So, no one has come forward to pack my house for me out of the goodness of their hearts. Oh well, guess I'm stuck doing it. Have I mentioned how much I hate doing that?

This house has to be "show" worthy by the 8th. That gives me a week. ho hum. I seem to do much better on the weekends. I'm so tired during the week. I think it's cause I have to wake up at the crack of dawn and then I work out. (that whole theory about working out waking you up is CRAP). I swear, I get nothing done during the day. It's after dinner that I start working. Weird. Guess I'm just a night person. On the weekends, I get to sleep in, and John's home so it motivates me somehow to get shit done.

We're having a birthday party for Callihan on 22nd of February. It's the big "5". It will also most likely be our last birthday party here for any of us, so I expect everyone to come. By then the house should be freaking spotless!

Speaking of parties, we are actually going to a party. All by ourselves, no kids!! How awesome is that? My cousin is coming to stay with the kids for the night since the party is in Weehawken and we'll most likely be VERY late coming home. The party is on my birthday too, so it's like a two-fer! How great is that birthday present! A night out with no kids. AAahhhh, can't beat that! Guitar Hero/Beer Pong, here I come!!

So, Calli has been very observant lately. Last night she was laying with her head in my lap being very cuddly when she starts poking at my "second" chin. She says "Mom, why do you have all this skin down here? Why do you have two chins?" Just cause honey. "You have another chin just like Grandma, you look just like a Grandma Mamma!!" Thanks Honey, you're the best!!

This morning she looked at me and asked "Mamma, why do you have a mustache? Only BOYS have mustaches!! You're so funny Mamma!!" Thanks again Babe! She just likes to find the best in all of us. So sweet. (rolling of the eyes)

Gotta love a snow day - can you hear the sarcasm?

First of all, I have to say this.... Every school day I get up at 6:30 and have to DRAG Nick out of bed to get him ready for school. It's a fight every day. On the weekends, the kid is up by 6am or earlier. Last night I made the mistake of telling him he may not have school today, so when I got up at 6:30 to go check the snow phone line, who do I see sitting on the couch playing the Wii, that's right, my little monster. Arg. It just pisses me off to no end. If he doesn't have school, he up, if he does, it's a contest of wills.

Anyway, so now the kids are both home today and I'm trying very hard not to kill them. It's not like I can even let them go outside and play because the snow has now turned to freezing rain. So they are stuck in the house with me. JOY OF JOYS!! I'm trying very hard to clean and I swear, as soon as I get one thing done and go onto the next, they've destroyed the first thing. I have now banished them to their rooms.

John is out in this crap cause of course there's no rest for the trucker. His stops got messed up too, so his day is even longer. I always worry about him in weather like this. I try not to watch the news or traffic reports afraid to hear that a trucker went off the road or whatever. It's very nerve racking.

So, the mortgage company in FL called today. It seems that our credit is way too sucky and there is no way we'll be able to get a mortgage. I was very disappointed to hear that. I also expected John to be pretty pissed. He surprised me though and said, Oh well, that's ok, we'll just rent for a couple years. Ya know, I think this move is going to be very good for him. Just the thought of it has made him so much happier.

Ya know what my greatest wish right now is..... That we could hire someone to come in and pack up all this crap. That would be sooooo awesome. I could just sit on the couch and watch! Aaaahhhh. But, alas, that is not in the budget. Bah humbug.

Ok, I have to stop stalling and get moving here. And now my beautiful daughter is standing next to me whining in my ear. CALGON TAKE ME AWAY!

I'm tired. I went back to sleep this morning after Nick left and was out till 10am when Calli woke me up asking for breakfast. I think I'm starting to stress a bit over this move and money and all that jazz.

They're calling for another snow storm tomorrow. It says at least 6 inches possibly more. Lovely. At least in the cleaning out process I found the kids snow tube, so that's something. LOL

I called the mortgage company in FL today to see if we can even get a mortgage with our crappy credit and they said they'd call me back. We'd need a freaking miracle to actually be accepted. Cross your fingers and say a little prayer to whichever God you believe in, cause we're gonna need it. Oh, and add a quick and full price sale on this house to that prayer too please.

