Division of Labor

We have been phenomenally busy for the first time this school year (why yes, there are only five weeks left... this probably explains why we started this pay period with 40% of the budget untouched). Here are some stats:

• Our roster has 119 students
• We take jobs to 17 classes
  ... at 11 schools
  ... in three districts
  ... in seven cities.
• One class cannot work because the teacher sucks at paperwork and couldn't manage to get work permits made out for the entire year (yeah, the school would re-issue, but she doesn't follow up).
• One cannot work because the district is hassling and won't issue work permits at all (is that steam coming out of my ears?!?).
• One we won't take work to because he jacks everything up and doesn't currently have an aide we know well enough to trust with the jobs. The one he does have whom we know... well, she's very nice, but nice doesn't get the job done by the students.
• One class has done very well in the past, but recently... not so much. When I tried to address some specific problems with the teacher, she abruptly ended the call. Along with her chances for more work this school year.
• One class could get work, and is frequently offered work, but just as frequently turns it down. The last time he did it, I told him that was fine as long as he quit telling people from my office that he "doesn't get work projects"... as if he hasn't turned down the last eight jobs!
  
  As of 10:30 this morning, I had every single available class working. By the end of the day I was able to clear jobs from three classes, give missing items to two classes, pick up an Avon job, have it done and get it back to the employer the same day. We have one job spread over four classes. It's not a lot of pieces (3200), but the boxes are enormous. They take up too much room in the classes. I can fit about 350 pieces in my Escape at one time. So I had to go to a few classes several times, as well as to the employer's warehouse, which is about 17 miles away from anywhere. Not including my commute, I put 183 miles on my car today. That's insane!
  
  Normally Nance and I would be working together in separate vehicles, but she needed to take Ken to City of Hope for an extra check-up. If he passed, he could go home; if not, he would be re-admitted. I'll save the suspense and tell you he's happy to be home tonight.
  
  Tomorrow I have to work from home because there is no Mad-a-care. My niece is graduating from USC (ahem... with a double major and a couple of certificates, after only three years... apparently she never got the "not working up to potential" marks that I so often received, haha), so Grandma will be in L.A. for the day. Additionally, Nance won't be able to deal with any jobs tomorrow. We had two of our classes bake about 80 dozen cookies this week. They packaged them quite nicely, and Nance's task for the morrow is to take the rest of our allotment to the employers I couldn't get to today. It's a little thank you for the work that is saving our program. Add all that together, and I had to get as much done today as I could to alleviate the burden for Nance tomorrow.
  
  This evening Corey stayed at Mom's. I picked up Mad tonight because Tom had baseball practice (he usually brings her home). We had a brief hang-out with Grammy and Corey and then headed home.
  
  Mad is one of those "terrible twos" kind of girls. Tom mentioned it looked that way several months back and I denied it vociferously. But now she'll sit down and/or yell with or without tears shooting from her eyes if she doesn't get her way. She did it this morning when I had to push Pooh still in her hands under the carseat strap so I could get her out. Then, before a stress-filled, high speed day, I reacted by simply turning my head and ignoring her until she stopped (about 1.5 seconds).
  
  This evening it happened again before bathtime. The kids' bathroom has two doors, the "outside" one and the one that closes off the tub and toilet section from the sink. I was in the tub area, she was in the other. When she started screaming, I shut the door. Not all the way; she stopped screaming and opened it. When she started again, I canceled bathtime and scrubbed her appendages and pits with baby wipes. She's quite ticklish, so that was fun.
  
  Dad got home in time to put her to bed. This is "his job," as is bathtime. I'm generally the one who handles the morning stuff, which works well for us. Mad and I were quite relieved when Daddy walked through the door. If he hadn't, I'm quite sure that bedtime would have involved some rocking/walking, some squirming, a bit of fussing when I put her down. Instead she got to rock with Daddy in the big chair and when he saw that she needed to get some last energy out, he let her run around and play hide and seek with him (he was in her closet and she opened and shut the door) until she climbed into his lap for a last snuggle. Then she went down with hardly a peep.
  
  Sometimes it's my turn to be Supercool Mama, sometimes Tom is the Dad With All the Tricks. This is why we must have two parents in this home.

Oh Mama!

Wasn't sure what to expect for Mother's Day after the birthday debacle. Mom was coming over and I asked Tom Saturday afternoon if he had any thoughts about what we should have for dinner.

"Nope. You?"

"Hm-mm."

There was a long pause as I considered what I might make and he apparently bent over and pulled his head out of his... well, anyway...

"What would you like to have?"

"Hmm... probably something new."

And then we went to find something yummy.

The next morning I got up early with Mad and Maisy. When Tom got up a couple hours later, I headed back upstairs to nap.

Tom had made the bed! I took myself back downstairs to thank him and tell him it made me smile.

While I was napping, Tom and Madelyn went grocery shopping. They came home and Tom began the food prep for dinner. When Mom arrived, I was able to hang out with her. Mom, Corey and I played Scrabble.

Dinner was amazing. For dessert we had a fine vanilla ice cream with a bunch of fresh berries that Corey had cut up and sweetened with a bit of orange juice. Once Mad was down we played cards.

Corey seems to be relaxing into himself more and more. I see him smile more often and I hear him laughing. Sure, he's still a teen filled with the angst of place-finding, but he seems to be on a good path right now.

Tom, Corey and Madelyn each gave me cards. Madelyn's had her "signature" while Tom's and Corey's each had a lovely note. This was the do-over, and it was wonderful.

I hope you all had the same.

Not Ready. Ready? Not Ready? Ready.

I was reading a post over at Blite not whack about baby fever and having people ask if and when the next one's coming. It's something I can relate to pretty well. Pre-Madelyn, Tom and I went back and forth about whether we were really up for a baby together or not. He never really said that he was, and I didn't exactly either. What I did say was something along the lines of, "If you do, then I do because I don't want you to miss out on something as amazing as parenting from birth if that's what you want. If you don't want to, then I really don't because I don't want to be that woman who pressures the guy or gets pregnant on the sly."

I am that wishy-washy, however, that subtle suggestions or gentle questioning from friends (and yes, strangers) would get my mind headed down that path. There was a period of true baby fever once. I can't recall if it was before or after we were married, but it didn't stick.

Around this time two years ago, and after a lot of discussion and thought, Tom and I agreed that it wasn't about not wanting to have a baby together as much as not wanting to change our lives. Things were incredibly good between us... something akin to the beginning, but with the knowledge and love that came from making it through what was then the middle. I'm personally opposed to having babies after 40, so we talked about the possibility of adopting later should we change our minds. I don't care what's medically possible. I want to have a chance of being in my children's lives well into their adulthoods.

***No, I don't judge too harshly those who do have babies later. I feel for their kids, but I also know that I could be hit by the proverbial bus tomorrow.

***Please don't let me get hit by a bus tomorrow!

Anyway, life was good. It was a good decision for both of us. I was a little sad at the thought of never having that experience again, but not anywhere near enough to try to plead a case I didn't feel strongly about. Tom was brave enough to say what we were both thinking. My response was that I'd schedule an appointment to get my tubes tied. I figured that early fall would be best because our schedules would settle down by then. A few weeks later, I was pregnant with Madelyn.

Despite early qualms about how Tom would take the news, I knew almost instantaneously that I'd be having a baby. I'd had a sense for many years that I had a daughter "out there" waiting for me. When she was born... heck, once I felt relatively sure that she was really on the way... life took on a new completeness. I have a son and a daughter and a husband to be the father they need.

Sometime extremely early on, I was contemplating the future of our family. Tom was, too, but in a different way. Possibly even the week of our first prenatal appointment I nearly blurted out, "As soon as this baby's born and assuming he or she is healthy, I'll get my tubes tied." It occurred to me that I might want to choose my words more carefully. The really good news is that I thought about it before I said anything.

