Week 22 – Goodbye Apartment, Hello House Projects

Sunday we officially moved-out of the apartment.  We spent all morning & most of the afternoon packing up the final car load (it almost didn’t all fit!), painting the hallway, dining room, & doing touch ups, and then finally turning in our keys.  It’s a shame the new management is so terrible and we left with a bitter taste in our mouths.  We both really liked the building, the grounds, the neighbors (excluding the one below us), and the whole surrounding town area.  It was our first home as a married couple.  It’s where I trained for 3 marathons and logged MANY miles on those roads.  It was where Bailey “grew-up” and we have numerous memories of her doing funny & cute things.  I know we’ll make 10 times the memories in our new home, especially with a little one coming in a few months…but I’m still going to miss our “first home”.

View from our apartment windows - "Backyard" and the parking lot across from C.O.D.

Bye Apartment

Now that we have only 1 place to tend to, we’ve spent what feels like every waking second unpacking and getting things in order.  This week we’ve unpacked and set up:  the rest of the living room, our bedroom (after buying/installing a closet organizer), the rest of the bathrooms’ furniture/hardware, and the dining room.  Our attentions this weekend, however, have been towards the leaking shower pipes.  We saw this during our home inspection and it was one of the things we told them to fix.  Of course, as it seems to be the theme in this house, they did a half-assed job and just barely patched things together.  So, naturally, it is leaking again.  Trevor’s parents came up yesterday and after going out to Chilli’s for dinner, we stopped at Menards to pick up all the supplies for tomorrow’s project.  Today, Debbie & I spent most of the day cleaning up the yard; picking up the endless supply of garbage/debris, trimming back overgrown plants, and chiefly trying to make the yard seem less like an abandoned plot.  Steve & Trevor were busy running out to Menards/Lowes several times for last minute items and then replacing the pipes & hardware for the shower.  I’m so grateful that they not only drove all this way again (after just driving up here 2 weeks ago to help us move), but also for lending some much appreciated help and expertise in home repair.

22 Weeks

Baby girl is about 8 inches long and an entire ONE pound big this week.  Her senses are developing more and she’s able to:  grab the umbilical cord, still “see” light changes even though her eyelids are fused closed, continue to taste the various flavors in the amniotic fluid, and now hear not only the sounds within my own body, but sounds occurring on the outside as well.  Trevor’s been waiting for this and is really excited to start “talking” to her & have her get to know his voice.  I’m still really tired & sore from only doing things that were apartment/home/packing/painting related.  My diet has been way off; eating whatever and whenever I can.  As a result, I’ve been sluggish and have had more headaches & heartburn than usual.  Though as exhausted as I’ve been these past 3 weeks, I feel really lazy when compared to what Trevor has had to do.  He’s not only done the heavier lifting & more physical aspects of all our projects, but he’s been spending all day at work and then spending all evening & the weekends doing projects for the apartment & house.  I really couldn’t be more blessed to have someone who not only is motivated & wants to work on our home, but follows through and continues to go above & beyond.

Trevor’s Note:  I know that one day home repairs are going to be annoying and aggravating projects that just take away from my free time.  However, there is something really great about working on “your home”.  It makes you feel like a big man (even if your Dad had to come and do most of the work while you just watched.  Thanks Dad!). 

Week 21 – I Imagine Hell to be Filled with People Painting for All Eternity

Even though we “moved” into our new home last weekend, there was still a lot to get done in our apartment, including several more car loads to take over and a fair bit of painting.  Tomorrow we have to hand in our keys and there’s still so much more to do before then.  We’ve been running non-stop for the past couple weeks and I think it’s really catching up to us. 

In the new house this week we’ve:  unpacked & set up the kitchen, fixed the toilet and bathroom sink leaks, hung various things, installed hardware, painted the bathroom, part of our bedroom, & the second coat in the living room, placed all the furniture, made many calls for bills, insurance, & utilities, and did a million other little things. 

