Karen Chatters » week in review

Ramblings

Karen — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 12:21:38 +0000

This week has been long and tiring and busy and full of laughter and maybe even some tears and I am SO glad to be home.

The first day of preschool went really well. Granted, I never left the building but she was on her own for a while in the classroom. OK, not really on her own as much as with her teacher and her classmates but still, no me. She did a great job but we all know that next week is a totally different week, a totally different day. She looked so big in her class, I actually think she’s the oldest one there, but in so many ways she seemed like such a big girl. She may not have cried but I did.

We’re trying to tackle the items on our fix it list for the guy who’s buying our house. Somehow the 7th has snuck up on us and we hadn’t really done much from our list. The buyer is coming by this morning, or this afternoon, to make sure we’ve done what we said we would, I think we just made it. It will be really weird living here next week not as homeowners but as renters.

I feel like I should be packing and organizing and getting us ready to move, somewhere in a month. It feels so overwhelming. I have managed to sell a couple of things on Craigslist and I’m desperately trying to offload a broken TV, which a lot of people are interested in. I’m just not sure any one’s actually going to come and pick up the behemoth. I did manage to go through the Tupperware cabinet and pitched all the bottoms with no tops and tops with no bottoms… I’m thinking that’s not going to be enough to get us packed and moved. I did go and get a zillion paint samples and while fun and I’m VERY excited, that also won’t get us moved.

I’m going in this morning for my 32 week appointment, about a week late. I’m anxious to see how I’m measuring, if I’m still big. I feel like I’m still big. Huge. I guess we’ll see what the medical professional has to say.

Learning to fly – or jump from Karen Chatters on Vimeo.

Vacation, stage 2

Karen — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 12:34:05 +0000

Thank you New Hampshire for the rain and the cool days and cooler nights, the fun in the lake, the sunset boat ride, a couple of sunny days, and finally a 7am wake-up for Courtney. Today we head to CT for the next several days to visit with more family and friends before heading home on Tuesday. It should take us about 3 hours to get to CT but I’m expecting it to take 4, you know, with all the pee breaks. For me.

Have a good weekend. (Insert evil laugh here!!)

Finally Friday

Karen — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 13:00:07 +0000

I had some thing that I wanted to write and I’m pretty sure I wrote most of it in my head, in bed, at 5:15 Thursday morning and now I can’t remember what it was. And then Thursday was a DAY and there was whine but no wine and I hadn’t even had my coffee yet and I wasn’t sure I could survive until 9am. It actually started the exact same way that Wednesday did, too much whine and not enough coffee. Or wine. Courtney has been screaming for at least an hour when we put her down to bed the past few nights and we don’t know what the deal is but we’re pretty sure that if we keep going in there we’re just creating a bad habit but if we don’t go in there she’s either going to hyperventilate or throw up. On the carpet and I don’t do vomit on carpets. Back to Thursday. The day included a trip to the Department of Labor, which is always an excellent use of my time without child. Nothing says “free time” like waiting 40 minutes to fill out a 10 question form that I could have done online but you can’t because the Department of Labor is the poster child for inefficiency. Then later there was more whine but still no wine and the dog was looking to get evicted and I’m pretty sure I screamed at the dog at least 5 times before I locked him out back. Then there was crying, although not mine, but I felt like it because the gas in my stomach was so extreme I thought I might die but it didn’t seem to want to go anywhere. And Paul had a work happy hour that he sort of actually had to go to and I told him to call me right after he left so he could stop at the store for “something” and he did call but I was reading to Courtney and then I called him but he has the new iPhone and was sitting on the antennae and it didn’t ring. But he loves me enough to go back out to the store for the coveted and desperately needed Gas X. It seemed like a good idea to add ice cream and the desperately desired bottle of wine, not whine, to the list because oh mah gawd the week. Although, when I told him I NEEDED Gas X, he laughed at me and I didn’t appreciate that but I was serious and pregnant and trying not to physically explode so out he went. And immediately upon his return I dove into the Gas X and the ice cream. I’m saving the wine for tomorrow’s whine. Or breakfast.

I think Courtney may have the right idea here. Personally, I’d prefer just to bury my head in the sand.

A little reading material to help you sleep

Karen — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 13:00:55 +0000

As of Wednesday, Courtney wants to be naked all the time. Not sure where she gets this. She takes off her shirt, her pants and then she attempts to take off her diaper. It’s all good until the diaper part. She’s wearing a sleep sack at night but we now have to put it on backwards so she can’t get out of it. We’re thinking that we may try to make an attempt at potty training this weekend, Courtney seems to be interested. We’ll see. If it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work. But man, that would be nice.

In the meantime, I had to put Courtney in her bathing suit so she’d keep her diaper on. Look at those thighs!! Aren’t they nibbly-wonderful?? No, ok, so it’s just me.

As reported yesterday, Courtney is an ar-teest. Note she’s painting in her bathing suit and a paper bib. In the meantime, Paul is wearing his work clothes. I do not know how he got away with this.

We’ve taken a huge turn for the better in the swimming department. After Paul took Courtney on Monday, and she cried, she stopped crying on Tuesday. It’s been such a nice week. We’re 5 weeks into classes and we’d only have one week left but the instructor is on vacation next week. I’m THRILLED to have the week off but that means we’ll go through the end of the 6th week and maybe into the 7th week. I’ll need to work with Courtney most days next week to ensure that she keeps on track. At least we can do it on my schedule and not smack dab in the middle of the morning. She’s kicking ass though. She swims, she flips over and floats, she flips back and swims. I just hope I don’t screw it all up next week when I’m doing it on my own.

Our house is still on the market, hanging out. We’ve had decent traffic but no bites. Not surprisingly, everyone hates the driveway. Yeah, I know, tell me something new and different. There have been a couple of people that have really liked the house but liking it and buying it are two totally different things. Come on someone, just buy it.

Sorry for the most boring post ever. Have a good weekend!

Our weekly review

Karen — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 16:40:58 +0000

Courtney and I had a great week! We decided, a bit on a whim, to go and visit my parents in S Georgia, where they spend part of the winter. The place they go is a huge gated, golf community with very few houses. It’s somewhat resort-ish with a pool, gym, golf, horseback riding, fishing and more. There are many nice nice nice things about this place. For example, they have homemade cookies most days from 3 – 7, HUGE chocolate chip and oatmeal raisin cookies. FRESHLY made, just minutes before. (There’s a direct correlation between the awful pictures of me in a bathing suit – pregnant or not – and the cookies (and ice cream and cheese and more ice cream).) Because there aren’t many houses, we could walk all over, in the street and not worry about traffic. Or a single car.

It was nice for me to spend some time with my folks, relax, do nothing, go to the gym a couple of times, and not even run any errands. Courtney had a GREAT time. She loves spending time with my parents and they love spending time with her. She LOVED to be outside and wanted to be outside ALL THE TIME. She loved strolling around the quiet streets, walking up to EVERY house we passed and knock on the door and she was fascinated with people’s gravel driveways. She played in the gym, tried to play basketball, went swimming in the pool (both in her bathing suit and in her clothes) and generally had a great time. Oh, and she LOVED cookie time the first day and ate TWO cookies. The second day, not so much. Perhaps she OD’ed the first day.

It was a great week. I’m glad we decided to make the trip. It’s only about 3 1/2 hours in the car and Courtney was a rock star! She slept pretty much all the way there and all the way back (although, that was my plan) and it made the ride really easy on me.

Have a great weekend!