I have a tendency to be much more blunt than Tom (ahem... or a lot of people) prefers. So when the thought arises that I could be more smooth, I usually try to heed it. Good thing I did, too, because here's how the conversation went down:

"So... after this baby's born... *hand wringing and searching the ceiling for the right words*... is this... this is it, right?"

"Ahem... well... I was thinking that we should... unless we're having twins, which would be ideal..."

*internally* "WHAT?!?"

"... we should probably have another one. Corey's so much older than this one that it's like having two only children. I don't think it's fair... I think it would be better for them... not... to be only children."

*GULP*

Since then I have constantly pondered the next child. We call him/her the PFC... potential future child. We spoke about said child while on our way to the hospital to have Madelyn. Same thing a couple hours after she was born. On our anniversary last year Tom and I shook on it. He's got a very convincing logic at times, and the gleam in his eyes... well, I'd defy any of you to deny him his request if he looked at you that way.

So we were in agreement. Sometime this summer we would try to conceive another baby. Even though Mad was a total surprise, the timing of her arrival could hardly have been more perfect. After all my maternity leave and some of the FMLA pay was exhausted, I went on summer break.

Last month I thought I was pregnant. The timing wasn't right for me. I wanted to stick to our plan. As is the case with just about any important decision, I went back and forth. Ultimately, when I got my period, I was relieved. So relieved in fact, that I merely told Tom how I felt about it and didn't even ask him. I realized it later, but by then it would have just stressed my oversight, so I never asked him.

All signs point to Tom wanting to have another baby, sooner rather than later. I suppose I will do this dance of indecision until we really are expecting our third child. In the meantime, having a puppy and a new house has meant that no one is looking to us to bear the next baby. It does help that two of my coworkers have had grandbabies in the past two months. The baby fix is in for now.

Bad Mommy

I just awoke from a nap because Maisy was whining to go out. As the fog cleared, I remembered that Madelyn had been in bed with me, nursing. However, she was nowhere to be found. So I got up and checked the upstairs baby gate: closed and locked. All of the doors in the hall were shut, so I raced to each one and opened it to see if she was inside. I started with the priority rooms: the bathroom and Corey's (with the 75 gallon tank). She was not in those rooms.

Laundry room? Nope.

Hall closet? Uh, no, but thanks for checking.

Her bedroom? No.

Wait. What's that in her crib? *sigh* It's a sleeping Madelyn, safe where I'd left her two hours ago before I went to lay down.

Sure she'd been nursing in my bed today... about six hours ago! And how I thought she could get off our bed without my noticing escapes me. The top of the mattress comes to my waist and I'm 5'7".

I would have gladly gone straight back to napping once my heart stopped pounding, but a plaintive moan from the downstairs reminded me that I was still needed.

Kids, Swine Flu and My Hands, Oh My

Corey is continuing his streak of helpfulness and minimally abrasive attitudes. I'm beginning to hope that it's not about a honeymoon, but that perhaps we've hit the right combination of various therapies and living in a home where he feels safe. (I may be a little defensive here, but we were completely safe in our previous home. The only problems he encountered were during those middle-of-the-night jaunts.) He continues to be an amazing big brother to Madelyn, as well as a fine junior pet owner for Maisy. We've had her for a week and he's already given her two baths... on top of the one that the dairy kids gave her before we brought her home.

Mad, on the other hand, is where our eyes must constantly be these days. People hear that her birthday was on Easter and they ask if she's walking yet. Uh... yeah... she started walking at nine months and three days. At this point she no longer has much of that baby way of walking. She's beginning to master the heel-toe, one-foot-in-front-of-the-other method. We have gates at the top and bottom of the stairs. She refuses to crawl up them. She will either be carried or you will hold her hands and let her use your thighs as a head rest as she marches one foot per stair on up, thank you very much; the thigh-as-headrest thing is because she has to lean back at about a 45 degree angle to accomplish one foot per stair. She doesn't mind. It gives her a chance to look up and smile at you. Grandma Margaret suggested that we teach her to go down the stairs backward.

Yeah, right.

Today, for the first time, one of us left the bottom gate open. Each of us thinks we are the culprit. It was a little hectic because we were having my brother's family and our mom over for dinner. I was playing with Maisy when I heard this sound from Madelyn that was not a word, but the verbalization of "Oh, crap. Help?" I looked up to see her trying to walk down from the second step... in the same manner that she goes up. One leg was perpendicular to the ground and then she went over. I was on my way before she landed, but not quite close enough to save her.

Mad seems to like her injuries clustered over a single day, with long respites in between. Today, in addition to the stair scare (she was fine), she experienced these things:

• Got tangled up with Maisy on the back patio; fell over backward and bonked her head... hard.
• Purposely put a foot into Maisy's water dish and then slipped trying to make her get-away... twice.
• Stepped on a book and had it slide so far that she fell down sort of in the splits.
• Fell while carrying said book, thereby jamming it into her neck.

Aside from the head bonk on the concrete, everything was relatively minor. But by the time that last one occurred, Corey was clearly distressed and said that this wasn't a good day anymore and he wanted it to be over.


Further indignities Madelyn suffered included not being allowed to go outside while Maisy was romping around out there.

• Sampling a dirt clod and discovering that it's not as great as it looks.
• Being allowed out, but only while carried because she was in sock feet.
• Being forced to come inside from her wagon ride because she was strapped into the wagon and that's where her brother and Cousin Sarah pulled it.
• Sampling a bathtub crayon and learning that it, too, does not taste as good as it looks.

Fortunately the night ended with a few high notes, including having two bites of lemon lavender cake that Auntie Gina made and having the whole family around for story time. They applauded for her when it was over. And of course, there's always the mostly popular (tonight very well-enjoyed) quiet time with Daddy while she settles down for sleep.

Our old apartment was tiny, crowded with our belongings and cluttered. One of my friends who helped us move said sympathetically, "I've heard that larger places are easier to keep clean." I figured she was lying and wondering how long it would be before we trashed the next place. Turns out, it really has been pretty easy. Sure, we have a ton of unpacked boxes in the garage. A lot of them truly are kitchen items. Most of the cupboards are bare because I still haven't gotten back on the painting, and who wants to set up the kitchen twice?

***Niece Sarah loves the color, by the way. Yeah, she's cool. Super cool, in fact. She attends a performing arts magnet school for theater arts. They are performing Rent next months. This video was taken four days after the parts were cast. I know it's mature subject matter, but she can handle it; she's grown up with my brother. Sarah is the one in the dark jacket. The video quality is poor, so she mostly doesn't seem to have a face and then appears to have a moon face. In fact, she's quite lovely.

My point about our old place was that our new place didn't take that long to get ready today, aside from food prep and laundry, most of the tidying has been maintained. One of the bonuses about having guests (even Bro's family, for whose visits I feel almost no stress) is that I can convince Tom to get something else done before they arrive. Today it was the kids' shower curtain rod. Of course it's only important to Corey, since Mad is a bath girl. Poor guy hasn't had a bona fide shower since we moved in. Thankfully he doesn't mind baths. Tom had a lot of trouble with the shower curtain rod. It's a curved one, and anchoring it well took three or four trips to Home Depot. Corey could take a shower at home tonight, except that he went home with Grammy so he can go to church tomorrow (ahem... and play computer games at her place, let's be honest, shall we?).

While Tom did the shower curtain bar, I prepped the marinade for the chicken. It was a new recipe for Beer Lime Grilled Chicken that I'd gotten from an email yesterday.

