Moving Craziness

Well, I am still alive! I know this little blog of mine has been woefully neglected this past two weeks, but you can hardly blame me. First, we moved. Second, I've been sick. And third, in our new house, the computer is right outside Sutton's room. So no more blogging late at night for me. When I start typing on the keyboard, he hears my fingers clattering, and starts yelling "Who's dere? Who is it?"

So...moving. I hate it. Always have, always will. It's chaotic, and confusing, etc. Even more so with a two-year-old who is determined to "help" you. By unpacking everything you're trying to pack. But we got through it, and that's all that matters.

We moved into our new place on April 1st. And we still have boxes everywhere. I know, you're saying, "It's the 11th!" But, in our defense, we're waiting to get a storage unit. We downsized when we moved, but we still have a ton of old baby crap that needs to be stored until we finally decide to have a second baby. And since the computer is now in the corner of our living room, we have a lot of office crap (like bookcases and books) that we don't have room for. So they're sitting in our living room and in our garage until we can get them moved.

Moving was even more difficult, because on Saturday (the 3rd) I got the worst case of food poisoning I have ever had. I have never been that sick in all my life. So I was no help to Dave, and he had to finish the last few hours of moving all by himself. In 85 degree heat. In a two-story house. Me, I laid on the bed with Sutton, watched movies, and tried not to vomit.

Here are a couple of pictures of the new house. I'll try to get more.
The living room with all the junk and boxes.
Sutton snuggling with Dave (Sorry, this picture is really dark)

Sutton is so impressed with our new house.
Can't you tell?

Next post, all about our exploits with a certain little boy who has learned to climb out of his bed. Next up, toddler bed!

Antsiness, Anxiety, and Ice Cream for Dinner

Dave and I are very different when it comes to the weekends. He likes to bum around the house, play video games, watch TV, etc. I go one of two ways. Either I am the same way, and prefer to stay close to home. Or I get restless. My mind starts thinking about ALL the things we need to do. Like the mountains of laundry that is threatening to take over our closet. Or the fact that we are maybe 1/3 of the way finished with our packing. And we move on the 1st. Or that the floor needs to be mopped. See what I mean? So, today was a combination of the two.

Sutton woke up around 7:30 this morning. I got up with him, and brought him downstairs where we snuggled on the couch until about 8:45. Then I started making breakfast. I said to Sutton "Should we go wake up your dad?" Next thing I know, he's headed up the stairs by himself, yelling, "DAD! DAD!" I go upstairs where Dave is slowly waking up, and corral Sutton back downstairs.
For breakfast, I made Cinnamon Bun Pancakes, from the Tasty Kitchen blog. Oh my yum. I added a powdered sugar icing/syrup that another reader had recommended. So made the difference. Really made it taste like a cinnamon bun.
The recipe is listed below.

• 1-½ cup All-purpose Flour
• 3 Tablespoons White Sugar
• ½ teaspoons Salt
• 4 teaspoons Baking Powder
• 1 Tablespoon Cinnamon
• 2 whole Eggs Beaten
• 1 cup Milk
• 2 Tablespoons Corn Syrup
• ¼ cups Butter, Melted
• 1 Tablespoon Vanilla

In medium bowl, combine flour, sugar, salt, baking powder and cinnamon with a whisk. Whisk well to make sure everything is combined.

In separate large bowl, beat together eggs, milk, corn syurp, butter and vanilla. Stir in flour mixture.

Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium/low heat. Pour about 1/4 cup batter onto griddle. Brown on both sides.

Serve warm with icing drizzled over the top.

Here is the recipe for the icing.
3/4 cup powdered sugar, 2 tbsp melted butter, 2 tbsp milk and mix together.

Really, really good. Sutton ate FOUR of them. And I mean adult sized pancakes.

After our carb-fest, Sutton wanted to go watch a movie. He's obsessed with watching "movies" in our bed. He likes to be snuggled under the covers with us.

So last night, we started watching "The Princess and the Frog." We finished it this morning. While we were watching it, Sutton kept saying "Supai. Supai." And we couldn't understand what he was saying. Then Dave figured it out. PBS has a show called "SuperWhy" and it's all about reading and books. Sutton hadn't watched it that many times, so I didn't think he liked it all that much. We were wrong. Everytime the characters say their little catch phrases, he tries to say them along with them. So cute.
When movie time was over, I started tackling the mountains of laundry. Since we currently live in a two-story house, I throw the laundry over the railing, and collect it downstairs, where the washing machine is. Sutton decided that he wanted to help.

At around noon, Sutton was tired, so I put him down for a nap. Then I got dressed, and went down to the full-line Nordstrom, to pick up some makeup. When I got back, Sutton was still napping. He woke up around two-thirty, and we had a quick lunch of pizza.
After lunch, we all went outside to play. Well, Dave didn't play. He pulled weeds instead.
Sutton "helped" by watering the plants. He ended up watering the one pot that didn't have a plant in it.

