Indoor Entertainment

When it was super cold our first two weeks in the shop, I did my best to entertain Laci in our trailer for as long as possible.  I would have been content to stay in the trailer all day, soaking up the warmth of the heater, reading books, and basically just lounging about.  However, Laci, at only a year and a half, doesn't like to be cooped up for too long, and certainly not for an entire day.

Overall, I'd say she did a pretty good job of hanging out with me, with limited toys and space in the trailer.  When the toy selection became boring, she was happy to stack plastic containers and lids.  In fact, she is happy to stack anything. A favorite game these days includes stacking books, blocks, containers, whatever can be stacked.  She is quite methodical about it too, preferring to have the books in order by size when stacking them. As you can see, clothing and hair brushing were optional during this period of time.

If you peek closely through the door behind my crazy stacking monster, you can get a glimpse of her "room."  It's the garage area of our trailer, equipped for hauling bikes, quad, fuel tanks, and in this case, a crib and a rocking chair.

And when all else failed - toys, books, and plastic containers included - I could rely on the iPhone for temporary entertainment.  She likes to play the Itsy Bitsy Spider and Old MacDonald games I've downloaded.  If she starts yelling, "E I E I E I" at you, it most likely means she wants to play on the phone.  It took me a little while to figure that one out.  What took me longer to figure out was that she actually prefers the spider game over Old MacDonald, but still calls it "E I E I E."  Whatever.  Most days I think I'm trying harder to learn her language than she is trying to learn to speak clearly.

Is this too young for technology?  When I was this age, I think the extent of my "technology" was the wooden telephone with the pull string, whose eyes wiggled around as you dragged it across the floor.  And yes, it became clear to me that she probably isn't ready for her own iPhone when she deleted half a dozen apps.  Not a big deal really, but frustrating anyway.  Guess that is my punishment for having to use the bathroom during the middle of an intense Itsy Bitsy Spider game.

I have been so thankful for the weather this past week as we've been able to hang out in our "living room" without having to bundle up in a hundred layers to keep warm, and we've spent plenty of time outside soaking up the fresh air and sunshine.  My heart nearly gave out when I saw the forecast for Thursday includes not only rain, but a significant drop in temperature.  Thankfully, I have plans that day so we won't be cooped up inside, but can I just say to the weather, "Enough already!"

***

I had to update this to prove that I am in fact learning Laci's language, and it is not the other way around (as it should be).  She just asked to play with the phone and in reality, she says, "Yeah, yeah, yeah."  In my mama brain, it sure sounded like "E I E I O."  Before I had a kid, I always wondered how parents knew what the heck their kids were saying, and now I know.  There is no explanation.  I can only hope that retain my knowledge of the English language and don't start speaking in baby gibberish.

Life In-Between: The Beginning

We've been living in the shop/trailer combo for three weeks now.  Internet was finally installed five days ago.  I uploaded pictures four days ago.  And I tried to start writing this post three days ago.  I'm not sure what is really going on here, but I think that it's about time I kick it into gear.

I've been trying to figure out a way to describe our experience thus far without droning on forever, but I'm not exactly known for my conciseness.  In fact, I could probably spend a whole paragraph talking about how I talk too much, but I'll spare you the pain.  I'm sure you get the point.

In summary, the first two weeks of living in the shop involved 45* temperatures (inside and out), malfunctioning plumbing that left me without a nearby toilet for nearly a week, a whole week without television (which wasn't really that terrible), two weeks without Internet (slightly more terrible than the lack of TV, but I survived), a baby that refused to sleep through the night in her own bed, and numerous other inconveniences that I have thankfully already forgotten.  Basically, I felt like I was living in a cold, dark, damp cave for two weeks and I was ready to go into hibernation.  Toddlers, on the other hand, could care less if it is freezing and the prospect of sleeping solid for two weeks (or even through the night) was out of the question.  On some of the colder, darker days, my only saving grace was that we have an awesome shower in our new bathroom, with freakishly hot water, and I couldn't wait to take a hot, steamy shower at the end of the day.  The good news is, the sun came out this week and we've had a couple of 80* days.  I'm feeling warm, happy, refreshed, and ready for Spring, and yes, even Summer.

