Meant to Be!

We got the house! We are all so excited! The new house has five bedrooms, and three bathrooms. One bedroom and bathroom are on the first floor, so my mom can have her own space, including keeping her current living room set in the new living room. Our living room set will go upstairs in the giant loft/family room. Most of the bedrooms are huge, and all have walk-in closets. The walk-in closet in the master bedroom is big enough for a crib and changing table (seriously!)! It's also already fenced in, so we can just put the dog(s?) outside without worry, and the back of the property is right against the community tennis courts, basketball court, volleyball, pool, and playground. There's also a baseball diamond, pond, and soccer field just down the road. The garage is huge, and has plenty of space for Mark's woodworking tools. We couldn't ask for a more perfect place for the entire family. Plus, it's not too far from our current neighbors to come play, and even closer to some of my other friends. :-)

                     

Chocolate Chip hadn't yet seen the new house, so we went there today, to show her, and to measure spaces for moving in. When we arrived, one of our new neighbors from across the cul-de-sac was outside, spraying weeds. As we were getting out of the car, our realtor was talking to her. She said her name was Marilyn (seemed very nice, friendly, and out-going). She said that when she moved in in 2008, she didn't know anybody, and now she feels like everybody in the neighborhood is family! I about got goose bumps! From the time I was in fifth grade, until I got married, we lived across from a fabulous elderly lady named Marilyn. She was very friendly, sweet, out-going, and was always outside in the summer time, doing things in the yard. She didn't have any children, and we soon adopted her as family. She came to call my kids her "Greats" (great-grandchildren), and we loved her as a mother/grandmother/great-grandmother. We eventually even took care of her, and my mother served as her Power-of-Attorney. To find out that our new neighbor across the street was a lady named Marilyn (from the look of it, probably my mom's age, or a little older), was like a sign from above that we did the right thing in buying this house. As of right now, we're planning on closing on the new house mid-October. Of course, Emma's birthday is October 9, and she wants her party in the new house, so we'll see.

It's all very exciting! Housewarming party in the near future...stay tuned for details!

Dana

House

House hunting with three very different adults is definitely not fun or easy...in case you wondered. I'm a city girl, but laid back, tend to go with the flow. Mark is a country boy (or at least, thinks he is), and it has to at least seem to him like it's his idea. My mom is very OCD, anal, very type A, which made her a wonderful nurse, but historically hard for me to live with. Try putting those three personalities together and go house hunting! If I loved it, he hated it, if he loved it, it was the west side of Danville, or the southeast side of Indianapolis. If mom loved it...nevermind. Mom didn't love anything.

We all found a beautiful home in Brownsburg acceptable, but Mark didn't think he'd fit in. I had all but given into the fact that between Mark and my mom, what I wanted wasn't happening, and I would just deal with whatever. Turned out it had an accepted offer anyway.

Well, we finally found a house we all love. I love the location, and the huge walk-in closets (the master bedroom's closet is big enough for a crib and changing table - no joke!). Mom loves the first floor bedroom and full bath. Mark loves the area, and yard. Even the girls love it. The heavens opened, and the angels are singing! We just have to sell mom's condo, which went on the market on Monday, and get out of this house without a problem...before somebody else finds our new house as wonderful as we did.

God Bless! :-)

Dana

Changes...

A couple of days ago, I posted my rant, and then a few minutes later, I posted about changes. The really weird part is that only my first post appears now, even though, that night I saw both of them...

Anyway, there have obviously been a lot of changes in our family over the last few months, and we are looking at even more coming our way. The most exciting change happened two days ago, when 4 1/2 year old Emma lost her first tooth! She was so scared and worried about it, that she wouldn't let anybody pull it, and she wouldn't pull it, so it finally got so loose, that it just fell out when she was talking! As you can see in the picture, she was obviously a little freaked out at first, but then she got very excited about the Tooth Fairy. That afternoon, I looked on Pinterest to find cute stuff to do for the Tooth Fairy, and found an adorable printable letter from the Tooth Fairy, and a receipt for the tooth, and the idea to put glitter glue (or glitter hairspray, but I didn't have any of that) on a dollar. She was so cute that next morning! She stapled her receipt to her paper, just like they do at the doctor's office (can you tell she comes to a lot of my mom's appointments with us?), and even showed it to the dog!

Then she asked me to Google how the Tooth Fairy gets in her room. Did you know that the Tooth Fairy has her own website? It has the story of how she became the Tooth Fairy, and the answers to just about any question a kid could have about it. http://toothfairyland.com/

Another change is that a couple weeks ago, I had morning sickness, was exhausted, the whole shebang - felt as pregnant as could be...turned out to just be a raging case of PMS (sorry, TMI), but during that time, I found out that my husband is definitely okay with having another baby. This is very big, and great news! I have wanted another baby for a long time now, but until recently, he has not been on board with that idea. However, since my mom moved into our baby room, we have no space (unless it was a girl, and then she could just bunk with the other two, but since that is not guaranteed, we need a bigger house). Hence, the house hunting. I'm actively trying now, paying more attention to what my body tells me, so here's hoping! I don't get pregnant easily, so a prayer or two would be nice, too.

