Our New House . . . Hopefully

Vince found a house while in Montana, and as you can see from the picture it isn't completed yet. Which is fine since things seem to take a lot longer on the California end than we think they should. Anyway, we made an offer contingent upon the sale of our house, and it was accepted, so now the only thing to do now is sell our house, and pray we sell it quickly. Talk about stress. We're preapproved and have been guaranteed a bridge loan in case our house doesn't sell in a timely manner so we don't loose the Montana house. But I really can't see us making two mortgages. One is enough, thank you. But if all goes well, which I'm praying, praying, praying it will, this will be our new home. We'll need to put in a lawn, and get the backyard fenced, and pick out appliances, but that's the fun part so I'm o-kay with all that. It's all just a waiting game for now. Oh, and our new address will be on #### Stetson. How appropriate.

A Bad, Bad Day

Let's see. First of all, yes I did get the dogs back. Another neighbor about a mile up the road from us called me at about 2pm on Wednesday to tell me she's had my dogs since last night. So I loaded Harrison and Annamaria in the car and hurrily got the dogs back home before having to go get Sophia by 3:15. I plugged in the electric fence, and secured any areas I thought they might take advantage of getting through. All was good. I thought. So Thursday morning I get up, get Sophia to school, make a short run to Target, come back home and get Annamaria some breakfast. I was feeling pretty good and thought I might have a productive day. While Annamaria was eating, Harrison was out back playing with the dogs. He comes running in the house and tells me the dogs got out. Apparently he pushed down part of their dog run and they skipped across the electric fence and squeezed between the gate and the fence. Ugh! So I run out to the front yard and start calling them. Nothing. I load Harrison and Annamaria back into the car and drive all around our neighborhood. Again nothing. I'm so angry at this point that I was in tears. Angry and fustrated, I returned home and called the Escondido Humane Society, for the third time this week, to report my dogs missing. I really was thinking that if they didn't want to stay in the yard then they could just go away, I didn't want them anymore at that point anyway. But I called them in anyway, just to clear my conscience. After a little while, I sat down on the couch with Harrison after putting Annamaria down for a nap. Somewhere along our day Harrison found some gum, probably already chewed but I'm not sure. I was even aware he had any gum and when I asked him about it he said he was hiding it from me. Yea, no kidding. He left said gum sitting on our couch and when I sat down with him I sat on it. Once again, here I am angry and fustrated. Now there was gum stuck to my butt and to our couch. So I changed my pants and got out the Folex to try to clean the gum off our couch. While I was cleaning the couch I sent Harrison to the bathroom to pee on the potty. We're still working on potty training. While he was in the bathroom he got into my makeup bag and came back with powder all over him. I got the powder cleaned off him, thankfully it was only powder, and went to take a shower. While I was in the shower, Harrison got the Folex and sprayed it all over the couch and the table. When I walked back into the den he told me he "cleaned up". My fault, I left the Folex sitting on the table. So after cleaning the puddle of Folex off the table I had to get ready to take Annamaria to her 3 o'clock one-year check up. Her doctor is in Encinitas and a pretty popular guy, so when you have a 3 o'clock appointment, that means he usually comes strolling into your waiting room around 4 o'clock. Knowing this I had already prepared myself for rush hour traffic on the way home. As expected, Dr. T came strolling into our waiting room about 4pm. I told him we'd be moving soon and let our insurance lapse since no where in Helena accepted Pacificare. I told him as long as her immunizations didn't come to over $800, we'd still be ahead of the game since that was what our Cobra payment would be anyway. Upon hearing this, he told me to save my money and take her to the Public Health clinic and get her immunizations there. Of course there are no appointments and I'm sure I'll have to sit there for hours, but he wouldn't hear otherwise. So basically my trip to Encinitas was for nothing. The only thing I got accomplished was getting Annamaria weighed and measured. She only weighs 16 pounds, she is 26 inches long, and her head circumference is 46.5 cm. She's a tiny. We got back to Escondido o-kay. Got Sophia picked up from the school extension program and were heading back home when my cell phone rang. It was the Escondido Humane Society. They had my stupid dogs. So I took a quick right and headed East to go get them back. Ninety-five dollars later in bail money, I had the dogs back and was finally heading home. I had planned on driving through Alberto's on the way home since it was getting too late to make dinner, and since the dogs were behaving pretty well, I decided to stick to my plan. I ordered cheese enchiladas for Harrison and Annamaria, tacos for me, and rolled tacos for Sophia. I pulled up to the window to pay, and the guy hands me two containers. So I repeated my order and asked that it was all there. He shook his head impatiently and tells me "yes, yes". So I took my change and drove off feeling like an idiot. I got home, got the dogs back in the back yard, the kids in the house and we settled down to finally eat dinner. I open the containers from Alberto's and guess what. No rolled tacos. I did the math in my head and at least I wasn't charged for them. Lucky for them anyway, because at that point, I was not to be messed with.

