Random Bits

I had a prenatal appointment. This time I was meeting the OB of the practice. I usually see a midwife but I was supposed to meet the OB at some point in case she ends up delivering my baby. My appointment was scheduled for 4, it ended up happening at 5. I was pretty annoyed to wait an hour but it reminded me why I chose to go with a midwife instead of a doctor. She was nice though very intense and doctor like. She was taken a back when the baby kicked her. Hey, if you push on him, he's going to kick you. That's my crazy baby boy :-)

We start our hypnobirthing class in a few weeks and I'm pretty excited. Mary wanted to do a "normal" birthing class but I pulled weight since I'm the one that will actually be doing the laboring. Mary was also into having a regular OB and I wanted a midwife but now she LOVES the midwife. Though we joke that the midwife has a crush on her because she's always telling Mary how good she looks. It's in joking fun, the woman is straight and older *much*.

Luckily, nothing dramatic came out of Mary's conversation with the play therapist. She didn't think visits were needed for Cameron right now so just to lay low and reavulate when HB's family wanted to have them. I just really don't want to start visits, never mind close to the baby's birth and hopefully Mary will also agree with that.

In funny things. Mary was recently featured in local magazine for her research in the state. The picture they had her pose for was a riot. I mean, she looks like she's going to kill someone. Needless to say, we like to laugh about it. And I have way too much free time on my hands and like to do this and make wallpaper for our computer.

Fingerprints and the HB Rant *that never ends*

Well, we got fingerprinted at the police department. WAY easier than dealing with the county sheriff. No appointment, we just went in and got them done. Of course, we've been warned that they may do them wrong and the officer did seem a little bit clueless. However, at this point, I don't expect for anything in this process to go smoothly anyways.

One of my points of wanting to go to the police department was to go at a time when we didn't have to bring Cameron. Of course, Mary thought differently and decided to do this before his therapy appointment. At least I got out of bringing him to therapy but he was a hyper maniac at the police department and at the end went to hit the police man with my umbrella. Lately, he's just so embarrassing. And doing this entire process while I'm 7 months pregnant is just weird. I can tell, everyone I've come in contact with is like, "what are you thinking?". You tell me! Oy vey.

Anywho, Mary's ultimatum of bringing Cameron to therapy was not a favor for me but because she to talk to the therapist about the HB situation. Oy. I am SO worried about what she is going to start.

Apparently, Mary had a 2nd visit with him a few weeks ago...she recently decided to tell me. I was definitely pissed to be lied to and one of the reasons I dislike HB so much is the mistrust he caused in our relationship. Anywho, apparently he wigged out at school afterwards and was hitting kids and stuff. Hi, welcome to visits. So they wanted to postpone any visits for a while. They were also recently clued into HB's hatred for his brother. HB often role plays with toys and dolls and has been basically murdering all the dolls and toys he refers to as "Cameron".

So they are now talking about having a visit that involved Cameron (and me) at the end of May/early June. Mary mentioned that I probably wouldn't go since I'd be so far along in my pregnancy. The adoptive mother (I like to refer to her as "nut job") response was that she didn't think I should be with held from seeing HB and that everything should be open and honest. Ummm, I don't want to see the kid anyways. The only reason I would go to a visit is to make sure everything went o.k. and that Mary didn't lie to me. Because I know if something goes wrong, Mary will just say, "it went great". Plus, HB had no idea I was pregnant and I was able to easily conceal my belly. Now, I'm large and the entire thing would completely overwhelm the kid's mind and be stressful for me.

Needless to say, my current stance is I don't want Cameron to see him. Since the visits will start close to the baby being born, I don't want to start that. We are working on so many things with Cameron regarding the baby and OUR FAMILY that seeing HB is just going to drudge up bad sibling energy and put Cameron in a bad place.

I want to look out for my family and Mary can do her own thing with fulfilling her desires to see HB. Of course, I'd rather her just let it go all together but she doesn't seem to be willing to do that. When it comes to the HB situation, I seriously dislike my wife. There is no other way to put it. I just hope in the end, she thinks of the affects on me, Cameron, and the baby.

Still Tired

It seemed like a really long weekend. Friday we had fun getting massages but beforehand I had my diabetes test and afterwards, Mary had us at Home Depot to pick up stuff to make a walkway. Then we picked up Cameron and headed home. So much for soaking in the relaxation of my massage.

