Random thoughts...

I keep feeling the urge to blog, but then something stops me. Sometimes it's because I want to vent about a fight I've had with Mike, and that probably isn't appropriate (although it sure as hell would be funny).

About three times a week I realize I need to do a house update, but it's always during nap time, and I leave my camera in Bellie's room (she likes to play with it while she's getting her diaper changed).

But most times it's because I feel like I have to spend these precious naptime hours cleaning this darn house. Y'all, I HATE when people tweet things like, "OMG, I haven't vacuumed in three days. This house is so messy!" But, OMG. These hardwood floors are KILLING ME. They really do have to be vacuumed like every other day - especially with dogs. The hair just starts to float around, and it backs up in corners and on the stairs. So gross!

Anyhow, now that y'all know all about my dirty house, here are some other random thoughts floating through my mind.

1. Renters are in the townhouse. I'm so grateful we only had to pay two mortgages for one month! However, our new tenants are going to be a handful. It's a couple with a child, and the wife is extremely Type-A. And aggressive. And despite being from Florida, she has a LOT of Northern traits. Just totally different from me, and our communication styles are different. As long as she pays her rent, right?
2. There's a rumor going around that Mike and I may take a little trip to Vegas!!! I have never been, and Mike's been once (he loved it). It's supposed to be a "Thank you Mary Adelaide for packing all my ish and moving our family into our new house without me having to lift a darn finger" trip. But I always thought trips that were given to you were supposed to be planned/booked by the giver. It's looking like I'm going to have to plan/book ours because someone else keeps forgetting. (Ooops, is that a hint of a recent fight??? hahaha! Obviously, we have BIG problems here at the Businesses!) Anyone have any Vegas tips? We want to see Elton John while we're there!
3. This week has been a great week. I've really, really struggled with being lonely since I started staying at home. I love Small Biz, but she's not the best conversationalist. We had lunch dates Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday this week! Tuesday and Wednesday were with friends we've had for a while, but Monday's was spur of the moment with a new friend we've met at Baby Storytime and her twins! Extra plus, she lives in our neighborhood!
4. Baby Storytime has been a saving grace for us. It's through our county's library; I highly recommend it for anyone who has kids. Even if you don't stay at home, they offer it on weekends. It's not really a storytime either. We actually just sing songs and read one short story at the end. Bellie absolutely loves it, and we've even taught some of the songs to Mike.
5. We had a moth problem in our kitchen, but I think it's solved! I'm absolutely terrified of moths, so this was a big problem for me! I finally vacuumed the top of the cabinet where the moths were coming from, and within 24 hours, they were gone. I read online that there may be cocoons at the top. I couldn't see any, but I figured it was worth a shot. It worked!
6. I am so ready for Spring, I can hardly handle it. I hate, hate, hate wearing jeans, so I have been living in leggings lately, and I'm ready for some pretty skirts and dresses. We're almost there - I can feel it!
7. We received two wedding invites in the mail this week, and I am thrilled! The weddings are on the same weekend, but one is a Saturday wedding in Raleigh and one is on Sunday in Wilmington, so I think we can swing both!
8. I also received an invite to a bridal shower for a girl I went to college with. We weren't very close at Peace, but we've reconnected this past year. I feel so honored that she included me on the guest list for her shower, and I am thrilled to attend! 
9. Re-reading this post, I'm reminded how hard it is to make friends post-college. I am so thankful for the great friends I have, but I am so thrilled to begin new friendships too. It's such a blessing.
10. It's Friday - yay for weekends! Anyone have any fun plans?

And seriously, if you have any Vegas tips, shoot them my way!

Every parent has a moment...

Every parent has a moment when they realize their child isn't perfect.

(Bellie, if you're 10 and reading this, know that I love you very much. And you don't want to be perfect - there's no fun in that!)

But yesterday, I had a new realization.

My husband must be a secret member of al-Qaeda. Because my child is for sure part terrorist.

Holy hell. One moment she was screaming, the next she was laughing like a crazy loon.

I love you baby, but for real?

It turns out she's teething. And these teeth aren't for the faint of heart.

When Mike texted me he was on his way home last night - around 5 pm, this is the picture I sent back:

Here's to hoping today is better!

If anyone's looking for a house to rob...

