So I Went to See the House

and it was just as great as it looked. Nice and big and in good shape. The bad news about that is that it was actually worth the asking price. Actually maybe a little more. There was no way we could get into that house without creative financing of some sort, and for sure not more that the list price, so we said good bye to that one too. Sigh. When we got home we found out there were 2 offers on the table for it already, so I'm glad we had already decided not to try for it.

In my email I had a link to another listing, this one another house near Chris' parents. I have set up an appointment to see it tomorrow. I made it before lunch because we are supposed to get a huge storm tomorrow afternoon. Doesn't that figure? I am hoping to be home again by 3, and miss the snow. If it is already snowing when I wake up in the morning, I am staying home. I will be driving down in the car with just the baby, leaving Chris home with the boys. He wasn't excited about the idea of driving back down there 2 days after spending the day down there already. At least I'll have better luck in the car if the weather beats me home.

If this house doesn't work out, we have discussed changing our plans a bit. We will try to buy a house in a development that we can live in for 3 or 4 years, then sell again when the "perfect" house comes up. That way we can shop from the area, and not do this crazy running around business. We only have about 5 weeks left before we have to vacate this house, so we are getting close to panic time. We can't see how we will be able to afford to rent anything down there, it would cost more than any mortgage we could get, and monthly payment is what's holding us back in the first place. If we could afford $1300/mo on rent, we'd spend it on a house! LOL


So I'll update again tomorrow night.

Well, God Must Have Something Really Good In Store For Us

Our realtor just called again. The second house we were going to offer on is Sale Pending. So now we have absolutely nothing to buy. We haven't seen anything else that we would fit in. Waaahhh. There is that nice house I saw, which I guess I am going to go see tomorrow; but I tell you, we will all be on a diet if we get that one, because our budget is going to be severely cut just to pay the taxes.

Out of the Running

Well, my reator called me this afternoon. He said the seller did not accept our offer. Not only that, but this guy, who last week countered another buyer's offer with something lower, this week said he wants his full asking price or no deal. Harumph! It sounds to me like maybe we are better off not getting this house, I don't think we want to have to deal with this guy. What a pig. I hope he takes a huge loss on this house. And I also hope we find something better! Yikes, time is running out.

More Waiting

We found out this week that the house didn't get sold last week. I guess the other buyers also thought it was too high priced. We talked to our agent and wrote up a new offer quite a bit higher than our last one but still below what the seller countered with. I have no idea if he will go for it or be stubborn and greedy and wait until someone pays him what he wants. If he doesn't take this offer, we don't have any more money so we will be writing up an offer for another house we saw, if it is still available. I found another house I would love to go see, but I found out the taxes are crazy. $300/mo makes it out of our range, we'd have to offer much less than the asking price to afford it, and that would most likely be a waste of everyone's time. I wish we had a little more money, but I am seeing that a little more money just makes me look at a new group of houses that are all a little out of our range, lol. If I had enough for this latest house, I'd be looking at houses another $25K too high. Ah well, I am very glad to be able to afford *something.* I know it will all work out.

Tomorrow we will be going down again, because Chris has to work from that office, so I will be able to drive around a bit and hopefully meet with our realtor and get some papers signed.

He Sits! He Crawls!

Ok, he's not going to win any contests for endurance or distance, lol, but Levi, who just turned 6 months old on Sunday, can now sit for about 30 seconds before falling over, and can get up on his hands and knees and rock back and forth until he falls forward! He is regularly escaping his bed, so I had to set up the play pen in his room for him to sleep in.

He had his 6 month appointment on Friday. He weighs 17 lb 4 oz, and is 26.25". That puts him right at 50% for growth, and in fact is in the middle of his brothers' stats too. The dr was impressed at how good he was, very social and calm. He is right on track for all developmental milestones. I guess it'll be time to start solids with him soon, but right now he doesn't seem to be missing them.

Here is Levi crawling:

Here he is sitting up, very proud of himself, LOL:

And here he is with his brother Samuel cheering him on:

Kill Him or Kiss Him?

Well, after such a huge disappointment about not getting that house we both really wanted, and talking it over ad nauseum, I learn from Chris that maybe, just maybe, we might have a little bit more money we could afford to offer for this house. Ugh! I already told our agent that there really wasn't any more money per month or in savings for a higher down payment, but it seems that I lied to him! So I will be talking to him on Monday, and letting him know that we actually can go a little higher, if the house hasn't already sold to the other interested buyers. So maybe we're back in the game. But maybe not. Bleh, I'm glad we have more money than I thought, but I hate looking like I'm playing games with my own realtor. So should I kick Chris *while* I'm kissing him? LOL

Back to the Start

Well, my agent just called to tell me how our offer went. He says the listing agent told him that he just got a similar offer to ours, and the seller countered with a pretty high number; he said his buyer wasn't going to take that counter offer either, but that his buyer didn't request inspections. I have no idea how you can buy a house these days without any inspections unless you are paying cash, but I know for sure my mortgage company won't approve a loan without them.

So I guess we're back to the beginning. Waaaahhh. In my mind I was already moving in.

Waiting Waiting

We signed the offer today, and our realtor submitted it to the listing agent. Now we wait to hear what the seller has to say. Hopefully we will know by tomorrow.

Our agent found out some history on the house and the seller; it seems that the seller owns another home that he had put up for sale in another state, but it didn't sell. He is still living there, and has decided that whichever house sells first, he will live in the other. He bought this house back in July and did a few improvements, but not much. I have no idea why his other home didn't sell. It may be because he is asking too much money and won't take a lower offer. If so, then the same may be true about this house, which means we are out of luck, because we just don't have the money to counter with a higher offer. I guess that means he is out of luck too, LOL.

And so we wait.....

Making An Offer

We went to see another house yesterday. It was priced out of our range, but we really didn't have much else to look at, so we figured we'd give it a try. Here's the report:

The location is great; back road, very little traffic, exactly half way between Chris' parents and his office. The yard is very pretty; nice front yard, huge back yard, lots of nice mature trees, but still a big open space to play. 2 car garage plus another shed maybe for bikes and toys.

The house itself is a 4 brm (4 true bedrooms, not closets! LOL) 1.5 bath farmhouse. There is a back screened in porch and what they called a 3 seasons porch, which just means it is a porch with windows. Neither is big enough for furniture, maybe just some lawn chairs, but perfect for pulling off snow suits or muddy shoes. The kitchen needs updating desperately, but it will do for now; I am not one known to love being in the kitchen, LOL. Nice sized living room plus 2 more small rooms that could be a den and a school room.

Some of the drawbacks about the house: the furnace is an old coal furnace converted to oil, so it is very inefficient and needs to be replaced. The siding is shingle, and the windows are wood, so it would need vinyl siding and replacement windows eventually. I mentioned the kitchen already, plus it is painted a dark brick red color, and is on the north side of the house, so it is very dark. The basement had 2 sump pumps in it, so there is clearly water in there. It looks like the previous owners did a good job of channeling it but still, no water would be better. Most of the wiring is old; service to the house and the panel are all brand new, but Chris would have a lot of outlets and switches to replace. The laundry is in the basement, and the steps down are awkward; I would really like to have the washer and dryer hook ups moved upstairs next to the half bath, but Chris said that would not be a priority. There was some water damage under one window in the master bedroom, but I couldn't tell if it was recent or not. I thought it looked like it, but Chris says he doesn't think so. We'd have to find out about that. It could be as simple as a clogged gutter, or something more serious. Last, it was not clear how the two bedrooms on the east side of the house were heated. We couldn't find any vents but it was very warm in them. Of course, yesterday the temperature was in the 50s, so it was actually hot in the house. It has a metal roof, so it was very warm in the sun. I am concerned about heat in the summer too. At least there are lots of shade trees on the property, so maybe we will just spend a lot of time outdoors, lol.

