won-duh-ful

"Simon is a won-duh-ful boy and Daddy is a won-duh-ful Chris." Ava's newest addition to her vocabulary.

So, Juan has been over the past 2 days painting away on the trim and ceilings and doors upstairs. WHAT A DIFFERENCE already! He says that tomorrow he will do the walls...and treked in 8 gallons of my paint color. I went with Sherwin Williams Macademia. LOVE IT! It's what Stacey and Mitch used in their house for some of the rooms-so I knew it was a winner! I'm so excited. Everyday closer to being done with the nightmare of getting it sellable.
I really hope it's not on the market long. I mean, I am really sad and hating to leave our neighborhood, but the thought of having to keep the house perfect for days, weeks and *let's hope NOT* months on end makes me almost lose my mind.

It's officially a ritual for Ava's foot to randomly swell every week. The last time wasn't so random, as it was a bee sting. Today's swelling, however seems completely random. The benedryl doesn't seem to be helping at all. It's all red and slightly hued with purple and very shrekish. She seems fine. She's not even talking about it, which is huge fora 2 year old to ignore a boo boo.

Simon had his 6 month appt today with Dr. Strausser. I'm so glad she's back from maternity leave. I HATE the dr filling in for Dr. Gagner, so it was nice to get him in with Avas ped. He's doing AWESOME-of course.

table staging

so after an hour of walking around the housewares department of kohls talking to myself, and approaching random strangers to ask them for advice, this is what I ended up with as the staging for my table. It turned out to be about $5 per group, which is pretty good. My staging budget is quickly diminishing and I still have so much to do.
I need towels for my upstairs bathroom still. I also need to find some mirrors and something to put up on the walls. Oh and something to put in my landing. I am stressed out, because decorating does not come naturally to me at all. I know if I got to Tai Pan, I could find good deals, I'm just not sure I'd ever find the exit. I'd wander in circles for hours with random things that make no sense whatsoever, with the demeanor of some recently escaped mental patient. This is what I get for giving my YW leaders such a hard time when they did crafts week after week after week. This is what I get for sneaking off with Dave Biernesser to race through the woods and do nothing at all exciting, although it seemed awfully so at the time...instead of attending the activity where they covered stuff like this. KARMA!

Saturday, Nat came up and went shopping with me. It was super fun! We took Simon with us and he was a sleepy shopper for 1/2 the trip, and I'd say a fairly content, patient shopper for the 2nd half. We got lots of fun and super yummy smelly candles, throw pillows, towels etc to make the house "pop" with accent colors and flow well with a theme. She's a genius. She and Bec both have homes that look perfect all.the.time. Bec just lives freaking far. Stupid Provo. We also did a power clean, and let me tell you that you haven't power cleaned until you've power cleaned with Nat. 3 hours have never gone so fast in my entire life. Yes from 4pm-7pm we did a number on my house. We moved the TV downstairs, moved the furniture, did the kitchen....no chaos was safe. chaos? caos? mmmmmm anyway you get the point.

Pretty much I've done zilch since then. Ava loves the candles everywhere and smells them daily...dare I say "huffs" them. I ran out of steam, and well...the honest truth is the next step is the office and it is TOTAL random crap that I have no idea what to pack and how. I'm sure to lose something vital, as it's the home of our cameras and computers and software. Sure we packed the books....all 10 boxes...that was safe. Now there's just...really expensive stuff, that if anything is misplaced will automatically be my fault. I can't handle that pressure. Can't. So, little by little I throw away the garbage and move a thing or two...but I know...I know any real time spent down here will get me to the electronic hell that exists here. I wonder if I can hide it all in file cabinets....

