Sleep

I'm not sure what is going on with me

and, yes, it might be related to moving and stress and what-not

but I am not sleeping lately!

I am getting around 3-4 hours per night.

It doesn't matter when I go to bed.

I wake up 3 or 4 hours later...

and my brain is done.

I feel tired.

But I cannot get back to sleep.

I often lay there for a long time trying.

Sometimes I get up and accomplish something 

(laundry, reading, dishes, computer)

Other times I just get up and pretend it's morning.

I take a shower and blow dry my hair.

Often, after I've showered, I feel sleepy again.

So I lay down (usually with not-quite-dry hair)

and fall asleep for an hour or so.

I wake up looking fabulous!

not really

Tonight, for example,

I went to sleep around 11:30 I think.

I laid down much earlier...10 or so.

I woke up at 2:45.

It is now 4:22 and I have not fallen back to sleep.

I moved some laundry.

Started the dishwasher

downloaded the Utah drivers booklet for Carter

Read the rules for each of the states we are driving through to see if Carter is allowed to help me drive in other states with a driver's permit

(the answer: no)

wandered the house

and laid here trying to think relaxing thoughts.

Usually at some point during the day I will feel so tired that I will lay down.

Sometimes I nap and sometimes I just lay there relaxing.

I can't imagine it will be good to be driving for 8 hours a day on 3 hours of sleep.

So I hope I sleep better this next week!

It's hard to imagine I will sleep very well in various cheap hotels, however.

The attack of the kidney stone

On Wednesday, July 1, 

Six days before my big move across the country

I was attacked by my kidney.

If you've never had kidney stones,

you should thank your lucky stars and also pray that it never happens to you.

It is horrendous.

Some people say that it is as bad as child birth.

But, as a woman who has experienced natural childbirth,

I just want to say...

It's worse.

Unrelenting

horrible pain

and the only thing you get at the end

if you are lucky

is a little rock.

And you do all kinds of embarrassing things when you are in unrelenting pain.

Take my word for it.

I have had this stone since December.

It attacked me the day after Christmas.

Then again in April

Then again in July.

I never passed it...

it just kept moving around and blocking important bodily pathways.

then it would move a little bit and unblock

so that I could go on living with this little time bomb inside of me.

I realize the timing of this last attack could have been worse.

It could have happened while I was driving across the country.

So, even though the timing isn't very good

I see how it wasn't the worst scenario.

The doctor decided that I wasn't going to be able to pass it

and they scheduled surgery.

So I had the little sucker removed on Thursday.

5 days before my move.

As I waited for surgery,

I felt a bit of a negative vibe between my surgeon and the nurses.

I don't know about you but I want my surgeon to be the kind of guy that everyone loves.

Animosity with co-workers seems like a bad thing. 

I guess it doesn't mean anything in terms of surgical skill but it still put me on edge.

I got the impression that the doctor was trying to get this done in a hurry

and the nurses and other staff were annoyed

and feeling like "I'll get my stuff done when I get my stuff done.  Back off!"

So at one point,

the nurse asks if the doctor has been in to see me.

He had.

She says, "Did he mark you?"

Another nurse pipes up with "If he didn't mark her, I'll go get him and make him come back"

I respond, "yes, he marked me"

"Where?  Your arm?" (said with a snarky tone of voice)

"Um. No.  My leg"

Which was apparently the right place for him to have marked me.

And the poor annoyed nurses just had to let the surgeon go.

Days later...

I still have a permanent market "yes" on my right leg

even after multiple showers and lots of scrubbing.

The surgery was a success and they removed a 5mm stone.

It's now being evaluated

So that they can tell me to cut even more things out of my diet, I assume.

The unfortunate thing is that they had to insert a stent.

Which is a big tube running from the kidney to the bladder

to keep the tube open in case of swelling.

this tube does not feel good

So I have spent the last several days

doing a lot of nothing

I was thankful we had packed gradually and in advance

so I didn't have all that much to do.

The movers come today

July 7

and I will probably be trying to find ways to lay down in the midst of the chaos.

Dangit, my kidney hurts!

Moving Day

Today is the day the movers come to take all my stuff to Utah.

The house is all packed up

and organized.

I woke up this morning

suddenly

to the realization that I

once again

forgot to remove the cable card from the Tivo.

Yes.

I have two Tivo devices

and I forgot to remove the cable card from both of them

before packing them in a box for moving.

It's times like this that I really feel like I'm going insane.

Luckily, I do a good job of labeling my boxes

so I found it right away.

Of course the Tivo was at the bottom of the box!

So after unloading all the stuff

I found the offending card and removed it.

And, again, the box just didn't re-pack as nicely.

Ok

I'm all ready for the movers.

For real this time.

I think.

t-minus 12 days

A couple of days ago I finally packed the tivo, cables for the tv, computer, and monitor.

Let the withdrawal begin!

(but not really, because I have an iPad)

Next week when I have to return the router, THEN we'll be in trouble.

My iPad only works on wifi.

_____

I got to FaceTime with my little Isabelle

She didn't know what to make of me...I think I got a hint of a smile a couple of times.

And she talked up a storm.

I'm pretty excited for her to get to know me and most of all, like me. haha

Frank says she's already warming up to him.

