Catching Up

Wow, it's been awhile since I have sat down and updated. It's been crazy. Eleni had her baby! She went a bit early though, she wasn't due until June 17th, so it has been a little complicated. The baby was born with fluid in his lungs and developed a little bit of pnumonia and had a heart murmur that disappeared after 24 hours, but has been on a feeding tube and had to have oxygen for 24 hours as well. Eleni was in the hospital for 48 hours but the baby has to stay until next week :(. Oh, yeah, she had the baby on the 20th! So, it has been a little crazy. I was up at the hospital first waiting for her to birth and then to visit afterwards and then she came over to the house so I could give her my pumps and all the supplies that went with them. Since she can't breastfeed right now (and don't get me started on them not letting her breastfeed, it's beyond ridiculous!) she is pumping every two hours to try and get her milk to come in so that when the baby is finally released she will be able to feed him.

We've also been working on our Little House, doing some renovations before our new renter moves in next month. I had no idea it was in the state that it was in. I could kill Tim's brother, but I better not get started on THAT either. Let's just say there is a lot to be done and not enough time to get it all done in. Thankfully this renter is just really grateful to be renting it out and is not upset by the condition. We are working on the house on the weekends, and it is difficult when we have the kids with us to get any real amount of work done because of having to stop to deal with the baby. Unfortunately we don't have any reliable babysitters so this weekend will be the last weekend that me and the kids are going out to the house. I am going to try and get the last things that I need to do done tomorrow and then next weekend Tim will go out by himself and stay out there all day to tend to his list. My responsibilities are all cleaning related and hopefully I can get it all done in a few hours. Haley is SUCH a big help with Savino while we are out there, she plays with him and keeps him entertained, but it's near impossible for me to work in the same room with them because if he sees me, he wants me to hold him or nurse him or play with him. Momma's Boy! It's sweet, but not conducive to getting anything done!

I managed to help Tim get some yardwork done this evening after giving Savino a bath. He played happily in his exersaucer on the porch and I watered and fertilized the plants and pruned my cherry bushes and the willow tree in the front yard and then managed to rake up the grass cuttings from where Tim mowed. Everything looks decent enough for now, but I am not pleased with it overall. The front flower bed either needs mulch or a lot more plants. Oh well. It is like the very bottom of the list of things we need to do!

Supposedly my brother in law is going to spend the night with us tomorrow night in preparation for this BBQ that he wanted to have Sunday at our house. Because we have the big house, we get to host the BBQ. Fun. I was a little irritated actually, because didn't we JUST do something for Mother's Day at our house? Why do we have to do this? It would be one thing if it was just like, hey, we are bringing all this food and whatever and all you have to do is let us use the house, but it's NOT. It's "Why don't you buy a bunch of food and cook it and then we will come over and eat it?" Whatever. I'm not stressing out about it. I will do what I can to clean and get things looking decent and I bought some food but if people aren't happy with it, tough.

Pictures!



Just hanging out



Trying to get a look at Steve. He LOVES his kitty cats.



This is what happens when you try to change the diaper. Actually, I was letting his butt air out and he decided to take off on me. Can you say BLACKMAIL?



Steve is unphased.



Baby butt!



A different day. Just checking out the floor.



Hi Savino!



Baby in a cage! We traded out the PacknPlay for a play yard now that the kid is mobile. It keeps him in a safe babyproofed area and the dogs away from him. They tend to get overexcited sometimes and he has been run over a few times and it scared him. He loves having all his toys right there to wreck.



He is practicing standing up. He is SO CLOSE to being able to pull himself to a standing position, and getting a lot better at keeping his balance standing up.



In the hospital's waiting room while we were waiting for Eleni to give birth. Everyone kept exclaiming over how cute and well behaved he was. I said, "Don't be fooled! He is a hellion at 2am!"



He was very upset and hurt that I wouldn't let him put a rock in his mouth and told him No.



Yeah, see the big fat crocodile tears? He is giving me his "How could you do this to me Mom?" look.



He saw Tim and decided he was done with me and my camera and my telling him no. He's out!




I can't get over how big he's getting. Almost 9 months old! They grow up too fast.

So. Much. Sinus pain. Arrrrg. Last night it took two naproxens, one darvoset and two tylenol before I got any relief, and by that point my stomach was all, "Don't you dare take anything else." It sounds like a lot, but I swear, it wasn't. Well, maybe it was but when you're IN PAIN it all seems reasonable.

Savino helpfully woke up at 4am for a feeding and to play and I took 4 ibuprofen then and staved off the yuck but then I somehow convinced him to fall back asleep this morning so I overshot the window of overlapping painkillers and am trying to dig my way back out of crippling pain so I can go run errands. It's a ridiculous amount of pain too. I don't think I need to see a dr. because, TMI, my snot is still clear and I'm not running a fever or anything, I just have so much sinus pressure that is causing immense pain. It is all over the left side of my face too, from the top of my forehead down the side of my nose radiating into my sinuses. It's like the most excruciating migraine but all centered in my face. Yeah. Fun! I took two naproxen and am waiting for them to kick in. Pleasepleaseplease.

