Feeling loved

This weekend was great as I got to celebrate my birthday with lots of people I love. Also, I can't believe how many times I got a treasure or a card, reminding myself how thoughtful my friends and family are and how thankful I am. Thanks for making it so special! Monday night my parents had us over for teriyaki steak, twice-baked potatoes and mom's new famous flourless chocolate cake (made with garbanzo beans!). I brought the remnants into work the next day and no one could believe it was actually good for you. (I am digging for the recipe, but I know for sure it's from Bette Hagman's Gluten Free Gourmet). My co-workers and I went out for lunch on Friday, then CR, Shandiz, Corey and I went out for dinner that night. We met up with Joe, Em, Aaron, Lenae, CB and Jodi for some bowling. We had a great time. Saturday was CR's bridal shower and it was great to celebrate at Melissa's uber-cool Victorian house. (The flourless cake also made a successful appearance). By Saturday night, the proverbial truck had hit me and the bragging about not being sick had evaporated. I've been chugging down tea and using my Neti pot, so I'm hoping for a quicker recovery.

Preview of future weekends

This past weekend was mostly crazy busy with some fun mixed in. I took the day off Friday and Corey was off for the week, so we scoured the house in preparation for meeting with our listing agent. We filled our entire truck with old mismashy furniture and Corey took it all to the recycling center, and we can now see the basement floor again. I mean, you could probably take up residence down there. The agent walked through the house with us, room by room, and told us what we should update to get ready to sell. Two big items include replacing our back door and cracked glass in our living room window. The rest is really painting, replacing baseboards, organizing, moving furniture, cleaning the carpets, etc. Not huge expenses but just a lot of time. So...we are trying to map out our tasks for Menards and elsewhere and will try to get cracking. We went to 6 open houses on Sunday with her and it becomes rather easy to decide which houses are worth considering and which are just kinda icky. So, the faster we can sell I think the more freedom we have to choose something else. Friday night Kim and Tom invited us over to their new place and we hottubed it under the stars--that was fun. Saturday we priced some items we're planning on buying--a bookcase, an ottoman, and possibly a chair. Any other advice for preparing/staging your house?