our refrigerator still isn't working, so i guess we'll have to get a new one. that's not an expense we really wanted to face, but hopefully we'll get one from sears, where we can defer paying for the whole thing for a year.
Thursday, November 26, 2009
happy thanksgiving
happy thanksgiving everyone! we're slowly getting moved in. i'm stealing internet at the moment to post this. we don't get our phone & internet back until saturday. first night in the new house went well. cats didn't keep us up. i didn't successfully program the thermostat yesterday, so we woke up to a super cold house, but that's certainly solvable.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
low rider mothra
our little z is getting less dependent on one of us being in the same room as him, and more adventurous. z was roaming around the bedrooms, and walked back into the living room as we found him here... sporting the low-rider style pants. too cute to not photograph.
my favorite percussionist
z loves to make beautiful music for his momma with his pot lid cymbals. they have such a gorgeous ring...
helpful mothra
mama was busy doing something - most likely washing dishes, and z wanted to help out. he pulled out all the towels & rags. and then proceeded to put them back, although not necessarily into the correct drawers.
little mischievous mothra!
last dinner
this was our last nice dinner in our old house. rib eye steaks (frozen & defrosted), purchased awhile back on sale. mushrooms sauteed in butter. grilled zucchini & red pepper. garlic parmesan bread. panther creek shea vineyard, bought awhile ago, which wasn't my favorite, but still good. i don't think i'll buy panther creek again. decent wine, but overpriced. great food. good bye (sometime... still not sure when we'll get to move) old house. you've been good to us. so many wonderful memories here. our wedding, my pregnancy, z's birth & first year. sigh.
moving hell.
ok. there's a lull in the moving activity because we're waiting to see if we'll close today or not, just as we've been waiting every day since last thursday. everything is as packed up as it can be. i thought i'd take a moment to catalog the craziness.
at the end of july, we made an offer on a house we liked, which i found online only because of z's lead crisis, which turned out to be nothing. our offer was accepted, and it was contingent on selling our house & closing by oct 30th. we quickly de-cluttered our house, moving a sofa to a friend's house, packing up non-essentials, and making several trips to goodwill, all in a flurry while gma & gpa tigard watched z. the cats went to live with our friend and saviour, r. mid aug our house went on the market. one month of showings ensued. no solid offers, but lots of interest, so we asked for an extension to close by nov 30th. more showing craziness went on (which involved me cleaning the house meticulously before EVERY showing, sometimes even baking cookies or brownies, and hiding all of z's stuff). several times we would have to vacate the house only to find out that the lookers had flaked out or cancelled after the fact. after many more open houses & showings, several people made offers. two of them didn't pan out, so we accepted the remaining one. nov 20th was the date by which we were to close on our current house. our buyer was to close on the sale of his condo (on which his offer for our house was contingent) on nov 12. we seriously started packing the weekend before the 12th. however, the 12th came, and he didn't close, simply because the lending industry had not factored veteran's day - a holiday - into the mix. that's totally understandable, as veteran's day was a new holiday this year, and thus easy to overlook (NOT). grr. thus began our troubles. i think he finally closed on his condo on friday the 13th. on friday, our agent said we'd sign to close on our current house on tues or wed (the 17th or 18th). she asked if the buyer could move some things into OUR HOUSE - either the garage or the bedroom in the basement, while we moved our things out. this request has made me more & more upset. #1 - in our agreement with the buyer, we are renting our current home back from him for 2 weeks. we have TWO weeks to move out. THE HOUSE IS STILL OURS. that totally defeats the idea of RENTING BACK. #2 - we need full access to the garage in order to move all of our stuff out, and we cannot do so with his junk in it. #3 - moving his stuff to the bedroom in the basement was not an option because a queen bed does not fit down the stairs - that's why our box springs have been hanging out in our garage for the past 4 months. #4 - i do not want to be liable for anything happening to his junk, as i was still teaching, and had people going through the garage & basement. our realtor told the buyer no, and that she would help pay him to move his stuff from his parents' house to our house once we're out (which is so ridiculous, because his agent should have advised him to schedule a much later moving date than the 19th. she totally dropped the ball on this one).
anyway, j ended up signing on the thursday. throughout the waiting/inspection period, both our agent and our mortgage broker said we would close sooner than later. not quite. it is now tuesday, and our current house just closed yesterday. we're still waiting for the funds to go through. it's 1:45 pm, and we don't know yet if we will close today, or tomorrow (wed), or perhaps next monday, due to the thanksgiving holiday. oh wait - i just got an email saying "funded" from my mortgage broker, and told j, but he said "they still need our current house to go through." i have no idea what is going on, if we're being told the truth about anything. all we can do is wait. we were told something about the buyer's lender changing his software 3 weeks ago, and that the buyer's entire file was deleted, and they had to resubmit documents. there's no excuse for that - 2-3 weeks ago. he should've been on top of things. and there are rules with banks and underwriters and the whole motley crew, about things needing to be wired by 10:30am, or they won't be accounted for until the next business day. in this day and age, those things just shouldn't be.