Friday night, I was up constantly. I've been sleeping like crap but had finally gotten into a good sleep when Cameron woke up screaming. Not exactly crying, just screaming, "I want water". His new thing is "I want" which I HATE. So after explaining to him that we don't say "I want" never mind scream it while everyone is sleeping, I got his water. He had one of his usual coughs but I was ready to throttle the kid. That was the beginning of yet another sleepless coughing Cameron night.

So Saturday I was completely exhausted but Mary had planned on building a walkway so I was stuck watching the kid. Of course, he had plenty of energy but was being a grump obviously from being sick or whatever. He is always sick so I don't know what to call it and lately he's usually grumpy. I'm not sure if it's just him being 3, his genetics kicking in, or a result from the recent changes. Needless to say, I don't like it.

Saturday night I did his nebulizer right before he went to bed which seemed to work. I decided to go to bed after I put him down. You would think going to bed at 7:30 would help my extreme tiredness. Even though it took me forever to fall asleep, I was happy to be laying down but then I was wide awake at midnight. I thought, it's probably around 4 so maybe I'll just stay up and then I checked a clock: midnight. Oy. So the rest of my night was spent trying to force myself to sleep. Oh, the joys of pregnancy insomnia or just the result of our overly stressful lives.

Sunday was a slightly better day. It was rainy and dark which I enjoy for one reason, Cameron sleeps longer. He didn't wake up until around 8 which was glorious and he was happy and smiley when he did wake up. Mary made waffles in the morning. I hate the mess she makes when she uses the waffle maker but they sure are yummy. Yes, my only highlights in life lately are revolved around food. LOL. In the afternoon, we took Cameron to the pool. I don't have a maternity bathing suit so I just sat on the side. Then we decided to take him to McDonald's. That was all fun until we went to leave and he threw a fit. Of course, we got the stare down from the other patrons when we had to rip him off the slide after he turned to run up it when he realized we'd be leaving. Oh, the joys of parenting.

MUCH needed Relaxation

My day started off kind of rocky or rather shaky. I had my gestational diabetes test. I was fearing the not being able to eat part since I'm starving as soon as I wake up. But it actually wasn't that bad and I made it through. The orange drink is also totally exaggerated by people. I mean, I don't normally drink orange soda (or much soda for that matter) never mind at 7 a.m. but it was no big deal and hopefully I don't have gestational diabetes.

Then, I was off to eat *obviously* and meet up with Mary since we were headed to a spa in Augusta. Sweet! She surprised me the night before by letting me know she had booked us massages. I have been dying for a massage so I was thrilled. It was also nice that she understood that my body needed it. In doing all this yard work and house work, I've felt she hasn't understood that it's taken it's toll on my body in a different way than hers. Anywho, she definitely scored big wifey points in booking us massages.

My massage was great. Ever since I went to massage school, getting a massage has been difficult since I tend to want to guide the massage and am rather critical. But my pregnant body has needed any sort of massage lately so it was wonderful and relaxing. I just wanted to take a nap afterwards. And it was definitely nice to receive since I plan on doing pregnancy massage training at some point.

So it turned out to be a lovely and pretty relaxing day. :-)

Exhaustion.

I am finally enjoying some rest after a hectic 24 hours. With the warm weather, comes "work horse Mary". This is what me and my mom jokingly call her because we are amazed at her energy level.

Anywho, Mary had this idea to add some shrubbery and stuff to the front; a little curb appeal for potential buyers. It's new construction so we don't have any and last year we only worked on the back yard. Since we weren't planning on selling, we wanted a space that we could enjoy. Dumb move...along with the $8,000 fence but whatever, what's done is done.

So yesterday Mary took the morning off so we could work on it. Of course, I can't dig any of the holes but I pick things out and design. I also decided to volunteer for placing everything and filling in the dirt. I thought this could help out since Mary could only work on things in the morning. However, being a large pregnant woman, this was NOT an easy task and involved the 2 things I hate to do (because they are painful), bending and getting up and down. By 4:00 I was done as in my body was ready to give out.

I feel like I'm at a stage where I'm actually enjoying being pregnant and having my little guy swimmin' in my tummy. But I will definitely be happy to have my body back. It's hard to move in normal ways and my body just seems to give out lately. Non-prego, I could just push through and get things done.

