Okay, the last post was about Oliver the kitty's health scare. This one is about baby #2's health scare. Last Wednesday, I went in for my regularly scheduled check up. Since we had a repairman coming to the house around the same time as the appointment, it was decided that Mike and Dylan wouldn't meet me for this one (they normally come too). Somehow, my phone, which is always right with me, was left at home so I didn't have a good way to communicate with Mike for the day. No big deal. I could survive a day without a cell phone, right?
For this check up, I got to do the super fun gestational diabetes test. It involves drinking an orange drink that tries to deceive you by looking like delicious Orange Crush.....but it is definitely NOT delicious Orange Crush! Then, exactly one hour after consumption, you have to get a blood draw. Given the rainy weather (why do the worst days usually happen when it's raining??), traffic on the way to my appointment was awful and I was seriously stressing getting my 1 hour deadline met. The draw actually happened 1 hour and 5 minutes after, but I was assured it would be ok. Then I had to get a flu shot (ow), the usual thyroid blood draw (mine's been sluggish during both pregnancies so I take a supplement and they check levels at each appointment) and the usual pee on a stick thing (TMI, right?).
Already having done so many fun things, I then went to see my OB. I did the usual check up chit chat with the doctor, joked about how everyone was telling me how huge I was (I've been getting a lot of eye ball pops when I say I'm still not due until January lately) and that I was looking to her to reassure me I'm not a crazy freak nature huge pregnant lady. As she does at every appointment, she pulled out the measuring tape and said "well, you are actually measuring a little big." It's about 1 cm for every week of pregnancy. I was 27 weeks along and measuring 31! It's by no means a seriously accurate nor fool proof test but, just to be sure, she wanted to do an ultrasound for some more measurements to make sure everything was ok.
So, it was up to their other office (same hospital, different building, different floor) to wait. Remember, I didn't have my phone so I couldn't call Mike to tell him what was going on and that he might want to come to meet me. Actually, I'm sure they would have let me use their phone but I didn't think I would be waiting for long. Well, I was wrong. I waited forever! No phone to tell me the time and no entertainment. It was probably "only" 45 minutes of waiting but it felt like a lifetime. They really have boring magazines in an OB's waiting room!
Finally, I went back for my ultrasound. It's always fun to see the little guy squirming about and get a glimpse of all his innards. The tech was lovely, we had a nice chat and after she was done getting pictures, I was sent to check out. Except, wait. She just wanted to make sure my OB didn't want to cover anything else with me before I left. Then I was shown to a room to wait for my OB. Never a good sign. She came in and let me know that I have some excess amniotic fluid - a condition known as polyhydramnios. If you're not a doctor, don't look it up. The web is a scary place. After my doctor assured me up and down that the worst case scenario would probably be gestational diabetes (a worse case I could definitely deal with) she said she had to cover the bases and rule out a few things. So, it was back to get more blood drawn (I was feeling very poked and prodded at this point). Feeling okay about it all, I went back to work and looked up the condition on line. That wasn't a good idea. The information I saw there was scary! The nerves officially set in.
As a result of that appointment, I also was encouraged to make an appointment with my primary care physician to discuss this little matter of my toes going painfully numb when I walk for more than 10 minutes (which doesn't help me in my attempts to keep my fitness going). That appointment was Friday. My toe thing was discussed (nothing too interesting to note there...probably won't be an issue post pregnancy) and my PCP was able to give me some of the test results from 2 days prior. No gestational diabetes (yay!), thyroid good (yay!) and other results still not in (boo!).
Friday afternoon I had taken off work to play tour guide with my friend, Rachel, that was in town. I met her downtown and showed her some of the historic sights in the city. Later in the afternoon, I gave my OB a call and the rest of the tests were in - all looked good (hooray)! So, the only thing left to check off the polyhydramnios scary checklist was an ultrasound by a specialist to make sure baby's digestive system is doing what it should. That brings us to today to the middle of the Oliver health crises. Nothing short of excitement in our lives right now!
Baby's health scare is no longer a scare but this fluid issue will be monitored closely from here on out. I'll likely have ultrasounds every 2-4 weeks until the end. Also, they're not going to let me go past my due date for delivery. Darn! That's another worst case scenario I can deal with!
10/27/11
Health Scares
Well, it's been quite the eventful 24hours. It all started with book club. We meet about every 6 weeks and it's really the only regular thing I do on a weekday outside of work. Normally after work, I head home, have dinner with the boys, put Dylan to bed and (lately) unpack\organize the house. Yesterday though, the boys met me at Chipotle for dinner so I could spend a couple of minutes with them before going to meet with the girls. Once I drove to the hostess's house, I dropped my purse at the door (beside everyone else's) and had a nice evening with the girls.
