T Minus One Week (Almost)

We move on Thursday.

OMG, we move on Thursday!!!

I'm weeks behind, I think, in reading and commenting on blogs. I haven't written a post in a long time. I keep starting posts in my head, but never getting them typed up. I don't even remember half (most?) of what I wanted to write about.

I've been in pre-moving and pre-listing-my-current-house HELL. Just choosing paint colors for the new house made me want to gouge my eyes out with a fork. Forget 50 shades of grey... there are 50 shades of WHITE! I wasn't even looking at the whites, and I find that ridiculous. I know... first world problems.

But.

Paint colors have (finally) been decided upon and emailed to the painter. He starts on Monday. I was originally only going to have him paint Jordyn's room and the two bathrooms, but that list has grown to include my bedroom and three walls in the living room/dining room (hard to explain why only three walls, but it does make sense).

A handyman is working on Sunday to install an electric garage door opener (I know, another first world problem to have a garage without an opener, but it's 2014 and those kinds of things are just required nowadays), patch up a wall where a ridiculous - not to mention scary - gas-operated fireplace that looks like a flat-screen tv was mounted, move some hooks and things around in the bathrooms, and remove a piece of baseboard so a fridge that measures 35.75" will (hopefully!) fit into a space that measures... well, maybe slightly less than that!

A plumber has already been there to disconnect and cap the gas line to the "fireplace", and will come back to put in a water line for the fridge's water and ice dispenser (yet another first world problem) once the fridge has been delivered.

A new fridge has been ordered. A new washer and dryer have been ordered.

Packing is... almost done? I don't even know. I feel like it's never-ending. In some rooms/areas, I'm down to random odds and ends that I either need to just throw into a box or throw away. There's more in other areas, but I think I might be getting kind of close. I haven't touched Jordyn's toys or books. We've been reading the Berenstain Bears' "Moving Day" book (well, paraphrasing it since it's pretty long and involved for a not-yet-two-year-old. I made her a "house" out of a big box and she's been decorating it with markers and stickers.

I've had three donation pick-ups done in maybe the same number of months, last one being today. So why do I still feel like I have WAY too much stuff? Who knows. Maybe because I still do? I've sold a few things on local Facebook yard sale pages (which I'm completely addicted to, by the way), and have a few things listed currently. I need to figure out some way to get two motor-operated (think hospital bed-like) twin beds out of here before moving day, because my dad has been constantly trying to talk me into keeping them, and I don't want them. They were my grandfather's, and he died mere months after buying them, so they're in great condition. They've been in my guest room here, but I don't have room or want them in the new house. At one point I told my dad I'd keep one of them, but I've changed my mind, so I have to get them out of here soon.

I need to pick out some light fixtures and buy another ceiling fan, but those things can wait.

Oh, and have I even begun to mention the list of things I need to do to get my current place ready to be put on the market?? Ugh! I can't wait too long because of the timeline of things; I'm going to be out of town for a week starting only 9 days after moving, and the house needs to be put on the market that week. Otherwise, we run into July 4th weekend, which my realtor thinks is too late, and is also a bad weekend since so many people are out of town or have plans. And I certainly can't maintain being a dual-homeowner for long! So, lots to do at both houses, and fast.

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In other news, Jordyn and I had a nice evening. My parents and sister have been great about taking her for a day or part of a day lately so I can get things done. Which has been helpful, but I've felt the decrease in time I've spent with her, and I haven't liked it. My parents actually wanted to take her to a service and dinner at our temple tonight and then have her sleep over at their house. I work tomorrow, so they'll have her during the day anyway starting at 7:45am, so they figured this made sense; I could get things done tonight and then go to work in the morning. But I still haven't spent a night away from her, and at this point, I want to make it until she's two (and they didn't go for my idea of them taking her to temple but bringing her home by 8:00, but I think an 8:00 curfew for a not-quite-2-year-old is plenty reasonable). Plus, I've missed her lately. So, I told them no; they were kinda annoyed, but as it turned out, Jordyn and I had a great evening, so I'm over it.

