Shutting down, hitting a wall, and all that good stuff

etc., life — Valerie on July 29, 2008 at 8:56 pm

There a few things in life (other than parenting, I’m sure) that make you feel more stupid and incompetent than a buying a house.

Couple that with pregnancy and you have a big (literally), blubbery mess. That mess would be me.

I’m amazed by how much I don’t know, even though I’ve been through this process once before. Granted we are buying AND selling, but still. You would think past experience would make it easier. Well, not so much.

So I spent some time today crying. And then some time feeling guilty for crying. And then some more time trying to at least stay on top of everything I could.

I just keep telling myself, “Two and a half weeks, two and a half weeks.” And then I keep telling myself that, really, this is a wonderful problem to have.

Zappturday: On the subject of whoa it’s Monday

zappturday — Valerie on July 28, 2008 at 9:38 pm

What with all the house buying and what not this weekend, the Zappturday post never happened. So to make it up to you, Zapp decided to pose for possibly the best picture she’s ever been in.

May I present Gangsta Zapp, The Master of Gangsta Rapp:

gansta.jpg

I’m sure this made it all worth the wait.

(This picture taken with Ross’s new iPhone or, as I like to call it, The Widowmaker.)

Weekend Wrap up

etc. — Valerie on July 27, 2008 at 8:00 pm

Friday: Came home. Took a nice long nap. Woke up and had a snack. Puttered. Back to bed late.

Saturday: Up at 6:30 despite my 1:30 bedtime the night before. Sat around. Was exhausted by 10:30. Took a shower. Stopped by World of Mirth to pick up a birthday present for a certain two-year-old. Went home. Had lunch with in-laws. Went to take another look at a couple more houses. Decided to make an offer on one. Off to the Southside for the two-year-old’s birthday party. Back to the city for a friend’s birthday dinner at Me Kong. Home for a miraculous bedtime of 10:30.

Sunday: Up to meet our real estate agent to make an official offer. Spent the rest of the morning crossing fingers and puttering. Off to the West End for errands. Randomly to stop at Short Pump to see if the Apple store had iPhones. They did. Stood in line in the hot sun for 30 minutes so Ross could buy one. He did. There was much rejoicing. Off to Costco for olive oil, cereal, and $1.50 hot dogs. Home to shower finally. Church. Got a call from real estate agent with the seller’s counter offer. Accepted it, mostly because they agreed to a two-and-a-half week closing (!). Dinner at Bottom’s Up after church. Home now to do various chores and hopefully get to bed soon.

This house is getting inspected tomorrow. We we officially apply for our new mortgage early next week. The new house will be inspected soon as well. Pray that the stars stay aligned and that our luck won’t run out yet.

6 months pregnant

baby love — Valerie on July 26, 2008 at 7:40 am

Once you get beyond to mind numbingly slow first trimester, the remaining weeks of pregnancy seem to fly by - although I say this from my comfy position in the second trimester which, seriously, is a pretty good time. My thoughts might change when I approach ridiculous-looking status in a few weeks.

Anyway, I can’t believe it’s been almost 4 months since I let the Internets know about the impending arrival of our wee one. And how crazy is it that in 3 1/2 months this kid will actually be here? Quite, I must say. And it occurred to me recently that I never ever gave details about The Day We Found Out and other exciting tidbits. So instead of boring you with more accounts of how much cereal I eat and griping about how I don’t know exactly *where* I’ll be putting this kid, how about a nice flashback?

On March 6 I realized something was amiss. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but I felt weird. Being a young woman who spent a very, very short period of time (read: three days) the previous month not actively preventing pregnancy, I looked at the calendar. I was two days late. I don’t *do* late.

Please keep in mind that this all occurred to me while I was sitting alone in my office at work.

So I went to”lunch.” At 10:30 in the morning. And by lunch I mean “Kroger” to buy a ridiculously expensive pregnancy test.

When I got back to work, I went straight into the bathroom and took the test. The second line popped up immediately. And I said, “OMG.” Yes, really.

I immediately went back to my office and called Ross.

“Hey.”

“Hey.”

“So, I took a pregnancy test.”

“Ok.”

“There were two lines.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means that I’m pregnant.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, awesome!”

“I’m freaking out kind of.”

“Ok, well we can talk about it when we get home. I’m in a meeting.”

“Oh, sorry ok, I love you, bye.”

“I love you, too.”

While our enthusiasm seems almost undetectable in that conversation, trust me, this is exactly how it should have gone, particularly coming from a couple whose first words to each other after being joined forever in holy matrimony were:

“How’s your day so far?”

“Oh, you know, pretty good.”

My conversation with RA was a bit more of the “bouncing off the wall variety” as seen here (like you can actually see it because it was over IM):

me: RARARARA!!!!!!!!I need to talk to you!!!!!!!!!This is important!RA: here I am!me: TWO LINESTWO LINES ON A PREGNANCY TESTTWO!!!!!TWO!!!!!!!!!!you’re the only part of the Internet that I’m tellingRA: WHATWHATholy fertile, batman

So there you have it. That evening was spent peeing on more sticks. The following day involved the telling of grandparents and a few friends and the peeing on more sticks. The following weeks were spent hating anything with cumin in it and stuffing my face with dried cornflakes. Now I spend my time watching my belly shake and trying to distinguish if that’s the baby’s foot or fist hitting me in the ribs.