You know how the news is all about washing our hands in warm water with lots of soap for at least 20 seconds because of Swine Flu? And how moms of babies may wash their hands more than other people because of diaper changes, etc.? And people who have a dog with round worm may be especially vigilant about soap and 20 seconds? And how no matter how bold the lettering on the pump declares that it's moisturizing, in fact it will dry your hands faster than anything else out there?

Imagine sticking those hands into marinade that included the juice from about six limes.

Yeah, that hurt! Still hurts.

I took part of a CPR/First Aid class yesterday (it was a crap class, so I left). The instructor did make one good point about why we should all use gloves when dealing with another person's bodily fluids: You probably aren't aware of every tiny little cut here or there. I guess she was right, but I can identify most of them now! My goal between now and Monday night's sign class is to constantly moisturize so that the raw meat look goes away, or at least starts to get better.

Maisy Day

As it turned out, a young man said that he would take the boy puppy, so we just got the girl. Do I sound disappointed? I'm not. The relief that washed over me as I heard we were only getting one made it pretty clear where I stood. First off, the boy turned out to be quite a handful. He'd already led the others out of the backyard at the dairy their second day there. Said escape required pulling down lattice! Secondly, it would have been cool in a couple of months to have both, but the initial expense of one is more than enough for us right now.


Crate = Free (thank you Nance!)
Puppy package of shots + an exam by the vet = $162
Lab tests on poop for parasites = $42
Assorted toys, food, bowls and a bed = $175
Leash and collar = $20
Return them because small dogs have delicate bones, collars are no good = -$20
Buy a leash and harness even though you've now heard that collars are just fine = $22
More toys (what, you didn't get squeaky toys? no soft plushy things for the dog so she doesn't snag Mad's?) and some snacks and shampoo because somehow you forgot them = $25
"Extra Tall" Puppy playpen (that actually shows a huge dog sitting obediently inside) = $86
Take it back because right after Tom said, "I give her three weeks" she jumped out = -$86
Largest wire kennel available because you want her to be able to play during the day = $132


***And we're wondering why the 30K tune up might have to be done in bits and pieces each week?
We all wanted to name her, of course. I suggested that we each come up with something and then vote.

Corey wanted to name her Bebeh, but after he hung out with Destiny at our friends' son's birthday last weekend and she suggested Ellie, that was what he entered.
Tom chose Teebeedee (as in To Be Determined).
I made several suggestions, but when it was voting time I submitted Maisy.

She is such a Maisy.

Corey loves her, but not more than his sister. When Maisy's getting too frisky with or around Madelyn, it's clear whose side he's on. Still, he's been just as likely as any of us to be the one taking her out at night or first thing in the morning.
Madelyn is used to little dogs since she spends her days with the ones at my dad's place. However, during much of the times when Mad's awake, they are either in their kennel or out back. Mad loves Maisy in her crate. She is intrigued by Maisy in the kennel. Heck, she's intrigued by the kennel. It's tall enough that Madelyn can walk right into it without ducking. Mad is less thrilled about the tug-of-war she and Maisy had over the box of Kix that Madelyn likes to get from the cupboard when she needs a snack. Same is true about her purple bunny. Toe licking during bottle time is gauche, according to Mad.
Tom is clearly happy to finally have the dog we've talked about for the better part of five years. He and Maisy have already slept together (no, not like that, sicko!), which is the true sign of love between man and dog, I think. This was their first night together:And me? Well how could I not love her? She's sweet, smart, easily getting the whole potty training thing, fun to play with and cuddle, and she makes sure I'm up early enough to get to work on time. Yeah, that last part is good, but I was just getting to enjoy the fact that Mad's been sleeping until 6:15 each morning.
I took Maisy to get her shots the other day. She does have round worms, so that's a bummer, but apparently easily treated. Aside from that, she's in great shape. The general consensus among the puppies' vets is that they're around three months old.
This evening I tried to put her harness on for the first time. I thought she and I could go across the street to get the mail. It reminded me of the first time I tried to put Corey into a high chair. Straps were clearly in the wrong place and he knew it as well as I, but I couldn't figure out what to do to fix it. My next step is to Ask Jeeves.
Oh, here's a little shout-out to some people who don't even know this blog exists: To Andrew and Olivia, niece and nephew of the woman who found the puppies on her property, thank you, thank you, thank you for giving Maisy a bath and flea treatment before we got her. I cannot express how much easier that made our lives.

Overheard

... at lunch yesterday:

Daughter: "How old are you, Mom?"

Mom: "Seventy-nine."

Daughter: "Does 79 sound as bad as 80?"

Mom: "No."

Dad: "I hated 79, but not 80. Seventy-nine is so old."

Daughter: "And 80?"

Dad: "Eighty is mature."

No wonder I still get acne.

About My Boy

We haven't had any really big problems with Corey since moving here. Moreover, he has been much more helpful around here than he tended to be at the apartment. Is it a honeymoon phase? I don't know. It's lasted a month. He said he feels safe here, unlike our old place. He loves the house and the neighborhood. I believe he's proud of our home.

Sure, we've had some downs with the ups. For example, Corey nearly garnered a truancy last month for not turning in enough credits. However, as much as Corey is responsible, my mom is also part of that problem. Despite my telling her three different ways in the past month (not to mention countless other times before it was this important) that Corey needs to do schoolwork during school hours, she just doesn't seem to get it. She says she does now. And she's our only solution to the dilemma of what to do with Corey, so we have exceptionally limited options but to try to believe her and otherwise stay on top of things.

One of Corey's major achievements is that he found out on Tuesday that he passed the California High School Exit Exam (CAHSEE... pronounced like Casey). Am I surprised that he was able to pass both parts on the first try? No. Am I surprised that he did it? A little. This is my guy who, when being tested in seventh grade by someone who'd never met him before, gave such lame answers that he was referred to a speech program and "how did he get this far with pre-kindergarten skills?!" Yeah, right. When he was pre-K, Corey tested at a second grade level (testing in that case was for entry into a private school... he was accepted for skill and then recommended to wait a year for behavior... I wish I could have gotten a better hold of my ego on that one).

Another major success is that (and I'm praying that I don't jinx myself right now), Corey hasn't been hoarding anything. Not food, not weapons, not things that can become weapons. For the first time in about 9 months we had a counseling appointment that was never angry, hostile or sarcastic... on anyone's part.

Things have been going well enough with Corey that Tom called yesterday to see if I wanted to pick up Madelyn and let him get Corey... something he hadn't offered to do since living here. Too bad we were already up the hill. But it really says something about Tom's being able to let go of a little of his anger regarding Corey's past choices. That's been a righteous struggle for Tom over the past several months. I am sure to be one of a few people who shall be crushed if Corey goes astray again.

This morning I had to drop both kids off about much earlier than I usually do. Corey knew this. I got nearly no sleep at all last night, probably from subconscious worries about being late to an important meeting. Ten minutes before I was going to get up, I heard Corey head down the stairs. He made a bottle for Mad and fed her while I dressed. He was ready when it was time to go. I dropped him off 10 minutes ahead of my have-to-do-it-by schedule.

Tonight, despite how hard things went on Tuesday after I complimented him, I told Corey again that I am proud of how he's handled things this week. It's sad to be fearful of praising your kid lest he self-destruct again, but I focus on the fact that it's worse not to do it anyway.

One of the best things I've ever been able to tell Corey... that I knew he would be thrilled with immediately (he was thrilled about Tom and I getting married and especially about my being pregnant, but I wasn't sure he would be) is this: Tomorrow we are getting a puppy. A little girl whose name has not been chosen. We may also acquire one of her brothers, but that is not a given. Corey will be helping to rescue at least this one dog of three who were left in a box on the corner of a dairy owned by a family I know. As good as he is with his sister, I know he will be with this sweet, skittish, darling being. He may also try to get out of the majority of feedings and any excretory cleanups, but he will show her (them?) love and playfulness. Tomorrow evening will be quite busy, as we need to handle shots and a serious flea bath before we can converge at home (here's an unexpected bonus of living up the hill... fleas are not a problem unless one lives near one of the lakes or the aqueduct... we do not). And since we won't know until tomorrow if the brother is coming, too, we'll have to get the doggie bed and whatever other supplies are still needed.

