Settling in

After living in our new house for 2 1/2 weeks, we finally got our internet hooked up yesterday. The electricians have been pretty slow at getting things done around here. They still have a few things they have to finish up. And our other contractors have plenty of work to do too. It's kind of crazy living in a house that isn't totally finished yet.

The other day I made a list, room by room, of all the things that Dan and I need to work on in our house. It was a LONG list. Some things clearly won't happen for a long time, but others are more urgent. And as always, a lot of those items are dependent on time and budget. We'll have to save a little here and there to get all that stuff finished. And annoyingly, some of these items have to be done in proper order. For instance, we'd like to hang curtains in our house. Seems like a reasonable thing to want to do when you move! None of our old curtains really work, size wise, for the new house. Not to mention all our old curtains are just that...OLD. We've had them at least 10 years and some longer because they are hand-me-downs. Buying new curtains for an entire house is expensive. Plus we have to buy curtain rods for every window. The old part of the house has blinds on all the windows, so that's nice. But there are no existing hooks to hang curtains in the old part of the house. And the new part of the house is...um...new, so it's just bare walls. We have to buy curtain rods and start from scratch. So even if we are able to save up money to put curtain rods and curtains up in the whole house, we still can't hang curtains just yet. No sir! We have to paint first! All the walls in the new house still need a first coat or at least a touch up coat of paint. And in the old part of the house there are cracks in the walls and holes from old wall hangings. The walls are a mess! As you can see, we have a lot of work to do to even hang up curtains. If we get curtains up anytime this year, I think we'll be doing well.

There's so much we'd like to work on before the baby arrives in November. Once the baby gets here, we'll both be too tired to do much of anything extra. But our productivity has been slowed somewhat due to my broken foot. I must say, though, that this foot has only slowed me down a little bit. I guess I should probably slow down and rest more, but being the mom it's hard to just sit and rest. So much is dependent on me. We've been so thankful for all our friends and family who have come to help us unpack, care for the kids and brought us meals. You all have been a huge help to us! Thanks to all of you, our house is mostly unpacked. Even though there's still plenty of work to do, our house is certainly livable.

Now if only we could get our yard livable. It's been really frustrating having the yard be such a mess. There's construction mess in the back yard still. (My mother-in-law, Christy, can vouch for that as she stepped on a nail in our back yard while she was here helping us.) The deck isn't built yet. And in the muddy area in our back yard there are hundreds of maple trees growing. When the contractors spread out the big dirt pile in our back yard to even out the land, it was perfect timing for the maple tree near by to drop off its spring seeds on that muddy area. It was perfect conditions for growing trees. With no grass to get in the way, the seeds took root and grew happily. We literally have hundreds of tiny trees growing in our back yard. We have to remove these trees so we can plant grass seed. It's overwhelming.

Anyway...this is getting to be a long post. I just wanted to add that my broken foot is doing as well as a broken foot can, I guess. I still hurts sometimes, especially when I work too hard. I'm 23 weeks pregnant today and our baby boy seems to be doing fine. We certainly hope so. Now that we have our internet up and running again, I hope to keep in touch better and not write such long posts. :-)

So out of touch

We've been in our new house for more than a week now. We still don't have our main computer hooked up to internet. It's our electrician's fault. He isn't getting his booty over here to get the work done on his house. GRRR!!! So I'm using Dan's work lap top. Yeah...at least it's got internet access, but it doesn't have all my nice book marks! I'm so behind on checking blogs. So if you've been blogging, I haven't been reading. And it's unlikely I'll have time to catch up. Sorry folks.

My foot is doing as well a broken foot can be expected to do. It doesn't hurt too much, if I'm wearing my special boot and if I don't walk on it too much. It's hard to sit and rest as much as I should. The kids just don't seem to get that my foot is broken and that I'm super slow and in pain. Those crazy kids!

Most of the unpacking is done thanks to many helpful friends and my mother in law Christy. And well, I guess that's about it.[[

Status update

Thanks to many helping hands we are finally in our new house. Of course we still have a ton of unpacking to do. But unlike typical moves, we also have to finish our house! There's still a lot of construction things that need to be done. My kids can't play in our yard at all because of all the construction mess outside. So they're getting pretty cranky cooped up in the house full of boxes all day long.

To make matters worse, this morning at 4:00 am, I fell. I saw a light on upstairs and knew that Amy had gotten up to use the bathroom. She likes to leave lights on all over the house, day or night. So I went upstairs to turn off the lights and make sure Amy was in bed. After I settled her back down I headed back down stairs to put myself back to bed. Well, it was dark, there were a few night lights on around the house...but some how I missed the last two steps on the stairs and my right foot went all the way down to the main floor. My foot rolled and took the weight of my whole pregnant body falling on it. I hear a nasty pop and I started crying for Dan. Dan was of course sleeping and our room is kind of far from where I fell so it took him at least a good minute before he ran to my rescue.

He helped me to my bed to asses the damage. I knew I had sprained my ankle, but I was unsure whether or not I had also broken my foot. Since it was 4 in the morning, Dan propped up my foot in bed with some ice, put in some Seinfeld and we waited it out until 7:00 am to go with the whole family to an urgent care. We didn't think we could find anyone to come stay with our kids in the middle of the night.