I celebrated at the sight of our bank balance this morning, thank you stimulus check! Of course, what isn't already theoretically spent is going back into our savings, but whatev. It's nice to look at for now.

The baby was playing so nicely a moment ago and now he is fussing at me. He is probably ready to be let out of his cage and go do things in the car, but I need a minute still. I also dressed him inappropriately, thinking that it would be warm today. Yeah. Right. It's 51 degrees right now. So I need to take him back upstairs and find him some warmer clothes. Fortunately, all his clean clothes are folded, unfortunately, they are all stacked in piles on the floor of his room. I got that far before he decided he was done entertaining himself crawling around the floor next to me.

He is whining at me. I can't take it! He whined at me all last night, it was awful. Dinner was him whining, whining, whining, finally taking a bite of food, and then whining some more. I wondered if maybe HE was having sinus pressure or pain, and gave him half a dose of Motrin. I don't know. He slept alright, aside from the reawakening at 4am.

I have about a billion errands to run today of course and it is rainy and wet and cold outside. ASDFG!@W@#E And don't get me started on the price of gas. I spent part of yesterday researching electric cars and with our winter climate, it's probably not a good option for us until they make better electric cars. I want to get a hybrid, but the wait list around here is excruciating and the price makes me get hives. Eventually we will, but maybe we can find a used one for less than $30,000.

It makes me so mad how the oil industry has affected our society so much when it comes to affordable non-oil alternatives when the rest of the world has great access to alternative energy and alternative fuel cars and really high quality public transportation. And the sad part is that our society, the US, just sort of sits back and says well what can we do about it? Nothing will ever change. As a society we are too wrapped up in our little problems to think about dealing with big ones. It is so disheartening and frustrating. Why do auto manufacturers even make vehicles that are not hybrid or flex fuel or electric? It's ridiculous. $4/gallon gas wouldn't be a big deal if we only had to buy gas once a month. Or less.

Oh well. I get so frustrated that I do the American thing and just find something else to focus on because if you think too long about it, it makes you want to stab your brain out with a toothbrush.

Oh, the boy will not let me finish this entry, and somewhere in that last paragraph I think the sinus pain finally dissipated, so I am out.

A Plague On Your Mother's Day

Well, it was a lovely Mother's Day... except I was SICK. Yeah, I got the plague. Full on body aches, stuffy head, runny nose, cough, everything. Bless my poor husband, he saved the day by shoving a darvoset down my throat which made me feel infinitely, infinitely better. We started cooking for brunch about 10 and by 11, Eleni and Chyron were the only ones who had shown up and I said screw it, I am hungry, we are eating. Everyone else rolled in just as I finished setting the food out on the table. *insert eye roll*

Poor Tim was on call this weekend and got called into work right as we were about to eat. *sighs* There were two patients he had to see so he ended up missing almost ALL of breakfast. Poor guy. He made eggs, bacon (which I got NONE of, stupid family ate all the bacon before I even got a plate of food), sausage, fried potatoes, cut watermelon, regular pancakes and chocolate chip pancakes, toast, chocolate fondue with strawberries, angel food cake, and marshmellows, and coffee, juice, and milk. What I got to eat was so good!

Savino couldn't last and despite having Chyron running around with Haley, he fell asleep in his bouncer seat and slept until almost everyone had left. It was kinda nice! I got to sit and eat and visit without a squirming baby in my arms, though every five seconds someone asked me, "Where's the baby?"

All in all we had Tim's mom and dad, his sister and her fiancee, Eleni and Chyron, and briefly two of our neices who left right as they got there to drive home so one of them could get going to Wyoming. Tim's brother Jamie arrived after breakfast was over and only stayed for 2 minutes. Jerk. I hate him.

Anyway, after breakfast I helped Tim clean up and fed the baby and then we had to go to Lowe's to get a part for our downstairs toilet and the rest of the peel and stick tile for the bathroom floor. We also went to Toys R Us and got Savino's playyard so that he can crawl around to his heart's content in a confined area.

I know some parents are all "play yards are CRUEL" but I really don't care what those parents think, the boy is so happy that I am not chasing him down and pointing him in another direction and he can crawl around and around and around to different toys and play. I can actually work and keep an eye on him at the same time. Of course, the downside is that I got a super big play yard and it pretty much takes up the entire living room. I think I can shift some things around so that it is better situated, but it is just big, so there's not much you can do about that. I love that I can take it outside and let him crawl around in the grass so I can garden.

