Survival and sick

I am so partied out! Ryan's halloween party at preschool was cute, but cold. It decided to (finally) get cold over here. They had little stations set up for the kids, and they tried to do a parade but getting 21 3 yr olds to follow in a line doesn't really work. The big party here was fun, but we couldn't do any outside play due to RAIN. Again, the pregnant me is much happier in the cooler weather but 15 kids stuck inside...It all worked out. No one seemed too excited to paint (yipee) so I was able to save my floors. We made the foam halloween magnets and that was just crafty enough, and not messy. My house is a wreck, but that is fine. Ethan managed but just kept saying "thats a lot of kids." Pictures to follow.

Ryan had a runny nose yesterday which I thought was allergies, but today has an added cough so I'm guessing we have another cold. I don't think we'll be venturing out much tonight, maybe just to my parents. Kind of a bummer.

On the housing front, they countered our offer, which was expected. Now we (Ethan) has to decide what our counter is. We are so close, I hope. It would be great to be moved in by December and have time to get settled before April. I have to keep telling Ethan how much I love the house and hoping it doesn't come down to haggling over 5k, because in the long run, that is nothing. Keep the fingers crossed.

Tomorrow

Tomorrow is the big play group halloween/birthday party. HERE. 22 kids, 20 adults. Poor Ethan. He has no idea what he is in for! And paint will be involved. Scary. I managed to disinfect most of the toys in the playroom, and vacuum. I also went through Ryan's book basket (its a laundry basket) and took out the baby books. He even gave me permission that it was ok to give them to the baby--yater. I have a few spots to carpet clean in there (thank you to my dogs--honestly, they need to quit eating plastic and then throwing it up). Ethan's mom is coming over later, hopefully to keep Ryan occupied so I can finish decorating and cleaning up whatever needs to be cleaned up. Cuz right now half of our "L" couch is in the entry way. Not very welcoming for guests, but Ethan wanted to clean the carpets in the family room and I said YES, PLEASE. That was last weekend. You do not need to ask why the couch is still in the entry. YOU ALREADY KNOW.

I have dips for the moms, jello (in halloween shapes) for the kids, with the Chex "autumn" mix (it has m&ms and candy corn), cupcakes, goldfish and water/juice boxes. I think I'm covered. The treat boxes came from Lillian Vernon. They are shaped like pieces of cake, and when you put them all together to make the full cake it is so cute! There is an organic lollipop from Trader Joes (though I'm not sure there is really a point to buying organic from Mexico--what's up TJ's?), Yogos (which i think are gross but the kids seem to enjoy) and some halloween bubbles. Ethan is in charge of cleaning up the backyard tomorrow, in between us taking Ryan to preschool, then going back for his halloween party there. He is gonna be high on sugar!

Our bid on the house expires tonight at 5:00. Isn't it nice that the agent was just printing out the offer yesterday (tuesday) when our agent called to confirm she had received it--one of many calls she had made to her. She e-mailed it to her Sunday night. UG. The agent did say she was going to try and get the sellers to take it, especially since we are nearing the "holiday" season and people tend to quit house hunting then. Not to mention there are no other offers AND they are priced way too high. So... more waiting. I am willing to give them some extra time, but not too much because every day we lose looking at other homes...not that I want to keep looking.

Back to cleaning...wish me luck for tomorrow. Or, wish Ethan look. I hope I don't find him curled up in his car in the garage just waiting for the madness to end.

We are not defeated

Don't count us out. We put yet another offer in on a house, or if its not already in, will be in today. I had a moment of clarity yesterday (odd as of late) when I drove by one of the houses we looked at last week. It happens to be across from our agent, listed out of our range. She showed it to us because she knows it is overpriced (way overpriced--by about 40k at least). She also knows the sellers. They are divorcing and need to sell. It would be nice to deal with them instead of these banks. When I drove by I just couldn't figure out why we would let it go without at least trying. So, we put in what we think the house is worth, according to recent comps and Ethan's other research. Our agent didn't scoff at us like we were way off, so I think that is good. Its going to be hard for the sellers to stomach I'm sure, especially when its less than what they paid for the house brand new in 2002, but that is the reality of the market right now. We sold our Oceanside house as the market was starting to go down, and we took a lower price just to be done with it after 3 months on the market (and 3 months of paying a mortgage and rent). If they want and need out, they should at least counter.

