So I did it...

...finally sent the old shower head packing to the trash can. Last night it leaked all over the bathroom (and we have a separate, walk-in shower) while I was running it to warm up the water and I slipped and slid right into the baseboard, toe first. Thankfully, the only "injury" I incurred was a broken toenail in the process. The damn thing then fell on me twice in the shower, and Keith a couple of times as well. It had been doing this over and over again, but this was the straw that broke the camel's back!

I almost grabbed a cheaper one that looked promising in the reviews that I had read online, but then I saw its shape: just like the one we had that kept falling. And one of the reviews complained about it falling, so why take that chance? And if it keeps falling and I have to return it, well, ain't nobody got time fo'dat!!

So long, slacker... on the way to the graveyard -er- trash can.

...and in with the new!!

Installation took all but five minutes, if that. As its appearance suggests, it is a dual showerhead. The fixed portion loops around the detachable portion, which itself has four spray settings. The systems splits between loop only, showerhead only and both. I tested all functions of this thing and it. is. pure. awesomeness. so far. It doesn't leak and SNAPS into place, assuring the user that it will not, in fact, fall down and knock the head.  There seems to be enough pressure behind it to allow me to wash my mop of hair, possibly in half the time.

Can't wait to test this thing for real tonight!

~~CrazyMom

CrazyMom Presents, Here It Is! There are quite a few posts to toss in here, so I promise, this will be the only post this long. Ever.

Crazy Weekend.

Posted on April 14, 2013by CrazyMom

Four tubs of laundry. FOUR tubs. eek. You’d think we left the house every day or something.  After weeks of slacking we finally had to draw the line and get more clothes, so we put our washer and dryer to a workout this weekend. 

Ah well, on to the fun stuff. In spite of a round of plagues still hanging around the house (last week Jessica, this week Keith and Natalie and still poor Jessica), we managed to turn things around and get a TON of stuff done, notwithstanding the laundry. 

We have knocked a couple of things off the ol’ Honey- Do List! The girls now have fans in their bedrooms, and the spare has a fan as well. We even had all three going, plus the bathroom lights, (keep in mind all on the same circuit- eek!) and had no issues thus far. 

I just picked on the fan in Natalie’s room, since they’re all the same. 

And a big, bonus task: the girls’ Grammy bought them a swing set. Their daddy and uncle went and picked it up from Wally World today and we put it together! A bit painstaking as there were a lot of parts, but I think it was good prep for the shed down the road. 

So, all in all, I’d say this was a pretty productive weekend. Installed three ceiling fans, banished excessive pots and pans from the kitchen sink, put together a swing set, and conquered Mount Laundryvest. 

I’m exhausted. Just can’t seem to figure out why. 

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged ceiling, ceiling fans, home improvement, house, kids, play | Leave a comment |Edit

Seeking Feedback?

Posted on April 12, 2013by CrazyMom

Eh, I don’t know where to start. I know I haven’t written much, and aside from stating over and over that I will do better only to not do better, I do want to post more! 

As usual, I have been a busy little bee. Unfortunately though, not busy enough, as one would see as they walked into our home. Blocks strewn about, dishes piled in the sink (Mount Dishvrest!), and not to mention good, ol-faithful Mt. Laundryvest, the one that gives me pause as to how I would ever handle doing cloth diapers (three days’ worth? Diaper laundry every other day? NOOO Way! I can’t even handle regular laundry, apparently… and NO I am NOT pregnant). 

Anyhow, as Mt. Laundryvest takes over our cavernous bedroom, I have to ask one thing: What do you like to read about? Which topics should I write more about? I am looking for some inspiration.

Feel free to spill, please! 

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Feedback, Help | Leave a comment | Edit

It’s been Quiet.

Posted on March 6, 2013by CrazyMom

OK, not really. Turns out I have once again been very busy. We have made it about 1/3 of the way through painting our new home! I am so thrilled at the progress we have made and the way things have turned out. Slowly, but surely, we are kissing the boring beige walls good-bye.

