Busy Days

Ok.  Yesterday started out crummy but got better.  Lila woke up cranky and crying as Jake was leaving for work.  She let me rock her in her chair for a while, quite a while actually, just quietly laying there.  When she was sleepy, I took her back to bed and she fell asleep, and slept till 10:15.  Which was awesome.  It took us a while to get going after she got up, though.  She was still cranky/sick and I didn't know what to do.  That's how I feel a lot lately, like I don't know what to do.  Because there's so much to do.

At around lunchtime, I decided to go to downtown to the City building to get the water put in our name.  I was shocked when I looked outside and saw SNOW!  Just a week ago it was 85 degrees!!  So I bundled us up and headed downtown.  I parked and walked around in the cold and wind for a while with my poor girl and finally found the building.  I was super, super cranky and angry walking around in the cold, pushing my sick baby around trying to find the building.  It certainly did not help that I was also hungry, because Hungry Rudi is Angry Rudi.  Thankfully, there wasn't a line or any glitches and we got our business taken care of pretty quickly.  Loaded the kid back into the car and met Jake at a carpet store.  The carpet they have in stock is a lot nicer than the stuff they have at Lowe's.  It's also almost $3K more expensive... which sucks... but, we don't want to have cheapy carpet that won't last as long and doesn't feel good on our feet.  We found some reasonably priced carpet that would work but still have a little more shopping around to do.  It's the carpet installation that is super expensive.  At Lowe's it's $97 for the whole house, or it's free if you buy Stainmaster carpet.  At this place, Migalda's, it's over $1000.  Lila had fun walking around the store.  Both Jake and I remember loving carpet stores when we were little.

After that, I picked Emily up and we headed over to the house and Lila slept in the car.  Emily was excited because there were like 6 cute guys from Utah at church on Sunday and they'll all be here for the summer (selling alarm systems).  And she got a letter from Shane that was really nice.  So we spent the afternoon cleaning the kitchen, and it didn't go horribly, considering it's usually pretty difficult to get things done with Lila around (she usually wants all of Mom's attention).  It would be easier if there was carpet in the house, because then she'd be free to roam around, but she's stuck in the kitchen (because of all the tack-strip... she's already been poked a few times).  We got a lot done and it felt so good!  The exterior of the stove looks awesome, still need to clean the oven, but hallelujah, it's self-cleaning.  We cleaned half of the cupboards, which were filthy.  I seriously don't understand the people who owned the house!!  It was really nice having Emily's help and company.  She's a good cleaner.  We had Stanley Steemer come to give an estimate to clean the air ducts, a restoration company to give an estimate to clean the OSB the cats peed on and the basement, and a carpet installer to measure the floors.  Jim (Betzold) also stopped by to pick up Angela's glasses that she forgot on Saturday night.  He said that both and Angela forgot to pick little Emily up at school again that day.  Again?!  Oh, Jim.

We eventually headed to Walmart to pick up more cleaning supplies.  When we got home, Jake was there too.  Emily and I managed to clean a little bit more while Jake ate his dinner with Lila.  (We are living on fast food these days, it's awful.)  Mike was over helping Jake remove tack-strip from the cement floor in the basement--not an easy job, as it was nailed in.  Jake spent some time in the garage on a business call too.  I guess it was too noisy inside.  So, eventually I had to leave because Lila was getting to be too cranky; I dropped Emily off at home. 

Lila is so much happier at the apartment.  More relaxed and content and doesn't need my attention all the time.  Hopefully it helps when all of our stuff is at the house and there's new carpet and she's free to roam.  Our night was ok.  Not long after I got her ready for bed and nursed her for a while, she puked twice all over my bed.  Very messy.  And she was really happy after that.  So she got to play in my room a while longer while I cleaned everything up.  And she went to bed pretty easily after that.

