Almost there!

I am so close to being done unpacking I can smell it! I only have three boxes left to unpack and they are purely decorations. I am so excited about this prospect. The only issue now is that we don't really have all that much stuff! Our new place is so much bigger than the single wide. We have a whole extra room that I don't have any furniture for! Really that room is supposed to be our dining room, but it seems very impractical with our little one so what I think I'm going to use it for is a play room/sewing room. It's big enough to comfortably fit both. Plus, that means that I can still keep an eye on the baby while I'm sewing. Now I just have to figure out how to configure the room for the best use. This place still doesn't feel quite like home yet though. I think it's because I haven't hung any of our photos. Also because it looks pretty empty. We'll see. I've got four years to fill it up so I'm not in any hurry.

File this week under:

My life is amazing!

First, on Monday I was in charge of family night. I did the lesson on gratitude. After reading a few scriptures on the importance of being grateful for what we have we made a list of the things that our family is thankful for. Then I said how I was feeling really sorry for myself a few days ago and then after thinking about all that I have and am thankful for the situation turned completely around in my mind and now I'm glad about it. After I had finished our lesson I asked Dan if he had anything he wanted to add and he said that he wanted to let me know how grateful he was for me and for all I do for our family. He said he didn't know how he would be able to do all this without me. That made me so happy! Even typing it now I get a little teary eyed! Being appreciated makes all the difference. I am so SO SO happy with my life and my sweetheart.

Then, yesterday, Charlotte and I went to the wading pool in the park next to our house. It was the first time ever that she's worn her swimsuit and she had a blast. We sat together in the inch of water at the very edge and splashed our hands in the water. There was also a little fountain that came out of the ground and sprayed about 6 inches into the air next to us and we splashed in that a little bit. Oh it was so much fun to see her so excited about it!

Lastly, my sister has been calling me more often! I do love to talk to her. She doesn't like to talk on the phone very much, if at all, so any time she calls it's like a special treat. I like that she just lets me ramble on and on about nothing. Thanks Katie!

Anyway, isn't my life amazing? I think you'd have to agree!

My Magazine

Last week, or maybe it was the week before, Dan and I were waiting in line at the checkout at the grocery store. While in line Dan likes to read me the headlines of all the magazines like he really cares about what the stars are doing. He's always done this. I'm not sure why it started, but I think it's really funny. Sometimes he'll add in the headlines of the homemaking magazines too. Like the headline is tantalizing him with the answer to one of his great decorating dilemas. So there we were and I look down and see "O" the Oprah magazine. In all fairness I have never read the O magazine and I have no idea what it's about. So I asked Daniel, "If you had your own magazine would you put a picture of yourself on it every month?" His answer was of course, No. Then I asked, "If you had your own magazine what would you have it be about?" His answer, "Outdoor activites, camping, hiking, climbing." I figured it was eithr that or cars.

Ever since I've been asking myself what I would put in my own magazine. I have no idea! I guess it'd be a parenting magazine. Am I really a parenting magazine? I like to read them, a lot. I do spend a lot of time dealing with poop and how to get rid of it. Maybe my magazine would be about sewing. I do like to sew. Perhaps it would be about living on a budget? I don't know.

So anyway, the question(s) of the day is/are: if you had a magazine what would it be about? Would you put a photo of yourself on it every month? Do you think others would want to read it?

My Sanity

So yesterday I was really questioning my sanity. I think my husband was questioning it too because he kept giving me lots of hugs. He's so cute when he thinks something's wrong and there's nothing he can do to fix it. I decided that the issue is that I've slackened on my goals. Remember the goals that I wrote down a while back? Physical Activity, making the bed, learning new things, regular scripture study. Well, since we moved I pretty much let them go to the wind. Last night as I went to bed I just felt awful. I just wanted to cry. This morning when I woke up I decided that I should jump start back onto those goals again. I know my life is hectic and nothing is in any sort of schedule, but doing those things will make me feel better.

