nice to swim in a warm pool

The pool that was at our apartment in Missouri was not heated... and it was in the shade for a good portion of the day, therefore even on the warmest days of summer, the pool was still quite chilly. But, we took Lydia into the pool anyway since she was old enough and thought she'd like it. And at the time, I thought she DID like it.

But today, we went to our pool here at our apartments in Texas and what a difference! The water was MUCH warmer (there was no "shock" or "getting used to" the water or anything) and Lydia clearly liked it better. She actually played in the water a little instead of giving us a look that said, "Why are you holding me in this COLD water?" She would try to grab the little air bubbles that floated around, and would pat the water a little and smile and coo. :)

In other news, I've finally gotten all of the non-essential kitchen "stuff" re-packed and stacked in our storage closet. I can see my dining room and the dining room table again! :) For a couple of days, I didn't do anything unpacking-wise because I just felt like I was doing the same thing over and over and not really getting anywhere. But the accomplishment today is really giving me a boost. There's not a whole lot left to do now, just the bookshelf and getting rid of the boxes, really. OH and we have a home phone now! I last checked it on Monday and still didn't have a dial tone, then plugged it in today and surprise, there was a dial tone! Then I called hubby's cell phone and he answers it, but he's right there in the room with me. He was only slightly amused. :P

unpacking for a long time

Well, we found a place to live. It has some small faults but overall it's not a bad place at all. It's right in between hubby's work and church so that is nice to be close to both places. And it turns out that we will be reimbursed for any legit expenses that we went over on our moving. Hubby talked to his new DM and apparently when we moved to Missouri, the relocation thing was done wrong. I wish it could have been done "wrong" again, but oh well. What's done is done.

As soon as we had an address, I called from the hotel to get phone service connected, but they said it would be 5-10 business days for the phone and then another several weeks (worst case scenario) for DSL. I am almost positive, based on this info, that I will not be able to work at all in July, which puts a damper on August's budget. But hopefully everything will be installed in time for me to do at least a little work in August. And in the meantime, I can definitely put a big dent in unpacking. I also need to go through the dresser drawers and a few other minor places, and probably get rid of some more stuff.

Hubby had his first scary moment with Lydia the other day. He took her with him to go check the mail, and the only thing there was a postcard advertisement. When he got back he said that he hoped I didn't like that particular store b/c "monster baby ate it." Lydia had it all crumpled in her hands and was gnawing on it. I took it away but the damage had been done... a big piece was missing from the corner. I swept my finger through her mouth but didn't feel anything (I was a little too aggressive in my sweeping though and made her gag). I set her on the floor and moments later, with no sound or fuss, the missing corner came sliding out of her mouth. Hubby was closer so I had him grab it out of her mouth. He felt SO bad afterwards. He really didn't think that she could actually take a bite of something without teeth.

The church we're going to is amazing. It's the largest congregation, by far, that I have ever been a member of. They have a babies' Bible class there, and I took Lydia on Sunday morning but stayed in there with her just in case she got fussy. She did fine though and really enjoyed it. :) So on Wednesday I tried leaving her by herself and she did fine then too. I was telling Mom about the class and she got all sad b/c she didn't realize that Lydia was that old yet.

I'm on a limited time budget here at the library computer, though, so I'd better close this up. Until our DSL is hooked up, I don't know how often I'll really be able to get on here.

on the move in more ways than one

The first "on the move" is obviously our big move to Texas. Turns out that the company is only paying for 2 nights in a hotel, Thursday and Friday. So once again, they think we can do everything in 1 business day. I keep looking at our "short list" of apartments and think I have it narrowed down to just a couple, but we definitely have to see them first. But I mean the apartment rental application alone can easily take more than one business day. I even called one today to ask about their availability and said that we'd need to move in on Friday, and he's like "Well, the soonest we can process your application would be the middle of next week." OK then, thanks anyway.

I'm taking a little break from packing. I was bad and put it off for as long as I could, but I think we'll be able to get it done today. It's going a lot smoother than I thought it would. Plus hubby only works a half day today and then he'll be able to help me pack, etc. too. Tomorrow will be the real kicker, though, since we'll have to wait until after our showers to pack up all THAT stuff, and we can't clean the floor all the way until the washer and dryer are gone, can't vaccuum all the way until the furniture is gone, etc. I'm hoping that we'll be able to be on the road by 10. I have to take a detour to my in-laws to drop off our cat, since we won't be able to pay the pet deposit for a few months, so if I leave by 10 and take minimal stops, it'll still be probably 9 before I get to the hotel.

The other "on the move" is Lydia. She's still not crawling, but is finding it easier and easier to get around. I left her in the middle of our bedroom while I was packing a box, and she managed to roll over to the wall where some empty boxes were stacked and was playing with a box and chewing on its corner. I asked her how she got all the way over there and she just looked at me. :P

very strange dream about moving

This will probably be my last blog entry until after the move, and I had a weird dream last night that I have to write about while I still remember it.