I offer you my basement.

It is OUT. OF. CONTROL.

There must be a gazillion boxes down there - and that's hardly an exaggeration.

I would post a picture...but I'm too embarrassed.

I keep walking down there, looking around, walking around. Bending over to open a box to see if it's anything I want to unpack. It's not, so I close it, and walk around some more. Then I walk upstairs to do dishes, laundry, vacuum...pretty much anything that will make me feel less guilty about not working in the basement.

I'll probably take a picture and add it to this later. Maybe that'll guilt me into cleaning up down there???

I doubt it.

Humph.

So, if you know any seasoned criminals, please send them my way.

We're alive!

We're here, we're alive! I forgot to call Time Warner Cable before we moved though, so we won't have cable or Internet until Monday. (I am dying!!)

I just figured out Blogger has an iPhone app, so I thought I'd send a quick update.

We're almost all moved in to the new house...we still have some small things we need to bring from the townhouse, but we're not hurrying.

On the day our movers came for the furniture, one of our neighbors saw the truck and came over to ask of we'd be renting the townhouse. (the people who own the one they're currently renting are moving back to Raleigh.) After a few conversations, we were able to settle on a price, and we are so excited to have that taken care of! It was a big blessing.

In other news, we thought Bunker had gotten kennel cough at doggie daycare, but she has pneumonia. Apparently she has an abnormality called megaesophagus - which so far is a nightmare. Her esophagus is stretched out and won't push food to her stomach. So for the rest of her life, she has to be hand fed or fed from an elevated surface. (Same goes for water.) The theory is, if she eats with her neck held high, gravity will pull the food to her stomach. Otherwise, she may regurgitate the food, causing her to aspirate and get pneumonia again. She also has to be fed 4-5 times a day, and she has to have a dry/wet food mixture made into meatballs.

I'm really nervous for her though. This disease seems pretty dangerous, and I don't want her to be sick all the time. The doctor warned us last night that we need to be prepared for some serious (vet) hospital visits and that it's not uncommon for dogs with this condition to need oxygen from time to time.

So if y'all don't mind, please keep Bunker in your prayers!

I am exhausted!

Y'all, I am worn out. Like worn the eff out. I have no idea why I'm awake right now...other than I'm so wired, I can't turn it off.

So, we had the ceilings scraped last week, and I am so glad all of the popcorn is gone from the ceilings! But man, did it leave a mess! Mike and I spent all day yesterday on our hands and needs with swiffer cloths and sponge mops trying to pick up the dust. Truly, ALL day. We started at 10am and didn't get back to our town house until 7:30pm.

We finally realized we couldn't pick up all the dust, and we were going to have to live with it!

Mike's mom came Saturday afternoon, and I am so grateful to have her here. She spent all day with Bellie yesterday making sure she was fed, well slept and happy. Today, she and I packed up a day's worth of supplies - for Bellie and us - and we lined all of the kitchen and bathroom cabinets at the new house! Tomorrow, we're packing up dishes and setting up the new kitchen!

Anyhow, it's my bedtime. I'll try to remember to take some pictures tomorrow!

A blog style guide?

Do y'all have a personal blog style guide you use? Like, do you have a specific way you capitalize your titles? Or do you put one or two spaces at the end of a sentence? Do you bold face or italicize links? Do you have a specific way you write captions or style captions?

Or are those completely weird questions and you've never thought about any of that?

Every time I sit down to write a blog post, those are the weird little things I question. It takes me forever to write one because each time I wonder, "Is that how I did it last time?"

All through college - and for the 4.5 years since I graduated - I've written in AP style; however, I don't love AP style for blogs. I generally like each word in my title to start with an uppercase letter. I like my links bold.

Would I be a total freak if I made myself a document to refer back to? Yes? Oh well - I'm probably going to do it anyways!

What little idiosyncrasies bother you on your own blog or when you read others?

Bellie's First Birthday Party!

In mid-December, our sweet little girl turned one! I honestly cannot believe she's a year old. I know everyone says it, but the first year flies by.

For her birthday party, we had a Very Hungry Caterpillar-themed party. The hardest thing (to me) about planning a baby's birthday party is the timing. She naps at 9am and again at 1pm, so a middle of the day party isn't an option. She also goes to bed at 6:30pm, so an evening party is out of the question. Because of the sleep schedule, her party started at 3pm. A little odd, but she wasn't cranky, and that was most important to me.


