Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Welcome to the House of Mouse

And spiders, and ants, and scorpions. But I'm not complaining, our builders warned us that when building the house, we drove nature away, and nature would attack back and try to move back in. So it seems they were correct.

As of Monday, May 19Th at 4:10 pm, the house has been officially ours. We were in the rental house, moving out the last of our stuff when we got the news. We decided to stay in the hotel one last night since all our belongings were crammed into the garage since Saturday, and we were hot, sweaty, sore and tired. So Tuesday night was our first night in our new home.

Wednesday morning, Vince woke me up before leaving for work, to let me know he had just killed a mouse in the pantry, so would I please bleach down the shelves. As well as cleaning in the pantry, I also decided to reorganize what I had just moved in, and put only canned and bottled goods on the bottom shelves. Boxed and bagged items would go on top. Thursday morning I awoke to find the label nibbled off a can of beans. Our little dead mouse had friends.

So Vince brought home traps. Friday morning he awoke to find another mouse in one of the traps. Friday night, while lying in bed, we both heard one of the traps go off. Vince got up, disposed of another victim, and reset the trap. There was another body Saturday morning, waiting for it's unceremonious disposal. So far, no more bodies found, but I'm sure they're still in the garage, though the trap in there has remained empty. Maybe they've lost their appetite for peanut butter.

I've seen the odd ant here and there, but yesterday while doing laundry I was collecting clothes for a load of whites, and our whites basket was crawling with ants. I took the bag out to the garage, shook it out, then just left it for the ants to scatter. Then last night when getting into bed I found an ant crawling on my pillow. Vince promised to spray for bugs this weekend.

This morning when I called Vince to say "good morning", which is our usual routine since he gets up at an ungodly hour in the morning in which I refuse to be conscious, he asked me to be sure to keep shoes on every one's feet today. He killed a scorpion in the kitchen this morning. Ugh.

So we're under attack, but we're fighting back. This is our new beautiful home, and we won't be driven out so easily. Who knew, it's not only the old manky houses that have bugs? Welcome home.

Friday, May 16, 2008

Vertical Hurts

Tuesday afternoon I was putting the babies down for their naps, in the hopes of getting much packing done during nap time. Now I call Francesca my "chunk of ham", and it seems she lives up to this pet name. As I was leaning over Francesca's crib to lie her down, my back, well I don't know what my back did. If it was a snap, a crack, or what, but suddenly I was reduced to a hunch back and was unable to stand upright. That pretty much ended my day. The rest was spent with me lying in bed, unable to move. It is now Friday evening, and while I'm no longer crawling on my hands and knees to get to the bathroom, I'm still pretty useless around here.

Good thing Vince planned on taking Wednesday and Thursday off so we could pack everything up, because he needed all the time he could get since he had to do it all on his own. Yes, I feel very very bad about this. I don't know how many times I've thought, especially when the kids are running me ragged, that I'd love to just lie on the couch and do nothing. Well, lying on the couch and doing nothing isn't all it's cracked up to be, especially when there is so much to do.

Tuesday I got a doctor's appointment, and made it to the car and into the office on my own. I was prescribed muscle relaxers, told to take ibuprofen, use heat pads, and lift nothing heavier than eight pounds. That means I can't even pour my kids a cup of milk, since a gallon of milk weighs eight pounds.

So the Father Of The Year award goes to my husband, for not only packing up the entire house, my himself, but also taking care of four children at the same time. Anyone have any stellar Father's Day gift ideas?

As for me, I'm off to take another Skelaxin move into a horizontal position, my back is seizing again.

Oh, and as of tomorrow we will be heading out to the boonies, so I'll be without the freedom of the World Wide Web until the connection in the new house is established sometime late next week. So you all take care now, ya'hear.

Monday, May 12, 2008

One Week!

No, no, I'm not one week pregnant. Let's just not go there, alright?

One week from today, we should be living in our new house. One week from today, we will be signing the papers, waiting for the bank to transfer the funds, and resting our heads on our pillows in our new house. It is finally becoming real to me. Yes I know, I'm a little slow.

In the meantime it's time to pack, pack, pack and eat, eat, eat. I want my freezer cleared out by Friday. Also, the plan was to pack a room a day, but I've tried that plan previously, and failed horribly. So Vince is planning on taking a couple of days off this week so we can just pound it out together.

Everything won't be finalized until Monday, but the builders are letting us move our belongings into the house this weekend, since that is when our friends will be able to help us (us meaning Vince). So for Saturday and Sunday we have reservations at The Worthington in downtown Fort Worth. I love staying in hotels so I'm excited. And a bonus is that Vince's sister works for Marriott, so we got a killer rate. She's saving us like 75%. She will be receiving a "Thank You" gift for sure.

