Moving Nowhere

We are slowly passing milestones in this housebuilding business. Is it done, you ask? What colors did you pick, you say?

Let's not get ahead of ourselves here.

Slowly passing milestones equals more that the paperwork is *almost* done, and we might start building in the foreseeable future, than that any actual work has been done.

Here's what's gone on:
County zoning requirements met - check
Houseplans complete - check
Building bids sought - check
Building bids obtained - three, painfully slowly
Builder procured - check
Houseplans revised - check
Houseplans revised again (by me so I didn't have to see the fucking houseplan lady again) - check
Financing pre-approved - check
Building contract finalized - check
Land contract finalized - check
Site plan completed - check
Financing finalized- check (oh my god we are now so poor)
Site plan provided to flood people even though our land isn't in a flood plain - check
Land purchased - check (almost - I don't have the deed in hand yet)
Perk test - in progress
Building permit - later this week

For those of you who have not yet had a crash-course in septic - or "where poo-poo go" - a perk test is where they test your land to see if water absorbs into the land at a rate that will work with a normal septic system, or if we have to use a funky expensive septic solution. We're so hoping for absorbent land. Like, Bounty absorbent. Funky and expensive is not in the budget.

The pathetic little list above represents seven months of work. And frustration. And watching things ever-so-slowly grind forwards. And second-guessing the wisdom of this project as we've watched the economy start circling the bottom of the toilet, faster and faster as the months go by.

And they haven't even started, oh, BUILDING THE FUCKING HOUSE YET. But we're close enough that I'd better get in gear and get my 'before' pictures taken.

P.S. The title of this post refers both to the state of the project and that the place we're moving has no address yet. Literally, we're moving to slightly North of nowhere.

The "I Love You" Song

The Little Man was helping me wrap a birthday present this morning for one of his buddies. His sparkling, happy eyes and general overall cuteness inspired me to sing "I love you" in a big, operatic voice.
He didn't miss a beat, singing right back "I love you too!"
to which I replied " I love you more!"
then he sang, with a nice melody, "I love you most!"
and I belted (in a this-is-the-finale sort of way) "I love you up to the moon!"
to which he came back with a very loud "I love you more than McDonald's!"

And . . . I had nothin'. His love truly knows no bounds.

P.S. Yes, when daddy's not around, we communicate in song sometimes. Mostly with an opera feel. It's what we do. Stop judging, but feel free to be happy you're not around when it's going on.

Oh Meme

I haven't done a meme here in oh, EVER, but this one that Average Jane did the other day looked kind of fun.

The rules are to post my answers to a quiz. There are no wrong answers because it’s all about me. Unless I lie to look cooler or smarter than I am.

So, here goes:

A. Attached or single? Married
B. Best friend? My Hubby
C. Cake or pie? Lemon Meringue Pie (but only if it's tart enough)
D. Day of choice? Sunday
E. Essential item? Internet Access
F. Favorite color? Blue
G. Gummy bears or worms? Worms
H. Hometown? Byers, KS
I. Indulgence? Pedicures
J. January or July? January (I abhor hot weather)
K. Kids? 4-year old Little Man, and almost 2 Little Miss
L. Life isn’t complete without? Family
M. Marriage date? September 20, 1997
N. Number of brothers & sisters? 2 brothers - one older, one younger
O. Oranges or apples? Apples in the fall, oranges in the winter
P. Phobias? Claustrophobia if there is no airflow
Q. Quotes? More Cowbell.
R. Reasons to smile? My kiddos (and seeing them go to grandma's for the weekend)
S. Season of choice? Fall
T. Tag seven peeps! Meme if you must - no assignments here
U. Unknown fact about me? I had a huge crush on Jean Luc Picard in high school.
V. Vegetable? Cucumbers
W. Worst habits? Procrastination
X. X-ray or ultrasound? Ultrasound 'cause usually there's a baby involved!
Y. Your favorite food? Mexican
Z. Zodiac sign? Aries

Building a House: The saga continues

I've been silent about the house building project for a while because it's going so. damn. slowly. There's not been much to report besides my intense frustration with the whole process.

When last I left you, I was waiting for the final bid to come in so I could decide on a builder. The final bid came in 3 weeks after the others, and it was $60,000 higher than the next closest bid.

