Mulan for her school party.

Tinkerbell for Halloween

Pant head picture is sponsored by candy. Lots and lots of candy.

Crack

Old Navy is like crack to me. Today, if you were the first of like 100 people in the store, you got a golden ticket, aka, 50% off shopping tote.

I think the idea was to just fill the tote. I checked with management, nope, if you had a golden ticket then you could buy anything you wanted. Twitch.

My winter clothes are in pitiful shape and the tops are too big. Why is it, when I actually loose a little weight, it doesn't come off my considerable sized rear end? I already had jeans in a smaller size brand new and I'd never really bought myself anything at Old Navy. It seemed like everything was too short.

Well I hate to tell all my short friends, this year is the year of giant at Old Navy. Tops are way past my butt, sleeves go *gasp* an INCH past my wrist.

So I bought all my winter clothes today. After ONs prices, I won't shop at Lane Bryant again unless I get a $15 off of $15 coupon. Example, my brown pea coat from LB was $150. My black pea coat from ON today was... $30. It isn't that much different and since I wore holes in the brown one, it was time for a new coat. I feel pretty sharp in it. I got work tops for $3.50-6 and sweaters for $12.

But I didn't stop with me. I raided the clearance rack for Natalie for next year. They had convertible capris for $5.99. Extra 50% off clearance, plus my golden ticket. I paid $1.50 for pants, $3 for sweaters, $1.75 for skirts, it was madness. I also got her and DD2 matching Halloween PJS for just buck! Shoot, princess PJs were just $2. Tank tops were 23 cents. I bought a beautiful red ruffled dress for holiday pictures. I stocked up on tights, at $2.50 a pair, it would be dumb not to.

Then for kicks I bought my brother a whole new wardrobe. His clothes were in worse shape than mine. I bought him the same pea coat but cut for a guy in charcoal gray for $27.50. He also got a sherpa hoodie. Rugby polos, button up shirts and zip up light jackets were $7.50. Guy henleys were also $3.50. Nice sweaters, $10. I didn't buy him pants (he is 6-4, I can't ever get that right) but he is set from the waist up for all of winter plus some.

So for $291, I outfitted myself, my brother and my kiddo for a long time. I think that is pretty good.

Day 6

Cleared out the back flower bed, mulched all the leaves in the side and back yard, finished the front flower bed, tore down the last shelving unit (ka-ya!), cleaned cleaned cleaned and dry blocked several square feet. I am pooped.

Tomorrow I am working at the big house cleaning and packing. I have to shift the garage stuff around and move the bedroom furniture I'm taking to the little house towards the front. All those pieces should be moved by Sunday. I am not sure when we'll officially move, but that is a big step in getting everything organized.

Day 5

of getting my act together.

So I did get off my butt and spent my 35th birthday dry blocking a small room in my basement that is actually under my front porch. That is my problem area, I always have a small puddle of standing water. So I mopped it up, hit it with the fan for an hour and hopefully sealed it. Tomorrow is sunny too, so I'll do another coat. For kicks, I think I'll smear a bunch of caulk all over it too.

I also tore out my 8ft front flower bed that was way overgrown. I trimmed down my peonies, dug out those stupid rock lilies that I try to kill every year (I don't like poke-y plants) and tried to pull up 4 o'clocks. I like the 4 o'clocks but they grow so weedy. If they'd just stay in one spot and grow instead of popping up here and there I'd like them a lot more. I have a weird stump thing to saw down tomorrow, who knows what that is. I went to Home Depot and bought 2 6packs of winter pansies (one purple, one purple/yellow mix) and 6 bags of Scotts black mulch. It is suppose to stay blacker longer than other brands. I have to admit it looks pretty sharp, and it should, it was twice as much. I got about half of the weed block (cat chow bags cut open) down and half of the mulch. I hope to finish it tomorrow. If I feel super energetic, I might grab my handy dandy metal head stick thing (matic? madic?) and start chopping the mulch line around the house.

The crap pile was picked up today. Trash guy actually saw me digging out the bed as he drove by and I was like great, I missed it, the yard waste will be here 2 weeks. Well danged if he didn't come back. He saw me cutting the whole thing down and he came back like 1.5 hours later to get it. I thought that was nice.

