woo hoo!

We're going to get it done!

Family came over yesterday morning and helped get out all the furniture and large stuff. At this point, we mostly have piddly small stuff left. We hope to get totally moved out, including cleaning, by tonight. I was thinking this would be move #7 for us, but we counted it up last night and, once we get into the house, we'll have moved 13 times in the 4.5 years we've been together. Yeah, it'll be nice to get some real stability.

The family birthday party was fun last night. It was good to see everyone. Tristan got a train from his (great-great-) aunt and uncle and he's crazy about it (surprise, huh?). My uncle brought us a couple of really nice reclining lawn chairs that I'm looking forward to using, too.

Then Tristan got dressed up in his Halloween train conductor outfit (blue/white stiped overalls with red turtleneck and blue bandana) and went with my sister, dad, and stepmom to a big party. He had a really great time. I asked him what he did this morning and the event was apparently so grand that it inspired a personal pronoun and the past tense; he said, "I played!"

forgive the lazy posting...

Just busy around here.

Our storage thingy is being delivered today. It was actually supposed to be here this morning, then they bumped it back to this afternoon, now they're saying not til sometime after 5. Hassle.

We're loading it up tomorrow morning (everyone's invited!), then tomorrow evening we have a family birthday get-together to go to. Finishing up Sunday, cleaning Monday, then we'll be staying with my Dad til we close.

Do forgive the silence and boring posts, please :)

rotflmao

Had a great time, will post more tomorrow, but just HAD to post this!

From The Onion: Fire Truck! Fire Truck! Fire Truck!

How do I even begin to describe its magnificence? First off, it is big—bigger than anything I could ever imagine! Secondly, it's painted an incredible, alarming, eye-catching red! Thirdly, it makes the most attention-grabbing sounds: whistles, bangs, gearshifts, bells. And that siren! Of all the noises, the siren is surely the best! I wonder if, somehow—but no, surely not—unless... Well, could I? Could I possibly? EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE... No, that's not right: It's high-pitched enough, but missing some crucial... OOOOOOOOOO... No, again, it's got the booming quality, but lacks the screechingly irritating aspect of the higher register. Wait! What if I combine the two, in an alternating series of high- and low-frequency modulations, and belt it out at the top of my lungs? EEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-OOOOOOOOO,EEEEEEEEEEEEE-OOOOOOOOO! That's it! That's the same noise that the fire truck is making! EEEEEEEEEEEEE-OOOOOOOOOOOO, EEEEEEEEEEEEEE-OOOOOOOO! EEEEEEEEEEEE-OOOOOOOOOOOOO, EEEEEEEEE-OOOOOOOO! Oh, God. I could make this noise all day! I never want to do anything else!

Oh gosh, I have to stop laughing or I'll wake the kids...

Boy, n.: a noise with dirt on it. ~Not Your Average Dictionary

wednesday

After three years of babywearing, I have my first slinging-related injury. Ugh. My shoulder started hurting a few days ago and I initially thought I just slept on it funny, but then realized it was due to me wearing a certain sling for most of my outings, which I had previously only worn rarely. Now the pain's moved to my neck and is pretty bad. It hurts like heck to move my head or neck at all. Yuck. I need to see a chiropractor...

Ellie's getting tooth number two! Right by the first. Geez, she's growing up quickly. I've been trying to minimize the slinging the past couple of days and she doesn't like it much. I even used the stroller for the first time, eek! Got her out as soon as she fussed, naturally. But the poor girl has only napped for about five minutes today since she's so used to sleeping in the sling. Maybe she'll be desperate enough in a couple of hours that she'll fall asleep laying down. I'm already in such pain, I don't want it to get worse.

Tonight we get to go out an mingle with high society, lol. Jon was given a couple of (normally quite pricey) tickets to a charity benefit dinner. Ooooh, fun. I bought my first Little Black Dress and will be doing my best to make it look decent. The kiddos are going over to my Dad and Stepmom's---gasp! Ellie's first real babysitting experience! I'll be dropping a bottle of breastmilk off with her, but I'm still a little nervous.

Oh, and my mom came back from a trip to Philadelphia---and she went on an IKEA run for me! Woo-hoo, got my IKEA fix for now :). Yummy stuff for our new home; can't wait to get a chance to use it.

pluggin' away at packin'

Just getting ready for the move this weekend. We have a nifty portable storage unit being dropped off on Friday, then picked up on Monday...they'll take it to their central storage until we close on the house, then drop it off there. Should simplify things a little.

It's turned cold! Can't say I don't like it, though.