Well, let me back up a bit. Not literally. The walls themselves are still there, just slightly modified from their original form. 

~*snore*~

We started out with the girls’ rooms since we took a day off from work, so they were both at school. Good thing we did this, as everything, between moving furniture, taping, painting, taking down tape and moving furniture back took about 4-4 1/2 hours! But I would do it all again as it came out nearly perfect. I say nearly, as some errors can be seen in Natalie’s room, but hey, this was my first time at a two-tone job!

My inspiration for the two-tone job in this girl’s room was the fact that her closet (is not a walk-in, as the others are) juts out as you walk into the room. In other words, you have to veer slightly right to get into her actual bedroom. In this picture, her closet is actually the hot-pink on the far left.

Then the light pink was splashed on the other three walls. Love it!

And the other princess got the blue room she has always wanted.

And last, but not least, in spite of sore muscles from ladder-climbing and crouching, we started and finished our master suite. The bathroom is still blank, but will be painted eventually.

Wall art to come. ~yawn~ I’m exhausted!

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged decoration, home improvement, house, paint | Leave a comment | Edit

Happy Birthday, my Dear Sweet!

Posted on February 10, 2013by CrazyMom

Jessy turned three this past Tuesday. How is that even possible?! It seems like just yesterday (in some ways) that were bringing her home from the hospital after her suspenseful birth. 

We stayed low-key this year since we weren’t quite settled yet into our new home (but that is rapidly changing, thank goodness!). In spite of that, we came through with J’s request for a SpongeBob theme. Well, not very well-done since the party was planned and invited-to in a matter of days for a matter of days ahead (read: last minute), but some circumstances (including another birthday) dictated the quick shindig. 

I had grabbed some favors from Party City since Target didn’t have what I had wanted (and hadn’t bothered telling me they needed 48 hours notice on the weekend for a cake- thanks guys!) but it turned out well, as you can infer from the pic. J loved her (eh, still does) SpongeBob face mask.

She was very proud of her cake, too!

My Dearest Jessy,

My, how time flies. I can’t believe you’re THREE already! May 3 treat you wonderfully, give you lots of new adventures and learning and new friends! Mommy and Daddy love you very much. May you have more Grammy/Mommy/Daddy/Natalie time and less boo-boos. May you have lots of love everywhere you go.

Love you very much, my sweetheart! 

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged birthday, celebration, child, party | Leave a comment | Edit

Well here I am!

Posted on February 2, 2013by CrazyMom

After two weeks of sickness in our household, we feel human again. Finally. It had begun a couple of Fridays ago, when I was supposed to get some cleaning done around the house to where we wouldn’t be so cluttered. But the universe had other plans. That afternoon I started to feel sluggish, then later that night N began coughing that awful, croupy cough. 

I’ll spare you the details after that, but the next two weeks were not fun! 

I, however, did not fail to start on that Honey-Do list: The bedroom fan. I bought the remote on my lunch break and a couple of days later went in for the kill. I grabbed the remote, stuffed the batter in there and went at it, flipping the switches into their 16 different positions. Well, the package states that there are 16 different combinations. However, there are two frequencies, so technically it’s 32 combinations, right?  I had gone through all of the combinations when I began to scratch my head. Then it dawned on me that I hadn’t tried the *other* frequency. Flipped that switch, and sure enough, the blades of the fan began to circle round and round. 

Satisfaction commenced. Oh, the things we get excited over as grown-ups.   

Next up: Christening the bathtub.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged fan, home improvement, sickies, working | Leave a comment | Edit

Honey-Do.

Posted on January 12, 2013by CrazyMom

Not to be confused with honeydew. I actually don’t like honeydew very much, but I like honeydo. Our new home has so much potential that it’s not even funny. And we have a Texas-sized to-do list to fit the bill, if I might say so myself.

