How Much Stuff Can a 90 Year Old Lady Have?

There never seems to be a dull moment in my life or with my family lately. Apparently Mom and Dad have decided to sell Grandma's house. Which mean I can have the Dining room set I want, Yahoo! But it comes at a price. For the next few weekends, maybe even months, I will be helping my Mom clean out my grandmothers house. You're thinking, "doesn't sound too bad, how much stuff can a 90 year old woman have?" to that I say HA! the short and skinny version is she has 90 years worth of stuff. And not just stuff like you and I have laying around the house, this lady has "stuff".

Let's give you a little bit of a back story shall we? My Grandmother is 90 years old that means she was born in November of 1917 so that means when the Great Depression hit in October of 1929 my Gram was just about 12 years old. Which in those times meant she was already working at the family dairy and taking care of her 3 brothers and 2 sisters (give or take a sibling or two), helping her Mother with meals, shopping, chores etc. So she saw first hand how the depression affected her family. She saw her mother saving everything she could to possible use it later for something else. Everything that could be re purposed after use was and everything that couldn't be was collected. Very few things were throw out for fear that it might be needed at some point. So at this very young age my Grandmother was learning to become, we call today, a Pack Rat.

Fast forward to the 1940's my Grandmother and Grandfather get married and move into their new house together that was a wedding present from my Grandfathers family, I believe. The house was ginormous by any day's means but especially for the 1940's.

The main house consisted of 5 floors:

1.) Dirt Floor basement with 3 rooms - one for laundry other 2 were storage

2.) Street level of the house was the family Business a Bar my Grandfather ran until the day he died in 1995.
(also had 2 storage rooms and a storage area for the Bar's Beer)

3.) Living Level of the house 3 Bedrooms, a living room/dining room, kitchen, bathroom and HUGE storage room that was possible a bedroom at some point.

4.) Upstairs which my family referred to as Mazlers because Mr. Mazler lived there until he died. Then this area all 5 rooms plus crawl spaces, became storage.

5.) the Attic, which went over Kochis' and Mazlers and was also the creepiest place in the world, this consisted of 3 rooms and was only accessible through a ladder from Mazlers closet area, and again became storage area.

Plus there was another 2 Floor Duplex attached to my Grandparents home which they also owned, this was called Kochis' probably because my Grandmother's maiden name is Kochis and i believe a brother or two may have lived there for a while:

1.) 3 rooms used primarily as a Garage like area for my Grandfather's tools and outdoor furniture.

2.) 4 rooms all Storage for Holiday decorations, etc. this attached to Mazlers and you could actually get from one side to the other through a door but for some reason you could never open the door from Mazlers only from Kochis', weird.

Ok, so after Mr Mazler died and the Kochis' moved out, (maybe mid 1960's), my Gram became the pack rat of the Century filling each of the rooms in Mazlers and Kochis' to the CEILING with "stuff". What kind of stuff you ask? Well here's a sample of what we found in Mazlers: the fabric room in Mazlers was a living room that was filled floor to ceiling wall to wall with piles and piles and bags and bags of fabric. The room was approximately 11x12 and there was a one foot wide path that went through the middle of the room and that was it. I'm surprised that room never collapsed under the weight of all that fabric. There was another room in Mazlers that was all old rinsed out vegetable cans there had to be thousands of them, there were the foam plates that meat and chicken come on all washed and stacked in neat piles about 10 feet high there were at least 5 piles of those, there were boxes of clothes and shoes from all 3 of my Grandmother's kids that they had out grown, all of Mr Mazlers things were there since he had no family so when he died his stuff stayed there (why not!?!?! add it to the collection!), all kinds of bar signs and promo items my Grandfather received for the bar, also things he got from people in the town since he was Mayor for over 25 years people gave him a lot of "stuff" too, and anything else my Grandmother could get up there, stayed there.

