Welcome to 13 weeks and Welcome to the Neighborhood!

So it has been 3 weeks since I updated the blog -- which isn't like me -- but we have been really busy with the move.  The move from hell... But more about that later -- first up, info about the pregnancy!

Today we are 13 weeks pregnant -- this means that next wee, we will be in the second trimester!  by the end of this week, we will be about 33% done with the pregnancy.  It is flying by!

My IM said she shared this photo with co-workers -- I will be sure to dress up next Hump Day Bump Day photo :)  Look like I get out of tanks and yoga pants at least.  But there it is, it is starting to poke out a bit!

Baby is definitely looking more a like a human and less like a sea creature now!

So apparently by the end of this week, the nausea should pretty much be subsiding but that is totally a lie!  This morning was ROUGH!  Being at home with 3 kiddos during the summer while moving was something I grossly underestimated!  My kids have missed the memo that it is summer and that they should sleep in -- Weston & Piper are taking turns waking during the 5 o'clock hour. I am still so desperate for sleep.  We have been here for just over two weeks and it has been late nights, early mornings and I feel like my sleep bank is constantly in debt. 

The sickness from pregnancy was killer during the move.  While in NC still, we stayed at a hotel. On the way out of the door to move here, Kurt was changing Piper's diaper and that sent me for the toilet... er I mean sink at the hotel because the bathroom was taken.  I used the kitchenette sink and the garbage disposal didn't work so I had to manually clear that mess.  YUCK!  Then we ate junk for a week straight while moving, staying in hotels, and getting the kitchen set up.  I was surprised to see that I had lost weight but the amount of getting sick in those two weeks actually totaled more than the first 11 weeks combined!  The other night, I hit an all time nausea low.  We were eating dinner and we had pasta with dinner.  Weston (my 5 year old) was drinking a root beer in a bottle.  He took a swig and set it down and I looked over and saw all of these floaters in it and he didn't care.  I started heaving immediately.  It was funny so I was laughing and heaving but man-- just visual images make me heave now too?! 

Next onto some info about our move.  I will try to keep this short and sweet, but I rarely do. This will be VERY picture heavy.  Fair warning there! 


I could write a book about "whatever could go wrong, will go wrong in a DITY move" meaning a military do it yourself move.  So I won't tell it all but we had major fiascoes on the other end on the way out of town with moving trucks and other messes.  We couldn't fit everything in the truck so we gave stuff away and threw stuff out. 

We get up here, unload the first moving truck then go to get the rest of our stuff out of storage to find out that the storage unit leaked bad and destroyed 30% of our unit.  Here are some photos to show how badly the items were damaged from water/mold/mildew damage

Curtains

Curtains

Ottoman to go to an over-sized chair

I called USAA (our rental insurance) and they won't cover this type of water damage-- they cover some, but not this type.  So I called the storage unit's insurance and we are in the middle of a claim. I am still unsure if they will cover the damage.  The cost of the damaged items totaled more than $2500.  I sent in an itemized list of the damage and also photos so I am hoping they come through.  The owner of the storage unit (that we paid $300 a month for!) wasn't concerned and didn't even apologize.  Just brushed us off and told us he would have maintenance look at it.

Here are some photos of our house pretty well set up but remember, this is a work in progress -- I still have boxes to unpack, furniture to move, and move again, cords to tuck away.  So It will give you an idea of our house!  You can definitely tell that it is smaller than our last house, but I do love this house and its character.  The house is 85 years old and has a lot of character but it has been upgraded in many ways so it still has a new feel where it is necessary (like the kitchens and bathrooms!)

Front of house

Back of house from the corner of the garage

Weston on the stairs

Kitchen

Kitchen

Pantry and stairway to basement

Dining room -- and that house across the street-- that would be my best friend here -- I met her months before we moved here.  There isn't a day that goes by that I am not at her house, she is not at our house or our kids aren't running back and forth between the houses

Front room -- Cords over fireplace need to be hidden still.

Front Room -- Wood Burning fireplace

Family room

New IKEA book case!

You caught me watching HGTV.  Love that channel!

Powder Room

Master Bathroom

Master bathroom -- the character I speak of is evident in this room, I had to put shims under the cabinet so t would stop leaning on the wall because the floors slope so bad!

This is not a great photo because my room was a mess. But this is how small the master bedroom is!  You can see each side in the photo.  It is TINY!

Piper's Room

Piper's Room

Piper's Gnome Closet (One closet is short with no bars in it in her room, and one is tall with a clothing rack)

Weston's room not decorated yet

Weston's room still being decorated

Weston's gnome closet

Leah's Room

Leah's room

Leah's room  -- And my Aunt Jill who came and helped me unpack for 2 days!

Stairway down to basement

We will call this "Basement Before"

Basement before

 Saturday night, we had a little storm roll through.  It was the remnants of a tropical storm and rain poured, and poured, and poured.  In a short period of time, the rain got so bad that our basement flooded.  Bad.  It was a culmination of many different things but we had 6 different places that water was coming in through. The worst were the floor drains that are attached to nothing but storm drains.  Eventually, water was just fountaining into our basement at a high rate of speed.

Basement during

Mud started coming up through the floor drains

The next morning -- this is so filthy!

Water pouring in between two walls at the rate of a gallon per minute

Underneath the stairs -- the stuff we couldn't catch in a bucket

Some places had several feet of water flooded due to storm drains that could not handle the rate that the rain was coming down.  Water came in our garage too.

Several inches of water on our patio pouring into our basement.

The storm that caused the damage

Since it is getting late and I need to go to bed, we will just leave this with 'Welcome to the neighborhood!'   They are still in the process of fixing the problems and cleaning our basement.  As of right now, we still have a lot of water and mud in the basement.  UGH!!!!!