So this morning it was rainy and yucky but Mary was out there yet again to finish the rest of it. She's a trooper. Lucky for me, we were going to have a showing at 1 so I got to stay inside...of course, it involved cleaning. Though the cleaning and staging routine has definitely gotten easier and it didn't seem as painstaking as it has in the past. Mary also helped by doing the vacuuming last night. Luckily, because my back was shot after all my work yesterday.

Am I allowed to put myself on bed rest? Maybe I can get a dr's note that says I can't do anything but sip lemonade and soak in the new sunshine? ;-) Oh well, I am off to rest...that is if I can get out of this chair.

Adoption PROCESS

We were told by our lawyer that our paperwork was all set so we could go down to the court and do our fingerprints. That was it. It wasn't, go see this woman who will give you a "fingerprint kit". Then, call another woman to schedule a time to do your fingerprints. And the woman that does the fingerprinting only does them between 6:30 a.m. - 8 a.m. on Thursdays (what?!?!).

Anywho, we went down to do our fingerprints for our background check and we learned all this. Also, in the process, we met the woman that does them and instead of just scheduling us, she wanted us to call once we had the kits...which we were on our way to get. So about 10 minutes after meeting her, I left her a message since "she was away from her desk". She called back to let me know she could do it at 6:30 a.m. With a 3 year old in tow, we just can't be anywhere at 6:30 a.m. I mean, who can? That's seriously early.

Tomorrow, I'm going to call our local police department to see if they can do it. Though we've been advised that they may screw it up. I think that's the risk we'll have to take in hopes of having a someone being a little bit more flexible with scheduling. Just another annoying thing in this entire process.

And yes, we had background checks to become foster parents. However, they didn't involve fingerprints so I'm not sure if this is a new thing or just something for adoptive parents but it's annoying. And of course it adds about a month to the entire process since everything has to be processed before a court date can be scheduled.

3rd Trimester - WHAT?!?!

I'm in the THIRD TRIMESTER - aaaaaaaaaaaaah!!! Yes, I'm freaking out that baby will be here relatively soon. At the same time, I'm really excited to see my baby boy and enjoy some alcohol ;-) Of course, our lives are a mess right now with trying to get Cameron's adoption squared away and selling our house. Oh, I think back to when we first started trying to have a baby and it was the PERFECT time for it. If only my body cooperated.

Back to baby stuff. While we were in southern Maine, we went to Babies R Us. I figured just to browse, we don't have one up here so we always go just to look. Well, Mary gave in and let me purchase the bedding ensemble that I've wanted. She's not a fan of it but I LOVE it. Especially since I wanted to do a sailboat theme but wasn't finding any set that I liked.



Anywho, I was definitely happy that she let me have my way on this. I was surprised she was adimantly against it since I usually just do the decorating and she likes everything I pick. We've also come to the conclusion that we're not having a baby shower so buying everything is on us. We're hoping our parents will help us with some major items but we're used to doing things on our own at this point. Afterall, when you get 2 foster kids, nobody throws you a shower. And since all our family live far away, a shower just isn't really possible.

We will however have the best dressed baby since I have gone a little bit crazy on little blue outfits. LOL. Mary tried to put a monitorium on my baby clothes purchases to which I did not go for. However, I haven't bought anything in quite some time. But over my recent shopping extravaganzas, I went a wee bit crazy. It's also bad because I always feel the need to get Cameron stuff when I get the baby stuff even though Cameron doesn't necessarily need any clothes. I guess there's some fear of favoring the baby over him. But whatever, now I'm enforcing a monitorium on MYSELF. :-)

We also realized that all the major items we bought were bedding which a baby can't actually use right away because of the SIDS risk and we don't plan on having a crib right away. We figure we'll have the baby in our room but we've been going back and forth with a bassinet, pack and play that has a bassinet, or one of those sleep in the bed things. Mary's all into the sleep in the bed thing. I worry I'll never be comfy to actually sleep with the baby in the bed and as it is, our bed just barely fits us. Hmmm...has anybody tried one of these? Obviously it's the cheapest and takes up the least amount of room. I don't know, we fear being those new parents that have all the baby stuff taking over the house and not really needing 1/2 of it. I definitely don't want to be so wasteful.

