Help! I Think I'm a Hoarder!

We are still in the process of moving unnecessary items to a storage locker before we list our house for sale.  Actually, we already filled up a 10 x 10 storage, and had to move everything from it to a bigger 10 x 25 storage unit.  Thank goodness Big Daddy has a wonderful sense of humor and is a good organizer.  He insists I'm a hoarder.  I insist I'm not....but after seeing all of our "stuff", and knowing we still have more "stuff" to put in it...well, okay, maybe an organized hoarder.  Really, a lot of it is clothing.  With a big family, I save the kiddos' clothing to be passed down to the younger ones to save money.  But, I'm really not saving money now that I have to pay for storage.  Hope it's a good motivator to get this house ready to sell!

                                                    

Small Town Coca Cola Advertisement and Antique Street Clock

This painted Coca Cola ad has been on the side of this building for many many years! Isn't it wonderful?

I found this great looking Coca Cola train for all you collectors!

      

  And this Coca-Cola Tee!

                                               

Isn't this antique clock wonderful?

Even More Beautiful Old Fashioned Houses from My Small Town

I think I was born in a different era.  The Colonial or Victorian era.  The architecture of "period" homes just calls out to me when I drive by.  I always think of the families that lived in them in their "heyday", when they were first built.  How glorious they must have been, especially the Victorian homes, as homes were decorated with such rich fabrics, wallpaper, and ornate furniture!

I absolutely love this house!  The Champ so kindly took the picture out of our car window for me, but apologized for getting the wrong angle (with the tree hiding my favorite window on the house).  Of course, I told him it was fine-to have an almost 15 year old boy interested in and excited to help Mama take pictures of old houses for her blog was more than I could ask!)  So, he insisted we drive by another day and let him get a better picture, so look for it in a future post!

This was a hard picture to get, driving down the road.  This is a wonderful Victorian home that sits high on a hill with a beautiful barn on the property.  I so love this house, because my dream is to purchase a farm where I can hold weddings/wedding showers, parties, etc. in the barn, and have an outbuilding for an antique shop, and Big Daddy wants to have his own baseball field.  Dream on Queen Mama, dream on!

Look at this adorable playhouse I found online at Sams Club.  If we move to a home with a bigger yard, this is one of my dreams for my little Princesses also!  Blessings, my dear readers!

More Wonderful Houses in Small Town USA

Here are some more pictures of beautiful turn of the century homes in our neighboring small town, just a few miles away.

This home is one of my very favorites! It is on a beautiful tree lined street. I always make sure we pass it when we go through this town.

This house is so adorable~so welcoming and inviting! Always a manicured lawn and gorgeous flowers. I wish I would have taken a picture of the side of the house as it extends back with added rooms, just as pretty.  Really much larger than it appears.

A stately brick Victorian-probably built at the very end of the Victorian period as it is not as ornate and flat.  This picture doesn't do it justice, however.  It is quite appealing to the eye in person with a slightly weathered brown brick, but a wonderful wrap around porch!

Victorian Houses in My Small Town

I'm sharing some of my favorite houses from my small town and surrounding small towns. 

What a beautiful Victorian home in lavender and purple! I love thinking about what the families must have been like that lived in these majestic homes when they were first built over 100 years ago!

This is the most ornate and beautiful Victorian home in my town.  At one time, with a house full of teenagers, it boasted a basketball court on the third floor! 

My Small Town Porch View

This is the view of my small town from my front porch.  We live high on a hill and have a good view of a lot of our small town.  This was a hazy early evening shot I took. This picture consists of the side of my neighbor's beautiful pink and green Victorian home, and the beautiful tree-lined mountain tops.  If you look closely in the center of the picture, you will see a brown building with a sort of copula on the top.  It is now a garage, but back about 100 years ago, it was a crematorium.  This was told to me by talking with one of our town's locals who grew up here.  I love history and living in a small town!

Is Buying a House in our Near Future?

Well, STILL packing up the house in order to get it ready to put on the market.  We have lots of little remodeling projects to complete.  I am just hoping to have the house on the market by the end of May, as we are in the busiest buying/selling season.  I am so excited at the prospect of buying a new home and moving.  I  traveled to six open houses this past weekend.  I wanted to see what type of houses were being offered on the market in our price range.  At the lower end of our range, the houses seemed to need a lot of updating.  At the high end of our range, most of the houses were updated, but seemed small.  I am wondering if it would be wiser to stay in our already large home and refinance? 

Blessings,

The Queen Mama

Find a refinance opportunity in your state! 

Big Family is Packing, Cleaning & Remodeling

You never realize how much stuff you have until you go to sell your house...or move...For the past two months, we have been going through closets, under beds, in the attic, and the basement.  I have found that we have entirely too much stuff.  Stuff we didn't even know we had.  Big Daddy has been finishing up small remodeling jobs that never were finished in our 12 years of living in this small town.

Grandma Grace came down and helped me go through the kitchen cupboards.  We spent about 6 hours organizing and packing and aren't done yet!  I'm ready to throw in the towel and stay where we are.  It's so much work!  Not that I don't like to work and love a clean home, but the thoughts of keeping it that way while it's on the market with 5 children creating mini-tornadoes everywhere they go, is a daunting thought!