A view of the front yard:

Front of house:

The back of the house and the garage

A view from the driveway looking down the street:

After walking through the house and talking with our realtor, he told us that since there was a lot of work left to be done on the house, and it has been on the market a while and is vacant, that we could offer quite a bit below the asking price. He said there was no harm in trying, which was nice. I'm used to realtors saying "I won't waste my time with an offer too low" and such. I think we got lucky getting this guy.

He's going to email me more info about the property today, and we are going to write up an offer this week!

Yet Another House to See

On Sunday Chris and I are going to drive down and see another house. This one looks great on paper, except for one thing: the price. It is really out of our price range. We have exhausted everything in our range and it's all either too small or just icky. This one has promise, but I don't know how we'd find the money for it. The plan right now is if we like it, we are just going to offer the absolute most we can scrape together and hope they take it. I am afraid, though, that it will still be an insulting offer. There is always hope that the sellers are motivated, or that money will fall from the sky and land in my wallet! LOL

Another House With Issues

But of course, what can you expect when you are working with a low price range, at least for the size house we need? So here is the report on yesterday's house:

The property was perfect. 2 acres, some open, some meadow-like, a stream in one corner, a small barn with room to put both the car and the van inside (no doors, but at least I wouldn't have to clean snow off in winter) and also the riding mower. Pretty views, not too close to the road, and I can't even tell you how excited Grandpa was at the thought of his boys being so close by. There is an in ground pool which has been kept up, so we could use it (not sure what insurance and upkeep would run on that per year, though); and they are leaving behind a nice wooden swingset.

The downstairs of the house was also pretty nice and roomy. A living room, a smaller room for a family room or office/den, a dining room big enough to fit my table in with all the leaves in, plus a kitchen that was a decent size. There were two sets of stairs, the main set in the front of the house, and another small "servants' stairs" by the kitchen. I have always liked the idea of 2 sets of stairs in a house. Perhaps in reality that would be annoying. I can see the boys racing around the house in a big circle, LOL.

Unfortunately, the upstairs has major problems with organization of rooms. The two front bedrooms are nice and roomy, no problem there, but what should be the third bedroom has to be a walk through to get to the bathroom at the back of the house. There is really no way to put up a wall to enclose it without cutting the room right in half. As I said, the bathroom is at the back of the house, and it was pretty gross. It only had a shower, no tub, which is a problem for at least 3 of my boys. It was pretty mildewy, too; no ventilation. It would have to be redone. Next to the bathroom was a tiny room that really is only big enough for a sewing room or a huge walk in closet. Troyer would probably be willing to have a tiny space like that just for the chance to have his own room, lol. So essentially, there are really only two true bedrooms.

Another big problem was the roof. I walked around the outside of the house and could see at least two huge holes in the soffit under the roof. It is a metal roof, and needs to be replaced. I'm not sure how much is leaking in but holes are not good, lol. Also the windows are a mixture of new replacements, old replacements, and original (and keep in mind this house is over 100 years old!). I think 2 rooms have new vinyl replacements. I didn't count, but there are a lot of windows, and most need to be replaced. Finally, the cellar under the house, accessible only from the outside by a set of very steep steps, is unfinished stone, and it does get water in a hard rain. I have no idea if it requires repair or how to divert the water so it does not leak again.

I asked about heating costs, and they are very high. I think windows would go a long way toward remedying that, but we couldn't afford to do much with the windows after taking care of the roof and foundation, and the bathroom. It would be a few years before we could get all the windows done.

That said, it would be a great investment, if we were willing to fix it up right. But is it a money pit? What kind of problems would we find while trying to fix the obvious ones? Can the house be repaired or would it be a case of needing to take it down to studs and starting over? Would I *want* to live in a house under constant construction? (in other words, do I look crazy??? lol)

I am really really hoping that the perfect house for us just hasn't come on the market yet, and that when it does we will be in there first with an offer. I keep in mind that our house was only on the market 5 days. So maybe the perfect house for us will be a similar story; on the market and sold (to us!) in less than a week. It just isn't out there for us to see yet. Let's hope, lol.

Back Home!

Ok, here is my report from the houses we saw today. We looked at 3 and drove past another one. That one I am going to go down and see on Tuesday without Chris. If I like it, I will have him drive down to see it too. I wrote out this report for my sister, and it was a lot of typing, so I am just going to cut and paste it here.

1st house: Broad St. It is a huge old victorian home, there is as much space as they claim, and more. The neighborhood is actually quite crowded. It is a small side street, but not a dead end, and every lot is built on. At the back of the property there is an alley that runs down to a ball field, so I am guessing that on game days that gets a lot of traffic, though it wouldn't be fast. The yard was full of snow, so it was hard to see just what it was really like, but it seemed plenty big enough for the boys. The deck is just as pretty as it looks in the pictures, and has gates that lock at each of the steps - very nice! The front porch is great too, with a porch swing. The kitchen was great, with new stove and refrigerator, a double sink and seating at the island. Lots of cupboard and pantry space. There is a laundry room on the first floor with a laundry sink, and a butler's pantry between the kitchen and laundry room. There is a mud entrance to that area, with vinyl flooring. The second floor has 3 bedrooms and a bath, plus another small room that they had just installed a ton of closet organizer type shelving. The third floor has a den area at the top of the stairs, and 2 more rooms, plus a half bath. It also has one more room that isn't finished to be used as storage.

So here is what is wrong with the house: #1 and biggest problem, the windows are old wooden single pane windows. No storm windows or screens. We are not even sure the windows open. There are a/c units in some of the windows, so I suspect at least some of them do not. #2 is the bathrooms. On the second floor, the bathroom was just carved out of a bedroom, and the tub runs part way under one of the windows. There is no shower, just a ring overhead with a curtain. The sill on the window is in bad shape from water damage. Nothing structural, just ugly. I would definitely plan to redo that bath. The other full bath is on the first floor. It is off of the laundry room, and is tiny. Maybe 2.5 feet wide, with the sink right in the door, so you have to squeeze around the sink to get to the toilet. A pg woman would not be able to get to the toilet. That bath has a shower, not great but ok. Other negatives to consider: The paper is obnoxious but not hideous, we would live with it just fine after suffering in this house, lol. Parking is a short driveway in front of a garage. It is supposed to be a 2 car garage, but those would be 2 very skinny cars. Because of the snow we could not be sure just how wide the driveway really is, but for sure the van would never fit in the garage. We would have to work out how to get both cars into the drive. The laundry area is about even with the upstairs bath in terms of quality. Kind of icky. I'm not sure how easy it would be to fix it up. Heating is gas forced air, and it has city water and sewer. I am very afraid of what the heating bill for a house that size would be. The basement is dirt. No concrete or anything, straight dirt. Yuck. Last, the roof is slate, and seems that it might have a leak at one corner, it could be expensive to fix up.


We are seriously considering this house anyway, soley from the standpoint of space. There was a lot of work done to it, but the windows are a major issue, as are the bathrooms. Ok, that's the report on house #1.

Ok, #2, Canal St. This house was soooo nice, but much tinier than they claimed on the info sheet. We measured out the rooms and I can only barely get to 1200 sq ft. Not only that, but there is not a single closet in the whole house. No joke. The ceilings in the front half of the second floor are only 6' 3" high. Chris had to duck to get through the doors. There are two staircases, but both are narrow and enclosed, and turn the corner at the bottom, so it would be difficult to get furniture up them. There are french doors in the master bedroom (for a future deck, I guess) and we'd have to get all the furniture in through those. Also, there is a water problem in the basement; they have a sump pump, but Chris didn't like the looks of the whole thing. There is a concrete floor, but the washer and dryer would be down there and it is icky. I think if we were to go with this house, we'd have to bid low and plan to add on immediately.


