A Change of Heart...

Getting away last weekend, just the two of us (and 300 of my Tastefully Simple friends) was a great time for Mike and I to take the time to sort through what has NOT been happening with our relocation to Dallas.

The house is just not selling…at first, we had only 1-2 showings per week. In March, it picked up to closer to 5-6. Keeping the house model-home perfect every day with three home schooled kids was not fun, to say the least. I loved having an immaculate house, don't get me wrong, but it was stressful.

The feedback I was hearing from the realtors was all things that we could not change: structural issues with the house,noise from the street, no full bathroom downstairs, things like that.

After our trip, it was just crystal clear that we need to stay in Phoenix...so we're no longer moving!

Revisiting #7…

Don't remember #7 of my 101 in 1001 list? Let me remind you: "Have another baby or totally come to terms with the fact that we are complete as a family of five."  

Very recently, for about a week, I was convinced I was pregnant. Not only was I VERY late (and I'm never more than a day late), but I had zero additional symptoms and, oddly enough, everything tasted like metal for a few days. Mike began calling me, "Preggo" and becoming extremely overprotective. With the pending move to Dallas, the timing definitely would not have been ideal, but once I discovered that I was NOT pregnant, suddenly Mike and I both realized that this "scare" didn't scare us at all. 

I'm getting older…officially "advanced maternal age"…but my ovaries aren't dried up just yet. My clock is ticking, but it hasn't stopped. Should we? Shouldn't we? This isn't something we'll seriously consider until we know when (or IF at this point…since our stupid house isn't selling) we are moving to Dallas. 

Jason is older and a much more responsible, consistent little boy. Kaylin still desperately wants a baby sister. I found a letter to God last year, promising to teach her baby sister to "not be rough like her brothers". It was just so stinkin' sweet.

I'm not open to opinions (because everyone will have them, I'm sure - "DO IT!" or "What are you, crazy?" - I'm not interested in the feedback that sways in one extreme direction or another), but this blog is my place to journal, so that's what I'm doing. Writing through what I'm going through and what's a hot topic in our life right now. 

So I guess this topic is to be continued…!

When Life Gives You Lemons...

Our house has been on the market for almost 7 weeks. And here we sit…patiently waiting. Sometimes not so patiently.

It's tough for several reasons:

1. Ripping the Band-Aid off something painful, like a huge cross-country move, would be much easier if it was quick and easy. Dragging out this process of relocating is making it that much harder for everyone, in my opinion. 

2. We begin to doubt our decisions. Is the house not selling because we made the wrong choice? Should we pull it off the market and rent it instead? Should we drop the price and take a huge hit financially? Is there something wrong with our house that is turning people off? We love our house - why don't others love it, too!?!

3. Should we start packing or just wait? Because, as it is, our third stall garage is filled to the hilt with empty boxes. If we attempt to being FILLING those boxes, we won't be able to fit either car in the garage. Then what happens if the house doesn't sell and Mike's company says, "Too bad, so sad"??? I certainly wouldn't want to UNpack everything we own!

4. Every conversation revolves around our move. With anyone and everyone. Friends, neighbors, acquaintances, people we run into at the gym and the grocery store the mailbox and church and Target. "So…how are things going with the move…?" It's an easy conversation starter for others and we are constantly reminded that there has been no movement in our situation.

5. We're on pins and needles knowing that the house has to be ready to show at a moment's notice. I've been in the middle of making dinner and a realtor called asking if he could come by with clients within the hour. In a split second, we need to decide whether to we rush through dinner or stop everything and go out to eat.

6. Speaking of "ready to show," the house has to look like a model home all. the. time. As you can imagine, this is fairly stressful with small kids, even more because we homeschool and are home all day long. We do a LOT of life within these walls from 6am-10pm, yet it's supposed to look un-lived-in all the time? It's an interesting balance.

It took a few weeks to get everyone in the habit of picking up anything and everything as it is used throughout the day. We aren't perfect, but we've gotten it down to being able to tidy up in about 30 minutes and get out the door if people want to walk through. 

The funny thing is that I have traditionally blamed the mess and chaos on my appropriately nicknamed Destructo-boy, Jason. Turns out, he's only one of three males in the house that don't pick up after themselves. As it turns out, Ryan and Mike also leave a trail wherever they go! Sometimes they do put things away, but it turns out that my 10 year old was even worse than my 5 year old. How had I not noticed this before???

