We moved out of our house today. It was, in a word, Brutal.
The mover's estimate over the phone was 5 hours for 3 guys at $140 an hour. It took closer to 10 hours. And then, they told me I couldn't pay $80 a day to keep my stuff on the truck... I had to pay those same 3 guys $140 an hour to unload my stuff into their warehouse - they estimated another four hours. With driving time that they also charge me for, the whole move cost me close to $2200.00. And that's just to get my stuff on the truck and some of it in the POD. To get it back from their warehouse they're going to have to load it onto the truck again, then bring it to me and unload it into my house. It makes me sick just thinking about paying for it.
They also did NOT bring boxes. WHAT? No. No boxes. I TOLD them I hadn't boxed everything up. They brought tape, and furniture blankets, and paper. But no boxes. When we ran through the boxes I had leftover from my boxing, they started just wrapping everything in shrink wrap. My husband and I watched in amusement as one of the movers wrap up a foam mattress topper in shrinkwrap. We wondered why they weren't putting it in a box. That was before the cold harsh realization hit, that I am paying these guys to hand carry out little individually shrink wrapped items that should be placed in big boxes. It wasn't until I approached one of them and asked if they had a box I could use to start boxing up my kitchen they told me they could order boxes from the warehouse, but they're very expensive. Finally I figured it out. I said "You mean I need to go buy more boxes from U-Haul?" Yes. How many? 25 medium and 2 wardrobes.
I bought what they said plus 5 large boxes. Then a couple hours later I had to run to U-Haul again for more boxes.
Turns out I have 8 left over I can sell back... But the whole thing was extremely frustrating and painful. I was packing up as quick as I could, and felt like I was basically upending bathroom drawers into boxes. Sorting it out once we get to the new house is going to be nothing short of a nightmare. I'm seriously considering stirring each box with the handle of the toilet plunger to see if anything important rises to the surface, then just throwing the rest into the trash. There is a convenient place on the side of each box for you to write what's in it for each of 4 moves. A painting of a happy lady tells me to "Recycle this box!!" How in the world am I going to recycle it? I am NEVER MOVING AGAIN!
Since Hubby was gone for the better part of the day today, he didn't get that desperate overwhelming feeling of wholesale dumping into boxes. He assured me over the phone tonight it was worth having these guys move us, and it will be worth it on the other end having them unload the truck. Which brings me to the other horrible thing about this move - How much freaking stuff we have! We filled a POD with stuff last month when we were purging. Then today we filled a 2nd POD, and the overflow filled THEIR ENTIRE TRUCK!!! This wasn't just a little trailer truck, this was a whole MOVING VAN truck! I don't get it! Where did all that stuff come from, how did we cram it all into our little house, and how am I going to explain to my darling family that I'm not letting half of it into the new house!?!?
It's going to continue to be a brutal week. We are scheduled to take possession of the new house on Friday morning, when I get to supervise three men spending a whole day filling my clean empty new house with crap I'm not sure I want at $140 an hour. I've got to purge, if it kills me.
In the mean time, the girls, the dog and I are homeless, bouncing from my parent's house 2 hours north, and the old neighborhood where I plan on taking the girls for a playdate while I sign on the new house. Hubby suggested I get a hotel in town, instead of driving all the way up to my parent's house. But I think I figured on the way up here I seemed to need some comfort and stability. Even though my folks are out of town for the time I'm going to be in their house, I wanted to come somewhere familiar. Just for a day or two.
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Friday, August 12, 2011
It was a great party but I have no evidence...
Just one washed out photo from my phone. My real camera battery died, and the charger is packed up in a box somewhere. I've been using my phone for everything, and the memory is full. It seems like I go in and erase 20 pictures, take two, and it's full again.
So all the evidence I have that Thing 2's birthday party was a roaring success is one photo.
And it's not of the 10 kids who came, or all the fun times they had... it's of the cake. And I need to say the cake was even cuter than it shows in the picture. It was just like a little stuffed animal on a tray. Vanilla cake with strawberry filling.
We went to Color Me Mine and the two girls there took care of us beautifully. The other mom whom I'd asked to help out was pretty much my chatting companion while the kids all painted their little figurines. Then had watermelon, carrots, and cheetos, then cut the cake and had presents. It was glorious because it wasn't in my house. All I had to do was show up and pay.
Which is good because I've come down with a nasty head cold. I sound like a talking disposal and have a headache and am exhausted.
My mom and dad are coming tomorrow to help us box some stuff up to put in the 2nd POD that is now sitting in front of my house, POD VERSION 2. The movers are coming on Tuesday, and Tuesday night we are out of this house and will drive north to stay at Grandma's while we wait for the closing of the Park City house.
So all the evidence I have that Thing 2's birthday party was a roaring success is one photo.
And it's not of the 10 kids who came, or all the fun times they had... it's of the cake. And I need to say the cake was even cuter than it shows in the picture. It was just like a little stuffed animal on a tray. Vanilla cake with strawberry filling.