On the Kochis' side was the garage area which was 2 rooms (equivalent to a kitchen area and bathroom), then all the outdoor furniture was in the next room over and in that room was a stair case that lead to the next floor, that floor was 4 rooms of floor to ceiling piles of Christmas and Easter decorations for my Grandparents house and the church they belonged too. Fast Forward again to 1995, my Grandfather dies and my Grandmother can no longer take care of this huge house and the bar so my Mom helps her sell it to move into a smaller house. We find a buyer for the house, who happens to be a Local from the Bar who wants to preserve my Grandfathers place and fondly keeps the name "Jack's". He's willing to buy the house but has a limited time to do so and wants the place "cleaned out" before the sale is made. No problem, give us a few months and couple dozens people and we'll have it done in no time! Nope, sorry you get 6 weeks and just me and my Mom and my boyfriend at the time to clean it out. WTF?!?! That's just cruel!! I think the first few days were just me and my Mom sitting in between piles of "stuff" crying and wondering how we were gonna get this all done. We managed to get it done in about 5 1/2 weeks, with frequent trips to the Auction to sell what we could, old roll tops desks (3), claw foot bath tubs (2), boxes of clothes and hats (dozens), miscellaneous furniture (dozens of pieces), Old time Coca-Cola signs and Bar memorabilia etc. anything to make a couple extra bucks.

Mom and I finish cleaning it out and Gram keeps the things she just cant bear to part with and we move her into the newer SMALLER house. So the stuff that Gram couldn't part with is now in the Basement of her new house, an unfinished room about 25 X 16 with a cubby-hole of an additional 10 x 10 space. Also down there is a floor to ceiling metal rack that takes up one of the 16 foot walls that is all canned goods and pots and pans. So as you can imagine most of this room is just narrow walk ways between huge piles of "stuff" Gram couldn't part with from the other house and "stuff" she's collected since 1996 when she moved there.

So to answer your original questions of how much stuff can a 90 year old woman have? A lot! Especially if she's a pack rat like my Gram! So, back to my original point, I think I had one anyways, is I will be spending many a weekend in the coming months with my Mom cleaning out my Gram's house so we can sell it. Hopefully this one will just take us a few weekends instead of a few months!

The Week in Review...

Ok so its been a whopping week since I've posted anything, where does time go? Whats happened since I posted last? Well let's see...last Friday we drove out to NJ to visit a friend and go to dinner, I got drunk, which seems to be a norm lately lol, and we ended up getting home about 2 am, lol. Saturday was a fun filled day of house cleaning, which I actually got the bf to help so it wasn't too bad ;-), then off to the thrift shop to find pieces of our Halloween costumes, picked up some pizza for dinner and chocolate for dessert and spent the rest of the night watching Movies and FINALLY making my Halloween bags, we ended up having 69 of them, which surprised me considering the bf and I have been eating the candy just about every day since I brought it home 3 weeks ago. Who buys Halloween candy 3 weeks before Halloween? Dumbass me that's who. Next year I'll buy it 10/30 and make the damn bags that night, maybe then we won't eat it all, yeesh!

Sunday we just went to lunch and the Grocery store and surprisingly the bf only cost me $10 at the grocery store. Usually when he goes I spend a freaking fortune, this time he was very well behaved :-). I watched Desperate Housewives and Brothers and Sisters Sunday night and that was the lovely end to my quiet weekend.

Monday I actually was able to get into the basement to start going through all my crap to see what I can put up on eBay and what is really just junk. I was able to get through most of it, though I fear my posters and magazines are ruined from the moisture. I found some really cool old toys of mine too, Trolls, Legos, Chutes and Ladders (VHS Version), Candy Land (VHS Version), some old Popples and Barbies. Lots of fun stuff. I think most of the Barbies and Porcelain Dolls I will be selling and the other stuff will just be packed away in better containers instead of just boxes to help prevent moisture from creeping in.

I think tonight I might actually get to take some pictures of my crap to put up on eBay and we'll see how the night goes from there. Can't spend too much time on it though, House is on tonight :-). Tomorrow we have dinner with a friend for her Birthday. We're going to McCoole's in Quakertown, we've never been there so it's always fun to try some new things. Especially when they involve food :-). Thursday I'm going to dinner with some friends, putting the finishing touches on our Halloween costumes and hopefully starting to make the desserts for the party, we'll see if I get all that done lol. Friday will be the overspill of Thursday and hopefully some laundry and relaxing can sneak in there too.

Saturday we'll doing stuff around the house until its time to get ready for the Halloween party and Sunday we have dinner at a friends house, PHEW!! That's a lot of stuff!! We're such busy people ;-) Hopefully this weekend doesn't fly by, I could use some relaxing time :-).

