So much venting..too little time

First...I love my children very, very much but today I am so ready for them to go spend 6 weeks with Lance in Mississippi. I need a much needed break from the arguing, homework, taxi service -- all that entails being a Mom. Of course Lance gets it easy because not only does he not have to deal with homework or bedtimes but his parents are right their to be instant babysitters. :)

Second...I so hate Town and Country Realty -- you should see the list of stuff they want done before I move out. I kid you not -- there is more on this list than there was on home move-out list for Mike's condo. Basically they want it to look better than it did when I moved in.

All I can say is that I better get all my deposit back from these people. Beside me taking photos I am asking Bonnie, our realtor, to be there when the walk through is done at the end of the month.

Third....Packing, packing and more packing on top on getting Adam's gradution invites out THIS week.

On a good note -- The new house is coming along. Mike's dad came up and painted, painted and painted some more. :) The man is a genuis with paint. We could have never have gotten all of it done without him. Gracias ! In a week in a half the main floor on the house should look a lot different and better.

And I posted a bunch of stuff for free and for sale on craigs list -- An old gazebo I was giving away to whoever wanted to come take it apart -- I got like 50 emails. I guess the word Free ! inspired people. :)

Been a hell of a week.....

I am glad tomorrow starts Memorial Day Weekend...of course it will be busy.

If I had an Aladdin's Lamp I would wish for a tropical beach, a glass of nice red wine and a new book to read.

More than likely it will be a nutty weekend with lots to do and irritable people. Fun ! Fun ! :)

Don't worry...be happy

You know the T-shirts...I see people wearing them all the time...they say Life Is Good. The people wearing them are usually happy, go-lucky people that don't see the dark side ever time they look in the mirror. I secretly love those t-shirts. I would love to wear one and let the world know...you know what....Life is Good. Even when life has it bad days it is still pretty darn good. Of course..then I would have another friend telling me that I am such a "f---ing optimist". :) Like optimism is a bad thing. I guess it is those happy Irish genes that bring it out in me. So blame my genetics.

I saw a very good friend today and thought for a moment... when was the last time I saw him smile ? Was it a week ago, two weeks ? I hope to god I never go more than 24 hours without something to smile and be grateful about. It is depressing just thinking about being that unhappy and worried.

So ....for you pessimists out there....here are some "f----ing" optimistic quotes that might make you think about the happy side of life...and believe...even for a short time..that Life is Good. :)

“If you realized how powerful your thoughts are, you would never think a negative thought.”

“Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence.”

“In the long run, the pessimist may be proved right, but the optimist has a better time on the trip.”

"If you observe a really happy man, you will find him building a boat, writing a symphony, educating his child, growing double dahlias or looking for dinosaur eggs in the Gobi Desert. He will not be searching for happiness as if it were a collar button that had rolled under the radiator, striving for it as a goal in itself. He will have become aware that he is happy in the course of living life twenty-four crowded hours of each day."

Mike - I saw this on PostSecret tonight -- and thought of you............

What we doing in our spare time

Since Mike is living at the new house and I am still in Annandale, he is getting the fun task of taking down most of the wallpaper in the living room. It is a slow and tedius process but he is making good progress. I hope by Memorial Day Weekend we will have it close to being painted because I want to move my dining room furniture in before the graduation party.

On more renovation notes - I went out to Herclules Iron Works in Chantilly and worked with the most wonderful older man named Nick on a design for our stair rail upstairs that has to be replaced. He was great and the rail is going to look so nice and be much sturdy. The one we have not does not meet Fairfax code (it is 30 inches tall instead of 36) and someone could flip over it.

We have a handyman coming out next Thursday to install it and do general painting in the stairway...then new carpet upstairs after that.

I should hear back today an estimate on countertops and a few other kitchen things we want to do.

One month to go

Welll..one month to go until Mike and I get married. Lots to do between now and then and not a lot of time to do it. :) I am so ready for us to be in the same house together.

Everynight I am packing a little at a time for the move to our new house after the wedding. I am still trying to get some work done on the new house but it seems to take forever to get estimates out of contractors. So....we will see what gets done between now and then. :)

Ever wonder what I really do.....

Our Senior Multimedia Editor, who has has worked for K12 Inc. for five years and helped bring me on-board here, has written a great article on the K12 blog about what media editors at K12 do. It has has some great examples of the some of the work we do. Or course I still do photography too. :) Which will always be my first love -- but I love photo editing too -- especially when it has a purpose in teaching.

Take a read.....

Developing K12 Courses: Selecting media

Been another crazy week

Been a very crazy week -- as usual now days. But we did get the new attic fan installed this week and the insulation guys came out today and took us from a R-13 insulation in the attic to a R-55. So..now our nice air and heat will not rise out of the attic saving as $$$ on heating and cooling bills.

I met with another contractor on Wednesday -- Ramsy, a nice Aussie, came highly recommend from our realtor Bonnie. And he has done very good work on a friend's house so I hope his bid comes in right or at our budget amount because I would really like to see him do the work. We want to get granite counter tops put in a redo the kitchen bar along with a few other things.

Mike's parent are in town -- will plan on taking them out for a nice dinner Saturday at Tavern on the Lake - right in Reston on the water at Lake Anne.

I hope over the weekdn we can get down all the wallpaper in the dining room and start preparing that for painting next weekend.

Adam's Graduation

We got Adam's graduation invitations on Monday. They look so nice. We should be sending them out the send of May. He went today to sign up for his classes for college. He did very, very well on his college placement tests so he is going to be taking honors classes. I can't believe that he is graduating.