We went to Color Me Mine and the two girls there took care of us beautifully. The other mom whom I'd asked to help out was pretty much my chatting companion while the kids all painted their little figurines. Then had watermelon, carrots, and cheetos, then cut the cake and had presents. It was glorious because it wasn't in my house. All I had to do was show up and pay.
Which is good because I've come down with a nasty head cold. I sound like a talking disposal and have a headache and am exhausted.
My mom and dad are coming tomorrow to help us box some stuff up to put in the 2nd POD that is now sitting in front of my house, POD VERSION 2. The movers are coming on Tuesday, and Tuesday night we are out of this house and will drive north to stay at Grandma's while we wait for the closing of the Park City house.
Sunday, August 7, 2011
Talapia Night
7:30 at night is not the ideal time to open the fridge and start trying to figure out what's for dinner.
But hey, I Yam what I Yam. And what I yam is not a cook.
Yes, that's right, I'm not a COOK.
We eat differently when Hubby is in town. What is for me and the girls a slap together catch whatever you can kind of meal gains more focus when he's around. There are actually side dishes. There is more of an attempt to have everything on the table when the meal starts, instead of a main dish surrounded by whatever I can think of as the meal goes on, prepared on the table as the meal is in progress... for example, a sliced apple. Does anyone want some apple? Apple, cutting board, and knife are invited to the table. How about olives? Yeah? Okay, can opener, bowl, can, all come to the table.
The exception is Talapia. Talapia is something the girls will eat but Hubby finds too boring and too fishy. So we eat Talapia when he's not around, I have my fishy fix for the week and prepare a sauce that involves a little wasabi paste, mayonnaise, lemon juice and bread crumbs for myself and the girls get theirs baked with butter and salt, as naked plain white as the day it was born. I usually microwave steam some broccoli - the only vegetable both girls willingly eat. It's as close as we usually come to a real sit-down planned-out dinner when Hubby's not here.
Tonight caught me off guard. Hubby is in town but is involved in a conference that is also in town. I thought maybe we'd have pizza with our out of town guests, but surprise! They're still at the conference. Hubby has to take the colleague he's been preparing with all afternoon that he'll be presenting with tomorrow back to the conference and pick someone else up from the airport and drop them off at the conference. It's like he's not here, but he is...
So at 7:30 I'm opening the fridge... nothing. Freezer.... Talapia. At 7:34 I'm writing this as the Talapia does a quick thaw in the sink and the oven heats up. We should be eating by 8:00. Or maybe 8:15. However there is no broccoli in the fridge...
Olives are a side dish, aren't they?
____
Surprise! Hubby just called, he dropped off the airport buddy and is headed home for dinner. Talapia is certainly better for his cholesterol than whatever he'd get from a drive up window, and I'm happy I didn't skimp on the overly large fillets that I'm heating up for the girls. I'll just add some extra Wasabi to the side sauce. Hopefully it will burn off the taste of the fish.
But hey, I Yam what I Yam. And what I yam is not a cook.
We eat differently when Hubby is in town. What is for me and the girls a slap together catch whatever you can kind of meal gains more focus when he's around. There are actually side dishes. There is more of an attempt to have everything on the table when the meal starts, instead of a main dish surrounded by whatever I can think of as the meal goes on, prepared on the table as the meal is in progress... for example, a sliced apple. Does anyone want some apple? Apple, cutting board, and knife are invited to the table. How about olives? Yeah? Okay, can opener, bowl, can, all come to the table.
The exception is Talapia. Talapia is something the girls will eat but Hubby finds too boring and too fishy. So we eat Talapia when he's not around, I have my fishy fix for the week and prepare a sauce that involves a little wasabi paste, mayonnaise, lemon juice and bread crumbs for myself and the girls get theirs baked with butter and salt, as naked plain white as the day it was born. I usually microwave steam some broccoli - the only vegetable both girls willingly eat. It's as close as we usually come to a real sit-down planned-out dinner when Hubby's not here.
Tonight caught me off guard. Hubby is in town but is involved in a conference that is also in town. I thought maybe we'd have pizza with our out of town guests, but surprise! They're still at the conference. Hubby has to take the colleague he's been preparing with all afternoon that he'll be presenting with tomorrow back to the conference and pick someone else up from the airport and drop them off at the conference. It's like he's not here, but he is...
So at 7:30 I'm opening the fridge... nothing. Freezer.... Talapia. At 7:34 I'm writing this as the Talapia does a quick thaw in the sink and the oven heats up. We should be eating by 8:00. Or maybe 8:15. However there is no broccoli in the fridge...
Olives are a side dish, aren't they?
____
Surprise! Hubby just called, he dropped off the airport buddy and is headed home for dinner. Talapia is certainly better for his cholesterol than whatever he'd get from a drive up window, and I'm happy I didn't skimp on the overly large fillets that I'm heating up for the girls. I'll just add some extra Wasabi to the side sauce. Hopefully it will burn off the taste of the fish.
What's a water main?
Things were going along smoothly with all the house sales...
Toooo smoothly...