That said, there are so many pluses to this house. The kitchen is brand new and beautiful. No appliances, so we'd have to buy those. The yard is absolutely perfect, and the view is great on all sides. Both bathrooms upstairs are new and very nice. Most of the windows are new vinyl; only 4 small windows in back are aluminum, and the back door doesn't have a storm door. It was plenty warm in there when we visited today, even though it was set to 60.


I really really really liked the character of this house, even more than the Broad Street house. That house had an air of genteel poverty to it. This house was very pretty inside, since they did all that work to it. I just wish it wasn't so small!!!! It would be perfect if it were bigger and had closets.

#3 was the Blackberry Rd house, the split level, and yuck, we wrote it off right away. The driveway is as steep as it looks in the picture, that is not an optical illusion. It is also very short, so not really good for the van. The inside is dark, and the entire property is the side of a mountain, all sloped and wooded. No real yard to play in and no where to ride bikes.

I didn't take any pictures today; it had snowed overnight so it was hard to get around in the snow. The first 2 houses are unoccupied, so no one had shoveled. I wish I had remembered to wear my boots.

Our First Trip to Scout Out Houses!

Tomorrow morning we are all driving south to go house hunting! Chris and I are going to drop the older boys off with Grandma and Grandpa, then driving out to York to meet with a realtor and start looking! We have 3 houses to see tomorrow. I had hoped for more, but only 3 made the cut between Chris and me. I did find one more today, but it was too late to schedule a showing for tomorrow. I may go down myself during the week to get a look at it.

We are leaving at 7:30 in the morning (that means we are planning to leave at 7:30 and will be doing well if we leave by 8 lol), driving 2.5 hours south, dropping off the boys and driving another hour east. We will be meandering our way back west, from house to house, and end up back close to the in-laws'.

The last house I just found today is almost around the corner from them; I'm deliberating whether I want to live that close or not. It is literally 5 minutes from their house. Would that be good or not? I'm not sure; as a newly wed I was doubly blessed to live 4 hours away from both sets of parents, but I am pretty established as a wife and mother now. Would I be able to hold my own against them? I have to keep in mind how Christmas went. I would be deep in "enemy territory" LOL. Would it be worth the conveniences? I'll really have to consider that.

On the way home we'll be lighter by 2 boys; MIL is keeping Noah and Caleb for a week. Next week we will go down and pick them up, and drop off 2 more. She is still working at the elementary school, but FIL retired this year, so he will be home to watch them during the day. He is very excited to have them coming; it seems he is pretty bored with retirement already, lol.

I hope to take some pictures on this trip, and if any of them come out well, I'll post them here. I'll definitely be writing a report on how the trip went!

A New Bed

Today I moved Levi into a new bed. Well, not technically a bed, but a mattress on the floor. It's where we used to have the crib, but the crib is in storage so I had to make do. Levi has been too big for the bassinette for probably 2 months now, but I didn't have anywhere else to put him. Today I decided that he is just too big to be safe anymore. He is rolling and spinning all over the floor, and I didn't want him tipping the bassinette over trying it in there. He has also been getting up on his knees sometimes; just not when he is on his hands too, lol. On top of that, he is about to get his top 2 teeth. On top of the cold, that has made him pretty cranky. He is a pro at spinning in the exersaucer, though, and he is very proud of it!

Here is a picture of Levi sleeping in his new "bed":

Snow and Snot

Well, the big storm came; it doesn't really seem like a lot of snow, but that is because it is so cold that the snow is very fine and powdery. Light to shovel, but it also just blows right back across the area you just did. I am getting really really tired of this cold weather. How long has it been since we've seen a day above 25? Ugh. I hate cold.


Something else showed up at our house this morning. Everyone except Chris and Levi is sick. Runny noses, headaches, upset tummies (probably from the post nasal drip), coughing. We had already planned to be staying home from church today because of the snow, but at this point even if it were 40 we'd be home. The boys all laid around under blankets and drank hot chocolate and ate soup. Some were too tired to eat and we had to really push the liquids to keep them from getting dehydrated.

Troyer was about the same as he has been all week, not any better, not any worse, but Noah and Caleb are miserable. And poor Micah woke up in the middle of the night with a fever. Levi is cranky but doesn't seem sick; he may just be picking up on the mood of the others. I feel horrible. I felt the cold coming on most of the week, but I had been hoping it wouldn't catch me. But when I woke up in the middle of the night for Levi and tried to go back to sleep, I couldn't get warm. Last night after chat I took a hot bath, but I guess it didn't help. I tried to take a hot bath again today, but ran out of hot water. Chris had each of the boys rotating in the tub, and Troyer used more than his share. I tried to take a nap after the bath, but was freezing again. I just hate that, when I am snuggled up in the flannel sheets with a warm blanket and a comforter on top, and can't get warm. Now I am hot and sweaty. I prefer it this way, lol, but I know I am just due for another round of cold later. I had orange juice and hot chocolate this morning, but the post nasal drip has my stomach upset now, and I haven't been able to eat anything all day. Ugh, I hate being sick!

At least Chris is not sick, he has been doing a great job of taking care of everyone today. He has not given me a hard time at all about not being able to do much to help. I sure hope he doesn't get this.

Inspection is Over, Almost

Today at 9:30 our house was inspected, as part of the sale. There were quite a few people scheduled to come for this inspection, namely the buyer and his real estate agent, the house inspector, the exterminator to inspect for termites (Pennsylvania law), a Radon Inspector (who will have to come back on Monday to collect her testing device) and the septic pumper, who needs to pump out the tank before the house inspector can inspect it. I am pretty sure there was one other person here, but I can't think of who he was, lol.

The day started out very cold. At 7 am it was 0 degrees, and I had to go out and help Chris jump his car to get it started. I had my doubts about how the septic guy would fair in this kind of weather. Chris spent 3 days digging at the frozen dirt in the back yard to dig the lid up for him, but would the lid come off? Let me save you some time wondering and just tell you, no. My realtor had her husband come over last night and throw some hay on the hole to keep the lid from freezing. In my experience, hay is good for keeping off a frost, but not a deep freeze. I was right. I watched out the window when the septic guy got here, and he walked over and very disdainfully threw the hay off, LOL. Then he got out a pick axe and tried to get the lid up, but no luck. I give him credit, he didn't try very hard, for which I was thankful. He may have broken the concrete lid if he had tried too hard. He came to the door to ask if there was a way to get hot water out to the tank, but other than carrying buckets of water there wasn't, so I suggested he ask if he could come back next week when it warms up to almost freezing. He did wait and talk to the buyer and agent, but never came back to talk to me, so I don't know if that is what he is going to do.

I had originally planned to be out of the house while these people all came through, but since it was so cold and so darn early in the morning, I decided to stay home. I cleaned up pretty well, and then herded all the boys into the computer room and promised to try to keep them out of the way. I am pleased to say that the boys were great. Micah ended up coming down to watch "Hot Hot" which is his name for the Hot Wheels movie we have. He made me stay down and watch with him, so I sat on the couch with Levi and nursed. I could smell when the inspector tried out my stove top; he turned all the burners on, and I *never* use the large burner at the back, so I could smell the dust burning, lol. It took all I had not to jump up and make sure they weren't burning the burner covers, which is something that Chris does with some regularity, lol.

They walked through and tried most of the outlets, and flipped the light switches, and tried out the windows. They went through the attic and the basement. All in all, they were pretty thorough. Probably much more than the inspector we had when we bought this house, lol. They had a tendency to stand around and talk, a lot. About things not related to my house. Like the quality of water in a neighborhood nowhere near mine. Bleh, I was waiting for them to get out! The inspection ended up being 2 hours, I was told it would be about 45 minutes. One thing that really got to me was the furnace. They came upstairs to turn up the thermostat so the furnace would come on. Um, hello? It's 9 degrees outside! (up from 0 at 7 am, lol) Don't you think that if the furnace wasn't working it would be a *little* cold in my house? Not only that, but it had come on at least 5 times while they were there. Ah well.

