The Carpet Cleaner vs. Mom

As I looked around the apartment this morning I couldn't help but to feel happy, although I am stressed out and overwhelmed by this move, today I realized I am still very happy about it. As I thought about where everything would go in our new home I glanced at our couch. Now we bought this couch 5 years ago, and it was great. All my couches before had been hand me down couches, so this beauty was my first new couch. Thinking back I am surprised we were buying new furniture when we were just dating and living together, but it all worked out {obviously} I was so excited the day it was delivered and it looked perfect, just perfect. It is a nice little sectional with a small chaise lounge off one end of the couch. The pillows were such a fun look, since they could be moved around to give the couch a "new" look. Then I remembered how sad I was when we could not use the couch as a sectional in our apartment, it just didn't work well in our living room {nothing works well in this living room, currently the couch is blocking the fireplace}As I started to get excited about having the couch used as it was meant to be in the new home I started to look closer..... the cushions were looking less than clean and just this morning my son had mushed some banana onto one of the pillows. Not only did they look dirty I knew they must be, my son likes to take the pillows off and jump on them. I now know that my next couch will be leather {easy to clean} and it will NOT have pillows, it will have cushions that STAY on the couch at all times. Knowing that there was not a new couch in my near future I realized I needed to do something about this mess in front of me, how embarrassing would it be to have people come see your new home just to see mashed banana stains on my couch {I think it would be VERY embarrassing} So I decided my only option would be to pull out the carpet cleaner and use the attachment to clean all the cushions and pillows. This seemed simple enough, I had done it before. Well this time I was boxed in, literally. With little to no room to move and with a toddler trying to ruin my efforts it was not as easy at it had seemed in my mind. I begin with the cushions. I go to pull the trigger and not only does the cushion get covered in the cleaning solution I do too. I guess the upside to this situation is that it is getting on the cushions, not just going on me. I try to adjust the little spray nozzle but it is no use, it seems if I want a clean couch I will be getting a spray down as well. As I spray, scrub, and suck up all the dirt my jeans are getting soaked. I soon move onto the pillows,this is when the machine makes a funny noise and stops sucking {which is a very important feature} I turn to the machine and see my toddler at the controls. Thanks Max, now mommy has to un-confuse the machine which now thinks I want to clean the floors. I end up having to un plug it and start over. After switching the controls way too many times I finally get my suction back. When I turn to use it I see that my son has taken the two pillows I had finished out to the deck, normally this would not be a big deal, but since it rained last night all of his chalk marks are wet and now getting on the pillows. I now decide it is nap time for my little man, I don't think I need his help to finish my project. As I get to the last pillow I run out of cleaning solution, of course, half a pillow to go and I have to go re load my cleaner. Once I have finally finished the pillows I prop them up and hope that they will dry FAST, because I just know it is going to be near impossible to keep my little guy off the couch all night. As I look at the pillows I feel better about the appearance of my couch, but still really want that nice brown leather one I just happened to see online last night. Why is it that we always want more? I mean, I have a couch, can't I just be happy with it? I wish I was happy with it, I really do, but when we bought it kids were not even on our minds, and so we did not pick the best sofa for durability. My only hope is that my next couch purchase will be a smarter one, one that can stand up to Max longer, and be easier to keep looking nice. But its not just me, my husband wants a new kitchen table. And I am sure there are many people out there who are just waiting until they can up-grade their current possessions. I guess I just need to learn to love it for now, knowing that eventually I can get a new one. A new one that will not leave me battling with the carpet cleaner. At least today I came out the winner, it never got the best of me, I stood my ground and now the couch is clean. Round One goes to Mom.