Of course, I can't do that today because it is FORTY FIVE DEGREES outside. I am so so upset. Winter Takes Its Revenge, Part XV. I mean, it's not enough that I am all plaguey and sick, but it has to be COLD on top of it? It's the middle of May! WTF?!

Yeah. Nice.

So last night after we got home from Lowe's and Toys R Us, I passed out in the recliner with the baby and he nursed for about an hour and a half while he slept. I woke up feeling like The Poo all over. It was awful. I tried to feed the baby dinner, but my head was throbbing, my back hurt, I was just pathetic. I begged Tim to take a break from working on my lighting stuff to finish feeding the baby and I just sat at the table with my head in my arms. Tim convinced me to take another one of his darvosets and I did and started feeling better after about half an hour.

I feel really bad taking his painkillers! He needs those, to sleep at night. I mean, I know he wouldn't have pushed them on me if he couldn't spare them, but still, I just felt bad. But, they helped so tremendously and are safe for breastfeeding, and I felt so human again after they kicked in... I was sure to tell him thank you like fifteen times so he knew how much I appreciated it.

I ended up in bed before 10 because Savino was super restless and needed me to be right there or he wouldn't sleep. I am sure that he is not feeling too good either, but at least he didn't get the brunt of it thanks to nursing.

Today is going to be the most low key day EVER. We are staying at home, in pajamas, all day. Savino let me sleep in this morning by falling asleep next to me in bed so we slept until 9:30 and then had breakfast (which I can't taste thanks to the stuffiest nose in the west). He is playing with all his toys and will probably succomb to another nap in a bit, and I might join him. I am going painkiller free right now and I feel like The Poo again. All I am going to do today is work and baby, and we are eating leftovers for dinner and that is all.

All in all, I had a very very nice Mother's Day. Tim cleaned the kitchen several times and cooked dinner, and let me take a nap with the baby and finished my lighting supplies (which I need to test out tonight because I am shooting Eleni's maternity portraits tomorrow), and gave me painkillers and was very nice to me in general, even when I was snappy and not feeling good. I told him several times thank you, and he told me he felt bad for not getting me a card, but I didn't care. While it totally was not my idea to have our entire family over for brunch, it was delicious and nice, and I think everyone enjoyed it. Tim gets lots of bonus points for being a very good husband to me, I have no complaints about my Mother's Day, other than being very ill. Oh well, you can't have it all... where would you put it?

On that note, I am going to work and drink some coffee (which I can't taste) and pound down some more Vitamin Water and entertain the baby. Happy Monday.

I am trying to kill some time before my MIL supposedly comes over so we can go to a few garage sales. I don't know for sure if she is or not though, so I have to sit and wait but if she isn't here in half an hour, screw it, I'm going without her. I blame Tim for this, he suggested that we ride together. I am not into the idea. But, I will play nice.

Tomorrow night we are going to Tim's mom's for our neice's graduation party, she's graduating from college and then leaving on Tuesday to go to Wyoming to start a 5 month animal medicine internship. She is excited, and her mom is totally not. Oh well, kids gotta grow up sometime. I'm sure I will be there myself soon enough. Then Sunday we are having the hated Mother's day brunch here. I am still irritated, by the way. Oh well.

Tonight Haley is going to the Spring Dance at her school, against my better judgement. The only reason I'm letting her go is that it is only Pre-k to 4th grade, so she will be one of the older children there. She REALLY wanted to go and was so so excited when I told her she could last night. Some of her friends are going too, and she is looking forward to having a good time with them. It only lasts for 2 hours and I am sending Tim to take her and I think he will stay for a little bit to make sure it's all good. *sniff* She's too YOUNG to start going to dances and socialising like that!

I think I am going to enroll her in Girl Scouts this summer. She will benefit from it, I think there are a few girls in her class who are also in the local Girl Scouts and I think she really needs to start forging more friendships with her classmates. I mean, she has tons of friends at school, but she only plays with a few of them outside of school. Girl Scouts will be a good way for her to have something to do during the summer, and she is all about doing crafts and that sort of thing. I am just in FEAR of selling cookies and fundraisers and that sort of thing. I don't want to get roped into being the parent volunteer. I am too lazy for all that.

Hm. My MIL better hurry the hell up. Savino is starting to get cranky and it will be naptime soon. We don't miss naptime if we can avoid it. Naptime is sacrosanct.

I had some crazy ex dreams last night. I woke up feeling all disoriented. I've been having lots of those lately for some reason.

Also, I covered up a window in our bedroom that was letting light in in the mornings and I think waking Savino up, and for some reason, it totally messed with me last night. I think I was used to the little bit of light that came in during the night from the street lights and every time I woke up, I was confused. Of course, that could just be because I am always confused, who knows?

