Since its Xmas Eve, maybe I should comment on our Thanksgiving festivities. The day started with band warm-ups on the street below us for the freaking Thanksgiving Day parade -- I don't even know why they bother, quite honestly. The audience is so paltry - its pretty much just comprised of the family of those marching IN the parade. It sounded like middle school band practice at 8am - GROAN!!!
Since we'll be in DE for Christmas (with my in-laws), we were with my dad for
Thanksgiving in New Jersey. Adam had to go to work on Friday, which
meant driving back to Philly at night --- so, I wasn't the only one not
drinking!
I spent the rest of the long weekend in NJ with my family. I felt a bit like a teenager again, since I had no car and was dependent on my parents to drive me around (especially when my dad had to drop me at my mom's work, so I could spend the night with her -- I felt like the kid of divorced parents all over again!) I spent Friday with my step-sister and her family - some quality time with my niece & nephew I normally only see at large family gatherings. And then a tasty meal and some one-on-one time with my dad & Margit - also a rarity. On Saturday we did the annual "Get the Xmas Tree" Trek - this SHOULD be the last year I claim that NEXT year we'll be getting our own tree. It was freakishly cold and windy.
On Sunday, Adam drove back up to Jersey to make Maultaschen (German raviloi) with my mom and her family -- we make 5 batches and its a big operation. We were a team of 7 people!
We decided that Adam should do the chat with the contractor solo yesterday and I'm really glad I did. Today is the first day since Saturday that I haven't broken down and started crying (hysterically) when the subject of the house came up. I almost made it yesterday, but my dad would not let up and he brought me to tears on the phone -- I think he knows I'm not kidding the next time I ask him to "Change the freakin' subject"!
So, here's the latest.... contractor is CLAMING that had it not snowed, the front stoop, backyard, and sheetrock sanding would have been completed. Easy thing to pin construction delays on now. When Adam was there, they were tiling the bathrooms and about to start the basement. Because it is so cold the spackle hasn't been drying, so they had 8 heaters going to speed up the process. We'll be back at the house on Tuesday with my dad and sister in tow. In theory, they should have some of the hardwood down by then and the sanding should be done -- so it SHOULD really start to look like a REAL house soon.
It's not looking like they will finish before our mortgage rate expires and we are currently aiming for a January 15th closing. This would mean we could still move the weekend of MLK, which would be nice, since Adam and I have off that Monday.
Trying not to get my hopes up.
This story about the EMTs who didn't help a pregnant woman who collapsed and died while they were on break is so sad - unbelievable how heartless people can be! I hope they both get slapped with a prison sentence and sued by her family.
Saw this article in the NY Times that reminded me of something that had me hoppin' mad last week!
A month or two ago, my mom bought me a pregnancy dress and tank top. The tank top didn't fit and last week I finally got around to visiting the Destination Maternity to exchange it. Their return policy is so restrictive that I wasn't allowed to exchange a Medium for a Large for the exact same item without a receipt. I didn't want a different color and the price is unchanged.... Absolutely maddening! They tried to look up the purchase using my mom's cell phone number and after two numbers didn't come up, I snapped at them when they suggested trying to look it up with my phone number. Enough already! I loudly told them that this was getting ridiculous and their policy was absurd. I grabbed the tank top out of her hand and stormed out of the store - much to the embarrassment of my work-friend who was tagging along. I understand the need to protect from retail fraud, but this was unnecessary....
So, now I am scheming to go in there under the premise of trying on clothes and illegally making the switch - makes me a freakin shoplifter! ARGH! It would be easy to say that I will stop shopping in the store because of this policy, but honestly, my options for quality maternity work clothes is pretty limited (especially in the city)....
Update: Went today and shoflifted/exchanged the tank top. Also bought two more items that were on sale. I would have bought another piece or two, except I was reminded of their exchanged policy -- in the dressing room they had a sign promoting their newly-relaxed policy: With tags intact AND a receipt you can do an exchange or store credit only within 30 days. NO money refunds whatsoever. Ridiculous! Pea in the Pod is an expensive brand, you'd think this would real put-offf customers. What if you buy a $300 fancy dress and then it doesn't pass the "at home" test? You are stuck with store credit! Ugh!