So at 7, the whole family packed in the car to go to the urgent care. Long story stort, I did break my foot and I do have a sprained ankle. Fun, fun times. This afternoon I went to get a walking cast and crutches. The doctor said that the break should heal easily, but it will take a good 3 months to heal. And I'll probably be in this walking cast for about 6 weeks. After that, depending on how I feel I can take the cast off. But, like I said, it will be several months before I'll be back to walking and doing things normally.

Dan had to take today off work to help me. I've been a useless lump all day. I'm supposed to keep my foot elevated as much as possible. And I was told my swelling would get worse tomorrow before it starts to go down. I have no idea what I'm going to do when Dan goes back to work. I can barely walk. I can't go up or down the stairs. I can't put any weight on my foot at all. And there's a ton of unpacking to do as well as caring for my 4 children. And let's not forget that I'm also 21 weeks pregnant on top of that.

I hate being a lump. The kids keep asking me to help them and I just can't. What bad timing for a serious injury.

Other than that...we're doing great. :-/

Last Post from the Old House

Well folks, we are finally moving, this Wednesday. We are about to go insane for sure. Moving with 4 little kids, while pregnant is not highly recommended. I really, really, really hope that we don't have to move ever again. To top off our massive stress levels, our new house isn't finished yet. The walls are there. The floor is down. The bathrooms and kitchen work. There's even some parts that are painted. But all the electrical isn't done. We're praying they finish up the essentials by Wednesday, but clearly they will have to be working on that while we live there. There's no phone lines or cable lines yet. The deck isn't finished so we can't use the back door. The new kitchen counter top still has to be installed. We have no curtain rods. We don't have enough curtains. None of the closets have shelving or rods installed. The pantry also has no shelves. Our nice mudroom also has no shelves or storage yet. And on top of all that, there's tons of construction mess everywhere. Our head contractor was supposed to be over there cleaning up the junk today. Dan is over there now checking up things. Some church friends and I are going over there tomorrow night to clean everything. That should be an adventure.

I'm still working on packing things. If you've ever moved, then you know how hard it is to live in a house while all your stuff is in boxes. So today I packed suitcases with clothes and all the basics for 5 days. Sort of like packing for a vacation. We'll have to see what to do about packing up the kitchen since we still have to cook and eat until Wednesday. Whew. My pregnancy hormones aren't helping the situation at all. I'm near tears every other minute.

Even with all the madness, we're still excited to live in our new house. I hope the house is done enough for us to be comfortable. Too bad we don't have tons of disposable income. Sometimes throwing money at a problem really does help!! :-)

After all the moving fun, this Friday is my ultrasound. I just hope we don't forget about it with all the distractions. We are really excited to find out if we're having a boy or a girl. I'd like very much to share with everyone our news right away. We're really not the "Call everyone personally to deliver the news" kind of folk. So don't feel slighted if you don't get a phone call. I like to email and/or blog about it. But with all the moving madness, I don't know if our computer will be up and running yet by Friday. At the very least, maybe Dan can email everyone with the news from work.

So that's it from here. I hope to be in contact with everyone again soon...from the new house! Please keep us in your prayers. We need all the help we can get.

Never thought I'd see the day

I really never thought the day would come when I'd be clamoring for my pantyhose. Uh oh, I said the word...panty!! All the guys just went running! Feel free to leave guys, I'm not talking to you anyway. You ladies might know what I'm talking about. Especially you gals that have had many pregnancies.

Yep, you heard right, I long to wear my pantyhose these days. In June. Pregnant. In fact the pregnancy is what is making want to wear my pantyhose. And not just any pantyhose...special compression ones! (Warning: The picture on that link isn't for the faint of heart! Hee hee.) The ones that suck in your legs like a couple of sausages. They are great! No really, I'm serious. Before I got these pantyhose my legs and belly were so sore from standing and running around all day. That's what happens when you've had a lot of pregnancies. Your body starts to fall apart...literally. I don't know how ladies manage having 6, 8, 10 + pregnancies. They must have bodies of steel. I love my babies and my kids. And I have really easy pregnancies with only minor complaints. But all these pregnancies are aging me big time. For goodness sakes I'm wearing old lady pantyhose!! And I'm loving it! Something is seriously wrong with this picture. But I won't turn away from my lovely pantyhose. They provide such relief!

I was recently telling a gal in my ward (Who is pregnant with twins. These are her first babies.) all about my compression pantyhose and how great they were. She just couldn't believe that I would wear pantyhose in the summer. Sure, that's what you'd expect to hear from someone having their first pregnancy, even if she is having twins! I was doing pretty well myself until baby number 4. I could tell when I was pregnant with Kennedy that my body wasn't hacking it like usual. And well, baby number 5 pregnancy has just broken me. It's probably because I'm so busy with all the other kids and I rarely have any time to sit down and rest. That makes it worse. Heaven help me if I have a 6th. Just put me in my compression hose from day one and wheel me around in a wheel chair!

