A lesson in Patience

I am so bad at waiting. I have always been REALLY bad at waiting. Sometimes my impatience pays off because it means I get to the front of the line quicker (on most occasions). I must clarify though that my dislike of waiting doesn't really mean that one could call me impatient. Depending on the subject; I am probably one of the most patient people you will ever meet. With children and the elderly I have the patience of a saint. With my own son I have so much patience that it may indeed end up biting me in the rear. But when I put my mind to something and when I have decided that I want something accomplished, I am really bad at waiting.

The most recent example of this is in the decision Charlie and I made about putting our house on the market. Poor Charlie. He always seems to get caught in the fire of it all. We decided we were going to do it and I immediately turned into a cleaning/repairing/staging monster. We had our entire house ready within 4 1/2 weeks and the list of accomplishments is incredibly long. Just to name a few; We pre-packed our home and filled an entire 10X10 storage unit, removed two doors and then repaired the frames they were attached to, added a handle to the oven door (it was broken off one day when Charlie decided he wanted to do a little dance move using the oven handle in the same way a ballerina would use a bar to keep balance), replaced the carpet at the bottom of our steps, replaced the back storm door, painted our hallway and stairwell, removed wallpaper from the guest bath, repainted the guest bath, stripped the master bathroom ceiling to make it smooth and repaint, and cleaned just about ever corner of this house. We did this all while working full time and being parents to a toddler. The list is longer (significantly so) but I think that gives you an idea of just how focused I can be when I set my mind to something.

Then we moved on to the task of looking for a new house. Although our own home hasn't sold yet we were told that it was very important that we start looking for houses now because as soon as we get an offer on our townhome we have to be ready to IMMEDIATELY make an offer on a new house. Of course that means I spend HOURS on-line looking at and reading about homes on the market. One house in particular captured our hearts immediately. The only thing that deterred me from looking at it in the beginning was that the location was not exactly what I wanted. But once I opened my mind to a different area we finally paid attention to a home that my Realtor had suggested for us MONTHS ago (before we had even decided to put our house on the market). It is beautiful, cozy, charming, unique, and perfect for us. So in fear of loosing it as the market hits it's busiest months Charlie and I made a contingency offer. Now we are waiting.

Waiting to find out if they accept the offer which gives us a maximum of three months to sell our home. This is the part I am really bad at. The sellers are out of town and won't be back until tomorrow. They want to be able to look at the contract personally before accepting anything. So we have to wait. We have to wait on them to return, look at the contract, and then let us know their decision. I just want to know right now. I understand there is no real true rush because we still haven't sold our own house but I still want to know. So I have to remind myself that I am a true believer in that everything happens for a reason. If this is the house meant for us then it WILL BE. If this is not the house God has in mind for us then it won't happen and we will be led to the right one. I can be patient. I will be patient. I have to be patient...

The adventures of home staging

So you haven't heard from me in about 2 1/2 months but I promise I have a really a good reason.  Charlie and I decided to put our house on the market.  Have you ever tried to sell a house before?  As a true HGTV junkie I consider myself an amateur professional stager (yes I realize that is an paradox but I still choose to use it) so I went into this whole ordeal with great aspirations!

We began with a VERY long list of "to do's" and knew from the beginning that we would need to hire some outside help.  We found one guy on craigslist which scared me just a little. You hear so many horror stories about people being ripped off through craigslist plus this guy was pretty rough around the edges.  During our first conversation he apologized for not being able to hear me too well but his "bird just wouldn't shut up" because "she likes to talk whenever I'm on the phone."  Randy was his name.  Randy ended up being quite the perfectionist and charged an amazingly reasonable rate although he did show up on Sunday slightly hungover and in a hurry to get home by 2:00pm for the NASCAR race.  Randy worked in our house for 2 1/2 days and charged just $200.  Would I invite Randy to join us for a family get together?  Absolutely not.  Would I hire Randy to paint another room in my house?  Without a doubt.