I let Savino crawl all through the house yesterday since the floors were clean. He thought it was wonderful. He crawls so fast! It's like once he figured out crawling, there is just one speed, and that is SUPERLIGHTNINGFAST. You can't leave him on the floor and walk away to do something really quickly, even use the bathroom, he is up and out in seconds. He went into the dining room and banged on the hot air registers on the floor and then made his way into Haley's playroom. He was just looking around at everything and manuevering around. It's amazing to me how quickly he is growing up.

I did something stupid last night, well it was unintentional, but still stupid. I always take my rings off to put lotion on Savino because the Aquaphor is some seriously greasy stuff. I set them down in his crib because we were on the bed right next to it, and I have always remembered to put them back on but last night Tim came in while I was greasing the baby up and I totally forgot to put them on. I left them laying there in his crib! I only remembered this morning when I got up and was getting him changed and realized I never did put them back on. I freaked out. Fortunately they were both still in the crib, though I had to hunt for them. It's just lucky that he didn't find them and put them in his mouth or something. That is the last time I will do that! I need to learn to just take them off and put them in my jewelry box when I bring the baby upstairs to do the bedtime thing, that way they will always be in a safe spot.

Alright, I am leaving this woman behind. I am bored and I want to go to the garage sales. Hopefully there will be some good condition baby boy clothes, that's all I'm after. Peace.

I don't know what wonderful sixth sense my son has that knows just when I need a night of uninterrupted sleep, but last night he slept from 8:30 until about 6:45 this morning. It was wonderful. I feel human again.

I just wish I could figure out what I can do to help him sleep like that every night. There was no one thing that I did differently last night, so I think it's pretty much out of my hands. But the upside of him sleeping good, other than me getting all the sleep I need, is that he is in a very good mood today as well. He hasn't cried once all morning, he woke up in a good mood and played with his toys in his crib and talked to Tim as he got ready for work, he played on the floor this morning happily while I did Haley's hair for school, he ate his breakfast without complaint and nursed, and has been crawling all over the floor the rest of the morning, wearing himself out (hopefully) for his nap. He's just in a very pleasant happy mood and not the terrible grump that he has been. Uh yeah, I could get used to this!

He is definitely the mobile baby now, we are going to have to seriously baby proof the living room again, he is a fast crawler! Shoes seem to be his main target and for some reason everyone (myself included) leave our shoes on the floor in the living room. That's a habit we're going to have to break. He is obsessed with shoelaces and everything goes in the mouth. Fun times!

I managed to successfully not go anywhere yesterday! Woohoo! That was an accomplishment. Of course, as a result, we are completely out of eggs, butter, milk, bread, and cat litter. Yeah. So I have to go to the store today, but I think I will wait until I pick Haley up and then just go and come back before dinner. We're having breakfast for dinner, at Tim's request. Pancakes! I could have breakfast for dinner five nights a week and not get tired of it.

Eleni came over yesterday a few times to hang out, once at lunch and then she brought Chyron over and had dinner with us. I could tell she is not feeling so hot lately, she is getting really big with this pregnancy (not fat, just big belly!) and she is clearly tired. I like being able to cook dinner for her and help her out like that. When she has the baby I am going to bring her dinner for a week and come over and do her laundry so she can just chill. We are planning to do her maternity portraits on Monday or Tuesday. I need to pick up a few supplies, some lights and put together a cheap diffusion screen. I am really looking forward to it, I hope we can get some really nice portraits out of it. I have to get serious about finding some new backgrounds/drops, but I don't want to spend a lot. I need to find a good cheap source for muslin.

I watched a video last night on how to set up some really inexpensive studio lighting and I am so excited to try it! I was looking into taking a photography class but the colleges (community) around here only offer online photography classes and I'm "what's the point?" about that. Pay $90 to read some papers online? No thanks. I guess I will keep looking, but I am beginning to think the only way to learn outside of a hands on class is to just keep doing what I am doing, keep taking pictures and experimenting and finding resources online to fill in the gaps. I also found a source for some Lightroom information, I love using Lightroom but I think that I could be using it more effectively. I'm not getting all crazy about this stuff, because this is still just a hobby, but the thought that "one day" I might be able to do MORE with it, is a thrilling one. I really do love taking pictures, and I would like to be able to take really nice ones. There are too many portrait studios in this town for me to ever really consider setting one up, but I could definitely get into doing family pictures and that sort of thing. In addition to doing Eleni's maternity portraits, I would really like to be able to do her newborn pictures for the new baby too.

I think it is going to be a really good day. I just have a really good feeling (probably euphoria from having a full nights sleep hehe). I feel like it is going to be a good month. That is a very good thing!

Boring

I spent the evening with my head buried in geneology stuff. I have made significant progress on Tim's family tree, but I am like totally overwhelmed by the depth of the project. Just, damn. One side of his family tree is completely stalled out at his father's father and mother, the other grandfather that Savino is named for (the Christopholis). I think the problem is the whole surname-changing thing, but for the LIFE of me I can't track down what the previous name was (or how it was spelled) or anything. Oh well. Boring!

