Wow. Just... Wow.

 So.....

Turns out that announcing to the universe on your blog that your goal for the year is to work on having inner calm is kind of like praying for humility. You're going to get it between the eyes!

For the past two weeks I've been having insomnia and nightmares about the contractor showing up and starting demolition before I moved any of our stuff. And this morning my nightmare came true. We were awoken at 9 am (and we were all still in bed because we were up until 3 am with Jake who was puking up his toenails, poor kid) by our contractor who was here to start ripping up stuff. 

Um, YIKES! I still had my Christmas tree and decorations up!

He was very nice about it all and we talked about the plans and what the first few steps of this process will be, and then we agreed that they can start bright and early tomorrow morning so I could spend today getting everything moved out of the bedrooms and bathrooms. 

I admit, I had a brief panic attack when I first rolled out of bed. I was running around trying to find a bra and yelling, "This is my nightmare! This is exactly like my nightmare! I can't be awake! This can't be happening!!!" But I quickly calmed down (because it's pretty dang near impossible to put on a bra while throwing a temper tantrum, just FYI) and after the contractors and Brian left, I took a deep breath and said to myself, "OK, Chrissy. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time." So I started to un-decorate the tree and pack away Christmas. I turned on some music and every time my mind started to race ahead to how BIG of a job I had to get everything done today I would start to chant, "One bite at a time, one bite at a time, inner peace, one bite at a time."

I was doing pretty good, until for no reason I can fathom except that I needed another lesson in humility, my back went out. Like full blown, laying on the floor, can't hardly breathe agony! At that point all I could chant was, "SPASM! SPASM!!!" So there I was laying behind my couch, crying, and starting to panic again. I called Brian and while sobbing kept saying, "I'm trying really, really hard to be calm here."

Fast-forward:

I got into the chiropractor and am at least mobile again. My dad and my in-laws came over and helped move the furniture and box up most of our stuff. Now we are sleeping in the living room and ready for the contractors to start ripping things up tomorrow morning!

Here is my first series of before and after shots. 

I keep hearing that line from Goonies in my head, "... I would really like the house clean when they tear it down."

Our new living arrangements, we're calling it the studio apartment. 

The kids think it's awesome.

Lila said, "Mom, I love where you put your bed! I think you should keep it in there forever and ever!"

Um.... No.

I'm off to ice my back, down a handful (that's three, don't worry) of ibuprofen, and pray that tomorrow sends a few less opportunities to work on my calm.