I haven't had a lot of hormonal pregnancy days, EXCEPT for the last three days I have found myself tearing at just the thought of this house saga. We went and saw the house on Sunday and all the little things that we pick up on are really wearing on me. While I should be thrilled to death that they have not only put up the sheetrock, but have also spackled, I was still frustrated. They had said they would be doing this while we were in Aruba - that was THREE weeks ago!!!!
On Sunday we also saw for the first time where the first floor thermostat is going - Exactly where I wanted to put our curio cabinet! I had a conversation with the contractor a few weeks ago about adding an outlet on that wall so I could plug in the lights in the piece of furniture I wanted to put on that wall, which they did add. But, wouldn't it have been useful to mention to me then that the themostat would be going on that wall???? We had been asking for finalized floorplans (including electrical) for MONTHS - Had they actually given it to us, we could have easily moved the thermostat to another wall. So, I have a nice pieceo of furniture which will likely be homeless, because there isn't really any place else that it will work well on the first floor (and its dining room furniture, so its not like we can put it in a bedroom!).
I've just really lost my patience at this point. I'm tired of catching their mistakes, trying to anticipate where the next hiccup could stem from, and making concessions in the interest of keeping the project on schedule. It's been extremely draining and has zapped all of the Christmas spirit right out of me. We sound like a broken record making the same request over and over again -- we're STILL waiting for a layout of the kitchen cabinets that we have been asking for since Octoboer. We shouldn't need to be micro-managing the construction process to this degree, but there seems to be no other way to ensure that they deliver what was previously agreed upon.
It's frustrating that we
signed this contract back in mid-August and still don't have a firm
(achievable) settlement date. My third trimester starts next week and I don't feel it is an
unreasonable request to want to get moved into this house and settled
before the baby comes. I am tired of their lack of execution. We are supposed to meet with them at 3pm tomorrow. I'm seriously considering sending Adam solo -- I don't think an overly-emotional pregnant woman is really going to help our cause.... Or maybe it would? HOPEFULLY, we will have a better idea soon of when we can settle.
I thought this was a fun Facebook function and worth sharing. I had done a list of my status updates back in the Spring and was considering tracking down those for the remainder of the year (but this is much less work!).
We enjoyed a lazy Saturday trapped at home during the big storm. It was pretty crazy to watch from the 26th floor as the snow whipped around the buildings and it often looked like as if it was snowing from the ground up instead of coming down from the ski!
On Sunday, we cleaned up a parking space for Sally, who we had garaged while the snow was coming down -- to avoid getting hit by a car, towed for accidentally parking on a snow-emergency route (that's happened to us before), or getting really clobbered by snow from a plow. We found a spot that had previously been occupied by some kind of huge car - which made for less work. All Adam had to shovel was move the snow from the plow so we could get into the spot. My job was to {critique the way Adam shovels :-) -- he finally sent me for a walk around the block} stand in the space so someone wouldn't take it while Adam went to get the car. I just couldn't resist doing some shoveling while I was standing guard -Wolfie wasn't too appreciative of me doing manual labor afterwards. Its hard for me NOT to help -- this move is going to be tough on me. I joke they will need to handcuff me to the stairrail so I'm not tempted to pick anything up!
Afterwards, we walked the (approximate) mile to our new house to check out the progress and spend some time with our friends that live just a block away. They hadn't plowed at all on the smaller streets in south philly. The photo below is our to-be block on Catharine street.
Hard to believe that I am nearly at the end of my second trimester! I've been so fortunate that this pregnancy has been smooth-sailing, much unlike our house drama (more on that shortly). I don't have many "pregnancy brain" moments and haven't been unusually hormonal; no back pains; no heartburn or nausea; and my feet haven't swollen - I can still fit into my shoes! I went to the doc yesterday and I'm up 13lbs, which doesn't sound scary, except that 6 of those pounds were gained in just the past month. Damn holidays! They want me gaining 0.5-1.0lbs a week, which is what I had been doing until recently. It's nice that I haven't ballooned into a giant whale, just yet.