In case you're curious, the pictures are of our "living room" area in the shop, properly gated off to keep baby on one side and the dogs on the other.  I took these pictures on one of the colder days, hence the poncho on the baby and the high-class propane Mr. Heaters burning brightly.  I figured the black/white conversion would take at least some of the white trashiness out of our living arrangement, and hide the dirt on the furniture.  It is a little disheartening to realize that our hand me down furniture looks more suited for a shop than a house, but maybe I'll finagle some new furniture into the deal too.  Just to be clear, I'm not complaining.  I sort of like that we're a bit white trash these days, and the sacrifice of living like this for the next year is more than the worth the end result.  And all complaints are typed with a smile on my face, because you have to be able to laugh at yourself.

Don't worry, I have lots more to share.  Even though there is practically NO light in the shop, and absolutely NONE inside the trailer, I've been doing my best to keep taking pictures of my girl, and our new "home," and all the other things going on.  Hopefully it doesn't take me a week to get it posted, but don't hold your breath. If there is one thing I've learned this year, it is this:  If I say I'm going to do something on this here blog, it almost positively means I won't actually do it.  (But, admitting you have a problem is the first step to a solution, right?)

Stress Relief

I am spending the afternoon with my mom in the haven of her cozy home. I am feeling far from settled in our new accommodations and a cup of hot chocolate and a ranting session with my mom have proven to be the cure of the day. I have much to share about our new adventure that I'm calling "the life in-between", but it is far too much to share from my little phone. I'm hoping for an Internet reconnection soon, although I've been so busy this week that I've barely missed my computer at all.

As for Laci, I'm pretty sure she thinks that life is awesome everyday. Once lost, this type of innocent contentment can never be recovered. I hope you stay this happy forever, baby girl.

It's time to move

Sometimes she eats Goldfish in the bathroom sitting on the edge of the tub.  And sometimes I feel the need to take a picture because I like how the light comes in through the south-facing bathroom window.  After Friday, though, we won't be eating Goldfish and taking pictures in this bathroom anymore.  No, because this weekend is moving weekend.  We'll officially move our necessities to the trailer, setup a make-shift living room in the shop, and start on what is no doubt going to be the most challenging experience we've had yet.  I'm excited and overwhelmed, and slightly dreading the whole experience, except for the fact that I'll have my very own home at the end of the all the struggles.

The last week has consisted mainly of packing up stuff, organizing, and creating a mountain of items that I need to donate.  Fortunately, the snot monster has dried up and she has started sleeping again, which helps tremendously.  Somehow in all the preparing, I have managed to pick up a new bookkeeping job, which kept me out of the house all day yesterday and will most likely keep me very busy this weekend.  I haven't exactly figured out how to do a job and move at the same time, but I'm pretty sure the solution involves a lot of help from a lot of other people.

Although I'm positive this is something I'll never forget, I'd love to document this experience daily.  If for no other reason than to entertain the masses, OK, the handful of people who visit here. I foresee a great need for humor in my near future.  Isn't that the best way to deal with stress?  But I have to be honest with myself, I'm not exactly the champion blogger lately.  AND, I'll be without internet for a few days until we can get the satellite moved to our new "home."  At this point, I think the lack of internet is more scary than anything else.  I'll be back, if I survive the internet-less calamity that is about to befall me.  Dramatic?  A little.  One thing I can be sure of, I'm going to fully document this double-wide dream I've been living in for the past 3 1/2 years, because when things get really tough, I know just a few shots of our metallic wallpaper, wood paneled walls, flaking linoleum, and gold carpet will be all that is needed to get me through.

