Where Have I Been?

Wait, really, where have I been?

Unfortunately, right here. In Minnesota. Sigh. I'm sorry to those who live in Minnesota. But this is just not working for me.

My husband was wondering why I hadn't blogged in awhile. My response? "No one wants to know how depressed and lonely I am".

I'm trying, really and truly I am. I joined the class. Early Childhood and Family Education. Eh. And I go to the gym like 4 or 5 days a week because I figure if I don't meet anyone, at least I'm burning off the aggression.

Oh man, we need to talk about the gym. I'm not a "naked" person. I go to the gym in my running clothes (with a whole fucking suit over it because it is -27 degrees). I leave, wearing the same clothes. The people who go to my gym seem to be "naked" people. I walk into the gym and I spy taint. There is always someone bending over to apply lotion or put on their drawers or something, and it's gross. There is one woman who walks to the toilet, NAKED but with a towel around her NECK. I mean, really.

Where am I going with this? I don't know. I'm lonely, bored, and angry. I'm fully clothed (if you were curious). And I'm going back to Chicago in a week. Hallelujah.

Schooled

I signed Ava and I up for the ECFE classes yesterday. It turns out they did have a class for her age range but it seems like she's going to be one of the older babies in the class.

To pick the appropriate class, you use your child's age as of Sept. 1. Ava will still be 11 months old so she's in the "Up and At 'Em" class for babies 7-11 months old. I wanted her in the class for 12 months-17 months. We're going to be out of town for the first class anyway so I figured she'll be 1 when we start "school" so she should go to the older class. I spoke to the coordinator yesterday and apparently, that is not the case.

The coordinator explained to me that they are firm on the Sept. 1 age, since these are the kids Ava will be going to school with. You know, like in 4 years! The coordinator said that I could choose to put Ava in the older class, as long as there was an open spot once the year starts.

I did not realize that, as the mother of a not even one year old, that I would be making decisions regarding her education that would, on some level, effect her schooling for the next 18 years. These classes are no joke, apparently. For one thing, they last the entire school year! The class we signed up for runs through the end of May.

I was torn, honestly. The class for the older babies has a much better schedule. Right now, nap time is from about 8:30 until 10:30 (on a good day). Guess what time our class starts? 9 am. So I'm willingly disrupting her naps once a week. Of course, Ava's schedule will change soon and she may have dropped that morning nap by then (I hope not). And I've heard that you make a lot of friends through these classes and lord knows we could both use some playmates right now.

So in the end, we're doing the classes. I'm still apprehensive about them but I suppose we could always drop out of school if they don't work for us. Maybe there's like a GED program for pre-pre school.

What To Do?

Everyday I'm faced with the daunting task of figuring out what we will do today. I need to get out of the house at least once a day or else the day is sooo looong and boooring and drags oonnnn foreverrrr.

I have no idea what to do today. I would go for a walk but, um, I pulled a butt muscle playing Wii Sports Resort bowling.

It's supposed to be hot (-ish) today so maybe we'll try the pool later.

This is one of the things I miss most about Chicago. There was so much to do. We went to the park a lot. I had friends to meet up with. When we didn't have plans, we just went for walks to look in shops or just look at houses around us.

I don't have any of that here. I just looked into the city sponsored early childhood education classes for next month (which are supposed to be great) that meet once a week and of course, Ava is too old for the baby classes but too young for the toddler classes. Looks like we won't be doing that this year.

I never thought I would ever say this, but... I am so bored, I want to join a gym. At least then we'd have somewhere to go.

The Chair Fiasco

When we were looking at apartments and floor plans and picturing our furniture fitting in said apartments and floor plans, we decided we needed more furniture. Our living room in Chicago was pretty small and there was only room for a couch and a small chair. When we moved we decided that the small chair from the old living room would move to our bedroom and we would get a new living room chair. Actually, we had decided on a pair of chairs but when we actually got here, we realized the floor plan looked bigger than the living room actually was and so only one chair would fit. Since we were only getting one chair, we had enough Target gift cards (yup, I buy furniture at Target) to get the chair IMMEDIATELY and we wouldn't have to wait!

