Baby-proof? Ha!

"Never underestimate the problem solving abilities of those who really do have all day." -Andy Kerr

A checklist:

Baby gates-scaled

Lever style doorknob locks-conquered

Stove knob covers-mastered

Oven lock-Mom, this one only kept me out for a day, you're really going to have to try harder than this!

Adhesive strap type cupboard lock-ripped off (C'mon, I figured this out before I was ten months old!)

Interior mounted latch type cupboard lock-no problem, get a stick and scoot the chemicals to the opening, reach in and pull them out

Stuff relocated to higher ground-this only works if you bolt the chairs to the floor and take away anything I could stack and climb

To Do:

Lazy susan lock

Doors and cupboards locked with keys

Ahh! So far it's been a very productive month!

--Gus

My Kind of Chaos

After weeks of being overwhelmed by all that has been thrown at us in such a short time, I finally woke up this morning with my head screwed on straight. I am ready! In the last month, we have looked for and found a house, had our offer accepted, done the inspection, applied for our loan, had the whole house struck down with the plague, and started packing. All this with only a few mental breakdowns. Now I have my deadline, I have a plan, and best of all...I have a list!

Yesterday, I went through a pile of mail four months deep and filed everything. I started to pull everything for taxes out so it doesn't get packed (I do learn something new with every move!). Patted myself on the back for not finding any unpaid bills in that stack (whew! can't say that has never happened before). I put aside everything needed to run errands today in an organized manner. Finally, while I was working I listened to a seminar on how to begin teaching discipline to very small children. I did a couple weeks worth of laundry, washed diapers, washed dishes, cleaned up the living room, got a massage and spent some quality time with Gus.

Today, I woke at an ungodly hour (did you know there is a 630 in the morning? I didn't...), ran errands for a couple hours before the boys woke up. Then I fed the small creatures of the house, picked up all the small bits of trash from the yard that have finally been released from the icy grasp of winter, worked in the garage for a little while, washed the fake greenery so it can be packed, and ran more errands at places that keep more civilized business hours. Now I'm blogging for the first time in a while and drinking a big glass of water.

Next on my list is packing the rest of the decor and breakables and then the serving dishes and more bizarre kitchen gadgets I can probably live without over the next month, canning supplies, and extra bedding. It is so nice to have my motivation and energy back. I am woman, hear me roar!

Ready...Set...Go!

After years of what felt like living in preparation mode for our lives, everything has come together...Right NOW! A week and a half ago, Rob got a phone call telling him he got his dream job, flying choppers all day, no politics, no babysitting grown ups with an overblown sense of entitlement. He was overjoyed. I was overjoyed. The baby was overjoyed. Mostly we were relieved. We have prayed for this for a long, long time and finally, everything is coming together. We will finally have a place of our own, to raise our children, to plant a garden, to create our own sanctuary of peace on a little piece of land. And oh by the way, he starts in a month. I'm down to four weeks to find a place and move before Rob is commuting from Indianapolis to northern Indiana to work. So maybe we are just going to have one more month of absolute chaos before I can have my oasis of calm.

I'm Over It

I have finally hit that point...

I have a houseful of company this weekend and I didn't clean...at all. Either that means that I am finally keeping my house in a semi-reasonable state, or that I know the people coming love me no matter what my house looks like, or that switch has finally flipped in me that just doesn't have the inclination or energy to care anymore. Or all of the above...

Anyway prepping for this visit was very easy...stock the fridge, wipe the bathrooms, hang out clean towels. Yay!

Sarah Vs the Stuff (Part II)

Day Two of the great unstuffing...

I tackled the underwear drawer and dug out all the Outback stuff I had and took it in. Letting go of the Outback stuff was very sad for me. It made the whole leaving thing feel very permanent. It hit me finally that I'm really not going back. I was kinda bummed about it afterward and Kyle asked why I didn't keep my flair for the memories. I had had the same conversation with myself when deciding whether to take it in or not. Everything in my house has memories associated with it. How will we ever get rid of stuff if we hold on to everything that ever meant something to us? In twenty years will I be sad about getting rid of my flair collection? Probably not. Does it make me sad now? Absolutely.

