Play Therapist

I found a Play Therapist that Dave and I had an appointment with this week. We both liked her a lot and think that Dillon will as well. Dillon meets with her on Tuesday. There will be periodic meetings with us to work things out.

It feels better for me to recognize and acknowledge that the problems we're having aren't going to go away. We have a little girl that is hurting a great deal and we're going to do everything we can to help her feel better. She's looking forward to meeting "the lady who is going to help me feel better."

Still not a lot of detail I know, but just wanted to give an update as to what's going on.

Sorry for the absence

The short version is this- Dillon is struggling with this move and her dad being at work so much. I am, too, but can recognize that it really won't be that long that he works so much. Once the hospital is up and running well, things will get easier for him. Anyway, Dillon is struggling. It's been like this low simmer for the last couple of months that has escalated to a full boil over the last few days. I don't want to put details out there right now. We're trying to figure out how to help her and us as a family. She is clearly hurting a great deal and needs... I don't know what she needs, exactly, but we're going to figure it out.

Random pictures

Lots going on the last few weeks. Here are just a few random pictures from things going on:

1st horse show! All she got to do was lead line (which is essentially just a pony ride) but it was still fun watching the other kids and seeing what she'll be working on in the future.

Dillon and I right before a wedding we went to a couple of weeks ago. She was my date and was so excited to get all dressed up and go!






Corryn with a pull up she found at my mom's house and my shoes from the wedding-




Science experiements- color change milk:

Perspective

Dillon woke up really early this morning while I still had the news on. We've been talking about voting and what it means. I was explaining to her that Barack Obama won the election and will be the new president. She hasn't seen a lot of the political process since we watch very little TV and was trying to figure out who Obama was. Instead of describing him, I just pointed him out on the TV.

To clarify, she asked: "You mean the one with the really short hair?"

Interesting. Not the man with the dark skin- the man with the short hair. What a great place it would be if that was the extent of the differences we could see in one another- short hair vs. long hair.

Did you vote?

I did- on Friday. Indiana allows for early voting. I'm really glad since Dillon woke up vomiting this morning and remained sick the rest of the day. I hate to admit it, but I think that 2 hour lines with a sick child probably would've gotten the better of me.

Here's why I vote:

Trying to find the good

I feel like every post starts with something along the lines of "we're still adjusting...some days are great, some not so much, blah, blah, blah".

There is still just this pervasive unsettled-ness inherent to a change like this. It feels incredibly lonely sometimes.

Today, I want to focus on the good.

The weather is great. The colors are really pretty and it's warm enough to be out there enjoying them. This was the first Halloween we had actual trick or treaters coming to our house. It was kind of funny watching them trying to get us to answer our door when we were out doing our own trick or treating. There's a trick in there somewhere for next year, I'm sure.

We're making friends, finding fun things to do. We've started a gymnastics class for homeschoolers for Dillon and a toddler class for Corryn and me. I even met a mom last week that I really liked. We've started having a regular playdate with one of the girls from the homeschool group we're part of. Her mom and I have very similar homeschooling and parenting philosophies, so I'm thrilled to be getting together regularly with them. Dillon is LOVING the horseback riding. I have to admit that as a horse person myself, I love taking her. I was extremely proud of her last week when she had her first fall off her horse. She got right back on without a single tear.

Dave is enjoying his job. It would be nice if he didn't have to enjoy it so much of the time, but I'm focusing on the good here. The rental house is good. We're thinking about just buying it and staying put for a few years. It makes a lot of sense from a financial standpoint. I keep meaning to take some pictures of it post. I'll get it done eventually.

Meet Pumpkin

We started horseback riding lessons soon after getting here. She LOVES it. Pam is her teacher and tells her she's doing really, really well. She's been riding Epona, but asked about doing the cart sometime. Pam says she regularly uses it as an alternative way of teaching the same prinicples as riding on the saddle, so here she is on the cart. I even got to go around the ring a couple of times. It was a blast!

This and that

Just a cute picture.

We're still here. Still figuring it out. Dave is back to working a lot trying to get the hospital ready to open. He's been named the director of the ICU and they don't have enough intensive care trained docs to cover all the time. I'm glad it's not my job to figure it out. He promises me he won't work all the hours forever, just until they are able to get more doctors on board. It's still better than residency and fellowship- at least now he comes home happy most days in spite of the stresses of the job. I think there's a lot more appreciation for his input now. So it's nice having him not so stressed out.

We're enjoying our new homeschool group. It's a small one, but it suits us. The other moms and dads help out a lot with Corryn, so I actually get to have a conversation or two when we meet. We've been going to eat lunch together after the park time on Tuesday, then going bowling every other Thursday. I really couldn't be much worse at bowling, but it's fun hanging out and Dillon's having a great time with it.

I've learned living in a subdivision with kids your own child's age in it has a definite drawback. Dillon obsessively looks out the window mulitple times per day to see if her friend is home. Unfortunately, her friend is in preschool/daycare all day and gets home around the time I am getting dinner started. SO, I'm often in the position of having to say no to going to see her friend. Far too often this results in an enormous meltdown with her telling me I don't want her to have friends- even after we've spent the entire afternoon with new friends. Such fun.

This particular friend is moving to a new house close by in a couple of weeks, so maybe that'll improve that situation. I hope, because it's hard to be sympathetic to her adjustment to a new place when part of it is a huge meltdown every night. I feel kind of lost as to how to address it- tell her she can't see her friend if it doesn't stop? That feels counterproductive to the larger issue of needing friends. I don't know.

