What’s new

We are planning a second trip to FTL over spring break to look at the Coral Springs high schools as well as drive around more neighborhoods there since that is now where our school/house search is focused.

Things at our house are coming along. The master bath is tiled and next week will see the back half of the house re-carpeted and the kitchen cabinets repainted. Calgon will be able to take me away again very soon! Also, we’re getting a couple of estimates on landscaping work this week. Target date for completion is 19 March.

Today is a certain somebody’s 16th birthday. Sadly, no license for him since you now have to wait a minimum of 12 months after getting your permit, which he didn’t do until April. We’re going out for a family dinner at his favorite Mexican restaurant.

My grandmother has pneumonia. I hope it’s her time – it’s been nearly a decade since she knew any of us, and years since she’s carried on a conversation or been able to walk. I know she’s been ready.

Spinning head

So, we made it back from our trip safely. It was truly an eye opening experience, in a mixed way. The schools were a pleasant surprise and the boy was very impressed. One school was clearly not an option, but the other 2 looked great. So I feel a lot better knowing that we’ll be able to get him into a really good high school. Then we looked at houses.

What a shock. Sure, the housing market in south Florida may have fallen 50%, but they are still priced higher than here. A lot higher. What that means in practical terms is that 1) we’re looking a little farther out than originally planned and 2) we’ll have to look hard and weigh priorities carefully. We’ll be able to find a house, but compromises will need to be made in terms of space in the house and/ or yard, age of house, etc. But the 2 cities I thought I wanted to look at were immediately taken off the table as options – we simply can’t afford either one. I mean, we can certainly find a house – just not one that we’d live in that’s also in a neighborhood we’d live in.

I posted for my job yesterday. That’s just a formality and once the paperwork is done the process begins. We can move whenever we’re ready, as long as it’s before the end of the year!! Since school registration is going on now and school starts mid August, the clock is ticking. We need to get there as soon as possible to get school registration taken care of. The house goes on the market 1 April. As of now, we are not planning to go to Pennsic. I just don’t see the logistics working out. Needless to say, everyone is majorly disappointed by that.

Anyway, still here, bumbling along.

Laughter is the best medicine

I’ve been so stressed out lately that it’s a wonder my head hasn’t exploded. Driving home from work yesterday I was talking to my mom about how much we have to get done around the house to get it ready to go on the market and how little time we have and how my husband doesn’t seem to understand how little time we have left. I decided that after dinner we really needed to sit down with a calendar and a list of what needed to be done and work on a schedule.

Then I got home and realized I was dealing with Captain Cranky Pants and quickly changed my plans. I know he’s dealing with a lot – we all are. Once Obstinate Boy got home I gave him permission to go to the mall with a friend to get new shoes. Then I made my husband sit down, drink a couple of beers (over the course of the evening), and watch a funny movie. We watched “Step Brothers” with Will Farrell, which is stupid but really funny if you happen to like his brand of humor. So I think it helped both of us to sit down & laugh together. There hasn’t been much of that around our house lately.

Between everything that has to be done and how much it’s all costing, we’ve all been on edge. There’s just so much uncertainty it’s hard not to be. But it was nice to sit down, laugh, and remember that life is good even when it’s tough.

Where I've been, what I've been doing

Let's see.... Home improvement continues, with the kitchen mostly put back together and the back of the house largely decluttered. Hopefully this weekend will see the floor finished and the front of the house completely put back in order.

Looking at houses and schools in Ft. Lauderdale in prep for our trip on thursday. Dealing with a realtor who doesn't seem to be listening. Not impressed so far. I'll meet with her, but I don't see us working with her for the actual purchase unless she totally wows me in person.

We've all had the flu. I'm doing better but still have a persistent cough. I can't imagine why my immune system would be depressed.

Right now I don't feel like I'm dealing with this stuff very well - I'm tired, overwhelmed, and tired.

I know it's not the end of the world or anything, but honestly for me to have my house as torn up as it is now is a huge source of stress. I am way to organized and OCD to deal with anarchy very well.

But... that's life. :-) Hope you have a good day!

Update

I'm still alive. Today will be my first full day at work since Thursday. I'm feeling better, but still tired.

