Wouldn't you know . . .

It would take things going to you-know-where in a hand basket to get me to put up 2 posts in 2 days.

I believe the term for folks like us is "displaced". I think that's what they called people after the hurricanes.

I had a case of the "Mondays". We had trouble getting out of our friend's house and I had to drop the dog at our house so I was 20 minutes late to work. I had been there about a half hour when Kat called from the school nurse. I left work to pick her up. On the way to the school I drove by the house to see if the power was on. No go. Take Kat to the doctor, get her the gooood drugs and run back by the house. Still no power. We impose on my friend again and go to her house to plug in the laptop and veg to some BBC America and get the dog some AC. At 3:00 we head back over to the house dog in tow- surely the power's on by now. No go. So I call the power broker.

First, I get told they have no record of an order to turn power back on. Then after I attempt to tear the guy a new one, he puts me on hold and discovers that the actual power company had been out but our meter's broken so they can't turn the power on. I call the actual power provider (our local electricity system is MESSED up!) and sure enough the box our meter is sitting in is broken (not the meter itself - that would be their responsibility) and we have to have it fixed before we can get power back.

I cry for a little while. Call an electrician who hops to and comes over. He is super nice & apologizes constantly while telling me the repair is gonna cost $2500 and take 2 to 3 days. We take the dog to be boarded at the vet's and go back to the friends house and start to try to find a hotel. We're staying with her one more night, but we already stink like fish and it's time to go. We're headed to a hotel room - discount arranged by my MIL - tomorrow for the remainder.

Still no word on when we're going to close on this house.

Living in the land of frustration

This moving thing continues to not go as planned (starting with being moved in before Alex was born!). This last week has been an exercise in frustration and a reminder of our blessings.

We haven't moved yet. When we signed the contract on our new house we thought we'd be closed on Friday, May 21 & moved in on May 22. This was assuming we would close by May 15 on our current house. Our mortgage on the new house is ready to go, pending the money from the current house. The current house on the other hand - the underwriters requested 5 more business days. And they don't work Fridays. I've called them some creative names at this point. We're hoping we will move next weekend (sometime around baptizing the boy on Sunday). But our contracts are extended to June 2, so no freaking guarantees.

To top it off, a week ago when I thought we were moving, I started to TRY to move our utilities online. The phone/internet/satellite website was annoying so I decided to move it via phone, just like I ordered it. I started to move our electric scheduling to start the power at the new house on Friday and end the power at the current house Monday. Before I could finish the transfer the website told me it was unable to complete my transaction. I decided to call later. When it became clear I was unable to move I just let it go . . .

Until Kat came home to no power Friday afternoon. We thought it was outage (there had been storms) but then it went on too long. I got through the company and they told me I ordered a cut off for Friday and just as I was explaining (embarassingly loudly) that this was not the case & they better bloody well fix it, I got disconnected. I called back & got disconnected again. I called a 3rd time, got a human who told me "Our systems are down. Call back in 30 minutes". Rob called 30 minutes later, explained the situation to another Helpful Hanna and also got told I ordered this. He explained what happened last week, that there was no way in H*&! that I ordered a cut off for Friday (even if we were moving) and got told that yes I did, that's what the computer said. They apparently can't reactivate power after 3 PM on a Friday. He did eventually convince them to schedule the hookup for Monday. (5 month old babies do not constitute emergencies apparently) We will be billed for reactivation, but they will refund us later. Gee thanks.

On to life's blessings. Having survived Hurricane Ike we know what multiple days without power is like and it's not something I want to experience with an infant. We considered driving to my parents 4 hours north. But before packing up the car, I called one of my friends from church. Her daughter is with the grandparents so she has the house to herself. She took Elena, Alex, Rob & I, along with Rory & our laundry in until Monday morning. Kat's with her mom until Sunday and with a friend Sunday night to make getting to school easier. A very sweet girl at the kennel agreed to stay open past closing to guarantee the cats would get checked in on Friday. She's even checked them into a deluxe apartment for the price of a regular. After the J-As at the electric company who referred the lack of AC in 90+ degree heat (with humidity!) for 3 days with an infant & pre-schooler as an "inconvenience" it's good to have friends and people who are nice to cats.

5 months old

On May 4, my little man turned 5 months old. I took his Toby pictures in the morning, knowing there was no way they'd get taken that night.

One of his new favorite places to hang out is the Bum*bo chair. I put him on the bathroom counter in the morning (within arms reach at all times!) while I brush my teeth and put on make-up. We have a pretty good time most mornings but when I got the camera out, he'd had enough - it's time to eat Mommy!
Here's the little guy after his bottle & in a much better mood.

So, what's 5 months brought us? Size 6 months clothes (Carters) size 3-6 month in every other brand. He sleeps pretty well- he falls asleep most nights between 7:30 and 8:00 and sleeps until sometime between 5 and 6 AM. But he also likes to sing to the ceiling at 4 AM some mornings.

He was eating 6 oz five times a day but I think we're switching to 7 now. He's also eating solid foods like a trooper - he really likes carrots and sweet peas.

He enjoys his soft toys, he has a lion that makes crinkly noises that he plays with in the morning and blanket bear that goes everywhere with him when he's in the car seat. He also likes to play in his exersaucer at home and day care. He got to start riding in the buggy at school too.

He smiles a ton - even with a pacifier in his mouth or asleep. He giggles a lot too - unless I am trying to get him on video!

He loves his sisters! And they love him. Rob & I both picked up kids from day care yesterday so we could both use the HOV lane and Laney was so upset to not have her brother in the car!

Updates

We're busy - such is life with a 15 year old, a 3 1/2 year old and a 5 month old, plus two full time jobs and two houses. Our house finally sold. We were due to close on Friday, but it may be delayed a few days. We had to put siding on to make the bank happy and the re-inspection process delayed us a bit. All goes well, we move into the new place on May 22! We're surrounded by boxes, packed boxes, unpacked boxes, flat fold boxes.

To top it off the boxes arrived at work today as well. Friday at 3:30 my computer gets shut down and I officially no longer work at my current address. As of Monday morning I work in our downtown office. I get to change commutes twice in 2 weeks!

We've had some fun & some milestones over the past few weeks, so I plan to put together some more posts tonight. I'll delay the release a little to stretch out the fun.

In the meantime, here are some Alex pics. I get such a kick out his little buddah-belly that I had to take some pictures yesterday before he got dressed.

Look what he found! Toes are his new favorite play thing.