Speaking of God.... you all know I'm one of those non believer types, but lately I've been watching that Joel Osteen guy. Now, I may not necessarily believe what he's preaching, but I really like his messages. What does that mean?? I guess having faith in anything is better than no faith at all.

I screwed up my 2005 taxes! Arg. I had gotten a letter from the IRS a while ago saying I was being audited for it. Something about my expenses for the Mary Kay stuff. I of course did what I always do and put it in a pile to rot. Now that I'm starting to get certified letters, I actually pulled everything out today and figured it out. When I estimated miles, I had put 25,000 for the year when it should have been 2,500. Oh Great. Looks like we owe the IRS money too. Wonderful. Cause we just don't owe enough people. I wrote them a letter and printed out all the correct mileage, so we'll see what they say.

We're just waiting on John's w-2's so I can do our return. Hopefully we get a lot back cause that's what's gonna take us down to FL.

Rich came last night to sign the paperwork for the house. He's not happy with the price I wanted, but oh well. I can't do it any lower because even with the price we're set at, people always offer at least 20,000 less and that's barely going to be able to pay off the mortgages and the real estate fees. We're going to be extremely lucky to walk away with anything on this house. I have a feeling it's going to end up being a write off and we'll get nothing.

Can you tell I'm in a sour mood? I think I'm PMSing. And that added to the already heavy stress is making me a not nice person right now. BBBAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!

Anyway.... I sold a ton of stuff on ebay. I have to go through it all now and ship it out. That's the worst part. We sold our select comfort bed on Sunday and the guy called me when he got home and said they couldn't blow it up cause there was a rip in the air chamber. CRAP. I think that when we shoved it under the spare bed it must have caught on one of the wires. They paid us $300 for it and he only asked for $100 back. I thought that was very nice of him. He had called the company and they said it could be replaced for $138. So we still made $200 on a bed we don't use. That money has to go towards a car payment now.

I got rid of two huge boxes of toys yesterday too. I put them on freecycle and they were taken within 30 seconds. LOL That's good. We've cleared out so much, I'm very proud of myself. I'm going to tackle actual packing now. Not today though. Today, I'm taking a break. I might even go take a nap. We'll see.

Let's see, do I have any good news? Oh, my friend Erin gave me an award! She made me smile today. Thanks girl! What else..... hmmm, the dog crapped in the kennel again today, oh wait, no that goes in the bad news column..... I found protein shakes that taste decent and only cost $14!! That's definitely good news. I also found milk Calli likes. The soy milk she's allergic too and the rice milk was kinda nasty. But I found Almond milk. I got the chocolate kind and it's unsweetened, so I added a little chocolate syrup to it and it tastes pretty damn close to chocolate milk made with skim milk. YAY, now if the plain kind tastes ok, we'll be gold.

Ok, off to eat something since I haven't done that yet today... crap, it's 2:30. Not good. See Ya

Good news and bad news.

The good news is that it got a little warmer today (32 degrees woo hoo) and the pipes defrosted. We had gotten all the water running except the washer and the kitchen sink. They are all running now.

The bad news.... a pipe burst in the basement. Arg. AND, while John was down there fixing it and I was at the computer I heard the horrible sound of water spraying everywhere. The heater pipe right by the computer burst. Arg, water everywhere. So John drained out all the base boards since we don't use them anyway and fixed the other pipe. Then I packed up all our dirty clothes and the 2 dozen soaking wet towels and went to spend the day at the laundry matt since the washer still wasn't working then.

And you wonder why we want to move???

We went through all the boxes that where in the attic and I got rid of half of the stuff. John brought in a bunch from the garage and I got rid of a lot of that, have some on craigs list, some on ebay, some going to salvation army and some on freecycle. I found a box of about 100 cassette tapes. What the hell am I gonna do with those?? They're on freecycle if anyone wants them. LOL

I have 3 huge boxes to go through tonight and tomorrow that are filled with clothes and toys. It's all gotta go. How the hell did I become such a pack rat? I don't get it. I'm opening boxes of stuff I've had since high school. And not even good stuff. Just stupid shit.

