Marching merrily along

So the end of August is looming, I will be happy once the move gets underway and I see more of my husband again. He's been packing in the overtime to help pay for everything, I don't begrudge it at all but still I miss him. Not sure how we are managing to get boxes packed around the kids but we are lol. Still this weekend should be the last of the major overtime before the move other than the bits he has to do with up coming projects.

We have a bed yay! Ok I know it's not 'new' but it's not that old and well it's gonna really help. Been scouring craigslist for items, plenty of washer dryers out there so will probably leave it till the week before we actually move. Gonna owe Matt and Debbie big time me thinks, but I'll make up for it in the kitchen or something. Two weeks from tomorrow...huff, pant wheeze. Plenty of things to be done, more packing (kitchen scares me), we sign the loan documents a week from tomorrow, ah but the bliss!

Hey I noticed this morning that my psoriasis is actually finally seemingly under control, wow. Ok there is no cure I know that but I did notice that there is less scaling and redness so I guess the stuff I've been using is working /does a little happy dance. Ya know I can live with it I just need some help with the itching that drives me insane more than anything else.

Watched some of the SYTYCD show from last night, oh wow that was one of the best solos from Brandon that anyone has ever done, it took my breath away to just watch his body moving with such control. Ok so maybe it was because he was dancing in just a pair of tight spandex shorts but still wow. He really did bring it and /sigh I just love watching him dance. Next week is going to be the final. I will miss the show while it's off the air, I'm a fan I admit it, I love watching the forms of dance, ok we have our not so good performances but still.

Some neighbour was up till 12:30 with power tools last night, thinking to ourselves I'm so glad we are moving. Fortunately the girls slept through it just had one brief stirring for half an hour from Abigail but got her back to sleep and she was fine for the rest of the night so no complaints.

I cannot wait to be moved in and exploring cooking again...gave the girls butternut squash last night with some curry in it, oh they are gonna be used to eating this stuff if it kills me :) Personally I don't see why they won't like Mummy's cooking but we shall see. Got a fine steak and potato soup for dinner tonight with baked pastry wrapped onions, got my fingers crossed that this will be another resounding hit.

Packing...

OK I hate packing for moving and it is harder now we have kids on top of cats. However we have made some progress as we really can't afford to leave it to the last minute. Course James is packing in last minute overtime where he can so we have a little bit of extra cash here and there. I'm starting to scour craigslist for bargains not really bought anything yet but there is stuff out there that might be useful. I'm thinking if we go for 2nd hand stuff we can get more and stretch the budget out some more, it's just a bummer that anything we get now we have to find storage for but at the same time the right thing at the right price and well the movers can move it later.

Why oh why tho after the last few years we have downsized considerably the amount of stuff we have, does it seem we have too much junk? We got rid of bucket loads of books the last time we moved and we have downsized that even further since we lost our 'office' to a nursery, but there still seems to be a lot of books darn it!

The kitchen scares me, yep I admit it the kitchen plain out scares me I have a lot of stuff in it, pots pans etc, that's gonna take some work, although I'm working on the consumable portion of it but still there is a lot there. Oh and the girls don't exactly help as as much as I put stuff in boxes is tends to end back out again, not useful.

Ah however the prospect of not having to do a move again for a long time is sooo appealing. And well I'm looking forward to the cooler days ahead but still pleasant enough so that the girls can go outside and play and Mum can perhaps do some gardening (it really is a lovely garden).

The roof has been patched so it will survive winter, just as well as if the forecasts are right we are in for a wet one this year, not that it will be a bad thing and we do desperately need more rainfall, but holes in the roof would be a bad thing:)

I still feel a little in limbo right now but I'm looking forward to the future. I plan on trying to find a play group, walking, gardening (let's see how many plants I can kill!), and basically having more of a life again. Not really wanted to do much of this as I knew where we are now was only temporary, but I'm looking ahead to being far more permanent. I know we are going to have work to do, but the payoffs /sigh.

Quiet Moments

I love sitting watching my girls sleep sometimes...specially when I see Isabel curled around Abigail so peaceful, unfortunately half the time Abigail is plastered to my leg and I cannot move without waking her. Ah well could be worse I guess :) They have been laughing and playing with each other again today. Nice to see that they can occupy themselves. And thinking of the twins makes me think of that 'worlds oldest new mother' who died recently. Now at 65 or whatever she was to have IV treatment, lie about her age and find 3 years later she is dead from a tumor. Now ok I know some people live to be over 100 as her mother did but seriously there is a reason why women cannot conceive beyond a certain age. It's cases like this and Nadia Suleman that give IV treatments a bad rap. Now IV helps thousands of people who are having trouble conceiving, that I have no problem with, friends I know have had help and this world would be missing wonderful creatures without it. But can we like like have a sense of responsibility?