As we were all getting jackets on to leave around 10pm, I checked my phone (in my purse still next to the front door) and realized that Mike had called me about 8 times, left a couple of voice mails and sent some texts. Ruh-roh! Before seeing what he had said, I knew it couldn't be good. I tried to make out his words through his very upset voice mails but all I could really distinguish was that Oliver wasn't doing well. After a call to him, it was clear that Oliver needed medical attention immediately. The tricky thing is we didn't know who to turn to. As we just moved, we're kind of in between vets. Our previous one transferred the kitty's files to the new one last week but our first meeting with the new vet wasn't scheduled until next week. After calling both numbers, it was determined we would get to the emergency clinic associated with our new vet and closer to home. Mike called me with the address. While Mike was getting Dylan awakened and in the car and packing up sickly Oliver, I was driving furiously to meet them at the clinic.
I arrived a few minutes before the car full of boys, got the needed forms filled out and anxiously awaited at the door to help get everyone in. They took Oliver straight back for vitals and I tried to keep a very tired Dylan happy looking at the fish tank. Once vitals were taken, we met the vet in the exam room. She gave us her assessment of vitals (irregular heart beat but nothing else out of the norm) and her recommendation for immediate tests (blood tests and urinalysis).....and the estimate. Yikes! It would was going to be an expensive night!
Mike and I agreed that he should get Dylan back home and I would stay and take care of Oliver, vet questions and care decisions. When I mentioned that maybe he should go home, Dylan was very happy with that thought. He said "go home, take blanket and yaya" (his night time must haves that had come with him) "take Oliver." When I told him that Oliver had to stay with me so the doctor could help him, the bottom lip stuck out and tears started rolling down his cheeks. Heartbreaking. Dylan loves his kitties and he did not like that Oliver was not going to be at home where he belongs.
I went back to the waiting room, finished the last 15 pages of the book I had just discussed with the girls, caught up with facebook for the day, checked email and played some games on the iPhone while I waited. (What did I do before the iPhone??) After about 30 minutes, the vet came back out and said that blood tests looked good except for the sugar levels - Oliver's were (her words) "alarmingly low." So, I okay-ed an immediate glucose IV and waited for the next level of cost estimate (for admittance for the night) to be brought to me. Ugh and ugh!
After I had a chance to talk to Oliver for a bit and say my goodnights to him, I left for home a little after midnight. (2nd heartbreaking moment of the night....seeing Oliver's confused\sad face as I walked away from him to leave.) Once home, Mike surprised me with our new kitchen table and chairs that had been delivered\set up that day and I tried to figure out how I would get to sleep after an adrenalin filled night. I think I finally drifted off to what could barely be considered sleep around 1:30am and got a few hours of superficial rest. I awoke early, got ready and called the vet for an update. They had the blood sugar back up and Oliver was screaming at them - a good sign for a cat that's normally extremely unhappy with the vet but had been disturbingly quiet when dropping him off the night before. The internist would be in around 8:30-9, review Oliver's charts and advise us what to do from there. So, I let them know I would come for a pre-work visit.
By the time I finished up with all that, the boys were up and getting ready. They decided to come with me to see Oliver. With the pouring rain and traffic, we got there around 8:30. I was a little confused on how it happened, but a quick visit turned into an almost 2 hour event. We stayed in an exam room with Oliver while the internist tended to another emergency, came in to talk with us, brought us more charges (ugh!) and asked what we would do from there. I wanted to consult our primary vet....but which one? I called the new clinic, gave them the run down and then waited for them to call back. In the meantime, we had to skidaddle because I had another appointment at the people hospital (as opposed to the animal hospital) for baby #2. I'll describe that drama in post to come "Health Scare Part II." Anywho, we left, I got a call from the new clinic saying they wanted us to call the old clinic. So I called the old clinic and left a message. The message was returned as I was laying down, with my big belly exposed and covered in goop, and in between seeing the ultrasound tech and the doctor. I had a brief conversation with my old vet which was put on hold while I finished the rest of my ultrasound appointment. When done with that and while driving into work (finally), we finished our conversation and it was decided that Oliver should come home today.
Although we don't know the underlying reason of his severe crash, he is currently stable. We'll be working with the vets (old, new and emergency clinic test results we are still awaiting) to come up with a future plan of action. In the meantime, Mike and Dylan picked up Oliver a little while ago and are taking my sweet kitty (with 2 shaved legs) home to where he'll be getting lots of good snuggles tonight. He gave us quite the scare!
As we were all getting jackets on to leave around 10pm, I checked my phone (in my purse still next to the front door) and realized that Mike had called me about 8 times, left a couple of voice mails and sent some texts. Ruh-roh! Before seeing what he had said, I knew it couldn't be good. I tried to make out his words through his very upset voice mails but all I could really distinguish was that Oliver wasn't doing well. After a call to him, it was clear that Oliver needed medical attention immediately. The tricky thing is we didn't know who to turn to. As we just moved, we're kind of in between vets. Our previous one transferred the kitty's files to the new one last week but our first meeting with the new vet wasn't scheduled until next week. After calling both numbers, it was determined we would get to the emergency clinic associated with our new vet and closer to home. Mike called me with the address. While Mike was getting Dylan awakened and in the car and packing up sickly Oliver, I was driving furiously to meet them at the clinic.
