Around 10 days ago, I started around 40 seedlings, comprised of tomatoes, squash, and 2 different peppers.
I also plan on starting some zucchini soon 🙂
The last two days have been…different, to say the least!
Yesterday, we officially found out that our financing on the house fell through in the last stage of underwriting. In our price bracket (mid 200s) it’s hard to get approved, especially when my income is largely based on self employment– bad news if it looks like, on paper, that I left my entire clientele in Dallas! There are a couple other factors, but we’ve made the decision to stop hacking away at this for the immediate future and spend the next 6 months letting residency and other things settle in.
There are some huge blessings to this, and I’m so happy that they are easy to see (aka, I’m not having to force myself to “think on the bright side”). First of all, our moving timeline was starting to seriously stress me out. Moving into a house in May, after having had a baby 3 weeks prior? Crazy, mostly because there were a few significant changes (mostly painting) I wanted to make to the house before we moved in. Also, every weekend of May (other than one) is booked: the first weekend, we are chaperoning the high school’s Spring Formal at Pismo Beach, the second weekend is the school’s auction, at which Jesse is speaking and the fourth weekend is Anthony’s baptism (provided he’s OUT). Also, the first weekend of June is graduation, at which Jesse is, once again, speaking (notice a pattern?).
Secondly, the thought of 90% of our savings disappearing, right as I’m about to have a baby, is a bit alarming. In just the past 2 weeks, it was really starting to stress me out. What if (God forbid, obviously, but it’s unknown) Anthony has special needs and I’m unable to work? We shouldn’t have any medical bills to worry about, even if things do go awry, but my income is a HUGE part of this equation, and the boys will always come first. Having at least a few more weeks to “wait and see” will be nice. And, I’m not gonna lie, having all that money back in our savings account is a NICE feeling.
Lastly, Jesse can probably take the summer off, instead of working 20-30 hrs. a week doing random jobs for extra pay, like we were discussing. Home ownership takes a lot of extra funds– we were “prepared” on paper, but no one’s ever really prepared to all of a sudden buy $1,000 worth of extra necessities, such as a lawn mower, ceiling fans, even minor things such as shelves in the garage so that things don’t just lay around on the floor (one shelving unit is $70!). Again, they are all expenses we will gladly pay when the time is right, but I gotta admit, not having to worry about $ and instead having Jesse at home for the 3 months after having a baby? Not many people get that blessing.
So, we are going to take our down payment funds, lock them away somewhere, and start looking around for somewhere nice to rent for the next 6+ months. In the past, we’d toyed with the idea of renting a semi-furnished beach house in Morro Bay or Shell Beach, since we won’t have to go to work for the summer. And, come to find, Jesse and I are becoming beach people. Not in the “surfer” way, but in the “evening stroll at sunset” sort of way. And, yes, I’m completely aware that I just sounded like I am 26 going on 55.
It’s just a thought though. More than likely, we’ll rent somewhere close nearby 🙂
Anyways, that was yesterday. Since we needed a bit of a break and had cabin fever, we went to SLO for my chiropractor appt., went out to dinner, put G to bed, and then finally went on a much needed movie date 🙂
TODAY commenced a little earlier than I would’ve liked. You see, I woke up at 4am with contractions. Blah blah blah, nothing new, nothing new, that’s been going on for nearly 4 weeks now (I know, seriously, shoot me). But then these started getting harder, closer together, and kinda sorta miserable. Somewhere, I could hear that Celine Dion song, “It’s All Coming Back To Me Now”. I was like, “Yay! I’m in labor”, immediately followed by, “Oh CRAP I’M IN LABOR AND THIS REALLY HURTS.”
I dealt with things on my own until around 8am, when I heard G squawking away on the baby monitor. I woke Jesse up, told him the situation, and then spent a wonderful 1/2 hr. in the hottest shower I could stand. Really miserable 2 minute contractions continued, so Jesse made me a little makeshift bed on the living room couch. I watched the family slowly wake up– my mom making her coffee, Jesse cooking steel cut oats for G, Janelle and her teenage ninja turtle friends stumble out from their sleepover in the family room…at one point, G saw that I was in pain and came over to give me “snuggles and lovies”. He is the sweetest boy, I tell you!