Finally they all went outside to walk around the outside. After a while I wondered what they were doing, and it turned out they had left! They didn't even poke their heads in to say they were leaving. It would have been nice to let me know, since I was waiting until they were done to put Levi down for a nap. No one has called me since, either, so I don't know when I'll be hearing about the inspection, or if I will at all. I guess no news is good news, and there is nothing that needs to be done.

My realtor is going on vacation tomorrow. She is going on a cruise and will be gone more than a week. I hope I don't have any questions before she gets back! I also hope someone is going to contact me about the septic guy coming back.

Troyer has had a cold this week, mostly a runny nose with a little cough. He had lost most of his voice, but it is coming back. No one else was sick, I was hoping he'd keep it to himself. Well, I have been feeling like maybe I'm getting it, and now I'm pretty sure I am. This fall I have been lucky, though, and when I get a cold it's mild and doesn't spread to anyone else. I hope I can keep this one to myself too. Then this afternoon, Noah started coughing, and tonight he went to bed early. I hope he will be ok.

We are supposed to get a snow storm tomorrow, up to 10 inches. Church is cancelled, which is nice, but we probably would have stayed home anyway. The van stinks in the snow (see post below! lol). That also means our house hunting for this weekend is cancelled. Bummer. I may have to go down mid-week without Chris and start doing drive-bys, just to narrow down the list. We'll have to see how the weather goes. My MIL was going to keep 2 of the boys for a whole week, drop them off this week, pick them up next week, but now the weather cancelled that plan too. They are disappointed, and MIL and FIL are even more so. But maybe it's just as well, if they are all starting to get colds.

Ok, now that the news is out, more to report:

I know you were all waiting to hear about that, so now the rest of the news lol:

Levi is rolling! All over the house! On Friday morning he finally rolled from back to front on purpose. Once he did that, it just clicked and he loved it! Now he rolls everywhere. He is very excited to be mobile!

The weather here has taken a turn for the worse. Yesterday while we were out driving around during the house showings, it snowed some, and the temperature really dropped. It was slippery when we went out, but we had to be out until almost 5 pm. By then it was snowing again and very bad. I was driving on a back road and the van totally missed a turn. Luckily I had the option of going straight, and no one else was in the intersection, so I just slid through and then backed up and inched around the turn. Yikes, it was scary. When we turned onto our road, there was a cow coming down the road! I was afraid I wouldn't be able to stop then either and end up hitting it, but it turned down the drive to its barn, so I didn't have to stop after all. Phew! When we finally inched our way the rest of the way home, I went inside and called the owners of the cow to tell them it was loose, but it turns out the guy was in the barn feeding them and saw the loose cow come home.

While we were out yesterday I bought Troyer some snowpants, since last year's just weren't going to stretch over him anymore. He was very excited since it was snowing, he thought he'd get to go right out today and put them to use. Well, the temperature today was 19 and it was windy. Right now the wind chill is -5 degrees. Brrr! No way they are going out. They'd have to come in in 3 minutes! He's very mad at me now, LOL.

I am planning to make a trip to house hunt next Sunday. I hope the weather cooperates. I'm not sure what I'll do if I can't get the van down there. The inspector is supposed to come this week to inspect our house and septic. That means digging up the lid and pumping out the tank. I hope Chris can find the lid under the snow. He's not thrilled LOL Cross your fingers that the inspector doesn't find anything serious.

SOLD!

Yes, we sold our house last night! One of the couples who walked through on Saturday came back on Sunday and wrote an offer. We got our asking price, no haggling needed. It is very exciting! Now we have to get to work on finding a place to move to! Closing is set for March 31 so we have about 2 1/2 months to get out of here. :-)

Another Nibble

Just after lunch the realtor called me again to set up another showing. They will be coming over tomorrow at 4. Yikes, I am not ready! I spent all day today racing around trying to do 8 things at once all while trying to keep the boys from messing it all back up again. I vacuumed, and decluttered a few more surfaces, swept the kitchen floor, wiped down the kitchen chairs, washed dishes, put dishes away, washed a few windows, threw in a load of wash since Micah peed on the bath rug getting into the tub today (oops! lol), and tried to get my hallway as clear as possible. There is another big load of boxes for storage now down in the "family room" (we have never called it that, but that is what it is listed as). Whoever walks through the house will just have to understand that we are packing! It should be gone on Sunday. I hope. Chris spent each evening, after getting home late, shampooing spots of various rugs. They look great, sure, but I would have appreciated his helping with the decluttering. Maybe get that big blue tarp off the deck. Maybe straighten up the basement a bit so people could get through it. Tonight he came home and cleaned off his dresser top (well, I'm sure he thinks it's clean) and his desk (again, same thing) and then sat down to do work he brought home. I have to take the boys to a homeschool meeting tomorrow morning at 10, we'll get home sometime after lunch, and have to go out again around 3:30. Not really a lot of time for me to get anything done but last minute stashing. So I've been running around like a crazy woman trying to make the place decent. Chris just sat there with the tv on doing his work. Bleh. And do you think I am getting any credit for what I got done today? Nope. Because, of course, it doesn't compare to all the painting he's done. And because now he'll have to take the boxes to storage. Double Bleh. I'd like to see him get anything at all done around this house with a baby stuck to his boob! I sure hope tomorrow will go ok and I won't be embarrassed.

Oh, and I forgot to say Happy Birthday! to Levi, who is 5 months old today!

A Nibble!

I got a call this morning from the realtor, and set up our first showing for Sunday morning. They originally wanted to come this morning at 11, but ummmm with 6 kids to dress and get out plus get the dishes out of the sink and hide miscellanious junk, with 2 hours notice? Nope, don't think so! LOL Plus, she actually called twice, the first time I was in the shower; so I also had to get me ready too lol.

I will be limiting my online time during the day now, so the realtor can get through to set up showings, but I'll post updates at night when I can. Now I'm off to wash mirrors and dust!

Good Teeth

I am happy to report that my boys have inherited their father's good teeth. (Hey! He's good for something! LOL) My oldest 3 boys had appointments at the dentist yesterday morning. It was Samuel's first dentist visit, as this is the first year that he had any adult teeth. I am so proud of them all; I had to take all 6 boys in, and they were all very good. The dentist came out and asked who would go first, and Noah volunteered right away. He was done in a matter of minutes. Troyer went next, and actually walked back before the dentist came out and asked for him. Next came Samuel, who could have been understandably nervous, but he jumped right up and went back for his turn. No crying, no nerves, no complaining. It was great! And the dentist came out after they were all done and said "No Cavities!" Yipee! Thank goodness they did not get my teeth! I had at least 6 cavities by the time I was 10. Also nice was the fact that they didn't even do a full cleaning on the boys, so the total bill for all 3 only came to $75. Not too bad!

Our house is now officially on the market. We have spent the last week trying to get rid of all the clutter and dirt, and have made a good dent. The living room and family room/play room/dining room are done. The bedrooms are almost finished, just a few things need to be hid in closets or thrown in a box. Unfortunately, the most important room, the kitchen, still needs work. There is a huge pile of papers on the table in the center of the room, a bunch of clutter (that will soon be in a box) on top of the microwave, a whole shelf of school papers and resources that I had hoped to have put in storage but I just don't know how I'll do without those things, plus the floor did not get mopped. Chris did patch up parts of the floor along the edges that were missing vinyl. I guess it was the sort of thing that he wasn't going to bother to do before because we really need to just replace the ugly brown vinyl, but if we were going to do that we'd need to put in a new subfloor because the floor slopes, but we don't want to put that kind of money into this house, we just didn't think it would be worth the investment. So he should have just patched it up years ago. Uh huh, no need to get into that again, right? It looks pretty nice. He also shampooed a few of the carpets and scrubbed the bathroom, which looks great. He has some trim up in Troyer's room, around the ceiling, so it just needs to be patched and painted and that will look good (just paint the trim, btw, not the whole room; or not yet anyway).

