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Wednesday, March 31, 2010

We have renters!!

The house has been rented by decent people with no kids and two dogs. They signed a two-year lease. Great!! Because we won't have to find someone else next year.

Moving--day 5--march 30

We've arrived!! The drive from Orlando to Hollywood was pretty easy. I got our sunpass activated, so we sped down the turnpike.

Jeremy did a great job picking a place to live. The apartment looks great. Although the balconies are going to give me a heart attack.

After a glitch with the keys, we got in and unloaded the car. I packed an overnight bag to take to amy's and we hit the road again. Thankfully, the new Stone house is only 40 minutes away.

Movers arrive at 11am on April 1.

Monday, March 29, 2010

Moving--Day 4--March 29

I woke up early this morning and got to shower without the kids banging on the bathroom door. And then I loaded up our extra bags in the car. It was a nice morning after such a cruddy day.

We ate at the Waffle House before we hit the road. I have noticed since St. Louis that there are no coffee shops--not Caribou, Starbucks, Dunn Bros, nothing. I guess they don't drink coffee down here. But let me tell you, everyone offers us sweet tea the second we sit down. Hey, not even the gas station has the bottles of Starbucks.

Again, the drive seemed SUPER long. Even after we stopped in Vidosta, GA for a long lunch at Chick-fil-a. They had a play place. I'm over my CFA thing already. It's not that great. I mean, it's okay, but nothing super.

Shortly after we got into Florida, we stopped at a service area on the Florida Turnpike to do our first Resident Thing. We bought a SunPass. I have to activate it tonight, but no more scrambling for change at the toll booths. And the turnpike is totally worth it!!

The Radisson in Orlando is pretty sweet. We played on the playground a while and then went to the World's Largest McDonalds (or at least largest play area)--they had an arcade. Ivy rocked at a pirate shooting game.

Baths now and then hopefully bed soon. We're planning to get up early so we can spend some time at the beach before we meet the condo management in Hollywood.

PS. The kids are riding really well. They read books, play with the dolls, eat cheese sticks and drink lots of Crystal Light. Jamey is sick of it now-he arches his back and screams every time we get close to the car. Ivy watches movies and sicks to herself a lot.

Moving--Day 3--March 28

Last night in Nashville was the worst ever. Jamey slept from 7-9 and then was woken by loud people in the hall. He just was not interested in going back to sleep. After a couple hours of walking and nursing and lying down, I finally took him down to the lobby to run around for a while. We stayed down there for more than an hour. He wanted to check out the workout room, the pool, and tried playing the piano.

We got up mid-morning to head to Macon, GA. The drive was long; we were all tired and sick of being in the car, and Atlanta looked like so much fun as we drove by.

And Macon is the armpit of Georgia. The hotel was crappy; there were NO activities--the mall was even closed. And I think we were in the ghetto side of town. Supposedly, there was a Botanical Garden, but no one knew anything about it.

We ate at Applebees where the kids were a huge hit. It was another late night. The kids like to stay up until 11 or so. Wake up at 8 and then not sleep in the car. We're getting eager to get to Amy & Marc's house.

Saturday, March 27, 2010

Moving--Day 3--March 27

We are in Nashville! I think we're halfway there!!

This morning, we just got up and got on the road because it was a longer driving day--350 miles. I think we were in the car for 5 hours. Or 6. It felt like 32.

The drive from St. Louis to Nashville is not pretty. Boring, boring, boring. But a little hilly.

We got in to the hotel around 4. It's not really in Nashville. I think we're 20 miles south. So we didn't go to any local attractions. I did hit up the local Target for some laundry soap and tape for Ivy's chin.

Thankfully, the Courtyard Hotel has guest laundry services. Even with a diaper on, Ivy's had accidents every day. Her carseat and clothes were in dire need of a washing. We spent the evening swimming and playing on our little patio.

It's 8:45, and Jamey's been sleeping for an hour. Ivy's bathed and goofing around. I might hit the workout room or the shower. And I think Jeremy's waiting for his turn on the computer.

Moving--Day 2--March 26

We woke up in Cedar Rapids, IA. We all went swimming as soon as we got up. The pool was FREEZING! After baths & showers, we hit the road and got to St. Louis around 3:30. The drive was pretty easy. Both kids napped; I even got a short nap in. The Doubletree was very nice. Best pool I've seen in a long time. It didn't have free Wifi though.

We drove over to the Arch. Did I mention, the Sweet 16 NCAA tournament was going on there, and traffic was bad down there. And the river was really high.

We had fun at the Arch. Spent a lot of time in the Western Expansion Museum and bought a few postcards. We didn't go up because the tickets were all sold out, and it was windy, and I'm terrified of going up there. Did it once when I was in college and have no need to do it again. And the kids are too young to care.

Jamey is totally lucking out on this trip. I nurse him to sleep in one of the beds and then move over to the other bed with Ivy. Right now, he's got the whole bed to himself while the rest of us watch Terminator 2 on USA.

We got to bed around 9 and no one woke up until 8 am!

Friday, March 26, 2010

Moving Day -- March 25

The movers were due to show up between 8-10. Everyone told me to expect them early, so we got up at 6. We pulled bedding off the beds and tossed in the last load of laundry. We drove Jeremy to work because the movers are hauling his car. When the kids and I got home, I put Jamey down for his nap--think he'd just get in a bit of a nap. Then the movers didn't show up until 11:30!!

