Kellybeans!

Back in the saddle

Posted by: Kelly on: June 4, 2009

Well, that was quite a long blog break, no?  I didn’t even intend to take a break, but that’s exactly what happened.  It’s a combination of things, really.  When I get busy, I don’t make much time to blog.  When I feel overwhelmed or depressed, I don’t really feel like sitting down to THINK and write out my feelings here.  I much prefer the “stuff my face with food and stare at my IPhone” sort of therapy. 

Besides my post on Monday to acknowledge my little boy’s birthday, the last time I updated here was in APRIL.  APRIL, for God’s sake!  I feel like I have a number of excuses, but essentially it boils down to bad time management and being busier than ever.

I’m sure you all (using the term “you all” loosely, because I am probably down to about 2 readers now, and those two are probably my mother and my sister!) will understand my lengthy hiatus when I fill you in on our latest bit of news.  We’ve put our house on the market!  Yep, our house that I love, which we built five years ago (FIVE? wow.) and poured our blood and sweat into.  So you’re probably wondering why we want to sell.  It’s a few things, really. 

  • Now that I am not working, Jason is the only person in our family dealing with a commute.  And that commute is 50 minutes EACH way.  He would really love to shorten his drive time and spend more time with us each day, and we could save money on gas and wear and tear on the car. 
  • Housing prices are SUPER cheap right now, and they are even MORE cheap as you look at homes closer to Jason’s job.  Assuming we sell our house for a reasonable price, we can actually UPGRADE for about the same money we pay right now (which isn’t even our limit when you consider our budget).
  • Now that Aiden’s bigger and we anticipate adding more kids to the family, I would love to have a bit more space.  It’s not really MORE square footage that I necessarily want.  I have simply realized, over the past five years of home ownership, how I would ideally like our “space” to be situated.  As much as I love our house, I would be so happy to have a laundry room that is double the space that we currently have.  Living rooms are fine, but we barely use the one we’ve got.  I’d much rather have a first floor study instead.  A bigger “great room” area that encompasses the kitchen/family room would be lovely.  You get the idea.  All things I didn’t know at the time we built this place.

So, we put our house on the market two weeks ago.  Enter my compulsive self, looking around the house with a critical eye and determining that EVERY. DETAIL. MUST. BE. PERFECT!  Cue obsessive organizing, closet cleaning, touch up painting, gardening, etc. etc. etc.  The bad news?  It was majorly stressful and I was exhausted.  The good news?  My house looks so great now, that even if we don’t sell it I feel happier with it than I have in years! :)

If I thought I could relax once the house was freshly painted, cleaned, and organized, well HOO BOY was I wrong!  Now that it has been listed, we have been getting tons of interest.  Which?  Great.  Fantastic.  But just imagine trying to keep a house looking “show ready” when you have ONE 2 year old, THREE dogs (two of which are a Lab and a Golden Retriever that are shedding like maniacs) and ONE cat.  Yeah, I am pretty much cleaning all the goddamned time.

And now imagine that when you leave the house for a prospective buyer to check it out… that you have to REMOVE all children, dogs, and cats from the premises.  This amounts to me jamming four animals plus one child into my poor vehicle, which quickly becomes covered in hair and reeking of animal smell.  I drive around aimlessly with my fricking TRAVELING ZOO while the unsuspecting buyer can look around the house, cleaned within an inch of its life, so that no one may realize how many dirty smelly hairy creatures actually live there.  Please dear GOD let this place sell quickly!

Then, repeat.  Repeat process about a hundred times every time the realtor calls to schedule another showing.  Sometimes with less than an hour’s notice. 

And now, you might understand why I’ve not blogged?  (Yes, you say.  Thanks for that protracted and whiny explanation, Kel).

I must say, it feels nice to be back in the saddle.  Bitching here on my blawg will probably be better for my marriage than bitching to my husband, right?

Two

Posted by: Kelly on: June 1, 2009

My little boy turns two years old today. 

You’ve come a long way, baby.

And we celebrated YOU turning TWO over the weekend.

We love you.  More than words can say.

Happy 2nd Birthday, Aiden.

Things accomplished today:

Posted by: Kelly on: April 29, 2009

  • Felt sad about my husband’s grandfather passing away.
  • Consoled husband’s mom about the loss of her ex-father-in-law.
  • Let husband take a long nap so he could sleep off some of the depression.
  • Foiled my toddler’s attempt at flooding the bathroom with an overflowing sink.
  • Worked out at the gym. Body Pump kicks my ass, and I LIKE IT.
  • Critiqued my post-baby body in the gym mirror and felt ugly.
  • Looked around at the other people in Body Pump and decided they look hot and I… am NOT.
  • Came home and ate marshmallows.  (WTF?  Why doesn’t my sadness about my appearance trigger starvation instead of overeating?)
  • Played with Aiden… made intricate tracks for his trains and stacked blocks.
  • Sang ABC’s and Elmo’s Song.
  • Decided to get on the treadmill during Aiden’s naptime.  As soon as I hit “post” I am going to eat a lean cuisine and hit the treadmill.  (Did I mention that I am currently doing the Couch to 5K running program? So far, so good!)
  • Two workouts today? YES!!  Eating badly still?  Boooo.
  • Finished this post and…. published!

