As with everything, there are pros and cons when it comes to my new schedule at work. I like working the later shift (11 to 8) because I get to sleep in and because the office becomes fairly quiet in the evening and I can actually get paperwork done. The problem with this new shift is that I sleep until I absolutely have to get up in the morning so I have no time to do anything else and when I get home it's perfectly acceptable to go to bed because it's just about dark outside and my daughter is willing to go to bed at that time. So, I have done nothing except work and sleep since changing to this new shift. I used to get up early and sit and have coffee and play around on my computer and then when I would get home I would do the same and then spend some time with my family. I had time to do advertising posts for extra money and now I am so tired when I get home I don't even feel like doing that. Hopefully things will balance out once I get used to this shift and once we get into our new house.

Have you been over to Roxy's blog yet? You should definitely check it out. She's the only basset hound I know that thinks she's a princess and has her own blog. Well, she's part of my family so it only makes sense that she has her own website, right? In case you didn't know, Roxy is my sister's hound. Stop by and say hello to Princess Foxy Roxy!

It was nice seeing my husband for a minute or two before he took off to work on our new house. I feel like I haven't seen him in days. Oh, wait... I haven't. Since closing on our house this past Friday I've pretty much just seen him in passing - him coming in and going to bed or when I'm on my way out the door for work. Oh, well.. it's worth it. By the time our wedding anniversary comes around next month, we'll be all settled in and comfortable in our new home. Something to look forward to.

Well, it seems that progress is being made on our new house. We should be able to move in next weekend. I'm getting so excited. My husband has been busting his butt for days and we are so fortunate to have my brother-in-law helping us out. He is a God send. He knows exactly what he's doing and he is putting in so much time at the house when he's not at work. I don't know what we would do without him. Thanks, sis, for lending us your husband for a while.

My site was mentioned in the Wall Street Journal online yesterday! I had been contacted by the journalist writing the article and I must say that I wasn't sure if it was a scam or not. Apparently it wasn't. It would have been nice to have a link to my site, but a mention is good too.

You tell me. I currently have in this house: a 1 month old baby, my 9 month old baby, a 3 year old girl, a 4 year old boy, a 5 year old girl, an 8 year old girl and my 9 year old boy.

I think this has cured me of ever wanting to have a home day care.

Your site's search engine optimization can be fashioned according to the way you want it to be. You can or cannot go for email marketing too. However features common in all good seo sites are: a, dedicated servers and b, conformist web development. That includes the web design too. Working on adsl or dial up is up to you.

The house is ours! My husband is over there right now cleaning and ripping out paneling from one of the bedrooms and doing all sorts of things to get ready to scrub the house and paint. I am so excited that I could hardly sleep last night. I would love to be able to go over there to help out so we could get this done faster, but I am here with children today. I have my two kids, my niece and nephew (4 and 5 years old), and I'm also watching my 1 month old great-niece overnight tonight. Sounds like a whole lot of fun, doesn't it? My friend, Julie, is coming over this afternoon with her 3 year old daughter because her husband is going over to help my husband with the house. My wonderful brother-in-law and my oldest son's dad are also going over to the house to help. It's great to have family and friends willing to pitch in. We definitely need all the hands we can get. There is a lot of work to be done over there.

I'm home for the weekend! I got off work at 12:30, which was very nice. The three hours I had to work went by very fast. I thought perhaps they wouldn't since I wanted it to fly by, but I was pleasantly surprised. So, my husband already went over and met the guy from the city so the water could be turned on at our new house and, unfortunately, there are a couple of problems. Nothing that can't be fixed, but problems nonetheless. We had no idea because the city needed more notice to have the water turned on for the inspection so that is one thing we knew we still had to look forward to. A couple of valves need to be replaced which we can do over the weekend while we're over there cleaning and painting. Anyway, he is on his way back here with lunch and then the closing is at 4pm. Hooray!

