Gahhh

I’m a little upset because they didn’t have any relocubes and so because of that we found out today from Wymount that we can only park the gigantic 28′ trailer in a specific place that’s about a mile away.  So we have to move everything to the trailer in carloads.  BLEH.  Luckily, however, we know a person with a truck, and everything but our bookshelves and bed will fit into our little hatchback station wagon anyway.  Also the trailer isn’t even coming until between 12 and 4 on Monday.  So we’ll be in the throes of transporting and shuffling boxes from the apartment to the trailer just in time for FHE.  So now we have to feel guilty about asking our ward for help.  BLEH.

Other than that, I feel pretty good about everything.  We’re surviving with one week’s worth of clothes in a little suitcase, a hambone and some beans cooking in the crock pot, plenty of candy, rice, flour, beans, wheat, popcorn, cereal, a few eggs, and limeade.  Plus two cans of tuna and some misc. items in the freezer that probably no one wants to eat.  Oh, besides the giant tub of vanilla ice cream.  I think we’ll make it.  We’ll probably order pizza for moving day.  Seriously I feel like Laura Ingalls Wilder.  Almost.

We’ve been going to DI weekly for the past month or so, dropping off junk.  I’ve always prided myself on not being a pack rat, but there was still plenty of stuff to get rid of.  Now I still have a huge pile to go to the quad yard swap on Saturday.  Including two sets of matching bath towels, meaning we’re keeping one for ourselves, meaning we got three for our wedding.  We kept a new unused set and are giving away the used ones .  It feels good to get rid of stuff.

In the furniture department, I realized that we are going to be living in a basement apartment, so now I’m all worried about light.  So I think the dark leather is a bad idea.  Now I want light colored furniture that is not overstuffed.  So we might do without the leather.  At least the cat hair will blend in.  And I’m going to try really hard to brush the cat and keep the shedding under control.  But seriously, you pet her and puffballs of fur float off.  This is the kind of color scheme I’m after now:

I might want leather anyway, because I’m paranoid of getting stains on the white couch fabric.  White/beige leather is very plentiful on craigslist.  I also might go for a yellow or gold couch color.  It just depends on what we can find.  But I am fully prepared to go without a couch until I can find one that doesn’t hurt my eyes.  I might like to get a couch/chairs with wooden legs, like wingback chairs and a victorian sort of couch.  I think that would help combat the basement feel.

I have to go clean the toaster oven inside and out.

Wheeeeeee!

Oh man, I packed some things today and it made me so happy!  I’m trying to sell our two end tables on craigslist for $5.  I’m not sure they’ll sell but it’s worth a shot.  We’re moving in two weeks and two days.  Yikes! I am very excited.

My furniture goals for the new apartment are:

Used dark (but not black) leather living room set (sofa, loveseat, armchair, some combination of these things that fits in our living room) that isn’t ugly and saggy, for under $500.  I’ve seen a few on the KCMO craigslist.  I really want leather because I’m sure the apartment is all beige, and my cat sheds lots of white hair.  Explanation: if we got a fabric couch it would need to blend in with the cat hair, to hide it.  But to blend in with the cat hair it would also blend in with the walls and carpet.  So I want dark furniture that cat hair won’t stick to.   Leather!  Besides all that, I really like leather furniture.

Used queen sized headboard in dark wood in a classic style.  Like, pedestals or something.  No Ikea or mid-century modern.  Under $50.

Other than that, I’m not sure what we’ll need or what will fit, so we’ll wait and see.

I bought a bag on etsy today.  It’s kind of messenger-like canvas bag with a screen print.  It’s nice and big and I’m sure it will double as a diaper bag very well.

Oh, they mailed us the lease so it looks like we’re getting the apartment for sure!

I am so excited to have my kitty living with me.  I miss having pets so so much.  Having a little fluffy thing wandering under your feet, talking to you and snuggling.  It’s so nice.  And my family’s dog, Socrates, will be available for satisfying our dog craving and he’ll love us for giving him walkies. 

Well, it looks like someone wants to buy those end tables! Hopefully they will come take them away today.

General updates

We’re moving on May 19th.  We wanted to use a Relocube but they were all out! So we got one of their shared trailers instead.  Same price, and same amount of space.  But now we can’t just put it in our parking space, because it’s a huge trailer -we have to have them park it on the other side of the parking lot, quite far away.  So that makes me a little grumpy.

We will probably get in to the apartment we applied for.  It’s about a mile away from my parent’s home.  It costs about the same as Wymount, plus more for utilites, and has twice as much space.  I’m so used to being a BYU student.  Now that I’m not anymore I have to buy a landline and internet! Internet is soooo expensive.  I believe trash and water are included in the rent price though.

