Day 281

 

October 8th, 2010

 

October 8th, 2011

This morning I didn't get to sleep in (boo) and had to get up and ready for Amie's baby shower. I was about to pull up to Laura's house (she hosted) when I had a moment of sadness... mainly self-pity, but sadness that I'll never know what it's like to have a baby shower.

When we adopted Gus, we were in MI with him for two months. When we came home, the nice people that Steve works with threw us a shower, but it was a 30 minute co-worker break with cake and some gifts. Don't get me wrong, it was nice. But it's not the same as when someone's pregnant and everyone ooohs and ahhs over the teeny-tiny clothes and the mystery of what the baby will look like, and best of all, when they'll make their appearance.

Anyway, I was so thankful that there weren't any games at this shower. There were a few comments about how ready Amie was to get the baby out of her, and I just looked away and secretly wanted to say, "At least YOU got pregnant and are having a baby!! QUIT COMPLAINING and enjoy this SO VERY SPECIAL thing that YOU are able to be apart of!!!" 

Anyway...

Here's the picture of the gift that I made her. She cried when she opened it, which is a wonderful reaction. She found it to be as beautiful and touching as I did. Though, for me... it's a bit heartbreaking because I can't ever say the words to another human being.

Everyone there loved it and made comments about how beautiful it was.  :)   I also gave her a bag full of Mama Bee, Baby Bee and other Burt's Bees goodies. She was overjoyed to have some Burt's Bees products since I've never given her any! Everyone there was talking about how much they love Burt's and asked how I could afford so much... they were even more excited when I said that Steve works there. And then I added, "For five more days..." and they all asked if I was going to be sad to say goodbye to all the goodies.  :)

A week from today Steve will be unemployed (for two days) and we're going to go to dinner Friday night to celebrate the ending of an era and the beginning of a new adventure.

While at the shower, I was talking to another Triangle Mommies mom, and she said I could borrow her DVD player for our trip to GA on November 4th. It's so sweet of her to let us borrow it!! Hopefully it'll keep Gus somewhat occupied since I won't be able to sit back there with him and keep him busy. Six hours isn't awful... but it could be pure hell if he's screaming the whole way.

When I got home from the party, Gus was sleeping still from his 10:00 nap. It was 12:30. He slept until 1:00 (yes... three hours today for a nap!!) and we had lunch and then headed to the mall to do some shopping.

We got me a new belt... and I tried on jeans (like eight pairs) and nothing fit right. I'll have to stick with Old Navy I guess (cheaper anyway). We went to a few different stores and eventually got Steve a suit at Penny's for under $125!! Then we headed out of the mall and went to Kohl's for some shirts for Steve and then he found some shirts (polos) on sale for like $10 each!! I got Gus some slipper socks and they had books and stuffed animals for $5 and they had the polar bear from "On the Night You Were Born" (they had the book too but we already have it). We got him the bear and he was hugging it and loving on it the whole time I was shopping.  :)

 

Parked him in front of a triple mirror... kept him super busy!

On our way home we stopped at Arby's for dinner (meh) and then I had to run into Chick-Fil-A to get the picture taken of me and Gus at the date knight... well... that took forever. No one could find the book with the pictures and when they finally DID find the book, our picture wasn't even in there!  :(  I sent them an email about it and hopefully someone can get to the bottom of it!!

I hope the Tigers win tonight, but it's not looking good. See you tomorrow! We're going to carve pumpkins... I'll take pictures with my camera and post tomorrow! I'm leaving you with pictures from a year ago... so cute!!

 

I can't believe how little he looks in this chair!!

Day 280

 

October 7th, 2010

 

October 7th, 2011 (Saying "Cheeeese")

Today was a great day for us!! Gus did wake up at 6:30 which was NOT fun for me... but we had a good morning and played and laughed. He started playing with his Elmo costume that Greta gave us, and put it on his head. I took some pictures with my phone, and then he wanted to wear it. So we put it on him and I took a few more and then had to take pictures with my camera. He's too cute for words.

 

Elmo is here!!!

He and I had way too much fun with this!!!

