house hunting, trouble concentrating, and other random Monday missives

I wish I could get it together, to get it together on Mondays. Lately I just can't seem to though. Its a week from the official start of Autumn, and it feels 100% like Autumn already, and that is making me happy. But our house search is leaving me frustrated, and work is overwhelming. So Mondays lately, are too much for me.

Our weekend was nice, though busy, and too fast. Saturday we went to visit 7 houses! Gwen was great until the last place, it had just been too much for her at that point. We found one we like, but don't think we can swing it pricewise (its out of our range, and our realtor had added it at the last minute because it just came on the market). Even that house wasn't perfect, it was a ranch, which isn't my favorite and the kitchen was small, the bathroom needed a little TLC too. But the finished basement was AMAZING, and the bedrooms were a great size.  ::sigh::  I was feeling pretty discouraged about the whole house hunting thing after that. It feels like we're never going to find something that both fits our needs, and doesn't need big work, within our price range. Bahh.



We looked at probably 40 houses before we found the one we're in now, so I understand that it takes time. We were just hoping it would be a little easier this go around. We've already looked at a dozen.

Anyway, the rest of the day we spent getting ready for the yard sale.

Sunday was Yard Sale day. We started moving everything out and getting it all organized about an hour beforehand, and I was pretty pleased with how it turned out. I wish I had taken a picture of how much stuff was out there! Or before/after pictures of our basement, because the difference is astounding. Gwen and I headed off to a birthday party for one of her best school friends, while Trav manned the sale. We got back in time to help him finish it off. We had on the signs that it ended at 2, and Trav posted a message to freecycle that people could come by and take what they wanted for free at 3:30. So we basically just let it run until 3, then pulled the few things we didn't just want to give away, and put up a giant sign that said FREE. We didn't make a ton, but enough to feel good about it, and got rid of most of the stuff, which was amazing! Our basement is so much emptier!!! I'm really glad we did it.

We used some of our earnings to get some Thai for dinner. Decluttering never tasted so good.

This morning came way too fast and we are all tired. I did find another house yesterday that apparently just came on the market, so we are going to go see that this weekend. Fingers crossed that this is a good one. Or that I win the lottery this week so that money isn't an issue anymore!



Other random things:

- I kind of want to set the NFL on fire lately (here, here, here, here, here, here, and here). Don't worry, just figuratively...  no combating violence with more violence.  ::sigh::

- I didn't write about 9/11, 13 years later. There are so many beautiful posts about it out there, stunning memorials, and it still gets to me just as strongly how people's lives were impacted by it. Personally, I just can't keep hashing it out every year though. I will always remember. How in the hell could I forget. I'm just not going to write about it.

- Between Ebola, Enterovirus, ISIS, and the above... I pretty much can't handle the news lately.


So that's my Monday post. Sorry it isn't more upbeat!!