I'm happy to say that Corey's feeling up to the challenge.

Comin' Together

***Although this post was started on April 11, it wasn't finished/posted until April 22. Until I remember how to change this, it'll read as if from a time warp.

Hard to believe we've lived here a month already. Now I know why shows like House Hunters revisit the new owners after they've been settled in for three or four months. Only crazy people have housewarming/first birthday parties three weeks after moving in.

Of course, only crazy people move in five days before escrow is really closed.

The party went well, though, and I'm glad it's over. And for my coworker who is almost done with her own home buying experience, we have set the bar comfortably low for her party. Most of the stuff we really can live without is still packed up and making a wall in the garage. Our cabinets are still only painted on the ends. Some people loved the color. Some thought it was black. Some didn't care for it. One of the things that I love about them is that they are not for everybody.


Our dining table is still in the box. Staining the chairs has gone very badly. I'm not sure if the problem is that it's a cherry stain or if it's water-based. I'm leaning toward the former, because Corey stained Mad's dresser with a rosewood water-based stain and it came out beautifully. In a couple of weeks I'll deal with that. At the party we just used our old dining table which was, as usual, way too small for the occasion.

The walls are still bare. We still only own three lamps. Thank goodness for battery operated camping lanterns or I'm not sure what Mad would use for lighting in her room. We still have no dishes. Probably Mother's Day weekend we'll deal with that.


We haven't brought our computer desk over from my mom's place yet. I hope we do soon, though. I've used this table of Tom's for the past three and a half years and it isn't that comfortable.

The day of the party was pretty cool. We had just over 50 people in and out. Most of them stayed a lot longer than I'd anticipated. I'm not sure why I thought people might come in, have a tour, snack a little and leave, but mostly they didn't. The only ones who did were Tom's coffee drinking relatives. When my mom arrived without her promised coffee maker (yeah, I have one... I decided to clean it with vinegar... who knew it wasn't supposed to be an entire pot of vinegar? OK, you knew that, but I didn't), I headed off to Starbucks to get some of their travelers. Took a bit longer than I'd figured. If I were a thinking girl, I'd have sent someone. Like my mom. But it would have felt like punishment to her. By the time I returned, the coffee drinkers were gone. They live in Santa Monica and L.A., and felt like our old place was "out there." C'est la vie.


Mad handled the party like she handles anything new and overwhelming. She was confused and upset for a little while, then she was fine. When she saw Grandma Margaret, however, she was free and happy to roam around and check people out. And so was I. Margaret was Mad's familiar face and arms in the crowd. She made sure that Mad got something to eat, gave her the afternoon bottle. And when it was naptime, Margaret climbed our staircase so she could rock our baby in the same chair that Margaret used to rock her own babies.


I point out climbed our staircase because it impresses me that she did it. That she can do it. A few years back she and her two daughters and their five kids were in a van that rolled three times. Margaret was the second most badly injured. The "relatively simple surgery" to repair some broken vertebrae took triple the time we were told to expect. Afterward Dad and I met with the neurosurgeon, standing over Margaret's unconscious body. Dad asked her, "When will we know if she's paralyzed?"


"Mr. S., she is paralyzed. In a year we will know how much she can recover." Ugh! It still pains me to think about it, even though I know what she's done since then.


So having Margaret get up those stairs is amazing. It's not easy for her. She has to use both hands on the handrail (it's not a super wide staircase, so there's only one rail) and pull herself up each step. She'd already been up once to see the place, but for Madelyn she did it again. Margaret doesn't say I love you, but she does.

One of the activities we'd planned for the party was Easter egg coloring. We had 10 dozen perfectly boiled eggs (thanks again, Margaret!) for people to color and take home. Apparently nobody got the and take home part of the message.

Madelyn's part of the party was nice. Naturally my camera wouldn't even turn on when it was time to do the cake (yes, I'd charged the battery the night before... this is just not supposed to be my camera). Meija saved the day by snapping photos for us. The other activity was designing our backyard. Out of all the people there, we probably had a dozen entries. Two were from a six year old boy. His dad also did one, which included grass growing up the sides and dirt overhead. Imagine what the boy's looked like!


We had two prizes: For the winner, a prize of questionable greatness ($50 gift card for Red Lobster/Olive Garden); and for the loser, tools and gloves to come work in our yard.


There were two contenders for the loser prize. One from my friend Jesse. It had four stick people, a rat dog and a tiny house (roughly the same size as the adult sticks) with a chimney. She came in second. The winning loser was Tom's friend Ray. His had a pond with a "No fishing" sign, a horse in a cage (yeah, the yard's decent, but not horse-sized) and an outhouse with yellow stuff leaking out the bottom. Have another beer, Ray!


There were four top choices for winner; two were really pretty and two were very technical. One of the technical ones won. It has a garden on the side (yay!), trees and a place for Mad and Corey to play. Sure, Corey's nearly 16, but he's a very young nearly 16. We can't imagine Steve and Meija eating at Red Lobster, so we're getting them something more appropriate... a gift card for an organic nursery.

We're pretty good about making sure Mad gets organic baby cereal and I make all of her fruits and vegetables and meats. But if we can't find something organic, we move on. When Meija couldn't find organic barley baby cereal for her daughter, she found organic barley and ground it herself. As Tom said, "Whoa. They're hardcore." Props to them.


After the party was over, some of Tom's guys stuck around for a poker game. They're fun guys who really enjoy giving one another a hard time. I had a lot of laughs hanging out with them.

Oh, we did have a neighbor come by to welcome us the day after the party. We thought he was pretty cool right up to the point when he said, "You know, there are a lot of blacks in the area." Oh well, better to know up front than to find out later, I guess (uh... I mean about him... we'd already seen the neighbors before moving here... they looked nice).
Dad and Margaret brought my sister's family up to check out our new home this past Saturday. That evening Mad attended her first birthday party for a friend. She was quite a hit in her party dress.
Since our party day, nothing has been done besides laundry and a bit of straightening. We have only had one evening as a family (tonight). It was spent pulling Mad around the neighborhood in her wagon. We didn't meet anybody, but one woman waved. She's one of "the lot" but saw fit to be friendly with those of us who are pigmentally challenged (do I sound jealous? I might be) anyway. Go figure.

Shooby Dooby Whoop Whoop!

I'd say it finally happened, but I'm not sure I really expected it would. I periodically participate in the One Minute Writer. The other day I saw a topic that I felt I could respond to, so I did. And I won! My head's about as big as the room I'm in right now and it's mostly a toothy grin.

Check out my cool button and then go check out Beth's site.

The One-Minute Writer: Today's Writing Prompt: Job#links

Me vs. The World

About a week ago I was stressing at work about how much we need to get done before our party this coming Saturday. Have I mentioned the party? It's an open house shindig for Madelyn's first birthday and our housewarming. How long have we lived here? Well by Saturday, we will have lived here for three whole weeks.

Jill sat down and gave me the old "you have your schedule, but don't forget that the world has its own schedule and sometimes we have to bow to the world" speech. I nodded and agreed outwardly. Inwardly I was thinking, "True, but I still have to get all of these things done by Wednesday."