Rob and I chatted last night about what we want for the house. We have come to the mutual understanding that our stuff is driving us crazy and he agreed to help me unstuff us. We want a simple life. Two or three hobbies that we can actually do because we can find the stuff for them, a really fabulous kitchen, serene and calm bedrooms, a living space that is easy to maintain, and a garage that doesn't kill you when you walk through it. How hard can this possibly be?

Monday

My in-laws are coming to visit for Rob's birthday next Monday. It is the first time they will see our house and I am very excited. As the house is fairly clean, this gives me proper motivation to tackle the clutter issues that have plagued us since we moved in. It also wouldn't hurt to go through some of this stuff before the baby gets here.

Ahhh

Yesterday we painted the office. You know you have good friends when you say I'm painting the office this weekend and they ask if they can help. We left the chocolate accent wall and painted over the gold sponge painted walls with a nice taupe. We painted the trim an off white and hung curtains. We cleaned, we rearranged and changed the outlets. It is a completely different room. I worked in the office the entire day today without being distracted by piles of paperwork or anything else. Thank you so much guys! You have given me a peaceful haven to do my work in. I am sure at some point I will get the opportunity to return the favor :)

Where is my book?

My whole week has been an exercise in obsessively checking my front porch for my accounting textbook. I normally order from the school bookstore, but as this textbook was remarkably expensive, I looked on half.com and found one for half the price. I did not, however, check the shipping method as I ordered it a week and a half before the class began. Apparently Media Mail means, really really slow mail...and now I understand why the shipping was so cheap. So today I sat in my driveway today waiting for the mailman, met him at his truck, and lo and behold, I now have a textbook! If it had not come today I would have had to buy one from the local college to complete my assignments, leaving me with two really really expensive textbooks. On the plus side, I think my best bet to become rich would be to write textbooks. I can't think of a single reason that a one year old book should go for two hundred dollars.

I am so excited about having tomorrow off from work, I have a laundry pile that is three weeks deep that I am really looking forward to folding and even though I hate vacuuming, I really want to vacuum for some reason. I picked up the house yesterday and it was such a peaceful day in my neat house that I want to compound my pleasure by having a neat and clean house! After that, I think Rob and I have a date. Tomorrow is Valentine's Day, or at least it is for someone who works in the restaurant industry.

25 Random Things...

Since I did this for facebook, I figure it should get posted here too although I modified some of it and fixed some errors in reason (thanks sissy!)

