Were in...finally

It has been a long 2 weeks. I've never cleaned so much in my entire life. Spring cleaning in aout 5 days in a house where I don't think they've ever cleaned in at least 6 months.
So I've shown you some before, well you can't clearly see the dirt but you get the idea.
Now let me show you what some paint and some good furniture can do. This place had potential and now it's starting to shine. A bunch of boxes left to unpack, the garage is full and still have to paint the bathroom and over the summer I'll strip wallpaper from the kitchen to repaint but here is what it has gotten to so far.



1. living room
2. my room
3. Doug's room
4. Brian's room

call me Cinderella

1. dining room
2. Brian's room
3. living room
4. view out my dining room door
5. my room


I've cleaned so much that I've used 3 full bottles, large bottles of Pine Sol. I've never EVER cleaned so much before in my life. I've done spring cleaning in a week to 10 days time.

I'm adding some before pictures so you can see what I have been trying to clean. Nope it's not even done yet.

Moving Day

Moving Day is Sunday.
We've been painting, cleaning, cleaning and painting to no end and moving day is almost upon us.
We've been working so hard at the new house that we've let the packing at the old house get backed up. At least we have one extra week to pack up extra stuff, move it and do a quick cleaning.

I'm still under a load of stress, but each day, as things get closer I figure there's not much I can do about it so I must just deal with it and get it done.

I'm going to be offline and will be dying without my girlfriends for support but the cable guy comes to reinstall cable and internet on Monday. Thankfully a long holiday weekend!

My next post will be from my new house. Until then...toodles!

{{{{{Stressed}}}}}

I am usually pretty capable of dealing with stress. I can usually find something that will just help me get rid of it. Sometimes I vent, yell, or go for a walk. I just got through blowing off some steam by yelling at the boys about their lack of participation and effort in trying to keep the little things maintained, like the dirty dishes being rinsed out, but my stress level is still freaking me out.

I swear I feel like I'm running on empty. I have no energy. I have no motivation. I have TONS to do. Tuesday I worked, went to class, then went to take a look at my new house. Wednesday, worked, meeting after work, then went straight to the new house. My mom came to help us a bit, and together we scrubbed cabinet doors and drawer fronts, I vacummed out the drawers and cabinets, took out the shelves so they are ready to wash and put shelf liner on. Then after my mom left I cleaned the toilet and scrubbed all the walls in the living room. Those walls are ready to paint. I have all the other walls to wash, cabinet insides to wipe out, painting, packing, and about 750 other things to do.

Tonight I came home, straight home. There isn't much to eat here for dinner. Don is spackling tons of nail holes at the new house tonight. I came home to do about 10 loads of laundry...nope not done either. I also thought that between laundry I could catch up on my classwork...about 75 pages of reading. Nope, can't even focus to read. Hearing the television on is nagging at me. I have no desire to do much at all. I should sit and try to finish my scarf I'm crocheting but don't know that I could even focus to do that. I would like to sit and watch ER only for the fact that Carter is returning tonight. I've missed most of last season and all of this season but saw a commercial that Dr. Carter returns. He's about the only reason I continued to watch a while ago but now it's so different I don't like how they are writing for the characters now. It's not like the old days.

I sit here and finish my computer therapy and have just been asked to rate how good my son's old tennis shoes look. Obviously cleaning his tennis shoes is more important than finding pens and pencils that he needs for school because the teacher sent me an email. The shoes are more important than unloading the dishwasher that I had asked him to do. I think that anything is going to just irritate me tonight. I should just curl up in bed with my down comforter and the dogs. They are a little more tollerable tonight than the tv or the kids.

I need some stress relief...either that or a magic lamp and a genie that will nod his head and transform my new house completely and pack and move my old one.

CALGON TAKE ME AWAY!!

A Rare treat!

Any time I can get Doug to take a picture and he smiles,
that's a treat!
Any time I get to take a picture of Brian, Mr. Photogenic,
that's a treat!
Any time I can get a photo of both boys and me together,
that's the RARE TREAT!

I swear my kids are so handsome! Yes I am biased!
I can't believe they are so big. I mean, old.
They are getting old and growing up so fast.
It doesn't bother me that they are getting so tall, that's a good thing.
Volleyball players need to be tall!
It does amaze me that it's been over 16 years.
I wish I knew then what I know now.
These boys would be so much smarter.
I guess being a teacher now, tells me what they should have been practicing for years with me instead of just in school.

But hey...if it weren't for them I would have never gone into teaching.
I should be thankful for that. I have learned a lot from these two, I just hope they say one day, I learned a lot from my mom.

D&B I love you!