Many of the things on our to do list are really necessary before Saturday. A lot has been done, but they're not the big pretty things, like painting the cabinets or staining the new table and chairs. Last weekend Tom and my dad installed all the really important blinds, changed our front door lock (again!), replaced a part on the washing machine connection and fixed the garage door opener (it worked fine, but had been disabled while the house was up for sale). I cleaned up the cabinets that Corey and I had started painting. During this past week Tom has been busting his hind end to get boxes unpacked and things put into place.

I have been running around like a chicken with my head cut off. To say I'm overwhelmed is... not even close. This morning I woke up because I thought I heard someone telling me that I shouldn't be sleeping at a time like this. You mean at 5:15 in the morning? After being up with Madelyn for 90 minutes starting at 3:00 AM because she's got a head cold and her afternoon nap turned into bedtime?

During the past few days I have been paring down the list of have-to-dos. Finishing the cabinets is no longer in the equation. In fact, I'm not sure how they snuck into the equation in the first place. When people show up on Saturday, we will have deep dark cabinets on either end, but the center will be wood.

Last night I finally got to work on our new chairs. We also have a ginormous new table that is still unassembled and raw. It seats 10. Let me tell you how glad I am that the chairs we loved best are discontinued; we could only get 8 chairs. Whew!

Today Corey and I got all the chair sanding done, and a couple coats of stain onto four of the chairs. Tomorrow I'll be working on the rest of them, along with the table. I have to go to work on Friday, so Corey'll be in charge of sealing everything. Lucky for all of us, Corey's helped with every staining project I've ever done, and he's the only one who worked on Madelyn's dresser before she was born. The boy knows what he's doing.

Aside from general cleaning and unpacking, the other things that have to be done are for Tom: installing all the cabinet doors and drawers that are painted; putting blinds in the downstairs bathroom and installing all the toilet paper holders and hand towel bars.

And in the midst of all this, we are getting sick. Margaret has a cough that sounds awful, but she feels great, I guess. However, now Mad's gotten the cough and the muck in the nose to go with it. Tom is also catching something, probably due to exhaustion he's more susceptible. And I... am either PMSing or I'm not.

Baby Goat

When Tom and I first started hanging out, we did a lot of hiking in the local mountains.

***I always assumed hiking was done in the mountains until we went on a "hike" (walk, really) to the highest point in Wisconsin.

I've never been exceptionally steady on my feet, so leaping from this stone to that was never my gig. Tom, however, loves it. And he's good at it. In fact, I don't know if I've ever seen him fall. The occasional stumble, sure, but that's it. Tom said it's because he's part mountain goat. Ask him which animal he'd be if he could and it's a mountain goat.

Madelyn has definitely demonstrated her two-sided heritage. The first time we brought her to this home, she mastered the stairs. It's been two weeks and today she insisted that I hold her hands so she could walk up them. Of course the stairs are nearly as high as the length of her legs, so she has to swing her straight leg all the way around to the side and then up and over, but she did the whole flight.

We've unpacked 30 or 40 boxes, but we still have several sitting around here and there. One was in the living room, probably blocking her access to the wiring behind the TV stand. It's a regular banker box. Madelyn started figuring the thing out yesterday. Today she managed to climb up and have a seat. As Corey and I were debating whether I should let her do such things (you can guess where the protective big brother stands), it looked like Mad was going to fall right off because she was trying to sit down where there was no box. But she moved and we cheered. I was pointing out that we have to let her test things out or she'll never learn. Then, for reasons we'll never know be sure of (I'm guessing "testing gravity" was in there somewhere), she very slowly leaned all the way over to the side.

Mad's got a scrape on her temple. Mama, Daddy and Brother all had their hearts in their throats. And Brother spent the next half hour or so glaring and not talking to Mama.

Madelyn will be one in exactly one week. I can't even believe it. I looked on my MySpace blog to see what I'd done on this day last year. Tom and Corey set up the crib. I organized some of my belongings well enough that Tom made files for me, and we swapped out bookcases in our room, from an extra large that might fall on the baby (we had a cinderblock wall in the bedroom, so we couldn't anchor it) to a smaller one that held all of the books we'd gotten from a shower at work.
Here was my last line of that blog: I guess that’s enough for one very pregnant day. I can’t believe we’re into the single digits now. Eight days... and really, today’s pretty much over. I really can’t wait to meet this person!

We didn't know if the baby in my womb was Madelyn Kenzie or Oliver Canyon. It was a pretty exciting time. I worked halfway through that Wednesday. I was so afraid that not having enough scheduled things to do would result in the same "I'm-off-work-and-whew!-I'm-exhausted" feelings I had with Corey. I left work three weeks in advance of his due date. The next morning I felt like I had been concreted to my bed.

This time, I even scheduled an early morning manicure for my first day off. Bev massaged my hands in hopes of helping to stimulate labor. Then I took my car in to get the oil changed. While there I walked a few blocks away in not the best part of town to get a late breakfast. That was an experience! It's an area sometimes known for prostitution, but who'd have thunk that a nine-months pregnant woman wearing jeans and a collared T-shirt would garner any attention.

That evening Tom and I were laying in bed, chatting about our days before he headed off for tennis and I went to the grocery store. Sometime around 5:30 I had my first painful contraction. About 36 hours later, she was born and we knew her name.

I Love This Town!

Having lived down the hill, but occasionally working up here or working with people from here, I had a certain impression of the residents. Desert Rats is what many people call them... er... us. What I had noticed was that the people who came to my test sessions, whether it was for the GED or vocational assessment, were down-to-business, not necessarily polite. Generally speaking, they were also very smart. Considering that my main office... and main source of examinee interaction... was in downtown San Bernardino, smart very well could have been relative.

Oh, okay, I knew it wasn't. There's a sizable Ukrainian population up here, and even the majority of people I tested from Ukraine flew through the tests... in English. Sure, they had an interpreter, but most didn't need her.

Still, we've always said that people from up the hill were a different breed. That could mean the High Desert or it could mean up in the mountains, but either way, they were not the same as the flatlanders.

So I walk around the local shops and businesses with an air of suspicion. Maybe they're just waiting until I'm comfortable, but they're going to let me know I don't belong any minute. Yesterday I was sure the jig was up.

I went to the post office to deal with our mailbox lock. I'd like to add again in such a way that you know I have dealt with this three times now, but honestly, I can't muster the sarcasm. Here's why.

Early last week I went to our post office to see about getting keys for our mailbox. Every couple of blocks shares a box, so we have to have keys. I purchased the lock for $15. The woman who helped me told me I could do that or I could hire a locksmith to do it for about $150. No dummy here, heh! Corey and I couldn't get the old lock out. Tom couldn't either. We meant to get back to the post office, we just hadn't yet.

On Saturday morning the doorbell rang; it was our postman. (Nope, he didn't have to ring twice, but I'll bet he would have.) He offered to change out the lock for us. Half an hour later he came back. The lock turned to the right and we needed one that turned to the left. His supervisor said that if we trusted him, he could take it back to the post office and get the kind we needed. The Monday mailman would install it and give us the keys. We never got the keys, but I wondered if he'd stopped by while we were at work during the week.

Yesterday I went in to see about the status of our exchange. The woman recognized me immediately. When I explained the situation, she asked for my phone number, address and directions to our place. Then she said she was about to go on lunch, but that she'd drop by and get see what she could do. Half an hour later, there she was calling my cell phone. I looked out the window and saw her personal car sitting in front of our mailbox. She had opened it up and there was our mail from this week, as well as a bag with the keys to our new lock. I am still a little stunned. I cannot imagine the Upland post office doing this, and I lived about a mile from there. Our home is easily five miles away... and well away from any place that woman might have been going for lunch, too.

So I am re-evaluating my position. Not on the Desert Rat thing; I'm sure that'll stick. But over and over again I get the sense of living in a small town, even though the population board says we're just over 100 thousand people. Life is good!

