I am in Love!

I am in love with this house!

We have been flirting with the idea of upgrading for a few years now, but we just never find "the house".  We have a pretty nice house now, so it is hard to find one bigger and better in a great neighborhood, then we give up looking.  Recently, my husband started looking again.  I gave him my typical response, the eyeroll.

But this time he did it.  He found a wonderful house on a wonderful street and it is just all sorts of wonderful!  Now comes the  hard part... buying it.  It costs money. There's always a catch isn't there?

We got pre-approved for a loan on the assumption that my husband won't ever get a pink slip. Maybe he should start teaching math! Math teachers never get fired! Then we put an offer on the house. We made the first offer and there haven't been any others, so hopefully the seller's bank will accept it. It is a short sale so negotiations are at the mercy of the bank.

It's such a rigged game.  Buying a house, especially a short sale house, is really tricky.  You have to have your timing just right, have just the right realtor and listing agent pairing, and you have to remember that not all houses on the market are really up for sale.  A lot of realtors and/or banks have the buyers hand picked already.  We're just hoping that we finally are the chosen ones.  Time will tell.

Apparently, with a short sale, waiting is something we'll have to learn how to do well. Not sure why they take so darn long, but it is common for a short sale to take 6 - 8 months to change hands. Let's just keep hoping that we'll be moving into that beautiful house in 6 months or so!

The house is a 5 bedroom, 3 bathroom with a beautiful back yard.  The back and one side is bordered with a wooded walking path. Very nice!  The kitchen has the worst countertop, ugh, the popular small white tiles.  I have no idea why that style countertop is so popular for kitchens around here.  Who wants a zillion grout lines in their kitchen?  Not me!  I spill my coffee once in a while!  I got new countertops, stovetop, sink and faucet for Mother's Day and I told my husband if we get this  house we'll have to have Mother's Day again.  Otherwise, I love it.

The part of the house that was really important to me is the laundry room.  Who would have ever thought that a laundry room would be so darn important?  But, it is. Right now my washer and dryer sit in a small breezeway between the house and garage, which is very close to the front door.  When I do laundry (daily) I am in this tiny little space with the machines, the two doors both open into the laundry area, and my mountain of dirty laundry is piled right by the front door.  It never fails, someone will knock on my door the day I decide to catch up on laundry.  Knock. Knock.  Hello, come in. This is my pile of dirty laundry.  ugh, drives me crazy!  And this is why I want a laundry area that has elbow room and isn't right by the front door or in the busy traffic lane.

The house is only a mile and a half from where we currently live. Wish us luck!  I have no idea when we'll know anything other than "maybe" which is all we know now.  The realtor said not to get my hopes up too much and to have a plan B.  Ummm, did you see that place?  My hopes are UP, baby, UP! 

7 Diaperless Days!

7 Diaperless Day and doing Doing GREAT!

Last Wednesday evening, we were all sitting at the dining room table doing puzzles and Libby hopped down off of her chair and said "I gotta go potty!"  Her pink potty was in the living room and she yanked off her jammies and her pull-up (aka diaper, those aren't fooling anybody!) and peed on her pink potty! Ever since that moment, she's been "potty trained"!

Today, Libby told me "diapers are for babies". She's doing so wonderfully! We've been on several outings without diapers too.

This isn't to say we've not had any accidents, but for the most part she is doing really well! She hasn't figured out pooping yet. I am praying she does that soon. I'm sneaking a diaper on her after she falls asleep at night and she takes it off first thing in the morning. It's wet though so I'm not ready to give that up just yet. Especially because she sleeps with me!

She refuses to go on the white Baby Bjorn potty that we have at home. I have been carrying the little Ikea pink potty around with me everywhere, up and down the stairs, in the van, in the stroller basket, etc. Also carting around a bag full of panties, leggings, dresses, socks, shoes, and baby wipes.

I went to Ikea to buy more pink potty chairs, but that didn't work out as planned. She is partial to pink. Ikea now has green and red potties. What were they thinking!!! The green is the ugliest color of green too. Uggghhhhh. After I stifled my mini-meltdown in front of the potty display, I got one of each and hoped they would catch pee as good as a pink one. Turns out, they both work fine. Right after we paid for the potties I took her to the restroom in the store and placed them on the floor. She planted herself on the green potty and went! The green one came into the house and became the upstairs potty chair. The red one stayed in the van and became the picnic potty. She used that one at the park. Today she went potty on the tiny baby flush toilet at the mall in the family bathroom. That little toilet is just the cutest! Wish we had a tiny flush toilet in the house, wouldn't that be nice?