We spent the day running errands and being fools. Tim had the day off so first he returned the jackhammer to the rental place (after having used it, oh, maybe 20 minutes. At $60 for 20 minutes, that's $3 a minute when we didn't really need it in the first place. yeah.) and then by the time he had returned Savino was wide awake and I had changed him. He was basically drenched from the waist down in pee. Don't ask me how, because I changed him in the middle of the night, I guess he was a pee machine all night long. I just stripped him down, wiped him off and put lotion all over him and put a clean diaper on him and then he nursed and patted my face until Tim got back and returned to the bed with us. After some breakfast Chantal came over to work on her resume so I played with Jaden and Savino on the floor for awhile and after she left we went to run errands.

The first item of the day was figuring out what printer we needed to get. Our Dell all-in-one just DIED on me the other day when I went to print out some census records for Tim's dad. It made a clunking noise and that was it, no more printer. Something is terribly broken inside of it. So, we decided to try and find one to replace it with more inexpensive ink because Dell ink is one of the most expensive ones out there for some reason. We ended up with an Epson Stylus all-in-one that was cheaper than anything else we could find and the ink is relatively inexpensive and all the colors are seperate so you can just replace the one color you are out of rather than an entire cartridge. We went to Target so I could buy diapers because for some reason all the diapers are cheaper at Target than anywhere else. We had lunch at The Olive Garden for the LAST TIME. Their food is alright, but it's so expensive and every.single.time we go there the service SUCKS. It's always super slow and it takes forever to get your food, and when all you're eating is the soup/salad/breadsticks that is just wrong. So, no more Olive Garden. I was pissed that lunch between Tim and I was like $40 and we both had soup and salad and two appetizers. WTF? We stopped at the Russell Stover outlet on the way home to pick up chocolates for Tim's mom for Mother's day, and I oogled all the lovely chocolate. Seriously, if I wasn't diabetic and didn't care at all about what I ate, I would die of happiness in the Russell Stover store. They sell all the chocolate that is just out of it's Sell By dating for super super cheap. Like 4 huge sampler boxes for $9.99. All together. Not each. Yeah! I wanted evvvvverything, and they had all the Easter candy on sale as well, it was so tempting! I got some sugar free coconut egg things that are pretty good for being sugar free, and Tim got a few sugar free hollow chocolate bunnies for Haley and himself, but that was it. Got two big boxes of the premium specialty samplers for Tim's mom as well, she ought to appreciate that. Of course, to top it off, they have a bakery and ice cream shop in the outlet store, as if shelves upon shelves of assorted chocolates and candy is not enough. The sales ladies kept trying to give Savino candy and I kept saying, "He's too young! He doesn't eat any of that yet!" and fending them off. It's sweet when people try to give you things for your baby, but for real, he's a BABY. He doesn't need chocolate! They seemed to think that was mean, but they don't have to get up with him at 3am with him screaming his head off because his stomach can't handle it. Babies don't need candy! Hell, *I* don't need candy!

We came home and I nursed the boy, and went and got Haley from the school bus and then we had to run down to the fireplace store to pick up the doors to our fireplace that were being repaired, the glass needed replaced in one and put back together. We initially paid a ridiculous amount of money because we thought they were going to have to use this special ceramic glass for the door, but I sent them some pictures of the fireplace and after looking it over they discovered that the doors were originally tempered glass, which was about $120 cheaper than the ceramic. Anyway, today they finally refunded all that extra money that they have been holding onto for us for almost a month. I had come into the store pissed off because over the phone the guy who had called told Tim that they had used the ceramic and I was ready to KILL someone because we had told them to get the tempered glass instead because of the difference in price. Turned out the sales guy just didn't know there had been a substitution and it was fine, we got our refund with no issues. Thank goodness. I was ready to go off, Tim had already had to calm me down once on the way over there because I got all heated thinking they were trying to rip us off for $100. Alls well that ends well.

So, the new printer works well, the new fireplace doors look good and next winter we will be able to have fires whenever we want without the downdraft blowing smoke in the room because of a missing door. Woo!

It is late, and I should be in bed, and I know the second I drift off Savino will wake up because that's how it's been. He teases me with a night of sleep, and then a week of waking up twice a night. *sighs* I know when he weans he will start sleeping through better, at least I hope, so I am not trying to rush it because I'm not ready for him to wean yet, but still... maybe a few more nights of uninterrupted sleep would go down nicely. On that note...

Savino is thisclose to crawling! Eep! I have been saying "If only he would just start crawling!" worried that maybe he was delayed in what is supposed to be a big milestone for his age. Now I am all TOOSOON about it! Well, it is exciting to watch him try and get it. He has just figured out that he can move his arms forward and then he gets up on his toes and hops himself forward onto his knees. It is quite a process to watch!