And then? At 10am, I fell asleep. At 10:30, I woke up, no contractions. 11am, no contractions.
I had texted my doula at around 9am, mainly because we had a prenatal massage appt. scheduled for today, but also because I wanted to give her the heads up. She made the choice to drive up and see how I was doing, and she arrived a little after 11. We talked and relaxed for about 45 minutes, and then we decided to take a walk. The walking started contractions again, but still 10-12 minutes apart. Discouraging, but also mildly better than when this happened with G. At least they were semi-predictable, instead of all over the map– with G, it was every 27 minutes, then every 5, then every 12, then every 45…craziness.
So, Kelly’s advice was to do 4 things for the remainder of the day– sleep, eat, walk, sleep. She went to hang out at a family friend’s house a few minutes away, just to make sure I didn’t feel “pressured” to have more contractions (bless her, this is actually exactly what I needed! Even though I couldn’t do anything about it, I felt guilty). Just a few minutes ago, she told me she was going to go home but would be right next to her phone. I’ve had contractions start again every time I get up and walk, but they stop when I relax.
So….that’s all I’ve been doing all day! Eating yummy foods (my mom made cinnamon rolls, Jesse made me mac n cheese!), sleeping as much as possible, walking in the beautiful neighborhood clothed in spring (my fav season, definitely). Now that G’s asleep, Jesse and I have plans to go out to eat at our favorite Mexican food place, then maybe walk around Target, who knows?
Long and short, I guess Anthony is waiting for now. Le sigh.
But for now, I get to enjoy the 70 degree sunshine!
Aka., re-defining the word, “uncomfortable”.
Everywhere I go, people say, “WOW! From the back, I’d never even guess you were pregnant!” Even my mom commented tonight that she’d never seen a “baby bump” be so narrow, without spreading anywhere else. I don’t think it was even this bad with Gregory, because beginning at 37 weeks, I had significant swelling with him. Not so with Mr. Anthony– no swelling anywhere, no carpal tunnel. Those are definite blessings, to be sure.
But the significant, and I mean SIGNIFICANT downside? It hurts a whole lot more, especially in my back. There are only 2 parts of me taking the entire brunt of that extra 30 pounds, which is tough work, I tell you! I think my hips and lower back deserve a medal when this is all through.
No, not in CA. I mean, you saw those gorgeous pictures of the coastline, right? We’re not even close to Tornado Country anymore, thank God.
But our old home was hit by a bunch of tornados yesterday. We got reports all afternoon from friends, texting us from their bathtubs, worried about loved ones who were still out and about. Tornados happen every spring, but usually only on the outskirts of Dallas (aka, an hour away). It was always hard to explain to other how large the DFW metroplex really is– while a tornado was ripping something up a good 75 miles away, the sun could be shining where we were. It was like someone being concerned about a neighborhood in Whittier being disturbed when one lives in Santa Barbara.
But the reports that were coming in yesterday had me worried. These weren’t “tornado sightings”, these were actual tornados, dozens of them, all over the metroplex, leaving trails of wreckage. And a few were even headed straight for downtown Dallas where our old church stands.
One of the suburbs hit hardest was Arlington, home of the Cowboys Stadium and Rangers Ballpark. Thankfully, these structures were not hit at all (Arlington is the 49th largest city in the US, so the tornados were in another place entirely), but the news did mention a section of Arlington– Kennedale– that I know well, mainly because our dear friends the Pothoffs live there. It’s also where my car always used to break down on my way to and from teaching at St. Peter’s Classical School. Ah, good times, good times.
But everyone’s safe and sound, thank God. Storms like this only happen in DFW every 5-10 years– a big tornado that ripped up entire sections of downtown Fort Worth happened about 5 years before we moved there, 9 years ago, so I guess it was about time for another. Here are a few pictures though.
I only saw hail like this once or twice while living in Dallas-- yikes! This is why we paid extra $ for a garage 🙂 It's also why I laughed at everyone getting all amazed/scared at the slight sprinkling of hail we had in CA a few weeks ago. My question was, "Is it bigger than a golf ball? Because we should move our car, if so."