Settling in

D: When will it start to feel like home here?
W: (Knowing that she wants to see a date on the calendar) Well, honey, it's hard to say. It's really something that happens slowly over some time, not really like one thing happens that suddenly makes it home. Does it still not feel like home here to you?
D: No. I miss our old house and I miss my friends in New Hampshire.

Me too. Well, not really the house, just the trees. I told her it takes me about a year to feel settled in a new place. Of course, she doesn't know how long that is and it probably won't take her that long. We're getting there, making friends, learning our way around. But the excitement of newness is wearing off for her, so the difficulty of starting all over is starting to hit.

How fun!

Concord grapes, picked from our yard-


Fruit leather- my first attempt, ever!


It's like grape jelly in your hand mmmmmm.....

Pictures

Corryn, almost 20 months, in the front yard:

Dillon shucking corn. Mmmm...yummy Midwest sweet corn:

Our back yard-
Just kidding- it's really a local park :)

Up and Down

That's where we are- good and bad, up and down. Dillon has made a couple of friends, but is still definitely missing her friends in NH. She spent a good bit of time with one of her new friends-one of our neighbors this weekend. Unfortunately, the fun ended when the little girl- M- got in Peaches face & Peaches responded by snapping at her, leaving red marks on M's face. No broken skin, but scared M quite a bit. I just knew that would be the last time M would be able to come over to our house.

I talked with M's mom last night after the excitement all settled. She was very understanding and assures me that M will still be able to come over. Her husband was more upset by it, but says he'll be OK with it. I assured her that Peaches will be kept out of kids' access from now on. Peaches has always been so good with my kids, I just never imagined she'd snap at another kid. In any case, lesson learned.

I'm enjoying having Dave around more, though it's lonelier now that he's gone back to work. I liked the moms at the homeschool group last week and have made friends with M's mom, though she works full time. I have to admit that I don't really enjoy this process of starting all over again. Certainly I like making new friends, but enjoy it much more in the setting of having an established set of friends rather than having to do it from scratch.

It's still good overall, really. I know that it takes time and we've not been here that long. We're checking out the parks in the area, doing our best get out and do things. Corryn's unpredictable napping makes it hard to participate in things since I know if I take her somewhere when she's tired or likely to be tired on the way home, there will be screaming in the car seat the entire way home. I hate having her scream in the car seat, but I don't really think it benefits us mentally to be home all day waiting for her to nap. It's all about the balance and I'm struggling some with establishing a new rhythm and routine for us.

Here are a couple of recent pictures. Notice the new bike-

Must wear big sister's helmet even though I have my own that also belonged to big sister...

To my NH friends

What to say and how to say it? There are so many sentiments swirling around in my head that I'm having trouble collecting them into a cohesive expression of how much you've meant to me.

You were what made leaving New Hampshire difficult. You were what made it livable for me while I struggled through the seemingly endless winters and made the far-too-short-for-me summers so much more fun. It was all of you that helped keep me sane while my husband-against any wishes of his own- worked way too many hours.

You helped me figure out my way in parenting and solidifying the decision to homeschool. You were my family when mine was so far away. You celebrated with me when exciting things were happening and supported me through the difficult things. You bouyed me when I was just so burned out I didn't think I could survive this process of a husband in medical training coupled with 2 young children.

You made the agonizing process of saying goodbye both so wonderful and so difficult all at the same time. We were so very well fed, given heartfelt well wishes and beautiful remembrances. You entertained my children so I could take of things and helped get us out the door to close on our house. It meant the world to me, but made it heartwrenching to leave behind.

I cried as we left town for the last time.

To say thank you isn't enough. Helen Keller was quoted as saying "What we have once enjoyed we can never lose. All that we love deeply becomes a part of us."

You are now a part of me and although things are pretty good here, I miss you a great deal. I pray that I find something as wonderful here.

So far, so good...

Finally, a chance to write a little. Dave and Dillon are taking my mom to the airport in Indianapolis while I'm home with a napping Corryn.

We're doing pretty well, I have to say. My mom has been here for 2 weeks and has been a tremendous help in making this transition with 2 young children. The house is functional, though there are still boxes to deal with. It'll get done eventually.

The rental house is pretty nice- and a good bit bigger than what we moved from. And lighter. We had the darkest house in New Hampshire, so all these white walls and windows are a welcome change for me. We're in a cookie cutter housing development which is fine for the time being, but definitely isn't our dream. The neighbors, thus far, are really nice & keep bringing goodies our way. There are also a few too many door to door salesman for my tastes. Sidewalks are everywhere, which we've taken many walks on already. Dillon is now a pro at riding the little bike that we have & is beyond ready to graduate up to a real bike. We plan on saving like crazy for the next year to 2 years to find/remodel/build our dream house.

The community is mostly good as well. For the first several days we tended to drive through the industrial parts, just because that was the most direct and most familiar route. I started hearing this little voice inside my head "what have we done moving to this ugly, industrial place?" I made an effort to start taking different routes & it has made all the difference. I really do like it here. The farmer's market is good, though vastly different (disappointingly so for Dillon) from the one we left behind. THere are tons of parks, so we're making it our goal to work through them. The people are friendly. I can get pretty much all the foods I like to buy (such a small thing that makes me so happy!).

