I missed her standing next to him playing with his hair, but I got this:
Doing his pet duty.
He’s such a helpful boy. 🙂
A much-needed epic nap.
Once I got Katie to stay in bed…she slept for three hours! I checked on her at about two hours, at which point I think she heard me, then rolled over and went back to sleep. I couldn’t resist taking a picture.
He’s going to hate it when the furniture gets here.
Loading, Day 2
They are making the pony’s ride as safe as possible:
Doesn’t get any tighter than this:
The packers did not leave a box for the king mattress. Serge is doing his best.
Another kinda bungled meal.
I got bread but forgot peanut butter at the store this morning…so Owen had a plain jelly sandwich and Katie had microwaveable mac and cheese. Amazingly, she ate most of the cup! Owen told me not to worry—we could go back to the store again tomorrow. 🙂
Fun…careful…oops!
Katie loves climbing on Owen.
Sometimes an oops happens.
She wasn’t hurt and didn’t even make a peep—but Owen still immediately apologized and gave her a hug. 🙂
Our new playground!
Technically it’s not that far from our house…if we could cut through a few yards we get the green route (believe me, I’ll be asking when we get back from vacation). Otherwise it’s a loooong trek uphill past seven houses, then backtracking past the same length around the block and down a few more houses (pink). Or downhill a few houses then straight up a big hill (yellow).
Today we drove because it was unbearably hot.
The kids first stops:
It’s not very big, but at least it’s something. And there are two decent-sized tables to sit at.
Katie likes climbing!
We were only there about 15 minutes before Owen declared it TOO HOT. Katie didn’t care. But I agreed it was too hot so we went home.
Extreme moment of panic.
When we left to go to the grocery store this morning I just took the garage door opener and no keys—what we’ve been doing. So we get home and I open the garage door, but wait—the inner door is locked. Shit. Yes, I did lock it last night—something I never do, but new house and all… And the front door is one of those that opens even when locked (I HATE THOSE) so I walked out and locked us out. And I knew the back door was locked.
Shit. Shit shit shit.
And I knew I had the only house keys because the landlord told me yesterday to make a set because those were the only ones he had.
F***
F*** F*** F***!!!!!
PANIC.
Then for some reason I tried the garage door again and it pushed open. I obviously hadn’t shut it tight. Stupid me…but hallelujah.
It was a loooong night and early morning.
I slept like crap on the air bed (and had to fill the air about 11:30, hoping I didn’t wake the kids up since it sounded SO loud in an empty, quiet house), the street noise was annoying, there was a loud drip somewhere that I couldn’t figure out, and it was storming.
I know I looked at the clock at 12:30, 2:30, 4:15, and then I was up for good at 5:30. Owen was up at 5:45 and Katie was up at 6.
GOOD MORNING!
And them the big question: to take a cold shower or no shower (no hot water since gas isn’t on yet). I thought I was going to shower but then chickened out and opted for a baby wipes cleansing.
Today has been trying at best.
Everything was such a rush this morning that I left without even taking a final look back at our house. We were in it for eight years (combined) and have lots of memories…
The drive was long(ish) and my back hurt most of the way—even with using the lumbar support. Even now it’s killing me. I should have taken a pain pill but then I’d have to get out of bed to find them.
At our first stop, I grabbed the diaper bag to change Katie, rushed to get everyone inside because Maggie was stuck in the car without air, and discovered there were no diapers in the bag! WHAT THE—?!?! I know I put some in there! GRRR. At least she hadn’t pooped. So I had to change her on the front seat after digging for diapers in the trunk (I couldn’t even change her in the grass like I’d normally do because it was all fenced off). And it was hotter than hell. (We figured out later that Katie had taken them out while she was playing earlier. Tom found them in the drawer where we normally keep them…so she was putting them away!)
The house seems to be cooling okay (I was worried because there’s only one unit for whole house; we’re used to a dual system) but no ceiling fans is killer.
Maggie pooped in the house within 10 minutes of being here, even though she just came in from being outside and peeing.
Katie got into meds again. I debated taking her to the ER but I really didn’t think she ingested much, if any (there were lots of pieces all over which led me to think she spit them out when they didn’t taste like candy). I’m still watching her for symptoms. She is so much more evil—I mean inquisitive—with stuff like that than Owen ever was. It’s hard to re-train your brain.
