Watch Me Zumba

In my quest to find at least one exercise that I might possibly like doing, I've now taken a few Zumba classes. And, I think I've found an instructor I like. And, it's not the skinny minny Russian woman who yells at everyone 'come on, come on..keep up..it's not so hard!'  Errrrrrrrrrgggh.

Zumba is rather fun but you really have to get over yourself. My class yesterday went something like this:

I was the second largest woman in the room. The largest was an older black woman. I think she was about 5 feet tall but significantly heavier than me. But, holy crap, she could move! She wasn't bouncing but that woman had more rhythm in her big toe than I think I have in my whole body! She even did some hip pops. Impressive.

There were 2 brave older men in our class. What a trip! They weren't the fastest but they kept up better than I did. It is humbling to be outdone by senior citizens. Truly. I don't really like it but I gotta give them their props.

The class started out slow, thank goodness. I felt tight and uncoordinated. About 1/3 of the way through the class, I was sweating buckets. I caught a look at myself in the mirrored walls. Oh yes, did I mention that every single wall is floor to ceiling, mirrors. Every. single. one. Why would someone do that??????
Oh my, it was quite a sight. Hair flying every which way (I'm now 2 hair appts behind), cheeks bright red, a bra that obviously was not meant to contain these bad girls when zhumba-ing (sorry Ross!), and a grimace that would easily frighten a small child. Not to mention the sweat soaked t-shirt.
At first, I did wonder who the heck the witchy-looking woman was in the mirror until I realized she was dressed just like me, then my next thought was...Oh no, that witch is me!!!
I figured I had 2 choices. Continue to look like this or make a change. I decided...Screw it. I may not be able to keep up totally, but I'm gonna rock it like no other 43 yr old, grey roots showing, sweat pouring out everywhere,  overweight white woman can! I whooped and hollered, clapped, got a couple laughs out of the instructor and a 'You go, girl!' from one of the men which cracked me up even more.
I'm thinking that the other participants didn't quite know what to make of me. But I had a lot of fun and I'll do it again. On second thought, I don't think many of them noticed anything cause I sorta hid in the back of the room as much as I could. I mean, come on, I'll have fun but I don't want to put on a free show.
The class ended, I staggered to the water fountain and slowly, slowly made my way down the stairs and out of the gym.
I will take another Zumba class.
After I get some feeling back in my thighs.
Then, zumba, here I come!

Things I've Learned While Moving

This whole moving experience has been....well, I'm not quite sure how to describe it. There's many adjectives: exciting, scary, frustrating, heart-stopping, nerve-wracking, adventurous, lonesome.
I've learned a lot from moving.
-Temporary housing really, really, REALLY makes you appreciate your house all the more.
- The kids rooms need to be unpacked first. Thank you, Grandma & Grandpa, for helping with this. Made the kids feel more at home. C just lays in her bed for a few minutes every day after school saying "my room, my room, I love my room."
- It is disconcerting to be in a new place. Everything has to be done again. And, there's not really anyone else to ask about stuff.
- Seeing your kids suffer from anxiety about meeting new people makes your heart break for them.
- It is extremely tempting to just give in and have a big ol' pity party for yourself about whatever situation you find yourself in.

But mostly, what I learned during this move can be summed up in one word....intentional.

I have to be intentional about asking for help. Oh boy, for a person who hates to do this, what a big, fat lesson this was for me. I'm sure this is one that will keep coming up for me but I'm trying to embrace the idea that I can rely on someone else.

I have to be intentional about making friends. Surprisingly, they don't just come up and say "Hi! My name is ____________. What's yours? Do you want to play?" So much easier when I was 3 years old.
However, I did drum up the courage and ask a woman I met if she wanted to meet for coffee and she agreed. I felt very good about it and had a whole new empathy for S asking someone over to play. Course, I did my asking through the annonimity of the internet, but I did it. And I know I need to keep doing this even if it makes me uncomfortable.

I have to be intentional about making our new church feel like our church home. This means getting involved even though I don't know all the ins and outs and politics. I just hope I don't put my foot in my mouth too far. Guess that's where that thing called Grace comes in.  :)

I have to be intentional about helping my kids make friends. That means having playdates even though the house is still not unpacked. I figure that if the kids come over now, some day, when things are put away, they might even notice the difference! And, it is incentive for me to make this house our home.

So, my word for the rest of this year...intentional.  A tough lesson for me to learn but I'm working on it.

