Work

It's getting harder and harder to come into work these days, for a couple of reasons. First and foremost: I hate leaving Preston. I know I am leaving him in the perfectly capable hands of his daddy or our babysitter, but I still would love to be able to spend more days with him, besides just the weekends. Second: It's taking ALL I have to be able to focus on work while I'm at work (as I write this, sitting at my desk...). There are too many other things going through my mind during the day. Sitting in front of a computer with the fastest internet ever doesn't help.

I wish I could just work part-time. I still like my job (when there are interesting projects going on, and the bureaucracy doesn't impede things), it's just that I could do it in a heck of a lot less than 5 days a week, 8 hours a day. However, MCW only offers health insurance to full-time employees... and it's the best health insurance we could ever ask for. So that's why I work full-time, and Skip works part-time.

I learned a couple of weeks ago that MCW will begin offering health insurance (and the other benefits) to part-time employees, as of around 2014, because of all the other changes to the healthcare system in the U.S. MCW needs to offer that in order to compete with the state/federal plans that will be implemented-- offer good insurance, keep more people employed. For those of you who do not support the changes to our healthcare system, think of people like me. Because of the changes, I will be able to stay home a little more often with my child (and any subsequent children that may come along), while still being able to care for my family financially and medically. It is a blessing. My coworkers were all complaining that our premiums will be going up because of this, but I just kept my mouth shut. I couldn't stop thinking of how happy I am that I will still be able to make use of the education I paid for, while also being able to be a happier mother and wife at home. If I have to pay a little bit more into it to get the benefits, so be it. I will be a hell of a lot happier than I am now.

Moved in, almost moved out (long...)

Woof. Big moving weekend over!

Thursday: I woke up and took Preston over to Cassandra's, and I headed out to get my hair cut and a pedicure. I wanted to use a couple of gift certificates, and knew I wouldn't get out there if I didn't go when I did. So that was really a nice morning for me! I came back to 'Tosa and picked up Preston, ran home and changed quick, then met my mom over at the new house. She already had the leaf blower out and was clearing off our patio-- she was ready to go! I unpacked a load of stuff I had brought over, and by that point Sarah and the girls were there. We putzed around doing a few more things, then met Andy over at Fridays at Miller Park for dinner. Preston sat like a big boy in a high chair all by himself for the first time! He did so well :). After dinner my mom came back over to the old place to help me "assess" what needed to get done during the move, then she went home. I worked on a few things, then crashed. It was a pretty uneventful last night in our little house. :(

Friday: Another early rising so that I could get Preston to Cassandra and then get a few more things done before the movers came. They got there by 8:30, and started right away getting things into the truck. It was a crazy, emotional couple of hours packing that place up. I'm not going to lie that I'm a little sad leaving there, and carrying boxes and boxes of things out was kind of hard. Don't get me wrong, I know it's time to move on, and I'm excited to be in the new place, and for all of the new memories we'll make there. However, it's sad leaving the place we brought our first baby home to. That house was "our" first place, and we have some wonderful memories from there. So, needless to say, a few tears were shed throughout the morning.

We got most of the things packed up, and then I headed to the new place to meet the movers. They moved pretty quickly getting things in, and we helped make the process a bit faster, since we were paying them by the hour... Everything pretty much went in without a hitch... except for our couch. Wah. One of the parts of the sectional totally doesn't fit into the house. Sooo, we will be in the market for a couple of new sofas. Fortunately we have another small couch in the living room for now, plus the smaller of the sectional parts, which will do until we get something new. We were done with moving at that point for the day, so I went to pick up Preston (it was only like 1:30-- not too bad). We hung around the place for a little while, then I got ready and met my mom over at her hotel to drop Preston off-- his first night away, so that Skip and I could go to the Brewers game with the Meshenkys. We cooked out back at the new house, then walked over to Miller Park. How convenient this will be for games! We all had a great time at the game, and stopped at Kelly's Bleachers for a drink afterwards. It was a late night, but we all had fun.

