WHAT!?!? On Wednesday.

SHUT. THE. FRONT. DOOR. Yep. I'm here. *Cough*Cough*. Holy cow it's dusty in here. WOW. Okay, so I'm going to clean out the cobwebs and spew random thoughts of Annie. Who knows what will happen.

So I've been ABUNDANTLY busy with my photo business. So much so, that I don't have time for much else. But it's okay. I love it.. But having a passion turned into a business, things change. Sacrifices are made, things get neglected. A few things that have gone by the wayside are the blog, the duct tape, the kids, the hub, the house, the dog... Okay no. Now I'm just exaggerating. The kids are fine.. (hang on, where's the baby?? DOES ANYONE HAVE VISUAL ON THE BABY!??!??), the dog stays fed and watered (as do the kiddos).  The house stays picked up, the important areas get cleaned, but you know when your husband says "I think we should get someone in to clean the house"? You don't pass go, you don't collect $200 (well, I would) but you don't EVER question a suggestion like that, and you head straight to the phone and "get someone in to clean the house". So that's exactly what I did.

Anyone that knows me, knows that I am the biggest pain in the tush person to clean for. I'm basically a cleanorexic that is never satisfied. I've stashed Cheerios behind trash cans just to see if they clean behind them. EPIC FAIL- every time. I've been through more cleaning ladies than I have underwear...and I have a TON of undies, people. Not that I wear them.. TMI for you? You can go. I didn't ask you to be here.. *insert big cheesy grin here*

ANYWAY...............
My neighbor referred her cleaning lady, I interviewed her and have had my sights set on her for almost a year. She was pricey, but I knew she was worth every penny. (Detail oriented, BBB accredited, licensed, bonded and insured). I called her, and she said "There will be 5 of us there and it will take at least 4 hours to clean your house". HAL-LE-LUJAH! I've had people come in here and clean my house in an hour and a half. My house is 5000 sq ft. You can barely walk through it in an hour an a half. (yes, that's an exaggeration.. and no, I'm not bragging about the size of my house, if you remember we have like a hundred small children and a dog.. so, it's really the same as a 900 sq ft apartment with one child). Well, the crew came and.. what do you know? 4+ hrs later, they were done. All 5 of them were dripping with sweat. I didn't care, I hugged the owner (Martha) and wanted to kiss her on the lips, but thought I'd save that for another time.. once we get to know eachother a little better. My house sparkled. My blinds and baseboards have not looked this good since we moved in. Even the kids were excited. (Probably because I wasn't shoving a duster in their hand for once). Ahhh. Serenity nooooowww. It was so nice to sit guilt-free at the computer and facebook work on editing last night. Now if I could just get someone in to do the laundry and cook, all would be well.
So, if you are in the market for a cleaning crew, give Martha a call and tell her that I referred you.

That brings me to my "topic".. People always seem to ask "how do you do it all?" "how do you always seem like you have it together when you have so much on your plate?" "do you EVER sleep?"
My answer is simple. I am Undervixen. That's right. I'm a superhero. Oh, don't act like you didn't know. Please. I've been keeping it a "secret" for years. But now it's out. It's too much for me to keep up the facade. Sure, it's hard to run in thigh high pleather stilletto boots, and sometimes my cape gets caught on things.. but it's all good. Totally worth it.

Seriously, I do what I can and I have an excellent partner in crime. (He's like my Robin, if you will...Either Robin- the Howard Stern one, or the Batman one.) I would be lying if I said we had some secret formula that helped get it all together. (If you know of one, let me know..) The kids are on a schedule- that helps, I do my work at night. I have my work nights, and Mike has his mountain bike nights. He rides after the kids go to bed, I work after the kids go to bed. I don't do it "all". I have to let things go.. like duct tape, like scrubbing my house, like showers and shaving. When I leave the house to see people (exception: carpool line, grocery store, errands, playdates.. okay, seems like there are a lot of exceptions here..) I pull myself together. I like to pretty up and it feels good. Okay, so basically once a month for Bunco I get dressed and do my hair and makeup. There, ya have it. I fool everyone with one night of looking half way decent. That's all it takes. Oh, and I don't complain. I don't crab about how much editing I have to do, or how many kids I have or that my husband can NOT SEEM TO CLOSE THE LAUNDRY CHUTE DOOR TO SAVE HIS LIFE!!!!!!!!!!!! (you think he heard me????) But complaining is non productive. Yawn. It's boring and noboody wants to hear your crap anyway. Be gone with it.

I have so much I want to do.. I just wish there were more hours in the day. I guess I could sleep less, but I'm not one of those people who do well on little sleep. It's not pretty when I'm tired. And right now, tomorrow is looking pretty ugly for me.

I'm happy to be able to ramble on. I hope you got some pleasure out of it.. (don't be a sicko).. and now you can sleep at night knowing that I blogged. (Kaylin).


♥

Ten on Tuesday actually on Wednesday, 3 months late and not even really Ten of anything.

Okay, sooooooo- after much grief, nudging and pressuring from the "people", I have decided to give my baby blog a little sugar. I appreciate everyone that remains loyal to my absentee-ness. You know who you are- Shari, Heather, Kristin, Marjorie, Shari, Heather. :) It's mucho appreciado. And yes, I did just make up fake Spanish words. Whatever. We've had the convo about how it's my blog and I can do what I want, and if you don't like it you can leave, right? Riiiiiiiight. Okay.