Ellie turns six months tomorrow and, with her new tooth, has decided that she's interested in food now. Her tongue thrust reflex is pretty much gone. If I put a little food on my finger, she'll look at it really intently, then grab my finger and guide the food into her mouth. Tristan wasn't into food until almost a year, but he got his first teeth much later too.

Tristan's been being a little bugaboo this week. The kid's wild. It'll be nice to get our new backyard childproofed and just let him loose back there. He's been being really sweet toward Ellie, though. Yesterday, she started fussing while having floor time and he ran over to her, saying to himself, "Baby need Tristan." Then he brought her a toy. It was pretty cute.

saturday

I am a very scent-oriented person. A few years ago, I was in some institutional building and suddenly smelled a strong chemically smell that made me feel very happy and relaxed. It took a few minutes to realize that was the same cleaner used at my preschool. Today, the kiddos and I went out and I used a soap in a public bathroom that was the same soap used at the Pizza Hut I worked at in high school. Totally brought back the smell of pizza oil on my black half-apron, the taste of stale Pepsi drunk out of small plastic kiddie cups, and the way we'd sneak the last few pieces of pizza left on the buffet after a long evening. Sigh. Crazy to be sentimental over a fast food job.

Jon was off yesterday, but is working today and tomorrow. Last night, Ellie and I went out and finally got extra keys made---Jon lost his a few months ago. It was so cool! Last time I had keys made, they were doing them by hand with a grinding wheel; now, they have a machine. They stick the original key in one hole and the blank in another, and the machine does everything. Smoothest new keys I've ever used.

My mom is out of town this week and happens to be visiting a city where there's an IKEA. I'm hopelessly obsessed with IKEA right now; the closest one is about eight hours away. Grrr. Anywho, she called earlier today and said they were planning on going there and asked if I'd like her to look for anything. Woo-hoo! We'll see if anything comes of that.

gaslight

I think the designer of the Dirt Devil Bagless Ultra Swivel Glide must have intentionally made it unable to pick up sand.

Why, oh why, does the one thing it just cannot pick up have to be sand? Ugh.

fun fun

Jon was washing dishes this morning when he suddenly asked, "Do you know why the water pressure is so low?"

Yup, the city turned off our water because of nearby construction, without notifying us or the apartment complex first. And they can't tell us when it will be back on. Argh.

We have a playdate this morning, at a La Leche mom's house. Should be fun, but I can't wash up the snacks I'm bringing like I planned to. Yesterday, we didn't make the pumpkin patch because of my apparently dismal navigation skills. We did end up at a local park, though, where we happened upon another mama group and they invited us to picnic with them. They meet every week and it looks like we've been invited back for next week, so that's pretty neat.

Tristan really enjoyed running around on the playground. I did have a bad mommy moment yesterday: I asked for Tristan to pose by a tree for a photo. Around the third shot, he started brushing at his foot. I looked down and saw ants swarming over his shoe. Eek! I grabbed him, unvelcroed his shoe and threw it on the ground, and quickly brushed the ants off. He was bitten four times and I was bitten twice. We didn't have fire ants here when I was a kid and this is my first run-in with them locally...I'm going to be more careful about that. He wasn't really upset at all and it didn't seem to phase him. Made me feel pretty awful, though, that I asked him to stand on top of an apparent fire ant colony.

house work

I spent most of yesterday running around doing mortgage stuff. We've decided to join a credit union and get our mortgage through them. Jon was able to take off to come open our account with them, then I dropped Tristan off at my grandmother's and went back to apply for our mortgage. It looks good; the lady is nice and very up front about things. After PMI, insurance, and taxes, our payments will be right around $150 less than rent. And our closing costs will be half of what other lenders have quoted us. Woo-hoo!

Then yesterday evening, I went back over to the house to walk through and hear some of its stories from the owner. It went really well and I was beyond thrilled when I found out we have a garbage disposal! A little detail, but an awesome one. Oh, and the stove is gas but doesn't have a standing pilot light (a big peeve of mine with our current apartment's stove). The rooms are even larger than I remembered and the kitchen has some great glass shelves in the window. It's going to be a wonderful house.

The kiddos are doing well. It looks like Tristan's blue eyes are slowly turning greenish and I suspect he'll end up with Jon's eyes. And Ellie's blue eyes are starting to have faint threads of brown near the pupil, spreading outward slowly, like a stain. She's going to have brown eyes like me.