Do Over

Man this was a rough weekend! We started some major projects, but really haven't finished anything. Tom was feeling pretty discouraged about his drilling abilities, and I kept reminding him that these are learned skills; people get paid to know how to do that stuff. We've never had a big reason to learn, so now we're stretching our brains.

As I worked along on the priming and painting, I was thinking about other things. Maybe that's why I didn't get as much done as I'd hoped. However, it was all worth it because one of the things I pondered (again) was my birthday. So in a relatively happy moment (right after he'd finally gotten about 99% of the paint off the patio), I told Tom that I should really get a do-over for my birthday. I explained that if he didn't do something to make up for last week I'd be forced to buy him a pack of Altoids for his birthday, and that I wouldn't be able to tell anybody about it and feel good about myself... especially his mother. We chose next week on Monday night as his time to create a lovely evening for me. Naturally I'd forgotten that I'll be teaching on Monday nights now, so I had to text him today and ask for a new do over date. We'll see what happens.

Back to work... by Sunday evening, I was feeling less than thrilled with our progress. The one thing I did think was cool is that one of our cupboards was finally done (well, minus the inside of the door, but that'll be a snap). The color is gorgeous. If I have a spare second, I'll snap some pics and put them up here so you can check it all out. That'll probably be after we're done. Back to the cabinet... I had done all the touching up I could see the need for and had Tom double-check me. It was done. I removed the tape from the back... where the refrigerator will be covering. It came off beautifully! I wouldn't say that my heart was pounding; it was more a quiet satisfaction. I pulled the tape from the bottom, which was no big deal because I'd accidentally pulled it loose earlier. Then I removed the tape from the front.

Oh holy hell, it pulled paint off with it!!! Argh!

There are a few theories and at least twice as many remedies that people have showered on us today to explain and resolve this situation. All I know is that was the moment that Tom and I switched places. I declared that I was "going away" and promptly took myself upstairs. Unfortunately I didn't bring my cell phone, which needed to be charged, so I had to go back down, where I declared that I was "not staying. I'm still going away." I got into bed. Tom was there a few minutes later, snuggling me and telling me we'd get it all worked out soon enough.

Yeah, Kim. I think you're right.

Adventures in Homeowner Land

We have so many projects going on around here, from installing curved shower bars (love them!) to anchoring bookcases and getting our washing machine hooked up (it might have been worth the cost of a new one just to have a couple of professionals drag it up the stairs and set everything up). Despite all of these things, I am still thinking of new projects I'd like to do. We've already selected a few walls for painting, and I've added the stairway. It's cool that the house is all tan with white trim instead of just white, but why they chose to paint it all in flat paint is beyond me.

Another potential project is our back patio. It has braces for a patio cover, and we considered using part of the eight grand we're getting back to have one installed. We've decided to cut our credit card debt down by about 2/3 instead. Nance suggested that we get some terra cotta-looking plastic pots, cut holes in the bottom for the braces and then plant over them in the meantime. I like that idea. I was also thinking it would be cool to stain the patio concrete.

Yesterday was semi-productive. We just have to work on our time- and project management skills. I was supposed to sand kitchen cabinets on Friday, but never did manage to locate our sandpaper. We started off slowly yesterday and didn't get truly started in the kitchen until mid-afternoon. So it's no surprise that we only have two and a half cabinets sanded and primed; one of them has its first coat of "Dried Violet," an exceptionally dark bluey-purple. Seven or eight doors and drawers are done on one side, too.

Until we get the cabinets done, we can't really put any kitchen stuff away. Tom pointed out last night that our big house feels just as cluttered and tight as our old tiny apartment.

This morning he let me sleep in, and I love him for it. About an hour ago we started moving our project into the garage because the winds are blowing today. We can't hear anything, but we could see the neighbor's trees moving gently. Still, we didn't want anything to blow onto the paint. Tom lined the garage floor with plastic and headed out back to get the paint and supplies that we'd left on that plastic liner.

Apparently our windows are excellent at keeping outside sounds outside. The better part of a gallon of "Dried Violet" is now worthless. The wind apparently knocked it over and the lid wasn't on tightly. Even more exciting is that there's now a 2x4 space of paint on the patio.

Tom did not see the humor in the situation. He thinks it might be funny later. He went to Home Depot (this place is quickly becoming our home away from home) and found something that will hopefully clean it up and not toxify the ground when we rinse it off.

He's back now, so I'd better get out there and get going on the painting again. Next weekend we're supposed to have rain and the weekend after that we're having our housewarming and Mad's first birthday party here at the house (yes, we are that crazy).

Family Tradition

My in-laws moved into their first home on my mother-in-law's 30th birthday. Tom and I have been together for about nine years, and I've probably heard this story a couple of times a year. I don't mind actually; it's a cool story. It's come up more frequently with our home buying excursion. Why? Well, my birthday was on Monday. (No, not my 30th.)

I have complex feelings about my birthday. When I was a kid it was easier for my parents and grandparents to have a combination celebration for my mom, sister and me. My birthday is first, then Mom's on the 6th and Shelly's on the 21st.

The thing is, Shelly's birthday would often come right after my parents received their tax refund. So we'd have some sort of family only group thing, then there would be money for a trip to Farrell's, and Shelly could bring a friend or two along. I've never been upset with Shelly about this. She and I are the same age, and neither one of us tried to win out over the other. Still, it was hard not to notice. One year I did get to invite friends, but I froze. I invited my best friend, Mary, who was like part of our family and probably would have been there anyway. I didn't invite anyone else.

And when it came to gifts... I know I received them from my parents. I know I liked them and appreciated them. But I also remember that things were always done at the last minute. I know this because of the countless gifts "wrapped" in a rolled up paper bag. For some reason I often had a hard time asking for anything special. Pretty sure that it comes from my mom. I could tear through the Toys R Us catalog and make long lists, but I couldn't say "I want a Walkman" to save my life. On the flip side, giving gifts that I was sure other people would like was at least as difficult. As a teen I broke up with boys before any gift-giving occasions.

Once I realized that, I tried to work it out within myself. Still, Corey had 10 full years of big birthday parties. He'd probably still be having them, but he was such a butt at his 10th that I vowed never to do it again until he reaches a milestone birthday.

These days I try to take a more pragmatic approach. I think I'm a pretty good gift giver. I do avoid the office birthday celebrations, but that's only because this office has some weird things. For example, the restaurant is chosen based on what's most convenient for certain people, rather than whether the birthday girl likes it or not.

When it comes to my birthday, I tend to revert to my single mom days. "I don't want anything, but I could use XYZ." The problem is that I also resent that I do this and no one else in the family does it. It's not like we're poor and I need to do it; it's a habit. However, when you're buying a home or having a baby at birthday time, it seems especially hard to say, "Please treat me special."

Last year I was more than eight months pregnant on my birthday. My mom gave me a gift card to get my hair done and my mother-in-law gave me a check. I used it for baby stuff that we needed. I honestly don't recall what Tom got me. I just remember that it was Easter and I made dinner for my family and my mom without any help.

For his birthday I arranged for us to see a Cubs/Dodgers game... it happened to fall on his birthday, so that was extra cool. But you can't just show up at the stadium on game day and get three good seats together, so I bought those tickets a couple months in advance. The year before I happened to hear that Prairie Home Companion was taping at the Greek Theatre, also on his birthday. I believe I purchased those tickets several months ahead.

So my birthday was on Monday. Tom had frequently pointed out in advance that I was getting a house for my birthday just as his mom had long ago. I reminded him that he was also getting the house, and that having a major event happen right before one's birthday shouldn't mean that a person's birthday wasn't celebrated. I had asked for the soundtrack to Juno, so not exactly extravagant.

