Updates on everything!

Good Wednesday morning, people!

First up, I combined my two blogs, so this is the place for all of the action from here on out. If you're new to The Gatannah Files, welcome.

There is a lot going on with Team Dave's, and so I'll just start somewhere in the middle and we'll work our way out to everything eventually (as time will allow... meaning "as long as the child sleeps").

We terminated our offer contract on the weird-o house. Weird is good. $5500 in roof repairs (not replacement, guys, REPAIRS), $5000 to rebuild ducts and blow in some functioning insulation, plus the $7000 to replace the 15-year-old A/C/furnace, and however much to rewire the outlets so that they actually have, you know, ground wires, and then replacing the 15-year-old water heater, etc. etc. etc. was not okay.

We put in an offer on what was truly my dream house (even though they had no pantry) Saturday. It was in the neighborhood that is my favorite, near a park, near where we want to send Mal to school, near my sister, garden in the back yard, compost already set up, nice yard for mowing work-out, etc.

It was heart-breaking. I felt like God had saved us just for this house, but in the end, the sellers actually went with a lower bid that wasn't a VA loan. They said they were afraid the appraisal would come in under sales price, and we agreed to make up the difference to a certain amount if that were the case, but our loan officer said that has only happened twice that he can remember, and the second one is under review right now. He said the VA scares people because they think they're practically going to have to rebuilt their house before the loan will be approved. Not true. And so we journey onward.

Sort of.

James was looking at houses later that night, but I seriously felt like someone I loved had broken up with me, and I wasn't in the mood to browse OK Cupid. *sigh* Boys.

We're looking at several houses this weekend that are way out of town, and this will change a lot of things for us. Most important is James' commute, and everything else we can figure out once we shake down.

In the baby department, Mal is almost six months old. He has two teeth and is babbling up a storm. He has outgrown his colic and tends to be in a great mood when he's not in toothing pain or overly tired or not being held and unhappy about that.

Although he continues not to sleep except when in our bed or being held, I'm developing coping mechanisms. For instance, yesterday I colored my hair for the first time with no one at home to watch the baby. I got some dye on the back of his shirt, he screamed the entire time I was in the shower (even though he was literally just on the other side of the curtain), and I realize today that the color somehow didn't take in the middle of my hair (like roots are done, ends are done, and somehow the middle isn't; oh well, it'll wash out eventually and be even). So it's not perfect, but it works.

Also, I've realized that if I put Mal to sleep (read: nurse him) in our bed, I can get up and get some things done before turning in myself. This works especially well if James (or a cat) is already in bed.

Obligatory cute baby picture. Here, he's wearing a sweater gown that was his dad's.

Daphne... well, this week it was like a time machine. Daphne was me at her age, and "Gravity Falls" was "Scarecrow and Mrs. King." There was a new episode that was set to live-stream, and she managed to get into the stream early in the evening (they were showing the episodes leading up to the new one.) She warned me two hours before it came on that if James got home late, she might "rush through dinner," and later, when I was listening to internet radio. asked if I'd mind not playing anything out loud during the half hour her show was on. "Not now. But at 7:30."

She did wolf down her dinner "because I was hungry, and because I'm amped," then she excused herself. She watched the show pretty much in silence, then at the very end, when a big reveal was presented, she laugh/sobbed for about 5 minutes. She was shaking and typing frantically. I was a little jealous that she had a whole internet full of Tumblrers who were also excited and she got to share that moment with other fans. It was always just me at my computer after "Scarecrow and Mrs. King," literally typing up as much of the script as I could remember, since this was like 3 years before we got a VCR. And ten years before we had CompuServe. And I don't think there were any listservs or news boards dedicated to fantasy dramas at that point, anyway.

Memories. Good times.

Today, for the first time in three months, I saw the crochet guy! I'm glad he's back around. I was heading home carrying 2 24" x 36" canvas prints, 2 11" x 8" prints, and a bag from CVS (I was in denial about their size when I picked them up, but not after the half mile walk home), but can't wait to talk to him about what's going on with him.

I was thinking the other day about things on which I have wasted money in the past year. They include: a baby swing; a bouncy seat; any clothes I've bought for Daphne without vetting them out with her, and several that I have; another baby swing; a crib (so far... although the cats really enjoy it and it does convert to a toddler and then day bed, so maybe there's hope?); a bunch of new shirts that I loved on Zulily but didn't think about the fact that I'd be nursing for who knows how long. There is probably more, but that represents a lot of moolah.

Okay, I think that's most of the catching up we have to do. Until we meet again...