Well, please say a prayer for The Queen Mama to stick it out and that we are able to list our house shortly!

Football Sign-ups Today

Wow! Even though baseball practice is just starting, Football sign-ups are already here in our neck of the woods for Little Big Man.  The Queen Mama does not want him to play because I cringe every time he makes a tackle or gets tackled!!!  BUT, Big Daddy says let him cause he loves it and he's good at it.  Word is that he is going to be the quarterback this year!  Yep, that's my boy!

                                                      Little Big Man after a game last year.

                                           Little Big Man has this Nike football and loves it!!!                                                    

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Moving Madness

Well, we have decided to do it.  Sell our home, that is.  We have been working fiercely trying to get extra things packed away and finish our attic into a bedroom.  We were planning on doing it anyway for The Rock Star, and the realtor said it would help sell the house.  It's one of the highest priced in the neighborhood, so we have to do everything we can to make it sell.  We are still finishing up from our remodel and we have to have the house ready to list by May 1st.  Can you say stressful?    We are hoping to move from our small town to another small town, but we will see what happens.  I do enjoy being able to sit down at the computer at the end of a busy day and writing to all of you.  It helps keep things in perspective.
Blessings to you,
The Queen Mama

The Champ Didn't Make the Team

The Champ didn't make his high school baseball team, along with 39 other kids.  He's disappointed but not too upset, thank goodness.  Baseball is his life, though, and I'm wondering if he's not hiding his feelings from us. This is our son who we have carted and flown to 7 different states to play in tournaments on super competitive teams that he had to try out for.   55 kids tried out.  Seems crazy to me.  Why not make two teams or separate grades? We know most of the kids from him playing in this area since he was 4.  Some great kids on team.  However, have been told about 7 out of the 16 made it because of sports "politics".   Oh well, who am I to say?  Just a protective Mama Bear who can't stand to see her son suffer. How to deal with these kinds of things are not in the baby books.
So, I made him a special dinner and apple pie and ice cream, and let him play his favorite video game that I despise.  These teenage years can be heart wrenching!
Blessings,
The Queen Mama

Can I Please Have a Refrigerator, Bathroom, and Bed in my Car?

So today was one of those crazy days where I spent more time in my vehicle than I did anywhere else.  My Mom had invited me and my two youngest to breakfast at a restaurant we love, and I was looking forward to enjoying a Belgian waffle and a cup of hot tea AND having someone make and bring me breakfast for a change.  I should have known that Murphy would raise his hand and say, "I don't think so, sister!"

The Champ came to me last night and said "Mom, I think I'm wheezing.  I have guck".  Great.  He was wheezing, so after we dropped Little Big Man off at school the next morning, off to the Doctor we went.  Yep, wheezing.  Asthma treatments every 4 hours.  Well, the prescription would take awhile to electronically get to the pharmacy and be filled, so I totally took advantage of having my big strapping boy and took him to the grocery store.  He pushed the cart with food while I pushed the cart with the babies.  Then, off to the pharmacy.  Then home to unload groceries.  Then to the school to pick up Little Big Man.  Then took Little Big Man 1/2 hour away to the orthodontist while Big Daddy took the Princess to dance class.  Then had to hit a drive-thru on the way home since I was basically never home to prepare dinner.

It is times like these where I wish my already monstrous vehicle was equipped with a refrigerator, a bathroom, and a bed.  And, as I plop into my seat in front of the computer, I realize baseball season is only a couple months away, and I will be living in my car daily.  Perhaps I should rent or buy a Winnebago for the summer?  At least I could relax between stops!!!!

Kid Sleepovers~Why Do We Torture Ourselves?

Well, The Rock Star had a sleepover last night for his 13th birthday.  The Champ went to a friend's house for a sleepover, so that left us with 7 tween/teenage boys, one Little Big Man who thought he should be able to hang out with the tween/teenage boys, one Little Princess who thinks she is a boy and didn't understand why she couldn't hang out with them (and showed us by kicking, screaming, and crying), and one sweet baby who didn't like all the noise from the tween/teenage boys, Little Big Man, and the screaming Princess.

We tried to talk The Rock Star out of having a sleepover for exactly those reasons, but he wouldn't waiver.  We offered a skating party, bowling party, laser tag party, shopping, turning our attic into his own bedroom, BUT all to no avail.  Nope, he was bound and determined to have a sleepover.  "Mom, it's the only thing that will make me happy, and you said you just wanted me to be happy, and I could choose anything for my birthday party."

Which is why I had to laugh when a half hour after the party started, he came upstairs and said "Mom, can I open my presents now?"  NO, I said.  We do that later when it's time for cake.  "But MOM, everyone is kind of wild and they don't want to play video games, and Little Big Man and Little Princess won't leave us alone, and I need something for everyone to do to calm them down!"  After that statement, as I was beaming with pride that I actually instilled my dislike of loud, wild acting children into my teenage son, I let him open his presents.  Of course I had to add, "Do you see why we didn't want you to have a sleepover?"  Yes, Mom.....