Hi All,

After lazing about for 2-3 days, I finally convinced myself to "do" something and got back on the cleaning horse. (Perhaps I should call it a Bucking Bronco instead of a horse--for all the times I fall off/get bucked off of it. hehe) I started on my ground floor (kitchen and living room)--just because. I can pretty much pick anywhere because there is something to do everywhere--tis the nature of the hoarding beast though.

Well, I did about 3 hours worth of work. I hauled out 5-6 grocery bags of recyclable paper/cardboard, picked up pop cans and plastic bottles, broke down some boxes, and swept the kitchen floor. (Yep, I found my kitchen floor! hurray!) However, looking over the room, I can hardly tell I did a thing. But that will have to be okay--I am secure in the knowledge that I DID do a thing--several things in fact.

I had an epiphany today that I'd like to share: The load of laundry that I am planning on doing doesn't need to be perfect because it won't be the last one that I ever do. For example, Sometimes before I get going, I start planning in my head as I lay in bed. It does something like this: I should do laundry today. So, if I am going to do laundry today, before I go downstairs, I should pick-up all my socks in the room, if I am picking up all the socks from my room, I might as well gather all the towels too, since I'm going downstairs, I should balance my plate and mug on top of the laundry to put in the kitchen, if I'm going into kitchen, I should gather up all the dish towels, if i gather up all the dish towels, I should put away the air drying dishes to get the towels underneath them, if i am putting away the dishes, I might as well wipe down the counter tops, if I wipe down the counter tops, I should put the pop cans that have gathered on the counter tops into the recycling, if the recycling gets full, i should take it outside to the curb, however, the outside recycling is full because my neighbors got to it first, so if I have a full bag of recycling, I have no where to put it, if I have no where to put it, it will block my door, if it blocks my door, I won't be able to get in and out, and if there is a fire, I could be trapped and die. So, I can't do laundry today because I don't want to get trapped in my house and die.... So, even before I get started, I make myself exhausted and feel defeated. That's why I am trying to learn, just do that one thing--just do a load of laundry, if I miss a sock or a towel, no big deal because there are more loads of laundry in my future--this one doesn't need to be perfect.

How about you all? What did you do today?

Good morning :)

Other than the usual daily tidy-ups around here I have no plans.

He had plans but I said "NO".
He wants to visit a thrift shop. He is bored.
It is up to me to redirect him when he wants to fall off the no acquiring wagon. So, I have to be the big meanie. :D

There is pleanty for him to do around here, no reason for him to be bored today.

Weather here is clear and sunny but cold.

My Daffodils are all blooming like crazy! :D

I need to wash the windows first day it is warm enough for me to get all wet. Not today.

Life is an adventure! Enjoy it. ;)

Hi Dianne and Tillie. :)

Yes I am a very lucky girl. :)

I always love telling the story about how I met him. I remember when I first told my friends the story they were like, "I wish I had epilepsy so that I could be taken away in an ambulance by a sexy paramedic." Lol.

The ambulance ride to the hospital was actually pretty fun. Even though I was really embarrassed about having the seizure.

Good morning :)

Dianne
Sounds like you are off to a good start today! :D
Happy you have some company to help sort out books and pumpkins.

MayMay
In life I have found that often something good usually comes out of negative experiences.
Sometimes we just need to look closely to find them.
I'm certain that your Houston experience has had many positive turns. :)

I am keeping the cats separated for now in the hopes that the girl (my feral blue eyed albino) will get over her anger at my little gray (feral tabby) boy.
He honestly did nothing to offend her. I think he smelled "wrong" to her since I let him outside and he rolled in the dirt.

My hoarder is still home. He is grouchy.
Kept me awake all night ratteling around in his bedroom. TV on too loud, moving stuff around, swearing, stomping his way to the bathroom again and again.

The weather here is COLD.
Lucky if it gets up to 50 here today. Sunny but breezy.
Not a nice day to be outside.

If he stays out of my way today I plan to...
Clean the bathroom
Sweep floors & porches
Wash floors
Vacuum carpet
Dust

Then I need to find something enjoyable to do.
Been thinking about making peanut butter cookies. ;)
We all need to plan a little fun into our days! :D

Hi Dianne and Tillie. :)

I love having spa treatments. :)

Especially massages. I normally get a full spa treatment once a year; but I get a massage once a month. :)

Tillie,
I also hate going to the dentist. I can't stand it when they have their hands all around my face and in my mouth. It totally freaks me out.