That should have been enough, but my head kept telling me that we needed to be making the most of the beautiful weather. So I suggested going to the park by our house. Turns out that the park was extremely underwhelming. Kind of boring, actually. Got this cute picture of Dave and Sutton, though.
In the best suggestion of the day, Dave came up with the idea of going for ice cream. So we drove to Culver's for some soft serve. Sutton got his own cup, and boy, did he enjoy it.
Since it was about four-thirty at this point, I decided that this would be dinner. Yay for cool Mommy! We came home to more laundry, packing, a meltdown at bathtime, and two stories before bed. And we're exhausted.
That was our day. How was yours?

Yet Another Blog Change and Fashion Musings

Welcome, everyone, to yet another background on ye olde MacDonald website. I don't know why, but the previous blog backgrounds wouldn't let some people post. So I've made more changes. Hopefully, they work.

Lately, Sarah, Jamie, Gina, and others have started a mom-style blog. And I thought this was a great idea. Since I work for a major retailer (Starts with "N" and rhymes with "ordstrom") I'm curious how moms interpret the new trends. Or do they simply dress in what works for them. And until they ask me to contribute a post (hint, hint!!) I'll talk about my own fashion choices.

Since I work in retail, I am surrounded by fashion, and trends. So, on the weekends, I am all about the jeans and T-shirts. I am a big jeans lover. At one point in my retail career, I was the manager of the contemporary denim department, and I LOVED it. So many choices, and I got to wear jeans to work!! And we were required to try them all on, to see how each brand fit us. My favorite brands were Paige Premium Denim, Citizens of Humanity, and Joe's Jeans. I loved how Paige Denim was made for a woman's body. The creator of the brand used to be the fit model for Seven for All Mankind, before she branched out and created her own label. I used to tell my customers, "They are made for women with hips and a butt." Citizens of Humanity was a great, stylish jean (and it didn't hurt that I got a pair for free!) What I loved about Joe's Jeans was that they offered a petite style. As a woman of 5'3'' (5'4'' on a big hair day) these jeans didn't need to be altered. You could just buy them off the rack and boom! You're good to go!

Then, later down the road, I had a baby. And all those jeans, the brands that I used to love, didn't fit me so well anymore. They rode a little too low, and my post-baby belly used to pooch out in a way that I hated. So, thus began the quest to find stylish, reasonable rise jeans.

I still wear my Joe's Jeans. But, if they stretch a little too much, they start riding low. Then came the skinny jeans trend. At first, I was hesitant to try it. I didn't want super tight jeans; I was trying to get away from that. But I gave it a shot. The first pair that I tried was the Old Navy skinny jeans. Sarah mentioned in her blog that she thought they were too baggy in the legs. I totally agree with that. So the search continued.
I ended up finding a pair that I liked in the most unlikely of places...Chico's. Yes, I know. Chico's-the mecca of most middle-aged women. The brand that; as my regional manager calls it "covers the masses of asses." But there I found a pair of skinny jeans with a comfortable rise. AND a short length, so I didn't need to get them altered. SOLD! They're actually really nice, and super comfy. I wear them all the time.

That gets me to my next point. Breaking outside of my comfort zone. It's a theme with many women. We find a trend or a style that works for us, and we work it to death. For me, it's the work-pants-and-flats look. More specifically the flats. I don't wear heels much anymore. I'm standing on my feet for 8 or sometimes 9 hours a day; mostly on hard concrete floors. My poor feet are beat up after years of wearing heels for speech. So I stick to flats. I have three or four pairs that I constantly rotate. Today, I tried something new. A skirt, and strappy nude sandals. Of course, I was much too tired to take a picture when I got home. But the outfit was cute, and I got a lot of compliments on it. And the shoes weren't TOO bad. They were good until about hour 7.5. Then they started hurting.

Off to bed. I'm off work tomorrow, so much cleaning and packing will be done. Night!!

Blog Problems

Is anyone having trouble posting comments on here? I'm wondering if changing the blog background messed with the posting section.

Return of Super Happy Family Fun Day!!

Or, as we like to call it, "Super Happy Family Fun Day Strikes Again!"

Today was the open house, take two. And just like the previous open house, it poured down rain for most of the day. We called the realtor like five times in the days before, asking "Are you still going to hold the open house?" Because we DID NOT want a repeat of last time. But she swore that she was going to hold the open house. But true to our form, the day did not go super smoothly.

On Friday, our dog got into a bag of chocolate candy. Now, let me be clear. We did not leave said candy lying around. It was up on a shelf and must have gotten knocked down somehow. Nevertheless, the dog inhaled about two-thirds of the bag. And proceeded to get violently sick ALL OVER THE HOUSE. Fun, let me tell you. And he is still suffering the consequences of eating something he shouldn't.

So, Saturday night, I went to sleep around 11:45. For some reason, Dave was up. I guess he was keeping an eye on the dog to see if he was doing OK. But around 3:15 this morning, I wake up to the sound of Dave swearing. The dog was throwing up right outside Sutton's room. And the combination of the noise, Dave's swearing, and his turning on the light woke Sutton up. And he immediately started crying, "Daddy! My Daddy!" Wanting to help Dave, I went in instead. Big mistake. I shouldn't have gone in. Sutton has a bad track record of waking up. Once he's up, he's up. Will. Not. Go. Back. To. Sleep.