I took Natalie for her first Trunk or Treating today. She wore her Ariel costume over a turtleneck, she looked like a little yardsale reject. She'll be Mulan tomorrow and Tinkerbell on Saturday. Yes, we like Disney, why do you ask?

Here she is in one of her Halloween outfits. Her head looks freakishly huge in this pic I think, must be the angle.


My Mom kept going on and on about taking me out for dinner. That is something my Dad did mostly. Not only did she take me out, we went somewhere somewhat hip. Stir Fry had half off sushi and I was able to have spicy tuna rolls for my Birthday. She also bought a Cuisinart pan that goes with my other pieces (super duper clearance, $15!). So I thought that was all nice and worth noting.

But here is the best present I could of ever of gotten :)

The church arranged with Olan Mills to send the picture I wanted so badly. They even sent two, one for me, one for John. Absolutely the best thing I've ever gotten in the mail. I can't bear to hang it on my wall yet, but I am so happy to have it.

Happy Birthday to Me

blah

I am torn between working on my to do list or watching TV all day.

Day Three and Four

All the trash was hauled to the road for bulk pick up yesterday. My arms, legs, back and hands are sooo sore. The damp corner in the basement isn't damp anymore (I dryblocked it). The wet corner in my basement (under the front porch) is now dry. I'll dryblock it this afternoon after the carpet guy leaves. I have only sealed 25% of the space and cleaned 50%. But I am confident that I can store more things down there without them getting funky.

I found out my Dad's huge 60-70's stereo was actually my Mom's. It was the first thing she bought herself when she was 18ish and moved out of the house. She wants it back and I am all over that. It is 6 feet long and weighs several hundred pounds, I am not sure how she is going to get it to her house, but that is a nice big item out of the way.

Today my brother is coming to paint the den. The carpet guy comes at 1pm to measure. They are backed up about 10 days with installation so in the next couple of weeks that room will be done and I'll just shut the door. Then we'll head to the little house and measure there.

I let the baby choose the carpet for the playroom (I'll put both girls into the red nursery with only beds and clothes and put all the toys in the playroom). The little house will soon be sporting purple carpet called "violet". So I'll have two bright rooms, good thing the rest of the place is white with tan or brown floors.

Bye for now - Kim

Day Two of the List

I spent 10 hours in the basement of the little house today. I cleaned, I sealed the concrete block walls, I organized the stuff that was already in there and vacuumed like no one's business. the basement has been the dumping ground for all things crappy for the past 7 years. Not just me, but Dad too. It was the place you tried not to remember existed because you felt guilty for all the stuff down there. Bread maker not working right? Put it in the basement to "try it again later". Air purifier stopped working? I bet it's just a switch or something, put it in the basement and I'll fix it later.

Um..well so today I tossed those things. I tossed so much stuff from there the trash pile is the size of my car. Dad loved to play with motors and hated to toss anything electrical. Things were piled on his shelves with a thick coating of dusty crud. I don't even think anyone else would want them so out they went. I also pulled out a desk that we were going to use to work on down there (I got it for free at my Mom's job) to take to the road to recycle (a buba will come in a truck and take it home). I am also curbing some end tables.

I also played the "name that smell" game. I can smell things miles away (and I think that is why I am fat, if you can smell good, food tastes better!). When I bought the house, there were floor to ceiling wooden shelves. But the basement was wet at the door and damp everywhere else. So you can image how nasty that wood smelled. It was one of the first things to go. So over the years, Dad has fixed the water issue but the smell remained. Tonight I discovered where it was. I have about 60 linear feet of wooden shelving built into 4x4s that we thought had escaped the funkyness. Nope. The top shelf of each unit was gross.

So tonight I released quite a bit of anger in general and beat the.. well you know... out of one of the units. I took my Grandfather's red hammer (they don't make that size and weigh anymore, it is fab) and just demolished it. I recommend when you are mad/sad/upset beating the crap out of something with a hammer really does help. I am also happy to report I have the other one to tear out tomorrow and it is bigger and should be lots more fun to whack.

I also have to cart all the trash to the road for bulk pick up. I am not looking forward to walking up my driveway 80 times tomorrow. But I'll do it. Blah.