Kelly Callahan

10 Pounds Later

I have decided that moving may be a great way to clear out, but it sure is not good for my figure. You would think with all the packing and running around I am doing I would be looking good, but no. Instead I am eating more fast food, snacking WAY too much, and gaining weight like a bear heading for hibernation. I may be slightly exaggerating, but I assure you my pants are much tighter today then they should be.  I figure once this move is over { four days from now everything should be officially moved} I will MAKE myself get back in shape. Now I do realize I am doing this backwards. Usually people start working out around January, fearing the bikinis, but I am fearing the tight pants, and I refuse to buy new pants, no way. I want to join a gym, but my hubby will fight me on that one {I don't have a very good track record of using my gym memberships} I just have to convince him that I will go, a ton. I have my motivation, they are cutting off circulation to my lower half as we speak.  I figure with enough motivation I will stick to it{ yes, I said I was going to start working out three months ago, but now I have gained more weight, therefore I have more motivation} I hope that once the move is over it won't take too long to get settled into our new house {so happy I can say I have a house now!} I am sure I will be quick to have everything un-packed just like I started packing a month in advance.  I like to have things clean and looking tidy....so looking around me right now gives me a headache. I am surrounded by boxes. I can see things I should clean but can't get to them. I figure I will just have to go crazy for the rest of today and then get through tomorrow. As soon as Friday morning gets here I can breathe a quick sigh of relief as I will finally be able to load up my car and drive some things to the house. It is funny, three months ago I was so excited to move, I had no idea where I was moving, and hadn't even added up all the costs. I am still excited, but I sure hope we stay at this home a long time. After paying for rent at our apartment, a deposit on the house, a pet deposit on the house, pro-rated September rent on the house, setting up trash service, hiring movers, and add on having to fix my car.... this month has been rough. I told my hubby that at least October will seem cheap :) Maybe in October I can start to beg again for my "stockpile" shelving. I really want one place to put all of my items that I get for free or REALLY cheap. He says there will be plenty of room in the home for my stuff without buying the shelves I want....but I disagree... maybe once I fill the Living room with piles of Shampoo and razors he'll head to Target and get me what I want :) With the amount of money I have saved on toiletries alone I could by  A LOT of shelves. All in all I have probably put about 30 dollars into a very impressive stash of shampoo and conditioner, soap, razors {for me and my hubby}, toothbrushes, and toothpaste. When the cost of one of my hubby's favorite razors is normally 12.99 I say that even his stash of 8 new Gillette Pro Glide razors should earn me some shelving. But who cares what I think....he thinks I am a little crazy with my couponing, yet he sure doesn't seem to mind asking me for a new razor and having me pull it out of thin air for him...we'll have to see how long it takes me to get my true stockpile area, I'd give it a month, tops. Well, I better get back to packing, and I need to hide all the sweets from myself {I happened to get free chocolate at Rite Aid today...not a good freebie for me right now, but I couldn't say no.} I will go try and hide from the chocolate and pack some boxes, and in about 10 pounds this move should be over.

Kelly Callahan

The Poodle Lady

Let me set the scene for you...... There's me, taking my black lab Moxy on a walk, with my toddler who likes to run. We start our walk at our usual fast pace {okay, I start chasing Max} We turn our first corner and there she is, the poodle lady, of course at this point I never expected anything bad. Then Moxy saw it, she saw the poodle{she does not like poodles} As she saw this poodle she decided she HAD to be closer, much closer. At that very moment we were standing on top of a little hill, covered in loose dirt. So as Moxy decided to yank her way towards her poodle any guess what happened to me? Yep, I went down fast, as I was being dragged down the little hill on my side I was telling Max to wait for me. I finally regained control of my crazy dog and glanced up at the poodle lady, and what was she doing? Was she asking if I was okay? NO. Was she heading the other direction to remove the source of my little disaster?NO. Was she offering to help me catch my toddler as he ran away from me?NO. She gave me a weird, almost nasty look, and continued to walk right past our little disaster scene without saying a word. Really? So silly me, feeling very stupid, and in shock of her silence apologized to her...why did I do it? Not sure, I guess when I don't know what to say in certain situations I turn to saying sorry. She still just glared, not picking up her speed. After telling my dog that she should NOT pull me like that I collect my child and we go back down the hill {on our feet this time} to a little grass area for Moxy to do her business. As I looked down at my scraped up leg I started to realize how rude that poodle lady was and how much I wish I didn't apologize to her. And then.... guess who came back, yep the poodle lady, she didn't even bother to walk around us, she walked right by, almost like she wanted to see me fall down again. I held my dog VERY close as she passes, at her slow pace, like she owned the place. Wow, what nerve, first you don't even bother to say ANYTHING to me after I am dragged down a hill, then you give no effort to get your dog away from my dog, and THEN you walk right back by?? Well Poodle Lady, I am sorry that I interrupted your nice walk in YOUR apartment grass. I am so annoyed I think I'll just move, yeah that's what I'll do, I think I'll pick up keys to a house on Friday morning and then I'll be out of here. That sounds good :)