Content being shuffled back and forth in the car

In the apartment this week we’ve:  packed up & moved 4 car loads of random things, did a lot of laundry (since we have yet to buy a washer/dryer for the house), patched up holes, cleaned the place from top to bottom, and painted the bedroom, kitchen (which was red and took 3 coats!), and started the hallway.  Despite our efforts to avoid this time crunch, we’ve been rushed into painting our apartment back to white.  In trying to find out how much it was going to cost us, management played phone tag and avoided giving us a direct answer for over a week. 

Living in a college town and having dealt with several move-out processes, we know from experience that landlords will nickel & dime you to death with random charges upon move-out.  We’ve lived in our latest apartment complex for 4 years; most of that time being fantastic.  Then the complex was sold to another company at the end of last year and the new management has been beyond awful.  When it came time to move out, we tried many times to get a quote for how much they’ll charge to paint if we left our apartment with color on the walls.  We decided if the amount was close to what it would cost to buy all the paint & supplies, then we wouldn’t put ourselves through all that work.  Instead, we would just patch up some holes and clean.  They finally stopped dancing around the question and decided to send someone out on Wednesday (our move out day – great timing) to look over the place and determine how much they would charge.  Unfortunately on Wednesday this huge storm started to roll in, and after waiting over an hour for this guy to show up, I had to get home while the roads were still open.  Like I said we were supposed to move out & turn in our keys on Wednesday, but after all this back-and-forth combined with the flooding damage the crazy storm caused, they said we can have until Sunday.   It took until yesterday for them to call with an estimate, so this morning we bought a bunch of paint on our way over and have been trying to do as much as we can before turning in our keys tomorrow.  I cannot wait until tomorrow evening; no matter how much we get done or are unable to finish, it will be over!

"Helping" with all the laundry

"Helping" pack up the bathroom

In less stressful and busy news this week, Baby Kershaw is now 21 weeks done baking.  She is about 7 inches long, 10 ½ ounces big and is the size of a banana.  BK is swallowing a lot of amniotic fluid and because of that, can “taste” the various things that I’m eating.  Her arms and legs are now in proportion, the cartilage is hardening into bone, and the neurons between her brain & muscles are more connected.  All of these things are contributing to more coordinated movements and less jerky twitching.  The results from the Materni-21 test came back this week.  It was negative and confirmed again the un-likeliness of her having Down’s Syndrome.  In regards to how I’m feeling…well I’m a zombie.  My muscles ache, my joints are stiff, I’m exhausted, and my mind is turning to mush due to being in overdrive for weeks now.  The last time we moved, it was the weeks before, during, and after our wedding.  This time it’s while I’m 5 months pregnant.  I guess combining stressful & big life events is just how we roll, haha.

Week 20 – D-Day…I Mean Move-in Day

There’s a good reason why “Week 19” was entitled ‘The Calm Before the Storm’ as this is now the 4^rd “Week 20” post.  We started Week 20 with Bailey and Evalee’s birthday celebrations.  Then we had our ultrasound on Monday and our regular OB appointment on Tuesday.  Wednesday we had a hectic closing, but in the end walked away homeowners.  And Thursday & Friday have been filled to the brim with packing, painting, organizing, and getting ready to move.  Today was the official and very long Move-In day.

I was unable to shut my mind off last night to get much sleep, so I ended getting up super early today.  There are just too many lists running through it!  One of Trevor’s brothers stayed at our apartment last night, so those two started loading up our car before everyone else arrived this morning.  Shortly after, Trevor’s parents, the rest of his brothers, my dad, one of my brothers, and a college friend all started to trickle in.  Trevor went to pick up the U-haul and then the loading really began.  Bailey was way too excited from all the new people and was getting in the way.  I decided to take her and our loaded up car over to the new house before people really got going.  It was hard to leave the apartment and not know what was going on or what was being grabbed.  More so, it was hard not getting to witness it being emptied; to acquire that sense of leaving.  Instead I was at the new house, which was completely empty, tossing toys around with Bailey & trying not to be anxious, lol.  I was there by myself for what felt like forever, but in actuality was probably around 3 hours, waiting for them to arrive.  I know this sounds ridiculous but I really think sitting there waiting & doing nothing was harder for me than it would have been if I was sweating & moving around heavy things.

