Goodbye, Minneapolis -- I've loved you

Today is the day. We are almost totally packed up: this morning will be finishing it off and completing the remaining cleaning jobs. We slept on the floor last night. Yikes, it wasn't pleasant. I'm not kidding when I say that I'm pretty sure I've been awake since 3:30 or so.

I'll check in with you all sometime within the next week. The only internet access I will have will be at the Small Town library -- I don't know what they offer, so we'll see. Think of us!

Snags explored

Closing on our new farmstead will be postponed until sometime next week, now for two reasons:

1. Verification of Employment. Because Squeeze will not be offered the job officially until his drug test comes in clean, the earliest we will be able to verify income is Monday or Tuesday of next week. After our lender gets that information, they will notify our title company, who will overnight the closing package to us -- we will sign it in front of a notary, overnight it back to them, and they will record it.
2. Title Easements. Some kind of drain tile installed years ago implicated 166 acres in the area (nowhere near our future property) and a quit-claim deed must be signed by two outside parties in order for title to be clear. This shouldn't be a problem -- in fact, resolution of the easement should coincide nicely with our income verification. So even if we had our loan in 100% order, closing would have still been postponed.

We asked our sellers if we could move in on Saturday [as planned] and pay them one week's rent, as we hope to close by Wednesday, but they wouldn't hear of it. Not only are they older, but they are very emotional about having to sell their dream place, so I think they are going to stick it out to the bitter end -- even though they themselves have said, "All we have is a bed and a card table here." No matter. We will set up camp at Squeeze's parents' house until we are able to close. I look at it as potential for fun and relaxation instead of fixating on the fact that we won't be able to settle in for yet another 4-5 days (maybe more, depending). The other factor that relieves my stress is that the sellers are fine with us moving all of our possessions in on Saturday, as planned. If we had to put everything in storage and move twice, I would be living in an entirely different emotional landscape.

Un-un-un-un

Well, Squeeze got the job he was after. We couldn't be more pleased. The only hitch: we need a Verification of Employment letter faxed to our lender by this Friday morning [to close on the new place] and he won't be officially offered the job until next week (after the drug test he is taking right now comes back clean). Unbelievable. But...we are so happy about the job that all the bother of postponing closing and the variety of snags that come with it barely makes a dent in my brain. Wheeeeeee! We're home-free!! He starts July 2nd, so we have a week to settle into our new digs before going back to the new-old grind.

I think I should very dramatically change the name of my blog to Farm Wife.

Living amongst the boxes

Our house is starting to feel less like home, now that we have boxes piled around everywhere. All of our wall-hangings are down, the lamps are packed, and we are down to the bare essentials in the kitchen. It doesn't feel very comfy.

I will be 22 weeks on Wednesday. I'm getting rounder, more rotund, and I'm pretty sure the baby has sleep/wake patterns established. I am also feeling less comfortable and quite fatigued by the end of the day. This is probably because of the amount of work and stress we are under. It makes sense. I hope things go back to normal after our move; although it may take weeks and months to get settled. Not to mention culture shock. I expect there to be plenty of that.

I've been watching homebirths on YouTube over the last month. It thrills me. The women are always in the final stages of pushing, the most exciting part. I wish I could have watched myself give birth, although I probably wouldn't have paid much attention if I could have (at the time, at least). Have I ever told you that in the final stages of pushing with Starbeans, I felt like I was in a dark tunnel with stars whizzing by? No joke. I was so focused that I couldn't hear anyone around me, I couldn't see anything except the tunnel, and between pushes I would come back to reality in a kind of bizarre way. It was so interesting. I hope to give birth in the squatting position this time around; it looks like a very natural position to do so. Last time, I was in a bed and pulling on a sheet with my feet propped up on bars, which felt just right. It will be interesting to see what happens this time, especially with the freedom of being at home. I am really looking forward to it. I am so glad I'm a female!!

