Stockpile goods up for grabs: Place your bids here!

It's getting closer, and closer, and closer: six weeks is NOT a lot of time to pare an entire household down to a trailer. I've got a stockpile roughly the size of the entire house to get rid of, forms of currency accepted include bartering, begging, pleading, whining. All bids should include a form of barter: for instance, what you want, plus what you are willing to do for it, and possibly a good sob story or some whining for my reading pleasure. You can send your bids to my cell phone, my email, my facebook, my husband or leave a comment here (preferred). Cash is NOT an option, it will not amuse me in the slightest and I require entertainment at the present.

Free babysitting offers get preference: no smoking environments only, and no serial killers, sex offenders, or anything else that freaks me out. This includes any number of items and should not be seen as an insult. I'm a weird helicopter parent and I know it.

Up for grabs:

six bottles of Dial lotion
twelve bottles of Garnier Fructis shampoo and conditioner
various bottles of Pantene shampoo and conditioner
Centrum Omegas
Crest Pro Health mouth wash, large bottles
Bread crumbs. Almost unlimited, multiple flavors
Flipz chocolate covered pretzels, several dozen
Taco shells, hard, about 8 packages
taco shells, soft, small, flour
cranberry sauce, ten
flavored vinegar, five, too lazy to walk downstairs and see WHAT flavors.
Shaving cream, womens, mango skintimate, about 12 bottles
Olay face soap, Regenerist, two bottles
Olay body wash, several varieties, several bottles.
All purpose flour, Wegmans, 3 bags
More items to come: I have to clean up from the massive lunch I just made my kids before I go downstairs again. Feel free to place requests, I'll take a look and get back to you!

The Big Move...possibly

Okay, as of now everyone that needed to know does know- we are seriously considering a cross country move for my husband's company at the end of May/beginning of June. He works for a major wireless carrier and they are closing the location he works at. The job situation around here is not the worst in the country, but still pretty grim, and we are wracking our brains daily trying to figure things out, in both directions.

It's not fun. Or it is kind of fun. Not sure which. I could totally geocache my way across the country and I've seen pictures of Colorado, it looks awesome. And staying here with very few prospects of a good paying job for my hubs is uber-scary. However, all our family is here, so it would literally mean starting over completely on our own.

With new furniture. (Gotta look at the positives, you know?)

I'm at a loss. I've seriously stopped couponing, and am really surprised how quickly we are moving through what I thought was a never ending stockpile of cereal and pasta. I obviously don't want to pay to move the whole thing- it would cost more to move it then it did to buy it.

We're arranging yard sales and selling vehicles and it's all very matter-of-fact and calm and you would think we weren't making the biggest decision of our lives in the process of deciding which knickknacks to sell off and which items will make it into the tiny amount of allotted moving space we'll have. So that's the big, scary news I've been NOT discussing.

And on a lighter note, anyone wanna buy anything out of my house? I'll sell it to ya, cheap.

I honestly didn't know I could still bend like that....

Last night we put a deposit of someone else's money on a new-ish refrigerator. It's a beauty... Much taller than me and wider than a Biggest Loser contestant week one, before Jillian Michaels makes them throw up forty or fifty times. Payment should be completed later today, and it really is a beauty.

 I'm so excited.

 My old refrigerator must sense its impending trip to the landfill, because today, it struck back.

Hard.

As I was preparing our morning meal, and Mr. Lovinangels lunch, I lifted the door, balanced myself on one hand, and pulled it up and open. It's my very own personal door opening ritual- the refrigerator door sits slightly at an angle, with screws of four or five different sizes holding the slab of metal in a precarious position.

The hinge let go as I gently let go of the freezer and reached for the milk. Without warning, the piece of the hinge that was unaided by extra screws let go with a snap, the refrigerator door hit me in the face, and I managed my first back bend  since 1999 in a valiant attempt to keep the door  (and my olives) from hitting the floor and exploding everywhere.

This thing needs to last till Tuesday.

