Busy Day

Yesterday was Stevie's last day of preschool. He had such a good experience and really enjoyed learning new things and being with his friends. I really wish there was some kind of equivalent in League City.

It was a particularly fun day because they had a Halloween party AND it was Pet Day. Afterwards, we got a picture of the kids in their costumes out on the playground.
(Starting from the left is Natalie, Stevie, James and Dallas).
Afterwards Shannon and I took our broods to McDonald's and had a lovely time. I just love Shannon, and it was so much fun to be able to talk and laugh while our kids went haywire on the play equipment.

Right afterwards it was off to Jan's house for another playdate. Jared and Stevie are such good friends. Whenver they get together, dressing up in costumes is an unwritten rule. They ended up dressing up in each other's Halloween costumes and, of course, gratuitous muscle-flexing immediately followed.
I just love Jan. Nothing is more cathartic than having a nice long talk with her about anything and everything under the sun. The best thing about her is that I always feel edified by the things she says and does. I feel like she really listens and appreciates me, and I always leave inspired to be a better person. I can't think of higher praise than that. *Sigh*...I tend to get just a little weepy now that it's time to leave all my wonderful friends.

Jumpin' on the Pumpkin Patch Train

Yesterday, Sarah and I headed out to the Flower Mound Pumpkin Patch with the kiddos. It was such a cool place, and completely free! I must admit that part of my motivation was getting some great fall pictures and alas, I was, for the most part, unsuccessful. You can find cuter ones on Sarah's post. HOWEVER, we still had a lovely (though exhausting) time.

This is us on the hayride. Can someone please tell me while I insist on making this insane face every time someone takes my picture lately? I either look hopped up on meth or like a mom about to lose her marbles. (It's usually the latter).
They had the coolest little mazes made out of hay that the kids really loved. At the end of the maze was a little castle slide (a big hit).
This faux tractor caused quite a bit of controversy in that both parties insisted they were the true tractor-driver.
This was pretty much David's mood the entire time. Always happens when he falls asleep in the car.
He was, however, delighted by the tiny pumpkins. I'm pretty sure he intended on taking them all home.
This picture was intended to be a cute little hugging picture of Stevie and Bella. It ended up looking like Stevie was assaulting her. Sorry, Sarah, I just thought it was too funny!
Be still my beating heart. This child is too precious.
Doesn't it look like Stevie's sort of hoping it will hatch?
David was mainly concerned with rearranging the pumpkins

This picture sums up Stevie's opinion of all my picture-taking by the end of the day. Not impressed.
Totally unrelated picture. I watched the kids last night while Sarah and James went to dinner and snapped this one in the midst of all the hub-bub. Two suckers and a cowboy hat. Priceless.

Unexpected But Most Excellent News

Since Steven just started his new job in June, he was originally told that he wouldn't begin accruing personal days until January. While Steven was asking permission to leave early on Thursday (the cable guy's coming), his boss shot him down, telling him he really couldn't justify the cable guy as a good excuse. His boss DID tell him, however, that he has 15 personal days that he needs to use up before the years out (or he'll lose them).

Whaaaaa???? 15 days? That's like 3 weeks!!

So not only will Steven be here early this week, but he'll also be able to take a couple days off next week so we can go furniture shopping together! So wonderful. And here I was moping about how I would have to be in an empty house all by myself waaahh, waaah, waaah, etc.

AND this also means we'll be able to take a trip to Chicago to go visit Steven's family! We haven't been to Chicago since August 2007, and we're just dying to see everyone; especially Steven's brother and sister-in-law Phil and Jessica.

So how's that for a little stumbled-upon serendipity?

Goooooooooo ANICO!

Moving.....Again.

We finally decided what we're going to do.

We found a nice house in League City for lease, and we decided to take it. It's not the ideal situation (seeing as how we originally planned to buy a house in November). But now we're not 100% sure we're going to stay in League City, so we thought it better to lease rather than lock ourselves into a house, and therefore lock us into Galveston County. It's a 12-month lease, and we figure we'll have a better idea of what we want to do in a year's time.

