Blog, do you feel neglected?

It has been a hectic couple of weeks. We are finally all moved into the new house. I will post some pictures soon of the house with all our stuff in it. It works out perfectly for us as far as the dogs and family goes. The living room/dining room is a big area and is going to be perfect for get togethers.

We had a few bumps in the road with the move. First of all, our fabulous new appliances were delivered. Yeah.. the refrigerator didn't fit. We went back to the store and picked out a different one to be delivered the next day. When the delivery driver got there, he made the original one fit by maneuvering it some crazy way. It does in fact fit though. So.. we have the fridge we wanted in the beginning just with a little bit of hassle in the middle.

Next, the house happens to have hookups for an electric dryer but not a gas dryer. We already own a gas dryer, and it looks like the gas may have been hooked up in the basement for a dryer at one time. My dad came over and helped to run the gas for the dryer.. another problem now.. there is no dryer vent. WHAT? They boarded up all the vents. So weird. We have to get one in now.. just waiting on the right tools for that.

The shower in the upstairs bathroom was made with partial plastic pipe and partial metal pipe.. making the connections weak and leaky. The whole thing has to be done in one or other.. so we can't use it right now.

We had 2 rent a truck 2 separate times to get all the moving done and get a HUGE amount of trash to the dump. We also tried to have a yard sale, but it was rained out. We ended up making a little bit of money.. and giving the rest of the stuff away. I made a post on craigslist and we left everything by the curb. When we came back the next day, almost all of it was gone.

Our old rental house still needs cleaning. Everything is out of it.. we just need to get the dust out and clean the bathrooms, etc. There is $1,000 for a security deposit at stake, and we want as much of it back as possible. It would be nice to get it all.. but we are not holding our collective breath.

Hmm.. what else? We do love the new house in spite of the minor bumps. The move was hard.. they usually are.. but once we are fully settled in, it will all be worth it.

Two days ago on the 23rd, I was 3 months out from my duodenal switch surgery. When I went to see my PCP on 7/14/08, my total loss from the date of surgery was exactly 50 pounds with a loss of 111 pounds in all from my highest weight. AWESOME!!! I am feeling so great and fitting into smaller sizes of clothes now as well. When I did see my PCP, she was so happy for me. She was telling me how great I looked and how happy she could tell I was. I have lost almost 100 pounds since she first met me last September.. she is just very excited for me as well. It's really awesome to have a stellar support system with the medical professionals I see and my family and friends.

More later!

Packing and moving.

The past couple of days have been BUSY.

We have been packing the house from top to bottom. We have our own things to move plus John's mom and grandmother. A lot of work.

We also picked out appliances.. a stove and refrigerator. I never knew it was so stressful to pick out appliances. It took me like 2 hours of going back and forth from stoves to fridges, fridges to stoves to get the ones I finally decided on. John was there too, but he wanted to get the cheapest ones possible. We ended up with black stove and refrigerator.. side by side fridge! I can't wait to get them into the house.

We have also been shopping in thrift stores quite a bit. There is a really decent one close to us in Jenison.. it has mostly furniture. We ended up getting a dining room table and chairs, a chair for John's gram, and some stools for a little bar type area in the dining room. We also got a couch for our niece, Heather. The couch is NICE.. and was only $40. We are excited we found this place.. we will be going back there for sure.

My parents came to see the house.. they seemed to like it. Everyone.. including them.. keeps saying.. "oh, it's nice for your first house..". Uhh.. it's nice ANYWAY. We don't plan to move anytime soon. With the trouble it took us to get into this house, I can't imagine doing it again in my lifetime.

John and I are both working for the next 5 days.. then we have the week off next week to get the move done.

The realtor just called me today too.. to see how things are going for us and to thank us. I was actually planning to email her today because we are supposed to get a survey done of the perimeters of the lot size at the house.. and we have not yet gotten that. She is going to check on it.

So far, things are going well.

Another ER visit.

Yesterday, John got done with work early. I had been packing all day, so we decided to go out and enjoy the beautiful evening somewhere. We took my nephew Aaron with us, and we set out. We ended up at Bennigan's for dinner. That was good. We had been waiting for a few minutes before the waitress came to our table.. the manager ended up coming over and offering us a free appetizer and free dessert since we had waited so long. That was nice of them.

We decided we were going to see a movie and decided on Hancock. It was good.. in the beginning. We saw about 30 minutes of it, and then I started to get horrible pains in my abdomen. They steadily got worse and got to the point where I was lightheaded, dizzy, sweating, and could barely speak. I ended up calling my surgeon's after hours line, and the PA sent me to the ER. Once I got there, I was worse. They got me all in and into a room.. I went to the restroom and passed some significant amounts of gas. I felt a little better after that. They still checked my urine, and I have a UTI. When I was in the ER at the end of May, they had checked my urine then and came back with strep. I had it rechecked with my PCP as recommended, and they said it was clean. I think they may have been wrong and that I have had a UTI this whole time. The PA suspected that I may have had a kidney stone and passed it and that may have been the source of the really bad pain. They gave me some antibiotics, and I was on my way.

I relaxed part of the day today, and we have been packing also. We have most of our own things packed, and we are working on the main parts of the house.. the living room, dining room, and kitchen. We also have to help John's mom and grandmother. It's no small undertaking to move this household. We have two days to work on it this week, then we are planning to pack more and start the move on Monday, July 14.

We are finally excited about the move. It's our own house. Our own home. We can hang things on the walls and paint things the colors we want. Small things are going to be so exciting for us.

We got the house!!

If you follow my Twitter, you know that we finally closed on the house on July 2, 2008. One day after our anniversary, but that is okay. I am honestly shocked and surprised that it happened at all, frankly.

We are planning our move for July 14. Our normal days off work are Monday and Tuesday, and we both have 7/16 and 7/17 off as well. I was going to take Friday off, and that would make me off for about 9 days in a row.. but I need to save some vacation time for my niece's wedding and a friend's birthday shindig on a Saturday in July that I am scheduled to work as well.

More later.