troopers for boys {and why nothing is going as planned} + a wish for the new year

there it is... out with the old, as they say. that's the old right up there... an older pic of the "lounge" area that was in the corner of the dining room of our former apartment. i guess it's not really former yet, as we won't officially be out of here for another few days.

but "in with the new" has begun as of one week ago... several van-loads have already been moved. it's a little bit strange, living in two different places... an odd mix of confusing and fun... sometimes inconvenient. there's packing at the soon-to-be past home with some hard-to-let-go feelings popping up from time to time. and then there's the unpacking in the new place, wrapped up in layers of excitement and vision. you sort of have to wear two different hats... one very task-driven, the other more laid back.

anyway, that room now looks nothing like it did in the above photo {i'm gonna miss that little nook!}. cozy no more. now it's just a giant cube, stripped of its warmth and filled with all sorts of cardboard boxes that contain our lives... or little bits and pieces of them, anyway.

well, you can see for yourself {below}... i snapped a couple shots of mr. b. and isaac. they had just caught the corner of my eye as they filled a box with cd's {remember those?} in the middle of the dining room floor while i packed up our dishes at the counter that overlooks it.

i stopped to take it in, only to realize i was missing a rather sweet moment... although my quick, "hurry and get the photo before isaac moves" shots don't really do the moment justice. but trust me. it was quite precious. i wanted a photo or two, because i honestly don't want to forget that sight. isaac has no idea what his dad was filling those boxes for. but it didn't matter to him. all that mattered was that he was close to dada.

these two have been quite the buddies lately. {at the very least, these photos do capture that, and i'm happy with them, good shots or not.}

{that, right there, is the face of a confused, but very happy, little camper.}

so i named my post "troopers for boys...", because that's exactly what my boys have been these days. isaac came down with a stomach virus that lasted a week. basically, it had been going on since we got back from our christmas get-away, up until yesterday. {we even had to take him to the emergency room on sunday, per the urging of his pediatrician.}

and all the while, mr. b. had tirelessly tiredly driven his work van back and forth between houses several times, loading/unloading many of our things... small furniture or packed boxes and such. in fact, between the two of us, we completely transferred all of our basement belongings. i'm not sure if other people have as much "junk" stored as we do, but it's a little bit ridiculous the amount we had to move before we even touched the living-quarters portion of our possessions. of course, a big part of that "junk" is made up of all the things i planned to sell in a garage sale come spring... lots of isaac's old, outgrown things, and several of our belongings, too.

but being that it's the middle of winter and the off-season for garage-saling, and being that i don't want to just give these things away or throw them out, they all had to come with us to the new house and live in the basement until warm weather arrives. it pains me to move "stuff" we won't be keeping. but it just had to be done. besides, as new homeowners of a house that needs quite a bit of work, we'll certainly make good use of any money we stand to make in a sale.

anyway, this is turning into a long post, so i'll just cut to the chase.

nothing has gone as planned.

nothing.

we were supposed to be completely done by now. or at least in my mind we should have been, anyway.

i was supposed to have everything packed {except for a few necessities} by the time we closed on the house. we were supposed to move this last weekend in one fell swoop and be done.

originally, we were scheduled to close on the 31st and planned to {immediately following closing} create a magical first night in our new home on the cusp of the new year, camping out in front of some crackling logs in the fireplace... just the three of us and some new year's eve essentials.

here was the plan {a brilliant idea that mr. b came up with, and i so love that he did!}... he said to me, "since we are closing on new year's eve, why don't we just go straight from the closing to the new house and bring over some yummy snacks, maybe a television and dvd player, a stereo, some firewood for a trial run of the fireplace, some champagne and eggnog, isaac's pack-n-play or the air mattress for you and isaac, my sleeping bag and our pillows. we can all just hang out, make a fire, celebrate, and camp out on the living room floor with little-to-none of our belongings."

i thought it was the most whimsical and enchanting idea i had ever heard, and i was instantly on board... not a single hesitation from my lips!

this idea came to him a couple weeks before we were to close. idea quickly turned to plan without the need to convince ourselves it was a good one.

and then the call came on wednesday after christmas... while we were still away at the cabin, packing up to come home... "can you close on friday the 28th in the morning... instead of monday the 31st?"

ummm... well, i guess we could. but you don't understand mrs. lawyer's assistant. we had this perfectly planned out. if we close on the 28th, which is a friday, we will have to start moving in that weekend, and that will foil our perfectly magical plan to camp out the very last night of 2012 in our new home with only a few things. this will ruin our plans to get up the next morning on the first day of the new year and exuberantly drive back to the old house to pack up our lives onto a truck and move.

new year. new house.

it was the perfect plan. it rolled off our tongues and and wedged its way into our hearts.

but it was not to be.

actually, we still had our new home come the new year. but it just didn't happen the way we thought it might. however, us b's don't just get handed things like schedule hiccups and give up. we make lemonade when our schedule turns into a real lemon.

so we said to ourselves, "let's camp out anyway... even though we will officially have had the house for a few days, and even though we lost a few days to pack in a timely manner and should really just be spending new year's eve packing." that was when mr. b had, yet another, brilliant idea. he thought that if we move only basement loads before new year's eve, not only would we get out of the way the least fun part of the move, but the hidden nature of those basement loads would not yet make the new house appear as if we had started moving in, and thus, the effect would still be there for us to camp out in an "empty" new house with just a fire and some treats to celebrate. 

