I'm starting this blog in our new town. At Nanny and Papa's house. Because I don't have internet. But I will on Monday. And cable. It's funny how when I have cable I rarely watch TV but when it's not there I almost go crazy! The little girl and I rode into town around 7 pm on Wednesday evening and just had to make a stop by Nanny's work so she could see her girl. We definitely got the reaction we were looking for when she saw Hallie coming through the door. We stayed for a short time and then headed towards our new/temporary home. I had been picturing the duplex in my head as I still hadn't been lucky enough to get Riley to send me a picture of it....I think he was scared of what my reaction would be. After being greeted by Riley and him snatching up his girl, I got the grand tour around what I will refer to as "the living quarters." When he got done showing me around (which took about 30 seconds) he marveled at the fact that I wasn't crying or yelling yet. In fact, not one tear fell that night surprisingly enough. It is what it is, and it's a roof over our heads. And honestly, having a mortgage to pay as well I wouldn't want to get anything nicer anyways. God bless him, he worked hard to gets things ready for our arrival. My favorite part of his work...the lovely shower curtain hooks that he fashioned out of cut pieces of wire hanger. I love to watch The Brady Bunch and it's a good thing because I felt like a part of the cast when I first saw the kitchen. Hello yellow! I would post pics of the refrigerator but I don't want to blind anyone with it's hideousness. Same goes for the countertops!
Our living quarters
I am picking up where I last left off which was quite a while ago in my blog world. I think it's been a good week since I sat down at a computer...I've been itching for some blogging time and here I am on Monday night at my makeshift desk while Riley watches some very missed TV and Hallie snoozes in her temporary crib. The word temporary means a lot to me these days. ;)
I feel like the last month has been a whirlwind of change at a fast-moving pace. The good news is I feel like we are on the cusp of a sense of calmness. Not yet though. We are still dealing with our fair share of craziness. And here I begin my organized, bullet point list of current events...I like to think that by using bullet points it will make life seem organized when that is the last word I would use to describe it right now...
- Hallie and I spent Monday evening hanging with Gman. We gave going out to eat with Hallie another shot and she did loads better this time around. I think it was the entertainment brought about by Gman's beard or the fact that I let her play with a breadstick. Either way, she was a good girl. And as a reward we took a trip to BabiesRus. My second favorite store in the world....AFTER Hobby Lobby of course. The good girl got a lot of goodies and a new Baby Einstein video. AND her first ride on the toy at the front of the store. I was caught off guard when I found Hallie riding the Elmo car with some help from Gman. She loved it! What a cool grandpa...guess that's why he chose the name Gman.
"Let's do it again!"
- A goodbye kinda day. The week leading up to our big move was eventful to say the least. I said goodbye to my coworkers on Tuesday, picked up Hallie from Miss Mindy's for the last time, and spent the afternoon at the hospital waiting for my mom to get out of a last minute surgery. Very last minute surgery. My dad got a call around 11:00 saying that she was going to have a pacemaker put in at 12:30. That gave him just enough time to get to OKC! And that gave me just enough time to enjoy my surprise "going away" lunch with my coworkers. They all chipped in for an Italian feast and didn't fail to make me cry with a sweet card and gift. I sure will miss them (tear, tear). I had warned Mindy that I may be picking up Hal a little late that day as my mom still remained in ICU and after work was my only time I could go visit her. So back to the surgery...it went great! I spent a good deal of the afternoon at the hospital and amazingly enough mom spent most of that time chatting with me despite being post-op...she's one tough lady! I said my goodbyes and drove toward home dreading what I was about to do. I didn't want to say goodbye to Miss Mindy. So I went in repeating these words in my head..."do not cry, do not cry, do not cry...." And I didn't. Mostly because Hallie was being so gosh darn funny that all we could do was laugh. I spent some extra time hanging out with Mindy because we had a couple viewing our house across the street. Yeah, as if the day wasn't crazy enough, I had to make sure the house was spotless for these potential buyers. No offer