We start horseback riding lessons today and believe it or not, have a playdate set up for friday morning. When we met with the owner of the horseback riding place, she offered to connect me with another homeschooling family that she knows. Lo and behold, I got a call from her yesterday. We had a lot in common, so we're getting together. It's a good start. We're going to take the girls to the Indianapolis Children's Museum friday afternoon since Dillon's already been asking to go.

So that's it in a nutshell. I have my moments of sadness in leaving New Hampshire and definitely miss our friends. But I also have a good bit of time in which I'm feeling really good about this move and really excited that we've finally reached what we've been working toward for 12 years.

It's going to be just fine.

Doing OK!

Just a quick note to say that we arrived in Indiana safe and sound. After accidently standing up the cable guy a couple of days after arriving, we got it rescheduled and finally have internet access again. We've made a good bit of progress through the boxes and are settling in a bit.

I'm going tomorrow to try to get my drivers license. To get one from out of state here, you have to re-take the written test, so I have to look over the actual rules of driving (after a number of years of doing so...)so that I'm am not ashamed to show my face in public having failed a driving test! I'll write more & post a few pictures as we get a bit more settled.

An empty house

It's all empty in here- so much so that it echoes. We've been cleaning, though somehow it still looks messy with just the stuff we kept behind for us to use. We close on the house on Monday, so it has to be clean by then.

After cleaning all morning, we took the girls and Dillon's friend E to the local science museum. Other than Dillon's meltdown at not getting to buy junk food out of the vending machine it went well. We're both sad tonight at telling friends goodbye today.

This time getting ready for our move has really highlighted what wonderful friends we've made here. I'll write more about it later when I'm not so exhausted- and after I've enjoyed some of the loaf of gluten free bread that someone annonymously left still-warm in the mailbox for me.

Packed

The packing is done. We have a down day today since the truck isn't going to be loaded until tomorrow. Well, sort of a down day, there's still a fair number of things to do around here, but I'm thankful for the chance to get them done without having to dodge the movers.

Dillon's feeling pretty rattled. She goes to find something she wants and finds that it isn't where she's used to it being and gets upset. Sometimes. Sometimes she takes it all in stride. Largely it depends on how well fed she is and willing she's been to eat during the day. All I can do is try my best- I can't force her to eat.

As thoroughly not fun as saying goodbye is, I have to admit that I'm ready to get this moving stuff done and get life put back together again.

Ack!

The moving people will be here in less than 3 hours to start packing up the house. In that time I have to feed myself and the kids, clean the kitchen so they can pack up the dishes, finish up the last 2 loads of laundry, finish separating out the stuff we're keeping here with us from the stuff they can pack up, and finish packing the suitcases that we'll be living out of for most of the next 2 weeks. Dave is gone all day taking his anesthesia board exam in Burlington, VT, so I have a babysitter (aka lifesaver!) coming. I'm actually pretty organized about the move, but there's so many things that happen last minute that it feels crazy and stressful right now.

Today is also the last day of horseback riding, so Dillon has to tell her beloved Pipsqueak goodbye. I've taken lots of pictures & will try to get a few more today.

Deep breath in, deep breath out. I'm going to survive this chaos...I'm going to survive this chaos...

Did you know?

Did you know that Emergency Medical Services recommends that if you let your toddler play with your cell phone that you take the battery out? Did you know that it was because you can still dial 911 even with the keypad locked?

Not that I would have any firsthand knowledge of that.

It's getting close and I don't want to say goodbye

I'm really sad about leaving today. It's hitting me how close it is. I'm truly excited about what's ahead. But I'm also truly sad about what I'm leaving, at least at this time of year. If this were January and we were still facing months of winter, this would be easier, but leaving friends would still be so, so difficult. The friends I made here helped get me through what I imagine we'll look back on as a tough 5 years. We're a long way from family. Dave worked a lot. Really, really a lot. While Dillon was 3 months old when we got here, this is where I really became a parent.

I took a walk this morning, Corryn in the stroller, Dave and Dillon still home sleeping. I got a chance to take some pictures. This is one of my favorite spots- one that we've walked to many times. I find it to be an amazingly peaceful place.


I stopped at my church where there is a marble bench behind the church and sat for a little while, crying a little, thankful for the opportunity to not have to be strong for Dillon's sake. I wanted to soak in as much as I could. I want to remember all the things I've come to love here. We're going from a yard in which there is nothing but shade to a yard in a rental house with nothing but a few ornamental trees. I'm going to miss the trees. We saw a deer staring at us from the woods behind the house the other day, the middle of the afternoon. Our neighbors called the other night to tell us there was a fox in their backyard. I'm going to miss the wildlife.



I really don't regret the decision to move to the Midwest. It's a great move for us with a lot positive going for it. Yes, we can come back and visit- and will. But right now, I'm sad really dread saying goodbye.

On a happier note

A silly grin from Corryn.

We got good news regarding our move. The hospital has increased its moving allowance to $10,000 from $8,000. We were going to owe a little over their previous limit, so now maybe we won't! We've gotten rid of a good number of heavy items, so it's possible.

I've been working really hard on keeping my own cool with Dillon's meltdowns, trying to manage my own stress through this. We got through the transition to becoming a big sister- we can do this. Dave's schedule has let up a bit (though there is still the board exam looming overhead next month), so I have been and will continue to take the opportunity to steal a little time to myself here and there. Really, a walk in the mornings once or twice a week or taking Dillon on an errand with him is all I really need. I just have to seize the opportunities where they lie and all will be well.

