Update

I'm assuming those of you who check this blog on any kind of basis have at least a marginal interest in my life. You might have noticed that quality/quantity of posts has been down lately.

Well.

It's summer vacation and we are in total relax mode now.

Summer school is done. I pulled Isaac out of pre-K and we are just taking a month or so to be together and do fun stuff and take each day as it comes.

My mom commented the other day that I seem so much more relaxed and happy now when we talk. Yeah, not working 40 plus hours a week and being stretched ridiculously thin will do that.

It's LOVELY.

I've just been trying to savor July which is wide open and wonderful. August gets a bit busier with my sister's wedding, family vacations and back to school.

So what have we been doing?

Excercise

I had an unfortuneate mishap with my bike rack (I backed the car over it one day in my hurry to get to work). It actually belonged to my dad and I felt quite bad about destroying it. He is the one who bought me my bike and loaned me his bike rack and has really encouraged me to keep up with it. Anyways, he ended up buying me another one, although I haven't been able to get out on the trail yet. It's too hot in the middle of the day (100+ degrees) when I tend to have a sitter. My body is craving a long ride though, so hopefully soon.

I rejoined a gym and I have been excercising almost every day. I've forgotten how amazing it feels to get sweaty and have warm muscles and endorphins running through your body. I've been doing their Zumba which is totally addicting and yoga. The other day though the Zumba teacher was sick and the replacement teacher did a body pump circuit class with cardio and weights and I really enjoyed that as well, so maybe I will try some other classes too. I even ran for a bit on the treadmill yesterday and miraculously didn't die. I'm not going to try to set some lofty weight loss goal or anything but it feels good to be moving again and hopefully the result will be better cardio endurance/toning up. I tend to eat better too when I have worked out, so I think that helps too. I know I won't be able to keep up my six days a week work out schedule once school starts up again, but hopefully I can keep up with occasional classes.

Home projects

I should get some pictures up. I've been slowly clearing out the basement (which is really unfinished back half of the first floor of my house). It's halfway framed out all ready and my brother Joe says that for 100 bucks he could frame out the rest of it. We have to do the framing before we can lay the tile floor, which is what I really want. After living here barely a year the linoleum in the entryway is totally stained (thanks to potty training a baby kitten) and ripped and I just want it gone. Sadly, I won't be able to afford the new flooring for quite a while but I wouldn't mind having everything ready to go as I slowly squirrel away money.

I also have been trying to tackle smaller projects too. I finally replaced the hideous throw pillows that came with my couch with more attractive ones. I finally replaced my teenager style bedding with something I like a lot more. I ordered some curtains for my bedroom. Hopefully I will get some curtains up in the living room/kitchen before the summer is out and this place can start looking like a finished home instead of a half inhabited fraternity house.

Joe also came this weekend and spent the better part of Saturday painting the entry way and downstairs stairway. I wish I would have taken some before pictures so you could truly appreciate what an improvement it is. Builders white is so unattractive and I think the whole entryway feels so much warmer and inviting now that it is painted a soft beige. We hadn't thought it would take so long, but it took nearly two hours just to tape everything off before we could even begin to paint. The entryway is pretty much just an open space with a series of doors: the front door, the door to the powder room, coat closet, garage, the furnace room, and the unfinished basement, so it was a ton to tape off. Then since the walls really hadn't ever been painted before they really soaked up the paint and we went through more than we had planned. Joe is extremely sought after for his handyman/painting skills, and people pay him a ton of money, so I am so lucky when he agrees to squeeze me in and work on my house for free. He even commented as he was taping endlessly, "This better at least make the blog!" So I will give him an official shout-out: THANKS JOE FOR YOUR WONDERFUL WORK ON MY HOUSE! It looks fantastic! It was fun to spend the day with you! I love you!

Here we are riding around in the back of his truck with the paint (don't worry mom, just around the neighborhood, not out on the open road or anything).

I even helped Joe this time (generally he won't let me anywhere near it). I did all the brushwork and he came behind me with the roller which sped things up I think. I learned a lot of good tips. This only leaves the upstairs hallway/stairwell and my bedroom left to paint. I'm pretty excited. In other home project news I have been doing crazy clean outs. I've been through both our closets, sorted through all Isaac's toys and movies and quite a bit of the garage and basement. I have to make some decisions about a few things still, and possibly list some things on Craig's list and put in some better systems to organize the things that I have decided to keep. I'm trying to tackle at least a drawer or a surface every day. I am not a terrible packrat or anything, but my organization skills definitely leave room for improvement. It is amazing how much stuff just accumulates quickly in the house too. It feels good to clean out and hopefully pass things on to people who can use them. I also borrowed my parents carpet cleaner and that is on this week's to do list as well. The carpets are looking quite shabby. Hopefully a few passes with the cleaning machine will restore them somewhat. Dating I'm not going to elaborate much, but I am dipping my toe tenatively back in the dating pool. Nothing serious yet but I am enjoying myself. PDH randomly called me the other day and we had a decent conversation. Afterwards I realized that I no longer think about him every day anymore, don't find myself resisting urges to text him mundane details about my everyday life, or trying to figure out what went wrong. So yes, things are fine in this department as well. But no details yet. =) Playdates/Hanging with Friends and Family