I just took the boys' picture on the couch this morning. I think this one is the one I am going to have to use for the christmas pictures (yes, it is mid-January and I am still planning to send out christmas cards!) Everyone will just have to be happy with it! LOL

This morning it started out raining with a few snowflakes mixed in. The boys were jumping up and down, "It's snowing! It's snowing!" They were all set to go pull the sleds out and put snowpants on. I just rolled my eyes. Well, a few short hours later, I glanced out the window and saw SNOW! Several inches! The rain had changed completely over and I even saw a snow plow come by. Oops, LOL. I guess this time the boys were right! Unfortunately for them, it is already starting to melt again. But that is the best kind of snow, right? The kind that melts right after it finishes falling? ;-)

Just a Few Pictures

Here are some pictures of the room Chris doesn't want to paint:

You can see from all the shelves and big furniture that it will be a pain in the neck to clear out enough to patch and paint. But still, $10K? I'd do it.

I Just Don't Understand My Husband

Ok, anyone who knows anything about him is right now thinking, "yeah, and who does?" But let me tell you what happened tonight. Tonight the realtor came over and we signed the papers and discussed prices and showings and all that stuff. My husband doesn't really like to talk to strangers, he's painfully shy and while he tries to overcome it so it doesn't cripple him in life, he willingly lets others take over for him in situations like these if he can get them to. So, as expected, he let me do all the talking tonight. The realtor gave us a price she thought was a good place to start, and I suggested a little higher as we weren't going to go down much further than what she started at. She was fine with that. Then she walked around the house to see the work that we had done. She was VERY impressed with how nice it looks now. Well, except for the 2 rooms that didn't get painted. Now that the rest of the house looks so good, they look hideous. She suggested that we go ahead and paint these rooms too. Of course I, being the woman of the house and the one concerned with these sorts of things, agreed that it should be done. Chris, meanwhile, was downstairs sitting in his chair waiting for us to get done with the tour. So we come downstairs and she tells him how nice it looks, but that he really should paint the last 2 rooms. He knows that I agree. I did mention to her that he really didn't want to do them. It's a lot of work to clear all the furniture out and take everything down from the walls and patch the nail holes and prime and paint wallpaper. He was soooo excited to be done with painting.

Here is why we need to paint one of the rooms:

The water damage is actually just from leaving the window open when it rained, and is from before we moved in. The old windows weren't installed right and the water filled up the sill and flowed over into the house instead of out the window. With our new windows it is not a problem; plus we replaced the sill. Now it just needs to be painted.

Here is what I don't understand about my husband: he is upset about having to do more painting. I can understand his frustration, but the realtor said it should be done! He truly believes it will not add value to the house or help sell it any faster. He thinks that anyone thinking of buying this particular house will already know it needs tons of work and they had better be handy or rich. I reminded him that the realtor had told us if we listed the house without doing any work to it, she'd put it $20K lower than now. I asked him, didn't he think a few hundred dollars of paint and a few months of weekends and evenings were worth $20K? He said, get this, No. Do you know the reason he has made me live in this hideous house for 8 years without painting? He claims it's because the boys would mess it up, but really it's because he just didn't want to do the painting. I asked him, "so you would rather leave the 2 rooms undone and take $10K less on the house?" and he said Yes. Ugh!!! And just how does he think he is going to be able to afford his 4 brm 2 bath house on at least an acre if he doesn't get all he can out of this house??? He had no answer to that, just that he didn't think paint was going to make a difference.

He sat in a sulk after the realtor left and then decided that if he has to paint this room he is not going to set the computers back up when he is done, I'll have to go without internet until we move. Keep in mind that we don't even have a house to move to yet, so this could be 2 months or more. How hard would it be to set it up downstairs in the meantime? How hard would it be to set it back up? Oh no, the computers would go to storage, and therefore would not come back out until we move. So I said fine, don't paint, be a baby. I'll call the realtor tomorrow and tell her that he just doesn't want to do it, and see what she says.

The Realtor is Coming!

Yesterday I called the realtor and told her to come on over, we are finally ready to sign the papers! She will be here this afternoon. We still have a bunch of clutter to hide, and some final scrubbing, like the tub and the kitchen floor, but mostly we are done. She said that the couple who was interested in the fall are still waiting for our house, and that we should have no problem getting the price we want. Yeah!

I found a picture of my kitchen from before we put in the new sink and counter, so I wanted to post before and after pictures for you to see:

Kitchen Before

Kitchen After

Also, I have some pictures from our Christmas trip:

The Boys in the Van Driving to Grandma's

The Christmas Bush (and yes, that's how it looked on Christmas Day, no ornaments and unlit)

And finally, I took some pics of the boys today. I took Troyer in to have his portrait redone, since the one he did in December came out blurry and I had to return it. It was another pita, so I decided then that I will just do a digital pic of them all and make prints to send out for Christmas cards. Today we did practice shots, since Levi was napping. I took a few of Levi then, when he woke up.

5 of the Boys

Levi

Here is Levi trying to see what the boys have to play with. I had put him down in the middle of the floor, and he scooted himself over to the side with the bins of cars, lol. He did officially roll over from front to back 2 days ago, and he did again yesterday, but he hasn't rolled today.

An Aside

I know I said I'd post about my Christmas, but honestly, it was so depressing that I haven't had the heart to go through it all again as I write it. I vented to both of my sisters, then brought the mood down in chat on New Year's Eve with the story, and I just don't even want to go there again. I can tell you it is nothing physical, nothing happened to anyone, no one is hurt or sick. In fact, the boys had a great time, and Chris had fun too. It was just me who didn't want to be there. Maybe later I'll get around to writing about it.

What I wanted to say today is: Woo Hoo! Congratulations Kmomof10, Kim!!!! So so so exciting to hear your news! Best of luck to you, and I hope all that m/s means twins!!! LOL

I'm Baaaack!

I'm still really busy trying to get things back in order after our trip, but I wanted to let you know I was home again. Yes, we really were gone from last Friday up through yesterday. Ugh. I was ready to come home Sunday morning. When I have time I'll write the whole ugly story. For now I have to go do more laundry.

Christmas Plans

Chris emailed me today finally with a plan for Christmas. He wants to take the boys shopping on Thursday and then go down to his parents' on Friday. He says we will stay overnight at least, and then for as long as he can stand it. I say that's a good plan. We are planning to leave most of the bulky gifts there rather than bring them home just so we can pack them, so it shouldn't take us too long to get out when the time comes.

I finally got the last 3 haircuts done so I can get pictures done next week. I decided to just send cards out late and do the pictures after the rush. They should be cheaper too. I still have to make all my cookies. Last year I didn't do any, and it was nice to take the break. This year I really planned to do them; but as yet they are not done. Oops. With Chris doing all the work on the house at night after work, I haven't had any time to get in the kitchen and do them, because I'm making dinner and watching Levi. Hopefully now Chris can give me a hand.

I don't know how much time Chris is actually taking off for the holidays. He usually takes the week between Christmas and New Year's off, but it looks like he's taking off Thursday and Friday this week, so I don't know if that means he'll work 2 days next week. I have to ask him.

Levi decided to celebrate the first day of winter with his second tooth. He was very cranky yesterday and this morning. I hope that's why. I always worry about ear infections, because how can you know? He hasn't had a cold yet, and I haven't had a real one, but I have been stuffy a few times. You just never know when a baby is going to get one, and they can't tell you when they have it. Ugh. I hope he'll be ok.

Ok, checked with Chris, and yes, he has Thursday and Friday off, plus all of next week. Tomorrow the weather is supposed to be pretty warm, as opposed to the frigid temps we had yesterday and will have again on Christmas Day, so I might take the boys out tomorrow too. Today I officially got some Christmas chores done: I mailed a card to my Dad and to my Grandma in Florida, and I baked one batch of cookies. So pitiful, really, LOL. But at least I can say I started!

