Maybe goodbye soon

I can not seem to keep this blog updated. I guess I don't have much to say anymore. Of course, that is wrong. I have plenty to say I am just too tired to say it often enough. Maybe I will just rename the blog so I don't have to continue to talk about babies and infertility. All of you out there still dealing with these issues please read the past posts and know that it can happen for you too!

Well here are some updates:

• Baby Erynn is now 1 year old and she is just a blast. She has been sick with an ear infection that moved into her eyes and has finally cleared up.
  
• Her party was fun and her cake confused her but on her birthdate she had a cupcake which she really enjoyed
• She is not walking but is trying to stand on her own and she jabbers all the time.
• She can say "da da" "ma ma" and "ut oh"
• One of my friends had Erynn's astrological chart read and boy are we going to have fun. It appears that she is going to be an activist and really put herself out there for a cause. The astrologer feels that she will be one to speak her mind (so surprising considering who her parents are.)
  
• We are taking her to visit her cousins next week for Thanksmas (the Perry way to celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas at the same time)
• This will mine and Scott's first time to fly together in over 12 years of marriage and we decide to do it with a one year old. We are crazy!
• I have a new job as the manager of the call center where I work. Now I am in charge of the people who were my peers. Looking forward to the change after 10 years.

So all in all we are very busy! Maybe I will keep the blog for now.

Horrible Blogger

I have become a horrible blogger except at work. As I told you we have a department blog now that I work on and I manage to keep it updated daily. But we have less to talk about here now. BB and Joy are still working hard on their chances to become parents and hopefully with their 10th anniversary coming up it will be their lucky time. Tiff and Lee are expecting again as I told you which is still quite a surprise for everyone. Kristy is working on adopting and we are tired with our 11 month old cruising around all the time.

1st Birthday coming up soon for baby Erynn! Tonight we all have some sinus issues so we are joy to live with. We have done some decorating so I will take some pictures and post them soon. Here are some pictures of Erynn's room all painted by her Nana.

Aunt for the third time

No, I have not disappeared but with a 10 month old and a major building move at work, I have been pretty crazy!

We learned today that Scott's brother and sister-in-law are expecting their third child. This was quite a surprise but we are all excited for them. They already have Lauren age 4 and Emily age 2. We quietly hope for a boy to break up the estrogen level but another girl will be fun too! Just what we need - 4 little girls to dress up and try to get pictures of together.

Erynn is getting bigger and smarter everyday. She is clapping all the time now and smiles even more. She is just a cutie pie!

We are already planning for her 1st birthday and will start the celebration with a trip to the beach with her Nana the first weekend in October. Then later in the month she will have her birthday party. Invitations to go out soon!

Learning No No

Tonight we started learning no no. Erynn was trying to get a computer cable tonight so mommy attempted to teach what no means. Everytime she touched it, I tapped her hand and said no no. This went on for awhile and then she would sit back and just look at me strange not sure what was going on. I think she was getting it but we will see. She did not get upset just seemed confused. She learns something new everyday and really likes for you to read to her now.

Sending out my thoughts to BB - Girl, no more vacations for awhile! Sounds like you had hives to me. I know I have had them before.

Kristy have a great vacation and clear your mind of all the family issues and adopting.

Chris - Birthdays at a pub in Ireland would be fun!

Long Weekend

Scott and I have been married now almost 14 years and occasionally we get frustrated with each other. Basically most of our arguments now are over one issue and no it is not money. He thinks I should ask for help more and I think he should know I need help without asking. From what I have learned this is something of a male - female thing. We just don't think the same.

Yesterday, I had to work and so Scott had Erynnpoo all day. I know this is tough for anyone even though she is a happy baby so I took it easy during the afternoon at work so I would feel like taking over when I got home. Scott was more than ready for the rescue but wanted to go to the store and get some things. As we got ready to do this, I realized he was in a foul mood and so tried to avoid bothering him but this led to making him more mad which eventually led to harsh words and things be thrown to the ground outside. We went to our separate corners briefly and then had a pretty good talk about what was bothering both of us. I think it helped clear the air and so now I am trying to ask for help more and he is trying to be aware of when I need it more often.