Then there is Bobby.  He has his own business and makes GREAT money.  He worked in our house for five full days and made $1500.00. Now Bobby's schedule stays pretty full so imagine that he makes at least that much each week.  Bobby must make about $6000.00 a month.  This just confirms it.  If I ever remarry, a prerequisite will definitely be that he must know how to fix things.  Would I invite Bobby to join us for a family get together?  Without a doubt.  Would I hire Bobby to paint another room in my house?  No...I will call Randy!

So while working full time and being essentially a single mom half of each month I somehow managed to get it all together.  My husband was a little help but...bless his heart.  I now refer to him as the Amelia Bedelia of men.  He tries to fix things; he really does but somehow he ALWAYS finds a way to make it worse.  I kept leaving task for him that would involve no power tools or innovation of any kind.  For some reason he chose to ignore my list and instead tackle the large jobs that inevitably led to more jobs for Randy or Bobby.  Living through this experience with Charlie made me realize just how much he is NOT like my dad!  I do love him dearly though.

Now we just have to keep it perfect for lord knows how many months while we wait for someone to come along and make it possible for us to find our "dream" home.  Or...our "meets the needs" home since really our dream home will probably always remain right where it is...in our dreams!  LOL  Now that my life it back to normal I can blog again. Yay!

I will keep you all updated. (although "y'all" is an official contraction in the dictionary I still can't bring myself to use it in my writing, it just feels wrong!)  

     

Obsessed

My friend has turned me into a monster! After being influenced by her obscene sense of perfection I have become obsessed with making sure all of Jackson's toy parts are being kept together.  For the past three days we (Jackson and I) have spent the majority of our time just sitting at home and he has thoroughly enjoyed taking EVERY SINGLE toy off the shelf and out of it's designated home and placing it somewhere else in the house.  Each night after he is asleep I have gone downstairs to put everything back where it belongs.  Before, I would have simply gathered all the toys and their scattered parts up by the handful and placed it all in a basket or just haphazardly on the shelf.  Now however, everything has to be together!  I just spent the last thirty minutes looking for one half of a plastic egg, a blue plastic cup and two wooden balls.  The plastic egg was found in the guest bathroom in the sink (I guess he must have reached up on his tip toes and dropped it in there!), the blue cup was on the dining table (I had forgotten that he had it in his hand at dinner time so when I took it away I just put it on the closest surface), one wooden ball was under the stove which prompted me to fetch the broom in order to sweep the ball out.  This inspired me to do the same under the fridge which quickly produced all the missing pieces to his magnetic car thingy that attaches to the front of the fridge door and plays very loud and annoying music. Since I had considered all the missing pieces a loss cause I bought him a new magnetic fridge thingy for Christmas, so now we have TWO loud, musical thingy's on the fridge! The other wooden ball is still MIA and I fear that I will be unable to sleep peacefully until it is found and returned to it's rightful place.  Thanks a lot Jessica!;)

BTW:  For those of you who did not see my Facebook update...Jackson said "I love you" today for the first time!  He said it three times just like this: "I la ew"


“We are so obsessed with doing that we have no time and no imagination left for being.”
--Thomas Merton

Christmas memories

Wow, what a crazy couple of weeks! Since my last post I made it through the last two days of school (before break) which I can tell you was not an easy feat.  A room full of overanxious first graders makes for a very interesting and quite tiresome adventure.  Add the first snowfall of the winter on top of that and you have yourself quite a mixture for pure chaos! On that last day before break I was reading a story out loud to the class when one student raised his hand and says "Ummm...it's snowing outside."  I paused and then looked at the handful of parents who were standing around the room and could easily see out the window (unlike myself) and asked "is it really snowing?" They all said yes and before I could take my next breath the entire class had dashed to the window to begin their song of "eews and ahhs".  From that point on it was just a matter of keeping order until it was time to go home! The good news was that the snow meant we were dismissed early and I had plenty of time to clean my room and get it all ready for the new year!