1. Paint Downstairs

2. Hang Ceiling Fans in the girls’ bedroom (which could prove tricky if a- the brackets that hold the fan to the ceiling aren’t already there and b- the fact that all 3 upstairs bedrooms’ lights, plus the bathroom up there, are on one circuit, puts a huge damper on things. I’ve done some Googling- it may be do-able… but that will have to be another post)

3. Paint Upstairs

4. Maybe a little wallpaper in one of the bathrooms?

5. Master bedroom fan needs a remote. Found one that will work at Home Depot, now just to go grab it and program it so it will work with our fan.

Poor thing is paralyzed. One remote has failed us as it is incompatible (go figure :p). Off to get the correct one. Eventually.

6. Hang more pictures! The walls are disturbingly blank. Disturbingly. Especially upstairs.

7. Erect a backyard shed for the hubby’s tools, so that we may once again have two cars in our two-car garage. However, since today’s sheds are packaged in approximately 2,395,746,108 pieces, we will need to set aside a year a fortnight 4 score and 7 years some extra help to get it all put together.

8. Soak in the huuuuuuuge bathtub. Yeah. It’s still not been christened yet.

9. Patio Furniture. Front and Back. ‘Cause it’s needed. And that’s that. And no ugly stuff!

10. Granite Countertops. And stainless steel appliances. Find out if the kitchen is pre-plumbed for a gas range perhaps? Half-hoping there is a capped-off line hidden somewhere within that wall. A gas range would certainly be easier to clean than a coil-top, yet have the flexibility to allow for cast-iron cookware, right? Otherwise I think we’re gonna have to go flat-top. Hate the coils. Blech.

11. Wood Floors. Need I say more? Carpet+Toddlers+Clumsy Parents=NotAGoodThing.

Hmmm… this is getting mighty expensive. Anyone wanna tell the winning lottery numbers for this weekend?

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Hi 2013, I’m Kimberly. Nice to meet you.

Posted on January 10, 2013by CrazyMom

We finally got into our new (to us) house right after Thanksgiving. Merry Christmas to us! Since our lives have basically been a crazy rat-race rollercoaster since, oh, early/mid October, it is nice to finally come to a bit of a slowdown and enjoy life a bit. We (needless to say) still have boxes unpacked that are in the guest suite/office, but just this weekend we managed to make room for one car in addition to taking Christmas down, seemingly so soon after putting it up!

I spent the week after we moved unpacking, cleaning, and watching two crazy girls (the babysitter was out of the country), then two weeks later we decorated for Christmas! Then, the sickies entered the picture and did of course hang around until just after Christmas (sorry, no kids playing in the snow! Yes, I did just say snow!), but we still managed to have a wonderful season. Putting away that decor is always so sad!

Now, back to the snow part. Yes, we had snow. A white Christmas is a rare thing here in Texas, so I went a little shutter-crazy on it.  One of my fave shots happened from J’s bedroom.

All this white stuff fell in DFW on Christmas! We didn’t even have to dream. How’bout that??

That snowy look? Yeah, it was there on Christmas Eve, too, that morning. I looked northwestward from the upstairs living area and saw that classic gray and knew (from our experience back in ’10) that we were destined for some snow. Just how much, I had no idea. Now, of course, we’re on a two-day hiatus from our own Great Flood. Hehe. It will jump into the 70′s tomorrow- remember, that snowstorm pictured above was just two and a half weeks ago. Welcome to Texas, folks. If you don’t like the weather, just wait 15 minutes. It WILL change. Unless it’s summer, and then it will stay. perpetually. hot.

Needless to say, Santa’s sleigh got a good workout in our area; he doesn’t typically get to use it around here! He was very good to J, N, and everybody in between.

Look at all these goodies! Two certain little girls must have been very good.

Now, unbelievably, the Christmas stuff is down after our being able to enjoy it for about 10 minutes ;p

And to get started on more house projects. Onward!

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Out from AWOL- Major updates!

Posted on November 21, 2012by CrazyMom

Wow! It’s been this long since I’ve visited here already? Yikes!