Ha. Ha ha ha ha ha.

Someone...uh, me... was so excited about ordering the damn chair. I typed in the gift card numbers and accesses numbers so carefully and pressed the "submit order" button and was so psyched about my new chair.

Until the next day, when the order shipped email came and I notice that I sent it to the wrong address. Like, the apartment that I just vacated...in Chicago...when I now live in Minnesota. Ugh. The instant I realized my mistake, I called Target. I acknowledged that it was fully my fault and that I was an idiot and sent the chair to my old address. See, I'm an expert online shopper. I have shopped on Amazon/Target so many times that my info is stored. And while I was so careful to enter the gift card numbers carefully, I totally forgot that my shipping information, rather, my old shipping info, was stored.

By the way people, before I was a stay at home mom, I worked for a freight broker. You know, in SHIPPING. I think my former company should be glad I no longer work for them.

Anyway, the Target person told me to contact UPS and do a delivery intercept. I've seen the UPS commercials and remember this being the subject of one of their commercials. "Sweet", I thought, "This should be easy".

Ha ha, think again. I called UPS and was told they couldn't do anything for me until a tracking number was available. "Fine", I said, "I'll call you tomorrow".

I called the next day and was told that nothing could be done until a delivery attempt had been made and if the website shows delivered, then I would need to called the delivery terminal and they would send someone out to pick it back up.

The next day, the website showed a delivery attempt had been made and that the receiver no longer lived at that address. Um, duh, I've been telling you that for days. I called UPS AGAIN and was told the receiver can no longer do delivery intercepts, only the shipper can. And then I lost my shit.

Long story short, the chair ended up being sent back to Target! They sent me 2 gift cards for the exact amount for the chair. I received the second one today and ordered the chair again, except this time I ordered a different fabric.

The first time I ordered:

This time I ordered:

What do you think? Our living is tan and our furniture is very tan. When I showed my husband the two, his reaction to the first one was, "That was the chair we ordered?".

Chair #2 is on it's way. I guess it worked out for the better, since I think I like the 2nd chair better anyhow.

**Sorry for the big ol' chunk of text. Blogger doesn't like my paragraphs**

Neighbors

We've been here a few weeks and I've gotten a decent look at a few of my neighbors. Everyone seems to keep to themselves here but I've spied a glimpse of my closest neighbors. And what a bunch they are.

The way this apartment "community" (I don't like saying complex, as I feel it doesn't accurately describe this place) is divided is into groupings of 3 town homes per building. We're on one end, which means in addition to our tiny, tiny, tiny back yard, we also have a decent side yard.

To our immediate right is a family. I haven't seem them too much but I know there is a budding guitarist in the family, a toddler (maybe also the guitarist?) and someone who showers at night. Hey, we share a wall and I go to bed early. I hear things.

On the other side of them is a family we call "The Pack Rats". Every weekend since we have been here, they have had their garage door open. It is packed with crap. Boxes and boxes stacked to the ceiling and old sleds and wire shelves and...just crap. At first we hoped they were moving but it seems like they were just moving stuff around. They've moved some stuff, like the sled and wire shelves, out to their side yard, where it has stayed for over a week. We do know that they drive an older Jeep Grand Cherokee. I know this because it is always parked in their driveway as there is no room for it in their garage. (On a side note, after seeing their garage, we vowed to keep our crap to a minimum so that we would always be able to park both cars indoors, in the garage, the way God and nature intended).

Across our side yard is a couple we now refer to as WT Haircut. WT is our code for "white trash". The hair cut is, well, because one night I looked outside and the couple was sitting out on their patio and the woman was giving the man a haircut. Outside. They may be the classiest, nicest couple in the world but they will always be WT Haircut to me.

Hornets Nest

I've been laughing all day about this which of course means, it's only funny to me.