on our house despite my efforts. :( So after a very emotional day I was spent. It would have been more appropriate to kick my feet up and relax. Um, NO. Instead I welcomed Aunt Lana, my sister Bailey, Cousin Dara and Uncle Spencer with pizza, packing tape and plenty of boxes to go around. No rest for the weary....it was time to get to work! Thank you Lord for these four people. They basically were my slaves for the evening and I think we even had a little fun doing it. Aunt Lana was the organizer as I was too concerned with my baby girl who spent the evening projectile vomiting all over the place...yes, I am adding another stressful dimension to the end of this day. We will call this TERRIBLE TUESDAY. Thankfully this vomiting episode disappeared three hours later. Oh my goodness, talk about a paranoid momma. The last thing we needed was to have a poor, sick kiddo in the midst of an already chaotic world. We ended the night with a garage full of full boxes instead of empty ones. :) :) :) :)! The bed was calling my name...it was saying "hey, you better enjoy me because this is the last night you will spend with me for awhile." ;)
- SMILE. After recruiting my "packers" to help me load up my car I was ready to go in the morning. BUT we had one more piece of business to take care of before we left on Wednesday. 6 month pictures with our favorite photographer Mandy! She is so full of spunk and lots of fun! We spent the morning taking multiple baths, staying in our pjs and playing on the floor. The multiple baths were a result of a couple blowouts and a lot of spitup which didn't pair well with pictures that afternoon. A relaxing morning with just us girls was the perfect way to spend our last day at the house together...we were missing one piece to the puzzle though. We were finally dressed and on our way to smile for pics. Hallie started out with her huge gummie grin which soon turned to tears and screams. For future reference I need to remember that she is patient with photos for approximately five minutes and then she prefers to be a self-poser. She is sort of like her momma in that she doesn't like to take direction...she just prefers to do it her own way. And her way was posing on her tummy for every picture. With a little help from a fellow photog and a lot of funny noises, we pulled some of those priceless smiles out of her. Here is the link to view her 6 month photos (passcode is hallie2)....
Lounging in our pjs
Happy girl
"Who's that pretty girl?"
:)
- On the road again. With a car that resembled a gypsy wagon, we set out for our new home. But not before one last visit to the hospital to see Grammy in her regular room. Hallie was a hit on the floor and flirted with everyone who came in the room. She made sure to share plenty of smiles with Gman and Grammy before she left. Once we finally arrived in Woodward, it took awhile for it to really sink in. Part of me was sad, part of me was relieved. My first order of business was to prepare Hallie's room. My main concern during this transition is that Hallie is unaffected by the change. I was at first concerned that she would be sleeping in her pack'n'play for awhile but she proved me wrong by sleeping through the night on Tuesday. Hallie's room was surprisingly near complete by the time we put her down for bed that night. Riley and I went to bed surrounded by piles of clothes and stacked boxes but felt comfort knowing that we were tackling the next day together.
A silly duo
- I spent my first day alone sniffing out my surroundings on Thursday. I had planned to return to Mustang to grab another load of stuff. Mainly because I had only packed one change of clothes since the car was FULL of Hallie's stuff. The weather had other plans for me though. After checking Facebook early that morning I realized it was in my best interest to stay in town and focus on other tasks that day. Like every Thursday, Nanny watched Hallie. I must say it was so convenient to drive 1/2 mile to drop off my girl. And I know that Nanny is overjoyed to have Hallie so close. I stopped by my work to sign some papers and just check in since it had been awhile since I'd talked with my boss Aaron. I ran out of things to unpack very quickly so I did something I haven't done in quite awhile. I took a nap. And it was everything I'd imagined it would be. And more. :) Throughout my travels around town that day, I learned a lot....
- There is a speed limit and it's a lot less than most roads in OKC. I think I will probably get the message when I get my first ticket.
- No long lines at Walmart. Enough said.
- It is amazing the satisfaction I felt driving only 1 mile to the place I will work. ONE MILE!!! We can definitely add that to the plus column.