Ba-Bye Sunny Southern Maine

Baby's Ready for the Beach - Ogunquit, Maine


Cameron's Favorite *because it has a playground* - Mother's Beach in Kennebunkport, Maine


Mary's Least Favorite *but she does enjoy the fried food stands* ;-) - Old Orchard Beach, Maine

We had a nice time overall with the exception of Cameron being 3 and not sleeping until the last 2 nights - oy! But the weather was great especially for this time of year. 50s to 60s and sunny - yay! Spring has finally reached Maine. It was so nice being by the coast and going by the beach nearly every day. Of course, I'm not a hardcore Mainer and don't sport a bikini in 50 degree windy beach weather - yes, there were actually people in bathing suits and bikinis. Crazy! But still, I enjoyed walking along the beach fully dressed :-)

My highlights were seeing my friend M on Thursday. Mary had meetings in Boston so she dropped Camer and I off there. Camer of course had a shy freak out when we first got there. His shyness used to be cute but as he's gotten older it's just gotten very weird. The crying like an infant and screaming "no!" that comes along with it also isn't very cute. Anywho, at least her child had a melt down since he was petrified of the Rainforest Cafe. He is only 1 so I was kind of relieved that it was him that was scared and not Cameron. Oh, children, so unpredictable.

The other things I most enjoyed were my times alone. Is that terrible? I got to escape twice to do a little bit of shopping. Mary had Camer during one of his naps (or lack of a nap) and today on our way back, we stopped in Freeport, home of the massive L.L. Bean outlet - it's like an L.L. Bean compound, it's crazy. Anywho, Mary really wanted to go since she likes L.L. Bean and has had a gift certificate since Christmas.

I felt bad because she ended up leaving before we even got in the store because Cameron threw some weird tantrum in the parking lot. So weird. Since I had my own car, I opted to do some of the other outlets in downtown Freeport. Candice + outlet shopping = heart. I got some major deals at the GAP on maternity clothes. Maternity clothes for the warmer months are definitely way cuter than my current sweaters and sweat pants.

Along with some new clothes, I also seem to have a major cold and laryngitis from the trip. My allergies have been super bad so that may be it combined with a lack of sleep this week. I'm definitely looking forward to my "day off" tomorrow. I will very happily wave goodbye as Mary and Cameron leave for work and daycare :-) I know, probably selfish but girl needs her rest and ALONE time.

"Cation"

Is it only Tuesday? Ha! I think I'm going to need a vacation from my vacation or rather "cation" as Camer calls it. We're staying in a cute little loft apartment but there's quite a bit of noise and LIGHT. Cameron's sleeping has not been regular to say the least. He's been pretty good for the most part but when we tried to take him to a playground this afternoon, he had a melt down. Obviously from his lack of sleep. The first night he was up screaming and crying. I figured it would happen since he was sleeping in a different place but after his short nap yesterday, I thought he would sleep through last night. Nope, he was up crying again and then after he settled down was whining for the rest of the night. He seems to finally fall back asleep in the morning but then since Mary has had to leave early in the morning, she's woken him up with her elephant steps. For a small woman, she walks quite loud.

Anywho, we headed down to Boston on Sunday to go to some open houses. I had this bright idea. It probably wasn't the best way to start our vacation since we left early and were in the car for most of the day. But at least it pretty much confirmed our decision to rent. The houses even about 50K above what we could spend, were small and pits. At least I think when it's time to buy, Mary won't be so obsessed with being right near the university. It's not exactly in the best town but it's close enough to Boston to make the housing prices ridiculously high. Also, since Cameron will start school in the next 2 years, school districts need to be considered.

After our open house adventure, we headed back to Maine - at least just to southern Maine so the ride back wasn't bad. We're staying at a loft style apartment that these older people rent out. They were very cute and left Cameron out all these toys so he's been pretty entertained with those. Of course, I packed toys but kids are always thrilled to have different things to play with. Yesterday, we just hung out around town, went grocery shopping, and to a playground. Mary said she'd probably be back around 3. I was pretty happy about that since that's when Cameron *usually* wakes up from his nap. Well, Cameron hardly napped and then Mary wasn't home until almost 6. At least she had enough energy to take us out to dinner. As a growing pregnant woman, that was obviously my highlight of the day :-)