Now that she is wearing panties, her pants don't fit. Her jeans sag like a wanna-be toddler gangster. Not cool. So, we are sticking with dresses and leggins. I had to stock up on tiny panties and the smallest I can find are 2T. They are a little large on her but after I wash and dry them, they shrink to the right size.

I find it just amazing that she just decided to be potty trained and that was that.  I'm really happy about it though! Goodbye, Diapers!

I Should Find Something to Do

I love the lull of January.  Holidays are over, and there's nothing to do.  So relaxing!

I promised myself I would read 12 books this year.  I really let that go in 2010 and I miss my lone reading time.  So far, I've read three pages in two different books. I don't have anything else to do so I should be able to finish a book soon and get back into the swing of things.

I have my serger packed up and ready to haul across town to have it looked at.  I don't think there is anything wrong with it; I think it's me.  I have no idea what I'm doing. The ladies in the store told me to bring it in and they will help me decide if the machine needs repair or if the operator needs lessons.  I keep thinking I will get around to taking it in. One of these days when I have nothing to do, I will.

I want to finish the denim quilt I started a year ago.  It is growing, but it's just not big enough yet.  Once I get the top done, I can tie it to a flannel flat sheet and it'll be an awesome camping quilt!  It's an easy quilt since it is just squares being sewn together. Pretty sure we won't be camping until summer, so I have plenty of time. But, it's January and there isn't anything else to do.

I need to finish the Jessie costumes for the girls before they outgrow them!  I finished the pants, now to sew the embelishments onto the shirts and fix up the belts and hats, we'll be set!  Since I don't have anything to do, I'll do that.

As soon as those sewing projects are done, I can start Belle dresses and a quilt made from baby clothes.  I also have lots of sewing to do for my new grandson who will be arriving in May!

I am cleaning too.  Not sure how the garage fills up with so many boxes of random crazy mixed up stuff. But, they all need to be sorted and cleaned up. But first, I've emptied out a closet and tossed it all into boxes (which I have stacked it the garage because that's where I keep my boxes of random junk).  I can go through those boxes first and then tackle the older stack.  I'm sure most of it is trash or something for the donation bags. I wonder when the charity truck is coming around to pick up donations.  Hmmm... Probably soon and I don't have anything to do in January, so I'll get right to it.

Cleaning closets always takes a backseat to cleaning the main areas of the house.  Right now I've got my stovetop covered in soap and ready for a good scrub down.  My sink is full of dishes, the dishwasher if full too, the broom is begging to come out of the corner and the vacuum needs a good run.  Laundry is going and the trash is full.  Normal every day tidying up to do.  I will get to my other January projects when I finish my daily grind.

I also have some bills to pay, errands to run, should get to the post office and pick up a package, mail a package, shoot, I should mail my Christmas cards too before it's too late.  I have a rebate to send in, and I forgot to pay the preschool, I better do that.  We have some paperwork to do for the foreign exchange student company, oh wait, no we don't, just got off the phone with the lady and she says they've updated all of their forms and we need to redo everything we've completed thus far and fill in more forms. She says we can wait another month or two.  Cool, mark that off my list!  

I'm trying to finish up some photo projects that I started weeks ago.  I just went shopping and got a bunch of white photo frames for the girls' room.  I will fill them up with photos of the girls with Disney characters and hang them up in their room.  Poor girls have had bare walls for a long time and I really want to cheer up their room. I think that will look pretty and it'll be very cute and cheerful. I am also working on a project that will be a gift.  I promise to finish that and get it sent soon.  In fact, it's so adorable that I will get one for myself!  But first, I must sort through thousands of photos and pick just the right ones, arrange them, change my mind, begin again.  It's a fun but tedious task.  Good thing I don't have anything else to do!

I love all of this idle January time.  I've been relaxing more and playing around on Facebook, reading blogs and catching up with my favorites, and playing games.  My husband got me started with his recurring obsession, looking at local real estate. It is kind of fun to look at houses for sale. In fact, we fell in love with one that is nice and close to the high school, a hidden gem. It's just over four million dollars! Sitting in front of the computer sure makes a couple of hours pass by quickly! 

