Fever talk

Mason woke up at 1:30am with a low grade fever, he came to our room and climbed in bed with us. Usually Jeff or I will immediately take Mason back to his room, and lay with him in there until he has fallen back to sleep. But last night we decided to let him stay, since he had a fever. A few minutes later, Mason said he needed to go potty. We went into the bathroom, he did his business, then I too decided to go potty. Mason asked me if I needed to go poop (because I sat down to go potty). I said, "no" and I tried to explain to him that I don't have a penis, so I can't pee standing up. Mason then said, "Oh, we need to buy you a penis!" Which I replied to by telling him "Mason you can't just buy a penis. Mason ignored my last response, and asked me further if I wanted to buy a pink penis.

I guess the fever was making him a bit delirious!

Taking a stroll

Yesterday, after the boys woke up from their naps, we decided to take a little walk through our neighborhood. I was really excited to go on a walk because I too, like the boys, had just woken up from a nap, and I was still a bit groggy so I figured a little walk would help me to wake up. We stuck Cooper in the stroller and Mason rode his bike. Going on a walk woke me in alright. It not only woke me up from the sleepy state I was in, but it also woke me up to what a great neighborhood we live in, and what a not so good neighborhood we previously lived in. Now I'm not saying that we lived in the worst neighborhood before, it wasn't slum ville or anything, but our new neighborhood is definitely a step up. While on our (approx. five block) walk, we must have seen ten different families out doing various activities. Some were tending to their yards, some were out on a walk/bike ride as well, one family was playing three-on-three football. It was really refreshing to see people out, enjoying the day together. Probably the best thing of all was that they were all really friendly, as we would pass, we would say hello to each other. When we would go on walks in our previous neighborhood, we would see one or two people, but they were never out in their yards, spending time together, they were usually heading from their car to their house, or the other way around. We would always hesitate saying anything, fearing the response we might receive.

I am really grateful we live in a neighborhood surrounded by friendly people, who, when I see them, my immediate reaction is not wondering if they are dug dealers, with my second reaction to want to run in my house and hide.

All tied up

Ahhh look at how adorable my three boys are- all dressed up and ready for chuch!

Conversations

Mason: Mom can you get me a cell phone?

Crystyne: Why do you need a cell phone?

Mason: So people can call me and so I can talk on it.

Crystyne: Who would call you on your cell phone?

Mason: Daddy and Papa.

Crystyne: Well, can Daddy and Papa just call to talk to you on my cell phone, and when they do, I'll give you the phone?

Mason: Yeah, we can do that!

Isn't it a bit early for the personal cell phone request?

Mason: Dad, I need to tell you something!

Jeff: OK tell me.

Mason: No, look in my eyes and listen! (while pointing at his eyes)

Jeff: OK I'm looking.

Mason: OK so...........

And we think they don't listen to us........

Jeff's Birthday!

I feel really bad. For Mason and Cooper's Birthdays I posted pictures of them and wished them both Happy Birthday. For Jeff's Birthday yesterday, I didn't post anything and I don't have any pictures of Jeff from the day he was born. Sorry Jeff. I know it's a day late, but Happy Birthday babe, I hope you had a great Birthday! And hey, thanks for having your Birthday yesterday, it was a great excuse for me not to have to cook, and for us to drop off the boys at the grandparents and go out to dinner!

This Little Piggy

Tonight Mason and Cooper were playing on the couch. Cooper came over and laid on my lap, Mason took Cooper's foot and began playing "this little piggy" with Cooper's toes. It was really cute, but by the time Jeff grabbed the camera, Mason wouldn't do the whole thing. You can hear him say "this little piggy went to the mar-ket!"

Housewarming Party

Last night we had our housewarming party. I first want to apologize for not inviting all of our family and friends. I sent out evites and I did not have every one's email address'. I didn't get around to calling to invite those who I didn't have an email address for. If you were not invited or were not able to come, consider himself invited to come over.

Ummm fudge....

Jeff's maternal grandparents



Jeff's birthday is this coming Tuesday. I was planning on combining the housewarming party with a birthday party for Jeff, but with all the preparations for the housewarming party, I plum forgot. So, to (kind of) make up for it, we sang happy birthday to Jeff with a candle in a cream puff.

Finished Product

Some have called us crazy that in one week, we are all unpacked and have the main floor all decorated. I would simply say, we are the organized type. Both Jeff and I can't stand looking at unopened boxes just sitting around or stuffed into closets. By Tuesday we were mostly unpacked and the decorating began.