I've been so busy with all the house worries that I haven't posted any pictures of Gabrielle lately. Bad mommy. It's hard to believe that she's almost ten months old now. She's still just walking around by holding onto furniture. She lets go now and then and stands by herself for a few seconds, but other than that there have been no real attempts to take off running. She crawls at the speed of light though. She can get from one end of the living room to the other in a matter of seconds. If you call out her name because she's heading somewhere she shouldn't be, she crawls even faster like she's trying to get to her destination before someone can reach her. It's so cute.

Here are some pictures that I took last week:

We have a definite closing date! We are closing tomorrow at 4pm!! I'm so excited!! Thank you for all the well wishes and crossed fingers and prayers. I am getting off work at 12:30 tomorrow so that we can get everything situated. We're having all the utilities turned on tomorrow afternoon and the work on the house begins tomorrow night. We are hoping to be moving in next weekend.

Did I mention how excited I am?

I was told yesterday that we have a tentative closing for tomorrow at 4pm. There are still some issues, but I've got my fingers crossed that this is really going to happen. I'm almost afraid to write this because I don't want to jinx anything, but I just felt compelled to throw an update out here.

Well folks, we're on the edge of our seats here about the whole house thing. Apparently, as of yesterday, they hadn't even assigned a title company, which everyone is highly ticked off about. The "sellers" realtor is not the most efficient thing in the world. The house was foreclosed on, which is why we are getting such a good deal on it, but the real estate agency that is considered the sellers agent has a ton of these homes on the market and doesn't seem to care that we have a deadline. There is now only a slight chance that we will actually get this deal sealed by Friday. We may have to sign an extension and it could take another week or two if things don't work out the way they were supposed to. Then again, if the people we have working on this come through for us today... we could still close this weekend. I don't really want to get my hopes up at this time though.

If you like dramatic thrillers then you've got to see Fracture with Anthony Hopkins and Ryan Gosling. Jeremy and I watched it last night and I must say it was a really good movie. I've always loved the roles that Anthony Hopkins plays. His character is always so clever and strategic. Ryan Gosling also played a fantastic part. They made a great team for this film.

It's Tuesday. I'm sure you all know this already, but I have to say it again. It's Tuesday. More importantly... it's Tuesday and we haven't heard anything about the closing for the house which is supposed to be on Friday. You know... the day after the day after tomorrow. Yes, three days from now. WTF?

I don't like this process one bit. I wake up every morning feeling sick to my stomach and wondering if today is going to be the day that I find something out. Why is it so difficult for things to get done in a reasonable amount of time during this process? Why do banks and mortgage companies take their sweet-ass time and leave you hanging there until the very end? Oh, I just want to scream.

I am so sick of the rain. It's been raining for days now. All weekend long and now it's here to start off my week as well. Blah. I could never live in a place where it rains all the time. I guess it's better than snow, but any kind of precipitation annoys me after a while. It makes it more difficult to get through the huge parking lot at work in the morning. I'm already carrying my travel mug of coffee, my purse and my personal cooler full of goodies to snack on through the day. Who's got an extra hand to hold the umbrella over my head? Not me.

I suppose I should throw my cheerful butt in the shower and get ready for work now.

I'm never going to make it through today. I am so tired this morning. I stayed up way too late last night watching Disturbia with my husband. We actually made it through the entire movie uninterrupted. It's been almost a year since we were able to sit down and watch a movie from start to finish without hitting the pause button several hundred times to tend to Gabrielle. A two hour movie normally takes at least four hours to watch. Anyway, I'm seriously considering going back to sleep for about an hour. I can barely keep my eyes open.

I think I've had just about enough of lying around and being lazy today. Unfortunately, there is nothing to do. I am extremely bored. I can't remember the last time I was this bored. Is 5pm too early to go to bed just to end the day? I imagine so. I have a lot of pictures that I just uploaded. I could resize them and post a few here, but my daughter is being a bit of a crab-ass this afternoon. Oh, well... I guess I'll just sit around and tell her "no" - because she's always getting into things she shouldn't be - and listen to her cry at me because of it.