The snow was beautiful and amazing...it's been a long time since I can remember seeing so much white, fluffy, and soft snow!  Jackson was not impressed at all, I am not sure if he disliked the snow or all the clothes I made him wear.  Maybe next year he'll enjoy it more.  So for the next several days I shopped, wrapped, cleaned and took care of unwanted but necessary chores (like groceries and oil changes).  Then Christmas Eve finally arrived and it was time for our big family party which I hosted for the first time ever!  I am officially all grown up.  I am married, have a child, own a home, have a career and plan and organize the family Christmas party...yes, it is done.  I am now an adult.

The party was a smashing success, with lots of yummy food, fun games, Christmas carols,and lots and lots of laughter!  I believe my favorite part of the party was the snow ball toss which involved throwing marshmallows at one another...what fun!  I also really liked the part when we were all sitting together and singing Jingle Bells.

Christmas day began as it should in every household.  We all woke up and lazily made our way downstairs, the Cinnamon rolls were placed in the oven and then we all sat down in our P.J.'s and began tearing into presents.  Well Jackson at least tore the paper on one of his gifts, after that he just wanted to play with the new toy and let mommy and daddy do all the work.  So for about two hours we just opened presents, played with new toys, and enjoyed some yummy cinnamon rolls!  Then we packed up and made our way to the mountains.  It was GORGEOUS, as we passed over Balsam Mountain I was in awe over the beauty of all the trees covered in ice, it was truly a Winter Wonderland.  We made our way to the in-laws home which had lost power so we all sat in the dark and opened a few more wonderful and totally unexpected gifts.  Charlie got a new iPod and I got a new fancy camcorder!  Then we made our way to Franklin which is still as pretty and as quint as I remember it.  Aunt Karen's was a blast as always, we played Guitar Hero and I got to sing the Karaoke part...I had no inhibitions and made quite the fool of myself.  But that is of course the best part about being with family, if they laugh at you  they aren't afraid to do it out loud which in turn gives you the confidence to laugh with them!  So with a tummy full of grits and eggs, a slight headache from the glass of wine which was 22% alcohol, and a baby ready for a nap we got back on the road Saturday afternoon and headed BACK to the in-laws which is always an interesting time (for lack of better words).

We made it back home today around 2pm and have spent the rest of the afternoon doing ABSOLUTELY NOTHING...it was a wonderful Christmas!

My husband insists on adding something to the blog...

Charlies thoughts are as follows:
1.  I sure do love those cookies at my mothers house.  They were like "crack" except legal.
2.  slap neck turkey.....gobbagobbally goo.  To know me is to know a child.
3.  I have more technology than I ever would know what to do with....Ipods, GPS systems, walkman stereos, its insane.
4.  I hate godzilla..........he destroys cities.
5.  There's a party in my tummy....oh yeah oh yeah. 
This is the first time I've ever bloged.  Let me know how I did.  I think I have the idea of it but blog is a made up word.  Who knows what the poop it means.  It could be code for slap yo mama.  Time will only tell.  Peace out home boys.  

Credit Card Mayhem

Why is it that credit card companies are so good at keeping up with your due dates but when it comes to THEIR due dates and time schedule they are all over the place.  Today I am dreading a call to a credit card company that claims to be receiving my payments late.  I have set this account up as an automatic debit through my bank and can easily verify that my payment to this particular company is mailed each month on the same date (at least 8 days before the due date).  Never once has this company considered that THEY could be wrong...it must be me or my bank!  So tonight I will spend a predicted hour or more on the phone with one person after another trying to convince them numerous times that the late processing date is THEIR fault not mine or the banks!!!!   Once again...ARGHH!!!!!

No subject....

So someone told me today that I worry too much about finding something "worthy" to blog about...she is right! I started this blog as a type of journal of every day "nothings" so let me get back to the basics.