I've been PMSing for a day or two (and can't figure out why my period hasn't started in full force yet like it usually has by now, but that's a whole other story), and lately I really notice my mood changing right before I get my period. For the last couple of months, I've really noticed that I've had much less tolerance and snap more easily than normal for a day or two before my period. Lovely. Anyway, I was trying to snap out of it, and Jordyn had had a big late snack, so I asked her if she wanted to take a walk before dinner. We went outside and saw our 6-year-old neighbor, F, from across the street. F has two moms, and one of them was pregnant the same time I was pregnant with Jordyn - F's brother is three weeks older than her. Our two families have been friendly ever since we bonded over our pregnancies. F said hi and asked what we were doing, so I told her we were taking a walk and asked if she wanted to go with us. She got permission and off we went. I was originally planning a 15-20 minute walk, if that, but we ended up being gone for over an hour.

We headed toward the cemetery (I know, seems like a weird place to go, but the kids can run around there without you having to worry about cars), but we walked by "Hunter's swing" to get there, and ended up stopping there first. Hunter is a kid in Jordyn's class, and it turns out his family lives around the corner from us, and they have one of those toddler tree swings in their side yard. Jordyn always used to ask to swing there, but I didn't know who lived there until maybe a few months ago. They've since offered for us to use the swing anytime, and we've taken them up on it! Jordyn asks for "Hunter's swing" all the time. Anyway, when we walked by tonight, it turned out Hunter and his mom were outside/in the garage cleaning it out, and Hunter's dad was up on the deck grilling for dinner. We stopped to say hi and ended up spending about 15 minutes chatting and swinging. Then Jordyn, F, and I continued on the cemetery, hung out there for a little while, and then on the way back, ran into another family.

Last weekend, Jordyn and I walked up the street and went to two yard sales (don't even ask why I'm shopping at yard sales when I'm about to move!), and the second one was by this family just a couple of houses down from Hunter's family. They have two little girls, and the younger one was born the day after Jordyn. We'd spent a little while chatting and playing with them last weekend, and when we walked by tonight, they were out in the backyard. Jordyn wanted to say hi, so we stopped to say hi over the fence for a minute. We ended up in the backyard with them, and the four girls played for about 20 minutes while the two girls' parents and I chatted.

We finally headed home after that, and when we went to drop F off at her house, one of her moms had just returned from picking up pizza and other food for dinner. She invited Jordyn and I to stay for dinner, and we did. So we had a nice impromptu dinner and playdate with our neighbors across the street. Jordyn idolizes F, and it was nice that I could actually sit and talk to F and E's (F's brother) moms while the kids played.

When we walked back across the street at 8:30, we ran into our downstairs neighbor, C. Jordyn has a little bit of a crush on him, I think, and I had a few questions to ask him about our condo budget (for listing my condo), so we chatted for a few minutes before Jordyn and I finally came inside.

Whew! Not the original plan, and Jordyn ended up being out way later than her curfew (shhh, don't tell my parents!), but it was a really nice evening and we both enjoyed it. I think Jordyn was asleep before her head hit the pillow tonight!

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Edited to add one more quick thing: When we were leaving Hunter's house tonight, and we were saying goodbye, Jordyn looked up at Hunter's father on the deck and said "bye daddy". I was floored and didn't know what to say (or not say). I just kind of laughed and said she must think his name is "Daddy", and that was the end of it. It took me a few minutes to realize that neither Jordyn nor F has a daddy, and that made me feel slightly better. But I guess I need to figure out how to respond to these types of things, because it likely won't be the last time. I've heard of SMC's kids calling other kids' fathers "daddy" before, but I need to figure out how *I* want to respond, both to the other families and to Jordyn. I haven't been nearly as good about telling Jordyn her/our story as I'd planned to be, and I need to work on that, too. Yikes. This is starting to get real!