By noon that day, the only people who had wished me a happy birthday were my coworkers. They offered to take me to lunch, but I declined. Things had gotten a bit screwed up with the move, so I ended up spending a lot of time Monday cleaning the apartment with my mom and Corey. Tom was supposed to meet me there at 3:00 to wrap everything up. We spoke at 10 'til, and he was just getting ready to leave work. Over 90 minutes later, I was pissed and out of there. We spoke on the phone and he complained about having so much to do still... as if we hadn't done everything but load the remaining crap into his truck... we'd even pulled up most of the carpet since I knew it was being replaced! I "thanked" him for the lovely birthday and he whined that he was out running an errand related to my birthday and that was why he was late.

And what was this 90 minute errand? (Okay, I exaggerate a little... it was probably a 40 minute drive from work to the apartment.) He bought me a card, in which he did write a lovely note and not one, but two packs of TIC-TACS! The only saving grace is that they were the Cherry/Passion Fruit packs, not breath mints. And then he didn't have the nerve to hand them to me. He left them with the card at the bottom of the stairs. Instead of making dinner for everybody, I had a couple slices of cold pizza by myself.

Disappointed is not the word to describe my feelings. Pissed scratches the surface. And the thing is, I don't care how much money he spends on me. Again, Juno soundtrack. Not asking for a lot here. But you have to figure you're not going to walk into any music store that still happens to be standing and pick it up. You have to put a little effort in... special order it, or buy it online. Think ahead a little.

Here's the thing, too: Tom used to give wonderful gifts. They were well-thought out and lovely.

We haven't spoken about it. I probably won't bring it up, either. And as much as I'd like to, I just can't see handing him a couple boxes of Altoids for his birthday in a couple months.

Up the Hill

That's what we call it; the High Desert is "up the hill" from where I used to live. Of course, up the hill is really up and over a mountain range that doesn't go quite so far down on the other side. It's about a 50 mile drive from here to there. A lot of people make that drive, so I have expected that the morning commute would be something awful. However, we live far enough out and I start late enough in the morning that it's not been too bad.

We've been here a week... and what a week it's been, too. Here's how it all went down:

The appraiser required that a range and dishwasher were installed prior to close of escrow. This put us in a bit of a jam because we knew what we wanted, and planned to charge them at Home Depot to get the one-year-same-as-cash deal, but we couldn't buy them until after we closed or risk being kicked out of escrow. Dave said he probably had a range in storage. Tom and I bought a dishwasher with some of our make-the-house-our-own money. However, it couldn't be delivered until the end of this month. Home Depot actually lent us a dishwasher in the meantime (I love those guys!). Dave realized he did not have a range in storage, so he went to the Sears outlet and bought the cheapest one he could find. It turned out that they'd had a run on cheap ranges that weekend, so he spent a cool grand with the understanding that he could return it "if his wife didn't like it." Dave also borrowed his neighbor's truck and drove up the hill to install the range and put the dishwasher in place. A few days later he went up (again in the neighbor's truck) and pulled both pieces out.

Dave did get the seller to pay for the appliances, but getting them to sign that paper took so long that he requested an extension for close of escrow until yesterday, in which he stated that it was because of the delay in signing that form. They signed the extension within an hour!!! Ugh!

We freaked out at the extension because all of our moving plans were set for the end of last week. I was going to be off Thursday and we were both off Friday, and I'd arranged for three of my friends to help us get the first load of boxes moved on Friday. Saturday we had about a dozen people set to help us move, including my dad who was borrowing his old trailer from a friend. And about half the people who were signed up for last weekend would not be available this weekend.

Dave the realtor and Joe the lender had been positively haranguing the escrow company to get their stuff together. Dave and Joe are seemingly mild-mannered, however, I have a track to the inside story. Joanie, my coworker, is Dave's wife. So whenever things went haywire (which they did a lot at the end), Joanie would regale us with tales of Dave cursing loudly at his computer in the morning or late at night. And Joe, who I have learned is more tatted than I "could imagine" (and I'm the daughter of biker types, so this really makes me imagine, haha) told us that he was on the phone late one night with our underwriter.

"I think I might have... well, I'm pretty sure that I... uh... I might have used some four letter words. Yes, I'm pretty sure that I did. But I had a set of docs come back last Thursday for a loan that I had to put together with bubble gum and spit... and it went out after yours and yours should have sailed through!"

Wednesday of last week we finally got to sign loan docs (we were supposed to close the night before), but not the papers for escrow. Thursday brought the rest of the paperwork through. Tom was able to sign and fax these from work (no, I'm not sure why original signatures weren't required, but they weren't) and I dropped in (from work... no point in being off, right?) and signed them at the lender's office. As I was signing, the finance person noticed that the appliance money was listed as a credit, which is apparently not right. So I called Tom and caught him just before he wired the remainder of our down-payment. He increased the amount accordingly and sent it off.

We were told that night... and Friday... and Monday... and Tuesday... that we would be funding that day or first thing the next morning at the latest.

The next bit of drama was about those freaking appliances again. The seller was committed to paying us $750 for them, but they wouldn't just write out a check in our names for some reason. They wanted an invoice, so Dave sent over the receipt for the dishwasher, which was about $100 more than the check. No good. They wanted an unpaid invoice (what the hell is that?! we had to have the damn thing in before escrow could close, remember?!). So Dave went ahead and whited out the paid amounts and submitted that. Problem solved.

Tom's parents sent us a housewarming gift in the form of a check. A considerable part of that went to our new range.

In the meantime, Dave spoke with the seller's agent and pleaded our case. A deal was apparently struck that the other agent wouldn't come near the house over the weekend. Dave called that "agent speak for go ahead and move in, but I don't know anything." We are conservative adventurers, but this was a desperation moment. We went ahead and did it.

Later that weekend I spoke with Dave who told me about another client of his who had done the same thing over a month ago. Their original mortgage was sold right before it funded and everything got jacked up, so they were back in escrow with a new company. The upside... and to us it was miniscule... was that they were living in their house "rent free" for a couple of months. Dave said the wife only spoke to him in monotones. I'm pretty sure that information snagged about five hours of sleep from me that night.

Monday morning I was informed that escrow had also forgotten to include our first year of home insurance in the downpayment, so I had to run over and take care of that, too.

Mid-Tuesday we finally funded. Dave and Joe both said we were free to purchase the remaining appliances we needed, but we weren't taking any chances by charging even something small until it was all over.

Wednesday morning we recorded and it was finally done. That night we went to Home Depot and had a rather fun shopping spree. We bought a new dryer (just the gas version of our old one, which was a low-end GE), an over-the-range microwave/convection oven/warmer (ooh yeah), a bazillion blinds for the (21 freaking) windows that need them, paint, paint supplies, primer, a baby gate that we're hoping works at the top of the stairs (the railing is too low for most of 'em) and a new new front door lock (the first one was malfunctioning).

The other day we finally got the operating system and software reinstalled on our computer. Earlier this week our dishwasher finally arrived and so did the DirecTV man. Today we received the microwave and dryer, along with FIOS.

Tomorrow we'll get caught up on laundry, sand and prime some cabinets in the kitchen and hopefully get some of the blinds installed. The plan is to get all the blinds up and the cabinetry painted by the end of the weekend. Now, except for all the packed boxes and wide open views through our windows, this place is really beginning to feel like home.

Madaladalyn

I just can't say how much I love her. She is blooming and growing and learning at an amazing rate these days. Two days ago I tried to let her walk up to Grandma's door from the driveway. About 2/3 of the way there, she faked a fall(!!!), got up and dashed off in the other direction. This morning I told her she could walk to our car, but if she went anywhere else, I would pick her up and carry her. Girlfriend tried to walk right over the rail tie that edges the grass in front of our place. I helped her and, sure enough, she walked straight over to our car. Same thing at Grandma's; I told her she could walk all the way in, yada yada yada. She needed help getting up the driveway, which has a mild slope (for me... not so much when your legs are less than 12 inches long), and again needed a little help getting up the step to their porch. Once there, she went straight in and talked to the dogs. Like it's how she does things all the time. When I said I would have to leave, she took off for the door. I picked her up, smooched her and she was ready for Grandma.

