Checked Out

As if you haven't been able to tell this moving limbo has clearly zapped any creative energy out of my soul. Sorry.

I will resort to a list of goings on.

Mr F drove in for a "surprise" trip. I say that since it was supposed to have been a surprise but in an effort to defend his honor (one late night on the phone when I was less than pleased to hear him go on and on about his night out on the town) he revealed his intentions.

Oddly, his being here only makes me feel more tired than usual and a bit sad. He got here just before 2 AM this morning and will turn around to drive back tomorrow morning. It's nice but also feels kind of like a gyp.

Of course Kid has been burning up with her fever for the last two days and is somewhat forlorn that she can't have any fun with Daddy.

No showings. WTF? We even lowered the price this week. Why on Earth would we go from being inundated with showings to a full stop over night? It feels bizarre. But, honestly, for me it is still a relief on the every day front of things. Our realtor did get an insanely intense email from an interested buyer demanding detailed verification of our pricing. He stood his ground which I was happy, and somewhat astonished, to see. Maybe something will come of that.

Oh, Mr F and I are hot for this crazy foreclosure deal in Ann Arbor. It's a complete dump but we could literally buy it with cash and flip it. If it's still there on Monday we just might. It's not our perfect house but it is the right school district and a good location and an easy money maker if we turn it into a rental. And it has the potential to be a really cute house... just kind of decrepit Victorian now. Gives us more time to find our perfect house without changing schools... and will either be fun or a living hell... however you look at a complete remodel with your spouse and two small children in a 1000 sq ft house. I like to think of it as a stepping stone to greatness. And a total blank canvas. And tons of blog fodder. As with all of our great leads of late I'm sure it'll have been snapped up... but we'll see. It solves a lot of our problems as we could afford to live in it while this house is still on the market. If we like it we can stay if we don't we can be making $1200/month off of it. Which would go a long way toward a mortgage payment on another house. Just sayin'. Mr F's going to check it out and assess the amount of work needed to get it up and running. The houses around it are listed at over 3x the foreclosure price... so... it's potentially a really good opportunity.

Bitch Fest Friday

Just in case you've been needing it.






This morning (the very morning that I could actually sleep in an extra half an hour) Kid woke up an hour early.

Thanks.

(Aw geez.. spoke too soon... fever & upset stomach... awesome)

Hey Mom

"Can we go to Red Lobster tomorrow?" Kid begins,

"I just saw a commercial..." She continues.

"Oh geez..." I interrupt.

"Right NOW they are having Shrimp Fest! And I'm pretty sure that means it's a SHRIMP FESTIVAL. I think everything is going to be made out of SHRIMP!" She finishes enthusiastically.

"Well, you do love shrimp." I say and then went back to doing the dishes.

Something about it made me laugh and laugh and laugh. Maybe it was the very notion that Red Lobster would be that good.

Charter Why Do You Treat Me That Way?

No internet or phone all day.

Hachi

Don't say I didn't warn you.

2 Down... This Time Pounds

The good news is that I have been rewarded for my efforts this week. 1500 calories plus exercise seems to be the right equation... I'm sure tweaking will be necessary down the road. I'm pretty happy since it's the calorie limit I'm most comfortable with. It allows me to still eat 3 meals and 2 snacks and still eat reasonable portions. I'm definitely more mindful (must be to stick to that calorie allotment) and am aware that I had really gone bonkers in the last year with my mindless eating between meals. It's quite the wake up call to realize that I am not hungry on 1500 calories and that I was eating close to 2000+ a day before. Which just proves the point, that as cute as they are, Pepperidge Farms Gingermen do add up.

I'm back to using some of my standard foods to help me stick on target without thinking too much: Maple Fusion waffles (good God I forgot how good they are) and some Kashi go Lean snack bars for my afternoon coffee break. The Kashi bars are my favorite since they are high in protein and fiber but still have a sweetness that feels very treat like without having any artificial sweeteners (I did also try some Atkin's bars, because they were cheaper and had a similar fiber/protein profile, but they left me feeling sick... and I can't even make my way through that long ingredient list which is typically a food no-no for me... seriously what the hell are those things made out of?!). The rest of my meals are just slightly smaller. I eat a half a sandwich for lunch and stick to a 350 cal portion of dinner. I eat dessert every night with the kids and usually have about 200-300 to spend on it. Again, super important to me that as a healthy weight woman (we're talking vanity weight here) that my kids see me eat healthy portions of ALL foods. What I want them to walk away with is that being mindful of your food and exercising are important parts of being a healthy adult. Eating weird foods you wouldn't eat if you weren't trying to lose weight (or wouldn't let your children eat), or depriving yourself of food your family is sharing are red flags I don't need to wave and in my experience do not work.

After an obsessive amount of thought and consideration I've decided to count mowing the lawn as exercise. I'm a huge believer in NOT counting daily chores as exercise... since... if that was enough and *counted* you wouldn't need to lose weight. But the lawn mowing is a new activity and it is physically demanding and an on par calorie burn to my usual workout and I walk away exhausted and sweaty. But also important is that it took me 3 days of 45-60 minutes to mow the damn lawn and because of that I didn't have time leftover (or energy) to workout on those days. That's pretty much the limit for time I can spend not being available to the kids. So this week I did 3 workouts and 3 days of mowing the lawn... I counted it as 5 workouts (just to be sure) in my count down (going for a total of 35 more in the next 8 weeks). Now that I've seen the 2 pound loss this week I'm feeling pretty positive about my decision to count the mowing.

That's the update.

No showings at all this past week/weekend. I'm feeling really good about my decision to come down 10K this week... we gave it a good run at the higher price but we aren't wasting time (I don't want to do this forever). I think that it's time to lower the price and refresh our property on the listing services. I'm also really happy that I had that one week reprieve. The obsessive cleaning was sucking the life force out of me. Hopefully I can scale it back (no promises though... I am what I am). I'm also feeling better about the prospect of solo parenting for another 8 weeks. As long as the house isn't on the market (soon please) I'm good to go. Having this week without showings has just highlighted that their element of stress and physical labor was what was too much to bear and once this house is in contract I can handle everything else just fine. Which is somewhat interesting and worthy of a post of it's own one day. I'm just someone who functions better without a spouse... and it's kind of funny that I have one... and he has ADD...maybe a duplex isn't such a crazy idea after all. Mr F could have his side and I could have mine. Weirder things have happened.

Mull that over Mr F.

That's all folks.

Guess Who Woke Up On The Right Side Of The Bed Today

It's also the first time she's ever drawn/painted me with short hair... interesting.