Sorry I’ve been AWOL, but things have been moving very, I mean VERY, fast. Not to be jinxed by its newly-dubbed nickname, This (s)old House sold in… you ready for it?… not 6 weeks, not 8 weeks, not 4 weeks, not 10 days… but 2 days! Yup, TWO days!! With, get this, a cash offer.

After picking up our jaws out of our laps when the realtor (who, BTW, is awesome!) called us to bear the news, we digested it and went on with our lives. The inspection revealed a foundation issue that needed fixing (hey, I nicknamed the house “this (s)OLD house” for a reason!  ), but fortunately for us it was very minor- as in it was the smallest job companies would take. The day the work was done, DH and I took off from work to get some work done around the house (well, so much for the day off :p). Let’s just say that being inside the house while eight men were literally jacking it up was quite interesting. Hearing the drywall creaking all at once and the grout in our newly-done bathroom popping was quite a trip. Fortunately, though, I am happy to report that no tiles or pipes were harmed in the process of house-jacking.

From there it went extremely fast. We had begun packing about three weeks before our big move and STILL had to put our pedals to the medal to get it all done, but we managed, thanks to our little helper.

Um, just what are you doing with my room and all these suitcases??

After a very fast-paced weekend of packing and moving about 98% of our belongings into a tiny storage unit, we were officially homeless. So began the hour-plus long commutes, since we are staying currently with my mom. The long commutes become painful while on the road in bumper-to-bumper traffic, stuffed much like sardines in a can. That said, it is SO worth it to see the girls light up when they see their Grammy after a long day, and Grammy so happy to see her little sweethearts (my slightly-probably-biased opinion).

Snowy was being a little turd about getting into her seat. Guess she didn’t want to ride for an hour… fortunately, I was able to coax her in.

But then there’s the story about taking 25 minutes to move approximately three miles, the demon lady on the Bush Turnpike… ohhhhh man. How does Dallas not make the worst cities list for traffic more often??

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged bumper traffic, foundation issue, Home, house | Leave a comment | Edit

Adventures in House Selling, Part II

Posted on September 22, 2012by CrazyMom

Sky-Gazing through the trees

So we had to be out of our house bright and early this morning- by 10am. For us, that is early.  While husband and girls got their breakfast, I somehow slipped through the cracks, probably from running around cleaning up after the tornadoes, showering and shining the windows in the kitchen, as was Keith- but he eats at literally twice the pace that I do. We quickly remedied that situation by stopping at McDonald’s and I ordered a sausage McMuffin (instead of the usual egg McMuffin) and a coffee (which, btw, was sooooooo delicious!).

We then made our way to my brother-in-law’s house to park my car, intending to walk over to the Plano Balloon Festival, which happens annually in our neck of the woods.  We loaded up the double stroller on its low tires, hung up the diaper bag and started making our way over. However, something was amiss…

I quickly noticed that there were no balloons in the sky, as there had been the day before. Jessy and I had seen the balloons floating around that morning and she was so excited to see them. I stopped walking and pulled out my phone (TG for mobile internet!) and googled the shindig. Sure enough, the balloon launch had already happened, at 6am! The next one was at 6pm, when were were already penciled in to be over the river and through the woods.

We then discussed our next action and decided to walk through the nearby residential neighborhood and seek out the short-sale home we had seen on the internet and driven by just weeks before. After sweating out a few drops and hiding from the sun as much as possible, we came upon it, and it looked just as beautiful as it had when we quickly drove by it. Sadly, it looked just as overgrown, but that was nothing that couldn’t be cured with a pair of hedge clippers and a hacksaw. Oh yeah, and a little elbow grease, too.

We continued down the street and came upon the quiet cul-de-sac and continued down the extended sidewalk, which took us across a bridge over a shallow creek to another subdivision. There were teen-age boys on their bikes riding along the small hills within the woods that surrounded us, doing sick tricks and 360′s as they popped up and around the crests of the hills.

