Avoidance tactic #244 - Post a blog entry

I should be doing about fifty things right now. But I'm posting a blog. Sigh. My nice and friendly contact at the DCA told me today that our loan is scheduled to be processed by an underwriter either late Wednesday or early Thursday. I'm not sure how long it takes from there, but that pretty much dashed my hopes of a closing date this week. On the upside, if we close after August 6, our first mortgage payment won't be due until October (according to our broker who I don't really trust anymore). Of course, we would still pay interest for the month of September, which is significant, but still a good savings for the month. I guess we'll just have to see how things shake out. In other news, our car is acting up again. We did finally get the brakes fixed, but apparently it had several instances today of not starting. Justin is taking it to the mechanic tomorrow, but he told him over the phone he thinks it is probably the alternator (spelling?). Also, Katie has developed a decidedly pitiful limp. She does this on and off sometimes, but if it keeps getting worse, we might have to take her to the doctor. I'm hoping that between the car, the dog, and the pseudo-homeless thing, that is our dose of three unlucky things, and soon, something nice will happen. And of course, everything is all about perspective. Even though right now it feels like we are not having anything nice happen, things could be much worse. I'm just wishing we had a money tree to pay for all these things. Living without credit cards gets sticky in these kinds of times, but I still think it's worth it. Justin's budgeting skills are approaching the sublime, but it's not easy for even him to figure out how to accomodate SO many unexpected expenses.

In other news, Roxanne seems to be a little off from the moving. I guess I picked a pretty unfair time to night wean, but I really wanted to start fresh at the new house and make sure that from day one, she sleeps in her own room. I'll probably be spending some time in her room with her when we first move in, but I don't even want to start out letting her sleep with me. She hasn't nursed overnight since the Thursday before last, and she's finally getting the hang of it. She still asks for water, which she drinks a TON of, but she doesn't insist on milk. She is also not sleeping in the bed with me any more. When she wakes up in the middle of the night, I let her sleep in her Pack and Play in our room, but she is not allowed in the bed until the sun comes up. For us, it's our first step towards fully weaning. I want to take it slow and be done by her second birthday. Even now, we are down to 2-4 nursing sessions a day. What a breeze! But yeah, back to Roxanne's grumpiness lately... I think she can tell we are stressed out. She's been very clingy and grumpy in the last couple of days. In the car today, Justin got cut off by another driver and went on a rant about how terrible everyone in Atlanta is at driving, and she gave him the dirtiest look ever. I asked her what was wrong, and she said in a very disapproving voice, *lots of jibber jabber "Dada, no Dada" jibber jabber* She is such a sensitive thing sometimes.

Also, I'm in shock because I just realized that I will have been at my job for a year as of August 1. I can't believe it! It seems like yesterday I was miserable at Paul Hastings, crying every morning after dropping Roxanne off at daycare, etc. etc. Instead, I get to hang out with her all day every day. I realize that my job is not exactly a lofty profession, and a lot of times when people ask me what I do, I feel the need to stammer out an explanation of why I'm a nanny, and how I hope to do this or that in the future, but at the end of the day, it's a nice job. It gets stressful and irrational, and sometimes I wish there weren't so many bodily fluids involved in my day to day life, but really, kids are fun. Especially mine.

And just for fun, here's a photo of Roxanne right when I started my job. She couldn't even crawl yet!