So I'm laying in the bed, dreaming about moving. Except it's not quite "right". First off in the dream, my in-laws are living in the back bedroom and we're having to pack up all of their stuff also. Then they're going to pack it up again from our new place and move out from there almost right away. We had barely started packing by the time the U-haul came, and so we were late getting to the new city. Then, when we were moving my IL's couch, there was ... hm how to put this delicately... there was "evidence" that an animal had been there. They called someone to come clean it up, and a guy came w/ a steam-vac sort of thing and vaccuumed up part of it, then got out a little test strip and stuck the strip into the matter. The test strip was able to tell what kind of animal had left the deposit. It was a raccoon.

Shortly after that I woke up, relieved to not have to worry about finding random animal "stuff" under my couch, and relieved to still have 2 full days to pack. Although we did get some disturbing news about the move yesterday. Hubby's company is paying for the move... BUT... we pick up the Uhaul Thursday morning and have to turn it in Sunday morning. So we will be packing and driving on Thursday and since it's 7 hours away then we'll obviously get there way too late to look for any apartments that day. So according to them, bright and early Friday morning we need to try and find an apartment, hope they can process our application that day, sign the lease, get the utilities connected (since every other apartment I've lived in needed that connection slip before I could move in), etc. True that there are apartments that are open on Saturday so in theory we could do some looking then, too, but they wouldn't be able to check our rental history since the management company here is closed on Saturday.

Hubby has a call in right now to see how many hotel days the company is paying for. Hopefully it'll get us through Tuesday morning so we can possibly have Monday to look for an apartment too and/or finish narrowing down the ones we'd seen on Friday and Saturday. Also, this is DALLAS! Our time already will be limited because of the traffic. When the new district manager told hubby that he wants him to start on the 15th, he said he'd work with him on the move. This doesn't really feel like "working with" us at all. Our other relocation went a LOT more smoothly, probably because we left on a Tuesday instead of a Thursday and still had several business days to look around before the weekend came. I'll try to update a bit later when I hear from hubby again.

Lydia's doing well and still rolling all over the place, still no teeth, still not sitting up. We went to our last Springfield LLL meeting last night and one of my friends took me and hubby out for dinner afterwards. I'm sad to leave all these babies that Lydia has been growing up with but know that there are groups down in Dallas for me to join too.

her cousin remembers her

I talked to my Mom today. We had spoken yesterday, also. I called her to get a diaper rash cream recipe since Lydia still had some bad diaper rash going on. She called my sister and got it from her and called me back, and also mentioned that an oatmeal bath had cleared up my nephew's rash very quickly. So I went the oatmeal route first and it worked for Lydia also. Mom called today to ask how it went and I told her.

Then she also mentioned to me that my oldest nephew (3 yrs) and sister were shopping the other day, and passed a display of straw-cups. These cups had different characters and designs on them, etc. Well my nephew grabs a butterfly cup and puts it in the cart. My sister asks him why he got that one b/c it's for girls. He told her that he wanted to get it for Lydia. :) :)

Hubby found out yesterday that we are indeed moving to DFW. It'll be sometime late next week when we pull out of here with the U-haul. I should be packing right now but I did do a lot of pre-moving errands already today. I'm also still a little worn out from being out until nearly 2 am last night (er, this morning) doing fireworks. Besides, it's only Thursday and hubby's moving expense check won't even be cut until Tuesday, and I did just finish that big purge from a couple of months ago... so I'll rest the rest of today and start in strong tomorrow. :)

another round of giggles

I had to grab another video of Lydia laughing since she was doing it a lot more in this one. :P A month or so ago, I bought her a mouse that makes noise and vibrates when you pull its cheese. She wasn't all that interested in it at first so I put it away for a while, and "found" it again today. As you can see and hear, she clearly loves it now. :)

moving again already?

Well, my tie-dyed diaper business is on hold again, while hubby and I wait to hear about his job situation. He has applied for two different positions (w/ the same company) in Texas (DFW area). He hasn't heard back from one of them but on the other he has a phone interview tomorrow. If we move, it'll likely be before the end of the month. Good thing I semi-finished that organization a while back. It's weird, too, because the last time I did a big organization thing, we found out the very next week that we were moving to Springfield. :P The move would be a good one for us in so many ways, but on the other hand I wouldn't mind staying here in Missouri for just a little while longer. If we get the position that he has a phone interview with tomorrow, it would be a lateral move (i.e. no increase in salary), BUT there are 10 stores within 18 miles and more even after that, so definitely easier to move up again w/o having to "fully" relocate again, KWIM? So for now, the diapers are staying un-dyed since it's a several-day process. Transcription will pick up again later this month, hopefully we will be moved (if we move) in time for me to take the most advantage of that.

I just got back from a week in Oklahoma. Mother-in-law had had surgery a week ago Wednesday and needed some companionship and someone to do her heavy lifting. I let Lydia lay in her bed and in her chair with her frequently, and I think she was good medicine. :)

I realize I posted a video w/ my last entry, but that was almost half a month ago. So here's another one. lol. In this one, she's taking great enjoyment from her turtle teething toy. Some of her noises in there sound like coughs, but they are all laughs. :) Hubby's mom got to hear a bunch of laughs while I was down there, too.