Office- almost done!

I have finally got my butt in the office to clean! Although it's not all the way done- the bookshelves need decluttered as well as the closet and desk- the junk on the floor is pretty much gone. The printer and pile in the corner just need to be loaded in the car to go to Goodwill. The pile of papers on the small bookshelf are bills to be dealt with tomorrow and some books to go to the church for the kids room. My son just walked in and said - "Wow! The office looks so nice and clean." It was amazing how dusty it was. Where does it come from?

Here are the rest of the before photos-

And here are the after-

One day I really want to replace the floor. It's a crazy linoleum like floor that was in my son's room and my room. I'm guessing it's under the carpet in Paige's room too! I'm also not crazy about the pine panelling. But it's real pine- not the cheap 70's panelling and we're afraid of what's under it. The curtains came with the house and I haven't seen anything that I think would look nice with the panelling so they've stayed. I want to put the small bookshelf back in my son's room but it won't be possible until I clean off the shelves in the closet. Heck- for now it's clean. The room is located in between my first and second floors and so when I go up or down the steps it's so nice to look into a semi organized and clean office!

Too busy to breathe

The past few days have been crazy. Paige was in a play Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights. Saturday we went to the Pittsburgh Zoo for the day and then to eat before rushing home. Sunday I had my friend and her family along with my dad and Jeff's mom for dinner. Last night was Jeffrey Michael's First Reconciliation. While waiting for his turn, he looked at me and Jeff and said I'm going to be a new kid. He looked so cute waiting outside of the confessional. He was all serious but when he came out he had a huge grin. His first communion isn't until April 25th and I told the CCD Director that I hope he makes it till then before needing to go to confession again!





Needless to say, my house is a disaster! I had started doing laundry Sunday night and had my sorted piles all over my bedroom floor. Now the piles have been stepped on and I own a nice clothes carpet! Tonight after I pick the kids up from church I am doing laundry all night!
Here is a picture from the zoo-

Before and After Bathroom Closet

Yesterday, the school nurse called at work for Paige. I was just pulling into the parking lot and the girls came out to tell me. Turn around and head back home. She was complaining all morning and I told her several times to stay home. Of course she didn't want to do that. It was my half day anyway so I didn't miss much. But I did get some things done at home. Including the bathroom closet as seen below.

Before-

After-

I still need to paint the shelves and the door. I was so proud of myself until I opened up the Women's Day that was in my mailbox. Of course there was a beautiful picture of a professionally organized linen closet with labeled baskets and even the back wall was wallpapered. It did give me the idea to remove the bottom shelf to put a laundry basket for dirty clothes. Now to just get the family to put their clothes in there instead of on the floor.

Then I even cleaned out the shelves under the sink. I don't have any before photos but here are the after. We are going to replace the sink and vanity so excuse the horrible paint.

The toilet paper rolls are for the gerbils!

Next I went downstairs and did dishes and did a quick cleaning inside the refrigerator. I grabbed a pile of Jeff's toys that belong out in the garage. We couldn't get into the garage until all the snow melted and since the sun was shining I headed outdoors. I cleaned the back patio and vacuumed out my car. Paige slept most of the day so I didn't want to do anything to loud inside that would wake her up.

By the time I got done with my car both Jeffrey's were home and so I got dinner going and Jeff M to CCD class. Other than a few loads of laundry and purging a pile of magazines not much else got done. But I still feel as though I accomplished a lot. I'm just dreading the office....here's a preview shot-

Scary huh? And that's just the shot entering the office, it gets worse!!

Wifi in Chuck E Cheese

Friday I was motivated to get things done. Especially when I had Monday off from work. But then I get home to sick kids, get a sinus infection, and then try to be the cool mom by going to Chuck E Cheese. Guess what? None of my extra projects were completed. I got as far as taking before photos Friday night so at least something was done.

Yesterday the kids and I tagged along with another family to Chuck E Cheese. They really need to have wifi. Probably goes against their goal of families being together and having fun. But some of us have kids who prefer to go off and play games by themselves. I actually had a sewing project to work on for Paige and so I was using the time very wisely. But as my friend and I talked we agreed that having wifi would be nice. There were a lot of parents sitting around while their older kids played. Just a thought Chuck E.

Paige is in the high school play this week. She and a bunch of 5th and 6th grade girls were asked to do a little song/dance number before the show. The play is "Thoroughly Modern Millie". Of course being set in the 20's we were asked to dress them in flapper like dresses. I looked online but Paige didn't like any of the costumes available. Then I got the bright idea- sew fringe on an old black sheath dress she has. At first this did not seem like it was going to work. It was taking forever to sew. But then I got into a groove and now there are two rows of fringe at the bottom. I need to add some extra stitches to make it real secure, but everyone thinks it looks great. Including Paige who at first was not convinced at all. The best thing is that it save me money. Until my girlfriend "picked" up some jewelry for our girls. When she handed me the $28 receipt I wanted to die. I was just going to run over to the dollar store and pick up some long strands of pearls. Oh well, next time I will politely decline.

Dress rehearsal is tonight. Hope there is no wardrobe malfunctions!