Tough transitions

I am not Superwoman. I am not Supermom or Superwife. I'm not Super anything for that matter, except perhaps Super tired at times. I'll confess that I often don't feel like I have the energy to get us through this transition to a new life. I have trouble with it myself- the uprooting, the having everything in disarray for a period of weeks, having to make all new friends, having to search to find all your regular foods at the grocery store. I know, poor me, so many have it so much worse- and they do. But not acknowledging that this is difficult for me doesn't make me feel anymore empathetic to others'. On top of all, I have a 5 year old that has trouble with change.

There have been so many meltdowns over such small things as of late. She has taken to yelling "NO!" at Corryn a thousand times a day. She declares "Leave me ALONE!" in one breath, then falls apart when you do- but gets more angry when you don't. Much crying, much screaming, much clinging. I just feel smothered sometimes.

How to help her through this? She brings up questions about the move occasionally- will we take her toys, why can't we just move the house- and we talk about them, but I know there's no way to completely prepare her for all this and how utter unsettling it can feel.

Inspection

All came out well with the inspection- no requests for anything to be repaired at all. We're waiting on the buyer to sign off on the inspection, but there should be no reason for her to do so.

The mover is chosen and I'm going to nail down the dates on Monday. Then I can get going on the 10,000 details required to move 1,000 miles- airfare for the girls and I, hotels, rental cars, trailer for Dave to pull....

4th of July

Happy 4th of July! I was explaining to Dillon that the 4th of July was when we celebrated our country's birthday. She relied "I think our country likes chocolate cake- can we make some for it?" Never miss an opportunity to have chocolate.

And on a related note, I wanted to give a big congratulations to my friend Karen for becoming a US Citizen yesterday!

And so it goes at my house...

Someone came out last week to do a moving estimate. We walked outside to take a look at the outside furniture and found the dog out there. She had pooped, but let's just say had not quite gotten rid of all of it. She kept trying to get inside, which, of course, I wouldn't let her do. The moving company guy and I went back inside and went through the rooms so he could assess all that. In Dillon's room, I opened the closet with the stuffed animal bin in it. On the top of the pile was her favorite stuffed dog with it's rear end stuck up in the air, neatly covered by a diaper.

Good thing that stuffed dog had it's diaper on. What if it had had the same problem the real dog did? I just hate it when stuffed dog poop gets everywhere.

Inspection done

The house was inspected last thursday- for 3 hours. How nerve-wracking. On top of that, I didn't realize that the buyers accompanied the inspector. We never did, but we've always bought places from out of state. In any case, since I didn't realize this, the house was nowhere near show condition. I know, don't worry about it, they already made an offer, there are kids in the house, yeah, yeah. It's still embarassing having your landry basket of clean underwear sitting in the living room floor because you didn't have time (or weren't inclined...) to fold it.

Still, all mortification aside, it's done and now we're just waiting for the results to see if anything came up. They have 14 days, but if they are wanting anything done, they need to move quick. There's only so much time to get things done between now and August 11.

It's official!

We have accepted the offer on our house! It's a great offer, closing just a couple of days before we leave. We would love to have closed earlier and just rented back, but hey, we'll take this!

We really are moving

We're leaving in about 7 weeks. The goodbyes are starting to happen. We've been to our last gymnastics class. Dillon's been going for 2 1/2 years with mostly the same teachers the whole time so she was a little sad to say goodbye to them. I found out last night that our good friends that are also moving to Indiana leave in about 3 weeks. Somehow the reality of how close their move is made it really strike home to me how close our move is. So here's the bitter part of the move- the goobyes.

On a definite up note, we have another offer on the house! It's a real offer this time from someone pre-approved for the amount they've offered. There was a small 'hiccup' as our agent described it, in that the agent that wrote up the offer wasn't actually licensed to do so in our state, but messages I received after that seemed to indicate that it was worked out. So we're reservedly excited.

We really are moving.

Tired day

It's been a busy week- nothing in particular to report, plans just changed at the last minute several times this week between illness (not ours, thank goodness) and a house showing. Today, we're just hanging out at home. It's rainy outside, we've done some cooking, the girls have both had baths. Dillon is currently very hungry and refusing to eat, as usual.

In any case, I'm kind of tired today. I wish I could be like a dolphin and let one side of my brain sleep at a time. At least then I could get a little rest time today and still know that my climbing toddler would still be safe. She's getting pretty creative in moving things around to get to what she wants.

A legitimate offer on the house would make me feel much more energetic, I'm sure. We countered the offer we received and have heard nothing else from them. Turns out they were only approved for a loan for $27,000 less than we were asking. Anyway, we've dropped the house by $10,000 in the hopes that it will help this move a little faster.

Keep your fingers crossed.

An offer

We got an official offer on the house last night- for $50,000 less than our asking price. Not sure at all what the rationale is for that.

Obviously there is going to be some negotiation. Hopefully we can come to agreeable terms.

We'll see.

Maybe a hearing check is needed

There is a very kind checker at the grocery store that, if she's there, carries my groceries out to my car for me. Today when we got in the car, I was thinking out loud "I need to call and tell the manager how much I appreciate her doing that for me."

