Waiting

Where did December go? I had a cold for three weeks. Jill, Danny, Jeff, and I all came down with the stomach flu. My dad came to visit and helped Jeff get a lot of work on the house done. I really had no idea my father was so handy with plumbing and electrical work.

Some of you other housewives may be able to relate to an experience that occurred multiple times while Jeff and my dad were completing my "honey-do" list for getting the house ready to put on the market.

Exhibit A: The second bathroom in our house had no hot water in the faucet. The bathtub in that bathroom had plenty of hot water, but you could only get cold water out of the sink. This is very inconvenient, especially in the winter, because then the cold water is really cold. I feel bad for people who visited us who tried to wash their faces at the sink, because that had to have been a chilly experience. If I ever used that bathroom, I usually went and washed my hands in the kitchen, because it was painfully cold. I thought we would need to call a plumber, but my dad decided to investigate first.

Half an hour later, we had hot water coming through the sink. Thirty minutes! It only took thirty minutes to fix something that I put up with for two years.


Exhibit B: Our bathroom sink used to have a sticker on it. The people who had the house before us tried to get it off but were unsuccessful. The result was an unattractive gooey mess with razor blade scratches. Over the three years we lived there, it only worsened in looks. I hated that little patch. Jeff decided to tackle that obstacle.

Five minutes—five minutes—later Jeffrey exited the bathroom and proclaimed it done. I went in, and the sink looked fantastic. The sticker remains were gone, and it was gorgeous. I had put up with that nastiness for three years.


I ended up telling them to not tell me how long it took them to fix things, because I did not want to know. I couldn't handle the truth. :)


(And I assume that some of you more practical women are thinking, well, Mimi, why didn't you check the pipes under the sink or why didn't you think to use a different kind of razor blade and some goo-gone stuff. Well, I really have no excuse. I guess I just do so much around the house that there are some things I decide a man can do and I refuse to do, but I know I really can't complain about it not getting done when I could have just done it myself.)


Have any of you ever moved and wondered why your house gets to look its best when you are no longer going to live in it?


Here are the last pictures I took in our house: Jill and Danny playing in the kitchen.

Where did January go? Danny is now two years old. He and Jill were both pretty miserable on his birthday due to them both being sick. Danny refused to eat cake and ice cream. That's how you know someone is really sick!

Friends helped me by babysitting my children and helping me pack everything up and move the boxes around. Some other friends helped by chopping up the fallen trees in our backyard and putting our fence back up. The missionaries helped Jeff load up all of our belongings and transport them over to the storage unit, and my mother-in-law took a load of our stuff over to her house. My family moved into my husband's parents' house, and my mother came into town and helped me and some of my friends clean the house. My stove, oven, and refrigerator have never looked so good!

My house is officially listed on the market. We'll see how it goes. "They" say that winter is the slowest time for sales, and Ohio's housing market (at least in my area and price range) has not gone up, so we're anticipating selling for less than we purchased it three years ago. Life will go on. I just hope we don't have to bring a check to closing!

If you'd like to see the listing, click this link. Sigh. I have a lot of good memories of living in that house. I never thought we'd be there for such a short period of time. This is kind of a silly thing to be sad about, but I am sad about not getting to see all of my flowers bloom. I hope whomever buys the house enjoys flowers.

And if you're curious how my venture into the world of craigslist went, well, I just barely broke over $1,000! Crazy!

Danny had his first dentist visit. He did not do as well as his sister did at his age.

(Poor second child. Will his whole life be described in comparison to the first child's?)

He refused to wear the sunglasses to keep the bright light out of his eyes. Perhaps my mistake was that I forgot to bring a stuffed animal for him to hold. Or perhaps he's just different from Jill. :) Either way, he survived. I just ended up sitting in the chair with him.

Jill and Danny with Grandma Boling (GranB) and Grandma Collett

What lucky kids they've been to have so much time with both of their grandmas!

While my mother was here, I told Jill that it was her cousin Emily's birthday, and I asked Jill if she wanted to use GranB's iPhone to facetime Emily and wish her a happy birthday. Jill replied, "No . . . we should just go visit her instead." I hadn't thought about visiting Michigan one more time, because I thought it was too close to my due date to travel. The more I thought about Jill's idea, the more I liked it. (Of course, I'm always up for a road trip!) So, when my mom went home to Michigan, she took us with her, and we had a lot of fun surprising Emily.

Jill and Emily took turns "reading" this book to each other.

This is at Emily's birthday party. Emily is clearly Cinderella, and Jill is Rapunzel. My talented sister-in-law Rachel made both of these beautiful dresses. The expressions and poses are what I got when I asked them to give me "princess smiles."

We were really enjoying our trip when sickness kicked in again. The rest of January and beginning of February was a mess of stomach flu, fifth disease, and colds. My children forgot how to sleep for a while, and we were all pretty miserable. I am glad though that we made the trip to Michigan, even if it ended on a sick note. Now that we'll be ten hours away instead of five, I don't know how often we'll get to go up there.

And I do have a history of going on road trips in my eighth month of pregnancy. With Jill, we went to Las Vegas to visit our good friends the Bellows, and with Danny, we went to Wisconsin Dells for a family Christmas reunion. I wouldn't want to break any trends now would I?

Since the return from Michigan, I've just kind of been waiting. Waiting for my kids to not be sick anymore. Waiting for me to not be sick anymore. Waiting for Alice to decide to come. Waiting to find out if people will look at our house. Waiting to find out where we are going to live in Virginia. A lot of waiting. A lot of experiences that I have no control over, and I really like to have control.

We've been trying to still have a little fun though. Gingerbread house kits were on sale after Christmas, so my mother-in-law bought us one, and we had a lot of fun putting it together and decorating it.

And what pregnant blog post would be complete without a picture like this?

This picture is already two weeks old, but it gives you an idea of what I look like these days. My belly measured 37 inches long last week, and my belly circumference yesterday was 45 1/2 inches. Today I hit the 38 week mark, so if Alice is still comfortable inside of me tomorrow, then tomorrow officially marks the longest I have ever been pregnant. My friends were not kidding when they talked about what a delight the last few weeks of pregnancy are.

I've told Alice a few times that Abraham Lincoln was born February 12 and he would be an amazing man to share a birthday with, but I don't think she is listening to me. She seems to be very happy where she is. I had hoped for a little bit more time between Jeffrey's start date of March 11 at his new job in Virginia and Alice's birth, but I am learning to accept that I can't micromanage every aspect of my life! I am very curious to see when she does decide to come.

I feel like before I can blink, I'll be saying "Where did February go?"