The landlord is nice but can drive you crazy. I had to call him because the alarm was beeping (not an alarm beep but more of an “I’m not really turned on but you’re setting off room sensors” type of beep). He ended up unplugging it and disconnecting it entirely. (Apparently it was something the last renters put in.) Then he walked me through the house systems (which I had asked earlier to wait for Tom) and he’s just not very personable. I try to comment on things and make chit chat and he just doesn’t get it and/or doesn’t respond.
I didn’t pack the bath stuff well enough and shampoo got all over everything—even the stuff that was in bags—because the bottle was so tall the spout stuck out. Katie’s toothbrush got thrown away. Their sound machine got some inside (it twists to leave openings to make it louder or quieter). Just a yucky mess.
The MBA toilet doesn’t work, which of course I didn’t realize until I peed in it. I’m sure it’s a simple fix but it’s not what I needed to discover at bedtime.
And there’s lots of little annoying things about the house:
All the blinds are the cheap crappy metal ones and about half are broken somewhere or don’t open right. (We were spoiled as our house had all nice plastic wood-looking ones.)
There are TONS of colored stains on the carpet. In almost every room, in all sizes, and in all colors. It’s awful. It’s almost as if the carpet cleaners didn’t even try to clean it. (We had carpet people who got out red nail polish…so I’m thinking his cleaners sucked.) We’ll try to clean some of them because I really don’t want to look at these for three years:
Flat paint. Off-white. Everywhere. Need I say more?
No curtain rods. I’m so glad we get to buy these AGAIN.
Round toilets. This takes some getting used to after having the elongated ones. They seem SO tiny.
No door to the basement.
No room for a deck, even if he let us. I finally get a nice tree in my yard and it’s in the way.
Street noise. Ugh. Cars going by, cars beeping/being locked, dogs barking. I know it’s typical for this many houses this close together…but it sucks. I guess it’s better that our room overlooks the street instead of both kids’ rooms.
We need shower caddys in each bathroom.
There’s no light above the kids’ tub.
The kitchen is bigger…but the way it’s layed out there’s NO room for any of our current kitchen storage pieces (the island that holds the pet food/water, the big IKEA cabinet that holds all the big kitchen stuff, and the other cabinet that was in the laundry room). Some stuff might fit in the current cabinets…but not all. I don’t even know where the garbage will go!
Our sectional couch is too big for the living room. Or the dining room. Or even the den space. Hell, it will barely fit downstairs. We obviously have other pieces to use (like we did at the last house) but we had hoped to be able to use it full time again (like in Troy).
And of course the kids’ bedtime saga.
But I know it’s not all bad…
- I like our neighbors.
- I like that we have sidewalks.
- I like that the landlord will let us do things (of course, it benefits him—painting the garage, putting in a digital thermostat, putting in a peephole, putting in a few ceiling fans).
- I like that it’s a house and not a townhouse.
- I like that we have a two-car garage.
- I like that we’ll eventually be getting a fence.
- I like my gas stove and bigger kitchen.
- I like that we brought our awesome fridge with us.
And add crazy heat and humidity on top of everything.
Blurg.
Moving…on the other end.
Tom stayed to finish out the packing and loading. The two women were there until about noon (a little longer than they planned). Then after they left Tom got a call that they wanted to start loading today! Awesome!
By 3:30 Tom had most of our U-haul stuff loaded. By 4:00 the truck was at our house.
They weren’t actually loading, but just getting all the big stuff (like furniture and rugs) wrapped and packed and ready to be loaded.
“These guys are good!” They put plastic on the carpet and protection on the wood floor—something that’s never been done before! (We generally put down stuff ourselves.)
Then Tom lost Bella for awhile. He eventually found her IN the corner piece of sectional. Silly kitty hates the carrier.
Tom said “Wait till you see this load. Every piece of furniture is wrapped with blankets! And not only does every piece of furniture have a blanket, it also has cardboard taped to the front. Best. Move. Ever.” (So I rate the women packers a 6 and the packing/loading guys a 12.)
They worked until about 9 and are picking up two more guys in the morning to speed it up.
And then it was bedtime.
