Heart attacks

125/365

Thursday was a quiet day for us.  The only thing we had going in the morning was Sam's Kindermusik class, which went well.  So well, in fact, that when we got home, Sam wanted to eat lunch in front of the tv.  So we turned on The Emperor's New Groove and had some lunch.  Jake was padding around the living room, scooting into the hall.  He really adores playing in the music room.  So I don't chase him down if I hear him having a good time.  I just need to worry if it gets silent.  He was playing with the drumsticks in the front hall last I saw, as Sam and I were eating.  Can you see where this is going?   Yes, I'm a horrible parent.

The next thing I know I hear the basement gate open, and thump thump thump cry, as Jake goes flying down the stairs.  I have a heart attack, send my lunch flying, and go racing down the stairs after him.  I arrive and he's crying, mad.  I pick him up and hug him, he immediately calms down, I test him, squeezing to see if anything is broken, but he starts to smile at me.  Oh yeah, he's fine.  So I bring him back upstairs, just as Princess cleans up the remainder of my lunch.  I plop him on the floor, and put one of the boxes of computer parts from the front hall in front of the gate, so that he won't push it down again.  And commence to watching the rest of the show with Sam.  When suddenly, I hear the telltale scrape of a box being pushed, I'm up and halfway across the the hall when I once again hear the telltale bump bump bump Cry of a boy going down the stairs.   This second time, he cried a little longer.  My heart hadn't stopped racing from the first fall, let alone handling the overdose of adrenaline from a second fall.  We just sat the bottom of the stairs, both crying.  Once again, I pinched at him, checking to see if anything was broken.  Then I brought him back upstairs and put him in the high chair - the equivalent of locking him down, while I moved the heaviest box I could think of, the Game Box out of the game closet and in front of the stairs. 

 

I am happy to say that when I finally put him down, he was Mad that he couldn't move this box.  Yeah, man, you have to be stronger than me to move this thing, it took me some work.  But I wasn't about to let him tumble down the stairs again.  When my heart finally calmed down, I decided it was naptime for us.  However, when we woke up, Jake was disinclined to stand up and cruise on his own. I got very worried and ran him over to our doctor's office as soon as Chris got home, and after much waiting, to sum up, he was fine.  Just strong willed and giving me another heart attack.  Kids today.   Eric is ordering a new gate.   Having heart attacks is exhausting.  

Time for Getting Festive

Sorry friends that I haven't been blogging much lately. I've been trying to handmake a lot of our Christmas presents this year. And I just don't have much time to be crafty, cook, and blog. But we've been getting ourselves together ready for Christmas.

So I haven't taken much time to share the good news. We finally sold our house!!!

Monday November 28th, our old house finally Closed.



On the day in question, Sam and I popped by to do one last walk through. Eric has worked so hard on the New House, he didn't feel near as sappy about leaving the old one as I did/do. I blubbered all through the house. I kept thinking about how I had brought my babies home here. This house had kept me safe, kept us all safe.



It has been weird to see it getting more and more empty. For so long, I would pop by and grab a couple things to take with me. I didn't need to do that this time. All that was left was breaking down the crib (we'd kept it there to maintain Sam when we'd been there for any length of time, but he didn't need it much anymore) and grabbing the last pumps of Soap. But it was really empty now. The only things left were the Eric's grandparents' couches that they wanted to keep.


I cried all the way home. I cried off and on through the closing. I was laughed at, and I couldn't place why the tears kept falling. Was I sad? Maybe. Was I going to miss the place? Some. I think what it really was, was hearing that my Prayers over the last months had finally been answered. God had finally brought the perfect family to our home. And now it was going to be someone else's Blessing. Our buyers were a pair of nice parents (the grandparent sort) getting the home for their daughter, who was in the midst of a rather icky divorce. We learned that a couple of teenagers will be there, and they'll be making Eric's basement into the theatre/game room that he had always intended. And they were excited about it. And I was excited for them.



Good bye home sweet home. You have been so very good to us: keeping us warm in the winter and cool in the summer, and keeping us safe from all manner of floods and tornados that caused trouble in our neighbors homes, but not ours. Most importantly, it kept my sweetboys safe, comfortable, and dry during some really tough years.


In the immediate days since the sale, we went to the grocery store AND Costco in the same week. We hadn't been able to afford to do that in ages. And we're getting all set up for a big Surprise for the kids - a trip to Disney World. You know how when Chris had his feeding tube and it was Awful and we kept saying, "when all is said and done, we're going to Disney World." Remember? Well, we went. And Goodness knows that this last year has been so rough on my loved ones, that we have earned it again, with Eric building the house, while working full time, and Chris and his surgery. We just had to wait until next year because Eric's vacation time got all zapped out with the house building. But now we're all set up in the New House, and the old one is finally sold. Thank the Lord. We couldn't handle the double mortgages any longer.