I sometimes wonder where responsibility for our actions or the lack of taking responsibility and blaming everyone else or anything else for why things don't turn out right when arguably we made a bad choice. Instead of looking to lay blame elsewhere stand up and admit you made a mistake.

Mind is starting to work overtime!

Ok now we know the loan is approved my mind is starting to spin into overdrive. Now it's just trying to manage the logistics of actually moving a household including the girls and the cats (move day is gonna be interesting!). Inside my head are churning lists of things that need to get done and to think it's gonna be three weeks away...want examples? I'm going through the freezer and cupboards looking at what I have and what we can use up in the next few weeks to minimize the amount of food stuffs to move. I'm thinking ok weekend we need to go shopping for washer / dryers or at least go look at them not sure we should buy until we actually move but I'm already doing research online. Furniture...we need desperately a new mattress for the bed, we will need an office chair again and some seating for the room outside.

I'm contemplating the kitchen and the 4 days we are going to use to move, what things can be packed away, ie what is the minimum in utensils and cookware I need to be able to provide food for a few days.

Then there are the final things we need to do. Urgh poor James something tells me he's gonna get email lists of things to do! It's bad I can't actually do much during the day other than think about this stuff...oh then there is the change of address wee! Post office/driver's license addresses to update oh and toyota financing for the car loan and AAA to contact re the renters insurance and the change of policy address, bank accounts...hmm (oh I hate doing that stuff I really do but hey). Joys of being home all day and not really having much else to occupy my time.

Health Care Crisis in the US

Some would have you believe that health care doesn't need fixing and that the US government doesn't need to step in well I hate to get political too much but this is something I feel very very strongly about and ya know what I think the government does need to step in coz something has to change. Here is my biggest issue, I'm currently insured as are both my children however, even with double insurance I still had out of pocket expenses last year and some bills were still pretty steep, what it would have been like if I didn't have insurance I don't want to even know. The uninsured numbers have been growing as has the number of those without jobs, where do those people get health care? Ok I know I'm sorta spoilt I grew up in the UK where we had universal health care, so it's also got it's problems but at least I could go to a hospital and it didn't cost me anything to get medical care and yes there are sometimes long waits to see specialists but frankly that's no different from here even when you are insured!

The cost of health care to employers is astronomical and some are having to cut back on health care because of the cost. So where does that leave the uninsured? Having to fork out thousands of dollars in health care or the state picking up the bill, so if the state is picking up the bill or the government on medicare why shouldn't they have a say where money is being spent? Why should the people with insurance get higher and higher premiums to cover the short costs and the whole system be clogged up with too much administration?

Where would I be without insurance? Probably unable to get the medications to slow MS? Where would I get basics such as birth control? Blood pressure? Something has to be done with the system as it is or we are going to see costs radically continue to out strip inflation. The US has one of the worst medical care plans for the 'Western' world, do you see a pattern? We are closing emergency care facilities in places like Atlanta where population has grown and more people are relying on that care. If we had a centralized government system where we we all were contributing through social security we might actually have something a bit better that works it's not socialism, it's working to help provide cost efficient practices that will benefit us and our children all our children and our future.

Will today be the day?

Will today be the day we get good news and the loan finalized for the purchase of a house? I was dreaming about it again last night...not so much the house but having to go out again and look for something else and the nightmare of trying to find something in our price range. It's getting ugly again in the real estate market I think if we don't get this place we might be in trouble trying to find something else. The problem is a lot of FHA buyers coming out of the woodwork so there is a lot of competition specially here as the housing prices are finally somewhat affordable.

Ah the thought of returning back to Livermore gladdens my soul tho. I just love the city not sure why but it just feels like home, Dublin is such a no mans land really it's got no real character to it. I'm actually looking forward to putting down more roots making more friends, trying to find a baby / toddler group, and the prospect of actually being able to get out of the house again. Gah I sound a bit like a broken record, but, it's just so damn close!

Looking good

Yay things are looking good that everything will go through with the house, will know by Monday / Tuesday of next week if there are any other hurdles to climb after that should be fairly plain sailing. The house will need some work over time, new roof in a year or so, new water heater, piping, might need a new wall ac unit in the bedroom...but nothing that with a bit of tlc we can't over come.

