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?

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!