Hey there stranger!… Looking GOOD!

Yeah Hi remember me?  I am Ashley and I used to post here once in a while…ya’ll remember that right?  I used to write here ALL the time.

Then the 007’s  got this great idea…we’ll call it let’s do a thousand home improvement projects and put our house on the market.  So I haven’t had much time for the internet OR my Tivo.  Which means I have a bunch of episodes of Kathy Griffin to watch, I haven’t written in forever, my inbox is overwhelming,  and my Google reader is FULL of blogs to read.  Blogs by actual bloggers who actually post content on their actual blog.

Wow what a concept.

It makes me feel a little out of sorts when I don’t write often.  But with all of our projects and cleaning and packing it’s been hard to find the time.

Soon I hope to be able to write more often.  Our house has a for sale sign in the front yard and tomorrow we will be officially on the market.

Now all I have to do is try to keep everything clean with an 8 yr old, a 21 month old, a 95 lb dog and 2 indoor/outdoor cats (one of which has kitty dreadlocks and likes to pull them out all over the house).

Ya’ll wish me luck on that.

We did pack up a TON of stuff and we rented a  storage unit.   Everything looks so nice and feels like everything has a place.

Why in the SAM HILL WORLD do I need all of that stuff?  If I can pack it up and live without it for 6 months or so then why do we keep it around?

It’s made me realize that during this move I want to simplify.  I have always been pretty good about cleaning out and getting rid of stuff but I still have needless crap in storage.  So when we move I am going to be really careful about getting rid of things we are holding onto for no good reason.

So that’s what’s going on here…and I am doing a pretty good job of  staying sane.  Staying up too late and drinking a quart of coffee every morning.  It’s all worth it.

This July it will be 4 years since we bought our house.  We moved in as a family of 3 and now we are a foursome.  Although I will always feel attached to this house because of the history I have here and the memories we have created here we are ready to move on.

Mainly because we want more than one bathroom and we would LURVE to have a garage.  Usually we aren’t fighting for the bathroom but there are times when one of us is taking a shower and somebody needs to go poo.  And no matter how much we love each other here in the 007 house we just don’t poo in front of each other.  No offense to the open door poo-ers out there.

It’s just too personal.  Plus we don’t have a fart fan.  See now there is another reason to move.  No fart fan to suck the unpleasant odors out.

Was that too much?  Sorry if that was too much.

Anyway we are getting ready to put the crooked blue house up for sale.  I will miss a lot of things about it.  It has a great amount of charm and warmth and I feel very cozy living here.  It has good light and it has all of these little built-in shelves and cabinets that I will miss.  But 2 1/2 bathrooms are calling my name!!

My dad (a fabulous real estate agent if you live in Middle TN) came over and gave us a list of things we might want to do before we list the house.  We have pressure washed and stained the deck, washed the windows inside and out, painted the front porch, planted landscaping in several different areas, pressure washed a bunch of other stuff and touched up some paint inside the house.  The deck looks so nice without our patio furniture that I don’t want to put it back up there!

And we still have A LOT to do.  There will be lots more painting and a few more things to do outside.  We are also thinking about renting a storage unit to make the house look less like a toy store threw up in here.  I was thinking about storing the treadmill and packing up various odds and ends to declutter and simplify moving.  Plus I was thinking that it will make it easier to keep the house clean for showings.  There are these two small people I live with who like to take out every toy they own at the same time.

Does anyone have any tips for selling your house with small children? Because I am pretty sure potential home buyers won’t find our Fisher Price toy selection a selling point.

So apparently it has been 2 weeks since I have posted anything. I got an email from BlogHer (my ad company) that it had been a while since I posted.  OOPS!  I have never gone that long without writing and actually not writing came a little too easy for me.

What’s up with that?

Well for one of those weeks the Double Oh Seven family went on vacation.  We traveled down in our trusty Odyssey “Magic” to THE Redneck Riviera.  Yes we vacationed in trusty ol’ Panama City, FL.  We somehow managed to NOT get a picture of the 4 of us together.

Mr.007’s parents and sister met us down there and his parents generously paid for the condo we all stayed in.

In all fairness it is not as redneck as people make it out to be.   I mean there ARE rednecks everywhere but there are also just regular people spending some quality time with each other at the beach.  And plus I live in TN so frankly I am used to rednecks and I have become slightly desensitized.