The house is great, has everything we wanted. The only con is that the backyard isn't done. Nothing. Its dirt, just like when they bought the house in 2002. They either never got around to landscaping or couldn't afford it. That is another reason Ethan thought the house was way over priced. It has great upgrades: hardwood all downstairs, plantation shutters, solid surface counters in the kitchen and it is immaculate, but those almost get cancelled out when you know a backyard could cost 20-30k. We ofcourse would do it ourselves, like we have done before (we meaning Ethan and whoever he begs to help him).

I printed out the invitations to Ryan's family party today, now all I need is stamps. It is hard to find a store that sells stamps here. I don't know why. Rite Aide...no stamps. A friend offered to make all the cupcaks for Ryan's playgroup party and I said YES. That is one less thing to do. We went to Trader Joe's yesterday and I got the rest of the organic lollipops for the treat boxes. There is still much halloween decorating to do, but at least I won't have to bake anything that day--which is also the day of Ryan's preschool halloween party so I have to attend and lose some precious party prepping hours. For the family party we are doing catered deli sandwiches and pizza. Less stress for me. Ethan is cleaning the carpets as I type :)

In other grand news, Ryan has slept through the night til 6:30 for 2 nights! He was having frequent wake ups before, and the crying would make him cough...stupid allergies. The coughing would get out of control so I would have to go in there. Hopefully that is now over.

Oh...Ryan goes off track for the month of November. Uh...

On the brighter side...

Popeye's opened :) If we can't have the beach to remind us of San Diego, we can have Popeyes. Watch me put on the weight now Dr....bleep.

Nikki is doing better. Ethan got her to eat her dinner last night and breakfast this morning. No more vomiting, though she is still drinking more water than normal. I believe the liver meds are working. SIL/vet tech said we didn't need to bring her in, since we were doing what they would tell us to do anyway, and the $100 blood test probably wasn't necessary since this has happened before. So we wait. If she has another unexplained episode we'll do some further testing, and I guess its a possiblity she can be on the $80 liver meds for the rest of her life. If she is acting fine, I'm fine. I think she knows we would never let her suffer. She gets a lot of alone time with me on the couch when Ryan naps, and with Ethan at night when Ryan is asleep so I'm confident she knows we love her and trusts us to do the right thing. The funny thing is that Shelby got to eat 4x yesterday! I kept forgetting to put Nikki's food up if I left the room. Then BAM it was gone. She is so sneaky. She used to be so obvious and you could hear her chowing down. I never heard a peep. And she still thought she was gonna get dinner. As Ryan would say "silly dog."

I am trying harder to set my brain right and accept some help for Ryan's party. I realized its next Thursday and I have nothing done, not even a list, which is very unlike me. I enjoy a good list. Time has been getting away from me and I haven't felt myself. We probably missed out on bidding on 2 houses we liked just because I couldn't process everything right now. I apologized to our agent and I hope she understands. Its weird how all of a sudden normal stuff seems so hard to keep up with. This weekend I will make a list for the party, coordinate help, and relax.

Pictures to follow of Ryan at our playgroup halloween carnival. They outdid themselves. There was a mini cemetary and one of the headstones was for Martha Stewart and it said "she dug her own grave." Isn't that hysterical?

Gonna be kind of a downer...sorry

There has been a lot of stuff going on the last few weeks and it all seems to coming to a head at once, but at the same time, I hope settling down. My grandma has lung cancer. She is not or ever was a smoker. She is 78 and healthy for her age. In my whole life I don't remember her being really sick or having to be hospitalized. She works in her garden everyday, and can hoe weeds faster and better than me. Up until recently she mowed her own lawn which was almost half an acre. And, she has been caring for her daughter (my aunt) who is going through chemo for ovarian cancer (which has spread). At the time of testing and doing her lung biopsy they found out she has three blocked arteries around her heart. Now they are waiting for the oncologist to talk to the heart doctor and coordinate treatment, if any. She always said she didn't want to go through chemo, after seeing what it can do, but she is open to at least discussing it now. Surgery is not an option due to the location of the tumor. This has been bringing back feelings and memories of when my grandfather passed away 3 years ago, almost to the day. He died unexpectedly (though he was in a nursing home) 4 days before Ryan was born. Something I haven't even come to terms with yet because during the time when I should have been grieving I was having a baby and just surviving. Cancer on my dad's side of the family is rampant and its scary. Very scary. So, if you are a praying kind of person or someone who sends out good thoughts, send them out for grandma. I pray for her peace of mind and body.