The buyer of our house had their inspection on Friday. They spent a lot of time in our basement cellar space. I wasn't too worried. We'd had our own inspection just the week before. No real problems, a couple of minor things but nothing serious.
I guess it is bad form to have the sellers there during an inspection, but we couldn't leave because Thing 2 was recovering from stomach flu. I got to meet the buyer (a cute 30 something girl) and her (nice but businessy) agent and her (quite charming) mother. The buyer had to leave shortly after they got here, but her mother stayed, and we got to chat. Turns out the mother lives about three blocks away. And the girl's brother lives about five blocks away. And her aunt and uncle live in the neighborhood. And her mother went to school with my neighbor three houses up. Apparently the buyer grew up in a house not far from here. She knows about old houses. She likes old houses. This house just seems golden for this girl. All goes well. They leave with smiles.
Then that evening I come down with the stomach flu. From eight o'clock on, I'm hunkered over the toilet every hour for a few minutes, almost like clockwork. Suddenly Thing 2's whining about stomach pain doesn't seem like pointless whining anymore. I'm in agony. My stomach is totally constricted. It hurts too bad to sleep. Hubby goes to the airport to get our houseguests from New Zealand. He comes back and lets the kids stay up til nearly 11:00. I'm in no position to argue. All I can do is groan, and vomit.
My last vommiting session is around 2:00 am. I spend all of Saturday whimpering and talking on the phone (things are erupting with my church calling since I'm leaving... Crazy how they left us shorthanded for nearly two months when the other Primary counselor got another calling, but I haven't moved yet and they've already replaced me). My stomach finally stops hurting enough that I can sleep. While I'm lying in bed Hubby took the kids and our guests to Snowbird to ride the trams, and jump on the bungee trampolines, and listen to music.
I rolled out of bed Saturday evening around 7:00 pm. My family was not back yet. I could actually walk, but my stomach still hurts. I probably COULD go to church but I've already made arrangements not to... we'll let the new councilor dive right in.
I checked my email. There was a note from my realtor saying the inspection showed a corroded main waterline that may or may not need to be fully replaced. This could make the house unsellable.
What? WHAT?!? Frantic emails fly off my keyboard.
A quick internet search shows me this may cost between $1500 and $5000 mostly depending upon how much digging it takes. They suggest if I can operate a back hoe maybe I could save money by digging it up myself. I am distraught.
My good friend who happens to be the primary president calls to see how things have gone with the church stuff. In talking to her, I tell her the water main news and she says they replaced their main waterline a couple years ago when a couple of their neighbors started getting swampy front yards. She said it cost $3000 and took one day. Later an reply from our realtor indicates this is probably what I can expect. Okay, maybe we can get through this.
The buyer is coming back with a plumber Monday morning to assess. At best, this is something that we will just knock off the price of the house and the buyer can deal with it. At worst the sale of the house will be held up while we deal with the water main ourselves, and she can just move in when it's all over with. Either way I'm hoping that everything moves forward quickly.
Sigh.
Toooo smoothly...
The buyer of our house had their inspection on Friday. They spent a lot of time in our basement cellar space. I wasn't too worried. We'd had our own inspection just the week before. No real problems, a couple of minor things but nothing serious.
I guess it is bad form to have the sellers there during an inspection, but we couldn't leave because Thing 2 was recovering from stomach flu. I got to meet the buyer (a cute 30 something girl) and her (nice but businessy) agent and her (quite charming) mother. The buyer had to leave shortly after they got here, but her mother stayed, and we got to chat. Turns out the mother lives about three blocks away. And the girl's brother lives about five blocks away. And her aunt and uncle live in the neighborhood. And her mother went to school with my neighbor three houses up. Apparently the buyer grew up in a house not far from here. She knows about old houses. She likes old houses. This house just seems golden for this girl. All goes well. They leave with smiles.
Then that evening I come down with the stomach flu. From eight o'clock on, I'm hunkered over the toilet every hour for a few minutes, almost like clockwork. Suddenly Thing 2's whining about stomach pain doesn't seem like pointless whining anymore. I'm in agony. My stomach is totally constricted. It hurts too bad to sleep. Hubby goes to the airport to get our houseguests from New Zealand. He comes back and lets the kids stay up til nearly 11:00. I'm in no position to argue. All I can do is groan, and vomit.
My last vommiting session is around 2:00 am. I spend all of Saturday whimpering and talking on the phone (things are erupting with my church calling since I'm leaving... Crazy how they left us shorthanded for nearly two months when the other Primary counselor got another calling, but I haven't moved yet and they've already replaced me). My stomach finally stops hurting enough that I can sleep. While I'm lying in bed Hubby took the kids and our guests to Snowbird to ride the trams, and jump on the bungee trampolines, and listen to music.
I rolled out of bed Saturday evening around 7:00 pm. My family was not back yet. I could actually walk, but my stomach still hurts. I probably COULD go to church but I've already made arrangements not to... we'll let the new councilor dive right in.
I checked my email. There was a note from my realtor saying the inspection showed a corroded main waterline that may or may not need to be fully replaced. This could make the house unsellable.