I arrived a few minutes before the car full of boys, got the needed forms filled out and anxiously awaited at the door to help get everyone in. They took Oliver straight back for vitals and I tried to keep a very tired Dylan happy looking at the fish tank. Once vitals were taken, we met the vet in the exam room. She gave us her assessment of vitals (irregular heart beat but nothing else out of the norm) and her recommendation for immediate tests (blood tests and urinalysis).....and the estimate. Yikes! It would was going to be an expensive night!
Mike and I agreed that he should get Dylan back home and I would stay and take care of Oliver, vet questions and care decisions. When I mentioned that maybe he should go home, Dylan was very happy with that thought. He said "go home, take blanket and yaya" (his night time must haves that had come with him) "take Oliver." When I told him that Oliver had to stay with me so the doctor could help him, the bottom lip stuck out and tears started rolling down his cheeks. Heartbreaking. Dylan loves his kitties and he did not like that Oliver was not going to be at home where he belongs.
I went back to the waiting room, finished the last 15 pages of the book I had just discussed with the girls, caught up with facebook for the day, checked email and played some games on the iPhone while I waited. (What did I do before the iPhone??) After about 30 minutes, the vet came back out and said that blood tests looked good except for the sugar levels - Oliver's were (her words) "alarmingly low." So, I okay-ed an immediate glucose IV and waited for the next level of cost estimate (for admittance for the night) to be brought to me. Ugh and ugh!
After I had a chance to talk to Oliver for a bit and say my goodnights to him, I left for home a little after midnight. (2nd heartbreaking moment of the night....seeing Oliver's confused\sad face as I walked away from him to leave.) Once home, Mike surprised me with our new kitchen table and chairs that had been delivered\set up that day and I tried to figure out how I would get to sleep after an adrenalin filled night. I think I finally drifted off to what could barely be considered sleep around 1:30am and got a few hours of superficial rest. I awoke early, got ready and called the vet for an update. They had the blood sugar back up and Oliver was screaming at them - a good sign for a cat that's normally extremely unhappy with the vet but had been disturbingly quiet when dropping him off the night before. The internist would be in around 8:30-9, review Oliver's charts and advise us what to do from there. So, I let them know I would come for a pre-work visit.
By the time I finished up with all that, the boys were up and getting ready. They decided to come with me to see Oliver. With the pouring rain and traffic, we got there around 8:30. I was a little confused on how it happened, but a quick visit turned into an almost 2 hour event. We stayed in an exam room with Oliver while the internist tended to another emergency, came in to talk with us, brought us more charges (ugh!) and asked what we would do from there. I wanted to consult our primary vet....but which one? I called the new clinic, gave them the run down and then waited for them to call back. In the meantime, we had to skidaddle because I had another appointment at the people hospital (as opposed to the animal hospital) for baby #2. I'll describe that drama in post to come "Health Scare Part II." Anywho, we left, I got a call from the new clinic saying they wanted us to call the old clinic. So I called the old clinic and left a message. The message was returned as I was laying down, with my big belly exposed and covered in goop, and in between seeing the ultrasound tech and the doctor. I had a brief conversation with my old vet which was put on hold while I finished the rest of my ultrasound appointment. When done with that and while driving into work (finally), we finished our conversation and it was decided that Oliver should come home today.
Although we don't know the underlying reason of his severe crash, he is currently stable. We'll be working with the vets (old, new and emergency clinic test results we are still awaiting) to come up with a future plan of action. In the meantime, Mike and Dylan picked up Oliver a little while ago and are taking my sweet kitty (with 2 shaved legs) home to where he'll be getting lots of good snuggles tonight. He gave us quite the scare!
10/26/11
Sidewalk Artists
Ok, more pictures downloaded that I had forgotten about. A couple of weekends ago, we took an afternoon break from the hubub of organizing the house to enjoy the fall afternoon air and be a little creative. Mike and Dylan experimented a bit with sidewalk chalk at our old house but we have a lot more room to do some major drawing now.
While I do consider myself somewhat creative, drawing is absolutely not my forte. And while Mike doesn't consider himself any kind of artist, he can draw pretty well. Dylan hasn't had a ton of interest in coloring or drawing, but he can make a mean line! So, I made elementary looking objects, Mike made some great Halloween characters and Dylan added to the mix with his lines. He also enjoyed transporting all the chalk from one place to another. Exciting stuff!
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| The artist at work. |
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| Transporting the Materials |
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| Working on His Lines |
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| Mike's Witch (No that's not supposed to be me!!) |
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| Aerial View |
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| See - LOTS of Space! |
We we had pretty much maxed out our top of the driveway space and Dylan was done with the chalk, it was time to practice our hopping skills! He had a great time hopping on all of the drawings.