D: "What's her name?"
W: "Debbie"
D: "Her name is Deadly?!"

Quote of the day

Dillon, drinking hot cocoa this morning (in this heat!):

"Pretend I'm a puppy and my momma dog accidently made too much hot cocoa out of one of her milk ducts, so her owners pumped it out and gave it to me."

Too much hot cocoa- is there really such a thing?

I wonder if breastfeeding rates would go up if that actually happened? :)

Stuff be gone!

Yesterday, a friend of mine and I had a yard sale. Together we made........





about $600. Yes, that was $600!

I would estimate that 30% of the stuff was mine and 70% was hers,
therefore she made the vast majority of those earnings, but I

a) got rid of lots of usable, but no-longer-needed-by-my-household stuff
b) made enough money to pay for at least of couple of tanks of gas for the upcoming move to Indiana
c) helped enable another person to continue staying home with her children. She came and bought our unsold children's clothing in order to sort and re-list it on e-bay as she has been sucessfully doing for the last 5 years. Yay for her, yay for us!


Earlier this week, I also gave a bin of small sized cloth diapers to a friend to give to another friend for her baby due later this summer.

Woohoo!

Monkey see, monkey do...

Presenting our resident megalodon with her own critter cam (a little too much Walking with Dinosaurs?):



And the little sister megalodon with her own critter cam:



Never a dull moment around here.

But then sometimes she does sit...

For 2 hours now

She's been talking non stop while running a circuit around the living room. All this while a movie is going. She's wearing me out just watching her.

Good news

We spent the morning at the hospital, getting a follow up MRI to an incidental finding on Corryn's MRI last year- the one in which we discovered she's need surgery for a tethered spinal cord. The radiologist that read her MRI last year mentioned the potential for something called a dermoid cyst and the concensus was to do a follow up MRI this year to see if it had done anything. At this point, with just the neurosurgeon having read it, she says she sees nothing out of the ordinary. So, good news. Unless a problem develops there should be no further need for MRIs. She gave us the name of someone in Indianapolis to follow up with, so we will do that once we move.

What a relief.

Make me an offer

So, no offer yet from the people that said they wanted to make one. They are nervous first time home buyers. Hey, I've been there, I understand. Really I do. Or at least I did for the first few days after we were told this great news.

Several people have looked at the house. People often slow down when they are driving by the house and seem to take a look. Dave thinks it's because there is a stop sign there, but I prefer to think they are thinking about how much they'd like to buy our house.

It's cleaner than I think it has been in 5 years (shhhhh!!!!) The yard, which looked a lot like the surface of the moon once the snow finally went away, is again green and looking like a real yard. There are flowers planted and looking lovely.

SO SOMEONE BUY MY HOUSE PLEASE!!!

I can't keep this facade of organization and constant cleanliness up much longer.

We're gone, we're back

The girls and I made a 10 day trip home to Arkansas. Given the immense number of things that could've gone wrong flying alone with 2 young children, I have to say it went exceptionally smoothly. There were testy moments here and there, plus an always fun dirty diaper change in an airplane bathroom, but overall, no problems to speak of. The day after we got there, there were tornados in the vicinity. The upside of that is that in the process of clearing out an interior closet to get into if needed, I found a huge box of old pictures that I spent the rest of the week going through. It was fun remembering the events in the pictures and hearing the stories of the ones before I was born. Otherwise, I did as little running around as I possibly could. After all the house-prep in the 2 weeks leading up to the trip, I was worn out when I got there and wanted nothing more than to rest. My mom took great care of us.

And speaking of the house- there were 4 showings while we were gone, plus an additional 7 visitors at the open house. Per our excellent agent, one of those visitors to the open house plans to make an offer! They are first time home buyers and are getting their own agent before actually making the offer, but supposedly it's coming. There was also someone that came back for a second showing last night. Dare I dream a second and hope there might be 2 offers on our humble abode?!

Let's keep our fingers crossed!

Reality is setting in

We met with the real estate agent on friday. Our plan was to wait until the end of June to put our house up for sale, minimizing the amount of time I have to try to keep it clean with hurricanes Dillon and Corryn plotting against me. Jennifer, the agent was rather persuasive in convincing us that now is when people are really looking at homes in this area and we would be missing out on a huge market to not go ahead and do it now. We'll just ask for an August closing, she says.

All fine and good, and luckily the house was nearly clean enough when she came to look at it (which took hours of cleaning). The yard needs a lot of work and Dave has next to zero time off between now and the day it goes up for sale, though. There were some things she mentioned- Dillon's artwork has to come off of the windows (from her window markers), the kitchen and bathroom counters have to be clear (except appliances) when it's shown. Where am I going to put that stuff that's on it now? The bag of apples, the bananas, the bread.... Where am I going to put the stuff on the bathroom counter? Corryn can get the drawers open.

So, I'm in stressed, cleaning mode. I'm trying not to be neurotic every time a toy gets drug out, but I am sneaking some of messier ones away into storage.

This ought to be interesting. Let's hope it sells quickly so I can go back to not having to worry about it being super clean.

Just one small thing was missing

We were going to a birthday party yesterday at 4:00. All day long Dillon asked- "Is it time for the party?" Over and over and over. Sometime early afternoon she took her clothes off for some reason- I think they got wet. She just left them off and ran around unclothed for the rest of the time. At 3:15 I told her we'd need to leave for the party soon and she needed to put clothes back on. As Dillon will do, she got distracted. Over and over and over. At 3:45, with a 20 minute drive ahead of us to get to the party, she headed down the steps to put her shoes on. I requested that she take another look to see if there was anything else she might need to do before we left.

