The Great Schlep also know as coercing your grandparents into voting for Obama which is the right thing to do anyway

I’m not Jewish but does that really even matter?  We can all talk to our grandparents, aunts & uncles, cousins, and family members in general about this!  Not to mention, this is some funny shit, yo.

To get more information go to The Great Schlep. Here is an excellent site for REAL facts.

And if you aren’t registered to vote, then get registered immediately! Before it’s too late! It’s quick & easy. Unlike many other things in life.  Your vote WILL make a difference!!!

Enough for now,
Ciao

***cross-posted on my other blog.***

Manic Monday #16 – Night

For the last few months our little Pumpkin has been telling us that she should be sleeping at night in a big girl bed not her old crib.  We’ve been putting it off because we’ve been busy and I wasn’t ready to move her into a regular bed.  And when I say “regular bed” what I’m really saying is one that she can get out of by herself.  We finally acquiesced now that schools out.  We decorated her room, rearranged furniture and added her name to the bed with stickers!  She helped!  

Well since out sweet, adorable little  Pumpkin is “sleeping” in her big girl bed, night time has become a battle.  I do my best to get her ready for bed just as before (jammies, brush teeth, three potty trips, 1,000 books, a cup of warm milk) but now that she can get out of the bed, walk out of her room, and find us, nights are more challenging.

So, I put her back in bed tell her that it’s night now, time to go to sleep.  I quietly leave her room, close the door ~remembering to leave it slightly ajar!~, and then go about my other nightly routines.  The very first night she “slept” in the bed she got up 12,000 times, the second night she “slept” in the bed she got up 2 times, I thought that was a vast improvement, then on the third night she got up 500 times, small regression.

Anyway, its been a whole week since she began “sleeping” in her big girl bed and our nights haven’t been the same.  Oh, all is well if I wait until 9pm at night to put her to bed, she about falls right to sleep from exhaustion.  On top of the fact that she still gets up between 5:30-6:00am.  This in turn causes her to be a giant crabby pants the next day!  Needless to say this isn’t really a workable solution.  I’m just glad that it’s summer time.  At least we aren’t having to rush our mornings as much.

I’m hopeful that it will only be a few more nights before she gets accustomed to the new bed. 

Thanks for listening (or reading, if you must be technical),

Ciao     

We’re moving, again -or not (part 7)

Just in case you want to get up to speed on the whole saga of ‘We’re moving, again’ there are seven other posts on the topic.  And I have tried, tried, tried to get the damn things to link here but it just isn’t working so you’ll just have to search.  Sorry.

Ok, are we ready?  Here’s the latest scoop.  It has officially been 12 months (yes, I said 12 months) that our house has been for sale.  You’d think we must have one dump of a house for it not to have sold in 12 months.  Oh, contrare, we have a stunning house.  And if you read any of the above referenced posts on this topic, then you know cause I’ve described the house in detail… anyway, the only thing I can attribute to the house not selling is this unbelieveably horrible housing market. 

Thank heavens we’ve managed to make it this whole year.  Things could have taken a disastrous turn if our business hadn’t picked up during the same time frame.  Luckily it did & we can still (barely) afford to stay in our house.  For at least another year.  Maybe we’ll get really lucky and the market will be back on the upswing this time next year.  Bwahhahahahahaha!

So for now, we are not moving.  The house is officially coming off the market on Saturday and we are now in the process of possibly refinancing in a slightly vain attempt at reducing our monthly payment.

Ciao 

And now we bring you

More on the saga of our house for sale.  It is now month number 9.  Hey perhaps this will be like pregnancy but instead of giving birth to a child, we will sell our house!!  God willing.  We managed to survive Christmas and New Year with the house ready for any Tom, Dick, or Harry to come tramping through.  I somehow kept the house looking like a show piece despite the massive amounts of wrapping paper, ribbons, tie wraps, plastic packaging, and loads of new toys.  The day after Christmas our house looked like it had vomited colored bows, torn bits of paper, and random utensils and plates from the 1,000 piece Tea set my evil  wonderful sister got Pumpkin for a gift.  Ordinarily, it would have taken me weeks to get that mess cleaned up.  This year, I didn’t have weeks, I had a ~as in ONE~ day to get it back to Open House status. 

Believe it or not, there was actually a call from a realtor who wanted to show the house the day after Christmas.  I suppose we could have said no.  But we are trying to sell the house.  So we got it ready for them…  Yeah… they didn’t show up.  Big *f-in* surprise.  Gggrrrr.   