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| Hopping on the Spider Web (Notice the chalk covered bum) |
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| Dad joined in of course. |
10/25/11
Scenes from the move
I promised a post not related to our move. But, while I was looking through pictures of our adventures over the weekend, these pictures also got downloaded. So, very quickly, here are a couple of scenes from our big move day which was now almost a month ago!
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| Dylan Sitting on the Floor Since All the Couch is Disassembled and Wrapped Up |
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| The Truck! (There were a few of them when all was said and done.) |
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| This is the monkey that had been hanging from the tree painted on Dylan's wall. |
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| He had a great time walking around with it hanging around his neck. |
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| And getting tossed around with it hanging on his neck. |
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| I have no memory of what that boy ate and was all over his face. I took a whole big series of pictures of him with the monkey and apparently didn't even stop to clean him up. Mom of the year, right? |
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| This is what Dylan and I did while waiting for Mike and the movers to arrive at the new house. We sat on the floor and watched movies on the lap top. Dylan also enjoyed hanging out with Smokey the chinchilla (she's in the cat carrier pictured above). |
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| Once some stuff started coming in, we moved our hang out party to the living room. I found a box of pillows and we lounged on them after having a good pillow fight. This picture was probably taken around 10pm and my boy was still a happy trooper. |
10/24/11
Broken Record
So, I haven't posted much lately? Wondering why? Well, not only have we been very busy, but we've been very busy doing the same stuff I've already posted about - furniture\rug shopping, unpacking, collecting estimates, having appointments with people for deliveries and fixings stuff and trying to figure out where to do our day to day errands in our new neighborhood. Instead of boring you with the same old information over and over like a broken record, I've opted to stay quiet.
However, this weekend was different. We took a break (gasp!) from all that rigmarole and had a little bit of fun. While it was mostly in honor of my friend Rachel's visit, I pretended like it was also an extended b'day celebration for myself. So, in hopes that I'll actually have a few minutes tonight to pick out some good pictures of all our fun festivities to post tonight, I am promising you a post tomorrow that doesn't involve stories of moving and all the chaos that follows it. Stuff to look forward to, huh?
However, this weekend was different. We took a break (gasp!) from all that rigmarole and had a little bit of fun. While it was mostly in honor of my friend Rachel's visit, I pretended like it was also an extended b'day celebration for myself. So, in hopes that I'll actually have a few minutes tonight to pick out some good pictures of all our fun festivities to post tonight, I am promising you a post tomorrow that doesn't involve stories of moving and all the chaos that follows it. Stuff to look forward to, huh?
10/11/11
One Week and a Half Down
Well, we've now spent over a week in the house and I've had a full week of commuting. What an exhausting 11 days it's been! Mike has been quite the busy guy, working furiously to get the house in order and I've been doing as much as I possibly can. Even though I'm frustrated on a daily basis with my lack of energy to get the things accomplished that I'd like to, when I started writing a list of everything we've done since we've moved in, I'm impressed with us. It's a list a mile long that looks like it took 3 months to accomplish but it was all done by us, with a little help, in just a week and a half. Here's what we've been up to:
1) Got our trash collection figured out and set up. There's no town trash so we were researching paying for bags\dump access versus private pick and went with private pick up. The cost will likely be just a wee bit more over the course of a year but it'll make up for it with convenience.
2) Selling a few items off that won't fit in our new space. Our wicker furniture (that used to sit on our screened in porch) and the file cabinet (that was Smokey's cage base for the last couple of years) have been passed on to other owners thanks to craiglist.
4) We have 4 new rugs. One for the baby's room, our bedroom, the basement and the entryway. We have others just about finalized and picked out for the playroom and the dining room.
5) Our breakfast table and chairs have been shopped for, purchased and should be delivered within a couple of weeks.
6) Our new couch was delivered and set up in the living room. (Bought previous to house closing.)
7) We have great and compact accent chairs for our living room supplemental seating area. It took a lot of scoping to find chairs the right size that would fit the area.
8) With Mike's Dad's help, the granite built in vanity top in the master bedroom was removed. The area where the built in was fit my grandmother's vanity perfectly so it's residing there now.
9) The washer and dryer was delivered and, after some rushing around to find a plumber after Best Buy kindly cancelled our appointment when we didn't call back to re-confirm the appointment time, were hooked up. Oh, and after loads of laundry, we now have clean clothes and towels!
10) Our brand new treadmill was delivered and then put together by Mike. Unfortunately, it's not working properly so we've got a part ordered and a technician schedule to come out and (hopefully) fix it. (Shopped for and purchased before the house closing.)
11) A glass company came out to take a look at our shower and got us an estimate to do a glass enclosure. We chose from our options and the order was put in today. In a couple of weeks, we shouldn't have to worry about showers not being warm enough (because all the steamy air is escaping out into the bathroom and beyond) and cleaning up sprayed water outside the shower area. How the previous owners went 4 years without doing this I'll never understand.