I hate going to the doctor's office too. Not because I don't like them touching me, but because I always feel like I'm being judged by the nurses and the doctors when I'm there. Like sometimes when I'm there a nurse will take me into the room and take my blood pressure and stuff, and ask me some questions; and then, as she's looking at my medical chart, she'll look at it and then give me a weird look. :(

I love paramedics though. Paramedics are always so nice and friendly to me. I love that whenever I'm being medically checked out by paramedics they always call me either "sweetie" or "sweetheart". :)

I've been medically checked out by paramedics 3 times. The first time was when I was 17 years old; after I had an epileptic seizure in the back of my dad's truck at "Max and Erma's". The second times was when I was 19 years old; after I was in a really bad car accident. And the third time I was medically checked out by paramedics was almost a year ago; after I had another epileptic seizure; this time I was at work when I had the seizure.

That was actually when I met my boyfriend josh. He was one of the paramedics that responded to the 911 call when I had my seizure last year at work.

Dianne,
I will definitely let you know what happens with the hoarder's home.

I'm still sad about it too. :(

At least I know that she has a family that loves her and cares about her and will let her live with them if she does end up losing her house.

I still feel really bad that I'm not going to be able to be there when code-enforcement does the inspection. :(

Good morning :)

It is like a three ring circus around here.
I have to juggle 5 cats, one sickly bored man and try to keep up with keeping the place tidy.

I am tired out before I even get out of bed.

Not planning on doing much today. Will just try to hold down the fort for now.

At least the winds we had yesterday have stopped.
Constantly blowing wind wears me out even when I spend the whole day inside.
In some areas the winds were so strong they blew down power poles.

Three of the cats got into a nasty ugly cat fight.
No one got hurt. For some reason the only female was on the warpath and decided my little gray cat must die. That never happened before. :(

Anyways...

Everybody find something fun today & laugh a little. :D

Dianne

One of the first lessions I learned about helping my hoarder is to never say...
"yes you cleaned that over there BUT look at what all you did not do yet!"

They are already overwhelmed when looking at the project as a whole.

It is really so very important to say positive things about what has been done and never be critical about what still needs doing.

A hoarder will lose all their motivation to continue when met with such criticism.

Later, at another time, I will bring up the conversation of what areas/projects need to be tackled soon.

He really is so overwhelmed that he doesn't know where to start or how to cut down areas into "Do-Able" sized tasks.

MayMay

Hope you have a fun relaxing time there. :)

I could never do that.
My biggest phobia is being touched by humans.
Can't stand it. Makes me want to scream.

I have a really hard time going to the dentist because they touch me.
I stay away from Dr's offices too.

Oh well ;)

Today I am going to treat myself like Kim Kardashian by going to a spa and having an all day spa treatment. :D

The spa treatment that I picked out is called "Day of Relaxation". And the treatment includes a one hour Swedish massage, rejuva + facial, a spa body silk body wrap, a manicure, a pedicure, a hair styling, and a gourmet lunch. :)

Thanks MayMay :)

I have him in his bedroom with the DVD copy of the Hobbit to keep him occupied.

He has food & pleanty to drink so maybe he will stay in there. ;) lol

Hey Tillie,
Sorry to hear that your husband got sent home from work. :(

All the Guys where he works sent him back home & said not to return till Monday at the earliest.:(

Good news is that my apricot tree is all in bloom. :)
Lots of blooming daffodils too. :D

The wind is blowing hard.
It is snowing in Carson City.

Hoping tomorrow will be nice enough for me to go outside.

HAPPY FIRST DAY OF SPRING!

He felt well enough to return to work! :D

So I slept in.

Will do a few things to tidy up around here but mostly I'm taking it easy today. ;)

Everybody have a wonderful Spring day even if the weather isn't exactly Spring like. :D

Today "the Hobbit" was released on DVD/BLURAY.

I drove into town to WallyWorld (walmart) and they had a one day sale on the movie.
Any DVD or BLURAY or combination sets of DVD/BLURAY were all priced at 24.96.