I finally went through my box of pictures too. I threw out half of them. Some where people I didn't even remember anymore, some where people I didn't WANT to remember anymore, and the rest were doubles of doubles of doubles. LOL Oh Shelly, you should see the pics I found of you and Tim. HA LOL Young love! And Beth (Waring), I actually have a bunch of pictures for you that I thought you might like. Let's get together and I'll give them to you.

Ok, off to go through those boxes. I hate ebaying. Well, it's a love/hate relationship really. I love the money, but hate the work involved. I'm so freaking lazy.

Oh, weight check. 179 YAYAYAYAY FINALLY!!! I Lost a stinkin pound!! WOO HOOO!!

Below is a video from the other day when we took the kids out on the ice.

What a horrible morning. I woke up this morning and it was 50 degrees in here. So I put Nick in the bathroom to change since there's a heater in there and go out to get the fire going. I stop in my tracks when I notice a smell. Ug, the puppy pooped in his kennel and decided to spread it all over. GREAT. So I put him outside and he goes running back in. AAAHHHHH Tracking poo all over the floor, carpet and then jumping on the couch. Mother Fu***** Get him back outside and go to wash my hands that now have poo on them to find that we have no water!!! The freaking pipes froze.

That's it, I'm done. Shelly, take a deep breath and close your eyes. We're outta here. I've called the schools in Florida and got info on what needs to be done for Nick. We have a realtor sending us listings for houses to rent. I called my mom and said good-bye and I'm now looking for truck rentals. I've had it. I'm tired of always being broke, I'm tired of always being cold, worrying about having enough wood, running out of wood, worrying about the pipes freezing, worrying about the kids getting sick. It's all too much. Too Crazy. It's time for a change. Something new. Time to start over. If it doesn't work, oh well, at least we wont freeze to death.

We'll put the house on the market for a short sale and hope someone takes it. If not, it forcloses and we have to wait 10 years to buy. Oh well.

Wow, a week since I posted. Hmm well I guess I should do some catch up.

IT'S FREAKING COLD!!!!!!!! We got slammed with a snow storm over the weekend. It wasn't as bad as they predicted though. They had said a foot of snow and we only got about 5-6 inches. Not to bad. Now we're in the midst of some horrible arctic blast. With the wind chill we're feeling about -10. Not fun. At least we're not in North Dakota where it's -45. That's just insane. That's don't leave your house till spring weather. Every cold day pushes me closer to Florida!

Well, we went to the doctor today to get all of Nick's test results. It turns out that he is allergic to milk/dairy/casein. He also has a large yeast build up. She gave me an rx for the yeast that he will have to be on for 2 months and that should flush it out of his system. As for the milk... he needs to go on a casein free diet. Ho Hum. Not fun. BUT, at least it wasn't the gluten. THAT would have been a freakin nightmare. So for now, no milk, yogurt, cheese, butter, etc. We don't have to pull things made with milk yet. She said start slow and see how he does. Just pull the straight dairy for right now.

She did Calli's workup today too and said she can tell just by the look of her that her tests will come back most likely the same as Nicks. So might as well put everyone on the dairy free diet. Of course if the kids have to be on it, we'll do it too. Not exactly good parenting to drink a milkshake infront of your kids who can't have it. hee hee hee. So now I'm on the search for what we can and can't have and recipes on how to cook now without using dairy. This should be interesting.

Weight check. BLAH!!! I'm still sitting at 180. It's been a month now and the freaking scale hasn't moved!!! It's so annoying. Although, I know it's because I'm not getting in enough protein. I'm out of shake stuff and I haven't had a chance to get more. I'm going to do that tomorrow. Hopefully that will kick it off again.

