And the day after

I made it through the first Christmas. It wasn't all sunshine and roses, but it certainly wasn't as bad as I feared. Everything was really OK until we pulled into the garage after spending the afternoon and evening over at my mom and dad's. Then munchkin called for daddy. I didn't even make it out of the car before I melted into a puddle of tears. Every time I do that the munchkin gets scared and asks me what's wrong. How do I explain?

For whatever reason, sometime early this afternoon I decided that today was the day to deal with switching closets. Up to this point, since we moved into this house, hubby's clothes were in the closet in the master bedroom and mine were in the spare bedroom. The same for dressers. Even though I felt it was really forever saying goodbye to him, I decided today was the day for the move. So I sucked up my courage, called for reinforcements (Mom had offered to help in this process a long time ago), and dove in.

The closet is now clean and nearly organized. The spare bedroom is partially organized. I've been to Wal-Mart. Several hundreds of dollars later I have my kitchen cabinets organized, a new flat screen TV in my bedroom (THANKS JODI!), all the random things that needed to go back to Wal-Mart are back there, Dad's the receiver of some of Ron's old things, tons of stuff for the garage sale are down in the lower level, and I'm exhausted.

I also did load after load of laundry, TRIED to put some of munchkin's things away, mixed up bread dough to bake for tomorrow's extended family Christmas, and just basically made the mess of things that happens while you're organizing.

One of the next projects will be to sort through munchkin's toybox and get rid of some things. She's got so much new stuff from Christmas that there's no way I can keep this living room even close to neat unless I do something about this situation. Really, you should see the floor of the living room. It's horrible. And I'm not even going to attempt it tonight.

The word of the month...SIGH.

What I'd like to tell you

I'd like to tell you that I have time to blog about all that's been going on in the last week. I don't think I really do, but I'll hit the highlights...

Hubby put up my Williams Sonoma shelves. These were a belated birthday present. They're going to house cookbooks and small appliances that don't get used every day. More pictures when I can get to it. Sorry!

Thinking of starting Pilates. It should be really good for me after the accident. Even got the approval of my chiropractor.

Trying to get really into my book for book club. Not making a lot of progress there. This WILL NOT be the only book I haven't read in the year since I started this thing.

Stitch and bitch tomorrow night. Plus I have to go to a viewing for my daycare provider's father-in-law. It's the right thing to do. Going to be a busy night.

Work continues to keep me busy. I still love it. I'm still crazy. :)

Spent Sunday with my best friend Amy. Went to church with her. Wonderful experience. I'll be going back.

That's the 30 second wrap up. Gotta run!

Relaxing

I spent the morning out on our newly renovated deck. We painted/stained it white and had indoor/outdoor carpeting installed. (Pictures to follow when I get the energy.) So this morning I took a cup of Yogi tea, my MP3 player, and my crocheting and sat out there.

There was a pretty stiff wind (25-35 mph), but it was still so nice. I've been working on my blue "green" scarf. I named it that because it's reusing some yarn from a sweater that I took apart. Therefore, it's "green" in the sense that I didn't purchase anything new made by a factory. This scarf is done with a very fine yarn and a very small hook (Size E) so it's going to take a while. But it's going to be pretty cool.

The hubby gave me a compliment yesterday on the yarn "feeder" I was using. I read about it on a crochet forum, so I can't take credit for the idea. Do you recognize the container? It's a bleach wipes container. Putting the ball of yarn in allows it to feed through the top very conveniently. Works like a charm!

Update

It's been a crazy weekend. We are preparing for new flooring going into the kitchen/dining room, laundry room, and front entryway. With that in mind, it's been a mass of, "Where are we going to move this? Out on the deck? Nope, can't do that. They're putting the indoor/outdoor carpeting out there. OK, let's move this here, and this here, and we'll put the fridge in the living room..."

I wish I were kidding. I currently have a table on the bed in the spare bedroom, a baker's rack in the hallway, and there will soon be a washer, dryer, and stove on the front porch. The dining room table will reside in the living room, along with the chairs, and the fridge will indeed be in the living room until the kitchen floor is done. Heck, we might like it so much that we'll decide to leave it there.

I've been working on that double crocheted blue afghan. I'm hoping to finish the first skein (a 1 lb. skein. Those of you that crochet know that's over twice the size of a large skein.) today so that I can feel some sense of accomplishment. I've also been reading David Copperfield and have promised myself that I'll finish up to page 350 before beginning book 3 of the Edward and Bella story. It's been hard to resist.

Work is as busy as ever. Right now I'm working hard just to keep my head above water. But, having lots of projects to work on keeps me busy and keeps my mind off of other things that have been worrying me. So, I'm not complaining. Besides, job security is never a bad thing. And I do love my job.

Amazed!

Before...

After...

Before...

After...

Obscene spending

We're going to make some major improvements to our home. First, we're putting up a brand new vinyl fence exactly like the one shown above. Then, there's going to be a brand new vinyl deck. Then some major landscaping in the backyard. And the piece the hubby is most excited about...fancy new garage doors that he's been wanting for two years. It's going to be kind of wild around here for a couple of months. I'll post pictures as we see progress.