Her Halloween get-up:  Lame princess dress, puppy backpack, and a Lions hat. 

 

Waiting for trick-or-treaters.  Her favorite part of the festivities.
 

OH MY, have I been busy.  With the holiday (hallerdays) season kicking off this weekend (we set up Greta's tree), cleaning, Dave working, and watching Beau for the last week, this has been a crazy few days.  Actually, few months.  The business, Clean by Carrie, has slowed down quite a bit.  I went from having 10 residential clients to just four. With folks changing jobs, marital status changes, and with Christmas shopping approaching, having your house cleaned is a total luxury.  Sadly,  I am the one taking a hit.  It actually has worked out pretty good because.........................I'm prego.  Yep, the baby apartment is occupied.  While we weren't "trying," (and I always HATE when people have said that/say that), I was a fool to think otherwise.  We literally didn't have to "try."  So, baby #dos is due June 8th, Gertie's bday.  It technically has a due date, but it will come before then, thanks to a little something called "scheduled C-section."  No labor for me, which is FINE.  I've been pretty tired and blah feeling.  I basically have no energy and our own house/homemaking duties that I usually take on have completely fallen to the wayside.  Seriously, I have a 10 hour window of energy and once that is gone, I'm in bed.  No later than 8.  Seriously.  Dave has been pulling up the slack by helping out a bit more, even though he is still working a ton.  I don't know how women with more than 1 kid do this.  So, I'm pregnant.  Good times. 

In the past few months, we've also finally settled the house/home inspector lawsuit-situation.  We went to mediation two weeks ago and settled.  We didn't get exactly what we wanted to repair all of the water damage/fix everything, but with 50% of what we asked for, it is better than what Dave thought we'd get.  I went into it knowing I was right and THEY were wrong, and I had to get my point across.  I was not about to let the home owners/home inspector/mobility company pull the wool over my eyes.  It was clearly evident that all three parties had zero integrity, in regard to the ability to maintain a decent house, and disclose any problems it might have.  This has been a huge learning experience for me.  In the future, I will definitely be a part of every tiny aspect of selling our house, finding a new house, then buying a house.  It is the largest investment of your life, so why wouldn't you take your time?  I find it interesting that real estate agents expect a buyer to go out in one day, find a house, make an offer, and be done with it in a week. Now I know that is definitely NOT how things should go down.  I've been inspired to do something in an effort to make sure this does not happen to someone else in the future.  I wish there were more resources to home buyers/home owners about the dangers of bad contractors and crappy real estate.  I'm also very much interested in a home owner's idea of maintaining a house.  With the lawsuit going on, I began to pay a lot more attention to our own neighborhood and just how outdated it really looks.  I have been to 2 open houses in the neighborhood in the last few months and I couldn't believe how dated the décor was, and the realtor's play it off as "updated."  Very.  Disturbing.  Not just interiors, but exteriors as well---landscaping, siding, windows, etc.  Yikes.  Thankfully, I think our neighborhood is at the beginning of a transition--older folks moving out, younger folks moving in.  Now if there was a way to ensure these newbies had some taste.  Hmmm.....