Domestic Goddess 101

My first duty as newly titled Domestic Goddess, (thank you 180/360 AND Sizzle for clarifying my job status dilemma) will take place tomorrow.

In less than 24 hours, my carpets will be cleaned. by a professional.

I have hit the mother load. When it comes to running the show/household, you come to a decision that all things cannot be completed by you. Therefore, you do your research, use what coupons/gift certificates you have, and be creative. The outcome? A MAJOR cleaning of your entire house BY SOMEONE ELSE. What’s even cooler? I don’t have to move a piece of furniture. (of course, I will. This place is a pit full of toys.) I don’t even have to be here when they get here. Hubs will be here to oversee, but since I have Rt with me, we would just get in the way, Too bad, so sad.

Actually, we aren’t having every single room cleaned. You know up here in the burbs, every room except the kitchens and bathrooms have carpet. I am glad we have so much carpet. I am passed the “hardwood floors are so cool” stage. Poor Rt, until he was 5 months old, he lived on hardwood floor padded by a wool rug. Ouch!

If we did every room in this house, we would have to take out a home loan. So, we used a gift certificate we had and went a little higher to cover the two main rooms, (den and living room/dining room), and Rt’s bedroom.

When we moved into our house almost 2 years ago, the previous owners, who happen to be our friends down the street, didn’t have the carpets professional cleaned before we moved in. We were first time buyers and didn’t know you could actually request for this to be done or written into the contract. So, there are some spots here and there that we can’t wait to get rid of. Rt’s room gives off some odd smell after some time spent on his floor. Whatever is in the carpet, has got to go!!! I have a feeling it’s really old milk. NASTYYYYYYYYY! (not from us, I swear!)

Bottom line, I am thrilled that my first decision made while holding the title of Domestic Goddess was to delegate and have someone else do the dirty work. I could get used to this…..

e

Project Nin com POOP

So, today’s nap experience has been a joyful one. Little one fell asleep at 1:45pm, 45 minutes after being put down. Only “issue” is, he fell asleep with a big ol poop. Poor kid. He was too tired to care that he had a load in his pants. I can only imagine the odor that has percolated in his room. Yowza!

Today has been one of those glorious days you knew had potential, but wasn’t going to bet anything on it due to the recent nap fiascos. I spent the morning at the doctor’s office getting Rt’s tubes checked. They are still looking fab and doing their job, so we are quite thrilled! After our quick doc visit, Rt and I headed to my book study. This summer, we are reading a book called Positive Discipline. It looks to be a great book and the class is a perfect summer treat. A chance to have adult conversation, learn something that is relative, and have a little break from Rt while he plays amongst his friends in the nursery. Saweeet!

Book study was followed by lunch, where I had P.F. Changs leftovers (way cool) and have been online and watching DVR’d programming ever since.

This evening will consist of a girls night out at the local Mexican cantina. I will be leaving in just over an hour, so I’m off to get something important done, (so it looks like I have slaved the day away. sigh. poor me.) and put on some chick clothes.

una mas cerveza por favor!

e

The Fuzz

And now as a follow up to my latest post, I will share with you all of Rt’s birth photos and go into detail of my labor. Naaaaah, just kidding. I’m sure I will provide many photos, stories and play-by-plays of my next pregnancy and birth, so until then, I have…………………… nothing.

What is it about coming home from a vaca? Everything settles, falls back into place nice and neat without any sort of rumble. Do I have anything exciting, educational or memorable to write about? Nope. Nada. Dream on.

The only thing I can think of is, hubs and I are going to a concert.

On a school night.
With other adults.
That are cool.

I am still amazed I am actually doing something “WOO HOO”. At NIGHT, for that matter. I, honestly, haven’t been to a concert since Rt was born. I lived in LA for 2 1/2 years and the only concert I went to was The Pixies at the Greek Theatre. It was totally hubs idea. He got the tickets for MY birthday and likes them more than I do. Nice work babe. My major run with the Pixies was during the Pump Up the Volume era, but anything after that, I didn’t keep up with. At the concert, I was in my first trimester with Rt, so I couldn’t even drink. Sitting there with all the other MAJOR YOUNG ASS peeps, sober as all get out, was truly not that enjoyable, especially when I could have barfed or fallen asleep on any one of them. I was a party waiting to happen, let me tell ya.

Point is, it’s been a long time, my friend. I am assuming the crowd will be more my age, or older, since we are going to see THE POLICE. I am not a major ass fan, but, hey, any excuse to get out of the house, have someone watch the wee one OVERNIGHT, works for me. Sting is hot anyway, so that seals the deal. period.

Here’s to being footloose and fancy free, even if it is for only one night.

e

leavin on a jet plane

Today is our 5th wedding anniversary.

We are currently sitting in the airport awaiting our flight to San Diego. I am eating a toasted plain bagel with cream cheese, a banana and drinking the best chocolate milk ever made. How cool is it that I am typing away on my new laptop in the middle of the food court. Rock it.

Yesterday, father-in-law picked up Rt for a weekend filled with swimming, cookie making/eating and tons of attention. I am sure he will miss us terribly.

I would love to chat more, but hubs just complained that I am not entertaining enough while he sits here eating his muffin from Starbucks and sips his grande house blend. As he just said, “none of that fru fru crap coffee.”

