My Resolution: The new house is coming along real fast! We actually gave our apartment complex the 60 day notice that we’ll be breaking the lease. This week, we got drywall and texturing. When we stopped by today, they were installing our stair rails. But get this! When we were walking through yesterday, we realized that we’d been vandalized (again!). Someone PEED ON OUR WALL in the game room and all over the floor in the front room upstairs! WHO DOES THAT!! WHAT THE HECK!! Oh, and they threw a large rock at the wall above the stairs and put a huge hole in the wall. I wasn’t as mad about the hole as I was about the pee, though. WHAT THE HECK!! And it was still wet, so we must have just missed the punk who did it. We think it was one of the neighborhood teenagers. We let the builder know about it and they’re going to replace those drywall panels this week. I don’t know how they’re going to fix the wood on the floor though. The builder’s office got them to put locks on the doors and install the garage doors to keep out the vandals. So, now we have garage doors on the house today.
Apartment life is starting to really wear on us. We’ve
found ourselves too often saying things like:
“I can’t wait to have a sink/dishwasher that actually fits our pots
and pans”
“I can’t wait for the kids to be able to run and play without
worrying about the guy downstairs.”
“I can’t wait to have blinds on the windows that actually block out
light at night. And not having a spotlight shining in the window.”
“I can’t wait to have real carpet floors that actually give some
cushion to your feet.”
“I can’t wait to have the central vacuum that can suck up the crumbs
under the table.”
“I can’t wait to have a computer room separate from the bedroom
closet.”
Every day, our list of things we hate about the apartment has grown. At first we were in suck-it-up mode. But then I started feeling rotten when I actually had a list of things that suck. With all the complaining, I unintentionally made the list in my head.
I was having a real hard time just being thankful for what I had. The fact that I had a dry roof over my head and a warm meal in my belly didn’t seem sufficient. So, I decided to intentionally try to find something about the apartment that doesn’t suck. The washing machine has a more efficient spin cycle. While the water pressure sucks, the shower is bigger and the water is hotter than our house was. In the dinky refrigerator, the shelf for the milk is low enough for Chloe to do it herself. $30 water bills are fantastic! Because the sink is so small, it takes less than five minutes to load the dishwasher. We get better reception of Spike TV.
When I had another realization that, of all the things that suck and all the things that don’t suck, they’re all material comforts and none of them really matter in the big picture. It’s all a blessing, but our one true comfort should be God and not a hot shower or fancy appliances.
So, MY RESOLUTION is to stop focusing on the house and the apartment. I’m not going to compare or wish for anything different than what I have. It just is what it is and I’m happy to be dry and warm at night.
Roman: His birthday is coming up. We’re going to just do a small party with is school friends down at the park by Walter’s parents’ place (and our new house). Since we don’t really have a place to put them now, I’m going to ask everyone not to get him any gifts, but instead, get WalMart gift certificates so we can get him something later when we have a place to put stuff. (We’re probably going to get him a new bed since he’s crashing on Chloe’s bottom bunk for now.)
He’s been in regular underwear (no pullups) for a few months now. He still wears a pullup to bed because he isn’t 100% consistent at staying dry through the night. But I just can’t explain how excited I am that I can’t remember the last diaper I changed. (Technically, I changed Ben’s diaper, but I’m not counting that.)
My sister got him those Hulk hands for Christmas. For those of you not familliar, they're like boxing gloves except they make Incredible Hulk sounds when you punch something. After his bath the other night, he got out of the tub by himself and dried off. He came running out of his room STARK NAKED except for the Hulk hands. It was so funny it made my stomach hurt from laughing. I tried to get a picture, but he ran away too fast. This was the best I could get:
Chloe: At the beginning of March, we discovered that one of Chloe's teeth was loose. It was her first one. We also discovered that the mature tooth was already growing in behind the loose one. After I came home from the hospital, that loose tooth fell out and the tooth fairy paid us a visit. I was so proud and sad at the same time. This is the first real sign that my sweet little girl is turning into an adult. (I joked with Walter and said, "Today she's loosing teeth. She'll have her period before we know it! He didn't find that very funny.)
And on a side tangent - the tooth fairy brought Chloe a dollar. I've been told by some people that the fairy brings more to their house and Chloe was getting gypped. But she doesn't really understand the value of a dollar and appreciates $1 the same as $5. What do y'all think?
Chloe "graduates" from her school this month. They have a little ceremony and party for all the kids leaving for kindergarten. I just can't believe that she's starting school this fall. Walter's mom is keeping her for the summer with a few weeks of ballet camp, vacation bible school, and maybe a day camp sponsored by our company recreation facility. I looked into Girl Scouts for her in the fall. When I found out I was going to have a baby girl, one of the next few thoughts in my head was Girl Scouts and I was excited to maybe be a troop leader one day. I was telling Walter's mom last night how excited I am to do Girl Scouts again...and maybe Chloe will come with me ;-)
How I'm Doing: Maternity leave went by too quickly. I've lost a lot of weight! About a week after I delivered, I got real sick. I'm just going to go ahead and call it Swine Flu, even though I never saw a doctor and officially got diagnosed. But I had all the same symptoms. I had a 103 fever for three days plus three days of - lets just call it digestive expulsion. Between all that plus all the post partum fluid loss and pumping breastmilk, I was SO dehydrated. I dropped eight pounds BELOW my pre-pregnancy weight. I really should have gone to the hospital at least to get a bag of fluids pumped through me. Once all that was over, the rest of my childbirth recovery seemed like baking a cake.
The one thing that was still really ailing me was my sleep. I kept telling Walter that the last four weeks of my pregnancy actually weren't difficult because of the baby. Most of my discomfort was attributed to lack of sleep. He kept me up all night with his allergies and snoring. The light outside our bedroom window is obnoxiously bright and the mini blinds are pointless. A couple weeks after I delivered, I was still not sleeping and was able to definitively say that it wasn't the baby making me cranky. So, I went to WalMart and invested the best $9 I've spent in a really long time. I got a sleep mask and ear plugs. My quality of sleep is amazing now. I have so much energy during the day a can actually keep up with the kids too. I wanted to see how goofy it looked, so I took a picture:
So I've been back to work for a couple weeks. Reintegration was difficult. I had an emotional moment when I didn't fit into the "schedule" in the Mother's Room at work. When I used the Mother's Room when Chloe and Roman were born, I was the only one in the whole building who had a baby in the last decade. I pumped in a locked supply closet, a vacant office, and finally the company created Mother's Rooms and I was the only one in my building that used it. I'm at the main plant now and there is only one room for all the women in the factory. There are seven of us that use it and I didn't know that there was a "schedule" and I got harped at all week for not fitting in. I overlapped someone elses "slot" a couple times and when I tried to pencil myself on the schedule, I was told that my times were "invalid" because they overlapped someone else. (WELL WHAT THE HECK TIME IS VALID!) I don't know why it caused me so much stress, but it did. The worst part of my first week back to work wasn't actually related to work at all. My cube mate even had welcome back signs posted for me and jelly beans waiting on my desk!!
The thing that kept me going that week was knowing that I was helping my little surro-bub grow healthy and strong. I visited them in March and brought them a small cooler of frozen milk. My freezer filled up again and I sent more down through the mail. The box weighed 51 POUNDS! Ben is doing GREAT. He's gained four pounds since birth already. I've gotten so many photos and videos that I love from his mom and I'm always just so content when I see how happy everyone is.
I have a few weeks of nice normal routine ahead. My body is back in shape. My work is back on track. I'm sleeping better which makes my family happy. Game on.
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