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Archive for the ‘house stuffs’ Category

The Skinny. The Deets. Where We’re At.

Posted 02 May 2013 — by Mrs. Jenna
Category Abigail, house stuffs, marriage, motherhood, paparazzi, toddler business

I realized yesterday as I was doing God knows what, that I have a tendency to talk about something here and then never really follow up with what happened with it. That’s not helpful.

So, here’s a bit of an update on how things are going in our house.

Abby’s Sleep Training

Abby earned her bike. She made it 12 days of falling asleep on her own. After about a week, we started sitting outside of her door (first cracked open, then closed). Now we just read a book, say goodnight, and then leave the room. Granted, she’s still stalling some nights for another 20 minutes (I have to go potty, I need a hug, where’s my blankie), but we’re not laying with her until she falls asleep anymore.

bike

See also: we actually watched a movie after she went to bed this week. A WHOLE MOVIE. Now we need to work on getting her to bed sooner. (We recently started using a Dohm Sound Machine in her room, and it’s amazing how much better she is sleeping. We used it in our room for a bit and it’s really nice. Highly recommended.) Awesome level: FRICKING AWESOME.

Our House

We’ve had a total of 10 showings and 2 open houses. The second open house was for agents, and we got awesome feedback. One thought she might have a buyer, another stated he didn’t think our house would last through the weekend. (I hope that guy doubles as a psychic.) Our 11th showing is happening in an hour. It’s been trying to keep the house clean, but we’ve been doing a good job and only have to do minor tidying every evening and morning before we leave. Although, our dishwasher broke last night, so that’s going to suck until it’s fixed. (The part’s coming tomorrow, and the hubs and I are going to try to DIY that shit. We’ll see about that.) Basically, BUY MY HOUSE. Awesome level: Almost Awesome.

My Uterus

Sorry. Awkward title. I guess maybe not so much my ute as my bloodwork? Anyway, eight days after this post, I got back test results indicating the Anti-C in my system was no longer there. (HUGE EFFING SIGH OF RELIEF.) The Anti-D was still there, but from the Rhogam shot so no worries. The bigger issue now is that I still have HCG in my system. (In case you’re not in the know, HCG is the chemical your body produces when you’re pregnant (and is what pregnancy tests detect to give a positive result).) I wrote about how prior to the D&C that my levels were 132,000 IU/L (which is pretty high), but would drop after the procedure. It has dropped, but here I am, 3 months later, and still getting positive pregnancy tests. Isn’t that fun? My levels were checked last Friday, and after last month’s reading was 189 IU/L, I’m down to 98 IU/L. (5 IU/L or less is considered 0.) I can’t believe it’s taking this long. Apparently, neither can my doctor, as I’m having an ultrasound on Monday to make sure nothing was “missed,” which kind of freaks me out, but I’m just looking for answers and “normal” to happen. (And no, not actually pregnant again.) Awesome level: Nope. Not at all awesome.

So, there you have it. Did I recap all the things? I hope so.

Selling Our House Is Making Me Feel All The Feels.

5 Comments

Posted 22 Apr 2013 — by Mrs. Jenna
Category house stuffs, marriage, motherhood, not so much, paparazzi, toddler business

You guys. This house selling business? Pretty much the dumbest thing we’ve ever decided to do. I mean, yeah – in the end it will be a new chapter in our lives that shapes…blah blah zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Sorry. So tired. Because BUY MY HOUSE.

livingroom

After stressing for a few weeks, and staging, purging, organizing, cleaning, and shoving all remaining items into closets, drawers, and please don’t look under our bed…our house hit the market Saturday morning. And minutes later, we had our first showing scheduled. Yesterday we had another, and then an open house.

It’s only been 3 days and I’m already freaking out. What if nobody buys it. What it the reasons I want to move are all the things people can see in the house?

The first couple ‘s feedback was A great house. Number two on our list. Good. VERY good.

