Prepping for Sandy & other musings

 Today has been a crazy day. Here some of what's been going on at our house:

1. Gia was up at 2 am and then again at 2:45. Jon was still not home from work at that point, so I brought her in our bed, where she proceeded to chat and ask to watch Mickey several times. It might have been really cute if it wasn't nearly 3am. Jon came home shortly after our slumber party started so we moved to Gia's room so he could get some sleep. She finally fell back asleep at 4:30 and was up for the day at 7:45. Lucky lucky me.

2. We let Jon sleep till 10 and then I sent him on a coffee run. I actually had coffee with caffeine today. And no heart palpitations. Go me!

3. I'm not usually one to freak out about storms (I tend to think the weathermen are just very good speculators) but with the kitchen demo on the horizon (tomorrow, fingers crossed that Stupid Sandy doesn't ruin it!) Jon and I had a moment of panic. The new cabinets are in our garage! What if water gets in the garage? Thankfully my brother-in-law came over and helped Jon move all the cabinets to the living room. Meanwhile...

4. I was hard at work emptying our 2 cabinets and food armoire and moving their contents to the dining room. I (wrongly) assumed this wouldn't take long. I thought there wasn't really much stuff. Wrong again. I also was ridiculously unprepared and didn't have any boxes to put all the stuff in. So I scrounged up a Rubbermaid tub and my reusable grocery bags, and it worked out just fine. I did the best I could to organize the bags and keep stuff we might need close by. Let's see how this goes...

5. In an effort to use up some food (and, who am I kidding, make sure we have something in this house in case we really can't get out at all tomorrow) I made an oatmeal casserole with rolled oats, strawberries, chocolate chips and almonds. YUM!   You can find the recipe HERE

6. Gia napped for an hour and woke up screaming. We've determined that one of the owl statues in her room is a little too real for her liking and it was scaring her. We removed said owl and back to sleep she went.

7. After nap time I took her to the library--or "liberry" as she says. She had a ball checking out the huge fish tank, playing with their toys, riding the elevator and whispering when we went into the fiction section to get some books for Mommy. (If I'm gonna be stuck inside for 2 days, I want to be prepared with some good, old fashioned books. What if I can't charge my Nook?!)

8.  In an effort to help Jon out I decided to put away Gia's outside toys (probably should have done this a month ago, but, well, we're lazy) and went to open the door to our very cute, but ancient, shed. I yanked and ripped the door right off the shed. Who knew the door opened INWARD?? Oops. Jon is going to have to rig it up tonight when he gets home at 11. Hopefully tomorrow morning he can make a quick trip to Home Depot and fix it.

9. Gia had a total meltdown at bedtime because A.) she's extremely tired, B.) she wanted to brush her teeth for the 4th time today and I said no and C.) because she's extremely tired.

10. I had an 8 am endodontist appt tomorrow for a root canal (my sixth one...yes 6.. lucky lucky me) and the doctor called to reschedule. I absolutely adore her, and we actually spent a few minutes on the phone. She went to NYU and so we bonded over that at my first appointment a while back. She also has 2 small children (one is a bit older than Gia and one is a bit younger) so we have that in common too. She's a total sweetheart and last week when I was there, I may or may not have asked her to meet me for coffee one day. She probably thinks I'm a nut.

So all that long-winded nonsense was my way of saying it was a wild day. (I think it's a full moon. Maybe that explains it?) Here's to hoping tomorrow is better! It kinda has to be.

Abracadabra!

Last week we had a minor tragedy in the Quinn household. Charlie Birdie was ill and unfortunately, he didn't make it. We told Gia he flew away, and she handled it with her usual aplomb.  She said, "Charlie birdie flew away? I go to store and get 'nother Charlie birdie?"

We had an idea this might happen. Two days after we got Charlie, Gia and I went to Petco to pick up some toys for him and some other supplies. We walked past the bird cage in the store and there was big sign informing customers that the birds were not currently for sale. They were being observed.

"Observed for what?!" I asked. The manager told me that some of their bird suppliers had sick birds and they were observing the ones still left in the store to make sure they were up to "Petco standards".

Apparently Charlie was not up to Petco standards. Sadly, Charlie wasn't meant to be with the Quinns for long.

But...

Not to worry. We have some good news.

We adopted a kitten!

You didn't think Gia would be happy without a pet for long, did you?

Meet Abracadabra!

Gia and I went to the Ramapo-Bergen Animal Refuge and adopted her.  She's 9 weeks old and she's a sweetheart.

She was in foster care for most of her life, so she is very social and has adjusted to living with us very quickly. She's super affectionate, playful and mischievous. Gia adores her. They play together and Gia is very good with her. The other day Gia was running around and dragging a string behind her. She was belly-laughing because Abby was chasing after the string. All I could hear was laughter and Gia yelling, "Let's go Kitty!" 

Yet again we had a hard time with names. We chose Abracadabra because she's pretty much all black and it's close to Halloween. We call her Abby.

Welcome Home Abby!!

Crazy house

I feel like my house is always a mess. No matter how many times a day I put things where they belong, 20 minutes later the house is a disaster again.

We've only been in the new house for 2.5 months and I know a lot of it has to do with the fact that we're not completely settled yet.  I only have 2 kitchen cabinets and our couch is totally the wrong size and shape for the family room.  The fact that I have a 2 year old doesn't help either.

Oh wait. You're still hung up on the fact that I only have 2 kitchen cabinets?  Yeah, it's true. The people who lived here before us were going for a country look, and they ripped out all but TWO cabinets. I have some small decorative shelves above my one tiny strip of counter space, and a large armoire (the kind meant for sweaters) next to the fridge.  That's it.

Truth be told, it's a complete nightmare. It's tough to cook (and I LOVE to cook) and there's always crap all over my kitchen table because there just isn't anywhere else to put stuff.

I'd show you a picture, but I'm saving the horror for when I can post "Before" and "After" pictures. Kitchen demolition is scheduled for October 29th. Yippee!  (Right now the new cabinets are in the garage, the knobs and pulls for them are in the living room, and the floor samples are, well, on the floor, just begging to be picked.)

As for the family room, it's also a bit of a crazy mess. Our L-shaped couch has the L going the wrong way, and a large part of it is in front of our fireplace. So no fires till we get new couches, which really stinks because now that the weather's cooler at night, I'd love to get a fire going! And our entertainment center is too small for the wall it's on. It looks like a pimple. According to Jon, our tv is too small, too.

And, the list goes on.

I know Rome wasn't built in a day and all that stuff, but it's so hard, living like this. One day at a time, right? We'll get there....eventually.