Goodbyes

How do you deal with goodbyes? Are they challenging for you? Am I the only one that hates them? It's one thing saying goodbye to someone that I know I'll see again in a few months. Sure, I'll miss them, but no big deal. What about if you have to say goodbye to someone and you know you won't see them again for several years, or perhaps never again. How do you feel then and how do you handle it? As I talked about in my post yesterday, I have to say goodbye to two friends soon. They are both leaving this weekend. In fact, one of them it is likely I won't even see before she goes. I didn't say good bye and I guess I won't have to. But the other one is coming over today. I'm going to watch her kids for her while she packs. I hadn't given much thought to having to say goodbye to her. Then I just realized that this could be the last time I see her before she goes. I don't want to say goodbye. When she comes to pick up her kids I just want to give her a "see ya later!" as usual. I don't want to make a big fuss with hugs and gushing. That just leads to crying. (Which I hear has it's benefits, but I'd rather cry in private.) I guess I handle goodbyes the best by denying them and avoiding them. I'd rather my last memory of a person be some regular moment we had together, not some long sad cry fest. I hate this. I wish I could avoid it. But she's coming over. I feel like I should say something. Of course I feel it's important to tell people how much they mean to you. But that's better done at a non goodbye moment.

I don't know what to do. So please tell me, what do you do and how do you feel about goodbyes.

19 1/2 weeks...Baby number 5

This is how I look when I'm 19 1/2 weeks pregnant with baby number 5 and I have a short torso to boot. There's little question about my condition any more. That baby has popped right out there! Looking pregnant is much better than looking like I just let myself go and gained 10 pounds for fun. :-)

A lot on my mind

I'm really quite busy. I shouldn't be posting at all right now because I have so much to do. But blogging is my therapy. I'm not sure if Dan or I mentioned this yet here, but we found a renter for our old house. We have been quiet relieved about that. They want to move in by the end of next week. So that means that we really, really have to move. Ready or not we have to get out. As you can imagine we and the workers have been scrambling to finish all the details at the new house. Actually, most of the major stuff is done. But there still some things that need to be done before we can comfortably live there. Now our time is short and it must get done. I've been working on packing here. But it's hard to really buckle down and pack everything when we still don't know the exact day that we're moving. Also, Dan's parents are coming down from Cleveland to help us, which is great. But we have to make sure we have a comfortable place for them to sleep while they are here.

In other news, two of my friends are moving away this weekend. And I'm talking moving far away. One is moving is moving to Los Angeles and the other is moving to a small city it Louisiana. It is doubtful that I'll see either of them ever again. Believe me, I know how this story goes. It has happened to me many, many times since I've been married. It seems to happen more frequently in my ward than regular wards due to the large number of schools and hospitals in this area. A lot of people come here for school or medical fields, they stay for a few years, then move away. I've gotten several very close friends over the years that have had to move far away. And it always ends up the same. We keep in touch really well for a few years and then it just tapers off. Neither of us want to lose touch, but when you don't see a person face to face for 5+ years it gets hard to stay close. This has gotten me to thinking about my two current friends who are about to move. I keep wondering if I should even bother to try to keep up with them after they move. Sure they are both great people. They have both been good friends. But I really doubt I'll ever see them again. What are the odds they come back to Cincinnati to visit? Even if they did, that can't possibly happen often enough to keep a friendship alive. All I know is that I can't take the constant loss. I feel like I'm being abandoned on a regular basis. It hurts and I'm tired of opening myself up just to be hurt. People could argue that it makes no sense to never open up to making new friends. I've gotten to enjoy various friendships that last for a few years at a time. Each time, with each friend, has been special. It's better than being alone. But having those friends eventually leave me and then losing touch really hurts. So I'm wondering...why bother trying to keep in touch? It's bad enough my whole family has left us here. They're all so far away that we can't ever see them. I know they had to go. They had their reasons and they were good, important ones. We each have to do what is best for our own families. I understand that. I guess I just wish I could make some friends who were going to be here permanently. Sometimes when a new family moves into the ward, and I hear they are here just for school for a few years, I don't bother getting to know them. I don't want to. I'm tired of being hurt. I'm tired of being abandoned.

Cicadas! Part 2

The cicadas are in full force now. They were slow and sleepy before but now they are wide awake and everywhere! This is not the place to be if you have a huge fear of flying bugs. Going outside is an adventure in bug dodging. Yesterday we went to swim at the Y, as we often do. This was the first time that the cicadas were so bad that we had to leave early. It wasn't so awful when we were all in the big pool. But my little ones like to play in the toddler pool because there are toys to play with over there. But the toddler pool is near the trees where the cicadas lurk. They were flying all over the place and there were many dead cicadas on the ground too. No one has shoes on at the pool! So we had to tip toe around all the dead ones while trying dodge the ones flying at our heads. Yuck yucky!! It makes my skin crawl just to talk about it. It's also quite awful that they often fly at you making that terrible clicking noise that cicadas are known for. It's like attack of the evil bugs out there! I seriously avoid going outside these days. Thankfully, the cicadas should be winding down by July.

Doesn't everyone want to come visit us right now??