Loose Ends

So, as promised, I thought I'd spend some time filling y'all in on the loose ends we're tying up around here!  Really, I'm just counting down the minutes until naptime, since it appears the Terrible Twos have hit quite a bit early around here, and we've been battling temper tantrums all morning.  Mama needs a break!  Let me just break things down for you by category...

Nursing School.  I finished up my Medical Ethics course.  It was actually more challenging that I could have imagined, and the topics discussed were very hard for me to be objective about, given my religious and political beliefs.  Yep, I'm talking abortion and euthanasia as our main themes throughout the course.  I'm half-way through my Developmental Psychology course, with the midterm due tomorrow, and hoping to knock that out during this afternoon's nap, since I really need to get some other things done during morning nap.  Wish me luck in checking that off my list!

Reserves.  This past weekend I officially completed my last Drill Weekend!  Due to scheduling, my command had the October and November Drill Weekends only two weeks apart, and I'd done some work at home to warrant enough hours to get paid for a third weekend.  So, if it seems like I've done a ton of work for this, I have!  We finished up the Fiscal Year, for which my department has many responsibilities, I provided plenty of files and records to those who will be continuing on after I leave, and I received my final Fitness Report (like an annual employee evaluation) and said goodbye to those in my command.  On paper, my official last day will be December 31st, but as of this past Sunday, all my commitments to my unit are fulfilled.  I'll miss the (little) paycheck each month, but I'm so glad to be closing this chapter in my life!

Moving.  Hubs and I have come leaps and bounds in prep-work for our upcoming move.  It's hard to believe that in just over five weeks we'll be heading East on a new adventure!  We've gone through nearly every nook and cranny in this house, purging things we no longer need and donating those that might be of use to someone else.  We've scheduled our pack-out and completed the initial survey to ensure a large enough crew will be here for sufficient time to get everything loaded.  We conceded that with our busy schedule, even though it's a little more expensive to let the military housing office do our move-out cleaning, it's just that much easier for us...and since time is money, we're going to let them take care of things after we leave rather than paying someone a little less to do so beforehand.  Because, honestly, doing the cleaning after the packers/movers but before we actually leave, just extends our financial obligations to this house, which ends up being more expensive in the long run.  In that same vein, we have a hotel room booked for our final week here so that we can have an organized home-base while our house is packed in boxes and crates!  We also made a final decision on shipping one of our cars.  The military will not pay to ship the vehicle for us, even though they will pay mileage, etc for us to drive each car separately.  Well, with such a long move, me being pregnant, and having a toddler in tow, that simply wasn't a great option for us.  We discovered some shipping options that may be less expensive for us but create dependencies on time, location, and people...so we decided that those were also not ideal.  We also wanted to just lock something in place so we'd have a plan and be done worrying over things.  So we booked vehicle shipment with a company we found and we're hopeful that it'll all work out just great!

Bunkey.  Has 16 teeth.  Runs more than he walks.  Has learned to climb up on the sofa on his own, necessitating that I watch him like a hawk and remind him dozens of times to sit on his hiney rather than walk back and forth on the sofa.  So far he's only fallen off once, and on top of pillows he'd tossed overboard, thank goodness!  His appetite seems to be growing as he embraces toddlerhood, as has his need to express his desires.  He only says a handful of words (mama, dada, uh-huh, thank you, hey!) but he sure babbles a lot and I am just waiting for the day when he amazes me by just unleashing an entire monologue!  He still takes two naps a day, for which I am eternally grateful, and he wakes in such a good mood.  He's behaved in church, curious as all get-out, and just a chipper little dude.  He makes me smile daily!

House hunting.  As you recall from my last lengthy diatribe, we put an offer on a house that was in a great neighborhood and had a nice layout, but needed a ton of work.  The sellers immediately accepted our offer, and things were going relatively smoothly.  My mom went up to the area to accompany M, our realtor and family friend, on the house inspection earlier this week.  While the house was certainly not perfect, and there were a few surprises and a lot of work/repairs necessary, we decided to move on with the offer.  We prepared an addendum for the owners with the repairs we wanted them to make, and sent it off to M for submission.  This morning, however, M called me with very bad news!  She learned, in a round about way, while trying to get a radon inspector in to the house to get some readings for us, that the house is possibly going up for auction, which would cause a foreclosure/short sale situation, and draw this whole process out months and months.  M's recommendation was that we pull our offer, cancel the appraisal that is scheduled for tomorrow, and start over.  In the meantime, the owners of the house I absolutely love that was above our budget have apparently not seen much traffic and contacted M to see if we were still interested.  So as of right now we're back in negotiations with them to see if we might still have a house.  Keep your fingers crossed for us!

Baby.  Two weeks ago I went to my 20-week checkup.  Baby-wise, everything looks good, and everyone is on track with growth.  My blood work came back normal, so there is no need to worry about any defects.  I learned the gender, but as of right now I'm not telling...as least not in blogland!  Yes, Bunkey was a surprise.  And yes, I originally thought that I'd leave this one a surprise as well.  However, I just couldn't wait and had to know.  So I do.  All that said, when Dr L did the ultrasound, she told me that my placenta is low and is creating a partial previa, which is when a portion of the placenta is covering the cervix.  She mentioned that this could resolve itself with time, since, as the placenta stretches and expands with the baby's growth, the placenta "migrates" north.  While it doesn't actually move since it's implanted into the uterine wall, the stretching makes it appear that way (think of a balloon as you inflate it).  For now she's not concerned, but of course I am, since we have a ton going on (as usual!).  I'm trying to take it easy and not stress out over minutia.  But at the same time I'm terrified that the issue will not resolve and I'll end up on bedrest during a significant portion of my pregnancy while we're trying to drive cross-country, set up a house, celebrate holidays with family, etc etc.  And that doesn't even take into account my fears of hemorrhage  early labor, and emergency c-sections!  So, any spare prayers you have laying around would be most appreciated!

For now, that's it!  I'll try to post again soon to share Halloween pictures of our adorable little bat!