Two large dressers, one night stand, one jelly cabinet, one secretary and one dining room table is now gone. Also 5-6 oil paintings. They are now with my step mom's kids, where they should be. Two pick up truckloads are gone, it is a good feeling.

I am tired, bye for now.

House Update

I didn't go to the beach. I paced from about midnight to 2am thinking about what I was going to do. I made pros and cons for each location. And it simply boiled down to, I am a single income family. I need to live within my means. The larger house on paper looks great, I can do the mortgage and all the bills associated with it with just my income. But I had a backup if something happened, Dad received almost as much SSD as I did in regular pay a month. So I had that for the what ifs.

I woke my Mom up at 2am and talked to her about an hour about it. After talking to her about everything, I 100% made the decision to move back to my house. The big house doesn't feel like mine. I've not done anything to claim it. When I moved out of the small house, I cried because I was so sad to leave it. The fact it was empty for almost a year and rented for 6 months (my renter did the first time home buyers thing) and I just couldn't bring myself to list it - says a lot.

The heaviness that has been crushing me is gone. I slept last night for the first time. I am still horribly sad my Dad is gone, but I am functional now. My Mom said I smiled today for the first time since Oct 5th. And my decision to get off my a$$ and work on both houses instead of going to the beach to cry I think says a lot.

I've made an extensive plan on how I'll transition. I am not sure how long it will all take, 2 weeks, 2 months - who knows. The list started today. I was able to purchase 6 gallons of high end discontinued/oops paint at Sherman Williams for $38 (antique white and white, can't beat that). 4 gallons are for the large house, 2 are for the little one. I picked out carpet for the den in the larger house (I am not going to buy hardwood for someone else kwim?) and I picked out carpet for the front bedroom of the little house that will be the playroom. I made arrangements with my step sister to pick up her Mom's furniture (6 pretty big pieces) and scheduled John to work on both houses.

Tomorrow, I'll keep going down the checklist.

Bye for now, thanks for reading.

See you on Tuesday

My Mom is taking me to the beach for three days for my birthday to cheer me up. I'll be back Tuesday.

I posted this on my SAC group and without going into too many details would you...

One - stay in the larger house in the expensive neighborhood with lots of space (about 800 more SF than you use), adopt DD2 with some financial finagling and not have a savings account.

Two - move back to the small house in the working family neighborhood with less space (need about 200 SF more), adopt DD2 with cash and have a rather large savings account.

Three - I guess three would be to sell both and buy a third house. This option just makes me tired.

Which is more important to you? Location and size or financial freedom? I'm not 100% either way yet, I'd love to hear what you all think.

(schools are comparable, commute is comparable, yard at the little house is larger, yard at the bigger house is much prettier)

(Dad died in the larger house in his bedroom, that is a visual I am having a hard time shaking. Dad redid a lot of stuff in the little house, every time I turn around I'll be reminded of something he fixed for me.)

Teaching

I try to show Natalie how to do stuff instead of doing everything for her. At her age, she is a sponge and remembers how to do everything!

She spilled her cheerios in the living room this morning then danced in them. Then she dumped her chips from snack time in the floor too. Guess who learned to use the vacuum today?



She going to "do-it again mama" tomorrow :)

Gearing up for Halloween

She didn't want her picture taken standing up which shows her outfit. I feel like I spent most of this "picture session" telling her to sit like a lady. This is the best pic I got:


What you can't see is her cute little black cargo skirt and that the pumpkin on her shirt is made of sequins. From toe to head = hand me down, Old Navy Clearance, Ebay, yardsale, Ebay.... for a grand total of $6.25 of Halloween happiness.

School Pictures

I was happy with this set. The other set with the school scene were horrible. They did a neon blue back ground and chipped beat up crayons.

My Mom is dragging me out tomorrow so I can get Dad's bank accounts unlocked (the death certificates have been done for a week, I've just not really wanted them). I'll find out the status of the mortgage, when it is due and what is owed. I know about what it is, and about when it is due, but I want to make arrangements to keep it current. Paying the condo bills while it is on the market, paying the little house bills while it is on the market and paying the regular house bills puts me in the hole every month, like big time. It is weird to go backwards like that every month, I hope it doesn't last forever.

