Last Posting from LaQuinta!

Well, folks, this should be my last posting from the comforts of the La Quinta Inn & Suites here in Great Falls. The girls are getting really excited to get out of here. I am inclined to be of the same opinion as Riley who told me this evening, "We are living in a hotel and this is not fun." Tonight is our 49th night here...who wouldn't be of the same opinion??

Tomorrow (Tuesday) we are meeting the realtor over at the house for a walk-through just to make sure everything is in order before closing on Wednesday. Ben and I will be picking a paint color for our master bedroom while we are there...we'll be able to see how the paint samples look in the room itself. The girls will also need to decide what color(s) their room will be painted.

They pretty much came to the consensus of having a rainbow-themed room. For those of you who don't know, the girls have been sleeping in the same room since last winter. I think they enjoy having someone else in the room when they fall asleep and it certainly eliminated the bedtime hassles. ANYWAY, we have been choosing things for their room over the last week or so..... I purchased grosgrain ribbon in six colors (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple). I bought small, white lampshades and hot glued strips of ribbon on each. I found rainbow quilts at Target and purchased matching sheets (white with stripes and white with polka dots). Samantha came up with the idea of having a ribbon curtain on their bedroom doorway, so I purchased a 3-ft dowel and hot glued 5-ft lengths of ribbon in a pattern all the way across the rod. I have my scrapbooking supplies with me and I just happened to have primary-colored buttons that match perfectly. Both sides of the bottom of the ribbon strips got a button glued on to add a little bit of weight. I have to admit that these are the absolute cutest things I have ever created. I will definitely take some pictures to upload whenever we get Internet service at the house.

Right after we are done at the title company's office on Wednesday morning, we have to pack up everything in the hotel room and get it over to the house. One last car ride for the kitties! It's amazing how much stuff we've accumulated in 50 days and how we've managed to pack it into this tiny space. The trick will be to get it all out of here in as few trips as possible. Samantha will be at school, so we'll just have Riley to contend with for those few hours.

I have also been gearing up to clean the house from top to bottom after closing. Since all of my cleaning supplies were packed up with the movers, I have had the privilege of trying not to spend a lot of money on purchasing the same things again. I don't think I did too poorly... $16 at the Dollar Tree for buckets, sponges, gloves, spray bottles, etc. I've been doing some research on the Internet on "green cleaning" and I'm going to give it a try. My arsenal will mainly consist of vinegar (2 gallons from Sam's Club) and baking soda (2-lb bag from Sam's Club). I'll probably pick up some lemons from the grocery store to use, too. I've been worried about the chemicals that we put into our home environment and their safety around kids and animals. I'll let you know how it works.

OH....one important thing that happened on Saturday... I had a lot of trouble getting past this incident. Today was the first day that I didn't think about it obsessively. I took the girls down to the hotel swimming pool to burn off some of their excessive energy. Ben wasn't feeling well, so he did not go with us. We were having a fine time after I got used to the water...a little chilly for me. We have a swimming vest that we borrowed from some friends. Riley usually wears it and does really well keep her chin/mouth out of the water when she can't touch the bottom (the vest is a little big and she kind of hangs in it). Ben discovered that she can kick her legs and move her arms pretty well to move herself around in the water. Well, first of all she has absolutely NO FEAR of the water. Without the vest she seems to think she can swim. Her definition of "swim" is much different than the Webster's definition. I'm pretty sure that hanging on my arm or being held by my hands does not constitute actual swimming.

ANYWAY, the girls and I were taking a break in the hot tub. I got out to sit in a chair while the girls got back in the pool on the steps leading down into the shallow end. Riley had removed the vest while we were in the hot tub. I specifically told her to stay on the steps since she didn't have the vest on, but mainly because I was not in the pool. She's usually very good about sitting on the steps. Here is where I feel like a complete failure as a responsible parent. Do you see where I'm going? Well, Samantha can stand in the shallow end just fine. She went into the pool to cool off. Riley walked down the first couple of steps. She looked at me and I made eye contact reiterating to STAY ON THE STEPS. She looked away from me and just kept walking down and into the 3-foot water. Her whole head except for the very top bit of hair was under water. I'm getting nauseated even typing this now. The whole world seemed to move in slow motion at that point. I don't think I could believe that she would just walk down into water that she knows is too deep for her. I'm sure it was only about one second before I jumped up out of my chair and sprinted the 10 feet to the edge of the pool. I jumped in and grabbed her up as quickly as I could. Somewhere in those 2-3 seconds (and I can still hear it), Samantha immediately had panicked and said, "MOMMY, GET HER!" Samantha was completely "frozen" with panic and was just about hysterical. Riley coughed a little bit and cleared the water from her nose/mouth. I don't think she actually breathed any water into her lungs....it seems like she just didn't breathe for those couple of seconds. I listened to her chest/lungs periodically for the rest of the day to see if I could hear any crackling sounds of water in her lungs. She calmed down relatively quickly....Samantha was the one who needed more comforting. I don't think after all the fuss and reprimanding by me (and later, Ben) that Riley truly understands the severity of the situation and how it could have turned out much, much differently. Of course I kept asking her if she was OK....all she said was that she was OK and that she would stay on the steps now. She was read to go back in the pool and I was ready to have a nervous breakdown. We gathered our things and headed back to the room. Samantha immediately reported to her daddy what had happened. I made my way to the bathroom to hang up some wet items....that's when I had MY nervous breakdown. The emotion hit all at once. Like I said before, I couldn't get it out of my head all day Saturday and most of Sunday. I can't believe how close I came to losing one of my precious babies. I try every single day to protect them from harm and regardless of what I do it seems they manage to find themselves in harm's way. This is the part of being a parent that I dislike the most... the WORRY and absolute terror that I sometimes feel... no matter what I say or do they just don't listen... they don't fully understand the consequences of their actions... they don't understand cause and effect... I'm not sure that I will survive their childhood without losing my own mind!!!!!

