Friday, February 29, 2008
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Jesus take the whee-eeeel...
'cuz if I'm driving, I just know I'm gonna get a ticket! Wooo-dawgies!! -this baby is soooo much fun to drive!
For the past few months we've been toying with the idea of getting a car that's easier for Pop to get in and out of than having to climb up into the Tahoe, we were also hoping to find something that would get better gas mileage since I do so much driving with taking the kids back and forth to school and running Pop to all his appointments. This week we finally started searching. Monday we looked at Malibu's but they were a little too small. We found a decent Impala but the salesman was a pud... we went to another car lot and met a really great salesman but they didn't have anything on the lot that we liked. *sigh* So last night Pop finds an add in the paper for an '08 Impala SS -fully loaded, with a 'too good to be true' price. Just for kicks I called the lot this morning and the car was still there so we took a drive up to see it. We hopped in and took it for a test drive and about an hour later we were signing papers and driving it off the lot!
I was a little bit late to pick the kids up from school, but the look on their faces when I pulled up was priceless! We had to sit in the parking lot for a good 10 minutes while they played with the XM radio and opened and closed the sunroof -lol! LOVE LOVE LOVE the new car smell! The little monsters are already begging me to take them to school in the new car tomorrow morning ...my poor Tahoe is gonna think I don't love it anymore!
For the past few months we've been toying with the idea of getting a car that's easier for Pop to get in and out of than having to climb up into the Tahoe, we were also hoping to find something that would get better gas mileage since I do so much driving with taking the kids back and forth to school and running Pop to all his appointments. This week we finally started searching. Monday we looked at Malibu's but they were a little too small. We found a decent Impala but the salesman was a pud... we went to another car lot and met a really great salesman but they didn't have anything on the lot that we liked. *sigh* So last night Pop finds an add in the paper for an '08 Impala SS -fully loaded, with a 'too good to be true' price. Just for kicks I called the lot this morning and the car was still there so we took a drive up to see it. We hopped in and took it for a test drive and about an hour later we were signing papers and driving it off the lot!
I was a little bit late to pick the kids up from school, but the look on their faces when I pulled up was priceless! We had to sit in the parking lot for a good 10 minutes while they played with the XM radio and opened and closed the sunroof -lol! LOVE LOVE LOVE the new car smell! The little monsters are already begging me to take them to school in the new car tomorrow morning ...my poor Tahoe is gonna think I don't love it anymore!
How's this for irony?
I'm gonna go buy this book so I can learn how to get rid of stuff! LOL!
I know I've mentioned several times over the past few months how I've been trying to purge mountains of stuff that has taken over our house. Crap that we've moved with us from house to house as well as all the stuff that we're bogged down with since we sold my folks' house and moved my Pop up here with us.
Last year, I read an article Peter Walsh wrote in Woman's Day magazine, titled Mind Over Matter (July 10, 2007) and it hit home for me like no other 'get organized' article I've ever read. He talked about the 'stuff epidemic' and how "we live in a culture that tells us, 'You are what you own'." "As soon as those items become more important than living a fulfilling life, we no longer own our possessions. They own us."
After I read this article I was so motivated I could hardly wait to get started on cleaning and organizing. Something that really resonated with me were these three questions to ask myself when I'm trying to declutter/purge:
*What do I want from this room?
*What feeling do I want when I walk into this space?
*What kind of life do I want to live in this house?
these questions have helped me see beyond the emotional stuff and focus on what I want my end result to be.
There is so much good stuff in this article I actually saved it so I could refer back to it because it just makes so much sense. There are tips on downsizing, an outline for a 'plan of action' as well as some eye opening philosophies on why we hang onto things as well as reasons to let the stuff go. Seriously, a great article.
More organizational tips from Woman's Day
Pssst! Does this clutter make my butt look fat? LOL! Gotta love the title of his latest book, don't ya? I never really thought about it until I saw this book but there are definitely some interesting parallels between overindulging/overeating and hoarding/collecting clutter. Not sure I'm ready to delve into this one just yet, but I find the psychology behind all of this fascinating.
I know I've mentioned several times over the past few months how I've been trying to purge mountains of stuff that has taken over our house. Crap that we've moved with us from house to house as well as all the stuff that we're bogged down with since we sold my folks' house and moved my Pop up here with us.
Last year, I read an article Peter Walsh wrote in Woman's Day magazine, titled Mind Over Matter (July 10, 2007) and it hit home for me like no other 'get organized' article I've ever read. He talked about the 'stuff epidemic' and how "we live in a culture that tells us, 'You are what you own'." "As soon as those items become more important than living a fulfilling life, we no longer own our possessions. They own us."
After I read this article I was so motivated I could hardly wait to get started on cleaning and organizing. Something that really resonated with me were these three questions to ask myself when I'm trying to declutter/purge:
*What do I want from this room?
*What feeling do I want when I walk into this space?
*What kind of life do I want to live in this house?
these questions have helped me see beyond the emotional stuff and focus on what I want my end result to be.
There is so much good stuff in this article I actually saved it so I could refer back to it because it just makes so much sense. There are tips on downsizing, an outline for a 'plan of action' as well as some eye opening philosophies on why we hang onto things as well as reasons to let the stuff go. Seriously, a great article.
More organizational tips from Woman's Day
Pssst! Does this clutter make my butt look fat? LOL! Gotta love the title of his latest book, don't ya? I never really thought about it until I saw this book but there are definitely some interesting parallels between overindulging/overeating and hoarding/collecting clutter. Not sure I'm ready to delve into this one just yet, but I find the psychology behind all of this fascinating.
Saturday, February 23, 2008
'cuz my horror-scope says so...