12) Mike found a local propane place, got our grill propane tank filled up and tested out the outdoor propane heater that the old owners left us. After a scary fire incident with it, we'll have to do some more tweaking on it before we let guests warm themselves near it on chilly fall evenings.
13) We shopped (a lot) for and found a console table for the sofa, a media stand for the tv in the living room and a small love seat for the bay window area off the kitchen. All of those will be delivered Thursday.
14) Mike and I took a couple of hours to install the wall tv mount in the playroom.
15) One of our garage door bays was mysteriously opening in the middle of the night every night. After some experimentation to try and fix it himself, Mike got the repair guy out to address it and now it's staying closed as it should.
16) I found a 2nd hand dresser\changing table for baby #2's room as well as bought some new drawer polls for it and it's sitting in the garage ready to be sanded and painted. I hope to do that sometime before the baby actually gets here.
17) We rented a truck on Saturday, borrowed one of our friend's time and got the rest of our stuff from my in-law's basement and into ours. Maybe I can find the Halloween decorations amongst the piles and put some out before the holiday arrives.
18) Mike discovered that a full window pane was missing from the basement window in our workout room. He came up with a sealing solution that should last us until we figure out how to replace it more permanently.
19) I've been working through the new paint wheel I got (if anyone wants to borrow mine again, the answer is no because they haven't made it back to me) to choose colors for some of the rooms we want to paint. I hope to get colors finalized in the next week or more so that we can get a painter in to finish the work before the end of the month. That's my goal at least.
20) Unpacked boxes. Lots and lots of unpacking of boxes!
All of that in a matter of 11 days. I'd say that's not bad!
1) Got our trash collection figured out and set up. There's no town trash so we were researching paying for bags\dump access versus private pick and went with private pick up. The cost will likely be just a wee bit more over the course of a year but it'll make up for it with convenience.
2) Selling a few items off that won't fit in our new space. Our wicker furniture (that used to sit on our screened in porch) and the file cabinet (that was Smokey's cage base for the last couple of years) have been passed on to other owners thanks to craiglist.
4) We have 4 new rugs. One for the baby's room, our bedroom, the basement and the entryway. We have others just about finalized and picked out for the playroom and the dining room.
5) Our breakfast table and chairs have been shopped for, purchased and should be delivered within a couple of weeks.
6) Our new couch was delivered and set up in the living room. (Bought previous to house closing.)
7) We have great and compact accent chairs for our living room supplemental seating area. It took a lot of scoping to find chairs the right size that would fit the area.
8) With Mike's Dad's help, the granite built in vanity top in the master bedroom was removed. The area where the built in was fit my grandmother's vanity perfectly so it's residing there now.
9) The washer and dryer was delivered and, after some rushing around to find a plumber after Best Buy kindly cancelled our appointment when we didn't call back to re-confirm the appointment time, were hooked up. Oh, and after loads of laundry, we now have clean clothes and towels!
10) Our brand new treadmill was delivered and then put together by Mike. Unfortunately, it's not working properly so we've got a part ordered and a technician schedule to come out and (hopefully) fix it. (Shopped for and purchased before the house closing.)
11) A glass company came out to take a look at our shower and got us an estimate to do a glass enclosure. We chose from our options and the order was put in today. In a couple of weeks, we shouldn't have to worry about showers not being warm enough (because all the steamy air is escaping out into the bathroom and beyond) and cleaning up sprayed water outside the shower area. How the previous owners went 4 years without doing this I'll never understand.
12) Mike found a local propane place, got our grill propane tank filled up and tested out the outdoor propane heater that the old owners left us. After a scary fire incident with it, we'll have to do some more tweaking on it before we let guests warm themselves near it on chilly fall evenings.
13) We shopped (a lot) for and found a console table for the sofa, a media stand for the tv in the living room and a small love seat for the bay window area off the kitchen. All of those will be delivered Thursday.
14) Mike and I took a couple of hours to install the wall tv mount in the playroom.
15) One of our garage door bays was mysteriously opening in the middle of the night every night. After some experimentation to try and fix it himself, Mike got the repair guy out to address it and now it's staying closed as it should.
16) I found a 2nd hand dresser\changing table for baby #2's room as well as bought some new drawer polls for it and it's sitting in the garage ready to be sanded and painted. I hope to do that sometime before the baby actually gets here.
17) We rented a truck on Saturday, borrowed one of our friend's time and got the rest of our stuff from my in-law's basement and into ours. Maybe I can find the Halloween decorations amongst the piles and put some out before the holiday arrives.
18) Mike discovered that a full window pane was missing from the basement window in our workout room. He came up with a sealing solution that should last us until we figure out how to replace it more permanently.
19) I've been working through the new paint wheel I got (if anyone wants to borrow mine again, the answer is no because they haven't made it back to me) to choose colors for some of the rooms we want to paint. I hope to get colors finalized in the next week or more so that we can get a painter in to finish the work before the end of the month. That's my goal at least.
20) Unpacked boxes. Lots and lots of unpacking of boxes!