$108 blink blink

$108 spent on baby stuff today. Two consignment stores and one wool bought off another Mom on diaperswappers. One consignment was 1/2 red and orange with tax, one store was $1 white and blue tags with no tax. I kind of lost track of what I spent on what and they take the tag so it is hard to remember.

Fluff #1 and the most expensive piece ($35):

Convertible wool longies. New. Did you all know wool is naturally waterproof and antibacterial? And if you get good wool, it isn't itchy. And did you know you can dye wool with kool aid? I am going to play with a skein as soon as I find some.

Newborn love. The top row is all new. The bottom 5 onesies should go with the longies I bought. I'll have to cut the snap part off and hem them but that is ok.

This Gymboree sleeper was a little more. It has reindeer on it and it doesn't look like it has been worn. The blanket is super fuzzy and was just $2 and has the tags.

Finally! I found paper lantern clothes. Just the jacket so far, worse case I'll get Mom to make a bottom to go with this.

Carters & Old Navy, my favorite.

These might not fit but I couldn't pass up like new Carters rompers for $1 each.

These also might be too small, but for $1 each I'll risk it. I can always pass them to someone else. The top left one is super nice, a bubble romper and matching jacket. Top right has smocking, very sweet.

These are larger and should fit. And they were $1 each too.

Zooming in on this one, so sweet and it had tags.

And check this out

Does this look familiar? I have one for Natalie to wear too :)

Two random skirts. The pink one is gymbo.

And on to poor Natalie. She doesn't have a thing to wear (ha ha ha)

Denim shorts and jumper were cheap, just $1. The corduroy skirts are Old Navy, much cuter than the picture shows. One for now, one for next year.

And these shirts for next summer were $1 each.

And last but not least, a dress for next summer and a top for next winter. The top is super cute in real life, corduroy Gymboree. The dress isn't really my style but it was $1 and will be cute when it is hot.

Bye for now

Sewing

Is totally therapeutic. My Mom is giving me her old retro green machine but couldn't get it in the car. So she brought over the semi vintage 80's portable and I have been learning to sew.

Everything I make is way crooked. And I just now really got the hang of cutting out fabric straight. How did I pass Kindergarten? The more I do it, the better it gets.

My goal is to sew my own newborn and infant stash of cloth diapers (30 each size and 50-75 wipes). I am using a lot of flannel and terry that has been used before. I recived a pack of gender neutral receiving blankets. Well with Natalie, I was like PINK PINK PINK. So I re-purposed them into prefold diapers and wipes. I also ordered 9 yards of cute snuggle fabric from JoAnns a couple of weeks ago when it was half off. The monkey print was my least favorite fabric of the new stuff so it fell victim to the sewing stash last night at 1am when I ran out of other flannel!

The insides of my regular prefolds have two thick layers of terry in the middle. The monkey ones will a little thicker for nap time and night time. They have two layers of terry and two layers of flannel. The terry was from a robe whose sleeves were way too short and the inside flannel was my favorite pair of sleep pants that I tore when I tripped on the edge of them. Anyway, these can be snappied if I want but more than likely I'll just keep them folded and tuck them into the cover. Based off of what a lot of people have said, Thirsties covers seem to be a favorite and I was able to buy an XS and S in lilac to make sure my creations work.


I still have 1.66 yards of the turquoise space monkey fabric. Then I have 2 yards of this

and 3 yards of this
Natalie wants blankets made out of the pink ones. I think the turquoise space monkey fabric will be a pillowcase dress. That is within my skill range - as long as no one checks out the seams!

As the days pass, I find myself becoming more green, for the last 15 months I've live a very wasteful lifestyle. The first thing I've done is set up a recycling area. I am air drying a lot of clothes again. I am saving every leftover and if I am missing an ingredient for a meal, I come up with a substitution. I am using up sample sizes of everything and organizing everything I own so I won't buy duplicates.

One big thing I am doing is putting Natalie back in cloth. She was almost potty trained in May then she regressed. Then she regressed again when Dad died. I didn't want to go to Walmart (I mean really, does anyone enjoy it?) so I bought pull ups at Dollar General, their brand. YIKES. Yesterday TWICE, this child came up to me, pulled her pull up to the side, told me it was wet and PEED ON THE FLOOR. That is really more than I can tolerate when it comes to fluids (especially on my nice floors). Thank goodness for hardwood. So I started thinking, why am I not using the Kawaii dipes I bought DD2 on Ebay? They are one size so I could just put them on the largest setting.

