Gypsy Life: FINAL DAY

Today is our last day in the gypsy house. We got the keys on monday night, and even though it was only in the sixties, Sam jumped in the pool in his underpants. 

He was the only kid there, but please don't tell the other three! They would be enraged. Even Fred, who just points and yells 'POOOOOOOL' every time we're there. I wonder if and when that will stop?

I didn't get a chance to write yesterday because SOB and I were busy little beavers. Since our furniture won't come until tomorrow morning, we decided to try and scrape some wallpaper and rip up some carpeting before then. Neither one of us had any expereince with the wallpaper stripping, so I was a combo of anxious and excited about the prospect. I've heard horror stories of homes with layer upon layer of wallpaper, and since our house is almost 100 years old, and has wallpaper in every room, it seemed likely that this might have turned into our worst nightmare.

HOWEVER! In barely any time, we had this:

Looking like this:

Yay!!! In the dining room there was only one layer of the paper over the plaster.

We got started in the breakfast nook, which had it's challenges, but we got it finished. Then we started in on the stairwell.

Why, yes! That is psychedelic wall paper on the ceiling. Thanks for asking! Most of the stairwells and every bathroom in the house has wallpapered ceilings as well. Oh, what fun! We got halfway finished here, then did the foyer, two bedrooms and half of two bathrooms. Plus we pulled up the blood red carpeting in the room that will be our office, and investigated the hardwood floors on the carpeted stairs and hallways. They all look amazing, so once the movers come through we'll pull that up. 

We still have wall paper in two bedrooms, one of which is on the third floor and also has wall paper on the ceiling (seriously, WTFFFFF?) Plus the basement and the third floor bathroom have green indoor/outdoor carpeting that looks like astro-turf, which will be burned as a sacrifice to the gods of interior design. THEN all of the de-papered walls need to be painted. But I think we made really great progress for one day.

I can't imagine how productive I'll be when I can sleep in my own bed and drink reall coffee instead of this instant crap I've been guzzling. 

Gypsy Life: Day Eighteen

Yesterday was one of the hardest days of my life. All of the stress surrounding my gram's death and our living situation and my husband's absence reached a head and I kind of freaked out. But when I was driving home I saw this cloud formation in front of me on the highway, and I pulled over. 

I just stopped. The kids were firmly plugged into a DVD, so they barely noticed that we were no longer moving. I stared at the light breaking through the clouds, shed a few tears, snapped a picture with my phone, and got back on the road. Driving towards the light, I thought to myself, 'From here on out, it can only get better.'

Today was her burial. Thanks to the world's best babysitter and all-around awesome person Nicole, I was able to leave the kids behind and mourn her without having to worry about if the ipod was charged or if I had brought enough diapers. It was awful, but it was peaceful.

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And on a completely unrelated and different topic: Tonight? WE OFFICIALLY BECOME HOME OWNERS AGAIN!

Gypsy Life: Day Sixteen

(Yes, yes. I know I missed a day. I was busy mourning and visiting with my brother. Cut me a little slack, will ya!?!)

Sometimes, when I'm sad, I like to pick fights. It's very mature of me, I know. The first time I remember it happening was when my friend Rena died. Instead of just being sad, I got really, really angry at the people who I thought were exploiting her death to get out of gym class. Yeah, so maybe that one girl did deserve it when I screamed in her face, but I also got angry at other kids who were upset. Somehow, I didn't feel like their grief was as valid as mine was, so I became a total psycho. Which landed me in the guidance counselor's office for weekly grief counseling sessions, both solo and in a group setting.

This time around, with almost twenty years of maturity and introspection on my side, I'm doing it again. It's a little different this time, because there aren't many people who have ignited that little spark of rage in me, but it has happened. I'm smart enough to snuff it out, and to avoid any and all places where it may once again flare up, but it's still there.