Since I'm spending my day sitting around, being lazy and watching Sex and the City episodes, it seems entirely appropriate to write about these fantastic new designer leather bags that I found. Hand bags are a woman's greatest accessory and these Bolzano hand bags are really something to talk about. They've been sold internationally for years now and are finally available to those of us in the United States. Bolzano has a wide variety of bags in their collection. They have everything from clutch bags to wristlets to wallets and leather accessories. I can't wait to get my hands on a Bolzano hand bag!

It's odd, but I'm actually looking forward to the weekend being over. Why? Because we have to hear something about the closing this week. We just have to. We are supposed to be closing on Friday so there is no way to avoid hearing something. Don't get me wrong, I'm going to enjoy my rainy Sunday being lazy, lying around in my pj's all day, and watching Sex and the City episodes on HBO On Demand, but I'm still looking forward to the week starting.

Often people start their work from home on a rental property. Many want a way out of their debt consolidation. Many already have tons of loans to pay. Mainly people start such ventures to keep up with the mortgage rates.

I am going to be crazy busy today. First, I have to jump in the shower like... thirty minutes ago... and get my butt and my kids butts all the way out to Great Lakes Crossing to go shopping with a friend of mine for "back to school" clothes. Then I have to make my way back to this side of town so we can all hang out at my sister's house this evening. They're having a block party tonight which is a whole lot of fun. Evan is going to spend the night at her house - which reminds me that I need to pack a bag for him and remember to throw in his bathing suit. I really need to get moving!

There are so many things to consider when looking in to a drug addiction treatment for yourself or some one you love. First on that list should be finding the best treatment possible for your individual needs. That is why there is help like Drug Rehabilitation Referral Service, to help assist you in finding the best treatment possible. Drug Rehabilitation Referral Service your first step in addiction treatment. It can help save your life or the life of someone you love.

I'm so glad it's Friday. I have had as much as I can take of this week. I have plans to go shopping with a friend tomorrow, but the way I feel right now I just want to hide out all weekend. I'm still going to go shopping because.. well.. I'm a woman and I like hanging out with my good friend.

It's a week until we are supposed to close on this house and I honestly have no idea what's going on. We heard yesterday that they want to push the date back, but they were told by the realtor that it had to be the 24th because it was only day available. So now we wait to hear back.

I feel so blah right now. I wish I could just put everything out of my mind for the weekend.

I can't explain it, but I get so choked up on this day every year. As I'm getting ready for work this morning I have been watching and listening to the television present footage of Elvis Presley and how we still remember him this day, 30 years after his death, I have to fight back the tears.

Have you seen the list for the Mattel recalls? It's huge! I looked at it yesterday and I don't think we have anything on the list, but I have been throwing away every little figurine from Fisher Price anyway. If you haven't taken a look, please do. It's very possible that your children are playing with some of these toys! They have everything from Polly Pocket to Batman to Dora the Explorer and even Sesame Street. There are several different Elmo toys on these lists.

They have two lists for the toys that are a major lead hazard:

list one

list two

and there is a list for the toys that have problems with the magnets inside the toys:

magnet list

The magnets inside these dolls and accessories can fall out -- undetected to parents and caregivers. These magnets can be swallowed or aspirated by young children or placed by a child in their nose or ears. When more than one magnet is swallowed, the magnets can attract to each other and cause intestinal perforation, infection or blockage, which can be fatal. Aspiration to the lungs requires immediate surgery. Magnets placed in the nose or ears can cause swelling and be difficult to remove.

Please take a few minutes to look through these lists to make sure your children are safe.

Tomorrow is the 30th anniversary of Elvis Presley's death. I didn't know the man, but I miss him just the same. If I could have been at just one of his shows. *sigh*

My uncle Scott is here from California for a visit. He's a really awesome artist who paints murals all over California and is well-known in his parts. He was showing us a few local papers where they featured him and his work. He said he is going to paint a picture of Elvis for my living room wall. One of my favorites...