Friends and Parties

Last Friday Chris and I went to his company's holiday dinner party. His boss has it at his house. Brave man, I would never invited 22 adults here! Well, when we got there I could see why he was willing to do it. His wife has the house decorated so beautifully it was incredible. Every single room was packed with Christmas decorations, plus the outside was done up too. And it was all tasteful and done very well. Chris got a little nervous after we were there a while, thinking this was raising the bar for our own house shopping, LOL. The party was fun, his coworkers and boss are very nice. It was casual, so I didn't have to worry about not having anything fancy enough to wear, and I made an apple crisp, since everyone was asked to bring a dessert. We had our friend from church come over and watch the boys for us, and while Chris was going to try to take Levi with us, I just didn't think his coworkers were really in the mood to have a baby there, so I asked if it would be ok to leave him at home too. Our friend is very good with babies, and it was only going to be a few hours, so I was pretty sure it would be ok. She is magic with getting them to sleep so I figured if I fed him right before I left and was gone only 3 hours, he wouldn't starve and if he got grumpy she could just get him to sleep. As it turned out I was right. We were gone from 5:30 to 9:30, and he was just starting to get grumpy when we got back. He had slept a while and just woken up. So our timing was perfect.

On Sunday we had friends come over to visit that we haven't seen in almost 2 years. They used to live here, but moved out of state a few years ago. Their family lives up here, so when they come home on holidays they try to get out our way to say hi. Sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn't. It is always so good to see them. When they were here, and before any of us had kids, we did so much together, we were always doing something. Kids and lives have gotten in the way, and it is sad now that we don't see each other more. But getting together is always a lot of fun.

I made pizza and we watched Spiderman 2, which Chris had just gotten as a Christmas gift from his Sabbath School class at church. After we got the kids to bed, they put on Return of the King, which they had brought with them. We only watched selected scenes, because we didn't want to be up very late. They left this morning before 9 because they wanted to try to see some other friends up here before heading home. Chris waited until they left before going in to work, so he'll be working late tonight to make up for lost time. He also has to make up for the 2 hours he missed on Friday. Oh, did I not tell you about what happened on Friday? Well.....

Friday morning I woke up (still on the couch as Chris had just put the last coat of paint up in our room) and nursed Levi, then fell back asleep with him tucked in next to me. The boys trickled downstairs to watch morning cartoons, and about 8:30 I figured it was time to get up. I felt cold, so I asked Noah to check the temperature on the thermostat; he read 55. Yikes! Oh man, I thought, Chris let the oil run out again. Ugh! So I went downstairs to check the oil level. Nope, we weren't out yet. Hmmm. I flipped the switch on the furnace, nothing. I checked the fuse. I checked the breaker. Nothing. I called Chris and told him to come home and fix it. He had me check a few more times and gave up and came home. He ended up getting all the way inside the furnace, checking all the connections, making sure there was power through it. He couldn't find the problem either. He gave up and told me I'd have to call a guy to come and look at it. I had the phone in my hand ready to dial when he called out to me "don't call!" I heard the heat come on and went to find out what he did. It turns out the 2 year old had climbed up and opened the door on the thermostat, flipped the switch from heat to cool, closed the door again, and pushed away the exersaucer he had used to climb up. He had done all this and left no trace of his presence, so it never occurred to me that someone had messed with it. If you ask me, I am going to be in trouble with this kid, LOL. So phew, no money spent to fix the furnace, but bummer, Chris wasted 2 hours of work to come home and turn it back on.

No More Painting!

Chris finished up the last room last week. He painted our bedroom. We slept in the living room all week, since not only did it smell, but all the furniture was piled up in the middle of the room and we couldn't get to the bed, lol. Levi also slept downstairs, because of the smell, and he wasn't very happy about that. He didn't sleep well at all. I picked a pale green color, but I bought recycled paint since it was half the price, so the tint came out a little greyer than I had wanted. I don't really care, since we're moving anyway, lol. And hey, anything looks better than faded peeling icky wallpaper, right? Here are the pics:

Our Bedroom Before

Our Bedroom After

The carpet in there is still golden yellow, but it actually doesn't clash too badly with the color of paint. I think with a tan or off white carpet it would look greener.

My Baby Is Still Perfect!

Levi had his 4 month check up on Friday. He weighs 15 lbs 2 oz, and is 25 1/4 inches long. It sounds big, but actually he is slightly smaller than most of his brothers were at 4 months. He was sooo good for the doctor. He even laughed and giggled when the dr examined him, instead of cry, like most babies might with a stranger. He is perfectly on track for development, which is better than the other boys were. He likes to stand if you hold him by his hands; he is grabbing at everything and bringing things to his mouth to chew. The doctor was suitably impressed by his tooth :-) He watches everything and plays with his hands and feet, and seems to respond to his name. It may be the way we say it, though, it definitely sounds different than his brothers' names, so he is probably reacting just to the difference in sound.

He got 4 shots again :-( but he did really well, of course. 10 minutes after they were done, he had already forgotten. I asked the nurse not to put bandaids on them this time; she only has regular kids' bandaids, not the little round ones, and last time it took 2 weeks before I could even pry them off his skin, and they still left a mark, I just didn't want to go through that again. She was surprised and wanted to know what I would do about the bleeding; I told her I'd just hold the gauze to them and put pressure on until the bleeding stopped. That's what I did, though she thought I was crazy, lol, and it was only maybe 5 minutes and he was fine. And no bandaid gunk! Definitely worth it in my opinion.

I really really really like that doctor and the office. It is so nice there, and once again I had barely any wait. I am so used to having to sit in the waiting room for 40 minutes or more, and then another half hour in the exam room before I even see the P.A. It took only 45 minutes from walking in the door to walking out. I am so sad I will have to leave!

I left Troyer and Noah to play in the waiting area this time, while I took the other 4 boys back. The rooms are so small, and last time they argued and it got so loud so quickly in that small space. I figured 8 and 10 are old enough to wait together. They did fine, and it was much better with 2 less kids whining about how there were no good toys in there, lol. Of course the 2 yo thought the rolling stool was the best toy in the room, lol.

The only other incident of note is that Micah pooped while we were in the exam room. Do you think I had any large size diapers in the diaper bag I brought? Of course NOT! lol They were in the other bag that I left in the van. This office keeps a nice basket full of diapers on the cart with the baby scale, so the nurse offered one to me, but the largest size they had was a 4, and Micah is between a 5 and a 6, so we had to just wait until we got back to the van. Ugh, it was a smelly one. I feel bad for the other people in the office, lol. They must think I am a bad mom for letting my kid stink, lol. I will be happy when Troyer is old enough to send back out to the van for the other bag. Although I guess when he is, I won't be needing to change diapers any more.

I also had a doctor's appointment this week. Back in October my ob's office called to tell me my pap came back abnormal and I needed to come back in in December to have it redone. At the time I swear I was told that this is common for post partum paps, but when I went in the doctor said no, it is usually caused by an infection. Of course I was worrying some between the phone call and the appointment, but I figured the dr would reassure me at the visit, since I was told on the phone it was probably nothing to worry about; but he wasn't very reassuring at all. He didn't test for infection, which I thought was odd, since that is supposed to be the reason for the occasional odd cell. Anyway, now I have to wait 4 more weeks to see if this has resolved itself; I hope so, as it sounds like the next procedure for testing doesn't sound so fun.

I forgot to ask the dr about my prolapses, and if they could be the cause for the pain I've been having. I used to think it was tailbone pain that I got when my 4th baby was born, but lately it has been getting much worse and seems to be more muscular than bone. I'm sure that being so overweight is not helping, nor is spending so much time in this computer chair! lol Sometimes it even bothers me after laying down, which is counter-intuitive to the pressure-on-the-butt theory. Of course I can't help but wonder if the is some connection with the pap results. My crazy brain throws up visions of odd lumps growing in the wrong places. I'm sure I'm fine, but I'm one of those people who can't help worrying. Not quite to the level of hypochondriac, because then I'd be sure there was something dire wrong with me, but still wondering if there might be.

