Well, I've done nothing! yahoo! lol I have lots of info to process and it makes me shut down a little... Found out that we have a community mail box which the previous owners didn't leave a key for, of course. So, I emailed Canada Post to ask about getting a key, etc.

 

Because we're not getting ANY mail (we've already started forwarding it to the new place), I found out this morning from another daycare mom that because I worked the past 12 months, I'll get a $900 bonus in Dec! woohoo!!

 

More house news... the water is off right now. I'm so happy Andrew got quite a bit done last night. He moved their old fridge out (we're going to use ours since it's in better shape.) Well, it looks like water leaked out of the water dispenser hose at some point so th eoutside of a cupboard has rotted wood. Yippee! augh

 

Timmy is just waking up from a 2 hr nap. I should have napped too. augh Instead, I just relaxed...

 

Now, I'm not sure what I want to do. It's so freakin' cold out there, i dont' want to go out. With the water off, that may cause some issues. I may just have a day here and pack my butt off... Yeah, that sounds good. Then, tonight, we can work really hard and I can hopefully get the kitchen stuff done.

 

Going to have a bathroom break, fill up on some water and get moving here...

Welll, my plans are somewhat changing. Still haven't done much here cause I'm being a big lazy butt. Andrew's getting together a bunch of people so that's cool! But, it means we're going to order pizza for them so my supper plan will be put on hold TOMORROW.

 

Soo, here's my updated list:

 

 

Augh, i couldn't keep my eyes open so I dozed on the couch right after I ate... Timmy was VERY fussy so I had him curl up with me and once he fell asleep, I slept but it wans't a really good nap cause I'm paranoid about sleeping past the school bells. But still, I think it was about an hour of dozing and/or napping.

 

Sooo, I have 25 mins and Timmy is still napping. I'm going to quickly throw together the blueberry muffins so that they can cook and then I can turn off the oven and keep them in there so they'll be done when we get back. Off I go!

wow you are such an old hand at baking that you can gauge when to turn the oven off to bake muffins that way!

 

hey when you got your house inspected, was it by a professional inspector?  there may be insurance or something that covers the things he missed like the mold.  he should have caught all of that for sure.  i hate dealing with mold and mildew!

 

i had my cleaning job again today -the one i started last week with her kitchen.  i had to finish the dining area and do her family room today.  scott and i ended up going out to lunch because i got done early.  we haven't been eating out for dinner but whenever he stays home from work it's like a given that we will go out for lunch!  like all those years of cherishing any time we had with no kids to eat out have made it so we keep doing it whenever we get a chance, but nowadays we have way more chances so we need to change our habit.

 

it feels so good that tonight is a "go nowhere" night.  no scouts, no rocky appointment, no doctors' appointments, no scout appointments for scott.  i didn't fry our chicken on sunday because we decided to have meatball subs so i may even do that tonight.  the house is wrecked so i want to get it cleaned up.  it feels like the evening is endless and free but i know it'll go really fast.  chane and i just went out and bought a puzzle - we put out a 1000 piece look-a-like puzzle of a general store last monday and finished it sunday.  it was so much fun to work on all week as a family that i mentioned today i'd like another one like it and scott said he was thinking the same thing.  i let chane pick it out - he didn't help as much with the other one because it was hard but maybe he'll be more interested in one he picked out.  he did do some work on the other one tho so no matter what i'm betting he'll do some of this one.

 

feeling sleepy.  need to get myself together and work on the house.  scott may help me do a 5-minute pickup for half an hour or an hour.  we'll see.

lol, uh, not quite! They are usually pretty hard when I get them out of the oven. Today, they were a little browner than I'd like on top but taste dee-lish!

 

My bread looks beautimous! I hope it tastes the same... I totally screwed up the recipe. It was for 2 loaves but I just wanted one so I halved it but put in almost the same amount of flour. augh.

 

I have choc. cookies going right now.

 

It was a prof. inspector but his clause said he doesn't report on mold. Plus, a lot of the things he wouldn't have seen cause he didn't move the fridge or rip off the trim. Still annoying :(

 

Woohoo, enjoy your free night!! That's so cool about the puzzle. Where do you set it up and keep it out? I tried to do that with a puzzle but it was started in the summer so not a good time to try to work on one. I'm hoping to do that one now that we'll be home more (well, after we get settled in.) Have no clue where to store it though cause I've got Mr. Sticky Fingers on the loose. Plus, a cat who would play with the pieces if in his zone.

 

Man, Timmy was on the table and just scooped out some choc. cookie dough into a bowl. He came to show me and was all proud. Now, he's sitting down at the coffee table, eating his treasure. ahhh I'll have a hyper boy on my hands.

 

Ok, gotta get moving here. I almost have my spices packed up and I have a bunch of kitchen stuff. I just realized that the small office-ish room that we're making the 'book' room (it's only 5 by 6 feet or something small like that so too small for an actual office for us, way too small for a bedroom... we think it was an optional upstairs laundry room that the original owners didn't go for, obviously... maybe sometime down the road we'll do that if we stay in that place for a while.)