We are in the last stages of limbo regarding the house. We're supposed to sign loan docs this week, but apparently they're not in yet. If we don't sign today or tomorrow, we'll have to wait to get the keys until Friday of next week. Hopefully it will be early Friday, because Tom took the day off to get some painting and moving done before everybody comes out on Saturday. And I had been planning on taking Thursday and Friday off to change locks and paint.

Today I painted one of the walls in Corey's bedroom in preparation for our move. I know our apartment manager will have to paint the whole place anyway, but I couldn't leave whatever-the-hell-that-was on the wall in good conscience. I may go ahead and paint the rest of it. We'll see.

Oh, and I got my hair all lopped off. The same woman who cut my hair nearly two years ago is the one who cut it the other day. She gave me the same haircut this time. Last time she cut my hair, I got knocked up a few weeks later. We'll see if the same thing happens this time (uh... seriously, don't hold your breath... I'll have to have her cut my hair again this summer if that's the goal). I have relegated myself to the back burner quite a bit since getting married. Not that anybody's asked me to or made me feel like I should. It's just what I do. When there are needs, I don't deal in wants. And the six months or so of our marriage were pretty tight financially. After that, I just didn't make a big deal about it... until I couldn't take it anymore. That's where I was the other day. I had told Tom I wanted my hair cut for my birthday. Then I decided that nobody should have to wait for special occasions to get their hair cut. Certainly the guys don't.

When I got to Elham, my stylist, I pulled my hair out of it's perpetual bun. She gasped and said, "Okay. We're going to do something completely different. We're going to give you... uh... style!"

Sure, some people would be offended. I cheered.

When it was all over and she had straightened my naturally curly hair and then curled it with a flat iron (my friend's husband was completely perplexed as to why she would do that, haha), she said, "Don't wait so long next time. Get a trim." Will do.

I'd post photos of the before and after, but the before is lost on my computer and the after is... well the hair is great. The face... ugh! Let's just say it's been easier to say no the past few days.

Is It Hot In Here Or Is It Just My Temper?

I cannot wait until the whole house-buying process is over. Not that it's been bad, mind ya, it's just that we can't do anything with the computer until we take care of the house. Truly, the process has been reasonably stress-free, all things considered.

Had one house sold before we put in an offer because it was too freaking awesome to wait for us.
Found an equally awesome home and got it.
Found a busted water main.
Seller fixed it (god I love our real estate agent!!).
Appraiser is requiring a stove and dishwasher be installed prior to the loan funding.
Sister has offered to loan us her dishwasher. It leaks, so we'll rent one if we have to instead.
Realtor is loaning us a range he happens to have in storage and he got us $700 toward appliances from the seller.

Dave says that for every problem there is a solution. We just have to find it. As he also says, home buying isn't stressful if everybody does their jobs. Did you hear that, TOM?!

Argh!!

We all have our jobs. One of Tom's is to deal with money from our investments. We've known for a month that we'll be signing all the docs about a week before closing. We knew a week ago that we'd have to have a cashier's check with the rest of our down payment. We knew by Wednesday that we should be ready early- to mid-next week. So please explain to me (anyone? anyone? do I hear crickets?!?) why he waited until yesterday morning to request the transfer?

So yesterday morning when I was making sure his check had hit our bank account, I was thrilled beyond belief to see that it was several thousand dollars more than he makes. I was even more thrilled to discover that our tax refund (thank you Madelyn and Corey) had come in a week sooner than we'd anticipated.

This meant that we wouldn't have to borrow a range or rent a dishwasher, we were going to buy our appliances this weekend. No worrying about credit card purchases throwing us out of escrow. Blam. Done. Resolved. Next?

What's that, Tom? As I was on the phone telling you the good news, you were on the computer transferring money? It's not going to be there until Wednesday or Thursday of next week? Even though transferring money from these accounts has always taken 3-4 business days, you thought it would be quicker this time?!? WHAT?!?

*deep breath* Ohmm.

So I got off the phone extremely quickly, cursed him with some very foul language, apologized to Nance (who was laughing... she knows the deal) and spent the next ten minutes reminding myself that it was all going to work out. Does my face seem red to you?

And while I'm on a (hopefully rare) Tom rant, I have to say one more thing. He's got a cold. Certain people should just have to go to a cabin or motel or something in times of illness to get away from those they love and who love them. It's a freaking cold, you didn't lose a limb! No fever, so all of your brain cells are in tact! So blow your freaking nose, would ya?! If you'd do that, you'd speed the healing process by ridding your body of the germy yuck and also you'd COUGH LESS. Plus, I don't want to eat with you while you're sniffle-cough-cough-sniffling. And no, I don't want you to make dinner.

*sigh* Ohmm.

I Had It Coming

... and I knew it, too! I called it 14 years ago. You see, Corey was the model baby. Born 24 minutes past his due date, learned to latch on the first time he tried it, mild case of jaundice, but nothing else to worry a mom throughout his infancy. The toddler years were peachy-keen, too. If he was heading toward something he shouldn't, I just turned him around. If he had his hands on something I didn't want him to have, I simply traded for something else. Of course, the past 10 years have been a roller coaster that hasn't always been exciting in a way one would like.

Madelyn, however...

Tom says she gets it from me.

I say he's absolutely right. I have an ability to focus on a goal and achieve it, big or small.

Tom says that's not what he's talking about.

Let's go back a little way, shall we? Not too far, because she's only 10 months old (oh alright... and a half). Tummy time is the catch phrase used to remind parents of newborns that babies still need to practice being on their tummies, even though they shouldn't sleep that way. Tom is a believer in practicing... anything. So Mad had lots of tummy time. In the beginning, she spent the whole time (a minute or so) yelling and trying to lift her head as far away from the floor as possible.

It has always been simple to tell that Mad's learning something new. Why? Well, because she always combines the learning process with lots of yelling.

Learning to roll over? Aaaaaahh! Now the other way? Aahh! (There's a learning curve, apparently.)

Crawling? Sitting up? Cruising? Walking? Yelling.

She's learning to talk now, so the yells are coming out in different ways. But for a girl who was born with a collapsed lung, she never was a quiet one. And hanging out at Papa's house all day isn't making her any quieter. It's like they're related or something (sort of a joke, sort of serious here... of course he's my dad, but he and I have no blood between us).

This weekend Madelyn grabbed my lip balm. I was holding her and the deal (I thought she understood) was that she could hold it as long as she was in my lap. "No deal!" she declared with loud bawling yells and lots of tears. I believe my daughter... six weeks from her first birthday... has had her first temper tantrum!

Yesterday evening we took her outside to enjoy the great weather before things cool off and the rain comes back. She walked back and forth on the sidewalk for nearly 45 minutes. When there was more falling than walking and we realized dinner time was upon us, I merely suggested that we go inside. "No deal!" she howled again. Tom decided to try things in a way I'm surprised I didn't come up with... he would let her walk in by herself instead of me picking her up.

Ten minutes later we were dragging a yowling, tear-drenched baby into the house. I believe she has had two temper tantrums!

I know I couldn't have handled tantrums from Corey back when I predicted that a second child of mine wouldn't be so easily managed. I was nearly a wee babe myself, so I am grateful that he didn't have them. And I'm so grateful to have someone to share Madelyn's with since she is clearly about to give us a real run for our money.

My latest goal? Not laughing while she's yelling.