So fun!

_____

We got a new shed.

At our new house in Utah.

Frank arrived in Utah and got right to work.

He rented a dumpster to remove all of the crap that was left inside and outside of the shed.

It was a lot of crap.

Once he was able to see the shed he realized it was basically rotten.

So he had it torn down and bought a new one.

They built it on site today.

That man wastes no time.

_____

My brother, Daren, came to visit today. 

We only got to hang out for a few hours but it was nice.

We went to the John F. Kennedy library and museum.

I have never been there so YAY for seeing a cool Boston site that I've never seen!

Then, like the geniuses we are, we drove back to Westford to have lunch and ice cream at Kimballs.

It was delicious (of course).

And we drove back to Boston to take him to the airport.

Lots of cool stuff from the election 

A piece of the Berlin Wall

 It was a super cool building!

The time with my brother was worth the extra gas.

Plus, he bought our ice cream.

 _____

I haven't been sleeping

Staying awake until 3 a.m.

Waking up at 5

My brain won't turn off.

I'm redecorating in my head.

But I think I won't be redecorating when I get there because my husband is busy redecorating

the yard and garage instead.

blerg.

_____

The only thing left to pack is a few cabinets in the kitchen!

I'm so close.

My wisdom for today.

My aunt once told me that babies were a trick that God plays on us...
because they are so cute and we want them so much...
but then they turn into kids, teenagers and young adults!

Some days I truly feel tricked.
And I feel the pain and heartache that kids bring into our lives.

Other days its all good.
And I feel the love and fun that kids bring into our lives.

You raise them thinking
"these are the hard days"
"when they grow up it will all be worth it"

And then they grow up
and still cause you heartache
and stress
and worry

but now

You have very little influence.

And you can tell they think you don't know what you are talking about
or that what you are saying is irrelevant to them.

So whether we have little kids
or youngish kids
pre-teens
teens
young adults

We just have to...

Enjoy them.

Every stage has its trials.

We have to find a way to enjoy.

Finished in the nick of time...

About 5 minutes ago

I finally finished refinishing the cedar chest I got when we moved in here.

Sadly, I never took any "before" pictures.

I hate it when I forget to do that!

But you will have to trust me...

It was in pretty rough shape.

It was really dirty

Missing a leg

the finish was cracking and old

the copper pieces were black

_____

When we were looking at this place to rent it, 

the garage and house still had a few things that needed to be removed

This beauty was in the garage in a corner, covered with bugs and cobwebs.

I told the realtor that if the owner didn't want it

I would take it.

She told me a few days later that it belonged to the owner's mother

and they wanted to keep it.

No problem.

But later when the owners came to clean out their stuff

she asked me if I still wanted it.

She said that none of her siblings wanted it and she didn't have space for it.

I was pretty excited.

_____

I seem to be drawn to furniture that has a lot of character

which is to say

that upon closer inspection

this piece of furniture was probably made by grandpa.

It was not made by a skilled furniture maker.

Things are pieced together in interesting ways.

There are obvious signs of the thing being "handmade"

and all of the copper pieces have been hand cut from a sheet of copper.

Interesting.

But that is part of what I love about it.

It's quirky and different.

It sat in the same sad condition for probably a year.

Frank was not impressed with my project.

Once winter ended this year I realized I needed to get going on this project.

So I started.

But I'm pretty slow.

Then we decided to move...

I knew I had to put it in gear and finish!

As I was working

Frank would wonder aloud if this was a good time for another project.

He had a point.

But I could not move this thing unfinished!

I will have enough to do once I arrive...I don't need this hanging over my head.

I carefully removed all of the copper pieces

I sanded it down to the bare wood

(with much help from my awesome friend Annavon)

re-stained it

cleaned all the copper pieces

Ordered new decorative tacks

(3 times...kept getting it wrong...but that's another story)

found the missing leg!

And put it all back together.

I know I came in just under the wire

since we are moving in only a couple of weeks.

The lighting in my basement is uneven

so you'll just have to believe me when I say the coloring is even...

In these pictures one side looks lighter.

I hope I did justice to grandpa's handiwork.

It's going to look good in my new family room.

An excuse to buy stuff

Since I am about to do a big cross country drive

I decided that was a good excuse to buy some stuff.

I haven't bought anything at all in quite awhile

because nothing makes you hate your stuff more than moving!

and I do not want more stuff.

However

Driving across country is a big venture

and I decided I "needed" a couple of things for my car.

I got:

a cute hanging trash bag from Etsy

(hasn't arrived yet but here's a picture from Etsy)

A magnetic holder for my iPhone

since that's what I'll be using as my GPS, I figured it would be nice to have it up and easily visible

I already like it a lot!

And a charger/plug for the car that fits into my cup holder

My car has a plethora of cup holders so I love to find things that tuck away into a cup holder.

Handy but not in my way!

Here you can see it in place.

So perfect.

It has several USB slots and one regular plug.

That way Carter can watch movies on my laptop or iPad while we drive.

I got so excited a few months ago when I found the tissues that fit into the cup holder.

I still love them.

I have given up gum, so I now have a cup holder available for some new gadget.

I wonder what it will be?