Going bananas

Seriously guys. I feel a little nuts lately. I'm not sleeping well, I'm not in a nice mood... Justin is similarly plagued. This situation is so annoying. Justin is off this week, but he's basically just packing for us. I mean, I helped all weekend, and I'm helping at night, but since he's home, he's doing more than me. Sorry Justin. It's just not really nice at all to be packing and not know when you will be unpacking. We still don't have a closing date. All we know is that the loan is at the DCA, hopefully with an underwriter. If no conditions are issued (please please please please no more conditions...) then we should be done with the DCA by Friday at the latest. Of course, that's assuming they stick to the processing times that they have promised, and assuming that we don't get asked for conditions. And assuming the loan will get approved... After the loan leaves the DCA, it goes back to the underwriter at the bank, who packages it up and sends it to the closing attorney. We close about 24 hours after that. Of course, our agent and broker keep saying that we will close this week, but Justin and I have learned better than to trust them. But really, wouldn't it be nice if they were right? Having a dog and a toddler make it hard to couch hop. Fortunately, I have pressed my Mom and Mike to let us stay with them, and they are nice enough to graciously invite us in. Thank goodness for the kindness of family. I keep thinking about how we are about to move out of our apartment, and wondering what I will miss about this house. It's been a nice place overall, but we're ready to be gone. Violent crime in this area seems to be getting worse and worse. And the car break-ins are also much more frequent. I get the neighborhood crime e-mails... sometimes I wish I didn't. We're hoping that the sleepy little neighborhood in Decatur where the new house is will be safer. In the past couple of months, I know of 3 different car-jackings within about a mile radius of us, where someone was held up at gunpoint while unloading their groceries around 9:00pm. In the most recent case, the man was actually shot (I think he's going to be OK) even though he complied with the bad guys. And these are only the cases people put in the e-mail list-serve. I guess I'd rather not know about the others. Justin and I feel like we are getting out of here just in time.

Before I try to get some things done (and stop procrastinating and playing on the internet) I thought I'd put down a Roxanne story. A lot of times lately, she likes to take her diaper off and run around half naked in the evenings so she can sit on her potty. She doesn't really go in the potty, but I figure it's good practice, and I should encourage her interest. Her very favorite thing is to sit on her potty and read her Prudence potty book. So tonight I was letting her do it, but she was really sleepy and grumpy, so I was asking her, "Do you want to put a diaper back on or just be nakey" and she said, clear as a bell, "NAKEY!" And went about her business playing with her Weebles. I asked her again a minute later when we were in the kitchen with Justin and she said again, "I wan-be nakey." I actually didn't know she knew that word... She has such a strong opinion on everything these days. Well, scratch that. She's always had a strong opinion. She's just better at letting it be known now.

Photo time!

Here's a run-down, starting at the bottom (oldest) and working up to the family photo on top.
*Photos 1-3 are Roxanne at the Botanical Garden last Sunday. We LOVE having a membership there. It's nice to be able to drop in for just an hour or two and not feel like you have to stay for a long time to get your money's worth. But it's such a peaceful get-away. And the Moore sculptures are AMAZING.
*Photo 4 is Roxanne watching SpongeBob Squarepants while also wearing her SpongeBob wrist warmers. Seriously you guys, she has started to get really attached to these things.
*Photo 5 is what happens when you give Roxanne SpongeBob stickers to play with in the car. A "bob-bob" beard.
*Photos 6-7 are Roxanne stomping around in my shoes. She was very pleased with herself. She loves shoes.
*Photo 8 is Roxanne helping us pack. Enough said.
*Photo 9 is from Piedmont Park this afternoon. She kept pointing at the camera like a frat boy when we told her to say cheese. Hilarious.

Packing... ugh

We have to start packing this weekend. We have to be out of our apartment by the 31st, which is unfortunately on a Friday... We rented a GoMini Pod storage unit, which is expensive, but not much more than it would cost us to rent a U-Haul, rent a storage unit, and then rent another U-Haul to get our stuff into the new house. The Pod will get dropped off at our apartment on Tuesday I think, and then they will pick it back up on Thursday, bring it to their storage facility, and then when the time comes (hopefully sooner rather than later) they will bring it to the Decatur house where we will unload it. It is pretty convenient for the most part. Plus, you can rent a dolly and moving blankets with it.

We haven't gotten any news on the house, but the loan is with the DCA as of Thursday. We were originally told that they were processing the loans in 4 days, but now our broker won't tell us the processing times. He just keeps saying that his contact there is trying to get our application expedited and he doesn't have a time frame yet. Who knows. At least it's not stuck with the idiot underwriter anymore.