We are also going out and playing at the various parks in town.  This time of year is great for exploring the parks and playgrounds. It's not too hot to play in the parks that don't have shade.  Plus, the girls got bikes from Santa and they need good smooth flat wide sidewalks to ride on since they are new to riding.  Once they acquire some skill, they can ride on the sidewalk in front of the house, but for now the driveway approaches will knock them over, and the curbs pose a danger since the girls have not mastered steering.  Good thing we have lots of spare time.

I know, I'm just not very exciting lately.  But, that's because it is January and there is a lull in the activities of life.  We're just chillin'.  Happy New Year, everyone.  Hope you find something to do, and if you have any ideas for me to fill my idle time - keep 'em to yourself!

Old Voicemail

Every 90 days or so, my cell phone tells me to delete or save my old voicemail messages.  I usually choose to save a few gems.  Here are some of my old voicemail messages that I just can't part with:

Message from Katie Schu! Hey! Umm, yeah, its Katie. It's like right after 11 and um I just wanted to let you know that ummm  I don't think the ant guy came but I might have missed him cuz um  Me and Gracie were waiting for him at like 10:15 or 10:20   and she like exploded with poop so I had to take her upstairs and change her and it took a while and the I had to give her a bath and I kinda forgot cuz I was occupied so think I missed him but anyway call me back bye.

Message from Katie Schu! (and Gracie)
Hi Mom.
Tell her you love her.
I wuv her.

Message from Katie Schu! Hey Happy Birthday! Ummm I hope you're having fun at Disneyland right now with the girls, I'm sure you are. Ummmm I have work later today but if you get a change you can call me back before two. And ummm yeah. I just wanted to say Happy Birthday. I am waiting for the post office to open cuz they don't open here till two o'clock it's kinda ridiculous. Anyway, ummm I love you very much. Happy Birthday.  Bye.

Message from unknown caller: Hello Ms Schumacher this is ah Giovani Binae assistant principal at Mira Loma Middle School. Ahh,I was ah just told shortly ago ah that Keith was being hospitalized ah so I just wanted to call and see how he's doing and um just wanted to see if everything is ok. Um Let us know if there's anything you need. The school number is ... Thank you
(to clarify, my husband was home sick with a cold but he was not in the hospital and I was at Disneyland, not sure where this guy got his information or my cell phone number)

Message from Keith: Hey, heh, after school we had a Code Red. I wound up sitting on the floor in the library listening to dumbasses giggling. Ohhh God! Talk to ya later. Goodbye.

Message from Katie Dwyer: Heeeey!  Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you,  You're not an old lady yet, Happy Birthday to you!  Ok. It's Katie! Andrew says Happy Birthday too. And we love you hope you're having a fun time at Disneyland right now. Umm and keep those little girls happy. Give 'em kisses.  Bye!

Message from Keith:  Ok, ah, little punky song, here we go, just the chorus and just part of it:Well, I'm gonna go to school right now, I'm getting on the bus and I'm thinking of us....
Here we go, I got a chorus and now I gotta record it. Buh Bye!

Message from Katie Dwyer:  Hey!  Um, I just got done at the Fashion Valley Super Target. Oh My Gawsh! You were right, it's two stories, it has a cart escalator, ha! And it's pretty amazing. Um yeah. They didn't really have much for produce which is fine but um yeah, they pretty much had everything so yeah. I'm  heading back home now and I need to get gas. Ummm and I'll talk to you later, bye.

Toilet Paper Snowballs

She's four, she's fun, she's creative, Gracie has some great ideas sometimes. This wasn't one of them. 

They are old enough now where I can sort of wander around a bit upstairs between the bathroom and the bedrooms while they take a bath.  We just leave the bathroom door open and I'm pretty close, or I sit in the hallway (where it is carpeted and easier to sit on than the bathroom tile) and read a book. 

Last night while they took their bath I put laundry away in their room which is directly across the hall from the bathroom.  I got their room all cleaned up and by then bathtime was over.  The mermaids were all finished with their daily swim, Dora and Boots had gone down the slide in their castle, all of the dolls were clean.  Kids too.

I took the girls out of the tub and to their room to dry off and get jammies. I got panties on them, picked out their jammies and left them to put them on. I went down the hall to my room and was putting away laundry, and I can hear them giggling and playing... no big deal, right? They must be playing with the toys I just rotated to their room and they haven't seen them for months. Then I got to a good stopping spot (cuz putting away laundry is never done) and go see about getting their pajamas on them.