Eventually the cavalry of pickup trucks, hitched-trailers, and our U-haul pulled up.  Since I wasn’t going to be unloading anything heavy, I was assigned the job of directing people where to put things.  For maybe the first 10 minutes there was some kind of order to it.  Shortly after, the directions were reduced to, “I don’t know, just shove it in that room there.” Haha.  After all the trucks were emptied and I made lunch for everyone, Trevor & I along with his dad & brother drove over to a person’s house we found on Craigslist.  She was selling a big sectional couch for only a few hundred and after looking it over we decided to buy it.  Goodbye horrible misshapen dumpster couch!  Trevor’s dad and brother headed back to the house while we stopped at a Sear’s outlet on the way home to purchase a refrigerator.  I guess you might as well use the U-haul while you have it, right?  When we got back, we saw that Trevor’s mom, dad and brother kept themselves busy by unpacking various things in the kitchen, sort of organizing the living room, and even setting up our bed for us.  They stayed a little longer to help Trevor move around and place some more furniture before heading out.  Trevor and I still had one more trip to make – drop off the U-Haul, throw the old couch into our apartment’s dumpster (I wanted to set it on fire or do something more ostentatious, lol), and get some drive-thru dinner.

We ended this crazy day by lying on our new couch, watching a DVD on the laptop, and Trevor being able to feel the baby kick for the first time!  Needless to say, it made a nice ending to a rather long and exhausting day.  I’m filled with so much thanks and gratitude towards everyone that helped us today – everyone planning around their work/family’s schedules, Trevor’s family driving several hours all for some heavy lifting, and even helping unpack a little.  There’s so much to appreciate today :)

Trevor’s Note:  Awesome.  I know that I have had a lot of great things happen in my life, but this may be the best day I’ve had up to this point.  A new home for my family and I got to feel my baby kick!  I’m sure actually meeting her on her birthday will be better than this but for now I’ll just enjoy this wonderful feeling.  Also big thanks to everyone for helping.  There is no way we could have done this without you.

Bailey testing out the new couch

Week 20 – The House That Almost Wasn’t

These past 3 days have been eventful and jam packed with MANY errands.  Wednesday we closed on the house, though things were looking a little dicey for some time.  We met with the realtor at the house to do our final walk-through, before driving over to sign all the papers with the attorney/bank lender/etc.  Our closing was scheduled for noon but our walk-through was scheduled for 10:30am.  That seemed a little close to us, but after the realtor got held up in traffic and then after doing the walk-through we discovered an important repair hadn’t been done…well it definitely was a little too close.  During our home inspection some weeks back, we discovered a damp spot on the ceiling above the shower and it also showing the early signs of water damage.  We told the seller that needed to be fixed; water problems, especially in house that was foreclosed on, are sort of a deal-breaker.  They agreed to fix it, however, during the final walk-through the area was showing even worse signs of water damage.  I mentioned this was a foreclosed property, so most often the seller has never even been to the home.  They just hire contractors through government programs to fix whatever it needs to satisfy the safety & bank lender requirements.  Unfortunately, this means no one is actually going there to verify the repairs are being done, let alone done well.

Running behind at this point, we left the house to head over for the closing meeting.  On the way, our realtor was trying to get in touch with the seller to find out why this repair was reported as fixed when it’s currently leaking.  We arrived at the meeting and started filling out the preliminary paperwork.  By the way, there is a TON of paper work that has to not only be signed & initialed 500 times, but must also be read aloud & explained officially in the presence of the county recorder…full disclosure and all that jazz.  In between signing and explanations, the realtor was playing phone tag with the seller who was playing phone tag with the construction company & threatening them with not paying if they didn’t go out there right now and fix what they charged her for. 

