People keep asking how close we are to putting the house on the market. We're close, but not quite there. 90% done is my standard answer, but I really shouldn't be giving that answer day after day, we're supposed to get closer to 100% every day. We were doing really well until Wednesday night. That was when Sarah woke up around 10p and said her stomach hurt. She felt really hot so I took her temperature. 104.6. Holy cow! I'd never had a kid have a temperature that high.
I gave her some ibuprofen and put her back to bed, but that wasn't the last time she got up that night. She threw up a couple of times and ended up sleeping on a palate next to our bed. The next day I was planning on being super productive and I was before we went to the pediatrician for two hours.
Poor little girl was poked and prodded and poked some more. First they pricked her finger and took just a little blood to do an in-office culture. Then we had to try twice to give them a urine sample. After they got the results from her blood culture they needed to really take blood with a needle and syringe. Then to top it all off, they gave her two antibiotics shots, one in each leg. I felt so bad for her I told her I would take her to Target to get a toy after such a traumatic ordeal, but all she wanted to do was go home (don't worry, she took me up on the toy this afternoon and boy did she get a good one!).
The rest of the afternoon we hung out and didn't do much and then Charlie has a business dinner so by the time I got the kids to bed and scraped myself off the floor I got about an hour's worth of organizing done, but not much. Today was supposed to be my second super productive day, but instead I stayed in bed with Sarah, who just wanted to be with Mommy, and watched t.v. (and I dozed a little bit but she didn't). Then it was back to the doctor to verify that her fever had broke and her white blood cell count was headed back in the right direction, to Target for her I'm-so-sorry-this-crap-always-happens-to-you toy, pick up Amanda and drop of prescriptions and then home once again.
So, yeah, we're now maybe 95% done. It looks better than it ever has before, maybe even better than when we first moved in, but we still have a tiny bit to go. A few more things need to go to storage, donation truck comes on Tuesday to pick up the last of our donatables (for now anyway) and cross your fingers that our house will be on the market and ready to show early next week.
No more illness, no more unexpected events, smooth sailing from here on out. Please?!?
Friday, April 20, 2012
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Picture of the Day
The kids at the first egg hunt with the Easter bunny. Smart Riza wanted nothing to do with this guy!
Kid Quote of the Day
"No Andy, we do not share in this family!"
-Amanda, with a death grip on the cereal box.
-Amanda, with a death grip on the cereal box.
Dead Air
So, I guess you've been wondering where I've been the last two weeks. Oh, I hope you've been wondering where I've been, because if not you probably aren't even reading. Well, there's big changes in our household. No, I'm not pregnant, we aren't planning on going down that road again. We're barely surviving the three we have. We're moving!
That's right, moving. It's not a little move either, we're leaving Texas and heading to the sunny state of Colorado. I know that's not usually how people describe Colorado, as the sunny state, but it is sunny something like 300 days a year. This has been in the works for awhile, but Charlie didn't want me to say anything until it was a sure thing. He resigned from the airline at the beginning of the month and starts at his new company in Denver at the beginning of May.
Needless to say the last two weeks have been kind of crazy. We've had a revolving door of home improvement people coming through replacing carpet, tiling bathrooms, prettying up the counters, planting grass, staining the fence, doing all the things we've wanted to do over the past few years but never had the time or money. Now we have no choice but to make our house beautiful for the next people that live in it. We've also been packing boxes and throwing lots of crap, yes crap, away. When the big day comes we'll still have packers and movers, but right now we're just packing up all the extra stuff to remove clutter and make the house look pristine.
So, every free minute I have is either doing something for the kids, or when they are asleep getting the house ready to put on the market. At first it was easy. As Charlie said it was taking care of all the low hanging fruit. However, all the low hanging fruit is now gone and we are having to think about what stays and goes. There are two schools of thought and depending on the hour and my brain switches back and forth between the two. First, carefully select what you want and don't want so as not to be throwing away enough to make your own landfill. Second, fill that baby up and toss everything. Yes, there are some things we can't make a decision on and are just going to move and deal with it later. There are also hidden baskets throughout the house that blend in nicely that are filled with things that we have to make a decision on whether we are keeping or not. But overall we have decreased the amount of junk in this house by quite a bit.