Today, Camer and I went to Chuck E. Cheese. We had fun there and played about a million games. I have to laugh because some games that we were playing against each other, he wins with no effort. He doesn't even know what he's doing but some how he still manages to win just by randomly pushing buttons and doing crazy stuff. I was also hysterically laughing when I had him do one of the driving games. I just press the gas and let him drive all crazy. Well, he was scoring points left and right and kept getting extra time. Oh well, it was fun and I definitely enjoy the kid places that I can play at too. I wanted to do some shopping in that area too but I decided against it. Since he did so well at Chuck E. Cheese, sometimes it's better to call it a day then risk a melt down. Mary was home around 4:30 so that's when we attempted to bring him to the playground. That didn't go so well. He's in bed early so I have hope that he'll fall asleep by 8 (his usual time). Little kids on lack of sleep are a bad thing and a pregnant mommy Candice on lack of sleep is a bad thing too. Hopefully BOTH of us will get some good sleep tonight! I miss my kitties, my doggy, and my tempeupedic bed.

The Non Baby Moon

We are heading to southern Maine tomorrow for a full week. Of course, as in most of our trips, the majority of it will be a business trip for Mary. As part of the study she's doing, she'll be sampling on the coast.

Mary keeps calling it a "baby boon". I had mentioned I wanted to do a "baby moon" (note the word moon and not boon, kind of like a honey moon). Anywho, I thought we'd have one last trip that was kid free. I had started planning something before we got the go ahead to adopt Cameron. Since I didn't think we'd be adopting him, a kid free vacation would have been possible before the baby arrived. Needless to say, we're stuck in the north pole with no family to watch the kid.

So I've come to the conclusion that there will be no baby moon. But then there's Mary who likes to call everything a baby boon (Mary often mixes up words and then refuses to change them as part of trying to annoy me). I've tried to emphasize to Mary that this is no where near a baby moon since baby moons aren't business trips and they also don't include me being alone with the kid for 4 out of the 7 days ;-) The topper, of course, we're renting a place that has a kitchen. Hopefully we'll go out to dinner more than a few times but for the most part I will be doing my usual duties of cleaning and cooking. Sometimes my lesbian marriage is not the same one I dreamed of. And I've definitely come to the conclusion that there will be no actual vacations (like full on vacation where I have no obligations) until after the kids are grown. It's just part of having children, there are upsides and there are downsides.

On a positive note, I am definitely looking forward to a change of scenery and at least getting a few hours south. It's amazing the temperature difference just between southern Maine and here. Plus, I way prefer southern Maine to the area we live in. I'm also going to be spending one of the days with my friend M so it will definitely be nice to have some social contact.

On a side note. The showing today went well. Apparently, our house is on their short list so they are coming back tomorrow for a second look...eeks! I hope something comes through. :-)

The Dreaded House and a Hyper Baby

Oy. I'm exhausted. I spent much of the day running around doing errands and then yet again doing things that pregnant woman probably shouldn't be doing. I had to re-paint one of our outside doors. It was super dirty after the winter, mostly from Chloe jumping on it, and then Mary decided to clean it with bleach.

Over the summer, we had the brilliant idea to paint our outside doors red. Well, initially I thought we were just painting the front door and then Mary took it a step further and decided to paint both our back doors too. I do like the red but it was a nightmare to paint and also a nightmare to re-paint and touch up. I also had to paint parts of our foundation that had some black stuff on it. This was not a fun task and I'm not sure it looks any better.

After starting some laundry, I was about to lay down around 4:30 when Mary calls to tell me there's a showing tomorrow morning. The house definitely needs to be scrubbed down. Oh well, at least Mary's taking me out to lunch tomorrow as my payment *she just doesn't know it yet* for being such a diligent house wife :-) Fingers crossed that the showing goes well and we get an offer. It's only the 2nd showing and already I feel done with this process.

And at least I know my physical labor hasn't effected baby boy since he continues to kick and kick and kick. He's quite active and I don't think he's stopped moving in the past 3 days. I hope this is not a sign of his future hyperactivity...but then again, what little boy isn't hyperactive.

Baby & My Breathing

I had like mega amounts of energy earlier in the week. Today, it’s like I hit a wall and of course Mary left a list of things for me to do. I think my lack of energy is due to the fact that I seem to have hit full force into the stage of pregnancy where breathing is difficult. When you feel like your lungs are collapsing, doing a lot of things just isn’t easy. I wish I could make my baby stay in the middle. Is that possible? He likes to go up and push into my diaphragm and lungs or when he goes down low, it hurts and he feels like he’s just going to fall out of my cervix (as if it were that easy). Mary keeps telling me to push him. Hmmm...not so into pushing a 2 pound baby. Apparently, the secretary at her work suggested this since she had to push her baby down because she’d put her feet above her ribs. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, pregnancy is totally strange.