 

Oh yeah, to finish my thought... we're not painting that room. yeah, it could definitely use some touch ups but I actually really like the colour (a light sage green.) So, I'm hoping to wipe that room down and then it has these shelves that Im' hoping to put our board games on so I'm going to bring some board games too.

 

Yikes, my tummy isn't feeling too well. Ah, gotta push through it!

Last night was NOT very successful. Timmy did end up falling asleep but only for about 1/2 hr and it was like a power nap for him. The girls had issues falling asleep. I had big stomach issues. I left with the kids around 9:30 with not too much accomplished :( Dh got some stuff done but I dont' think he got done as much as he wanted.

We ended up having a snacky supper rather than pizza since no one was able to help. So, that was good that it saved us money and health but would have been nice to have some help. Ah well.

 

Today, i went over and got the island all cleaned and shelf liner put down. I put away some of the kitchen stuff too. I have some empty boxes and laundry baskets to fill back up. I'm thinking of doing that and heading over there tonight after supper. Dh has volleyball tonight so it's just me and the kids. If my goal is to just bring stuff over and put that away plus put away the other stuff i brought over this morning, then I should be going to bed happy rather than feeling like I didn' tget my unrealistic list done.

 

Ugh, I'm so irritated. I know it's cause I'm stressed and exhausted. Really, I should have taken off more time not because I feel like doing daycare holds me back cause I really dont' think it has in regards to the moving process but because I dont' want to deal with other people's kids. Sad, eh? Heck, I'm not sure I even want to deal with my kids lately! Maybe I can close my eyes and wake up to a perfect, put together house with us all moved in, all the repairs and painting done and the rental house cleaned and keys returned. bahaha

 

It's almost time to go get the kids. Gotta change Timmy and clear off the dr table. Then, try to figure out how I'll survive the next 2 hrs. Plus, get my supper all ready and cooked, squeeze in packing up stuff to take tonight and keep the kids busy and out of trouble.

How did your beautimous bread turn out?  Would less flour make it more dense or the opposite?  MMMM chocolate chip cookies.  You are amazing!  I would really like to bake more but I just make too much of a mess.  Plus then we'd eat even more!  I was in a mood on Sunday and baked a yellow cake (mix) with chocolate icing which is Scott's favorite and he ate almost the whole thing.  And the cupcakes for Scouts (also a mix) and we finished off the leftovers.  Plus two batches of Rice Krispie treats and we ate all of those too.  :-(  And that wasn't even real baking - imagine if I made yummy stuff all the time?  Of course we buy junk a lot too but if it comes in a package I can rubber band it and put it away - somehow I never seem to get the baked goods into the freezer and everyone thinks that having them sit there in their pan is a license to eat all they want.

 

We set it up on the dining room table - it's on one end and we've been scrunching to eat on the other.  Actually last week was like summer weather here so we ate outside most nights.  We wouldn't be able to do one if we had a kid Timmy's age though.  Even two or three years ago Chane would have been messing with it too much.  Put it on your list for one of those things to do when the kids are growing up and you feel like you are starting to lose touch with them a little!  It's fun to be able to do big kid things with mine but I miss the little kid stuff too.  Anyway this time I put it on a card table with the legs folded up on the end of the dining room table so we can move the whole thing if we need to.  This one doesn't look like it will be a much fun but since I asked Chane to go with me to pick one out at Walmart I had to go with the one he picked.  The Look-A-Likes one we did was very cool - have you ever seen Look-A-Likes?  Braeden has a book of them.  She makes these diorama-type scenes out of tiny things that look like other things - like the chair was made out of a piece of melba toast and a comb with 4 chess pieces for legs.  It was a whole general store with lots of things like that.

 

LOL on timmy and the cookie dough.  He sounds like a little scamp.  I get the "power nap" thing - my kids used to do that in the car during naptime.  If I didn't get them home in time and they accidentally fell asleep in the car, even if it was only for 3 minutes, they couldn't go back to sleep.  I used to be making all this noise just to keep them up.  Somehow a tiny bit of sleep revs them back up.

 

That's a neat idea for the room - maybe one day it can be a tiny nook office for the kids to do homework or a private little space for you.  Although an upstairs laundry room would be really nice to have - does it have the plumbing running up to it?

 

I would totally not able to get anything done with all those kids.  Isn't there anyone who can help you?  Even if it's just an older kid that can entertain them all while you are working with you still in the house so if something happens you're there?  I hired a teenager once to play with my kids while I was working on renovating something.  I felt like they were too young to have a teenager babysit them since I think Chane was an infant but just having her in the house for juice and entertainment was a lot of help. 