The Weekend in Review...

Wow it's Tuesday already?!?!?! Maybe this week will go by quickly lol, some how I doubt it.

So this weekend was ok I suppose, Saturday we didn't do much of anything, I ran some errands, we went for Chinese food (YUMMY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ) then came home and I FINALLLLLLY cleaned my gross fish tank, I'll post a pic later, but it looks super awesome now...totally worth the 2 hours it took me to scrub the tank. FYI for all of you peeps who have a fish tank, fish that poop a lot (Mollies, platties, goldfish, etc.) really crap up your tank, pun intended, when you're not paying attention. I swear it went from bad to worse over night. I had black slimy algae all over EVERYTHING in the tank! Research online showed that the black algae is called "Devil's Algae" because it's near impossible to get rid of once you get it. Impossible for most, but I have determination on my side!!! :-)

So I took rash measures to alleviate my tank of the Devil. I scooped out the fish, and put them and some of the icky water in a nice little bowl then proceeded to wipe all the sides of the tank with special tanks wipes and then I EMPTIED the tank. Really REALLY risky move because it not only removes all the bad bacteria but the good bacteria as well so it was a Craps shoot for me to see if my fish would survive this. Once the water was all gone I filled the bottom about 1/4 of the way and put severely hot water in, as hot as my faucet will go, and swished the gravel around until no more gunk came off of them. Then I emptied that water out and refilled the tank half way.

Once the tank was filled half way, I did a chemical test on the water to see if I needed to do any adjusting. I adjusted the Ph slightly and added a heavy dose of Bacteria, Stress Coat, and Algae clarifier to the water. I let the tank sit to adjust to the right temperature while I scrubbed and I mean SCRUBBED every blessed thing from the inside of that tank with a freaking toothbrush. Since you can't use soap on anything, because it's an instant kill for fishies, I just used some of those tank friendly wipes and the hottest water I could stand. I threw out all the plants, something I didn't do last time, and replaced them with all brand new plants. Changed the filter scrubbed all the parts of the filter, pump, pipes and screen. Reassembled the tank's interior and proceeded to fill the rest of the tank.

Once the tank was almost filled, I tested the water yet again and it was at perfect levels across the board. I them slowly added the fish back to the tank and prayed to the flying spaghetti monster that they didn't croak on the spot. They seemed to swim around just fine, and so far none have floated belly up....(knock on wood!) Now the fish look like they are just floating int he tank, you can't even tell there is water in there its so freaking clean!!!! I'm so proud of myself ;-) I just need to make sure I monitor the chemicals and the filter changes better and I think that coupled with a more frequent water change and maybe an interior wipe down should keep it pretty clean.

After my 2 hours of being elbow deep in a yucky fish tank, I took a much needed shower then watched TV and played some video games while the bf scanned his video games into our media tracking system. After that it was off to bed, (about 130am lol), to get up early on Sunday to go to the PA Renaissance Faire with the bf and his parents. We had a good time, good food, good entertainment, good weather :-). I got my corn dog, pretzel, Kettle corn and soup so I was happy :-) I love Ren Faire Food. I also picked up two new flowers from the Faire. A rainbow leather rose and an acrillic red rose that looks like its made out of glass :-). Did some wine tasting on the way out and all in all it was a pretty good time. We're actually thinking about going back in December so we can see the Charles Dickison Christmas at the Ren Faire, something we've never done. Got home went to the grocery store and then it was time for bed, gosh how the day flies by.

On Monday the bf had a surprise planned for me and he never ceases to amazes me...he took me to see a special screening of the making of the Beatles Cirque Du Solei LOVE !!! Any of you that know me, know what a Beatles fanatic I am. I love this movie almost as much as the show itself. It's always fun to see how something so amazing was thought of and created. Despite the fact that we were the youngest people there by about 20 years or so we still had a good time. It was actually surprising to hear the other people, and by that I mean the 12 people there not counting us lol, in the theater talking because most of them had not seen the LOVE production in Vegas yet?!?!?!?! People what are you waiting for??? And why in the world would you see a movie about the making of something you haven't seen? That's like watching a magician practice his tricks then going to sit in the audience to watch the show. Whatever, your choice, not something I would do but every one's different. After the movie we went home and I watched the bf play Megaman 9 for a bit and before you know it it's 1230 and I'm still awake, wtf? I would love LOVE to be to bed at like 10 at least one day this week, although I doubt that will happen, yeesh!

