I’m feeling less complain-y

Our plumbing is finished!  Woo to the hoo!  We have a new water line and a new sewage line…and I swear to you that our water tastes better than it ever has before.  And of course, we are leaving this weekend.  We just have two-ish things to do tomorrow, and Andy’s parents are coming for a last run-through…and the we are going to move out on Sunday morning.  I’m excited/scared/nervous/sad.  All at once. 

So I’ve been reading a lot this week to avoid my real emotions.  I checked out the book Maine by J. Courteney Summer on my Kindle….and it was beautiful and aching and sad and lovely all at once.  It was a good summer book…not too fluffy…I find that I don’t love fluff…I want a book to have some substance, something to sink into.  And now I’m also reading Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese.  I have a subscription to Entertainment Weekly (thank you Amazon for a 15 dollar subscription that makes me happy every Friday…it’s 25 now..but I got it for 15 around Christmas) and I went through and added every book that they recommended that looked interesting to me to my Amazon Wish List last week.  Then I went through the Overdrive site and added all of them that were available to my Wish List/Holds to check out on my Kindle.  I am on the wait list for three other books right now….and if we end up in the neighborhood we are looking at, I think we’ll have access to a library that uses the Overdrive ebook system…so that’s even more exciting….because it would be sad to lose that ability after having it this year.  My next books are Death Comes to Pemberley, The Tiger’s Wife, and Age of Miracles.  And I’ve been reading my way through the Jane Austen canon…so far this summer I have read Emma, Persuasion, and Northanger Abbey (and Pride and Prejudice…but I’ve read it once a year since high school).  And I have come to a conclusion….if Liam ever has a sibling, and that sibling is a girl, I’d like to name her Anne Elliot Cook….because I am completely smitten with Anne Elliot from Persuasion.  And also, I would like to start collecting the Penguin Classics hardcover additions of some of my favorite classics because they are absolutely stunning.  I also read The Happiness Project (L. Keller…you are so getting that book for Christmas..you’ll love it) and she talked about making modest purchases that bring you happiness…and I decided that that would definitely be a happy thing for me….having beautiful copies of books I love (kept out of the reach of my son whose favorite game is throwing things).

So there’s a whole big blob of text that explains my life avoidance strategies :)..ha!

Last days

Tomorrow is likely our last day in town.  Our plumbing issue still isn’t fixed, but I can’t talk about it without getting really angry about it.  It’s getting closer.  But still not completed…today the contracting company came out and dug a hole in our curb/yard that was 12 feet deep and about 6 feet wide.  They hooked our sewage line up at the street, but our plumber didn’t come hook his lines up…so the job that we paid for four weeks ago still isn’t complete, and we are still using the rusted water line and collapsed sewer line.  The plumber is supposed to be out in the morning to finish his part…and then the construction company will be back on Monday to reinstall a curb for the city.  We need the plumber to get the large hole in our front yard filled (seriously….it’s a 6 by 6 hole right underneath the office window that’s been blocked off with Danger tape for four weeks) so we can fix the flower bed, add a few plants, mulch it, and move.  We leave for Indy Saturday sometime.  Just about everything else is finished…I just have to pack our clothes/toiletries/etc.  And we need to take apart Liam’s crib to take with us, and leave the house show ready.  We had a showing last Monday, but we haven’t heard anything from it.  So we also need to contact our realtor and get him a key to our house because he was supposed to have put a lockbox on it this week and hasn’t.  So…basically….we are leaving with a kind of bitter taste in our mouths.  Our church hosted a lunch for our family last week that was really sweet, but there have been so many bad things and so many instances where we have been jerked around lately that I am ready to go.  I want this house sold, and I want to move on.  I will dearly miss our friends and our church, but right now, the town isn’t endearing itself to me one bit.  I keep telling Andy that the next few months are probably going to be rough…but six months from now, it will all be over with…and we just need to stick it out.  I’m just focusing on happy things—like going to the Ft. Wayne Zoo with Mariah and Shannon and Theodore and Liam…and the 4-H fair…and seeing my sister….and probably going to Target next week with Andy’s mom and Liam.

An update of sorts

These past several weeks have been a whirlwind.  We have spent our days cleaning, packing, painting, and fixing all those little odd jobs that you mean to get to when you own a house, but put off for whatever reason.  We also had a crazy expensive plumbing job that destroyed our front yard and still hasn't been finished...which is certainly not what you want to have happen as you're putting your house on the market.  But it happened.  So in the last month, we have worked our tails off, depleted our savings account to an uncomfortable level, finished everything we can in our house, put our house on the market, watered new grass like mad (because the plumbing issues that were supposed to cut a four foot swath through our yard ended up destroying 85 percent of the front yard and part of the back), had Andy's debit card shut off for fraudulent activities, had our car literally stop accelerating as we drove up a hill on our way home (that was yesterday....we think it must have been low fuel), and chased our exuberant 13 month up and down and all around.  And then the little things...cancelling appointments, last lunches with friends, good-byes, cramming in one last dog haircut and vet appt. so you have a few months to figure out that.  Crying over losing your pediatrician (for real...I love her).  Trying to not buy groceries, but also not being able to live on condiments alone.  So...we're tired.

 But it's okay.  Andy's last day at his old job was Friday (of course...he's been there since 7:30 this morning working and fixing stuff) and he doesn't start his new one until July 16.  So we have two weeks off.  Two weeks where we just have to finish the last few things on our list (paint one piece of trim, stain one door...paint the soffit and try to make sense of the yard once the new sewage and water lines are hooked up) and hope that someone wants to see our house.  Then we move to Indy.  Where we will stay with Andy's parents until our house sells and we buy a new one.  We have already narrowed down what neighborhood we want to live in based on price and location (outside the loop...on the northwest side of town), so we are ready to start checking out some houses there.  We may do that next week with some of our "off" time.  Andy and I have never had two simultaneous weeks off in the history of our marriage, so I'm excited to see that.

That's pretty much where we are right now.  Liam has been a real bright spot in the insanity because that kid is a riot.  As of this morning, he's in love with his own reflection in the oven glass....he will stand in front of the oven and try to touch his reflection...and then he starts leaning to one side, and then to the other, and laughing at himself.  And that makes this mama laugh and forget about the insanity for a brief moment :)