After an hour or so of signing and going through paperwork, we hit a snag that almost caused this closing to finally fall apart.  The only documents left to sign were the ones that officially made the home ours.  The office was closing soon, this paperwork had to be filed before the official recorder left for the day, and the seller informed us it would be several hours, if not the next day, before the construction company could make it out there to repair the leak.  However, if we signed & officially closed on the house, it would technically be ours and government rules wouldn’t allow repairs to be made after the fact.  Yeah, just a little snag. 

Trevor and I were going back & forth between 1) accepting the house as is; hoping the repair wouldn’t be anything major or cost too much to fix ourselves and 2) pushing the closing back to next week when the official recorder could re-schedule; resulting in us having to move the following week by ourselves since our family wouldn’t be able to take off work on the weekdays.  Oh and our apartment lease is ending next Wednesday and if we don’t close before then, we’ll be homeless.

Luckily our realtor is a great people person and has many contacts that she was on good terms with.  She called a few home inspectors & roofing guys she’s previously worked with before finding a company who had roofer guys in the area…and better yet, they could meet us at the house with-in the hour.  Since we wouldn’t have had time to drive back to the meeting before the building closed, we had to sign all the papers as if we officially owned the home and the attorney would wait there for our call – giving the go-ahead to file them or discarding them & we’d have to do this all again next week.  Since this post is on the verge of rambling – the roofer guys arrived early and repaired what was a half-assed attempt to seal a roof stack (it was already cracked and currently leaking water into the attic space above the shower), we called the attorney and told him to file the paperwork, and the realtor told us congratulations and handed us the keys. :)

Putting in our offer

Closing and getting the keys!

To say that was a stressful 4 hours would be quite the understatement!  Since closing on Wednesday, we’ve been packing up loads of stuff, taking it over to the house, unpacking the loads, and bringing back the empty totes to repeat the process.  I’ve really worn myself out so far and we’re not even to the big Move-In day yet.  Trevor had to work yesterday & today so I’ve been packing, loading the car, and bringing things over to the house by myself.  I’ve also been researching a fridge to buy and updating the bills & everything else to our new address (can you believe that took HOURS?!).  Today my mom came by the apartment and together we filled both of our cars up & took the loads over.  Then I picked Trevor up from work and we went straight to the house and painted the living room.  Now, Trevor, one of his brothers, and I are back at the apartment packing up as much as we can, getting ready for everyone else that is arriving tomorrow.  It is past midnight and we’re still going.  I feel like I haven’t slept this entire week.  I very much look forward to next weekend when it’s just us in our new home…probably surrounded by boxes but at least we’ll be done moving things from the apartment to the house.

Bailey hiding in her crate during all the packing craziness

Trevor’s Note:  PHEW!  I have had no time to make any sustained comment, but my lifelong dream of owning my own home has been realized and I couldn’t be more excited about it.

Week 20 – It’s a…

We had our 20 week ultrasound at the specialist OB’s office today.  Both the ultrasound tech and the doctor looked over the images, took the usual measurements, and printed off lots of pictures for us to take home.  The doctor said BK’s development looks normal, is on pace with everything, and that it appears to be a healthy baby GIRL!

Sucking her thumb

Thinking Pose

Some people can just tell what they are having, but I never had a gut feeling for either sex.  I was hoping for a girl though, so that overshadowed the news of her not having Down’s Syndrome.  If she did have it (and she still could because the only 100% way to know for sure is to have the genetics of the fetus mapped via amniocentesis), we both knew we were still going to continue with everything.  We just wanted to know so that we could start preparing ourselves.  We decided that having an amniocentesis was a little too aggressive since nothing unusual was detected in the ultrasound (also I’m a baby and don’t want a 20 ft needle to stab me).  We did settle on having the Materni-21 test done, which is just a simple blood test on me and is 90 something percent conclusive.

