A year in review...

January--political commercials had been going on for about 6 months in Iowa, we finally got to go vote in the caucus. It was pretty cool. There was a ton of snow, and the worst winter in Iowa for like, ever. I started doing Blog 365 (today as I write this is the last day, hallelujah!), blogging for cash on an occasional basis, and did a bunch of memes and fun mondays!
February--tracking presidential election results, the side of the road debacle, baby making, valentine, leap year birthday hubby.
March--we found out a new baby was on the way, and celebrated quietly! Found out that the Bears gave away a lot of their good players, which angered me somewhat, started exercising.
April--We thought we'd live in Iowa forever, so we started looking for places to buy, with no luck. We enjoyed the wildlife in our backyard coming around to new life in the springtime and dreamed of our baby to be, and wondered if we'd be as good as parents as the animals. Morning sickness began in earnest.
May--the big announcement was made! Maternity clothes became the staple, and I started a temp job again.
June--I got to visit with my friend/baby's godmother Tricia who was also pregnant, albeit beating me by about 10 weeks (due in September), had our sonogram and got to see our baby, and took a vacation to NC to see my aunt. Also, the Cedar River flooded like an insane amount and totally destroyed the downtown of Cedar Rapids.
July--gas prices hit an alltime high of $4 a gallon. We paid off my student loan and our truck. We rock!
August--Set up the nursery, watched the Olympics, Matthew went and interviewed for a new job, was offered and accepted it! I finished my temp job and vowed to be done for a while. I sang and read to the baby every day.
September--Had 2 baby showers, Matthew was officially cleared for hire for the job he accepted! We looked for houses and found 2 that we weren't totally in love with, but I was exhausted and told Matthew to choose. We packed up all of our clothes in preparation for a move.
October--We voted for the President of the United States. We moved and stayed with my parents for 2 weeks while we waited for a decision about the house we were trying to buy. It should have been a warning. The alarms were ringing but we didn't hear them. We rented the hell hole for 2 weeks and decided against buying a house at the current moment. Our very unexpected surprise of a sweetheart, our baby girl arrived 3 weeks early!
November--We moved into our current apartment, gas prices start dropping rapidly. I counted my blessings and blogged about moving with an infant. It was a lot of sleepless nights.
December--We got used to our new baby, got some cloth diapers to try out, settled into our apartment, and started to feel safe again. My parents had their anniversary, and I got to spend it with them, as well as Christmas. Two things I didnt' think I'd get to do, I got to do. I've completed 9 and 10 on my bucket list as of the end of the year, yeah!

Happy New Year everyone!

Fun with baby

We've been having a pretty good time now that Matthew has been able to be at home with Keeley and I for a week or so. We're getting into a good routine and I'll be REALLY upset when I have to deal with her alone again! It's so great that he can run and get her when she cries in the morning, and bring her to me, hungry, but with a clean diaper and ready to go. It's also nice that he can put her in bed and soothe her to sleep and I can either get some rest or work on other things that I don't normally get done until dark when he's been home for a while at night. Anyway, I think she and I will both be very very spoiled by the time this week is over!

So you had a bad day...

What happens when the baby blues whack you upside the head 2 months after the baby is born? I had an awful morning, after traveling several days this week, KJ ate like a champ (nursing) twice last night, I was just astounded and thrilled. It took no time at all and she was content. She got a bottle first thing this morning because my chest was hard as a brick but I was all set to feed her again 3 hours later, and she would. not. eat. she screamed and screamed and screamed. Matthew gave her some milk out of a bottle and then she had an extreme amount of gas and seemed to quiet down and feel a lot better, but she wouldnt lay down to eat. This has happened twice lately. I had to sit her back up and eventually give her a bottle, but once the gas went away she seemed to be okay. Apparently this morning, though, I couldn't take it. I'm not sure but my guess is that it took a good 3 hours to calm the hell down. My husband finally convinced me that yes, he and the baby still needed me, that I shouldn't just go away and that I should probably go ahead and pump out the 3 quarts of milk that was gathering in my chest. The next time she was hungry? All fine and dandy. Good god. I wish I knew what the heck was bothering me about her being upset. I guess I'm still paranoid that she won't nurse at all and I'll be glued to the damn pump for the rest of my natural life (okay a year)... I'm trying to get away from using it, but she still hates the one side and won't nurse on it unless she's really desperate. Which is about 3 times since she's been born. In the meantime, she is happy enough, is gaining weight and growing, which I should be thrilled about.

But for some reason this morning was hell on earth for me. I haven't felt that bad since getting 'home' to that hell hole house from the hospital when I couldn't get her to nurse. For some reason that's all tied up in my head with being a 'good' mommy. I couldn't give birth to her properly and nursing was all I had left in my head as 'being good' --not that people who bottle feed are bad, it's just a personal insano thing inside my head--for me it is either I am able to nurse her or I fail. And this instance just seemed to make me snap. After a long nap for both of us (okay I didnt' have a long nap, I dozed off and on for a little while)--everything returned to semi-normal.

Therefore my new year's resolution will probably have something to do with being thankful for the love of god that my baby eats, poops, and sleeps (insert angel choir singing here) fairly well for a 2 month old.

Over the river and through the woods...

We left around 545 this morning to go visit grandma, to church at 8 am and also to see Matthew's best friend P, who works in Boston. They went to junior high together and were definitely the beginnings of computer nerds. Geeks, whatever. They have kept in touch even though they went to different high schools and haven't lived in the same state for at least 10 years if not more. Of course they email occasionally and chat online. I happened to also go to school with P and went to prom with him. He's a nice guy and if I could take him in and fatten him up like I did my hubby, I would. He's one of those people (for my husband) that he can just catch up with even if it's been months since they talked or a year since they've seen each other. P has a birthday at this time of year and comes back to see his mom and celebrate Christmas.

For the past 5 years or so, we have gone out to dinner with his mom, sister and her husband. Last year I guess we weren't around for the dinner, but Matthew got to see him for a while one afternoon. This year we missed dinner because of KJ of course. Maybe next year. We saw him this summer for a bit for their 10 year class reunion. I don't think either of them graduated from the school, but they both were well liked and the class was small enough to invite back everyone that was ever in the class. Anyway, I really like him, I think he's a good friend for Matthew. It sucks that he's so far away. Maybe one of these days we'll convince him to come back to the midwest, but until then, it's a rare summer visit and a Christmas tradition we look forward to all year long. His mom also really loves Matthew and she met Keeley and was ga ga over her, apparently, even though she has her own grandbaby and another on the way (her daughter is pregnant for a second time)--which is really nice. Kind of like a surrogate parent, even though Matthew doesn't need one. An adopted mom of some sort I guess. Like I said, he and Matthew were close for a while when they were younger.

Well, anyway, we had a great time, we took 2 meatloaves and mom provided the rest of the food. It was all good and of course my parents were thrilled to see KJ again so soon.

KJ told us what she thought of the Bears all too quickly, she got her 'uniform' dirty before the game even started. Oh and we held her Bears 'hat' on with a white headband with a bow on it. Too cute. Too bad they lost. She would have been a good cheerleader. Or, starring quarterback. Take your pick...

Another round of Christmas

My MIL and SIL came over today for Christmas with them. FIL was sick and didn't want to make KJ sick. We thank him heartily for that. One of the cool things we did was get a 'hunk' calendar for 15 yo SIL. Cowboys on it called 'studs and spurs' or something like that. They have it out at WalMart every year for Christmas time, before the new year (duh) and I have been wanting to get one for her for either her birthday in Nov. or Christmas since she was about 12. Finally went ahead and did it this year. She really seemed to appreciate it and not be embarrassed. I pointed out the one I liked. She didn't say anything. She'll have a whole year of beefcake to look at thanks to me. I hope she appreciates it!

KJ made out like a bandit, her first Camoflage stuff from grandpa, some hat and gloves from Aunt D, they will fit next year, maybe, but I'm sure that's the smallest you could get, pink and camoflage colored. And a giant (okay just bigger than baby, so probably 2 ft tall), pooh bear and tigger. They will have to go nearby for her to poke at when she is up to poking things. They came pre-hugged, which is a requirement for me. If they hadn't been prehugged I would have made them hug them before she got them.

Anyway, I warmed up a spiral sliced ham, and we had cheeseball and chips and such, not too fancy. None of us cared. Which was great. I didn't get too stressed out about it (it was stressful enough trying to get the baby to eat, we finally had to turn the air conditioner on to get her to stay awake long enough to eat, poor thing!) as it was already in the 60s outside, which is odd for December.

Mall hell

Today we went to return some items that didn't fit or were duplicates. At a nearby mall. Finally, Matthew dropped me off NEAR a doorway, and I ran in and returned them. They went ahead and put money back on the credit cards, so no need to worry about anything else. Then I went back out and walked halfway across a huge parking lot. He had only made about a half a lap around the parking lot. It was that jammed. Bumper to bumper and no parking places ANYWHERE! We decided rather quickly that we'd wait until much after Christmas to go back and replace anything we got. Or just shop online like we did in the first place. Much easier that way. We found mall hell and have no desire to repeat it.

Merry Christmas

I hope that whatever your religion, your season, your reason, that the holidays are bright and merry for you. Hold your children close, and your spouse closer. Because it's what I celebrate, Merry Christmas!

New traditions...

Tonight I read her the Christmas story from Luke out of the Bible and Twas the Night Before Christmas. We hope to get a picture of her in front of the Christmas tree (with her diapers) and call that that. No visit to Santa, who needs the hassle. Nothing fancy going on around here. We did use her gift cards from baby showers to get her a little bit of clearance clothing and her bouncy seat and high chair. We were going to wait, but with all the talk about gift cards expiring, we'd rather not let them sit around too long. Besides, we really need a place to put her where she can see what's going on without swinging herself to sleep.