Saturday: I got up and went over to the hotel for breakfast with my mom, and to get Preston. He did really well with my mom overnight, so that was good to hear. Mom came back over to the new place behind us, and we were there for a little while just assessing what to do. It was a little bit crazy with stuff everywhere. As we were getting ready to leave to the old place, my mother-in-law got there-- so we had her cleaning up the kitchen while we worked at the old house. I ended up staying over at the old place for most of the afternoon, while pretty much everyone else worked at the new place (Harrisons were there by that point). Skip ran loads back and forth. I left the old place around 3 (I think), and when I got back to the new place my livingroom was set up! Ah, gotta love familial manual labor... :)

Nancy, Jim and Grandma came up that evening, and we showed them the house then we all went to dinner. We had a really nice meal at Fiesta Garibaldi (walked to dinner!), then came back, had dessert, and crashed. We were all so exhausted.

Sunday: We slept in a little bit, then started putzing. We didn't do too much besides cleaning up. Skip made a trip to the old place while I got ready then went to Target for some essentials. When I got back, the fam came back over and we cooked out lunch on the grill. Skip, Preston, me, Sarah, Andy and Megan all went to the Brewers game at that point. We had a great time, and the babies did so well for their first game! They were the stars of the show. Since the Cubs were kicking the Brewers to death, we left at the top of the 9th, just to beat the crowd with the babies. We hitched a ride on the Kelly's Bleachers shuttle... then got back to the house and cooked out some more for dinner with the fam again. Everyone was still pretty tired, so they all left, and it was 8:51 when we crawled into bed. What an exhausting/exciting/emotional/productive weekend!

Oh, but I left my shoes all over at the old place, so I had to swing by there this morning on my way to work. Oops. :)

House 4/21/10

I think I am going to start keeping track of our house updates/work through my blog. I hope that whoever reads this (the 2 or 3 of you... :)) don't mind!

So, first update: We got the house! We had a few snags in regards to our loan that came up on Friday, so our weekend was a little stressful. We weren't sure until about noon on Monday that we were for sure going to close... at 4 on Monday. Nothing like waiting 'til the last minute, huh? Anyways, all went smoothly at the closing, and we are now homeowners! Skip and I went for a drink after the closing, to celebrate, then went and got the lil man from Cassandra to go over to the new place. It was so nice to be in there ourselves without having to have the realtor there! And, it was a nice bonus that the sellers said we can keep the really cute bench that is on the front porch-- it fits perfectly there, so we were definitely willing to oblige!

Skip brought a few things over there yesterday, and I brought a few more things last night. We have movers coming on Friday to do the majority of everything, but we figured we could get some things over there anyways. We sprung for the professional help, since it's a bit harder to get extra hands with all the new little babies/kids in our lives these days-- especially our own! I have a feeling Preston will be spending quite a bit of time wrapped up papoose-style on my back in the coming months so that I have my hands free!

My first job was to pull up the old, ugly carpet that inhabited the porch on the back of the house. We are so excited to use that porch this summer, but the carpet had to go (brown shag! yuck!). I was happy to find that it was only tacked down on the edges, so it was easy to pull up. Also, the padding that was underneath it was only stapled in 3 rows, so I won't have to be pulling up a bajillion staples, either. I plan to finish getting the staples up, then will get some insulation sheets and osb, then lay down vinyl tile on the floor. Shouldn't be too hard, but it'll be our first project so it might take a little time. I may be utilizing a circular saw for the first time since building a cardboard boat back in junior high (that's another story!)...

I will take pictures of everything as we improve stuff. I'm so excited for all the things we get to do to this place!

