Riding With No Hands

Good news… and no news

This weekend I will start unveiling my first annual Holiday Gift Guide. Yes, you heard it right. Annual. That means I’m not going anywhere for a very long time. I like this blogging thing. It’s fun. I just found out that the next BlogHer conference will be in Chicago and I’m seriously considering going. I’m certain I can find decent airfare, the only problem is who will take care of the girls? Making a vacation out of it might be the smart thing to do, if I can convince my dear husband that it’s a good idea. I have a few more months to figure this out, so no worries just yet! If anyone out there would want to sponsor me, though, I would be more than thankful! *wink wink*

But back to the Gift Guide! There will be several different themes, with a fun giveaway thrown in here or there to mix things up a bit.

  • Giving green
  • Buying gifts on a tight budget
  • Terrific toys
  • Gadgets galore
  • Stocking stuffers
  • Last minute gift ideas

Make sure to come back often, or better yet - sign up for my feed! I wouldn’t want you to miss anything.

On a personal note, some good news… I was just informed that I’ve been chosen to be one of ten Mom Bloggers Club Ambassadors. MBC is a community for mom bloggers with over 2200 members thus far. I’ll help moderate the site, encourage discussions in the forums, propose new ideas, and welcome new members, all while learning the ins and outs of running a successful social network. It’s a non-paying position, but I figure if I’m going to be hanging out at MBC anyway, it’s a great opportunity to meet wonderful people, learn something new and also give my blog more visibility.

And lastly, one topic I haven’t touched on in a while is that of the sale of our house. Why, you ask? Because there is nothing to talk about - NO news whatsoever. The 90-day mark has come and gone, and fewer and fewer people come to look at it as the weeks go by. We’re trying to decide whether to lower the price drastically so that it shows up on agents’ radar once more, or just take it off the market altogether and hope for the best (financially) this winter. The nice folks at Wachovia (can you sense the sarcastic tone there?) didn’t give us much hope; an attempt, on our part, to lower the interest rate on our mortgage was met with great rebuff. And that’s putting it lightly.

I know I’ve spared you most of the details, but I’ll pose the question nonetheless - what would you do in these circumstances? Do you think the housing situation will improve under our new President?

November 10, 2008 | Contemplation, Moving | 2 Comments 

An eternal optimist… no more?

Thursday afternoon, as we were putting away some toys, Marsy said to me:

“So are we going to sell this house or what?”

After a good laugh, I responded: “Well, it looks like no one wants to buy it!”

She then patted me on my shoulder and said:

“That’s okay, Mommy. We can just stay here forever then!”

If it were just that simple!

It hasn’t even been two weeks, but my gut feeling is that our house is not going to sell anytime soon. Our contract with the agent is for 3 months; at the end of that period we have the option of renewing it, or just taking the house off the market altogether. MilkDud and I agreed that if we have no takers by the end of October, we just won’t sell. It’s such a challenge keeping the house show-ready at all times. The Open House last week was basically a bust - only four families came by, and of those, 3 were (nosy!) neighbors. The other potential buyers loved the house as a whole, but decided that it having only two bathrooms was a deal-breaker. How many bathrooms does one really need, anyway? We’re perfectly happy with our arrangement. If M&M were teenagers… now that might be a whole ‘nother story.

The plus side to all this is that I finally have the house clean! Not that my house was dirty before, just a bit cluttered. Tidying up wasn’t a priority unless I was entertaining company, in which case I would run around cleaning like a madwoman at the last minute. For eleven days straight now, the first thing I do when I wake up in the morning is straighten up all the bedrooms and bathrooms, clean up the kitchen after each meal, fold the laundry right out of the dryer, etc.

FlyLady would be proud.

August 20, 2008 | Kids, Moving | 3 Comments 

Update on our move

Originally we hoped to have our house on the market by mid-July, but our plans have slowed down a bit. My mother-in-law just had major surgery so we’re just taking things day by day. MilkDud has also had a lot more work come his way, which has kept him from working on the house. There isn’t much to do other than touch up some walls and minor repairs here and there.

family room

He repainted the family room yesterday. We all agreed that although we loved the design, it just wouldn’t show well.

There’s just one other room to paint - Marsy’s. Right now it’s the most annoying shade of light blue. My advice? Don’t let your 3 year-old choose what color she wants her room! Her inspiration was Cinderella’s blue ballgown. It’s going to be painted a more pleasant shade of grey, and I’ll also be (temporarily) replacing her pink-and-blue satin comforter with a more neutral one. I want the room to show as a guest room as opposed to a child’s room. The baby’s nursery will serve that purpose.

Our 5×15 foot storage room is almost full, so we’ll have to take a couple of big items to my sister-in-law’s to store for a while. We might even just flat out give her our formal dining room set because I haven’t had any luck selling it on Craigslist. It’s the least we can do for her - she’s our selling agent and is waiving her commission!

July 22, 2008 | Moving | 2 Comments