I am EXHAUSTED.

First, my apologies for my unusual absence from blogging. We decided to really put our hearts and money into some minor renovations that will hopefully get this house FINALLY sold. We started this last weekend, because Chris was off Monday and Tuesday. We finished it late last night, and we're thrilled. There's still some trim to paint and what-not, but the major stuff is all complete. We started with ripping off the crappy old wallpaper in the dining room (well, painting it first with Kilz, and then ripping it off once it bubbled):


Then we painted it what I thought would be a medium grayish brown and ended up pewter (but I still love it!):


Then we moved on to the master bathroom. Here's the before:

And the after, which included a pale whitish purple paint on the walls, a new sinktop, painting the cabinet bright white and putting new hardware on it, and installing a new medicine cabinet and light fixtures:

Before I show you my next project, let me tell you what happened yesterday. Izzy was going to the bathroom while Chris was in the shower and as he tried to get the toilet paper out of the wicker tube (which I'd wedged in behind the etarge to keep Sophie from dragging it and the plunger all over the house) he accidentally pulled the whole thing over on himself. He was fine, but about $150-$200 worth of nick-knacks that I'd stored up on top of the etarge to keep safe *sigh* were not. Including the commemorative Blenko vase we'd bought when Sophie was born. *SIGH* Such is life.

On to the final room of our grand makeover week - the living room. Before:

And after:


The color for the living room is called Scroll Beige and it's a shade lighter than the "Fauna" in the dining room. Were I to do it over, I'd use it in the dining room, and get a shade lighter for the living room, only to make it appeal to more buyers. What REALLY sucks, is that is what I'd originally had the guy mix up, then I looked at the samples he'd rubbed on top of the can and decided they were too light. If I ever choose the perfect color, I might have a heart attack.

Anyhow, it looks so much better in here, and far more sophisticated. The darker, more formal colors help to ground our modern furnishings (i.e. green and purple sofa) so that they don't jump out at you quite as much. I really do think we'll sell much more easily now. I hope.

So let's flash to today now, why don't we? WHAT??? I don't blog for a week, then you go getting all huffy because I post a long one?? Just save the rest for later, then. Sheesh.

Anyhow, Sophie threw up twice last night (first time event for us) and then was lethargic today and wouldn't eat. Her body kept feeling hot, but our stupid piece of crap ear thermometer wasn't going above 99.9. After her nap, Chris got her and they just laid in a chair together for another hour. He told me she was a little hot, so I felt her, and she was burning up. Used the ear thermometer again - 102.8. I went and got the rectal thermometer and it was 104.1. I got pretty frantic, because she was so listless too, and her eyes looked terrible. By the time we got to the ER/Care Center 24 it was 104.4, and they took her straight back.

They gave her some more ibuprofen (it had been right over six hours since we'd given it to her, and three since she'd had Tylenol), put in an IV, took blood to culture, did a nasal swab for RSV and the flu, took chest x-rays (she has a horrible raspy cough) and CATHETERIZED her for a urine sample. After all of those horrible nasty tests and many, many hours, the doctor tells us she's negative for everything and her lungs look fine. By this point, her temp, which had dropped to 100, is back to 101.5 and climbing and she's listless again. He was leaning towards admitting her, but they called our ped. and he said to switch her antibiotic from amoxicillan to biaxin and take her on home. The asthma doctor put her on amoxicillan for a sinus infection, and she's been on it for about 10 days now.

By the time we get home, an hour and a half later, her temp is back to 103.8. Doc said as long as she's not out of it, not to bring her back. After today, I'm not looking to bring her back anytime soon anyways, thanks.

It's now 12:30 and she's due her next dose of Tylenol, so I'm off to try to grab a little shut eye with my hot little sweetie. The one who curled up on her own bed at midnight after coughing so hard in bed with Chris that she threw up a little bit. I gave her some cough syrup, but I hear her coughing as I type this. With any luck, she'll be feeling much better tomorrow, and I'll be able to finish the touch-ups on my projects. Cross your fingers for us!!

The Weekend Update

Today is the first day in over a week that I feel slightly like myself. I still have a sore throat, head & chest congestion, yada, yada, yada, but now it feels like a regular cold. My sense of taste is probably about 50% back, which the fat girl in me loves, but the skinny girl kind of wishes hadn't come back at all.

But now poor Chris is getting sick. He still managed to go to work today, but he felt pretty crappy the whole time. I hope he gets over it much quicker than I did. When I'm sick, I just curl up and agree with anything so that I can be left alone. Chris....does not. No matter what, I've yet to be able to do enough to keep him from getting insanely grumpy. Not to mention, this bug has sucked and I would only wish it on my worst enemies.

Going to be a big weekend. Our first realtor, a guy we really like, is going to relist us with his brokerage again Saturday afternoon. We've made a lot of improvements since we were listed with him, so we're hopeful. I spent today working on moving stuff around all over the house, especially in the living room, to minimize our personal taste. Yep, we're trying to make our giant purple and green leather sofa blend in. Wish us luck.