The back story:

Yesterday I discovered a HUGE hornet's (or wasps or yellow jackets) nest. This thing is easily the size of a football. A picture would really do this story justice but it's dark and I'm scared of being stung. So anyway, I was outside with Ava and the dog yesterday, just killing time until Fredo got home, when I happened to look up and discover the reason we've had so many stingy things flying around our patio. I immediately went inside and called the management company to tell them we had a stingy thing nest on the side of our house. They said they would come out today to look at it.

This morning I got Ava up from her nap and was heading downstairs to give her lunch when I noticed 2 guys in the yard looking up into a tree. I went outside and asked if they were there to take care of the nest. I pointed them in the right direction and said I was going back in the house. As I was closing the door I hear, "Holy...".

Um... granted I didn't say "huge nest" when I called but... they showed up with a can of hornet spray each.

As I was getting Ava's lunch together and chuckling to myself at the thought of these two guys trying to take down that massive nest with 2 cans of spray, the doorbell rings. It was the maintenance guys to tell me that rather than spray the stuff and run (his words), pest control would be in this afternoon or tomorrow.

Classic.

First Week Done

So my internet has been out for the past few day. I know there once was a time when we were like "Inter-what?" but man, I've been like a junkie jonesing for a fix. I have an Iphone so I've been using that, but I missed me some internet.

Of course, since I was sans internet, I had an eloquent, thought provoking post all worked out in my head, just itching to put out there for all to read. Ha, just kidding. When have I ever posted anything eloquent or thought provoking here?

What I have been wanting to say is that I'm not having the smoothest of transitions to this new life of mine. It's been a HUGE adjustment not having my husband home everyday, for one. How I miss the day not too long ago that I could run out and get a pedicure, on a weekday, because my husband was home. I've been a very spoiled mommy. Now, it's all Ava, all the time. Which is great but would be better if I knew what to do with her all day. At home (yes, I'm still referring to Chicago as home), I could throw Ava in the stroller and take a walk. I didn't need a destination, I could just go walking. Here, the lack of sidewalks around our place makes that a bit difficult.

I'm also not used to driving everywhere. Now, unless I want to go somewhere within the apartment community, I'm getting in the car to do so. I know suburban life is different than city life but man, I miss living in the city.

I've been trying to make the best of it, I really have. It seems like everyday I wake up with the intentions of enjoying our new community and everyday something pisses me and I end up on the verge of tears, cursing the fact that we had to move here.

I'm not pretending I was super happy about moving to Chicago when I moved there either. It took time for me to love that city (well, I didn't dislike the city so much when I first moved there as I did the people I first met there, but that is another story for another day). I know it'll take some more time for us to get acclimated here and for me to meet some people. Right now I just have to be patient and give it time (and other stupide cliches like that, blah blah blah).

But that understanding and rational thinking hasn't stopped me from counting down the days until I'm in Chicago next. Eight more days!

Just a Quick Hi

We've made it to Minnesota. We actually drove up Saturday but just got our Internet (and TV) hooked up today.

So far, we've gone to Target once, Home Depot thrice, ditto the swings. We've painted 5 rooms, with 3 to go.

Tonight we'll probably take a trip to the Container Store followed by dinner at Five Guys.

Our furniture is getting delivered tomorrow, so the unpacking will commence soon.

A more detailed post will follow but I wanted to let you know I made it.

Busy, Busy

I've been on hiatus. And I'm back...sort of.

There is just so much to do that I haven't found the time or energy to blog. We've been packing like crazy (the movers come Thursday, yikes!) and went on vacation for a week. Sometime during all of this craziness Ava decided that, like, the funnest thing EVER is just to screech at the top of her lungs for no reason. Guess who is driving the car with the car seat in it for 6 hours to Minnesota on Saturday starting at 5 am. So yeah, totally looking forward to that.

Here's my run down for the next few days. Packing, visiting my grandma, visiting with friends and having one last playdate (well two more actually, the last one is on Friday and includes mimosas and bloodies...love my friends). We'll be staying with my mom on Thursday and Friday and trying to meet up with some friends we missed last weekend. And we're getting up at 4 am to drive to Minnesota on Saturday.