And speaking of the beaches they are really beautiful and the water was absolutely crystal clear blueish green while we were there.  We had GREAT weather and where we stayed we were pretty separated from the Senior tripping, booby flashing, girls gone wild, beer funneling Whoooers.

What is a Whoooer you might ask?

People who are riding around just for the heck of it yelling as loud as they can out of their car or truck window.  They tend to make a WHOOOO!  sound and this prompts other people from other cars and trucks to WHOOO! back at them in response to the aforementioned WHOOOING sound.  I even saw a minvan FULL of teenage girls driving down the road with both sliding doors open.  Of course someone honked  loudly at the girls in the van and the only response to honking in Panama City is to WHOOOOO! as loud as you can.

If you hear a honking sound you don’t even look to see where it’s coming from.   You just immediately WHOOOO! and move on to the next shot of Jose’ Quervo.

In fact once upon a time I may or may not have been a Senior tripping Whoooer.  I may or may not have peirced my bellybutton  in a store that sold airbrushed t-shirts and pool noodles.  I have always maintained a high level of class and decorum.  Yeah right.

I can freely admit that at one time I might have been somewhat of  a hoodlum.  I drank  Zima and smoked Marlboro Lights and gasp! WHOOOED out of car windows.  But now here I am at the old age of 28 and I have two small children and hoodlum’s get on my nerves.  They cuss too much, they are loud and they can lay on the beach without worrying that their 8 yr old and 19 month old daughters need more sunscreen.

Oh to be 18 again…I wouldn’t go back if you paid me.  Nope.  I like being 28 and I like that I don’t WHOO on a regular basis.  But I do smile and laugh because life is pretty darn good right now.  Crazy and messy and loud and inconvenient but still really good.

I want to enter Alivia in our local newspaper’s baby photo contest.  I happen to think she is the cutest baby EVER.  I know, I know I am biased but whatever…so the only problem is that I can’t choose a picture.  I have narrowed it down to a few and I need your help!

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

I have a few favorites in this bunch but I would love to hear what you guys think.  I am not indecisive at all…nope.  I just value your opinions that much.

In other news we are leaving for the beach tomorrow and I have about eleventy hundred things to accomplish before tonight.  I maybe probably should be productive today instead of playing on the computer.

In other other news our fabulous real estate agent (also known as  my dad) is coming over tonight to discuss putting our house on the market.  Last night he sent us some listings to look at online and although the idea of moving into a new house is exciting I am getting really anxious for many reasons.   I am just a fretter and I fret about things and make 35 lists and call my mom and consult her about every little detail.

I am however really looking forward to going to look at bunches of houses.   I mean HELLO it will be like House Hunters in my own real life!  Now how fun is THAT?

12 days ago I started the BIG SPRING CLEANING PROJECT.  Otherwise known as clean out every dresser, closet and drawer and throw the junk in the dining room.  It was horrible nightmarish process.  There were piles of crap everywhere.

There were goodwill piles, consignment store piles and trash bag piles.  I finally got rid of the last load of things a couple of days ago.  I looked around at the house and it was FILTHY DIRTY!  It looked like a pack of wild dogs lived here. It was a pigsty.  Or a dogsty.  Whatever… I am not kidding.

So I spent the last few days vacuuming, dusting, scrubbing and Clorox wiping.  Mr. 007 and I even washed the windows inside and outside.  Actually he did the outside and I stood inside  scrubbing the  inside of the window yelling” You missed a spot”!

Hey I am nothing if not thorough.

So this morning I woke up to a spotless house and it felt so nice that I decided to make homemade sweet potato muffins for breakfast.  I honestly don’t know what I was thinking dirtying up my beautifully clean kitchen like that but I guess it was just one of those domestic impulses that I later regret and bitch about cleaning up.

While I was mixing up the batter for the muffins Alivia let out an ear piercing scream and Addison called out in a panicky voice “MOMMY IT’S STUCK IN HER HEAD IT’S STUCK IN HER HEAD I AM SO SORRY IT’S STUCK IN HER HEAD!” All the while Livie is crying and crying as Adam and I race into the room.