Hope everyone has a great weekend, and be sure to take your Vitamin C.

Super sucky day.

Found out that the lady who was supposed to buy our house is not going to now, and the young couple who were interested just can't afford it. So not only are we going to lose the house we bid on and all the $$$ we've already sunk into that deal, now all of our things are sitting here in boxes. Pissed doesn't even begin to describe my mood. That and depressed, I guess.

My sister came in from MD today and we planned on Monday to go shopping tonight with my other sister as well. We go out, have a great time, and I come home at 11:15 to find Chris asleep on the couch and absolutely nothing done in the house. The house in which we're hosting Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow.

This is probably what sucks most about being a SAHM. Chris just figures it's all my job. Do I complain? Oh yes. Last week after I did just that, he informed me that he believes he deserves a couple of hours of down time in the evening. I believe I deserve more than three hours of uninterrupted sleep at least once every couple of YEARS, but that ain't happening either. Just for the record, though, all I ask of him of an evening is to empty & load the dishwasher. That's done and the kids are in bed by 8:15 most nights, and he generally doesn't go to bed until 10, so what's the problem? Got me.

What needs done around here so badly, you ask? Well, there's a load of laundry that needs folded and two more than need put in. The dishwasher needs unloaded and reloaded. That's it. I CLEANED THE ENTIRE REST OF THE HOUSE TODAY. And it didn't get messed up because when I'm not around, Chris takes the kids to his mom's house, which is where they spent this evening.

This is why mom's just stop trying to have any semblance of a social life. It's just not worth it because everything is just sitting here waiting for you. Of course this anger is really stemming from this STUPID HOUSE situation. A year of my life just down the drain for nothing. Two solid weeks of packing up all of our worldly possessions largely by myself so that now I'm stuck in an empty house without a can opener.

I know it could be so much worse. But this still sucks hard.

Ahhhhh.

I love being in a clean and tidy house. We showed the house today to the son & daughter-in-law of mom's neighbor, so we did a thorough cleaning to make it show worthy, and then when they left, we just kept it up. Laundry is even all caught up and put away. Chris was in a good mood today too, and he worked extra-hard to make things looks great. Ahhhh, indeed.

Now if only that couple decides to buy this house. That would be suh-weet.

Looks like it's over.

Tomorrow is the end of the contract, so I guess we're not selling this house yet. THIS SUCKS. Why in the world would you go to the effort and expense of trying to buy a house if you're not 100% you either have the money, or have a loan??

So here we sit with most of our belongings in boxes in the sunroom.

I am not a happy camper.

Update on this frustrating house situation.

Our buyer's loan isn't working out. The lender asked her to get her accountant to sign a form predicting what her income will be next year. She doesn't think he'll do it, because he'll apparently be held liable if she doesn't make as much as he predicts. THIS BITES. We found this out late Friday afternoon. She's using the same realty company as we are, and they are working on a loan through a mortgage lender they work closely with.

But who knows if it'll work, and if it does, who knows if the terms will be okay with her? Seems that a state to state loan is harder to come by, not to mention a loan for a self-employed woman. But if she's as wealthy as they've told us, WHAT IS THE PROBLEM??? I guess simply being wealthy doesn't automatically mean good credit.

I know she's serious about this house - she'll lose a big chunk of earnest money if the deal falls through, not to mention the appraisal she paid for. And if the deal falls through, we can't buy the new house. And we'll lose a big chunk of our own. We just can't afford both houses at once - not only will we not have any money down if we don't sell this one, but we can't afford two mortgages, or the possibility that a tenant would be a deadbeat. So far the people we're buying from have been very understanding, since they had an offer fall through due to financing issues as well.

I'm just sick. This weekend was spent reclaiming our house. ALL of the boxes I've packed were taken down to the sunroom, and we cleaned and tidied it all so that it's in condition to show again. But I packed things that I could do without for a couple of weeks, not months on end! The thought of doing this all again makes me want to pull all of my hair out.

Like a record, baby.

SLOW DOWN! Life, I'm telling you, slow down. I'm too tired for all of this crap. Are we ever going to be moved?? Hurry up, slow down, hell, I don't even know what I want anymore.

Except for this to all be over before I jerk a knot in my husband's tail. And, yes, he has one.

Ha!

I'm worn out.

I'm just so very tired. Not so much sleepy, but exhausted. I know that the light is there and the tunnel is getting shorter every day, but that's part of the problem. Stress is skyrocketing. I'm 99% sure I'll have everything packed, but it's even harder than I imagined to pack while chasing kids and keeping up on general housework.

We're going to stay with my mom for the next two weeks. Moving all of our stuff out of here Sunday, transporting it to a storage facility, then we'll all move into mom and dad's extra bedroom. Me, Chris, both kids, both dogs and our cat. Izzy and I get on dad's nerves pretty badly, and Chris just stays irritated in general right now, so if we're all still speaking when we move into our new house around Nov. 20, it'll be a miracle.