Also while we are on vacation, I mean, while my husband is on vacation, we hope to get her room set up, FINALLY! Yeah! Woohoo!

Diaper shopping...

So far we like the new AIO bum genius 3.0s. Yes they are expensive, but they are a lot easier to put on than prefolds and covers. Just like a disposable, but not. If that makes any sense. And hey, at least her clothes still fit with those on...

These are a few of my favorite things...

Silly half smiles when she's taking a break from nursing.
Loud baby burps.
Good set of lungs. Especially that tired noise, kind of a sigh.
Squiggly butt.
New baby smell.
Soft baby hair that gets curly when wet.
Big eyes that start to follow you out of the room and back in.

Goody goody goodies...

She made out like a bandit with the family today. Toys, clothes, and homemade goodies, all for the little one's Christmas joys. I'll try and get a picture posted later this week.

Oh and we got clothes and cooking stuff. I think Matthew was happy because I got stuff to do pie crust with. He'll think that I need to make pie every week now. Haruumpf!

fluffy diaper butt part deux...

Well, we gave in and bought some of the easy to use cloth diapers. Sure they cost more, but we won't have to go to the store to have diapers in an emergency. Luckily we found out there was a store, and we saw the actual diapers up close, we bought 3 of the smaller size and 9 of the medium. Right now the smalls are in the wash and we will see how they go. If we hate them, then we'll take the mediums back. If not, then we'll be one step ahead.

Chunky butt weighs more than we thought she did. Okay, she's not that chunky, she's just long and lean. With her momma's thighs. and her dad's butt. Poor thing. Hopefully she's tall and will fill out her booty with time.

Did I mention?

I'm wearing my size 6 jeans. They are tight when I put them on, and by the end of the day you can see the crack of my butt. They loosen up that much. I don't know if its a good thing or a bad thing that it turns my husband on to see my butt hanging out. It's certainly not on purpose. Oh well. To each their own I guess.

I can't believe I ate the whole thing..

I ate a whole pan of fudge in under a week. Yup, that's 3 pounds and god knows how many calories. I did have a touch of help, but not a whole lot. To be fair, my husband, who ISNT feeding a baby, only has a few pieces of chocolate fudge left, and I didnt eat ANY of his. Piggy. He he.

I also can't believe that it's Thursday already, I mean, where does the time go? We have our Christmas with my family on Sunday. That will mean an early Saturday night with everything packed up, us showered and ready to go and an early start for her in the morning, with daddy giving her a bottle while mom expresses a bottle for church and gets ready. The last time we did this, we managed to beat her to the punch, get coffee on and some stuff out to the truck and me basically ready, then we did the 1-2 milk thing and I finished getting ready while daddy got clothes on baby and checked off the checklist of things we had to do and/or take with us.

I think this time I'll send out the playpen and anything else I can think of on Saturday, and just leave a few things to take out on Sunday morning, you know like the baby, food, and presents.. not to mention the bottle, diaper bag, oh and anything else I can think of...

These are a few of my favorite things...

For the holidays...

Hot chocolate in the morning
Cheeseball and crackers any time of day
Candy canes for a mid morning lift
Chocolate in the afternoon

Family, friends, and laughter no matter when.

Living on baby time...

We got our new ornaments for this year a week or so ago. It was nice to be in a store other than Wal-mart and looking for something other than food or baby stuff for once. The ornament we got for KJ is a picture frame that we put her hospital picture in. We got a free one of Santa enjoying cocoa and cookies, and the one we bought for ourselves this year was 'Living on Baby Time' --it's an old fashioned alarm clock where the hands wind around when you push a button and all around where the numbers should be it says 'diaper time' 'feeding time' 'cuddle time' etc. That's kind of how I feel these days. I'm living on baby time. Real calendar dates don't mean a whole lot to me, which is another reason why I'm ready for December to be over with, out with the old, in with the new. Maybe by next year I'll be able to catch up...

If we make it through December...

I can't wait for December to be over with. I really enjoy blogging, but I committed to the Blog 365 thing and am having trouble getting through the last month here. I don't want to rush the holidays or any days really, I'd kind of like for the evenings to be longer so I have more time with the hubby before he is too tired to even talk to me, but I guess that won't happen for quite some time...

Catching up...

Today was the day for catching up. Ornaments were hung on the tree this weekend. Presents were wrapped, worked on, shopped for, and purchased online. We dithered and dallied and finally coughed up several hundred dollars to get mp3 players for 5 of the nieces and nephews, the other 2 on my side will get amazon gift cards or in the case of the oldest one, probably gas cards, as he is the only one old enough to drive and work.

We also got groceries, a ton of them, to help us deal with the deluge of people who may very well stop by these next few weeks, and because it's supposed to be super icy out there. I umm, havent been brave enough to look out the window.

We toted Keeley around and she slept just as much as possible, and when she was awake she was bright eyed, looking around and just happy as could be. We also put her in the swing we borrowed from my friend Stacy and she swung dizzily looking at the lamp next to her until she started snoozing. We managed to actually eat dinner without getting up to check on her, hold her or feed her, amazing!

The aftermath means that there's wrapping paper and name tags on the floor and WalMart bags strewn hell, west, and crooked, but at least we are in, safe and sound and happy as can be! Ahh, things to do tomorrow.

time for homemade gifts? tree trimming? eggnog?

Do I have time for homemade gifts this year? Not really. But I am working on dish towels for my mom. Embroidering them with little animals and days of the week. So far I have M-Th done and am working on Friday. We have about 80% of the rest of our gifts purchased, most of that done online. Nothing is wrapped, yet.

Today I put the ornaments on the tree while Matthew held the sleeping baby. I finally convinced him to put her in her crib so we could make dinner. It seems like a neverending cycle of feed her, eat, try and get something done while she sleeps. At least this time, she ate for about 20 minutes, of that 10-12 was actual eating and then she was zonked out. Yeah! Oh and our tree is now finished. No more will we do to it. Technically, it's only half a tree, pushed into the corner, and there's only about 15 ornaments on it, along with 2 sets of blinky multicolored lights. But for our purposes, that's good enough. We have the mistletoe hung up in the baby's doorway, for extra kisses, my NOEL sign my mom made for me tacked up over my desk, and the stuffed reindeer Matthew got me for our first Christmas is sitting under the tree. I think that's plenty. The less we have out, the less we have to put away. And considering how long it took just to get a handful of ornaments on the tree, that's probably a good idea.

Eggnog? I don't think so. Does anyone drink that stuff? It's kind of like carrotcake, I know some people like it, but I can't even consider it. Just doesn't sound good to me.

Friday follies...

Yesterday I got a smile, at least a half of one out of the little one. I was bouncing her a little bit on my knee, kind of like 'ride the horsey' or something.

The diapers showed up UPS, the day after I ordered them. Nice service. Also got a free bottle like the ones we already use.

I finally got all the receipts in for November and December, and cross checked and balanced the checkbook on the computer. Yeah, also, had to pay bills, boo.

I have a few more thank you notes to write, things keep showing up at my door. Which is great but I have little time for thank you notes. I am SO GLAD that I sat and wrote out all the ones from my shower when I did. Whew.

We have the tree up with lights on it but not decorated. I have an idea it will stay that way for a while.

Diapers dot com

In my hospital packet, I got a coupon code for 10 bucks off of mail order diapers from www.diapers.com. If you order a certain amount, you also get free shipping. 2 day shipping from UPS. Not bad, really, considering. I got a case of disposables and ordered one of the fancy cloth diapers that are supposed to fit baby from birth to potty training. Everyone says how great they are. I basically got it for half price, so we can rotate it in with our other diapers and see how it goes. YEAH! That also means one less trip to the store for disposables. Well more than one as there's like 200 in the box.

Count your blessings

Please go visit Lotus. I think she could use your support today. In the meantime, count your blessings, my little sweetheart sleeping in the other room, even if she was screaming her head off, is still a big blessing.

Giggle...

I don't want to get any weird hits on here, so let's just say there's a condition you can get where you have an itchy posterior, and apparently they have a clinic for that in this area, and there is a commercial that is on the television, and they have a JINGLE for the clinic. It's not just bare facts, they wrote and have someone singing a jingle for midwest h.......d treament center, where the end line is 'don't suffer in silence' --sorry, to me, that's just a giggle..singing about that sort of thing is about like singing about your period or any other medical condition, just odd.

Who knew Brian Williams was funny?

If the Ellen Show airs later in the day for any of you TUNE IN!
She interviews Brian Williams ( you know the news guy!)
and he is REALLY REALLY funny.

Happy 40th Anniversary.. to my parents...

This is a picture of my parents, enjoying their gift. Because we were not sure we would be able to see them for their anniversary, this June we paid for gas and food during our trip to North Carolina. We also paid for a rental place for the weekend, they are sitting on a log by the pond with the rental in the background. They had a good time.

jeez...

Should I say, as normal as normal can be with a newborn in the house?
Is that better? Because I know nothing will ever be the same, and that's okay.

That's kind of the point, because of the way my husband looks at me when
I'm feeding the baby and he's actually awake, you know, rather than snoring
and coming awake every 10 minutes and asking how she's doing. Hey, at least
he is asking. But you know, all sweet like and smiling. And I pretend I can't see him.

It's also how it feels when I realize my baby is off in dreamland, because all the sudden
her face breaks into a huge smile, her lips quiver, her eyes roam back and forth under
closed lids, and I swear she's a puppy dog hunting rabbits in her sleep (ever seen a dog do that?)

And it's how I look at everything differently now that she's here. I saw things through rose
colored glasses while pregnant of course, but now I see them through Keeley colored glasses.

6 weeks postpartum

Monday is my doctor's appointment. Everything should be back to normal. My husband can't wait. I'm not sure whether to be thrilled or scared to death. Needless to say it's been a very long time since I had just me in my body alone and I don't really know quite how to feel about that. My life changed last February, forever.