Our dog Nikki is sick again. She threw up twice this morning, wouldn't eat, wouldn't move, then scarfed down water when I brought it to her--a sign of a liver/kidney issue. Again. This time she did not get into anything or eat anything bad that we know of. Believe me, its usually obvious. I called my sister in law (vet tech) to make sure I could give her the liver support meds on an empty stomach because she wouldn't eat. She also suggested some Pepcid and pain meds to hopefully perk her up. I dropped Ryan off at school, went to my pedicure appt, ran to Ride Aide for the Pepcid, and came home. She peed in the house, expected since she never went out in the morning. I cleaned that up, gave her the meds and some treats and cheese to hopefully not make her stomach any worse. Now we wait. If she is having another liver episode, this means its happening on its own, without the trigger of her injesting something bad. Which I think means we are in the beginnings of liver failure or cancer. It was only a few months ago that we went through this, agonized over possible cancer, then found out her values went back to normal after the liver support meds. I just can't have her suffer. And I can't watch her look sad.

I had more to say since I got some info on my hospital and the spinal situation, and we looked at some houses yesterday, but I think I've said enough for now. I just need a break.

Best line ever

I am a sucker for romantic movie quotes, though Tom Cruise's "you complete me" was a bit much. I tend to forget them within a few hours, but I heard something today I thought was the best line ever--and it was on TV. I started watching "Raising the Bar" on TNT. Its a new show this season and I love it. After working in a law office for 4 yrs I'm into court shows, not the CSI kind of stuff, but the actual court antics/lawyers, etc. Anyway, one of the public defenders has been interested in his boss (the head defender) but it wasn't very obvious. They have good chemistry and friendship, but I kinda thought they dug eachother. She had a little bit of a jealous moment and he FINALLY picked up on it, though she denied it. And then he said this:

If you were to say you were available, no other women in the world would exist.

OMG.

Always get a home inspection

ALWAYS. Sadly, we are cancelling our offer on the house. We had our inspection on Sunday--well, not even a real inspection. He didn't even go inside. He saw signs of water damage outside, most likely a defect from when the house was built 10 yrs ago. The inspector had seen these signs before, and thought it was going to be pretty severe. The only way to really check was to get special permission to make holes in the walls and look for moisture. Basically, he thought the flashing in the windows was installed wrong, or the stucco was put on poorly. It was just too much to even think about dealing with. Every window had water staining, especially the windows at the back of the house (3 bedrooms, family room/kitchen). The window that was replaced upstairs was most likely because they thought it was leaking, but really it was the wall seeping. I am thankful we had such a great and honest inspector, and that we didn't get a surprise after we moved in. It really could have been a mess and cost us a ton of money--like taking off all the stucco and replacing all windows, and dealing with any mold which could have meant replacing boards. You do not want structural issues in a house. So, we have to start looking again.

Looking at houses was fun in the beginning. Now I am just tired of it. I have probably seen 50+ houses, and only been excited about a few. Hardly any (hardly) are move in ready. We can only take on so much with a baby on the way, and wanting to keep money in the bank for any emergencies. I'm sad Ethan won't get his 4 car garage, and might have to settle for a 2 car which I know won't make him happy. It will also mean I will have to find other places to store things if we don't have that extra space.

In other news, 3 yrs ago today was my due date with Ryan. So, wait about 12 more days for the real thing :) I also found out that the hospital I'm supposed to deliver at doesn't offer epidurals, they only do spinals. From what I've researched they are usually used for c-sections. You are numb higher, but its only one injection. They don't leave the tube in. Its one injection and it only lasts for about 2 hrs. With Ryan it was about 5 hrs from the time I got the epidural til Ryan was born. I'm not sure I could hang on that long and wait for the spinal. I'm going to check with my OB at my next appt and see what she says. Its possible I might have to switch hospitals which means switching doctors almost midway through my pregnancy. I'm ok with it, but I wonder if its weird to switch because I want the option of an epidural.