It’s been awesome.

Updates

etc., life — Valerie on July 24, 2008 at 5:49 pm

It looks like we will be moving on or around August 9th. That’s in 16 days. SIXTEEN DAYS. As in a little bit more than two weeks. As in OMG I’m freaking out.  Of course this all depends on how things go when the house is inspected on Monday. If all goes well, I will be frantically packing starting Monday night.

We looked at several houses on Wednesday, and a some of them were very promising. We got pre-approved for a loan today so we will be going back to look at a couple of the houses this weekend and seeing if we’re ready to make an offer on anything. I wonder what the chances are that someone will want to close in two weeks. I’m thinking pretty slim.

I need to keep telling myself that this is an excellent “problem” to have. In fact, let’s not call it a problem, let’s call it a “situation.” Yes. And let’s have some more peanut butter as we say that.

Something I learned today

etc. — Valerie on July 23, 2008 at 8:32 pm

When you tell people “I’m 6 months pregnant and I have to be out of my house in 22 days,” they tend to do move a bit faster for you.

Try it. See what happens.

In other news…

hubs — Valerie on July 22, 2008 at 6:02 pm

My husband makes up one half of the 75th most powerful person in Richmond. You didn’t know he was a puppet master, did you?

Here’s the blurb:

75. Ross Catrow and John Murden 

Richmond’s online community has a streak of serious civic engagement because of the infrastructure provided by John Murden and Ross Catrow. Murden built, modeled and then shared his template for neighborhood blogs. Now a dozen outlets across the city keep tabs on micropolitical issues and neighborhood meetings. Catrow’s aggregator, RVAblogs.com, serves as a central clearinghouse for each new post from more than 300 local writers on a myriad of topics, and a rash of play-by-play pregnancy stories. Their innovations have quickly built a new forum, nurtured a fresh pantheon of pundits and welcomed scorekeepers in the arena of public accountability.

(originally appearing here)

OMG THE HOUSE IT IS SOLD* SEE YA LATER NEIGHBORHOOD HOOLIGANS

etc. — Valerie on July 22, 2008 at 5:58 pm

(Title in reference to this post.)

(*pending everything not falling apart)

We got an offer today, friends. An offer we accepted.

We have to be out of the house in three weeks.

Yes, that’s right. That’s how we do things around here. So on or around August 14th we either be moving into a new house or moving in with my in-laws for a short while as we wrap up details with a new house. It is sure to be crazy and stressful BUT worth it in the end, I’m sure. I can say that because it’s not my house that’s potentially being invaded by a crazy pregnant woman and two loony dogs. My in-laws, they are saint-like, it’s true.

House hunting starts tomorrow morning. Keep your fingers crossed. And your toes. And your friends’ fingers and toes.

Transferring frustration

etc., dammit, baby love — Valerie on July 21, 2008 at 8:27 pm

I spent about 20 minutes tonight griping at Ross for not getting the car seat situation figured out. Because clearly we need to have the car seat picked out a full 16 weeks before this child gets here. And because I’m clearly frustrated about something else.

The house hasn’t sold yet. I’m sure you knew that considering the lack of “OMG THE HOUSE IT IS SOLD SEE YA NEIGBORHOOD HOOLIGANS” post. Clearly, worse things could be going on, but after a steady flow of interested people, it’s just baffling and disappointing that we haven’t had any offers. Thus we still don’t know if we’ll be bringing the baby home to this house or to another location-yet-to-be-determined house.

So I yell about car seats.

The urge to nest has been kicking in like none other, mostly because there’s little else I can do to prepare for this kid other than sleeping a lot and eating my weight in Cheerios (which I’ve been trying, BELIEVE YOU ME). I feel utterly unprepared and incompetent which is a wonderful addition to my already exhausted state.

So instead of getting a house ready for an entire new person (and since I can no longer argue about the car seat because we finally made a decision), I will now spend my time getting myself worked up about breast pumps and episiotomies. Yeah, I just said that. If I have to think about it, so do you.

Weekend Wrap up

weekend wrap up — Valerie on July 20, 2008 at 6:36 pm

Friday: Home to rest for a bit. Went with Ross to Short Pump to see if the Apple store had any iPhones. They didn’t. Stopped by the grocery store on the way home. More resting while Ross made homemade veggies burgers. Watched The Pursuit of Happyness. To bed.

Saturday: Up and off to the gym. Home to clean the house. Left at around 2:00 for another house showing. Met up with Ross. To Stony Point to try and spend my gift card at Anthropologie. Couldn’t find anything I wanted, oddly enough. To the in-laws to visit the puppy and chat. Dinner at River City Diner. Home to rest for a bit. Friends over to play Rock Band. To bed.

Sunday: Up to shower and clean the house for another showing. Fed the homeless. Came home exhausted and took a nap. Loved my husband a ton when he suggested I just skip church and rest some more. Napped a little and then did some laundry. Met friends at Palani Drive for dinner. Home again for more laundry and some puttering before bed.

I can’t believe the weekend is already over. Have a good week!

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