So, for the next three hours or so, I tried rocking him, letting him cry it out, bringing him into our bed, before finally throwing in the towel and taking him downstairs. In fact, Sutton asked for it. He told me, "want go downstairs." Where he knew the TV was. And I was too tired to argue. So I brought him downstairs, turned on Nick Jr. and covered us both with a blanket. I dozed off and on, to be woken up by little hands patting my face. At 8:30, I finally tagged Dave in, and slept for an hour. Then I had to get up, shower, and finish cleaning the house.

At around 11 or so, we packed everyone up and headed for my mom's house. The whole way there, we kept promising Sutton that he could have pancakes at Denny's. Or as we call them, "cake-cakes." After dropping the dog off at my mom's, we head to Denny's. By this time, Sutton is hungry and crashing. He needed food and a nap. The wait at Denny's was too long, so we headed to McDonald's, thinking we could get breakfast there. Oh yeah, they stop serving breakfast at 10:30. Sorry about those pancakes, Sutton; have some chicken nuggets instead. But he ate, and was somewhat happy. Then he passed the f*@k out in the car.

We toured some rental properties, looking for a new house to rent. And we found some, so keep your fingers crossed. Then we came home, crawled into our bed, and watched movies. All three of us. We ordered pizza for dinner and ate it in our bed. At one point, Dave looked at me over the top of Sutton's head and said, "THIS is what Super Happy Family Fun Day is about." Amen to that!

Thanks and Hugs

Thank you to everyone who sent me a message. I can't help but get teary eyed every time I read them. I know everything will work out, it's just frustrating. And I hate feeling so helpless. My heart goes out to Dave, though. I'm sure he feels worse; he's just not showing it. I know he feels like this is all his fault. And I keep telling him that it's not. It's not happening because of him- it's happening TO him. But I'm sure my hysteria and snappish remarks aren't helping.

We went out to breakfast with my dad and my sister today. Sutton was great all the way there, but melted down as soon as we tried to sit down to eat. It was a usual MacDonald outing for us. Sigh. I almost wish he was still small, so he could stay in his car seat carrier and not throw a fit.

But it was fun to see him with my dad. He kept yelling, "Zayda! Zayda!" And my dad would mock-yell "What?" And Sutton would yell back "How doing?" That kind of thing. It was hard, though, because he kept dashing all over Target. So we had to take turns chasing after him.

I changed the blog again, because the other template wouldn't let comments be posted. Hopefully this works better. Because I miss seeing comments on my blog!

I. Give. Up.

That's right, dear readers. I officially give up. Surrender. Wave the white flag. Karma has come and basically shit right on top of us. Did I piss someone off in a former life and just not know about it?

Life has just been one trying time after another thrown at us. Let me elaborate. As I have mentioned before, Dave and I had put an offer in on a house, but it was a short sale. So that meant that we would have to wait a very long time before we could officially buy the house. Well, on Friday, Dave and I decided to walk away from the house. It was one screwed up mess, with missing files, and two companies not wanting to take responsibility for the screw-ups, and a foreclosure date that was looming on the horizon. So, because of that (and another reason) we elected to cancel the short sale contract.

As for the other reason...well, I haven't talked much about this. Mostly because I was sticking my head in the sand and trying to ignore it. So here goes...Dave is being laid off. His company merged two departments, and Dave's job is being eliminated. He has until the end of March to find another position within the company, or look for work outside of the company. When he first told me, I cried all day. I don't do well with drastic changes like this. I honestly am scared about what our future holds for us. And I know that people say that G-d only gives us as much as we can handle. Well, he must have some awesome faith in us, because one thing after another keeps coming our way.

Our landlord had informed us a few months ago that he wanted to sell the house we are renting. (See my other post about the nightmarish time we had trying to prepare for the open house.) What he failed to tell us is that he stopped making his mortgage payments, and the house will be going into foreclosure at the end of April. So we have little more than a month to find a new place to live.

I think my biggest regret is that we aren't able to provide a home for Sutton to grow up in. I really wanted to get a house that we could call our own. To not have to have a landlord. To build our lives in our little dream house. I already had plans for the kitchen, etc. To have a garden in the backyard that Sutton could help with. To fill the new house with memories.

Dave said to me the other night that he was sad that we couldn't work on growing our family. We really want to have another baby, but we simply can't afford it right now. Two kids in daycare is more than we can afford. And now that one income is disappearing...it makes me a little sick to my stomach to think about it.

I have to admit right now, tears are streaming down my face as I write this. Dave has a very different attitude than I do. He prefers to think positively. And I'm trying, really I am. I know that we will be OK. As long as we stick together, everything will work itself out. Our families have told us that they will help anyway they can. But it's a lot to ask of our families. And I am, by nature, a worrier. I have to freak out about something. But that's why I have this blog. To get my worries out, so I can get over them.

And now that I have gotten them out, let's focus on something a little happier. Like my adorable husband and child.
Sutton is super cuddly lately. He loves to give hugs, or lay on us while we watch TV.

Modeling his new Old Navy sunglasses. Upside down on top of his head.

Please keep us in your thoughts. I know it will work out OK, it's just going to be a stressful couple of weeks.