Fix my bed!!

Since today is the second lousy day in what promises to be a rather awful work week, I thought I'd share something not work related to perk up my mood. Hopefully you'll get a little laugh out of it too.

When we moved Mess 1 into his big boy bed in December we didn't get him a full bed set; we just put a fitted sheet on the daybed, added a rail, and moved him in. At that point he was still moving around quite a bit at night, and in the mornings we would find him in all kinds of positions in all parts of the bed so blankets and covers still weren't practical.

We just recently, at his request, gave him a pillow but more often than not it is at the foot of the bed or on the floor in the morning, and the one blanket he uses is wadded up nowhere near him. So while we have been able to remove the rail, we still have not gotten him a bed set, or put anything other than a fitted sheet on the bed.

But the house is on the market, so we had to make his bed yesterday for the first time since he has been in it. He did "help" me by putting all of his stuffed animals on the floor and then flinging them back on the bed, but I don't think he was really paying attention to what I was doing.

Last night after we had completed the bathroom routine and gotten him in his jammies I sent him into his room to pick out a book while I straightened the bathroom. I think he just barely made it into the room before he turned back around and ran out screaming "Fix my bed!! Fix my bed!!"

Apparently the country style blue and pink heart covered bedspread I picked out in the seventh grade was more traumatic than I realized.

You can see a picture of it with the house listing if you really want, but please don't judge me too harshly. Considering it is almost 20 years old (is that really possible??) it has held up remarkably well. I do have plans to make something specifically for Carson, but it will probably have to wait until we move so I can pull out the sewing machine for a while.

As for "fixing" the bed, once we got the covers off and the animals back in place he was quite happy to just crawl up and snuggle in. He even skipped the book (well for a little while anyway, but more about that in another post).

We'll see how tonight goes :0)

Pictures

Just for fun, some pictures of the last several months.

You would think being fed oatmeal peanut butter cookies would improve the horse's mood

Reading to Mess 1 and his friend Sam

Asleep at the dinner table (in a crowded, noisy, restaurant) after a long day without a nap

With Uncle Andy at the Greenville Drive game

Wearing Uncle Andy's hat (even though he wouldn't wear the hat Uncle Andy bought for him)
Watching the monkeys with Sam

Acting like a monkey

Riding the carosel with Daddy

As close to riding the tigers he's going to get, no matter how many times he asks :0)

Waiting

Well, we're still waiting. To see where we will be next year, what will happen with the house, Hubby's award money, and for this baby girl to make her appearance.

Hubby's interview last week went very well, with the exception of a small snag with his return trip. The assistant who reserved his shuttle to the airport accidentally reserved it for PM instead of AM. So he missed his flight. Thankfully the school handled getting it fixed and he got home only a few hours late. The school has since asked for permission to check references, so we continue to be hopeful that an offer may come soon. It will be hard to move so far away from our family and friends, but there will be some real positives if this comes about.

The house went on the market today. The second realtor we met with was much more positive about what we could expect to happen which was nice. She also thought we would be able to get more than the first which gives us a little more room to work with, thank goodness.

For some unknown reason Hubby's awards have to be processed through the financial aid office. This would not be a problem, except for the fact that Ryan's GA and degree program consider a full load 6 credit hours which is three short of the University's definition of a full load. So every time we have gotten financial aid for him we have to go through this rigmarole of documenting that he is taking a full load so they can override the system that says he hasn't met his minimum hours. Including once already this semester. Grr...

As for little Miss, we have an ultrasound Thursday to do a growth check. If everything looks good we will be treated as normal for the rest of pregnancy, which would be wonderful. The sweet members of my Bible study surprised me with a shower a few weeks ago and the grandmothers have started buying clothes, so pink is starting to make an appearance in our house. So we just have to get to June 21, all eight weeks and four days left (not that I'm counting or anything).

We'll keep you posted!

It's what's for dinner...

Last night was leftovers night at our house. So I asked Mess 1 "Do you want pizza for dinner?" thinking I would get a resounding yes and a race to the kitchen.

His response?

"No."

As I was starting to wonder what was wrong with him he continued.

"Just chocolate."

Updates to Stuff

Hubby got a call from Lincoln University yesterday afternoon - he goes for a face to face interview on the 16th. If he gets/takes this job we will be moving from Columbia to Columbia, and I will once again be moving back to a state I have already lived in, not far from a town I lived in as a small child. Again God is reminding me of his sense of humor...

The meeting with the realtor was kind of depressing. We should be able to get the house sold before we move but we will not get as much out of it as we wanted, if we walk away with anything at all. The part of this that really gets me is the fact that 90% of the profit will go to the realtor. I'm so glad I spent three years paying on a mortgage so she could make that kind of money.

