As Happy as I Choose to Be

What was I thinking? Mice?!?

Our neighbors', Kenny and Ellie, daughter graduated high school and is moving out.  She's not taking her mice with her and they gave us the option to take them.  Bailee SO wanted to...so we have now adopted 2 mice.

I guess as mice go they are cuter than most (not white with little pink eyes).  We went cage shopping and found them a 2-story condo with a wheel that is mostly silent.  Compared to the fish aquarium they'd been living in...it's like going to visit Mickey Mouse at Disneyworld for the mice. 

Still..they smell!  Bailee is enthralled and wants to carry the cage from room to room around the house.  I can only stand the smell so much so am going to have to insist they stay in her room and her room only.  Seriously...what was I thinking?!?!?!?!?!

Ready for School?

What a hoot! Last week I walk into her room one morning to find she had put on her clothes under her nightgown in order to save time in the mornings.  We've started a Chore list since school started in order for her to earn an allowance.  Initially the chore list is some basics we need to just be more organized until hopefully we have better habits formed.

One of these nighttime chores is picking out her clothes for school the next morning the night before (eliminate one fight in the morning anyway). So this morning when I go to wake her up I see that she apparently slept in her school clothes (different from what she had picked out last night) but in addition to that...she laid out her clothes for the next 2 weeks.  There are literally 12 different outfits (short or skirt and t-shirts) laid out in sets along every surface in her room.  Her desk. The chair to her desk. The keyboard. Her dresser.  Hysterical!  And she'll probably be upset when I want to put these back in the drawers tonight but I'm fearful we'll be right back to where we started...too many choices in the morning if they all stay out instead of just one set of clothes.  Should be an interesting discussion.

A Week to Myself...to clean house?

So Bailee is at Mom's (Nana's) this week along with her cousin Katie.  I've got just 5 days/nights really since I have to drive out to west Texas and pick them up but still...5 days that I'm trying not to squander.  Since I basically can't stand our house at this point - pig sty, messy, yuck!  And I can't blame it on Bailee because I've allowed her to make these messes and not be responsible for picking up and putting her things away...only myself to blame.  So - I've been cleaning out and up her art supply drawers, her closet, her toy boxes.  The living room will soon only have baskets of books...but no actual toys on the floor?!?!?  Oh my!  Well...we'll see if I truly get this done before Thursday.  The Good Will donation pile is growing as it the children's consignment store clothing tub.  Now I just have to actually go drop these things off before Bailee gets home and wants any of this stuff back! 

I also got a tons of scrapbooking done.  I'm finally creating a school scrapbook for Bailee based on Stacy Julian's "School of Life" design.  5 pages per grade.  Oh well...so I already broke that rule just with Preschool - but she was at Brandi and David's for 4+ years so I figure it deserves more than 5 measly pages...  I also went ahead and put together at least 2 pages for each of the years K-5th grade plus the coordinating color paper - so once I get Kindergarten and 1st Grade pages put together then from now on I should just be able to collect photos and school projects with these pages...and it won't be as much work each year!  So excited.

I've spoken to Bailee several times a day between yesterday and today.  Got to hear how she and Katie painted names on 2 of Nana's turtles and then listen to her cry about why she can't bring a turtle home (they'll crawl under the fence and be gone, honey).  I get to hear everything she ate (yes, my kid) and then there's goodnight.

• B:    Goodnight
• Me: How much do I love you?
• B:    More than anything, Bobblehead!
• Me: Sugar plum
• B:   Honey bun
• Me: Sweet cheeks
• B:    Sweetie pie
• Me: Cutie Patootie
• B:    Daffodil
• Me: Daisy Mae
• B:   Rosebud
• Me: Bright Eyes
• B:   Cupcake
• Me: Bobbie Lou
• B:  How many is that?  Did I win?

This nightly name calling is a routine/tradition for us.  We keep adding new names and Bobblehead is the most recent based on the Albert Einstein bobblehead in A Night at the Museum: The Smithsonian.

