Mar. 7th, 2007

altarflame: (Time is coming for me.)
This is one of those entries where I really don't even know where to start.

Very Good News:

-We pretty much have an apartment secured in Boston (mailed them a 50% deposit today). [livejournal.com profile] julierocket went and checked it out for us, and it matches the pictures we received and is a pretty good fit with what we need. It's furnished, laundry in the basement of the building, 2 bedrooms, the people are fine with us being there for one month, with a bunch of kids, and giving birth :O It's also apparently only 12 minutes from Nancy's house. I talked with her for awhile yesterday, too, about supplements and platelets and this and that - she told me her partner midwife, who'll be at the birth too, had a hba2c, and gave me the name of someone to call that came to her and hbac'd an 11 pounder (in just 5 hours).

-There is a lot of really productive stuff going on around here. Yesterday PATH had this big planning and regrouping meeting, that loads of people showed up to, and now every meeting for the rest of the year has an activity planned and we even have volunteers in place for most everything. It was also "portrait day", with a studio at the park in the main building (we do a yearbook every year). Laura finally got to come hang out with the LLL crew at the playground. Annie spent the whole evening at Kayla's, and Aaron's going to get to go to Eli's this Friday. I'm FINALLY going back to the chiropractor today, we have another Key West job tomorrow and it's my dad's day off, and we have plans to get all the old photo albums from him and bring them home with us so we can scan pictures in. The PATHwide camping trip is this Saturday, and we have that church to go back to on Sunday. Kristin and I scheduled a time for me to go to her house with Annie for belly casting the weekend before we leave town.

Not so Great News:

-The expenses for this trip are starting to feel like a pit of quicksand sucking us down. The apt initially said $1400 for the month, heat and something else included. Now we find out it's also another $100 for electricity, $55 if we want cable (we don't), etc. Nancy really wants us to have someone there to be with the kids during the birth, and the "Wonderful" person she's suggesting typically costs $25/hr. We had planned on giving Nancy $1000 as an initial payment, and then postdated checks for the remaining $2500 (she suggested the postdated check system) - but yesterday on the phone she said if we possibly can, she usually requests 12-1400 initially. And we have to take SO MUCH FREAKING CRAP. There is simply no way whatsoever to get it all in the van, period. We figured we would rent a tow-behind, but they are $190 each way plus the freaking $300+ hitch installation...What the hell, man! We thought about getting one of those on-the-roof storage systems, you know the heavy duty plastic things that you can put stuff in? Well, we'd need some cross support bars installed on the van at Nissan (almost $200) and then the things themselves go up to $600 each. And we didn't anticipate how much those things would decrease our fuel efficiency when we planned for $500 in gas each way. INSANE. Seriously nuts. G is picking up a lot of these extra OnForce jobs (one time gigs that pay a couple/few hundred dollars, like the Key West things he's been doing), but not to the point that it's going to increase our budget THAT much - and he can only take so many before he's neglecting his regular customers, especially now that he's up at Verifone two days a week. Meanwhile I just keep realizing we're out of conditioner, toilet paper and wool wash again, or that there's no more fruit in the house, or whatever.

-BECAUSE there is so much good productive stuff going on (PATH, work, church, camping, kids' friends, chiro, etc)...G and I are both soooo tired. Today is a sort of free day wherein the "only" thing going on other than him working like a maniac is me going to the chiropractor, and so I'm supposed to be catching up on the disgusting levels of housework and really doing a lot of schoolwork with the kids. And of course do all the web updates and emails and calls for PATH resulting from the meeting yesterday, and catch up on my own college studies before I (gulp...seriously looking risky at this point) fail both of my classes. If I could go back in time I would be taking one class, tops. I didn't know things we going to get so insane this semester, Fall was easy to keep up with. It's really different not having the accountability and short term deadlines of weekly classes. Plus somewhere amidst my co-leader leaving, PATH floundering, this trip to Boston, and continuing to give my kids good attention and teach A and A...it's just really, really my last priority right now. It's hard to even care at all. And because I haven't been getting to the chiro (and am 35 weeks...) I've been HURTING so much. Last night I just wanted to sit down and cry, not do dishes and make myself a sandwhich (at 1 am). There's not normally any real way to get comfortable, but when there's no way to move or be that even isn't PAINFUL, it starts effecting how I feel about everything...I mean on Tuesdays I load the van up with the double stroller, Aaron's bike, Annie's scooter, a big bag of diapers, snacks and drinks, my PATH folder and whatever Big Wheel or scooter Isaac's bringing - after chasing Jake down and WRESTLING him into clothes. Then I have to unload it all when we get there, wrangle Jake all throughout the structured part of the meeting, wrestle him into a new diaper and into his carseat, and re-load all the crap into the van, to come home. After walking all over the park, running all over the playground, lifting and pushing Isaac and Jake on the swings, etc etc for hours. I think it's immeasurably good for all of them, and it's usually capped off with them all asleep in the van for an hour or so while I drive and zone out, to go pick up Grant from Verifone. But geez man, at this stage of pregnancy it's seriously laborious.


So. Yeah. Lots of good stuff going on during very long, full days that leave us exhausted but much accomplished. Very excited about the trip, which will feel like such a BREAK after this month is over, and to NOT BEING PREGNANT ANYMORE (!!!), but also kind of praying for a miracle in terms of pulling it all off financially.


For what it's worth, the kids are wonderful. When I pick Annie up from Kayla's, Yoli (her mom) always talks up how great she is - super polite, saying she's not allowed to have soda when offered, all kinds of stuff. It's crazy to watch her sitting up in trees or on top of the monkey bars, talking with groups of other girls (who are mostly 8-10). Her level of helpfulness is off the charts, too. Aaron had his first drum lesson during PATH yesterday, from this amazing older kid Danan who drums like a prodigy. They're going to try to get together at our house or theirs in the weeks to come to use on of their sets (Danan just brought sticks to the meeting). He continues to be ridiculously sweet and empathetic and totally oblivious to so many obvious things. Ever since Shaun taught him the tongue twister "Sally sells seashells by the seashore", he says ALL s sounds as sh. "Ishaac won't shtop bothering me!" I'm hoping it passes soon...I tried to correct him consistently for about an hour but then he started saying things like, "you're not fupposed to fing it like that, the wordf are ____" so I quit and he's back to sh. Isaac is still throwing whiny crying fits about every damned thing, but now he switches from crying to laughing as soon as you get mad. It's like he really finds us getting angry hilarious, he can laugh through a whole time out in the corner. Which is...lovely. He speaks very very well, though, and is more independant about being potty trained now (pulling his own clothes up and down, flushing unprompted, not telling us everytime he's going anymore). He still gets up in the middle of the night, every night, and comes in our room to lay on the floor next to our bed with his pillow and blanket. Jake, aside from desperately wanting to be naked at all times and running away too often at the park, is awesome and can cheer me up anytime. He is just so incredibly calm and happy and expressive, and affectionate, and SO FREAKING CUTE. He keeps saying new words, and responding to more complex things that we say, and figuring out new skills...He loooooves little babies, and gets all squealy-excited whenever he sees one out, or on the computer, or on a book - he's absolutely nuts about Laura's Brian. I keep telling him things about how I'm making him a new baby, and when she comes out they can share the boobies and have milk together. He acts as if he sort of understands a little of it.

Ok. I guess I'll stop writing now, and start a bunch of other nonsense. Beginning with some sort of organizational to-do list that I can at least cross things off of.

May 2017

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