Ummm, wow

Two very momentous things occurred yesterday. 

1. We became homeowners

and more importantly, 

2. Ella turned one! Watch out, world, Ella is officially a toddler. 

This photo is a little blurry, but I love the way she's holding up her hands like that before digging in. Too bad you can't see the crazy grin on her face. 

The many stages of eating a birthday cupcake

We are still attempting to recover from the craziness that has been the past 36 hours. Friday we closed on our house at 9am, had the movers come at 10am, and in the midst of that, threw a mini-birthday party. Most of our family members were able to video call in via Google Hangout so they could join us in singing "Happy Birthday" and watch Ella destroy eat her birthday cupcake. 

Even though Ella won't remember, it definitely was a 1st birthday that we will never forget. 

We love you, Eleanor Mary, and we can't wait to see what the next year will bring! 

Snakes, and spiders, and mountain lions, oh my!

Sometimes I sit and wonder what the heck we were thinking in moving to Oklahoma. 

I kid you not, this is a conversation I had the other day at the playground:

Other Mom: "Did anyone tell you about the wildlife down here?"

Me: "Umm, like the cows? And coyotes?"

Other Mom: "No, about things like snakes," (okay, I can deal with snakes), "tarantulas," (yep, been there, done that), "and mountain lions." 

She and another mom at the playground then proceed to discuss, calmly, the mountain lions around here, in the same way that you might talk about your neighbor's obnoxious dog. 

Seriously, when discussing something that just might eat you, there should be some note of hysteria. Like, "OMG, did you hear there are mother-effing MOUNTAIN LIONS around here?!?!?!?!?!" 

I mean, look at this thing! It's saying, "Hide yo kids, hide yo wife, because I'm a BAMF who won't hesitate to eat you."

Photo from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountain_lion
(yes, I did some extremely scholarly research on the subject once I got home from the playground)

Oh, and guess where one likes to hang out? 

Yep- our new neighborhood. 

I am never going outside again. 

Necessity is the mother of invention

As you might imagine, there are a limited amount of fun activities for a baby in a hotel room- that is, if you discount unrolling the toilet paper, splashing in the dog water bowls, attempting to throw things into the toilet, and taking all the clothes out of the drawers. 

Luckily, Ella has managed to think up some new activities on her own, involved her two best buddies, Dougal and Crilly. They include: 

-Playing dress-up with Dougal (note Crilly wisely hiding underneath the table in the upper left)

-Pretending to be the "dog wrangler," which apparently involves taking off her clothes and chasing the dogs around

-Playing fetch with the dogs

The big move

I'm finally getting a chance to sit down and write about the big move from Illinois down to Oklahoma.

I don't have too much to say about the drive itself, other than it wasn't too bad. I mean, what can you say about an 11-hour car ride? We drove, it was boring, we saw lots of cows and horses, the end. 

Some pictures from the road trip: 

Clockwise from top left: the St. Louis arch; the view out the car window in Oklahoma; an oil well; how Crilly decided to hang out in the car; one of many horses that we saw; Ella and Dougal sleeping. 

Thursday night, after we had gotten Ella off to bed, I sat down and cried. I had planned and planned for every last detail of this trip. But the one thing I hadn't planned on was how emotional this move was going to be. Jim asked me what was wrong. I explained to him that I simply wanted to go home.

We've been here a week now, and Oklahoma still feels like some sort of odd vacation. I am starting to learn the ropes, though. Jim started his new job on Monday, and Ella and I are figuring out grocery stores, the library, and mommy groups. With a little luck, we will be in our own place soon, and we can start to make this place our home. 

30 Days of Thanks: Day 29

We made it down to Oklahoma, and I'm thankful for the mostly-smooth trip down here.

I have lots more to say about the trip, but I'm too tired so that will have to wait until a later time.

30 Days of Thanks: Day 28

I'm thankful that with this move, I don't have to lift a single box. Having movers has made me super spoiled and I will never go back to U-Hauling it again!



On a slightly-related note: My internet connection will most likely be spotty for the next couple of days, so sorry in advance if things are a bit slow around here.

The night before the big move

Tonight is our last night in the Chicago-area, and depending on how far we manage to drive tomorrow, possibly our last night in Illinois. It still hasn't hit me 100% that we are really moving. Sure, there are boxes everywhere, suitcases are packed, and Jim is working on loading up the cars. I don't think until everything is emptied out of the house and we get on the highway that I will truly feel like we are moving.

This has been our home since 2005. We moved up here individually, and are leaving as a family. In the seven years we've lived here, we have met so many amazing people and had some pretty spectacular times.

When I moved up here at the age of 18, I never imagined that I would stay longer than it took me to finish up my undergrad degree. I had vague dreams of what I would be doing with my life- none of which figured in moving to Oklahoma.

There is such a rush of emotions involved in packing and moving- sadness, excitement, nostalgia, anxiety (okay, a lot of anxiety). This is where I met Jim. The home of his crappy apartment where he made me Indian food and proposed to me. Where our first apartment together was, so small that we could barely move around all the furniture. And more importantly, where Ella was born and spent most of her first year.

But now it's time to stop reminiscing, finish packing up those last few boxes, and close the door on this chapter of our lives. Tomorrow it's Oklahoma or bust!

Pity party, table of one

Today sucks.

The movers arrived this morning, bright and early, to box up all our stuff. Sounds great, right?

Except when you have a child who screams, "NOOOO" dramatically when things get moved. Or when your dogs do not stop barking all day long, thus ensuring that your child does not nap properly and you get a massive headache. Or when the movers leave in the evening, and you realize that not only are you going to be living in box city for the next five days, but that your much-needed booze is packed up.