The second couple’s feedback? Too close to high school. Uh….I KNOW. As a newly married couple who bought this house over five years ago? We could literally give a fuck. We had many fucks to give on this topic. Now? GET OFF MY LAWN WITH YOUR CHEETOS BAGS YOU JERKS. But seriously, for 2.5 years of being in this house I didn’t care. Now? I just want a more family friendly hood in an awesome school district. (I’m so old.) So…someone has to have the capacity to look past that small issue, right? Because we did?

Back to this being a dumb idea – who the hell can keep their house this clean? I mean, I can’t even BEGIN to imagine what happens to larger families with houses that sit on the market for MONTHS. How do you keep a house SPOTLESS for that long? I mean, we’ve had ours “photo ready” since Friday and already I feel like the worst mom on the planet. On Sunday, two hours before a showing and open house, Abby managed to spill her apple juice three times that morning. After the third time I sternly told her “WE ARE TRYING TO KEEP THE HOUSE CLEAN AND YOU’RE MAKING MAMA SAD WHEN YOU SPILL.” (Great parenting, me. That’ll stop three-year-old clumsiness.) No less than 5 minutes later, I heard her in the bathroom doing something and left my kitchen cleaning to make sure she wasn’t messing something up. When I entered the bathroom she jumped and dropped the hand towel she was struggling to retrieve. I asked her what she was doing, and she answered “nothing” which I’ve already learned is code for “something I will not disclose on the grounds that it may incriminate me.” After some coaxing, she explained that she spilled some more apple juice on the tray in the living room but I was being too mean so she didn’t want to tell me. She was going to try to clean it up herself. When I went in the living room, it was the smallest dot of juice.

abbys

I nearly broke down in bad mama tears in front of her, but kept it in check. I was turning into a crazy person trying to keep the house clean and also managing to make my three year old terrified of me. I gave her a big hug and said sorry that I was being mean, and that I didn’t mean it. I informed her that I would be nicer, gave her a paper towel in case she spilled again (and that accidents happen and it’s not a big deal!) and that when she sells her first house she can think back on this moment when her mama had her foot in the insane asylum door and realize that selling your house really is the dumbest idea ever.

Because THEN when we looked at other houses I started getting all sad because I LIKE MY HOUSE YOU GUYS. I really do. If I could pick it up and move it somewhere else I probably would. Of course, it was built in 1932 and I feel like moving it might have structural implications, so we’re not going to explore that avenue.

I just…so many things, you guys. People who buy houses and then fix them up only to sell them again? And also do this as a business? WITH THEIR FAMILIES? Have to be slightly crazy and also on lots of emotion numbing medication because I don’t know how I’m going to get through this without there being many tears for many reasons.

This was such a dumb idea.

Unease.

8 Comments

Posted 04 Dec 2012 — by Mrs. Jenna
Category house stuffs, marriage, not so much, The Hubs

“Well, we must wait for the future to show.”
― Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse

To come to a point where your dreams move away from your reach is hard.

The hubs and I have discussed putting our house on the market for months. We worked all summer on our home to prepare it to sell. When months zoomed by and it got colder and we weren’t ready yet, we decided to hold off until Spring.

We have many reasons we want to move. We need a better layout of rooms so that when the times comes that we plan for a second child (!!!), our bedrooms are on the same floor. Our neighborhood is not necessarily family friendly. I hate the schools in our district. Our main (and frankly only used) bathroom is very small. The house is over 80 years old. I want to feel safe walking out after dark.

But really, it’s the bedroom thing that’s got me wanting to move. We have two bedrooms on the main floor, and our finished attic acts as a third bedroom. A third bedroom with stairs so steep that we struggled to get a full size bed through the doorway. Meaning: I don’t think we could get a queen size bed up there. If we have a second child – I don’t want that baby or Abby being upstairs while the rest of us are down. The attic doesn’t maintain a comfortable temperature in the winter OR summer. To me, I have a hard time making this house work with a second child.

And talks of that second child have begun.

Unfortunately, realizations of how much debt we’ve accumulated have also come to light.

In this equation, our plan of moving out of this house (which has contributed to our mounting debt) have in essence been shut down because of our debt.

It is our own fault. I knew eventually this would happen. Denial is a powerful thing.

And now? I can’t allow myself to accept this as fact.