 As I called for help, stretching my back in a way I didn't think possible, everyone BUT the person I needed arrived. First the eleven year old, who stood frozen in horror for what seemed like a year, until I snapped, "go get your dad."

Oh, right.
 And of course he wanted an explanation as to why his morning regime was being disturbed. Long before help of any kind arrived, I managed to lift both myself and the refrigerator door, while blocking two inquisitive toddlers with one flailing leg.

 I even managed to reassemble the hinge with one hand, while holding the door in place with other and kicking like a Rockette with one leg, to the amusement of my small children.

 In not the nick of time, my husband arrived, wrapped in a towel and shivering, to save the day.

 My next blog post should be, how to cook dinner without opening a vengeful refrigerator.

I'm just going to go back to bed.

It's been that kind of morning.

 Last night, immediately after dinner and before the dishes were done, and before the loaf of breakfast bread in the oven was finished baking, the power died. This has happened no less than four times since we moved in, only this time it last for almost four solid hours.

Four solid hours, with nothing but two very pretty candles, two rambunctious toddlers, and an eleven year old that chose that very evening to assert her independence. The house sounded something like this, "give me the flashlight," "no, I want the flashlight," "stop pushing your sister" "no, I DON'T LIKE YOU, MICHELLE!"

Finally, when the power came back on at 930, the three year old had passed out mid scream, the toddler was wide awake and wild, and the eleven year old was sweet and apologetic. I went to bed, about as beaten as any mother has ever been.

Fast forward to this morning, as I seek to set right the house, which looks like last night's storm was inside, not out. I turned the oven on, to make peaches and cream muffins, only to find that the last peach had been taken after I'd already mixed the batter. As I searched for a replacement suitable for the rich, buttery muffins, my oven erupted in flames. Evidently last night's toad in the hole had erupted unnoticed, and left some grease in the bottom of the oven.

 Yes, baking soda is my friend. My house smells like an ashtray right now.



 With the batter for the muffins unusable until I scrub out the bottom of the stove, I set out to make homemade apple cinnamon oatmeal, only to find that the same person who had silently eaten the last peach had probably washed it down with the last of the apple cider, just as silently. I used my last egg in the peach muffin recipe, planned, and I can't bake anything until the oven until I'm able to return it to it's pre-Apocalyptic state, at least an hour from now.

As I'm attempting to find a solution to the mess at hand, Lovinangelbaby has taken the opportunity to scale the kitchen table no less than eight times with Chris Sharma like agility, leading me to squawk various reprimands and feel like I'm channeling mommy dearest.

My cabinets maintain their post move level of emptiness. As this months bills have rolled in, various installation fees, security deposits, administration fees, even a twelve year old past due bill have surfaced, my stock up trip has been pushed further and further into the future, as I buy just enough to get by between shifts at work, to prevent further detriment to our bank account. I was pretty firm on no eating out this month.

 Mr. lovinangels just went to get bagels.

When he comes home, I'm going back to bed.

Never mind, I'm going to scrub out the stove.

A routine is slowly emerging from the chaos...

There are many wonderful things about this house.

It's quiet. Not the "I hear every noise in the house kind of quiet" but the "I'm safe here" kind of quiet.

MissAngelPreschooler ADORES her purple room. She even goes upstairs ON HER OWN to nap in the afternoon. No bribery or nap warden required. At the old house, naps involved me standing outside her room trying to get a work out in the eight foot square hallway that also contained a dresser, a shoe rack that wouldn't fit any where else, a brass coat rack, a large quantity of toys, and a shelving system that was rigged in a vain attempt to give MissAngelPreteen a sense of normalcy. I spent the afternoons shouting "go to sleep!" while tripping on mass quantities of crap.

It was lovely.

The space here is nice.

The extra bathrooms is wonderful. I don't even mind that we have to do a potty tour twelve times a day. Seriously, I've even seen the child pee in the downstairs toilet, only to announce that she was going to poo in the upstairs toilet. All I've got to say is, the kids got serious control.

