Chicago Mama Spot

My home won't network

Here's the thing.  I have a lot to say and not just about my boring life with various repairmen and contractors.  (Update:  Guess what?  No carpet until next week - arghhh!). 

I had planned on writing about mommy war stuff (even though I don't think it's a war).  I saw the piece Good Morning America did this morning and I am irritated by the way they framed the conversation. I also feel like something is missing from this conversation.  I'm going to have to put that topic on hold until tomorrow morning.

The problem is that I have spent most of the day trying to get our home network and new router/VOIP up and running.  I just haven't been able to get both of our computers on the same page.   

Sweet Pea is sick and Daddy-O wants a little love and all I really want is to get this damn thing up and running.  Computers can be so infuriating.  So, rather than pull my 3 am blogging, I am going to try to finally fix this and get into bed with Daddy-O just once this week before he falls asleep.

Who's my guy today? and a Target Lovefest

Alarm guy . . . Fascinating.  Any other week, I probably would have welcomed another adult in the house.  This week, I am just ready for everyone to leave.  Same old, same old.  The wiring had issues, so his 30 minute visit turned into a three and a half hour visit.  Very nice guy - a few kids in high school.  I'll spare you the career choices that his kids are interested in. 

Alarm testing . . . no fun.  Sweet Pea had just gone down for her nap when it was time to test the alarm. 

Very loud.  Poor Sweet Pea.

The alarm guy didn't really know much about VOIP.   It was really hard explaining it to him with 4 hours of sleep.  Finally, we got it all worked out.  We have a few little issues here and there because of a wall we took down, but overall I'd say we're pretty secure.  The conversation he had (I pretty much said "uh-huh" ) about It Takes a Thief was so detailed I was sure he was going to see my eyes glaze over.  But no, he just kept going like I was in the security biz too.  The show has an couple semi-hot ex-thieves who try to break into a house and basically destroy the inside.  It actually does sound like a pretty interesting show.  The website has a few cool interactive stuff that shows you how easy it is to break into a house.  I have no doubt they would have a good time here.  I am going to try to be really good about the alarm and locking up.  It's so hard with a squirmy toddler.

Once my friendly alarm guy left, I only had a few minutes of silence before Sweet Pea woke up.  By the time Daddy-O got home, I just wanted out of this place.  I told Daddy-O yesterday that I wanted to do a little shopping after Sweet Pea went to bed.  I have things that I want to get for the house and I have been trapped here by my various guys and all the unpacking for almost a whole week.  Sweet Pea isn't feeling so hot, so it took awhile to get her down for the night.  By the time I was done, it was after 7:30.  I almost gave up on the idea until I realized that if Sweet Pea is sick, we won't be going anywhere tomorrow either.  So, I hopped in my car and headed to Target. 

As soon as I saw that the store is open to 10:00 pm on weeknights, I was in pure heaven.  Target has never seemed so relaxing and enjoyable.  My lack of sleep has me in kind of a daze, so I just went aisle by aisle with no idea of what I was looking for.  Our Target just remodeled, so there is tons of new items and a whole new layout.  I didn't end up with anything interesting except for chalkboard paint that was marked way down.  I did throw a bread box into the cart with the idea that it could cover the modem and router mess of wires in the kitchen, but took it out once I decided I better think about the reality of me cutting a hole in the back for the wires.

It was just so nice to be by myself with no one talking to me.  I guess you take your "me" time when and where you can.  Daddy-O called wondering where I was when I was stuck in the hardware aisle trying to figure out if Target sells the perfect extension cord.  I tried to make a break for it then, but the aisles kept dragging me back.  Sandboxes, office supplies, networking cables.  I even spent some time looking at the pay-as-you-go cell phones.  I got out under $100 and felt ten thousand times more relaxed when I left.