Saturday we went by the house for Vince to drop off some hardwood flooring he purchased, and it was a hot day. It was Texas hot. My car thermometer read 98 F., and that was in the shade. The builder came by to let us in the house since they keep it locked up once the appliances are in, and I was shocked by how cool the house was. We didn't get there until two in the afternoon, and didn't leave until five, and the house was at least twenty degrees cooler inside. Why I find this so amazing is that the house we're renting, even though I close all the windows and shut the blinds early in the morning, once 11:00 a.m. hits the house starts to heat up. And this isn't even on particularly hot days. But the new house stayed cool. Cool with everyone opening and closing the doors to come in and out. Cool even though there is an open plug in the front door where the dead bolt will be installed. Cool without any window coverings at all. Cool even though the house faces East/West. Oh, and the AC unit isn't even on the property yet. Not that it would keep the house cool just sitting there unhooked up anyway, but still, I'm just so impressed. I'm looking forward to much savings in the AC department this summer, because a $600 AC bill is not uncommon here for one months worth of cool comfort.

So this week the house will be a happening place. The propane tank is being installed and the blinds are going in today, the driveway is being poured on Tuesday. Wednesday the mailbox is being build, the AC unit is going in, and the rest of the baseboards are being installed. Thursday the painter is coming back to finish up the painting/staining. Friday the carpet is being installed and the cleaning crew is coming in. I'm sure there is more going on, but I can't remember what. I know the yard is being leveled and topsoil is being brought it, but when I don't know.

So some last photos before the house is cluttered with all our crap. I don't know if I'll get a chance to get any photos after the cleaning, but before the move in.

Entryway with coach lights installed

Coach light close up

Dining room light

Entryway light

Kitchen backsplash

Thursday, May 08, 2008

She's Three!

Because of my crappiness as a mom, it is now six days past Annamaria's birthday, and I'm just now getting around to her birthday post. At least it's not as bad as the fact that I also haven't gotten around to getting Francesca's pictures taken in her baptism dress, and she was baptized in November. Of 2006. Um, yea. Hope the dress still fits.

Anyway, this is also going to have to be a quick post, I'm thinking mostly photos, because we have a showing at 12:30, so I have to get this placed cleaned up and get out butts out of here in about an hour. So here goes.

The day before her birthday we were in Costco, and they had these cute little dresses, so I picked one up for her, thinking it could be her birthday dress. Well, she insisted Francesca get one too. O-kay fine, we're running low on nice/church clothes around here anyway. Then when getting dressed birthday morning, I dressed Annamaria, then she picked up the other dress, brought it to Francesca and handed it to her and said, "Happy Birthday Francesca". We call them the twins, but we're only joking. Maybe she doesn't realize that.

Annamaria's birthday started with Mass because our friend's daughter was taking her First Holy Communion, and what a better way to start the day. We then went to said friends house to celebrate with them and hang out with a very nice crowd. Annamaria thought all those people were gathered together to celebrate her birthday and had a great time. The only difficult part was when it was gift time, and we have to explain to her that she had gift waiting for her at home. She was very good about it, and everyone had a great time.

Once home we got out the Pretty Flower Strawberry Cupcakes. Annamaria wanted a strawberry flavored "pretty flower cake", but since we all know how much I'm lacking in the cake making department, she agreed to cupcakes. Yellow cake with strawberry buttercream. For the buttercream I just made regular vanilla, then tossed in some strawberries while the mixing was whipping, and vio-laa, strawberry buttercream. It turned out very good, kind of tasted like strawberry ice cream.
Then is was time for gifts. She loved her Tinkerbell "bla-bloons" that she requested. Big, big hit.
She got a bubble machine from her siblings. Something everyone could enjoy.
Princess tippy cups from Mommy. And a Leapster writing pad from Daddy. He's the big spender. For some reason I don't have a picture of that. Sorry Daddy.

Grandma DeeDee sent her the cutest pink flowered fu-fu outfit, that Annamaria insisted on sleeping in that night. And a sparkly black flapper style dress.
The Angle and the Devil outfits. Annamaria thought the black dress was a shirt for me, so I had to tell her that my spaghetti strapped sparkly top days are over.

Granny M sent her a savings bonds, thank you for thinking of her future, and the cutest counted cross stitch of a Precious Moments kid all dressed up like Annamaria likes to do.

Looks just like her.

Look at those faces, obviously everyone had a great time.