Oh, and Jon sold his motorcycle! We got a crazy lowball offer last weekend that inspired us to just keep it, but then a nice lady in a self-described midlife crisis came along and really wants it. She test drove it last night and is taking over the money today. So that worked out really well. Jon's mom really did all the legwork on getting it sold, which was so nice.

kiddos

ELLIE HAS A TOOTH! It's funny, she's been drooling and chewing on stuff like crazy, but I was taken by surprise. She's only five months old; Tristan didn't get his first until around 10 months. At least she's stopped biting while nursing.

And I'm starting to meet some mamas, at least a little. I put some outgrown newborn diapers up on Freecycle and ended up giving them to a preggo mama who already has a 19 month old. She stuck around a while and I explained CD'ing to her, since she'd only read about it, never actually seen it. She's invited us to the pumpkin patch on Wednesday along with some other moms, and we might go to the park tomorrow too. Oh, and I scored another playdate on Thursday, with a LLL mom and her two kids who we've played with before. Fun, fun. I like having friends, but have a hard time making them...Tristan desperately wants friends, though, and that's convinced me to try to figure it out.

happy dance!

They took our offer!

Ironically, we'll be moving in at the beginning of December, when Ellie will be seven months old: the same age Tristan was when we moved into the Independence house. This house is a much nicer home, though. We feel good about it.

Woo-hoo!

stick up for the cause

For every virtual sticky note through Oct 31, Post-it is donating $.50 toward breast cancer research. Quck, easy, hopefully helpful :)

wednesday

Jon went over and made an offer on the house tonight. Hopefully we'll hear something within a couple of days. We proposed closing on November 16, but the seller said that might be a little quick for him...luckily, my dad has offered us a place to stay, so we'll be there in the meantime.

Not there as long as we'd thought, though. I got the apartment's response to the BBB report I filed and they said that they weren't kicking us out, just not renewing our lease---which, of course, contradicted what they wrote us, namely that we had 30 days from Sept 26 to move. I called and she confirmed it; we don't have to move 'til Halloween. So, that gives us a few extra days.

Jim Bob's family had its sixteenth kid, and is already planning #17. Call me judgmental, but that's crazy irresponsible. If their children and grandchildren were to each have half of the number of children that Mr. and Mrs. Jim Bob currently have, these two fine, godfearing Arkansans will end up with 1,024 great-grandchildren, which means that even the 7000 sq ft home they're building would be pretty crowded on holidays. Their disposable diapers have probably already filled up a few landfills. Yeah, real good idea.

I am pretty excited about our little bungalow, though :)

saw the house!

We went over and saw the house this afternoon. It is very nice! It is a modest, well-kept older bungalow, with two bedrooms and one bathroom, a laundry room, a freestanding garage, and a fenced backyard. We both think it is a good size and location for our family, is well-kept, and very much within our budget ($100-150 less than we're renting at now, even after insurance/taxes).

In summary...

Positive:
all appliances included except fridge
large, nicely painted rooms
two closets in each bedroom
nice floor plan
lots of kitchen cabinets
large laundry room
hardwood floors
wonderful curb appeal
front porch
nicely sized backyard with privacy fence
raised deck with lights and benches, from which I could see the kids anywhere in the backyard
no history of rodents in house (seller has been there 21 years)
exterior painted this summer
dog/cat door
electrical system upgraded

Negative:
no central air/heat; air by window units and heat by floor furnace
back half of roof is 22 years old (front is 10 yrs old)
strange snakeskin-print wallpaper and matching faux marble linoleum in kitchen (though I would choose to see this as funky kitch)
two bedrooms: perfect for our use at the moment, but kids may "need" own rooms in about 10 years and this would make it more difficult to resell
backyard is strangely chopped up into smaller sections
it is an older house, so there is possibility of lead (though we didn't identify any probable sources)
price seems a little high for the neighborhood

I think we're going to make an offer. We're going tomorrow to get a mortgage quote from another lender (for rate comparison), then the pre-approval from the first lender we qualifed with will get here on Tuesday. They know not to expect an offer before Wednesday...

yay!

Just got word that the friend has passed on the house! We see it tomorrow afternoon...

friday!

Yay, Friday!

We're feeling much better today. Got a full night's sleep last night---I'm not sure if Ellie even woke up once---and didn't get up until 9. That was what all of us needed, I think. She's not eating as much or as often right now (I don't either when I'm sick), so I'm crazy engorged. Ugh.

Found a amazing bargain today, the kind that only comes along once every year or two. The Children's Place is having a big clearance sale in their "outlet" section, many things for as low as $.49. Plus they have a 25% off code (HMREA5) and a free shipping code (FSSS95) and they can be used together. The checkout was a bit of a hassle since they're having so much traffic and everything that wasn't pink sold out by the time I got through their system (sigh), but I got Ellie four rompers for next summer for $1.55. Yeah.