Also, we finally finished getting my mom's condo ready to show yesterday, even vacuumed! It wasn't as stressful and upsetting as I thought it would be, so that's good. I think it's because I know that Mark is okay with another baby anyway, and we're looking for a bigger house (he finally got over his temper-tantrum, and we've all found one in Brownsburg that we like). I think most of my being upset was that I felt like it was my mom or another baby, and I had chosen my mom, so the baby thing was gone forever. Now, we have a plan, and it'll be okay, still having another one.

One last (not as happy) change, is that they don't think my mom has MS anymore. They think it's a genetic disorder (one of two, actually) - either Tay Sachs or Niemann-Pick. Both are found most commonly in Ashkenazi Jewish people, and both of my mom's parents were Ashkenazi Jews. When I was pregnant, they tested me to see if I am a carrier for Tay Sachs, and I am. My dad (we're pretty sure) was descended from Western Europeans (England, France), so I could only have become a carrier for Tay Sachs from my mom's side. 1 in 27 Ashkenazi Jews are at least carriers. I don't know the stats for Niemann-Pick offhand, but it also runs in higher numbers in the Ashkenazi Jewish population. Both diseases are very rare for adults to get, but it is possible. Neither one has a prevention or treatment. Niemann-Pick is a death sentence, Tay Sachs is bad too, but doesn't have an expiration date. She had a blood test on Friday to check for these things, and we haven't heard back yet. She keeps asking me if she's positive, and that's what she has, if I'll get tested too. I've decided that unless and until there is some kind of prevention, or treatment for it, I don't want to know. I don't want to spend my next 30 years or so, knowing I have it, and wondering when it will strike. I would rather live my life without that added stress and fear.

As awful and scary, as both of these new possibilities are, they both fit what's been happening very well...they both start with a psychotic break, or extreme depression (depressive break, I think it's called), and then go on to mimic MS. At the beginning of this nightmare, my mom attempted suicide. Her grandfather, interestingly enough, committed suicide at 62 (her age), but was loving and sweet, and fine before that. We wonder now, if he had one of those diseases too, and if he had survived his attempt, if he would have gone on to have similar symptoms to her. We don't know much about her dad's side, as most of them were killed in concentration camps. Her mom's side got out a generation before that, and so they had time to scatter - there's a branch of red-headed Romm's in Israel, a branch of Rom's in Russia still (I think), and then the Rome's in the US.

Anyway, like I said, a lot of changes. Prayers are always welcome.

Dana

Rant and Rave

Okay, I try really hard, usually, to not complain about stuff, but I just have to let off some steam here. My husband, my mom and I started looking at getting a bigger house recently, so we would have the space to put another baby, should we be blessed with another. My husband found one about triple the size, with a giant fenced in yard on the west side of Danville that he is totally in love with. Last night, we all said we could go look at it. Then, my mom thought about it some more, and decided she doesn't want to live out that far from our support people, and from home care companies, etc. After she explained her reasons to me, it made sense, and so I told my husband, who basically threw a temper tantrum like a two-year old, and said it was the west side of Danville or nothing, and if we can't get that house, then we aren't moving.


Seriously???....


Yes, seriously. After I pointed out to him, that he was acting like a two-year old, and that marriage is about communication and compromise (never mind the fact that we aren't even close to being READY to move), he calmed down some, and said maybe we could just take a break from looking for awhile. He said that he was just overwhelmed and trying to get bills caught up, and figure out how to do the repairs we would have to do before we could move, etc., etc., etc. I told him that if he would ever TALK to me about stuff, we could figure it out together, how to do it, and maybe he wouldn't be so overwhelmed. I told him he isn't an island, and that I'm here. I did also mention the fact that him being so mad over something so stupid was making me mad. Maybe I shouldn't have mentioned that last part, or the part about him acting like a two-year old. Oops. Then again, it was all true.

It's not like we're going to move somewhere he hates, just like we aren't going to move somewhere I hate. We have time to find the perfect house. We aren't in a hurry, and he needs to get over it! Even if I were to get pregnant now, we would have 9 months until there was a baby who needed space, and even after that, about the first year, it would probably sleep with us anyway. That's close to two years minimum before we would need a bigger place. Plenty of time to find the perfect house. So, if you wouldn't mind saying a prayer for my sanity, his patience, another baby, and the perfect house, that would be awesome!!!

Okay, rant over. Thanks for listening(?)...reading(?)...whatever.

:-)


Dana