TWO WEEKS?!? and much more...

Oh geez, until my last post, it had been two weeks since I last posted! Hate it when I do that. See told you I was random & frazzled LOL.

Actually it's been kinda busy the last two weeks. With what, well I can't totally remember it all, but it's been busy.

Like I mentioned in my previous post, I'm just about done getting the big house ready to move into. I have the kid's bathroom (Heaven's help me), the living room (got to defunk it as the boys have been crashing in there since I threatened their existence if they buggered up the carpet in the girls's room), the hallway (easy peasy), and the kitchen (again, Heaven's help me). I could have gotten the kid's bathroom, living room, and hallway done, but I reiterate, the boys have been staying in the big house...it would have been futile. I didn't really want to have to have done it twice and then had to find hiding places for bodies (I'm joking on that btw, don't get yer panties in a bundle). This weekend while I'm off (Thursday thru Monday noonish) I'll finish those rooms and start moving everything in. I CAN NOT WAIT! Since we moved at the end of August I have had to look behind me to make sure no one is there when I go to back up or I risk having them up my backside. Love them all but it's been grinding on that last nerve I have left to put it mildly. I'll still have a houseful, but at least I'll have the younger girls in a bedroom and not camping in my living room floor so at night I can have some "me" time on the computer with my other girls.

My *girls* are my lifeline, friends, confidants, company at work, company while I work at home (drilling), cyber family, oh I can't even begin to list all that they are to me. Where me and my sanity would be without them, I hate to begin to think of the possibilities. We share stories, success's, failures, hopes, dreams, help each other through whatever we all are facing right then. We are each other's safety nets I think. When we don't have anyone else we can turn to, we can turn to each other via our IM's, or text messaging or even a phone call. It's so wonderful the way we all "click" together. So different in so many different ways, but so alike in many other ways. We have so much fun together, it's just wonderful to have a bunch of girlfriends like them. I'm glad they've got my back and proud that they give me the honor of calling them "friends".

Back on topic, I didn't dare clean up those key areas of the house with the boys staying over there. Gary's not so bad, he pretty well tidies up after himself. Ty though, oh my...he must have inherited his Dad's habits. Stuff everywhere, where it lands is where it lays, ya it's bad. I know he's a teenager and all but OY. Without me in there to supervise no way I'm going through the hours of work to have it all spit shine cleaned and go to move in and WHAMMO! Glasses, wrappers, stuff tracked in on the carpet, clothes strewn about, old school papers laying about, no don't think so. Just can't do it, and I won't do it.

My basic plan is to get the little bit of construction debris out of the kid's bathtub (plastic we used to cover things, and various items) and thoroughly scrub it, the sink, cabinet and sink since I'm sure there's a veil of sheet rock dust covering it, and I don't think I cleaned anything but the toilet and sink when I did the initial cleaning. That's my first project tomorrow after I get the kids off to school on Thursday morning (possibly today, depends on how tired I am after I get off work). I figure it'll be a good hard hour of work in there.

Then I'll move on to the hallway which as I mentioned will be easy peasy. There are a few spots on the walls that need to be wiped off, it needs to be swept and the edges vacuumed where there is a crack between the wall and the laminate flooring (don't have the trim up yet...I need to polyurethane it yet) and scrub up where I might have gotten a little paint on the front of the furnace. I figure it'll take about 45 minutes to finish the hallway out.

After that I'll skip the living room for the time being and move on to the kitchen. The counters are littered with various and sundry items and the few things I've picked up for the new house have gotten crammed into cabinets during various stages of renovation (thank you Dear for your cramming tendencies GRRRRR). First thing I'll do is get all the crap off the floor so I'm not ramming my toes into it or stumbling over it. Next I'll set up my folding table in the living room and start clearing out cabinets and clearing off counters wiping things down as needed. I'll quickly rewipe down the inside of the cabinets after that. By the time I'm done wiping inside all of the cabinets, the first ones I did should be dry so I can put paper or shelf liner down. After I do that I'll scan the inside of the fridge/freezer and see if they have gotten gunked up since I first cleaned them and if the shelves need cleaning pull them out and put them in my bathtub to soak clean. I have trim in the living room that I need to remove paint from (ya we're sloppy painters) so as I need a break from the kitchen work I'll do that. I can't work too long with the Goo Gone because the fumes give me killer headaches. Anyways, back to the kitchen work... While the fridge stuff is soaking, I'll sweep the debris off the kitchen floor and vacuum around the edges of the laminate (there again, trim isn't up because I haven't polyurethaned it yet) Next I'll work on sorting the stuff out on my folding table. Cleaning it up as needed, and finding a home for it where it belongs. After I clean up everything off the table, I'll scrub my kitchen sink (ya it's paint spattered to high heaven since that's where I cleaned all my rollers and brushes), and give the counters and appliances one final wiping down. I took the shelves down in the laundry room area so at some point me or the boys will put those back up after I clean them up. If the boys put the shelves up for me, I'll wash the windows and the glass fronts cabinet doors down while they are putting them back up. A quick wipe down of the fridge and cleaning and rinsing of the shelves and VIOLA, kitchen will be move in ready. This is going to be the job that's going to take a half day or better. That's the closest guess I'm going to venture for a time estimate on that one LOL.

Onward to the living room. Actually it's not that bad (unless something happens between last Sunday when I was in there and Friday or Saturday when I get in there). First of all I'll wipe down the ceiling fan again as I'm positive it's covered in sheet rock dust. After that, I'll hit the few paint spatters that remain in the living room, and wash down the walls to remove the last of the sheet rock dust on the wainscoting and trim. After that will come moving the few things out of my way in the floor (the boy's mattresses, tv, vcr, odds & ends) out of the way and I'll vacuum the carpet and around the edges of the walls.

After all that the fun will begin...MOVING! This is the part the kids are going to H.A.T.E. While I'm putting things away, they can packing stuff over from the other house. The wonderful advantages of being the Mom LOL. In all seriousness though, I need more Indians and no co chief's in this show. Just for the mere fact... I'm picky, and it's my house so therefore I have that right.

That's my goals for my days off and to be honest...WHEW, I'm exhausted just by typing it all out. I think I may get a head start and do either the kid's bathroom or the hallway this morning when I get home...or I might just go to bed since this blog has exhausted me. I might just go and measure out how much trim I need for sure and make sure I have enough stained and polyurethaned so the boys can get it put up over the weekend. Nah, think I'll just go to bed, I'm worn out from typing this.