So that is what happens in a marriage and when you have a new baby sometimes you forget to talk. I never would have thought that would have been our problem but you just get bogged down in the day to day of dealing with diapers and baby food and sometimes forget that you need each other to make it through.

Today we worked ourselves silly. My wonderful sister took care of Erynn while Scott and I worked on cleaning the garage, getting pictures hung in the downstairs rooms, finally hanging the last of the blinds and other minor projects. We do feel accomplished but I am worn out.

PS I learned at work on Saturday that my boss has been hit by lightning (just kidding). I have been a supervisor for 9 years working with her and have had to log in to a phone to assist my staff for that whole time. It really takes away from dealing with my team one on one but you do what you are told. Anyway, she sent us an email and told us we will not have to do it anymore (we will see how long this lasts). Either way, I should get at least one Monday of phone free time and I might just have to cry!

Smile at the baby above!

Baby Girl - 9 months

We have been crazy busy around here but I thought I would take a moment and show you some recent pics of Erynn. She is now 9 months old and is pretty sure that she rules the world, at least the part we live in. She is crawling everywhere and standing up whenever she can. She also really seems to know who mommy and daddy are now even if she can't get it out. She says "dah dah" all the time but basically that is just her getting her words out.

Tonight I had one of those moments where I could not think about how it would be without her. Yes, she is a bundle of responsibility but she is the brightest spot of our world. We still have not figured out how such a happy baby came from Scott and I but we are very excited that she did.

Hope that all of you are doing well!

Lots Happening

It has been very busy at the Perry residence over the last couple of weeks. On July 4th we headed to KY to visit with Scott's family. Erynn got to visit with her two little cousins, Lauren and Emily. They had a good time. While we were there we visited with Scott's grandmother in the hospital. She had colon and lung cancer and was not doing well. We came back home that Sunday and tried an experiment that has been working greatly. Erynn is now sleeping in her crib and almost always through the night. She seems to really love her bed and her parents love having their room back. There is no pack n play or swing in our room anymore, yeah!!!!!!

Then on Tuesday we learned that Scott's grandmother had passed away so Thursday morning we head back to KY for our second weekend in a row. After the viewing on Thursday night, the funeral on Friday and the packing up of grandmother's things on Saturday we were worn out. Erynn got to spend a lot of quality time with her Nana and then we headed back home on Sunday. We are glad to be back at home hopefully for awhile.

Erynn is now crawling like a professional and trying to pull up on anything she can get to. We also are in to full jabber mode now with "dah dah dah" all the time.

Crazy Busy!

Sorry that I have not updated in awhile but I have been crazy busy at work an at home. I am taking on more things at work which keep my going nonstop from the moment I get there until I leave. Also, Erynn has been teething bad and gotten very fussy the last couple of weeks. Orajel has become our friend. This week we are in KY spending time with Scott's family. I will have some pics next time of Erynn and her cousins Emily and Lauren. Erynn is pulling up alot now and we may see walking soon. She is so strong on those legs of hers. I hope that everyone is having a wonderful 4th of July holiday!

Pulling Up

Today at daycare our little princess decided to pull up on the bars of her crib and stand up. Her caregivers were very surprised but her parents have been watching her try to pull up on things for a couple of days now. I guess she thinks she has places to go and if we aren't going to get her there then she needs to find her own way.

She is still having difficulty getting through a night of sleep without her teeth bothering her. So mommy has been tired with daddy being sick and baby girl teething. I decided today I need a nanny just for a week. Someone who can clean up and take care of munchkin so I can just play with her and get some rest! No wonder celebrities can keep having kids!

We Are Sitting Up Now

Erynn is now going from laying on her stomach to sitting up. Still does not have the crawling down yet but can do some yoga poses by getting up on her toes and hands. She is very independent these days. Once she gets mobile we are in real trouble.

I am officially the blog queen now since I am in charge of a blog for our department at work. I guess all of this blogging will come in handy!

Tired

Not sure why because baby girl is sleeping through the night again for the most part. But for some reason I could sleep all the time if I could. I guess I just have not caught up from the 9 months of pregnancy and the 7 months of Erynn yet. It is possible that I may never catch up.

I know that Kristy is tired too! Tired of taking several pills a day and a shot on top of that. You are right, this better get you a baby!

