So much to write about...

It has been a very eventful two weeks! On Thursday, April 14th, we closed on our first home. That afternoon we made a few trips to the new house with our car and a borrowed truck. Friday was the biggest move day. We did a few trips on our own during the morning and early afternoon. The help started to arrive around 5:00 and we loaded up our car, another car and three trucks for our first load. As we were driving between the houses, we realized it was looking like rain. We decided to make another quick trip and worry about dinner later. So we drove back and loaded up.

One of the first things loaded in the second trip was my piano. I had two couches in the back of my truck and another truck had the large entertainment center. We headed back in caravan style, with me bringing up the rear, following our friend Todd. About two miles down the road, I noticed the bungee cords holding the mattresses in next to the piano were starting to slip. The wind had picked up significantly, and it was making our memory foam mattress move like paper. So I called Todd and told him that we should pull over and adjust the straps. We slowed down and turned right, into a parking lot. As Todd's truck turns, the piano falls off of the side of the truck and lands with a roar in the parking lot, in the outgoing turn lane. I watched the whole thing happen and was totally speechless. I pulled my truck around to block the debris from traffic and called Kraig to come back. Tyler and Josh were in the third truck that was just ahead of Todd and they heard the noise and turned back. Luckily, there were some teens walking through the parking lot that helped Todd get it out of the roadway. We were all speechless. We took pictures and loaded it back in the truck in all it's many pieces. It's now in the landfill. It was sad. My great aunt bought the piano as her first major purchase from her first big job. She gave it to me when we got married and now it's gone. I held it together when we were dealing with the situation, but then I got in the truck and cried the whole way home. I called my aunt to apologize and to get some sympathy. It was dramatic.

Luckily, we got most of the big stuff moved on Friday because it literally rained all day on Saturday. We had a few more hands on Saturday, so we took one quick trip and tarped everything for protection. That took care of all the big stuff and we've been making little trips here and there to finish up the little stuff and clean. We're hoping to have a yard sale at the old house this weekend because there is lots of stuff to get rid of! We paid rent through the end of the month, and we're gonna use the house until the end of the month!

The next week was crazy, making trips and getting unpacked. Kraig took one of our teens to Johnson Bible College for a campus visit from Wednesday through Friday. Both of Kraig's sisters and our brother-in-law arrived Thursday to spend Easter weekend with us. His parents arrived on Friday. Fortunately, they didn't mind the moving mess! It's not as bad as I make it out to be, I don't think, but I hate feeling unsettled. Once I'm ready to decorate and can put away the tubs of extra decor, we'll be doing better. We had a good Easter weekend though and enjoyed spending time with the family.

Kraig's regular day off is Monday, so we did some more cleaning and unpacking on Monday morning. When Kate went down for her nap, we cleaned out the car and cleaned the car. We need a second vehicle, and we're ready to trade in our Focus. So we ran an errand after Kate woke up and stopped by the Ford dealership to see what kind of options we had. We got there around 5:15, planning to grab dinner out when we were finished. At 9:25, we left the dealership with no Focus and two new (to us) cars. We were surprised that we were able to get what we wanted. They gave us $11000 in trade for Focus and we got a 2006 Mazda 5 for me and a 2004 Pontiac Grand Am for Kraig. Kraig's car is orange. It's perfect. They both have sunroofs. Kraig's car has quite a few miles on it, so we got it pretty cheap. The van looks brand new. It's not a huge van, it's more like an SUV with a third row of seats and sliding side doors. It's gonna be so convenient when we have two car seats. What a crazy turn of events, right?! All in all, we're paying a little more per month but we now have two cars. The first Sunday that we lived in the new house, Kraig went to first service and then ran home to get me before second service. We were almost late. Not so great when the minister can't be on time! Now we don't have to worry about that:)

In other news, I'm 24 weeks pregnant. Moving while pregnant is the worst idea ever. There's so much you can't do and I know I overdid it. My body is still sore. Kate's adjusting to a new house. It took her a few nights to be comfortable falling asleep in her room by herself, but things are much better now. Kraig's parents brought her a new toddler bed when they came this weekend, so we'll transition to that when she's more settled here. Kraig's been run ragged with all the chaos, but things will settle down soon.

AND, I won a giveaway last night!! I won a $10 store credit to JackBeNatural from The Cloth Diaper Fairy. I've ordered all my diapers from JackBeNatural. Their customer service is second to none. They are fantastic! The Cloth Diaper Fairy is a fellow Christian mommy who cloth diapers and is also expecting her second baby, and we've made a nice connection because of that. You should check out her blogs! I can't wait to order something from JBN. I'm thinking I'm going to get some diaper specific laundry detergent, but ordering another diaper is always tempting:)

Pictures of all our lastest excitment are coming soon....as soon as I figure out where I packed my camera cable!

Giveaway!

I'll be back to the blogging world eventually, but I wanted to pass on some info about two great giveaways that are ending soon. Check out The Cloth Diaper Fairy for more info, but she's giving away a $10 code to my favorite supplier, JackBeNatural. There are lots of ways to enter...like blogging!! Check it out!

It is finished...well, sorta!

We're in the new house. We still have a few things left in the old place, but we're paid up for that house til the end of the month. Not much motivation to hurry:) We're slowly getting unpacked and I'm glad to be reconnected to the internet!! More on the move later!

Oh the waiting game

I'm sitting here, typing probably my last post before we move this weekend. I feel like I should be up doing something, but I'm at a loss for what I should do. Pretty much everything that can be packed at this point is already packed. There are a few small decorative items that need homes, but we ran out of tubs and big boxes. The plan is to take some of the already-full tubs to the house Friday morning, empty them and then bring them back to be refilled. It sounds like we'll have a decent sized group of our high school boys here Friday afternoon and evening, as well as our best friends, Todd and Sara, once they get off work. The weather isn't looking good for Saturday, so we'll probably try to get as much done as possible Friday. The important stuff is the big furniture that we can't move on our own or anything too big to put in our car. The rest of the stuff can take it's time getting to the new place, since we don't have to be out of this house until the end of the month. We'll see how it goes. The control freak in me is having issues just thinking about it. We've moved before, but never just across town. Any other time required everything to be carefully packed and organized to be quickly loaded into a moving van and driven across the country. Fortunately, this move should not be so difficult. I think today's major objective is just going to be getting the piles of trash we've created out of the house.

I'm so excited to be moving to a place that is really ours. It's a good feeling, yet a huge responsibility. We're going for the walk-through tomorrow morning at 11 and then closing at noon. We thought we were going to owe a small amount at closing, but it turns out we'll be getting $698 back. Can't beat that!! The extra money gave me a peace about all the things we need to purchase for the new place (like baby gates and a washer and dryer). We went last night and bought three baby gates. Two expensive ones for the tops of the stairways and a cheapie for the bottom of the stairway in the living room. We also bought dishwasher soap, which I couldn't be more excited about! We ordered the washer and dryer on Monday, and it should be delivered on Friday. We also bought hand soap for the additional bathrooms last night. I'm so excited for the extra bathrooms and the dishwasher. The rest of the house is great, but those are my favorite features:)

Enough of my rambling about absolutely nothing!!

Yet another doctor's appointment

I went for my 22 week checkup yesterday. Things are still looking good. Blood pressure was good. I didn't gain any weight from the prior month, which is okay for me. When the midwife went to listen for his heartbeat, he gave her a very hard time. As soon as she'd pick it up, he'd kick or rollover or move to the other side. She was laughing hysterically. I don't remember Kate being quite so active this early on. He's a feisty little guy! Thankfully, all is well!

Kate left me an interesting surprise this morning. I changed her diaper and took her clothes off after she ate breakfast and then I headed to get her clean clothes for today. I got sidetracked, however, and forgot to dress her. A while later, I'm sitting at the computer looking at something housing related and she comes in to the computer room. Before I look up, she says, "Diapah" (aka "diaper"). When I look up, she's completely naked, so I head off in search of her diaper. Naturally, I headed to her room, where she had been playing. Instead of finding the diaper right away, I found a pile of poo on the floor. I about died. She never tries to take disposable diapers off, only the cloth ones. So I went and got stuff to clean her mess up with (thankfully, it was very solid and not messy) and realize that I still can't find the diaper she was wearing. After getting the mess cleaned up, I continue searching her room to find that she's hidden her diaper in her toy box. On the upside, since the diaper was still 100% clean, she got to wear it again (with clothes this time!) and I had one less diaper to wash!

Sunday afternoon we had a similar experience. It was warm in the house, so I put her down to nap in a t-shirt and her diaper. She went to sleep without trouble, but two hours later she started screaming like something was wrong. I went in to find her bed totally soaked, her shirt soaked and her diaper was not on her body. She must have taken it off prior to falling asleep and then peed while she was sleeping. What a mess! I'm not sure if she was screaming because she was mad, embarrassed or confused, but she was definitely upset! Gotta love it!!

Moral of these stories: Don't let Kate run around without pants over her diaper!

I did it...

My very small stash of five diapers just isn't cutting it. I've got three or four disposables left to use when we run out or when they're not quite through the laundry cycle. Rather than buying more disposables (aka money wasters), I broke down and ordered more. Jackbenatural has a deal right now where if you buy $75 worth of merchandise, you get a free Kawaii heavy duty pocket diaper. That's what we're using anyway. So, with my $2.98 of store credit from my last purchase, a $4.23 discount from using the code JACKSFAN and a free diaper included, I got 10 diapers for $76.94. Not too shabby! I won't have to wash them everyday now! Woohoo:) I'm definitely addicted to cloth diapering and I'm totally comfortable using them in public. They're just awesome! Not convinced yet??

I'm not a Supermom.

I'm struggling right now. Kate is in a mean phase. She wants to do everything for herself, yet she seems to need almost more attention now than ever. The house can go from clean one minute to looking like a hurricane swept through in the next. She's so messy. Last week I let her eat chocolate chip cookies in the living room only to discover a giant mess of melted chocolate all over my couch. Thankfully, Tuff Stuff took it out. On top of her, I'm trying to keep the house clean and in order while slowly packing for our move to the new house. I feel like I'm living in a war zone or something. It's a mess all the time. I can't keep up with it. Oh and there's laundry. Oh yeah, and I'm pregnant. Some days I'm full of energy. Other days, like today, I feel like sleeping the day away. I actually cried about it last night, trying to imagine how I'm going to keep up with these things and have a baby on top of that. I know Kate's in a phase that will pass, but right now is so frustrating. I know that we're moving and the mess here is only temporary until we can unpack and organize in the new place. I know that pregnancy is only temporary and that in a few months, I'll have my body back. I know that newborns are only newborns for a short time. I'm just overwhelmed and irrational. Like Callie said on Grey's Anatomy, "I'm a hormone casserole." Lucky me:)

Anyhow, I want to be Supermom, but I'm not. I'm a good mom (I think), and I'm just trying to take life one day at a time. I know there's someone else out there who feels the same way--and I'd like to tell you that we're perfectly normal! We don't have to be Supermom. I doubt Supermom feels like a "super" mom everyday, anyhow. Right?

Cloth Diapering: A week and a half in

So we made our switch to cloth diapers Thursday, March 24th. I can honestly say that I'm hooked. We've had two leaks during nap time, but both were because I failed to change her before I put her down. They're so absorbent that even I'm having a hard time telling when they're wet (which is great, but definitely not helping the potty training along). We've been out in public in them multiple times without problems. We haven't had any issues with poop leaking. It's pretty cool. I'm also super impressed at their ability to come clean. The first time Kate pooped in one I thought, "So much for them looking new and clean." By the time they came through the first rinse, I couldn't even tell which one she'd been wearing at the time. Absolutely no staining. We had a stink issue with them a couple days ago, and I think I've been using too much laundry soap. After soaking them in baking soda and water overnight, the stink is gone.

My only regret is that I didn't order more. Even one more would be enough to get me through a day and keep her in cloth until the dirties are clean. Five isn't cutting it. We've been using less than one disposable a day, though. The savings are adding up already. I'm at the time of the month where I usually buy a box of diapers. Rather than buy a new box, though, I'm going to order a few more diapers. I should then have enough to get through the day and have extras. Then once we move and have a little extra money in the bank, I'll probably order enough so that I only have to do laundry every other day. Maybe by then she'll decide she's ready to use the potty. Who knows? I'm not pushing the issue.

I love cloth diapers, though. I wish I had started Kate in cloth. You live and learn. Hopefully, I'll be able to influence some other friends to at least give them a try.

In other news, baby Jackson is super active. I go back to the doctor on Monday for my 22 week appointment. We're cruising right along!