Giggle

Weekend To Do List

We are almost there. We've de-cluttered and packed away items we do not need. I have just a few more items to pack away and then we'll be done with that. Our Realtor will be coming this Tuesday to take the information to put our house on the market.  However, (thankfully) he hires out someone to take photos and that will be done later in the week so we do have a bit more time to accomplish the multitude of  items on our to do list this weekend. Although, it would be nice to have all done by Thursday night in the event the person coming to take photos comes on Thursday or Friday.

The things we need to accomplish this weekend/next week to get the house ready for Tuesday:

Outside

1. Finish mowing the lawn
2. Finish weeding the front garden - in front of the tree where I missed
   
3. Weed garden on south east side of house
4. Weed garden on north west side of house
5. Weed garden in back of house
6. Sweep the back patio
7. Put the furniture back on the decks & patio
8. Wash windows on outside of house
9. Sweep front step and sidewalk

Inside

Kitchen

1. Pack serving dishes on top of cabinets
2. Pack cookbooks away from on top of cabinets
3. Pack any other non-essential kitchen items from counter tops and cabinets
4. Sweep kitchen floor
5. Wash window/sliding door windows to deck
6. Wash walls and base molding
7. Wash cabinets
8. Wash floors
   

Living Room

1. Move all of Zach's toys from room to basement play area or his room
2. Clean off top of computer cabinet and put away/throw away items we've just tossed up there.  Dust then re-arrange limited 'knick-Knacks" we are keeping out for the house showing
3. Dust furniture
   
4. Sweep floors/vacuum carpet
5. Wash Windows & screens
6. Wash base molding and are return vents
   

Front Entry

1. Clean/organize items on shelves in baskets
2. Move non-essential shoes up to our bedroom
3. Wash entry window
4. Wash closet doors/base molding
   
5. Sweep floor/vacuum rug
6. Wash floor
   

Family Room/Bar

1. Finish packing items I left on bar
2. Pack large collage frames. Replace with other art/photo?
3. Dust furniture
   
4. Wash windows/Patio door windows
   
5. Wash base molding and air return vent
   
6. Put Zach's toys away. (Pack non-essential extra toys/books away)
7. Wipe down fireplace - clean glass on gas fireplace
   
8. Vacuum

Lower Level Bathroom

1. De-Packer the Packer crapper - put up new shower curtain. (Yes, all you Vikings fans out there I can hear you cheering from here.)
   
2. Wash walls
3. Clean bathroom
4. Wash door
   

Basement

1. Pick up Zach's toys
2. Put away last few items that need to be stored in the basement.
3. Ensure laundry is 'caught up' and only two baskets are down there for keeping clothes/towels

Guest Bedroom

1. Dust ledge and furniture in room
2. Put stereo back together on cedar chest
3. Make the bed
4. Vacuum
5. Wash window
6. Clean base molding/wash closet door/door to room
   

Upstairs Bathroom

1. Clean bathroom
2. Wash rugs
3. De-clutter medicine cabinet
4. wash cabinets and doors
   

Zach's Bedroom

1. Pack away extra stuffed animals
2. Pack away toys not needed
3. Wash molding and air return vent
4. Wash window inside and out
5. Clean ceiling fan and dust ceiling
6. Wash walls/closet door and bedroom door
   
7. Vacuum room
   

Our Bedroom

1. Clean ceiling fan and dust ceiling
2. Wash walls
3. Wash base molding and air return vents
4. Dust all furniture
5. Dust mantel above fireplace
6. Wash doors to wood-burning fireplace. Remove extra candles from inside fireplace
7. Wash tile surrounding fireplace
8. Wash window and windows on door to upper deck
9. vacuum
10. Pack away wedding photos and other personal photos
11. Organize/pick up walk-in closet
12. Put jewelry away and out of sight

That's one big list huh?  I'm probably still forgetting some things too! 

On top of the huge to-do list we'll be getting together with my sister and her family tomorrow.  They leave later this week to move to North Carolina - so we're meeting up with them to spend some time with them before they move. We also have a birthday party for Dave's cousin's kids Jack and Ryan on Saturday evening...not sure if we RSVP'd though...I'm thinking probably not.  I did however get each of the kids gifts.  We may run over there for a little bit - but we'll have to call them first to see if it's OK. WHOOPS!!

Dave and I have hired our friend's sister-in-law to come in on Monday and Tuesday to clean our house while we are at work.  She'll help out with all the cleaning stuff we don't get done this weekend.  Of course some things on this list will be easier for her to do so we'll leave those items for her. She is EXTREMELY thorough so I look forward to our house being so fresh and extra clean and my NOT having to do ALL the work to get it that way.  It will be SO WORTH the extra money.  If any of you out there reading live in the Twin Cities Metro area and would like her to come to your house to clean - email me.

I'm actually now thinking if she is available I may need her to come in once a week while we have the house on the market to help keep things extremely clean for those walk-throughs we hope will happen!

Well it's time for this girl to go soak in the jacuzzi tub before heading to bed for the night. Thanks for reading folks!!

Week in Review

I have been on the go for the past week.  Today is my first day with NO PLANS.  Yikes!  