I hope everyone else is getting some rest and maybe soon our energy will return.

P.S. Work sucks!

Visit to McAllen Texas

Tonight I am spending my first night away from my little sweetie since she was born. We are opening a bilingual call center in McAllen, Texas and I was asked to go work with the management team there this week. So far it has not been a great start. I left the house at 3:30pm to get to the airport and catch a plane at 6am headed to Houston. Got to Houston on time and my arrival gate was right next to my departure gate to leave for McAllen. So around 9am I get on the plane to McAllen. Sitting next to me is a lady who has left yesterday from her 34th anniversary trip with her husband from Belize. Their plane was late so they did not catch their flight home to McAllen and had to go to a hotel at 2am. So she was very ready to get home. About 10 minutes after we were told that we were descending into McAllen we start to head back up again and are then told that the flaps on the plane are not working correctly and to be safe we are going back to Houston. Suffice to say that 45 minutes back was nerve wracking and me and Mitzy (lady next to me) talked about our children and our marriages and how scared we were. We arrived back in Houston and landed safely with all of the emergency crews following us. Then we waited about 45 minutes for another plane and we all boarded back on and finally arrived in McAllen at 1:40pm (was suppose to arrive at 10:30). Did not get into my rental car until 2:30 and finally got to the office at 3:00 (12 hour after I got up). Yes, I should be asleep now but for some reason I am still a little wired. I talked with Scott a little bit ago and Erynn is lovely. She had dinner, bottle and bath and is still wide awake. Maybe we both are on the same hormones. So I am sending kisses to my little girl and my wonderful husband (hugs to you too sis) and will now at least lay down on the great bed in the Hampton Inn. Maybe I will get some sleep and not think about the fact that I have to get back on the plane on Friday.

First Boo Boo

Well this week has not gotten any better for our little girl. Today she fell at daycare and got a goose egg on the back of her head. Mom of course got a little stressed and we took her to the doctor. He said that she was fine since she did not lose consciousness or throw up. He checked all of her limbs and he felt that we got lucky and her first boo boo should not cause a problem. I took her home and we napped and played the rest of the day so mommy would feel better. Hopefully the rest of the week will be better!

First Ear Infection

It had to happen sometime. Erynn has gotten her first ear infection. She has been fussy and dealing with a severe cough for a couple of days. So we went to the doctor today and it took him a second to say ear infection. Now she is on antibiotics and cough medicine and has been back to her happy baby self.

Today I am also thinking about my sister-in-law Tiffany who has such happiness and such sorry in a matter of days. Her and her family finally closed on their dream house but at the same time she has lost her aunt who was a very special person in her life. I send to her my thoughts and love.

Also, soon my sister will be moving in with us and working at a job with my company. I congratulate her on graduating from college and we look forward to her spending some time with us while she gets settled into her new life.

Sleeping Through the Night

We are not holding our breathe, but Erynn has slept from 9pm until 6am for the last two nights. We are hoping that our baby is finally going to start sleeping through the night. And to make it even better she is sleeping in her pac n play not with her parents. How cool is that! I wish everyone a great Mother's Day and my sister a wonderful graduation from college!

6 Month Checkup

Our baby is getting big! We went to the doctor today and she is 17 pounds (60th percentile), 26 inches long (70th percentile) and her head measured around 16 1/2 inches (50th percentile). Dr thinks she is doing great and has left any thoughts of being a preemie well behind her. He suggested that I feed her baby food now at breakfast, lunch and dinner to help her sleep better at night. Of course, we all know that most of that is mommy's fault for picking her up when she fusses.

Today we tried out our shopping cart seat with toys. She really seemed to like to be able to sit and look around. However, after about 3o minutes the joy wore off. She is not sitting up perfectly yet so we may not do that again until she does.

We are off to visit Nana and family in KY tomorrow for the weekend. So wish us well on not have a crazy baby by the time the 5 hour trip there is over.

Kitties' Room

Here are some pictures of the Sebastian and Cassidy's room. They have all of their furniture and life necessities in there. They like it so much that even when you let them out often they will go right back in. We are not allowing them upstairs so that mine and Erynn's sinuses will not get overloaded with cat hair. I want to keep her as free of their dander as possible. But they are cute boys!