So I washed everything up last night and brought out her sole fuzzi bunz dipe (they are like $15, that is why there is only one) to wear all through the night. No leaks - hooray! Today when I put her in the pretty yellow diapers, I told her that she couldn't poop in them, they were very special. And guess what? She went in the potty. See, she can, but she won't. Stubborn little thing.

I've bought several pieces of wool for the baby on diaperswappers this week. Wool is naturally antibacterial and waterproof. Also, nice wool is very soft. At a time I should be circling my wagons $$ wise, I am spending it on diaper fluff. Why? Because I want to.

I got back to work on Nov 2nd. I took a 2 week unpaid leave of absence. I need 6 months. But I can afford take 2 weeks so that is what I am doing.

That is enough for now - bye.

Weekend Update

First, thanks for all the nice comments about my Dad below. This has been a horrific week and sometimes I wonder if I'll ever feel normal again. I've gotten past the stage of blubbering idiot and now I am firmly planted into poor pitiful me land.

The service was very nice. With my step mom, my Dad choose most of what they were going to do. With this one, they realized that we didn't know what we were doing and did it all for us. They did a full mass with communion. The Knights came and there was a full choir. They sang his favorite song (which I requested in a moment of clarity). He was cremated and will be laid to rest at his church in a special garden they are building. They hope to have it complete by spring.

The church really pulled through for me on pictures too. I spent 15 minutes crying in the office because I didn't buy the expensive pictures from a couple of weeks ago. My cheapness really bit me in the ass. But they think they've found them so I can have a copy of the picture with my Dad and baby together. So if you are the praying sort, please think of me and the picture and be optimistic that I'll get one.

I lived alone for several years and really enjoyed it. Now I am really lonely. My Mom has practically moved in but I feel like an orphan. Now I know how poor Natalie felt when I took her from her foster mama.

Speaking of Natalie, my baby is having night terrors and won't let me out of her sight. She rarely mentions his name and won't go into his room. I know she didn't see him that morning but she isn't stupid. She knows something bad happened to her Grandpapa and he isn't here anymore. She is super clingy to Nana too. She simply won't sleep until she is almost falling over and is sleeping about 8 hours a day instead of her normal 12. So I am not sure what I'll be doing about that.

I won't be going back to work this week and I'll be visiting my doc tomorrow about a couple of things. One, my walking pneumonia is back. All the crying and stuff did me in. Two, my company has short term disability. I am going to ask him if he won't sign them for me so I can arrive back to work in a mostly whole state instead of the pieces I'm in now. Everyone tried to drug me last Monday "to take the edge off" but I wouldn't take the pills. I just don't want that now and I want to see if I can get through the depression on my own. I am hopeful that once the WP is cleared up, I will sleep better and start healing.

A lot of things have changed around here too. I've Pine-Sol-ed every surface in this place like 4 times, I need to stop or I'll rub the finish off the hardwood (before, my motto was "clean enough!") Ms Packrat has become "do you need one of these?". My walk in closet was a disaster, knee deep in stuff. I gave some of it away and packed up all my summer clothes. I made room for the few pieces of clothing of Dads that I wanted to keep and my brother took the bulk of it because they are almost the same size (which pleases me, I'd rather see my brother in the clothes instead of taking them to Goodwill). I've gone through the fridge and frozen half of the food that has been dropped off at the house and have turned into full frugal mode (except for pictures, I've learned a very hard lesson). I used to fuss at Dad over the amount of food he'd buy and freeze or store (pantry food) but I realize now, it was just his way of providing. He has left us with 6-12 months of things, I'll only have to buy milk & fruit.

My Mom has become a cleaning maniac and has been tearing stuff apart and reorganizing it. I don't know where half of my kitchen is, but that is ok because it looks better. I hadn't decorated the new house yet and she has been pulling out my knick knacks and putting things out for me. I think she is just trying to keep me busy and worn out so I'll sleep better. She went to her house to get work clothes (she goes back tomorrow) and to bring back her sewing machine. We are going to make living room curtains from my pretty yard sale fabrics, something I've wanted to do for years. I'm also going to learn to knit (I've always wanted to, not sure why I've just not gone out and done it) and start making fitted newborn dipes for DD2.