Our lease actually begins on OCT. 27th! Steven was all for me driving down Thursday morning. But we won't have anything in that house except clothes and air mattresses and hopefully a lawn chair or two. I don't really want to spend a week in a house completely bereft of any recognizable comforts. So he agreed to wait until the weekend to help me get some things together.

So make sure to to squeeze in an hour or so of play time with us before we leave! (But who knows...another hurricane might blow us back up here sooner than we think).

Here's some pictures of the new place:

Fun, Fun, Fun!

Yesterday we had oodles of fun. After our obligatory breakfast at IHOP (Steven insists on either a Waffle House or IHOP breakfast most Saturdays), we went to a birthday party for Stacie's little Jack. We had such a good time. Once again, Stacie's cute ideas blew me away! Instead of just having little Jack blow out the candles, she made cupcakes and put a candle on every one. Then when we sang to baby Jack, ALL the kids got to blow out their candle at the end. AS IF that wasn't cool enough, afterwards they got to decorate their own cupcakes. It was so cute and I thoroughly plan on shamelessly stealing all her ideas for our future birthday parties.

Afterwards we rushed to the store to buy some last minute supplies for our trunk and for Steven and my costumes for the Trunk-or-Treat. However, Stevie had a huge meltdown after seeing my costume, and firmly decided he no longer wanted to be a knight, but instead wanted to be the same thing as me. In the end, we came to a compromise, and he was a little bit of both. Here's what we all came up with:

If you're wondering what the heck I'm suppose to be, I'm a BLACK-EYED "P"! Get it? Don't feel bad, nobody else got it either. They all thought I was making a statement about spousal abuse or something. At any rate, my black eye make-up was of course what caused all the hub-bub with Stevie, and so I ended up blacking his eye anyways.

And if you're wondering what STEVEN is supposed to be...well, so are we. We just bought an cheap Elvis wig off the clearance rack at Target and that was it. The wig turned out to be kind of wonky and would not cooperate at all. I think Steven's attempting the lip curl in this one...I'm really not sure...

Our trunk decoration was (as was last year) a monster car who tried to bite your arm when you reached in the trunk for candy. It was a big hit (especially since Steven was running the show, complete with sound effects). At the end, the kids decided they needed to defeat the beast, seeing as how they were Knights and all.
All in all, a very fun night. But I was glad when it was over. I collapsed into bed at the earliest opportunity.

Dreaming

Now I know our insurance money (when we DO actually get it) is going to have to stretch, but if I look really hard on craigslist, maybe I can find something that looks remotely like this:

(These couches recline! Isn't that awesome? Though I'm not fond of the blue paint in this room.)
Or a bedroom set that even somewhat resembles this:


And maybe something homey and country-looking (but maybe a bit lighter) for the breakfast or dining room like this:
That would make me pretty happy. But then again, there will be a lot of little things that will eat up that money quicker than I think. Like towels and sheets and plates and silverware. A washer and dryer. A vacuum cleaner. Shoes. Etc.

But I can dream a little before it all starts to happen and decisions actually have to be made, can't I?

My Boys

This kid is talking more and more every day. Not always articulately, mind you, but he's talking nonetheless. He's also just recently taken to being a bit more surly and defiant. He pulls this exasperatingly adorable face where he scrunchs up his eyebrows and copies my voice when I'm getting onto him for doing something particularly impish. I honestly don't know whether to laugh at him or send him to his room without dessert.

David has truly mastered the art of tantrums, especially the all-important (and often insincere) drama involved in getting his way. This includes the "going limp" maneuver, where he will hang piteously by his arm when I'm trying to hold his hand to get him to go somewhere. Also, there's what I like to call the "Screech from Hades", which he's perfected in order to make it sound like he's being torn limb from limb, when in actuality, stevie is just standing too close to him or has a toy he wants or something.

And yet he's so adorable and I love him so much I can barely punish him...which is probably why he's being such a stinker lately.

Stevie, on the other hand, seems to be mellowing out lately. I was concerned for awhile there because he was so darned OCD about things like being able to lock the car door or having to leave the bathroom before the toilet finished running (that last one stumped me, I'll admit). But lately he just seems to gripe for a few minutes and get over it.

