Housecleaners: Enter at Your Own Risk

So a friend of mine had her housecleaners come by as a baby gift for me. Awesome gift, but the reason I've never done this for myself is that I'm too embarrassed to have someone come over and find all those nasty nooks and crannies that I can't ever seem to find the time to clean (crap, I can barely keep up with the basics). That and I really have no idea what it costs. But she wanted to do this for me, so who was I to say no? Well they called and we scheduled for them to come today. They were coming for 1-1.5 hours and doing what they could in the kitchen and bathrooms. I wanted to make sure they did the deep cleaning, so I wanted to do a good basic clean this weekend. Apparently Loren was even more concerned with strangers seeing our mess because he cleaned like crazy. I felt like I should hire cleaners just to get Loren to clean. :) I was happy with his progress before the cleaners even got here today. But I guess we needed them even more than I thought because even with that good base clean they weren't able to get to everything in their timeframe. But I was thrilled with what they did accomplish (except that they didn't make it to the toilets - I hate cleaning toilets!). I'm investigating what it would cost to have them come back to finish (if they will - maybe we scared them off!). Part of me is embarrassed that my house is indeed that dirty, but another part is reinforced - if it took them (2 people) that long to do a deep clean and still not get done with 3 rooms, now I know why I can't ever get to it after doing basic cleaning and keeping up with work, school, and 2 kids (and 2 dogs!). But a house is a house, whether sparkling clean or a little (or a lot) dirty -- what's important is my family and our happiness (and yes, I'm one that can be obliviously happy in spite of our mess). When my kids are grown and want nothing to do with me, maybe then I can find the hours in the day to deep clean.




Because I know how difficult it is to clean with a toddler "helping", we went out of the house while they were here today. Since we finally have cooler weather I decided to put Hayden it one of his mama-made sweaters -- only to find that it barely fit. Darn -- guess it will either be a gift or I might try to sell it.


We had lunch with Loren in the park and then did one of our frequent visits to the zoo. I finally remembered my camera for once, and actually managed to get pics while pushing the giant double-stroller and tending to the wandering toddler.

Can she be any more stinkin' cute?

The little guy (or big guy) chillin' in the stroller.

She loves feeding the goats.

Bubby finally fell asleep.

Great day for the zoo. Nice weather and most animals were out. Except the carousel wasn't running, which Addie was quite disappointed about. On our way home I stopped by West Side, thinking I'd get a shake. I decided to try a float instead, a coffee cooler -- okay, but I think a shake would have been better. The cleaners were just leaving when we got home.

While I was working on this blog Addie decided to play nurse/doctor with Hayden.