Crunch time!

Posted in House and Home, Isabella/Munchkin by teamtradermom

The countdown to moving day is on! T minus 2 days until closing and 3 days until we move! We spent the weekend packing, packing and packing. We’re pretty much down to bare bones now, though it feels like there is a lot left.

Every night when I lay in bed, I think of all that we have to do. Clean the new house before we move in. Pack the remaining items to get ready for the movers. Move everything. Clean our old house. Plus other stuff like buying new furniture (I know this can wait a bit but I don’t want to put it off too long), unpacking, organizing and settling in. I worry about everything that could go wrong, all the money, the closing, getting Munchkin adjusted, getting Samson adjusted, etc.

Not to mention Isabella’s birthday is in there. My mom has offered to host the family get together at their house and she’s making Isabella’s favorite – fettuccine alfredo. I ordered the cake today. Munchkin specifically asked for a Curious George cake. When I called the store they said they didn’t have a kit for that. I pretty much told the guy I would have to go elsewhere because that was all she asked for and dammit, she was going to get it! He said he’d call around. He found someplace that had a C.G. edible overlay and said he’d go out and buy it for us. Winning!! Now that’s what I call customer service!

2 more days of work and then the madness can begin!

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23Sep2011

Opposite World

Posted in Isabella/Munchkin by teamtradermom

That seems to be where Isabella is spending most of her time lately. She also visits “MINEville” and “No Land” quite frequently.

I don’t know if it’s the terrible twos or just a toddler being a toddler or a girl being a girl. But it can be exhausting.

Here is how the majority of the conversations go around here these days:

Me: Time to put on your pajamas!
Isabella: No! I don’t want pajamas!
Me: Ok well you need to wear pajamas. Now let’s take off your shirt.
I: No! Keep it on!
Me: You want your shirt on?
I: No! Take if off!
Me: <taking her shirt off>
I: I want it on! MINE!

And so on…you get the idea. Basically, whatever we say, she says the opposite. Then if you agree with her, she changes to the opposite of what you agreed with!

The other day I asked her if her favorite word was no. She said, “I don’t want no!” So I said ok no more “no’s”. To which she replied, “MY no!”

Sigh.

Most of these Opposite World conversations involve crying and thrashing about too. I often have to stop myself from laughing at her. But come on, it’s funny to watch.

When she’s back to her old self, she’s a loving, sweet, smart, funny girl who I love to death.

Munchkin turns 2 exactly one week from today. Hard to believe that my baby has been alive on this Earth for 2 years. Because we’re moving on her birthday, there won’t be any party or extravaganza. It’ll just be the family opening gifts and eating cake. Quiet and simple. Just how I like it. Heck, I probably won’t even have time to wrap her gifts! Maybe I’ll hide them around the new house and send her on a scavenger hunt. That would be fun!

Speaking of moving, it’s time for me to go upstairs and continue packing (while watching the season premiere of Grey’s Anatomy that I DVRed last night). The movers were over today to give us an estimate and she ball parked it at 8 hours of moving time. Oi vey. Hopefully if we have everything ready and set when they arrive, we can cut that time down.

And so I leave you with this video of my sweetheart riding the turtle at the park. We’ve been going to this park for a year and this is the first time she rode that turtle. She’s pushed it before and sat on the pedal but never climbed up in it and really rocked. I am so proud of her!

Isabella riding the turtle at the park

(Because it was getting late, the video is kind of dark. Sorry about that! It helps to turn the lights off and watch it in the dark. Oh wait, that could be creepy. Also, in case you were wondering, at the beginning she is asking where “Chalky” is. That’s what she’s named the sidewalk chalk we took with us to the park.)

Have a great weekend!

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22Sep2011

Moving + You Capture: Industrial

Posted in House and Home, You Capture by teamtradermom

We close on our new house and begin the moving process exactly one week from today.

This whole moving thing sucks. Especially the part about having to take your buyers schedule in to account. Or rather, their lacking of taking my schedule in to account.