First I must give a HUGE "thank you" to my sister-in-law Michelle for spending almost every waking moment with me shopping, painting, and decorating our house! I will never be able to repay her for all her hard work. Michelle, you really should become an interior designer!

Here are some photos of the main level all finished.

Entry

Living room



My favorite

Family/lounge room



Kitchen

Yes.... it finally came.

Pantry

Extra, Extra, Read all about it!

Why buy toys, when they are more entertained by newspaper and boxes? Today Michelle came over to help me decorate our house. The boxes with all my pictures, candles, and other misc. decorations were still packed up. As we started unpacking them and taking out all the paper, Mason, Zachary, and Ethan began piling up all the paper and jumping in them. All three boys were entertained for well over a half an hour. And when we asked to pick them up for lunch, they were all really disappointed that they could not play in them anymore.

Family Pictures at Manito

Here are the family pictures we took at Manito Park a few weeks ago. Honestly I am bumbed. We tried to get some really cute ones, but Mason didn't want anything to do with taking pictures all together. When it was just him in front of the camera, he did fine. I guess we will just have to try another time.

What's missing?

Have you figured it out yet? Yeah, our fridge. This was another frustration we were dealing with on Friday, the day we almost didn't get to close on our house on time. Friday morning (before we found out that the underwriter was not going to fund our loan) I called Fred's Appliance to see if I could move our scheduled delivery of the fridge from Saturday to Friday. The gentlemen I spoke to at the warehouse said he did not have our fridge. Now, we ordered our fridge two weeks prior to this, so it was suppose to be there. I then called the showroom to get some answers. The sales person (Troy) I spoke to there looked up our order and could not figure out why our fridge was not in the warehouse. He said he would do some looking into the situation for me and call me back as soon as he knew what went wrong. Well after seven hours of not hearing anything, I called Troy back, he said that the fridge we ordered was on back order until the end of the month. He asked if the sales person (Chris) who sold us our fridge informed us of this back order. Um, no, if he had don't you think we would have purchased a different fridge?, maybe one that was not on back order? Troy then looked in his system to see if either of their other locations had the fridge we ordered in their show room. Of course they didn't. I thanked Troy for looking into the situation for me and that I would be back in later in the day to be refunded my money.

After we straightened out everything with the loan, and knew the underwriter had been persuaded to fund our loan, I went out shopping for another fridge. Home Depot and Lowe's would not be able to get the fridge in that I wanted until at least this coming Wednesday. University appliance only had one sales person in the store, who was helping another customer, I didn't feel like waiting around. Then I went to Fred's Appliance and got my money back. Then I went on to Sears. I was able to get a fridge similar to the one I wanted, and have it delivered today (Sunday). Saturday night, I received a reminder call for our delivery. Sunday at 3:30pm (half way through our delivery time frame) I got a call from Sears delivery person saying that our fridge was not going to be delivered today. And that the soonest it would be was Tuesday. I became really firm with the gal, I told her that was unacceptable, I don't have a fridge, I need one because I have two small children who need milk and other foods that require being kept in a fridge. Of course she didn't care, it wasn't her who was living without a fridge.

Jeff got right on the phone and called Sears customer service, after 30 minutes of being on hold waiting for someone who spoke English, he gave up and called the sales person (Kirt) who helped me Friday night. Jeff explained to him what was going on. (This sales person already knew what happened with Fred's) Kirt told Jeff that their delivery system had dropped/deleted 500 deliveries that were scheduled for today. Kirt said we could come down, pick up a loaner fridge until ours could be delivered, and offered us a $50 gift card to Sears. So we now have a loaner fridge in our garage until the one we ordered in delivered.

Ugh... what else will go wrong....

A nail biter of a day

What we thought was going to be a stress-free day, turned out to be a nail biter of one.

At 9:20 this morning Megan, (the gal handling our loan) called to let us know that our loan had not been funded yet. She said that the underwriter would not fund the loan because they called one last time this morning to verify Jeff's employment and of course, as we all know, Jeff just switched jobs this past Monday. Megan asked Jeff to obtain an offer letter from his current employer, so they could verify that he really did start a new job and to make sure his income has not changed. No problem we thought, Jeff went right down, got the letter, and faxed it off to Megan.

