After working nights all weekend, sleeping a little Sunday morning, showing the duplex three times Sunday afternoon/evening, and crashing back into bed Sunday night, I sleepily hit the ground running Monday morning. I dropped J off at school, then made it back home to check references, schedule carpet cleaning, gather utility information, tweak the wording in a lease, and the like. All because WE GOT THE DUPLEX RENTED!
Interspersed among all that activity, I was also readying the baby clothes for a local consignment sale that's going on right now. I don't even want to think about how much time I spent on that, but it is done, and we are making money from the decluttering efforts. And going through all of that gave me a chance to reorganize all of Ella's clothes and take inventory. Turns out, she still fits in some things that had gotten buried in the back of her dresser drawers.
Tuesday morning, I was able to paint in the living room at the duplex, while my dad watched the youngers. It was a bit of a risky venture to paint in a unit that had no running water, but I did alright. There was just one teeny tiny place where I tagged the whitish carpet with the blue paint, but I was able to get most of it out by improvising. Spit may or may not have been involved.
On Tuesday night, I dropped the clothing and other kid items off at the convention center and went home with an empty laundry basket, only to fill it back up the next afternoon. Because I consigned some items, I was able to shop early, only made possible because my mother in law was able to watch the kids in between the time I left and when Chris got home. It was awesome to go at that time because it wasn't very crowded, not too many things had been snatched yet, and the checkout lines were not long. When I came in at 6 p.m., Chris couldn't have been more pleasantly surprised at how early it was. I told him I had this shopping at the Rhea Lana sale stuff down to a science. I scored some great deals! I'll do a more detailed post next time about what I found.
Earlier on Wednesday, I did the school drop, got back home to work on the lease, and then met the new renters at the property at noon to give them the keys. I also needed to get their garage door openers working, which was a little intimidating in its potential for difficulty, but I manage to do it right on the first try. Then I went back home, fed and changed babies, and quickly turned right around to go back to get Jackson. I had enough time at home to pick up some toys and other things, and get Ellie down for a nap, before I headed out to the sale.
Yesterday was even busier than Wednesday. School drop off, grocery store, therapy, school pickup, haircut for me--first one in two and a half years, cooking, ack! It doesn't look like a lot when it is written in a short list, but every place requires me to get 2-3 children in and out of the vehicle and keep them alive between van and door--no small order with my Cooper I assure you.
And now, I am gearing up for a busy but hopefully energizing weekend of cleaning and organizing in our house. We are getting ready to host a film crew on Wednesday morning that will be chronicling Ella's I.S. story as part of the upcoming Infantile Spasms Awareness Week this Fall. I asked the producer today if we would be able to see the finished product, and he said he would provide us the link (which makes me think it will be posted on the website) and/or send a DVD. I'll certainly share it when we get our hands on it. I am excited to think that Ella's story might be able to help others with early recognition of IS and quick treatment in order to give many more babies the best chance for optimal development.
For those of you who have made it through to the end of this journal-y post, I offer you a glimpse of the new 'do. Please don't hold me to being able to style it like this ever again, but it's nice to know that my hair can behave when given a little attention.
♦
