Kellybeans!

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?