- Full bellies, clean clothes and two free hands. Thanks to Nanny we were fed well the first two days we arrived. She also did some laundry for us since we didn't have our washer here yet. And best of all...she spent time with Hallie while I worked on getting the house in order. Thank you Nanny! Hallie stays very entertained at her house with some of the kid's old toys from back in the day. She also helps cook and do laundry...quite the little helper. Aunt Katie has also lended a hand and watched Hallie a couple of times already....her and Uncle Luke just love spending time with Hallie.
Learning to cook
Playing peek-a-boo with Katie and Luke nephew, Tristan
Lovin' Aunt Katie's house
- Medical Marvel. That's my mom for ya. I finally did get back to Mustang on Friday to pick up another load of stuff. My first priority was to stop by the hospital before Grammy was discharged from the hospital. She was patiently waiting to be released. I guess after that many hospitalizations she would be prepared to wait forever to be discharged. No one is in a hurry around that place. It makes me cringe to type when she finally got to go home on Friday....11:30 p.m. CRAZY, I know! This was after a day full of IV meds that had to be administered over an extended period of time. I got to the hospital just in time to hear Dr. Nelson's explanation of what caused this crazy episode. Apparently Grammy has something called "transplant vasculopathy." According to the doc, this is one of the leading causes of death in the first year following a transplant. This is where the medical marvel part comes into play. She defies all the odds. And always has. Just when we feel like things are going south. Just when we think she can't dig her way out of some hole. Just when we think she's down for the count. Uh uh....not Grammy. That lady is made of steel. Indestructible. My hero. And I hope Hallie's hero someday. After getting my medical vocab lesson for the day, I sat with my mouth hanging open....Dr. Nelson had just mentioned a second heart transplant. Excuse me???? So all I could ask was "WHY?" And I did. His answer was not too straightforward as he usually talks so fast that huge words seem to be falling out of his mouth and not getting into my head fast enough to be processed. So basically this could be something in the future if she doesn't respond to his treatment plan. She still needs to lose the extra fluid building up around her abdomen. Thank you everyone from the bottom of my heart for all of your concern and prayers for my mother. God is so good! And he was definitely working in her this past week! She is already itching to get back to work. Take your time Grammy. Hallie says so.
- Locked out. We decided to take a house-hunting trip around town Saturday morning since Hallie was getting restless and ready for a nap. The car still puts her right to sleep and without fail it did that morning too. The little stinker slept for an hour and a half while we roamed the countryside in search of a suitable place to call home. No such luck. I'm convinced that we need to start building a house. But I think it will take a lot more convincing of Riley though before that happens. So anways, we returned back to the house just in time to get ready for a party we had that afternoon. The problem with our setup now is that we have a two car garage but no garage door opener so we have to go through the house to open it. And we only have one set of keys for the front door. AND you can only lock the bottom lock because we don't have a key to open the deadbolt. Difficult, I realize. Riley was worrying so much about me locking us out that he did just that. The other problem is that you have to jump two fences just to get into our backyard. Difficult, I realize. After trying to slide the backdoor open he gave up. I really felt a little stranded waiting out front in my bed hair and slippers with a hungry and wet baby with no bottles or diapers. I finally convinced him to call a locksmith. So after thirty more minutes of frantically finding ways to keep Hallie girl from getting angry, the wonderful locksmith opened the door. This was after he had given up and told us he couldn't get it open after which I began crying out in the cold with my baby wrapped in her daddy's big coat. Now we do a triple check each time we walk out the door. "Do you have the keys? Did you lock the top lock? Do you have the keys?"
- "80 is the new 60!", to quote my Aunt Sharon. We celebrated Hallie's great-grandpa's 80th birthday this past Saturday in Shattuck. Riley and I loved being able to jump in the car and be at our destination in 30 short minutes. It was so wonderful to see grandpa so happy with his long-time friends and most of his family surrounding him. When I asked grandpa what it felt like to be 80 he responded by saying "I'm not sure because I feel like I'm 100!" Hallie met some people for the first time that day. Her first new face was her Great Aunt Pauline. Pauline has been keeping track of Hallie through the blog and Facebook and couldn't wait to get her hands on her. Despite getting home late, late the prior evening, Grammy and Gman made an appearance at the party! She looked wonderful for just being released from a traumatic week long stay at the hospital. Hallie was a hit at the party as usual. She spent much of the afternoon munching on anything she could get her hands or mouth on and giving out smiles left and right. The Detrixhe siblings took advantage of all being present at the same place, same time and had the grandkids take a family pic....