The washer and dryer are heaven. Sheer heaven.

And I've been cooking. So much cooking.

We've also had company, for the first time in four years. I even had coffee at the table with my mother.

Yeah, that was awkward. But I got to see my beautiful little sister, which made up for it.

Still, there is a mountain of boxes to my right. A pile of crap the size of Mt. Rushmore in my garage. A living room, hallway, two bathrooms, and a front bedroom. that needs to be painted. My baby is still half naked, and we really should rename the dog Sybil. A mountain of laundry in my basement.

Life is good. Now I have to go clean up from last night's dinner.

Ok, I have a kitchen table set up! Everyone come on over!

Ignore the three feet of stacked empty boxes, the partially naked baby, the bags under my eyes, the grass that was overgrown a week ago and now just looks abandoned, the fact that I smell like a football player on steroids and the screaming, teething, nap rejecting toddler. And the dog with the split personality. Don't pay any attention to her.

Oh, and the mismatched dishes? I like them.

As you can tell, this is all going well. Very well.

I unwrap the dishes and put the newspaper in a bin. MissToddlerAngel empties the bin. I pick everything back up. She takes it back apart.

At some point, this place will be finished and will look and feel like home. Right now, it's more like, WHY, someone explain to me WHY I decided to do this?

It looks like a yard sale is at least two weeks in the future.

Blast.

In the immediate future is the painting of MissTweenAngel's new bedroom, purple with sparkles, to be completed prior to her Monday birthday, and the baking of her cake, and the wrapping of her gifts. I thought I had this timing planned out so well. Now I think that Fasig is lacing their coffee with crack.

 What the heck was I thinking?

Those effing bastards....

SO...

 I'm trying to be as positive as possible with my experience with Budget Truck Rental...It's getting to be pretty darn difficult.Difficult enough that I'm typing instead of finding the Tylenol for the raging headache it's given me.

As anyone who's read this little bit of cyberspace for any length of time knows, the first thing I did was set up a sweet deal on moving truck. I called Tuesday to confirm the truck, and was told...NO. They didn't have a truck for me. However, another location did, and they transferred the reservation. I immediately called the other location, and confirmed my reservation.

Showed up Wednesday morning...NO RESERVATION.

Deep breath.

The girl at the counter, who was a real sweetheart, remembered me from the phone the day before, and got me set up with a much bigger truck at the same cost as the first. Even though it took precious minutes from my moving day, we were soon sailing away smoothly. I even heard her confirm the reservation transfer on the phone.

 Brought the truck back this morning, smoother sailing, nice and full of diesel, even swept the bed out because that was in the contract, and was told no one does that.

 I know. That sucker was filthy.

Checked out with the original agreed upon price.

 Only... and here comes the effing bastards part, to find that they charged me a fifty dollar no show fee from the original place that didn't have my truck. AND they can't fix it till tomorrow, because the fee hasn't cleared.

Those effing bastards. Never again.

Update: As of 10 am Budget has confirmed that they did screw up and will refund my money. However, they still don't have it, so they can't do it until it clears.

Update #2: They eventually did refund my money, with multiple apologies. Hindsight being twenty-twenty, I would rent from them again. But I would make sure I was flush fifty bucks to cover me in case they decide to attempt robbery.

The End is Nigh..

Here we are..

Heading into the final day, in this eighth circle of Hell that I've called home for the past four years. I should not be sitting here. I should not be typing. I should be scrubbing or packing or wrapping or budgeting.

 Because...

our yard sale flopped. We made a whopping twenty seven dollars and fifty cents.

 And made a whole lotta people mad. They pulled up, looked at my stacks and stacks of children's clothes, toys, games, and books, and said, "Is this it?"

Then they tried to make us give them stuff. It was just... dumb, for lack of a better word.

 I'm not giving up, though. I'm going to take my crap to the new location, and try all over. This actually works really well, because we can easily see what will fit and what won't, and just attempt to sell everything else.

