To the person who posted about the house. Unfortunately, we owe $230,000 in mortgage. And in today's market it's actually worth about between $200,000 and $250,000. I wish I could let it go for what you're offering, but we can't. Sorry. We are going into Short Sale and the listing price will be dropping to $250,000 as of today. Just an FYI

The party went well. Lots of food of course and we really didn't have that many left overs. Calli got lots of much needed clothes and some toys that are now all over. We spent yesterday getting Barbie tattoos and putting on make-up. YAY! LOL

John decided to take the day off Monday to help me clean up in case someone wanted to see the house. Of course, as fate would have it, someone called in the morning wanting to show it in the afternoon. So, John helped me clean everything. I spent most of the day upstairs putting the kids rooms back in order. We got it all done and then the realtor called and said, we're outside, but they said it's too close to the road, so we're not coming in. Bastards. Ya know, I even told her when she called that we had a party the day before and we'd have to do a lot of cleaning. You could have a little common courtesy and at least come in. Idiots!

We're dropping the price of the house $10,000 this week and will do it again next month. Hopefully that will do something. When I did the numbers, we figured we're not going to get anything out of it either way. Knowing what the market is doing and what people will pay, I doubt anyone is going to give us more than $240,000. For us to make any money, we'd need more than that. We were hoping for $250, that would at least get us down there and we would have been able to pay everyone off that we owe. Not gonna happen. So, it's pointless now. Short sale starts the end of April, so I think we'll probably leave the beginning of May and let what will be, be. Ho Hum

Above are a bunch of pics. The ones of her in the brown dress are from her actual birthday and the presents from us. Nick was so cute. He went and got his stuffed snowman and two of his match box cars and wrapped them for her. The rest are from the party. Check out the awesome "Cake by Shelly"!

5 years ago today...

I was enjoying company at my house after being on bed rest for 2 months. My sister was here with her kids and she was making a big turkey dinner for us. At around 7 I got up to make Nick's plate and WOOSH the mayhem began. Ambulances and doctors were called, paramedics started rushing in, the medivac helicopter was in the air. Rushing to the hospital while trying to avoid bumps that were making the gushing blood worse (sorry TMI) Being whisked off to labor and delivery, and then having an episode of ER begin. Nurses scrambling, rushing in and out, machines being hooked up everywhere, my doctor coming in and looking very concerned, complete chaos! Being wheeled off to the OR with urgent looks on everyone's faces. And then with about 15 min, seeing my VERY tiny baby girl being whisked off to the NICU. John telling me "She's small, but she looks good." Hearing her little cry that got her the nickname of "Mouse".

I can't believe it's been 5 years. It goes by so fast. For those of you expecting or have infants, cherish every moment. Even when you haven't slept in days and the baby has collic and is driving you insane... hold onto every moment, because there will come a time that you look down and your 2 month old is now 5 and you feel like you missed everything.

I'm being adventurous for the party. Normally I make store bought appetizers and everyone likes them. But this time, I'm making everything from scratch. Hopefully I'm not biting off more than I can chew. Here's the menu...

Sweet & sour shrimp puffs

Cheesy Chicken & artichoke bites

Mini ham & cheese calzones

BBQ meatballs

Avocado stuffed sliders

And for the kids..

pigs in a blanket

chicken nuggets

and possibly a ziti

Anyone who's ever been to a party at my house knows I like to feed my guests. I actually think it will cost a lot less for me to make all this then to buy all the frozen crap. I always cater more to the adults even when it's a kids party, just cause the kids are so busy playing, they never really eat anyway. As long as I can make something for them to shove in there mouths before cake, it's fine.

Let me know if you'd like anything else that I haven't listed. I'm up for the challenge... I think. LOL

Calli is very excited that so many people are coming. She's been asking me all morning when everyone is gonna get here. I keep telling her they aren't coming till Sunday, but she insists that TODAY is her birthday, so everyone should come today! LOL

I went through all my Mary Kay stuff yesterday. Holy crap there was a lot. There's nothing over $25 and that price is for some of the sets I have that were holiday things. Most of the rest is under $15. I have a lot of make up left, so please... take it all!!

For those of you that are coming to the party Sunday, I am selling off my Mary Kay inventory. I can't bring it all down there with me, it would just be silly. When I do decide to start the business back up again (yes Margaret, I said WHEN not if) I'd like to have fresh inventory anyway. I have a mishmosh of items and I'll most likely be selling everything at cost to get rid of it. I'll just put everything out on a table and ya'll can shop.

If anyone who's not coming wants something, let me know. I'll check to see if I have it.

Just an FYI

An ENTIRE WEEK!!! Nick is off all week. UG!! Don't get me wrong, I love my son more than life itself, but to have the two of them home together for a whole week.... I'm going to pull my hair out. They fight allllllllll the time. I wish it was warm out so we could go do something. But of course it's not. It's cold and muddy and gross out. YUCK! I'll think of something I guess. I know Shelly and I will be working on the cake, so that will take up some time.

John is getting much more antsy about this move. He actually wanted me to pack the house up so we could leave in the next week. I told him no. Not only can we not just leave the house, but Nick needs to finish the school year. I think he can make it through another couple of months.

I still don't know if I'm ready for this. I have a lot of mixed feelings. Yes, Florida is sunny and warm and would be good for the kids. BUT, It's very far away. AND, although he bitches about the cold, I know John's going to be bitching about the heat even more. I am actually pretty scared about doing this. That's probably why I'm not packing anything. I figure I have till the end of May to make up my mind and then I need to start packing. It's just realy scary. I know we'll go anyway, but it's still weird.

