Busy, Busy, Busy

We have been very busy of late and blogging has taken a back seat. But hopefully things are calming down now and I can do lots of updates.

The last two weeks have been busy. Of course, Mema died two weeks ago and everyone was up there for a few days. I brought my mom home with us the Wednesday after the Monday funeral. We stayed until Monday (an extra day thanks to the snow) then headed back. I stayed at her house until Thursday (I didn't want her to come home to an empty house her first days back at work) and we arrived home in the evening. Since then, it's been clean, clean, clean.

We have FINALLY gotten our house to a point where we can sell it. We think. The weekend my mom was here she helped us out immensely. We never could have done it without her. She washed windows, cleaned the stove (yuck!) and helped me in the yard Thursday - the only pretty day we've had here in forever. I hated that she worked so hard, but she called it "work therapy".

The girls were really cute the day we worked in the yard. It really was beautiful and they just played all around us, helping us pick up leaves and rake. We put the leaves in huge trash bags and after we tied them up the girls sat on them like big bean bags! Abby was so funny; at one point, she laid down on one all snuggly like she was going to sleep. It was a great day and we got SO much done. The only bad part of the day (other than the later aches and pains) was that Abby took a tumble down the front steps. Scared me to death. She fell from about half way up (maybe 4 or 5 steps) and fortunately landed on the last step and NOT the concrete sidewalk. It was horrible to watch though. She landed with her neck all sideways. I think she lucked out because there were some things on the steps below from where she fell. She tumbled over them and think they helped break her fall and slow her down so she didn't go all the way down. She was a trooper though. She only cried a few minutes and after I asked her if she wanted to sing "ABC's", we did, and she ran off to play some more. I think it scared her more than hurt.

When we got back from Mom's Thursday, there were still a 1000 things to do. Understand that we've been "getting our house ready to sell" for about 4 months. I was getting kind of embarrassed to keep telling our buyer's agent, "this weekend, really". But we've worked like crazy all weekend and finally had another decent day (cool, but at least there was sunshine) to work outside, and we are basically through. I say basically because we still have to take about 2 more loads to storage, take another load to the dump, clean off the front porch and powerwash the house and deck. But that's all. Really.

Nevertheless, I listed the house anyway last night on owners.com - a for sale by owner site. One of our problems was that we needed to finish cleaning up outside and clear the porch (darned weather) so we could get a picture of the front of the house (not in rain or snow). We still don't have one, so I used one from about 5 years ago - just to give the idea. We can change it as soon as we take another. I figured people weren't house hunting on Superbowl Sunday anyway, and it would help truly motivate us. At least it's out there now. Now all I have to do is make the flyers, get the little flyer box, put the sign and box in the yard and put out a few more signs. Oh, and the list of other stuff above:-(

The girls have been amazing through all of this. This is where having twins comes in handy. The completely entertain each other. They have just played, played, played. They were outside with us some today and were playing in the dirt with me, "planting" and generally getting wet and messy. It was great. When they do start needing some attention, I have tried to stop and read books or color and play a little. And if I really can't, there's always the 6 or 7 Wonder Pets episodes we've DVR'd. That's good for what, 3 or 4 hours of babysitting...

It is nice to have a house so clean. I am not the best housekeeper. Stop laughing. Really, I'm not. But, I know it. And, for the record, since everyone always thinks it's just me, it's not. Ben is messy too. It's a joint (non)effort. At this point, once we take the last few boxes to storage and Ben's tools are all put up, there's just not much left in the house to create a mess. We have 2 storage building stuffed full of 70%-80% of everything we own. Even most of the kids toys are packed away - or at my mom's. There's more stuff there than here. (And there it shall stay until we have a new huge playroom in which it can go!) The girls still manage to leave a small path of destruction with the things they do have around, but it's not too bad.

My biggest concern is actually how to keep the floors clean. Ben installed the most beautiful bamboo hardwood floors everywhere but the bedrooms. They are dark - kind of cherry wood colored - gorgeous, and show every.single.speck.of.dirt.ever. I can't believe how dirty our floors are - or how dirty our carpet must have been at all times. I feel like I could dustmop every hour. Oh well. Hopefully, it will be worth it and some one will fall in love with them and make an offer on the spot. Ahhh, a girl can dream.

I have many Abby and Natalie adventures to relate, but they will have to wait. For now, know we are back and now that the house is ready, I should be blogging again regularly.