Ava was stung yesterday. She had virtually no swelling at all, and after a dose of Ibuprofin and Benedyl, and the placing of a bandaid went about her day as usual. This morning, the foot was partially swollen. So, I gave her another dose of each, because she was scratching away at it. Then we get to....tonight. Girlfriend has shrek foot and the swelling/red is headed up past the ankle to the leg. So, I dosed her again, and I packed her in the car to take her to the doc, per Hilary and Matt's suggestion. She passed out before we were even out of Clearfield City Limits. We were only going like 5 miles...and she was OUT. So, I drew a line on where the swelling had progressed, date and timed it on her skin so if it progresses, they can see how much/fast etc. Hopefully she doesn't wake up with shortness of breath. I'm trying to be in the space between under and over reaction....not really sure that exists. I took Simon for a stroller ride tonight to put him to sleep. he'd been rubbing his eyes for like 40 minutes and fighting sleep. So I bathed him and put him in cozy Moose jammies and started on a walk. It took 20 minutes for him to give in. My little tough guy! Well...time to face the music and do something....

So we had 2 painters come to do a quote on repainting the main level and upstairs prior to putting the house on the MLS. I was hoping that we could have them come next week, and we could be on the market by the 19th, however, fall=painting season and they are both at least a week out before they can start the job. *sad face* I believe we're going to choose Juan, who did our basement. He was fast, awesome and super cheap!!!! He has a good sense of humor too.
So, my new goal--is to 1. not pout about this and 2. make sure that I use this bonus week to be sure the house is spotless, packed and easy for a painter to manuver around, as to cut the number of days it would take to do the job. Juan is a lone painter, so it may take him a week worst case scenario. I have to just trust the Lord and these pros that things will be ok. Stacey says it will be worth it to have it perfect before listing. You never get a 2nd chance to make a first impression. Maybe this means I can find time for a nap---HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA. or a laugh. speaking of laugh...Ava is so bored these days she today climbed onto the table and played "loves me, loves me not" with my vase of daisys all over the table. yeay.

die picasa. you heard me. die.

Tonight has been a particularly irritating one. It's taken me over 3 hours to get my photos from tonight's shoot to upload correctly. Picasa is really wanting to be deleted. Facebook is also uploading incredibly slow and being that I'm running on no sleep and low food intake, I'm sure there's plenty of user error going on as well. I did Ashley and Tim's photo shoot tonight. He got home from Germany on the 8th, and they are getting married tomorrow. There wasn't much time to get in engagements, but we did our best. They are going to use them to decorate at the reception. I hope they like them, because there's no time for do overs. At least I'm free.

Ok, as soon as these are up, so Ash can access them and order some for tomorrow I'm going to bed. I wish I could take tomorrow off from life, but alas, it's not possible. if you want a sneak at the engagements, check out FB.

So....to update my progress on my task list for today

I did have a busy day of Inwest work. Not hellishly crazy, but busy enough to make my lappy feel like it was going to burn through my thunderous thighs.

Commissary trip with my folks was successful.

Ava stayed dry all day, until she pooed in her Ariel undies. She hasn't quite caught onto pooping in the potty. EW! She also went down at like 6:30 and is still out as of 12:15am. Dare I admit that outloud? Chances are, her bed will be wet in the morning.

The meeting with the Dave Ramsey ELP Realtor. I was impressed...more so than I thought I would be. I wanted to vomit all over the FATCO folder he had...but somehow managed to choke back all my hatred for them and focus on being courteous. (but really, he knows I work for Inwest title....do you HAVE to bring that garbage into my house?) I'll be sure to hand off some Inwest Folders should we meet again. Chris and I were 99% positive we'd list with Nancy, but Nate had a lot to offer, and made one heck of a presentation. He gave us referrals for a painter and cleaner, and we're far more torn than we expected to be. Prayer and much thought to come. I kind of want to cry. I have no idea what to do. Chris has gone into the land of denial. He doesn't seem to grasp the fact that we have 1 week to get the house ready to list. ONE week. And maybe a good 30 days of great weather left before the weather and market get cold. I kind of want to grab him by the shoulders and scream AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH HELP ME!!!! but, instead, I put that insanity to work organizing.