“If the market were different, we’d sell our house for a profit instead of breaking even, and we could pay off that debt.”

“Maybe we’ll win the lottery.”

“This isn’t a huge deal-breaker. We can still get a mortgage.”

When I think about it enough, my heart breaks hard and I nearly start to cry. To me, moving was a step towards the future, and I don’t want to put my dreams on hold. I want to know everything will still fall into place. That the choices we made in the past are not totally destroying our dreams for the future.

This is not the end of the world. If push comes to shove, we can make this house work. Knowing that we’ll be paying for our financial mistakes instead of living our lives in a new home? Hurts. Like. Hell.

My kingdom for a free weekend at home.

1 Comment

Posted 18 Jul 2012 — by Mrs. Jenna
Category house stuffs, marriage, motherhood, toddler business

This week marks the beginning of a six week period of time where I will not rest my head at home on any Friday or Saturday nights. Six weekends of being away from home. Six weeks of unpacking and repacking suitcases and duffel bags, restocking travel shampoos and on certain weekends, kissing Abby goodbye for a few days.

Don’t get me wrong – not one of the weekends I’d skip. They’re all full of family, friends, weddings, anniversaries, birthdays and MOTHER EFFING BLOGHER IN NYC (I’ll try to save that for another post, because the internet isn’t annoyed enough with all that already). It’s just insane to me, that yet again, the hubs and I can say “We’re not making any plans this summer! Let’s relax!” in April and then suddenly every plan was made within the next six weeks. OH THE IRONY.

In my mind, this is all the ultimate test of my anxiety and whether or not I have it under control. I mean, for most people sans crazy problems, this sort of social schedule would throw half of them over the edge. Me? I’m already losing sleep. NOT GETTING PANICKY, LET’S NOT PANIC…just not sleeping well. Which sucks. And then tends to make me more anxious. And then I go to BlogHer and my anxiety almost kills me to the point where I almost vomit and shit myself at a table of 20 bloggers ON MY FIRST NIGHT THERE…<wraspy fast breathing> OH WAIT. That was last year.

I forgot I’m not talking about #blogher12. And I also forgot this isn’t Twitter. (Which, PS. If you don’t follow me on the Twitters yet, you totes should. I’m there way more often than I am here.)

And since it’s been over 2 weeks since I posted last, here’s what I’ve been up to:

Painting the exterior of our house & garage. (NOT FUN) (buy our house)
Getting a new garage door hung (buy our house)
Hauling rocks out of our backyard where a kennel once stood. (buy our house)
And general toddler business, like trying to potty-train and re-sleep train Abbers. (buy our house)

Did you see what I did there? It’s called “Shitty subliminal blogger messaging.” Don’t you suddenly feel like buying my house? I thought so. LUCKY YOU – we’re planning on putting it on the market early this fall! Hence the painting and rock hauling and caring about garage doors. Mama needs more space and if we’re planning on adding another germ-magnet to the family (NO I’M NOT PREGNANT, MOM) we need more usable space. And a better school district. And a two car garage. And three million dollhairs. And a McDonald’s Coke machine in my kitchen. You know, typical wishlist items for the possible “forever home.”

So that’s me in a nutshell. I’m going to try to get a few more posts in here after each weekend of madness so you can follow along with all the fun. But we all know what a half-assed blogger I am. I make and break promises like Justin Bieber influences lesbian style around the world.

image courtesy of wwtdd.com

Adios crib. Hello big girl bed.

1 Comment

Posted 11 Dec 2011 — by Mrs. Jenna
Category Abigail, house stuffs, motherhood, paparazzi

Three hours and one effed up shoulder later, we have this.

I have to say, I love it. I got choked up when I started taking apart her crib/toddler bed. When the hubs and I brought the pieces down to the basement, I wondered if we’d ever put it back together again. (I made sure to separate all the screws and bolts and label them accordingly, so I don’t curse the day I ever took it apart. You know, just in case.) And then I started feeling panicky and sweaty so I decided to worry more about getting an Ikea bed assembled and less about procreation and the next five years of my life.

Anyway, Abby loves her new NEW big girl bed.