So, I am signing off and heading to SoCal. It should be a fun-filled weekend of nice dining, sailing, shopping, movie watching, and dropping in to see my best friends from back home, whoorl and miss cocodrie.

awe yeah.

e

p.s. The chocolate milk I just drank has 400 calories and 60 grams of sugar. Oh my. At least I got my 22 grams of protein and 80 % of my calcium for the day. I think I am going to need it with all this free time on my hands.

token of my love

Yesterday, I was driving all around town looking for a jeweler. I have seen them everywhere, but of course I can’t find any when I actually need one. How do they stay in business? The competition is stiff. Brand name places I would think, would take away business, but these little “never heard of before” jewelers continue to survive, just like every pizza, mexican, and nail place around here. It is truly baffling.

Why was I looking for a jeweler, you ask? This coming June is our 5th wedding anniversary. Every since we have been married, I have been mentioning I wanted another band on the other side of my engagement ring. My mother had 3 rings, and I wanted the same. I saved every receipt from our wedding except the one for my wedding band. We bought it online through Mondera. We had my engagement ring custom made from a family jeweler in Carmel and really wanted something quick and easy when it came to both our bands. Luckily, we hit the jackpot and have been quite pleased with our purchases to date. All I needed from the receipt was the ring size. No receipt, no ring size. Therefore, the trip to the jeweler.

I happen to be talking to LVGurl while on my jeweler quest. She suggested I ask to get my rings cleaned and subtly ask to check the ring size. At least that way I had more purpose than to use their free services and split.

I took Rt in with me, (like I had another choice….) and found the chic in the back that looked in charge and had nothing else going on. (Did I mention there are like two people in the entire store? How do these people pay their bills?) I asked her for a ring clean and check the size while she was at it. Both requests were fulfilled in moments flat. Just in time for Rt to want to get down and run around the entire jewelry store. He had a rubber alligator with him that he placed on the glass with slobber. She said she didn’t mind, it would give them something to do. (hello, is she that bored?) Anywho, I don’t know if she was so impressed with the amount of lotion I collected in my rings or she felt sorry for me having to take care of a little one, but she gave me a bag with an entire bottle of ring cleaner, FOR FREE, and told me the ring clean was ON THE HOUSE! Now if that isn’t service, I don’t know what is. How long do you think it will be before a for sale sign is placed in the window?

Now that I have gotten my ring size answer, away we go online to buy my new ring! Free shipping, no tax and I found a 12% off coupon code on this band. I have to say, the Diamond Gods are in my favor. Me likey.

e

All it takes is 5 minutes

All it takes is 5 minutes for things to start heading your way. I am a believer because it just happened to me. Yippee kai a mo’ fo’.

I have been sitting on a couple of freakin issues that were nagging me to pieces.

Case in point #1:

INSURANCE. Rt had tube surgery at the beginning of the month. Since we were in the “paying deductible” phase of our insurance, we owed $1200 for the ear procedure. Once that money was paid out, we then entered the “just paying 10%” on any future doctor visits/procedures until August. The insurance company doesn’t have any co-pays, so everytime we see a doc, we walk right in, no moo la la to the system. It is soo nice and convenient. Therefore, we never owe anything upfront for any visit. Actually, our insurance tells us to NEVER pay for anything until an invoice has been sent to them. I get it, it totally makes sense. So, when we go in to get Rt’s ears done, they told us we owed our deductible portion right then and there before the surgery could even begin! Well, shit. They said they called our insurance co and they said we DID owe the $1200. What the hell? I thought we weren’t supposed to pay upfront, blah blah blah. We were so confused at this point, but wrote the check anyway. In the end, we did pay more than we were supposed to, so I have been on the phone with the insurance co and the surgery center trying to get my $$ back. All morning long, one side was saying this, the other that. BUT, I just got back from visiting my very prego friend AMY and got a message on my voicemail. The first thing the surgery center woman said was “Looks like we owe you some money. We’ll get that to you on such and such date”. Yippee kai a mo’ fo’.

Case in point #2.

VIDEO TAPES. Rt is turning two in April. Last year, hubs made a video of Rt’s first year to show at the party. It was a major hit. So, we decided we would do it again. One problem. Were in the hell were the little bitty teeny weeny ass video tapes? We looked everywhere. There aren’t that many places to hide in this house. We have a kid, so nothing is just laying around. Everything is up somewhere. So, a week goes by and we still hadn’t found the tapes. Hubs said we would tear the place apart on Saturday. Dude, that is 3 days from now. I am in distress NOW. Can we say trip to Hawaii, New York, everything Rt has done since he was 1 year old? GONE??? Did it get tossed with some of the Christmas decorations? The only evidence we had was the footage in the video camera began sometime in mid-December. The Christmas tree in the background was the obvious clue. So, where in the hell did one of us put the tapes sometime in December? Dude, I can’t even remember if I took my vitamin last night. How can I solve this mystery? I am mostly a visual person. I can imagine seeing something somewhere and look and it’s actually there. So, after I got Rt down for a nap today, I listened to the voicemail regarding the insurance refund, I had a conversation with hubs, told him I should find the tapes now since everything was falling into place in the past 5 minutes. As I was saying that, I visualized the tapes, opened the drawer to the butcher cart, (which has become my desk drawer, since my computer resides on top of said butcher cart) and the tapes were shoved back in the back with the rest of my important paperwork for safekeeping. OH MAH GAWD. Yippee Kai A Mo’ Fo!

All I can say is, sawheet!

e