November is going to be a very difficult month.

Slacking.

I'm beat. I'm getting over a stomach bug that hit hard and fast, and left almost as fast, but it's made me tired. That and the IMPENDING DOOM of our move. Still don't know where we're going, or when exactly, but we do know that by the middle of November, we won't be here anymore.

But I haven't packed anything. Nada. Nothing. Zip. Well, that's a lie because I did pack a bunch of boxes of nick-nacks when we first listed over a year ago. But I'm like an invert gas that has to expand to fill my space. So my house overfloweth again. And if I used the wrong scientific term there, meh. I have a liberal arts degree, so don't expect too much.

Off to bed to dream of boxes magically filling themselves...or big burly handsome movers filling them while I watch...yeah, that's the dream I'll have...

Moving on.

Things are so weird at our house right now. We're in a contract, but until the home inspection and appraisal go through, there's still the chance of a problem and the house not actually being sold. That means that I still have to keep the house ready to show. That also means that I haven't started packing anything yet. Which is making me a nervous wreck. Chris has the boxes piled to the ceiling in the severely crapped up garage, so when he digs me out a few, I'm going to get busy. It's just so strange to have no idea where we're going to be in a few weeks. Ugh.

As a matter of fact, Chris is the only person even slightly happy about our move and that's only because his commute will be greatly reduced. If he still loved his job, which he used to until the kind boss was promoted and the idiot boss became his main boss, then the move would be easier. But this woman who is over him and his immediate supervisor is a bitter old shrew without kids who thinks it's hilarious to cover up a guy with two young kids with tons of work. The immediate supervisor is a young woman who still lives at home and also has no kids, but she's more intelligent and reasonable, and doesn't actively try to make Chris miserable. But she's a workaholic who doesn't get that the kids need him either. Every time that Izzy hasn't got a pumpkin stamp on his hand at preschool lately, has been the day after Chris has had to work late and didn't get to see him the evening before. Granted, it's not his bosses' job to make Chris happy, but his work load has increased dramatically since he filed a grievance against the bitter old shrew. Coincidence? I think not.

Anyhow, what that all boils down to is that even Chris isn't excited about moving closer to his coworkers anymore. It's a necessary evil, and that's about it. Oh well, enough griping about that for now. Complaining about it certainly isn't going to make me any happier.

On to the cute kid stories, how's that??

Izzy has lately started to say things back to me that he's heard time and time again, and it is a RIOT. Just a few minutes after I'd put him to bed he came into the living room to stand beside me, shook his head, and said, "I just don't know what my problem is, mommy." This was, of course, due to the many times I've asked him, "WHAT is YOUR problem???"

Yesterday he, Sophie and I were all playing in the floor of his room when he got up to go to the bathroom. When I heard him coming back, I hollered and asked him to bring me a tissue to wipe Sophie's nose. He sighed real big, and said, "You make me so tired all the time." I say to him quite a bit, "You wear me out."

As he hands the tissue to me, he says, "Now this is your last tissue today. This waste a lot of money. So this your last one, okay?" I could not help but crack up, because I'd delivered a similar lecture earlier when he was wasting something. Can't remember exactly what, but thanks to Izzy, I remember the sermon well.

Sophie is getting wildly verbal too, and it's great fun. But it's a little disconcerting as to what she's learned to say already. For instance, she caught her hand in the screen door at mom's the other day and started yelling, "Waaaaahhh!," so that someone would come. Since she wasn't crying, I wasn't running and so to hurry me up, she said, "Elp! Elp!" I couldn't believe it. I told mom that I wasn't sure if I was proud that she already knew the word help, or horrified that already knew the word help.

Compounding the horror part of the equation is that she also says, "Ow!" as plainly as I can. It's HILARIOUS to see her bump or head or fall down or whatever and hear her say, "Ow! Ow! Ow!," rather than cry. Although she sometimes does both.

Her language abilities are far better at this age than Izzy's were, which is typical for girls even when not comparing them to a boy who had a speech delay. Izzy is her translator, too, whether she's trying to say a word or not. Watching him stare at her then tell us what she wants almost makes me think they're able to communicate telepathically, I swear. Then again, her wants don't stray far from food, drink, or paci, so it's not like it's that hard to figure her out.

I am having a blast with these two. And I just have to remember how much more fun we're going to have when we don't have to worry about showing the house and we can just cut loose. This move won't be so bad.

Once we have a place to move TO, I might even start to look forward to it.

We accepted an offer on our house!

So many emotions. Happy it should all be over soon. Thrilled it was a great offer (full asking price, but with us paying closing costs). Sad to leave the house where I first brought my babies home. SCARED because we have to be out in 30 days.

But at least the limbo is coming to an end. In a mere 30 days we'll be living somewhere else. Where? We have no idea. NO IDEA.

Wish us luck!