Since sharing my Black Friday episode I have been super busy preparing for the holidays.  This Sunday my mom watched little man and I got to go shopping all by myself.  It was so much fun!  I used to always feel sorry for people when I saw them eating in a restaurant by themselves but after this Sunday I will never feel the same way again.  I thoroughly enjoyed my peaceful lunch.  I went to Wendy's and had lunch at one of those itty bitty tables, you know the kind that have two seats but really there is no way to sit two at that table without putting all your stuff on top of the other persons stuff.  Anyway, I had my norm; chicken nuggets, a small ceaser salad and a jr. frosty.  This was not a weight watcher friendly meal but I didn't care since I had just weighed in and I figured I deserved the small treat...I mean how often do I really get a day all to myself?  There was an elderly man sitting about three tables away, he was reading a newspaper and sucking his teeth....it was horrible!

Anyone who knows me well knows that I have a severe diversion to smacking, slurping and sucking noises.  It is a true problem of mine.  Really.  In fact it so severe that sometimes I will skip certain social gatherings simply due to my fear of listening to people eat! You might be wondering what I plan on doing about Jackson considering that he is way too young to NOT smack or make other such annoying noises.  Well, for some odd reason I can tolerate noises made by babies and very young children.   Anyway, this man sucked on his teeth every 5-10 seconds.  He was completely oblivious to the fact that he was ruining my peaceful lunch which annoyed me even more.    Bottom line; I ate rather quickly and espcaped before I had a mental break down.

After spending 4 hours and entirely too much money in Kohl's and Target I headed to Walmart for some grocery shopping.  As I was leaving I purchased a Starbucks frappuccino (the cold coffee) in a glass bottle.  I must have opened the lid as soon as I got in the car without realizing it because three minutes down the road I picked up the frappucino and gave it a really great shake.  It took about 30 seconds for me to understand what had just happened. When I shook the bottle, the lid flew off and frappuccino soon covered everything on the passenger side of my car and I do mean EVERYTHING! I couldn't help but laugh at myself.  It was a true "Rachel moment"! 

Toddler Talk

So Jackson has entered a new stage...the one where he is awake entirely too late because he is having what sounds like a very riveting conversation with his stuffed animals.  This has been going on for about a week now, the average conversation lasts about an hour and fifteen minutes.  He is only 18 months so when I say "talk" what I mean is babble.  I think he has invented his very own language that he and he alone can understand.  Every once in a while he'll decide to throw in a word from the English Vocabulary but mostly it's just stuff like "ahhhhh" or "la de ma la la" or my personal favorite "ticka, ticka, ticka, ticka".  This last strand of words is usually uttered very quickly with no break or pause between each "ticka".  When he first started saying "nana" he was using it in the right context because he would only say it after catching sight of a banana (one of his very favorite snacks) now however he says it every time he wants something.  Our dog Maggie is usually "ga ga" whereas our other dog Sammie gets no verbal recognition what so ever.  No, the only attention he gives poor Sammie is the kind she would rather do without; he particularly enjoys grabbing hold of her short nubby tail and holding it until she pulls away.  The sound we hear most often is the one he makes when he's mad which is way too often.  When he is mad he says "Agh" in a very short and sharp tone and he usually accompanies the aggravated sound by clapping his hands together in one quick motion. If he drops one of his toys he usually gets mad as if he truly believes those toys jump out of his hands of their own free will, if he sees Charlie gives me a hug he gets mad, if he can't brush his own teeth or crawl inside the dog crate he gets mad.  The most amusing source of aggravation is You Tube.  Yes, Jackson is a HUGE fan of You Tube.  He likes to sit on someones lap and watch music videos or anything involving babies.  His very favorite thing of all, in fact I dare say it trumps all other games or toys, is to watch Hank Williams Jr. sing "Cajun Baby".  It is unlike anything I have ever seen, the boy will watch the same video over and over and each time Hank Williams Jr. walks out with his guitar Jackson will grin from ear to ear and usually applaud.  So if he is downstairs and wants to be upstairs watching Hank Williams Jr., or if we walk by the computer without stopping or if we take him away from the computer before he gets bored we undoubtedly hear the infamous "Agh" followed by a quick clap of the hands!  Although most of his gibberish is kind of cute I really can't wait for him to start using the English language, I truly believe it will make my life much easier.