"Oh yeah! I need to put clothes on!"

Oh to be so comfortable in your own skin that you forget that's all you're wearing...

Catching up again!

Forever ago Karen tagged me to do a 10-20-30 thingie where you tell what you were doing 10, 20 and 30 years ago. It's taken me a while, what can I say?

Ten Years Ago

1998- I was 26, had been married for almost 3 years and Dave was 2 years into his undergrad work, working toward getting into medical school. We were living in the Dallas- Ft. Worth area growing weary of the traffic and the heat. I was working as a Pediatric ICU nurse at Cook Children's Medical Center in Ft. Worth. It seemed like life was hard at that point because we'd gone from 2 full time incomes to one and a part. That's pretty laughable to look back on that now :)

Twenty Years Ago

1988- I was 16 and in the 10th grade in Little Rock, Arkansas. It's funny that what reminded me to do this post was that I was cleaning out a closet today and found my prom dress from then.

I had a car about the same color as my dress, oddly enough. It was a Pontiac Sunfire with an aftermarket sunroof that leaked like crazy every time it rained. This made for a nice smelling car in the midst of the Arkansas summertime.

Thirty Years Ago

1978- 6 years old. I was in 1st grade at Lawson Elementary School. I remember that I loved learning to read and did so as often as possible. Maybe my mom will share some of her memories of me at that age in the comments....(hint, hint)

Yay for me, I got it done and had fun at it! And oh, yeah, got a closet cleaned out today!!

Is there a toddler in the house- Take II

Yes, those are my tennis shoes floating in the bath I was about to take. Corryn so very helpfully put them there.

Thanks Corryn- really...

Is there a toddler in the house?

I heard the distinct sound of dog food hitting the kitchen floor. I rounded the corner to find Corryn doing this:

























I said "Hi" in that tone of voice that says "oh my, what are you into..."

She very cheerfully replied "Hi!" and went right back at tossing handfuls of dog food on the floor.

So now we have to step around it until the dog eats it all. I mean, really why bother picking it up- that's what the dog is for-right?

Oh, those eyes...

Just a picture for Love Thursday

Love Thursday is back!!!

Well, it has been for a while and I'm just now managing to put a post together. I need to get back in the groove of it again.

Today, love is sharing pizza and applesauce with a friend. In the same bite- as in roll up the pizza and dip it in the applesauce and then eat it. Completely gross, but it worked for them. It's really just all about the friendship, especially when they both know that we will be moving a long way away in just a few months and they will go much longer between seeing each other.
















Happy Love Thursday!

Indiana bound!

The decision is made- we are headed to Indiana in the fall! Contract negotiations are complete and the credentialing process (to obtain an IN license and hospital priviledges) is underway. We are awaiting the final originals of the contract to arrive in the mail, but already have the electronic version. We are so excited!!! The end of training-- and a brand new beginning are just around the corner. I still maintain it is bittersweet for me leaving New Hampshire. It's a beautiful place and I have many wonderful friends that I am leaving behind. I know it doesn't end the friendships, but it does change them. Dillon asked if we could buy small toys that she could give her friends before we moved so they would remember her.

To add to the excitement, we found out last night that a family we are good friends with will be moving just about 2 hours away from us in Indiana at about the same time. We've already been making plans to get together with each other and with their good friend in Chicago to visit some of the fun stuff there.

So exciting!!!

An offer

We received an official from the hospital in Indiana today!

Choosing between 2 great choices is a great place to be.

Tagged #1

I've been tagged twice lately & am trying to catch up!

Veganbaby tagged me a couple of weeks ago to share 5 random/weird things about myself and to list the top 5 places I'd like to see again.

First the personal info...
1)I'm really noise sensitive. I hate continuous loud noises like a TV or radio- or 5 year old pretending to be a pterydactyl. It becomes especially problematic for me in the evenings when I'm tired.
2) I dislike playing with kid toys. This isn't to say I dislike playing with my kids- there are many, many things I do like doing with them- playing with toys is just not one of them.
3)I enjoy knitting. I'm painfully slow at it and if I had to clothe my family with my knitting, we'd be some cold folks. But I still enjoy it.
4) I once started working on a Masters in Public Health. I was having second thoughts about it starting the second term, but having to take a statistics course did me in. I passed the course, but realized that public health wasn't really what I wanted to spend my life doing.
5)I've lived in 5 states and will be moving to a 6th one in about 6 months.

OK- five places I'd like to see again. There are so many new places I'd like to see, but there are a few I'd gladly revisit.
1) Hawaii-- and can't wait to do it
2) New York City- in spite of the crowds and noise. I went in high school and would love to go again, but only for a short visit
3)Canada- have actually been a few times, but not to the really pretty/interesting/historic parts
4)California- spent overnight in San Francisco on the way to Hawaii- I'd love to see more of it-especially Northern CA
5)Washington DC- such a cool place-- to visit.

Yay for me! I finally did it. I think I'm supposed to tag 5 more people, but I'll have to come back to that.

Job search update #5001

Here goes-

The TN job was filled. No further explanation than that was given, so that's all I have to share.

Virginia- we have a official job offer and they have asked for a response within 2 weeks. It would be a good job in a beautiful place.