This will be my last "downer" post on all of this. My blog is my online journal so I'll post things like this from time to time. But I don't want it to overshadow the happy stuff that happens. So if I seem perky-er next week I'm just faking.

Bye for now - Kim

my daddy died today

Catch up Post

Church directory picture day:

(don't you love it when clearance + etsy + yard sale + hand me down = cute outfit?)

Her hair has lightened so much since coming home. There s a lot of red in it now.


I don't mind Olan Mills pictures but these people were nuts. I can buy a pack of pictures for about $20 with OM everywhere but at church that night. Get this, $74.99 SPECIAL was..... 2 5x7s. That is it. After I gave him my "You HAVE to be kidding look" I said no thanks. He was like, it is a beautiful picture of your little girl! I laughed and said ya, I have several thousand of those!Waiting for bobo to come out of the washer. (I cut her hair, the bald spot layer had almost caught up to her regular layer. So I did a quick snip all the way around to get rid of the thin pieces. Then I pulled her hair straight up and evened up her long bangs and the sides. Now her ends flip up a little bit and look so much thicker! )

(hand me down + consignment + yard sale + crocs.com = pupple! I am rather pleased with myself, the rainbow on the front of the hand me down shirt matches the rainbow stitching on the back pockets on the consignment skirt! And don't get me going on how perfect the 50 cent yard sale tights match all the Gap stuff she was given. Love it!)

Not the best pictures in the world, but I wanted to capture the excitement of PUPPLE tights! I'm waring PUPPLE tites to scool MAMA! BTW, the banana was for bobo.

Had a yard sale, made $102.50 after I spent like $20 on Sharon's stuff!

Ran the numbers, after the next sale on Sat, I'll be donating everything on Monday Jan 4th. With the medical birth costs for DD2, I'll be able to itemize. I am going to purge 75% of what we own. Maybe once all the clutter is gone, I'll like the house better.

All the carpet is gone from the den. Little outdoor cat got in, infected indoor cat with fleas so we've been battling the little buggars left and right. I didn't want carpet in the den anyway, so it was a great excuse to rip it up. I'll be taking up the tack strip this week in hopes of laying the wood laminate in a week or two. I was going to do real wood, but laminate is pretty durable when it comes to kids and it is super cheap.

I ordered DD2s cloth diapers on Ebay. I got 12 pocket dipes with 24 microfiber inserts for $69. I also ordered various monkey flannel online to make new wipes and to use on the backs of my infant size and small size inserts. I am also going to trim out half of the inserts with the flannel to turn them into larger sized prefolds. Then I can buy a couple of covers, sell off all the pieces I didn't use with Natalie and be a happy camper! (BTW, 1 month of CDing pays for all the supplies so it really isn't that expensive overall plus I'll g et $50ish for the pieces I am selling!)

Spent $19 on baby clothes. I'll try to stop now lol

This was all $8, special holy cow it is in the end of the day deal - look at all the baby clothes we have left - mark them down!

The ones on the outside are carters, can't remember he middle one.
How can you not get this?

2 more carter and a new red knit 2 piece. It is so cute! So 5 sleepers and a new outfit for $8. Sold!

Now I probably wouldn't of bought this stuff but Mom bought it for $6 total.

There were 5 other pieces that went into the reject pile.

And I bought this earlier in the year before I decided on DD2, just really wanted it. I got it at our MOD sale, half off, so I think I paid $4.50 for these pieces and the middle jumper has the tags on it (youngland!):

At the consignment store, right at $4.50


I am pretty sure I saw the donald duck onesie at Disney for $15ish. It is brand new, the little plastic tag holder thingy is still on it.

This is just yummy. Gymboree, new with tags, half off of orange tag day...$4.50. It will look beautiful on her!

Let's see, what else. I am battling the crud, like i have for a month now. Felt great yesterday woke up today after my nap (I don't get to sleep the night through, I like to refer to the 3-4 hours I get as my powernap) feeling like poop again. The baby is fighting off a cough and some snot, I liek to call it seasonal snot, all the kids have it. YUCK!

Enough for now, I am going to run and make chicken tacos for lunch - yum! Bye!