What? WHAT?!? Frantic emails fly off my keyboard.
A quick internet search shows me this may cost between $1500 and $5000 mostly depending upon how much digging it takes. They suggest if I can operate a back hoe maybe I could save money by digging it up myself. I am distraught.
My good friend who happens to be the primary president calls to see how things have gone with the church stuff. In talking to her, I tell her the water main news and she says they replaced their main waterline a couple years ago when a couple of their neighbors started getting swampy front yards. She said it cost $3000 and took one day. Later an reply from our realtor indicates this is probably what I can expect. Okay, maybe we can get through this.
The buyer is coming back with a plumber Monday morning to assess. At best, this is something that we will just knock off the price of the house and the buyer can deal with it. At worst the sale of the house will be held up while we deal with the water main ourselves, and she can just move in when it's all over with. Either way I'm hoping that everything moves forward quickly.
Sigh.
Monday, August 1, 2011
Life In The Fast Lane
So. Things were going along nicely. We were looking for homes in Park City, and actually found one that kept rising to the top of our searches and we made a "Favorites" tag for it on the Real Estate lists. However I was enjoying taking my time, looking things over, and considering all my options. As is my tendency.
Then all hell broke loose when someone else put an offer on that house. Suddenly we were in choose it or loose it situation. It wasn't a tough decision, for about not terribly much more than we expected to get from our current house we'd double our square footage, go from .11th of an acre to 1/2 an acre, and Hubby would get a REAL office in the MIL apartment above the garage. We put in a bid, the sellers threw out the other bid and accepted our bid.
This was all three or four weeks ago. We got the mortgage paperwork ready to go to close August 20th to get the kids in school in the new neighborhood, then recently decided why wait and proposed closing August 12th.
In the mean time we were in crisis mode to GET OUR STUFF OUT OF OUR HOUSE. My darling sweet sister and my parents put themselves at our disposal and dropped their lives for several days at a time and came down to help me purge and pack. We rented a POD (which required a permit, and a trip to the city engineers to rent the space in front of our house, and a trip to a barricade company to rent four flashing barricades for the four corners of the pod) and started to fill said POD with all of our immediately unnecessary yet precious possessions. I figured we would have an open house while our family joined my larger family for our annual vacation to Jackson Hole. All efforts were focused on getting our house ready for the market. Thing 2 got her cast off during this time and I promised her that once the house was on the market I'd take them swimming and we'd have the rest of our summer to do all those things she was wanting to do. Thing 2's birthday fell in this time period as well, and we negotiated with her to have her friend party in August, and her family party while we were on vacation in Jackson. She was excited about this, luckily.
We had the POD for two weeks, in which time we filled it completely full. Hubby arranged to be home the week that we left for Jackson and as a group we busted our collective butts and had the house ready to show by Friday July 29th, the day we left for Jackson. The house was open on July 30th and 31st. We had an offer for $10,000.00 less than our asking price waiting in my email on the morning of the 31st. While I would love to get more, at this point I am so thrilled to have the house sell IMMEDIATELY I am disinclined to argue too much. And they want to close August 17th. Today, August 1st, we will accept the offer by the 5:00 deadline, but I'm waiting to see if there's a way to juggle the closing of the Park City house back a few days so we can do the closings on the same day, thus avoiding carrying two mortgages even for a few minutes.
Though it wouldn't be tragic if we got the Park City house first, then were able to do a little painting up there and move some stuff up before our current house closed.
In any event the usually lovely and relaxing Jackson Hole family vacation has developed something of a real estate haze over it for me.
Then all hell broke loose when someone else put an offer on that house. Suddenly we were in choose it or loose it situation. It wasn't a tough decision, for about not terribly much more than we expected to get from our current house we'd double our square footage, go from .11th of an acre to 1/2 an acre, and Hubby would get a REAL office in the MIL apartment above the garage. We put in a bid, the sellers threw out the other bid and accepted our bid.
This was all three or four weeks ago. We got the mortgage paperwork ready to go to close August 20th to get the kids in school in the new neighborhood, then recently decided why wait and proposed closing August 12th.
In the mean time we were in crisis mode to GET OUR STUFF OUT OF OUR HOUSE. My darling sweet sister and my parents put themselves at our disposal and dropped their lives for several days at a time and came down to help me purge and pack. We rented a POD (which required a permit, and a trip to the city engineers to rent the space in front of our house, and a trip to a barricade company to rent four flashing barricades for the four corners of the pod) and started to fill said POD with all of our immediately unnecessary yet precious possessions. I figured we would have an open house while our family joined my larger family for our annual vacation to Jackson Hole. All efforts were focused on getting our house ready for the market. Thing 2 got her cast off during this time and I promised her that once the house was on the market I'd take them swimming and we'd have the rest of our summer to do all those things she was wanting to do. Thing 2's birthday fell in this time period as well, and we negotiated with her to have her friend party in August, and her family party while we were on vacation in Jackson. She was excited about this, luckily.