I was SO pissed off that I wasted 3 weeks waiting for a bid that we clearly couldn't work with. I had expected the guy to be higher, but $60,000? Fucking robber barron.

So. It took us an additional couple of weeks to get all our ducks in a row and choose between the remaining contenders. We finally did make a decision. And here we are, 4 weeks later, still dicking around without a builder's contract. Breaking ground isn't even on the distant horizon.

Sigh.

I'm hoping to have the last change the builder is requiring to the house plan done tomorrow. Then, when the mood strikes him, he might actually draw up a contract that we can haggle over for a week or so before we sign. Then it's off to play with the bank, title company and (God forbid) the county for another few weeks. If we're lucky, by the time the ground freezes we'll have a backhoe in place to sit and wait like everything else.

Fucking delays.

The only glimmer of progress is that we got flags put in the ground marking the corners of the house. It's weird - it looks really small, like it barely takes up any ground at all. At the same time it looks enormous.

I got to stand in the place where my screened porch will be. I daydreamed a little about sitting and sipping a daiquiri on it, watching the sun set. It was SWEET.

My Condolences

It's been a sad few days. It seems that it's a funerary year - one in which I am destined to attend many funerals.

So far this year I've said good-bye to my grandmother and aunt. This past weekend my aunt's husband passed as well - an expected loss, but hard on the family nevertheless.

I opted out of traveling 3 states away to attend his funeral for a myriad of reasons, but I got another dose today anyhow.

A bad, bad dose.

I found out yesterday that a co-worker's husband died in a hiking accident late last week. He was 31.

THIRTY-ONE.

He was a very talented, vibrant person, as is his wife. She and I were pregnant at the same time last year - she with her first and me with my second child. I helped throw a baby shower for her. The girls are 2 months apart.

It just makes me ill to think about it. To think about a little girl just the age of my Little Miss having to grow up without her daddy. Of her mom suddenly being a single working mother whose best friend is gone just like that.

It breaks my heart.

I went to the memorial service today along with a number of other co-workers. It was nice to see the hefty turnout - the line was about half a block long to sign the book at the door when we got there, and the service was standing room only. Even though I was crammed with about 25 other attendees in a hot entry way craning to hear the service through an open door, I'm glad I went. The service was well done, and my co-worker did one of the bravest things I've ever seen. She got up and read a letter to her husband. It was superbly written - poignant, funny, and real. Perfect. And she read it flawlessly - didn't break down once. I am proud of her, and in awe of her.

I am sleeping with both of my kids and my darling husband tonight. And holding on to all of them tightly while I can.

Mentally Random (Randomly mental?)

The last month I've felt insanely busy and like I'm not accomplishing anything at the same time. It's a weird dichotomoy, one I can't quite wrap my mind around.

There are an endless supply of household chores to do or boxes to pack or cleaning out closets or cleaning up messes or house repairs calling my name. The kids constantly want something or need juice or want me to play with them or have hurt themselves and need a cuddle and kiss. Work is just getting busier in the coming months. And in between there are builders to call and quotes to compare and bankers to question and choices to make. Tons and tons of choices to make.

Yet it seems that I'm doing nothing. We're slowly getting things crossed off both the "selling the house" and "building the house" lists, but my internal housebuilding clock (yes, it's there already) says we're running late, and we keep having to cut crap out to afford the payments. I'm not advancing my career (because the efforts of the part-time don't count). I don't have any new hobbies. No vacations planned. No realization of life goals on the horizon.

It's annoying.

Things will probably loosen up once we get the new house built, but that's another 6 + months out. Which leaves a gaping chasm of time in which I'm still going to have this feeling that makes my eyelids itch. It seems that the easiest thing to spice things up would be to schedule a vacation. So maybe I'll do that.

In other news, in anticipation of her upcoming birthday, the Little Miss has donned the mantle of a "terrible two" and is all of a sudden opinionated, stubborn, defiant, pouty and generally hard to get along with. She has, however perfected a fist-bump, high five combo secret greeting with her brother that is absolutely adorable. We've decided that we'll still keep her for now.

I have been wondering - how long do you think until the fist bump makes it to the list of developmental milestones? Maybe if Obama is elected?

My Ass is Getting Kicked by Someone Whose Foot Doesn't Reach That High

So you know how I said how much I missed the Little Miss and was so very happy to have her home?