 

Homeowner Blues

I'm so worn out on things!  Too much stuff in general. It's hard to even walk through the living room floor without tripping over 5 pairs of Bailee's shoes, toys,4 notebooks + color pencils and crayons, and at least 4 bag and backpacks...and then there's all my stuff - magazines and books, my flipflops and just plain stuff.  So I'm ready to just throw things out.  But right now I'm just ready to cry...just this morning had to put in a new battery in the car plus get an oil change, the garage door (the newer one) broke a spring or coil yesterday and today the washing machine quit working during the rinse cycle of the very first load.  And a load of beach towels at that...so fun to wring out and hang out on the back porch.  Money. Money. Money.  Definitely feeling the lack of it when you combine all these expenses plus summer camp/childcare coming up and the tutoring. 

Oh well...we're still very blessed and just need to focus on that and get through the hassles of all these repairs.  The good news is that since I can't do laundry...I got to blog and work on photo editing.  Bright side to everything!

Cars and crap

Busy weekend before I headed out for DC yesterday on business trip.  On Friday, did laundry and cleaned house (my least favorite thing but can't afford a house cleaner anymore), haircut and highlights on Saturday morning and Linda (college roommate) called Friday night.  She was in town to check on her son at UT who has mono. So she came over Saturday afternoon and stayed through Sunday morning.  It was so great to see her and catch up.  I've been such a poor friend over the last couple of years though I'm committing to do much better moving forward.  Bailee liked riding in the back of Linda's convertible  ...sweet!!!!!!!!!

The other day, Bailee and I were driving behind a truck which had a flatbed behind it loaded with dirt and lumber.  Bailee was curious what they were doing and I explained hauling things for gardening or projects.  She then told me we needed a truck "for our crap".  Now granted this is my one curse word, and has been forever, and though I know I say it around her occasionally I was still a bit shocked Bailee said this.  So I asked her what kind of "stuff" did she think we needed to move around and she said "our arts and crafts"...so maybe the first "crap" was really "crafts"...who knows.  Teach me to be a little more careful.

Speaking of arts and crafts...Tracy has been re-doing her craft room and I've been advising.  So fun telling other people how to arrange their stuff.  Especially since all my stuff does have a place but is rarely in it.  My scrapbooking room is in much better shape since I took the scrapbook organizing class last spring but my actual desk is still a disaster.  Here are photos of some of my space though.  I do like how it came out.  I think yellow, green and red are such cheerful colors.

  

Off to bed.  Much to do tomorrow here in DC.  Checking out activities for our August conference plus looking at about 7 restaurants for potential dine around.  Unseasonably hot here so worn out!

Hannah Montana and kitchen clean-up

So we were able to hold off a whole week before going to see the Hannah Montana movie...and guess what?  It wasn't bad.  Bailee can actually carry a tune really well sometimes and she did a great job on "The Climb" and then standing in our row doing the Hip Hop country thing...pretty funny.  I wonder how long Bailee's Hannah-phase will last.  It honestly freaked me out to see her in a blonde wig as Hannah for Halloween this past year.  Of course the moment in the movie that got me was when Hannah was looking at a photo of herself as a little girl with her mom who had died and Bailee asked me who it was, etc.  I explained and a minute later Bailee tells me "I don't want Nana to ever die."  Me either kiddo!  What would we do without Nana?   

We're so blessed.  Mom turns 84 in a few days and still gardens 2 hours a day, volunteers at the Million Barrell Museum and is on the Friends of the Library committee.  Plus just everyday life. She has more energy than I do now!  I remember taking Mom to Germany and Switzerland probably around 1988 and we did the Eurail Pass through Austria and she kept up or was ahead of me then!  She was a lifesaver when we were in China to get Bailee.  I never could have done it without her!

So today's project was to do a major clean-up in the kitchen.  Total disaster area...no counter space to begin with and with all the stuff I leave, dump there it's awful.  The only problem?  9 hours later, 3 garbage bags full plus 1+ box of donate/garage sale and I'm still not finished!  I dread it...and have other rooms that need just as much attention.  Who would think I'd get a spring cleaning bug, but I just can't stand it anymore.  My life is feeling totally out of control so if this is some way to take slight charge of a few areas...then I guess it's worth the effort!