We had the POD for two weeks, in which time we filled it completely full. Hubby arranged to be home the week that we left for Jackson and as a group we busted our collective butts and had the house ready to show by Friday July 29th, the day we left for Jackson. The house was open on July 30th and 31st. We had an offer for $10,000.00 less than our asking price waiting in my email on the morning of the 31st. While I would love to get more, at this point I am so thrilled to have the house sell IMMEDIATELY I am disinclined to argue too much. And they want to close August 17th. Today, August 1st, we will accept the offer by the 5:00 deadline, but I'm waiting to see if there's a way to juggle the closing of the Park City house back a few days so we can do the closings on the same day, thus avoiding carrying two mortgages even for a few minutes.
Though it wouldn't be tragic if we got the Park City house first, then were able to do a little painting up there and move some stuff up before our current house closed.
In any event the usually lovely and relaxing Jackson Hole family vacation has developed something of a real estate haze over it for me.
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Laugh to Mute
Thing 2's arm is healing nicely. She can go a couple hours longer than required for pain medication dosage, and has gotten outside quite a bit this week.
Today she and Thing 1 were working up ways to play on the swing which did not put her arm at risk. They were having a grand time, Thing 2 told me they "laughed until they went silent." When they laugh and laugh but no sound comes out, just big gasps now and again. Then she said, "That's something kids do when they think something is sooo funny!" I told her I know what that is and she said, "It's great when you're having so much fun you laugh to mute!"
Today she and Thing 1 were working up ways to play on the swing which did not put her arm at risk. They were having a grand time, Thing 2 told me they "laughed until they went silent." When they laugh and laugh but no sound comes out, just big gasps now and again. Then she said, "That's something kids do when they think something is sooo funny!" I told her I know what that is and she said, "It's great when you're having so much fun you laugh to mute!"
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
A Break from Summer
I haven't been blogging much. Kinda quiet. Until this week.
School is over, Hubby was in town for the end of year festival. The girls had a ball.
The girls had their first swimming lesson last Wednesday, I think they're really going to enjoy it.
Hubby left on June 13th for a European trip - to return tonight. Since he was going to be out of town for Father's Day, I decided to take the girls to my folks' house, better a grandfather than no father at all. We took Hubby to breakfast the morning before he left and did a little Father's Day with him. After we dropped him off at the airport, we went on a quick house hunting trip to Park City and found a house that is kind of likely. The girls both love it, anyway.
On Friday we drove to my folk's house.
One of the big draws up there is my sister, who lives nearby, and her horses. From the minute we got to my folk's, the girls were asking when they could go riding. Turned out Monday would work best, right after lunch, but she only had the two horses, Annie who's kinda skittish and she could ride, and Chaz, who the kids have ridden before. They decided they'd ride double and they'd go to a trail that runs along the foothills of the valley. Thing 2 was in front on the way up, and on the way back Thing 1 would ride in front.
I have to apologize for my pictures being blurry, my real camera is broken and all my pictures are coming from my phone.
I took the dog for a walk along the trail behind them, but they were soon out of sight. I walked for about half an hour, then turned around and headed back to the car. The trail wasn't far above the housing developments along the foothills. And there was a guy just off the trail digging up Dyer's Woad. All I know about Dyer's Woad is what I've heard my sister saying it's the bane of her life, she has to dig it up out of the hay fields. It's awful stuff.
The dog and I got back to the car and waited for about 10 minutes. Then my sister came riding pell mell down the trail, leading the 2nd horse. She hollered that Thing 2 had fallen off and probably broken her arm, and was down the trail about a mile. Thing 1 was with her. My sister was nearly crying herself, leaving the two of them up there on the trail, but she didn't have her cell phone with her and needed to get me and the car up there. Luckily there was a housing development road dead ended close by.
I drove like a madwoman up the road paralleling the trail, and saw the Woad digging guy running up the trail. I pulled off and hopped out of the car and ran after him. He made it to the girls first. I barely looked at them, I saw a road coming up the hill, closer to where they were than where I'd parked. I asked if the Woad guy could stay with them for a minute, he seemed much calmer than I was, and I ran back to my car, and careened around to the closer road.
The Woad guy was carrying Thing 2 down the side of the mountain toward my car when I parked. Thing 1 was behind him, very upset. Thing 2 was crying a lot less than I would have expected. The Woad guy had a little nylon bag that he had put Thing 2's arm in, and slung the cords behind her neck, in kind of a loose makeshift sling. He carried her to my car and put her in the front seat. My sister had loaded the horses and was behind me in her truck, and told me how to the get to the hospital. I know how to get to the hospital, but turned stupid for a moment, and had to be told the cross streets. In retrospect I should have sent the dog with her. But it just meant he had to sit in the car in the Emergency room parking lot until she could come get him, after she unloaded the horses.
