Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Huh?

Sooo, maybe I thought I updated on my plans and now I see I have not said a darn word about it. I bought a ticket to Alabama on the 18th, sort of as a b-day present for CS because that is his birthday and I couldn't be there to celebrate with him. So Jacob and I flew out on the 25th (which is Hunter's birthday) and we are now in the house CS procured for us. It's nice and when CS's mom ships my camera to me, I will post the pics. We have four room, although one is an office space, two living rooms, a dining room and a breakfast nook/space. We have NO furniture so it's been fun! Ok, I lie. We have two chairs, a coffee table and an end table. We are looking for a kitchen table, since I already have four chairs. The floors in the living room and kitchen are concrete so we moved a big rug from the sitting room into the living room for Jacob since he HAS LEARNED TO CRAWL.

Ya'll! My baby can crawl! So far the only beeline he's made is to the stereo in the corner of the living room. It has magic buttons! That open things! With loud noises! The first time he turned it on, he cried but then he got over that and now it's his favorite thing. Good thing he forgets things quickly. I only have a little more time before that's not an option anymore. Then I'll just be locking him in an empty room and throwing toys in occasionally.

The house has a big backyard with a creek running through it. Every time I walk past the edge, I internally freak out about alligators in the water. I try to avoid it most of the time, actually. Jacob will sit in the grass but he holds one leg up so it can't touch anything. It's pretty impressive. You try holding your leg up for ten minutes while you sit on the grass.

Jacob is also learning how to sleep in his crib all night long and this means I have to go to bed earlier but that I get more sleeping without worrying about falling off the bed or locked into one position. I kept hearing from other moms about how their one month olds still slept with them and I'm determined not to let that happen. Maybe if we had a king sized bed but I really like the idea of sleeping in our own beds. Heck, I'd sleep in my own bed now. I like sleeping alone but I like the option of having someone next to me.

Side note: CS is still looking for a job to tide us over until the LPR job starts in May (hoping). We find out tomorrow what is going on with two of the places he has gone to. So maybe tomorrow he will have something. Which would be good, as he's sitting in the chair next to me and grinning slyly while slowly opening a knife he just sharpened and it's kind of freaking me out. Boys are so odd.

Monday, April 20, 2009

4/20

I remember my mom picking me up from high school that afternoon, we were on a lockdown but that didn't mean much. We went back to the law office where she worked and we sat down and watched the re-runs of the shooting in Littleton. I didn't understand at the time that it was students who were shooting in the school. I didn't understand what was going on, actually. It seemed so far fetched, how could kids shoot other kids? I remember hearing that the boys were hateful and unhappy, how they played video games where they killed and listened to angry music. We know now that they were nice, polite boys; one with an after school job. They seemed normal. But no one wanted to admit that then. How could we? If we did that, then who knew what to be afraid of? Maybe the nice private schools kids at my high school could snap next. It could have been so much worse at Columbine if the boy's plan had worked. So many people are still alive because those bombs never went off. Sadly, one school shooting turned into many more. What has our world come to? Someday I'm going to be sending my son off to school and I pray that he never witnesses such a terrible thing. Or that my son becomes one of those angry boys who spins out of control. Often I think about how it'd be much safer to just keep him home and educate him myself. But I know I want him to have the "school years" experience. I just hope it's a safer place I let him go to.

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Waiting AGAIN

CS didn't pass the copper nickel weld test. However! He will be taking a stainless weld test on Monday so we hope that he will be working on Tuesday. Which is really cutting everything close to the wire. In case you didn't know, I hate that! I've been seeing a lot of people talk about how 2009 sucks and they want a Do-Over and I'm thinking that maybe I want to jump on that train. Not that 2008 was awesome and full of sparklers (see: out of work, pregnant, cobra, and October and December). But 2009 sure seems to be into kicking everyone when they are down and then kicking them again when they lift their heads up.

This means that I have to put off buy my ticket to Alabama a little bit more. Or I will just buy a damn ticket already and go down there and hope for the best.

Also, the State of Colorado is on NOTICE. Because they sent a letter saying that Chris owes from last year so they will be keeping our state. Which is NOT TRUE, as we paid them but they didn't make note of that. Seriously?