On the plus side, we did get to say goodbye to most of the neighbors, and the new place netted us a lot more dough on our last yard sale, so maybe it's got some good mojo.

Ok, I've gotta pack.

It takes a Village...

I'm making chicken curry tonight.

The kind of curry a dear, sweet staff member from good, old FV taught me to make. A lady that shall remain nameless, as I firmly believe it's quite rude to name people on the internet without getting some form of permission first. The kind you could smell walking up the hill to the cafeteria, on those special Friday nights that another sweet lady had taken the night off, and you just knew that dinner was going to be something GREAT. The best nights were the nights she let us help make homemade egg rolls... vast quantities filled, rolled, and stacked high, crispy, light, and heavenly. I wish I could remember how she made them. The only thing I remember was finishing the filling with a light sprinkle of ground peanuts before tightly rolling into a log.

I credit the ladies at the Village with my love of cooking, and restaurant work in general. I love to play the hostess, love to set up dinners, hate to clean it all up.

So tonight's curry, much like the curry at the village, features whatever veggies I can find in my fridge, which would be some potato, carrot, green pepper, and peas. Gotta clean that baby out- nine days left till the big move!

My giant crock pot reminds me of the huge electric pot that sat next to the convection oven by the back door. Oh, the experiments I pulled off in that thing, and fed to my unsuspecting classmates.

Oh, well. Nobody died.

So here's what I did for my no-stove, tribute-to-high-school curry:
in the crock pot on high:

four chicken breasts

Mixed in bowl:
1 Can coconut milk
3 T Yellow Curry Powder
2 T flour
1 T paprika
1 T ginger (out of fresh, so I'm slumming)
1 t garlic (see above note)
splash of soy sauce

Pour over chicken, cook one hour.
Add long cooking veggies,
tonight we've got half a pound of baby cut carrots,
and three small red potatoes.

Cook one hour, add short cooking veggies,
tonight, it's a couple of bell peppers.

check chicken and veggies for doneness, stir in no cook veggies, if using,
tonight, it's a half a bag of thawed peas.

Serve over long grain rice...

Yes, it took a Village to teach me to cook. Although, I clearly remember this being made with bone-in thighs and drumsticks, and I'm sure I've changed the sauce over the years, the smell takes me back to the good dinners that sweet lady used to fix us.

Man, that was one great lady.

This is getting to be slightly challenging...

My cupboards are the definition of the word bare. I have one (gasp!!) box of cereal. I have NO propane, since I chose not to fill it rather than wait for a refund, my pantry, (which I rely on to keep my budget in check and our leftovers consumed) is actually dusty in spaces. Oh yeah, and you can't move around the kitchen since there is a large stack of boxes of pots directly in the middle of the floor. Where would YOU put them in an apartment roughly the size of a shoe box, that's inhabited by roughly a half a dozen individuals? (Yes, in space terms, the dog DOES count.)

*sigh

I don't know if I can handle the next nine days. We've already eaten out twice more than we normally would, since my gastronomical muse seems to have taken a semi-permanent leave of absence in protest of the bare cupboards. The more I pack, the worse my allergies get, and the more disgusted I am at the general state of disrepair that we've been coping with the last four years.

Seriously, for thirty thousand dollars in rent, you'd think the guy could live up to his word.

Update on the Moving Budget.

Well, here we are, six weeks out, and I realized that while I've expounded on everything from gay marriage to hamburger helper, I haven't actually updated you on our moving budget.

I'm proud to say, I'm well on our way to coming up to the positive! (and no, I'm not using that very special fuzzy math known to politicians near and far).

We've sold several items on ebay, and our profits total over $145 dollars used. Now, if you remember, I had appliances and a new couch to purchase, a deposit to pay on electric service, a moving truck to pay for, and food for the moving party.