Kelly Callahan

I'm Convinced

Alright, I am convinced now. We've made the right choice. Last week at this time I was so worried that we had rushed everything and made a bad decision. One of my worries was that there was something out there that was better or cheaper, or both. But now that I am 7 days away from my move in date I am sure we made a good decision. All week long I have looked all over the internet at homes for rent {we don't officially sign papers on the house till tonight} I felt I had to look, just in case there was that "perfect" house out there I didn't want to miss it. But after 7 days of looking I came up with nothing, really NOTHING. I then realized that if my friend had not seen the sign for the home we are moving into I may not have any home to move into at all at this point, and if that was the case I would be a lot more stressed out right now {and a lot less motivated to pack} I guess we were meant to have this home, small but nice. And I just found out that once our apartment is upgraded it would cost just 90 dollars less than a whole house, with a back yard and a garage! So with rental prices climbing I am feeling better about our decision and I am so happy that we found it. I did not want to wait until the last minute to find a house, two weeks in advance works much better for me. To celebrate my happiness today I decided to do a coupon trip {coupons always cheer me up even more} So today Max and I headed to Target with a plan. Nothing too exciting but it all worked. We got : 6 Scrubbing Bubbles toilet wand starter kits, 6 scrubbing bubbles toilet cleaning gel wands, 2 of the hubby's favorite Gillete Cooling Lotions, 4 big boxes of Playtex tampons, and two little trains to keep my shopping partner happy {clearance of course} My total spent was 34.22 {felt like less because I had a 5.42 return right before} My total savings? $61.72. Now, I have saved this much before, but never at Target. Target is very coupon friendly, it is just hard to get good enough coupons to use for great deals there. But  finally my coupons and store deals worked together. Now this may not sound fun to you {shopping for toilet cleaners and tampons} but this shows you how logical my coupon habit can be, there will always be a toilet to clean {sadly} and I will need my "Lady" products every month {again,sadly} these are all items I would purchase anyway, and by buying them in bulk I have saved a lot of money and will not have to buy them for a long time.{ at least a lot longer than usual} I was very excited about my trip and sad that my coupon partner in crime is on vacation in Mexico {poor her} and I couldn't call her to tell her the deals so she could go have a coupon trip too! This reminds me of another great thing about moving. When I find these great deals and want to run off to the store to cash in on my savings I can just call my coupon buddy, and being that we will live three blocks from each other, we can go together! And coupon shopping with a partner is just that much more fun! Another big accomplishment today was reserving the movers, this makes the move even more "real" we have movers set to come here at 2:00pm in just 8 days. I was lucky I called when I did {really lucky, since I was planning on booking them tomorrow} they only had ONE slot left for the Saturday I wanted. At first I was sad not to get a morning time, but soon realized that no matter how "ready" for the move I think I am I will be happy to have the extra time that morning to pack and even take over small trips of breakables and clothing myself.  This will be better for the movers too, they will have less stuff to get around and it will be easier for them to do there jobs quickly.{I hope so, since they charge by the hour} We have never hired movers before, I guess it was a luxury that we couldn't afford, and to be honest we really can't "afford" them now, but it is well worth the money to not have to do this move, it would be near impossible to move some of our larger pieces of furniture{remember, I live on the third floor} So for the sake of our sanity and our backs and knees we decided to splurge and pay people to do the hard stuff. I think I will enjoy this kind of moving, I will have the easiest moving day I have ever had, and that's nice to say.

