OK, we have a plan now. We’ll be moving to OKC in late June, looks like the weekend of June 25th. Now, I live in Wichita currently and need to get myself and family/family belongings to Oklahoma… the biggest problem here will be that I can’t drive the van to OKC by myself/with kids because I’ve done it twice and fell asleep at the wheel twice and nearly died, again, twice. So no long highway hypnosis drives for me. But how to get someone up here? We need to get a Plymouth van full of Gleesons and a Ryder truck full of stuff to Oklahoma, yet I cannot drive either one by myself… can’t tow the van behind because we need it to drive the wee folk in… The whole thing reminds me of the classic missionaries and cannibals game.

But once we get that figured out it’ll be fine. I think my mom and brother are gonna come up to help us move and one of them could drive me and the kids in the van, while the other drives Mom’s car back.

We’ll be moving into a decent little 3-bed apt, rent for the first month generously financed by parental units. I swear I thought when I was all growed up I’d not have to depend *quite* so heavily on them… but to tell the truth, my parents are just pleased as punch that we are coming back home. They’ve been trying to get us to come back for years. SO I spose they’re happy, which is always good.

I have to go think of something for dinner now.

OK here’s the scoop.

We’re going to move to Oklahoma where my family of origin is. We think we have just barely enough money to get moved and into an apartment down there and hopefully Sean can find work.

It’s easier for them to help us out if we can just pop over to their houses for dinner when we need it than it is for them to send us grocery money here. Also, rent on an apartment there will be less than our mortgage here, which is about to go into foreclosure. Eeek! Ah well, I think it was a good choice to pay the electric bill and buy groceries and let the mtg payment go. I will miss this house tho, it’s nifty and we refinished the floors and Bede was born here… sigh. I’m going to take a bunch of pictures of the kids in each room and make a little book for them so they can remember. I think Faith would really like that.

So, I will shortly be a packing fool! I tell you, for someone who lived in the same house for 21 years, I have more than made up for it in the last 9… let’s see, I’ve moved… ::counts on fingers:: seven times since 1995.

We went to a local diner for a Mother’s Day treat, planning to spend about $15 or so on pancakes/waffles/eggs etc. We got there, were seated fine and had just gotten our drinks when Bede REFUSED to sit still. Nothing I could do would placate him… I offered crackers, applejuice, even grape jelly, nope. He was a man on the move.

So it being *my* Mother’s Day fete, we left! Sean paid for the drinks and away we went. Sigh. It would not have been in any way enjoyable for either of the grownups to fend off The Mobile Boy. Faith was a bit confused when we left (”But I was going to eat a waffle, Daddy?”) but we bought her off with frozen ones so no biggie.

By ‘refuse to sit still’ I mean wiggle out of high chair with strap onto tabletop in 15 seconds or less, lunging for salt shaker. And scream if any real restraint was employed, such as a 3point restraint fashioned from a sling. I let him down for a second on the off chance that he would stay within the confines of the table and environs but no. He was off like a shot. A drunken penguin of a shot, admittedly, but a speedy one. Think Charlie Chaplin.

So the moral of this story is Don’t Expect To Eat Out Peacefully With A Fourteen Month Old, Or At All.

Happy Mother’s Day all the same.

My mom’s here for a day or two and Bede remembers her and ADORES her which of course about made her year. Also news on the Bede front, he can now scale the dining room chairs and climb up on the table. Not quite sure how to deal with this… a fall from the table would be painful and perhaps even seriously harmful, but I have no idea how to keep him from climbing. Hmmm. I don’t think he’d fall, but I also know about the clumsiness factor inherent in any room with 3 children under 5 in it. Anyone have any thoughts? Short of duct tape (for boy or furniture)?

Mom said “Well Bede you’re having a big time with that bucket!” to which Abby said “And I’m having a small time with this spoon.”

And a sleepy Faith, dozing in the car, told me “Mama, I closed my eyes because my eyes were in the way.”

OK so I feel better.

I’m still broke and she’ll probably have more toileting misses but

I feel better.

Thanks everyone for the comments.

L- in point of fact we do not have Albertsons. We used to but they were recently bought out by Kroger. So now we have Kroger, Kroger or Aldi, basically. And a decent little HFS called Whole Foods but not THE Whole Foods. Of course also the omnipresent Wally.

So far I need no WIC. Well, have gotten by with no WIC. I’m going to try to keep that up because I don’t think they would look kindly on a hbirthing-”delayed”-vaccinating-homeschooling-weirdo-freak like me.

Sean called the food stamp people, different department than WIC, and they needed ‘proof of pregnancy’ for me.

“How do I prove she’s pregnant?”

“Oh, a signed note from the doctor.”

“Well, will a midwife do?”

“Is she an RN?”

“No.”

“Well who is your doctor?”

“We don’t have a doctor.”

“Then how do you know when the baby is due? I think you need to see a doctor.”

So you see… Sigh. Kansas is kinda scary.

Some days are good days. This is not one of them. Please, allow me to whine a bit as I rarely do…. My bad day revolves around pee and a stressed out DH.

I woke up to the unmistakeable sound of a 4yo peeing on the carpet. Great. “Mommy i tried to make it…” which is doubtful. Undressed said 4yo too quickly and roughly and hurt her feelings even more. How do I get her to go BEFORE it is too late? She has no trouble for days and days, then we have a day with 4 pee puddles. I am INSANE about this. Seriously I have no idea.

Then I’m gathering laundry and find that the cat has started peeing on the laundry again. This would be angering to me on a regular day but today it really infuriates me. I find 3 items smelling of cat pee in 2 different rooms. All clothing that had been on the floor no more than 2 or 3 hours… I usually keep right on top of strewn clothing because of said cat’s penchant for inappropriate pissing.

As I am preparing to throw the laundry in the washer, I hear the 4yo say “Mommy! I peed in my panties again. MOOOMMY!” and I come in to find her sitting on the floor, playing away, while the pee soaks in under her. Not even an attempt to go to the bathroom. This time it takes all my willpower just to not scream at her. I said “Go on, you know what to do,” and as she went to puther wet clothes away and I got a towel to blot it up I was counting to ten, then 20.. Geez I am getting furious just typing it out again. AAAAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH. All this happened about 6 feet from the bathroom which she, as I said, made no attempt to go to.

All on top of the fact that we have no money at all (seriously none, I think we might be able to buy milk) and me being pregnant and hormonal already and DH is stressed about it and I can’t help at all…I just want to stop the world so I can get off, please…. Where can I take my reality break?

I’m going to go crawl someplace dark and cry.

I am definitively feeling the baby move for the first time as I type.

So what ya think? Boy or girl?