February 23, 2008
Taurus (4/20-5/20)
Why not put yourself first, every once in a while? (pffft! yea, why not?!) Your happiness should be your first priority, today. (heh heh heh, today and everyday!) After all, if you aren't happy in your life, how can you be a good sibling, friend, partner, or employee? (...that, my friends, is the $64,000,000 question.) You shouldn't get lazy about fulfilling the obligations you have to other people, but you should feel free to cut yourself some slack. ( for the record, I have no problem with cutting myself some slack... some might even say I'm *quite* the slacker!) This is a good day to spend on 'you.' (...it really *is* all about me!) Do what you need to do as early as you can and spend the rest of your day exploring things that interest you. (:sigh: somedays it's just so hard being me -lol! )
Taurus (4/20-5/20)
Why not put yourself first, every once in a while? (pffft! yea, why not?!) Your happiness should be your first priority, today. (heh heh heh, today and everyday!) After all, if you aren't happy in your life, how can you be a good sibling, friend, partner, or employee? (...that, my friends, is the $64,000,000 question.) You shouldn't get lazy about fulfilling the obligations you have to other people, but you should feel free to cut yourself some slack. ( for the record, I have no problem with cutting myself some slack... some might even say I'm *quite* the slacker!) This is a good day to spend on 'you.' (...it really *is* all about me!) Do what you need to do as early as you can and spend the rest of your day exploring things that interest you. (:sigh: somedays it's just so hard being me -lol! )
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
and then there were none...
Sickness has taken over my house. I started the ball rolling more than a month ago with a cough/cold that seemed to drag on forever -the cough, although not nearly as bad as it was, is still hanging on. Since then, all three of the kids have come down with some variation of cough/fever/headache/earache. I swear I've bought so much cough/cold medicine these past few weeks, the feds are probably watching to be sure we're not running a meth lab.
As if that weren't enough, Jack came home from work last night, hacking and complaining about having the chills... he stoked up the fireplace until it got so hot I thought the house would melt.
We've all had spells where we've felt better and then just as quickly we're laid out again. It makes me wonder if we have more than one strain of bug and are just passing them around like some big cootie swapmeet. *sigh* Lysol is my friend.
I have this image in my mind from the movie ET, where all the vans come screeching up to the house and men with masks and white bio-hazard suits jump out and seal up the house-only this time they're at my house and they're packin a big ol' QUARANTINE sign to slap on our door.
It can only get better, right?! :)
As if that weren't enough, Jack came home from work last night, hacking and complaining about having the chills... he stoked up the fireplace until it got so hot I thought the house would melt.
We've all had spells where we've felt better and then just as quickly we're laid out again. It makes me wonder if we have more than one strain of bug and are just passing them around like some big cootie swapmeet. *sigh* Lysol is my friend.
I have this image in my mind from the movie ET, where all the vans come screeching up to the house and men with masks and white bio-hazard suits jump out and seal up the house-only this time they're at my house and they're packin a big ol' QUARANTINE sign to slap on our door.
It can only get better, right?! :)
Saturday, February 16, 2008
Purging
I spent part of today going through the garage, condensing boxes and boxes ...and BOXES of books, and other misc junk that's been hanging around for way to long. Most of it is stuff that we brought when we sold Pop's house and moved him up here... a YEAR AND A HALF ago. *sigh*
Today I got a wild hair and asked Jack to park the garbage trailer in front of the garage and I started hucking anything that Pop (or us) hasn't needed in the past 21 months. Odds are we'll never need it again, right? Holy cow, it was so liberating!
I've always suffered from the 'oh this is perfectly good, let me just set it aside because I KNOW someone can use it' mentality, but in the past year I've been learning to simplify and cut out stuff that isn't essential. I love that I'm finally okay with letting stuff go. The problem I've run into is that these days the local Salvation Army stores are so dang picky, it ends up being more trouble than it's worth to box stuff up and take it in. I don't live in an area where I can have a yard sale, so that's not an option -I just don't know what to do with this stuff and I admit I feel guilty just pitching it -but OMG it's gonna feel so good to get rid of it and have my garage back (well, part of it anyway).
One of the best parts about reclaiming my garage is that I'll finally have enough room to refinish my mom and dad's oak table. I'm not looking forward to the actual refinishing process but I can't wait till we can use it -it totally reminds me of the holidays, with everyone sitting elbow to elbow so we'd all fit around it and it reminds me of playing card games with my mom -she loved that. ...it just reminds me of home. Good stuff!
Today I got a wild hair and asked Jack to park the garbage trailer in front of the garage and I started hucking anything that Pop (or us) hasn't needed in the past 21 months. Odds are we'll never need it again, right? Holy cow, it was so liberating!
I've always suffered from the 'oh this is perfectly good, let me just set it aside because I KNOW someone can use it' mentality, but in the past year I've been learning to simplify and cut out stuff that isn't essential. I love that I'm finally okay with letting stuff go. The problem I've run into is that these days the local Salvation Army stores are so dang picky, it ends up being more trouble than it's worth to box stuff up and take it in. I don't live in an area where I can have a yard sale, so that's not an option -I just don't know what to do with this stuff and I admit I feel guilty just pitching it -but OMG it's gonna feel so good to get rid of it and have my garage back (well, part of it anyway).
One of the best parts about reclaiming my garage is that I'll finally have enough room to refinish my mom and dad's oak table. I'm not looking forward to the actual refinishing process but I can't wait till we can use it -it totally reminds me of the holidays, with everyone sitting elbow to elbow so we'd all fit around it and it reminds me of playing card games with my mom -she loved that. ...it just reminds me of home. Good stuff!
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