Which means, no Blogher festivities for me. I'm not going to the actual conference but was planning on trying to make it to the parties (that is so like me) but no dice. Maybe next year.

This Just In... Moving SUCKS!

I've been so busy the past couple of weeks packing, packing and more packing. I've been trying to see friends that I probably won't see before we leave and just getting ready to get out of Dodge.

We go on vacation for a full week on Saturday which seemed like a great idea at the time until we decided to move an entire year earlier than planned. Now Ava and I get back from vacation and move less than a week later.

So, yeah, I've been a little stressed out.

To make matters worse, they (and I'm not really sure who "they" are, the management company? An outside agency?) started showing our apartment this week which is all well and good, except that they didn't have our phone number written down correctly so when they called to tell us they were coming by, they were leaving messages for someone who was not us. Imagine our surprise when we decided to go for a walk one day and came home to random people leaving our apartment. And then I walked into our bedroom and saw no less than 3 of my bras out in the open, including one that had been hanging from the door knob to dry. That same day, our doorbell rang as I was fixing Ava's dinner (I hid my undergarments before we answered the door) and we had to delay bedtime by 15 minutes so that another group could come tour the place. I think it's rented already though because people have come by to look at the apartment downstairs and not this one.

So there's a very brief update as to whats been going on. I'm off to pack more....

Vote

Sometimes I enter Ava in those "Beautiful Babies" contests. Today is one of those times.

Please vote early and often, in true Chicago style, for my daughter!

**Update: Yeah, the link they gave me was garbage. Thanks for trying though!**

Teething and Other Adorable-ness

We're currently in the thick of teething. I've been saying this for, oh, only about the past 4 months but now we really are. It finally seems as though Ava's bottom teeth are on the verge of breaking through. Of course, since I'm actually putting this out there, it will take another few months before they actually make an appearance. My poor peanut, she seems very uncomfortable.

We've experienced some sleep problems as a result. At least we think it's because of the teething. Ava is also getting so much more mobile and seems to really enjoy sitting or standing in her crib and screaming her head off instead of going right to sleep like she used to. We've gone back to our sleep training and the "controlled" crying it out. Now we go in to check on her and lay her down in her crib until she falls asleep. Sometimes it works well and other times we have to listen to her scream for the better part of an hour.

But, I guess to make up for the screaming, Ava has been even cuter, if that's possible. She learned to clap the other day. If I sing any song (and I sing her many made-up, silly songs), she grins and claps. She's also waving at people. She's pulling herself up on the furniture and cruising about. Nothing is safe anymore which is making packing really, really fun.

My favorite recent Ava development, though, occurs when one of us pulls out our wallets. Whenever Fredo or I open our wallets now, Ava shrieks. A shriek of pure joy, no doubt. She is so my girl!

Musings

• We got the apartment. The movers are coming 7/23 and will be delivering furniture 7/27. We're going to MN (Minnetonka, to be exact) 7/25 to paint and sleep on air mattresses for 2 nights. And to see the White Sox-Twins (except I guess it would be the Twins-White Sox) game from a suite on 7/27.
• I should be packing. I have boxes but have not packed anything. I should probably get on that.
• I bought new shoes this week. I was (silently) freaking out that Fredo would yell at me for buying new shoes. I was planning on telling him I bought them for the box. You know, because we need boxes. He never said anything about them....and neither did I.
• I have a friend's bachelorette party to go to this weekend. There's the lingerie shower part, dinner (at 9 PM!) and then a club. This is also the week that Ava decided to begin waking up at 1 or 2 am and then crying anytime you try to put her down. So Saturday night should be fun.
• Lingerie is expensive! I was considering getting my friend some cotton Hanes undies from Target and telling her that the sexy stuff was for day 1 of her marriage and the cotton unsexy stuff was for the rest. Fredo did not find that as funny as I did.
• Ava is 9 months old today!
• I find it incredibly hard to find a belt. I never wear belts but I think a camel color thin leather belt would look good with my dress for Saturday night. So of course, I can't find a belt anywhere!