I also decided that I need to talk to an adult other than my husband. I love him, but when he comes home for the day he's spent! He works so hard at school and talks so much and is concentrating so hard, and still has more studying to do that he doesn't have a whole lot left to give. I totally understand that and I also appreciate that he does make an effort. He talks all during dinner about my day and his day and what we want to do about certain things and it's great. The problem comes in that out of 24 hours I spend 7 hours sleeping (sort of), 15-16 hours conversing with a baby that can't talk, and 1 maybe 2 hours with an adult. I decided I need more.

That is why this morning I walked for about an hour, and had Tammy over with her two kids to play. It was SOOOOO GOOOOOOD! Plus, I think Charlotte was happier having stuff to do with Madeline, Tammy's baby girl. Anyway, we're much happier today.

Our New Fridge

So I was kinda bummed to hear that our new fridge would come today. You are probably wondering why. It's because I was going to go over to my friend Tammy's house this morning and I was informed yesterday that the fridge guys were coming between 8 and noon. Since we were going to get together at 9:30 our plan was out. Luckily she said she could come to my house and wait with me. Also, the fridge guys came at 8! That's never happened to me before, but I was really excited. My landlord had set the whole thing up and decided he needed to be here to make sure that they took the old fridge away.

You'd think that I would be really happy right now right? I got to spend the morning with my friend and a new fridge. Only half of those things happened. I did get to spend the morning with my friend and it was great. I did NOT, however, end up with a new fridge. Let me ask you this one question, when getting a new fridge what is the first step in finding the right criteria? In my book it would be measuring the old fridge, the opening, and the areas you will need to take the fridge to get it into place! I mean honestly, who doesn't measure? You'll end up buying a fridge that is way too big! They couldn't get the fridge down the hallway! My landlord just kept telling them that they should be able to do it. I looked and there was no way they were going to be able to get that fridge in there. They wont be able to get the fridge in if it's too big for the hole you've got to put it through. It's not like fridges can squeeze! So that was a big hassle, and there's no fridge.

Julie Had Her Baby!

Last night at around 6 pm she had a 7 pound 10 ounce little baby boy! I can't wait to see photos!

The Zoo

Today was Charlotte's first day at the zoo! It was great fun! The St. Louis zoo is FREE and so I'm sure we'll be taking advantage of it often. The thing about it being free is I didn't feel pressured to see everything today. When Charlotte got sleepy and hungry we simply went home. Her favorite part was the penguins. I took her out of her stroller and held her up to see them. The penguins were being fed so they were noisy. I didn't know that penguins made any noise at all, but they do and they're pretty loud. Well, Charlotte wanted to add her noise to the mix so she was squealing. It was pretty funny.

This is the two of us with the penguins behind. It was pretty dark in there so you can't really see the penguins, but they were swimming all around.

Mirror, Mirror

Tummy time has always been hard with Charlotte. When we first tried to get her to do tumy time she's lay there for, oh, 30 seconds before letting out one of her loudest screams to let us know she was done with this. After a month and a half of this she finally decided that it wasn't so bad. She'd actually stay on her tummy for a good 20 minute stretch. I was so proud! Then we moved and she decided that the tummy was no fun anymore. Then at church yesterday I layed her down on her tummy. I expected it to last, a minute or two. To my surprise there were three other moms that brought their 1 and under aged kids to the back to play. They were all sitting there and the baby layed there watching them and recieving the toys they gave her and smiled at them. It was really fun. So today I decided to try and trick her. I layed her on the floor with her musical turttle, her favorite toy right now, and then set the mirror up so she could see herself. It worked for a while. She was smiling and laughing at herself and her turttle in the mirror. It was so funny!

And Just When You Thought He Couldn't Get Better

After a long day at school:

He makes me cookies while playing with the baby. Of course I let him eat as many as he wants.

Heart melting

This photo is about a month old, but I just LOVE it. She's smiling at her daddy. We were in the middle of a long day driving from Spokane to Utah. She is so great at travelling!

