Ready, set, update

Our incredible and amazing friends came and helped us move all the boxes today. One more day of living like this and I would have been moved in a straitjacket.

Thank you, thank you, thank you Maryellen, John, Amy, Josh and Sandy. And thank you, thank you, thank you Michael's parents. They moved boxes, helped with Spencer and took us out to dinner.

Before

After

The movers come to move the furniture in the morning. My brother Nick is coming to help too. And Ginger comes home tomorrow! We'll be sleeping in the new house tomorrow night.

2 second update

• I started my new job on Monday. It is great.
• My mom was here this week baby-sitting while I worked. She was great.
• We found and were approved for a rental house. It's great.
• We have friends coming on Saturday to help move boxes. They are great.
• We have movers coming on Sunday to move all the furniture and appliances. They will hopefully be great.
  
  The new house.
  So, that was more like a 2 minute update. Back to packing!

Hiatus

Alternate Title: The MOST stressed out I have ever been.

I hate to disappoint the one or two regular readers I have, but I am going on hiatus from the blog. Before I get into all the details about why I need to take a blog break, I'm going to review the other times during my adulthood that I have been very, very stressed. This is my last post for a while and it's going to be long. Maybe you can read a little bit more each day and then it won't seem like I'm gone.

In chronological order, the most stressed out moments of my last 10 years:

Fall 1999: I was living in a dorm and going to school in New Hampshire. I got the flu and then an infection. I was sick, far from home and stressed. Sidenote: this was when I bought all that Moonlight Path stuff that now makes me sick to smell.

Fall 2002: I had started graduate school in Colorado. Michael was finishing school in Arizona. There were 3 months that we lived in separate states. I had horrible night terrors from sleeping alone. No sleep + lots of school work= stress.

December 2003: In a span of 20 days I had to pack up our whole apartment to move back to Arizona, turn in a 23 page paper, take finals, move to Arizona, celebrate Christmas, celebrate our wedding anniversary, celebrate New Years, take comps (the comprehensive exam I needed to pass to get my degree) and start my first internship. Yikes.

August 2004: I got my Master Degree on a Friday and started work on Monday. My "office" was the corner of the special ed classroom. My first day there it was being used as a garbage pit for old science materials, desks and chairs. I cried every night for 2 weeks thinking I had made the worst mistake of my life. I met Brendan, Amy, Sandy and Kristeen in those first couple of days. They are all good friends now. They must have thought I was crazy at the time.

March 2006: Flying from Atlanta to New York on the way to Belgium. The plane caught on fire right after take-off and we had to make an emergency landing. I temporarily went blind from anxiety.

Summer 2006: Jaw surgery. Aside from my fears of complications from anaesthesia and bleeding out on the operating table I was afraid I would have facial paralysis when it was all done. Facial paralysis and a career in speech language pathology don't exactly mix.

September 5, 2007 10:30 pm: The nurse told me I was already dilated 6 cm a full 4 weeks before I was supposed to be having a baby. I went blind and deaf for about 10 minutes. Happy 28th Birthday.

September 2007- January 2008: Spencer cried all day, every day for about 15 weeks. Michael is an AWESOME dad, but he went back to work when Spencer was 2 weeks old so I was home alone with this beast of a baby for 12 hours every day.

Which brings us to now. We bought and moved into our house in May 2006- about a year before the housing market collapsed. When we bought this house we planned on staying for 4-6 years. Nice starter house. To put it bluntly, at this point we would have to stay here for 30 years and pay off the motgage to ever make a profit on it. We're essentially paying really expensive rent for a house that is now too small, because there is NO equity in this home. And there won't ever be.

We tried to do a loan modification with the mortgage company and that got us no where. So we entered the short sale process. We've known for a while that we would ultimately have to move, but in just the last week the time frame of everything has really changed. I've been really careful to not say the actual name of our city on this blog because I'm paranoid. But since we will no longer be living here I will share that we live in Maricopa. We decided that even after we left this house we would just rent in Maricopa since I had a job here and I don't want to commute for part time work.

Well, through a series of events that are not important but were VERY stressful for me, I actually now have a job in a different city. I'm not saying which one. (If you know me I'll tell you). We didn't see much of a point in staying in Maricopa if I was working somewhere else. Plus, on the same day that I found out about the job we found out that our house was bought by a different mortgage company. Since the house is no longer ours and I start work tomorrow, we're moving ASAP. We just have to find a rental.

So, I'm STRESSED OUT because I have to pack up our whole house, start a new job and find a new baby sitter for Spencer. And then, just to add to all the fun, I found out (also on the same day as the job and the house) that I have two torn ligaments in my wrist and will most likely need surgery to repair them. I go to the hand surgeon next week. How delightful. I can think of nothing better than being in a hard cast for six weeks while caring for a two year old. Unless it involves moving my entire house with already torn ligaments in my wrist. Let's also not forget that I haven't worked all summer so we're out of money. Anybody envious of my life now?