I have just finally agreed with the Husband to stop obsessively cleaning the house on the “possibility” that someone might be coming by to view the house.  Yes, it’s been 9 months and I am so incredibly tired of the constant cleaning.  So we decided that we would bring the lockbox in the house & make all agents call to schedule an appointment before they just show up with their clients.  One agent actually called & said, “we’re outside your house, can you come up and let us in?”  Hmmm, let me think about that…. “No”.  For goodness sake, make an appointment and give us a little tiny bit of notice.  That way the house looks presentable for you, not as if a twister had just blown through.  So no, a minute notice is not enough, but perhaps a days notice??!!  Or at the very least a half an hour notice?

Basically, moving the lock box inside frees me up tremendously.  It means that I don’t have to flip out over every toy Pumpkin drags out of her room to play with in the morning, cause I DON’T HAVE TO CLEAN IT UP BEFORE I leave the house!!  I don’t have to make three beds before I leave the house!  I don’t have to wash every dish before I leave the house!!  You have no idea what a relief it is.  Plus, I’m not constantly yelling at the children not to make a mess.  This is better for my mommy self-image, my mental health, and the gremlins mental health.  And you know, when you really think about, what I consider a mess, to them is just being creative children at play having fun. 

So we came to the conclussion, after reviewing data on the market and discussing the absolute least amount we could accept ~and still have money left for a downpayment on a new house~ that we should reduce the sale price.  This is the second time that we are dropping the price.  Believe me when I say that it makes me want to be sick when I think about how much money we are potentially leaving with this house.  I don’t want to go into the details since I don’t feel up for vomitting right now… suffice it to say that we will barely have enough left to make a minimum downpayment on another house.  And the housing prices here are still ridiculously high even on a simple single family home.  I try not to think about this overly much since it’s fairly depressing.  It is what it is.  I just need to learn to deal with the reality of the situation as it is now.  However, on the upside, once we reduced the price we had about 150 views per day of the virtual tour which was up by almost 100 pre-reduction.  More traffic viewing the house means more chances of the house selling.

********************

So, yesterday we had two agents bring their clients over to see the house.  One agent was bringing the second half of a couple to view.  This could be promising.  If the wife saw the house first and now wants her husband to see the house, then we might have a potential offer.  However, if it was the husband that saw the house first and now wants his wife to see it, then it probably won’t go anywhere.  Reason being, the wife almost always makes the decision about which house they will live in… think about it, you know this is true.  The husband may set the price limit but the wife will ultimately decide which house will be most comfortable for her family.  The other agent has never been out to the house before so his clients are really a long shot.  I sent all the info to our agent last night for him to follow-up.  We shall see if anything comes of this.  I try not to get my hopes up since it has been so long already without any offers.  I’m just going with the flow, what will be will be, and all those other corny expressions.

Enough for now,

Ciao 

Valentine’s Day 2008

 

Ahhh, the love.  Can you feel it in the air today?  I can.  I can see it all around me too.  Lots of heart balloons, colorful flowers in delightful bouquets, and candy being sold by the boatload today.  As I passed a vacant lot today there was two different people setting up their booths overflowing with flowers and balloons.  I can hear it too.  People are being so pleasant to each other.  Calling out wishes to each other for a “Happy Valentine’s Day”!  I think it’s wonderful that we can do this, but I wish the happiness and amiability would extend beyond this one day. 

If only we could remember to be this nice to each other on every other day of the year.  Don’t get me wrong, anytime we can be nicer to each other is a good thing.  Even if this is a completely manufactured holiday (as are most of the holidays we celebrate), does it really matter?  Spread love, Be love, Receive love.  We’d probably be better humans if we all lived by this credo.  Sadly, we rarely share love with everyone.  Even more sadly, many people don’t know how to receive love.  Like we don’t deserve to receive the love that is being freely given to us.  Go compliment someone today.  You’ll find out quickly what I mean.  And frankly, I think there are only a dozen people alive in this world who know how to Be love. 