I didn't anticipate having to wear a bra 24/7 or having sore breasts 24/7. So far turning around and having my husband hug me around my stomach has worked out better than anything else. It was awkward enough to kiss him or hug him before I was pregnant, then it was a struggle to do so around a huge belly, and now it will be quite some time before everything is. REALLY back to normal.

Turkey Fromme Soup

Okay I was looking for a way to use up our turkey and saw 'Turkey Frame Soup' and read it as Turkey Fromme Soup. In really it's FRAME like turkey bones. Basically it tells you how to make broth or stock from the bones and meat and then add vegggies and noodles and such. It was pretty good, it did 2 things. Well, 3. I learned how to make stock by boiling bones, which I hadn't done before, second it provided dinner for us last night and third it will provide lunch this week for us.

My little sweetheart...

My baby went to sleep at midnight, she made some noise at 3:30 so I went in and checked on her and put her laundry away while I waited to see if she would wake up. She didn't so back to bed I went at 4. I went in at 7:30 and woke her up. She slept 7.5 hours.

I got her up and she didn't cry.
I changed her diaper and she didn't cry.
I nursed her and tried to burp her and nursed her some more, she got hiccups and nursed some more, she sat and looked at me, and I finally went in and got her dressed and put her down in her crib. She stared at all the stuff in there, and she didn't cry.

And now she's asleep.
Ahhh.... what a wonderful life!

Tell me what you think...

Of all the awful things that have happened to young(er) men in the place where I used to live, car accidents, suicides, and etc, perhaps the most tragic is the most recent. A kid from a neighboring town played football (consolidated sports) with my brother. I don't really remember the guy per se because there were a lot of kids and I was a freshman when he was a senior. Not exactly on the radar so to speak, but anyway, here's the story:

He has having issues with getting access to visit one of his kids, to the point where he was having to get a police escort part of the time to force the mom and whoever to hand the kid over, as they have shared custody, or what have you. Until last week when someone (no one knows who) apparently got sick of it and shot him, in the head. The mom, one of the grandparents, someone. To my knowledge this is the total truth, now if there were mitigating circumstances I dont know about it. He goes to pick up his kid and they don't want to give the kid up so they kill him. Umm, extreme anyone? Seriously?

It appears from the obituary that he had 2 kids, from different moms, of course they have the same last name but they live in different towns so that's how I surmised that. Anyway, the point is that they set up a memorial fund for college for one kid but not the other (whose family shot him)... I can't figure out if that's right or wrong. On one hand he would have taken care of both kids equally would he have lived, on the other, he's dead because they couldn't get with the courts decision and just let him have visitation. What do you think? Should there have been a fund set up for both kids no matter how bad the family was, or were they right in only asking for money for the one kid? Let me know.

Christmas blog post..I'm it!

Okay, to be fair, I was tagged by Ami Mental, and I did NOT read her answers first, so I guess you could say I don't even have any cheats (as usual with memes)... oh and if you want to play, go visit Ami and drop to the bottom of her post, she has the questions all broken out for you so you don't have to delete my answers to get the questions, bonus! She gets visitors then!

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? I would love to use gifts to wrap gifts (towels, etc) but usually paper
2. Real tree or Artificial? at this point artificial although if we have our own house and a pond, we will get a real one and then 'drown' the tree to make a habitat for fish and tadpoles, recycling and eco friendly all at once
3. When do you put up the tree? my husband usually does the day after thanksgiving but this year we arent quite there yet-- a newborn does that to you
4. When do you take the tree down? whenever we get around to it, but since we have it up so long, usually I'm ready for it to go the week after Christmas
5. Do you like eggnog? I've never had it, but I seriously, seriously doubt it
6. Favorite gift received as a child? Wow that's hard, we never had anything super awesome so I'll say a bike, that year it was in the 50s on Christmas with no snow so I could ride my bike all day.
7. Hardest person to buy for? my husband because he never says what he wants, and/or we buy him everything he wants ahead of time
8. Easiest person to buy for? my mom--she never complains and she always has a list and tells you a ton in advance what she would like.
9. Do you have a nativity scene? no but I kind of wish I had one--another one of those things, like an advent calendar, that we'll probably do when KJ is a little older
10. Mail or email Christmas cards? mail, if I can get to it this year
11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? probably something from my grandmother, in the early stages of alzheimers, although I have found that some things she gave me that I didnt appreciate at the time, that I cherish now...
12. Favorite Christmas Movie? The Santa Clause movies with Tim Allen in them. Make me happy every single time I watch them.
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? I wish I could say early, but not this year, I did some online shopping late November and will have to finish with grabbing some things at a store or by rushing to order stuff online...
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? No.
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Food, although if you are looking for GOOD candy canes, Bob's is the way to go. Spangler candy canes suck. Seriously. Suck.
16. What decorations are on your tree? Ornaments from my childhood, my husband's childhood, and one for each year we have been together as a couple. This year we add only for Keeley's first year, and a new one for us called 'baby time' which is a clock which basically says feed baby diaper baby over and over again in place of the numbers.
17. Favorite Christmas song? all of them.
18. Travel at Christmas or stay at home? Travel before or after, stay home on the day.
19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? well I could, but that would take forever, the ones we usually know about though are Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner and Blitzen (of course, don't forget Rudolph)... and Chet (reference to the Santa Clause movies)...
20. Angel on top of tree or star? Angel.
21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or Christmas morning? Morning, although maybe just a small one of Christmas eve.. maybe
22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? People are in bad moods instead of good moods
23 What theme or color are you using when you decorate? Red and green?
24. Favorite for Christmas dinner? Food, all kinds of food
25. What do you want for Christmas this year? Sleep, nursing bras, and less sore breasts, oh yeah, also i want my baby to breastfeed and go to sleep instead of taking 2 hours.

Fun Monday -- Neighbors from the Fiery Depths

Ari from Beyond my Slab is the hostess for Fun Monday, she wants to know: Tell us about your all-time worst Neighbors from Hell. You know, the family of Irish clog dancers who once lived in the flat/apartment above you? Mrs. Nextdoor and her banshee-like multiple orgasms? Mr. and Mrs. Hard-of-Hearing with their television on full blast? The guys across the street who set off 4th of July fireworks starting in March and didn't stop until the first real snowfall?

We had 2 bad neighbors, one on each side when we lived in Iowa. One of them was a single mom with a little boy who was too annoying for his age. Not sure how old he was, but my guess is that he acted a lot younger than he was. When we moved in, the lady told us to go ahead and use her parking spot to unload our stuff. She had a sister (see where this is going?) who told us in no uncertain terms that she didn't think her sister would appreciate us blocking her car in and that we should move. That was nice. Thanks for bitching at us instead of offering to help us. We were in fact about 10 minutes from moving the damn thing anyway. Then the little boy? Liked to peep in our window. Also? Instead of going out their sliding glass door to their own little slab of concrete, they'd walk out their front door and cut across our slab to go play in 'their' backyard, which ended up being playing right in front of our door intstead of in their own area. Lovely. I finally put up a little fence so that they not only HAD to walk around us instead of cutting across, but also the boy had a harder time pressing his nose against the glass to peep in (yes, it actually happened)...

Then after they moved some people who kept to themselves moved in. Awesome. Then the neighbors on the other side moved and a couple with a little girl moved in on the other side. She actually was old enough to know NOT to come up onto our patio, and I didnt know this at the time, but she did sit and stare at my husband while he was sitting on the computer. She didn't stare at me. I was pissed because she kept chasing off the squirrels, rabbits, and birds that we had worked so hard to get friendly so we could watch them play every day. I finally stepped out and said something and apparently her mom was outside, she at least was staying in her own yard to watch her kid play in ours. The running after the animals slowed down after that. Also? She'd come into our yard and stand in full view and lean over and pull grass up. Like she was rabid for pulling up grass. She also would sing 'If you want my body and you think I'm sexy', and she was like 8. I'm sure it was from the stupid cookie commercial, but still, very disturbing.

Listen, I know kids are weird, but seriously? Stay in your own yard and pull up your own grass, stare at your own family members, and don't cut across other people's private property when you have a perfectly good door out to your own backyard that you could be using.

1 month to go

I just wanted to point out that I'm still participating in Blog 365 (really 366 because of leap year), and that I HAVE posted every day for the last 11 months. Yes, a few times I had to 'catch up' and post a few days at a time, but that was well within the 'rules' for Blog 365. When I started it, I figured there would be no issue, but I had no idea how much pregnancy and of course the birth and having a new baby would slow me down. Of course I didnt know then that I would be pregnant, so I guess it doesn't really matter. Anyway, one more month and then I can go back to posting when I really have something great to say and not just every single day whether it's drivel or not.

Randomness..

We have our cloth diapers in, but now we're not sure how much/many times to wash them. I've heard anything from 3=10 times washed and dried, and we are paying for our water now, and have no idea how much our bill was from before, so I'm hesitant to just slosh all that water out with no outlet for it except down the drain. Probably stupid, but whatever.

Since we had to buy more 'regular' diapers, we decided to try Luvs as they were cheaper and you got more of them for less cash. So far (it's only been a few diapers worth), we haven't had any leaks, where the other brand we were using (because the hospital used them) had huge gaping holes around the legs, where in said baby peed all over me, the Luvs actually hug her legs and keep the 'stuff' in. Amazing. We'll see what happens in baby land. It's hard to tell these days.

My husband has had a few days off now and I'm kind of mad he has to go back to work. I actually get to breathe and do stuff (like post more than 2 sentences to my blog) when he is here all day. The baby also seems to sleep a lot better. Maybe he wears her out, I don't know, but I know there are extra hands which is super nice.