I've always been told, "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all."

With that said... I don't have anything to say at the moment.

Have you downloaded the Alexa toolbar yet? What are you waiting for?

I had to get up an hour early today. I'm working 8 to 5 because I have a training class to attend. I'm definitely not bothered by it. It gives me a break from the phone for a day. I used to love the 8 to 5 shift. I thought it was perfect because it got me up early and out of work early. I'm not so sure about that anymore. I think I'm starting to enjoy getting up later. At least until my daughter starts sleeping through the night - if that is ever going to happen. I've talked to several people lately who say that their kids just started sleeping through the night at around a year old. Is that the new thing with children these days? My boys both slept through the night at just a couple of months old. Gabrielle, on the other hand, wakes up every hour to two hours wanting a bottle. It doesn't make sense to me. She doesn't want a bottle every hour or two during the day. Yesterday she took a four hour nap while I was at work. It would be lovely if she would sleep that long at night.

It's going to be a beautiful day - other than the fact that it's Monday. The weather claims to be nice today - sunny and 83 degrees. That's a nice change from what it has been the last week or two - raining and 95 degrees (like being in hell every time you walk outside). I have to drive my mom's car to work today and most likely tomorrow. After all the running around we did yesterday, we pulled up in the driveway and the shifting cable (or whatever it's called) broke on my car. I knew it needed to go in for repair last week because it was really difficult to move the shifter, but somehow it got overlooked. At least it waited until we were in the driveway! We would have been screwed if we had been out at IKEA and had it happen. Apparently I need to upgrade my AAA membership to the "plus" version so I get a hundred miles of free towing instead of just five. You never know when something like that can happen. Anyway, my car is under warranty so I just need to get it to the dealership.

I have so much planned for today and I don't feel like doing a darn thing. I hate when that happens. My first move needs to be heading toward the shower. I haven't even mustered the energy to do that. Perhaps after I shower I will feel more energized. It's so easy to just sit here though. When did I become so lazy?

We're packing up the kids and making another trip to IKEA today. We still have a few things that we need to get such as a TV table and some bathroom accessories. We also need ice cube trays, a cutlery tray, a dish drainer (because the dishwasher is not really in working condition, but we plan to get a new one in the future), a kitchen trash can and an outdoor trash can. The ice cube trays and such we will probably just get at the dollar store or something like that. What's the point in spending more money than necessary on items such as those. The outdoor trash can we will most likely purchase at Home Depot.

I just found the coolest site for Search Engine Marketing! I know, I probably need to stop looking into this so much, but I am obsessed with it. Apogee uses proven techniques to provide measurable results for your website. They have a very interesting online marketing blog that delivers all of the latest search engine marketing news and events. They also have an extensive list of search tools and resources right at your fingertips. Apogee even has a link that tells you how your site is performing with social networking sites. How cool! I'm going to have to try the Google toolbar which is now available for Firefox.

It was nice not waking up to the sound of my alarm clock this morning, but my daughter is quite the violent one when she gets up in the morning. Instead of the buzzing of my alarm clock at 6 am, I was smacked in the face by Gabby at 8 am. I guess it was worth the two extra hours of sleep.

Gabrielle has learned two new things this week! She can wave bye-bye and she can do the sign for "eat." I'm so proud!! We have been teaching her sign language since she was born. Most people don't start until the child is quite a bit older - maybe 6 to 8 months or so, but I figured it couldn't hurt using the signs when talking to her. She just started signing for "eat" today and is doing it like a champ already.

I just got some news about the house. It's not good news or bad news. It's just news. There's no closing date yet and there probably won't be until the end of next week. Can you see me pouting? The appraisal should have been scheduled by now, but it hasn't been. At least it wasn't earlier today. The real estate agent didn't call back so I can only hope that it was taken care of. With that said, the appraisal won't be done until next week some time and hopefully the closing date will be set soon after. At this rate, if we do get the closing date next week, we'll only have a week to prepare because we told them we wanted to close on the 24th - two weeks from today. Keep your fingers crossed that I don't have some kind of a mental breakdown through all of this.