Kelly Callahan

Feeling Boxed In

With eight days until we start to move out I am sure you can imagine how many boxes are currently surrounding me. There are packed boxes, half packed boxes, big ones, little ones, heavy ones, and light ones. As the piles of boxes grow I am finally starting to see empty space where we need it, in the pantry, and in the closets. As my husband came home last night I am sure he thought I had accomplished nothing, but as he went to get a cup from the kitchen he realized I had been very busy. The kitchen is about 75% packed as is my closet. I only left things we would need in the next eight days, or things that were not fitting well into my boxes. I seem to get little bursts of "packing" energy, then its gone...all gone. When my energy is gone I pace the apartment looking at all there is left to do and wishing I could get some of these stupid boxes out of my way! If only it wouldn't cost even more to have the home sooner it would be great to be able to take over little trips, even just to make a path{a bigger path} Why do I need a bigger path? I always stub my toes, now this is when the apartment is clean and organized, so just imagine what my poor feet are going through now {my hubby finds this amusing, but my pinkie toe does not agree} So my feet will be happy when we have a new home, where I can un-pack {yay} and get organized all over again. I still think this has been a great way to help me clear out. I finally donated things I had been for some reason holding onto for..well forever {yes, I donated the skinny jeans,with all my "anxious" eating I feel they are a dream that was gone with my last pint of ben and jerrys} My neighbors either think I am crazy or they have caught on that we are moving. They see me walk out so many times with so many trash bags I must look like a hoarder. It feels good to toss something in the dumpster, knowing that that is one less thing I will have to move and later un-pack. I also received good news from the Apartment manager today {nice to have a nice conversation with them} They will be turning our little home into a "premium" apartment. This means they will charge the next person A LOT more rent than we are paying. Why is this good?{not like we get any of the new "perks"} It is good because they will be replacing pretty much everything in the apartment, so they told me not to worry about cleaning things like the oven,fridge, carpets,or blinds. This is great news. Who wants to spend all that time deep cleaning things you will never see again? Not me, and now I don't have to.  This will make the cleaning ,once all of our things are out, go by super fast. It seems that part of me is still in denial that this is actually happening, for three years I wanted to move and it never happened so why would it work out now? Well, it is working out and we are moving, so I better get used to it. I know I will be a tiny {tiny tiny} bit sad to leave the place where so many memories were made but I will be more excited to make more memories in a house. I guess I won't be convinced that I have a house until moving day, and since that is only eight short days away, I will be convinced very soon.