OK, it's really not that bad, and I don't really begrudge the realtor the money, that's her fee for doing me a service. It was just frustrating to have to readjust the number I had in my head and realize we're not going to be able to pay a chunk on student loans like I had hoped. The positives are we won't have to take money to closing like I know others in our neighborhood have had to do, (the house next door just sold for $40,000 less than the original asking price, as they were going into foreclosure), we had a great house to live in while we were here, and she shortened our list of projects and made some other recommendations that will reduce the expense of getting it ready to go on the market. (Unfortunately I still have to clean out my closet, yuck.)

I also talked to the maternity care coordinator with the insurance company this morning and she says it won't be a problem if the doctors want to see me more often. I'll believe it after I get the EOBs showing the insurance company paying their portion.

I'm done whining now. Have a wonderful weekend :0)

Stuff

The last week and a half have been quite the roller coaster around our house. And I'm not sure if it's slowing down or speeding up...

Since I don't remember the actual order of events, I'll just tell you about each, which means the rest of the post is not the least bit cohesive. Just go with me.

Last Saturday was my paternal grandfather's 90th birthday party. His birthday was earlier in the month, but this was the first weekend we could get everyone together. It was fun, but also drama filled and stressful as only family events can be. Ryan was gone on Saturday (more about that later) and Carson was either not feeling well or just overwhelmed by all the people. He was very clingy and for the first part of the party would not leave my lap. Most unusual for my social butterfly.

Hubby was gone on Saturday for a job interview! He interviewed with a school just across the river from downtown St. Louis. He thought it went well and we will hopefully be hearing something from them soon. He also had a phone interview for the position as Chair of the Percussion Department at a school in Boston, and had another phone interview yesterday afternoon with a university in Missouri. The scuttlebutt on the "local" job has been interesting to say the least (at least to us), but Hubby has not heard from them as of yet. He would really like to at least get an interview, but we'll just have to wait and see.

I am 28 weeks as of last Saturday, and start going to the doctor every two weeks. My glucose screen came back normal (no three hour test, yeah!!), so at this point everything looks good. The doctors in my practice are meeting this week to go over the current research regarding women with elevated hormone levels in quad screens followed by normal amnios (me) to see what changes, if any, they are going to make to their protocols for third trimester care. The midwife said they would do an ultrasound at 32 weeks for a growth check, but we won't know how often I need to be seen after that until my appointment next week. While we will do whatever we need to for a healthy delivery, going twice a week will be a pain, not to mention I doubt the insurance company will cover all the visits. We already had to fight over the Level 2 ultrasound, even though I called and told them about it before it was done and was told it wouldn't be a problem as precertification wasn't needed for that. I'm sure the maternity care coordinator enjoyed the phone call we had after I got the letter telling me they were declining it as "not medically necessary."

On Monday we had to have our cat put to sleep. Since he had to have twice daily injections for his diabetes he had to be kenneled over the weekend while we were at my parents. He seemed to be doing better at his last appointment with the vet, but they called Sunday morning to say he had been throwing up and was dehydrated. We put him on IV fluids, but when we talked to them Monday morning we were told he had full blow ketoacidosis, which they could treat but it is not an easy treatment, it may or may not work at all, and it is very expensive. The vet and her staff were wonderful, supporting our decision and doing everything possible to make things easier on us. The sweet vet came out to talk to me when I picked him up Monday and gave me a hug (I'm not sure she knew exactly what to do with a pregnant woman and her hormones, but who does? I don't.); they also gave gave us a pawprint they had made and sent a sympathy card that we received yesterday that included handwritten notes from the vet and the office staff. So far Mess 1 has not missed him, which is good, as Hubby and I are still not in complete agreement as to what to tell him. Whether or not pets go to heaven is not something I ever expected to be a topic of scriptural debate...

Yesterday was Graduate Student day at the university, and included an awards ceremony where Hubby received two awards. One for outstanding teaching from the School of Music, and one from the Graduate School for outstanding teaching in the arts and social sciences. He also was asked to perform as part of "paper" presentations, and may or may not have given a poster presentation (I lost track of what was happening with that one). We know at least one of them included a cash award, so the savings account (aka the moving/medical expenses fund) will get another nice deposit. And he took me out for ice cream at Sandy's (although we ended up using my cash, how did that work??).

Tonight we are meeting with the first of the two realtors USAA recommended to start the process of getting the house on the market. We have a number of projects scheduled for this weekend, and I'm sure there will be more once we meet with the realtors. I'll just be relieved to get the process started, even though I am not looking forward to having to keep the house "show ready" all the time.

So I think those are all the big things. As time permits between house projects I'll try and post some of the pictures and funny stories from the last few weeks. Time to lighten things up in this little corner of the blogosphere :0)