I put the kids in a queen bed together. Katie doesn’t do a pack-and-play anymore and has slept with Owen before but it was at a hotel with us right there all going to bed at once. I kept my fingers crossed.
Ha. Haha. 😐
They went to bed late as it was…and as of 8:30 (her normal bedtime is 7!) Katie had been up out of bed five times, at which point I posted myself right in the doorway. I really didn’t plan to do the SuperNanny shit tonight—I was exhausted and just wanted to relax—but there I was. On the sixth time I was seriously about ready to lose it, even though I know it’s normal for the situation. And then she wouldn’t stop playing with the outlet and the bed plugged in…so I decided to put her in her own bedroom (we had a kid air bed) because by this point she was keeping Owen up.
Once there I sat in her doorway and had to tell her to lay down and go to sleep about three times. I waited about 10 minutes and she was calming down so I shut the door and left.
Phew.
Lorton, here we come!
Well, me and the kids anyway. And Maggie. Right on schedule at 10:00. With the Prius packed to the hilt with a crap ton of stuff for two nights (pillows, air beds, sheets, towels, stuffed animals, blankets, sound machines, night lights, food, snacks, drinks, kids’ med kit, toys, books, iPad, laptop…and Maggie and all her stuff)! Katie is back there, too, but I was lazy and didn’t take my phone out of the dash holder to take the picture.
The kids were really good—Katie watched Despicable Me 2 on a continuous loop and was perfectly content…and Owen alternated between playing on his phone and just watching the road. He did enjoy watching my mapping app (Waze) and kept notifying me of “yellow triangles” (road hazards like stopped cars) and police. When this came up he was like “WOW!! Look at all that stuff popping up!”
Katie had fallen asleep about 1:00 and Owen was adamant he didn’t need a rest. This was taken at about 1:15. 🙂
There were a few slowdowns around Stafford (when aren’t there?) but we made it in good time, even with the traffic snafus.
Welcome home! Amazon packages were waiting!
And the kids had A BLAST running around the house.
And they saw COOKIE MONSTER in the garage…so it had to come in immediately. 🙂
It was hotter than hell (and humid) so unpacking the car wasn’t fun. Katie also kept opening the garage door and coming outside—leaving the door wide open with Maggie right there. We’re going to have to put some kind of lock on the outside of the door, I think. Probably on the inside, too. (I’m not sure why these doors are so much easier to open than ours were—she could only open our lever-handle door, not the knobs.) She’s going to be a 180 from Owen on just about everything, escaping included.
Dinner was an escapade. I’d been planning on PB&J…except I apparently forgot the peanut butter and the bread I brought was moldy. Panic! We were all STARVING since we hadn’t eaten since breakfast and it was almost 4! I ended up pulling pizza bagel bites from freezer (that we brought up two weeks ago). There’s lots of pantry stuff but it’s all packed away in the hot garage and not immediately accessible. There’s always take-out but that will be tomorrow!
They were happy, though!
The last TV for a few days.
Can you see her?
She decided that was a good place to sit and eat her snacks.
Owenisms 48
Owen: Katie, smell this flower.
Katie sniffs.
Owen: No, Katie, stick your nose in the pink and smell.
We were watching The Incredibles.
Owen, while playing: I’m gonna kick your butt.
Me: Whaaat?
Owen, somewhat guiltily: Uh, I was saying it when there was a bad guy on TV.
I came into the room and Owen was chewing something that Tom had obviously given him.
Me: What are you eating?
Owen: Nothing—I’m finished!
We had yellow stickers on things we wanted the packers to leave alone.
Owen put a yellow sticker on Katie: I think we’re gonna keep you!
Owen: Wanna hear a good joke?
Me and Tom: Yes, of course!
Owen: Why did the chicken poop in the toilet?
Me: Why?
Owen: TO GET TO THE BACK YARD!
Me: INSTANTANEOUS OUTBURST OF LAUGHTER because he was so serious that it was a good joke.
Owen: I told you it was a good joke.
Well that was certainly a comeback.
I was honestly surprised when the packers arrived at 8:36…but of course that didn’t mean they started at 8:36. They brought in some more boxes and as I went out in the garage to tell them I would buy them lunch they were smoking in the van. 🙄
But then they started packing in the garage—something I wouldn’t have ever wanted to tackle—and it took a long time but they got it done (with a lunch break—we got them subs)! They even had time left to work upstairs, too! It was an easier day for me because there weren’t many questions and they were outside so the kids and I just sat and watched movies all day. I did have to do a few things, but it was mostly restful.