1. I have a small library in my office which is meticulously organized and cataloged...the only part of my house that is.
2. I cannot throw away my old floppy disks, even though we don't have a computer that will read them anymore.
3. I am slightly obsessive about list making.
4. The tape dispenser from my parents house is on my desk. It might be older than I am.
5. Current reading selection: Paradise Lost
6: Current music selection: Mozart's Mass in C Minor. If you haven't heard it...hear it...awesome.
7. Am either a very liberal republican or a very conservative democrat. Or something else entirely.
8. The four most populous authors in my book collection are Orson Scott Card, Raymond Feist, Dean Koontz and L.E. Modesitt Jr. So far haven't read much by those guys that I didn't like.
9. Am a member of the laziest book club ever. Originally formed to give moral support while we tackled books we were too scared to read on our own. Unfortunately, we have been giving each other reassurance and excuses not to read the selection.
10. Love snow, love cold, love Indiana, hate vacuuming
11. Love bandannas, wear them every chance I get
12. I am really not as grouchy as everyone seems to think I am
13. Correction on number 1, my pantry is a lesson in classic OCD behavior as well, closet too. Pretty much anywhere that you cant see when you walk in the door is meticulous. The main areas are a disaster.
14. I find paperwork very overwhelming. My mailman is lucky if I empty the mailbox twice a month. I'm really not trying to drive him crazy, I just forget until I realize I haven't paid bills in a while.
15. I wish Indy had a better recycling program
16. I have never gotten my Christmas cards out on time
17. I love Indianapolis. It is the perfect size city. Very little crime comparatively. Traffic is awesome for a big city. It has cultural activities and eccentric ones as well. It also has a sledding hill with a concrete strip at the bottom of it. Kinda sick if you ask me.
18. I wanted to be a trucker for a year in college.
19. I bite off more than I can chew regularly. I wouldn't know how to function any other way.
20. Last year after spending a winter in Alabama, when it snowed for the first time, I wrapped up in a comforter and took some tea out on the balcony and watched it snow for two hours.
21. I feel with the amount of mood swings and intense feelings I have, I should have been a poet or an artist or something angsty.
22. I am supposed to be writing a paper on economic forecasting for a Fortune 500 company of my choice. Sigh...
23. I love my parents and siblings and miss them like crazy. Sometimes I get angry with the nature of adulthood, how it separates us from loved ones.
24. I am terrified of dogs, but want a really really huge one someday, Malmut probably.
25. I think it is funny how disturbed my parents are by my sleep schedule, especially considering that I probably sleep far more hours than they do.

Chaos Studies Pt. 2

The house fell apart over the holidays. I had almost gotten it put back together when we left for Chicago. Now there are four loads of laundry on my guest bed that I have been getting dressed out of and I just did dishes for the first time in a week. I don't understand why it is so hard to keep it picked up. For the most part we put things away when we use them so why can't we ever permanently defeat entropy? I have a theory.

Chaos is a natural byproduct of the imperfect human condition. When we have had a rough day, we 'owe' it to ourselves to come home from work and 'relax,' i.e. veg on the couch, read a book, play online, basically anything but clean house. Unfortunately, we find it difficult to relax in chaos and our days get more and more stressful until we have had enough and take care of the root problem. I am going to have to start doing housework before work again which means...I am going to have to get up earlier than I like...

I remember the good old days when the house seemed to clean itself. Of course, I also remember the conspicuous lack of homework too...I think I am going to blame it on being in school in order to divest myself of personal responsibility and control of the situation. Yeah, that'll work...

Home

Well, things are settling down from the holidays. I went back to work yesterday and finally have some down time to get on here and post some pics. These are of the house after the infamous piano move. Of course it doesn't look like this anymore because we decorated for Christmas. Now it is more sparkley! Other than our office, everything is put away, unpacked, hung on the walls and otherwise moved in. It is finally starting to feel like home.

Us vs. The Piano

I get to host Thanksgiving this year. No problem, I was the one that proposed this arrangement. Problem #1: the way the living and dining room are laid out, we can fit our dining room table in the main area but not the chairs. Hmmm.... Problem #2: we would like to put up the Christmas tree except the only place to put it is right next to the fireplace and something tells me that is a bad idea. Problem #3: We have a very heavy piano. No problem, we will move the living roomaround...except we have one long wall and a bunch of short angled walls with things like doorways limiting their usefulness and the piano currently occupies the middle of the long wall.

So we met tonight for a strategy planning session. We have magic sliders (best invention ever) which allow you to play with your furniture arrangement without throwing out your back. Unfortunately, these wonderful disks don't work on pianos, well they would if you could lift a piano vertically, but we can't so that leaves us trying to figure out the ideal arrangement beforehand. The goal is to only move the piano once. Our options are all the way across the room or down the long wall six feet. We pick the six feet option. Conveniently, with the piano now in the dining room, the dining room light is centered on the piano, providing a very beautiful arrangement. I think it looks nice and hope we don't have to move anything the rest of the time we live here! We moved in in April and it just now starting to look and feel like a home. now if we can just avoid moving for a while...I have a feeling that is something that will have to be left up to God and the army. Happy Holidays everyone!