I should update you on how the work is going on the house. I don't have any new pictures, which is mostly why I didn't write anything last week. I like to be able to show the transformation. My sister came out to visit last weekend, officially to help with some work, but really because I wanted her to see how nice my house is starting to look. She came without her kids, to the boys' disappointment. We had piles of bags and boxes everywhere, and there was just no room for her kids,. We had such a nice time, though. She helped me take some bags to the Salvation Army, and then watched the boys so Chris and I could take a van load of stuff to the storage unit. She was going to help me go through some stuff to sort into pack/donate/toss, but we really only got through a small section in the basement. She helped me bring some stuff up onto the deck for another trip to storage. but the dumb place locks up at 1 pm on Sundays, so we weren't able to make a second trip there. It's been raining and drizzling since then; I hope the stuff on the deck is ok. We have them up on a pallet, so the rain isn't touching anything directly, but it is humid and I am just worried for the stuff. We would have taken it over this weekend, but it rained and snowed, so it is still sitting there.

This past weekend Chris started work on our bedroom. It is the last room he is going to paint. That leaves just 2 rooms he didn't do. I am sure this room where the computer is should get painted, but at least the other rooms look good. Our room is going to be a light green color. I hope it is pale enough. The boys' room turned out a bit darker than I had planned, and now I am worried that the green will be darker too. Well, maybe even dark it will still look good. We'll find out! Chris just finished the priming last night. We had to sleep in the living room because the Kilz stinks so bad. Poor Levi isn't sleeping well down there. He does so well upstairs in the bassinette, so I thought if I brought it down he would still sleep ok, but it didn't work. He hasn't slept in it at all. He slept in my lap and on my shoulder part of the night, but right now he's asleep on my shoulder while I type. Hmm, maybe I should say Poor me, lol, as I am the one who only got 3 hours of sleep.

I don't look forward to today; Mondays are always rough here, but today half of my stuff from my bedroom is out in the hallway while the room gets done; I am going to have to chase the boys out of the stuff all day. Ugh. And meanwhile get the laundry done. Double ugh, lol.

First Tooth!

This weekend Levi got his first tooth! I wondered if it would break through the gum before he turned 4 months old, that was when Troyer got his first tooth, but it did, so now he is our current record holder for earliest tooth! And for those who are wondering about nursing babies with teeth, he has stopped biting now that it is out; they bite more while they are teething and their gums are sore.

The Boys' Room is Done!

Chris finished up the boys' room this week. I can't believe how different it looks! Actually, he's not completely done; he is going to paint the closet doors and he missed the spot on the ceiling where the light is. But whew! Look how great it is!

Here is the pic of it before, so you can compare them next to each other:

Now to get some curtains.... lol

Living Room Pictures

Just a quick post to show you what Chris did in the living room. He painted the walls a muslin color, and added a small trim to the tops of the walls to hide the gaps where the ceiling tile doesn't quite meet the tops of the walls. The people who lived here before us apparently didn't know how to cut them, lol.

Living Room Ceiling - Before

Living Room Ceiling - After

And a shot of the west wall. It seems so bare with no pictures up; I have always had a collage of photos of the boys above the tv unit.

Just a Quick Post

Today is my last day of vacation, with the 4 oldest boys down at their Grandma's house; they will be home tonight. Chris and I did a bunch of work while they were gone, including getting into their room and painting. It isn't done yet, so no pictures yet, but it looks soooo good already! I can't wait to take pictures and post them. I do have a picture of the trim in my kitchen, which I got to finish. I really like how it turned out.





I also have some pictures of my living room I need to upload so I can post them. Maybe later today.

Swimming Lessons

This fall I decided to sign the boys up for swimming lessons. I had gotten an email that the Y was going to have homeschool sessions for swimming. Normally Chris wouldn't agree to something that costs so much ($50 per boy), but after this summer's incident with Samuel in the pool, I think he realized it would be a good idea if they could all at least keep their heads above water if they ever fell in. So for 3 weeks in November they had swim classes, twice a week. Noah and Samuel I put in the beginner class, polliwog, and Troyer I put in the next level up, guppy.

They finished their last class last week, and they did really well. The instructor wrote up "report cards" for them and gave them all nice comments about attitude and effort. Unfortunately they didn't have any opportunities for extra swim time, so they couldn't practice, and so they didn't graduate out of their levels. I am going to sign them up for 3 more weeks in December. They had a really good time.

Caleb and Micah really wished they could go in too! There are floor to ceiling windows in the lobby that you can see the pool from, and I had the boys out there while the older ones swam, so they could watch. There was also a teen center with pool table, foosball table, ping pong table, air hockey, and a racing car arcade game. I also brought crackers and candy to bribe them to stay good, lol.

On the last day, at the end of class, Samuel left the pool to go to the bathroom and cut his toe on the door (pulled it open right across his big toe - Ouch!). It did bleed so they bandaged it, but it meant he couldn't get back in the pool. Good thing there was only about 5 minutes left to the class, so he didn't miss much!

This weekend Chris brought the exersaucer down from the attic. It might seem a little early for it, since Levi is only 3 months old, and I think the instructions said the baby should be 4 months, but we gave it a try anyway. He loved it! He has even been able to push with his feet and swivel around. We are not sure if he is doing it on purpose, and he can't steer yet, but he likes the turning!

Micah wanted me to take his picture showing off his cars. He's such a cutie, LOL

2 Years Ago Today

Today is the 2nd anniversary of my mother's death. She died of endometrial cancer, which had spread to her lymph nodes a year after she had a hysterectomy. She had the hysterectomy because she had unexplained bleeding and she had finally convinced her gynecologist to remove her uterus after numerous d&cs over several years. No one knew about the cancer until the surgery. When her doctor came to talk to her after it was over she told her Oh by the way, there was a 6 pound tumor in there. Excuse me, but how in the world did she miss that during all the exams my mom had been to? Anyway, she advised my mom that it was entirely contained within the uterus and all removed. She probably didn't need any follow up treatments, just the usual annual check ups. My mom had heard horror stories of radiation therapy and was very glad to be told she didn't need it. This doctor told her she could consult with an oncologist if she wanted but probably didn't need to. You didn't need to tell my mother twice. She pretty much treated it as if it had never happened once she got home. In fact, none of us even knew about the tumor until almost a year later.

I have to say, I hold quite a bit of bitterness towards this doctor for advising my mom not to follow up on it. But she is not the only one to blame. At her one year check up, my mom passed with flying colors. Of course, they were checking for spread in her abdomen. Soon after that she developed a big problem with what she assumed was her asthma. She went to her regular doctor and he began a series of prescriptions to treat the asthma, but it kept getting worse. It never occurred to him that it wasn't asthma. Also, a few months later, she developed a horrible pain in her lower back. Her doctor told her it was arthritis. He began a series of prescriptions for pain meds for that, none of which even touched it. It didn't occur to him that it wasn't arthritis.

About 4 months after her 1 year check up, my dad had to take her to the emergency room because she couldn't breathe. It turns out that the cancer had spread to her nodes in her neck, which caused fluid to be trapped around her lungs, which compressed them so she couldn't breathe. They had to do emergency surgery to drain the fluid, which gave her relief for less than a week, when she could already notice it building up again. They decided she needed to have an operation to seal the membranes around the lungs so that no water could get there at all. This basically involved blowing a powder into that membrane to irritate it so it will scar and adhere to the lungs themselves. Sounds painful? You bet. She was miserable. Meanwhile the cancer was still having a heyday in her body. She needed to start chemo, but the recovery from the lung surgery was supposed to be 7 or 8 weeks at least. She started chemo after 4 weeks.