I bought the combo pack with BLU-RAY 3D + Blu-ray + DVD + ultraviolet.

YEA! :D

Tomorrow the prices all start at 29.96 and go up from there.

I have spent this afternoon watching "The Hobbit" on BLU-RAY and eating spicy jelly beans. :D

Hey Tillie,

That's so cool!!!!! :D

If you did something like that where I live you would probably get arrested though. The cops are awful where I live.

They will pull you over and harass you for no reason at all.

It has never happened to me before; but when my half brother was my age, he would get harassed by cops all the time for no reason at all.

A cop did threaten to arrest me once when I was 9 years old though.

It was the day that my half brother's father died.

I remember when we pulled up to my half brother's dad's house there were police cars, a fire truck, and an ambulance at his house. And when we got out of the car and asked what was going on, a cop came up to us and told us that my half brother's father died. After he told us that, the cop said that he thought it would be a good idea if my half brother and I waited in the car while he talked to my mom. So we went back to the car and waited for him to get done talking with my mom. A couple of minutes after we got back in the car, the cop and my mom went inside the house. After I saw that they went inside the house, I decided to get out of the car and follow them into the house. After I got out of the car and started walking towards the house, another cop yelled at me and told me that if I didn't get back in the car, then he was going to arrest me.

He totally scared the crap out of me when he yelled at me and threatened to arrest me. I remember after he said that, I started balling my eyes out; and one of the firefighters came up to me and asked me what was wrong. After I told him what happened he walked me back to the car and then walked over to the cop that threatened to arrest me and then he punched him and then started yelling at him. It was pretty cool to see that happen. :)

That was the day that I started liking firefighters and paramedics more than cops. :)

He is feeling much better today.
Was able to sleep last night without much breathing difficulty.

Now he is complaining that his butt hurts.
Dr. gave him a shot in it. hahahaha :)

It is a cold dark wet day today so it looks like I won't be going outside to play.

I don't have any plans.

He did a LOT of decluttering in his bedroom!
He even found half of the floor and vacuumed it.
He even did some dusting but still hasn't removed the cobwebs. Maybe he will get those today.
I can always hope. :D

Maybe today I will finish fixing the beads on my blouse. They look like they might fall off.

Hope everyone has some fun today. :)

MayMay

If you listen to a "scanner" in Houston you could hear all the strange things that police, fire & ambulance get calls for.
It is very busy and interesting there.

I had a run in with a Houston cop.
I just finished gassing up my car & was slowly pulling away from the pumps.
Cop pulls up and flings his door open right into the side of my moving car.
I gave him an earful! Called him an idiot. lol

I hope your husband feels better soon Tillie. :)

Hey Tillie,

Really? Stuff like that happens a lot here in Houston?

That actually makes me want to move here to Houston. :D

Because nothing weird or crazy ever happens where I live. My town is very boring. :(

I'm actually kind of shocked that I didn't get arrested while they were trying to catch her. Lol. ;)

Because at one point while they were trying to catch her, they kind of had her trapped; and on one side of her there was a firefighter and a paramedic ready to catch her and wrap her up in a blanket. And on the other side of her there were 2 police officers ready to catch her and put her in handcuffs. So she was about to get caught no matter what; but they kind of let her make her own decision about who she wanted to grab her. I could see her head moving back and fourth trying to figure out who she wanted to run to; so I decided to roll down my window and help her out with her decision by yelling at her and telling her to run to the firefighter and the paramedic. After I did that she looked at me; so I yelled at her again and told her to run to the firefighter and the paramedic because they know how to treat a girl right. Lol. After I did that, one of the cops that was near my car gave me the meanest glare I've ever seen. Lol. I totally thought that I was going to get arrested right there on the spot. Lol.

Hi Dianne :D

I am taking a lunch break right now.
It is very important that we schedule regular breaks into our cleaning/decluttering To-Do lists.

We have been fortunate to have lovely Spring weather days mixed in with Wintery cold days this month.

Hoping your Spring will get there soon (((hugs)))
Warm sunny days do so much to lift our spirits.