Stevie really enjoys restating facts that he already knows the answer to. I think it's just satisfying to him to be able to list his knowledge out loud. For example, he'll say something like "How old is Jared, Mama?" and I'm suppposed to reply "I don't know, Stevie, how old is he?" And he'll smugly answers "He's four years old." And heaven help you if you answer his question for him. He will, of course, immediately correct me by saying "No, you're supposed to say....etc, etc, etc.

I need to start incorporating Stevie/Mommy date nights, I've decided. I've noticed that I tend to give David all the attention and just expect Stevie to fend for himself. And he can and does, which makes it all the easier for me to focus on David. But the other day I was noticing that my baby is now all skinny arms and legs and his face is slimming out and he's losing all the baby fat. He's growing up so fast, and I better spend time with him now while I'm still one of the most important people in his world. I want him to be able to really talk to me all of his life. And if I don't start now, I can forget about it once puberty hits!

Sometimes I feel like I just want to stop everything and rock him in my arms for hours, but I doubt he'd let me anymore. He really just likes to check in every now and then with a big smile and kiss. And really, what more could I ask for?

Under Attack

So I've have had two gall bladder attacks within a week of each other. One last Sunday and one this Sunday. If you've never had a gall bladder attack, let me just tell you it is outrageously painful. I had my first one in March of 2007, and I was sure I was gonna die. I was scheduled to have my gall bladder removed until I found out we couldn't afford the surgery with the crappy insurance we were getting from AISD at the time (GO TEACHERS!). Plus, I'd only had one attack and it didn't repeat and blah, blah, blah: it was easy to pretend it never happened.

Now I'm starting to think I need to call up my doctor and get a surgery scheduled. Especially because I think it gets worse if you're pregnant (not that I am but we hope to be in the near future),and I would prefer not to suffer needlessly through my next pregnancy. Our insurance is much better now. My husband works for an insurance company, for cryin' out loud (ironic, isn't it?)

But PLEASE, for the love of Pete, don't advise me to do a Gall Bladder flush. I flirted with this idea briefly when I found out I couldn't afford the surgery the first time. After I did the research, however, I realized that a gall bladder flush doesn't actually flush out any gall stones (which is, by the way, impossible, and would be extremely painful if it were), but instead is just a severely uncomfortable way to make soap, as you can read about HERE, HERE and also HERE.

I think if the timing is such that I can't have the surgery, I'll just try to do the best I can controlling it by eating a bland diet, which is suppose to help prevent attacks. Though considering my past failed will-power attempts to eat healthy, I might be in for some trouble.

Halloween Costumes

There are, mind you, a limited store of Halloween costumes left at Walmart. Which is why I'm lucky that Stevie just HAPPENED to go crazy over these cute little Knight costumes. Granted, I think it was because there was a sword on the box (not included with costume) that did the trick. So of course we had to buy some totally righteous swords to go with them. (They make noise...oh why did I buy swords that made noise??) David was happy to go along with whatever Stevie wanted, considering he's been perfecting his Stevie Imitation ever since he turned 2.

Without further ado...

I told the boys to strike a pose....this is what they came up with.
Sir Steve-a-lot
Why does the costume barely fit when the "helmet" is impossibly oversized?

So there you are...our little Knights of the Grundberg Table.

Rub-a-Dub-Dub

There is no bathtub in this house. Which is odd, because if you knew my mom, she was the most quintessential grandmas of all time, and her entire house was designed around the grand kids. But when it came time to remodel the bathroom, my parents decided to do this bathtub liner with a seat thingy and just have the shower edge higher than normal. My mom thought she was getting a sort of bathtub out of the deal, but seeing as how there was no drain plug, it was, unfortunately, not so. And I just didn't have the heart to tell her. Sometimes I put the kids in there anyway and just plug the drain with a Ziploc bag and something heavy.

Yesterday, Stevie wanted to "play in the water", so I plugged the drain, turned on the water, and went to put the clothes in the dryer. Well, I must of gotten distracted along the way, because 10 minutes later, I ran panicked back into the bathroom only to find my worst fears realized: everything in the room was floating. Yup, there was about an inch of water on the floor, with Stevie playing happily in the overflowing downpour.

Just super.