Aside from Sweet Pea's cold, I think things are definitely on the upswing.  Besides the fun at Target, the house is slowly getting organized and the weather was gorgeous today.  I have to agree with one of my favorite mamas - warm weather makes me happier.  Sweet Pea and I took the swing set for a test drive.  I am embarrassed to admit it . . . kind of boring out there with her.  She can't really do anything on her own and most of it is too big for her.  Daddy-O spent forever out there with her tonight, so maybe it will be his deal.  I like the park nearby better because there are little things for her to play on too. 

Too bad we didn't realize she was getting a cold since we had her out there running around with no coat on.  I am crossing my fingers that this isn't anything too awful.  She had a little temperature tonight.  It's her first fever!  We've avoided it for almost 19 months, so I guess our luck ran out.

I hope to post a few pictures of the new place soon.  I should have taken some while there were boxes everywhere, but my camera was in one of those boxes.  Maybe the memory will fade like they say childbirth does and I'll be ready to move again in a few years!

Smooth move????

Hello again!  I'm back in business.  I, brilliantly, decided to switch over to VOIP at the same time as our move.  I thought I'd set it up at the old place to make sure it worked.  As you can probably guess, it's been one little technical issue after another.  We moved on Friday and were without internet access until yesterday.  The phone was pretty shaky too.  It's amazing how addicted you get to the internet and the phone. 

On the plus side, I got so much done.  Not having the distraction of all the great blogs out there really helped with the unpacking.

On the minus side - get ready for a long phone company whine.  How do these people stay in business?  Skip past my sob story, if you don't want to hear all my bitching.

Wiring - the people who lived here before us had many, many phone lines.  I think the husband worked from home.  You can literally see 4 phone jacks from where I'm sitting in the kitchen.  Apparently, that makes it very difficult for the phone company.  The second guy on Saturday (I missed the first one because I didn't know that the doorbell didn't ring upstairs) said the phones were working, but I might have some trouble with the dsl.  Ok, when you've got an internet phone, that's a problem.  Then, he said he didn't want to "jinx me." 

Is there anything more jinxing than someone telling you they don't want to jinx you? 

No internet access - of course, I need a different guy.  I had the lovely 8 am - 5 pm window on Monday for the SBC data guy to come take a look at our crazy wiring.  About 4:45, I called for my second time of the day. 

"You're next!"  Hooray!

I didn't really want to share my evening with the SBC guy, but I was excited to be able to get back online.  Plus, who wants to wait around on another day.  With Sweet Pea upstairs sleeping, where was I going? 

Ha ha ha.  A few hours later, someone called to let me know that the guy who was supposed to come to my house hadn't shown up for work that day.  They knew at 8:00 am that he wasn't coming to work.  I had been stuck in my house unpacking from 8:00 to 2:00 am for four days at this point.  I don't have to tell you that the poor woman who called me got an earful from me.  Sweet Pea was screaming her head off and I shoved the phone toward her and blamed her hysteria on the phone company.  A bit of a stretch, but I was furious.

She gave me the priority slot for Tuesday.  Apparently that is reserved for the lucky people who want to be at the tail end of the 12 - 5 window.  The guy's wife kept calling to see when he'd be home.  It was almost 6:15 when he left. 

My happy ending is that at least I can finally get online.  I'm having some trouble with the router, but I think I can resolve that with a little more sleep to get my brain working. 

Don't even get me started on the Directv teenager who didn't do anything he was supposed to.

And for the grand finale, the basement was supposed to be finished when we moved in.  They are putting the carpet in on Friday.  There is a lovely coating of drywall dust on everything.  Plus, we can't unpack the basement boxes, so everything is crammed into the other rooms.  No fun.

OKAY - end of the bitch session.  It felt good to get it all out.  Now that I've whined to Internet, I can move forward with my life.

Sweet Pea was at my in-laws from Thursday to Sunday and Charlie is at the Lucky Dog Lodge until next Monday, so I got lots done over the weekend.  I feel like I'm 80% done.  I'm really loving the neighborhood and the house is growing on me.  I miss my old house, but the gang tagging on our front door has helped me move on.  I doubt it would have happened if the house hadn't been empty, but still it's a little scary. 