All of that in a matter of 11 days. I'd say that's not bad!
10/6/11
Well, We Moved!
It's done! We have sold our old house and are in our new house. That was easy......not! The whole process was a bit of a big stinkin' mess, almost every aspect of it actually. I wasn't naive enough to think that it would be easy and everything would go smoothly but I don't think I could have imagined how much actually could go wrong. Good thing we were all well rested and therefore well equipped to handle it. Oh right, we weren't! None of us slept worth poop the night before. Dylan must have sensed the madness about to happen because he was up for about an hour and a half in the middle of the night. Given the last minute prep, Mike and I had gone to bed fairly late and then I woke up early (thanks to the pregnant bladder) and my mind was racing so there was no chance of going back to sleep. With about 5 hours of sleep under my belt and no full night for anyone in the house, it was time to face a long day!
First, there was our walk through for our new house. We scheduled, long ago, to do the walk through the afternoon before the closing. When we arrived for the walk through, almost none of the work they had agreed to get done after the inspection was completed. Plus, the house was filthy! After a lot of phone calls and emails back and forth between realtors, sellers, lawyers and us, it was decided that the closing would be delayed by a few hours to allow the sellers' handyman to try and finish the work. Luckily, I had arranged for our cleaning lady to come do a thorough cleaning of the house so that I wouldn't be icked out using the bathrooms and kitchen as soon as we moved in. So, we let the filthy condition of the house go. We paid for it though because she was there, with her husband helping, cleaning an empty house for almost 6 hours. Yikes! But, the house was pristine and ready for use and the peace was kept between both sides of the buy\sell transaction so it was worth the extra cost. We scheduled another walk through before the delayed closing on Wednesday (which was also our move day) to inspect the completed work.
Except there was no completed work to inspect. After rushing around for 4.5 hours at home getting the last boxes taped up and labeled, instructing the moving crew and getting my in laws set to take over while we were gone, Mike, Dylan and I headed to our new home (and hit stand still traffic in the middle of the morning due to an accident). When we got there, all we found were jobs not done, the seller, the seller's realtor and the seller's handyman saying "see, this is what we're working on!" Ugh. So on the way to our closing (which we were late to), we spoke to our lawyer to tell her the scoop and she then got into a discussion with the sellers' lawyer to find a solution. It was decided that we would with hold some of the money from the closing to cover the work in case it wasn't finished. We've still go that money as several items aren't completed. Supposedly we're waiting on parts but the couple of calls I've made to the seller this week have gone unanswered so we might just be holding onto that cash indefinitely. Who knows!
Other than that snafu, the closing went well. It happened right during Dylan's nap time and yet he was an angel. While I signed papers, Mike chatted with the sellers (who were really kind by the way and gave us a list of all kinds of helpful contacts AND left a nice welcome package at the house for us) and Dylan played with his Toy Story Moving Day Package of figurines, watched a bit of a movie on the iPad and looked out the window at the world. He was SO good! The closing took about an hour and a half and then it was time to head back to the house and back to the moving chaos. Dylan fell asleep on the way back but, unfortunately, woke up after just a 40 minute snooze. Seeing as how he normally naps about 2 hours, that was definitely not enough refresher time for the little guy, especially after the poor night's sleep he had. He got a bit upset when he walked in the living room hoping to watch tv but finding it empty instead but was ok after a hug from Mom, an explanation that they were packed to go to the new house and a diversion to go play outside.
With the movers still packing up, seeing Dylan look really tired and not having much else to do to be useful, my mother in law and I went on a walk in the hopes that Dylan would snooze a little more. He didn't but he did have some chill out time, I got a little exercise and we took one last trip to the neighborhood bakery to get a cookie for Dylan and some treats for the movers.
When the trucks were almost loaded and ready to go, it was time to move the cats over. With Luci and Oliver running loose in the back seat with Dylan buckled in, I took the driver's seat and my mother in law took the passenger seat. It was rush hour traffic time (I can't remember exactly, but probably approaching 5) so I opted to take back streets in the hopes that minimizing the stop\go action would be easiest on the cats. The cats always try to be agreeable in the car but nerves and motion sickness get the best of them. Luci sat quietly on the seat and foamed at the mouth while Oliver was up and down puking (Dylan let us know that Oliver was getting sick) and pooping. We had provided a litter box for him for such an occasion but he didn't quite make it there before nature called. And nature called quite stinkily! There was no way the pregnant sensitive nose lady could make the trip with that stench...we had to get ride of it. I'm not supposed to go anywhere near the stuff that comes out of the back ends of the cat for fear of cooties that can be harmful to the baby, but my mother in law is not nearly as equipped as I am at navigating the back seat of the car from the front (too many years since she's assisted babies in the back seat...for that matter, when her babies were young car seats weren't really a thing so they were probably in her lap or right beside her). In any case, I had to figure it out. Armed with a big wad of paper towels, I scooped up the poop and handed it to my mother in law who was armed with a plastic bag to wrap it in. Unfortunately, the stench got too close to my nose and it made me gag....so much so that hanging my head out the window breathing in fresh air for a few minutes was not even enough to suppress the gag reflex. For a moment or two there, I thought I was going to join Oliver in the vomit fest! Thankfully, I didn't. So, while the ride was not uneventful, we did get the cats to the new house successfully. As my mother in law says, the ride was like being in an episode of I Love Lucy.