I'm also more than slightly freaking out over the fact that as of Wednesday night, we don't have a place to live. There are a grand total of four houses to rent in our new town, three of which can be nixed based on size, price, or location, and who knows if the fourth is actually something we want to rent AND will let us have a short-term lease. Jim has been working frantically on trying to get us a place, but of course since it's a holiday weekend, nothing much is happening.

If it was just the two of us, I don't think I would be bothered so much. However, all I can think right now is, "I'm a terrible mom. My child is going to be homeless. I'm ripping her apart from the life she has known, and she won't have a birthday cake because there is no kitchen to make it in, and her holiday season is going to be crap because 1.) I don't live in a Pottery Barn catalogue, 2.) all of our stuff is going to be in storage, and 3.) did I mention we will be homeless?! " (Yes, I know. It's overly dramatic. We won't really be homeless, things will work out in the end, blah blah blah, unless those words of wisdom come with an extra large glass of wine and an entire cake, keep them to yourself.)

To top off this shit-tastic day, my mom calls me and tells me that my dad tripped and broke a rib.

I'm going to go load up on Thanksgiving leftovers and call it a night.  

30 Days of Thanks: Day 23

One of the hardest things is to be thankful when things don't go as planned. This time last week, it seemed like everything was falling into place. Then we got the inspection report back on the house we wanted to buy.

Foundation repairs needed. Mold. Presence of past water damage. Radon levels questionably high. The list went on and on.

We made the decision that as much as we want to buy a house and be settled, this house is not the one for us. So now we are back at step one of the home buying process. Ella's first birthday will be spent in some sort of temporary housing situation. There won't be any decorations or Christmas tree for the holidays. I'm more than a little bummed out.

In the midst of my disappointment, I'm trying to remember to be thankful. The home inspection ensured that we were aware of the multitude of problems, and won't be buying something that will be a constant source of stress and money down the line.

::Sigh:: Perhaps we'll be in a house in time for my birthday.

30 Days of Thanks: Days 10-13 (yes, I know I'm cheating)

We've been on the road again, this time back to Oklahoma for more house hunting. Since it's a bit hard to update my blog with no internet access (yes, I live in circa 2002 with no smart phone or latest Apple thingy), I'm cheating a bit and combining several days into one post.

Before we left, Ella was kind enough to share her illness with us. Nothing quite like getting on a flight looking like you are carrying the Black Plague. I'm sure everyone was thrilled to have us there.

To keep everything short, 14 houses and one entire package of DayQuil later, we figured out which house we wanted to make an offer on. Monday morning we made the offer, they countered while we were at lunch, and before we got on the plane to head back to Chicago we managed to come to an agreement with the sellers.

Even though I feel like I'm cheating by not having separate posts for the past few days, I think that a house is big enough to cover four days worth of thankfulness.

30 Days of Thanks: Day Eight

Trying to plan out the logistics of our move to Oklahoma has been a huge source of stress. We have been assigned a relocation consultant, who is responsible for helping us arrange everything. Sounds great in theory, but in reality it means that everything has to get filtered a gazillion different ways before it can actually get done. For example, we needed to get a moving company. Jim has to call up our person. She then has to send us the list of approved moving companies. Jim has to send it to me, I have to say, "I don't care, they all look good, pick one," and he then has to call the relocation consultant back. She has to call up the moving company for us, then call us back saying it's okay for us to talk to them. After all of that, we can finally talk to someone about getting a moving truck. For a person who wants to get stuff done, and be in charge of everything, this is a nightmare.

We were told this morning that it would be next to impossible to get movers on any of the days that work with our schedule, due to the Thanksgiving holiday. When I got off the phone this morning, we were looking at the possibility of me having to stay up here for an extra month with Ella after Jim started his new job, because no one was willing to work with us.

Enter Ed. He is my hero in this whole situation. He spent this afternoon calling around and found people willing to be up here the day after Thanksgiving to pack up our stuff, and someone to come move it the week after. Maybe I have awesome powers of persuasion. Maybe it was the screaming child in the background. Maybe he's sympathetic to the plight of over-stressed moms. Whatever his reasons, I am thankful that he was willing to go the extra mile to help me out today.

The joys of moving

Or rather, not.

The last two months of my life have been taken up with moving- finding a new place, packing up everything, physically moving, cleaning the old place, and now, finally, unpacking. As if doing all of that was not enough on its own, Ella has been teething like crazy and has entered the stage of separation anxiety. Fun times.

Thankfully we have some awesome friends who came and helped us out, and amazingly everything was out of the old place and moved into the new by 11:15am. We still can't locate most things and the place is a wreck, but it's a relief not to have the worry hanging over my head.

While I'm glad that we now have a fenced-in yard for the dogs, more space for the three of us, and are paying less rent to boot, it was bittersweet leaving our old place. That was the place where we learned we were becoming a family of three, where we took Ella home to from the hospital, where she grew from a tiny helpless newborn to a big girl who cruises around furniture, waves hi, and tries to talk.

And if I'm being completely honest, part of the reason why I'm having such a hard time with moving is because I had hopes that when we moved out of the townhouse, it would be because Jim had found a permanent position and we were moving to our forever home. I know he is just as frustrated with the job market and still being a postdoc as I am, and it certainly is not for lack of trying (right now it is 9:30pm and he is still sitting there working on job applications).

Thinking on the positive side, we are fortunate that he has a job, and that it is one that allows me to stay at home with Ella. He still has over a year left on his contract, and his research supervisor has never had a postdoc finish up their contract without finding a permanent position. As for the house situation, as one of my friends told me, even though it's not perfect, I will find ways to make it my own, and eventually it will feel like home.