Monday, February 28, 2011

Photo Boxes

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I did it!

I can cross #21 off the list.  Hurray!

I put on my big girl panties, went back to Michael's and was prepared to buy ugly photo boxes.  Luckily for me, as I walked up to the store, I noticed they had a whole bunch more outside AND they had some plain black and white ones.  They may not be the red or orange I was looking for but they aren't pink stripes or airplanes either.  Hurray!

So I ended up with this:


From all of these:



I not only did the binders of pictures my mom had gave me, I also did the three neatly annotated Anne Geddes albums that I had organized quite a few years ago, before all my ambition died.  I'm sort of sad to see the colorful albums go, but I'll get over it.

And to be real, this is what it really looked like after I was done....


Ay caramba.

Let's just look at them like this:


Now I need to get the kid's albums all sorted out and into the extra boxes I bought.  And make labels for the boxes. And actually throw away all those empty albums that are still sitting on my dining room floor. 

So much to do, so little ambition. 

On a side note, I've been off the coffee and pop for four days now.  My muscles have stopped protesting, my brain no longer feels like it's about to implode, I've stopped yawning (finally!) and now I just need the pounds to magically melt away like all this damn snow outside. 

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Damn it, this one wasn't on the list!

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So, I'm supposed to be dealing with #21, you know, approximately, soonish.

My mom has collected and organized all the photos of my life, all of my life.  She also presented me with all the albums off all those photos.  And they've all been living in my basement since delivery.  Now it's not that I don't want the photo albums, it's just that I'm sort of over albums themselves.  Thanks to the digital camera and the digital photo frame I rarely, if ever, get my pictures developed.  So my plan has been, with my mother's blessing (just so you know), to find photo boxes and throw the photos in willynilly organize them to perfection, indexed and cross-indexed, labeled, and ....well let's not go too far down fantasy lane.

Too bad the photo boxes I found at Michael's were uber-ugly.  And so were the ones at Wal-mart. 

So, I did what I do best, and put it off for another day and picked up a different project to do!

The dreaded wedding photo album.


I say dreaded wedding album, because it contains ALL the photos the photographer took, and has never been sorted through.  We picked the photos we wanted on display, had copies made, and put the album back on the shelf, never to be looked through again. 

I decided that was kind of ridiculous!  Plus, we are moving, and I don't want to take any albums with me.  Photos, yes.  Albums, no.

So after taking a stroll down memory lane, and snickering a little at how pasty white and ghostly I looked in some 90% of the pictures, I picked out a few favorites and called it good. 

I went from an album FULL of photos:

To a small stack:


Now I just need to buy a non-ugly photo box to store them in!

Ahh...look how young and blond I look!!!

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Gone gone gone!

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I'm officially crossing #5 off the list.

I listed and sold a bit of stuff out of the room.  A couple of girls came and took $60 worth of Halloween stuff off my hands! I've hauled all the stuff that hasn't sold yet to my mom's to await the warm weather and garage sale time.  And yesterday I sorted out all my Halloween costumes, bagged them up in those clear zipper bags you get when you buy sheets etc., and listed them for sale too.  So although they are still in the room right now, I'm saying that junk is outta the room!!

Looking like this now.


 The soon to be ex-neighbor is taking the dressers off my hands this weekend.  Yay!


That's a far cry my friends from what it looked like only 2 weeks ago!

Eesh.

Halloween costumes, sorted and waiting new homes.



Which is a good thing, because I hear tell that Clayton is moving back into this room this weekend, so that Ryan can start on #7 this weekend.

Well, who wants to go outside in this weather anyways?!  Bring on the painting!

Thursday, February 10, 2011

The decisions! It shall drive them all crazy.

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Everyone is doing it.  I used to do it too.  But then I stopped.  I'm not sure why. I'm attempting to get back on the wagon again. 

It's making Storm anxious.  Did she make the right choice? What will everyone else do? Will she like the things other people pick?  Does she really want that day? So many questions and things to stress about. 

Hunter can't narrow his decision down.  One thing is for sure, it will have gravy.

Blade was easy.  Macaroni? or Pancakes?

Clayton and Ryan haven't decided.

What is it?

Meal planning. 

Our fridge has this paper on it now....


The *ahem* master plan is each person gets to pick a day.  They are then responsible for cooking their meal that day with Mom.  All meals must be planned and written down by Sunday, so Mom can shop for the week. The person cooking and setting the meal, is then exempt from dish washing and cleaning up.  They even get to excuse people from the table!  Most exciting.  (our kids all say "thank you for supper, can I leave the table?" before they can get up)

FF on Friday stands for Family Friday, which is next week, and we will be eating at my mom's.  Score, no one has to cook!  Well, except her. 

I wrote down what was in the freezer this week and some meal ideas for them. 

I'll still be doing 90% of the cooking but that's okay.  Maybe someday I'll be able to sit back and have Hunter cook me up some chicken and mashed potatoes all on his own.  Don't forget the gravy!

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Bogged down in paper

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What I didn't show you yesterday, was the fact that the cupboard wasn't the only thing or the first thing that Ryan painted in his make-shift paint bay in my white kitchen.

He also spray painted the file cabinet black.

Yea, let's not talk about that process.

Let's talk about the fact that I got my filing stuff sorted out!

I seriously didn't think I had that much stuff, but this picture tells the truth.

