Me and the bee and husband Johnny
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We are recovering from the stomach flu that moved from Papa to bee to me. My mom is here. We are packing quickly enough to make up for lost time and it looks like we are in okay shape for the movers on Tuesday. But I could have done without the trouble, that’s for sure.
P.S. I recommend everyone, whether they have children or not, keep a bottle of Pedialyte on hand at all times.
We are packing. I am packing, Fiona is trying to get my attention. We went for a walk around the block yesterday and I pushed her on her tricycle and that was good for a while. But it was cold; she asked to go home so she must have been very cold.
She is staying up later and later and is unhappy about it, manic and emotional. I’m out of focus and haven’t been able to help her.
Just a couple more weeks until the closings. Then two moving trucks come. Then we unpack. Not much longer, not much longer.
We are keeping busy. Monday, we went to the Navy Pier Winter Wonderland with friends. Yesterday, we stayed at home because we needed to be there for the installers to install our new front entrance door and for a repair person to (fail to) repair some of the gas piping to the hot water heater and the furnace. The little bee kept busy and barefoot and her feet were mighty dirty by the end of the day. Today, I hope to get out of here and go to Open Gym and let her keep busy there.
There are some workmen coming to the house today to tear up the bathroom. Johnny is taking the morning off work to guide them and probably to take them to the building supply store to get building supplies. I am going to help by taking the little bee to Navy Pier’s Winter Wonderland. But before I can escape, I need to make a building supply store shopping list and clean a few things out of the bathroom.
We are headed into a winter of huge changes here. We are getting our house ready for sale while we look for a 2-flat in the neighborhood. There are some things that need fixing up here before we pass the keys to someone else and it’s a bit bittersweet to finally repair something but know we won’t be the ones to most enjoy it. Of course, that’s all offset by the idea of the Notional New and Fabulous Place that will solve all our troubles, fight crime and help us lose weight.
We have finally found a lawyer who can help us whack through the simple but dense paperwork (and court dates) of getting our last name changed. We are going to take Johnny’s mom’s maiden name. At long last. After we change our names, we will be back at the lawyer’s office to get together a will or a trust or whatever is called for. Thinking about naming guardians is such an overgrown bramble of trouble.
We have met with our financial planner and made some financial plans. We also met with John’s aunt, a mortgage broker, and have started the process of getting a mortgage for a 2-flat.
Plus all the Halloween fun with the little bee. Tomorrow is a Halloween party and I attempted to make an astronaut helmet yesterday for her costume out of an octagonal box. She seems to like it though it’s a little big. Sunday we went to Bengston’s Pumpkin Farm in the south suburbs and petted animals and ate roast corn.
I have some phone calls to make!
Yesterday, the little bee and I had a playdate with a neighbor and it was quite interesting. The mom is very personable; she has an almost 2-year old daughter and a 6-week old son. Oh! How small and sweet he is. She is planning on sending her kids to school and maybe daycare when they are older and all those ordinary things. When I told her I am homeschooling Fiona she was astonished. She recently completed her Masters in Education and plans on being a teacher. She sees teaching as a Very Difficult Task. I tried to explain how I plan on being my daughter’s mentor and finding her resources as she needs them. How NUG has those Mr. Science Guy classes and the library has museum passes. She seemed skeptical but willing to consider it. I didn’t want to throw in the whole unschooling concept so we will save that for another time. I did offer to loan her my ring sling to help her carry around her baby in the house because she is pretty overwhelmed with everything and she took me up on it. Funny how I feel like I understand a lot of her parenting ideas already but I am hoping not to overwhelm her with mine lest she be put off.
Near her house, which is about a mile from ours, I saw two nice looking 2-flats for sale. I took pictures and looked them up. One, which has obviously been beautifully rehabbed, has gone condo. The other is very reasonable and has very low taxes, oh my! This has re-lit the fire under me and got me organizing my thoughts on what needs to be done to our house to get it ready for sale. I have called a couple of contractors to come out for quotes and am gathering information so I can call a few more. ^Anyone know a good plumber or electrician?!^
Today, we go to Spanish Class and will hopefully make it this time. I have been feeling the need to connect more closely with Fiona and I will have to try to make time for that today.