Oh, I have to download the pictures but the other day we took the kids sneaker skating! We don't have ice skates, and hell if I'm gonna buy them. The kid down the road cleared a bunch of the lake in front of his house for a hockey rink and we brought the kids down to slide on the ice. Nick even got to play some hockey with Sean. John was pushing the kids along the ice. They had a blast. I'll put the picks on soon. It was kinda scary to stand on the lake. I was just so scared that I would here CCCCRRRAAACK!!!!!! and we'd all fall in. Not that I really had to worry since the lake is only 6 feet deep. LOL But still, it'd be cold!

Speaking of cold, my toes are froze... I'm going on the couch under the blankie. Stay warm folks!

This weather SUCKS!! I hate it. Ya know, when it's any other season you think, oh, winter's not to bad. And then you go for about a week with your toes so cold it hurts to stand and you remember.... IT SUCKS!!

John's on a Florida kick right now. He's always said, no way, it's too hot down there. Now, all of a sudden, he's like, that's it, sell everything and let's go. He even went so far as to have me check real estate down there. I did find something that was 5 bedrooms, 3 baths, in ground pool, needed a TON of work, basically like this house was and it was $18,000. That's right folks, 18,000. Like I said, it needed a lot of work. But even the stuff that was in move in condition was nothing. Most of it was under 100,000. CRAZY!!!

I don't know. I like the idea of change. I like the idea of warm weather all the time. Sunshine on my shoulder, makes me happy!! (channeling John Denver). I think the only thing that would hold me here is my Mommy. I don't think I could live that far away from her. And I mean, how guilty would I feel if her last child upped and moved to Florida with the other two and left her up here all by herself. How crappy would that be of me! I SUCK.

Not that we could do it right now anyway. Maybe in a couple of years. The housing market sucks and we would never be able to sell our house. Although, if they foreclose, we would! lol Plus I would have to find a good Autistic school down there. That's a big deterrent. Pulling Nick out of his school would be horrid. And trying to find another school down there as good as this one... I highly doubt it. Plus, once we go down there, there's no coming back unless we win the lottery or something.

Oh who knows. All I know is this weather sucks. My deck is a sheet of ice and John stole my car this morning. BASTARD LOLOL oh well. Kids are both home today, so I better go entertain them before they trash my house. TA

Most of us have heard this one before, but here it is with a puppet, too cute. If you haven't heard it, you're in for a real treat. John lives by this song... he knows the truth about relationships!!

Thanks for the video Mom!

Nothing new going on here. Trying to get the house in order, as usual. I've sold a bunch of stuff on ebay and made $200. I still have a ton to do, so hopefully I can make enough to pay some bills.

I'm going to put my ad in the paper about doing child care. Hopefully I'll get some takers.

Calli's sick. Arg. Nick had a cold a couple weeks ago that turned into an ear infection and that started with a cough and loss of his voice. Calli's had a cough now for a few days and it seems to be getting worse. But she's more like clearing her throat constantly rather than really coughing. She's not complaining of anything else, so we'll see.

Our pets are starting to dwindle down. LOL We lost Tommy the hamster on Christmas Eve (of all days!) and my only male guppy died over the weekend. No more baby fish for a while. Only 300 more animals to go! LOL The new dog is doing well. He's still crazy and thinks he's a little chihuahua or something the way he jumps on you, but he's cute. He and Maggie have a race to see who can get the other's collar off first. Mason usually wins. We put them out to go to the bathroom and ten minutes later, Maggie comes in collar-less. LOL Doofy dogs.

Today it's back to reality for most of us. John went back to work and Nick went off to school. He was not happy about getting up early. Even though he's been up by 6am every morning for the last week, I couldn't get him up at 6:30. Arg Back to the routine boy!

Oh, speaking of routine. We've started the kids on chores and allowance. I made up a chore chart for each of them and it's really cool. They each get a set amount of allowance and loose money from it for each chore not done. We'll see how it works out. I'm trying to convince them to save all their allowance so they can spend it when we go to Florida at the end of the year. Cross your fingers that the pull of hot wheels and barbies doesn't take over!

Off to box more stuff. TTFN