We got our apartment better set up over the last couple of days. Only a few items left to take care of. My husband is supposed to be printing out a picture to go on his desk at work, but I haven't heard the printer or seen him in a long time. Hmm.. Maybe he's napping.

I've gotten to see my favorite Christmas movies already this year. Makes me very happy.

I also have a present for all the adults and one teenager we buy for for Christmas. My nieces and nephews will get cash probably so that doesn't matter at this point. Just a tiny more bit of shopping to do. Awesome. Now if the things I wanted were actually in the store. Also I am making part of a present for my mom (insane, I know) and so far all I have done is washing the material. Must get started. Before baby wakes up.

Who needs Black Friday..

When you have the internet? Point, click, shop! Free shipping!

Thankful...

In no particular order, I am thankful for:

Healthy baby
Loving spouse
Supportive family
Prayful church family/friends
Loving God
Sleep
I-tunes/pepsi stuff points/amazon
The ability to read
Cell phones
Orange juice in a carton
Dishwashers and washing machines
Razors
Breast pumps
Sleep

oh yeah and Sleep...

Must see ...

Harry Potter movie number six comes out in July. Must see. Anyone want to babysit?

The Ellen Show...

I must say of all the things I've accidentally run across to listen to/halfway watch while attempting to feed the baby, the Ellen show is one of the better ones.

Yes, it is a little silly, but much better than a 'judge' show or some other talk shows where the teenagers cry 'it is your baby look at the nose or look at the ears' and the other ones say 'it's not my baby' and the results scream 'you ARE the father' followed by bitingly awful crying by the mother, cussing by the father, and many bleep outs, followed again by the girl chasing the boy across the stage hitting him and saying 'I told you so and you are paying for this child' etc. etc. They did those 10 years ago too, and you know they're not any better than they were then but the behavior on all parts is a lot worse than it was then.

Give me something where they dunk celebrities for charity, dance every show, and bring out hunks for a lap-on game of musical chairs in order to win tickets to a show in Las Vegas. There's no comparison. Also, Ellen cuts through a lot of crap and wincing around topics that most people do. She asks people stuff straight out and basically dares them not to answer. Giggle. Got to love that.

New clothes...

I was grateful to have maternity clothes as my body was expanding and otherwise I just looked 'fat' --however I took that time to downsize my winter clothing and guess what? Now I only have about 10 shirts that aren't dress shirts that I can wear. And most of them I wouldn't wear while trying to feed the baby.

I did however, pack away my maternity clothes (and size larger underwear that I had purchased) and got out the rest of my 'normal' clothes, yeah!

Doctor's visit...

http://lil-meeces.blogspot.com/2008/11/one-month-check-up.html

Fun monday info...

mariposa is the hostess and she wants to know about high lights of our lives, high moments and great things, read the next entry for my post.

Life's great moments (fun monday)

Congratulations
Will you
I do
The stick turned blue
It's a girl

Life lesson # 425

Speed eating yogurt can give you brain freeze just as easily as ice cream.

Thankful

My lord am I thankful, for a lot of things.

For a whole day where we had nothing we 'had' to do. We went and visited family and dropped off items that had been in the back of our pickup for 2 weeks and no one bothered them at all. Now they are being stored in my in-laws garage. My mom came over as my dad is still sick (at one point the doctors though emphysema, but us uneducated people knew better)... and Keeley had a great time being loved on by both grandmas and aunt Denise and her friend Bailey (assuming that's the way it's spelled). I was really surprised at how much Keeley responded when my mom talked, but our voices sound very much the same and I imagine the child was wondering why there were 2 of me running around and talking to her, but she liked it just the same. Such expressive looks and movements on her face.

After we had our visit we went to the Super Wal-Mart. Yes, I know some of you hate it, but really, it's better than the alternative, which is kind of like paying too much for car insurance, some times you have to do it, but you don't really want to. Anyway, I was thankful that my child was healthy before, but I am doubly, triply, quadruply glad now. This lady was in the bathroom and was taking a while, so I assume she had some business to take care of. She had about 4 kids, 2 of them teenagers that appeared to be mentally challenged, they appeared to be twins or close to it, with facial deformities and odd tics and ways of behaving even for teenagers. Then there was another one that seemed similar but younger and finally another child, who shared the same facial structure but without the deformity and she appeared to be the most mature even though she looked about 10 or 12 years old. They were outside of the bathroom for a while fake punching each other and clowning around and then they go into the bathroom and talk to their mom through the bathroom stall. And here this poor mom was just trying to go to the bathroom in peace and her kids are there with all their problems and I bet at some points she just wants to flush her head down the toilet. Yes, I am a million times over glad that my baby is healthy.

I also am glad we have money and a job. I saw the weary look on this mom's face, she was wearing an older coat and looked like she hadn't taken time to get her own hair cut in several years, but her kids were clean and happy looking. They were strumming on the guitar hero thingy with delighted looks on their faces and I could tell by looking at the mom that she wasn't sure she was going to be able to afford the thing, but she was going to try to get it for her kids for Christmas. Do you know what I mean? There was just a look of desperation to the situation that I remember 'feeling' when we 'waz po' folks'-- the funny thing is I had just said to Matthew on the way to visit family that I didnt ever want to be po' folks again, but if I had to, I could do it. Seeing that situation made me want to cry. I know wanting everyone to be 'even' is called socialism, but I don't care, no mom should ever feel like that. No woman should have to let herself go just to take care of her kids' health and well being. But millions of them do it every single day. And don't complain.

Enough said...

Triscuit hint of salt crackers...

Hey my friend KT mentioned some 'hint of salt' products a few months ago. I told her I thought it was a great idea. We all get too much sodium in our diets as it is which leads to all kinds of health problems, but I digress.

We found some triscuit hint of salt crackers and they are REALLY good. If you're going to be making a dip or anything this holiday, I think you should definitely try to pick up some of these crackers not only are they good on their own, but with most dips, there's cheese (what's wrong with that, right?) but of course that means extra salt, and with only 2% of your daily sodium in a serving of these crackers, you can enjoy that dip (mostly) guilt free.

I was NOT paid for this post, I just think you ought to give them a try, because I love them.

Oh and don't forget to vote for KT 's picture in the photo contest. She's number 8.

Holiday present progress...

I have part of my MIL's homemade gift done, my mom's homemade gift 'parts' are ordered so I can work on them, something for each dad is ordered and for the younger SIL we still buy for is ordered.

Still have to figure out something more for the SIL's birthday and finish up the parents. The nieces and nephews will probably get some cash and maybe some candy or something else easy to ship (if we have to ship)... and I guess me and the hubs will have to look over financials and see if there's any point in doing anything for each other. Guess we'll figure out how to open a college savings account for Keeley or get some savings bonds and an ornament and be done with it.

What do you think? Any point in putting up a tree? To me it still feels like mid-October so I don't know how to feel or what to think.

Re: the blue jeans post...

Someone asked what I was doing to shed the weight. Nothing. It all just fell off by the time we got home from the hospital. I fully expected to have to lose all but her 7 lb. butt by hard work (ie it would never come off)... The only thing I am really doing is attempting to breastfeed and pumping breastmilk every 3 hours or so.

The only problem is I am ravenous and don't give a crap what I eat. The weight loss has plateaued, so the next time we go to the store it's back to yogurt, string cheese, etc. as snacks. The see food diet is history. Hopefully the size 8s are here to stay and with some persistance the size 6s may not be completely gone for good. Note: they are stretch jeans, so in real jeans its still probably an 8 even if I do get down to a 6.

Either way, my husband likes. A lot. I am/will be a lucky girl, once the 6 week doctor imposed no-touchy policy is over with.

We interrupt this bologna sandwich...

To ask: Why on earth is 'Snoop Dogg' wearing his sunglasses to cook mashed potatoes on the Martha Stewart show? I understand on album covers, at appearances for music awards shows and that, but with Martha, seriously?

Also, he has his own brand of cognac, I get that, but why ruin good mashed potatoes by adding it to them? He could have just gotten a glass and offered her a taste of it instead of trashing the spuds.

Not cool man. Not cool.

Help a girl out...

My friend KT needs some help, she got me into blogging, and she's entered a photo contest. I have to admit, among all the frosting and photoshopping, hers is a good, clean photo.

http://www.5minutesformom.com/4857/prego-photo-contest-finalists/

Please consider voting for #8!!!!!!

Fun Monday--Talisman

M is for Misanthrope wants to know: Do you have a piece of jewelry or other item that holds great personal significance for you, and that you wear or keep with you every day? Show us a photo of your talisman, and tell us why it is so important to you.

Okay, I don't have a picture, but here goes:

I wear my wedding ring nearly every day. When I first got my engagement ring, I took it off to sleep and do practically anything, but I got over it. For years it never left my hand unless I was touching raw meat. Then for a long time, it was stuck on. That was in the post-appendix IV bloat and gain 20 pounds of fluid fiasco. When I lost enough weight for it to finally come off, it stayed off for at least a year, until my husband got it 'sized up' for Christmas for me. That was 2 years ago. It's been a pretty good constant, and went with me to the hospital last month, my pregnancy had not taken it away from me. When they hooked me up to an IV though, I knew it had to come off, so it went safely into my purse. And when we took baby home, it went right back on my finger. Now? It practically spins on my finger, and I have my hands in so much pumped breast milk, pee, poop and other 'goodness' that I don't wear it unless I'm going out somewhere. After all, who wants to be looked at like an unwed mother, especially when you're with a guy who's wearing his wedding ring, right? I mean, they might mistake me for the teenage babysitter (ha ha)-- anyway, I love my ring, it's my engagement ring and my wedding band molded together--soldered doesnt seem the right term, but anyway, they are joined by gold like my hubby and I are joined by love. All together now.. awww!

Blue jeans...