Alrighty then...I should probably get to bed now. I have rambled on much longer than I anticipated. I hope that everyone that reads this is doing well... I suppose I do actually hope that others are well, too... but if you don't read my blog how would you know that?!

Love to all from La Quinta!

Good News!

We found out this morning that we can finally close on our house next Wednesday morning. Gosh...just one day earlier than I predicted on my change of address cards. We should also be able to take immediate possession since the previous owners have already moved out. This, I know, because I "stalk" the house every day after picking up Samantha from school. Earlier this week the lender came back and said the VA appraisal required two things to be done before closing. They wanted a handrail installed in the garage next to a few steps leading down to a door entering the house. The second thing was a little bit of chipping paint on the exterior of some/all windows...they wanted them repainted. The owner had these things done before 3:00 pm the same day! Hooray!

Another piece of good news is that the movers will be able to deliver our household goods (furniture) next week, too. We asked for them to deliver on Friday so that we have a good day and a half to clean. We would also like to paint our master bedroom and the girls bedroom. We'll see how it goes. It's an ambitious plan, but we are hoping for the best.

That's all for now. We are just sitting and waiting now.

Love to all!

We're Still Here...

Ugh...hotel life is sure getting old. We are still waiting for the bank to get their butts in gear and get our home loan closed. Our original target closing date was for this past Friday. However, the bank (don't ever use Wells Fargo) decided to sit on their duffs for 3 weeks before thinking...hmm... maybe we should provide some customer service and get this going. REALLY??? Do ya think????? Ben has been pushing them for the last week and we will hopefully get our closing this coming Friday. I have never been so ready to be in a house!! The walls seem to be closing in even as I type. Although I must admit to one big advantage to small living spaces...I can keep a close eye on the wild munchkins and my prone-to-be-lazy-when-not-at-work husband. He, he, he.

On another front, I am trying to seek full-time work. I actually had an interview last Monday and received a job offer on Tuesday. The job was for a lead secretary with the Great Falls Public Schools. I probably would've liked the job, but the timing was all wrong. I can't in good conscience start a new job before we even get settled in a real home. So, as you can tell I turned them down. Another thing was the pay...not quite enough. I have put out a couple of other applications and have an appointment with a staffing agency tomorrow or Tuesday. I'm sure I'll be able to find something before the month is out. My goal is to start working around the first of December.

Child care is the other dilemma I am currently facing. I would like Riley to attend this area preschool, but there is a waiting list. There is really no telling how long it will take before she can attend, so I am seeking a different provider in the meantime. I have someone who is willing to watch her, but I am also researching other options.

Ben and I had dinner with some of his co-workers last Thursday. I think everyone in their office took a Meyers-Briggs test. If you've never heard of it, you should look it up on the net. Ben attended two days of "training" on the different result types/combinations. I'm sure that the training will enable him and his co-workers to better communicate within their office and also to their external customers. The dinner was especially for those employees whose spouses or significant others took the test as well. It was no surprise that Ben and I are complete opposites. He is an ENTP, while I am an ISFJ. I took the test about 15 years ago while attending Purdue. My type did not change, but the values of those scores did change somewhat. Even though Ben and I are opposites, we found out that we are not as opposite as some other couples. We compared the actual differences in the values and I'm not sure Ben and I could survive with spreads like we saw in others. WOW! I thought this was hard work already...I can't even imagine how hard they work at their relationships. ANYWAY, if Ben and I can use this information as a tool to communicate better and be more aware of how the other person operates (and try like heck to be considerate and REMEMBER)... it can only get better!!

I'd best turn in for the night. I'm sure it won't be long before I have Riley joining me on the pull-out sofa.

Love to all!