But it's better now. And, as much as I hate to admit it, being on the edge of our seats and ready to show our house all day, every day has even resulted in me having better habits. Instead of leaving the last few dishes in the sink until tomorrow, I spend 5 minutes washing them. Instead of blowing off the most recent load of laundry, I hurry to fold the clothes and put them away. I'm more diligent about reminding the kids to put away their toys and activities before meals and bedtime and especially before leaving the house, instead of letting it pile up, little by little, until it's an hour-long project and everyone is angry and resentful. Paper piles don't exist. We no longer have a junk counter. Counters and floor are clear. It's…actually quite fantastic!

Tonight, as I was putting away stray shoes and finding homes for coupons and random paperwork, I came to the realization that it brings me peace to have my home neurotically picked up all of the time. It's not so bad having the excuse that "it needs to be ready to show at a moment's notice" to get everyone on board with picking up after themselves. Including me! 

Life has given us the "lemon" of being in limbo with our relocation, but I'm choosing to see the bright side. We've developed some good habits and my house looks amazing most of the time! And I no longer procrastinate housework. Or organizing. Or anything else seemingly minor that needs to be done. 

I wonder if I can keep this up in our new house in Dallas…???

#5 - Get Lasik eye surgery

I finally did it!!! This has been on my 101 list from the beginning. We're talking back in 2008, people. Back then, it was an issue of finances, but since we have substantially more disposable income now (because of my business), I've been putting it off because I was being a huge chicken. 

Then a friend came over to pick up her daughter from a play date. She had a small red splotch on the white part of her eye, so I inquired. It turns out she had Lasik surgery the day before and was UP AND DRIVING that next morning. I was shocked! And intrigued. And suddenly very motivated. 

So I scheduled an appointment, worked it out with my busy weekend schedule (that took a few months) and pulled the trigger. The {stunning} picture below is me after getting my eyes dilated at the pre-op appointment last week. Hot, right? 

Here I am a week later and I still cannot believe I don't have to take out my contacts every night. The morning after the surgery, I actually walked into the bathroom and reached to take off my glasses out of habit. I poked myself in the eye!

I was fitted for glasses at 10 years old and started wearing contacts at 12. The eye chart goes up to 20/400 and I was off the chart. That is 28 years of poor eyesight!!! No more. It's not perfect (yet) but I was driving the next morning. I'm around 20/30 right now, but the doctor says it will get better each week for 2-3 weeks. I'm still very happy. 

#5 is finally, FINALLY crossed off my current 101 in 1001 list! It was #98 on my original list, because it was that much of a pipe-dream, after-thought, but here I am, free of contacts. Hallelujah!!!

10 Days, 1 Showing

I can hardly believe January is almost over. It's been all about getting the house ready to sell and now that it's on the market…we wait. We've only had one walk-through in the first 10 days our house has been for sale. I'm feeling slightly impatient, yet wondering how this month has already slipped away.

January, week 1: 

Project "Put Christmas Behind Us and Fix Everything Possible with our House" was in full swing. Paint was touched up, the pool pump was fixed, the sprinkler leak was fixed, the leaky kitchen faucet was replaced, I continued decluttering and selling everything that's not nailed down. 

We got rid of so much of the kids' stuff, their friends started asking what to do when they came over. The answer was quickly discovered: girls play school and color, boys play football. Who needs toys?

Week 2:

I headed to Charlotte, NC for a Tastefully Simple Leadership Conference. My first time speaking in front of the whole group from the big stage! 

Southwest lost my luggage for two days, but I managed to have the foresight to bring my speaking dress and some toiletries in my carry on bag. 

It was so cold. So. Cold. 12 degrees cold. Five days of cold.

Week 3: 

Once I returned home, we had the house cleaned, had pictures professionally taken and it officially went onto the MLS and a million other websites. Every day since, we've been keeping the inside model-home ready, which is absolutely exhausting when there are 4-5 people spending this much time in a space. We do a lot of life between these walls from 6am-10pm each day. 

I crammed in 4 Tastefully Simple parties in 3 days, then 4 parties in another 4 days. My available "work" weekends in January were slim.

I tried to start packing boxes, but every time I'd go to pack something we "won't need for a few months" I decided to either sell it or throw it away. Including all but a short stack of pictures out of more than 25 photo albums that I've been carrying around my entire life. I kept every picture I ever took from 1987-2002, until I went digital. That's a lotta pictures. And a lotta boxes. And I don't even know most of those people anymore.

Week 4: 

I'm heading out of town once again. This time, Mike's taking a couple days off work and taking the kids to the Arizona Science Center and to the "NFL Experience", since the Super Bowl is in town this weekend. 