In the middle of all of this we had a wonderful visit from April from New Jersey and her darling son, Riza. Riza is two days shy of two months younger than Amanda and got along pretty well with the girls. We even got a day with Renee and her husband and kids in from Indianapolis to visit her family, so it was like old times with my crazy college roommates. We just talked about way different things than we did then. One evening we got to leave the kids and have an adult evening where we could focus on each other instead of the kids, amazing.
April and Riza came over Easter weekend so we got to do lots of fun stuff with them - Easter egg hunt, decorating eggs, big Easter brunch with another egg hunt and lots of toys in the kids' baskets. We even took them with us to take pictures in the bluebonnets. My one regret with the bluebonnets is that the kids are finally getting big enough to sit still and smile for me and this will be our last year to take pictures with them. Oh well, we'll have to find a new tradition in Denver.
Since April and Riza left it's been non-stop on the go, therefore no time to write and tell you all the crazy things the kids have been up to. Mostly, they've been trying, in their own mostly unhelpful way, to help us get ready for the move.
To answer your questions, because I know you have them, the house will most likely go up on the market next week. Houses have been selling pretty well here so we are hopeful that we will price it competitively and it will sell quickly. We haven't really started looking for houses in Denver yet. We did a little online, but they were selling so quickly we decided to wait until we actually have a chance to buy them. We need the money from our house to buy the new one, so Charlie will look a little bit before I get there but we probably won't buy anything until June of July. There is also the chance that we may rent, but nothing is set in stone yet. We don't know exactly where we want to live, but have targeted a few of the suburbs and are starting to look into the neighborhoods. Charlie is going to go early and work Monday through Thursday then come home and work from home on Fridays until school is out and the we will join him at some point after that. That's all I know.
I will try to write and update as the process goes along and I'm hoping that once the house is on the market the craziness will settle down, but only time will tell. The next few weeks are going to be quite an adventure!
That's right, moving. It's not a little move either, we're leaving Texas and heading to the sunny state of Colorado. I know that's not usually how people describe Colorado, as the sunny state, but it is sunny something like 300 days a year. This has been in the works for awhile, but Charlie didn't want me to say anything until it was a sure thing. He resigned from the airline at the beginning of the month and starts at his new company in Denver at the beginning of May.
Needless to say the last two weeks have been kind of crazy. We've had a revolving door of home improvement people coming through replacing carpet, tiling bathrooms, prettying up the counters, planting grass, staining the fence, doing all the things we've wanted to do over the past few years but never had the time or money. Now we have no choice but to make our house beautiful for the next people that live in it. We've also been packing boxes and throwing lots of crap, yes crap, away. When the big day comes we'll still have packers and movers, but right now we're just packing up all the extra stuff to remove clutter and make the house look pristine.
So, every free minute I have is either doing something for the kids, or when they are asleep getting the house ready to put on the market. At first it was easy. As Charlie said it was taking care of all the low hanging fruit. However, all the low hanging fruit is now gone and we are having to think about what stays and goes. There are two schools of thought and depending on the hour and my brain switches back and forth between the two. First, carefully select what you want and don't want so as not to be throwing away enough to make your own landfill. Second, fill that baby up and toss everything. Yes, there are some things we can't make a decision on and are just going to move and deal with it later. There are also hidden baskets throughout the house that blend in nicely that are filled with things that we have to make a decision on whether we are keeping or not. But overall we have decreased the amount of junk in this house by quite a bit.
In the middle of all of this we had a wonderful visit from April from New Jersey and her darling son, Riza. Riza is two days shy of two months younger than Amanda and got along pretty well with the girls. We even got a day with Renee and her husband and kids in from Indianapolis to visit her family, so it was like old times with my crazy college roommates. We just talked about way different things than we did then. One evening we got to leave the kids and have an adult evening where we could focus on each other instead of the kids, amazing.