So now is the time to get Festive. Time to start new traditions in the new house. We're celebrating the end of a hard year, and readying to celebrate the Birth of him who made it all possible. How Blessed we are!



Now is the time to Cuddle up and watch Rudolph, or to decorate the tree. We found a teeny tree in storage, one that used to sit on a small table in our room, before kids, so we unpacked it, put it on the boys' train table (also recently unpacked) and covered it in blue lights (Eric's favorite) and our Sterling Silver Snowflakes (my favorite). And we have this tree up in the loft. The kids enjoy it, and it gives off such a homey pretty blue light. Now is the time to ready ourselves to say Merry Christmas!



These are a few of my favorite things. :)

Moving Day

Very Exciting!



The day is here. More importantly, the U-haul is here. But the new house doesn't have internet, so it may be a while before I get to post again. (*twitch twitch) Mom and Dad helped Eric get the U-haul last night, and they moved their spare fridge and freezer which are our now ours. And the great green couch. :)
If we have enough folks to help, we'll move all the big stuff today. Heck maybe even some small stuff. We'll see.

It's been hypothetical for so long, that now that the U-haul is here, its real.

Starbucks Days

Surely I'm not the only one to prefer a lovely green beverage on St. Patrick's Day. For me it was trying a Green Tea frappuccino.



I hadn't tried one before and turns out it is Not my favorite, but it was Perfect for a Green Day.

Unfortunately, I've been smacked with migraines the last two days. How Rude. Gotta be hormonal in origin as I just got my second shot this week. It's been a long time since I've had these, so much so that I didn't remember them being a side effect of the lupron until I remembered getting them while I was working at the mill, and sitting in my office with the lights off and my sunglasses on.

It started Thursday creeping up the back of my neck, and into my brain. And if I die here in the next couple of days you'll know it was a brain aneurysm and not a migraine. They kind of feel the same right now. It's been coming and going, and fortunately (or unfortunately) if I drink something big from Starbucks, it seems to stave it off for a bit.

We had a house showing today, which involved a lot more activity than curling up in a ball and going back to bed, crying, which is what I really wanted to do. But the sweetboys won't let me.

And apparently we packed up the Exedrine Migraine. Grr...

So I gave myself an ulcer and took a couple tylenol, couple ibuprofen, and chased it with a giant Caramel Macchiato. When we drove through, as you can imagine, Everyone in the car wanted something: Chris - his cocoa, and Sam - his Fafo (water). But what shocked me most of all was they even offered Fina a treat, A Pup Cup.




She was a big fan of the Pup Cup. It was a Cup full of Whipped Cream. She went bonkers and licked it Dry.



And we felt good enough to go back to the zoo to see play outside for a bit. We stayed away from the crowds, somehow just the boys outdoors, with my sunglasses on a really cloudy day was enough for the starbucks and drugs to work for a while...long enough for us to come home and Nap.

Hope this migraine business ends soon, I'm over it.

Getting OUT

Picture it: 55 degrees. The last of the snow is melting. For some reason the kids are Bouncing off the Walls. They weren't this crazy when we were iced in for a week, but now that it's warming up, the crazy is coming out.

So I took them to the Park when we had a house showing today. Little windy, but otherwise perfect weather for it. So we went to Blastoff Park.



The boys sure did want to Blast Off! Off they went playing and having a great time!



Chris loves Swing Time!



Though a little apprehensive at first, Sam eventually loved swing time too.



Sam Slides.




And Chris just bounces. It amazes me how well his balance has improved since beginning gymnastics, he would have hated to do one of these tightrope things before. Now he was bouncing on it, and walking and climbing all over everything. He was annoyed when I would make him stop moving so I could take his picture.



My Beautiful Boys.

For Sale

339/365



We got a call for a House Showing yesterday morning. It would've been really Ugly. But my wonderful mother-in-law took the boys overnight, so Eric and I could go out on a Double Date...and stay out Late, which we did. And then we got up at a 7, which is in fact sleeping in because Sam has been up before that for days, while we scrambled to get the house clean.

We haven't heard any feedback from the Showing. We did get Feedback from our first two showings, the first person said they really wanted to rent, and the second person said the back yard was too small, and they didn't like the colors of any of the walls, or any of the carpet, so it was too much work to fix. So I'm not optomistic. Eric freaked me out last night, by saying, "What if they want our house, and they want to move in before Christmas, what would we do?" I just said, our family and friends love us, they'd surely take us in until we could live in the house. But just the possibility freaks me out a bit. I want the house to Sell, but maybe by January 2nd.

I saw the sign!

284/365

Well, it's Official. Our current house is on the Market.

Almost on the Market

281/365



We met with our Realtor this evening. We signed a boatload of paperwork, by the end of which had me yawning beyond understanding. I did actually ask Eric at one point, "Did you get that, because I have no idea what he just meant?"
Luckily, he did.