One thing I really like about having the internet is the convenience of getting all of news in one place. I read all different types of news: world news, computer and software news, interesting personal stories and I even like Hollywood gossip now and then. It’s nice to be able to log on and get it all with one click of the mouse.

New to me is Thoof, a great new web site that offers personalized news. My first impression was that Thoof was quite similar to digg. You are able to submit stories to Thoof and they appear on their homepage, but that is really where the similarities end. Unlike digg, Thoof offers a variety of options including hide, improve and send to a friend. I think that is really cool! The hide option allows you to bypass stories you are not interested in. Improve is also self explanatory; it enables you to improve a story. Send to a friend is a great feature that allows you to send your friends stories you think they might be missing out on.
You might also notice that stories can be one of three colors - blue, green, or gray - to let you know which stories are new to you, which ones you have seen but not read and which stories are totally new. They also offer a badge for your blog or website. I think this is really cool. Overall I had a really enjoyable experience with Thoof and I will be visiting quite frequently in the future.

It's Friday and I should be happy about that. I am for several reasons. One: I don't have to work tomorrow. Two: I get to spend more time with my family over the next two days. Three: I get to sleep until my daughter wakes me up instead of having the annoying sound of my alarm clock interrupt my peaceful slumber. The only reason I'm not happy is that if I don't hear something about a closing date today, it means I have to wait out the weekend knowing that I definitely won't hear something until at least Monday. That doesn't even mean I will hear something on Monday, but it's a day of possibilities. I'm consumed by this, I realize, but it's not something that can be helped. If I had a date I could start preparing instead of wandering around aimlessly in the land of the unknown.

Today was my 90th day at AAA. Do you know what that means? The probationary period is over. I am now eligible for my paid time off. I was given access to the program that allows me to schedule my own time off this afternoon. I have 6 vacation days from now until the end of the year. At first I thought I would take a week off in September, but then I decided that it would be much better if I broke it up a bit. Before I left work I took off Halloween and the day after. It's a good thing my friend, Julie, mentioned taking Halloween off because we will be working 11 to 8 at that time and I wouldn't have been able to take my kids trick-or-treating. So, now I have 4 more days to take off at some point throughout the rest of this year. Ahhh, it's good to have paid time off available. It gives a person something to look forward to.

Today has been a horrible day. Not because of one particular thing, but a variety of things. I feel like I have so much going on right now that I simply can't handle it all. You could say I have a piss-poor attitude lately because of this. The fact that we still don't have a closing date for the house yet is driving me crazy. I know it will happen, but the whole "not knowing when" part is sheer torture. Then I have the stress of work. Yes, I've only been there for three months, but I just can't believe all the different things that I have to remember each time I speak with a client. And all the ways I am "graded" a total of 8 times a month in order to get a good performance review is wildly unreasonable. On top of that, I had scores of absolute imbeciles calling me today. I actually mumbled, "I hate this job" once after speaking to one of them. I didn't really mean it. I don't hate my job. I like it, in fact. It was just one of those days. Besides all of that, I am having a difficult time getting through to some people on a personal level and that, too, is causing me to become unhinged. Some people just don't get it and apparently never will. It's more than frustrating and leaves me feeling defeated. I have a hard time accepting that some people will never change and will never see things the way they truly are. That's something I have to work on - just letting it go. At one point today I almost began crying at my desk. I can only hope that tomorrow will be a better day.

I would love to own a grandfather clock. I've never had one, but I've always adored them. I am seriously thinking about getting one for our new house after we get moved in and settled. I have been looking at many different sites and this one stood out from the crowd. They have a wide selection of grandfather clocks, almost too many to choose just one favorite, and they have the most affordable prices I've seen yet. This grandfather clock is one of my favorites out of all the selections they have. I think it would look absolutely perfect in my new living room.