Ahh, my pre-baby low rise stretch size 8's fit! Woohoo! And if you really wanted to, you could pull them off of me. Ahh, just like the good old bb days (before baby)... I'm sure the size 6's will have to stay hidden for a while, or they may never fit again, but still, feeling good to be in a size 8 (even if it comes with a nursing bra, constantly feeling cold, hungry and sore)... I revel in the smallness...

You say it's your birthday...

Today is the day Keeley was supposed to be born. She had other plans. To say it's been a busy day would be an understatement. We're busy trying to get this apartment into some sort of state that is fit to live in.

Right now there are a lot fewer boxes sitting around a lot more things put away. Which is really nice.

Ugh...

For the last 2 days our upstairs neighbors have decided that 1 or 2 in the morning is a GREAT time to scream, stomp/run across the floor, and play music with a lot of bass that shakes our apartment. Lovely. Earplugs are the only thing that helps, luckily I can just barely hear the baby when she cries with them in, but it does kill the music.

Hungry...

I've been WAY more hungry the last couple of weeks than I ever have been in my life. My stomach feels way too empty at midnight and four and whatever other time we happen to be awake. I shouldn't really hear it growl out loud at those times should I? But I guess cookies and chips aren't the best idea right now. Even if they DO taste extrordinarily good!

Moving with an infant

Advice on moving with a baby. Moving with an infant. Moving while pregnant. Moving during pregnancy. Been there, done that. Didn't even get a t-shirt, but since I looked for advice when I was about to undertake the adventure and couldn't find anything, I thought I would post some out there for those in cyberspace that might move soon and need the advice. So here goes: as with any move, you should have the boxes labeled as to which room they go in and what is in them. Example: Bathroom: Hygiene. Spare room: Craft items. Nursery: Clothing. Be sure to label anything you KNOW you'll need ASAP when you get there, for example, we always end up eating pizza when we move, don't ask, we just do, so we would label a box with pizza pans and a pizza cutter, because we know we'll end up with it soon after moving. We had most of the nursery stuff in plastic totes, which was really nice because we knew that it all stayed nice and tightly packed in there and nothing needed rewashed or anything unlike maybe with a cardboard box. Skip down to blue text if you already HAVE the baby.

Note: If you plan to move while you are pregnant: WARNING! Pack your hospital bag and keep it with you at all times. Also, go ahead and install the carseat, even if you're not due for a month or so. You may very well need it (I did)--make sure you have at least one newborn or 0 mos. outfit washed and in the bag for going home in and hospital pictures.We had none of this done and when my water broke, we weren't prepared at all, the carseat was still packed up (at least we knew where it was), I did not have more than one set of clean clothes (we were planning on doing laundry the next day, and had nothing to pack for me to wear), and no pre-washed baby clothes. Most likely, your husband will have no idea which clothes still fit you and which don't (mine packed clothes twice and we still had to go buy some in order for me to get through the last 2 days of hospital stay where I had to be up and walking around after the c-section). Although, please take note: All is not lost: We had family buy and wash some baby clothes, which we used for pictures and taking baby home in. My husband ran out and bought some plain men's
tshirts and some yoga/stretch type pants in a larger size and a new package of underwear and a nursing bra straight off the shelf and it all worked out just fine.Although I must admit, running around with amniotic fluid gushing out and trying to stuff a towel in your pants, put plastic bags and towels on the vehicle seat, and etc. was quite hysterical. I wasn't in labor, yet, though, so I still had a sense of humor. Also charge your camera every couple of days and leave it plugged in and 'with' the hospital bag. The hospital took pictures for us. I'm really glad they did. Our camera and cord were in separate places and was not charged.

Okay, as far as moving goes... Have one box or container that you keep with you or know where it is at all times. Contents: Napkins or paper towels, cups, plastic plates and cutlery, toilet paper, hand soap, a dish towel and hand towel for bathroom washings and kitchen spills. Also very important: Trash bags! Pack this stuff all into your (clean) trash can or laundry basket for an easy carry into your new place. Load your vehicle with bottled water or sodas, and if you have the baby of course enough diapers/wipes/ formula/pre-expressed breastmilk, etc. to get you through the move and a day or two beyond. Don't forget your pump if you're expressing and a bottle brush and other items necessary for feeding baby at whatever stage you're at-utensils for cereal, etc. If it's just a short move and you'll have time to hit a grocery store, don't worry about food, but if not, keep a cooler out and grab some microwave meals, chips, cookies, cheese and crackers, bagels, yogurt, and other finger foods to get you through a couple of days while you unpack. Bottled juices that don't have to be refrigerated, water, etc. should be stuck in the floorboard of your vehicle.Go ahead and find out the pizza delivery place nearest to you and pre-program the number into your phone before you move. Chinese, Italian, or whatever else you like instead, we just like pizza. This is where your 'box' comes in, you'll already have enough stuff to get you through the night and ready for the next morning. Tuck some juice and water in the fridge before you go to bed and either plan to run to starbucks, or find your coffeemaker/keep it with you and set it up for the next morning. This is where cash comes in handy, as well. Keep $50 of mad money tucked into your wallet for emergency diaper runs, lunch on the go, etc.

Impractical advice for some, but if you can, have movers pack and move you. Sometimes they can even hold your stuff for a day or two so you can get your new place cleaned to your satisfaction before everything gets in. We have moved twice, once while pregnant with the movers doing everything and once with a newborn and we did everything. Luckily most everything was still in the boxes that the movers packed for us. What wasn't: we put back in. If you plan on moving close together, keep your boxes, bind them together and stick them in a garage or spare closet so you'll have an easier time of moving the next time around.

Feel free to e-mail me with questions or add comments on anything I may have forgotten.

Veteran's Day

Thank you for serving.

Maternal Grandfather
Dad
Matthew's Stepdad
Matthew
Cousin Glen
Cousin Amy

And all the other souls, both living and dead, that have served our country.

Aww..and more stuff...

My husband wrapped up the 3 biscuits we had left over in the foil we baked them on. Into the shape of a heart. Aww. Isn't that sweet? I have my 2 week postpartum visit today. 4 weeks after that and 'life' will be normal again. At least in theory.

Right now, I'm just hanging on and praying none of us gets sick.

Go bears...

Keeley wore her Bears outfit for the first time today. She was really cute sleeping while the game played on, even though she fought to stay awake to watch it. Mom slept too. Sleep while baby sleeps, right?

What did they do that for?

They TOTALLY ruined one of my favorite shows. Ghost Whisperer. Yeah, maybe it's a bit kooky, but I could see it coming, and I didnt have the energy to cry. I have an idea that that is it's 'shark' jumping moment. They killed off the sexy paramedic, wanna be doctor, loving, caring, every girl's dream husband who totally understands that the woman sees ghosts and puts up with it all and love her anyway guy.

I'm officially pissed off.

No I'm not...

I did NOT take the laptop into the bathroom while the people in my life sleep, just so I could read blogs. Nope.

Well...

We finally heard from the lawyer and he is just telling us not to worry and stress, which is of course what I'm doing. Constantly. And if the neighbors upstairs would be so kind as to NOT play their music loud, I might be able to sleep when the baby does. No such luck. She's only slept long enough for me to shower, eat, pump and now very quickly check email and blog. I may have to ignore my husband half the night and just sleep. That would suck, but still, I am VERY tired.

Moved...

We moved, again, out of that nasty house with all its ucky bugs. I'm not a girly girl, but lord that was awful. We didnt feel safe having a preemie (no matter how big she is, she was still almost a month early) in the house with that much 'grossness' and stinging bugs. Her health and safety is too important.

No one said life was fair...

But when your lender AND your realtor tell you that you can back out of your deal any time before closing and the only thing you lose is your earnest money, and then you find out you are probably being sued for more than that, it doesnt make you feel very good. Especially since you have held up your bargain every step of the way. We're starting to feel cheated by our real estate agent. He didn't put any safeholds in for us, he basically used the other real estate agent's form (the seller's agent) and didn't advise us on anything else. Basically it was just sign here and everything will be fine. If anyone has prayers or whatever else they do, please do it. We live paycheck to paycheck and it's not like we can afford to pay out a buttload of cash to her. She's not 'out' anything except the sale, and she can easily sell to someone else. We have paid utilities for the past few weeks and have made improvements as we are living here and keeping it 'fresh' --keeping the water going through the pipes (which has improved the smell of the basement tremendously--and taking care of it. We don't care about losing our earnest money, we always knew that if we backed out at the end, that would be the only way we'd 'lose' it--since we had a VA loan, we were told that that was the only way we'd lose it, and basically nothing else would happen to us. Guess that's what happens when sleep deprived, desperate people try and buy a house on short notice.

I'm not sure they can 'force' us to buy the house, as we never signed the final papers, but they can sue us for whatever they think they can get, I guess, but we don't HAVE anything to give them. My husband has contacted a real estate attorney he knew when we lived elsewhere, and sent him the paperwork to see what options we have. But at this point in time, this place is such a hell hole we are wanting to get out from under it. We don't feel the baby is safe here. Please pray for us.

Apartment...

We are turning in an application for an apartment much closer to Matthew's work. It seems to make the most sense right now, even if it is VERY expensive. Less expensive than getting into a mortgage, though, and right now, we need to sit back and chill before we lose our freaking minds. Too late!

Ha!

Election...

Hey someone let me know who wins, alright? I'll be sleeping..
just kidding, I'll check my email and find out in the morning who won. Don't tell me, because by then I'll already know ;-)

Yikes...

First day alone with the munchkin. So far, she's eaten and is trying to sleep. I managed to pump, stuff in some toast and check my email. I am going to try and sleep again while she is, I just need to check on her really quickly here. Anyone else remember their first day of staying alone with the baby? Scary. Shiver.

no luck...