They seemed to move really slow. At 3, I asked them to get all our stuff out of the house so I could vacuum and get on the road.

The kids and I cried goodbye to every room in the house. Remembering my first thanksgiving turkey, their first steps, those dumb dogs.

Then we picked up Jeremy from work and headed to Cedar Rapids. The kids alternated between being happy, sleeping and screaming. We got in to the hotel around 9:30. The kids were super excited to jump on the beds. We didn't get to sleep until 11. Thankfully, they didn't wake up until 8.

I don't think it seems real yet that we're not coming home. Ivy had asked several times to "go home tonight." She wants "Lola puppy" and Baby Sonny.

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Parenting 7th graders

At the park yesterday, there was a group of 7th grade boys skate boarding and hanging out. I know they were in 7th grade because they said so. One of the boys called his mom for permission to do something else and ended up swearing and yelling that he just wants to be with friends, being at home is boring, and she's a bitch. He hung up and announced to his friends that he had to get out of there because his mom was calling the cops to drag him home.

How do you get from this adorable sweet cuddly baby to that? I have no idea, but the lack of respect on both sides was evident. After watching NBC's Parenthood the other night where a 15-yr old girl was sneaking around and lying to her parents, I was a little fearful that angst is inevitably in
my future.

Then 7th grade boy (who happened to look exactly like Matt Reich) called his mom for permission to go to the skate park. It was a wonderful conversation about negotiation, expectations, and compromise. Renewed my faith in teenagers and parenting.

Moving day

Today's the day we leave our first home. I flip flop between crying and not. I'm sad to leave the place we bought together when we were just starting out almost 6 years ago. It's the home of all our memories together. I mean, we had those stupid dogs here. And brought our kids home here. This is a special place. Sure, most of the time since we've had kids, I've been scheming to buy a bigger nicer house, but when it comes right down to it, I've invested lots of my heart into making this a home. And I'm sad to leave.

Monday, March 22, 2010

3 more days

Well, we only have three more days in our house. Things are pretty much done. My mom and the kids are coming tomorrow to help finish packing "the last little stuff," which will probably take all 10 empty boxes we have in the garage. And clean the house and shampoo the carpet. The lawn service is scheduled for spring clean up, and I have estimate for tree trimmers. Here's hoping someone can patch that big hole in the front yard where the pool sat last summer!!

Ivy got her stitches out this morning. She was a champ--laid real still while the dr. pulled them out. And she wanted to keep the "little spiders from my chin." So we'll end up putting them in her scrapbook.

It's been warmer out, so I leave the deck door open a lot. Jamey & Ivy like running back and forth, and I can't believe how much fun it is to empty the dirt from the herb garden.

Here's hoping for some uneventful days!

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Stitches

Last night, we were with 7 other couples and 9 other little kids at one of our favorite restaurants for a going-away party.

Ivy and two other girls were running up and down a short hallway by our table. They'd been playing for an hour and half between bites of quesadilla and sips of chocolate milk.

Ivy tripped and fell flat on her face. We saw her crying, and Jeremy picked her up wiping blood off her face. By the time he got over to my chair, we knew it was her chin, not her mouth.

She had a huge gaping laceration across her whole chin. We raced over to Children's ER to get her fixed up. As soon as we got in there, the nurse put some numbing cream on her chin and covered it with a clear bandage. After a short wait, we got into a room. A very nice woman named Mindy came in to show Ivy what the suture nurse was going to do. Then someone came in to give Ivy some tylenol with codeine.

When Ivy fell, she screamed but let me put a napkin on her chin. I sat between the car seats on the way to the hospital, singing "Ivy, Ivy, Ivy." She was pretty quiet the whole time we were in the ER. Although, she looked sad and overwhelmed a lot. She was still easily distracted with Nick Jr and coloring. And a red popsicle.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity--really about two hours from the fall--the doctor and the suture nurse came in. Get this! The dr used to work at the Children's hospital in Hollywood.

I laid down next to Ivy for stitches. Mindy held up a dvd player for Ivy to watch Finding Nemo. She screamed like crazy during the first stitching, but she didn't move at all. After the first couple stitches, Nemo kept her attention. It took a while to do all the stitches, because her chin kept bleeding.

She got nine stitches total: two inside and seven outside. We have to keep ointment on it for five days, and she'll get them out after seven days.

She is not real happy about taking tylenol and motrin. And she doesn't like getting the ointment put on.

She has said things like "ouchie chin" and "floor ouchie." so she knows what happened. It's not slowing her down though. Makes me nervous to see her running around.

Thursday, March 4, 2010

3 weeks to go

The movers will be here in 3 weeks. I do feel like we've gotten a lot done, but when I look around the house, there's so much more to do. Jeremy says the storage unit is almost full. I'm going to have to take a picture of that. My brother is coming over the weekend to haul some stuff up to my mom's house. I am not putting my scrapbooks in storage! And we're giving her some furniture we just won't have room for: a really great cubby shelf and our spare bed.

When I haven't been packing and sorting and organizing, I've been reffing the kids, who have had a severe case of the crabbies for two weeks. Jamey cries like I'm tearing his arms off every time I leave the room. We think maybe he's just angry that I can walk faster than he can. And that he can't say any words. Ivy maybe has a bit of cabin fever. She's becoming very adept at picking and teasing already. And good grief, she pushes and pulls and knocks over and hits. And she won't eat. On a happy note, she's slept 12-13 hours straight the last two nights.

I'm getting eager to spend the days outside!