Roxanne and Ben and I had a really lovely day yesterday. We drove up to Roswell to meet my mom at the Cultural Arts Center and watch a Pirate Puppet Show. They LOVED it. We were both shocked to see them last for almost an hour before we snuck out. We sat in the balcony, and both babies watched raptly and pointed at the puppets and yelled and laughed at them. By the end of the show, they both could say "pirate," "boat," and my favorite, "aaaarrrrggghhh!" when you ask them what a pirate says. They definitely liked the pirates best. Afterwards, we went to Chik-fil-A. It's nice to go the suburban Chik-fil-A's because they actually have playgrounds. Of course, Roxanne acted scared most of the time we tried to play, and Ben decided after a little while that the rubber floor was not acceptable to walk on. All in all, we had a great time. I love days where I can take them out and about.

I think Roxanne might be starting to approach the age of dress-up. She LOVES to have jewelry put on her, and she has started pulling my clothes out of my drawers and sitting down and trying to put them on. She usually mananges to get one leg or one arm in them and then traipses around fancily. She also puts on Justin's giant shoes and shuffles around in them. She says "Dada shooooeeee" while she does it. It's really amazing how much she can communicate now. She just says so much. Of course, sometimes I'm the only one who can understand what she's saying, and sometimes, she just chatters on in total jibber jabber, but it sounds cute. She's just a chatty little thing.

Oh, the fall/winter consignment sale season has started! I'm so excited! I won't probably be able to get to any for a few weeks, but still, I'm pretty excited. So far, we have a few adorable hand-me-downs (thanks Kendree!)and a few things that I kept from last year that might fit her this year (?) but we're pretty much starting fresh. I love buying her clothes.

Happy Third Anniversary!

In order:
*a photo from our wedding day
*the day of my college graduation, which was the day Justin proposed
*a most embarrassing photo of us going to Justin's Senior Prom. I was a sophomore at the time.
*us at the botanical garden on Sunday.

We are celebrating with a quiet bottle of cheap champagne and one of Justin's best dishes, cheeseburgers and baked potatoes and asparagus. We'll do it up big when this house stuff settles down. Looks like things might be moving forward finally with that, but still no closing date.

I'm off to watch some anniversary SpongeBob SquarePants. Cheers!

Roxanne and Ms. Teacup

Tonight we got into a time jam for dinner and ended up going to Chik-fil-A in Decatur. It is "family night" every Monday from 6-8 but we never seem to coordinate it right. Tonight we did! Roxanne had a ball seeing Ms. Teacup the Clown, getting her face painted, her arm painted, and receiving a matching pink kitty animal balloon (which popped once we got home). While she was in Ms. Teacup's chair, she sat absolutely still and looked really freaked out, but she didn't put up a fight, and when she saw the finished product, she was really excited. She also got to see the big giant cow (guy in a costume) and she loves that, too. Same type of thing though; terror mixed with excitement. If the video ever gets posted, you can see her all done and happy. The photos are "during," and show how she's not smiling at all. In any case, I highly recommend a visit to Ms. Teacup. It was fun.

Obligatory house update... we were told that everything was done and the loan package was going to the DCA today for what would hopefully be a 4 day turnaround on getting the down payment assistance program in place, but alas, we have to get signed contractor agreements. Originally we were told that signed estimates were all we needed, but nope. Justin stayed late at work and sent them out to the contractors via fax, but goodness knows how long it will take to get them back signed. I was so excited. I thought we might actually close on Friday or Monday. Oh well. At least the day brought pink kitties and animal balloons. Oh, and if you notice Roxanne's booboos on her face, she face planted today on the brick patio. It was pretty awful, but mostly just scrapes and a little bruising. She's not exactly a graceful thing some days. Poor little lady.

Photos