Fear and Loathing

We had our real estate agent (big shout out to my homeboy Jake) come over on Saturday to have a look at our house to give us some input on things to change and fix before we list it. Our contractor (the delectable Acadian, Gilles), came over on Sunday to talk about the "renovations" part of it. Yes, I said the forbidden word. I said renovations. They have reared their ugly heads again and as much as my husband tries to downplay what will go on, I know that it will be several weeks of inconvenience, noise and strangers using my facilities. I can quite honestly say that with the combination of renovations and trying to prepare the house for viewing in a matter of months I feel nauseous to the point of hyperventilating. My sister has said to try not to think of it as insurmountable, but I'm sorry that is the way I am wired. I am not one of those people who moves in and unpacks everything in the first day. It can take me months, possibly years, just ask the boxes that have been in the basement for six years from our move here. My husband reassures me that we will get movers to pack everything, but then that takes me down a whole 'nother trail of anxiety because people will be touching my stuff - ACK! I am a mental case, it's true.

To give you an idea of what I am faced with, there are five people who live here; four of whom are packrats and the other one just hasn't had the chance to get his bearings yet. Give him time and he'll be hoarding right alongside the rest of us. There are very few counters here (yea, none) that have any space on them for the junk that has collected. I have tried valiantly to have systems here, but the only one who follows them is me and short of handing out regular beatings (boy would I love that), there will be nary a system followed here I fear.

I've watched the shows. I've seen the people that walk into a perfectly fine house and gripe because the current owner has a dining room table in the kitchen. Ummm....THE TABLE IS NOT STAYING, so have some vision you unoriginal twit! I can't possibly fathom how 99% of the population can't make something invisible in their mind and picture their own item there instead. But the truth is, my sister say she watches these shows all the time and people walk in and always comment on the furniture and draperies, not the actual house. Boggling to me. I feel sick.

**Okay, case and point: I just made myself some soup for breakfast (yes, me with the crazy breakfast foods again) and dumped half of it on the floor (don't ask). As I was cursing and cleaning it up, I started having a meltdown when I noticed how dirty the fronts of the kitchen cupboards are. How am I ever going to keep this place clean for showing if I can't even manage it on a day to day basis? I need a paper bag....breathe....breathe.....breathe.... Okay, I've changed my mind, I don't want to do this.**

Of course, I have to remind myself about the good stuff that will follow a move. I'll be getting my own vehicle; I'll get my bedroom back, without a child sleeping in it so I don't have to creep around at night before bed and might actually get to read or something before I go to sleep; I'll hopefully be able to have a vanity table in said bedroom and actually keep my cosmetics in one place all set out pretty-like (I heart Bobbi Brown!); I WILL be getting a space of my own with a locking door to do my sewing, crafting, etc. and not have to put all of my crap away and be creatively frustrated 90% of the time because I can't be bothered to haul it all out over and over and over and over..................; I will be taking control back of the kitchen and MAKING the system work and oh yeah - I won't have to worry about my children so much because hopefully the new neighbourhood won't have the daily parade of freaks (which includes mental patients, drug addicts, prostitutes, drug dealers, johns, thieves and just general indigents) going by the house all day, every day. I'm sure there are more good points, give me time.

Okay, enough of that crap - I'm sure you will be hearing me whine about it plenty in the weeks to come.

So I recently changed over to the beta version of blogger and I am enjoying it, if even I don't have a clue what I am doing! As you can see, I made some changes to the template - my humble attempt at a banner went okay, with the exception of seeing the old heading box underneath it. I'm still trying to locate that in the html and man - it really IS another language! Can't make heads nor tails of it, really. But we'll stick with this for now! Also, now that I can add labels so that people can go directly to posts pertaining to a specific topic, say clubfoot, I will be revising all the previous posts to include this dandy little feature. That way I can send a parent of a clubfoot child straight to all the posts I have made about Hayden's feet and they don't have to wade through each and every post. Or if you want to see just how crazy I really am, you can go to the "angst" category and have it all there right in front of you. I believe they are listed under each entry.

Hayden is getting braver each day with standing and attempts at walking. In fact, Kestrel brought down her Winnie the Pooh foamy chair yesterday and he was enchanted with it. He spent a lot of time trying to kick her out of it so he could sit in it and when he got his chance (while she was playing games on the computer), he would stand straight up from it without using his hands to push himself up. At one point he stood up and took another three steps (seems to be his magic number right now) forward with no one encouraging him forward! Hannah and I tried to get him to do it again so I could video it, but I don't think I quite caught it. I'll see what I captured and download it soon. Hard to believe he will be 16 months on Thursday. Where is the time going?



Okay, I need to go and eat my Lindt Creme Brulee chocolate bar now....WHAT? I can't have dessert after breakfast? Says who?