I think the title says it all. It's been a year and five months since I last wrote, and that blog post was a sponsored post so I don't even know that it counts. Things are SO much different from what they were last year.
I had another baby. Oh yeah, that happened! I was on the depo shot after having Odin, and went for my routine shot. They couldn't confirm whether my previous shot had in fact been a depo shot, or if someone screwed up and gave me a flu shot instead (I got sick within a week of getting it)...and of course that little test they gave in the doctor's office came up positive. When the doctor came in and said, "Well, I can't give you the next shot...it seems you're pregnant! We'll set you up for an ultrasound to see how far along you are." I bought Jeff two bottles of the winter Jack Daniels to break it to him...he laughed and was happy...it took me months to accept it.
I wasn't late for my shot. I was still exclusively breastfeeding Odin, who was only seven months old. It turned out I was about six weeks pregnant. So don't ever believe your birth control is 100% effective. Odin was a pull-out baby. And now, as of June 29, 2017...Loki is a depo baby.
Yes, his name is Loki. It seemed appropriate with the chaos that was my pregnancy. No sooner did I get rid of morning sickness, I caught the flu and was sick for another 3 months. Completely miserable. After he started moving, there seemed to be this ongoing battle between him and Odin. Odin would cuddle with me, Loki would start kicking him. I would try to get a video of Loki moving in my belly, Odin would take over the camera. It was adorable, but had me seriously concerned for how things would be after Loki was born.
The end of my pregnancy was probably the most hectic it could've ever been. After our vacation last year, Jeff and I had talked about moving to Florida. It became a more serious conversation after I became pregnant again and we HAD to get into a bigger house...our 3 bedroom doublewide just wasn't going to work anymore. We used income tax returns to fix up his credit a bit, and were able to get approved for a mortgage, thanks to Veterans United. $0 down, and a very-low interest rate considering his credit score was lingering right around 620-640.
A friend of mine from Open Diary got us in touch with an amazing realtor, Christina Edwards, who was able to walk us through every step of the home-buying process...how much money we should plan to have for our good-faith offer, about how much inspections were going to cost, what other inspections may be required. We initially were unsure of what location we were going to settle in, as Amazon has two facilities that we could transfer to. In the end, we decided we wanted to be closer to Jeff's family so we chose Lakeland...which is about an hour's drive from where Christina lives and works. But this woman is so fantastic, she made at least 5 trips to Lakeland to show houses, either to Jeff's parents, or Jeff once he got down to FL. She found us our dream home and was able to negotiate the seller down into our price range AND have them cover all closing costs. She helped us unload our Uhaul! She spoiled our kids with welcome-to-FL gifts and even gave us a gift card for Walmart to help restock the pantry! Seriously, made our hectic move a dream come true.
But boy, was it hectic! The biggest concern was how long the transfer to the Lakeland, FL Amazon would be. It's a high-demand building with low staff numbers because it's the #1 non-sort in the country. He put his transfer in May, and was approved June 1 with less than two weeks before his start date! Fantastic, right?! Except...I was due June 29th. There was no way of all of us travelling to FL so late in the game, so he went by himself for a few weeks. Thankfully, Loki came on his due date so daddy was able to be present, but we did have a scare when I was in early labor.
Our house had "sold" for asking price, pending the trailer park's approval of the buyer. A month before we were set to move, while Jeff was already in FL, the buyer's boyfriend got laid off and they could no longer get park approval because of income. Went into panic mode, of course. Put the house back for sale (we listed it ourselves instead of going through a realtor)...went crazy cleaning AGAIN. Had the house listed for $5000 less and ended up having to sell for HALF the original asking price because of it being so rushed at that point. But it sold. We got the offer the day I went into the hospital and gave birth!
I really didn't want to be induced this time around, but had scheduled induction on my due date because I had been having regular contractions for weeks and it was painful for them to do nothing. Got to the hospital on the day of induction, only to be monitored and discover I was in labor on my own and had already gotten to 3 cm dilated! They gave a little pitocin to help speed things up.
This time, the anesthesiologist was prepared. The doctor had informed him of my failed epidural with Odin, so after administering my epidural, he stuck around to see if it helped. It didn't. He maxed the dosage he could give me at once and I still felt everything. He even did a pressure and coldness check to test me...push on certain spots, put an ice pack on other spots to see if I could identify pressure/temperature change. He was ready to give me a second epidural when the nurse said about checking me first because something was going on with Loki's heartbeat. When she checked me, she said, "I figured as much. You're 10 cm dear. We can either hold off a minute and let you get another epidural, or you can just push that baby out and be over the pain." I know how quick I've delivered my last three kids so I decided fuck it, let's do another all-natural birth...the labor's the worst part anyway!
One contraction, three pushes later...my final baby was born. Loki Gunthar, born at 5:23 PM on his due date, June 29, 2017. 21 inches, and 9 lb 7 oz. I got my fallopian tubes REMOVED two weeks ago, but the doctors say even that's not 100% effective. Seriously folks.
Anyway. Amazon has great maternity and paternity benefits, so Jeff was able to take six weeks paid leave to stay in PA and help finish packing everything up. We booked a hotel room with a pool so the kids would have something to do for a couple weeks til we closed on our dream house. On July 19, we hit the road. His dad flew up from FL to drive the Uhaul for us, he drove his car with Vivienne and Odin on board, and I drove my car with Schylar and Loki. His dad left before us and made a straight shot through. We stopped halfway, in Florence, SC, for the night, then continued to Florida the following day.