Indiana- Dave met with the new medical director (Stan) friday. It went very well. Stan told Dave he wants him to work for him, so essentially another verbal offer. He will be meeting with all the powers that be on Monday. Supposedly, we are supposed to receive a written offer within a week. As always, we'll see.

The good news is that it really is almost settled. Finally.

Happy Birthday 5th Dillon (a little belatedly...)

OK, so her birthday was February 15th. We weren't late celebrating it, of course, I'm just a little late in posting about it.

She's 5 years old! I can't believe it! She's such a smart, curious, BUSY kid, it's almost hard to describe her. She asks 10,000 questions a day, comes up with the great realizations from the things we read and the movies she watches. She's incredibly creative and really a pretty amazing problem solver-- for 5 years old. She learned her alphabet - upper and lower case- in about 3 weeks once she decided it was interesting. She now regularly spells things out from signs she sees and asks what word it is. She also learned how to use a computer with amazing competence in that same space of time. Well, except for when she erased all the icons off my desktop, but we'll just nevermind that. Just last week she started writing letters and can make most of them recognizably. She's a great big sister most of the time and can make Corryn laugh like no one else can- though she can get irritated with Corryn's crying like no one else as well.

Her current favorites: Horses, horses and horses. Dinosaurs and anything to do with the human body are a very close second. She loves Dave's stories from work. She likes to cook with me, except that she doesn't like to help with whatever I'm making, she wants to make her own. This leads to some really interesting (and usually inedible) concoctions. But she's so proud of them and has learned a great deal about cooking just from being able to play with spices, flour and water.

Her current least favorites: eating- she proclaims it boring, cleaning up, getting into the bath- then interestingly enough, also dislikes getting out of the tub, still hates getting her teeth brushed, loud noises and crowds.

Opening presents (with a little help...):

A dinosaur!

Birthday cake! She wanted to use Corryn's "1" candle plus four regular candles to make 5. OK, whatever, it's her birthday-

Horses, horses, horses....


Happy Birthday, my no-longer-so-little one!

Where I've been

Nowhere, really. Literally. I'm struggling with this winter. It's my last New England winter and it's a doozy. Someone told Dave that by mid February, we'd had 7 feet of snow. I totally believe it. I find it so difficult to get 2 young kids bundled up to go outside, when I really don't want to be out in the cold myself. The days feel endlessly gray- which they are when you have gotten this much snow. Of course, spending all that time indoors isn't such a good thing either, so it's kind of a no win situation. With Dillon's brain and body whirling around with ideas for things to play- and all the toys that go with the ideas along with the sheer destructive forces of the full-fledged toddler Corryn, the house is hopelessly messy. Not just the cursory "Oh, please ignore the mess" kind of mess that you say when someone comes over, but the kick something everytime you take a step kind of mess. I feel like I'm drowning in stuff sometimes. It's just exhausting. Warm weather - and the ability to get outside easily- cannot come soon enough. It will do wonders for my mental state.

To share in the joy of the snow for my non-New England friends, some photos:

This is the current view outside the kitchen window. The bottom of the window is about 5 feet off the ground from the outside. That hump at the bottom of the picture is the pile of snow that is now visible, between what snow has fallen in addition to what has fallen off the roof. Since the backyard is so shady, I bet it'll be there, albeit shrinking, until late May. I'll try to remember to document it.

Looking at the street that runs beside my house-

Looking across the street at my neighbor's house- really, it's there.

Job search update #5000

No, it isn't settled yet. Still. Yes, we're sick of dealing with it, thinking about it, talking about it, having it hang over our heads. Really we are.

So, here's the summary-
Indiana job- they do have a medical director chosen and Dave has spoken with him by telephone. It isn't enough. The new director wants him to make another trip there so they can meet in person. Seriously, could this have moved any slower?! His inital interview was in early September.

Tennessee job- He really liked it there, got a "we love you" email from them, but they already had other interviews scheduled that they want to honor, so their time frame for making a decision is still 2-3 weeks from now.

Virginia- I think I forgot to mention he went on an interview in western VA. He also really liked it there and they gave strong messages that they really liked him. Initially, their timeframe for a decision was by the end of Feb. Dave got an email last week saying that they were planning in making a decision in the next few days. So far, no word from them, though.

More maddening waiting. We're so done with the waiting. This was supposed to be the fun and easy part.

How to get well by Dillon

Fart a lot.

Take lots of medicine.

Get lots of rest.

This is particularly relevant since we all (except Corryn so far) have some sort of awful coughing, body aching viral madness. What a joy on top of the several inches of snow we got last night and the endless gray days.

Good reasons not to clean the kitchen

I've been in major clean out mode as of late- you know, getting ready to sell the house and move in a few months. I thought it would be a good idea to run the self-cleaning option on the stove as an easy way to getting it really good and clean in there. Afterall, surely someone will overlook all the kid clutter in the house and know it was well taken care of if the inside of the oven is clean- right? So, for the first time in the almost 5 years we've been in the house, I tried to utilize this clearly beneficial option.

Except... it started beeping "door" at me approximately 2 minutes into the cycle. I fiddled with the door until the alarm changed to "F-9." Hmmm.... did a quick search online to find the .pdf of the owners manual (since the previous owners didn't leave it for us) and found nothing about an F-9 alarm. I called Amana, talked to a very kind customer service person, had her share my joy in the continuously beeping alarm only to find out that F-9 indicated a problem with the door latch and that the oven would now be locked until a new latch could be put in. Shut the stupid thing off, took down the number of the repair person, planning to call the next day. More money out on a house that we're wanting to sell very soon. There's something so wrong about that.