Once we arrived, I got the kitties settled in the upstairs room that will be baby #2's abode next year. Since we had little to nothing going in there from the movers, it was the perfect place for them. Then we waited. The word from Mike (back at the "old" house) was that they were waiting for another truck to meet them and then they would load up at the storage unit. (Luckily the extra truck would also come with more hands to unload.) After much more waiting, we were told that one of the trucks was lost on the way to the storage unit. More waiting and we were told they were finally heading our way. At 8pm the trucks finally arrived to unload at the new place. During this wait time, Dylan and I entertained ourselves with toy play and watching movies on the lap top. My mother and father in law had to call it a day and left before the trucks arrived. They felt awful abandoning Dylan and I sitting on our fireplace mantle in an empty house but it had been a long day for them, they had given us a great amount of help and I was appreciative of what they had done for us during the day. We couldn't have gotten to that point without them.
Even though I had very carefully planned out and packed a suitcase, along with a pile of other necessities, for our needs that night, the suitcase didn't make it into Mike's (or my) first car load. It wouldn't have been an issue except that Mike got trapped in by the moving truck and was unable to leave to go back to the house to go get it until they finished unloading. That was at 10pm. The missing stuff included a pack in play for Dylan to sleep in so we didn't have to wait for his crib, sheets for all of our beds, pj's for all and towels for showers. So, poor tired Dylan had to wait to go to sleep. When Mike returned with the stuff, the crib had been unloaded so we just quickly assembled it so Dylan would be as comfortable as possible. The little guy, after not getting a good night's sleep the previous night, have an abbreviated nap and a very busy day, got to bed at midnight! 4.5 hours past his bed time. And I tell ya, I cannot brag on the kid enough! He was a serious trooper and in good spirits all night. He and I sat on the rug (once unloaded), found a box of pillows to lounge on and entertained ourselves with movies and pillow fights most of the night. He was SO good and impressed me SO much! I don't think I would have made it through if he had fallen apart because I was more exhausted than he was. What a kid I have. He is seriously the best.
Needless to say it was a very long moving day. The movers collected payment and headed out our door after 1am. A 15 hour plus day for them. They were great too. Even though they were obviously exhausted, they stayed pleasant, joking and extremely helpful to us throughout the whole ordeal.
The closing on our old house was last Friday so we had the next day, Thursday, to be completely cleared out of it. That was not without drama either. But, that'll have to wait for another posting. I've got some boxes calling my name.
First, there was our walk through for our new house. We scheduled, long ago, to do the walk through the afternoon before the closing. When we arrived for the walk through, almost none of the work they had agreed to get done after the inspection was completed. Plus, the house was filthy! After a lot of phone calls and emails back and forth between realtors, sellers, lawyers and us, it was decided that the closing would be delayed by a few hours to allow the sellers' handyman to try and finish the work. Luckily, I had arranged for our cleaning lady to come do a thorough cleaning of the house so that I wouldn't be icked out using the bathrooms and kitchen as soon as we moved in. So, we let the filthy condition of the house go. We paid for it though because she was there, with her husband helping, cleaning an empty house for almost 6 hours. Yikes! But, the house was pristine and ready for use and the peace was kept between both sides of the buy\sell transaction so it was worth the extra cost. We scheduled another walk through before the delayed closing on Wednesday (which was also our move day) to inspect the completed work.
Except there was no completed work to inspect. After rushing around for 4.5 hours at home getting the last boxes taped up and labeled, instructing the moving crew and getting my in laws set to take over while we were gone, Mike, Dylan and I headed to our new home (and hit stand still traffic in the middle of the morning due to an accident). When we got there, all we found were jobs not done, the seller, the seller's realtor and the seller's handyman saying "see, this is what we're working on!" Ugh. So on the way to our closing (which we were late to), we spoke to our lawyer to tell her the scoop and she then got into a discussion with the sellers' lawyer to find a solution. It was decided that we would with hold some of the money from the closing to cover the work in case it wasn't finished. We've still go that money as several items aren't completed. Supposedly we're waiting on parts but the couple of calls I've made to the seller this week have gone unanswered so we might just be holding onto that cash indefinitely. Who knows!