April and Riza came over Easter weekend so we got to do lots of fun stuff with them - Easter egg hunt, decorating eggs, big Easter brunch with another egg hunt and lots of toys in the kids' baskets. We even took them with us to take pictures in the bluebonnets. My one regret with the bluebonnets is that the kids are finally getting big enough to sit still and smile for me and this will be our last year to take pictures with them. Oh well, we'll have to find a new tradition in Denver.
Since April and Riza left it's been non-stop on the go, therefore no time to write and tell you all the crazy things the kids have been up to. Mostly, they've been trying, in their own mostly unhelpful way, to help us get ready for the move.
To answer your questions, because I know you have them, the house will most likely go up on the market next week. Houses have been selling pretty well here so we are hopeful that we will price it competitively and it will sell quickly. We haven't really started looking for houses in Denver yet. We did a little online, but they were selling so quickly we decided to wait until we actually have a chance to buy them. We need the money from our house to buy the new one, so Charlie will look a little bit before I get there but we probably won't buy anything until June of July. There is also the chance that we may rent, but nothing is set in stone yet. We don't know exactly where we want to live, but have targeted a few of the suburbs and are starting to look into the neighborhoods. Charlie is going to go early and work Monday through Thursday then come home and work from home on Fridays until school is out and the we will join him at some point after that. That's all I know.
I will try to write and update as the process goes along and I'm hoping that once the house is on the market the craziness will settle down, but only time will tell. The next few weeks are going to be quite an adventure!
Monday, April 9, 2012
Bok Bok Easter Bunny!
There's a lot to tell about our fun weekend with friends, but for now I'll just leave you with this picture of Amanda. I found this chicken costume that we bought for Andy for Halloween when he was 18 months old, but since it's 18-24 months it still fits here. She tried it on today and then wouldn't take it off. I showed her the picture of Andy in it, and she refused to believe it was anybody but her. Such a silly girl!
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Kid Quote of the Day
"Sarah, you are being mean. You need to go sit in the "Thinking Chair".
-Amanda. The funny thing is, we don't have a thinking chair. I'm not even sure where she learned about it.
-Amanda. The funny thing is, we don't have a thinking chair. I'm not even sure where she learned about it.
I Love You!
Amanda is going through this stage right now where she is so, well, lovable. We'll ignore the fact that she yells when she gets mad or thinks you don't hear her and she hits Sarah and Andy a little too often. Otherwise, lovable.
Whenever we go somewhere in the car, no less than ten times does she tell me she loves me. "I love you Mama!", "I love you again!", "Mommy, I love you!". I always respond that I love her as well, and if Sarah is in the car she dejectedly says, "Don't you love me?"
Of course she loves Sarah, and tells her quite a bit as well, but she really likes to tell me, and similarly Charlie, that she loves me. She will stop playing and come up to me and hug me or kiss me or just make sure I know. When I take her to the bathroom and am sitting next to her she does the same thing.
She gives the best hugs I have ever received from a two-year-old. She wraps both arms around you and just squeezes, and doesn't let go right away. She holds on and let's you know she cares.
I know this won't last long and someday (in the far off distance) it will be replaced with "I hate you", so I'm milking it for all it's worth.
Whenever we go somewhere in the car, no less than ten times does she tell me she loves me. "I love you Mama!", "I love you again!", "Mommy, I love you!". I always respond that I love her as well, and if Sarah is in the car she dejectedly says, "Don't you love me?"
Of course she loves Sarah, and tells her quite a bit as well, but she really likes to tell me, and similarly Charlie, that she loves me. She will stop playing and come up to me and hug me or kiss me or just make sure I know. When I take her to the bathroom and am sitting next to her she does the same thing.
She gives the best hugs I have ever received from a two-year-old. She wraps both arms around you and just squeezes, and doesn't let go right away. She holds on and let's you know she cares.
I know this won't last long and someday (in the far off distance) it will be replaced with "I hate you", so I'm milking it for all it's worth.
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