It has always been my fantasy to have a single mom friend that I could talk to about life, thatI could trade babysitting with, etc. etc. Well, my childhood best friend moved back to the area with her three girls and we have been hanging out with them almost every day. Really, I don't have any friends at all with kids period, so it's nice to have that in common with someone, and to have someone to call up when we are headed to the park. They have a pool in their apartment complex that they have invited us to quite a few times. A few times now she has watched Isaac while I've gone to work out and then when I've returned I've watched the kids while she goes shopping/runs errands/etc. alone. It's really nice to have a non-family member I can call up fairly last minute who I feel totally comfortable leaving Isaac with.

Here are some pictures of Isaac with her oldest Sandra when we took them to a fair the other day.

You wouldn't know it from this picture but Sandra actually LOVED the cotton candy

and Isaac hated it and was in the process of spitting it out.

It's fun now that he isn't totally terrified of rides like he was last summer. Anyways, there is lots more to report but I'm sort of running out of steam. Keep checking back, I promise I will be better about blogging. And leave comments!

How to Get Your Own Earring Out of the Trap

Okay, for all of my feminist girl powerness, there are somethings I really, really hate to do for myself. Home repairs totally fall into that category. A few days ago my brand new earring that I had only worn once fell down the drain in the bathroom sink. I begged and pleaded for my dad or brother to come over and retrieve it with no dice. My dad (kindly) told me, that this was something I could handle myself and walked me through the steps using his own bathroom sink as a visual model. So tonight I decided to tackle it. And, of course, blog about it. I think it falls under domesticity attempts. It was actually pretty easy and took less than five minutes. A definite success for my first venture into plumbing. To retrieve your earring out the trap you will need:

A bucket (cat walking into frame optional)

Open up that sink door and take a peek at what you see. It should hopefully look like this. If you have metally looking pipes instead of plastic ones, you might need a wrench of some kind. The little U shape is the trap where your earring should be. It is filled with water (and probably some other gross stuff, but try not to think about that).

Clear away all of the stuff under the sink and position the bucket under your pipes. There's a little ring on the back end of the U. Give it a twist. Mine was pretty easy to loosen. If it's tight you could probably use a wrench. As you can see in the picture the ring will slide up and the U will slide away.

From there you can just kind of tug the other end of the U off. Warning: it is filled with water and smells kind of gross. Another purpose of the U tube besides being a catch, is that it stays filled with water and keeps the sewery smell from coming up the pipes into your bathroom. Anyways, tug the whole U thing off.

And dump it into your bucket. The water was so gross I couldn't see the earring but I could hear a "plink" as it hit the bucket.

There it is!

Then just jam the U pipe back on and twist the ring over it. Keep the bucket there and do a little test run with the water to make sure everything is back in place.

Not too hard and kind of empowering. Go me!

Liveable green

A rainy Saturday afternoon.... A huge drum of FREE "Livable Green" (sage green) paint inherited from my parents when they painted their basement... A fantasticly hardworking brother... A handsome little helper... Hurray! My kitchen isn't blindingly white anymore!!! (the only shot I can take right now that wouldn't be littered with dirty dishes or other detritus that seems to be magnetically drawn to all surfaces in my kitchen)...

Some (long overdue) shots of the new place...

Back of the house... note the drop off of death from my kitchen doors.

Upstairs bathroom

My closet

"Basement". It's above ground. There is a washer and dryer down there too.

Entryway

Powder room

Living room

Fancy free TV

Kitchen

Messy kitchen

Drop off of death.

My room.

My room (and own entrance into the bathroom)

Isaac's room

I once read an article in a scrapbooking magazine that said when you take a picture of a THING make sure you have a pitcure of a person in it too. So that is why Isaac is in nearly every shot.

As you can see there is a still a fair amount of unpacking to do. I didn't even show the shots of the third bedroom where all of the crap is thrown. I love living here though.