I've changed a lot recently. I don't know if it's the thought of moving or that I just finally grew up a little. Especially when it comes to cleaning. Anyone who's been in my house knows that I HATE cleaning. It's always trashed. When you came over, you just expected a disaster. Now it's clean all the time. I mean, like, you can see my kitchen counters. The dishes are done, the floors are vacuumed, the clothes are put away. My car is actually clean too! How bizarre?!? I wonder if being a stay at home mom finally kicked in.

I've become more forgiving too. I actually spoke to my ex-best friend. Nothing in depth, but a kind of catch up. Not that I want to go back down that road. AND!!! I actually let John invite his parents to Calli's birthday party. Now, if you were on the fence about coming to the party, THAT should make you want to run here. It should be VERY interesting. I'm taking bets now to see if she even speaks to me. hee hee hee

Maybe all these changes are good. Maybe it's a signal to me that it's time for a lot of changes and this move is what I need. Hell, maybe I just need to go to Sea World.

Just a little side note, Good luck today Tim. I know it's going to be hard, but know that he wouldn't have wanted anyone but you to do it. You're a good man.

Aaahhhh, it's so nice out. It's actually sitting around 60! I actually didn't have to wear a coat. NICE!! Of course, as with everything else in my life, it's just a tease. It's supposed to get cold again tomorrow. It'll be back in the 20's and 30's by Friday. YUCK.

Not much going on with the house. We had one showing on Sunday and that was it. Bah humbug. Why can't it be easy for once. Why can't we just get an offer and make it quick and easy. NOOoooooo everything has to be hard! Oh well.

I'd love to go to the park or something today, but everything is going to be sopping wet and muddy. Not that much fun to slide down a muddy, slushy slide. Maybe we'll just go for a walk.

Don't forget Calli's party everyone. Sunday, February 22nd at around say... 1pm?? Sounds good. (Shelly, I found a little mermaid doll!) As for gifts, John is crying about it since we just cleared out a ton of their toys. LOL Anyway, she's in a size 6. She likes Barbie, littlest pest shop, anything with animals, art stuff, pretty much any of that girly crap out there. It will be a Little Mermaid party so feel free to dress as your favorite character!! Any Disney character is fine. It doesn't have to be from that movie. Has anyone noticed that Little Mermaid doesn't have a mother..... come to think of it, not many of the disney characters have mother's (besides evil step ones). The only one I can think of is Sleeping Beauty. Hmmm, interesting. Did good old Walt have abandonment issues??

That's all for now. Enjoy the weather while it lasts!

Oh, below are some pics from the cake Shelly made me. (thanks to Liz and John) They don't do it justice! Tim, send me the ones you took too.

Well, the house is finally done! It took FOR - E - VER!!!!! We had our first showing yesterday and it seemed to go well. I had a dream the other night that someone came in with a full price offer as long as we could be out by the weekend. (Shelly didn't like that idea) LOL I doubt that would happen, but a full price offer would be nice. I'll be interested to hear what they thought of the place (Rich, let me know). We can't get it any cleaner than it already is, so it'll just be up to the house now. I'm sure we'll get the same complaints as last time, which mostly revolved around the dormered ceilings in the upstairs bedrooms. Cross your fingers folks!

We had a good weekend (besides all the cleaning). My little cousin came over to watch the kids for us Saturday night so we could go to a party at our friends Mark & Kim's. When I went to pick her up, I actually borrowed clothes from my cousin Valerie to wear to the party. HOW COOL IS THAT??? For those of you that don't know, Val has always been super fit and skinny. One of those really annoying women who don't really have to work to hard on their body because they're born with it. Don't we hate those people!?! But, we love them anyway. Thanks for the duds Val! And thanks for sitting Crystal. You left before I could give you some dough. I'll drop some off to you.

The party was lots of fun. Played a little beer pong. It was so nice to just be out without the kids. And my bestest friend Shelly made me an awesome cake!! (all those that took pictures, please send them to me so I can post them.) Wait until you see it!! If you wish to purchase a cake from Michelle, please let me know and I'll forward on your information to her. She's making Calli's cake for her birthday on the 22nd. Little Mermaid!

I tried to download a couple pics of me before we left for the party, but of course my stupid camera wont cooperate AGAIN!! Piece a crap! Anyway. I'm down to about 170. 13 pounds until I hit the 100 mark. Can you believe I've lost almost 100 pounds in 6 months? How crazy is that. I really thought that at this point I'd be pretty happy with the way I look, but I'm not. I think I could stand to loose another 30-40 pounds. I still have a big tummy and legs. We'll see once I'm down to 150 what I look like. Tummy tuck and boob job are definitely required! Especially the boob job. I'm so sad about the girls. They just aren't there any more. No matter what anyone says, I think your boobs are what makes a woman sexy. Big or small really doesn't matter, but they have to look great in and out of a bra. At this point, mine look crappy in a bra and aren't allowed to be shown without one do to the fact that they look like pancakes. Sad, very very sad.

Speaking of boobs... another Classic Callihan.... Sitting on the couch the other day, she starts flopping my boobs around and going, Mamma, why are your boobies down here. They don't go there, they're supposed to be up here. Why do they do that Mamma? - I don't know honey, just cause - You know what I think Mamma? I think they're sleeping. - I think you're right honey. ROFLMAO

I wonder if there's charities out there that donate money to poor women who desperately need tummy tucks and boob jobs?