We teach our children how to speak, how to walk, how to write, etc., etc., but do we really teach them how to love?  Give it freely and receive it graciously?  I think not.  Mostly we expect that they will just understand it from the way we are with them, our spouse, our extended family, and other close friends.  Now, I know that many children are unconditionally loving without needing to be taught.  When they are 1, 2, 3 yrs old you see this daily.  With the hugs and kisses they bestow without restraint.  It goes away though in just a few short years.  By the time they are 8, 9, 10 yrs old they realize that Mom and Dad aren’t always right or perfect.  Then by the time they are teenagers, forget it, we parents are absolute morons and total embarrassments.  Well, I could go on ad nauseam with that topic but that will have to be a discussion for another day.  Let me get back to love.  It’s at this point in time when the love lessons will really pay off.  The teenagers might be tolerable until they reach their 20’s.  At which point they become normal humans again.

So, anyway, today is a special day.  And as with almost all of our other holidays, has lost all it original meaning.  In fact, if you asked me to explain to you the original reason Valentine’s day became a holiday, I’d tell you to go google it because I have no bloody idea.  Is it a sign of the commercialism of our country?  Unequivocally, yes.  We celebrate holidays by buying things for each other without even realizing why.  Except that’s what we are being told to do.  Another topic of discussion for a different day.

My feeling is that any day we can be more loving, caring, pleasant, or helpful to each other is a great day.  We need to have more days just like this….

Enough for now,

Ciao 

P.S. The husband got me a dozen red roses, as is required by law.  Just kidding.  He did it because he loves me and I deserve to receive love!           

We’re moving, again. (part 6)

Welp, I suppose it’s time for another installment in the on-going saga… it has been almost 6 months since we put our house on the market.  Talk about taking far longer than we EVER expected.  And there is still no real end in sight.  Sure, we have had quite a few people come through the house in the last month but no offer has been made.  We did have an almost offer that you can read about here, if you’ve got the time. 

Last week we had someone schedule a walk through (and they actually showed up & left a card!  wow very professional!), so the husband emailed our agent to give him all the details.  Later that same day the agent calls back to say how he, “appreciated us sending the info. but did you miss one?”  Huh?  “No, we didn’t miss one, but people have come through without leaving a card.  Perhaps that’s what this agent did.” So, yeah, he says, “Well, I’m expecting an offer from them any day.” 

WHAT!!!???  Excuse me?  How come you haven’t said anything to us about these people?

Well there is a caveat, they want to bring out a pool contractor to see how much time & money it will take to have a pool installed.  Uuummm, O.K.   I’m not going to count on this one coming to fruition.  It certainly sounds sketchy to me.  In fact, Mr. Realtor, don’t ever tell us that you are expecting an offer.  Tell us when you actually, physically have an offer burning your hands!  It’s just too disappointing when you say ‘you think one is coming’ but then that never becomes reality.  We are desperate to sell and our hopes rise so high when we hear those words.  And then those hopes are smashed against the giant rocks that exist in our minds.

Man, oh Manischewitz, I am so over this whole thing.  I really want to get this house sold so that we can start living in this house again (even if only temporarily).  I miss my family room.  Do you know, well technically you probably don’t unless you’ve been following this saga, we took the T.V. & other electronic devices out of the family room and we haven’t sat in there since!  No Joke.  We’re talking about 6 MONTHS.  Basically when we put the T.V. back up in our bedroom ~cause we took that one down too, that room became our family room.  You can always find us there. 

I seriously miss being able to leave dishes in the sink for more than 5 minutes, I miss the luxury of leaving toys on the floor, and business papers on my desk.  I will say one positive result from this experience (I’m trying with all my power to stay positive & find positive things to take from this ordeal) is that I can now do one million and one things in the morning & still manage to get myself ready for the day without being more than 10 minutes late for work.  Which for me is basically on time.

I pray every day that we will get this house sold and be able to move on with our lives instead of being in perpetual limbo.  Wish, pray, hope for me that we will sell this house!!  PLEASE!!

Enough for now,

Ciao   

Fire

In some cases fire is a good thing.  Like when you are really, really, really cold or even when your only just really cold.  And, also, when you want to snuggle up with your honey.  It’s good when you need to cook some food.  It’s great to have when you want to take a hot shower.  But there are times when it’s not a good thing.  Such as when you burn yourself roasting marshmellows.  Or when there is a fire burning its way toward your home or school.  Like this…

photo taken from our dining room window. 

This summer, like many summers before, there have been fires.  It certainly isn’t an unusual occurrence.  Different things can start fires, in the case of this fire, they still haven’t determined what started it. 