Then I saw it.  An electronic motorized gerbil was stuck in my baby’s hair.  It was attacking her head.  It had wrapped it’s little wheel feet things around and around her hair and she was freaking out.

It may look innocent enough...but this is the rare, hair eating, toddler attacking gerbil of North America. Approach with extreme caution!

I honestly breathed a sigh of relief.  As I found the off switch I was just so happy it was only her hair and not as bad as I was picturing.  When Addison said something was stuck in Livie’s head I honestly pictured blood and an emergency room visit.  Adam took the gerbil apart and we only had to cut a tiny bit out of her hair to detach it from her head.

just minutes before the attack

They didn't even see it coming...so innocent.

Anyway after the motorized gerbil attack I finished the muffins and waited for them to bake. When they were finished I thought I would sprinkle a little powdered sugar over the tops for a bit of sweetness.  I only did this because Addison had groaned about how GROSS sweet potato muffins are even though she had never even heard of such a thing. I figured powdered sugar would make them a little more appetizing to her.

I have one of these Pampered Chef flour/sugar shaker things so I found the Ziploc bag filled with the sugar, put it in the shaker and sprinkled the tops of the warm muffins.

I got a little sugar on my finger in the process so I licked it off.

Something was wrong.

%&#@!!! ACK!   It wasn’t powdered sugar!  It was cornstarch! $#@$!!!

And let me just tell you I was IRATE.  I was so mad I could have SPIT NAILS!  I might have said an ugly word or two.

Enter Adam who actually saw humor in this situation.  He grabbed the camera and started taking pictures of the muffins despite my EXPLICIT OBJECTIONS! He told me that I needed to laugh at myself.

Yeah that's not powdered sugar.

You know what?  I have no problem finding humor in my stupidity.  I just need a buffer of a little bit longer than um 30 seconds after I do the stupid thing.  I need a buffer!

I was able to get most of the cornstarch off the muffins with a wet paper towel and sprinkle the real powdered sugar on top.  We added a little butter and they actually tasted pretty good.  And now I know that you should label your Ziploc bags when you put unidentifiable white powders inside.  Because cornstarch tastes like you licked the bottom of a shoe.  I am just saying.

So the bottom line is if you haven’t blogged in 12 days all it takes is a baby eating gerbil crisis and a ridiculous baking blunder to kick start your writers block.

Yay me!

OH MY GOODNESS GRACIOUS ME!  I am crazy.  I must be.

I have taken on a task that is absolutely crazy.  I would much rather be in front of my Tivo watching last night’s Medium episodes.  But no…I am in the process of cleaning out our attic.  I started at the top ya’ll.  And I knew it was going to get much much worse before it could get better.

I am way too far in to turn back now.

I am sweating, swearing and wondering why the crap I kept some of this junk.  I always brag about how I like to get rid of things.  How I don’t like to keep things around for ever and ever.

Yeah I guess I just forgot about some of the stuff I stashed in the attic.  When I was pregnant with Alivia I went through everything in the attic and I converted it all into plastic bins.  Now I ask you….WHY DID I NOT BUY CLEAR BINS!?

I labeled the bins with masking tape and a Sharpie.  Well since my last nesting urge I have randomly switched things out and changed bins around and the labels are just about as INACCURATE as they can get.

Let’s just say that I am currently  in attic/bin/stuffed animal/VHS hell.

Ok I have been sitting down for long enough.

Please pray for me….and my sanity during this time of intense upheaval.

Thank you in advance for your help with this.

I wonder where they are all going.

For more Wordless Wednesday posts go here

Man is like a breath ; his days are like a fleeting shadow.

Psalm 144:4

That sort of puts things in perspective for me.  It’s sort of like how fast 10:00 comes on Sunday night.  Wasn’t it just Friday?

Wasn’t I just 17 years old checking my pager while I shifted the gears of my little gray Accord?

Didn’t I just meet Adam?

Nope…it wasn’t yesterday.  It was 9 years ago this month that we started dating.  By August we were pregnant with Addison.  How did get she so grown up?

We got married 2 years later, pushed through life, changing jobs and houses.  Addie wasn’t a baby anymore and then we added Alivia.  A family of four!

Now I look around and I know we are young but I feel so old sometimes.  Tired and impatient.  Happiness and restlessness dance around each other.  Time keeps racing by while we talk and plan and dream.