And so, unfortunately for him, I am really pissed at my husband. For reasons that I honestly believe are beyond his control, he was out at a working dinner on Thursday when she died. Then he left early this morning for a speaking engagement in Tahoe. He gets back tomorrow just in time to miss the first viewing. Then he has to work on Monday, during the funeral. Then he comes home to sign the papers to close on the house and then heads out immediately for another dinner meeting.

I'm so angry that he isn't here that I can barely even look at him when he is. I know he feels awful and isn't trying to hurt me, but because my emotions get so muddled up my brain just goes RAGE RAGE RAGE! I just want to have someone there with me, someone to hold my hand, someone to deal with my unruly kids, someone to take care of me. My parents have each other, my brother's pregnant wife is flying up from Florida tomorrow, and I'm going to be all alone, trying to wrestle my herd of children into submission instead of spending time with my loved ones and remembering my grandmother.

I don't want to be mad at him, really. I'm really hoping that by writing this all out I'll realize how silly it is and get over myself. That way when he does get home, I won't blow up all over him and maybe he can just hold me.

But just in case, take cover.

Gypsy Life: Day Fourteen

My grandma died today.

We knew it was coming. We knew it for months. She was in and out of the hospital at first, and then she was at home on hospice. And then she was in a hospice facility. And finally she went back home for good. It was a rough few days for her, and for my family who was taking care of her, but now it's over.

We went to visit her last Friday at the hospice, when she was a little more alert. I know it's selfish, but I didn't really want to see her if she was suffering and out of it. The kids all saw her, Lucy sang her The Rainbow Connection, and when we were leaving, she opened her eyes and said, 'I love you. I love you all.'

Even though it wasn't in her home, in her chair, I'm so happy that's the final moment I got to have with her.

Gypsy Life: Day A Baker's Dozen

Guess what? TODAY I TOTALLY FOUND A NEW BABYSITTER!

(Nicole - you will never be replaced. I just found a temporary substitute until we can kidnap you and give you Stockholm syndrome so that you think you actually want to live with us forever.)

I know I've been abusing the caps lock button a bit lately, but SRSLY! I have been having a very difficult time finding a new sitter, and because of our current school situation I kind of really need one ASAP. I put an ad on sittercity.com and was having no luck. It seemed like, even though I was pretty clear on what I was looking for, many people were just applying for anything and everything. So I'd get all excited, seeing that I had eight new applicants, but then four of them were looking for full time work, one could only work tuesdays and thursdays, one wanted $20 an hour and one wasn't willing to drive to the location that WAS CLEARLY STATED IN THE AD.

(sorry)

Then I'd go and meet up with the one applicant who seemed promising, only to find out that she could only work mornings. Guess when I need someone?

AFTERNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONS!

Needless to say, I didn't get my hopes up when I set up a meeting with a new applicant today. But guess what? She was every bit as nice as she seemed online, and she can start tomorrow! Which is perfect since SOB and I are double booked for a school thing/work thing. Hopefully she's not secretly a black market agent looking for some cute but loud blue eyed kids.

--

So here's a funny little tale to end the day. We got to go inside the new house today to measure for carpets, and we took Maggie and Fred along. They had never been there before, and Maggs in particular was excited to try and find her new bedroom. As we walked through the upstairs, she would open every closet and ask, "Is this my new room?" all excitedly. I'm worried she's going to be disappointed with an actual bedroom.

Gypsy Life: Day One Dozen

These past few gypsy days have been filled with highs and lows. There was the news of the nieces, which was an immeasurable high! Then there was news that the current owners of our new house are suffering some ill fates due to the transitions surrounding the selling of their long-time home, which was sad and frustrating. Then there was news about our closing date that really made me smile! Then there was news about my grandmother that made me (and Sam) cry.

To sum it up? The gypsy life will be over in a weeks time! The bad news? We'll probably be attending a funeral between now and then.