This morning two of the cats started a wrestling match in my garden right on top of my Daffodils.
We just can't win! ;)

OK...
He went to the Dr.
Has some viral lung thing that is going around in this area but now he has secondary complications from it.
He has lots of new meds now.
I talked to him about the condition of his bedroom.
He is a LOT worse at night and I know that the long standing dirt, dust and general rubbish is what makes him worse in there.
Right now he is doing some cleaning in there! :D

TTYL, back to work, Tillie :)

He is still sick. I think he may have pneumonia by now or maybe just the plague. He is going to the dr. today.

Anyways......
The house needs cleaning.
I will do what I can with him underfoot around here.

There's some dishes that need washing.
Should do a load of laundry, just to keep up with it.
Sweeping and vacuuming would really help improve things too.

Maybe I will just wash my hair and take a nap. ;)

I need to find some motivation. Mondays suck :D

MayMay
A huge city like Houston always has something "interesting" going on there. ;)

I hated Houston so much that I turned down a dream job with the fire department there back in 1978.

I did like the highway that went all around the city like a giant wagon wheel. Made it easy to find places.

OMG! I saw the CRAZIEST thing happen today!

Today while I've been out and about in Houston, I saw some women running around naked! LOL.

It was hilarious! I have no idea why she was running around naked; she might have been drunk or something. but they made a HUGE deal out of it. They literally had everyone chasing after her. They had the police, the paramedics, and firefighters all chasing after her. When I first saw the fire trucks and ambulances, I thought that there might have been an accident or something. But it turns out that the fire department was just there to help catch the naked women.

Take a guess as to which department was finally able to catch her.

I'll give you a hint as to which one it was.

Here's your hint:

When they were finally able to catch her, they didn't put her in handcuffs, but instead they wrapped her up in a blanket. :)

Thanks Tillie. :D
Happy St. Patrick's Day! :D

Happy St. Patty's Day!!! :D

MayMay, nice posters!
Hope things go well for you in Houston tomorrow.

Dianne,
Planning to wear my lucky green blouse and my lucky green socks today. :D
My Father's paternal Grandparents emigrated from Ireland and he never let us forget it.


My plans for today....
Make corned beef & cabbage.

Today we are going to put up a new ceiling fan in the livingroom area.
We do not work well together on projects.
Plus he is angry because I got this new fan out of his collection of ceiling fans in his hoard.
He has many many new still in the boxes of ceiling fans but does not want to "waste" any of them.
He feels it is wasting items if we use them in our home.
I see they are wasted sitting out there getting ruined especially when we need to replace items in the home and he has new ones just sitting there.

Wish me luck ;)

Thanks Tillie. :)

The cool thing about keepcalmandposters.com is that after you make a poster, you can buy the poster that you made. :)

And earlier today my boss called me and told me that he bought 2 posters that the hoarder and I made last night for the bar. :)

One of them says, "Cory Chalmers is always welcome here."

And the other one says, "Matt Paxton is always welcome here."

Here are the links to the posters:

http://www.keepcalmandposters.com/poster/cory-chalmers-is-always-welcome-here-18

http://www.keepcalmandposters.com/poster/matt-paxton-is-always-welcome-here-9

So far I have no plans for today.

Fed the cats breakfast.

Wondering if "he" has any plans.

Right now I am still sitting in bed drinking tea and playing on the computer :D

Hi MayMay :)

Glad to see that you have found some fun activities to do while waiting on APS. :D

Take care.

Hi Beverly :D

Paulie sounds so sweet and happy!

The thing I like best about the quail is when a momma comes walking out with her newly hatched brood swirling around her feet.
Looks like a little dust cloud. The babies are so very tiny.
Quail are a lot like chickens. Lay lots of eggs that hatch at the same time and the chicks peck up their own food.

They nest under all my hoarders old vehicles and other stuff piled up all around.

Happy that you are getting lots of hours at work and the income. :)

Take care and please keep in touch when you can.

(((hugs)))

Believe it or not; but we are still making more posters on keepcalmandposters.com :)

Here are 2 more links to go to if you want to check out our posters:

http://www.keepcalmandposters.com/poster/call-me-cory-chalmers-heres-my-number-937-684-6095-1

http://www.keepcalmandposters.com/poster/keep-calm-and-try-to-stop-hoarding-2

Hi Tillie,

That's great that you have been able to pretty up your garden. That sounds so nice to have all those quail running around taking dirt baths except that they keep messing up your tree wells. Those silly quail, don't they know all the work it takes to dig those?...haha

Sorry to hear your Hubby has been sick with a cold.