Oh well, I’ll stop messing around on the computer and continue my house duties. At least it’s another sunny day here with 50 degree temps :-)

My Chloe

Mary's sister wants our dog Chloe. Mary's been thinking of getting rid of her. The thought has definitely crossed my mind a few times but at the same time, I don't want to just get rid of our dog. Anywho, her sister Jill has been looking for a dog (not a puppy) since her dog is very old and will probably pass away soon. Mary's mom had mentioned Chloe since she really likes her.

Mary's mom and Jill share a property and have a decent amount of land which is ideal for Chloe. At the same time, I'm not sure she can stand the Florida heat. Jill is also a high energy person which Chloe definitely needs because she's, well, a high energy dog. Jill is definitely the ideal person if we were going to give Chloe to someone and of course, it would be a bit off our plate to not have Chloe but I just can't grasp the concept of getting rid of our dog.

I have mentioned Mary's mom keeping Georgia but that's not going to happen. I think I'd rather have Chloe than Georgia. I love my little Georgia but she's a crazy dog. She has accidents in the house, she hates the cats and attacks them whenever, she's bitten a few visitors and she barks at every one and every thing. She definitely has what I call "little dog syndrome". Chloe definitely has some issues with barking but loves the kitties and even plays with them especially her best bud BoBo and she lets Cameron treat her like a pony. Plus, with having boys, I feel like they need a dog – a real dog.

I just wish we knew exactly where we were going to be living in the Boston area. If we get the rental through the university, they allow dogs and Chloe would have enough yard space. However, if that doesn't come through, most rentals don't allow dogs over 25 pounds and if they do, it's unlikely they'd have much of a yard. She is also not leash trained. Georgia definitely enjoyed the city because she loves being walked on a leash.

There's also the process of getting Chloe to Jill if we decide that's what we want to do. I really don't want Chloe going on a plane. When we bring Georgia on a plane, she goes in a carrier with us. Chloe is too big so she'd have to go underneath with the luggage and well, that just scares me.

I don't know, it's a lot to think about and makes me nervous and sad. I'm also emotional/hormonal and cry at the drop of the hat. So anytime Mary has brought it up, I just get emotional. Of course, Chloe's always nearby staring at me with her sad brown eyes. I'm sure she'd do great with Jill and that we don't have a lot of time for her and will have even less when the baby arrives but still, I hate the idea of getting rid of a dog because we're having a baby.

the kid, the weather, and the animals

Cameron had play therapy today. She said he did really good and was playing nice with everything. It was an improvement since he’s definitely had some aggression recently. We went to the mall after to get his haircut and get some new shoes. Both things were a total process. He had a bribe to go on one of the “rides” at the mall after the haircut but it took me about 10 minutes to coax him into the chair. He was being shy and uncooperative. Luckily, the hairdresser was being nice about the situation but I thought I was going to have to leave. Then at the shoe store the worker was up my butt. Usually the “oh, we’re just browsing” gets them off my back but she wanted to measure Cameron’s foot and he wasn’t having it. I really didn’t care if he got it measured since I know his size so I just told her good luck. Anywho, we made it through without any major tantrums but it was still quite the annoying trip. Lately, anywhere I bring him with the exception of restaurants (I guess because he “love restaurants” and eating so much), he’s difficult. I’m sure it’s a combination of his age phase and me being hormonal and impatient but he drives me crazy!!! Everything is “no” and he’s so uncooperative. This too shall pass…at least I hope so!

In good news, the weather has immensely improved over the past few days. It’s even hit 50 – yes, I never thought I’d be jumping for joy over 50 but it feels like a heat wave here and with lots of sunshine, it’s been great. It’s amazing how the weather can have such an effect on my mood. I’ve even been able to open the windows in the house. The poor cats were thrilled. They are all indoor so when I opened the windows, they were like, “AIR!!” It has been a VERY long time since we could open windows and we’ve been able to play outside so Chloe has also been in her glory too. Yay!