I’m going crazy looking at furniture on craigslist.  We will need couches, a dresser, and some other things.  I really don’t want to buy ugly things just because they’re cheap and available.  I would rather wait and find something nicer.  If I find something on craigslist while I’m still out here, my parents could pick it up for me, but they only have small cars so it’s a bit difficult.  So I don’t know why I’m still looking.  It’s addictive.

Plus we are rapidly running out of money, so it’s really hard to find furniture that I like that is still cheap.  I’ve been working nearly full-time this week and will next week.  Then they kick me out because I’m not a student.  Working full-time is a lot harder now than it was when I wasn’t pregnant.  I get tired fast!  Sometimes it’s like my arms and legs are super heavy.  I’m glad I am only working for one more week.

In really awesome news, I found a freestanding birth center in Topeka, an hour’s drive from Manhattan.  The website is here. If you don’t know what a birth center is, check out their FAQ page.  Check out their c-section rate in 2007: 3.6%.  That is just phenomenal.  The national average for 2006 was 31.1%.  Outrageously high.  The W.H.O. recommends no higher than 15%.   The other nice thing about this birth center is that they charge $4,100 total for prenatal visits, delivery, and a few postnatal visits.  This is a very good price.  If a patient ends up with an emergency hospital transfer (4.8% did in 2007), they will cancel the birth center fee and charge what it would cost for them to do a hospital birth.  So what that means for us, is that if Samuel doesn’t get a job with maternity coverage, and we don’t qualify for Medicaid (both of which are likely) we will either  pay $4,100 or the amount for the hospital birth (anywhere from $5,000-$10,000 and up, just for the delivery).  We were thinking of doing a home birth with a certified midwife ($2,000-3,000) but then if we ended up having a hospital transfer, we would have to pay the hospital bill on top of that.  So not only does this birth center have good statistics and a philosophy that meshes with mine and Samuel’s, it also is the least risky financially.  And if Samuel does get health insurance, we will get a plan that pays for a certain percentage of the bill from whatever doctor we choose to see.  So potentially it could be much less than $4,100, which as it is is cheaper than we would have paid in copays with our BYU insurance.

Sometimes we just want to move to Canada and have the baby there.  Health insurance is so blankety-blank complicated.  But I am really excited about this birth center.

success!

I sold my first thing ever on craigslist.com today!  I listed a black futon for $30 at about 11:00 and it was GONE by 3:00!  Unfortunately I didn’t make any money off of it because I was selling it for my brother.  But it still made me happy!  I’m going to try my hand at selling off our furniture right before we move.

But now that I’ve seen how quickly things sell, I wonder if I will ever have any success buying stuff.  I guess we’ll just have to try it and see what happens.

I have obtained several boxes from three different dumpsters without even trying.  So it looks like we won’t have to buy any.  I’ve used up all the small ones for books so now we have lots of big boxes.  I’m not sure what we’ll use them for…. I suppose our record player and printer need to go in something.  Hmm, and our DVDs are lightweight so maybe we can put them all in one big box. And our pots and pans will take up lots of room I suppose.

I really don’t know how we can fill up a whole relocube.  We might end up taking some furniture just for the heck of it.

Gosh, I can’t stand waiting! It’s only January and we won’t be moving until the end of April at the earliest! GAAH!

I’ve been thinking of storage solutions this weekend.  I found two cool ideas for jewelry storage/display that I’m planning to implement.

first, the tree branch necklace holder:

like this one only a real tree branch, which I will wedge into a block of wood and glue onto something heavier, like a brick.  Then I will spray paint it all white or silver or something.  Or, I might just put the branch in a pretty vase.  Actually, that sounds a lot easier.  Put it in a vase with something inside to stabilize the branch.  I like bringing nature inside; I think it’s pretty.  It will help the top of my dresser look like I actually tried to decorate it, instead of just having a few functional boxes and clutter on it.

second, the picture frame earring holder:

made using a picture frame with screen, wire mesh, plastic mesh, or even a recycled onion net-bag tacked to the back of the frame.  I know, brilliant!  It’s straightforward, cheap and easy to make, highly customizable, looks nice to my eyes, has plenty of space, and doesn’t clutter furniture surfaces.  There are tons of these, including the one pictured, on etsy.  I might see if Samuel wants one for his cufflinks.  It would work with wire mesh, the kind with 1/4″ squares.

I think this will work well with my jewelry.  I like having it on display so that I remember to wear it.  None of it is so valuable or delicate that being out in the open will harm it, except my pearls, which I will keep somewhere else.

Right now the earrings are all piled in my jewelry box, and the necklaces are hanging on an ugly faux-tortoiseshell  plastic hook thing that hangs crookedly from our blinds’ drawstring, because we can’t nail anything onto the walls.

Sigh.  I love Wymount, but then again….