I just found out today that Bloomingdale's has a Limited Edition Ultimate Collector's Box: Beatles iPod Set on their website and let me tell you how freaking awesome this is. It includes a numbered 120G iPod in classic black etched with the Beatles' logo on the front and Abbey Road on the back. Includes 13 original Beatles' CDs, plus two masters and the "Love" CD, all with an engraved guitar pick. This can all be yours for the small fee of $795 plus tax and shipping of course. Packaged in a box designed by Psycho Bunny. And there are only 2500 available. :-( I want one!!! Lol anyone want to buy it for me? ;-)




If you would like to purchase this for me, here's the website: http://www.bloomingdales.com/catalog/product/index.ognc?ID=136291

But you're not allowed to buy one for you unless you buy one for me since I'm the one who told you about it, I mean it's the least you can do to show your gratitude :-)

Is It 5 O'clock Yet?

Gosh it's such a dreary day outside, overcast and cool which means I have my slippers on under my desk at work :-P I really need to start getting some better sleep, I feel like a zombie again today and have zero motivation to get anything done. I've spent part of the morning working on some things for work and have a meeting relatively soon.


After that I was thinking about trying to find a costume for the Halloween party our friends are having. Apparently my pumpkin costume wasn't a good idea, so I guess I'll have to think of something else. I have no clue what to be, a pirate? a wench? a queen? a pregnant cheerleader? Lol I like that one :-) Argh, this is too difficult lol. All of these ideas sound stupid to me, I can't decide. I'm just not a Halloween person, as I've said before, I really hate dressing up its over-rated as far as I'm concerned. Oh well.


I really need to get the Trick-or-Treat bags put together this weekend so the bf and I will stop eating the candy, lol. That's what I get for buying 15 pounds of candy the first week of October, gosh I hope there is enough to make some bags, lol. I'm sure I'll be going to the store this weekend to get more.

This day is just dragging on....geez. I just want to go home, curl up in my pjs, watch Grey's Anatomy, do some laundry and attempt to eat some popcorn for the first time since I got my tooth pulled. Looks like I'll be on my own for Grey's tonight too which is even better, no interruptions ;-).

Siblings or No Siblings, That is The Question...

Gosh what a weekend! Friday night we were supposed to meet a friend for dinner in NJ but plans fell through so we spent the night at home with Pizza Hut and the movie Iron Man (awesome movie, if you haven't seen it GO DO IT NOW!!). Oh, and those chocolate dunker things from Pizza Hut, omg are they disgusting!!! Who ever thought to take a hot greasy bread stick and cover it with chocolate and then dunk it in hot melted chocolate, must have been an idiot. I love and I mean LOVE chocolate and I won't touch them, what does that tell you? Yuck!

Anyways, Saturday went kind of as planned. Dropped the bf off at the Rock Band party, went to Gram's to get some furniture, fell out of the back of the bf's truck and broke my fall on the hitch, got a nice purple welt as a souvenir, lovely lol. Went to my parents and went to dinner with them, got into a huge fight didn't end up getting home until after 8. By the time I got the truck unloaded, showered, dressed, and over to the Rock Band party, it was over. Great. So we went back home and I put my furniture together and went to bed.

At least Sunday turned out to be what I hoped. Bf and I went to lunch, I had A margarita and was totally spent. I had to go home and take a 3 hour nap to sleep it off so I could go grocery shopping lol. Nothing like being drunk at 4pm on a Sunday afternoon lol. I got absolutely no cleaning done Sunday, no laundry, no nothing, just a drunken nap :-) and that's the way every Sunday should be.

I did get some nice furniture though from Gram's. I got a nice small corner hutch for our dining room and 2 end tables that we are using as night stands. All I need to get now is her dining table and chairs and I'll be happy. Who knows if that is going to happen or not though, with the family war going on now over her house. You would swear the lady was dead already, sheesh!

Sometimes I'm really grateful that I don't have siblings. At least I know now that when my parents are old I'm on my own. I don't have the false hope of help that just won't be there. It would have been nice growing up with siblings though, it got boring just going on vacation with your parents every year, having no one to play games with, fight with, talk to, etc. Now, however, I am content with out them. I can always pretend the bf's 2 brothers are mine if I ever get that desperate and feel like I need a younger sibling to pick on :-) that doesn't happen that often though :-).