I called my parents on the way to the hospital, Thing 1 needed some different clothes (she'd kinda got hers dirty) and they got to the hospital before the doctors were ready for Thing 2. After x-rays confirmed it was broken, the doctor told us not only was it broken, but it was broken badly, and we'd need to take her to Primary Children's to have them operate. It was what they call a Supracondylar fracture of the elbow. The little knob right above your elbow on the big bone there just snapped right off, and the two ends of the bone were overlapped lying next to each other. Not something they deal with at that hospital. They'd called ahead and so we shouldn't have to wait long for the orthopedic doctor to get to the hospital we were going to.
They gave me the option of driving her, or having her taken in an ambulance. When I asked if there would be any real problem with me taking her the doctor said no, if it was his kid he'd probably take her himself. Okay, we'll do that.
We live about a mile away from Primary Children's, but didn't have time to run back to my folk's house and pack up. The doctor put a splint on her arm, and my dad decided to go with me to the next hospital. My mom took Thing 1 back to her house with her.
We had gotten her to the first hospital around 2:30 in the afternoon, and at 4:30 they gave Thing 2 a big dose of morphine to get us to Primary Children's. What she REALLY wanted was a drink of water, but of course they won't give her that because she has to go under general anesthesia for the operation.
I know a lot of people who drive between where my folks live and Primary Children's hospital fast all the time, but I usually don't. I did on Monday, though. I don't know how much time I saved, it's pretty much an hour and 45 minute drive, I probably only took off 15-20 minutes by speeding as much as I dared whenever I could. I wanted to get her there as fast as an ambulance would. She slept fitfully most of the way. My dad kept assuring me the 10 minutes wouldn't make any difference. And sure enough, when we got there we spent 10 minutes in the emergency room waiting room, then another half hour or so waiting for the doctor.
When the doctor came in she said they had called the orthopedic surgeon, and that there were two other broken elbows that had come in about the same time as us, one with the same break as Thing 2. So it was going to be a busy night for them. She asked about Thing 2's pain, she hadn't been crying but she said it hurt pretty bad, 6 on a scale of 1-10. The doctor asked when she'd last had morphine... 4:30. It was now nearly 7:30. The doctor's eyes popped and she said let's get her some morphine!! I think I took this picture before they even gave her the shot. She was a real trooper.
Thing 2 is my kid who screams over a paper cut. We have learned that despite her inability to handle small amounts of pain, she did amazingly well with a broken arm.
The people at Primary Children's are truly wonderful. Thing 2 kept asking very politely for a drink until the doctor told her she couldn't have one until after the operation. But then she could have a slushee. The nurse said she would make sure there was one waiting for her when she woke up. Then a "children specialist" or some other name for it came in with lots of pictures showing all the rooms where Thing 2 would be taken, and explained in gentle kid terms everything that would happen to her. She gave Thing 2 a little doll, a hospital buddy to decorate up. Thing 2 couldn't use her hands, one was at the end of a broken arm, the other arm was stiff because the people at the other hospital had put a line into it opposite her elbow, so I put a face on the doll, and the child comfort lady put a name tag on her and a cast like Thing 2 was going to get. There was someone in there either comforting her, or checking on her nearly all the time. They told us that they hoped they could operate that night, but it depended on the doctor and the other surgeries.
My mom and sister and Thing 1 back at my mom's house were very anxious to know how things were going. The doctor said I could call, so we put Thing 2 on speaker phone so she could talk to Thing 1. However all our efforts to assure Thing 1 that everything was okay just ended up making her jealous. "I am watching Madagascar 2! They gave me a doll to paint up! We put a cast on it! Oh, they said I can have a slushee!" Thing 1 was saying "LUCKY!!" That backfired. Thing 1 was very lonely and sad that Thing 2 was having all this fun and attention... She couldn't wait to get home.
Finally it started looking like the operation might really happen. Around 8:30 the resident came in and explained to my dad and me what would happen, and answered all our questions. They were going to put three pins in her elbow. There would be a splint for a week, to allow for swelling, and then they would put the cast on her for three weeks.
They came and got her for surgery around 9:00 pm, we found out later that she was the first of the three. The doctor was a truly lovely man, with red hair and a bedside manner that would win him bedside manner awards. By then, any time anyone would ask Thing 2 how she'd hurt her arm the story was getting longer and more detailed, with descriptions of the horse's personality, and the Dyer's Woad guy, and how a stranger on the trail offered her a drink of water but she had politely refused. (The woman had assured her it was a brand new bottle of water, but Thing 2 was embarrassed to contaminate the lady's bottle.) She sure wished she had taken the lady up on her offer! When was that slushee coming? She had all the hospital staff gathered around laughing and beaming at her before we kissed her good-bye and they wheeled her off for her "nap."
The operation took about an hour... Everything went beautifully. Shortly after the doctor came in and told us it went very smoothly and that he wanted to keep Thing 2 because she is so cute and funny and wonderful, I texted Hubby that I needed to talk to him. He's in Switzerland and was just waking up. He called me right before the nurse came in to take us to recovery to see my baby, so I was the completely annoying person talking on the phone while this terribly important thing is going on, but her daddy was on skype to my cell phone, and he had to go to work soon, and he was pretty freaked out by the news, so I couldn't really just brush him off. Thing 2 wasn't really waking up very fast, and since it was 11:30 at night they decided to let her sleep and take her up to her room. So my father and I followed her up there, me filling Hubby in on the cell phone all the way. We got to the room and a nurse followed us into the room carrying a bright red slushee. Thing 2 would have hollered Hallenoonjah! She did start opening her eyes more after she got settled in. Hubby had to go to work, and Thing 2 woke up enough to realize there was a slushee waiting for her and started opening her mouth like a little bird for it.