My Favorite Room - Laundry

This is my favorite room in the house - the laundry room. You see in every other place we have lived if we had a laundry area it could only be called a closet and that was being nice. I love this room because I can get around the washer and dryer and it can store things. Plus the lovely laundry chute which makes our lives so easy. If only it could take the clothes back up.

Worn Out

As you can tell by the time of this post, it is really late. Today was Scott's birthday and his present was a stomach virus. Scott and I have known each other for 14 years and today was the first time that I ever saw him throw up. We were on our way to lunch and he had to stop and got sick. I took him home and then came back to finish out the day at work. When I got home he was not better but worse so we went to the ER tonight. Between the two of us we have visited the doctor and the hospital more in the last year than we did in the previous 13 years combined. I told him we may need to do some kind of cleansing ritual on the new house because one or both of us has been sick the entire time we have been here. Personally, I can not remember the last day that I felt good without some kind of issue. Also, I am just very tired. Erynn is wearing me out. I decided tonight to take tomorrow off work so I can help Scott get better but also I can disinfect the house some. Unless she is not feeling well I will take Erynn to daycare and come back and take a nap before hitting the cleaning. It just seems to never end. I know other people have worse problems but when you are in the middle of them you just do not see the end. Well, I guess I will try to go to sleep now and hope that Erynn does not wake up at her usual 2am since she did not go to sleep until 10:30. Her and I are in the guest room so as to not get the bug so maybe we will get more sleep too!

Scott's Room

Here is Scott's man cave. Tons of computers, movies, music and of course the biggest TV in the house with stereo sound. I have no say nor do I want it in this room. We are however working on getting him a rug since he has linoleum on his floor. Notice the picture of Scott and Erynn that was required on the wall as you enter the room.

Living Room and Erynn's Room

Here are the living room and Erynn's room. Pictures are hung in the living room but we still need a blind for the door to the deck and maybe a flat panel tv for the nook above the fireplace. Eventually we will change the furniture because it has seen days with the cats but we have other priorities for now. I think I want to paint Erynn's room maybe a light green and we definitely need to hang some pictures or something in there.

House Pictures

Ok, enough about the pictures. I thought I would wait until things were perfect but that ain't happening. So you will get to see the mess and all. If nothing else it should make you feel better about your house.

We will start with the good ones! Latest outdoor shots including Scott's shed and the garage!

Calmer Weekend - Work Sucks

Too too busy at work, let's explain by saying that I am a call center supervisor and it has been so busy that I am averaging 50 phone calls a day (assisting irate customers or our employees). My people only average 100 and its their job! So I decided on Friday that I needed some rest. I was on autopilot which was not good for me, Erynn or Scott. So Friday I reminded my husband that I need more help and Saturday Erynn and I took the day off. We basically accomplished the necessities of eating and bathing. Oh, and we slept on and off the whole day. I felt so much better on Sunday, we got out and did some shopping but again took it real easy. It was nice weekend all around and even though nothing like unpacking or hanging blinds got done it was great! Erynn is such a happy thing these days. She loves to eat and her favorites currently are sweet potatoes and peas. She had some allergic reactions so we are taking it slow and making sure that she can eat something without breaking out before we move on. Just so you know it probably is possible to be over insured. Scott and are obviously just insane about insurance. We have enough life insurance and now long term care insurance (its cheaper when you are younger) to choke on! Well, our goal is to not leave Erynn with having to deal with our care or debts as we get older. So, I hope everyone is doing well and hey take the time to leave a comment and say hello!

Eating - bad for me

I was reading through my posts and realized that I had not told you about the joys of heartburn that I had right after Erynn was born. I am not sure how I missed mentioning the most horrible experiences of my life. Maybe I did mention it but blocked it out. Anyway, to catch you up the heartburn I had was once a week at least and it was so intense that by Christmas Eve I was visiting the ER for the second time in a week. It was so bad it felt like a heart attack and caused me not to be able to breath. Everytime I had to just let it run its course, I could take major doses of these GI cocktails the doctors gave me but still it had to take 2 or 3 hours to get through my system. Well, I got a prescription that started working and I got cocky! Started eating everything I use to eat again and guess what?! This week it came back with a vengeance. On Thursday night I woke up with the chest pain and had to pace and move around for about 3 hours before it cleared. The Saturday as I was leaving work around 6pm, it hit bad. I had to pull off the road three separate times just to walk around so I could breathe. It took until 9am or so on Sunday before I could settle down enough without hurting. So virtually no sleep Saturday night. I am now back on the bread and water diet and have come to terms with the fact that I need to watch carefully what I eat. The good news is that this kind of fear keeps me from eating bad things and last time helped me to lose weight. Anyway, I am starting to feel like maybe I need to clear the house of some bad vibes since I can't seem to stay healthy here yet.