so WHY am i so upset about all of this? what's the hurry??? it's all about the schedule. i had every single thing lined up. even so, there were bumps. such as, last monday, all of a sudden, our cat sitter had to get rid of vinny & persia because she's moving and the landlord wanted to start showing the apartment. she never let the landlord know she had our cats, and should've paid a deposit. luckily j's parents have been able to take care of them for the past week, but they're the ones hosting thanksgiving this year, so the cats need to be out of their house with plenty of time to clean. i'm very lucky i had time in my schedule to go pick them up and transport them to canby, with z in tow. for over a month, i've had the carpet surgeon scheduled to clean the carpets in the new house, which needed to be done because there were awful blood/oil stains on the 2nd floor, all before all our junk was moved in. j planned to take this week off from work, and i cancelled all my students. i scheduled the movers for wednesday. we needed to move this week because my mom has the week off from her language program, so she could watch z. packing was hard enough with him running around, un-packing everything and getting into things that weren't so safe for him. we also had workers scheduled to begin framing the basement for drywall on monday (yesterday), which had to be pushed to today, which had to be pushed to monday, which means more time i have to teach upstairs, around the cats, around z. and the buyer's realtor came asking for a key yesterday, which we didn't give to her, because the buyer shouldn't have one until we're out of here. i don't want him moving things in while we're still here.
time is so valuable, when you're self employed, and when you have babies. everything has to be planned out. on top of all of this, somehow i had a massive miscommunication with my pianist. in the past two days, i've had to reschedule all the rehearsal time slots on the next two weekends in a hurry, before we lose our phone and internet on wednesday. we'll be without both until saturday, due to the holiday. saturday is my birthday. i get to spend it unpacking and waiting for the fios verizon people. i do have a lot to be thankful for. but honestly, i have no idea how these lending industry people keep their jobs, with all the mistakes that have been happening.
as of now, something has funded, but something involving funds through us bank has not. something got screwed up last night. sigh. what a gong show. that's all i have to say.
and i miss my pumpkin.
childrens' garden
fridays tend to be long, so z & i went to visit my friend j, who works at legacy emanuel hospital in north portland. we got there early (also got to drop off an old car seat to recycle, given to us by a student), so z & i explored the childrens' garden.
here he is with a giant, colorful turtle.
note the mask on the child statue... their sense of humor in the wake of h1n1 craziness.
boarding downtown???
i was running errands one weekend and found this in the pearl district downtown. they were constructing a jump.
Friday, November 13, 2009
friday the 13th
fridays really drag on these days. today is friday the 13th. this is my third post today. it's absolutely pouring outside. it's a good day for african chicken peanut soup from mcmenamins. and a black and tan brownie. and a pint. sigh. here's a picture of z playing with the toilet in a Really Ugly Bathroom at the new house (assuming things get moving some day soon...). we're certainly not buying the house for its beautiful bathrooms.
z is asleep, so maybe a nap will make things better.
crazy teeth
ok... another update. fridays are long days for me. i just flipped z upside down, giving me a front row view of his teeth. he now has the four front teeth on the top, the four front teeth on the bottom (central and side incisors), four molars, and he's getting the 4 canines in now - 3 of them are showing. no wonder he's been on the fussy side this past week, and drooling up a storm! he'll only have 4 more molars to go after this. i think this is all sooner than normal...
update.
our little z can now say ma, da, nana as in banana, z, p, t, v, wa... he can clap two blocks together imitating us when we do it, he can bring us a book to read, he can put the book back on the shelf when we're done, he helps us put his toys away before bath (although we do most of it). he still isn't signing at all, but has his own signals for things. we just cancelled the cloth diaper service, because of the move, and because he soaks through them so quickly. i don't have time or the concentration to remember to change him every single hour. he's getting very good at standing up by himself without holding on to anything. he's getting a little pickier about eating. bananas are his favorite food! he likes pumpkin pie, too.
Wednesday, November 04, 2009
Tuesday, November 03, 2009
play group
two friends + mommies came to keep us company while we were stuck at home on friday, waiting for the sewer to be fixed.
we wanted a picture of all boys, but only made it to two. baby r is trying to pat z & make him feel better, but it's not working. r is exactly one month younger than z. he has a birthday coming up soon!
backhoe
we had to have our sewer repaired in order to sell our house. big bucks. :( here's z on the backhoe. the work is all done, but they broke (and then reluctantly repaired) our sprinkler system. we're lucky j checked the sprinkler system out!
sleepy baby
sunday morning fun
sunday morning fun
silliness #1
our cats have a special noise they make when they see birds outside. they get very excited. well, z has a special noise he makes right before he starts attacking our noses. listen for it in these videos...
tongue.
on this particular day, z was having fun with his tongue. perhaps he was feeling his teeth. either way, it was pretty entertaining. not exactly polite, but pretty funny!
sunday dinner
a couple weekends ago, aunt m & uncle j hosted us for an english dinner - a roast, yorkshire puddings, the yumminess goes on and on!!! thanks so much - the food was lovely, and we had a fantastic time!
wheee! i can fly!
fooomphhh..
i dare you - come tickle me - DO IT!
ahhhhhhh!!!
kerouac was such a sport and put up with z. what a sweet puppy!
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