The Nursery

We've been in our new town home just over a week, and I am happy to announce the nursery is done! Well....doneish.

Adam painted it this past weekend, a "peach bud" pink to go with OO1's bedding and it looks so sweet. It took us awhile to get the furniture layout just right, but we both agree it feels good to be in there. In fact as I write this I'm sitting in her rocking chair, feet propped up on the green foot stool. There are some things I'm sure will change in the last remaining weeks, and some details are waiting to be polished. (I'm looking at you un-painted piggy bank.) All in all though, the room feels very ready and inviting. I'm really happy with how it's turned out.

Now...if I could just get the rest of my house finished with as much excitement...

Chaos Amid Serenity

Here are some pictures of our new, messy townhome in our beautiful little HOA. I still need to nab pictures of the beautiful pool. Last night when we took the dogs out behind the townhouse a deer ran by in the tiny wooded area. Let me remind you we are literally in the middle of Dallas/Ft Worth. Anyhow, here are the pictures of our "progress". Yes, it looked worse this weekend....

Kitri asks "What is going on here?!"

Thankfully Adam moved our furniture around Sunday and piled a lot on our porch so we can at least sit in the living room...

Isn't this kitchen inviting? Not to worry, I tackled this all day yesterday and managed to put everything away and make some cookies.

Adam marvels at our serene master suite.

The front of our HOA clubhouse, located next to our townhome.

And it's done. I can think of few things worse then moving 7mo pregnant. Several words to describe me of late are:

exhausted
overwhelmed
emotionally unstable
cry-baby
cranky
pained
overwhelmed (oh, did I already list that? hmmm)

Really, for me at least, the whole process has been pretty painless. We found a place we LOVE, Adam received a call for another interview this Thursday, I had my first appointment with the midwives, we went to our church Sunday and we had a ton of friends volunteer to help get us into our new place with the promise of pizza, cold drinks and camaraderie. However, it wouldn't be an O'Connell-Owens adventure without some bumps in the road...

Friday we signed our lease and took a few car loads over....and then the Accord died...on highway 10...at 1:30am...and we were running on 5hrs of sleep. Thankfully USAA comes with roadside assistance and we were able to get the car towed to our new home for free.

Saturday, when we went to pick up our truck we had reserved earlier in the week they told us it wasn't there. That is, they told us it wasn't there after we waited in the lobby for help for 25min while they chatted in the break room, despite our calls for help. Not only was the truck not there, but it wouldn't be there for us for another 3hrs...meanwhile everyone had shown up at our friends house where our stuff was stored....So, while the first Uhaul lady (at a private lot, not a corporate Uhaul store) told us no trucks were available, I was able to call an actual Uhaul location and secure a truck. Yay wasting an hour and a half! Needless to say, I cried. A lot. I should note this is the same location that charged us for an extra day when we turned in our original Uhaul...Thankfully Adam called Uhaul corporate and they refunded the company's original flub, and then gave us $50 for our missing truck situation.

Today we found out that Adam's check, which is normally handed to him was mailed to our old address, despite them having our new one. What does this mean? Oh, just that our next paycheck we had budgeted around may not show up in Euless for two weeks depending on the mail forwarding speed....Que a meltdown in Dunkin Donuts.

That's Adam's existence right now, trying to calm down a blubbering, swollen, fat, pregnant woman. My sciatic nerve is killing me, my pelvic bone occasionally feels like it's being ground, and I am so overwhelmed at the prospect of unpacking I keep opening boxes, waddling back to the couch and crying. And all I want is a margarita. A big, icy, salty margarita.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to pretend there are no boxes and go to the pool.

The Big "Cleanout"

In our cozy little house, we didn't quite have enough furniture to fill the space when we moved in. Not only that, but we had lost our chairs (cheap ones we bought when we first moved in together) to the "great iron maiden incident of 2008" as Adam jokes. I had decided to recover our chairs, but in my excitement did not wait to make sure I had short enough nails. Thus, while the recovered versions were cute, they also doubled as iron maidens, torturing any person who had to sit. Luckily, we had friends that let us borrow both chairs for the table as well as a desk, love seat, and wing back chair for Adam's home office.

In recent weeks, things around the house have been slowly changing. Adam's office merged with mine, and the front room became the home for the Owens' crib they gave us, our matching garage sale find changing table, and various baby things that we've been given or discovered at sales. So, Monday, our friends came to collect the borrowed furniture we no longer needed. Unfortunately, they also needed their chairs back!

So, we are chair-less again, and on the hunt (did I mention I don't care and have no 'hunt' motivation? lol) and we emptied the drawers and took the decorations down off the desk. The old Kaitlin would have turned on some music and gone non-stop until everything looked 'perfect'. Instead, pregnant Kaitlin looked at the mess, sat on the couch, thought about the mess, drank some grape juice, talked about the mess, folded some pants that had been sitting on the wing back chair, and then laid down on the couch for a nap. I have lost my oomph! Poor Adam. I am just too tired and too nauseous to care. Since we're at 11.5wks, I'm hoping that in a few more weeks, super Kaitlin will emerge again, eager to clean, organize and abuse her label maker. Until then...let's all pull a 4th grader and shove the mess in the closet....No one will know...

Finding a New Home

So, our decision has been made---a commitment to a year lease on an amazing house here in Amarillo. We're still staying in the Bivins neighborhood we love (f0r my Fort Worth friends, think historic district/craftsman style). Our new address is not far from our old, you can now find us at 1024 SW12th Ave! I will be sure to post pictures soon, we are VERY excited! Days before we found it, we had been talking about our needs and wants in a home, and happened upon this one, which meets all of them. To fully experience just how wonderful it is, you'll have to come down for a visit!

Amarillo By Morning

Amarillo is the place we're calling home for the next 6 months. Our new home is part of fourplex in an older neighborhood that's home to many of our Amarillo friends. It's a small, cute place--about 700sqft, and has a bit of character since it was built in the 20s. The one thing we overlooked when signing the lease? There is no AC. Yes, that's right, we'll be getting through a Texas summer and relying on the strength and power of our overhead fans. We've already had to go out and get a standing fan for our bedroom so that it's more comfortable to sleep. I can hear my mother now when I tell her "Ohhh Kaitlin!". Yes, next time we sign a lease it's something I'll think to ask about.