Erynn is doing well and she enjoyed Easter in her new dress with her new Easter basket toys from my friend Jan. She also had dinner with Unca John and had a good time!

Pack N Play Happiness

It has finally happened! It only took 5 months but now Erynn is sleeping in her pack n play at night. She is no longer in bed with mommy and daddy! However, the pack n play is right next to mommy! So what?! She is sleeping by herself and mainly on her tummy. We are also eating baby food now. We have have had carrots, peas, applesauce and bananas. She loves them all and opens her mouth readily every night at dinner with her parents. She is rolling all over the place and it won't be long before she is moving faster than we can catch her. It is has been a busy 5 months but a joy all the same.

Can Only Do What I Can

We are finally settling more into the new house and over the weekend I think I got myself worked up about doing everything. I have decided to start taking my anti-depression medicine again because I am feeling moody alot more and very limited on patience with everyone around me. It has been difficult being a mommy after so many years of just being me. I love my little girl. Look at her, who wouldn't but I think I need to work on some more me time. Anything beyond the 10 minutes when I take a shower in the morning would be nice. Anyway, enough about that! We finally closed on the house after more drama and are now only single home owners again. We really like it and are always thinking of other things we can do in it. I have to try to take more pictures to get out to everyone especially now that we are more moved in. My husband, the man who never liked working outdoors or with his hands all of the sudden is watering the yard and making the garage his own. Who knew! Enjoy the pretty girl pictures - she is now 5 months old!

A Little Bit of Rest and Some Bad Karma for our Buyers

Let's see it is now a little calmer. Last weekend Scott's mom and my sister visited with us. We finally got everything out of the old house (yes my dishes too but they are still sitting in the garage). Got Junk came Saturday morning and took a whole truckload of stuff away. It is sad that you buy all of these things only to throw them away latter. Obviously we did not need as much as we thought. I am having a hard time emptying boxes now because I just don't want to stick things in places where they will get lost again and not be useful so we are trying to be a lot better organized this time. Scott's mom helped us get some tasks done and work on some landscaping decisions for the year. My sister as always was a huge help with little Erynn so all in all it was a good weekend. Scott and I have had sinus infections again so we get tired more easily. I am looking forward to next weekend because we have no plans and only one house to deal with. I am thinking that I will go shopping briefly for clothes for Erynn and I. She is wearing 6+ months clothes and needs more for the spring. I have gift cards from Christmas that I still have not used.

The big news is that Erynn is rolling over completely now. She sleeps best on her tummy and is eating some rice cereal on occasion. She is growing so much everyday.

As far as the sale of our old house it just gets stranger everyday. We were suppose to close today but their mortgage company dropped the ball and did not get the appraisal done. So today they switched to the company we used and are attempting to get it done in the next two days. Their karma is just not great and Scott has said he will be ready when this over because they have sent alot of negativity our way.

During the time since the contract finally got settled the lady in the couple has fallen at work and had her son killed in an accident. We really feel for them but what more can happen to these poor people? We also had to go back and put back all of our window treatments because supposedly it was in the contract. We thought they meant blinds but they meant all of my cat hair infested curtains too. Good luck to their sinuses. The only thing that really bothered me about that was the curtains in the master bedroom where made by Scott's mom less than 5 months ago and now we have to give them to someone else.

Anyway, it is starting to feel a little calmer in our neighborhood! Kristy, just wanted you to know that I am thinking about you and Keanan and I hope that he is feeling better soon! Jen, there are more fish in the sea and hopefully there will be one that is a little more confident. BB and Joy, I hope that things are happening in your area! Chris, Feel better soon!