Grrrrr!

Charlotte went down for her nap this morning all on her own. It was amazing. I just put her down in her crib and she rolled to her side and went to sleep. (She sleeps on her side now all the time. I think it's funny.) I was so happy and thought today was going to be a great sleeping/playing day for her. Then approximately ten minutes later workers started to pound on our house. LOUDLY. I was pretty annoyed, but they hadn't woken up the baby and probably they were doing something that needed to be done on the roof of our place.

Now I realize that our house is approximately 2 feet away from our neighbor's and also that the old in the window air conditioning unit sticks out into that space. It would be really difficult to get to the roof from the side of the house. Do you really have to drop EVERYTHING you drop right onto the metal air conditioning unit? Yes, that sound wakes up my baby. Every.single.time. I just get her back to sleep and then they manage to drop more! If they don't drop stuff on the unit then they're banging around on our roof. My anger started to rise as I was trying to work with a screaming baby. It was only kept in check by the fact that I figured the work on the place needed to be done.

This only helped until I took out the garbage. As I was putting it in the dumpster behind our house I looked back and saw that, although their ladder was placed next to our house they were actually working on the chimney of our neighbor's house. They've been clomping, banging, throwing things at our house while not even working on our house! And now they've decided it's time to again bang on our roof. And yes, my baby did just wake up screaming once again.

The Heat

Well Heather tagged me, and only me, so I guess I'd better answer.

1. What is the best thing you cooked last week?

Hahahahahaha! We were still moving in last week! I had no stove! I had no oven! So I didn't really cook anything last week. Usually I cook all our meals, but last week I didn't. We're still moving in, but I have the whole kitchen unpacked now. A few nights ago I made taco salad that was pretty good. I planned on having leftovers the next night but my husband had already taken it to school and eaten them for lunch. I guess he liked those.

2. If money, time, and babysitting were no object where would you go and with who?

I guess I'm so lame because I don't really have a destination that I'd love to go to and I'm being held back from. I would like to spend more time with my family. And I would really like to have a whole week of sleeping 8 hours a night without interruptions. So I'd do that if money, time, and babysitting were no object. Probably it would be cool I guess if my family came here to St. Louis for a week and we went to all the places I've seen for families to go to that cost money. St. Louis is great for cheap and free things, but there's also a lot of cool family stuff that does cost money. I'm saving those for when we have money to spend.

3. When was the last time you cried?

I'd say yesterday. As it turns out we're really poor (that's what happens when your husband is in medical school). I was hoping to be able to get some help with medical insurance, but Missouri isn't very helpful. I was so frustrated just trying to get in contact with anyone that could help me. Then when I finally did get a hold of someone all I was told was, "No don't come in we'll mail you something." That and the we're not going to help you one bit news that I received was really frustrating.

4. What is the most played song on your ipod right now?

Hahahaha! This is another funny one since I don't have an ipod. Again we're poor. Also I did have my hands on one and didn't really care to set it up. I know, I know, I've heard all about them being awesome and once you have one you don't know how you'd live without one. My brother said they're like cell phones were. When cell phones were first coming out he'd think to himself that they weren't that big a deal. Then once he got one he would never go back to not having one. Well, to be honest I probably could be just as happy not having a cell phone either. It's just more cost effective to call my family on the cell phone as it is to pay for long distance.

5. Is there something on t.v. this week that you are more excited about than the So You Think You Can Dance finale?

Well, there again we're poor. So that means that we're watching TV through an antenna which receives cbs and nbc and a little bit of fox (which comes in black and white occasionally). Needless to say we don't watch too much TV and I haven't seen any of So You Think You Can Dance.

I don't really have anyone I want to tag though so I'm skipping that part of the whole rigamaroll. Yes, I was also the one that broke the chain letters in elementary school too.