It took 8 towels, a comforter and a string of angry epithets to dry up the mess. On the bright side, the bathroom floor is probably cleaner than it's ever been.

Discouraged, Dismayed and Growing Desperate

We skipped church today. We probably should have gone, seeing as how we could use the uplift. It's always so heart-warming to see our old ward family. But for some reason I just couldn't stand to share Steven's last few hours before he went back to Galveston with anyone. I know we can't make a habit of this...but today...well, I just couldn't share.

He left a few hours ago, and I am bluer than blue. What in the heck are we doing? We can't keep this up, it's just ridiculous. We just can't keep relying on the charity of family and friends. Today we talked through several options.

1) We could just go ahead and lease an apartment in League City. The pros would be we'd have a place to live. The cons would be we'd have to spend Christmas in an apartment, because NO ONE will give us a short-term lease given the recent supply-and-demand circumstances. I thought maybe the insurance company might cover the penalty if we broke the lease, but considering their recent track record, I'd hate to take such a pricey chance.

2) We could try and find an extended-stay hotel to stay in while we house-shop. This would be the ideal situation, seeing that I'm almost positive insurance would cover any additional living expenses we might incur. But after looking on Orbitz this morning, we realized that NO ONE has vacancy. The closest we could get would be Conroe, so what's the point?

3) We could submit Steven's resume up here and pray that someone will immediately see his brilliance (which they would if they were smart) and hire him on the spot, starting Monday. But he's only been a computer programmer for 4 months, and nobody looks kindly on job-hopping anyway.

4) My dad called today and suggested that we just rent a house down there for just a year, and then submit Steve's resume around DFW. That way Steven would have a year's worth of experience under his belt, and he would be considerably more hireable...which was definitely something worth thinking about. Yes, I know, it's only been a few months. We need to give League City more time. But Ike's done enough to scare the hell out of me, and somewhat justify my initial instinct that maybe the Bay Area just isn't the right fit for us.

But how in the world can I resign myself to renting for ANOTHER YEAR? Another year of white walls, of being a transient, of no stability. Having the whole stigma of sharecropping, feudalism, throwing our money away on something that doesn't belong to us. Another year of burning with secret envy when I'm in the beautiful homes of my friends. I hate it. I just hate it.

And for the first time in our marriage, our pockets are just bursting with the money we've saved up. We could walk out the door today and buy a house. But we don't want to just buy the first house we see...especially because once we buy, we're staying put. The housing market isn't going to let us sell and walk out whenever we want.

What are we in the world are we going to do? This would be a perfect time to have a mentor, a guru, a respected authority-figure or friend to give us their wise-and-steady opinion...or at least give us encouragement. I wish I could talk to Mom.

Saturday

Steven and I went to the Arlington Masters Chorale Fall Concert last night, and it was fabulous. Sitting in that church, I just wrapped the music around me like a warm blanket and lost myself in their beautiful singing. It was gorgeous. They had this soloist who was absolutely amazing. I would’ve gone to the concert JUST to hear him sing. They had a reception afterwards, and we were able to see all our friends and feel missed by them, so that was nice. All in all, a lovely evening with my husband.

Ugh, we also took the boys to El Chico for lunch. It was delicious, but I swear those fajitas have been coming back to haunt me ever since. Yuck. It’s hard to feel romantic when your stomach is noticeably churning.

We got a letter in the mail from our insurance company yesterday stating that WE had requested our claim be dismissed. Whaaaaaa? Our adjuster immediately got an angry call, and nonchalantly told us our claim was being switched to another adjuster (because it’s content/renter’s insurance and HE doesn’t usually handle that) and he only had so many form letters to choose from, so he sent that one.

Is it really so hard to type one out?

Anyway, though we’re stressed that our claim in being bounced from person to person, we’re glad it’s out of the hands of THAT GUY, because I'm pretty sure insurance bureaucracy must have overwhelmed any logistical thinking skills he once had.

Missing Steven

I've been loath write a post without pictures, but our digital camera is no more. So how about this one?


