A Change Would Do You Good

We are all moved in, and the furniture is situated. Of course, there's a lot of stuff that still needs to find a home, but it's mostly there. I'll post some pictures when we get the internet hooked up (and when I remember to put the memory card back in my camera . . . if I can find my camera). I really like our new apartment. It was like a huge burden was lifted off my shoulders when we finished moving in. I don't think it's quite as big as our last place, and it has 2 bedrooms instead of 3, but it is much better organized. It was built on purpose (not, "There should probably be a shelf here"), with decent storage and rooms that are a good size. There are a few things we still need, like a washer that works and somewhere to store Benji's clean clothes, but all in all, it's really nice. I REALLY liked not having to scrape the snow off my car this morning, leaving my apartment at 10:30 and clocking in to work before 11. It made me smile. Alas--I must go find out my assignment for 3:00. Life goes on.

This Is Where We Used To Live

Here's what happened today. 0615: Allen's work called, trying to get him to come in (he had called in sick). I'm very glad he didn't. 0800: Got up. Ate cold pizza for breakfast, drove to Bountiful to finish cleaning, etc. 0900: Got a text from Mrs. X, asking if we can watch her kid. I texted her back, telling her no. Start cleaning. 0930: Allen walks in with Mrs. X's kid trailing behind. Apparently she accosted him outside the house and he said yes. Situate the kid in an empty bedroom and tell her to stay put. At least she did. 1000: Go to Dick's, spend $20 on cleaning supplies. Return, continue cleaning. 1045: Mrs. X comes back. Allen drives the truck to the dump, and I follow in my car. 1130: Unload garbage from truck, including a mangled sattelite dish and a christmas tree. Get covered in mud. 1145: Allen drives off from the dump with my purse, keys and phone in the truck. I use the phone at the dump to get him to come back. 1210: Drive back to the old apartment. Get pulled over for expired registration. He could have cited me for a) brake light not working, b) no proof of current insurance (my card had been expired for a year), c) driver's license not current, and d) expired registration. It is now four months expired, so he could have had my car towed and left me stranded. Instead, I just have to buy tires, get an alignment, get my brake light fixed, get it registered, and show up to traffic court in two weeks. Yes, I cried, but I can't say I didn't deserve what I got. 1245: Unload the rest of our stuff at the new apartment. Allen and I drive to Costco and fill up the vehicles. 1330: Return truck to rental place. Shell out $185 for the two days (at least they didn't charge me a late fee). 1400: Drive back to Bountiful, finish cleaning. Unload fridge, finish cleaning windows, vaccuum. 1600: Allen leaves for Logan, I drive back to new apartment. Call work to see if I can have more time off before I go in. 1645: Unload my car, put deposit money in the bank, drive to Rachael's house, pack up stuff there, re-load car. 1730: Drive to Ikea, buy shower curtains, bathroom rugs, dustpan, chocolate. 1830: Drive to work. 1900: Finish up a debridement of a toe with Butterfield, clean OR 19. 1930: Finish up a DIEP flap with Ferguson, clean OR 2. 2130: Blog about my day. I'm so tired; I have felt like crap all week, and I haven't seen my baby in two days. I miss him so much! I guess he's pulling himself up now, and he's got a cold too. He's such a sweet boy, and this week has been hard on him too. Poor little guy. So I think I'm going to rank this as my worst week ever, although it might come in second to the first week in October 2002. I'm exhausted in every way, and I'm stuck at work for the next nine hours. I hope your New Year has been better than mine.

Last Christmas I Gave You My Heart

I wanted to do a Christmas round-up, but a lot of crazy stuff has happened over the past week. Here are a couple of pictures of the family in Logan. They are all Rachael's family, but that's all I had time to upload. Here's Lily-Bug in her cute tutu (I got it at the Festival of Trees)

 

Grandmother holding Tessa-rooney (she hardly put her down!)

 

Seuao opening his berry 'pecial jersey

 

Little Tweet Heart!

 