That really hasn't changed so much, except that I'm ready for her to go back to Grandma's now.

It's the sleeping, you see. She doesn't do it. And I miss it, oh how I miss the sweet uninterrupted nights of scream-less slumber that I knew, lo, these many days ago.

We have been doing battle every night over this sleep thing. That's seven in a row, folks. I want her to sleep, and she doesn't feel the need. I want her to sleep in her bed, she wants to sleep in mine, with me, right next to me with her feet up my nose. I want her to go to sleep when I put her to bed. She feels I should rock her, or at least sit in her rocker, for the hour plus that she languorously takes to drift off. 2-3 times Every Single Night.

I. Am. So. Sick. Of. This.

We have both been wearily rolling out of bed in the morning like boxers in the fourth or fifth round - bleary-eyed, wearing down, but still willing to dodge a few more punches. She's got an unfair advantage in the form of 2 1/2 hour naps every afternoon, while I have to make do with whatever caffeine I can suck down and the toothpicks that prop open my eyelids.

In spite of this, I've been making slight progress with a newish tactic, which I call Shutting the Door and Ignoring What Happens Within. The crying has decreased from 40 minutes the first night, to 30 minuets the next, and last night at 2:30 it was only 7 minutes. Granted, I think she's been sleeping in a crumpled heap on the other side of the door, but you know, she's sleeping. And her bed is in there should she choose to use it.

I get that it sounds positively barbaric, but I tell you, it's probably a better tactic than, say, leaving her on the neighbor's doorstep, or shipping her to Tanzania. Which have both crossed my mind.

Today while I was doing the only thing I was able to focus on at work - surfing - I discovered that the lack of sleep is not only making me dumber, and older, it's also making me fatter. Oh my Lord I hope that this shakes out before I'm 350 pounds and sitting in the corner sucking my thumb and rocking.

My good friend Dorothy writes that Sleep is for the Weak. Well, sign my weak ass up.

The Little Miss Looms Large

It's been a kind of weird week. The Little Miss's daycare was closed this week, so we packed her up and shipped her off to spend the week at Grandma's on Sunday. We didn't get her back until Friday, and I discovered that's a really long time to go without your Little Miss.

Don't get me wrong. It was nice to have some extra time with the Little Man and to just parent one child - who can wipe his own ass! - for a change. I got to sleep straight through four nights in a row . . .bliss! And while I was sleeping I didn't have two little feet trying their best to to kick me out of bed. I had 40 extra minutes every evening by not having to put her to bed, and mornings were quicker as well not having to get her ready and constantly talk her out of being picked up.

But.

I didn't have her to cuddle. I couldn't sniff the baby smell that lingers in her hair. She wasn't there to say "hi mama!" 26 times and wave when I got home at night. I didn't get to see her cuddle her babies and then drag them down the hall by the foot, head bouncing along on the floor. I didn't get to argue with her about her outfit in the morning (ok, I secretly like that she's so strong willed, even though it's a pain.) I missed out on her fabulous bed-head in the morning (she really does get some spectacular hair going in the morning for it being thin and stick-straight). I didn't get to hear her growl, or belly-laugh. I didn't get to watch her play with cars and say "vroom vroom!" I missed her.

I don't think I was the only one. Though the Little Man staunchly denied it, I caught him more than once hiding something up high so she couldn't get it, and looking through the house for her. His dad took the same tone - mouthing that he didn't notice she wasn't around, but I caught some forlorn looks in the direction of her bedroom.

Her personality has been blossoming since she turned one, and she's been becoming more and more herself every day. Turns out, she's also become a very big part of our household. You always think these things, but it's kind of nice to have it confirmed.

It's also nice to have her back.

And now, drum roll please . . .

drrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Today, 19 months to the day after she was born, she finally smiled at a camera. And yes, she's covered in chocolate cake batter.

And not wearing any pants.

Rolling Along On the House

And now, for another house update.

We are eeking ever closer to actually starting to build a house.

Yes, that sentence is an accurate portrayal of the amount of action happening with this project.
I'm telling you, this building process is like being towed by snails through a sea of molasses. It is G-O-I-N-G S-O S-L-O-W.

There has been progress. Some progress. We have final - FINAL! - house plans. That's pretty damn exciting. We've been working on them since flippin' March, but I tell you it was worth it. I luv them. I can walk through the entire house in my head, and it becomes more real with each choice of outlet height and plumbing fixture we make.