{i guess this post is about to get a whole lot longer. i'm writing down all the details for the little squirt to read some day. he should know how his second-ever-in-his-life new year's eve transpired... something to compare future new year's celebrations to... so he'll know just how good he has it in comparison.}

"plan b" was coming along almost as nicely as "plan a" was supposed to...

that is, until we found ourselves fighting fire, flood and plague. yep. you heard me right. {okay... so i'm exaggerating a tiny bit.}

first, we tried out the fireplace. had to, you know. not having a fire would have subtracted one of the major key players in this equation. we knew it wasn't quite up to par because of what the inspection report stated. but we figured it was useable for the time being. well.......... not so much. we quickly smoked ourselves out and had to hide in the basement until the toxic fumes cleared. and, yes... the flue was open.

then, while in the basement, we discovered that water had come out of one of the pipes that had been attached to the former owner's removed water softener. nothing major... and no genuine flooding to speak of. but we tend to get a little freaked out about water in our basement {don't ask... let's just say we've been scarred from our past owned-home experience}, making the sight of just a small amount of water on the basement floor enough to send us into buyer's remorse. and to think, all we had moved up until that point was... well... basement stuff... most of which was on the floor...

oh, the irony!

but all was well. we wiped the puddle up, tightened the valves of the pipes and headed back upstairs to close all the windows and doors that were venting out smoke on this freezing winter night. {hello, sky-high first heating bill!!!}

we finally started to think we were back on track for a super night... we were, once again, ready to party like rock stars. little isaac had not thrown up for over twenty-four hours, so we thought he was done. but then, in true toddler "there's always a hitch" fashion, his little tummy decided to send his previous two meals back up from whence they came. we're talkin' just minutes before the big countdown to the new year. of course, right?

yep... sure enough, we completely missed the switch-a-roo from twenty-twelve to twenty-thirteen. it blew right past us. didn't even stop to say hello.

we were too busy peeling off isaac's soaked jammies and cleaning up the mess from the wall-to-wall carpet in the new living room.

oh, man. i felt so bad for the little guy. the only reason he was up that late to begin with is because his schedule had been so far off from all the previous late nights of throwing up. i know he had a stomach virus, but i honestly think that being toted around from place to place didn't help matters any... first the cabin over christmas, then back to a houseful of boxes for a couple nights, then on to a half-day closing in a strange place {where he threw up on the title company's chair... a title company that my sister used to work at, so i knew several employees there and was therefore that much more embarrassed about the whole situation}.

then we bounced back and forth between the old and new house several times, only to set up camp in the new one late on new year's eve. oh... and i can't forget the hospital and all its strangeness. i think he just wanted his good-old, familiar comforts with everything in its same old place, instead a sea of boxes and uncharted new places.

anyway, it broke our hearts to see our sweet son confused and not quite himself... throwing up days on end for the first time in his life and probably wondering why his body was doing this to him.

we scrambled around to give him comfort, even though i knew he felt a whole lot better just by letting all that yuck go. he needed to get to bed pronto, so i found myself making a post-midnight run to the local walmart {which i was happy to discover runs a 24-hour operation}. but as it was a new-to-me store, i didn't know where a single thing was. i was roaming the aisles at two in the morning trying to find some p.j.'s that would fit my toddler, some food that he could eat that wouldn't upset his tummy, pedialyte to replenish his fluids so he wouldn't get dehydrated, and a new shirt for my husband who was caught in the line of fire during one of isaac's projectile heaves.

i walked around and thought to myself, "i've never felt like crying more than i do right now." i'm sure that was not an accurate assessment, but it felt that way at the time. i was in unfamiliar territory outside of a new home that should have been becoming more familiar by the minute while i enjoyed our first night there. i was tired. i was cold. i was concerned for a boy who was going on one week of vomiting. i was missing my boys. and i was sure isaac would be asleep by the time i returned, thus making all-for-naught my {what seemed like an hour} search for just one flippin' pair of pajamas that appeared warm enough and would actually fit him {because they had every size in every silly pair except the size i needed!} and was not obnoxiously plastered with characters from cartoons he's never seen {as if that mattered at a time like this... but come on... if you're gonna spend money on something, shouldn't you try to find something you'd buy under much more laid back circumstances?}.