Had a fun week this

week with the girls...I treated James and I to a bar of chocolate Wednesday night after fulfilling my annual obgyn obligations (sheesh in 2 years I will have to start mammograms! I'm not that old am I? damn I gu

ess I am). Anyway little treat given I was prodded and well yes anyway. So that evening went fine and dandy woke up the next morning in a wonderful mood and for the most part everything was ticking along merrily. I was enjoying a lovely cuppa joe, checking email and facebook on the computer, and I had the tv on watching the season premier of Leverage. I admit I wasn't paying a whole lotta attention on the girls, they were off doing their thing playing (well interacting) with each other chatting along no big deal, that is until Isabel comes along by the sofa and looks up at me and I notice her hands...my first thought was oh did I

drop a piece of chocolate last night...and sat back non plussed for a moment...then I looked down and my next thought was OH SHIT! Quite literally my wonderful child was covered in it, as was the carpet...after clean up 2 baths and 6 poopy diapers, and poor Abigail with a very very sore red bum Mum has discovered pears are not a good idea at the moment. And for some reason this whole episode seems to be the highlight of my

week.

We did get to go look at the house again and actually spend more time there. I fell in love with the kitchen even more when we opened some of the cabinets and saw pull out shelving in a lot of them...yay I can reach the pots and pans easily in the back! We will have some work to do on the house, some of the pipes will need to be replaced down the line and the hot water heater needs attention very soon. The roof will also need to be replaced in a year or two which is something to bear in mind. I was hoping we could make a trip out to New Mexico next year I'm sorta well yeah something tells me we might have to see how things go with the house and our pennies. I'm now starting to make a mental list of all the things we are gonna need and trying to prioritize the order of things so we can stretch our bucks as far as we can make em go.

On the bright side Debbie and Matt are gonna be around all August which will mean we can have a hand with the move. We will hire movers for the big stuff I wouldn't expect them to move the tv and shit but the more of the little stuff we can move ourselves the cheaper it will be.

Rachael Ray what can I say about the woman...she is inspirational, I have a new love of cooking again, I've been breaking out old recipes and learning new ones. Heck I've even been inspired to make bread and butter puddings saving up all my old scraps of bread and making pavlovas! I was watching her show this week and I have this craving to whip up a brunch and invite Debbie and her family over once we move! I really do love cooking again, I used to be too damn tired with the job to even want to thing about it, but now I'm trying new things again, it's funny I don't even miss eating out any more, half the time I think my food is better anyway! I do get to mix things up and add in indian dishes every now and then and plenty of pasta dishes and we get chinese influenced meals as well, I have to admit even I am proud of my menu plans and I don't repeat myself too often to get boring, often every week or every other week I find a new dish to try to mix things up. This week I discovered butternut bow tie pasta which was delicious and dare I say almost healthy! Last week I did a gazpacho pasta inspired by the cold soup, oh man the flavours were intense and yummy!

Times not to forget...

Girls were brilliant yesterday despite a long day. However lesson 203 in parenting when in a rush check everything is as it should be. Most times the nipples in the bottles are in the tops when in the drying rack for some reason we had a rogue nipple that wasn't in it's top last night, and James inadvertently put it on a bottle sans nipple, this led to poor Mum and Isabel drowned in formula right before bedtime. This meant making a new bottle, changing poor screaming overtired child again stripping down my own clothes and trying to bring some semblance of order back into our lives. Looking back on it we will have to laugh but oh it wasn't so funny at the time:)

We are still in the land of limbo with a house will have to wait till Monday see if we can come up with a solution and viable offer. Least we have time.

Shall miss our weekly Monday soirée with Debbie and co. tho, but she is off taking a training class, and well we get to meet with our realtor so it's all good in the neighbourhood, and I still dream of living closer to her and Melissa oh heck I am just dreaming of being able to get out of the house safely with the girls and not break my back doing it.

It's certainly been a challenge this week as I spent last weekend in absolute agony with my back in painful spasm (joy). I didn't do anything specific but man I ended up with 2 shots in my but and a ton of painkillers muscle relaxants and anti inflamatories. I'm somewhat better at least by the end of the week but I have to be very careful lest I put it out again.

Gonna be trouble soon..

So Abigail is catching up with her sister, she is moving forward backwards, and even starting to pull herself up! We are not following her sister by the belly crawl, oh no we are full out crawling and she is more than capable of sitting herself up. I had to remove the bouncer from the living room yesterday for safety's sake. I've been worried about it for a few days now and yesterday she was pulling on it in such a way I could see her hurting herself.

On the bright side I'm proud of achieving things this morning as starting dinner tonight, for us and the twins! Still got a ways to go but looking to Austin Crispy Steak Tacos and the girls are gonna get carrot and oregano. Been trying to mix up their food a bit with some spices to make it interesting for them and to get them used to is in their food. So far so good with that experiment. Gonna just keeping adding something so hopefully when they get older they won't be too picky.