We continued on our way and reached a bridge that overlooked a huge chasm with a quiet creek floating through it. The four of us stopped and admired the beauty of the clear water running over the sand and rocks, which Jessy made clear she was excited to see.

Little doll missed out on the rocks.

Once we arrived at the aforementioned subdivision, we quickly decided to turn around so we could stay in the shade. This time, once we passed the bikers’ trick zone, we continued south on the path and stayed in the shade, admiring the beauty of the trees and leaves that were beginning to fall.

We continued walking until we happened upon a beautiful foreclosure home (which may be a later post  ), looked into the windows and loved on it. One of the neighbors saw us (GULP!) and chatted up my husband and actually seemed very nice, and that is always a bonus.

We quickly concluded our walk after that, as we were becoming hot in this Texas sun; the summers never seem to like to end around here.  We loaded everybody up into the car and hit up the store where we bought some cold liquids to drink on the way to lunch.

A perfect ending to a perfect house-selling adventure.

Until next time, viva la vida!

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Here We Are

Posted on September 20, 2012by CrazyMom

Well here we are. This (s)old house of ours is now on the market officially and we wait. Hopefully not too long! There is a house near where I work that has been on the market for all of two weeks and now has a contract on it- and it sold for nearly double what ours is worth. So let’s go!

Now that we have that settled, after only two years of getting the place ready, the no-sleep monster has reared its ugly head at Natalie. For the past three weeks she has awoke at night at least twice a week. At first I shrugged it off as a growth spurt since she had been eating beyond well at that time. But then it happened again, the next week. Twice. Teething? Nope.

This week- twice and probably working on a third. I think this kid just doesn’t believe in sleeping. Quick- invest in Starbucks! I have a feeling I’m gonna need it. Another reason why we need a bigger house -stat- so that the girls can finally have their own bedrooms and sleep. Right? Right??

Ah well… A girl can dream, right? 

So, how do you get your non-sleepers to sleep? We have this kid on a routine that has been working pretty well up until now… Dinner, bath, relax then bed. Oy!

who could put a face like this on Craigslist? 

Posted in home, house, Nattycakes | Tagged cleaning, life, Sleep, waking | Leave a comment | Edit

Crazy Pace

Posted on September 8, 2012by CrazyMom

It’s incredible how fast time has gone. A little over 5 weeks ago Natalie turned 1 years old. Time is going tooooo fast! She is now walking all over the place, literally. Not full-time quite  yet as she wouldn’t walk from the car to Grammy’s house just yet. 

We finally finished our bathroom reno after two months. Between helping my mom recover from major surgery, taking care of a husband and two kids and trying to prep a house for sale, yes I was definitely running ragged this summer. So glad it’s over now (and that’s a whole other post). Phew! I don’t think I ever want to touch a project like that again. Just so time consuming! 

House is not listed yet but hopefully will be in the next couple of weeks. We just had a new garage door and opener put on the house ($eek!$), so that should hopefully help the place sell a little faster. And once we finally clean out the garage (we’re almost there!) we will be able to park our cars in there. One day. Hey, a girl can dream, right?

Phew. That’s my crazy life in a nutshell. More to come later!

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Finally

Hallelujah!

Image | Posted on September 8, 2012 by CrazyMom| Leave a comment | Edit

Aaaaaaaaaaalmost there!!

Posted on August 4, 2012by CrazyMom

Wow, how is it August already?! CrazyMom that I am, I have been very busy. Between shuffling two kids around and juggling them with work and a bathroom renovation (that STILL isn’t quite done yet!), I’ve been just short of listing everyone and everything on Craigslist.

Kidding about the CL part.

We finally have the scene put together in the bathroom, however we had an issue with the awesome-looking dual showerhead we bought. I had originally thought that having a dual showerhead would save water by speeding up my showers since my hair is thicker than a Siberian Husky’s coat (seriously- it takes me literally 10 minutes to rinse, wash, rinse and condition- and I CANNOT skip conditioner).  That might have to be put on hold, however, since the setup was quite poorly engineered, as the entire setup would droop to the right once I maneuvered it into the correct position for use. Turn it on, and it would leak like a sieve. Disassembled it to verify the washers were in all the way and correctly and reassembled, but we still had a little shower sieve on hand.