FEBRUARY

There's nothing like making a resolution to blog more often to ensure that, in fact, I will blog less.  It wasn't my intention to go an entire month without posting, but that's what happened and there's obviously no going back now.  The idea of a month-long post is daunting, but I'll take it as my punishment for slacking and do my best to recap an entire month.

February started out with great weather, warmth, and therefore, lots of outside playtime.  I even remembered to take my camera with us a few times.

We met "Nougat" for the first time, and although the heart rate leans toward a girl, we won't find out for another couple of months if it is a she-nougat or a he-nougat.  And, contrary to what many have said after seeing this picture, the "x" between the legs does NOT indicate its...parts.  The doctor just had to measure the length and confirm that yes, I am due August 24th and I can only hope it isn't a billion degrees.

Despite my obvious laziness in some areas of my life, I have actually been productive in other areas.  Ok, well really, Ryan has been productive and I've been the hormonal force behind him to keep getting things done.  We've been working on finishing the bathroom in the shop.  Somewhere back in November or December, I got the great idea to pour our own concrete countertop.  I found a book that made it sound so easy and we dove in.  After several months of work, cussing, and money spent, we have a pretty cool countertop, the knowledge and equipment to repeat the project, and the wisdom to know we will NEVER do this again.  I'd go into more detail, and I have more pictures, but a project like that deserves its own post...so more on that later.  In the meantime, it is important to know that we have a fully functional bathroom that is far nicer than anything I've used in the last three and a half years.

Ryan has also been working hard to transform our backyard from this...

to this...

and finally, this:

Meanwhile, Laci and I were busy hanging out with the fluffy dog,

and picking flowers,

and petting kitties.

But we're girls and that's what we like to do.

And the reason for all of Ryan's productiveness is so that we can start building our house this year.  For real.  After nearly four years of complaining about my double wide castle, I'll get to start complaining about our even smaller, single wide castle on wheels.  Hence the real bathroom, because quite frankly, I don't think I could handle a travel trailer bathroom for more than a week.  We went to the county last week and submitted our permit application, so I guess that means we're really going ahead with all of this.  I sound doubtful, don't I?  It is the realist in me that is afraid to believe anything before it's actually true because I'm secretly afraid it isn't going to really happen.  That's probably why I haven't even mentioned our plans to build this year until now, even though we've been working on house plans and engineering and drawings since last Fall.

If you ask me, we have all the makings of a reality show.  Let's see, building a house (stressful by itself), living in temporary/cramped quarters inside our shop, wild toddler running around who doesn't like to sleep lately, and one more on the way.  Busy summer to say the least.  I really am excited about the whole thing, but all these things combined get very overwhelming and I have to remind myself to take one day at a time.  Or, as it has been going the last couple of days, one box at a time.  I've been packing up our house, boxing up the the things I don't think we'll need, and labeling like a crazed person in case I need to find something again in the next twelve months...which I'm sure I will.

Somewhere in the middle of the month, the weather turned cold and rainy, then just cold, then rainy again (like a monsoon), then snow.  It only snowed for about an hour, and nothing stuck because the ground was so soaked, but it was still fun to watch from inside the warm house.  Laci had her first fun with markers, and we played with her kitchen, and read every book we own.  As you can see in the pictures, getting dressed and brushing our hair was optional on these days.  Be glad I didn't include a picture of myself.

And I think that about wraps up February.  Except to say that Laci has had a cold, and what started out as questionable sleeping patterns at the beginning of the month have now turned to a terrible lack of sleep at the end of the month.  Also, I have experienced more snot in the last five days than I care to admit.  I'm thinking investment in a rain suit would have been appropriate.

So, here's to March and the hope that I can blog a little more regularly, although I won't go so far as to make any promises.  I'm looking forward to Daylight Savings Time, less snot, more sleep, and hopefully a move into our new temporary home, so that one day, I might actually have a permanent home.