house hunting - the apartment dweller's edition

we spent months looking for a house.  we made offers on three homes and went under contract on one, but it wasn't meant to be.  we had to face the reality that a home just isn't in the financial cards for us right now.  zach is still in graduate school.  i am still a public school teacher with a bachelor degree.  we will have a home one day, but today isn't the day.  tomorrow probably isn't, either! so, for now, home sweet home is a big-box apartment complex, but we are content, for the time being, with our 2/1.  it's carpeted for clain's little knees (although now that he's walking, i should say it's carpeted for his tumbles!), safe and well-lit.  it's also our little family's third home since welcoming mcclain in july 2012!

in the meantime, we've been locking down our finances (read: i've spent a good bit of time researching other bloggers' budgeting systems and adapting them to suit our family's needs).  it feels good to have a plan.  zach is not a planner, and truthfully, i am not so much a planner as a planning-enthusiast.  but we have a plan, and i'm enthusiastic to see it play out!

we are maintaining our finance's via Kath Eats Real Food's The KERF Budget.  it is a lot: there are three tiers and each tier has it's own format, but it is a lot of goodness and it is doing a lot of good for our family! 

while we are three-tier-tracking our expense, i am still trolling real estate websites on a near daily basis, hoping and dreaming and planning for the day when we have enough money saved up and enough financial stability to buy a home!

house hunting...

we have been looking for a house since may.  we probably started talking about it in march, but our lender approved us for funding, etc., in may and the house hunt began in earnest.  i should say, "my obsessive, incessant observation of listingbook.com began in earnest," because i hunt for houses online far more than we do in person.  we've been to see lots of houses, made four offers, backed away from one and been disappointed by one house that really stole our heart.  in hindsight, it was for the best, but my heart still constricts when I think about that house. 

 the thief in all of her glory

now, we're in a multiple-offer situation on a house that may or may not be "the one."  thinking of the necessary funding, etc., is scary - but throwing money at an apartment that will never belong to us is equally scary.  nevertheless, it'll work out - even if our house hunt goes on the back burner until some little beauty meets our extremely specific criteria, which is mostly dictated by price and school.  sure, it will be nice when mcclain has his own room (and we have ours!), and when zach has somewhere other than the kitchen table on which to spread his school paraphernalia (and i have somewhere other than the floor), but in the meantime, our loft is home sweet (small) home, and we are loving having our little boy here in this space!

visual priority list

dis·or·gan·ized/disˈôrgəˌnīzd/

adjective:

not properly planned and controlled. (of a person) unable to plan one's activities efficiently.

zach says that i have a visual priority list, by which he means that i have little or no ability to prioritize tasks.  instead, i do things as i see them, and the order in which my eyes encounter them generally dictates the order in which i attend to them.  i might be deeply engrossed in one activity and then another will catch my eye.  when this happens, i'm prone to disengage from my initial task and take on the one I've only just realized is infinitely more important and, even more worrisome, incredibly time-sensitive.  generally, attempts to get out the door look something like this:

zach: "sells, let's go."

[i look up, notice that the catchall by the door, which is only intended for keys, phones and sunglasses, is overflowing with scraps of paper from my dear husband's pockets, and finish the dish I'm currently scrubbing before abandoning any other dishes to the depths of the sink and hurrying over to "clean out the catchall really quickly - no, seriously, really quickly" before leaving the loft.]

the state of affairs when i elected to organize the loft pre-baby

i might run into four "pressing" tasks while completing an initial task - and not take the dog outside until all five are finished.  macy's ears don't perk up when I say "walk" because she knows the gratification will be delayed; when the word slips out of zach's lips, her tail is wagging and she's ready to go! 

i should add that this isn't merely a home-based dilemma; i struggle mightily in my classroom, too.  i'm currently trying to create a schedule by which to accomplish essential weekly tasks so i don't stay at school until 6 pm in a frenzied state of trying to grade papers, make copies, wipe down tables and corral books into their correct bins.  one main task per day is my goal; i've heard from organized teacher-friends that they have one main task per afternoon and complete any small tasks after finishing their daily goal. i do not, however, return to school for about seven weeks - who wants to put money on this "to do" going to the bottom of my list until ooooo, six weeks from now?

obviously, my little habit [read: constant state of disorganization] is counterproductive.  i am trying - desperately, desperately trying! - to force myself to prioritize tasks and activities and deviate from my list only in the face of an absolutely necessary task.  to this end, i'm using the heck out of the alarm and calendar apps on my iPhone.  while these apps keep me on task, i'm still a fan of the handwritten list, on which you can cross out activities as you finish them.  a friend once told me that more optimistic people check off items on their to-do lists, rather than strike through them, but i find it infinitely more satisfying to draw a line through a task i've completed. disclosure: sometimes, i do something and then write it on the list and cross it out (cheater!).  another consequence of a visual priority list, and a personally-justified deviation from that list...