In other news, Simon the-cat-by-which-we-were-shunned, has decided he misses us. Well, something like that at least. After days and weeks of fretting over what to do with our kitty-boy, he took our decision to leave him with our sweet neighbor and spit it back in our faces. Now that we're gone he's gone into full-on attack mode on our neighbor's other cats, and she isn't having it. I don't blame her one bit. So one day next week I'll be driving down to Mo-town, having coffee with my bestie Sara, and then bringing the cat to Pittsburgh. I can't say I'm sad about having him back, but the first time he pukes on our new carpets I may be singing a different tune.

Gyspy Life: Day Eleven

TODAY I FOUND OUT THAT MY BROTHER AND HIS WIFE ARE HAVING TWIN GIRLS!!!

(If you need me I'll be out at my local mall buying everything pink and purple in sight!!!1!!1!!!!)

High five for girls!

Gypsy Life: Day Ten

In West Virginia, everyone knows everyone else. Almost any time I left the house I ran into someone I knew. And I never just knew anyone from any one place. My kids went to school with our vet's kids. Sam played hockey with a kid who's dad SOB worked with. We ran into people from hockey at dance class. The grocery store was like a freaking social club. And this made us a little uncomfortable. We lived a life of semi-urban anonymity for over a dozen years, so even after two years of living in Mo-town, we still hadn't gotten used to the small town-ish-ness of things.

We had hoped that moving back to a city we'd get back to a life of not knowing anyone and everyone we happened to encounter. So far, that doesn't seem to be the case. SOB is having a particularly tough time because he is in a similar line of work as his father, who formerly worked at the hospital where SOB is currently working. Even though it was almost 30 years ago, there are still people there who remember his dad, and he gets asked about it several times a week.

I haven't really been that effected by this phenomenon until today. I went to the gym we have here in the apartment complex, and there was an man there just finishing up. He was maybe a few years older than my parents, and was a chatty type. After some pleasantries, we somehow got to talking about our living situation, and he asked where our new house was. Turns out his sister is going to be our neighbor.

AND she is SOB's colleague.

AND THEN!

Turns out gym man was neighbors with my grandparents until about three months ago. That my great aunt helped care for his mother when she was ill. That my grandfather might have helped to coach his little league team. The man who bough his house is the man who will buy my grandparents' house when they are no longer with us. The same guy has been buying up all of the houses within their small neighborhood, probably to eventually level them and expand his junk yard.

Maybe SOB has the right idea.

Gypsy Life: Day Nine

Holy crap. We're already on day NINE! That means that, in the most positive of situations, we've past the halfway point of the gypsy livin'. In a slightly less rosy scenario we still have almost two weeks left here. Let's keep the positivity flowing, ok?

Sam had his first hockey game today, which was kind of cool. They put him on a lower team, which I think wasn't the best match, but he had a lot of fun. Oh, and Pascal Dupuis was there with his kid. NBD. If the NHL keeps up with this lockout thing, I bet we'll see a lot more of him this season.

Oh, and as a total positive hockey sidebar, his new team and his old team have the same exact colors! So that scarf that I spend many, many, many hours crocheting for him last season hasn't been rendered obsolete! Hooray for me!

We also had a really nice visit with our babysitter from WV. Part of the reason I'm having so much trouble finding a sitter here is that we had the absolute gold standard in babysitters with Nicole, and it's really hard not to compare. When we moved there I put an ad in the WVU student employment office. She was the first person to respond, the only person I interviewed, and we had two years of absolute happiness with her. The kids love her, I love her, and I'm pretty sure she loves us back! I never got a chance to say goodbye to her down there, which is probably for the best as it would have very rapidly dissolved into an epic ugly cry on my part. Today we had a little hug goodbye, but we knew it wasn't GOODBYE. I mean, it's only an hour and a half down the freeway. 

The kids were so excited to see her (and her boyfriend, who is also awesome and totally cool with my kids jumping and hanging all over him like little spider monkeys) that I couldn't help but get a little misty, though. We miss you so much Nicole!

Gypsy Life: Day Eight

Today we had the distinct pleasure of not only going to our new pediatrician for the first time for Lucy's year 5 well visit, but also of trying out the emergency department of our local children's hospital branch. Oh, what fucking fun!

