Miracles DO Happen!

As a single female, it's VERY hard and frustrating to know when you need to heed the advice of a mechanic. Especially if they tell you things could get very bad if they don't fix the problem on your car and oh, by the way, it's going to be $600-$700!! 

So for the last month, I've been driving around town with the fear of God in me that at any moment my car could go kla-blooie. I happened to be talking to some folks who thought my car was just the cutest & asked if I liked it. I told them I LOVE my car but was having some problems that I couldn't afford to fix right now. They told me about someone that does work "on the side" for my kind of car. Well, I'm Miss Rule Follower so after they told me it was legal, I got his number, made an appointment & as of yesterday afternoon, my car is fixed for $230!!! : ) Miracle One, check! 

The next miracle is really bittersweet for me. A few years ago, I moved into my parents, very cluttery house. The last year or so, I've decided I need to get my act together and find a real home for all this Stuff. Some of it is legitimate: decorations for holidays, camping equipment, Halloween costumes--you know stuff you don't use everyday but would like to have for that certain time of year. Granted, the stuff all added up over 30 years of marriage, two kids, etc but the majority of Stuff in this house, if it were up to me, would be recycled, trashed or donated. I've been trying for awhile to have dad/daughter time to go through said Stuff but something usually comes up and it still hasn't happened. 

Well when I pulled into my garage last night, I heard a constant hissing noise. I instantly thought that dude had pulled a fast one on me & my car wasn't entirely fixed, but then I saw water all over the garage floor. I freaked & ran into house so I wouldn't get electrocuted and called dad. He said it sounded like the water heater had busted. Sure enough it was. And it turns out, any Stuff on the garage floor is wet & pretty much ruined. So while I'm sure we're going to come across some things that are sentimental, the clean-out process has begun!!

Spring Cleaning

It makes me sad that the only motivation I have to clean my house is when I know someone's coming over. 

My uncle from Alaska is coming to town & is probably only staying one night but nonetheless I've been cleaning for two days now. Granted I haven't cleaned since it was 2008 (I know, gross!) but with all the sweat equity I've put out in the last two days, I feel pretty confident I can safely eat on any surface in any part of my house at this point. 

Did you know walls get dusty?! 

Thanks to my self-prescribed ADHD, staying with one cleaning project at a time is pretty hard. 

Example: I was scrubbing off the spray-on-caulk (don't ask) from the guest bathtub when I decided to rinse off the washcloth. Since I'm not that well-educated in the proper order of items to clean (ie top to bottom) and had already cleaned the bathroom sink to a sparkly spotfree shine, I decided to use the kitchen sink. On my way back to the bathroom, however, I glanced at the backdoor to be horrified at how gross the doggie door was. While sweating up a storm on all fours, I noticed some spots on the door so I wiped at those and when it came off, decided there was more wipe-able grossness that needed to come off. Needless to say, the backdoor (both sides), the doggie door flap (both sides), frame of the door and the baseboards leading into the kitchen are now spotless! Thank goodness for toothbrushes being able to get into those cracks & corners! I finally made it back to the bathroom and am quite happy with it's clean, fresh result! 

If anyone uses that bathroom before the guests arrive, I'll freak!