My hair has been falling out like crazy for about a month now. And it keeps falling out with no signs of slowing. I've always had thick hair...until now. It's the thinnest it's ever been. I just hope it stops soon.

Here's Tristan being goofy in his pjs and new galoshes. We haven't had a rain to try them out in yet, but he's really looking forward to it. He's doing wonderfully; got over his cold in about a day. Oh, and after about a year of devout yogurt eating (he would eat one of those huge containers every day if I let him), he's gotten almost totally out of it. His new snack of choice? Special K with "cow milk".

ramadan mubarak!

Ellie has her first cold. Tristan caught it from a kid at the park last week, then it passed to Papa, and finally to Ellie and me. Ugh. Tristan got over it quickly, so that's good. Ellie slept horribly last night. She had a fever and was having a really hard time falling asleep. After two trips out to the store for decongestant nose drops and then infant tylenol, we finally fell asleep around midnight. She woke up at 1, at 2, then a rather upset rat woke me up at 2:30 after it was stuck on a trap (that makes four so far), I ran him out to the woods, then came back and the pattern of waking continued all night. Just as I'd get comfortable enough to fall asleep, she'd wake up again.

Jon was able to trade some desk shifts and is staying home with us today until 5. Yay! I don't think this sick and tired mama could handle it today otherwise. Her fever is down today, so hopefully tonight will be easier.

miscellany

Tristan had kind of a hard night last night. He woke up crying twice; both times, I went into his room, cuddled with him, fell asleep, then woke to Ellie crying in the next room. The he was up for the day at 6:30---really early for him.

So, it's been a pretty long day.

Both my parents dropped off some boxes for our moving effort. Very much appreciated! I got most of our books packed up, but I'm not sure what all else can be packed now...I'll have to go through the apartment this week to try to get done what I can. No word yet on the house.

My dad dropped off some leftover Chinese too, which was really great. Made my day. He even saved a nice, big shrimp for me.

Tristan left his puzzle out on the floor this morning and Ellie rolled over and started pulling it towards her. He went and took it from her and laughed, "No, baby, don't eat that. That's mine." His speech just gets more and more sophisticated.

Click and Clack from Cartalk were on Arthur this afternoon. Their animated animal selves looked suprisingly on-target. Pretty entertaining.

Oh, and the show Maya and Miguel has changed a line in their theme song from "he leads with his head and she follows her heart" to "they make a great team as they each do their part." I'm really glad. That old line really got on my nerves---guess I wasn't the only one. They've also added quite a bit more Spanish, maybe even enough to learn a a few words other than Abuelita.

birthday!

Tristan loved his party today. He and Papa went downtown for a trolley ride while I did last-minute preparations and the guests---Meme, Papp, Grace, Mamaw, and Oma---came. He didn't seem nearly as surprised as I thought he'd be (guess he's a quick-to-adapt kiddo), but he really enjoyed it. He got the pineapple cake he'd been asking for and got some really nice gifts as well. His Thomas engines and video really held his interest, but over the afternoon, he also wanted to play with his helicopter (which chants out "Here comes Tonka, to the rescue! Coming to save the day!" like something out of Team America) and train puzzle, tried on his rain boots, and inspected his Thomas tableware. He had a great time.

We drove by the house again today...even went down the alley, lol. It is really nice. From stuff on the curb, looks like the owner was kind of busy doing work on it this weekend. I'm pretty excited...my dire 'no good job, no good school' post earlier this week looks like it wasn't quite true. The house is very near a local university, which pays its librarians significantly better than where Jon works now. And, from what I can gather online, there are some decent schools after all. The best thing is that, even after taxes and insurance, our mortgage payment would be quite a bit less than we're paying now in rent. We both really like this city and, from the calculations we've done and even taking into account maintenance and such, we'd be financially able to stay here comfortably for as long as we'd like. One especially neat thing is that it's about two blocks from a house I grew up in; kind of nostalgic.

anticipation

Little man's birthday party is tomorrow. He knows it's coming at some indeterminate time, but I think we're going to make it a surprise...maybe have Papa take him to the park while folks come over, then come home to the party. He's gotten an idea of what he thinks birthday parties should be like, so I think he'd get a kick out of that.

I think we're probably going to go for the house if we're able to. Turns out that another friend of the seller's expressed interest a while back in buying it for a rental property. He doesn't know if the friend really wants to do it, though, and is trying to find out. Hopefully we'll know soon...

The neighbors downstairs are having a bit of a party tonight. Geez, they talk LOUDLY! Not much longer, not much longer.