My little Paulie has laid 4 eggs and she is such a good Mama sitting on her nest only coming out of her Apple box to greet me with kisses, eat, drink and poop. Her box sits on my bed with her food on top although I do have some Zupreem food inside so she can keep eating. It's so cute to watch her sitting on her eggs. Of course they won't hatch so when she gets bored with the eggs I'll take them away and hide the box again like last year.

I haven't made any progress on my house but have been working a lot. So it's OK because I sure can use the money.

Take care

Right now I'm still in Houston. :)

Right now me and the hoarder that I am helping, are goofing around on my iPad. :)

Check out these posters that we made...

Go to these 2 links to look at our posters:

http://www.keepcalmandposters.com/poster/keep-calm-and-clean-with-cory-chalmers-7

http://www.keepcalmandposters.com/poster/keep-calm-and-clean-with-matt-paxton

Good morning :)

Day three of him being home from work sick with some sort of cold virus.

Yesterday I walked over to the neighbor's house and we had a nice visit & got all caught up on the latest news.

Today I will get caught up on some inside housework.
With him home all these days the bathroom needs more than a swish & swipe.
The floors and porches need sweeping.
The carpet needs vacuuming.
He brought out some dirty dishes from his room so now I need to do some kitchen tidying up.
There is a load of laundry waiting to be washed.

Now I just need to get my motivation to get up & turn off the computer. :D

Hi Dianne :)

Glad you got some good rest last night.

Yes, emotional energy.

Great plan starting with sorting out the easier from the harder decisions.
That will make a smaller pile to spend emotional energy on.

Going to finish drinking my tea & waking up now. :)

Hi Dianne :)

Hope you get a good night's sleep tonight.

Way To Go! on passing along the decorations to your daughter.

Getting older does seem to have some advantages. ;)

Good morning :)

Have no real plans for the day.

Few things that I may or may not get to.
First I will do my usual daily tasks.

Today is cloudy & cool but yesterday it got all the way up to 70 degrees! :D

What are you doing today?

I was able to finish all the hard work getting the yard/garden ready for Spring.

There are a few things that I was/am planning to do today out there.

Spray the baby Ash trees to try to prevent the caterpillers that make their leaves curl.

Set up the wasp traps. There are already wasps flying all around! :O

My allergies are really acting up today and my back is stiff.

But my little yard/garden area looks beautiful! :D

Too bad that it is all surrounded by old vehicles, weeds and general "stuff" and can't be seen from the road. lol ;)

Mary :)

Hope you were able to chat last night :D

My goal is trying to stay online for the group meeting tonight. Sunday I was dropped and then poof electric went out.

Good morning :)

What are YOU doing today???

I know what I plan to do.
More out in my garden area.
Accomplished a lot yesterday but still have a lot more to do.

I am getting old :(
Used to be able to get a lot more done in a day than I can do now.

The weather is nice and it feels good to be outside after being inside all winter.

Good morning :)

Today I plan to go outside and do some gardening.

I need to re-make the wells around the trees and bushes.
The ground here is sand. Nice fine sand, great for drainage.
The quail love to roll around in this sand and take their little dirt baths.
They especially like to do this in my tree wells and that flattens the sides out so they would not hold water.

Sometimes I have had as many as 100 quail run through my yard at one time!

All summer long I maintain the tree wells but after a long winter I always need to rebuild them.lol

Have some fun today! :D

Hi Dianne :)

BIG "WAY TO GO!" on tackeling that area! :D

It sounds easier for you now that the other Granma is helping out.
You have so much pet care to do daily. Right now all my cats are taking turns getting snuggles from me while I am trying to post. :D lol

Good luck with your To-Do list today.

Now off to post my list.

Hi Beverly :)

Glad you still have your sense of humor! :D

It is almost impossible to get any projects done at home when you have such a busy work schedule.

When we get physically and mentally exhausted the little annoyances in life seem to get under our skin more so than usual.

That radio is expensive! :O
I find it rediculous how much they charge for new car parts these days.

Take care of yourself and check in here when you get a chance.

TTYL, Tillie :)