WE ARE MOVED IN - Be thankful you missed all the craziness!

(Picture is Erynn with her Unca John)

Let's see we left off on the last blog prior to closing and to Erynn's doctor appointment. Let me tell you alot has happened since then.

We did close on Wednesday of that week and felt very happy with the builder and his agreement to complete all jobs within 10 days. Most have been done but we are now 10 days (Scott said give him 10 business days) out and our broken windows are still not replaced. We will see what happens next week. Erynn had her doctor's appointment. He thinks she is growing great and we can start her on cereal. However, he has some concerns about the ridge line on her head and wants us to take her to Children's South to have an xray done.

On that Thursday, we had severe storms and we finally thought we would be at work all day only to get a call from the realtor that they needed in the new house to connect the gas. This was suppose to happen on Friday when were moving in. So Scott gets prepared to go out there and we get a call that our county schools are closing which means daycare is closing. So off we both go to get our daughter and handle the gas issue at the house. That evening we stay at the old house and weather out the storms. Scott and Erynn by napping and me by packing.

Friday morning dawns beautifully and we take Erynn to daycare at 6:30am. Movers are suppose to arrive at 8am so we work on packing more. I am headed to get my dishes packed (keep this in your mind) when the movers arrive at 7:40am. So immediately we move into getting them set and making sure all furniture that is moving is empty. Kitchen cabinets don't move so the dishes are left for now. Scott and I spend all day going back and forth between the houses getting things moved in. My sister arrives in the evening which is great because she can spend time with Erynn while Scott and I keep working. We go to bed exhausted.

Saturday we sleep in a little and my parents arrive around 9am to help out with Erynn while we put my sister to work unpacking. Around lunch, my brother shows up to help Scott install ethernet cable throughout the house (we might not be able to live without this since we still do not have cable connected, but let's be prepared.) They work on that all evening while I run to Lowe's probably 3 times. Understand that Lowe's and Home Depot are Mecca to new home owners and I have been there as of this writing at least 10 times since we moved. Parents leave in the afternoon, brother leaves in the evening and the rest of us crash for the day.

Sunday Scott and I leave Erynn with my sister and go back to the old house to pack some of the items we missed into our vehicles. Again I am aiming for the dishes but they don't make it to the cars. Sister leaves about noon and Scott and I keep working in the house. Again to bed early worn out.

Monday I am off due to working this Saturday so I take Erynn to daycare and go to the old house to finally move our clothes. Again I aim for the dishes but it just does not happen. I get all of what is left moved down to the garage except for what it is in the kitchen . I then attempt to vaccum all of the remaining areas. (Luckily the new owners will have new carpet. And yes, we are still dealing with them. They almost lost their contract though due to a hostile agent on their side but things have worked out. Basically the offer we made to them about fixing items in the house was turned down wholesale by their agent without consulting them and after a week of negotiations we ended up back at that offer again. Very funny all around!) I am still so apalled by the dust and dirt that was left after the furniture was moved. I told Scott that we have to do a much better job of cleaning this new house. It is lucky that I was not dead from dust allergies alone. Well, I finished up the cleaning but because of the level of crap I got in my system I have had a sinus infection ever since and have felt horrible. Ain't it great! Monday afternoon, I took Erynn for her xray and she handled it beautifully!

Tuesday, wow finally a full day at work again. I have scheduled at 12pm to meet with a lab rep to have a quick physical for an update to our life insurance policy. Yes, we are completely crazy to be doing all of this now. Scott has started his new job as Business Analyst on Monday and is happy to be there. We get through Tuesday and sometime during all of this I get a blind hung in the master bath. It is nice not to have boxes blocking it so we can take a shower.

Wednesday another day at work which is a nice breather from worrying about old house and new house concerns. On the way home, I get a call from Erynn's doctor directly (never a good thing for the doctor not the nurse to call you). The Xray was not conclusive so they schedule a CT scan at the main Children's Hospital for the next morning at 10am. Dr is worried she might have problems being restrained so he wants her at the main hospital where they can sedate her if necessary. That night we run our dishwasher for the first time and while Scott was in the garage he noticed that we had a water leak from upstairs. Apparently the dishwasher was not connected properly.

