Arrived with few BREAKS

WHEW!! What a whirlwind few days it has been! I'll start now & go back... Espen & I are in Omaha NE. We arrived on Thursday at 2am after a VERY long drive! We have spent 2 days adjusting ourselves back to regular sleep & to attending to the pets who are very upset by these weird changes. After a week of not sleeping much at all and just forcing himself to continue ~ Espen is back to sleeping and napping regularly! GREAT!

Doug & his parents arrived Friday (4/17) and we rented a UHaul to take the tools and necessary explosive materials out of the house (like the liquor). They left on Sunday with the cats leaving me with Espen, the dogs, my beta fish Franky & Jane (monther in law). And we waited!

I turned on the laptop Sunday night to play on the computer while we watched tv to discover some update issues & then BLAM... it asked me to restart which I did and then I was promted to update again.... I was confused and mad. So I updated again and BAM BAM... I had THE BLACK SCREEN OF DEATH. There were no prompts to restart, restore or anything. TOTAL black screen. I found the restore disks in a box I had packed and tried to stick one in ~ it would not even recognize a disk. UGH-OH..... So after some tears, I closed it down and resolved to get it fixed ASAP upon arrival in Omaha.

The movers arrived Monday (4/19). To my surprise there were only 2 of them. They had to pack up everything & load it onto a HUGE semi by Wednesday at 5pm. They set to work & we just did not much. One item was broken by a mover ... a small dish that I used as a form for some clay projects... he felt pretty bad but I wasn't particularly upset. Jane, Espen & I spent Monday in a hotel. In theory it would have worked but someone had the coughs & someother little person would not sleep.... We were glad for a visit from Sarah to say goodbye! We will miss her! I believe we will see Sarah again someday! But I was left awake & tending to a baby while someone else got some sleep!

Tuesday rolled on and I was TIRED. And NERVOUS. We were scheduled to close on the house at 4pm. So I watched the clock like crazy. The movers did their thing and we were seeing most of the stuff boxed and dismanteled. The dogs were crazed. Espen was concerned. It was hectic. To compound matters even more ~ I had all the utilities stopped and that meant the water was TOTALLY TURNED OFF on Tuesday afternoon. So that was something exciting!! And at a little after 5 I heard from Carrie ~ the worlds most amazing realtor! It was a done deal! With some scary moments and language problems the house was no longer mine!! It was both a relief & sad. So I vowed to Carrie & promted the movers to get us out of the house by 5pm Wednesday...

Tuesday night my little boy was reaching maximum exhaustion and REFUSED to sleep. So I held him and held him which is not how we roll usually. He had some fear & stress & confusion. And their were new noises and new smells. He was batty crazy. So I did the best I could and held him and slept very little. In total I got about 4 hours of sleep. Not nearly enough.

WEDNESDAY brought sunshine. And anticipation. Our fantastic 2 movers wanted to hit the road as soon as they could also so they busted ass to get everything moved out. And a bench fell apart on the way out... and an IKEA book case lost its legs.... But move they did!! We got to say goodbye to Brittany who stopped by! Such a great young lady with so much futur ahead of her... I hope we hear from her and perhaps see her again. Then we went to lunch with Joe our neighbor of 9 years. We had lots of memories together and helped each other alot over the years. I hope he knows he is always welcome in our home!!

At 4:45pm a group of people (children & adults arrived). The new owners. We were about 30 minutes away from getting totally OUT. Carrie arrived. Keys were handed over. New OWNER was shell shocked it looked like. Kids were crazed like they had never seen a house before. But the house was theirs. And the final piece was loaded. We hugged the new owner. Thanked the movers. Hugged Carrie. Got into the LINCOLN and drove away. I had tears in my eyes. 9 Years - lots of memories. The only home by baby & Peso know. The home we had 4 great teens in. And GEESH I was exhausted. But I vowed to put some road behind us and get us started.

We stopped at the Oasis (not 4 miles away) and had a filet o fish & milk. Hoped Espen would be soothed to sleep by the motion. And then at 6:06pm we were on the road to "greener" pastures. A sight.... 2 LARGE dogs, one little boy, one grandma, one tired mommy & more stuff to even mention crammed into a very nice ride. Jane & I just set about making small goals. Like we can get to the river at least. Then we can get to this town at least... and before we knew it we were in Des Moines and only had 2 hours at most to go... so we pushed on. And arrived at a little beofre 2 am.... TIRED... Espen didn't sleep the whole way. Grandma kept calling him baby girl... I got pissed at my sirius satelite radio for playing same songs. But we made it.

Now you know the story of our arrival....

My laptop is with the geek at staples. At best he can restore the system so it works. He believes SADLY that I may have crashed it all and lost all my photos of Espen since birth. But he will try to recover them. I beleive he will try because he saw me cry... I was so tired and worn down & stressed out that news was NOT going to make my day and I just burst into tears. So he is going to try his best. And the best is all I can hope for. I post and print as I go so I have some but there are HUNDREDS that I never share cause they are mine.... and those are lost maybe.

Our realtor here quit and Doug feels kind of abandoned but has worked his butt off to get title company, lender and sellers agent all on the same page and same day. He has the closing set for Monday at 11am. He THINKS he got it all taken care of. And everyone is prepared to move forward. It sucks though to be left in the lurch like this and he is pretty angry. I drove by the house yesterday for the first time & it looks nice. Is a corner house on a quiet street. Pretty neighborhood. We are going to do a final walkthrough on Sunday & that will be when I see the inside for the first time. Then Monday it is ours.... and just in time too... cause we have 4 pets at this house Doug's brother owns and Brock doesn't want them here. Espen has the smelliest poops that Brock will soon not want babies here either. The toliet leaked & the basement has some water in it that Doug & Dean fixed. The hot water takes about 8 days to get hot. So we will move our things out of here quickly and be done with "renting" from Brock. Doug has fixed & painted when he didn't need to and I am not happy about that.... so it is perfect timing!! And then I will have a part time job this summer.... mowing and Brock will suddenly be paying me!! And that makes me laugh like crazy!

So all is well at the moment... I am getting some sleep. Espen is getting some sleep. We are eating healthy. We are seeing Doug. And we are getting lost in Omaha!!

I promise there will be photos soon.... I can only deal with so much at once!!