I always feel terrible for the people that are affected (or is it effected? I can never remember); those that lose their homes, mementos, and sometimes family members or pets.  We have always been incredibly lucky.  Misfortunes have passed us by.  For this I am truly grateful.  I pray that this is another one of those occasions, where fate is on our side. 

Now, from the photo it is difficult to tell how far or near the fire is to us.  It is actually somewhat far.  Plus, there is a lake in between.  Therefore, the likelyhood of this fire reaching us is slim.  That doesn’t mean that it isn’t possible, just that it’s unlikely.  God willing. 

~NEW DAY~
Ok, it is now the next day.  Got too late for me to stay up & finish the post last night.  Here is the update: They say they have the fire only 10% contained.  There is lots of wind continuing to blow the fire in all directions and the fire itself creates wind, making it even more difficult to fight.  Its already burned 1,000s of acres.  Who knows how many more it will burn. 

As I was driving to pickup Honey bunny from school, I passed about a half dozen fire trucks loaded with tired, soot covered fire fighters.  Those guys need to be thanked!  They risk their lives to put out fires.  THANK YOU FIREFIGHTERS EVERWHERE!!! 

I’ll keep you posted on the situation.

Enough for now,

Ciao

   

Sometimes I wish…

That I only needed 5 4 3 hrs of sleep per night.  Oh, and I would be completely refreshed, ready to take on whatever the day had in store.  If this wish were to come true, I would have enough time to do everything that I wanted to do.  I was contemplating this, the other night, as I was falling asleep.  I had so wanted to spend more time writing but I knew that I needed to get to bed at a decent hour ~ decent hour being something like 11:00pm ~ and how this would be absolutely necessary for me to have enough energy for the next day (or everyday for that matter).  I am perpetually facing this limitation, not enough hours in the day….  Certainly I’m not the only one that feels this way.  But we’re not talking about them, we’re talking about me.  So, there. 

Now, if I only needed 5 4 3 hrs to rest each night, then I would be able to do the following (in no particular order):

• read,
• watch t.v.,
• exercise,
• listen to music,
• check my emails,
• travel,
• read blogs,
• scrapbook,
• volunteer,
• write blogs,
• chat with friends,
• mess with myspace,
• talk to my husband ~in more words than “ah uh, yeah, ok, whatever, no, did you, sure”.  I would love to speak in whole sentences about important world topics or our life & future together or our children, 
• write more of my book,
• journal,
• give blood,
• play /read with my children,
• and so on. 

Not having 21 hrs to do all of the above (and more) means that I have to be really selective.  No time wasting for me.  And even still I have to choose wisely between what has to be done & what I want to do.  It just doesn’t add up.  If only I could be selfish and do the things I want to do.  I would say “screw you” to all the work, chores, homework (now that we have started back to school) and other responsibilities that must come before the fun stuff.  I suppose if I had the extra time, then I wouldn’t have to say “screw you”, I could just do everything!

So, I’ll say it again, sometimes I wish that I only needed 3 hrs of sleep.  Imagine all the wonderful things that I would be able to do!  Aaahhhh, what a delightful thought.

Enough for now (cause I have to go to bed),

Ciao

All I can say is wow

I was shocked when I read this article about obesity. Who knew?!  All this time I thought I was fat because I wasn’t eating healthy foods and exercising properly.  But as it turns out, I can blame it all on someone else!  Now, I’ll be realistic and say that it probably had something do to with those factors but it sounds like it is really plausible, either my family or friends are making me fat!  Unfortunately, it works both ways… maybe I’m making some of my friends fat.  Sorry =)). 

But what I think is so interesting about this study is, are we trying to find ways to PROVE that other people are responsible for making us fat?  OR is it perhaps that during general research they stumbled upon this result? 

We are a nation of finger pointers.  ‘It’s not my fault, it’s his/hers/theirs!’  How many rediculous lawsuits have been won by people blaming others for their own idiocy?  I will refrain from ranting on and on because I don’t have the time necessary to fully GO OFF on the stupidity of people.  “oh gosh, I don’t know how I got so fat, I mean I only ate McDonalds (or fill in the blank of your favorite fast food joint) every day.”  Come on!  Let’s all learn how to be responsible for our own actions again!!  If you eat junk food all the time and you don’t exercise, then you are going to get fat.  I’m pretty sure that’s a proven fact.