Sweet Pea has been great.  She's been a little crabbier than usual, but I think that might just be her age.  She's been sleeping well.  She woke up in the middle of the night on her first night here, but besides that she's taken great naps and slept through the night.  She loves it here.  There is so much more room to run around.  It's supposed to be nice out tomorrow, so we should get a chance to break in the swingset.  It really is a great place to be a kid and it will be even better once the basement is finished. 

So, that's the move in a very large nutshell.  Hopefully, there will be no further technical difficulties and I'll start getting enough sleep so I'll have brilliant posts.

It's going to take me a week to catch up on my Bloglines.  I can't wait to see what everyone's been up to.

 

Moving Day

I'm getting pretty tired from this whole moving process.  I haven't been sleeping that well and Sweet Pea's been getting up.  Plus, it's just hard work packing - emotionally and physically.   So, expect a post without much in the way of segues or really any topic.  Just a little rambling . . .

It's been a tough few days.  Papa C came to pick up Sweet Pea today.  She's spending Thursday through Sunday with Daddy-O's parents.  It was so tough watching her go and knowing she'll never see our house again.  Not that she's really aware, but I am. 

Last night she woke up around 4:00 am and I was so happy to have one more chance to rock her in her room.  We've spent so many hours rocking in that chair.  I remember so clearly our first day home from the hospital, tromping up the stairs from the basement while my in-laws were here (the first day home, draw your own conclusions) so that I could sit in that chair and breastfeed in peace.  I was so clueless and Sweet Pea was not helpful in teaching me how to breastfeed.  Some nights now when she wakes up, she's all smiles and chattering.  Last night, she knew how much I needed a little snuggle time and she just leaned into me and sipped her water until she fell asleep.   It was just what I needed on her last night in this house.

It was tough going packing up all her baby clothes to give to my sister.  Lots of emotions running through me.  Sometimes I'm not sure if my baby ache isn't as much about wanting another baby as it is about wanting Sweet Pea not to grow up so fast.  It's hard to believe how quickly it goes.  Those little clothes - it's hard to remember that she was that small. 

Speaking of which, let the tantrums begin.  Yesterday, when I took her Dora concert T off, she threw such a fit that Daddy-O came running in thinking she'd split her head open. 

The new house is kind of a disaster.  We are tearing a wall down in the basement and it was supposed to be done before we moved in.  It's not.  The basement is just a big concrete slab covered in drywall dust.  They will be working in the house for next week to finish it.  It wouldn't be so bad, but the dust is covering every inch of the house.  I went over tonight and vacuumed and mopped the first floor and wiped down the whole kitchen.  It's almost futile.  By the time the movers get done, the house will be covered again.   I'm not going to worry about it though.  We're just going to be dirty and grimy for a little while. 

I've made the leap and gotten rid of my land line.  We've gone VOIP.  I spent all night getting it set up here, so hopefully making the move to the new house tomorrow will go smoothly.  I'm sure I'll have a few technical glitches, but I hope I'll be able to connect tomorrow. 

Off to bed for me now, I have to be up early and shower before the swarms of movers get here. 

Letters from the past . . .

Of course, while packing, I have a bit of a tendency to start to go through everything - instead of just packing it.  I want to throw things away, but also it's so fun to look at all the stuff you don't see too often.

I have this old green backpack filled with pictures, letters, and just junk.  I've moved it from place to place for the last ten years or so without even looking in it.  Since I'm overflowing with time right now,  I decided to go through it. 

There were lots of pictures from high school and college, but what really surprised me was all the letters.  A bunch from my old boyfriends, but also my family.  I didn't read them.  I wanted to so badly.  It will probably be another ten years before I get around to that.  I already know how embarrassing it will be to read some of them.  My high school boyfriend was older than me and moved to Palm Springs at the end of my senior year.  We kept dating through the first part of freshman year in college.  He definitely poured out his emotions.  I'm saving them because I feel like one day maybe Sweet Pea will want to know what I was like.  But, do I really?  Is there anything more intense than that first semi-grown up relationship.  Again, embarrassing!  I'm not even sure I can read them.