We've also gone in front of the County Commission and squeaked through a 2/1 vote to allow us to zone. After listening to 2 1/2 hours of meeting, they made this decision. After talking about our case for one ENTIRE HOUR of that time, the two meeker commissioners finally found their cojones and voted down the stronger commissioner to give us what we need. I had no idea it was such a big deal.

We MAY even be able to go straight to applying for a building permit, though no telling when the zoning department will make up their minds about that. It is fascinating to watch the wheels of local government work. They're digging back 10-20 years on our title to find out the answer to a question that I'm not convinced is relevant in the first place. I guess they need to stay busy so they can keep their phony baloney jobs. Harrumph!

We're also talking to builders. We have bids out to 4 guys, and another that wants to bid it. There are 2 front-runners at this point, but we're still trying to understand all the details well enough to know if the bids are apples to apples or not. Likely, they won't be, but I would still like to understand if the difference is made up of supplies or their margin. It would make the decision a little easier.

Any way we put it, we're going to be spending kind of a scary amount of money on the house. I don't think it's anything we can't handle, but the raw numbers are a bit shocking. Kind of scary exciting, this house building stuff.

The Little Man is pretty stoked about the new house too. He knows where his room is on the plans, and what all the other rooms are too. In the midst of this, he's started to get interested in the concept of money, but doesn't really understand dollar values yet.

"Mommy, how much is our house"

"Two dollars"

"Wow! Two dollars." He pauses for a minute. "Mom, our new house is going to be five dollars. It's going to be so awesome."

Yes, yes it is.

Not a Fan of Precious Moments, but I'll Keep These

The Little Miss has finally figured out how to slither out of her toddler bed by herself. She's been in her big girl bed for a couple of months, but has, till now, lacked the confidence to leave it herself. Which was cool by me, because I wasn't quite as ready as Mr. Me to do away with the crib. But that's all gone now and she's mobile, baby.

With her new found skilz she has decided that when she wakes up in the middle of the night she needs to tootle on into our room, pat me on the ass and say "mama" loudly until I pick her up and plop her between her dad and I.

Then she curls up and goes back to sleep.

This has happened 4 nights in a row now at 3:10AM. I realize that stricter parenting could make this stop, but 3:10AM is a particularly weak time of day for me. Every morning I resolve to fix it tomorrow night, and every night I reach over and pick her up and tuck her in so we can GO TO SLEEP ALREADY. So, much to my disgruntlement, she sleeps half the night with us, the middle bar to our capital H (feet must be on mom, head and patting hands on dad).

This morning was particularly awesome because the Little Man had a night terror about 4:45, so he wanted in too. So I slept sandwiched between the two little moochers until 6:45, when I think someone kicked me in the head? stomach? both simultaneously? and I decided to get up.

I managed to sneak out from between them and into the bathroom for a shower without disturbing them. Or so I thought. As it turns out, I woke the Little Miss, who in turn screamed for me and woke her brother,. He patted her on the head and sang her songs -"Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star", "Rock-a-bye Baby" and the Transformer's Theme Song - until she went back to sleep. I'm so SO mad I missed it.

Cut to this afternoon, on the swing set out back. I was pushing the Little Man on his swing, and trying to simultaneously play catch with the Little Miss. It was sort of working - catch with the Little Miss doesn't require much movement on my part - but the Little Man was in a whiny mood anyway and went into Full Scale Whine-o-rama when he realized he did not have my undivided attention. He whined that I was pushing too hard. Then not hard enough. Then too high. I finally told him that I wouldn't play with him any more because the whining was making my ears bleed, and immediately there was whine-induced fake crying. Upon seeing his (fake - did I mention he was so faking it?) dismay, his little sis dropped her ball, walked over to him and patted his back and muttered at him, trying to console him.

They are SO UNBELIEVABLY CUTE together I almost can't stand it. It causes huge goofy smiles to spread across my face every time I see them being so sweet to each other. Then I remember they likely won't be able to stand each other in a few short years, and that I'll be able to drag out gooey stories like this and watch them stare at me in shock and horror.

And then the smiles spread from ear to ear.

Wa-hooie!

There has been a lot of good things going on the last week. A refreshing change from the Charlie Brown sentiments that too often make up the posts here, eh?

