away last year's bad luck and making room for this year's good luck. It's an idea most people should take. Going through storage bins is making me realize that the ownership of stuff is a strange idea. I'm by no means on the verge of hoarding, but to still have two boxes of things from when I was a kid only reminds me that I was sort of a strange kid. I'm allowing myself one fairly small box of treasures to hold on to. It includes some old pictures, my late grandpa's handkerchiefs, and something silly from a childhood friend. I can't rationalize keeping anything bigger. In the back of my mind that box was there all these years, waiting to be sorted through, but it's important to remember that items aren't memories. All of this is an enormous task to take on by myself, with My Sweet Pea being a maniac, while the husband is working... I can't wait until its done!

Ack!!!

     We have lived in our current house for almost 4 years. It is an old house, built in 1947. Three nice sized bedrooms that range from large to office sized, and one tiny bathroom. This living room is considerably smaller than the one I had in our previous apartment. The kitchen is old, but functional... in reality, who couldn't use more counter and storage space? If you've never had to seriously ponder the amount of stuff one family collects in the time span of four years, you are pretty lucky.
     My husband wants to take a new career path, a completely different, starting with no experience, much lower paying career change. Okay so, he's wanted to do it for a long time but is now sort of being thrown into it considering that his current place of employment is closing. Sucky economy. However, looking at it from a positive point of view, he will probably be extremely happy finding something much less stressful.
   Both of these ideas come together in the fact that less money = less money to pay things, like mortgages, rising electricity bills, paper towels, and all those things we enjoy having around here.  We should look at this situation as being extremely lucky people. When we were first married, we turned a large enclosure added on to his parents house into a studio apartment of sorts. It worked out pretty well for us then.  Now considering going back there with 5 years of possessions and an 18 month old seems completely insane right?  It is, it really is. His parents are sweet people who are looking forward to having their granddaughter around. I keep telling myself that it's temporary, and it won't be absolutely terrible. We will have the "studio" area for a living/dining area, and a bedroom. The worst part will be getting rid of 85% of everything we own. Mostly because I'm not even sure what to do with any of it. I'm thinking about donating it to our Relay for Life Rummage sale at the end of February. I should turn my misfortune into something that could really help others shouldn't I? I have great friends who I am hoping to have renting my house for at least the next year, unless we decide instead to sell.  After reading articles and blogs online it really isn't an uncommon subject in this day and age. The economy really has been that bad. There are a lot of people way more worse off than us. We should consider ourselves lucky lucky lucky to have this opportunity to regroup and save and start again in the future. So after allowing myself one whole day to cry and be totally silly about the whole thing, I'm only going to look at this as us being completely lucky from now on. My Sweet Pea will have a fenced in backyard to play in and a roof over her head with several people who love her. I would give anything to live with my grandma that's for sure. Sometimes when it seems like life is being crappy, it really is showing you that life is good, just in a different way than you thought.
    Now to decorate and design my "pied-à-terre" if you will. I need some serious space saving design ideas.

It's Here!

I've done one of those things that a lot of people do every year, and fail miserably at.  I've promised things. I've promised to seriously write this blog, (okay that's different from writing it seriously, because I know this is not a serious blog, but it is something I've been inspired to do).  I've started many projects that are going to take up a significant amount of my time this year.  Well I'm here to tell you folks (who are you folks? seriously, no one reads this, does this make me crazy?) that it's January 25th and I'm sticking to my plan.  In order to create a business plan for a bakery/deli, start working on my photography (or graphic design) degree, be a more organized mother, and write this blog about all of it, I required a computer.

Come with me, I'll tell you a story completely irrelevant to anything you are interested in...

Last July, when my 2 year old Dell laptop said it's last goodbye, I remembered making a promise to myself that I would not purchase another computer unless it was a Mac. (I actually said this before I bought the Dell, but you know what they say about people and their promises.) So I purchased an iPad 2. I really wanted an iPad, they are very useful, and it has turned out to be a very good investment. (Especially for the toddler, kids as young as 1 LOVE the iPad and everyone thinks my daughter is a genius because she can work any iDevice with a basic knowledge of what to do.) So from there to here it's been all iPad for me, but of course more of this serious type adult work I've been trying to accomplish would be better done on an actual computer.  So I cried for 3 days, researched PC prices at all the discount outlets, and then sucked it up and ordered my Macbook Pro.  Writing this may be the 3rd thing I have done since turning it on.  Having been a PC user my entire Computer aged life (in my generation is like 12 or 13), using this is like being in a beautiful foreign land. Everything is so interesting and nice to look at but you have no idea what to do with any of it. I'm sure I'll learn and my amazement over not having a "backspace" key will subside and it will soon be as if the world was meant to work hitting the "return" key.

I'm really starting to consider getting one of this coffee pots with a programmable option. Waking up to a waiting pot of coffee would be great motivation to actually leave my bed in the morning. I have been coming up with ideas of things to blog about, but writing them on my phone is a bit of a pain. Luckily, after going 8 months without an actual working computer, I've purchased a MacBook. I just really couldn't see spending more money on another computer I didn't care for that wouldn't even last a year. I love my iPhone, and my iPad, so I really don't think this love will be any different. There are so many exciting things happening and I can't wait to do them and write about them here. Computer gets here tomorrow so hopefully I'll be back shortly.

Chicken noodle soup and building blocks

After making another successful pot of chicken noodle soup (from scratch), Sweet Pea and I decided to build castles out of blocks. (then went to bed only to stay up and watch 2 more movies, Gnomeo and Juliet and A Walk on the Moon) … Both better than the super cheesy movies of late (err earlier today anyway sorority wars) … I don’t know what’s with spending time on cheesy movies, but I think I’ll start heading in a better direction. Any Netflix movie suggestions sans cheese?