Nosy Neighbor

I am such a nosy neighbor! I didn't realize this until this morning. Five police cars and one ambulance were parked across the street from our house. There was someone on the ground on the other side of the ambulance so I couldn't really see what was going on. Then they picked up my neighbor, Larry, from the ground onto the gurney. His roommate was out there talking to the police. The weird thing is that they were not in front of their house. They were about four houses down. Then when they were putting him into the ambulance he was yelling, "You! get away from me. All of you, let me go! Stop touching me." And that's when I noticed how all is arms and legs were strapped down. There have been so many ambulances going around in St. Louis since we moved here. I figured someone had passed out because of the heat (record breaking highs.) I just stood at our second floor window watching them for a good five minutes until they left. I am so nosy!

You've Got to be Kidding Me

Anyone that tells you that their 1-2 month old baby sleeps 10+ hours a night every night, without waking up is full of bologna. And if they then go on to say that their baby only wants to eat every 7-8 hours in a day their also full of it. Either that or they have a very out of the ordinary baby.

Finally

Well, I found it! And I got the car licensed today! It was really exciting, and took all day, but it's finally done!

20 Bucks

If you were me and you just got yourself your new driver's license for Missouri, where would you put it? (Remember that you're me now.) Yeah, I have no idea either.

Teething?

So I think Charlotte might be getting a tooth. Here are the symptoms:

• She's fussy all the time. Even when I'm holding her (which usually quiets that). She's not really outright having a fit, just unhappy and wants me to know about it.
• She's drooling excessively. The whole front of her dress was wet yesterday.
• Today I gave her one of those toys that you put in the freezer so it's cold. She chomped away on it until it fell out. Then she cried again.
• She's sleepy.

The only thing is that I can't feel a tooth yet. So we'll see.

Our "Home"

Nothing says "home" like:

The welcome post I painted at our last place was secretly unpacked and put up by my husband last night or this morning. It is now welcoming everyone to our new place. He's so cute!

Moving

Is it just me or does everyone think that moving totally and completely stinks. Even if you're moving to do something new and exciting or just moving because it's time to move it is awful. I especially don't like moving to new states. Then on top of the moving mess you have to change all your vehicle information, your driver's license, and a whole lot of other dumb stuff. Every day I think, today's the day that I will finish getting everything out of boxes and start to get everything organized and in it's place. Every night I go to bed thinking about all the stuff that we still have left to do. Also I get this completely unfounded frustration with my husband for not getting stuff done. Really what I think is happening is that I am frustrated with myself and my inefficiency brought on by a few different factors: the baby, our apartment isn't finished, and I have no clean clothing. I fully know that my husband is working HARD and doing all that he can to get things done. Everyday when he gets back from campus we get something big checked off our list (yesterday it was opening a new bank account since Wells Fargo isn't around here). And yet every night all I see is what is still left on the stinking list! Ugh! I have to mentally give myself a talking to so that I don't dump all my stress out on him. Remember Maggie, he is doing all he can! He's already finished stripping the stairs. He shouldn't even have to be doing the extra stuff. It's our landlord's fault that he can't help unpack because he's trying to get our apartment completed! He really is going above and beyond! What if you had a husband that couldn't do all the handy man stuff around the house? You would never be able to move in! Now I just have to be a big girl and follow my own lectures. On the up side, I absolutely love our new place. This place was his choice and boy did he chose a good one! We live in the top floor of a two story house. It's brick and it has a whole lot of character on the outside. On the inside it has all new carpet and new paint. Plus, I absolutely love looking out our windows to the trees in the front and back of our house. The vents for our AC are about three feet above the floor in the wall and they have decorative covers on them. I'm sure that this place will be great for us once we're settled in. Plus, now that I can actually cook meals for my family I'm feeling much better about our place. We're no longer pouring money out of our bank account because we have to eat out. I'm feeling much, much better about that.

We're Here!

Good news! St. Louis loves babies! That makes it OK with me. We have a mountian of stuff to unpack and find spots for. I haven't done laundry in more than a week. Everything is so jumbled up. Yikes! Updates soon.