Furniture and Stuff

My house is filled with furniture.

I mean, beyond the normal amount of furniture. Well, not really. If everything was in it's place we wouldn't have extras...but things just aren't in the right places.

Let me explain. I'm not a hoarder, just kind of lazy. I have a garage full of stuff. The thing is, this garage is converted to a bedroom. It was my bedroom until my mom moved in with my grandmother, then I took her room and stuff took over my room. It shouldn't be just filled with stuff. It should be functional. I am going to be moving my girls into that room because it's a lot bigger than their room and there are 3 of them so they can use the space. My mom will still have a room in my house, it will be where the girls' room is now.

Makes sense right?

I have to go through the stuff and get rid of most of it still.

Mostly it's books and old clothes that kids have grown out of. A few boxes of random things, some craft supplies...you know, stuff. Just stuff.

The thing is, by the time I actually get through cleaning the rest of my house every day, I'm tired and just don't want to think about that garage.

So my stuff sits.

I'd feel worse if I didn't have a whole lot of excuses why I haven't gotten around to it lately. Between my grandmother moving, GS cookie season, planning a wedding for my friend, baseball season starting, emergency gallbladder surgery, my husband leaving for a memorial service for his grandmother who passed away recently...the list goes on and on, but they really are just excuses. I should have done more by now.

So what does that have to do with furniture? We bought my girls some furniture for their new bedroom with the tax refund. It's still in boxes in my dining room. Then there's the furniture that my grandmother wanted my girls to have when she moved from her house to a small apartment. Yeah. Furniture everywhere.

It's starting to drive me nuts. When we first got it all in the house, I was pretty much useless because I was still recovering from my surgery. Tony did a lot of work in that garage, but sorting things and organizing them just isn't where his skills lie (unless the things are on the computer). If everything was just as easy as "move that over there" then Tony would have done it by now.

I'm pretty much recovered from my surgery. I still have a twinge now and then, so I'm not planning on lifting anything. Still, I need to get the sorting done so that Tony can lift and put stuff where it goes.

I don't wanna.

I know, grow up Supermommie! Get up off your chair and sort some stuff! Stop blogging about it and do it!

Okay, okay. You don't have to yell!


Nag. :)

Girl Scout Cookie Sales

I know, some of you are tired of hearing about Girl Scout Cookies.

Me too.

The sale ends on Monday and Becca might not reach her goal, though she will be within a few (like maybe 20) boxes of it. Sad, huh?

Her goal was ambitious. She wanted to sell 750 boxes of Girl Scout cookies. At $4 a box, I couldn't help her out THAT much. She has gone door to door, sold at 4 different churches, came up with a marketing strategy for my Facebook (the Girl Scout Cookie Fact of the Day), had a "lemonade stand" in our front yard several days, sold at booths with the troop, made fliers and advertised in her Daddy's and Grandma's offices and asked everyone she knows if they would like to buy. There are few things that she hasn't tried in order to sell.

Right now we are at 658 boxes, and that doesn't include her hours for selling at the booths. We're looking at about 75 boxes for that. That's 733...a really frustrating total.

So here's my delimma. I'm not the type of mom to just buy the other 17 boxes. It's her work that should get her to the goal. I've done a LOT for her, but still, the majority of the work that has been done came from her. She is 7 years old and has a LOT to be proud of. The thing is, there is only one other girl in the troop who will hit and has hit the 750 goal. That girl has special needs and really isn't great with people. Becca loves her. She loves hanging out with her. Going to Disneyland with her friend was really her goal. The other girl will go without Becca, but she really wanted her to be there. She's not the kind of girl who will be outgoing and find a new friend. Becca wanted to go be her friend.

One thing Becca will not do: she will not go around exploiting her friend's needs so that she will get that sympathy box of cookies. It's something we don't do around here. I don't go advertising that my son has autism so that people will do things for us, and I won't do it for any other kid with different needs either.

The other thing is that while Becca did the majority of the work, she asked quite a few people who the twins will be asking next year as well. This is probably the last year that she will get her total up that high unless she does something more than what she did this year (and believe me, this was drastic enough for me, if she does more next year, she will be more on her own).

So here I am. I have one of those parenting dilemmas. Part of me wants to go walk the neighborhoods again begging, but Becca has to have that idea. I asked people on Facebook again because Becca asked me to, but she has to have the ideas. I'm leaving the ball in her court. I'm frustrated, but not going to Disneyland isn't the end of the world. Becca has good reasons, but the reality is that she has to earn what she wants. She deserves something special, but it doesn't have to be Disneyland.

I Feel Awful

Everyone keeps asking me how I'm feeling. The answer is awful. I don't know how to spin it to make it sound better or positive. I just feel awful.

It's Valentine's day. Not my favorite day anyway. I feel bad for all the flowers being murdered for the day (morbid, huh?). I feel bad for all the people who are going to get sick eating chocolates or all the people who are spending waaay too much on them.

Then there's the fact that Saturday night I had emergency surgery to remove my gallbladder. I guess by the time I was done it was officially Sunday. Apparently I had several stones in my gallbladder. They were the size of marbles. It was really painful.

I spent most of yesterday in the hospital waiting to be released. My bed was broken for most of that, so I was totally uncomfortable as well. The nurse told me that if I wanted to be released, I had to get up and walk...but the bed wouldn't move down so I had to slide to get down...not a painless procedure.

I finally got home to sit in each piece of furniture and realize that all of it was painful because I sunk into all of them. Not fun for my abdomen. I ended up going to Living Spaces and getting a new recliner after sitting on all of them that they had in the store (something else I don't recommend after surgery). I ended up sleeping on my chair last night because it's the only piece of furniture in the house that doesn't hurt to get out of.

I am so thankful for my new chair! Hooray for something I am not complaining about!

Today I took off my bandages and I get to take a shower soon too. I still have steri strips on. I look like I have bullet holes in my stomach. My kids were amazed when I told them that the surgeon used lasers on me to cut out my rocks in my stomach. I think I became so cool to them. Micah likes my laser holes.

I think the worst thing is that I can't hold my babies. Just getting soft hugs from them is an adventure. Micah craves hugs and I can't do anything to help him.

The most painful thing is coughing. Since I was on oxygen for a little while, my sinuses got messed up, so I am coughing a little bit. It's more painful than child birth for sure.

What's the best part? Umm...I don't know...I'm thinking about it...the fact that I lost some weight when they took out all the rocks? Nah, probably my chair.

I will get through this. Tony is off work today and my friend Shelley is going to babysit me tomorrow.

Just so you know, gallbladder surgery is not something you want to go through.