That being said, I am still posting the pics with the showerhead in them because of how BEAUTIFUL the thing is, and we all know how ugly sells in an older house 

The tile has now been sealed and all we have left is to caulk and, well, a good shower head.

Posted in budget, home impreovement, house, Uncategorized | Leave a comment | Edit

Tilted Tiling

Posted on July 13, 2012by CrazyMom

Part 8,353. Keith and I took the day off from work today and while we did not finish (so if you decide to hire us, don’t do it for speed), we made great strides on getting this bathroom fixed up.

I am sore and utterly exhausted but we’re getting so close!

For your viewing pleasure, the work we did today:

Ignore the red line across the soap dish; I decided to store the level there along with my pen and got lazy about moving the items. Jury’s still out on the soap dish, however, we’re not sure if we like it or not!

Posted in home, home impreovement, house | Tagged bathroom, Home, Tiles | Leave a comment | Edit

Bathroom Renovation

Posted on July 10, 2012by CrazyMom

So it begins. Home improvement project number 8,352 or so: the master bathroom. It wasn’t really on our to do list until a couple of out (blah) tiles un-stuck themselves from the wall.

We very quickly realized that this wasn’t going to be a simple fix. The soap dish had fallen off as well, not for the first time. Time for a regroup. 

Our current bathroom was just too ugly icky boring for us, especially if we ever want to put this place on the market (yes, we’re still taking about it). I’m sure we would have to do something to make the place marketable, right? 

First, we said good-bye and good riddance to the claustrophobic, hard-to-clean shower doors:

Slowly but surely, we began pulling tiles off, one by one, only to discover that the drywall wanted to get in on the fun too.

The drywall’s wish was promptly granted and it was replaced. We have now begun the tedious tile-measuring and cutting process.

Amazingly, Keith and I have managed to get through this renovation to this point without killing each other. Now, herein lies the question: can we keep this up or will I end up banishing Keith to the roof?

Posted in home, home impreovement, house | Tagged decoration, Home, improvement | 2 Comments | Edit

Crazy Cool Recipe

Posted on June 11, 2012by CrazyMom

So a few weeks ago I hopped on the infamous bandwagon known as Pinterest, not soon after seeing a friend post a yummy-looking recipe online.

The recipe, however, called for item which I had never used before. Won tons. Up until tonight I’d only eaten the delicious confections, but never had cooked them.

All I needed was this pack of won tons, some ground beef, grated cheese and some sort of Mexican spice, at minimum. It seemed too good to be true, but I just had to try for myself.

Tonight I decided I was up for the challenge. I browned the ground beef in some chunky salsa (I used Pace Picante medium) while I preheated the oven and washed and cut the tomatoes (optional ingredient. Other optionals are sour cream, lettuce, black olives… You get the idea). I would have used the sour cream but we were out and I just didn’t feel like running to Kroger (even though it’s across the street from me).

I organized my won tons two-at-a-time into my cupcake pan, to yield me 12. The corners were staggered so that the “cupcakes” now had 8 little points, instead of the boring, standard 4. I filled each one with the meat-picante mixture and topped with shredded cheese, to look like so:

I popped that sucker in the oven (425*F) and the oh-so-tasty goodness came out looking like so:

A world-class, winning recipe. At least IMNSHO.

Posted in cooking, nutrition | Tagged Ground beef, Mexican, spicy | Leave a comment | Edit

She walks.

Posted on June 3, 2012by CrazyMom

It’s official. Natalie walks. Only while holding/pushing something like a foot stool or chair, but she now walks. And she’s only 9.5 mos old- what is happening to my little girl!?

But you’re just going to have to take my word for it, for as soon as I pull the camera out… She stops.

What is with this camera standoffishness audience-hating? This little girl is a little trickster. Oi.