They left about 4:30 saying they had about another hour and a half of work left so they’d just do it in the morning. Which is fine…but…I really wanted to say IF YOU HAD WORKED A FULL DAY YESTERDAY YOU’D BE DONE TODAY. But I was still happy with what they had done, and I even complimented them. See, I give credit where credit is due. 🙂
Katieisms 4
Katie: Where’s Yoda?
Owen: Upstairs.
Katie: Can I go get Yoda?
Me: Yes.
Katie: Okay, bye, see you soon. /heads upstairs
Knowing Katie knows what an elephant is, I showed her this picture and asked what it was.
Katie: Mess!
We were eating snacks in the living room. Katie likes to offer bites to everyone.
Mama bite? Owee bite? Daddy bite? Maggie bite? Movie bite?
Lotsa Legos
When there are this many out at once, he doesn’t mind sharing as much. 🙂
A little while later, this is more what it looks like…with Legos strewn all over.
I love that her foot is in a plastic bag.
Mrs. Ashley made me cry.
She dropped this off at our house (we’ve been trying to meet up every since school got out). Owen was excited to see his teacher again.
Of course I’m a huge sap anyway, but reading what Owen’s pre-k teacher Mrs. Ashley wrote in his memory book really got me.
June pictures are online!
>>> June pictures are online at Shutterfly!
I finally got my cammie quilt!
I have wanted a quilt made out of Tom’s old cammies for a long time now—a friend had one made and I thought it was the greatest idea. And I’m not kidding when I say a long time—I’m talking seven or so years ago (the last time we lived here) and it took me this long to get off my butt and actually find someone to do it (I posted a want ad on a local Craigslist-type site).
Tom picked it up today… He knew I was getting it done, but I think he was surprised at the results. 🙂
And lest you think it’s just a generic quilt…the name tapes are on there (including a few actual pockets)!
I love it!!
And we’re off to a…crappy start.
This move has been annoying since the beginning…
We didn’t get the move dates we wanted but we got our second choice which wasn’t too bad. But even then there was a miscommunication and while we thought we were getting our stuff DELIVERED on July 3 (what we asked for and told was scheduled), we later found out they were LOADING on July 3 and since there were no deliveries on July 4 delivery would be July 5. Not awful, but NOT what we’d been thinking of and planning on.
Then the moving company sent a person to do a walk-through to estimate how much stuff we had and how long it would take to pack…and he gave me a weight estimate which sounded about right…but said something about his two packers. Wait, what? Two? I then related our past few moves—one which we had 4-5 packers and they were done early both days…and the other which they mistakenly sent only two packers and everything ran late and caused mayhem. He said his two girls were GOOD and there were three days scheduled for the packing so so he wasn’t worried. Ooo-kay. Sorry but I have zero faith in that.
So you’d think they’d try to get as much done as early as possible to avoid having to do much, if anything, that third day. But NOOOOOO…8:00 comes and goes…8:30…9:00…9:30…SERIOUSLY? The ball of anxiety in my chest was growing rapidly and I seriously contemplated taking a Xanax (which I had my doctor prescribe for just such an occasion). They FINALLY pull up at 10:00—and yep, only two women. And after they sat there for a few minutes, they literally SAUNTERED to the front door like they had all the time in the world. I wanted to scream.
So Tom gave them the quick walk through and honestly, they were both duds personality-wise. Most people in the past have been super nice and personable and they’ll chit chat with you and what not and make you feel at ease. These two looked like they’d rather be anywhere else doing anything else—like we were putting them out. Definitely not a good first impression.
So they haul in the boxes and packing material and then—THIS IS RICH—they told me they were going to their van to finish their breakfast and energy drinks. ARE YOU F’ING KIDDING ME?! You don’t show up until 10am and you still need time to finish your breakfast? Oh, and apparently take a smoke break, too. So they didn’t actually get started packing anything until 10:30.