And that's when I find them in the bathroom in nothing but panties, the tub still had water in it (oops) and it was filled with toilet paper. The girls are covered in wet TP, walls are spotted with "snowballs" and dripping to the floor, which is soaked with water and TP, tub is full of dissolving TP, and the girls are smiling from ear to ear. We had a good idea! Toilet Paper Snowballs! It's so much fun!

The entire bathroom is wet and coated with wads of mushy toilet paper. The tub is too. There is soaking wet tp on the walls, mirror, vanity, toilet, door.... I got it toweled off of the kids pretty well, and what stuck to them has since dried up and fallen off. I didn't wash them off again.

I decided to let it dry a bit before I going up and tackle cleaning it all up. I'm going to have to pour a bunch of bleach in the tub drain so it doesn't clog. I didn't even let the water out yet. The more is dissolves the better I guess. I finally did let the water drain, now the tub and all of the barbies and toys are covered in toilet paper mush.

Today, I've been avoiding that bathroom. I just don't even want to deal with the "snow"!  I suppose I should go in there and finish cleaning it up.  Sigh.  Their room is a disaster now too.  Clothes and toys everywhere!  They are very fun little girls, but they sure are messy and they don't clean up after themselves!

They have a lot of their dad in them. I'm sure he was like this as a child. God knows, I was an angel!

Wish me luck - I'm trying to win!

I wanted to win the lottery, but that didn't work out.  Something about having to buy a ticket first.  Details!

Since that didn't pan out, I'm trying to win a contest that will give us two free tickets to Disneyland.  Wouldn't it be fun to take someone along who never gets to go?  Or go on a weekend when we are always blocked out?  I think so!  I entered to win a 2 day ticket worth $99.  Wish me luck!

I had some trouble understanding the rules though.  It says to identify the 5 new features, which are written on signs next to Mickey Mouse.  There are five of them.  But did I do that?  Nooooo...  I thought it said to identify everything.  There are 99 tiny video snippets and I was trying to name the characters, rides, exact locations of the photos... it was hard but I had 3/4ths of it!

And then I reread the rules, just to make sure I was identifying each of the 99 things in the right way.  That's when I figured out I didn't need to identify all 99 clips.  Oh Lordy.  How embarrassing! I quickly deleted everything except for hat it said on the 5 Mickey Mouse signs and hit send.  

The contest lasted for 90 minutes, ending at 6:30 and I sent my entry in at 6:20. The first 99 correct responses win. I have a Fat chance.  Actually, not a fat chance, pretty slim.  But, hey, if they offer a bonus for identifying all 99 scenes,  I might throw my hat in the ring for it! I only have a few I couldn't place (which is odd because I can't take the little kids on most of the rides).

It was fun anyway.  I had a whole hour of fun with the Disney quiz.  Since it was fun, I challenge you to do it too!  No fair cheating either!  Well, ok, some cheating, just don't overdo it.  

You can find the contest rules and the video here:
http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2011/01/so-cal-residents-enter-the-2-day-ticket-for-99-contest/

Happy New Year - 2011 Resolutions

Hmmm... what sort of empty promises shall I make to myself this year?  Lose weight? Get in shape?  Not buy any more strollers?  Oh, who knows!

I think I'll stick to resolutions that I can actually see through to the end.  Therefore....

I resolve in a conservative manner thus leaving room for chaos and craziness...

1. Read 12 books this year. 

2.  Do more sewing and get my serger fixed (or me, one of us isn't doing it right).  I'd like to end 2011 with my current PHDs (projects half done) all finished! 

3. Get my kids to school on time (most of the time).

4. Potty train and wean Libby, yes, folks, I promise to quit breastfeeding after nearly 5 years

5. Get my money's worth out of our Disneyland and Zoo passes (meaning lots of fun!).  Might even get a SeaWorld pass this year!

6. Send my 2011 Christmas cards out before Christmas

7. Do something with all of my photos and videos.  Print them, back them up, put them on dvd, make photo books, I don't know, but something!

8. Keep blogging.  I would like to archive my Momathon blog since I kept it up for three years, and I'll have to keep this one alive. Often times, I just blog mentally and never get around to actually posting.

9. I will try not to destroy or lose any of my electronic devices.  You heard that right!  Cell phone, bluetooth, camera, laptop.... I wish you all the best of health and happiness in the new year. And may you all stay out of the crevices of the furniture and survive the year! Good Luck.

10.  I can't think of anything else.  Nine resolutions is more than enough anyway.  We'll see if I can keep one or two of them.  Happy New Year, Everyone!

2008 Resolutions
2009 Resolutions