I was going through some very old art stuff of mine and found this picure. I have no idea why I had it, especialy with this stuff, but I thought it was so pretty. This is what Karen looked like with long hair (minus 25 years or so)!
This is the bump.
This is what is in the bump.
Here is what we learned today!!
Life is sweet!
Emma and I decorated this morning.
Tyler is up for the day at 5:08
He is tired and cranky, so i can't put him down until it is time for his nap.
Emma wakes up with a runny nose, so she will be lovely today as she gradually gets the cold she has caught.
At 8:30, Dave watches the kids while I take my car in for routine service with some additional things for them to fix. They assure me I will have the car by 12:00.
I wait for the complimentary shuttle for a half hour, and then I'm the second to last to get off so the whole thing takes over an hour (the place is about 2 miles from my house) - Dave is stressed that he needs to get to the office.
At 10:00, my Realtor calls to tell me the contract on our house has fallen through. They might still write a contract, but not until their house sells (which could be forever - this market SUCKS)
I have no place to live in the town we are moving to next month and Dave starts work there on Monday.
At 10:30 I get another call from my Realtor who tells me that there will be a private showing of our house between 2-4 today.
After a brief moment of elation - wow, a potential buyer who hasn't yet seen the house - I realize that I have a messy house and must clean, clean, clean.
While I am cleaning, I get a call from my dealer at 11:30 who tells me he forgot to put the proper code in the computer and no one has even started looking at my car. He needs to keep it till the end of the day. He is sorry. He tells me to get an Enterprise car and he will pay.
I call Enterprise, and they not only don't have a van or SUV, they don't have car seats (all required if I am to get the kids and the dogs out of the house for the showing).
I call the dealer and tell them I will pick the car up at 1:00 and they should do whatever they can until then (oh boy, I get to do the whole damn thing again!!)
I clean like a fanatic. As I am scrubbing the sink, Tyler is busy emptying out all my bathroom drawers onto the floor.
While I was puting away some laundry, he put my blow dryer in the toilet
While I was making Emma's bed, he was unraveling the toilet paper in her bathroom.
Everytime I put one toy away, he or Emma would take five more out.
It started out like an I love Lucy episode - almost comical - but ultimately, it was taking so long to make progress with them it became a story of a frantic, mean mommy who was becoming scary and on the edge of a total meltdown.
Finally Dave arrives so I can go pick up my car - he is stressed because he had to leave work.
The kids are in full meltdown mode now (mostly my fault because I have been barking at them all morning) and they are hungry. They get lunch and things improve slightly.
I get the car, load up the dogs, load the kids, leave the house... only to wonder what the heck we are all going to do for 2 HOURS in the rain while some strangers who may or may not be interested in the house come thru.
We do some shopping (which is actually not so bad - no drama).
But then Emma and I have one of our regular arguments in the car. Before we left the mall, I asked her if she had to go to the bathroom. She said no. "Are you sure?" I said. "You haven't gone for a while." "No mamma, I don't have to go." "Ok, let's go." So off we went... So I lugg 22 lb Tyler and our stuff to the furthest parking spot at the mall, and I am strapping her into her seat. THEN, she tells me she has to go. I tell her that it is too bad and she needs to hold it for 15 minutes until we get home (even though I know she can't hold it very long at all). She cries and wimpers all the way home because she has to go so bad, and I feel like the worst mom in the word. I should have MADE her go at the mall! She screams she is going to go in her seat and I threaten to take her doll away if she does. She must hold it. I am horrible.
We get in the door at 4:30, and I realize that I have nothing for dinner - not even left overs. And I am so tired and depressed I could cry. So I throw some pasta together for the kids and Dave is going to have chili out of a can. Lucky man.
I am counting the minutes until the kids go to bed so I can just sit an wallow in my saddness that we did not sell our house today, and may not (in all likelyhood) sell it until spring - which means I have to move my family twice: once into a rental we have yet to secure, and then again into the house we eventually buy. It will be a HUGE pain to do it this way, not to mention financially burdensome. I am SO bummed.
And as I was typing this, I ate a whole tray of tater tots - I guess that was my dinner. And Tyler pulled out of box of graham crackers and emptied them all over the carpet in the den.
Karen, If you get a rabbit's foot, or a four leaf clover, please send it my way.
I had my first "big" ultrasound today and everything looked as it should. It was very exciting and honestly, a big relief. Below are the pictures.
The first is a profile view, the second is of baby waiving.
We went to Minneapolis to house hunt last week and ended up going to the Mall of America on three separate occasions. It was just going to be a Thursday thing with me and the kids, but it was so great, Emma was begging me to go back again and again.
What they have built there is truly incredible. On the one hand, it is a mall with EVERY store imaginable. In fact, if you spent 10 minutes in every store, it would take you 86 hours to get through the mall! Every store is represented - even the specialty brands that many only sell on line or in catalogs, like gaps athletic division - all yoga/athletic gear. So my little shopper heart was all a flutter.. especially when I learned that there is no tax on clothes in the state.
But beyond shopping, this mall includes a huge indoor amusement park that is several acres long, an underground aquarium that holds a great number of sharks and other interesting fish, a lego land play area, a dinosaur walk museum, a NASCAR speedway, and an A.C.E.S fight simulator. We spent about 4 hours in the amusement park on one day, another hour on the second day, and then 2 hours in the aquarium on the third day. It was so much fun! We also had lunch at a place called the Rain forest Cafe where there are lots of robotic animals, rain, fog, and a periodic thunder storm. It was great fun for the kids.
Emma is excited to move, simply so she can return to this place for more fun!
Here are some pictures from the mall...
And a movie....(Emma is on the far right in pink)
We just got Ty's costume for halloween and I couldn't help but snap some preview shots of him in it today. Emma loved it so much, she had to try it on too. Now she wants to be a "princess" dragon too!
Tyler wasn't quite sure he was into the whole thing, but Emma was old enough to be bribed with a lolipop.
How many places have you lived in your life?
Gosh, I think I have you all beat!
1. Rutgers, New Jersey
2. East Windsor (Twin Rivers), New Jersey (halfway between Princeton & Cranberry)
3. Mtn. View California (1st house)
4. Mtn View, CA (2nd house)
5. 3rd house in Mountain view
6. Apartment in Mountain View
7. First house in Isla Vista (Camino Del Remedio)
7.5 Lived in Mexico for a summer
8. Second house in Isla Vista (El Sueno)
9. First house in Santa Barbara (Red Rose)
10. House in Goleta (Marina)
11. 2nd house in Goleta (can't remember street)
12. House in Ventura (Ed)
13. Back to a 3rd house in Goleta (Ken)
14. House in mid-town Santa Barbara (Ezra)
15. Cottage down town Santa Barbara (Dave)
16. First purchased home - Santa Barbara Mission
17. Beach house (during remodel of Mission)
18. Carpinteria house (continued remodel)
19. House in Lake Forest, Il
20. House in Ithaca, New York
21. House in St. Louis, MO
22. Moving next month to Minneapolis, MN
