Busy Busy Busy

We've been blowing and going around here for the past several weeks. packing and moving boxes and stacking boxes and repacking after the kids find the boxes and pull out toys they haven't played with in ages so I thought were safe to pack but OH NO IT'S ACTUALLY THEIR FAVORITE TOYS and.....

I'm a little stressed. And tired. Ok, very tired. I have a standing Monday night "Mom Date" and last week I nearly fell asleep whenever there were those regular comfortable lulls in the conversation. I was asleep within about 15 minutes of walking in the front door.

We have packed up nearly everything we don't use on a daily, or even weekly, basis and there's lots of empty places in our house. They're balanced by the giant pile of packed and labeled boxes by the front door which is balanced by the pile of empty boxes in front of the fireplace.

I didn't used to be claustrophobic or have a huge issue with clutter but this past month I've felt on edge about stuff everywhere. We moved a ton of boxes over to Orange to store in the garage and thank god for that because I have no idea where those boxes would be now if we hadn't had a place to move them to. Maybe we'd have put them in our storage building, but probably we just would have procrastinated packing even more.

Easter came and went with a stomach bug that wiped out half of the family and problems with an oven which resulted in the Walke family Easter being catered by Belle's and eaten in the Perry Center at the church. The kids were adorable, as usual, and enjoyed the egg hunt. I dutifully took the candy tax and they're quickly working their way through the rest, since I've declared whatever isn't eaten is being thrown away when we move.

Everyone is doing great. The kids are getting more and more excited about the move, Austin got a nice raise at work, and I'm feeling pretty happy, in spite of the stress. Having my mom dates really helps with de-stressing, both because I get to get out of the house and have adult conversations, but also because I get away from the clutter.

A couple of people have pointed out that I don't have nearly as much stuff as Mom, so the house will be somewhat empty, or at least emptyish. I reply "I know, it'll be great!" Don't worry, I'm my mother's daughter. I'll fill it up. Hopefully it'll take me 25 years.

The big happy news, though, is Rebekah. She had her cardiology appointment today to check her VSD. For those who forgot, or didn't know, she was diagnosed in the womb with a small intra-muscular ventricular septal defect (hole in the muscle tissue between her ventricles, the bottom chambers of the heart). It was one that is super common and lots of people are born with it and never know, because they close on their own as the child grows, usually by about a year old, if not sooner. It's nothing to Eden's holes, but it was so minor, the doctor wasn't concerned about the home birth and gave us the thumbs up for that (which was good since the diagnosis was at like 28 weeks or so). At her birth, no one cold detect anything. At her doctor appointments, the ped couldn't hear anything. In April of 2017, she had an echocardiogram and it was still there, but it hadn't changed in size. Still no concern, come back in a year.

Cut to today, a year later. Our regular cardiologist wasn't there, because she's changed how she does things, but the other doctor is great, too. He listened carefully to Rebekah's chest, looked at her vital signs (100% pulseox, great bp and EKG, slightly elevated heart rate, but she hated having things stuck to her) and declared that the VSD has closed.

We knew it would happen and we've had no concerns about her health any more than any normal baby, but still. It's such a relief to know that her body did what it was supposed to do and her heart is whole.

Now I just have one kid with a janky heart. But it's janky in the right ways. We don't really want that to mend itself. (It would probably kill her if it did.)

There's so much more going on. Painting the Orange street house and moving Mom and Bob and moving ourselves and finishing school and getting settled into our "new" home (is it a new house if I lived there for 10 years 15 years ago? and is also 100 years old?) and everything else. I'm sure I'm forgetting major stuff. I've got lists everywhere and still managed to forget about today's cardio appointment until yesterday afternoon when Austin asked me about it.

We'll make it. Three weeks to go.