It's been a daunting few weeks...

and I really hated not being able to keep up with my posts. We are officially moved in and have been since October 30th when we turned over the keys to the landslums. I can tell you right now we will be taking them to court. They refused to do a walk through with Chris and told him that they would be keeping the deposit without stating why. I am not going to go into full detail because it still pisses me off to no end and I would rather save my energy for the day we get in court. We are well within our rights and Chris has taken over 150 pictures of the house before we handed over the keys. I am confidant that this will work out in our favor.

Now I am focusing my energy on getting the new house organized and settled. I still have some boxes out because I am not quite sure where to put all our crap. Can you believe it? We had a garage sale before we moved and I think we will need to have one in the near future.

Jeff and Katie are settled into their new routine. Jeff now takes a bus to school instead of being driven by his dad every morning. It gives Jeff more time to get ready in the morning and he can now take showers in the morning instead of the night before. He likes the fact that he gets home earlier from school. Normally I would pick him up but by the time he got to my car and we would have to wait for the buses to leave before we could inch ourselves into traffic.

Katie and I walk to and from her school. She absolutely loves that. I like the fact that I am getting good old fashioned exercise. I may even shed a few pounds doing this. That's of course if I do not have houses to clean. I don't have all my days booked just a few. Tuesday's and Thursday's are my solid days. I am hoping that word of mouth advertising does the trick. I know it takes time to establish and grow.

The dogs and cats are really getting along well. Except that the cats find the birds and hamsters a little too interesting. We lost a hamster last night. Cuddles was trying to get inside their cage and knocked the cage off the table and it flipped and landed on it's top. Bear survived but Pooh did not. Katie was upset and I felt so bad for Pooh. She was just so tiny and what an awful way to go. Reese whined the whole time while we wrapped Pooh up and cleaned the mess from the cage. Every time Cuddles tried to come over and investigate, Reese would chase her away. I checked on Bear this morning to see if he was still with us and apparently Katie had the same idea because she beat me to it. She was so cute when she explained to me that she worried all night that maybe he had "eternal bleeding". She is something else.

Ok.. I am off to get more done and I need to clean out our water cooler for Chris. The office is cutting back on their water delivery and Chris is bringing ours in.

Seeking Assistance....

Chris and I are looking for a new computer... possibly two. He really wants a laptop and I can go either way. I really want to know what you use and are you happy or do you have a preference? I can get a discount through my school on Dells but are they really all that?

Also... I need to really organize my life. I now know that I am NOT Wonder woman and can not do everything. Katie and Jeff have their chores and for the most part they do real well at keeping it up.
However I still feel incomplete as far as the house STAYING clean. I thought that maybe I should do a little bit everyday but I am finding myself so damn tired by the time I walk in the door. What do y'all do to organize and maintain a functioning household?
I still have to have time with my school work and of course some time set aside with my family. We still do the family dinner thing which for the most part is how we stay close. I do not want to give Jeff any additional chores because he works his butt off and maintains his grades at school. I want him to have a life outside of the home. Katie on the other hand is getting older and although she does set and clear the dinner dishes I was contemplating having her load the dishwasher also. Which means she would be rinsing the dishes as well. She is 8 years old. You think she would be ready to take that on?

Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks...

I need a bigger house...

either that or more storage. Chris and I have been steadily working on the girls room to accommodate both of the girls and their "rightful" space. Not easy when the age difference is 10 years. We have been packing up some of Brittany's stuff that she doesn't use on an every day bases and storing them in the garage but trying to make it readily accessible in case she would like to get something out of one of of her totes. Poor Katie has been reduced to storing her toys in my closet for the time being until we can come up with a better system. Most of her clothes are hanging in my closet because her sister has bigger clothes and is taking a large amount of the decent size closet.
I have been contemplating creating a better way of storing "stuff" in our garage so it doesn't look so damn cluttered. I think since we have "necessities" stored in the garage that it should look as neat and orderly as possible. I am thinking of putting in garage storage cabinets that would allow "stuff" to be accessible but out of the public eye or even better out of the way. I envision cabinets all along the wall, preferably top and bottom cabinets with some counter space as well. I like the UltiMATE Garage line because it looks so versatile and would suit our needs just fine. It just looks so easy to arrange and organize all our necessities. It certainly would benefit Chris. With all the tools Chris has he should also have his own work area as well. He has so many "toys" that you can barely walk through the garage to the door.
Eventually I want to see that vision a reality but until my parents find their own home we are currently storing their stuff as well. So my garage has become a self storage until they do find the house they want. Maybe we can arrange the garage better and still be able to put in the cabinets that I want. Hmmm.....

One day I will have "Good Furniture"

It is never a good idea to have "good" furniture when you have young ones around. The furniture never seems to outlast the children's wear and tear. Chris and I have been given most of our furniture through the years. Not that we could not afford buying our own furniture but because we felt why waste the money when it definitely will not last the kids.
I will tell you this though, when we finally buy furniture when Katie finally gets a little bit older I am starting with new dining room furniture. I absolutely loved the set my mother had. She just recently gave it to one of my sisters up in Ohio before my parents moved to Florida. My mother had this whole dining furniture set complete with 8 chairs, two extra leaves for long dining table and a two piece China Hutch. It was a dark cherry oak and it is gorgeous. Chris and I looking into getting a bed in the immediate future. We have been sleeping on a queen mattress and box spring without any type of frame for almost 4 years now.
We used to have a frame but Chris was goofing around and we are left with just the mattress. When we do finally find one it's going to be a king size because I am tired of getting a sliver of the bed.