Everyone has household chores they despise, right?  For example, I often hear people complain about doing the laundry or cleaning the bathrooms.  I don’t jump for joy while performing those household tasks, but I don’t mind them too much.  HOWEVER.  There’s one thing I haaaaaate.  Hate.  Cleaning the floors.  No matter how much I try, our floors are a mess.  Thanks to three dogs, one cat, and a really messy toddler, the floor is generally sticky, dirty, and covered in animal hair.  And I clean those goddamned floors once every DAY!  I just can’t win, because they get dirty and hairy again as soon as I finish cleaning, which is why that’s my most hated household chore.

Of course, I’ve never tried to sell myself as being the best housekeeper on the planet.  Actually, I am far from it.  But I am making some effort to do a better job, and I need ideas!

Head on over to my featured post at theBump.com  to find out what I’m up to… and please offer your best tips for keeping house (and sanity!)

zooooooooo

Posted by: Kelly on: April 27, 2009

I think the worst thing about getting out of the blogging groove is that it is so hard to jump back in.  I have a million things running through my head, all of which I should have blogged about at the time they happened.  Then I wouldn’t be so damn overwhelmed trying to remember what I should be writing about.  I guess I really need to schedule a time to write, rather than look at it as a luxury that I fit in when I have time.  History shows that my blog will collect dust for days and weeks while I try to fit in everything else I feel needs to be accomplished in a day.  This includes:

  • Caring for the kiddo
  • Getting out of the house with the kiddo (for the purpose of his social enrichment saving my sanity)
  • Cleaning the house
  • Bathing (if I am lucky)
  • Reorganizing areas of clutter in the house and purging unneccessary STUFF (check out www.flylady.net– I’m loving it!)
  • My writing assignments
  • Cooking daily meals
  • Sitting down to C-H-I-L-L after we manage to wrangle the boy into bed at night
  • Oh, and exercising.  Did I mention we are going on a cruise in less than two months?  Yeah, right now the treadmill MUST be more important than the blog.

But anyway… we have had some gorgeous weather here in our area, and took full advantage of it on Saturday with a trip to the Maryland Zoo.  Jason’s mom, my mom, and my wonderful 86-year-old grandfather accompanied us and we had a lot of fun!   

My little monkey (posing with a statue… not a real primate!)

The pilot, carefully navigating the airplane ride.

Feeding a giraffe.  I love giraffes.

Riding on PopPop’s scooter.

The fearless cowboy riding his turtle!

Family portrait of the ass, the cow, and the pig.  And look how far we’ve come!

Shit. Shit. Shit.

Posted by: Kelly on: April 21, 2009

Check out that post title.  That?  Is exactly what my almost 23-month old said today when he accidentally dropped his book on the floor. 

First, I had to stifle my laughter.  Then, I nearly curled up and died from the embarassment.  I mean, really, WHERE is my PARENT OF THE YEAR award?  Because I am obviously an abso-fricking-lutely AMAZING MOTHER doing GREAT things to shape the children of tomorrow.

(Shit!)

Problem

Posted by: Kelly on: April 16, 2009

Hello, my name is Kelly, and I have a problem. A big, fuc  fricking problem.

Read my latest featured blogger entry at The Bump.com, and help me fix this shitty darn problem.

Feeling better

Posted by: Kelly on: April 8, 2009

Muuuuuch better.

Spring fever

Posted by: Kelly on: April 5, 2009

My poor baby. Sick, sick, sick.

Current temperature: 103.5
Current location: sleeping in Mama’s lap.

Baby 2.0

Posted by: Kelly on: April 2, 2009

I wonder if any of you just about peed your pants when you read that title.  Too bad, I should’ve posted this yesterday as a lovely April Fool’s Joke. :)

Not pregnant yet with #2, but thinking about it.  And, as per my usual indecisive, obsessive-compulsive, controlling personality, I am having lots of trouble making a commitment to GO FOR IT!

Want to hear me blather on about the choices, the MANY CONFUSING AND LIFE CHANGING CHOICES? And my subsequent mental meltdown?  Check out my latest post as a guest blogger on the Bump.com!

Kelly’s thinking…

Am hungry. Am craving something (anything!) smothered in cheese. Am irrationally angry with Weight Watchers for denying me this glorious indulgence.

Currently Reading…

Nothing! Just finished the Twilight series and a few other books... now I need some ideas for my next obsession!

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