Tim is on call tonight and has already been back to the hospital TWICE. It is small consolation that at least he is being paid well for each call but still! He got called out right as we got home from the grocery store and from picking him up, so I got to make dinner all by myself which is always fun. Usually one of us cooks while the other tries to feed the baby because otherwise I end up feeding the boy instead of eating dinner. Tonight dinner had to wait while I tried to convince Savino that he could eat his food without screaming. At least Haley was cool with it. She is such a big help with her brother, she does such a good job entertaining him and keeping him happy when I need a minute to do something. She hung out with him this afternoon so I could take a quick shower which improved my day immensely.

I spent a good fifteen minutes on the phone with our mortgage company today and ended up not being able to accomplish ANYTHING. I was so frustrated. We got a lovely form letter letting us know that they believe our homeowner's insurance was cancelled or not renewed, which is completely 100% incorrect. We've had our insurance company fax them proof of our current policy which was paid in full by the company that we refinanced our mortgage through before they were bought out by CitiMortgage which is our current mortgage holder. All of our insurance and taxes are paid in escrow, so its not even something that is in our hands, it's all dealt with by the mortgage companies. Our insurance company has faxed them proof not once but TWICE and yet Citimortgage was still saying that the policy was expired. So I got on the phone and navigated the automated system until I FINALLY got a human being. The guy on the other end was polite and I was polite to him, and finally he said "Well, I have the fax and everything is correct on the fax but it's not correct in the system..." So I said and is that going to be fixed? Because if it isn't then Citimortgage is going to purchase a $1200 insurance policy and charge us for it, which is bull frankly. So we got to this point where I got the guy to admit that they DID have proof of the current policy with all the correct information and then he drops the bomb on me, Citimortgage doesn't have MY name on the loan account, so I cannot make any changes to our account information. Um, yeah. So then the guy puts me on hold and gets a customer service rep on the line as well and he gives me this song and dance about how they will have to send me a form to fill out with Tim and send it back in so that I can be authorized to make changes to account information.

Cue me ready to scream.

My name is on the insurance policy, my name is on the actual title to the house, and I signed about a bajillion forms when we refinanced and I KNOW that my information is on the loan account because while the loan is in Tim's name, I had to provide all my information as co-owner of the home. Oh, they'll let me make the payments on the loan, but I can't verify our insurance information so they don't charge us $1200 for their mistake. I wanted to KILL. I just said FINE, Tim will call you and verify this. I wanted to let loose all my frustrations but what would that have accomplished? There is literally nothing I can do to fix the situation until I have authorization to make changes. And let me tell you it KILLS me that they have the correct information about our insurance policy, that their information in their main system is WRONG because someone clearly did not enter correct information, but it will linger until Tim can call them all because of their stupid policy which doesn't even make sense when I am just trying to VERIFY WHAT THEY ALREADY KNOW. Arg! I HATE STUPID POINTLESS BUREAUCRACY!

It just aggravates and frustrates me that Citimortgage bought out our mortgage company, didn't transfer our loan information correctly, makes us jump through ridiculous hoops, and still won't fix what is THEIR mistake. And we're paying THEM!

Ok, I am done now. Tim will take care of it either tomorrow or Monday when he is off.

The weather got crazy cold, our furnace was running day and night for the last two days, and then today it got back into the 80's. I die. Please DECIDE what the weather is going to be, OK? This doesn't help the kids allergies/colds/whatever.

Haley has like 3 weeks of school left! We are in the countdown! I am so excited for school to be done so we can get to the good parts of summer! We are going to have so much fun this summer with me being able to actually DO things not being ridiculously pregnant! We are ready for the pools to open, ready to get to the park and play, and enjoy it.

This week has crawled by but thankfully it is finally almost over. Tim has a three day weekend, which is nice. We are going to try and get some things taken care of around the house. Fun times!

Savino has tooth #5 and #'s 6 and 7 are so.close. to popping through as well. Will someone please tell my son to STOP GROWING UP?!

He is 8 months old today. Insane. Just insane! Time is flying by. I am still paranoid over every little thing, every little cough, but he makes me so so so so happy, it is ridiculous. I saw a shirt today at Steve and Barry's that I must get him, it says "I was worth the wait". He was! I waited 8 years for him, and he was worth every minute.

Fingers crossed that he sleeps a little better tonight. I gave him half a dose of Tylenol because he was crying and chewing on his fingers at the same time, which is such a pathetic sight. Poor guy. He is in such a rush to get all these teeth!

Today I discovered how to get my kid to eat bananas. He doesn't care for them pureed or mashed up, but ate 4 slices of banana cut up into wee little peices. He loved it. So, I am going to start cutting up his usual purees into small peices and letting him eat that way in addition to the puree and cereal. It was like, duh, he's 8 months old, of course he might like trying some finger foods, but at the same time I was surprised. I only gave him a peice of banana because I was eating one while feeding him breakfast and he kept looking at my banana and smacking his lips which is his "Ok, I want some of THAT" cue.

