School Picture Day

This is just a random train of thought I had while driving home yesterday...

Normally for school picture day I insist on approving Brianna's outfit and doing her hair, but this year I forgot to put it on the calendar, and she was off to school before I was even out of bed (blush).  Either I got very lucky and her hair was cooperating, or some kind teacher took pity on her, because her picture turned out great.

But that got me thinking...wouldn't it be hilarious if schools had you turn in your picture order form at the beginning of the year, but didn't tell you what day would be picture day?  Instead of carefully chosen clothes and perfect hair, everyone would be documented how they truly look on an average school day...ketchup stains, messy hair and all. Maybe it's just me, but I think that would be awesome.

Fionalocks and the Three (Four, Five) Houses

The bad: Sunday house hunting was a TOTAL bust. In order of viewing:

• The Waconia house was meh, okay...originally built in 1900 and, while it was in good condition considering its age, the layout was weird and I couldn't really mentally arrange our stuff in it to my satisfaction. More importantly, though - Waconia is really. far. away. from civilization.  Like, even farther than we live now. We drove from the house to Ridgedale (where Levi's job is) and OMG. Longest drive ever. I don't think I could handle doing it once a month, much less everyday. And Levi really dislikes driving, anyway. It was also the most expensive, with the highest potential utilities. Bottom of the list.

• The Shakopee apartment. On the plus side, the area seemed nice - lots of conveniences, lots of stuff to do (Valley Fair season pass, anyone?), reasonable commutes for both of us. The people we passed in the hall were very friendly and, y'know, not creepy, so that was nice. Unfortunately, it was TINY.  I mean, I realize people raise families in apartments that size everyday, but going from a HOUSE to a space half that size (or less?) is a real shock.  Levi and I both agreed we'd go insane within weeks.  Also, what is with bedrooms these days?  9x9 is not a bedroom, it's barely a closet.  

•  The Lauderdale house. I was calling this the "east Minneapolis" house but technically I guess it's west St. Paul. We had a little over two hours to kill between Shakopee and this one, so we decided to just do a drive by and see what the neighborhood was like n stuff.  We discovered that the house was only  a couple miles away from the duplex Levi shared with some other guys for a while in college, AND that it was less than a mile from one of the greatest nerd stores in the area. Score! The house itself looked like it might have some potential..unfortunately again, the inside was a DUMP and the landlord clearly the Original Slumlord.  Shudder.  What I really wanted was to buy it for like $5, completely gut it and help it live up to its potential.  :( 

The good: After a LONG and stressful day of house hunting, I was pretty much certain we were screwed.  So...remember how I said I kind of pulled the $1000/month number out of my butt? Well, last night I sat down with my handy-dandy notebook (name that kid's show) and re-analyzed our expenses. I'll spare you the TMI details of our monthly expenditures, but the bottom line is that we should be able to easily swing a payment closer to $1200/month. YAY!  This is a much more workable number for where we ACTUALLY want to live.  So, back to the online drawing board this week, which is a drag, but at least it's a much more flexible board.

"house" shopping

January has simply flown by, and suddenly we are just about a month away from needing to be out of our house and settled in a new place. I have been spending what feels like every spare minute online, scouring Rent.com and Craigslist for available rentals. I didn't think that finding a place that meets our requirements was going to be this tricky! I don't know which is the bigger hurdle: that we need 3 bedrooms for under $1k/mo (a number I more or less pulled out of my ass) or that our cats aren't declawed.

We looked at a lovely townhome in Buffalo last weekend; nice sized bedrooms, in-unit laundry (one of the things I'm dreading about an apartment is paying for laundry!), and more cabinet and counter space than our current kitchen.  It wasn't until we were back in the rental office collecting paperwork that the leasing agent thought to mention that cats need to be declawed. :( Back to the drawing board. And I learned my lesson - that's the first question I ask before I even bother setting up a viewing.

I've actually had better luck with Craigslist than Rent.com this week - we've got three places to look at tomorrow. None are ideally located, but we just can't afford to stay in our current area - if we could spend $1500 on rent, we might as well go back to paying our mortgage. :o/

Anyway, coming up to look at tomorrow we have an apartment in a 4-plex in Shakopee (20 minutes to Levi's new job and 40 minutes to mine) - downside there, no central A/C; we'd have to provide our own window units. The fact that we wouldn't have 600 neighbors is appealing, though.  There's a single-family home in Waconia - 15 minutes to my work and 40ish to Levi's. And last but not least, a single-family "cosmetic fixer upper" smack between Mpls and St. Paul...way farther east than I really want to be, but it's CHEAP and at this point I'll look at anything.

Okay, that's not entirely true-I found one place I refuse to live, no matter how good a deal it is.  I found a listing on Rent.com for an apartment in Burnsville that sounded AMAZING. Priced right, large rooms, pet-friendly, tons of on-site amenities. Then I Googled "such and such apartments reviews"...holy jeebus.  In addition to the comments about the dark hallways, dirty everything, smelly garage and overall lackluster management, apparently the police troll it routinely hoping to bust drug deals, there was at least one stabbing AND a murder-suicide.  FAINT.  Pass!

Looking for a house to BUY was almost less stressful than this. Then, we only had to worry about finding the right size house at the right price with the right financing that passed all its inspections. Ha!