Kelly Callahan

10 Days to go Crazy

Okay... 10 days and we have the keys to our house. Wow, so in ten days I will say goodbye to apartment living for good. I remember when I was 18 and all I wanted was to live in an apartment, and now, seven years later, I just want out. My problem today is that I am out of boxes, this is only a temporary problem, my hubby will have a car load of boxes for me when he gets home from work. Until then I feel like I am stuck. I can clean, but as I clean things I know I should be putting them in a box. I know that the rest of this week will be better, I will have plenty of boxes {I hope} and I can get everything that we don't need in the next ten days into boxes. Then I just need to be creative about where I stack my boxes. They can't be too low because Max will climb up them like a mad man, but I don't want them too high where they could tip over onto Max....hmmm, we'll see what I come up with. The more I think of our new place the more happy I am with our decision. I know it is not as much space as I wanted, but as I stubbed my toe on the wagon in our bedroom last night {yes, Max's wagon is in our room...what do you expect, I have NO room here} I realized I will be able to put Max's wagon in the garage, along with his jogging stroller, and his Power Wheels truck{which is by the kitchen table}. Then, I realized I will have third bedroom, which will have the bed that has been in storage for a year, and will have a spot for a desk {we now have our computer in the living room.} I want the "living area" of our new home to feel like a model home, no more random things around, and I really think in this home I will be able to find a spot for everything. And if it doesn't have a "true" spot, I will have the storage area under the stairs to put my random things {you know, stuff you don't need right now, but you can't get rid of} Dinner is made and Max and I had fun making rice krispie treats, so I don't have anything at the top of my list for today....so I guess I should do some deep cleaning, fun huh? I also have to get a hold of the dummies at our Apartment building, I went down to their office three days ago, sat down with the leasing lady to find out what EXACTLY I owed for pro rated rent this month. she told me, I wrote a check. Well, today I got a note on my door saying I was short on rent. Well, if I pay the extra amount they want me to I would be paying a full months rent. So obviously some not so clever person didn't look very close at my file... I am not here the whole month so I am not paying for the whole month. Ugg, they are not so bright here at Silver Reef, which makes me even happier to be moving. I think I have gotten over all my "fears" of the move and am ready to go, I am just ready 10 days early.

Kelly Callahan

I Should Be Excited Right Now

What I should be writing right now is YAY, we got a house! But nope, that's not what I am wanting to say. I am worried and stressed. Why? Because I now realize that next week I will be writing a very large check to a woman I have met once and who gave me her business card. She had keys to the home, so she must be the true Property Manager right? And yes its true not everyone is on the Internet, so it isn't strange that I don't find her there. But still, how am I going to trust this lady? I guess it will just be a leap of faith, and I will of course save every single piece of paper work if something were to go wrong. So lets assume this lady is Legit and I am signing a lease next week on a home I will get.....in 14 days by the way. I am still not jumping with joy....why? Well, then I have to second guess myself, did we make the right decision? It all happened so fast, we heard about the house yesterday, viewed the home yesterday, and were approved for the home today. I guess in the "renters" world of homes this is how it goes, since half the homes I call about are already taken. But were we to hasty in our decision? Is this a good home for us? It sure doesn't have as much room as I wanted in a home, but I didn't see many in our budget that did. The location is PERFECT, so that is a big deal, and it does knock a lot off my checklist {the one I made when I said I wouldn't be too picky about a house} It has a garage, it has a driveway, a big one at that, it has a yard, it has three bedrooms, it has a laundry room, but no basement, and only one true "living" space. But how much space do we really need? It is a HOUSE and that is what should matter, I will no longer be dragging bags and a toddler up three flights of stairs, I can let the dog out in the yard, I can have an "extra" bedroom. And this place has upgrades... stainless appliances, new carpet, new paint{and its not white!} So I should be happy right now, right? So why am I stressed out? I must be scared to leave the comfort of my little apartment....no that can't be it, I don't really like this place.... maybe its the money, well it could be, but I am good at saving so I'm not too worried. Maybe it is just the fact that in 14 days I have to get all the stuff from here to there....yuck. Even though we will have movers to help it still seems an impossible task. Then we have to get everything out of storage, yet another impossible task. But I know that in 18 days I will be happy. I will have a house, be across the street from the park, four blocks away from my best friend, and enjoying our new life without sharing walls. I just wish I could press the fast forward button and get to that time, the time where everything is moved, un packed, and organized.....tuff luck, I'll just have to do my best to be prepared for the move and take it as it comes. Hopefully all goes smoothly and quickly and we can relax before we know it {okay so I can relax, My hubby doesn't seem at all affected by what is coming} Today I payed our last rent payment to our apartments, it was nice to know I would never be living so close to my neighbors ever again. Wish me luck for the next 17 days, I have a feeling I'm gonna need it.

Kelly Callahan