And it is very funny because it is 20 years ago I graduated. Brookhaven High School Class of 1987. Whee ! In fact our 20 year reunion is in October.

My man -- kicking doorknob butt

One of the things we knew in buying the house is that some of the doors did not close too well -- either they were hung wrong or doorknobs were not put on properly. This weekend Mike decided to tackle this problem. Whoa ! What a pain in the butt it turned out to be but my very smart man prevailed over the smart ass doorknob (Mr. Doorknob above) and now we have a bedroom door that closes and locks !

Plus -- we have "pocket doors" in our bathroom. Saves space but another very problematic door. It kept coming off the track so after Mike trying this, that and the other he finally showed it who was boss and it is now back on the track and in no danger of coming off.

Next butt kicking for the week -- The wallpaper in the dining room. Mike said he feels like he needs to be doing more in the house during the week soooooo I showed him how to take off wallpaper. It is very fun to do -- not. :)

Me -- I get to meet with more burly contractors this week on the work we want done and deal with with a roofer installing our new attic fan. Whee !

Thank god it's Friday !!

I am so ready for the weekend. Going to be another busy one -- but not as quite as busy as last weekend. Next weekend (Mother's Day) Mike's parents are coming up to see the house for the first time. Yea!

So....this weekend we are starting off with the kids doing a tour of their new school in Reston. Mike is checking them out early from Beech Tree and then we are all going on the tour.

Then we are going to take the kids to go see the new spider man movie tonight...maybe use the free dinners from Chevy's I won. Another trip to Lowe's after that.

We are going to stay at the new house both Friday and Saturday night. First, we are going to get a lot all this furniture we want to sell and move it out of the spare room upstairs. Then maybe we will start working on some of the projects.

Hopefully it will be a productive weekend. :)

Need some color

I have decided that I need to make some changes to our new house so it feels like mine. Right now I walk in and it says blah -- because if all the weird country blues and whites. White paint and ugly wallpaper everywhere. Not that I have a problem with blue -- I like blue -- he is a good guy -- but I am more of a earthy tones girl. I like the reds, greens, browns and blacks.

So, I have decided to do one small project first. The front foyer. It is the first thing people see when they walk in. Plus, I think it will be good for everyone to see how a space is transformed.

My thoughts on this are to have muted red toned wall -- along the stairway will be a coordinating brown or taupe. The metal railings of the stairs will be replaced with wood ones at some point and have the stairs will have a carpet runner that goes up the wood stairs.

On the main wall - the first thing you see when you walk it -- will be a REAL Persian rug my Dad and Minda bought for me. It is so funny because Minda picked out the most wonderful rug with all my favorite colors -- I am sure I would have picked the same one. It is a medium size rug so I will hang it on the wall - it will fit perfect there -- like it is made for that space.

To the right will be a decorative mirror I have had for a while with a small antique table of my grandmother's underneath.

Then I would like to find a cool looking clock for a small wall, then something else to go beside the front door -- not sure what that is yet. (Maybe I can convince Dad and Minda to bring me another rug for the smaller wall) :)

On the floor will be a rug that matches one of the colors in the Persian rug and the ceramic tile floor.

And at some point I am going to change out the light fixture in the foyer -- something not brass or ugly. But..that might be awhile.

After the foyer is done I want to paint the dining room and add my furniture. That will also be hung with beautiful panels my Dad and Minda also bought me years ago. With all my black dining room furniture that will have an Asian type look with a green for the walls and a light green for the ceiling - I hope.

And then I want to tackle the kitchen -- I want to update it with painting the cabinets and walls, adding new drawer/cabinet pulls, new gas stove and if, just if, I can convince Mike (or get a part-time job this summer) I want to put in granite or quartz counter tops to really update it out of the 70's. Right now is had yucky light blue Formica counter tops. Ugh!

We have decided to put the basement off for awhile -- just let Adam live in one part of it until he goes off to senior college in 2 years. Maybe we will take down wallpaper and paneling in the pool room at some point sooner but other area will have to wait.

I think just fixing up the main living areas with paint and a few other things will help a lot. Get rid of the 70 and 80's feel. :)

OK - off to look at the color wheel......and pick out some paint !

Play ball.....

Very excited to hear that my brother Sean was chosen to play in Disney's Salute to Baseball Festival July 3-9. Way to go Sean !! So after coming for the graduation and wedding all the way from the UAE then they will travel to Brookhaven and then off to Orlando. All I can say is I hope my very talented brother ends up in the major leagues one day.

Oh Happy Day !

Best news today.....my cleaning lady Margarita is going to be able to also clean our house in Reston. I thought she just did houses in Annandale and Springfield but she also does houses in Reston on Thursdays. Yea ! This is wonderful because it is so hard to find someone trustworthy to clean. She does a great job. :) Some people might think it is frivolous to have a house cleaner but she only comes every other week and I could not have been a productive single mom without her. She even gave me a reduced rate because she knew how much I need her help sometime. And thanks to my friend Kim for recommending her. ;)

In the wee small hours of the morning....

For some strange reason I woke up at 3 am this morning and I have not been able to get back to sleep. Which for me is weird because I can usually sleep anywhere, anytime. Part of it is my mind can not shut off with all the things I have to do with work, two homes, kids schedules, wedding, Adam's graduation, his college, a freelance project... and wait... myself. Just a tad busy right now. :)

So, I have spent the last 2 hours posting items to Craigslist we want to sell. Craigslist is an online classified that is very popular in the area. I LOVE Craigslist and have bought and sold many, many items this way.

Here is one of my latest ads.

Ok...going to try and get an hour of shut eye before the alarm goes off in an hour.