Time flies with the second child

Guilt ridden. Yup that is how I have been feeling this week. I look at Ava and can not believe how fast she is growing. She'll be 9 months in 11 days and I feel like I missed them all. Obviously, I have not and I have pictures (many) to prove it. BUT, I can not seem to convince myself that I'm not missing out - because I am. I can remember sitting in the den watching David for hours on end and enjoying every 'new' thing he did or place he went. With Ava, I feel that I have not seen everything 'new' and that I miss a lot of her. My schedule was more flexible when I returned to work after David was born which entitled me to be with him more. I have not had that with Ava. When I do get time with Ava, David is there and requires attention too. I am worried that I do not divide my attention between them well. I do not want one of them to regret the other because of the time I spend or do not spend with each of them. I always knew being a working Mom would be rough. I lived through it with David and thought I came out unscathed. I was wrong. Being a working Mom with more than 1 child is ROUGH and I am not unscathed. I am bruised, battered and my heart is aching. It is up to me to change the way I feel. I just wish I knew a better way.

Fallen for Craig

Craig's List that is. A friend of mine had mentioned a few times that she uses Craig's List. I had heard of it, but never used it. In case you are not aware of it, Craig's List is a website people can buy or sell items on or even find an apartment, vacation rental or roommate. I emailed another friend of mine that uses the site to ask her advice/opinion and she told me about her positive experience so I dove right in. With our kitchen renovation underway, I thought I would use it to sell our appliances and furniture. Last Thursday night I took photos of our items and found the manuals (so I had the facts for the blurp) and posted 9 items on the central NJ Craig's List. By the time I was finished, I had about 50 emails in my inbox from people wanting to purchase our stuff! I could not believe it. I was hysterical. Steve - not so much. He thought I was insane for selling our stuff this soon (we will not have appliances till Sept.) and this cheap. I defended myself, of course, by explaining that I could have given the stuff away for free and admitted I was just as surprised at how fast the items were moving. Here is the breakdown:

While I was at work on Friday, a woman came to pick up the Island. Friday evening, a couple came for the sideboard and another for the stove. They came back Saturday morning for the table. Sunday morning a woman and her son came for the pantry. Last night some guys came for the fridge. Tonight a couple is coming to see the china cabinet. UPDATE: China Cabinet has been sold! Dishwasher too!

Moral of this post: USE CRAIG'S LIST. Advice - accept only cash (advice given to us, we have not had a bad experience).

Appliances and Kitchen Furniture For Sale - nothing over $100

• SOLD GE Stove top Range - White, $100 SOLD
  
  


• SOLD Roper Refridgerator - White, $100 (65 H x 29.5 W x 29 D) SOLD
  
  


• SOLD Admiral Dishwasher - White and Black, $75
SOLD



• Hotpoint Over the Stove Microwave - White, $75




• SOLD Huffman Koos Kitchen table, 4 chairs and bench - White and Wood, $100 (66 W x 48 D x 30H) SOLD




• SOLD Huffman Koos Kitchen Island with 2 Drawers and Wine Rack - White and Wood, $75 (42 W x 34 H x 21D) SOLD




• SOLD Jc Penney China Cabinet - Green, $100 (70 H x 48 W x 13 D) SOLD




• SOLD Double Door Pantry - White and Wood, $75 (70 H x 34 W x 16D) SOLD



• SOLD 3 Door, 2 Drawer Side Board - White and Wood, $50 (42.5 W x 31 H x 16 D) SOLD

The 4th and more

At the Milltown Parade


To celebrate our independence, we took in the Milltown 4th of July parade with Laurie, Walter and Thomas. The parade was great. The kids had so much fun catching and picking up the candy that the parade walkers were tossing their way. The weather turned out to be crappy, so after the parade we went to Laurie's instead of Brookside. The men went on a quick job and ran some errands while we went for a walk. For dinner we ordered from Carrabba's - delicious. Laurie and I did a little scrapping before we left so I could get our laundry done for our vacation.

Thursday we left NJ and headed south to MD. We vacationed in Ocean City for the next 3 nights and 4 days. Our hotel was The Castle in the Sand on the beach. It was pretty good. Older, but clean. The first night we hit up the rides on the boardwalk and ate dinner at SeaCrets on the bay. It was a real cool place - huge too. I had a great Crab Toast and Steve enjoyed the fired shrimp. David loved the fact that the floor of the restaurant was sand.

After breakfast at Dough Roller on Friday Jackie, Michelle and Michelle met up with us. We hung poolside most of the day and spent about 1 hour at the beach. After we showered up, we took a ride to Crab Alley. The kids fell asleep in the car and slept until our table was ready. David was great, Ava on the other hand - not so much. Steve accidentally left her formula in our hotel room and she had a bad diaper rash. Poor baby girl. The girls and I took turns trying to keep her happy. Thank God for them. Steve and Jackie got the all you can eat blue crabs, the rest of us got the crab cakes and David got a hot dog with applesauce. He ate the applesauce and I ate the hot dog. The crab cake was to crunchy for my taste. When we finally got back to our room, I fed Ava and fixed her rash and right to sleep she went.

Saturday we hit the beach, but not before another trip to Dough Roller. This time we went to the one on the Breaker's Hotel. I wanted to see the hotel, but Ava fell asleep so we went right to the beach instead. David had a great time running in and out of the waves. It was sweltering hot, so Steve spent most of the day in the ocean. Ava was a good girl, but we tried to keep her under the umbrella. We starting our evening a little earlier than the night before and went to dinner at Phillip's. Again the girls were my saviors. One rocked while the other made the bottle. Then another fed her and got her to sleep. LOVE THEM! I got to eat my crab legs and drink my banana colada. After we went to the boardwalk and put David on some more rides. We made a stop at Candy Kitchen and then went back to the hotel for the night.

Sunday we all wanted to get a head start on the drive home so we were on the road by 9 am. Steve and I had a 3:30 pm appointment at Lowe's to order our cabinets and counter top, so we wanted to make sure we were home early. We made it home by 1pm. I started some laundry and cleaned up a bit. Laurie was kind enough to offer to take the kids to Crystal Springs for us. We dropped off the kids and our car and went to Lowe's. After about an hour, we were all ordered and met Laurie, Walt and the kids at the swim club. Everyone was hungry, so we grabbed dinner at Stefano's. After an interesting dinner, we went back home and off to sleep I went. I was SO tired.

In fact, I am still tired. So - off to bed I go. Stay cool!

Adding on

Once again (third time is the charm, so they say) we are adding on to our house. This addition, while not physically big, is huge for entertaining purposes. Our contractor (Brown & Glynn) have built a 8x6 area that opens the living room into the kitchen. I have always wanted that open and airy feeling of the newer homes and I think we have achieved that. They started the job last week and already the entire area is framed. Next they will put on the siding and then Steve and Walt need to run some electric. I am VERY excited about this and will post some pictures so you can see the progess.

We are also remodeling our kitchen. When we bought the house, the kitchen was not how we wanted it. Steve did a touch up job on it to update the floors, walls and countertop, but we still knew we'd want a total re-do. With this addition, it's the perfect opportunity. We spent about 3 hours at Lowe's yesterday picking everything out and we did not argue at all! I was very proud of us. After Steve measures the kitchen tonight, we'll go place the order. They are even running a promotion if you buy cabinets...depending how much you spend, you get a Lowe's gift card. YEAH! I LOVE GIFT CARDS!!

Here are the specs:
Countertop :Corian - Moss
Cabinets: Schuler - Monterey - Chesnut
Floor: Pergo - Global Passage - Dolce Mahogany
Paint: Vaspar - Montana Moss & Twilight Jungle