Anyhooo, over the past couple of years, I have been steadily working to lose the excess weight (cause I was eating too much junk food, eating portions of food that were too large, and not exercising consistently ~ but now I am!) so hopefully that will filter thru to friends and family, if this study is to be believed.  And in truth, I think that it probably has made a difference with the husband.  He has made some changes (not so much fast food ~no more big macs, ~no more three sodas a day) that have helped him slim down a bit.  But for him, he was always sort of a scrawny skinny kid, he finally feels normal having a few extra pounds on.  But I think that not only the husband & I will benefit from eating healthier, our children will immediately benefit as well.  And when you have girls, who are so easily influenced by pop culture (my 7 yr old is trying to tell me that she is fat ~ just for the record she is NOT AT ALL FAT~ and that she needs to exercise more), it is even more important to stress that good eating habits & normal play/exercise is really all it takes to maintain a healthy mind and body. 

Oh, I have no doubt that someone could say that this point isn’t true.  And sure, there are medical conditions that do cause certain people to have weight issues.  BUT, for the majority of Americans, I don’t believe it has anything to do with medical issues.  Merely our laziness and bad eating habits.

All right, enough for now,

Ciao

We’re moving, again. (part 3)

It has officially been 6 weeks since we put our house on the market.  And I’m *sad* to say that we have not had any offers to-date.  Many people have driven by & taken flyers, come to the multitude of open house, and scheduled appts. to view the house with their realtors but alas, not one single offer.  This is starting to get depressing.  I know that I’m probably expecting too much to think that our house should have sold by now, but I can’t seem to help myself.  We’ve always sold our previous homes so quickly, generally within the first 30 days of it being on the market.  If I’m more realistic, then I’ll look at what’s truly happening with the housing market.  But then it will really, really depress me because there ain’t shit happening with the market (and just so you know, I don’t care that ‘ain’t’ isn’t proper English).

I’m doing my best to stay positive.  It will sell when the time is right.  When the right person finds the house.  I need to be patient, I know.  At times it’s difficult.  Especially when things have been extremely slow for our business.  It’s fairly fightening.  I wander, like a lost child, all over the spectrum of emotions and thoughts.  From hour to hour, occasionally, starting at ‘everything will work out fine’ and ending with ‘we are going to lose everything that we’ve worked our whole lives for’.  Then I contemplate the latter scenario… what would it really mean to lose everything?  What if it lead us down another path?  The path for which we were truly destined?  What if we are meant to be free of these things that tie us down, and in a way, keep us prisoner.  When you have so many “things” that have to be paid for, you aren’t free.  You must always work to pay for the house, cars, cleaners, gardeners, PG & E, telephone, water, garbage, and so on and so on ad nauseam!

We are so fortunate to have family close by us, so it isn’t as if we would have to live on the streets.  As some are forced to do.  No, we would ultimately be just fine.  And I generally operate until the philosophy that everything has a way of working out the way it’s meant to be.  Call me a Pollyanna if you want, but I think I do like the world with rose colored glasses.

Besides, what if everything that we are currently experiencing is shaping us?  Forming us?  Molding us?  Because isn’t that one of the purposes of life?  Learning and growing by the myriad of life experiences.  And it’s not just happening for myself or the husband but our children too.  We tend to forget that they are influenced by these events because we see them as so young ~they aren’t actually involved.  But I’m beginning to realize how wrong I am in that judgement.  Even our 2yr old asks, ”is my crib comin to da new house?” or “is da doggies comin to da new house?”  She understands enough to pose these questions.  She comprehends that we will be leaving this house and moving to another and just wants to make sure that her favorite things will be coming with us.  It really is quite adorable, in a slightly heartbreaking way.  I wish that we didn’t have to make the move, for the girls sake.  That’s when I start thinking about the future again… what’s around the corner?  More challenges to be faced with our business?  Random other things that could pop-up completely out of nowhere?  What if the next house fits our life more perfectly than this house?

Even if things turn around completely for our business and we have tremendous growth, my thought on this house is that it’s time to cut our loses.  But when it boils right down to the bottom, it’s completely out of my control WHEN or even IF the house sells.  Maybe I’ll just sing the Bob Marley song, ’Everything will be all right’, in my head ~of course.  Or maybe I will just walk around all day singing it out loud, that will be my new theme song.  And I will make people wonder if I’ve finally lost all my marbles.  But then again, they might just start singing with me!  One can only hope….

In the mean time, we are having another series of open houses, next weekend & the following weekend so wish us luck on finding a buyer!

Enough for now,

Ciao