As for the little man, he is doing great. He's on 3 small meals of fruits or veggies a day, in addition to his milk/formula, of course. So far, we've tried sweet potatoes, squash, peas, green beans, bananas, prunes, and today we're trying pears! He LOVES his food, so this is a good thing. And I think he's keeping his weight up. I haven't weighed him in a while, but he feels nice and solid to me. Well, still teeny, but solid! :)

Observations

As I've posted before, I always have interesting observations while driving to work in the morning. Now that I have been dropping Preston off at the babysitter's house here and there, I take a slightly different route that allows for even more interesting things:

• I saw a junior high kid walking down the sidewalk rolling what looked to be a trombone on a dolly. Wuss. I had to carry a friggin TUBA at least 3 blocks to school when I was in junior high. And if you knew me back then, you'd know that a.) I was tiny, and b.) the tuba seemed ginormous and only had one small strap-- no backpack style gig bag like I am blessed with now. That trombone kid needs a lesson from 12-year-old Ellen. (Or Pregnant Ellen. Even when I was 9 months along, I was still strapping the darn thing to my back. That was funny...)
• Our coffee from home seems so much better than the stuff at work. Even though it was a day old, iced, and Hills Brothers beans, it still tastes better and stronger than the freshly-brewed ground Starbucks we have at our office. Hmm.
• 'Tosa fire trucks are intimidating, and their lights are SUPER bright. One must have gotten a call while sitting at a light opposite to me this a.m., because it flicked on the lights and sirens. Those things are like semis. Makes the little Meda-Care vans look like Smart Cars compared to 'Tosa rigs.
• I swear the whole world (i.e. everyone driving in the morning) is trying to escape a damn fire, they drive so fast. I have a total lead foot, but I'm seriously like a granny compared to some of the people out on the roads in 'Tosa in the morning. It's nuts.

I'm so glad to be getting off of work early today. Skip has to work, so I will be taking off a bit early to be with the little man. I'm so excited, because it's such a gorgeous day out. Who cares that I have to take a couple hours of personal time. It's worth it to spend time with my favorite little boy. :)

Update 4/2

Preston's gaining weight, finally!! We started him on cereal after finding out that he had dropped off the growth percentile charts, and in just over one week he gained a whole pound! His cheeks are becoming nice and chubby these days :). He's also been sleeping a lot better, so I think we've got some things figured out with him, at least for now! We've also noticed his little personality is really starting to shine through. He's SUCH a happy baby, and so observant of the world around him. His big eyes just take everything in. He's definitely got his daddy's loud voice and boisterous personality, that we've learned through his squealing... However, I think he's got a bit of his mommy's caution and cynicism-- you can see it in his eyebrows. Exactly like mine >:) We've also gotten a taste of how he's going to handle the hotter weather. He's been a little uncomfortable with the heat, so I think he's just going to spend the summer in a diaper. Fine with me! Here's a video of Preston in his jumper, having a grand-old time (he's not naked, just in a diaper!):



Things are coming along with our house purchase. We found out that there is some settling in the foundation, which we weren't surprised at, since the house is 85 years old. However, that means there are some repairs and reinforcements that need to be done on the basement, which is going to cost some $$. We've worked it out that the sellers are actually going to pay for it. We're very fortunate, since it's not something we were necessarily prepared to pay for, so we're lucky. Plus, I think the sellers are just ready to get rid of the place, so they'll do whatever it takes to sell it.

I had a weird dream last night about the house. We had bought a place that was a bit of a fixer-upper, and our families were worried that we were getting in over our heads. We went to show them the place, and while I was outside taking pictures, I thought to myself: "I didn't think those upstairs windows were so dingy and burned out?" And I realized: the house is on fire! It proceeded to burn to the ground, right before our eyes. Skip and I were devastated, but all of our families were like, "oh, well, it's probably for the best." So I go to show pictures of the house to friends, and everyone says it's super cute. Then, I show them one pic of the outside "before" then one "after" and I say "It burned down!!!" That was the end of that dream. I think I need to go drive by the place today to make sure it's still there!