I used to be a drug addict.

I've been watching LOST on Netflix (stay with me here), and one of the characters, Charlie, is a recovering heroin addict. I don't think I'm giving away major spoilers by sharing that Charlie got hooked by his brother. In one episode I watched a few weeks back, Charlie's brother is begging him for a hit, "just enough to get right."

Eye. Opener.

My drug of "choice" was caffeine.  I know, not what most people think of when they hear "drug addict," but it's the truth. Caffeine is a drug, and I was firmly addicted. I decided to quit drinking caffeinated beverages back in October.  Before I cut myself off, I was like every other caffeine junkie I know - I couldn't imagine NOT starting my day without a hit of coffee or skipping my midafternoon Mountain Dew (or three). Without it, I got tired, cranky, headachey - I didn't drink caffeine for some amazing benefit or high, I needed my fix just to "get right."  

Kind of scary, when you think about it.

Most - possibly all - of my friends probably think I'm crazy. After all, as far as mind/mood-altering substances go, caffeine is pretty darn low on the crazy-highs-and-horrible-side-effects totem pole, and a case can definitely be made that the benefits outweigh the disadvantages.

So why DID I decide to quit?  First and foremost, because I dislike being a slave to anything, much less something as inane as a coffee mug or 20-oz bottle. Second, that isht is expensive!  Third, I'm trying to lose weight. I was consuming hundreds of empty calories a day in soda, and I *knew* that I would never be able to completely give up Mountain Dew if I didn't eliminate the caffeine crutch first.

And frankly, it's been...totally and completely worth it.

• I sleep better at night - it took a while for me to realize how much better, in fact. 
• My body is rediscovering it's natural daily rhythm - I go to bed when I'm tired instead of tossing and turning and waiting impatiently for the caffeine to wear off enough for sleep. 
• I've never considered myself a morning person, and now I'm routinely waking up (refreshed and well rested, even) before the alarm goes off. 
• Best of all, I think, is that I no longer get that midafternoon slump. True story.  

So...yeah. That's the story of how I used to be a drug addict, and I'm not anymore!

Banana Bread

Apparently, one benefit of habitually cooking 10-15 meals at a time is that you just get generally more comfortable in the kitchen.  Last week we had a couple bananas that were getting "iffy" so I decided to make banana bread. Out came my trusty Betty Crocker cookbook...butter, sugar, eggs, bananas, flour, etc....dump it all in the loaf pan, pop it in the oven.  Easy, right?

So, a couple hours later Levi gets home from work and the following conversation takes place:

L: Why does it smell good in here?

F: I dunno...I made banana bread, is that it?

L: You made banana bread?

F: Yeah....we had two bananas left and they were getting weird. So?

L: So you just...made bread. In the middle of the day.

F: . . . .yes?

Happy New Year!!!

I'm a lousy blogger, I know. I keep coming up with ideas for posts but then getting writer's block when it comes to actually putting words down. I need to jump on the Wordless Wednesday and Three Thing Thursday bandwagons just to develop some consistency.

Today's post is EASY, though - what else is there to blog about on January 1 besides looking back at 2010 and ahead to 2011?

2010 was, as Levi put it so well, tumultuous at best.

• We made the very difficult decision to file bankruptcy and walk away from our house. Things have been somewhat rocky financially for several years and we just couldn't keep our heads above water any more. The bank takes possession on February 24th and as of today, we're still not sure where we're going to be instead. To say that we've been spending a lot of mental and emotional energy on this lately is probably the understatement of the year. 
• In May I fell off my horse and broke my ankle - I was super excited to do a lot of riding and even some showing this year and well...THAT went right out the window. I finally started riding again seven months later - almost to the day, in fact. Fortunately all of last year's motivations and goals will easily transfer over to 2011 instead.  
• Over the summer I spent several weeks working with a career coach. I came away with a much clearer idea of what I want to be doing, long term...and also the realization that I will need to go back to school in order to get there.  Fortunately, I also got some great resume and interview advice that should help me nail down a new in-between job while I work on the education part.

 Enough dwelling on the past, though! 2011 is a fresh start, right?

• In October I gave up caffeine (more on that in another post, someday), but I drank a lot of grape soda to compensate for the loss of my beloved Mountain Dew. Starting today, I'm also giving up all soda. I know this is one of the biggest hurdles in my weight loss.
• I WLL exercise my horse at least 4 days a week. My trainer is in Florida for three months, so it's entirely up to me to keep him in shape both physically and mentally!) so that we're not starting over come April.
• I want to be more consistent with my hooping practice. I can't wait until winter is over and I can get outside, but I have a great space in my basement that I really should utilize.
• The job search continues! Thanks to my work with Cindy, I am being much more focused and only applying for jobs where I think I'll have long term success and happiness. 
• I've submitted my application for admission to the St. Kate's Weekend Program for Fall 2011! I really wanted to do the Winter or Spring trimesters rather than waiting until September, but I'm in the middle of rehabbing the student loan I took out in 2008 and I can't apply for new financial aid until that process is complete, so Fall it is.
• Last but definitely not least, I plan to continue the OAMC cooking we started this fall. I got a little lazy about it in December and boy do I regret it!