It's Here!

No! Not the baby! Then I would have written 'She's Here!' or 'He's Here!'. No, the chair. The chair is here. See.




*I'd just like to say right now that my husband is the best because in that shot of me in the chair, he took it from above while he was on a chair because he thought it would be 'a more flattering angle'. And upon viewing the other shots taken from the floor... ugh. I totally agree. Thank you sweet husband!

And doesn't it look so comfortable? It is. I am so happy that it has arrived. One more thing ready. Next would be actually getting some baby clothes washed and put away. Yeah, that would be a good one.

Yesterday I had house cleaners come in. This is the first time I have ever experienced this. My coworkers had pitched in when I broke my ankle and bought me a gift certificate for five hours of cleaning. Since my mom was doing such a fabulous job of keeping the house in line I didn't bother using it until now.

Let me just say that it is very weird having people coming into your house to clean it. And weird to watch them clean things. The one girl polished my tea pot cover...

In preparation for their arrival I ran around like a nutcase getting things ready. What's the point, you ask? Well, I was mostly organizing and de-cluttering. And I HIGHLY recommend doing this for optimum satisfaction when having cleaners come in. I only used up 2 1/2 hours of the certificate and they'll be coming back soon for the remainder of the time. They did a great job but they didn't get to some of the things that I thought they would. Perhaps too much time spent polishing tea pot lids...

Also. I could NOT do this job. I am FAR to obsessive and would take WAY longer than I should to do my tasks. What I would do, I would do most excellently but I would still be fired for not knowing how to say on schedule.

So my house is mighty clean right now. And organized. And I'm trying not to be a total drill sergeant to Miss A and her dad. "Hey, pick that watermelon up off the carpet!" "Does this paper go in the recycling now?" It's just... I know how quickly things can get out of hand. Again. And I just want to try really hard to keep it this way at least until the baby arrives. Because after that... I know that nothing will stay this way.

Holiday?

Peter and I are on two weeks holiday. Peter and my boss (jack of all trades) have been working building a fence in our backyard since Saturday evening. They have been putting in long hours. Turns out that rocks get in the way of digging deep holes. Here is a photo in the early stages. It is nearly finished now so I'll post some more when I get a chance.



I don't know if it has anything to do with her second birthday or if it's teething or what but Miss A has been unbelievable lately. I have talked about her temper before. I WISH I could go back to those days. I have seen a new kind of fury and it scares me. For Real.

Copycat

Today I was once again reminded that my daughter watches EVERYTHING we/I/everyone do/does.

Last night I was pounding the nails back into one of the drawers of our horrifically awful cupboards while she watched. I thought nothing of it at the time. This morning she had her toy hammer and when I heard her banging away I found her determinedly hammering the SAME drawer. It really hit me what a copycat she is. The responsibility hit me like a brick in the face.

I hope I remember that the next time I lose my temper. She already has my frustrated growl perfected.

My Yard Sucks, but it can still be fun

Our yard is a mess. We cut down some trees weeks ago and don't have a truck to get rid of them. My garden is only growing weeds this year because I didn't bother planting vegetables until the trees were cut down and it could get some decent sun. Our shed is ugly and we want to replace it but it's all we got so for now, it stays.




I've been avoiding the back yard as much as possible. I've been focusing on my front flowerbed and the flowerbed along the side of the house. They are pretty and make me feel happy.





Unfortunately the back yard could be avoided no longer since the play structure was built. The kid, she wants to play. And it's been so ridiculously hot here that I set A's pool up (on the garden of weeds) and filled it up. My girl, she loves the water. On Sunday I set up my lounger with the funky 70's flower pattern and sat in my ugly (but has potential) yard reading and watching my daughter splash in the pool or play on the slide.





I have to say, it wasn't so bad. I dream of having a gorgeous backyard. A backyard oasis if you will. And it will happen, one day. We're working on it.

Our House... in the middle of our street (Part Two)

Here are a few more pictures of my house. It is only slightly less clean now than it was when these photos were taken. I'm trying to stay on top of it.

A view of the bathroom. It is small and difficult to photograph. I would like to gut this bathroom and start over. And then attack the kitchen.



Our bedroom. I love this bed. It has taken a beating in the five years we've had it. Oh. Gee. That sounds really bad. I MEAN it's been moved a couple of times and has some deep scratches in the wood. I still love it though. I only wish we'd bought the matching dresser. We didn't think we could afford it. We had no idea what broke was back then...





Our living room. Notice the many, many babies by the fireplace. And the computer armoire. Where the magic happens.





And the kitchen. It doesn't look so bad in the pictures but believe me it is functionally challenged.





For the proper house tour go here.

Our House... in the middle of our street

So part of the motivation for my cleaning spree is that I wanted to take pictures of our house. For posterity and also to give you all a tour of sorts. But see, then I broke the camera and well... I've been having nothing but trouble completing this project. My darling husband actually fixed the camera last night. Bless his heart. He reconsidered on the buying of a bigger and better one. That is simply to expensive for us right now, which was why I was so shocked to see his comment! I took the remaining pictures this morning and now for some reason am having trouble uploading them to our computer. So this post shall be – Part One.

I'll post a few pictures here but what you really should do is go here to see all the different angles of the room and get the full tour. Don't you want to come to my house?

Another disclaimer. My house NEVER looks this clean and tidy. I try, but it just doesn't. That is another reason I took the photos. To remind myself of what it could look like and hopefully will again some day.

This is our front entrance. I love the door. And that is about it. This area was once a porch and they 'transformed' it into a front entrance area with ugly closets and poorly done dry walling. I don't think it's properly insulated either. And that window is drafty. (Wow! I didn't mean for this to be a complain about my house post...) Notice the shoes all lined up. Not like that anymore.



If you came in our front door the first thing you see is our dining room. This was what sold me our house the moment I stepped in the door. The hardwood and wood work, beautiful. It's a bit cluttered now with a piano and everything but I still love it.




Our hallway. Just off the dining room and also the kitchen. That's my second degree black belt certificate hanging on the wall. Hang a left to A's room.




A's room. I still love that color even after almost 2 years of looking at it. I love her furniture too. Even though she's chewed the crib... little beaver. You can't tell from the picture but the plain wall has textured wallpaper on it with small squares on it. It works with the gingham curtains and blanket.




That's all for now. Stop by next week for Part Two!