She drank three little cup things of cranberry juice, and ate the slushee down to the melty part at the bottom which she took with a straw. She was VERY thirsty!
She stayed up watching The Incredibles - I had the DVDs in the car from our trip- and eating and drinking until finally I asked her around 12:30 if she wanted to go to bed. She agreed.
They came in periodically of course to do hospitally stuff, but everything went smoothly. Around 6:00 a.m. they checked her fingers, then told us after she had taken some Loritab with breakfast and we saw how she handled that, she could go.
We got home around 9:30 this morning.
Thing 1 and my mom and sister are going to drive down with the dog. Thing 2 is busy watching TV, and keeping her arm elevated.
She is the one who needs to recover, but I'm the one who needs to sleep.
School is over, Hubby was in town for the end of year festival. The girls had a ball.
The girls had their first swimming lesson last Wednesday, I think they're really going to enjoy it.
Hubby left on June 13th for a European trip - to return tonight. Since he was going to be out of town for Father's Day, I decided to take the girls to my folks' house, better a grandfather than no father at all. We took Hubby to breakfast the morning before he left and did a little Father's Day with him. After we dropped him off at the airport, we went on a quick house hunting trip to Park City and found a house that is kind of likely. The girls both love it, anyway.
On Friday we drove to my folk's house.
One of the big draws up there is my sister, who lives nearby, and her horses. From the minute we got to my folk's, the girls were asking when they could go riding. Turned out Monday would work best, right after lunch, but she only had the two horses, Annie who's kinda skittish and she could ride, and Chaz, who the kids have ridden before. They decided they'd ride double and they'd go to a trail that runs along the foothills of the valley. Thing 2 was in front on the way up, and on the way back Thing 1 would ride in front.
I have to apologize for my pictures being blurry, my real camera is broken and all my pictures are coming from my phone.
The dog and I got back to the car and waited for about 10 minutes. Then my sister came riding pell mell down the trail, leading the 2nd horse. She hollered that Thing 2 had fallen off and probably broken her arm, and was down the trail about a mile. Thing 1 was with her. My sister was nearly crying herself, leaving the two of them up there on the trail, but she didn't have her cell phone with her and needed to get me and the car up there. Luckily there was a housing development road dead ended close by.
I drove like a madwoman up the road paralleling the trail, and saw the Woad digging guy running up the trail. I pulled off and hopped out of the car and ran after him. He made it to the girls first. I barely looked at them, I saw a road coming up the hill, closer to where they were than where I'd parked. I asked if the Woad guy could stay with them for a minute, he seemed much calmer than I was, and I ran back to my car, and careened around to the closer road.
The Woad guy was carrying Thing 2 down the side of the mountain toward my car when I parked. Thing 1 was behind him, very upset. Thing 2 was crying a lot less than I would have expected. The Woad guy had a little nylon bag that he had put Thing 2's arm in, and slung the cords behind her neck, in kind of a loose makeshift sling. He carried her to my car and put her in the front seat. My sister had loaded the horses and was behind me in her truck, and told me how to the get to the hospital. I know how to get to the hospital, but turned stupid for a moment, and had to be told the cross streets. In retrospect I should have sent the dog with her. But it just meant he had to sit in the car in the Emergency room parking lot until she could come get him, after she unloaded the horses.
I called my parents on the way to the hospital, Thing 1 needed some different clothes (she'd kinda got hers dirty) and they got to the hospital before the doctors were ready for Thing 2. After x-rays confirmed it was broken, the doctor told us not only was it broken, but it was broken badly, and we'd need to take her to Primary Children's to have them operate. It was what they call a Supracondylar fracture of the elbow. The little knob right above your elbow on the big bone there just snapped right off, and the two ends of the bone were overlapped lying next to each other. Not something they deal with at that hospital. They'd called ahead and so we shouldn't have to wait long for the orthopedic doctor to get to the hospital we were going to.
They gave me the option of driving her, or having her taken in an ambulance. When I asked if there would be any real problem with me taking her the doctor said no, if it was his kid he'd probably take her himself. Okay, we'll do that.
We live about a mile away from Primary Children's, but didn't have time to run back to my folk's house and pack up. The doctor put a splint on her arm, and my dad decided to go with me to the next hospital. My mom took Thing 1 back to her house with her.
We had gotten her to the first hospital around 2:30 in the afternoon, and at 4:30 they gave Thing 2 a big dose of morphine to get us to Primary Children's. What she REALLY wanted was a drink of water, but of course they won't give her that because she has to go under general anesthesia for the operation.