I'm pretty lucky to have him around. ;)

I've been nervous about this whole process, afraid we're taking on too much. And after meeting with Dave, our realtor, I'm feeling a bit better about putting the house up on the market. I'm praying for just the right family to come who will appreciate our home, take care of it, as it has taken good care of us. I'd hate to drive by sometime in the near future and see somebody who negected the yard and the let the whole place go to pot. It makes me sad to think about it, so I'm going to not dwell on it. I like to think of some couple coming in, who'll see our little pond, see a heron there, and fall in love with it. Or some couple expecting a baby, who delight in our nursery. Or maybe some nice Grandparents, who's grandkids come visit them often, there's so many kids around to play with. How Blessed we've been to have lived and started our family in this cozy neighborhood, and to find such abundant blessings in our new one.

The Clean Room

277/375

It's Huge. It's Amazing. It's our Living Room. We took most everything out today, to get the carpets professionally cleaned.




The first three years we were in this house, what with our moving in and out, we ended up getting the carpets done every year. Then we didn't. We borrowed Amy's steamer a couple times, but it hasn't been professionally done since 2001. Oy.
But it looks So Nice now!

We had such a productive weekend of boxing up stuff, and moving the furniture. We're ready to get on the Market. And that makes me both happy and sad at the same time.

I hope that someone falls in love with this house. It's such a great starter home. It's been such a good home to us, kept us safe from storms, warm in the winter, cool in the summer, brought my kids home here, all that good stuff. When I start thinking about not coming Home here, I get a bit teary. I'm going to miss it. This has been our definition of HOME for the last 12 years. I just pray that someone will see our humble abode and fall just as in love with it as we did when we built it.

Musical Clutter

263/365

My sister brought my nieces over today. Over to play. Well, they played, and we packed up clutter.



And boxed up a few goofy things. Like this wig. ;)



Still a big mess around here. Ahh...remember the days when we moved every year when we were first married. In the 9 years since the last time we moved, we've aquired a lot of crap. Feels kind of like all we did is move crap from one place to another. I have too much stuff. Stuff I don't know where to begin to deal with. But today, we packed up half dozen boxes, got the living room to a mostly showable state, we made progress. Slow but sure.

Get Moving

249/365

Well, since yesterday was Labor Day, it seemed only appropriate we continue with our weekend theme, and keep working.

Instead of Eric helping other people move, he did some work for us. We got a bunch of boxes from helping our friend Emilie move back into her house, so my sister came over and Blessedly helped us get cracking on our own moving project.

Tell you who had the most fun? The kids. Not much is more fun than playing in boxes!



I have a lot of Clutter.

There I said it. I must confess, it was hard for me to actually get rid of stuff. Lisa wanted to subdivide: Keep, Box Up, and Donate/Trash. My sister was quite the nazi when it came to toys and stuffies, forcing me to choose. I did really well for a while filling a bag of stuffies, with beanie babies, and things that I remembered the kids getting, but the kids could've cared less about. But when Lisa said, "You're doing really well." Well, then I cried. Pretty sure I lost cool points with that one, because then she started with Really? Really? You're Crying? Really?

Yeah, I was. It was then I realized that I'm more tied to the Stuffies than the boys, and when I looked in Chris's room I realized that the two largest stuffies, that occupied the most space, were mine. It was time to get rid of them. I hope they find a good home with someone who'll treasure Pooh and Fnerf's extreme snuggliness.

Meanwhile, as we're trying to work on Sam's stuffies, the kids come in and start pulling toys out of the bins. Hard to put things away when the kids want to play with them WHILE I'm packing them. And there were a few I was glad to be rid of.
You'd think it would be ok for me to pitch the Pink Pig. But I just couldn't do it, too many memories of that thing. Glad I kept it though because minutes after I made the decision to keep it, the kids pulled it out of the box, and Chris was entertaining Charlie with it. And she was smiling all about it. OK, Gotta Keep that one.



In addition to loading 20 boxes of Crap from the basement, heavy boxes topped with keepable stuffies. ;) We did some work in the Kitchen. Given my Bounty from Saturday, I spent my spare time on Sunday snipping up green beans. Then yesterday started off with cutting up my newly acquired sweet potatoes to make Sweets and Beets, or at least to attempt them. Every time we'd put in the sweet potato and beet "chips" they'd come out a little different, we changed thickness, temperature, length of time cooked. We only had to outright pitch a dozen of them, and the rest were still a little less chippy, less crunchy. But still yummy. Didn't stop us from snacking on them, you know, to Test. Lisa brought a recipe for Sweet Potato bread, actually it's a recipe for an apple bread, that uses a cup of shredded X: apple, sweet potato, zucchini, what have you, it was YUMMY!
And then just about supper time, I started canning the green beans, or at least cooking them. We sampled them for supper, and then I canned them, got 5 quarts from 2 small $2 boxes of Seconds.



Turned out Pretty Good too!

After all that, we were exhausted! This moving thing is going to Wear Me Out!