Alright, so, random enough for ya?!

Have a great weekend!

You Say it's Your Birthday...

Today is my birthday. I'm usually pretty disappointed by birthdays so I don't put too much emphasis on them anymore. I wanted a Kindle this year but then life and moving and buying food and diapers got in the way. I had a nice day though. We went for a nice walk to grab some lunch and then went out to dinner. I also got some cool Chicago art to decorate the new apartment from Fredo.

On the way home from dinner with Fredo and Ava, we walked past the eL stop where there was a guy handing out flyers for a bar in the neighborhood. The two guys (it seemed like a younger guy and his dad) walking in front of us got them. Then we pass the guy....and he just looks the other way. I mean, I know we were with our kid but maybe we would have wanted to go to this bar on Wednesday.

Way to make a girl feel old and boring on her birthday, random flyer passer outer.

How Was Your Weekend?

Mine was a blur. Up at 4 (well, 3:49 am...that sucked) on Friday to drive to Minnesota. Looked at 4 apartments Friday (was supposed to be 5 but luckily one called us to cancel) and another 4 on Saturday. We now know that Ava is, luckily, an awesome road trip baby. Here's how it went:

Apartment #1: Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous condo quality 2 bedroom. It had a fantastic new kitchen...and a view of a switching station so the apartment was next to gigantic power lines. On the plus side, there was a bar & grill in the building.

Apartment #2: Nice 3 bedroom town home. Two car garage, lots of space with an outdoor pool on the premises. The fixtures were a little dated but the size made up for that. This was Fredo's favorite by the end of the day on Friday.

Apartment #3: Three bedroom apartment with a nice updated kitchen. The rest of the apartment was OK but it was on the first floor, didn't really feel all that safe and overlooked a car wash and the dumpsters for the Big Lots! and Target that were right next door. It was a Super Target though. I liked the apartment but the area was just a little too sketchy for me.

Apartment #4: Gross. Just gross. But at this point we were glad that places were taking themselves out of the running.

Fredo's boss and his wife were nice enough to watch Ava while we were apartment hunting on Saturday, which was awesome since we were in and out of the car all day.

Apartment #5: Three bedroom townhouse with a great patio. This place had newer fixtures, granite counter tops (but old, old cabinets which was weird) and large rooms. It was definitely dated but was also inexpensive. There were no amenities here but it's still our second choice.

Apartment #6: Our first choice. It's a 2 bedroom, 2.5 bath town home with a den and a 2 car garage. The complex has sweet amenities-- an indoor and outdoor pool, 2 fitness centers, dog park, playground and a path to the beach. Again, it's a little dated but the amenities are what sold us. We put it our application today.

Apartment #7: I had high hopes for this one since the pictures online were great. I was totally disappointed. The master bedroom was huge but that was about the only thing it had going for it. And it was expensive. When we got back to the office, the leasing agent asked if she knocked the rent down from $1605 to $1599, would she be in the running? Um, $6? Really? NEXT.

Apartment #8: Well, we were supposed to see apartment 8. We accidentally drove to apartment #9, realized we had another to go to, turned around and went to 8 to be told that the person I spoke with to make the appointment didn't ask if we had a dog and they didn't have anything in the pet friendly building. This was a giant waste of time but at least I got to see Minnetonka a little bit more. So, if I need to find the Maserati dealership at some point, I now know about where it is. Funny thing, they ended up calling us on Sunday with an apartment for us to look at. Yeah, no thanks.

Apartment #9: Awesome amenities but the apartment was kind of a dump. It was old with small rooms and the bedrooms were all in the basement. It was inexpensive but it didn't make the list.

So that's the wrap up of my whirlwind apartment hunt.

Did you have a nice weekend?

Hi Y'all

We're back from Texas. The trip was full of highs and lows.

Highs:

• Ava got to see her grandparents and meet her aunts, uncle and cousins.


• She did great on the plane! She slept a good portion of both flights. We got Ava her own seat and had her in her car seat, which I totally recommend. We, however, totally eff'ed up on the way there (see Lows).