when i finally gathered all that i needed, i returned to our smokey-flavored house to find him fast asleep between the air mattress and his little fleece blanket. rough day. i envied what i saw there in the corner of that living room. rough day. and poor mr. b was one nod away from being cashed out in the chair in front of the television. rough day.

happy to report, though...

isaac is on the mend. the old chum is mostly back.

i have to say... even though our fun night turned into a disastrous night and we ended up relieved {dare i say almost happy} for it to end, there was still something magical about it... just a different kind. instead of a magic that resided in a picture-perfect fire and delicious spread of appetizers and champagne, with dean martin singing in the background and pillows and blankets strewn about for comfort, it resided in togetherness and cooperation and empathy and a spirit of tenacity... and a patience that said, "this too shall pass."

and pass, it did. i knew our isaac was back when he started to giggle again and began to whine less. but it didn't come without a price.

i guess what has made me so far behind schedule was not so much the throwing up, because that was for-the-most-part intermittent except for one day of continual episodes... but instead, it was the change in isaac's disposition. i'm certain it was the virus that made him so clingy. but as i said above, i tend to think that maybe it was also due to the strange new environment he was in, as well as his changed-up, formerly familiar environment. being sick just exacerbated that clinginess, making it so difficult to pack, plan or organize throughout the day over this past week+.

whenever i'd leave his side to get some work done, he would cry or get fussy and follow me. he constantly wanted me to sit down near him so he could climb up onto my lap. and i can't say that i minded. i love that bonding we have when he's not feeling well. but i also began to feel a lot of pressure as the minutes and days started slipping from my very planned-out grasp.

so that's the gist of things. i'm behind... far, far behind. we have to be out by end of this sunday, as our utilities will be turned off on monday. i'm about two thirds packed, and we've moved a lot of the little stuff. but the part that i feel most stressed about and falling behind in is the cleaning part. i really wanted to get into the new place to thoroughly clean before boxes are moved in and unpacked. it's mostly the inside of cabinets and the fridge that i'm itching to do, as everything else is really quite clean already. {we had also hoped to paint some rooms before moving in, but that's not a necessity, so it's going to have to wait.}

and then i've got some cleaning to do here in the old place. i know all that is required is for me to leave it "broom-clean"... but i like to leave a place as clean as i found it, if not more so.

then there's all those pesky nail holes that we would like to patch up.

so with only three days left and what feels like more than three days of work to do, i'm beginning to feel the pressure and stress... something i had so hoped to avoid. i guess i could always call the utility companies and postpone shut-off for a few more days. but i had hoped to pay as little rent on this place as possible, as our mortgage payments are already in effect for the new home.

we're all a bit short-tempered at times. but no worries... reinforcements {i.e., friends and family} are on their way. we'll have plenty of helpers on saturday for the big stuff.

i've always known that kids do this... they like to throw wrenches in at the most inopportune times. and to be fair, this was in no way my poor baby's fault. in fact, he is the victim in all this... the poor, unsuspecting victim who never knew what hit him. but he's a trooper who, as long as he has his "chach" {giraffe} and his mom or dad close-by, is one heck of a pleasant sick person to be around. {he totally gets that from his dad... and most certainly not from me, the biggest baby when it comes to getting sick.}

we're all so wiped out, that i'm sure we'll simply crash on our first night home after the final, big move. hey. i like the way that sounds... *home*.

i'm so exhausted as i type, and i'm just now thinking to myself, "why did i write such a long post?"

probably 'cause i just had to get it all off my chest, and with the other two sleeping, there's not much else i can do for the move right now that won't wake them up.

anyway, after all that has gone on, you can imagine how touched i was to look up and see the two of them packing up a box together. these two, i promise you, are the sweetest pair of cowboys that ever traveled the earth's trails. it's true. you may have to meet them to believe me. but you can take my word for it, too.

i'm certain that i have never done anything good enough to deserve their sweet spirits in my life. but i'm just as certain that i won't take them for granted and will appreciate all that i've got in them.

with that, i must bid you adieu and get myself to bed.

but not without wishing you a very happy and blessed new year... 

belated by a day or four, but every bit as heart-felt as if it was sent out on the 1st of january.

it goes without saying that i am very much looking forward to the new year, because it will surely hold some newly created traditions and discoveries as a result of this home purchase and move. it's bound to have its share of challenges, too... i know this reality full well. there's already something overwhelming to think about looming on the horizon... a much-needed home electrical overhaul that awaits our time, energy and pocketbooks.

but we are so excited about doing the fun fixes and changes to our new house, too!

so i look forward with hope to a happy new year.

and for you, i wish the very same thing!