It's a shame that there isn't so much letter writing now.  It's all email and text.  Which is great, but, as my grandmother used to say, there just something nice about a letter.

One of the many things I wanted to do for Sweet Pea was to write her letters each year.  Let's see, nope, none written.  Maybe this will inspire me to write one.

The perfect storm

The perfect storm has hit my life - taxes, moving, and a pinched nerve in my neck.

This morning as I was writhing in pain, trying to keep from throwing up because it hurt so badly.  I just wanted my mom.  Luckily for me she happened to be spending the night.  Lucky for Sweet Pea, too.  She had someone to watch her while Daddy-O rushed me to the doctor. 

Can I just say that it's real hard to get any work done when you're knocked out on muscle relaxants?  I got nothing accomplished all day and we're moving in FOUR days.  I'm feeling a little better now, so I've spent the last 4 hours working on our tax stuff.  I have to get this out of my hair before we move.  I just know I'm going to work my butt off and the accountant will end up filing an extention. 

The hardest part is I want to spend time with Sweet Pea here, in this house while I can.  I want to take pictures of us and of the three of us and just generally enjoy the last few days here.  I can't explain to Daddy-O because he wonders what I've been doing for the past three years.  Am I trying to build some super-solid memory of our last few days here?  Is that crazy?  Don't I already have enough memories here?  It seems strange, but I really keep feeling like something is going to happen at the last minute and we'll end up staying here.

It's totally irrational.  We've already closed on our new house.  I don't know what I'm trying to capture here, I just know that I'm so busy I can't figure it out. 

Well enough boo-hooing, I hear little miss Sweet Pea starting to cry (why did I even have the thought that she had stopped waking up in the middle of the night?).

I need a vacation . . . ok, I'd take even the time to take a shower.

My daughter is turning into a condiment

How's this for a delicious dinner menu:

A dill pickle and a half
Ketchup by the spoonful
Mustard by the spoonful

That's pretty much what Sweet Pea had for dinner. 

(In case you think I'm a bad mama giving her condiments for dinner, I did give them to her to eat with other things.)

I'm AWAKE and happy

Can you imagine waking up and just giggling for fifteen minutes?  Don't you sometimes envy toddlers?

I could just lay in bed and listen to that giggling on my monitor forever.

Moving day is around the corner . . .

Daddy-O and I are on different planets.  That's just all there is to it.  I try to figure it out, but I can't.  We're just not cut from the same cloth.  Maybe it's the man/woman thing, I don't know. 

I am so emotional about moving from this house.  To me, we've spent our whole married lives here and our whole lives as parents.  We picked out everything down to the outlet covers. 

To Daddy-O, nothing. 

Me:  Will you miss it? 

Daddy-O:  Not really. 

Not only do I not get him, he doesn't get me. 

Lucky for us we love each other. 

In other news, my brackets do not look good.  My teams are losing by a hair.  Tomorrow is my day.  Go Arizona!  (I'm not holding out much hope.)

Boots and Fishies

I'm an insomniac.  Last night as I was tossing & turning and it was getting closer & closer to dawn, I thought - It is so great that Sweet Pea isn't getting up in the middle of the night anymore.  BAD MOVE.  How does just thinking something mess up your karma?  Sweet Pea was up literally 20 minutes later.  Tonight, she was up at 1:00 am. 

She didn't stop crying/talking until almost 8:00 and then, woke up sobbing.  Both times she was crying out for the same things:  Boots and Fishies.  She is desperate for her beloved pink snow boots and the package of bathtub fishies.  She needs the too small boots on her feet and the fishies in her chubby little hands.  If she can't have them, she promises she will first have a temper tantrum and then dissolve into a little puddle of tears. 

It's so cute, but so intense, this love of boots and fishies.  Is this what the terrible twos are all about times ten (or more)? 

Those boots were the first thing she asked for when she woke up yesterday and she wore them every second.  They don't fit over her pajama feet, so in the morning she just wears her top, a onesie and those puffy pink boots. 

I can't wait to see what the next year brings.