Finally meeting Great Aunt Pauline
The twins
The Detrixhe Clan
Missing five grandchilden...they are off in CA, FL and MO.
Spencer and Aunt B with their new baby
Great, great love
- Oh!! My back!!! We took a lovely family trip to Mustang to pick up a load of stuff on Sunday. I feel like I've typed that sentence a million times and I really can't wait til I can stop saying that I "went to Mustang to pick up a load of stuff." ugh. Riley was just as thrilled as Hal and I were to be making the trip. We worked fast though and loaded up the trailer and both vehicles all the while keeping an eye on Hallie while she mostly entertained herself with some toys and Baby Einstein. She seriously is an Einstein junkie! Lol! She sits in a trance and then will suddenly break out in laughter and giggles! The self-entertainment thing went well except for a couple times that we found her lying on top of the laptop pressing on the keys. That girl! Only after we had left did Miss Mindy text and offer to keep an eye on her while we packed. It would have definitely saved the laptop trauma but all in all it could not have gone smoother with a 6 month old. Once we got back to town with our load of stuff luckily we did have a babysitter lined up. We dropped her by Nanny and Papa's house and we went to work. They must have seen right through my "we can do it ourselves" tough act because they came over an hour later to help us unpack some of our big items. Thank goodness because I was on the verge of hiding so that I didn't have to unpack anymore. Kylie and her fiance Bret stopped by to take a peek at the living quarters and said my favorite quote of the week...."it's not that bad." She's right. It really isn't. And it could always be worse. The disappointment of the evening gave when we attempted to put the washer and dryer into the tiny space provided. Well, I can tell you that they needed to PROVIDE MORE SPACE! So as of now we have a working washing machine with a dryer approx 1/2 mile away at Nanny's house. She is an excellent folder though. ;)
Right before she rolled onto the computer
- The Stang. It's up and running. And I finally got to take a ride in it. A very short ride but long enough to see the difference that having the engine rebuilt made. It rode nice! Riley had a local friend/car expert do some fine tuning on the motor. Next on the list: a new alternator. I think we have enough on our plates at the moment so it might be awhile before he spends significant time on the ol' Stang. For now, it is chillin' in our storage shed along with all of our other "stuff."
- Space is something of the past. I am trying to come to terms with the fact that I have to shove our lives into 700 sq ft of space. I have to realize that I now have one tiny closet instead of a master walk-in closet with an abundance of space. Right now my clothes are lying in a very scary pile on Hallie's bedroom floor. This being because Hallie's room seems almost twice the size of ours. Part of me wants to just say "to heck with it" and leave my clothes in a pile for a few months but the other part of me that craves organization and order is telling me that I won't be able to look at it everyday. And I want Hallie's room to be a clean, big space for her to play. Especially because it's looking like we will have a crawler by the time we leave our living quarters. Days are passing and clothes aren't moving. Who wants to come help?
- Time on my hands. I start work a week from today. I am more than ready to get life back into a routine. A new routine. With my extra time I have I've been unpacking and most importantly trying to find a babysitter. Yes. I said it. I don't have a babysitter. I am desperate after making several phone calls and getting no answer or just the answer "no." I so badly do not want to put her in a daycare setting. I will probably do whatever I can to find her a home daycare. I really think that the main reason she has yet to be sick is because she hasn't been around a huge group of kids.
Ok, so I bet you are thinking "woah, when is this lady going to shutup?" Well, I am done. That's our lives lately in a nutshell. A wordy nutshell. But I've left out some juicy info about our little one who is the reason I write this blog in the first place. But the munchkin will be 6 months old in two days so I don't want to repeat myself when I write her 6 month update. So stay tuned to find out what new things she has been up to.....
Way to find some sanity in all the craziness going on! You all will make it through this tough time and look back thinking "how did we do all of that at once?" Good luck!
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