I have to go in the next week or two for more blood work so they can do the gestational diabetes test. My doc has been out on maternity leave so I have been doc-hopping these last couple of months. It doesn't really bother me, since these are pretty ho-hum appointments. You never know who you might end up with on the big day, so its nice to get to meet some of the other docs in the office. I didn't like the doc I had seen the last two times, so I was a bit relived that yesterday's doc actually had it together.
Not to sound like a poo-head, BUT these doc appointments are a royal pain in the ass. Each time I go I pee in a cup, get weighed, and they listen for the baby's heartbeat. I'm low-maintenance and don't usually have a lot of questions. This whole process takes under 10min, BUT they kept me waiting about 1.5hrs at the office yesterday!!! Door-to-door, I was out of the office for a full 2 hours - ridiculous!!! I've been going once a month, but in January I will start going every two weeks - ugh. I am trying to book my future appointments for as early in the day as possible -- so it is less likely that they are backed up and I can get out of there faster.
It's been awhile, so I had Adam take some belly shots last night. My belly is just now starting to stick out more than my boobs!
I had been originally aiming to get 10 speeches done in a year to get the Competent Communicator certification, but my business trips kept occurring on the same day as Toastmaster, so I wasn't able to fit them all in as planned. Theoretically, I could have made it work, but I didn't want to go back-to-back and monopolize speaking slots. (The group meets every other Tuesday and only 3 speeches are done each meeting).
I was originally slated to give this speech in late November, but I had half-asses my preparations and they had somehow messed up the Agenda and had 5 people thinking they were giving speeches, so I gave up my slot. Speech #8 is aimed at using slides - kind of funny since I just used slides on the last presentation (Tea) because I wanted to practice that skill specifically. I decided to show photos of my travels to Beijing last year. I started with a map of the Palace and then showed some of my photos from my visit last year interwoven with details about its history. I went a bit over 7:15min (we're supposed to stay within 5-7min) and had only 3 Ums - pretty consistent with the last time I spoke. I wish I had better flow to my comments, but the feedback said I seemed very knowledgeable about the topic. I was slightly better at talking through flipping slides. I feel more smooth when I am doing industry speeches - we use a very clunky machine for Toastmasters that doesn't have a good clicker.... My ending sucked. I said "Well, that's it". Practice, practice, practice!
We are SO SLOW in the office this week - no complaints here! Yesterday, I spent two hours on the phone with my college friend who is pregnant (a few weeks further along than me) and has been stuck on bedrest for a few weeks already - with another 10 to go! Yuck
Today, I spent the morning combing through our checking account and credit card statments to total up how much money we have spent this year on Xmas presents. Once that was completed, I took it one step further and decided to track what we spent on the baby and the house so far. Oddly enough, I have all this info stored on Quicken at home, but decided to do it manually here today -- that's how slow it is! And, I never learned how to use the Quicken functions to DO SOMETHING with the data I have been compiling for the last 2-3years.
We have spent over $1,000 on Wolfie already - pretty amazing! About half of that is on maternity clothes (quality work clothes aren't cheap) and I was fortunate enough to borrow clothes from friends. It would be 3x that if I was starting from scratch. It also includes doc co-pays, registration fee for the aupair service and childbirth classes.
We signed up for a couple of different childbirth classes this week. It was no easy feat figuring out what days would work for us (since we don't know when we are going to move - GRRRRR). We are taking Preparation for Childbirth, BabyCare Basics, and Breastfeeding. The first class is a full Saturday (10-5pm), while the other two are 2hr classes held in the evening. Fingers crossed that insurance will pick up some of the cost -- every penny counts. I'm hopeful we get some new-parent friends out of this as an added bonus. NONE of our Philly-based friends have kids yet and it would nice to have someone local that is going through this experience at the same time we are... And another Mommy on maternity leave when I am!