Jake got home around 10 or a little after, I think.  Tons of people showed up to help, which is amazing and wonderful and a huge blessing: Joe and Becca Burkhead; Nick, Juliet, and Brice Altman and Juliet's two brothers; Mike, Cassandra, and Sammi showed up and then her mom, Jason, and Savannah also came.  So they got all of the staples pulled out and all of the floors swept and cleared.  Amazing.  Jake was so grateful.

So, he and I got to spend a little time together before bed.  It's really nice that we've been able to see each other during the day, otherwise I'd be having a harder time with this.  But it's good to know that we're both working very hard to get ready for our house and supporting each other along the way.  I'm so, so excited to move in and having the carpet installed and to just be there, together, all the time... instead of me and Lila here and him there.  I'm sure it'll be wonderful and worth it.  This is sure exhausting.  Jake wrote this to me in an email today: Thanks so much for your hard work in this transition into our new house.  We are going to have a great little home to grow our family in!  I'm so excited to do this together.

Today, I got up out of bed even though I didn't want to.  I asked Jake to bring all the laundry (lots of it, due to Lila's puking before bed) to the house.  He was thinking he needed to be there at 9am for a quote from another restoration company.  Lila got up a little after 8.  Jake called to let me know that the people were actually coming at 11, not 9, and asked if I could be there.  After a relaxing breakfast, Lila and I took a shower.  I started in the shower by myself, hoping that I could enjoy a nice, hot one before I brought Lila in... but her thing now is standing at the edge of the tub, trying to reach the faucet, and she tried to climb in, so I just brought her in and she liked that.

So, we got an estimate from these guys, and shortly after that, Jake got done with his meeting and drove over to the house.  He came in, I started a load of laundry in my awesome new (to me) washer.  You can fit so much in there!  (It's just an average full-sized one, but in my apartment, we have a mini stackable washer/dryer... and you can't run both at the same time, so it takes twice as long to do laundry.)  I'm pretty excited about having a full-size W&D again, and to be able to wash and dry at the same time... though I'm looking forward to hanging out my laundry on a clothesline this summer.  I have so many memories of doing that as a child, I'm excited to do it at my own house.

We went to another carpet store and Lila fell asleep on the way there.  Jake went in but they didn't have anything good.  So we got more fast food (Taco Bell) and ate in the car while Lila slept.  After he left, I quickly vacuumed all the OSB flooring and then another guy came over to give us a quote.   Lila was real cranky by the time we left, but didn't fall asleep on the way home.  We played and played and she did well, was happy to be home.  We had mac & cheese for dinner and Lila actually likes (trying to eat) it.  Jake called a bunch of times en route to and while at Lowe's.  (I have a feeling we'll be practically living at Lowe's/Home Depot/Menard's soon.)  Mike called to ask about stovetop popcorn while Lila was having a meltdown.  Jess texted to tell me she's been meaning to call but hasn't had a good block of time to (the woman just had a baby 2 days ago!!) and to tell me her milk came in and ask for advice to avoid getting engorged.  Lila fell asleep nursing in my arms at 5:30.  She hasn't done that in a long time.  We were even in the living room and the TV was on.  She was exhausted.  So I put her in bed and she woke up at 6:20 screaming and crying inconsolably again.  I just don't know what's wrong.  If she's not better by Friday I will take her in.  Anyway, lots of crying.  I brought her into the living room and we watched videos of her on my Facebook and she liked that but then cried some more.  Finally she calmed down enough to nurse and fell asleep doing that in the rocking chair, but it took her a long time to fall asleep.  So then I brought her into bed, and she woke up and then nursed some more, she sat up, and then fell asleep with her head on my chest.  Adorable.  So I just laid there for a while and soaked it in and kissed her sweet forehead.  I love my sweet, sweet baby girl.  But then she woke up again when I tried to lay her down so I had to nurse her some more.  She... is nursing a lot lately.  Not eating much food at all. 

So now I'm chatting with Jake on the phone.  He's done and cleaning up and will head home soon.