Catching up on catching up

It's been a little longer than I'd like since my last blog. It's like the old journal days... diary starts, going well, forgotten about; another starts, going okay, forgotten; year later another journal, soon forgotten as well. I've even forgotten about the letters to my kids I'd started. Really should get back to that. Seriously I've had a thousand journals and probably 8-10 currently on my desk. At least for now I have only one online log... for now...

Few things to mention. First, we've discovered our shack is the place all the cool cats want to be. Literally, all of Shadow's family keeps visiting this house looking for her and rubbing up against us and wondering what it's like inside. Kinda funny if you think about the cat conversation:
Shadow: Hey guys, you should see my pad. I have my own water fountain! Plus whenever I go inside, I get a kitty treat!
Elsie: I have to live with a dog!
Shadow's brother and sister are currently hanging out on our front steps while she sits by a window barely noticing. Is she a snob too?

She's the best cat, and that's saying something from me who happens to be a dog fan. I took the kids on a little jaunt around the small block across from our house. Shadow looked perplexed at the wondering of her lit'uns without a stroller or wagon. She followed us the whole way around!

Next Godin family fun fact: Jess and I are in love... with those little frozen pie shells! We've made quiche, chicken pot pies, and pumpkin pies, all single serving each. You better believe they'll be torts in our future this Christmas!

Further on the clean-up agenda: gate's gone from the laundry room for a few reasons. One, cat's getting bigger and got stuck a few times. Two, we're sick of tripping over/through it. Three, the kids are basically old enough to keep out of trouble, although VJ now has full access to the cheese balls. Also, rearranging toys and donating/selling baby stuff. Yard Sale Oct. 15th with the mom's group!!!Wish us money!!!

Now go figure that the ACs come out of the window and the temp rises with humidity. Hello Murphy? Get bent! Oh well, we survived a while with no ACs so a week or two now won't kill us. Think of the money saved on heat, not that we're currently paying the oil bill. <$$$ sux!>

Well, pumpkin and apple picking are complete, pictures uploaded for those on Google+ or who know our personal site. Can't wait to go through this fall/winter season with the kids older now! And I will try to keep blogging, but no promises!   :)

Moving on with Moving in

This weekend I found myself on my knees, surrounded in filth, bent into one of the lowest, unseen and unexplored regions... of my house. Yup, under the couch and in the basement. Under the couch I found enough toys to fill two plus buckets from their toy shelf, including three disgustingly dirty bugs (eyes missing on one but pipe-cleaners intact on all!) and several partial Easter eggs (the plastic kind), plus trucks, dolls, "doctor" kit stuff, Legos, and tons more I can't recall just now. As for the basement, well, let's just say it's like we hadn't been living here over 10 months yet.

So, shelves went up in the bedroom (and we now have printer access!), the bathroom (kitty's litter box no longer near her food), the laundry room, and basement which we were finally able to unpack. Now, it's a short basement so the shelf building and installation is another story, one for the BFF to tell I believe but it involved back-breaking feats of futility in part and eventual success. In other organizing news, we now have a portable closet downstairs to keep our dressy clothes as they literally hang over the shelves we have in the closet. So glad that's accessible now!

Where were the lit'uns in all this madness? With family! Yay! Time to do some clean-up, shelf-building, and organizing... and more cleaning! We're not even done but we did so much, including going out to dinner Friday night and bowling with a friend. We came home at 1AM Saturday morning for the first time in years, at least three! We did get to spend some time with them today, Labor Day, going to the zoo in Boston, so we didn't completely neglect them. ;)

We have so much more to do but who knows when the next opportunity will be? We can at least piece meal the rest as it doesn't involve as much up and down the dangerous stairs or pulling out a box of What-the-heck-is-that? or exposing ourselves to material that may or may not be hazardous. God only knows, we could get deathly ill in the next week or so. Did I mention previously that the house was built in 1929?

Be that as it may, we've come to a good resting place and I'm so grateful to the family who pitched in to watch the kids. They even slept over two of the nights which was a humongous help!! Plus they had an amazing time with their awesome aunt and uncle!!

Well, work never ceases and it's getting late. Back to laundry, dishes, baking, and whatever other chores we've set out to accomplish tonight. Mayhaps sleep will conclude? Tomorrow, it's back to the grime.