On the way home, we stopped to run some errands.  I couldn’t help it, but I did pick up a few girly outfits :) We’re not going to tell anyone the sex until after the baby showers because we’re hoping to avoid a lot of girl-only things.  The hope is to have another kid down the line and if he’s a boy, we don’t want to have to get all new things…especially because that first year you use things for such a short amount of time!  I know I’m posting here that BK is a girl, but I’m actually not publishing these posts until after we have the showers and tell our families in person.

20 Weeks

The rest of this week is going to be filled with moving craziness, so I better do my update on BK’s development now before I forget.  SHE (see what I did there, haha) is 6 ½ inches long, 10 ounces big, and is the size of a cantaloupe.  I’m glad we returned to the fruit comparisons.  This whole ‘size of your open hand’ or ‘size of a chicken breast’ just wasn’t cutting it.  Since she is a girl, her uterus is fully formed and the ovaries have about 7 million eggs…though at birth it will get down to about 2 million.  I’m halfway through the pregnancy at this point!  I feel…busy, lol.  I’m pretty good now but I suspect by the end of this week I’m going to be dragging and hurting and pretty much in zombie mode mentally.  So much to get done!

Trevor’s Note:  Two great discoveries this week.  Our baby almost certainly doesn’t have Down’s and it’s a girl.  I don’t know what I’ve done to deserve so much, but I am so thankful.  That’s not to say I’m not still stressed out (this week has been crazy and it’s only just begun), but I am going to focus on the positives.

Week 20 – Bailey’s 1st Birthday & Evalee’s 3rd Birthday Party

Pupcakes!

Holding tight onto her birthday toy

Today our puppy is ONE year old!  I know I’m probably way too excited for this ;)  Last night I looked up various pupcake recipes (yes, they really have these).  After settling on a combination of a few, I made a ½ dozen to celebrate her birthday today.  I’ll wait for the eye-rolling to subside, lol.  I gave her one this morning and, as you can see from the pictures above, she loved it.  The one with her eyes popping wide is probably a combination of waiting to be yelled at for taking food from a plate on the table & excitement over the intense peanut butter smell.

 I know it’s just a dog but our lives have really changed a lot since we got Bailey last summer.  We had to change how we went out for errands or enjoyment because she couldn’t be left in the crate for too long, especially in the beginning when her young puppy bladder was still getting stronger.  This also includes having to plan around her 2 meal times, since she is quite scheduled and goes a bit crazy if we feed her too late.  We’ve had to make sure someone aside from ourselves was being taken care of.  It didn’t matter if we’re both tired or didn’t want to go outside when it was snowing/raining.  She still had to be taken out to relieve herself or she was out of food and we had to go buy more or she was a bit hyper and needed to be exercised.

We both grew up with dogs and both decided we wanted one when we finally lived in a place that allowed them…heck, I would have gotten a dog if the dorms allowed them, lol.  However, we really wanted to get a dog before we started a family; to see how well we worked together when it came to taking care of someone else.  That’s not to say taking care of a dog is like taking care of a child but there are many essential things that overlap like:

-What are our disciplinary styles?  How do we respond when we’re not being obeyed?  And when one of us loses our temper, how does the other react to that?

-What are our training/teaching styles?  And if they differ how would we go about working together? (When training a dog you have to be consistent, and if multiple people are contributing, they have to be on the same page.)

-How well do we listen to the other’s opinion when deciding on things like food, feeding times, when to visit the vet, and many more things that will come up?

The first month after we brought her home was pretty tough.  Neither of us realized just how much work having a new puppy was and just how little sleep we were going to get because of it.  However, we discovered over the past year how well we worked together.  We learned to make sure the responsibilities of feeding, taking her out, exercising, teaching tricks & discipline, and cleaning up her accidents were being divvied up evenly, so that other wouldn’t feel overworked and/or underappreciated.  The really great thing was to see just how much the other stepped up when one of us was tired, stressed, sick or just needed a break…and to make sure we were each getting equal “time off”.  Of course this “learning” came with a few fights due to toes being stepped on or not being listened to, but we were able to recognize the offensive behavior and be wary of repeating it in the future.