right now, to-do lists are working pretty well for me, although they haven't necessarily helped me to prioritize my days' activities.  rather, I scramble to finish everything, heedless of the efficiency of the order in which i complete things. i kind of love this to-do pad, although i'm sure it seems excessive for the non-organizationally challenged. also, an index card will get you just as far... what helps you stay on-task?  are you generally regimented?  teach me your organized ways!

peach city, peach state

allow me to preface this post by saying the following story is entirely true.

when zach is at work or class and i take mcclain and macy on a walk by myself, i usually tuck clain into his baby bjorn and leash macy, rather than attempting the herculean task of walking four miles with dog and stroller.  having mcclain in the bjorn means i don't necessarily have to walk on the sidewalk and that i am free to take routes involving stairs.

recently, i was cutting across the side lawn of our loft - because no stroller means i can do that! - with clain in the bjorn and macy trotting alongside us.  all of a sudden, someone says, "well hello there!"

there was no one in sight.  i stopped for a moment but assumed i was overhearing a conversation through an open window.

"i said 'hello there'!"

there was still no one in sight. i dropped Macy's leash and wrapped my arms around mcclain. 

"i didn't mean to scare you."


still no one in sight.

and then some strange instinct drew my eyes up and there, at 7:15 am, in the crotch of a tree, was a man wearing chaco sandals and entirely black clothing.   

he proceeded to ask me if there was anyone beneath the tree (this struck me, somehow, as odd: i don't feel that "beneath" is often used conversationally) and whether or not it was safe to climb down.  i told him to climb on (on belay?  belay on.  climbing? climb on.) we made small talk for a few minutes as he climbed down and then parted, my trio headed one way and he headed another. 

the next morning, as i was pulling out of the bass parking lot on my way to the pediatrician, I noticed my chaco-wearing friend below the variety playhouse marquee: he was stuffing a bedroll into his backpack. he looked up, saw me and waved.

atlanta is no new york city, but it is a place to which people from other, smaller cities and towns journey.  atlanta is a cosmopolitan city in its own right, and there are so many people venturing here to "live the dream"!  i hope, for my friend in the tree, with his bedroll and his determination, that he finds what he's looking for here in this peach of a city!

mcclain steverson roach

meet mcclain!

mcclain steverson roach arrived at 9:28 am on sunday, july 29, 2012! his first name is his paternal grandmother's maiden name (and his uncle's middle name) and his middle name is his maternal stepfather's middle name.

my inlaws are so funny!

my in-laws think they're awfully funny: zach's father and brother came to the hospital with an "it's a girl" balloon in tow.  this led to many a confused visitor unfamiliar with our family - a few orderlies were excited about our "pretty little girl!" and, when a family friend sent an "it's a boy!" balloon the next day, a few more orderlies were dismayed to find that we did not, in fact, have twins.  imagine telling multiple folks, "nope, sorry - just the one!"  want to see someone's face fall quickly?  tell them there are no twins!

i'm already obsessed with photos of this boy's feet!

the roach diaries

z's parents threw up as a baby shower!

these are the roach diaries. here we will set forth all manner of household drudgery - feel free to read along as we try to provide ourselves with some documentation of our life together. time seems always to slip away, and before we realize it, we've been to our best friend's wedding and not saved a single memento; rearranged our entire apartment without taking one "before" picture; or walked the dog through infinite seasons without capturing one image to indicate the passage of time.  this is not a habit on which we pride ourselves.

meet us, zach and sellers roach.  here we are on june 16, 2012, just 40 measly days from our first child's due date.  our little boy is due July 25, 2012, but we'll see when he decides to make his grand entrance into this world, although his momma would certainly love to see him sooner than the twenty-fifth! with baby roach tentatively anticipated in nineteen days, we are committing to documenting the life we've built together and baby roach's life. 

we're currently attempting to rearrange our lives so that there will be room for this babe - and let me tell you, it's one thing to think about thinking about how life is going to be - and another thing completely to know how very little we can actually prepare ourselves for this baby boy!  we have all sorts of checklists and projects - wash the baby's clothes with infant detergent; buy a house; print and firmly adhere to lists of what-to-put-in-a-diaper-bag (a lot goes into one of these suckers!); clean out the cabinets; fix the broken side of the crib; BUY A HOUSE!; find a daycare; etc. - but really, our infinite to-dos are probably moot points.  life is going to change irrevocably, which is terrifyingly exciting, and we can do little more than load up on baby products and try to spend some time together as a couple before our two becomes three.