Other than that snafu, the closing went well. It happened right during Dylan's nap time and yet he was an angel. While I signed papers, Mike chatted with the sellers (who were really kind by the way and gave us a list of all kinds of helpful contacts AND left a nice welcome package at the house for us) and Dylan played with his Toy Story Moving Day Package of figurines, watched a bit of a movie on the iPad and looked out the window at the world. He was SO good! The closing took about an hour and a half and then it was time to head back to the house and back to the moving chaos. Dylan fell asleep on the way back but, unfortunately, woke up after just a 40 minute snooze. Seeing as how he normally naps about 2 hours, that was definitely not enough refresher time for the little guy, especially after the poor night's sleep he had. He got a bit upset when he walked in the living room hoping to watch tv but finding it empty instead but was ok after a hug from Mom, an explanation that they were packed to go to the new house and a diversion to go play outside.
With the movers still packing up, seeing Dylan look really tired and not having much else to do to be useful, my mother in law and I went on a walk in the hopes that Dylan would snooze a little more. He didn't but he did have some chill out time, I got a little exercise and we took one last trip to the neighborhood bakery to get a cookie for Dylan and some treats for the movers.
When the trucks were almost loaded and ready to go, it was time to move the cats over. With Luci and Oliver running loose in the back seat with Dylan buckled in, I took the driver's seat and my mother in law took the passenger seat. It was rush hour traffic time (I can't remember exactly, but probably approaching 5) so I opted to take back streets in the hopes that minimizing the stop\go action would be easiest on the cats. The cats always try to be agreeable in the car but nerves and motion sickness get the best of them. Luci sat quietly on the seat and foamed at the mouth while Oliver was up and down puking (Dylan let us know that Oliver was getting sick) and pooping. We had provided a litter box for him for such an occasion but he didn't quite make it there before nature called. And nature called quite stinkily! There was no way the pregnant sensitive nose lady could make the trip with that stench...we had to get ride of it. I'm not supposed to go anywhere near the stuff that comes out of the back ends of the cat for fear of cooties that can be harmful to the baby, but my mother in law is not nearly as equipped as I am at navigating the back seat of the car from the front (too many years since she's assisted babies in the back seat...for that matter, when her babies were young car seats weren't really a thing so they were probably in her lap or right beside her). In any case, I had to figure it out. Armed with a big wad of paper towels, I scooped up the poop and handed it to my mother in law who was armed with a plastic bag to wrap it in. Unfortunately, the stench got too close to my nose and it made me gag....so much so that hanging my head out the window breathing in fresh air for a few minutes was not even enough to suppress the gag reflex. For a moment or two there, I thought I was going to join Oliver in the vomit fest! Thankfully, I didn't. So, while the ride was not uneventful, we did get the cats to the new house successfully. As my mother in law says, the ride was like being in an episode of I Love Lucy.
Once we arrived, I got the kitties settled in the upstairs room that will be baby #2's abode next year. Since we had little to nothing going in there from the movers, it was the perfect place for them. Then we waited. The word from Mike (back at the "old" house) was that they were waiting for another truck to meet them and then they would load up at the storage unit. (Luckily the extra truck would also come with more hands to unload.) After much more waiting, we were told that one of the trucks was lost on the way to the storage unit. More waiting and we were told they were finally heading our way. At 8pm the trucks finally arrived to unload at the new place. During this wait time, Dylan and I entertained ourselves with toy play and watching movies on the lap top. My mother and father in law had to call it a day and left before the trucks arrived. They felt awful abandoning Dylan and I sitting on our fireplace mantle in an empty house but it had been a long day for them, they had given us a great amount of help and I was appreciative of what they had done for us during the day. We couldn't have gotten to that point without them.
Even though I had very carefully planned out and packed a suitcase, along with a pile of other necessities, for our needs that night, the suitcase didn't make it into Mike's (or my) first car load. It wouldn't have been an issue except that Mike got trapped in by the moving truck and was unable to leave to go back to the house to go get it until they finished unloading. That was at 10pm. The missing stuff included a pack in play for Dylan to sleep in so we didn't have to wait for his crib, sheets for all of our beds, pj's for all and towels for showers. So, poor tired Dylan had to wait to go to sleep. When Mike returned with the stuff, the crib had been unloaded so we just quickly assembled it so Dylan would be as comfortable as possible. The little guy, after not getting a good night's sleep the previous night, have an abbreviated nap and a very busy day, got to bed at midnight! 4.5 hours past his bed time. And I tell ya, I cannot brag on the kid enough! He was a serious trooper and in good spirits all night. He and I sat on the rug (once unloaded), found a box of pillows to lounge on and entertained ourselves with movies and pillow fights most of the night. He was SO good and impressed me SO much! I don't think I would have made it through if he had fallen apart because I was more exhausted than he was. What a kid I have. He is seriously the best.
Needless to say it was a very long moving day. The movers collected payment and headed out our door after 1am. A 15 hour plus day for them. They were great too. Even though they were obviously exhausted, they stayed pleasant, joking and extremely helpful to us throughout the whole ordeal.
The closing on our old house was last Friday so we had the next day, Thursday, to be completely cleared out of it. That was not without drama either. But, that'll have to wait for another posting. I've got some boxes calling my name.
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