Gus took his morning nap and I looked through more houses. I told Steve, I feel like it's a never-ending list of homes and I need to be able to cut through the ones I like or don't like. He feels like that's Sherri's job (our realtor). She's not really cutting it, AND she's out for the entire next week and won't be available for anything. I feel like she's not doing anything for us... and we can find better.

Sue Ann sent Steve the name of a guy that's the husband of a friend of hers in Atlanta, and he's a realtor. We're probably going to give him a call. I just don't know about Sherri.

Anyway, Steve came home early today (YAY) and we had a great afternoon together as a family. We were able to look at a calendar and tried to create a schedule for us for the next few weeks. Turns out, we'll only be apart for about five days total between Monday (his start date at World 50) and Thanksgiving! Not too bad!!

Here's the timeline that I'm hoping works for us:

• He starts working at World 50 on Monday, 10/17/11
• He flies to NYC on Tuesday, 10/18/11 and returns home on Thursday, 10/20/11
• He works from home that Friday (10/21/11)
• We hear something during this week about the mortgage and get our pre-approval
• He works from home the entire next week (10/24-10/28)
• He's here with us for Halloween (Gus's first Halloween with Trick-or-Treating)
• Steve goes to Atlanta on Tuesday, November 1st and is there by himself the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd.
• Gus and I drive to Atlanta to see Steve on Friday, 11/4/11
• We do some house-hunting on Saturday and Sunday (5th and 6th) and we find the one that we make an offer on   :)
• Gus and I stay in Atlanta and do some sight-seeing, playdates with new friends, and maybe the Zoo and Aquarium. 
• Saturday, November 12th, Steve rides home with me and Gus back to NC and leaves The Beast there
• Steve is here with us through Thanksgiving (11/24/11)
• While Steve is here in NC, we're able to get a closing date on the house in Georgia, and we can set a date with the movers to move us. 
• Steve goes back to Atlanta (plane) on Monday, 11/26/11
• We spend the week of the 28th apart (boo) but have a moving date near December 1st.
• Steve flies back to NC on Friday, 12/2/11 and is here during the week of December 5th-9th and we have the movers load us and move us.
• We are in our new house and settled by Sunday, December 11th.

Obviously that's my internal plan... who knows if it'll happen or not, but I figure it's somewhat do-able... right? I'd love to be all moved in, mostly unpacked, and decorated for Christmas by December 15th. We'll see. Then we can have my parents come down for their first visit between Christmas and New Years!

I made Gus's 18 month appointment... crazy that he's almost a year and a half. Where has the time gone???

Anyway... We had a mover come today and took at the house to give us our third estimate. We're hoping that because he physically came here, (instead of Steve filling out a questionnaire online), not only will he be more accurate, but also cheaper. When we get his estimate, Steve can submit it to World 50 and we can set up an account with the movers. The sooner we can get a date with the mover, the better. We just need to use our time really wisely when we visit in November. We need to make an offer so that we have time for closing. 

Tomorrow I've got Amie's baby shower. I totally want to sleep in and not have to get up for it... but it should be fun (I will know a few people). I'm excited to give her the gift I made for her. I took pictures of it tonight and I'll post tomorrow (not sure if she reads this, but if she does, I'd hate to ruin the surprise).

Look at what came in the mail today for Gus:

 

It's a card that you can hang! It's from his God Mother Jessica... it is our first Halloween decoration!! We'll be carving pumpkins tomorrow or Sunday!!

See you tomorrow.

 

Gus and Elphie have loved each other for so long...

Day 279

 

October 6th, 2010

 

October 6th, 2011

I'm sure I'm a wee bit biased, but I think Gus is the cutest little person! He just has the sweetest little face and such a great personality. They say you can tell how a person will be (demeanor and whatnot) based on how they act in their first three years... I sure hope Gus stays as sweet, loving, trusting, and laid-back as he is right now. 

That's not to say he doesn't have his moments where he acts like a crazy child and screams and throws a fit... but they are few and far between (fortunately). I usually ignore his tantrums and tell him that I can't understand him when he's screaming. I figure it's more for my own practice than for him, but it works. :)

Gus got up this morning and we had breakfast. He had a cereal bar and some cheese. My boy LOVES cheese (so does his mama and daddy)!