I didn't take pictures of the snacks, but we had some yummy foods! I made Jenna's Sin Dip, and it was the biggest hit of the party!


Here are some pictures of sweet, sweet Bellie!

I made a very hungry caterpillar! (So proud of my creative side!)

Sweet Bellie with her birthday hat.

Don't judge me on this pic!

I made a fat caterpillar, and my mom destroyed him. :(

My friend Sara and her little boy William came and partied with us! (Look at Bellie checking him out!)

She was not playing around with that cupcake!

So proud of myself...

So, I realize it's only Jan. 3, but...I have posted everyday this year! Haha, we'll see how long this lasts!

Anyhow, great progress is being made on the house! Mr. Business is an insurance agent, and he works only from referrals - meaning, he gets his customers from referral sources such as mortgage brokers, realtors, painters, networking groups, etc (versus internet leads or cold-calling). So normally when we have to have something done on our house, we use someone from one of his networking groups or one of his customers.

However, since we are having so much done on the house and since we're sticking to a tight budget, we decided to look to the interwebz for an inexpensive painter. And boy, did we find one! We found this guy named Josh from Craigslist, and he has been incredible. His price for scraping the ceiling was half of what our other guy quoted us! He and his crew started scraping the popcorn ceilings yesterday morning, and by last night, they were done!

Living Room Ceiling Scraped

Family Room Ceiling Scraped

 Please excuse the bad iPhone photos! (It's really, really hard to take a good picture when you have a teething toddler squirming in your arms!)

So, have any of y'all ever seen them remove popcorn ceilings? Yeah, neither had I. They basically take a hose, and spray the ceiling with water. It's crazy. Then they use these huge spatulas, and scrape the bubbles down. It is a dirty, dirty, dirty job. And I am so glad these men are taking care of it for us!

Right now, they're at the house painting the ceilings a pretty white. I cannot wait to get back over there and see how it looks!

Before photos: bottom floor of the new house

Okay, one last post of before photos! Here is the bottom floor and the basement!

So, we'll start out in the kitchen. See the staircase to the right?

This is the view looking down that staircase.

The first door on the left is the utility room...nothing special here.

The first doorway on the right is the fourth bedroom.

And across the hall is this great bathroom....where we're keeping the wallpaper...for now.

At the end of the hallway is the family room. This is the view looking towards the back of the house.

And the view looking towards the front of the house.

Did you notice the hanging light fixtures in the last two pictures? They were once the home for these...beauties?

If you go back to the utility room, there's a special - almost hidden - staircase.

Which leads to this basement!

The rest of the basement!

 

 

 

 

So, that's the rest of the house! The painters started this morning; they're at the house now removing the popcorn ceilings today and tomorrow, and they'll begin painting Wednesday!

I hope y'all have had a great start to the New Year! Anyone do anything fun?

New house photos: upstairs

In the upstairs of the house, we have three bedrooms and two bathrooms. Want to see pictures? Hope you said yes, because here they are!

So we're standing in the entryway again, and we're going to head up the stairs you see on the right.

Here's a view looking up the stairs.

The first door on the right will be Bellie's room. She's been napping here in her pack 'n play while we meet with painters etc.

On the left, directly across from Bellie's room is a bathroom - with two linen closets! (Yay! I love storage!) Do you see that blue countertop on the back right?

Stepping further into the bathroom, you'll see the shower. How about all that tile? It's straight from the 1960s, and we're just thankful the tile is neutral and not pink or blue...because it's going to stick around for a while!

Our bedroom is on the back left of the hallway. We each have a closet on the right hand side of the room. (I should have taken pictures of those...)

And the master bath. Again with the tile...and it's sticking around too.

The third bedroom is accessed at the end of the hall.

So, that's the top floor of the house. Even though we don't have any walk-in closets, I love all the storage space we have! And I love the wood floors - we all have horrible closets, so wood floors are a big plus for us. (I grew up in a historic house, so I only like real wooden floors, which made house-hunting a slight nightmare!)

Tomorrow I'll share the bottom floor of the house! :)

 Oh, and Happy New Year!