The office was my main task of the day. Oh dear office. We packed up 10 boxes of books, and logged which books were in each box-a Chris mandate-so that he can find a book should he need a specific one. 10 boxes later, and there are still probably 2 boxes worth of books still needing packed. A box of DVDs as well. This office doesn't look any less insane than it did a few hours ago. Winegars manager told me if I come out about 10am, that I can have their boxes before they dump them. Hopefully, with some larger boxes, I can make great progress. I got the downstairs bathroom packed up-sans essentials etc extra toilet paper...and hair/tooth brushes.

Simon had a hard day today. He's had some issues with digestion the last couple of weeks. We recently tried prune juice, but he doesnt' drink more than 1/2 ounce before quitting. I finally asked Chris to administer a blessing to help calm and ease his pains. He fell asleep soon after. He'd been fussy the majority of the day, and hadn't been able to nap at all due to discomfort. His ped. is on maternity leave, and Ava's ped is only on days, so getting into her is a 3 week wait. The doc they have covering Simon's is not someone I'd want to take my kid to ever again.

Ok, well...I'm going to shower. Brush my teeth. And hopefully, relax enough to sleep. I'm so tense about getting things packed so we can paint and photograph......I can do this!

labor day

Today, being labor day, we worked our butts off! We picked up Becca's old bed frame from Sandi's shed. It needed a good power wash, as it's like 20 years old, but looks FAB! in Ava's room. Thank you sweetheart for setting that up. The day consisted of...

• tearing down wall paper in both kid rooms
• organizing both kids' closets, sorting out clothes that are too small
• vacuuming
• throwing away all those tiny annoying pieces of trash that seem to collect in kid rooms.
• scrubbing down the kitchen cupboards with special oil
• scrubbing the front door and entry walls to free them of ball point pen
• sorting the kitchen cupboards
• organizing the kitchen pantry

oh and a few hours hanging out at Granni's house to celebrate Labor Day with Granni, Bec, Trav, Bryant. Ava fell asleep at Grannis, and stayed there during most of the above tasks. Thank you Sandi, for giving us that Ava-free time. It helped us be able to accomplish SO much in her room.

Tomorrow's agenda...

• Returning to Work-Melissa has had her baby, so I expect this area of life to get way more stressful.
• Lunch date with my Dad to the commissary to buy baby food at a discounted price tax free. Yeay for having a retired Major daddy! Years of no daddy weekends finally pay off. ;)
• Meeting with the Dave Ramsey ELP for our area for an interview to see if he or Nancy is going to be our Listing Agent. I really love Nancy. She's THE super star. We'll see how the ELP measures up.
• More packing and cleaning. My next target zone is Chris's office. Let's see if by the end of the day...all agenda items would have been successfully checked!

I need to send a special thank you to my sweetheart for putting up with me the past 2 days. I'm a very big go-go-go when I get the green light, and have been non-stop on getting the house ready to put up on the MLS. He's been so sweet, and patient with me.

FREE!!

So, we have this computer desk that we bought before we did the basement. Now, we have a totally awesome desk, and don't really use this. If you want it, please come and get it. No charge. It's in pretty awesome condition. Already put together even. Thanks!

grease up them elbows...

This Saturday was KK's party. It was so much fun. We met at Copperton park for hotdogs, presents, cake and play time. We raced home to meet with super star Realtor, Nancy Watkins. She walked through our home with us, giving us suggestions on what we need to do to get it market ready. Chris wants to be able to cut hours at work to attend full time school next year, so we'll be needing to move. My income cannot support us while living here in this house. We've loved our time here, but in order for Chris to be able to move on with his education and career, we need to move on from our home. We got some great suggestions. I have lots of elbow grease ahead of me, starting yesterday! ;0) It's incredibly scary, but we know it's the right move--no pun intended. If anyone knows how to replace a Formica counter top, and you'd like to share your wisdom...it's welcome! Aside from paint, the countertop is the only thing we need to replace. I put new curtains up on the back door, and WOW what a difference. They are black out ones and the kitchen is SO much cooler this morning. Thank you Hilary for the reference to Eclipse curtains at Wal*Mart. They were 1/2 the cost of everywhere else-even overstock.com

Ew I just found 4 bites on the under part of my bicep. Yeay for weeding my driveway.