Miscellaneous Notes on Walking Around Like a Loser and Cleaning

The other day I went to DSW to look for comfortable walking shoes for our upcoming trip to Disney. I rolled up my long jeans legs super high while trying on shoes and continued to walk around like that all day. Didn't notice I hadn't released the nerdy rollups until later at home. Nice.

Question: Why do people get those walkie talkie phones? Is it just too hard to put the cell phone along thy ear? Are we SO lazy and/or deaf that we need to broadcast the conversation with an echo out loud for all to hear? So annoying.

Today I managed to shower (hooray!), go to the outlets about an hour from me to return a few things from my last trip, pickup more of that awesome Snickerdoodle coffee on the way home, write 2 thank you notes, put names on Shelaghs bday party invitations (not addresses yet - why can't I finish anything I start????), clean the accumulated dirt and dust off of the double stroller and try it out with Kellys car seat, play with and feed Kelly and watch last weeks Greys Anatamy (during which I cried - do they have to kill a kid every week?).

I also vacuumed the filters on 2 of our A/Cs today. It was 80+ degrees yesterday and is supposed to be 90 tomorrow. Rory woke up from nap yesterday with a full wet head of sweat, poor kid. I don't know if I've ever seen such a gross collection of dirt/lint/dust ever as I did on these filters. See for yourself. Obviously, the bottom 2 squares show "before" the big vacuum and the top 2 squares show "after". So gross.

While we're talking about cleaning, I'm LOVING the Biokleen concentrated laundry detergent and dishwashing powder I've been using. It's cheap, goes on for 65+ loads, and smells just enough to be pleasant without overpowering - hard to find that combination. I was loving the Method Dishwasher rock things that you just pop into the powder container, but I can't seem to locate those anywhere. Have also been loving the Method wood cleaning wipes with the mild almond scent. Normally I don't like scents, but this one is okay. They also have an unscented hand soap I've been using that is working well for my sensitive skin and aversion to most scents.

Off to pick up the kids and continue the mad rush to prep for our upcoming Disney vacation. YEAH! More on that later.

A New Level of Nesting

I have seriously accomplished so much in the last few weeks...I'm pretty proud of myself!

1) Attended the Kindergarten Orientation for Shelagh and organized all her registration paperwork. Hopefully I'll make it to the tours before I deliver. Our town has school choice so we have to pick 1 of 5 elementary schools for her.

2) Organized all our 2008 paperwork for taxes

3) Organized all paperwork for a refi (what a pain in the ass)

4) Everything for baby is washed and ready. The crib is ready, bassinet and pack n plays are out and supplies are stocked! Nursing stuff is ready and my bag is packed!

5) I did a last house cleaning this weekend which is taking me about 3 different days to do nowadays.

6) Bills are mostly paid for this month since I'm due on the 2nd.

7) Getting last haircut, successfully have cleared out most of my freezer to make room for my mom coming up and re-stocking it :), added TiVO software to my cable companies DVR (this is possibly the best thing EVER. I LOVE TIVO and am so happy I can have it again!), and booked our 1st vacation to Disney for the end of my maternity leave with another family (house, airfare and princess lunch).

Yeah, me!

Exhausted

Thank God my parents are almost here today. I just speed cleaned the whole house and I am going to collapse. For the first time in a long time, Shelagh napped for an hour and I got so much done. But, now that I'm past the halfway mark of Pregnancy #3, what the hell am I doing? I can't clean my whole house in one shot!! Certainly I can't be expected to do one more thing today. Dinner, mom. Rory's full diaper right now, mom. Entertaining Shelagh, mom. Picking me up off of the couch eventually today, Joe. I'm officially out for the day.

Dyson: The Results from 1 Area Rug

So disgusting...This is from vacuuming just my Living Room Area Rug which I think is a 9 x 12. I can't wait until Friday when I can do the whole house.

the Container Store & my New Dyson

I LOVE IT! I've always loved organizing, but walking through a store like this really just does it for me. I spent some time there yesterday working with a closet specialist to design some closet shelving for Shelaghs room. With the baby coming, Rory will move into Shelaghs room, but we don't have room for any more dressers and hers is full. So, we have a guy coming in today to widen the closet doorway for us. I went to the Container Store to figure out the Elfa shelving inside the closet so I can fit both kids stuff mostly in the closet (and then hopefully get rid of or replace Shelaghs monstrous long, low dresser with something better suited for the space in her room...eventually). It was so easy to figure out and it looks beyond easy to install (remind me I said that later). I'm not going to put doors on it, but rather got some curtain panels and a curtain rod to put up instead that match her current window treatments. Poor Rory will be surrounded by pink!

Also, I ordered a new Dyson vacuum and I'm insane waiting for it to arrive. I purposely haven't cleaned so that I can do amazing things with my new vacuum. Dyson is a client of my company so I get 45% off which made this an affordable option. I'm so pumped. A friend at work got hers, vacuumed with her regular vacuum and then vacuumed with her Dyson and had to empty the container 4 times!!! You should see the dust bunnies floating around my house and accumulating in corners (on my stairs, under the radiators, cat hair everywhere!).

Cleaning

I have a love-hate relationship with cleaning. I like it when I'm doing it and don't have distractions (which is not often). This is the Type A and extremely organized part of me. Simultaneously, I dread starting it and there are certain specific tasks that I hate, namely mopping floors and the bathtub. For a long time, I passed most of this off on a cleaning lady every 3-4 weeks, but now it's back to me. I've stuck pretty well to an every 2 weeks schedule and, thankfully, since the kids still nap I've managed to do it in 2 chunks on my weekday days off from work.

I feel like there is no good way to mop. Am I crazy or do you just move the dirt around the floor no matter what kind of mop you use? I'm only ever really happy with it when I get down on the floor and use a big sponge. Plus, in addition to having a WHITE vinyl kitchen floor (I don't know under what scenario this ever seemed like a good idea to the previous owners), my house is almost completely wood floors (dining room, living room, stairways/halls, and 3 bedrooms). We have an attic/3rd floor that has 2 rooms that I pretty much ignore unless we have guests coming - both of those rooms are wood floors also plus the additional staircase.

I cannot state how much I hate cleaning the tub. There is nothing more exhausting and irritating then having to get half-naked to get in there to really scrub the grime out. That is the ONLY thing keeping me on this 2-week schedule...hoping that the grime doesn't really build up to begin with. We do have a slow drip that we haven't fixed. Fixing it will require we pull out the whole mechanism and replace it (thereby also removing the disgusting vanity that is wedged in there and a chunk of the ugly tile while covers the entire room and would have to be replaced). Our 2nd bathroom shower is out of commission so we'd have no back-up and we really want to re-do the working bathroom in some way, so this project is shelved for the foreseeable future. Therefore, I have that annoying pink water stain buildup from the drip along with a REALLY annoying drip sound that is slowly driving me insane. Plus, my shower head needs to be replaced and is not currently the kind where the head can detach to rinse out the tub which would make things easier.

Finally, I really want to move over to homemade or environmentally safe cleaning products. I feel guilty just throwing out the toxic stuff I have so I'm trying to use it up first. I did try the olive oil trick on the wood tables yesterday but am still working out the right amount. It was fine on the dining room table, but I think I used too much and left our coffee table a bit greasy. Oh well. If the cats start licking the tables I guess I've gone too far.