Thursday Scott and I get up and take Erynn for her test. We go to one waiting room and check in, then go to another waiting room to have more paperwork entered, to only then go to a third waiting room for the CT scan. This took a nice 2 hours. Finally after 1 1/2 bottles, Erynn is wrapped in tight swaddle and her head is set into restraints. This of course would have killed her mother if she had to do it but my baby does not have my hangups and she laid their quietly while Scott held her chin and went through 2 passes of the machine. Never a wimper or anything, just smile at us and moved her mouth around. What a great kid! We then took her back to daycare and had lunch. During lunch we get a call from the plumbers and they can be there in the afternoon to fix the dishwasher. So we decided just to take off the rest of the day. I actually got to take a 2 hour nap while Scott dealt with the plumbers. That afternoon we do more work in the house and pick up our baby to spend the evening with her.

Friday Scott leaves early at work to handle his appointed physical for the life insurance upgrade and he goes to the Cable company to deal with them. We have finally told them to go away! Still no cable this week and of course they lost our order so if we had not checked with them it would never had happened. So we will now have a phone line in our house (the first in several years), Direct TV and DSL. Charter just lost a 10 year customer because we were just tired of their bad service. Also, BellSouth is giving us $200 back for switching to them. Nana Jean requested that we get an answer on the CT scan so we could all rest this weekend. Scan was fine and our baby does not have a problem! Yeah! She is also liking the bananas, the cereal not so much!

So it is Saturday, I am at work and Scott is at home taking care of Erynn. Last I spoke to him she was napping. New neighbors moved in across the street yesterday with more looking like they may be in today. Our neighborhood is growing fast now. Tomorrow we plan to clean out the attic in the old house in preparation for closing on the 20th. Maybe I will get my dishes tomorrow! HA! HA!

Another Week of Joy with Two Houses

We did not get to pick out the light fixtures until Monday morning (making us late for work) due to the person we had to meet with was already booked. It appears the builder expected this done long ago but wanted us to get it by osmosis. Also, the flooring people lost our choices because due to our strange Karma, the person we spoke with was in ICU in the hospital. Good lord, what else will happen. More it appears!

Monday we thought that we would never close on time. (That is still to be determined) Wednesday we go back to visit and amazingly half the house is done. We were in shock, however, it slowed down again after that. We have gone on Saturday, Sunday and now this Monday and done punch lists for the builder. The original was 3 pages. We are now down to 2 pages but we still have no power and our inspector is going in tomorrow. Scott is about to lose it and then today the people buying our house presented us with the results from the inspection on our current house. Nothing major but I went crazy because it read like they wanted us to do whatever repairs they listed, they would pick the person to do it and we would just eat whatever it cost. I felt like they were asking for a blank check. Our realtor calmed us down and said that we will counter with an offer of a sufficient amount to cover the repairs and say do it when you want after we close. Hopefully that will work out. It is not like they don't already have free carpet and refrigerator.

On the good side, Erynn is growing like a weed. She is now holding on to things and today decided she would just start reaching for whatever comes near her especially a bottle. We are thrilled that she is learning things so fast. We go to the doctor for her 4 month appointment on Wednesday after our house closing. We are hoping he will say, "Give that girl some cereal." She is starting to wake up more at night for more food.

Think about us as the week moves on. Tomorrow is inspector. Wednesday is closing and doctor visit. Thursday is packing. Friday is move day (along with the arrival of my new refrigerator). Saturday is unpack day and then I may just collapse for a week.

Here are some new pictures of the house and of sweet pea.

A Busy Week

Here is a rundown of the last week, it has been crazy:

Last Friday - work and get house ready for Scott's mom (J for short) and Aunt Martha (M for short) to arrive. Vacuum dies while working in guest room. First present of my Valentines's/Birthday week from Scott arrives - fleece vest.

Saturday - Morning: Scott and I take Erynn to IHOP for breakfast and go to Lowe's to get new vacuum and some other items for the cleaning weekend. Afternoon: J and M arrive, we have lunch and get started on cleaning the kitchen. M works mostly in doing touch up paint throughout the house. J works on the cleaning and in directing Scott and I around the house. Erynn sleeps. Evening: Pizza for dinner, more cleaning and staging. Second present arrives at home - $100 gift certificate to Sky Mall.