This is my beautiful house last Tuesday.

It took me over 3 years to get it to the point where I felt like nothing else needed to be done.

Welcome to my life now. What a difference 4 days makes.

I can think of about 45 unpleasant things that I would rather do than move.
And look. I had just created this cute little activity corner for Spencer.
He doesn't care anymore though because he has a step stool to play with. Guess what he's reaching for. NAILS and SCREWS. Good lord what have we become?

So, since I have to pack up my whole house (including 4 complete sets of dishes, at least 60 wine glasses and about 90 pairs of shoes), start a new job (that I will have to commute to for a few weeks), find a house to move to, find a new baby-sitter, burst out in spontaneous tears at random times and have surgery on my wrist, something's gotta give. It's gonna be the blog. And facebook. And shopping. Oh, yeah, and I still have to throw a birthday party for me and Spencer in Tucson in 3 weeks.

We hope that everything will be settled by the end of August. I won't be gone too long. I might even give some updates from time to time. But no flashback Friday or cute pictures. Except for this one of Ginger getting her head stuck between the chair and the table.
I'm also going to be contacting my Phoenix area friends to beg for help with moving once we find a place. (That means you Maryellen.) (Megan, you're off the hook because I can still count in hours how long it has been since you gave birth.) And I'm going to beg my friends who are having 30th birthday parties to please forgive me if I can no longer make it. (That's you Chelsea.)

Ahhhh! Whatever doesn't kill us makes us stronger, right?

Heartthrob?

Just for the record, I don't actually think that guy on the top is a heartthrob (but I do think the baby in the next two pictures is!). I took these pictures of Spencer and my mind automaticaly thought of "that guy with the messy hair who plays the vampire that all the tween girls love". I asked Michael if he thought Spencer's hair looked like that guy's hair. And then I said I thought his name was James Patterson. Apparently it's Robert Pattinson. Close enough.

Flashback Friday

August 6, 2004

The day I got my Master of Arts in Speech Language Pathology.

It wasn't until June 2005 that I finished my clinical fellowship, got my certificate of clinical competence and became a certified SLP, but graduation day was definitely a huge milestone in the process of becoming legit. I don't know that I could ever go through graduate school again. Well, that's not true. I could definitely get a master's degree in something that required, like, 30 credits. Mine was 87 credits. That doesn't even count the over 700 hours of supervised clinical work that was part of it. It makes me tired just thinking about it.

Isn't it cute that I kept the ceremony tickets?

This was our Christmas picture in 2004. My friend Nancy. Nancy was a "traveling" SLP for about 3 years after we graduated. She had jobs in Washington, Arizona (twice), Michigan, Massachusetts and Colorado. Isn't that the coolest thing? I visited her when she was working on Martha's Vineyard. Erin, Lacey, me, Sarah and Kyle. Erin is in Utah, Lacey and Kyle stayed in Colorado and Sarah is in Las Vegas. I want to go visit Sarah and have her baby-sit Spencer so Michael and I can go to dinner at a fancy restaurant on the strip. (Not that I've thought about it or anything). After the graduation ceremony we went out to dinner. Michael looks like a teenage boy in this picture.
After going to school in Greeley for a year and a half, Michael and I moved back to Tempe in December 2003 where I did 8 months of internships in Chandler, Tempe and Mesa. Michael, my parents and I drove back to Greeley for the graduation ceremony. It's a 15 hour drive if you stop very few times for potty breaks and eating. On the way back home we spent the night in Colorado Springs to visit my cousin at the Air Force Academy. We made it back to Tempe on Sunday afternoon. On Monday morning I started work at my first job as an SLP. Talk about stressful.

23 months

My silly, funny, CRAZY little boy is almost two. I can't believe it.

Here's the official 23 month shot.

And some other shots that didn't quite make the cut

The damn tree

The tree formerly known as "my mother's day tree" has a new name. We now call it "the damn tree". As in, "the damn tree fell over again".

The day we left for Pinetop our air conditioner broke. The day we got back and had it fixed the toilet started leaking and the eucalyptus tree in the front yard got blown over in a monsoon. The next day my mother's day tree got blown over in the back yard. There were a lot of words that needed to be censored coming out of the mouths of the adults in this family.

We re-staked the tree in the front yard and it has been fine since. The damn tree in the back yard is another story. The picture above shows the original fall to the South. We put it back up, had another monsoon and the damn tree fell to the North. We put it back up and then a mouse burped in the backyard and it fell to the East. At this point we were talking about ripping the tree out of the ground and feeding it to a wood chipper. "The damn tree" was the PG version of the words we had for this tree.

