Cleaning House

Wow, today was a productive day.  I spent a solid four hours digging through the mess that is my craft room.  After 6 bags of trash and 4 bags of "up for grabs" stuff, I finally made a dent in the disaster.  Matt took Chloe over to his dad's to help get the barn up to par.  I can not believe how much STUFF I've accumulated over time!  The closet was non-functional in that room.  It was packed to the brim with old magazines and junk that I never use!  

It is so cathartic to just start tossing stuff.  But then, I feel terribly guilty for having amassed it all in the first place.  

I was watching Oprah the other day and there was a woman on the show who hoards things.  They cleared out her home and filled a 10,000 sq. ft. storage facility with all the sellable crap she had in her 2,400 sq. ft. home.  I don't ever want to be her!

Digging through my junk meant digging through my past.  I still feel like I'm pretty young but after looking at all the old photos and letters that were sitting in the bottom of that pit, I feel like I just spent four hours reliving my last 30 years.  

That is more exhausting than the actual cleaning.

I think that is why we hire other people to come deal with our junk.  They don't have to go through the emotional purging when it isn't their own history they are sifting through.

Hopefully, Matt and I will get this house in order before Chloe is old enough to realize what a pack rat I am.  I don't want her modeling after me.  I want her to have a clean, crisp, uncluttered life in all respects: emotionally and physically.

A Year Gone By

Well, I can't believe it has been over a year since Chloe was born!  I thought it would be a good idea to start blogging our adventures as parents and guess what....time got away from me!

Chloe is now 15 months old and an amazing little girl.  To recap some of her highlights (and ours) in the past year, I will bullet them quickly here and then from now on, I hope to blog more regularly!

Born Dec. 20th 2006 at 12:53 pm via C-section

9 lbs. 7oz.  she was HUGE

Mom took a LONG time to recover from the birth!

Went to child care at 13 weeks while mom had to go back to work full time

Had a great summer on the boat, camping and visiting relatives

Went to the zoo

Mom went back to work 1/2 time

Chloe ate insulation and mom had to call Poison Control

Started crawling at 10 months

Got first tooth at 10 months

Started walking at 13 months

Got pneumonia at 13 months

Says many words at 14 months:  shoes, kitty, book, milk, mamma, daddy, hi, bye, uh-oh etc.

I think that about catches us up to today!

We went to the Library for the first time and Chloe really thought I'd taken her to Disney Land.  This kid loves books soooo much!  She had a great time looking at the shelves and rows of books.  She climbed right up onto a small chair and looked through many books that were left on the table.  She was not too happy with me when it was time for us to leave.  She snuck back to the children's section while I was checking out.  She has little fear of being out of eyesight which frightens me to no end!

We had a great day today.  She said, "Hi Chester" (to our cat) for the first time!