Needless to say, she was in horrible pain. She still couldn't breathe properly, and now from the chemo was throwing up constantly, even though she couldn't eat. She could barely get out of her chair. From the day in August that she was first admitted to the hospital to the day in November when she died, she had never set foot in the upstairs of her house again. She had a rally in October, after 2 chemo treatments, and we were all encouraged, but her doctor and she both agreed that the chemo was too hard on her and she needed to wait a bit longer for another treatment. Well, within 2 more weeks, she was worse than when she started. At her last appointment with him, exactly a week before she died, he told her it was too late, and all they could do was make her as comfortable as possible. At that point they still thought she'd have a few months left.

I took Troyer and Noah out to see her on Tuesday, and had Micah with me, because he was only 6 months old. She was able to hug them and talk to them. She let Noah scratch her back, that was his special favor he always did for Grandma. During our visit, she decided that she needed to go back to the hospital to be more comfortable, so I was there when the ambulance came and the men carried her out. I kissed her and waved good bye, and told her I'd be back in a few days with Samuel and Caleb, who hadn't come. As they drove off, my dad and I hugged and cried; we knew she wouldn't be coming home again.

Even so, none of us suspected that that was the last time she'd be conscious. She got settled in her room at the hospital and they medicated her, and within hours she was barely able to communicate. By Wednesday morning my dad called me to tell me the doctors said it wasn't going to be long. I called Chris and told him to come home, I was going back out. He was home in less than an hour but it seemed like forever. It took 4 hours to drive there, and it was endless. I got to the house and no one was there! I needed someone to take me to the hospital, because it was downtown and I had no idea how to get there. Dad and Aimee were out making arrangements for her. Finally they got home and Aimee and I got in the car and drove to the hospital. On the way Dad called Aimee on her cell phone to tell her that the hospital had called. Mom was gone. I was so upset, I had really wanted to be there at the end. I only missed her by an hour. We got to the hospital and met some of Mom's friends from her church. They had been there praying with her when she died. I am glad she was surrounded by her good friends. We went in and said good bye, and signed the release form, and went home. We met her doctor in the hallway on the way out, and he had a look of shock on his face. He really never expected her to deteriorate so quickly. He was probably the only good doctor she had through this whole ordeal. I am steaming mad at all the others who pooh-poohed her symptoms and ignored her.

That year Thanksgiving was not as bad as you would have thought. Since a lot of family was out for the funeral, they stayed for the holiday as well, and it was nice to all be together. Last year Michelle had Thanksgiving at her house, and Aimee and her family, Chris and I and the boys, and my Dad were all there. It was crowded and noisy but it was nice to be together. This year none of us will be together. Michelle wanted to do dinner again, but Aimee's dh wasn't keen on doing the drive again (it is 7 hours for them to get to her house), and my dad decided he didn't want to drive either. He moved to Florida 6 months after Mom died; he claimed that now that he was retired he could come up and visit us in the summers when it was too hot down there, and stay down there and skip winters. Well, it seemed kind of far to us, and he had never mentioned Florida before Mom died, but whatever, it's his life. Of course all his plans to visit have gone out the window. He has not been north since he moved 18 months ago, except that Thanksgiving dinner last year. This year he is not even going to come for that. He has never met his newest grandson, and I guess it doesn't matter to him. He's not a baby person, you know. Can you tell I am bitter about this too? LOL

To make matters worse, this year since we are in the midst of trying to move, Chris isn't even going to go home to his parents for dinner. He wants to stay here and work on the house. I can understand, and I am going along with it, but it means that it will only be the 2 of us and the baby and Micah for Thanksgiving. The other 4 boys are going to MIL's for a week so we can work on the house. I don't think Chris is thinking about what this time of year means to me, or maybe he doesn't realize how I feel about it. He hasn't asked, that's for sure.

So, except for my beautiful Levi, this year pretty much stinks. I hope Christmas will be better.

Anyway, I want to say, "Mommy, I love you. No one loved me as much as you did, and I miss you. I hate that life is so unfair."

Here are some pictures of her:

Her high school graduation photo, from 1959

Mom at Christmas time in the 80's

Mom and Dad dancing at my sister's wedding

Mom with my nephew Danny

Mom's portrait for her church's directory, only a year before she got sick

There is a beautiful picture of her from her wedding, but it was too big to scan. I am a bit distressed that I don't have more pictures of her. I am hoping that they are in some albums that I already packed.

Busy Busy Busy

Sorry to be so long in updating, I have been busy. Last weekend Chris and I went through the house and gathered up a whole room full of stuff to pack away and put in storage. One room looks pretty good now, but it has hardly put a dent in the rest of the house! Yikes.

The three oldest boys have been taking swimming lessons at the Y this month. I thought they were doing really well, but they got their evaluations yesterday, and none of them passed into the next higher class. :-( They got good remarks and their instructor likes them, but their skills weren't good enough to get into the next class.

MIL is going to come up and get 4 of the boys next Tuesday. She will keep them for a whole week, through Thanksgiving, and bring them back Monday. That gives Chris and me a whole week to pack up more junk and hide it in the storage unit, lol. I sure hope we get done with this soon!

Another reason I have not been able to post lately is Levi. He is 3 months old now, and such a cutie, but he is already teething! Poor guy, he is not even old enough to hold a teething toy. He sucks on blankets and clothing, and has already gummed me a lot. Ouch. He is very cranky, but there is not much I can do for him. Luckily he is alternating sleeping a lot and waking, so sometimes I can sleep with him and get a good rest, and sometimes he is sleeping in the day and I can get a lot done around the house. Twice now he has slept for 8 hours!

Here is a picture of the boys' room. We took out the second bunk to make the room look bigger. Right now they are sleeping 2 to a bed. It is working out ok, for the most part. There have been a few squabbles about blanket sharing, and Micah's diaper leaked this morning so poor Noah had to sleep on the floor to avoid getting wet. But mostly they think it's fun.

In this picture you can see how the paper is crumbling/peeling at the edges and in the corners. I think Chris wants to paint it, but I don't know how well the paint will stick. There's a lot of patching he has to do in here too.

Ain't that paper pretty? What you can't tell in the picture is that part of the flower print is actually silver and only shows up with the light on it. I suppose maybe it was better looking before it faded, but it sure isn't something I would have chosen. Then again, it beats the pink in the dining room at The Big Yellow House! LOL

We still haven't finished the kitchen, and it got cluttered up again in the meantime. Ugh. I was looking forward to having that look good, lol. Chris started patching in the living room last night, so I guess that is the next paint project. He painted the play room last week. He made a big deal out of painting the ceiling; I'm not sure why he painted it at all. Oh well.

So there is a brief update, I'll try to be better!

Just wanted to show you Caleb in his cowboy hat. It's his new favorite. It used to be Noah's, but Caleb claimed it. There are a pair of boots that go with it, and they are Caleb's size, so I guess they have to be a set. Noah got them to wear in his aunt's wedding; he was the ring bearer, and her wedding had a western theme. He was so cute! He wore a tux with the hat and boots. Samuel didn't really like the boots at all, and he never wears hats. So the boots have been sitting, waiting for another boy to love them. Their wait is over!

Before and After

I finally got a good shot of the hallway, so you can see what an improvement the new paint is!

Before

After

Science Fair

On Friday, our homeschooling group held a science fair. Troyer, Noah, and Samuel did a project on rainbows and prisms. Chris was supposed to help with most of the project, but he was so busy that he waited until 2 days before it was due to get started. Unfortunately that meant that he and I did way more work on it than the boys did. We taught them as we went along, but they really only did the coloring on the poster.

We had some cool experiments/demonstrations to do; they worked better at home than at the fair though. I think the favorite was shining different colored lights together to see what colors they would create when combined. Light is opposite of pigment, so some of the kids were pretty surprised.