Begin rant sequence...

Don't get me wrong, his brothers and family are great but it seems like the bigger the family the bigger the drama. It's that way with my Mom's brothers and my Dad's brothers and sisters all very good examples of why I'm happy to be a only child (especially my Dad's side, WOW talk about Drama, with a capital D, they could own the channel TNT with all their drama and they would never run out of show ideas, yeesh!).

It doesn't, however, mean I want only one child myself, hypocritical I know lol, but let me explain. The bf and I have decided on 2, I know what you're thinking, we're not even engaged yet and we're talking about kids, maybe we should be talking about getting engage first. Thanks Mom. Dually noted. The engagement will come soon enough and I think since we've waiting so long to get engaged and married it won't be long after we're married that we start having kids, so it's good to talk about these things now and know where we both stand :-). Anyways, back to my point, yes I do have one.

I think the bf and I both agree that the relationship the siblings have with one another is modeled after the relationship the parents have with the kids. Meaning if there is no respect between parent and child there will most likely be no respect between siblings either. Some people might argue that this is, in fact, not true and kids are kids and will behave how they want, blah blah blah and I say, you're wrong. Kids behave how you treat them and how you condition them to behave. I know it sounds odd but kids don't learn how to behave on their own, just like they don't learn how to ride a bike on their own, they need to be taught and guided. I'm a firm believer in disciplining a child when they have done something wrong or when they have disrespected someone. I feel without reinforcing your rules your kids will just act how they want because they know they can get away with it, and partially because they don't know any better, and you'll never have control since you didn't exercise it at an early age.

Blah blah blah and my rant continues. I don't want to go on forever here, because trust me I can. I'm sure there are people out there who think, "you say that now, just wait until you have kids and you don't have time to think let alone discipline them." To those people I say shame on you for not doing what is necessary to ensure the successful upbringing of someone you CHOSE to bring into this world. Maybe you should have thought about these things before you DECIDED to have children of your own and maybe it would have prevented you from having them all together, who knows. All I know is the bf and I are determined to make sure we raise our children as best we can and as we see fit for this crazy world we live in. Check back in 10 years or so and I'll let you know how it's going :-).

end rant sequence.

Isn't This Week Over Yet?

This has been the longest 3 1/2 day week ever!!! Geez! And technically its still not over, we're getting close though lol. It was quite eventful, work wise anyways. I got a lot of clean-up work done that was kinda just thrown in my lap when I started so that's always a plus.

Home wise nothing new, as usual, still looking for a puppy, still not finding one, lol. I am SO ready for the weekend though, even though it will be very busy. Saturday I have to drop the bf off at a Rock Band party (after we pick up the pretzel tray and beer of course), drive an hour to my mom's, go to my Grandmother's house and get whatever furniture I want before they clean out the house, visit with my Mom and Dad a bit, drive back home, unload the furniture, and then go to the Rock Band party. Lol busy Saturday.

Sunday will be a fun filled day of cleaning, laundry and cleaning the fish tank :-(. I'm not looking forward to cleaning the fish tank but it needs to be done, there is black algae starting to grow in there and I can't seem to get it under control, grrrr. Hopefully Sunday I can squeeze in time for a nap and some video games.

I guess our friends decided on having a Halloween party, yessh, I hate dressing up. Even though it's hard to find costumes this time of year, I'm sure we will go. It's especially hard for him, he'd have to get a super awesome costume to top last year's home-made Hulk Hogan costume. Man he looked awesome :-) I'm so happy to say I had a hand in making that bad boy & it was my best work ever ;-). My kids will all have awesome Halloween costumes that I know. Me on the other hand, not so much. Last year I went as a farmer because I spent so much time worrying about his costume I didn't put a ton of effort into deciding on what I wanted to be lol. So I found a pair of my Dad's old overalls, a flannel shirt, put my hair in pig tails, bought a straw hat and instant farmer girl :-) I do have to admit I did look rather cute ;-). I'd much rather sit at home and see the cute little ones who come out all dressed up for Halloween and hand out candy than get all dressed up. Which reminds me, I still have to make trick or treat bags....argh. The fun never ends.

