Friday, August 19, 2011

Paint

Well this is awufl, but these are the last photos I took. The house looks totally different now. The crown is up, the cabinets are in, the bookcases are in, etc. I will try to update my photos this weekend! But this was last weekend...


playroom meeting dining room



living room and kitchen








upstairs hall








Sunday, August 14, 2011

Our Childcare Journey

So I hadn't really gotten to share this...


I left off my story at us searching for a nanny. We had over 70 applicants to our posts on care.com and sittercity.com. Most of them worthless. It began with Nanny 1. Nanny 1 had great credentials but signed her emails "Ms. ____" which I already didn't like. I do not want grownups to refer to themselves that way to other grownups. Anyways, I already held my grudge and then Nanny 1 came in a smelled like smoke. She could have just turned around and walked right back out. (and yes, her profile said non smoker)


I loved Nanny 2. Nanny 2 was a few years younger than me, engaged, and had a 15 month old girl. We sat and talked to Nanny 2 for hours. When Nanny 2 left, I realized I wanted to be friends with Nanny 2, not hire her.


In the background of all this, there was Nanny 3. Nanny 3 wrote the most eloquent emails I have ever read. She was educated, retired, and away from her own grandkids. Perfect. I was DYING to meet Nanny 3. When I did, I was disappointed. Nanny 3 was very sweet but quite overweight. She could not get around very easily. Roman is wild now, I can't imagine in a short time when he can walk. My heart was broken that Nanny 3 did not live up to what I anticipated.


We had put a lot of stock in meeting Nanny 3. So we went back to the drawing board and interviewed Nanny 4. Nanny 4 originally wanted to watch kids in her own home, and then had written me back to tell me she had reconsidered. I LOVED Nanny 4. She was the whole package. A teacher, tired of teaching and financially able not to. Perky, warm, smart. Mother of a highschooler and college student. We offered Nanny 4 the job. She took a week to reply, only to say no, that she really just wanted to watch kids in her own home. REALLY?!?!?! Waste of time.


By the way this all took place over a month. Ugh.


So before Nanny 1, before before Nanny 1,my friend Elizabeth had said her friend was a nanny. She, now referred to as Nanny 5, has a son that is four months older than Roman. That made me very nervous and not very interested. Then, I honestly had forgotten about it. So Elizabeth reminded me and since nothing else had worked out, I made plans to interview Nanny 5 after our vacation.


While on vacation, hippie daycare called. They informed me of progress and I began to reconsider them. The money being one big reason. After vacation, we interviewed Nanny 5. I really liked Nanny 5, but I could not get over her son. And I was reconsidering having a nanny at all for financial reasons. I asked Nanny 5 if she would watch Roman until the hippie daycare opened. She had been offered another job and didn't want ours if it had the potential of ending in a matter of weeks. Fair enough.


That week I started working whenever I had someone to watch Roman. I spent Wednesday at home in tears most of the day. I had let myself be convinced that I could live with him going to Baptist East daycare until the hippie daycare opened. I guess I convinced myself. The entire day of crying and depression didn't seem very convincing. The next morning Elizabeth watched Roman. I told her about our decision and she really made me reconsider. She reassured me about her friend (Nanny 5) and her son. She really helped me see things clearly. I talked with friends and family and the load already began to lighten. I called and hired Nanny 5, LINDSEY, that night. That evening was filled with more smiling and laughter than Warren and I had seen out of each other for days.


So Lindsey started last week and things have been great! It is so relieving to have someone I trust and feel comfortable with watching Roman.

Big Scare

I am sure it is obvious by my lack of posting, but I went back to work. School hasn't started, and actually our first day tomorrow has already been cancelled due to power outages, but I have spent the past two weeks working in my room. This was my last weekend of freedom and when it began Friday night with Mad Men and enchiladas, I could never have guessed what was about to happen. We woke up at 3:30 am Friday night/Saturday morning depending on how you look at it. Roman was tossing and turning and being disruptive to our sleep. Warren kind of sat up and said his heart was "doing that thing again". About two years ago, after a (very) fun Halloween night, Warren woke up and his heartbeat was racing and irregular. It went away, no worries. It happened maybe two other times. After a Christmas party and after 4th of July. You can connect the dots here. However, us staying in with our five month old watching Netflix isn't exactly a crazy party. Usually :) This time was different; I could SEE his heart going crazy in his chest. Warren decided to go to the hospital. He does, after all, work in CARDIAC rehab at Baptist East. So we went, I stayed home with Roman.
He called around 6:00 to say he had been admitted. His heart was in A-Fib. Google it, I can't explain it. I got to the hospital around 9:00 and it was pretty uneventful. Finally around 1:30 he went into sinus (?), a.k.a. things went back to normal. They did another EKG and an echocardiogram. Warren, or his coworkers, or my bf's mom, head of cardiovascular services knew his doctor and/or everyone doing the tests. Though Warren couldn't manage to finagle a private room as an employee. Anyways, it was the weekend, and things are slow, so he had to spend the night. Our lovely friends Matt, Elizabeth, and Jeremiah came to visit last night. I left to go home to the baby. Then, the on call cardiologist sent him home this morning. He will see Dr. Mandola (?) a physio-electro (I made that up) specialist. He specializes in the heart's electrical system. Until then he is on heart regulatory meds and blood thinners.
That's the story, morning glory. He's fine now, just tired from sharing a room with an old man that had to be checked on frequently. We'll have to wait to find out the whats and whys.

Saturday, August 6, 2011

Walls

For the past few weeks the house progress has been boooooring! They've been doing plumbing, electrical, and HVAC. But this week we got walls and siding!!! I love our cedar shakes!