This is part celebration, part vent…I was up until 3 am, but I finally caught up with the mess that had become of my home. Not only had I gotten behind due to jetlag and stress from a recent trip to Seattle, but we've also had 10 snow days with soaking kids out of school in and out of the house all day; not to mention, my toddler, Joey, was sick ALL week and afforded me NO CLEANING time.

To say I have been stressing would be an understatement. I loved being able to hold and comfort Joey all week, but his 2^nd Birthday Party is Sunday and I had serious work to do. We finally got him on an antibiotic and he seems to be getting better, but that meant ALL OF MY CLEANING WAS PUT TO THE LAST SECOND! We have Joey's godparents and other family-friends coming who have never seen the home we moved in to this past year and, of course, my mother (ready to do her infamous white-glove test on the spots I inevitably miss) not to mention the INLAWS.

I admit it: my house was awful. If Joey's lead levels are high at his 2-year check up I'm going to suspect the mountains of dust I let accumulate. I began with the kitchen...I reorganized the cabinets, which Joey has been organizing in his own way since we moved in. I could NOT let someone open those cabinets and risk 50 pots, pans and cookie sheets tumbling on their toes. I alphabetized the spices and, in a stellar reusable mode, I turned Joey's old baby jar carousel in to a rotating spice rack! I had visions of my mother in law asking for Bay Leaves and trying to find it in its old place behind the cooking wine and on top of the cheese grater. Now, I can sleep at night knowing she will find it between Basil and Chili Powder (but now I'm wondering why she would need the bay leaves in the first place?)

I also took an SOS pad to the kitchen floor...not just because this party has turned me in to a temporary Monica Gellar, but also because the floor was THAT bad. Do you know what melting snow from boots does to cookies and raisins on the floor? It's as if Doug from Trading Spaces came in and did a GLAZE affect on my floors, but upon closer inspection we actually are walking on eggshells, cookies and cat crap!

Don't get me wrong; I do have a few rooms that I ALWAYS keep clean. I have to have a place to escape to that seems untouched. I never understood why my parents only let us in the living room when company was coming over. Now I do. It's those other rooms, those rooms the kids ARE allowed to touch, those rooms they show no respect that have been the bane of my existence since yesterday morning.

My oldest daughter, Breezy, is the most anal person in the world. When I grow up, I want to be just like her. She's so neat and organized. Her room makes me proud. My youngest daughter Miranda's room was only messy because she hates to put her laundry away. No big deal.

On the other hand, my older son's room is another story. Granted, I could just close the door and not allow visitors, but I was under the mind-set last night that if I was gonna clean, I REALLY wanted to clean. The older kids spent last night with their dad, so I braved my son's room alone. It was a nightmare.

Here's just some of what I found under his bed:

I found empty soda cans, national geographic magazines, Harry Potter 2 and 4, the game of life, a colony of dust bunnies, a plastic spider ring (which turned out not to be a ring at all, but a real spider), baseball cards, an obvious unfinished card game of "52 pick up", Tacks, a broken phone, one unused diaper (thank god it was unused), one hall pass, legos, Pop tart wrappers, dust, one dress shoe, one sneaker missing the lace, one shoe lace missing the shoe, smelly socks, crumbs and Halloween candy...now I know why we are only catching mice in the glue traps upstairs. That's where all the food is!

After tackling under his bed, I decided to save his closet for another day. My house doesn't have to be THAT clean for the company and I don't think I have any energy left. As I finally crawled in to bed last night, in the wee hours of the morning, my husband muttered something about "maid service". HE TELLS ME NOW!?!?! It would've been nice to have had that thought before yesterday! Maybe I can hold him to the promise before the next time company arrives...

So, now my house is spotless and I'm going to eat breakfast off the floor. There's nothing more satisfying than knowing you can lick the Slim Fast off the floor and not worry about the dirt ruining the taste. I'm beginning to wonder if Joey didn't get well from the antibiotic, but because I finally cleaned the germs in the house?!?

 ÓLauren Sue