Photo essay of interest:

What the World Eats

I ran into this through another blog that I peek at now and then. It is so interesting! I've seen some of these pictures in a magazine at one point in time and I especially remember the Japanese family, for some reason. Looking through the pictures again, I am fascinated by how many families are pictured with bottles of Coke. Good grief! The American families (British as well) stuck out with how little vegetables they had; for shame. I suppose it is a good representation of the American Diet, though. Sheesh.

I just love that family from Ecuador, don't you??

Toast in June

We are having an extremely dry June here in Minneapolis. We are avoiding watering in the attempt to conserve on water; in fact, I've been watering our outdoor plants with Starbeans' bathwater. It's actually kind of fun, albeit a bit time consuming compared to just turning on a hose. [However, "just turning on a hose" at our house also involves work: when the large back addition was put on however-many-years-ago, there went the outside faucet. We have to hook the hose up to our laundry room faucet in the basement through an open window. Kind of a pain, obviously.] Today, I finally cracked because the rhododendrons, mock oranges, and lilacs were all wilting beyond belief. I felt so sorry for them that when I filled Starbeans' pool, I gave everything a bit of water. Poor things. Thankfully, they've all sprung back.

In other news, we are closing and moving a week from tomorrow! June 22nd. Talk about Club Intensity! I feel fairly laid back at this point, but it is unnerving to contemplate what the next week will look like. Trying to pack up an entire household and say our goodbyes in the space of a few days. I can imagine we will be completely drained when all is said and done. I tell myself it will be worth it; and it will, but, crap. What a lot of work.

Time to start watching my tongue!

I let one of our cats in yesterday after she was so annoyingly scratching at the door. [We have been letting them out now, in preparation for their lives as Country Cats.]

"Idiot," I said.

Behind me, I heard a sweet little voice say, "Id-dit."

Uh-oh.

Keeping cool

Squeeze bought Starbeans an inflatable pool while we were at my parents' house. It is the best - we [both] love it. After 4 hot hours in the car yesterday, we donned our bathing suits and splashed ourselves silly. Squeeze had to go straight to bed, as he is still working nights; his sleep schedule has been out of whack for several weeks now and there is no point in trying to get back to a day-sleeping schedule. He only has a week and a half left. YESSSSSSS. I am really happy about that. It will be nice to have him back. What a pain in the butt night-work is.

About the ponytail -- isn't it just darling? I suppose we'll eventually crack and have to cut his hair, but the curls are so sweet and I can't bear the thought. The ponytail made its appearance fairly quickly after sitting in a hot, wind-whipped car for a few minutes. He didn't seem to mind one bit and it caused us to melt into oozy puddles of affection.

Though you may not believe it,

I really am alive.

We spent 8 hours in the car in two days. It was terrible and it was hot. No air conditioning, temps hovering around 90 degrees. Misery. Squeeze had a job interview in Large Town, SD. It went well; however, there are 3 other people vying for the position, so it is pins and needles for us. Our new home loan is dependent on providing proof of income and we have until the 22nd to do so. Yikes! Talk about a time crunch. There are a couple of other prospects, but this, by far, is the most tangible of all his potential job connections. We really hope he gets it.

Starbeans has had a verbal explosion. He is repeating everything we say now, whether a verb, adverb, noun, or adjective. He's adding the appropriate consonants to the end of words now, like, "buS" instead of "buh"; "yo-go-T" instead of "yo-go"; "caR" instead of "cah". We are very impressed. My favorite is "yo-go-t" because he often says, "yo-go-t-t-t" just for a little extra umph. He is also having lively fake phone conversations, this morning's being just under a minute and punctuated with a lot of pseudo-giggles, yeahs, and a grand finale of "BYE-BYE!!" Oh man, he is just so cute.

Meanwhile, we are prepping for our move. We gathered boxes out of cardboard dumpsters on Saturday night, listed 6-8 different things on Craigslist under the FREE section (4 things remain), and continue to add to the thrift store pile. Pretty much everything is packed, except the entirety of the kitchen, our bedroom, and most of Starbeans' toys. And the garage, ack. We have less than 2 weeks. It is going to be an arduous task, to say the least; but it will be done before we know it. Godspeed!