See, we have to close on our current house before we can close on the new one. After waiting for our buyers to decide their closing time, we found out yesterday that it will be Thursday, 9/29 at 4 pm. No big deal right? Wrong! See we have to be out of the house by 5pm on Friday. So if you do the math, that gives us less than 24 hours to clean our new house, move and then clean our old house. We were originally supposed to have all day Thursday and Friday, if we did the closing Thursday morning.

I’m a little pissed. I don’t think these buyers are trying to be jerks, they just don’t realize how their decisions are screwing us over.

Oh and the other thing is that I couldn’t book movers until we had a closing time. Otherwise I would have scheduled someone for Thursday but obviously that wouldn’t have worked. Yesterday I was calling around and literally only 2 movers in the entire city are available Friday morning. And one of them seemed really hinky so we’re going with the other. Ugh.

I’ll be so glad when this is all over and we can settle in to our new home!

On another note – I was able to get back to taking photos for You Capture this week! With everything going on, photography has sort of been far from my mind. But this week’s theme was “Industrial” and as I was leaving work around 7:30 pm the other night, I saw the construction site across the street backlit by the sunset and knew it would be perfect!

By the way, this big 12-story building will be my new work home in about 2 years. It’s been fun to watch the progress of the construction and I look forward to moving there one day. Oh wait, did I say ‘moving’? I don’t think I want to do that again for a LONG time!

Don’t forget to head over to I Should Be Folding Laundry to see what others have done on this You Capture Theme!

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18Sep2011

Running and Remembering

Posted in Family, Health and Weightloss by teamtradermom

I am tired. It’s been a long busy day. It started at 6 a.m. and it’ll end here in an hour or so.

I got up so early on a Sunday in order to head downtown to the Omaha Corporate Cup Run. The information sheet I had said to arrive no later than 7:30 a.m. so, being the good little girl that I am, I got there at 6:45. I think I was one of the first ones. The vendor booths weren’t even up yet! At least I got a good parking spot!

I spent the next 2 hours sitting around inside the Civic Auditorium Arena waiting for the race to begin. The vendors put up their booths and I watched them. People started meandering around and I watched them too. I went down at one point to get a goodie bag, then found another seat.

I decided to load up on free stuff before the race since I had a backpack to put it in. So I went from booth to booth, collecting whatever they had to offer. Finally it was race time and I headed outside.

It was a cold and dreary rainy morning. The fog was heavy and I was greeted to a beautiful, albeit gloomy, site when I exited the auditorium.

I headed over to stand with the other walkers and runners, and waited for the gun to go off.

I didn’t have any goals with this race – other than to finish. I wasn’t out to break records or run the full 2 miles or beat anyone. I just wanted a good workout. The last race I did was in October 2010 for the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure. With that one, my goal was to run the full 5k and do it in under 40 minutes. I finished in 39 minutes but I didn’t run the whole thing. I walked part way. In my perfectionist mind, that wasn’t good enough. I beat myself up for days because I didn’t push myself to run more. Consequently, I didn’t enjoy it.

This time was different. I just relaxed and started walking. I let my iPod drive my pace. I had it in shuffle mode and if a slow song came on, I walked. If it was a fast song, I ran. Simple as that. I didn’t pay attention to any one around me other than to respect them for being there. I didn’t try to beat anyone or compare myself. I just did my own thing. And I enjoyed it. I finished the 2 miles in 35 minutes and that was a-ok with me. I left right away and headed home. I was ready for a nap and a shower.

Later in the afternoon, we went to a Remembrance of Life Service being put on by the health system my OB-GYN belongs to. It was a memorial service to honor all those babies whose lives were lost too soon. At first I was all keyed up because it was raining and I was nervous about my family finding the park. Then I was worried about Isabella behaving. Finally I made myself stop and become fully present for the service. They read a poem, then sang a few songs. One of the songs was about how we were never meant to meet on Earth but will one day meet in heaven. The words moved me to tears. Isabella sat on my lap and I clung to her, letting myself cry quietly in her hair. Then they read aloud all the names of the babies that we being honored. When they said “Baby Trader 1” and “Baby Trader 2”, tears came again.

The final piece was to release balloons in to the air, one for each baby. We got to write a note and attach it to each balloon. Then we let them go.