tomorrow is the day, tidy-ing up

Tomorrow is my sleepover with my girlfriends for my 30th birthday. I am so excited I can not wait. I am hoping to take lots of pictures and share them with you all, but I do have a couple camera shy friends. We will see what we can do.

Today I will be busy getting all my laundry done, my floors all mopped and swept, everything dusted and cleaned and picked up. We do a good job of keeping the house clean most of the time, but when expecting company, I am always a little more thorough. (isn't everyone?)

I come from two parents who could not be MORE different in the house keeping ways. My Mom is a neat freak...honestly...no one can possibly have a cleaner house. Maybe just as clean, but not cleaner. They take vacation (???) each year to wipe down the walls in the entire house. While I wipe down my walls as well (you have to with a little one) I would NEVER take vacation to do such a thing. (I would hire someone first)

My Dad, God rest His Soul, was not a neat freak by any stretch of the imagination. He was not dirty either...he was a typical bachelor (most of his life he was just that). He was also a pack rat, NEVER throwing ANYTHING out. He passed away almost two years ago and we are still going through things of his.

Me...I get a little from both of my parents. I have always been a pack rat. My New Year's resolution for 2008 was to SIMPLIFY. And I have done a pretty good job of that, I think. Our home is old (1899) and has NO storage. We do not have a basement and no garage storage either. (my next home will have BOTH for the record). I was tired of stuff piling up here, there and everywhere. So I started going through everything, tossing, recycling, donating, selling and giving things away. There is now room in our shed (which I would like to tear down and rebuild, it is not much in the way of looks or being good for too much storage. I think it may have been built at the same time the house was...YIKES) for a bowflex which my dear husband has wanted since I met him, many, many years ago. And our spare room, which has been everything from a closet, to a storage room to a home office is finally cleared out enough for it to hopefully be a nursery in the near future. (it is still home to our desktop, but that can easily be moved) I still have not let go of my pack rat past though. I came across a box full of cards while cleaning out the shed and I still have birthday cards from my first birthday. I can not let go of those. I am a card person...I would rather get a card than a gift. (WEIRDO, lol) I also can not part with CJ's "baby" stuff. Partly because I want more babies, but also because I am so sentimental, how could I part with all of that. I do not understand how other Mom's do it. I wish I could be more like them, but I am not and I have excepted that. I will instead do my part to keep the tote making people in business. (our economy crisis will not effect them, thanks to me)

OK, somehow this post got off on something I did not intend to "blog" about. Sorry. And THANKS if you made it through all of that.

Yesterday I received an email from my dearest cousin in Indiana that had some AMAZING fall photos in it. I am sharing them (a few of them) with you. They are breath taking. I hope you enjoy. (Tomorrow if my football edition of Fall Picture Day)

FALL PICTURE DAY 24