To do list

Every day at work I think of a million things that need done at home. I make nice detailed lists of all the chores that I would do if I were at home. Thing is- when I do get home, I rarely do any of them. Maybe there is a fun new magazine to read or an episode of Desperate Housewives that I haven't seen. Sure, I may get a couple things done- usually because it's dire. Like having no clean underwear or clean dishes. But most days the list gets left on the counter until I look at it the next morning and wonder why didn't you just do it. Especially annoying is the fact that when I do get around to accomplishing the chore it takes much less time than I originally thought.

Just yesterday morning, I finally cleared off all the papers and extra junk off the front of the refrigerator. I had been wanting to do this for weeks. Each time I passed by, I would cringe at all the junk that accumulated. I removed all the paraphernalia and left only the three photo frames. Time accomplished- 15 secs. Now, I have to go through all the papers still, but seriously I wasted way more than 15 secs fretting over how cluttered the frig front had become. And if I was really honest, I would estimate about 5 mins to sort through the papers and distribute them to their correct homes. I no longer get irritated when I look at the front of my frig. 15 SECONDS! That's all!!

Why do we do this? Why do we procrastinate about doing things especially when they do not require much of our time to complete? For me it's just plain laziness. Hi my name is Rochelle and I'm lazy.

I haven't really been very diligent with any New Year's Resolutions. Heck I can't even remember if I even made any. This weekend though I am really going to try to make an effort to tackle some other areas of my house that need attention. My office is a wreck, the bathroom closet is a disaster, and my laundry table has become a dumping ground for all kinds of junk.

Just got a call from home, my husband and Paige are not feeling well. Lucky me. I hope that I don't get it. It never fails, when I get inspired to do something Murphy steps in and messes with me!

Sunny and 60

And I have 4 inches of snow still in my front yard! Across the street the neighbors yards are all green with grass. It's hysterical driving down my street. One side is white with snow and the other side is green with grass.

Jeff and the kids are off school tomorrow. I am hoping that they can clean their rooms and the attic. They used the attic as a wrestling ring. They took the mattress off the bed and put it on the floor. I think they used the empty tv box as a wrestler because it's all beat up and ripped.

I'm taking off Monday as it's a teacher in-service day and the kids have no school. I am hoping to get some things done as well. The bathroom closet needs cleaned out and organized. The office is just a wreck with items thrown around from our bedroom. I would love for our bedroom floor to be installed. Hopefully, Jeff is thinking the same thing as me and will start it tomorrow!!

It has been so nice seeing people out walking and kids playing. My son asked if winter was over. I told him I didn't think there would be any more big snow falls like we have had, but maybe some snow flurries here and there. He's ready for the trampoline to be put up, but I'm holding off till April or May. Not ready for that headache- have too many other ones to deal with first!

Happy Anniversary Honey- one day late.

Yesterday was Jeff and my wedding anniversary. Unfortunately, my great aunt passed away Friday and the services were Sunday and Monday. Totally forgot about the anniversary! We actually celebrate on March 22nd as that was the day we started dating- 22 yrs ago. We wanted to get married on that day, but it was during Easter week the year we finally decided to get married. So we moved the date up to the 8th.

It was really nice to see so many of my family that live out of town. My mother did not want a funeral when she died and so it was the first time seeing family and friends since her passsing. It was a little rough at times but overall it was comforting.

My son woke up this morning not feeling well. I couldn't get a hold of my husband and so I did the bad mom thing, gave him some cold medicine and sent him to school. I really couldn't miss another day and I did finally reach Jeff so that he call his teacher to see how he was doing. My son stayed up late watching tv so it could be that he was tired also. He played outside Sunday since the weather was so nice and was coughing a little bit yesterday. Poor Bubbers has been sick quite frequently this year.

Today is also suppose to be a nice day -54 degrees. Rain in forecast for next couple days. At least a lot of the snow is melting away. Now we'll just have to worry about flooding!

Capital One

I was paying my bills online yesterday and while paying Capital One I became a little distraught. We put our cruise on my card (along with our friends tickets) as it has only a 9.82% interest rate. Our concern was that if our friends were not able to pay their portion quickly, the interest rate wouldn't cause them to pay too much extra. Luckily within the month, they gave me their portion and so no interest was charged. However, as I was looking at my statement I noticed that the interest rate was 17.9%. What? I pay this card off each month and it's really the only card I use as I've had it since 1997 and I'm just use to grabbing it if I can't find my debit card.

On the statement it had a little note saying that my promotion period had ended and my new rate was 17.9% as per previously disclosed. Not sure what that means as I looked at all my statement for the prior year and my interest rate was 10.77% then in the summer of 09 it went to 10.14% and then October 09 it went to 9.82%. None on my statements had any notice of a promotional rate and I didn't see any inserts or extra mailings advising of this promotional rate. I was going to call last night but I'm going to wait for my payments to post and then call.

The thing that really makes me mad is that I called Capital One last month to complain about the annual fee they charged me and the fact that my card carries no rewards. If you go onto to their website, you can apply for all these Capital One cards that have no annual fees, low interest rates and rewards. When asked to have my fee waived and to have rewards put on my card - hello I've had the card 12 1/2 yrs - they refused. At that time I was going to cancel the card but we had just charged our cruise and Jeff said to wait. None of my other cards have annual fees and though their interest rates are 10% and 11% I would rather use them. Now having a card for over 12 years is great for the credit score, if they don't want to keep a loyal cardholder I will get rid of it. Well, maybe just stop using it. We'll see.

Has anyone else had this problem?