Before Jeff even got back from his office, Megan called him to let him know that the underwriter was not satisfied with funding the loan on just the offer letter. They now wanted to wait to fund the loan until Jeff has received one pay check from his new employer. What? Are you kidding me? What is one paycheck going to prove that the offer letter has not already proved? Once Jeff got home, he called Megan back and left a message on her voice mail, letting her know that this was crap, why was this last employment verification done at the LAST minute? He also told her that he expected this all to be worked out today, and that we also expected to be able to close today.

About an hour later (10:30) our realtor called to see if we needed his help with anything, since we would not be able to close today. Well yeah you can help us get this all cleared up and get our loan closed today! Our realtor explained to me all different aspects of how this all could turn out, and what our options would be.

We then talked to Megan again, she let us know that she was going to do everything in her power to persuade the underwriter to make an exception- to look closer at all the other factors, like: our credit score, debt to income ratio, how long Jeff had been with his previous employer, etc.

After another three hours of sitting around, waiting for the phone to ring, biting my nails, pulling hair our, pacing, cleaning random things, pacing some more, biting my nails more..... Megan called to let us know that the underwriter finally was going to fund the loan! Yeah!!! Megan just had one more form she needed us to sign, so she said she would email it to us, we could print it off, sign it, scan it into our computer, and email it back to her. Simple right? Wrong! Today just had to be the day our printer would run out of ink. Figures. (by this time it was 2:00)

I called Megan back, let her know our situation and asked if we drove out to her office, if we would make it in time to get all the loan documents filed. She said to hurry, made sure we knew where to go and hung up. We got to her office just in time, signed the papers, and went to walk out the door when our realtor walked in to check on the progress, found us there, and so we filled him in. Megan came back to the reception area where we were and let us know that we made it just in the nick of time.

Jeff and I came home, relieved and thankful that everything worked out. Jeff's Dad came over to help Jeff pick up our new furniture from Mor's Warehouse, on the way to Mor Jeff stopped by the title company to see if he could get the keys. He was told that the documents they (at the title company) were waiting on so they could release the keys to him, were not there yet, but should be soon. So Jeff went and waited in the car, he waited there for 30 minutes. Finally at 4:30 a FedEx truck pulled up, made his delivery, and when he came back out, he pointed at Jeff, with a big grin on his face, and pointed back towards the building. Jeff got out of the car and told the FedEx guy that he just made Jeff's day!

All packed

We are all packed, except for the basic necessities. It didn't take me as long as I thought it would to get it all done, considering I did most of the packing by myself while the boys were sleeping. As a result I am dead tired, physically, mentally, and emotionally. I will be glad when we are moved in, unpacked, and back to living a (somewhat) normal life.

I am not looking forward to cleaning the apartment. I don't have a ton of deep cleaning to do, as I have tried to keep up on it while living here. But I need to have it all cleaned before our final walk through on Wed., Sept. 17. If anyone would be willing to help me clean, please let me know. I will be cleaning the apartment on the evening of either Monday the 15th or Tuesday the 16th.

Asthma attack

We have come to realize over the last year or so that Mason is allergic to cats and dogs. Now we are beginning to think that he also has allergy induced asthma. Mason has been having a hard time breathing all day. When he would breath, he would act the way most people do when their nose is stuffed. So today I was assuming he was getting a cold. It wasn't until his breathing got worse that I realized he was having an asthma attack. I gave him a nebulizer treatment. When the treatment didn't help his breathing, I called Jeff to let him know what was going on. Jeff was able to get off work a little early to come evaluate how bad of an attack Mason was having. When Jeff got home he listened to Mason's breathing and he became a nervous wreck. I asked Jeff how bad was Mason, he replied, Bad. Jeff gave Mason another treatment, when this didn't make much of a difference, Jeff gave Mason a nebulizer medication that contains a steroid. (Steroid's help open the airways better.)

By the time Mason went to bed, he was breathing better, not completely better, but enough that Jeff was not as worried about Mason as he had been when he first got home from work. I am really thankful Jeff is a Respiratory Therapist! I know he has saved Mason from having to go to the Doctor or the ER many times because Jeff knows the early warning signs of asthma attacks, upper respiratory infections, and other respiratory related illnesses.

Signing

We signed all the paperwork for our house today. Once Viking Construction signs the paperwork, they will send the packet of paperwork back to the tile company along with our keys. Once the tile company receives our keys, they will contact our realtor so that he can make arrangements with us to get us our keys. At this time all we know is that we will be getting our keys on Friday, but we do not know what time yet.