We looked at a house for rent but it wasn't even 'finished' on the inside yet. Matthew said the corners weren't done or something. It was pretty tiny and in another town we know nothing about. So that's out.

We may just rent an apartment really close to his work for 6 months and see how that goes, and where we are by then.

We just dont want to buy a house we won't love. I wasn't able to make any kind of rational decision at 9 months pregnant and I dont think the house we're staying in (and not buying) is as good as we thought it was. Not by a long shot. All the windows and doors need replaced, and that's the minimum. We can't do that and take care of her. No way, not before winter comes. We just don't have it in us. So we're taking the next train to splitsville and revoking our offer. It will mean moving and a big pain in that way, but otherwise will be okay. We will make it, we will. Someone please pray for us.

Umm you know that weight I was worried about?

It's all gone. Plus a few pounds. Of course that means all my muscle is gone as well. Dangit. But... I must say, the little bit of roll that's left looks kind of pathetic compared to the nice healthy belly I had before...just a little weird.

But hey, guess that means I was meant to grow babies.. not birth them very well, but grow them, yup, I'm good at it!

Umm hi...

Be sure to check out just how big I was over at the meeces blog. http://lil-meeces.blogspot.com/
There's pic of me holding my friend Trish's baby Ben. My belly is WAY out under him.

Can you imagine how big she would have been if she'd have been full term? My guess is about 10 lbs. Just a guess. Anyway, I will try and continue to update this blog (since I started blog 365 I intend to finish it)..

But I will also post a lot over at the meeces since my life literally is revolving around the littlest mouse right now..

oh and by the way, she squeaks...how's that for a mouse... so go see the meeces page for pictures and more!

I will update, I will...

3 living, breathing, eating, pooping, sleeping bodies still alive. more later.
hugs to everyone!

Jeez...

They told me not to do too much, but we did go to Wal-Mart yesterday and I had to sit down a half a dozen times on the benches spread throughout the store.

We got halloween candy at the store, but forgot to turn our light on. Oops.

And my husband has decided that he absolutely, positively hates this house. 100%, so we're going to find a new place to live. Within a week. And move there, and not buy this house.

Anyone else think we're insane? Better than getting into a mortgage on a house we don't want, though, right?

Another day, another heel stick...

Another trip to the hospital. Good news, this time, considering her 'age' and the lower level of bilirubin, we were given the all clear to stop heel sticks and just wait for the jaundice to go away! Yeah!

Aren't having the best of luck with feedings, though. Right now we are using a bottle/supplement from pumping. No yucky formula, though. That's good, right? I'm giving her the good stuff, even if it's through a bottle? I tell you what, this whole parenting thing is tough on the emotions. The good thing is, I recognize it, I'm not oblivious to why I'm feeling the way I do. It's still tough to deal with, and I recognize that it's not rational, but still, tough to deal with.

I continue to feel guilty for taking an epidural, for not being able to 'make it' without drugs. I would have had to have one anyway for the c-section, but still...guilty. And now with the feedings, it's kind of like being whacked upside the head each time she won't latch on. Guilty as heck. And I know it's not my fault and she's probably just a little too young to 'get it' -- but still...

Ouch...

Had to go and see the pediatrician and get a heel stick today. Well, the baby did. Nearly undid 'dad' to see it. It took forever to get the blood and with me moving slow because of the c-section, I had to go sit in the waiting room. The rest of the check up went fine, though.

Home with lil'list mouse...

Today we came home from the hospital. It was a long stay, but a short stay, if you know what I mean. We were glad to get out of the hospital bed/couch and into our own bed, and glad to be on our own (baby's) schedule instead of on the hospital's.

Can you say moo?

Got milk? I do...but they won't let me try and feed her, because of the jaundice, so I have to just pump and use the sns feeder (little tube you use on your finger or other) to try and hurry her along. I hate it. I really do, because I'd like to be able to feed her naturally, less muss and fuss. We will see. Maybe once we're home from the hospital.

pumping...

I had to start pumping the colostrum last night because she can't be out of her bed too long and it was taking too long to try and get her to feed naturally. It breaks my heart and makes me cry, but what can I say, she needs to eat. Matthew is a big help. He's got this daddy thing down pat.

Daddy is doing great...

Matthew has spent most of the time (since I am VERY slow to move) swaddling, burping, feeding, and rocking while I just try and get out of bed. Recuperating from this surgery will be a challenge, that is for sure. The labor was hard (and long) and I am very, very, tired.

But daddy is doing great. He was shown what to do by the nurses and quite frankly, I think he's the better parent. He is still happy even though he's tired. I've caught him snoozing a few times and just shushed her back to sleep in her little bassinet under the jaundice lights (which she got put under this morning). That seemed to work well. They tell us she's lethargic from the jaundice... They also tell us that we need to keep her on the bilirubin bed as much as possible which means no cuddling or anything, just out to feed and right back again. That sucks.

My parents visited yesterday and Matthew's parents and sister visited today. It was nice to have the visit. My parents brought some pre-washed baby clothes, as hers are still packed up in the house. All the parents also went down today and unpacked the kitchen and baby's room and bathrooms for us. That was awesome. We'll see how the house looks once we get there.

Meet the Meece...

http://lil-meeces.blogspot.com/2008/10/keeley-josephine.html

The middle of something big...

Pitocin started at midnight Wednesday/Thursday morning. They increased contractions exponentially, with most of the time spent in 1 minute increments of contracting for 60-90 seconds and then a break of a minute. Basically like the transition stage of labor, except it went on all day Thursday. Instead of the expected 2-3 hours of contractions like that. Around the middle of the afternoon, I took a shot of stadol, so I could get some sleep in between contractions. Matthew said I would fall asleep for 60 seconds wake up and do my breathing and fall right back to sleep. This went on for an hour and a half. After all that time, I was still only at 6 cm dilated, when I had been at 4 cm at 8 am Thursday morning. Needless to say I wasn't getting anywhere and being in that much pain for that long and learning that I wasn't making any progress just made it worse. When I got to the point that I was crying instead of breathing (picture 12 he he he whooos on the way UP a contraction without ever coming back down), my husband said it was time for the epidural. I just nodded my head. The first one didn't really work. They went to put my catheter in and I could still feel everything. I told them that and at first they didn't believe me, but then they put in a second epidural, tried again, whatever and got it right. They told me I was ready to push about then. I pushed for 4 hours and the doctor finally came and said that I couldn't have the baby naturally. So basically we were forced into a c-section by the position of the baby (face up) and either the way she was positioned and the way my pelvis is shaped. Either way, we found out we were not going to have the baby any other way but by c-section. I slept through the procedure until they said okay dad, tell her what it is... and I opened my eyes to hear my husband say, "it's a girl". I got to see her pretty face and then watch my husband be all teary as he held his baby for the first time. All in all, 28 hours, most of them without drugs, if anyone is counting.

The start of something big...

This is post dated. Went into labor 3.5 weeks early at 8:15 pm, specifically, my water broke. All over the bathroom floor. Spent an hour trying to get a bag packed, find the car seat in the mess of the house, and just in general contact family on the way to the hospital. Got to the hospital at 10 p.m. They took our info and got us into a labor room. Gave us 2 hours to get labor officially started or would start pitocin. We walked and walked the halls.

Not yet...

No hot water yet, apparently the 'other' realtor wasn't in yet by 9:30 am, yeah, right, she's been pissy since she found out she won't get the sale money for the house (she didnt get back to us for a week and the other guy did, so he got our business) -- so I dont know if this is more payback or what, but we sure need to get this figured out, and soon, who wants to bring a baby into a house with no heat/hot water?

Apparently OUR realtor agrees we shouldn't have to pay to get this fixed, as it was broken before we moved in AND we're paying them rent to live here. He seems to think there is just a 'trick' to getting it turned on, but.. I don't know. I wish that were the case, but it seems kind of far-fetched to me. Still doesnt say why if you have the hot water heater turned 'on' that the furnace goes nuts.

And we found out that the lady that owns the place isn't widowed, like the story supposedly went, apparently her husband quit his dentist practice here a month ago and moved down south to let a new dentist do much of the stuff and just part-time it. So speculation is that they divorced over whatever and now she's stuck with a house she doesn't want--and taking it out on us. The guy that came and hooked up our DSL (yeah, internet!) said that he was here a month ago unhooking their DSL and that the guy was loading up his truck and such to move on. Not dead several months ago as we were told. Hmm...

And if the guy was here last month, not really a chance that the whole house just magically went haywire in the last 4 weeks, now is there? Good chance something was wrong ahead of time and they just didn't want to have to pay for it. I'm starting to feel scammed. Not liking it much either. Maybe it will all turn out okay, but when you're 9 months pregnant and you could go into labor at any minute, you don't really want to think about the fact that you haven't had a shower in a while, etc. etc.

Moving day...

Well everything got moved in. Sorted through the mail. Still trying to get our house to close, so we can get it painted and take out the ugly crap that's in here. We are renting currently, but of course we run across a problem right away: the hot water heater isn't working. So no showers. Check the breaker, it was turned off. So we turn it on. And still no hot water, but also the thermostat on the wall goes crazy. Can't have hot water turned on AND use heat, and there's no hot water no matter what.

Good thing we find it out at night, when there's no chance of anyone fixing it. The bad thing is, I'm sure they'll be pissy and try NOT to have to pay to get it fixed. Currently, though, we are renting. We don't own the place, they won't let us do anything to it, so they should be/are responsible for making sure we have hot water. We did insist on a warranty that would cover something like this, but of course I'm sure it won't be enforced until closing, in which case if they decide to be real jerks, we could be without hot water until closing. Even though we paid them rent money up front. Not sure what's going on, but I don't like it.

Baby update...

Check out the meeces page for a baby update.

Life in general...