It’s all been done before but to us it’s just life.

Saturday mornings are loud. The kids are in our bed and everyone wants pancakes, the cats want to go outside and the dog is annoying.  Sleep is a luxury.

I love the chaos…I hate the chaos. We are blessed and we are happy and we are irritated.

The seasons change like days and I don’t want to waste a minute.  But I wish it away.  Daydreaming about our next house…always wanting more.  Something newer with an uncomfortable mortgage.

Then I stop.  I like it here…it’s nice here…I am happy here.  In this season, in this house, with this family.

And what’s not to love?

Today is our beautiful Addison’s birthday.  We have an 8 year old!

It just seems like 5 minutes ago that she looked like this

And then she looked like this…

she keeps growing…

growing…

and growing…

I  know it’s a cliche but I  honestly can’t believe how fast the years have passed.  Adam and I started out as parents at such a young age.  We have practically become grown ups while trying to learn how to be parents.  I think we are doing a pretty good job. We are raising an amazing and dynamic girl.

She doesn’t like us to call her a little girl anymore.  She wants to be older than she is but she doesn’t realize how short her childhood will be.  I want her to stay as young and innocent as possible.

She surprises me all the time.  She knows more than I think she knows.  She is beginning to understand things better when I explain them to her.

Adam and I read Bible stories to her at bedtime.  One  particular night Adam was out of town so she wanted to read to me.  She blew me away.  She read smoothly and added dramatic inflection at all the right parts.

She is goofy and silly and she loves to sing.

Addison is a genuinely caring person.  She loves animals so much she sees them as our equals.

Addison was an only child and grandchild for 6 1/2 years.  When Alivia was born I worried she would be jealous.  Although Addie still requires a lot of attention she has been an awesome big sister.  She tells me how much she loves Alivia all the time.  I can’t even tell you how full that makes my heart feel.

Addison has a heart for the Lord and I pray as she grows her faith will grow along with her.

Her favorite bible verse :

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding

Proverbs 3:5

Favorite bible story:

The Parable of the Good Samaritan

Addie is a good Samaritan. At 8 yrs old her spirit is sweet, her heart is kind and she has her whole life ahead of her.  I can only imagine who she will become.  Until then…she is ours to love and ours to guide.  I thank God for blessing us with her life.  It has changed us forever and for the better.

Happy Birthday Addison Makenze.  Mommy and Daddy love you!

I sat down to write my Wordless Wednesday post.  Then I realized I have stuff to say.  And stuff to say means words to type and well that’s not really cohesive with the whole Wordless Wednesday vibe.

The oo7’s have been busy lately.  In the past couple of months we have gone to GA twice, survived a tornado, watched Charlie Daniels play ‘The Devil Went Down to GA” at our church’s Easter celebration, had an argument about pizza on the hippie bus at Mellow Mushroom and Alivia turned 18 months old.  Whew!

I have several half written blog posts in my draft folder and I have been trying to figure out why I haven’t been posting very many blogs.  Then BAM it all made sense to me.

Did I mention Alivia is 18 months old?

Yeah 18 months is the best age ever.  I seriously LOVE it!  Addison hasn’t been that age in oh let’s see 6 1/2 years so I kind of forgot how time consuming babies are at this age.  Wonderful and hilarious and enchanting and adorable but time consuming none-the-less.

She naps really well for me but to be perfectly candid while she is sleeping I am usually sleeping, showering, twittering, cleaning, folding laundry or shuffling around the house trying to decide where to start.

So that is my story…Livie is a busybody and I am too busy trying to keep up with life that I haven’t had too much time to write about it.

Last weekend we went to the American Girl Store and Bistro in GA to celebrate Addison’s birthday  a little early.  Like a good mommy blogger I took lots of pictures and I have even started writing a post about it.

BUT…I also bought myself something a couple weeks ago and I am just about to start it.  Like as in as soon as I finish writing this post.

I am nervous about sharing it because then I will actually feel like I have to follow through. UGH  Accountability can SUCK IT!

So yeah I am a big fat fatty and I need to lose weight in the worst way.  It’s time for me to do something serious and I think this is a good start.  I will let ya’ll know how it’s going.

Ok so now I think you are all caught up…did I forget anything?