Gah.  How is that possible!
I used to have a huge filing cabinet, and when I got rid of that I probably threw away or recycled 2 large black bags of paper then.  And look at that mess on the floor!  How did all that make it back into my house. There was stuff in there that was extrememly important that I didn't even know where it was. 


Like:  a Walmart CD for free picture editing(never opened, not even once) from our very first digital camera 5 years ago. The CD for the oldest's very first MP3 player that I threw away 3 years ago. Four foam inserts for a bike helmet that was probably tossed 3 years ago too.  Oh! And let's not forget, an X-RAY of my teeth........

Uber important stuff people!

I tossed wedding cards that I've been saving for almost 12 years (why? why was I saving those??!), about 100 birthday cards from various kid birthdays, pay stubs, outdated swim cards, manuals for stuff we don't even own anymore, CD's, tooth x-rays, about 45 tags from Webkinz and absolutely nothing I will ever miss.  Ever.

I hate paper piles!!  Anyways.  It's all under control now, again, for a while. 

At least until more comes in the mail.....

Monday, February 7, 2011

#3

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We had a great Halloween party last year.  The kids had fun.  We played Fear Factor, in which I couldn't even gag down even one item.  The house was all decorated up.  The food was made and ate.  The drinks were drank.  The candles burnt down the house.

Okay, not quite.

But at the end of the party, we seen just how close it was to a flaming Halloween party.  I'd show you the total damage to the corner shelving unit but by the time I got to taking pictures, it already looked like this!

The husband had the two burnt spots dug out, and the fill in.

Oh wait, did you notice that it's February and I'm just typing about something that happened 3 months ago?!

Yea.  Well, after noticing that I almost set the house on fire, we took the cupboard down right away and ended up putting it out in the shed.  The burn holes were really, really warm still.  I was a little worried it might just spontaneously start a fire, so we moved it out of the house.  And there it sat.  Until last weekend!

We move quick around here people.

Actually, I just wasn't sure what we were going to do to fix it.  Or if we were going to fix it at all.  Options weighed.  Coffee made.  Decisions delayed.  Welcome to the Sweet House.

Anyways, after he sanded, you can actually see more what we were dealing with.


Imagine that, but much worse.  Black, burnt holes in custom cabinentry.  Awesome.
I went downtown, had a date with Blade at McDonald's, shopped for paint and groceries.  And I came home to a paint bay in my white, white kitchen.....


Let's just not talk about that part.

Mom figured the color of our cupboards might be RV White.  I actually found a color called Dover White in a spray can, (not ideal, but I'll take it) that perfectly matched the cupboard.  Thankfully, it was the under part of the shelf that was burnt, so you can't tell that it is gloss paint instead of a matte.

Almost back together.


Tada!  Weird useless shelf back where it belongs. 

I promise to never burn candles on that shelf ever again. 

And that's #3 off the list

Thursday, February 3, 2011

A Dog's Life

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Ever feel like you got scammed?

He started out so adorable.  He lured us in with his antics, his softness, his ability to sit on my lap without squashing me!



I should note it was adorable when he sat surrounded by my flowers....
It was a little less adorable when he started digging them all up and leaving massive holes and bones in my flowers.

He slept on all our stuff.  And we took pictures and smiled.
He laid around, looking so innocent.  Well, he still does this.  Butter wouldn't melt in that mouth most days.

He made friends with the kittens.  Look at the smile!
He does stupid stuff that has us wondering if he has any brains left in that head as he grows.

Sometimes, he's just so damn amusing.

Most of the time, he farts, stinks, runs away, sleeps, sheds ALL over the place, worse than any cat could ever.  He barks at every dog who dares to walk past his window.  He watches old ladies and growls at them the most (you can't trust those little old ladies!!!).  He pulls at his leash, until you remind him that he's supposed to walk nicely, and then only until he catches a new scent or spies another dog.  He howls and won't stop barking or whining when he's not allowed to visit with any dog he sees on the walk.  If he hurts himself, he yelps and carries on so badly that I'm sure the entire neighborhood thought I was commiting some sort of horrible crime on him, when really he had stepped on something that hurt, and then after I carried him home, he stopped yelping.  I think I got scammed.  Someone probably just wanted to get carried home.

He also makes friends with every dog he actually gets to come into contact with.  He loves cats.  He doesn't chew anymore (HURRAY!).  He lays on his mat while we eat.  He's totally house trained.  And 90% of the time he looks like this.




I tried to get him to put his head up for this picture, but he gave me the blurry death stare for waking up his nap.  He's also claimed the tiniest dog bed that actually belongs to the MIL's dog  for his own.  Sorry Lucy! She left it behind and he claimed it!

And why this post about my dog who drives me nuts 90% of the time that he's awake?  Because I've found his long lost brother on the web.

Meet Brutus, from Frou-FruGal.


Except for that white leg, he looks a LOT like our own dear Rodeo!  You can read about Brutus here.

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Progress

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I'm making some progress on the list.

That room will be the death of me yet.

I really am just tempted to toss it all, or donate it, or start a small fire in the backyard....

Instead I started a moving blog, http://sweetmovingsale.blogspot.com/.

I figure it will come in handy when we have finally sold the house and need to clear out 99% of our belongings.  In the meantime, I'll be over here in this pile of junk, holding my head in my hands and rocking back and forth, murmuring words the kids shouldn't know.

Okay, actually I'll be getting pictures of the rest of the stuff and putting it up.  I think I'd rather be rocking....