We've decreased our expenditures considerably by purchasing used appliances and a set of couches from my brother in law. That takes our out going budget down to a tenth of what it was... yay us! Those totalled $180, the truck is $150 up front, the electic is $200, and I think maybe $150 for food, beer, and soda for the day of.(The food budget is high, but that includes the cost of me possibly ordering pizza for everyone if I'm losing my mind that day.) So the whole budget is -680, I've added $140 in ebay sales, leaving me at -500. I'm sure I can make that up in the five or so yard sales it's going to take to get me through all this stuff!

What do you think? Can we do this?

I'm offering my first giveaway!

It's time to establish some followers. I've been going at this thing for a couple of weeks, and I have, well, four. I want more. Everyone knows the best way to accomplish this is to offer something for free...

I'm not exactly going after Ellen's dream of world domination, but I have a goal in mind, and let's just say it has more than one digit.

I'm offering a Soap and Glory bath set for this giveaway. It contains their mist you madly flirty floral body spray, and their clean girls body wash.

To Enter, you must:
Click the follow button to the right of the screen,
And leave a comment below with your name.

Winner will be announced here on 6/30.
Tell a friend!
Inessa wone this giveaway, pending response

My Ugly Green Monster rears it's head, does yours?

Well, I'm off to the post office this morning, on the way to visit my dad. I sold not one, but two items on ebay this week, with at least two more to sell today. I'm up... ten bucks. It seems a little effort heavy, for only ten dollars, since I do have to run to the post office to ship, and I can't stop grabbing the computer to see how my auctions are doing. It's like waiting for water to boil. Ugh. Still, ladies who have been doing this longer than I have tell me the initial fascination fades. I hope so.

For father's day, MissAngelBaby took her first steps in front of her great-grandpa. And only her great grandpa. She did it multilple times in front of him, but I don't have an exact count, because the stubborn little thing waited till I turned around EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. Still, if I was going to miss the event, I couldn't be happier that he got to see it.

This morning Mr. Lovinangels told me he has a friend who has a baby MissAngelBaby's age, that took five steps the other day. "He's ahead of her?"I practically shouted. My husband gave me an odd look. "Other people have smart babies, too, you know," he laughed at me.

Yes, but my baby is supposed to be the smartest and the best.

Do you ever fall into this trap? Pushing your child towards a milestone simply because her peers have reached it? I thought I was above such nonsense, but there it is. My gut reaction is, my baby should be first. Wow. I've got some soul searching to do. I should just be grateful my kids are progressing normally, that God has given me three healthy, beautiful girls.

Oh, well, perfection as a mother has not been achieved by anyone to date. I'll work on it.

In the meantime, crawling over stacks of boxes is getting to be quite an adventure. And I'm up ten bucks in my goal to make money, bringing it to -140. Yay me!

Busy, Busy, Busy!

This week I've decided to take my decision to make money off this move seriously. I've posted on ebay, and craigslist, and have more to put up. The yard sale is tentatively scheduled for the end of July, and I can say, I just can't wait. I'm seriously considering having a pre- Yard sale, so we can cart less across town to a better location.

Mail call this week was phenominal, I got two father's day cards just in time with my swagbucks, samples of pantene for curly hair, dove, and aveeno shampoo and conditioner, a Shrek poster evidently Mr. Lovinangels won in my name, a sample of crackerfuls, my free collage from snapfish, along with my 50 free prints and free 8X10, and have finished testing about half of my free sunscreen.(Which is a really great product by the way)

Today I'm ordering a free snikkekidy kids pack, here. I find most of my freebies, here.

Well, wish me high ebay auctions, I'm off to sell more stuff! Moving balance is currently -140 dollars!

The Myth of So-Called Deregulation

In 2010, the PP&L "rate caps" expired in PA. These kept the rates in PA at 1996 levels, with the promise of deregulation and competition in the future. Well, guess what? The future came yesterday. Along with a major headache and a waste of about four hours I'll never get back. And a savings of...$0!!!!!