Not learning my lesson, the next day, I proceed to do more cleaning out, finding a bag of flaxseeds that I purchased easily 3 years ago and have used, well, almost not at all. To the trashcan with them!

Except... on the way to the trashcan, they spilled out all over the floor. Did I trip over the dog? A toy left on the floor? Nope, just dropped the bag. So, now there are these little buggy looking things all over the floor I had just swept. The dog, who has a rather sensitive stomach is trying the eat them, Corryn is crawling all through them and Dillon is repeatedly yelling "What happened?!" from the other room. I suppose that's good in that it prevented them from hearing what I was muttering. Out comes the vacuum cleaner- the dog goes running, Corryn tries to chew on the cord. It's almost all clean when the phone rings. While I'm on the phone, Dillon keeps picking Corryn up, making her mad.

How exactly does it go from perfectly calm to mass chaos so quickly?

Anyway, I got the mess cleaned up, procrastinated in calling the repair person and found that a matter of about 16 hours later, the oven unlocked itself- with all the baked on stuff inside still firmly in place.

I just hope anyone thinking about buying our house didn't just read this.

So she likes anatomy...

Dillon has always been highly fascinated with anything to do with the human body. Got an injury? She wants the whole scoop, including blood if you have it to show. We have an anatomy book that she loves looking at, which we did for a little while today.

A little while later-

"Mom? Will you hold you hold your arms up in a big O and let me go through them? That way you can be the fallopian tube and I can be the egg."

Understandably, I'm often a little concerned with what she'll come up with next...

Happy 1st Birthday My Little Imp!

One year ago today, right about the time I'm sitting down to write this, Corryn was born after a dream of a labor and delivery. Today, we're celebrating her first birthday with a chocolate cake, lots of singing of "Happy Birthday" and time all spent together. She dug wholeheartedly into her cake:

And clearly enjoyed it immensely. Raised her right, huh? :)

I've nicknamed her my little Imp. She's the kid that crawls into the room, looks around to see what she can get into, gives a little grin, then goes for it.

Some of her favorite activities-

Taking off her diaper cover and "accidently" dropping it down the stairs...

Turning the cold water on in the bathtub. This is especially fun when someone is in the shower...

Crawling up the stairs, even if it means crawling over the barricade I've put at the bottom to stop this little adventure. She's incredibly quick and silent at the stair climbing.

She loves imitating Dillon as much a possible. Blowing raspberries was the shared activity yesterday. She's almost walking, though not quite. She has 4 teeth- the top and bottom front ones. Although still not a big eater, she prefers spicier food than bland food. She's still a little studier, preferring to watch things and take it all in. Much to most people's chagrin, she's not a particularly smiley baby to strangers. She gives us big smiles and giggles, though. She dances when she hears music, even if it's just Dillon singing. She's starting to learn some signs, which I love. I remember how much easier it made life with Dillon. She shows all signs of being able to throw a proper tantrum :)

Happy Birthday my little Imp!

(And yes, that is her crawling on the tray of her high chair in the first picture!)

Yes, we're really going to homeschool

A conversation in the car today between Dillon and Dave:

Dillon: "How big is the earth?"
Dave: "Really big."
Dillon: "But how big?"
Dave: "Well, about 25,000 miles around."
Dillon: "Are we in the earth?"
Dave: "We're on the surface of the earth."
Dillon: What's in the middle of the earth?"
Dave: "Oreo stuffing."

Job search update

This will be brief since we're a germ factory around here. Corryn's been running fever on and off the last 36 hours, then I started running fever this morning. What a joy.

Anyway-

The job search is still ongoing. Dave ended up going on the interview to TN alone. The hospital balked at the cost of bringing all 4 of us to travel there on short notice. Can't really blame them, given that it was probably close to $1000 per ticket and 2 members of the family don't really have a say in whether or not we move there. In any case, the interview went extremely well, he really clicked with the partners in the practice. They practice there have other interviewees scheduled, so their timeline for making a decision is "a few weeks."

The job in Indiana is still out there. They supposedly are expecting to have all contract paperwork completed with the new anesthesia director by this week, at which point they'll put him in contact with the candidates. They are anticipating this happening by the end of the month.

There are a couple of more places that have requested interviews with him, it's a matter of scheduling. So, there are at least 2 really strong possibilities, either of which we could see being really happy in.

More waiting, though.

A new job interview

Dave has a new interview offer in eastern TN, so we're headed there later this week. I'm excited to go somewhere warmer- though our local forcast has record highs predicted for the next couple of days. It looks like a nice area, so we'll see what happens...

Do you hear what I hear?

Because what I hear more times a day than I can count is:
"Why?"
"Hey mom, watch this, watch this, WATCHTHIS!!!!!!!"
"Hey mom, you know what?"
"Hey mom, guess what?"

Happy Holidays!

I finally got a chance to go through some pictures and thought I'd post a few.

Playing outside:


Corryn and me with Dave's grandmother at Thanksgiving:

Corryn, 10 months:

Dillon shoveling snow:

Christmas morning frenzy:
11 months old:


Happy 2008!