Just Another Manic Monday

So Monday's Tooth pulling experience wasn't really that bad. In comparison to last time this was a walk in the park! Last time the Dr and the nurse both had to hold me down while they proceeded to rip out my jaw, or at least it felt that way, it took them over 30 mins and six shots of Novocaine to get it out and it was the worst pain I've ever been in. This time was a completely different story, two shots of happy Novocaine and five minutes later I was tooth free. It was a walk in the park! Virtually no pain afterwards either, save for a little discomfort here and there and hot and cold sensitivity. I didn't even get my pain meds filled :-) So all in all Monday wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be.

Tuesday I opted to stay home from work and just rest, which turned into watching an all day marathon of "Who's Wedding is it Anyway?" on Style lol. I did get some good ideas though for my future wedding. No I'm not engaged, yet. The bf and I have been together just over 6 years now and having been living together for about 2 now so I think it will be any time now before we get engaged.

I'm so confident in this that I've already started planning, shhhh don't tell him, lol. I know when and where I want to get married, and obviously to whom. I've picked out the bridesmaids dress color and have an idea about the style but I want the girls to decide on that for sure. I know what color and kind of flowers and the type of cake, I'm still up in the air about favors though. Basically all I have to do is start making deposits and we should be good to go. That I won't do until we actually get engaged and I run all my ideas past him. I'm not that mean, I want him to be included and I don't want to jump the gun THAT much :-). Until then, I'll just have fun planning :-)

Relaxing Weekend - Stressful Monday

I had a very eventful weekend. I finally got to spend some much need time cleaning the house on Saturday. We haven't been home for the past few weekends and the house was just getting ridiculous. The house was turning into a kitty cat playground, with toys and scratching post all over, we had to fix that.


On Sunday we took the BF's parents up to my parents house for dinner, shopping and family time and I actually have to admit it went really well. They've met each other before and socialized but never spent a great deal of time together so this was essentially the first time that happened. It was very comforting to know that our two families can get along so well. It will make it a lot easier when we do combined family holidays and hopefully a wedding someday ;-). 


Afterwards we came home, I watched some tv then off to bed. Today should be a fun day I get to go to the Dentist and get a freaking tooth pulled. Woo Hoo!!! Boy Howdy what fun!! :-/ is this day over yet?

What's for Dinner?

Gone are the days of traditional family dinners prepared by Mom. Nowadays it seems as everyone, but Mom, is making dinner, BK, Wendy's, McDonald's, KFC, The Grocery Store, Corner Deli, etc. are all popular dinner choices for today's Mom-on-the-go. I just don't understand how that can be sufficient for some Mom's. I like to cook and I'd like to think I do it pretty well too, so I strive to make 4 home cooked dinners a week, Friday is usually pizza or dinner out.

Apparently, I'm a rare breed and my boyfriend is really lucky! I was talking to some of my friends at work and I happened to mention my cooking habits and I got, "you do what? That's so 1940's, little suzie home-maker having dinner on the table for her man when he gets home, ha ha not me, we have whatever's on special at the store that night. Who has time to cook!" Yeesh! Sometimes I think my friends think I'm crazy. I don't think I live in the 1940's, cause my boyfriend sure as hell doesn't rule my life, but I do think it's very important to have a nice home cooked meal at the end of the day. And don't get me wrong, I'm not talking some 4 course meal with appetizers, and salads and desserts, just something good and wholesome that's homemade, I don't think that's a lot to ask. Most meals I prepare on a regular basis only take a few minute to prepare and about 20-30 mins cooking time, that's nothing!!

Then I get the, "Well just wait 'til you have kids, you won't have time to pee let a lone cook dinner!" I really think that's quite the contrary. I mean I know having kids is a LOT of work, more work than I could possibly imagine, but people find time to do the things that are important to them and important to their children's well-being and I think a home cooked dinner is one of those things. I'm sure it will take time to get used to it, but when I hit that part of my life I don't want to sacrifice the quality of my child's food and nutrition to be able to save some time in the kitchen, plus I can't imagine how much it must cost to eat prepared food like that all the time. And people wonder why the economy is so shitty right now, STOP EATING OUT cook at home more and you'll have more money!!!! Yeesh, that's a totally different topic, don't get me started on that one! :-)