We went to church, watched football (go bears!), took care of the parents puppies and then drove down to St. Louis. Staying in a nice hotel and heading to bed very early. Tomorrow Matthew goes to work for his real first day. I also have a doctor's appointment. Oh joy.

Long visit...

Had a nice long visit with Matthew's family today. He used the truck to pick up supplies for their back fence, etc. etc. Nice to be needed (not)... Anyway, seems like all we're doing is running, will be nice when things settle down a little bit.

Friday...

oh if only Fridays were the easiest days of the week. They don't really seem to be though. Matthew drove back to St. Louis today for work. It was a long day for him and he conked out super early. Sure wish I could sleep like that. Tomorrow should be an uneventful day. Just waiting out the weekend. We get keys on Monday, after our doctor's appointment.

Early to bed...

I did manage a nap today, for about a half an hour in the morning. We're going to bed around nine tonight. There's not much on tv and Matthew has to get up before 5 to head down to work. Just a couple more days before we hopefully move into our new house. Things seem to be going extraordinarily slowly, but I guess that's because I can't really 'do' anything about it. Just sit and wait. Matthew gets paid tomorrow, so we're hoping that will be enough for the mortgage company to agree to finance us. Not sure why they're in such a tizzy, we're not anywhere NEAR maxed out on our mortgage (we were preapproved for a LOT more), but whatever. We just have to keep putting one foot in front of the other and hope that it all goes through. If not, I don't know what we'll do. Right now we're trying to enjoy family's company while we can and while we have the time/energy to do so. Okay, so not the energy. We're both wiped out, but still.

Today we went and visited my friend Trish and her new baby. He's a month old. I think he's tiny but Matthew thought he was pretty big. I guess I'm used to older babies so to me he looked pretty small. I was the one holding him and it took quite a long time for him to get heavy. I hope that's a good thing. I'll be holding my own little one soon. Just about a month to go.

Annoyed...

Well, the housing thing is still going okay, it's moving forward. The only catch is that 6 months ago, people just took out a small loan to pay closing costs, etc. Now, they want you to prove that you could liquidate your assets (401ks, savings, checking, etc) to pay your closing costs. Now why anyone in their right mind would think that was a good idea over taking out a small loan you could pay back in about 3 months is beyond me. So what, we should empty our retirement accounts and live on credit cards for a few months to prove something to them? Doesn't that seem kind of stupid? I thought the lending industry was all about taking care NOT to overstretch yourself. We were approved for more than $55,000 MORE to roll into the mortgage than the actual mortgage. Apparently that doesn't prove anything to them either. If we'd known this would be a problem, well, we wouldn't have paid out the equivalent in closing costs to pay off our truck, or my student loan within the last 6 months. Jerks. I know, they're trying to keep people from 'overextending' -- but seriously, when you pre-approved us for more than $50k more than that, what would it hurt for us to take out a couple thousand bucks to cover the closing costs so we're NOT broke when the baby arrives? Jeez.

Goings on...

Today we went and grabbed some foodstuffs and other essentials, not only to replace what we're eating while we're with family, but also for next week when we hopefully move into the house. Since our stuff won't arrive and we won't likely get it all put away, we've got instant macaroni, instant soup, fruit cups, etc.

Matthew has to go get his 'stuff' taken care of tomorrow morning, so he's already in bed. My feet have been swollen the last few days. Not sure if it's the diet or just that I'm up on my feet a lot more around here helping out.

One of my uncles is here, he was in MO for a class reunion last weekend, so I was sweeping the floors, cleaning the counters, organizing things, etc. etc. while mom was at work and helping her get stuff ready in general. Luckily, she's taking us up on our offer of the foodstuffs stuck in our freezer, so she's not had to buy a bunch of extra stuff with all of us as company. I'm sure that eases her mind.

Most of the day we giggled and gagged over the 2 big labs' discovery of a deer (somewhere nearby) -- they keep dragging up parts and chewing them up all over the yard. One of them even drug the hoof in to try and chew on it inside. Mom was having none of that. Back out he went. With the hoof. Yucky! Still a giggle though.

The moving day that wasn't...

Yup, for all you cynics out there, you were right. We loaded up our stuff, paint, vehicle on U-Haul trailer, etc. etc. and got a 1/3 of the way there when we got a call from our realtor. A pre-emptive stop from preventing us from painting our 'new' house. The whole purpose of getting the keys early, paying the lady rent until closing, and waiting to get our stuff moved in and staying in a hotel, all pretty inconvenient, was to be able to get the house painted (99% guaranteed) before the baby arrived. If, like it seems, we won't close on the house until Nov. 7th, we're going to be cutting it mighty close. We asked, politely, very politely, if there was any way we could at least paint the nursery so that the baby's room would be done ahead of time, God forbid anything should happen and I'd deliver early. No.

The lady accepted our offer, we were willing to take possession of the house, pay her rent, take all the utilities in our names, pay those for the meantime, and have insurance, besides hers, on the house, so in case anything happened, our stuff would be secure, oh and we have to pay closing costs, and, and of course we had to agree to pay all the damages to the house, which there really aren't, because we got 'such a good deal' -- but nope.. we can't paint, in case, God forbid, our loan fell through, and we had painted the walls (white instead of awful red) and dripped onto the precious wordwork throughout the house.

You tell me, what kind of hoser, who is buying a house, would drip paint on the woodwork and not clean it up, if they were planning on living in it forever, or whatever. None. They'd clean it up because they saw it as their house. And in addition, it was going to be 'so expensive' if we DID drip AND the mortgage fell through AND we weren't able to get a mortgage through anyone else, etc. etc. etc. all this IF'S, to clean up a couple of drops of paint on woodwork. Can anyone run a calendar from October 13-November 1st and tell me how many days of rent that is? We were going to give her almost the equivalent of a mortgage payment in rent. She already has our earnest money sitting there in cash with her real estate agent, so she'd have both, which would be let's just say plenty to use a bit of soap and water and clean up a couple of drops of paint IF all that stuff fell through.

Arse. Bite my arse. That's what I really want to say right now. YES, I can see it from her point of view, but seriously, lady, you have no money skills at all, or you have a very bad advisor.

atv's...

My hubby loves 4-wheeling of any kind - truck, atv, you name it. Today he spent from after lunch (at church, very yummy) until about dinner time at an off road park near where our families live. Everything went fine. Until my nephew flipped his 4-wheeler. Everyone is okay, just some good bruises and a funny story to tell. Remember that one time we all went 4-wheeling and you flipped yours over.. ha ha..good times.

Homeless...

Well, we are crashing at my parents house for the weekend and will get keys on Monday. We went to H0me Dep0t and picked up 5 gallons of primer and 2 gallons of an off white color of paint to paint the 'extremely' red room with--which would be the guest room. We figured that would give us enough to start with for Monday and then we could get more paint once we either A. picked out colors or B. ran out of places to put primer and/or ran out of paint. Right now the comforter for that room is burgundy/navy/hunter green. So a plain off white with the only other thing being in the room is the bed we figured was the way to go. We also picked up a ceiling fan for the dining room, as it only has a huge ugly light fixture you'd only see over the tables at pizza hut or a trashy bar over the pool table--like odd stained glass or something.

Right now we are debating whether to go with a light orange or light yellow for the nursery. If you've seen the decor it's mostly antique white/white and then the accessories are cream bins, red, yellow, orange pails, and yellow painted wall hangings (a lion and giraffe face in bright yellow/brown spots) and that's about it. Crib sheets are light green and then an animal print and a car/construction print in bright colors. We would probably add in blue and green somehow either in a rug, a lamp, or other artwork or such for the walls. Basically, primary colors. That way, once those things are either broken or we don't want them anymore, the room would be a light color that we could customize for whichever gender of baby we have.

I may have mentioned before, but our 'stuff' won't arrive until the 21st, so we will be staying in a hotel until then. Going back to paint/clean up/organize what we do have, etc.

We may use a light yellow in the master bedroom as well, and haven't decided on the bathrooms yet. The master quilt is white with lavendar, green, blue, yellow, etc. etc. It's kind of patchwork-y without being patchwork.

Anyway, thanks for chiming in with support. We're taking it one step at a time. Tomorrow will be for family, church, football, and perhaps making some lists and picking up some more items like batteries for the smoke detectors that don't seem to work, etc. All in a days work. Time to turn in.

Packing, packing.. gone!

A couch and a table is all that's left to be loaded. From the whole house. Forget 1 or 2 pm these guys will be done by noon!

Today...

We are getting packed up and they will leave us with just a handful of our stuff left to get us through the next 2 weeks or so...they should be here fairly soon, so, I guess I better finish up and prepare to get out of their way.

On a sign...

First the snow
Then the rain
Now the Cubs
What's next?

Our stuff is packed..

Almost all of it. We kept out cleaning supplies and paper stuff to eat off of for today and tomorrow, and that's about it. Once we dump off our recyclables we will have 2 extra containers to pack them in. Woohoo! It only took about 4 hours for them to do so.

They say it should take about the same amount of time tomorrow to load the stuff in the truck. Then we can do a final clean and be on our way! Much earlier than we had anticipated, as a matter of fact. Which is a good thing.

Inspections on the house are tomorrow and we get the keys on Monday. If all that goes well, we should be settled by the end of October. We still need to paint and etc. etc. Our 'stuff' will arrive on Tuesday, the 21st and we're supposed to have painting help this coming Monday and Tuesday, Matthew has to do work orientations on Wednesday and Friday, then a doctor's appointment on Monday (Matthew will start work officially then). Stuff arrives Tuesday and we should have unpacking help on Friday the 24th. In the meantime we will work on the house and try and rest some. Everything seems to be coming together.

Financing...