They sell more than just grandfather clocks too. They have a huge assortment of all types of clocks that I am absolutely in love with. I could literally put a different type of clock in every room of my house by shopping on their site. There are mantel clocks, alarm clocks, cuckoo clocks, neon clocks and even tower and street clocks. I think I found a brand new obsession! Indeed, if you're looking to spend money on something that will stay with you for a lifetime, shop for grandfather clocks at 1-800-4clocks. They even have a blog that you can check out. I found one particular entry to be very interesting and informative. I learned something new today!

Gabrielle ate her very first McDonald's french fry this evening. And let me tell you.. she loved it! Here are some pictures of her "McMilestone." Please note: this is her very first bite of any adult food. Before tonight she has only had formula, baby food and baby puffs.

Here she is enjoying her first taste of fast food..

mmmm, that's surprisingly delicious ..

staring at the french fry with her adorable, greasy, fast food face..

Here is a pretty cool picture that Jeremy took of her last week..

Jeremy and I fell in love with the television show, Traveler, back in June. It hasn't been on the last couple of weeks so I looked at the guide to see if my DVR has it set to record tomorrow and it's not. It shows the last date it was scheduled to record was on July 5th. So, I had Jeremy look it up online to see if there was any news about it. Yes, there is news.. and it's not good. It's been pulled! Eight episodes and it's gone. We're really bummed about it. The only thing that makes it seem a little tolerable is that all of our shows start next month.

Well, after tearing the house apart several times yesterday the camera has been found. It actually did get up and walk away - with a little assistance from my husband. He took it off the dryer and put it in my AAA bag downstairs when he was straightening up a few days ago. It's surprising that he didn't remember doing that. He normally has a great memory. I guess with everything going on around here he is starting to lose his mind as well. Hopefully after we are settled in our new house, everyone will be able to think straight again.

I don't' want to go to work today. I am so tired. We were so busy this weekend that I don't even feel like I had any time off. It doesn't help that Gabrielle didn't sleep well last night either. I would love to just go back to sleep for a few more hours. I might actually be looking forward to working the 11 to 8 shift. If I was on that shift now, I would still be asleep. I imagine it will get worse before it gets better. With all the preparations we need to make for this new house and then cleaning and painting once we have the keys, I will probably be busy every weekend for the next month at least.

On a side note: I was planning on posting pictures of Gabrielle yesterday since she turned 9 months old, but we can't seem to find the camera. It was on the dryer the last time anyone saw it and it has just disappeared. We have looked everywhere. I don't understand it. It's like it just got up and walked away.

Gabrielle is 9 months old today. A quarter of a year old! I can't believe how fast it's gone by. I do love this age though. She is so inquisitive and "chatty" at this time. She's into everything and wants to play all the time. She is such a joy. I love walking in the house after work and having her look up and get a big grin on her face because she's happy to see me. Or in the morning when she wakes up and starts "talking" to me.

She almost slept through the night last too. She only woke up once for a bottle where as she has been waking up every hour and a half lately for some unknown reason. I guess shopping at IKEA wore her little butt out. It was packed and between the horde of people to look at and all the different colors of fabric and the noise level I think she was a bit over stimulated. She was very well-behaved the entire time. She sat in her stroller and looked at everyone and everything for hours without much fussing. Perhaps we should take her there more often so we can get some sleep at night.

We bought lots of stuff today! Between the stuff that we got at the moving sale this morning and the items we purchased at IKEA, we're very close to being set on everything. Here are some of the big items that we bought this afternoon.

Here is our new bed

and a night stand to go with it

and a floor lamp to go on the other side of the bed

our coffee table for the living room

another dresser for Gabrielle's room

our dining room table

and the chairs to go with it

and here is what we are going to get in the next couple of months for the boys. right now they have their own separate beds, but since Jamie isn't always at my house, I thought it would be cool to have this when he comes over and Evan would love having a bunk bed

Besides all of that wonderful stuff, we bought pots and pans, dishes, glasses, matching measuring cups and spoons, a wall clock for the dining room, a clothes hamper, a new set of silverware, steak knives and a set of large cutting knives, a few different tupperware container sets and a cutting board.