This is our latest solution. We drove four metal stakes into the ground, wrapped the wire with rubber hoses to put around the trunk and then thread the wire through holes in the stakes. It's lasted for a week now. We were afraid that Spencer would trip on the stakes or decapitate himself on the wire so we marked everything with red yarn. Spencer hasn't had a problem, but both Michael and I have run into the damn wires and stakes. I hate everything about this tree. The tree never had a chance to fall to the West so I may very well be posting a picture of a pile of logs before the end of monsoon season.

Yeah, I did it

I went back to Sam's Club and bought two more outfits. I guess we'll just add these to the pile of birthday presents too. I read somewhere that the average kid only gains between three and five pounds between ages two and three. I can gain three pounds at dinner, so that seems incredible to me. I just figured out that Spencer gained 15 pounds his first year and (as long as he doesn't drastically gain or lose much in the next month) 8 pounds his second year. If that data about the three to five pounds is correct, these should last all winter.

Can't resist clothes with monkeys.

This outfit is just like his moose outfit from last year. Except it's blue instead of brown and with blue/green plaid instead of brown/white plaid and with a polar bear instead of a moose. But other than that, exactly the same. I don't know what happened with the lighting in this picture, but the baby and the outfit are still cute.

The moose is loose

I turn 30 and Spencer turns 2 in a little over a month (September 5 and 6, respectively). Last week we were at Sam's Club buying food and I found this adorable outfit. Sam's Club sells Carter's clothes (which I LOVE) for way cheaper (which I LOVE even more) than at Carter's or at Target. I know it's silly to buy winter clothes in July, but I couldn't resist. I rationalized the purchase by saying that we can always give it to Spencer as a birthday present. Don't tell him, OK.

There is a long standing joke about the Blue Moose in my family. It dates back to before my parents were even married. It started with a Blue Reindeer and over the years has morphed into a Moose. Ask my dad or my Aunt Karen about it. In fact, my Aunt Karen and Uncle Terry gave Spencer this moose outfit (also Carters!) for his 1st birthday last year. It came in a moose lunchbox (Carter's of course) with an honest to goodness Blue Moose. What an awesome gift.

How could I not buy something with a Moose in a Blue Sweater? He's essentially a Blue Moose. Plus, we're thinking about going up to Flagstaff in October during my fall break. Spencer will definitely need warmer clothes if we do that. So, although he won't need warm clothes here until well into November, I might go back and get some of the other incredibly cute outfits I saw. Don't tell Spencer or Michael, OK?

Welcome to the World

Megan had her baby!

Hadley Grace

August 1, 2009

5:21 am

7 pounds 3 ounces

The beautiful baby girl. Look at all the hair!

I was able to go to the hospital yesterday for a short visit when Hadley was only about 8 hours old. Being friends with someone since the first day of first grade has its perks. I love this picture because you can only see the top of Hadley's head. I just think that's funny.

Better, although you still can't see her whole gorgeous face.

The proud papa The marvelous mama Grandma

It's hard for me to explain how much joy I feel for Megan right now. There is just something amazing about your friends having a baby. I guess the best way to describe it is like this: Megan and I met when she was six and I was five. We have been friends as little kids (yes, contrary to what all five and six year olds will tell you, five and six year olds are little kids), as kids, as pre-teens, as teens, as young adults and as adult women. That's a lot of years to share a friendship. I have watched her expereince life and its events just as she has watched me. And now she is somebody's mother. That is a huge life event. I'm so happy I get to be a part of it and watch her on this journey too. Did that make any sense? It's not very eloquent, but I guess sometimes feelings can't be described with mere words. It's a good thing I didn't become a poet.

Here, this is better. Compliments of google.

A Wee Bit of Heaven

A wee bit of heaven

Drifted down from above

A handful of happiness

A heartful of love


A mystery of life

So sacred and sweet

The giver of joy

So deep and complete.


Precious and priceless

So lovable too

The world's sweetest miracle

Baby, it's you.

Bath Time

Spencer hasn't taken a bath in ages. We really can't even remember the last time, but we think it was around Christmas. Now, don't go calling CPS and reporting me for neglect. He showers every day, and sometimes more than once a day.

There are many reasons why we stopped baths and started showers. #1) I think baths waste a lot of water. #2) Since the time he was able to stand on his own, Spencer wouldn't sit in the bath. He just wanted to stand in the tub. Um, standing in the tub? Isn't that what you do in a.... shower? #3) We didn't want him soaking in water with his eczema anyway. A shower gets him wet and then we seal in the moisture with all his creams and ointments, etc. He has all of his bath toys in the shower and has a great time playing with them under the shower of water.

Last week we decided to give Spencer a real bath. We wanted him out of the living room and getting ready for bed, but it was too early to actually go to bed. We were just looking for a way to creatively waste a little time.

He did a lot of standing, as I suspected he would, but once I convinced him to sit down he really seemed to enjoy it.

And once he realized he could splash like he does in the pool, he really, really enjoyed it.