House is slowly coming back together. Hub got a lot accomplished over the weekend - I did not.

We are heading to Fla next week to look at schools and houses.

Weight is the same. Hopefully I'll be up to exercising again in the next couple of days.

Sick

I have been sick since Friday with the nasty fever cold nasty hanging on cough things that is going around. I'm sure my stress levels + tiredness have contributed to a depressed immune system.

Anyway, I cam in for part of the day today because I had something I had to get done for my boss. Then I'm filling a prescription and heading home.

Quick check-in

Yesterday afternoon I went to the work gym with Lisa and did a tough 30 minute workout on the elliptical. She is getting married in May and wants to make sure she can fit in her wedding dress, so she is looking for a workout buddy and some accountability. Works out perfect for me!

I am working at home today (having someone come & do some work on the siding & cleaning the gutters) so I won't make yoga at lunch or the gym with Lisa. However, I have cleaned out enough stuff in my bedroom that I have room to do weights & exercises, so that's my plan for today.

Last night's dinner was white bean soup from the freezer with a big salad. I have stuff for the crockpot tomorrow and another thing of soup for Friday. The kitchen should be back online Saturday night, but I may do another crockpot meal just to be safe. I love my crockpot.

I got on the scale again this morning. Last week I asked Allan to assume I was the same as the week before (for the purposes of his weight loss challenge) because I couldn't find my scale and just didn't know. Yesterday I was a pound higher than that and this morning I was down to that weight. So, I've stayed the same for a week and a half. While this is hardly the intent of a weight LOSS challenge, I'm glad I'm not heading in the wrong direction!

I cleared a small workspace in the kitchen last night, so that's helpful. Honestly, I look around this house and I feel like I have so much work to do, it gets a bit overwhelming.

Have a good day.

The daily report

I went yesterday afternoon to the gym with my co-worker. I thanked her for inviting me and I intend to invite her today. While lunchtime yoga was not at relaxing as it normally is (it's very difficult to quiet my brain these days), it felt good to go and stretch and be quiet for an hour.

Dinner last night was salad and a baked spagetti that my mom brought over. The kitchen is still offline and will be for a while. Tonight hub needs to do siding. When he replaced the french doors last week, we discovered that the old ones weren't a standard size - they were larger. So the new openings needed to be smaller, which means that on the outside of the house we now have an outline around the door frames where the Tyvek is exposed and there is no siding. So the siding on both those walls needs to be replaced. Neither wall is big - thankfully it's a strange little L shaped "indention" in the footprint of the house around where the deck is. I think both walls are maybe 10 feet long. Nevertheless, we may get rain tomorrow so this is priority 1, with getting the kitchen up and running relegated to priority 2. We won't discuss the master bath as I would cry.

The plan for dinner tonight is a salad (a bit of a challenge since I have no work surface cleared to actually do any food prep!) and either leftover casserole or a container of vegetable soup from the freezer, with bread for the guys. Thankfully, the microwave is still accessible.

The guys moved a bunch of stuff out of the master bedroom and into the storage unit last night - I found my scale! I got on it this morning and I gained a pound last week. Not happy about that, but now at least I know so I can move forward.

Breakfast today was a veggie omelet. Snacks are 1) almonds & prunes and 2) 2 clementines. Lunch is a frozen Amy's organic tv dinner and dinner I already discussed. After work I need to pick up some more fresh fruit.

I plan to work out at the office gym today. There is water aerobics and spin at the gym tonight but this is the month that they are remodeling the women's locker room, so last week I had to empty my locker at the Y. I think the contents are in a grocery bag, but their precise location is currently unknown. So my swim suit and spin shorts are MIA.

Co-workers who have lived there keep telling me the schools in Ft. Lauderdale are terrible. Hopefully I can get some more specific information from a real estate agent when they are onsite this week. That is my current HUGE stress point about this move. I don't want my son in a bad school - even if it's only for 2 years.

Hub's stress point is how much work he has to get done to get the house ready to be put up for sale. I jokingly told him that the month of February should be subtitled "28 days of hell" since our goal is to have the house 99% ready to go at that point. I feel like mid-March is the absolute latest we can get it on the market if we want to get it sold.

Okay, enough whining! Have a good day.