For starters - our house plans are done. In case you didn't catch that: OUR HOUSE PLANS ARE DONE! The dance I did as I leaped from my chair when Yahoo revealed the final sketches was likely not attractive, but it was done with gusto! I can completely walk through the thing in my head - I've dreamt about it a couple of times. It will fit our family just perfectly, and it's exactly what I was looking for.

Huzzah! Now on to finding a builder.

Then, yesterday I found out my friend Rita's book is available for pre-sale! She has worked her ass off for over TWO YEARS on this book, and it's been amazing to hear in snippets what all she's gone through to make this childhood dream of hers come true. (You could read about her journey to publishing here.) The book - Sleep is for the Weak - is a compilation of blog posts from a rock star roster of mommybloggers, and I can't wait to read it. It's amazing to see someone work and sweat and strain and finally achieve a childhood dream. Rita, you are now officially one of my honest-to-God heroes.

Buy it.


And finally, just this afternoon, I helped the Little Man to catch his very first fish! We were at a local community farmstead which has fishing available for the kids. "Fishing" consists of a tin bucket of 4 fat worms and the rental of a bamboo stick with a line and a hook that you can dip in their pond filled with Sunfish for the bargain price of $3. It's very sophisticated.

Of course, my son thinks it's awesome. He threw over his first horse ride on a horse named for his sister for the bucket of damn dirty worms. I will give him credit for gusto - he reaches right in there for the worms without a grumble, just a few comments on any extra-ordinary squirming as he's trying to hand them to me so I can skewer them on the hook. *shudder* The fourth worm won us our prize from the pond, though much to my relief it managed to wiggle itself off the hook and back into the pond right after I shot the photos. I try not to be too girly of a mom, but I'd just as soon not touch worms, fish, snakes and most bugs if I can get away with it.

My proud fisherman (the fish, it's a bigun)


It's so nice that there's so much going right to think about when other areas of my life are not going quite the way I'd prefer.

Living With Bugs Bunny

I was trying to explain my son's personality to a co-worker, and the best I could come up with was he was like living with Bugs Bunny.

My Little Man is a trickster. He loves to play jokes - to hop in your seat right before you sit down, and to tell you the opposite answer to the question you asked, and to steal something (usually food) right out from under your nose. He is quick - physically and mentally - and has a very active and well-used imagination. This combined with the endless amounts of energy this busy little boy possesses gives you - Bugs Bunny.

Case in point: Yesterday morning I asked him to go downstairs to our fridge and get me an iced coffee (I love me some Caribou Iced Coffee, though apparently they don't think so much of it as it has no home on their site). Pretty soon I hear his little voice, bursting with laughter, say

"Mom-my, I've got your coff-ee."

"Great - where is it?"

"It's behind my ba-ack." (giggle giggle)

"OK, well give it to me."

"Here it is!" And he busts out laughing as he brings forth a Gatorade.

"It's a Gatorade!" This he barely gets out as he's laughing hysterically.

I chuckled at him and told him to take it back and bring me my coffee.
He disappears back down the stairs, and proceeds to repeat his little joke with a bottle of water, a different flavor of Gatorade, a pop, and a gallon of milk. (He did complain bitterly about having to haul the gallon of milk back down two flights of stairs. The price of comedy is steep.)


Can't you just see this child leading Elmer Fudd on a wild goose chase all over the forest?

Some Things

No one thing to write about, just a bunch of little ones.

My report on the house is that there's NOTHING TO REPORT. The house plan lady has gone AWOL since Wed when we were supposed to see new sketches. The zoning department has not received the letter which kicks off the next part of the process, though it was sent over a week ago. This all pisses me off, but I'm trying to take a Zen approach and pretend like it doesn't.

I'm also making little progress on all the little projects we need to finish to get the current house ready to sell, which ALSO pisses me off. I think the fault lies somewhere between me being inefficient with time and Mr. Me's obsession with World of Warcraft. Probably doesn't help that we're both sitting here on laptops this evening instead of doing our chores.

The Little Man is doing extremely well at preschool, and has been pretty good lately in general, knock on wood. He's growing up pretty fast; in his mind it's even faster. He got up this morning and was stark naked but for a pull-up. I could have sworn that he had PJs on when he went to bed, but my mind, it does play tricks. When I asked him about it he said "I sleep naked now, Mom. I'm almost 5." I'm really having to get good control over my laugh reflexes around him these days.