Weekend Recap

Pretty boring weekend. Saturday morning Mary and I were both getting our cars serviced. First Mary's so we dropped hers off and then headed out to breakfast. Mary made the mistake of letting him know we'd be going to the restaurant in the morning and according to Cameron, he "loves restaurants". Anywho, I have been sleeping like utter crap (or rather not sleeping) so I fell asleep early in the morning. Then suddenly I was awoken to a little boy telling me that we were going to a restaurant. LOL. I let him know that the restaurant was not open that early.

Post breakfast we picked up Mary's car and dropped off mine for new tires. My car has less than 30K miles but the roads around here SUCK so my tires have taken a major beating. While my tires were being put on, we went shopping and bought some new bedding for our room. I have put so much focus into the rest of the house and even Cameron's room but our room has been neglected to say the least. I thought I'd be more motivated when we bought some new bedroom furniture over the summer but it didn't happen. Anywho, the yucky bedding has been replaced - we ordered our old bedding pretty cheap and from online, it wasn't exactly the equivalent of the pic online. So we have shiny *literally* new bedding :-)

Today I never left the house. In the afternoon, I made Mary bring Camer to the pool. After being with him since Friday, I needed some time ALONE and of course I had house work to do. So even though I was doing stuff the entire time they were gone, it was nice to have a quiet house :-) Oh well, off to watch Big Brother. For the past 2 years, the LAST person that I wanted to win has won and most everyone annoys me on the show but for some reason Mary and I are addicted and can't stop watching.

A Showing! Yikes!

Lordie, I agree with Trace, the process of selling the house is quite stressful. Keeping the house clean and essentially perfect is definitely difficult between the menagerie of animals and the kid.

So we already had one showing today. Apparently, when our agents got back to their office, they found out another agent has a client that's looking for a house on OUR STREET. So weird. Anywho, at first they set it up for tomorrow at 12. I got totally freaked out that we were going to have a showing and so soon and I got even MORE freaked out when Mary called me back at 2:00 to let me know they wanted to have the showing at 4:00. Of course, we could've said no but I want to be as flexible as possible since we want to sell. Luckily, the kid was in his nap so it was me going in high speed to get things cleaned and ready. Then, once he got up, getting his room in order and all of us (kid, dog, and me) out the door. *phew*

I think I've decided that Emma also needs to go during showings. She's a friendly cat but TOO friendly unless you love cats which I do and even then, she's a bit much. And when I got back, some stuff was moved on the kitchen table. Miss Violet and BoBo were hiding under the bed so I know Emma was the culprit.

Oh well, hopefully these last minute showings don't become a regular thing or maybe we'll already get an offer...wishful thinking!

Selling a House and Adopting a Kid

Our house is officially on the market. We listed it at about 15K more than we thought we'd list it for but with the comps' in the neighborhood, I think we have a fighting chance at recouping at least some of the money we put into the house. Since we worked with this realtor when we bought the house, she was able to give us a decent deal on her fee. She also works as a team with another woman. She told me I'm the cutest pregnant woman she's ever seen so I love her. LOL. And apparently, we did a good job at getting it ready for showings since when the manager of the office saw the pictures, he thought we had it staged. *fingers crossed for a QUICK sale*

Cameron is home today. He also ran me ragged on Wednesday. He is home with me 2 days/week. Now that we're adopting him, Mary has wanted to pull him out of daycare/pre-school all together. One, because we're now paying for it and two, she just doesn't want him in daycare. We both agree that a lot of the kids are "bad influences" and that he's always a grump after the day there (probably because he refuses to nap at school) but whatever, that's just the way daycare goes.

There is also no part-time program so even though he's only there 3 days/week at the most, we pay for the full thing. But we have absolutely no resources up here especially for day time babysitting so I think it's out of the question to keep him home full time and it's also been difficult keeping up with a 3-year old while I'm pregnant. He was SO much easier when he was 2. Taken, he had some major developmental delays, I do miss the days of him being quiet, cooperative, and lighter!

We were pretty disappointed yesterday to learn that his official adoption probably won't happen until sometime in May - at the earliest! As I think I mentioned before, all the paperwork was ready to go when our lawyer noticed a mistake was made at the state level by listing Cameron's father's name wrong. And with his crazy bio family, we really didn't want to take the risk of legal battles later on so everything was sent back to be corrected. Of course, now this has delayed things about 2 months or so.