• Swimming! We took Ava swimming for the first time and after a little bit of crying, she loved it.

Lows:

• We did not give ourselves enough time to get to the airport for our flight out. We made it, but got to the gate with only about 10 minutes to spare.
  
• I thought I was so smart buying a $20 BRU umbrella stroller just for flying. We put Ava in it in long term parking, made it through check-in and up to security. This is where the wheels came off...literally. As I was folding the stroller to put it through the x-ray machine, a wheel fell off, rolled away and we couldn't find it. I ended up throwing the stroller out as soon as we made it through security.

So now we're off to Minnesota tomorrow to find an apartment. We'll be looking at 10 places over the course of Friday afternoon and Saturday and most likely choosing a place Saturday night and signing a lease on Sunday, all with Ava in tow. Should be...interesting. But this weekend should give some blog material.

I Always Knew I Had a Big Heart...

I went to the doctor this morning. My EKG results came back and my heart rate was a little slow. She thinks I could have an enlarged heart and that it's kind of weird for a healthy 26 year old. She sent me for an electro cardiogram (basically an ultrasound of my heart) since the EKG just monitored the heartbeats and not the dimensions of my heart...or something like that.

I go back 6/19 for the results. I'm sure if there's anything truly serious she will call me before then.

I'm not freaking out about this. Not, at least, until I know more. I'm just going to enjoy my trip to Texas and Minnesota and worry about it on the 19th.

So that's the news.

Oh and I'm definitely not pregnant (they checked).

Overprepared

On Friday we leave for our first trip with Ava. We'll be flying to TX to visit my in laws and attend a high school graduation. Not only is it Ava's first trip but it will be our first time flying with an infant. I've been freaking about it for, oh only about the past 6 months or so.

In preparation I've been shopping up a storm. I got the inflatable duck bathtub, pack and play sheets, a mini food mill, a cheap umbrella stroller and a bunch of other things that I'm convinced will make our travels easier. In my defense we do have a few trips planned this summer so this isn't all for TX. In fact, we get home from TX on Wednesday and then drive to Minneapolis (yea apartment hunting) on Friday.

Last week I created a word document entitled "Ava's Master Packing List", containing all of the things I think we would need for any trip.

Today I packed up most of Ava's things.

Did I mention we leave on Friday?

So, yeah, anxious much?

What the Hell Does That Mean?

So I fainted this weekend. For those of you who are Facebook friends or who follow me on Twitter, I've upgraded it from "almost fainted" to "fainted" after trying to describe it to my husband and realizing I can't account for several minutes and am not really sure what happened. Here's what I do know.

I didn't eat much on Saturday but I DID eat. I've gotten faint before from not eating but I wasn't hungry at all right before this happened. In fact, I had a spoonful of peanut butter about an hour before the incident that would raise anyones blood sugar. And I was drinking water so I don't think I was dehydrated. I didn't drink the night before either (I've become light headed the day after drinking).

We were waiting in line at an extremely popular hot dog restaurant and had been in line for about 45 min. It was very sunny but not particularly hot outside. All of a sudden, I felt a little, shall we say, intestinal distress. A few minutes later I felt nauseous, hot, sweaty and dizzy. I decided to make my way inside to the bathroom. I was pushing my way through the line, excusing myself, my vision getting blurry, when I...I don't know. I couldn't see anything, although I'm sure my eyes were open. I think I sat down or leaned on something. Some guys helped me. I don't know their names but they were so nice. They got me to their table, brought me water, found my husband, even offered me some of their fries. It was a terrifying experience made worse by the fact that I have no idea what happened, what caused this or what I should do. I'm debating whether or not I should see a doctor.

I think one of the worst parts is that I didn't even get my hot dog. And they have good hot dogs.

Ava Update

It seems we've had a flurry of motor skill development over the last month or so.

Ava has been crawling.

And feeding herself (just starting finger food, I don't trust her with a spoon yet).

And pulling herself up.

She knows where her toys are.

And sometimes, she naps.