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Jacob

Eating Sweet Potatoes. He gets it on his face then bites the table then he puts his forehead on the table to see his feet or the floor. He also rubs his mouth with his hands and then rubs his head.
















At the zoo with uncle Kenny.
















Bouncing with Aunt Beci















LOOK! A PICTURE OF US! TOGETHER!!!

Oy!

So I pulled out a few pairs of pants when we were packing up the truck. I only had one pair of jeans in the house that I would wear for an entire day and it was getting old. So I grabbed three pairs of pants that were casual and were a bit loose on me before I entered Pregoland. I've been into a few of my looser clothes since having Jacob and most a just a little tight at this point.

But when I pulled on these packed away pants? Oh, has my body changed. I don't weight more but there is more of me. Pants don't fit right now when they used to be baggy in the tummy and thighs and booty. I know I can blame part of this on the fact that I eat whatever I want, all day long, and I hardly work out because it is either cold or windy. On the days it's been nice, I try to go for a walk but I don't always think about it. I know I need to put effort into returning to a body I don't avoid in the mirror. Actually, I don't even see myself in the mirror because the bathroom only has small mirrors and I never go check my outfit in the big mirror at the back of the house because who cares? CS isn't here, Jacob doesn't care, and I hardly go anywhere. Plus, if I can't see it, then it's not really a muffin top. Right?

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

So You'll Probably Shoot Me For This

I went to Dooce's reading in Denver last week. I got there really late because I assumed that the only Tattered Cover was down on Colfax but the actual signing was in Highland's Ranch which is as far away as driving to Guam. I should have just given up when I found out at 7:10 but instead I drove across town to make it just before 8 PM. Of course, this means that I had to sit way in the back and that my number for the signing was 170. Sitting in the back wasn't so bad since I have a noisy baby who likes to make himself known. I was more bummed about being #170 in the book signing line because I had the baby with me and his current bedtime is 9 PM. I bought the book and waited around forever to get it signed and I think that Heather is a lovely woman and I do not know how she sat there for three hours and signed books while 7 months pregnant. Kudos to her! I wish she wasn't so famous that the bookstore was packed with fans because it would have been great to have a small gathering, much like the author visits in college. A few days later, I finished her book and I have to say that I'm disappointed. I think she's a wonderful writer and I love her blog and she's one of the few bloggers that I've gone through and read all her archives. I love that she can support her family on her website. But I was under the impression that I paid $30 for a book I haven't already read online. I can understand taking some of your blog and putting it into the book. But so much of the book has already been published and you can read it for free! I'm still interested in reading the book she put together from other bloggers about fathers, but I wish I would have saved my money. Of course, I'd regret it if I hadn't gone and gotten it. I'm always so remorseful.

Monday, April 13, 2009

Packed Up, Shipped Out

CS came this weekend and took all our stuff away in a Budget truck. He flew in at 10:30 on Saturday morning and left at 4 PM on Sunday. So about thirty hours and all our stuff is on its way to Mobile, Alabama. I thought that CS's storage unit was going to take up all the space in the truck but we had quite a lot of room left when he brought it to my house to pack the rest. I didn't think I had that much to pack here, but I'm pretty sure that Jacob and I filled the other half of the truck. We didn't even pack all the things we have here because we still need a lot, obviously. Now that all our stuff is gone, including the dog, it seems like we need to be gone as well. I tried to get a ticket out for Saturday to be there for CS's birthday but now they are over a hundred dollars and that's just not worth it for a one way ticket. And we still don't know if CS has the job in Mobile he tested for on Friday so tomorrow should tell us all we need to know. Although, probably not. Since CS had to leave his truck in Gulfport and he can't just drive the packed truck around. Unless we have some miles to spare. Which we should. Somehow they gave us a smaller truck but more mileage. I take more mileage over bigger truck.

We now begin a countdown of when we get to leave and move into our new house. I'm terribly ancy to get there and start unpacking. Going through our stuff was like a tease to me. All sorts of things have been packed away for seven months now and I finally see them but only to pack them up and watch then drive away without any idea when we can get down there to put a home together.