Dumb Dogs!

While Vince is away, we've been having the house painted. We got a good price and decided not to do it ourselves and just have it done. Something I am very thankful for. On Saturday, one of them came by and power washed the house. In the process of doing this he moved all the stuff away from the house and unplugged anything that was plugged in. That means no front porch light, no back porch light, and unaware to me no electric fence for the dogs. So of course the dogs got out right after the painter left. I drove around looking for them and called the humane society. At about six o'clock that night, I get a call from a woman who lives a few miles north of us. She had our dogs. They strolled right into her house and collapsed on her floor. She called the humane society to see if anyone reported them missing and they gave her my phone number. Here I am, five months pregnant and home alone with a seven year old, a three year old and a one year old. Like I really need to be running up and down my street chasing after my dogs. I was so excited to get them back. Sophia was in tears all day. So yesterday morning they got out again. So again I drove around the neighborhood and called the humane society. It's been over 24 hours, and nothing. I was saying to one of the painters that I couldn't understand how they were getting out since we have an electric fence. "Oh", he says, "I unplugged everything when I washed the house to get it ready to paint." Nice to know. Would have been nice to know this before the dogs got out. I could have tied them up if I had been informed of this. So now I'm wondering if the $750 cost of our pure bred Airdale Terrier, Annabelle, will be deducted from the cost of painting our house. I won't hold my breath.

All By Myself

Vince left for Montana last Wednesday. It was a grueling two day drive, but he made it safe and sound. He took a load of our stuff up there and was suposed to look for a rental house for us to live in while we find a place to buy. The problem is that anyplace that allows pets, our two monster dogs and one crazy cat, also allows smoking. So the couple places he checked out reaked of smoke. I swear that stuff gets into the walls. So after some discussing we agreed that we could buy someplace modest, but clean and relatively new and our mortgage would be the same if not less than rent. So that is his goal during his remaining time there, to find a house to buy. He'll be home next Friday, so he's only got a couple of days in which to get this done. I think he has appointments at eight different places today. Our place goes on the market on Friday the 26th, so once he gets back home he needs to boogy and get all the little stuff done. My dream is that our house will go on the market, we'll have an open house and someone will fall in love with the place and we'll have an offer within a week. Happens on Designed to Sell all the time, right?

So Mother's Day was different being a single mom. I got the house picked and cleaned up. My mom and grandma came over with a friend of the family, and we had a fabulous dinner just us girls. Harrison was the only trace of testosterone in the place. I have pictures of Annamaria taken to give for the Mother's Day presents which came out really well. I have a tradition of taking the kids pictures in the baptism gown and in a Winnie the Pooh outfit I bought when I was pregnant with Sophia. So I owed my mom these two pictures, I'm way over due. Annamaria was baptised about nine months ago, but better late than never.

The Big Birthday

First of all I want to start by saying that over the past few weeks, we've been asking Annamaria how old she is going to be. She responds by holding up her hand and showing us "one". Unfortunatelly I haven't been able to get a picture of this amazing feat. But honestly, she does do it. I have live witnesses, just no photographic proof. And not for lack of trying, I'll tell you that.