It was in the 40's today. Winter has come back for one last AHAHAHAHAHA in my face. Of course, since I JUST put all Savino's winter clothes away, right? I had to dig out a sweat suit to bundle him up in.

I wanted to smack the cashier at Kroger's today. She was completely unfriendly, unhelpful, curt, and acted like she was put out ringing up my 5 items. I had both kids with me and Savino was losing it because he didn't want to be in the shopping cart anymore. I just wanted to snap at her, "Look, it's not MY fault you work at Kroger's. Go work somewhere they appreciate a surly attitude." I bag my own groceries, I am always polite and say thank you, I don't need nastiness from a 19 yr. old cashier. Oh well, I got to walk away from her and she had to stay at her obviously unpleasant job where she is probably getting paid minimum wage to be surly to customers. That's karma.

Ok, time for bed.

I Love Living In A Small Town

I don't know what is wrong with Savino tonight, but I think it is a combination of issues. His poor stuffy nose is still in full effect. I don't think there is such a thing as baby Benedryl, but the poor kid, I think this is allergies that are defeating him. I think he might have a sore throat or stuffed up ears as well because when I lay him down on his back he just gets so uncomfortable. I caved tonight and gave him some Tylenol after almost an hour of him screaming and crying and tugging at his ears and alternately clinging to me and then arching his back and thrusting away from me. I don't know, poor guy. This is the first time he's ever been in any discomfort for any extended period of time (beyond that wicked intestinal thing he had for like a week). That's why I don't think that it is just a spring cold, every time he's ever had a touch of the cold, it clears up almost instantly (thank you breastmilk! Woo!). I just hope that he starts to dry up soon. It doesn't help that there are like three trees surrounding our house that are just shedding pollen like nobody's business. Our cars have a lovely coat of yellow pollen dust on them. Much as I hate to say it, I hope it rains tomorrow to beat the pollen down off the trees and off of everything.

Needless to say, Savino hasn't been sleeping so well tonight. He screamed at bedtime and I ended up alternately cuddling him and then when he got frustrated with that, I laid him down in his crib and hung over the side and rubbed his belly and he quieted and stared at me until he dropped off to sleep. That was a first for him, usually I have to hold him until he falls asleep but he just drifted off laying there watching me. Tim came home (he got called into work at 8pm, niiiice) and Savino started crying again, he went upstairs to deal with him and Tim said that as soon as he picked him up, the boy laid his head down on his shoulder and went right back to sleep. Awww.

Some pictures... (Savino got a new hat, and it was too cute not to take a picture of!)




Also, I got new glasses awhile back, I am still trying to decide if I like them or feel weird in them. They are comfortable though.


It was a relatively productive weekend. Tim cut the grass on Saturday and tore apart part of our backyard fence that had fallen over. I am so defeated by our yard and the landscaping. All of the fencing has to come down. It is so so jacked up. Whatever. Anyway. He tore it up into peices and laid it next to the pool so that when the bottom is broken up, he can start throwing wood and whatnot into it to start filling it up. We have to completely rip up the decking that goes around the pool, it is all jacked up too. The yard around the pool has a bunch of dirt that came out of where they dug up the yard to put in the pool, and we have to dig it back down to remove part of the fencing, and all of that dirt will go into the pool as well. Back from whence you came!

Today we went to the garden center and bought 5 bags of cypress mulch and a bunch of perennials to try and replant up the front flowerbeds and make them look better. We need more mulch. The 5 bags were enough to cover the smaller circular flowerbed in the middle of the yard. The flowerbed against the house is still mulch-less. I moved and transplanted a bunch of strawberry plants all into one long row in front of part of the flowerbed. Last year they were spread all over, but this year I am trying to contain them to make it easier to pick and to look nicers. Hopefully my transplants will live, I was a little sloppy about getting them into the ground. Savino was playing outside with us in his exersaucer and so I had to get a move on before he got bored. We dug up three large peony bushes from the side flowerbed where all the vegetables were last year and planted them in the middle of the circular bed with the tulips all around the outer edges. In the front flowerbed I planted a pretty good sized foxglove plant, some salvia (a purplish butterfly bush looking plant), some geraniums (the only annuals I've planted so far), an asiatic lily, three white azaleas behind the strawberries that will hopefully get nice and tall, and I planted bleeding hearts in a pot for the porch. Tim's grandma loved bleeding hearts and he was getting all nostalgic looking at them so I said "Get it!". On the back deck I put in a jalepeno and banana pepper plant in the large tomato planters, hopefully they will live and not be eaten by groundhogs. I will KILL.