Applied for...
Yeah! We picked a lender and filled out the paperwork. There was a lot of bouncing around and trying to decide between 2 of them, but we finally feel like we got a good deal (under 5% for the first year, and under 6% for the remainder of the mortgage)--it's still a very scary thing, but the lender we went with explained everything complete detail, sat with us until we were satisfied and even explained what the OTHER lender had quoted us. Basically, the guy is a broker and he works in his 'fee' and rolls it into the mortgage, so we'd be paying him almost $4k extra on top of our house, and we'd be paying interest on THAT for the next 3o years. That didn't sound good to us. Anyway, we're satisfied that we did the right thing and got a good rate.

Yeah!

House scoop...

I have a new reader. Yeah! Here's the info on the 2 houses we went to look at.....

http://lil-mousehouse.blogspot.com/2008/09/tale-of-2-houses.html

We made an offer on the tri-level house. We were very surprised that it was accepted. We expected to haggle back and forth for a while, especially since we were offering appx. $29k below what the listing price was (and that had already gone down $10k)...

Turns out the lady was widowed, they were the original owners of the home, and she was moving closer to her family, so she just wanted out from under the home. The caveat for taking such a low offer was that she didn't want to have to fix any major repairs if the inspection came back as 'bad'--we have to have an inspection in order for our loan to go through. We will be using a VA loan, and they do everything they can to protect the buyers, i.e. if the home is appraised lower than the agreed upon price, then the VA will cancel the loan. If there is major structural, mold, etc. etc. damage, the VA will cancel the loan. Basically it's all done to protect US Veterans from getting shafted when they go to buy a house. There are no points or any of that garbage, just a low fixed rate. It also allows us to buy it with 'no money down' --which is a good thing.

We also have a low interest rate locked in with a local bank, with a chance of it going even lower, and a chance for a buydown, with the lump sum being paid by the bank. Basically, in this market, the bank is trying to reel in everyone else's customers. If we close in October, we'll get 1% point knocked off of our mortgage for the first year (about $118/month less in payments)--with the bank kicking in the $1400 from their own pockets. In the meantime, if we make payments as if they were 'regular' payments, then we will have not only their $1400, but our own 'extra' $1400 in there as well. Oh and since we got the house for such a low price, we should have about $40,000 equity automatically in the house. I've heard that's a good thing. I can't even fathom what it means right now, but I've heard it's a good thing.

The only downside we are seeing right now is that since there was no haggling, we didn't get a chance to request that the seller pay the closing costs, so we will be responsible for those. And since we've been so diligent at paying off bills, we don't have a huge savings right now. We used our savings to pay off our truck and my student loan in the last 3 months, so we'll have to borrow enough to pay the closing costs outright, probably from our current bank. They love us, of course, because we paid our truck off in 3.5 years instead of 6, the same with every other loan we've gotten from them.

Basically, we are going on faith that everything is going to be alright. Movers are coming to pack us up THIS Thursday and Friday. They can store our 'stuff' for as long as 30 days. The house seller agreed to let us move into the house a little before the closing date since I'm hugely pregnant and we've got to be down there so soon. We have to pay rent and have at least renter's insurance, which is only fair. We'd like to stay in a hotel for a few days (should be at his new work's expense) and get at least the nursery painted if possible before we get our stuff out of storage. This would be between Oct. 13th and 16th. Matthew has some info sessions on Oct. 15th and orientation on Oct. 17th. He'll start work in earnest Oct. 20th. That's also the date of my first doctor's appointment with my new doctor. Can you see how we say we are going on faith? Basically, we're saying 'Yes, Lord' and putting one foot in front of the other without looking down, up or out. We're being careful and paying attention, and asking questions and opinions and advice, but basically we're just doing whatever seems to 'fall into place' without much other guarantee.

umm...

We gave what we thought was a ridiculously low offer (13% or so lower than their asking price, which had already come down $10k from the outset)... and they accepted! As long as inspections and paperwork go okay, we will own our first home in a few short weeks. More later.

Houses..

Right now we should be showing our parents the first of 2 houses. Wish us luck! Oh and on making a decision too!

Our bags are packed...

Well at least the contents of our pantry are. Who knows how long that stuff is going to be in storage and what the storage is truly 'like' - so we're dropping it off with the folks before heading down to view houses again.

Same with freezer and fridge stuff. Luckily they still have their 'old' fridge in the basement and it's almost never full except for holidays, so they'll just have some 'extra' for the time being.

We figure if they use it all up, they do. If not, then we move it down to the new house or apartment and voila, a full pantry again. Yeah!

What do you think?

Should we clean out our fridge and freezer and just have a couple of frozen meals or subway sandwiches stuck in there along with cereal bars or something for the 2 days they are 'moving' us? My husband will be at work both days and basically we need to clean out the fridge and freezer, scrub the bathrooms and vacuum once the movers are gone.

If we clean it out, we have to do it tomorrow morning and take it family for storage/their use-there's not much in there-a frozen pizza, some frozen pasta and appetizers, a couple pounds of meat, all the condiments in the fridge of course, stuff like that. If we lost it all 'meh' we'd replace it. We'll have to do some of that no matter what because they are moving us Thursday and Friday. So Friday will almost certainly have to be fast food for hubby and something stuck in the fridge for me no matter what. Oh and we'll be gone Saturday at noon through late Monday. So all we have is Tuesday, Wednesday to really eat. And way more food than that.

Let me spell it out for you...

N-U-C-L-E-A-R

NOT "NUKULAR"--and I'm not talking to George W. here, I'm talking to Sarah.
Seriously, do you need something for someone to make fun of you for? -- because you're asking for it.

Where did the last 7 months go?

All I know is, time is ticking down and I am starting to feel very overwhelmed.

Also, the baby likes chocolate. A Lot! Just like daddy.

And I think I'm completely exhausted. I took an hour nap today and it didnt' help at all.

A tale of 2 houses

It took 2 days of bouncing over roads and seeing some houses we knew we didn't one to see 2 we might be okay living with. Is that how it goes with houses? You take what you can get, even if you're not in love? Someone PLEASE tell me. Because I don't know.

We are going to go look at them again with our parents next weekend. When we were there it was pouring down rain so we couldn't investigate the properties at all. Both are 5 acres. They are the same price and in the same area. They are about equidistant to Matthew's work and to family.
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The one Matthew really likes is a geothermal based tri-level that also has a basement area with laundry in it currently (we'd have to move it possibly because of the distance to get to baby). The lower level has a 4th bedroom/office conversion and a living room area with wet bar and a parlor stove. Will probably have to take parlor stove out or not use it until baby is older. There is also a bathroom down there with a shower stall.

The main level is kitchen and dining (which includes the front door and glass sliders out to back patio). Kitchen leads to 2+ car garage. There's also a door from the garage out to the back patio. That would possibly be where we could do a bump out and put in a small sized laundry/mud/pantry and potty just off of kitchen, close off kitchen to garage door and put a door into that room from the kitchen so that you'd have to walk THROUGH the laundry room to get into the house. A subtle reminder to take off muddy shoes and wash greasy hands before coming into the kitchen from outside/garage. :-) All appliances are included.

Upstairs level is 3 bedrooms and full bath. Big closets. All the floors are tile or wooden (or good imitation laminate wooden-not sure). No carpet, no vacuuming. The whole thing needs paint though as at least one bedroom is bright red. It's vacant so in theory we could move right in.

We couldnt' tell much about the property, it is on a more busy road than we would like but a fence across the front should pretty it up and provide safety as well. The side yard would be big enough for a morton type building for Matthew's toys. The back yard doesnt have much grass to speak of and it kind of dips down into a valley with plenty of trees, as far as we could tell, but not sure, we're hoping for no rain so we can kind of tell a bit more about it.
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The other property has a basement with family room in it. Room for tv/sitting area and some toys behind along the wall as well, so it could be a combination of playroom too. Then there's a storage area which is unfinished. The main level enters on a small porch. The home is balanced fairly well, the 3 bedrooms and master bath and a sitting room (as well as the stairs to go down to the family room) are balanced on the left hand side. All that has carpet. The center of the house is vinyl tile or the laminate wood flooring and is foyer, to a hallway with main bath, large kitchen/dining combination with a slider out to back deck, and a laundry area all off of it. The right hand side is the 2+ car garage.

Matthew doesn't think there's really room to put a building there unless you cut down some trees. This is not as wooded, but is just as secluded as the other place, probably on a less frequented road. It also has a pond (you can see from dining room) and they have the remainder of the acres mowed fairly nice for walking.

This one really wouldnt need anything done to it as far as we could tell, it's a little newer and almost everything on the same level would mean less chance for accidents when rushing to baby. Probably would have to change the paint sooner or later but at least it's not bright red! It has gas and electric, so no doubt the utility bills would be higher. People are still living here so it might take a while before we could get into it.
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We are asking for both places about whether or not animals are allowed and anything else that might get us in trouble or put us off of the area, like him wanting a 4-wheeler (we included trampoline and pool for good measure, although I dont want either-but figured that was more normal than asking specifically about 4 wheelers, dont ask me why). I wouldnt want to buy a 4 wheeler OR a pony and get it there and find out we're breaking the rules of the area or something. We want to know about the local wildlife of course, so we asked that, and for confirmation of utility bills and how the water works, etc. Both are on public water so no dealing with bad wells or anything like that. We're also asking about the ages of the septic and roof status. Apparently neither one has ever had basement leaks, but with having dealt with the flooding and such, we're a bit jaded about water issues right now.

Basically these last few questions will cinch it for us, or make us want to just rent an apartment or house for a while and look for our own land and build a house. We're leaving that option open.

What do you think?

Fun Monday..Hiding in the closet

Cassie is the hostess for this week's Fun Monday: I want to see the inside of your closet!! I want to see if your closet is as messy as mine!!! You can't organize it before you take the picture!! Well, we have already packed up a lot of our clothes to get ready for the move. So... here's what's left:
Oh and just in case that makes you feel bad, here's what has become of the nursery...