Most every morning since we've been going to school here the girls play on a very gentle staircase that goes in-between the blacktop area and the playing field. They call it the 'balance bean' (Olympic obsession with gymnastics, anyone?) and they seem to have a lot of fun. Until today, when Lucy inadvertently tripped on a discarded water bottle and let out a blood curdling scream. Since she screams kind of a lot anyway, I didn't rush to react, but when she didn't get up I decided to investigate. I walked over, and saw that she really appeared to be in pain. She got up, but then went right back down. I got her over to the bottom step, she sat for a while, and then she seemed fine. Since I had scheduled her year 5 checkup for 9am, I figured we'd mention it then just in case. The doctor checked her out, declared her healthy as a horse, ankle and all. 

We went home, and I put on Sesame Street while I did some dishes. When it was over I called the kids over to the table to eat, and Lucy couldn't get to the table without yelping.

Her left ankle was swollen and she could only limp along. 

After many phone calls to many doctors and urgent care centers, we finally got her an x-ray. She doesn't have a fracture, but she does have a nasty sprain. Being 5, crutches are not really an option, so we're sticking with ice, elevation, an ace bandage, and carrying her 52 pound ass around as much as possible. 

Of course it had to be my child who is in the 92nd percentile for weight who needs to be carried everywhere. 

Gypsy Life: Day Seven

ZOMG!!!!! 

So this happened. It was kind of an unplanned thing, and honestly, if there wasn't photographic evidence, you probably wouldn't notice. Why? Because I am a crazy person who didn't even want to permit the microscopic trim to keep his hair out of his eyes. So yes, he kind of has bangs and a pseudo-mullet. And that kind of makes him look even more like a girl. Shut up!

Sam and I got haircuts, too, but there was much less fanfare.

Gypsy Life: Day Six

Sometimes I wonder just how all of this relocation stuff is affecting SOB. If you didn't already know (are there seriously any of you out there who don't know us in real life?) SOB lived in the town we're moving to until he was six. The girls are attending the same Montessori school he attended as a child. We had dinner with his family tonight at a restaurant he used to frequent in his childhood. As someone who never had any desire to return to her hometown permanently, I feel like that must be weird for him. I guess that's why I didn't really bat an eye when he relayed an experience about seeing a car wash that triggered a long forgotten memory, which in turn gave him the urge to just turn north and head to Alaska. Fortunately, he had to go and pick up one of our daughters, and his sense of responsibility outweighed his yearning to escape to the Arctic. This time...

In other news, the people we are buying the house from started moving out today. There's the truck! While this is kind of good news, it does smart a little that they won't let us close until the 25th at the earliest. I could go on and on about that, but I'm trying to bring more positivity into my life by being less negative, so I won't.

Speaking of being less negative, I'm not going to say a single fucking word about our babysitter search. Not a single word.

How are y'all yinz doing?

Gypsy Life: Day Five

Today was a day I don't really want to talk about. But in the interest of keeping this series going, I'll try and persevere.

Lucy had a great first day of kindergarten, according to her. She didn't eat her sandwich and I had to throw it away (booooo!) but she claimed that lunch was her favorite part of the day. The entire two hours she was at school while Maggie wasn't, Mrs. Magoo loudly and stompily proclaimed her desire to also be in school. She decried the un-fair-ness of it all, while laying on the floor pounding and kicking and screaming. Let me repeat my earlier statement that I really truly hope our downstairs neighbors work during the day.

As a sidebar, let me tell you about our washer/dryer. First off, I am very and truly appreciative of the fact that we have a washer and dryer in the unit, and don't have to schlep to a laundry mat. HOWEVER! We have at least nineteen children (wait, did I count that right?) and they mostly all require clean laundry most of the time. The stackable apartment washer/dryer combo thingie can hold about six garments before you can't get the lid to shut. Which means I'm doing laundry more that I could have ever, ever imagined. On the plus side, I can fold and put away each load super-quick! Which makes me feel like an awesome housekeeping-type person. To the rescue!