It sounds like a lot of plants, but somehow it still looks too sparse in the front. I guess I will suck it up and buy a flat of petunias or some other disposable annual to fill it in. I am at a loss. Gardening really is not my thing and though I've read and read, I still don't really understand what to plant with what. I pretty much just walk along and say "Oh, that looks pretty!" and the extent of my gardening planning is looking at the plant tag to see whether it's a sun or shade plant. Oh well. Tim is going to borrow his dad's woodchipper this weekend and chip all the wild grape vines he cut off the back fence and all the branches from the trees we cut down of the fence line last year and use the remaining chips for mulch. I still think we will end up buying a few bags of mulch, but that's fine.

So yeah. Yard and lawn talk. Good stuff. Aren't you envious? Hey, I am still drama free though, and that is a VERY good thing! I celebrate!

I have to get serious about cleaning my house tomorrow. For rlz. There are Gerber puffs EVERYWHERE. How are they migrating around the house from the dining room? I suspect the cats are playing with them and batting them around. That must be it. Either that or the Puff Fairy is coming and scattering them around. Savino probably throws four or five puffs overboard at every meal when I give him a few to distract him so I can make food or get his food ready, and by the end of the day if I haven't swept twice they are everywhere. Good thing I don't get paid to clean huh?

I did finally tackle the laundry situation, and of course that means that on my way to bed I need to transfer laundry from the washer to the dryer, but at least I am somewhat on top of it. I went through all of Savino's clothes and discarded things that were too small or seasonally inappropriate. What is sad is that I ended up taking things out of his drawers that HE NEVER WORE. How is that possible? Mostly pants that he never wore, that I bought because at some point I ridiculously thought, "Oh, he really needs more pants!" and bought him ten pairs. Oh well. I just took a HUGE bag of clothes over to Eleni's house on Tuesday and already I have a knee high stack of clothes all ready to take over again. This will be the third lot of clothes I have pushed on her. I told Tim today, if I wasn't passing them back to Eleni I could make a serious killing on eBay with all these clothes. In fact, I think I will let her know that when she is done with them, she can just pass them right on back around and I will dispose of them for her. Hehehe.

So anyway, I am going through Savino's summer clothes that have been sitting in the bottom drawers and the other dresser which is full of clothes for NEXT winter. I have been stressing that he didn't have enough summer clothes and in fact, just yesterday bought a lot of onesies and rompers on eBay (Well, it was .99c and even with 7$ shipping, you still can't beat that!). Um, yeah, he has plenty of summer clothes. In fact, I almost couldn't close one of his drawers which was stuffed with shirts and shorts and rompers and outfits. He has probably fifteen pairs of NICE pants, not just sweatpants or lightweight pants but nice cords and khackis and jeans. He will be fine on onesies once this lot I just bought arrived, and the only thing that he really needs is summer weight sleepers. I have to keep my eye out for some 24m sleepers for next winter, he only has a handful of sleepers that will fit next winter and now is the time when all of that will be on sale. I have to find him some summer sleepers though, the ones that he has now are TOO SHORT. His poor little legs are jammed in there and while he can still manage for another week or so, that's it. He has about 1/4 of an inch in there before they really will not fit, for real. And of course, those stupid things are so expensive! I hate hate hate paying like $9 for ONE sleeper when he will just outgrow it in a month or two anyway. Maybe I can find some super secret sale somewhere and score some. There is a big garage sale at the Knights of Columbus coming up next weekend, perhaps I can get lucky there. I would love to just let him sleep in a onesie or whatever, but the temp drops just enough at night to make that too uncomfortable for him because he doesn't sleep with any blankets yet and his blanket sleepers are too heavy and too hot.

Yes, these are the things that consume me. I love it. I am relishing the minutia. Boring is GOOD! I do not take this for granted!

Oh, haha, this is funny. Well, sort of I guess. *I* thought it was funny. So Chantal sends Tim a text last night that he didn't get until this morning that the cops were looking for someone who was on our street. Apparently they pulled someone over last night and the guy fled on foot and ran down OUR STREET and the cops never did find him. They were cruising the neighborhood still this morning. Tim was so paranoid that he took his big Maglite flashlight and went out to the garage to check and make sure there were no criminals hiding in the garage or the basement. I laughed the whole time. Though, thinking about it, it's probably not that funny having someone hiding out from the cops in your backyard, but still, I was amused. I was also amused that this was BIG DRAMA, having lived in big cities where cops chasing a criminal down the street is just another Friday night. It still never fails to make me smile just how little and sheltered and out of touch with urban life our little town is. That is also a good thing! I am glad to be raising my kids in a town where someone fleeing from the cops when being pulled over is the biggest deal on the news.

Criminals beware. Don't hide in my garage. My husband has a large flashlight and a wife who is not afraid of you! Hehe.

On that note, it's late, I must sleep.

Mom, doesn't it seem like just YESTERDAY??




He was so little...




Yeah, not so little anymore!