Accomplishment and Randomness

Progress!

GO ME! I'm celebrating a bit because the next phase of "Operation: Prepare for Baby" is complete.

I have finally, at long last, sorted and packed the clothes and labeled the tubs and boxes in which they will reside until we know which color we need to keep around. They are currently sitting at the top of my stairs because they are a bit too heavy for me to move. HOWEVER! I will have BB, or the neighbor kids, or my folks assist in getting them downstairs to the basement for me before Monday is over.

Now that the nursery is emptied of all clothing not required for the first 6 weeks at home, I was able to thoroughly clean the room. The walls are "dusted" of all fuzzies, webs and the like. Baseboard moulding is wiped clean of dust and milk crusties. Ceiling fan is shiny and light bulbs are replaced. Window and sill are washed clean. Blinds are dust-free. The carpet is not only vacuumed insanely clean (hard to do with white carpet and black cats who like the room's warmth), but has been shampooed. Before you worry about toxins and nasties floating through my house from the cleaning, we used an organic, non-toxic cleaning solution, and had the window open the whole time. It is almost dry, and tomorrow I'll have BB move Captain's mattress back in to stay until his bed is done next weekend. The crib will be moved to it's spot, the changing table under the window, and....drum roll please!!!!! My mom called about 90 minutes ago to let us know that they found a dresser with a matching night table for Captain's room, so the dresser that matches the nursery furniture can go back into the nursery, and we can actually have a place to put baby clothes!!!!! What a fabulous gift that was!

My mom is coming over Wednesday to get the nursery and DG's room completed. This entails putting away clothing in the dresser, hanging things like shelves and decorative items on the walls in both rooms, making up the crib (sheet and blankets on), and one final cleaning.

Monday will be my grocery shopping/baking, and housecleaning day (the rest of the house is crazy chaotic right now). Tuesday will be get the playroom and basement in order so BB can work down there during his leave, if he'd like. Wednesday is Mom's help. Thursday is a meeting of the Leadership team for my Moms' group, but that afternoon I'll be tackling the office - sorting, purging, filing, catching up our electronic records and the like. Friday will be another baking/tidying day.

The week of the 21st I'll be focusing on getting the utility room as close to completion as I can. I have some spots of wallpaper that still need stripping, must do some patching, and am hoping I can convince BB to just let me buy some paint for the walls and forgo having the walls textured to match the rest of the house.

I want the house shiny and in order with no projects from 2009 hanging over my head. I'm anal I know...but I just can't stand the thought of being NOT allowed to do things for several weeks as I recuperate and knowing that they aren't done...it drives me bananas...seriously...it makes me loco...as in, I could pull out my hair and lose my mind so please put me in a straight-jacket sort of crazy...

I do ok if I know I can do something but choose not to...it's another matter entirely when I'm told "Sorry! You can't do that!"

So, now I'm off to tidy my room a bit, perhaps make my bed, at least pick up clothes and other random items that have migrated to my floor, and then get dolled up for my Valentine's date with BB tonight.

I'm struggling with whether or not to use our emergency fund to pay Rocco's final vet bill, or to use a credit card, and then pay it off with the check from BB's stock sale...how bad is that?!?!? The whole point of the class is to move us away from living outside our means...so, do we use the cash, put some of the money from the stock sale back into our emergency fund, and then pay off the credit cards that we can with the rest of that money?

Input on that last bit is more than welcome...please let me know what you'd do if you had money to pay now on the vet bill, and could replace within a week...