I know a lot of people who drive between where my folks live and Primary Children's hospital fast all the time, but I usually don't. I did on Monday, though. I don't know how much time I saved, it's pretty much an hour and 45 minute drive, I probably only took off 15-20 minutes by speeding as much as I dared whenever I could. I wanted to get her there as fast as an ambulance would. She slept fitfully most of the way. My dad kept assuring me the 10 minutes wouldn't make any difference. And sure enough, when we got there we spent 10 minutes in the emergency room waiting room, then another half hour or so waiting for the doctor.
When the doctor came in she said they had called the orthopedic surgeon, and that there were two other broken elbows that had come in about the same time as us, one with the same break as Thing 2. So it was going to be a busy night for them. She asked about Thing 2's pain, she hadn't been crying but she said it hurt pretty bad, 6 on a scale of 1-10. The doctor asked when she'd last had morphine... 4:30. It was now nearly 7:30. The doctor's eyes popped and she said let's get her some morphine!! I think I took this picture before they even gave her the shot. She was a real trooper.
The people at Primary Children's are truly wonderful. Thing 2 kept asking very politely for a drink until the doctor told her she couldn't have one until after the operation. But then she could have a slushee. The nurse said she would make sure there was one waiting for her when she woke up. Then a "children specialist" or some other name for it came in with lots of pictures showing all the rooms where Thing 2 would be taken, and explained in gentle kid terms everything that would happen to her. She gave Thing 2 a little doll, a hospital buddy to decorate up. Thing 2 couldn't use her hands, one was at the end of a broken arm, the other arm was stiff because the people at the other hospital had put a line into it opposite her elbow, so I put a face on the doll, and the child comfort lady put a name tag on her and a cast like Thing 2 was going to get. There was someone in there either comforting her, or checking on her nearly all the time. They told us that they hoped they could operate that night, but it depended on the doctor and the other surgeries.
My mom and sister and Thing 1 back at my mom's house were very anxious to know how things were going. The doctor said I could call, so we put Thing 2 on speaker phone so she could talk to Thing 1. However all our efforts to assure Thing 1 that everything was okay just ended up making her jealous. "I am watching Madagascar 2! They gave me a doll to paint up! We put a cast on it! Oh, they said I can have a slushee!" Thing 1 was saying "LUCKY!!" That backfired. Thing 1 was very lonely and sad that Thing 2 was having all this fun and attention... She couldn't wait to get home.
Finally it started looking like the operation might really happen. Around 8:30 the resident came in and explained to my dad and me what would happen, and answered all our questions. They were going to put three pins in her elbow. There would be a splint for a week, to allow for swelling, and then they would put the cast on her for three weeks.
They came and got her for surgery around 9:00 pm, we found out later that she was the first of the three. The doctor was a truly lovely man, with red hair and a bedside manner that would win him bedside manner awards. By then, any time anyone would ask Thing 2 how she'd hurt her arm the story was getting longer and more detailed, with descriptions of the horse's personality, and the Dyer's Woad guy, and how a stranger on the trail offered her a drink of water but she had politely refused. (The woman had assured her it was a brand new bottle of water, but Thing 2 was embarrassed to contaminate the lady's bottle.) She sure wished she had taken the lady up on her offer! When was that slushee coming? She had all the hospital staff gathered around laughing and beaming at her before we kissed her good-bye and they wheeled her off for her "nap."
The operation took about an hour... Everything went beautifully. Shortly after the doctor came in and told us it went very smoothly and that he wanted to keep Thing 2 because she is so cute and funny and wonderful, I texted Hubby that I needed to talk to him. He's in Switzerland and was just waking up. He called me right before the nurse came in to take us to recovery to see my baby, so I was the completely annoying person talking on the phone while this terribly important thing is going on, but her daddy was on skype to my cell phone, and he had to go to work soon, and he was pretty freaked out by the news, so I couldn't really just brush him off. Thing 2 wasn't really waking up very fast, and since it was 11:30 at night they decided to let her sleep and take her up to her room. So my father and I followed her up there, me filling Hubby in on the cell phone all the way. We got to the room and a nurse followed us into the room carrying a bright red slushee. Thing 2 would have hollered Hallenoonjah! She did start opening her eyes more after she got settled in. Hubby had to go to work, and Thing 2 woke up enough to realize there was a slushee waiting for her and started opening her mouth like a little bird for it.
She drank three little cup things of cranberry juice, and ate the slushee down to the melty part at the bottom which she took with a straw. She was VERY thirsty!
She stayed up watching The Incredibles - I had the DVDs in the car from our trip- and eating and drinking until finally I asked her around 12:30 if she wanted to go to bed. She agreed.
They came in periodically of course to do hospitally stuff, but everything went smoothly. Around 6:00 a.m. they checked her fingers, then told us after she had taken some Loritab with breakfast and we saw how she handled that, she could go.
We got home around 9:30 this morning.
Thing 1 and my mom and sister are going to drive down with the dog. Thing 2 is busy watching TV, and keeping her arm elevated.
She is the one who needs to recover, but I'm the one who needs to sleep.
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