Updates - Quickly

Me * I can't stop watching HGTV. The househunting and design shows are on heavy rotation. * My work is crazy but still fun. Less than eight weeks until the end of the school year!! My first year has FLOWN by and we are already doing IEPs and ordering supplies for next year. Crazy! Isaac * Tied mom in bowling tonight! We both bowled a 101. If you bowl on a Mon-Thursday at Devon Lanes you can bowl for free (up to five people!) for your first game. All you have to pay for is shoes. It's such a good deal. The house * I put on some boots and tromped through my house today-- the "pre-electrical walk through". It was so fun! We marked out where I want all of the phone and cable jacks. Things are really starting to come together. Even though it is still 2 by 4s and subflooring it already feels cozy. If the weather cooperates we will have our pre-closing walk through May 29th. I am really looking forward to moving us in and starting to make it my own. =D Well I guess that's about it. =)

Happies and Crappies 4/9

HAPPIES

• I am officially on spring break! Wahoo!! I have today, tomorrow, and Monday off. It is much needed. Isaac and I have big plans for today. Bounce U-- here we come!
• My neighbor across the street dropped by with another goody bag. She has two boys who are just older than Isaac and she always sends over their outgrown clothes/shoes. Yesterdays bag featured four brand new church shirts (two white, one yellow and one red) and adorable Eagles track suit, two pairs of sandals, three pairs of dress shoes and several pairs of shorts, among other things. Everything she sends over is gently used or new with tags still and brand names that I would never splurge for. Never stained or worn. I am so lucky-- she has pretty much outfitted Isaac since he was born.
• I am loving Isaac as a preschooler. He is so verbal and has so many interests. I have been blog reading some mom's of toddlers/infants and I am so happy we the phase of life we are in now. It just seems less stressful. Although, my life is a lot simpler now that I am done school and decently employed, so who knows if it was Isaac or me or both? Anyways; gone are diaper changes, perpetuually smelling like spit up, sleepless nights, the hours spent trying to coax him down for a nap so I could have an uninterupted shower, and tearful sacrameet meetings (his tears and mine). Isaac was so destructive as a toddler it was just exhausting. So anyways, I guess that is just my testiment to those who are in the thick of it-- hang in there, it will be over soon. And preschoolers are so much fun!
• The new house (what Isaac and I refer to as "our little house") is being framed and hopefully towards the end of next week there will be a roof in. That is exciting because it means that weather will no longer be such a huge factor in how much work can be done in a given week.
• Spring is springing!!! It's chilly but lovely out! Things are flowering and starting to be green.
• Hopefully I am getting a hair cut tomorrow. I am going to get a bit taken off. I never, ever bother to do anything nice to my hair anyways, so I may as well lose some of it.

CRAPPIES

• I have Monday off from school but I have been called in for jury duty. Ick.
• Isaac is officially outgrowing some of his 4t stuff which puts him *gulp* in the little boys department. It's a whole new world over there... He's growing up.
• I had to call out of work Tuesday. Monday I woke up feeling really icky but managed to make it through a day of work (barely). The worst part was we had someone coming to see the house Monday night so when all I wanted to be doing was dying under the covers in bed I had to be out at a pizza parlor and running errands to be out of the house. Tuesday I stayed in bed pretty much the whole day. Fortuneatly, I am feeling much better now.
• My parents are in Lancaster for a few days house hunting which means I have to be in charge of getting the house spic and span if we recieve the call that it will be shown. Kind of overwhelming. I will be in the family room picking up all of the toys only to discover Isaac is upstair dumping laundry baskets full of clothes everywhere to make a playhouse.... Ugh. I will be so happy when this whole process is over.
• We have been watching way, way, way too much TV here lately. It's ridiculous and needs to stop.
• I have been breaking out like CRAZY which I just don't get. I am 27 years old. What.the.heck.
• I have a to do list a mile long... I better get off the computer and get started on it...

Quickly

* Isaac had a bad cough, runny nose and my mom noticed his eyes seemed red. Sure enough, he has pinkeye in both eyes. He has to have drops in his eyes three times a day which he hates. The first time it took me, my mom, my dad and my brother Joe holding him down to do it. He has improved slightly since then. * My parents are definitely moving. Most likely to Connecticut, although there is a possibility Lancaster. This means my life is about to change dramatically in many ways. Most noteably, I will be hurled into the world of "real adulthood" that I have not really been a part of. It's fine, and it's time but it is also scary. Major change soon the horizon. * The exciting part of it is I am buying a townhouse, most likely a brand new one in Pottstown (off 724). Nothing is finalized yet but it is new construction, three floors 1.5 baths, 1 car garage. I would (of course) be getting the bottom of the barrel model with no options and living (essentially) in the middle of no where. But that is the price I am willing to pay to not live in a glorified shoe box, which is what I would get for the same price anywhere closer to civilization. So it looks I in about June I will be moving to the country! But the downside is it is a lot worrying about budgets and credit scores and down payments and what can I afford and not be eating cat food. Stressful. More later. How are all of you?