So it's not that I haven't wanted to spew my thoughts on here- quite the contrary. I have a lot to say. In the spirit of all things Sheen- I could rant about nothing for days. About how I'm a winner. Winner, winner, Sullivan dinner. Seriously. However, considering that I'm not on whatever drug he is on, and don't have that insane Meth-energy that he has, I choose to be a troll and neglect my blog in exchange for getting other things done. Those other things would include my photog biz which is flourishing, feeding my soul and fulfilling my desire to smell new babies. I am so blessed to have this relationship with my camera. I am constantly learning, growing and changing in my art. And the beauty of it, is I can see and feel the growth. It's very rewarding.

Here's what is on my mind...

First of all, what's the deal with men and women and losing weight. Have you seen that commercial- with the stick figures where the woman talks about losing weight and she loses nothing and the hub just thinks about losing and does? That's not really how it goes, but close. Well, that's happening at my house. Mike and I decided we wanted to lose weight- for different reasons.. He has a bike race coming up, I have some baby weight that I'd like to go away. My girlfriend Kristin suggested the Flat Belly Diet.. totally made sense to me. You eat real food, don't eliminate anything- it's not crazy, and you get to have chocolate. I won't give you the whole low down diet, but it's based on eating a MUFA (mono unsaturated fatty acid) with each meal. So, I do Flat Belly, Mike does a food log- he's lost TEN lbs, I lost THREE lbs.  And, apparently those three pounds did not recieve the memo to "get lost" and found their way back to me. Whatever. Shortly after I started Flat Belly, I had the honor of beginning my "cycle". Mike, trying to be the supportive hub that he is- kept reassuring me that the weight will come off, I just have to get through my time of the month, etc.. Then in the next breath, he's saying "don't hate me because I'm skinny"... Jerk. Just kidding, hon. I'm happy (cough, gag, VOMIT) that you are fading away and I can't lose a pound to save my life. I'm very diligent about this plan too.. I'm going to stick to it and see what happens. I'm not giving in or giving up. I will let you know what happens. I am determined to lose these last few pounds. Speaking of VOMIT.. Poor Chloe threw up tonight and I was thinking to myself (as Mike was cleaning up the mess) "maybe I should clean it up, then I'll get sick, because after all, I am really only one stomach flu away from my ideal weight".. Haha. No. I don't want to lose it that way. Or do I???? I ran twice- that was nice. Don't want to "overdo" it. (insert hysterical laughter here..) Okay- enough about that, I'm starting to get frustrated again.

I had mentioned on my facebook status, the amount of time I spend in my kitchen cleaning up. It's seriously an ALL DAY AFFAIR. And not the seedy Unfaithful type affair that leaves you sweaty and wanting a cigarette. Well, I'm sweaty, but not satisfied to the point of needing to fetch a pack of Marlboro's.. My new friend Marjorie (who I get the privilege of taking pictures of her family when I'm back east in June- shameless plug for Annie Sullivan Photography ) had mentioned that she and her sister referred to this ritual as the "Modern Day Cinderella". She is not kidding. I'm like a tattered dress, a pumpkin and some mice away from being Cinder-freaking-ella. In the morning I get up and make lunches for the bigs, and breakfast for myself. Mike is in charge of breakfast for everyone else. He's also in charge of taking the bigs to school- so I finish up with the littles, and clean up the kitchen. Then it's "I want a snack".. so, snack happens. And snack makes a mess.. So, I'm in the kitchen cleaning up again. And as much as we repeat to the point of sounding a bit Rainman-esque "food stays on the tile", it still manages to make it's way in to the playroom, the hall (technically it's "tile") under the couch cushions... Ugh. Then it's lunch time (this all happens by about 11:30 mind you).. And it's more food, more cleaning up. Then it's another snack, more cleaning, then supper, more cleaning. And sweeping? If I went ONE day without sweeping 15 times, I don't know if you'd be able to see the floor. Yes, I am exaggerating, but the 4 and under crowd is a rough one to keep up with. Sticky paws.. accidental spills in aisle 7. The whole nine. It's total karmic Murphy's Law when Mike mops the floor. (yes, he does the floors, I've mopped ONE time in 10 years and he actually took pictures. It's just his "gig". He likes it done a certain way.. and who am I to argue??). Anyway- Mike will mop and within 1 hour there will be milk spilled, or applesauce flung or yogurt dropped. Something. I don't get it. Oh well. It's all a lesson in patience and tolerance. I just want to get. out. of. the. kitchen. I did mention that it's amazing that I have time for anything else (aka 'facebooking') with all of the time I spend cleaning up.

And speaking of how much time I spend on facebook- I'd like to clear something up. I have a computer in a very central location in my house. If you've been here, you know where it is and what I'm talking about. I have to walk by the computer to get to the bathroom, the laundry room, the playroom, the back stairs. It's adjacent to the family room. So, in my defense (what, I'm not getting defensive, or okay maybe a little) I am not ON facebook all day. I have it up, I walk by, check what's new, put in my two cents, and then head to my destination (usually it's the kitchen). I also edit pictures while fb is up- and being the WINNER that I am, I can actually multitask and fb and edit at the same time. WIN-NER! Oy.

Well, this should satisfy the masses as an entry in the blog bank. I'm sorry it's taken me so long. It seems like I've not taken a breath since December. And there is no end in sight- however, I wouldn't have it any other way right now.

Peace out.