 

I have another cleaning job today.  One of my regulars.  And the woman whose house I cleaned two days ago - the one who I'm doing heavier cleaning jobs for - emailed me and asked me to come back next Wednesday to do her two bathrooms upstairs.  I haven't seen them yet so I don't have a plan but she did say something about tile.  I don't really know how to clean tile so hopefully she won't be disappointed since I told her I'm really good at kitchens and bathrooms.  So far she's paid me $140 for 9.25 hours of work.  I'm going to casually mention this new job to the people I clean for today - maybe they would want some heavier cleaning done.  Whenever I clean for them I always want to do more like wash their doors and baseboards but I hold myself back since that is not my job.  I do usually do extras if I have time like pumice out their toilet rings since they have water that leaves pinkish rings, or I'll magic eraser things and have done stuff like taken goo gone over to get rid of the stickers that were peeling off their vanity from when it was installed.  I'd love to do some real cleaning for them but I don't think they care much - the house is nice and decorated nice and they are neat and clean people but I don't think they care much about deep down which I actually find more with people who are neat.  The woman I've been doing heavy cleaning for had gunk in her refrigerator vents that had to be building up there for years.  If I could ignore that kind of thing in my house I'd probably be happier and more able to keep things surface clean!

 

I need to go pack for this job - I haven't even unpacked from the last one.  I just put the rags in from that one before I came down and I'll need to dry them real quick before I leave.  Hopefully I won't need to stop at the store for anything - I think I have enough of my regular supplies like Mr. Clean but am not sure...

I'm tired!

 

My parents stopped by this morning when my house was at the height of messiness.  I'm not sure how it happens so quickly - Tuesday night we all worked together and got the first level totally picked up and nice.  By Thursday morning the entire first level was so trashed I was even embarrassed in front of my own parents.  It took me only about 10 minutes to get it all cleaned up not including dishes - it just looks so bad!  We really need to start learning how to be neater in our messes, know what I mean?  Maybe instead of trying not to make messes I'll try to focus on that!  Things don't have to be thrown and tossed every which way - they can be laid down more neatly.  Still in the wrong place but not as embarrassing!

 

My mom brought a bunch of clothes over for the kids that she bought at a yard sale this morning.  I still haven't had a chance to go thru them.  I stopped what I was doing when they left and spent 10 minutes straightening up.  I need to do that more regularly - just spend 5 or 10 minutes picking up or reminding the kids to.  Not that it was really their messes - I don't even really know it happens.  They are getting better about their messes but I don't think I am!  Anyway then I had to run to my cleaning job and was late but that's okay because I don't think the people care all that much when I get there - it's not like they're paying me based on when I get there and they are comfortable enough with me after 3 years that they come and go and don't feel a need to be there when I am. 

 

I did a lot of extra cleaning for them and wore myself out.  I spent about an hour washing doors and baseboards and also made sure I vacuumed every heat vent with the brush attachment as well as being more careful about dusting and stuff.  They probably won't even notice it but they are nice people and pay me a lot so I figure even if they don't notice it, I will and I'll feel better about the times when I only spend 3 or less hours there.   Today took me about 4.5.  Then I got a quick bite to eat (I spent $2 at Wendy's which was bad but I was exhausted and as usual figured food should be my reward altho a reward for what I don't know - cleaning other people's houses when my own is dirty?!!).  Got home just in time to get cupcakes in the oven to decorate tonite and bring into school tomorrow (my witch cupcakes I've done before - I'd like to be more creative but am slowly learning that it's okay to repeat things - the kids will still love them and I've never done them for Chane's class I don't think so these kids have never even seen them).  Then I took a shower while they were baking and picked the kids up with dripping hair.  Rushed to Braeden's eye exam and was 5 minutes late - when I made the apptmt I told them no way I could be on time so she said just rush as fast as you can - well we get there and of course end up waiting another 20 minutes while I listen to Chane chant over and over about how hungry he is (as my responses didn't help "Well Chane, maybe if you keep whining about starving the ceiling will open up and some food will fall down" which doesn't help anything but makes me feel better anyway).

 

Braeden has to wear glasses.  Which makes me sad because I'm sad whenever my kids have something wrong with them but he'll look cute in them and doesn't mind.  So that's $90 for today's exam, plus whatever the glasses will cost.  Probably $300 for his filling 3 weeks ago - haven't seen that bill yet.  $100 for Angel kitty's first vet visit plus God knows how much for her shots and I need to get Sami's boosters at the same time.  I look outside and see the trampoline tarp is totally shredded - it has to be replaced every 2-3 years and is $100 to buy a new one.  Then there's the dishwasher and trick-or-treat costumes etc etc.  Everything just sucks money out of our pockets!  Not that we'll be replacing the dishwasher or probably even the trampoline tarp or anything else anytime soon but all this stuff costs money and isn't even any fun except the costumes.  Being an adult stinks sometimes! :-)

 

Speaking of money I need to get the van cleaned up and relisted - this time I'll try vehix.com since it's free.  The payment is $100 a month which we can definitely use elsewhere. 

 

Gonna go fry chicken for dinner.  Finally - I could just put barbecue sauce on it and bake it for less work and less mess but I've been wanting it fried.  So I'll make mashed potatoes (Chane and I say "mashed-ter-taters" which doesn't sound so good LOL but he doesn't know any better) and crescent rolls and veggies for a family-style dinner.  Just finished the dishes so its' time to go dirty up some more!  And I have to remember to keep checking on Braeden - his eyes are dilated so he hasn't been able to do his homework yet.  Or anything else really - he's wandering around whimpering...