After sitting in traffic through Orlando for HOURS, and getting separated because Jeff's GPS decided to take him onto the FL turnpike to avoid I-4 traffic at the last minute...I arrived at our hotel first. Got checked in, and they tried charging me more than my Expedia rate. First strike. Arrive to the room, it was FILTHY. My feet were black from walking barefoot. There was mold and standing water in the bathtub. The toilet had one of those sanitizing rings around it, but didn't have a lid! I was so grossed out. When Jeff arrived, we agreed to stay at the extended-stay hotel he had stayed at before. Didn't have continental breakfast or pool like this one had advertised, but it was clean. Called Expedia and explained everything to them, they called the hotel and offered to give us a full refund, minus that night since it was already about 9:00PM. Fine, we're staying the night. The bedsheets had stains, so I had Loki sleep on the changing table cushion on the sleeper chair beside us because it was so gross. When we went to check out, discovered the "breakfast" they advertised was a couple different kinds of cereal...and the pool is right next to the overflowing dumpsters...ew!
So glad we checked out. It was rather boring being in a hotel without a pool or anything for two weeks, but at least it was clean. If you ever want to push your marriage limits folks, live in a hotel for 2 weeks as a family of 6. By the end, we were all ready to kill each other!
But we're here! We bought a beautiful 4-bedroom house in Lakeland, FL...almost 2000 square feet, with almost half an acre of property. Our neighbor is lake-front, we're lake-view, with lots of nice shady trees in the backyard.
One lady stopped by to introduce herself to us shortly after we moved in. Turned out that she rents out several of the properties on our circle. I mentioned that Jeff's parents were looking for a place and ironically, the people across the street were pending eviction for being three months late on rent! Guess who lives across the street from us now! It amazes me how much his parents love their grandchildren. Even when they were living an hour away, if we needed something, they came. They had no problems coming to visit regularly so they could see the kids. And now it's basically an every day thing of the kids running across the street to see Nanny and Pappy. I love that they finally get to experience that grandparent love that they've missed out on.
My dad...well, he was a grandparent when it was convenient to him. Much like his parenting. He can buy toys and take them out to play areas once a month, but to answer a phone call just to say hi or invite over to dinner...well, I'm just not the right child to do that for. My mom was the best, but it's been 2.5 years since she passed now. Some days it still feels weird.
The girls are making friends at their new school. Schylar has a little boy who gives her presents every day! I swear, he's stolen all of his sister's TY Beanie Boos, but he says she gave them to him because she doesn't want them anymore. She's in first grade now already. Struggling with grades right now, but her teacher was terrible, hardly ever there. She's been placed on a long-term leave so hopefully we see improvement with her substitute! Currently obsessed with unicorns.
Vivienne is excelling like normal. Straight A student. She tried out and was accepted into the school's show choir. And we found her an Irish dance school (in Celebration, 35 miles away) that she's started attending weekly. She's in 3rd grade, but reading at a 4th grade level. Basically a rockstar in everything she does. Currently obsessed with the Eiffel Tower and Descendants.
Odin is just an amazing little being. He's 20 months now (I know, already!) and is just so smart. He understands everything you say, has an immaculate memory, and uses his problem-solving skills way too much. He has to know how everything works, how everything is put together. Baby gate? Pulls up a chair and climbs over it. Furniture obstacle? Crawls over, under, around, or just pushes the furniture out of the way. He's not talking much yet, but the doctor isn't concerned. It'll happen one day. Currently obsessed with Nightmare Before Christmas and Hotel Transylvania 2. (Totally my child there lol, everything else [minus his hanger issues] is his daddy) He loves building blocks, popping wheelies on his little V-Tech train, and staring at the girls at Hooter's. And surprisingly, loves holding and hugging his baby brother. He's very affectionate with Loki...not so much his sisters lol.
And then you have Loki, who is almost 4 months. The sweetest, best baby I could ever ask for (seriously, with chasing Odin out of everything, I needed him as he is lol). He loves breastfeeding and sleep. He'll watch whatever is going on around him, whatever's on TV. Loves his swing, not as big a fan of the bouncer (probably because Odin tried to climb in it with him). Hardly ever cries. He's sitting on my lap as I type this, in fact. Just watching.
Jeff and I are fantastic. Minus those two weeks where we hated each other living in the hotel, this move has been the best thing for our family, and for us. He's got a lot more opportunities to move up within Amazon, which he's really excited about. We traded his car for a truck, so we can all actually ride in one vehicle together again (Viv loves being able to sit in the middle seat up front with us). We get a lot more down time now, since the house is completely fenced in (and Odin hasn't quite figured out how to open the gate yet).
I go back to work on Nov. 1. Only part-time for now. Not looking forward to it. As much as I want to get out of the house and away from the kids some days, going to work is now how I want to spend my time! Hopefully I'll enjoy working in the new building as much as he does. Best part of the transfer is that we kept our PA wages. Since FL has no income taxes, we're seeing $200-300 more per paycheck, even with him putting 4% into his retirement account.
Financially, even with picking up the truck payment and a mortgage, things are looking better than ever. Hopefully they continue that way.
I started this because...Open Diary shut down. That was my life force, where I would go regularly to express joy, sadness. Some of my best friends I've met on there. I finally get to meet one of those in real life tomorrow! It was announced that OD is coming back by the end of the year. I'll be on there, to at least download my diary (lost it when my laptop died). I'll post an entry to link everyone to my facebook, that I am on daily. I don't know if I'll pay to keep it up though...I guess it depends on how many of my friends come back. There are several that I've wanted to find on facebook, but were never able to. Two in particular, who helped me through the worst time of my life, that I'll never forget. One used to live here in FL, so I'd love to meet up if she's still here...I guess I'll see.
I'm going to close this out before Odin wakes from his nap. Maybe it won't be a year before my next post! ;)
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