Jacob has been having a rough time at night this past week. He has decided that sleeping next to me in the BEST!THING! and around 1:30, he wakes up to nurse and refuses to go back to his bed. This is not good for me because I can't sleep well when I'm next to him and I can't sleep at all when he's screaming in his crib at the foot of the bed. I think it's due to teething, because the binky just pisses him off and he refuses to lay on his side, which had previously been his go-to sleeping position. It's been really annoying at night to fight with him over sleeping and I see now why parents just break down over things like this because I'm tired too. I am not a good mama at 1:30 in the morning. I am irritated because my baby is being a brat. And I am mad at him for arching his back and shaking his head and refusing to be comforted. Then I get up in the morning and read about someone who just lost their baby and I have to remind myself that I am so lucky.

Wednesday, April 08, 2009

Baby Likes Bananas!

So we are in the midst of solid feeding around these parts. I started with bananas and have worked my way to apples, pears, sweet potatoes, and squash. For a while he would only eat apples and pears if I mixed them with bananas but I think we've moved past that. Once he tried sweet potatoes, there was no holding him back. It was like I'd been holding out on him. He's just like a little bird, holding his mouth open everytime the spoon gets close. Another trick is to get his face nice and messy, then rub his open mouth onto the table edge. After that, he puts his forehead on the table to look down at his feet, thus getting his entire face dirty. Luckily he likes to clean up with the dishrag afterwards. Which is mostly just sucking the moisture out of a washcloth. I'm not going to lie, he's gone to bed with dried-on peaches in his hair.

CS has been told that he can have a job with LPR when the job picks up in May. For now, he's taking a weld test for copper nickel welding down in a shipyard in Mobile. So we will be able to get by for a bit until he can get on with LPR. Then I just pray that the job drama is over. Maybe in six months, he can go back to the shipyard in MS and get paid more but we'll see. Our lease is for a year, so unless we want to lose a ton of money again, we're going to stay put.

We were trying to get the owner of the house to keep the utilities on for us so we don't have to pay huge deposits and when CS called to find out, our realtor told us that the house we leased is going to be bought by someone else. So, instead of getting our check back, CS and the realtor went house hunting. And they brought back a BIG ONE. We were going to lease a two bedroom house with a little yard and a shed. We were going to have to get a fridge, washer, and dryer. But we would have a gas stove! Now, we have FOUR BEDROOM and two bath, one level house that backs up next to a creek, that leads to another creek, that leads to Mobile Bay. And get this! We only have to pay $25 more a month for it. The man who wants to buy the house we have a lease on offered to match the rent for another place. The new house was $995 but the owner cut it down to $875 and he will pay $75 to us and we will pay the $800. Two more bedroom for $25 a month? Ok. EVERYONE! Come to our house for the holidays, any holiday. Maybe just a long weekend? Quit your job and move in? The downside to this is that we have no furniture. How am I going to furnish an entire house, when everything I own fits into a storage unit, and half that unit is made up of tools. Oh my. I guess there will be a lot of thrift shopping. Anyone want to come live with us?

Saturday, April 04, 2009

OMG

I won a book about using an SLR from Y of JoyUnexpected ! Audrey totally emailed me to tell me that I won and I didn't even know it yet! Because even though there was an email from Y in my inbox, I didn't actually open it until later because I thought it was just an update on a comment, but it's not like I got updates from all the other comment. Having a baby has fried my brain.

In other news, CS has a job that doesn't start until MAY 10TH. But hey, it's a job. And what will irk me the most is it's a job with a company he already worked for. OH YES IT IS. The same company that he worked for in AZ when he quit while I was pregnant. If you recall, there was much woe and many, many hundreds of dollars sent to damn Cobra. I'm trying not to be bitter.

But who cares! I won a book!

Thursday, April 02, 2009

Still In Waiting Land

CS is trying to find a job in Mobile, AL. We thought he would be able to get on with the same company that brought him down here in a different shipyard but they wanted a type of welding that he doesn't do. Unfortunately, he hasn't found anything down there yet but he's still looking.

We also have a deposit on a house and a move in date of the 10th, as well as a plane ticket and UHaul rental for Chris to get all our stuff down there. I'm not sure what we are going to do about that mess but CS is going to go, go, go and try to find something tomorrow.

Jacob has 6 teeth. Enough said. No, wait. And he's starting to pull up on things and leaning forward to get on to his hands and knees. SAVE ME FROM MOBILITY!!!

Hunter is fat.

And I need stop staying up so late and get to bed before midnight.