And within an hour, I heard something crash and break. Ugh. THE FIRST ITEM THAT HAS EVER BEEN BROKEN DURING PACKING OR DELIVERY IN ANY OF OUR MOVES. So I got called in to see a 24″ x 36″ picture frame shattered on the floor. She wasn’t careful when she was taking pictures off the stack and they slid and tipped over and there you go. She apologized, but then just stood there. Oh, I guess I have to clean it up then? She has no responsibility for it?! So I was picking up shattered glass while she just stood there. The picture—the mosaic print of our wedding photo—was ruined as the glass cut a bunch of places over the whole thing. Not a good way to start the experience.
And then a mere 2.5 hours after they started? A smoke break, which turned into a THIRTY MINUTE BREAK for one of them and a 15 minute break for the other. Seriously? I MEAN SERIOUSLY?!?!?!?
And then. AND THEN!!! They decided to wrap it up at 3:30. After just 4.5 hours of work (since they took that 30-minute break). YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!!!! I’m guessing they know there are technically three days allotted for packing so are slacking on the front end. I’m NOT happy AND I predict they run out of time…at which point we will be VERY unhappy.
I was debating calling the moving company when they happened to call to check on the progress (ironically about 10 minutes after the packers left)! I let them know we really weren’t expecting a five-hour work day and she was surprised when I told her they didn’t arrive/get started until 10:30 (she said she’d check on that but I’m sure nothing will come of it). But she assured us it would all get done. We’ll see. I will sing their praises (for the most part) if they do get it all done…but right now I’m not feeling hopeful. At all. They only got the first floor done today—they barely got started on upstairs (they did the kids’ rooms) and they have the entire garage (which has all the household stuff that was in the pod!) plus the living room (with the storage areas) left. Can you see why I am not hopeful?
Unfortunately, this is the busy season (we’ve never moved in the summer before) and I think we’re lucky to have what we have on the approximate dates we asked for. I mean, that’s the basic attitude we seem to be getting. I’m not happy but it could be worse. /knock on wood
Stay tuned.
P.S. The kids were actually VERY good. They watched movies all day and were well-behaved for the most part. Katie didn’t take a very long nap but at least she took a nap. Owen has been bribed with a Star Wars Lego book… 🙂
40 Bags in 40 Days—Day 33
If you’re paying close attention, you will see I skipped Days 26-32. That’s due to us having had a garage sale and donating 90% of the remaining things to a resale shop [that benefits a women’s shelter]…which I equated to about seven days’ worth. 🙂
Over the past few days we’ve been burning old paperwork—we have a shredder but why shred when we have a perfectly good fire pit?!—so between that and random garage junk, I’d say we’re down another bag!
I’m going to miss these ladies.
Tonight was a Pampered Chef birthday party for Jacqueline…and the last time I’d see her or Katherine (until they hopefully come visit this fall for a girls weekend). They were part of the mommy group I got involved with here and they grew to be great friends. I’m REALLY going to miss them.
Color, mama?
Lately, out of the blue, Katie will ask to color. She can even get up onto (and off of) our bar-height dining room chairs by herself so she’ll climb up there and wait for you to bring her crayons and paper. 🙂
Swimmers Ear
So over the past few days, Owen has mentioned that his ear hurt and that he had a headache (though not at the same time). We didn’t think much of it and just gave him Advil. This morning he complained that his ear hurt and his head still hurt…and still nothing clicked. Bad mom. It wasn’t until Tom got home (early) and we were talking about something and AHA! I thought he had an ear infection. I immediately called the sick clinic and got an appointment in an hour.
She asked if he’d been in a pool recently and I said just our tiny splash pool on the deck. She asked about any other water. Nooo. Then it hit me—AHA!—two days of the waterslide! But that was five days ago?!
Then she diagnosed him with Swimmers Ear—basically an outer ear infection. She said it could happen quickly (same day) or days later…which then it all came together…he’d been complaining for a few days.
So now he gets drops twice a day for 10 days. He doesn’t love them but he’s good about them.
Can you believe I’ve been carrying this around for 20 years?!
I had to go in the file cabinet today and happened to pull out a huge stack of REALLY OLD credit card statements. While on one hand I was surprised (I was positive I shredded all that stuff years ago)…it brought back good memories!
“Happy” clapping and dancing!
This is one of her favorite scenes in Despicable Me 2 and if she’s not already in front of the TV she comes running to do this: