JTOK Chatter > Page 392

Wow, all three fit!

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So we are going to the USMC Birthday Ball this weekend.

No, we originally weren’t planning on it since we were moving up here, but apparently it’s almost a mandatory event for hubby’s new office, so we’re going…at $40 each. XX( We do get a hotel room included in that cost—which is nice since the hotel is an hour or so away—but it’s money we hadn’t planned on spending AND we had to get someone to watch the dog!

Anyhoo.

I was pretty sure at least one of my three dresses would still fit, since I was about the same size when I bought them five years ago.

The red one is my favorite, but I’ve worn it a lot—including each cruise and one or two balls.

The purple one I wore to my first ball, but the straps are annoying and it has a shawl that I never know how to hold or what to do with.

The champagne one I’ve never worn (and probably didn’t NEED to buy, but really HAD to buy because it was on clearance for like $35 and you don’t find nice dresses in my size on clearance too often—so it’s been in my closet for five years) but doesn’t look that great with my now-pasty-white skin. (I had been planning on wearing it THIS year, tanned…until I got pregnant and quit tanning.)

So I will probably end up in the red one, just because it’s my favorite. But it was nice knowing that all three fit!

Eating, eating, eating.

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It seems like every time I turn around I’m hungry and eating something. Apparently I’m not eating too much since I’m not gaining much weight (which is good—I’m not complaining!) but it feels like I shouldn’t be eating so much.

I tease that I eat two breakfasts and two lunches per day. First, I eat animal crackers or cereal when I first get up because I am RAVENOUS. Then anywhere from an hour to two hours later, I am hungry again, so I eat a more substantial breakfast (scrambled eggs, breakfast sandwich, leftover dinner, etc.). Then I eat something for lunch (not a lot in quantity though, because I get full quickly), then 1-2 hours later I’m eating more. In addition to the snacks I grab throughout the day (anything from apples to Oreos to cheese to yogurt).

I never know when the hunger is going to strike, so Tom and I will be out running errands and suddenly I will say I’M HUNGRY, then point to a place as we’re driving by that sounds good (last week was Crazy Bread from Little Caesars). I have actually now packed a lunch bag with water, fruit, and granola bars to keep in the car for just such emergencies.

And now I have to go find something to eat for my first lunch. 😛

NO POP BEFORE BED!

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Goodness.

I had a craving for some grape Faygo before bed, so I quickly downed a glass. And boy was it yummy.

But then maybe 30 minutes later I tried to lay down to go to sleep…and…yeah, not happening: I was having gurgling, burping, acid-reflux-feeling fun. >:XX

I tried to outlast it (and Tom’s wonderful comments! |-|), but eventually gave up and propped myself up on three pillows and napped for about an hour until it went away and I was able to sleep normally.

Well, for at least an hour or so until I had to pee for the first time of the night. 🙂

Sucky work hours so far.

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We knew Tom’s job would be long hours—we were told 6 days a week, probably 12 hours a day. And they weren’t kidding—at least so far.

I can honestly say I hate the hours. I am just not used to “I will be home at 6:30.”

Then “No, I will be home at 7:30.”

Monday it was even “Sorry, 8:30.” >:XX

You just can’t plan dinner for that type of timing…because it changes every day. At least if it was like 7:30 every day without fail…but no, of course not. Of course, it’s worse that I don’t get to see him much…I am used to him being home at an early hour (he was home 97% of the time when I got home at 5:15).

Bah humbug.

First Michigan OB appointment

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I had finally procrastinated enough and finally called a doctor to see if/when I could get in—we have just been so busy unpacking and whatnot that calling for a doc always got pushed to the bottom of the list. Yeah, priorities, I know. 😳

Anyway, I had called Monday and they were actually able to get me in on a cancellation for today! YAY!

While out on errands yesterday, I stopped by to drop off my records, in the hopes the doc would actually take a quick look at them before my appointment.

Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. The best-laid plans, right?

Anyway, the staff was nice and I liked the doctor. Turns out she did some of her training in North Carolina. The appointment was very short as basically they weighed me (I think I gained maybe 2-3# since my appointment a month ago), took my blood pressure (they said it was great—YAY!), and then checked the baby’s heartbeat (150).

I did ask about a recent yeast infection (which I got thanks to the bacterial infection meds I had been taking—and the doc hadn’t automatically prescribed the yeast infection meds like I was used to)…wondering if it was something that would have gone away on its own or if I might still need meds (I could have googled, but didn’t). She assured me if the symptoms were gone, I was okay. Cool. (Unfortunately, I am still having discharge issues—although they are no longer bacterial, the doc assured me they are simply pregnancy/hormone related and there’s NOTHING you can do about it. Fun.)

I have to go back in two weeks for a sugar test (well, technically a glucose screening and glucose tolerance test) to test for gestational diabetes. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

A new look for the blog…for the season.

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I loved the previous skin I was using, but in honor of moving to Michigan (and seeing as how it’s just about winter—although, knock on wood, today it got to 70) I thought I would change the skin to something a bit more wintery.

I do have a bit of tweaking to do, but for the most part, it will look like this until I’m sick of winter…so, maybe a month or two? XX(

😀

Running errands here is a nightmare!

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So today was my first day to run errands alone. Wow, it sucks.

First, I had to have the GPS because there is NO WAY IN HELL I am going to know where I am going, let alone where anything is OR how to get home IF I happened to find anything. 🙄 And as I was ready to pull out of the driveway, I realized I didn’t have my GPS—Tom had both of them! So I had to wait for him to come home for lunch!

Second, there is construction on one of the MAJOR roads, which slows traffic down considerably. I am sure there are alternate routes (and the GPS could give me one if I told it to) but I don’t want to get too confused this early—and most of the time the GPS just tries to reroute me BACK TO the under-construction-area. 🙄

Third, the traffic—just speaking generally—is horrible. Which leads to…

Fourth, it seems like no one is paying attention at any time. Today I came THISCLOSE to getting rear-ended because some idiot two cars back wasn’t paying attention and didn’t notice (I guess) that we were all AT A COMPLETE STOP. I heard screeching and braking and as I looked in my rearview mirror, heard a loud THUNK as some idiot careened off the road up onto the curb/lawn to avoid hitting the lady behind me. Then, as if nothing had happened, just waited for traffic to start again and he plunked down off the curb. (Well, I guess nothing did happen, and I guess he wasn’t supposed to just sit there looking like a moron, but still, it just seemed so nonchalant.)

Fifth, for the drivers that are paying attention, some are just plain rude. Yes, traffic sucks. But to wait in the center turn lane with your blinker on, waiting to get into traffic, and then have to cross THE OTHER THREE LANES of traffic to make your turn? >:XX Try going a different direction. Drivers are constantly wanting you to let them pull out into traffic, and then making other lanes wait as they cross multiple lanes of traffic. So you add this to the people not paying attention? Aye yay yay.

Sixth, we live right in the center of town (pretty much) so are right in the middle of all the major thoroughfares. Which mostly have no left turns. To make a left, you have to turn right, then get immediately in the special left-turn lane in order to go back the other direction. I’m getting used to it, but it’s a pain—especially when you add in the traffic and the rude and non-alert drivers. Luckily some of them have lights. But some are one lane and some are two lanes and you never know which ones have lights. Fun!

And I am sure I am forgetting some.

So today I was gone for about three hours, traveled about 15 miles total, and only made three of my six stops—the doctor, Petsmart, and Costco. I kept missing the post offices (wrong side of the road, too hard to get back over, GPS was wrong) and I gave up on the credit union (I missed my turn, which then sent me a half mile out of my way, at which point I was close to home and said screw it, I’m tired, I’m going home), and Kroger—which was actually ON the way home, but it was another screwy left turn and I was exhausted.

Are we done yet?

Tom’s first kick!

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Tom felt his first Owen kick today! I have been feeling them for awhile now, but they have apparently not been strong enough for “outsiders” to feel…but yesterday he was being VERY active so I took a chance…and Tom was able to feel it! He loved it! :p

Happy Halloween

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To hand out treats or not—that is the question.

Pros?

  1. It would be a nice welcome to the neighborhood—show who we are, that we’re nice people.
  2. I have the pumpkin.
  3. I have the treats.

Cons?

  1. The pumpkin isn’t carved. (I personally HAVE TO HAVE a carved pumpkin to hand out treats, even though it isn’t technically necessary.)
  2. We will have family visiting—and most likely eating at the witching hour.
  3. We don’t have a good setup. The screen door makes two doors to open. Even if we leave the main door open…
  4. We have to make sure three animals don’t escape—which can be done but with everything else, just adds to the not-wanting-to-do-it feel.

So, we might just have a bag of candy for ourselves this year (instead of just the leftovers).

Funny story.

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So I have two pairs of jeans that fit, both the same style and color, just two different sizes. The smaller pair I can wear, but have to leave the top button undone. The larger pair are baggy, but then I can leave them buttoned. (I have yet to do any maternity shopping, although I fear it’s coming soon. But at least we’re in a big enough city to have nice stores!)

Anyway.

So I alternate which jeans I wear depending on how I’m feeling or what I will be doing (if I’m doing lots of moving or sitting, I wear the larger pair).

So yesterday I decided on the larger pair because I was going to be unpacking and moving around—plus I felt really fat and uncomfortable. They felt smaller than I remembered, so I quick read the tag and yes, they were the larger pair…so I was disgusted that in just a few days, the larger pair had gotten THAT much smaller. >:XX I mean, I know I will be getting bigger, but I swore I had just worn them a day or so ago and they were still too big.

Oh well. I just chalked it up to having gotten bigger and not paying attention.

So as the day wears on I had to unbutton them and I just thought Holy Crap, this sucks, I will have to go maternity shopping sooner than I thought—how depressing.

But the more I thought about it, I was sure I was going crazy. So I looked at the tag again—more closely—and yep, I had grabbed the smaller pair!

Phew! :>>

So I still have a few weeks before I have to get maternity pants. 🙂

A quick update on the move!

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I have barely had two minutes to sit down at the computer, let alone write a full update of our move…so here’s the somewhat shorter version!

The professional packers came for two days and packed up the entire house. What a job! Yes, they did 96% of it, but Tom and I were still running around moving things and answering questions and directing traffic—it was way more work than either of us remembered, and it was exhausting (especially for me). As a sidenote, the cats didn’t appreciate being locked in carriers, but they were cute:

Then the movers came on Day 3 and loaded up the semi—it was scary enough just to see that HUGE truck pull up to the house:

And even scarier to see just how much of the semi our household contents filled (here they are almost done loading—our stuff came right to that last open door):

Of course, the work still wasn’t done—as there are LOTS of things they can’t pack like batteries, light bulbs, liquids (everything from cleaners to shampoo to cooking oils to detergent) so we spent each night boxing up that stuff for us to carry in the U-Haul. And then there was the cleaning. And patching. And touching up paint.

And then we got the call Saturday afternoon that our stuff would be arriving in Michigan Monday morning between 8-10am. HUH? What? Egads. Tom and I had been planning on driving up together Monday morning after he checked out—and planned on getting our stuff delivered Wednesday or Thursday—but things change, and we weren’t giving up the chance to get our stuff early so I left bright and early Sunday morning and drove the entire 14 hours in one day (well, it’s about 12.5 hours, but with stops…). It was a long day, but I made it.

The cats were funny on the way up (I got the cats, Tom got Maggie): they were each in a separate crate next to each other. I had covered them with a towel in the hopes it would make them calmer if they couldn’t see what was going on (I’m not sure if it helped or not). But what was funny is that they would cry and whine and meow, then they would be quiet, but as soon as the GPS announced a turn, they heard the voice and started meowing. Then they’d be quiet. Or one would cry, which would make the other cry, then quiet. Then the GPS would ding and they’d cry some more. Then quiet. Music didn’t disturb them, but if I sang along to the music? Crying and meowing. It was hilarious.

Anyway, I had called my mom before I left, and she was waiting at the house for me—so that was really nice to pull up to lights on and the heat going! And poor Tom was left packing up and cleaning the rest of the house!

The movers were there at 8:30 the next morning and quickly unloaded everything. I was very glad mom was there, as she was able to run and get drinks and lunch (you can’t leave the house, otherwise the workers can’t be there). They were done in about seven hours (just about the amount of time it took to load the truck) which sounds like a lot, but it really isn’t when you consider all the crap we had.

I started to do some unpacking, but it’s really overwhelming and lots of things just have no home and my brain wasn’t up to thinking where I wanted things (i.e. the kitchen has more cabinets, but no pantry, so all the food has to go in cabinets—but then where does all the bakeware go because there is no room in the cabinets OR for the standalone pantry we had at the old house).

Needless to say, after a week of unpacking, there is still lots of organizing to do. Most of the household boxes are unpacked—or at least unwrapped so we can see what is in them…but the garage boxes are going to be the biggest nightmare. Why? This garage is WAY smaller than our last one. It’s a two-car garage, but it’s a TINY two-car garage with NO storage space. (At this point we are guessing that neither of us will be parking in the garage—and eventually, maybe ONE of us will be able to.)

Parent Hacks

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http://www.parenthacks.com/

Parenting tips from the real experts: actual parents!

Sample tips:

Denture tabs clean more than just dentures

Who knew denture tablets had so many uses? From Sarah:
I found the hack to use denture tabs for cleaning toothbrushes and teething toys, but they are also great for cleaning athletic mouth guards, night bite guards for teeth grinders, sippy cup valves, etc. I take a few with me when I travel to quickly clean pacifiers, spoons, etc. in hotel rooms. Also, a less toxic alternative to bleach products for cleaning toilet bowls is to let 2-3 denture tabs dissolve in the bowl before scrubbing. After throwing away flower arrangements, I fill the vase with water and throw in a couple to clean the scum off the inside. They are dirt cheap when you buy in bulk!

Coffee beans in the diaper pail reduce the smell

Kristine’s hack will set you back a few (Star)bucks, but may be worth it:
When our son started eating solids, the poop—and therefore the diaper pail—got a lot stinkier. A friend suggested that I dump a bag of whole bean coffee in the bottom of the pail before I put the bag in. In order to contain the beans, I put them in a zip-up mesh laundry bag. I couldn’t believe that it worked! At first it smelled a little bit like Starbucks in my son’s room, but after about a week, we really couldn’t smell the coffee, and even better, we couldn’t smell the poop either.

Week 23

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From What to Expect:

At eight inches and slightly over a pound, your baby is the size and shape of a small doll. (But then, you already knew that you were carrying a living doll, didn’t you?) This week marks the beginning of some serious weight gain. Your baby’s weight in the next four weeks alone should double (and you may feel as though yours is too). You have probably heard your baby’s heartbeat through a Doppler a number of times already (though you never get tired of hearing it), but by now you can also hear it through a standard stethoscope. What a heart throb! Your baby’s skin is reddish in color now because of the developing blood vessels underneath (remember, the skin is very thin still). It also hangs loosely from his or her little body at this point. That’s because the skin grows faster than the fat develops. But don’t worry. By the time your baby is born, he or she will be pleasantly plump and filled out—from chubby cheeks to chubby toes.

From WebMD:

Your baby measures about 8 inches from crown to rump and weighs almost 1 pound. His body is starting to look more like a newborn, but his skin is still wrinkled as more weight is to be gained. By now, there is no mistaking that you are pregnant and you have likely gained about 12 to 15 pounds. Vaginal secretions that are typically clear-to-yellowish with a faint smell increase during pregnancy. Check with your practitioner if the color or odor changes significantly since it could signal an infection. If you have aches in the small of your back, consider treating yourself to a pregnancy massage or apply a warm (not hot) heating pad or hot water bottle for a short period of time to the area.

From Baby-Gaga:

At this point you’ve pretty much adjusted to the fact you’ve got a moving little gymnast inside of you, but now they’re going to kick up the party a notch because they can hear and react to sounds from the outside world. Sounds from your alarm clock, a thunder roll, or that darned car honking at you across the intersection can actually jar their little ears enough to elicit a kick or violent bout of squirming. Of course this also means that their little ears are picking up the sounds of your voice and those near you. So go ahead, sing a lullaby to your little angel—if they start kicking, it’s likely they just want you to stop… or maybe it was a kick of approval? You decide. Your baby’s tiny taste buds are still growing and their bones are continuing to ossify (harden), their tiny veins are visible through their translucent yet wrinkly skin. (Think of it this way: they’ve been swimming in the equivalent of a long hot bath for the past 23 weeks, so you can’t blame them for being a little prune-like.)

Last NC Appointment

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I had my very last OB appointment today with the fetal medicine specialist. He said everything looked great—the baby weighs approximately 1.2# and is developing nicely.

Of course Owen was obstinate today and didn’t give us a good face-on view for the photo shoot (even after the doc flipping me on my side), but I was able to see legs and arms (and an elbow), lips, the chambers of the heart, the spine, organs I will never be able to point out on the ultrasound video, and of course the boy bits. I told the ultrasound tech that we needed her commentary along with the video, to be able to point out everything. 🙂

The doc also said I was doing great for having had (or still have but is currently in remission) Grave’s Disease. He is still in a bit of disbelief that I am not showing any symptoms or having any problems—but he is thrilled nonetheless. (Oh, that’s right, he said he couldn’t see the baby’s thyroid, which was a good sign. If he could see it, that would mean I was passing on issues to the baby. Of course I couldn’t see anything. Even when he pointed.)

My blood pressure was just fine today, too (as compared to my BP at the hospital two weeks ago when it was a bit high), so that’s good.

I did have the doc take a swab because I was a little concerned about some discharge, and it turned out to be something bacterial, so I am now on meds for that…but he said it was nothing to worry about.

I really love this doctor, and am going to miss him terribly—even if I have only seen him three times.

Cell phone companies suck.

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And in other news, the grass is green and the sky is blue. |-|

We were excited to give up Tom’s cell phone (since he will be getting one through work) to save some money. I had planned to ditch our $80 family plan and had hoped to get a very cheap single plan. But what does it save us? Only $40/month. (Yes, it makes logical sense that giving up HALF our phones should net us HALF the bill, but I had hoped for a much cheaper plan.) But you see, once you get a cheaper plan with Alltel, you lose the MyCircle numbers (which I apparently use quite a few minutes of), so you need more minutes, which means a more expensive plan. It’s a catch 22. >:XX

And additionally, I may or may not have mentioned this already, but Alltel won’t cancel our accounts—even though the area we are being transferred DUE TO MILITARY ORDERS is not specifically an Alltel-covered area. What they “CAN do” is put our accounts on hold for the duration of Tom’s orders… what the hell sense does that make? :crazy: Just cancel the stupid accounts.

Ironically, we get great Alltel coverage in Troy, even though it’s not technically an Alltel area. And all of the other cell companies are spotty at best (from reviews I’ve read) and people in-the-know (on industry forums) have heavily suggested we keep Alltel.

GRRRRRRRRRRRR.

Flutterings

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I have started to feel some internal flutterings—Owen is apparently moving about! Tom is upset he can’t feel anything yet, but sources say it will be another few weeks before “outsiders” can feel anything.

I know there will come a time when I am tired of the movements, but right now, I want to feel them more more more!!

Miscellany

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I need to start carrying tums with me at all times. XX(

Wow. I hate when a product has a .net and you don’t know it, so end up on a .com porn site. EEK. 88|

FYI: Luigi’s Real Italian Ice in NO way satisfies a craving for a DQ vanilla cone. 🙁

CVS is expensive! I just paid $6+ for my favorite Tums flavor when I got them in Michigan at Meijer for under $4. |-|

Mmmmm. I stupidly stuffed myself silly with the best fried chicken, hush puppies and baked beans…but it’s the last time we’ll be eating there before we leave.

You would never believe me.

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I did something tonight I never thought I’d do in a million years… Yes, shame on me, I bought a Stouffer’s frozen lasagna for dinner. 88| 😀

Why? Well, apparently that’s what happens when a hungry pregnant woman innocently stops for milk on the way home, and wanders past a freezer end case and sees the lasagna on sale. :yes:

I know that Stouffer’s macaroni and cheese is deeeeelicious, so hoped the lasagna would be the same. And you know what? It wasn’t too bad. Of course, it’s nowhere near homemade, but since we are (obviously) moving soon, I am not up to making a batch of spaghetti sauce and there is none in the freezer. And honestly, it was worth the $5.

But the best part of the dinner? Tom had bought some focaccia and made garlic bread out of it…then I went out and snipped some fresh basil, tossed in some fresh tomatoes (from our plants!), then added some olive oil, balsamic vinegar, fresh garlic, and salt and pepper for the BEST bruschetta topping. Mmmmm was that divine. I could have eaten the whole loaf myself (except we only had enough tomatoes for a few pieces).

Appointment and Maternity Clothes

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This morning I had my last on-base OB appointment. It was just a quick check-up, really—heard the baby’s heartbeat and the doc warned me about high blood pressure (apparently, it was a bit high again, and I am at the point in the pregnancy when it should be the lowest of all). He said I might have to worry about a few forms of hypertension. Then it was off to medical records to request a copy for the move…but of course I needed Tom’s orders (which I didn’t have) so he has to go back and request them for me.

On the way back to work I stopped at Target just to see what they had in the way of maternity clothes. Ha, funny. They had about six racks, none of which were plus size…so I guess maternity clothes are only for rail-thin people and I will have to wait until we get to Michigan with a wider variety of stores. (Sidenote: I don’t REALLY need maternity clothes yet, but some pants are finally starting to get tight.)

Insurance costs…YUCK!

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Okay, we’ve changed our minds, we are not moving to Michigan. |-|

We called to alert USAA to our change of location, and the prices are INSANE. Our car insurance is TRIPLING from about $800/year to $2400/year. We are guessing it’s due to a high auto theft rate in metro areas, plus all the insurance Michigan requires (as opposed to North Carolina). Still, that’s going to hurt since we expected it to stay about the same…but TRIPLING? 88| OUCH. >:XX

And homeowners? Eeeesh. What a pain in the ass. XX(

We currently have USAA and since we have lived here, our homeowners has been around $800-$1200—which included some line item things like computer, guns, jewelry, and artwork. However, for the upcoming year, USAA just DOUBLED the cost (to $2400/year) because of all the hurricanes (they apparently want to get out of the homeowners insurance business in this area).

Well, we saw the notice but assumed we’d sell the house and not have to worry about it, so didn’t bother researching/changing insurance companies. However, now it’s looking like we might have to rent out our house, which means we’d have to keep homeowners on it, so we are looking at other insurance companies. Nationwide is apparently the only one we’ve found that will insure us in NC hurricane country—other companies pretty much just laughed at us and said NO WAY. >:XX

Well, since we were checking with Nationwide for homeowners coverage, we also asked for a renter’s insurance quote. Tom gave them all the same coverage info that USAA had and gave us a quote for…are you ready??? $1500!! 88| WHAT? >:XX At this time, we have not yet talked to USAA about their cost for renters insurance…but if we have to leave them for homeowners, why stay with them for renters insurance? You see the mess this is? 🙄

We obviously had to reevaluate our contents coverage, because we realized it was $160,000—which we surely don’t have that much in contents. We have no idea how USAA came up with that amount for contents coverage, but there must have been a formula and that’s what was included (i.e. I am sure we didn’t pull it out of the air). Once we re-evaluated, it was more along the lines of $80,000…but then we got an email from USAA saying our renters insurance would be about $350 for the original $160,000 in coverage (Tom hadn’t called them back yet with the revised figures). So, I have no idea why Nationwide was so high at $1500 with the same coverage, and then USAA came back with $350.

It’s all just a huge pain in the butt. Tom is NOT having fun with it—he usually never has to deal with this stuff because I am the one that always takes care of it—but I thought it would be good for him to see what is involved so he doesn’t take it for granted! :> However, this round of research is unfortunately a bit more involved and exasperating than normal, so he’s earning major brownie points.

Baby shower…and registries!

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So, with everything on our minds lately, I hadn’t even thought about having a baby shower…so imagine my surprise when I got an email from one of our close friends telling me they were going to have a shower for me before we left!

Of course, I hadn’t registered for ANYTHING either…so it was off to Amazon and Babies R Us for a quick look, then I bombarded my friends for lists of MUST HAVE baby items. They came through for me—so their hints and tips, plus my own research, led me to quite a list at both places (although there is still way more to come, I’m sure). Links to each registry are in the right-hand column.

Week 19

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Baby Gaga:

Your amazing little baby is now around 10 inches in length! If this seems a bit shocking, you’ll be relieved to know they’ve not actually grown over 3 inches, but that their little legs are now straight enough to be measured. This is when doctors begin measuring fetal growth from head to toe, (no longer “crown to rump” or CR). Lanugo (little hairs) covers their whole body now, trapping that charming cheese-like vernix caseosa (see week 18) to the surface to the skin. This week your lil’ fetus will start on an appetizing diet of amniotic fluid which they are now capable of swallowing, digesting, and passing the fluid as far as their tiny “large” intestines. Fortunately for you, this nice little lump of baby-poop won’t be coming out while they’re still in your womb. Some time shortly after they’re born, this fun lump will become the first in a long line of baby poops. (What finally comes out— commonly known as “meconium” to the science world, will be black and sticky, and you’ll be very glad it happens only once!)

WebMD:

Your baby measures about 5.2 to 6 inches from crown to rump and weighs about 7 ounces. The baby’s skin is developing and is transparent, appearing red because of the visible blood vessels. A creamy white protective coating, called vernix, is also developing. As your baby continues to grow, you may be feeling some mid-pregnancy aches and pains—lower abdominal achiness, dizziness, heartburn, constipation, leg cramps, mild swelling of ankles and feet, and a backache are all normal. Dilated blood vessels might cause tiny, temporary red marks (called spider nevi) on your face, shoulders and arms.

The final house-hunting saga!

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Well, that was certainly…an experience. It was 🙄 and 😥 and 👿 and 😯 and 😐 combined.

So when we last left you, we were still looking for a place and our agent was seemingly irritated with us. But we HAD to find somewhere to live.

As it happened, my dad and stepmom had come down to see us (Monday the 15th), so they were around for our last look. We only had like three places left, and we had already decided that if none of those worked, we were packing up and heading home a day or two early—we were THAT frustrated.

So we scheduled to meet our agent at the first house. The first good sign was the neighborhood—decent houses with well-kept yards (already miles above most of what we had seen). As a bonus, it was very very close—2.5 miles—from Tom’s new office.

Within 10 seconds of entering the house, we knew we wanted it. It had a nice open floor plan, wood floors, utility room, updated kitchen, etc. Only the rooms on the second floor could change our mind—but those were great, too! Tom and I were both ready to leave and go sign the paperwork immediately, considering how quickly we lost out on the last house we loved and wanted. We made the agent call RIGHT THEN to make sure it was still available—yes, we had to specifically ASK her to call. 🙄

Unfortunately, it was a bit above what we had wanted/hoped to spend, but this house was so far above everything we had already seen…and LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION—we HAD to jump on it. So we went back to her office and, honestly, everything seemed confusing to her—almost like she had never done a rental. I asked which checks she needed (although from personal experience, I know it should be the security deposit and pro-rated rents) but she assured me she just needed the cleaning fee and the first month’s rent. Okay, whatever. So we wrote some checks and turned in our application.

Then she was talking about how we needed to get the Sellers Disclosure and the Lead-Based Paint docs from the other agent. Huh, what? Those are only if we were BUYING the property, not simply RENTING it. Or so I thought… apparently things are done completely different than I am used to in NC. We didn’t have a lease to sign because we hadn’t been accepted yet…so we had to wait. The other agent had to share our information with the owners and see if they wanted us—apparently they had denied like eight people so far! Of course, that didn’t make us feel any better.

So we waited. And waited. We got a call that night that the other agent was still trying to reach his clients to discuss us. Good lord. Again, SO not what I’m used to. In our office, if the credit score is fine and there is nothing outrageously horrible about the people, they are accepted. MAYBE the property manager has to call the client to ask “Is three pets okay?” because that option was never requested before…but it was not a 2-day process.

So we waited. And were just about sick with nerves. Sleeping was just about impossible. I woke up throughout the night and couldn’t sleep due to acid reflux I am sure was brought on by nerves (it was the worst I had ever experienced thus far in my pregnancy). We knew our agent was going to be out with clients most of the following day (Tuesday) but we still expected a call. Which never came, so we had to call her. 😡

Of course, when we called, she had “just gotten off the phone” with the other agent, and told us that the other agents was getting together with his clients for dinner that night to go over our application. I just thought YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME. This isn’t life or death here, it’s a freakin’ rental! You look at the credit score, look at our app, and be done with it. 😡

So again we waited. And waited. No call came that night. The next morning we called our agent—I mean, we are still sick with nerves and just waiting for an answer so we can either sign paperwork or GO HOME. We finally reached her and she said good news—they would rent to us with an extra $50/month due to the pets. That sucked, but we had to say yes. So, cool, we have a place…but GET THIS—she then told us that the owners WANTED TO MEET WITH US TO GET TO KNOW US. 😯

WHAT? You have REALLY got to be kidding me. I expressed my basic thoughts, but she was serious. Apparently this happens A LOT in Michigan. 😯 In NC, owners stay far away from their renters. In most cases, we try to keep them VERY separated. But these owners wanted to meet us? Good god. She assured us that it was just a formality, that we had already been accepted and nothing that happened at the meeting could disqualify us. Not that I didn’t trust that statement, but…I didn’t trust that statement.

In the meantime, she called to let us know she had the lease and we agreed to meet at her office to go over it. We discussed schedules, because she had clients later in the day, so agreed when to meet. Except when we got to her office she wasn’t there. We called her and she said “Oh, I emailed the paperwork to you to look over.” 😐 So apparently our discussion of “meeting at her office to discuss the lease” was…ignored? Forgotten? We were able, however, to use her computer to print the lease. Then it was off for lunch at BD’s Mongolian BBQ (mmmmmmmmm) where we were finally able to take a look at the lease.

And I didn’t like what I saw.

I was used to our NC lease which is like 8 pages and very detailed and really benefits the renter. This lease was like four pages, quite basic, and pretty much put the screws to the renter if anything went wrong. For example, there was a clause about the tenants paying $100 for every service call regardless of whose fault the problem was.

Huh, what?

I tried to clarify with our agent, saying “So, if the A/C unit breaks, and we had nothing to do with it, we still have to pay $100 for the service call?”

Yes.

“If the toilet stops working and it’s discovered that the internal plumbing is messed up, we still have to pay $100 for the service call?”

Yes.

We explained that we understood we’d have to pay for anything that was OUR fault (i.e. the toilet gets backed up and the plumber discovers a Barbie doll in there, or we break a window) and our agent just said “No, sorry, that’s how it’s done in Michigan.”

👿

This is completely, 100% different than how things are handled in North Carolina. Apparently NC is a VERY renter-friendly state and pretty much everything benefits the renter. In Michigan, when renting a house, apparently IT’S AS IF WE OWN THE HOUSE and we must maintain everything as if we owned it. Which makes NO sense whatsoever—that’s why we’re renting! 👿 We ended the conversation with us asking if maybe we could add an addendum or something to counter that clause, and HER asking US what type of wording we wanted.

Huh, what?

I wanted to scream “YOU’RE THE AGENT, THIS IS YOUR JOB. YOU FIGURE IT OUT!” So we just assumed our agent was not understanding us, and we decided to talk to the other agent at the meeting that night (when we met with the landlords).

We also had a problem with the late fees—NC law (which is obviously what I am used to dealing with) says you have a five-day grace period before late fees can be charged, and the late fees cannot be outrageous (i.e. they can be approximately what the bank charges). The MI lease was charging a $50 late fee if not received by the 1st, and another $50 late fee if not received by the 10th. Of course we never plan to be late, but that seemed ludicrous, so we wanted to double-check that. So I called our property manager and asked if she could quick google and see if she could find MI law on the issue so we could be prepared when we talked with the agent again. Unfortunately, she couldn’t find much of anything, so it appears we are screwed on that issue.

In the meantime, however, we stopped by a Kinkos to look up the “service call” verbiage in the NC lease (we have a sample lease on our work website). I copied the related sections and emailed it to our agent, along with a copy of the entire lease so they could see why I was having such issues with some of the clauses—I wasn’t just being an annoying renter, I was just used to something completely different. And, of course, we didn’t want to rock the boat, as we were sure we could still lose the house if we really annoyed the agents or the owners (even though they told us otherwise).

We ended up stopping at Kinkos for something else as well, paying a whopping 20c a minute to use the internet—but it was either that or drive the 30 minutes back to Lori and Steven’s to use their computer.

We ended up at the house a bit early, and met the husband and had a nice chat with him before his agent and his wife arrived. They were a very nice couple—she is a doctor and he is a priest (or some variation thereof) and they live in, I think, Auburn Hills. This is their second investment property, they just bought the house in April 2008 and updated it all, and we are the first people to live there. They were thrilled we loved the house, there was still some work to be done, and they were fine with us making some small changes. Most importantly, they were okay with us putting up a fence—and upon talking with their agent after they left, he assured us they would probably be okay with chipping in for the cost of the fence (we just have to email them to ask, and get everything in writing).

We also went over the service call/fee issue with him, and he told us the same thing—pretty much that everything is OUR responsibility. He said he had started to read the lease we sent, but he hadn’t made it through it since it was so long and detailed. 😐 But the owners HAD agreed to lower the fee from $100 to $75…which I admit is a concession on their part, but still, sucks for us. They also added an addendum which they THINK is doing us a favor, but really isn’t, because it basically says “If the a/c unit or heater has to be replaced, the tenants don’t have to pay for it” and says nothing about other “internal” issues or major house issues that SHOULD BE the owner’s responsibilities should anything go wrong. Of course, we are hoping (assuming) nothing major will happen in the two years we are there, but you…just…never…know.

We also asked about the slew of other renters the owners turned down, and the agent told us it was mainly people who had foreclosures in their past, or worked for their cousin for cash and couldn’t prove income. So that’s why the owners LOVED us—we were stable people.

So, it was interesting. The house is nice, it’s in a great location in the city, and the neighborhood is nice—but it’s more expensive than we hoped. And the owners are nice, but the lease sucks, but we can put up a fence. So all in all, I think it will be okay. But it certainly was a hell of an experience that we do not wish to repeat again anytime soon.

Acid Reflux Sucks

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I slept like shit last night.

I just don’t understand how acid reflux can strike in the middle of the freakin’ night when I haven’t eaten in 9 hours. It was so bad I felt like I was going to throw up and I definitely couldn’t sleep. I was actually hungry, too, so got up to eat something small (the first time I’ve ever gotten up in the middle of the night to eat), in the hopes that it would help a bit…but it didn’t, so it was more Tums. I should have taken a Zantac.

This morning it’s not much better, so I’m taking a Zantac now. I can’t deal with this all day.

Do we have to move here? Ugh.

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Rentals here are NOT handled like I am used to. There seem to be NO property management departments. There seems to be a generic application you get from YOUR agent, and then they pass it on? (We haven’t actually done it yet—everything we’ve wanted has been taken.)

Right now we are still really pissed. Yesterday we FINALLY found the perfect house and said we wanted it. It was above our budget, but it was a million miles ahead of anything else we had seen, so it was worth it: three bedrooms, 2.5 baths, updated kitchen with a bar, huge panty and storage space, and a basement that seemed about twice the size of the house.

So, we were all exciting driving home, and checking the drive time to Tom’s office, when our agent called and said it was leased.

WAIT, WHAT? >:XX

It seems (we are guessing) that the listing agent had someone in the wings already and just wanted the house shown again. The lease isn’t being signed until today at 5 and it didn’t sound like any money had been deposited….so in my mind, it’s still available. But apparently not.

TALK ABOUT FRUSTRATING. >:XX

And our agent is starting to get annoying (sorry Lori and Steven, LOL). I am sure she isn’t thrilled with us to start with, since we are renting instead of buying (i.e. less commission), and we have trusted her when she says “That’s too far away” or “You won’t like that area” because for the most part, she’s been right. But we went to “find” some of the houses on our own and they are NOT too far away and others she didn’t like we thought were okay. So apparently we’re not really on the same page.

She also seems to give up a little easy when trying to get in touch with agents. Most of the listings say nothing about pets, so you need to call to ask. So she assumes, if they don’t get back with her, that pets aren’t allowed. We want her to call again and find out for sure! I mean, we are getting desperate here! And one on our favorite list is only available for show on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, so she says they’re too picky and probably won’t allow pets. Huh? 🙄

And this morning we got a guilt trip… Yesterday we had one more rental on our list to see, but we thought we had found our place so we opted not to see the last one. So today we asked if we could see it again, and she says “Well, you know that’s the one we cancelled yesterday…so I’d have to call the agent back and schedule another showing.” WELL, YES! We got screwed out of the house we wanted…so we want to look. What is wrong with that? But it was totally guilt-trippy. >:XX

I also think she’s a little irritated that we didn’t take the one OKAY one we saw (the one they had to get the okay for with the pets). Well, we could still take that one if there is nothing else (and that was our position all along) but she thought we were SET to take that one (i.e. we got a yes on pets, so she assumed we were done) so when we wanted to keep looking she was like “I thought you wanted that one?” and we were like “Not exactly. That was just the best of the worst we saw.” So instead of being “done” looking on Day #2 like she probably hoped, we are still dragging her around the county.

So, she is busy today—she says she might be available after 4. Wonderful. We have a feeling we are going to go home with no place to live, and will end up coming back here earlier than planned, so we have more time to look. It’s pretty impossible to look for rentals from North Carolina, since we have discovered we REALLY need to see them in person (and see what the neighborhoods look like and where they are) AND because the good rentals go VERY quickly. Steven and Lori offered to help us—to go take pictures or whatnot—but again, you have to make decisions quickly, and I hate to ask them to do that much work for us.

It would all be easier if we could spend $1800—there are a ton of awesome rentals in that price range. But that’s WAY above our budget, and with me not working, it’s just NOT possible.

So, the black cloud continues to follow us…

Family Visit

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Our agent had plans with other clients, so we took the opportunity to have my mom and David come down for the day. My aunt Rose also decided to join them (since they would practically be passing right by her house!).

It was a crappy, rainy day…but we had a good time visiting! Mom brought homemade chicken noodle soup for lunch and that was delicious! Aunt Rose brought homemade pickles for us to share with Lori and Steven (they were actually out of town for the day) so that was a special treat! Mom also brought homemade spaghetti sauce for dinner, but we opted to go out instead (mmmmm, we highly recommend Victoria’s Delights in Oxford!).

It was a nice break from house-hunting, that’s for sure!