The Little Miss is a pacifier addict. She LOVES them. She will find a stash of them and sit for 15 or 20 minutes, holding as many as she can in her pudgy little hands and rotate them through her mouth, happy as can be. We literally have about 50 of them in the house, but I can never find any because she ratholes them. I've started to catch on to some of her hotspots, and will periodically raid the big one behind her bed to snag 6 or 7. There's normally one or two in her little push car and among her stuffed animals as well, but lately she's started to try more exotic locations like the fridge and the canned goods shelves. (I'll have to remember these things when she's a teenager and I suspect she's hiding something . . .)

Since she's going on 18 months, I'm trying to slow down the paci use. I really would prefer that she didn't look like Bugs Bunny at age 5, so we now have a rule that she can only have a paci at naptime or bedtime. Man, it's hard. She screams like she's being murdered when I take them away, and I have to be constantly vigilant because she pops up with one from a hidey-holes about every 30 minutes. She's slowly getting used to it, and getting easier to distract. Maybe I'll be able to transition her off of them easier than I thought. Then again, maybe I'll have to invent the Patch for Paci.

Moving Along

The house building is sluggishly moving forward again. We finally have completed a few steps in the zoning process, and have gotten to the point where we're waiting for an appointment to go in front of the County Commission. Hopefully then we will get permission to zone the land, after which we have to have it surveyed, platted, and go BACK in front of the Zoning Commission so they can approve the way we have it drawn up.

Bah. Seems like much ado for a few lines on a map.

On another front, the houseplans are at long last almost finished. I'm pretty excited - I think it will be a good place to live. Three bedrooms, 2 1/2 baths, kitchen, greatroom , dining room, mudroom, a screened porch and a basement. I'm really looking forward to the screened porch.

Though we're building a larger house than we currently live in, we're losing 2 rooms, unless we can afford to finish a room in the basement. So I'm trying to think of the best way to make up for that space - it could get tricky.

After the plans are completely nailed down we'll give them to 2 or 3 of the builders we've met over the last 2 months and get estimates. Hopefully the estimate will be close to what we've projected and we'll acutally be able to afford the thing. I'm so very ready to get actual numbers and budgets and finally get rolling.

That's all I've got for now. Here's to hoping it's not long before I have another installment!

Farewell

My grandma died on April 4th.

This is the grandma who taught me to bake yeast breads. Who taught me to sew. Who I picked green beans and strawberries with, and cooked and cooked and cooked and cooked meals with at harvest time.

She taught me a new knit stitch at her 91st birthday party February 16th.

She and my grandpa ran a dairy farm 2 miles down the road from where I grew up, which made us next-door neighbors. We spent a lot of time with them, helping with farm chores and eating my grandma's fabulous full-o'-fat farm cooking. They always came to our school plays and ball games, and my brothers and I helped them show the Brown Swiss cattle they were so proud of at the State Fair every September.

Grandma had moved away from the farm six years ago after my grandfather passed away, and I admired the way she embraced such a big lifestyle change at the age of 85. She always kept herself busy - exercising every morning, knitting and quilting for mission projects, playing bridge, going to church and singing in the choir. She even played in a bell choir, though I don't really know how she was able to lift the bells.

I wish I had seen her more - she only lived 1 hour away but I was seldom able to get to her house for a visit. I did get to see her the night before she died, though, which I'm very grateful for. And she knew my kids, for which I'm also grateful.

I know she was ready when she went. It was a pretty spring day when she died, and her hospital room had a rather rural view of a large bank of grain elevators, which I think she would have liked.

It doesn't make me miss her any less though. Goodbye, Grandma. I love you.

Proof of Easter Cuteness

I finally got my camera back from my mom's house and downloaded Easter photos. You are warned - there is almost too much cuteness!

Little Man and Little Miss posing on Grandma's piano. Cheesy smiles from the one, a hint of amusement from the other. Frankly, she looks a little long-suffering. Speaking from experience as a little sister, that won't be changing any time soon.

The Little Miss, she likes her new shoes.

My favorite Easter photo this year. Kids, eggs and jellybeans. Is there a better combination? I also love that the paci was very apparently thrown over for a jellybean. Fickle kid.