Obviously taking a care of a child will be much different and we never thought the two would be the same.  But the goals were:
     -to learn about ourselves, our styles, methods, & ways of
       handling things
     -to learn how well we work together, especially under stress or
       fatigue
     -to discover how we resolve issue when we're not listening to
       each other, when one's opinion is being overlooked or ignored

And so I’d say mission accomplished.

**********

Kind of switching gears here, today we also celebrated our oldest niece, Evalee, turning 3 years old!  Her birthday is in a few days but we drove over to Travis & Sara’s to celebrate today.  The weather was really nice outside, albeit super windy.  It was great to see all the little ones again, especially with how quickly they change.  We just saw Trevor’s family last month when we told them we were having a baby and we’re going to see them again in a month for Mother’s Day and AGAIN the first weekend in June for the next set of birthday parties.  Spring is a busy time for the Kershaws!  If only it wasn’t a 6 hour round trip car ride each time :)

Eva and her mom opening gifts

Eva with her new cape

Eva covering her Dad in tissue

Our nephew, Alex

Our neice, Amelia

Our neice, Isabel, with her Grandma

Week 19 – Easter and the Calm Before the Storm

Easter Nails

Puppy Pillow

Happy Easter

This past Sunday was Easter.  As usual, we went to church in the morning and then went to my Uncle Paul’s house for a family party in the afternoon.  I wonder how our holidays will be divvied up when our little one comes.  Since it’s just us traveling, though it’s sometimes exhausting, it really isn’t too complicated.  We’ve split up the holidays between my family and Trevor’s pretty evenly.  Easter and Mother’s Day we stay here with my family, since we travel to Trevor’s in April & twice in June for a couple of birthday parties and for Father’s Day.  Thanksgiving is usually here with my family because his family doesn’t always have a big get together.  However, we’ll see them all in October now for another birthday party, so that’s now evened out.  And Christmas has always been easy as both families celebrate on different days. 

Again, I wonder how that is going to change when we start to do our own family traditions.  I only have 2 cousins on my side that are married or have children, and every year we see them dramatically less often.  On Trevor’s side, only a couple of cousins have children but a lot of them are now married and things are quite different from when I first started going to his family’s functions.  I know traveling with kids is harder but combining that with juggling in-laws & the family that you’ve created makes it all the more difficult.  I’m curious to see how the next few years alter the traditions I’ve followed my whole life.

BK this week is 6 inches long, around 7 ounces big, and is the size of a large mango.  It is around this time that they can start to hear sounds from within your own body (they say “hear sounds” but it’s really “feeling vibrations”) – the heart beating, blood swishing, lungs filling, food digesting, and the tenor of your voice, especially if it’s lower-pitched.  Also this week, BK’s body coated in what’s called vernix caseosa; a greasy protective coating that protects the skin from amniotic fluid.  It will shed closer to delivery, though if born a little early, it may still have some.  I’ve been pretty good this week and really have been good for the most part since the sciatic pain subsided a few weeks ago.  The nausea from being in the car is also getting a little better too.  I think I felt the baby moving again.  It feels the same as it did 2 weeks ago when I thought I felt it the first time.  Unfortunately, it’s still too subtle for Trevor to feel anything yet.  He’s pretty anxious to experience those first movements for himself. 

I titled this entry “The Calm Before the Storm” because there really isn’t anything for us to do this week but wait for time to pass.  Next week is our 20 week ultrasound.  We don’t have room to pack and pile up boxes, so that has to wait until our closing date is nearer.  Ah, just looking at this to-do list for next couple of weeks is exhausting.  If only it were possible to stock-pile hours of sleep.

Trevor’s Note:  I really do have to admit that I’m jealous that Ashley can feel the baby and I can’t.  I know this will sound weird but I’ve never felt a baby kick in the womb before.  It’s not that I really wanted to wait; I just never had a really good opportunity before.  But now that my baby will be the first one, I’m really looking forward to it.