Anyway, with Steven gone to Galveston this week, I've tried to keep us busy. So far I have done the following:

1) Signed Stevie up for Preschool (temporarily), because it's not very expensive and Stevie was bored stiff being around here all day. So far he loves it and has only had one breakdown over who was in actuality "line leader."
2) Gone to the park every day for a few hours so the kids can run around and hopefully exhaust themselves.
3) Tried to do a bit of scrapbooking with my Wedding pictures that my wonderful photographer had given me copies of.
4) Mowed my brother's lawn.
5) Exercised regularly and even tried out a few Yoga and Pilates classes at the Rec Center.

But the fact remains: things just ain't right without Steven around. I miss him more like a schoolgirl pining over some WB teen-star than a wife of 6 years. Everything's just more fun when he's here. And I sleep better.

We'll see each other late tomorrow night. I honestly think I might actually have a few butterflies fluttering around in there.

Waiting Game

Steven drove back to Arlington on Thursday night. He’d exhausted himself running around League City, talking to the insurance agents, harassing FEMA, digging through the wreckage and putting salvageable things in storage. He drove all the way back to Arlington in his un-air-conditioned car (of all the things I wanted destroyed in Hurricane Ike, it was that idiot car. Of course, it survived with just some minor damage).

But he just found out around noon today that he’ll be expected back at work tomorrow! He’s homeless, with a wife and two small children, but they want him there bright and early, regardless of whether or not he slept in his car. I know for a fact that other people in his department, who incidentally still have habitable houses, have been allowed to work at home via remote access. So why is my husband, who just started this idiot job 3 months ago, an absolutely indispensable employee all the sudden? Oh well…they have a company to run, and I guess someone has to be there.

So I will stay here in Arlington with my brother and Steven will drive back to League City and stay with friends. There are just no hotels or apartments to be found down there. EVERYONE’S been displaced, and so all temporary living spaces have been filled. We don’t know what else to do. I guess it will be sort of romantic…. having a long-distance relationship for awhile. Thank goodness for our friends at church who’ve been willing to house a refugee or two.

We’re just waiting for the Emergency Rental Locator person (who will be helping us find a temporary apartment to stay in until we can find a house) to call us up.

All this waiting is turning my hair gray.

Correspondence

Dear Credit-Card Thief,

Curse you! You couldn’t have picked a worse time to steal our credit card and run up thousands of dollars of charges! I was at Target on Wednesday with an abnormally enormous cart full of much needed junk. My children were trying to kill each other, and I had an insane migraine. I tried to use my card at the register, and the cashier calls out in a ringing voice (I’m assuming to make sure the 15 people behind me in line could hear her clearly) “YOU’RE CREDIT CARD HAS BEEN DECLINED!”

CURSE YOU TO INFINITY!!!

Luckily, it didn’t take us long to realize that neither of us had made any ridiculously expensive purchases at the Shell Oil Station in Ottumwa, Iowa. But our card is marked now, Buster! So hopefully, the next time you use it to go and spend over $200 at K-Mart, there’ll be an off-duty cop behind you with an itchy trigger-finger.

Sincerely,
Me

Family Joke

So far, we have one Grundberg family joke. It goes:

Person 1: Knock Knock
Person 2: Who’s there?
Person 1: Interrupting Cow
Person 2: Interrupting Cow wh….
Person 1: MOOOOOO!

You may have heard it. We certainly didn’t make it up. Nonetheless, all 4 of us regularly tell this joke amongst ourselves. Even David. Of course, when he says it, it sounds more like:

David: Knah, Knah
Me: Who’s There
David: Mumble mumble mumble Cow
Me: Interrupting cow who?
David: [Pause]……MOOOOO!

There are several variations on this joke that we tell, some of which are:
Interrupting Daddy (who interrupts with “Oh Yeah!” said with sportscaster intensity)
Interrupting Mommy (who says “Shoot a Monkey!” A habit I picked up somewhere. The epithet, that is. Not actually shooting monkeys).
Interrupting Stevie (who alternates between shouting nonsense words or singing the ABCs).
Interrupting Day-Day (who interrupts with “Naaaaaawww” in an extremely nasal voice).

So be forewarned: if my kids start saying weird things to you involving cows, make sure you laugh; it’s a joke.

Just thought I’d write this down for posterity.