I'm pooped... and very pleased.

We went to a moving sale this morning and got some really great deals on things. We purchased a nice, clean patio set that has a table with an umbrella and four chairs, a lazy boy chair, a leather chair with an ottoman for the finished basement, a set of drinking glasses, 3 nice lamps, a little corner cabinet for the living room, a roasting pan and a desk for Evan's room all for under a hundred dollars! They are all in great condition. The lady selling them is a friend of my aunts. She is moving into a smaller place and needs to get rid of half of her stuff so they aren't junk in any way. I'm getting even more excited about moving now that we are buying things for the house.

Update: My dad and husband just went back to the woman's house to pick up the patio table because we couldn't fit it in with all the other things the first trip and she gave us her washer and dryer for free! I'm almost in tears here. I feel so blessed to know such wonderful and generous people.

I don't think I've ever been so happy to see the weekend. This past week at work has kicked my butt. To say that I am exhausted would be an understatement. The funny thing is that all evening I kept thinking that it wasn't Friday and that I had to work tomorrow. It was nice every time I realized that tomorrow is Saturday.

I got another tidbit of good news today. I won't be changing shifts at work as soon as I thought. I was originally going to be placed on the 11 to 8 shift a week from Monday, but now I won't have to change until August 24th - three weeks from today. The longer I can stay off that shift, the better. I don't mind the 9:30 to 6:30 shift I'm on right now. I don't have to get up at the crack of dawn and it gives me a chance to see my husband and children for a little while before I leave for work and everyone is still awake for several hours when I get home. I hope that there's a shift bid soon after I get put on the late shift. I would like to get back to my current shift sooner than later. For those of you that don't know - it's a requirement that new people take the late shift and then we can bid on a different shift every so often throughout the year when the opportunity arises.

We didn't get an exact closing date on the house yesterday because the paperwork has to be processed first. I'm hoping to hear something today. I am probably too anxious about this, but I just want to know when we are going to get the keys. That's understandable, right? We're excited to get in there and start cleaning and painting and having the carpets cleaned so that we can move our stuff in and make it our own. I swear.. so much has been going on lately with the house and still being semi-new at my job that my stomach is in knots. Instead of having "butterflies" in my stomach, I feel like cattle are stomping around in there.

Do you know what I hate about being a working mom? I'm totally exhausted by the end of the day. I don't know if it's because I'm now (and have been for a couple of years) a thirty-something year old woman or what. It was easier to stay energized throughout the day and further into the night when I was twenty-something. Now I am ready for bed at 8pm. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining about having to work. Although, it would be nice to just win the lottery and be able to shop and hang out all the time. I enjoy working, but I just wish it didn't take so much out of me that I want to do nothing except "veg" when I get home. I had considered taking a second job just so we could have extra money as a "cushion" when we move into our new house, but I am so tired when I get home from work I can't even imagine having to go to another job. I also decided against it because I would never make it through life without spending my evenings with my beautiful children.

I'm going shopping at IKEA this weekend! I love that store. Just looking at their website makes me drool. If only we had a million dollars... we could have everything for the new house that we could want. I doubt we will be spending any money this weekend. It will all depend on how the meeting with the bank goes today. We want to push the closing date up so we can be as close to moving in as possible by the time school starts in September.

The inspection on the house went very well yesterday. There's pretty much nothing wrong with the house other than a couple of outlets that aren't grounded and a face plate that is cracked. The roof is good, the furnace is good, the siding is good, everything is .. well... good. The only thing that we have to do is go in and clean the house, paint the rooms, get the carpet cleaned and we're good to go! The closing will be around the end of this month and we'll be able to take possession at that time. I'm so excited!!