Ramblings from a busy mom...Part Duex

I ended my last post stating that we have been busy around the house.

That is probably an understatement…

But, here is why…

WE ARE SELLING OUR HOUSE!

And…that is a happy and sad statement for me to say.

Happy…because the reason for our decision is that we have found a house in the Southeast school district, which is really hard to find…and the bonus is… the house is move in ready! Meaning, that we won’t have to do much to it before we move in. HORRAY!

However, it is sad too… because THIS house has meant a lot to me. It was the first house we had in Salina (I’m NOT counting the one on Republic that we rented for 6 months and SQUISHED our family of 5 into…barely!). And, for some reason, I tend to get attached to my “house”. Chris thinks it’s silly and ridiculous, and I agree, but I still have a since of “feeling” toward my house... a connectivity to it…because it is more than my house… it is my HOME! It’s where we have gathered with family for holidays…and where my children have scrapped their knees on the sidewalk learning to ride their bikes…and where birthdays were celebrated…it has memories!

But, it IS just a house…and we will make lots of memories in the new house too! I have to keep telling myself that.

Anyways…

We weren’t really ACTIVELY looking for a new house. This one just came available and we were always keeping our eyes open for anything in the district. Once we determined that we liked it and they accepted our offer…we had LOTS of work to do at our house before we could put it on the market.

Chris, with the help of a couple of guys from work, spent nearly two weeks fixing up the outside of the house. We had a LOT of work to do in the backyard, as our dear dog Charlie had left his mark on a few things. I, in turn, spent those two weeks getting the front yard looking neat and tidy for “curb appeal” as HGTV would say.

Remember this…

Well, it now looks like this….

And, to make things even more crazy… we had a garage sale planned for Mother’s Day weekend already, so we decided to keep the date and take the opportunity to get rid of some stuff. So, I was crazy busy getting ready for our massive garage sale while Chris was getting the outside stuff done.

Therefore, our “inside” of the house wasn’t touched for almost a week and a half. For all of you that know me, know that I am not the best “housekeeper” in the world. Our house is “lived” in. It is never dirty…but we usually live in a little bit of “clutter”.

I am an obsessive piler. I don’t even think that is a word…but honestly, that is what I am. A piler… I make piles. I DO NOT hoard… I have no problem throwing things away. But, there is stuff that you don’t want to throw away and that is what I typically put in my piles. I can even take a pile that I’ve made and go through it… and when I’m done… I usually have taken my one pile and have made three. It’s insane.

But… thankfully, my mom kept the girls last weekend so Chris and I could hit our house hard… cleaning like mad people… “staging” our house and getting it ready to put on the market.

And…we did it! I honestly think this is the cleanest my house has EVER been in the 3½ years we have lived there. My realtor was impressed, considering she saw it in its most “raw” moment and probably had her doubts that it would look the way it does now!

I was so proud of ourselves…that I had to take pictures to “show” it off!

Even the staircase is clean...and trust me...it usually isn't.

The other thing that amazes me is that when you are trying to sell your house, you finally get things done that you should have done a long time ago so that YOU (or in our case…US) could enjoy it. Why do we do that?

I finally hung curtains in the basement...took me (or Chris) honestly 10 minutes...

And we switched the armoire and the chase lounge in my bedroom!  Wish I would have done that A LONG time ago!  I like it so much better!

So, there it is… a clean - ready to show house!  Impressed...aren't you?  I know I am!


So, 113 N Presley is officially for SALE!

Now…let’s pray that it sells fast…so that we can move and get into the new house BEFORE school starts in the fall!




UPDATE:
Before I could get this post entirely finished and published to the blog...

We SOLD our house!  Yes, in just 5 days...we sold our house! 

God is GOOD!

Ramblings from a busy mom...

I hate that it has been since Easter since I last posted! It makes me sad that I am so busy that I don’t have time to post like other bloggers do. I wish I had that time!

But moving on… this is why I have been so busy! (Be prepared…this may be a L O N G post!)


I am now a mother of a 9 year old!

*sigh*

I can’t believe she is one year from double digits!

Maddie celebrated her 9th birthday a couple weeks ago – May 3rd – to be exact!

I will never forget the day she was born!

It was my first pregnancy…
my first labor and delivery…
my first at becoming a MOM!

It wasn’t very easy! Well, the pregnancy was, so to speak! I wasn’t all that sick and I enjoyed all the “firsts” that you get to experience with your first pregnancy. I unfortunately gained the most with Maddie (30 lbs to be exact) and I remember leaving the hospital only 10 lbs lighter than when I came in. I wasn’t all that happy about that either… I remember thinking that I should’ve lost more than that…10 lbs was Maddie’s weight and the placenta…what about all that water I lost?

Anyways…

I enjoyed being pregnant! I remember going to my doctor’s visit on May 2nd (which was a Thursday) and Dr. Cullan telling me I was only dilated to a 1½ and that I would probably deliver closer to my due date (May 13th), if not late. I was so bummed! I liked being pregnant, but I WANTED to see my new baby and hold her in my arms and as you all know…I am NOT a patient person! So, I was READY to have that baby and didn’t want to wait!

Well…apparently Maddie is as inpatient as her momma, because she didn’t want to wait either! That next morning (around 3 am) - I remember going to the bathroom and as soon as I stood up and pulled up my pants, my underwear was wet! I then remember yelling from the bathroom to the bedroom to wake Chris up stating… “UM…I either just peed my pants or my water just broke!”

It was so confusing for me…
There was no “gush” like you see in the movies!
No, water all over the floor so it is obvious what just happened.
It was nothing like that…

Instead, I got a little “trickle” and then I had to decipher what just occurred.

So, what do you do with that? Well…. I did what most people do… I called MY mom!
And, she was NO help! She says to me… “Why are you calling me, I’m not a nurse…call the hospital!” Aren’t mothers so intuitive?

So, after speaking to a nurse at the hospital – who’s advice was that I could smell my underwear and if it smelled like urine I knew what had happened, but if it smelled “musty” than I would know it was my water that had broken.

UM….

“smell my underwear”…I don’t know about you, but I just took the assumption that my water broke and we headed for the hospital!

And…we were right!

I remember looking at the date and saying to Chris… “May 3rd, that’s going to be our little Maddie’s birthday!” Yes, we already had her name picked out. I knew I wanted a MADDIE. I didn’t care if her “real” name was Madison or Madeline, I just wanted a Maddie. Chris decided on Madison.

My labor wasn’t too bad. I was in active labor until 4:00 pm. However, after pushing for 2 straight hours, Dr. Cullan said that wasn’t working and we were going to have to try a different approach. He gave me the option of using the forceps or having a c-section and we opted for the c-section.

And, at 4:19 pm, our Madison Grace was born!

I cannot believe that was nine years ago!

We have celebrated with classmates and family and Maddie is patiently waiting(well, maybe not a patiently as some – remember, she takes after me!) to celebrate with her friends. She has had to put her “friend” birthday party on hold as we have been busy around our house… but I’ll keep that story for the next post!

STAY TUNED!