I was scheduled to have Lasik on my eyes (FINALLY!!!) but had to postpone when I was asked to fly to Tastefully Simple HQ to work on a training project. I've never been to our HQ and I'm SO EXCITED to go! Too bad it's cold there, too. Very cold. My Phoenix blood can't handle a "real" winter  anymore. I'm used to sunshine and short sleeves and mountains and hiking in January. But all that will change soon!

I'm prepared for February and March to start getting a little nuts. We dropped the price of the house today and we're hoping for more activity. Praying that the house sells soon so I can stop being neurotic about keeping it perfect. Then we'll start the task of finding a new house in Dallas and packing up everything here. 

In the meantime…we wait. We can't do much until the house sells, so we're enjoying the last days, weeks, and months that we have here in Phoenix. Squeezing every little bit out of this great city.

Perfect Vegetable Soup

Are you hoping to get a little healthier in 2015? I have a great tip…when you're hungry between meals, eat homemade vegetable soup!  

I got this tip from a friend a few months ago and it's saved me over and over again. I try to make it every weekend and snack on it throughout the week when I just can't seem to feel satisfied. It's great for a meal, but it's an even better NO GUILT snack between meals.

This is a very loose recipe, and all quantities can be adjusted up or down, depending on your preference. DO NOT be intimidated by the long list of ingredient…this is super easy!

Perfect Vegetable Soup

1 Tbsp olive oil (or avocado oil)

1 onion, diced

5-6 stalked celery, diced

6 oz. can tomato paste

1 bag baby carrots, cut in half or quartered

1 can diced tomatoes, with juice (15 oz)

3 cups chicken or vegetable broth*

2 cups water

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 tsp oregano

1 bay leaf (if you have one)

3-4 zucchinis or yellow squash (or combo), cut into coins and again in 1/2

16 oz bag frozen green beans (large handful)

** leftover meat or veggies

Add the oil, onion and celery to a large pot and cook until the vegetables are translucent. (about 5-7 minutes) 

Stir in the tomato paste (will be very thick), then add carrots, diced tomatoes, broth, garlic, oregano and bay leaf. Bring to a boil, cover, then reduce heat and simmer 30 minutes. 

Add zucchini, squash, and green beans. Simmer another 30 minutes, then taste the broth to see if it needs salt. If so, add 1-2 tsp salt to taste. (salt content will depend on the broth you use) Remove the bay leaf, when you find it!

* If there's not enough broth, add more. If there's too much, add more vegetables.

** You can change the flavor of this soup, week after week, by throwing in last night's leftover meat, diced, or any vegetables you have in your fridge. 

It's Official: Big Christmas Announcement

After days and weeks of weighing the pros and cons, praying, talking, talking some more, praying some more…we've finally made the decision to move to Dallas. I'm still having trouble believing it. I was convinced Mike would get cold feet and want to stay in our nice, cozy, predictable, Phoenix life.

On our trip out there, I had gotten to a place where I was honestly fine staying or going, but I still felt more led to give it a try. I left the final decision up to Mike. I've told him for a couple of weeks that he could make the decision, but within the last week, I was truly fine either staying or going, whatever he thought was best for our family. 

As of a conversation with his V.P. on Tuesday night, he decided we should relocate. Then he proceeded to toss and turn all night, wondering if he made the right choice. 

Here we are, two days later, and he's already feeling better about it. Nervous about all that we have to do, skeptical about how his job will change in the upcoming weeks, uneasy about leaving our comfortable life and the only city he's ever lived in, but we're going. I still seems a little surreal that we've made the final decision. 

We'll put the house on the market, hopefully sell it in a couple of months and probably move in March or April. That's our timeline, anyway. We'll see if God has different plans. 

Merry Christmas to all! 

#57 - Clean out the paperwork in my file cabinet

#57 is completed from my 101 in 1001 list. Exciting? No. Done? YES!

Since it's been so long since I cleaned out the paperwork in our file cabinet (at least 3 years), it wasn't much effort to grab entire folders of past insurance information, tax documents, receipts, and other things that we no longer need and dump them into a bag to recycle. Don't come running to my house to steal my identity, though…we're definitely shredding the tax documents. ;)

I did have fun flipping through old college papers I wrote (why I kept them, I'm not sure…maybe because I spent so many hours researching and writing them?) - and even found a story or two that I wrote when I was Kaylin's age. I can't wait to show the kids in the morning. Hilarious! My mom is not a pack rat (like *ahem* apparently I am) so I don't have many elementary keepsakes left. I might have to hang onto these two, just because I can!

Goodbye, unnecessary paper clutter!