I think Annamaria had a nice first birthday. My mom, Grandma Dee Dee, and my grandma, Granny M, came over. Dinner went over very well. I made ciabatta (Italian Slipper Bread) and artichoke dip. She ate at least three pieces of bread before dinner. We had a spinach salad with a warm bacon dressing. I cheated, Annamaria is not suposed to have meat until she is two, but I figured a little bacon grease wouldn't hurt. And she loved it anyway, munching away on those spinach leaves. Now I've never made pasta primavera before, but now that I have I'm sure I'll be making it again. Even though I forgot to add the fresh basil and lemon juice before serving it. And I left the parmeasan cheese out by mistake too. But it was yummy anyway. Annamaria ate at least four helpings. And Harrison being the pasta boy that he is had several servings too.

The strawberry cream cake came out great. I think the strawberries were Annamaria's favorite part. And Sophia enjoyed having a slice for breakfast this morning. I figure it's fruit and cream, how bad could it be.

Annamaria was a little slow opening her presents, she just doesn't quite get it yet, but it was fun for us. I bought her a new package of tippy cups since she tossed one out of her stroller at Sea World the other week without me noticing, and we were down to just one. She was so happy to see the tippy cups she tried drinking out of them directly from the package. She knows what those are for. Sophia grabbed a stuffed animal from her room and wrapped it up for Annamaria. I thought that was very sweet, and Annamaria liked it so much she took it to bed with her last night. Annamaria also got a few very cute outfits, so she'll all set for summer. All in all I think it was a good day. Between that and packing up books and clothes for the move, I'm pooped.

The Great Baby Mystery and Other Things

I had my sonogram, and all went well, but the sex of the baby will have to remain unknown until it's birth. So sorry for the teaser, but Vince really doesn't want to know, but if I know then he wants to know, and I don't want to ruin the suprise for him. The countdown from here is nineteen more weeks. So far this pregnancy is going very quickly, but I think that's because we're in the thick of getting ready to move, and I feel like we're running out of time. Vince is leaving for Montana this coming Monday for about a week. He's purchased a 14' enclosed trailer, and the plan is to move as much as we can live without this trip. He'll be going alone, that way we can keep Sophia in school a bit longer, and while he's up there he can find a place to rent until we find something to purchase. Moving is so expensive and such a hassle, I'm not looking forward to it. Our "To Do" list is getting smaller and smaller everyday, we should be done by the end of this week. Then the only thing left will be getting the outside of the house painted. We've gone back and forth over hiring someone and just doing it ourselves. It would take us about four or five days to do it ourselves, or cost us about $3,000 to pay someone else to do it. Decisions, decisions. And as I'm tinkering away on the keyboard, I look out the window and Cooper, one of our dogs, is in the front yard. He belongs in the back. It's not even 9am yet, I'm still in my robe and I'm having to rustle our 50lb, marshmallow of a moose size dog back into the back yard. Apparently the battery in his collar for the electric fence has died, and Vince still has to fix our side gate. I don't understand how such a large dog can fit through such a small opening in a gate, but there's fur caught on the gate, so the evidence is there. That's another thing about moving I'm not looking forward to. A pregnant woman, a seven year-old, a three year-old, a one year-old, a cat and two large goofy dogs trecking it up north on a eighteen hour road trip. This should be interesting.

Tomorrow is Annamaria's first birthday. I can't believe how the time has flown. She still only has two teeth, can't weigh more than sixteen pounds and is still wearing size 3 to 6 month clothes, but she pulls herself up on everything and motors around like she's got somewhere to go. And she's quite the eater, so her birthday dinner should be most entertaining. I'm making her a baby spinach salad, pasta primavera and a strawberry cream cake for dessert. I'll be sure to get lots of photos.

I've got laundry to do and dishes to put away, so I'd better get dressed and stop procrastinating, but here's a photo just for good measure. I took the kids to SeaWorld while Sophia was on Spring Break and Vince stayed home and worked on the house. I'm sure Annamaria will get plenty of photo space tomorrow, so here's Sophie and Sonny.