I'm Grumpy

My day went something like this:
Bought dehumidifier for new house. Went to house, spent hours cleaning in the kitchen, ran downstairs to put dehum. in basement and discovered a large (2 ft x 2ft) spot of wet carpet. Don't know what's causing it, can't figure out where it came from.

Discovered that S has been 'supplementing' his lunch with numerous ala carte items. Claims he can't remember what any of the food items were that he ate, including the 3 that cost $2.25.  And, the lunch acct is only caught up thru 9/22. All this extra food after both Hubster and I told him expressly that it was not for everyday and he had to ask before buying food. Basically, he's been lying to us for about 2 weeks.

Found out that S had lunch detention today for not turning in yet another homework assignment.

C stole $10 from S's room. When I questioned her, she said she was mad at him. 'Cause apparently, that makes everything OK in her book.

The dishwasher in the rental leaked down into the basement on top of the washing machine and now there's leaky, rusty water in my last laundry load.

Hubster is working late yet again. 10-12 hour days and 6 days a week appear to be the norm now. It sucks.

I have nothing packed from the rental to go to the new house and I have only one afternoon open this week to get things done. Did I mention that it's also the day that the kids have off from school?

I almost lost control of the van on the way home from school today due to the downpour. Rained so hard and so fast, the street had tons of water which you couldn't see until you plowed through it. Good thing I was going slow, I don't think I would have made it without an accident otherwise.

Tomorrow better be better. Or else.
I don't think I can take much more of this.

UPDATE: For C's punishment, she had to return the $10 and write 20 times "I will not steal from Simon".
She just handed me her paper on which was written 21 times "I will not sell from Simon." At the end, she wrote "My Othe". I asked her what that meant. She said "My OATH, Mama. That means my promise."
I think this one is going in the save box. :)

Future Generations or the Next Butt

S had a social studies assignment to rewrite the preamble to the constitution in his own words.
It was a long and arduous process, for both of us.
But, he slogged on until this part.
"Mom, this says 'for ourselves and our posterity."
"Yes, what do you think that might mean?" I asked.
"Well, I'm not exactly sure. I know posterity means 'butt' and I just can't figure out why they're talking about butts in the Constitution. Does it have something to do with the freedom to pass gas?"
"No, dear, the founding fathers were not concerned with gaseous eruptions. The word you're thinking of is posterior not posterity."

We are going out to get a dictionary this weekend.

House Sales or How Not to Sell Your House

So, we didn't get the house in OH. We were outbid by a cash offer.
Those stinkers.  Sigh......

Tonight, Hubster is looking at another house that just came on the market. Looks nice from the listings but you never know until you get there what it really looks like. (Although, in the case of OUR real estate pics, what you see is what you get. We worked hard on this house and it shows. Booyah!)
I was amazed at the condition of some of the houses we saw. From pristine to what the heck were they thinking to I don't want to touch anything in here because I'm afraid of what I'll catch.
I thought it'd be fun to think about all we've seen so I've made the following list:

How Not to Sell Your House:

-Don't answer the door in your pajamas (and for heaven's sake, please, please wear a robe if you do!) after confirming with the real estate agent that yes, they can view your house. I do not need to know that Scooby Doo briefs are best left to little boys and not grown men.
-Don't think that a bathroom totally lined with mirrors is an attractive feature. Yes, I mean every square inch of the walls and the ceiling. I must admit, though, the mirrors were completely spotless, not even one little fingerprint. Well, except for the one little spot I couldn't resist touching.
-Lingerie does not make a good bathroom decoration unless you're in a Hustler photo shoot.
-If your house has a spot in the middle of the main entrance floor that is filled with cedar shavings and potted plants literally embedded in the floor, it dates your house (hello 1970s) and the cedar gives it a funky smell. Notice I said funky and not attractive.
-If you redo your kitchen and spend mucho dinero on it, do not use old laminate cupboards from the early 80's that are falling off the hinges and expect buyers to be impressed with the mostly newly remodeled room.
-Curb appeal is important. If you cannot walk on the entryway to your house because of all the jungle plants that have overtaken it and the buyers have to wade through the mulch/grass/whatever to get inside, it's not a good first impression.
-If you happen to have a urinal in your house, CLEAN IT!!!!! That's all I'm sayin...
-I do not care if you have a glass egg collection that take 4 hutches to show off all of them. I would really rather see the room and not your crap.
-If your carpet is worn threadbare, has numerous spots and a suspicious smell, don't claim the carpet as one of the 'amenities'.
-Do tell me the square footage of your house. I am immediately suspicious when it's not listed.
-If someone taller than 5'8" cannot fit under the ceiling fans and/or light fixtures in your house? Consider removing them or they can cause some very hurtful bruises (and possibly a haircut). Sorry about that, Hubster.
-If you think the smells in your house are nasty, trust me, they ARE!! 
-If you are selling your house, be willing to have a showing. We had one house that we requested to see more than once and the sellers were never willing to let us in unless we scheduled a week in advance. Weird. Also, on a similar note, I do not need to hear your life's story if you are present at the showing. Including how much your 'witch of an ex' is...that's just too much information and frankly, I just don't care.
-Do not be present when I view the house. Even if you're outside on the porch smoking a cigarette, it's still distracting and it's bad for you. Shame on you for smoking, not to mention it makes me sniff everything to see if I smell smoke in the house.
 But, especially, do not leave Grandma in the house to 'chat' with us on our tour and have her tell us all the wonderful things about the house including all her favorite memories and the warning 'Don't even think about including that refrigerator in your offer because I am the one who bought it and it's going with me.' Thank you very little, Grandma.  Course, if you happen to have a 10 year old boy with you when you view said house? Sacrafice him for the cause and make him stay and talk with said Grandma so you have a few minutes peace in which to view the house. Sorry about that, S!
-If the basement is growing mold, don't try and tell me that you've never had problems with (a)flooding (because pretty much every house we saw flooded in 2006 due to some ungodly rains and sewage backup which has been fixed by the city. The backup I mean.) or (b)water seepage. I mean, really, I can smell the mildew and see the mold practically multiplying. Eeeeeuuuuu.

-A clean smelling house is worth 10,000 glade air fresheners. I love the fresheners as much as the next person but putting them over stinky......well, that's just putrid. (Sidenote: One of C's favorite words that she learned this year? putrid!)

And so, this concludes Anne's house selling pointers.
Hope you enjoyed them. I'm sure I'll have more before too long.
Scratch that.
I hope I have no more to share because we will have found our dream house and have an accepted offer.
The End.

Better Late than Never or I Haven't Forgotten my Blog, I've Just Been Busy

I haven't forgotten my blog, but it has been busy lately.
Let's see:
We have sold our house in Kenosha.
We spent a week in Branson MI in ungodly hot and humid temps.
I sent the children to live with Grandma & Grandpa for a week or so.
I went back to OH and looked at more houses.  In more ungodly heat and humidity.
We put an offer in on a house in OH and are waiting to hear back. Did I mention that I don't like the waiting and the unknown?
We had the house inspection here in WI and have 2 items to fix. One we knew about and another is an easy fix. Supposedly.
I made a discovery. Not only am I not the most patient person in the world, I'm not the most optimistic either. I think it's because then it's easier to not get so disappointed.
I'm really hoping we get this house in OH. We have a second choice but it's not as nice as the first one.
I'm a little scared that we'll GET the first house in OH. It might be more than we can handle (but, oh, it's so pretty and definitely in the life style to which I'd like to become accustomed).
That's about it for now.

Promises, Promises

After our last move, we promised that we would not let things slide as long in this new to us house. We were so very adament that our house would look nice and we would keep things under control and initally, we didn't do too badly. Then, I suppose, well, life just sorta took over. Oh, and don't get me started about the children.
Boy, oh boy, are we paying the price for that now.
Literally.
This week, we will have a carpenter here to fix the trim around the garage door and the side door and fix a board in the deck and replace a board on the end of one of the benches on the deck. But first, I need to paint and or prime/paint all the trim so he can use it.
Then, we will have painters in and everything except for the kids' rooms will be painted.
However, prior to this, we (meaning...me) have to take down every last little stinkin' piece of wallpaper and wash the walls. And declutter and take to storage all the crap, er, stuff that has accumulated in the house but that we can't live without but don't want anyone to see when they come tour our little abode to see if they would buy it.
That is, if we can get the relocation company to get moving and get us our interview so we can get a realtor that doesn't live 1 hour away to list our house. Seriously,  the relo company gave us a choice of realtors from Waukegan (who knew nothing about Kenosha or any of the neighborhoods or schools) to one in Brookfield who didn't even sound too sure about where Kenosha is and why someone would choose to live here.  Frustrating, to say the least.
But enough about that.
This weekend, we are off to fix what needs fixin', pretty up what needs prettying up, and trying our best to show off the rest. 
Next house, we are soooooo keeping up with things.
I promise.