Gus played with Elphie while I watched tv and then we listened to some music until it was time for his morning nap.

While he was napping, I talked to Steve (via email) about some houses that I was looking at. We have been able to narrow down our wants and with eliminating the pool as a search criteria (if it has one, GREAT but it's not going to eliminate all without a pool), we now have more than 300 homes to look through. YIKES.

I spent Gus's nap time going through homes and checking schools. I've found that Mableton, GA has some really great homes, but HORRIBLE (I mean seriously horrible) schools. So all of those have been scratched off. 

We're mainly looking at the following areas:

• Roswell
• Sandy Springs
• Alpharetta
• Marietta
• Johns Creek
• Dunwoody

I think the majority have been Roswell, Johns Creek, and Alpharetta. We're able to really get a lot of house (3000+ sq feet) for our buck! All the ones that we're liking have finished basements, and for the most part, gourmet kitchens. It's just a matter of finding the perfect blend of location, with what we're looking for in a house.

I still keep going back to one house in particular... it's got it all. Screened porch (a HUGE one), gourmet kitchen, finished basement, GIANT master bedroom, five bedrooms, a nice deck, nice yard, a hot tub AND A POOL!!! And, it's lower than what we had budgeted so we're really hoping to see it in person and fall in love with it.

Who would have thought that it'd be so difficult to find a home?? At least we've got time to keep looking. I'm getting antsy and eager to start the moving process. Tomorrow afternoon we have a moving company coming to give us an estimate for our relocation. We have two other estimates, so this will be the third, Steve can submit all three and lock in the one that we'll use. 

He's already started the mortgage pre-approval process, and as soon as that's done (maybe next week?) we can go to GA for a visit, look at homes, and hopefully make an offer. Once that's done, we can set a date to close and move! A lot of the houses that I've been marking as favorites are move-in ready, so hopefully it won't be a long drawn out process.

On the other end, we're meeting with a realtor here (Stan) on Monday to walk us through our house and give us feedback about selling with him. We REALLY pray (and need your prayers too) that we are able to sell this house quickly and not have two house payments for too long!!!

Anyway... Gus woke up and it was time for lunch. We headed down and had left-over crack casserole and Gus ate ALL OF IT!!!

As you can see, I grabbed my camera and took some pictures of Gus while he was at the table, and then after as well. I also took some GREAT pictures of the animals. Here are the animal pics:

 

Bing Clawsby

 

Purry Como

 

I LOVE this picture of Toebe!!

 

Sweet Purry

 

Neddy Foo Foo

 

Awesome picture again of Toebe

 

I LOVE this picture of Ned!

 

 

Happy dog

 

Elphie guarding her bone lol

 

Being a snooty pup

 

Happiness

 

Pure bliss!

 

Hi mama

 

So content!!

Here are additional pictures of Gus:

 

In his favorite chair-- posing

 

He looks like such a big boy in this picture!!!

 

A second of sitting still

 

Gus's birthmark (still there)

 

Party time!

 

Ready for the afternoon nap...

 

All partied out

 

Wearing his Elmo costume as a blanket... it's nap time!

Gus took his afternoon nap and slept for almost two hours. He got up just as Steve got home. We had breakfast for dinner (I made waffles from scratch and we had little smokeys too) and it was delicious!

I'm tired. I was supposed to have the Fab Five here tomorrow, but Kristen has to work and Lacey wants to relax and not go anywhere (can't blame her at all). So we're going to shoot for Monday instead. The fair starts next week... I think we're going to try going the following week though. I'm excited to go!!

See you tomorrow!! Steve's taking a 1/2 day and I'm excited to get an early start to our weekend!!

I almost forgot!! I got picked to host a Shutterfly House Party!! I'm super excited! All my guests will get a free photo book!! I think I'm going to invite some family (even though they're far) and some MI friends, and then send them the coupon. If you're reading and want to do it virtually (not here in person) just let me know!!