Zone This

I have downgraded the house building experience from merely Pain In the Ass to Gigantic, Flaming Pain In the Ass. I knew that my posterior was in for a rough bit with this process, but never did I imagine the rigmarole involved, and we're only the teeniest way into the thing.

We had an appointment with the Planning and Zoning Department in our county-to-be last week. I set the appointment with one guy, and figured it would be about 30 minutes, wham-bam, we're out of there. After an hour and a half in a little room with three of the county's finest zoners and planners (watching them for the most part figure out how to use their new mapping software), I now know I must plead with the County Commission for zoning mercy, and, if my pardon comes through, plead again with the Planning and Zoning Department and then AGAIN with the Planning and Zoning Board (the Board, of course, not to be confused with the Department). There shall be much zoning, and even more planning!

All this, to build this little orange rectangle here (note the the general lack of houses, trees, or really anyfuckingthing around):

I guess the coyotes give a fuck if your easements are planned in. Little bastards.

I also met with 3 builders last week and talked with 2 more over the phone. I feel like I'm making progress there, though after walking through so many model homes I'm sure when I get my allowances for floors and counter tops I'll be so sad to find I can afford only linoleum and other plastic products instead of the lovely granite and slate I've been seeing. And then I will pout.

In non-house related news, the Little Miss is one hell of an Easter Egg hunter. She was up before any of the other kids and found every one of the eggs hidden under two feet. She then quickly learned to squirrel the jellybeans out of each and every one. My girl, she likes her some jellybeans. She was absolutely adorable in her little yellow polka-dot Easter dress. It was so cute that, in a stunning feat of suburban housewifery, I made everyone else in the family wear yellow to match her yesterday. It was like the Von Trapp family, but with less whistles.

The Little Man had his four-year-old checkup last week. He was so excited to go because he wanted the doctor to tell him how tall he is. He's been obsessed with his height and his "long legs" lately. And for good reason. The child is 43 1/4" tall! And weighs 40 pounds. Did I mention, it was his FOUR year old checkup? He is kind of an Amazon stick person, and proud of it. The scary thing is that he's only a few inches (for him, a couple of months) from riding all the big kid rides at the amusement park. Yowza.

It Really is Me

Damn, but the dust is thick around here. Actually, according to the History channel, if I had left a building neglected like this for 6 months the vegetation and vermin would have made serious inroads towards completely demolishing the sucker.

Thank goodness the Internet is a vegetation and vermin-free environment. (At least the vermin are mostly not the bitey, house devouring types)

While I was hiatus-ing, both of the kiddos had birthdays (birthday party planning is over for another 9 months YEAH), the Little Man started pre-school and LOVES it, and the Little Miss is walking, talking (some) and showing her true personality and will any day be running the house. My, but she's a bossy little thing. For someone whose vocabulary consists of "mama", "dada", "hi", "bye" and "ball," she makes it crystal-clear exactly what she wants and browbeats her live-in servants (aka Mom, Dad and Big Brother) into getting it for her. But, she's adorable, so we don't chafe at her rule so very much.

In addition, two family members and a good friend's mom have been fending off cancer, another close friend had a miscarriage and it seems that every time I talk to someone I learn of new, funky, health-related issue that someone is dealing with. It's enough to make me want to stick my head deeply into the sand and wait for 2008 to pass on by.

Not that these stories (and more!) wouldn't have served as great blog-fodder, but quite frankly, I just haven't felt like it. However, a combination of events has made me want to tell stories again:
1. The Little Miss has decided that entire nights of sleep are now ok with her (THANK GOD)
2. My current knitting project is full of holes and I don't want to start over tonight (oh yes, I've started with the knitting)
3. I think I made a major breakthrough this week on a project I'd like to chronicle - building our new house!

I'm very excited about actually having made progress on the house. We decided FEBRUARY 2007 that we were going to do it. Since then, we've been looking at house plans (I swear I've seen at least 1,500 of them) and talking to builders, kind of getting our toes wet. We are finally at a point where we need to make a move and things did start churning this past week.

We found someone in a neighboring town to draw us up some house plans. She's going to put the pieces and parts of the plans we like together into something uber-cool (and that we can afford to build). I've also talked to a banker and builder that I liked. We may end up not using them, but they didn't prove themselves to be idiots immediately, which was refreshing.

This process promises to be one wild ride, so stay tuned.