It was a good time. There was plenty of craziness with balls and toys and babies galore, but it was fun. And, we got in some good Pounce playing! Yay! We went to Logan on Wednesday afternoon. We drove both of our cars, since we had so much crap and since gas is so cheap (I paid $1.29/gallon today!). We have had a lot of unexpected expenses come up, like car repairs, etc., so I didn't get much for Christmas. Allen kept asking me for gift suggestions, and I gave him quite a few (like Penelope, Mamma Mia, the Joseph Smith Papers vol. 1, Mormon Scientist, the Illustrated Church History, etc.), but I got the Mummy Trilogy (uh, did I want those?) and Prince Caspian DVDs. And I had to wrap them and transport them to Logan, or I wouldn't have had anything from him to open. Yes, it's pretty shallow of me, but I was feeling sorry for myself afterward, since Rachael, Becca and Lexy were all showered with gifts from their husbands. So on Sunday I was annoyed with Allen and I wasn't feeling well (I have been hacking my lungs out), and I had to drive back to SLC in the snow. Needless to say, I wasn't in a good place. Then . . . As I was carrying Benji from the car downstairs into our apartment, I smelled something funny. I didn't realize what it was until I stepped on the carpet and it squished. Yep--flooding. I put Benji in the exersaucer, which was safe from the water, and looked in the kitchen. There was a couple of inches of standing water on the linoleum, water was dripping from the ceiling, and I could still hear some flowing. I found the faucet in the laundry room blasting (I had to use a wrench to turn it off), then I went upstairs to see where the water was coming from up there. In the X's apartment, the faucet on the kitchen sink was also running full-blast. It turned off easily, though, so I was a bit confused as to what happened. Apparently Mrs. X asked one of our neighbors to fill the water bowl for the cats while they were gone, and one day the pipes were frozen. They must have left the faucet on inadvertently, so when they thawed . . . Anyway, I was in a bad mood already, and I just couldn't deal with it. I called Rachael to see if we could crash at her place. So we have been there for a few days (since our apartment is currently uninhabitable) going back and forth to clean and pack while the restoration people have been tearing out carpet and drywall and ceiling. So we are trying to find a new place to live, all while working and trying to take care of the little man. It has been insanity. Thankfully my Mom volunteered to watch Benji for a day or two--at least we don't have to worry about him for the moment. I didn't realize how hard it was to leave your child! I know he's in excellent hands, and I have worked overnight before, so it's not like this is my first night away from him, but I won't get to see him in the morning! It makes me so sad! He took my heart with him! :o( Here's the upside: we did find an apartment, which is probably smaller than the one we are vacating, but it has TWO FULL BATHROOMS (no more sink baths!), a dishwasher, laundry hook-ups, and covered parking. Plus, it's affordable, and it's much closer to work for me! All in all, it's pretty good timing, too--at the end of the month, so more apartments were available to look at; it was over Christmas vacation and Grandmother came out to visit, so we were able to sleep in my Dad's room at Rachael's house, and we are moving on New Year's day, so many members of our EQ can help us load the truck. Don't get me wrong--it still sucks--but I'm glad to be getting out of our old place and I feel very blessed right now. I'm incredibly tired: I have been at work all night, I'm running on about 2 hours of sleep, and now I have to go pack up the rest of my life, move it all across town, then come back to clean. Bow-wow. I need sleep, but there's no rest for the weary, right?

I Am Thankful

Today, I am thankful. I'm thankful for winter; if it weren't so miserable, then spring wouldn't be so glorious. I'm thankful my car is still running, even though I have no gas in the tank and I managed to get it high-centered yesterday. I'm thankful that Benji was asleep for most of that drama (getting stuck on a busy road) and that he didn't freak out when the tow-truck came. I'm thankful for Granny, whose gift of AAA meant that we only had to wait for 20 minutes for help, not hours. I'm thankful for my job, and that my manager has enough faith in my abilities to want to give me a promotion (more responsibility, but more $$, too). I'm also thankful that I work in an industry whose necessity is not affected by the economic climate. I'm thankful for my husband, who is a handy-man at heart and understands mechanics in a way I never will, who took apart the washer today in the crazy, snowy weather. I'm thankful we had enough money in our checking accounts to purchase a space heater, in an attempt to unfreeze the pipes to the washer, even though that didn't work either. I'm thankful we hung up a blanket to cover the door to the laundry cove, so that any potential home buyers would see how ghetto the place actually is (they must have lowered the price, because Mrs. X has done several walk-throughs this week). I'm thankful I haven't been home during those walk-throughs, or I would have been extremely embarassed over my messy house. I'm thankful that my Christmas card extravaganza is almost done, and that they will be mailed tomorrow. I'm thankful for the extra hours the USPS puts in at Christmas time. I'm thankful I get to spend time with my family tomorrow. I'm REALLY thankful that I only have one hour left of my shift today, and that I'm not on-call tonight. I'm thankful for my sweet baby. I'm thankful that he loves it when I take his picture!

It Felt Like Christmastime

I know I need to post again, but I have been so busy! My work schedule is kind-of weird; it alternates every-other-week. Last week I worked Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, and this week I work Monday, Tuesday and Friday. So I have a couple of days off here and there, but last weekend was the one bookended (is that a word?) by two 12-hour shifts. It's pretty exhausting, and I never look forward to it. I live for those days off! I don't have to work tomorrow (Wednesday), but I have so much to do! Laundry, cleaning, babysitting, visiting teaching, making my yummy Gorp (a delish chex mix!), finishing/wrapping my Sub-for-Santa gift, and tithing settlement. It usually takes me a day to recover from the short weekend, but I don't get that luxury tomorrow! Mrs. X sent me a text on Monday to see if I could babysit that morning; I told her I could if she was back by 9:45 a.m. so I could be to work on time. She asked me if I could do it if she found someone else to watch her at 9:45. I told her that I could, but it would be easier if she could do whatever she needed to do on Wednesday, since I don't have to work. Then she told me it was a doctor's appointment at HAFB, and she'd try to get it changed. She did, but come on--if you have a doctor's appointment, shouldn't you arrange for babysitting more than one hour before you have to be there? I'm SO over it. I haven't babysat for probably a month, so it's not like it's all the time anymore, but I'm just tired of our living situation. I don't know how long we'll be living here, and I don't really want to be here anymore. I'm adding another requirement to our living situation: a bathtub. A dishwasher and laundry hook-ups were already prerequisites. Mrs. X gave us a Christmas gift (to encourage us to stay?). Yes, it's a bucket. To bathe our baby in. Here's a reference as to how big it is (that's my purse). As Peggy said, "Do they think your baby is a dog?" Call me crazy, but I don't think we'll be using it as a baby bath. In other news, at least I got our tree up. This is what part of it looks like: It's a pretty cheap pre-lit fake tree, but I think it turned out nice. And this is a picture of my cute CTR-5 class and the lady I team-teach with. She is seriously Super Mom! She has 11 kids, sews her own clothes, does day-care in her home, etc., etc., and she still manages to get to church on time. I can't get my one child to church on time! I'm learning a lot, and I just love these kids! Aren't they fun? I love Primary!