The theory is, you are supposed to be able to shop for the lowest price in generation, encouraging competition and prices to drop...all things a good little conservative like me wants. Let the market regulate itself, right? Capitalism is something I firmly believe in.

Well, this time it bit me firmly in the bum. The prices went up, the demand stayed the same, and no new players came to the party to encourage this competition. So I've spent hours trying to find a lower price on our new electric service, only to find, there's only ONE electric service. The most expensive one on the block. *sigh*

So my beloved capitalism, I will wait patiently for you to work your magic. I will check, every two months, to see if another supplier is available for my energy. I will be relentless!!!!!

I will go back to packing, nursing my poor, aching head.

Found Money! Don't forget to request a refund for overpayed utilities!

Last night I had the strangest dream. I dreamt the "other" from Lost season 1 turned into a vampire, got invited into our home, and turned my nephew and my friends son into vampires. We locked ourselves in an upstairs room, and I lowered my wild child first to the ground. She took off, of course. I jumped out the window, landed on my feet, and ran after her. Having caught up to her, it appears that her hair has been cut off, and she has a large bite mark on her neck. I realize her hair is simply tied back, and am utterly relieved, and unconcerned with the large bruise on her neck, which isn't bleeding.

My good friends over at http://www.cafemom.com/ seem to think it means that I'm nervous about our upcoming move, but feel that I can handle it. I like that.

Yesterday, it occurred to me that we needed to order propane for our stove. You can only purchase it a full tank at a time, and it takes me 4-5 months to use it up. The move is 85 days away. Either I can bake like mad, or lose about $70 in propane, or try to stretch what I have an extra, say, 24 days. I spent the majority of the afternoon pondering solutions, since my gas company was closed.

I called first thing this morning-and was told to go ahead and fill it, all I have to do is request a refund. This is GREAT news, since I LOVE to bake our bread, but I may just try to stretch it out anyway, since it's hot out and requesting a refund is one more thing I'll have to remember to do in the post move mess. However, the lady at the gas company said many people NEVER leave an address to forward a refund check to, so I'm counting this check as a drop in the bucket toward my goal of making money.
Score one for the cheap girl.


Did you remember to check for overpaid utilities on your last move?

Day 2: One box and one bag from each room per day.

Let me tell you, I have been a ball of fire today! I'm not even through my second cup of coffee, and I've gotten a whole SLEW of moving goodness accomplished. Yippee for me! My goal is to pack up one box for a yard sale, and one bag for either trash, freecycle, or donation per room per day. I've completed the goal for two rooms already! Of course, my goal to make money is being severely compromised by the fact that my moving budget is currently -$150. I'm hoping to change that by adding some goodies to craigslist later today. We have a nice brass coat rack I can't see moving, a baby carrier Miss AngelBaby outgrew three minutes after she was born, and an excersaucer that can go on. I'm betting these will fetch far more dough on Craigslist than at the yard sale, so I've got a busy day ahead of me! Wish me money!

Day 1: The Great Adventure Begins

Over the weekend, we made a momentous decision. We are moving! Into our first HOUSE!!!!! I have three months with which to clean up, consolidate, and otherwise compress our lives. We have a lot of crap. Ridiculous amounts. My affinity for the end caps at Target coupled with an inability to resist a great deal has lead to my house turning into the Land That Time Forgot. I also HATE to put things in a landfill that can otherwise be used. Freecycle is my friend, of course, but I also HATE to get rid of something, only to have to reacquire it late.

The result? You can't get into the attic of the tiny "3" bedroom apartment, without climbing a stack of perilously placed Christmas gift, boxes of toys, and bags of clothing I haven't worn since 1998. HMMMM.

So, this begins my adventure. I will chronicle the event of my perilous struggle to remove the crap from this home before it sidles it's way into the next home. While being as ecofriendly (read: frugal) as possible.

I have a list. I have a plan. I hope, at the end of this, I will have managed to make money off this move. Is it impossible? No, I think not.

Do you have any advice for me?