Last week:

Monday - Dave and I went out to dinner at Murray's to celebrate my birthday. 

It was good but to be completely honest I prefer Kincaid's - better atmosphere and they have tiger shrimp too! Num!!  Zach went to cousin Brady's house to play for the evening.  Zach didn't want to leave when it was time to go home.  He was having too much fun with his cousin.

Tuesday - My ACTUAL Birthday

The Girls^TM, Dave and I went out for dinner at Pei Wei in Woodbury.  Low key and wonderful Asian food - NUM!.  Zach went to Olivia's house for some playtime.  Again, he did not want to leave when we picked him up.

Wednesday - Got together with the girls for an amazing aerobic workout!

Thursday - Went to a Spilada Jewelry party.  Nice stuff...but expensive and not in my budget with not having a job and all. I used all of my restraint and did NOT purchase the necklace I really wanted.  Zach had a BLAST playing with Kaden, London, and McKenna. Zach did not want to leave when it was time to go and started to cry until he saw that London and Mckenna were leaving too and then he was OK with going. Silly boy!

Friday - I baby-sat Olivia so Dave and Eric could go out for a "Man-Date" where they gambled away at the casino and enjoyed two for the price of one at the huge buffet they have there.

Saturday - Saw Avatar in 3D with Nance-a-France.  If you have not seen it - GO and see it in 3D.  It was AWESOME!!

Sunday - Watched the vikings game at a friend's house.  Bummer that the Vikings lost. Vikings fans now understand the angst Packer fans endured when Farve played for them.  Farve can make some great plays and wins because of the great chances/gambles he makes BUT not all of those chances/gambles pay out and can cause some painful losses as well. On a happy note I beat the high-score on Rob's old style Pac-Man machine!  Wooo-Whoo!! 

Today - NO PLANS. Well outside of the house with other people.  I do need to:

1. Do laundry
2. Fold and put away laundry
3. wash the kitchen and front entry way floors
4. Work out
5. Do dishes
6. Eat...I haven't done that yet today....I know not good.

With that said - I better hop to it!

Ciao!

No Mommy! Cars!

Zach and I were up in his room getting him dressed for the day.  I pulled out an Elmo shirt for him to wear.  Zach said, "No mommy! Cars!" threw the Elmo shirt at me, then leaning over the side of his changing table opened the top drawer and pulled out his cars pajama shirt. We are not planning to go anywhere today so why battle over a shirt and I let him wear his cars pajama top. He needs to make choices and exert his independence and choosing what he wears is one of those things.  However, when he also wanted to wear the shorts that went with the top I had to go to battle with him and made him wear a pair of sweats bottoms.  It's just a tad too cold and I'm not going to turn up the heat in the house so he can be comfortable wearing shorts. He was mad at me until I found "the King" behind his bed and all was forgotten and now he is playing with his cars.

A NEW smaller Stroller

So we have this great stroller but it is so BIG. It takes up so much room in the trunk of the car.  It was FANTASTIC when Zach was little we could drop his 'bucket' car seat in the stroller and go.  He hasn't been able to fit in the 'bucket' for a L-O-N-G time now. I've been thinking for quite some time that I wanted to get a smaller, lighter and compact stroller.

After reading up on strollers I finally settled on purchasing a Maclaren.  It has taller handles so you are not hunching over, seemed to have a nice bottom basket where you could store items, has a compact fold, and is light only being 12 pounds. Yeah! A bonus, our stroller will no longer take up HALF of my trunk!

The best part was it had FREE SHIPPING! Yeah! So with my discount and gift cards it was a very good deal! I'm excited!  It should be here early next week. *giggle* You know you are a mom when you get excited about buying a new stroller!

Making Progress!!

We've been making some progress!!  Yeah!! Dave got up around 11 a.m. so he started helping me out. He was also very happy and impressed that I put the trash out as that is normally "his job" around the house.  So we've crossed some items off the list!

1. Take out the trash and put it at the curb for garbage pick-up today :)  Done! Gotta put at least one item on the list that I can cross off right away!  Get's the motivation rolling!
   

2. Clean up/organize the basement before it becomes "the pit" again

3. Clean the upstairs bathroom

4. Dust our bedroom furniture

5. Change the sheets on our bed

6. Do some laundry AND put it away

7. Vacuum and pick up the entire house.

8. Wash the kitchen floor

9. Organize my scrapbooking stuff...perhaps set it up in the basement.  (Zach is walking now and can get at things next to the bar now...sad I know...)

10. Take down the Christmas tree & other Christmas themed decor.

Taking down the tree and organizing the basement took some time - and I still need to find the best place to set up my scrapbooking 'station' but that may be a task for later this evening. 

We also rearranged the living room furniture.  Our hope is to 'contain' Zach's toys to one area of the room.  *giggle* Yes...we'll see he is a little tornado! Then if I'm rearranging the living room I might as well do some dusting and cleaning at the same time. Then it was time to figure out which toys should be in the upstairs living room and which should be in the downstairs familyroom.  We're not going to get it all done today...but as Dave keeps reminding me...we have all weekend to tackle things so I don't have to complete ALL the items on the list today.  But it would be really nice wouldn't it??? *giggle*

Okay...back on task!  Break time is over!