Sunday - Breakfast on our own. Morning: finish up staging and cleaning in all areas except the study (where the cats are living) and the master bedroom. J and M work us hard and leave around lunch time. Scott and I take a nap and then finish up what we can in the other rooms.

Monday - Work (a welcome reprieve from the house but it sure looks good). Pick up food on the way home because we are sure not cooking in the very clean kitchen.

Tuesday - Work and maintaining the tidy house. Third present arrives at work - mutliple tins of popcorn (those who know me know that this is a perfect gift.)

Wednesday - Valentines's Day; Work, visit with insurance agent in the afternoon to pick coverages for new house and go over extension of life insurance policies. Scott is determined to make us insurance and retirement fund poor. Visit new house and we now have sod in the front yard. At least we are starting to move along. Realtor arrives to sign paperwork on selling our house. Sign officially goes in the yard around 7pm. Fourth present arrives at work - lovely arrangement of flowers.

Thursday - Birthday, Off from work - Morning: met with carpet person who measured the entire house and went off to figure amounts. Erynn in daycare until lunch so I can set up the water, trash, power and gas for the new house. Also, took about half of our garage to donations. Lunch with Scott and spent some time with Erynn visiting friends at work. Received call from another realtor asking if she could show our house between 5:30 and 6:30. In shock since the house has been on the market less than 6 hours. Scott and I go to Red Lobster with Erynn for dinner to celebrate birthday and to allow the possible buyers to check out the house. While eating our realtor calls asking if they can have more time because they want to write up an offer. Well, of course, let's have dessert. Discussions insue via email back and forth and by 10pm we had accepted an offer for the asking price of our house and throwing in the refrigerator. One heck of a day! I get a new refrigerator (stainless steel) in the new house and we got the price we wanted all in less than 24 hours. Not bad for my 37th birthday! Fifth present on its way but do not know what it is. Mom and Dad send me flowers to the house.

Friday - Signing paperwork today, calling to get things setup for termite bonds, warranties etc. Will get to go this afternoon and pick the lighting fixtures for the new house. We close on the new house on February 28 and move that weekend and we will close on the old house on March 20. So first payment on the new house will be in April and the last payment on the old house will be in March. No double payments - yeah!

Guess you saw the picture of Erynn above. These were taken by her Nana (J) while she visited during the weekend.

Deep Thoughts

If you see a time on this you will notice that it is around midnight. As a parent, normally I would be asleep. As a matter of fact, normal sleep time for Scott and I now is 9pm. Well tonight Erynn woke up wanting something to eat and I had a deep moment so after she settled back down I decided to write some.

My deep thought for tonight comes from that peaceful, quiet place when a parent is feeding their child late at night. You start to think about her life and what she will become and your goals in life change. Your career and your dreams start to become second to her hopes and dreams. In this place, you know that there are only a few things that you truly want her and others to be able to say about you. "They were great parents and they never judged another." I really feel that if I can get through the rest of my life and Erynn can say that about Scott and I then we will have done what we came here to do.

So my goal from here on is to not judge anyone and to love and teach her the same.

We are sick! - 15 Weeks

Well, I am sick mainly. Ugly upper respiratory thing. Erynn has some drainage too but still is happy. She is a little fussy when sleeping and wants to eat more but that is all good if she is a little sick. Scott is starting to get it some now too. I am so ready for it to be warmer so that we can get out with her more and hopefully get rid of all of this illness. I had a stinking flu shot so this is really annoying!

We are working steadily on getting our house ready for sale. Scott and I spent all of last weekend packing and taking things to storage. This weekend Nana (Scott's mom) comes to visit and help us finish up the clean up so we can list the house next week. We have not gone to the new house this week in hopes that there will be more done when we take Nana during the weekend.

Erynn is no longer the youngest baby at daycare. This week little Mason arrived. He is around 7 weeks old and has been diagnosed with dwarfism. He is a cutie but they have to be extra careful with his arms and legs until they develop more. It is hard to believe that sweet pea is 15 weeks. She is very much alert now and loves to talk to you.

Think good thoughts about our house selling quickly and I will get more pictures out as we get further along.