I met and talked with several candidates for babysitting. I am going to reserve commenting more on this, just in case one of them happens to end up being our babysitter, and ends up discovering this blog. Don't take that as a negative, though. I'm mostly hopeful that by the end of the week we'll have some sort of babysitting system loosely in place. Fingers crossed!

Sam just told me that I had to come outside on the deck so that I could take a picture of the falling sky. Christ on a cracker, I love that kid.

Gypsy Life: Day Four

Today was a rather uneventful day. I was glad the weekend was over so the kids could go back to school. Speaking of back to school, I totally forgot to post about these two cuties and their new school.

This was (obviously) taken last week when we were still in WV, but it was the day the packing and moving began, and I never got a chance to post it. They both absolutely love it, but I, at the moment, am not. You see, they do an elaborate phasing-in schedule, so Maggie only goes for an hour, and Lucy goes for an hour and a half, but not at the same or consecutive times. That means that most days I am picking up or dropping off six times. Luckily, Lucy starts her longer kindergarten program tomorrow, so while I will still be doing six trips, them timing should be a little easier on my schedule. We'll see...

Another thing that might make my life easier in the near future is the babysitter I hope to hire. I put an ad out on sitter city today and got several responses right away. I'm going to meet up with some of the applicants this week, so here's hoping that by next week I'll have someone to pick Sam up from school. You know, since all of a sudden this year both Sam's school and the girls' school get dismissed at the exact same time, but they are three miles apart. That's fun.

I also did an On Demand kick boxing workout today. I really hope the person/people who live below us work during the day.

Finally, here is a video of my baby feeding himself meatballs with a giant fork, and then demanding bites of my salad, which was drenched with balsamic vinegar. WTF?

Gypsy Life: Day 3

Yesterday the kids got to visit with two sets of grandparents, and they are still positively vibrating from the sugar/excitement. So to burn off some steam, we took them to the playground. Even though there are several around, Sam wanted to go to the one at his school so he could show his dad all of the cool stuff he plays on at recess. Naturally, there were many photo ops.

Sadly, all of the running and see-sawing didn't do much to quell the insanity, so Sam had to go to bed early. We sent him off to his closet/room and he was asleep in minutes.

We also got to visit with some friends from WV who stopped by on their way to the Pirates' game. That was a lot of fun, but made me a wee bit sad. We've met some people and neighbors here, but there's nothing quite like tried and true friends. I'm hopeful that soon we'll have some new ones, but until then, it's nice to know the old ones are only a few miles away.

Gypsy Life: Day 2 The Day The Cable Died

Today started off a little earlier than the over 6 set had hoped. I guess that's what you get when you stack three kids in one room.

Last night, after officially closing on the WV house, we may have indulged in some nice french wine, so getting a wake up call at 6:30 this morning was not appreciated.  Since we have the same cable company as we did in WV, I instructed Sam to put on PBS and hoped that maybe we could catch a few more minutes of sleep. My devious plan was fool-proof! Except that I never once considered that the cable might not be working. Two minutes later Sam was back in our room, relaying the error message that the cable box was displaying. Then Maggie came in demanding breakfast. All of the commotion woke up Fred and before I really and truly opened my eyes all four kids were seated at the table eating a healthy meal of poptarts and bagels.

As a gesture of love and kindness, I didn't send the kids in to wake up SOB until 8am. Because I'm an awesome wife and all. Sam had really been craving some quality dad time, so those two went out for waffles. Me and the little ones have been hanging out, making beds, dressing up like tinker bell, watching elmo's world on the youtubes, and playing 'hide the mad hatter.'

The cable situation won't be rectified until Monday, but we found our Apple TV thingie so we can netflix and stuff. The boys are on their way home, and then I'm going to try out the gym up in this place. Because if I don't get out of this apartment soon, I may go mad myself!